The rabbi at my temple has told many memorable sermons over the years. In particular, he usually pulls out all the stops for the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). These two holidays, the holiest days of the year next to the sabbath, also have the advantage of having a great deal of people in attendance so he always make an effort to make his message important and inspiring, and often very funny.
Rabbi’s story 1: Alfred Nobel: At one point in history Alfred Nobel was the wealthiest man in Europe. He acquired this wealth because he developed a very important invention, dynamite. Dynamite was an valuable tool because it allowed builders to blow up mountains and help create many roads. However as with many things sometimes there are accidents and people die. In fact that is what happened.
There was an explosion at Alfred Nobel’s factory and the headline in the paper read, “Alfred Nobel, merchant of death, dies in freak accident.” However, There was a wrinkle to the story because the newspaper got it wrong. It was really Nobel’s brother who died not Alfred. Alfred Nobel actually read his own obituary.
“I can't believe that they think of me as the merchant of death.” He told a colleague. “I don’t want people to think of me like that.” And so, he decided to take his money. His millions and created the Nobel prize. A yearly award for advancement in science, math, English, and most importantly an award for peace.
LIfe Lesson 93: Sometimes in life we can change other people’s perceptions of us, but even we can’t change other peoples perceptions of us, we can always change how we see ourselves, and in the scheme of things, that’s what’s most important.
No comments:
Post a Comment