KI TEYTZEY 5779

Do you drink sugary sodas like Coca-cola? Being from Atlanta, I certainly hope you don’t drink Pepsi. Well last week The Journal of the American Medical Association published a finding that—after studying mortality in more than 450,000 people across 10 European countries—those who drink sugary sodas or diet sodas die younger than those who don’t.

Sugary sodas shouldn’t be much of a surprise because too much sugar has long been associated with health problems. But why would drinking diet sodas lead to premature death? A New York Times article commenting on this finding notes that this study only shows an “association” between drinking diet soda and death. From this we might assume that diet sodas causes premature death…but it’s also possible that the opposite is true—that it helps weight loss and can contribute to one’s health.

How so? In the words of Vasanti Malik, researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health: It could be that diet soda drinkers eat a lot of bacon or perhaps it’s because there are people who rationalize their unhealthy lifestyle by saying, “Now that I’ve had a diet soda, I can have those French fries.” In other words, drinking diet soda may not be a “cause” of bad health, but an “effect” of those who don’t take care of their health. Isn’t this an interesting way to look at it?

How many of you have been known to take a nap from time to time? Well, this week, another study was published on the long-term effects of napping. The study found that, people who napped once or twice a week have lower heart rates and better heart health than those who don’t nap at all or those who nap every day. Researchers are baffled by this. What is it about taking the right amount of naps per week?

I’m no expert—although I’ve been known to take a nap occasionally—but perhaps these researchers should read the New York Times article about diet soda. Maybe it’s not a “cause” but an “effect.” People who never nap include a lot of people who are overstressed. People who nap every day include people who don’t take care of their health. It’s always important to examine what’s the “cause” and what’s the “effect.”

This cause/effect phenomenon extends to so many aspects of our lives. When we associate with people or a group of people that aren’t necessarily on our level, we can cause the level of that group to grow or we can be the effect. Today’s Torah reading (Deut. 21:1-3) speaks about when one notices his neighbor’s ox or sheep going astray. What do you do? You can hide and—as we say in Yiddish, Mach nisht visindik— make like you don’t see it, or you can help your neighbor as the Torah commands and return it to its owner. You can be part of the “effect” of your neighbor’s loss or you can be part of the “cause” of helping him regain what he lost.

The mystical work Nefesh HaChayim teaches that every single action we take creates innumerable worlds, either good or bad. His vision for the Afterlife was that when we die, we live in all those worlds we have created. But even in this world, the effects of what we do can spread far and wide. We cannot overestimate the impact of even the simplest gesture, words, thoughts and actions. Every time we show enthusiasm for Torah and Jewish life, people notice…and enthusiasm is infectious. And the opposite is also true. When we hear others condemn Israel, do we rise to the challenge and speak up or do we slink back to the comfort of our smart phones with pods in our ears and close our eyes to what’s happening around us? The choice is ours, but the impact is real. Are we a “cause” or an “effect?”

Getting back to sugary sodas and the like, let me ask: How many of us tell the truth when someone asks us our weight? We hem and haw a little or pretend we didn’t hear the question. It’s unpleasant to stand naked in the bathroom staring down past our toes—if we can see them—reading the numbers on the scale. So, most of us lie about our weight. In fact, most of us occasionally lie or exaggerate about how much all kinds of things weigh. Ask a fisherman how big was the fish he caught today? Ask a rabbi how many people came to his shul last Shabbos?

I knew someone who studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, NY. A wholesale butcher—who sold to some of New York’s finest restaurants—guest-lectured on buying beef. The butcher began his talk by holding up a 7lb meat hook. “You see this meat hook?” he barked, “These extra 7 pounds put on the scale of every sale put my 3 kids through college!”

It reminded me of a story my father once told me. My father was in the scrap metal business in Brooklyn. He dealt mostly with army surplus. But there was this other dealer who described how almost daily some customer would try to cheat him by sitting in his truck while it was weighed for scrap. The idea was to get their body weight included in the load, thereby being paid for an extra 200 pounds or so of metal. So the dealer hung the current playmate centerfold away from the scale dial, thus enabling him to shave off a couple hundred pounds while the driver’s eyes were cleverly distracted.

Truth be told, few of us like to live with what the scale really says. We all want a little more or a little less than we deserve. But lest we think this charge-‘em-for-the-meat-hook skullduggery is a new problem, this week’s Torah portion (Deut. 25:15) warns against the same thing: “You must have completely honest weights and measures if you are to endure long on the soil that Hashem your Gd, is giving you.”

Employing dishonest weights and measures in the marketplace is a serious Torah offense—a breakdown of trust in community, a never-ending cycle of anger, deception and revenge; a cheat-or-be-cheated world.

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, we’re reminded of another scale where Gd weighs our good deeds and our sins. It’s the time to read our personal scales with painful accuracy—without the slightest trick or gimmick. The Chassidic master Rabbi Elimelech said: When I die and stand in the Court of Justice, they will ask me if I had been as just as I should have. I will answer no. Then they will ask me if I had been as charitable as I should have. I will answer no. Did I study as much as I should have? Again, I will answer no. Did I pray as much as I should have? And this time, too, I will have to give the same answer. Then the Supreme Judge will smile and say: “Elimelech, you spoke the truth. For this You shall enter Heaven.”

My friends, last year’s promises came too easily to our lips, and we were too quick to weigh others’ deeds harshly—but how well have we measured up this past year? How willing are we to seek the truth, to strip ourselves bare and stare down at the numbers—the real numbers? For the good and for the bad, were we the cause or the effect? Amen!