Derekh Eretz

Certain Hebrew terms convey great meaning.  Yiddish is the same.  Ever try translating ‘shmooze’?  Or ‘noodnik’?   Or ‘oy gevalt’?

The phrase derekh eretz is similar.  It conveys great depth.  Derekh eretz literally means the way of the land.  But the inner meaning of the phrase goes well beyond that.

Our ancient tradition has laws that cover just about every situation we would ever encounter.  We know how much tzedakah to give, how to give it; what kind of spouse to choose; how to litigate; what is kosher and how often to have sex.  Yet the one thing the tradition cannot legislate is derekh eretz.

The Torah tells us what honesty means but it cannot detail the intricacies of facial expression, body movement, or the way we look at one another.  There are just too many variables to consider!

          For example.  The Torah tells us to respect our elders.  It says that we should show them courtesy and deference that.   Yet, what does this mean?  Rabbenu Yonah of Gerona, centuries later, interprets to mean that when speaking to or about the elderly and scholarly we are to use words of respect.  This is derekh eretz.

The Midrash makes a remarkable statement when it says derekh eretz kodma la’Torah, that is, even before the Torah was given, humanity was endowed with a sense of derekh eretz, an understanding of correct behavior.  While the Torah teaches us how to conduct our personal and communal lives it is understood that without derekh eretz all else is devalued.

The Talmud states that a wise person does not open his mouth before being addressed by one much wiser; they do not interrupt another mid-sentence; they do not reply hastily…”.  All these ideas are one person’s attempt to address what is derekh eretz.  It is ultimate common sense.

         A friend tells the story of a newspaper boy standing in the cold rain.  An old man saw the boy shivering in a doorway and went to buy a paper.  “My boy, aren’t you terribly cold standing here?”  The boy looked up with a warm smile and said “I was, sir, before you came.”

         This is derekh eretz.