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Achim Newsletter
Parshas Breishis
Mazel Tov, Roman & Zehava!
Thursday October 7, 2010
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Greetings!
I hope you had a successful holiday season and have landed safely back into the regular routine of life. Please accept my great appreciation to all those who participated in our Simchas Torah celebration. It was truly a success. For more clarification of how to define success I encourage to go to Simchas Torah Simchas Torah celebration.
Candle
lighting time for Baltimore
Friday between 5:26 - 6:20 pm
Shabbos concludes 7:27 pm
Vsego khoroshego,
Paysach Diskind
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Mazel Tov!
It is with much joy that we announce the birth of a baby boy
to Roman and Zehava Kimelfeld. The baby was born a week ago on Friday late
afternoon just as the Jews of Baltimore were welcoming the Shabbos. We wish
Roman and Zehava much nachas from this new addition along with nachas from the
rest of their wonderful family. May they merit to raise him to Torah, to Chupah,
to do many mitzvos and to bring him into the Bris of our father Avrohom Avinu.
This Friday night there will be a Sholom Zachor (a party in honor of the baby's birth) at the home of Roman and Zehava; 6500
Edenvale Road 21209 map.
Please stay tune for information on the Bris. At this time it appears to be set for Sunday afternoon. An email will be going out to confirm with details
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to print this as a web page click here
Parsha thought
In this week's Parsha of Noach we will read the story of the
Great Flood which destroyed every living member of the human, animal and plant
kingdoms, except fish. The only exceptions were Noach, his family and the
animals who were with him in the Ark
/ boat.
I would like to present last week's Parsha, our current
Parsha and next week's Parsha in a context that will hopefully give us
direction and encouragement to elevate ourselves and the world around us.
The protagonists of last week's Parsha were Adam and Eve who
were hand-crafted by HaShem Himself. Adam and Eve were created perfect. HaShem
would create nothing less than perfect. Their failure lay in their own bad
choice that they made in eating from the forbidden tree. Through that sin Adam
pulled all of Mankind, his descendants, down from their elevated plane. From
that event of eating from the tree forward for the following 1,600 years Man
slid down a very long and deep path into total decadence. Promiscuity had lost
all boundaries. The lines of distinction between Man and animal were gone.
Man's decadence even influenced the animal kingdom to the point that even
animals began mixed breeding.
This week's protagonist is Noach. The Torah introduces Noach
to us as a man "righteous and perfect in
his generation". As the story
unfolds we recognize Noach as a man who is totally dedicated to the welfare of
others. Noach and his family lived together with tens of thousands of animals,
birds and insects for the duration of an entire year! These include 2 giraffes,
2 lions, 2 skunks, 2 elephants, 2 hippos, 2 stinkbugs and so on. Noach and his
family were given the responsibility of feeding all this company on a daily and
hourly basis. The Midrash indicates that Noach delayed only once during the
entire year in feeding the animals. He was also given the job of cleaning each
animal's stall from any excrement on a regular basis. Considering this job for
an entire year is truly beyond comprehension. Nevertheless, Noach did it
faithfully. Truly a tzadik!
The protagonist in next week's Parsha is Avrohom, the father
of the Jewish people. Our Parsha compares Noach to Avrohom in the following
way. Regarding Noach the Torah refers to him as "perfect in his generation", the Torah qualifies Noach's perfection
as being perfect in his own generation. The Sages teach us that had Noach lived
350 years later in the generation of Avrohom he would not have been reckoned as
perfect. The reason being that Noach's perfection paled compared to Avrohom's
perfection.
The distinction between Noach and Avrohom was that although Noach
gave selflessly of himself to others, he did not seek out opportunities of
chesed (giving). When there was a need to give he gave, if there was no need
that was fine as well. Avrohom, in contrast, sought out opportunities of chesed
when there was no need. It actually troubled Avrohom when there were no guests
to invite in to his home. Avrohom felt he had no life if he could not give to
others. Selflessness was an essential component of who Avrohom was. Hence,
Noach's perfection paled in comparison to Avrohom.
Let us now place our three protagonists in the context of
their unique qualities and see if we can get a coherent picture.
What was the crux of Adam's sin? Last week we touched on
this question by asking how Adam ate the forbidden fruit when he was not yet
subjected to the evil inclination. What drove him to eat from the tree? The
answer is somewhat complex. Nevertheless, for the sake of brevity we will state
it this way. Adam was not driven by the
physical attraction of the fruit. The contrary was true. Adam wanted nothing
more than to serve HaShem with his entire heart and his entire mind. Adam
understood that by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he would
face great challenges in serving HaShem. Adam was attracted to the fruit of the
Tree because he wanted to serve HaShem in the face of challenges so as to
demonstrate his commitment to HaShem. So, even though he disobeyed HaShem by
eating from the Tree, he justified this sin by his glorious intention of
serving HaShem in the face of challenges.
To state the crux of Adam's sin it would be accurate to say
that Adam was interested in his own glorification; he wanted to serve HaShem in
a way that he could demonstrate his commitment rather than submitting himself entirely
to HaShem's simple instruction of not eating from the Tree. Let us therefore
restate Adam's sin of being a manifestation of placing his own ego above HaShem.
I need to diverge for a moment. Last week the Parsha taught
us that Man was created in the image of HaShem. There is a commonality that Man
shares with HaShem! Man's role in this world is to actualize this commonality.
What is this commonality?
Selflessness.
HaShem is the epitome of selflessness since He has no needs
and He gains nothing from all of creation. He only created the world for the
benefit of Man.
Hence, Man's role, to emulate HaShem and be the reflection of HaShem in this
world, is realized when Man too becomes essentially selfless.
As we recognize Adam's shortcoming as being self-centered
(albeit in the service of HaShem) and we recognize Noach's righteousness as
being a paradigm of chesed, giving selflessly of himself to others (a year of
commitment to tens of thousands of animals) and we recognize Avrohom's essence
as being nothing but selflessness, a picture emerges in the development of Man.
The Torah has drawn a marvelous illustration of Man's
ability to rebound from the depth of selfishness to the height of selflessness.
How grateful we need to be to HaShem for including us among
the members of Avrohom's descendants who inherited this quality of selflessness.
Within every member of our people lies this most noble quality, we only need to
uncover it.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind
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Noteworthy links
Parsha Summary and other delights 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
Один из хасидов Цемах Цедека из года в год арендовал у помещика постоялый
двор.
Пришло время и сын его подрос. Решил арендатор передать дело сыну и
послал его к помещику продлевать аренду. Сын вернулся в отличном настроении ему
удалось сторговать у помещика аренду на пять лет с большой скидкой. Но отец,
оказалось, не разделял его радость:-Ты думаешь, я не мог выторговать постоялый
двор на долгий срок ? Почему же, если так, я продлевал аренду каждый год? Да
потому, что верил, что машиаха не придется ждать пять лет.
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