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<span>Posted:</span> 14 Apr 2008 03:15 PM CDT</p>
<div style="margin:0;font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;line-height:140%;font-size:12px;color:#000000;"><p>The text of our Haggadah for identifying the third son is somewhat ambiguous. The word “<em>tam</em>” means “simple”. It could refer to someone who is simple minded. And this is the interpretation assumed in most translations of the Haggadah — “The simple son”. And then there is the frequently repeated thought on the words “<em>At pisach lo</em> — you shall open [the discussion] for him”, or perhaps even “you shall Passover for him”. The verb “<em>pisach</em>” is in the masculine, but the noun “<em>at</em>” is feminine. Because teaching the simple son requires a woman’s touch, or in this case, that the father be in touch with his feminine side.</p>
<p>However, I have seem commentaries that note that “<em>tam</em>” is used in the Torah as a compliment. Simple in the sense of having a pure faith, a first-hand relationship with the A-lmighty. And so while the <em>Chakham </em>(who may very well be a different aspect of the same person as the Tam) is taught the laws of <em>Pesach</em>, the <em>Tam </em>is given the heart of <em>Pesach</em>. We could say that the <em>Chakham </em>is the ideal pursued by the stereotypical Litvak, whereas the Chassid is trying to be this understanding of the word <em>Tam</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>When R’ JB Soloveitchik was “Berel, the Rabbi’s son”, a boy living in the predominantly Chabad town of Chaslovitch, the <em>cheder </em>he attended was in a room rented from the carpenter. The carpenter was a “<em>pashuter Yid</em> — a simple Jew” as they would have said in Yiddish. Whenever he worked, the carpenter would say Tehillim. The future Rabbi Soloveitchik noticed that he had things timed; whenever the carpenter drove in the last nail it was just as he finished the last verse of Tehillim. Regardless of the size or complexity of the piece, the man would say Tehillim at just the right speed to match.</p>
<p>It is like the Zohar’s comment on the words “Chanokh walked himself with G-d, and he was gone for G-d had taken him” (Bereishis 5:24). The Zohar states that Chanokh was a shoemaker, and with every stitch he not only attached the uppers to the soles, he also pronounced names of G-d and unified the worlds. And at some point his soul simply sored upward and left this world without dying. (Similar in kind to Eliyahu’s mode of passing.)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>Rav Soloveitchik would repeat the Vilna Shoemaker Dilemma. While the Gaon studied Torah in Vilna, there was another man, not recorded by history, who was Vilna’s shoemaker. He wasn’t a gifted genius, nor capable of sleeping in half-hour installments and accomplishing work 22+ hours a day. Of course, in terms of Torah the Vilna Gaon knew more and taught more. But the shoemaker spent his days banging at his shoes and saying Tehillim with pure thought. He too accomplished everything he could with what Hashem gave him. Who was holier?</p>
<p>And in a statement one would have expected from a chassidic story, not this heartland of Lithuanian learning, the answer is simply “We can’t know.”</p>
<p>I think it’s no coincidence that Rav Chaim Volozhiner, a student of the Vilna Gaon, tells a story which concludes: “And there I hear a voice from the street. I put my head out the window and I see Eli the shoemaker running excited. ‘What happened Eli? What happened to the light of the sun? Why are the birds singing so loudly? Why are all the trees suddenly blooming?’ The shoemaker responded ‘Don’t you know rebbe?’ The shoemaker gave me a look at said, ‘Moshiach came’”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">♦ ♦ ♦</p>
<p>The version of the four sons in our Hagaddah follows the Talmud Bavli. In the Yerushalmi, there is no such ambiguity — this son is call the <em>Tipesh</em>, the child who isn’t as bright as most of us.</p>
<p>As a procedural question, textual variants can be taken two ways. The first approach would be to assume there is no dispute, that these are simply two different expressions of the same basic idea. Which would imply in our case that “<em>tam</em>” would have to mean “simple minded”. The other is to assume that the Bavli intentionally used a different word than the Yerushalmi in order to express a difference of opinion. And therefore “<em>tam</em>” here would be someone who is “spiritually unconflicted”, wholeheartedly a servant of G-d.</p>
<p>I happen to have a son who would be called a “<em>tipeish</em>” if the term hadn’t been turned into an insult. Shuby has Downs. But he truly is <em>tam</em> in both senses of the word: because his understanding of the universe is so uncomplicated, if I tell him “Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is truly everywhere” — He is. To Shuby, when reminded of the fact, Hashem’s Presence is just as real and immediate as mine.</p>
<p>The Vilna Shoemaker or Chaslavitch Carpenter were not among history’s <em>Chakhamim</em> (although there is no reason to believe they were any less bright than most). But they were <em>Temimim</em>; they lived their lives with only one goal — to serve Hashem with the upmost of what He gave them.</p>
<p>Their worldview is captured by Shalom Aleikhem in the mouth of Tevye the Milkman. He may mangle every verse or statement of Chazal that he tries to repeat, but his life is a continuous dialog with the A-lmighty. We meet him coming home moments before candle-lighting on Friday afternoon. He is pulling his milk cart, and muttering something. As we get closer, we hear him ask the A-lmighty, “But did You have to break my poor horse’sWas that necessary? Did you have to make him lame just before the Sabbath? That wasn’t nice. It’s enough you pick on me. Bless me with five daughters, a life of poverty, that’s all right. But what have you got against my horse’s leg?” And so he continues, his constant discussion. In his own little way, Tevye fulfills “<em>Shevisi Hashem lenegdi tamid</em> - I place Hashem before me constantly” in a manner matched by few who have greater erudition.</p>
<p>Of course, the true goal would be to have both.</p>
<p>“<em>Eizehu chakham? Halomeid mikol adam.</em>” Ben Zoma teaches us, “Who is wise? Someone who can learn from anyone.” Finding what to learn from the Vilna Gaon is trivial. But what are we to learn from the third son? “<em>Tam, mah hu omeir?</em>”</p>
<p>This <em>temimus</em>, this purity of belief and personality is accessible even — no, let me write “more so” — to the Yerushalmi’s <em>tipeish</em>, the simple boy who may not be able to understand everything going on around him, but who uses the all the beauty Hashem gave him to touch heaven with his fingertips.</p><div class="feedflare">
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<a style="font-family:Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/270276741/sweet-charoses.shtml">Sweet Charoses</a>
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<span>Posted:</span> 14 Apr 2008 10:01 AM CDT</p>
<div style="margin:0;font-family:Times New Roman, Times, serif;line-height:140%;font-size:12px;color:#000000;"><p><span><strong>(Version II of an earlier thought.)</strong></span></p>
<p><em>Charoses </em>poses a paradox. On the one hand, the Rambam writes, “The <em>charoses </em>is a <em>mitzvah </em>from the <em>Sofrim</em>, as a commemoration of the mortar that they worked in in Egypt.” (Laws of Chaomeitz and Matzah 7:11). <em>Charoses </em>represents mortar, slavery.</p>
<p>On the other hand, contemporary recipes for <em>charoses </em>are to make it sweet. Sephardic, Ashkenazic and Yemenite recipes have few ingredients in common, yet they all use a sweet mixture (see also Pesachim 115b, which warns against losing the bitterness of the <em>maror </em>under the sweetness of the <em>charoses</em>).</p>
<p>So which is it — a symbol of slavery, or of the sweetness of freedom?</p>
<p>Thinking about it, though, <em>matzah </em>presents a similar ambiguity. We open <em>Magid </em>by describing <em>matzah </em>as “the bread of suffering which we ate in Egypt”. Yet, later on, when we repeat Rabban Gamliel’s three things that must be said to fulfill the obligation of the <em>seder</em>, we say we eat <em>matzah </em>“because there was not enough [time] for our ancestors dough to rise”.</p>
<p>Again, which is it — a symbol of slavery, or of a hasty redemption?</p>
<p>What is interesting is that we see the same duality in the very concept of <em>mitzvah</em>. On the one hand, the root of the word is \צוה\, to command. This is the idea we convey before taking out the Torah, in “<em>Berikh Shemei</em>” (from the Zohar). “I am a servant of the Holy One, blessed be He”. We keep <em>mitzvos </em>for a simple reason. G-d told us to.</p>
<p>However, the word for “commandment” is “<em>tzivui</em>“. <em>Mitzvah </em>is built from the passive form, a less probable conjugation, “that which was commanded”. The late Lubavitcher Rebbe<sup>zt”l</sup> opined that this is an allusion to a second root, \מצצ\ or \מצו\, to connect for nourishment or <span class="ubernym uttInitialism" onmouseover="domTT_activate(this, event, 'content', 'The most popular instant messaging service was originally for AOL members only. (<a href="http://www.aim.com">link</a>)','caption', 'AOL Instant Messenger' );"><abbr class="uttInitialism">aim</abbr></span>. <em>Mitzvah </em>can be read as the feminization of this root. Which gives us a second definition of “<em>mitzvah</em>” — not only are they “what G-d commanded” but also they provide a focus to our lives, a way to connect to Him. And so the selfsame Zohar we cited in the previous paragraph occasionally refers to the <em>mitzvos </em>as the “<em>Taryag itin</em> — the 613 <em>eitzos</em>, ideas / pieces of advice”.</p>
<p>In a <em><a title="Al Netilas Yadayim (audio)" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2006/05/al-netilas-yadayim.shtml">shi’ur</a></em><a title="Al Netilas Yadayim (audio)" href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2006/05/al-netilas-yadayim.shtml"> on the <em>berakhah </em>before <em>netilas Yadayim</em></a>, I suggested that this is the reason for the phrasing of <em>berakhos </em>on <em>mitzvos</em>, “<em>asher qidishanu bemitzvosav vetzivanu</em> — Who sanctified us with His <em>mitzvos </em>and commanded us…” Mitzvos are to be viewed both as an opportunity to draw <em>qedushah</em> and as a straightforward act of submitting to His command.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“‘The tablets were engraved (<em>charus</em>) by G-d, and the writing was the writing of G-d.’ (Shemos 32) Don’t read ‘<em>charus</em>‘, but ‘<em>cheirus</em>‘ (freedom). For no one is more free than one is busy with Torah study.”<br />
<em> — Pirkei Avos 6:2</em></p>
<p><em>Mitzvah </em>operates on two levels. Servitude, simple obedience to G-d. Freedom, doing what is in our best interest. And here is where the two ideas we’ve been looking at converge.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“You will guard the <em>matzos</em>” that they shall not come to leaven…. R. Avohu says, “It should not be read ‘<em>matzos</em>‘ but rather ‘<em>mitzvos</em>‘. Just as we don’t let <em>matzos </em>leaven, we similarly don’t let <em>mitzvos </em>‘leaven’. Rather, if one comes to your hands, do it immediately.”<br />
<em> — Rashi, Sh’mos 12:17</em></p>
<p><em>Matzos</em>, in the guise of “there was not enough time”, teaches us about the proper way to do <em>mitzvos</em>. They parallel because they both share the same dual nature. On the first level, one would assume they are unpleasant, something one would want to avoid. But by the time we’ve explored the subject, toward the end of “<em>Magid</em>“, you can feel how they represent the path to freedom.</p>
<p>The <em>mitzvah </em>is a yoke we accept upon ourselves because we know that Hashem commanded (\צוה\) it to nourish us (\מצצ\). On the surface layer, it is “the bread of affliction” but we eat it by choice, because we trust the G-d gave them to us to help us.</p>
<p>This is a major theme in the Exodus story in general. As we say in Sh’ma “I am Hashem your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt to be for you a G-d/Legislator.”</p>
<p>We also have a key to understanding the apparently oxymoronic symbolism of <em>charoses</em>. It doesn’t represent the bitter servitude of Par’oh, but the sweet, voluntary yoke of heaven. We eat is with <em>maror</em>, which does represent the bitter slavery, and give it the appearance of that servitude to bring to mind the contrast.</p>
<p>Charoses, like being a “servant of the Holy One” has a surface layer, an appearance of the mortar of slavery. But experientially, it’s very different. Or, as King David wrote, “טַֽעֲמ֣וּ וּ֭רְאוּ כִּי־ט֣וֹב יְהוָ֑ה, אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶֽחֱסֶה־בּֽוֹ׃ — Taste and see that the Hashem is good; happy is the man who takes refuge in Him. ” (Tehillim 35:9, said in Shabbos and holiday Shacharis)</p>
<p>(It is interesting to note that due to the inclusion of the next 2 verses in <em>bentching </em>(”<em>Yir’u es Hashem qedoshav…</em>“)and R’ Yisrael Meir haKohen Kagan’s choice of title to his seifer “Chafeitz Chaim”, added to the efforts of a number of 20th century songwriters, many people are aware of the mussar content of this chapter of Tehillim. However, this preceding verse doesn’t get the same attention.</p>
<p>“<em>Na’aseh viNishmah</em> — we will do, and we will hear.” Doing come first because only through the first-hand experience can we hear the beauty, the depth, of the Torah.</p><div class="feedflare">
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