{"id":9142,"date":"2024-02-27T20:02:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T20:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=9142"},"modified":"2024-02-27T20:15:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T20:15:19","slug":"another-one-rides-the-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/","title":{"rendered":"Another One Rides the Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Straphangers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Living in Monsey, New York, and not working in New York City, I don\u2019t really have occasion to ride the bus very often. When I was visiting Israel, I did utilize buses – and they were very helpful – but there\u2019s a certain peril to riding public transit. If you get on late and don\u2019t have a place to sit, you could turn into a human pinball, bouncing from place to place with each pothole and pitfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your only hope is to find a pole or a strap to hold onto to secure yourself in place. The term \u201cstraphangers,\u201d refers to people who ride the bus often, and indeed, they hold onto those loops of rubber, leather, or whatever material it is hanging from the roof of the bus, as a means of remaining upright. That\u2019s precisely why they\u2019re there, so people can stabilize themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you haven\u2019t ridden a bus but you\u2019ve been on a train or subway, or maybe even on a monorail or shuttle at an airport or amusement park. You know that if you don\u2019t want to get bumps and bruises, you need to be holding onto something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only God Defines Morality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The idea for this discussion came to me, surprisingly, not when I was riding some mode of transport, but rather when I was comfortably seated in a dining room chair. The part that got rough was the conversation. The person asking me questions had some ideas of his own about right and wrong and how the world works. He was trying to justify the \u201cJewish\u201d response to things based on his reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said to him that in order to answer any questions, and in fact, to properly ask them, we need to have a baseline. The baseline, I said, was Hashem (God) and the Torah. Good and evil are not defined by human understanding, but by Hashem. It has to be that way, because people can be convinced to see things from any perspective. Even murder isn\u2019t fully evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many people would readily commit someone who doesn\u2019t agree with them to death? The sad answer is too many. From the animal rights activist who blew up a laboratory in Maryland years ago, destroying research that was close to a breakthrough in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, choosing rats over babies, to the people who hate politicians so much that they would like to see them tortured and killed because they don\u2019t view them as real people. It\u2019s a scary reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fellow I was speaking to said, \u201cWell, everyone would agree the Holocaust was bad.\u201d I disagreed. There are many people who hate us and think that not enough was done to rid the world of Jews. Killing is only bad if you have a moral code. As a scholarly individual once explained to me, \u201cG-d defines morality.\u201d If Hashem says it\u2019s good, then it\u2019s good regardless of how people view it (like killing Amalek or vanquishing the inhabitants of Canaan.) If Hashem says it\u2019s bad, even though the world at large doesn\u2019t view it so, (think about sneaky business practices or harmful words) then it\u2019s bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He Who Stands for Nothing, Will Fall for Anything<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I was speaking to this person who felt he could be the arbiter of right and wrong based on his feelings and intellectual acumen, I got this visual image of a straphanger. Without something to ground us, we will never be able to maintain our balance. We\u2019ll be subject to the twists and turns of life, and the opinions splashed upon us like the water of so many murky puddles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a saying, \u201cThe person who stands for nothing, will fall for anything.\u201d People without principles can sink to the lowest levels. In a world where the law of the land is \u201csurvival of the fittest,\u201d people will devour each other for their own benefit. That\u2019s where the Torah comes in. Hashem gave it to us in order to ground us; to keep us on our feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Torah directs us to seek out the benefit of others, and to treat people fairly. It is not our place to determine which people, because the Torah only distinguishes in cases like Amalek or a speaker of Lashon Hara, when the person is trying to harm you spiritually as well as physically, and deny you your eternity. You don\u2019t get to decide that because someone disagrees with you, he deserves to be gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Way is Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Someone speaking to the Chazon Ish<\/a> mentioned a certain Israeli politician and said, \u201cYemach shemo<\/em>, may his name be erased.\u201d The Chazon Ish was incensed. \u201cIf he were to die without children, the Torah would say his brother must marry his wife in order to carry on his name. Who are you to contradict Hashem?!\u201d And that\u2019s what we need to remember. In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself. The only way to do that is to hold tightly to the Torah, and realize that on our own, we may not always be able to figure out which way is up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Want to learn more about Jewish philosophy? Join TorahMates today to learn Torah from home, with your own study partner!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi Gewirtz (Operation Inspiration<\/a>) welcomes comments and feedback. Write to him at info@JewishSpeechWriter.com<\/a> to share your thoughts. You never know when you may be the lamp that enlightens someone else.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Straphangers Living in Monsey, New York, and not working in New York City, I don\u2019t really have occasion to ride the bus very often. When I was visiting Israel, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[702,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jewish-philosophy","category-judaism-101"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/torahmates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/shutterstock_2424824345.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"334\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TorahMates\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@oorah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@oorah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TorahMates\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TorahMates\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/df1cd798c41777159e9fee85cb392ef9\"},\"headline\":\"Another One Rides the Bus\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\"},\"wordCount\":951,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Jewish Philosophy\",\"Judaism 101\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\",\"name\":\"Another One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Another One Rides the Bus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/\",\"name\":\"JEWISH RESOURCES by Oorah's TorahMates\",\"description\":\"brought to you by Oorah's TorahMates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization\",\"name\":\"TorahMates\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/tm.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/tm.jpg\",\"width\":921,\"height\":824,\"caption\":\"TorahMates\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/torahmates\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/oorah\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/torahmates\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/oorah-inc?original_referer=https:\/\/www.oorah.org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/oorah\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/OorahKR\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oorah_(organization)\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/df1cd798c41777159e9fee85cb392ef9\",\"name\":\"TorahMates\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/26e85981eb7a7ffe0e513841f5d6b26a09f4f1ab01d3eff73b79b111f5b3a80c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/26e85981eb7a7ffe0e513841f5d6b26a09f4f1ab01d3eff73b79b111f5b3a80c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TorahMates\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Another One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources","description":"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Another One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources","og_description":"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Resources","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/torahmates","article_published_time":"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":334,"url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/shutterstock_2424824345.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"TorahMates","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@oorah","twitter_site":"@oorah","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TorahMates","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/"},"author":{"name":"TorahMates","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/df1cd798c41777159e9fee85cb392ef9"},"headline":"Another One Rides the Bus","datePublished":"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/"},"wordCount":951,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Jewish Philosophy","Judaism 101"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/","name":"Another One Rides the Bus - Jewish Resources","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-27T20:02:13+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-27T20:15:19+00:00","description":"In order to see things the right way, we need to be upright and supported by the only thing which is solid \u2013 Hashem, Himself.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/another-one-rides-the-bus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Another One Rides the Bus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/","name":"JEWISH RESOURCES by Oorah's TorahMates","description":"brought to you by Oorah's TorahMates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#organization","name":"TorahMates","url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/tm.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/tm.jpg","width":921,"height":824,"caption":"TorahMates"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/torahmates","https:\/\/twitter.com\/oorah","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/torahmates\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/oorah-inc?original_referer=https:\/\/www.oorah.org\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/oorah\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/OorahKR","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Oorah_(organization)"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/df1cd798c41777159e9fee85cb392ef9","name":"TorahMates","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/26e85981eb7a7ffe0e513841f5d6b26a09f4f1ab01d3eff73b79b111f5b3a80c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/26e85981eb7a7ffe0e513841f5d6b26a09f4f1ab01d3eff73b79b111f5b3a80c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"TorahMates"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9142"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9193,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9142\/revisions\/9193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}