Expressing our thanks to Hashem, gives us a taste of the delight we will experience in the World to Come where the main pleasure will be to thank and praise His Great and Blessed Name. Because giving thanks is the way we reach the greatest closeness to Hashem. In the World to Come there will be no other offering besides the todah, or thanks offering (see VaYikra Rabbah 9 and 27), for only thanks and acknowledgment will remain: to acknowledge and praise and to know Him, May He be Blessed. For then "All the earth will be filled with knowledge of Hashem like the waters that cover the seas" (Yeshaya 11). And precisely this is the delight of the World to Come (Lekutei Maharan tenina, lesson 2).
When a person knows that everything that happens to him is good, this is the perspective of the World to Come. As it's written, "I will praise when the thing is from Hashem (chesed), I will praise when the thing is from Gd (din)." And it says about the World to Come, "On that day He will be One and His name One." (Lekutei Maharan 4).
Tzav
Reb Shlomo Minyan HarNof
(R. Raphael, email: [email protected])
The Clear Ear Of The Baal Shem
"If a man bring a thanks, 'todah' offering" (VaYikra 7:12) The midrash interprets this pasuk in terms of a man who proffers an admission of sin, related to the word for todah.
Every sin that a man does at night, he is compelled to speak about in the day in front of others. Nevertheless they lack the ability to understand what he is saying and even he doesn't sense that his words testify about him. This is the meaning of the pasuk in Mishlei, "The fool is mocked by guilt" (14:9).
One time the Baal Shem was riding in a wagon with some companions. He knew somehow that the wagon master had had relations with an unclean woman the night before and he told this to the others. For their part, they didn't see how the Baal Shem Tov could have known, for no one heard the man speak of it. For the rest of the day they listened intently to the man's speech and as evening approached still nothing was revealed. Finally they approached an inn where they stopped to drink. The bartender brought the wagon driver a glass but then took it back saying he "hadn't cleaned (toiveled) the glass properly." It was then that they heard what the Baal Shem had meant, for the wagon driver, as if in a dream, repeated the bartender's words: "not dunked properly."
We could ask on this teaching the following:
If no one understands him how is the sinner mocked? And if no one hears what is the point of speaking these words?
The point is that Hashem does us a huge chesed in preserving our hidden history in our words. Without these clues it would be much harder to remember what we have done. But our speech has within it the doors to our hidden past. Even our sins and our hurts that are too painful for us to look at directly, pour out of us without our even being aware. We think we are saying something about "it" and "them" but we are really telling our life's history. The truth is, we are practicing every time we speak, preparing for the right moment when we will be ready to face whatever it is we need to in order to live honestly.
The greatness of the tzaddik is that he hears the hidden things within the revealed and this is why we can find treasures even in their everyday speech. Because they hear the deepest secrets in hints and mirror back to us advice in the simplest things so that we hear in a good way the thoughts that we keep hidden from ourselves. The Baal Shem showed his companions this lesson because they were ready to hear this about the tzaddik and they needed to begin to think about their own speech in a deep way. But also they needed to listen carefully so as to be able to help each other.
Acknowledging Deliverance
"When a person shall make a thanks (or acknowledgment) offering" (VaYikra 7:12). The thanks offering is a special type of shlomim or peace offering brought when a person is delivered from a dangerous circumstance.
When the rabbis instituted blessings, they had in mind the korbanot that would no longer be able to be brought with the demise of the Temple. They obligated a person to bless on the good: if he receives something of value he says, "haTov vehaMativ," "the one Who is good and does good." Parallel to this, if he experiences a loss, he acknowledges the true Judge, "Baruch Dayan Emet." The rabbis acknowledged that we do not see now that everything that happens to us is good - indeed one makes the blessing, "the True Judge," when an event seems particularly tragic. Our obligation in fulfilling the command of the rabbis is not to see bad as good, but to believe and to know, at least conceptually, that both good and evil issue from the same Source and that the apparent evil of life is leading to a great good.
A special case of "receiving good" is when we have been delivered to safety from a place of great potential danger. For this we make a special blessing of "gomel." We acknowledge Hashem's protection. Although no tangible good has been received requiring us to make the blessing "the One who is good and does good," we turn to the Sovereign of the Universe and thank Him that the mortal fears aroused in a dangerous place were relieved by arriving to place of safety.
The riskiest trip a person takes is the life journey. The Baal Shem says that sometimes when a person is going through his life, everything looks dark and full of obstacles, but he should know that when he will look back he will see that it was full of light. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the light when danger passes. Our joy at sorrow averted causes a burst of happiness that is important to commemorate as unique. By celebrating these moments we are able to better hold onto a glimmer of the light that is most like the revelation that will occur in future times.
Our wish to avoid the dangers of life so as to spare ourselves from moments of fear causes us as well to lose the joy that accompanies passing through difficulties. This can be compared to something that the rabbis say about eating: some people bless in order to eat while others eat in order to bless. I think the same thing applies here. Some people cling to Hashem like a charm to save them from the hazards of a dangerous world. Others go out into the wilderness of this world in order to feel the joy of Hashem's closeness. Thank Gd, we have the blessing of gomel. Thank You, Hashem, for saving me even when I didn't deserve it. To realize one has been saved is the greatest joy.
Reasons To Bless
The rabbinic blessing of "gomel" substitutes for the thanks offering that was brought in the Temple. Precisely the same four types of deliverance cited by Rashi in VaYikra 7:12 in regards to the thanks offering are cited in the Gemara regarding who is required to say the blessing of gomel (see Tractate Brachot 52b). These four are: successfully crossing the sea, travelling though the wilderness, getting out of prison in one piece and being healed from sickness.
There are opinions that these four do not exhaust the times when a person should say the blessing, they are only the most common. (There are also those who say that in the case of sickness one need not have suffered from an illness which sometimes results in death.) These four basic groups parallel the four times that the pasuk in Tehillim is repeated: "They give thanks to the Lrd for his kindness and proclaim his wonders to the children of men (Tehillim 107:8; 15; 21; 31). It is thus required that the blessing be said in front of a minyan preferably with two Torah scholars present. (see Mishnah Berurah 219)
The one who recites the blessing says, "Blessed are You, Hashem�Who bestows goodness on those who are guilty." This is a further acknowledgment that even while we receive Hashem's kindness it doesn't mean that it comes because of our merit, but rather, that we are enjoying the kindness of Hashem.
Mitzvot From Sefer Hachinuch
There are eighteen mitzvot in this parashah. Among them are:
At A Glance