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*     The High Holidays September 18 - September 27, 2001

*     Torah Portion of the Week: Parashas Ki Seitzei

*     Ask the Rabbi

*     The High Holidays this year fells on September 18 - September 27, 2001

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur -- a day of sweetness and a day of atonement are the culmination of a month-long process of coming back to G-d.

    Read more on http://www.kehilasmy.org/holidays/rosh

*     Parashas Ki Seitzei: Mother Birds by Rabbi Yissocher Frand

    Only two of the mitzvos in the Torah come with a promise of long life, kibud av vaeim, honoring parents, and sheluach hakan, sending off the mother bird before taking the fledglings. At first glance, these seem totally dissimilar and unrelated, but intuitively it seems there must be some sort of a common denominator. What can it be?

    Rav Yaakov Weinberg, my Rosh Yeshivah, suggests that the common denominator may be that both mitzvos acknowledge mesiras nefesh, self-sacrifice. The Torah tells us to honor our parents because of all the mesiras nefesh they have for their children. They sacrifice their time, their energy, their wealth, their hearts and souls for their children, and we must show our appreciation.

    A new father once said, "When I was younger, I thought my parents did many things for me, but now that I am a father myself, I realize they did only one thing for me. They gave me their lives." That is mesiras nefesh.

    We find the same concept of mesiras nefesh in the mitzvah of sheluach hakan. Anyone who has ever tried to catch a bird knows it is virtually impossible to do so. So why does the Torah have to tell us not to take the mother bird? How would we be able to take her if we wanted to? Wouldnt she fly away?

    The answer is that the bird would not fly away when her nest is full of fledglings. She is a mother, and she is prepared to sacrifice freedom and even her life in order to remain with her children. For a person to capture that bird is prohibited, because it takes advantage of the mesiras nefesh of the maternal instinct and disrespects it. By sending away the mother first, he shows his appreciation for mesiras nefesh. In this sense, it is like honoring parents.

    The Midrash comments that the two mitzvos of honoring parents and sending away the mother bird are the "easiest of the easy" and the "most difficult of the difficult," yet they share the same reward -- long life. Apparently, we cannot really know the reward of the mitzvos.

Why is sending away of the mother bird referred to as "the easiest of the easy" and honoring parents as "the most difficult of the difficult"?

    The Shemen Hatov suggests that these mitzvos span the spectrum of human nature. According to the Ramban, the Torah wants us to perform the merciful act of sending away the mother bird before taking the fledglings, because this will condition us to become more merciful toward people. Mercy is a common human emotion. People instinctively feel a surge of mercy when they see an animal in distress. We should feel the same instinctive mercy when we see a person in distress, but with other people, all sorts of complicated feelings and prejudices come into play. Therefore, when we develop and reinforce our natural faculty of mercy through a compassionate act toward a mother bird, we will feel a stronger impulse to be merciful when we see a person suffering. This then is the "easiest of the easy" mitzvos, because it taps into a natural tendency in human nature.

    Honoring parents, on the other hand, goes against human nature. It requires us to acknowledge all theyve done for us and show gratitude. It requires us to admit that we needed them, that we could not have done it ourselves. This is a difficult thing for the human ego. The ego would have us view ourselves as independent, self-sufficient and invincible. We can bring ourselves to thank strangers who do small things for us now and then, because this does not really affect our egotistical self-image. But when it comes to our parents, if we admit they did anything, we also have to admit they did everything for us. Our egos do not allow us to say, "I owe you everything." This then is the "most difficult of the difficult" mitzvos.

THE AISH RABBI REPLIES:

    You are asking a very important question. The explanation is as follows: The reward that we receive in the World to Come is a direct result of the effort that we put into doing the will of G-d ("mitzvot") while we are alive on Earth. A person who dedicates his life to mitzvot and spirituality will get a qualitatively better "World to Come" than a person whose commitment was peripheral. We are living in the world of free choice (between good and bad), and whatever level you attain in this world is eternal. That's why the great tzaddikim performed mitzvot even till their dying breath. The great Vilna Gaon was crying on his deathbed, and his students asked him, "Why are you crying?" He held up his Tzitzit fringes and said, "Every moment of wearing these fringes I am able to fulfill another mitzvah. But soon I will be dead and I will no longer have this great merit."

    In "Path of the Just," Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto (17th century Italy) warns of an attitude that a person might have in regard to how much effort he should put into mitzvot. A person might say, "Why should I involve myself in so many mitzvot? Why do I need such a large portion of the World to Come? Rather, I'll take a small portion in the World to Come, and live a more leisurely here on Earth!"

    However, Rabbi Luzatto points out, this is shortsighted. In the World To Come such individuals will experience great grief and shame in realizing that their potential in the World to Come could have been great.

    Our attitude toward performing mitzvot should be like someone who is in a room full of diamonds. You are allowed to grab as much as you can, and you don't know how much time you're given to do so.

    Elana Rosenblatt, a 28-year-old Aish rebbetzin in London, recently passed away from cancer. In her final days, barely able to breath, Elana asked to see a young woman who needed guidance with some dating issues. The woman hesitated to come, fearing that she may react emotionally to the site of a dying person. Not to be deterred, Elana used whatever drops of strength she had to sit up, get dressed, hide her oxygen tank, and go outside to the garden -- to make a less worrisome appearance for her guest.

    Every moment contains the potential to perform another mitzvah, another eternal jewel. For this reason, we wish people "long life" so that they may perform many mitzvot, and attain a great share in the World to Come.

*

    Stuffed Matzo Balls Parve

Ingredients:
    Matzo Balls mixture
    1-2 eggs
    1/3 cup of oil
    1 carrot
    1 celery stalk

Preparation:
Shred/scrape carrots and celery to make colorful vegetable shavings. Working with firm or semi-firm matzo ball batter, shape the ball to any size and carefully poke your finger into the center to form a hole. Gently stuff the shavings into the center of the hole. Prepare and serve matzo balls as you would normally.

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Mariana Fradman

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