An exceptional spirit now joins this blog.
Vertias has been my chavrusa for Otsros Chaim for about three years. We don't learn regularly because our schedules are hard to match but we meet at least a few times per month. I have learned to grow and respect this remarkable and very private man.
Veritas is a religious functionary. His work bings him into daily contact with people at their worst, people in pain, in the grasp of frustration, dissapointment and anger. His experience has let him to many insights, none of which he can ever share. You see, Veritas is a member and a foundation stone of a community that will not understand or appreciate these things.
Behind his somber exterior, Veritas is a deeply engaged, passionately mystical soul. It was a big surprise for me to learn that he is a multifaceted artistic personality - a classical musician, gifted versifier, talented poet and more. Even a bigger surpise was his love for and the command of the Enlglish language, all with an Yiddish accent. He undertstands people. I have never met another person who 'feeels' people like he. He should be a Rebbe and, perhaps some day he will be. I don't think that he has revealed everything to me either at this point.
I persuaded Veritas to share what he has with the world and he consented. For now, he will restrict his contributions to poetry and I created a new category for him. I also begged him to share his system of meditation in prayer, which I thought has the potential to benefit so many. It is so important to learn how to daven and so central to religious life. Veritas has something to teach in this regard and will post under Meditation, a category I was never able to fill.
I look forward to learning along with the readers - may it be zechus for all of us.
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