THE JEWISH NEWS

SEPT. 13, 1991

A Toast
To Jewish Living

,fib 00 Life: Our Most Precious Gift

By WILLIAM G. GERSHON

The late Abraham Joshua
Heschel reportedly once asked a
candidate for the Seminary's
rabbinical school the following
question: "If you were stranded on
an island and you could choose one
book to have with you, what would
that book be?" After a few
moments, the nervous student
answered, "The Torah." To which
Heschel replied, "No, you should
have chosen a book on how to
survive on an island."
Judaism has always stressed
the importance of life and its
preservation even above the Torah
itself. The rabbinic motto regarding
the value of human life has always
been Vahay bahem, v'lo sheyamut
bahem, "you should live by the
commandments and not die by
them." The import of this teaching
is that there is nothing more sacred
in this world than the precious gift
of life bestowed to us by God.
Judaism teaches that the body
belongs to God; it is only on loan to
us. This derives from the basic
biblical teaching that God created
human beings bitzelem 'elochim —
"in His image." To be created in the
Divine image means that each
person has inherent in him or
herself kedushah — holiness.
The implication of this
fundamental teaching is expressed
in a story recorded in Midrash: After
the great sage Hillel had finished a
lesson with his students, he
accompanied them part of the way
home. They said to him, "Master,
where are you going?" He
answered, "To perform a religious
duty." "Which religious duty?" they
replied. He answered, "To bathe in
the bath house." They were
puzzled. "Is that a religious duty?"
they asked. To which Hillel
responded: "If somebody is
appointed to scrape and clean the
statues of the king which are set up
Continued on Page L-2

Setting Goals For The New Year

By RABBI STEVEN BAARS

"In striving for goals,
you may chance to smell the roses
along the way
Be wary my son,
lest the weariness of your feet and
the luring fragrance entice you
onto a different course.

But do not thus conclude,
goals at any cost is the point to be
made.
For when the bill arrives,

it's the price fair paid
for far too small a thing
for which the heart aches and the
palate burns."

Every person will at some point
in his life take an accounting. Even
more than asking if he achieved his
goals, he will ask himself if he
achieved the right goals.

You don't have to be very old to
have asked these questions, but the
older you are, the harder these

questions are to face, and the more
frequently they rise to the
consciousness.
Rosh Hashanah trains us to
think through and face these
questions now as opposed to then.
To take the pain of now rather than
the anguish of then.
Pain is passing; results are
permanent.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
wrote in Judaism Eternal ". . and
shall man ... be casual and
Continued on Page L-6