The Torah instructs us that should a person find a carcass of an animal in the field which was not slaughtered properly, it must be thrown to the dogs. Jews are not permitted to eat the meat of a kosher animal unless it has been slaughtered properly.
Our Sages comment on the strange teaching of feeding such a carcass to the dogs and expound that these are the same dogs that were trained to protect this animal, and as a reward for their hard work and vigilance, they were given the carcass to consume.
The obvious question: Why should we repay a dog for a job that was not done well? After all, the dog failed this time and, quite the contrary, did not protect this poor animal. Do we reward failure?
To this our Rabbis comment that though this time the dog failed, he was successful in previous times. In recognition of the good that was performed in the past, we reward the dog with the meat of the animal that he did not protect. How much more so when dealing with people! When one looks at the accomplishments of an individual, we are required to look at the entire picture, not just one incident, and give credit where credit is due.
The world as I know it today represents a “disposable” society. We buy paper or plastic products, and when we are done using them one time, we easily dispose of them. Factories are constantly looking for ways to make life easier and find easily disposable items to insure our comfort. In many cases, this “disposable doctrine” has entered the entire psyche of the American public as well, and we find that this is the attitude people adopt when recognizing the good or past history of a person.
I knew a man who was treated in such a way. I had just arrived onto the Atlantic City scene and I met this remarkable person. He was someone with unbounded loyalty to the Jewish community. He served on all the boards of the community, his synagogue, the local Federation, and he gave tzedakah beyond his means. He tried to be an example to the Jewish community, and in his active years of involvement he was sought after for his leadership qualities.
But as everything goes in life, he grew older and his involvement in the Jewish community waned. Sadly, when he died, there was barely a minyan at his funeral. Most of the community did not care. Most were only interested in “What have you done for me lately?” and not the larger picture of what this man had given to the Jewish community.
King Solomon was probably the greatest king of the Jewish people. There was prosperity for all and his wisdom was known throughout the civilized world. He had many wives and in his old age they caused him to stray and worship idolatry. There is a tension amongst our Sages in analyzing him. Yet he wrote some of the most beautiful works that have been included in our holy texts. Though criticizing him, our Sages took into account his entire life and his wisdom.
This ability to show respect for the entire life and accomplishments of an individual is essential if we want our children to have respect for our history and our past leaders.
But this quality is sorely lacking in the leadership of many of the so-called modern Day Schools, Federations, and synagogues. There you see the mentality of our disposable society in which unfortunately people are treated as disposable products without concern or respect to what they have accomplished in the past for the organization, the community, or the school that they worked for. It is a sad commentary on the levels of our decency and sensitivity and it begs our attention and efforts to correct.
