Rega Lifney Shabbat…

Ok, so some of the wisdom in the world was given
also to others, and
although they aren't Jewish we can learn from the
wisdom of other people (to
this, my grandmother would have said: if they were
this smart, they must
have Jewish roots…)

An old and very well-known Chinese story tells us
about a child that was
sent by his father with a penny to buy a loaf of
bread. The child returned
with only half a loaf and a flower.

"What have you done?" asked the father "why did you
waist half a penny of
our hard-earned money on a flower? We need the bread
to live!"

To this, the child answered: "We need the bread so
we can live, but we need
the flower so we'll have a reason to live."

How easily we forget the importance of the flower.
Or the book. Or the
thought-provoking discussion. Too many times, too
easily, we fall into the
trap of providing the bread alone. It gives us the
immediate satisfaction
that we are doing good, it is the easiest and
fastest way to show we care.
In the longer, more complicated context of true
commitment - it is
dangerously misleading.

A large debate is going on these days amongst our
good Jewish people: for
the first time in Israel's history, some are saying
that the economic
situation is such that we must provide soup kitchens
for the hungry, that we
must make sure that every child receives a hot meal.
While we all need the
bread so we can think, we must make sure that we
are, at the same time,
providing the food for thought, growth and
development – otherwise we will
find ourselves with a generation that may be well
fed and living, but
ignorant and wondering what exactly to do with its
life to make it
meaningful and worth living. While our sages said
that "without bread there
can be no Torah" they also said "Not on the bread
alone a man shall live".
Yeah, we have that wisdom too. We can't afford to
forget or ignore it.

So if you have a penny to give, please make sure
that it is used to buy the
flower as well. At the end of the day, it is the
flower that will bring true
joy and fulfillment to our lives. And isn't that
what life should be about?

Liat