If You Can't Stand the Heat...?

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

July 21, 2023 • 4 Menachem Av 5783 • Parshas Devarim (Deut 1-3)

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Alert: we just added a very useful page about how to stay healthy while working at a desk job - go to TorahHealth.org and see the Exercise section.

Get out of the kitchen...?

Isn't that what you're supposed to do?

First question for your table: 

What if there's nowhere else to go?

Yesterday, a friend told me a remarkable story about his father.

His father grew up in the classic Jewish town of Dubno. One day, the Germans arrived and rounded up all of the young men. This was  apparently at first a military roundup, not yet a "Holocaust" roundup (but the distinction may be irrelevant). 

Naturally, they separated the Jewish boys from the Gentile ones and locked them in separate rooms. Both groups were fed the same daily ration, about one piece of stale bread per day. 

These bread rations were precisely cut, in true German fashion.

One day, the German guard thought he'd have a little fun. He went to the Gentile group, opened the door, and instead of lining them up to distribute the bread, he dumped the entire container onto the floor.

What ensued was pandemonium - a veritable brawl that resulted in the stronger boys getting food and the weaker ones getting nothing.

The Jewish boys didn't witness this; they heard the sounds of pandemonium but only understood what had happened after the guard pulled the same stunt on them.

He came to the Jewish cell to extend the fun, dumping the container of precision-cut stale bread morsels onto the floor.

Nobody moved. 

After a long pause, one boy stood up, gathered all of the bread, and the Jewish boys lined up and each received his ration.

These were not necessarily religious boys. They were just Jewish boys. They were the product of 3,000 years of transmitting the values of the Torah from parents and grandparents to children and grandchildren.

Shabbat Shalom

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