{"id":9772,"date":"2024-05-20T19:02:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T19:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/?p=9772"},"modified":"2025-05-22T13:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:08:06","slug":"be-a-prepper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.torahmates.org\/jewish-resources\/be-a-prepper\/","title":{"rendered":"Wouldn’t You Like to Be a Prepper?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prepping for the Worst<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a drug store recently, a magazine caught my eye while I was waiting in line. The name of it was \u201cPrepper,\u201d and from what I could tell by my brief glance, it was geared towards people who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it, (also referred to as: TEOTWAWKI.) Preppers are people who plan, prepare, and gain skills, in order to survive when things go kaploowie<\/em>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, preppers were the ones building fallout shelters in case of nuclear Armageddon, and loading them up with twenty-five years\u2019 worth of canned food and other non-perishables. In more recent times, they\u2019re the people who are able to live \u201coff the grid\u201d and who have sources of energy and water that can be used even in the event of a major natural or man-made disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preppers and COVID-19<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the COVID pandemic, amateur preppers were the people who stocked up on things like Clorox wipes and toilet paper. When I was in a store trying to buy Clorox wipes, and the couple who got to the shelf two seconds before me cleared all twelve containers, leaving none for me, they were prepping. When I opened closets and cubby holes in my home and found toilet paper, even into 2024, I knew my wife had been prepping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I may not know how to light a fire without a stove, grow my own organic produce using rotten fruit and a plastic bag, or pick up radio signals with a Swiss Army knife, but recently I realized that I\u2019m also a prepper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prep before Shabbat, Eat on Shabbat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I had gotten a package of ten boxes of tissues from a wholesale club and was stocking them on the shelves in my garage. Before I put them down, I was pulling off the cardboard cover of each to reveal the plastic where the tissues come out of, and pressing my fingers into the perforated slit of the plastic to open it completely. It struck me that most people probably don\u2019t do that when they put tissues in their garage. Why was I doing it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many who are reading this can probably answer that question. Obviously, I was preparing them for Shabbat use. If you finish a box of tissues on Shabbat, you can\u2019t simply grab a closed box and tear off the cardboard circle protecting the opening. You\u2019d be tearing, making the box into a usable dispenser, and other Shabbat no-no\u2019s. If you want to have tissues on Shabbat, you\u2019ve got to prep beforehand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Chazal (our sages) advise us all to become preppers in this way. The expression, \u201cHe who prepares on Erev Shabbat (Shabbat Eve) shall eat on Shabbat,\u201d can be explained very pragmatically as I just did. If you want hot food on Shabbat, you\u2019ve got to prepare your cholent beforehand, cook it, and keep it warm in a permissible way. On Shabbat you won\u2019t have the chance to cook food, and that\u2019s what the preppers of the world think. If there are no power plants operating, no trucking companies moving goods, or anything similar, what will you do? But these preppers are short-sighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prepping for the World to Come<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You see, they\u2019re only concerned with the few years of life they have on this planet. We, as Jews, are preppers for a much longer future, one that is not just a potential need, but certain to occur. There may never be a nuclear holocaust or EMP that shuts down the power grid, but one day, we will all leave this world and enter the next. All we will have is what we prepared while we were here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mesilat Yesharim compares this world to the dry land and Olam Haba (The World to Come) to a sea voyage. We will only have on the ship what we packed along in advance. Once you\u2019re on the ocean, there\u2019s no way to buy things to sustain yourself. In order to \u201clive\u201d in Olam Haba, you need a full complement of Torah and mitzvot. If you really planned well, you\u2019ll set up subscriptions to keep having deliveries made to you. No, they aren\u2019t coming from Amazon. The recurring merits are the fruits of the seeds you planted here during your lifetime. If you raised a family or influenced others in a positive way, and they do good things, those are dividends you\u2019ll keep receiving, and that will keep you better supplied. But you need to be preparing in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

49 Days to Prep for Kabbalat HaTorah<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now in the time of counting the Omer<\/a>. As we count up the days toward the holiday of Shavuot, the day of Kabbalat Hatorah (the receiving of the Torah), we recognize we\u2019re getting closer to something big, and that we need to prep<\/a> for it before it arrives. The forty-eight ways to acquire Torah<\/a> are much harder to do in a single day. That\u2019s why we have time now, so we\u2019re thinking ahead and doing what we can ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of the people in your life who get this. The ones who spend their time in Torah and mitzvot, collecting chesed <\/em>(lovingkindness) and zechutim <\/em>(merits) which will sustain them in the days ahead, when there will be no chances to \u201cearn points,\u201d are just like those people stockpiling their bunkers for a day which may never come, only better, because we know it\u2019s inevitable. That\u2019s valuable knowledge to have, and should inspire us all to prepare for the next world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To paraphrase an old ad jingle: I\u2019m a prepper; he\u2019s a prepper; she\u2019s a prepper; we\u2019re all preppers. Wouldn\u2019t you like to be a prepper too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Want to learn more about Jewish philosophy? Join TorahMates today to learn Torah from home, with your own study partner!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabbi Gewirtz (Operation Inspiration<\/a>) welcomes comments and feedback. Write to him at info@JewishSpeechWriter.com<\/a> to share your thoughts. You never know when you may be the lamp that enlightens someone else.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prepping for the Worst In a drug store recently, a magazine caught my eye while I was waiting in line. 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