{"id":306,"date":"2015-05-27T22:34:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T21:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theinformalproject.com\/?p=306"},"modified":"2015-05-27T22:34:28","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T21:34:28","slug":"in-the-footsteps-of-our-fathers-pirkei-avos-perek-2-mishna-3-by-rabbi-yitzchak-reuven-rubin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/in-the-footsteps-of-our-fathers-pirkei-avos-perek-2-mishna-3-by-rabbi-yitzchak-reuven-rubin\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Footsteps of Our Fathers | Pirkei Avos Perek 2 Mishna 3 | By Rabbi Yitzchak Reuven Rubin"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Footsteps of Our Fathers<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Rabbi Yitzchak Reuven Rubin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pirkei Avos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perek 2<\/em><\/strong> Mishna 3<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cast your mind back to a more innocent age.\u00a0 Once upon a time there was a United States senator from some obscure Midwest state.\u00a0 A certain Jewish communal organization was seeking a guest speaker for its annual fund-raising dinner.\u00a0 For some reason, they asked this fellow to do them the honor, and for some reason, he accepted the invitation.<\/p>\n

During the months that led up to the dinner, fate played an interesting role.\u00a0 This senator was chosen to replace the vice president of the United States because the holder of that high office had been caught entangled in a tax fraud.\u00a0 The once obscure senator was now a huge macher<\/em>, and the dinner organizers were over the moon in excitement.\u00a0 (Just for historical information, this fellow soon became the president of the United States upon the early resignation of Richard Nixon.\u00a0 His name?\u00a0 Gerald Ford.)<\/p>\n

The Jewish organization was a very religious one, so naturally those invited were from the heimishe<\/em> crowd.\u00a0 You could imagine the excitement.\u00a0 Every participant would get a chance to see a real live American vice president.<\/p>\n

A colleague of mine was one of those honored to receive an invitation.\u00a0 Upon his arrival at the hall, he was taken aback.\u00a0 All the attendees were dressed in rented dinner suits – bowties and all.\u00a0 The ladies were in ball gowns, and dinner music wafted through the air, supplied by a string quartet.<\/p>\n

My friend looked around.\u00a0 At the head table sat the organizers dressed the same way.\u00a0 Even a few of the Rabbanim had gone out to find appropriate attire, and there wasn\u2019t a black homburg to be seen.<\/p>\n

The young Rav sought out the evening\u2019s chairman.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s happened?\u00a0 Everyone looks as if they have come for a Purim shpiel<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, young man,\u201d the chairman answered rather sharply.\u00a0 \u201cYou can\u2019t expect the vice president to come to a dinner and we should behave like it\u2019s a melave malka<\/em>.\u00a0 Anyway, it\u2019s all glatt<\/em> kosher<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

My friend\u2019s reply was from the heart.\u00a0 \u201cMy dear chairman,\u201d he said, \u201cthe vice president of the United States sees enough dinner suits in Washington.\u00a0 If he came here, you should have shown him how Torah Jews look.\u00a0 The head table should have been full of Roshei Yeshiva with white beards and frocks.\u00a0 There should have been a huge mechitza<\/em> down the center of the aisle, and the music should have been off of a Pirchei<\/em> record.\u00a0 Anyway, I\u2019m leaving – I don\u2019t want to be part of this circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, my brave colleague turned around and walked out. The host nearly choked on his velvet bowtie.<\/p>\n

This little vignette comes to mind at two levels while reading third mishna<\/em> of chapter 2 of Avos<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeware of the authorities, for they befriend a person only for their own purposes.\u00a0 They seem to be friends when it suits them, but they do not stand by a person in his hour of need.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

We live in galus<\/em> and are often at the mercy of political leaders who have their own agenda.\u00a0 That is difficult enough to accept, but time and again we witness how our own homegrown activists get carried away.\u00a0 They want others to accept us – but in doing so, they sometimes succeed in making themselves into caricatures.<\/p>\n

While living in the United States, I had ample occasion to meet many a prominent politician.\u00a0 I can vouchsafe for our mishna<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s<\/em> perceptiveness.\u00a0 Politics is a messy business with very little in the way of loyalty.\u00a0 The one thing politicians admire is a community true to its beliefs.\u00a0 The huge success of Rav Moshe Sherer, z\u201dl<\/em>, (lay leader of Agudath Israel, a world wide orthodox social movement )\u00a0 was that he always presented himself and Agudath Israel as a Torah-true organization led by Roshei Yeshiva – flowing beards and all.<\/p>\n

As a sad postscript to the above story, let me just add that the organization involved never did get any support from all those big shots.\u00a0 In fact, it ended up ceasing its operations, which were ultimately continued by Agudath Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeware of the authorities, for they befriend a person for their own purposes,\u201d says the mishna<\/em>.\u00a0 The Hebrew word for authorities, reshus<\/em>, also means permitted actions.\u00a0 The Chiddushei Harim tells us that the evil inclination often hides in permitted areas, imbuing excess with a sense of false sanctity.\u00a0 Such actions seem to be a man\u2019s friend, leading him to holiness.\u00a0 But, says the Rebbe, beware.\u00a0 It is really the evil inclination disguised as a friend doing this for his own agenda – to cause us to cleave to physical pleasures while driving us away from true sanctity.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake – the vice president\u2019s dinner hosts were offering the highest grade of glatt kosher<\/em> fare.\u00a0 In fact, halacha was adhered to in every area – but there was something missing.\u00a0 It was as if the soul went out the door when the rented tuxedos entered.<\/p>\n

Today we need not invite a vice president to see this.\u00a0 People spend enormous amounts of money to produce glatt kosher<\/em> events that drip with excess vanity.\u00a0 But in doing so, we have lost the way.\u00a0 The \u201cpermitted actions\u201d have become a springboard for ornate kosher conspicuous consumption.\u00a0 Years of hard work by parents go into weddings that last a few hours and whose unique decor is soon forgotten.\u00a0 People become impoverished and over their heads in debt just so they can live up to standards that are set by others – who are also striving to raise their image.\u00a0 It\u2019s a vicious cycle where all is glatt kosher<\/em>, everything is done to the highest degree of halachic stringency, yet it\u2019s really all fodder for the yetzer hara<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s even reached the point where we see this vanity of wealth raising its head in our Torah and mitzvos practice.<\/p>\n

Our Gedolei Yisrael<\/em> (spiritual leaders) have long decried such practices, but somehow, once on the bandwagon, it\u2019s so very difficult to jump off.\u00a0 The Lev Simcha (Gerrer Rebbe of Blessed memory, father of the present Rebbe) instituted a number of rules that were meant to regulate how much one could spend on a simcha<\/em>.\u00a0 This was a major and daring breakthrough.\u00a0 Rich or poor, everyone would be on an equal basis at their children\u2019s wedding.\u00a0 No one would feel the need to outdo anyone else.<\/p>\n

At the time, a particularly wealthy Yid planned to spend a sum far in excess of the Rebbe\u2019s guidelines.\u00a0 The fellow went in to see the Rebbe with a request.\u00a0 \u201cRebbe, certainly those rules don\u2019t include me.\u00a0 That\u2019s all well and good for everyone else, but, baruch Hashem<\/em>, I\u2019ve been blessed with wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, my dear friend,\u201d said the Rebbe, \u201cif you have so much money, perhaps you should buy yourself another Rebbe.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, all talk of overspending was finished.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t only because the Rebbe felt that to allow one to spend more than the others would set a bad precedent. It was also because that Yid himself had to learn that everything that is permitted doesn\u2019t necessarily become a mitzva.<\/p>\n

Is it necessary to have exotic foods at heimishe<\/em> weddings?\u00a0 Who really needs it?\u00a0 Must the band come from some faraway place?\u00a0 The decibel levels are just as high played by the bands where you live.\u00a0 One can go on and on.<\/p>\n

What about our homes or the way we spend money on fancy cars?\u00a0 This is all \u201cpermissible,\u201d but is it not part of the yetzer hara<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s<\/em> battle for our souls?<\/p>\n

Some years ago I had the merit to accompany a Gadol baTorah<\/em> to a wedding.\u00a0 The Rav was born in Poland and had survived the Holocaust, rebuilding his kehilla<\/em> in America.\u00a0 The wedding was being held \u201cout of town\u201d – meaning out of Boro Park – in a huge mansion that had been transformed into a glatt kosher<\/em> venue just for this occasion.<\/p>\n

Everyone was excited.\u00a0 Such a posh place had never seen the likes of a heimishe<\/em> wedding before.\u00a0 As we drove up, I could see that the Rav was not very pleased.\u00a0 Such a long drive just for a fancy chuppa<\/em>?<\/p>\n

As we entered the main hall, a sad smile played on the Rav\u2019s lips.\u00a0 The whole place had been done up to resemble an Old World type of scene.\u00a0 On each table stood a decorative oil lamp, and at the far end there was a huge open fire burning in the fireplace.\u00a0 There were no other lights in the area, and the whole room took on a romantic rustic atmostphere.<\/p>\n

The Rav turned to me, and in a loud voice he whispered, \u201cAh, just like in the heim<\/em>.\u00a0 Candles, oil lamps, wooden tables, dark shadows \u2026 I just wonder, where are the chickens?\u201d<\/p>\n

What a shame. A fortune was spent to reinvent all the discomforts of the Polishe shtetl<\/em>, while its true simplicity and heart was buried somewhere deep, deep down.<\/p>\n

Let us recognize the yetzer hara<\/em> for what he is and not fall prey to his glatt kosher<\/em> pronunciations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Footsteps of Our Fathers By Rabbi Yitzchak Reuven Rubin \u00a0 Pirkei Avos Perek 2 Mishna 3   Cast your mind back to a more innocent age.\u00a0 Once upon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,28,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aishkodesh.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}