Is it Eating Away at You? (the true price of freedom)

The goal of this email is to teach mind-control at the Shabbat table ...  Please share.
Continuing to wish a speedy recovery to Tamar Adina bas Kayna Shulamis.
Wishing condolences to the family of Shmuel (Sam) Wagonfeld.

National Geographic reports this week that a new type of hyperparasite has been discovered in Texas.

(The story is a bit gruesome; reader discretion advised.)

First a tiny (1-8mm) gall wasp digs a cozy home inside an oak tree.

Along comes this newly-discovered "set" wasp (named for the murderous, manipulative Egyptian god), also called "crypt-keeper".

"Nice place to lay an egg," she says. And so she does.

When that egg hatches, what comes out? A larva of course. It's now a bit crowded in there and the larva wants to get out and grow into a wasp.

But by now the doorway into the nest has become blocked by new bark. Larvae can't dig through bark.

First question for your table: How would you guess it gets out?

It can't dig through wood, but it somehow manages to burrow into the other wasp.

That's right: all the way to its head.

And it takes over the wasp's mind.

Now in control like some kind of nanoprobe, the set wasp larva forces the gall wasp to start tunneling through the tree’s bark.

But set wasp larvae are a bit impatient. Rather than wait for its gall wasp host to dig all the way out, as soon as the zombie gall wasp has created a hole large enough for a larva (but too small for a wasp), the nanoprobe larva starts to grow into an adult, eating its way through its host. At the last moment before it too is too large to fit through the hole, it erupts through the gall wasp's forehead and through that small hole to freedom.

The second question for your table: Is freedom worth it if it requires the destruction of another creature?

This question reminds me of a story I heard from the Holocaust.

The Zlotchover Rebbe was in Auschwitz.

He was starving, like everyone else there.

Once he found a fellow Jew who was even worse off than himself. He was lying down and looked like he was about to die. The Rebbe had one morsel of bread in his pocket and gave it to this Jew.

I doubt that anyone writing or reading this email can appreciate what that act meant. It certainly meant greater suffering for the giver, and almost certainly meant suicide.

The recipient found the strength to say, "Rebbe, I want to give you a blessing that you should live to get out of this place."

Soon after that, the Rebbe found himself in nearly the same position that he had found the man, horizontal and dying of hunger.

Just then a capo came in, saw the Rebbe lying there, and took pity on him. He produced a bag of sugar cubes from his pocket and gave them to the Rebbe, saving his life.

The Rebbe did live to get out of that place, and he always attributed his survival to the blessing that that Jew gave him, which stemmed from his own act of chesed.


Shabbat Shalom

PS - The Zlotchover Rebbe's niggun:

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The Meaning of Lift

The goal of this blog is to give a helping hand to your Friday night dinner conversation. Please print and share.

Central Pennsylvania.



 



Rural central Pennsylvania. 



Driving with the wife and 3 kids.



Heading home on a Sunday evening after a LONG day.



3 hours of driving ahead of us.



A narrow road, traffic. Not a lot of room to maneuver.



An object on the road. Black.



Looks like part of a truck's engine. 



Can we make it over it?



Hope so, no choice. 



SCRAAAAAAAPE......POP! 



 Guess not..... 



 Plume of oil spurting out the back of the car. 



Seven year old, "I can't breathe!! I can't breathe!!" 



 We made it off of the road safely. There is a happy ending. 



 But I wanted to relate one detail of this story that should be remembered. 



 Not only did Act Towing take care of our minivan, they took us in a 
separate vehicle, first 20 miles to the airport to see if there were any
 rentals available (there were not) and then 15 miles to a hotel. 



 And not only that, but the next morning, the boss's wife picked us up in
 her minivan to take us back to the airport to get our rental car.



She didn't need to. They could have told us, "Sorry buddy, call a cab!" 



 That's hospitality. That's kindness. 



 And here's the best part: She showed no sign of trouble or hurry or bother. 



 2 questions for your table:



 - What's a better feeling, when someone goes out of their way to help you, or when you go out of your way to help someone?

 - Does it matter how you do it, or is the doing it the main thing? 



Shabbat Shalom 

 
PS - Some say the cultivation of compassion starts with this kind of wonderment.

 

Father's Day

In memory of my father, Dovid ben Eliezer (Dennis Seinfeld).
(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)

Father's Day

For you, yesterday was Fireworks Day.

For me, yesterday was Father's Day.

It was eight years - on the Jewish calendar - since my dad passed away in a sudden and tragic way.

He had been healthy - running every day, eating right, yada yada.

And each yahrzeit the past seven years, I have tried to remember one facet of who he was.

A person who continues to inspire us and motivate us is not fully gone.

He was called many things by people who mourned him.

"Champion of Justice" (his epitaph).

"Man of integrity".

"Wise."

"Handy."

"Healthy."

This year I would like to share with you what was arguably my father's greatest legacy.

If you and I could skim even a bit of the cream off the top of this one, we would change the world.

He didn't seek the limelight, not even a little bit.

He didn't want attention or awards or any of that stuff.

So you can imagine my surprise when 1,000 people from all walks of life came to pay their respects eight years ago.

What was his secret?

My father understood, deep in his gut, that the greatest happiness in the world was seeing other people succeed.

Get this - every year he attended the community college graduation. For days afterwards, he would tell about these graduates who overcame the odds to graduate from community college.

These were people he didn't even know! He met them for the first time at graduation.

True, he derived immense satisfaction from his own creative projects, especially carpentry.

But his greatest joy was watching someone achieve their potential. He absolutely loved seeing others succeed.

Even if they bested him.

All the more so if they bested him.

In that sense, no one bested him. No one was greater than he at this quality.

Question for your table.... Is that a trait that you're born with, or is it something you can work on?


Shabbat Shalom



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Life is a Test, Revisited

Please help support the victims and the families of the mass shooting by sending a check here:

The Central Texas-Fort Hood Association of the U.S. Army
Attn.: Community Response to 11/5
P.O. Box 10700
Killeen, TX 765478-0700


God said to Abraham, want you to kill me a son
Abe said man, you must be puttin' me on
God said No
Abe said What
God said you can do what you want Abe but
Next time you see me comin' you'd better run....
Abe said where do you want this killin' done
God said out on Highway Sixty-One....

- Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman)

(If you want to hear the song, link below.)

When a great tragedy occurs, some people sometimes ask me, "What does Jewish wisdom have to say about this?"

As if that question weren't hard enough, there's usually some smart-alex who adds, "Doesn't the Talmud say that wisdom is the ability to learn from everyone? What can we learn from this mass murderer?"

Maybe that's the question for your table - what can we possibly learn from Nidal Hasan?

You know, he was a religious person of a certain persuasion, who in all likelihood believed he was doing a religiously meaningful act.

Here's the thing - we all have books. They have their book, we have our book. Even the secular humanists have their book(s). We all turn to our respective books for wisdom.

His book tells him that he is a descendant and disciple of Abraham. That means submission to God's will.

My book tells me that I am a descendant and disciple of Abraham. My book also tells me that one of Abraham's greatest traits was submission to God's will. But my book also tells me that Abraham was a complex person, and emulating him includes acting with compassion towards all people.

Hmm.... So if you want to be a good disciple, what do you do when you believe that God wants you to hurt someone?

My book tells me that we look for every loophole to avoid hurting someone (when not in self-defense).

My book also tells me that being a vigilante (acting on my own, without consulting a higher authority) leads to evil. Not just in the area of violence, but in all areas.

So whose book is right? Can they both be right? Maybe his book is "right for him" and my book is "right for me"?

But the deeper Jewish wisdom on this subject is to turn the spotlight on myself: Am I pursuing the wisdom of my book with the same passion that he is pursuing his?

We are slumbering....time to wake up.

Shabbat Shalom