A Rosh Chodesh Message

This was sent out to the people on my email list. Please learn something or do a mitzva in my great grandmother's memory. Thank you:). Here is a shiur that should lift us a little out of the mud in which many of us are mired:). לעילוי נשמת אסתר בת ר' שמואל.

Shalom and Chodesh Tov Sweet Friends:)!

Today is the 24th yahrtzeit of my beloved great-grandmother Esther bas R' Shmuel so I wanted to share a short dvar Torah לעילוי נשמתה. First a few words about her. She was the only grandparent I knew and we were close. She had a very difficult life. Among other tzaros, she lost her parents, two husbands [her first at a very young age], all of her siblings, and the most difficult of all, her only daughter after a 13 year long illness. Her only descendant was her granddaughter [my mother] and they were very very close. She had four great grandchildren whom she loved dearly [and today many-many great-great grandchildren בלי עין הרע] and her apartment was a shrine to them with pictures everywhere. Like many people of her generation she never complained. She was always cheerful and pleasant and everyone loved her. When I came to yeshiva in Israel I would go visit her in Netanya and say things in Hungarian like "Nani-cum eiletem, hoid void??" [Dear grandmother, how are you?"], Cussenem nadyoin seipen!! [Thank you very much] With that, I basically exhausted my Hungarian vocabulary [I could also count from one to ten but that usually didn't fit into the conversation]. Fortunately, she knew English as well so we were able to communicate..... She was so proud of her grandsons who were learning in yeshiva.

During the war, she hid from the Nazis in the basement of a Gentile family [who was paid generously] with her daughter and son-in-law and בחסדי השם her life [and ultimately mine:)] was spared. I remember calling her every Sunday. First, we called the operator and told her the number in Israel. Then we hung up and the operator called Israel to make the connection and then called us back. Then we were connected to the senior citizens home in Netanya where we had to wait a few minutes until she was located. Boy, times have changed. Today is a happy day [EVERY DAY is a happy day] because it is Rosh Chodesh but also sad for me because I miss her so much. She is buried near the Klausenberger Rebbe זי"ע in the Netanya cemetery. יהי זכרה ברוך.

In the hagada there is a puzzling phrase: יכול מראש חודש - I might think that one must relate the miracles of yetzias mitzraim already from Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Why? Explains Rav Tzadok Hakohen from Lublin - All of the kedusha of the month is concentrated in the first day. Just like all of the Jewish people were potentially contained in Avraham Avinu [and therefore everything promised to him was also promised to his seed] so too, all of the month is contained in the "Rosh".

The Hagada continues that still, תלמוד לומר ביום ההוא on that day [Pesach] the mitzva applies and not before. In classical talmudic style the Hagada continues to pursue all logical possibilities "אי מביום ההוא יכול מבעוד יום" - Maybe "that day" means while it is still daytime on Erev Pesach. "Day" implies "daytime" - does it not? The Hagada answers תלמוד לומר בעבור זה - לא אמרתי אלא בשעה שמצה ומרור מונחים לפניך - The pasuk says "For this" implying when the matza and maror are placed before you.

Why would we think that one could relate the story of the hagaada and fulfill the mitzva while it is still day and not yet Pesach? The Heilige Beis Yisrael זי"ע at his seder in 1946 [two years later he became the Gerrer Rebbe] explained with a Chassidic-Let's-Get-Close-To-Hashem-And-Be-Happy-Bent: One might think that one should only thank Hashem for all He does when it is "day" - when things are bright and sunny. The hagada teaches that the BEST time to thank Hashem is when matza and maror are placed before you. Matza means [in Aramaic] quarrels and maror is bitterness. When things are tough, when life is מצה and מרור, that is the best time to thank and praise Him. This was said after the Rebbe lost almost all of his family including his wife and children [he never had more] and 6 million of our people.

Sweetest friends - Having a rough time in life? Things not going the way you would want them to? Welcome to the club. The 7 billion member club... Now is the BEST and MOST IDEAL TIME to be strengthened in the middah of simcha.

I would like to introduce you to a Jew who never let the rough times get him down. His name is Rabbi Shlomo Naki of the Bucharim neighborhood of Yerushalayim. He was married happily 34 years ago. He and his kallah were excited to start a family together. Who isn't? But things didn't go as planned and his wife had trouble conceiving. They went to doctors and more doctors. To Rabbis and more Rabbis. But no child. Disappointment after disappointment. A year and another year and another year. 10 years. Nothing. 20. Nothing. 30. Nothing.

He never despaired. Two weeks ago Rabbi and Mrs. Naki welcomed a beautiful-healthy-baby-girl-neshama-tehorah into the world. MAZEL TOV!!:)

Indded - there IS hope. יש תקוה.

A-gut-chodesh-filled-with-hope-simcha-faith-lack-of-despair-always-seeing-the-light-despite-the maror-we-all-eat-and-a-geula-shleima:):) [thanks R.B.!]
Love and blessings from the Eretz Hakdosha for which we waited not 34 years but two thousand.....:)