Good afternoon, dear friends. As is still the case, it has been hard enough trying to describe the mix of emotions that we have been experiencing, let alone trying to keep track of when is and isn’t an appropriate time to feel that way. We go from shiva call to sheva...
Rus clung tearfully to her mother-in-law Naomi, and begged to be allowed to go back with her to Eretz Yisroel; back to a Land ravaged by famine and to a life that would surely be fraught with difficulties. “Where you will go, I will go. Where you will stay, I will stay. Your Nation is My Nation and Your G-d is my G-d as well.” What an amazing and powerful statement!
Imagine – this is the place where Avraham davened and was answered, thereby elevating and transforming its ground to the place most conducive for prayer and repentance – a place to which his children would forever flock to perform these spiritual feats…
Both the brachos and the klalos are addressed in the plural form – the words of the parsha imploring us to internalize the actuality of our united soul, to understand that we actually NEED each other in order thrive, and thus strive to exhibit genuine kindness and compassion towards our fellow Jew – no matter what.
In the context of observance of Moshe Rabbeinu’s yahrtzeit, the message is as clear as it is fundamental to our most basic principles: one’s belief in the Supreme Creator is incomplete if it is not complemented by the full belief in His most loyal servant and greatest emissary: Moshe Rabbeinu.
In these words, we are being told that when we follow the Torah and perform the mitzvos with love, then the sky’s the limit, and that truly, no enemy can touch us. Now that is something to sing about.
He had witnessed a world that had gone so wrong, but from that point forward, he spent his life planting the seeds for a world that would exist long after he was gone. To Rabbi Goldman, it was always about our future.