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I am sacrificing myself, everyday, just to be able to live my life. I sacrifice my self to G-d. Bless G-d. My love to G-d, and my way of living, is a sacrifice.
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Just like a bird with one wing cannot fly, cannot get off the ground, so too love alone: although it is the right wing and the primary impulse, it's inadequate. Love is about self-expression. In order to truly grow, however, a person has to stretch, challenge himself to go beyond nature, beyond the comfort zone.
While we must thrive on our natural selves by developing our G-d-given talents and abilities, we must also develop a healthy sense of awe, the left wing, that keeps us grounded and honest. The moment we grow supremely confident, when we stop getting butterflies in our stomach and no longer feel challenged, that's when we stop growing.
In the airforce they say there are two pilots one should never fly with: the worst, for obvious reasons, and the best -- because his overconfidence and recklessness make him potentially the most dangerous of all. A healthy dose of awe is what gives the love the balance that allows the person to truly soar!
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I feel there is one word missing in this talk, and that is the word LOVE. When we sacrifice for LOVE then that is true charity.. Fire in English is also about flame. And in English to have a flame is to experience someone we love. Deeply this is not about sacrifice but it's about LOVE. What I do for love is the interest of G-d.
He who serves God loves. Remember the words thou shalt love, with all thy heart with all thy soul, with all thy might.
A personal relationship with God is a loving relationship, and this is the ladder we climb. Because to love any creature, anyone, is to love God, because we are all of us, deeply, instruments of the Divine, and the Divine will is to love. Anyone who does this, regardless of belief in G-d, is fulfilling God's will and climbing Jacob's ladder.
As to the word laughter, it is contained in the word slaughter, and I say, the binding of Isaac was not to be blinded by an order.
We do it because it's for love and this is JOY, not sacrifice.
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Thank you so much for sharing this....It's been an eyeopener for my life and the way i relate with G_d
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Today I watched Rabbi teach on this subject for the third time and I notice that it is helping me to do extra kindnesses for others believing that it makes G-d smile and at times laugh when I overcome a tendency to be selfish in several areas of my thinking and my life.
The stories teach ...the joy of the presentation teaches as well.
Because I love to argue a point I want to say the first two times I was shocked to hear that angels are just doing things the same all the time. Obviously Scripture teaches us many differences ... how they help and guide. Daniel in the Lion's Den... many other stories, in modern books, those little inspirations and wise guidance.
Still what Rabbi presented about the contrast between human beings (Jews) and Angels is one that I will remember.
I am so grateful and with God's love, kindness and strength so much yet to learn and to do.
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I was so happy to hear the Rabbi's words today. I have been wondering why the old age of my mother is becoming extremely difficult for me, the only daughter, to deal with. She has Parkinson's, my dad, her caregiver for 10 years, just died. Therefore all has fallen to me. She has had falls, emergency visits, now in rehab for the second time. She is a difficult patient, she has always been depressed throughout my life. Yet I thank the world God gave me as a child because it made me the person I am today. God has rewarded me in this life beyond my wildest dreams. Now it is my time to do for God. I have given up my time and effort toward the benefit of my mother. But I am also doing it for God. The Rabbi pointed out, quite rightly, that we own our sacrifice. It gives my work to helping my mother significance. It was necessary for me to feel that my difficult existence right now, was given to me by God and I will rise to the occasion and sacrifice, my time, etc.
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