I am very grateful to my dear daughter and son-in-law Diti and Yitzi for the honor of being the Sandak at my grandson's Bris…it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
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| Actual Movie Poster from the 1970s |
I hope that I performed my role well. When considering my role, I imagined that it goes beyond just sitting there and holding the baby's legs. Chazal say that the reason that – obviously in other cases – they look for a Tzadik to be the Sandak is that the Sandak's lap functions as a Mizbeach, on which the parents offer their precious, vulnerable, tiny little son – whom they brought into the world with so much effort and love – as an offering to Hashem. Little and innocent as he is, he undergoes a painful procedure with a knife that is difficult for him and, even more so, for his mother and father. But it is a traumatic yet necessary process to become a member of the Jewish people.
This past Shabbos Parshas Bo, we read about the first mitzvos that were given to Klal Yisrael. Each family in Egypt was to take a perfect young male sheep or goat, guard it in their home for four days, and then slaughter it on Erev Pesach. They would then eat of it, after having circumcised themselves. Why were these two given as the first mitzvot? Rashi quotes the Midrash:
Rav Masya ben Harash said [in response]: Behold He [God] says: “And I passed by you and saw you, and behold your time was the time of love” (Ezek. 16:8). The [time for the fulfillment of the] oath that I swore to Abraham that I would redeem his children has arrived. But they [the Children of Israel] had no commandments in their hands with which to occupy themselves in order that they be redeemed, as it is said: “but you were naked and bare” (Ezek. 16:7). So He gave them two mitzvoth, the blood of the Passover and the blood of the circumcision. They circumcised themselves on that night, as it is said: “wallowing in your blood (בְּדָמַיִךְ)” (ibid., verse 6), with the two [types of] blood.
The time for the Geulah had arrived, but Am Yisrael was not worthy of it. There were two problems. First, they had no positive mitzvos. They had not demonstrated their willingness to give up everything for Hashem. Yes, they had suffered and gone through enormous difficulties, but they had not shown their true nature of self-sacrifice. Thus, they needed to be willing to submit themselves and their children to Milah. To be able to stand before Hashem with the merit of having been willing to undergo a painful challenge, just because that is what Hashem required of them.
And they also had to bring the Korban Pesach. This was to rid themselves of the negative – the idolatrous, depraved Egyptian culture in which they had become enmeshed until the 49th level of depravity. They had to be willing to take those values and that way of life, publicly repudiate it, and then destroy it while transforming it into an offering to the Ribbono Shel Olam.
In the merit of those two mitzvot, while they were suffering, the Geula came. As Rashi wrote, and as we mention in the Haggadah, and as we said during the Bris ceremony
וָאֶעֱבֹר עָלַיִךְ וָאֶרְאֵךְ מִתְבּוֹסֶסֶת בְּדָמָיִךְ וָאֹמַר לָךְ בְּדָמַיִךְ חֲיִי וָאֹמַר לָךְ בְּדָמַיִךְ חֲיִ
Hashem passed over us, saw us wallowing in blood, and said
“IN your blood shall you Live!, In spite of your blood, you shall live!
We pretend that we are having a normal celebration in normal times, when in fact, every one of us is in great danger
This sentence has special significance for us in this unique, terrible, and special year.
Two weeks ago, Lonni and I had the privilege of going to the south with a mission of Rabbis and saw some terrible things. We walked through the destruction and horror of burnt-out homes in Kfar Aza. We walked on the killing field that was the vestige of the Nova Festival at Kibbutz Rayim. We met with fathers who had lost their children, with mothers who had seen people brutalized, and with parents whose children are now in Gaza for 108 days, subject to unimaginable terror. We had the great privilege to meet with displaced families and with a few of the hundreds of thousands of our best and finest – the brave young men and women who are putting their lives in danger every day in order to protect us. It is them, with Hashem's help, that give us the opportunity to sit here today and pretend that we are having a normal celebration in normal times, when in fact, every one of us is in great danger with enemies in the North and the South and throughout Israel – let alone the haters in the rest of the world – determined to hurt and to kill us.
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| Photography by Yehoshua Halevi |
We are truly lying and wallowing in the blood of over 2,000 of our dead brothers and sisters and many more wounded…and desperately clinging to the message from Hashem:
"IN your blood shall you Live!; In spite of your blood, you shall live!
Much of the time, we are walking like the majority of the Jewish people during the plague of Choshech – darkness. We do not see how much damage our pettiness and parochial thinking cause. We do not want to grab on to the signs of the great redemption to come, preferring to remain in our comfortable conceptions. There are signs all around us; there is a treasure that is ours for the taking, and a great light available to us, but too many of us see only what brings darkness. This is what caused so many to fall away during that time. It is our challenge to rise up and see that
וּלְכָל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הָיָה אוֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָם
It is up to us to see the coming Geulah, to rise up and to hold on to the hand that Hashem is stretching out to us, and to dedicate ourselves to using this special time to bring about unity in Klal Yisroel. That is the only thing that can bring the Geulah.
My bracha to my grandson is that he will grow up to make us all proud in helping to lead the next generation of Jews who will be living in times of Geulah. He is a lucky kid; he has such fantastic parents overflowing with love, wisdom, and caring, who have already shown their parenting skills with his amazing older brother. They will continue to raise their children together with all extended children that they both influence so beautifully in the teaching that they do in the Seminary and in the Yeshiva to be inspired and dedicated young Jews
I am confident they will grow great in Torah and Jewish wisdom and become fountains of inspiration for all those who will know them.
I hope that Akiva Yona and Moshe Dovid will be blessed to live in a time of peace and that by the time they reach maturity, Mashiach will already long be here. But if, chas veshalom, they live in a troubled time, I hope they will be among those who are Mikadesh Shem Shamayim by serving in the defense of our people and putting all of our Torah values into practice in the most beautiful of ways, taking their place among the heroes of Klal Yisroel as they bring the Geulah, במהרה בימינו
