Miller's Musings Parshas Toldos-The Responsibility of Responsibility

This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored

בן משה אלישא מתתיהולכבוד 

and is לעילוי נשמת   לאה בת אברהם

בס''ד

They say there are some things that money can’t buy.  But this notion seemingly did not apply to Eisov.  For him even the most valuable possessions had a price, and in the case of his birthright, it was the measly sum of a bowl of lentil soup.  Rashi explains that Eisov’s rationale in selling the birthright was because he felt that he simply did not have the wherewithal to live up to its responsibilities.  If we think about this carefully, it would seem that Eisov had a point.  When he heard about the requirements and the consequences of a failure to fulfil them, he knew himself well enough to determine that it was not for him.  That being the case, what in fact was wrong with his selling it?  We is he so maligned for realising his own inadequacies?

While it was certainly true that the tasks involved in the birthright were ones of great personal accountability, we must also consider what was at stake were he to accept his calling as the firstborn.  It was an opportunity to bring tremendous sanctity into the world and an opportunity to give honour to Hashem, the purpose in fact of all creation.  When something as monumental as this is in question, says the Darash Moshe, there is nothing that should stand in a person’s way from accepting the challenge.  To relinquish one’s role in this crucial part of bringing about the perfection of creation, is to in effect forsake Hashem, for it is He who has allotted our part and His presence in this existence that we are minimising by not contributing our portion.  Eisov’s fears may have been well-founded and his concerns real and indeed sincere, but if this was the task assigned to him, he should have accepted it, no matter the risk involved. 

There are many reasons for why one might shy away from responsibility and leadership.   Some of them may be legitimate and genuine.  We might be concerned about the potential cost to our own family, we may wonder if we truly possess the abilities and skills that are necessary to succeed in that particular endeavour and we might be unsure if there are others better suited to the role.  What we must never do however is back away from something simply because of a fear of failure.  If we have ascertained that all those considerations point towards us being the right person, we must force ourselves to take on this duty because it is the right thing to do and will bring pleasure to our Creator.  Yes it may be scary and yes there are always going to be risks involved.  But if there is something our community needs and we have the capabilities to provide it, we must simply trust in Hashem and His having chosen us.  If we don’t, not only are we letting ourselves down and those around us, we are worst of all disappointing Hashem who believes in us more than we believe in ourselves.

*May Shabbos give us the faith in ourselves as Hashem has in us*

                                                                                         

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Miller's Musings Parshas Chayei Soroh: Days of Our Lives

This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored

 אסתר בת יעקב הכהן  לעילוי נשמת 

and is 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם

Old age is one of the inevitable and inexorable facts of life.  No matter how much one may run from it, it always catches up with us eventually.  When it finally dawns on us that our declining years have set in, we may start to contemplate our own mortality and be inspired to put into place those tasks we feel must be completed before our demise.  Our Parsha informs us that Avrohom decided that now was the time to ensure an appropriate match was found for Yitzchok when he “was old, coming (or advanced) in days”.  This is a rather curious turn of phrase and requires us to try and understand what this exactly tells us about Avrohom.

The span of a person’s lifetime can be divided into units of days, each one entirely unique and with its own potentials for growth and achievement.  What one does with that time is of course solely dependent on each individual to choose.  A day can be one of spiritual accomplishment creating infinite reward that will be ours for all eternity.  That day can never be lost but is ours to take with us as proof of that fragment of our life correctly lived and the source of the reward due to us.  But if it is wasted, we are throwing away this incredible opportunity and are left with nothing to show for that time spent on this earth.  When we finally leave this plane of existence and move on to the next world, we will discover which days we still have with us and which have disappeared into oblivion due to our squandering that chance that was afforded us.  Avrohom utilised every moment of every day to the maximum that he was capable of, and therefore, says the Ohr Gedalyohu, those days stayed with him and he could be said to be “coming” with those complete and perfect days.  They would be with him forever.      

It is highly unlikely that any of us are completely innocent of the crime of wasting time. Be it minutes, hours or days, we can all look back on times when we could have been more constructive.   For most this is an inextricable part of living, yet to be conscious of it and its inestimable damage is at least the first stage to minimising it.   One route to ensuring a life well spent may be to consider the eternal loss of times we spend engaged in these trivialities.  But perhaps a more positive approach would be to think of practical ways that we can best make use of the time we have and contemplate the incredible gain that we can cultivate in using our days appropriately.  Each time we do that we are creating jewels of infinite value that can never be taken away from us.  We are forging eternities that transcend anything that this world can offer.  This knowledge alone should be enough to inspire us to make every day count, to make every moment precious and to live a life without regret and full of meaning.

*May every moment of Shabbos inspire us to use every moment of the coming week*

Miller's Musings Parshas Vayero: A Little 'Me Time'

בס''ד
As fire and brimstone rained down upon Sodom, one solitary man and his family were protected from this devastation. One man was deemed worthy of being shielded from the desolation and that man was Lot. What did he do to deserve this? What great virtuous act afforded him the merit to survive whilst all others perished? The Medrash says that the deed that earned his rescue was keeping quiet when Avrohom claimed that Soroh was his sister. Avrohom did this to protect himself from those who would kill him in order to take his wife and Lot never revealed the secret to those around them. Reb Shimshon Pinkus zt’l asks what it was about keeping secrets that made it so highly regarded, so that due to it alone, Lot was saved? 

Why do people not keep secrets? In essence the compulsion to divulge information that has been entrusted to you, comes from a need for the approval of others. It stems from a desire to tell others what they would want to hear so as to gain some form of acclaim for being the one who has managed to acquire such confidential knowledge. Yet as part of our role as Jews, we are instructed to as much as possible go in the ways of Hashem.  We must try and resemble G-d as much as we as humans are able. Just as He is merciful, so too we must show compassion, just as He is entirely holy, so too we must endeavour to live lives of holiness. Being that one of the fundamental truths of Hashem is His oneness, that there is ultimately only Hashem and nothing at all in the whole of creation that is in any way comparable to Him, we must try and emulate that to the degree that we are able, and be independent of those around us. Someone who is able to do that, will not be effected by the pressures of those around them and will be one who can maintain secrecy when called upon to do so. This was the reason that this particular virtue was considered so valued by Hashem.

A Torah life is not one lived in a vacuum. We have those around us that depend upon us, those around us whose lives we can influence for the good and the bad and those who we need in order to help us achieve our life’s purpose. But we must all to a degree have a life that includes a space where there is only us. A space that is free of external pressures, where we can determine what it is that we truly want and where we can decide how we want our life to be. We must have those moments where we can look only inwards to examine whether we are being true to ourselves in all we do, rather than living an existence determined and manipulated by others. Without that space we can never truly know our inner self, with it we can ensure that no one controls our future, except for ourselves. 

*May the peace of Shabbos allow us to seek clarity in our self-discovery*

This week’s Miller’s Musings is sponsored by           Tracey and Bernard Yardley to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary  

and is  לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם    

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Miller's Musings Parshas Noach: Arise From The Depths

בס''ד

This week’s Miller’s Musings is sponsored:

 יחיאל בן אלעזר יוסף  לעילוי נשמת

There are those that see religion as the root of all evil and conflict in the world, when in truth it has less to do with religion and more to do with the pursuit of power.  The downfall of the generation before the flood was due to their obsession with material gain leading to violence, robbery and a general state of anarchy.  The devastation began with the waters pouring forth from “the springs of the great depths”.  Rashi tells us that this was a case of Middoh Keneged Middoh, the punishment paralleling the sin that it resulted from.  The people sinned ‘greatly’ so the flood began in the ‘great’ depths. Reb Yeruchom Levovitz asks what the exact parallel in fact was?  The greatness of the depths was qualitative, whereas the greatness of their sinning was surely in quantity, the vast amount of wrongs they had committed?

As is often the case, the answer lies in understanding that the question is based on a false premise, in this case that a multitude of sins only produces a quantitative increase, when actually this is not the case.  Reb Yeruchom explains that the difference between a person transgressing once and multiple times, is not just the additional transgressions, it also changes the very nature of that sin.  When a person falls once, the wrongdoing has a particular negative quality to it, but as a person falls prey to his Yetzer Horah and repeats this failing, the nature of the sin changes and becomes more than just the sum of its repeated misdeeds.  The very fact that the offence has been perpetrated a number of times changes the kind of sin that it is, giving it a new status as a ‘sin committed many times’, rather than a one-off lapse in standards.  The terrible qualitative ‘great’ damage caused by the buildup of sin after sin of this immoral generation, was punished by the waters that sprung forth from the ‘greatest’ depths.

In essence none of us like to sin.  We would all prefer to live our lives in a way that would bring pride to ourselves, our families and of course Hashem.  But when we slip up we sometimes lose focus and lose faith in ourselves.  We feel that it makes no difference if we sin a bit more once we have already started doing that which is wrong.  This is a tragic mistake however, because each additional lapse of our character does not just add on to our tally of sins, it creates a new and more potent version of those sins and damages our true essence in ways that are much more than the cumulative sum of those transgressions.  Never let yourself slide down in this way due to an apathy created by feelings of failure.  Rather move on from your mistakes, embrace the possibility of redemption and strive higher to a new beginning far away from the depths that could otherwise have awaited us.  

*May the holiness of Shabbos illuminate our path to greatness*

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם   

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Miller's Musings Parshas Bereishis: The Very Beis-t Place To Start

בס''ד

And so it begins again.  Another year as we travel along the eternal chain of the Torah, once again renewing our connection to its timeless teachings.  We are all probably well acquainted with the Chazal that says the reason the Torah begins with a “ב” is because that is the first letter of the word “ברכה” meaning “blessing”, a most suitable place to start.  This is opposed to what one would perhaps expect, starting with the first Hebrew letter “א”.  The basis for not using this letter is because it is the first letter of the word “ארור”, meaning cursed, not something we would want to commence the Torah with.  The obvious question that arises from this is that there are many positive words that also begin with the letter “א”, and many negative words that begin with a “ב”. So why base a decision on only two specific examples, when there are many more that do not fit in with this pattern?

                       

There are certain words that typically have negative connotations and others that classically portray more positive images.  Light and dark are two such examples.  Darkness in general suggests lack of clarity, confusion or perhaps something untoward.  Light, on the other hand, seems to evoke more pleasant impressions in our mind and is used to depict concepts that are beneficial, definite and virtuous.  But if we think carefully, in fact these are great generalisations when darkness can on many occasions be used to one’s benefit, such as to hide from a threat, and light could be potentially detrimental, if concealment is necessary.  In summation, what we are saying is that there is very little that is absolutely positive or absolutely negative, it just depends on the context.  Reb Yisroel Salanter however explains that a blessing is something that by definition is totally and entirely good for the beneficiary, without exception, and a curse is something that is delineated as being something unequivocally and wholly bad for the recipient.  What better opening for the Torah therefore than something that, like the Torah itself, is so uniquely, unquestionably good.

When we look at our life and all it contains, it is all too easy to pigeonhole the different and disparate elements into being either good or bad.  Illness, loss, hurt…bad. Health, plenty, happiness…good.  Yet in truth nothing is unconditionally either advantageous or unfavourable. We cannot define anything indiscriminately as being in either category but rather must see the potential benefit and the potential harm in all that comes our way.  Money and power certainly have their noble uses, but equally contain their own perilous pitfalls.  Pain is to be avoided wherever possible, but may give opportunities to connect and experience gratitude that may otherwise not be possible.  Our task is to make active choices with what we have so that they are only used for the positive and never for the negative.  We must periodically look at all we are given and think of ways in which we can give them real value.  In doing so we are not just providing ourselves with a more optimistic outlook, but are ensuring that are whole lives are full of only that which is utilised for the good.  

                                                                                       

* May Shabbos bring light into what otherwise seemed dark*

This week's Miller's Musings is sponsored

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם      לרפואת  אלימלך יהושע אהרון בן דבורה רבקה

אברהם יעקב בן שרה טשארנא

Miller's Musings for Shabbos Chol Hamoed Succos-A Battle Till The End

בס''ד  

 לאה בת אברהם נשמת לעילוי 

To understand Koheles on a superficial level is a virtual impossibility.  Although now read every Shabbos Chol Hamoed Succos, the sages at one point sought to hide it away for fear of it being misinterpreted and debased.  Yet the words of Shlomo Hamelech contain within them some of the most profound and life-altering messages of all of Tanach and to have concealed it would have been a tragedy and an immeasurable loss.  The beginning of the final Chapter reads “So remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and those years arrive in which you will say ‘I have no pleasure in them’”.  What is it that the wisest of all men is warning us about here?  What is it that will occur after the “days of our youth” that is so troubling and requires such cautionary words?    

                       

The path to sincere repentance, is beset on all sides by a beleaguering onslaught of attacks by the Yetzer Horah to stop us returning to Hashem.  The Evil Inclination employs every method at its disposal to dissuade a person from changing their ways and regretting their past.  It will use diversionary tactics to distract us from the mission at hand and it will use mind games to convince us that true Teshuva is an impossibility for us.  To defeat it takes all our energy and constant alertness to its schemes.  King Shlomo first pleads with us to attempt to vanquish it and repent in our youth, before the “evil days” of the negative consequences of our actions are given to us.  But if we are unable to do so, we must be aware that the Yetzer Horah will try another ruse once we have reached old age without atonement.  It will try to persuade us that since we no longer enjoy the pleasures of our youth and the gratification that we took from our former sins, there is no way that we can now genuinely repent.  It is at this time that Shlomo appeals to us to still “remember your Creator” for the road back to Him is never cut off and only awaits our arrival.

The journey through the past two months has been one of perpetual movement towards our loving father.  It may have begun as a return due to the fear of recriminations and repercussions, but the progression into Succos should be an evolution from repentance due to trepidation into repentance due to love.  Succos, a time of tremendous joy, is a time when we express our love for Hashem and appreciation of all He gives us.  The repentance here is because we value our relationship with Him so much that we cannot bear to allow anything to exist within us that might damage it.  Knowing that this love is entirely mutual is something that can defend us against any of the attacks of our Yetzer Horah.  There is nothing that can stand in the way of our Teshuva, because there is nothing that Hashem wants more than our coming back to Him.  No matter where we are, no matter what we have done, no matter how far we have sunk, there is always a way back because Hashem loves us no matter what.

  *May this Shabbos give us the power to defeat our enemy once and for all*

This week’s Miller’s Musing is sponsored: לעילוי נשמת משא בת יצחק and רשא בת לוי

Miller's Musings Parshas Ha'azinu: The Sole Source of Salvation

בס''ד  

The song of our Parsha is one that echoes for an eternity.  Full of the promises of what will occur and admonitions for the consequences of future mistakes, Moshe pleads with the Jews to heed its advice for their own sake and for the sake of peace.  As part of his prophetic vision Moshe declares that after Hashem brings great calamities on the Jewish people “He shall relent regarding His servants, when He sees that the enemy power progresses and none is saved or assisted”.  The Gemoro in Sanhedrin tells us that this is a foretelling of what will occur at the end of days that Hashem will bring about the redemption when He sees that the Jews feel that none will be saved.  In other words it is only when the Jewish people have given up hope of ever being delivered from their exile, that Hashem will then bring about the final salvation, which begs the question as to why this would indeed be the case?

                                                                                                                                                                                      

The duty to long for the coming of the Moshiach is something we are required to do every single day.  We must at some point during our daily routine think about the loss of not having the Beis Hamikdosh and yearn for its return and the time when the world will achieve its perfection.  This is however not just a reaction to the exile, but also a means to bringing about its end.  Our attitude towards our situation, far from where we should be, is a significant part of the solution, perhaps more so than our general good deeds that generate the merit to result in Moshiach coming.  This Posuk, says the Emes L’Yaakov, shows us another key to allowing the redemption to come.  What is referred to in the Posuk is not the Jewish people feeling that there is no hope at all of salvation, but rather there is no hope of salvation other than that brought directly by the hands of Hashem.  When we realise that we cannot bring it about by our own physical efforts or by the political manoeuvrings of anyone, then and only then will Hashem relent and deem us worthy of deliverance.

The days of Moshiach are for many somewhat clouded in mystery and perhaps consisting of more questions than answers.  But if we focus on the concept of the perfection that it will bring and the end to all suffering, we can all agree that it is something that we desperately need and something worthy of desiring.  The world is far from perfect and there are signs for some that the future may be somewhat bleak.  We would do well to remember that if we want the ultimate good in this world, the only means to achieving it is through Hashem’s decision to make it a reality.  He has decided that we must play our part in reaching this goal through the actions we perform.  But save for our craving its appearance and the correct choices we make, it is ultimately only Hashem who can realize this dream and bring the days when only good will be seen and all of life will be so clearly a constant blessing.  

*May this Shabbos show us that Hashem is our only salvation*

  

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם 

לעילוי נשמת שרה יעל בת גרשון

לרפואת אלימלך יהושע אהרון בן דבורה רבקה

לרפואת אברהם יעקב בן שרה טשארנא