“Jonathan, please find your seat,” asked Rav Fisch for what felt like the 20th time this week. “Found it. There it is!” replied Jonathan as he pointed across the room. Rav Fisch held back a frown. “Jonathan, please be more respectful.” Jonathan held back a smile. “But you told me to find my seat, and I did!” You see, Jonathan knew exactly what Rav Fisch meant, but as long as he followed the exact words that Rav Fisch used, he thought he could smartly avoid having to listen. Jonathan, now in sixth grade, had spent years driving teachers crazy with these antics, but Rav Fisch decided enough was enough. So he came up with a plan to teach Jonathan a lesson.
The next morning, Rav Fisch began class with an announcement. “Students, I would like to announce a contest. On the pages I hold in my hand are the names of every person mentioned in the Torah. Any student who can memorize every single name on this page by Chanukah will win $1,000.” The students went wild. “One thousand dollars! That’s crazy!” “But it’s impossible!” “I’m gonna buy an iPhone 11!” “By the time you memorize it all, they will be up to the iPhone 15!” “I’m gonna take a trip to Hawaii!” “It’s not worth it!” “Yes, it is!”
After it all died down, Rav Fisch asked who would like to take on the challenge. Jonathan, who had a fantastic memory, and three other students, asked for copies of the list. Each went home and got to work memorizing. Jonathan’s strategy was to post copies of the list all over his house so that he could study everywhere he went. His parents and siblings couldn’t walk 10 feet without seeing “FROM ADAM TO ZEVULUN: MEMORIZE ALL THE NAMES ON THIS PAGE TO WIN $1,000 DOLLARS!” At first this was fun, and the whole family participated, testing Jonathan at every possible opportunity. Jonathan’s siblings took turns reading the names to Jonathan while he ate, while he did his chores, and as he lay in bed waiting for sleep to come.
One night, after two weeks of this, Jonathan dreamed he was driving with Noach, Ohalivama (Esav’s wife), Serach bat Asher, and Sichon to meet Og, Avihu, Miriam and Metushelach for bowling. However, when he went to type their names on the screen at the bowling alley, he couldn’t remember them all. Jonathan woke with a scream, waking his entire family in the process. The next morning at breakfast, Jonathan’s brother sister refused to talk to him. They were finally fed up with Jonathan taking over the family with his obsession. “Sweetie,” began his mother, “let’s make a new rule. No Tanach names from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., okay?” Jonathan agreed. He was getting a bit tired of it too. Besides, Chanukah was in two weeks and he basically had it all down.
The next day, Jonathan came home from school without any intention to study. He planned to stick to his mother’s “no Tanach names from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.” rule, and study for a few minutes before bedtime. His family sat down to dinner and began to talk about their days. Jonathan’s father asked him how his day was, and Jonathan started to answer. “It was okay. I am working on a project with Levi and—” but he was interrupted by his brother. “No Tanach names from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.! L-E-V-I is a Tanach name!” Jonathan put on a fake smile. “Haha, very funny. Anyway, we had gym today and our team’s goalie was Yehuda—” Now it was his sister’s turn. “Yehuda is a Tanach name!” This time, Jonathan didn’t laugh it off. He began to argue with his sister. “That’s not how it works! Mom didn’t mean we can’t say any names from Tanach! She just meant no studying my list! Why are you guys being so literal!” This argument went back and forth, and Jonathan eventually stormed up to his room. While he was laying in bed, fuming at his annoying siblings, Jonathan realized something. His siblings were behaving the same way he had been acting in class! No wonder Rav Fisch seemed to find Jonathan’s behavior so annoying! At that moment, Jonathan decided he would start acting differently. He would follow what he knew Rav Fisch wanted, even when he didn’t say it exactly.
The next day, Jonathan came into school and asked Rav Fisch if they could speak privately. He apologized and told Rav Fisch he would start to be more respectful. Then it was Rav Fisch’s turn to apologize. “Jonathan, to be honest, the whole Tanach names contest was a trick meant to teach you a lesson. I knew you’d try it, and that’s why I specifically wrote ‘memorize ALL the names on this page.’ MY name is also on the page, and I planned to let you recite all the names on the list by heart, and then tell you that you were so close, and that you should have taken the instructions literally. I hoped you would argue that it’s about the reason (to learn) and not the literal instructions. I see that you have come to that realization on your own. I’m impressed.”
Unfortunately, there was no $1,000 prize, but at least Jonathan learned all the names in Chumash. (Insert shrug emoji here.)
The Aseret Hadibrot are not just the ten most important mitzvot in the Torah. They represent the ten values that all of Judaism is based on. “Lo Tirtzach” teaches us respect for life, kibbud av va’em teaches us gratitude, and “lo tachmod’’ teaches us to be happy with what we have. When we look at the mitzvot not just as a set of laws, but a way of living Jewish values, it changes how we live. We can’t just follow the laws as they are literally written, but, like Jonathan realized, we must understand what Hashem is truly trying to say.
By Yair Daar
