A thoght on Parshas Pimchas

"...va'hikrav'tem olah..." "...and you shall bring a complete offering..." (28:27) Rabbeinu Avigdor observes that the many festival sacrifices are referred to as "temimim" - pure and unblemished. This was a constant standard with all sacrificial offerings, for this was part of our ritual avoda, our serving HaShem. Only pure and unblemished things were fit for this service. Nonetheless, the Torah stresses repeatedly that these festival offerings must also be pure. They were brought at a time of holiness and ingathering of the nation to Jerusalem. Only the purest worship would be appropriate at those times, and in that place. Yet, observes Rabbeinu Avigdor, there seems to be one exception to the scriptural terms. In mentioning the sacrificial offerings brought on Shavuos, the word temimim is mysteriously absent. We know that those offerings also had to be pure, so why the omitted word? Rabbeinu Avigdor offers an interpretation. Shavuos commemorates the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. When the Jewish nation stood at the foot of the mountain and received the Torah, they were fully purified and free of blemish as a people! Moreover, the Torah which they accepted, which they merged with spiritually, is also temima. Toras HaShem temima (Tehillim 19:8). We were also temimim, as it says (Tehillim 119:1) ashrei temimae derech - fortunate are those whose ways are pure. Since the Torah is pure and we were pure in receiving it, the verse regarding the service of Zman Matan Torah does not need to mention the "purity" requirement. It is understood. Who among us these days can be considered pure? Who can we look at and regard him or her as walking on the path of purity? Which one of us is spiritually unblemished? Which one of us strives for holiness and has a sanctity that is apparent to others? This past erev Shabbos in Jerusalem, I lost my rebbe. The great Chassidic master and posek, av beis din of Yerushalayim the Savranner Rebbe was taken from us. I have had the merit of being close to, and having lost, three great masters of Torah. My late Rosh Yeshiva, HaGaon Rav Simcha Wasserman zt'l, was a mentor to me. My late chavrusa, HaGaon Rav Dovid Brown, opened up paths of understanding Torah and HaShem's world. The Rebbe of Savran, HaGaon v'Tzadik Rav Yissacher Dov Hagar zechuso yagen aleinu, was an uncommon leader. Blessed with a wise understanding of people, a warmth and concern for others, a brilliant clarity in adjudicating complex halachic matters, he drew me close to him as I became his talmid on the Bais Din of Jerusalem and obtained shimush - halachic training as a dayan - from him over the course of nearly nine years. I was welcomed into his home, and sent many people to him for brachos, for aitzos, for prayers and for the experience of interacting with a chassidic rov, posek and mekubal all in one. I have never met anyone with his breadth and rapid clarity. He saw through issues. He saw through me. He will be my model for understanding the lesson which Rabbeinu Avigdor teaches us here: a person can become so pure and unblemished that it is not necessary to remind him that this is what HaShem expects of us. The world is a better place for having had the Savranner Rebbe among us. The world is blemished with his passing. Zecher tzadik v'kadosh li'vracha. Good Shabbos. D Fox