Hi Kids, I hope this finds you all well and happy. Although the party is IY"H next week and the hebrew one was last Sunday, happy birthday wishes this Shabbos to Talia - may you have a wonderful and meaningful personal rosh hashanah.
The topic that I thought I’d broach this week is "emunas chachamim" - relying on and consulting with Talmidei Chachamim/Tzadikim because they will advise us and stear us in the right direction.
First a few words - the connection to the parsha is through a ’vort’ by the "Imrei Emes", a former Gerer Rebbe; in brief, he proves that when Moshe told the nation to turn around back in the direction of Egypt, the divine cloud that they were following did not turn in that direction. Nevertheless, despite the seemingly absurd instruction from Moshe AND the miraculous cloud not following Moshe’s direction, the people chose en masse to follow their leader. This is not a sign of weakness but rather an understanding by all that they had a great leader who due to his superior wisdom, righteousness and close relationship to Hashem, was privy to more than could meet their eyes - it is a very proper and appropriate humility. I could have told any of many stories of how correct these tzadikim always turn out to be, but instead I found something that may help us instill this as instinct in our kids.
R’ Silberstein tells of a certain Rosh Yeshiva who came to raise money from a wealthy man in Ramat Gan. As he waited for the man to finish his business he couldn’t help but notice that despite the fact that the man could have been labeled ’modern orthodox’, his walls were richly and extensively decorated with pictures of Torah giants, tzadikim and various paintings and photos of ’bais medrash’ scenes. It was obvious that the man possessed an extraordinary love for Torah and respect for those who learn and live it. The Rosh Yeshiva couldn’t control his curiousity and in the course of his conversation with the man, asked him from where those feelings came. The man actually appreciated the question and told the story.
"The truth is that I can actually trace my love of Torah to one particular day," he explained. "I was only 12 years old when my parents sent me to learn in a yeshiva in a town near Vilna. The journey was a very long one and the food my mother packed for me did not last. By the time I reached the yeshiva, I had already not eaten for almost 2 days and was starving. Then when I approached the administrator to be assigned a home for "tegg" ( in those days yeshivos did not have a dining room but rather the people of the community fed groups of boys on certain days (tegg=days). With great sorrow, the administrator told me that I had come too late and all the places for tegg had been filled - he had nowhere to send me. I broke down crying, begging him to try harder as I was so hungry. Finally after a few minutes he told me that he had found me a place. It was the home of an extremely poor widow with a number of children. Despite their poverty, the woman constantly asked the yeshiva to send boys to her home for meals. The yeshiva usually avoided sending boys to her because it was difficult enough for her to feed her own children, but now the administrator had no choice. He got a message to her to expect someone and he sent me there. He warned me though, that because the children are orphans and the Torah is super-careful about their treatment, I should not take any food on my own but should wait until they give it to me so that I would not be taking food from hungry orphans. I agreed and headed to the house. I couldn’t help but cry once again on the way when I reflected on my fortune - sapped of almost all my strength from hunger being sent to a destitude home where the little food that I would probably receive would be taken from the mouths of orphans.
Almost fainting, I arrived at the house, wiped my tears and knocked on the door. It was lunchtime. A bunch of small children opened the door, huge smiles of excitement came to their faces as they yelled out," Mama Mama, come see, the talmid chacham is here, come see !!" They couldn’t be talking about me, I thought - I was only 12 - but there was no one else behind me. The kids continued calling their mother while jumping for joy at the arrival of the ’talmid chacham’. The widow came out of kitchen, greeted me warmly and sensing my weak state, immediately invited me to sit at the dining room table to eat lunch with the children. There were 8 plates set for the 8 children. In the middle of the table was a platter of food and an empty plate. All 8 kids took their portions from the big platter in the center but did not start eating. The mother then asked,"my sweet children, who can tell me who the empty plate is for." They all screamed the answer at once," for the talmid chacham, for the talmid chacham !!!" Spontaneously, competition broke out as to who would be the first one to give from his portion to the talmid chacham, and who would donate the most. Within seconds, that empty plate was full and eagerly passed to me. I ended up having more food that lunch than any meal I’d ever had even in my own house on a Yom Tov. Not only that, but the kids entertained me throughout the meal singing beautiful songs in praise of Torah and dancing around the table. They especially thanked Hashem for sending them such an important guest, and wouldn’t let me leave before promising them that I would return for other meals.
I did in fact return there numerous times over the period I attended that yeshiva, and I can testify to you Rabbi, that my love and affection for Torah and yeshivos comes directly from that home. I will even admit that those memories sustained me through the horrors of the war (holocaust), and kept me as a religious Jew until today. In the merit of that widow and her 8 angels do I donate most of my wealth to learners of Torah."
That simple woman inculcated her children with such an infectious love and respect, even reverence for Torah and talmidei chachamim.
While there are many beautiful lessons we could derive from this story, the one that struck me most was this one. It is one that is most definitely in our power to emulate. Even when they are perhaps too young to realize its true value, if we would, at every opportunity, show reverence and love for Torah and tzadikim ( and not display the ’adult’ skepticism and cynicism that we sometimes feel), our kids would pick up on that message in a big way and generations emanating from us would be positively affected.
Have a wonderful Shabbos everyone. Let me take the opportunity of it being "Shabbos Shirah" to remind us all to sing on Shabbos - picture those 8 kids singing and join in - and enjoy. I love you all, ’d’
p.s. don’t forget Monday is groundhogs day - have a good one !
Important Numbers
