KEDOSHIM

      When I heard the sad news that Harav Hagaon Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein זצ׳ל was niftar, my mind started  to travel back on the road to my youth when my beloved father ע״ה was concerned how I was progressing in my Gemarah studies. At that time our family was living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and we davened at The Young Israel of Eastern Parkway where the parents of Rav Aharon were also, members of distinction. Rav Aharon  a young man at the time, was already known as an Elui and for being a very warm and wonderful teacher. My father, knowing Rav Aharon  and his family very well, approached Rav Aharon  and asked if he would entertain the possibility of learning Gemarah with me. Rav Aharon  agreed.  I found those shiurim to be most inspiring.  Rav Aharon taught me the right Derech in learning for which I will always be indebted. 

   It was very special for our family when this kesher  with Rav Aharon continued with my grandson Yonatan learning at Gush and how he was influenced greatly by his ShiurIm and more so by his warmth and interest that he showed for each Bachur in the Yeshivah.

   The words of Pirke Avot clearly describes the life of 

Rav Aharon הוי מתלמידיו של אהרן אוהב שלום ורודף שלום אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה.

We pray to הקדוש ברוך הוא that  Rav Aharon's זצ׳ל    

נשמה have an עליה and may he be a מליץ יושר for his family and כלל ישראל.

   

     This week's  Parsha, Kedoshim, speaks extensively about Kedusha , which indeed is the aim of Yahadus, of living a life of Holiness. The Parsha details many mitzvos that, when observed, will lead to a true state of Kedusha. 

     One Mitzvah  stands  out in my mind, "לא תעמד על דם רעך", " You shall not stand aside while your fellow's blood is shed". Rashi explains, that one should not stand idly when a human life can be saved through ones help.  This idea is extremely important in our relationship to each other. And yet I question, why did the Torah use the negative, לא תעמד, I would have preferred the positive directive, תציל את רעך! Save your fellowman?

  I sense the Torah wanted to emphasize the importance and necessity of rendering help promptly.  When one is in danger, even when the chances seem slim for his survival, לא תעמד, do not stand around, thinking, calculating, should it be done? Don't waste time.  Go to it immediately and try to do whatever can be done and don't waste a moment trying.

     When life is at stake it is a time for action - not to stand around and quibble- should we or shouldn't we?

     This idea is most important when it comes to our State of Israel, especially when we feel we are so alone in this world. לא תעמד, we must do whatever is in our power, be it financially or politically to help. We have suffered enough and even with all our, so called friends we are alone to our own fate.

    We are in the midst of the Sefira period. The mitzvah of Sefirat Haomer is dependent on counting each and every day for forty nine days. One cannot leave out, even, one hey day. If one forgot to count a full day, then the next day cannot be counted with a Bracha. (You can still continue to count, but without reciting the appropriate Bracha.)

  This Halacha emphasizes a very important  concept in Yahadus, "Life is dependent upon consistency and endurance." Sefirat Haomer is to teach us that to be a good Jew, to be a good Human Being, it takes more than a few good acts.  It takes consistency and endurance. 

     In Judaism, it is not only the occasional acts of Chesed, of Kibud Av Vaem, of attending Minyan, of giving charity.  Those things are important.  However, Judaism wants and encourages us to be consistent and to act with constancy in our performance of all our Mitzvos. 

 This is especially true of the Mitzvah, לא תעמד, we need to always be ready and to constantly be involved in helping and saving our fellowman and surely our State of Israel. 

  קדושים תהיו, let us sanctify the everyday to make life  a constant act of fulfillment, בן אדם למקום ובן אדם לחברו - to lead us to the time when our counting Sefirah will see its fulfillment in the bringing of the Omer to our Holy Beit Hamikdash.

                                                    

OUR TORAH IS OUR TREE OF LIFE

       The attitude of a religious Jew, especially how he presents himself to others, is very important in defining what is seen as a קידש השם or a חלול השם.

  With this in mind I begin to explore and to try to understand an enigmatic episode in the death of Nadav and Avihu as described in this morning's Torah reading.

וירחו בני אהרן נדב ואביהו איש מחתתו ויתנו בהן אש וישימו עלי קטרת ויקריבו לפני השם אש זרה אשר לא צוה אותם.          

"The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, each took his firepan, put fire in them and placed incense upon it and they brought before Hashem a strange fire that Hashem had not commanded".

 For this infraction, they were punished with death.

The obvious question is why such a severe punishment and more so what was the sin that they committed?

    I sense that our first impression to our quest, is that they entered the Holy of Holies to burn incense which they had not been commanded, even if they did so in adoration of G-D, but they decided to do so on their own accord. Can we persist in our quandary and say, 'So what was so bad'?True, Hashem did not command them to do so, but they did do so for the love of G-D.

   Nechamah Leibowitz explores this dilemma and states the following, "Their guilt resides, not in a formal violation of any of the regulations involved in the sacrificial service, but rather in their desire to break through, as it were, to the Almighty, to cleave unto Him, not in accordance with the prescribed ordinances but rather in conformity with the dictates of their own hearts. 

     The acceptance of the yoke of heaven, which is the aim of our entire Torah, is replaced, here, by a religious ecstasy which is free from the restraints of normative religious discipline, unrestrained and  not subservient to the Divine will and for this they were punished.

     In understanding this dilemma, I also need to reflect upon what Rabbi  Samson Raphael Hirsch said in his understanding of the severe decree. It was to emphasize to us "To avoid personal and subjective predilections and ordinances of their own intervention in their approach to the service of the  Sanctuary which  belongs to G-D".   

     I share these sources with you to encourage you to think for yourselves in your analysis of why this "Eish Zara" caused such a condemnation. However, beyond our study , there seems to be an important modern day lesson to be learned from this tragedy.

      The tragedy of Aaron's sons is our lesson in the attitude that  accompany's our  observances and  how we approach our religious behavior. 

     It is well and good to be observant and to fulfill the will of Hashem as prescribed in our Torah, but one wonders what are the consequences of excess zeal and fanaticism, which comes about through our own subjective opinions, of what Judaism demands of us . We have a Torah B'ksav, we have our Torah Sh'Baal Beh,we have our Shulchan Orech, and we have our great sages through out our  history, and if we abide within these boundaries we will succeed as true Jews.

    Greater observance does not demand greater Chumros and our Torah especially does not want us to inject into our rituals our own subjective opinions of how Halacha is to be performed. 

    Let us live within our prescribed  Halacha , and leave any of our subjective opinions, which often border on fanaticism out of our Judaic way of life.

    עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה , Judaism is our tree of life,let's maintain it in this fashion, for the GLORY of 

 G-D and the GLORY of Man.

GO FORWARD

       "   True honor comes from actuallizing  one's innermost strengths". 

      The Yom Tov of Pesach is a time when the inner beauty of each individual is revealed, and a time when we are to work on our individual spiritual strengths. In our counting Sefira, Kabbalah plays a very important role as we reflect upon the lower Sefirot as we count each day. Each week a different Sefira is perfected and refined. This first week of Sefirat Haomer reflects upon the attribute of Chesed, wherein love predominates.

   With this thought in mind I begin to reflect on how our Seder experience, with all it's beauty and inspiration, will continue to influence our behavior in the coming months.

     I sense our answer is forthcoming from our celebration of the last two days of the Yom Tov.

   On the Seventh day of Pesach we will read from our Torah the episode of the parting of the Red Sea  permitting the Jewish People to escape the wrath of the onslaught of the Egyptian army that were in hot pursuit .

    I am always in awe of that great miracle that took place at ים סוף permitting the Jewish People to walk through on dry land to safety while the Egyptians were catapulted into oblivion. 

    As the Jews realized the great miracle that was performed for them, they uttered the following words

עזי וזמרת קה ויהי לישועה ,"The Lord is my strength and He is my salvation"

זה קלי ואנוהו אלוקי אבי וארוממנהו "

"He is my G-D and I will glorify Him, my father's G-D and I will exalt Him".

    As I revisit this great episode in Jewish history, though it is a historical event to be remembered always in our hearts and minds, I am beginning to realize, more and more, that it has become an existential experience which seems to always happen in the life of a Jew. It can be summed up in these words, הלכו ביבשה בתוך הים, the Jew always seems to walk in the midst of torrential seas.  So many are watching and waiting for our demise in these waters of hate and it is at these times that we need to walk through these waters of destruction with all the energetic force we can muster for our survival. 

  It is at these times of crisis that I hear, once again, the words of Hashem to Moshe at the Red Sea as he crys  out to Hashem in desperation. G-D says to Moshe,

 מה תצעק אלי, " Why are you crying out to me , why do you stand so inactive, tell the people, יסעו, "Tell them to go forward". 

    In life one has to take the initiative. One has to move forward. Standing and doing nothing will not solve our problems and surely will not bring upon our salvation.

   The Medrash stresses this point even more so when it relates, אמר הקבה לא עת עתה להאריך בתפלה כשישראל נתונין בצרה"Hashem says to Moshe, "This is not the time for lengthy prayer when Israel is in trouble, now is a time for action". 

    No one is denying the importance of  Prayer. Indeed our Betachon evidences it's efficacy, but we must begin to realize that life demands our action and our efforts to achieve our goals in life. If we stand on the sidelines, rather than jump into the fray of life we will not  achieve our life sustaining forces. We must remember , יסעו, to travel the roads of life and with our actions and our deep abiding faith we will  reach our Promised Land.

    As the holiday of Pesach concludes, we take the memories of this beautiful and inspiring Chag with us on our journey towards Sinai.

   We pray that Almighty G-D'S Chesed will always be showered upon us and we will all declare, together,

 זה קלי ואנוהו ,

"This is our G-D and we shall glorify Him".

    " We may not be able to control the wind , but we can adjust the sails"

                                         חג שמח 

EXPERIENTIAL SEDER

     As Pesach draws closer and we are getting ready for the Seder I am reminded of a letter sent by Rebbe Kalonymus Kalman ע״ה of Piasceztna, to his followers, on Pesach 5699, (1939).

    "My dear ones, I am calling to you and speaking to your souls. The Holy days of Pesach are approaching and the Holiness of these days infuse us thoroughly, inside and outside. Their light fills us and encompasses us.

    It is stated אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה, 'light is sown for the righteous and there is joy for the upright of the heart׳s'.

Like a field needs plowing and hoeing and watering so do we need to prepare  ourselves before the Chag. Without preparation there can be no joy, no growth and no light. With all the preparations needed for the festival we must be careful not to divert our attention from ourselves and not to forget to draw down the Holiness of the season. The main aspect of the festival is to be joyful, to praise and glorify Hashem for all the miracles and all the goodness."

   In essence, the Rebbe is saying that the Yom Tov of Pesach is a time to rejoice over our tremendous good fortune and for the privilege we have to engage in the Avodah of the Seder. We need to reiterate to ourselves; "My joy is without bounds. I have been granted the opportunity to achieve my purpose  in the world and to be elevated to the upper spheres and to glorify His great name and to draw down the Holy splendor of Hashem's light into my soul and the souls of my family."

   To achieve this glorious feeling at our Seder we must focus on what  I consider, the most important directive as recorded in the Hagadah.

   בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים

"In every generation ,we are obligated to see ourselves as if we had personally come out of Egypt "

   The Rambam,on a play on words, says, not only לראות to see ourselves, but להראות, to present ourselves, which means to show others that we feel this way. 

    Since we must recite the Hagadah to others, as implied by the question and answer approach required at our Seder, it follows that the manner in which a person performs all the other Pesach practices must also  demonstrates to others his personal expierence of the Exodus.

  The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchikזצ׳ל extends this idea and says that we must make our memories at the Seder come alive. As we celebrate and remember the past events of our history, we do something more profound than merely remembering , we reenact the past and recreate past events and by doing so, we enter into the expierence as if we are there. In this way, events of the past do not remain ancient history, for by recreating them we bring them to life.

    This is the beauty of the Yom Tov of Pesach. We, with our children, are becoming one with the past and the present, and consequently we will give the future an energizing force that will keep Judaism ablaze in our hearts, minds and actions.

   This idea is so important for me personally, for it becomes a reality to our family as we welcome a visit with our parents and grandparents by placing on our Seder table, our mother's candle sticks, our father's and grandfather's Matzoh covers, their Kosot and especially their Kos shel Eliyahu. They not only visit us, spiritually, on this special night, but they become part of our inner beings to be ever preserved, revered and truly remembered in a very real and positive way. 

     We then see the glory of Pesach  as the epitome of an observance where we turn the past into a living experience.

It is so magnificent to celebrate the past as if it is the present. In doing so, our history is alive and vibrant and it impacts upon us more greatly than we would ever imagine. 

  With our Seder observances we  begin to realize that our  past is vital, flowing into our future in a creative fashion that gives spiritual life to all the participants.

   This is what Judaism is all about. Judaic life, it's laws and minhagim are invigorating and life sustaining.

  Let us gather with our families with joy in our hearts and hope in our beings at our Seder and together recite , לפיכך אנחנו חיבים להודות ולהלל ולשבח we give thanks to the Almighty for all of our Blessings, and especially for the love of family and dear friends and together we will echo the wish, לשנה  הבאה בירושלים הבנויה.

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   Please permit me to share this insightful D'var Torah with you and  I hope that you will discuss it with your family.

    In our Hagadah, as an introduction to describing the four sons , it says; ברוך המקום ברוך הוא," Blessed is G-D , Hamakom, blessed is He".

  The question I pose, "Why is G-D referred to as Hamakom?"

    Chazal teaches us that one of Hashem's names is Hamakom.  This is based upon the idea that G-D is the מקום של עולם 'the place of the world.׳ This interpretation expresses the idea  that  G-D embraces the universe and that the universe is within G-D.

 The Rav, offers another insight into this idea. He said that Hashem is called"place" or "home" to emphasize a very important aspect of G-D'S involvement in our lives.

  The Rav said to be homeless does not mean that a person does not have a roof over his head.  Someone can have a strong roof and feel secure in his home, but can still remain exposed, insecure and vulnerable. The only home where man can find security is within G-D, which is why a person who is close to G-D and feels he is protected by His guiding hand, is a person who is truly "at home". This is the experience of knowing Hashem as   המקום.

This feeling of being at "home" is greatly felt as we sit together at our Seder with our family and friends.

We begin to understand why this night of all nights is referred to as  לל שמורים , a night of protection, of feeling secured with the knowledge that Hashem is with us.  To a certain extent the night of Pesach becomes as brilliant and aglow as if it was daytime.  

May we all embrace this glorious hour with greater love and fellowship that will extend itself for the entire year.

                                                חג שמח