Parshas Yisro 22 Shevat 5770 2/6/10 Chaim Yosef Friedmans Bar Mitzva

At Mt. Sinai the children of Israel beheld Hashem. Not a picture and not an image but Hashem Himself and they heard His voice. Over five hundred years later Isaiah the prophet had a similar experience. He beheld Hashem and he describes it in detail in the Haftarah that Chaim Yosef read. In the year of the King Uzziah’s death Isaiah says I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and its legs filled the Temple. There were seraphim standing above Him. Six wings six wings had each one. With two of them he would cover his face and with two he would cover his legs and with two he would fly. Now you know what Seraphim look like and what they do with all of those wings. If we add the description of Ezekiel when he experiences Hashem we can get a pretty clear picture of the seraphim and the chariot. We know what their faces look like and their feet and how they move. And now that we know all of that…..so what. There are a number of other passages that offer insights into the workings around the heavenly throne and the nature of the angels. Obviously the prophets don’t share their experiences gratuitously. The sages don’t share insights we can’t do anything with. Why do we have these descriptions?


Rav Dessler teaches us that these descriptions inspire us. After all the angels themselves are products of mans deeds. There very nature describes to us what can become of a person who years to be close to Hashem. Even if some of the things they describe are beyond attainment in this lifetime ultimately they will be attainable in the messianic era. So exactly what do we learn from these seraphim that Isaiah describes? Firstly they have six wings and they use two of them to cover their face. Why do they cover their face? The Midrash Yalkut Shimoni says it is to teach us modesty. Do not gaze directly at Hashem. What does that mean? I believe it means that we should not be brazen in our spiritual demands. We can only see as much of Hashem as he wants us to see. Don’t go seeking spiritual highs and don’t get frustrated when we don’ see Hashem all around us.

With two wings they cover their feet. Ezekiel describes the seraphim as having the feet of a calf. The Midrash says remember your past and your sins like the golden calf. Don’t display they cover them up. Have a measure of humility and even embarrassment as you approach Hashem. Don’t think you have it coming to you. Review your deeds. Did you do right? Did you do it the best you could have? Dig deep. Were there elements of ego and self centeredness even in your performance of the mitzvah? Bshtaiyim yichaseh panav, closeness to Hashem requires humility uvishtayim yichaseh raglav and closeness to Hashem requires introspection. Chaim Yosef was named after his grandfather who was named after his grandfather. From a family tradition we have heard that there were at least four other Chaim Yosefs before them. These Chaim Yosefs were Lithuanian Jews who epitomized the Lithuanian Jewish traits of hard work, Torah study scrupulous observance and character development. My father a”h was the first American Chaim Yosef in the lineage. He was raised in a neighborhood that was full of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania like his parents. In that neighborhood he imbibed these values. Before the Second World War there were many Orthodox shuls in Minneapolis one reform Temple and no conservative. When the sons of the neighborhood returned from around the world after the war the old Orthodox shul was not reflective of whom they felt they were. Consequently the Orthodox shuls started to switch over to conservative. As they made the switch my Zayda left because he would only daven in a shul with a mechitza. My father went along because he wanted to daven together with his father. He told me he tried the conservative but it didn’t feel right. I could share the more graphic description he shared with me about those shuls but this is a shul. So they went from one to the next until all the Orthodox shuls had gone conservative. At this point there was only one place left to daven. There was a Chassidic Rabbi who had a basement shul. Now the Chassidic approach for a Lithuanian Jew like my grandfather was a far cry from what he understood Judaism to be but he had no choice. Once they started davening in that shul my father developed a strong relationship with the Rabbi there. As part of that experience he was introduced to another aspect of Judaism that hadn’t been emphasized in his upbringing. That is the aspect of Judaism represented by the last two wings. We described four of the six wings. What is the function of the last two.

Uvishtayim yofef. And with the last to wings they fly. They fly lighter than, air swirling around the Heavenly throne uplifted and buoyant by their relationship to Hashem. Without these two wings one could sink into a morass of depression. With them the entire venture flies.

When we were raising Chaim Yosef, Dena and I had a difference of opinion. I remember it quite well because it was so rare that we would have a difference of opinion. When we sang Shalom Aleichem on Friday night Chaim Yosef used to scream it out at the top of his lungs. I tried to quiet him down. I have had problems with vocal polyps and that problem runs in our family. I was afraid Chaim Yosef would develop polyps. Dena on the other hand wanted him to scream. She didn’t want to inhibit his expression. She wanted him to fly. In the end we were both right. Chaim Yosef has a great excitement for Judaism and life in general and he has vocal polyps. That is why he didn’t lead us in mussaf this morning because his voice was maxed out by the Torah and Haftarah reading. However everyone is invited back next week when G-d willing Chaim Yosef will lead us in Mussaf. It is this combination of all three traits represented by the six wings that create the healthy Jew. As a matter of fact Rabbi Dessler says so explicitly when he says and I quote “this is the lesson of the angels only with the unity of the two, (in Kabbalistic lexicon) Gevurah self control and Chessed giving loving kindness, (from an emotional perspective) fear of Hashem Yirah and love of Hashem Ahavah, (from a pedagogical perspective) mussar striving for ethical perfection and chassidus passionate expression, is it possible to achieve the truth of Hashem. So Chaim Yosef be like those angels cover your face, be modest, cover your feet, be embarrassed of your misdeeds and fly fly fly. And as you fly do as the verse says the angels do when they fly around Hashem. Vkarah Zeh el Zeh V’amar Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Hashem Tzvakos M’lo Kol Haaretz Kvodo. They call out to one another and proclaim Holy Holy Holy is Hashem the Lord of Hosts.