Ohev Shalom Voice
Shevat - January, 5768
Rabbi’s Message
The Fifteenth of Shevat Is The New Year For Trees. (Rosh Hashanah 2:A)
We serve our creator with theory.
You shall teach them to your children to speak them while you sit in your home, while you walk in the way, when you retire and when you arise. (Deut 11:19)
We serve our creator with practice.
Now what does Hashen your G-d ask of you? To fear Hashem your G-d, to go in all His ways and to love Him, to observe the commandments of the L-rd and His decrees (Deut. 10:12)
Both of these are necessary for our worship to be complete. We therefore place Tefillin on our head directed to our intellect and on our arm directed to our deeds to subjugate both of these to service of our Creator.
Man is like the tree of the field (Deut. 20:19)
The Mishnah (Ethics 3:17) elaborates on this comparison: "Anyone whose wisdom exceeds his good deeds, to what can he be compared? To a tree whose branches are numerous but whose roots are few, and the wind comes and uproots it and turns it upside down. But anyone whose good deeds exceeds his wisdom, to what can he be compared? To a tree whose branches are few but whose roots are numerous, so that even if all the winds in the world were to come against it, they could not move it from its place."
When doing the Mitzvah of Tefillin, we are to take the hand Tefillin out of the sack first in order to put it on first. Even if by mistake the head Tefilin was brought out first, we must place it back and put on the hand Tefillin first.
Knowledge and wisdom are the spiritual branches. Actions are the roots. Our stability and our consistency are dependent upon our placing priority on our roots. With this strength we can stand up against alien winds which might threaten to drive us away from the paths of righteousness.
Not preaching, but practice is the essential thing. (Ethics 1:17)
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