I don’t know why the avocado industry has not been able to create the National Avocado Day
yet. I know that September 14 th is the National Guacamole Day and November 14 th is National
Spicy Guacamole Day, but there is still no day celebrating avocados in their simple
unguacamoled glory.
According to some reports, avocados reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, help maintain
a healthy waistline, and can help protect your eyes and skin well into old age. In addition to
that, avocados are just plain delicious; velvety, soft, creamy, and bursting with earthy flavors.
So today, we celebrate avocados by bringing you the Jewish perspective on a recent news item
that deals with avocado. It comes to us from Australia, and we’ll call it: Never Get Between a
Millennial and His Avocado Toast
Tim Gurner, is an Australian real estate developer who recently was named Ernst and Young’s
Emerging Australian Entrepreneur of the Year after amassing a net worth of $460MM before
the age of thirty-five. When he appeared on the Australian version of 60 Minutes, he was asked
about the problems millennials are facing in buying homes. His response was “’When I was
trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4
each. The expectations of younger people are very, very high. They want to eat out every day,
they want travel to Europe every year. The people that own homes today worked very, very
hard for it. They saved every dollar, did everything they could to get up the property
investment ladder.”
Before we get to the reaction to what he said, let’s first talk avocado. The smashed avocado he
was referring to is the primary ingredient in avocado toast, a dish that is enormously popular
among young people today. I’m fortunate to have had an avocado toast once; seven grain
bread, a medley of grilled vegetables, half an avocado sliced generously, and topped with
crumbled goat cheese. I understand why it’s so popular; it’s healthy, nutritious, fresh, and oooh
so gooood! And while a $19 avocado toast is definitely on the pricey side, a $11-14 avocado
toast is quite within the range of normal prices. And now to the reaction.
To put it mildly, Tim Gurner’s interview did not go over well with millennials. The social media
landscape blew up from coast to coast, with posts including these gems:
-I was gonna put a down payment on a house last year, but then I spent $44,000 on
avocado toast.
– Yesterday I had to make a big decision. Buy an avocado for toast today… or not buy an
avocado every day for 448 years to afford a house.
– Barista: would you like anything else with that?
Me: No thanks. Was gonna get avocado toast, but I’m trying to buy a house this year.
– I spent all my avocado money paying rent on my apartment, or maybe for a bus pass.
I’m a bad millennial.
– Facetimed a friend in NZ. Her Sunday plans consisted of smashed avo for brunch then
house hunting. Didn’t have the heart to break the bad news to her..
The New York Times and CNBC even jumped in, talking about how millennials on average spend
$3097 dining out each year, only $305 more than people ages 55-64. They also spend on
average $4,832 per year on vacations which is slightly lower than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.
See! Millennials are actually the most frugal of vacationers and eater-outers! Like I said, do not
get in between a millennial and his avocado toast.
Wait a second, I just pulled out my handy dandy calculator and did some arithmetic. If I’m not
mistaken, the New York Times article describing why Tim Gurner’s claim is so absurd, just told
us that millennials spend on average $7,929 per year on vacations and eating out, both of
which are luxuries, not necessities. And according to a Deloitte report, they spent $1680 on
media, including Netflix, movies, video games, and music. Furthermore, Deloitte reported that
the average millennial spends $3,000 a year on tech hardware such as smartphones, laptops,
tablets, and headphones as well as on data connectivity. Add those numbers to the picture and
we’re looking at over $12,600 spent per year by millennials on non-necessities.
Maybe Tim Gurner did have a point? I’m not saying people should have no fun or luxury in their
lives, but cutting their luxury spending by 50% would save them about $6,300 a year, and in
eight years they would have more than $50,000 in savings. In 2024, the median down payment
for first-time home buyers was 9%, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). For
a median-priced home of $416,900, this equates to approximately $37,521. If a millennial
enters the work force at the age of 22 after graduating college, they could easily have enough
savings to buy a house by the time they turn 30! (And if they simply invested those savings in an
S&P index fund, they would have not $50,000 in savings, but $72,000 in savings!)
Another important question not being discussed is the value of our time. The first property that
Tim Gurner ever worked on was a partnership between him and his boss when he was
eighteen. His boss forked over $180,000 to buy an apartment in Melbourne, and Tim spent
weeks renovating the apartment himself at night. On his knees sanding and varnishing the
floor. Painting the walls. Replacing fixtures and changing out cabinetry. When they sold the
apartment, he made $12,000. His grandfather noticed his industriousness and lent him $34,000
as an investment in his next project, a bankrupt gym that he bought after borrowing an
additional $150,000. He spent months renovating that as well, then over eighteen months built
it into a profitable business that he sold to a competitor. Throughout this time, he was working
at multiple jobs seven days a week. That is how Tim Gurner spent his time.
According to a report by the NY Society of CPAs in November of 2024, the average millennial
spends 6.3 hours a day consuming media. If they’re awake for 18 hours a day, they are
spending over a third of that time consuming media. That equates to 44 hours a week! Here
too, we’re not recommending cutting all of it, but using media for 2 hours a day only, would
leave the average millennial an additional 30 hours a week to work on other projects to
increase their financial standing! And when the University of Chicago publishes a report saying
that 22% of men ages 21-30 with less than a bachelor’s degree did not work at all last year,
might we say that there might be some merit in calling out to millennials to develop a stronger
work ethic?
I don’t want to sit here and bash millennials, it is a fault that belongs to society at large as well.
Generation X’ers average 46.2 hours a week of media consumption (over two days worth of
waking hours!) and people above fifty spend about 42. We live in a time of profligate spending,
and much of it on luxury items. In 2024, Starbucks had revenues of $36.2 Billion, Lululemon had
revenues of $10.6 Billion, $184 Billion was spent on video games, Apple had revenues of $391
Billion, and that is not all coming from millennials. As a society, many luxuries have become
necessities, and the least of them is avocado toast.
What is the Jewish perspective on this? In Judaism, we have mitzvahs and we have middos,
commandments and character. While the mitzvahs are relatively black and white; no pork, no
work on Shabbos, no murder, etc, the middos are a lot more fluid and hard to pin down,
because character development is entirely different for each individual. But there is a list of the
13 core middos, compiled by Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin, also known as Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (1809-
1883), the father of the Mussar Movement, a drive toward self-development and refinement.
Those character traits can be found in Mekor Baruch, a work written by Rabbi Baruch Epstein,
the author of the famed Torah commentary, Torah Temima. Two of them are instructive in this
conversation.
Zerizus – while generally translated as alacrity, in the 13 Middos, this is defined as, “Never
waste a single moment; do what has to be done.” Time is our most valuable resource, we
cannot buy more time with all the money in the world. The time we were gifted was given to us
for the purpose of pursuing greatness, and we should use every bit of it to bring value into our
life. We obviously need some time to decompress, otherwise we would explode, but even our
relaxation should be intentional; I’m going to read a book for a half hour now because I need to
relax after a particularly stressful day. I’m going to play chess for a few minutes so that I can
zone into the game and zone out of all the other chaos in my life.
But we don’t need to give over one and half days a week to decompression, (as a matter of fact
studies link too much social media consumption to depression). We can learn new skills, learn
Torah to develop our spiritual side, and spend time helping others (studies show that kindness
helps alleviate depression). Using our time wisely shows that we believe in ourselves, and we
are investing in ourselves.
Thrift – This is defined as “do not spend even a penny unnecessarily.” Money is also an
incredible gift, it gives us so many options. Wasting it on non-essentials takes away all those
options. We can use our money to save up for a nice house, a strong retirement account, or to
give charity, but when we use it for something we don’t really need, we lose all those
possibilities.
This is not a midda that is easy to attain, and we can spend a lifetime developing this character
trait, but just embarking on a mission of attaining the character of Thrift is an incredible
accomplishment. It may mean less avocado toast (or making them at home for $1.85 instead of
buying them for $12), but it also means that we can see the value of our good choices grow in
front of us, giving us deep long lasting satisfaction.
Parsha Dvar Torah
This weeks Parsha starts off with the mitzvah of Shmita, the commandment to leave the land fallow
every seventh year. The Torah uses an interesting noun to describe the shmita year, one that begs a
question. “When you come into the Land that I will give you, the land shall observe a Shabbos rest for G-
D (Leviticus 25:2)” But why is the seventh year, the year we leave our fields fallow, called Shabbos? Isn’t
that the name we have for our day of rest, the holiest day of the week? In order to answer that question
let us look a little closer at shmita and, hopefully, from there we will be able to find an answer (O.K. I
don’t want you guys to be in too much suspense, we will find an answer in the end, not just hopefully!)
The primary reason for Shmita, a mitzvah which tells us to leave our fields untouched every 7 th year, is
that we should recognize Who gave us our land in the first place, and then show appreciation to Him. If I
give you a brand new Ferrari (a F-430 with a 4.3 liter V-8, 483 HP, 343 lbs. of torque, 0-60 in 4.2 seconds
to be exact) and tell you to drive it every day but Tuesday, you would be delighted (if not, just give it
back to me, I’ll be delighted). As you would get used to the car, though, you would start to forget who
gave it to you and start to view it as your own car. (Ask any parent with a teenage driver in the house,
I’m sure they will agree.)
But on Tuesday, when suddenly you couldn’t drive it like you normally did, you would be forced to stop
and remember hey, wait a second, why am I not driving today? Oh right! Because R’ Burnham gave me
the car and he said don’t drive it on Tuesday! This would give you the ability to appreciate what I gave
you, because it forces you to step back, and remember that the car was a gift from me. (For those who
come to Partners In Torah religiously on Tuesday night, I may just decide to actually give one away, and
you guys would be my top candidates, so keep up the good work, and stay tuned!) This is one of the
reasons for Shmita. It is a mitzvah that enables us to appreciate G-d for all the good He has done. When
we step back from using the land for one year, we focus on He who gave us the land in the first place,
and are grateful for it.
One of the reasons we are commanded to keep Shabbos stems from this same line of reasoning. On
Shabbos we are not forbidden to do all work. Technically, I could push my heavy table up and down my
dining room floor all Shabbos afternoon. It might be hard work, but it is not forbidden. On the other
hand, turning the key in the ignition of my Ferrari (oops, I’m already starting to think that I actually have
one) is forbidden even though it requires minimal effort. The work that is forbidden on Shabbos is
creative work such as creating a fire by turning on the ignition.
The reason only creative work is forbidden, is based upon the fact that G-d gave humans, and only
humans, certain creative abilities. I have never seen a monkey, even a very intelligent one, write a book,
nor have I ever seen a mouse making itself a pair of boots. We, the homo sapiens, were given an
incredible gift from G-d called creative ability (that is what it means when it says G-d created us in His
image. Obviously, He has no form. Rather we are in his image in that we, like him, can create.)
Once a week, G-d asks us to hold back from using this most precious gift, our creative abilities. When we
are suddenly not using our gift, we can focus on reigniting our gratitude that which we had gotten so
used to throughout the week, and we can be grateful to G-d for giving it to us. This, of course, explains
why shmita is described as a Shabbos for the land. Both these mitzvahs provide us with the opportunity
to stop using that which we normally use, in order to recognize Who gave it to us and how much we
should be thankful to Him!
Parsha Summary
The first of the two parshios we read this week, Behar, begins with the laws of shmita. This mitzvah
commands us to leave the land fallow every seventh year. One may not work the land at all, and
anything that grows on its own in the field is left to be taken by anyone who needs it. (If you had to be
poor for a year, this would be a good one to pick.) After seven shmita cycles there is a Jubilee year on
the 50 th year, and the land lies fallow once again. In addition, many fields and homes revert back to their
original owners. Jewish servants, who requested to stay with their masters past the normal limits, are
now sent home. Thus, when buying a field one had to always take into account how many years
remained until the Jubilee because that is the amount of time he would own the field. (As Jews, we
sometimes have strings attached to our deals, but at least it was known to everyone, not some fine print
clause written in Azerbijanian!)
The next part of the Parsha deals with redeeming the land. The idea is as follows; G-d gave each person
a portion of the Holy Land, which they bequeathed to their families. There could be no greater family
treasure than the family’s share in G-d’s land! (Timeshare salesmen try to get you to feel this way about
their “week in paradise for your family every year forever!”) Therefore, if someone sold his land, it was
probably out of great necessity, and the Torah gives the person a chance to buy it back if they, or a
relative, can come up with the money. Depending on what type of property it was and where it was
situated, the times at which one can redeem it are different, for more details see Leviticus 25:23-34.
The last part of the Parsha deals with Jewish servants. I know that we who live in a post- Emancipation
Proclamation world look unfavorably on labor provided by servants or slaves (although who do you
think made your shirt?), so I will try to show you that a Jewish servant was the farthest thing from the
Atlantic slave trade of the 1500-1700’s. The sages say, “He who buys himself a servant, has acquired a
master for himself.” A Jewish master was responsible for supporting his servant’s entire family, he
couldn’t force him to do demeaning labor, if there was only one pillow or blanket in the house it had to
be given to the servant, and when the servant would leave, the master was required to give him a hefty
severance package. (All these benefits and no union dues to pay??? Sounds impossible, but with Torah
it’s all possible!).
A Jewish servant would sell himself if he needed funds and couldn’t find any other job, or if he simply
wanted the security of servitude (a job in which his whole family was supported and he couldn’t get
fired, downsized, discharged, restructured, laid off, terminated or forced to resign!) The Parsha
concludes with a reiteration of the mitzvos of keeping Shabbos and not serving idols. This was to remind
any Jew who sold himself to a non-Jew, that he still had to keep his Jewish practice and couldn’t start
desecrating Shabbos or serving his new master’s idols.
The 2 nd Parsha we read is the last one in Leviticus, Bechukosai. The major theme of this parsha is the
concept that the deeds we do have a direct result on our world. The world is like a finely tuned violin,
and our actions like a bow being stretched across the strings. If we play it properly, the most beautiful
and harmonious sounds emanate. However, if we play it improperly, the result is jarring and disturbing.
It is not so much a punishment as a cause-and-effect relationship with our actions.
In line with that idea, the parsha starts off by saying that if we follow G-d’s Torah properly then our land
will produce incredible yields, we will live in peace, (and the Pistons will win the Finals). However, if we
refuse to follow G-d’s Torah and instead chose to ignore the role He plays in our world, then He will
remove Himself from the picture, and the world will begin to crumble around us. Throughout this
difficult period, G-d will wait for us to turn back to Him. If we continue to deny His reality, the
devastation will become more and more severe. Ultimately, G-d promises that even during the most
trying times our people will endure, He will not totally abandon us, rather He will be with us in our exile.
In the end we will return to Him, He will remember the covenant He has with our Fathers and bring us
back to our land in peace.
The Parsha then moves on to the subject of different items one can consecrate to the Temple, such as
property, one’s own value, or his animals. The Torah discusses how a person pays for each, and if and
when one can redeem them back for himself. The final verses of Leviticus deal with the second tithe a
person gives on his crops, and the tithe on animals.
As we say in Shul (synagogue), when completing one of the Five Books of the Chumash: Be strong! Be
strong! And may we be strengthened!!!
Quote of the Week: Learn as if you were going to live
forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow. ~ A.
Gambiner
Random Fact of the Week: Abraham Lincoln faces to the right on the
penny while all the other presidents face to the left on US coins.
Funny Quip of the Week: It’s OK to let your mind go blank, but please turn
off the sound.
Have a Piquant Shabbos,
R’ Leiby Burnham
