Terumah 5786 – House of Thanksgiving

Part I. Thanksgiving and the Table

Looking Under the Hood

When we begin our talk tonight about this week’s sedrah, about the Mishkan, we must give credit to one of the chachomim of two doros back who taught us an important Torah principle that serves as an introduction to our subject. Rav Simcha Zissel, zichrono livracha, said that when studying a mitzvah, it’s necessary לְהַפְשִׁיט אֶת הַצּוּרָה – to take off the outward form; it means that we are expected to remove the chitzoniyus of the mitzvah and see what is the pnimiyus, the essence of the subject that was intended by Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

Now when we utilize this method of studying the Mishkan not only will we bring to life an important part of our history, but we’ll see that something that has long been destroyed and maybe we imagined is no longer relevant to our daily lives, is actually more relevant than anything else. And that’s because the Mishkan serves as a model for the shuls, for our battei kneisiyos which are the Mikdash Me’at — they are our own small mishkan that stand for us with the same purpose as the original one in our parsha.

Dovid Uncovers the Truth

Now, if we want to make an attempt at removing the outward form of the Mishkan and understand something of its pnimiyus it would pay for us to study the words of Dovid Hamelech. Because Dovid composed an especial song for the occasion of the Beis Hamikdash’s dedication, kepitel 30. And if Dovid made a shir especially in honor of that important occasion, we would expect that whatever we read there should be an illumination of that subject; it should help us understand something about the function of the House of Hashem.

Only we’re surprised that when we look into that shir, we see not one word is mentioned about the Beis Hamikdash except the title: מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר חֲנֻכַּת הַבַּיִת לְדָוִד, and that’s the end of it. After that short introduction, it talks about something else and doesn’t mention the Beis Hamikdash even once.

Off Topic?

Now, it’s very important that we should understand that puzzle because we wouldn’t have made the shir in that manner. After all, there’s so much to talk about when it comes to the Beis Hamikdash; the kedusha, the Shechina, וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם, the keilim and the korbanos, the kohanim and the avodah. But not one word is mentioned. And if that’s the case, if Dovid chose to speak about something else, we have to understand that.

So let’s pay attention first to what he does say. Right away he begins speaking about gratitude, about thanking Hashem for what He did for him: ‘אֲרוֹמִמְךָ ה – I will exalt You, Hashem, כִּי דִלִּיתָנִי – because You lifted me up. I was a nobody. I came from Moav, from a low nation. My yichus was a very poor yichus. I had a kupah shel sheratzim on my back, a lot of skeletons in the closet, and still You elevated me; You chose me and made me Your Moshiach, the melech.

And then I had enemies all my life, וְלֹא שִׂמַּחְתָּ אֹיְבַי לִי – but You didn’t let my enemies rejoice over me. ה’ אֱלֹקָי שִׁוַּעְתִּי אֵלֶיךָ – I cried out to You many times in my life, וָתִּרְפָּאֵנִי – and You healed me.

The Bottom Line

Now, that’s only the beginning, but when you read that entire shir, you see it’s one big narration of gratitude, hakaros hatov. Dovid is pouring out his heart in thanks to Hashem all the way till the last words. You know, when you write a shtar, so you have to be chozer beshitah achronah, to sum up the contents of the document on the last line. Like they say in America: “What’s the bottom line?” And what’s the bottom line of this mizmor? הַשֵּׁם אֱלֹקַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ — Hashem, I’m going to thank You forever.

And so Dovid is telling us here a very big chiddush; he’s saying the purpose of the Beis Hamikdash is to thank Hashem. “You want to know why I’m doing all of this?” sings Dovid. “You want to know why I applied myself to gathering together all the materials for the building of the Beis Hamikdash? I did it for one purpose; to thank Hashem!”

That’s what the Beis Hamikdash is for. אֲרוֹמִמְךָ ה’ – I’m going to exalt You Hashem. How will I exalt You? I’ll build for You a Beis Hamikdash which, just like the Mishkan, will be a place to express my gratitude to You.

Come In With Gratitude

Just to bring out the point more, so you’ll see what I’m talking about, if you look in Dovid Hamelech’s famous shir about thanksgiving, you see the same story: מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה – Here’s a song especially for thanksgiving; and right away he’s talking about the Mikdash. בֹּאוּ לְפָנָיו בִּרְנָנָה – Come before Him with song, בֹּאוּ שְׁעָרָיו בְּתוֹדָה – Come into His gates with thanksgiving. Which gates? Of the Beis Hamikdash or the Mishkan, whatever it was. חַצְרוֹתָיו בִּתְהִלָּה – You come in to His precincts with thanksgiving. (ibid. 100:1). So when you come in, you come in with a purpose of todah, of thanksgiving.

Now that is how we have to understand the purpose of not only the Beis Hamikdash, but all the appointments of the Mikdash. All the details of the Mishkan that we read about in this week’s sedrah, are expressions primarily of thanksgiving.

Now it’s a big chiddush, but we have to learn that chiddush and study it and practice it too — we’ll soon see how we should practice it in our lives. It’s a very important subject for us and so we’ll take a few examples and יִשְׁמַע חָכָם וְיוֹסֶף לֶקַח – once you understand that gratitude and thanksgiving is the common denominator, you yourself will be able to see from these examples more examples of your own.

The Secret of the Table

In the Mishkan, one of the keilim was the Table. וְעָשִׂיתָ שֻׁלְחָן עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים – You should make a golden Table of atzei shittim overlaid with gold (Shemos 25:23). Now I have to tell you beforehand, I must apologize because the Rambam says he doesn’t understand the idea of the Shulchan with Lechem Hapanim. He has no explanation. And here, along comes a nobody who will give an explanation. But what can I do? I can’t help myself. I’ll tell you an explanation.

On that golden Table, they put the Lechem Hapanim, twelve loaves of bread. And these loaves are our expression of gratitude to Hashem. The Shulchan and the bread are a מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה for the great nes of lechem.

Hamotzee Lechem Min Ha’avir

If you ever studied any science, you know it’s a big nes. Bread comes out of nowhere, not min ha’aretz. The aretz gives only a tiny contribution to the lechem. The lechem actually comes out of the air! This air makes lechem. It’s mavhil. You become excited when you hear that. That’s what they know now. It’s nissei nissim!

How does air become bread? Carbon dioxide in the air combines with the sunshine. You’re eating sunshine when you eat bread; that’s what it is. Sunshine joins with the carbon dioxide with some water and with the chlorophyll, the green part of the plant, and it combines and it makes starch. That starch is the wheat; that’s cheilev chitah, the fat of the wheat. That’s the bread. It comes out of the air!

So you’ll ask me a question: Isn’t carbon dioxide only three parts in ten thousand in the air? And the plant is standing here sucking the carbon dioxide from the air around it. In a minute, it has exhausted all the carbon dioxide; so the plant should die. No! Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the wind. אִלְמָלֵא הָרוּחוֹת אֵין הָעוֹלָם מִתְקַיֵּם – Without the winds, the world couldn’t exist. The wind keeps the air moving. So as the plant exhausts the carbon dioxide from the air around it, the wind pushes some new air into place and the carbon dioxide is replenished – nissei nissim!

Wonder Bread

And so, this piece of lechem is such a composite, a complex of so many miracles that we have to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu not for one nes – we have to thank Him for hundreds and hundreds of nissim.

Now when we say hundreds, I’m underestimating. I don’t want to take up the time and tell you how many actual nissim there are in the making of food. It’s so many that you’ll think it’s exaggerated. “A guzmah,” you’ll say. You won’t even believe me. You need millions of details to cooperate to make bread.

That’s why when you have a piece of bread at the table and somebody says give me this piece of bread, you don’t throw it to him. אֵין זוֹרְקִין אֶת הַפַּת – You can’t throw bread. Derech eretz! Be polite with the bread! It’s Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s miracle.

Would you throw let’s say urim v’tumim?! Let’s say the Kohen Gadol said to you, “Hand me the urim v’tumim please,” would you throw it? You would take it with the biggest derech eretz, with hachna’ah you’d hold it in you hand. The piece of bread is more nissim than the urim v’tumim – more nissim! We’re accustomed to bread. The urim v’tumim is such a rare miracle, but bread is no less. It’s bigger – much bigger!

Excited About Nissim

So when you see a piece of bread on your table, you have to be excited about it.

“How can I be excited?” he says. “I eat every day.”

So Hashem says, “It’s My fault? I want you to be happy, not to be hungry. Just because I’m giving you every day therefore you shouldn’t be excited? You want Me to give it to you once in ten years?” So learn to be excited! You have to learn to be excited about a piece of bread.

And Hashem makes it taste good too! Bread tastes good! You know, once you put the bread in your mouth, the saliva combines with the starch of the bread and it turns into sugars. You know that? That’s why the more you chew it, the sweeter the bread becomes. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to make that you enjoy the bread. He gives it b’chein b’chesed. It’s a pleasure when you eat bread. I’m not saying you should become a gourmet, a ba’al ta’avah, but you’re eating bread anyhow.

And you’re eating it tamid, always! That’s why it says וְנָתַתָּ עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן לֶחֶם פָּנִים לְפָנַי תָּמִֽיד (ibid. 25:30). Tamid means Hashem is always giving bread. Every day, He gives bread and therefore it’s on the table tamid. And when the Kohanim come on Shabbos to remove the bread, they have to be mekayem the tamid. They can’t just take it off. So as they’re taking off the old bread, they’re pushing on the new bread and so immediately the new bread is there already; even the smallest interruption shouldn’t be. So you see how important it is to be reminded of that. We do a big procedure on the Shulchan so that we should be reminded to thank that we get our bread tamid without the slightest interruption.

The Shulchan and Us

And so when we talk about the Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim, let’s keep in mind that its primary purpose is to mechayev us, to obligate us to keep in our minds always to express our gratitude to Hashem.

That’s the result of being mafshit the tzurah of the Shulchan — the golden Table in the Mishkan is an expression of our gratitude and a reminder that we’re mechuyev to express our gratitude every day to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for our daily bread. What’s in the Mishkan is only a mashal what you should do. Whenever we put bread on our table we should stop and say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “We thank You! אֲרוֹמִמְךָ for our daily bread, for the nissei nissim!”

Part II. Thanksgiving, the Menorah and the Mizbeiach

The Burning Flame

Now if we keep on going with this svara of being mafshit the tzurah of the Beis Hamikdash in order to uncover the ideals hidden underneath, we come to the Menorah and we’ll see that this also was for gratitude. Inside the Mishkan at night, everything was quiet—the avodah was not carried on. But there was one thing in particular that was evident; all night there were flames burning on the Menorah.

Now, I must say beforehand that whatever we are going to say — although it may be very important and very necessary — is going to be superficial. I am too little of a person to undertake to interpret such a big and splendid subject. However, we do have some clues.

The Flame of Life

There’s a possuk נֵר ה’ נִשְׁמַת אָדָם – the lamp of Hashem is a man’s soul. It’s Hashem’s light that is burning inside you, giving you life and we wouldn’t be mistaken if we said that the flame of the Menorah is intended to symbolize that flame burning inside you.

Now, without recourse to any other sources, we would think that it’s referring to the soul and we’re thanking for the gift of the neshama. But there’s a queer statement in the Gemara that seems to be a contradiction to this. In Mesichta Shabbos a question is asked: Suppose it’s Friday night and a sick man is lying next to an oil lamp and it’s a matter of pikuach nefesh; to save his life, you have to put out the lamp. Is it mutar to put out a lamp for a sick man? That’s a question the Gemara asks.

And the answers is given as follows: מוּטָב – It’s better to extinguish the lamp created by a person, וְאַל יְכַבֶּה נֵרוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא – and the lamp of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, a Jewish life, shouldn’t be extinguished. And the Gemara brings this possuk, that a man’s living soul is compared to a lamp.

The Flame Extinguished

But there’s a big question here because how can the Gemara compare the death of a person to the lamp of Hashem going out? If the Jew would chalilah die, does the lamp go out? Chas v’shalom! After a man’s days are over and he takes off his old overcoat, his worn out flesh and bones, his soul goes marching on; the light burns on and on. It burns brightly — even more brightly. Death means only that you move on; the word מָוֶת is the same word as מוֹשׁ, to move away. You move out of the world. You change your place – that’s all. But the light of your neshama still burns.

But the Gemara here says that when he dies his lamp, the ner Elokim, is extinguished! And so we learn from this Gemara a big chiddush about this possuk; we learn a different meaning in the words “lamp of Hashem.” Ner Elokim does not mean the soul in general; it means a man’s life in this world. And a Jewish life in this Olam Hazeh is actually extinguished forever when he dies. Because what is the life of a Jew in this world? It’s bechira, free will, the opportunity to choose, and that lamp will never again be re-lit.

What he’ll do in the Next World is a different story. That’s schar Olam Haba, that’s reward; but the ability to achieve in this life is an especial form of light included in the lamp of Hashem, the neshama, and this goes out when a man dies never to be rekindled again even at the revival of the dead. It’s only while your flame is burning in Olam Hazeh, this one time, that you have the opportunity to utilize the free will to achieve. And that’s called the light of the soul; life in this world! That’s the chiddush of the Gemara.

And therefore while we have it there’s no greater happiness. The happiness of life means not running around on Caribbean cruises, no! I always tell you that there’s nothing better in the Caribbean islands. Only bigger cockroaches they have there, that’s all. Also, Caribbean diseases; that’s also a specialty of the islands. That’s not enjoying life. Enjoying life means, “Ah! Baruch Hashem, I’m alive! Right here in good old Brooklyn I’m alive!”

The Perpetual Mazel Tov

I’ll tell you a story. I told it many times.

In Lomza, the mashgiach once saw a sad-faced yeshiva bachur. So he went over to him and he took him by both lapels. “Mazel Tov,” he said to him.

The bachur wanted to hear the good news. The mashgiach says, “Mazel tov! Mazel Tov! Mazel tov!”

The bachur was looking at him; what’s the mazel tov? Finally after many mazel tovs, the mashgiach said, “Mazel tov! You’re alive!”

That’s the biggest mazel tov! If you’re alive, there’s hope! You can accomplish everything. כִּי לְכֶלֶב חַי הוּא טוֹב מֵהָאַרְיֵה הַמֵּת – A living dog is better than a dead lion. Even if you’re like a dog, you’re a low person who didn’t accomplish yet, but you’re still alive! You can choose to do mitzvos! You can learn Torah! You could become a tzaddik gadol! Life is the most precious thing there is because you can still choose!

And therefore, how important it is for a person to learn to be grateful to Hashem that he’s alive. And that is symbolized by the lights of the Menorah in the Mikdash. They burn brightly all the time to remind us of that gift — just as the lights are burning there tamid, always, in our hearts also there should burn always a fiery hakaros hatov to Hashem that the lamp of life, of bechira and opportunity, is burning within us.

A Minute of Life

So when you’re home, when you’re in the street, when you’re shopping – wherever you are, if you stop for a moment and think that the menorah of light is burning, the ner Hashem is burning within you – you’re still alive! Ah! Chasdei Hashem! Every minute is so precious, more than כָּל חַיֵּי עוֹלָם הַבָּא!

And don’t think that only if you do big things with that minute. You might say, “Well, it’s only if I do big things, big mitzvos with my life.” No. Every minute, every little avodas Hashem is called utilizing your life for its purpose. If that minute you’re thinking of thanksgiving to Hashem, you’re grateful to Hashem, that itself is a tremendous achievement! Every little bit, every time you think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu — you’re thanking Him or you’re reminding yourself that He is watching you or you’re thinking that you love Him —whatever it is, that’s called living successfully. That’s what makes life worth living! And therefore when we think of the Menorah, let’s always be grateful for that gift of life, the great light of bechira, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows upon us every day.

Now, I wish I had the time to talk about the Menorah a little longer because it is a splendid subject that lends itself to many important lessons. I wanted to tell you that included in the remez of that burning flame in the heichal, included in that gift of life in Olam Hazeh, is the light of seichel.

Why is the light of the soul — it means our existence in this world — compared to a light? Why isn’t it compared to water? It could be compared to the wind; other comparisons. Why a lamp? And the answer is that a lamp has as its chief function the ability to see, to discern. And that’s the purpose of being alive. Our functioning mind bestows the opportunity to see objects, to gain understanding, to accomplish wisdom.

Without the gift of seichel we couldn’t choose — it’s like being dead. Chas v’shalom, sometimes when someone gets old, so many good people are oiver u’batul, chas v’shalom. It’s like they’re dead. He can’t think, he can’t utilize his bechira.

Gratitude for Daas

Here’s a man, I was once walking in a street when I was a boy on the East Side. It was Asara b’Teves; an old rebbe, he had a shtibel, met me. He said to me, “Vu voin ich?” “Where do I live?” he asked me. Rachmanus; he forgot where he lives. And I had to take him by the hand, this old rebbe, and lead him to his house. He forgot his address.

And so we have to be grateful that the flame of the menorah, of seichel, of zikaron, of daas and machshava burns brightly in our brain. That was the purpose of the Menorah’s flame that burned tamid in the heichal; so we should be reminded tamid to be grateful for the gift of life, a life of seichel and bechira in this world, that gives us eternal life in the Next World forever.

On to the Mizbeiach

I would talk more about the Menorah but the time doesn’t allow it and so we’ll talk about the Mizbeyach. You know, the Mizbeyach to many people is really a quandary. It’s blood and entrails and burning flesh, and it’s a puzzle to some people what the purpose is. But it’s a mitzvah, it’s part of avodas Hashem, and therefore it pays to understand it. We should make an attempt to appreciate the pnimiyus of what it is all about by following the principle of what Dovid Hamelech taught us is the purpose of all the appurtenances of the Mikdash.

And so we’ll say the following. When you take a sheep or some other beheima as a korban, and you slaughter it and put it down on the Mizbeyach, lefi hapashtus k’bipshuto, the most simple meaning is that you’re offering yourself up on the Mizbeyach.

What do I mean ‘yourself’? Exactly that! It’s a vicarious offering of yourself. Because it’s not enough that we feel indebted to Hakadosh Baruch Hu for life itself, for bechira and seichel and all the opportunities that life gives us, but we have to thank Hashem for our body too. To live like a person with the great organization called the body requires a certain amount of gratitude.

Self-Oblation

And so a korban means that you’re taking yourself and you’re giving yourself back to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in gratitude. After all, He gave you a body, a body so wonderful, and you had it for so long already. If you’re twenty years old, twenty years is a very long time. If you’ve been using this gift for fifty years or sixty years, even more so. And so why shouldn’t we give ourselves back to Him in gratitude? Wouldn’t that be the best, most sincere expression of thanksgiving?

And so what do you do? You bring a lamb. A poor little lamb is a live creature and his heart is pumping the blood throughout his body and wants to live. And you cut its neck and the blood that was keeping it alive comes pouring out. And you take from the blood and you put it on the Mizbeyach and you’re thinking, “That is me; this is instead of me. Baruch Hashem that I’m not on the Mizbeyach. Baruch Hashem that Hashem didn’t demand of me such a sacrifice. Baruch Hashem, He gives me my body every day and He lets me keep it.”

We keep our cheilev, fats, in ourselves. We keep our klayos, our kidneys, for ourselves. Our heads and legs and stomach, everything we keep and we use them every day. Instead we offer up on the Mizbeyach an olah — we burn the whole body to Hashem. And when it goes up to Hashem, it’s like we’re going up to Hashem in gratitude. The korbanos are an expression of the highest gratitude to Hashem for our bodies.

Breaking it Down

But not just the body as one whole; all the parts of the body. כָּל עַצְמוֹתַי תֹּאמַרְנָה ה’ מִי כָמוֹךָ – Every part of my body speaks up and says, “Hashem who is like You?” Every function of the body, every organ is nissei nissim. If you would study the kidney, the kidney is one of the most wonderful machines in the world. The heart? We’re amazed by the creation of such a pump that day and night it pumps without stop, so many tens of years. Every detail of the body, nissei nissim.

Only that if you don’t think about, it’s a general term, the body, and we lump it all together and patur ourselves; and we absolve ourselves from thinking about it. And so along comes the korban and it says that you have to separate all the limbs, all the organs, and be makriv them on the Mizbeyach separately. That’s the mitzvah of hefshet v’nituach; we skin and separate the limbs so they should more closely resemble the human limbs. Because כָּל עַצְמוֹתַי תֹּאמַרְנָה – every part is speaking! Every detail of the body is so wondrous that you can spend your entire life talking about it and you don’t even begin to explain even part of the miracles of the body.

The Altar of Thanksgiving

And so what is the Mizbeyach for? It means one thing. It means “Thank You Hashem! Baruch Hashem You give me my life every day and all the organs are functioning perfectly more or less.”

And so we see that like the Shulchan and like the Menorah, the Mizbeyach is also intended as a symbol of thanksgiving. And that’s one of the purposes of reading these parshiyos; so that we should utilize this principle that the Mishkan and the Mikdash are a place of אֲרוֹמִמְךָ ה כִּי דִּלִּיתַנִי, of raising up Hashem with our gratitude.

Part III. Thanksgiving in Shul

The Purpose of Shul

Now, once we peeled back the chitzoniyus of the Mikdash to see the pnimiyus underneath and we realize that it’s primarily a place of ה’ אֱלֹקַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ, a place intended to be a catalyst for gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so we can understand better now the purpose of coming to the beis haknesses. The beis haknesses after all is a Mikdash Me’at; it’s a symbol of the Beis Hamikdash and therefore when we drill down to the core, the purpose is the same.

And so when you walk into the beis haknesses, the first thing you have to know is, בֹּאוּ שְׁעָרָיו בְּתוֹדָה – you’re coming in for the purpose of thanksgiving (Tehillim 100:4). Not merely like some people say pshat, “You should thank Hashem that you’re able to come in” — that’s true also, but that’s not the real pshat. You come in בְּתוֹדָה means you come in for the purpose of giving thanks.

It’s Not What You Imagined

Now, that’s surprising to many people. They think that they come for davening, for minyan, Pesukei D’zimrah, Shemoneh Esrei, Kaddish, Kedusha, Borchu, whatever it is. But actually that’s only the chitzoniyus and when you strip it away — it doesn’t mean you’re not doing all those things; you must! — but when you drill down to the purpose of all those things you understand that you’re coming here to say, I thank You Hashem for this and for that.

‘בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה – That’s what the word Baruch means; it comes from the word berech, knee, and so Baruch Atah means “You are the One to Whom our knees are bent in gratitude for everything.” And even though we have to walk around all day, and even in the shul we can’t keep our knees bent all the time but Baruch means that ideologically You are the One to Whom our knees are bent perpetually.

Baruch Chonein hadaas. Baruch Rofei cholei Yisroel. Baruch, baruch, baruch. Every bracha that you make in Shemoneh Esrei is an expression of gratitude for some benefit that you’re getting every day. And even though before we say the bracha we first pray and we ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so you might think the beis knesses is a place to pray, for tefillah and asking. It’s true but you have to know the purpose of asking is to make us aware that Hashem is giving to us!

The Bending is the Purpose

That’s a chiddush to some people but that’s what tefillah is for. After all, why do you need to ask? Doesn’t Hashem know what we need? Why do we ask Him? The answer is, we ask Him in order to make ourselves aware that He’s the One Who is the Giver. Otherwise you forget it. And therefore, in every bracha once you have exercised that purpose, once you asked and you clarified for yourself the understanding that it’s from Him — that’s the purpose of the words before the bracha — so now you’re capable of coming to the point, to the whole purpose which is the bracha, the thanking.

You see we don’t call it bakasha, a request; we call it the bracha — bracha means an expression of gratitude. That’s the primary purpose of davening: ה’ אֱלֹקַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ. And the place set aside for stimulating us to gratitude is the beis haknesses.

Now, if that’s the purpose of the shul so therefore it require hachana; הִכּוֹן לִקְרַאת אֱלֹקֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל – Prepare yourself to meet Hashem (Amos 4:12). When you go into the beis haknesses, you have to prepare yourself. You have to think back in your regular daily life and in your past life, what is there to thank for? That’s the way to walk into a shul: you’re thinking—“What am I going to thank for when I get to my place?

Pleasure of Locomotion

So the first thing of course is all the things He’s doing for you right now. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ הַמֵּכִין מִצְעֲדֵי גָבֶר – I was able to get out of bed today and walk. Ah! A pleasure! Just walk on the street, see how many people are sitting in wheelchairs. How many people have walkers, how many people have canes, how many people are lying in bed in the houses and can’t go out at all? It’s a simcha if you’re able to walk. Locomotion is a very big happiness. Baruch Hashem, you have two Rolls Royces underneath you, better than any other wheels – your own feet. It’s a joy, every step. And therefore we say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ הַמֵּכִין מִצְעֲדֵי גָבֶר – You establish the footsteps of a man. How wonderful it is to be able to walk!

And בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ פּוֹקֵחַ עִוְרִים – I’m able to see! Ah! Ah! סוּמָא חָשׁוּב כְּמֵת – You lose so much of life when chas v’shalom you cannot see. And your eyes are such wonderful cameras. All the scientists admit there’s no camera in the world that can compare to the eye. It’s so efficient. It functions automatically; it focuses for near objects and in one second you can change focus for a distant object. It changes in the dark to allow more light to come in. When there’s more light, it closes up a little so too much light shouldn’t come in. It’s a wonder of wonders how this camera functions. I thank You that You didn’t make me a gentile. I thank You for my shoes and for my hat. I thank You for this and that.

And that’s also what pesukei d’zimra is for. You’re a little more awake now so you get busy praising and thanking. That’s why you have to make a noise when you daven Pesukei D’zimra. If the shul is full of people and it’s quiet, it’s like a cemetery, that’s not the tzurah of a shul. The tzurah of a Jewish shul is when there’s noise. What kind of a noise? They’re shouting to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Hodu! Ashrei! Halelukah! For everything You’re doing for me right now.

The Sin of Forgetfulness

But that’s not enough. Go back! There’s so much to thank for in your past. And that brings us to a very big subject now and the subject is, בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת ה’ וְאַל תִּשְׁכְּחִי כָּל גְּמוּלָיו. Dovid is talking to himself, to his nefesh, and he says, “Thank Hashem! And don’t forget all the things that He bestowed upon you.”

And that’s the very great problem of forgetting the chasdei Hashem. Remember you once had in your eye a throbbing feeling that bothered you for a day. Your eye was pulsating. You were worried. Should you go to the eye specialist, you shouldn’t go? The next morning you got up, you forgot all about it.

You forgot all about it?! Some people don’t forget. For some people it continues chalilah and it gets worse. Eye operations are a very big tzara – bandages for weeks and weeks, chas v’shalom. And finally when the doctors take off the bandage, not always are they happy with the results. And baruch Hashem that throbbing in your eye passed away during the nighttime. Can you forget that?! בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת ה’ וְאַל תִּשְׁכְּחִי כָּל גְּמוּלָיו. Don’t forget! You have to remember that all your life!

Forget Me Not

Remember when there was a man that wanted a din Torah against you. You were afraid. You couldn’t sleep. A whole week your stomach was boiling – a din Torah was pending against you. At the end, nothing came of it. The other party didn’t call you to a din Torah. So what did you do? You forgot all about it. Forgot all about it?!

Or maybe once your jaw was swollen and the swelling of your gum began to rise up here? You know sometimes, chas v’shalom, the infection goes to brain. Oh yes. I know an adam gadol who passed away. His gum became inflamed from a tooth abscess. It went up here into the brain and he passed away nebach.

But you were saved! בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ גָּאַלְתָּ חַיַּי – You redeemed my life! You should say to Hashem, “You redeemed me!” How are people so obtuse, so ungrateful?! They ask Hashem for favors and as soon as He gives it to them, תִּשְׁכְּחִי כָּל גְּמוּלָיו – they forget it toch k’dei dibbur.

And therefore that’s a big function in our lives. בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת ה’ וְאַל תִּשְׁכְּחִי – Don’t forget, כָּל גְּמוּלָיו – even one thing that He bestowed upon you. And so you have to prepare yourself. And when you come to the beis haknesses, at least in this place that’s set aside for thanking, you must exercise that obligation.

Homework for Shul

Now a little homework; when you come to the beis haknesses and you hear Kaddish being said, instead of saying יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ as a little donation; “let His Great Name be blessed” – what do you care to say it? It doesn’t cost you any money. No, that’s not the way. You have to put some thought into it in order to bless His Name. Think of one specific thing when you say יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא.

You remember when your tooth was bothering you and it hurt you even to eat. You couldn’t eat for three days, your tooth was bothering you and you thought you had to take it out. Then all of a sudden overnight the pain subsided and the tooth functioned well once more. יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ! You thank Hashem for that!

Remember you once made a dumb step, you stepped off the curb just as the bus nearby started moving and the bus driver pulled the brakes and cursed you? “That crazy dope! He walked in front of my bus!” He almost hit you but you walked away like a dumbbell, not even thinking. Where’s the יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא for that?!

Maybe when you were a little boy you once found a bullet. A true story – it was me. I found a bullet when I was a little boy. I took the bullet it and I stuck it between the boards of a wooden fence and I took a hammer with a nail and I banged it against the back of the bullet. It exploded in my face. My face was full of blood. Full of blood! I could have chalilah lost my eyes! יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ!

All our lives we’re full of such sakanah; we’ve been rescued again and again and we have to never stop thanking. That’s what it means יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ! You should do it right now! Don’t wait for the future, for לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא. Start right now!

Prepare for Kaddish

It’s a good idea to prepare as soon as the chazzan starts saying yisgadel. Think, “What am I going to thank for this time?” Think fast. It’s better of course if you thought beforehand and prepared at least one thing to thank Him for but if you didn’t then you have to think fast.

Thank Hashem that you have a wife. How many old bochurim waited too long and now nobody will marry them. Baruch Hashem that you have normal children! Oooh! A tzara! I know a man who had three children, one after the other, all sick. All very sick children! A rachmanus! A terrible rachmanus! If you have normal children, you have to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for that day and night, day and night, day and night, day and night!

And some people have no children at all and they pine away their lives and they look at other people – they’re so jealous. And all of you people who have children, many times you don’t stop to think. Every child is a matana. Each child is a very big gift – it’s a ta’anug. Of course, מַרְבֶּה נְכָסִים מַרְבֶּה דְאָגָה, but we want to have more nechasim and we’ll have some more worries too.

And therefore, how can a person who lives a normal life not be busy all of his days thanking Hashem? There’s no lack of יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ! Every time you say it, prepare something.

Bending and Thanking

And when we come to מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ, certainly that’s the function! מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ – what are you thanking for? Some poskim hold if you said Modim without kavana, you’re not yotzei Shemoneh Esrei. That’s what some poskim hold. Because that’s the purpose; that’s why you’re davening.בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’

And so you have to think of something. It’s impossible to feel gratitude with an empty head—you have to be prepared with something. There are so many things that are available. Look at all the illnesses. I once made a list of about fifty illnesses. Make such a list and it’s a good idea to read it from time to time. This man has that. That woman has that. Look at the list and prepare before Modim. Think, “Baruch Hashem I don’t have this.” Every tefillah a different thing. “Baruch Hashem I don’t have that.”

The Secret of the Shul

And so יְהֵא שְׁמֵיהּ רַבָּא and מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ and בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה‘ and Borchu and everything else that we’re saying constantly in the beis haknesses, is for hakaros hatov. The beis haknesses, that’s the especial place of this function. מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר חֲנֻכַּת הַבַּיִת – What’s the shul all about? ה’ אֱלֹקַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ – Forever I’m going to thank You. That’s the function, the purpose of the beis haknesses.

And these things, we have to know, are not a middas chassidus; they’re a chiyuv gamur. That’s the pnimiyus of the shul. Why do you come? Only because of thanks to Hashem. You’re walking to shul, coming in the door, sitting down; every step is an expression of gratitude. That’s called being מַפְשִׁיט אֶת הַצּוּרָה of the subject of the Mishkan and understanding also the subject of the Mikdash Me’at, the beis haknesses. Because the bottom line of the subject, the primary purpose of coming into the shul, is ה’ אֱלֹקַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ.

Have a Wonderful Shabbos

This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 550 – It is Good to Sing | 769 – Lamp of Free Will | 780 – Hodu: A Program for Life | 826 – House of Thanksgiving | E-258 – Opposed by the Nations

Let’s Get Practical

Living With Gratitude in the Mikdash Me’at

This week, I will, bli neder, put into practice the teaching that the entire Mishkan and Beis Haknesses exist for one purpose — to thank Hashem. Before I walk into shul each day, I will prepare one specific thing to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for. It can be something from today — my eyesight, my ability to walk, my parnassah — or something from long ago that I had forgotten, just as Dovid HaMelech warns, “אַל תִּשְׁכְּחִי כָל גְּמוּלָיו.”

By practicing a small amount of planned gratitude each time I enter the Mikdash Me’at, I will train myself to live the life the Mishkan teaches — a life of constant awareness of the nissei nissim that fill every moment.

Q&A

Q:

If women get reward in Torah for urging their husbands and children to learn, what if the husband and children don’t accomplish as much as her urging? Will she get more reward in proportion to what she encouraged or what they accomplished?

A:

Here is a case as follows. A woman is urging her husband to learn so he goes to the beis hamedrash because she sent him. When he gets there, he falls asleep over the Gemara. But it’s not her fault. Does she lose out? No.

Now, it could be she loses out because she chose the wrong husband. But suppose she did her best. Everybody told her he is a good man, a good learner, and then he turned out later he didn’t succeed as much as he should have, so she gets reward according to her desires for him. She is rewarded according to her bechirah for him, her free will. The fact that he didn’t measure up, that’s something else.

I’ll give you a mashal. Suppose you heard there’s a sick man in the hospital. So you took a basket and you bought all kinds of delicacies for him and you went to the hospital and they said “We checked him out today. He got well already.” You get reward anyhow. חישב לעשות מצוה – If you intended to do a mitzvah, ונאנס ולא עשה – and then something happened and you couldn’t do the mitzvah, you get reward (Brachos 6a ). So the woman who intended her husband should be a learner, she gets reward.

She should push him as much as possible though. Of course not to make fights about it but she should push him.

And he is going to get it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will give it to him: “You got a woman who wanted to put so much into you and you made nothing out of yourself!” He’ll be punished for it. No question about it. He’ll be punished. He’ll have to pay and pay.

September 1988