Rabbi Shaya's Thoughts

Hide-and-seek

Friday, February 23, 2024 - 9:45 AM

The children’s game of hide-and-seek can teach us many lessons. Amongst them is that we are not looking for anything that is not there, or even lost, as much as trying to reveal something that is already in our presence, but we just need to uncover it from its hiding place.

Having this attitude in our lives in general can be very helpful. We have so many blessings in our lives, and all we have to do is find and reveal the blessings for ourselves and for those in our lives.

This is evidenced in this week’s Torah portion of Tetzaveh. This portion discusses the garments worn by the Kohanim, the priests, and the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest. The High Priest owned eight garments while the regular priests owned four. These garments were exactly the same for hundreds of years (i.e., same details). However, there was one change that occurred during the Second Temple period: The breastplate, the “crown jewel” of the garments, no longer showed a very important feature called the urim v’thummim.

Let me explain: The breastplate was made of gold and twelve precious stones, each one containing the name of one of the twelve tribes. The breastplate also had a pocket that contained G-d’s name on a piece of parchment, written by Moses. This was the urim v’thummim. The breastplate was not just beautiful, it also played a very important role for the Jewish leaders. When the leaders would ask a question of importance of the High Priest, the letters on the stones would light up and the High Priest would then decipher the answer. This miracle occurred because G-d’s name was inserted into the pocket. However, during the Second Temple period, G-d’s name was no longer accessible to them, since it had been hidden before the First Temple was destroyed. Therefore, the stones would no longer light up on demand.

Did the Jews during this period of history feel that they had a lesser-quality breastplate? Perhaps. But on a spiritual level it was not of lesser quality, because then the garments would be incomplete. The difference was that during the First Temple period, G-d was present in a revealed way, while during the Second Temple period, G-d was not revealed although still very present.

In our lives today, we can ask, Where is G-d? Is He even part of our lives? Does He hear our prayers, etc.?

The answer is yes, G-d is here, we just need to search a little harder until G-d is felt in a revealed way.

Let our hostages go

Thursday, February 15, 2024 - 12:00 PM

We are all ecstatic to learn the news of the miraculous rescue of the two Israeli hostages, Fernando Marman and Louis Har, who were kidnapped and held by Hamas militants for longer than four months. We read and watched how about forty soldiers put their lives on the line to rescue them. It is interesting to note that Fernando Marman and Louis Har are related. Fernando’s sister, Clara, is married to Louis. What is not well known is the spiritual part of their rescue.

Here is the spiritual story. As part of an ongoing effort by the hostages’ families to raise awareness within Israel, about four weeks ago Clara and her family went to speak at a Chabad synagogue. After they spoke, and during a Q&A session where they discussed the fact that Israel is between a rock and a hard place—no easy solutions at hand—the Rebbetzin spoke. Rebbetzin Lipsker pointed out to Clara and her family that there is action that can be taken: the performing of Mitzvot in honor of their speedy release from captivity. The Rebbetzin recommended that the women light Shabbat candles and the men don Tefillin daily. The Marman and Har families agreed. They even asked for extra pairs of Tefillin for Fernando and Louis.

Not four weeks passed and the miracle that this family waited for, happened.

The connection between the physical and the spiritual is found in this week’s Torah potion, Teruma. Teruma describes the Sanctuary’s (Temple) chambers. When discussing each area of the Temple, we notice that there are different levels of holiness in each, not limited to just its location, but also because of its uses. The Zohar explains that the Temple that we have here in our world is a reflection of the Temple that exists on high, in the spiritual realm. Therefore, we cannot look at the world we live in as if in a vacuum, but rather we need to see the full picture: how the world below and the world above work in unison. The different levels of holiness reflect this symbiotic relationship.

Although we do not have a Temple in Jerusalem today, as in the past, the lesson of how the two worlds work together still applies. This week we witnessed this ourselves.

The takeaway lesson for each of us is to do one more Mitzvah in merit of the hostages, and in some small way play a role in contributing to their release.

United as one

Friday, February 2, 2024 - 11:22 AM

On October 6, 2023, Israel was divided. On October 7, the whole country united as one.

How did that happen?

We know the why—Israel was attacked and each and every person was on the same page. But how we maintain this unity is the question.

The adage goes that when you ask two Jews a question, you get three opinions. Since each of us thinks differently, we respond differently to our emotions, and perhaps each is also influenced by our surroundings.

The Torah encourages us to think for ourselves and get in touch with the way we feel.

This idea of being in touch with who we are and what makes us tick is important as we try to understand what the Torah is teaching us. And as a result, we will have a difference of opinions.

However, we see that when it comes to soldiers in the field, or to observance of the Mitzvot, we follow the Code of Jewish Law. True, the Talmud is known for the debates between the scholarly rabbis, but after going back and forth, it is the majority that rules. Same is with politics and the way the war on Hamas is going. There is no question that in the Knesset there are differences of opinion, but in the end, all come together with a battle plan.

Yet, the question is, what do we do about the minority opinion? Did that opinion converge into the majority rule or was it ignored? If it was ignored, then how did it make that person feel? How can we expect to put that person’s feelings aside?

When searching for the truth, we are not looking for what works for us, but rather for the actual truth. Yes, we look through our own lens, but we are still searching for the truth. If the conclusion is not to our liking, we still have to accept that the truth is different than what we anticipated it to be.

This is what happened at Mount Sinai. In this week’s Torah portion of Yitro, we learn how the Jews stood united as one. They stood together knowing very well that although they each thought differently and they all felt differently, when it came to practicing the commandments and keeping the Torah’s laws, they would all be on the same page.

The same is true about Israel today. The soldiers know what their mission is. Every Israeli knows what has to get done. There is a sense of unity in the air.

May we, too, learn to put our differences aside and look for the truth, and bring unity to this world.

Shabbat Shalom