ALL TIME PITFALLS – IN EXILE

                                                    

               In a few impacting pesukim
in the beginning of Sefer Shemos, the Torah sets in motion the political
and emotional forces that were to keep the children of Israel in bondage for
the next two hundred and ten years. 
These same forces have operated as a snare throughout history and are
present today, only the stage setting has been specially designed to lure this
generations unwary into its web of spiritual bondage. The mindset that led to
their subjugation in Egypt
was their yearning to be like everyone else – to assimilate into the culture of
whatever country they found themselves in. There are those who in their
eagerness to be a part of the culture, may mistakenly replace their service of
Hashem with loyal service to the governing regime in a manner far beyond and
above that which is required by the ordinary dictates of good citizenship.                     

            Pharaoh,
who personifies the Jewish nemesis, the yetzer hara, understood that as
long as the Jewish people were living in accordance with high standard of
spiritual development referred to as the “Children of (Bnei) Israel,” he
would not be able to subjugate them.  They
were the beneficiaries of Hashem’s promise to Avraham Avinu – a promise which
was to be eternally evidenced by the bris mila, covenant of circumcision.   However, after Joseph died, the Jews stopped
circumcising their sons because they wanted to emulate the Egyptians.  (Midrash Rabba I:8).  In order to prevent their assimilation,
Hashem transformed the appreciation the Egyptians previously had into a feeling
that the Bnei Israel had become a threat to them. The yetzer hara, in
the guise of Pharaoh, then changed its form, face and presentation in order to
subjugate the Israelites and turn them into servants of the state. 

To induce the Israelites to
participate in their building program, the Egyptians hung a brick kiln around
Pharaoh’s neck, inviting the Jews to join him in brick making.  Each man went to work making as many bricks
as possible, which thereafter became the expected quota. The Jews thus became
willing accomplices in their own enslavement, wooed and won over by this appeal
to “love of country.” This technique, oft repeated in Jewish history, trapped
them into a process of assimilation and distancing them from their connection
to the Torah of the Creator. 

              Modern society today poses a
different but equally challenging test, by luring its citizens towards the
ephemeral standards of the times. Their value scale of success is graded by
such “yardsticks” as how wealthy and famous one is. The lifestyle that emerges
from this philosophy can be as, if not more, detrimental to spiritual growth
than the servitude imposed by the Egyptians.

 

                                         Addicted
to Bondage

By the time the Israelites began
to see the futility and hypocrisy of their alliance with Pharaoh, it was too
late. The bondage had become an addiction.  
The Bnei Yisrael were given the task of building arei miskenos,
cities, whose names were Pisom and Ra’amseis.  
The word miskenos has the same root as the word miskein which
means misfortune or poverty.    Pisom
means sudden or immediate.  It also can
refer to the mouth of the abyss, pi tehom (Midrash Rabba
I:10).  Ra’am means loud, like a
thunderclap.

            In
our hectic lives, where sudden and immediate claims upon our time are an all
too frequent occurrence, if we are not discerning, we may find that we are
building Pisom.  We may also necessarily
be building Ra’amses, since these calls to duty are usually loud and very
difficult to ignore. One of the ploys of the yetzer hara is to persuade
us that we must accomplish everything we have set out to do which can lead to
feel overwhelmed. Pharaoh well understood that working without respite on
purposeless tasks that could never be completed would weaken the physical,
mental, emotional and most importantly spiritual health of the Nation.

         Acting too quickly and assuming
excessive obligations without enough considered thought as to their value and
purpose can make a person feel as if they are enslaved. The connection between
poignant (distressing) said of affairs and the bondage in Egypt is apparent.
We can now readily see how these words of our eternal Torah apply to anyone at
any time:  “They embittered their lives
with avoda kasha, hard work, bechomer, with mortar and with leveinim,
bricks, and with every labor of the field; all the labors that they performed
with them were with crushing harshness” (Shemos 1:14).   The work was kasha, hard.  This word is related to the word for straw, kash,
to hint to us that work is hard when it is like straw to us, that is, when it
is commonplace and purposeless.   Mortar,
chomer, which in Hebrew also means material, represents that which is
stripped of spiritual content, of inspiration. 
Even without purpose and without inspiration we can still produce leveinim,
bricks, but when one works under those circumstances they are reduced to field
laborers (avoda basadeh) deprived of higher motivation, dignity and joy.

           

                                                            Salvation

But take heart; there is a
way out.  There is an answer that may surprise
us.  Moshe Rabbeinu told Pharaoh to
release us because we are being called upon to serve Hashem.   Service of the Creator is not always easy,
but it has all of the components that make it humane and perfect.  It provides meaningful obligations that have
an eternal reward.  It provides periodic
rest periods on Shabbos and Yamim Tovim dedicated to simcha.  Can a lifestyle that thrives on competition
and stresses the importance of out -doing the neighbors in material
acquisitions, compare with the eternal, meaningful rhythm of our beautiful
Jewish lives? 

           When we stop and take stock of our
options and our strengths, the time we have, the things we must do in order to
fulfill our obligations as Jews as opposed to those things that we may be doing
to serve some other cultural demand, we may be pleasantly surprised by the
result.  We may be able to simplify our
lives and our goals and live in greater harmony then we ever thought possible.  The job of the Egyptian taskmasters was to
maximize the burdens upon the Israelites which ultimately shortened their
servitude and enhanced their purification in the caldron that was Egypt.  It is precisely when the “task masters of
time” bear down upon us that we have the opportunity to cull the necessary from
the unnecessary and focus upon those matters that are essential to our avoda
can be reached by sincerely asking for Hashem’s help in the process. 

This will actualize Pharaoh’s
fear that we will  “go up [be raised up]
from the land.”  “The land” which represents
our physical and mental attachment to this world will no longer have a hold on
us.  When we cleave to Hashem through His
Torah, we will be elevated to a higher level of consciousness referred to as
“the children of (Bnei) Israel.”

The Torah teaches us that the
more the Jewish nation was afflicted the more they increased and spread out.
This means that even during this period when we, as a nation, were far from
reaching the perfect service of Hashem, His Divine Radiance was still with us.  In the dark and immoral environment of Egypt, Israelite
slaves, who were deprived of all the benefits that culture and civilization are
thought to bestow, were being forged into a holy nation.  The very harshness of the bondage actually
strengthened the potential in each Israelite, so that when the time was ripe,
Hashem would redeem us. The teaching here is very profound as it is a lesson to
us that suffering and affliction can have very beneficial results. We do not
ask for tests, but if they come, they can inspire our best performances. From
this spiritual plateau we will not only be free from Pharaoh and Mitzrayim but
we will be able to fulfill the will of the Creator in the holy land of Eretz Israel.

               May we merit this soon in our
days.  

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

CHECKING IN — PESACH STYLE

 

                     It’s just a just time before
takeoff, friends have dropped off packages of gifts for their loved ones. We
wondered how we were going to fit them all into our bulging suitcases. Before
we knew it the car service driver was beeping. We quickly stuffed our cases
closed and hoped the zippers would hold out. At the airport, bags in tow we
followed an interminable line weaving towards the ticket counter. Upon reaching
what was to be the first of many checkpoints the flight security attendant said
with a polite, but serious smile:  “How
are you today”? Passports and tickets please! Where are going? Is this your
first trip there? Where will you be staying? Do you have any relatives there?
Oh yes, who? Where do they live? ” He made light conversation but all the while
his eyes were locked on ours without a flicker. They felt like x-rays and we
got flustered. Somehow we even hesitated over the names of the places are
relatives lived.  

As the grilling continued all  that was needed was a strong white light
focused in our eyes to turn  it  into a full blown interrogation. “Tell me, did
any one pack your bags for you? Do you have any electronic equipment inside
your bags? Where did you get it? Did you take it from a shelf of the store by
yourself or did someone give it to you? Was the package torn? Did anyone give
you anything?” 

After the initial screening the security officer directed
us over to yet another line to have our suitcases ex-rayed in what looked like
a giant MRI machine. After our bags came out unscathed with a negative
diagnosis, we proceeded to the check in counter. As we struggled to lift our
suitcases onto the scales, they seemed to feel quite a bit heavier than they
did at home – maybe it’s the gravity at the airport we chuckled. Miraculously
the employee did not impose a fine for being overweight and with a sigh of
relief we set off to scale our next hurdle.

             Moving further along
the assembly line we were required to place outer garments, hand bags and all
metal possessions on a rolling conveyer belt which passed them through another
x-ray machine. Now, hatless, shoeless, jacketless, feeling slightly vulnerable
and somewhat intimidated, we walk through the metal archway, which will
determine whether we will be “pat searched”. We fortunately passed with good
marks but we couldn’t help but notice another frum passenger who was sent to
the side for a full blown pat down. Admirably he never lost his pleasant smile
as he chatted cordially with the officer, adding after he was exonerated his
appreciation for the fine work that the security personal provided. This was a
real Kiddush Hashem that both we and that guard will never forget.

         
Since everything that exists in the world is founded in the Torah, where
can we find a Torah source for the
interrogation
and search of travelers? Yes. The first such search was conducted by Lavan –
Jacob’s father-in-law.  When Lavan saw
that (Ya’akov) Jacob has taken his family and left , he  chased after them,  bombarded them with a barrage of
questions  and then, unsatisfied with the
answers, made his own intrusive and thorough search of their possessions – (Parshas
Vayeitzei). Some years later, the sons of Ya’akov are subjected to an interrogation
and search at the hands of the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, not
realizing at the time that that imposing personage was none other than  their brother (Yosef). (Parshas Mikeitz).

What lesson could we
possibly learn from these two similar events? 
Perhaps the key lies in the intentions of the searchers even more than
the search itself. Lavan is the prototype of a clever swindler whose expertise lies
in appearing to be superficially (lavan) pure even while his intentions were
self-serving and even nefarious. We of course should do our best to steer clear
of such people but when unavoidable we should always make the best out of the
situation as our forefather Ya’akov did in the house of Lavan.

Of course when well
intended loving relatives, true friends and dedicated people “question” our intentions
and “search” into our motivations, like Yosef had done with his brothers, we
should not resent but actually cherish their words and actions. Now also before
Pesach, while we are checking very closely our homes and possessions, let us
also check (bodek) every “nock and cranny” of our attitudes for any “leavened” behavior
that has become “chumatz  or saor”. This
vital search and removal mission is one of the hallmarks of the Pesach
transformation that helps free us from the bondage of corporeal constraints and
limitations thereby allowing us to travel vertically up the Pesach “ladder”.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

DE-FEETING / HAMAN / AMALEK

                                      

   
        Purim is the perfect time to invite
guests who think that Judaism is stodgy and restrictive.   As we stomp all over Haman’s name during the
Megilla reading, and then sit down to a meal that’s more liquid then solid, I
most enjoy watching Purim dismantling all of their pre-conceived notions.   I don’t
tell my guests (who are having too much fun to worry about it) that even as we do
something that seems strange or unusual, we are making a powerful statement that
reverberates through time in order to bring the ultimate redemption.

            Stomping Out Haman 

             The custom of stomping at the sound of Haman’s
name begins at the feet, so let us take off our shoes and examine the bottom of
our “soles/souls”.  Most of us have a
live and let live relationship with our feet. 
If they do not bother us, we don’t worry about them.  We don’t usually buy special vitamins or
minerals to enhance their functioning and at best we notice them because we
need them as a place to put our shoes. 

Our feet don’t seem to  “kick up” much of a fuss about this attitude
because they are too busy either standing or walking.  Walking is an amazing process, that we take
for granted, which involves the foot’s ability to be rigid and calloused, yet
flexible and mobile:  taking steps begins
with the foot in a rigid state, the heel 
hitting the ground, it then continues 
with the foot unlocking and flexing so the knee can pass over it.  Our weight is then transferred to the ball of
the foot as we propel ourselves over the toes whereupon the foot again becomes
rigid to provide the momentum for the next step.  Although small in comparison to the body, the
foot is able to support its full weight using muscles, tendons sinews and interestingly
twenty six bones. 

The feet are furthest from the head and seem to be
unconnected from all the other organs.  Yet
according to a fairly popular alternative medical practice called reflexology, applying
pressure to designated points on the feet can restore health and well being to
each part of the body for a wide variety of ailments. According to this system,
there are said to be, even more interestingly, 7200 hundred nerve endings in
the feet which connect to zones so that each part of the foot corresponds to
some part or organ of the body.  For
example, the various organs and systems of the body are represented on the sole
of the foot while the big toe relates to the head.  The ball of the foot relates to the lungs
while the heal of the foot relates to the small intestine and bladder are
located towards the heel.  

The feet also seem to be the farthest removed from
that which is holy and pure.  Yet, it
would be very difficult to interact with the world in the fulfillment of many (mitzvoth)
specific good deeds without their assistance.  And it is that interaction with the world that
Purim is so much about as this holiday begins with an awakening from “below”.

Our generation’s place in history lies on that end
of Hashem’s time line that is embedded deeply within a mindset that often
connects itself to self gratification, that is at the bottom end of  the 
fourth of our four  exiles, [1]
yet, we play a “pivotal” role.  Like the
“soles” of the feet, most “souls” today are distant from the achievements of earlier
generations, yet it is our duty to lift ourselves up, “striding” ever forward
bringing the knowledge of Hashem into the here and now – which time is referred
to as the (ikvei) [heels] footsteps of the HaMasiach.  Although this last exile like our heels has
become somewhat calloused it is precisely that quality that gives us the opportunity
to illuminate this epoch in time so that the ultimate redemption can occur.

Interestingly, our feet play a crucial role in
this epic drama. They serve as the liaison between our “souls” and the ground.
By having “our feet on the ground” – ie. in this material world, we are
vulnerable to the nefarious plans of (Haman/Amalak) those who personify evil,
but at the same time this positions give us a solid “foot-hold” in this battle.

Although our physical “soles” are connected to
earthliness, our holy “souls” are unified with the true Source of All.  We therefore literally have the power to “stamp
out” the influence and memory of  Haman  and Amalek with each “step” bringing us closer
to their “de-feat” and the our ultimate redemption.

 Purim
samayach!!!



[1]
The Ari Hakadosh
teaches that the purpose of the four exiles was to repair the sin of Adam Ha
Rishon, the first man, with each exile corresponding to the various parts of
the Primordial Man. So the Egyptian and Babylonian exiles repaired the head,
the Persia
and Midai, the chest, the Greek exile was the lower part of the body and
finally the exile of Edom
was the feet.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

Rx PRESCRIPTION : PURIM – MEHAPECH HU

                                       Rx PRESCRIPTION :  PURIM  
  MEHAPECH HU

                                                  
Usage: MOOD ENHANCING     

 

           DOSAGE: Twenty four hour spiritual
“infusion” that keeps us elevated for the whole year.

           SUPERNAL “INGREDIENTS” :
The four essential sacred “compounds” are Mikra Megillah, Shelach Manos,
Matanos Le-Evonim and Seudas Purim along with either  just enough “high octane fluid” or a short
snooze in order  to activate the  ad d’lo yada benefits.

            SOME OF THE IMMEDIATE
RESULTS OF THIS UPLIFTING “REMEDY”: Guaranteed to “turn around” –mehapech hu – and
transform any and all worries, woes and negative moods into joy, happiness and
contentment.

“PRECAUTIONS” THROUGHOUT THE PURIM CELEBRATION: 

1) The first “dose” of the reading of the Megillah
at night is to be “administered” on an “empty stomach” with total concentration
for best “absorption”.

             2) Keeping a smile on
your face is very contagious.

 3)   In order cut down excess “weight”, “trim”
your pocketbook down as much as possible by giving generously.   

PROBABLE AND DEFINITE “SIDE
EFFECTS” : Some people may find themselves irresistibly
drawn to wearing amusing costumes and prancing around,  while everyone will radiate a blissful cheerful
countenance and have a great time.

“CAUTION”:  Beware
that the beneficial “side effects” of matanos l’evyonim and (mishloach manos) will
arouse feelings of deep gratitude to Hashem for this opportunity to share with
others. This will in turn cause even more serious “symptoms” of intense joy and
generosity which can only be “cured” through the “antidote” of sharing with everyone
even a bigger smile and as much as possible.

            

                                                                                              
 PURIM SAMEACH

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia