Coming back from an emergency trip to NY (during which I had to respond to a family tragedy, but as a result lit all the candles of the menoira in a household, where not a single candle had been lit during the whole Chanukah), I had an interesting occurrence. Actually, it was rather commonplace, but it made me think of a conversation I recently had with my rabbi.
I was driving in the car pool lane (yes, I had another person in the car; I don't break traffic laws all the time) and had my GPS working with sound on. It said: “In 800 meters [I can’t tell how far a yard is, so my GPS is set to metric measurements], bear left.”
Now, the reason my GPS told me this is that it assumed that I was driving in the main lane, and had to go towards my place of destination, which would involve bearing left on the fork. Since I was, however, driving in the car pool lane, I had to go right, not left. Either GPS did not know that there was a special lane (most likely), or it couldn’t detect that I was driving in it vs. in the main lane. Or it was just set up to give directions for the majority cases.
Which made me think about something that my rabbi had said. Actually, two things. First (earlier): when reading the Rebbe’s letters, one must take care to pay attention to the context. When the Rebbe said, for instance, that one must marry without worrying about parnasa, he might have been talking about a specific case (e.g., a bochur learning in yeshiva), not giving instructions for all the people who have such an issue in all possible situations.
Second (more recently): the Rebbe sets an ideal for us to strive towards. And the role of a mashpia is to tell each of us specifically what to do in his/her particular situation and level.
[By the way, if those of you in Boston think I missed all the fun while being in New York, trust me: I didn’t. And if those of you in New York think you had it bad, trust me: you ain’t seen nothing yet. Also, when a snow storm hits New York, somehow it’s more eidel, more intelligentno, more menchlach than when the same happens in Boston. But in Boston they clear the streets much more efficiently. Also, from my observation, 8 am in the morning, there are two groups of people on the streets of snowy Brooklyn: African Americans clearing the snow and frum Jews (mostly Litvish) hurrying to a minyan.]
8 comments:
I would have assumed that in Boston the snow was classier...
(another comment not related to the main toichen of the post:)
A yard is almost the same as a meter. The problem is when the GPS tells you stuff in feet.
What was the main toichen of the post?
you gotta pay attention to circumstances.
Ahh yes, an important lesson that is too often forgotten. Perhaps we should all wear buttons to that effect?
What e said, but also, perhaps, don't think that you can open Igros and know what you are supposed to be doing.
E.g., should a bochur associate himself with a large number of motogs? What about a shliach? Obviously, circumstances are different. Now, tell me: should someone who's been a fan of pool immediately drop his interest upon becoming a student of Tanya and Chassidus Chabad?
e, but doesn't it make a difference when the numbers are large? Maybe not...
I have strange relationship with metric and English systems. I can tell temperature above 75 °F in Fahrenheit but not in Celcius. But the opposite is true below 22 °C. I can tell the speed in mph, but not in kph. I can tell distance in metric system but not in English (I just remembered my height in feet and inches and remembered below which height women are considered to be short). I can’t tell weight at all. I can’t estimate how much a person or an object weighs in either system.
for large numbers we use miles, so it's not an issue.
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