In every dark cloud there’s a silver lining. The darkness that we have seen in the last couple of weeks has been above and beyond our comprehension. With the numbers of the deceased growing every day and the horrible stories that are presented before us, this leave us completely lost in our thoughts and our feelings. How could something like this happen to us the Jewish people, in our own homeland, under our own sovereignty, with our own army and protective forces of all sorts? With all these hard questions that have been asked non-stop, we see on the other hand the great and awesome charity and generosity throughout the people in the country, and the entire world, since these horrible events took place on Simchat Torah.
It’s ironic that the name of the holiday that this occurred on is called; “the happiness of the Torah.” It almost sounds like something that the angels said to Hashem when the great and holy scholar Rabbi Akiva was being burned. The angels ran to the Almighty and asked Him, “How can You let this happen to such a great Torah giant? Is this the Torah and is this the reward for those who keep the Torah?”
The holy Jewish people in our generation are like children that were never taught the way of Torah, and therefore they are all like innocent children who have never sinned. Therefore, it is mind shattering to grasp how these precious souls were so brutally taken from us.
We are Jews and history is constantly repeating itself to help us improve ourselves, and to help us grow and learn from our mistakes. Hashem is always merciful and is always takings care of us. Hashem is always guiding us in the direction of the complete redemption. Obviously, we do not understand the hand of Hashem especially in times of darkness when things are so painful and confusing.
Simchat Torah is one of the happiest days of the year when we dance all day long holding and hugging the Torah Scrolls. How did this holy and joyous day turn into such a bloodbath? The questions are so great and the answers seem so small and unclear. In times of trouble the Jewish people always come together and we do see great charity and unity amongst the Jewish people throughout the entire world, not just in Israel our homeland. And it seems as though each person is trying to come up with a better and more beautiful way of helping one another and the entire military force from the south to the north, from the east to the west.
I would like to share with you an idea of mine regarding spiritual guidance for the Jewish people during these hard times.
We see that a lot of food has been sent throughout the country to help aid our wonderful soldiers and families. When a person eats food we are commanded to bless the food before we eat. There are five blessings which we recite before eating different types of food.
The first one is when we eat food that has any type of wheat inside it. In Hebrew this is called “mezonot.” And the blessing we recite is borei minei mezonot. This word in Hebrew means our food, our sustenance. The blessing says that Hashem creates different types of sustenance and food for us and we thank Him for that.
These last couple of weeks we have seen many types of foods being sent throughout the country. Our first instinct is to think that sustenance is physically food that we eat. However, sustenance can also be spiritual energy that we are getting through these last couple of weeks. We have been filled with lots of physical food that has been sent to help our people in need and on the other hand there has been a tremendous amount of spiritual food and energy that has been going around as well. All the love, all the support, all the energy that we have felt as we all united together in these horrible times, are all the different types of sustenance that Hashem blesses us with. This is why we recite in the blessing, that Hashem creates different types of sustenance for us “minei mezonot.”
Next blessing that we recite is on the wine in Hebrew “geffen.” In last week’s parsha Noach, we were introduced to the wine, when Noah drank too much and got drunk. And we also see that throughout this horrible war there have been many weddings and celebrations, even a brit milah, which are happy occasions. The Jewish people have the power and the choice to choose how to use their wine and how to make the happiness grow even in great times of pain.
The next blessing is on the fruit of the tree, “ha’etz.” There is an expression that says that the man is like a tree in the field. The character traits of a tree is that it never ceases to exist. When it is small, a tree is pretty. When it grows a little bigger it bears fruit. When it grows even bigger it gives shade and comfort. When the tree is finished growing the wood is chopped down and used in so many positive ways. Like heating, making paper out of the wood, and so on. So to the people who are so to speak gone from us in this terrible war, will never cease to exist. Their deeds and their soul will always live on with us forever.
The next blessing to recite is on the fruit of the ground “adama.” Once again there is an expression that says mother earth. The mother takes into herself all the pain and suffering of all her children. Our earth has taken into her so much bloodshed and pain ever since we have been a nation, and especially now. But this bloodshed that took place and left so many casualties will not go in vain. The blessing says that G-d creates fruit from the land and indeed after a woman bears all the pain and hardship like in childbirth, she then bears a child, “a fruit from the land.” We too will bear the fruits of this horrible and tragic event in history.
The final blessing which we recite is called “shehakol.” It translates into the word everything. When we eat a hearty meal at the end of the meal, we eat something sweet, and it leaves us with a good taste in our mouth. The blessing that is recited is, that everything is created with words. yes, with Hashem’s words. I am adding that everything is created with our speech which means we create our existence, we create our environment with what we say, with our speech, and that is everything. We see how much love and unity has been created since this horrible war has started. May we continue to create this love, peace and unity throughout the Jewish people and in the whole world with our speech. The letters of all these blessings in Hebrew create a word that is called M, A, G, A, E, S.
These are the first letters of each one of the blessings we just mentioned. In Hebrew this means, the touch of fire. Through our blessings we will be able to eliminate the touch of the fire that harms us, and receive only the good that we produce with fire. And together with all of Klal Yisrael, we will merit the full redemption now in our times with peace, love and harmony.
