Mrs. Lynn Finson, Educational Director Midreshet Rachel v'Chaya
April 1998 / Nisan 5758
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6 weeks ago, I took a trip to London for Midreshet Rachel v'Chaya. My Shabbat in London happened to be Parshat Parah; a Shabbat built on the greatest Chessed of all - that is, Hakadosh Baruch Hu's giving us a vehicle by which to purify ourselves from the greatest national sin of all, the Chet Ha'Egel. Rav Hirsch, zt"l, explains that the experience of the Egel forced the people to realize how weak they were, and how much they needed to work on themselves. The distance between them and Hakadosh Baruch Hu caused by the Egel was glaringly and painfully obvious. Their need to be at one and at the same time forgiven and elevated was great. The experience of the Egel pushed them to the outer limits of their once close relationship with Hashem. They now knew what it felt like to be close to Hashem, and far from Him. The spectrum of their relationship to Hashem, from love to rejection, was realized and felt by the people.

Although the meaning of the Mitzvah of the Parah Adumah was revealed only to Moshe Rabbeinu, Chazal have given several allusions that the Parah Adumah comes and atones for the sin of the Chet Ha'Egel. As is explained in the Yalkut, a Parah was chosen to rectify for the sin of the Egel much as a mother would be chosen to help rectify the misdeeds of her young. Hakadosh Baruch Hu could easily have dismissed us at this point, the fact that he gave us an opportunity for Teshuva can only be seen as pure Chessed.

We are commanded in all areas to emulate Hashem. Certainly, in this most basic area of Chessed emulating Hashem is most imperative. In Tehillim we are told the world is built on the foundation of loving-kindness. That means that at all times acts of loving-kindness must be manifest in the world to keep the foundation strong. The Midrash Tanchuma tells us, in Parshat Noah, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up very difficult conditions for Noah in the ark. It was necessary for him to be constantly feeding and taking care of all the animals. He once tarried in feeding the lion and it bit him! One can ask, why did Hashem make it so hard for Noah? The poor guy had just spent 120 years being derided by his whole society for claiming the world would be destroyed. Couldn't Hashem have given him a break? The answer to this question rests upon the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted the world to be built on the foundation of loving-kindness. He therefore set up a laboratory situation for Noah and his family in the ark by forcing them to do Chessed 24 hours a day! This would become the blue-print for the new world, cleansed of the philosophy prevalent in pre-flood times of "I can take whatever I want from whomever I want, because only I count!"

All of us have our own "arks" to contend with and we must always remember that the seeming demands and cries for help we get from parents or husbands or wives or children or friends are merely opportunities sent to us by Hashem to practice acts of loving-kindness.

In this time of Sfirat Ha'Omer, a time when unfortunately, historically, not enough Chessed was practiced we must take it upon ourselves to work harder at being kind, thus lending credence to the very purpose of our being here.