Poems Are Written By Fools Like Me...

Today, Mirty asked about a saying of The Rabbis. I am going to address the topic she raised.
Mirty, or the sites she cited, are welcome to paste this.

In Pirkei Avoth (Chapters of the Fathers - sayings of The Rabbis) Chapter 3: Saying 9 (Pirkei Avot exists in many versions, it is one of the most widely reprinted Jewish books - second only to the Hagadah [not counting The Bible] and often different versions vary in how they number things, often combining or breaking paragraphs in alternate ways - so it may be a different number nearby, depending which edition you look in. Also, it's in the Siddur-prayer book, so they have different numbers sometimes too) Rabbi Yaakov (there are no variations on this, if on line you find a different name, it's a mistake) says - "One who is walking on the way and learning Torah, and cuts off from his learning, and says,'how beautiful is this tree, how beautiful is this field,' the Torah considers it for him as if he is worthy to give up his life."

My favorite commentary on Avot, since I was a kid, is Ethics From Sinai by Irving Bunim. It is three volume set, with several in depth pages of explanation on each mishnah-saying. He picks up on the fact that the word used for interrupting your studies is "mafsik," which does not just mean to pause, but to break away from. A "hefsek" is when you break from one thought or action with something else. So what it's saying here is that a person who is learning Torah sees Torah as meaningful. But, when he comes upon nature he sees it as a separate realm. Rather than seeing G-d's world as holy, he only sees G-d's word as holy. When he looks at science and creation there's a disconnect. This is offensive, and the meaning of his entire life is put into question as a result of this literal thinking. The entire world, and all of life are g-d's work, and are to be appreciated by us as such.

He gives an example of a simple villager who visits a big city. In the big city he sees a fire break out. And he's impressed when the fire is quickly put out by a chain of people who appeared after someone hit a bell. Each of them, starting at a well, passed buckets of water to the next, until the buckets were all poured and the fire was extinguished. Impressed, he buys a bell before he goes home. When a fire breaks out in his town he rings the bell, but is disappointed when no people, and no buckets appear. He failed to understand that the bell wasn't of value in and of itself, it represented planning.

"Only G-d can make a tree," wrote Joyce Kilmer. The beauty of a tree lies in the story behind the tree. Someone who studies Talmud, etc should understand this. If such a student can break away from his learning and simply say "nice tree" then something is lacking in his world view. Appreciation of nature should flow rather than be disconnected from study of Torah.