You can always make it up!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, fun, meaningful, Purim. May we merit to take all of the holiness and lessons of the day into ourselves and only continue to go higher and higher.

A few weeks ago was Parshas Shekalim and due to my having to be out there making the shekalim I missed the post and was a little upset. When we got to this weeks parsha , Ki Tissah and I started reading about the shekalim that Hashem told Moshe rabeinu to collect from all of the Jews, I remembered that age old lesson that its never too late and whatever it is that you may have missed Hashem in His loving grace always gives us a chance to make it up.

So the lesson of Shekalim is that even though we are "the smallest nation" we are also the greatest and a"light unto all nations". How is that? Well its because our strength isn't in numbers but rather in our togetherness. They had to be half shekalim not whole ones. Whether you are poor or rich, here or there it doesn't matter because together we have nothing to fear but Hashem. The problem is, that other guy, the yetzer harah also knows this. It is he who splits us up in 1001 different ways because he knows that if we would get it together despite our differences we would be unstoppable. So it's simple. We all are suffering in this galus!!! And we are always looking for the way out and it's right in front of our faces! The time has come to put our differences aside and come together so that we could once again give the half shekel which will go towards the building of Hashem's new house. We see this also in the ketores/incense. The gemara (Krisus 6) says “Any prayer that doesn't include the sinners of Israel isn't called a prayer” This is learned out from the fact that one of the ingredients of the ketores was "chelbana/galbanum" which was bitter both in its taste and smell. But yet it was included in the ketores, and when put together with the rest of the spices it was the best smell in the world! So sinner, saint, sephardi, ashekenazi, american israeli, and even french as long as we're Jews we have to get it together!

The golden calf, the eigel ha'zahav. There is so much to say but one thing I saw just blew me away. Reb Nachman z'ya in Sichos Haran (123), talks about those people who are religious for a while and then fall away. He said that even the short time that they are religious is very dear to Hashem, no matter what happens later. The pasuk says, 'You have attracted My heart with one of your eyes' (Song of Songs 4:9). This pasuk is referring to Hashem speaking to the Jewish People, recalling the time when they accepted the Torah. The Midrash asks why the verse says 'with one of your eyes'. It answers that the other eye was already looking at the Golden Calf at the giving of the Torah. Therefore, Rabbi Nachman explains that even when the Jews accepted the Torah, they already had plans to stray. Still, the short time that they were close to G-d was still very dear to Him. Therefore, Hashem says in the pasuk, 'you have attracted Me (even] with one of your eyes'. So we see it again. Every little bit, every good deed, every good thought counts. Ein yeisush!!! Short sweet and to the point!

In honor of the Noam Elimelech's yertzeit....

21 Adar

Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, author of Noam Elimelech, (1717-1787). Learned under Maggid Mezritch. Among his students: Reb Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta, Chozeh Of Lublin, Maggid of Koznitz, Reb Menachem Mendel of Rimanov. Below is photo of the grave tomb of the Noam Elimelech in Lizhensk, Poland