Rabbi's Blog

The subtle messages we give to toddlers and tots are more powerful and influential than we realize. Basic staples in a child's toy repertoire are blocks and lego pieces. From the very early stages of life we teach by demonstrating the importance of a good solid foundation. Typically, children enjoy building something tall and high and then having it topple over. For the young child, the joy is in the rebuilding, toppling down, and rebuilding again. The challenge is teaching a child how to build for fun, which is only temporary, to constructing something that is permanent, something which hopefully won't fall down over the course of a lifetime. Another and perhaps greater lesson for a child/adolescent to grapple with is that sometimes cracks form within the walls, or the bricks on top become loose and he needs to develop strategies to ensure that the wall will not collapse.

I am a firm (no pun intended) believer that cracks in a wall will always be there and rickety bricks will always threaten to fall down. I consider the strengthening of the foundation which holds up the wall more important than directly fixing the cracks or the rickety bricks on top. Solidifying the foundation will ultimately prevent those cracks from appearing in the first place. Fixing the cracks or gluing the top loose bricks is more of a Band-Aid solution to a problem that will return over time. Fixing the problem requires going back to those original building blocks and strengthening the core values and issues at hand. This may be challenged in contemporary building of physical structures, but in spiritual matters the Yesod, the foundation, is where it all lies.

The first of this week's Parshios Nitzavim and Vayeilech recalls Moshe commanding the Jewish people "Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem....Behold today you are standing before Hashem your God....." This always reminds me of a model class I gave to fourth graders early on in my career. The section I taught addressed Yakov Avinu waking up after his dream with the angels going up and down the ladder. In the morning Yakov awakened, and upon realizing the holiness of that spot poured oil over a 'Matzeva', a slab of stone, and consecrated it. During the class I focused on shoroshim/roots of the words, and after the class one of the observers asked me what the root of 'Matzeva' is. I knew it was not Matzav and I told him I didn't know. He appreciated my honesty and went on to tell me it is 'Nitzav' which is singular to the name of this week's parsha Nitzavim.

I look back now and realize that the stone which Yakov set up was not only a physical slab of stone; it was the bedrock upon which the foundations of Judaism would be established. Most commentaries describe the holiness of the place as being the site of the Beis Hamikdash and the area of lighting the menorah. Besides the physical place being holy, the message of building a wall represents a distinction and separation between the Jewish people following the Torah and all its laws and the outside gentile world that is sometimes diametrically opposite many of the principles of the Torah.

The highlight of korbanos is reciting of the Tamid, the daily offering. The reason for saying the daily offering is taught in two places in Shas, Taanis 27b and Megilla 31b. The gemara states: Avraham Avinu said to Hashem 'maybe the Jewish people are going to sin and be destroyed like the generation of the flood and be wiped out'. God assured Avraham that will not happen, Avraham asked 'how will I know that to be true'? God told Avraham to take a calf and offer it as a sacrifice, telling Avraham 'so too your children will do the same'. Avraham responded that may all be well in the times when we have a Temple to offer sacrifices, but at a time there is no Beis Hamikdash, what will they do? Hashem answered Avraham, "I have already established for them the order of Korbanos/sacrifices, that as long as they recite them verbally I will credit them as if they brought the actual animal sacrifice and I will forgive ALL of their sins."

The Anshei Knesses Hagedola, the Men of the Great Assembly established and formulated the prayer service for us in place of sacrifices. Like every structure that is built with a strong foundation at the bottom, so too the building of davening every morning and afternoon begins with Korbanos. When davening, a person must build up from the foundation and therefore must recite Korbanos, otherwise Pesukei D'Zimra, the next section of prayer, does not have something to support it. It is imperative that we come on time to services and daven in the correct sequence if we want our prayers to be solid and successful.

People - individuals and communities alike - are built upon foundations which are hopefully strong. Shuls, schools and other institutions build structures within their part of the Jewish community - some strong, others weak. As time passes new buildings are constructed while others come down. There is always a change in the landscape of a community; sometimes the walls begin to show cracks, and some of the stones become loose. What should we each do when we feel threatened by weakened surroundings, by unstable walls? What do we do when our own personal "building" is challenged and threatens to fall apart?

I believe that the best approach is to reinforce the solid foundation with which we started. Each and every one of us knows what made us strong in the beginning. What is the substance of our foundation? How was it laid? Was it my liking with deep commitment to Shabbos observance, kashrus, family purity, doing acts of chessed, learning, davening, focusing on my children's Jewish education, and so forth? When our own walls or the walls of our community begin to show cracks, we need to revisit the element that sparked each and every one of us and reinforce our own as well as the community's foundations. We must realize that the best offense is a good defense. We can't always fix something that belongs to someone else, but we can always fix ourselves and work together to repair or rebuild an area of weakness within our community.

Nitzavim is about the Jewish people standing here today, not just physically but representing the foundation and core beliefs of the Jewish people. Vayeilech - and we walk on this path to assure that we build on a solid foundation. Our ways will always remain as long as we return and strengthen the core elements of what got us here in the first place.....the foundation of the Torah.

Ah Gut Shabbos