There is your relationship with your employer and co-workers, your neighbors and social circle; your common goals, your mutual dependencies. But there are also grievances and dissatisfactions. Perhaps you feel deprived of the opportunity to realize your true potential. Or perhaps there's just the promise--or hope--of a better job or living environment elsewhere.
So you agonize: do these considerations justify abandoning the current commitments and breaking up the current relationship?
Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19 Week of September 3-9, 2000 
The law of the beautiful captive and the rebellious son, the hybrid garment and the falsely accused wife, the hungry employee and the unappealing spouse--and sixty-eight other mitzvot--in this week's Torah reading...
"I didn’t ask to be born, nor was I consulted when the laws of life were formulated. All this was imposed on me. My master is all-powerful, so I had best carry out His instructions." "I have a job to do, and I’ll give it my best effort. And has G-d not promised to reward my toil?" "G-d invented my life and He sustains it, but it is fueled by my own ambition and initiative. So it's a 50/50 deal--that's our agreement." Which are you--slave, employee or partner?
The Rebbe made his preparations. He immersed in the mikveh; he wrote his will; he recited with great emotion the words of the Final Confession. Only then did he allow himself to be placed on the operating table.
The surgical team assembled around the Rebbe. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, the Rebbe called out to one of the surgeons. "Moses? You're a Jew, aren't you?" The doctor quietly nodded his head.
You came to me unexpectedly. We never met. I have only seen your picture. And even that came long after I knew that we were bonded by an ancient bond, that there was a debt that I owed you, a debt that I must and will pay. How can one begin to fathom your life? Abandoned at birth by your parents. Placed in an institution mockingly called an orphanage. Caged. Strait jacketed. Forced for twelve years to crawl on hands and knees because a simple operation was denied you. You have never used a pencil or crayon. My G-d! You have never even seen a toy!
Some folks think of people much as we think of cars on a highway: Each with its own origin and destination, relating to one other only to negotiate lane changes and left-hand turns. For cars, closeness is danger, loneliness is freedom.People are not cars. |
 Located at the center of Israel's capital, the Lubavitch-run academy offered them sessions of Jewish learning, tours of the country's historical and cultural sites and rare encounters with local educators and public figures. 
THE REBBE: 50 YEARS PREVIOUS ISSUE | |||||||||||