Yesh Li Blog: Emet

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Emet

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

It is one thing

to show a man

that he is in error,

and another

to put him

in possession

of the truth.

-John Locke,

philosopher

(1632-1704)

How much time do we spend criticizing error as opposed to teaching and exemplifying the truth?

What if every time I was moved to point out error I found a way to point out the truth?

The problem with focusing on error is that it focuses on error.

The beauty of revealing the truth is that it reveals the beauty of truth!

Should we not focus on the truth?

The word for truth in Hebrew (Emet) is spelled Alef Mem Tav, as in the picture above.

Alef is the first letter of the Alefbet.

Tav is the final letter.

Mem is the middle letter (including final forms).

Truth fills Space-Time from beginning to end and everything in between!

Error has not overcome it, so why focus on it?

The "Thought for Today" by John Locke came from an email newsletter called "A Word A Day" from the folks at Wordsmith.org. You can subscribe or just browse their site by clicking below.

2 comments:

Bonnie said...: How interesting that you should post on this. I love that quote ! No, I hadn't heard it before ... but I love it now ! But ... I've been thinking on this subject recently. Wondering when the heck I became such a critical and judgmental person. I love this .... rather than criticizing, I need to spend time/energy setting a good example. 'The problem with focusing on error is that it focuses on error.' Profound ! As is the next statement !! Love it Dad ... thanks for sharing !!; 7:20 AM
Ellie said...: I love this thought for the day.
That is a great quote at the beginning. Thanks, Dad; 1:09 PM

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Why Yesh Li Blog?

Why do I have a blog? Quite simply, I have a blog to share my favorite things with others. The right side of the blog has a long list of links to some of the places on the Internet that I visit often. In addition to sharing those with others, I often come here myself to find a quick link to where I am going.

Bonnie, our eldest, led the way into blogging with her Simple Beauty Blog, and later with her extremely popular Beans Blog. I decided I would give blogging a try and thought "I have a blog" might be a clever name, but in English it sounded rather lame, so I did it in Hebrew, a language I love more and more the more I learn it.

What does Yesh Li Blog mean?

We would translate (i.e. interpret) yesh li blog to mean "I have a blog" in English, but the literal Hebrew means "There is for (or to) me a blog." You cannot literally say "I have" something or other in Hebrew. It is always "there is for me," or "there is for you," or "there is for us," etc. Hebrew, the language of the Bible, is showing us that we are really stewards of what has been provided for us and for our use. Rather than private ownership, perhaps a better term for what we "own" would be private stewardship.

Languages have been my passion since at least the fourth grade, when I studied Spanish from a library book called Fun with Spanish. In high school, I was the rara avis that became enamored of Latin. In later U.S. Navy tours of duty in Spain, Italy, and Japan, we did our best to learn the local languages. Along the way, I studied some Russian and picked up some Greek by studying etymologies and some Chinese by studying Japanese writing systems.

My first introduction to Hebrew was in the early 1980s, when I took a correspondence course, but it was not until the past decade that my primary focus has been on this wondrous language. It has been deeply rewarding, and especially in the past few years since we met Ori, an amazing Israeli woman, who has become not only my primary Hebrew mentor but also our good friend. Moreover, the small group of people who meet weekly to study Torah in Hebrew in Boulder have become dear to us and enriched our lives greatly. Further, reading Jewish commentaries on the Web of the weekly Torah portions has deepened my own faith and opened up new understandings of the scriptures we share and of Christian writings based on those scriptures.

The pursuit of words has been an essential part of my life for many years (since birth?). Many things have changed in my life, but I don't see that part of it changing any time soon (until death?). Lehitraot! Shalom, Chaverim!