Adar Rishon 4, 5782 / February 4-5, 2022
Parashat T'rumah
Torah: Exodus 25:1 - 27:19
Haftarah: 1 Kings 5:26 - 6:13
This d'var torah is offered in memory of my aunt, Mildred Flom, whose yahrzeit falls on Friday, February 4/Adar Rishon 3. Y'hi zekherah liv'rakhah - May her memory be a blessing.
This d'var torah is offered in memory of Leonard Foint, whose yahrzeit falls on Friday, February 4/Adar Rishon 3. Y'hi zikhro liv'rakhah - May his memory be a blessing.
This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Feigel bat Kreina and D'vorah bat Feigel.
Lunch and Learn meets Tuesdays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. We’re continuing to read and discuss the Midrashic collection Ein Ya’akov. On February 8, we'll be at page 8 (my pagination) of Chapter 3 of Berakhot (27b) - "Tanya Rebbi Eliezer omeir hamitpallel ..." - "We are taught that R. Eliezer says 'He who prays...'” The reading may be found at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TpQwHh2XyWT9XYQ5OAjwxDbuVpXbzIDY/view?usp=sharing
Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about becoming a Chaver and our various programs, at: https://bnaihayim.org/
Dr. Steve Pearlman writes up the "Midrashim of the Week", available this week at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18UGlvo5ea6SMR5XoPbZ3ZFWsaxtXKC1W/view
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משנכנס אדר, מרבין בשמחה Mishenichnas Adar, marbin b’simchah! – With the beginning of Adar, we increase joy! (BT Ta'anit 29a)
HERE'S A LITTLE PURIM TORAH CONTEST
As this is a Jewish Leap Year, it raises a question, and the person who gives me whatever I believe to be the best answer will be awarded one slightly used bottle of slivovitz (the decision of the judge and the amount of slivovitz remaining after he drinks from the bottle are in his sole discretion and are final): Since we are instructed by our rabbis to be joyful in Adar, and Adar is twice as long this year, does that mean that we will have twice as much joy in total this year than in non-leap years, or, does it mean that on any given day in the months of Adar, we are only half as joyful as we would have been in a non-leap year because our joy must be spread over twice as many days? There is no right or wrong answer! Be creative with proof texts!
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YOU GOTTA WANT IT!
“And you shall make a menorah of pure gold; of hammered work the menorah shall be made, its base and its shaft; its cups, its calyxes and its flowers shall be of one piece with it... Look and do; according to their pattern which is shown to you on the mountain.” Exodus 25:31, 40
Rashi, citing B. Talmud Menachot 29: "'Look and do.' Look here, on the mountain, the pattern that I show you. This tells that Moses was perplexed by the construction of the menorah, until the Holy Blessed One showed him a menorah made of fire.”
Rashi, citing Midrash Tanchuma: “'Of hammered work the menorah shall be made' - of itself (i.e., it was spontaneously created by itself, and not by humans). Moses was so perplexed by it that the Holy Blessed One said to him: 'Cast the gold into the fire’ (i.e., the fiery pattern on the mountain); thus it is not written, 'You shall make’ but ‘it shall be made’."
Yehudah Aryeh Leib (the Sefas Emes, aka the Gerer Rebbe) asks in his book Gur Aryeh, “If the menorah was made spontaneously, why did God show Moses a menorah made of fire (as a pattern for making it)?” He answers that human beings are unable to completely fulfill the will of God. But through a person’s innermost and heartfelt yearning to fulfill God’s will, God helps in fulfilling the desire. The Gerer concludes, “The yearning of a person influences a given undertaking so that it can actually complete itself.”
If you really want to fulfill a mitzvah that is difficult for you, it will in the end seem to happen by itself - but only if you try, only if you want it, and only if you let God meet you halfway, to show you how to complete it. If you want it, here it is, come and get it.
Have a Shabbat of light and happiness - it's Adar!
HaRav HaGa’on Abba Reuven ben Menachem Mendel Flom, Sh’lita
Av Beis Din – Chelm
Slivovitz Taste Tester
משנכנס אדר, מרבין בשמחה
From the beginning of Adar, we increase joy.
BT Ta’anit 29a
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