Miller's Musings Parshas Behar: Tip the Balance

בס''ד

Forewarned in this week's Parsha, the punishment of exile is now a reality we as a nation have endured for far too long.   Yet no matter how long it goes on, we are obligated to believe that Moshiach will arrive at any moment.  The difficulty presented by the Chofetz Chaim is in reconciling this with another axiom of Judaism that every generation further away from Sinai is a generation on a lower spiritual level than that which preceded it. If so then how can we ever imagine that we have the requisite merit to bring Moshiach if those giants before us were unable to?
                                                  

When the Jewish people were exiled it was due to a tremendous spiritual deficit that had been brought about by our unrepentant sins over many years.  To be able to make ourselves once again worthy of being reinstated in our homeland required enough merit garnered by the Jewish people, to return us to our previous status.  Although it is certainly true that the deeds of former generations ebbed away some of the debt, it was evidently still not enough, and requires our, admittedly limited input, to tip us over the edge towards our ultimate redemption.                      

 

It is a challenge for us all to truly focus on our impending deliverance and make it a significant part of our lives.   To sincerely anticipate its arrival requires a determined and definite attempt to make it a part of our consciousness.   But it is incumbent upon us to do so at least once a day and we must know that however much we may not value ourselves and the role we can play, it may just be that one small act that we perform that is the one that brings the world into its perfection.  By reminding ourselves that Moshiach is just around the corner, we should be simultaneously reminding ourselves of the significance of even the smallest act of virtue.  Standing on the shoulder of giants may enable us to accomplish the achievements that even they couldn’t reach.   

 

May this week's Shabbos observance bring us that one step closer to Moshiach. 

 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Miller's Musings Parshas Emor: Step by Step by Step

בס''ד

Miller’s Musings פרשת אֱמֹר  

Navigating the Jewish calendar is really not too tricky.   The only difficulty may lie in knowing which month to start from.  So when we are told that Yom Kippur falls in the seventh month, it seems wholly unnecessary to refer to it as “ ’this’ seventh month”.  Our question is to what the need is for such a specific designation and what we are to ascertain from this superfluous word.

As we well know, every Yom Tov is not a random turn of events that happened to fall on one particular day.  But rather each festival happens at that time because of the energies that permeate that moment in the year.  The Exodus occurred at spring time because that was the time most suited for an event of this nature, already containing within it the potential for the miraculous and the birth of a nation.  Likewise the position in relation to other festivals is entirely predicated on whatever is needed to achieve the purpose of said Yom Tov.  Consequently, Rav Aharon Kotler zt’l clarifies that Yom Kippur did not just happen to fall in the seventh month, but was there as a consequence of a need for ‘this’ specific month’s beginning, Rosh Hashono.  To enter into the Day of Judgement, without having prepared oneself through the introspection and refocusing of our purpose, during Rosh Hashono, would be of no value and could never generate the outcome we so desire.  No matter how driven we may be, Yom Kippur cannot be Yom Kippur without the groundwork that comes before it.

There are those who leave everything to the last minute, assured of their capability to somehow achieve the goal by the end.  And even if one is not of that sensibility, we all at times do not reckon with the preparations that are needed to be where we want to be.  We falsely believe that if we truly and sincerely want to be something, there is nothing that can stand in our way, and we can attain it at any moment, given the will is strong enough.  The truth, however, is that life is a process, and for us to arrive at the finish line with the accomplishments we ultimately desire, there are no shortcuts.  We must lay foundation upon foundation and work diligently at whichever areas we deem worthy of our attention.  The work must be steady and our focus unstinting.  If we attune our minds to this way of thinking we will reap the rewards of our efforts and look back with pride upon the road we have walked that has led us back home. 

May the holiness of Shabbos bring us one step closer to perfection.

 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Miller's Musings Parshas Kedoshim: Move Up But Not Out

בס''ד

Miller’s Musings פרשת קְדשִׁים

Everyone needs a role model.  Someone to look up to and to aspire to emulate.  So when we are told by Hashem in this week’s Parsha to “be holy, for I, Hashem your G-d am holy”, and the Medrash informs us that we are in fact being invited to imitate Hashem in this regard, we are being given the ultimate exemplar of how we should live in holiness.  The difficulty here is trying to understand in what way we, as mere mortals, could ever hope to copy the ways of Hashem in any manner whatsoever.  How are we to ever achieve even the slightest approximation of the holiness manifested by G-d?

When viewing the nature of our very reality as the will of Hashem, it is truly incomprehensible that an infinite Creator can deem us worthy of His attention and the goodness that He bestows.  We can perhaps never truly fathom the love and care that Hashem has for us, given that He is so far above our existence in every single way.  The Ksav Sofer reveals that this very element of His sanctity, is the way in which we can mimic to some degree the holiness of Hashem.  Not in the holiness in itself, but in the way that we should not let that elevation above others destroy our ability and desire to be amongst them and benefitting them in whatever means are at our disposal.  Just as Hashem is holy, yet is still amongst us, so we should be holy, nevertheless very much an integral part of the lives of others whenever we can be of value.

True success in this life requires single-minded focus on achieving our purpose.  We must strive every day to be a little better than we were the day before.  But no matter what heights we reach and no matter what levels of piety we attain, we must never lose sight of our role as part of a much bigger whole.  The proclivity to think you are above others once you perceive yourself as being superior, may be the surest sign that you still have a long way to go.  If Hashem in His supreme holiness still chooses to have a relationship with finite beings and endow us with His benevolence, who are we to withhold our compassion and kindness from any who may be in need, just because in our own minds we are so elevated.  Someone whose holiness entails an inability to connect with those around them and a failure to empathise, is in fact just not that holy after all.

May the holiness of Shabbos envelop us all in unity.

 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Miller's Musings Parshas Achrei Mos: Please Stay Off The Path

 

Miller’s Musings פרשת אַחֲרֵי מוֹת

Transgressions are bad.  That much is clear.  But there are varying degrees of sins with varying degrees of consequences, all dependent on many factors such as one’s intentions and the impact of said deed.  When speaking about the expiation for such misdeeds, our Parsha says “And he shall bring atonement…from their rebellions and all their unintentional sins”, seemingly listing the more serious type, a rebellion against Hashem, before the less grave one, that done in error.  Surely, this is the wrong way round, being that the worse misdemeanour would be harder to atone for?  If he atones for that, then certainly he would atone for the lesser one!

Despite what some may think, the Yetzer Horah is employed by Hashem and is there to provide free will by trying to manipulate our every action against G-d’s will.  To achieve this it must use its cunning and does so by only attacking us where it knows it has a chance of success.  To ask us to commit a sin of massive proportions is an exercise in futility, but to begin by enticing us towards making an error of judgment is achievable.  And so the Yetzer Horah’s scheme begins, little by little, adding one more layer of severity of sin each time it manages to lure us into temptation.  This, says the Oruch Hashulchan, is why the mistaken sins are listed after the rebellious ones, to divulge the cause of it all.  It is stating that our rebellions are rooted in their inception, when we first began to commit the most trivial of sins, only due to a lack of focus, which led to a lapse in observance.  Having fallen once, it is now easier for us to fall again until we defy entirely the will of Hashem.

Every mitzvah, however small, that we accomplish has infinite value, but conversely each sin we perpetrate has an inestimable cost.  This is not just because of the damage caused by that transgression, but because once committed, may lead us down the path to greater and more extreme infractions.  There are none that have never erred, but there can be a temptation to use this as an excuse to let this lead us into indifference about ‘smaller’ negative acts, when as we have seen the implications of such neglect can be both ruinous and far reaching.   The Yetzer Horah is devious and, given the chance, will steer us towards our downfall.  His job is to force us on to a slippery slope, ours is to never set foot on it.    

May the Shabbos protect us from all that would deflect us.

 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Miller's Musings Last Days of Pesach: All Part of the Process

 

True global events don't come around too often.   But when a sea miraculously splits to allow the salvation of one nation, whilst almost simultaneously bringing about the annihilation of another, this is something that must have had wide reaching impact.  When added to this we are told by the Medrash that every gathering of water in the entire world was also split in this miraculous manner at the same time, we can understand that this was an incident that must have shaken the world.  Curiously when referencing this fact the Torah chooses to allude to it by referring specifically to the Jordan River, the one that the Jewish people will traverse in the same miraculous fashion in which they passed through the Yam Suf. The question is of course why?  Why this river when all waters were effected?

When the Jewish people were at long last freed from their enslavement, one could be forgiven for assuming that this was an end in and of itself.  But, says the Alei Be'er, in fact their emancipation from the Egyptians was only the preliminary step of a transformative process for the Jewish people, including their acceptance and receiving of the Torah, and culminating in their entrance into the Promised Land.  It is for this reason that the Jordan River is connected in this way to the splitting of the Yam Suf.  To teach us this lesson, that the exodus was only one stage of their development which was finally brought to something of a conclusion as they crossed the Jordan River into Eretz Yisroel. 

 

Life is full of moments that trigger something within us that inspire us towards growth. It may be a momentous occasion that makes us rethink our priorities or a transcendent experience that reconnects us to our spiritual goals.  The danger is to think that those moments are to be viewed as end points with no relationship to what is to come, when in truth every step of our lives should be viewed as being one necessary movement closer to our life purpose.  Viewed this way the times that make us feel most elevated should be immediately followed by an evaluation of what to do with this new found inspiration and how we can utilise it in the best way possible. We can not afford to let one such leap forward pass without examining what role it can, and must have in our progression. We must be constantly striving to proceed further through the journey we call life and in doing so the next question must always be "where to next?". 

May this Pesach carry us forward with inspiration throughout the rest of the year. 

L'ilui nishmas Leah based Avrohom