Parshas Yisro - Sunken Chunk

Parshas Yisro

Sunken Chunk

By: Daniel Listhaus

אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי לְמִצְרָיִם וָאֶשָּׂא אֶתְכֶם עַל כַּנְפֵי נְשָׁרִים וָאָבִא אֶתְכֶם אֵלָי: וְעַתָּה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים כִּי לִי כָּל הָאָרֶץ

“You have seen what I did to Egypt, and that I carried you on the wings of eagles and brought you to Me. And now, if you listen well to Me and you will keep My covenant, you will be a treasure to Me from among the all the nations, for the earth is Mine.”

-Yisro 19:4-5

As the B'nei Yisroel were getting ready to accept the Torah, Hashem commanded Moshe to announce that if we decide now to listen to the mitzvos of Hashem, then we will become a treasure to Him. Rashi¹ on this passuk (verse) explains based on the Mechilta² that Hashem was telling us the following, “If you accept the Torah upon yourselves now, then it will be pleasant to you from now on, for all beginnings are difficult.” The Sifsei Chochomim³ comments here that Rashi stresses the word “if” because it is a conditional statement: If you accept the Torah now, then it will be pleasant in the future.

If we read this Rashi carefully, we will realize that there are a couple of difficulties. First, why is it that if we accept the Torah now it will be pleasant to us from now on? Was this a promise or a fact? Second, what is Rashi coming to add by saying, “because all beginnings are difficult”? What is that coming to explain? It sounds like the whole condition in the beginning of Rashi is pivoted on this idea or reason. But where exactly does it fit into the picture? Is it the reason as to why one should accept the Torah now, or is it supposed to represent the reason why it will be pleasant later?

Perhaps we could better appreciate and understand this Rashi if we introspect a fascinating area of human psychology. The first fact to realize is that when a person invests time in something it becomes important to him. The Nachalas Yaakov⁴ writes that there are two approaches to Torah. One approach is to jump in and work hard at it. The other method is, as the mishna in Pirkei Avos⁵ warns against, the attitude of, “I'll study Torah when I get around to it”. Starting any new project is difficult, especially an endless, life-time task of learning Torah and becoming closer to Hashem. However, it is the willingness of a person to, despite its difficulty, invest time in such an undertaking which makes the task precious in his eyes. In other words, it is indeed the reason that all beginnings are difficult which makes it that if a person decides to spend the time working on such a difficult project, that it will in fact become pleasant from now on. Something which people invest time into becomes important to them. It is a cause and effect relationship and this is what Rashi is pointing out: If one takes the step forward and spends the time working on Torah when it is most difficult, then surely it will be pleasant in one's eyes from now and on. This is a natural effect in investing time in something, it gains importance in one's eyes.

This is a tremendous lesson to take to heart. There is a dual relationship between chashivus (importance) and how we spend our resources. On the one hand, we are willing and actually desire to spend time and money for things which are important to us. On the other hand, this relationship works conversely as well. Things that we spend our resources – time or money – on also become chashuv (important) in our eyes.

Unfortunately, there is a flip-side to this area of psychology which often times works to our detriment. There are times that we spend time or money on a certain task and then cannot get ourselves to stop even when we realize that continuing would be a complete waste of time. In economics, this idea is known as sunk costs. Essentially, this concept describes the idea that a decision at any given point should be made independent of the history associated with the task at hand. To make this clearer, let us analyze an experiment that Max Bazerman, a professor at Harvard, does with his MBA students each year.⁶ Every year, this professor comes to class with a $20 bill and tells his students that he will be auctioning off the twenty dollars. There are two rules to this auction. The first rule is that the highest bidder receives the twenty dollars. The second rule is that the second highest bidder must pay the amount he bid for his last, losing bid without getting anything in return. For example, if the winning bidder bids nine dollars and the second to highest bidder offered eight dollars, the nine-dollar guy will win the $20, while the eight-dollar bidder will have to pay the professor without getting anything in return.

The auction starts at one dollar and quickly reaches the $12-$16 range, at which point usually all students leave the auction except for two or three. Slowly, the bidding reaches $20. At this point all the onlookers start laughing because it is clear to everyone that it is impossible for any one of the remaining bidders to come out making money. Yet, despite this realization, the bidding almost always goes beyond $21. As a matter of fact, most of these auctions go beyond $50 and often up to $100. One time the winning bid actually went all the way to $204! The force behind this drive to keep bidding is called Loss Aversion. People are afraid to lose or feel that they have lost and will continue spending money in order not to admit to a loss.

This same principle could also be seen when it comes to spending time on something. For example, imagine you go to an amusement park and you really want to go on a certain roller coaster, however it is closed. So, you go and wait in line for the bumper cars. After standing in line for twenty-five minutes you hear that the roller coaster you really wanted to go on has re-opened. Chances are that you would choose not to go on the roller coaster at that point because, after all, you have already invested the time into waiting for the bumper cars. This is a sad truth even though you originally had no intention or desire to go on the bumper cars ride. This is also a form of loss aversion. We feel too bad to admit that we have wasted our time and as a result are more willing to waste even more time than to admit this to ourselves. This is know as the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

The reality is that it does not make sense to take into account costs that have already been spent. Whether it be a sunken chunk of money or time, a decision now should be made independent of those facts. If in an isolated decision between the roller coaster or the bumper cars, you would choose the roller coaster, then that should be the only factor in your decision even after waiting the twenty-five minutes in line. Those twenty-five minutes were spent already regardless of what you decide to do at this point, and therefore should not be taken into account as a relevant factor when weighing the option of staying on the bumper cars line versus going to the roller coaster. Rather, the decision at hand would be to decide if it is worth it to remain on this line for another five minutes, until it is your turn for the bumper cars, or go to the roller coaster line and wait there for five minutes. Those should be the only relevant factors in the decision. The fact that it is emotionally painful to admit that you just wasted twenty-five minutes is not a rational reason to waste another five minutes to continue to go on the bumper cars ride.

This concept is one that effects us on a daily basis in both physical and spiritual ways. How often does one go to a restaurant and find the food unappetizing. Yet one is willing to finish it, despite the stomach pains it may bring later, as to not feel bad about the money already spent on the food? How often does one start a video game and get bored half way through yet feel the need to continue to the end because of the levels already achieved? These are all bad decisions people make when blindly following the Sunk Cost Fallacy. We tend to forget that the money or time we spent on something does not know or care if we will choose to continue the task in which we invested.

We must be in-tuned to the fact that human psychology attributes chashivus to things we spend money or time on just as we would spend money and time on things that are chashuv to us. This converse relationship is one we must realize and watch for as to not fall into the trap of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. More importantly, though, if we do find ourselves doing something which is a waste of time we should train ourselves to remake our decisions constantly in the present, without being based on what we have done in the past. This way we will only continue to support that which we rationally decide to be important, and not just support projects on which we are afraid to admit that we have wasted time or money.

Perhaps this is another angle as to how to understand a different Rashi in this week's parsha. Rashi⁷ writes a few passukim earlier that Hashem demands of us to view the learning of Torah each day as if it was given today. Every day we should re-decide to follow ratzon Hashem and keep His mitzvos. It should not become a routine or an emotional need to go further because of the time, money, and reputation we already have invested in a Torah lifestyle, rather we should constantly realize that the investment of being a shomer Torah u'mitzvos (keeper of the Torah and mitzvos) is one that is worth everything and totally outweighs anything which might conflict with it at any given point. As a matter of fact, the Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez⁸ points out that in birkas HaTorah (Blessings made on the Torah) the text of the bracha is: Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, who selected us from all the nations...Blessed are You, Hashem, the Giver of the Torah.” The present-tense form of the word is used – “Giver”, as opposed to “The One Who gave”, in order to allude to the fact that every day we must re-accept the Torah upon ourselves.

The lesson of Rashi that success in Torah is correlated and conditioned with one's drive to spend time on studying Torah at the point which is hardest, is one of which we must constantly be aware. We must be careful in deciding which tasks and projects to undertake, but at the same time know that after a bad decision is made we must not be afraid to admit it to ourselves and re-decide based on the present conditions. In this way we will avoid falling into the trap of wasting our lives via loss aversion and the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

May we have the zechus to better decide and understand what is best for us so that we could invest our time into things that are chashuv to Hashem, and in return these things will become even more chashuv to us.

1Shemos 19:5

2Ibid

3Ibid

4Ibid

5Pirkei Avos 2:5

6Brafman, Ori and Rom, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. 2008. Random House Inc., New York. Page 30.

7Shemos 19:1

8Yalkut Me'am Lo'ez, Parshas Yisro; 3^rd Perek; 19:1
Photo Credit: http://braintrustgroup.com/2012/how-sunk-costs-can-be-minimized-with-agile/