What is gayer than believing in a household god? |  | Why do we complain about the Fall? It is not on its account that we were expelled from Paradise, but on account of the Tree of Life, lest we might eat of it |  | January 18. The complaint: If I shall exist eternally, how shall I exist tomorrow? |  | We are separated from God on two sides: the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us. |  | We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt. |  | On the day he ate of the TRee of Knowledge, God said that Adam would have to die. According to God the instant consequence of eating from the TRee of Knowledge was to be death, according to the serpent (at least it could be understood in this sense) it was to mean becoming like God. Both were wrong in similar ways. Men did not die, but became mortal, they did not become like God, but received an indispensable capacity to become so. Both were also in similar ways correct. It was not man that died, but paradisiacal man, he did not become God, but knowledge of the Divine. |  | Art flies around truth, but with the definite intention of not getting burnt. Its capacity lis in finding in the dark void a place where the beam of light can be intensely caught, without this having been perceptible before. |  | Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted |  | It is as though the oscillation between the General and the Particular were taking place on the real stage, and as if, on the other hand, life in general were only sketched in on the background scenery |  | The year of mourning was over, | the birds' wings were limp. | The moon bared herself in cool nights. | Almond and olive had long been ripe. |  | There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call thew orld of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution. *One can disintegrate the world by means of very strong light. For weak eyes the world becomes solid, for still weaker eyes it seems to develop fists, for eyes weaker still it becomes shamefaced and smashes anyone who dares to gaze upon it |  | A belief like a guillotine -- as heavy, as light |  | Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man, and this immediately, though, of course, only in the case of complete and permanent humility. It can do this because it is the true language of prayer, at once adoration and the firmest of unions. The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving