Toras Avigdor Junior
Parshas Devarim – Tisha B’Av
Cream of Torah
8:00am, in the school courtyard
“Yitzy!” exclaimed Dovy, running to greet his friend in the school courtyard, waving a page from the latest issue of Ari Magazine. “Look at this! Gross’s Kosher Ice Cream is coming out with a new flavor l’chovod the Nine Days!”
“WOW!” said Yitzy, taking the cut-out advertisement and reading it. “Triple-fudge-caramel-cookie-crunch-supreme with real strawberries! This is going to be the best Nine Days ever!”
The two boys headed to their classroom, talking about how amazing this new flavor of ice cream probably was. They couldn’t wait to taste it.
In class
“Boys,” Rabbi Caplan was saying. “As you all know, Tisha B’av is coming soon. The Nine Days are a very important time for Klal Yisroel as we focus on the loss of Eretz Yisroel and the Beis Hamikdash.
“Now boys, I want everyone to spend a couple minutes thinking about what we’re missing now in golus and how that will change when Moshiach comes bimheira byomeinu.”
The boys sat quietly thinking about this for a few minutes. Finally Rabbi Caplan spoke again. “I’d love to hear what you boys were thinking about. Does anyone want to share? Dovy?”
“Well,” Dovy said. “I know Eretz Yisroel is supposed to be ‘אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבַש – a land flowing with milk and honey’, but nowadays plain old milk and honey doesn’t seem so exciting. I can just imagine that when Moshiach comes and all Yidden will be frum, Gross’s Kosher Ice Cream will probably be available in like a billion different flavors! It will be mamesh like Gan Eden!”
“Wow,” said Rabbi Caplan. “That does sound exciting. But do you think that’s all we’re looking forward to? Ice cream?”
“Oh, of course not,” continued Dovy. “Obviously some people like frozen yogurt more. And for those who like fleishigs we’ll have all types of fancy meat boards and charcuterie – and it will all be glatt kosher and everyone will be able to afford it! And just think, all of the fancy bakeries will have good hashgochos and we’ll be able to eat at every restaurant, because everything will be Cholov Yisroel, Yoshon, Pas Yisroel, and kosher lemehadrin in the best way possible!”
The other boys’ mouths were beginning to water as Dovy went on describing all of the delicious kosher food that would be available when Moshiach came, until Rabbi Caplan spoke again.
“No, Doveleh, that’s not what I meant,” he said. “You see, all of these types of delicious food is not why the Chachomim wanted Moshiach so badly. In fact, they weren’t even thinking about “אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבַש” when they davened their hearts out for binyan Beis Hamikdash.
“The Rambam says that the reason that the Chachomim desired Moshiach was so that they would not be controlled by the Goyim anymore. Instead they would be free to spend all of their time learning Torah!
“When Moshiach comes, we will all be able to learn Torah without having to worry about parnossah or antisemites throwing stuff at us on the streets. We won’t be tempted to busy ourselves with politics or elections because we will have a tzaddik, Moshiach ben Dovid, as our king and he will ensure that we are free to spend our entire day shteiging and becoming Talmidei Chachomim!
“Can you imagine? Instead of ‘Gross’s Real Kosher Ice Cream’, we will have ‘Gross’s “Real Shteiging” Gemoras;’ instead of ice cream with 800 toppings, they’ll make gemaras with 800 meforshim! Can you imagine? Instead of everyone lining up around the block to taste the latest flavor of ice cream, people will be running as fast as they could to the seforim stores to buy the latest seforim, to get their hands on as much Torah as possible!”
“What?” said Dovy. “We won’t have ice cream when Moshiach comes?”
“Of course we’ll have ice cream when Moshiach comes,” Rabbi Caplan said reassuringly. “But trust me, that won’t be as important to you as it is now. Right now, the goyishe world bombards us with advertisements and the magazines talk about all sorts of gashmiyus, like a billion flavors of ice cream or the latest toys. But when Moshiach comes, all of that will stop. We will no longer be distracted by the senseless ideas of the goyim and instead will get to hear Divrei Torah all day and night.”
“And trust me, when all you hear is Divrei Torah instead of the silly nonsense from the outside world, a Posuk, Mishnah, or Gemara will be more geshmak than the best ice cream cone you could ever imagine.”
“Incredible!” said Dovy. “Better than ice cream? I can’t wait for Moshiach to come. In fact, I think I will bli neder try to spend more time learning and less time reading ice cream advertisements so that the Torah can start being geshmak for me right now!”
Have A Wonderful Shabbos!