MODERN MEDRASH
(A story about a story from the Chumash)
Inspired by Marc Geller
Cutting Corners
VaYikra 19:9
Binyamin was always worried people taking his stuff. When he was a kid, and other kids came over to play rocks, which was the only game back then, he would always count his rocks when the kids left to see if anybody had stolen one of them.
When Binyamin grew up, he never changed. When he grew grapes, he counted every grape. When he grew wheat, he counted every stalk. It was such a silly sight to see a big wheat filed with little name tags on every stalk of wheat, or a big vineyard with numbers written on every grape. Everybody who saw it said the same thing: "That's just stupid, selfish old Binyamin doing something stupid and selfish again to make sure that nobody takes his stuff."
Moses was a relative of Binyamin and tried to get him to change, but even Moses had no luck. When the wheat was all grown, Binyamin cut it stalk by stalk and picked up every grain that fell to the ground. Moses said to Binyamin, "You can't do that. G-d told us to leave the wheat we drop in the fields, so poor people can come into the fields when we are done and pick up the dropped wheat and make bread for themselves, too."
Let the poor people get dropped wheat from some other guy's field!" growled Binyamin. "Nobody takes my stuff!"
When Binyamin cut the wheat stalks, he cut every stalk in every field, all the way to the comers. Moses said to Binyamin, "You can't do that. G-d told us not to cut the comers of our fields, so poor people can come in and cut the wheat that is growing in the corners and make bread for themselves, too.”
“Let them get wheat from the corners of some other guy’s field,” kvetched Binyamin. “Nobody takes my stuff!”
When Binyamin picked grapes from his grapevines, he picked every single grape, counting each one as he put it into a basket. Moses told Binyamin, “You can’t do that. G-d told us to leave some grapes on grapevines, so poor people can come into the vineyards and pick some grapes and make some wine for themselves, too."
“Let them pick the leftover grapes from some other guy's vineyard," snickered Binyamin. "Nobody takes my stuff!"
Then, Binyamin painted a big sign that read: WHEAT WHACKERS STAY AWAY! And he put another sign in his vineyard that read: GRAPE GRABBERS GET LOST!
That is how things went for years. Binyamin got selfisher and selfisher and richer and richer.
Then one year something really weird happened.
That year brought a great harvest of wheat and grapes for everybody except Binyamin. When rain fell, it fell on everybody's fields except Binyamin's. When the sun came out, it shone on everybody's fields except Binyamin’s. When the bugs came, they skipped over everybody else's fields and ate up everything in Binyamin's. By the end of the growing time, everybody had big crops except Binyamin, who had no crops. All Binyamin had was lots and lots of dust and bugs.
Binyamin had used up all his money buying bug killers and getting water, but nothing helped. Binyamin had no food in his house, he had no wine, no grapes, no apples, no honey, and no bread. Lots of people were happy that Binyamin had nothing. Most folks were saying behind his back," That good-for-nothing selfish pig Binyamin! I hope he learns now what it's like to have nothing."
Binyamin just sat there in his dusty, buggy fields with his head in his hands, crying.
Binyamin would have starved if it were not for Moses. Moses brought him bread and grapes, and tried to cheer him up. Then harvest time came along, and Moses took Binyamin with him. "Where are we going'” Binyamin asked Moses. Moses answered, “Just come along and you will see."
They went to a field nearby that had been harvested already, but the of the field still had wheat stalks growing and there was lots of wheat lying on the ground. A whole bunch of poor people were standing around the field waiting.
Just then the farmer said, "Okay, come on in, everybody. The stuff in this field is for anybody who needs it. I did not cut the comers, and I didn’t pick up anything that fell to the ground, so there's plenty here for all of you." The poor people ran into the field, but Binyamin just stood there.
"It's not my field," Binyamin said to Moses. "It's not my wheat. I can't take it. I would rather starve."
Moses put his arm around Binyamin and spoke softly to him. "Binyamin, everything is G-d's. The wheat and the grapes, the farmer and the fields, the sun and the rain, the bugs and the cows—everything is G-d's. We are just kind of renting all this stuff from G-d, and we show that we know G-d owns everything by giving away some of what G-d gives to us. It's really simple. G-d owns everything, and we don't need to take it all."
Binyamin tried to smile; he said, "All I have to give away is bugs."
Then a little girl came over to Binyamin, handed him a few stalks of wheat, and said, "Here, mister. G-d gave us enough. You take some."
That night Binyamin ate bread and grapes. After he ate, he prayed to G-d. This was the first prayer he ever prayed to G-d: "G-d, thank you for sharing your stuff with me. I will try to share my stuff from now on.”
The next year Binyamin's fields got sun and rain, and the wheat grew tall, and the grapes grew plump and juicy. At harvesttime, Binyamin called everybody to his fields and said, "This year I did not cut the corners of my field. In fact, this year I did not cut anything. I am giving all my wheat and all my grapes to the people who got nothing from me for so many years. And if there is anything left over, I will leave it for the wild animals.” Everyone cheered Binyamin, and Moses gave him a big hug.
That night even the bunnies had bread and grapes to eat. The night everybody had enough stuff.
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