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February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
The Girl with the X-Ray Eyes
By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
If we could see our inner selves, we might be shocked at what we find
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Natasha Demkina has x-ray vision. At least, that's what the twenty-one year old Russian woman claims. Since the age of ten, Ms. Demkina has reported an ability to see inside people, not figuratively or psychically, but visually, with her eyes wide open.
A test several years ago, in collaboration with the Discovery Channel, concluded that the young woman's mysterious talent for correctly diagnosing medical conditions did not derive from paranormal ability but from a sensitivity that enabled her to interpret external clues from subjects who came before her for examination. Ms. Demkina's defenders claim the test was flawed.
Irrespective of the authenticity of these or other paranormal claims, all of us who grew up with a knowledge of Superman have x-ray vision indelibly imprinted in our cultural lexicon. What child hasn't imagined himself possessed of the Man of Steel's power to look through walls and inside sealed containers? To see inside the human body is merely a new variation on an old theme.
STRANGER THAN FICTION?
Or is it? From a purely medical perspective, such innovations as x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs have provided huge advances in diagnoses and preventative treatments. From tooth decay to broken bones to lung disease to tumor growth, the equipment that allows us to see inside our skin has saved countless lives and been an invaluable boon to public health.
Even to the untrained eye, images produced by modern technology showing the effects of unhealthy living may prove shocking. The blackened lungs of a lifetime smoker, the cauterized liver of a heavy drinker, the clogged arteries resulting from a high-fat diet, and the impaired brain activity caused by drug abuse, are all concrete images of the effects of a careless or overindulgent lifestyle. Before we could look inside and see the effects of our behaviors, it was easy to deny that the vices we embraced were truly harmful; but now, the machines of modern medicine confront us with physical evidence that is truly irrefutable.
But what of behaviors that produce no physical evidence and leave no physical imprint? The Torah prohibits us from eating animals that do not have split-hooves and chew their cud. If the consumption of fatty foods deposits fat throughout our system, is it difficult to imagine that that ingesting the flesh of predatory animals may subtly influence us to develop a more violent nature? Conversely, is it not possible that consuming only animals characterized by rumination will gradually influence us to become more thoughtful and find more satisfaction in the simple pleasures life has to offer?
And what of the prohibition against mixing milk and meat? If the former characterizes our more passive, nurturing dimension, and the latter reflects our more active and aggressive side, is it inconceivable that the intermingling of the two might not lead us to lose some of our capacity for delineating when one response is called for and not the other? If we fail to respect some of life's natural boundaries, will we not place ourselves in danger of violating others?
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT … AND HOW WE ACT
Not is it only what we take inside our bodies that may cause us harm. Is immorality less self-destructive than smoking or an unhealthy diet? Do stinginess and anger and arrogance have any less effect upon us than cigarette tar and high cholesterol? What if we had x-ray vision that enabled us to see not blackened lungs and hardened arteries but the effect of an unholy life upon the neshoma - the supernal soul that defines our spiritual identity?
Just as the endless shelves of diet books promise to instruct us in maintaining our physical health, the Torah is the one genuine guide to spiritual well-being. Each positive commandment is a prescription for spiritual health, just as each prohibition is a warning against behavior that is spiritually harmful.
The kabbalists offer a frightening description of the effect of actions inconsistent with the Divine Will. Because our souls are essentially sparks of the Infinite G-d that reside within us, we cannot truly cause them damage. However, the radiance of the neshoma that illuminates our lives with spiritual joy and enables us to illuminate the world around us with spiritual energy can become diminished.
Every action that contradicts the Torah's code of conduct and ethics deposits a film of impurity over the around the exterior of our souls. The effect of a single spiritual indiscretion may be indiscernible. But if it is compounded, if layer after layer of impurity is added, the neshoma may become encased in a shroud of spiritual defilement that prevents its divine light from shining through.
PRESCRIPTION FOR THE SOUL
Ultimately, despite the complete absence of physical evidence, a person will find himself incapable of any true spiritual fulfillment. Over time, a person may become incapable of such feelings as love, kindness, mercy, gratitude, and self-sacrifice, without which it is impossible to live a life of true happiness and satisfaction. As the layers of impurity coalesce around his neshoma, a person finds himself pulled down by the inexorable weight of his material existence. Life becomes a burden, and the light of true joy gives way to a perpetually gray sky of spiritual melancholy.
Conversely, by directing our lives according to the spiritual prescription of Torah, we polish the exteriors of our neshomas to an extraordinary luster, so that the radiance of our souls permeates every corner of our world, bringing light and hope and elation to the darkest places and circumstances.
These conditions describe the extremes. Most of us, however, grapple with life somewhere in the middle, battling our way toward good and against evil, reaching up toward the spiritual against the constant downward pull of the physical. Sometimes we succeed; other times we fail. Too often we lose sight of the true consequences of our actions as we focus on trappings of earthly existence.
How do we train ourselves to keep our focus? How do we develop the clarity of x-ray vision to look beneath the surface and recognize how our spiritual health benefits when we take responsibility for ourselves and suffers when we indulge our impulses with abandon?
Just as technology has enabled us to look beneath the body's exterior and diagnose its true condition, similarly is the diagnosis of the neshoma a matter of employing the proper equipment. If the commandments in the Torah are indeed the prescription for a good life, then our quality of life itself is the measure of how well we are following the Almighty's prescription.
For they are our life and the length of our days. If we find ourselves bitter, self-absorbed, discontented, and unfulfilled, then we are certainly not following the prescription for the soul. This is not to say that the Torah life produces instant happiness. But it does provide us with the guidance and the direction to clean and polish our neshomas, to restore the luster and radiance to our lives by returning meaning to our existence.
No one needs x-ray vision for that.
JewishWorldReview.com regularly publishes uplifting articles. Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School in St. Louis, MO, where he also writes and lectures. Visit him at http://torahideals.wordpress.com .
© 2009, Rabbi Yonason Goldson
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