Terumah: Raising Others Through Speech

One of the hardest things about living in Israel is the complete lack of Jewish education that the average secular Jew receives. I was speaking to my neighbor (in her 70s) and she wanted to say something she once heard from her father regarding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and she did not know which came first. As mentioned a few weeks ago, I was speaking to somebody in his 30s, who did not know at which age one begins to put on tefillin. It's shocking and sad. And even worse are the kibbutzim, who believe in stamping out religion altogether, with their "Lets Eat Pork on Yom Kippur" festivals. I saw a clip the other day of one of the hostages who returned in the past week. An American-Israeli. He explained that (unfortunately), he only knew two Jewish "brachos": 1) The bracha on bread 2) Shema Yisroel. That's it. While he was in captivity, he decided to make a bracha on the pita that he received every day. Then, when given some time to watch television, he saw somebody make a bracha (mezonos) on something. The interviewer interrupted him, asking, "What were you watching where somebody made a bracha?" He smiled and answered, "I don't know, somebody checking out restaurants in Tel Aviv or something." From there, he decided that on all other food, he would say mezonos (acknowledging that he did not know at the time, that it's only for certain foods and not all). So, with his two brachos and his Shema Yisroel, despite his captors attempts to convert him, he stayed close to Hashem throughout his year in Gaza. His daughter, when interviewed on television, reported that when he came back on Shabbos, she asked him what food he wanted to eat for his first meal in freedom. He replied, "Honestly, I just want a kippa and cup to say kiddish on." Two things we can see here. The first, and not-so-obvious thing, is: can you imagine the merit the person on television receives for his one bracha? Did he think for a moment that that bracha in Tel Aviv would be heard in the bowels of Gaza and would help inspire and keep a Jewish hostage alive? And second, and more obvious, can you see what a Jew can become, even a kibbutznik with so little education and even under the most dire of circumstances? "Speak to the Children of Israel, and they shall take for Me a donation offering" (Shemos 25: 2). The Kedushas Levi notes that this is the first time, since the giving of the Torah, that Hashem tells Moshe to "speak to the Jewish people." Why is that? After all, isn't that his job? Why does he need to be specifically told to do so? He answers that a when a tzaddik speaks, he is very careful on who he speaks with and on what they speak about. If the tzaddik, who is constantly connected with Hashem, speaks to an ordinary person about mundane matters (or "worse"), that could disrupt the connection that he has with Hashem. However, when the tzaddik is able to raise the person whom he is speaking to, then he will be able to not only retain his connection with Hashem, but also to raise the other person as well. When the nation sinned with the Golden Calf, they lost something special, and with this, Moshe was afraid that if he were to speak to them, he himself will lose his connection with Hashem and be lowered. Therefore, Hashem tells him specifically, "Speak to the Children of Israel, and they shall take for Me ...." And as Rashi comments, "they will be dedicated to My name." Being, by Moshe speaking to them, they will raise themselves and dedicate themselves to Hashem. So, this is all nice and great, if you happen to be a tzaddik. And how does this apply if you are not? This past week, my middle daughter had an interview at the local girls` high school for next year. For whatever reason, which the entire community cannot understand, the two people running it have no concept of how to actually educate or even speak nicely to their students. They like to make themselves and their school bigger than they actually are. Everybody in the class enjoyed the form that they had to fill out before hand, especially the question: "Why do you want to come to this school in particular," clearly ignoring the fact that they are the only option in town, the closest option being an hour away by bus, which runs only once per hour. So, my wife and daughter knew that it probably won't be some pleasant conversation, but rather them trying to find something to pick on (for my oldest daughter, they attacked her straight "A"s she received in eighth grade, assuring her that she will not have such good marks at their school. She did). So, they went and despite a couple of snide remarks from one of them, the interview went smoothly and quickly. My wife noticed something about my daughter's behaviour throughout the entire interview: she was smiling the whole time. My daughter always has a pleasant look on her face, but she doesn't always smile; so my wife asked her about it. She replied that she noticed that every time her older sister spoke to another person, she always smiled at them. And in turn, the other would feel at ease and smile back. So, she decided to work on this herself, and that this would be the best time to start. Pretty impressive for an eighth-grader, no? Perhaps there lies the lesson. Even for us ordinary people, how we conduct ourselves in conversation can lower the person or raise the person. In fact, it has an effect on both the person speaking and the person being spoken to. We could either push a person down with snide remarks or raise them with a simple smile. With that, I wish you all a wonderful Shabbos.