Rabbi Miller's Speech at the Bar Mitzvah of Yaakov Moshe Brog

[Translated from Yiddish by the Toras Avigdor staff]

Boruch Hashem we’re here at the bar mitzvah of Yaakov Moshe Brog. We’ve heard just now his first shiur – the bar mitzvah drasha – and it is our hope that this is the beginning of a long and successful career of him giving shiurim and being marbitz Torah for the public. Boruch Hashem!

Beruchim Haboim! We welcome all of our dear friends, the special families and all the honored guests. Beruchim Haboim; blessings upon all of you!

An old talmid once returned to visit Slabodka and he spoke with Reb Avrohom (Grodzinsky), zichrono livracha. Reb Avrohom asked him “Vi geit es – How’s it going?” So this visiting talmid answered, “In ruchnius, boruch Hashem. But in gashmius, it could be doing a little better”.

Later on, after this talmid had left, Reb Avrohom spoke to us about this incident and he explained what the talmid had meant: “What I’m doing for Him, boruch Hashem, very good! But what He’s doing for me, it could be better.”

And Reb Avrohom explained that this is the basic mistake of mankind. We think that we’re doing Hakodosh Boruch Hu a favor with our avodah. “I’m serving Him; doing mitzvos for Him”

Reb Avrohom then quoted a medrash on the possuk כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָ-הּ. Al kol neshima uneshima, the Medrash says, tehallel Kah. It means that for every breath we take we have to say Hallel. That’s what the medrash tells us. And don’t think it means half-hallel, no; hallel means hallel! We have to say the full hallel for every breath we take!

Now, if a person will calculate how many breaths he has taken since the first day of his life, he realizes right away that he is in great debt. He owes Hakodosh Boruch Hu very many hallels! So we’re hearing now that all the mitzvos a man does is actually nothing compared to that great debt of gratitude that he actually owes. You’re carrying on your shoulders a great burden – a heavy debt you owe to Hakodosh Boruch Hu.

This is why the possuk (Tehillim 62:13) says וּלְךָ הַשֵּׁם חָסֶד כִּי אַתָּה תְשַׁלֵּם לְאִישׁ כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ - You Hashem are doing a chessed, a charitable act, when you repay a man according to his deeds”. Now that’s a question, because if this man is being compensated according to his deeds, what kind of kindliness is Hashem doing?

The answer is that everything is chesed; everything we receive from Hashem is more than we deserve. Actually we deserve nothing, only that Hashem is a great Baal Chesed who as an act of charity gives us schar for our mitzvos; but actually we deserve no reward – we’re owed nothing! We’re the ones who owe! All his life a person is obligated to try and pay back his old debts from those breaths he took on his first day. Not only the breaths – everything that Hashem gives us all the time is pure chessed.

The gemara (Sotah 14a) says: Darash Rabbi Simlai, Torah tchilasah gemilus chasodim v’sofah gemilus chasodim – Rabbi Simlai gave a drasha and he said, The Torah begins with gemilus chasodim and it ends with gemilus chasodim. It begins with gemilus chasodim as it states וַיַּעַשׂ הַשֵּׁם אֱלֹהִים לְאָדָם וּלְאִשְׁתּוֹ כָּתְנוֹת עוֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵׁם – Hashem made clothing for Adam and his wife and he clothed them. So we see that He clothes the naked; that’s an act of charity. And at the end of the Torah it states וַיִּקְבֹּר אֹתוֹ בַגַּיְ – Hashem buried Moshe. That’s more chesed; burying the dead is a chesed shel emes. This was the drasha of Rabbi Simlai.

Now, the plain pshat, as this maamar is generally understood, is that the gemara wishes to demonstrate the greatness of chesed: Look at how prominently it is featured in the Torah! In the beginning and at the end! Look how tremendous the middah of chesed is! Certain great mechabrim explained it that way.

But the truth is that this maamar can be explained in a completely different way: Imagine a bochur is in the yeshiva and a mocher seforim comes by. He has a station wagon full of seforim and he stops in front of the yeshiva to sell his seforim. So this bochur comes by and picks up a sefer. Now, he doesn’t have the time to read through the entire sefer right now, so what does he do? He looks a little at the beginning of the sefer and a little at the end and if the beginning is geshmak and the end is good as well, so probably what’s in between is good too and he buys the sefer.

If you don’t have time to investigate the whole thing you still buy the sefer based on its beginning and ending. You know already what’s in the middle.

Now, if the Torah begins with the charitable acts of Hashem and it ends with His charitable acts, so we understand that all of the Torah in between is also a chesed of Hashem towards us! This means that everything, kol hatorah kulah, is a gemilus chesed for us!

And if we find in there Shaatnez, let’s say, or Parah Adumah, so we understand that it’s all for our benefit; it’s a chesed for us. When we received the mitzvos it was a continuation of Hashem’s kindliness towards Adam and Chava, and his kindliness in burying Moshe, and so on and so forth; all the mitzvos are a gemilus chesed from Hashem. Hakodosh Boruch Hu is doing us a great favor by allowing us to do mitzvos.

And don’t think it’s only the favor of fulfilling Torah and receiving schar in Olam Haboh eventually – the Torah helps us in this world too.

When there’s a nega on a house, so the Torah tells us what has to be done; a kohen comes to inspect the house and before he delivers the verdict, וְצִוָּה הַכֹּהֵן וּפִנּוּ אֶת הַבַּיִת, the kohen tells them to empty the house; everything should be carried out from the house. Now why is that? So the posuk continues: וְלֹא יִטְמָא כָּל אֲשֶׁר בַּבָּיִת – so that he shouldn’t sully all of the objects with tumah. Any object that remains in the house once the house is pronounced tamei would also become tamei, and so the kohen commands them to clear out everything from the house.

Now the Sifra has a kasha on that: What’s the problem if something becomes tamei? It can always be purified again through tevilah! It’s not a big deal – so you’ll bring it to the mikveh and toivel it! Why was it so important for the Torah to specify a command for something that is so easily remedied?

So chazal answer that the command is in fact necessary to salvage one’s property. Because the din is that kli cheres, earthenware, can never be purified in a mikvah. An earthenware vessel, the only way to purify it is by shattering it; shvirasan zu hu taharasan. And so, this is why “the kohen commands and the house is emptied” – in order to save those inexpensive earthen vessels.

Chazal areteaching us that the Torah is telling us something here. The Torah is telling us that Hashem is concerned about saving Jewish property. The Torah would like to save you money!

It’s a kal v’chomer: If the Torah is concerned with the few pennies that an earthen vessel costs – what does it cost already, a small earthen jug – so certainly the Torah is concerned with the rest of his property. And if the Torah is concerned about protecting a man’s property, then it is certainly concerned with protecting his children and his body. And certainly the Torah is looking out for his spiritual welfare!

So all the mitzvos come to help a person. To help him with his parnossah, with his health, with his ruchniyus.

Now, what if the Torah wouldn’t have added these words “so that he shouldn’t sully all the objects with tumah”? If the possuk would only have commanded that the house must be emptied, without giving a reason, so it would be a gezeiras hakasuv, it would just be a law of the Torah without explanation, like shaatnez. We would keep the law of course, but we wouldn’t understand the kindliness underlying the law. It would be a mitzvah like all other mitzvos that we don’t understand but we do them anyhow.

But now that the Torah reveals to us in one place that there is a reason, and that the reason is to benefit us by saving us a few pennies, so now we understand that this is a principle that applies to kol hatorah kulah. The entire Torah is here to help mankind; to save our property, our health, our neshamos. The entire Torah and all the mitzvos are a kindliness for man. And that’s why in this one place the reason is given, in order to teach us this lesson.

This is what Rabbi Simlai is telling us that the Torah begins with gemilus chasodim and ends with gemilus chasodim, so that we should know that everything that’s in the Chumash, and everything in the Torah Shebaal Peh, everything is gemilus chasodim. Everything is for our benefit in gashmiyus, in a physical sense with regard to our property and our health, and for the neshama, in Olam Haboh; nitzchiyus! Everything without exception! We must live with emunah that there is no exception to this rule; everything in the Torah is a benefit for mankind.

Now, when this bachur becomes bar mitzvah we say mazel tov to him, this is a mazel tov, a congratulations, that he has started out on a career of mitzvos. And mitzvos means that he has now acquired a treasure which will give him wealth and assets.

He should have wealth and assets too! My shver, zichrono livracha, used to say that you shouldn’t only give spiritual blessings; give gashmiyusdige blessings too! “Why not?” he would say, and he would add a blessing that he should be a wealthy man. “Certainly,” he said, “He should be a yerei shomayim and a lamdan, a gadol batorah, certainly; but bless him with wealth too, why not?”

Let the bar mitzvah bochur be wealthy as well! He should be a rich man and a great man. He should live long, and he should be great in ruchniyus as well; he should have everything!

When Moshe appeared before Pharaoh he said “I was sent by, Elokei ha’Ivrim, the G-d of the Hebrews”. Now Elokei ha’Ivrim is a queer expression. The Torah doesn’t call us Hebrews; we are Yisroel. יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר בְּךָ אֶתְפָּאָר – Yisroel in whom I take pride (Yeshaya 49:3). Yisroel is a name of honor! Ivrim is not our title. All it means is that we come from ever hanahar, a certain region, that's all. Many ancient tribes that have nothing to do with Judaism can also be considered Hebrews – they also came from ever hanahar. And so, Ivri is not a way to refer to a Yisroel; we don’t find this term in Tanach referring to Jews.

Where do we find this term? When Jews speak with gentiles. When Yonah Hanovi was on a ship that was capsizing and the captain asked him, “Who are you?” so Yonah said, “Ivri anochi – I’m a Hebrew.” A gentile doesn’t know what a Yisroel is; Yisroel was a small nation; the Hebrews on the other hand were a broad swath of mankind that originated in ever hanahar.

Similarly, when Moshe came before Pharaoh so he couldn’t say Yisroel – that’s not how they were known to the gentiles – and that’s why he said, “The G-d of the Hebrews sent me.” That’s the way to speak to gentiles; “Hebrews” is an expression you use when you speak with gentiles.

We’re not Hebrews however. The reformers can call themselves such names, but we are Yehudim. “Ahodenu - I will exalt him.” Yehudim are the people who praise Hashem; that’s the life of a Yehudi. עַם זוּ יָצַרְתִּי לִי – I created this nation with a purpose תְּהִלָּתִי יְסַפֵּרוּ – they should relate my praise (Yeshaya 43:21). We were created for the purpose of praising Hashem.

We say it three times a day: Aleinu – what’s our job in this world? Leshabeach – to praise! That’s our lifework: laseis gedulah leyotzer bereishis, that’s our career.

When Yehuda was born, Leah said הַפַּעַם אוֹדֶה אֶת הַשֵּׁם! From this child that was born now, Yehuda, a great hoda’ah will emerge. The medrash says it refers to Dovid. From Yehuda, the great master of praises, Dovid, will emerge. That’s why we’re called Yehudim, because that’s our job in the world.

The name Yisroel also symbolizes our great purpose in life; Yisroel means “the one who fights for Hashem.” He fights for Hashem! Like it says, כִּי שָׂרִיתָ עִם אֱלֹהִים וְעִם אֲנָשִׁים וַתּוּכָל – it means that Yaakov fought for Hakadosh Baruch Hu! Why do you think Yaakov fought Esav? It wasn’t for himself; the agony he endured that night was more than he could take, but he thought to himself, “If I let go, if I yield to this malach, what will be with my children? What will be with raising a nation for Hashem?” So he fought for Hashem. And that’s how we got the name Yisroel – He who fights for Hashem.

And so Jew is a Yehudi, one who praises Hashem, and a Yisroel, one who fights for Hashem. That’s who he is; he’s not a Hebrew.

But then all of a sudden we find one exception. The Torah is talking to us and it uses the word Ivri. It’s remarkable! It’s the only place! In Parshas Mishpatim the Torah says “כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי – when you buy a hebrew slave.” There’s no other place where Hashem is talking to us and He uses the name Ivri.

Now there are several peirushim on this. One peirush is, that it’s a complaint against this man because Hashem said at Har Sinai about the Am Yisroel, כִּי לִי בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבָדִים – “They are My avadim,” and what did this man do? “He went and acquired himself a different master!” It’s a complaint against him: “You already have a Master! What right do you have to sell yourself?” And so the Torah demotes him from his position as a Yisroel and calls him instead an Ivri.

A Yisroel is an eved Hashem, and if you’re an eved to other avadim, then you’re an Ivri; you lose your glorious title and you’re not called a Yisroel anymore. He is put to shame by the Torah.

The truth is that in one place Tosfos has a question if one is allowed to hire himself out as a laborer altogether. Is it muttar for you to take a job working for someone else? It’s a question in Tosfos – if you’re hiring yourself out for the day, or for the week, or for the month, you’re acquiring a boss for yourself, and so it’s a question in Tosfos; maybe it’s forbidden to take such a job. In the end Tosfos permits it, but it’s not so simple why it should be permitted; Hashem is our only boss!

That’s one of the reasons Rav Yisroel Salanter did not want to accept a Rabbanus. He said שֶׁלֹּא עָשַׂנִי אַבַ"ד – it’s a play on words; he would praise Hashem that he’s not an av beis din, an avad. Like the brocha that we’re not an eved, a slave, so Rav Yisroel said “shelo asani avad.”

And so the eved ivri is shamed by the possuk. You’re a man who sells himself?! You’re selling your time! How can you sell away your time? The little time you have to serve Hashem!

But there’s another peirush which is included in the first peirush and that is this: When someone becomes a bar mitzvah, it doesn’t mean only that now he does mitzvos; it means that he’s responsible now for everything, the esehs and lo sesehs, all the mitzvos and the lavin too. And each lav is more precious than gold and diamonds. And that’s the possession of every Jew once he is bar mitzvah.

But this eved ivri, he lost a lav; an eved ivri is permitted to marry a shifcha. Oh! That’s a great loss! The permission to marry a shifcha is a great fall for him; he is missing one lo seseh and now he is no longer a Yisroel – he’s an Ivri now. He is still obligated in all the mitzvos, and yet because he’s missing one lo seseh he is no longer a Yisroel. He is obligated in everything else but it’s over for him; he lost one restriction and that's why the Torah calls him an Ivri. He’s demoted just because of that.

So the eved ivri is demoted but a Bar Mitzvah is promoted; now he’s a Yisroel! Now he has all the mitzvos; everything is his now; all that wealth and all the glory. Becoming bar mitzvah means that he’s an aristocrat and a very wealthy man now.

Now we understand the great simcha when a bachur becomes a bar mitzvah.

And our source is the great sage, Rav Yosef. From Rav Yosef we learn the importance of celebrating a bar mitzvah. The gemara (Kiddushin 31a) tells us that Rav Yosef was blind and so he used to say, “If someone can prove to me that the halacha is like Rav Yehuda who holds that a blind man is absolved from all mitzvah obligations, I’ll make a great feast for all the rabbanan. I’ll make a celebration of happiness because here I am, I’m not obligated and I’m volunteering to do the mitzvos anyway.”

But then later he heard that “gadol hametzuve v’oseh yoser m’mi she’eino metzuveh v’oseh - it is better to be commanded and do than to do of your own volition.” There’s a greatness in being commanded by Hakodosh Boruch Hu – every tzivui is a badge of honor that is worn proudly on the chest. “The King of all Kings gave me this medal of honor and this one and this one.” To be commanded by Hashem is a greatness like no other! So when Rav Yosef heard that, he said the opposite. He said, “If anyone tells me that the halacha does not follow Rav Yehuda, I will make a great feast”.

So we see from here that when one finds out he is obligated in mitzvos, it’s an occasion for a great feast. It’s a great simcha and a banquet should be held in honor of the occasion. And that’s why we’re celebrating here tonight.

So once again we say mazel tov to the dear parents, mazel tov to the dear family, mazel tov to all the guests in attendance, the men, the women, all of these beautiful families, and we say mazel tov to the entire Jewish nation; the entire nation! Another black hat has joined the ranks! A black hat is an important symbol. It’s not a minor matter; it means that another soldier has joined the army of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Like Chava said when her first son was born, kanisi ish es hashem, I have acquired a man for Hashem. And so we can all say the same thing: “We have acquired now another man who will serve Hashem!”

Boruch Hashem the man we have acquired now is no weakling; he’s a strong new recruit, a cossack! A mighty warrior! He has a good head and he is filled with idealism; he knows what he wants and he will accomplish in his life b’ezras Hashem. So we say to him mazel tov and we say mazel tov to Hakodosh Boruch Hu who has now acquired another eved.

Hashem should help us live to see nachas from him, and his parents should live to see him with a long white beard; he should be a rosh yeshiva, a marbitz torah b’rabim.

In the zechus of all the mitzvos he will do, and in the zechus of all the mitzvos all frum jews will do, may Hashem help that the frum community should increase, as soon as possible, bigger and bigger. It’s the ratzon Hashem that the frum should increase and multiply, as much as possible! That’s the great reward that Avrohom Avinu desired; he wished to be an av hamon goyim – the father of a great multitude. And it should be more and more! Grandchildren and great grandchildren, good sons-in-law, good daughters-in-law — good daughters-in-law are very important! We should increase and multiply! V’hayah zaracha k’afar ha’aretz, k’kochvei hashomayim, this is the great blessing that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows.

And very very soon we should merit to see v’yimalei kvodo es kol ha’aretz amen v’amen!