Avi Epstein, our six year old grandson, enjoys playing soccer with his friends during recess at school. For a while, a boy was intentionally disrupting the game, and there seemed no effective way of stopping him from doing so.
A few days went by and my daughter Gitty asked Avi how the soccer games were going and if the game was still being disrupted by the boy. Avi answered, “It’s all good.” Gitty was surprised and asked Avi how it was resolved. Avi nonchalantly told his mother, “I figured if he is bothering us it means that he doesn’t know how to play. So I went over to him and asked him if he was interested in learning how to play. The boy said ‘yes’. So I showed him what to do and I taught him a few tricks. He now plays with us.” Boy, can we learn volumes from the young and pure!
In this week’s Parsha G-d instructs Moshe to appoint Betzalel as the chief architect of the Temple’s construction. The Torah attests that Betzalel was infused with a spirit of great and deep wisdom for the practical construction and for the transcendental ideas of the Temple.
Our Sages tell us that Betzalel was all of 13 years old at the time of his appointment as architect. Here we have grown people, who had volunteered to build the Temple, and were listening to the instructions of a youngster! They must have all recognized his special gift of wisdom and spiritual influence.
Perhaps, G-d infused this wisdom into a youngster and appointed him in charge in order to instill within us that we can learn from anyone, no matter how young or how old they may be.
For the past twenty-seven years, I have had the privilege of dispensing Torah ideas through the Shabbat Shalom Message. This week we complete our twenty-seventh cycle of messages!
I consider it an enormous merit and responsibility to provide and share Torah ideas, information and inspiration, with over 20,000 recipients coming from a varied background of Judaism. Torah is unique and beautiful because it is so multi-faceted. Every Jew can relate to and appreciate a Torah idea or concept on his or her own level.
A few weeks ago, when the Torah describes the one giving a donation, it refers to him as taking or receiving something.
Says the Chofetz Chaim, in standard transactions even if each person feels they got a fair deal, non-the-less, they each gave something up. However, when it comes to the Mitzvah of giving charity, although the net value of the person who gives has diminished while the recipient’s value has gone up, the giver receives the greater end of the deal since his eternal reward for doing the Mitzvah is incalculable. Therefore, the Torah describes our donations as receiving.
The greatest Mitzvah we have is studying G-d’s Torah. Torah study brings awareness and leads to practical application of Mitzvah observance. Within the Shema prayer is the Mitzvah to study and to teach others, especially one’s children and students.
Torah is compared to a flame. If one shares a flame, it does not diminish from the original light, and the more one shares it actually spreads and further illuminates!
When one shares a Torah thought with others either verbally or through the written word they are essentially linking G-d’s holy Torah with others. It is an enormous task to make sure it’s conveyed correctly. When one has done so he has shared eternity with others. A teacher experiences a delightful feeling that he is a conduit to spread and share eternity with others.
My deepest thanks goes to my wife Malki for all her encouragement and support, and to the editors, Rabbi Shmuel Flam and Mrs. Madeleine Jacobs for always being so graciously available to review and perfect the message.
To the readership; thank you for your comments, questions, encouragement, critique and support. It is so greatly appreciated!
My father o.b.m. was a rabbi and a teacher. Watching him continuously study Torah with delight and listening to him as he beautifully spoke and shared Torah was and is my inspiration. May his Neshama/soul reap merits from that which his offspring and students have gained from his teachings, inspiration and outstanding example.
Thank you Hashem for everything and beyond! Dovid
