Inside or outside, old or new, the story of our People continues echoing, in a never-ceasing song.

Living Higher

It’s not our place to offer novel interpretations to pesukim in Nach but the scene pictured above brings a pasuk to mind.

“Haduda’im nasnu reiach,” says the pasuk in Shir Hashirim 7:14, “v’al pesacheinu, kol megadim chadashim, gam yeshanim; dodi, tzafanti lach. — The mandrakes give their fragrance, and on our doorsteps are all choice fruits, my Beloved, [that] I have stored for You.”

Rav Yisroel Newman, rosh yeshivah of Beth Medrash Govoha, takes the same summer break each year. Whereas during the zeman he spends his days and nights in the beis medrash of the building known as “the Yashan” (so called because it’s the yeshivah’s “old” building), during the summer months he transitions outdoors.

The climate is warmer, the “mandrakes give their fragrance.”

And so, the shtender is relocated to the building’s threshold — “and on our doorsteps are all choice fruits.”

Torah is studied, new chiddushim conceived, against the backdrop of a building that represents an ancient mesorah — Yashan in its most beautiful sense: “chadashim gam yeshanim — both new and old.”

Inside or outside, old or new, the story of our People continues echoing, in a never-ceasing song.

“Dodi, tzafanti lach — My Beloved, I have stored for You.”

Overheard

Rav Moshe Shapira comments that the last letters of the final four words in the Torah, “Moshe l’einei kol Yisrael,” spell “lailah — night,” symbolizing a period of facing the unknown, the blackness of night beginning to set in.

However, says Rav Shapira, the first letters of these words spell “keilim — vessels.” The moment darkness falls, Hashem endows us with special “keilim,”  Divine capabilities, to withstand the challenges and emerge an even stronger person.

—Rabbi Yechiel Spero, speaking on Tishah B’Av at Camp Kol Torah.

Tannersville Chaverim to the Rescue

Campers riding in a school bus in the mountains got a scare last Sunday when they were rear-ended by a truck. Baruch Hashem, no one was injured, but the bus driver had a dilemma; the emergency exit at the back of the bus had a huge dent that triggered a blaring alarm and left the vehicle undrivable. While the driver wondered how he was going to transport his young charges back to camp, the children prayed for a miracle — who arrived, in the form of Yidy Fuxman of the Tannersville Chaverim. He was passing by and saw the dented bus and pulled over to help. He came equipped with a powerful hydraulic jack, which he was able to use to push out the dent in the emergency exit, silencing the alarm and restoring the bus to drivability. The driver was thrilled, not only because he could return the children to camp, but also because Yidy had saved him $2,000 on a new rear door.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 972)