“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh
Parshas Shelach –Avos Perek 3
Mevorchim Chodesh Tamuz
25 Sivan 5778/June 8,
2018
During the
Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, 13-year-old Shiva Yeshlur from Wyoming
was asked to spell the word “Cholent”.
Yeshlur
requested a definition from the judges. The reply: “A Jewish Sabbath-day dish of slow-baked meat and vegetables”. He then
asked for the word's language of origin, was told it was Yiddish, and then correctly
spelled the word.
Although Yeshlur mastered cholent, he sadly did not move on to the
Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.
Just imagine if there was a panel of Jewish judges who
had to provide the definition of cholent. No doubt each judge would have
provided a slightly different answer. The various ingredients people add to
their cholent may include beans, barley, onions, meat, garlic, potatoes, various
spices, barbecue sauce, ketchup, honey, an egg, and I have even heard of people
adding beer or potato chips. There’s probably a lot more ingredients that I’m
not even aware of.
We take a lot of pride in our cholent. In yeshivos
there are often numerous cholents cooking, each made by a different student who
takes great pride in his ‘secret ingredient’. There have even been contests held
to sample cholents to determine which is truly the most delectable.
I once heard the following observation: In Jewish homes
everyone eats cholent three times during the week (aside for the main serving
at the Shabbos day seudah). Yeshiva bochurim eat cholent Thursday night, Friday
afternoon, and Friday night. Kollel yungeleit and ba’al habatim eat cholent
Sunday night, Monday night, and Tuesday night.
The truth is that eating cholent is not merely enjoyable,
but also serves as a chizuk for our belief in the authority of our Sages. The
Torah states that one may not ignite a fire on Shabbos. The gemara explains
that although one may not light a fire on Shabbos, one is permitted to keep
pre-cooked food on an existing flame on Shabbos. The Samaritans, who denied the
authority of the Sages and accepted a literal reading of the Torah, would not
eat any hot food on Shabbos. To demonstrate our belief and allegiance in the
authority of our Sages, we purposely enjoy eating hot food, prepared according
to halachic dictates, on Shabbos morning.
I would like to share a few great lessons that we can
learn from this most extraordinary, beloved, and uniquely Jewish food:
In our home, I prepare the cholent on Thursday night.
After all the ingredients have been added to the crock pot and water has been
added (very important to soak the beans…), I then place it in the refrigerator
overnight. Early Friday morning I put it on the crock pot where it slowly stews
and cooks. When I finish combining the ingredients in the crock pot on Thursday
night, no one would want to taste it. At that point it is a messy
conglomeration of random foods and spices. There is only one component missing
– the heat. The cholent needs to be plugged in so that the ingredients can
begin to cook together and cause the taste of each disparate ingredient to
combine.
Greatness is not achieved merely with talent, and top
of the line equipment won’t create superstars. There needs to be passion, an
inner fire that drives the person to bring out the potential from within. If
he’s not ready to ‘plug in’ and light the fire beneath him, he’ll never taste
the highest levels of accomplishment.
The second
lesson is that a delicious cholent requires time. Good cholent cannot be
microwaved! There is no way to duplicate that heavenly aroma that wafts through
a Jewish home on Shabbos morning, except by allowing the cholent to slow-cook
overnight.
We live in a world which values quick and easy get-rich
quick programs. The rule in life is if it sounds too good to be true, it
usually is. Greatness and accomplishment require time and effort. A slow cooker
may seem like it’s hardly doing anything, but with time it becomes clearly
apparent that the cholent was cooking to perfection. Suddenly those random
ingredients have become a delicious cholent.
And the final lesson to be learned from cholent –there
is a price to be paid for every indulgence. But some pleasures are simply worth
it!
Shabbat
Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum