Due Monday Nov 9th
Rav Hirsch on בראשית מז:ח–ט
In his reply, Ya’akov differentiates between living and existing: You ask about the days of the years of my life? I have not lived much, but I have sojourned on earth a hundred and thirty years. The days of the years that I can call my life (in which I fully accomplished my mission) were few..." "This is not a complaint about the shortness of his life, but modesty in looking back at the moral worth of the life he experienced."Rav Hirsch on בראשית מז:ח–ט
Response Question:
Stepping back, what things do we do where we feel we are truly "living" and not just existing? What actions do you do / what times of life do you feel most alive? What are activities that people do where they are merely existing..and why do people keep doing them if thats how it makes them feel?
I feel like I'm using my day well when I GA to answer a first aid call or going to visit the sick. This makes me feel like a person who has done something good with their life.by Sarah Loewenstein
ReplyDeleteI feel like im using my time and "living" when i am with my whole family having fun and just being together and doing chesed. I feel like im merely just "exiting" when im doing averot and not using my day wisely to do good things for people and be nice to my friends and i think the reason people keep doing these things is bc its just a natural thing and i feel like people dont realize until after the fact that they did something bad. By- Danny Blank
ReplyDeleteI feel like i am truly living when i am doing chessed. It is an opportunity to give back and feels like part of the purpose of living is to give back. I feel like when people are going through hard times so they cope by doing bad things, they are just doing it to exist, or distract themselves from reality.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when we are truly living we are doing things that either help people or activities for Hashem where we serve him. I feel most alive when I am doing something unusual for myself that gives me pleasure (traveling). People are merely existing when they are doing daily activities like driving to work or just doing the daily routine. There is nothing special about a daily routine so that is why one is just existing when they are doing that. People keep doing them because in order to feel alive you need to have boring moments that make the "alive" moments seem special. If you were always having fun it would not be fun anymore because you would get used to it.
ReplyDeleteSam Roth: I think I'm "living" when I'm doing what God put me in this world to do like mitzvot, learning Torah, and bettering myself. And when I'm "existing" I'm just trudging along not doing the right thing, being lazy. Not being nice to friends.
ReplyDeleteI feel that even the most remedial of tasks can be considered true living. As long as a person can find meaning in each activity they do, whether it be religious meaning, secular meaning or anything else, that, in my book is living. For me, I feel like I'm truely alive when I am either helping to contribute to society or when I am helping myself and pondering the situations in my life.
ReplyDeleteI feel that even the most remedial of tasks can be considered true living. As long as a person can find meaning in each activity they do, whether it be religious meaning, secular meaning or anything else, that, in my book is living. For me, I feel like I'm truely alive when I am either helping to contribute to society or when I am helping myself and pondering the situations in my life.
ReplyDelete