Parshas Shoftim
Hei Elul 5765
Volume 1
Issue 49
The Connections people
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Rabbi B. Levertov
Rabbi Y. Shemtov
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THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE
PARSHAS SHOFTIM
It was the last week of summer vacation. Camp was over, and the children had been home all week. They were delighted when their father came home early one Friday afternoon and said, "Come on kids, I'll take you out to the Botanical Gardens and we'll all give Mommy a well-deserved rest."
Off they went to the park, equipped with their balls and snacks.
"Let's try to find a nice shaded area to play," their father suggested.
The children raced about happily, stopping to watch the ducks splash noisily in the pond. Soon they found a perfect spot to play. As Shloimie helped take the baby out of the stroller, he pointed to a uniformed man standing nearby. "Daddy, why are there so many guards and policemen in the park? There were at least five others at the entrances we passed. What would anyone want to steal from a park?"
"The city officials built this park so that people could come and enjoy the outdoors," his father said. "There are many entrances to the park, and these guards watch who and what comes through. They help keep the park safe and orderly. Actually, Shloimie, we'll be reading about guards and policemen in shul tomorrow."
Shloimie looked at his father in surprise, "Guards and policemen in the Torah?"
"Yes," his father replied. "Shoftim describes the judges and officers who were to watch our city gates in order to prevent harmful people or things from entering."
Shloimie's father bent down and looked directly into his eyes. "Do you know, Shloimie, that you are just like a miniature city yourself? Your eyes and ears are the 'gates' to your 'city,' and they allow pictures, sounds, and feelings to come in. But not everything is good for your city. So Hashem told us to place judges and officers at our gates.
"Don't let everything go through, Shloimie. Judge and decide if the picture you let through your 'eye gates' is tzniyus, and if the talk or music you allow through your 'ear gates' is proper.
"Be on guard. If you catch something that should not enter through your gates; stop it from coming in."
(Adapted from Sichos Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5744)
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A judge with more ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Please send your answers to connections@shluchim.org Last weeks’ brain buster: This week we can see. Answer: ראה |
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“Bidi, Bidi, Bum, Bum,” my purple polka-dotted telephone rang to the tune of my newest niggun and interrupted me. I was in middle of testing my latest invention. It was a twinkle-sparkle ultra-shiny shofar spray and I was using it to get my shofar ready for Chodesh Elul.
“Hello?” I said into the phone.
“Hic- Hic- HICCUP!” coughed the voice on the other end.
It was my good friend Fishy. I knew Fishy since I was a baby. He always has the worst case of the hiccups. Fishy loves water (Maybe the reason why he loves water so much was because it helps stop his hiccups.). He drinks three gallons of water a day, he lives in a houseboat on the water, and he keeps twenty-eight pet goldfish in matching round fishbowls filled with, you guessed it, water. Fishy is also the best Fire Chief in Iowa.
“Hic-Hic-Hiccup- I need your Hic-help, Dr. Getzel!” he sputtered. “My fire bell Hic-has stopped working and now none of the firemen will know to get ready when there -Hiccup!- is a fire. This is an emergency! I need you right away! HIC-HIC-HICCUP- HURRY!”
It sounded like it was an emergency. Quickly, I grabbed my emergency bag that I always had ready. Being a world famous scientist and inventor, you never know when people will need your help, and you always need to be prepared. Just in case, I threw in my pocket calendar, some extra COL lenses, the entire chitas on a micro-chip and some of Mrs. Getzel’s famous banana-nut-cholent cake (Shh, That’s her secret ingredient!). I jumped into my cranky, old, rusty-blue Moshiach Mobile (I call it that because if it ever gets me where I need to go without breaking down twice on the way, then I’ll know Moshiach’s here!) Then I jumped out because I’d get there faster by walking.
By the time I reached the fire station, Fishy was hiccuping so bad that he was bouncing up and down. His hiccups always got worse when he was nervous.
“There’s a -BOUNCE, HICCUP- fire in Bubby Breindel’s house on 613 Elm Street.” He stammered nervously. “How will we alert the –BOUNCE, HIC-HIC-HICCUP!- firemen about the fire without a – HICCCUP, BOUNCE- fire bell?
Being a professional inventor, I was sure I’d find something in my bag to use to get the firemen moving. Hmmmm. Would an old pair of fluffy sheep slippers do the trick? I slipped them on and hopped around the station. That certainly got the firemen’s attention but all I got were a couple of strange looks. Not one fireman budged to put on his fire suit. I rummaged deeper in my bag. Would a back scratcher work? Nope. A can of tuna-fish? Nah. A collection of Rebbe pictures? Uh-uh.
I sat down on the pile to think when I felt something hard in my pocket. I pulled it out . . . It was my ultra-shiny shofar!
“TOOOOOOOOO. TOO-TOO-TOO. TO-TO-TO-TO-TO-TO-TO-TO-TO-TO!” I blew with all my might. One minute, twenty-three seconds later, two shiny-red fire engines with four serious looking firemen wearing four bulky suits and four shiny-red hats whizzed down the street with their sirens blaring.
“Thank you Dr. Getzel!” beamed Fishy the Fire Chief. “How did you know that the shofar would alert them to get ready?”
“It’s quite simple,” answered. “We blow the shofar during the month of Elul to remind us to get ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Whenever I hear the Shofar I jump up and start to prepare myself by doing one extra mitzvah. That’s how I knew that the firemen would jump up and get ready when they heard the shofar, too!
Like I always say, blowing the shofar every day keeps the fires away!
Bye till next week,
Dr. Getzel
Mendel Oberlander , 14
Budapest , Hungary
I'm writing to you because I thought that if what other children write about their Shlichus in ’Kids Speak’ is so interesting for me than it might be interesting for other kids to read about my Shlichus.
We have ka"h 6 kids. My name is Mendel then comes my sister Mussie then my brother Nachman then my sister Gittush and then are my two youngest brothers Leizer and Zalmy.
So even though there are other Shluchim here in Hungary, none of their kids are my age, so some of my friends are around age 20 and up!
Once when I was 8 year old, when there were 3 kids in my family, we were going to Shul on Shabbos with our neighbor who was our babysitter (every Shabbos our babysitter would come 10:30 and take us to Shul and we would come back with my father who is the Rav of the Shul). We were on our way to Shul, and an old lady asked our babysitter "Are they all yours?" My babysitter answered that she only "borrowed" the kids.
From this you could see that if 3 children ka"h are a lot for the people that live in Hungary, now when we have 6 kids, it's really a lot by them! When we go to Shul Friday night before & after davening, Jews that walk passed us (to Shuls that are not as frum as ours) just feel that they have to say Shabbat shalom/Gut Shabbos!
Bye and have a sweet new year!
י"א אלול
The wedding of the רבי רש “ ב and רביצין שטערנא שרה took place on מוצאי שבת, י “ א אלול תרל “ ה , (1875), in the town of Avrutch, the city where the kallah’s father - ר ‘ יוסף יצחק , the son of the צמח צדק lived.
The רבי מהר “ ש wanted the wedding to take place in Lubavitch but the kallah’s father insisted that it take place in Avrutch. The רבי מהר “ ש was not able to go to the wedding for a number of reasons, mainly because he wasn't very well. The רבי רש “ ב ’s mother, רביצין רבקה , did go to the wedding.
The רבי מהר “ ש went with the רבי רש “ ב as far as the village of Achremiva. When they arrived in the village the רבי מהר “ ש said a מאמר and then he walked with the רבי רש “ ב until the edge of the city. At the edge of the city he asked the רבי רש “ ב not to wear his shtreimal during the wedding, and that he should only wear it when he was in Lubavitch. The רבי רש “ ב always kept this promise.
פרק שישי
"בת קול יוצאת מהר חורב"
הר חורב is another name for הר סיני , where the אידן received the תורה and became ה ‘ 's chosen people. Whenever a איד has an awakening to keep תורה and מצוות better or become closer to אידישקייט , it is through his נשמה , which hears the בת קול coming from הר סיני .
In some geography books it is written that also today there is a constant humming voice in the air around הר סיני which sounds like an echo. When ה ‘ descended to הר סיני to give the תורה , the people heard the voice of ה ‘ . Perhaps this noise that is there today is a " בת קול " - a daughter of a voice - i.e., a voice which was born out of the powerful voice of מתן תורה . Its intention is to remind the אידן of the תורה that was given there to כלל ישראל and that it must be studied and kept up at all times.
(Adapted from ‘Vedibarta Bam’)
תשובה means returning. We ‘return’ by feeling bad for doing wrong and deciding to do better in the future.
מצוות bring us close to ה ‘ . When we do something wrong, the opposite of a מצוה , we are distancing ourselves from ה ‘ . ה ‘ wants us to do מצוות , and doing what ה ‘ wants makes us closer to Him. When we do something wrong, it is as if we are telling ה ‘ that we are not interested in what He wants. This distances us from ה ‘ .
We become close to our friends by doing things that they like. If we do something that makes our friend unhappy, it harms our friendship. The same is true with ה ‘ .
By doing תשובה , we can return to ה ‘ . When we did something wrong, we moved further away from ה ‘ ; when we are sorry for what we did, we come close again. ה ‘ always lets us do תשובה . ה ‘ wants us to be close, and He gives us many, many chances to come back.
The Hole in the Boat
A man was called to the beach to paint a boat. He brought his paint and brush and began to paint the boat a bright, new red, just like he had been hired to do. As he painted the boat, he noticed that the paint was seeping through the bottom of the boat. He realized that there was a leak, and he decided to fix it. When the painting was done, he collected his money for the job and went away.
The following day the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a big check. The painter was surprised. "You have already paid me for painting the boat," he said.
"But this is not for the paint job. It is for fixing the leak in the boat."
"That was such a small thing that I even did not want to charge you for it. Surely you are not paying me this huge amount for such a small thing?"
"My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened.”
"When I asked you to paint the boat I had forgotten to mention to you about the leak. When the boat was nice and dry, my children took the boat and went fishing. When I found that they had gone out in the boat, I was very, very worried for I remembered that the boat had a leak! Imagine my relief and happiness when I saw them coming back safe and sound! I examined the boat and saw that you had repaired the leak! Now you see what you have done? You have saved the lives of my children! I don’t enough money to repay you for your good 'little' deed…!”
A Piece of String
A wealthy man bought a wonderful candelabra for his home. It was a masterpiece of art, made of pure crystal and studded with precious stones. It cost a real fortune.
In order to hang up this beautiful candelabra, the man had a hole made in the ceiling. Through the hole he let one end of a rope drop into the living room, which he attached to the candelabra. The other end of the rope he had fastened to a nail in the attic. Then, he pulled the rope up until the candelabra was snugly hanging from the ceiling of his living room. The rest of the rope he wound around the nail in the attic.
Everybody who came to the house admired the wonderful candelabra, and the man and his family were very proud of it.
One day a poor boy came begging for old clothes. He was told to go up to the attic, where their old clothes were stored, and to help himself to some. He went up to the attic, and collected a neat bundle of clothes. After packing them into his bag, he searched for a piece of string with which to tie it. He saw a rope wound around a nail and decided to help himself to a piece. So he took out his pocketknife and cut the rope.
Crash ! There was a terrific smash, and the next moment the whole family rushed to the attic crying: "You idiot! Look what you have done! You have cut the rope and have ruined us!"
The poor boy could not understand what all the excitement was about. He said: "What do you mean, ruined you? All I did was to take a small piece of rope. Surely this did not ruin you?"
"You poor boy," replied the rich man. "Yes, all you did was to take a piece of rope. But it so happened that my precious candelabra was hanging from it. Now you have broken it beyond repair!"
* * * *
These two משלים have one נמשל : Very often, by doing what seems to us a "small" מצוה we never know what wonderful thing we have really done. And the same way, by doing what seems to us a "small" עבירה , we are causing a terrible catastrophe. Both מצוות and עבירות cause a "chain reaction." One מצוה brings another מצוה in its succession, and one עבירה brings another. Each of them, no matter how seemingly small, may create or destroy worlds.
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