Rabbi Shaya's Thoughts

Are We All Professionals?

Thursday, March 19, 2020 - 1:38 PM

Overnight, parents became teachers, people who always ate out are preparing meals for themselves and their loves ones, and people who worked in teams suddenly find they are fending for themselves. The world has turned upside down. Or perhaps, did it turn downside up?

Is there a positive side to all of this?

We find an interesting lesson in this week’s Torah portion where it talks about building the courtyard fence.

Seemingly, it was a simple task to set up the foundation blocks, hammer the pegs into the ground, and tighten the string that would hold up the fence surrounding the courtyard. Yet, we find that this task necessitated talented people who knew how to tighten the ropes so that the material would not sail in the wind. It was not enough to have talented individuals to weave the beautiful tapestry, goldsmiths to create the fine gold ornaments for the temple, carpenters to hew the large wood beams, and so on. Every single task required skilled craftsmanship.

This is a lesson for all of us. Until this week, we handed off many of our daily “routine” tasks to others. From educating our children to preparing our meals. Suddenly, we are noticing that these tasks require talent and care, and requires us to step up to the plate and learn quickly how to accomplish these tasks. Things that we took for granted, not noticing their value, have suddenly been brought into focus and taught us that yes, this too, takes skill.

The Torah calls all these talented people Chachmie Lev, meaning caring, wise people. To be one requires not only an understanding of what has to get done, but to do so with passion and sincerity.

We, too, should embrace our “new” roles with wisdom and passion, or to use the more modern vernacular, emotional intelligence, as we embark on this short-term lockdown of our society.

Let’s utilize this quality time with our loved ones to learn together, play together, and be creative together, to create positive family memories together and ultimately, as a nation, we will pull out of this together as a healthy nation!

Shabbat Shalom.

Wash Your Hands!

Friday, March 13, 2020 - 11:37 AM

How important is it to wash your hands? Better yet, is this a new phenomenon? A few weeks ago a doctor stood up in shul and told everyone to start being more careful about shaking hands, about “social distancing,” about the importance of good hygiene, and so on. He even gave us a quick history lesson on why Jews have been spared, historically, from plagues because we have a tradition of washing ourselves more frequently than other peoples.

Where does this tradition come from?

From this week’s Torah portion!

The first thing that the priests did when they entered the tabernacle/temple to serve, was to wash their hands and feet in a specially made wash basin. This was obligatory.

From here we learn that the first thing we do every morning before we say our morning prayers, is wash our hands.

One may think that this washing of the hands is a “traditional” purification done by the priests before entering the temple, and we just mimic their behavior so that we can remember what they have done. This may be true on some level, but it is much more than just that.

If it were just a ritual purification of the hands, then why did they wash their feet? They didn’t have paved roads like we have today, so they cleaned themselves off so that they could simply be clean, as the verse says, “Prepare yourselves so that you can serve G-d.“ Judaism espouses cleanliness.

That is why many codifiers of Jewish law are of the opinion that it is not enough to just perform the traditional hand washing in the morning before saying prayers, but one must also wash their face, etc. to be truly clean first thing in the morning before serving G-d.

As we enter this hypersensitive mode of not spreading disease from one person to another, we should know that this is not just good manners, but a Torah idea as well.

However, just like we can spread a disease, we can spread positivity. Good deeds spread a lot quicker, because they spread without contact. If you know someone, especially someone elderly who is stuck at home, go grocery shopping for them.

And if you are concerned about your health, perhaps you need your Mezuzah checked to make sure that it is Kosher, give me a call so that I can come over and take a look! Remember, trust in Hashem. He who has the power to heal.

Shabbat Shalom,

A Purim Lesson

Tuesday, March 3, 2020 - 11:42 AM

At the very end of the Purim story, the scroll of Esther tells us how to celebrate the newly established holiday of Purim. It says that in addition to performing the four mitzvot (reading the scroll of Esther, giving gifts of food to your friends, giving money to the poor, and having a festive meal), it explains why we should do all of these; it is not just because our lives were saved. It is much more than that.

The scroll tells us that our lives were turned upside down – in a good way: Everything that we did not expect to happen, happened. The choice was ours and we took it.

What does this mean?

Let us go back to the beginning of the story to have a better appreciation of this ending.

King Ahasuerus threw a big party and invited everyone to come to the party. At the party there were numerous abnormalities. Let’s point out two of them: He offered an abundance of alcoholic beverages but took the unusual step of not imposing on anyone to drink (this was not in vogue at the time). He said, If you want to drink, drink. If not, not. Then, when he ordered his wife, Vashti, to appear in a compromised way and she refused, he was unsure if she deserved the death penalty – for disobeying him - a king! Under normal circumstances his decision would be clear as day. Why suddenly the doubt? That he needed to be convinced to kill his wife?

From this we can deduce that an underlying theme of the Purim story is “free choice.” Vashti had free choice to listen to her husband but she chose not to. The guests at the party had a choice to drink or not to. Some did, some didn’t.

Why is this important to us?

In some way, Ahasuerus opened the minds and hearts of the Jews to look at their own Torah in a way in which they never looked at it before. Until that point, they had followed the Torah because their ancestors did. To take ownership of something, you have to do so out of free will.

Having our life turned upside down can be a good thing, if we end up standing straight up. That is, if we stop to contemplate what just happened. The Jews at the time did just that. They said: Our lives just went through the biggest roller coaster of our generation. We came out on top, seemingly without any major, earth-shattering miracle. (they didn’t know of the behind-the-scenes miracles). Yet, the Jews were smart enough to learn a major lesson: We have free choice! Let’s embrace that free choice. Let’s reconnect with the Torah. Let’s make it ours, not only because it is our inheritance, but because we want it.

We too should internalize the lesson of Purim and embrace the lessons of the Torah, with free choice. Not because our parents told us to, but because we want to.

Happy Purim and Shabbat Shalom.