Parshas Emor 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
כל איש אשר בו מום מזרע אהרן הכהן לא יגש להקריב את אשי ה' ... (כא-כא)
A Kohen’s disqualification of a mum (blemish) to perform the avodah in the Mishkan and the Bais HaMikdash, is not due to a lack of kedusha. The Kohen remains holy forever and even if he develops a blemish, he still retains his full sanctity and privileges. However, the Torah is sensitive to human nature and avoids placing a person in a position where he may become the object of embarrassment. People stare, people whisper, people say things that they shouldn’t. Chazal emphasize that the Torah is teaching us derech eretz and compassion, ensuring that no Jew is publicly exposed to shame.
A number of years ago, there was a young man in New York who was an outstanding talmid chacham, someone who at a young age was already paskening shailos, leading followers, and showing signs of inner greatness. At a certain point, this young talmid chacham came to be tested by R’ Yochanan Halevi Wosner shlita, the the Skverer Dayan and Rosh Beis Din in Montreal. He passed his bechina with flying colors. The young man was beyond exceptional.
R’ Wosner, who is a very perceptive person, felt that there was something special here beneath the surface.
“Could I please meet with your father?” he asked the young man, who said he would give his father the message.
A few days later, R’ Yochanan Wosner met this young posek’s father. He shook the man’s hand warmly.
“Can I ask you a question?” asked R’ Wosner in the middle of the conversation, after they had been talking for a while. “Was your son always like this, such a diligent masmid? Did he always have such a clear understanding of the sugyos?”
The father was pensive for a moment. “It is so interesting you ask,” he finally responded. “The truth is that no, my son was not always so focused, and he didn’t always understand. He worked hard to become the masmid he is today.”
“So what happened? What made him suddenly take off?” the R’ Wosner asked.
“Well, here is the story as it was told to me. About seven years ago my son was still in yeshivah. A big yeshivah, one of the largest in New York. He was a good talmid but not very exceptional in learning, definitely not in the top of his shiur. One Thursday morning he was called up for hagbah after Krias HaTorah. My son went up and when he lifted the Sefer Torah, he did what is called a ‘reverse-hagbah’ - the type of hagbah that certain individuals only do on Simchas Torah. People thought it was a prank. Everyone was shocked at first, and then the smiles and the snickering began. Very soon, the reverse-hagbah became the talk of the yeshivah. Hilarious. Another one of his antics.
“The Rosh Yeshivah, who was also present at the minyan that morning, asked one of the other talmidim to call my son over after breakfast. My son received the message and went into the Rosh Yeshivah’s office.
“Why did you do it?” the Rosh Yeshivah asked him. He was not angry. He was simply bewildered.
“My son looked down at his shoes. At first, he didn’t want to tell. He tried to remain silent, but the Rosh Yeshivah insisted that if he has something to share, he must do it now. My son continued to look down at his shoes, but after a few moments, he suddenly picked up his head and simply said, ‘I don’t know if the Rosh Yeshivah remembers who was called up for shlishi. It was Yankele, the boy with a terrible stutter. Although it was nice that they gave him an aliyah, he took almost a full minute to say the beracha before shlishi and about the same amount of time for the beracha after shlishi. I could see so many of our fellow bachurim trying to hold back their frustration and demeaning smiles. It bothered me that they were doing that and I thought that I had to act quickly. I had to find something that would divert everyone’s attention so that no one would remember Yankele’s shlishi.’” The father smiled as he retold the story.
“‘So I did a reverse hagbah. And it worked. No one remembers his shlishi any longer!’”
“The Rosh Yeshivah started to cry. My son had shown that he had the sensitivity to be someone who people needed. And from that day on all the wellsprings of wisdom opened up to him.” R’ Wosner sat there stunned. It all made sense now.