Had they slept on it, the issue would’ve resolved itself when Moshe returned

“When the people saw that Moshe was late in coming down from the mountain, the people… said… ‘Make us gods that will go before us….’ ” (Shemos 32:1)

A mere 40 days after accepting the Torah at Har Sinai, Bnei Yisrael committed the worst sin in our national history: making and worshipping a golden calf. While this episode is recorded in the Torah and is therefore incumbent upon us to study, it’s difficult for us to relate and find lessons that we can apply to our own lives.

In his sefer based on the advice of the Steipler, Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Greenwald discusses common mistakes that people make. One is that for every challenge a person confronts, he feels there must be a clear resolution. Until he’s able to find the proper answer to the situation, he’s deeply perturbed, not only by the actual problem, but also by his inability to immediately respond. (Rabbi Ozer Alport, Parsha Potpourri)

INthe corporate offices of Peritzman and Sons, I hold the position of COO. My duties include troubleshooter and crisis manager, a job that requires quick thinking and constant solutioning.

“Ma, I can’t find my shoes!”

“They’re under the kitchen table together with your dirty socks.”

“Ma, I can’t find my hamster!” This one necessitates calling in emergency personnel to hunt down the poor hapless hamster and save the poor helpless mother.

Crisis control includes Band-Aids for boo-boos, tissues for tears, and solutions to any of the myriads of issues that crop up on a daily basis.

I like to think I’m well-suited for the job and have so far created quite a track record.

This approach is incorrect. Because of our tendency to feel that we must immediately solve the problem, we blindly grasp for a way out and end up making bad choices that compound the original situation and make it even worse. If we find ourselves facing a dilemma with no readily apparent solution, it would be far preferable to simply accept the ambiguity and sleep on it until the proper course of action becomes clear or the situation resolves itself.

One Shabbos morning we were just starting the seudah. We had company for Shabbos, so I was more on top of things than usual, hoping things would go smoothly in front of our guests.

We went to wash netilas yadayim in the kitchen. On the way out, Binyamin took the towel with him into the dining room. Avi wanted the towel, so instead of passing him the towel like a normal being, Binyamin decided to be a boy and tossed the towel across the room to Avi.

The towel hit the spinning ceiling fan, got caught in the blade, and spun around for a second before hitting the string hanging down from the fan. The impact slammed the string onto the cover of the light fixture between the fan blades, which promptly smashed into smithereens all across the dining room table.

Rashi writes that when Moshe didn’t return at the time that Bnei Yisrael expected him, they erroneously concluded that he’d died. As a result, they were distraught and confused about who would lead them.

Had they slept on it, the issue would’ve resolved itself when Moshe returned the following day. However, they felt such a burning, pressing need for immediate action that they opted for an ill-fated plan that changed the course of history.

The whole thing happened in seconds, and I stood there in shock. For once, I had nothing to say; the towel had done all the talking. I racked my brain for some way to respond, to fix the situation, to hide my embarrassment, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, before I could figure out an appropriate reaction, Binyamin fetched the broom while Avi reset the dining room table, and then we continued with our seudah sans light fixture.

As COO, I learned an important lesson. Not everything has a response. Often the best reaction is silence and to just patch up what needs to be fixed. Believe me, by the next day I was so much more able to deal with the issue, and calmly went out to buy a new light fixture. But for the record, I think it’s time I received a raise.

 (Originally featured in Family First, Issue 984)