By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend, At the beginning of the world, G-d told Adam, the first man, what to do and what not to do. From all the trees you may eat. From the Tree of Knowledge you may not eat. Adam told his wife Chava (Eve). Without getting into the ‘why’s’ of it, things went awry within a very short time. Chava, and subsequently Adam her husband, ate from the forbidden fruit. They were banished from the Garden of Eden, death became a natural phenomenon and the world became a place where G-d’s presence is concealed. Two thousand five hundred’ish years later, G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people. This time G-d gave reversed the order. He instructed Moshe Rabeinu to speak to the women first. And only then to the men. (Rabbi Ari Raskin posits that this is the source of ‘Ladies first’. And for the societal norm of saying Ladies and Gentlemen – in that order. Yanki Tauber goes even deeper into the Kabalastic underpinnings of this concept. Mrs. Chana Weisberg presents a fascinating insight explaining how Abraham our Patriarch may have been the first feminist as he called his wife Sarah which means ‘Princess’). However you want to look at it, it worked. We are more than three thousand years later, and Judaism is alive, well and thriving. The centrality of the woman in Judaism is well known. Any child born of a Jewish mother is Jewish. The ‘Yiddishe Mama’ is a well-known colloquialism that denotes the doting care, exaggerated concern and tender love that mothers have for their children, all mixed in one. The saying goes ‘more Jews come to Shul for the Rebbetzen’s cholent, than for the Rabbi’s speech’. As a rabbi I am not supposed to like that comment but I must begrudgingly concede that there may be some truth to it (smiley face 😊). So this Parsha is a great time to appreciate the Jewish Women of the world. To really appreciate something, you must experience its absence. The joke is told of a wife who left her husband at home for a day to care for their brood of children. By the time she got home the husband was exhausted and listed the enormous amounts of child-rearing and home-related tasks he had gallantly carried out. ‘Now you know what I do every day before you come home and ask why are you tired if you stayed at home all day’. Not such a joke. In the Chabad world, this weekend many of the Rebbetzins are at the international conference in New York. We, the guys like to call it ‘wife appreciation weekend’. All of a sudden, we realize more clearly than ever before how central and pivotal the Jewish woman is to her family, her community and the Jewish people at large. This is why it’s so special and powerful when they get together to plan their next year of ‘changing the world for the good’. We know that that when the women set their minds to something, they get it done. G-d taught us that when He gave the Torah, by having Moshe speak to the women first. Our Sages predicted that the coming of Mashiach will be in the merit of ‘righteous women’ in the final generation of exile. There are thousands of ‘righteous women’ congregating this weekend in NY for the annual conference of Shluchot – Chabad Women Emissaries. (The timing is to coincide with the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe’s wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneersohn this Monday). Let us pray that their conference meet with success. The ultimate success will be the coming of Mashiach. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Yosef Kantor PS if you would like to get a glimpse of the energy and a snippet of the inspiration, there will be a live broadcast of the culminating banquet details here PPS if you are a woman and reading this, recognize your immense power and influence and unleash it for changing the world for the good. If you are a man, appreciate the women in your life. Your mother, wife, sister, daughter and make sure to tell them how special they are to you. More importantly, take the cue from them on upgrading and bettering yourself. PPS if you detect that I am missing Nechama who went to the conference in NY, you are one thousand percent right. May she have a successful conference and a safe trip home.
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