Guest Posting by "A Hidden Tzadik:"
I heard a story from my chumash Rebbi, Rabbi ______, and it ties right in with this week’s Parsha, Parsha’s Kedoshim in a beautiful way. The story is as follows. There was a young man named Moshe who grew up in a nice frum Jewish home. Afterwhile, for whatever reason Moshe lost interest in yiddishkite and found other things to be much more stimulating and exciting. Moshe eventually ended up meeting a non-Jewish girl named Kristina who was from Catholic family. Moshe never revealed his Jewish identity to Kristina for Moshe had no reason to. One Friday Shabbos Night when Moshe and Kristina were walking and talking about all the nonsense and the filth of this world (like they normally did) they all of a sudden heard a mixture of loud cries and singing.
Moshe and Kristina started walking closer and closer to the cries and the singing wondering where they could be coming from and who could be letting out such intense cries? The cries and the singing got louder and louder and Moshe suddenly began to recognize these cries that he and Kristina were hearing. The cries and the singing were coming from the shul of Rav Ahron Karlin and all his chassdim who were singing and crying out to Hashem with great fever. Kristina’s curiousity got the best of her and she told Moshe she wanted to go in to the Shul to check out what was going on. Moshe agreed and told Kristina that she must go to the women section for he was Jewish and he remembered that Jews kept the Men and Women separate. Moshe went into the Men’s section and sat in the back corner close to the door none of the Chassidim noticed that he was there for they were all singing the holy song of “Kaw Echsof Noam Shabbos” which was composed by Rav Ahron of Karlin and they were all crying out to Hashem with their eyes closed reaching very high and lofty spiritual heights.
After the singing and crying was finished, Rav Ahron Karlin got up to speak and Rav Ahron Karlin spoke about the first four pasukim of this week’s Parsha, Parsha’s Kedoshim. He said as follows, “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: (at this point Moshe started to listen closely) Speak to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them: You Shall be Holy, for Holy am I, Hashem, your God. Rav Ahron Karlin paused and then said that this pasuk is talking to the group of yidden who are known as the “Kedoshim”. Rav Ahron continued on to the next pasuk, “Every man: Your father and mother shall you fear and My Shabbos shall you observe – I am Hashem, your God. Rav Aharon Karlin paused a second time and said that this pasuk is talking about the yidden who keep the major Mitzvos but their lacking that fire in their “Avodas Hashem”. The last pasuk said Rav Aharon says, “Do not turn to the idols, and molten gods shall you not make for yourselves – I am Hashem, your God. Rav Aharon of Karlin concluded and said that this pasuk is talking about the yidden that have fallen very away from Hashem. Know said Rav Aharon, that when the pasuk says I am Hashem your God it means that even if you fall away from Hashem in to the lowest depths – it doesn’t matter because I am Hashem your God means that Hashem love’s you even at this low place and even you can still come back to Hashem! As Kristina waited outside the Karlin Shul she eventually grew tired of waiting and left Moshe in Karlin forever!
The truth is Every Jew is like this Moshe in this story and we all want to just stop whatever distractions were caught up in and run to a Shul and starting singing and crying out to the Holy Shabbos and here words of Divrei Chizuk from our Rebbi. But the problem is that every Jew (on their own individual level) has their “Kristina”, has their yetzer hara that they get mixed up with which distracts them from their real tachlis and ultimate purpose in life. And just like in the beginning of the story Moshe didn’t tell Kristina that he was Jewish, so to with us if we don’t tell our “Kristina” who we really are and our true “kochos” then God forbid we can end up living with “Kristina” instead of living with the “Rebono Shel Olam”. But when we reveal to our yetzer hara who we really are (like Moshe eventually did) then “Kristina” will try to come into shul with us and even try to distract us there but eventually she’ll get fed up with us and leave us in Karlin forever! When we remember that the Hashem loves us and we constantly remind ourselves of this unconditional love that Hashem has for us then we are able to conquer our “Kristina” and come back to Hashem out of love, which is the best type of T’shuvah.
May Hashem help all of us whether were struggling to be “Kedoshim” or were struggling to get back that fire into our mitzvos and our Avodas Hashem or were struggling just not to fall any further into all the idolatry and garbage of today’s time. May Hashem direct us to our own inner “Karlin Shul’s” and to attach ourselves to the True Tzaddikim in order so we can come back to Hashem singing and crying in full T’shuvah mamish! May we all be zocheh to see the Masiach tzidkaynu Bmhayrah Byamanu. Amen!
Have A Great Shabbos With Hashem!!!
(The picture is of the Karliner Shul in Tiveria, built by R' Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk in the late 1700s, courtesy of JewishGen.org)
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