Reply To: YWN Coffee Room Nightly D’Var Torah

***********Jax’s Tuesday D’var Torah–Parshas Matos*********

Clean-Up Time By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch

“Elazar the Kohen said to the men who came to the battle, ‘This is the decree of the Torah which Hashem commanded to Moshe: Only the gold and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead – everything that comes into the fire – you shall pass through the fire and it will be purified…'” (Bamidbar/Numbers 31:21-22) The Torah has many Divine decrees, commands that are humanly unfathomable. What makes the purging of non-Kosher content from captured vessels “THE decree of the Torah”?

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein expounds that there is a fundamental lesson in appreciating the ability to cleanse an object of absorbed contaminants. Hashem has given us the Torah and its mitzvos, as a guidance system for self perfection and spiritual elevation; He gave us our physical selves and all of our possessions to facilitate our achievement of this lofty goal. But no matter how much our neshama becomes choked by the filth of our material quests, we are free and have the capability to cleanse ourselves of all this spiritual grime, to renew ourselves and rededicate ourselves to our Divine relationship as if we had never sinned. This, explains Rabbi Feinstein, is the decree of the Torah: never surrender to the errors of the past, never capitulate to prior failure. The commitment to return to Hashem’s path affords us the opportunity to purge the poisons of the past and move forward refreshed and renewed.

The current three weeks of mourning and reflection preceding Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the Destruction of the Bais Hamishkash in Yerusalayim and many of the great calamities that have befallen the Jewish nation, give us pause to contemplate the teaching of our Sages that any generation in which the Bais Hamikdah is not rebuilt is considered as if it had destroyed it. As we reflect on the ten months passed since last Rosh HaShana we see many accomplishments in our spiritual growth, but are discomforted by the many lost opportunities, shocked by the build-up of spiritual “filth”. No matter how thick the grime, we can get through it. Rosh HaShana is but a couple months off; it is time to start clean

have a great day/night! take care 72!

-Jax Chairman of the CR Board

thank you 72 for suggesting that i email for my Tuesday D’varei Torah, for while i’m gone! have a good one!