The Secret of Alexander the Great - Rabbi Peretz B. Eichler

many of us will remember the great French philosopher Descartes who is known for his adage I think therefore I am well they tell a cute little story about how one day the French philosopher Descartes went into a French tavern and the barkeep said sue would you like a cognac and he said I think not and poof he was gone according to his own philosophy if he wasn't thinking he no longer existed sometimes we see people go through their lives without really thinking about what the meaning of life is whether this purpose value a higher purpose to our existence here on earth many people just plod on through not even thinking about whether we have meaning to live a life that's filled with happiness and excitement especially as Jews who are loyal to the Turin it's mrs. and as our sages teachers the true way to authentic happiness is only through Torah and mrs. as we will soon see you know a lot of us just get into a kind of rut when we start thinking I've done it this way all my life I don't want to change I can change and I don't need to change I'm happy the way I am and nobody wants to step out outside the realm of where they immediately are but if a person will start thinking outside the box outside the limitations of where they are where they've been they might go to a much higher plateau in terms of their own fulfillment their happiness and a sense of real meaning value and purpose in life now from a Jewish point of view I call that thinking outside the locks you know the things which confine us to the way we've thought about all things Jewish in the past and why will you resign ourselves just staying where we are I'm happy where I am I call it the apple pie and coffee syndrome this story goes where there's a fellow from Europe came over here and was very self-conscious about the way he spoke and he didn't want any to know that he didn't speak English as a native so he asked a friend of his tell me how to say something that I can eat he says okay apple pie and coffee so he says apple pie and coffee and repeats the phrase numerous time because in the cafeteria sits down and with a smile confidently says apple pie and coffee well the waiter brings out the apple pie and coffee and it was delicious of course apple pie and coffee through breakfast for lunch and for supper now as you all know as much as one might enjoy any food they can get a little tiresome after multiple times especially every day every week and for a month apple pie and coffee so finally says to his friend tell me how to say something else he says cheese sandwich any practices in front of the mirror cheese sandwich now he goes back in the cafeteria sits down proudly and confidently in the waiter comes over expecting them to order the usual when he smiles and says cheese sandwich and the waiter says white bread white bread and immediately he goes back to everybody goofy you know reverting to the most comfortable position that we have isn't really going to get us very far in life it'll just be the same old apple pie and coffee syndrome so we need to think about who we are what our goals are in life and how from a Jewish perspective we can achieve those goals these are the learning and studying delving into the depths and the beauty and the bounty of Torah the Gomorrah the Talmud relates an incident which is also supported by a Midrash that brings the story of Alexander the Great now we all remember Alexander the Great Alexander the macedon conqueror of the civilized world at that time well the gomorrah substantiates a lot of those stories that particularly applied to his relationship to the Jewish people and there is a an incident which is recorded in the Talmud in kadu shin that's an amazing insight and how a person was willing to go outside their own boundaries outside the box or as we would say outside the locks Alexander the Great was once about to invade a city called Cartagena now the amazing thing about the city Cartagena was that it was inhabited only by women so he decided this is a city that has to be conquered it's in my way it's part of the civilized world I want it I'm taking it well the women of the city of Cartagena sent out a representative and they posed the following statement to him you are Alexander the Great great Conqueror leader of the Western civilized world conquering countries civilizations and now you're about to invade a city that is inhabited merely by defenseless women how is that going to be a feather in your helmet as a word if you win what will you tell the world that you defeated a group of unarmed women and if you lose well then you lose big time because then will you say Alexander the Great the Conqueror of the world lost to a group of unarmed women so Alexander the Great when did something which was rather unprecedented for a person of his stature he went back and he thought about what the situation was remember our friend the cart I think therefore I am well ladwa Alexander the Great took very seriously this idea of thinking about doing something that might have grave consequences to it what was the risk what was the game anybody anybody in business would tell you that you never take a risk unless it's worth again you have to measure the risk against the game and that's what he did so what would he what would he accomplished would it in fact be a victory for him it would be a loss so he in effect made a decision that he was going to change his whole race on death row he's going to change his whole life view his home military surrounding rats around you right at that point and what did he do he decided he was not going to invade the city but it didn't stop there no what he did was to literally etch in stone on the gate of the city that he Alexander the Great was a fool until he came to this city of Cartagena and learned wisdom from women now that may not seem like a very great thing to you but imagine somebody were to come to your city where you live and let's say that person just happened to be the President of the United States whoever that might be at any given time and the president says I'd like to seek your advice and nose in your community right here in this in this jewish center right over here i'd like to ask you what do you think my policy should be about the Middle East and you tell them well we believe that the Jewish people have a right to their own land and that the Jewish people have existed and therefore you should go easier with them do everything that you can to make sure that the Jewish people not only survive but thrive and that the institutions of learning that you should vote and that people that are active in doing acts of kindness that they're supported and backed by the United States by everybody across both sides of the aisle the president says you know I think I'm going to be much more active in my position to help the people of Israel and I'm going to be really really strong about it in a way that I never was before and then then the next day all the major media the New York Times The Wall Street Journal the major news stations broadcast media they announced that the President of the United States has modified his policy toward Israel based on what a group of men and women in a particular Jewish community advised him to do now that would be very unlikely a that he would change his policy and be that he would take your simple humble but very wise advice if he made that decision he makes sure that he took the the total credit for well that is exactly what Alexander the Great did he went and he put his name on a sign to let the world know that he Alexander the Great had changed his whole worldview and was willing to go and change it because he learned a nugget of wisdom grain the scintilla of knowledge that was going to change his military strategy and his whole life philosophy now that's a remarkable thing that a person who's willing to change after their whole life they said I Mowgli I'll always done it this way why I've never changed my my philosophy just course I learned something new now if that's what Alexander the Great was willing to do and that story is recorded so that you and I are talking about it today many many many hundreds thousands of years later could it be that there's some truth to that wouldn't it mean that you and I if we're willing to take that step outside the box or outside the lox and bagels philosophy in the apple pie and coffee syndrome and think a little bit about who we are and realize that the Torah is the highest form of wisdom and if we'll only invest in ourselves a little bit to take that step to venture outside of what we thought or preconceived notions are thinking outside the locks as it were then maybe we can grow in fact there's no maybe about it we will grow but we've got to be a little bit brave and a little bit bold and sometimes we have to recognize that perhaps we don't want to admit what the truth is but if you look for it ash Loma Lamela King Solomon said if you look for like silver and gold like something precious you'll find it but of course one has to be convinced that if something is the truth that aid is the truth and that be that will act on it now what is the truth exactly so while we're on the subject of Greeks there was another Greek whose name was Diogenes and there's a kind of Greek mythical story around Diogenes that said that he would hold up a lamp and go around the city of Athens looking for the truth I'm looking for the truth holding up this lamp or looking for an honest man as another version goes so there's a storing another cute story that relates that this Diogenes was once in London and there he was in his toga holding up the lamp and he's walking around by Buckingham Palace and a couple of the palace guards come up to him and say my sale bin what are you doing there with that lamp in the middle of the night he says oh I'm looking for the truth there's a the truth are you man Charlie good that's quite a noble aspiration carry on I next he was seen in France then a shaundel is a and he's walking around late at night and two genres coming same you'll see what are you doing you're walking around at night ding oven lamp and he says to them I'm looking for the truth ah la vérité they say looking for the truth may we carry on and so he did and then one day Diogenes was reportedly in New York City and it was found mugged on the pavement and Central Park a couple of New York City's finest and they look at him say hey buddy what are you doing down there what are you doing on the ground he says I'm looking for my lamp looking for his lamp not merely the truth the vessel with which he could see the truth was the lamp sometimes we have to ask ourselves are we looking for the truth with the right lamp or we like the fellow that was looking for his wallet by a street light and a fellow Kellerman says um what are you looking for I'm looking for my wallet he says you know where he lost it yeah I'm I think I've lost about ten box with me says well why don't you look over there says well the lights better over here the light may be better but it's not going to get you where you need to go if it's not a light where you have to be if you haven't lit up your mind by thinking outside the box or thinking outside the locks by looking for the truth in the right places and then doing something with it then you really haven't done yourself justice there's a story that's reported took place in the 18th century mid seventeen hundreds took place in Europe the time with the great Vilna Gaon prob aleo of Vilna whose books today on geometry are found in libraries like the Yale library on mathematics and that was just a derivative of his Torah knowledge he was known to be one of the greatest thinking geniuses one of the greatest minds that the Jewish people have ever known in his century he was a light until not only the Jewish people but there are many non-jews who sought his erudition and knowledge one day two scientists from Russia approached the man by the name of Mendelssohn who himself at one time was an authentic believer in Judaism but had gone off the track and tried to take other people with him trying to bend the laws of Judaism to the way he wanted well these two fellows asked him if in fact they could identity could identify a particular stone that he had and that they had and they took the stone and they brought it him and he said no I can't identify it but there is somebody there was somebody by the name of Elio Vilna whose knowledge and vast wisdom will apply to Sciences like this take it him so they got an audience with him he looked at it it was in its raw state where he took the stone in its unrefined state and he asked his his assistant to take a glass of water and put the stone in as he did the stone began to evaporate it dissipated and all the water evaporated in a puff of vapor he said the stone is a sapphire in its raw form this is what it will do to the to the water and because it dissipated the water the htl that stone as we know is a sapphire they were amazed by that so they went back to this fellow Mendelssohn when he heard it he was amazed he said I knew he would be the one to understand it I knew he would be the one to be able to divulge its his identity and now I understand he said how Moses Moshe robaina was able to split the reed see the yam soup by taking his staff which was made out of sapphire and putting it into the sea and then the entire see split now I understand it when the Vilna Gaon heard this he says that that is what apostasy is somebody who will deny the very truth of what the tour is to fit their own rationale in fact indeed while the staff was made out of sapphire first of all the Torah tells us that motor boehner never put it into the ocean never put it into the sea he merely raised it above it specifically so nobody would think that it was doing it per se in addition to that the yam soup didn't split merely because of the properties of this stone it split because a cuddler baroque who commanded it to the properties of the stone were merely secondary the Vilna Gaon knew what the truth was unfortunately other people were not willing to admit it it's kind of like two men that were going down the road and one of them says hey look at that cat on top of the roof and the other says hey that's not a cat that's a bird and they're arguing back important they say look let's make a bet I'm sure that fat is a cat the other fellow says I'm sure it's a bird so let's take a rock and throw it and if the thing takes off we'll obviously know what it is so that's what they did approach the roof they take a rock throw it and the thing takes off like a shot flapping its wings westward bound in the sky and one friend looks at the other one says well that's the first time I ever saw a cat fly cats do not fly unless a person is so convinced that their own agendas real even when they see the truth in front of them they'll deny it so you and I have to understand that we've got to think outside the box look for the truth where it can be found and what we do find it recognize that we have to take a step outside the apple pie and coffee syndrome if we want to grow and be better and the only way to do that is to begin the learning process finding out what's in the Torah from authentic sources and realize that the truth is the truth because cats don't fly and as we learn from our friend the cart we have to think think about who we are what we are as a Jewish people where we come from who we can be and the greatness that's ours if we'll only just start thinking outside the locks you