The Hebrew Bible

And yet, pleads Boethius, it is very strange to see the wicked flourishing and the virtuous afflicted. Why, yes, replies Philosophia; everything is strange until you know the cause.105 Compare the Squire’s Tale (F 258). (2)

There are people who spend months planning a holiday but not even a day planning a life. They let themselves be carried by the winds of chance and circumstance. That is a mistake. The sages said, “Wherever [in the Torah] we find the word vayehi [‘And it came to pass’], it is always the prelude to tragedy” (Megilla 10b).

people generally think that present circumstances will last, and that matters will go on in the future as they have clone in the past. Their mistakes arises from the fact that they do not understand the cause of the things they see--causes which, unlike the effects they produce, contain in themselves the germ of future change. The effects are all t

We are here now to enjoy life’s pleasures now, a sentiment reinforced by biblical verses that remind us not to wait for gratification because it may soon be eclipsed by random terror: “Because you would not serve the Lord your God in joy and gladness over the abundance of everything, you shall have to serve – in hunger and thirst, naked and lacking