Parshas Behaaloscha

 

Hey there Junior Shluchim!
You’ll just have to excuse me a minute – I’ll be right with you as soon as I finish this off. Let me just give it one last BANG here and a BASH there and a ... Oops ... CRASH, BUMP, SMASH!
Oh boy, I hope I didn’t just spoil a whole week’s work. Why is it that when we are almost at the end of doing something, we suddenly lose patience? I mean it’s taken me a whole week of thinking, planning, building and fixing, and now BAM, with one minute of impatience and rushing because I wanted to finish in time for my column this week, it could all be ruined. Of course I’m still trachting gut that it isn’t ruined, and even if it is ruined, I’ve not lost all the thinking and planning - that is all still down on the papers that I have lying somewhere around my office. But the building will have to begin all over again.
Of course, being impatient is a good thing sometimes too – like when we impatiently run to shul because we can’t wait to be there - but normally our Yetzer Hora tries to get us to use our impatience for bad things – like when we get in an argument with our older brother or sister because we are impatient that they are taking too long over reading Connections.
After all, like we know, everything in this world was created by Hashem for a reason, and we have to make sure that we use the right things for the right reasons, and the wrong things for the right reasons too. I mean you might think that the wrong things shouldn’t be used at all, but really they must be here for a reason, so we need to make sure that they get used for the right reason. Of course there are some things that are for children to use, and when they use them, then they can use them for the right reason, but if adults use them, even though they are using them for the right reason, it is still wrong. And there are things that are for adults to use, and when they use them, then they can use them for the right reason, but if children use them, even though they are using them for the right reason, it is still wrong.
Are you still following me? Good! Because as you might have guessed, this past week I was busy making a new lens. Now, all the lens that I make are to help us see things the right way, like my COL lens or my SOL lens and all the others that I have built that are hanging around my office somewhere, but this new lens is special. I really wanted to tell you about it this week, but what with all the problems I’ve been having with it, I think that maybe I should get it totally finished before I even tell you its name. Unfortunately I have gotten too excited too many times about different lenses of mine that I thought were going to be the most amazing invention yet, but somehow they didn’t quite work out. So I’m keeping quiet.
Anyway, if I want to have this lens ready for next week, I’d better get back to work. I’ve still got a lot to do and I don’t want to have to disappoint you again, so keep up the good work kinderlach and I’ll see you next week.

Dr Getzel

 

ט"ו סיון

On Tuesday night, ט“ו סיון תרפ“ז (1927 - 80 years ago) at 12 midnight the פריערדיקער רבי had just finished giving יחידות . He davened מעריב and sat down to eat supper with his family. Suddenly there was a bang at the door. Agents of the GPU came to arrest the פריערדיקער רבי . They allowed him to take his תפילין , ספרים , pen and paper and they took him to ‘Shpalerka’ the worst prison. Even mentioning the name of this prison would make people scared.

ט"ז סיון

On ט“ז סיון תרס“ט (1906 - 101 years ago) ר‘ ישראל ארי‘ לייב , the youngest son of ר‘ לוי יצחק and רביצין חנה was born. From the time he was young it was obvious that he was very talented and clever.

 

In this weeks פרשה , when the תורה tells us that משה was very humble, the word ענו is written without a ‘י ’. Why?

The last words of each of the five chumashim of the תורה are: במצרים , מעשיהם , סיני , יריחו and ישראל . The last letters of each of these words together add up to 126 which is also the גמטריא of the word ענו without a ‘י ’.

The תורה is telling us that even though משה knew the whole תורה , till the very last letter, he was not arrogant and he remained the most humble person.
The תורה also tells us that משה was more humble than any other person - ‘אדם ’ - on the face of the earth. Why does the תורה tell us this?
In the תורה there were three people who were very humble: אברהם , דוד המלך and משה .

The first letters of the names of these three people spell the word אדם . The תורה is telling us that משה was the most humble of the three.

(Adapted from ‘Vedibarta Bam’)

 

In משנה ד‘ we are toldעשה רצונו כרצונך כדי שיעשה רצונך כרצונו ” - Make His (ה‘ ’s) will like your will so that He will make your will like His will. The last word - כרצונו - seems extra. It could have just said “So that He (ה‘ ) will do your will”.
We know that every person loves himself and wants only the best for himself. But sometimes we don’t know what is really the best for us. Sometimes the things that we really, really want, might actually be harmful for us. Now, since ה‘ is good, everything He has in His will to do for us is definitely what is the best for us. But, we don’t know what ה‘ knows and so, we might want something which actually is not good for us. The משנה is saying that when we          make ה‘ ’s will like our will, when we do what ה‘ wants us to do, He will make our will the same as His will - that what we want will actually be what is really the best for us.

In נעילה on יום כיפור we daven“ואצרך הטוב, לנו תפתח ” - “ Your good treasures open for us”. The פריערדיקער רבי asks: Whatever comes from ה‘ is only good and everything He does for us is for our good, so why does it say ‘אצרך הטוב ’ - ‘your good treasure’?

The פריערדיקער רבי answers that we need to punctuate the words a little differently. Since we don’t know what is really good for us, we daven to ה‘ that “אצרך הטוב לנו, - the treasure which is good for us - תפתח - You should open”.

(Adapted from ‘Vedibarta Bam’)

 

 

The גמרא tells us that there are עשרה מאמרות - 10 sayings - in the פסוקים that tell us about the creation of the world. However, there are only nine times that the word "ויאמר " — "and ה‘ said” appears, the גמרא tell us, and it answers, that             "בראשית נמי מאמר הוא " — "the word 'בראשית ' — 'in the beginning' — is also a מאמר , as it is says, 'By the word of ה‘ the heavens were made.' "

"בראשית " literally means "in the beginning." What in this word tells us ה‘ 's command that there be heavens and earth?

On the first day, when ה‘ created the heavens and earth, He actually included in their creation all that was done on the next five days. On each of the days He merely gave a command to a specific item to start working or go into its proper place.

Before the actual creation of the world, ה‘ first thought it over in His mind. Just as when a king wants to issue a command, all he needs to do is say one word and his message is clearly understood and obeyed, likewise, when ה‘ was ready to actually create the world, He uttered one word: "ראשית " — "beginning." This was His order that there be a beginning, i.e. a start of the world He had planned to create, and straight away there were heavens and earth and everything which they included.

So, according to the גמרא , the first word of the first פסוק of תורה , "בראשית ," means "ב " — "with" — "ראשית " — "beginning" — ה‘ created the heavens and the earth.

(Adapted from ‘Vedibarta Bam’)

 

(Continued from last week)
The man actually stopped for several seconds, stared at ר‘ ישראל ’s face and then continuing walking. From the way the man was dressed and his manner, it was obvious that he was someone important, possibly a government Minister.

After several minutes, the man again walked toward them and the same thing happened. ר‘ מאיר Refoels left his companions, approached him and introduced himself and cordially asked:

"Please excuse me Sir, but I couldn’t help noticing your interest in ר‘ ישראל . Possibly you could tell us what interest a nobleman such as yourself could possibly have in a simple old איד ?"

Them man took ר‘ מאיר Refoels by the arm walked over to ר‘ ישראל , and said, "Ask the old man if he remembers me." ר‘ מאיר Refoels translated, and the old teacher just shrugged his shoulders. How could he possible know such a person?

"Ask him if he lives in Shklov" continued the man.

"No, I live in Mohilov!" replied ר‘ ישראל , shrugging his shoulders. But then he paused, held up one finger and said, "One minute, just a minute... you can tell him that twenty years ago, I did live in Shklov."

"Aha!!” said the man. I knew it was you; my memory did not fail me! You must come to my house tomorrow at ten in the morning. You are my dear friend!! Please do not forget."

With this he gave his card to the old man, shook his hand warmly, and left.

The next morning they were seated in the nobleman’s spacious front room, a servant appeared, told the other two to remain seated and escorted old ר‘ ישראל into the study.

"Ahh, ר‘ ישראל !" The nobleman said to him (in אידיש ) as he closed the door behind him.

"Of course you don’t remember me, I was just a young boy of fourteen years old then. Do you remember? They called me Yanush the orphan. I was the terror of Shklov. I refused to go to school or listen to anyone. My only interest was to make trouble and to convince the other kids to do the same.

“Finally after they caught me stealing for the hundredth time they put me in this sort of cage in the center of the city. I guess I deserved it, but it was more than I could handle. Everyone that passed would curse me and some of the kids even threw rocks and spat at me when no one was looking. I was so ashamed, I wanted to die. I was supposed to be there for three days and when the first night came I felt closer to death than life.

“Then, when everyone else was asleep, you came. You opened the lock, took me to your house, gave me a meal, a change of clothes, a warm coat and even some money and told me to run away. I’ll never forget your face.

“Well, thanks to you, today I am a high minister in the government and now I want to repay you. First take this bag of golden coins, this will last you for a long time, and I would like to give you a job but... tell me, what brought you to Vilna? Are there children here you have to teach? And who are those two men with you?"

Needless to say when he heard the reason for ר‘ ישראל ’s visit he immediately arranged all the necessary permits for the printing house that very day, free of charge.

And he also, slowly but surely, began to return to אידישקייט .

 

We'd love to hear your feedback! Send us your comments, ideas and suggestions to: connections@shluchim.org
 

Click here for a printable version of Connections in PDF format