Good Erev Shabbat to all!
We are extremely proud of our Summer Learning Center that opened for the first time here at HAWQ. All told 10 young men spent part of the vacation time in Torah learning! We covered in depth over two Dapim of Gemara Berachot, as well as many Perakim of inspiring stories in Malachim Bet. We hope to expand this successful program next summer.
In this week’s Parsha, Parashat Aikev, is written the second paragraph of Kriat Shema. I saw a profound thought in Rav Dovid Goldwasser’s sefer brought in the name of Rav Avigdor Miller, Tzatzal. He asks, why does the Torah say "and it will be if you listen to my Mitzvot…" (V’ Haya Im Shemoa)? Should not our receiving reward depend on performing the Mitzvot, not merely listening to them? Rav Miller answers that taking action is not always in our hands. We cannot always achieve the results that we wish. However, we are commanded to listen to Hashem’s commandments and try our very best to fulfill them and on that basis Hashem will judge us. Rav Goldwasser quotes the Halacha that if a man marries a woman on the condition that he is a complete Tzaddik, even if we discover later that he is not a Tzaddik, the marriage is still valid. Why? We assume that at the time of the Chupah his thoughts were those of complete Teshuvah and therefore at that moment he was a complete Tzaddik. This is true even though those thoughts never completely materialized into action.
Sometimes in Chinuch, particularly in a Yeshiva such as ours, we are often frustrated that we put in much effort and have high aspiration for our students, and our goals are sometimes not achieved. We spend months recruiting public school students and, in the end, they remain in Public School, Rachmana Litzlan. We try to build up our graduates to go to Yeshiva High Schools and they choose otherwise. We see from Rav Miller’s beautiful thought that is our job to try our best and when we do, we receive credit as if it was accomplished. Hashem’s ways are great and very often even when you think you have failed, you find out later that you had tremendous success! Many a student who we thought went off to Public School and left a life a Torah forever, we will find out later was inspired to return to Yiddishkeit because of that spark we implanted in them many years before.
Speaking of the second paragraph of Kriat Shema, the Rabbis point out that the first paragraph is written in the singular, while the second paragraph is written in the plural. This is to remind us that every Jew has not only an individual responsibility to the Torah, but a communal one as well. With the opening of school right around the corner, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters for making our Yeshiva possible, and to invite them to renew their support for the coming year. Become our partners in bringing a Torah education to the children of our community!
Shabbat Shalom!
Donate!
|
|
