Saturday, April 13, 2013

Where is the blame?

There is a classic tale of the gentleman who purchased a plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles. The man was quite finicky about traveling, and asked the agent for a window seat. Somehow, he was not placed by the window, rather in the aisle.

During the entire trip, he fidgeted and squirmed. Immediately after the long journey the man went straight to complain.

“I specifically asked for a window seat,” he exclaimed. “Your agent in New York assured me that I would be getting a window seat. Look at this stub. It placed me right in the aisle!”

The customer relations agent in Los Angeles was not fazed. Unfazed she asked the man, “Did you ask the person in the window seat to trade places?”

This time the man was irate. “I was not able to!”

“And why not?”

“There was no one in the seat.”

People often blame the ramifications of their doings on everyone else but themselves.
Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky

Friday, April 5, 2013

Marriage in the Hebrew Letters

The letter zayin (ז) is a male letter in marriage. Zayin means, "to provide", a mans job is to provide. The first time the zayin appears in the Torah is the word (זרע) zerah and means seed. The man provides the seed of Creation. The female letter in marriage is the gimmel (ג) which has 3 meanings, camel, to give, and to wean off. Why 3? What do they have in common? What is the greatest kindness you can do for somebody? Is it giving?
The purpose of giving is to give until the person doesn't need you anymore. (Rabbi Kraft). Give to someone in order for them to be independent. So, in the letter gimmel we see that we can give until we reach the point where we can stop giving.
Gimmel is a female letter. The woman gives, and gives, and gives. Man provides the seed and the woman gives to the point where independence is achieved.
To bring the zayin together with the gimmel we need a connection. The letter vav (ו) looks like a hook or a nail. Insert it between the zayin and the gimmel and you get the word for married couple in Hebrew (זוג) zoog.