The Torah points out: “He is Aharon, and He is Moshe” that Hashem told to go to Pharaoh.“ Well, isn’t this obvious? Do you know any other Aharon and Moshe that the Torah could be speaking about?
R’ Simcha Sheps zt”l has a beautiful explanation. He says that the Torah says (Bamidbar 8:3), “ויעש כן אהרן,“ and Rashi says that Aharon was appreciated for his enthusiasm. He lit the menorah the first time and the thousandth time with the same excitement and joy! He was praised for not changing (שלא שינה) and losing his passion and love for this mitzvah.
So too with Aharon and Moshe here. They went to Pharaoh ten times to carry out their sacred mission to free the Jews from Egypt. Each time, Pharaoh changed his mind and refused to let them go.
Under normal circumstances, when you do something over and over and it doesn’t work, you become disheartened. You lose your cheshek to keep trying. From here, we see how one must view every mitzvah that he does. This is a shlichus from Hashem! This is MY mission! We should imagine Hashem Himself telling us to give tzeddakah, or keep Shabbos, or eat kosher. We must live our lives with a passion because that is the only way to be a true servant of Hashem.
R’ Avraham Chaim Feuer shlit’a says that the numerical value of the word “ישראל“ is 541. The numerical value of “אש,“ which is fire, is 301. If you take the fire out of a Jew, which means you deduct 301 from 541, you are left with 240. 240 is the gematria of “עמלק“! In fact, this was exactly what Amalek did to us. “אשר קרך בדרך” means that he cooled us off. He made us cold. He took out the fire that was burning inside us after we experienced the extraordinary miracles of Kriyas Yam Suf and Yetzias Mitzrayim.
The root of “התלהבות,“ which means enthusiasm, is “להב,“ a flame. If the flame of Torah is not ignited within us, we can live as frum Jews but totally miss the point. We must always be filled with a fire of excitement and passion to do the will of Hashem.
TORAH TAVLIN
