Sentences

Questions. Rashi starts his commentary on Chumash by decoding a question that the Torah seems to be shouting, "Why start with the cryptic description of creation?" Relationships are built on questions. (I am fond of the joke about the yeshiva boy who is going on his first date. He asks his rebbe what in the world he should talk about, and the rabbi suggestes a fool proof 3 pronged formula, "Talk about family, food, and philosophy So the bachur asks the young woman, "Do you have any brothers?" And she says, "No." Next he asks, "Do you like Kugel?" She says, "No." He pauses, then asks, "If you did have brothers, do you think they'd like kugel?")

I have an ambitious treatise in mind on the issue of questions. In the spirit of what a wise person once taught me - "Done is better than perfect" - I will post briefly for now. Early in my teaching pursuits I was told to remember a profound truth, that there can be no answers if there are no questions.

On Shabbos I posed a question to my hosts and their guests/friends. G-d told Moshe, "And these are the civil laws that you should place before them." Rashi comments that placing before them means to put the laws down for them "like a set table - a shulchan aruch." My question is: What does Rashi mean, in comparing the way that Moshe is told to put the civil laws before the people to the image of a set table?

One wise young therapist thought that the purpose of a table setting is to enable you to eat food, rather than being an end in itself, so too the point of these societal rules is to lead to a moral digestion, rather than being something done in an isolated, rote manner.

An insightful writer and teacher said that the point of a set table is that it enables action. The point of mitzvot is to produce active change.

An experienced therapist and mediator pointed to the idea of structure, suggesting that Rashi is saying that for morality to work it can't be a mess, much as for a meal to go well food can't be strewn all over, but must be well ordered on the table.

After people shared their ideas I took a look at Rashi in black and white and was reminded of how well he speaks for himself. Before presenting the simile, Rashi states:

HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe, "It shouldn't enter your mind to say, 'I'll teach them the chapter and the law two or three times until it's fluent in their mouths and memory in accordance with its text,' and I won't bother myself to have them come to understand the reasons of the matter and its explanation.'" For this reason it says "that you should place before them," - keshulchan he'aruch u'muchan le'echol lifnei he'adam - like a table, set and ready to be eaten from, placed before a person."

Rashi himself includes the answers offered to the question posed at the set table I was privileged to sit at at this past Shabbos.