Parshas Bo
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
They tell a story about an elderly couple that wants to compliment the rabbi on the sermon that he gave that Saturday morning at the synagogue. The wife says to him, “Rabbi, I just wanted to tell you that your speech today was superfluous!” There is an awkward silence for a second or two until the husband says, “Sorry about that, Rabbi. What my wife meant to say was that your sermon was superficial!”
The “Z-mail” that you are about to read might be a bit shorter than usual - but it’s definitely not superficial - as it packs a powerful lesson for living and maximizing our time spent here on earth. I hope you will enjoy it!
This week’s Torah portion, Parshas Bo, tells the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from the land of Egypt.
The Zohar says that the Jewish people during their time spent as slaves in Egypt had forgotten who they were and where they came from and had reached the 49th of 50 levels of “spiritual impurity”. One more level and it would have been too late - as the Israelites would have been irretrievable - unfit for redemption.
We too often forget – as a Jewish nation and as individuals - where we came from and what we are here to fix while on this earth.
As I look out my window and see all the snow on the ground, I am reminded of the amazing insight of Rabbi Tzadok HaKohein of Lublin (1823-1900), who points out that the Hebrew word for snow is sheleg, which has the same gematria (numerical value) as shikchah, or forgetfulness.
Reb Tzadok writes that snow represents the power of ‘forgetting’ that which we were created to do, our ultimate purpose here on earth.
As Rada”l explains in his commentary to Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliezer, much like the snow, which starts out so pure and clean and fresh when it first falls, yet by the end of the day is all muddy and dirty, we, too, come into this world all fresh and white and idealistic, yet, as life happens, we too often forget or give up on all those beautiful ideals and dreams of greatness and fixing the world we once had, and we busy ourselves instead with all kinds of bad behaviors that tarnish our souls.
We need to do all we can to keep our ‘snow white’ souls (and the souls of our children) clean and pristine, and free of any dirt, throughout our lives.
This is not so simple to do. Often times we just give up. We say to ourselves that it’s too late to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish in life. Or it’s too late to fix or repair the relationships that we broke. Or it’s too late to change the bad habits that we picked up over the years. Or our souls have become too tarnished over time to become white again. And so on and so on …
Well, folks, I am here to tell you that if you are still breathing, then it is not too late!
As in the famous story with the great rabbinic sage Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (1810-1883) and the cobbler.
"Reb Yisrael was once spending the night at a shoemaker's home. Late at night, Reb Yisrael saw the man still working by the light of a flickering, almost extinguished candle.
"Rabbi Salanter went over to the man and said: 'Look how late it is; your candle is about to go out. Why are you still working?'
"The shoemaker, undeterred by the rabbi's words, replied, 'As long as the candle is burning, there is still time to repair.'
"For many days afterwards, Rabbi Salanter could be heard repeating to himself the shoemaker's words over and over again: 'As long as the candle is burning – i.e. as long as I am still alive (the lit candle here represents the living soul – see Proverbs 20:27) - there is still time to repair”.
As long as our candle is still burning - we can still fix and repair those relationships that we have broken. We can still pick up the phone and reconcile with those from whom we've become estranged.
As long as our candle is still burning - we can still work on changing those bad habits that so irk the others around us. And we can still try to clean and whiten our tarnished souls.
As long as our candle is still burning - we can still try to accomplish our goals that we had already given up on. We can still try to do all the things we thought we couldn’t do.
This is the powerful life lesson that was taught by the cobbler to Reb Yisrael – and to all of us. Let’s hope we learn that lesson well – and while we are still alive!
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