Parshat Vaera
adapted from a teaching from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
This Monday Jan 27, HMD will mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. There are many stories that are told of how Jewish people both pious and simple sacrificed their lives in order observe Judaism and maintain their spiritual link with God and the Jewish people. (See https://shulbythesea.co.
In fact we are taught that any Jew killed throughout our history who was killed “for the sole reason of being a Jew” is considered to be a holy martyr. We say that they died “Al Kiddush Hashem”- for the sanctification of God.
Our only response to such suffering can be to humble ourselves in the presence of a Holocaust survivor. We can not explain or rationalise the suffering. To quote from the story of the burning bush “the ground that they stand on is holy”.
The only true Jewish way react is to build up Jewish communities founded on Torah and Mitzvot with even greater vigour, enthusiasm and love.
We must be so thankful to God that we live in a generation where relative to the days of the holocaust we are free to express our faith in God and live as Jews.
We see from this weeks parsha an important teaching regarding self sacrifice in relation to the second of the ten plagues:
[The frogs] will go up and come into your house, into your bedchamber, into your bed and into your ovens (Exodus 7:28)
What led Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah (see note below for historical context) to deliver themselves, for the sanctification of the divine name, to the fiery furnace? (See Daniel, ch. 3.) They argued to themselves: If frogs, which are not commanded concerning the sanctification of the divine name, yet it is written of them, “They shall come up and go into your ovens,” we, who are commanded concerning the sanctification of the Name, how much the more so!(Talmud, Pesachim 53b)
[Chananiah, Mishael and Azariah lived during the Babylonian exile (approx 2500 years ago) and King Nevuchadnetzar and were friends of the prophet Daniel. We mention them in the Selichot prayers throughout the year on fast days and during the ten days of repentance.]
“Self-sacrifice” is not just the willingness to die for one’s beliefs; it is the way in which one lives for them. It is the willingness to sacrifice one’s “self”—one’s desires, one’s preconceptions, one’s most basic inclinations. Indeed, the Hebrew term for self-sacrifice, mesirut nefesh, means both “giving of life” and “giving of will.”
Thus the lesson of self-sacrifice is derived from a frog, a cold-blooded creature, who enters a burning oven. The ultimate test of faith goes beyond the issue of life and death—it is the ability to transcend one’s very nature for the sake of a higher truth. (The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
Practically speaking this spiritual teaching can be applied to any and every aspect of our lives. It is a matter of bringing to mind our most important beliefs and making those small steps to live by them day by day.
Too often we get side tracked by the trivial and superficial aspects of existence and forget our core values.
When it comes to observing the Mitzvot and the Halachot we can sometimes feel as cold as a Frog lacking enthusiasm or passion. This does not matter as the main task of our generation prior to the Moshiach is to “Just do it”!
Or in the words of the Ethics of the Fathers “The Action is the main thing”.
The Hebrew for “main thing” is Ikar which also translates as “Essence”
The Torah teaches that when we perform a Mitzvah even if it is devoid of our personal connection (ie. through our mind/intellect or heart/emotion), it still draws down the Essence of God in the world which will ultimately lead to the revelation of Moshiach when in the words of the prophet Isaiah
“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see that the mouth of the Lord spoke.”
The only ingredient required is self sacrifice.
Shabbat Shalom