When Rabbi Chuna Halberstam the Rabbi of Koloshitz was a young child, his mother brought him to Shul on Rosh Hashana for blowing of the Shofar. His holy grandfather Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz came into the Shul wearing the white kittel (worn on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kipper and Pesach night at the seder).
The child remembered that his grandfather wore a kittel on Pesach night. He ran over to his mother and said, "Zeidy (grandpa) is going to eat Karpas (the vegetable dipped in salt water and eaten after Kiddush on Pesach night)."
When his grandfather the Sanzer Rav heard what his grandson had said he smiled and added, "he is right, the reason for blowing Shofar and eating Karpas is the same."
Although we don't understand Kabbala and the deeper meanings of the Sanzer Rav, there is one similarity that we can understand. Rabbi Yaakov Baal Haturim writes in his famous Arbah Turim that when we start blowing the Shofar in Ellul it is to awaken us from our spiritual slumber and repent. Similarly one of the reasons we eat Karpas on Pesach night is to catch the attention of the children, who will start questioning what we are doing, thus, avoiding them from falling asleep.
These weeks we read the amazing stories of the miracles that happened in Mitzrayim. They weren't just written to document history. These Parshos have so many messages for of us that apply till today. Let's not stay asleep but be alert to the amazing miracles and the lessons they teach us.
A Jew came to Rabbi Chaim Halberstam from Sanz. He told the Rebbe that he had a store and was very successful. However, recently another Jew had opened the same store across the street and it was jeopardizing the future of his success.
"Rebbe," he said, "please curse the man that he should die."
"G-d forbid, I would never curse another Jew," replied the Rebbe.
"Rebbe, if you can't curse him at least curse his store that it goes bankrupt!"
"No way," replied the Rebbe.
BS"D
By Rabbi Dovid Caro
"But Rebbe, my livelihood is at stake."
"Let me ask you, when you need to get fresh stock for your store do you go yourself to buy everything," asked the Rebbe?
"Sure," he replied, "I make sure to choose the best quality."
"And how do you travel," asked the Rebbe?
"By horse and wagon," replied the man.
"And what do you do when the horse is hungry?"
"I bring with me fodder."
"And what happens when your horse is thirsty," asked the Rebbe?
"I take it to the water to drink," he replied.
"Tell me," asked the Rebbe, "did you ever notice something very interesting? When the horse bends over to drink water it doesn't drink straight away. Instead it starts kicking the water with it's legs. Why is that," asked the Rebbe?
"Let me explain," said the Rebbe. "When the horse bends down to drink it sees it's own reflection in the water. But the horse doesn't understand that, it thinks that another horse has also come to have a drink. So the horse starts kicking at the water till the dirt and mud makes the water lose its clearness and the shadow of itself disappears. In reality the horse is stupid. Firstly, it's only a shadow not even a real horse. Secondly, there's so much water there enough for both. But a horse remains a horse. So too with you, Hashem has enough resources to provide both of you with plenty of Parnassa."
Hashem punished the Egyptians with the plague of blood. A Jew and an Egyptian could drink from the same cup, each with their own straw. The Jew drank water and the Egyptian got blood.
Hashem has destined for each and every one of us what we will have, no matter how much competition or opposition. If we're meant to have it we'll get it some other way.
If someone else takes something away it is because Hashem has destined so. Sometimes Hashem will test us and make it look like that someone or something is the cause of our loss, but that is the test, to understand and truly believe that it is only from Hashem. When all is good we know how to speak about great levels of Emunah and Bitachon. But when things aren't working as we expected, do we still remember our great levels of Emunah and Bitachon? Was it superficial talk or real Emunah and real Bitachon?
Furthermore, many times Hashem wants to see how we react to this challenge. If we succeed and realize that it isn't anyone or anything, just Hashem testing us, Hashem then showers upon us new and greater success than before.
The second plague was the frogs. Mitzrayim was covered in frogs. The frogs listened to Hashem's commandment and went all over. They hopped and jumped to the palace, the houses, entered every room, covered all the carpets, the sofas, the bedrooms, into the beds, under the cushions, into the kitchen, all over. There wasn't a niche that didn't have frogs. But the frogs kept on coming and there wasn’t enough space so the other frogs told them to keep on going and find somewhere else to park. But what did the frogs do, everywhere was full? There was only one availability, the ovens. Without a choice the poor frogs that never found any other place jumped into the ovens to fulfill the commandment of Hashem. What mesirus nefesh, a frog giving up its life to fulfill Hashem's wish. But one thing was definite, the other frogs never envied them. They looked at them as shlemazels getting baked!
But what happened in the end?
The Passuk tells us that the frogs that were in the houses, courtyards and fields died. The Midrash explains that the frogs in the oven remained alive.
Why?
Because they gave up their lives to do Hashem's wish they were rewarded to remain alive.
What do we learn from this?
We have to put our personal interests and calculations aside to fulfill Hashem's wish. If we think that if we do it this way it'll be better, but Hashem has other ideas.
The frogs that looked safe and sound all died and the poor frogs roasting in the ovens stayed alive.
How many times do things happen in our lives which make us think that we are suffering and we envy the people that have it better than us. We don't always see that it was to our benefit and gain in the end.
When Rabbi Yankel Galinsky was in the Novardok Yeshiva the whole Yeshiva fled to Vilna during the Second World War. Then the Russians captured Vilna and started arresting Yeshiva boys and sending them to Siberia. All the boys fled. But sadly many were caught and sent off to Siberia. They all envied their friends that managed to hide.
Then the Germans captured the city from the Russians. They didn't have much work to do because the Lithuanians went and murdered the Jews. But the Jews in Siberia were saved from death.
During the war Rabbi Galinsky was freed from Siberia. He walked for many miles, arrived in a village and started working to open a Jewish school for the local Jewish children.
However, many parents didn't want to send their children because only parents that enrolled their children in the local schools were eligible to receive food stamps.
Rav Galinsky found out that there had been a robbery from a Government office and a lot of food stamps had been stolen. Rav Galinsky managed to track them down and bought them at cost price.
Shortly after the Government officials found out about the Jewish school and their food stamps. It didn't take long and Rav Galinsky was arrested on a crime of doing business in the black market, it was a crime that had a death penalty. But Hashem guarded him and he was in jail for six months. He was so envious of his friends who hadn't been arrested. He was thinking, had he been more careful when giving out the food stamps, maybe he would have been saved from jail.
But when he was released from jail he found out that during those months the Russians had made a peace treaty with Poland and all the Polish citizens were allowed home, only to be sent to the war front against Germany, from where, most of them never returned. But Rav Galinsky was alive and well in the Russian jail.
Everything that played against him was the cause of his salvation! The same is with us. How often do we look back and see the black moments that later brought us so much benefit.
