PESACH 5767
BSD
PESACH 5767 YERUSHALAYIM IH’K
The soul of a Jew is always awaiting change, redemption. The soul of a Jew anticipates and knows that the Geula is close, and is impatient for the revelation of the Geula. Rav Kook poetically describes this as the song that soul of a Jew is constantly singing.
In Nissan we were redeemed from Mitzrayim, and in Nissan we will finally and ultimately be redeemed again.
Nissan is called Rosh Chodashim- the head of the new months, Nissan means miraculous.
So, there are two songs we sing in Nissan- one is that we want that which is new, unique to creation and that is the arrival and revelation in the heart of the Jew of Mashiach. And we expect this to happen miraculously.
We are now in the last stages of preparation for Pesach, the holiday, and in the last stages of preparation for Mashiach’s arrival. Both seem to be un-miraculous, actually tedious, hard work, dust raising, nerve bending…
We seem to be repeating old patterns- re-cleaning the same old dirt, re-repairing the same torn expectations, re-committing to inner purity.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that we never repeat any Avodat Hashem- we are actually doing the same inner work, on the same topics, but on a higher level. If you find that the patterns of asking Hashem to help you clean out your old Chametz’dic attitudes sound familiar, it is only because you have been there, done that and are now on a different, more evolved spiritual plane. And since the soul is infinite, endless, so is the inner work of Avodat Hashem.
Paying attention to the work Hashem is sending each of us now is a clear pointer to that which our soul came here to fulfill. You hear stories of difficulties, Lo Aleinu, that happen before Pesach. Each of us is being thrown very strong tests now, specifically for our individual Pesach inner clean up.
And the miracles? They come Bederech Hateva, so far. Nevertheless, I am sure that if Moshe Rabbeinu would come back now in the same mode that he was in the Midbar, he would laugh at us for worrying so much about Geula. We are back in our Land, we have a shekel economy, Kibbutz Galuyot has clearly reached its peak- and hopefully all my readers in Chutz La’Aretz will join soon, with great Rachamim and comfort. The Land is blossoming, prospering, and there is more Torah learned here and kept here than in all of Jewish history. We are clearly in the midst of Geula, and the delay at its final stroke is temporary and shortened as you read this.
We have already experienced many of the teachings of Chazal on Geula. We fly on wings eagles, no matter how many come to live here, there is always more space. There is a Midrash that a friend of mine just excitedly pointed out to me that in Zman Mashiach, the buildings in Yerushalayim will be so tall that we will have to fly up to reach them- and the elevators already fly us up to the 20th floor of some buildings here. The Land is constantly being improved, new highways, transportation systems, innovations in agriculture.
The streets of Yerushalayim IH’K are alive with the excited anticipation of Pesach. In the last few days, The Land has demonstrated her bounty. Stores, carts, trucks, cars are overflowing with the exquisite beauty of Her fruits and vegetables. I cannot describe to you how much food is available this Pesach- fresh, healthy, wholesome home grown produce, holy produce, which has the fulfillment of all the Mitzvot HaTeluyot Ba’Aretz. And the joy and satisfaction on the faces of Jews here as they gratefully carry home their allotment of the holy ‘Man’ from Heavenly Israel. And the joy of seeing the voluminous produce of the sixth year of the Shmitta cycle fulfilling the Torah promise that if we keep Shmitta, the Land will give enough food to last us three years. Last Shmitta, more Jews kept the Mitzva than any in the entire history of our People.
The Tzeddaka that Jews from Chul gave to their brothers and sisters here in Eretz Yisrael is apparent- there were giant, stadium sized tents set up for large families to be able to purchase shoes, and basics for the Chag. I watched the children coming out of these ‘wholesale’ stores- and the happiness and pride that they had with their new clothes are simply above nature.
Children here don’t need much and are happy and satisfied with much less than their cousins in Chul- they are actually proud to not need and want too much Gashmiyus. Such children are pure, shine with delight and simplicity and truly enjoy Yom Tov. They enjoy being crowded together at a smaller than adequate table. They enjoy sharing their beds with 2and 3 cousins for the Chag. To them, the hustle and bustle of Pesach is fun.
I bless you all and myself to reach the heights of the simplicity of Eretz Yisrael’dic children.
The Mitzva of the Seder is to pass down the chain of tradition and hope from father to child, from mother to child and from generation to generation. Inside of each Jew are many generations, levels of soul. Use the Seder night to call out from the deepest part of you to the more shallow part of you. Remind yourself who you are, where you come from, and where you are heading.
I bless you with joy, with true Simcha, so that you can reach the level of your own personal Geula this Seder night.
Shabbat Shalom, Good Shabbos and Pesach Sameach, Kasher V’Nifla!
Pesach preparations-
BSD PESACH 5767 YERUSHALAYIM IH’K
There is a wonderful story about a man, let us call him Chaim, who had a favorite Mitzva. The holy Rebbe Nachman taught that all Mitzvot should be done with total commitment to Halacha, but in a ‘normal’ way, not taken to extremes. However, a person should choose one Mitzva that he or she is particularly careful about, LaMehadrin Min HaMehadrin. One Mitzva to specialize in…
And so, for Chaim, this Mitzva was Pesach. He would begin the preparations months before, and carry out a thorough, antiseptic, almost obsessive cleaning of his modest home with outrageous vigor. He would engage his entire family in his project, emptying the little house of all its contents and only after painting the walls and redoing the floors would he replace the furniture and books. His matzos were the most expensive available, purchased a week before Pesach and hung from a rope tied to the ceiling in his special, for Pesach only storage room. The matzos were suspended thus from a rope to prevent any mice, children or other unsuspecting creatures from perhaps touching the outer wrapping with ungloved chamtzdic hands.
Such were the Pesach preparations of Chaim. His Bedikat Chametz ceremony, where he searched for any hidden chomets on the night before the Seder was remarkable, lasting many hours and involving again every member of his family. And the Seder he conducted was beautiful, with guests and wonderful words of Torah and song.
Nevertheless, and despite all his preventive measures, the first day of Chol Hamoed brought tragedy. A small piece of bread, moldy and old, but still recognizable, was sitting right on top of the tree house in the back yard of Chaim’s sparking abode.
Shocked, insulted, horrified and slightly hysterical, Chaim ran to the local Rabbi, who happened to be a student of the Baal Shem Tov.
“Why me, how could this have happened to me, Chometz on Pesach, OYYYYY” wailed Chaim to the Rebbe.
“Well, who helped you with the cleaning and Pesach preparations?” asked the Rebbe.
“Who helped me?” gasped Chaim. “Who helped me? Who didn’t help? I had my wife, my kids, my sons in law and even hired some Yeshiva boys working! I had everyone turn that house upside down! Oy, Oy!!”
The Rebbe asked again, “And was anyone else involved? Who else did you ask for help?”
Chaim repeated his list of helpers, this time quieter, as his sobs had weakened him.
The Rav then asked, “But did you ask Hashem to help?”
Lesson number one in Pesach preparations- invite, no beg Hashem to be with you in each and every moment of your work. Ask Hashem to help you find the correct foods, the appropriate new clothing, the right guests or the right hosts. And especially when it comes to the art of cleaning- bring Hashem as your supervisor. There is absolutely no way a human can totally and positively eliminate all physical chomets from our current homes. We clean, we burn, we sell the Chometz and we declare it null, void and ownerless. But all of this has to be with our Partner in holiness, with Hashem.
So, begin your day with a quiet but strong conversation with Hashem to bless you with success in what needs to be done that day for Pesach. This is good advice for every day of life, not just pre-Pesach. But perhaps the overwhelming feelings of awe and anticipation felt before Pesach is a good reason to begin this practice of talking to Hashem throughout the day, enlisting His help and trusting that He will help.
Let me share with you one of my favorite stories. I heard this story straight from the main character- a very fine, charitable and well known woman in our neighborhood who was blessed with a large household, and a large house and, Bechasdei Hashem, a large sense of humor. She actually had daily cleaning help, and began Pesach cleaning right after Purim. She began at the top, with the upstairs bedrooms and guest rooms. She annually had certain inner debates, such as whether she should rearrange the guest bathroom’s adjacent linen closet. That year, with her maid, she decided to do just that and they began to climb on a ladder, removing the towels and such from the uppermost shelves. Imagine her shock, surprise and wonder when she found, neatly and familiarly wrapped in a zip lock bag, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Simultaneously shaking with laughter and anger, she marched into the kitchen with the incontrovertible evidence.
“Who knows what this is about?” She bellowed. “I found this in the highest shelf of the old linen closet on the third floor!”
Her six children looked around at each other in wonder. A smile was threatening to break out on the face of her seven year old son. He quickly tried to assume a more serious demeanor, but a mother’s antennae picked up the signal. “Shimmy, can you solve this mystery?” asked our exasperated heroine.
“Well ma, I just got tired of those sandwiches. You know, every day, all the other kids in my class get different lunches. Yossi even gets bagels and lox with cream cheese. But me, every day all you give me is the same old peanut butter and jelly. So, I threw it up there one day, just to not waste it…Umm, sorry….”
So, again, advice number one from me is to invite, beg, bribe and otherwise bring the only helper you truly need- Hashem- into your Pesach preparations!!!!
Advice number two- ask Hashem to help you with all the inner work of routing out the inner Chometz of anger, arrogance, sadness, confusion, laziness and all the bad Midos that Chometz represents. More on this next post, BSD.
Parshat Vayakhel Pekudei
B’H
PARSHAS VAYAKHEL-PEKUDEI 5767 YERUSHALAYIM IH’K
The Baal Shem Tov once took his students on a spiritual journey that left them all astounded. They felt a great dveykus to Hashem, and felt that they had been transported up to the highest heavens. Then, he brought them down, and allowed them a glimpse into the hearts of a group of people who had reached even greater spiritual joy. Although the Talmidim of the Baal Shem had just experienced their own ‘aliyah’, they were nevertheless jealous of the higher level that these ‘others’ were on. The Rebbe then took them out to the Bais Medrash, where a few simple wagon drivers were saying Tehillim.”These are the men whose spiritual bliss you were privy to witness”, said the Baal Shem. These Baal Agalos, simple wagon drivers and shleppers were among the first grass root Chassidim, and many of them were hidden Tzaddikim.
So whenever I ride in a taxi here, I listen very carefully to what the taxi drivers have to say. Are they our modern day Baal Agalas? I have no idea, but they ride the streets of holy Yerushalayim for most of their day, transporting Jews and goods. They have a pulse on what’s going on here. And they certainly are disguised. And opinionated.
Yesterday, I was on a street that never has had any trouble, in a neighborhood where the people would never hire cheap Arab labor, and where Arabs are never seen. So when an Arab walked into a café there the owner called police and immediately got him out, bomb and all. My taxi driver sighed and asked me why I had come to live here, don’t I realize how hard it is here, how full of tension life is, how dangerous. Isn’t New York a place where life can be calmer?
This weeks Parsha is about Mesirut Nefesh. Our nation was given the opportunity to give of their most treasured possessions to the Mishkan. In the true spirit of Yiddishkeit, we brought and brought until Moshe Rabeinu had to ask us to stop bringing. What items were the most precious? Hashem tells us that the women brought copper mirrors that they had saved from their lives in Egypt. After working an entire backbreaking day, the men and women would shlep themselves home and collapse. The men were disheartened, and the women exhausted, yet the women used the mirrors to make themselves beautiful, used the mirrors to flirt with their husbands, to bring them back to life, and armies of Jewish children were born.
Moshe Rabeinu himself didn’t value these mirrors, and wanted to reject their contribution to the building of the Mishkan. Hashem had to clarify to Moshe Rabeinu that these were physical objects that were totally permeated with Mesirus Nefesh and Ahava. And that they were the most eminently suited for the building of the Makom of Love and Mesirus Nefesh. That the Mishkan was all about elevating the physical, and that these mirrors were an already elevated physical material. The intention, Kavana, of the women in Mitzrayim had transformed material into holiness.
So I asked my bare headed cab driver why he didn’t move away from the Land. He didn’t answer at first. When he did, his voice was choked. He told me about his four kids, about his stints in the army, about his younger brother who is stationed now near Tul Karem, how he gives half his salary away in income tax. And how, crazy as it is, this is home and this is where he’ll stay. “You don’t run away from home when the going gets rough”, were his words. Mesirus Nefesh.
The Nesivos Shalom comments that after everyone had donated to the Mishkan, there were a group of people who came early the next morning, with no donation. They had nothing to give, so they came to give themselves, their presence. They didn’t give what they had, they gave what they were.
The actual and literal meaning of Mesirus Nefesh has less to do with self sacrifice, and its related emotional phobias and guilt trips. It simply means transferring or giving over your innermost self.
A true healer (and parent, friend, spouse…) knows that the greatest gift in healing is the total presence of the healer. In mind. To ‘be with’ the person, not just next to them. Without the mind wandering to past, future or the ‘to do’ list.
So to the people who live here, Kol Hakavod. Hashem should equalize our Mesirus Nefesh with that of these suicide bombers. And to those of us who are on their way, keep your minds and heart focused here. The Baal Shem taught that a person ‘is’ where their mind ‘is’.
Chodesh Nissan Tov, full of miracles, as befits the month of Miracles. Miracles, even if we don’t seem to deserve them.