From: murray.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: L'Chaim 1 of 8
Date: 14 Aug 92 12:09:59 GMT
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

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L'CHAIM                      ISSUE  # 228                   PART 1 OF 8
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               THE WEEKLY PUBLICATION FOR EVERY JEWISH PERSON
     Dedicated to the memory of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson  N.E.
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Aug 14, 1992         Parshas - Vaeschanan           15 Menachem_Av 5752
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A ROSE OR A WEED
   "A rose by any other  name would smell as sweet." "A rose  is a rose
is  a rose." These two quotes are  basically true, except when it comes
to  a  rose, for  instance,  that  somehow grows  in  the  middle of  a
cornfield.  For then, at  least to  the farmer, it's  not a rose  but a
weed. And if  it has lots  of sharp, prickly  thorns, it might  be even
worse than that!
 
   The idea that  something can be good, or positive, or appreciated in
one  situation but  considered bad,  or negative,  or not  respected in
another is not only applicable to roses.
 
   For instance,  the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe,  Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok
Schneersohn,  made  the  following  powerful  statement:  "In  material
matters one should  always look  at one whose  situation is lower  than
one's own,  and thank G-d  for His  kindness. In spiritual  matters one
should always  look at one who  is higher than oneself,  and plead with
G-d  to grant  him the intelligence  to learn  from the  other, and the
ability and strength to rise higher."
 
   Sounds  like something your mother told you  when you were a kid and
wanted everything you saw in the  toy store, or at least the same  bike
your next-door- neighbor had: "You  can look up or you can  look down,"
she might have told you. Her admonition and the Previous Rebbe's advice
are    sane   counsel    for    these   days    of   consumerism    and
kids-who-have-everythingism, aren't they?
 
   It's  important, however, to notice the Rebbe's emphasis on when you
look up and when you look down. In material matters you should  look at
those who have less, and then you will be satisfied with what you have.
But in spiritual  matters you  should look for  guidance and  direction
toward  those who  have managed  to develop  and refine  themselves and
their relationship with the Divine more than yourself.
 
   These  thoughts  are  echoed  in   the  response  of  Rabbi   Shneur
Zalman--the  founder of Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy--to a young genius,
famed  for his intellectual gifts. But he  takes them one step further:
"Spiritual and  physical are  antithetical in  their very  essence," he
told the student. "A superior  quality in the physical is a  deficiency
in the  spiritual. In material matters, one  who is "satisfied with his
lot"  is an individual of the highest quality. A person possessing this
trait  can attain the highest levels. In spiritual matters, however, to
be satisfied  with one's lot  is the  worst deficiency, and  leads, G-d
forbid, to descent and falling."
 
   A rose is a rose is a rose, except when it's a weed.
 
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