This week, we've been talking about Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim/ Accepting upon ourselves, the yoke of God's kingdom.
There is a very interesting Rambam in the laws of Shabbat, where it talks about what an animal is allowed to wear on Shabbat. Believe it or not, animals are not allowed to carry either; they are only allowed to wear items that are normal for them. And the Rambam (chapter 20) says that a young calf is allowed to go out with a small yoke that they put on his neck.
This seems odd, because young calves don't pull loads; therefore a yoke would not be considered something normal.
The reason it’s permitted is
כדי שיכנע ויהיה נוח לחרישה
so that he’ll become humble, and to make it easier to plow when he gets older.
We see, from this, an important concept: when it comes to yokes, it's important to put on the yoke even before you're ready to do any work, because wearing a yoke at a young age conditions you to carrying loads. This is a mashal about an animal, but the application is for human beings as well, and it’s important for us.
That's why the first thing you train your child to do is say Shema Yisrael, because it's important to carry the yoke from a young age.
There is a pasuk in Eicha (3,27), that says,
ט֣וֹב לַגֶּ֔בֶר כִּֽי־יִשָּׂ֥א עֹ֖ל בִּנְעוּרָֽיו
It's good for a man to carry a yoke when he's young.
What yoke?
The Midrash Rabba in Eicha (chapter 3) says it’s three different yokes:
1-The yoke of Torah, because it's easier to become dedicated to Torah when you're younger,
2-The yoke of marriage, because the younger a person is when he gets married, the easier it is. Marriage is a yoke, and it's harder to adapt when you get older.
3 -The yoke of work.
If you work when you're young, you're able to be dedicated because you have a work ethic.
These are the yokes that we must take on when we're young.
And it connects to this week’s Parasha, which includes the concept of the yoke as well. How so? There's a pasuk in this week's Parasha (Devarim 27,26) that lists the curses at the end of the year, and one of them is,
אָר֗וּר אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹא־יָקִ֛ים אֶת־דִּבְרֵ֥י הַתּוֹרָֽה־הַזֹּ֖את לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת אוֹתָ֑ם
“ Cursed is the one that does not establish this Torah, to do them. Who is this referring to, and what is the curse? It's not a specific sin.
Rabbenu Yonah, in Shaare Teshuva (first gate, sixth letter), says that if a person is not careful from a specific sin and does not accept upon himself to be careful (for example not counting Shaatnez on your list) even if it's a light sin, he says, and even though he is careful from everything else, he's called a Mumar L’Davar Echad, which means he's a rebel, so to say, in one area. And he says, “Don't take it lightly, because if a servant tells his master, “I'll do everything, but one thing,” he broke the yoke of his master, and that's a problem. It's one thing if you fall and stumble, but to willingly say, “That's not for me,” is called breaking the yoke, and that's this severe issue. And this is what Rosh Hashanah is all about. We have to commit ourselves to the yoke.
If we can’t hold up for some reason, that's a different story, but you have to put your neck under the yoke. You have to commit yourself to the Torah. That's why we read this Parasha at this point of the year- to realize the importance of Kabbalat Ol Malchut Shamayim, that affects our whole year.
ט֣וֹב לַגֶּ֔בֶר כִּֽי־יִשָּׂ֥א עֹ֖ל בִּנְעוּרָֽיו
It's good to take on the yoke at the beginning- meaning the beginning of the year.
We have to accept the yoke.
We've been talking about this for some time. It’s not a five minute class. It's takes work, thought, introspection and inner struggle, to truly dedicate and accept upon ourselves the yoke of God's kingdom.
Have a Shabbat Shalom!