Tammuz 19
These are the precepts that have no prescribed measure: the corner of a field [which must be left for the poor], the first-fruit offering, etc. (Peah 1:1).
This portion of the Talmud is recited in the introductory prayers of the morning service, in order that a person begin the day with a portion of the Oral Law. Of the hundreds of thousands of passages of the Talmud, why was this one selected?
This passage lists five items that have no prescribed measure. The implication is that other than these five, everything has a limit. With this important concept, we should begin our day.
Some people know no limits. Many behavioral excesses have joined the category of "olics," so that we now have not only alcoholics, but workaholics, foodaholics, chocoholics, sportaholics, worryaholics, etc. Any activity can be over done.
More of a good thing is not necessarily better, as people with obesity, for example, have discovered. Unfortunately, many people who do something to excess are not aware of their error. They believe that they are still acting within the normal range.
As with alcoholics, people who are affected by any excessive behavior are generally unable to set limits for themselves. Outsiders must make objective observations to recognize if reasonable limits have been exceeded. We would be wise to seek the appraisal of competent and interested people to help us determine whether we are functioning within the range of accepted norms.
Today I shall ...
be aware that I may be exceeding limits in some aspects of my behavior and seek a competent outside evaluation of myself.
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Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (1889-1959), Chief Rabbi of Ireland and later the Chief Rabbi of Israel during the years of Israeli independence. His father was the Chief Rabbi of Paris, and his son, Chaim Herzog, was later president of Israel. Rabbi Herzog studied Oriental languages at the Sorbonne in Paris, and classics and mathematics at the University of London. His doctoral dissertation claimed that the Murex snail is the source for Techelet, the long-lost blue dye used for making tzitzit. After World War II, Herzog went on a rescue mission to redeem Jewish children from the churches and monasteries where they had been hidden during the war. Rabbi Herzog authored a book of talmudic discourses, Divrei Yitzhak.
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