If you were blessed to have a Sefer Torah, which room in your house would you keep it in?
In Parshat Shoftim, the Torah gives us a commandment relating to the king. “והיה כשבתו על כסא ממלכתו - And it shall come to pass when he sits on his throne and rules the people,” “וכתב לו את משנה התורה הזאת על ספר - He must write two Sifrei Torah.” The Torah goes on to say, “וקרא בו כל ימי חייו - And he must read from the Sefer Torah on every day of his life.”
The Chatam Sofer explains that from here we learn that the king would need to consult with the Sefer Torah each and every day to guarantee that Torah law would guide and inspire him while he ruled the people. Now Rashi tells us what the king did with the two Sifrei Torah: he writes that one of them was to accompany him wherever he would go and the other he was to keep in his treasury, where all his money and his jewelry was. We see that the Torah resided in that part of the palace which stood for materialism in order to guarantee that when the king would consult with the Torah on every day of his reign, spirituality would triumph over materialism and ultimately the word of Hashem would guide the king in all ways.
This was the way in which Yosef ruled Egypt as is described to us in the book of Bereishit. The Torah tells us how, immediately after revealing his true identity to his brothers, Yosef charged them with the responsibility of going back to Canaan to tell their father Yaakov that Yosef had said in Bereishit, “שמני אלקים לאדון לכל מצרים - Hashem has made me the lord over all Egypt.”
The Kotzker Rebbe beautifully interprets it a different way: שמני אלקים is not ‘Hashem has made me’ but rather ‘I have made Hashem’ – I have made Hashem to be ‘אדון לכל מצרים,’ the Lord over all Egypt, meaning that in every decision that Yosef took, for every policy that he made for Egypt he was inspired by one single consideration – what would Hashem want me to do? In this way, he guaranteed that it was actually Hashem who was ruling Egypt.
Just like the ancient kings of Israel, let us guarantee that in every decision we take, in all the policies we have in our homes and in our workplaces, we will be guided and inspired by what Hashem wants us to do. In addition, bearing in mind where the Sefer Torah was kept in the king’s palace, let’s always ensure that our רוחניות - our spirituality, will be the priority of our lives by praying with all our hearts, for our soldiers and healthcare professionals, and Chevra Kadisha members worldwide, and for those who need healing, shidduchim, children and parnassah and may we be blessed to have the most awesome, gorgeous, beautiful, peaceful, healthy, amazing, relaxed, spiritual, loving and sweet Shabbat.
NUMBER OF MITZVOT: 41
MITZVOT ASEH: 14
MITZVOT LO TAASEH: 27
NUMBER OF PESUKIM: 97
NUMBER OF WORDS: 1523
NUMBER OF LETTERS: 5590
HAFTORA:
Yeshayahu 51:12- 52:12 (אנכי אנכי) (this is the fourth of seven Haftorot, [the Seven Haftorot of Consolation] that precede Rosh Hashanah).
This week we study Chapter 1 of Pirkei Avot
