Open Letter

Dear _____,  I am glad you are okay.  Finding out the people who hurt us were hurt, can be liberating. In a very real sense, they had no choice.  That any humanity and character or personality remained to survivors [of the Holocaust] after being subjected to such inhumanity is a mystery of grace. Many survivors ended up committing suicide, which seems counter-intuitive at first until you think about it, and then it makes perfect sense.  I still can't really forgive my parents for what they deprived me of, even though I understand that, in the words of Yeshua, "they did not know what they did". Maybe it is God I really blame unconsciously, or myself.  There are probably many more other books on the children of Holocaust survivors, including studies;  the one I posted to you is just the one I happened to read and the one that amazed me because I could identify so strongly with the accounts. My father is not Jewish,  though I did find Jewish relatives at ...

Apology - This American Life This podcast ranges from hilarious to bone-crushingly sad...one of the best pieces of journalism and writing i have ever experienced. Sedaris, adultery, public confession, and the fact that doctors get sued less when they ACKNOWLEDGE AND APOLOGIZE FOR THEIR MISTAKES. (We already knew that). 1. Coppo di Marcovaldo, Detail of Hell  2. Judas Iscariot, Sascha Schneider  3. Judas' Remorse, Almeida Junior  4. Judas Hanging Himself and his Soul Taken to Hell by a Demon, Notre Dame des Fontaines 

"The symbol of the heart of the world is a complicated one; it may be said at once to represent the shekinah , the true zaddik (who is the heart of his generation), and the soul of every individual who longs for God. No matter which of these levels of meaning is emphasized, however, the passage reveals the emotional content of faith as Nahman sees it. An overwhelming sense of wounded passion, expressed in undying yearnings for an intimacy that cannot come to be, lies at the core of his religious life. Here Nahman again reminds us of his Western contemporaries, the Romantic poets; love's desires overflow in him as in them, but the object of those longings will ever elude him. In this vision of the heart of the world we see the emotional side of Nahman's penchant for paradoxical thinking. The path of simple faith seems so clear: if your heart yearns for God as does this heart for the spring, what keeps you from Him? The call of simple love-faith tells you to draw ever neare...