Pillow Book of Talmud Wisdom

Chapter 11 Beginning with Darkness and Ending with Brightness—Jews on Frustration

As the "Talmud" article says: It is much better to have ten troubles than one trouble.Because a person with ten afflictions will no longer be afraid of afflictions, but a person with one affliction will always be troubled by afflictions.

This is the Jewish outlook on life: pain is the way of life.

Compared with happiness, people should rejoice when they are suffering
Jewish history is a history of suffering.The hardships of life, physical illness, dangerous existence, being excluded and displaced everywhere, personality discrimination... all tortured the Jews.

In a famous museum in Carthage, there is a painting entitled "The General", in which a man is playing chess with the devil, and the devil is making a general.This game of chess is a symbol of the destiny of mankind, and suffering is the devil who is playing chess.So, is there any hope for humanity to win?Every Jew has received "suffering education" since childhood, and suffering can be transformed into the wealth of life.It is in the battle with the devil that human beings exercise themselves.

"Passover" is the most important festival of the Jewish people about "suffering education". "Passover" was established specifically to commemorate Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt. By talking about the difficult journey of the ancestors and eating special foods, we can remember the bitterness and sweetness and understand the difficulties of life.

The food on the Passover Seder table mainly includes: three unleavened bread.When the Jews fled Egypt, they had no time to prepare dry food on the road, so they could only eat unleavened bread. The saying of three pieces refers to the memory of the three ancestors of the Jews.

One plate of food, five kinds of food.These five kinds of food refer to: roast leg of lamb, baked eggs, harasses, a dish of bitter herbs, and a dish of salted celery.

The roast leg of lamb is a Passover sacrifice. After the Jews lost the temple, they had nowhere to offer sacrifices, so they replaced it with roast leg of lamb (or roast meat) at the feast.

Baked eggs. Jews are used to eating eggs before meals. Passover eggs are baked. Baked eggs are very tough and hard to break. The Jewish nation is like baked eggs. The longer they suffer, the stronger they become.

A plate of harasses, a fruit, spice and wine mixture in the form of a puree.Before the Israelites came out of Egypt, Pharaoh made things difficult for them, ordered them to make bricks, and gave them no fodder, thus beating them. This plate of mud-shaped Harouses reminds people of the mud used to make bricks.

A dish of bitter vegetables commemorates the sufferings of the Jews in Egypt.

A plate of salted celery. When the Jews came out of Egypt, they drank the bitter seawater of red kelp and ate salted celery, which means that the Jews should always remember the suffering of the exodus.

Four glasses of wine.The program of the Passover Seder feast consists of four glasses of wine in series: the first glass of wine, the head of the family toasts blessings, and the Seder Feast begins.The second and third cups of wine are drunk in the middle of the family banquet, before and after the "Hagada" is spoken.The fourth glass of wine, thank God for blessing, the banquet is over.The original meaning of the so-called "Hagadah" in Hebrew is: myths and stories. The "Hagadah" of the Passover is the main activity of the family feast, and it is a collection of stories about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.It not only explains the meaning of all the Passover foods, but also tells the main sufferings of the Jews in Egypt and the difficult journey out of Egypt.

The success of almost every great Jewish man is inseparable from suffering. In April 1933, two months after the German Nazis deliberately set fire to the Reichstag, Hitler issued the first anti-Semitic order: all Jews who hold positions in the police, military officers, judges, government offices, and teachers will be expelled; Two years later, the Jews were declared as "second-class citizens", intermarriage between Germans and Jews was prohibited. After two or three years, all synagogues were destroyed, Jews were put into concentration camps one after another, and Jewish assets were plundered and confiscated. .

In those dark and terrifying years, it was a kind of hardworking psychology that turned suffering into motivation and sublimated suffering into a gift for mankind.

Pain is the way of life

According to Jewish historical records: Jews were slaves in Egypt in the early days and lived a miserable life.In the 15th century BC, under the leadership of their hero Moses, they crossed the desert. Since they had no time to prepare food, they had to eat unfermented bread and wild vegetables on the road. back to Israel.It has been more than 3500 years since this incident, but to this day, the Jews still commemorate that period of suffering, so that they will not forget the suffering and humiliation.

Even on such a festive and important event as marriage, they remind the couple not to forget the suffering.The wedding stipulates that the couple should not finish drinking the wine, and then put the wine glass intact on the plate, but smash the wine glass after drinking.I hope that the two people will not pay attention to pleasure, and tell them that blindly enjoying pleasure and forgetting hardship is a symbol of prodigal.

In order not to let themselves forget their suffering, the Jews have formulated various rules, and they always remind themselves not to forget their pain in their daily life, commemorative festivals, holidays and even weddings.

Their weekly rest days are from Friday to Saturday, with Sunday being the beginning of the week.Why make Friday night the start of a happy holiday for the whole family?

The Talmud explains it this way:
"Because instead of starting brightly and ending darkly, it is better to start darkly and end brightly." This reminds people that they should suffer first before enjoying.

They not only reminded not to forget the pain on the day of rest, but also made regulations on the most grand and solemn festival "Passover" among the Jewish community's commemorative days. "Passover" is the day when the Jews commemorate their return to Israel.On this day, they prepare exquisite food and gorgeous costumes early, and everyone spends this beautiful festival happily. However, on this festival, the Jews stipulate that everyone must eat a kind of very coarse bread and a kind of bitter bread. The leaves of wild vegetables, because these represent humiliation and failure.

Any Jew knows that they cannot afford to lose, they only succeed, failure means death and never have a chance to come back, therefore, they all work very hard.Many Jews achieved success at a time when it seemed impossible for others to make a comeback.If you open the juvenile experience of Jewish celebrities, you will find that among the 10 Jewish celebrities, eight or nine grew up in adversity and ups and downs.The Jewish spirit of success in adversity will always be admired by the world.Success for them is not "I need" but "I must".

People commented on the Jews' sense of crisis and sense of urgency, saying: "Whenever luck comes, the Jews are always the last to perceive it; and whenever disaster strikes, the Jews are always the first to perceive it."

They are always full of crisis awareness and remain vigilant under any circumstances.Many Jews have experienced many pains and sufferings in their lives. Therefore, when they have a stable life, they will never forget the sufferings they have suffered.In their hearts, they are always full of vigilance, the purpose is to prevent themselves from forgetting the past.

As a result, Jews all over the world are proud of their title of "God's Chosen People".They use their huge wealth to make the world envy and envy them.Knowing that the reason why their own nation is being bullied is that they did not form a strong country and government to protect themselves, so under the active advocacy of several Jewish patriots, they launched the Zionist Movement, which others feel is so diaspora It is impossible for a group of weak and helpless nations to establish a country, but in a short period of time, they established their own country Israel in 1948, and "God's chosen people" from all over the world gathered in their holy land, Palestine, The rich Jewish people from all over the world donated their property generously, and they quickly built their motherland into a strong and wealthy country, and their achievements surprised the world.After more than 2000 years of wandering, persecution, and massacres, a historical miracle has been achieved!

Self-improvement is the only reason for survival
"Bible" said: No one has ever found where wisdom exists, or has ever entered the treasure house of wisdom.If you want to gain wisdom, you have to use your body to accept the test of fate.

It is normal to encounter setbacks in one's life.

Suffering is a great wealth in life. Misfortune and setbacks may make people sink, and they may also forge the strong character of adults and achieve a fulfilling life.Suffering is a good teacher in life. It can teach people how to deal with all problems with gratitude and a positive attitude, develop a strong will, and bravely participate in social competition.

A person's moral will is completely consistent with his character: the stronger the moral will, the faster and stronger the formation of character.Will is a concept associated with overcoming difficulties.In the process of achieving one's own goals, a person will always encounter difficulties of one kind or another.The process of overcoming difficulties is the process of will activity, and a strong will is cultivated in this process of constantly overcoming difficulties.

If a person has a strong willpower, then he can overcome all kinds of difficulties on the way forward, persevere and persevere until he succeeds.Therefore, strong willpower is the lasting driving force of human behavior and the key factor for success.

Today's children live in a rich age, and the superior living conditions have made them do not know what poverty and hardship are.Excessive doting on their children is a common problem among many parents today, and it is also a problem that today's parents face that really makes them feel at a loss.

In many countries, hard work is one of the compulsory courses for children, especially in families in developed countries, parents generally attach importance to cultivating children's self-care ability and hard-working spirit from an early age.Because a developed market economy requires every member of society to have this ability and spirit, and only with this ability and spirit can you stand out.

In many Jewish families today, in order to exercise their children, every winter, young children have to roll naked in the ice and snow for a certain period of time.It was freezing cold, and the child's lips were purple from the cold, and he was trembling all over, but the parents hardened their hearts and would never pick up their children in advance.They understand that only in this way can they exercise their children's will and make them grow up physically and mentally.

Some wealthy Jewish families also encourage their children to go to workshops for academic education and write academic reports.There children learn the true value of honest work, solidarity, and strength of will.

There is a "whale school" in the land of Israel. This school allows children to sail across the Atlantic Ocean twice in a year and swim around three islands. Hungry.Children in this school must learn to sail, fish, cook, and complete courses such as inspection, reading, and discussion.At the same time, they also have to deal with the local people and get familiar with the local customs.After such a tempering, the children will become wise and courageous people.

Setbacks are not terrible

How should we look at setbacks and how to face them?

"Since ancient times, heroes have suffered a lot." Many people with lofty ideals have made extraordinary achievements in the struggle against setbacks in history.After Sima Qian was tortured, he wrote a book angrily, and wrote the famous "Historical Records", which was praised by Lu Xun as "the swan song of historians, and Li Sao without rhyme".The setbacks that musician Beethoven encountered in his life are indescribable.He lost his mother at the age of 17, became deaf at the age of 32, and then fell into the pain of losing his love.But Beethoven was not depressed or discouraged. He wrote in a letter: "I want to hold the throat of fate. It is delusional to make me succumb. This is absolutely impossible." He has always lived tenaciously and created with difficulty. Become the immortal musician of the world.

Although setbacks bring pain to people, they can often temper people's will and inspire people's fighting spirit; they can make people learn to think, adjust their behavior, achieve their goals in a better way, and achieve brilliant careers.Scientist Beveridge said: "People's best work is often done under adversity." Therefore, it can be said that setbacks are a special environment for cultivating talents.

Of course, setbacks do not automatically create talents, and not all people who experience setbacks can make a difference.The French writer Balzac said: "Frustration is like a stone. For the weak, it is a stumbling block, which makes you hesitate; but for the strong, it is a stepping stone, which makes you stand taller." Only with the lofty Only those who have the purpose of life, set up a lofty ideal of life, and consciously temper in setbacks, stand up in setbacks, and pursue in setbacks can hope to become strong in life.

Frustration is our most critical friend, and it is always ready to turn against you.But no matter what, it is still your friend in the end. When you really accept it and are determined to defeat it, you will find that it is also quite loyal.

Some people always make up a little reason to excuse themselves when they are frustrated. This is like "a poorly skilled chef always says that the fire is not good", they don't really realize their own shortcomings, and blame themselves. The conditions are not good.

For setbacks, we can only face them, face them squarely, and insist on the belief that we will win in our hearts. We believe that these setbacks are nothing, and we can bear even the greatest obstacles and difficulties.Which of the famous people in history has not suffered setbacks in their life journey?As the saying goes, "It's not a bit of cold, how can you get the fragrance of plum blossoms"?As long as you can strengthen your beliefs and bravely challenge setbacks, you can see the sun through the clouds and embark on the road to success.

Only those who can't stand the storm and dare not accept the challenge will be intimidated by setbacks. For those who are truly passionate and have firm beliefs, setbacks are just a pebble eaten in a lunch. It may hurt the tooth when you bite it for the first time, but as long as you know its direction and determine its position, you can separate it from the food in your mouth and discard it.

Because of setbacks in life, we have tempered our ability to bear.A setback can often make people learn a lot from it and understand their own shortcomings.If success is a subject, then setbacks are a teacher. He is good at using negative examples and materials to educate people to understand the necessary conditions for success, so that people can better achieve success.

Remember, setbacks are not terrible, what is terrible is that a person has lost the courage to face setbacks!

(End of this chapter)