Beitzah 23
Today’s Life Yomi has been dedicated by Ezra
& Sara Bavly in memory of his mother, Sara bat Baruch z”l. May the neshama have an aliya and may she be
a melitz yosher (a good advocate) for the family and for klal Yisroel.
We live in
a crazy world today. Our homes, our
minds, our children are being bombarded with junk and impurity in an endless
stream of troubling information. How do
we protect our lives and the lives of our children from all of the pollution
that seeks to infiltrate?
In order for
an object to become ritually contaminated, it must have the status of keli, which generally means a
manufactured item. Raw materials cannot
become tamei (impure). The Mishnah states that a pepper grinder
consists of three distinct parts that all individually have the ability to
become tamei.
The top
section, which grinds the pepper, may become tamei because it is made of metal.
The middle section, which sifts the white pepper from its black shell,
may become tamei due to its status as
a sieve. The bottom section, which collects
the ground pepper, may become tamei
since it is a vessel that is shaped as a receptacle.
This world
contains good and bad. Kabbalah teaches
that the good is often covered by the bad in the form of a kelipah – a shell that must be removed in order to discover the
good. And so our lives are about constantly grinding
away the pepper shell to uncover the goodness inside.
Nevertheless,
there are three different approaches to dealing with the world around us. Some people open up their homes and lives as
a receptacle to all ideas, perspectives and information. With such an approach, you must never forget
to grind out the kelipah first before
it enters your open receptacle. Ultimately,
the Mishnah warns us that with such an open attitude, you run the risk of introducing
impurity into your life.
Others
choose to go to the opposite extreme and block out everything around them in an
attempt to keep their homes and lives completely clean of the rubbish out
there. The Torah teaches that metal
represents warfare, which is why the stones of the Holy Altar (mizbeach) may not be hewn with metal. And so the Mishnah speaks of the metal or
militant approach to dealing with the world.
That too runs the risk of becoming impure, for two reasons:
Firstly, if
you block out too much information, you have lost the opportunity to find the
good within the bad. For example, the
internet, while being a vehicle for hazardous material is also the greatest
teacher of Torah the world has ever seen.
And secondly, if we shield our children from everything that is out
there, one day they might wake up and set out to discover it all for themselves
with potentially destructive consequences.
Maimonides
enjoins us to always seek the golden middle path. The Talmud teaches that in the
middle is the sieve. The ideal way to
deal with the world around us is to sift the good from the bad and find the
right information and influences to bring into our homes and lives. But even that method, says the Talmud, runs
the risk of becoming impure. While it
may be the safest of all three approaches, nothing is guaranteed and we must
constantly be on guard against the dangers of the world around us.
You were
placed into this world to discover the good that is hidden under every rock and
in every nook and cranny. Your job is to
dig beneath the kelipah to reveal the
G-dliness in creation. It’s not an easy
task; it is a task fraught with danger and risk. But commensurate with the risk is the
reward.
In your
quest to reveal the Almighty’s blessing in this world, don’t go to
extremes. Don’t open yourself up to
everything but don’t close yourself to the world either. Find that middle path; help your children
learn how to sift through the information and ideas that constantly bombard our
lives. And may you be blessed that you find
only purity and that purity only find you all the days of your life.
Life Yomi dedications don’t cost a penny! To dedicate a day of learning in honour of a
birthday, anniversary or yortzeit, all you need to do is commit to sending the
Life Yomi of the day (or another Life Yomi teaching of your choice) to 18
(chai) people! You needn’t provide us
with the names of recipients; all we need is the honouree’s name and
occasion. For more details, please email
rabbi@familyshul.org.
