As we soon
approach the awesome day of Lag Bi-Omer, in which as many of five hundred
thousand people will come from all over the world to be together in Moron with
the Tana Rabbi Shimon Bar Yocai, there is to ask: what is the underlying
unifying drawing power of this day and this Sage? To embellish this question,
let us realize that logically speaking, Rabbi Shimon attraction should be
mainly only those few individuals who delve into his sacred text of Kabbalah,
known as the Zohar. Also there is to ask – how is it that such a diverse makeup
of Jewish people, ranging from the Ultra Orthodox to the far left irreligious
and everyone else in between are all drawn to the same place, time and person?
Another irony in the spirit of this unique day where unity and joy have supreme
reign is that Rabbi Shimon, like his named predecessor long before – Shimon the
son of Yaakov both had within them a propensity of the meda of gavurot – strict
judgment as seen by the story of Schem and Shimon’s reaction and with the story
of Rabbi Shimon bar Yocai’s response when he saw someone working.

               This
then leads us to another interesting question along the same lines: Since Lag
Bi-Omer  corresponds to the seferiot –
hod within hod (submission within submission), what is the deeper lesson of
Aahron Ha-Kohan, who corresponds to the attribute of hod and is best known for
loving and pursuing (ohav shalom and rodaf sholom) peace, being a direct
descendent from Levi also participated in the misa of gavrot in the story of
Schem?

                A
final question is to ask: What if any is the significance of the bow and arrows
that are customarily played with on Log Bi Omer?

                
Perhaps all these questions can be understood by realizing that although
it may sound counter intuitive, it is specifically those people who have a
certain “extreme” propensity, such as strong gavuros, can through great effort
actually spring all the way over to the other end of the spectrum thereby
coming to emulate the attribute of chesed even more than those naturally
inclined.

                I once
heard such a story where a well known Rav, who was particularly appreciated for
his kindly nature, when asked how he achieved such an exalted level responded
that his natural propensity was to be aloof and negative but after years of
working on himself he “sprang” over to the opposite extreme of  being friendly and positive.

               So also
it may be that this day of hod within hod that corresponds to Aahron Ha Kohan
and is the Yortiet of Rabbi Shimon bar Yocai 
is truly a day of joy because it teaches all of us that no one is forced
to live by their mazel but just like an arrow’s distance and speed forward is
dependent on the thrust of the bow backward, so also it is specifically those
who have a propensity of one extreme can actually, like the arrow, be
catapulted to the furthest point at the opposite extreme.

                 This
explanation now explains why there is such a large varied group of Jews that
are drawn to Moron on Log Bi Omer because the message of this day is that
anyone and everyone can learn to love and pursue peace and that there is no
better place on the earth this day to put it into practice.

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   Perhaps we can also learn another valuable
insight from the fact that each of the twelve Shevatim traveled in their
specified positions both through the Yam Suf as well as during the forty years
in the Midbar. This can help to teach us never to feel envious if a sibling,
fellow student, co-worker or neighbor looks to be in a better “position” in
life, as illustrated by the following:  In a jewelry store, the gold and diamonds are placed
behind the glass counters, while the silver ornaments are more frequently
handled because they need to be polished. The conclusion that could be mistakenly
drawn by a stranger unfamiliar with the values of precious stones and jewelry
is that the silver items that receive the “shiny” attention are more valuable.
Therefore a possible lesson that we can derive from the individual positioning
of the Shevatim is to realize that following our perfectly divinely crafted
pathways in life will lead us to the development of our own unique “golden” talents
which are truly our most cherished possessions.

             May we
all always merit to pass through our personal Yam Suf challenges with joy,
gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to experience change and the
growth that accompanies it, transforming ourselves into vessels worthy of
holding the Torah. May our inner and outer essence be as pure as refined gold,
inlaid with sincere humility.

               Zeh
Keli V’anveihu!

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                It’s the night (lay’l)
of Pesach with all the family and guests joined together around the Seder
table. After Kiddush on wine the head of the household (Bal HaBais)divides the
middle matzah, wraps up the larger piece for the end of the meal (Afikomin) and
puts it snugly  behind his pillow.  Later in the evening (seder) someone points
to the place of the afikoman and whispers to the child, “Take it now, quickly,
while he’s not looking.” The child hesitates, feeling quite shy having been
brought up with proper values of respect and honesty. This night everything at
the house looks so different. The table is much longer than usual filled with relatives
and guests — it’s white and beautiful with lots of shiny glasses, sparkling
silver. But then with a little more prodding and a burst of courage he moves
closer to the treasured hidden away afikomen, hesitating, until some one prompts
him, “Quick, grab it and run.”

  For a second, he feels afraid, but as soon as
it is in his hand, he feels an exhilarating surge of excitement and exuberance.
Even after hiding it he continues to feel energized and successful. Much later,
when the child is asked to return the afikoman, he doesn’t give it right back,
being prodded by others to first ask for a nice prize.

    Doesn’t this conduct seem a quite odd?  Here we are seemingly allowing our small untainted
children to take something that doesn’t belong to them and on top of that extort
a reward for their efforts on one of the holiest nights of the year. How can we
possibly understand this conduct?

  Perhaps we can explain this unusual behavior
as follows. Usually the selfish inclination (yetzer hara) tries to lure a person
into improper behavior through offering feelings of ephemeral thrills and
excitement. Even though we want to avoid such conduct, the problem we face is
that we simply cannot discard the yetzer hara. 
As in the well known book of Medrashim, when the Sages davened to remove
the yetzer hara and Hashem answered their tefillos, even the chickens stopped
laying eggs. The yetzer hara is necessary but needs to be controlled. The
challenge to us is to sur mei ra, avoid evil, yet preserve our
enthusiasm and direct it to our ma’asim tovim. 
But how do we do this? 

   Perhaps, this is precisely what we are
achieving when we encourage our children to take the afikomen.  We are allowing our young pure children to
experience the excitement that is usually motivated by the yetzer hara when engaged
in risky, dangerous and thrill seeking conduct. 
We do this by giving them a controlled dose of the “taste of
desire.” As the child grows up, that spiritual inoculation that was
administered l’shem Shamayim with love will then continue to act as an antidote
against the infectious negative powers of the yetzer hara.  Indeed, that dose of controlled enthusiasm,
experienced by the child on lay’l Pesach, will enable him to rekindle those
exuberant feelings throughout the year directing them in a positive mode while learning
Torah, performing mitzvos and ma’asim tovim.

But
how can experiencing this “controlled taste of desire” both act as a vaccine
shielding the child from learning mis-conduct, while at the same time inspiring
the him with enthusiasm for all things that are Holy? It is because of the
setting in which this “taste” is given. Let us remember, the seder night is
referred to as – lay’l shemurim, the night of Divine protection – the perfect
night for this process to take place as it is a time when negative forces are
subdued. 

    You may be wondering, how can this
spiritual “inoculation” continue to protect us into our adult years?   Possibly
the answer is we use “booster shots”! 
Oh, we are not suggesting that this Pesach we grab the afikoman, however
we should watch the one who is taking it and allow that “small child” inside
each of us to relive and rekindle our own feelings of inner joy and exuberance,
thereby rekindling our youthful enthusiasm in the service of Hashem.

May
we all merit soon to be able to fulfill the mitzvah of afikoman in Jerusalem at the final
geula soon in our days.

————————–

   The attribute of exuberance and excitement
was stolen by the yetzer when Adam and Chavea did the sin. On the night of
Pesach we are able to re-capture our inheritance and return it to be used in
the holy service of H. Since the yetzer took it through theft we re-capture it,
through an act that looks like theft, at a time when the forces of evil are
subdued.

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So as we make our bedikas
chumetz or any other mitzvah, we should try to do so with the un-self conscious
innocence, inspiration and joy of a child.

          Now with a better understanding of the need
for the bedika, let us ask but why search in the darkness of night? We might
think that it is not such a good idea as evening symbolizes the powers of the
dark side- the sitra achra.  However, on
this special night, we are given the assignment and ability to enter its realm
on a “search and destroy mission”.  In
those moments, that ner/candle is a holy spiritual beam that is able to
penetrate deeply to expose any sign of ego inflation. In the esoteric tradition
the Ner represents a vessel for the – shefa – the holy influence that channels
the Divine Radiance thereby illuminating any dark or hidden places, allowing us
find, identify and remove any impurities. Through the removal of any “excess
baggage” we are then prepared  to
receive  the special (kiddusha) holiness
that permeates  the night of Passover.

                  One final thought on the multifaceted
value of the bedikas chumetz. The ideal way to perform this minhag is to allow
some member of the house or close friend to hide some small portions of bread
or mezzonos. Many have the custom of 
placing ten pieces for esoteric reasons and also to insure the finding
of some chumetz in an already thoroughly clean home.  But this practical reason is not necessarily
the only explanation.

  This
hunt for chumetz is a joint mitzvah that gets everyone involved in an effort to
accomplish this task.       So in the years when my children were
young, we would use this night to send a not-so-subtle message to them.  Chumetz  would be put in places where old battles were
fought.  So, for the child who would
leave his shoes in the middle of the room for others to trip over, chumetz would
be put in that shoe.  For another

child, a messy closet
was the battle ground and she would find a piece of chumetz there.  We would all end our bedikas chumetz laughing
over things that frustrated us during the year. Pesach is a time of unity and
what better way to nurture this idealistic state than making a bedika  from within and without.  

   This
captivating ritual of bedikas chumetz,  one of the many heart warming mitzvot of
Pesach, transforms a mundane cleaning process  into a sacred and mystical rite. This creates
the atmosphere in which Pesach is renewed each year – And as Pesach is renewed
– so are we. As for the young delivery man who was standing at the entranceway,
may that glimpse into the Pesach experience be just the right “prescription”
for his transformation.

           La Shana Haba bi-Jerusalem  –  La
Shana Haba bi-Jerusalem

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                     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”.

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               In a few impacting verses (pesukim)
in the beginning of the Book of Exodus (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 the Creator (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 our forefather (Avinu) 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.
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. 

              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 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 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 and 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. 

           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. 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