Much of this week we were in contact with inspirational speakers or their agents trying to book a featured speaker for the Regional Chabad on Campus Shabbaton on March 7-9. Generally speaking (pun intended) we don’t usually hire speakers at Shabbos House, but since this is a joint effort of several NYS campuses and with funding from the National Chabad on Campus Foundation, we’re looking for someone special. The original plan was to host Rabbi Simcha warm, light and funny speaker, great messages, author of three relevant books – but his schedule didn’t work out in the end.
I spoke with former professional basketball and football atheletes, rabbinical personalities, strong women and authors of books. Availability was an issue for some, too steep a price tag was an issue with others.
The one takeaway? Wow, public speaking is a great gig! Some of these folks charge couple of grand for a speech? Hey, why don’t I get into this?
Sitting and discussing this tonight with a few students we realized the answer. Yes, it is a great gig, but it doesn’t come easy. True, former Presidents like Bill Clinton can earn an average man’s salary with one speech, but becoming President of United States took much work. Yes, people who triumphed over life challenges tell a great story, but that story took much sweat and toil and dedication to make it happen. CEO’s of big companies don’t usually inherit their positions, and even when they do, it takes lots of work to succeed at what they do.
Now, I like to think that inspiration shouldn’t cost, but the truth is that it does. We pay for schooling, for books, we pay for honorariums, and pay to go to concerts. And even without the financial cost, and there isn’t always a financial cost – there’s always a personal cost. Inspiration isn’t free. It takes time and hard choices, dedication and commitment, sacrifice and personal investment.
In this week’s Torah portion of Vayakhel we learn of the construction of the Mishkan, the Desert Tabernacle that was the spiritual home of the Divine Presence. It was built with people’s contributions of money and materials and talent and ability. Yes, it was a place of inspiration and holiness, but people had to give of themselves in order to get.