Sublime

“Ben Azzai said, hasten to commit good acts and flee from misdeed since every good act encourages another in its wake, while every misdeed eases the way to the next.”3

And this, I later learned, is a very Jew-y thing to do. To keep the old traditions and adapt them to modern times. An ancient text can be the most modern, and the holiest and most pious is also sometimes the most provocative and gutsy. An ancient story, which was kept for generations, can get a new life and, as such, new relevancy.

We are B’nei Yisrael because we are meant to live in this world, to deal in materialism, but to continually find ways to elevate it.

Each one of us too can work for Hashem. If our source of income (profession, business, job, farm or whatever) is our own, maybe it will succeed and maybe not, but it's liable to be sorely limited by natural circumstances. But, if we turn our endeavor over to Hashem, it must succeed!

Hashem says to them: “Are not the righteous satisfied with what is stored up for them in the world to come that they wish to live at ease in this world too?”

g’neivat da’at,