Thursday, August 03, 2006

Alive & Thinking (reposted)

By special (and much appreciated) request, I am reposting “Alive & Thinking” from my old blog @ http://mishleishlomo.blogspot.com/2005/04/alive-thinking.html!

There once was kid from Crown Heights

Who stayed up reading most nights

His faith hadn’t faltered

But curiosity altered

His notion of the wrongs and the rights

With strange books they caught him

So quickly they sought him

Devices to thwart his desire

But try as they may

There just was no way

To extinguish that free-thinking fire

The heavier the chain

So much greater the strain

On the hopes and the dreams he had planned

Until all that mattered

That these bonds be shattered

For the man who yearned to expand

So he pursued that truth

Discovered in youth

Escaping from all that he knew

Becoming free

Isn’t that easy you see

When you're raised as an Orthodox Jew

Sometimes he reflects

On that life he rejects

While fumbling through thoughts in his head

Yet he continues to strive

Feeling much more alive

Than those who consider him dead

3 comments:

Avi said...

And please do not get me wrong, I am not saying that Athiests are children or are lacking any sort of mental capacity. They are just blinding themselves, normally purposfully, to part of themselves and part of the world.

We are blinding ourselves to the world? Perhaps you are imagining things. Did you ever speak to an angel? Did an angel ever speak to you? Did God ever speak to you? Yeah you and all the nuts in the insane asuylem. The Rebbayim wax eloquent over high and lofty issues.The angels that serve God and their duties. These people are delussional. They have never seen an angel, yet they know their names and their jobs, and what purpose each one serves. And you say that we are blinding ourselves? Tell me my friend, which one of us is crazy?

Anonymous said...

Us guys born into observant envoirnments are cursed. I don't believe that your typical Non-Orth Jew ever thinks about shabbat or T'sha B'Av but we have been indoctorinated regardless of the way we feel. Even though I strive for it I will never be truely frei

Shlomo Leib Aronovitz said...

Ray,

That is so true. It's been 16 years now that I have been away and I am just starting to make the internal changes that come with freedom. There is no reason to deliberately shed those inner workings, but it can make transitioning much smoother.

On the other hand, the other world perspective that I carry into Golus has it's benefits, as would any variant point of view. Sometimes, I get to see things from more than just one vantage point.

Kol Tuv