Last weekend, our family had a heated discussion about whether a tomato is a fruit or vegetable.
One child was adamant that they are fruit, and others said that if they were fruit, why aren’t they grouped with fruit in the produce section of your local supermarket?
It turns out that technically it’s a fruit. As often happens, it was as if my social media feed had heard our conversation.
When I turned on my phone Saturday night, I got a reel in my social media feed, where famous Irish rugby player Brian O’Driscoll said, “Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad!”
According to Textbook.com, “Knowledge and wisdom are two distinct concepts that are often used interchangeably but hold different meanings.
While knowledge refers to the acquisition of information and facts, wisdom involves the application of knowledge along with experience, insight, and good judgment.”
While center billing in this week’s Torah portion goes to Yosef’s reveal to his brother and reunion with his father, Yaakov, for me the more interesting section deals with Yosef’s plan to save Egypt from famine.
This is a great case of the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Yosef had the knowledge when he interpreted the pharaoh’s dreams and knew that famine was inevitable.
But he had to use his wisdom to devise a plan to save Egypt.
“And let them collect all the food of these coming good years, and let them gather the grain under the pharaoh’s hand, food in the cities, and keep it. Thus the food will remain as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will be in the land of Egypt so that the land will not be destroyed by the famine,” reads Genesis 41:35-36.
Maybe Yosef was an example of how every employee should perform his job, doing what he needed to do in the best interest of his employer, the pharaoh, and nothing else really concerned him.
The Ramban has an interesting approach, and writes, “And Yosef gathered up all the money” – the Torah relates all of this to inform us of Yosef’s qualities of wisdom, understanding, and intelligence, and that he was a trustworthy man who brought all of the money to the house of the pharaoh, and did not establish for himself hidden treasures of money in the land of Egypt or send money to the land of Canaan. Rather he handed over all of the money to the king who trusted him and bought for him the land and even bodies.”
Would a market-based approach have been more successful and kept the Egyptians free? Was his approach market-based or our first foray into communism?
That’s all for another column. What I do want to focus on is his approach to saving. After all, Yosef’s plan was not to get carried away with the “go-go” seven years of plenty.
On the contrary, he was the ultimate example of saving for a rainy day.
Straight to duty-free
We would all benefit from learning how Yosef approached the seven bountiful years.
How many of us put away money when times are good to fund those economically challenging times that we come up against?
When you get a bonus from work do you go ahead and spend it all on vacations, home improvement, or buying a car?
A few years ago, I wrote about a call I received from someone that in the past I had tried to help get out of debt.
I hadn’t heard from him in two to three years. He filled me in that he stopped contacting me because his mother gave him a gift of over NIS 2 million, and he spent it all on a home.
Didn’t pay off debt, didn’t put any money in savings, and put it all in an apartment.
Why did he call? Because it was just before Passover, and he had zero money and couldn’t afford to buy wine and matzo.
While this may be extreme, I could write a book on all the stories I know that are similar in principle.
The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.
Aaron Katsman is the author of Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing. www.gpsinvestor.com; aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.