“Ask your father and he will tell you; your elders and they will speak to you.”
-Devarim 32:7

For the past ten years, my 40-hour a week job has been to be a Contract Administrator. Recently, our company hired some new interns; one of them who was hired four months ago sits right next to me, so my supervisor has asked me to help train him. Normally, I sit in front of a computer to do my work, but occasionally, I visit contractor’s facilities for meetings. About two weeks ago, I made a visit to a contractor who has been doing repair work on a boat for four years and has been doing a great job with the repairs. My supervisor asked me to take along the intern, so I did, but during my visit, I began to have second thoughts about bringing him along. As we were touring the facility, this intern began to tell the contractor about things they were doing that were improper and preaching about all of the ways which our company could help them. Luckily, the contractor did not listen to him as they knew he was an intern. When we returned to the office, I had a discussion with him about his behavior and nicely told him that what he was doing was incorrect. He argued with me that I was wrong. He said he spoke with the head of our company and this is what he wants the interns to do. I told him I think he might have misunderstood the mission given to him, but he felt he knew better than me about this job.

The next day, I was working offsite and received an email from this intern telling me to call him immediately. I called him and he stated one of our biggest contractors who had a multi-million dollar contract was breaking the law and therefore, the contract should be cancelled. Without going into too much details, this contract has the highest visibility in my office and the upper management even keeps their eyes on this one. Also, I have worked with this contractor for a few years and never had a single problem with them. I asked the intern for a better explanation why he felt we needed to cancel this contract. He stated this contractor was recently bought out by a different company, and he had previous dealings with the other company that were not good. Therefore, because of his previous dealings with this company, he stated that this contractor would not be able to deliver the product and would be out of business within a few weeks, if not sooner. I tried to explain to him that if we cancel this contract, it would end up in court and we do not have any real information that would be able to back ourselves up. Nothing that he told me about had any proof. Furthermore, I checked with other people in our office who visit this contractor’s facility numerous times each week and they told me this contractor was working ahead of schedule and doing a great job.

Later that day, I was talking with my supervisor and explained to her what had happened the past few days. I was wondering if I was wrong. She told me that I definitely was not wrong, and that she needed to talk to this intern. He was incorrect in what he was doing. He should never make statements like the ones he was making, but especially since he had only four months of experience, he never should be saying those types of things.

After these events, I wondered why G-d put me through them and I think, in my humble opinion, I might have found a possibility. To be a Rabbi, one must go through much training. The average Rabbinic program includes five to ten or even thirteen years of full time learning after a person graduates from high school. The average shul-goer today has no where near that amount of learning, but isn’t it amazing how many times the average congregant, who goes to a few night classes a week, has no problem stating “the Rabbi is incorrect.” As the above was read, everyone probably felt the intern was a fool for what he was doing, but do we think the same when someone with a little amount of Torah experience argues with a great Rabbi? Of course, it is permitted to question a Rabbi so we can better understand his answer, but even if we find the answer unsatisfactory, this does not mean the Rabbi is wrong. The Rabbi has much, much more experience and therefore, if his answer seems incorrect, it is because of our lack of knowledge.

As this new year of 5771 starts, it is a great time to remind ourselves how great our Rabbis are! During the next two weeks, Rabbis will be delivering sermons and inspiring people to repent and change their ways. Our job is to realize the Rabbi is correct and he is speaking for our benefit.

May we all be written and sealed for a good year and may this year be one full of peace and happiness. And may we quickly see the coming of Moshiach, in our days!

Good Shabbos & L’Shana Tova!
-yes
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