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Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section begins
with the inauguration day of the "Mishkan': the
portable Holy Temple that accompanied the Jews for forty years
in the desert
(and four hundred and forty more after they entered Israel
until the First
Temple was built in Jerusalem).
The Lubavitcher Rebbe says that this
should make us remember the Temples,
regret their loss, and bring us to a tremendous yearning for
the Moshiach
who will build the third and final Temple.
But it probably doesn't.
And paradoxically our section gives
us a good reason why not. It tells us
that on this auspicious 'opening' day, Nadav and Avihu, the
two eldest sons
of Aaron the High Priest, became so filled with tremendous
yearning that
they rushed into the Holy of Holies. And they were killed;
punished by
Divine Fire (!!); not very encouraging.
And not very understandable either.
What were they yearning about? What
was so great about the Holy of Holies?
Why should WE yearn?
On the other hand...why were they punished
with death? What did they do so
wrong? What is this trying to tell us?
To understand, here is a story:
Rabbi Mordechi Dubin was a well known
Chassid of the Previous Lubavitcher
Rebbe. He was extremely talented man and at one period of
his life he held
two high positions in the Lithuanian government. In fact he
used his
influence to help save the Rebbe's life, free him from communist
prison and
get him out of Russia.
But his talents made him a target of
communist suspicion as well and he too
had several close encounters with death. Here is one of them.
He had been imprisoned for several
months already in one of the several
thousand 'correctional' facilities in communist Russia in
a dim, cold,
concrete cell with eight or nine other 'criminals'
Death waited every second, the air
smelled of it, it was a dull curse in
everyone's dulled eyes and a ..
Suddenly the iron door opened, "DUBIN!"
Two guards stood at the open door behind
an official who took one step into
the room and was reading from a paper. "Mordechi Dubin?
On your feet! Come
with us!"
Was this the end? Would he never see
his family or friends again? He stood
upright, walked to the door. It was pointless to argue or
to plead. He had
nothing to fear - death would be a macabre blessing to end
the cold, bitter
uncertainty.
Exactly the opposite, his only chance
was to show them that he was not
afraid. One indication of fear would only draw their contempt.
He said words of Tanya by heart as
he walked down the corridor and with
every step he became filled with a strange pride. He was far
superior to his
captors. They were animals, worse than animals, living a lie;
they were
really dead. But he was attached to life. to infinite, undying
truth. He
was a follower of a true servant of the Creator; the only
man in the Russia
to defy Stalin; the Lubavitcher Rebbe!
"DUBIN!" Another voice broke
his thoughts. He looked up to see he was
standing near the main entrance of the penitentiary. They
would probably
take him outside and shoot him. Just throw him in the snow
somewhere for
the wolves and dogs to drag him away.
"YOUR NAME IS MORDECHI DUBIN?"
"Yes" he answered firmly.
A smile came across the face of the
officer speaking to him.
"Congratulations" He said as he handed him an envelope
"Your period of
correction is over. Here are your papers of discharge and
a few other
things."
He nodded to the guards at the door
and they began to open the massive iron
structure.
"But, my clothes? My clothes?
At least a coat?" As the words came out he
knew it was a mistake.
"Ahhh! He wants to stay."
Smiled the officer. "Close the..."
"No, no!" he whispered as
he moved toward the door. They opened it a bit
more and he slipped out into the bitter cold grabbing the
envelope in his
fist. It was ten below zero.
The iron door closed behind him muffling
the laughter of the guards. It must
have been one A.M. In the distance he could vaguely see the
outline of a
nearby town, lucky the moon was full.
He put the envelope in his shirt and
began to run. He had to keep moving, it
was his only chance to keep from freezing. The snow wasn't
too
deep...another stroke of fortune, a blessing! He hugged himself
to keep
warm and ran.
He wasn't used to running; in Yeshiva
there was no running, but he ran. The
night was spinning around him, he ran out of breath quickly,
he couldn't
breathe but he ran. He tripped rolled on the ground, his nose
was bleeding,
his knee hurt but he stood up and ran again.
Finally he was there. Who knows how
many times he had fallen. He knew that
his only chance was to find a Jew. No one else would open
the door,
especially not at two in the morning. He was shivering uncontrollably.
A
Jew. A Jew would open for a Jew. It was his only hope. Aha!
A door with a
Mezuza!!!
He began knocking, pounding. His head
was spinning. But he mustn't wake the
neighbors, they could kill him. "Ratavet! Ratavet"
(Yiddish for save me).
He pressed his mouth to the door and whispered as loud as
possible
"Ratavet!!".
He was going numb. He didn't feel his
feet at all. It must be twenty below
zero, up to now he hadn't noticed wind. He gave thanks to
G-d for that, no
wind up to now. And with his last ounce of strength he knocked
for the last
time.
A small hole opened at the side of
the door and closed. He heard the man
say to his wife in Yiddish, "A Drunk meshuga! Prison
clothes. no coat. saw
our mezuzah. pretends to be a Jew."
Rabbi Dubin slid slowly down, he couldn't
stand, face pressed to the door
until he was huddled up in a ball on the ground near the door.
His strength
was gone. He would go to sleep. It wasn't so hard. He stopped
shivering,
closed his eyes and said his last "Shma Yisroel"
thankful to G-d that at
least he wouldn't die in jail. Maybe he'd get a Jewish burial.
Maybe...
Suddenly he opened his eyes. Wait a
minute!!!
A terrible thought occurred to him.
"When this Jew opens his door
tomorrow morning and sees me dead at his
doorstep and realizes that I'm Jewish. he will never forgive
himself!
Never!! I know how I would feel!!! I can't let that happen!"
He stood again and began pounding with
all his might yelling in Yiddish
"It's no trick!! I'm Mordechi Dubin. My mother's name
is such and such and
my father's is such and such. let me in! Let a Jew in!! Shma
Yisroel
HaShem Elokeinu..."
The door opened and he fell in the
house, almost unconscious but alive and
safe.
His love for another Jew actually saved
his own life!!!
This answers our questions. The Bait
HaMikdosh will reveal G-d; the SOURCE
of all the eternal things that motivated Rabbi Dubin: Infinite
undying
Truth, Attachment to the Creator, REAL Life.
And that is why we should grieve the
loss of the Temple and long for
Moshiach to rebuild it; because without these things the world
is cold, dead
and meaningless. And that is why Nadav and Avihu rushed in.
But as noble as their motives were,
they lacked the one essential ingredient
that saved Rabbi Dubin's life: Brotherly Love.
They were trapped in their own, personal,
holy worlds.
A similar story is told about Rabbi
Akiva (Talmud Hagiga 14b) who entered
into the secret realms of Kabala together with three other
great Tzadikim.
The others were irreparably damaged but he alone 'came out'
in peace.
Because his paradigm in life was 'Love your neighbor as yourself'.
(See
Rashi. Lev 19:18)
In other words BOTH are necessary;
an inward connection to G-d (so as to
never lose the truth) together with outward effort (love)
to improve the
world.
And if one is lacking the results can
be disastrous. As we see with Nadav
and Avihu.
(Similarly, the Second Temple was destroyed
due to the lack of brotherly
love and the First because of the lack of connection to G-d.)
And that is why we need the Holy Temple:
it is the ONLY way there will
really be G-dliness and Unity in the world.
But meanwhile we have the Chassidic
teachings of the Baal Shem Tov,
especially as they are explained in the teachings of the Lubavitcher
Rebbe,
(ask in your local Chabad House for details) to teach us Love
of G-d, Love
of the Torah and Brotherly Love.
To prepare the world for Moshiach NOW!!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
At the end of this week's
section we read two strange sentences:
"I am G-d your L-rd, sanctify
yourselves and be Holy (Kadosh) because I am
Holy (and don't defile yourself with crawling things)."
And again in the
next sentence: "I am G-d…. be holy because I am
Holy" (11:44, 45)
Does this make sense? Can a human be
holy as G-d? We are mere creations!
Even the highest spiritual realms or beings are nothing to
Him.
But on the other hand the Torah seems
to be telling us here that by simply
refraining from eating not kosher food you become as holy
as G-d! That
makes even less sense!!
To answer this here is a story:
In the year 1912 in Russia Rebbe Yosef
Yitzchak Shneerson (who would become
the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe after the passing of his father
Rebbe Shalom
Ber Shneerson in 1920) was on a train from Paris to Petersburg.
Times in Russia were not easy for the
Jews, they never really were, and
often he would spend long periods just traveling on special
missions of his
father to help and save Russian Jewry.
After several hours of travel he left
his cabin and went to the dining car
for a cup of tea. As he sat down and looked around him he
noticed a
finely-dressed clean-shaven businessman sitting at a table
in the corner
eating a fine meal of rabbit and drinking French wine with
great savor.
The man was obviously an assimilated
Jew and the Rebbe winced with each
bite he took. He couldn't bear seeing a Jew act that way.
So he turned to
his cup of tea and tried to ignore him. Suddenly he heard
the man push back
his chair, stand up and approach him.
"Excuse me Rabbi" He said.
"Excuse me, but are you the son or grandson of
Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch?" (fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe)
"Yes", the Rebbe turned to
face him and answered, "In fact I am his
grandson."
The businessman just stood there speechless.
His eyes filled with tears
and he made no effort to wipe them away. He trembled slightly
as though in
shock, ran his hand over his eyes then turned abruptly back
to his table.
paid the waiter and left the room without finishing his meal.
That evening, hours after this strange
episode, the train made a short stop
in Frankfort. The Rebbe stepped briefly outside for a breath
of fresh air
when that same businessman again approached him. But before
he could begin
to speak he again began to weep uncontrollably until the train
whistle
forced him to return to his place.
Both episodes perplexed the Rebbe.
On one hand the man looked like a
nobleman; a large trimmed mustache, elegantly dressed in fine
silk clothes.
But on the other hand he acted as though he was insane.
The next morning the Rebbe had just
finished praying in his cabin when
there was a knock on the door. It was one of the porters and
he said that a
certain passenger would like to know if he could see the Rabbi.
The Rebbe agreed and in a few minutes
the same man appeared. He entered,
closed the door behind him and said, "Please excuse me
my emotional
outbursts but….." and suddenly began to again weep
uncontrollably. He put
his hands over his face and his entire body was shaking with
sobs.
The Rebbe didn't know whether to stop
him or not but after several minutes
the man dried his eyes, looked at the Rebbe furtively and
asked him if
could borrow his Tefillin.
When the Rebbe answered yes, he again
began to weep like a small child
saying "Oy!! When was the last time I put on Tefillin!!
OY!!"
The man took the Tefillin, removed
them from their pouches, kissed them
tenderly, put them on as one who was familiar with the commandment
and
began to pray.
The Rebbe left the man alone to pour
out his soul before his Creator.
After an hour he came out of the cabin, thanked the Rebbe,
asked him if he
could borrow a book of Psalms and left to his own cabin without
saying
another word.
That afternoon, several hours later,
the man returned to the Rebbe's room.
His face was pale and he looked as though he was undergoing
drastic
internal changes. He spoke in a weak voice.
"I would like to speak to you
if possible. May I?" The Rebbe invited him
to sit down; he closed the door and began.
"First, thank you for your Tefillin
and book of psalms. And I'm sorry if I
was of any inconvenience. My name is Y… I was born into
a family of Chabad
Chassidim by the name of Monison, although I know I don't
look it.
"My childhood was very happy;
our house was always filled with guests,
Torah and joy. But when I was fifteen I somehow got drawn
into a bad crowd
of young people and I began to enjoy them.
"My father saw what was happening
to me and decided to take me to Lubavitch
for the High Holidays and it worked. The first moment I saw
the Rebbe it
had a deep effect on me. My father even took me in for a private
audience.
The Rebbe spoke to my father for a few seconds, then turned
to me and said
"'The world can be very dangerous,
never forget that you are a Jew.'"
"The experience completely changed
me. I had absolutely no desire to even
see my 'friends'. But gradually the effect wore off. Little
by little I
became cool to Judaism and warm to what I thought was freedom.
I stopped
praying, stopped doing the commandments and after a year or
so I left my
parent's house and moved in with my new 'friends'.
"Several times my father tried
to make contact with me but that only
aroused my anger. I had made up my mind; I would not live
my life
according to some book. Six years later I finished university,
married an
assimilated girl like myself and broke completely with my
past. I was free!
"At that time I joined a secret
political movement whose goal was to help
the needy. There had been several Pogroms (government instigated
riots
against Jews) at that time, and most of our efforts were directed
to
helping Jews.
"After several years of this work,
we heard that the Lubavitcher Rebbe was
to be visiting Petersburg in order to stop the Pogroms at
the government
level. We decided to let him know of several impending Pogroms
that we had
heard about.
"We arrived at the hotel where
the Rebbe was staying and were met by a
large group of Chassidim some of whom remembered me and greeted
me warmly.
Suddenly the Rebbe opened his door to come out to pray the
afternoon
prayer. He glanced at me and I immediately knew that he recognized
me
despite the fact that we had met for just moments over eight
years ago. I
was speechless
"Later one of the Rebbe's secretaries
told us that the Rebbe would like to
speak with us and we entered his room.
"His knowledge of the situation
in Russia was nothing short of miraculous
and the next few months we devoted ourselves totally to helping
him in
every way. We saw much fruit from our labors and saw how the
Rebbe
literally prevented tens of pogroms.
"Then one day as we were leaving
his room and I was the last one out, the
Rebbe called to me and said, "Tell me, when was the last
time you put on
Tefillin? Please don't lie to me; I know exactly what you
have been doing."
"I can't explain it, but I was
so stunned I couldn't even open my mouth. I
just made some strange gestures and left. Those few words
made such an
impression on me that that day I looked for a pair of Tefillin
and put them
on for the first time in years and I even stopped eating non-kosher
food.
"After the Rebbe left Petersburg
I returned home, told my wife that I
decided to return to a Jewish life to which she agreed and
I eventually
even renewed ties with my father. But I still was working
with my friends
in our organization and at the end of that year it became
known to us that
there were to be a series of massive Pogroms in the south
of Russia.
"I was chosen to travel to Lubavitch
to tell the Rebbe and when I entered
his office I could tell he was happy to see me. We spoke for
some time but
he said that he had to go to the country for his health and
we would deal
with the problem when he returned in a few days.
"When we met again he told me
that he had been at his father's (the third
Rebbe the 'Tzemach Tzedik' who is buried in Lubavitch) gravesite
and his
father told him that there was no real danger but nevertheless
we must take
steps. The Rebbe then gave me some letters and told me what
to do. He was
in a good mood as he paused for a moment, smiled and said.
"'It says that Moses, because
he helped the Jews, G-d gave him the chips
of sapphire from the Tablets that he carved out. You are helping
Jews so
you too deserve a reward.'
"The Rebbe looked me deeply in
the eyes as he continued speaking.
"'When I told you that my father
spoke to me at his grave I noticed that
you smirked. The reason for this is that you are so involved
in the
physical that you have no appreciation for spiritual things.'
"The Rebbe then sat with me for
over an hour explaining, with many examples
and stories, what 'spiritual' means and he concluded with
these words:
"'How long can a person live a
life of physicality? Fifty years? Fifty five
years? Remember who you are and where you come from. You are
a son of a
Chassid! May G-d protect you and give you true happiness.'
"I didn't really understand what
he was getting at because I had already
returned to Judaism for almost a year. But I thanked him warmly,
took the
papers he gave me, set out for Petersburg to give them to
officials. On
that trip I saw some open miracles.
"First, police stopped the train
ordered everyone out and began searching
each person for any political papers. I considered throwing
the Rebbe's
letters away before they got to me but the Rebbe's words made
me think
differently. And miraculously, when they came to me they just
told me to
get back on the train. I was the only one they didn't check!
"Then afterwards in Petersburg
I got in to see the officials and hand them
the papers with no trouble. And to top it all off the Rebbe,
or rather his
departed father, was right! The situation was not as severe
as we thought.
"But despite all this, just like
the Rebbe said, I had no appreciation of
the spiritual. A few months later the Rebbe became ill and
passed away at
the age of forty nine and gradually I gravitated to my old
friends again.
"Little by little I left HaShem
and His Torah and became a very successful
businessman. That was thirty years ago. Believe me for the
last thirty
years I never once even thought about G-d. Now I am retuning
from my
birthday party, I was fifty five years old yesterday, and
my friends made
me a gala party in Monte Carlo.
"Then suddenly, like a flash of
lightning, when I saw you I remembered the
words of your holy grandfather and it touched me to the essence
of my soul."
The businessman became a different
person. He moved his entire business to
a different country and became one of the pillars of the Jewish
community
there.
This answers our question. The word
'Holy' (Kadosh) doesn't mean
spiritual; The spiritual worlds are mere creations of G-d.
(That's why the
angels call Him 'Holy Holy Holy etc (Isaiah 6:3)).
Holy means that G-d is ABOVE even the
spiritual.
The spiritual is limited; it can't
be physical. But when G-d gave the Torah He revealed His ESSENCE in this PHYSICAL world (Just that,
as the Rebbe
pointed out, one must be spiritual to appreciate it.)
That is why by just doing the mundane
commandments, like not eating
crawling things, one can become as Holy as G-d is Holy.
And that is the main accomplishment
of Moshiach; to fill this PHYSICAL
world with the revelation of G-d so that even the angels will
call each Jew
holy.
Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section lists
the animals that Jews are forbidden to eat.
Although the Torah was given some 3,300
years ago in the isolation of the Sinai Desert, it is amazingly
accurate here. It informs us that the the Hare, the Rabbit,
and the Camel are the only animals in the world that chew
their cuds and don't have split feet, and the Pig is the only
one that has split feet and doesn't chew its cud.
(Parenthetically, a Moslem man once
wrote me an email victoriously declaring that he asked expert
veterinarians and even professors and they all told him beyond
any doubt that the rabbit and the hare definitely do NOT chew
their cuds! Of course I was stunned. What could I say against
all these experts?
Then I remembered that there is a pet
store in the large outdoor market
where I go every Friday in Tel Aviv to put Tefillin on Jews.
Usually
the owner, a non-observant Jew, is very unreceptive and downright
rude
to me, but I figured he was the one to ask. So the next Friday
I
stopped in his store and when I asked him my question the
strangest
thing happened.
He stopped what he was doing. Looked
up at me in the friendliest way
and said, "Isn't that the most amazing thing! YES, it
does! The rabbit
chews its cud!"
Then he smiled, leaned over the counter
to me and said. "You know it's
the most incredible thing how the Torah covered all the animals
in the
world in just a few sentences. Only G-d could do a thing like
that!" I
thought to myself that maybe G-d did it just so this fellow
would also
find something in the Torah.
(By the way, I wrote my findings back
to the Moslem and he never got
back to me.))
But in this week's section we see a
strange thing. The Torah gives the
reason why these animals are forbidden: They don't have split
hooves and
chew their cuds (11:3).
This is not so clear. Maybe if G-d
forbade pigs because they wallow in
filth or rabbits because they live in holes it would make
a bit of
sense, but what is so bad about not having split hooves or
not chewing
the cud?
To understand here is a story that
is well known in Chabad circles.
This story takes place some 150 years
ago in the days of the third
Chabad Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek.
It was well after midnight, and the
Chassidim had been sitting together
in the "Farbrengen" for most of the night, when
suddenly they realized
they were out of "farbisen".
[Chassidim are Jews that devote their
lives to trying to love G-d, the
Torah and every other Jew. This is not easy - it demands a
lot of very
positive thinking and for this purpose they often make informal
get-togethers called "Farbrengens" where they sing,
say inspiring
stories and words of Torah, and say "L'chaim" (drink
vodka). But after
taking a drink of Vodka it is necessary to eat a little something,
some
type of food to ease the sharpness of the drink. And without
that food
(called "farbisen") the Vodka is unbearably harsh
thus endangering the
continuation of the Farbrengen. Now, back to the story.]
They pooled their money, and one of
them ran to wake up the butcher who
responded nobly and provided them with a fine cow liver. The
butcher's
wife was nice enough to cook it for them, and in an hour the
Chassid,
pleased with his accomplishment, brought it back to his friends.
When they saw the platter with the
liver on it being placed on the table
they were happy. It put a new life into the Farbringen and
they broke
into song while one of them got a knife to cut it into smaller
pieces.
Suddenly one of the Chassidim by the
name of Shmuel Munkis, known for
his genius and his lively sense of humor, stood from his place,
grabbed
the platter with the liver on it, lifted it from the table
and
unexplainably began running around the table holding it high
over his
head!
The Chassidim began yelling at him.
"Hey! Put it down! What the....are
you crazy!!? You're going to drop it!! Stop acting like a
fool!!"
But they couldn't stop him; he wouldn't
listen to reason and he was
simply too quick for them.
Suddenly he ran to an open window and
threw the entire thing outside
into the mud and filth!! This was no joke!!
The other Chassidim were astounded.
What had he done!! He was
certainly no more drunk than they were, and he certainly knew
what he
was doing. It was a sin to waste food in such a fashion! That
liver cost
them their last few kopeks, and now the farbringen was destroyed!
Everyone was furious. Someone grabbed
him by the lapels and began
shaking him, "What did you do? You fool! You wasted all
the food, and
what about the money we paid?!"
Suddenly the door burst open and everyone
turned around. It was the
butcher; and he was obviously out of breath and looked like
he was half
insane. He was waving his hands, shaking his head wildly
and trying to
say something but all that came out was this strange wheezing
sound.
In a few seconds he came to himself
and gasped, almost in tears
"DON'T EAT THE LIVER!!"
"Why not!?" the Chassidim
asked almost in unison.
"Because it's not kosher!!"
he pleaded. I made a terrible mistake and
gave you a non-kosher piece of meat!! Oy! I ran here as soon
as I
realized it. Am I too late? What a mistake. Oy! G-d forbid!!"
The Chassidim looked at Rav Shmuel
Munkis and said angrily, "Are you
trying to play Rebbe or something? Why didn't you just tell
us you
thought something was wrong? Why did you make us run around
like
chickens?" They were even considering punishing him for
his "Chutzpa"
(cheek), until he yelled out.
"One minute!! You have it all
wrong! The reason I did it was because
the Rebbe told me to!"
Now they thought he was really insane.
"The Rebbe told you to throw the
liver out the window?!" Someone asked incredulously.
"Do..do you really
expect us believe that?! Do YOU really believe it??"
"Yes!" answered Rav Shmuel.
"It's true!! Five years ago I was in private audience
(Yechidut) with the Rebbe and he told me that anything that
really aroused my desire I should avoid as though it was forbidden.
"When that liver was put in the
center of the table I suddenly came
alive! I don't remember ever having such a desire. I simply
could not
control myself. I tried to leave the table but just wanted
a piece of
that liver. So I picked it up and threw it out the window!
After five
years I finally understand what the Rebbe was talking about.
He just
saved us all from eating treif (unkosher) meat!!"
So now, maybe we can begin to understand
the meaning of chewing the cud
and split hooves.
Chewing the cud in our personal lives
means not immediately swallowing
every idea and accepting every impulse that comes to us, but
rather
chewing and re-chewing it; being completely sure it is according
to the
Torah. Something like what the Rebbe asked Rav Munkis to do.
Split hooves means almost the same
thing; that the lowest part of our
lives should be open in such a way that what is above shines
through.
In other words, that not only should everything we do in this
physical
world be according to the Torah but we should THINK about
HaShem when we
do it.
This is the secret of kosher foods;
and why it is one of the main things
that separate the Jews from the other nations (Shemini, 11:45).
And
this is for two reasons.
Firstly; while the other nations are
not restricted to what they eat
(save the fact that it cannot be from a living animal) we
are very much
so, for instance the animals must chew their cuds and have
split hooves.
And secondly; the Jews have to be very careful that they themselves
"chew their cuds" and have "split hooves"!
Not only must their deeds and
speech be according to what the Creator wants, but even their
thoughts
(Kavannot) must bring G-dliness into the physical world. In
other words;
with the intention of bringing Moshiach.
ONLY Moshiach will, as Maimonides says
in the end of his masterpiece,
fill the world with the knowledge of G-d so there will be
no war,
strife, hunger or hardship.
We NEED 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 section tells the
strange and tragic story of the death of two
of Ahron’s sons.
Strange, because their death was
caused by their rushing into the “Holy of
Holies” on its opening day... stoned drunk! (Rashi 10:2).
Even stranger, G-d killed them by
sending beams of fire into their nostrils
(Rashi 10:5), burning only their insides.
And stranger still; after all this
Moshe actually praised what they did (10:3).
To understand this here is a story.
It was the afternoon before Yom
Kippur. In only two hours, at nightfall,
would begin the holiest day of the year. Jews all over the world were
preparing and purifying themselves for this awesome day, ‘The Day
of
Forgiveness’ when, in the days of the Temple the High Priest would
enter the
Holy of Holies, and today, as then, G-d absolves any and every sin that
is
repented for with a whole heart.
But Rav Avraham, one of the devoted
followers (Chassidim) of the Great
Master Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, was thinking only of money.
He had to come up with eight hundred
rubles before nightfall.
No, not for his business or a down
payment on a new house, but to release
kidnapped prisoners.
A gang of thieves were holding an
entire Jewish family in captivity and the
police, as usual, refused to help.
For over a month, the community
tried to scrape up the eight hundred ruble
ransom they were demanding. They even went begging to other communities
and
sold and pawned their own belongings, but they managed to gather only
a
meager two hundred; things looked very bad.
“What can I do? Where can I
go?” Rav Avraham thought to himself as he
absentmindedly strayed out of the Jewish sector and passed the local
tavern.
“Less than two hours to go, where will the salvation come from?”
The smell of whiskey and coarse
laughter suddenly made him snap to.
“Hey Jew!! Haa Haaa!!”
someone yelled from the bar, “Hey Jew Rabbi!!
Come on in!!! Want a punch in the face!! Haaaa Ha haaa!”
Suddenly he stopped….
“THAT’S IT!” he thought
to himself, “It’s my only chance! HaShem please
help me!” he closed his eyes and prayed.
As though transformed into a new
man, he turned and walked calmly toward the
open barroom door, with a slight smile on his face. He raised his head erect as
he walked. Before entering he paused for a moment, fixed his collar,
straightened his long coat, and strode into the tavern. He stood proudly
before the surprised crowd of half-drunk townies and announced;
“I can out-drink anyone here!”
Surprised, sensing the challenge
and the heaven-sent opportunity to have
some fun, they first turned to one another, eyebrows raised in disbelief,
then with huge smiles on their half-intoxicated faces, back to the Jew
and
said the Russian equivalent of ‘Put up or shut up’.
“You can down one bottle of
Vodka without stopping?” one of them asked.
“Can the Rabbi down TWO BOTTLES???” another shouted out from
the back of the
room pushing his chair back and standing up.
He walked up to the Jew and declared
in a loud voice.
“I’m willing to bet that
you can’t drink two bottles of vodka without
stopping. Think you can, Jew?”
He pushed his forefinger into the
Jew’s chest each time he said the word
‘you’.
“Tell us, exactly what type
of stakes do you have in mind, Rabbi?” another
one chimed in.
It wasn’t long before the Jew
put up his 200 rubles, demanded that they put
up collectively 800. All the money was given to the bartender who promised
to be fair and neutral and hand the jackpot over to the winning side,
and
the bet was on.
The townies were ecstatic. There
were over twenty-five of them, so even if
the Jew won, which was very doubtful, it would cost each one less than
thirty rubles. Not a bad price for such quality entertainment, and most
probably the poor fool would O.D. from the vodka before he finished
anyway, so they’d all get their money back and make a profit to boot!
A table was cleared, everyone gathered
around, and the Jew climbed up,
bottle in hand. He stood at his full height, lifted the bottle and
announced, “LeChiam!” and everyone yelled after him, “LeChiam
Jew! LeChiam.”
Then the small crowd fell silent.
He stared at the bottle, slowly
made a blessing “Boruch ataw ….. SheHaKol
Neeyeh Beedvoro”, and began drinking.
It was like drinking fire but he
breathed deeply and kept swallowing until
he lost track of how long it was he’d been at it. His throat was
burning,
it was hard to breath but he kept going. Five minutes later it was
finished!
He triumphantly removed the bottle
from his lips and held it upside down for
all to see as he stuck out his hand for the second, which was promptly
produced.
He asked for a chair. He was getting
dizzy and standing was not part of the
bet.
Sitting down, he held the bottle
in his wavering hand up toward the ceiling
and shouted “LeChiam, LeChiam Aibershter (G-d) !!!” And again
began to
drink, and drink, and drink.
Everything around him was vaguely
dark and silent. All he heard was the
gulping of the vodka, it seemed like the only thing in the world was
his
throat; he had to keep it working, after a minute or so he wasn’t
really
sure if he was actually swallowing or not, he just kept doing what he
was
doing a second ago, gulp, gulp, OY!....Gulp.
The next thing he knew, he was sitting
on someone’s shoulders, a hundred
hands were holding him so he wouldn’t fall and everyone was singing
and
dancing, slapping him on the back and shouting, “There’s a
real man! A
super-rabbi!! Haaa Haaaa Ha!!”
Somehow he was standing on the floor,
the bartender counted out the money,
our hero neatly folded the wad, stuffed it into his pocket and
unceremoniously staggered out of the bar in the direction of the Jewish
section.
The ‘inn-crowd’ followed
him for a while hoping he would pass out, or even
die from the massive amount of alcohol he had consumed but he didn’t.
He just kept walking in the direction of the Shul.
By now, the world was spinning at
tremendous speed around him, rising and
falling like a blanket waving in a slow warm wind. He stumbled and fell
hundreds of times. He was dusty, muddy, dirty, bruised, dead drunk but
finally made it to the house of prayer.
He burst in like a storm, oblivious
of the solemn service in progress,
threw himself on the podium where the Torah is usually read and sang
out at
the top of his drunken voice:
“Ataw Horaisa L’Daas!!!!!
ShHaShem Hu HaElokim!!!!! AIN OD
MILVADO!!!!!!!!!!!”
[One of the joyous praises announced
almost two weeks later (after the
holiday of Succot) before the festive dancing on Simchat Torah]
The Chassidim were amazed; the man
was actually stoned drunk on the holiest
and most serious day of the year. And he didn’t even know what
day it was;
why he was singing songs of a different holiday??!!
But the Rebbe understood,
“His drinking is higher than
everyone else’s fasting” The Rebbe declared,
“He completed all the spiritual work of Yom Kippur and even Succos,
he’s got.
So this explains the above questions.
There are two types of intoxication;
like our Chassid who did it for the
benefit of others, or like the two sons of Ahron who did it for themselves.
Aharon’s two sons realized
the awesomeness of the moment; G-d was actually
making Himself available to mankind in this physical world! And they
wanted
to be as holy and close to G-d as possible.
So they drank wine to become detached
from the physical and more sensitive
to the spiritual [As it says (Aruvin 66a) “When wine enters, the
secrets
come out”] and then rushed into the Holy of Holies as soon as it
opened.
Their motives were the highest and the purest.
Therefore Moshe praised them.
But they missed the point. G-d,
was showing something new here, a new
motivation. G-d was revealing Himself in the Tabernacle not to encourage
people to be spiritual pleasure seekers, but rather that they should
take
the
hint and NOT BE SELFISH.
In other words, just as G-d had
so-to-speak, ‘changed His nature’ and ‘come
down’ into the Tabernacle in order to make this physical world
holy, so
should we change our natures, ‘come down’ and do what G-d
really wants; as
it says in the Alenu prayer: “To fix up the world with the Kingship
of
HaShem.”
And that’s why G-d punished
them by leaving only their external bodies and
even garments intact.
It was a message for all generations
that, although the spiritual is
important, this physical world is even more so.
There are many examples of this
selflesness, but one good one is the Chabad
Movement; thousands of volumes of Chabad Chassidut bring the deepest
Kabbalistic ideas ‘down to earth’ and mirads of Chabad Houses
and Chabad
emissaries are spreading Judaism everywhere in the world.
But it also explains the opposition
to the one who set up this wondrous
network of brotherly love; the Lubavitcher Rebbe; because it’s
hard for
people to stop being selfish. May we all be blessed
with true unity, as it will be in the days of Moshaich
NOW!
|
Holocaust
Remembrance Day
When one Chabad
Rabbi was once asked why Chabad doesn't observe it,
he replied.
"Holocaust
Remembrance Day is to remember one day in the year how
Hitler succeeded.
We celebrate every day of the year how he failed."
The secret of true
celebration comes from knowing who is celebrating; namely
knowing who we are.
When Jews remember
who they REALLY are and look in the Torah for instructions
(after all, when you buy any complicated item you always
look in the instructions, right?) THAT celebrates and
insures the failure of our enemies.
Similarly Non-Jews;
the Rebbe said that if the Seven Noahide Principles
had been advertised 70 years ago there would have been
no World War II, and no holocaust. (and certainly no
Holocaust Remembrance Day.)
Every year on this
day in Israel, all the air-raid sirens are sounded for
exactly one minute, and tens of thousands of sincere
Israelis get out of their Volkswagens, Audis and Mercedes,
and stand at attention....for one minute.
Then the rest of
the year the schools return to their emulation of German
free-culture, and the government to it's appeasement
of Arafat, (Hitler's fan and clone), giving him guns,
money, land and even a free hand to kill Jews (not more
than one a day please).
The Rebbe promised
that there will never be another holocaust.
But unfortunately
he wasn't speaking of the spiritual holocaust that Jews
are bringing on themselves.... in Israel and throughout
the world.
I heard someone
say "Because they forgot what a Jew is, they forgot
also what a Jew-hater is."
But the Rebbe also
promised that any second now we will open our eyes and
say .... Hey! Moshiach is here!!!!!
The world will be
filled with the true knowledge of the Oneness of the
G-d of Israel.
Like we read about
in detail in Chassidut and say in Alenu three times
a day, "Even all the evil people of the world will
turn to YOU".
It all depends on
our doing even just one more good deed.
We NEED Moshiach
NOW!!!!
|
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
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| 
PARSHA
MOSHIACH
IN THE PARSHA
WEEKLY
MESSAGE