Published by Hybrid Publishers
Melbourne Victoria Australia
©Ron Goldschlager, Adin Steinsaltz 2010
This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to the Publisher,
Hybrid Publishers,
PO Box 52, Ormond 3204.
First published 2010
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Goldschlager, Ronald.
Title: The mystery of you : living life /
Ronald Goldschlager, Adin Steinsaltz.
ISBN: 9781876462987 (hbk.)
Subjects: Ethics.
Jewish philosophy.
Other Authors/Contributors: Steinsaltz, Adin.
Dewey Number: 170
Cover design: © Dynamic Creations
All paintings in this book and on the cover by © Victor Majzner
Photo of Rabbi Steinsaltz on back flap by © Emmanuel Santos
Editing and translation of some of Rabbi Steinsaltz’s articles:
Yehudit Shabta
www.mysteryofyou.com
Digital Distribution: Ebook Alchemy
ISBN: 9781877006807 (Epub)
Contents
Introduction Ron Goldschlager
1: Ageing
2: Belief and Bureaucracy
3: Continuity
4: Behaviour
5: Water, Life and Numbers
6: Happiness
7: Science or Religion and Religion or Science
Afterword
The Confrontation of the Yetzer Ha-ra
Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz
Preface
Starting in the Middle
The One and the Many
From Childhood to Old Age
When ...
Are You Satisfied with Where You Are Now in Your Life?
The Fear of Loneliness
Death Shall Be Defeated
The Significance of the Giving of the Torah
The Religious Question
Different Types of Human Knowledge
On the Impracticability of Returning
Homecoming
“The World Should Endure Because of the Children; They Deserve It”
Educating Desire
Deed and Intention
Yearly Stocktaking
Strengths in the Soul
A Torah of Life
The Inner Meaning of the Giving of the Torah
Freedom Without Content is Another Kind of Slavery
Diaspora as a Dream
Divine Providence and Faith
Succoth
Preparing for the New Year
On Science and Religion – Some General Thoughts
Innocence and Modern Man
Technology Does Not Change Man’s Problems
The Question of Purpose
Half-Wisdom
The Reparation of the Intelligentsia
Heroism
Notes on Paintings by Victor Majzner
Life is like a roller coaster
Pulling us along
Driving us at rapid pace
No song, no face, just race!
Perceptions do become the rule
No time to dig, just run
The superficiality – routine becomes reality
Daily normality – no fun.
A break, a rest, some time to jest
To sleep, to breathe at best.
To search for depth, to keep, to make
Life full of what to take?
We work and play, we move and stay
Each day another challenge –
We live, we search, we hope, we find, we hold –
The truth be told
We trust, we grow, we mellow.
Ron Goldschlager
Introduction
How young are you? Are you satisfied with your life? Do you have fresh challenges ahead and new things to look forward to? Are you suffering from unfulfilled expectations? Have you come to terms with who you are and what life is about?
I am already closer to sixty years young rather than fifty years old. Sounds like a contradiction? I don’t think so.
I have been writing these thoughts for well over ten years now; a bit here and some more there. It has been challenging as well as fun. My thoughts rush through my mind, but move from pen to paper ever so slowly. I print each word in bold characters, letter by letter. No clear plan initially, just a flow of ideas and experiences. My left hand struggles to keep up and smudges over the inked lines written on the sheets of paper as it steers my pen.
Although I have a very busy life with no spare time, I always have the impulse to write: a bit in airplanes, some more during vacations, occasionally taking an hour off on the run or late at night. Even a few minutes in the car, in between the normal rush, but always moving forward, finding just little snippets of time to write, then to write a bit more and to write in between everything else.
Thomas Nisell is more like a brother than a friend. Affectionately called Schwedi (Swede, in Hebrew), he made aliyah (immigration; literally – “ascent”) to Israel from his native Sweden. We have much more than salmon, herrings and fine whisky in common. Thomas is blessed to be the personal assistant of Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz. I am indeed fortunate to have Thomas as a brother and the Rabbi as a soul mate.
The Rabbi read these chapters in draft form. We had an amazing time together at the Vatican in Rome over six years ago at an interfaith dialogue; we stayed there for nearly a week and made time to work on this book. I will never forget one particular session one afternoon. We were sitting by an old wooden table in the old kitchen of the old gatehouse in the beautiful garden of the old Piccolomini Estate, next to St Peter’s.