PARSHAS BEHAR 5774

“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Behar
Pirkei Avos – Perek 3 —
9 Iyar 5774/May 9, 2014
Every generation loves
to tell the subsequent generations how different things were ‘back when I was a
kid’.  One of the things my generation
will tell our grandchildren is that when we were kids the ‘shayncoat’ hadn’t
been invented yet.
Today, any time it
rains on Shabbos, virtually every hat/straymel wearing man walking to shul
looks the same – like a black blimp with a black hood. But when I was a kid we
didn’t have shayncoats. Back then, if it was raining on Shabbos and you wanted
to cover your hat (and you didn’t have one of those slimy gray fitted covers)
you grabbed whatever bag you could find from your drawer and placed your hat inside
it.
My father, adorned in
his gray rain-hat, loved to poke fun at the assortment of bags people wore as
they hurried to shul in the rain. He would often quip that you could tell a lot
about a person by the bag he wears on his head in the rain. There were bags
from various shopping stores and department stores, and of all colors. Every
now and then you would see a very religious looking fellow wearing a bag on his
head from a store he would never step foot in. You knew he grabbed the first
bag he could find and didn’t bother to look at what it was before he ran out of
his house.
The new Shayncoat has
put an end to all of that individuality, and now all you see are the same trite
(although quite effective) black hoods. Well, with one notable exception. It
seems that I left my Shaynoat in our bungalow in camp last summer. And just my
luck it seems to rain every Shabbos recently. So the last few weeks when I walked
out of my house in a bright rain jacket, bearing a bag upon my hat, my children
came running to the door to laugh at me. I tried telling them that this is what
noble people wear in the rain, but they weren’t buying it.
As I was walking
through the rain this past Shabbos, with a beautiful Wesley Kosher bag atop my
hat, ignoring the cars that slowed down as they passed me (“You see that
guy? Man, them Jews is weirder than I thought!”)
I had a much greater
appreciation for an anecdote I once read.
            In his book, ‘Walking
with Rabbi Miller’, Rabbi Mordechai Dolinsky, a devoted disciple of Rabbi Avigdor
Miller zt’l, relates the following: “In my memory I am walking with the Rebbe,
and dark, threatening clouds in the distance are closing in on us. Before you
know it we feel actual precipitation, intermittent and gentle at first, then
turning into a very wet downpour. All this is marked by an increase of action
on the street, people running helter-skelter and being very vocal with their
complaints. We continue walking together, and the Rebbe changes the topic and
addresses the subject of the raindrops. He focuses on the vegetation, the
colorful, flavorful fruits that we enjoy and indulge in, and explains that they
are actually ‘coming down’ right now in the form of raindrops. Then he
continues to enumerate other gifts of Hashem, including the wonderful world of
sefarim that are in the making at this moment, as they are printed on paper
that grows in the forest. He then points out that “people” are falling; all the
new babies, our own children and grandchildren – Klal Yisroel, the tzaddikim!
            “Now
to see the Rebbe’s face – the joy, the excitement and ecstasy… It is one thing
to sit in a dry, comfortable home, lecturing about the wonderful blessings of
rain, repeatedly verbalizing this concept. But to be in the wetness of the rain
pouring down, and then to be in a state of ecstasy, certainly reflects one’s
true feelings.”    
            As
the rain dripped upon the bag atop my head, and my toes began to wrinkle inside
my drenched socks, I could only marvel at the appreciation Rabbi Miller had for
every aspect of creation. Whereas most people are annoyed by wind, Rabbi Miller
was excited about the benefits the world was gaining from it. The same held
true for snow and cold weather.
            It’s
a great lesson to think about. But if you’ll excuse me I have to go out to buy
myself a new shayncoat.
             Shabbat
Shalom & Good Shabbos,
               R’ Dani and Chani Staum    

720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425

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