Facebook Inspired a Lesson!

Let it never be said that Facebook is a waste of time! It all depends whose pages you follow. I follow Rabbi David Wolpe's inspiring posts every day. Today not only his post inspired me, but also one of the comments posted below it, a quotation by another great rabbinical sage: Abraham Joshua Heschel. So I created a lesson for a new book I'm planning, featuring writing lessons to evoke introspection. Let me know what you think of this:


Writing Lesson To Evoke Introspection:
Comparing Words by Heschel and Wolpe


“Sometimes in the quiet of the night you listen and realize that the chords struck in your soul differ from the music of those around you. The trick of life is to hear those same internal chords amid the clamor and insistent noise of the day. Hold fast to your harmonies.” --David Wolpe


“There are alleys in the soul where a man walks alone, ways that do not lead to society, a world of privacy that shrinks from the public eye. Life comprises not only arable, productive land, but also mountains of dreams, an underground of sorrow, towers of yearning....” --Abraham Joshua Heschel


QUESTIONS TO PONDER (please write your answers):

What does each passage mean, in your own words?

How do these two passages differ in tone?

Which one resonates more for you, and why?


CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE:

Write a short story or poem titled “Holding on to Harmony” to illustrate Wolpe’s message.

Or, write a short story or poem titled “Lonely Landscape of the Soul,” featuring the borrowed images, from Heschel, of “mountains of dreams,” “an underground of sorrow,” or “towers of yearning.”

Be sure to credit the author with a parenthetical citation, as follows: (based on words by _______).