PARSHAH
By Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi PESACH
Order Out of Chaos
Rabbanit Mizrachi is one of Israel’s most popular speakers, with tens of thousands of students. Her lectures are attended by hundreds of women. Her book, Yemima Mizrachi Speaks (Artscroll), is a magnificent compilation of Torah thoughts for women, facilitated by Shiffy Friedman.
H
ow can we sit down to a Seder when there’s no seder in this world? In this article, I would like to tell you how you can do that, and how you can make seder in your life no matter how topsy-turvy it has become. When the women in Mitzrayim watched their lives turn over before their eyes, it wasn’t easy for
them. Their husbands were out all day doing backbreaking labor, Pharaoh had ruled that all baby boys be killed, and they were demeaned by the Egyptians in every possible way. And what did they do? They knew this was the time for them to step in—all the way. They knew they had to function to the best of their ability, and they did that by remembering what was most important. They understood that if their homes were places where their husbands felt calm, where their children felt happy, where they let the sun shine in, am Yisrael would stay strong. That was a very tall order, but they did it well. And it was in their
28 | A M I • L I V I N G | A P R I L 8 , 2 0 2 0 |
Liv463_Mizrachi.indd 28
zechut, Chazal tell us, that the nation left Mitzrayim. Bizechut nashim tzidkaniyot nigalu avoseinu miMitzrayim, u’bizechut nashim tzidkaniyot atidin lehigael. How can we do that? How can we do our part? Oh, how desperate we are for Moshiach! But if we think we have to do something huge, we often end up doing nothing at all. Instead, the corona crisis has taught us something that is much more effective—to do something small. Look at the way this tiny little virus is turning over the world. Another person infected, and another one, and the entire world is in crisis. When there’s chaos around us and we don’t know what to do, let’s take a small mitzvah and do it all the way. Whether it’s preparing a meal for Yom Tov when we’re feeling frazzled or undertaking not to speak lashon hara or to be kinder to others, let’s do it all the way. The root of the word “mitzvah” is the same as for the word tzevet, meaning “staff.” All we have to do is take an active part in the operation; we don’t have to take over the reins to make a profound difference. When I was young, I used to think that being a stewardess was amazing! When I got older, I realized that the stewardess is really just serving food—but she’s part of a tzevet that makes the flight possible. The Kli Yakar uses the names of two people who made up the tzevet responsible for building the Mishkan—Betzalel ben Uri and Ahaliav ben Achisamach—in order to show us what we should be doing in our own homes, our own mishkan. A Jewish home, he says, has to be “betzalel,” a
14 NISAN 5780
3/31/20 8:46 PM