Shalooom sweetest friends!!!!
This dvar torah should be a zchut for my beloved friend Dr. Yoel Weisberg, R' Yoel Ben R' Pinchas Halevi. He passed away 2 years ago on the eve of Rosh Chodesh Av and is sorely missed. He excelled in so many different areas. R' Yoel was filled with love Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael and above all - Hashem. He suffered for years with dignity and nobility. Never a word of complaint. Never a word against anybody or anything. So completely positive about life. So filled with gratitude to Hashem for all that he had. Completely modest, humble and unassuming.
R' Yoel was driven by his knowledge that life has a higher purpose and he never forgot it for a second. Every beggar at shul was treated with respect and with a donation. He was dedicated to his kviyut ittm la-torah. His tefillah was said with the utmost sincerity and seriousness. He shined with goodness and caring. He was an איש צדיק - first and foremost a mentsch and איש, and afterwards a spiritual G-dly tzadik. But you would never know it by just looking at him because he made himself out to be very small. He and his wife didn't have children for well over a decade and when the triplets were finally born the doctor said that he sees the Hand of Hashem - wonder of wonders. Throughout this very trying period R' Yoel never stopped believing that Hashem would grant him and his holy wife their wish. There is so much more to say but I try to remain brief. Here is a short appreciation I wrote after he passed away - http://mevakeshlev.blogspot.
and a video of someone speaking about him in hebrew - http://viewpure.com/
In R' Yoel's memory, I learned, with help from Hashem, Masechet Kritut, which is all about the various חיובי כרת in the Torah. So I will make a virtual siyum and say a short idea connected to the parsha and this period based on the Holy Books.
Hadran Alach Mesechet Kritut Vihadrach alan etc. etc. ben Papa ben Papa ben Papa [I am also the son of my Papa, he should live a long life]. Yitgadal Vi-yitkadash shmei rabba, now a lot of really hard aramaic words that a large percentage of the population goofs on. Oseh Shalom Bimromav etc. Amen!
Let's eat MEAT!!!! [Not so fast guys....]
We just entered the nine days when we commemorate the churban Beit Hamikdash. This is a good time to reflect....
The greatest joy for the Jewish people is to be connected to our Divine source. Yerushalayim is called עיר שחוברה לה יחדיו - The city that is connected together. What is Yerushalayim connected to? The gemara [Taanit 5] says that corresponding to the earthly, physical Yerushalayim, there is also the celestial, heavenly Yerushalyim - ירושלים של מעלה. When we had the Beit Hamikdash, we were connected to the heavenly Yerushalayim. Now that it was destroyed, we lost that connection to our source of spiritual life. We had a חיבור which was now חרב.
On Tisha B'av, we read a sefer called Eicha. The Navi Yeshaya says [1/21] איכה היתה לזונה קריה נאמנה - How did the faithful city become a harlot. How do we call a city "harlot"? That is a term generally reserved for women who are not connected to any specific man, as we know, and not for a geographic location.
Yerushalayim of below was connected and faithful to it's source - the Yerushalayim of above. She was a קריה נאמנה - a faithful city. אמונה is המשכה being drawn after the source of faith. If one believes but isn't drawn after and following the source of his faith [דתי בלב] that is almost meaningless. To have faith is to be faithful. Now, ליידער ליידער [unfortunately, unfortunately], she was CUT OFF from her connection and became like a harlot. The dveikut and clinging she had to her spiritual source was נכרת - excised and cut off. Indeed, Yerushalayim was like a harlot who was married to a man but decided that she no longer wants to be faithful רחמנא לצלן.
In fact, the medrash says that the Jews weren't sent into galut until they transgressed all 36 כריתות punishments of excision, mentioned in the Torah [as enumerated in the first mishna in Kritut]. The gematria of איכה is ... 36.
When we transgressed the 36 כריתות we were in fact cut off from Hashem and every year we sit on the floor and cry איכה ישבה בדד - How did this city become desolate and detached from its source? When an individual does an aveirah which mandates כרת he is cut off from Hashem. When as a nation we do all of the 36 כריתות mentioned by the Torah, we are cut off from Hashem as a collective. So we can go to Yerushalayim [PLEASE DO!] but it is not the same Yerushalyim it once was. That was lost and for that we mourn.
In this weeks parsha we read א'לה מ'סעי ב'ני י'שראל - These are the travels of the Jewish people.The first letters of each word can stand for the four bitter exiles in which we have found ourselves א'דום מ'די ב'בל י'ון. Why were we sent away and had to "travel" through these exiles? Because of אלה - gematria 36. We transgressed the 36 Kritut.
That is what Haman said ויבז לו לשלוח יד במרדכי לבדו כי הגידו לו את עם מרדכי - Haman didn't want to kill Mordechai alone because they told him Mordechai's nation. What does this pasuk mean? Why would he want to kill Mordechai's nation and not just Mordechai because they told him who Mordechai's nation was?
The secret is - כי הגידו לו, they told him that this nation transgressed the 36 [gematria לו] kritut and that is why they are in galut and thus Haman has a chance to make them TOTALLY extinct [the Arabs from Haman all the way down seem to have something with exterminating us... Thanks Barack for signing that deal. You're a darling!].
The tikkun is in the pasuk מה טובו אהליך יעקב - How goodly are you tents O Yaakov! [See last weeks Dvar Torah] When we realize that this world is only temporary, like a tent and not a house, and we are here for a purpose, we will rededicate ourselves to the tents of Yaakov - the tents of Torah. The gematria of אהל is ...36.
The highest level in Kabbala of Malchut Shomayim is called כתר - the crown. When we fix our sins - כרת - we will merit to see the crowning of Hashem. כתר. That is especially meaningful on Rosh Chodesh when we say כתר in our קדושה of mussaf. [We take off our tefillin before mussaf so that when crowning Hashem, we are not wearing our crowns.]
It could also be that just like there are 36 kritut which cut us off from Hashem chas vi-shalom, it is the 36 hidden tzadikim who connect us to our source. They are people who understand the value of the "tent". I don't think it is farflung or farfetched [two VERY YIDDISH SOUNDING English words...] to say that my beloved friend R' Yoel ben R' Pinchas Halevi was one of those 36 special souls.
We should merit very soon a fulfillment of the pasuk ובלע המות לנצח and R' Yoel will be singing in the Beis Hamikdash as a Levi together with his sons, the Talmid Chochom HaRav Elad Shmuel and the army hero and officer R' Yishai Dov who lost an eye in the latest war with our cousins, may Hashem heal him. May his widow, Dr. Neri Weisberg and the rest of the family have a nechama ובירושלים תנוחמו.
PS - A huuuuge mazel tov to my sister Rebbetzin Naomi Weberman who celebrated her ... 36th birthday this week. She, too, is a lamed vav'nik!
Love and blessings to my sweetest friends everywhere,
Me
