| We just experienced a Purim which is all about deepening our emunah. Amalek is מקרה happenings, nature and coincidences. Fighting against Amalek needs the weapon of emunah as the passuk says ויהי ידיו אמונה Moshe’s hands were faithful. The Torah describes the hands of the human body in terms of emunahbecause faith only starts where logic ends. Only the hands can be extended above the head.
What does it mean to be faithful? ונאמן אתה להחיות מתים Hashem is faithful to resurrect the dead. That means we can trust and rely on Him to come through with it. A mother is an אם which starts with the letters of אמונה because the child relies on her to be there and be faithful to fulfill his needs. Moshe was called an עבד נאמן for the same reason. On Purim we become inebriated losing our daas to show that we Yidden through emunah without the logic and proofs serve Hashem even if it cannot be scientifically verified in the laboratory. The saying goes seeing is believing. Yet when we recite the Shmah Yisrael and accept the yoke of heaven upon ourselves twice daily we close our eyes. אנחנו מאמינים בני מאמינים.
I just heard an incredible acronym in English. It was too good to pass up. F.A.I.T.H Forward All Issues To Hashem. Many offices have a complaint box. If you disagree on how the business is running, then just jot down a note and slip it into the box. A suggestion box is the same as a complaint box. With emunah there is no complaint box or even suggestion box. We believe that everything is for our benefit and good even though we don’t see it immediately in that light. On 9.11 many people had gripes about the long davening with the addition of that day’s Selichos. Guess what? When they arrived late there were no Twin Towers to enter. They immediately realized that the very misfortune of arriving late was their fortune, and their regular lens of life, of would of, could of, should of, suddenly turned life’s coincidences into קה incidences – causing an instant mechiyas Amalek. Once that clarity of the event sets and that it was the G-d sent Selichos that forgave and saved you, your faith is rejuvenated forever, and you can remove the complaint box from your arsenal. This is a lesson for life and the lives of others with whom you share your teaching. When you encounter with what you think is a misfortune, just remember your code – Selichos, and your emunah will automatically kick in. everyone has their own code or codes. We just have to remember to push the restart button and then Bingo!
Even after a Purim we haven’t completely finished the job on Amalek. So once again we reinforce the idea with Parshas Parah. The law of Parah Adumah is a חק no understandable rationale. In fact it is a non sensible paradox. The Kohen who administers the ritual waters on the defiled individual becomes defiled while the defiled person becomes cleansed from his impurity. For such a high rated intellectual nation, the goyimlook upon this mitzvah as illogical and an insult to Jewish intelligence. In contrast, the Yidden take pride in the fact that they observe חוקים by negating their intelligence to the will of their creator. Of course we have emunah in Hashem. However, the חק is an expression of האמונה with an added letter ה which presents the higher and ultimate expression of faith. This is hinted in the gematriah of האמונה equaling the numerical value of חק .
If we needed a collective code for emunah in Hashem that everything He does is for our good and fixing, history is it. The word history reflects הסתר like Purim. The goyim look at history through the lens of Amalek. However, one event contradicts all of Amalek’s philosophy and scientific proof and that is our continued existence. It defies all laws of nature. It is a living contradiction to the Rise and Fall of Nations. It makes no sense at all and it rates as the most illogical fact in history. A nation that was exiled four times, leaves its homeland over two thousand years after dwelling in various cultures and returns to its mother country rebuilding it and flourishing in adhering to their religion. Unheard of. Go ahead goyim and make fun of my חוקים. Our preservation until today gives us the title of a חק nation.
We thank Hashem for giving us the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to His Will whatever it might be, sensible or not. Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, was groomed by Mordechai as a baby to possess an incredible degree of Emunah. The posuk says ויהי אומן את הדסה which can be interpreted to mean he nurtured her with Emunah to the extent that when she was snatched away and taken to the palace of the king and eventually became his wife, she would not complain of Hashem’s hashgacha with her. Esther’s life was an expression of chok living with Emunah.
As we say in Birkas Hamazon נודה לך ועל תורתך שלמדתנו ועל חוקיך שהודעתנו The chukimreceive special recognition for with them we really recognize Hashem’s malchus as King of the Universe. That is why the inner letters of the word חק ית וף add up to מלכות. It was Avraham at the Akaidah that fulfilled the ratzon of Hashem even though it was paradoxical to what Hashem said at a prior occasion. Yitzchak your son will be your future and now he was commanded to bring him up as a sacrifice. This test was a חק test and Avraham passed it. Because of his unwavering allegiance he was called from shamayim by his name twice אברהם אברהם (Bereishis 22,11) which adds up to 496 מלכות . Avraham planted in Am Yisrael this sensational emunah and was deemed the founder of the Chok Nation. It was because of this test of Chok that Hashem exclusively loves us and defends this love to the Satan and the nations of the world (Bereishis 22,12 Rashi).
Did you ever wonder why Yidden talk Torah with their hands? It is with emunah in Hashem that we excel above all the nations of the world. When we learn Torah we can encounter many contradictions, paradoxes, צע”ג. Yet Rabbe Akivah Aiger who asks many bomb questions that need צריך עיון גדול still learned further and further encountering even more צע”ג. It is because we have faith that the Torah which is the wisdom of Hashem is the ultimate emes irrelevant whether human intelligence grasps it. Not understanding does not shift our steadfast commitment to this everlasting truth even an iota. It is sufficient that we merited this gift of the Torah containing the wisdom of the all encompassing Hashem. The instinctive movements of the hands, merely strengthens and ensures that the learning of Torah will be surrounded with emunah so that even if we are faced with contradictions in what we learn, we believe it can be resolved just like in the test of the Akaidah (Bereishis 22,12). אלו ואלו דברי אלהים חיים . It is just that the time to defuse these “bombs” has not yet arrived.
Now we can understand why the Parsha of Parah Adumah begins with זאת חוקת התורה instead of זאת חוקת פרה אדומה . The Zohar says that Yisrael, Hashem, and Torah are one. According to our mamar we can interpret this to mean that Yisrael’s essence is a חק , not fathomable. So too, Hashem’s is unfathomable. The Torah not only contains mitzvos that are chukim, learning the Torah also demands the emunah of a חק.
Gut Shabbos
Rav Brazil |
