Toras Avigdor Junior
Parshas KI Sisa
Being A Servant
“Mmmm…” said Chesky, as Totty drove down 16th Avenue in Boro Park.
“Is everything okay?” asked Totty. “That’s the third time you said that in the past five minutes.”
“Everything is amazing, Totty!” Chesky answered. “I’m just enjoying the beautiful scent of Klal Yisroel like we read in Toras Avigdor Junior two weeks ago!”
Totty smiled. “Ah! That really does smell delicious,” he agreed.
“Look Totty!” said Chesky. “There’s a yungerman hurrying to Kollel to learn Torah!”
“Gevaldig!” said Totty. “And there’s a Mommy taking her little boy to cheider to learn Aleph Beis! Ah, beautiful!”
“And there’s the Bostoner Rebbe!” exclaimed Chesky. “I’d stand up for him, but it’s not safe to do that while we’re driving.”
“The Bostoner Rebbe?” said Totty sharply. “Where?”
Totty looked over and saw that the Bostoner Rebbe was indeed walking down the avenue ahead of them. He quickly pulled the car over right in front of “Nosh A Bagel”, and jumped out.
Chesky was confused. Did Totty pull over just so he could stand up out of respect for the Rebbe? Chesky took off his seatbelt and stood up as much as he could inside the car.
Meanwhile Totty had run over to the Rebbe. “Please!” Chesky heard him say. “The Rebbe shouldn’t have to walk! Come inside my warm car and I’ll give the Rebbe a ride to wherever he’s going.”
The Rebbe smiled at Totty. “Thank you for offering,” he said. “But I actually prefer to walk.”
“But I would love to give the Rebbe a ride,” Totty pleaded. “Come, it will save the Rebbe time – it would be a big zechus for us!”
“I actually walk every day for my health,” Rebbe said. “It’s something I learned from my great Rebbe Rav Avigdor Miller Zatzal.”
Nothing Totty said could persuade the Rebbe to ride with them, so Totty said goodbye to the Rebbe, who then gave Totty and Chesky a brocha and continued walking down the street.
Back in the car, Chesky turned to Totty. “Totty,” he said. “Why did you so badly want the Rebbe to ride with us? I mean I know it’s a chessed, but once he said no, why did you keep insisting?”
“Because of a Possuk in this week’s Parsha,” Totty answered.
Chesky looked confused. “Because of the Eigel Hazahav?” he asked.
“No, no, no!” Totty said, shaking his head vigorously. “Nothing to do with the Chet HaEigel! Towards the end of the Parsha there is a Possuk that says וּמְשָׁרְתוֹ יְהוֹשֻעַ בִּן־נוּן נַעַר לֹא יָמִיש מִתּוֹךְ הָאֹהֶל – that Moshe’s helper Yehoshua never left his Rebbe’s tent.”
“His ‘helper’?” asked Chesky. “Wasn’t he his talmid who eventually became the Rebbe of Klal Yisroel?”
“Well he was definitely constantly learning Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu,” Totty said. “But it was more than that. He was serving his Rebbe!”
“Like he brought him his Mann?”
“That, and anything else his Rebbe needed,” Totty explained. “You see, Chazal tell us that serving Talmidei Chachomim is even greater than Limud Torah! By serving Moshe Rabbeinu, Yehoshua was serving Hashem. And that way he got closer and closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu until he reached the level where he was worthy to become the next leader of Klal Yisroel.”
“So that’s why you so badly wanted to give the Rebbe a ride?” Chesky asked.
“Exactly,” said Totty. “Any time we can do something for a Talmid Chochom, that gets us closer to them and in turn it brings us closer to Hashem.”
“I wish I was old enough to serve Talmidei Chachomim,” mused Chesky.
“But you are old enough!” Totty said. “How about when the Rov gives a shiur in shul – you can help him carry his seforim to the table. Or when you see Reb Zundel coming to shul in his wheelchair – he’s a huge Talmid Chochom – you can help push his chair to his seat for him.
“Boruch Hashem we live in Boro Park and we are surrounded by Talmidei Chachomim – we just have to open our eyes and look for opportunities to get close to them!”
Chesky thought about this as Totty continued driving. He decided right then to always keep his eyes open for as many opportunities as possible to serve Talmidei Chachomim.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos!