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Each word and idea in the Torah is eternal. But, could it be that the opening sentence of our section is an exception?
“You are standing TODAY, ALL OF YOU, before HaShem your G-d.”
The word ‘Today’ here means the moment we are reading this. But today it doesn’t seem that the Jews are all standing together.
One of the biggest problems of the Jewish people is their lack of unity. Because of it the Second Temple was destroyed and we have been in torturous exile for some 2,000 years! And it seems to get worse as time goes on.
If so, what is G-d trying to tell us with this sentence? It seems to be impossible that the Jews will ever be standing ALL TOGETHER.

To understand this here is a story that happened some eighty years ago.

Rabbi Chiam Chaikel Militzki was crippled, and the doctors were considering amputating one or even both of his legs. But amazingly, despite his disability and constant pain he was the Dean of Yeshiva Chai Olom in Jerusalem and spent most of the day teaching, learning and silently suffering.
No one knew the cause of his illness; he never spoke about it, until one awful evening…at the wedding of his first son.
The wedding hall was filled with joyous music and laughter when suddenly someone pounded on the table and announced that everyone present would like him to say a few words.
It was impossible for him to stand and his voice was weak but he waited for complete silence and then began.

“Some fifty years earlier when I was about fifteen I learned in a small yeshiva of thirty boys in the city of Stotchin (Poland?).
“It so happened that there was this drunk called Itche that used our learning room as a sort of hotel. He would sleep for a while, then wake up, have another few drinks and go back to sleep again. We called him Itche der Shikker (Issac the Drunk) but he was a quiet fellow, and never disturbed us or made trouble so we paid him almost no attention.
“Then one cold rainy night someone pounded on the door a few times and before we could get up from our studies to answer the door burst open and in came a man totally drenched, covered with mud from head to toe, and wailing about how his wagon had just overturned and was killing his horse. He begged us to stop learning and help him overturn the carriage before the horse died.
“But after a lively discussion we decided that learning Torah was more important, who knows if it would help etc. and we announced that we weren’t leaving. The wagon driver whimpered and moaned but finally realized he had no choice and he left to look elsewhere.
“No sooner had he closed the door behind him then Itche the drunk suddenly sat up on his bench, looked as us menacingly and said in a surprisingly sober voice, “You’d better go and help him or none of you will be able to walk again.”
“Of course, besides making a few jokes at his expense, we paid no attention told him to go back to sleep.

“But a half hour later the wagon driver returned, almost insane with weeping and begging and this time we decided to go have a look. But when we got there it was too late, the horse had already died.
“The next day Itche the drunk came up to me privately with a crazy request. He told me he was going to die this evening. Now he was going his house and he wanted me to come and be there with him in his last moments.
“I told him I thought he was crazy but I decided to go. In any case I had a lot of material to go over in the Talmud and what difference did it make where I learned?
“So he gave me directions and later I found my way to his house. It was no more than a one room hovel, and when I entered I saw he was already sleeping on some boards in the middle of the room. So I sat for an hour or two learning Talmud by the light of a candle until I decided I had enough and got up to leave.
“But suddenly he opened his eyes, looked at me and said that at exactly four A.M. he would die and afterward he wanted me to ask the burial society to bury him in the plot next to the Holiest Zadik in the graveyard and he gave a name… (the full name was not given in the story).
I replied incredulously, “Itche, you don’t even put on Tefillin! How will they ever agree to bury you in such an important place?”
“He just pointed to a box in the corner and said that in that box are his Tefillin and some of his writings and that he was sure that when the members of the burial society saw them, they would agree to bury him there.

“So I waited and sure enough, it was just as he said; at exactly four A.M. he returned his soul to its creator and when the burial society saw his things they were very impressed. The writings were the Torah ideas of a genius and the Tefillin were of the highest quality.
“And they were even more surprised to find that there was an empty burial plot in the exact place he had mentioned, although they had passed that area a hundred times and were certain that it was not available. It seems that Itche was a hidden Tzadik!”
Anyway, a few weeks later suddenly Rabbi Militzki wasn’t able to walk. And so it remained.
At this point Rabbi Militzki broke down crying, apologized to the crowd, saying he didn’t know why he told the story, and didn’t intend to mar the joy of the wedding.

But, he was lucky he did tell the story because in the crowd was a Chabad Chassid, Rabbi Leib Friedman who was very touched by what he heard and after the wedding he wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe asking for advice.
The Rebbe replied that if Rabbi Militzki accepts on himself to learn ChiTaT(Chumash, Thilim and Tanya) daily and encourage others to do as well then in the merit of those books and of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe who suggested learning them, he will stand on his feet.
Rabbi Miltzki took the Rebbe’s advice. He began learning Chitat and encouraging others as well and a few months later he miraculously stood up and a year later he was walking again.

This answers our question about how is Jewish unity relevant today.

True, today Jews seem to be dispersed and divided.
But that is only external; sort of like different limbs in a body each is different. But when they are all working together there is life and unity.

So all we are missing is harmony; to realize that all humanity is like a huge body and the Jews, with the Torah (Chitat) are the head that directs all the limbs to function together.
That is what the Torah is telling us; the only way there can be harmony and unity is if we are “Standing BEFORE HaShem your G-d”
Namely, if we concentrate on what is BEFORE this apparent disunity we will see that HaShem alone really creates us, enlivens us, and chose us … together as one.

But as the Rabbi in our story discovered, to do this we need ‘Chitat’ and the authors of Chitat!
Moses gave us the Chumash, Dovid wrote T’hillim and the Baal Shem Tov the ideas in Tanya. And these three Tzadikim will bring Moshiach.
Moses is called the ‘First Redeemer’ Dovid is called ‘Moshiach’ and the Baal Shem Tov began Chassidut: the ‘Teachings of Moshiach’.

Now, in the merit of Chitat …. just one more good deed, word or even thought from even ONE Jew can tip the scales and change the ENTIRE world for good. And we will all be ‘standing’ and even ‘walking’ upright to the Holy Temple in the Holy Land… with Moshiach NOW!
Wishing all our readers a Good, Sweet, healthy, happy NEW year with…
Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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