The Historical District of Hot Springs, AR

I finally got around to processing some test shots using my new Nikon 7100 in downtown Hot Springs.  I seldom go downtown.  I should change that now that I have more time.  There are a lot of things to take pictures of in this tourist center.

If Not Higher

I recently ran across a reference to a story by Isaac Loeb Peretz called If Not Higher.  I hope to someday find this story and read it in its entirety.

The story can be summarized something like this:

On every Day of Atonement a certain rabbi always disappears from the synagogue for a few hours.  People wonder where he is going.  One of his followers suspects that he has an appointment with God.  To satisfy his curiosity, he follows the rabbi one Day of Atonement.  He discovers the rabbi taking off his fine clothes and putting on the clothes of a poor person.  The rabbi then goes to the shack of a crippled woman and cleans her room, prepares her meals and generally serves her for a period of time.  

When the follower is satisfied that he knows the rabbi's secret, he returns to the synagogue.  The people ask him if the rabbi ascended to heaven and he replies, "If not higher."

Maybe we should strive for heaven, if not higher.

Quote for the Day

God in heaven, I thank Thee that Thou hast not required it of man that he should comprehend Christianity; for if that were required, I should be of all men the most miserable.  The more I seek to comprehend it, the more incomprehensible it appears to me, and the more I discover merely the possibility of offense.  Therefore, I thank Thee that Thou dost only require faith, and I pray Thee to increase it more and more.
Amen.

-- Soren Kierkegaard.