How is it that we seal our covenant with Hashem and His Torah? "Moshe took half the blood and placed it in basins, and half the blood he threw upon the altar. He took the Book of the Covenant and read it in earshot of the people and they said, "Everything that Hashem has said, we will do and we will obey!" Moshe took the blood and threw it upon the people, and he said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that Hashem sealed with you concerning all these matters (Exodus 24:6-8)." Rashi comments that the covenant was sealed with a sacrificial offering. The psalmist makes reference to this: "Gather unto Me My devout ones, sealers of My covenant through sacrifice (Psalm 50:3)." Now, in the absence of the Beit HaMikdash, we are the sacrifices that seal our commitment to Hashem. Through the exiles, Jews have sacrificed their lives and the lives of their families rather than deny Hashem and His Torah. It is our willingness to sacrifice all that is precious to us that invests our lives with holiness and purpose.

 

23rd of Tishrei, October 22, 2008

 

In Psalm 74, the psalmist teaches us how the contemplation of our exile and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash can strengthen us. The very fact of our "hitting rock bottom" imbues Assaf with the hope and conviction that the crisis will pass and the redemption come into being. Assaf therefore addresses Hashem, demanding that He consider the enemies’ actions and statements. "Remember this! The enemy has insulted the Lord, and a people of amoral men has blasphemed Your Name (v. 18)." Rav Hirsch explains that it is not that the enemy curses G-D in general, but that he attacks the G-D of the Jews in particular. "He blasphemes G-D as Judaism conceives Him to be, the Leader and Guide of human history, Who brings about man’s future and his eventual salvation before which all violence, wrong and immorality must vanish." Assaf asks Hashem to consider the impact of allowing such amoral individuals to triumph. Will not Hashem’s own cause be weakened when we who are His nation are defeated?

 

Moadim L’Simcha. Copyright, 2008 Rachel Lerner