Achim Newsletter
Ki Seitzei
Thursday August 19, 2010
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Greetings!
With summer's end in sight I hope you are doing well.
Candle
lighting time for Baltimore
between 6:30 - 7:37 pm
Shabbos concludes
8:44 pm
I want to thank the many people who offered valuable feedback on the Urgent email regarding the missionary threat.
Vsego khoroshego,
Paysach Diskind
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to print this as a web page click here
A Thought to Ponder
As we draw closer to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the days
that beckon us to improve ourselves, the Parsha of Ki Seitzei is read.
Undoubtedly, our Parsha is full of messages that will direct us to a successful
preparation for these days of awe. I would like to focus on the beginning
paragraph which opens for us a principle that will serve as a guide and a
support as we undertake the task of self improvement.
The Torah begins our Parsha with a situation where the
Jewish people successfully overcome their enemy at battle and capture the
enemy. Among the military personnel there is a man who attracted to one of the
women captives and wants to marry her. Although there is a serious
transgression involved, the Torah makes allowance and grants the man the opportunity
to actually marry this woman, provided certain conditions are met.
Our Sages point out that the Torah recognized that the
strength of this man's lustful drive would be too powerful for him to overcome it
without special allowance. In other words, HaShem lowered His expectations for
this individual because He understood the circumstances of war weaken Man's
strength to overcome moral challenges.
Behold! We have uncovered a remarkable principle regarding
the nature of HaShem's expectations for us. Namely, HaShem will not place an
expectation on us that He recognizes is not attainable. In other words, any and
every mitzvah that we are instructed to do is possible for us to do, because if
it was not possible then we would not have been instructed to do it. This is
such a powerful message that I wish to repeat it as a self standing paragraph
as follows.
The strength of Jewish neshoma (soul), the heights to which
the Jewish neshoma can rise, can be ascertained by studying the mitzvos of the
Torah and discovering what her Creator expects of her.
Let us take for example the mitzvah prohibiting us from
taking revenge. The Talmud explains the scenario of this mitzvah as follows.
Joe asks his neighbor to please borrow his hammer. The neighbor refuses to lend
it to Joe. Understandably, Joe is upset. The next day the neighbor asks Joe to
please lend him his shovel. In this circumstance Joe is not permitted to refuse
his neighbor's request. Joe must grant the neighbor use of his shovel in spite
of the neighbor's refusal to lend the hammer to Joe. The Torah instructs us not
to bear a grudge against our neighbor for his refusal to grant us our request.
This mitzvah deserves much discussion as to what is Joe
supposed to do? Just roll over and take abuse? These questions are addressed by
the Torah itself; however, in my wish to remain on track with our Parsha's
lesson we will save these questions for a different forum.
To be able to absorb such abuse and bear no grudge is
something that we might call outside of the frame of human possibility.
However, when HaShem instructs us that we must in fact behave is such a way, He
is telling us that the Jewish neshoma can raise herself far above the human
feelings of hurt and transcend to levels that are angelic.
Armed with the knowledge that HaShem anticipates from us
only those accomplishments that we are capable of achieving, we are now able to
move to those higher levels of accomplishment.
As we near Rosh Hashanah and turn inward to challenge
ourselves to improve we need to remember that if there is a level of perfection
that the Torah expects of us to accomplish then we have the ability to
accomplish it.
However, so often we are convinced that we not capable of
accomplishing that level. When this happens we must recognize that HaShem does
not expect everything immediately in many cases it can take years to accomplish
this level. Rather our job is to identify the path that will lead us to
attaining the desired level of accomplishment. Once this path is identified we must
embark upon it until we reach our destination even if it takes 20 years.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind
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Noteworthy links
Parsha Summary by Rabbi Osher Baddiel in English and Russian
Penetrating Russian insight to the Parsha by Shvut Ami
Programs from which you and others can learn and grow
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Хасидская притча
Совершенство действия
- свидетельство совершенства действующего
р. Менахем-Мендл из Коцка |
