Advice From the Haggadah: "Go Out and Learn"

Do you like one-liners? ("Take our government leaders... please!"). If so, then you must love Pesach! The Haggadah is filled with fabulous one-liners: "Mah Nishtana Halayla Hazeh"; "In every generation they rise to destroy us"; "Dayenu"; and "Next year in Jerusalem!"

But one of my favorites is the simple wisdom of the authors of the Haggadah: "Tzei Ul'mad" - "Go out and learn!" These two simple Hebrew words contain within them a whole philosophy of (Jewish) life worth noting.

While one certainly can and should amass knowledge within the confines of a classroom, the "college of hard knocks" applies that knowledge and sharpens it. Outside, we learn about people, about society, about reality. The Rav (Rabbi Soloveichik) writes about watching people while riding on the subway and the insights it gave him. The sages all had some skill or livelihood that allowed them to interface with the "man on the street" and the world at large. As a yeshiva student, I studied the laws of shechita for four months; then, I actually went to a slaughterhouse. What an eye-opener that was!

As David HaMelech says often in Tehilim, each of us must become a student of nature. We learn from the ant, the ocean, the bird in flight, the change of seasons. We observe the moon, the twilight, the morning dew, and we are richer for it. G-d's world is "out

Go out of your way and learn how to give fully and selflessly.

there," beyond the four walls and the Four Amot. He created it for us to enjoy and experience, and then to praise Him. The rabbis assigned brachot to all the unique sights and sounds of nature. Like Rabbi Hirsch, who took time to see the Alps, we'll have to answer for any of G-d's wonders we fail to appreciate.

Go out of your way and learn how to give fully and selflessly. The extra effort you make is often more appreciated than the gift itself. The rabbis put special emphasis on walking a guest part of the way home, or on waiting on a parent or someone in need personally, rather than through a third party. Jewish life can often be too easy, too distanced from the action. Writing a tzedaka check is a mitzvah, but it can never replace eye-to-eye, hand-to-hand contact.

Chazal would slightly amend this phrase to say, "Go out of yourself and learn." That is, don't always be concerned with your needs, your point of view, your life. Think about someone else's situation; try to see the world from his vantage point. That's not easy, but it is the best way to learn how to help a fellow human being, while heightening your own sense of humility. "A person all wrapped up in himself," the saying goes, "makes for a very small package, indeed!"