“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh
Parshas Noach
3 Cheshvan 5779/October 12,
2018
In Boston they are rejoicing, in Queens they are breathing a
sigh of relief, and in the Bronx they are grumbling morbidly. The Yankees
season is over! 2018 will not be the year the Yankees win their 28th
Championship! To lose on a reviewed play to their hated rival Red Sox just
makes it worse.
The fact that the Yankees almost made an uncanny comeback,
being down 4-1 going into the ninth, and losing 4-3 with runners on first and
second, will largely be forgotten within a short time. The fact that they ended
the season with the second-best record in baseball also proves meaningless.
Alas, for proud (and spoiled) Yankees fans, anything less than a championship is
worthless.
If the Red Sox don’t win it all (hopefully :), their
incredible best record in baseball this season will also largely have been for
naught and will end up being a forgotten accomplishment.
The truth is that this attitude is not limited to baseball.
It’s true about our society generally. People want to see results, and anything
less is a failure; only production matters.
In our Yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah, during the first few weeks
of the school year, we enjoy a very beautiful event each morning after
shachris. Students who have undertaken to review an entire masechta of Gemara
during their summer break, make a siyum in front of the entire student body.
The siyum is followed by brief but energetic dancing, celebrating the student’s
admirable accomplishment.
The words that the mesayim (one making the siyum) recites
beautifully laud the greatness of Torah and our privilege in meriting to study
its timeless wisdom.
He also recites a passionate declaration: “I am thankful
before You Hashem... that you have placed my portion among those who sit in the
Bais Medrash, and you didn’t place my portion among those who sit at the
corners...”
As I heard the words recited repeatedly, one morning it
struck me - what does it mean to “sit at the corners” and how is that
contrasted with those who sit in the Bais Medrash?
The world of financial growth, economics, and
entrepreneurship is built on an insatiable drive and ambition. No matter how
much one has achieved, there is always more to be acquired. Time is money, and
as long as there is time, there is more money to be made.
The Gemara says that the more one has, the more one wants.
Therefore, the pursuit of wealth is without limit.
One who is stationed at a corner is always wary about what
lies just beyond the turn. He cannot quite see what there is, but he
anticipates it.
The world of commerce and business is a world of corners, in
the sense that, unless one actively strives to be otherwise, he will never be
satisfied with what he has. Our society is inundated by advertisements which
seduce us into thinking we need, we can have, and we deserve the next best
innovation.
The study hall is called a Bais Medrash - the House of
Seeking. Those who grow spiritually and learn Torah also are never satisfied
with prior accomplishments. The more one earnestly learns, the more one
realizes how little he knows and the more he desires to accomplish and learn
more. But the stark difference is that in the world of spirituality the journey
itself is the destination. The effort and struggle is the greatest
accomplishment. True, we only make a siyum when we complete, but everything
along the way is itself an eternal attainment and an integral component of our
growth process.
Thus, at a siyum we thank Hashem for granting us a portion in
the house of seeking - where the seeking itself is praiseworthy, and not from
those who sit in the corners, where the only excitement is in the next million.
There’s always next year Yankees fans. But (l’havdil)
there’s today, tomorrow, and the day after for those who learn Torah and serve
Hashem.
Good Shabbos & Shabbat Shalom,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum