The Talmud (Berachos 8a) refers to the body of the halacha as "the four amos of halacha." We had a rebbe at yeshiva who was fond of pointing out that it's not "two amos" of halacha, but four. The Torah doesn't dictate to us to follow a straight and narrow line but rather to stay within a certain area of acceptable behavior.
In this week's parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu tells Adas Korach that "in the morning," Hashem will demonstrate who the chosen individuals to serve as kohanim and leviim are (Bamidbar 16:5). Rashi, in his commentary on that passuk, quotes from the Medrash that the phrase in the passuk has yet an added connotation. "Boker, morning" indicates that just as Hashem has set borders between day and night, so, too, has He distinguished between kohanim, leviim, and yisraelim, and so too, all of the Torah represents the boundaries distinguishing between the muttar and the assur. There is a broad two-dimensional area of muttar, and not just a straight line. In the Torah path, we don't have to be careful not to get "out of line." Rather, we have to be careful not to cross over the border (gevulos).
In the famous passuk at the conclusion of the nevua of Hoshea, the prophet states, "The paths (in the plural) of Hashem are straight." There is more than one lane in this wide highway.
In the concluding lines of the classic work Mesilas Yesharim, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto points out that even someone who was compelled to enter into a very lowly profession has the ability to become a chassid just like one who is only learning all the time. Hashem created a big, wide world, and He needs tzaddikim entering into all kinds of fields to accomplish a kiddush Hashem. The Talmud (Berachos 17a) records the statement that the rabbis of Yavneh used to say: "I (the talmid chacham) am a creature of Hashem, and the farmer is also a creature of Hashem. I do my work (of studying Torah) in the city, and he does his work on the farm. And no one should think that the talmid chacham will receive more reward, for tradition has it that whether one learns a lot or a little, if he plays his designated role in the world by accomplishing a kiddush Hashem in his field, he will receive proper reward."
In Parshas Breishis, the Torah mentions that Chanoch was an unusual tzaddik. There is a well-known comment made by the Zohar that Chanoch was a shoemaker by profession, and his unusual tziddkus consisted of the fact that he did his work in an honest fashion.
The midrashim make the famous comment that "just as the facial features of people are different from each other, so, too, the way they think is also very different." This statement was made by the rabbis in praise of the Creator. When people mint coins in a mold, all the coins come out the same. But the Creator made people in a similar mold, but each one is also dissimilar from the other (Sanhedrin 38a)! The Creator never wanted all of us to be gingerbread men, all exactly the same, because we conformed to the same cookie mold.
All of the twelve nesiim (heads of tribes) brought exactly the same korbanos (during the first twelve days of Nissan) for the purpose of chanukas hamizbeach, but, as the Midrash Rabba on parshas Naso explains, each one of them had a totally different kavana (intention). Even where there is conformity, there is still much room for individuality. No two people think alike.
A serious mistake that many observant parents make is that they plan to raise all of their children to strictly conform to the same single mold. Mishlei (22:6) tells us that we must educate each of our children according to their individual style. And each of them, in his own profession, has the ability to develop into a great tzaddik and even a chassid[1].
[1] Ed: "Chassid" here refers to an exceedingly righteous individual and does not refer to the contemporary usage of the word to identify a specific subset of the Orthodox community.
RABBI HERSCHEL SCHACTER
COUNTING DOWN UNTIL UMAN 103 DAYS
