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Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

איש אמו ואביו תיראו

R' Shimon arose and said... 'Listen, Lofty Ones - these are the 'slumberers of Hebron' (Avot) and the 'the Faithful Shepherd' (Moshe Rabeinu) - Wake up from your sleep!... Wake up and praise, to 'awaken' the Holy Presence, for She is 'asleep' in Exile...' (Intro to T. Zohar incorporated as intro to prayers acc. to Sephardic custom).

Last week we discussed the 'Passage-way' in the Maarat HaMachpela Building. The more formal name of this same location is the 'Chamber of the Slumberers of Hebron' (Ulam Yeshenei Hevron). When we study the fore-mentioned section from the Tikunei Zohar this name implies both that our Patriarchs and  Matriarchs are still alive but 'asleep' at times and also that they may be 'aroused' from their sleep by the cry of their descendants. Indeed, in the 'Prayer at Maarat HaMachpela' one pleads that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs be awakened in order that they pray for the hastening of the redemption.

One of the fascinating sources about 'awakening' the Patriarchs in the Talmud is the following: 'Elijah was often found in the academy of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. One day it was a New Moon, the first of the month, and Elijah was delayed and did not come to the academy. Later, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to Elijah: What is the reason that the Master was delayed? Elijah said to him: I had to wake up Abraham, wash his hands, and wait for him to pray, and then lay him down again. And similarly, I followed the same procedure for Isaac, and similarly for Jacob in turn. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi asked Elijah: And let the Master wake them all together. Elijah responded: I maintain that if I were to wake all three to pray at the same time, they would generate powerful prayers and bring the Messiah prematurely.'

This Talmudic source implies that it is the angelic Elijah who is detained from awakening all three Patriarchs at one time, but not the People, as we saw in the prayers above. We may say that if it is us, earthly beings who make effort to awaken our Patriarchs and Matriarchs through prayer, Torah study and good deeds it is not considered 'bringing Messiah prematurely.' Rather, awakening the Patriarchs and pleading the redemption before HaShem through their merit and God's covenant to them, is seen in many sources as one of the main pathways towards Messiah. Indeed, our Sages remark that one of the primary ways the first redemption from Egypt came about was through the awakening of the merit of the Patriarchs.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #218

'After writing the Pesach dvar Torah about 'why, in Dayenu, we say it's enough for giving us the Holy Land before receiving the Temple' I met two separate people within about a month who asked me the very same question (who didn't know that I wrote about this topic), which were also the first times in my life that I was asked this question...' M.G

Sources: Baba Metzia 85b, Shmot Raba 15, 4, Dvarim Raba 2, 23, Breshit Raba 74, 12

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