Sefiras HaOmer: Real Listening

Rebbe Elazar ben Azarya said, "I am like a man of seventy and I have not been able to persuade any of my colleagues that the mitzvah of recounting the Exodus from Egypt applies a night until Ben Zoma came along and inferred from the pasuk that kol y'mei chayecha refers to the nights."

The Sages argue that kol y'mei chayecha refers to the World to Come.

The Gemara asks, why does the psak halacha go in accordance with Hillel's view? The students of Shammai were considered very analytical, charifim, sharp. The school of Hillel, while they may not have had the depth of Shammai, had many more students so the majority prevailed. But the Gemara make a point of telling us that since the school of Hillel would never say their own opinion without quoted the dissenting one as well.

Video: Rebbe Yaakov Yisroel Twerski 1963

Thanks again to Stuart Rojstaczer for graciously sharing this very rare clip from his home collection. In the video, the Rebbe Reb Yaakov Yisroel, ztz"l, is shaking hands with Stu's grandfather, Tevyah Erlich (d. 1992). Also visible is Mr. Richt, the shamash of the Rebbe's beis medrash at that time.

If anyone has any other video or audio of Reb Yaakov Yisroel, ztz"l, please email me so I can add it to the archives.

Sefiras HaOmer: Collective Kavod

We know that during the days of Sefira, 24,000 of Rebbe Akiva's talmidim passed away. We are told that it is because "shelo nahagu kavod zeh b'zeh", they did not deal carefully with each others honor.

The Rebbe interpreted this to mean that they did not feel their own kavod--their own worth--enough to be more careful. They failed to understand that the way they deal with themselves affects the entire kehila.

"How scrupulous one is about his own kashrus, about coming to minyanim, making sure to learn as much as he possibly can, what one allows into his home..."

If we don't care enough to be careful about our own kavod and well-being, then we are being hurting the kavod of everyone. "Zeh b'zeh" means that they did not act as though their own actions and integrity effected the next person.

Nobody is an island, and how we behave even in our most private moments ripples throughout a given kehilla or chevra and Klal Yisroel at large. If we don't value our own growth and connection to Hashem, we will never relate to others properly.

Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach

A gitten moed and a gitten Erev Shabbos,

I would like to bring your attention to two pieces that appeared earlier this year for Shabbos Ki Sisa: When To Use Holy Pride and Trust In Hashem's Cheshbon. The pesukim that these two pieces are based on appear in the laining from Shabbos Chol Hamoed as well.

The following was heard from the Rebbe at Shalosh Seudos on Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach 5767 (2007) in Lakewood:

Meeting of Rabbis 1956

1956: Early Meeting of the Council of Rabbis at Welfare Fund Office. Rabbis: Paul Greenman, David Shapiro, Harry Pastor, David Becker, Louis Swichkow, Israel Feldman, Jay Brickman and Jacob Twerski. Standing: Larry Katz, Bernie Sampson, Harry Plous, Morris Weingrod and Melvin Zaret.

Thank you Tzvi Werther for sending me this picture and the accompanying caption.

Minhagim: Pesach (Part 3)

Bedikas Chometz: Before the start of the search, as is brought in the name of the Ari Hakadosh, ten small (less than a k'zayis) pieces of bread are placed around the house. One must be careful to wrap them well so as not to spread crumbs around the house.

The Rebbe uses a (beeswax) candle to search for the chometz. Any chometz that is found is placed in a paper bag with the aid of a feather and a wooden spoon. Upon conclusion of the bedika, the spoon, feather and candle are all placed together with the chometz in the paper bag. The Rebbe often places the paper bag in an additional plastic bag and then wraps the entire thing in a shmatte (old shirt or other material). Sometimes the Rebbe then ties a string around the whole package.

Biur Chometz by the Rebbe, shlit"a

The Equanimity of Matzah

When it comes to matzah there is an apparent incongruence. On the one hand we eat matzah as לחם עוני—the bread of affliction that Klal Yisroel ate while in slavery. On the other, we see that it represents freedom, for the very first thing we eat as a free people is matzah. If you would have asked Klal Yisroel what will be the first thing they eat once freed, they would have probably answered that they were going to make some real food and eat like a mensch. But Hashem tells them that now that you are free, you are going to eat freeman’s bread: matzah. The message is that if they would have eaten bread and other delicacies right away -- true, they would no longer be enslaved by Egypt, but they would have become enslaved by the next thing that came along: their conveniences, comforts, appetite. If it matters to you what you have then you are a slave. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Lexus or a Chevy. If I have less gashmiyus than I wanted, it doesn’t matter. If I have more gashmiyus than I wanted, it doesn’t matter. I can taste the matzah in everything because I am not interested in my self, only the will of the Creator. The more we get out of the way, the more in touch with the infinite we are. The most formidable impediment to kedusha is self. The goal isn’t putting down the world as much as it is getting self-interest out of the way.

And so אין מפטירין אחר הפסח אפיקומן. We need to keep the taste of matzah in our mouths as long as we can.

(Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Shemini 5767/2007)

Metzora: It's Not How It Appears

"And he shall tell it to the kohen saying, 'like a negah appears to me'." (Vayikra 35:15)

Rashi comments that even a talmid chacham who knows the laws of tzaraas and knows that this is definitely a negah should not rule on it like a clear matter and say "I saw a negah". Rather, he too should tell the kohen, "I saw something that looks like a negah."

The Rebbe said that many times something bad will happen and we are tempted to immediately call it for what it is -- bad. But we know that everything is ultimately good. We may learn something, we may become stronger, it may be an atonement, it may lead to something clearly good. If you pasken on something that is apparently bad and label it as assuredly evil, you are denying the inherent good in everything and you are denying Hashem's love and care and intimate involvement in every detail of life. Although it may be a negah, there is always a treasure trove buried beneath it (as the previous Rashi mentions). You can't call something that leads you to vast riches an affliction. It is certainly "like an affliction", but clearly or inherently bad it is not.

When we experience something painful or uncomfortable, we must never declare it to be evil. We must remember that the underlying essence at hand is Hashem's profound and boundless love, His exquisite intervention and His ultimate, overall agenda on our behalf.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Everyone is a "One"

                In the Haggadah we mention the four sons. We say אחד חכם, ואחד רשע, אחד תם, ואחד שאינו יודע לשאול. "One is the wise son, one is the wicked, one is"…and so on. Why don’t we count the sons "the first is the wise son, the second is the wicked…"?

                It is incumbent upon every one of us to remember that each son, each person, no matter who he is, is an “echad”, a one in and of himself, and must be treated and spoken to according to his neshama, personality and his individual strengths and weaknesses.

Chometz B'Mashehu

While most forbidden substances are בטל בששים, nullifiable as one in sixty (or some other ratio), there is an extra stringency attached to chometz that it is forbidden even במשהו, the smallest amount, and cannot be nullified. Whatever chometz represents—haughtiness, desire, other bad middos, however you want it—is something so contrary to the essence of a Jew and holiness that it becomes absolutely intolerable even by the smallest amount.

The Rebbe once quoted Chazal that chometz is assur b'mashehu and explained: Thinking that one is mashehu (something) makes him "chometzdik" and hence restrained (the word assur means both restrained and forbidden) from attaching himself to kedusha. As it says regarding haughtiness that Hashem says, "He and I cannot both dwell together."

The Seder is a Seder

On Erev Pesach 5766 (2006), the Rebbe said the following:

The critical underlying cog in the story of human freedom is the concept of seder. Without it, you live as a “responder”; life becomes just a series of demands on your time, energy and gifts. As such, you are never really free. You are enslaved to whatever might be the demand of the moment, be it the demands of the physical body, our fears and ego, or demands made by society and culture. We are so busy doing things just as they come up that we have no sense of where we are going. One needs to be able to pinpoint where they want to go and what steps they need to take in order to get there.

The avodah of the Seder starts with Kadesh. Kadesh means sanctification, consecrating oneself, saying, “I am holy. I am for Hashem.” Divine service starts with a kabolas ol of kedusha, the conviction to say, "I am going toward holiness and I want to get to the ultimate result of Nirtza, that I should be מרוצה to Hashem, that I should be pleasing to Him." We would like, at the end of our service in this world, for Hashem to pronounce over our lives the word Nirtza.

The question is, how do we get there? What are all the steps in between?

During the Seder, one needs to reflect on how this particular step is useful to me in my avodas Hashem in general. What can I learn from Urchatz, Karpas, and all the other steps of the Seder Night and how can I apply it to serve Hashem? You can use information from seforim or you can invent your own original insight, but the goal is to use each one of the simanim of the Seder as a stepping stone to reach the ultimate goal of Nirtza.

(from memory, not a recording)

Lyrics for the Rebbe's Karev Yom

Below are the Yiddish lyrics for the Rebbe's Karev Yom. For a recording of the music, go to the NIGUNNIM page. [UPDATE: Thanks to BerliozViolist, we now have an English translation. See the comments below.]

The Rebbe, shlit"a, at a Hachnosas Torah

These photos were taken at a recent Hachnosas Sefer Torah in Lakewood. Thank you to Reb Yitzchok Ort for sending them.

 

Tazria: The Dark is Darker But the Light is Lighter

In earlier times, the appearance of tzaraas on one’s person, home or belongings was an indication that something was wrong with the person’s avodah. The question is, why is there no more tzaraas today? When tzaraas was visible was it more of a berachah or a curse?