Devrei Torah Presented Weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BS”D April 16, 2020 Friday is the 8th Day of the Omer Potomac Torah Study Center Vol. 7 #25, April 16, 2020; Shemini 5780 NOTE: Devrei Torah presented weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S. Cahan z”l, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Har Shalom, who started me on my road to learning almost 50 years ago and was our family Rebbe and close friend until his recent untimely death. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Devrei Torah are now Available for Download (normally by noon on Fridays) from www.PotomacTorah.org. Thanks to Bill Landau for hosting the Devrei Torah. __________________________________________________________________________________ Dedicated this Shabbas in Memory of our family Yahrtzeits this week: Yetta Franks (25 Nisan); Nathalie Morrison (26 Nisan); Leonard Franks (Yom HaShoa, 27 Nisan); and Anne Fisher (28 Nisan). ________________________________________________________________________________ With Pesach ending around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night, facing the task of putting away the Pesach kitchen and bringing back Chametz, there is little time to focus on a Devar Torah for Shemini. In this Parsha, during the dedication of the Mishkan, when God returns his presence to the center of B’Nai Yisrael, Aharon’s sons Nadav and Avihu try to join their father in approaching the presence of God. A fire comes from heaven and immediately consumes their bodies. In our Parsha, Aharon had to cope with the sudden passing of his two sons. During the past several weeks, more than 33,000 people in our country are known to have died of complications from coronavirus. (The statistics miss an unknown number of additional deaths, because many other people who have died did not have tests to confirm that their deaths came from this disease.) Many of our people have lost loved ones suddenly to this virus. Our family has seven yahrtzeits (of relatives I have known personally) during Nisan. Four of them died during the week after Pesach – my Aunt Yetta (my mother’s older sister), Hannah’s mother, my cousin Leonard (who died on Yom HaShoah), and my mother. During the week when Jews remember the relatives we lost during the Shoah, my family has yahrtzeits on four consecutive days. As we count the Omer, marking the period from the start of our freedom from Egypt until the day when we received the Torah, the period that should have been a time of triumph and joy has seen oppression and death for countless centuries. Numbers have a special meaning in Judaism, as the ancient song, “Who knows one?” reminds us at the end of our Pesach Seders. Six represents the days of work, and seven represents the perfection of people and the resting of Shabbat, both for God and for us. Eight is one beyond seven. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis notes that nine represents our Creator. It is a divine number. Every multiple of nine has the property that the sum of its digits always equals nine or a multiple of nine. Eight is a bridge between seven and nine – therefore eight represents a bridge between us and our Creator. (This bridge is why a baby boy’s bris is on the eighth day.) During the period of Sefira, as we count seven times seven, we reach toward the anniversary of our receiving the Torah. Shavuot is the culmination of the freedom that we started with our Exodus on the night of the first Seder. Although the season reminds us of oppression and death, a glorious future is coming. With the shuls closed, I miss Hazan Henrique Ozur Bass leading Lecha Dodi with his special Sefira tune, a reminder of Eicha, so appropriate to this period. On Yiskor days, Yom Tov, Shabbat, and Yahrtzeit days, our inability to go to shul is especially painful. The joy of visiting with my beloved Rebbe, Rabbi Leonard Cahan, in his home, office, and shul brought me personally and my family such joy for several decades. I also miss my daily davening at Beth Sholom. Hopefully social distancing will be lifted in time for us to resume the Late Maariv that has been a special part of each winter for the last 15 or so years. As Mordechai told Esther, God will always save the Jews. Our task is to determine whether we are to be part of God’s plan to save our people – or whether God will turn to someone else to be among those working with God. While we must 1 live through dark times for now, better times will come for our people. May we all be around to enjoy those days – and may they come soon. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Please daven for a Refuah Shlemah for Gedalya ben Sarah, Mordechai ben Chaya, Baruch Yitzhak ben Perl, David Leib HaKohen ben Sheina Reizel, Zev ben Sara Chaya, Uzi Yehuda ben Mirda Behla, HaRav Dovid Meir ben Chaya Tzippa; Eliav Yerachmiel ben Sara Dina, Amoz ben Tziviah, Reuven ben Masha, Moshe David ben Hannah, Meir ben Sara, Yitzhok Tzvi ben Yehudit Miriam, Yaakov Naphtali ben Michal Leah, Rivka Chaya bat Leah, Tova bat Narges, Zissel Bat Mazal, Chana Bracha bas Rochel Leah, Leah Fruma bat Musa Devorah, Hinda Behla bat Chaya Leah, Beyla bat Sara, Nechama bas Tikva Rachel, Miriam Chava bat Yachid, Ruth bat Sarah, and Tova bat Narges, all of whom greatly need our prayers. Note: Beth Sholom has additional names of coronavirus victims on a Tehillim list. _____________________________________________________________________________ Hannah & Alan _____________________________________________________________________________ Drasha: Shemini: Consolation Reprise by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky © 1998 [Please remember Mordechai ben Chaya for a Mishebarach!] Tragedies happen. Unfortunately, we can’t control them, and we have to learn to live with their consequences, as we try to continue our lives. Tragedy does not discriminate. It touches the lives of the wealthy and the poor, the wicked and the righteous. The Torah does not avoid telling us about the greatest of tragedies that happened to the most righteous of men. This week it describes the tragedy that occurred to one our greatest leaders, Ahron the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). His two children, Nadav and Avihu, were tragically consumed by fire while bringing an undesignated offering to Hashem. Moshe is faced with the most difficult of challenges, consoling his bereaved brother who just lost two of his beloved children. The challenge is great and the words of consolation that Moshe used should serve as a precedent for all consolation for generations. Moshe consoles Ahron by telling him, “This is what Hashem has previously said: By those who are close to me I shall be sanctified and thus I will be honored by the entire congregation” (Leviticus 10:3). Powerful words. Deep and mystical. We are in this world by G-d’s command, and our mission is to maintain and promote His glory. Those are words that may not console simple folk, but they were enough for Ahron who after hearing the words went from weeping to silence. But Moshe did not just quote the Torah, he prefaced his remarks: “This is what Hashem has previously said.” Only after that premise does he continue with the words of consolation. Why was it necessary to preface those powerful words by saying that they were once stated? After all, the entire Torah was once stated. Could Moshe not just as easily have stated, “My dear brother Ahron. Hashem is glorified by judgment of his dear ones.” It seems that the familiarity of the statements was part and parcel of its consoling theme. Why? The sudden death of Reb Yosef could not have come at a more untimely time – a few days before Passover. A Holocaust survivor, he had rebuilt his life in Canada and left this world a successful businessman, with a wonderful wife, children, and grandchildren. It was difficult, however, for them all to leave their families for the first days of Passover to accompany his body, and thus his widow traveled with her son to bury her husband in Israel. After the funeral the two mourners sat in their apartment in the Shaarei Chesed section of Jerusalem. Passover was fast approaching, and they were planning to spend the Seder at the home of relatives. As they were about to end the brief Shiva period and leave their apartment, a soft knocked interrupted their thoughts. At the door to her apartment stood none other than one of Israel’s most revered Torah sages, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. “I live nearby,” he said, “and I heard that there was a funeral today. I came to offer my condolences.” The sage then heard a brief history of Reb Yosef’s difficult, yet remarkably triumphant life. Then Reb Shlomo Zalman turned to the widow and asked a very strange question. “Did you say the blessing Boruch Dayan HaEmes? Blessed are You, Hashem, the true Judge.” (This blessing acknowledges the acceptance of Hashem as the Master Planner of all events acknowledging that all that happens is for the best.) “Why? Yes,” answered the elderly lady. “I said it right as the funeral ended. But it is very difficult to understand and accept.” 2 Reb Shlomo Zalman, a man who lived through dire poverty and illness, four wars, and the murder of a relative by Arab terrorists, nodded. “I understand your questions. That blessing is very difficult to understand and to accept. You must, however, say it again and again. As difficult as it may be, believe me, if you repeat it enough you will understand it.” Moshe understood that as difficult as it may be, the words he used to console Ahron were the precise ones that encompassed the essence of the meaning of life and death. They would be understood by Ahron.