Tzaraas Bizman Hazeh - Gam Zu L'Tovah

The Torah in this week's parsha teaches us the concept of tzaraas in one's house. This is where the person's walls become discolored and the person has to call in the kohein to inspect his house. If the discoloration doesn't go away after seven days, he has to knock down the wall(s) where the tzaraas existed.
Rashi points out that there was a hidden positive in this. The Emorites used to hide their jewels and treasures in the walls, and when the Jews with the tzaraas on their walls would knock down the walls they would find the treasure. A typical case of something that at first looks like a bad situation but ends up being all for the best.
Bible critics over the years have criticized the Torah saying that it is outdated. This can be cited as a classic case, tzaraas doesn't exist today. It's definitely not leprosy as we know it. Ever heard of a house with "leprosy"?
We, however, know and believe that the Torah is eternal, and the messages contained therein apply forever and always. For the best proof, ask me sometime about the cow and weasel gemara, amazing stuff, but for another post.
Anyway, anybody that lives in the New York area should remember the storms that we suffered through around Yom Kippur. Many houses were flooded, some badly damaged. I know of one instance where someone basement walls were covered with mold (colored spots on the walls) and the walls needed to be knocked down. Behind the walls, they found GOLD, hidden there by previous owners. I was blown away. It was exactly as Rashi described almost a thousand years ago, on a pasuk in the Torah that was written over three thousand years ago, and still has application today.
"Every cloud has a silver lining" where do you think they got that from?

So keep in mind, when seemingly bad things happen, try and stay positive, it could just be Hashem's way of setting you up for something truly amazing.

Yom Hashoa

I was debating whether or not to continue blogging, and even if I did, part of me wanted to leave my previous post up on top a little longer. Thinking about today and its connection to my previous post, made me think that perhaps I should post.

Today is Yom Hashoa. In Israel, the observance is strong. Everyone there knows about the day and commemorates it. It doesn't matter whether you are frum or not, Yom Hashoa is still Yom Hashoa.
Here in America it's a whole different story. For some strange reason, most of frum America does not commemorate Yom Hashoa. They are of the opinion that we have Tisha B'Av and that's enough. The other argument that I have heard is that Yom Hashoa should not have been set during Nissan which is a happy month.
I am not normally one to rock the boat, but I have to disagree with this mentality. We lost SIX million jews in a fairly short period of time. That's three to ten times the amount of people that left mitzrayim. It wasn't just the non-frum that were "punished" and killed. How many tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of frum jews were killed, not to mention rabbanim and gedolei hador.
The youngest survivors are now in the mid to late sixties. May they all be zoche to live "ad meah vesrim", but the odds are, that we don't have them around THAT much longer. Who will be around to refute the cynics that to this day claim that it never happened? Why shouldn't there be a day to commemorate the loss of our culture?
My argument to the arguments posed above is very simple, sefira. It was set-up post Anshei Knesses Hagedola, in addition to Tisha B'Av and it eats up more than a few days of Nissan. So where's the logic?? Hashem Yinkom Damam.

Pesach Kavanos

It's Erev Pesach and I'm sure that all bechorim have gone to siyumim to avoid fasting. When was the last time a bechor actually had to fast on erev pesach?
We are all busy with our last minute preparations. Packing our cars to go away, if we aren't already tanning in sunny Florida, or last minute cleanings, biur chametz, cleaning the cars, manicures, pedicures, facials, etc. Not that I am criticizing or, chas v'shalom, do I have anything against these things, my point is simply that B"H we live very comfortable lives.


A little more than sixty years ago, life was not that simple and not that comfortable. Sixty years is not such a long time. B"H we still have representatives that lived through and survived those terrible times.
I can't believe I had never heard of it before, but this week, someone brought to my attention a tefila that was composed in Bergen Belsen in 1944. Although apparently in 1945, somehow, they were able to make some small amounts of matza, "When Rabbi Israel Spira led 70 Bergen-Belsen Jews to demand flour for baking matza, it was a demand so audacious in the SS Valley of Death that a stunned Adolf Haas, camp commandant, acquiesced." However, in 1944 they obviously did not have matza in the camp.
The rabbinical authority, Rabbi Aharon Davids, led the Seder in the male barracks, conducting the ceremony from memory. The mesiras nefesh that these jews possessed is mind boggling. When he reached the part of blessing on the mitzvah to eat matzah, they said the following tefilla (translated here into english):
"Heavenly Father, it is clear to You that our will is to do Your will and celebrate Passover by eating matzoh, and by refraining from chametz. But we are sick at heart because the oppression and mortal danger in which we find ourselves prevents us (from fulfilling these commandments). We are ready and willing to fulfill Your mandate that we 'live by the commandments and not die by them'. And we are observing Your warning: 'Protect yourself and keep your soul alive.' We therefore beseech You to keep us alive, sustain us and redeem us speedily, so that we may observe your statutes, carry out Your will and serve You wholeheartedly." Rabbi Davids then ate from a piece of bread, urging his followers to do the same.
For more details on the seder in Bergen Belsen click here .

If only, we, living in the laps of luxury can have half the kavanos on our matza during the seder that they had on their chametz. Something to think about tonight and tomorrow.

Chag Kasher V'Sameach

(Please click here to see a post with a similar concept, but relating to chanukah)

The Four Sons

A few years ago I heard a beautiful pshat on the four sons of the hagada, especially in light of events of the last hundred years or so, it definitely has meaning and some validity.
The four sons can be interpreted as four generations of sons within the same family.
The "chochom" is the patriarch of this thread of the family. He was a righteous man, a learned man, and as he sits at the seder, he is still involved in the process of learning more and asking questions. Unfortunately, as happens to all of us, some more than others, he fell on some hard times. Perhaps he even exclaimed as many americans did in the 20s, or eastern europeans in the 40s, "iz shver tzu zein a yid" it's not easy to be jewish.
His son unfortunately picked up on the negativity and he no longer followed in the ways of his father(s). He went on to become the "rasha". He is scornful, he mocks the entire process.
The rasha has a son. His son is a "tam". The tam doesn't see any of the traditions from his father, but every now and then they visit his grandfather, the chochom, and he can sit on his zeide's lap and ask him "what is all this?"
Unfortunately, by the time the tam's son is born, his zeide, the chochom, has passed away. This child, is the "she'ayno yodea lishol". According to this pshat, it's not so much that he doesn't know how to ask, it's that he doesn't have WHO to ask.

The hagada is generally more upbeat and this pshat ends on somewhat of a down note, so in an effort to look at things more positively I would like to add my own twist to this pshat.
We know that the four cups of wine are a remez to the four terms of geula in the pesukim, but wait, there's a fifth term, the most positive one of all, "V'Hayvaisee", the ultimate geula. However, it hasn't happened yet, and therefore we only have the four cups, but as a remez to the ultimate geula, we have the kos shel eliyahu, the fifth cup.
I'd like to say that without any doubt there is no coincidence to the number four. The four sons definitely tie in to the four cups and the four terms of geula, but again, what about the fifth term. So what I'd like to add to this pshat that I quoted above is that, even though the generations went through their ups and downs, that pintele yid remains. There is at least some spark. "At psach lo". Leave the door open. Through that, perhaps the fifth generation, the fifth son, will feel something, something more than his father did, and somehow mysteriously find his way to a Gateways or an Ohr Sameach (or some other wonderful organization like them) and shock everyone and be "chozer bitshuva" and continue to pave the way to bring about the ultimate geula.

Have a Chag Kasher V'Sameach!!

I want my hour back!

I know, logically it's just one hour.
That's all it really is.
In a way, it isn't really even that much.
Yet, for some reason I feel like I lost something.
Will I be able to re-capture it?
I sure hope so.
It means a lot to me.
I don't deal well when it comes to losing things.
Especially when they mean a lot to me.
Wish me luck!