A year ago today the fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself aflame in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, improbably providing the spark for what has become a regional revolution – The Arab Spring.
Once, in the time of the Talmud, a laundryman heard a voice from heaven proclaiming, Whoever goes to the funeral of Rebbe will secure the Next World. The laundryman intended to go, but got involved with his work; when he looked up the sun was setting.
Knowing he had missed the opportunity of a lifetime, he went to the roof of a house and threw himself over, in defiance of Torah Law, and died in the process. Another voice rang out from heaven saying, This man also gets the Next World – because inner intention is beyond law.
The custom among the Jewish People upon hearing a person has died is to say, Barauch Dyan HaEmet/Blessed The True Judge; God judges the human being according to our intentions not our actions. Freedom of choice, as described in the Cabala, is our intention towards God.
The Torah teaches, the world hangs upon a thread, thin as a hair, a simple action can change the entire world. Defiance is a human ability, neither good nor bad; depending upon how we intend determines the judgment of our actions, that is why only God is the true judge.
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