B”H
First of all, I want to begin with fresh regards from the holy sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Lag ba’omer in Miron. There are not enough words to describe the spiritual, uplifting sensations and overwhelming heights that are felt in Miron. Hundreds of thousands of klal yisruel are united and embraced to pour out their hearts with joy and prayers. What a sight! Outside the cave young and old are connected and united in a ring to dance and sing with holy ecstasy: “Bar yochai nimshachte ashrecho” and “Vamartam ko lechai”. While inside the cave the air is filled vibrating with the echo of prayers accompanied with outbursts of crying.
As promised I had you all in mind, although I don’t know all your names, I prayed to Hashem Yisborach bizchus hatana Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai to send hatzlocho to our entire chabure, we should be able to keep up the shiur, to learn together, to be mechadesh chidushi torah, find new thoughts that can bring us to see the beauty of the heilige Torah, and that we should have great Naches from our lechtike kinderlich with long healthy good years.
Now let’s get to the introduction for this week’s mamar on parsahas Bechukosai.
We, human beings, take for granted that we are who we are. But we are really a very complicated species, combined of two very contradictory powers. The first is the Neshome which is the spiritual soul, and the second is the physical flesh, the body which is no different than any animal seeking worldly pleasures.
This is reflected in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim (chapter six) where the meaning of the finish line in the broche of “Asher yotzer”: “rofei chol bosur umafli lasoos” is explained. It means Hashem does wonders by keeping together these two opposing powers, the spiritual soul and the physical body.
As we learn from the midrash, the spiritual soul is very unhappy being locked in the confines of the physical body, who has no intensions to live a life of higher values. The soul feels trapped in the body and constantly wants to escape from it!
The Medresh goes on explaining, that the soul never stops to struggle to leave the body. Only when she sees the שכינה הקדושה – the divine Presence of Hashem that surrounds the body, especially when learning torah and doing Mitzvahs, she then retreats back into the body out of respect to Hashem. That is the intensions of Dovid hamelech that finished Thilim with the posuk: “כל הנשמה תהלל יה” – for every breath that we take we most thank hashem that keeps the soul in its place…
That is the explanation of what we learn in the Talmud: “חש בראשו יעסוק בתורה” – If you have a headache learn torah. It is a very deep insight about health issues: If we are sick and don’t feel good, It is not enough for us to spend time and money on homeopathy, chiropractic practice, acupuncture, and herbal remedies, not that I have anything against it, but we must first bear in mind that the source of our sickness is, because our soul is restless and unhappy. When the soul does not get its full nourishment of Torah and Mitzvos, it feels unhappy and wants to leave the chambers of the body where she feels locked in. And when she wants to leave trouble sets in. Keeping the Neshome happy by spending a few hours of learning Torah, or doing a great Mitzva, is the best remedy to live a healthy life and will save us a lot of pain.
Okay chevre let’s leave something for the mamar. And believe me there is a lot to learn.
Shvilei Pinches שבילי פנחס 