“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Bamidbar, Erev Shavuos
4 Sivan 5779/June 7, 2019
Avos perek 6 – 48sh day of the Omer
PENNY FOR YOUR PENNY
I once heard the following observation – if someone tells you “A penny for your thoughts” and you stick in your two cents, do you get a penny back?
When I was younger, every morning before leaving to school my mother would give me and my siblings a penny to deposit in the pushka. I dutifully gave my penny to tzedakah every morning. But I was always somewhat envious of my mother’s collection of pennies. I must admit that I harbored some clandestine thoughts about keeping the penny each morning.
I recently calculated that if I had kept every penny since I was in kindergarten 40 years ago, assuming there are about 250 schooldays per year, I would now have 10,000 pennies. That’s $100! Do you know what I can buy for $100? Honestly, not much. But a penny earned is a penny earned. At any rate, the whole calculation is worthless (literally) because my mother stopped giving me a daily penny when I was in 2nd grade.
Recently the US Mint announced that, after 230 years of penny production, they will no longer be minting new pennies.
The penny was first minted in 1793. Its original design featured a woman with flowing hair representing liberty. President Lincoln was first featured on the penny in 1909 to mark 100 years since his birth.
Over the years, the coin’s size and composition changed from pure copper to a copper-zinc blend.
There are an estimated 114 billion pennies currently in circulation (I didn’t count. I’m relying on what I read). According to the Treasury department, most of those pennies are “severely underutilized”. Many are in coin jars or junk drawers, or some other forgotten location gathering dust. I actually thought most of them are in puddles on the side of the road.
Over the past 10 years, the total production cost of the penny has risen from 1.3 cents to 3.69 cents per penny. The Mint reported losing $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion
pennies it produced during the 2024 fiscal year. The Treasury estimates that stopping production of the penny will save the government $56 million a year in reduced material costs.
The irony is that a nickel is even more expensive to make, costing 13.78 cents for each 5-cent coin. It costs 5.76 cents to make a dime and 14.68 cents to make a quarter. My conclusion is that it would make sense if we didn’t mint so much cents.
The little penny symbolizes humility. I conjecture that if Hashem wanted to give the Torah upon a coin, He would have chosen the penny. Although the Torah is invaluable, one can only internalize its timeless messages if he minimizes his own ego.
The penny also symbolizes the little things in life that we so quickly overlook, yet are so vital. The fact is that life is made up of myriad small moments and encounters. Each moment affords us a new opportunity to choose how we will conduct ourselves and how we will respond to whatever is occurring. All those little moments and decisions comprise our identity and persona.
In his bestselling book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie relates the following story:
“On the slope of Long’s Peak in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree. Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years.
“It was a seedling when Columbus landed at El Salvador, and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. During the course of its long life, it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all.
“In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and leveled it to the ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.
“Aren’t we all like the battling giant of the forest? Don’t we manage somehow to survive the rare storms and avalanches and lightning blasts of life, only to let our hearts be eaten out by little beetles of worry – little beetles that could be crushed between a finger and a thumb?”
The converse is also true. The many small, positive and seemingly insignificant choices we make are the building blocks of growth. I’ve often thought that the small bricks on top of the Kosel symbolize this idea. The more numerous lower layers of the Kosel comprise massive stones, most weighing between 2-8 tons. (The largest stone weighs 570 tons.) But the top layers are comprised of much smaller stones that were added centuries later, closer to our time. Four rows were added by the Umayyads during the Byzantine era. The next fourteen layers were added by the Ottoman Turks. The top three layers were added even more recently.
I have no doubt that the intentions of those who added those layers was not to symbolize anything regarding the Jewish people. However, as the Kosel is at the heart of the Jewish world, it is logical to attribute meaning to what one sees when he gazes at the ancient wall.
Our generation has been compared to small men atop the shoulders of giants. Although Moshiach did not come for the great Torah luminaries of past generations, we still believe that he will come for us. We are like the top rows of the Kosel. We may be spiritually diminutive compared to generations past, but we are so close to the top. The small bricks we are adding are all that remains to complete the task.
In a similar vein, Kabbolas HaTorah is not only a general acceptance of the Torah. It also entails accepting every facet and nuance of halachah connected to every component of our lives. It’s not just about the big stuff. It’s about accepting every detail to the best of our ability.
The Mishnah (Avos 2:1) states that one should perform light mitzvos like he performs stringent mitzvos “because you do not know the reward for any mitzvah.”
There are no spiritual pennies. Every single mitzvah is an opportunity like a priceless gem. What determines the value of a mitzvah is only in how it is performed – how much passion, how much effort and how much intent.
As we prepare ourselves for the great Chag of Kabbalas HaTorah, we lovingly, reverently and joyously recommit ourselves to its timeless teachings, with all their nuances and details.
That definitely makes a lot of sense.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Freilichen Yom Tov & Chag Sameiach,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum