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Questions, we will always have. Answers, few and far between. Imagine my surprise when a troubling Mishna in Pirkei Avot was finally explained to me. Pirkei Avot 3:7:'' Rabbi Yaakov would say: One who walks along a road and studies, and interrupts his studying to say, "How beautiful is this tree!", "How beautiful is this ploughed field!"---the Torah considers it as if he had forfeited his life" (forfeits his soul is perhaps more accurate). This statement has bothered me for years, required even more time in therapy than expected. Here is an individual who is admiring the beauty of God's creation, recognizing the handiwork of the Lord and is forfeiting his soul. Aren't there brachot for awesome or beautiful things in nature and isn't it a mitzvah to make a blessing on them? As for the planted field, the man is admiring the works of human's but within the context of the great ability the creator has endowed within humans. So why forfeit his soul? That bothered me. It bothered me more that holier-than-thou's would use this as a basis for not stopping their learning to tend to a crying child, nod to a neighbor hello, or to shy away from any social grace.Along comes R. Pearl with his penetrating pearls of wisdom and thousands in therapy are saved. What is really happening here in the Mishna? What is it REALLY trying to teach use? Certainly nothing to do with administering a death penalty. A person can see the handiwork of God within nature, he can also find it through recognizing the source of human ingenuity and accomplishment. The problem arises when he chooses to find God through those means INSTEAD of through Torah. Coincident with Torah, is fine, go ahead, admire God's handiwork everywhere. But this man STOPPED learning Torah, chose to find an alternate path to God (it didn't say he resumed learning a minute later). There are many religions, many philosophies, many paths to recognize God but in Judaism, the way to understand God is through learning His Torah. That is our method. To remain a Jewish soul, we must cling to Torah. Sure admire Him elsewhere but remember that giving up the Torah is inevitably forfeiting the Jewish soul.
