Greenish-blue wool, dark red wool, crimson wool…red ram’s skins, tachash skins… (Shemos 25:4-5)

Tachash: a kind of animal that existed only at that time. It had many colors. (RASHI)

(The idea for this week’s Divrei Simcha came from Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier’s new book entitled “Stop Surviving, Start Living”)

In 1903, Crayola developed its first box of crayons with eight colors: black, brown, orange, violet, blue, red, yellow, and green. Since 1949, though, Crayola has added many new colors. Fluorescent colors were added in the 1970s. Still many shades were missing so Crayola added more colors like Pink Sherbet, Eggplant, Pink Flamingo, Granny Smith Apple, and my personal favorite, Macaroni and Cheese. Now Crayola has a box that is full of 120 different colored crayons! And actually, Crayola is still far, far away from having every shade of color. Estimates say the number of colors a human eye can see are 10 million different colors! (imagine how much it would cost to buy that box of crayons!)

This past weekend I noticed the star fruit tree in my in-laws backyard was in bloom, and since I know my neighbors enjoy eating star fruit, I decided to pick some for them. I walked next to the tree and saw the beautiful bright yellow color hanging on the tree and grabbed for them. Other star fruit on the tree were still green so I left those to grow more for a different visit. Rabbi Avigdor Miller, of blessed memory, once stated an interesting fact. What color is every fruit before it is fully ripe? Green! The reason is because the unripe fruit is the same color as the leaves of the tree and it is harder to notice it. G-d is sending us a sign: don’t look at it yet because it is not ripe. But when it is ripe, then the beautiful colors of the rainbow come out and catch our eyes. We see the red of apples, yellow of bananas, and orange of oranges. The colors catch our attention!

If we had to, we could live our life in black and white. Ever watch black and white TV before? (I know – this was a really long time ago… I guess I’m getting old.) Viewers could tell the difference between people and backgrounds and scenes even though they were in black and white. The plot of the show could be followed even though it was in black and white. So why are there so many colors in this world?

The Mesilas Yesharim (using the Feldheim translation) states, “Our Sages of blessed memory have taught us that man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in G-d and deriving pleasure from the splendor of His Presence.” Colors affect our emotions. Different colors make us feel differently. Manufacturers spend large amounts of money to find out which color makes people buy their products. Movie makers use different colors on the set to affect how people view the scenes. Car makers have a variety of colors that each model is offered in because people like different colors. Basically, colors affect our emotions. Colors make us feel happier. And this is why G-d put colors in this world. Colorful things are in this world for us to rejoice in G-d. G-d did not make a plain, dull world. He made a world that is exciting and full of color! Every color we see, we should thank G-d for making this world we live in.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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