Question of the Week:
I am emailing you at 3:30am because I can't sleep. Nothing very dramatic, but there is a mosquito in my room that keeps buzzing in my ear and driving me crazy. So I got thinking, why did G-d create mosquitos? What possible purpose could they serve other than annoying people when they are trying to sleep?
Answer:
Be careful who you call annoying. That mosquito may deserve more respect than you think.
Indeed, the Talmud has some harsh words for mosquitoes. It says that while all creatures contribute to the grand scheme of nature, the mosquito is one exception. It is a consumer, but not a giver. It survives by sucking the blood produced by others, but doesn't itself produce anything useful for the world. To take and not give back is the exact opposite of holiness.
And yet, a mosquito may in some cases be better than a human being. Because even when a mosquito annoys you or bites you, it is just doing what it was created to do. But when a person annoys and bites, causes pain and fails to make the world better, then we are lower than a mosquito, because we are neglecting to fulfill the mission for which we were created. A blood-sucking, sleep depriving mosquito is just doing the job of being a mosquito, but a selfish, lazy or spiteful person is not what a person is supposed to be.
In this way, the mosquito does actually make a valuable contribution to the world. It teaches us this very lesson, that being a good mosquito is not being a good person. Unless you want to be worse than an annoying insect, you had better be contributing to the world in a positive way. A day cannot go by without doing a mitzvah. We are not on this earth to eat and party and sit around watching our life go by, we are here to create a buzz about goodness and fix the world. The mosquito is doing his buzz, you do yours.
For that you might need to get some sleep.
Good night,
Rabbi Moss
Sources: Talmud Gittin 56b, Sanhedrin 38a, Tanya Chapter 24, Sicha Achron Shel Pesach 5744
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SERVICES AT NEFESH
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SHABBOS SERVICES
Friday, 20 March 2015 | 29 Adar 5775
Earliest Candle Lighting 5:51pm
Candle Lighting 6:49pm
Mincha 6:15pm
Friday night Shabbos Service 6:30-7:15pm followed by Kiddush sponsored by Vera and William Feuermann in honour of the yorzeit of Felix Feuermann (Zelig ben Gitel HaLevi) on 27 Adar/ 18 March.
Shabbos Day, 21 March 2015 | Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5775
Parshas Vayikra - Hachodesh
The Chassidic Parshah Class 9:00am
Shabbos Service 10:00 am-12:15pm
Followed by a communal Shabbos lunch sponsored by: Jeremy and Nikki Kintslinger, Matthew & Elana Jones, Grant Smuts, Michael Basserabie, Larry Diamond and Josh Borenstein, in honour of Grant and Matthew's first reading of the Torah, with a L'Chaim sponsored by Elana Castle in honour of her late grandmother's yorzeit Leah bat Edel z'l.
Mincha 6:45pm followed by Seuda Shlishis and words of Torah by Boaz Meshullam
Shabbos ends 7:43pm
WEEKDAY SERVICES
Shacharis
Sunday 8:00am
Monday-Friday 7:00am
Latest Shema this week 10:00am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
Noach Kessel for 29 Adar/ 20 March
Robert Goldshaft for 4 Nissan/ 24 March
Shaul Creighton for 6 Nissan/ 26 March
Ben Cohen for 6 Nissan/ 26 March
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO
Ben & Laurel Weinberg for 2 Nissan/ 22 March
LONG LIFE TO THE FOLLOWING WHO HAVE YORZEITS THIS WEEK
Elana Castle for her late grandmother (Leah Castle) Leah bat Edel on 29 Adar/20 March
Victoria Hoch for her late father Ruben Jorge Rachitzky (Reuven Yaacov ben Avraham) on 4 Nissan/ 24 March