Join the Conversation
Jewminations
RUMINATIONS + A RABBI'S IDEAS ON JEWISH LIFE = THIS BLOG. WELCOME!
Komen, the Ten and the Tenor Upstairs
There’s a story told of an elderly gentleman, a retired music teacher, who lived in a boarding house. His health was not good, he was confined to a wheelchair. Each morning a neighbor of his, a student, would stop by his room and ask, “What’s the good news?” The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say, “That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. I can hear the tenor upstairs—he sings flat! The piano across the hall, it’s out of tune, but, my friend, this tuning fork will always be middle C!”
In our tradition, we have a middle C, and it’s called Torah. In fact, the Torah itself has a middle C, and we read it this week in Parashat Yitro. What we often call, “the Ten Commandments.” There are hundreds of Commandments in the Torah- 613, according to our tradition- but these are “the Ten.” Middle C.
Read more