Parshas Vayikra

 

Hey there my favourite Young Shluchim,
Wow, what a busy week this has been! I’ve finally got around to thinking about starting to Pesach clean my office. You see Pesach cleaning is a job I take very seriously, because, Pesach cleaning is quite serious! So before I start doing my Pesach cleaning I need to do some serious thinking.
The truth is that, as the Rebbe explains, the real Pesach cleaning is actually mostly thinking! Yup, I know that your Mommies tell you to make sure you clean under the washing machine, and inside the seams of your pants, but of course we need to make sure that we get rid of the chometz that is inside us too. And I don’t mean the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that you had for lunch. Or the chocolate chip cookies, or the pizza, or of course the pretzels that rhyme with Getzel that you’ve been eating all week. Nope, the chometz I’m talking about takes a lot more work to get rid of.
The Rebbe explains that there is a simple difference between chometz and matza. Matza stays low and flat. We only let it cook for eighteen minutes at the most because we don’t want it to rise and get all puffed up. Chometz on the other hand can cook for as long as it likes. Like for example Mrs Getzel’s famous yummy, scrummy fudge cake needs one hour in the oven. And the world-renowned Mrs Getzel’s tasty chocolate brownies need half an hour at low heat. I know all this you see because of all the phone calls I get asking for the recipes! Of course Mrs Getzel’s famous yummy, scrummy fudge cake and the world-renowned Mrs Getzel’s tasty chocolate brownies don’t stay low and flat. They wouldn’t be half as famous, world-renowned, yummy, scrummy and tasty if they did. They rise! And big, much bigger than matza. Tall and wide, high and long.
Now of course, it is all well and good for the fudge cake and chocolate brownies to rise, but we have to be careful to make sure that we don’t get all puffed up and self-important. We need to make sure that we don’t get too full of ga’avah or yeshus. Of course there are some times when it is important to have a little bit of yeshus. Like when our yetzer hora is telling us to be lazy and not go out to do Mivtzoyim we need to have a bit of pride and tell the Yetzer Hora; ‘Do you know who I am? I’m the famous Dr Getzel, Chossid and Shliach of the Rebbe. You want to convince me not to go on Mivtzoyim?!
But most days we have to be careful not to have too much yeshus, or to think too much of ourselves. And trying to get rid of all that chometz is really hard thinking work. It takes a lot of thinking, and pondering and even a bit of reflecting, to make sure that we don’t have any chometz left in us at all!
Anyway, good luck with all your Pesach cleaning. Join me next week when I get down on my hands and knees and start scrubbing under my desk.

See you!
Dr Getz

 

King Agrippas decided one day to offer a thousand קרבנות . He sent a message to the כהן גדול asking him to reserve the מזבח for him for the day and not to allow anyone else to offer קרבנות .

Just after the כהן גדול had received the King’s command, a poor beggar walked into the בית המקדש . He held out two turtledoves to the כהן גדול and asked him to offer them up on the מזבח for him.

‘The King gave orders that no one besides him is allowed to offer קרבנות today,’ the כהן גדול told the poor man.

‘Please do me this favor,’ the poor man begged. ‘I go hunting daily and every day I catch four turtledoves. Obviously it was decided in שמים that I should catch this number of birds every day so that I can offer two to ה‘ and use the other two to provide for my family. If you prevent me from keeping my part of the bargain with ה‘ , I am scared that it may be decreed in שמים that I should no longer catch the turtledoves to provide for my family.’

The כהן גדול was extremely moved by the simple faith of the poor beggar and agreed to offer his קרבן .

That night King Agrippas had a dream in which he was told; ‘The קרבן of a poor man was accepted by ה‘ with greater pleasure than all your 1000 קרבנות .’

The next morning the King sent a messenger to the כהן גדול asking why his order had been disobeyed. When the messenger returned with the כהן גדול ’s story about the poor man who donated half of his daily income to ה‘ , the King realized that the כהן גדול had been right and ה‘ ’s ways are fair.

 

At the end of פרשת ויקרא , we learn about the קרבן אשם that a person brings if he stole. The תורה also tells us that the person who stole needs to return the stolen objects. The תורה tells us that והשיב את הגזלה אשר גזל‘ ’ - he should ‘return the stolen object that he stole.’ This refers to the time of משיח when everything that was stolen from the אידן during the times of גלות will be returned.

The פסוק then carries on and talks about          את הפקדון אשר פקד‘ ’ - a person who kept an object that was deposited by him. This too refers to the time of משיח when all the lands that were taken from the אידן will be returned to them.

The פסוק finishes by talking about ’את האבידה אשר מצא‘ - someone who kept a lost article that he found and didn’t return it to the owner. This refers to the אידן who are lost among the other nations of the world, who will be gathered in, in the times of משיח .

(‘ילקוט משיח וגאולה ’)

 

Many years ago, in a little Russian town, there lived a איד named Mottel Goldgrebber. Now, this was quite a funny name, for although Mottel was a digger ("grebber"), he certainly was not a digger of gold. He was, in fact, a digger of sand and lime, which he would sell to local builders who used it to manufacture cement. Unfortunately, there was not much building going on in the little town, and so, Mottel's sales were few and far between. As a result, he earned very little, and his family had barely enough to survive.

Years passed, and it was time for his oldest daughter to marry. But Mottel had a big problem. For without money, how could he marry off his daughter? To make matters worse, Mottel dreamed of marrying his daughter to a תלמיד חכם , and with no dowry to speak of, that would surely remain what it was, just a dream.

Then, one day, Mottel suddenly became rich. Mottel was digging as usual, when his shovel struck something hard. He bent down and picked up a stone which looked like a piece of glass. He was about to throw it away, but for some reason he decided to put it in his pocket. There it remained for several days until he took it to the only diamond dealer in the little town. The man studied it through his glass. He scratched it and bit it, and then he spoke: "This is no piece of glass. It is a diamond of enormous value!"

Mottel nearly collapsed. "How much would you say it is worth?" he managed to ask.

"I don't have enough to buy it, but I advise you to go to London to my cousin, who is a diamond dealer there. He will tell you how much it is really worth. You are a rich man, Mottel!"

Mottel was dumb-founded. "I can't go to London. I have no money!"

"Don't worry. I'll lend you the money for the trip," the diamond dealer offered. "When you go to London, sell the stone and buy a lot of smaller stones. When you come home, we'll go into partnership together."

Mottel made all of the necessary arrangements and soon arrived at the port. By the time he arrived, though, he had spent nearly all of the money the diamond dealer had advanced to him, for he was not used to having more than a few pennies at a time. He approached the captain of the ship and showed him the stone, explaining that he had no money to pay his passage now, but he would soon be wealthy. The captain agreed to take him and soon Mottel was comfortably settled in a first class cabin.

Mottel couldn't believe his luck. He would often take the diamond from his pocket and hold it up to the sun to marvel at its beautiful glittering colors. Even when he was eating he would take out the beautiful stone to admire. One day, as Mottel was saying ברכת המזון , the steward arrived to clear away his meal. He gathered up the tablecloth and shook the diamond together with the crumbs out the porthole (the window of the ship).

Mottel was horrified at what had happened, but what could he do? He calmly blessed ה‘ for having given and taken away, and then set about to think what he should do now. Things looked as bad as possible, but Mottel was a man of faith and he was sure ה‘ would not forsake him.

One morning, as Mottel was walking on the deck, the captain spoke to him. "I want to ask you a favor, which will also be to your advantage."

The captain then explained that along with cargo which belonged to the king, he was carrying some precious metal which was his own property. The problem was that the king's men would take that cargo as well as the king's. The captain suggested to put the metal in Mottel's name and Mottel would sell it when they reached London.

Mottel agreed and the documents were signed and sealed. The captain instructed Mottel that exactly two weeks after docking he would come to collect the money from the sale, and Mottel would get ten percent commission.

On the appointed day everything was completed. Mottel waited and waited, but the captain did not come. After several days, Mottel went to the docks to inquire about the captain. There he heard the shocking news that the captain had been involved in a drunken fight and had been killed! Mottel investigated and found out that the captain had absolutely no family. He had inherited the huge profits from the metal deal. He was richer now than he would have been had he sold the diamond.

Mottel couldn't understand his good fortune. When he returned to his little town in Russia, he discussed everything with his friend, the diamond dealer, who offered this explanation: "You had done nothing to merit the diamond. It was simply a gift straight from ה‘ . But when you lost it, your אמונה didn’t waiver. You put your trust in ה‘ and for that reason, you merited the second fortune, which is not only larger than the first, but which will undoubtedly remain yours as long as you keep your אמונה in ה‘ .

 

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