Empty Bottle
One Simchas Torah a couple of years back someone was generous enough to donate a very pricey bottle of scotch to our congregation. When the bottle was opened, the ‘pourer’ was faced with many little cups attached to long outstretched arms, needless to say it only took 45 seconds until the bottle was empty.
Marveling at the spectacle, one of our congregants made the following experiment. He took the empty bottle filled it up with inferior quality whiskey and put it out there again thereby testing the unknowing public if they will still appreciate the "High quality" stuff.
Substance vs Packaging
There is no doubt that the packaging makes a difference, you cannot compare a gift which is wrapped elegantly to the same gift with a simple wrapper. In fact many of the subconscious choices we make at the supermarket or in the mall are based solely on the visual appearance and not necessarily on the quality of the product.
However, when one becomes externally focused and oblivious to the internal qualities of any given thing, they may fall victim to becoming superficial.
If one wants to pursue the truth of any matter he must discover the essence of it, not the packaging, marketing or wrapping.
Unfortunately, sometimes we get caught up with the packaging and forget about the substance. When in fact, it's really all about the Photo and not the frame.
At the time of the destruction of the first temple (423 BCE), Our prophet Isaiah rebukes the people in the name of G-D. He tells them "You Shall not continue to bring a worthless offering and when you spread your hands in prayer I will hide my eyes from you even if you increase in prayer I do not hear... Wash yourself, clean yourself and desist from doing evil. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the victim, do justice with the orphan take up the cause of the widow" (Isaiah 1).
Isaiah is telling the people that it is not about bringing an offering or prayer when it is devoid of any internal substance. Those external rituals are empty and lack the depth and substance which God desires.
My congregants can be forgiven for not knowing the difference between the whiskeys - after all, it was Simchas Torah and they were too absorbed in the Joy, substance and depth of the festival to pay attention to the brand of materialistic drink they were consuming.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Yanky Berger
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Insights and musing on the Jewish view of contemporary events
Empty Bottle
A view from an airplane
View from an Airplane
Do you remember the first time you travelled on an airplane . Looking down at the tiny homes and cars and seeing the bright lights as you flew over the cities and towns.
This past Monday I had the unique experience of sitting near my little daughter who was looking out of the airplane window and watching in utter amazement. "Daddy, They look like toy cars and buildings, they don't look real".
I tried to explain to her that there are two ways of seeing things, up close and from way above. When you look down from from high above the earth, everything may seem smaller - but the advantage is, you get a glimpse of the entire picture.
Little did I know that on that very day exactly forty years earlier Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins Landed on the moon on the The Apollo 11 the ultimate physical view of our planet from way above. What I find particularly interesting is that these astronauts who were in their 30's at the time (all still alive today) found it difficult to re-adjust to normal life after experiencing the view from above. To quote Dave Scott, Commander of Apollo "I remember coming back to Houston after the moon and my neiboughrs had a BBQ for me, I thought 'what am I doing here?' "
This Shabbos is called Shabbos Chazzon "Shabbos of Vision" where we can potentially get a glimpse of Hashem's world from heaven downward.
Chassidus explains, that people can have either an "Earth view" or a "Heaven view".
The difference is, that the view from heaven is reality while the earth perspective can be a distorted. Our objective is to develop a "Heaven view" by tapping into the G-D given tools of vision to bring the heaven view down to earth.
Perhaphs Neil Armstrong and Co. can be at peace with themselves knowing that their work brought some of heaven down to earth.
May the Shabbos of vision bring a higher perspective and a heavenly way of seeing and perceiving our world
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Yanky Berger