Shallllooom swweeeetest friends!!!!!:-):-)
A huuuuuge mazel tov to my most beloved friend HaRav HaGaon R' Aharon Hakohen Finkelstein Shlita [known from the old days as Rabbi "Jason" Finkelstein] and his special rebbetzin on the birth of their son. May they be zocheh to raise him and all of their children in good health and happiness for many many many many years to come and may this little kohen serve with his father in the Beis Hamikdash!!
A huuuuuuuge mzel to to my sweetest friends R' Yair and Shira Hillman on the birth of their daughter. May this bundle of joy and her sister Emunah be lights unto the world and give their parents and all of the Jewish people LOTS of nachas!!!
In this weeks parsha, parshas Nitzavim, we read the following pesukim:
"כִּי הַמִּצְוָה הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לֹא נִפְלֵאת הִוא מִמְּךָ וְלֹא רְחֹקָה הִוא: לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה: וְלֹא מֵעֵבֶר לַיָּם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲבָר לָנוּ אֶל עֵבֶר הַיָּם וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶׂנָּה: כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִלְבָבְךָ לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ" (דברים ל')".
12. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?"
13. Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and fetch it for us, to tell [it] to us, so that we can fulfill it?"
14. Rather,[this] thing is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can fulfill it.
Rashi [based on the gemara] comments that if the Torah was in heaven then we would have to go up and get it!!
But wait! The pasuk says that the Torah is NOT in the heavens so why is it necessary to tell us that if it were there we would have to go get it?? If my grandmother had wheels, the old saying goes, she would be a trolley car. But my grandmother doesn't have wheels and are there any trolley cars left in our world?? The Torah is in our mouths and heart, as the passuk itself says, so why do we need to know that if it were in the heavens, then we would have to go get it?!
The Baalei Mussar [Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi Shlita and Rav Shmuel Yaakov Bornstein ztz"l] explain that Rashi is teaching us a huge lesson. The only way one can merit to truly acquire Torah, to assimilate in into his [or her] soul, is if he is READY to go to the heavens to get it. If the Torah was on the moon - we would commission a spaceship, put on our space suits and oxygen masks, and FLLYYYY. We would arrive, take one small step for man and one HUUUUUGE STEP for mankind [to paraphrase Neil Armstrong] and get the Torah.
There must be such a powerful belief in the importance of Torah that we must be willing to sacrifice everything. The mishna teaches that the way of Torah is to eat bread and salt, drink a small amount of water, and sleep on the floor. It doesn't [necessarily] mean that if you have the means you are not allowed to put a little bit of peanut butter or cottage cheese on your bread if you can afford it or drink fresh orange juice in additon to water. It means that Torah should be so valuable in your eyes that you should be ready and willing to live on the bare minimum if it is necessary. That creates a כלי קיבול - a receptacle, to absorb the Torah.
If we lose our sense of the deeper meaning of life and just live to eat and eat to live then we are no better than animals who also live to eat and eat to live.
So first we have to establish what we would be willing to go to the moon for, what we would be willing to die for - and then we know what we should live for. As we say nightly - כי הם חיינו, Torah is our life. If we ignore this, the practical ramifications will be that financial and other considerations will trump Torah, meaning, values and 5000 years of tradition.
Beloved friends!!! May we always be ready to sacrifice for Torah but at the same time have SOOOO MUCH material and spiritual bounty that we never lack anything we need.
Have a sweet Shabbos
