Beyond Recycling

By Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

Our generation has started to pay attention. As more and more disposable items enter the market, we have come to realize that we must pay attention to proper usage and to the disposal of items we have used. The concept of recycling finds its roots in the mitzvah of Baal Tashchis: Not to be wasteful. This undoubtedly teaches us to be responsible both with products we use, as well as regarding the world in which we live. I would like, however, to focus on something that comes even before recycling. That is: Using resources properly to begin with.

Rav Hirsch describes a miser as being an innovative example of Baal Tashchis (being wasteful). Rav Hirsch explains that what a miser keeps buried and unused in his coffers is destroyed for all mankind (Chorev 56). I would venture to say that anytime that we have untapped potential which doesn’t get used in the first place, it is an example of Baal Tashchis, as it wastes the potential which Hashem has given us.

Interestingly, it is quite possible that a person can be made thoroughly unaware of their potential. Although we may have been on the path to self fulfillment, people around us could possibly derail us before we get very far. Consider, for example, a child who has the ability to succeed in science and medicine, and declares, “I am going to discover the cure for cancer.” Sounds good. Except that he happens to have a close relative who says, “So many people greater than you have tried and failed. Do you really think you are going to be the one to make the discovery?” So he doesn’t.

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 11) relates that Hillel was so great that he had the potential to have the Divine presence rest upon him, “But his generation wasn’t worthy.” One wonders: What does his generation have to do with this? If he is worthy, let him be.

I would like to suggest that personal growth and reaching ones potential is a dynamic process that includes those around us. The Talmud tells us that Hillel was so great that he was known never to get angry. Even when a person wagered that he could get Hillel angry, and called upon Hillel during bathing time before Shabbos, Hillel responded with equanimity. Hillel’s words, “Ask my son, ask all the questions that you have because Hillel will not get angry with you,” resound reassuringly in the Talmud declaring Hillel’s greatness. However, his generation wasn’t worthy. Because when they heard the level of Hillel’s tolerance, they thought that Hillel had taken a good thing too far. Hillel was soaring in greatness, but he was not in an environment that supported his ascent. “He was worthy of the Divine presence; but his generation was not.” So it didn’t happen.

Similarly we find that when Choni Hamagal showed up to a new group of friends, he was profoundly disappointed because they did not believe that he was Choni. The commentaries wonder why he was so disappointed. If he was indeed great then they surely respected him. The commentaries explain that certainly the new friends respected Choni to the extent that they understood him. But they did not believe that he was the great Choni who could pray for rain- literally demand rain to end a drought- and be answered. When Choni realized that the new friends did not appreciate who he really was, and would not have great expectations for him, he declared with great conviction, “Either a real friend who appreciates me, or let me die.” He felt that without someone to appreciate him, his life’s potential had been taken from him.

The slogan of Elul (the month which precedes Rosh Hashana) is, “I am to my Beloved, and my Beloved is to me.” The word Beloved is certainly referring to us and Hashem. In this month we look to rejuvenate our relationship with Him. But in an equally practical way this slogan tells us how to go about that rejuvenation, because the word “beloved” refers to each of us and to our interactions with one another. Are we encouraging enough to one another? Are we constructively demanding, such that we bring out the best in those we love? A person’s greatness is not just the result of his own talent, willpower, determination, and creativity. Our greatness will often be determined by those we hang out with. It is the people who are closest to us that make sure that we do not commit Baal Tashchis of the highest order, and instead grow to become all that we can be.