In my neighborhood, there is a weekly advertising booklet that is circulated in the neighborhood that also features neighborhood news. Most people, it seems, read it.
This week there was a headline on the front page that informed us of a HUUUGE SCANDAL. The local supermarket is charging 10 agurot [about 3 cents] per plastic bag despite the fact that there is a list of supermarkets that have such permission [the editor took the trouble of listing all of those supermarkets] and our supermarket is not on the list.
IMAGINE!!! A neighborhood of thousands of people and THIS is what people are going to be thinking about. There are hundreds of millions of people all over the world living in abject poverty, there are people slowly dying all over the world of horrific diseases [including in Israel], there are blind people, deaf people, people suffering from debilitating mental illness, people going through painful divorces, people who are single and terribly lonely and the list of problems goes on and on.
In our parochial Jewish world we have limitless problems: Poverty, kids off the derech, people addicted to destructive forces such a foreign substances and the Internet, orphans, widows, etc. etc. etc. How many things we have to fix in this world. And the front page screams out "WE HAVE TO PAY 10 EXTRA AGUROT IN THE SUPERMARKET. WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!".
This might be a problem but it is about 23 thousand on the list. By presenting the issue as it was, it trivializes every else.
There are people in this neighborhood who don't have money for bread - and we are supposed to forget about that because bags are costing 3 cents. Wonder of wonders.
I will tell you sweet friends - It bothers me tremendously. How SMALL MINDED can people be!! How narrow! How petty!!
This is just an example. It is all over the place. A person who is in a foul mood because his sports team lost trivializes the real issues of life. A person who is in crisis because his phone is not charged and he doesn't have his recharger with him trivializes life's real problems. Etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
Beloved brothers and sisters!!!! We are here to FIX THE WORLD!!
Let's focus out efforts on things that really matter and relegate the less important matters to the periphery.
