There is a commonly-quoted Gemara (Pesochim 68b) that says: “Every year on the day of Shavuos, Rav Yosef would say to his servants, ‘Prepare for me a third-born calf.’ Rav Yosef explained the reason for this lavish celebration as follows: ‘If this day had not caused me to learn Torah and thereby become spiritually elevated, how many ‘Yosefs’ are there in the marketplace—and I would have been indistinguishable from them!'”
The simple reading of this passage is that the Amora Rav Yosef is commenting that if not for Matan Torah and his personal Torah learning, he would be “just another Joe” (and he therefore celebrated the occasion of Shavuos by asking his servants to prepare his favourite dish).
Virtually every year on Shavuos, Rav Ruderman would say that the Gemara means something deeper than that. “How many ‘Yosefs’ are there in the marketplace” does not mean “I would be just another ‘Joe'”. Rather, it means “there would be so many of me—I myself would be so many different types of people.” In other words, I would be all over the map, I would be so conflicted without the unifying force of Torah. That which gives unity and focus to my life and makes me into a unified person with unwavering direction is the Torah. Without Torah, I would be so many Joes—A Joe this, a Joe that. I would be all over the place.
This, in essence, is what the Yom Tov of Shavuos is all about. It is a time to appreciate what Torah does for us.
On Shavuos we read Megillas Rus. Rus is not a Tale of Two Cities, but it is rather a Tale of Two People. Here we have two sisters—the same gene pool, the same upbringing, the same environment—Orpah and Rus. And yet, Rus went in one direction and made a decision which shaped her whole life thereafter. She became the Matriarch of Klal Yisroel, the great-grandmother of Dovid HaMelech. Orpah went on a different path.
What separated Rus and Orpah? Why did Rus choose what she chose and Orpah chose an entirely different path in life? Rav Moshe Schwab, zt”l, said that Orpah viewed the life that Rus was about to choose as involving too much mesiras nefesh [martyrdom and self-sacrifice]. She was not willing to make that sacrifice. She felt it would be too hard of a life. She returned to what she perceived would be an easier life. Rus on the other hand was willing to make that which at the time seemed like a difficult choice. In the end, beyond the initial brief period of time, it turned out to not involve mesiras nefesh at all. It was a much more noble life. It was a much more rewarding life, and a life that was so much better in the end.
That is what we need to tell ourselves all the time. A life of Yiddishkeit sometimes seems more difficult, but it is so much more rewarding in the end. Not only in the World to Come, but in This World as well. We have purpose to our lives. Our lives are so much richer than those who do not have Torah. People make this mistake. They think a Torah observant lifestyle is so difficult, involves giving so much up, and forgoing so much fun and so many pleasures.
That is the difference between Rus and Orpah. Orpah thought she was giving so much up. Therefore, she did not make that decision. Rus recognized that she may be engaged in something difficult for the moment, but in the end, it was going to be rewarding.
L’havdil – look at athletes. Look at the sacrifices they make. I hate to make this comparison, but look at Michael Phelps. He spent more time in a swimming pool than most of us spend in a Beis Medrash. He wound up winning more Gold Medals than anyone in the history of the Olympics. So, in the end he looks back and thinks, “Sure, it was a sacrifice—all those years of training and practice—but it paid off. In the end, it was all worth it!” He is glad that he made that sacrifice. L’havdil, that is the way we can look at the sacrifice and mesiras nefesh we make for commitment to Torah learning and for living a Torah observant lifestyle.
The same dialog appears in the Haggadah. The rosha asks, “What is this avodah– for you!”. The rosha says, “I see what you are doing, but I am not willing to make that sacrifice.” Look at the answer given to the rosha in the Torah’s narration of that dialog (Shemos 12:26-27): “And when your children say to you: What does this avodah [ceremony] mean to you? You shall say, ‘It is the Pesach sacrifice to Hashem who passed over the houses of the Jews in Egypt, for He struck the Egyptians, but our homes, He spared...”.
Our answer to him is, “Yes, it is a sacrifice, but look what happened in the end! In the end, we were saved. The first korban [sacrifice] that Klal Yisroel brought— the Korban Pesach—was the key to our salvation. That became the prototype of all future korbonos: Yes, it is a “sacrifice” in the beginning, but in the end, “es bateinu hi’tzeel” (our houses were saved). That is the answer to the rosha.
The Mishnah (Avos 6:4) says: “This is the way of Torah: Bread with salt you shall consume, and water in measured amounts you shall drink, you shall sleep on the ground, and live a life of pain, and (yet) toil in Torah.” The way to acquire Torah involves deprivation and hardship. It is tough. But the Mishnah concludes: “If you do this, ‘Happy are you and it will be good for you.’ (Tehillim 128:2) Happy are you in this world, and it will be good for you in the World to Come.”
Why does the Mishnah need to say, “If you do this?” The Mishnah just mentioned what was involved in acquisition of Torah. Why repeat “If you do this”? The answer is that after hearing the deprivation and hardship involved in acquiring Torah, it would be quite easy to dismiss the effort – “Who needs that?”
The Mishnah continues – Yes, I know it sounds tough, but IF YOU DO THIS... Just try it! If you try it, do you know what the result will be? Happy are you, and it will be good for you!
Everything in life that involves sacrifice is worth the hard work. If there is no hard work, it is not worth it. That is also the way it is with Torah. IF YOU DO THIS, if you just try it, you will find out that it will make you happy in This World, and it will be good for you in the World to Come.
This is what Rav Yosef is saying. Where would I be and where would we all be without the Torah? This is the approach that we need to think about before and during Shavuos. Yes, it is sometimes hard to be a Jew. Yes, it is a life which involves some sacrifice, but look at the end. Look at that first korban that Klal Yisroel brought. Es bateinu hi’tzil—as a result of that, we were saved. That is the sacrifice that, in the end, is the source of our salvation. (R’ Frand)
