Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

I have a pair of walking shoes that I really like.  When they wear out, I go to the website and order the same style, color, and size.  They are comfortable, durable, and look nice; hence well worth the money.  I mentioned that to an (ex)boss; he commented, "You don't like change, do you?"  He was a goy and so I just agreed; to which he nodded with a sagacious and knowing smirk.

The truth is, actually, that I don't like change for the sake of change.  If something in my life needs a change, I change.  If not, I don't.  (As it turns out, a lot of things have needed to change; but that's another story.)  I chalk this up to my inherent laziness.  Serendipitously, though, the Torah also doesn't like change for no reason.  "Go with your strengths", as they say.  So with just a little kavana I turn my natural laziness into avodas HaShem.  Woo-hoo!

Where do we see that the Torah prefers consistency and for what reason?   Rava tells us (Shabbos 31a) the first round of discussion they will have with you when brought into judgement.  The first discussion is about your honest in business practices; consistent with Hillel's "Torah on One Foot" shmuez (earlier on the same daf).  Right on the heels of that discussion is, "kavata itim latorah?" -- did you fix time for learning Torah?  Lest you think the question is a poetic way to ask how much Torah did you learn, Rashi explains that since a person can't live with out having a income (since "ein derech eretz, ein torah"), therefore a person must set times for Torah leaning so he doesn't spend all day working on his business.  Not the quantity of your learning, not the quality of your learning; the consistency of your learning.

Davening is another place that consistency reigns supreme; well... at least very high on the hit parade.  R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach paskened that if a bachur in the yeshiva was late for davening, he should daven b'yichudus in the yeshiva because that is his makom kavu'a for davening rather than go out to daven with a minyan.  The rav was also heard to praise a particular bachur for his yiras shamayim because he had a makom kavu'a even for mincha.  Whether or not we pasken like that even for us ba'alei batim, the message is clear; consistency is a crucial element in avodas HaShem.

It's mildly ironic that this should be my first TftD after missing several days.  That's life... consistently ironic.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc