Re'ei 5771

Hashem's Children
The pasuk says (14:1) "You are children to Hashem your God, do not fear."

The Ibn Ezra says on the this pasuk "After you know that you are a child of Hashem and He loves you more than a father, therefore you don't need to fear from anything that happens because everything that happens is for the good. And if we do not understand Him, like a small child who doesn't understand the actions of his father yet he just trusts him, so too we must just trust, because we are a holy nation and we are not like the other nations, and therefore we cannot act like them. And the reason why this parsha is close to the parsha of not eating anything that s disgusting is because we are a holy nation in heart and mouth, and we must be different from them and it must be clear to them, because we don't rip out our hair for the dead, and we don't eat every type of animal. And if you are a holy nation, it is not good that you eat tumah and make yourself tamei."

I read a mashal today in a book called "Ma'ase Shelo Haya" (The story that didn't happen) from the Maggid Midavna. The story goes that a poor person is invited to his friend who is a rich man. The rich man tells the poor man to sit at the head of the table. After the poor sits down he looks around for food but the only things he recongnizes is the potatoes all the way at the other end of the table. He begins to reach for the potatoes knocking over the other plates and making a big mess. After he finishes eating he decides he wants another on. As he begins to reach the rich man tells him that he should switch his seat to the other end of the table. The poor man sees this an insult because that means he is losing his seat at the head of the table. The rich man tells him that it is not that he is not taking away his honor, rather he is helping get closer the the potatoes to make things easier for him.

In the mashal we are the poor person and Hashem is the rich man. While we consider a lose of the head seat to be something bad, Hashem sees it as something good for us.

Sometimes, when we are in the moment it is hard to tell how something can be for the best, but we must have confidence in Hashem that it will all work out.

It is the fact that we are the children of Hashem that make us special. This quality is why Hashem shows us favor over the other nations.

The Ibn Ezra raises a second point, he says "and we must be different from them and it must be clear to them." In recent history many Jews have tried to assimilate to be more like the non-Jews. According to this Ibn Ezra, it seems that their attempt to be more like the non-Jews actually makes them lose their status as the children of Hashem. Therefore, as hard as it may be to be different in comparison to the rest of the world, it is actually this quality that has allowed us to survive throughout history.

Have a good Shabbat!