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:-)!!!
