Investment banker Adlai Wertman was fed up with Wall Street — so he moved to Los Angeles, took an 85 percent pay cut and got a job on Skid Row. Two years later, he says he\’s never been happier.
\”At the moment of conception,\” says the Talmud, \”an angel takes the drop of semen from which the child will be formed and brings it before God. \’Master of the Universe, what shall be the fate of this drop?\’ asks the angel. \’Will it develop into a strong person or a weak one? A wise person or a fool? A wealthy person or a poor one?\’ Whether the person will be wicked or righteous, this he does not ask.\”
Why not? Why doesn\’t the angel ask God if the soon-to-be-formed person will be wicked or righteous?
Rabbi Safra roasted the meat. Raba salted the fish.
According to the Talmud, this is what these two great sages did every Friday afternoon, in preparation for Shabbat. The Talmud regards this information as noteworthy because, although both sages certainly had others in their households who could have done this work, they insisted on doing it themselves. \”It is greater to do the mitzvah with one\’s own hands than to delegate it to others\” was the motto by which Rabbi Safra and Raba lived. And they apparently applied this motto without discrimination. It pertained to messy or smelly mitzvot just as it did to mitzvot that did not get one\’s hands and clothing dirty. A mitzvah is a mitzvah.
Students of drama are well acquainted withAristotle\’s view about the \”fatal flaw.\” Protagonists of tragedy, nomatter how exalted, are brought down by a tragic flaw from within:bad judgment or bad character.
It is wonderful to volunteer more, do more, commit more. But our tradition, with love and practicality, offers this caution: Check first that your basic obligations are met.
Who is greater: a person who is obligated to perform a certain act and does, or a person who is not obligated to perform the act but does it anyway? According to modern sensibilities, the second person is a hero, whereas the first may just be a drone. According to the Talmud, however, the first person is the hero. It is often easy and fun to volunteer. Whatever you do is appreciated, and when you get bored, you can stop. It is difficult and rare, however, to fulfill one\’s own obligations constantly.
The evening following the final session of theSecond International Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy, I attendeda small family dinner and celebrated the wedding of a SatmarChassidic couple. Among the guests were men with long curledpayot (it\’spronounced \”payyes\” there), and some wearing shtreimels (the fur hat worn bysome Chassidic men). All of the women\’s heads were covered with wigs,and some even wore a small pillbox hat atop it, according to thedecree of their respective rabbis. The women were elegantly (butmodestly) attired in unrevealing clothing and were segregated fromtheir men by tall walls. While the men sang joyously, the womengossiped. When the men rose to dance, most of the women werevicariously reveled by staring at them through the cracks in thewall. (Of course, it is forbidden for the men to watch the womendance, and not one single male deigned to take even a quick\”peek.\”)
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