Monday, June 1, 2015

I said we would continue so here we go.....May this be a merit for the neshama of my dear old friend Rami Behar A"H on his 20th yatrzeit

I had the zechus to speak at Rami's 20th yartzeit this past Shabbos at shalashudos at his brother R' Eli Behars home. I'll try to put down what I said as best as I could remember. One person said the only problem was that we weren't able to record it, to which I answered that on Shabbos and Yom tov, those are the real "movies", the real memories! 

I quoted the dvar Torah from R' Gamliel, that the Shabbos thats after a chag has the light and essence of the previous chag etc...(See the last post...)

We then connected our 2nd Shavuos to parashas Nasso with 2 lessons:

1: Parashas Nasso is the longest parasha in the entire Torah. In order to learn it truthfully on any meaningful level, we need to put in the time. It's long, there are lots of major concepts and points, and there are lots and lots of commentaries. So in order to really learn it, we have to put down the cliff notes and just buckle down and learn. Same thing with the Torah as a whole. Yes, baruch Hashem, we are blessed to live in a time where there are so many seforim, tapes, etc... which can help us learn. But we shouldn't be looking to these things as shortcuts! We can use them, but we still need to buckle down and plug away! Day in and day out! Torah is constant!

2: We all know the famous gemara in Shabbos 88: that says that Hashem held Har Sinai over klal Yisroel and told them that if they don't accept the Torah He would drop the mountain on them and crush them. The obvious question arises!?!?!?!? Didn't we just accept the Torah?!? Without even hearing it?!? Without any conditions?!? So why does Hashem have to "force" us to accept it again?!?!
Before answering that let's introduce a concept that we may have mentioned in the past, but even so it's worth repeating because it is such a basic principle. Life as a Jew is made up of a repeated 3 stage process: 

A: The light of inspiration.

B: The darkness after the light of inspiration has faded, where we must keep working on whatever it was we were inspired to do.  

C: The final stage, where after all of the hard work and persistance of the second stage, the original light of inspiration becomes inherently part of us. 

Hashem was teaching us by "forcing" us to accept the Torah, that Torah is not something that we can learn and follow only when we "feel it", only when we're inspired and into it. Torah is constant! We must learn and follow the Torah no matter where we are in the world, and no matter what our situation may be! We must commit our entire lives and entire beings to Torah! 

Another fundemental principle which we'll see in this coming weeks parasha, Behaloscha, is that Jews are meant to be like fish that swim upstream, against the tide!

Rami was someone who at the young age of 17 was already committed to the Torah. At a time when many others were just interested in having as good time, and who didnt know or understand what "learning" was. Gemara, Chumash, etc.. were just subjects in school that we needed to study for before finals. Rami knew what real "learning" was and he loved it, he tried getting his friends to love it as well. And we continue to see the results of that love with all of the Torah that has been, is being and will be learned in his merit and because of him. 

There was something else that I thought about afterwards but that fits in very well. It's a famous thing in chassidic thought that the only real way to truly accept the Torah is through simcha/joy!! Maybe that was why Rami was so attached to Torah, and why the Behars as a family have such a great chelek in Torah. They are happy, smiley, people. All of the images that I have in my mind of Rami are all with that smile/smirk, that was always on his face! Even if he was upset, he was still smiling!

May Rami's neshama continue moving up and up and up...May he be a melitz yashar for his family, his freinds, and for all klal Yisroel! 

May we be zoche to see the coming of Mashiach! Speedily! In our day! Amen! Then we'll be together with Rami and all of our other loved ones! 

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