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Part III. The Ultimate Weapon
Speaking and Saying
Now, of all the weapons we’ve been given by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the most all encompassing one is found in our parsha. Because if the mitzvos are our weapons – if every mitzvah is intended to remind us of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in one way or another – then the most effective weapon of all is the one that reminds us of all the mitzvos.
At the end of our parsha, Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu, דַּבֵּר אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – Speak to the Bnei Yisroel, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִית – and say to them the commandment of tzitzis (Bamidbar 15:38). Now, it’s an interesting form of speech – “speak to them and say to them” – and it means something important. We’ll explain it like this. Dabber, speak, denotes the function of proclaiming. V’amarta, on the other hand, denotes the speaker’s intention; his thoughts and emotions – the pnimiyus.
And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu sent Moshe to the people not only to dabber, to speak about the mitzvah in general, but also, v’amarta – to say to them; it means to explain to them His intentions, to explain the purpose of tzitzis and the method of gaining the benefit of this mitzvah. Because it’s not enough that the nation should wear tzitzis, no. The lesson of the tzitzis has to be brought close to the people’s thoughts and emotions because that, after all, is the prime purpose of tzitzis: וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת כָּל מִצְוֹת ה׳ – You will see it and remember all of Hashem’s mitzvos (ibid. 39).
Learning New Things
I was walking on Kings Highway once and they were doing construction work. As I passed by, the Italian foreman pointed to my tzitzis and asked, “What’s that for?”
I said, “It’s to remind us,” and I pointed to the sky.
“Oooh,” he said. He understood that. An Italian foreman understands that we’re wearing tzitzis to remind us of the One in the sky. It’s a pity that what the gentile understands is ignored by us; we know it too but we don’t utilize it.
You know, if I were talking to a group of college boys and girls, way out let’s say in Tulsa, Oklahoma and they would be hearing about tzitzis for the first time, so I’d take out tzitzis and show it to them and they’d be amazed. I would explain to them the purpose and it would be an interesting thing to them. The Jews wear a ‘reminder shirt’! They never saw it before, they never heard about such a thing, and so it would have an effect on them.
But when you talk to people who are all wearing tzitzis already so it’s very difficult for them to learn what it really means because they think they know all about it. Now, it’s true that they know it in a very dehydrated way, as mitzvas anashim melumadah, as habit, but they think they know it all already so they’re not so interested. If I spoke about the other pnimiyus haTorah, about sodos, so people would want to hear; but this pnimiyus, the more important secrets, they think they know it already.
Using the Weapons
But it can’t be helped! We must learn what the tzitzis mean! Otherwise we’re like foolhardy people going into battle without one of our biggest weapons. Certainly, we wear them every day! But if a person doesn’t use them, if he doesn’t look at them and listen to what they’re saying – לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ, in order that you should be reminded – then he shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t have any effect.
It’s like hanging a bazooka around the loins of that savage in Africa; it’s almost worthless because he doesn’t know what to do with it. And the same is hanging tzitzis on someone whose head is empty. Here’s a boy wearing tzitzis. Wonderful! Very nice! But he knows as much about the purpose of tzitzis as a beheima wearing tzitzis. He’s like a little calf wearing arba kanfos. And when he grows up he remains a big old ox that wears tzitzis.
Of course, he’s better than an ox because he gains a mitzvah, but he doesn’t gain what the mitzvah is intended for. Now it could be that bederech segulah, in some mysterious way, it does something. It could be that even without understanding how tzitzis works it accomplishes something in his mind; I wouldn’t know. But what I do know is that the true effectiveness only comes with learning how to make use of the weapons.
Seeing and Remembering
Chazal tell us (Menachos 43b) that שְׁקוּלָה מִצְוַת צִיצִית כְּנֶגֶד כָּל הַמִּצְווֹת – wearing tzitzis is as weighty as all the mitzvos. The question is, is it really? Is tzitzis as important as all the mitzvos? How can you say that? What about talmud Torah keneged kulam?
The answer is that it’s shekulah because tzitzis can remind you of everything. Tzitzis is the means of remembering: וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ – You look at it, וּזְכַרְתֶּם – and you’ll remember (Bamidbar 15:39). Now it doesn’t mean that it’s a mitzvas asei, that you have to look. There is one rishon who says that, but we follow those who hold that you fulfill the mitzvah just by wearing the tzitzis. But that’s the mitzvah without the neshama of the mitzvah. Because the purpose is לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֶת כָּל מִצְוֹתָי – that the tzitzis should bring you to remembering everything (ibid. 40).
In the olden days people looked at tzitzis that way because in those times if you were a Jew you learned how to handle your weapons. They learned pshat in tzitzis that way and so our kadmonim did that – they tied the tzitzis up with certain ideas. And so every day when they put on the tzitzis, they thought about a different commandment of the Torah and the tzitzis began to fulfill its function of reminding them. When you connect the tzitzis with certain ideas it becomes an effective weapon.
Let’s say tomorrow morning you put on the tzitzis and you look at them and you’re thinking, “I won’t get angry today. Anger is a sin and so today whenever I look at the tzitzis – not only mine; anybody’s – it’s going to remind me not to get angry.” That’s already a very great accomplishment. If you practice it up, so from now on you might remember when you look at the tzitzis not to get angry. It’s like having a good friend running alongside of you and trying to hold you back. “Chaim, don’t do that. Don’t say that.”
Tzitzis for Women
Now ladies, don’t be impatient. The Torah is speaking to you too — the tzitzis are not just for men. וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ means everybody should see the tzitzis. The Gemara (Menachos 43a) says that a blind person is obligated in tzitzis because other people can see it. It means other people can become great from seeing a man’s tzitzis. נָשִׁים בְּמַאי זַכָּאִין – Women, with what do they merit the benefits of the mitzvah? בִּבְנַיְיהוּ וְגַבְרַיְיהוּ – By means of their children and their husbands (see Berachos 17a).
So here’s a mother with a lot of little boys in the house and she’s constantly seeing the children’s tzitzis; if she understands that it’s for her too so she’s getting greater and greater each time she sees them. Sometimes her husband and her children might be thinking nothing at all but she’s thinking about His mitzvos every time she sees the tzitzis and so in a certain sense she’s gaining more than they are because that’s what the tzitzis are for.
One Mitzvah At a Time
I was once passing through a place where Jewish glaziers were installing windows in a church — this was when I was in Europe. They were on top of a church putting in the glass panes and their long beards and tzitzis were flowing in the wind. I was walking by, watching their tzitzis and I was thinking, “Those tzitzis remind us that we went out of Egypt.” It wasn’t my tzitzis but I utilized them anyhow. You don’t need his permission for that.
It’s a good idea by the way. You should try that once – next time you put on tzitzis or see someone’s tzitzis, think that they’re supposed to remind you to remember that the Almighty took us out of Mitzrayim. Little by little you’re practicing identifying tzitzis with Yetzias Mitzrayim.
Then, after you are well grounded in that, so you’ll take another mitzvah and associate it with the tzitzis. Let’s say I look at my tzitzis and I remind myself that Hakadosh Baruch Hu said we should watch out for shaatnez; if you have a woolen suit make sure you don’t have any linen stiffening inside it because it’s shaatnez. After a while you get in the habit of reminding yourself of shaatnez when you look at your tzitzis.
Next, think about וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ, that you have to love your fellow Jew. A Jew who keeps mitzvos, he’s your brother and you have to love him. If he doesn’t keep mitzvos then he’s not your brother but as long as he’s achicha bamitzvos, who cares if he’s Hungarian or Lithuanian or Syrian; who cares where he came from, or even if he’s a rough fellow, you have to love him. And by looking at the tzitzis, you can train yourself in that ideal.
The Tzitzis Become Heavier
Now suppose you live in Boro Park or Meah Shearim; you’ll have endless opportunities because they have good Jews there and you’ll see tzitzis wherever you go. From time to time when you see tzitzis floating behind somebody’s garments, remind yourself of your purpose here. Think, “וִהְיִיתֶם קְדוֹשִׁים לֵאלֹקֵיכֶם – We are a holy people! We’re not a people that sanctions immorality.” The Jewish people hate anything that smacks of obscenity; anything that’s not nice, that’s not decent, is foreign to our nature. And if there are Jews who are proponents of wicked things, like toeivah rights and things like that, it’s only because they’re victims of the gentiles. A Jew by nature hates immorality!
You see tzitzis? It reminds you – never visit a house unless the husband is present at the same time. Never allow a man into your home if your husband is not around. Believe me it’s worthwhile if a Jew will think when he sees tzitzis that he can never be alone with a woman unless somebody else is present.
Keep on doing it and after a while tzitzis reminds you of the issur of yichud and about Yetzias Mitzrayim and shaatnez and they remind you to love your brother and to promote decency. Little by little, you attach more and more significance to the tzitzis until it’s shekula k’neged kol hamitzvos.
Of course don’t try and do everything at once when you leave here tonight but it’s homework for you — you have to make an effort to associate the mitzvos with the tzitzis because it won’t happen by itself. But once you make up your mind that’s what you want to do then haba letaher mesayin lo. You practice up every day and little by little you finally get to such a stage that when you see somebody wearing tzitzis – and everybody is – so ure’isem oso, you’ll see them, uzechartem, and you’ll remember, es kol mitzvos Hashem, all the commandments of Hashem.
Keep Fighting
Now, I understand that life is busy and that once you leave here you forget about the things I’m telling you. The milchama chazaka she’nimtzeis eilav panim v’achor is overwhelming and your thoughts are crowded with everything except for the important things. But that’s precisely why we need these weapons of war – they are our salvation, our path to victory.
And so, no matter how much ground you already yielded on the battlefield, you’re equipped now to regain that territory. And even if the battle continues to rain down a hail of bullets, no matter! A soldier who enters the battle and he received a wound he doesn’t say, “On well, there’s no use. I might as well get a bullet in the head and finished.” Oh no! He tries his best to continue fighting because as long as he’s alive, as long as he’s still breathing he still has the opportunity to be healed and fight to the victorious end.
The truth is nobody remains unwounded in this battle. אֵין צַדִּיק בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה טּוֹב וְלֹא יֶחֱטָא – There’s nobody who doesn’t make mistakes (Koheles 7:20). But there’s no mitzvah to go around collecting wounds. You pick yourself up and keep fighting.
The War Hero
And just like in this world when a soldier comes back from war, he wants to display his wounds to his friends. He wants to show that he’s a battle-scarred veteran, that he’s fought the battle and survived, it’s the same thing here. You’ll come to the Next World proud of your battle scars. As long as you’re using the weapons that were given to you to keep battling it’s all good. Because as long as we recognize the weapons of war that Hashem has given us and we use them to the utmost, we’ll remain alive – we’ll remain alive in both worlds.
And because our daily lives are full of such opportunities, that’s one of the secrets to achieving success in serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. By utilizing the weapons of war the way He intended, that’s the path to victory. וְאִם יִהְיֶה לְבֶן חַיִל וִינַצֵּחַ הַמִּלְחָמָה מִכָּל הַצְּדָדִין – And if he will be a man of valor and he will win the battle that is on all sides, הוּא יִהְיֶה הָאָדָם הַשָּׁלֵם אֲשֶׁר יִזְכֶּה לִידָּבֵק בְּבוֹרְאוֹ – he will be the perfect man who will be worthy to cling to his Creator, וְיָצָא מִן הַפְּרוֹזְדוֹר הַזֶּה וְיִכָּנֵס בִּטְרַקְלִין לֵיאוֹר בְּאוֹר הַחַיִּים – and he will enter into the great banquet hall of Olam Haba to enjoy the splendor of the light of everlasting life (Mesillas Yesharim, Perek Alef).
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Tapes: 123 – Torah of Heart | 201 – The Battle and The Weapons | 313 – Mitzvos and the Body | 449 – Hashem’s Two Testimonials | 735 – The Pesach Seder 3
Let’s Get Practical
Training for Battle with Advanced Weaponry
Every day this week I will begin my practice of bringing the mitzvos to life. Each morning, when I see tzitzis – whether mine, or of someone else – I will think of one of the taryag mitzvos, and I will try to associate that mitzvah with the strings of the tzitzis. When I am successful, I will move on to another mitzvah. In this way, I will be using the mitzvah of tzitzis for its intended purpose – to remind me of Hashem.