One thing you will find out about me pretty quickly is that hardly anything you find me write about is original đŸ™‚ I also spend time giving credit to the knowledge I share. There are universal truths, expressed by many traditions around the world in different ways, which no human claims credit for, that is part and parcel of the very structure of our world.
For everything else, its important we give credit to our source. My teacher of blessed memory, Gerald Epstein, MD (Jerry) used to say that one of the most important verses in the Bible was Esther 2:22 “And the matter became known to Mordecai, and he told [it] to Queen Esther, and Esther told [it] to the king in Mordecai’s name.“
Why did Jerry think that this biblical attribution of giving credit to your source was so important? Because to not do so, violates many of the 10 Commandments. It violates the 6th, to not murder, as it murders someone’s name by not giving them credit. It violates the 8th, as you are quite literally stealing what belongs to them. It violates the 9th since you are lying at the expense of the originator and it probably violates the 10th because you are coveting what someone else created.
In our social media world, many of the popular shared ideas are not given their due credit in the effort to get ahead, in this case, at the expense of another. When this becomes habit and we do not give credit to our sources, it is unlikely we will then give credit to our other Source, the Source of all.
Next time you share that nice tidbit of knowledge, try sharing where you learned it from, it is in a very direct way, a way of honoring both yourself and is symbolic of our connection with the Source of All.
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