Point of Reference

He built for himself a home, and for his cattle he made sheds (33:17)

For his true self and his true priorities, Jacob provided a secure and substantial 'home'; for his material possessions and other peripheral elements of his life, he sufficed with a minimal 'shed'.

- Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok of Lubavitch told:

When I was four years old, I asked my father: "Why did G-d make people with twoeyes? Why not with one eye, just as we has been given a single nose and a single mouth?"

"Do you know the Alef-Bet?" asked father

"Yes."

"Then you know that there are two very similar Hebrew letters, the Shinand the Sin. Can you tell the difference between them?"

"The Shinhas a dot on its right side, the Sinon its left," I replied.

Said father: "There are things which one must look upon with a right eye, with affection and empathy, and there are things to be regarded with a left eye, with indifference and detachment. On a sidduror on a Jew, one should look with a right eye; on a candy or toy, one should look with a left eye."