This week we read parshas Ki Siso es Rosh Bnei Yisroel. There are many interpretations of these words. I would like to add my homiletic interpretation. Ki soso, if you want to elevate yourself to a higher spiritual degree; Bnei Yisroel, to the higher level of Yisroel, which the Torah generally uses to connote a higher level Jew. You can elevate yourself by asking and receiving atonement. How, says the Torah. By acting in unity achdus with other Jews. The Torah gives us the mitzva of the Half Shekel donation to the Beis HaMikdosh. Many commentators explain this that each Jew is only a half but if he connects with another Jew in unity then they become a whole. In this fashion one may then be able to elevate oneself to a higher level of spirituality.
In the next section the Torah gives the mitzva of making a Kiyor, water cistern, in the Mikdosh for the cohanim to wash their hands and feet prior to doing any service. The Kiyor is the only Mishkan vessel that had no measurement prescribed by Hashem. Why not? The Kiyor was made of copper from the melted down copper mirrors that the Jewish women donated. At first Moshe Rabeinu was loathe to use this material as the mirrors represented unholy actions. Hashem however, told Moshe that quite the opposite. These mirrors were used by the women in Egypt to bring their tired husbands closer and in this way bring tens of thousands of Jewish children to build a fledgling nation. In Hashem's eyes the mirrors were holy. Says the Pnei Menachem, when Jewish women gave away their material possessions in order to bring about holiness, then the holiness has no limits. The Kiyor has no limited parameters.
At the end of the parsha, the Torah states that Korahn Ohr Pnei Moshe. Moshe's face shown with a holy intense light so that he had to cover his face with a veil. One of the reasons for this reward says the Medrash, was that Moshe put some leftover ink from writing the first Sefer Torah on his face and beard. Chazal compare the Yetzer Hora Satan to a hair. Why? Because often the difference between a good action and a wrong one is a hair thin decision. The Yetzer Hora tries to get a person to make a wrong decision. The extra ink seemed to be worth almost nothing. Yet to Moshe, to whom anything Torah connected was of the utmost value, this ink was important. By wiping it across his beard he wanted to show the Yetzer Hora that even Torah actions which seem unimportant, mitzvos that a person steps on with his heel, are all always important.
To the Nussbaum family, anything that is Torah and yiddishkeit is at the top of their list. They received this lesson from their father R' Yakov Dovid z'l. R' Yakov Dovid was a paradigm of a Torah-true Jew who did anything and everything to enhance the value of Torah in his life. The Medrash says that Dovid HaMelech said, I think of what I want to do this day. I turn my feet to the marketplace but my feet take me to the Beis HaMedrash. The Sfas Emes interprets this that Dovid actually did go to the marketplace to work. But when he arrived he turned his mundane material work into Torah living. This was R'Yankel Dovid Nussbaum. He went to his diamond business every day but his day was filled with thoughts and actions of Torah and yiddishkeit. This way of life he gave to his children.
This is a family which elevates itself to the highest levels of Torah holiness and yiddishkeit by bringing about unity in the community. Whether this be unity in material matters or in spiritual matters. The Nussbaums aren't impressed by material and physical endeavors. To them only Kedusha and Torah are important. And as true Cohanim, their Kiyor has no limitations to its holiness. And above all, anything that connotes Torah is always at the forefront in their minds and in their actions.
May the new couple build a bayis neemon that will be le'sheim ule'siferes for Klal Yisroel and both families.
