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The Short Vort- “Where are your shoes?”” (6/10/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Thursday the 28th of Sivan 5770 and June 10, 2010
Yom Kippur Kotton Today at 8:00 pm in the Main Shul
“Where are your shoes?”
Yesterday, a young man who works in construction asked me the following question.
He works for a Jewish contractor however; he is the only Jewish worker in the crew. The other men are Latino.
The young man explained to me that every morning the crew meets and they are given their assignment for the day.
In general the contractor gives them eight hours worth of work. They are expected to be at the sight at 8 am and are expected to stay on task until 4 pm when the work day ends. They are paid by the hour.
Yesterday he told me that they were able to finish their work at 2 pm. The older Latino workers packed up and were going to leave. Before leaving for the day, they looked at the younger Jewish worker and told him, “Don’t tell Morris (the boss) that we left early. If he asks where we were at 3:15 pm when he usually comes by to check, just say we were on a break”.
The young man came to me yesterday and asked, “Am I obligated to tell Morris that we left early? After all, how can I take a pay check at the end of the week for working eight hours today when in reality I only worked six hours today? Isn’t that geneiva (stealing)?”
As I looked at this young Jewish man who works hard for his money day in and day out, I was filled with a sense of pride.
Here is a young Jewish man who works honestly and wants only to be paid for the hours he worked and not for the hours he has not worked!
While I was looking at this young man I realized that he was serving Hashem in the way he was made to; by working an honest day’s work and not sitting around idly wasting time.
There is a famous story about the Netziv- Rabbi Naftoli Tzvi Yehuda Berlin 1816-1893- who is one of my heroes.
The story is told that when he completed his famous magnum opus –a commentary of one of the most difficult books of the oral law- he made a festive celebration.
At the celebration he said the following:
color:navy"> “I am thrilled that I was able to complete this commentary. When I was younger, my parents were considering apprenticing me out as a shoe-maker. Imagine if that would have happened. At the end of my life I would have went up to heaven and they would have asked me, “R’ Naftoli, where is your Torah commentary which you were supposed to author? All we see are shoes!” Therefore, I thank Hashem for allowing me to pursue my destination and my calling”.
This story has made the rounds of countless yeshivos and kollels and has no doubt inspired young men to strive for the heights in their scholarship.
However, recently, someone told me that Rav Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik Shlitta – the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk in Yerushalayim commented that with the population explosion in the yeshiva world; and with the plethora of men who are convinced that their calling is to be perpetually placed in the Kollel, we run the risk of having the opposite scenario. Meaning, perhaps some of us at the end of our Earthly existence in this world are going to be asked not “where is your commentary on the Torah?” But rather, they will be asked, “Where are your shoes?”
Meaning, it is wonderful to sit in the yeshiva and learn the Torah as long as you are making the most of your time there.
It is a privllege to sit in the Kollel day in the day out; year in and year out. However, if you are finding that you are spending more time with the coffee cup then with the chavrusa or you are coming to the Kollel later than earlier; then perhaps one has to ask themselves, “What indeed is my calling?”
For as tragic as it may be to not have authored the sefer which you could have and should have written; isn’t it equally as tragic as not to have supplied the world with the shoes which you could and should have?
I was proud of this young man who asked me this question.
At the end of the day I felt that when they ask him after 120 years “Where is the room you were destined to build?” He will be able to point to it proudly and with a sense of dignity.
May Hashem help all of us locate and achieve our true calling.