Timeless Torah

Rabbi Yaakov said, "One who walks on the road, studies Torah, interrupts his studies and remarks, 'How beautiful is this tree! How beautiful is this plowed field!' Scripture considers it as if he were guilty of mortal sin.
Reading this week's selection of Ethics, one comes across this rather harsh statement. Although it is obviously understood that while studying G-d's holy Torah one should not digress, still the punishment does not seem to fit the crime. At least the fellow was learning in the first place. What about all the countless others who don't even start?
Another interesting note is the specific type of interruption. Surely admiring the beauty of nature and extolling the wonders of G-d's creation is itself a spiritual contemplation. Could this then be considered a sin?
There is a telling parable which can elucidate this Mishnah. A peasant once traveled from his small village to see the big city. He was astounded at many of the sights, but the occurrence which made the deepest impression was a large metal ring that hung in the town square. When a fire broke out, someone hammered on the ring and soon fire engines, manned by smart looking fire fighters appeared as though from nowhere to extinguish the fire.
Determined to provide his village with the same service, he purchased such a ring. Returning home, he set his hut on fire and began banging on the metal ring. What a disappointment! What a danger?
The simple rustic did not realize that the metal ring was merely the last step in a long series that involved an entire organization. To have only the last phase of a process divorced from all that should precede it, is ludicrous.
Our Mishnah refers to an individual, “Walking along the road.” Perhaps the road meant is one's path in life and the physical phenomenon that makes demands on our attention are the palpable results of an infinite organization and a universal intelligence of creation. To stop short at the physical reality, to contemplate nature and refuse to look beyond it to what it implies, is to put oneself in the position of the ingenuous, deluded peasant.
The person who rejects the presence of the Divine and is satisfied to glorify just the physical dimension, is not only short-sighted, he ultimately puts his very existence in jeopardy.