Congratulations! Here is our message to you, our dear graduates, derived from the making of...a pot of Cholent!
The first step is to fill the crock pot to the brim with potatoes. Now that the pot seems full, pour in a bag of beans and watch how they manage to slip right between the spaces. Add a bag of barley, and observe how the small kernels meander effortlessly between the cracks and crevices.
Schlep out your collection of spices and pour generous amounts of salt, pepper, and paprika all over. Isn’t it quite neat how the spices easily settle into what had seemed to be a completely full pot?
Finally, pour a jug of water into the pot. What a surprise! The entire jug fit right in without a drop spilling over the sides.
All that’s left is for you to lower your finger and flick the switch, turning on the heating element lying beneath. You just filled the pot with the most important ingredient of all — warmth. Without it, the pot may as well be empty.
Our dear graduates, you are about to move on to the big world where you will no longer have the luxury of studying all day. In time you will be consumed by the pressures of staying afloat and making a living.
But always remember this: your material pursuits are just the potatoes and beans of life. Your spirituality is the warmth. Until the fire is turned on, the pot is full of disparate ingredients. It is the warmth that unites them all into one single Cholent.
If you don’t maintain a spiritual connection and keep focused on the true meaning of your lives, then you will end up as a cold stew — very busy, very full, but completely empty. When you have lost touch with your soul, your family life will suffer and your career will be unfulfilled.
But if you keep the fire burning in your soul, it will bring warmth and inspiration to all your other activities. A spiritual connection imbues your entire life with meaning, keeps you anchored and directed, inspired and motivated. It permeates all you do with a sense of purpose, and makes you succeed.
You may be wondering how will you have time for all this?
You will find the answer by looking to the stew.
Did you notice that though the pot seemed full of potatoes and beans, barley, spices and water, when you added the warmth it did not overflow? Never think that adding spirituality to your schedule will overburden you. On the contrary, it will bring everything else in your life together, because it will remind you why you do all these other things in the first place. Spirituality is the warmth that does not take up space, it creates more.
You should never think that you are so busy that you can’t afford to concentrate on your soul. The truth is, you can’t afford not to. May G-d bless you that each and every one of you should always be a warm pot of Cholent.
Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Tiechtel are co-directors of KU Chabad
