Open Letter

Tales of the Hasidim p.113  "Origin They say that the Great Maggid had purified and unified his body and spirit so utterly that his body was as his spirit, and his spirit was as his body.  Therefore in the hour he begot his son, a pure spirit from the world of angels entered his wife's womb, and from there it was born for a brief space into the world of man." [Abraham, the Angel]. How is this unlike the Virgin Mary conceiving by the Holy Spirit and bearing Jesus?  Hasidim p. 121  "The Breaking of the Vessels  Rabbi Pinchas said:  'We all know that very long ago, when God was building worlds and tearing them down, the vessels broke because they could not endure the abundance poured into them.  But through this, light penetrated to the lower worlds and they did not remain in darkness. It is the same with the breaking of vessels in the soul of the zaddik.'" 

Tales of the Hasidim . 106  "The Ball  ...'And before you lie down at night, you add up everything you have done during the day.  And when a  man calculates his hours and sees that he has not wasted a moment in idleness, when his heart beats high with pride, then-- up in Heaven, they take all his good works, crush them into a ball, and hurl it down into the abyss."  Yesha'yahu (Isaiah) 64 (The Jewish Bible) "All of us are like someone unclean,  all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags..." Romans 3  "So what room is left for boasting? None at all!...Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting [faith], which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands." 

I once asked a Rabbi, when the Messiah comes, are Jews and Christians gonna sit around arguing who was right (is it the return of Yeshua or the appearance of Another)? Or will they be caught up in their epiphany?  Tales of the Hasidim p.105-106 "The Rabbi and the Angel ...How are we to undstand this?  Has any one of us ever seen an angel, so that we could compare the rabbi [the Great Maggid] with him?  But that is just what is meant! You have never seen an angel, yet, if he stood before you, you would not ask him questions, or examine him, or demand a sign, but believe and know he was an angel .  It is the same with the true zaddik. If there is someone who makes you feel such as this-- from his lips you shall seek the teachings." 

Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber p. 104  "The Between Stage  The maggid of Mezritch said:  Nothing in the world  can change from one reality into another, unless it first turns into nothing, that is, into the reality of the between-stage.  In that stage it is nothing and no one can grasp it, for it has reached the rung of nothingness, just as before creation. And then it is made into a new creature, from the egg to the chick. The moment when the egg is no more and the chick is not yet, is nothingness.  And philosophy terms this the primal state which no one can grasp because it is a force which precedes creation; it is called chaos.  It is the same with the sprouting seed.  It does does not begin to sprout until the seed disintegrates in the earth and the quality of seed-dom is destroyed in order that it may attain to nothingness which is the rung before creation.  And this rung is called wisdom, that is to say, a thought which cannot be ma...

My parents, whom I only survived partially, but more or less intact, finally crossed over to the other side. I've been sorting old pictures and mementos...found an old, philosophical, accusing letter I wrote to my parents which they (or my mother), surprisingly valued enough to keep among their possessions...Their dark kingdom is gone, destroyed, passed away...but the impact they had on their (childless) children will persist for the rest of our lives.  "Dear Mom and Dad,  When I spoke to you of Christianity and said that a philosopher [Simone Weil] detected signs of Christianity in the ancient Greeks, Dad as usual simply scoffed.  But look here-  what else is classical tragedy but the Fall [of Man]:  Original Sin or mortal sin? Tragedy arises from a 'fatal flaw' which is, moreover, a hidden   or buried  or secret  or denied  flaw.  It is not sin itself, but the denial of sin [emphasis added] which bears such a tremendous destructiv...