From an email....
Shalooommmmm sweeeetest friends!!!
Mazel to all of the people I either don't know or who didn't inform me that they had smachot!!! May YOU celebrate many more smachot in good health and prosperity!
This dvar Torah is dedicated lizchus my most beloved friends
R' Shmuel Binyamin Ben Tishna Rochel Leah
R' Aharon Yisroel ben Moshe Mordechai
R' Moshe Yehuda ben Pesha Dina
R' Yehuda Yaakov ben Dina Chasha
R' Yehoshua Meir Ben Rochel
R' Yisroel Tzadok ben Shulamis
R' Avraham Yitzchak ben Esther
R' Yosef Ezra ben Esther
Rochel bas Geula
Rivka Esther bas Eliyahu Peretz
May they all enjoy limitless bracha together with their families!!!:-)
In Parshas Va-era there is a VERY cyptic pasuk. It says [6/13] וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן ויצום אל בני ישראל ואל פרעה להוציא את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים - Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon and he commanded them about the Jewish people and to Paroh to take the Jews out of Egypt.
What did Hashem command Moshe and Aharon about the Jewish people?? The pasuk doesn't tell us. PERFECT!! Now the goyim who read the OT [Only Testament] won't know. It'll be our little secret with Hashem.
But what, takeh [a greek word meaning "lukshen kugel is the BEST"], did he command them about? Chazal say that they were commanded to free their slaves in the seventh year of their service and when the Yovel year comes.
Isn't this an odd time to command them to free their slaves??? They are still themselves slaves? What would Martin Luther King say? "I haaaaaddd a dream that man would be judged not by the color of his skin ... but by the size of his boom box". We were still lowly slaves??
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explained that this was the IDEAL time to tell them to free their slaves. Since they are still experiencing the disgrace and dehumanization of being enslaved they are now being told - "Don't forget that when you are masters to free your own slaves. You know what it feels like".
The source of the lack of empathy people have is often that they just don't know what it feels like to be in yenems [a spanish word meaning "could you please fix the pipe in my bathroom, Carlos"] shoes.
The pasuk says אם כסף תלוה את עמי את העני עמך - When you lend money to the poor he must first be עמך - together with you. imagine you are the poor man and someone else was the person of means. How much would you want him to give? Give THAT sum. You are asked to donate to a shelter for the homeless? Spend a night or two sleeping on a bench in Riverside Park during a SUPER-COLD winter.
That'll get the zeros going...
Beloved friends!! The Torah is giving us the secret of achieving greatness! Feel connected to all, make their suffering [and joy] your own, and you have reached the pinnacle of human achievement.
A little philosophy for the philosophical...
The Rambam explains that the way that human beings know is much different than knowledge of Hashem כביכול. We know information that is outside of us. We are the יודע [knower] while the externally based knowledge is the ידוע. With regard to Hashem the יודע and ידוע are one and the same. He knows the knowledge as part of himself כביכול and not as external information.
To give an example: If Reuven tells Shimon he has a stomach ache, Shimon is the knower and the knowledge that he has about Reuven is something different.
But when Reuven has a stomach ache, the knowledge is PART OF HIM. When Hashem knows something it is similarly part of Him and not some external knowledge that comes from elsewhere.
That would explain the notion of עמו אנכי בצרה - Hashem is with us in our pain. Our pain is actually His pain [there are many sources for this but this is not the framework to expand]. When we experience the pain of others we merit to fulfill that great mitzva of והלכת בדרכיו - going on the path of Hashem, Imitatio Dei, and catapult ourselves to lofty planes of super-quality צלם אלקים.
May we always feel the pain [and ideally - the joy] of others. Let our times of pain be lessons to enhance our sensitivity.
Love to all and a deliciously sweet Shabbos!
Me
Beloved friends!! The Torah is giving us the secret of achieving greatness! Feel connected to all, make their suffering [and joy] your own, and you have reached the pinnacle of human achievement.
A little philosophy for the philosophical...
The Rambam explains that the way that human beings know is much different than knowledge of Hashem כביכול. We know information that is outside of us. We are the יודע [knower] while the externally based knowledge is the ידוע. With regard to Hashem the יודע and ידוע are one and the same. He knows the knowledge as part of himself כביכול and not as external information.
To give an example: If Reuven tells Shimon he has a stomach ache, Shimon is the knower and the knowledge that he has about Reuven is something different.
But when Reuven has a stomach ache, the knowledge is PART OF HIM. When Hashem knows something it is similarly part of Him and not some external knowledge that comes from elsewhere.
That would explain the notion of עמו אנכי בצרה - Hashem is with us in our pain. Our pain is actually His pain [there are many sources for this but this is not the framework to expand]. When we experience the pain of others we merit to fulfill that great mitzva of והלכת בדרכיו - going on the path of Hashem, Imitatio Dei, and catapult ourselves to lofty planes of super-quality צלם אלקים.
May we always feel the pain [and ideally - the joy] of others. Let our times of pain be lessons to enhance our sensitivity.
Love to all and a deliciously sweet Shabbos!
Me
