Chicken or
Pasta?
I know I’ve told you this before,
but it was after all almost two years ago.
When I fly transoceanic, I always look forward to hearing the cabin
attendant ask me those three immortal words:
Chicken or pasta? What do
I want to eat for dinner? Chicken or
pasta? It’s always the same
choices. Now I can report that Virgin
Australia is no different in this respect from Qantas, or from United, or from
Lufthansa, or El Al, or…whatever. Chicken
or Pasta? It’s one of those choices
we make in life that absolutely does not matter. Why not?
Because whichever you choose, it is almost guaranteed to be more-or-less
edible…and completely unmemorable. When was
the last time you had a memorable meal when flying? I mean, unless you flew First Class or
perhaps Business. But in Economy, there’s
never a meal to write home about.
It’s
refreshing to be asked to make a choice that does not matter one whit, because
so many of our choices in life are important…and the choices we make may have
lasting repercussions. Choices like what
major to matriculate in university. Whom
to marry. Where to live, as in what
country or what city. All these choices
will have great effect on our ultimate happiness in life. We therefore should make them only with great
consideration and even trepidation. But Chicken
or Pasta? Who cares?
As I
related to you before, my son Eyal sweats every decision. Faced with the choice between Chicken or
Pasta, he’ll ponder until there’s a danger of the flight attendant moving
on, with the result that Eyal won’t get any dinner at all. Similarly, one night we were out with an
equally-fussy friend of mine on a summer holiday in Moab, Utah. Dinner was easy; it was a pizza buffet! But we decided to go to a different local
place for ice cream after dinner. Eyal
and my friend had to try half a dozen flavours on those little plastic spoons
they use to give samples. I think they
both even asked for a second sample of one or two before making up their minds. I had already finished half my ice cream and
they were still discussing. Come on,
guys, I urged them. It’s just ice
cream! Just pick a flavour and
enjoy! To which Eyal replied: But Abba; it could be life-changing! Now some choices are life
changing, but what ice cream flavour to eat, is not one of them. Neither is Chicken or Pasta.
The
last time I related this story, I know it resonated with at least one person
then present. One of our members related
to me that, a few days after hearing my drash, she’d had trouble making a minor
decision. And her daughter scolded her: It’s just like the Rabbi said, Mum:
Chicken or Pasta? It doesn’t matter!
This
week’s Torah portion is Korach. I’ve
been asked before: how long does it take
me to prepare the Torah reading each week?
And my answer is: it depends. Because we’re not reading a large quantity of
Torah each week, it is generally quite manageable. And that’s a very good thing. Especially so on weeks like this one when I
arrived in town only on Wednesday and very jet-lagged from flying across the
USA and the Pacific Ocean. But when I
looked at this week’s Torah reading yesterday and began preparing to read it, I
realised that I already knew the text.
That’s because Korach was Eyal’s bar mitzvah portion. I struggled with him over several months to
teach him the first Aliyah, which is
our reading here this year. I also
prepared another young man, years earlier in England, to read the same text for
his bar mitzvah. I was therefore pleased
to find that I could prepare this week’s Torah reading with a minimum of
effort. (So, looking forward to seeing
you in shule tomorrow, to share it with you…)
The portion
Korach is about choices. Korach, of the
tribe of Levi, leads a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and the
priesthood of Aaron. As I pointed out
last year when talking about this portion, there was really no valid reason for
the rebellion. Korach and his gang
didn’t find Moses’ leadership wanting in any way. They just wanted to be the ones in
charge. They made a choice, an emotional
one, to reject Moses’ leadership even though they could make no case for their
own superior fitness to lead. They
simply wanted to be the Top Banana themselves.
In making their power-play, they caused their own demise and that of
many innocent people. Last year, I
offered you a lesson to take away from this episode. When we make bad choices, the consequences
can be far-reaching. Not only for us,
but for those close to us. Korach and
his company made a very bad choice. This
was no Chicken or Pasta decision.
This was one that mattered.
Our
task, as we go through life, is to make good decisions. But additionally, our peace-of-mind requires
that we learn to discern between the decisions that matter a lot, those that
matter little, and those that don’t matter at all. Because we do want to consider most
carefully when making the big, important decisions. But we don’t want to be paralysed with fear
when faced with decisions that don’t matter.
Like Chicken or Pasta.
Korach
was faced with the all-important choice of accepting Moses’ leadership, or
making a senseless power-play to usurp it.
He chose poorly. He and his
consorts would have done well to sit down and really think about why they
wanted to challenge Moses. Just like so
many others in organisational life, who make power plays for no reason other
than self-aggrandisement. Imagine if all
the energy expended on the gossip, back-stabbing and other intrigue that goes
along with such power-plays were instead directed towards positive and helpful
ends. Our world would be so much better. Both our micro-world, and our macro-world.
On
the other hand, we should learn not to sweat inconsequential decisions. Like what flavour ice cream. Or, Chicken or Pasta.
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