Rabbi's Blog

As a pulpit Rabbi I am interested and intrigued when I visit other Shuls. I enjoy witnessing some of the identical scenarios I encounter at my Shul. I typically read the bulletin, the weekly announcements and any other signs around the Shul that give a genuine flavor of the fabric and dynamics of that particular Shul. I am sure every professional or laborer scrutinizes others who hold jobs or positions similar to theirs. Recently I saw a beautiful sign in a Shul I was visiting which reverberated within me. In fact, I’m sure other rabbis would also react in a similar fashion. The sign at the entrance to the sanctuary stated: “We ask our members to please remember that there are no reserved seats in our Shul. If you should find someone in your usual seat, please do not ask that person to move. It is far more important to welcome newcomers to our Shul with a smile than to sit in your Makom Kavuah”. I cringe in my seat when I witness that exact scene unfolding in front of me, watching a disgruntled member of the Shul kicking a guest out of his or her seat, actually doing the exact opposite of what the sign suggests. 

 

The rabbis typically encourage a person to have a Makom Kavua, a permanent seat in his place of learning and davening. It helps a person focus and not be distracted by his or her surroundings which might otherwise be unfamiliar or strange if he or she always sits in a different location. Makom Kavua is important but not at the expense of embarrassing or insulting someone. I was thinking about Makom Kavua from a halachik viewpoint. My thought - is a Makom Kavua, a permanent place, determined by where the table or chair is or is it the actual place in the room where the person is situated? For example, if I sit on the left side of a certain table and that table and chair get moved to the other side of the room, should I move with the furniture or not? In other words does the Kedusha/sanctity that a person brings with his learning or davening move with the individual or does it stay in the same place? 

 

The answer can be related to the only place in the world where there was an original Kedusha, holiness, which maintains its sanctity no matter what. That place is the Beis Hamikdash. Other structures, regardless of their age, lose their sanctity. I believe the Makom Kavua is special due to the presence of the individual and is only special as long as that particular person is there. Once the person leaves it is no longer special as a Makom Kavua. Furthermore, is there a statute of limitations as to how long a person can retain the rights to his Makom Kavua once he has left that Shul or Beis Medrash? Following my understanding, once a person moves on to another place, the original Makom Kavua is no longer unique or specific to that individual. 

 

I am convinced this theory is supported in this week’s Parsha. In Parshas Eikev 11:19 the Torah states “V’Limadtem Osam Es B’Neichem L’Dabair Bam B’Shivtecha B’Veisecha Uvlechtecha Vaderech U’Vchichbecha Uvkumecha”. “You shall teach them to your children to discuss them, while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise”. *Rav Moshe Schreiber, better known as the Chasam Sofer, explains that Hashem is placing an obligation upon fathers to teach their sons and educate them in Torah. Not only to teach them while they are sitting in their home, but on the road as well. The obligation is to teach them in the identical manner on the road as in the home, and that children should behave on the road just as they would behave at home. Rav Shmuel Biyamin ,better known as the Ksav Sofer, the son of the Chasam Sofer, explains the Land of Israel is our home; we have established it for ourselves from our fathers, unlike the exile where we are strangers in a foreign land, one day we are here the next day we’re out. This is supported by the verse: “Vayishalchu MiGoy El Goy” - and we have gone from one nation to another. The Ksav Sofer explains B’Shivtecha B’Veisecha – when we are sitting in our homes – to mean we are dwelling in tranquility in Eretz Yisrael, and U’Vlechtecha Baderech - walking on the road - implies when we are in golus/exile. No matter, what, where or when, we need to take with us the teachings from the home and take them out - no matter where we go. 

 

The great teaching of Shlomo HaMelech ‘Chanoch Lanaar Al PiDarko’ - we are to educate every child according to his WAY, meaning Uvlechtecha Baderech, teach them for when they will be on their way. Many girls and boys who learned for many years in Yeshivos and great learning institutions eventually foray into the exile known as the world. The former years of study in the Yeshiva are similar to the home in which we are taught. Eventually we leave the comfort of that environment and need to adjust in Golus, whether it be in college or in the workplace. It is imperative to not only take the teachings we have embodied during our years of school, but more so to pack them up with us for the journey of life. Unfortunately, there are many men and women who learned a lot in Yeshiva but left it all behind. 

 

The significance of Shlomo HaMelech’s genius of educating each person according to his way, must include teaching every person how to transfer his learning to the outside world, to educate him regarding how to maintain his learning and religious observance in the golus/exile/outside world and not only in the confines of the Beis HaMedrash or the halls of the Bais Yaakovs. The single most important lesson we must transmit to the next generation is the ability to maintain the best of both worlds by continuing to live and breathe a religious learning and growing lifestyle even outside of the study halls and into the workplace. Remember to take your Makom Kavua wherever you go! 

 

Ah Gut Shabbos 

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky 

 

 

*Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work Chatam Sofer, Chasam Sofer or Hatam Sofer, He was a teacher to thousands and a powerful opponent to the Reform movement in Judaism, which was attracting many people from the Jewish communities in Austria-Hungary and beyond. As Rav of the city of Pressburg, he maintained a strong Orthodox Jewish perspective through communal life, first-class education, and uncompromising opposition to Reform and radical change.[1] Sofer established a yeshiva in Bratislava (Pressburg in German), the Pressburg Yeshiva, which became the most influential yeshiva in Central Europe, producing hundreds of future leaders of Hungarian Jewry.[2] This yeshiva continued to function until World War II; afterward, it was relocated to Jerusalem under the leadership of the Chasam Sofer's great-grandson, Rabbi Akiva Sofer (the Daas Sofer). 

 

**Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, (German: Abraham Samuel Benjamin Schreiber), also known by his main work Ksav Sofer or Ketav Sofer (trans. Writ of the Scribe), (1815–1871), was one of the leading rabbis of Hungarian Jewry in the second half of the nineteenth century and rosh yeshiva of the famed Pressburg Yeshiva. His official German name was Samuel Wolf Schreiber.