But because of the to’im, because of those who made the mistake of thinking that the pnimiyus was enough, as a result there arose a counter effect and our nation began to say, “Forget about philosophizing. You see what happens when you philosophize; when you think only about the message of the mitzvos, the mitzvos themselves become neglected. And so, let’s concentrate just on the deeds. Let’s emphasize the importance of doing the mitzvah and that’s all.”
And that’s why it became a practice in our nation not to philosophize – the Am Yisroel put all of its abilities into studying the technicalities of the mitzvos; exactly how to perform them with all the externalities became the interest of the nation – a holy nation of medakdekim b’mitzvos. It’s a pleasure to see!
Substance Use and Abuse
However, we’re learning now that there’s a great loss in neglecting the principle of the pnimiyus of the mitzvos. You know, despite the fact that some people overdo the practice of breathing fresh air — some people are fresh air addicts and even in mid winter, they’ll open windows when they sleep and during the night they contract colds. They get up in the morning and they’re sick.
But just because some people overdo it doesn’t therefore mean that we should avoid fresh air; it doesn’t mean that fresh air is bad. You just have to know, like they say in Yiddish, vu ein vu ois — you have to know how to apply it.
And so it’s necessary for us to return to this study – actually the practice of pnimiyus haTorah. That’s how the kadmonim, the ancients, did a mitzvah. They understood that our lives are meant to be revolutionized by the mezuzah and the tefillin and the sukkah and the matzah and by all the other mitzvos and they utilized them for that purpose. And it’s a pity that we should take mitzvos that are intended to transform our personalities and instead we’re just doing them as just mechanical motions; they’re still mitzvos but they don’t fulfill the ultimate intention of the One who gave them to us.
Part III. The Ultimate Weapon
Speaking and Saying
Now, of all the mitzvos eiduyos, of all the weapons we’ve been given, one of the most all encompassing is found in our parsha. Hakodosh Boruch Hu told Moshe Rabeinu, ≈רַּבּ„ – Speak, ≈ל‡רָ¿ׂ ̆ƒי נ≈י¿ּב ∆ל‡ to the Bnei Yisroel, ָּ ̇¿ָמַר‡ ¿ו ̇יƒˆיƒˆ לָה∆םּׂו ̆ﬠָ¿ו ֲ ל≈יה ∆ם‡, and say to them the commandment of tzitzis (Shelach 15:38). It’s an interesting form of speech – “speak to them and say to them” – and it means something important.
We’ll explain it like this. Dabber, speak, denotes the function of proclaiming. V’amarta, on the other hand, denotes the speaker’s intention; his thoughts and emotions – the pnimiyus.
Hakodosh Boruch Hu sent Moshe to the people not only to dabber, to speak about the mitzvah in general, but also, v’amarta – to say to them; it means to explain to them His intentions; to explain the purpose of tzitzis and the method of gaining the benefit of this mitzvah. It’s not enough that the nation should wear tzitzis; the lessons of the tzitzis have to be brought close to the people’s thoughts and emotions because that, after all, is the prime purpose of tzitzis: ׁ≈ םּ ̆הַ ̇וֹ¿ˆ ƒמ ָלּכ ̇∆‡ ∆ םּ ̇¿כַר¿זּו וֹ ֹ̇‡ ∆ ם ̇יƒ‡ ¿רּו – You will see it and remember all of Hashem’s mitzvos.
Learning New Things
I was walking on King's Highway once and they were doing construction work. As I passed by, the Italian foreman pointed to my tzitzis and asked, “What's that for?” So I said, “It’s to remind us,” and I pointed to the sky. “Oooh,” he said. He understood that. An Italian foreman understands that we're wearing tzitzis to remind us of the One in the sky.
It’s a pity that what the gentile understands is ignored by us. You know, if I were talking to a group of college boys and girls, way out let's say in Tulsa, Oklahoma and they would be hearing about tzitzis for the first time, I'd take out tzitzis and show it to them and they'd be amazed. It would be an interesting thing to them – they never saw it before – and it would have an effect on them.
But when you talk to people who are all wearing tzitzis it's very difficult for them to learn what it really means because they think they know all about it – they know in the wrong way; they know it mitzvas anashim melumadah, as habit, but they think they know it all already.
Using the Weapons
But it can't be helped! We must learn what the mitzvos mean, otherwise we're like people going into battle without weapons. Certainly, we wear them every day! But if a person doesn't use them – if he never once in his life looked at the tzitzis and thought about Hashem – then he shouldn't be surprised that they don't have any effect.
It’s like hanging a bazooka around the naked loins of that savage in Africa; it’s almost worthless because he doesn't know what to do with it. And the same is hanging tzitzis on someone whose head is empty. Here's a boy wearing tzitzis. Wonderful! Very nice! But he knows as much about the purpose of tzitzis as a beheima wearing tzitzis. He’s like a little calf wearing arba kanfos and when he grows up he becomes a big old ox that wears tzitzis.
Of course a mitzvah he gains, but he doesn’t gain what the mitzvah is intended for. Now it could be that bederech segulah, in some mysterious way, it does something, I wouldn’t know. It could be that even without understanding how a tzitzis works it accomplishes something. But the true effectiveness only comes with learning how to make use of the weapons.
Seeing and Remembering
Chazal tell us (Menachos 43b) that shekulah mitzvas tzitzis keneged kol hamitzvos – wearing tzitzis is as weighty as all the mitzvos. The question is, is it really? Is tzitzis as important as all the mitzvos? How can you say that? What about talmud Torah k’neged kulam?
The answer is that it’s shekulah because tzitzis can remind you of everything. Tzitzis is the means of remembering: U’reisem oso, if you look at it, uzechartem, you'll remember.
Now it doesn't mean that it's a mitzvas asei to look. There is one rishon who says that, but we follow those who hold that there’s no obligation to look at the tzitzis (see Tur O.C. 24). When the Torah says ure’isem oso, the Torah is telling us as follows: Ure’isem oso – when you will see the fringes, uzechartem – you're going to remember. Tzitzis can bring you to remembering everything.
Our kadmonim did that – they tied the tzitzis up with certain ideas. In ancient times if you were a Jew you learned how to handle this weapon. Every day when they put on the tzitzis, they thought about a different commandment of the Torah and the tzitzis began to fulfill its function of reminding them. When you connect the tzitzis with certain ideas it becomes an effective weapon.
Female Tzitzis
Let’s say tomorrow morning you put on the tzitzis and you look at them and you’re thinking, “I won’t get angry today. Anger is a sin, and so today whenever I look at the tzitzis – not only mine; anybody’s – it’s going to remind me not to get angry.” That’s already a very great accomplishment. If you practice it up, so from now on you might remember when you look at the tzitzis not to get angry.
Now ladies, don't be impatient. The Torah is speaking to you too — the tzitzis are not just for men. Ure’isem oso means everybody should see the tzitzis. The Gemara (Menachos 43a) says that a blind person is obligated in tzitzis because other people can see it. It means other people can become great from seeing a man’s tzitzis.
So here's a mother with a lot of little boys in the house and she’s constantly seeing the children's tzitzis; if she understands that it’s for her too so she's getting greater and greater each time she sees them. Sometimes her husband and her children might be thinking nothing at all but she’s thinking about His mitzvos every time she sees the tzitzis and she’s gaining more than they are because that's what the eidus of tzitzis are for.
One Mitzvah At a Time
I was once passing through a place where Jewish glaziers were installing windows in a church — this was when I was in Europe. They were on top of a church putting in the glass panes and their long beards and tzitzis were flowing in the wind. I was walking by, watching their tzitzis and I was thinking, “Those tzitzis remind us that we went out of Egypt.” You should try that once – next time you put on tzitzis or see someone’s tzitzis, think that they’re supposed to remind you to remember that the Almighty took us out of Mitzrayim.
Little by little you’re practicing identifying tzitzis with Yetzias Mitzrayim. Then, after you are well grounded in that, so you’ll take another mitzvah and associate it with the tzitzis. Let's say I look at my tzitzis and I remind myself that Hakodosh Boruch Hu said we should watch out for shaatnez; if you have a woolen suit make sure you don't have any linen stiffening inside it because it's shaatnez. After a while you get in the habit of reminding yourself of shaatnez when you look at your tzitzis.
Next, think about ָָמו ֹךּכָר≈ ﬠֲ ך¿ל ָּ ̇¿ָהַב‡¿ו, that you have to love your fellow Jew. A Jew who keeps mitzvos, he’s your brother and you have to love him. If he doesn't keep mitzvos then he's not your brother but as long as he’s achicha bamitzvos, who cares if he’s Hungarian or Lithuanian or Syrian; who cares where he came from, or even if he’s a rough fellow, you have to love him. And by looking at the tzitzis, you can train yourself in that ideal.
The Tzitzis Become Heavier
Now suppose you live in Boro Park or Meah Shearim; you’ll have endless opportunities because they have good Jews there and you’ll see tzitzis wherever you go. From time to time when you see tzitzis floating behind somebody’s garments, remind yourself of your purpose here. Think, “∆ ם ̇יƒי¿הƒו ≈ יכ ∆ם ֹ̃ל‡ל≈ יםƒׁ ̆וֹ„ ¿ ̃ – We are a holy people! We’re not a people that sanctions immorality.” The Jewish people hate anything that smacks of obscenity; anything that’s not nice, that’s not decent, is foreign to our nature. And if there are Jews who are proponents of wicked things, like gay rights and things like that, it’s only because they’re victims of the gentiles. A Jew by nature hates immorality!
You see tzitzis? It reminds you – never visit a house unless the husband is present at the same time. Never allow a man into your home if your husband is not around. Believe me it's worthwhile if a Jew will think when he sees tzitzis that he can never be alone with a woman unless somebody else is present.
Keep on doing it and after a while tzitzis reminds you of the issur of yichud and about Yetzias Mitzrayim and shaatnez and they remind you to love your brother and to promote decency. Little by little, you attach more and more significance to the tzitzis until it’s shekula k’neged kol hamitzvos.
Keep Fighting
Of course don’t try and do everything at once when you leave here tonight but it’s homework for you — you have to make an effort to associate the mitzvos with the tzitzis because it won't happen by itself. But once you make up your mind that's what you want to do then haba letaher mesayin lo. You practice up every day and little by little you finally get to such a stage that when you see somebody wearing tzitzis – and everybody is – so ure’isem oso, you’ll see them, uzechartem, and you'll remember, es kol mitzvos Hashem, all the commandments of Hashem.
Now, I understand that life is busy and that once you leave here you forget about the things I’m telling you. The milchama chazaka she’nimtzeis eilav panim v’achor is overwhelming and your thoughts are crowded with everything except for the important things. But that’s precisely why we need these weapons of war – they are our salvation, our path to victory.
And so, no matter how much ground you already yielded on the battlefield, you’re equipped now to regain that territory. And even if the battle continues to rain down a hail of bullets, no matter! A soldier who enters the battle and he received a wound does he say, “On well, there’s no use. I might as well get a bullet in the head and finished.” Oh no! He tries his best to continue fighting because as long as he's alive, as long as he’s still breathing he still has the opportunity to be healed and fight to the victorious end.
Be A Hero
And just like in this world when a soldier comes back from war, he wants to display his wounds to his friends; he wants to show that he’s a battle-scarred veteran, that he’s fought the battle and survived, it’s the same thing here. It’s all very good as long as you're using the weapons that were given to you. As long as we recognize the weapons of war that Hashem has given us and we use them to the utmost, we’ll remain alive — we’ll remain alive in both worlds.
And therefore we should consider how great a function in our lives these mitzvos eiduyos have and begin applying ourselves bli neder to a career of little by little making the mitzvos more meaningful.
Because that’s the system of the Torah. The ‘testimonies’ are a big part of the Torah and every one of the eiduyos becomes alive if you utilize it properly. And because our daily lives are full of such opportunities, that's one of the secrets to achieving success in serving Hakodosh Boruch Hu – by utilizing the weapons of war the way He intended, that’s the path to victory.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Training for Battle with Advanced Weaponry
Every day this week I will begin my practice of bringing the mitzvos eiduyos to life. Each morning, when I see tzitzis - whether mine, or of someone else - I will bli neder think of one of the taryag mitzvos, and I will try to associate that mitzvah with the strings of the tzitzis. When I am successful, I will move on to another mitzvah. In this way, seeing the testimonials of Hashem will bring their great principles to my mind.
This week’s booklet is based on tapes: 123 - Torah of Heart | 201 - The Battle and The Weapons 449 - Hashem’s Two Testimonials | 735 - The Pesach Seder 3
