********* asdfghhjkl’s DT on Parshas Sisa ******
D’Var Torah – Parsha Ki Sisa
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman – 5761
Moshe urged Hashem, “Let me know Your ways… (Ex.33-13).
The ways of Hashem are indeed puzzling to us – particularly how Hashem runs the world. Things seem to make no sense. This because we only see part of the puzzle at a time. Trying to look at the world today and understand why things happen as they do, is like picking up a thousand page novel, turning to page 463, and trying to understand what is going on. Still, every so often, we are privileged to see how the pieces fit together as the following true story illustrates.
Rabbi Henry & Rebbetzin Esther Soille were in their apartment in Paris when they heard a scream. They recognized it as neighbor of theirs – a non-Jewish woman. Feeling the terror in the woman’s voice, Mrs. Soille said “Lets get dressed and go help her.” Rabbi Soille agreed and added, “If we wait that long she may be dead by then.” So, they immediately ran outside, dressed only in their pajamas to help. When they got outside they saw a Nazi car coming toward their building so they dashed out of sight. From their hiding place they could see that the Gestapos were going to none other than their own apartment. Had they not responded with sensitivity and courage to the anguished cries of their neighbor, they would have still been in their apartment for the Nazis to find them and drag them off. Because they engaged in a chessed, their own lives had now been spared. Why was the woman screaming? They later learned that the woman neighbor was screaming because the Nazis had come to seize her husband for smuggling. She told them to spare her husband and take the Rabbi next door instead. Her intention was to trade the Rabbi’s life for her husband’s life. It didn’t even help her because they still took her husband. In attempting to betray the Rabbi, she actually saved him…
The ways of Hashem are indeed puzzling to us – particularly how Hashem runs the world. Things seem to make no sense. This because we only see part of the puzzle at a time.
Have a wonderful Shobbos!!!
It’s Parshas Parah this Shobbos too!!!