In our Parasha, Parashat Va’Era, we have a beautiful
fundamental concept in everyday activities. The Torah literally repeats an
entire section of the Parasha. In the first section of the Parasha the Torah
brings down the instructions that Hashem tells Moshe in regards to going to
Pharoah and speaking to him. Then Moshe answers that he has an ‘injured tongue’
and is incapable of running the conversation alone. In a number of pesukim
(verses) later (Shemot 6:30), the Torah AGAIN tells us the same thing with no
difference in the actual outcome.
The question is: what do we learn from this? In reality,
Rashi explains that this repetitiveness is something normal with human beings
and is simply a kind of ‘summary’ that Hashem did with Moshe after finishing
the conversation. Its like a coach speaking to his team: “You guys are gonna run the X-Y-Z Play…” After finishing the
explanation and the details, the coach says “So
again: we are going to run the X-Y-Z Plan with Moshe running from…You guys got
it? Good.”
This teaches us that being Jewish is not simple. In the
beginning when someone enters the way of following Torah and Mitzvot they are
excited and filled with passion for every Mitzvah. Buying a Lulav is the
biggest deal, getting up for Tefillah is done with great amount of effort, even
simply reading Tehillim is done with so much focus! After a couple months the
person dries up and the real challenges begin: trying to get my heart into
something I have been doing over and over again.
When an individual repeats their actions, they become
accustomed to seeing it as a custom or a ritual, and the heart’s play into the
matter decreases. The brain takes over and the heart rejects the opportunity to
dive into the matter. But in Judaism Hashem tells us: its all about repeating and adding in your own spice every single time!
The jist and spice that we have to add is up to us and it is something we can
change all the time. For example, for Tefillah or Learning Torah one can simply
speak to Hashem in their own words beforehand to help them get their heart into
the matter. Other people say ‘Leshem
Yehud…’ Some people simply write down a couple words of what it means to
them before beginning or sometimes someone doesn’t even have a minute to spare!
The whole idea of following Torah is doing the same thing but adding your own mix
to it (obviously this ‘ingredient’ has to parallel to Halacha and cannot be
something against Jewish law like smoking before prayer because it makes you
feel ‘more connected’). The goal is to get our heart into everything we do,
because in the end of the day Rahmana
Liba Ba’ei (Hashem wants the Heart). Why not get our heart pounding for
Hashem’s love with the songs of Kabbalat Shabbat or the Zemirot on the Shabbat
Table?!
Ki Eshmerah Shabbat El Ishmereni…
Shabbat Shalom!
Sponsor theCLD for the Ilui Neshama (memory of) or
Refua Shlema (the speedy recovery) of your loved one! Click the Donate Button
on the Right Sidebar and BH e-mail us (CLDFundraising@gmail.com) with the
name(s)!
0 comments:
Post a Comment