The Gemara in Maseches Avodah Zarah (8a) relates that on the day that Adam Harishon was created, when the sun set and it became dark, having never seen this occurrence before, Adam remarked that it was because of his sin that the world turned black. He feared that the world was about to be destroyed and would return to the tohu vavohu that existed before creation. The Gemara relates that Adam and Chava cried the whole night and engaged in taanis. [This may be understood according to the Gemara in Maseches Taanis 16a, which says that the main component of a taanis, fast, is teshuvah.] In the morning, when the sky began lighting up again, Adam said that it is the way of the world - the sun sets in the evening and rises in the morning. He was so overjoyed with his discovery that he brought a korban.

I learned this Gemara and didn’t understand it. If Adam was up all night crying and doing teshuvah, then when he saw the sky begin to brighten, why didn’t he think that his teshuvah was accepted and that the world would remain constantly bright? Why did he immediately conclude that day and night are the nature of the world?

Last week, I had the good fortune of meeting Rav Gedaliah Sheinen, a rosh yeshiva of a yeshiva in Yerushalayim for boys who can’t make it in the regular system. He related various amazing stories from his first-person interactions with gedolei Yisroel.

In his native Hebrew, he said that he doesn’t write at all, and since I am an editor, he imagines that I don’t write well either. He asked me if I know anyone who can write, because he feels that the stories he has experienced and the lessons they impart are very important and should be shared with a wide audience.

I asked him to share one story so that I could gauge how good his stories really are and determine whether they should be written up for a wider audience.

Let me share the story with you and you be the judge.

Mainstream news outlets have seriously cut down their coverage of news stories. As society dumbs down and spends more time feeding its internet addiction, the news switches to be more entertaining than enlightening, more style than content, and more pop than intelligence. People following current events often find themselves amazed at what passes for news today. The goal in news-reporting was once to inform and enlighten. No more. Today, it’s all about entertainment. Reflecting trends in society, style tends to trump content; trendiness and superficiality have replaced serious values.

Last week, all the news outlets could talk and write about was a flight attendant who snapped while on the job, and, following a tirade against a passenger, slid down the emergency chute and ran home. He rode home to become the biggest hero in America. He had the guts to walk off his job because he had enough and wouldn’t take it anymore.

All of a sudden, Elul is upon us. The summer barely started and Elul has arrived. What happened to the glorious vacation that just a few days ago was beckoning from the horizon? It started with so much promise and vanished so quickly.

What about all the plans to get away, take a break, or go on a trip? We’ve barely caught a breather and the summer is over.

The days just seemed to roll by. Sun shining, green fields beckoning, country air penetrating our senses... Just as our nerves finally release the accumulated tension, it is Shabbos morning and we’re in shul as the words “Rosh Chodesh Elul yehiyeh beyom hashlishi ubeyom harevi’i” ring out. And with that, it’s as if summer has ended, vacation has come to a dead halt, and it’s back to serious stuff.