Close To Torah

Our existence is compared to a narrow hallway outside of a grand room. There is absolutely no purpose to the hallway as an entity by itself, it is only as important as its ability to allow you to travel through it. If one were to build a home with lavish hallways that were designed with such intricacies that it made walking through it nearly impossible that would be pointless. Imagine a palace with beautiful golden doors and decor through out the entrance, then you enter into the main room and it is bare. There are some people that would nearly sell their souls to drive an expensive foreign car, while their actual home is in shambles. The exterior of our lives is only here to protect and glorify our true essence, not for its own glorification. This idea is a very fundamental idea that is crucial to our progress as servants of the Almighty.

The hallways of our life are numerous, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat and the beds we sleep on. All we have is a vehicle to attain greatness in a realm well beyond this one. The dirt of the earth and fruits of the trees all share a common bond, as they provide us with the facilities to observe the will of the Almighty. There is nothing extra or lacking in this world, everything was meticulously created with a function and purpose. It is well known that Dovid HaMelech knew the purpose to all creatures except for a spider, and then he understood that as well. Nothing is by rote, without great depth behind it. It is apparent that every creature is created and deserves to be treated with great respect. The order of creation was exactly what was needed for man to live. Sefer Bereishis details this order: water and earth led to vegetation, vegetation led to animals, and animals led to man. The being of man is the reason why this world was created. To walk through that narrow hallway is only the responsibility of man, no other. This world is a mere veneer of the true essence, and the other creatures of this existence are the floor of the hallway. A part of what makes up this existence are the creatures and all the wildlife that fills this world. It by itself is worthless even though it is created with great respect and purpose, that is only to be utilized to get through the hallway.

A hallway has three components to it. It must have an entrance, an exit and the space in between. If any of the three are lacking it is lacking in its functionality. If the floor is gutted out of the hallway then the fact that there is an entrance and exit is rather pointless. What if you have a very fragile hallway that will be destroyed if you go through it? If its purpose is to allow you to go from the entrance to the exit, not back. The engineer and contractor built a hallway that is able handle different capacities such as size and weight. If someone drives a large truck on a road that was not built to support that vehicle it may in fact damage the road. If you drive a truck down your own private hallway its your problem! If you drive a bulldozer through your neighbor’s home, he may be less than pleased with you.

We don’t own this world, we have a very simple contract. We use what we need in order to do our work, that’s all. It is part of our work to ensure that our friends and family are capable to do their work as well. We all have the same Boss, and we are all working the same job. We are all employees working through the narrow hallway. Every employee has their own task that they do daily that only they may be able to do. They have their own skills and needs. Some employees may need nothing of his fellow and some may need ten times what the other needs. Depending on what their task is their needs will change. Only the Boss can decide what task and resources His employees should use and not. The Boss doesn’t want anything wasted, as it may be used for another employee’s task if not his own. Conservation is only proper if it is best for the overall goal in addition to each individual task. That means that conserving a single resource may result in a weaker foundation that is essential for something that you didn’t account for. At the same point of time wasting can inhibit someone else’s task. One must use what they need to ensure that they can be efficient and effective. For a worker to put in many additional hours to try to complete his task quicker he may result in work that is of a lower grade workmanship than had he worked less. There are times that more is less and times that more is more, there is no rule that everything fits in.

This factory has a facility that holds all of the garbage the is made from the work done. There is a limited space that is guaranteed to suffice until the factory will close its doors after a certain amount of years. There is no reason to worry about what will be with the garbage after the factory closes because the Boss says there will be no more garbage.

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Machshuvah