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Friday Night
THIS SHABBOS IS Parashas Shekalim (yes,
already), because next Tuesday and Wednesday will be Rosh Chodesh Adar, b”H, making
this also Shabbos
Mevarchin. Tu
BeShevat behind us, we are now in Purim mode. How time flies when you write
on airplane. Just kidding. I am firmly grounded.
There might not have
been too much to Parashas
Shekalim except for the technical halachah had it not been for this:
Reish Lakish said: It
was revealed and known to the One Who spoke and the world came into being
that in the future Haman was going to weigh out shekels against the Jewish people.
Therefore, He arranged for [the Jewish people’s half-]shekels to precede
[Haman’s] shekels,
as we learn: On the first of Adar [the court] makes an announcement about
the shekels…
(Megillah
13b)
This of course is not
the reason for the mitzvah
of Machtzis HaShekel,
as commanded in the Torah (Shemos
30:11-34:35). It was a way for the Jewish nation to take responsibility for
the upkeep of the Temple and to maintain purchasing of public sacrifices.
It was just a very important historic side benefit that God, for some
reason, decided it would be sufficient national merit to counteract Haman’s
purchase of the right to destroy them. This is what the Gemora calls “the cure
before the illness.”
Another example of
this idea of “the cure before the illness” was Mordechai’s knowledge of 70
languages. He knew them because it was a prerequisite for being on the Sanhedrin, though he
was a long way from Eretz
Yisroel, and many years had passed since the Sanhedrin last sat.
Yet one of those languages was Tarsian. This allowed Mordechai to listen in
on Bigsan’s and Teresh’s plot to assassinate Achashveros, report them to
the king, and later be paraded around town by Haman.
How many times have
you said, or heard people say, “It’s a good thing I did so-and-so.” It
means that when they did the act, they did not anticipate the additional
future benefit that resulted. A favorite of mine is, “I don’t usually do
things like that, but for some reason I did and it saved me having to do…”
Or, it simply saved them, because lives sometimes “just happened” to be
saved because something happened that, and the time, no one thought would
make such a difference in the future.
All of this is not
just a sub plot of Megillas
Esther. It is the
plot of Megillas Esther.
It was God showing us, as 1,000 years of prophecy was coming to an end, how
He conducts Jewish history. It was God giving us a peek behind the curtain
of how He would be guiding Jewish history henceforth. This was so that we
could remain firm in our belief in Him and Torah while He acts in a hidden
manner…a very
hidden manner. As, for example, when an Arab is able to drive up on a
sidewalk and murder Jewish children just waiting for a bus home.
Shabbos Day
MEGILLAS ESTHER ENDS
happily. Certainly the Jews who lived through it suffered not knowing their
fate at the time, but when the dust settled, Haman was gone, Achashveros
was humbled, and not a single Jew died. It is easy to say “all’s well that
ends well” when it actually does. But countless pogroms since then have
not, and then there was the Holocaust… The happy-ending narrative seemed to
end with Purim.
Yes, there was still Chanukah to come, but
that seemed to only be a fraction of what Purim was. The story of Purim is almost
comical to read because it seems so cartoon-like, reflecting just how above
nature it was. The story of Chanukah
seems much more “down to earth,” so much more, well, natural…despite the
miracles that occurred for the Jewish people.
It seems that the
trend has been away from the obviously biblical, except in Hollywood. They
have been making epic films about supernatural events and people as a break
away from mundane life. This is one of the reasons why so many people have
difficulty believing in Torah today. It has just become so distant from
everyday life that it falls into the category of fantasy, even delusional
according to many.
In a sense, it is
very much like the transition from last week’s parsha to this week’s parsha. For me, it
always feels like getting off a moving sidewalk, abrupt with a quick
deceleration. We go from the fanfare of God talking to the people and
giving Torah amidst thick clouds and smoke, with shofar blowing that
gets louder with time, not weaker, to laws of slaves.
This is followed by
several technical laws that make you feel more like you’re in a court room
than at miraculous Mt. Sinai. And all of a sudden, and once again quite
abruptly, the channel is changed and we find ourselves back at the giving
and the receiving of Torah, drama and all. Why the back and forth?
Actually, it reminds
me of another idea. You see that very natural and mundane world around you?
How many miracles did you see today? I mean, outright biblical-like miracles,
Hollywood-style but without the special effects. Yes, every aspect of life
is a miracle, but if we really appreciated that we’d be a lot closer to
God. I’m talking about splitting of the sea category miracles. How many
have you seen like that…ever?
And why not? What’s missing from the world we live in that wasn’t missing
from the world of the Jews thousands of years ago back in Egypt and in the
desert?
It’s not what’s
missing. It’s what was added. Clothing.
Not physical clothing like we wear, mind you, but spiritual clothing. It’s
on God’s light, ever since Adam HaRishon
sinned by eating from the Aitz
HaDa’as Tov v’Ra. As mentioned in a previous week, that is what
angels are. They are spiritual clothing over the light of God to protect it
from the spiritual filth that resulted from Adam’s sin, and henceforth.
Nature? That’s just what the light of God looks like when you put
“clothing” on it.
Seudas Shlishis
MANY YEARS BACK I
read a book called The
Masada Plan. The book was set during the Yom Kippur War and
posited that the quick stop to the war the Jews were losing, was the result
of a potential Israeli nuclear strike on multiple capitals around the
world. When the major countries balked, claiming that the Israel lacked the
capability to deliver said bombs, the Israelis answered, “They’re already there.”
In other words, the
premise was that the Israeli’s had been quietly smuggling parts of the
bombs into cities around the world over decades. They had been secretly
assembling them on location, and then quietly and strategically planting
them for such a future crisis. There had been actual reports of some failed
smuggling attempts of things like centrifuges in the past.
When the Gemora says that God
makes the “cure” before He sends the “infliction,” the truth is, “They’re
already there.” Inside everything in Creation, no matter how mundane and
seemingly insignificant it is, is Ohr
Ain Sof, the highest, most powerful, and most miraculous light
in Creation. If it wasn’t there, the thing would not exist. We don’t have
to have wonder how God will solve our problems. We just have to know that
all solutions were already built into Creation before the problems even
came into existence.
This is part of what Bris Milah says too.
We remove the orlah
because it is the lavush—clothing—that
hides the inner light. By performing bris
we remind ourselves that all of life is like this, and that we have to look
deeper for the light of God in everything.
This is why bris is on the eighth
day from birth, corresponding to the supernatural potential of life. If we
don’t see or experience big miracles in life, it is not because they aren’t
there. It’s just because they are under layers of “protection” that require
Torah merit to remove. The miracles in Egypt, at the sea, and Har Sinai, etc., were
just God allowing His light to dress down for an intended period of time to
save the Jewish people, and to educate them in this way of life. A little
less so in Mordechai’s and Esther’s time.
As history has moved
on further away from Mt. Sinai and the period of prophecy, additional
layers have been added to God’s light. The light never goes away, but it
can become more hidden. When that happens, then nature seems more
prominent, and evil seems to get away with murder, literally. The world
seems more hefker—ownerless.
Appearances can be
deceiving, and in the case of Jewish history, very deceiving. It is one thing to come
close to genocide and be saved from it at the last moment. It is very
different to actually suffer it, as we did in the Holocaust. I am afraid
and uncomfortable to say the words, but they have to be said: We will be
shocked to find out how such an incomprehensible tragedy as the cruel
murder of six million Jews, including one million children, fits into this
explanation as well.
Ain Od Milvado,
Part 39
BASED UPON WHAT was
just explained, Ain Od
Milvado doesn’t mean that God is the only one who can save us.
It means that God is the only one who has already saved us. What we need to come
out on top already exists in Creation, it is just buried behind veils that
block our vision of it.
A great example of
this is the story of Elisha and Gechazi, one of my personal favorites.
The king of Aram was greatly disturbed about this
matter, and he summoned his servants and said to them, “Will you not tell
me who of ours [reveals my secrets] to the king of Israel?”
One of his servants said, “No, my master, the
King, but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the
words that you speak in your bedroom.”
He said, “Go and see where he is, and I will send
and take him.”
He was told, “Behold he is in Dosan.”
He sent horses, chariots, and a great army there.
They came at night and surrounded the city. The servant of the man of God
arose early and went out, and behold an army with horses and chariots was
surrounding the city. His attendant said to him, “My master! What shall we
do?”
He said, “Have no fear, for those who are with us
are more numerous than those who are with them.” Elisha prayed and said, “O
God, please open his eyes and let him see.” God opened the lad’s eyes and
he saw, and behold the mountain was full of fiery horses and chariots
around Elisha. (II
Melachim
6:11-17)
We should ask God for
the same thing in general, but certainly when we’re in trouble. “Dear God,
I know the solution to my problem already exists. Please open my eyes so
that I can see it.” You’d be surprised how quickly you all of a sudden
become aware of what you need to know to solve your crisis.
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