Let us imagine a freshly married Chassan and Kallah telling us about receiving a beautiful gift on the occasion of their wedding, a gold Mezuzah case. The Mezuza case is real gold and the letter Shin on the Mezuza case is filled with real diamonds. They don’t forget to emphasize that the gift came with a Mezuza inside.
But the truth is that in value, the Mezuza itself if it was a very Mehudar Mezuza, maybe costs a hundred dollars, but the case is worth a few thousand dollars. So we would naturally be more impressed with the expensive case than the Mezuza itself.
Let us look at an interesting point in the upcoming Parsha, Parshas Naso.
The Nesiim of each tribe brought Korbonos at the inauguration (Chanukas Hamishkan) of the Mishkan. Although each Nasi brought exactly the same Korbonos, the Torah repeats in detail each Nasi and their Korbonos (making Naso the longest Parsha in the Torah.)
With their Korbonos each Nasi brought a silver dish and a silver basin made of silver filled with flour and oil for a Korbon Mincha (a Mincha offering). They also brought a golden spoon filled with Ketores.
These were very heavy pieces of silver and gold, but they were there to serve a purpose, they were filled with a Korbon Mincha and Ketores. Just like the Mezuza in the gold case.
The truth is that of course if we look at what is the main item here, it is the Korbon Mincha, the Ketores, the Mezuza. In our materialistic mind we judge something by it’s financial value, but in reality we should be judging things differently.
The Talmud Yerushalmi (Pe’ah 1-1) brings the story of a leader called Artevon that sent a gift to Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, a priceless gem. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi sent him a Mezuza in return.
Artevon was hurt, he had sent a gem worth millions and received in return something worth a zuz. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi replied, “you sent me something that I have to guard day and night, I sent you a gift something that will guard you day and night.”
Har Sinai was full of beautiful flowers for Matan Torah but that wasn’t the main part, it was just the scenery and décor for Kabolas Hatorah. So too there was fire, lightening, smoke and clouds, but they were also just the décor. But there were Jews who were so overwhelmed and carried away by the scenery and everything going on that they missed focusing on listening to “Anochi Hashem Elokecha”.
The same is with ourselves. We are many times carried away by our daily lives, our standard of living, our houses, cars, vacations; and in order to keep up to our standards we borrow money, go in to debt and we lose our focus of what’s really important, we become depressed, angry and we get carried away that all of this is just the case and dish but there is something more important that goes on the dish and in the case, our lives, our well-mannered children, our Shiurei Torah, our Tefillos full of concentration and elevation, our charity, our enjoyable Seudos on Shabbos and Yom Tov, our Mitzvos. But if we have the most stunning case and its empty inside that we missed the point.
Yes, if the Mitzva is there, then the case has value and even reward for being a Hidur Mitzva, a beautified Mitzva and we will get reward for enhancing the Mitzva. A silver Menorah is a Hiddur Mitzva, that enhances the beautiful Mitzva of lighting the lights of the Menorah, but the focus is the Mitzva, the silver or non-silver Menorah is only secondary.
We are about to enter such a beautiful Yom Tov, Shevuos. We have the amazing spiritual part of receiving Hashem’s prized gift, the Torah. We have a Mitzva of celebrating on Yom Tov, to eat festive meals, enjoy the cheesecakes and milky delicatessens. But let us remember what to focus and not to lose the slightest bit of Torah because we were too busy focusing on the cheesecakes.
May Hashem bless all of Klal Yisrael that we receive all the fresh abundance of Torah this Shevuos, that we enjoy the true sweetness of Torah, the spiritual pleasure of learning Torah, the merit to really understand the Torah we learn and remember it, the appreciate the privilege of being able to support those studying Torah. So much so, that our steaks and cheesecakes will drown in the pleasure and enjoyment of such an elevated Yom Tov.
At the same time it must be mentioned that the same applies to our Shuls. We have a Mitzva of Tefillah, to pray. Of course going to a beautiful Shul, beautifully decorated with flowers, with all of our friends is a Mitzva. But there is something that comes first, that is even more important, THAT WE DAVEN.
If we come to Shul and we talk during davening then the Shul, flowers and everything else is lost and will only play against us for desecrating Hashem’s holy sanctuary.
But the truth is, that the subject about not talking during davening is only applicable if we haven’t started to really daven. Someone who is truly DAVENING to HASHEM and realizes what they are doing and appreciates what they are doing, isn’t interested in talking, they are too busy enjoying being in the company of the Holy Shechina, who wants to lose that?
May Hashem bless us that we merit to really be able to daven and concentrate on our davening and enjoy those moments of connection and pleasure of being able to communicate to our Father and our King.
