Last Friday, I had a visitor. There was a knock on the door about 11:30AM, and when I answered the door, I saw a tall, thin, older gentlemen of Israeli Chassidic persuasion, with a kindly face, and a slightly haggard look. Fortunately, I speak a fluent Hebrew, so in his native tongue, I warmly invited him in, ushered him to a seat at our dining room table and asked him if he would like something to eat a drink. He politely declined.
We began talking about the nature of his visit. Fortunately, we have many visitors at our home from the Holy Land, and most of them visit with me for the same reason, to give me the opportunity to fulfill my charity obligations without having to leave my front door! But this gentleman was older than most of my visitors. While the average age of a visitor from Israel is probably 46 or so, this many looked like he was 76 or so. And that’s because he was 76 or so.
As he explained to me, he was visiting the US to raise funds for his granddaughter’s wedding. His son-in-law had passed away a few years ago, after a brief battle with cancer, leaving behind a wife and nine children bereft of not just their father, but their sole breadwinner as well. The grandfather, who was already retired on a meager pension, suddenly found himself caring for the needs of ten more family members. He already made one wedding for the oldest grandson last year, and now was visiting the US to give us Americans the honor and merit of helping him marry off his oldest granddaughter, an orphan with no father to marry her off.
But then he told me the story of his past trip to the US, and I was absolutely floored. While on that trip, he had to spend a Shabbos in Detroit, and a local family, the Ribiats were kind enough to invite him to stay in their home and join their Shabbos meals. He was not the only person spending Shabbos there, a young man from the Five Towns in NYC was also a guest that week. The older gentlemen, whom we’ll call Rabbi X and the young man, whom we’ll call Awesome Bachur, got to talking and learned the purpose of each other’s trip. While Rabbi X was raising funds for his oldest grandson’s wedding, Awesome Bachur was in Detroit because he was dating a young woman in the community.
As soon as Shabbos was over, Awesome Bachur gave a very generous contribution to Rabbi X’s grandsons wedding fund, but more importantly, he told him that things were looking really good in his dating process, and he would appreciate if Rabbi X would call him to wish him Mazal Tov if he ended up getting engaged. On that Sunday, Rabbi X asked Rabbi Ribiat to let him know if the dating culminated in an engagement, and continued on his holy mission.
A few week’s later, Rabbi X received a call with the news that indeed Awesome Bachur got engaged to an Awesome Kallah from Detoit, and would soon be starting an Awesome Family. Rabbi X took down the Awesome Bachur’s number and called him to wish him a Mazal Tov. After the initial pleasantries and well wishes, Rabbi X inquired when Awesome Bachur would be getting married. “On the 21st of Shvat,” responded the boy. “No way,” exclaimed Rabbi X, “that is the exact day of my grandson’s wedding!”
Rabbi X then mentioned to the young man that there is a beautiful idea that on the day that someone makes a wedding for a child they should also help marry off an orphan. This idea may have its roots in a verse regarding the mitzvah to be joyous on the Jewish holidays, the Yamim Tovim, (Deut. 16:11) “You shall rejoice before your God Hashem with your son and daughter, your male and female servant, the [family of the] Levite in your communities, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your midst, at the place where your God Hashem will choose to establish the divine name.”
Rashi comments on the fact that there are four types of people mentioned from your home, you son and daughter, your male and female servant, and there are four needy people mentioned; the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. And then Rashi quotes the Midrash Tanchuma (Re’eh 18) that says that Hashem is telling us, “If you gladden mine, I’ll gladden yours.” While every person is a child of G-d, Hashem specifically refers to orphans and widows as “His,” because they don’t have others to support them. And Hashem takes it one step further, promising to gladden our families if we gladden His.
It is possible that this is the source for the beautiful custom to try to marry off an orphan on the same day that one marries off one of his own, and we know this is a long tradition in the Jewish community. Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the prolific author on Jewish law who lived from 1530-1572 in Krakow, Poland, in his Darchei Moshe commentary, not only mentions this customs, but even records that Rabbi Yechiel of Paris, the Tosafist who led the Yeshiva of Paris starting in 1225, had this custom and was known to marry of orphans on the same day he married off his children.
In any case, Rabbi X asked Awesome Bachur to mention it to his father. He wished him Mazal Tov again and they ended the call. A few days went by, and just as Rabbi X was despairing of hearing back, Awesome Bachur’s father called him. They had a great conversation, discussed the cost of the wedding for Rabbi X’s grandson, and by the end of the call, Awesome Father said he would pay for the entire wedding! Mazal Tov!
This story brings to mind a few important ideas, that we know are true, but when you see them play out so clearly, they need to be mentioned and called out for reinforcement. The first is the incredible and clear hand that G-d has in shaping even the smallest details in our lives. In the morning service, we say a blessing, “Hamaichin Mitzaday Gaver,” that G-d prepares the footsteps of each person.
How likely would it be that Rabbi X from Israel and Awesome Bachur from the Five Towns would spend Shabbos together? And how likely would it be, that they both end up making weddings on the exact same day? The mathematical likelihood of this is less than one in eight trillion, (according to mathematical equations I just made up, but you get the point!) yet that is exactly what happened! Why? Because G-d runs the world, and He ensures that we meet the right people and get married on the right days! G-d is so great!!!
But we know that G-d is great. His power is infinite, and while it’s super lovely to see His actions playing out in the world, it’s not something that is hard for the Omnipotent Being. What’s perhaps even more incredible is how great the Jewish people are. They aren’t Omnipotent, they have limited resources and limited capabilities, yet they give and give and give as if they are unlimited! As the verse says, (Chronicles I, 17:21), “And who is like Your people Israel, one nation in the world.” There is truly no one like the Jewish people in the world.
From the man in his seventies, traveling around the world to raise funds from strangers for his grandchildren, to the Jews around the world who welcome that man and thousands of strangers like him each year into their homes and warmly give them checks even though they too are facing financial challenges. From the family that opens their home to absolute strangers just because they need a place to spend Shabbos to people who pay for an orphan’s wedding on the same day that they are making a wedding! There is nothing like this in the world!
Of course, it doesn’t stop here. There is Hatzala, the volunteer organization comprised of tens of thousands of Jewish people around the world, who spend hundreds of hours training to become EMTs and paramedics, and then drop whatever they’re doing at any time of day or night to run and save lives. Show me one other nation in the world that has Hatzalah! How about the thousands of gmachs in Jewish communities around the world, lending out everything from tables and chairs for simchas to medical supplies to notary services to Purim costumes to baby strollers, all for free! Show me another community in the world that does this. You can’t because, “Who is like Your people Israel!”
We Jewish people have a role in the world, as told to us by the prophet Isaiah (43:10), “You are my witnesses, says the Lord.” A witness is someone who can paint a picture for the people in a courtroom so that they can “see” what they didn’t see. G-d hides in this world, to give us all free will, but our job is to be the witnesses. To be the ones that portray G-d to the world who otherwise can’t see Him. We are supposed to be the embodiment of all that is goodness and G-dliness in this world. And how beautifully are we doing that!
Of course, we are not perfect. And sometimes, we even make G-d “look bad” if people see His witnesses, His Chosen People, acting in ways that are not laudable. That is of course why we are still in Exile. We haven’t fully actualized our role in this world yet. But the more we can focus on the millions of Jews in the world who are striving mightily to be that Chosen People, the more we talk about those that are succeeding instead of focusing on those that are not, the more we will be inspired to follow in their path and become lamplighters ourselves.
So let us celebrate our lot as Jews in this world. Let’s celebrate the awesome job we have in the world, and the special relationship with G-d that comes along with it. Let’s endeavor to fulfill our destiny, and shine so much G-dly light on the world, that G-d no longer has to hide, because we’ve revealed him so clearly through our testimonies, the lives that we lead. And when that happens, G-d will throw off the cloak, and reveal Himself fully, with the coming of Messiah and the Age of Peace and Sanctity it will usher in!
Parsha Dvar Torah
To introduce the Dvar Torah for this week’s parsha, we will borrow from the Parsha summary so that we can get some background. The major theme of this week’s parsha, Bechukosai, is the concept that the deeds we do have a direct result on our world. The world is like a finely tuned violin, and our actions like a bow stretched across the strings. If we play properly, the most beautiful and harmonious sounds emanate. However, if we play improperly, the result is jarring and disturbing. These distressing results are not so much a punishment, as a cause-and-effect relationship with our actions.
In line with that idea, the parsha starts off by saying that if we follow G-d’s Torah properly then our land will produce incredible yields and we will live in peace. However, if we refuse to follow G-d’s Torah and chose to ignore the role He plays in our world, then He will remove Himself from the picture, and the world will begin to crumble around us. Throughout this difficult period, G-d will wait for us to turn back to Him. If we continue to deny His reality, the devastation will become more and more severe.
Ultimately, G-d promises that even during the most trying times our people will endure, He will not totally abandon us, rather He will be with us in our exile. In the end we will return to Him, He will remember the covenant He has with our Fathers and bring us back to our land in peace.
Immediately after reading about the harsh travails the Jewish people will endure, the Torah segues into a discussion of consecrating the value of an individual to the Temple. One does this be saying “The value of so-and-so is on me (to donate to the Temple).” The Torah gives a standard amount that one should give for that individual based on age and gender. What is the connection between the description of the Jewish people’s castigation and donations of the value of a person to the Temple?
One simple answer is that the Torah is telling us a way we can save ourselves from harm since “Charity saves from death” (Proverbs 10:2). But there is another answer give by Rabbi Meir Shapiro (1887-1933, Austria- Lublin, Poland) which gives an important psychological insight. When a Jew reads about the devastation that will occur to the Jewish people or, even more so, when he experiences it, there is a likelihood that he will begin to feel a sense of worthlessness. We can only imagine how hard it must have been for a Jew to recognize his great value after spending years in a concentration camp, an experience that was specifically designed to be as degrading and dehumanizing as possible. We can’t imagine how the tens of thousands of Jews who were chained in long lines and exiled from the Holy Land to Rome to be sold as slaves were able to see their true value.
For this reason, immediately after describing some of the hardships the Jews would endure throughout the millennia, the Torah teaches the amount one must donate if he consecrates someone’s value to the Temple. The message is clear: no matter what a Jew has been through, no matter what abuse, violence, degradation, derision, or mockery is heaped upon him, he still has an absolute value, one that can’t be taken away from him. Focusing on this will surely help the Jews as they live through long and drawn out exiles. As we say at the end of the Parsha, when we conclude Leviticus, “Chazak, Chazak, Vi’nischazek,” “May we be strong, may we be strong, and may we be strengthened!”
Parsha Summary
The major theme of this week’s parsha, Bechukosai, is the concept that the deeds we do have a direct result on our world. The world is like a finely tuned violin, and our actions like a bow being stretched across the strings. If we play it properly, the most beautiful and harmonious sounds emanate. However, if we play it improperly, the result is jarring and disturbing. It is not so much a punishment as a cause-and-effect relationship with our actions.
In line with that idea, the parsha starts off by saying that if we follow G-d’s Torah properly then our land will produce incredible yields, we will live in peace, (and the Pistons will win the Finals). However, if we refuse to follow G-d’s Torah and instead chose to ignore the role He plays in our world, then He will remove Himself from the picture, and the world will begin to crumble around us. Throughout this difficult period, G-d will wait for us to turn back to Him. If we continue to deny His reality, the devastation will become more and more severe. Ultimately, G-d promises that even during the most trying times our people will endure, He will not totally abandon us, rather He will be with us in our exile. In the end we will return to Him, He will remember the covenant He has with our Fathers and bring us back to our land in peace.
The Parsha then moves on to the subject of the different items that one can consecrate to the Temple, such as property, ones own value, or his animals. The Torah discusses how a person pays for each, and if and when one can redeem them back for himself. The final verses of Leviticus deal with the second tithe a person gives on his crops, and the tithe on animals.
As we say in Shul (synagogue), when completing one of the Five Books of the Chumash: Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!!!
Quote of the Week: Nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else. –J.M. Barrie
Random Fact of the Week: Napoleon designed Italy’s national flag.
Funny Line of the Week: Scientists today announces that they have found the cure for apathy. Unfortunately no one seems to care.
Have an Engaging Shabbos,
R’ Leiby Burnham
