Shabbat Talmud Study: How do we Become the Best Version of Ourselves?

Every one of us exists within a living and ever-changing range of ourselves.

There is a range in terms of health and fitness. A more healthy us and a less healthy us. A more fit us and a less fit us.

So too we exist within a moral range. A more morally worthy us and a less morally worthy us.

We know there is stuff to do-better choices in terms of eating, drinking and exercising and of course not smoking-to become more healthy and more fit.

What can we do to become the best version of ourselves morally?

Our point of departure will be a classic of American literature. Huck Finn is on the Mississippi River, and the question is: to turn Jim (his friend and run-away slave) in, or not to turn him in. That is Huck’s moral dilemma in chapter 31 of Huck Finn.

Most of us don’t regularly face moral dilemmas that acute, but our life is the sum of the moral choices we make every day. How can Judaism help?

Shabbat shalom,
Wes