This semester I started taking a World Literature course and it was a little different than any other English course I’ve ever taken. I was used to everything being graded and the discussions were followed by an agenda. However, this course is very unlike that. There are not many graded things and our discussions go wherever we want them to go. At first, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but after being in it for a quarter, I’m realizing I’ve never grown more as an English student. I’m no longer writing for a grade but I’m writing to be a better writer and I’m no longer contributing and saying comments that I feel teachers want to hear but comments that I think contribute to the discussion at hand. Although, at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this new set up, I’ve come to realize the challenge made me grow more and I really enjoy the class.

Even though others think it’s rude of Isaac, the priest thanks him in the end for challenging him. The priest shows a very important aspect that I think everyone needs to accept in order to grow. It’s not just that we need to be challenged but also that we need to take risks. If we stay in our comfort zones, we’ll never grow as human beings. In the Alchemist, there’s a quote “ Naturally, it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.” We need to take risks and accept being challenged by other people, otherwise we wont go anywhere from where we are now. There are many people who do settle and stay in one place because they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t, however, I don’t think that’s where you are happiest and living your full potential.

Forgiving in the same spirit

The word sorry is now thrown around without any emotion behind it. I do it all the time. I say sorry without truly being sorry or without even thinking about what I’ve done. This reminds me of a quote from Fight Club: “Narrator: When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just…
Marla Singer: - instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?” It seems we throw emotions around without meaning them and never really listen and acknowledge what’s happenings around us. We are always just concerned with what we are doing and what’s happening to us. This story shows that if we keep doing this, it’s not going to end well.

The Rabbi forgives the shopkeeper for insulting him, however, the shopkeeper never actually says sorry. It may be better that he didn’t falsely say sorry and keep being mad at the Rabbi but in the end he’s punished for the things he’d done to the Rabbi. He has to live his life in misery. If the shopkeeper had stopped for a second to realize what was going on around him, maybe he would have realized he wasn’t being fair to the Rabbi and he could have given him a sincere apology and saved his business (even though that shouldn’t be his first priority when giving the apology).

How does he know, as to graciousness?
Saying so may be a spell, that could be brought back faster to him.
But I don’t really know.

Have a great night.

They ask questions and questions, and when the Rabbi takes time to answer to all, and give them exercices to, they say it’s too much.
They think the Rabbi choose the latter by chance. More, that he don’t answer at all.
Although nobody asked them to become again pupils. They’re all free to do, it seems… We’re not here in a monastery. Nor in harmony.

Because, spreading love of words, disciples sometimes don’t mean a thing, and talk to each other between words. It’s a gift! But they use it towards themselves, in their own House.

Thus, they admire a “vau d’or”, because they miss the critical virtue: what taste the word can provide for their own Heart. What for?
They think they are arrived, and yet they feel more and more, that they are terribly not.

There must be two words for love.

Isaac dies blind. Maybe he wanted to experiment, his brothers feelings; why they had ignored him. No… At least, he had certainly see, yes, see, that whatever he said, there would always be someone to laugh about. So why keeping silent?
He let his heart speak, despite consequences. Cause his heart said so.

“Sometimes, we can’t stop the river of life”.

The Rabbi knows some disciples will reproach him to be too this, or too that, to be guilty, because they can’t open their heart, to say how things are, when they come within. But too late.
They disrespect him suddendly.
But pain builds his heart. That’s precisely the fight.

Today we blend severity with hatred, and love with insecerity.

All of us, humans, we can’t explain graciousness: we receive It. Forgiveness belongs to us, but we’re just learning still.

–

Is it God’s punishment or Rabbi’s one?

Gratefully.

love
Agnieszka