THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE
Making Judaism Meaningful

Sparks of Torah
A weekly selection of Torah insights from leading scholars at Yeshiva Toras Chaim
Edited/Produced by: Suzette (Adina) Soto Larson, of The Jewish Experience

Dedicated in loving memory of Sylvia M. Gumbiner, ob”m, Sarah Bas Shlomo

13 Nisan 5768
Candle-lighting, Fri. at 7:21 PM
April 19th, 2008
Volume 48 Number 6

PARSHAS ACHAREI MOS/PESACH

TJE NEWS

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POINTS TO PONDER

One of the distinct joys of Torah is the inspiration one finds in learning it. Along those lines, we’d like to inspire a few good conversations based on the parsha of the week. The following are just a few questions inspired by Parshas Acharei Mos.

Feel free to respond with your thoughts to rleban@theje.com. Let the conversations begin!
For a great Torah resource for kids, go to http://www.torahtots.com/parsha/vayikra/acharei2.htm

FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA

Every year we gather together and recount the hundreds of miracles that Hashem performed for us when we left Egypt and for generations thereafter. In particular, He split the sea for us and saved us from the Egyptian army. We traveled for forty years in the desert without any visible source of sustenance besides that which Hashem supplied us with. Why did the Exodus have to take place under such circumstances? Would it have been possible to avoid the splitting of the sea and the travel through the desert?

S'fas Emes addresses this issue and cites a Midrash. Our Sages compare our harrowing experience at the sea with our sojourn in the desert. In both instances Hashem cared for our every need. Furthermore, both are places which are devoid of civilization.
         
The Exodus from Egypt was our 'birth' as a nation. The manner in which we became a nation defines our nationhood and indicates what our prospective future will be. We are a people that defy time and space. Egyptian culture was unable, in the final analysis, to restrict us and we accomplished what had never been done before, we escaped from the Egyptian regime.
         
Although the desert is normally viewed as a forsaken area, millions of our people lived comfortably for forty years in that barren land. Similarly, when we crossed the sea all our needs were also perfectly attended to. Thus we have the ability to transform that which is unlivable into a hospitable environment. These very situations occurred in order to mold us into the nation that we would become.

The Talmud teaches us that the space which the Aron (Holy Ark) occupied in the Beis Hamikdash was unable to be measured. Physical restraints and measures simply do not apply to us. The Torah, which we were to receive shortly after we left Egypt, is not limited or restrained by the physical laws of this world, and neither are its recipients.
         
However, in order to merit such a level of existence, one's reality must assume a different stature. If one relates to this world upon its worldly terms, it will determine one’s potential. This is perhaps the ultimate definition of sin, subjugating oneself uniquely to the physical. However, the righteous live in a completely distinct realm of time and space that is foreign to the vast majority of us.

          Such is the intent of the Haggadah, which states that in every generation one must view himself as though he has left Egypt. This is not limited to the physical exodus which took place. Rather, the deeper effect and impact of that event must remain in our psyche for all time. This year has the special impetus that the Seder follows on the heels of Shabbos. May the transcendent character of Shabbos inform our celebration of Pesach, and may we celebrate our next Yom Tov in Jerusalem.
                               
by Rabbi Dovid Nussbaum

PASSOVER CLEANING AND POWER TOOLS

There are two holidays during the year for which I have a particular fondness. I love them all, of course, but these two are different. For in preparation for these two holidays, I invariably find it necessary to go to Home Depot.

One of them is Succos. For me, building a Succah means hammers and nails, wood paneling and hinges, Band-aids and Neosporin. I always enjoy the spontaneous Home Depot minyon, which convenes the night before Succos somewhere between the tool aisle and the 2x4’s, as last minute holiday builders gather to grumble about structural failures or share ingenious new designs for rain and wind guards.

The other one is Passover. One of my favorite conversation starters the week before Passover is, “So, what do you cover your countertops with?” I rarely hear the same answer twice; this one uses oilskins, this one vinyl, this one linoleum. A friend of mine has a second Formica countertop cut exactly like his usual one that he lays right on top of it. As for me, I like to try something a little different every year. And Home Depot never fails to provide some new space-age material with which to wage my yearly war against chometz.

This year I found a 4’x8’ sheet of thin, flexible textured plastic that its manufacturer probably intended for the side of a shower stall. It cuts beautifully with a jigsaw into the shape of the counter, is waterproof and provides a wonderful surface for spilling hot matzah balls and cutting mountains of potatoes.

As I stood out in the garage this week, covered in the sawdust of cut white plastic, I accidentally dropped a small but important piece of the stuff onto the filthy garage floor. I picked it up and brushed it off, finalizing its preparation for the clean kitchen countertop. I found myself thinking, “Boy, I’m sure glad that didn’t fall into a pile of bread crumbs.” I wasn’t in the least bothered about the dust, dirt, grease and grime that it did land in. (May my wife forgive me.)

Strange, huh?

For one week a year, the worst possible food contaminant is a cookie crumb. We turn our houses upside down to avoid missing a half-empty pack of yeast. We begin to have nightmares about moldy cinnamon-and-raisin bagels grinning out at us from under the sofa cushions. In short, we declare war on chometz.

Try explaining this to the check-out guy at Home Depot. What in his realm of experience could possibly enable him to understand how for one week a year, any yeast or leavened grain product is spiritually poisonous? I mean, come on, it’s just a corn dog.

I would be willing to bet that shrimp and lobster are quite tasty. No research has ever shown that there’s anything unhealthy about a ham and cheese sandwich. And bread crumbs are basically much more innocuous than garage floor grime.

The only reason we don’t eat them is because the Creator of the Universe, the One-Who-Took-Us-Out-of-Egypt, said not to. And that’s the ultimate definition of true spirituality: following the spiritual diet and health regimen that was given to us by the Manufacturer for maximum user satisfaction.

Nothing could point that out to us more clearly than our search-and destroy chometz mission. What was a perfectly good hamburger bun yesterday is a time bomb today. Why? Because the Torah commands us to get rid of it.

Passover is the holiday when we remind ourselves that G-d rescued us from persecution and slavery to teach us His rules for the universe. The Seder reminds us of it, and so does the whole process of preparatory cleaning for Passover. And if that isn’t enough of a reminder, try discussing it with the guy at Home Depot when you’re pumping him for the latest in counter-covering technology.

By Rabbi Raphael Leban

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

Spring is in the air as Pesach time approaches. There is a special blessing that we make once a year in the spring when we see a fruit tree blossoming. The blessing reminds us that G-d creates such wonderful creations for people to enjoy. (Orach Chayim, 226)
Question: The Torah prohibits us from cross-breeding plant or animal species. However, there are many such cross-bred fruits in the world today. Could one make the special blessing on a cross-bred fruit tree (such as a tangelo tree) since it is no longer the same tree in the way it was created?

The Teshuvos V’Hanhagos (1:192) writes that it would depend on the reason why the two species of tree were bred together. If the point was to strengthen the plant and not to change the fruit, one could make the blessing. However, if the purpose was to change the flavor of the fruit, one would not be deriving the benefit from the tree that G-d created, and thus one would not make the blessing on such a tree.

by Rabbi Yehoshua Sova

BYTE FOR SHABBOS

It says in the Haggadah that G-d keeps His promise to us. The Hebrew word 'shomer' suggests that G-d watches anxiously, waiting for the appropriate moment to redeem His nation. Not only back then, but even now He watches and waits, looking for the opportunity to extricate us from the our exile as soon as possible.                                                                                                                                RABBI DOVID FEINSTEIN

Have a good Shabbos!