Noach
ויחל נח איש האדמה ויטע כרם- Rashi Explains עשה עצמו חולין - "Noach made himself mundane" by planting the vineyard before other basic needs. Although one may learn that this was sign of Noach's priorities, I would like to suggest another understanding as there seems to be two questions on this pshatt. First it seems a bit too severe of a fault to assume that Noach had "a drink" on the top of his mind, especially since the medrash tells us that his holy intent was for נסכים - the wine libations needed for the Korbanos he was about to offer. Secondly, Rashi says עשה עצמו חולין - He MADE himself mundane by doing this, which denotes that this was not an EXPRESSION of who he was previously.
I believe that Rashi is telling us an invaluable insight into the works of character development. Even though Noach had wonderfully holy intentions in planting the vineyard, the simple ACT of giving it precedence to other produce, CHANGED who Noach was! Our externals have a huge impact upon our personalities! As much as we recognize that what is "inside" is most important, the way to SHAPE, change, and develop the insides are from the seemingly simple external acts that we do - REGARDLESS of our intentions!
Coming to a bes medrash to learn is not only great because of what you will accomplish with the learning, but the act of going to learn in itself, GIVES importance to learning and it programs your body to look at Torah differently!
The Mashgiach spoke to us before Yom Kippur about the words of Rabeinu Nissim Gaon's viduy; מה שהקלת החמרתי - What Hashem considers easy and light I have considered difficult & heavy. He quoted Rabeinu Yonah who says attending a bes medrash is a מצוה קלה - in reality it is not difficult, but we have considered it as difficult.
We had one full week of "chol" from the awesome Yomim Noraim, in which not only the days were awesome, but so were we. We reached lofty levels of Yiras Hashem, Teshuvah, Ahavas HaTorah and K'vodah. Let us not make ourselves chulin. Let us attend bes medrash a bit more often - even if it means to learn just for a few minutes, give it chashivus. We have begun a Friday Night Seder - Come, not just to show ahavas HaTorah to your children or spouses, but to BUILD ahavas HaTorah within OURSELVES. May we then be the fulfillment of כי אותך ראיתי צדיק בדור הזה !
