This Shabbos we continued our discussion of Torah V’Derech Eretz. We discussed Parsha Ki Teitzei. And we discussed the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah. David Schlesinger led discussion.
From Leo Levy’s book, we discussed that in certain cases we can and should pay someone for being our Rabbi, and teaching us Torah. The reason for this is to compensate the Rabbi for the opportunity cost that he incurs. For example, if someone is able to make $50 per hour in business, however they are willing to forego this to work as a Rabbi instead, they incur an opportunity cost of this $50 per hour. We discussed specifically, that it is appropriate to pay someone to help teach us for a bar mitzvah.
Dave W pointed out that this week’s parsha contains 74 mitzvah. We discussed 2 of these: having accurate weights and measures, and letting the mother bird go. These 2 are important enough that the number of days in our life is increased if we follow these commandments. We discussed that there is a third mitzvah, that is not in this week's parsha, that will also increase the number of days, which is honoring our parents.
Brett brought up the importance of conducting business ethically, which includes having accurate weights and measures. Brett pointed out that according to the Torah, we will specifically be asked to answer as to how ethically we conducted business during our life time. In business, in addition to accurate weights and measures, we should not misrepresent things.
We discussed how we have rabanic law, which is in addition to what is in the Torah. We discussed how rabbinic law helps us follow Torah law, however Ellie pointed out that if there are too many rabbinic laws, this may result in there being too many opportunities to do averas.
We discussed the halakah of building a fence around the roof of our house, if the roof is flat. Rob pointed out that if it is Hashem’s will that something negative happens in the world, such as someone losing their life, it is going to happen. However, it does not necessarily have to happen with someone falling off of our roof! We don’t want to be the vehicle through which negative things happen in the world.
We discussed that the mitzvahs and commandments are for the benefit of us. Hashem does not need us to do mitzvah. However, hashem loves us enough to want us to do what is best for us. The purpose of the commandments is for us to grow spiritually, feed our soul, and help shape us as human beings with good character.
We discussed how animals do not have rights, but we have the obligation to treat them well. This is why we have prohibitions against hunting, and why we have laws about how we slaughter animals.
David shared a couple stories with us. He told of a couple who walked to shul for the first time and how it was pouring rain during the walk. Although one would wonder why this would happen to someone doing this mitzvah for the first time, the rain can be explained as tears from Hashem. In the other story, someone falls down while going to do a mitzvah. Although one would wonder why this would happen to someone doing a mitzvah, it may be that Hashem did in fact intervene so that someone only fell down, rather than having a much more severe accident.
Finally, we discussed how Rosh Hashanah is similar to an annual review for employees who work for companies. Hashem does an annual review of his creations, and from this is determined the potential of the coming year. Of course we have an opportunity between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to improve our evaluations, before the final determination is sealed.
This is a summary of what we discussed. No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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