Last week’s Geshmake Question:
Won’t it be shayach…
Text your answer in by Sunday to (347) 222-0325 or by email to [email protected]
A Geshmaka Chanukah Question:
Why must the miracle of Chanukah have to be publicized (pirsumei nisa)?
Good words don’t cost money, but can accomplish what money can’t. It can build and even rebuild a person.
R’ Zev Smith Shlita was once talking about the greatness of words, and how they can build people. A woman came over to him after the speech and said, “You have no idea how true this is!” And she shared her story. “I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘Come back for more tests.’ After a few weeks, he told me the worst news possible: I had the scary illness, the ‘C’ word. I went home and didn’t tell anyone; my husband wasn’t home yet.”
“I was broken and couldn’t get myself to make supper. I told my kids we are going to the pizza shop. We usually didn’t go, so my kids knew something was going on and were a little scared, and we were all sitting nicely by the table. I went to the sink to wash my hands, and a woman whom I don’t know said, ‘I was watching your children, they are behaving so nicely, you have such a beautiful family. May you be healthy and have much nachas from all of them!’”
The woman was holding back tears and said emotionally, “R’ Smith, I must tell you, for the next two years, I went through so much pain with all the chemo treatments, and my family was all there for me. But what kept me going was the words from this woman, I don’t even know who she is, but she saved me!”
What’s the lesson?
- We don’t realize how much good we can do with positive words. Won’t it be stingy with good words?
- In life, there are days we are treated with respect, and we feel appreciated. But there are days when we don’t feel appreciated. In times like that, remember the compliments you got, how good you are, and how people believe in you. Positive thoughts like this will give you the strength to continue.
This connects to this week’s Parsha:
Yosef said one must prepare in the “good full” years for the “hunger” years. We can learn a practical lesson for life; there are times when we feel “good” days, and sometimes “hungry” days. Meaning, sometimes we have “good full spiritual days” when we feel good, and days when we don’t feel the sweetness of serving Hashem, when we feel hungry. When you feel like you are in the hunger days, and it’s hard to serve Hashem, remind yourself of the good geshmaka spiritual days you had when you went to a good shiur or had an uplifting, inspirational Shabbos, etc. Remember and “eat” the good days; one can eat them even years later.
Yosef teaches us this: you will have difficult times in life and will feel days when you are starving, when you don’t feel appreciated, or when it’s just not going, but the trick is to fill yourself by remembering the truth that you are good. Remember compliments you got in the past; don’t forget how good you are.
Also, it doesn’t last forever. Keep pushing, the hunger days will pass.
An older bachur in the ‘80s went to R’ Chaim Kanievsky zt”l and asked for a blessing to find his shidduch. R’ Chaim Kanievsky said, “Your shidduch isn’t born yet. May you find it soon!” The bachur left broken and was ready to give up. Does this mean he will have to wait at least 17 years…?
Fast forward, the bachur ended up marrying a convert. Chazal say that a person who converts and becomes a Jew is considered as if they were just born.
What’s the lesson?
One must realize that what one is supposed to get, they will get. No one can take it away, not in shidduchim, not in money, not in success, not in anything. It’s all decided by Hashem. If you don’t have it yet, that means it’s not good for you yet. When we realize this, our life will be different.
This connects to this week’s Parsha:
Yosef was freed from prison, exactly when he was supposed to. In life, we do our part, our hishtadlus, but must remember the results are from Hashem, not the result of what you did or what others helped you; it’s all from the Creator of the world. The second we are meant to get something, we will. No one can take anything away from you. That money can’t hurt.
The only time the Rambam calls a mitzvah “a great beloved mitzvah” is the mitzvah of Chanukah. Why is that?
From Baltimore Answers:
We are beloved by Hashem because even though Hashem still made the oil for us.
Moshe Newberg Answers:
Chanukah is a “beloved mitzvah” being that Chanukah was the savior of Torah, and of course, Torah is chayav. As they say, sweeter than honey.
D.R. Answers:
A mitzvah that Hashem commands us is very special, but a mitzvah that the Jewish nation added on their own accord truly brings out our love for Hashem.
Dovi Dress Answers:
Because even a poor person has to sell his shirt off his back, which isn’t any other mitzvah that you have to do, so it has to be really beloved to the poor person. If he’s willing to sell his shirt off his back…
