A story is told about a lively child who didn’t have patience to learn. Every challenge that he faced broke him. The melamed reached out to the Rav of the city, asking him if he would try to positively influence the child to be more devoted and interested in learning. The Rav agreed, and a meeting was set up.
That morning, when the boy awoke, he suddenly felt a fear of the unknown. He wasn’t sure what to expect. What was the Rav going to tell him? When he met the Rav, he was warmly welcomed into his office. During the conversation, the Rav related to the boy a Din Torah that he had:
“I had a Din Torah between a sefer Torah and a pair of shoes, and I want to hear your opinion. The shoes came complaining to the sefer Torah, asking, ‘Why do we have such different fates? When the sofer finished making you, they placed a silver crown on your head and carried you to a Beis midrash amidst dancing and joy. Whenever they take you out of the Aron Hakodesh, people stand up, form lines before you, and hug and kiss you. When you get worn out, you will have a levayah and be buried with prestige and honor.
‘But me, on the other hand, I’m just a pair of shoes. People don’t respect me. They tread with me into the mud. I will be tossed into the garbage when I’m worn out. Is it fair that we should have such opposite fates?
‘I remember how, years ago, we both came from the skin of the same cow. We were raised in the same barn, ate the same fodder, and drank from the same trough. But a sofer bought you, turned you into parchment, and made you into a sefer Torah. At the same time, a shoemaker bought me and turned me into a pair of shoes. Why do we have such different fates? We used to be the same!’
The Rav turned to the boy and asked him for his opinion. What would he say to the shoes? Hearing the plea of the shoe the boy felt the weight of the shoe’s claim. The boy said that he agreed with the claim of the shoes. It didn’t seem fair to him why the shoes are so degraded while the sefer Torah is so respected.
The Rav then asked the boy what he thought would be the claim of the sefer Torah. What would it answer? Perhaps, the Rav said, there’s a fundamental difference between them: While it’s possible to craft a pair of shoes in a couple of hours, many hours of hard and diligent labor are needed to make a sefer Torah. A sofer writes each letter one at a time until the entire sefer Torah is finished. That differs the two.
Hearing that, the boy agreed that the sefer Torah deserves its respect. So much toil was put into making it. The Rav said, “My son, if you want people to honor and admire you, you must toil diligently. You must put in a lot of effort. Otherwise, you will be like a pair of shoes with minimal value.”
One of the gedolim of today told this story at a family simchah, saying how he was that child in this story who didn’t have that passion to learn. The Rav told him about the “Din Torah” to teach him that the crown of Torah is acquired with effort and toil. After this discussion, he began putting his efforts into Torah study, and maximized his abilities’.
