The Short Vort
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The Short Vort- -“Here we go again….” (6/2/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Wednesday the 20th of Sivan 5770 and June 2, 2010
Here we go again….
Does this look familiar?
color:navy">In Pirkei Avos we learn: “Joshua the son of Perachia and Nitai the Arbelite received from them. Joshua the son of Perachia would say: …and judge every man to the side of merit.” (1:6)
It is interesting to note that in the original Hebrew, the Mishna reads: “and judge the entire man to the side of merit.” Meaning, in the original Hebrew it does not say ‘dan es ha’Adam l’Kaf zechus’; it says: ‘dan es KOL ha’Adam l’Kaf zechus’.
There is the extra word ‘KOL’ which means that you have to judge the entire -total man in the side of merit.
What is added by the extra word KOL? What extra explanation is included by the phrase: the total man?
The S’fas Emes (YehudahAryeh Leib Alter, 1847–1905) explains that the word KOL comes to teach us that you can never really judge anyone without understanding the entire man; where he comes from and where he is going.
Well it should look familiar! It’s from Monday’s Short Vort.
One of our loyal readers pointed out to me that since I had invested time in teaching this Mishna last Shabbos, Hashem ‘rewarded’ me with a true life incident to bring the point home. (See Monday’s Short Vort: “The Pushka and the Hand”.)
Who says ‘lighting never strikes twice’?
We know that Mitzvah gorreres Mitzvah- one Mitzvah brings another in its wake- (Mitzvahs in that way are like guests; if you treat one well, they bring more with them next time); therefore… here we go again.
Yesterday, I was visiting with my son at a yeshiva in one of the small ‘out-of town’ hamlets located about three hours from New York.
My son and I were waiting for the Rosh Yeshiva to see us and in the interim we took the liberty of looking around the yeshiva building.
We knew it was a small yeshiva with only one shiur and therefore when we came upon a room with tables set up in a ‘U’ formation which were covered with Gemaras and other seforim we brilliantly concluded that this must be the ‘Shiur Room’!
It was as we were looking around the shiur room when I noticed ‘it’ on the floor. There it was- as strange as it sounds- there on the floor was an old car tire apparently discarded and ‘left’ on the floor of the shiur room.
I have been in many shiur rooms, and I know that Yeshiva Bochurim do not always finish first in the ‘Mr. Clean’ finals, however, this one was ‘over the top’!
I silently said to myself, “What type of yeshiva is this? They cannot even remove an old tire from the room where they are learning Hashem’s Torah? This is certainly a demerit for the yeshiva in my book.”
I decided to keep my comments to myself in order not to prejudice my son’s impression of the yeshiva and we continued on our tour of the building.
A few minutes later, the Rosh Yeshiva called us into his office and we began the interview process as the vision of the discarded tire slowly faded from my mind.
All of the sudden, there is a knock on the door of the Rosh Yeshiva. The Rav says “Come in” and guess who enters?
Shockingly, in enters a bearded rabbinic looking man carrying…. that’s right-the infamous tire!
However, before I can even react, the tire schlepping rabbi announces to the Rosh Yeshiva,
“I’m sorry to disturb, however, I forgot this and I just came back to get it, see you tomorrow”.
The Rosh Yeshiva then looks at me and my son and says, “Oh, perfect timing. Allow me to introduce you. This is Rabbi Goldberg (not real name) he is the Rebbe here”. (The Rosh Yeshiva –as is in many yeshivos- gives mussar schmoozen and other shiurim- however, there is separate maggid shiur (Rebbe) for the Gemara class.)
Then – perhaps in response to my obvious look of amazement- Rabbi Goldberg says in a matter of fact way-
“We were learning a sugya in Hilchos Shabbos about carrying a round object which is difficult to properly balance. We came across a schverrer Rambam (a difficult passage in Maimonides). In order to attempt to understand the Rambam, I brought in from my home a spare tire so that we could experience first hand what it felt like to carry the round object”.
Rabbi Goldberg was about to exit the room with his tire. However, I was not yet ready to free him from my grasp.
“Rabbi Goldberg, I must tell you something. When I first noticed the tire in the shiur room, I said to myself, “What type of the yeshiva is this where tires are left lying around the shiur room” However, you taught me the lesson of ‘dan es KOL ha’Adam l’Kaf zechus’.
Not only was I wrong in my assessment that the tire represented a sign of callousness toward the learning, it was just the opposite. The tire actually represented a sign of zeal and passion, of excitement and of fervor for learning Torah!
Rabbi Goldberg, thank you. Once again you taught me the important lesson of ‘you never know’. Thank you”.
I can’t wait to see what Hashem has in store for me today!