In this week’s Parsha, Aharon, the Kohen Godel was charged to light the Menorah, The Torah says, “V’yas k’ein Aharon – Aharon did so.” Rashi says that this means that when Aharon lit the menorah, he didn’t deviate from Hashem’s command even one iota. Isn’t this obvious? Aharon got instructions from Hashem. Of course, Aharon wouldn’t change or differ from Hashem’s instructions.
I heard from my father, Rav Yitzchok Fingerer shlita, that the Kotzker Rebbe says something incredible: You know what it means that Aharon didn’t change? It means that the same enthusiasm that Aharon felt from the very first time he did the mitzvah, he felt every other time after as well. He felt that same initial enthusiasm every single day, for the rest of the 39 years that the Jewish people were in the desert. Aharon didn’t change from the initial inspiration, fervor, and excitement. Every day Aharon said, “I’m not going to become habitual. I am going to find new meaning and new purpose in this mitzvah. I’m going to connect to the mitzvah – on a deep and passionate level.”
The lesson to us is as follows: Very often, perhaps even daily, we get stale in our observance, and we get apathetic. We put on tefillin, but we put it on with barely any meaning. We dress modestly, but we do it out of habit. It becomes robotic and it becomes something of almost a burden. Our charge as religious Jews is to find meaning each day. We must not act spiritually dead. We can’t be religious robots. Each day, we must find a new way to connect to Hashem. We must find new meaning to the mitzvos to bring it alive to us.
A man once came to Rav Avraham Pam zt”l and told him that unfortunately, his father was in the hospital. He said that his father would be honored if the Rosh Yeshiva could visit him – it would mean the world to him. However, Rav Pam couldn’t visit this man because he was a Kohen (Kohanim can’t become tamei, impureto a corpse). What Rav Pam did was incredible. The next day the sick man was told that he would see a big surprise when he looked outside his window. The man looked and he couldn’t believe his eyes. There standing outside many stories below was Rav Pam! Rav Pam was waving to him smiling ear to ear!
Rav Pam went all the way to the hospital and found the exact right place to stand outside so that the man could see him. Rav Pam didn’t really have to make this trip. After all, he was a Kohen, and he could’ve been exempt. He couldn’t go into the hospital anyway. Like Aharon Hakohen, Rav Pam did this mitzvah the best way he could and with much enthusiasm and excitement!
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