Letters of Thought: Good Bad Examples

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Good Bad Examples

My guest post on "Good Bad Examples" is up. Here's the beginning -click on the link below to see the rest!

A Simple Jew asks:
Often when confronted with something to her dislike, my mom will
remark, "It was a good bad example". A "good bad example" is an
occurrence that provides the one witnessing it with a good lesson of
what not to do in a similar situation. Learning from a "good bad
example" is thus essentially following the directive of Pirkei Avos 4:1
to learn from all people.
On occasion, we witness examples of another person's avodas Hashem
that we seek to emulate, and at other times we witness a person's
avodas Hashem that clearly provides guidance on how not to proceed.
Can you think of a "good bad example" that you have recently
encountered and the lesson you derived from it?

Mottel:

Throughout the course of our lives we come in contact with many people; from those that we meet in passing to friends and family who spend considerable time with us -each plays a part as a thread in the tapestry of our lives.
We are instructed to take a lesson from all things that we see . . .