Human Being, The

Your mother told you so many times. Your high school principal didn’t seem so convinced. Certainly not your employer. But it’s true. And even more: You are not just the center of the world—you are the entire world. It’s an explicit Mishnah: Every human be...

"Go to the craftsman who made me," said the man, "and say to him: How ugly is the vessel which you have made!"

Who would you help? What punishments would you mete out? How would you handle this awesome responsibility?

What kind of "free choice" do we have, if we didn't choose to be presented with that choice?

I find Yom Kippur depressing. Why spend a day focusing on our sins and failures? Do we need to be reminded how far we are from being perfect?

There is an interesting distinction made in Jewish law between different types of utensils.

Why do we become a bar mitzvah at adolescence? Because something dramatic happens to our minds at this time: A sort of awakening, a consciousness, a realization that "I exist"

It is truly an impossible discovery: that there is another "I" in this world, one who is not "me," who does not confirm my concept of the world, who is the opposite of me in so many ways and who I can therefore never truly know...

Consciously or sub-consciously, we all identify as "human." Does that inspire us to strive higher, to be a mentsch? Or does it allow us to relax our standards, recognizing that we're "only human"?

My guru says I must first surrender my ego in order to proceed with his five-day, ten-step path to total enlightenment. Personally, I find my ego quite useful, even neccessary. What do you think? Are egos really as bad as they are made out to be?