Inspiration or Perspiration?

The purpose of this blog is to inspire ingenuity at the Shabbat table ....please print, share, and forward.

Do you know how many days until Passover?
 

To the left is one of my favorite quotes.

And here is another one on the same theme:

Wynton Marsalis tells of a young musician who asks him,

"Wynton - how can I break into the music business?"

The maestro's timeless answer:

"First you got to break into a practice room!"

(By the way, in case you think of Marsalis as a "jazz musician", watch this and this [especially what he says at 4:38].)

As I mentioned in this week's Torah Health and Fitness podcast (link below), Sunday's funeral of Rav Chaim Kanievsky z''l inspired countless eulogies on one theme: his incredible self-discipline.

For 75 years, he committed himself to study a certain number of pages of Jewish wisdom per day. 

He did not - it has been reported - have a photographic memory like some of our most famous sages. He did have that great commitment.

Interestingly, someone once asked Rav Chaim when and how he began his legendary daily routine.

He said that he started when he was sixteen years old. However, that year, he failed to live up to the commitment.

The next year, he got a fresh start, and again failed to keep up the daily quota that he had created for himself.

The third year he achieved it.

This then is the epitome of the tzaddik. In Jewish thought, a tzaddik is not a "perfect person" - such a person does not exist and never did exist, and any religion or culture that puts someone on a pedestal and says, "this is a perfect person" is a false ideology.

A tzaddik is a person who - after failing - never gives up.

If Rav Chaim could do it - so could you.

Two questions for your table:

1. Couldn't you?

2. What's something you'd love to accomplish/learn/achieve in your time on this planet, but seems too daunting?


Shabbat Shalom

PS - The Jews of Ukraine, and Jewish refugees from Ukraine, are still in great need. Click here to help.
PPS - Yes, the image above is clickable (as always).

PPPS -  This week's 10-minute podcast is called  "Something to Chew On" and there are 10 ways to hear it:

iTunes/iPhone … YidPod … Spotify … Google Podcasts … Pocketcasts … Stitcher … Podbean … Amazon Podcasts … RSS … or just on the web.

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