There are many cross breeds out there on the farm, but the most common one is that of a donkey
stallion and a horse mare. What evolves is a Mule. The mule is known to
be exceptionally strong. The reason being, that although the offspring
is fully developed as a male or female, it is almost always born
sterile, and therefore, unable to naturally further mule production.
Sometimes,
when an animal has a certain blemish or imperfection, that lack is
compensated by an increase in strength or value of the animal. Unlike
the mule who's sterile by birth, some animals are purposely castrated in
order to increase their strength.
But, as taught to us in Parshas Emor, although these animals with blemishes might have a greater value because of it,
they are still unfit for a korban.
Throughout the Torah, we
find that completion and wholeness takes precedence over quantity. Say
you have two types of bread on the table in front of you. One is a large
loaf, conveniently pre-sliced. The other is a round, bite-size roll,
strangely resembling a meatball. Which of these would have the honor of
receiving your Hamotzee? Obviously the meatball one. Why?
Because although the other is bigger and fluffier, and you even bought
it at the French bakery, it has a blemish. It's not whole anymore. So
the bracha goes on the one that's whole and pure, since that perfection makes it more choshuv.
Our avodas Hashem is not measured by quantity, but rather, by how close it is to perfection. The
object of the game isn't about how many chumrahs we take upon ourselves, but rather, how carefully we do each mitzvah.
There's a gemorah that says: Haosek b'mitzvah patur min hamitzvah, when you're busy with one mitzvah, you're exempt from doing another one. Why is that? Shouldn't we spend the whole day grabbing 'em off the shelves and filling up our shopping carts with as many mitzvos as we can fit in?
Sort of, but not quite.
When we're involved with a mitzvah, we have to make sure that it will be done properly and with completion. The gemorah warns a person very sternly, listing terrible punishments which will be brought onto one who doesn't finish a mitzvah
that he started. The idea is that if you're gonna do something, do it
right. Otherwise
we're settling for mediocrity.
Mediocrity is problematic
because it means that one does not allow himself to do or become something of
ultimate value and therefore he sells himself short. Like, if
someone would steal my Porsche and sell it on Ebay for the
best bid. Ouch. That's painful, because it's worth so much more than that.
And this is the meaning of the gemorah- that we should be so focused on and active about the mitzvah at
hand, and on trying to fulfill it to completion and perfection, that
we don't have to get involved with another one until the original is
successfully done.
This gemorah is especially popular among my crowd of procrastinators. I wanted to copy it and hang it up in my office (I'm president of the popular club, Procratinators' Unite...Tomorrow), but never got around to it yet.
But, to my chagrin, this focus on the 'one mitzvah at a time' thing is not to excuse nor encourage laziness or stagnation. On the contrary. Of course
we're trying to fill up our shopping carts, but if the new item is
going to ruin one of the old ones in there, it's better that we
first move the old one out of the way before adding a new one. If taking
a new mitzvah upon yourself is going to interfere with doing the present one properly, we are not obligated to accept the new one. But, a person who wants to have the most items at checkout is going to finish up the original mitzvah quickly,
and complete it as fast as he can, in order to be prepared to start the
new one. So it's constant movement, focus, involvement, thinking, and
determination.
Let's talk about mediocrity.
Listen to this great
story about a great person, with a great moral.
Rav Simcha Wasserman once gave an ultimatum to the principals of a few yeshivos
in the United States, telling them that they have to make a choice.
Either they teach secular studies properly and thoroughly in their yeshivos, or they shouldn't teach them at all. Because otherwise, he explained to them, they're teaching their b'nei Torah to be mediocre. And that's a crime.
We have to try our hardest to reach perfection in our actions. We have to give everything our best shot.
Success isn't measured by quantity, but by quality.
It's not measured by how many kids we have, but rather by what kind of parent we are to them. Not by how many people we were mekarev, but by how much of a kiddush Hashem we make in their presence. Not by how many items we sold in our store today, but by
how much of our heart was in it, and by how beautiful our business ethics were.
So,
an animal can have many extra qualities because of a certain negative
physical condition, but since it's lacking in its ability to reach
perfection, it will be rejected as a korban.
Before I sign off, there's one small thing bothering me.
We're
supposed to be perfect. Yet, as human beings, we never can be.
So why don't I just stop
before I even start, so I don't hafta look like a drop-out?
Because no one is actually saying that we have to be perfect.
Nobody is perfect; that's why pencils have erasers. Human
beings are not capable of creating perfection, only God can make
something perfect, and I really don't want His job.
What can we do, though? Great timing for this question. We're in the process right now of counting the days of sefiras haomer. We count up to 50, which is the numeral representing perfection.
But we don't actually count the 50th day. We stop at 49. Because we're
not capable of reaching perfection.
But, we are capable of counting 49, and by counting 49, it's as if we counted 50. Why? Because 50 is the
automatic result of putting in effort and achieving the first 49.
Now in English.
We cannot be perfect, but we can desire perfection and strive toward it.
There are no perfect people
in this world, only perfect intentions.
We
have to aim for the top and try our best in all our actions. If we
spend 49 days striving for completion and perfection in our avodas Hashem, the results will be viewed by Hashem as perfection, as they're carried up to 50.
I just wanna share with you something awesome that
I heard from a former student Leba (you know who you are) who heard it from Yocheved
(you also know who you are), with special thanx to her anonymous chavrusa (do you know who you are?) and here it is. It's a mishnah in yuma:
Lifnei
mi atem metaharim umi metaher eschem- Avichem shebashamayim- before
whom are you purified, and who purifies you? Our Father in Heaven.
Take the word mi that's written twice. The numerical value of that
word is 50. So now, let's understand this quote differently.
"Before 50, we hafta purify ourselves, (umi) and from 50, Hashem purifies us."
How awesome is that?!
Have a beautiful shabbos,
Yaffa
