B"H

Tuesday, Tevet 17, 5776 / December 29, 2015 – HAKHEL YEAR

This week’s Parsha, Shemot, begins, “These are the names of the children of Israel, who came to Egypt together with Yaakov… they all totaled 70 souls… And Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all of that generation. The children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and increased and became extremely strong. The land became filled with them.”

As long as Yaakov or his sons were alive, the Jewish people were safe in Egypt. Only after their passing did the Egyptians enslave them.

In the fourth chapter of the Pirkei Avot (Chapters of our fathers) our sages say, “You are born not of your own free will, and you will die not of your own free will. You will be held accountable before the Great Judge (G-d), not of your own free will.”

Q.Why should a person be accountable for what they do or don’t do in this world, when it is, “against your will that you were born?”

A.  The Maggid of Dubna explains it with the following parable: A man had two daughters, one would curse all the time. The other one was very ugly. As a result, no one wanted to marry them.

One day a matchmaker came along and suggested two young men. One was deaf and the other one was blind. He suggested the deaf one for the girl with the vicious tongue and the blind one for the ugly one. The deaf one will never hear her cursing and the blind one won’t see her face. They got married and lived very happily.

One day a doctor came to that town. He offered to heal the two men for a large sum of money. They both agreed and he healed them. The blind one began to see and the deaf one started to hear.

A while later, when the doctor came to collect his fees, they both refused to pay. They claimed that because of the doctor their marriages were now a disatster…

Their case came to court. The judge ruled that they won’t have to pay if they allow the doctor to reverse their conditions back to where they were before – blind and deaf. They both strongly refused.

The judge then ruled, “If so, then you do value the doctor’s work. You must pay for his services.”

The Maggid explained, “The same is with us. True, it was against our will that we were born. But, once we were born, we want to live and when when our life is, G-d forbid, in danger, we protect it zealously. Because we do value our life, we are accountable for our acts during our lifetime.”

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY

********************

In loving memory of Chaim ben Yosef HaKohen - Yartzeit is today, Tevet 17.

May his memory be a blessing.  May his Neshama-soul rest in peace in Gan Eden.