The lessons of the Rebbe, Rabbi Josiah Pinto, Shlita, are renowned in the Jewish world. They combine Hasidism and thought, along with tips for a better life. We have gathered pearls from his teachings that are relevant to our daily lives. And this week: the portion of Vara
The Gemara tells us (Sanhedrin 66:2) that Rabbi Elazar would demand about the plague of a frog that was one frog that spawned and filled all of Egypt, and Rabbi Akiva would demand that there was one frog that the Egyptians would beat, and from the blows that beat it, many frogs came out, and it was the plague of a frog. Rabbi Elazar came to him and said to him, Akiva, what is it to you, and according to the Haggadah, go from the words of the Haggadah, and go learn afflictions and alahs, Not so, but one frog whistled at them and a lot of frogs came and not like you say one frog was, and they beat it and a lot of frogs came out of this frog.
And here it raises a difficulty: the holy Torah is not the Torah of all of us and everyone has the right to express his opinion in the Torah, everyone can argue and everyone can say his opinion. Rabbi Akiva wants to express his opinion that there was one frog and that many frogs came out of the beatings that beat it, he has the right to say, why is he silenced so that he should stop saying the words of the Haggadah and go to the afflictions and goddess?
We thought to interpret and say, our sages tell us (Berakhot66:2) when they put Rabbi Akiva to death the time of the Shema reading was and they would comb his flesh with iron combs. And Rabbi Akiva would have suffered the most severe suffering. His disciples saw him and said to him, ‘How will we see you die?’ He said to them all my days, I would be sorry for this verse with all your soul, even taking your soul, I said when He will come to me and I will fulfill, and now that He comes to me, I will not fulfill, Then his soul blossomed and he died.
The commentators ask what it means, “All my days I have been sorry for this verse, when will it come to me and I will fulfill it?”And the
meaning is this: God created man on the sixth day – after He created all creation and not in the days before. For the Almighty said to all the animals and birds, let’s build something good in the world, and each one will contribute his goodness. The lion contributed from its strength, the eagle contributed from its strength, each animal contributed its goodness to the creation that was going to be created. And what was created? Adam the First Choice of Creation, ThatHe possesses powers from all of creation. Therefore the Mishnah says (Avot 5:20) “O goat as a tiger and light as an eagle, and run like a deer and mighty as a lion,” man can be as fierce as a tiger because the tiger has contributed to man his fierceness, and so be as easy as an eagle because all the powers of animals lie in man.
At the same time that all the animals contributed their powers to the created man, the frog gave two powers to man—one power of singing and praising God, and the other power of devotion. We see this in the plague of the frog, when God told the frogs to come, they jumped into the fire, went into the ovens of the Egyptians and gave their lives. The frog gave man the power to give life.
According to this, it is possible to explain and say, Rabbi Akiva says, the frog did not have martyrdom, because in the creation of the frog it was not created with great devotion, but there was one frog and more frogs were born miraculously and they gave their souls, but they are not ordinary frogs that act according to their nature. So, according to Rabbi Akiva’sview, a person does not have enough power of martyrdom, For according to Rabbi Akiva, frogs were created by miracle, and if so, they did not contribute to man a strong force in the creation of the world of martyrdom.Rabbi Elazar Lech says to him from the words of the
Haggadah – we did receive the power of martyrdom from the frogs and this is their nature, so go and learn afflictions and alahs. Therefore, it was difficult for Rabbi Akiva all his life to give a soul, and all his life he would wait for a moment to say “Shema Yisrael” with devotion, and Rabbi Elazar tells him that you are weakening the power of martyrdom.
Thus we see that when King David finished writing the Book of Psalms, he was distracted, the Midrash says that a frog came to David and told him why you were distracted, I say every moment thousands of service to G-d, immediately King David was silent. And we asked how one frog could prove King David, why was King David silent? It is true that the power of praise and praise for God is from the frog that contributed it to man in the creation of the world, So David kept silent because he got the power from the frog.
The same can be interpreted regarding the dachshund, which was an animal created only for the purpose of the Tabernacle, and the question is, why was it not created at the creation of the world? Rather, the Talmud says that the skin of the dachshund was very beautiful, and if it were in the creation of the world it would have contributed a rare power of beauty to man. But with such beauty, many people would be tempted to sin. Therefore, God created the dachshund only for the tabernacle and not for the creation of the world.
David Berger, in collaboration with Shova Israel
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