My Father Really Let Me Have It

It was many years ago that my father gave me such a stinging and ringing slap and threw me out of the house. I’ll never forget the pain, and I can still hear the ringing in my ears. I was shocked at the time, I thought that he loved me, I thought that we were buddies. The years have gone by and now I am a father, and I understand now that it was not an act of hatred, it was an act of love. He does love me, and we are buddies, but he’s dead serious that I behave myself and not get out of hand.

This last Shabbos at Shalosh Seudos I heard a beautiful idea from the Rav who hosted the event:

During these days Nishmas Yisroel rises up in importance and beauty. The gemara recounts that one of the great Talmudic sages one day started putting on black shoes. They asked him why was he wearing black shoes? He answered in order to mourn over Yerushalayim. They answered back, who are you to do extra to mourn for Yerushalayim? And they threw him in jail.

To put yourself forward and mourn for someone, or something, demands that there exists a certain level of relationship, otherwise it is odd. Who can mourn for Yerushalayim? Are you a mechutan with Yerushalayim?

The Rav told the story that when he went to pay a shiva call at the home of one of the late great sages, that he was moved to say to one of the younger sons, "I see that until today I lacked a certain appreciation of you that I didn’t internalize before. The passing of your father was a blow to the whole Jewish people. Everyone is broken, everyone is mourning. Then why am I sitting on this side and you are sitting on that side? Why am I coming to comfort you, and you are not coming to comfort me? The answer is because you are a son of R. Shlomo Zalman and I am not. That is what separates us. That is your greatness that I do not share."

When a Neshama leaves the world to its eternal home in Heaven, who mourns, who sits shiva? Only the seven relatives — the children, the parents, the siblings, the spouse. When the revelation of the Shechina departs from the world, who mourns, who sits shiva, so to speak? We do, on Tisha B’av. These are the days that the Nishmas Yisroel rises up in importance and beauty, as the close ones, as the children so to speak, of the Shechina. Banim Atem LaShem Elokaichem.

May we be amongst those who will see with their own two eyes the nechamas Tzion and the haramas keren Yisroel.

Boruch Rappaport

Boruch Rappaport tells a story:

This story I heard from one of my Roshei Kollelim, actually the son of the Rabbi who told us this story. The person is very reliable, although I must admit that I never checked out the story even though I could have.

There was a couple who were having certain problems, and they took advice with the Lubavicher Rebbe. The Rebbe told them, Check Your Mezuzos. So they had them checked, and they were told that they were fine, but still the problem continued. After a time they returned to the Rebbe for advice. He told them, "I already told you, check your Mezuzos." They told him that they had the mezuzos checked and they were fine. He told them, "No, take them to an expert."

So they went with the Mezuzos, and told the whole story over to, to, hmmm, (when in doubt, don’t say names), to one of the front row gedolei Torah in Israel, and the Rav looked very carefully at the Mezuzos, and said to the couple, "I want the phone number of the sofer." He called up the sofer and told him that he has his Mezuzos in front of him, and that they are very nice, but he wants to know, how does he mekadaish the Shaimos (when writing the name of G-d in a mezuza and in all STaM one has to say certain things and have them in mind). The sofer answered, "Oh, I do everything, I say according to all of the possibilities, and I go to the mikveh each time, etc etc." Said the Rav, "boy, it must take you an awfully long time to write a mezuza!" Answered the sofer, "You’re right. It would be impossible. But what I do is that I write the whole mezuza leaving out the Shaimos, and then I do all of the above, and then I write them in…

Boruch Rappaport

P. S. If you didn’t understand the punch line, see here, the paragraph beginning "In Tefillin and Mezuzos". A Mezuza written out of order is completely non-Kosher.

Boruch Rappaport Tells a Story

Many years ago a well known Talmid Chacham and author came to speak to us in Kollel. I am sure that you have heard of him, but not everyone appreciates having his name mentioned on the internet. In his talk he told us a story:

One day one of the Chassidic Rebbes in Europe was sitting in his Bais Medrash with some of the Chassidim, when a man carrying a bundle walks in, looks around, catches the face of the Rebbe, and says, "Ah!", approaches the Rebbe, and pulls out of the bundle a golden tray (if I remember this detail correctly), puts it down in front of the Rebbe, and says, "Thank you." Then he turned around and walked out. A few of the chassidim ran after him to hear the story. The Rabbi who told us this story said that he heard the story from one of the chassidim who ran after the man.

The man explained — "I have the privilege to be able to sit and learn, and my interest, and my expertise, my heart’s desire is to learn the Talmud with the Rambam. I focus on how the Rambam learned the gemara, and I put my strength and my energy to come out clear in all of the Rambam’s commentary, so to speak, on the gemara. There was one sugya which was particularly difficult, and I had serious and deep questions on what the Rambam wrote, and I spent days and nights trying to work it out without a lot of success. Until one morning I fell asleep on the shtender, and I found myself in a corridor, and a man approached me and said, "Follow me." He took me down the corridor, and told me to go into a room and wait. I saw in the room that there were a few men there already seated, so I took a seat amongst them. There was a shtender at the head of the room, so apparently we were going to hear a shiur, a lesson. Soon after, the Magid Shiur (lecturer) entered, approached the shtender, opened the gemara, and started speaking. He learned the very gemara that I was learning, he brought the Rambam that I was having difficulty with, he asked all the questions that I had on the Rambam, and then he answered them all, resolving everything beautifully. When the shuir ended the man who showed me in to the room came back and told me to follow him. He took me back down the corridor. I asked him, "where are we?" He answered, "Gan Eden HaTachton." Then I asked him, "the people in that room, were they before 120 or after 120?", and he answered, "they were all after 120 except for the one that gave the shuir, he is still in the world." Then I woke up.

"So I have been going around Europe from town to town, from Bais Medrash to Bais Medrash, until I found the one who answered my questions in order to show my appreciation. Turns out it is your Rebbe."

Wait, the story is not over yet.

The Chassidim then went back to Bais Medrash and sat themselves down. After a while they asked the Rebbe, "Who was that man who came in and gave you the golden tray?" The Rebbe answered, "Oh, someone who once came to one of my shiurim …"

Boruch Rappaport

Boruch Rappaport Offers Another Tidbit About Tefillin/Mezuzas

You must of heard about the connection between having Kosher Mezuzas and (having) Divine Protection. There are countless stories floating around telling about someone who had a particular problem, who went to a Rabbi or to a Rebbe, and he told them “Check your Mezuzas”. And sure enough one of the Mezuzas was no good, and sometimes that which made the Mezuza not Kosher was in a word which relates to the original problem that the party had. And then they fixed the problem, or replaced the Mezuza, and then everything got resolved and they lived happily ever after.

The truth is that to put up a Kosher Mezuza on the doorway (and check it once every couple of years) as Fire and Theft Insurance is not really the right attitude. The Mezuza is one of the Commandments in the Torah that the A’lmighty told us that we should do, and we should do it because He said so, to listen to the King, and not for the main purpose of receiving the fruits. (Source: Tur YD 285)

A similar example, some say that to “bentch”, (to recite Birchas Hamazon, the Grace after Meals), with concentration will bring as a result a blessing in material wealth. Here also the right thing to do is to bentch with concentration because G-d said so, not for the main purpose of receiving material wealth. The wealth will come anyway if he is worthy, and indeed bentching with concentration will help, but that shouldn’t be the motivation for bentching with concentration.

So too with the Mezuza, the motivation should be to fulfill the A’lmighty’s Will. Don’t worry about the Divine Protection, it will come if it is supposed to. But making that your main motivation will not help the cause. If anything, having the motivation to fulfill the Will of the A’lmighty will help more.

The idea that the proper fulfillment of Mezuza brings as its outcome an “in-this-world reward” makes sense. In that since the idea is not just to put up the Mezuza and then that’s it, rather to think about it when you pass through the door each time (like the Rambam writes at the end of H. Mezuza), so then the Mezuza instills in us a constant awareness that the A’lmighty, who is One, is He who watches out over us and guides our every step. The above quoted Tur brings there from the Talmud, that a human king sits inside and his servants guard him from outside. Not us, even when we are asleep inside, the A’lmighty stands guard, so to speak, on the outside. So therefore when a person properly fulfills the Commandment of Mezuza, this Divine Guidance and Protection express itself in a revealed sense. [I chose my words in that funny way because, of course, even when a person is a sinner, r”l, still G-d stands over him, so to speak, and protects him. Just that this protection expresses itself in a different way. A parent of children understands this better than one who does not have children, but the matter is lengthy, and this is not the forum].
 

Boruch Rappaport Offers a Nugget about Rosh Chodesh

This post about Rosh Chodesh is not intended to be understood by everyone.

Tomorrow night starts Rosh Chodesh Tamuz. The Sefarim bring that Tamuz stands for Zmanei Tshuva Memashmeshim U’ba’im.

I heard once from my Rosh Kollel decades ago an explanation for the seemingly surprising statement by Chazal that regarding the Korban Chatas of Rosh Chodesh that the Aibershter asks us to offer up for Him a Korban "al she’mei’ateti es halevana".

During creation, during the hishtalshelus ha’olomos, as things progressed downward so to speak, they became more and more megusham, until finally it developed into our physical world as we know it. About the Name Shin Dalet Yud chazal express themselves "she’amar le’olamo dye". If I remember correctly from the Mesilas Yesharim, or maybe from Derech Hashem, the Bashefer created the velt as far away as possible from the source, so to speak, but with the condition that it is still possible to come all the way back. This is in order to maximize our reward. Any further, any more megusham, it would be impossible to get back, but any less so would not give us the greatest opportunity possible. Thus, "she’amar le’olamo dye", no more, no less.

However, such hitgashmut leads for the possibility that one can get lost meanwhile, by illusury falsehoods.

When the levana asked, "is it possible for two kings to share one crown?", the immediate question that must be asked in response is, "You’re a king?". But that’s the way of olam hazeh, it is quite possible to forget who the King is.

So the Aibershter asks of us to offer up a Korban, which in itself is a growing closer, which in itself is a recognition who’s the King, "al she’mei’ateti es halavana", that I bashefert a velt that is so full of hester, so easy to get lost, (all for the sake of Klal Yisroel to maximize the schar), that the lavana can think that she’s a king.

A gutten chodesh.

Boruch Rappaport