Ki Tisa: Stale Cookies, New Rebbe=Purim. Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel
?Leader of the Jewish people. 4min. video??? https://youtu.be/qhK2leYg3uIParshat
Ki Tisa
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This week's reading contains the sin of the Golden Calf (Egel shel Zahav) and coincides with the holiday of Purim (this Thurs. night).One similarity between the Calf and of Purim is that both began in tragedy and were resolved (and transformed) by the leaders of their generation; Moses and Mordechi.
In both cases the Jews sinned seriously and then their leaders brought them back to their Jewish senses. Showing that without proper leaders the Jews cannot exist.But why?
Why can’t Jews just get it right on their own?
Also, in our section we see a strange thing; After G-d forgave the Jewish people for the Golden Calf, He tells Moses,
"Behold, I am making a covenant: Before your people I will do miracles that never have been created in the entire world or the nations … etc. (34:10).
But, in fact, we don’t see any new miracles after this!!That is why Rashi (the main elucidator of the Torah) explains that here the word that usually means 'miracles' (Nifla'ot), here means ‘Lift up’; G-d was telling the Jews that He was raising them above the other nations.What exactly does this mean? And why did G-d wait till after the sin of the Golden Calf to do it?
So too with Purim: The Talmud tells us that Purim is HIGHER than all the Jewish holidays … even Yom Ha Kipurim is only 'Ki' (something like) Purim!
What could make Purim the greatest Jewish holiday?
To understand this here are two stories.
Shortly before the Six-Day war the Lubavitcher Rebbe announced to his Chassidim that, because the commandment of Tefillin brings out the intrinsic holiness in every Jew, puts fear into the heart of our enemies and protects our soldiers, they should actively offer every Jew in the world, especially those in Israel and more especially the Israeli soldiers, the chance to put on Tefillin.
The idea worked; thousands of Jews in Israel and elsewhere put on Tefillin, many for the first time in their lives, and we won the Six-Day war.In fact, it worked so well that after the war the Rebbe told his followers to continue with the Tefillin campaign.Our story begins shortly after this in Brooklyn. A group of young Chabad Chassidim left their yeshiva one Friday to visit a nearby Jewish hospital to look for Jews who were willing to put on tefillin.The boys left in such a rush that they skipped breakfast so one of them volunteered to buy some refreshments. They stopped at a nearby supermarket, he jumped out of the car, ran in and grabbed some fruits, drinks and a box of kosher cookies, paid and jumped back into the car.
On the way they ate pulling food from the bag. But to their disappointment they discovered the cookies he bought turned out to be a box of stale Hamantashin (Purim cookies) almost six months old!Needless to say, the Hamantashin were left behind in the car untouched while they entered the hospital to do the work of the Rebbe.They met with much success; many of Jews in the hospital agreed to put on Tefillin, some for the first time since they had left concentration camps in Poland.
But then they came up against Max.
Max must have been close to ninety and as soon as they entered his room he shouted, "What do you want here? Get out! Go jump in the lake!!" They explained that they were only asking people to put on Tefilin ....."But he didn't let them finish. "I'm just as close to G-d as you! I don't need your Tefillin and your rituals!! I have my own commandments. Now get out!!" And he turned his back to them."The young Chassidim didn't want to leave on such a bad note so one of them held out some of the fruit they had bought and said in the friendliest way he could muster up, "Hey, no hard feelings. We're leaving, we're leaving! Okay? But maybe you'd like a piece of fruit before we leave?""Fruit?" The old man turned to them and scoffed. "What, you think they don't have fruit here? Why don't you bring me something good? You know what? You want me to put on Tefillin? Well then" he said mockingly, "bring me a Hamantash!! I haven't had a Hamatash for forty years!! That's right! A Hamantash from Purim."
He was sure that the last thing they would have was a six-month-old cookie.
All the fellows stared at the one who bought the cookies. He ran from the room like a jet and returned moments later, out of breath, with the box of old Purim cookies that he had almost thrown into the garbage.
The old man couldn't believe his eyes as the young man opened the box and handed him a Hamantasch. He took it, examined it, sniffed it (it was still edible!) and even took a small bite (the fellows reminded him which blessing to make beforehand) and, for the first time in forty years, actually smiled ... !The Chassidim broke out in a Purim song and danced."Nu?" The old fellow said as he rolled up his sleeve. "I don't know where you got that hamantaschen but you got me in a corner! An agreement is an agreement. Where are the Tefillin?"It was the beginning of a long friendship. Chassidim came to visit him every day thereafter until he announced that he bought a pair of Tefillin for himself.
The second story took place years ago when the great and famous Torah genius Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveichik came to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Brooklyn to hear him speak to his thousands of Chassidim on 19th of Kislev; a major Chabad holiday.
He and the Rebbe had been old acquaintances; they had learned at the same time some thirty years earlier in the University of Berlin and had deep admiration for one another.As soon as Rabbi Soloveichik entered the Synagogue the Rebbe stood up in his honor and did not sit till his illustrious guest was seated next to him. They spoke warmly for several long minutes while the Chassidim sang and sang until the Rebbe turned to the crowd, they fell silent and he resumed speaking.When Rabbi Soloveichik left, the Rebbe again stood until he had gone.
Afterward Rabbi Soloveitchik was asked what was his impression of the Rebbe.He replied, as was his custom, with an example from the Torah portion of the week.
"We see that after the Jews sinned with the Golden Calf and Moses broke the First Tablets, G-d wanted to ‘wipe out the Jews and start anew with Moses. But Moses successfully convinced G-d to forgive them and even to replace the first Tablets with a second set.?The Torah then tells us that when Moses descended from Mount Sinai with these Second Tablets his face shone with such indescribable holiness (34: 29) that he had to cover it.
A question is asked; why didn’t his face shine previously when he went up to receive the first Tablets? Why only now when he descended with the second ones?"And the answer that is given is that with the First Tablets Moses was the greatest Torah Scholar in the world; G-d Himself personally was teaching him everything!"But when Moses descended with the second Tablets it was after he had devoted himself with total and constant self-sacrifice, heart and soul, to save the Jews who had sinned; each and every one! It was no wonder that his face shone with holiness.
"The Rebbe as I knew him thirty years ago" Rabbi Soloveichik concluded, "was the greatest scholar I had ever seen (incidentally the Rebbe said something similar about Rabbi Soloveichik). He knew literally everything, all the books all the commentaries, by heart and was totally devoted to the Torah."But now after being devoted to saving all the Jewish people non-stop with every fiber of his being for all these years.... his greatness is totally indescribable... like Moses shining face with the second Tablets. That is what I saw now.
"This answers our questions about the necessity of true Jewish leaders.
The Jewish people without leaders are lost, as Moses put it,' like sheep with no shepherd (Num. 26:17). In fact, all the problems they have ever had was a result of ignoring or disobeying these leaders.The Jews are a holy nation but when left on their own, without proper leaders, they forget and even deny it. Almost like a body without a head. And it takes a shock to return them to their Jewish senses.
The two outstanding times this shock occurred and they genuinely re-connected to their leaders, were; after the sin of the Golden Calf and some thousand years later after the decree of Haman on Purim. In both cases they sinned, saw the disastrous results, and repented; realizing how much their existence depended on Moses and Mordechai.But interestingly, according to Judaism one who repents is, in many ways, higher and holier than one who never sinned: as the Talmud (Brachot 34b) states, "Where Baali Tshuva stand even the greatest Tzadikim cannot.
"This was the unique ability of Moses and Mordechi; to ‘Lift Up’ the Jewish people to this highest level. But it required total self-sacrifice on their parts. As Rabbi Soloveichik perceived in the Rebbe.
And this will be totally achieved by the Moshiach but the closest we ever came to it was Purim.In Purim, back then almost 2,500 years ago all the Jews connected to Mordechi with total self-sacrifice for the entire year that the decree of annihilation hung over their heads. And their 'Tshuva' transformed the decree to joy and celebration.
That is the job of our generation; to be totally dedicated to the plan of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, awaken ourselves and all the Jews in the world to transform this terrible exile we are in to Joy, blessing and celebration for the entire world!!It all depends on us to bring Moshiach even one moment sooner.?We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought will bring …… ?Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
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