It so happens that on the same day this week I learned two totally separate but very much connected ideas:
POOR MAN, RICH MAN
In the daily 1 chapter Rambam for that day (which I tweet about daily using the hashtag #1ChapterRambam) the chapter (in a section called “Shegagot”) is about certain types of Temple sacrifices that have a sliding economic scale, where the sacrifice depends on your income, poor people can bring a less expensive sacrifice than wealthier people. The chapter ends with: “A poor person who brings a wealthy person’s level sacrifice fulfills his obligation, but a wealthy person who brings a poor person’s level sacrifice does not fulfill his obligation.”
THE CASE OF BURGENIN HUTS
And on the same day, I learned this piece of Talmud (Sukkah 3b) with our 7/8 grade Talmud class at Maimonides. Totally different subject, but same message!
There’s a Shabbat law that we can’t walk more than 2000+ cubits (about 3500 feet) outside city limits, once the area gets rural. The route to the next town or city may be too rural, too sparse to be allowed to walk from one to the other on Shabbat. A house along the route (depending on the distance to the next set of homes) can possibly serve as a connector between two towns, allowing one to continue walking between them. Suppose the house that is strategically located is less than 4×4 cubit it doesn’t count, because its really not considered a house. But wait! The Talmud asks, we learned elsewhere that “Burgenin” (watchmen huts) which are very small structures (the size of a phone booth) do count as connectors between two cities! So why do Burgenin huts count if houses less than 4×4 do not count? The Gemorah’s answer is very telling: Burgenin fulfill their purpose as watchmen’s huts. But a house less than 4×4 does not live up to its potential.
You might say that a Burgenin hut can be likened to a poor person bringing a poor person’s sacrifice. A house less than 4×4 can be likened to a rich person bringing a poor sacrifice. It only works when you fill your expectation, live up to your potential.
We’re not comparing results or achievements, but efforts and expectations, potential and reality. And this is obviously different for each student in a class, each person in life…
THE SIZE OF THE MAN IN THE FIGHT VS. THE SIZE OF THE FIGHT IN THE MAN
These lyrics ring in my eyes from a Moshe Yess/Megama song from my youth, called “Little David” or “The Size of the Man in the Fight”. He borrowed and adapted the concept from a line by Mark Twain: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog!”
TANYA 30…
There’s so much richness (and lots of life applicability in terms of how he view ourselves and others) on this idea in Tanya Chapter 30, but that’s a for another time.