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"Your Mission, Should You Decide to Accept it!

07/22/2021 03:38:48 PM

Jul22

Rabbi Reuben Israel Abraham, CDR, CHC, USN (ret)

In this week's parashah, Parashat Va'etchanan, we read the following: "HaShem, our God, sealed a covenant with us at Chorev.  It was not with our fathers that HaShem sealed this covenant, but with us – the living, every one of us who is here today." (Devarim 5:2-3) Moshe was reminding the B'Nei Yisrael that the brit, the covenant, they made with HaShem when receiving the Aseret HaDibrot, “the Ten Utterances” (more commonly referred to as “the Ten Commandments”), was made with all generations of the B’nei Yisrael, both with the generation of our ancestors alive in that place at that moment as well as with all succeeding generations of the B’nei Yisrael.

We recall Parashat Yitro which tells of the giving of the Aseret HaDibrot, and we read these words that HaShem spoke to Moshe: "’But you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’  These are the words that you shall speak to B'nei Yisrael." (Shemot 19:6) The great Torah commentator Rashi comments on the phrase beginning with "These are the words" saying that this means: "Not less (words) and not more (words)."  What is Rashi saying here?  Merely that Moshe is not supposed to add or subtract any words from what HaShem told him to say.  But why would HaShem limit Moshe to just those few words? The answer to this question can be found in a story as related by Rabbi Yaakov Luban.

There was a family in Yerushalayim that had a severely challenged child.  As he got older, his needs conflicted with the needs of the rest of the family so much so that consideration was being given as to how it might be the time to place him in an institution.  They sought guidance from Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zichrono livracha (may his memory be for a blessing), one of the greatest Orthodox Rabbis of his time, regarding this matter.  He asked them: "Did you discuss this with your son?"  The family protested that due to his mental incompetence, the boy would not understand the question let alone be able to answer it.  Rabbi Auerbach protested: "You cannot just drop off a child at an institution without discussing it with him!  Bring him to me.  I want to speak with him."  The family did as he asked.  Rabbi Auerbach identified himself to the boy, and the boy told him his name.  The Rabbi proceeded: "I have a problem that you may be able to help me with.  There is a school that has no mashgiach to make sure that everything is being run properly.  It's my job to make sure that everything there is on the up-and-up, but I cannot be there on a regular basis.  Can I ask you a favor?  Would you be willing to live in the school and serve as my representative to make sure that it's being run properly?  Tell them that I have sent you as my personal emissary to supervise."  The boy immediately accepted his mission and took it so seriously that when his parents came to bring him home for Shabbat, he told them that he could not take any Shabbat off."  Because Rabbi Auerbach told him that he was responsible for the school, he felt he had to remain on campus to supervise.  Using a simple, brief explanation that the boy could understand, Rabbi Auerbach had given this boy a mission to fulfill, and fulfill it he did.

Rabbi Luban went on to say that in a similar fashion, HaShem told Moshe that He was giving the B'nei Yisrael a specific mission as well: the B'nei Yisrael - both those present at that moment and all who would come afterwards - were to be HaShem's emissaries of Torah in this world.  In a few simple and straightforward words, HaShem gave both our ancestors and us the most important mission of all: "And you shall be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation...."  May all of us, the B’nei Yisrael, accept this mission forever, and may we forever remain committed to its fulfillment.

 

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784