Re'eh - Oniah Soarah - Torah is Forever.
The most insignificant Torah discussion are tidbits
of information which is so valuable that it never ceases to be
useful. This is totally different from modern "information"
whose usefulness is at best good for a few years.
The other day I turned on the radio and heard a
Torah discussion. Part of the discussion touched on the Talmudic
question of why it is that G-d made people different? The questions
are asked: why do people look different? why do they have different
voices? and why do they all think differently?
The answers give us insight into G-d's wisdom and
into the Psychology which he created.
People look different so that a man who sees a nice
home or a nice woman does not just claim that they are his.
How could you prove him wrong all men looked the same?
Men sound different because if they sounded the same
their wives would not know who they were sleeping with.
People think different because if they thought the
same then each one would be able to steal from each other. Each
person would know exactly where his peer hid his money.
The Radio Lecturer then continued to quote Rabbi
Kook of Blessed memory who discussed the Blessing which is said
when you see a gathering of 600,000 Jews. He quoted the Talmud
which said that we say the blessing because the individuals within
this enormous crowd all think and look different. Many people
have thought that it is not good that Jewish opinions are so diverse.
However, our Rabbis of Blessed Memory believed that diversity
was good and even blessed.
I then switched the Radio station to a science program
which discussed the very same question. A listener had asked why
do people sound so different from each other? The answer was that
their vocal cords are all different shapes and sizes.
Although this is correct I came away with much more
from the non-scientific Torah lecture which gave me insight into
how wonderful it is that G-d made people sound different and that
it is a Mitzvah to make a blessing when seeing six hundred thousand
people because they all disagree with each other!
Our Haftarah says:
Yishayahu Ch. 55
Whoever is thirsty should go to water, and whoever
has no money should go and take and eat with paying money and
without the price of wine and milk. Why should you consider spending
your money without getting any bread and struggle without being
satisfied. You should certainly listen to me and eat well enjoy
and spoil your soul. Tilt your ears and go to me, listen and
your soul will live and I will make a covenant with you forever,
the kindness of David the trustworthy.
The Torah is likened to Water which is generally
free. However, in times of need it is sold for people to drink.
Non-Torah studies are compared to paying for something worthless.
Just because you are hungry you should not waste your money
on oily junk food. Non-Torah studies, although you may need them
to make a living, are often a total waste of energy.
The best example of this is the energy millions of
people put into learning the previous version of MS Windows. Today,
all of the little tricks which we spent hundreds of hours learning
are nothing more than memories. The same applies to every previous
popular computer and operating system. The knowledge does not
give us any moral, ethical or religious knowledge and has less
real value than sand (whose silicon is used to make the computer's
chips)
When you open your minds to Torah wisdom you can
see its tremendous inherent value.