Chiddushim on Pesach from my beloved friend and an ilui muflag - HaRav Zev Reinitz Shlita!
Friday, March 30, 2018
Small Is Numerous
Shaaalooommmm swwwetest friends!!!
EXCITING!!!!!
P-E-S-A-C-H!!!!!! Mary had a little lamb and soon the Beis Hamikdash will be rebuilt and every April we will have LOTS of lambs. And Mary will call herself Miriam once again.
Anyway - A short hagada vort in the zchus of my beloved friend R' Avraham Shraga ben Malka Esther and his BEAUTIFUL family. They should have LIMITLESS bracha in all they do.
And of course - My beloved friend MOSHE YEHUDA BEN PESHA DINA!!! MUCH MUCH MUCH BRACHA IN EVERYTHING.
Speaking of "much much"...
In the hagada we quote the pasuk ויעצמו במאד מאד - The Jews were fruitful and multiplied VERY VERY much. [I give your bank account and seed that same bracha!!! זרענו וכספנו ירבה כחול!!] Why "very very"? Isn't one very enough. Must we revert to superlatives?
Ahhhhh - Said Rav Shmuel Shmaryahu, the Av Beis Din Of Azstrovtza [a small town near Teaneck]: The mishna in Avos says מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח - Be of a very VERY low of spirit. Don't make anything of yourself. Don't advertise to the world your great qualities! Be very very low. The only quality that we are advised to be extreme about is humility. VERY VERY humble.
The pasuk is hinting to the secret of the Jews multiplication - the מאד מאד of their numbers was because of the מאד מאד of שפל רוח.
The gemara [Chulin 60] says that the moon was told to make itself small for which it merited having legions and legions of stars around it [see Rashi Breishis 1/16].
Yokton had LOTS of kids because he made himself kotton [small] - See Breishis 10/25 [which also happens to be my birthday:-)]
The gemara says in Sotah [5b] based on the pasuk in Yeshaya [57/15] that Hashem only dwells with someone who thinks he is low.
You want success - empty yourself out. Be like matza. No fluff. No pretensions. No shtick. Know where everything comes from and you become a vessel that contains blessing. [Maybe that is why Mary had a "little" lamb. A humble, unassuming lamb:-)].
EXCITING!!!!!
P-E-S-A-C-H!!!!!! Mary had a little lamb and soon the Beis Hamikdash will be rebuilt and every April we will have LOTS of lambs. And Mary will call herself Miriam once again.
Anyway - A short hagada vort in the zchus of my beloved friend R' Avraham Shraga ben Malka Esther and his BEAUTIFUL family. They should have LIMITLESS bracha in all they do.
And of course - My beloved friend MOSHE YEHUDA BEN PESHA DINA!!! MUCH MUCH MUCH BRACHA IN EVERYTHING.
Speaking of "much much"...
In the hagada we quote the pasuk ויעצמו במאד מאד - The Jews were fruitful and multiplied VERY VERY much. [I give your bank account and seed that same bracha!!! זרענו וכספנו ירבה כחול!!] Why "very very"? Isn't one very enough. Must we revert to superlatives?
Ahhhhh - Said Rav Shmuel Shmaryahu, the Av Beis Din Of Azstrovtza [a small town near Teaneck]: The mishna in Avos says מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח - Be of a very VERY low of spirit. Don't make anything of yourself. Don't advertise to the world your great qualities! Be very very low. The only quality that we are advised to be extreme about is humility. VERY VERY humble.
The pasuk is hinting to the secret of the Jews multiplication - the מאד מאד of their numbers was because of the מאד מאד of שפל רוח.
The gemara [Chulin 60] says that the moon was told to make itself small for which it merited having legions and legions of stars around it [see Rashi Breishis 1/16].
Yokton had LOTS of kids because he made himself kotton [small] - See Breishis 10/25 [which also happens to be my birthday:-)]
The gemara says in Sotah [5b] based on the pasuk in Yeshaya [57/15] that Hashem only dwells with someone who thinks he is low.
You want success - empty yourself out. Be like matza. No fluff. No pretensions. No shtick. Know where everything comes from and you become a vessel that contains blessing. [Maybe that is why Mary had a "little" lamb. A humble, unassuming lamb:-)].
The Jews became מאד מאד, so numerous, because they were מאד מאד, so low.
May Hashem bless us all with good children and fill us up with ALL of his brachos.
With much love and brachos for an UNBELIEVABLE Pesach beyond your wildest dreams FILLED with bracha,
Me
May Hashem bless us all with good children and fill us up with ALL of his brachos.
With much love and brachos for an UNBELIEVABLE Pesach beyond your wildest dreams FILLED with bracha,
Me
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Link
An AMAZING maamar on Pesach by Rav Dovid'l Weinberg Shlita. Print it out and enhance your Pesach and Emunah.
Birkat Me-eyn Sheva
[Halacha Yomit]
This year (5778), the first night of Pesach falls out on Shabbat night. Every Shabbat night following the Shabbat Arvit Amida prayer in the synagogue and following the recitation of “Vaychulu Ha’Shamayim Ve’Ha’aretz,” the Chazzan proceeds to recite the “Me’en Sheva” blessing, which is a brief repetition of the silent Amida prayer which has already been recited by the entire congregation.
The Gemara (Shabbat 24a) and the Rishonim (ibid.) explain that the reason our Sages enacted recited the Me’en Sheva blessing is because of danger, i.e. because there were people who remained in the synagogue later than the rest of the congregation and they were concerned that when these individuals would return home, destructive forces would harm them. Thus, our Sages established the Me’en Sheva blessing to be recited in the synagogue so that the entire congregation will remain in the synagogue a little while longer so that they would all be able to return to the city together. Our discussion will now revolve upon the issue of whether or not our Sages enacted that this blessing be recited on the first night of Pesach since this night is considered protected from all destructive forces.
The Tur (Chapter 487) states: “The Ba’al Ha’Itur writes in the name of Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon zt”l that when (the first night of) Pesach coincides with Shabbat, the Me’en Sheva blessing is not recited, for this blessing was established so that destructive forces do not harm those who remain in the synagogue later; on the night of Pesach there is no such concern since the night of Pesach is a night of Heavenly protection.” Indeed, Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch (ibid) rules likewise and writes: “The Me’en Sheva blessing is not recited.” This is the consensus among the vast majority of Rishonim that the Me’en Sheva is not to be recited on the first night of Pesach which coincides with Shabbat.
Based on the above, all of the greatest Poskim rule that the Me’en Sheva blessing should not be recited on the first night of Pesach which coincides with Shabbat.
On the other hand, the great Mekubal, the Rashash (Hagaon Rabbeinu Shalom Sharabi zt”l) presents a novel idea in his Sefer Nehar Shalom (page 58b) and writes that since the Me’en Sheva blessing is explicitly mentioned by the Talmud and we do not find that the Sages of the Talmud distinguished between the night of Pesach and the other Shabbatot of the year, the Me’en Sheva blessing should be recited on the night of Pesach which coincides with Shabbat. He writes that the Rishonim who have written not to recite it base themselves on their own logic. Thus, the Rashash clearly disagrees with the opinion of the great Rishonim because of his own rationale that since the Talmud does not state explicitly not to recite the Me’en Sheva blessing on the night of Pesach, it therefore should be recited.
Indeed, Hagaon Rabbeinu Chaim Palagi zt”l writes in his Responsa Lev Chaim (Volume 2, Chapter 95) quotes the words of the Rashash and then proceeds to question the words of the great Rishonim how it is that they have not deduced from the language of the Talmud that this blessing is to be recited on every Shabbat night including the night of Pesach, as the Rashash understood. Although he quotes several Acharonim who rebuff the Rashash’s opinion based on several sources from the revealed and hidden Torah, he concludes that if the Rashash says so, this must certainly be the correct approach according to the hidden Torah since the Rashash “was great in his knowledge of the revealed Torah and even greater in his knowledge of the hidden Torah, for he was so great and famous for his knowledge of Kabbalah that people almost said about him that the saintly Ari z”l’s promise at the time of his passing that if the people would merit it, he would return to them again, has been fulfilled by the presence of the saintly Rashash. Who then can disagree with him ?!”
Nevertheless, Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l discusses this matter at length in his Responsa Yabia Omer (Volume 2, Chapter 25) and completely rebuffs the ruling of Hagaon Rabbeinu Chaim Palagi and the Rashash. He writes that even the greatest Mekubalim of Yeshivat Bet El, headed by the great Rabbeinu Yisrael Yaakov Elgazi zt”l (father of the great Rabbeinu Yom Tov Elgazi zt”l), rule that one should not recite the Me’en Sheva blessing on the first night of Pesach which falls out on Shabbat, in accordance with the ruling of Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch. Similarly, Maran Ha’Chida, who was extremely close to the greatest Mekubalim of his generation, writes that the Me’en Sheva blessing should not be recited on the night of Pesach which coincides with Shabbat. Although the saintly Rashash was extremely great, nevertheless, our Torah “is not in Heaven” and one should not veer from the ruling of Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch and the other great Poskim in the slightest.
When Maran zt”l’s work was published in the year 5716 (1966), many residents of Jerusalem, Torah scholars and laymen alike, became agitated and created a tumult claiming that Maran zt”l did not have the authority to disagree with the Rashash. As a result of the great argument which ensued, these people tormented Maran to the extent that he fell ill and he could barely sit at the Seder table on the night of Pesach.
When the greatest luminaries of Jerusalem saw this, they immediately supported Maran zt”l and on the morning of the first day of Pesach, Hagaon Rabbeinu Ezra Attieh came to visit Maran zt”l at his home along with other sages from Yeshivat Porat Yosef. Additionally, Hagaon Harav Tzvi Pesach Frank zt”l proclaimed that Maran zt”l had the right to rule on halachic matters as he deemed fit, for he was correct regarding this matter since the custom of most Jewish communities is not to budge from the rulings of Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch. Nevertheless, there were several members of the Kabbalastic Yeshivot in Jerusalem who vehemently opposed Maran zt”l and spoke out harshly and disrespectfully against him.
This continued until one of the greatest Mekubalim of the generation, Hagaon Harav Efraim Ha’Kohen zt”l (father of the current Rosh Yeshiva of Porat Yosef, Hagaon Harav Shalom Ha’Kohen Shlit”a), who was himself the leading Sephardic Mekubal, Rosh Yeshivat “Oz Ve’Hadar” for Kabbalah studies, and one of the greatest disciples of Hagaon Rabbeinu Yosef Haim zt”l (the saintly Ben Ish Hai), openly came out in support of Maran zt”l and stated that his opinion was halachically correct.
Thus, this year (5778), the Me’en Sheva blessing should not be recited in the synagogue on the first night of Pesach. Only the paragraph of “Vaychulu” should be recited until the words “Asher Bara Elohim La’asot.”
Following this, the complete Hallel is recited along with its blessings, as we shall discuss in the following Halacha.
[My note - But see Rav Yakov Hillel's Teshuva in his וישב הים ח"א I believe סימן י"ג where he paskens to say it]
Following this, the complete Hallel is recited along with its blessings, as we shall discuss in the following Halacha.
[My note - But see Rav Yakov Hillel's Teshuva in his וישב הים ח"א I believe סימן י"ג where he paskens to say it]
Overeating Overspending And Buying Your Wife Jewelery
Almost all of us eat too much and spend too much. Both vices are detrimental to our physical and spiritual health ואכמ"ל.
So a bit of advice. [Unsolicited but free:-). If you don't want it, you may stop here and learn a vort on the hagada instead].
Eating: Use a small plate. Studies show that people with smaller plates eat less. We feel a need to fill our plate no matter so the smaller it is the less you will eat.
Decide beforehand how much you need to eat in order to be full and eat the predetermined amount and then stop. If you are still hungry don't worry - your brain just hasn't processed that you are full but will do so in a few minutes. If you are still hungry an hour later - you may have a snack [not a meal - you just had one:-)].
Spending: Studies show that people who use credit cards spend far more than people who use cash [I am reading a book about this]. USE CASH!! It hurts a lot more. A credit card is a joke. You give it to the seller, he or she swipes and then you get it back. So you have the products you bought plus the card - whatta a deal!!! Ayyyy - what about the money that is going to be deducted from your bank account? Too abstract.
It is like - li-havdil, reward in the world to come. It is too abstract to make a significant difference in most people's lives. Think about it - if you have five free minutes and you could gain eternal bliss by learning a mishna, isn't it worth it? Yet, how many thousands and and tens of thousands of five minutes have we wasted. Olam haba is nice but too "out there". If we would get 20 bucks up front in cash we would more likely learn the mishna. So too, cash is REAL for us. Credit card payments are an abstraction. Growing up Baruch Hashem I was never given a credit card [probably because the only way my father knew he was in control of how much I spent was when he gave me cash. Smart.] and to this day I try to use it only when I have to and only for purchases that I know I would make with cash.
Try it.
There is an Israeli organization that helps people in debt and teaches them how to run an economically efficient household. One of the first things they do is cut the credit card in half:-).
Also - leave the house with a small amount of cash. The less you have - the less you spend. Pashut:-).
Try it and save!!!
You have some extra money now? Go out and buy your wife a bracelet or something. Ladies? Buy your husband that new hagada that just came out. And don't worry, a new hagada is ALWAYS coming out:-)!
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Yom Tov Expenses
I wrote in a recent post about how much tzdaka and chesed there is before the chag. Here is the other side of the coin....
Many people work for companies and organizations that pay them paltry salaries, barely enough to get by or less - even for highly challenging, full time work. Then come the Yomim Tovim, the expenses skyrocket but no commensurate bonus is given. This forces these people to have to receive tzdaka which is not a great feeling and the tzdaka they receive might still not be enough [it usually isn't].
How do the people paying the salaries at these institutions [such as yeshivos] expect their employees to make it? How do they expect them to afford new clothing for their wives and children?
Maybe there is a different answer but the only one I have been able to come up with is - they just don't care. It CAN'T be that they can't afford it because they are spending on other things so it is a matter of priorities. They also can go years and years without ever giving any help at all. It NEVER happened that the institution had a few dollars to help their hard working employees? Hard to believe.
One can argue - so quit and find work elsewhere. Easier said than done and the problem is that elsewhere the situation is likely to be the same.
So pay them starvation wages and then add nothing for Yom Tov expenses. If this weren't the case in so many places it would be slightly less disheartening but it is.
I write, crying out in protest and hope somebody out there will do something about it [I have written about this a lot in the past and in the meantime nothing has been done - but we don't like to despair:)]. Our goal is to preserve the dignity and well being of so many good, hard working, devoted people in Klal Yisrael.
Everything Has Two Sides
I have a friend who is very deep. One of the deepest people I know. But he is also very unhappy. If he weren't so deep - he wouldn't be so unhappy. That is clear to me. It is his penetrating insight into life and people in all of their poses, fakeness and superficiality that makes him so unhappy.
Everything has two sides. Being superficial isn't such a great quality but it allows someone to live life without getting too down on things. Being a profound thinker is great but is has its downside. How did Koheles put it? יוסף דעת יוסף מכאוב!
Mi Ki-amcha Yisrael
There is an INCREDIBLE amount of tzdaka and chesed in Klal Yisrael before the holiday. I am witness. There are so many places that are giving away food for free. Others that are selling at cost. Millions and million of dollars and shekels are being given to the poor. Amazing. מתן בסתר. מתן בגלוי. The most important thing is - מתן. People are giving. Big time. And I am not only talking about people who are dropping 50k for their yuntiv vacation. Even people who can barely get by themselves are giving generously.
There is no nation like ours.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Link
If you can understand this amazing shiur it could be transformative. I want to write it up in English but there is SO MUCH to do. מה שהלב חושק - הזמן עושק.
Matza
Food is a metaphor for life. Externals and colors that attract the eye, odors that get one to salivate, delicious spices, promises of great pleasure. But then you get to matza. Ahhhh - those large Jew-crackers that cost insane amounts of money. But they heal body and soul. How?
No fluff. No funky colors or designs. No additives. Nothing fancy. No shtick. Just flour, water, a quick few minutes in the oven and what do you get? A large, not incredibly great tasting, cracker.
But PASHUT. Simple. The thing itself. The essence. No cosmetics. No flavorings.
Says the Maharal:
...ולא היתה הגאולה מצד העולם הזה, שהוא עולם המורכב, רק מצד עולם העליון הפשוט, ולפיכך צוה לאכול מצה לחם עוני שהוא לחם הפשוט, שהרי אין בו דבר רק עצם פשוט, כי לשון מצה בא על דבר שהוא פשוט, כמו שנקרא העור שהוא פשוט דלא מליח ולא קמיח ולא עפיץ, והוא עור פשוט בשם מצה... דמיון זה כהן גדול משמש בכל ימי השנה בבגדי זהב, וביום הכפורים בבגדי לבן לפני ולפנים, וזהו בשביל שהוא קונה מדריגה עליונה, שהרי היה נכנס לפני ולפנים, יש לו לסלק ממדריגות עולם הזה שמדריגתו אינו פשוט, ולכך יש לו לשמש בכל השנה בבגדי זהב בחוץ, אבל כשנכנס לפני ולפנים יש לו לשמש בבגדי לבן, לפי מעלת המדריגה שנכנס לשם, כי בגדי לבן הם פשוטים... וכל מדריגה העליונה יש בה פשיטות... (גבורות ה' פרק נא)
Accompanying The Dead
לזכות ידיד נפשי ר' אברהם שרגא בן מלכה אסתר לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו יחד עם כל בני ביתו!!!
אמר רחבה אמר רב יהודה כל הרואה המת ואינו מלוהו עובר משום לועג לרש חרף עושהו. ואם הלוהו מה שכרו אמר רב אסי עליו הכתוב אומר (משלי יט, יז) מלוה ה' חונן דל (משלי יד, לא) ומכבדו חונן אביון:
"Rechava said in the name of Rav Yehudah: Whoever sees a corpse [on the way to burial] and does not accompany it comes under the head of 'He that mocks the poor blasphemes his Maker'. And if he accompanies it, what is his reward? R. Assi says: To him apply the texts: He that is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and he that is gracious to the needy honors Him."
Why is it so critical to accompany a corpse?
I love when people die. Actually, let me rephrase that. I love when ISIS-type people die. But I am also inspired when regular people die and at the funeral people get to thinking about their values and what is important in life. I would MUCH prefer if good people wouldn't die but there is something elevating about seeing normally materialistic people [like me!] get serious about spiritual matters. Death does that. At shiva homes, sports, politics and other nonsense lose all of their gravitas. The topics of conversation generally revolve around the meaning of life, the good deeds the person performed, love, caring, relationships etc. The depth of emotion shown reveals that ultimately it is emotional and spiritual desires that truly matter.
Giving honor to a lifeless corpse expresses that there is SOMETHING BEYOND our regular life. This person is now "useless". We generally relate to others as OBJECTS. My waiter exists in order to serve me food. The electrician exists in order to make sure my electricity is working. The computer guy exists in order to ensure that my computer is in good working order and so on and so forth.
Even a wife or husband only exist in order to ensure that the spouse have a better more fulfilling life. She has to take care of the kids and home, preferably bring in a second income, satisfy the man sexually etc. and he has to make a good living and be her companion etc. etc. An object. What can I get from this person. That is not ALWAYS the case but all too often it is.
Then a person dies. What can I get out of him? Nothing. So why go to his funeral? To honor all of the good that he did in his [or her] lifetime and to express that fact that they are not done yet. Now their soul lives on and watches this funeral and receives merit from any improvement in people's deeds and character that the departed triggered.
The soul lives on and we recognize this by accompanying it. If we fail to accompany the corpse then even if we claim to believe in the afterlife, our actions belie our deeds.
Honoring the dead is really, on a deeper level, an act of honoring Hashem Himself because it impresses upon us a sense of what is beyond this world and how that is what really matters. The finality of death [from this world] is a searing reminder that you can't take it with you and all that you are left with are your good deeds and depth of relationship with Hashem. This transforms the negative experience of loss into something very positive and meaningful.
The Rav writes:
(ברכות יח א): "כל הרואה את המת ואין מלוהו".
ההלויה תלמד שיש יחש לחיים עם המות ושפעולות החיים עושות רושם במצב המות. ובזה יתעורר לכבד את ד' בפעולות החיים שבידו כל ימי חייו, מפני שאינם פעולות שכלות כעשן, כ"א יתיצבו בלבוש אחר ע"י המות, אבל מציאותם תתמיד ותתן פרי. ומי שאינו מלוה, אפי' יודה בנצחיות הנפש וגם בתחית המתים, אבל אם לא ישים לב שיש חיבור לכל פעולות וארחות החיים גם אחרי מות האדם, וכפי הליכותיו בחיים ימצא אז ערכו האמיתי, עוד לא מלא תעודתו בכבוד ד', שעיקר המגמה מזה היא שלימות יצוריו. וההלויה תציין עוד, שנסיעת המות היא למעלה יותר רמה ממציאות חיי החומר. ע"כ על המלוה אומר הכתוב: "מלוה ד' חונן דל". כמלוה המאמין ללוה, אף שאין עיניו רואות את כספו, אבל הוא בטוח באמונתו, כן בטוח הוא אף שרואה החיים כלים לעיניו, מ"מ הוא יודע להוקיר ערך המות, מפני היותו בטוח על צדקת ד'. כי לא לשוא ברא את האדם, ונפח בקרבו נשמת חיים רק לעשותו משחק לפגעי הזמן החומריים, כ"א לתכלית נשגבת נעלה, שימצא ביותר באחרית הימים. ויש בזה עוד הערה. כי רגשי העוצב שיוליד המות, גם הם לטובה המה, להכניע לב האדם וטבעו הקשה, למען יוכל לנהלו באורח חיים. כמו שמציאות העוני בא ג"כ להוליד מדת החנינה בנפש העושה צדקה, שהוא קנין נצחי וטוב בעצם הנפש לעולמים. והנה המשתמש בהיתרון שבא מאלו הדברים שנדמים לרעות, הוא מכבד את ד', שמוציא אל הפועל את התכלית הטובה הצפונה בהם, כפי הכונה האלהית העליונה. וכן המלוה את המת ומועיל עליו רושם של "והחי יתן אל לבו" ומישר דרכיו, הוא מכבד את ד'. כמו כן החונן דל ואביון הוא מכבד את ד', במה שמראה התכלית הטובה שיש בכל דבר, אפי' הנדמה רע.
Why Give Tzdaka?
לזכות ידיד נפשי הרה"ג ר' אליעזר זאב בן דבורה לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו יחד עם כל בני ביתו
לזכות רפואת אסתר רות בת נעמי שרה בתוך שח"י
The Rambam says [Matnos Ani-im 10-2]:
לזכות רפואת אסתר רות בת נעמי שרה בתוך שח"י
The Rambam says [Matnos Ani-im 10-2]:
לעולם אין אדם מעני מן הצדקה ואין דבר רע ולא היזק נגלל בשביל הצדקה שנאמר והיה מעשה הצדקה שלום כל המרחם מרחמין עליו שנאמר ונתן לך רחמים ורחמך והרבך, וכל מי שהוא אכזרי ואינו מרחם יש לחוש ליחסו שאין האכזריות מצויה אלא בעכו"ם שנאמר אכזרי המה ולא ירחמו וכל ישראל והנלוה עליהם כאחים הם שנאמר בנים אתם לה' אלהיכם ואם לא ירחם האח על האח מי ירחם עליו ולמי עניי ישראל נושאין עיניהן הלעכו"ם ששונאין אותו ורודפים אחריהן הא אין עיניהן תלויות אלא לאחיהן.
Why do we give tzdaka? Because the needy person is our BROTHER [or sister]. That is a different perspective. The fellow who knocks at your door and asks for a donation is your brother- not some unknown stranger who arrived to take some of your hard earned money without doing anything for you in return.
Said Rav Soloveitchik commenting on this Rambam:
How comforting it is to know that we are not individuals all alone in a cold, cruel, unfeeling world but part of the same faith-community and fate-community. That is the beauty of our nationhood. So giving tzdaka is much more than just helping a destitute person pay his bills but an expression of the unity and brotherhood of the Jewish people. אתה אחד ושמך אחד ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ. Hashem's unity is expressed in our unity.
Torah And Bones
לע"נ אסתר בת ר' שמואל
The gemara in Brachos [18] says:
The gemara in Brachos [18] says:
Our Rabbis taught: A man who is carrying bones from place to place should not put them in a saddle-bag and place them on his donkey and sit on them, because this is a disrespectful way of treating them. But if he was afraid of heathens and robbers, it is permitted. And the rule which they laid down for bones applies also to a Torah scroll.
This is truly a wondrous gemara! The gemara compares the law of a holy Torah scroll and the bones of a dead person!
What is GOING ON??
There is a deeeep lesson here. When we keep the Torah it leads us to perfection. In the same vein, when we give respect to the bones of a dead person, it brings us to perfection. How so??
The body, philosophical speaking, is neutral. It could be used for good or for bad. If we follow the dictates of the intellect and soul then we will live ethical lives and our body will fulfill its purpose. This is parallel to the Torah. If we follow its dictates, then our bodies [and souls] will reach perfection.
So indeed there IS a parallelism between bones and Torah.
"וכדרך שאמרו בעצמות כך אמרו בס"ת".
השיווי של הנהגת הכבוד בס"ת לעצמות אדם, תלמדנו כי כאשר תכלית כבוד ס"ת הוא להוקיר את דבריה ולהיות חרד לקיים בפועל כל הכתוב בה, כדי שנגיע אל השלימות האמיתית. כן הכבוד הניתן לעצמות האדם במותו, תהי' לנו להוראה על ערך היחש שיש לגוף עם השכל האלהי השוכן בו. ומפני ששלימות השכל הוא דבר מושכל ומושג, נדע שכפי אשר תשיג ידינו להנהיג את הגוף על דרך שלימות בדרכי קודש וטהרה, יוסיף השכל אומץ. ע"כ גדלה מאד חובת השמירה לכל פרטי תורה הנוגעים [רובם] ככולם ביחש הגוף, מפני הקשר האמיץ שיש להעצמות הגופניות עם השכל הנקי, ותצא לנו תורה אחת, מכבוד עצמות כמכבוד התורה, להוסיף עז בדרכי ד', שהם חיים למוצאיהם ולכל בשרו מרפא [משלי ד' כ"ב].
Monday, March 26, 2018
To Be Alone With Hashem - Link
Tomorrow is the Lubavitcher Rebbe's birthday [if he is really still alive then he is 116:-)]. Here is an beautiful story.
How You View It
In one of their meetings, Henry Kissinger shot back at Golda Meir and said, "You have to realize, I am first Secretary of State, second an American citizen and only third I am a Jew."
Meir retorted "Then we are in a good situation because we read from right to left...".
Moral of the story - You can give any situation the twist you want.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Change Your Narrative
לע"נ ר' מרדכי צבי ב"ר אהרן מנחם
לזכות ידיד נפשי הרב אליעזר זאב שליט"א בן דבורה וכל בני ביתו
We all have our personal narrative of the world in general and our personal condition in particular. We give marks to everything we see. Money in the bank - good. Lots of money in the bank - very good. Minus in the bank - bad. Big minus in the bank - very bad. Happy, healthy well adjusted children - great. Problem children - baaaaad. Loving, caring, warm spouse - super. Cold spouse with deep emotional issues - the worst. And so on and so forth. Even the little stuff - we missed the 5:47 train and will have to wait another 17 minutes until the next one - bummer. We came just a second before it leaves the station and made it - ahhhh, a relief. Everything automatically gets a grade. Even the weather. We go outside and if it is a snowy day and our car is stuck in the snow, we feel - super annoyed. We walk outside on our Pesach vacation in Orlando and the sky is a sparkling blue, there is a coooool breeze and it's 75 degrees - may-ayn olam ha-ba! [Remez la-davar - The "color commentator" in the booth at sporting events. He gives his own interpretations of the events on the field. We are ALL our own personal color commentators on our lives].
Our task is to ALTER our narrative. We have to know that there is NOTHING completely BAD IN THE WORLD. Everything has a purpose - even root canal:-)! Hashem is good and thus everything we see serves the ultimate purpose of good. Even DEATH is good according to our sages. That is why one is not allowed to learn Torah in a cemetery. When one learns he is expressing the notion that the dead people have been "messed over" because they are unable to learn as the living are. This is a mistake. The dead indeed can't learn and keep mitzvos as we do but they also have reached a state of spiritual perfection and closeness to Hashem that we living beings have not yet achieved. Death has a positive purpose as well. That is also why we tuck in our tzitzis and remove our tefillin before entering the cemetery. Don't be a לועג לרש - Mocker of the poor, implying that being dead makes one spiritually impoverished while only we living beings have all of the bounty. It is not true.
Last night I went to sleep in a really down mood. This morning I woke up and picked up automatically where I left off. Then I thought "Why am I down? Because I am telling myself certain stories and opinions about my life. If I just change the story and recast it in a different light I will be instantaneously happy." It worked:-).
Alter your narrative today!! Try to see things in a different light. Reframe your problems in a more positive light. The following passage may help:-). [If you can't read the whole passage, at least read the first sentence].
"תניא לא יהלך אדם בביה"ק ותפילין בראשו וס"ת בזרועו וקורא, ואם עשה כן עליו הכתוב אומר לועג לרש חרף עושהו". [ברכות פ"ג]
יסוד האמונה לדעת כי אין חסרון מוחלט במציאות. וכל חסרון שאנו רואים, אם הוא חסרון לפי השקפתנו הפרטית, איננו חסרון כלל כ"א יתרון והכנה טובה לשכלול הכלל. והמשל הוא העניות, הוא חסרון בחק הפרטי, אמנם ה"לועג לרש" וחושב שאין בו תועלת כלל, הוא "חרף עושהו". כי לולא היו טובות באות ממדה זו, לא היתה נמצאת מהמנהיג העליון ית', גדול העצה ורב העליליה. אלא צריך האדם לדעת, שלמציאות הכללית ישנם כמה מעלות טובות במציאות העניות, אם כדי שננצל אנו מדינה של גיהנם ולהוסיף שלימות מוסרית ע"י מציאות עשיית החסד והטוב, אם מכמה מלאכות כבידות ובזויות שהם ממשלימי-המציאות, ואלמלא העניות לא הי' מי שיעשם, ועוד כמה מעלות שאנו קצרים בדעת להשיגם. א"כ המתבונן שגם העניות, שהיא הגדולה שבחסרונות למצב האנושי, איננה דבר ריק, הוא נותן כבוד לעושה כל. והלועג, באמרו שאין תועלת בו כלל והוא דבר יתר במציאות ורע מוחלט, הוא "חרף עושהו". כמו כן הדבר נוהג בחיים ובמות, אנו רואים את החיים טובים, והפעולות השלימות שהחיים עושים ממלאים את לבבינו אור ותפארת. אל יחשוב האדם, כי למות אין כל תעודה כ"א הוא חסרון מוחלט, מאחר שאין בו אותו השלימות שאנו מכירים בחיים. לא כן הדבר, כי יוצר כל ית', שכל אשר עשה הוא טוב מאד, לא יעשה דבר רע מוחלט. ע"כ צריך להשכיל כי גם למות יש תעודה ותכלית, וע"ז אמרו חכמינו ז"ל: "והנה טוב מאד זה המות". א"כ יש מקום במציאות, ששביתת פעולות החיים גם היותר שלימות שבהם, כקיום המצות ות"ת, הוא ג"כ שלימות. ע"כ בעמדו בביה"ק שם לא יעסוק בתורה ומצות, להראות שיש כאן מקום במציאות לשלימות אחר, שאינו בגדרינו ואיננו משיגים אותו. ואם עשה כן, ומראה שהמות הוא חסרון החלטי, ושאין מקום כלל למציאות מעלה של שביתת פעולת החיים, עליו הכ"א "לועג לרש חרף עושהו". כי צריך להראות שלמות העושה העליון ית' בכל תארי המציאות, אם כי גבהו דרכיו מדרכינו, ומחשבותיו ממחשבותינו.
Second Cup/Ha Lachma Anya
Our minhag, which is in accordance with the Shulchan Aruch, has the filling of the second cup after Ha Lachma Anya before Mah Nishtana. However, the Rambam puts the filling of the second cup before Ha Lachma Anya. What is the basis of this machlokes? The answer is that it is a function of yet another machlokes. We have Yachatz right after Karpas. The Rambam, though, puts Yachatz all the way after Maggid and the drinking of the second cup, right before Motzi Matza. Why do we break the matzah before Maggid? It’s as the Mishna Brurah brings down from the Gemara, to fulfill both drashos of “lechem oni” – lechem sheh’onin alav devarim harbei – bread over which many words are said (meaning, maggid), and oni mi’lashon ani – poor – and the way of a poor man is to eat a prusah, a broken piece. Our minhag, then, is to make the matzah into full-fledged lechem oni before we begin Maggid. That being the case, the paragraph of Ha Lachma Anya, according to our minhag, is an explanation for the action of Yachatz. Why did we just break the matzah? Because it needs to be lechem oni. So Ha Lachma Anya is not part of Maggid; it is just an explanation for Yachatz which is a preparation for Maggid. That is why we only pour the second cup after Ha Lachma Anya. We recite Maggid over the second cup. Since Ha Lachma Anya, according to our minhag, is not part of Maggid, we wait until after it to pour the second cup. According to the Rambam, though, that Yachatz only comes immediately preceding Motzi Matzah, it is obviously not possible to understand Ha Lachma Anya as an explanation of Yachatz. Therefore, it must be that according to the Rambam, Ha Lachma Anya is in fact a part of Maggid. Therefore, the cup over which Maggid is said must be in place before we begin Ha Lachma Anya. That is why the Rambam puts the pouring of the second cup before Ha Lachma Anya.
[Rav Moshe Twersky ztz"l Hy"d]
A BETTER Leniency
לע"נ ר' מרדכי צבי בן ר' אהרן מנחם
The gemara [Pesachim 27b] asks that according to R' Yehuda who learns from a kal vachomer that we must BURN the chometz, a leniency will emerge, and we don't accept a chumra from a kal vachomer if it leads to a leniency. What leniency emerges? If he lacks wood, then he will not be able to fulfill the mitzva of removing his chometz. So it must be that the Chachomim are correct and one may discard of his chometz in any way - השבתתו בכל דבר.
עד כאן דברי הגמרא!
עד כאן דברי הגמרא!
The question is - Why doesn't the gemara ask a stronger question?!! Instead of asking from the rare case of having no firewood, ask instead about another leniency that will emerge. According to the gemara [Temurah 34], if the mitzva is to burn an object, the ash is permitted for benefit. So by requiring burning, he is allowing benefit from the ash. But according to the Chachomim [who say that there is no special mitzva to burn], one may not benefit from the ash if he decides to discard the chometz by burning it. So why doesn't the gemara cite a leniency that is much more common??
Us Or Our Avos?
We begin with עבדים היינו לפרעה במצרים - We were slaves to Paroh, ויוציאנו - And Hashem took US out. Then we say ואילו לא הוציא הקב"ה את אבותינו- Had Hashem not taken our AVOS out of Egypt etc.
But wait - we just said a moment ago that it was US who were taken out, not our Avos??
Where Is The Bracha?
Why don't we say the bracha of שעשה לניסים לאבותינו on Pesach like we do on Chanukah and Purim? Aren't the miracles of Pesach worthy of a bracha???
Why People Lose Motivation And How to Help Them Regain It
Dan Cable
At some point, every leader has dealt with a person — or, worse, a group of people — who has lost motivation. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? As much as we’ve been there ourselves, sometimes it’s hard to sympathize with others who are disengaged from work and unproductive as a result. Sometimes, we view their unhappiness as a bug in their mental makeup — and, therefore, we think they should be able to suck it up and snap out of it.
Although it’s easy to fall into this mindset as a leader, this type of thinking is counterproductive and it ignores the underlying reasons why people lose their passion for what they do (or never find it to begin with).
In order to get at the crux of the problem, it’s crucial to understand that as humans we want to feel motivated and to find meaning in the things that we do. It’s part of our biology. In fact, there’s a part of our brains called the seeking system that creates the natural impulses to learn new skills and take on challenging but meaningful tasks. When we follow these urges, we receive a jolt of dopamine — a neurotransmitter linked to motivation and pleasure — which make us want to engage in these activities even more. And, when our seeking systems are activated, we feel more motivated, purposeful, and zestful. We feel more alive.
Exploring, experimenting, learning — this is the way we’re supposed to live and work. The problem is, too many workers aren’t able to partake in these activities because the way our organizations are run is preventing them from doing so.
Take Tom, a website developer whom I met on a consulting assignment at an accounting firm. When Tom was hired, fresh out of college, he was excited because he had been told that there were opportunities for learning and growth. But the honeymoon didn’t last long. “I soon found out my supervisor had no time or patience for experimenting,” he told me. “He was more concerned with protocol than personal development. It’s like he’s afraid of me trying new things because it might not go exactly as planned. It doesn’t leave me much room for learning.”
At first, Tom wasn’t deterred. He worked to improve some processes and tried to inject some personality into his work. But since Tom’s boss was under pressure to meet a number of website metrics, she didn’t have the flexibility to implement his ideas. As the weeks turned into months, Tom’s work became routine and boring, and he shut off as a result.
We shouldn’t blame Tom for his reaction — because he reacted the way we’re all designed to react. Shutting down is our body’s way of telling us that we were meant do better things. To keep exploring and learning. This is our biology — it is a part of our adaptive unconscious to know that our human potential is being wasted.
They key for leaders is to find ways to activate employee’s seeking systems. But how do you do it? If you’re like Tom’s boss, there are likely organizational roadblocks in the way — many of which are probably beyond your control. It’s not often possible to ignore performance metrics or overcome policies and bureaucratic red-tape.
Despite these difficulties, it is possible for leaders to activate their employees’ seeking systems without a large overhaul to organization-wide policies and culture. And, in my experience working with leaders across the globe, you can reach business objectives while improving the lives of employees. There are three small but consequential nudges that trigger employees’ seeking systems: encourage them to play to their strengths, creating opportunities to experiment, and helping them personalize the purpose of the work.
At some point, every leader has dealt with a person — or, worse, a group of people — who has lost motivation. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? As much as we’ve been there ourselves, sometimes it’s hard to sympathize with others who are disengaged from work and unproductive as a result. Sometimes, we view their unhappiness as a bug in their mental makeup — and, therefore, we think they should be able to suck it up and snap out of it.
Although it’s easy to fall into this mindset as a leader, this type of thinking is counterproductive and it ignores the underlying reasons why people lose their passion for what they do (or never find it to begin with).
In order to get at the crux of the problem, it’s crucial to understand that as humans we want to feel motivated and to find meaning in the things that we do. It’s part of our biology. In fact, there’s a part of our brains called the seeking system that creates the natural impulses to learn new skills and take on challenging but meaningful tasks. When we follow these urges, we receive a jolt of dopamine — a neurotransmitter linked to motivation and pleasure — which make us want to engage in these activities even more. And, when our seeking systems are activated, we feel more motivated, purposeful, and zestful. We feel more alive.
Exploring, experimenting, learning — this is the way we’re supposed to live and work. The problem is, too many workers aren’t able to partake in these activities because the way our organizations are run is preventing them from doing so.
Take Tom, a website developer whom I met on a consulting assignment at an accounting firm. When Tom was hired, fresh out of college, he was excited because he had been told that there were opportunities for learning and growth. But the honeymoon didn’t last long. “I soon found out my supervisor had no time or patience for experimenting,” he told me. “He was more concerned with protocol than personal development. It’s like he’s afraid of me trying new things because it might not go exactly as planned. It doesn’t leave me much room for learning.”
At first, Tom wasn’t deterred. He worked to improve some processes and tried to inject some personality into his work. But since Tom’s boss was under pressure to meet a number of website metrics, she didn’t have the flexibility to implement his ideas. As the weeks turned into months, Tom’s work became routine and boring, and he shut off as a result.
We shouldn’t blame Tom for his reaction — because he reacted the way we’re all designed to react. Shutting down is our body’s way of telling us that we were meant do better things. To keep exploring and learning. This is our biology — it is a part of our adaptive unconscious to know that our human potential is being wasted.
They key for leaders is to find ways to activate employee’s seeking systems. But how do you do it? If you’re like Tom’s boss, there are likely organizational roadblocks in the way — many of which are probably beyond your control. It’s not often possible to ignore performance metrics or overcome policies and bureaucratic red-tape.
Despite these difficulties, it is possible for leaders to activate their employees’ seeking systems without a large overhaul to organization-wide policies and culture. And, in my experience working with leaders across the globe, you can reach business objectives while improving the lives of employees. There are three small but consequential nudges that trigger employees’ seeking systems: encourage them to play to their strengths, creating opportunities to experiment, and helping them personalize the purpose of the work.
Self-Expression
Philosophers have been telling us for millennia that people have an innate drive to show others who they really are, yet somehow organizational life often runs afoul of the human desire for self-expression. Even today, when we extol the virtues of creativity and innovation, we still see bureaucratic job titles, inflexible roles, and standardized evaluation systems that generate anxiety instead of excitement and self-expression.
None of us wants to just perform pre-programmed behaviors again and again. We have a deep desire to use our unique skills and perspectives to make our own decisions about how to help our teams succeed. When people are prompted to think about their best traits, their seeking systems are activated. Research shows that when people identify and use their unique strengths, they feel more alive.
Leaders can help employees be their best selves without changing the frames of their jobs. For example, in a study I conducted with colleagues, we found that asking new hires to write down and share stories about times they were at their best made them feel more comfortable about being themselves around co-workers, and that their unique strengths were valued. Results showed that newcomers onboarded this way made customers happier and were much less likely to quit in the future.
Employees want to be valued for the unique skills and perspectives they bring to the table, and the more you can re-enforce this, and remind them of their role in the company at large, the better. And it doesn’t take much. At both Make-A-Wish and Novant Health, for example, leaders encouraged employees to create their own job titles, a move which prompted people to highlight their unique contributions to their teams.
Experimentation
A second way to activate people’s seeking systems is to create an experimental “safe zone” that includes play and supportive social bonding. Play not only stimulates the seeking system, it also pushes anxiety and fear back into its place.
Positive emotions are important in their own right, of course. But it’s not just that play “feels good.” Experimental safe zones create intrinsic motivations, which are much more powerful than extrinsic motivations because they unleash creativity. Firms are more agile when they encourage employees to think up new approaches and try them out, and then get feedback about how the environment responded to their ideas.
The research is clear that framing change and innovation as a chance to experiment and learn is better than framing it as a performance situation, which makes people anxious, risk-averse, and less willing to persist through difficulty. For example, employees in a white-goods manufacturing plant in Italy learned about lean manufacturing by playing with Legos rather than cooktops. They then experimented with transforming their own production line using the new techniques. In two weeks, the production team made lean manufacturing their own, reducing internal defects by 30% and improving productivity by 25%.
A second way to activate people’s seeking systems is to create an experimental “safe zone” that includes play and supportive social bonding. Play not only stimulates the seeking system, it also pushes anxiety and fear back into its place.
Positive emotions are important in their own right, of course. But it’s not just that play “feels good.” Experimental safe zones create intrinsic motivations, which are much more powerful than extrinsic motivations because they unleash creativity. Firms are more agile when they encourage employees to think up new approaches and try them out, and then get feedback about how the environment responded to their ideas.
The research is clear that framing change and innovation as a chance to experiment and learn is better than framing it as a performance situation, which makes people anxious, risk-averse, and less willing to persist through difficulty. For example, employees in a white-goods manufacturing plant in Italy learned about lean manufacturing by playing with Legos rather than cooktops. They then experimented with transforming their own production line using the new techniques. In two weeks, the production team made lean manufacturing their own, reducing internal defects by 30% and improving productivity by 25%.
Purpose
The feeling of purpose doesn’t only come from curing diseases and improving the world. The feeling of purpose also ignites when we can see the cause and effect between our inputs and our team’s progress. For example, sense of purpose soars when we can offer insights to our team about the environment and what might work better. Likewise, we feel a sense of purpose when we can experience firsthand how our unique contributions help other people and allow the team to progress.
For example, when leaders brought scholarship students into a call center to thank the fundraisers for the money they raised, the fundraisers became more persistent and made a lot more calls on their shifts. And, because they were more personally connected to the why of their work, each call was substantially more effective – they raised an average of $9,704.58 versus $2,459.44 for fundraisers who did not talk to a scholarship student.
Keep in mind that instilling a sense of purpose doesn’t work when it is a “one-off.” It can’t just be a speech by senior leaders who speak during town hall meetings about why their products help customers. Purpose works best when employees get to interact directly with the people they are affecting with their work. For example, employees at Microsoft are encouraged to spend time out with clients, understanding their problems and issues first hand. One account manager spent a week out on the street with police officers, for example, trying to understand when and where remote data could help them. Another account manager spent two days in a hospital to understand what it would really mean to become paperless.
It doesn’t take much to light up our seeking systems. For leaders, the upshot is the potential is already flowing right under the surface. And it doesn’t take charm, or motivational speeches to tap into that energy — all it takes is a concerted effort to infuse self-expression, experimentation, and personalized purpose into all that we do.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Shabbos Hagadol - Small Is Big
Shaaaloooom sweeeeeeetest friends!!!!!!
A HUUUUUGE mazel tov to my very special and long time friends Rav Jakey And Rebbetzin Dahlia Berman on the birth of their SON!!!! May they have LOADS of nachas from him and their other children as well, in good health and happiness!!! May he follow in the path of his esteemed parents and be a TRUE Eved Hashem!!
A special mazel tov to the Berman and Honigsfeld families, grandparents, uncles, aunts etc.!!! May this simcha be a harbinger of many simchas to come!!
This Dvar Torah should be a zchus for my beloved mother, הענא מרים בת חנה, for good health and happiness for many years to come!!
And Li-ilui nishmas HaRav Ozer Glickman whose sudden passing has left so many people devastated. May his Torah and example shine for all of us.
This Shabbos is called "Shabbos Hagadol". Why? Oh boy [we were just talking about a new boy]! LOTS of reasons are given.
Here is a great one from Rav Leibele Eiger ztz"l ["slightly" embellished:-)]:
All of the blessings in the world come from Shabbos. [That is why we eat leftovers all week long. The bracha of Shabbos extends to the whole week:-)]. So the Shabbos before yetzias mitzrayim was the source of the bracha that allowed us to leave that horrific Arab country lead by a despotic leader.
[I was actually considering spending Pesach in an Egyptian hotel with a special Pesach program where Machmoud Abbas is the scholar in residence. He will be speaking about why the ancient Egyptians didn't accept a 2 state solution for the Jewish problem and will attempt to prove that the Jews did not enter into Palestine after leaving Egypt but instead traveled to Topeka, Kansas. My wife however is not into the Egyptian-Pesach thing, so instead we are going to Las Vegas where the "scholar in residence" for the Pesach program is a running back from the L.A. Rams, Todd Gurley, who is of African ancestry and has curly peyos coming out from every part of his skull. I am not making that up. Meaning, I don't think I will be in Las Vegas at that Pesach program but the running back will be, together with his peyos [called "dreadlocks"]. I wonder if he eats gebrochts. He will be speaking about "From Moses to Martin Luther King Jr - Man shouldn't judged by the color of his skin but by the amount of touchdowns he scores and how he boogeys to celebrate". Sounds RIVETING].
However, before the Jews left, they were mitzvah-less. They felt empty. "Naked" - the pasuk calls them. ואת ערום ועריה. Then Hashem gave them the mitzvos of Korban Pesach and bris milah. When someone feels small - in G-d's eyes they are very big. In the Zohar Hakadosh it says "מאן דאיהו זעיר איהו רב" - One who is small is really BIG.
THAT is why this Shabbos is called Shabbos Hagadol. It is sooooo big because before we left Egypt we felt soooooo smalllll.
When Hashem came to Trump and asked him to take the Jews out of Egypt, he said "Lord, you are a VERY smart man. Well, I mean smart Deity. I am the ONLY person who can successfully take the Jews out of Egypt. I know how to make deals. That is how I made my billions. We need deal makers to take the Jews out of Egypt. Nobody can make deals like ME. Not fake politicians whom CNN likes with their FAKE NEWS. This is going to be HUUUUUGE. MASSIVE. I am going to make your Name GREAT AGAIN. Look at how many people come to hear me speak. The TV cameras don't show them but they are there. In throngs. Right after I was elected tens of thousands of women came out to demonstrate in my honor. They appreciate that I LOVE women. That is why I married 3 different ones. I am going to make your Name great among men and women alike. Also, I have Jewish grandchildren So NOBODY can really lead the Jewish people like me. And I understand Egyptians. I have done TONS of business with them. Billions of dollars. They LOVE me. Not like the previous president. His middle name was Hussein, he was born and raised in Kenya, yet he couldn't make deals with foreign governments. Except that HORRIBLE Iran deal. We are going to revoke THAT one. And Obamacare. He didn't really care anyway. Plus when we get to Israel I am going to put my embassy straight away in Jerusalem and then make a wall to keep all of the "Palestinians" out of the way of the Jews. I am also going to build a wall outside the Temple called the "Western wall" and make sure that it is NEVER destroyed".
Hashem didn't like his attitude so he wasn't chosen.
Then Hashem came to Moshe and asked him to take the Jews out of Egypt and ... he refused. I am not worthy, he said. Hashem chose Moshe. מאן דאיהו זעיר איהו רב - If you are small then you are great.
This Shabbos we celebrate our smallness which turned into greatness.
A sweet delicious Shabbos beloved friends!!!!
A HUUUUUGE mazel tov to my very special and long time friends Rav Jakey And Rebbetzin Dahlia Berman on the birth of their SON!!!! May they have LOADS of nachas from him and their other children as well, in good health and happiness!!! May he follow in the path of his esteemed parents and be a TRUE Eved Hashem!!
A special mazel tov to the Berman and Honigsfeld families, grandparents, uncles, aunts etc.!!! May this simcha be a harbinger of many simchas to come!!
This Dvar Torah should be a zchus for my beloved mother, הענא מרים בת חנה, for good health and happiness for many years to come!!
And Li-ilui nishmas HaRav Ozer Glickman whose sudden passing has left so many people devastated. May his Torah and example shine for all of us.
This Shabbos is called "Shabbos Hagadol". Why? Oh boy [we were just talking about a new boy]! LOTS of reasons are given.
Here is a great one from Rav Leibele Eiger ztz"l ["slightly" embellished:-)]:
All of the blessings in the world come from Shabbos. [That is why we eat leftovers all week long. The bracha of Shabbos extends to the whole week:-)]. So the Shabbos before yetzias mitzrayim was the source of the bracha that allowed us to leave that horrific Arab country lead by a despotic leader.
[I was actually considering spending Pesach in an Egyptian hotel with a special Pesach program where Machmoud Abbas is the scholar in residence. He will be speaking about why the ancient Egyptians didn't accept a 2 state solution for the Jewish problem and will attempt to prove that the Jews did not enter into Palestine after leaving Egypt but instead traveled to Topeka, Kansas. My wife however is not into the Egyptian-Pesach thing, so instead we are going to Las Vegas where the "scholar in residence" for the Pesach program is a running back from the L.A. Rams, Todd Gurley, who is of African ancestry and has curly peyos coming out from every part of his skull. I am not making that up. Meaning, I don't think I will be in Las Vegas at that Pesach program but the running back will be, together with his peyos [called "dreadlocks"]. I wonder if he eats gebrochts. He will be speaking about "From Moses to Martin Luther King Jr - Man shouldn't judged by the color of his skin but by the amount of touchdowns he scores and how he boogeys to celebrate". Sounds RIVETING].
However, before the Jews left, they were mitzvah-less. They felt empty. "Naked" - the pasuk calls them. ואת ערום ועריה. Then Hashem gave them the mitzvos of Korban Pesach and bris milah. When someone feels small - in G-d's eyes they are very big. In the Zohar Hakadosh it says "מאן דאיהו זעיר איהו רב" - One who is small is really BIG.
THAT is why this Shabbos is called Shabbos Hagadol. It is sooooo big because before we left Egypt we felt soooooo smalllll.
When Hashem came to Trump and asked him to take the Jews out of Egypt, he said "Lord, you are a VERY smart man. Well, I mean smart Deity. I am the ONLY person who can successfully take the Jews out of Egypt. I know how to make deals. That is how I made my billions. We need deal makers to take the Jews out of Egypt. Nobody can make deals like ME. Not fake politicians whom CNN likes with their FAKE NEWS. This is going to be HUUUUUGE. MASSIVE. I am going to make your Name GREAT AGAIN. Look at how many people come to hear me speak. The TV cameras don't show them but they are there. In throngs. Right after I was elected tens of thousands of women came out to demonstrate in my honor. They appreciate that I LOVE women. That is why I married 3 different ones. I am going to make your Name great among men and women alike. Also, I have Jewish grandchildren So NOBODY can really lead the Jewish people like me. And I understand Egyptians. I have done TONS of business with them. Billions of dollars. They LOVE me. Not like the previous president. His middle name was Hussein, he was born and raised in Kenya, yet he couldn't make deals with foreign governments. Except that HORRIBLE Iran deal. We are going to revoke THAT one. And Obamacare. He didn't really care anyway. Plus when we get to Israel I am going to put my embassy straight away in Jerusalem and then make a wall to keep all of the "Palestinians" out of the way of the Jews. I am also going to build a wall outside the Temple called the "Western wall" and make sure that it is NEVER destroyed".
Hashem didn't like his attitude so he wasn't chosen.
Then Hashem came to Moshe and asked him to take the Jews out of Egypt and ... he refused. I am not worthy, he said. Hashem chose Moshe. מאן דאיהו זעיר איהו רב - If you are small then you are great.
This Shabbos we celebrate our smallness which turned into greatness.
A sweet delicious Shabbos beloved friends!!!!
Rambam Adds
The gemara says that there are 3 signs of a Jew - רחמנים ביישנים וגומלי חסדים. If one lacks these qualities - who knows if he is really Jewish.
With that in mind - read this Rambam [Issurei Biah 19-17] :
וכן כל מי שיש בו עזות פנים או אכזריות ושונא את הבריות ואינו גומל להם חסד חוששין לו ביותר שמא גבעוני הוא שסימני ישראל האומה הקדושה ביישנין רחמנים וגומלי חסדים ובגבעונים הוא אומר והגבעונים לא מבני ישראל המה לפי שהעיזו פניהם ולא נתפייסו ולא רחמו על בני שאול ולא גמלו לישראל חסד למחול לבני מלכם והם עשו עמהם חסד והחיום בתחלה.
He ADDS a fourth simman that proves one isn't a Jew - שונא את הבריות.
Why?
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Link
1] Why did we need to put blood on our doorposts as a sign [Shmos 12/13] ? Couldn't Hashem figure out who the Jews were without our help?? Of COURSE He could.....
2] What does the word "Pesach" mean? Passover?? Maybe. Maybe NOT.
What Type Of Books To Read
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief."
Franz Kafka in a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Vi-higadita
If parents visit their married son in Eretz Yisrael and have a second seder - Is the father able to fulfill והגדת לבנך on the second night with a son who is a בן ארץ ישראל and doesn't have to have a second seder?
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
A Chaplains Tale Of The Korean War
Ruchama Feuerman
Jewish Action Spring 2018
At age twenty-four, I served for two years (from 1953 to 1955) on active duty as a Jewish chaplain in the United States Air Force. There was a war going on in Korea, and the United States Army was requesting volunteers. The National Jewish Welfare Board put pressure on the yeshivot, and so I was “volunteered.” Before I joined though, I spent a year studying full-time at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York, under the tutelage of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l.
Volunteers had a choice of serving in the United States Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force. I chose the Air Force and was assigned to the Air Training Command at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
Rav Hutner wasn’t too concerned about my joining the Air Force. He brushed it off, like it was some kind of initiation into a fraternity. Okay, so you’ll be there for two years. You’ll get in and get out. You’ll go and you’ll come back.
It didn’t feel that way when I first arrived.
On my first day of active duty, an officer inducted me and then accompanied me into a building. I was wearing my Air Force cap. He said, “Take it off.” A military man wasn’t allowed to wear a cap indoors. I didn’t know it, but if you wore a yarmulke, you would be considered officially “out of uniform” and subject to a citation and severe penalties. The same was true of facial hair.
I said, “Do you mean—take it off and then put on my yarmulke?”
He barked, “No! Off!”
I obeyed because I had no choice, but afterward I spoke to Rav Hutner about it. “What do I do?”
He said, “You have to take off your yarmulke, and see to it that in your heart things are the way they should be. Don’t worry about the externals right now.”
I wasn’t completely at ease with that, but Rav Hutner said it, so I did it. By this point, he had assumed the stature of a father in my eyes, a spiritual father. People have no idea what it was like in those days, how profoundly students were connected to their roshei yeshivah. Our generation had been completely orphaned. Many like myself had Galician parents who were traditional but didn’t have much of a Jewish education and certainly didn’t have the tools to help us succeed in the world of learning [Torah]. Zero. Along came Rav Hutner, a towering personality, a gigantic soul, handsome and dashing, unbelievably well-spoken in many languages, a wise man who was street smart and savvy and had received the luminous wisdom from the Alter of Slabodka. To us, he was like Moshe Rabbeinu. He was everything to me.
Throughout my time in the military, I experienced many conflicts between my service and my Torah observance. Praying with a minyan was impossible. Shabbat davening itself was challenging. You weren’t free to do whatever you wanted. Even though I had enormous latitude as an officer, I was still subject to the Air Force’s regulations.
Rav Hutner told me, “Whenever there is a halachah that you cannot keep, you should learn the laws that pertain to the mitzvah you can’t observe.” The rationale behind that was simple. Every mitzvah has four components: lilmod, l’lamed, lishmore v’la’asot—to study, to teach, to guard and to do. So if you can’t perform “la’asot” (to do), at least be sure to perform the other three.
That first day I received the requisite crew cut and uniform. No gun, because chaplains weren’t allowed to carry guns. But later, when I attended an officers’ basic military school, they taught us how to march, and proper military protocol.
Captain Feuerman preparing to daven, August 1953.
Most of the chaplains were in their mid-forties or fifties. I was a very young chaplain, just twenty-three. My trainees were much younger— seventeen. These boys, fresh off the farms of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Mississippi, saw the military as an opportunity to get out from behind the pigs, the goats and the cows and expand their horizons.
When the trainees first landed on the base, their heads were shaved right away; they were then sent to the showers and stuck into loose-fitting dungarees—fatigues. No snappy uniforms for them yet.
The next stop on the assembly line was the chapel. The boys now had to hear an inspirational talk from a chaplain, any chaplain, be it a reverend, priest, rabbi or imam—it was all the same to the military. My assignment was to tell them to be good boys, to stay away from drinking and nonsense. (Drugs weren’t a problem in those days.) It didn’t matter that my “congregants” weren’t Jewish. My job was to serve the spiritual needs of all faiths—to encourage the men to be patriotic, honest, “brave, courageous and bold.”
Many of the Christian chaplains gave very long and tedious “derashot.” To their thinking, they finally had a captive audience—a chapel full of people—and they weren’t going to let these boys go so quickly. Their long sermons would then hold up the next group of inductees waiting to get into the chapel. This put the chaplains in conflict with the barbers, who wanted the assembly line to move quickly—they were paid by the head.
One barber was named Benno F. Wotipka. We became friends, good ole Benno and I.
I would ask him, “Benno, what do you want? The sixty-second special or the two-hour special?” Sometimes it was to his advantage if my sermon went more slowly. Whatever he said, I would do. Because I didn’t really care if the men listened to my derashah. All I knew was, I had to say a derashah.
I did the same thing with the guys who issued the uniforms—I kept the line moving. They probably were also paid by the uniform. I was very popular with everyone in that unit.
It was fun. I had a grand time. Well, most of the time.
Every now and then, I’d be overcome with an intense longing for home and my yeshivah, especially soon after I first arrived. One day I was walking along the base moping, missing my family. Ahead of me, a platoon of airmen was strewn helter-skelter on the grass; the men were catching their breath after an exercise or a march. All I did was walk by, despondent with my head down, when the sergeant gave a full-throated yell: “Plato-o-o-n!!” At that instant, these exhausted trainees all leapt to their feet, saluted crisply, and chimed in unison: “Good morning, sir!” They stood there and waited. I looked at them like they were crazy. Was I supposed to do something in return? Somehow I intuitively raised a feeble hand to my right eyebrow. The sergeant in charge of the platoon snapped, “At ease!” whereupon all the men plopped back onto the grass.
Did their salutes lift my mood? No. It wasn’t personal, just the protocol toward officers, as I learned soon enough. Whenever I happened to walk by, those in uniform leapt to their feet, saluted me and stood at attention.
Another “benefit” of being an officer—I was allowed to have separate rations, so I could buy and eat whatever I wanted. But it wasn’t easy to get ahold of kosher food in San Antonio, Texas in 1953. Where would I get tuna fish that was kosher? StarKist didn’t yet have an OU.
So what did I do? I ate candy. Chocolate candy bars. For two years. They eroded my teeth, and I had a mouthful of cavities. Of course I could’ve eaten fruits and vegetables. But where was I going to get fruit on an Air Force base? It would involve going into town in a car. As an officer, I used a motor scooter, but it wasn’t so simple to travel thirty miles on a motor scooter. Texas is spread out. The only food readily available on the base was candy bars. I lost a lot of weight because I didn’t eat much.
In retrospect those bars were probably treif, laden with questionable ingredients, but at the time we thought they were kosher.
There was another dimension to my job. On Sunday mornings we conducted a special prayer service for the few Jewish men on base—maybe twenty-five people at most. Afterward we ate bagels and lox, which was a lucky break for me. These men were not the basic trainees but cadets training to be pilots.
Rav Hutner wasn’t too concerned about my joining the Air Force. Okay, so you’ll be there for two years. You’ll get in and get out. You’ll go and you’ll come back.
Come September and October, I knew I’d have to take time off from my more mundane weekday chaplaincy duties to observe Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Seven days off from work within the same thirty-day period was a bit much to expect my non-Jewish fellow officers, airmen and chaplains to accept graciously. And so, to forestall potential resentment among my peers, I came up with a plan. When Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day rolled around, I would wait for someone to be assigned chaplain duty. Then I would approach that individual and let him know that he could enjoy his holiday because I would assume his duties. I did that for every possible holiday or quasi-holiday: Election Day, Columbus Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It worked.
One time, though, Christmas fell on a Shabbat. Now I had a dilemma. I didn’t want the duty chaplain to miss out on his holiday, but I certainly did not want to desecrate Shabbat. I hit on an idea. The base headquarters contained a cot. I could sleep there on Shabbat. This way, the sergeant on duty could reach me without the use of a telephone and I could walk to take care of any emergencies which might arise on base. It was a restful Shabbat.
By the way, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, the base’s loud-speaker continuously blared Christmas carols in honor of the season and in order to bring good cheer to the troops. Many of the airmen, even though they were Christian, soon tired of hearing the carols over and over again. They wanted to complain to the base commander but did not have the courage to do so. Then they came up with what they thought was a marvelous idea. They figured the Jewish chaplain (me) must be at least as tired as they were of hearing those Christmas carols. They sent a delegation to me. “Could you ask the base commander to cut down on all those Christmas carols?”
Sure, I thought. And be the Jew/ Grinch who stole Christmas? Without missing a beat, I said, “Not on your life!”
At one point, the Christian chaplains wanted to build a baptistery on the base—a sunken receptacle where you baptize people. After I looked at the plans and dimensions, I realized the baptistery could also serve as a kosher mikvah. I could use it for immersing vessels (tevilah), for conversions (which were rare) or for immersing before Yom Kippur. I asked Rav Hutner if I could us it.
He told me I could, because the baptistery was owned by the US government, which is committed to the separation of church and state
I wanted to make sure from the outset that the baptistery would be kosher by ensuring that there would “mayim chayim”—living waters. So I said to the engineer, “I’d like to first fill the baptistery with ice from a river and let it melt.”
The engineer drawled, “Raaabbi, you can fill that thing with beer, for all I care.”
Then I told the Christian chaplains what I wanted to do. I even wrote about it in the Air Force newsletter. I don’t think the Baptists were thrilled about sharing the baptistery with the Jews, though, because shortly thereafter the project was abandoned.
***
One day I got a call from a Reform rabbi who led a synagogue in San Antonio.
“Howard?” Rabbi Jacobson said. “I have a man out here who is in need of spiritual guidance.”
“Okay, what’s the problem?” I asked.
He said, “Well there’s a buck private keeping kosher in the army.”
I said, “So what’s the problem?”
The Reform Rabbi Jacobson seemed upset. He tried to explain. “He’s keeping kosher and it’s very difficult. I want to send him over to you to straighten him out.”
I scratched my head. Why would a Reform rabbi of a synagogue who had nothing to do with the military bother calling me about this?
A little backstory is necessary.
Rabbi Jacobson shared a backyard with his neighbor, General Shambora, a four-star general. Let me explain the hierarchy in the military. At the very bottom of the ranks is a buck private— no stripes on his sleeves. All the way at the top, right beneath the president of the United States—who is the commanding officer of all forces—is the four-star general. So a four-star general was pretty close to “God.” General Shambora was in command of the Fourth Army area, which included Texas, Oklahoma and quite a few other states—a whole chunk of America.
A certain Yossi Itzkowitz—the buck private—was eating kosher in the mess hall, which meant he was hardly eating anything—sometimes fruits, if they served an apple, pear or orange. His captain noticed that he wasn’t eating. “What’s this about?” he asked.
“I’m Jewish, I’m Orthodox. I keep kosher,” Yossi explained.
His captain knew Yossi was a good soldier, so following proper army procedure, he put in a request to a major for Yossi to obtain separate rations. This was something that normally only an officer would receive.
When the major received the request for separate rations, he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Separate rations for a buck private? What was that about? Maybe the private was a senator’s son or nephew. He didn’t know what to do, so he sent it up to a lieutenant colonel, who didn’t know what to do with it, and it kept getting sent up the ranks all the way to the four-star general. When General Shambora received the request, he became afraid. Maybe this was a president’s grandkid! What on earth was he going to do? Then he remembered his next-door-neighbor. Rabbi Jacobson. He’d know what to do. General Shambora called up Rabbi Jacobson, and Rabbi Jacobson called me.
Rabbi Jacobson and I had a frustrating conversation, and it ended with, “Howard, will you have a look at him?”
I said, “Sure, why not?”
I was allowed to have separate rations, so I could buy and eat whatever I wanted. But it wasn’t easy to get ahold of kosher food in San Antonio, Texas in 1953.
So they stuck the buck private, a Torah Vodaath yeshivah bachur, in a staff car reserved for high-ranking officers. The driver was a corporal. He drove Yossi from Fort Sam Houston all the way to the other side of San Antonio to have a “spiritual guidance interview” as it was called, with a Howard Feuerman.
I looked at Yossi and said, “What happened?”
He said, “I’m keeping kosher, and my captain put in a request for me to get separate rations.”
I said, “What will you do if you don’t get the separate rations?”
He shrugged. “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll eat grapes, pears, bananas and oranges when I get them.”
“Are you a good soldier?” I asked him.
“Yes, I’m a very good soldier.”
“What do you do on GI Party Night?” I wanted to know. That’s when everyone cleaned up the barracks Friday night for inspection on Saturday morning. Inspection was a big deal. Officers went around with white gloves and checked if there was dust on the shelves. They even checked the toothpaste tubes, making sure nobody had squeezed from the top, and that there were no soap bubbles in the soap dishes. It had to be spit spot. Of course, to clean the barracks on Shabbat was a distasteful task for any frum Jew. I wanted to know how Yossi handled it.
He said, “It’s Shabbat, what can I do?”
“But after Shabbat,” I persisted, “what do you?”
He replied, “I make sure to do other work that will make up for the fact that I wasn’t at the GI party.”
Yossi Itzkowitz sounded legit. So I sent him back to his army post in the staff car.
Now I had to deal with Rabbi Jacobson. I said, “This young man is legit. If he gets separate rations, he’ll be grateful. If he doesn’t, he’ll just continue with what he’s doing.”
Rabbi Jacobson relayed this report to General Shambora, and that’s how a four-star general gave a buck private from Torah Vodaath separate rations for kosher reasons.
Thirty years later, in the 1980s, I was sitting in a shtiebel on the corner of 70th Road and Main Street in Queens. I saw a man praying in the minyan who looked dimly familiar. He looked at me, and I looked at him. I walked over.
“Are you Yossi Itzkowitz?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m Howard.”
He understood right away. We were very happy to see each other. And we’ve been buddies ever since.
Once, we reminisced about how I had brought him a sandwich when he was on bivouac—that’s when you go out in the field and simulate war conditions. In such a situation he didn’t have access to separate rations. He couldn’t starve, so I contacted a friend of mine who lived in town—his wife made him the sandwich and I delivered it.
In the mud, even in those fatigues out in the field, Yossi looked like a Torah Vodaath yeshivah bachur.
***
When I had initially packed for my service, I had taken along parchment, quill and ink with the idea that in my down time I would practice to become a sofer, a scribe. As an officer, I did have leisure time, and so I would take out my quill, ink and parchment and practice writing the Purim megillah, the Book of Esther. A megillah is actually the book that all scribes use to learn to become a sofer, because God’s name doesn’t appear in it, and therefore a beginner scribe won’t be desecrating Hashem’s name if he makes a mistake.
Captain Feuerman in uniform on his Air Force scooter, August 1953.
Every now and then I was able to take a few days leave to go home, as long as it didn’t interfere with my chaplain duties. One of the best ways to get anywhere in the US was to hitch a ride on an Air Force plane that was going in your direction. If there was room, you could hop on. Hitchhiking, they called it. You needed a place to land, though, and there were no Air Force bases in New York. The closest Air Force base was in Springfield, Massachusetts, which I figured was close enough, and from there I’d get a ride somehow to New York.
En route, as we were flying over Brooklyn, I joked with the pilots on the plane, “Could I bail out over Brooklyn?” which was an impossibility, I knew. There was no place for the plane to land. They joked back, “Chaplain, if you sign out for the parachute, that’s all we care about.” To their thinking, as long as someone was responsible for the government property—the parachute—I could go kill myself, as long as I signed out.
There actually was an Air Force base in New York—a very tiny one called Mitchell Field, which is now the site of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. We were flying over Mitchell Field, not scheduled to land, when out of nowhere we were hit with a cloud burst and a very intense storm. Pilots normally fly around a storm, or over or under it, but this time they couldn’t. They had to make a forced, unscheduled landing.
As soon as we hit the ground, the storm stopped. The pilots opened the door to let me out. They said, “Chaplain, you must live right,” and they flew off.
From Mitchell Field I took a very short taxi ride to the Bronx. It was my first trip home. My mother was horror-stricken when she saw me. I was gaunt from eating mostly candy bars. In my buzz cut, I looked like a zombie, absolutely frightening to my mother. I imagine she tried to fatten me up, but there was only so much she could accomplish in a few days.
I took another leave for Purim. I went to Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in my uniform—it was classy, you know—and brought my Purim megillah with me. I showed Rav Hutner what I had done in the Air Force, and he examined it. The megillah I had written was kosher, but not considered mehudar—not the ideal, best kind of megillah. Therefore it couldn’t be used by the cantor on Purim. Rav Hutner looked up at me and said, “Chaim, I want to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the megillah by following along with your megillah.”
Throughout the reading of Megillat Esther, I stood next to Rav Hutner in my Air Force uniform, with Rav Hutner holding my megillah and carefully following each word.
It was a great moment. I had written and practiced to become a scribe so I wouldn’t waste my time on nonsense, and here was my rav, whom I loved like a father, using this megillah. And thus I served two years in the Air Force, and then came back and went on with the rest of my life, just like Rav Hutner had said.
At age twenty-four, I served for two years (from 1953 to 1955) on active duty as a Jewish chaplain in the United States Air Force. There was a war going on in Korea, and the United States Army was requesting volunteers. The National Jewish Welfare Board put pressure on the yeshivot, and so I was “volunteered.” Before I joined though, I spent a year studying full-time at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York, under the tutelage of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l.
Volunteers had a choice of serving in the United States Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force. I chose the Air Force and was assigned to the Air Training Command at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
Rav Hutner wasn’t too concerned about my joining the Air Force. He brushed it off, like it was some kind of initiation into a fraternity. Okay, so you’ll be there for two years. You’ll get in and get out. You’ll go and you’ll come back.
It didn’t feel that way when I first arrived.
On my first day of active duty, an officer inducted me and then accompanied me into a building. I was wearing my Air Force cap. He said, “Take it off.” A military man wasn’t allowed to wear a cap indoors. I didn’t know it, but if you wore a yarmulke, you would be considered officially “out of uniform” and subject to a citation and severe penalties. The same was true of facial hair.
I said, “Do you mean—take it off and then put on my yarmulke?”
He barked, “No! Off!”
I obeyed because I had no choice, but afterward I spoke to Rav Hutner about it. “What do I do?”
He said, “You have to take off your yarmulke, and see to it that in your heart things are the way they should be. Don’t worry about the externals right now.”
I wasn’t completely at ease with that, but Rav Hutner said it, so I did it. By this point, he had assumed the stature of a father in my eyes, a spiritual father. People have no idea what it was like in those days, how profoundly students were connected to their roshei yeshivah. Our generation had been completely orphaned. Many like myself had Galician parents who were traditional but didn’t have much of a Jewish education and certainly didn’t have the tools to help us succeed in the world of learning [Torah]. Zero. Along came Rav Hutner, a towering personality, a gigantic soul, handsome and dashing, unbelievably well-spoken in many languages, a wise man who was street smart and savvy and had received the luminous wisdom from the Alter of Slabodka. To us, he was like Moshe Rabbeinu. He was everything to me.
Throughout my time in the military, I experienced many conflicts between my service and my Torah observance. Praying with a minyan was impossible. Shabbat davening itself was challenging. You weren’t free to do whatever you wanted. Even though I had enormous latitude as an officer, I was still subject to the Air Force’s regulations.
Rav Hutner told me, “Whenever there is a halachah that you cannot keep, you should learn the laws that pertain to the mitzvah you can’t observe.” The rationale behind that was simple. Every mitzvah has four components: lilmod, l’lamed, lishmore v’la’asot—to study, to teach, to guard and to do. So if you can’t perform “la’asot” (to do), at least be sure to perform the other three.
That first day I received the requisite crew cut and uniform. No gun, because chaplains weren’t allowed to carry guns. But later, when I attended an officers’ basic military school, they taught us how to march, and proper military protocol.
Captain Feuerman preparing to daven, August 1953.
Most of the chaplains were in their mid-forties or fifties. I was a very young chaplain, just twenty-three. My trainees were much younger— seventeen. These boys, fresh off the farms of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Mississippi, saw the military as an opportunity to get out from behind the pigs, the goats and the cows and expand their horizons.
When the trainees first landed on the base, their heads were shaved right away; they were then sent to the showers and stuck into loose-fitting dungarees—fatigues. No snappy uniforms for them yet.
The next stop on the assembly line was the chapel. The boys now had to hear an inspirational talk from a chaplain, any chaplain, be it a reverend, priest, rabbi or imam—it was all the same to the military. My assignment was to tell them to be good boys, to stay away from drinking and nonsense. (Drugs weren’t a problem in those days.) It didn’t matter that my “congregants” weren’t Jewish. My job was to serve the spiritual needs of all faiths—to encourage the men to be patriotic, honest, “brave, courageous and bold.”
Many of the Christian chaplains gave very long and tedious “derashot.” To their thinking, they finally had a captive audience—a chapel full of people—and they weren’t going to let these boys go so quickly. Their long sermons would then hold up the next group of inductees waiting to get into the chapel. This put the chaplains in conflict with the barbers, who wanted the assembly line to move quickly—they were paid by the head.
One barber was named Benno F. Wotipka. We became friends, good ole Benno and I.
I would ask him, “Benno, what do you want? The sixty-second special or the two-hour special?” Sometimes it was to his advantage if my sermon went more slowly. Whatever he said, I would do. Because I didn’t really care if the men listened to my derashah. All I knew was, I had to say a derashah.
I did the same thing with the guys who issued the uniforms—I kept the line moving. They probably were also paid by the uniform. I was very popular with everyone in that unit.
It was fun. I had a grand time. Well, most of the time.
Every now and then, I’d be overcome with an intense longing for home and my yeshivah, especially soon after I first arrived. One day I was walking along the base moping, missing my family. Ahead of me, a platoon of airmen was strewn helter-skelter on the grass; the men were catching their breath after an exercise or a march. All I did was walk by, despondent with my head down, when the sergeant gave a full-throated yell: “Plato-o-o-n!!” At that instant, these exhausted trainees all leapt to their feet, saluted crisply, and chimed in unison: “Good morning, sir!” They stood there and waited. I looked at them like they were crazy. Was I supposed to do something in return? Somehow I intuitively raised a feeble hand to my right eyebrow. The sergeant in charge of the platoon snapped, “At ease!” whereupon all the men plopped back onto the grass.
Did their salutes lift my mood? No. It wasn’t personal, just the protocol toward officers, as I learned soon enough. Whenever I happened to walk by, those in uniform leapt to their feet, saluted me and stood at attention.
Another “benefit” of being an officer—I was allowed to have separate rations, so I could buy and eat whatever I wanted. But it wasn’t easy to get ahold of kosher food in San Antonio, Texas in 1953. Where would I get tuna fish that was kosher? StarKist didn’t yet have an OU.
So what did I do? I ate candy. Chocolate candy bars. For two years. They eroded my teeth, and I had a mouthful of cavities. Of course I could’ve eaten fruits and vegetables. But where was I going to get fruit on an Air Force base? It would involve going into town in a car. As an officer, I used a motor scooter, but it wasn’t so simple to travel thirty miles on a motor scooter. Texas is spread out. The only food readily available on the base was candy bars. I lost a lot of weight because I didn’t eat much.
In retrospect those bars were probably treif, laden with questionable ingredients, but at the time we thought they were kosher.
There was another dimension to my job. On Sunday mornings we conducted a special prayer service for the few Jewish men on base—maybe twenty-five people at most. Afterward we ate bagels and lox, which was a lucky break for me. These men were not the basic trainees but cadets training to be pilots.
Rav Hutner wasn’t too concerned about my joining the Air Force. Okay, so you’ll be there for two years. You’ll get in and get out. You’ll go and you’ll come back.
Come September and October, I knew I’d have to take time off from my more mundane weekday chaplaincy duties to observe Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Seven days off from work within the same thirty-day period was a bit much to expect my non-Jewish fellow officers, airmen and chaplains to accept graciously. And so, to forestall potential resentment among my peers, I came up with a plan. When Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day rolled around, I would wait for someone to be assigned chaplain duty. Then I would approach that individual and let him know that he could enjoy his holiday because I would assume his duties. I did that for every possible holiday or quasi-holiday: Election Day, Columbus Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It worked.
One time, though, Christmas fell on a Shabbat. Now I had a dilemma. I didn’t want the duty chaplain to miss out on his holiday, but I certainly did not want to desecrate Shabbat. I hit on an idea. The base headquarters contained a cot. I could sleep there on Shabbat. This way, the sergeant on duty could reach me without the use of a telephone and I could walk to take care of any emergencies which might arise on base. It was a restful Shabbat.
By the way, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, the base’s loud-speaker continuously blared Christmas carols in honor of the season and in order to bring good cheer to the troops. Many of the airmen, even though they were Christian, soon tired of hearing the carols over and over again. They wanted to complain to the base commander but did not have the courage to do so. Then they came up with what they thought was a marvelous idea. They figured the Jewish chaplain (me) must be at least as tired as they were of hearing those Christmas carols. They sent a delegation to me. “Could you ask the base commander to cut down on all those Christmas carols?”
Sure, I thought. And be the Jew/ Grinch who stole Christmas? Without missing a beat, I said, “Not on your life!”
At one point, the Christian chaplains wanted to build a baptistery on the base—a sunken receptacle where you baptize people. After I looked at the plans and dimensions, I realized the baptistery could also serve as a kosher mikvah. I could use it for immersing vessels (tevilah), for conversions (which were rare) or for immersing before Yom Kippur. I asked Rav Hutner if I could us it.
He told me I could, because the baptistery was owned by the US government, which is committed to the separation of church and state
I wanted to make sure from the outset that the baptistery would be kosher by ensuring that there would “mayim chayim”—living waters. So I said to the engineer, “I’d like to first fill the baptistery with ice from a river and let it melt.”
The engineer drawled, “Raaabbi, you can fill that thing with beer, for all I care.”
Then I told the Christian chaplains what I wanted to do. I even wrote about it in the Air Force newsletter. I don’t think the Baptists were thrilled about sharing the baptistery with the Jews, though, because shortly thereafter the project was abandoned.
***
One day I got a call from a Reform rabbi who led a synagogue in San Antonio.
“Howard?” Rabbi Jacobson said. “I have a man out here who is in need of spiritual guidance.”
“Okay, what’s the problem?” I asked.
He said, “Well there’s a buck private keeping kosher in the army.”
I said, “So what’s the problem?”
The Reform Rabbi Jacobson seemed upset. He tried to explain. “He’s keeping kosher and it’s very difficult. I want to send him over to you to straighten him out.”
I scratched my head. Why would a Reform rabbi of a synagogue who had nothing to do with the military bother calling me about this?
A little backstory is necessary.
Rabbi Jacobson shared a backyard with his neighbor, General Shambora, a four-star general. Let me explain the hierarchy in the military. At the very bottom of the ranks is a buck private— no stripes on his sleeves. All the way at the top, right beneath the president of the United States—who is the commanding officer of all forces—is the four-star general. So a four-star general was pretty close to “God.” General Shambora was in command of the Fourth Army area, which included Texas, Oklahoma and quite a few other states—a whole chunk of America.
A certain Yossi Itzkowitz—the buck private—was eating kosher in the mess hall, which meant he was hardly eating anything—sometimes fruits, if they served an apple, pear or orange. His captain noticed that he wasn’t eating. “What’s this about?” he asked.
“I’m Jewish, I’m Orthodox. I keep kosher,” Yossi explained.
His captain knew Yossi was a good soldier, so following proper army procedure, he put in a request to a major for Yossi to obtain separate rations. This was something that normally only an officer would receive.
When the major received the request for separate rations, he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Separate rations for a buck private? What was that about? Maybe the private was a senator’s son or nephew. He didn’t know what to do, so he sent it up to a lieutenant colonel, who didn’t know what to do with it, and it kept getting sent up the ranks all the way to the four-star general. When General Shambora received the request, he became afraid. Maybe this was a president’s grandkid! What on earth was he going to do? Then he remembered his next-door-neighbor. Rabbi Jacobson. He’d know what to do. General Shambora called up Rabbi Jacobson, and Rabbi Jacobson called me.
Rabbi Jacobson and I had a frustrating conversation, and it ended with, “Howard, will you have a look at him?”
I said, “Sure, why not?”
I was allowed to have separate rations, so I could buy and eat whatever I wanted. But it wasn’t easy to get ahold of kosher food in San Antonio, Texas in 1953.
So they stuck the buck private, a Torah Vodaath yeshivah bachur, in a staff car reserved for high-ranking officers. The driver was a corporal. He drove Yossi from Fort Sam Houston all the way to the other side of San Antonio to have a “spiritual guidance interview” as it was called, with a Howard Feuerman.
I looked at Yossi and said, “What happened?”
He said, “I’m keeping kosher, and my captain put in a request for me to get separate rations.”
I said, “What will you do if you don’t get the separate rations?”
He shrugged. “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll eat grapes, pears, bananas and oranges when I get them.”
“Are you a good soldier?” I asked him.
“Yes, I’m a very good soldier.”
“What do you do on GI Party Night?” I wanted to know. That’s when everyone cleaned up the barracks Friday night for inspection on Saturday morning. Inspection was a big deal. Officers went around with white gloves and checked if there was dust on the shelves. They even checked the toothpaste tubes, making sure nobody had squeezed from the top, and that there were no soap bubbles in the soap dishes. It had to be spit spot. Of course, to clean the barracks on Shabbat was a distasteful task for any frum Jew. I wanted to know how Yossi handled it.
He said, “It’s Shabbat, what can I do?”
“But after Shabbat,” I persisted, “what do you?”
He replied, “I make sure to do other work that will make up for the fact that I wasn’t at the GI party.”
Yossi Itzkowitz sounded legit. So I sent him back to his army post in the staff car.
Now I had to deal with Rabbi Jacobson. I said, “This young man is legit. If he gets separate rations, he’ll be grateful. If he doesn’t, he’ll just continue with what he’s doing.”
Rabbi Jacobson relayed this report to General Shambora, and that’s how a four-star general gave a buck private from Torah Vodaath separate rations for kosher reasons.
Thirty years later, in the 1980s, I was sitting in a shtiebel on the corner of 70th Road and Main Street in Queens. I saw a man praying in the minyan who looked dimly familiar. He looked at me, and I looked at him. I walked over.
“Are you Yossi Itzkowitz?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m Howard.”
He understood right away. We were very happy to see each other. And we’ve been buddies ever since.
Once, we reminisced about how I had brought him a sandwich when he was on bivouac—that’s when you go out in the field and simulate war conditions. In such a situation he didn’t have access to separate rations. He couldn’t starve, so I contacted a friend of mine who lived in town—his wife made him the sandwich and I delivered it.
In the mud, even in those fatigues out in the field, Yossi looked like a Torah Vodaath yeshivah bachur.
***
When I had initially packed for my service, I had taken along parchment, quill and ink with the idea that in my down time I would practice to become a sofer, a scribe. As an officer, I did have leisure time, and so I would take out my quill, ink and parchment and practice writing the Purim megillah, the Book of Esther. A megillah is actually the book that all scribes use to learn to become a sofer, because God’s name doesn’t appear in it, and therefore a beginner scribe won’t be desecrating Hashem’s name if he makes a mistake.
Captain Feuerman in uniform on his Air Force scooter, August 1953.
Every now and then I was able to take a few days leave to go home, as long as it didn’t interfere with my chaplain duties. One of the best ways to get anywhere in the US was to hitch a ride on an Air Force plane that was going in your direction. If there was room, you could hop on. Hitchhiking, they called it. You needed a place to land, though, and there were no Air Force bases in New York. The closest Air Force base was in Springfield, Massachusetts, which I figured was close enough, and from there I’d get a ride somehow to New York.
En route, as we were flying over Brooklyn, I joked with the pilots on the plane, “Could I bail out over Brooklyn?” which was an impossibility, I knew. There was no place for the plane to land. They joked back, “Chaplain, if you sign out for the parachute, that’s all we care about.” To their thinking, as long as someone was responsible for the government property—the parachute—I could go kill myself, as long as I signed out.
There actually was an Air Force base in New York—a very tiny one called Mitchell Field, which is now the site of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. We were flying over Mitchell Field, not scheduled to land, when out of nowhere we were hit with a cloud burst and a very intense storm. Pilots normally fly around a storm, or over or under it, but this time they couldn’t. They had to make a forced, unscheduled landing.
As soon as we hit the ground, the storm stopped. The pilots opened the door to let me out. They said, “Chaplain, you must live right,” and they flew off.
From Mitchell Field I took a very short taxi ride to the Bronx. It was my first trip home. My mother was horror-stricken when she saw me. I was gaunt from eating mostly candy bars. In my buzz cut, I looked like a zombie, absolutely frightening to my mother. I imagine she tried to fatten me up, but there was only so much she could accomplish in a few days.
I took another leave for Purim. I went to Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in my uniform—it was classy, you know—and brought my Purim megillah with me. I showed Rav Hutner what I had done in the Air Force, and he examined it. The megillah I had written was kosher, but not considered mehudar—not the ideal, best kind of megillah. Therefore it couldn’t be used by the cantor on Purim. Rav Hutner looked up at me and said, “Chaim, I want to fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the megillah by following along with your megillah.”
Throughout the reading of Megillat Esther, I stood next to Rav Hutner in my Air Force uniform, with Rav Hutner holding my megillah and carefully following each word.
It was a great moment. I had written and practiced to become a scribe so I wouldn’t waste my time on nonsense, and here was my rav, whom I loved like a father, using this megillah. And thus I served two years in the Air Force, and then came back and went on with the rest of my life, just like Rav Hutner had said.
Pleasure
Every living being wants the same thing - pleasure. We all want pleasure and we all want to avoid pain. We are only willing to experience discomfort or pain if we believe that ultimately it will give us pleasure. This pleasure could be physical, emotional or spiritual, but we all want pleasure.
The reason for this is because we were created in order to receive pleasure. Hashem loves us and wants us to have pleasure and thus we are all pre-programmed to seek pleasure. The test of life is to decide what types of pleasures to seek.....
Bad Middos
לזכות ישראל נועם שלמה בן ידיד נפשי ר' יעקב יחזקאל
Having bad middos does something to someone's brain that makes him think in a convoluted, twisted way. Thinking in a convoluted, twisted way, corrupts one's middos. So it snowballs. That is why it is critical to stop the downward spiral by fixing one's middos.
The Rambam calls his laws of middos "Hilchos Deyos". Middos and deyos [which are in the mind] are interrelated.
כשהמדות הרעות שולטות באדם דעתו מתקצרת, וקוצר הדעת עצמו מביא רוע המדות.
Monday, March 19, 2018
First The Basics
A quirk in human nature: Many people prefer giving gifts that are luxuries and not needed by the receiver than giving a receiver his basic needs.
But people need their basics before luxuries.
Personal Example
I have a friend who is much better than I am. Everybody I know is much better than I am. But he is much-much better.
He helps "at-risk" teenagers with substance abuse addictions. Now, my friend is ALSO an addict. He has a loooong beard and wears a round rabbinic hat but he is a drug addict. The drug is called "cigarettes". He knowingly puts cancerous chemicals into his body numerous times a day - and pays for it!!!
So how can he help people break their addictions if he is also an addict?? Do I see a difference between cigarettes and other illegal drugs? No, besides the fact that lawmakers permit cigarettes but not drugs. Otherwise they are both a menace to the individual and society and most likely halachically forbidden.
So here is the lesson: If you want to educate your children, siblings etc. etc. first get your own act together. The best leadership and guidance are by personal example.
In the words of our Sages: קשוט עצמך תחילה ואח"כ קשוט אחרים.
The Judgement Of Moshiach
לזכות ישראל נועם שלמה בן ידיד נפשי ר' יעקב יחזקאל לברכה והצלחה בכל!
The gemara [Sanhedrin 93b] says that when Moshiach comes he will smell the correct judgement and rule according to his sense of smell. Like we say "smells fishy". Moshiach will actually pass judgement that way.
Wow.
Explains the Rogochover [שו"ת סי' ש"כ]:
"ומאוד הארכתי דאי"ה משיח צדקנו יהא יכול לדון בגדר המלך לא בגדר דין סנהדרין ע"י אומדנא. וזה רוצה לומר הך דסנהדרין מורח ודאין וגדר קיסר ע"ש אך כל זה בהדין מלך לא ח"ו סנהדרין, כי הדיני תורה נצחי לא ישתנה אפילו באות אחת."
There are two types of judgement. There is strict, formal Torah law, according to which the Sanhedrin judges. There there is the King who judges based on the needs of the time, even when not in accordance with strict Torah law. When Moshiach judges with his nose, he is not judging as a member of the Sanhedrin would, according to strict Jewish law, but rather he is judging as a king. According to Jewish law in the formal sense, one needs witnesses and proofs etc. and just smelling is not enough. So here the Rogochover says that Moshiach rules as king.
But elsewhere the Rogochover says differently:
וזה רוצה לומר שלא בעדים שבלב בראש השנה דף כ"א ע"ב ביקש שלמה לדון כו' [בקש קהלת לדון דינין שבלב שלא בעדים ושלא בהתראה, יצתה בת קול ואמרה לו "וכתוב יושר דברי אמת" "על פי שנים עדים וגו'"] וזה אי אפשר רק לעתיד לבא ידון כן משיח וזה רוצה לומר [סנהדרין דף צ"ג ע"ב] מורח ודאין רוצה לומר בראיית השכל כו'.
Here there is no mention of דין מלך but merely judging based on the INTELLECT - ראיית השכל.
A Contradiction
Purim is over but we may continue to smile.
A shiur went up on line from Rav Asher Weiss Shlita on the topic of סתירת בית הכנסת which was aptly translated as "Contradiction of a synagogue". I hope that this contradiction is resolved soon.
Reminds me of the wine bottle that said ללא חשש ערלה and was translated as - no concern for "foreskin". Hey, you wouldn't want foreskin in your wine - would you??
Links
The din of למשחה לגדולה and קרבן פסח. A MILLION BUCKS!!!
And in English - the second shiur on the Parsha of Terumas Hadeshen .So deeeepppp!!!
Hilchos Melachim - the uniqueness of Malchei Beis Dovid. Pilei Plaos.
BI-SIYAAATAAA DISHMAYA!
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Vayikra - What's In A Name
Shaaalooom sweeeetest friendssss!!!!!
A HUUUUGE MAZELLLL TOOVVVVVVVVVV to my sweet friends Rav Akiva Yisrael and Rebbetzin Estee Balk on the birth of their BEN HABECHOR, Yaakov Yehoshua Menashe. Words cannot describe what an amazing simcha this is!! May this sweet beautiful miracle baby be a source of limitless nachas to his very special parents!! And כן ירבו!!!!
This dvar Torah should be a zchus li-ilui nishmas my great grandmother Esther Bas R' Shmuel whose yahrtzeit is this Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh Nissan. She was the only grandparent I merited knowing and there is nobody I have ever met in my lifetime whose loss I continue to feel more than the loss of my dear great grandmother [we called her "Nani" pronounced "none-ee" which somehow relates to the word grandmother in Hungarian. That was her mother tongue. And my mother's mother tongue. Thank G-d my mother speaks a great English as well... I can speak English with a Hungarian accent:-)]. It has been 29 years and frankly the pain of the loss remains. I can only hope that my attempt to follow in her path, the path of Torah and mitzvos, is a zchus for her pure holy neshama.
The Parsha begins ויקרא אל משה - And [Hashem] called to Moshe. Now, we know that Moshe's name is Moshe but the Medrash teaches that he had 10 names. One, for example, was אביגדור because he was אבי כל גודרי גדר - the father of all those who made [spiritual-halachic] fences [to separate one from sin]. That is a nice name. There are many others. So why did the Torah and Hashem choose this name specifically?
Moshe is called Moshe כי מן המים משיתיהו - Because he was drawn from the water. This is a name that reminds him to have gratitude. Every time he hears "Moshe", he remembers that he was a baby who could have drowned in the water but the daughter of Paroh pulled him out. This will engender a TREMENDOUS amount of hakoras hatov. THAAANKKKKK YOU HASHEM [and Bas Paroh] for saving me. THAT is the best name. A name that reminds one to say thank you.
We are called Yehudim from the word Toda - THANKSSSS!!!! The first word out of our mouths in the morning is MODEH!!! The Jewish people are a thanking people!
We were ALSO pulled from the water. In our mother's womb we were immersed in water. If there would have been none we would have died [in one of my wife's pregnancies the amniotic fluid was getting low and the doctors were concerned. BARUCH HASHEM my little fetus is 21 years old this Pesach and going strong Baruch Hashem]. Too much water - we drown. So we are ALL "Moshe"!!! We were all drawn from the water.
So our task is to never stop saying thank you for our lives and the lives of our loved ones. A little over a year ago my then 2 year old daughter almost died. But she is healthy Baruch Hashem because Hashem saved her [and the dedicated staff at Shaarei Tzedek hospital]. But really EVERY SECOND Hashem is saving all of us. כל נשמה תהלל י-ה - Every soul should praise Hashem. On this the gemara says על כל נשימה ונשימה תהלל י-ה - for every breath praise Hashem. BREATH!!!! We can breathe.
I remember in 1991 when a scud missile fell courtesy of Saddam Hussein and I put on the gas mask for the very first time. I didn't know how to put it on properly and couldn't breath. I was frantic. I couldn't breath and couldn't figure out how to take it off. Traumatic. THANK G-D a nice man who was in the room with me helped and adjusted it - and I haven't missed a breath since....
We have so much to thank Hashem for. All we have to do is notice and stop taking things for granted.
That being said - one more point. Most of us are fortunate enough to have enough money to afford food for the upcoming holiday of Pesach. Some seemingly can't afford to buy food so they instead go to hotels where all of the food is provided for - what a great chesed!!:-). But others can't buy food OR go to hotels.
A HUUUUGE MAZELLLL TOOVVVVVVVVVV to my sweet friends Rav Akiva Yisrael and Rebbetzin Estee Balk on the birth of their BEN HABECHOR, Yaakov Yehoshua Menashe. Words cannot describe what an amazing simcha this is!! May this sweet beautiful miracle baby be a source of limitless nachas to his very special parents!! And כן ירבו!!!!
This dvar Torah should be a zchus li-ilui nishmas my great grandmother Esther Bas R' Shmuel whose yahrtzeit is this Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh Nissan. She was the only grandparent I merited knowing and there is nobody I have ever met in my lifetime whose loss I continue to feel more than the loss of my dear great grandmother [we called her "Nani" pronounced "none-ee" which somehow relates to the word grandmother in Hungarian. That was her mother tongue. And my mother's mother tongue. Thank G-d my mother speaks a great English as well... I can speak English with a Hungarian accent:-)]. It has been 29 years and frankly the pain of the loss remains. I can only hope that my attempt to follow in her path, the path of Torah and mitzvos, is a zchus for her pure holy neshama.
The Parsha begins ויקרא אל משה - And [Hashem] called to Moshe. Now, we know that Moshe's name is Moshe but the Medrash teaches that he had 10 names. One, for example, was אביגדור because he was אבי כל גודרי גדר - the father of all those who made [spiritual-halachic] fences [to separate one from sin]. That is a nice name. There are many others. So why did the Torah and Hashem choose this name specifically?
Moshe is called Moshe כי מן המים משיתיהו - Because he was drawn from the water. This is a name that reminds him to have gratitude. Every time he hears "Moshe", he remembers that he was a baby who could have drowned in the water but the daughter of Paroh pulled him out. This will engender a TREMENDOUS amount of hakoras hatov. THAAANKKKKK YOU HASHEM [and Bas Paroh] for saving me. THAT is the best name. A name that reminds one to say thank you.
We are called Yehudim from the word Toda - THANKSSSS!!!! The first word out of our mouths in the morning is MODEH!!! The Jewish people are a thanking people!
We were ALSO pulled from the water. In our mother's womb we were immersed in water. If there would have been none we would have died [in one of my wife's pregnancies the amniotic fluid was getting low and the doctors were concerned. BARUCH HASHEM my little fetus is 21 years old this Pesach and going strong Baruch Hashem]. Too much water - we drown. So we are ALL "Moshe"!!! We were all drawn from the water.
So our task is to never stop saying thank you for our lives and the lives of our loved ones. A little over a year ago my then 2 year old daughter almost died. But she is healthy Baruch Hashem because Hashem saved her [and the dedicated staff at Shaarei Tzedek hospital]. But really EVERY SECOND Hashem is saving all of us. כל נשמה תהלל י-ה - Every soul should praise Hashem. On this the gemara says על כל נשימה ונשימה תהלל י-ה - for every breath praise Hashem. BREATH!!!! We can breathe.
I remember in 1991 when a scud missile fell courtesy of Saddam Hussein and I put on the gas mask for the very first time. I didn't know how to put it on properly and couldn't breath. I was frantic. I couldn't breath and couldn't figure out how to take it off. Traumatic. THANK G-D a nice man who was in the room with me helped and adjusted it - and I haven't missed a breath since....
We have so much to thank Hashem for. All we have to do is notice and stop taking things for granted.
That being said - one more point. Most of us are fortunate enough to have enough money to afford food for the upcoming holiday of Pesach. Some seemingly can't afford to buy food so they instead go to hotels where all of the food is provided for - what a great chesed!!:-). But others can't buy food OR go to hotels.
The Rambam says
כיצד הקטנים נותן להם קליות ואגוזים ומגדנות. והנשים קונה להן בגדים ותכשיטין נאים כפי ממונו. והאנשים אוכלין בשר ושותין יין שאין שמחה אלא בבשר ואין שמחה אלא ביין. וכשהוא אוכל ושותה חייב להאכיל לגר ליתום ולאלמנה עם שאר העניים האמללים. אבל מי שנועל דלתות חצרו ואוכל ושותה הוא ובניו ואשתו ואינו מאכיל ומשקה לעניים ולמרי נפש אין זו שמחת מצוה אלא שמחת כריסו. ועל אלו נאמר זבחיהם כלחם אונים להם כל אוכליו יטמאו כי לחמם לנפשם. ושמחה כזו קלון היא להם שנאמר וזריתי פרש על פניכם פרש חגיכם.
What is implied? Children should be given roasted seeds, nuts, and sweets. For women, one should buy attractive clothes and jewelry according to one's financial capacity. Men should eat meat and drink wine, for there is no happiness without partaking of meat, nor is there happiness without partaking of wine.
When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his stomach.
And with regard to such a person [the verse, Hoshea 9:4] is applied: "Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners, all that partake thereof shall become impure, for they [kept] their bread for themselves alone." This happiness is a disgrace for them, as [implied by Malachi 2:3]: "I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your festival celebrations."
From the Rambam we see that not only are we not fulfilling the mitzvah of tzedaka when we don't invite poor people to eat with us or giving them money so that they can buy food before Yom Tov, but we are all missing out on fulfilling our own mitzvah of being happy on Yom Tov. The pasuk in Malachi quoted by the Rambam graphically describes how Hashem despises a simcha where the poor are forgotten. But when we help the poor, then our simcha is complete!! Incidentally, even without the Rambam, studies show that the more people give to others, the happier they are.
May we all merit to have a Pesach that is FILLED with simcha and we should enjoy our families and all of the good fortune we have, being free people in free lands [unless you live in North Korea.....]
Good Shabbos beloved friends:-)!!!
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