A story in the not so long ago past - an old man well into his 80’s - a man who had lived a good, righteous life, rich with experience and stories to tell, was the pride of his family and community. One day his devoted son brought some of the grandchildren over to visit the zaide and to hear some stories from his facinating and instructive life. The zaide did not speak hebrew, only arabic, so he agreed to tell a story but the son would have to translate. The zaide began, " Come and listen to a story - it happenned when I was a young man. I convinced my friends to go with me to visit the famous cemetary of Zihara Lisali. Buried there are great tzadikim such as R’ Chaim ben Atar, the grandfather of the ’Ohr Hachaim’, and many other great ones from the great Sefardi heritage over the last 500 years. It was a very long and arduous journey having to cross many desert areas too. As we were walking through the desert we suddenly noticed a band of robbers coming straight at us!! OK son, he said, now you can translate". The son translated and finally got to the part with the robbers and the kids were on the edges of their seats, and the son said to the zaide that it was ok to go on. The zaide hesitated for a moment and then said, " So you want to hear a story, well it happenned in my youth that I convinced my friends to go visit the famous cemetary at Zihara Lisali …". He stopped at the same spot when the robbers came and told his son to translate.
The son was embarrassed for his father and didn’t quite understand what was up with his father so he kind of stalled for time by stretching the story out and embellishing it - how the robbers appeared out of huge cloud of dust brandishing swords and vicious looks. The kids were even more anticipatory than before and the son hoping for the best signalled for his father to continue. The zaide once again however repeated the same thing and again stopped at the same place. This time the son had no choice, the kids could tell already that their great and famous grandfather, had gone senile. The realization of this reality shook the son to his very core and he went to his rabbi for some counselling and to see if there was anything he could do to help in a cure. The rabbi listened to the story of the son and turned white and started to shake and only after a few minutes did he calm down. The son was afraid that the rabbi was so taken because the disease is so serious and he got scared and asked the rabbi about his extreme reaction. The rabbi understood what the son was thinking and reassured him that the disease is not unusual and he should consult medical experts to see what could be done. " So why were you so shaken by what I told you?", the son asked the rabbi. " I was taken aback when I realized during your story that I too suffer from a type of senility" , the rabbi explained. " All of us were sent here for a purpose - to write with our actions and thoughts, the stories of our lives. Every minute of life is an opportunity to write a new chapter of our growth, of our coming that much closer to completing the book we were destined and created to write. But are we writing new chapters or are we simply repeating the same things over and over again - not growing just holding on to what we have and stagnating. That epiphany, the rabbi said , made me shudder to my very core.
Yosef had 2 sons - Menashe and Efraim. In this week’s parsha they are counted in the 70 Jewish souls comprising the Jewish nation in toto entering Egypt. ( These two boys were trailblazers in middos and development as none of the other sons of the 12 originals are noted for anything outstanding - my own observation ). The name Menashe derives from the hebrew "n’shia" or to forget - as if to say that his path would be to work on himself and forget the past transgressions and keep hanging on to what you have but not daring to take steps at growth. Efraim derives from " pru urvu" or more and more achievement. How do we know which path is better the stagnant but safer one or the more daring but also more rewarding path which canbring us to the point where we can complete the destined masterpiece? Yaakov answers this question in next week’s parsha by placing his right hand, the priority hand on the head of Efraim even though he was younger - life was given to us to go for the gusto.
How many of us in the entire Jewish world, and in the ’frum’ world and amongst all of us try to coast through life once we reach a comfort point in our consciences and don’t even think about , much less do anything about making small but significant moves in our lives that would make it more condusive to grow. Of course I am not talking about physical of financial growth ( that, I have discovered recently from personal experience is totally in the hands of Hashem ) but about character and knowledge growth and in general coming closer to a relationship with Hashem.
Let’s all, and most of all myself, not be afraid to deepen commitments to goodness and Torah and devotion to Hashem and move forward in our lives. May Hashem grant us all the unbridled joy of one day being in Gan Aden reading each other’s completed masterpieces in the presence of the Shechina (kiviyachol) smiling as H-E hears the tales.
Important Numbers
