Those who are zocheh, baruch Hashem, to be among the thousands who have taken part in the incredible revolution of Hachzek.com, a mussar movement for our generation (which offers daily shiurim and learning in mussar), learned this very week in the Chovos HaLevovos (Chapter Cheshbon HaNefesh) a fascinating idea that one should think about:
When we were young, we learned many things in Torah and tefillah that were absorbed with the brain of a young child. When we grow older, we must take those very things and relearn them as adults! For our brains have developed, and our intellects and minds have completely changed from what they were; thus, we must come to those same subjects as if we never learned them before; with new eyes.
Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky zt”l famously likens this idea to an adult who is still wearing the tzitzis of his youth, even as he has reached middle age! It is time to put on a new pair!
I bring this idea as a preface to the thought Hashem allowed me to land upon in our parashah; even though I have heard this parashah so many times before, I never once made the almost obvious connection!
Everyone is familiar with the fact that the subject of Pesach Sheini in our parashah, which reveals the essence of those who were clearly yearning for more, is deeply connected to the very first topic found in our parashah, which is Aharon’s mitzvah of the Menorah.
Later in the parashah, the men who were tamei, spiritually contaminated (which, according to one understanding, was because they were carrying the bones of Yosef HaTzaddik out of Mitzrayim) came to Moshe Rabbeinu and complained, saying, “Why should we lose out?” They wanted so badly to fulfill the mitzvah of Korban Pesach, but they were not allowed to. Because they had such a strong desire for it, that itself allowed them to merit a new mitzvah called Pesach Sheini!
Regarding the mitzvah of the Menorah that Aharon HaKohen was zocheh to fulfill, the mefarshim explain something very powerful: Aharon HaKohen saw the korbanos that the Nesi’im brought, and he was hurt because he, too, wished he could bring a korban like theirs.
Aharon HaKohen, the epitome of righteousness for all of history, revealed to us the heart of a true servant of Hashem Yisbarach: An oved Hashem is never, ever satisfied with the status quo — he always yearns for more. And what is truly amazing, then, is that just as the men later in the parashah merited a mitzvah due to their great yearning, Aharon, too, merited the mitzvah of the Menorah....
But not only is it the mitzvah of the Menorah for the time that the Mishkan stood, and then in the Beis HaMikdash as well, but, as the Ramban explains, the mitzvah of the Chanukah menorah that all of Klal Yisrael fulfills came to us in the merit of Aharon and his descendants!
Rav Yeruchem Olshin shlita explained that Aharon’s great dedication and yearning for this mitzvah is what caused an effect that was generational....
If we were to try to zone in on what is probably the single greatest source of inspiration for our family’s connection to Torah and mitzvos, it would probably be our yearning for mitzvos, our zeal for their performance, and our desire to do more than we have to do.
If our children see us trying to exempt ourselves from performing mitzvos, by living a life of Yiddishkeit that is b’dieved, then, R”l, they will do the same. The yearning for more of any davar tov is an impact upon them that is forever...
B’Siyata DiShmaya.
