Parashas Vayigash, Part 3: Transforming a Father’s Love into Ahavas Hashem

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. That's why we're saying Kriyas Shema. So many Acharonim say like this: it wasn't the Kriyas Shema chiyuv that he said Shema Yisrael. He said Shema Yisrael because Shema Yisrael, at this particular moment, there was something that moved him to say Shema Yisrael. This is where the Maharal comes in and says that when he saw his son, the love that he had for his son moved him to say Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Maharal explains that there are many times that a person forgets the Ribono Shel Olam because he's taken up completely with his own feelings and emotions, personal. Yaakov said, At this moment, I don't want to forget the Ribono Shel Olam. I don't want to forget HaKadosh Baruch Hu. A person can be so involved. You know, when we have a simcha, make a chasunah, always think about it. What do we say, Im eshkachech Yerushalayim, tishkach yemini. Al tishkach Yerushalayim al rosh simchasi. What does rosh simchasi mean? Rosh. A person makes a simcha. He could forget that Yerushalayim is charuv. He could forget that he's not with the Eibishter. A person could feel it's a great moment. Is it really a great moment? You know, when a person makes a chasunah and, chas v'shalom, the parents are not there, or a very close relative to the family passed away, the simcha is not fully complete because you always remember who—you remember the person. At the back of your mind, it's not complete. Yerushalayim, which represents, of course, the Eibishter, also has to be al roish simchasi. When I begin my simcha, I can't get completely invoked in my simcha without remembering. Im lo a'aleh es Yerushalayim, it's not complete. Yaakov Avinu was afraid that his complete love and happiness, he would forget for a second the Ribono Shel Olam. So it would be as if it would say that he read Kriyas Shema al roish simchasi. That's what I think the Maharal means. Al roish simchasi—at the peak, the peak of his happiness, I don't want to forget the Eibishter. Tremendous madreigah, tremendous madreigah. The Kotzker Rebbe, zicher tzaddik livrachah, said it a little bit deeper. And I understood what the Kotzker Rebbe said with the story of the Chafetz Chaim, which I'll tell you in a moment. The Kotzker Rebbe said that Yaakov experienced the ultimate moment of love, of kesher. You know, today, rabosai, we have kesher with our children, but we don't fully experience that kesher, because we have it every day. There's a time and a place where you could feel the kesher to a child, that love, and that's when you don't have it, and when you're missing it. And for so many years, it was not by you, this kesher. You know, I remember once reading somewhere that there was a mother who told other mothers, as well as fathers, that when you say goodbye to your children for the day, that you're going to work, you say, Have a nice day, tell it to them as if it would be your last goodbye.

What did they mean by that? Ad chas v'shalom, it's not your last goodbye. It's not. Baruch Hashem, you'll come home. That's not what the mother was. The mother wasn't cursing the people that they're not going to come home after work. What the mother was saying is, every moment that you're with your child, it should be as if it's the last. Could you imagine the love and the feeling? That's what you should feel always. But because we overlook, we take for granted, we expect to come home, we expect later, tomorrow, every moment should be full love. Yaakov Avinu felt the ultimate love to his son at this particular moment. So he experienced what it means to really love. So he said, You know what? Let me think that same love to the Eibishter, Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu. He grasped. He understood now what the unlimited love a person could have. And he said, You know what? Let me take that love and also apply it to the Ribono Shel Olam. It's an unbelievable pshat, rabosai. A person is capable of tremendous love, love for a son. And Yaakov says, Now I understand that I could use that same love. From my father, my father in Shamayim, the Ribono Shel Olam. I think that's the depth of the meaning of the understanding of what the Kotzker had to say. The Maharal is telling us that the Shema Yisrael was a symbolic Shema Yisrael. It wasn't the Shema, the chiyuv Kriyas Shema. So what was it? So the Maharal seems to say that he didn't want to forget the Eibishter when he was completely invoked in love of his son. The Kotzker Rebbe is saying a little bit deeper. The Kotzker Rebbe is saying is that he experienced true, boundless love. And he said, Wow, if this is the love that my neshama, my heart could have, I want to apply it also, Ribono Shel Olam, I love You too. And that's Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Jews are capable of boundless love to the Ribono Shel Olam, boundless. They're capable of applying a love that they have for a child, and that same love to apply it to the Ribono Shel Olam. That's because we are the banim of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We are the children of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. We are so connected to the Eibishter. We've spoken about this last week, that Chanukah was the ultimate mesiras nefesh, and it was based on the love, the chibah, v'achakach bo bonecha. It was tremendous love for the Eibishter, love for His Torah. There's a beautiful story from the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim, of course, famous, wrote the Mishnah Berurah. In the middle of the writing of the Mishnah Berurah, his son, Rav Leib, passed away, his older son, who was the dayan in Radin. Kesher, the relationship between him and the Chofetz Chaim was so great. And of course, the Chofetz Chaim had to deal with the pain and the anguish of losing such a great son. And this is how the Chofetz Chaim expressed himself. He went to the bimah, the bimah in the shul, and he gave a pash. And the world knows one version of what he said, but Maizeh Zatzal used to say over a different version, meaning that he added that there was more to what he said than what's quoted commonly that the Chofetz Chaim said. The Chofetz Chaim said, Yetzer hara, yetzer hara, you're going to try to stop me from writing the Mishnah Berurah. I know what this is all about. I know what your master plan in taking away my son. This is atzas hayetzer to hold me back and keep me from writing the rest of the Mishnah Berurah, to break me and I shouldn't be able to finish the project. You won't win. I will finish.

The Mishnah Berurah. I will finish the Mishnah Berurah. I will continue writing, and I will complete the work. But there's another part to what the Chofetz Chaim said. My zeide's atzal used to say over, and maybe today already it's already printed also in the sefarim. He said over, you know, the love that a person has for a child is complete. It takes up all his emotions and feelings. But he has to work on dividing that love with the love of the Ribono Shel Olam, the love of his Ribono Shel Olam's Torah, the love of Klal Yisrael. How do you take undivided love and divide it? It's interesting. There's a beautiful story that is said over from the Alter from Slabodka. They once came to ask the Alter from Slabodka for a shidduch for one of the talmidim in the yeshiva. The Alter said, That? Oh, that's my ben yachid. I love him. He's my son, my ben yachid. So they asked the Alter from Slabodka, He's your ben yachid? It's interesting. Last week, some other person came to the yeshiva, and he wanted a different boy for a different shidduch, and you said that that boy was your ben yachid. So which? And then the third guy says, Yeah, but you said about that guy he's your ben yachid. And the Alter said an unbelievable thing. He said, Every student in my yeshiva is my ben yachid. What is the Alter saying? Love. When you love, there's so much in love that it can be undivided, that each one gets full love, complete love. This is the mashal I was trying to tell you, rabosai. The mother is telling advice that when you kiss your child, it shouldn't be divided love. It should be undivided, complete, as if it would be the last goodbye. And that's how it always has to be. The Chofetz Chaim was discussing, I have to love HaKadosh Baruch Hu, but all my love goes to my children, so how do you work that? And the Chofetz Chaim said something so unique, and he said, Now that my son is not here, now that my son passed away, Rabbeinu Shalom, I could take all my love and give it straight to You. I don't have to divide it anymore. The Chofetz Chaim understood that the ahavah, the love that a person could have for a son and realize that at this particular moment that he's not here anymore, that's the pshat. He started to realize the love that he had for his son. He says, Rabbeinu Shalom, that love was an undivided love. I could take that level, that undivided love, and give it all to You. And the Chofetz Chaim said, Where did I learn this from? He says, I heard that in the Spanish Inquisition, there was a mother who laid over her dying child that was killed, over her dying child that was killed, and she said these words. She said, My child now leaves me. Hashem, Ribono Shel Olam, I could take all my love and I could give it to You. Said the Chofetz Chaim, if a Jewish mother, a mother, a simple Jewish mother, has these feelings, I, the Chofetz Chaim, for sure, I learned and I davened, and I've done so much avodas Hashem in my life that I for surely could reach that level of devotion and love. This is what I believe is the pshat in Yaakov Avinu, according to the Kotzker Rebbe's understanding. Yaakov Avinu understood now a level of love that was so huge and so great that he said, Now that I reached that level, I want to...

Take that love and say, Ribono Shel Olam, I have that love for You too. That's Kriyas Shema. He didn't read all three parshiyos, but he read Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Every Jew, every Yid, before he goes al Kiddush Hashem, dies with these words on his mouth: Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Where do we have the capability? Where do we get the power, the strength, the feeling, devotion to HaKadosh Baruch Hu at the last moments of breath? It's possible, I believe, that it's from Yaakov Avinu who instilled it here at this juncture when he meets Yosef. That the greatest love is the love of a father to a child. And yet, at that moment, he's able to think about, Ribono Shel Olam, I love You. Yaakov Avinu instilled in the DNA, so to speak, just like it's brought down from Chaim Volozhin, Avraham Avinu instilled in Klal Yisrael a keidah, that one could sacrifice a child, and that Yitzchak instilled in Klal Yisrael mesiras nefesh, that one could give up his life for HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I believe that this Shema Yisrael that Yaakov Avinu said at this particular moment instilled that the greatest love that a person could have, and that greatest love could be directed to the Ribono Shel Olam. He instilled it at this Kriyas Shema that he said. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.