A PESACH STORY WITH A LESSON

There is a kehilla in Bnei Brak founded by the late Rabbi Ungar, known as Chug Chasam Soffer. This was formed after the Second World War, basically, consisting of survivors of the Holocaust, their children and other Jews from Hungary who escaped, especially in 1956, when there was a revolution there.

In 1978, one of the Baale Batim, Reb Yaakov, came to Rabbi Ungar one morning looking very troubled.

“Rebbe, I must speak to you about a dream I have had”.

Reb Yaakov proceeded to tell Rav Ungar the following:-

“I ended up in Auschwitz early in 1944 and was among a group who worked very hard and, therefore, lived rather than being burnt in the ovens. We had to get up at 5.30 in the morning and by 6.30 we were walking ten kilometres to the factory where we worked all day coming back about 6.00 or 7.00 in the evening, knocked out. We were then given our meagre rations for the day, watery soup and a little bread etc.

In the same block occupying the next bunk was a very Holy Jew, Reb Leibl, a בנן של קדושים. A few weeks elapsed and he said to me, “Do you know that Pesach is coming”. I nodded my assent. “Do you know that we have to have matzos on Pesach”. I looked at him in utter surprise. “We must do something about getting some matzos for Pesach”, said R’ Leibl. The very thought of trying to organise matzos for Pesach made me shiver, continued R’ Yaakov.

Nevertheless, everyday, I got this comment and request that I must do something about it.

Whilst I was walking to my work, one day, I noticed that there was some wheat stored in a shed which we passed every day. This gave me the thought that I could possibly obtain some so on the way back one day, I slipped out of line and managed to get a quantity of wheat. I did it once again, and managed to bring it back to our bunk. I then had the problem of how to grind it but with the aid of two stones, very primitively eventually ground the wheat and made flour.

There was still the problem of how to bake the matzos. I took the flour with to the factory I was working in, where there was an oven and eventually located a metal tray which I cleaned and put in the oven and so kashered it. I then mixed the wheat with water and eventually managed to make a few matzos.

You understand, Rebbe, that all this was extremely difficult and dangerous, I was very nervous that I would be caught but, Boruch Hashem, I managed to do this without any of the guards noticing what I was doing. Having managed to make the matzos, and by this time it was almost Pesach. I had to smuggle them back in with me to the barracks. This was much more difficult, because I could not just put things in my pocket as I had the flour, these were whole matzos.

I got to the outside of the concentration camp of Auschwitz and a guard looked me up and down but did not spot that I was clutching three matzos under my thin and torn clothes. I managed to get as far as the entrance to the barracks, at which point another guard did spot the matzos and asked me what they were, when I told him matzos, he gave me a tremendous beating and I went flying, he then stamped on the matzos in bestial anger. After I recovered I noticed that there was still some fragments of matzos lying around and I picked up the broken pieces as fast as possible and made it finally into my bunk.

Unfortunately, all that I had managed to save was enough for one kezias, כזית, I offered it to R’ Leibl, after all it was his idea. He in turn insisted that I had to eat it because I had risked my life time and again until I managed to make the matzos and had even been beaten up on the way back bringing the remains into the block.

Eventually, we compromised, R’ Leibl would eat the matzo on Seder night and I would get the zechus, the merit for the mitzvah.

Came leil Seder and R’ Leibl ate the matzo with great kavonnoh. Of course, you understand that everything had to be done very quietly because there were guards patrolling all the time and that at the slightest hint of anything they would come round and beat up the person, and they could kill the person as well.

We, together, tried to say the haggodah quietly and you can imagine the tears when we started Ho Lachma Anya.

The next morning, at 4.30 or so, R’ Leibl decided he wanted to daven Shacharis before roll call at 5.30 and he started very quietly in order to not attract attention. Unfortunately, when he got to Hallel, he lost himself and started the brocha and by the time he got to the end of the brocha, he said it loud. The guard noticed this, came over and gave him such a beating that a few hours later, he passed away.

I meanwhile, continued the horrible experience of Auschwitz and survived and Boruch Hashem I now have children and grandchildren who go in the Yiddishe way and I am here still to tell the tale.

Last night, I had a dream, I saw R’ Leibl, who came and said to me “I am in a very special place in Gan Eden, but I am short of one mitzvah, the mitzvah of eating that kezias of matzo on the Pesach night before I died, I have not got it because I gave it to you, I am asking you, please give me that zechus, that merit of the mitzvah, that I actually ate the kezias myself.”

I replied, said R’ Yaakov, “A deal is a deal, this is what we agreed”, and he could not persuade me. I went back to sleep and then he came a second time and asked me again.

“Rebbe,” he said to Rav Unger “ what do you say I should do.”

Rabbi Ungar said to him “you know there is a very Holy Rebbe living here in the district, the Alter Machnovker Rebbe, he went through lots of tzorres in Russia until he came out, go and ask him”.

So R’ Yaakov went to the Machnovker Rebbe and told him the whole story. The Rebbe looked at him and said, R’ Leibl is right, that would be the correct thing to do,  , namely to give the zechus, the merit of the mitzvah to R’ Leibl. אס איז יושר.

R’ Yaakov was taken aback. But why Rebbe, he protested, we made a deal. Yes, said the Rebbe, but you are here to tell the tale, you are still making a Seder with your children and grandchildren, you have lots of other mitzvos which you have managed to perform for the last 34 years. It would be very nice of you to give him the zechus of that particular mitzvah. The Rebbe continued, however, you have got to say it, that is tell him that with your full heart you are mochel him the agreement and that you are giving him the zechus of the mitzvah.

R’ Yaakov nodded, and said “alright Rebbe, if you say so I will do so.”

The Rebbe said to him Do the following. Here you have two keys one is of the Bais Hamedrash (which was adjacent to where the Rebbe lived) and one is of the Aron Hakodesh. It is now the middle of the night, I want you to go into the Bais Hamedrash, turn on a light, open the Aron Hakodesh and say that you are mochel R’ Leibl the zechus, you want him to have it in your stead.

With trembling hands R’ Yaakov took the keys, went into the Bais Hamedrash and when he opened the Aron Hakodesh, the floodgates of the all the tzorres that he been through in Auschwitz opened up and he cried torrents of tears. He managed, with a choking voice, to say to Hashem that he wanted R’ Leibl to have the zechus of that particular mitzvah of having eaten the kezias of matzo that night in Auschwitz.

Finally, he closed the Aron Hakodesh, feeling much better. He locked the door of the Bais Hamedrash, the Shammas was standing there. He gave the keys to the Shammas and said, I know the Rebbe wanted to speak to me after I had opened the Aron Hakodesh but I am feeling much too emotional and drained now. I will come and see him the morning.

That night, R’ Yaakov had another dream, R Leibl came to him and said, “Thank you very much, you do not know how much you have done by having given me the zechus of that kezais of matzo”.

The next morning, R Yaakov went back to the Rebbe and told him everything. The Rebbe smiled and said, you did the right thing.

This is a modern day example of mesirus nefesh. One can also appreciate the zechus that every Yid has for every mitzvo done, especially, if this is done under difficult circumstances.

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START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 2nd May 2013

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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SIMCHA ON YOM TOV

The mitzvah of simcha on Yom Tov is not mentioned on Pesach at all, on Shavuos it is mentioned once and on Succos it is mentioned twice.

In respect of Shavuos the Torah tells us at the end of the sedra ראה, chapter ט''ז, posek י''א.
ושמחת לפני ה' אלקיך אתה ובנך ובתך ועבדך ואמתך והלוי אשר בשעריך והגר והיתום והאלמנה אשר בקרבך במקום אשר יבחר ה' אלקיך לשכן שמו שם

And you shall rejoice before Hashem, your G-d, you and your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid servant, the Levite who lives in your gates, the proselyte, the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place which Hashem will choose to make his name dwell there.

From the wording of the פסוק it appears that this mitzvah of simcha does not just apply to the males but to everybody in the Bnei Yisroel.

Further on, where Succos is mentioned, the Torah says that on each of the שלש רגלים, the high festivals, the males should come to Jerusalem in the very same place, במקום אשר יבחר.

Here, however, it appears that in the case of Shavuos the Torah is telling us that everybody should join in the simcha and that it should be at the place of the Shechina, namely the בית המקדש, the Temple. Why should it be that just in the case of Shavuos, everybody should be enjoined to come to Jerusalem and the Temple and join the simcha?

Perhaps this could be understood with a fact mentioned by Reb Chaim Vital, the chief pupil of the Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria and the person who wrote down his deep and mystical teachings.

He stated that the Arizal told him that he had reached his very high levels, מדרגות, because he performed mitzvos and learned Torah b’simcha, joyfully.

One can, perhaps, understand why this was by comparing it in some small way to the fact that the Queen of England has garden parties and many people attend and consider it a privilege. She is shown due reverence and people are in awe of her on these occasions.

If, however, a person shows genuine happiness at being invited and states this to the Queen herself, it would be very possible and even likely that the Queen’s reaction would be to invite that person into her personal apartment for a private audience.

That person would be privy to secrets not afforded to other people.

The Torah was given on Shavuos, Hashem, Himself, בכבודו ובעצמו, proclaimed the ten commandments to all of the Bnei Yisroel, male, female, children etc. Every year, when Shavuos comes round again, a הארה, a certain illumination of that happening returns and we are all given the chance to have a very strong spiritual uplift akin to that which the Bnei Yisroel experienced at מתן תורה.

The holiest place in the world where the Shechina resided was the Bais Hamikdosh and, therefore, I would suggest that all people, men, women, children etc. were enjoined to visit the Bais Hamikdosh on Shavuos with simcha. By doing that, they were enabled to have a special uplift which otherwise they could not have aspired to.

In some small way, nowadays, by us all attending the בתי מקדש מעט, the small Shuls and places of learning on Shavuos and accepting, once again, the Torah, b’simcha, we can also aspire to a special spiritual uplift but, understandably in a lesser form.

I understand that in certain kehillas, including Lubavitch, to this day, it is the custom that all members of each family, young and old come to Shul on Shavuos to hear the עשרת הדיברות.

Perhaps the above idea is the מקור, the source of this minhag.

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