It Pays to be Crooked

by Rabbi Max Anteby 

No, I’m not talking about business ethics. I mean the Earth. It’s crooked. Tilted about 23-1/2 degrees. 

The axis that the Earth revolves about (that imaginary line that goes from the South Pole to the North Pole) doesn’t go straight up and down, it’s tilted to one side. For 3 months it faces the sun, for 3 months it faces away and for 6 months it’s facing somewhere in between. 

So what’s so good about that? 

---

We need a season for planting, for harvesting for hibernating and for enjoying

Seasons.

If the axis was straight up and down, chances are most of us would either be Eskimos or Bedouins since the Earth would always be frozen at the poles and boiling at the equator. (The tilt of our axis has a far greater effect on the change of seasons than even the elliptical path of the Earth around the Sun).

So why do we need seasons? Aside from the obvious benefit of having “variety”, another reason is because it says so in the Bible. God tells the Jewish people – “Be sure to observe the holiday of Passover in the Spring”. Spring represents freedom, birth, rejuvenation. Hence the need for something called Spring. And while we’re at it, we need a season for planting, for harvesting for hibernating and for enjoying.

So God said, “No problem!” TILT! But that created another problem: Did you ever see the Harlem Globetrotters spinning basketballs on their fingertips? Or perhaps magicians spinning plates on top of poles? Or maybe something a little closer to home – did you ever spin a dreidel? Ever try spinning it on a tilt? Doesn’t work. The spin has to be perpendicular to the forces of gravity. Even if it starts off wobbling, once it gets going, it always straightens itself out.

​So how come the Earth doesn’t straighten itself out? It’s been rotating everyday at a speed of about 1,000 miles per hour (a lot faster than that dreidel) for thousands of years (perhaps even longer according to some theories). If all it takes is changing the laws of nature to make My creations enjoy life more, no problem. That’s why we have beaches, ski slopes and everything else in between!