The Perfect Esrog and Why We Learn Gemorah

Some days I feel like I should post. I work on it a bit, think about it more, and then the hour gets later than I fess up to.


Sometimes I start long posts, too long to finish for me for a while.


Here then are two halves of posts as my piece for today.

_____________________________________

I've been thinking about a classic story. Here's my take on it - copyright 2010 by Neil Fleischmann:

The Esrog Shaleim - The Perfect Esrog

PART I

Once there was a man named Kasriel and his wife Etta. They had a wonderful life together, had been happily married for 9 years. They had no children. Kastriel worked as a bank teller. He made a decent living. he was kind to all he came in contact with, as best as he could be. He learned Torah, he gave Tzedakah. He cherished his Jewish life. Some aspects of observance came easier to him than others. But he worked on every element of his religious life. When he was young he had serious anger issues. In eighth grade he threw a tray of food at a kid (Avrumi) who teased him - and that's a small example. He learned classic mussar works and practiced what he read in these books - Orchot HaTzadikim was his favorite. He took wisdom wherever he could find it and together with friends, rabbis, and other advisors worked very seriously on chiseling himself into a mentsch, particularly in regard to controlling his anger.


Some Jews spend money freely on vacations, fancy food, high end clothing, and distractions of all kinds. Some of those people scrimp when it comes to mitzvot. Kasriel was a rare breed. He didn't spend too much money on his own entertainment or comfort - he made sure he and his wife had what they needed but didn't indulge. When it came to mitzvot though he went all out. He regularly bought many sefarim with great excitement on a regular basis, he put a twenty dollar bill in the tzedakah box every day (besides many other donations and acts of chesed), and every week for Shabbos he kept the sacred tradition of acquiring the best of the best. When it came to the holidays he also wanted the best.


Sukkos was coming and Kasriel wanted the best ways of serving G-d and growing close to him at this season of Happines, when he himself felt great joy. He put his his wood walls up in his backyard and it was like a clubhouse for him and G-d. The day after Yom Kippur Kasriel went to Moishie's sefarim store on Main Street. He asked the proprietor to see the best esrog in the house. The store owner said that they had esrogim ranging from twenty to eighty dollars. "Nothing else?" Kasriel looked at what the esrogim on on the table, but none of them sang to him.


TO BE CONTINUED

_______________________

Why We Learn Gemorah

In high school I had two pet questions that I’d ask teachers all the time. One was if Rashi had Ruach HaKodesh. And the other was why we learn Gemorah. The first one went out of fashion. I took the second one with me to Israel and beyond. I had a serious problem with learning Gemorah; I really did. When I went to Israel after high school, my Rebbe – Rav Yitzchak Mirsky went around the room and asked us each to say something about ourselves. I said that I liked learning, but I didn’t like learning Gemorah. It got a big laugh from the room. I wasn’t joking. In high schhol I stood out a bit for taking notes when Rav Margolis did parsha from a mysterious little green book on Fridays. I read Ethics From Sinai cover to cover, as well as Eight Questions People Ask About Judaism (that was the title when I read it and I was traumatized when they changed it to nine because I felt secure about having all the answers). I liked learning. But I felt tormented by Gemorah. It was more similar to a math book than to Rejoice Oh Youth (which I had borrowed from a Rebbe and read on his dare).

Time Flies

You Can't

They go Too Fast

I use this brain teaser to teach the idea of a hava amina and a maskana and how one of the benefits of Gemorah is learning to view things in an out of the box way:

What does it mean? The tricky part is the third line. However you try to explain it (and kids do say the darndest, smartest things) it sounds like a stretch. But when I tell you that "time" is the verb and "flies" are the noun, it makes sense in a new way. It's a command: "Time those things called flies. I'll bet you can't. You know why? because they go too fast."

After exploring many options, I’ve decided that the reason for learning Gemorah which sings to me is that it teaches us to think in broad and unconventional ways, to not be distracted by the box.

TO BE CONTINUED