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Thought for the Day: No, Really -- Remember Why You are Here

 From TftD, Remember Why You are Here:

From R' Meilach Biderman: They built this campus with four buildings. One had several floors of rooms for sleeping. Another was a grand dining hall. The third was a beautiful beis midrash. Last, but not least, a gymnasium. Only one thing was missing: They hadn't put up a sign to say whether it was a resort or a yeshiva. What's the difference? They both need the same structures. The only difference is attitude. In a yeshiva, the beis medrash is the focus of everything. Of course, to learn and daven well, you need to stay healthy; that means eating healthy, keeping fit, and getting enough rest. But a resort? The focus for some is the dining hall, for others the sleeping quarters, for others it is the gymnasium. Of course there has to be a beis medrash; after all, they'll want to daven in the morning, maybe catch a mincha and ma'ariv. Some will even grab a quick daf for the day.

R' Meilach said this world is that campus -- it has everything, but HaShem didn't put a sign on it. It is up to each and every Jew to decide if they are in a resort or a yeshiva.

I realized another profound lesson from R' Meilach in that he called the two sides "resort or yeshiva". What is another similarity between a resort and a yeshiva? They are temporary. In both cases the "guests" know they are only there for a short while. The guests at a resort know they -- ugh -- have to go back to their real life, so they need to maximize their time here. The talmidim of a yeshiva also know that they -- yay! -- have to get on with their lives; they are only there for a short time and so need to make the most of those years. And to ensure that, the resort has an activity coordinator and the yeshiva has a mashgiach.

We are only here for a few short years, our Activity Coordinator and Mashgiach are one and the same. There is not a moment that "just happens" -- each moment in each or our lives, separately and collectively, is designed and purpose built for us to maximize the use of our few precious years here.

Here's a simple, maybe even silly example. I have been learning Spanish for almost two years now. As I was learning this morning -- Avoda Zara 48b, Rashi explained a word in the mishna at the bottom with a translation into old French: לטוג''א. Usually I just read past those, but I took a second look, said it out loud, and realized that it was close to a Spanish word I had just recently learned: lechuga -- lettuce! By golly, that was it! Not by any stretch of the imagination a reason to spend time learning Spanish. It is though a powerful reminder that everything I do is actually part of my curriculum.

Here's a more serious -- and likely more usual case. You have a bunch of soda bottles -- Coke, Sprite, Fresca, Pepsi, Squirt, etc -- in the basement. After the Friday night meal, you realize you need three more cold sodas for the s'uda tomorrow. You go down to get them to put in the fridge... and then freeze in your tracks! Wait! Borer! To stay out of the prohibition of borer, the action must be by hand (check, picking the bottles up with your hands, not a crane), take the good from the bad (yep, you are grabbing only the sodas you want), and for immediate use... FULL STOP! Since you don't need them till the next day, there is a serious borer -- a full on Torah prohibition -- issue here. I suggest you listen to R' Fuerst's shiur on TorahAnytime.com from Oct 22:

Borer: fly in soup, gabbai, faucet strainer, warming chicken, fruit pits, candy wrappers, straining.

You want the answer?Machlokes ha'poskim :)

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