Sunday, April 9, 2017

The Money, Children and Wife Redemption of Pesach

BH

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The Sages teach in the Gemara that whoever steals money from someone else, it is as if he also stole the victim's children and also had relations with his wife.

This is so because the soul - Nefesh - has the same root as money does, as is hinted to in the verse depicting the obligation to pay on time the daily wager: "For he [the daily wager] has risked his life (literally: elevated his soul) for his pay. The usage of "elevated his soul" shows the connection between the soul and the money/wage.

Thus, stealing money is akin to stealing one's soul. And since the Nefesh - lower soul - is said to refer to a person's wife and kids (they being the Nefesh vis-a-vis the man who is called the "Neshama of the family"), stealing money is akin to stealing those who are the "Nefesh of the family" - i.e. the wife and the kids.

The analogy of this is similar to a tree with branches and fruit. The stem of the tree is compared to the wife. The branches are compared to monetary sustenance and the fruit are compared to the offspring/children. The one irrigating the tree is the husband. When someone cuts off ("steals") the branches, he automatically cuts off the fruit/children. And with less branches and leaves the tree stem also becomes weaker, benefiting much less from irrigation alone.

What can a person do to prevent himself of being robbed, thus possibly losing his kids and wife potentially of actually?

There is an extremely evil trait which is the key to allowing the thief in. This is the evil trait of anger. Anger, like money, is also rooted in the Nefesh/soul, as is hinted to in the words of the Sages: whoever gets angry, devours his Nefesh/soul with his wrath. Thus, anger also affects the soul - i.e. the children and wife.

Furthermore the word used for anger, CheMaH, is similar to the word ChoMaH - a wall - which is a reference to a person's financial sustenance/wall which serves to protect him and keep him on his feet. The etymological similarity comes to show that when a person is destined to receive an influx of wealth (i.e. wall/ChOMaH) from Above, the Satan sends a person a test of anger/CheMaH to ruin this influx and change it into anger.

And when this anger is activated, with no walls to protect him, a person is susceptible to being robbed both physically and spiritually, potentially or actually losing out on his family also.

Charity and Tefilin both have the power and ability to help a person overcome his anger and by extension the damage caused by theft.

To explain: charity is an act of giving. One only gives when one has what to give. The ability to give is dependent on a person's attitude. If a person does not covet what other people have, and thus appreciates what Hashem has given him, he will always find that he radiates with Hashem's benevolence and thus has what to share and help with to others, whether it be monetary assistance, or actual physical help. Feeling self-worth and self-value enables a person to be able to help and give to others.

Anger on the other hand is generally generated when a person is not happy with himself, coveting what others have, basing what is to be considered as "normal" on others and their lifestyles. The anger activated when "things don't work out" is because a person is predisposed as to how things "should work out" rather than accepting that everything happening is from Hashem alone.

By giving charity, one tips back the scale. activating the self-worth attitude which eventually gives a person an upper hand in overpowering tests of anger.

Thus, giving charity is truly a remarkable advice in helping a person to overcome anger and of course avarice.

Tefillin along with the Tefillin straps are meant to purify and cleanse a person's mind from extraneous and distorted attitudes and perspectives.

The Tefillin boxes are placed on the place of the brain. This is meant to connect a person with a "higher level of consciousness", giving him meaning and direction in how to make decisions and conclusions in life.

But sometimes a person's mind is so distorted and "far-off" that levels of consciousness don't even "jive" with that person. His mind is in the category of the hairs of the head - totally extraneous. What is needed then is a holy "pipeline" to enter, relate and extract a person from such an extraneous attitude.

This is the concept of the Tefilin straps which extend from the Tefillin boxes, similar in a sense to long hair growing from the skull's hairline.

With a person's mind "in-tune" to proper ways of thinking, a person is more prone to recognize the damage caused by anger and avarice, and thus work to fixing it.

(Based on Rebbe Nachman's teachings found in Likutey Moharan lessons 68-69. To hear audio presentations on these concepts, please listen to: LIKUTEY MOHARAN LESSONS 68-69)

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Based on all this, we can better appreciate concepts found in the story of Pesach.

The bondage of slavery of the Jews under Pharaoh and Egypt was meant to "steal" all influx of the Jews. For "whatever a slave owns automatically belongs to his owner". 

Thus, as so-called owner of the Jews, Pharaoh intended to diminish the Jewish populace by stealing their wealth. This is the concept of killing the Jewish boys born by throwing them into the Nile River. Specifically the boys were killed, since if there is no one to irrigate the trees, the trees will whither and expire along with their branches and fruit (see above).

However, the righteous women, the true heroines of Jewish survival in Egypt, believed that Hashem would redeem them. With this self-worth/value attitude, they filled jugs with water and brought them to the fields for their weary husbands to drink and wash with. The Midrash adds that Hashem brought many tiny fish into these water jugs so that they had food to eat too.

By this true act of kindness and charity, the women were able to quench their husbands thirst and re-energize them with love and self-worth too (breaking any anger towards Hashem due to their seemingly difficult situation). 

These "weary" men were turned on and cohabited with their wives "under the apple trees of the fields", bringing in much more Jewish children who were sustained in hiding by Hashem's direct Providence (the Midrash states that these women gave birth to these children - 6 in one shot - and left them alone in the field for fear of the Egyptians finding out about them and killing them. Hashem miraculously created 2 stones for each babe to suck on, one producing milk and the other honey, thus sustaining these babes until the time of the Exodus from Egypt).

Thus, the damage caused by Pharaoh's enslaving the Jews to steal their money and souls was reversed by the acts of charity of the righteous women in Egypt. They brought in more souls, leading to the rightful possessions of the booty the Jews eventually took back from Egypt at the splitting of the Red Sea.

This is also the reason why Tefillin are mentioned in the sections dealing with the leaving of Egypt (these sections are the ones placed in the Tefillin boxes). For in order to value oneself and one's ability to do acts of charity, one needs a clear head - the concept of Tefillin and their straps. 

(This possibly also explains the reason why specifically men must wear Tefillin and not women, since it is they who have to work more on getting the right perspectives in life in order to recognize the immense value of charity).

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May we merit this Pesach holiday to truly be free - free from anger and avarice. And may we merit doing many acts of charity, thus strengthening Jewish values - especially the values of the Jewish home and family, which are the keys to Jewish survival and continuity, Amen.

Chag Kasher VeSameach
Meir Elkabas

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To send last-minute Pesach help to a needy family in Jerusalem, please follow this link: PESACH SUPPORT

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