Berakhot 63
“Where there is no one to fill a particular role, accept that role upon yourself.”
Today’s reading provides more guidance on where it is appropriate to spit; it is permitted when wearing shoes in the synagogue. A comparison is made between a synagogue and one’s home and if one allows wearing shoes in their home and expectorating, then its ok to do so in the temple. Can you imagine with all the hysteria today concerning the coronavirus if it was socially allowable to go about the street spitting? One would probably be arrested or worse – perhaps attacked by a panic-stricken crowd.
We are provided with a lesson in leadership. We are advised that when there is no one available to fill a particular role, we should step into it ourselves. It is strong advice to not be timid and believe that we can do the job and take on the role “of the man.” But as many of the readings have proven, the Talmud is a difficult place to go for a simple uplifting message, such as believe in yourself. Today’s message on stepping up (leaning in?) is tempered. If there is someone else who is equally qualified, we are advised to step back and concede, while that person takes on the role. Perhaps this is a way of offering consolation when we apply for a dream job and are turned over for someone else. We may be equally qualified, but it may not be our time, or there is another path we are meant to take.
There is the guidance today of the importance of being a member of a learned community: “And study Torah, for the Torah is only acquired through study in a group.” We are told that those who study alone “grow foolish.” This Facebook page has become my study group and hopefully together we are becoming wiser as we plough through each day’s reading. I have to be honest: it is a momentous chore to keep at it day after day. This group helps keep me going and I am grateful for all the positive enforcement.
We are also given advice on a potential career choice for those of us who are not destined to be sages: a precious gem cutter. I never understood before that the men and women who work in the diamond district in New York were destined to do so by the Talmud.
I watched the movie Uncut Gems over the weekend about a jeweler in the diamond district who makes a series of very bad decisions and sinks deeper and deeper into chaos. Adam Sandler does a remarkable acting job portraying Howard Ratner, who is caught in a downward spiral of greed, addiction and very bad choices. He acts as a lone wolf throughout, manipulates those around him, and definitely did not get the memo about being part of a community.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/movies/uncut-gems-soundtrack.html