Parshas Shoftim
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
“Prepare the way for yourself and divide into three parts the boundary of the Land that the L-ord your G-d …” (Deuteronomy 19:3).
According to the literal meaning of the text, Moses is commanding the Jewish people to set up Arei Miklat, (“Cities of Refuge”) across the Land of Israel, equidistant from each other and from the outer boundaries of the land, in order to facilitate easy access to these cities when necessary (see commentary of Rashi ibid.).
However, the Olelos Ephraim (in Parshas Emor, Ma’amar #49) interprets this verse homiletically as follows:
The Torah here is hinting to us that each of us should prepare a way for himself - to get into the World to Come – by dividing much of what he does into thirds.
For example, when studying the Written Torah (Tanach), we should divide our time into thirds - between the Chumash (The Five Books of Moses) the Prophets, and the Writings.
In terms of fulfilling our purpose in life, we should also divide our time into thirds. As the following Mishnah in Ethics of the Fathers teaches us:
[He] Shimon the Righteous used to say: The world stands on three things: On the Torah, on the service [of G-d], and upon acts of loving-kindness. (Pirkei Avos 1:2).
This Mishnah talks to the three essential relationships that G-d wants us to develop and intensify throughout our lives, and which are explored in depth throughout Pirkei Avos: (1) Our relationship with ourselves, as represented by Torah study. The Torah’s teachings help man understand himself and his character traits, thus enabling him to perfect his character, control his urges, refine his aspirations, and become more sensitive and G-dlike; (2) Our relationship with G-d, as represented by prayer and the service of G-d, through which we acknowledge G-d’s rightful role in our lives as our loving Father in Heaven; (3) Our relationship with others, as represented by acts of loving-kindness. This encompasses all of man’s interpersonal relationships.
How we invest our money should also be in thirds. As the Talmud teaches us in Tractate Bava Metzia 42a:
Rabbi Yitzchak said: “Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business, and a third let him keep by him in reserve.”
The Maharsh”a explains the financial logic of this division based on principles we are familiar with today: Land is safe because it can never lose all its value, but its return is also low. Commerce has the highest return but also the highest risk. Finally, some money must be left liquid for unexpected exigencies.
[However, it is clear from the various commentators that the "three thirds" idea is not a hard and fast rule, but rather an application of the general principle to diversify investments considering long-term safety, long-term return, and immediate needs and opportunities. The rabbis were not in the business of giving investment tips, but rather of placing our monetary affairs in the context of a total religious lifestyle.]
Even how much time we stay up each day and go to sleep each night should be in thirds. As it says in the Book of Job (3:13): “I would be asleep; ‘then’ I would be at rest”
Now the Hebrew word for ‘then’ is az, which is spelled alef-zayin, and which has the Gematria (numerical value) of 8 (alef equals 1 and zayin equals 7). So that we can now read the verse: “I would be asleep [for 8 hours], then I would be at rest”.
So we see from the Torah how important sleeping 8 hours - one third of our day – can be for good rest and for good health.
As Maimonides (the scholar and doctor) writes in his Mishneh Torah in the Laws of Deyos (4:3):
“Together, day and night make up [a period of] twenty-four hours. It is sufficient for a man to sleep a third of this period; i.e., eight hours.”
And as it turns out, the science of sleep agrees:
“The quality and amount of sleep you get – preferably between 7-9 hours daily - has an astonishing impact on you. Sleep is like a reset button and is a necessary phase of regeneration. Billions of molecular tasks go on during sleep at the cellular level to ensure you can live another day. Sufficient sleep keeps you sharp, creative, attentive, and able to process information quickly. Sleep habits ultimately rule everything about you- how big your appetite is, how fast your metabolism runs, how strong your immune system is, how insightful you can be, how well you cope with stress and how well you can consolidate experiences in your brain and remember things.”
Now lest some Torah scholar contend that even though sleeping one third of every 24-hour period is crucial for maintaining good health, he loves learning Torah and therefore pushes himself to study Torah late into the night – thereby losing some of that precious and much-needed sleep, let’s take a look at what the Turei Zahav (Rabbi Dovid Halevi Segal (1586-1667), famed commentator on the Code of Jewish Law, also known as the Ta”z) has to say about this:
The Ta”z writes in his commentary to Shulchan Aruch Even Ha’Ezer 25:1):
“Some Torah scholars brush sleep from their eyes to devote extra hours to their studies. Other Torah scholars sleep sufficiently, to have the strength and mental agility to study well. [Since they are well rested], they can learn in one hour what their sleep-deprived peers would learn in two. Since both receive equal reward, the verse warns us, “In vain do you rise early.” There is no benefit in depriving yourself of the necessary rest by going to sleep late, and waking up early. “G-d gives rest to His beloved”, meaning, G-d gives an equal portion of Torah to he who sleeps sufficiently to have strength to learn Torah, and to he who suffers the deprivation of sleep. In the end, everything depends on one’s purity of intent."
So we see from all of the above how important dividing our Judaism into thirds can be if we want to prepare a way for ourselves to get into the World to Come.
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