|
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section, Acharei Mot, falls
after the holiday of Shevie Shel Pesach – the Seventh
day of Pesach; the day that the Jews went through the Reed
Sea.
Both have something in common: death.
The very first sentence of our section
mentions death twice; "After the
death of Aaron's two sons when they entered before G-d (in
the Holy of Holies) and died."
And the Splitting of the sea, besides
killing the enemies of the Jews, also hinted at and contributed
to the 'Raising of the Dead' (see Rashi on Exodus 15:1) It
doesn't say "Then Moses and the Jews SANG but "they
WILL sing"
What is death? Why did the sons of
Aaron die? Why will there be the
RAISING of the dead? What does it have to do with Judaism?
What does it have to do with the Splitting of the Sea?
Here is a story that I just read in
a monthly publication from the city of
Baraket (mostly populated by Yemenite Jews) that might help
explain.
Mrs. G. had been married for twenty
years and had yet to be blessed with children.
After trying various treatments all
the doctors had given up and she and her husband had almost
given up as well. For twenty years she and her husband included
a request for a child every time they prayed (religious Jews
pray to G-d three times a day) but they were beginning to
accept the fact that it was not their fate to have children.
Until a friend of hers told her of the trip that they were
taking to the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York.
Mrs. G had heard a lot about this Rabbi
from her Chabad friends but she had never really believed
it. In Yemen where she was born she had been warned about
Rabbis that claim to draw powers from the Zohar and other
esoteric books. But on the other hand she had good friends
and even some family in the city of Baraket that were very
enthusiastic followers of the Rebbe.
She and her husband talked it over
and decided to go. The trip would be a welcome diversion,
and as far as the Rebbe goes they would decide when they arrived.
They arrived in New York got settled
in the Hotel and when Sunday arrived they went with everyone
else to receive dollars from the Rebbe. (Every Sunday he would
pass out single dollar bills (to encourage the giving of charity)
accompanied by a short blessing and often advice, to thousands
of people.
The line was really long, one for men
another for women and she had to wait over two hours but the
people were in a good mood and the time passed quickly. As
Mrs. G. approached the Rebbe she suddenly felt that perhaps
this is where her hope lay after all. As the Rebbe handed
her the dollar she looked at him and said "I've been
married for twenty years with no children."
Suddenly twenty years of frustration
welled up but before she could begin to cry the Rebbe interrupted
,"Were you ever engaged
to be married and broke off the engagement?"
The question caught her by surprise
"Yes" she answered.
"And did you ask the forgiveness
of the man?" "No" she answered.
"You must ask him to forgive you."
Her head was swimming but she realized
the implications of what the Rebbe was saying. "Rebbe,
that was over twenty years ago. How can I find him?"
The Rebbe looked at her, "Go to
the train station in Rechovot on
such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time. May you have
success and blessing." The Rebbe turned to the next person
in line.
When they returned to Israel a week
later she remembered what the Rebbe had said and when the
day came she made her way to the train station. After walking
about for a few minutes she noticed a lone man sitting on
a bench as though he was waiting for something. She approached
him and asked if perhaps his name was M. and he replied to
the affirmative.
"Do you remember me? We were engaged
to be married over twenty years ago and I broke off the engagement.
Do you remember?"
He again replied to the affirmative.
"I'm sorry for what happened.
I'm asking you to please forgive me. Do you
forgive me?"
"Yes, I forgive you completely"
was the answer.
She returned home completely shaken
by the strange occurrence. Three months later she was pregnant
and nine months afterwards she gave birth to a baby boy! Eight
days later at the Brit (circumcision) ceremony she stood and
emotionally told the story to all those present.
Exactly how the Rebbe had diagnosed
the problem and found the miraculous solution; how and where
to find a man that she hadn't seen for twenty years and that
the Rebbe had never seen.
The next day one of her older relatives
came to visit her at her home. He entered, sat down in the
front room and asked. "Tell me, I remember that fellow
that you were engaged to twenty some years ago, his name was
M… correct?
"Yes" she answered.
"Well, you should know that I
knew M. well ….. and he died ten years ago"
That is what this week's section teaches
us, that Ahron's two sons died because they went against G-d's
will. In fact if the Jews hadn't sinned with the Golden Calf
at Mount Sinai there would be no death in the world.
That is what happened at the splitting
of the sea. Not only the water but ALL the 'water' all the
spiritual levels also split to the point that even the simplest
of cleaning ladies saw visions like the prophet Ezekiel!
In other words; death is a spiritual
event; the soul goes to heaven or hell for spiritual reward
or punishment. That is the basis of all the other
religions.
But Judaism stresses the fact that
death and spirituality are only
temporary. The real essence of G-d's will is HERE in this
PHYSICAL world.
Here the Torah was given, here we can serve the Creator and
here will be revealed the truth; that EVERY Jew (and those
connected to them i.e. Bnei Noach) have eternal physical bodies
ABOVE all spirituality. (That is possibly what brought Mr.
M. in our story back… he had to forgive her so she could
have physical children)
See the book Avodat HaKodesh by Rabbi
Mair ben Gabbai (Part 2 chapt. 19) where he explains this
in great length and adds that Moshiach will be such a person.
Like Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and Elisha the Prophet … although
we might not see it he has an eternal physical body. But he
will reveal the eternal bodies of all the Jews i.e. the Raising
of the Dead.
That is the message of Shvee Shel Pesach
…. That we should all do all we can to attach ourselves
to the eternal; to do another good deed to bring
Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
The first half of this
week's double portion speaks of the service in
the Holy Temple on Yom Kippur after the death (Acharei Mot)
of Aaron's
two sons.
In the second section, the Torah teaches
us fifty one new commandments.
Two of which are "Orla" and "Neta Revaie"
(9:23).
Let's discuss this first.
After any fruit tree is planted in
Israel, its fruits for the first
three years are called "Orla" and cannot be used
in any way.
The year after that, the fourth year
(Neta Revaie). The fruits are
called Holy and can be eaten, but only in Jerusalem.
And only in the fifth year are the
fruits permissible for ordinary
consumption.
But here we see something unusual.
The Torah promises (9:25) that the
trees of any farmer that refrains from eating or selling "Orla"
will be
blessed in the fruits of the fifth year!
Why the FIFTH YEAR? Why doesn't G-d
bless the "Holy" fruits of the
fourth year? Why only the Mundane Fifth year fruits?
To understand this here is a story.
As you probably know, the goal of Chabad is to improve the
entire world,
beginning with the Jews, through Torah education. Put into
high gear by
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Shneerson, in the Fifties
and
Sixties, the effects of this outreach began to be felt in
various
countries until, in the early seventies the Rebbe declared
that he was
going to "break the shell" of one of the biggest
enemies of the Torah;
atheistic free-thinking France.
He sent representatives to open Chabad
Houses throughout the country,
and the success was phenomenal! Within a year there were hundreds
of
young French Jews thirsting to learn Torah and live a Jewish
life.
One of these representatives was one
Rabbi Shmuel. Although he did not
know a word of French, the Rebbe called him into his office
and assigned
him and his wife to a certain French city, blessing them and
adding
several times encouragingly. "It is important that you
always be happy
(b'Simcha) because the French people hate an angry face."
>From the minute they arrived they
also met with success, at first slowly
and with many difficulties, but after two years there were
almost a
hundred children, all of them from non-observant backgrounds,
learning
in the large building Rab Shmuel had rented and converted
into a school.
But then "lightning" struck.
A government building inspector appeared on
the premises and announced that he was checking the place.
For three days he poked around until
finally he unceremoniously handed
Reb Shmuel a long list of "hazards", and announced
that if every fault
on the list wasn't fixed, his school would be closed down.
He estimated
that the repairs would cost over twenty thousand dollars,
and he gave
him three months to complete the job....or else.
Reb Shmuel saw black! He had trouble
even coming up with the monthly
rent and teacher's salaries, how could he possibly come up
with such a
huge sum in such a short time? But he remembered the Rebbe's
words about
being b'Simcha and hoped for the best.
For the next two months he tried various
solutions. He made a dinner,
sent out letters of appeal and even asked a few rich people
for
donations, but nothing worked. In fact every time he thought
about it
he became depressed. Then suddenly he recalled a chance meeting
he had
over a month ago.
He had taken the express train to Paris
and as fate would have it he
accidentally got on the wrong coach. While he was searching
for his
seat another passenger interrupted and said good heartedly,
"You must
have made the same mistake as I did. See your ticket? It says
coach 18
and this is 17. No problem! See there are a lot of empty places.
You
can sit next to me."
The man turned out to be Jewish and
a chief assistant for a French
Parliament member. They talked for the entire two hours of
the trip, and
Rab Shmuel remembered that as they approached Paris the man
gave him his
calling card and warmly invited him to call him if he ever
needed
anything.
Funny he had never thought about it
before but now he was desperate. He
franticly searched his office and finally found the card!
He called the
number and when there was no answer decided to travel to the
office in
person.
But when he entered the building the
secretary at the entrance had bad
news. The man he was looking for was abroad on business and
would not
return for "quite a while."
Rab Shmuel didn't even have time to
become depressed, suddenly behind
him he heard people at the door saying, "Oh hello Mr.
Blan, How are you
Mr. Blan?" He turned and saw a young well-dressed fellow
shaking hands
with people and remembered that he had read in a newspaper
somewhere
that "Blan" was the name of the building commissioner
for his city!.
He said a prayer of thanks to G-d,
excitedly walked over, shook the
young man's hand and asked him if he was in fact the commissioner.
"Ahh, no no." He replied
cordially. "You must mean my father. If you
would like to meet him you can call and make an appointment.
Here is his
number." He said as he took a card out of his wallet.
Suddenly in a spirit of "chutzpah"
he looked the young man in the eyes,
smiled slightly and said, "I want YOU to call. It is
very important."
Like magic, the young man shook his
head yes, went to the phone and
returned just moments later announcing that his father would
see him at
his office in two hours.
Two hours later Rab Shmuel was standing
opposite the elderly
commissioner explaining his terrible dilemma; in two weeks
he was to be
evicted, one hundred children would be on the street. He was
hoping
that the old man would give him a few rooms in some other
building until
he could arrange something else.
"Sit down please" Said the
commissioner "Do you mind if I ask you a
question, Rabbi?"
Rab Shmuel was a bit apprehensive but
he sat down and said he would be
glad to answer to the best of his ability.
"Tell me, Rabbi, what you think
about your Israeli Prime Minister Begin
giving the Sinai desert back to the Arabs?"
Now Rab Shmuel was really in the "hot
seat". The French were
notoriously leftist, pro-Arab and opposed to anything that
reeks of
racial oppression; especially if the Jews do it. One wrong
word and he
could say good-bye to his school
But on the other hand The Lubavitcher
Rebbe was very opposed to
returning the Sinai.
It crossed his mind to try to be diplomatic
and evade the question, but
he shuddered at the thought and just blurted out. "Mr.
Blan, I am a
Chassid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and he said that returning
of the Sinai
is a big mistake and will lead only to tragedy."
The old man looked at him deeply and
said. "I just returned from Israel
last month, I was there for a week. I'm even a representative
here in
France for the Weitzman institute. I want to tell you that
the returning
of the Sinai is the most insane thing in the world.....Completely
insane!"
He then took out a Bible from a drawer
put it on his desk and continued.
"In this book it says that Israel belongs to the Jewish
people. If G-d
said it, that is good enough for me. No one has the right
to give that
land back! No one in the world!"
He paused again and said, "Rabbi,
I'm going to write a letter about your
school to the Building Minister in Paris. He is the one that
makes the
decisions not me, but I think everything will be all right.
Please give
me a call in a week."
A week later the Rabbi was again sitting
opposite the commissioner
waiting to hear the answer. The commissioner just spread a
set of
blueprints on his desk and said. "Do you understand blueprints?
This,
Rabbi, is your new building! It's yours. See? It's two stories
high, and
about three thousand meters square. Here I will call my driver
and we
will drive down to see it. You can move in whenever you want."
The Rabbi was dumbfounded! A huge building!
Completely his! He was
expecting only a few rooms! Even more amazing, in France there
is a
very strict separation of Church and State, this was probably
the first
building ever given by the French government to a religious
institution!
When the Commissioner saw the joy in Rab Shmuel's eyes he
said, "Rabbi,
I want to tell you something. You know why I am doing this?
You told me
that you were a Chassid, right? Well, I asked one of my friends
what a
Chassid is and he told me that Chassidim are Jews that are
always happy.
That made me feel good. You know, I know several other religious
Jews,
but they aren't like you, they always have angry faces, and
I hate an
angry face!"
Rab Shmuel understood what the Rebbe
meant with those exact same words
over two years ago.
Now we can understand the answer to
our question. G-d created this
world in such a way that it is very easy to err.
One mistake is getting too involved
in the physical; the book "Tanya"
even explains there are three levels of such forbidden involvement
(Shlosh Klippot HaT'maiot covered by the negative commandments
of the
Torah). This corresponds to the three years of Orla.
Another mistake is getting too involved
in the spiritual. This was the
sin of Aaron's two sons, Nadav and Avihu, after whom the first
of our
two sections is named; they were so enraptured with holiness
they rushed
illegally into the Tabernacle and died. This corresponds to
the "holy"
fruits of the fourth year.
The goal of the Torah and of the Jewish
people is something else
altogether. It is to make this entire PHYSICAL mundane world
into a
Holy Temple. This corresponds to the ordinary fruits of the
fifth year,
and that is why the main blessing falls on them.
This is what Rab Shmuel did in our
story; everything depended on getting
that actual, physical building, and with just a smile and
the simple
truth he got it.
May we all see the revelation of G-d
in this world as the Maimonides
writes at the very end of his massive masterpiece; with the
arrival of
Moshiach there will be true peace, true joy, all the Jews
will return to
the Holy Land, the Temple will be rebuilt and the world will
be filled
with the knowledge of G-d like water fills the ocean.
It all depends on US to do all we can
to bring.....
Moshiach NOW!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week’s combined reading contains
Seventy-six commandments. Some are very negative, like the
twenty-two forbidden sexual relationships (Araiyot) and some
very positive like “Love your friend like yourself”.
But as opposite as they are, these
two commonly touch on the essence of Judaism:
Abstinence from Araiyot is essential
to ‘holiness’ (Rashi Vayikra 19:1) and “Brotherly
Love” is essential to the entire Torah (ibid 19:18).
The Baal Shem Tov explained it like
this: The Jewish people are like one person (Shmot 4:22) [“One
man with one heart” (Rashi on Shmot 19:2)].
Forbidden unions destroy this unity, and proper love strengthens
it.
Only through proper love can we become
a healthy unit; a functioning ‘chosen people’ bringing
blessing and meaning to the world.
Now all this is very beautiful in theory
but how is such love possible? To love each person as ourselves
sounds like a ridiculous thing to expect.
To explain, here is a story.
Rabbi Mendel Futerfass was a Chabad
Chassid that was put into Siberia for his Jewish activities.
For over five years he suffered terribly,
and was always in the shadow of death. But afterwards he said
that those were the best years of his life.
“There is a saying in the name
of Rav Zusia of Anipoli” He once told me, “that
from a thief you can learn seven lessons on how to serve G-d”
(hard work, positive attitude, etc.). “Well, it’s
obvious that Rav Zusia had never sat in Siberia,” he
continued with a twinkle in his eye, “because if he did,
he would know that there you can learn THOUSANDS of things
from a thief.”
For instance, one of the prisoners
in Rav Mendel’s camp was an old Cossack imprisoned because
of his loyalty to the Czar. Although the Cossacks were usually
rabid anti-Semites, ‘misery loves company’. One
long cold Siberian winter night, when they were sitting in
the barracks (the guards were afraid to let them work outside
in the dark) he opened his heart to Rav Mendel and began reminiscing
about....his horse.
When he spoke his eyes became moist
and his voice filled with emotion.
"Aaahhh!!! A Cossack horse!!!
There is nothing in creation like a Cossack horse!!!! A regular
horse in Russia cost one month’s wages - five rubles.
A workhorse cost up to ten. But a Cossack horse cost five
hundred, six hundred rubles!!
You see, the Cossack horse was different
than all other horses, incomparably different! A Cossack’s
horse had a different heart.
Not only it would do anything for its
master; jump into fire, over trees
and even houses. Anything. And it was stronger, faster, and
braver than anything alive.
But most of all, it had a different
heart.
I will explain," Continued the
Cossack, pausing and drawing deeply on a cigarette.
“How did they catch a Cossack
horse? Do you know? Well I will tell you, this is a story!”
He exhaled and leaned back in his chair
as the smoke was pouring from his mouth and nostrils.
"The Cossacks were experts at
this. There was a special group that would wander the mountains
and fields on horseback looking for herds of wild horses.
This was very important because a Cossack
without a horse is like a Cossack without legs, like a cripple,
do you understand?
Then, if they were lucky and found
a large herd, say of a thousand, two thousand horses. They
would stampede them and get them all running in the direction
of the nearest river. Like I say, they were great experts,
and sometimes they would run for days until they got there,
but when they did they would start screaming and shooting
their guns in the air and force the herd into the widest,
deepest part of the river. You see, horses can swim, and so
they had to get over, through the current to the other side,
or die.
Now, on the other side was waiting
another group of Cossacks. The whole thing was planned from
the beginning, and they would watch to see what the horses
did.
There were always three types of horses;
the majority were the regular horses that would make it to
the other side and run away to live their lives. Then there
were older horses that couldn’t get across and would
unfortunately drown. And there were the young horses, that
had the stamina so they didn’t get tired, but didn’t
have the strength to cross over, so they just floundered in
the middle of the river."
His voice became serious, and he sat
a bit straighter.
"But sometimes... Not always,
but sometimes, there was a fourth type; maybe only one or
two at the most, that were sort of crazy horses.
They would make it across, but instead
of running away, they would
turn around, look back into the river to see if there were
horses in trouble and then jump BACK in to save them."
There were tears in his eyes now, he
was leaning forward with arms outstretched as though grasping for the past.
"They would swim to the young
horses, grab them with their teeth by their mane and start
dragging them in. They just couldn’t stand to see their
fellow horses in danger.
The Cossacks would throw some paint
on these special horses and chase them for days until they
caught them. Then it would take several months of hard work
until they trained them. But the main thing was the heart;
it was a horse with a heart.
This was a Cossack’s horse!!!"
Rav Mendel said that he immediately
got the point.
The Cossack’s horse is a Chassid.
A Chassid has to be ‘crazy’
and risk everything for his fellow man; he can’t stand
to see his brother in danger of drowning. He can’t bear
to just live for himself; learn Torah and do the commandments
just in order to cross the river of life and get into heaven.
A Chassid has a different heart. And
this is the secret of “brotherly love” that the
Baal Shem Tov strived to teach.
But to explain Araiyot, requires a
different story:
Once a man was sitting in a restaurant
gluttonously eating fish with his
hands. His neighbor at the table next to him tried to calm
him down, but he just kept stuffing his mouth and mumbling,
“I can’t!!! I just love fish,
I really love ‘em!”
Finally his neighbor had enough and
yelled, “My friend you are a liar!!”
“A liar?” said the startled
glutton as he stopped for a moment and wiped off his mouth
with a handful of napkins. “How do you figure that? I
mean, what? You think I don’t love fish??”
“You certainly do not!” he
replied. “If you loved fish you would let the
fish eat YOU! You love yourself, that’s why you eat the
fish.”
Araiyot are really an expression of
false love, doing what I want.
True love means trying to help the
other person do what the Creator wants.
This is the real meaning of all the
man-and-wife allusions in Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) and
later in the Zohar.
They are all referring to the days
of Moshiach when the world will be filled true love; the love
of G-d, the love the Torah and Brotherly love.
Moshaich NOW!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
back to top
|
PARSHA
MOSHIACH
IN THE PARSHA
WEEKLY
MESSAGE