“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Lech Lecha 5781
12 MarCheshvan 5781/October 30, 2020
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A BEAUTIFUL MOON
As I was
walking to Shul on Motzei Shabbos this week, I saw that the moon was clearly
shining. That meant we would be able to recite kiddush levana after ma’ariv. I
turned to the person walking with me, pointed upwards, and remarked, “a shayner
levana”, Yiddish for “a beautiful moon.” I then added, “can you imagine a non-Jew
ever making such a comment?” That’s not to say that a non-Jew can’t appreciate
the beauty of the moon. However, they do not have the same appreciation to
“bless the moon” which is considered equivalent to greeting the Shechina
itself. That feeling of excitement expressed in the words “a shayner levana”
is unique to those who observe mitzvos.
At the
funeral of his father, my Uncle, Rabbi Yaakov Cohn, related how excited his
father would become over performing mitzvos. When he would call his father after
Shabbos to ask him how his Shabbos was, if it was a week when kiddush levana
was recited, his father would express how beautiful the kiddush levana was.
My
uncle’s father passed away a few decades ago, but I think about those words
every time we recite kiddush levana.
A few
years ago, a Rav approached Rav Elyashiv complaining about certain behaviors a
group of Jews were displaying. The Rav told Rav Elyashiv that he felt the
situation needed to be dealt with.
Rav Elyashiv
replied by relating the (apocryphal) story about the German leader, Franz
Joseph, who one day dispatched an advisor to check up on his Jewish subjects.
The advisor returned and reported that he had arrived on a Saturday evening to
find all the Jews standing in the street outside their synagogue, looking
heavenwards and praying. Franz Joseph was intrigued and summoned a local Rabbi,
demanding to know why the Jews were praying outside the synagogue instead of
inside. The Rabbi was taken aback by the question. He thought a moment before he
replied that when G-d created the world, the moon complained that its light was
equal to the sun. G-d responded by minimizing the light of the moon. Therefore,
every month Jews go outside and pray that G-d restore the light of the moon.
Franz
Joseph laughed and replied, “If these are the concerns of the Jews, it seems
like things are pretty good among the Jewish people.”
Rav Elyashiv
then turned to the Rav and said that we have bigger issues to deal with than
the relatively petty issue he was bothered by. If that issue would be the
Jewish people’s biggest concern, we would be in good shape.
Being
Jewish does require doing things that seem eccentric to those outside the fold.
The sad thing is when we ourselves don’t seek to appreciate the depth and
beauty of our own profound traditions and mitzvos, such as kiddush levana.
In a
similar vein to Rav Elyashiv’s story, at an Agudah convention years ago, Rav
Shimon Schwab described a Jew in pre-war Poland reciting Kiddush
Levanah on a bitterly cold Motzei Shabbos. This Polish Jew had neither
enough money to buy clothing to protect himself from the cold nor to purchase
food to stave off his pangs of hunger. Yet, he shivered in the cold beseeching
Hashem to return the diminished light of the moon.
Rav
Schwab noted that undoubtedly the fact that the moon was symbolically flawed
was the least of that Jew’s worries. However, he recognized that all needs will
be fulfilled when Moshiach comes and the world witnesses Malchus
Shamayim.
Rav
Schwab himself had a personal affinity for the mitzvah of kiddush levana. If he
was walking home from shul, and the moon suddenly appeared from behind the
clouds, he would stop and recite kiddush levana then and there.
At one
point when he had to be hospitalized, Rav Schwab was offered a private room on
the west side of the hospital with a view overlooking the Hudson River, at no
extra charge. Rav Schwab politely declined the offer, explaining that he
calculated that the moon would be visible that night on the east side of the hospital,
so he wanted a room on that side. The room he was given on the east side wasn’t
private and his sickly roommate was moaning all night. Rav Schwab insisted that
it was all worth it.
The last
month of his life, Rav Schwab was in the Intensive Care Unit in the hospital.
He missed Kiddush Levana that month for the first and last time in his life.
Rabbeinu
Yonah (Berachos 21a) writes that by witnessing the cycles of the moon, one sees
the greatness of Hashem and, therefore, it is considered as if he accepted
p’nei haShechina.
The
Darkei Moshe adds that the cycle of the moon symbolizes the Davidic dynasty.
Just as the moon wanes and then waxes again, so will Malchus Bais Dovid be
reestablished, even centuries after it has faded.
At the
Siyum Hashas on March 1, 1995 in Madison Square Garden, Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon
shlita, the Mashgiach of Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., delivered the final
address, in which he mentioned that the Siyum was dedicated to the memory of
the six million who perished during the Holocaust. During that lecture he
related the following story:
Rav
Chaim Shmulevitz zt’l recounted that he once asked a survivor how he was able
to bear five years in a forced labor camp and remain a believer? How could he
have emerged with undiminished love for G-d?
The man
replied, “They didn’t allow us to keep any mitzvos in the camp. They deprived
us of Shabbos, Yom Tov, Torah, etc., and from early morning until late in the
evening they guarded us closely.
“But
there was one thing they could not take away from us – the moon! There were
inmates among us who calculated when Rosh Chodesh was and when Kiddush Levanah
could be recited. On that night, as we would walk back to the barracks with
soldiers on both sides, someone would whisper that it was time to recite Kiddush
Levanah. We would hold hands and recite Kiddush Levanah, and that symbolized
everything to us. As we say in Kiddush Levana, “וללבנה אמר
שתתחדש עטרת תפארת לעמוסי בטן שהם עתידים להתחדש כמותה ולפאר ליוצרם על שם כבוד
מלכותו” – To the moon He said that
it should renew itself, as a crown of splendor for those borne from the womb,
those who are destined to renew themselves like it, and to glorify their
Creator for the sake of His glorious kingdom.”
The Rema
(Oh”C 426:2) writes that Kiddush Levana is a tefillah and expression of
confidence that the light of the moon will again be equated with the light of
the sun. It is also symbolic of the future reunification of Klal Yisroel with
Hashem, as it were, in perpetuity. Therefore, Rema writes that one should dance
after reciting Kiddush Levana.
It turns
out then, that the customary dance following kiddush levana isn’t merely a nice
thing to do. Its source is in the Shulchan Aruch itself.
It is a
joyous dance with confidence in a better future, the rise of the glory of Klal
Yisroel, Torah, and Kavod Shomayim. As we dance before the moon, we join Jews
throughout the world and throughout history who have performed that same dance
with the same hopes and dreams.
We might
feel antsy or restless on Motzei Shabbos, and not always be so excited to have
to walk out of shul and say another tefillah. It entails standing outside in
the dark and in summer humidity or the freezing cold winter. But it’s a small
price to pay for an opportunity to greet the Shechina and celebrate the undiminished
eternal spark and sanguinity of our eternal people. That’s surely something
worth dancing about.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum