Friday, February 25, 2005

I Stole Something from A Simple Jew.... Umm, I Mean I Borrowed It.

"...record your inner life in a journal. This will not be something you do to earn immortal fame as an author, but rather engrave your soul-portrait on paper. Write down all your inner struggles, your setbacks and successes, and grant them eternal life. This way your very essence, the personality of your soul, your spiritual attainments, your life's inner treasures, will live on forever in the lives of your spiritual heirs as generations to come and go."

(Piaceszna Rebbe)

Asking forgiveness of fellow blogger A Simple Jew, http://asimplejew.blogspot.com I admit that I stole this posting of his from October 10, 2004. I'm like a comedian who's run out of quality material and has to recycle jokes of yesteryear.

But A Simple Jew knows the right things to say at the right time, the right quotations to cite to bring an awareness to his readers. Even if one of his posts doesn't offer anything more than a word of wisdom from a late, great rebbe, that post is a treasure and food for thought.

This quote from the Piaceszna Rebbe hits home for me as a blogger and as someone who kept a journal for years. My words are markers for my life, recreating or renewing events -- both trivial and major -- for me and any readers with the [good] fortune to read my words.

As the quote says, "...engrave your soul-portrait on paper." Or in this modern-day world, engrave it on a screen, don't forget to hit SAVE and then FILE. And remember, "a picture is worth a thousand words..."

1 comment:

A Simple Jew said...

Pearl: You cannot "steal" words of tzaddikim so there is no need to ask for forgiveness. They do not belong to any one person [certainly not me] and they are intended for whomever will let the words enter into their heart. The Piaceszna Rebbe's words are all the more powerful when you consider who he was and that he died in gas chambers of Treblinka.