Jewish Mystical Wisdom in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by Laurie Lamson

At the start of the Jewish New Year, as the sun went down, we lost the ultra-inspiring heroine, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, lifelong champion of gender equality. 

In honor of Rosh Hashanah and the most honorable Justice Ginsberg, here is some Jewish mystical wisdom:

Baal Shem Tov:

“Whenever feeling downcast, each person should vitally remember ‘For my sake, the entire world was created.’”

“Never seek to imitate the spiritual path of another. If you try to do so, not only will you fail in fulfilling your own path, but you will not do as well in the task meant for your neighbor.” 

Traditional ethical text:
“Be not a fly seeking sore spots. Cover up your neighbor’s flaws and reveal them not to the world.” 

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav:
“Try to be as happy as you possibly can. Search for your good points in order to make yourself happy. The main source of strength within is joy.” 

“Our world consists of nothing except the day and hour that we stand in now. Tomorrow is a completely different world.”

Rabbi Schneur Zalman:
“The essential thing is to habituate one’s mind and thought continuously so that everything one sees with one’s eyes – the heavens and the earth and all that is therein – constitutes the outer garments of the Holy One.”

The Talmud – text of rabbinical discussions – central text of mainstream Judaism:
“To shame a person in public is akin to murdering him.”

Martin Buber:
“Every journey has a secret destination of which the traveler is unaware.”

The Zohar (a book of the Kabbalah):
“At every step we take, there are worlds upon worlds before us.”

“As the human body consists of members and parts of various ranks all acting and reacting upon one another so as to form one organism, so does the universe consist of a hierarchy of created things, which, when they properly act and react upon each other, together form literally one organic body.”

“The wise person is one who, by the power of his own contemplation, attains to a perception of profound mysteries which cannot be put into words.”

Italian mystic Rabbi Moses Luzzatto:
“… one should naturally be able to teach himself, understand and reason with his intellect… However there exists another means of gaining knowledge… This is what we call ruach ha-kadosh… In this manner, one can gain knowledge that could not otherwise be gained through logic alone. This includes such things as information concerning future events and hidden secrets.”