A Two-Way Street

We know that the nesiim were held responsible for waiting too long to donate to the Mishkan. At first blush one might say that they did a great thing by not overwhelming the people with their gifts. By not giving anything until the end, if somebody had a dollar they felt that the dollar counted. In most campaigns today, if you’re on the low end of the campaign, its hard to believe that it makes any difference if you give or not. What was wrong with what the nesiim did?

When the Vilna Gaon was once asked why he pushed himself to learn twenty hours a day, he responded, “If I learn twenty hours a day then the members of the Rabbinical Court of Vilna will learn sixteen hours a day. If they learn sixteen hours, then the Rabbis of the different congregations will learn twelve hours a day. If the Rabbis learn twelve hours a day, then the Rabbis in the villages will learn ten hours a day. If the village rabbis learn ten hours a day then the ballebattim will learn five hours a day. If I were to learn only fifteen hours a day, we would consider ourselves fortunate if the ballebattim would learn half an hour a day.”

Both philosophically and practically, there is a concept that the generation as a whole and every community respectively represents an organic configuration as if it were a whole person. Looking at Klal Yisroel as a whole, there is the tzadik hador, the Moshe Rabeinu of the generation, or the nassi as there were in many generations. The rest of Klal Yisroel represents different parts of that configuration. Some represent the ears of Klal Yisroel, those who are able to hear the heartbeat of the nation, where things are going, the necessity to respond to certain things. There are the eyes; there is the heart of the nation, the passion of Klal Yisroel. Some represent the support of Klal Yisroel, those who can contribute the money to sustain the whole structure. They are referred to as the legs or the thighs of Klal Yisroel. There are the people who are the people of action, and there are those whose primary contribution is in the realm of chessed, the arms of Klal Yisroel. This is all true both on a national level and as individual communities as well.

The relationship between the head and the body goes in both directions. The indiscreet thoughts of the head of Klal Yisroel or of a community ripple down through the “personhood” of its entirety. For example, when those thoughts reach the toes, the less exalted end of the spectrum, they have become more tangible than mere thoughts; they have become an impulse. If a leader is less than vigilant and indulged in even slightly ignoble thoughts, the impulse that he generates could result in action. The nation or community may, in fact, act out. Conversely, if a community is involved in actions which are not appropriate, when it ripples upward they become the kinds of things that torture the upper-end of the spectrum. Even though the leaders and heads are not given to action because of the deeds of the people, they will still find themselves anguishing over an inner struggle. This struggle may begin with the fact that they’ve allowed things to happen in their radius of influence, those very kinds of things that when they begin to evolve through the rest of the community, they finally end up tearing at the integrity of the leader. It’s a two-way street.

In a certain sense, what the Gaon of Vilna was saying is that his dedication to and his immersion in Torah has that kind of a ripple effect. Commensurate with the intensity of his commitment and discipline, will have a huge impact as to the commitment and discipline of the rest of Klal Yisroel. It commands a certain commitment on the parts of others, both in terms of quality and quantity. He found himself responsible for it, the locomotive. He had to put in all the thrust he could to get the caboose to start rolling.

Had the princes given upfront when it came time to contribute, their eagerness, their excitement, their purity of their unselfish disposition in giving, their yearning in giving would have been reflected in the way other people would have given both in quality and quantity. They were criticized for not giving upfront because it would have changed the way that everybody else would have given. By waiting until the end they end up like the tail wagging the dog.

(This piece was transcribed from a tape and edited for clarity of the written word only.)

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Service of the Heart

A man once came to the Rebbe Reb Bunim of Pashischa complaining that he suffers from terrible headaches every day after davening. The Rebbe Reb Bunim replied, "If you told me you get heartaches after davening, I would understand. But what does the head have to do with davening?"

(Heard from the Rebbe, shlit"a)

Bamidbar 5771: Do Not Ignore the Gifts of Others

On Shabbos (Iyar 24, 5771), the Rebbe said the following:

At the end of Parshas Bamidbar, the pasuk (4:20) says, "ולא יבאו לראות כבלע את הקדש ומתו", that the Leviim "should not come and look as the holy [vessels] is insereted (lit. swallowed), lest they die."

The Rebbe recounted the story of the Rebbe Reb Zisha of Anipoli, zy"a, who was frantically trying to raise 3,000 rubles in order to be able to ransom a young chosson. The deadline was in just a few more hours and Reb Zisha had yet to come up with a penny. As fortune would have it, Rebbe Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, zy"a, (the Kedushas Levi) and Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Liadi, zy"a, (the Baal Hatanya) pulled into town on a wagon. Reb Zisha immedaitelty told them of the mitzva that had come to them and they both agreed to help. The Baal Hatanya, however, had one stupulation, "I will help to collect the money but we must do it my way. Call together the elders of the community."

At the emergency meeting, the Baal Hatanya had them write up a list of all the inhabitants of the city and their approximate net worth. Upon reading the list, the Baal Hatanya pointed to one particular name and said, "We are going to him." The room gasped.

Drops of Rain: Bamidbar 5771

Here is Drops of Rain for Parshas Bamidbar.


Enjoy and have a gitten Shabbos!

Medrash: Bamidbar 5771

The Medrash Shiur this week revolved around the idea that every person has a spiritual place from where their neshama emanates, and the person's unique contribution in any area of life, especially in ruchniyus, is an expression of that particular source. The personal chidush that each one of us brings to avodas Hashem is part of a special area of Torah that we can never get enough of; it is exciting and joyous. In order for each individual to receive his portion of Torah on Shavuos, one must do their best to understand where they come from.

41 minutes, 9.4 MB PLAY DOWNLOAD

Medrash: B'chukosai 5771

Here is the exceptional medrash shiur from this week, the night recording. The Rebbe touched on various topics in avodas Hashem, varying from Lag Baomer to fighting evil, from what mindset to have when sitting down to learn, to connecting oneself with all of Klal Yisroel before davening.

40 minutes, 9.8 MB PLAY DOWNLOAD

Pirkei Avos 5771: Walking Alone At Night

One day last week, the Rebbe decided to give a short shiur between Mincha and Maariv. Here it is almost word for word:

רבי חנינא בן חכינאי אומר: הנעור בלילה, והמהלך בדרך יחידי, ומפנה לבו לבטלה, הרי זה מתחייב בנפשו

Rebbe Chanina ben Chachinai said: One who is awake at night and who goes on the road by himself, and he turns his heart to wasteful things, this person is taking his life in his hands.

Let's take a look at this al derech avoda, which means looking at a statement from the standpoint of what its implications would be if we were trying to read in the words of Chazal some advice above and beyond the practical, as though it were addressing our spiritual struggles.

Recording of Reb Yaakov Yisroel Twerski (full version)

A while back I posted a very short audio clip of the Rebbe Reb Yaakov Yisroel, ztz"l, that I received from Stuart Rojstatczer, a Milwaukee yid from back in the day. I just uploaded the full version (23 minutes) that I got from him. It is a very rare treat that we get to hear the voice of this great tzadik.

PLAY DOWNLOAD

Seder Hayom (2): Kadesh Li Kol Bechor

I haven't written a halacha/seder hayom post since the first Modeh Ani post, so here goes.

In the Halacha Learning Program we have already learned the halachos of washing negel vasser immediately upon arising in the morning. In the sifrei avodah and Chassidus, however, we find that Divine service begins even before washing one's hands.

Behar 5771: The Heritage of His Fathers

"וכי ימוך אחיך עמך ונמכר לך...ואל אחזת אבתיו ישוב"

 (ויקרא כה, לט-מא)

"If your brother becomes impoverished and is sold to you...and he will return to the heritage of his fathers". (Vayikra 25:39-41)

Imagine the following scenario: A young man, twenty years old, is found guilty of stealing and he does not have with what to pay back what he has taken. His situation meets all the requirements of the Torah and he is sold into slavery to pay off what he has stolen. Six years later he has the opportunity to return home and for whatever reason he says, "I love my master" and he is then re-enslaved "forever", which the Chazal tell us means until the next yovel. Now, this occurred in the first year after yovel. So he is a slave from age twenty until he is seventy years old. We can imagine someone who was a slave for fifty years most likely identifies fairly strongly as a slave. People know him as Moishele Eved. However, the Torah tells us that he goes free after the yovel and he returns to his family, to the heritage of his fathers. Nobody is allowed remind him that he was a slave. We may not refer to him as a slave. He is not demeaned in any way by the fact that he was a slave his entire life. This is because he returns "to the heritage of his fathers". He was not born a slave. He may have been a slave practically his entire life but because he comes from a place of dignity, that identification is strong enough to essentially erase fifty years of slave mentality.

The Rebbe said that in his "over a yovel" of counseling, he has seen countless cases of people who, for one reason or another, had no childhood. They had verbally or physically abusive parents. If it wasn't their parents then it was a teacher or someone else prominent in their lives as a child. Some people grew up without parents entirely and they had no one too care for them in a way that provided them with a secure self-image and wholesome values. Many of them live frightened, angry, empty lives. No yovel can free them. These people, who today are somewhere between their forties and eighties, even if they could be freed from the mangled blackness and emptiness of their upbringing, have no "heritage of their fathers" to return to. There is no solid background for them to rely on. If they had a childhood, it was wrought with all the wrong experiences and influences.

Today, we have a responsibility to give our young people a childhood. Not just a loving and safe atmosphere for them to become who they are meant to become, but we must do absolutely everything in our power to see to it that they are not exposed to the toxic world that is available on every wireless device today. It is not just the images that are seared into a child's psyche for the rest of his life. There are attitudes and ideals that are so antithetical to Torah and that children are defenseless against.

Everyone goes through some form of slavery, a troubled, constricted period in their life. Most of the time we are freed from it, either by our own efforts or the passage of time. But we are able to ultimately remove the shackles and emerge free and with our dignity and integrity intact because we have a past to go back to and draw on to create a future for ourselves. A pure and healthy past is what enables us to move forward. We must provide a past for our children to nurse from in the future. אל אחזת אבתיו ישוב, "and he will return to the heritage of his ancestors".

(Shabbos Parshas Behar 5771, after davening)

Drops of Rain: Behar 5771

Great news!

The Rebbe gave the weekly gilyon an official title: Drops of Rain. It is based on the Medrash in Parshas Vayechi on the pasuk of וידגו לרב בקרב הארץ, v'yidgu larov b'kerev haaretz. The Medrash says, "Just as fish who live in water rush to the surface to catch a drop of rain from above, so too Bnai Yisroel who live in the waters of Torah, when they hear a new Torah thought, rush to receive it eagerly, as though they had never heard Torah before."

Here is the first official edition of Drops of Rain, for Parshas Behar.

Medrash: Behar 5771

Blogger has been making trouble the past few days. This post got deleted so here it is again:

The Medrash shiur continues! Click DOWNLOAD (15.3 MB) for the afternoon shiur from yesterday. Unfortunately, the recordings from the night shiur didn't turn out too great.

A Baby-Naming in Faltitchan

The Pekudas Elazar of Faltitchan

In my search for some info regarding the Radviller siddur, I came across something seemingly insignificant yet very intriguing. It is an invitation by none other than Rav Eluzar Twersky, ztz"l, the Faltitchaner Ruv and our Rebbetzin's grandfather (to the left), to his newly born daughter's "baby naming Shabbos". The text is in Hebrew and what appears to be German. This is not something we would have expected to find coming from pre-war Faltitchan (a Skver-Belz combo) where modernity was shunned to the greatest degree. One theory is that for "political" reasons, the Rav felt it worthwhile to invite particularly influential individuals to come to Faltitchan but needed an "excuse".

On Shabbos Parshas Yisro of 1924, the baby, the Rebbetzin's aunt, was named Malka. The Faltichaner had two daughters: Rebbetzin Sarah Stein, a"h, (the Rebbetzin’s mother) and,  yblch"t, Malka Katz.

Just for the sake of mentioning some Torah here, I saw in his sefer, Pekudas Elazar, that we say in Shmoneh Esrei, "ki atah shomea tefilas kol peh" - "for You hear the prayers of every mouth". The word for mouth is peh. The Rebbe Reb Burich'l of Mezhbizh said it like this, "For You hear the prayer so of everyone, even those whose prayers are feh!"

Medrash Shiur News

Rabbi Twerski's Medrash Class will start again today be"H.

It will take place at 2:15pm Central time and then again after CBJ maariv (approximately 8:50pm Central time)

The afternoon shiur will be available online, by phone , and live in person

The evening shiur will be available live in person and on the phone.

In person - 

Afternoon - at the home of Rabbi Michel Twerski - 3259 N. 51st Blvd

Evening - Beth Jehudah 3100, N. 52nd Street 

Online - see below

Phone -  646-770-1952 (follow prompts for live shiurim, and wait for Rabbi Twerski’s name)

Online

We are using a new video service which will not have any advertisements.

Please see below for the login information.

Being a new service, the recording module is not set up yet, nonetheless there will be an attempt to record it and post it on www.damesek.blogspot.com. Please check there to see if it is posted.

Contrary to previously emailed information, there is NO NEED for earphones or headsets.

You can log in to the classroom using the following link no earlier than 15 minutes prior to the class: http://sixtwo.touchcentric.com/event/RMTMedrash/

CLICK on USER LOGIN and enter a USER NAME of your choice and your EMAIL ADDRESS.

1. You may select any username you wish, but keep in mind that this is the way your name will appear in the chat room.
2. Your username must be a minimum of 5 characters, and may not contain any spaces.  

CLICK "SUBMIT".

You will then be taken to the classroom page.

You will neither see nor hear anything until the program begins. Feel free to introduce yourself to the other participants in the chat room.

If during the class you have any questions or comments, there will be a box in which you can enter the question.

If you have any technical questions or problems logging in, email josh@projectsinai.org.

Emor: The Only Way Up is Down

Which Way is Up?

There is a concept in Chassidus called yeridah l’tzorech aliyah, literally translated as “a descent for the purpose of ascent”. The Sifrei Chassidus describe it harshly, yet consider it a signally essential step in the way people grow spiritually. When a person feels compelled to move beyond where they are, there is a sense of needing to grow, a tugging feeling. It can be felt as a certain intolerance of remaining where you are: “I just can’t stay here anymore. I’m not getting anything out of this. I need to move on.”
 
A person feels that they need to move from where they are. That feeling comes from a sense of being tugged at, drawn upwards. It could also be a feeling of just no longer being able to stay where one is, being pushed from behind. Whether it’s a pull from above or a push from behind, the idea is that a person understands the need to move.
 
But then something seemingly drastic happens. As soon as one commits to take the next step up, the rug gets pulled out from under him.