WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOTTOM?
Last week, my wife and I were speaking in Seattle. We had rented a hatchback vehicle, which was high off the road. I pulled out of our parking place, (on the way to our next speaking program in Portland, Oregon), but I did not know that my right rear wheel had slipped into a deep ditch. As I drove forward, the car suddenly pitched to the right, as the wheel sunk deeper into the ditch. I was in shock, especially because my wife was in the passenger seat. The car was falling over! It could have been catastrophic!
What should I do: shift into reverse or power forward?!
Since we were already going forward, I floored the accelerator. The car jumped forward and the left rear wheel powered us out of the ditch! We were saved, but it was by only a hair’s breadth. I was shaking. We had been a millisecond from what could have been a terrible accident!
Thank you, Hashem! “Ha malach ha goail … may the Angel who redeems me from all evil bless” us all and protect us! These words of Yaakov Avinu ring down through the centuries! Our lives hang by a thread at every moment.
My wife remembers hearing from Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon zt”l that, if a Jew returns from a walk on the street and has not been attacked, it is an act of heavenly shmira and he must thank Hashem that he returned in one piece! We do not know what dangers lurk around us and how many try to curse us. Sometimes, the consequences of those curses are narrowly averted by the protection of the Ribono shel Olam, Who sends angels to protect us
On the plane from New York to Seattle, there was a lady sitting in front of us. The space around seats is very small. Every time I exited (although I tried to be careful) I would inadvertently move the back of her seat by a tiny amount. Every time this happened, she would turn around at me with the most hateful expression. When I apologized, she turned away; she was not interested in receiving my apology.
My friends, since Mount Sinai, we have been surrounded by hatred and danger. As we enter the month of Nissan, it is appropriate to say a tremendous “Thank You” to the King of Kings, Who sends His messengers to guard us on all sides.
“B’Shaim Hashem …. In the Name of Hashem, G-d of Israel, may Michael be at my right, Gavriel at my left, Uriel before me and Raphael behind me and, above my head, Shechinas kail, the Presence of Hashem.” (Bedtime Shema)
But I want to ask: in that prayer, what happened to “under me!” We are covered on five sides; what happened to the ground? On Sukkos we wave the Arba Minim in six directions. Why do we not request heavenly assistance here in six directions? What is there about “beneath me” which is different?
The ground was cursed at the beginning of history. Hashem said to Adam after his sin, “Accursed is the ground because of you….” (Beraishis 3:17)
I understand that this is why we are enjoined to wear shoes, because we are not supposed to touch the accursed ground. (By the way, we remove our shoes on Yom Kippur because the intrinsic kedusha of that holy day overcomes the curse. The kohanim in the Bais Hamikdosh also did not wear shoes because of the intrinsic kedusha of that Holy Place.)
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Chava ate fruit from trees. This is a perfect food. Eating fruit does not destroy. Nothing is killed – the tree even benefits, like a mother who nurses her child -- when we eat from a tree!
But after Gan Eden, we began to eat fruit from the ground which had been cursed. When you eat a potato or onion you must inevitably destroy the plant itself when you pull it out of the ground. In addition, we must replant again the next year (unlike a tree) and this increases our toil!
Then, in the time of Noach, we were permitted to eat meat, which greatly increased the level of killing, because by definition we cannot eat meat without killing the animal! Thus, each level downward from Gan Eden involves increasing pain and death.
We are looking for a return to Gan Eden, a world free of death, where death itself is shechted (as I mentioned last week in relation to “Chad Gadya,” which we sing at the end of the Pesach Seder). We are looking to return to a world in which we have nothing whatsoever to fear, even death itself, where our closeness to the Shechina overcomes all tumah and erases the sin of our First Parents!
At that time, the ground will once again become pure and holy! The entire earth will be like nature in the springtime. We have this in mind as Rosh Chodesh Nissan introduces the intoxicatingly beautiful season in which nature is reborn.
May we soon live in a world that is entirely blessed, an eternal springtime, like Gan Eden before the chait! A Guten Chodesh Nissan! May we soon see the Geulah Shelemah, when fear and death are banished from our world forever!
Car falling over
Spring blossoms
GLOSSARY
Adam and Chava: Adam and Eve
Arba minim: the four species of plants which we hold on Sukkos
Chait: sin, specifically the sin of Adam and Chava
Gan Eden: the Garden of Eden
Geula Shelemah: the Final Redemption, when Moshiach comes
Michael, Gavriel, Uriel, Raphael: names of angels who guard us
Nissan: the month in which Passover occurs
Rosh Chodesh: The first day of the month
Schechting: ritual slaughtering of kosher animals
Schechina: the Presence of G-d
Shmira: protection
Yaakov Avinu: Our father Jacob
Zt”l: May the holy person be remember for a blessing
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