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Thought for the Day: 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.

That would be a good finish, don't you think? You may want to take this opportunity to move on to your next email or blog post. I respect that.

I have something pretty cool to share with you now; I agree the connection to the vort from R' Meilach might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it is worth considering.

There are some troublesome points in the retelling of the conversation between the snake and Eve on that fateful afternoon. The snake -- to start a conversation -- asked Eve if HaShem had really forbidden them to eat from any of the trees in the garden. (Bereishis 3:1; by free translation.) Eve responded (3:2), we do eat from the trees of the garden. Eve then added (3:3), but one tree -- right in the middle of the garden -- HaShem said that we are not allowed to eat from it nor even touch it lest we die.

Eve's responses are puzzling. Let's start from the end and work our way backwards "Lest we die"?! HaShem was very clear that on the very day they ate they would bring death into the world. "Don't even touch it"?! That seems to be a complete fabrication. And now when you look back at her first response, you'll see that she didn't mention HaShem at all. "We eat fruits from the trees." Eve seems to paint HaShem as just telling them what not to do; but other than that they have free reign.

Look at the Ohr Chaim HaKodesh and you'll see a very cool explanation for "don't touch" and "lest". They were worried that since anointing is tantamount to drinking and eating (Shabbos 86), maybe just touching the fruit and getting the juice on their skin could also be fatal. So of course they didn't want to touch, because maybe that would also bring death into the world. Cool! So they were making -- so to speak -- rabbinic decrees to keep them distant from transgressing! What could be wrong.

And this is my tie into the resort vs yeshiva. If they were looking at the world as a yeshiva -- a place to grow close to HaShem and so HaShem is at the center of everything you do -- then she would have said, "we don't touch the tree lest we come to eat from the fruit". That is, the fence would have been to keep them from transgressing. Instead, though -- as evidenced from 3:2, the main thing is they can eat from all the trees according to their own desires -- they viewed the world as a resort. Of course, then, you don't want to even touch the poison ivy; it will ruin your vacation.

Well... I guess I can end this with: We live in this wonderful world -- it has everything we need and could want, 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. A place to come to die peacefully, or to live vibrantly.

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