Yaakov Hibbert Presents… S.E.N

How often do you hear someone bemoan, “The world is just not how it used to be”? Indeed the world is not how it used to be. In a lecture for parents by Rabbi Marmorstein (Principal of Seminary for Girls Manchester) titled, “Bridging the Generation Gap” he brought one example of how changing our world is. During the reign of Queen Victoria there was a drought and a public day of fasting was decreed! Can you imagine today if a MP would stand up in Parliament or a Lord in the House of Lords and petition for a day of prayer for the sorry state of the economy!? He would surely be sectioned and taken to the local mental clinic.

The changing world around us makes an intense difference in our lives. Let me share with you a most profound idea from Reb Zalman Sorotzkin which highlights how the danger of the changing world around us affects us. The Parshah opens with the special laws that apply to the Cohanim; who they can marry, to whom they can become impure from touching or being near a dead person, the various blemishes that cause them to be unfit for service in the Tabernacle etc. The opening words read, “Hashem said to Moshe, say to the Cohanim, the sons of Aharon and you shall say to them”.

Rashi quotes the Medresh that explains the double expression “say, say” is to “warn the older people with regard to the minor people”. That is to say that there is a special emphasis on the older Cohen to ensure that the younger Cohen follows in the correct path. Why Reb Zalman asks is there a special stress on the education of the younger Cohanim?

The job of Mr Cohen bringing up his kids is indeed a tough one. Suppose there is a cemetery nearby with trees from the cemetery overhanging the road, Mr Cohen has to tell his kids that they can’t go down that street. “But everyone else can go that way, and they are good Jews” claim the children. Or, “Mr Yisroel can marry this woman why can’t I?” This is where the education of Cohen takes on a different dimension. They have to educate while constantly facing an inconsistency with what other well respected Jews have to do. Cohanim are special needs, and Mr Cohen has to be a Special Education Needs teacher!

The double expression is teaching us that the Cohen should be well aware of his challenge to educate the next generation of Cohanim. The next generation must be taught that what is ok for one segment of the Jewish Nation is unacceptable for the ‘Cohen Clan’. The street is a very powerful educator – it’s a trend setter. The Cohen must confront and contradict what the street is educating! Living in exile we don’t just have other Jews to contend with, but we have the whole non-Jewish culture and ideology often pushing and shoving anti-Jewish values not just onto the street but into our very own homes!

There is an interesting Halacha regarding a kosher bird that injures itself. How does one ascertain if the bird is still kosher – certain fatal injuries will render the bird non-kosher? The Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) brings a simple litmus test. If the bird is swimming upstream, against the current, then you can be confident that it’s okay. However if it’s floating with the stream, then try to determine whether the bird is floating more quickly than the current, or together with the current. If it’s swimming more quickly than the current, you can be reasonably certain that it’s still healthy; if it’s just floating at the same pace as the current, don’t bother – it’s dying.

Similarly, if we are just going with the flow, doing what everyone else does then we are ‘trief’ non-Kosher. We have to learn to swim against the current. In our world, a world where ‘G-d’ has been almost eradicated from the dictionary we must educate to go against the tide.

As Jews we have the DNA of our forefather Avraham. We know that Avraham was referred to as ‘Ha’ivri’ – the Hebrew. The Medresh tell us that this term is from the root “aiver” – meaning “the other side”. Whilst the whole world was on one side theologically, Avraham was considered to be on the other side. He went against the tide of denial of Hashem and preached monotheism. May we strive to swim against the current and stay connected to the Torah and Eretz Yisroel and resist the deluge of ‘education’ that is coming in from the street.

Good Shabbos,

Yaakov