A BISSEL TORAH: VAYIKRAH: REMEMBER
By: Suri Davis
The Shabbos before Purim, we are commanded to remember. We are to remember that when we were weak and vulnerable in the desert after our Exodus from Egypt, Amalek came and started battle with us. After millennia there is merit in remembering the past?
We are to remember that the past does not stay in the past, it revisits us often. Purim commemorates the Jewish salvation from the wicked Haman who wanted to destroy the Jews in all the 127 provinces of Persia.
How did Haman appear on the Jewish scene? Because his ancestor, Agag, who was from Amalek was not killed when G-d commanded King Saul to kill him. And for the one night he survived until he was killed, he impregnated a woman, and that child was the antecedent to the wicked Haman.
So, what are we to remember? Listen to G-d, and don’t think you know better than He. Remember that in every generation we have enemies who rise up and want to kill us, and, as in the time of Esther and Mordechai, the era about which Purim commemorates, we must turn to G-d for salvation. This is what we learn from the war of Amalek and the story of Purim, and the Exodus from Egypt. In the time of Amalek, the torah tells us that Moshe lifted his arms, and when he did, the Jews would prevail in the war, and when his arms fell by his side, the Amalek would prevail. What did Moshe’s arms have to do with the Jews prevailing? The Gemarah tells us, that when Moshe raised his arms, it was to remind the Jews to look up to heaven spiritually for their salvation.
We remember that this week we commemorate Moses completing the writing of the Torah, as we commemorate Zayin Adar, the day of his birth and death. We commemorate the first printing of the Torah with Rashi and Onkolos commentary, first published in Bologna, Italy by Joseph Caravita.
In 1481, the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition, started a spurt of anti-Semitism the likes of which the Jews had not experienced in modern history. In 1825, Maryland revoked an antisemitic law which required all those who wanted to hold public office to affirm his commitment to Christianity, “an act for the relief of Jews in Maryland.”
And this Shabbos we commemorate the first dispute between Hillel and Shamai, and the arrival of the Friedeker rebbe, the sixth Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok. The juxtaposition shouts from the page. The disputes between Hillel and Shammai were stark/shtark, but never turned personal. Both schools of learning were strong in their views, but never turned on each other personally. They kept their arguments focused for the sake of explicating torah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe and his chasidim/followers have been the very paradigm of Jewish unity and love reaching out for Jews from all walks of life, wherever they may be, to bring them and their souls closer to G-d.
In most other places in the torah, when G-d wanted to speak with Moshe, the torah says that G-d speaks to Moshe. This parshah starts with G-d calling Moshe first, calling out to him. G-d was starting Leviticus, the third book of the Five Books of Moses, with detailed instructions on how to build the holy temple, G-d’s home. And G-d would eventually fill His home with His presence, which would prevent all else from entering, but by calling out to Moshe, G-d brings Moshe close and allows space for his presence, so that they may talk, almost face to face.
Taking it all together. G-d calls out to us, come enter My space, I’m making room for you. It’s My home though, and I have house rules for everyone’s benefit. There will be difficult times and enemies, bumps in the road, but just call, email or text me, just call out and I will redeem you…from Egypt, Amalek, Persia, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, Maryland…
Remember REDEMPTION.
Shabbat Shalom.
-Suri