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שבת שלום - פרשת שמות
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch
Rav Herschel Shechter's shiur about Ahavat Hashem and Yirat Hashem |
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News and Notes
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Rav Adi Krohn will
be going on a whirlwind
interview trip this week,
and he
expects to visit
Cleveland on Monday,
Boston on Tuesday, and
Chicago on
Wednesday.
If you are interested
in having an interview,
please contact
your
Israel guidance counselor,
or email the yeshiva
office at
yeshiva@yesodei.org.
On
Thursday night, Rav Kahn's
sicha was entitled, "Becoming
an Eved Hashem".
Rav
Wolicki's mishmar shiur
was on the topic of Yosef's
Bones, Rav Kahn gave
a shiur on the seventh
perek of Tanya, and Rav
Arram continued his
exploration
of the chassidut of Breslov
in Likkutei Moharan.
(Several of
these
shiurim will be posted
at www.yesodei.org in
the near future.)
On
Monday, the yeshiva will
be visiting Yad Vashem
in Jerusalem. We are
sure that the day will
be meaningful, and will
help our students gain
a greater understanding
of the great tragedy
that befell Am Yisrael
in the
Holocaust.
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Of Donkeys and Redemptions
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
"Moshe took his wife and children and set them [to ride] on the donkey and he returned to Egypt and he took the staff of G-d in his hand" (Shemot 4:20)
Rashi comments:
"The donkey: The special donkey. This was the donkey that Avraham saddled for the binding of Yitzchak, and it is the one that the king Mashiach will be revealed upon."
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, provides a beautiful homiletic interpretation of Rashi's comment.
The hebrew word for donkey - chamor - is from the same root as the word "chomer" meaning "materialism" or "physicality". Rashi is teaching us that a vital component of the process of redemption - both from Egypt and the future redemption - is the purification, elevation, and control of the physical material world.
In Avraham's time, before the torah was given, physicality had to be subdued in order to allow for spiritual development and revelation of G-dliness in the world. The Akeida - the binding of Yitzchak - constitutes an extreme dominance over and negation of the physical. For this reason, explains the Rebbe, Rashi states that Avraham "saddled" his donkey. Saddling implies dominance and control.
In Egypt, after Yisrael became a nation and were being redeemed to receive the Torah, a new level was revealed. It was now possible to reveal G-dliness not by dominating and negating the physical, but by using the physical to reveal holiness. Rather than being an obstacle to holiness that needed to be "saddled", the physical was now seen as something to "ride", to be used as a vehicle or tool for the human revelation of G-d in this world.
When the final redemption comes an even loftier level will be revealed. The material will no longer be a vehicle for G-dliness. Rather, physicality will, itself, reveal holiness. Rashi thus describes the Mashiach as being "revealed" upon the donkey.
Perhaps we can understand the Rebbe's interpretation of Rashi as indicating a process that we all must go through. First, we must control the physical material side of ourselves. We must not let our baser side get in the way of our values and growth. At a higher level we must use our physical resources and traits to support our moral and spiritual growth. Lastly, and most ideally, we must realize and reveal the potential G-dliness embedded in the physical.
"The heavens declare of the glory of G-d, and the work of His hand is related by the firmament" (Tehilim 19)
The physical material world around us - the "chamor" - will ultimately reveal the glory of Hashem. G-d is the creator and everything in the physical world reveals his presence. This is the essence of redemption.
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