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Quote of the Week: “In time of crisis people want to know that you care, more than they     care what you know.”

Miller’s Musings

פקודי- פרשת ויקהל

Know Way Back

Like all multi-faceted concepts, the Jewish people are referred to with many different names.  When Moshe assembles his brethren to him and transmits the word of Hashem, the Torah uses the appellation “עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל” “the congregation of the children of Yisroel”.  This is not the only time that this term is used and is in fact repeated later in the Parsha.  What we must ask is why here specifically, “congregation” was the appropriate title when in general simply ‘Children of Yisroel’ would almost always suffice?

Let us try for a moment to understand what must have been the emotional state of the Jewish people as they were gathered by Moshe to receive these instructions.  They had sinned, and had sinned in such a show of betrayal and infidelity that Hashem had considered annihilating them altogether and beginning anew.  Moshe intervened on their behalf and begged for their forgiveness and Hashem finally relented to his appeals.  Though we cannot begin to fathom how it was that they erred, we can surely assume that the feeling amongst the Jewish people must have been one of shame, the deepest regret and perhaps the sentiment of an inability to regain what they had lost.  A rift in their relationship with Hashem that could never be healed.  It was in truth a form of exile and the Nesivos Sholom explains, that at the heart of every exile is a removal of ‘דעת’ knowledge.  Knowledge of Hashem is the foundation of all that we are as Jews.  It is the link that binds us to Him and the source and catalyst for our spiritual elevation.  Without it we are lost in the dark.  With it we can find our way back from exile and bring about our salvation.  Moshe understood how his people were feeling and gave them now the mitzvah of Shabbos, to show them their way back to Hashem.  A mitzvah that asks us every week to know that Hashem created the world.  And this is alluded to in the word “עֲדַת”, congregation, and why it appears here, for it is a reconfiguration of the word “דעת”, their path to redemption. 

There is no one that can explain the reason for what we are seeing.  It is only Hashem that can provide those answers and one day He will.  But what is clear is that there has never been a time when Hashem’s absolute control of the world is so manifest and our total dependence on Him so patent.  We must use this time to work on that element of our exile that must be corrected and deepen and widen our knowledge of Him in our lives.  Remind ourselves constantly of His running of the world.  Daven with meaning and passion, focusing on what we are doing and Who we are talking to.  And endeavor to live with Hashem by our sides at all times.  There is no doubt that Hashem can change everything in the blink of an eye and remove this blight from our lives as quickly as it emerged.  Know it, feel it, believe it and live it and with Hashem’s help he will bring us back home to Him, where we belong, very, very soon.

*May Shabbos usher in a time of only joy, peace and blessings*

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