The Hundred Blessings

The Imrei Emes, zt”l, would work hard to draw young students closer to Hashem, dedicating a lot of his precious time and many efforts for this cause. These young men would seek the rebbe’s guidance in many areas, talking to him in learning and asking whatever questions they had. Once, when a yeshiva student asked the rebbe how to attain fear of heaven, he received a simple yet profound reply. “You become G-dfearing by being careful how you say the hundred blessings that we say daily. This is clear from the words of the sages in Menachos 43. There we find that regarding the verse, 'מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה'—‘What does Hashem, your G-d, ask of you but to fear Him?’ our sages tell us to read מאה instead of מה. They explain that this refers to the one hundred blessings that we say every day. We see that being careful to focus when reciting them is the way to acquire fear of heaven.” Rav Eliyahu Roth, zt”l, would plead with everyone he knew to say the hundred daily blessings aloud with intense focus. Once when he was giving a derashah during the yahrzeit of Rav Shlom’ke of Zvhil, zt”l, he explained the vast importance of this practice. “We must know that when every Jewish soul is required to go down to the material world it resists. Who would want to leave the Source for life as we know it? The only way to convince the neshamah to acquiesce to descend to this physical word is by explaining that it will have one hundred daily opportunities to declare Hashem’s kingship in this world. “These blessings are a way to remind ourselves of the Creator one hundred times a day. From Menachos 43 we can understand that Hashem actually asks us to focus on them since this is the way to attain fear of heaven. We are reminded one hundred times a day that there is a Creator who created everything, and there is nothing but Him.”

“Go and See…”

The Sifsei Tzaddik, zt”l, offered a profound explanation of a famous statement of our sages. “We often find in the gemara the statement, פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר—‘Go and see what people are doing.’ Yet we may well wonder what this means. Should we then look to the simple and uneducated or those without much yiras shamayim to learn how we should act? “The answer is that this refers to looking at the actions of those who are above the simple folk. They are called עם to show that they are cherished, as we find in the verse, 'עמי זכור נא מה יעץ'—‘My people, please remember what he advised.’ He continued, “This is also the meaning of the mishnah in Avos, 'איזהו דרך ישרה שיבור לו האדם כל שהוא תפארת לעושיה ותפארת לו מן האדם'. This seems very difficult. Should we then keep Torah to impress others? The meaning of this mishnah is that if one is unsure what to do he should follow what is accepted practice since this is a sign that this is the way of Hashem. Conversely, the way that is not agreeable to the informed klal is generally the path which leads to sin. The reason why what the opinion of the majority do is so important is because the rabim do not err, as we find in the masores recorded by the Teshuvos HaRan and brought in the Beis Yosef. This is why the verse writes, 'אחרי רבים להטות'. In every place the halachah is like the majority since it is highly unlikely that they err. He concluded, “This is also why we find thatמנהג ישראל תורה הוא . This means that through looking at the custom of the faithful Jewish people we can lean to fear Hashem just as we do from looking at the Torah—the custom is one with the Torah.”

The Sign of Tefillin

Rav Yitzchak Elchonon Spector, zt”l, was the undisputed leader of all religious Jews during his times, and also enjoyed the respect and admiration of many non-Jewish noblemen of his day. Yet he had his share of enemies who sought to diminish his stature in whatever way they could. The people who wanted to destroy him were not above resorting to less than honest means. Rav Yitzcahk Elchonon would remove his tefillin at the end of davening each day—even when it was the custom in his country to say a misheberach for the king after davening, he would immediately remove his tefillin before they said this prayer. His enemies felt that they had finally found the opportunity to make him trouble, since there were numerous witnesses to this “offence,” which they thought could not be disputed or explained away. They filed a complaint with the king that Rabbi Spector clearly did not respect the monarch since he was brazen enough to remove his tefiljlin before praying for his welfare. This was obviously a sign that, to him, the davening was complete and the extra prayer was an unnecessary addition. When the rav was confronted about why he removed his tefillin before the prayer he based his reply on a famous halacha. “Quite the contrary, I remove my tefillin as a sign of my great respect and awe for our beloved monarch. The Talmud teaches that we do not wear tefillin on Shabbos or Yom Tov due to the special character of the day. Similarly, I remove my tefillin before the prayer for the king because to me this day is likened to Shabbos and Yom Tov when we do not wear tefillin due to our great respect and awe!”

The Damasek Eliezer of Vizhnitz, zt”l, was very particular that the bochurim in his yeshiva should always kiss the mezuzah as they entered and exited a room. When asked why, he explained: “It is well known that when a lower ranking soldier encounters an officer he must salute him to show that he is under his authority. If a soldier refuses to do so for any reason he is in danger of being severely punished since he refused to recognize the officer’s rank. “The rule is that the supernal kingdom is patterned after earthly kingship. Since the mezuzah declares Hashem’s unity and Hashem sits outside and guards us through the mezuzah, we must be fastidious to kiss it when we enter or leave a room. In this manner we show that we accept Hashem’s kingship on ourselves.” Interestingly, the Maharil Diskin, zt”l, appointed messengers to go from door to door and check each house’s mezuzos to ensure they were really kosher. Since he used money slated for the orphans under his care for this as well, many people wondered how this was permitted. After all, the halachah is that money slated for orphans should not be used for other purposes. When Rav Bentzion Yadler, zt”l, asked the Maharil Diskin about this, he explained, “The verse states that we should put mezuzos on our doors 'למען ירבו ימיכם'. So if I ensure that people’s mezuzos are kosher, the parents will live longer and there will be fewer orphans. Obviously, this is permitted from the money slated for orphans since the less orphans there the more money there is for each one’s use!”