Do You Want Knowledge or Wisdom?

The goal of this blog is to foster rewarding Friday night dinner conversation. Please print and share.
In memory of my grandparents, Eliezer ben Zelig and Sima bat Yaakov Mordechai.

When you hear the name King Solomon, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

"Wise"?

"Wisdom"?

The Good Book calls him wisest person in history.

But what does that mean exactly?

What's wisdom?

He is reported to have known astronomy and other natural sciences, including botany and zoology. He allegedly understood the languages of animals. He mastered statecraft and foreign relations. He composed music, poetry and literature, and under his guidance the Jewish People created architectural and engineering wonders. Some say he could easily sink a 40-yard putt.
 
But we call these intellectual and spiritual achievements knowledge, not wisdom.

Knowledge is something that you can put on the internet. Wisdom is something else.

The other day a radio show guest claimed that in the next decade, professionals such as doctors and lawyers will face the same type of obsolescence due to technology that low-wage workers have long experienced. Patients and clients will get many medical and legal answers from apps.

But isn't there an aspect of medicine and law that can't be automated?

That's the wisdom part.

When Solomon became king of Israel, he didn't ask for wealth or fame, or even knowledge. He prayed for one thing only:

"...an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and bad...."

In honor of my grandparents, who knew each other for exactly seventy years and seventy days, I would like to cull one piece of wisdom from their marriage, for myself and for you.

Many people think of a relationship in terms of "what can s/he do for me".

Yet as long as I knew them, it was clear through their actions that "good" in their marriage meant "making my spouse happy" and "bad" meant "not making my spouse happy."

Think about it.

So here is this week's question for your table: Based on King Solomon's definition of wisdom, did my grandparents have a "wise" marriage?

Shabbat Shalom


PS - Looking for a summer book? I heard this author interviewed the other day and it sounds like a great read for anyone interested in modern Israeli history.

Wedding or Funeral?

In memory of Gerda Haas, who was laid to rest this week at the age of 98. See below.
The purpose of this email is to provide something meaningful for Friday night dinner conversation. Please print and share.


Wedding or Funeral?

Here's the question of the week for your Shabbat table:

If all factors were equal, would you choose to attend a wedding or a funeral?

For instance, say you had a friend getting married and another friend sitting shiva. Keep the factors equal - they both equally would want you to attend, they both equally would understand if you did not attend, etc. etc.

In other words, the question is what you would prefer to do for you.

King Solomon asked this question some 2,900 years ago.

His answer?

"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting."

Second question for your table: What was he thinking?

(For a clue, see the source of the quotation, Ecclesiastes 7:2 - I only quoted the first half of the sentence.)


Mrs. Gerda Haas, to whom this week's message is dedicated, made it out of Germany with her husband and infant son just in time to save their lives. Most of their extended family perished, but they survived, via Marseilles, Shanghai and San Francisco.

In her memory, here are two anecdotes to show you the strength of her character.

In her 80s she had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and of course spent some time at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial. I saw her that evening and she only had one thing on her mind.

On a bus with other tourists, she overheard a German man behind her say, "Ach. I don't know why they have such a thing. We lost a lot of people in the war too."

She turned around and told him off in impeccable German that his people murdered her entire family because they were Jews and how dare he speak that way. She wasn't shocked that someone should think such a thing, but said it took incredible chuzpa for him to say it aloud.

Another time she had surgery that required a local anesthetic to her leg but she chose to have a general anesthetic as well, but not a deep one.

Evidently the buzzing of the surgeon's saw woke her up and seeing what was going on she exclaimed in her German accent, "Doctor? You call yourself a doctor? You are no doctor! You're a carpenter!"





I cannot do this great life justice - she touched many, many people her her 98 years.

She is survived by children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and many friends of all ages whom she inspired. May her memory be for a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom


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