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I broke them (the Luschos) in front of your eyes

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

There was a Gerrer Chasid who lost all of his family in the Holocaust. Although he had a beard, payos and yarmulka before the war, the Nazis - Yimach Shemem Vizichrom (may their memory be obliterated) - took them away from him and he didn't reclaim them after the war. He moved to Tel Aviv and after some time, he missed his Rebbi, the Imrei Emes. He decided to visit him, and when the Imrei Emmes saw him, he recognized him and invited him into his study and asked him to tell his story. (As a side note, the Imrei Emes lost half his family and 250 thousand (!) chassidim in the Holocaust.)

After the yid told his story, both he and the Imrei Emes put down their heads and wept for a very long time. At some point, the Imrei Emes picked up his head and stopped weeping and asked the yid a question. Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Yidden in Parshas Ekev (9:17), "Va'ashabreim Li'aynachem - I broke them (the Luschos) in front of your eyes". It seems that "Li'aynaychem" is extra since he was talking to klal yisroel? He answered that it is because the Luchos were only broken in front of Klal Yisroel's eyes. In truth, there is a place where the Luchos were never broken. And he applied it to the Holocaust and all the other massacres that the Jewish people have endured over the years. He said that "although your family and much of my family and much of my Chasidim were killed - they were killed only in a bechina of "Li'aynachem". But there is a place where every heiliga yid still lives unbroken and totally whole."

My beloved brothers. I wish to apply this to our situation. Although we "break" our neshamos from time to time, (sometimes more often than we like and in ways even we can't believe we do), we should remember that this is only L'aynainu. But in the sefira of Kesser, in the bechina of "kol Yisroel", our Neshamos are totally clean and whole.

So next time the Y"H wants to tell you how bad you are, send him to the Nazis. No matter what your stage, remember "Veshuchanty b'soch Tumasum - and I dwell within their impurities". You might not know where that place in you is, but the Pintele Yid in you knows and is living in harmony with Hakodosh Baruch Hu, as it says in the Zohar (and brought in the Tanya) on the posuk in Berashis "Vayepach Bapov Nishmas Chaim, Man D'nofach M'Toicoi Nafach". This means that Hashem breathed from his essence into man. We all have a piece of Hashem inside us!