From The Introduction To Tifferes Torah
Weeping for Generations: By Way Of Introduction
"And your brethren, all of beis Yisroel, shall weep
over the burning that Hashem burnt" (Yayikro
10,6).
" `All of beis Yisroel,' refers to each and every
Jew, for all future generations. It is brought in the
machzor of Yom Kippur, that to shed tears over the
deaths of Aharon's sons is a very worthy and sublime
thing.
"The gemora (Moed Koton 27) says however, "Do not
weep for the dead person, nor nod for him . . . "
(Yirmiyohu 22:10). Do not weep too much for the dead
and do not exceed the measure of nodding [in mourning]. How?
Three days for weeping, seven for eulogizing, thirty days of
refraining from pressed clothes and haircutting. After that,
Hakodosh Boruch Hu says, "You don't have more mercy
on him than I do." ' "
Why then, is there no limit to the weeping over Nodov and
Avihu?
We can explain by citing the custom to feed a mourner eggs
and round lentils to comfort him. By doing this we wish to
convey the message that the cycle of life and death is one
which is continually recurring. A new generation arises
which fills the gaps left by the one that has departed and
there is no reason for excessive grief. This, however, only
applies when the death was a natural one. If it represents
the untimely uprooting of a particular quality that is
unretrievable, that is certainly cause for weeping that
lasts forever.
Imagine if someone loses a hand. Is there a limit to his
tears? He'll remain without this important limb for all his
life.
So it was with Nodov and Avihu. Had they died naturally,
others would have arisen to fill the gap that would have
been left, each generation according to its own level. Since
they died prematurely though, the world will always be
lacking two great tzaddikim like Nodov and Avihu,
even on the lower levels of later generations. This is a
reason for every generation to weep.
This is the meaning of all the things that every generation
continues to weep over: like the mourning over the tens of
thousands at the time of the churban, which is
mourning over the uprooting of something which will never be
replaced.
(HaRav Shimshon Pincus in Tifferes Torah on parshas
Shemini)
The following essay presents the fundamentals of the message
that HaRav Shimshon Pincus attempted to convey to Klal
Yisroel in the countless shmuessen and talks that
he delivered tirelessly to audiences everywhere.
In the words of hesped which he delivered at the
levayos of his son, daughter-in-law and
granddaughter, ylct'a, HaRav Chaim Avrohom Pincus
said of his son, "We have no grasp of his love of kindness.
He looked for kindness. It was difficult for him to travel,
but he was always travelling, day and night. It was all
kindness. How many thousands of lives did he influence? I
once asked my son whether people weren't tired of his talks.
He said, `When they listen, I'll stop speaking.' "
He has stopped speaking but have we listened?
The following is a translation of the
introduction to the sefer Tifferes Torah by HaRav
Shimshon Dovid Pincus. It was recently published separately
as a pamphlet, upon the advice of HaRav Yisroel Elia
Weintraub, to call attention to the important message that
it contains.
The Bond of Intimacy
(Declaration of Intent)
Part I
Every sefer has a title page, telling the reader what
he will find inside, whether chidushei Torah on the
gemora's discussions, clarification of some area of
halochoh, stories of gedolei Yisroel or
whatever. This page is needed by the work's readers, for one
cannot begin reading a sefer without having some idea
of what it contains.
The author himself will certainly never forget what he is
writing about, even for a moment. If he's producing a
sefer about hilchos Shabbos, it's unthinkable
that in the middle, he'll suddenly start writing a
chiddush on a gemora in Zevochim, for
that would mean that the entire purpose of his sefer
had slipped his mind.
It is the same with everything a person does. To begin with,
he has to be aware of what it is he's actually attempting to
do and only then can he start thinking and planning how to
arrange things in the best possible way. If someone is
opening a store, his aim is probably to make money. It may
be that in time, he realizes that he omitted to take certain
factors into account, say for example, the effect of his
business on his competitors, but he'll never say, "Oh, I
made a mistake; I thought I was simply providing people with
groceries. I didn't realize that I am supposed to be making
money." That would mean that he'd forgotten the entire
purpose of having opened a store, and people never lose
sight of what their main purpose is.
When a couple marries, there are two sets of agreements they
draw up. One is what we refer to today as teno'im and
the other is the kesuvoh. The teno'im set out
the basic nature of the relationship between the two
parties, namely, that he will take her as his wife and that
they will live together in love and companionship, with
Heaven's help. Only afterwards comes the kesuvoh,
which details his obligations towards her, to support her
and to respect her " . . . in the manner of Jewish
husbands."
While a man may possibly make mistakes about some of the
details of his obligations, its unthinkable that he'd say,
"I forgot that she is my wife; I thought for a moment that
she's my servant." One never forgets the basic nature of the
relationship.
Bearing all these examples in mind, let us examine the
essence of Torah and Yiddishkeit. The Torah's mitzvos
are the details of the "contract" between Hakodosh Boruch
Hu and His nation, just like the kesuvoh in our
last example. The most important thing for every Jew to know
however, is the essential nature of this "contract," which
we must never lose sight of, even for a moment.
The Torah devotes a special parshah to this subject:
the preface to matan Torah. The pesukim say,
"In the third month after bnei Yisroel left Egypt, on
this day, they came to Midbar Sinai . . . And Moshe
ascended to Hashem, and Hashem called to him from the
mountain to say, `So shall you say to beis Yaakov and
tell bnei Yisroel, "You have seen what I did to
Egypt, and that I carried you on eagle's wings and that I
brought you to Me. And now, if you listen constantly to My
voice and guard My covenant, then you will be a treasure for
Me out of all the nations, for the whole world is Mine. And
you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for Me."
These are the things that you should speak about to bnei
Yisroel.'"
In this parshah, the Torah spells out the very
essence of the "deal" which Hashem made with us. It is a
parshah of fundamental importance, from which one
ought never to divert one's thoughts, even momentarily.
Agreement or Alliance?
The essence of Yiddishkeit is our nation's
establishment of a pact, or an alliance (bris), with
Hakodosh Boruch Hu. The marriage bond is another
example of an alliance, as opposed to a working contract
which covers arrangements such as that she will turn over
the results of her labor to him in exchange for which he
will support her; or she will keep the home clean in
exchange for which he will bring her jewelry. Obviously,
anyone who looks at marriage in this light is mistaken. It
is a far more profound and far reaching relationship.
Matan Torah was the same. To think of it in terms of
the drawing up of a simple "business contract" -- we observe
the mitzvos in exchange for which Hashem sustains us and
provides our needs -- is to negate the essence of
Yiddishkeit.
This idea of an alliance with Hakodosh Boruch Hu
doesn't only apply to Yiddishkeit on the national
level. It applies to life itself, to the entire meaning of
every individual Jew's life in this world.
There are those who think that we are in this world simply
to live here. Everyone wants a good and happy life, and only
Hakodosh Boruch Hu, who is Master of the universe,
has the power to grant this. So, in order to merit a good
life, they reason, one has to learn and do mitzvos, because
this is how one merits a good life.
Such an outlook is the total antithesis of
Yiddishkeit. If a person imagines that he is in this
world in order to eat and drink and enjoy good health and
marry off his children with plenty of yiddisheh
nachas, and to do mitzvos so that he merits all of this,
he is like a man who sits in a store buying and selling
merchandise, imagining that his purpose is merely to sit
there and trade and forgetting that he's actually there to
make money. Such a man has done what nobody does -- he's
forgotten the main purpose.
Just as the heart of Yiddishkeit is the establishment
of a covenant of love with Hashem yisborach, living
in partnership with Him, in love, companionship and
siyata diShemayoh, the meaning and purpose of each
person's life in this world is to attain closeness to Hashem
-- for here is where the greatest closeness can be attained -
- and to live together with Him. This, and nothing else, is
the sum total of man's life.
We Will Build A Home
Let us consider an amazing thing. All the promises which
Hakodosh Boruch Hu made to the ovos were about
one thing and one thing only -- giving Eretz Yisroel to
their descendants. Never is any promise made about giving
them Torah and mitzvos.
When making the first covenant, the Bris Bein
Habesorim, the posuk (Bereishis 15:18) tells us,
"On that day, Hashem established a covenant with Avrohom
saying, `I have given this land to your offspring.' " Later,
when making the covenant of miloh, Hashem said (17:7-
8), "I will uphold the covenant between Myself and between
you and your offspring who follow you . . . to be Elokim to
you and to your offspring after you and I will give you and
your offspring who follow you the land in which you dwell,
all of Eretz Canaan, as an everlasting
possession."
Hashem promised Yitzchok (26:3), "Live in this land and I
will be with you and bless you, for I will give you and your
offspring all these lands and I will uphold the oath which I
swore to Avrohom your father."
And with Yaakov too (28:13), "And behold Hashem was standing
over him and said, `I am Hashem . . . I will give you and
your offspring the land upon which you are lying."
At the burning bush, Hashem told Moshe (Shemos 3:8),
"And I will come down to save them . . . and to bring them
up from that land to a good, extensive land, to a land
flowing milk and honey . . . "
At first glance, this is all quite astonishing. How is it
that Hashem did not mention the most fundamental thing:
Torah? Is Eretz Yisroel the principle element in the
relationship between us and Hashem? We have been cleaving to
Him for two thousand years without possessing Eretz Yisroel,
whereas we could not continue for one moment without Torah.
Why was Eretz Yisroel made the center of the covenant?
The explanation is as follows. Of course, our entire
connection with Hashem is only through Torah, and without
Torah there is nothing. However, when the chosson
declares to his kallah, "Together, we will build a
home," he is not referring to the bricks and mortar of their
house but to their relationship as a couple, which is at the
center of the home which they hope to establish. If they
merely live in one house, while he looks one way and she
looks another, there will be no home. Klal Yisroel in
Eretz Yisroel without Torah would be a comparable situation.
The whole basis of the bond would be lacking.
Were Hakodosh Boruch Hu to have made an explicit
promise about giving the Torah, this would have implied the
existence of a covenant over the actual study of Torah and
the fulfillment of the mitzvos, possibly on account of the
rewards for these pursuits or because of the wisdom and
depth that they contain. What Hashem meant to imply however,
was that the goal of the covenant between Him and our nation
is the actual closeness itself. When He promised Eretz
Yisroel to the ovos, He was promising an attachment,
a close relationship.
This is the foundation of the Jewish personality. A Jew is
someone who, basically, prays three times and makes one
hundred brochos every day. Not all Jews apply
themselves to Torah study but all enter a beis
haknesses to pray and all make brochos on their
food. It is this which maintains an ongoing relationship
with Hashem, just like a married couple, who are always
talking and communicating with one another.
Consider how amazing it is that neither the three
tefillos, nor the brochos are Torah commands
but institutions of the ovos and of Chazal. The
kesuvoh details a husband's obligations to his wife
but it doesn't say that they are expected to speak to one
another because that isn't an obligation, it's a fundamental
part of the bond between them and in fact, if it comes only
through coercion it lacks all worth. Communication must come
naturally, because of the closeness between them.
The institution of the tefillos also sprung
spontaneously, as it were, from Klal Yisroel, in
order to maintain an ongoing connection with Hakodosh
Boruch Hu throughout the day.
Realizing Where We Are
The author of Mesillas Yeshorim opens his work with
the words, "The foundation of piety and the root of perfect
service is that a person's obligation in his world should
become clear and real to him, as should the things which
ought to be the subjects of his present attentions and his
long term aims, in all that he toils over throughout his
life. Now, what Chazal have taught us [on this matter] is
that man was only created for the purpose of having pleasure
in Hashem and benefiting from the radiance of His
Shechinoh . . . and the place for this delight is
really Olom Haboh . . . " He continues by quoting
Chazal's statement that this world is merely a corridor to
the next and he seems to be saying that the whole purpose of
this world is to serve as a means of reaching the next, not
that it has an intrinsic purpose of its own.
There are however, two separate things to appreciate about
life in this world: its essence and its goal. Its goal is
Olom Haboh. Certainly, something which is temporal
and fleeting cannot constitute an ultimate goal. The essence
of life in this world, however, is the attainment of a bond
of love with Hashem and it is principally through this bond
that the final purpose is achieved. This bond has its
origins only in this world.
Although it seems that I'm always citing the marriage bond
as an example, the truth is that this is the very example
which Hashem Himself gave us of His relationship with us,
and no other example exists. In fact, according to some
Rishonim, the brochoh which we make under the
chuppah, "Who sanctifies His nation through
chuppah and kiddushin," refers not to the
ceremonies by which individual Jewish couples marry but to
Hashem's betrothal of our nation at Har Sinai, when His
suspension of the mountain over us was in place of a
chuppah, and the covenant which He made with us was
in place of kiddushin. Therefore, if we examine the
example it will lead us to a correct understanding of the
nature of our bond with Hashem.
Marriage itself is not an ultimate end. Its purpose is to
ensure continuity. However, the essence of marriage
is a moment of closeness and attachment; it is not merely a
means of conveyance into the future.
For example, imagine if a chosson enters the room
where he and the kallah seclude themselves following
the chuppah, takes a newspaper out of his pocket and
begins to read the news, saying to his kallah,
"There's nothing to get excited about; the really joyous
occasion is yet to arrive. When we make a bris for
our as yet unborn son, then we'll be happy because that is
the purpose of our getting married" -- of course this is a
mistake. Certainly, the ultimate purpose is the future but
the essence of the connection is the marriage bond
itself.
The ultimate purpose of our world is the attainment of
Olom Haboh, but our world is the chuppah. Our
hundred and twenty years here are supposed to be spent in
love and attachment to Hashem yisborach. Just as in
marriage, "a woman only makes a covenant with the one who
makes her a vessel," meaning that the degree of the love
that existed at the outset determines how things will
continue throughout life, so too, the level of attachment
that one attains in this world, will continue
forever.
Our world is not simply a tool or a means by which to obtain
the next. Our world is the real point. Here is where we must
live our attachment to Hashem, and from here, it carries on
forever.
End of Part I
