Hanna's Dvar Torah

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Have you met some of these people who consider themselves so important that they cannot busy themselves with little things? What they must do is so serious that they cannot do something as simple as giving directions to people who lost their way. Someone else should deal with it…

Things were different in the Holy Temple.

The Kohanim, the priests, had many jobs to do in the Temple: Bless the people, teach them the laws of the Torah, make the sacrifices etc. But they also had to clean the Temple and take the garbage outside of the city.

One would think that the priests who were dealing with the garbage were not the same as those who did the sacrifices or blessed the people. That there were differences in positions and hierarchy. In other words, the important priests would deal with the teachings and the blessings and the rest would deal with the cleaning.

But the truth is that it was the same exact priests that did all the jobs. They changed their clothes and went to do everything, from blessing the people to throwing out the garbage. They did whatever was necessary in the Temple, even those activities that we usually don’t put up on Facebook or the social media.

All these works were stages in the service of G-d. It included the preparations before, the cleaning afterwards, and everything in between. There were no lesser or more important jobs.

This is how Rabbi Chiya acted in the time of the Talmud. He saw that there were many villages that did not have a teacher or a rabbi. The people did not know the Torah and they were in danger of forgetting their Judaism. He decided to take the situation in his own hands. He planted linen and when it grew, he made ropes. With those ropes, he made a net with which he caught a deer. He slaughtered the deer, gave its meat to poor people and after processing its skin, he wrote on it the books of the Torah and the Mishna. With these books, he went from village to village, gathered the children and taught each one, one book. Then, he told them to teach one each other what they had learned, while he would continue on to the next village.

Rabbi Chiya, even though he was a very important and great rabbi, did not hesitate to do a series of “little things” in order to help the situation and serve G-d.

Let us also try to act in this way. Let us not think that various “small things” are not fit for us but let us fulfill G-d’s will in any circumstance.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hanna

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Purim! The happiest holiday of the year is near us. What exactly happened there? What do we celebrate?

Achashverosh, the great king of 127 countries (almost of the entire known world at the time), searches for a new wife after killing his first one. After four years of quest, he chooses Esther from all the women that had been gathered. Esther was Jewish, and she did not want to marry a Gentile king, but she was forced to do so.

The Prime Minister Haman issues a new terrible decree: to kill all the Jews in the entire kingdom, young and old, on a specific day. It is a very difficult situation: all the Jews at this period lived in the kingdom of Achashverosh and they had no where to escape or hide. This decree meant the annihilation of the entire Jewish people.   

Mordechai, Esther’s cousin, decided to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people. He sent a message to Esther that she must go to the King and ask him to cancel the decree. Esther was afraid to go since according to the law, she could not approach the King without him inviting her. Achashverosh had not invited her for 30 days… If she went, he could kill her!

Mordechai explained to her that she could not stay indifferent and not to anything. Perhaps this is the reason G-d had brought her to this position, at this specific moment. This is why G-d had made her queen and this was the purpose of her story! She had to utilize all means to save her people. Indeed, Esther acts and goes to Achashverosh and, as if by miracle, the king is convinced, and the Jewish people are saved. This is why we celebrate the holiday of Purim.

In our life, we also find ourselves in a similar situation as Esther. Someone needs help, a certain problem needs a solution and we may be the ones who have the key to salvation. But we may be scared that we will not succeed. The story of Purim though urges us to act. Not to be scared. Because there is a reason why G-d brought us to this situation. It may be precisely for us to be the right person at the right time in order to act and effect the change …

Let’s utilize all the opportunities, all the capabilities we were given in the particular circumstances where G-d has placed us, in order to save the situation.

May be go from the great joy of Purim to the even greater joy of the coming of Mashiach!

Purim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,

Hanna