As you are well
aware, we are in the period between Pesach and Shavuos, and have been busy
counting the Omer over the past few weeks, we are now up to 37 days ל''ז and there
is less than two weeks to go until the Yom Tov of Shavuos.
At the time of
the Bais Hamikdosh, the sefiras ha’omer was to enable us to ensure that fresh
produce, wheat should be brought as a special offering. However, in addition,
it was a time for introspection and the build up between the time the Yidden
were originally taken out of Egypt at the beginning of Pesach until kabbolas
Hatorah, the Torah was given seven weeks later.
Nowadays, we
concentrate on improving ones middos, the qualities that we all possess.
Our great Rabbis
enacted long ago the learning and saying Pirkei Ovos, best translated as the Ethics
of our fathers, each Shabbos on the six weeks between Pesach and Shavuos.
We know that
there are very important fundamental principles and deep insights mentioned in
Pirkei Ovos in the name of numerous famous Rabbis, mainly the Tannoim, mentioned
in detail.
We are now up to
the fifth perek which talks more about generalities. It starts off with the
fact that Hashem created the world with ten maamoros, ten utterances, and then
talks about the ten generations between Odom and Noach and the ten miracles
that happened in Mitzraim and eventually the ten nissim that took place
regularly in the Bais Hamikdosh etc.
Later on in the
perek, namely mishnas י, that’s the tenth mishna to ט''ו, 15, there are five mishnas all starting
with four middos, four different qualities. In a person, In his ideas as far as
pupils being taught, Giving tzedokah, People going to a Beis Hamedrash and
generally sitting before learned Rabbis, the Chochomim.
If one looks at
all this these mishanyos in depth, one finds time and again, the stress on the
latent difference between various middos, various qualities, to the extent that
one mishna states הולך
ועושה חסיד that
a person who goes to the Beis Hamedrash and learns is a chosid and if somebody
does not go and does not do things the way he ought to, he is a rosha.
After we have
had a whole month of learning in Pirkei Ovos, going through various sayings of
great Tannoim on an individual level, the Pirkei Ovos carries on with general
principles pointing out the good and bad of middos. This is obviously in order
to give people the incentive to improve their middos having highlighted what is
good and what is bad in general terms.
We are all
individuals, we all have different qualities, some better than others which we
are born with or acquire during our formative years and even later.
The challenge is
to try to improve our middos. I believe that, unfortunately, what people very often do not do, is think
about where they have weaknesses in their middos.
Fifty years ago,
unfortunately, many, many people spoke loshen hora. The Manchester Rosh
Yeshiva, Rabbi Segal ז''ל started a campaign and this has been very successful in
highlighting the problem and so many people are now learning the Chofetz
Chaim’s sefer or something based on it, that there is a great awareness and
that particular problem has been tackled considerably. However, there are many
other weak links in the chain.
After all, there
are 613 mitzvos and numerous of them are bein Odom l’chaveroi, interpersonal
relationships. Whether these are in connection with monetary matters or
sensitivities between man and his fellow man, and for that matter ladies and
their fellow ladies or any combination of the above, and alternatively between
man and his Creator are all part of the same totality of middos. The idea is
that during the sefiras ha’omer, we should examine our own selves in depth and
try to work on our middos. We all have weaknesses.
By the way, it
is no excuse to say “everybody does it”, I still recall, when I was a bochur in
yeshiva that somebody else was speaking in a derogatory manner about gedolei Yisroel
and when I mildly pointed out that to me it seemed wrong to say such things
being loshon hora, rechilas or motzei shemra or possibly all of them, the
retort was “Oh everybody does that nowadays”.
It really is not
an excuse!!
Some people
think that by looking at mussar seforim or articles in our Jewish press this
can lead to great improvement. Yes it is possible!! The best way of doing so is
to inspect oneself or alternatively ask a good friend, an honest friend, a true
friend, to give, in a positive way, an opinion of where a particular person’s
weaknesses lie. It is those particular weaknesses that need to be addressed. It
is the totality of a person that needs to be brought up to standard.
I mentioned the
Chofetz Chaim before, and, of course, his classic sefer on shemiras haloshen
helped hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our brethren to improve
themselves and continues to do so. The Chofetz Chaim, himself, was not only a
great scholar and educator, he understood human psychology. I was told by one
of his grandchildren, who I had the privilege to receive in my house years ago,
that the Chofetz Chaim authored numerous seforim but only ones which he felt that
the need for them was important and where there was a gap that needed to be
filled. For example, he wrote a sefer specifically for Jewish soldiers in the
Russian army and all the problems they had, what they could do and regarding
which matters they had to absolutely stand firm and not give in. There were
many other seforim of a similar nature written by him.
I believe a story
that I heard regarding the Chofetz Chaim sums up what I am trying to emphasise
today.
When the Chofetz
Chaim was elderly, over 85 years of age, he came to Vilna unannounced and
called for the Rosh Hakohol, the Jewish president of Vilna, who, of course,
immediately came to see the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim told him, I want
to make a major speech, a drosha, in the biggest Shul in the whole of Vilna
tomorrow night. The president nodded. “But, however,” said the Chofetz Chaim,
“I actually want to make two droshos, one night after the other,” The president
was taken aback.
The Chofetz
Chaim continued, I would like you to arrange that the first night, the only
people allowed in are the baalabatim, that is the people who work for their
living and do no study full time or act as Rabbis, Roshei Yeshiva, etc. You, as
the president, will know everybody and will know who to let in. The next night,
I want to reverse the situation, you only let in the Rabbis, the Roshei Yeshiva,
the people learning in Yeshiva or Kollel, the melamdim, the Jewish teachers but
not the baalabatim.
The Rosh Hakohol
went about organising matters and the next evening, he stood at the door of the
biggest Shul and carefully ensured that the only people allowed in were the
baalabatim, the ordinary lay people. If a Rov or a Rosh yeshiva, or for that
matter anybody sitting and learning full time (or most of the time) tried to
gain admission, he firmly stopped him. “This is not for you” he said. “I have
had instructions by the Chofetz Chaim himself” Finally, he closed the doors and
went in to the listen with everybody else.
The Chofetz
Chaim spoke for a full hour, even though he was old and weak. He extolled the
fact that the baalabatim of Vilna were very good Jews, who kept Yiddishkeit and
tried their best. “However,” he continued, “you all work very hard and find it
difficult to make parnoso as I am aware, but you must really try and set aside
sometime every day, preferably in the morning and in the evening, to learn some
Torah. If you can’t learn something difficult like Gemora or Mishnayos, learn
Ein Yaakov. Learn Kitzer Shulchan Oruch, learn Chumash Rashi. Learns something,
please. Every Jew must learn some Torah to be connected with Torah.”
And then he
turned to Tefilla. He said to them “I am sure that you all daven, but does
everybody go to daven with a minyan everyday, I know it is difficult especially
for Mincha in the middle of the day, but you must realise how great the mitzvah
is davenning with a minyan. Not only that, one has to think about what one is
davenning and not have the mind preoccupied with business or other matters, and
of course, not to speak or interrupt in the middle of davening.” Then he
proceeded to tzedokah. “I know that many of you have difficulties in parnoso,
but nevertheless, there always is somebody worse off and it is a mitzvah to
help other people, giving something to tzedokoh.”
By the time the
Chofetz Chaim was finished his drosha an hour later, he was very tired.
The next night,
the Rabbonim, the Roshei Yeshiva, yeshiva bochurim, people who learnt in the
Kollel as well the melamdim, all crowded in to listen to the Chofetz Chaim,
once again the president stood at the door and did not let in any baalabatim,
any laymen at all.
However, when he
closed the doors, he, himself, being curious as to what the Chofetz Chaim would
say, went inside rather than staying outside. He heard a different type of
drosha. The Chofetz Chaim started off by praising all these marvellous people
who dedicated themselves to learning and disseminating Torah, day and night and
mentioned that Vilna was known as the Yerushalayim de Lita, just like
Yerushalayim of old, where there were so many Talmidei Chochomim as well as
erliche baalabatim.
But the Chofetz
Chaim continued, you have also to consider other matters, is there possibly, an
almona or yesomim, a widow or orphans living near you, who perhaps have not got
what to eat or need some spiritual uplift by being invited for a Shabbos meal
etc. Don’t think that because you are learning all day that you have no responsibility
when it comes to other mitzvos, maasim tovim, doing good deeds.” And he went on
by enumerating various ways that Talmidei Chochomim could help other people,
including, of course, learning with laymen who perhaps were comparatively
speaking amei Ha’eretz (that means ignoramuses) when it came to learning.
And so the
Chofetz Chaim continued with this theme until an hour later, completely
exhausted, he finished his drosha.
The president,
accompanied the Chofetz Chaim home and then asked the Chofetz Chaim the
following “Rebbe, I must confess my sin. Although I heard your drosha the first
night, when it came to shutting the doors the second night, I slipped inside
the Shul. I see how tired you are, how you are physically and mentally
exhausted, why could you not have given one big drosha, one night, for say and
hour and a quarter and have mentioned all the points, that you went through
during the two different droshas.”
The Chofetz Chaim
replied with a smile, “You do not, perhaps, understand human psychology, if I
would have done what you suggested, and would have talked about learning, namely,
that one has to learn Torah whoever one is, every Jew has the mitzvah, what
would have happened is that laymen, the ignorant baalabatim, who work very hard
would have said, he does not mean me, he is talking about the Talmidei
Chochomim, the people who sit and learn 8 and 10 hours a day. The Talmidei
Chochomim would have thought, yes, of course, the Chofetz Chaim is right and
they would learn an extra hour or two because of it.”
The same would
have happened regarding Tefilla, the klei kodesh would have taken longer over
their davenning and tried to increase their kavannah and the baalabatim would
think to themselves, it is not for us.
“Conversely,
when I made mention of not forgetting the almonos and the yesomim, and looking
after such people, the Talmidei Chochomim reaction would have been, he is not
talking about us, we learn all day long, we will leave it to the baalabatim.”
“So,” continued
the Chofetz Chaim, “the net result would have been that the Rabbis would have
learned more whereas the baalabatim would have concentrated on chesed, but I
wanted them to understand that each one of them has to be well rounded.”
I think this
sums up the point that I am trying to make.
On a practical
level, every generation has its own nisyonos, its own tests. In our generation,
one of them is the mobile phone. I believe that approximately 90% of the population
has at least one such instrument and uses it frequently. However, some people
unfortunately, overuse it. It is, of course, vital in special circumstances and
very often useful in other circumstances.
However, I
believe that it is very often overused to the extent that some people cannot
turn it off but must have it open at all times, except, of course, for Shabbos
and Yom Tov.
We all know that
there are emergencies where a mobile phone is a great asset and can be very
instrumental in saving lives etc.
I have, however,
found, unfortunately too often, when trying to daven that somebody’s mobile
goes off in the middle of davening which not only disturbs the whole atmosphere
but is also against the whole culture of davenning and becoming close to Hashem.
I have even, on
odd occasions, to my amazement noticed people taking out a mobile whilst
davening Shemoneh Esrah. When I remonstrated with a particular individual
regarding this, he was taken aback, he genuinely did not remember that he had
done so, because it had become such an ingrained habit to forever look at
whatever message buzzed, even on vibrator.
On a more mundane
note, when people are talking together and the mobile rings it often takes
precedence over conversations being held face to face and I wonder whether that
is correct.
The only time
that I can say that I wish that myself and my wife had a mobile each is when we
are at a Simcha and try to contact one another to arrange when to go home.
It certainly has
good uses. It just needs training and thought about how to utilise it in the
best possible way without it taking over a person’s life and, on occasion,
actually transgressing a halocho.
Similar remarks
could be made about other modern inventions, but I leave it everybody to
reflect on what I am saying in their own specific circumstances.
Looking at the
sedra we have just read, Emor, one of the parshas starts off
וספרתם
לכם ממחרת השבת מיום הביאכם את עמר התנופה שבע שבתןת תמימת תהיימה
You should count
from after Shabbos (meaning after the first day Pesach) seven complete weeks.
I have asked
numerous people how you spell the word temimos, is it spelt תמימות in Torah or תמימת and most
people have plumped for the full word, תמימות and even added that it should be מלא, complete,
full, because in fact it is not just 49 days, we are talking about 50 days, if
anything over full.
Surprisingly
enough, the word is spelt in Torah without the ו, it is spelt תמימת. If you look carefully at this word, you
will see that it is a palindrome, it spells the same backwards and forwards. I
believe that the remez here is that one should improve ones middos so that they
are the same backwards and forwards.
To give you a
practical example, if one considers a diamond which has been taken out of the
earth, it has to cut and cut again until it forms a perfect shape. If you look
at the perfectly cut diamond, every angle that you look at, shines beautifully
and that is what תמימת is about, one has to improve ones middos so that they should
shine whichever side you look at the personality of each individual.
I would only add
that I, like most people, am still working very hard on this, it is not an easy
job, but Rabbi Tarphon says in Pirkei Ovos
לא עליך
המלאכה לגמור ולא אתנבן חויין להבטל ממנה
A person is not
expected to be able to complete his works, but because of that is not allowed
to say, I won’t try at all. Let’s all try our best.
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