Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: HaShem Wants Talmidim, not Robotim

My daughter told me that my granddaughter had formed her first sentence yesterday, "No more cookies?"  I was very proud.  Then my daughter told me that, of course, little Avigayil then threw a temper tantrum.  Then I was proud and thrilled.  Not the normal thrill I get that comes from seeing my grandchildren give back to their parents what their parents gave to me.  (Ok; there was some of that also.)  This was the thrill of realizing that Avigayil really knows what she is saying, and the temper tantrum proved it.  If you break it down into steps, she must have formed a hypothesis that her mother was not going to give her more cookies, then checked her hypothesis against data (she asked her mother), then she responded appropriately.  That's really cool.  And that's bracha in its truest sense.

In this week's parsha, Avraham Avinu asks if Eliezer wouldn't be an appropriate heir.  Eliezer is called "damasek" because he would "doleh mei' toraso shel rabo u'mashke l'acheirim" -- he drew from the Torah of his master and taught to others.  Sounds like a perfect talmid, no?  Yet in a few weeks when we read of Avraham sending Eliezer to find a shiduch for Yitzchak, we are given a seemingly much different picture of the faithful servant.  Eliezer wants to propose his daughter as a wife for Yitzchak, but Avraham Avinu tells him no, because "you are arur (cursed), and I am baruch (blessed)"; a shiduch like that just won't work.  Isn't shocking that Avraham Avinu would speak to his faithful servant that way?  Isn't it even more shocking that Eliezer doesn't seem in the least perturbed nor insulted?

The word "baruch" means increase; it is related to "b'reicha" -- "pool".  Eliezer is static.  He draws from his master's well of Torah, but never digs his own well.  To be baruch you have to be searching and connecting to the ultimate and only source of all bracha, HaKadosh Baruch Hu.  If you are not doing that, then you "arur"; there is no middle ground.  Eliezer is known as "Eliezer eved Avraham", and he is proud of that.  No Jew is proud to be a slave of anyone or anything, except one, The One.  Including my granddaughter.  May the Lord have mercy on her parents.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Why Halacha Has "b'di'avad"

There was this Jew who knew every "b'di'avad" (aka, "Biddy Eved", the old spinster librarian) in the book.  When ever he was called on something, his reply was invariably, "biddy eved, it's fine".  When he finally left this world and was welcomed to Olam Haba, he was shown to a little, damp closet with a bare 40W bulb hanging from the ceiling.  He couldn't believe his eyes and said in astonishment, "This is Olam Haba!?!"  "Yes, Reb Biddy Eved,  for you this is Olam Haba." b'di'avad gets used like that; f you don't feel like doing something the best way, do it the next (or less) best way.  But Chazal tell us that "kol ha'omer HaShem vatran, m'vater al chayav" -- anyone who thinks HaShem gives partial credit is fooling himself to death (free translation.  Ok, really, really free translation; but its still true).  HaShem created us and this entire reality for one and only one purpose: for use...
Post a Comment
Read more