Parshas Balak

 

Hi there Young Shluchim!
Well it is that time of year again. The time of year where the sun shines (unless you live in England) and the sky is blue (unless you live in Australia, but I’ve heard that the sky is blue there even in the winter), and you need to turn your air-conditioner on full blast - if you have an air-conditioner of course.
You see, many, many years ago, before air-conditioners were created, I decided to make my office in the basement of my house out here in the corn-field state of Iowa. I thought it would be quiet, and out of the way, and I’d be able to work in peace. You see I used to have my office upstairs right near the kitchen, but my work was more in pieces than in peace. All the little Getzel’ites and Getzel’niks who were roaming around the house used to love to see what I was doing. And as they would always tell me, ‘you look with your hands, not with your eyes!’ So we made the big ‘move’. Have you ever moved anywhere? I remember moving house as a kid, and boy was that fun. All the boxes to hide in, all the packing paper and tape to play with. I might have only been two and a half years old at the time but I remember it like yesterday. Actually I remember it better than yesterday because I don't even remember what I ate for lunch yesterday!
Well for adults, moving is not so much fun. First of all they have to chase all the children out of the boxes that they are hiding in. Then they need to find all the packing paper and tape that the children were playing with. And then finally they can begin the hard work of packing. And moving. And unpacking. But still, if it wasn't worth it, we wouldn't do it, would we? And so it was, that for a good few years I was finally able to work in peace - and not pieces - in my basement.
The problem with the basement is that there are no windows in it. And so no air-conditioning. And so it would get very hot and stuffy in the summer. In fact it would get so hot and stuffy that I would have had to open the window - if there would have been one! As the years went by, I got more and more stuffy. Not because it was getting hotter outside, but more because my office was getting more and more full! So, with no choice, I decided this week, that it was time to move again! Yup my move downstairs had been a yerida letzorech aliya, because I was now moving all the way upstairs to the very top floor of our house.
As I was busy repacking and unpacking my office, I was thinking about the different places that my work had taken me to, and how the Rebbe teaches us that everywhere we go in this world is by hashgocho protis. The place of shlichus we go to, the house we live in, the street our Beis Chabad is on, is all by hashgocho protis. I guess that the Aibeshter decided that it was time for me to move on from my basement and go onto higher things - to the very top floor of my house.
Anyway kinderlach, that’s all for this week. Good luck in your mokom hashlichus!

Have a Good Shabbos,
Dr Getzel

 

י“ב וי“ג תמוז - חג הגאולה

י“ב תמוז
On this day the פריערדיקער רבי was told that his גלות in Kostrama was at an end. On ג‘ תמוז the פריערדיקער רבי had been sent to Kostrama for three years. When he arrived there, he was ordered to come to the government office every Tuesday. So, on Tuesday, י“ב תמוז the Rebbe, together with the חסיד , ר‘ אליהו חיים Althaus, came to the office. The officer there greeted the פריערדיקער רבי warmly and told him that he won’t have to come to the office any longer because they have received instructions to release the Rebbe.

י“ג תמוז
י“ב תמוז was a public holiday in Kostrama so the פריערדיקער רבי only received his release papers on י“ג תמוז . After the פריערדיקער רבי received his release papers, he held a farbrengen and said a מאמר .

י“ד תמוז
On Thursday, י“ד תמוז the פריערדיקער רבי left Kostrama at ten in the morning.

ט“ו תמוז
The פריערדיקער רבי arrived at his home in Leningrad. The next day, שבת פרשת פנחס he was called to the תורה and benched גומל .

(Adapted from ‘Days in Chabad’)

 

In פרשת בלק we read about how King בלק of מואב hired the magician בלעם to curse the Jewish people so that מואב would be able to defeat them in battle. Our חכמים tell us that בלעם was also a נביא and used to get messages from ה‘ . But he used to get his messages from ה‘ in dreams, at night. They explain that since בלעם did not have a ברית מילה , he was unable to bear the holiness of ה‘ like the Jewish נביאים . This point is illustrated by the following story:

The Queen of Sheba had heard about the great wisdom of שלמה המלך and decided that she wanted to test his wisdom in a few different ways. She thought up a few different tests and then travelled to ירושלים to meet with the king.

For one of her tests she took along a group of boys some of whom had had a ברית and some hadn’t. She asked שלמה המלך to tell her which were circumcised and which were not. שלמה המלך signalled to the כהן גדול to open the doors to the ארון , and half of the boys immediately fell on their faces. שלמה המלך pointed to the boys who had fallen and told the Queen of Sheba ‘those boys are not circumcised – they are not able to bear the holiness of ה‘ .’

 

שבעה עשר בתמוז

שבעה עשר בתמוז is a fast day, when we remember the sad things that happened on this day. We don’t eat from ‘daybreak’ (about an hour before sunrise) until nightfall. We add special תפילות during davening and lein a special part of the תורה .

שבעה עשר בתמוז is also the beginning of The Three Weeks which ends on תשעה באב . We don’t make חתונות , take haircuts or do other happy things.
We fast on שבעה עשר בתמוז , to remember five sad things in Jewish history:

1. משה רבינו broke the first set of לוחות .
2. An idol was put in the בית המקדש .
3. The קרבן תמיד was stopped in the Second בית המקדש .
4. The Romans broke the walls of ירושלים leading to the destruction of the Second בית המקדש .
5. Apostomus, a captain in the Roman army, publicly burned a ספר תורה .

n Russia there was a small town called ‘Sroelov’, and the waters of the spring in that town were supposed to have special powers.
ר ‘ ישראל of Ruzhin (who lived about two hundred years ago) once happened to pass through this town, and wondered about its unusual name and its spring.

He asked, but no one knew anything, until finally someone suggested that he ask ‘Old Sasha’. Old Sasha was over a hundred years old, and if anyone knew it would be him.

The צדיק found the old man's dilapidated house, knocked on the door, and when he heard a weak answer he entered.

The room was empty except for an extremely old man dressed in a strange fur garment, resting in an old bed in the corner. He was lying on his side facing the entrance, but at the sight of his visitor, his eyes widened in surprise.

He propped himself up on one elbow, squinted to get a better look, and said "Eehh? Oh my!! Your face is like his!!" He was trying to sit up. "Yes, Yes! Just like Sroel's !!"

"Hello my friend! May ה‘ bless you!" The צדיק said, "Please, you don’t have to get up." He pulled up a chair next to the bed. "What can you tell me about the name of this town, and about...."

Sasha was sitting up now, back against the wall "Ahhh! I have waited for this day!!" he said. "Of course I'll tell you everything."

And Old Sasha began his story:

"Over eighty years ago, there were only a few families here and I used to take care of their sheep. Nothing unusual ever happened, until early one morning the sheep were grazing in a new field, when suddenly I heard this strange splashing sound from the other side of a hill. I climbed to the top of the hill, got down on my stomach, peeked through some bushes, and saw a man bobbing up and down over and over again in a spring. I didn't even know that spring existed, and I certainly had no idea what he was doing in there. But when he came out and got dressed, I got a glimpse of his face and....well it was shining, just like yours.

A little later I saw him sitting far away on a high rock wrapped in some sort of white robe, just his face sticking out, with a small black box tied on his head, swaying, talking and swaying and singing to the sky for hours.

And the next day he did the exact same thing.

The next time I brought the sheep home I asked my uncle Ivan about it, and he told me that this man must be a "Sroel". The priest said they are a lazy and cursed people that refuse to believe in our god, and we should pray for their salvation and keep away from them.

I understood what my uncle said, but it didn't make much sense. This "Sroel" didn't look so lazy or evil to me. In fact he looked like he was working pretty hard, and some times I felt so good when I saw him, that I took out my flute and played a song.

(To be continued next week)

 

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