B"H

Tuesday, Menachem Av 5, 5779 / August 6, 2019

This Shabbat we read Parshat Devarim, which begins the fifth and final book of the Torah. 

Parshat Devarim is always read on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av (9th Av) when we mourn the destruction of the Temples and Jerusalem. In lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, the Prophet Jeremiah cries for the children who perished at the time.

Here are a few stories which the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah told to illustrate the wisdom of the children of Jerusalem at the time of the destruction.

Rabbi Yehoshua once saw a small child carrying a covered pot.  "What do you have in the pot?" asked Rabbi Yehoshua. "If my mother wanted you to know what's in the pot, she would not have told me to cover it!" the child replied.

Rabbi Yehoshua once came to a well. He was very thirsty but had no pitcher. Just then, a young girl with a pitcher came to draw water. Rabbi Yehoshua said to her, "Could you please give me some water to drink?"

"I will give you water to drink and I will also give your donkey water to drink," answered the young girl.

After he quenched his thirst, Rabbi Yehoshua thanked her and said, "You have been very kind.  You have done just like our Mother Rivkah!" (Who offered water to Eliezer and also to his camels. (See Genesis 24:18-19)).

"True," she answered, "I have done like our Mother Rivkah, but you haven't done like Eliezer!" (After Eliezer finished drinking, he gave Rivkah presents and arranged for her to marry Yitzchak).

In another episode, Rabbi Yehoshua was once walking along the road when he reached a crossroads. Since the roads were going off in different directions, he did not know which to take. 

A young child happened to be there at the time.  "Which road will take me to the city?" Rabbi Yehoshua asked the child. The child pointed to one direction and proclaimed, "This road is short but long." Then he pointed to another path, "And this road is long but short."

Rabbi Yehoshua thanked the boy and without hesitating chose the first road and within a short while, he saw the city in the distance.  But as he came closer, his way was blocked by fields and orchards which would force him to take a long detour. 

Rabbi Yehoshua went back to the intersection and saw that the child was still there.  "My son," Rabbi

Yehoshua questioned, "didn't you say that the road I took was the short one?" The child shook his head.  "I said that it was short, but long!" Rabbi Yehoshua kissed the little boy on the forehead. 

There is a great lesson in this story.  Too often in life we take the short cut… only to find out that the shorter way isn't shorter after all!

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY

Please note:  Torah Fax will not be published regularly during August