Uncle Moshe's Hadran And Speech For The Shloshim

Hadron Uktzin

Brief introduction:

What is Uktzin?

Uketz like an esrog has an uketz on the opposite side of the pittim, it is a stem

Another familiar word that has the same root  comes in the  saying loy meduvshach viloy meooktzach”  Ooketz is a stinger or a bite

The mishneh discusses ooktzin in regard to tuma v’tahara

An ooketz, which is a stem is a significant part of the fruit, or vegetable, because it is a handle with which to hold on to it

The Mishna says that something even more significant than the stem, is the pit or the shell, in certain cases, because it guards and preserves the fruit, it is a shoimer for the fruit

Here is the last mishneh, it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the topic of ooktzin, but we will soon see a strong connection to the shloishim

The last Mishneh of the whole shass:

אמר רבי יהושוע בן לוי, עתיד הקדוש ברוך הוא להנחיל לכל צדיק וצדיק שלוש מאות ועשרה עולמות, שנאמר "להנחיל אוהביי, יש; ואוצרותיהם אמלא" (משלי ח,כא).  אמר רבי שמעון בן חלפתא, אין לך כלי שהוא מחזיק ברכה אלא שלום, שנאמר "ה'--עוז, לעמו ייתן; ה', יברך את עמו בשלום" (תהילים כט,יא).

To quickly explain the mishna, I ask the following 3  questions:

·       Why did Rebbie choose these 2 items to end the shas with?

·       What does the first item have to do with the second, how are they related to each  other?

·       What is this about 310 worlds, what does it mean and why 310?

The last Mishneh tells us, that after all is said and done, we learned the whole Torah, we do all the Mitzvos  עתיד הקדוש ברוך הוא להנחיל לכל צדיק וצדיק שלוש מאות ועשרה עולמות, שנאמר "להנחיל אוהביי, יש; ואוצרותיהם אמלא",

The Rav explains that the reward for keeping the Torah is so great, that it is “yesh” = 310 times anything on this world. This is what the Mishna means by 310 worlds.

The Rambam disagrees. He says that the world and the person are temporary (ayin,) they are not a true existance, but if someone is righteous they become a real “yesh”. They are eternal, they exist forever. ( 310, is just a large number, but you just cannot compare a ruchniusdiker reward with a gashmiusdiker world)

Whether according to the Rav  or the Rambam, רבי יהושוע בן לוי     is telling us that if you think that you are losing out by keeping torah umitzvos, don’t worry! Your investment will increase by 310 times

What is the significance of 310, it is 1/2 of kesser   310 x 2 = 620 which is kesser,.  If you take 613 mitsvos and add 7mitzvos d’rabonnon you get 620. Since Hashem is our partner so 310 worlds for us and 310 for Hashem

ואוצרותיהם אמלא"

רבי יהושוע בן לוי     is telling us that if you think that you are losing out by keeping torah umitzvos, don’t worry!, ואוצרותיהם אמלא"  , don’t worry!, I will fill your warehouses, I will fill your treasure chest. So bigashmius Hashem give us ואוצרותיהם אמלא"   and bruchnius we get shai oilumus

אמר רבי שמעון בן חלפתא, אין לך כלי שהוא מחזיק ברכה אלא שלום, שנאמר "ה'--עוז, לעמו ייתן; ה', יברך את עמו בשלום"

Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta tells us, how do you make sure that you get this brocha of

"להנחיל אוהביי, יש; ואוצרותיהם אמלא , for this you need to have a keli machzik Brocha

Where do you get this keli? The keli is sholom

Now we will find a connection of the last mishna of shass to the first mishna

1.     The first mishna, mayaymosai starts with a mem and this mishna ends with a mem this is symbolic of a karahot, the lifecycle of a person should be bound to tora. Also, when we finish shass we should know that we are just at the beginning…. and start again. In addition the2 mems are symbolic of the 40 days that Moishe rabbenu went up to Hashem to get the luchos rishonos and shnius

2.     The last mishna speaks about shai oilomos the first mishna speaks about shma, shma is a roshei taivos= shin mem ayin =shlosh mayos olamos

3.     The last mishna ends with sholom. The first mishna speaks about the kohanim becoming tahor The kohanim become tahor and they do the bircas kohanim which ends with viyosem lecha sholom

Now we are not quite finished yet. We still need to tie all this in to the first mishna in ooktzin (remember ooktzin?) and to Daddy’s life

So we explained that an ooketz is handle, and that a shomer is even more significant.

Daddy had a chest of memories, and the chest was really out of anyone’s reach.

It contained wonderful memories, but also bitter sweet memories.

It contained very important papers.

It contained a map he got from home with a destination, a mission statement.

It contained an old passport a leather pouch little bit of old valueless money, a few pictures and some newspaper clippings

It may not have looked like a treasure chest, but to him it was a treasure chest

To me the chest looked like it was from the 1930’s -1940’s. To me the chest was dark green metal

From time to time I would see Daddy go to where the chest was closeted and reach for it and put it on the dining room table

From time to time we would see Daddy go to where the tender memories were and reach for it and bring them down for us to see

We know that when you suppress strong emotions they get bottled up and whether the dam breaks or not they find a way to ooze out

When Daddy would speak at a simcha, the box overflowed on the dining room table.

When Daddy would speak with his ainiklach the spirit that was bottled up from the alterhaim with the love and devotion to yiddishkeit would ooze out. “Affen gass gait a mabul”

Through the little snippets that we heard from him, we got a feeling, a smell and a taste of what the alter heim really was, and for a short time we were transported across the ocean

Daddy, together with Mommy’s help, inspiration and encouragement,  managed to orchestrate and effect the next 3 generation. Daddy in his unassuming way and by being a role model together with mommy dealing with issues in a direct way,  strongly affected 3 generations according to the misson statements that received during their youth.

Ooktzin- daddy had a handle to access the valuable heritage that he was brought up with.  With this handle he handed it don’t to us

Ookitz – a sting, a bite, Daddy was bitten by the bug from the alter heim

And he passed down to us the torch, the fire, not just with a handle but with a shomer  a guard to the treasure. Shomer like v’aviv shomar as hadovor, mamtim umetzape mosai yehiyeh hadovor

 להנחיל אוהביי, יש  “Yesh”, like the Rambam says he had the real existence, his accomplishments are alive, Zaidy lives on.

He was also zoche to ואוצרותיהם אמלא,  Hashem was generous to Zaidy and provided him well.

And as the Mishna continues , אין לך כלי שהוא מחזיק ברכה אלא שלום

Zaidy was a real keili machzik brocha

Zaidy left us with big shoes to fill

But, he also left us with inspiration

And speaking about sholom, may we be zoicha to what the novi  yeshaya says   “ma Novu al heharim ragli nevaser mashmia sholom

Al yeday mochiach tzidkaynu