R' Amichai Gordin in Shabbat Bi-shabbato
Bernard Raskin said, "In the center of large cities the prices are always high. There are always more buyers than sellers. That is how it is in Manhattan and in Paris. It is also true of Tel Aviv. There is no way to fight this."
The interviewer asked, "So what do you propose? How can we reduce the cost of housing?" Raskin, who is the general manager of a very large real estate agency, did not try to evade the issue. "The solution to the housing problem will not be found in the Ministry of Housing or in the Ministry of Finance but rather in the Ministry of Transportation and in the Ministry of Education. What is needed is for the outlying areas such as Kiryat Gat and Ashkelon to be made closer to Gush Dan, the area of Tel Aviv, by making rapid means of transportation available. It is also necessary to make sure that the education in those places is the very best possible. And that will lead to affordable housing."
But the interviewer would not let Raskin off that easily. "These solutions are good for the distant future. What can we do in the short term?" Raskin's reply was precise and to the point. "In the short term, we must tell the public that there are no short term solutions."
["Nachon L'Haboker, Galei Tzahal, the seventeenth of Adar.]
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Our culture is built up on a principle of immediate gratification. We demand solutions for problems right away. There must be an immediate solution to the problem of the high cost of living, the problems of education, and security. Here and now we demand a peace treaty, here and now we must have affordable housing. Here and now!
We are living in a "microwave" culture. Everything must be ready within two minutes. There is no such thing as a continuing process, no patience exists at all. Anything that doesn't come immediately is by definition faulty. We will never accept anything like that.
Our Torah is diametrically opposed to such an approach. One of the main principles of the Torah is that there are times when a problem has no immediate solution. Quite often we must show restraint and patience. Not everything will come to us on the spot.
One of the record instances of restraint appears in the remarkable Midrash about the "fence of roses."
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"Your stomach is a pile of wheat, fenced in by roses" [Shir Hashirim 7:3]. Fenced in by roses? Who guards a field of wheat with a fence made of roses? The more normal thing is to guard a field with thorns, wire fences, even barbed wire. Who guards his field with roses?
The Midrash replies to these questions. The mitzvot can be compared to roses. The fence of roses is a boundary made up of mitzvot. This fence of mitzvot protects a person from himself. Its purpose is to protect us from our own selves. The fence of roses is based on our internal sense of self discipline.
The Midrash tells an allegory about a couple who were eager to participate in their own wedding ceremony, since there is no happier day in the world when they can show their joy of each other. At the end of the evening, they came to unite. She said to him that she saw "a drop of blood, red as a rose." He left her – he turned his head to one side and she turned to the other side.
Who caused them to separate? What serpent bit them, what scorpion stung them? What fence is there between them? That is the "fence of roses."
(See Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tissa 2.)
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Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik adds the following: What forces the young groom to separate from his bride, to whom he was drawn at first. Is it an external force, some physical danger? No. Who could blame him if he would commit a sin? Who can criticize him if he would not be able to overcome his evil inclination? Who else would know what he had done? This entire drama enfolds in a closed room, in the middle of the night. He is not stopped by a steel boundary, rather by a hedge of roses. All he would have to do is to step on the hedge and crush the flowers.
However, the unique power that is found in every Jew prevents him from doing a wild act – to crush fresh and beautiful flowers which cannot defend themselves. This is quiet heroism, silent might about which no epic songs are written. The prowess of this young groom is greater than that of Alexander the Great and of Napoleon.
(Rabbi Soloveitchik, Five Sermons, page 65.)
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The amazing power of the fence of roses is based on self-control and a dedication to the Torah, but it also includes an impressive measure of repressing gratification. You, the couple who are in love: you cannot consummate it now, it will come in the future. Don't worry, you will live together, but just not yet.
"But what about the short term? What solution is there for our problem in the short term?" That is what the couple asks. And the holy spirit replies, "In the short term you must tell yourselves that there is no short-term solution..."
