By Moshe Burt


Parsha Bo is the one which, for me, annually relates to that crazy tune which played back "in the Old Country" a couple of decades ago, "Does Your Korbon Pesach Lose It's Flavor Tied to the Bedpost Overnight?"  (Actually, the real title to the song was "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?")

Over the years, I've come to associate this nutty parody of mine with the very heart of our Parsha.  That is the mitzvot of Korbon Pesach, the da'am on Jewish door-posts, the going up from Mitzrayim (Egypt)to "...a land flowing with milk and honey ..." and the first mitzvah commanded of the National entity (B'nai Yisrael), the Kiddush HaChodesh -- the sanctification of the New Moon and the relevance today of these mitzvot which relate to emunah (belief in) and yirat (fear of) Hashem.
 
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin's "Growth Through Torah" relates comments from The Chofetz Chayim on the verse "There will come a time when G'd will bring you to the land ... He swore to your ancestors that He would give you -- a land flowing with milk and honey, and you shall do this service."

He states, "The Torah and the land of Israel are one unit.  Their relationshp is as the
relationship of body and soul.  A soul cannot exist alone in this world.  The body alone is just dust from the earth, it needs the soul to give it life.  The soul of the Jewish people is the sacred Torah.  The body is the land of Israel.  There are many Mitzvot that cannot be fulfilled outside of the land of Israel.  Nevertheless, with all of the difficulties involved in living in exile, we as a people are still alive.  The land of Israel without Torah, however is like a body without a soul.  It is just a piece of land.  Only when both exist together is there a complete unit." ("Growth Through Torah", p. 168-169 quoting "Chofetz Chayim al HaTorah", p.65)

Amd Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler added "In two hours, I attain in spiritual matters things that outside of Eretz Yisrael I had to work on a number of weeks." ("Growth Through Torah", p. 168-169  quoting Marbitzai Torah Umussar, vol. 3, p. 79) 

It is in that vein that I shall speak of a very special event, a happening, which took place this past week. 

As the print, electronic and internet media blared all this past week about new governing coalitions, who made what deal for millions of shekels in exchange for joining and how politicians rarely stand, or stand very long on principle, especially Jewish principle, a new world was being created -- a melding of Neshamot took place in Jerusalem.

Very dear friends of mine from Northeast Philadelphia celebrated the Chassuna this past Tuesday of their son to the daughter of a family from Amsterdam.

And as a former Philadelphian, the Simcha felt as a magic moment for me, for I was together with scores of young people, the little kids I remembered watching grow up in their parent's homes, at the Shabbos tables, in Shul at Ahavas Torah, etc.   Many of their parents were as extended family to me.  And the kids, they were/are sharp as tacks, learning Torah, davening,  doing Mitzvot, yet alert and aware of the world around them; be it world events or the top players on the Phillies or Eagles. 

When I was Stateside last month, the Chosson's family opened their home to me to during three days I was in Northeast Philly.  And now this young boy I remember back in the "Old Country", who rode his bike around the neighborhood and was often late for dinner has grown into a soft-spoken, yet worldly, true Ben-Torah in every way. 

The Chosson and Kallah have both been living and learning in Telstone and Jerusalem for a couple of years.  There was no time for recounting to me how the couple came to meet.  But they seem to click,  to fit, as they say, to complement each other as do two halves of a Neshama when it becomes whole.

But for me, it was a special feeling being there with all of these young people from Philly who are now young adults and adults B'H learning in Eretz Yisrael.  It was a special moment for me, ranking alongside the first time I met Rav Moshe Levinger, last Summer's Hachnasat Sefer Torah in Shi-rat HaYam in Gush Katif (or the one being worked on to bring about in The Chasdei Shirit Community Center in Neve Dekalim) and my first Siyum in Gemora.  For me, it is wishing, hoping that they stay, that they come to see futility of returning to Chutz L'Aretz.  It is wishing and hoping that the children bring their parents back, back to Eretz Yisrael, "...the Land of your soul ..." as the Carlebach niggun goes.  
                                                                                                                       
And just as the young couple are now a complete Neshama, their union conceived in Shemayim, my wish is that all of my friends, both the young people and their parents, break out of the box, break out of the vicious cycle Called Chutz L'Aretz, that Shuls such as Ahavas Torah are transplanted in Eretz Yisrael.  For The "Chofetz Chayim" said,  Only when both (body - Israel, soul - the Jewish people) exist together is there a complete unit."   And to imagine the best and the brightest, be it in Torah, or in Torah and the vocations, the products and descendents of Torah homes heretofore in Chutz L'Aretz throughout the generations, joined together with those of us already living here; the spirituality, the madreiga of it just boggles the mind.  But alas, for now,
the enslavement, the harshness of the vicious cycle, the Galus is soo bitter that it has blocked the channels of speech and intellect, as the Shem Mishmuel said of the enslavement in Mitzayim. 

In the merit of our collective unity, emunah and actions,  may we ALL be zocha to have our Tefillah reach Shemayim, unimpeded, ungarbled.  It may sound trite, this old Phillies rallying cry; "You gotta believe" ... that, as Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening at his Gemara Shiur back in Phildelphia, in "the old country", B'Ezrat Hashem, we'd zocha to demand, to compel Hashem to do "what he wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge'ula Shlaima, "bimhayro b'yameinu -- speedily, in our time." 

May we see an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard and special merit for our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution. 

May we see the "Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim" Achshav -- Immediately, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!! 


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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network .  He lives in Ramat Beit  Shemesh.