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This week's Torah section tells us (34:28) that when Moses was on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, he did not eat or drink for forty days and nights. There are three explanations how he did this.
The Rambam, in his Guide
to the Perplexed tells us that every day, G-d made a miracle. Another The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that all three opinions can be right. After all Moses had to go up on Mount Sinai three times. The first time was to receive the First Tablets (which he later broke) which were miraculously made by the hand of G-d. So G-d also made another miracle so Moses didn't have to eat. The second time Moses went up was to beg forgiveness for the Jews. Then it is reasonable to say that Moses was so occupied in prayer and supplication that he wasn't concerned with eating. And the third time, when receiving the second tablets Moses' body had reached such a high level of purity from the first two times that it didn't need food.
Rabbi Dov Ber of Meseritz, nicknamed the "Maggid" was a renowned genius and Tzadik (Holy Jew). It was said that there was no Torah commentary in print, and that he had learned ten times and committed to memory, including all the esoteric texts. Therefore he was perplexed when he heard of a man called Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem (or the Baal Shem Tov) that was teaching a new joyous approach to the Torah that he hadn't heard of. Rumors were flying around about this "new" method and its originator. Some said it was wonderful and holy, but others said very emphatically exactly the opposite. He decided that he had to see for himself. When he arrived he noticed that the pupils of this "master" were learned and serious, but that was no sure indication of anything. In fact he was beginning to regret that he came. It was his way to learn Torah non-stop day and night and the long journey had seriously interrupted his schedule. But that Shabbat when he heard the Besh't (short for Baal Shem Tov) speak, he decided that it definitely wasn't for him. The Besh't told a series of strange stories about travelers and journeys that seemed to contain no real Torah value at all. Early Sunday morning the Maggid had already packed his bag and was about to leave his room when the one of the Besht's pupils appeared at his door. The "master" wanted to hear his explanation of a certain paragraph in the mystical book "The Tree of Life" (Aitz Chiam), and he wondered if he would be so kind as to stop in at his house on his way out and tell him. Rabbi Dov Ber knew the entire book by heart
and on his way out of the
town stopped in the Besht's home, opened the book, and explained the "No! That is insufficient." Said the Baal Shem. "Please try again. Take a few minutes, sit down and think a bit deeper." The Maggid was a bit aggravated, but he sat and after a few moments his mind unexplainably "opened" and he saw things in a new light. But when he explained again the Besh't replied. "That is much better than the first time, but something is still lacking. Please try again." This repeated itself several times until finally the Besht said, "Here, please sit down and I'll explain the real meaning. You see the passage is talking about angels and here is the explanation." As the Besht spoke the room became first totally dark then filled with awesomely blinding light and earsplitting thunder. The Maggid felt as though he had been transported into another world and his soul was about to leave his body from sheer awe and fear. When the Baal Shem finished and everything returned to normal he said. "Your explanation was correct but it lacked truth and reality." The Maggid decided to become his pupil.
At one famous public hearing that was held in the city of Minsk, his irate opponents yelled such a barrage of questions that it was impossible for him to answer. The Rebbe called for silence and claiming that he would answer all the questions at once began to...sing a song. It was a Chassidic "Niggun", a melody whose only words were from the sentence in Song of Songs "Go out and See" - "Tzena U'Rena". It should have aroused scoffing and derision, but it didn't. When he finished, the room remained silent and over twenty of his enemies became his followers. They realized that this was a man whose entire physical being, even his song, was permeated with G-dliness.
Yes, on Sinai Moshe united with the CREATOR Himself. There even his PHYSICAL BODY became so purified that it was exactly the way G-d intended it to be when He first created man; true and eternal. Exactly what it will be like at the Raising of the Dead. In fact when the Torah was given each and every Jew experienced death and resurrection (Tanya chapt. 36). So that is why Moses didn't eat. Eating is a feature of the physical world. (Even according to the deeper Kabbalistic implications of eating i.e. to "raise sparks" and "souls") and Moshe was much above that. He was preparing the world for its ultimate purity; when infinite G-dliness will give TRUE ETERNAL meaning to this physical world as Maimonides says in the very end of his all-encompassing masterpiece of Jewish Law, Mishna Torah. So that is what the Torah is telling us here. The Torah and the Jewish people are eternal. Even their physical bodies are eternal! And through the Torah they can put true eternal meaning into every THING in the entire world. That is what they were "chosen" for at Sinai. But this will only be manifested in the days of the Moshiach. This is why, according to some, the Moshiach must, like Moses, disappear and then be revealed once again (See Rashi end of the Book of Daniel, Ari z'l Sefer HaGilgulim chap. 11 and more). The idea has been borrowed and corrupted by other religions but here it has a meaning. Because the Messiah will, like the Tzadikim in our above stories, reveal the TRUE, ETERNAL meaning of the Torah (but in a much greater way), indeed, he will change the consciousness of the entire world and actually bring about the raising of the dead! Therefore he will, like Moses, have to undergo a complete purification and transformation himself. May we all learn G-d's Torah with a new vigor and remember that it, along with good deeds and prayer, is the only way to completely change the world for the good and bring..... Moshiach NOW! Rabbi Tuvia Bolton Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah This weeks portion begins with a strange commandment; G-d told Moshe that each Jew was to give a half-shekel coin to ‘atone for his soul’. At first glance this doesn’t make much sense. How can giving a coin bring atonement? One of the Talmudic commentaries (‘Tosefot’, Chulin 42a) explains that Moshe had this same question and G-d answered him by producing a ‘coin of fire from under His Throne’. To understand all this here is a story. Zalman was a successful businessman. He had made millions of rubles in his metal business, but now that same business was threatening to end his life. Several months earlier he had landed an immense government contract to supply all the cooking utensils for the Czar’s army. The deal was worth a fortune, a real blessing from G-d... until he received a summons to appear in the federal court on charges of thievery and treason! It seems that someone reported to the police that Zalman was making the pots a bit thinner than promised. He had received funds for 100,000 tons of iron, but really only using 90,000, thus cheating the government out of a pretty penny. To make matters worse the report was true! He did it. But everyone did it, that’s how things were in Czarist Russia. But that didn’t change anything. If he
would be found guilty, which he Zalman did not give up however; there was still
a ray of hope. Being a But when he arrived he was told that the Rebbe wasn’t receiving visitors until further notice. This meant that the doors could open any minute, or it could take several days. With no other choice Zalman sat in the waiting room, with about twenty other people that had come for help, and read T'hillim (Psalms). The Rebbe had seven sons, and the youngest, Shmuel, who was seven years old at the time (and eventually would become the next Lubavitch Rebbe) was wandering around the room occasionally talking to the visitors. When he came to our businessman and asked him why he was there, the latter, hoping that maybe somehow it might help him get in to the Rebbe, told the child his entire story finishing with a sad word about how his only hope is the Rebbe, and now the Rebbe won’t see him. The boy listened carefully, promised he would see what he could do, left the waiting room, and entered his father’s study. Minutes later he returned, approached the businessman
and told him quietly. Of course our hero promptly gave the charity, and sure of victory, told the boy to thank his father for the blessing and left the premises a new man, full of optimism and hope. One month later, Zalman was standing confidently in the courtroom before the Judge. He didn’t even bother hiring a lawyer; after all the Rebbe said that G-d would take care of everything, (and the best lawyer in the world couldn’t help anyway). The judge examined all the papers, first those
of the prosecution, then of the defendant, pausing several times to
look up at the litigants. Finally he removed his glasses, held his
head erect and declared, “Very severe accusations, The judge put his glasses on once more, silently read the briefs again, and again looked up, pushed his glasses up onto his forehead, thought for a while and announced: “The only way to settle this is to actually weigh all the pots and pans.” “But, your honor,” exclaimed the prosecution, “that will take months, and at such expense to the country. Your Honor has before him the testimony of reliable witnesses….” Our hero was really sweating now. If the pots
were weighed he was “That is my decision!” Said the Judge. “Tomorrow the army will send one hundred wagons to bring all the vessels to the courtroom for weighing.” He raised his gavel, pounded it on the huge table before him and announced “Court adjourned!” It took over a week to organize the wagons, travel to the factory and load them all up, and then another week or so to bring them to the court, weigh them and record the results. But when it was all finished and the results were brought to the courtroom, the tension was so thick you could almost cut the air. The word of the trial reached the newspapers and the courtroom was packed. The judge entered after everyone was seated, took his place behind his huge desk, picked up the papers and read carefully. The courtroom was silent. After several minutes he looked up at the defendant squinted his eyes in as though in sheer hatred and spoke almost theatrically. “Mr. Zalman, you...you lied to the government!” The Judge was holding the papers in both hands
and leaning forward on his desk, peering over them at the accused,
almost completely out of his chair. The guards moved a few steps closer to him.
The prosecutors looked “You declared to the Russian Government that you needed one hundred thousand tons of iron. You took funds for One Hundred Thousand Tons of Iron!!” The judge was now standing, leaning with his entire body over the table holding the papers in one hand shaking them in the air as he spoke and almost whispering, hissing at poor Zalman… “And you really used....ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND TONS!!! Those pots weighed MORE than necessary!!!!! Mr. Zalman, you are a patriot!!” Two days later our hero was waiting again in the Rebbe’s front room, this time to thank him for the miracle. But when he was finally sitting opposite the Rebbe and began thanking him, the Rebbe was surprised, he didn’t remember ever giving such a blessing! “But your son, Shmuel told me….” Said the businessman. It didn’t take long to call in his son, who immediately admitted that he had done the whole thing on his own. “But how did you give him such a blessing? How could you have been sure that it would be all right?” His father asked. “Simple” answered the boy, “I
just saw in heaven all the weight of that Only a Rebbe can really know the effect of Charity. The half-shekel was also charity. It was used in the Temple and benefited the entire world. The secret of the half-shekel that G-d revealed to Moshe, is that charity is not just physical money, it’s really a coin of spiritual fire; just as fire warms and changes everything so does charity. It even affects G-d!! That’s what HaShem was hinting at when He took the coin from ‘under His throne’. A throne is where one lowers himself to sit. Charity has the power to lower even HaShem Himself ‘down’ into the lowest parts of the world, (into the Temple or even into the courtroom as in our story). This is also relevant to this week’s special Haftorah ‘PARA’ that speaks of the Red Heifer. The Red Heifer was slaughtered, burned and reduced to ashes. Those ashes were sprinkled on anyone that had become defiled from a dead body, purifying him and enabling him to enter the Holy Temple. It is hard to believe that a physical cow had
such spiritual powers. But This was the novelty of Pesech; that the Jewish
people left the defilement and imprisonment of Egypt by eating physical
matzo, lamb meat, and bitter herbs. For the first time in history
the physical actually became spiritual. But all of this: Charity, Purity from death, Freedom from Egypt, and the elevation of the Physical all hints at the coming of Moshaich. The future redemption will be the greatest charity that G-d could possibly do to the world. It will be similar to (and greater than) the redemption from Egypt (Micah 7:15). Physical things will be in plenty and eventually death will be removed. In other words; there will be a complete uniting of the physical and the spiritual. As we say in the Alenu prayer thrice daily. ‘On that day G-d and His Name will be ONE.’ Moshiach NOW!! Rabbi Tuvia Bolton |
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