Q:
How important is it for a Jew to keep up with current events?
A:
How important is it for us to keep up with current events?
Current events intrinsically are nothing at all—100% waste of time. However, if someone is capable of interpreting to you current events then it’s one of the most valuable things you can get. To explain history, whether it’s history of the past or history of day to day, is one of the most important lessons.
And I’ll explain that to you.
Nothing in this world was made except by Hashem. Therefore everything in the world—a peanut, a cloud, a dandelion; anything in this world—is full of tremendous lessons because it’s Hashem’s wisdom.
You know a peanut is a wonderful mussar haskel; it’s intended to teach you about Hashem. Because if you take a peanut in your hand you’ll notice it has a backbone and if you press on the backbone it opens up by itself. You don’t have to break the shell. The peanut is corrugated, not smooth, in order to give it more strength. It’s soft but strong. When you open it up, inside there are clean meats wrapped in beautiful red wrappers. The meat separates into two parts with a straight cleavage. It opens up because it’s made to open up. In between there’s cotyledons of the future plant waiting. And in those cotyledons it has information and millions of bits of information that are necessary to produce a new plant. So therefore when you study a peanut, you can become great in da’as Hashem.
Now just like all objects, because they’re made by Hashem, they are fountains of great wisdom that teach us great things about Hashem, so the events of this world are also done by Hashem. Everything happens only because of Hashem! And therefore absolutely whatever Hashem does in the world is for a purpose. And so if someone is capable of explaining the events of history, it means he’s explaining the way of Hashem in the world. Just like the peanut is intended by Hashem to teach, current events are the same thing.
(April 1988)
