Rabbi's Blog

Every Thursday morning either I or someone else drives slowly through the neighborhood, keeping one eye on the road while the other eye looks up towards the sky. This may seem a bit dangerous, and I do not advise anyone to do this unless trained by a professional Eiruv checker. For over fifteen years the Eiruv has been checked two days before each Shabbos or Yom Tov in order to resolve and repair any possible issue.  As with anything in life, it is always wise to “change things up” occasionally when viewing the same, identical scene week after week after week.  Over time, such repetitious viewing tends to desensitize the eyes and brain to any changes, taking for granted that everything is in order. Unfortunately, that is exactly what an ‘oversight’ is: when I see over the sight and actually not able to see that which I am meant to see.

One method of checking a majority of the Eiruv is to look at the location of the connection, where the line attaches to the pole. In truth, all one needs to do is look at the connection of each pole, and it obviates the need to see the continuous running of the entire line from pole to pole. It is obvious that if the line is connected on both ends,  we then can assume the Eiruv line is up at that section. Well, this method proved effective until it did not. I had checked the Eiruv on Thursday; that afternoon someone in the community was walking and saw something that looked like the monofilament line we use for the Eiruv. I am always appreciative of the eyes that are out there who report back when they see something is out of place. I would say there is a fifty-fifty chance that the report proves that some sort of problem was spotted.  Sure enough, as I drove over to check it out, I noticed that the string was still connected to the top of the pole but was drawn over some trees. On the far end the line was once again attached to the pole and the line extended vertically into the intersection. When looking at the top of each post,  the impression seen from the ground was that the line was still intact and attached at the pole, but the view was not clear enough to determine that some of the line was severed in the middle causing a part of the line to be loosely flying in the air. Normally if the Eiruv line breaks, at least one side of the line will drop down directly from the top of the post. 

This scenario reminded me of a certain lesson I have often talked about regarding something at the beginning and at the end. In Tehilim Tehila L’Dovid 145:20 Dovid HaMelech states "שומר ה' את כל אהביו, ואת כל הרשעים ישמיד"  “Hashem watches over all those who love Him, and will destroy all the wicked”. This loosely means God watches over those He loves but will destroy all the wicked. Imagine if someone walked into a lecture when this very verse was being presented, but came in a second late and missed the very first word of ‘watches’. The verse would be heard as follows. Hashem, all those He loves and all the wicked will be destroyed. If the individual came on time and heard from the very beginning but left a second early and missed the very last word  ‘destroy’, the verse would be heard as follows. Hashem watches over all those who love Him and all the wicked. Basically, missing the first word changes the meaning: Hashem destroys the good and the bad; leaving the lecture early, the message heard is: Hashem will safeguard both the loved and the despised ones. In this case the middle is intact while the extremes changed, similar to but in actually the inverse of the Eiruv whereby the sides were intact but the middle was missing. How often things in life are portrayed in a certain way - avoiding an outright falsehood but somehow leaving out the truth. To say the strings are attached but not mentioning that the middle is severed is relating information without full context or if you will, causing it to be “out of context”. We face these challenges every day whether in the media or by having to listen to a disagreement between two people. It is absolutely vital that we listen to both sides of the complete story, otherwise you run into trouble as per our own history…

In this week’s parsha Shlach the Torah relates the story of the “spies”. Some of the Jewish people did not fully trust that the land of our destiny would be the right place for us. Leaving the desert and entering a foreign land was concerning and troubling. Looking for reassurance, they asked Moshe to send messengers to check out the land. Moshe inquired from God, Who reluctantly agreed by having messengers observe the beauty and greatness of Eretz Yisrael and bring back words of excitement and encouragement for the next chapter of the Jews’ travels. We are familiar with the story of twelve “men” (Rash”i indicating important and righteous individuals)  of which ten brought back a lot of truth to what they saw but left out context to which Calev and Yehoshua had to “fill in” to complete the picture. The information they gave was a mixed signal.

 The Torah states in Bamidbar 13:27 "ויספרו לו ויאמרו באנו אל הארץ אשר  שלחתנו, וגם זבת חלב ודבש הוא וזה פריה"  “They gave the following report: ‘We came to the land where you sent us, and it is indeed flowing with milk and honey, as you can see from its fruit.”  The very next passuk 13:28 states: "אפס כי עז העם הישב בארץ, והערים בצרות גדלת מאד, וגם ילדי הענק ראינו שם" “However, the people living in the land are aggressive, and the cities are large and well-fortified. We also saw the giant’s descendants there.” But they clearly left out the history up until now that Hashem has protected and advanced the Jewish people up until this point and guaranteed the success soon. This is the middle part of the string that lacked the connection, and so Calev had to show the connection from beginning to end. The missing context of the ten spies is to say that yes, it is a wonderful land, and Hashem has promised us and will fulfill the dream, despite the fact they are giants and so forth.

It is easy to pick apart an idea or an argument by leaving out some minor points. We have a limited ability to control and navigate the narrative of the world, but we can work on our own internal discussions. We need to be honest, not to defend ourselves by saying we are just leaving out a truth. That is out-right lying. Leaving out a truth is tantamount to a falsehood. In our conversations and discussions, whether with family, friends, or business associates, we need to not only connect the line at the beginning and end of the poles’ we need to make sure the line is continuous, even in the middle, not omitting  some context to the discussion.

Ah Gutten Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky