Last year, this author wrote regarding man’s motivations, equating them with what drives the athlete in the beginning, or as we baseball fans say, in the “Big Inning”. And as has been done regarding other Parshiyot, this year a revisit of the motivation of men seems appropriate.
What drives the high-priced athlete? The big and increasing paycheck? The “Team effort?” Increased or enhanced fame and influence? Love and study of the game? What drives them?
Was the motivation of these athletes money-driven? For they all chase after each other for the kavod of being the highest paid. Were they driven by that Big, per-player portion paycheck for winning the BIG game? Was their motivation driven by lust for personal fame, for their personal impact on history, on the annals of their sport?
Or was their motivation truly altruistic, to be part of a unified unit possessing one goal — Victory over their opponent and providing thrills and happiness for the hometown fans and for their representative city?
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, in “Growth Through Torah” (pages 201-202), brings a Rashi (Sh’mos 25:2) which says “…that the donations given for the Tabernacle (Mishkan) should be given for the sake of the Almighty.”
There is the story expressing the perception that the milkman who delivers fresh milk to each person’s home, regardless of the weather, early each morning is an “outstanding example of the most elevated levels of kindness.” That is, until one realizes that it is his job to do so, that it is his parnossa to see that his customers are satisfied and receiving fresh milk daily. How do we gauge what truly motivates the milkman to properly service his customers.
Rabbi Pliskin then brings a story attributed to the Chazon Ish. In the story, a father-in-law and his son-in-law visited the Rabbi of their town because the father-in-law wants his son-in-law to become involved in the family business. The son-in-law has been learning Torah for 10 years and wants to continue. The father-in-law is concerned about whether his son-in-law’s Torah study is guided by the proper motivations. Rabbi Pliskin does not indicate by either story how one detects whether or not the individuals mentioned are being driven by the proper motivations, nor does he define these pure or proper motivations.
Where are these stories inside? What makes us draw conclusions from these two stories about whether the milkman, the son-in-law, or, for that matter, the father-in-law were motivated by pure intentions? For it seems that we are not provided with sufficient information regarding their motivations or how their individual personalities manifest or exhibit pure motivations.
What truly are the factors manifesting the motivation of the milkman, the father-in-law or his son-in-law or any other deliverer of other essential services depended upon, come rain or snow? Or for that matter, a what are the factors motivating a Terrell Owens or a Curt Schilling?
And what motivated/motivates Arik Sharon, or his unelected successor Ehud Olmert to embark upon the precedent-setting expulsion from Gush Katif, the recent expulsions from Shahevet neighborhood of Chevron or the police and Yassamnikim-perpetrated violence and brutality at Amona four short weeks ago.
Chas v’chalila that the seeming nefarious motivations of the current regime would be inevitably repeated again and again until Medinat Yisrael is confined to some tiny, coastal Auschwitz Israeli Ghetto awaiting final liquidation either by the Islamikazis, or by these very Yudenrot among us, or both. In all fairness to Rav Pliskin and to other Talmudai Chachamim, it seems near to impossible to nail down, in most cases, the true motivation which drives an action.
When all is said and done, Olmert’s motivations (and Sharon’s before him) seem uncloaked, indisguisable. The motivations seem driven purely by an anti-Torah agenda; to divest Israelis of their Yiddishkeit.
And on the flip-side, what are the motivations of those individuals and Bati Knesset who donate their old, unused, under-used Sifrei Torah to needy Shuls, Bati Medrashim, Yeshivot in Eretz Yisrael or donate their Sifrei Torah, or funds for restoration of these Sifrei Torah to an organization such as The Sefer Torah Recycling Network which sees to the restoration and placement of Sifrei Torah in needy locations throughout Israel?
What motivates the athlete, to get it done, to come through with the game on the line, as they say, “in the clutch”; Everyman’s Terumah to complete the Mishkan? And the pitch by Curt Schilling to Shawn Green …
As this author repeats, yet a third time; the Ibn Ezra said on Parsha Yithro regarding the appointment of a judicial system, and the application of that lesson to all of us, “the Torah did not mention ‘G’d-fearing men’ because only Hashem knows what is in man’s heart.” (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, Parsha Yithro, page 131)
May it be in this year and beyond, that our brethren; the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron (may they soon be restored to new homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time), as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard (may he soon know freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael) be central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream.
May we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.