Part III. Thinking of Hashem
Misplaced Mitzvah?
Now, at that time, when the Bnei Yisroel were getting ready to leave Mitzrayim, right away Hashem commanded us in the mitzvah of tefillin. It’s an interesting thing. Why tefillin? Matzah, I understand. Korban pesach, marror, very good. That’s what Yetzias Mitzrayim is all about. But tefillin? The mitzvah of tefillin can’t wait till Har Sinai like all the other mitzvos?
The answer is that tefillin is Yetzias Mitzrayim! יך∆ינ≈ﬠ ין≈ּב ןֹרוָּכƒז¿לוָך¿„ָי לַﬠ ֹ̇ו‡¿לָך¿ל הָיָה¿ו – It should be for you a sign on your hand and a memorial between your eyes. Why? םƒיַר¿ˆƒּמƒמ 'הָךֲ‡יƒˆֹהו „ָי ̃∆זֹח¿ּב יƒּכ – Because Hashem took you out of Mitzrayim with a strong hand (Shemos 13:9). And you have to understand that k’pshuto: “Because I’m redeeming you, that’s why you wear tefillin.” It means that tefillin is given to us to remind us of the tremendous demonstration that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made when He took us out of Mitzrayim, the demonstration that Hashem is interested in us.
Signs of Affection
Tefillin, you have to know, is a sign of being chosen; chosen for royalty. If you ever saw a sculpture of the ancient pharaohs, you might see an interesting thing; he’s wearing tefillin on his head. Pharaoh wore tefillin shel rosh. Of course he didn’t have shema yisrael inside the tefillin, but he wore tefillin like our tefillin, a square box on his forehead. And nobody else could wear that in Mitzrayim; if you would put that on your head you would lose your head. Only Pharaoh could do it because it was a sign of chosenness; it was a demonstration that he was chosen, that he was the chosen son of their god.
And so when Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Mitzrayim, He said to the Bnei Yisroel, “I want you to put this sign on your heads because it’s time for the world to know that you are the real chosen ones.” Tefillin shows that we're His family, His םַﬠֹבוֹרו¿ ̃ (Tehillim 148:14).
Do you think about that when you put on tefillin? You’d better because the Torah says it openly. And not only the ones who wear them; because there’s no question that tefillin are the property of the whole Am Yisroel, the nashim too. If there’s a technical reason why women don’t wear tefillin, but the lesson of tefillin is theirs too. If half of the Jewish nation are bearing the banner, the banner is not only for themselves – it’s for the whole Klal Yisroel. And so the ideals of tefillin belong to every member of the nation. When our nation puts on tefillin, we’re declaring what Hashem said when He took us out of Mitzrayim: יƒרֹכו¿ּב יƒנ¿ּב ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי – that all of us, the whole nation, are children of Hashem.
The Reciprocal Relationship
But we must realize there is a double purpose. Because that’s not the only thing Hashem told us when He gave us the mitzvah of tefillin. It says there also יךƒפ¿ּב 'ה ַ̇רֹוּ ̇ ה∆י¿הƒּ ̇ ןַﬠַמ¿ל, that the purpose of tefillin is so that the Torah of Hashem should be in your mouth. It means that tefillin are more than a symbol of our greatness; they’re also a symbol of our obligation.
You have to understand that there’s an important principle here, a principle that works in two ways. The possuk says 'הַו ... םֹוּיַה ָּ ̇¿רַמ¡‡∆ה 'ה ̇∆‡ָך¿ירƒמ¡‡∆ה – Because you make Hakadosh Baruch Hu uppermost, that’s why He makes you uppermost (Devarim 26:17-18). It’s a two-way street: Why does Hakadosh Baruch Hu think only of the Am Yisroel? You think it was on a whim that Hashem declared ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי יƒרֹכו¿ּב יƒנ¿ּב? The Creator of the universe, the One Who knows and sees everything, said, “I choose to be interested in davka this small nation” on a whim?
The answer is because they’re interested only in Him. It’s a two-way street. “You, Hashem, chose us to be Your children and we have to do our part by making ourselves Your children, by having Your Torah in our mouths always. That’s our side of the deal – we’re dedicated to having our minds formed by You.” That’s what it means that tefillin are a sign that the Jew has to keep ‘the Torah of Hashem in his mouth.’
Torah and Hashkafah
Of course it especially means divrei Torah. That’s the best way to have a mind that thinks along with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Don’t you see yeshivah people, they're going from the yeshivah to the dining room; they're talking in divrei Torah. They've been learning all day; so now, it seems to us, that it's time for a rest. No! They're not interested in resting; they're talking on the way to the dining room, they're talking about divrei Torah. Their minds are being transformed into Torah minds.
But it’s not only Gemara. Torah means all the ideas and ideals of the Torah; יךƒפ¿ּב 'ה ַ̇רֹוּ ̇ ה∆י¿הƒּ ̇ ןַﬠַמ¿ל means all of the hashkafas haTorah, all of Torah ideology, should be what we think about. And it should be the only thing!
Otherwise you have other fathers too. If you go look at the movies or the television so you have to understand that you’re a child now also of the venereal disease people. You’re sitting now at the feet of these ‘sages’, these wicked people. And even if it’s ‘innocent’ TV, but it's shtusim, it’s such silly things. Your father is now a silly dirty-minded comedian. You have a mixture of parents now; you have beautiful delicacies in your head and you’re pouring in manure and mixing it all together. Oh no! Bni bechori Yisroel, means we want only Hashem’s ideas to create our minds.
That’s what we say, „ָח∆‡ 'הּינו≈ ֹ̃ל¡‡ 'ה ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי עַמ¿ׁ ̆ – Hashem is One. It doesn’t mean there’s only one G-d; no, that's a very narrow understanding – you’re not understanding at all what Echad means. Echad means that He’s the only One; there is nothing but Him. ך¿בָב¿ל לָכ¿ּבָיך∆ ֹ̃ל¡‡ 'ה ̇≈‡ ָּ ̇¿בַהָ‡¿ו – With all your thoughts you should think about Him. And the Rambam says you shouldn't have any other interests. There is nothing else to think and talk about except for Him. That’s what it means Echad.
A Single-Minded Nation
Now, some people bristle when they hear that. We shouldn't have any other interests?! You want us to be narrow-minded people?
On the contrary, it means you're broad-minded. When somebody gets his mind concentrated on little things – he's interested, let's say, in art – that's not broad-mindedness. It’s a very narrow mind. If he’s interested in travel, he's a very narrow-minded fellow. If he’s thinking about hotels and airplanes and cars and gadgets and about places where he will have good meals, restaurants, that’s a very narrow mind!
A broad-minded man thinks about all the things connected with Hakadosh Baruch Hu; the Torah and the great concepts of universality that you see everywhere, the universal wisdom. There's the Shas, a very big Shas to think about. And the mussar seforim, the Chovos Halevavos, Mesillas Yesharim, Shaarei Teshuva, are filled with Torah attitudes. Gems and gems, each sentence.
And secondly, there's a world of nature to think about, and both are seforim that are endless. There's no end to it and therefore it's broad-mindedness when a person is thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu ך¿בָב¿ל לָכ¿ּב. If you'll think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so you're thinking about all the things of Creation. There's so much that's included in that subject – it's endless just like He is endless. There's no end to Torah; there's so much to think about that even if you lived a thousand years, you'd do a very small part of the big job that's incumbent on you.
Holy Tefillin
And the entire thousand years, the tefillin tell us, you should think only about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And that’s why in the ancient times our fathers wore tefillin all day long – originally every Jew was recognized from a distance by his tefillin. Today, because we don't trust ourselves to behave properly while wearing tefillin, so we take them off after a while. But originally, the purpose was that at all times, every Jew – the ones wearing and the ones seeing those wearing – should know that Hashem is thinking only of us and that we have to think only of Him.
And that brings us to the secret of Hashem’s tefillin. It’s a strange idea to us but the Gemara (Brachos 6b) says that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wears tefillin. A remarkable statement! Hakadosh Baruch Hu wears tefillin! And why shouldn’t He? Tefillin is a sign of royalty, so He surely deserves to wear tefillin.
Now, we won’t say that Hakadosh Baruch Hu goes to a sofer and orders tefillin that has parchment in it; we’re moichel that idea. After all, the tefillin you have to put on your arm and on your head, so where can Hakadosh Baruch Hu put the tefillin? So we see it's a figure of speech.
But there’s something of great importance in this figure of speech. I say ‘great’ – it’s enormous! Because just like our tefillin means what we think about always, Hashem’s tefillin means what He’s thinking about. And so the magnitude of this idea, that the Creator of the world is wearing tefillin, is stupefying!
Holy Parshiyos
So the Gemara asks there, הָמ ‡ָמ¿לָﬠ י≈רָמ¿ּ„ יןƒּלƒפ¿ּ ּ̇הו¿ּב יבƒ ̇¿ּכ – What’s written in Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s tefillin? In our tefillin it says, 'הּינו≈ ֹ̃ל¡‡ 'ה ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי עַמ¿ׁ ̆„ָח∆‡. That’s in our tefillin, that He’s our One interest, our One love. That’s what we think about always. But what’s in His tefillin?
So the Gemara says that in Hashem’s tefillin is the possuk, ı∆רָ‡ָּב „ָח∆‡ יֹוּ‚ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒיָך¿ּמַﬠ¿ּכ יƒמ – Who is like you, My nation Yisroel; the one and only nation in the world! Goy echaaaaadddddd. That’s how Hashem says it. Only He says it longer than we do. We get tired but Hashem doesn’t get tired: Echaaaaaaaaadddddddd! He says it forever and ever: “They’re My one nation in the world. That’s all I care about. Echaaaaaaaadddddddd! They are My one interest. Everything is done for you, My children.” It means much more than we could imagine, but what it surely means is that we are the center of His thoughts, and that everything He does – and He does everything – is for us.
The Divine Mind
Now, get that into your heads because if you don't, not only do you not understand Yetzias Mitzrayim, but you don't even begin to understand Torah. The ֹ̇מוָלֹעוָה לָּכ ‡≈רֹוּב is thinking only about whom? About ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי יƒרֹכו¿ּב יƒנ¿ּב. He's thinking right now about the Satmarer Jews in Williamsburg! He's thinking right now about Lakewood. He's thinking about Meah Shearim. He's thinking about Lubavitcher chassidim in Crown Heights. He's thinking about Mirrer Yeshiva. That's what He's thinking about; only that.
And if we have any other ideas in our minds, if we think, “Well, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is ı∆רָ‡ָה לָכ ‡ֹל¿מֹו„ֹבו¿ּכ so He’s thinking about space too. He's thinking about the Milky Way; He's thinking about what's doing on the other side of the universe,” that's a fatal error. That's the opposite of what the world was taught at Yetzias Mitzrayim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is looking only at us. That's the fundamental principle of the history of the world.
His Declaration
And it’s the history that began when Moshe Rabbeinu came to Pharaoh to take us out of Mitzrayim. That’s why it was the first thing that Moshe Rabbeinu announced when he came into the palace of Pharaoh because it’s the crux of everything. What was the first thing Moshe said? הֹּכ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי יƒרֹכ¿ב יƒנ¿ּב 'ה רַמָ‡ – So said Hashem: “My son, My firstborn is Yisroel”. He hammered on the table and said, “Like it or not this is the foundation of the rest of history.”
And that’s why we have to bang on the table and say it to ourselves; all the time, we have to remind ourselves who we are. We have to remind ourselves that from that day forward Hakadosh Baruch Hu put on His tefillin and declared ı∆רָ‡ָּב „ָח∆‡ יֹוּ‚ – “As far as I’m concerned the Bnei Yisroel are the only nation in the world, My only interest.” And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu declares that He means it with all that He is capable of meaning it. With His tremendous and infinite Mind He declares: “There’s only one nation forever and ever in this world and in the Next World too!”
Our Declaration
And we, with our little minds, we have to rise up and fulfill our side of that declaration by making Him our only interest. The Am Yisroel puts on tefillin too and we remind ourselves that this glory of being chosen includes the obligation that comes along with it, to make Him our Father by thinking only according to His thoughts.
We have to rise up to the obligation and as much as possible live with that ideal of being His children by thinking only about Him and only like Him. That’s what it means Yetzias Mitzrayim: Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, „ָח∆‡ יֹוּ‚ ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒיָך¿ּמַﬠ¿ּכ יƒמ ı∆רָ‡ָּב – “Forever and ever you are My one nation” and we answer back, „ָח∆‡ 'הּינו≈ ֹ̃ל¡‡ 'ה ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ ̆ƒי עַמ¿ׁ ̆ – “Forever and ever You are our One interest.”
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Making Him UppermostIn our parshah we learn about the mitzvah of tefillin by which Hashem makes us uppermost and we are reminded to make him uppermost. As children and disciples of Hashem, our attitudes and ideals should be formed only by Him. This week as I recite the Shema I will bli neder stop for a moment and reflect on this lesson, that Hashem is the sole focal point of our lives, and nothing else is important.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 161 - Preface to Pesach 3 | 605 - Pride of Israel 630 - Who Is Like Your People, Yisroel | 777 - Pesach E-207 - My Children, My Holy People
