Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[J Rivas-Pita <juliorivas AT gmail.com>]

And Jacob lived... (Genesis 47:28)

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Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi wished to bless Rabbi Yekutiel Lefler with 
riches,
but the chassid declined, explaining that the preoccupations of wealth would
infringe upon his study of Torah and his service of the Almighty.

So the Rebbe offered to bless him with long life. Said the Rabbi Yekutiel: 
"But
not with a peasant's years, not with the years of those 'who have eyes but do
not see, who have ears but do not hear'; not with a life in which one sees not
G-dliness and one hears not G-dliness."

Asks the Lubavitcher Rebbe: is it not presumptuous for one who is offered a 
gift
to say: "Okay, I accept, but only on the condition that you throw a few 
extras"?
But to Rabbi Yekutiel, 'to see G-dliness and hear G-dliness' is not a matter 
of
raised consciousness or an enhancement of the 'spiritual' quality of his life,
but the very definition of life itself.



-- 
Be Happy! (Fr. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996)
Sé feliz! (P. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996)