As we are poised to celebrate yet another Yom Tov under the cloud of Covid, we wonder how Purim, a day which is supposed to be a filled with joyous camaraderie, close social interaction, and external celebration, can be properly fulfilled. Mesibos have been cancelled, jubilant collectors of tzedakah are to be shunned from our homes, children’s Purim carnivals and activities are to be avoided. Where has all the joy gone?
What is our Avodah this year?
Atop the Aron, the Holy Ark, were situated two Keruvim, golden cherubs.
When the Jewish people would ascend for one of the pilgrimage Festivals, the priests would roll up the curtain for them and show them the cherubs, which were clinging to one another, and say to them: See how you are beloved before God, like the love of a male and female. The two cherubs symbolize the Holy One, Blessed be He, and the Jewish people. (Yuma 54a)
Although they were fashioned ‘with their faces toward one another’, they miraculously embraced indicating G-d’s love for his beloved.
The Talmud also asserts that they only faced each other when the Jewish people were עושים רצונו של מקום — doing the will of G-d, otherwise ‘their faces were toward the House’. (Bava Basra 99a)
Yet, the Talmud reports that when the gentiles destroyed the Second Temple and entered the Sanctuary, they saw these cherubs clinging to one another. (Yuma 54b)
How is this possible, as certainly the destruction of the Temple was glaring evidence of their having revoked the will of G-d, and undeserving of this magnificent display of love?
The Holy Reb Tzadok HaKohen offers a remarkable resolution to this dilemma.
As soon as they realized the unimagined tragic result of their misdeeds, observing the enemy entering the Temple destroying it, they immediately ‘got it’, regretting their errant attitudes and began a path of Teshuva — repentance.
In an instant they became, עושים רצונו של מקום — doing the will of G-d. Accepting the reality and all its consequences, never deluding themselves into thinking things would change suddenly for the better and committing with loving allegiance to follow His path regardless — G-d embraced them with an overwhelming display of love. (Pri Tzaddik Shemos - Rosh Chodesh Adar)
Taking our situation ‘on the chin’, and dealing with it positively, is the ultimate ‘doing the will of G-d’ that deservedly gets an embrace of love.
The Be’er Moshe, the saintly Ozhorover Rebbe, points out that there are three displays of love symbolized in these Keruvim.
The cherubim shall have their wings spread upwards — directed heavenward in testament to their love for G-d; shielding the ark cover with their wings — loyally poised protectively over the covering of the ark that housed our most cherished Torah; with their faces toward one another — pledging love and loyalty to one another, His beloved children, Yisroel. (Shmos 25 20)
The base upon which our love for G-d and Torah must be built is that of our love for each other.
It is what gives us the power to survive and earn G-d’s embrace.
For some reason, the Belzer Rebbe had always insisted on one particular man to serve as his exclusive Baal Korei.
When the Baal Korei was niftar, a stranger came into the house of the aveilim and sat in the corner. After a while, one of the mourners addressed this man and asked him why he had come. He recited the following story:
I was a young man in the death camps of Auschwitz, suffering the nutritional deprivation imposed by the Nazi beasts. I felt the pangs of starvation in what seemed to be my last moments, and I knew that if I did not get a morsel of food soon, I would expire. In sheer desperation, I began rummaging through the garbage heap.
While sifting through the refuse, I heard a sudden noise Startled, I turned to find another Jew.
“What are you doing? he asked.
“I’m starving and I’m looking for anything I can get my hands on to eat, 'I answered. ‘Do you possibly have anything you can give me?’
“I’m in the same boat,’ came the response. ‘I also came to scavenge in the garbage for a morsel of food. But, actually, there is something I can give you.’
He drew me closer to him, hugged me, and said, 'I love you. I love you because you are a Yid. Hashem loves you also because you are a Yid.’
“Almost immediately, the hunger pains subsided. In the warmth of the man’s embrace, I was comforted.”
The stranger paused for a moment, then continued. “That man was your father,” he explained. “That embrace carried me through the concentration camps. It gave me the strength to live on.
“When we immigrated to Eretz Yisrael, there were many trying times. Often there was the temptation to stray. It was that hug and warm expression of his love and the love of Hashem that kept me within the fold.” (On the Shoulders of Giants p.125 - Rabbi Shmuel Bloom)
Amalek’s surprise attack on us when we were still ‘riding high’ on the excitement of having just been freed from hundreds of years of bondage, ‘cooled’ down our enthusiasm, traumatizing us forever, by weakening our self-confidence and making us forever vulnerable to doubt and fear.
May we never let the tribulations of life quash our resolve.
May we ‘do the will of G-d’, accepting whatever limitations we may face, in the knowledge that when we succeed in maintaining our momentum, hugging each other with encouragement and genuine warmth, we too will be privileged to be embraced fully by our Father in heaven.
באהבה,
צבי יהודה טייכמאן
