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The Short Vort- -“ “Where did you get that beard?” ” (8/23/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Monday the 13th of Elul 5770 and August 23, 2010
"Where did you get that beard?"
This morning I was Reading, Pennsylvania (by the way, it is pronounced REDing not REEDing).
Why was I there? That is a different question which has no relevance to the Vort.
However, what it relevant about my trip to Reading is the following:
As I was walking down the street, an older gentleman approached me and asked me, “How long did it take you to grow that beard?”
I looked at him and said, “Excuse me”.
He looked at me and said, “I asked, how long did it take you to grow that beard?”
“Oh, at least ten years,” I replied.
“Well, you did a good job; it looks good”.
As he walked away from me, I could not recall ever being asked such a question.
However, more importantly, I realized that his question was incorrect.
The implied ‘given’ in his question was that in a normative state of being one would not have a beard such as mine. Only because I ‘acted out’ and ‘grew’ my beard did I have one. However, if I had not ‘grown’ the beard, the implied understanding was that I would be clean shaven as my inquisitor was.
However, that is not true at all.
Truth be told, I should have asked him, “How long did it take you to stunt your natural beard growth?”
Meaning, if things were left to follow their natural course of events, everyone would have a beard and no one would be clean shaven.
It was he who had to do ‘something’ in order not to have a beard; I, by not proactively interrupting ‘nature’, was just allowing things to follow in the ‘normal’ order of life.
However, since the majority of people ‘do’ shave their beards, this man felt that I was the one who was proactively growing my beard as opposed to everyone else who does not engage in proactive beard growth.
Friends, this man was sent to me two weeks before Rosh Hashanah to teach me and you a lesson.
We think -when we look at a person who is truly concerned about the upcoming judgment and is truly attempting to do teshuva- that this person has ‘grown’ in their spiritual state of being.
We feel that such a person obviously ‘worked’ on themselves and allowed themselves to ‘grow’ in order to feel the judgment.
However, truth be told, if man would have been left in his natural state of being, he would naturally feel Hashem and the upcoming judgment.
If we still would live in Eretz Yisroel and we would have be farmers and we would have call to Hashem to give us rain and proper produce- we would really feel the upcoming judgment.
However, we who have ‘grown’ away from Hashem, who did we call out to when we have a problem?
Well it depends.
If it is a problem with the email we call tech-support.
If it is a problem with our health we call the doctor.
If is a problem with our parnossa (livelihood) we call the welfare office or the rabbi.
If it is problem with our children we call a therapist.
If it is a problem with our car we call the mechanic.
Unfortunately, we have ‘grown’ and ‘improved’ so much that Hashem does not even make the top ten list of numbers to call when we need help!
Therefore, when we see someone who stills realizes who is really in charge, we look at them in the same way as the fellow looked at me and my beard and we wonder, ‘how long did it take that person to realize that Hashem runs the world?’
Truth be told, if we would still need rain to water our crops and dew to maintain them, we would all naturally feel Hashem very intensely in our lives.
Just as when man ‘progressed’ he began to stunt his natural beard growth and shave, until those who have beards have to ‘grow’ them; so too, as man ‘progressed’ to email and technology, he began to stunt the natural growth of belief in Hashem and His running of the world.
I am not advocating we all go back to ‘growing’ beards, (not that I am against it, some of my favorite people have beards), however, I am advocating ‘regrowing’ our basic and fundamental realization of Hashem as the ruler of the world.
By realizing that Hashem is the ‘natural’ and most apparent ruler of the world, we are not really ‘growing’ a new idea, rather, we are just allowing ourselves to see the world the way it really is.