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The Code is Shabbat - Parshat Emor
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The Haggada speaks of four sons. Those four sons symbolize four generations in the chain of Jewish tradition.
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A couple of years ago my wife and I were in Cyprus on a short Winter break
and one morning we went to the local Chabad house
to 'daven' - to pray.
It was winter and the place was pretty much empty,
but every
Shabbat in the summer months it's packed
with young secular Jews from all over
the world.
For some of these Jews it may be
the first time they've experienced a real Shabbos.
The Rebbetzin told me of a conversation
she once had one of these
students.
One Shabbos this young girl came over to her and said to her
"What's the
code for the Wi-Fi?" The Rebbetzin said,
"It's Shabbat!"
Said the student "How do you
spell that?"
The four sons that the Haggadah speaks of:
The wise son - the wicked son -
the simple son - and the son who doesn't know how to ask -
they represent four generations of Jews.
The first generation is the generation
that was privileged to have received
from their parents the Torah that came
all the way from Sinai,
but,
if that father doesn't teach the wise son
properly,
teaching him the minutiae of halacha
and its underpinning meaning and
beauty down to the smallest law,
that at the Seder one may not eat anything after the afikoman,
then the next son, the next generation, will be the generation of the Rasha - the ‘wicked’ son -
who sees no spirituality in Judaism, just a lot of sweat.
As he says: “What is this work to you?”
Now, although the Rasha has some connection,
albeit negative, to his Judaism,
the next generation, the son of the Rasha,
will be Jewishly a simpleton.
A Tam.
All he will remember is a grandfather with a white beard
and a yarmulke
who sat him on his lap, chucked him under the chin and asked him questions in a foreign language.
All he can say is,
"What is this?"
The next generation however will have no
direct memory of
a ‘frume zeide’,
a religious grandfather.
The connection of that fourth generation to Judaism
will only be the sentimental second-hand 'Fiddler on the Roof' warmth
of his father’s memories.
That son has no
idea what to ask.
He is the Eino yode’a l’ishol.
Notice there is no fifth son at the Seder.
Cultural memories last four four
generation and that's that.
And yet...
all is not lost.
Something deep
in the sense memory,
something deep in the soul still calls,
"These are the
appointed festivals of God,
the holy convocations which you shall designate
in their appropriate times."
The root of the word 'convocation' is the same as the
word 'vocal'.
They 'call' to us.
However far away we are from Shabbat and
the Chagim, the festivals, they call us
to holiness however far the distance.
And even if the only question in our minds is,
"What's the code for the Wi-Fi?"
The code word will always be,
'Shabbat'.