Wednesday Night Mishmar is off to a great start!!!
A tremendous Yasher Koach to Dassy Domnitch and Orly Slomianski for running the event.
Mishmar was in the zechus of a refuah shleima for Miriam bas Chaya, Leora bas Chaya Raizel and lilui nishmas Meshulam ben HaRav Yisrael HaLevi, Daniel ben Ari Yaakov HaLevi and all the victims of the Pittsburgh massacre.
Kayla Wolnerman gave a beautiful Dvar Torah from the holy Tzaddik the Noam Elimelech (as heard from Rav Rosner) on the first Rashi in Chayei Sarah. Rashi says that Sarah Imeinu at the age of 100 years old was like a 20 year old with regards to sin and when she was 20 years old she was like 7 years old with regards to her beauty.
The Noam Elimelech explains that at 100 years old Sarah was like a 20 year old with regards to sin because a person is not responsible for their aveiros until the age of 20. Rashi is expressing that Sarah Imeinu, even at the age of 100 years old, had never sinned. However, we are still bothered by what Rashi means when he says that at 20 Sarah was like a 7 year old with regards to her beauty. After all, a 20 year old is considered more beautiful than a 7 year old? The Noam Elimelech explains that there are two stages to a persons life, reshus and chiyuv. When we say that Sarah was like a 7 year old when she was 20 it means that even before she was in a state of chiyuv and she was only in the realm of reshus, she had a simple attitude towards the gashmius in her life. Just as a 7 year old is satisfied with the simple pleasures in life so too Sarah Imeinu remained in a state where she enjoyed simple pleasures. This is especially impressive considering that 20 years old is generally considered a peak state of attachment to the psychical pleasures in this world. The great shevach of Sarah Imeinu is not only that she stayed away from sin but that she had her values straight her entire life.
Kayla added that the Pachad Yitzchak on Shavuos also speaks about the idea of Chiyuv and Reshus. Rav Hutner quotes the Rambam who describes how a person should use their nights not for speaking devarim biteilim or for wasting time but for learning Torah and in this fashion they are gifted with the Keter Torah. How a person uses their time of "reshus" tells us a lot about who a person is.
Kayla finished by expressing "Baruch Hashem we around this table have our values straight, look what we are doing with our "reshus" time.
