THE HAND OF HASHEM

  This past week I was traveling  down Broadway in Woodmere.  The traffic was horrendous and in my impatience to get to my destination I was wondering, "Why so much traffic?"

   The answer came very quickly as I saw a number of buses with many anxious parents milling around and waiting for their children returning from camp. 

   As they alighted from the buses running into the open arms of their parents I experienced the magnificent Blessings of life that centers around family.

   In this  week's Sedrah Ekev, we read the second paragraph of Kriat Shmah. The one statement that always stands out in my mind, which can be described as the essence of Jewish Family Life is

                                    ולמדתם אתם את בניכם לדבר בם..

Teach them to your children , even when you are home and when you travel  

   

    This, indeed, is our tremendous obligation, and, even more so, our greatest pleasure that will bring our most profound sense of Nachas.

   I remember well, when the Rav spoke of the beauty of 

G-D, which is experienced as Holiness, as something which transcends everything comprehensible and speakable, that makes one expierence the ultimate bliss. 

    Hashem is both remote and yet so near, awesome and lovely, fascinating and daunting, majestic and tender, comforting and frightening, familiar and alien, beyond of creation and it's very essence. 

   Then the Rav went on to speak glowingly about his family. He said, "Of all I learned from my Mother was that Judaism expresses itself not only in formal compliance with the law but also in the living . She taught me that there is a flavor, a scent and warmth to Mitzvot. I learned from her the most important thing in life - to feel the presence of  the Almighty and the gentle pressure of His hand upon my frail shoulders."

   What a magnificent testimony to parents and,  specifically, to a mothers influence in our lives. That is the pride I witnessed as those youngsters alighted from the bus into the arms of loving and dedicated parents and grandparents. 

   This is the fulfillment of the dictum 

ולמדתם את בניכם.

    As our children prepare to return to school, for the new year, let us embrace this great opportunity of teaching them the values of life in a loving and caring way and someday they will also realize and feel the hand of Hashem on their shoulders.

   שבת שלום