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JUSTICE
Two weeks ago, parshah Shofetim talked about the importance of properly administering justice for all. On Tuesday evening, while attending the Bar Mitzvah celebration of Yossi Rosenblum, son of Rabbi and Mrs. Mendy Rosenblum of the Chabad of the South Hills, I heard Yossi tell this interesting tale of justice that I would like to share with you.
In a shtetl there was a milkman and a baker. The milkman returned home one day and found a message posted on his door. The message told the milkman that he was to appear before the beit din, because the baker had charged him with cheating when delivering butter to the baker.
The milkman was perplexed. He was an honest man who always behaved appropriately. He never cheated, lied or stole anything. He never drank alcoholic beverages early in the day – a custom outlawed in the village. He had no idea why he was invited to court but the baker knew.
The baker used to buy butter and cheese from the milkman for his baking. One day he suspected that the lumps of butter that the milkman sold him were under five pounds, even though the milkman insisted that each was exactly five pounds. The baker decided to check out the matter and for a period he consistently weighed every lump of butter that he bought from the milkman. He discovered that they were, in fact, less than five pounds. Sometimes they were four pounds, sometimes they were three pounds, and sometimes they were three and a half, but rarely were they exactly five.
The baker was angry “He is cheating me,” the baker told the beit din, “I am not going to be quiet about it. We have to punish him. We can’t let him cheat all the villagers, people trust him!”
The milkman arrived at the court shaking with fear. He had never been to a beit din, but he knew he had done no wrong.
“I assume you purchased a very accurate scale for your dairy.” said the Rabbi.
“No, I did not,” said the milkman. “I couldn’t afford it.”
“So, how do you weigh the butter? Do you just guess that it is five pounds?” asked the Rabbi.
“No G-d forbid, Rav – I am an honest man; it never occurred to me to do something like that. Very simply, I built myself a scale – the kind that needs a weight on one side to balance the butter on the other.”
The Rabbi nodded his head, and the milkman continued. “Every morning when I come to weigh the butter for the baker I place a five-pound loaf of bread on one side of the scale, and this way I know that the butter that I will give to the baker will be exactly five pounds.”
So the Rabbi said, “You are telling us that the amount of butter that you give the baker is exactly the weight of the loaf of bread he supplies to you?”
“That is it exactly!” said the milkman, and the baker’s face fell.
“Not guilty!’ proclaimed the Rabbi. And to the baker he asked, “Now, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Shabbos
This week’s parahah is Ki Thavo. Verse 18 of Ki Thavo proclaims, “And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be His own treasure, as He hath promised thee, and that shouldest keep all His commands.”
Yes, we are to be God’s treasured people if we keep his commands; how very special is that?
This verse also dovetails very well with another message that young Yossi Rosenblum shared with us at his Bar Mitzvah celebration, based upon an article, which I have abridged, written by Tzvi Freeman, and which I have borrowed from Chabad.org. The message tells us that, just as we put on tefillin, so too does God put on tefillin, and in God’s tefillin can be found the following verse, “Who is like your people, Israel? One nation upon the earth!” Yes, we are indeed God’s treasured people, a very wonderful status, to be sure!
The Bar Mitzvah Maamar, Short and Sweet Version
Tefillin and the TorahThe Jewish people complained to God, saying, “Master of the Universe! We would like to study Torah day and night, but we are preoccupied with the necessities of life.”
The Holy One, blessed be He, answered, “Wrap on the tefillin once a day, and I will consider this as though you were studying Torah day and night.”
—Rabbi Eliezer in Midrash Tehillim
How are tefillin able to fill the place of Torah study? How are the two related?
Simply, they are related because they have the same effect.
How do we know that our mitzvahs have an effect? We know this from the words of King David in the Psalms, which translates as: “He tells His own words to Jacob, His own rules and judgments to Israel.”
This is how the Midrash explains King David’s words:
God is not like a flesh-and-blood king. While a human king commands others what to do, he doesn’t do any of it himself. God, however, commands others to do that which He Himself does.
The Midrash is saying that when we do a mitzvah, it is more than an action in our world. What we do brings God to do something somehow similar. Something that somehow resembles putting on tefillin—except on a much grander, Godly scale. Now that’s a major effect. We have to understand, though, what is that effect.
God’s Tefillin Inside our tefillin are scrolls from the Torah, including the Shema, the part of the Torah that says “Hear O Israel, God is our God, God is One.”
So, the question is, what’s inside God’s tefillin? Forget for the moment that God is not a physical being. He’s infinite and has no body or form.
But aside from that, the parchment inside God’s tefillin couldn’t have Shema Yisrael written on them, like ours have. That wouldn’t make any sense: Why would God need to remind Himself that He is One?
So the rabbis say that inside God’s tefillin is written a different verse:
“Who is like your people, Israel? One nation upon the earth!”
Now we’re getting somewhere. The Jewish people have tefillin that say God is one, and God has tefillin that say we are one.
Obviously, having the Master of the Universe wearing tefillin that talk about your nation being “one nation on the earth” puts you in a rather special position. So God wearing tefillin must mean that He is somehow making us very special.
Holiday Schedule 5774, 2013
Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, September 4
Evening Service…………………… 7:15pm
Thursday, September 5
Preliminary Service………………. 8:30am
Shachris…………………………………. 9am
Torah Reading……………………….. 10am
Sermon…………………………….. 10:45am
Musaf………………………………. 11:15am
Recess……………………………….. 1:15pm
Tashlich……………………………… 6:15pm
Minchah………………………………… 7pm
Maariv……………………………….. 7:15pm
Friday, September 6
Preliminary Service………………. 8:30am
Shachris…………………………………. 9am
Torah Reading……………………….. 10am
Sermon…………………………….. 10:45am
Musaf ……………………………… 11:15am
Shabbos
Saturday, September 7
Morning Service…………………… 9:20am
Yom Kippur
Friday, September 13
Sermon……………………………… 7:30pm
Maariv ………………………………. 7:45pm
Saturday, September 14
Preliminary Service…………………… 9am
Shachris……………………………… 9:30am
Torah Reading……………………. 10:30am
Sermon…………………………….. 11:15am
Yizkor……………………………….. 11:45am
Musaf………………………………. 12:15pm
Recess……………………………….. 2:30pm
Minchah…………………………….. 5:50pm
Neilah……………………………….. 6:50pm
Breaking of the Fast……………… 8:12pm
Sukkos
Thursday, September 19
Morning Service…………………… 9:20am
Friday, September 20
Morning Service…………………… 9:20am
Thursday, September 26
Preliminary Service………………. 9:20am
Shachris……………………………… 9:40am
Yizkor…………………………………… 11am
Simchas Torah
Friday, September 27
Morning Service…………………… 9:20am