Tuesday, November 20, 2012

beliefs

i grew up believing that what goes around comes around. I believed that the way you treat others is how you will be treated. I believed that when you give you will be repaid tenfold. I believed when you went out of your way for others, others would do the same back. I didn’t think it was equal, not those who you did for would always do back but I thought there was a certain structure to the world. Now I am left with doubts. I thought charity was an insurance against poverty. I thought including others was a guarantee against loneliness. I thought my innate goodness would bring better times. Now I cry alone.

3 comments:

  1. I think that doing good deeds is a positive thing and that you do them because they are mitzvot and not for what you get in return. If you get something back great, but if not they are still the right things to do.

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  2. Echoing FSF here, doing the right thing is no guarantee of a rosy future. We do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not because we are negotiating with karma.

    I am reminded of this every time Koheles is read. Shlomo HaMelech makes no mention of reward for doing the mitzvos. We do the mitzvos because we do the mitzvos. Zeh hu.

    We can find personal satisfaction in a job well done, and glean purpose and fulfillment without reimbursement. That is more my outlook.

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  3. Mitoch shelo lishmah, ba lishma. Doing a mitzvah with repayment in mind, while not the purest form of the mitzvah, is still a valid reason to perform it.

    I believe there is some sort of guarantee that we'll be repaid, depending on the mitzvah of course. But we don't, and can't, know how or when we'll be rewarded or repaid.

    As an outlook though, I agree with FSF and PL.

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