I hope this finds you all well and happy. Especially now that we are in Adar, let me remind myself first and all of us to take some time everyday to count our blessings and thank Hashem for them - it would certainly enhance our level of "simcha" and help prepare us for the upcoming Yom Tov of Purim.                                                                                   

 

R' Yerucham of Mir tells us that even the wisest of men, Shlomo Hamelech, needed to use examples and illustrations to be able to plumb the depths of Torah. The only one who surpassed that level, was Moshe. The Mishkan - Tabernacle, beneath its physical properties, was a complex system of symbols representing various ideas and principles of the Torah. R' Yerucham tells us that rather than having to be shown the physical symbol in order to learn the concepts behind it, Moshe was able to be told the idea, and from that, construct the physical manifestation. The Medrash praises Moshe for this superhuman intellectual effort. At the end I will try to explain the significance that I found in that phenomena, but surely Moshe's ability to accomplish this had a lot to do with his unmatched middah of "anivus" - humility - his absolute conviction that Hashem gets all the credit for everything and that without Hashem, all of his own efforts would be for naught; a person who lives like that has no reason to claim any glory for himself and sees everything objectively and clearly. The "Aron Hakodesh" - holy Ark - arguably the most important 'vessel' in the Mishkan, Chazal tell us, symbolizes the talmid chacham (or more specifically, the rebbe). Some of its features were its being a container for the entire Torah. It also consisted of two outer boxes of pure gold (representing the idea that a talmid chacham should always be consistent both inside and out - he should not be hypocritical in any way), sandwiching a box of wood. The symbolism of having a wooden box - the 'humblest' of substances - between boxes of dazzling pure gold, tells us that the very essence of the great talmid chacham is his inherent humility. This is a very and maybe uniquely 'Jewish' value which takes great effort to perfect, and it is interesting that the symbol for it - the wood - is hidden from view, and that finally brings me to my story via R' Vallach.                                                                                                                      

R' Zvi Hirsh of Zidichov(Galicia - 1763-1831) ZT"L, sat with his chasidim one day and decided to inspire them regarding this lofty middah of humility. He told them of the great Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller (1578 - 1654) ZT"L, who was for a certain amount of time, the chief Rabbi of the famous community of Prague. The people noticed that he had a rather strange daily practice - around mid-day he would go home, seclude himself in his office for about twenty minutes and then come out and continue his busy day. Curiosity morphed into rumor until one fellow with chutzpa decided to find out once and for all, what the Rav was up to. He snuck into the Rav's house, hid under the bed in the office and waited. Shortly after, the Rav entered, opened the back door and escorted his goat in from the backyard (it was common for people to have a household goat for milk, cheese, etc. ). The Rav then removed his very respectable looking hat and frock, and proceeded to hop onto the goat and ride it around the room like a child on a 'horsey'. After 15 - 20 minutes he had had enough, let the goat out back, put on his proper clothing and returned to being the great Rav. R' Zvi Hirsh was trying to get across the message that to achieve great levels of humility, sometimes one must fight off those things that would make him feel too proud of himself. Rabbi Heller was terrified that all the honor accorded to him in his position as chief Rabbi, would get to his head and destroy his character, so he took the time everyday to remind himself that he wasn't such a 'hot-shot'. All the chasidim liked the story and seemed to grasp the lesson.                                                     

 

That night, R' Zvi Hirsh was preparing to begin saying "tikun chatzos" around mid-night. His gabbai brought out all the books the Rebbe would need when suddenly strange noises of thumping came from the supposedly empty attic. " Go up please, and see what is making that racket and bring it downstairs," the Rebbe said to the gabbai. Too many stories of ghosts and demons in vacant attics, had their affect on the poor gabbai. "But Rebbe," he stuttered," what if the demons attack me - I'm too scared." "Don't worry," the Rebbe assured him," I personally guarantee your safety - you will not be harmed." The shaking gabbai cautiously made his way up the creaking staicase and disappeared into the attic. A minute later he appeared looking relieved, dragging a goat together with one of the chasidim, Mechel. " I found Mechel up there riding around the room on this goat," the gabbai informed the Rebbe. The Rebbe looked at Mechel," what were you doing ," he inquired. " The Rebbe inspired us today with the wonderful story of R' Heller and I thought I would adopt the same practice to fight my own sense of haughtiness," said Mechel innocently. " That is indeed commendable Mechel, but R' Heller did that in absolute privacy, not on top of my head !" the Rebbe said smiling. Mechel replied, " Yes I know Rebbe, but if I would have done it in the privacy of my own home, the Rebbe would never have known what kind of chasid he had !"                                                                                                 The lesson is of course that certainly one should work on his middos, but this work is very personal and private - it is cheapened when it is done for an audience. That is the symbolism of the wooden box of the Aron being hidden by the 2 golden boxes.                                                                                                                                    

 

 If you will indulge me, I also wanted to say that I thought that the significance of the Mishkan being erected by Moshe 'from the top down', is that it tells us too, how to build our own houses - our homes should be built and based on Torah ideals and principles. THEY should guide us in choosing neighborhoods, friends and how our homes should become environments condusive to raising future generations of true and good Jews. May Hashem grant us all the wisdom and courage to develop ourselves and our homes guided by H-S Torah so that we can all be of great Nachas to H-M.                                                                                                                                                                

Have a wonderful Shabbos everyone. I love you all,