Dvar Torah for Sheva Brachot - Jewish Weddings

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Jewish Wedding Blessings

Dvar Torah for Sheva Brachot - Jewish Weddings

Hashem Takes Us On the Path We Choose

In Parshas Shimini -Vayikra 10:9 the Kohanim were warned not to get drunk when serving in the Mishkan. The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 12:1) relates a story that shows the evil of getting drunk.

There was a man who was so addicted to drinking that he started to sell his valuables in order to obtain wine. His children decided to teach him a lesson. They got him very intoxicated and then brought him to a graveyard and put him in one of the compartments (it was like a mausoleum) and left. They hoped that when he would awake that he would be so shocked and learn not to get drunk again. Meanwhile, a group of wine merchants were passing near the graveyard and they heard a loud uproar coming from the city. They unloaded their wine in the graveyard in order to see what was going on in the city. One of the barrels was put right above the head of this man who was brought there by his children.

When the man awoke from his drunken stupor, he immediately saw where he was and what a surprise was a waiting him. Naturally, he opened the barrel and imbibed again in his favorite pastime. After three days his children returned hoping to see a repentant father. To their shock they found him with the spout of the barrel in his mouth. They said, "Even here, Hashem doesn't forsake you (and brings you wine) so we don't know what to do (against the Will of Hashem)." So they decided that each day one of the brothers would supply their father with wine. We see here how Hashem will lead a person on the path that he has a strong desire for. And if this so when the desire is for evil then how much more so when the desire is for the good. The Gemara in Shabbos 104a brings the saying of Reish Lakish "Ba letamei posichim lo-ba letaher mesayiin oso- One who comes to be impure-they OPEN (the door ) for him, One who comes to be pure they HELP him." Some commentaries (see Tosefos ibid. s.v. Is Digarsei) point out that the term used for one who wants to be impure is OPEN that is that Hashem just opens the door for him but doesn't help him through. Whereas the term for the one who wants to be pure is HELP that is that Hashem does more than just open. Hashem actually HELPS him through. Based on this, one could wonder, if Hashem justs opens for one who wants to be impure then in the Midrash above, the amazing scenario with the wine is just the "OPENING" of Hashem so what can HELPING be? So Rav Shabsi Yudelevich z.t.l. when he brought the above Midrash with the wine, pointed out, "This is what one merits when he wants to do bad so what does one merit when he wants to do good ? He then cited the Gemoro Sotah 12b (brought partially in Rashi Shmos 2:6) that Basya the daughter of Pharoh went to wash herself from the idols of her father and she saw the basket with Moishe floating. She saw with him THE SHECHINA-THE DIVINE PRESENCE. This is the epitome of goodness, to see such tremendous DIVINE HELP-The DIVINE PRESENCE ITSELF. Let us all realize that Hashem is just waiting, so to speak, for us to come to be pure so He can show us all such tremendous Divine assistance.