Along Our Train Ride of Life - January 2024

Shalom Dear Readers,

One of my treasures from my past life in Canada is a most beautiful painting done by my beloved cousin based on Vincent van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers. The walls of my Israeli home are mainly filled with photos of family weddings and celebrations, and the painting of sunflowers has been lying in a corner. However, I finally found a visible place in my room after so long. The memory of dried sunflower plants that were once on the floor of my three-story home in Canada still call out to me constantly. I have only come to understand their meaning now, “INNER PEACE”. My wonderful helper, Melody, brought me a gift recently: some live sunflowers, as they are on sale all over Israel now as a sign of inner peace, of HOPE.

Viktor E. Frankl, in “Man's Search for Meaning”, writes: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

The flowers of Van Gogh convey the heartbreaking splendor of something he did not experience: INNER PEACE. In the noise of the war surrounding him, he prayed and meditated.

 A.J. Heschel, said: “In doing the finite, we perceive the infinite.” This is the holy task of HALACHIC LIVING.  “Every deed counts; every word is power. Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.”

Our Jewish tradition teaches us that all the riches of this world are worth nothing compared to one hour of enlightened consciousness (Mishna Avot 4:22).

My wish and prayer for all of us at this time is to see the Van Gogh’s sunflowers as conveying the heartbreaking splendor of inner peace.

May we find inner and outer strength in our peoplehood and in ourselves, and let the shining power of the sunflower help us to find inner peace.

Until we meet again in Feb. 2024, G. willing

CHW