Parshas Ha'azinu

Hi everyone, I hope this helps you go into your Shabbos more prepared and I hope you learn something new!

This week’s Parsha is called, Parshas Ha’azinu (HAH-AY-ZEE-NU). HaRav Mordechai Katz zt”l writes in his sefer that Hashem in His great mercy gave mankind the ability to forget. Now you might be sitting there reading this D’var Torah going “Huh? Why is G-d being merciful when he makes him forget things?” Well, that’s what I thought when I first heard this. But it is often to our advantage that we are able to forget past events. Here is a real life example; if someone loses a dear relative to them like one of their parents, Chas V’Shalom (G-d forbid) if the person never “recovers” from such a loss, the person will never be able to move on in life and will be “stuck” in the misery of his loss. We should thank Hashem for giving us the ability to forget because the world today would be so different. People would remain mad at each other and would not be able to forgive others, no one would be friends, the people who lost someone close to them they would constantly be sad and moping. So Baruch Hashem (thank Hashem) we can forget about the past and “move on.

”The Gemora (Talmud) says that is takes a whole year for someone to really forget something. Let me try to explain. The Gemora is not saying that after a year the mourner will forget his loss but instead that the mourner will not be as sad and some of the sting will be diminished. When someone becomes a mourner that person says kaddish for a year.

This concept is precisely the reason why sometimes the Jewish people are guilty of not re-paying a debt or forgetting good deeds and favors that were done for them. Or even sometimes they forget that Hashem the Rebono Shel Olam (Master of the universe) sent ten horrifying plagues on the Egyptians, took us out of Egypt, brought us through the Yam Suf (Red Sea), and gave us HIS holy Torah as a Present. When we forget the good deeds and favors that were done for us, Hashem looks at that and feels, “Oh, so they’re willing to forget the good of others, well so be it. Then I too, will forget their good when Rosh Hashanah comes around." And when Rosh Hashanah comes around I will only “remember” there avarios (sins) and not their mitzvos.

May we learn from this to remember and not to forget the good that was done to us and for us, so that when Rosh Hashanah comes around, Hashem will also remember the good that we have done. *May we all have a good new year and be inscribed and sealed immediately, for a good life and for peace!* -Amen.

HAVE A GREAT SHABBOS AND WEEKEND!

Stay tuned for the last Parsha of the Torah called,

Parshas V’zos HaB’rocha (VI-ZOS HAH-BI-RAH-CHUH)!

*This is said to one another on the night of Rosh Hashanah.