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A Yissachar / Zebulun Partnership in Loving Memory of Yishak ben Simcha A"H & Felicia bat Miriam A"H
Rabbi David Sutton

Ahavat Yisrael

VeNakeh Change the Diaper

Lectured by Rabbi David Sutton

Published
September 21, 2022
Duration
03:00

We are in our final middah called V’Nakeh, which means to clean;

God cleans the sin.

The Tomer Devorah explains that when God forgives, it's not through a messenger. God Himself forgives, like it says, “With you is forgiveness.” Which means that God cleanses the sin. As it says in Yeshaya (4,4),

אִ֣ם ׀ רָחַ֣ץ ה׳ אֵ֚ת צֹאַ֣ת בְּנוֹת־צִיּ֔וֹן

"God cleanses the excrement of the daughters of Zion.

That means God Himself, for lack of a better term, is, kal v’yachol, so to say, changing the diaper. He's cleansing the person. He's putting them in the shower, or in the bath. And that's the way a person has to act, says the Tomer Devorah Don't say,”Now I have to clean up his mess?!” Hashem does it, and we also have to clean up the mess that someone else made.

Again, this will go back to God, who says about the Jewish people that we’re a dear son; ‘Yeled Sha’ashu’im /the child that He plays with, ’which means, as the Or Hachaim HaKadosh says (quoted by one of his students), that when a person has a young child, their “dirt” does not get the mother upset. The mother has no problem changing the diaper. It's her biggest pleasure.

Why? Because she loves her child; Someone else's child, she might not be able to do that for.

Hashem looks at us as His dear child, and, so to say, He cleans up our mess and our dirt, and it doesn't bother Him. He's happy to do so.

That is part of what we have to do for our fellow, to have this Middah of V’Nakeh- that we're ready to clean up the mess, and more than that, we don't get disgusted by the other person's mess, because we love them like we love a child.

These are all very high levels of Ahavat Yisrael. But again, the way we act and measure that's way God measures for us. These are the traits that we need to work on as we get closer to Yom Kippur, because that's what the day is all about. Repeating the 13 attributes of mercy, which were revealed to Moshe on Yom Kippur. And therefore, before Yom Kippur, we ask forgiveness from each other because we want to arouse God's forgiveness of us by us forgiving others.

Have a wonderful day.