THE WISDOM OF RABBI BERNARD BASKIN
“Our age demands open-mindedness, unrelenting doubt, ceaseless probing of life’s problem at every stage, with enough independence and flexibility to confront unprecedented dilemmas. Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet and mystic, taught, ‘Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.’”
“We live in a time when a variety of media graphically depict the waste and devastation of war. We have embraced as normal something vastly ugly and diseased. And most of us close our eyes to the threat of the atomic age. It is no longer a zero-sum game where one side ‘wins’ while the other side ‘loses.’ No, it is mutual suicide beyond rational calculation by weapons of indescribable destructiveness.”
“Where is time to be found for reading? This is a constant concern in our frenzied, many-sided society. It is helpful however to keep in mind a simple reckoning. The average reader, dealing with material of average difficulty, can absorb about 300 words a minute. In 15 minutes this comes to about 4,500 words. Fifteen minutes a day over a year give us 1,512,00, the equivalent of 20 books averaging 75,000 words each. Fifteen minutes a day over a period of 50 years of sustained reading means that we can read 1,000 books in a lifetime.”
“Ultimately, the glory and the anguish of being human derive from our ability to choose and direct the course of our lives. It is often tempting to throw up our hands and plead despair. Significant living is always characterized by the knowledge that human will and determination play a decisive role in deciding what kind of person we will become.”
“Helen Keller spoke of dreary souls who can see the sunset, the morning skies, the purple of distant hills, yet they voyage through this enchanted world with nothing but a barren stare.”
“We learn from this story that mourning for our dear ones does not require afflicting ourselves. The temptation to ignore our own well-being should be resisted. When we are in deep grief, when we are physically and emotionally drained, we need to permit ourselves to be cared for and nurse our wounds. It is a time to pay attention to the living, beginning with ourselves.”
“One waiter among the many who have inquired about my meals reminded me that dessert was still to come. At my stage in life, I remained unconvinced. Surely, the main course of my years was enough. But an unheralded spirit whispers in my ear, ‘Try the cheesecake.’”