Lesson 2: To Repair the World: How? (Private-Religious)
Handout 1

Working with Texts

  1. Our teachers have said:
    Once, while Moses, our Teacher, was tending (his father-in-law) Yitro’s sheep,
    One of the sheep ran away.
    Moses ran after it until it reached a small, shaded place.
    There, the lamb came across a pool and began to drink.
    As Moses approached the lamb, he said,
    “I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty. You are so exhausted!”
    He then put the lamb on his shoulders and carried him back.
    The Holy One said,
    “Since you tend the sheep of human beings with such overwhelming love –
    by your life, I swear you shall be the shepherd of My sheep, Israel.” (Exodus Rabba 2:2)

  2.  “A time to embrace” (Ecclesiastes 3:5)
    If you see a group of Tzaddikim – Good People standing near you,
    Stand up and hug them and kiss them and hug them again.
    Ecclesiastes Rabba 3:5, 1

  3. Shimon (the son of Rabban Gamliel) says:
    It is not what one says, but rather what one does,
    That makes all the difference in the world.
    Pirke Avot 1:17

  4. Take note of how God’s voice was understood by all the Israelites:
    Everyone according to his or her own capacities:
    old people according to their own abilities, young according to their own abilities
    children according to their own abilities, infants according to their own abilities,
    women according to their own abilities, even Moses according to his own strength(s),
    as the verse states,
    “Moses spoke, and God responded with a Voice” (Exodus 19:19)-
    a Voice that others could handle. Exodus Rabba 5:9

  5. Rabi Elazar says:
    Tzaddikim – Good people say little and do much.
    Bava Metzia 87a

  6. (At the Time of Judgment) in the Future World everyone will be asked, “What was your occupation?” If the person answers, “I used to feed the hungry,” they will say to him, “This is God’s gate; you, who fed the hungry, may enter.” Similarly with those who clothed the naked, raised orphans, who performed the Mitzvah of Tzedakah, and who performed acts of caring, loving-kindness…    Midrash Psalms 118:17

  7. Living is not a private affair of the individual.
    Living is what man does with God’s time,
    What man does with God’s world.
    Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

  8. To be is to stand for.
    Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

  9. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And, the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Because of indifference one dies before one actually dies.
    Elie Wiesel

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