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Good is Best
I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I have been asked how (in a few short weeks) we could possibly celebrate our spiritual freedom through the receiving of and committing to Torah, when a Torah life style seems to be surfeited with restriction and servitude.
Yet we are told not to read the words describing the aseret hadibrot, the Decalogue, as "charut al haluchot," engraved on the tablets, but rather cheirut, free due to the laws of the Ten Commandments. As our Rabbis aver in Pirkei Avot, "ein l'cha bein chorin, ela mee sh'osek b'talmud tora," only one engaged in Torah is truly free.
In his book, "The Paradox of Choice," Barry Schwartz suggests that the source of so much discontent and unhappiness is the over abundance of available options. In repeated studies, psychologists and sociologists have experimented offering consumers a choice of 23 jams versus a choice of three jams and have found that 23 jam options paralyze the consumer with indecisiveness resulting in obsessive thoughts and inaction, whereas three jam options allow the consumer to decide and select what they want. The overarching question is why?
Schwartz posits that the difference lies in the psychology that overtakes the individual making a 23 option choice versus the mindset of the person making a three option choice. In the first case, met with multitudinous options, the person shifts to asking "which is the best?" Whereas with less choices, the mindset focuses on "what is really good?"
"Which is best?" is a near- impossible question to answer, especially considering the nuanced and at times minute differences between each option. Furthermore, perhaps in a different mood, or a different light, an alternate flavor would be "best." Indecision and inaction result because of the fear of making the wrong decision. With 23 choices, good is not good enough; it must be, it better be, the best! The Torah never speaks of best. It speaks of good..."kee Tov lecha Kol hayamim"
The world is a big place and the options of what, where and how are infinite. G-d has chosen what is good for us. He has limited our choices, to make us happier and facilitate good choices. He wants us to choose good and good is "best." That is cheirut.
Shabbat Shalom,
Mrs. Ora Lee Kanner
Principal
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