Shabbat Shalom

On Thursday, Sept. 1 at our first general meeting of the new school year the principal used this mishnah as the cornerstone of his opening words to the faculty.

Rabbi Jacob said: If a man is walking by the way and is studying and then interrupts his study and says: "How fine is this tree?" or "How fine is this ploughed field?" Scripture regards him as though he was liable for his life. - Pirkei Avot 3:9

He cited Rav S.R. Hirsch as explaining that the issue being addressed here is one of disconnecting Torah and the beauty of the world. It's a bit of an apologetic approach to a difficult mishnah but it's the pshat that I've always gone with, since I first read it in Ethics from Sinai (volume one, page 267). Irving Bunim says, on this mishnah, "Too many of us appreciate nature merely as nature, as something separate and apart, out of any larger context."

I've gone home again, Thomas Wolf is wrong. I'm with my dad for Shabbos - looking forward. May everyone be blessed with health, happiness, and peace this Shabbos and always.