Yesterday we spoke about the concept that the Succah is a personal message from God in how much He’s enjoying our service to Him, how much He's enjoying our Avodah.
As I was walking on the second day of Yom Tov, I passed by an acquaintance of mine, Mr. Victor Cohen, and said, “Hello, How are you? How's everything going?” He answered, “You know, my mother passed away.”
I replied, “Yes, I'm aware of that.” And he said, “Did you hear the Mishnayot story?”
“No, what's the Mishnayot story?”
I asked.
He said that his brother Ronnie had his children get a group of people to finish the Shisha Sidreh Mishna for the Sheloshim of his mother. Then, a few days before the Sheloshim, one of the grandchildren (by marriage) had a dream, in which Mrs. Cohen came to him and said, “I appreciate that you're learning the Mishnayot in my memory (here he added that his mother was not an expert in Hebrew words), but there's one Masechet in Taharot that they missed (she named it but I don’t recall which), and I just wanted to let you know that it wasn't learned.”
He woke up and he told his wife the dream, but said, “Come on, we don't believe in dreams.”
His wife said, “What do you mean- it’s something. Let’s call the rabbi up and check if he did it or not,”
Not wanting to embarrass anyone, they decided to go through the whole list, check on everyone, and ask if they did their part.
When they got to the rabbi that was supposed to do this Masechet in Taharot, the rabbi said, “ I can't believe it. I totally forgot about it!”
Unbelievable! A lady, within her sheloshim, is cognizant of what her family is doing for her, feels the lack of the Mishnayot Taharot, and the message got sent down here.
Wonder of wonders, how she merited to come down and ask for that missing Masechet!
This is enough of a story on its own, but I want add my own personalized twist:
There's a Kollel in Eretz Yisrael called Kollel Taharot, which was started by Rabbi Michel Yehuda Leftkowitz ah. I've been close to it many years, and it’s run by Rabbi Hershkowitz.
Before this past summer, I went with about 20+ fellows from the Yad Yosef Torah Center on a four day Kollel Taharot trip, visiting yeshivot and certain people in connection with this yeshiva. We were so inspired that we decided to start learning Taharot, one Mishna per week (which is not a lot). We had a shiur videoed and sent to us every week, and slowly but surely, we were going through some difficult Mishnayot in Taharot. We took a little break over the summer, but since we’ve been back Brooklyn, we have resumed. Last Shabbat, however, we had some confusion with the timing, so the shiur wasn't announced and we didn't do it.
I decided, therefore, that we’d do it
15 minutes before mincha on Yom Tov, and I announced as such.
But it turned out that I was in the Succah, overslept, and missed the shiur. Then, having missed it twice, that was it. I’m not sure why, but I didn't even announce it. We would just start again next Shabbat.
But apparently, there was a little bit of a weakness in my teaching of Mishnayot Taharot. And sure enough, just about the time I should have been giving the shiur, I was taking that walk with my wife, when Mr. Cohen decided to tell me the story about the importance of the Mishnayot Taharot.
I thought, “Whoa, this is a very personalized message.” Hashem was telling me, “Don't think that I'm not aware of what you're learning or not learning.”
This is an important concept- when we talk about Avodat Hashem/ serving our Master, which is all about Emunah and Bitachon, it’s not a
joke. It's not just us doing things just to check them off the list. No.
There's a relationship between me and God. I'm serving Him. It's called Avodat Hashem. I'm serving Him, and He enjoys our service. As it says, “We give strength to God.” There's a line, “Service of God is necessary for the One above,” however it works.
God enjoys our Avodah and when we miss it, He misses it too.
Wonder of wonders.
So appreciate what it means to learn.
And getting back to our original story, when you do something for a person in Shamayim, it really impacts them. They really feel it. When a person learns something, or dedicates something, that person feels it. They get that care package sent up to them.
We've discussed the importance of doing things in people's memories. The Pele Yoetz says that the biggest Kivud Av V’Em comes after the person passes away.
We spoke, a few weeks ago, about the benefit of giving out sefarim on topics that arouse people in Emuna, Bitachon, Shabbat and the like. It's a wonderful thing to do in somebody's memory. People sit learn that Sefer. It’s an inspiration to the person who's reading it, and you're ultimately sending a care package to the person above. And especially if it's something that they didn't do down here, it's something to work on and fix. If someone wasn't careful in certain Halachot, the best thing to do is to spread that Halacha.
So once again, a little push:
Anyone that is interested in dedicating sefarim can send an email to rabbisutton@gmail.com, or make a QuickPay donation to Rabbisutton@gmail.com
Any denomination is accepted. $1,000 is a nice number, if you want to get a nice chunk of books to give out. Everyone to their ability, of course, but appreciate the impact.
You might not have a dream of someone saying, “Hey, I enjoyed that book that you dedicated or gave out for me.” But regardless, we believe it works. Have a wonderful day.