Sheva Brochos Preshel

Mazal Tov

We read the following week’s Parsha Toldos and tonight is Motze Shabbos when we sing Zemiros about Elijah the prophet who as the words go: has a leather girdle on his loins which according to Chazal was from Esau’s clothes.

We also learned in Daf Yomi about a certain Rabbi Yehuda who took his time making an entry into this world when his mother was in labour for a long time and here we’re sitting at a Sheva Brochos a certain Rabbi Yehuda who also took his time...

Which is just right as I have had enough time to prepare for this speech.

פותחים בכבוד אכסניה: ר׳ מחותן

His name is coded in the ברוך שאמר: the word “שאמר” contains the letters “אשר”.

The same can be said for this point in time, when we read the weekly Parshiyos of Bereshis:

בראשית: ברוך עושה בראשית

נח: ברוך מרחם על הארץ - ויזכור ט׳ את נח ואת כל אשר אתו

לך לך: ברוך מרחם על הבריות - אברהם עשה חסד

וירא: ברוך משלם שכר טוב ליראיו -  פחד יצחק

תולדות: ברוך חי לעד וקים לנצח - יעקב אבינו לא מת

משיח: ברוך פודה ומציל

When making Sheva Brochos for a Choson who’s a Talmid Chochom there’s no need to say Droshos. However in our case I’m unsure whether the Choson is a Talmid Chochom or not, as his father in law cannot test him.

The story has been told of the Rov of Leipnik  he wrote the book “Boruch Ta’am” - who wanted to have the best Bochur for his daughter.

When he met young Chaim Halberstam who was only twelve years old and realised what a great Talmid Chochom he is he agreed to the match immediately However just before starting the engagement party he requested that he be allowed to talk in learning with his future son in law once more and test him further when the Choson to be heard the request he responded that if this is the case then he wants to test his future father in law the Boruch Ta’am was aghast at the audacity of the request and demanded an explanation. The Divrey Chaim answered(*) by the way when I was young I used to go to Reb Saul Huterer and was told by my friends that he had a Chumash with stains on them from candles with blood: the Gemoro says that one should seek to marry a daughter of a Talmid Chochom. How can one be certain that his future father in law is really a learned man only by testing his knowledge. However we rely on the fact that the father in law of the future father in law has already tested him before giving him his daughter. Now that you want to test me again this means that you are not completely satisfied with the first test. If this is the case then the whole Chazoko falls away and so I have to test you too the Boruch Ta’am smiled and conceded defeat at this argument.

I’m not sure if what I’m going to say are considered Divrei Torah but at least I tried.

The Mishna in Ovoys (chapter four Mishna one) says איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו.

Many commentaries have been said about this Mishna but if I may perhaps there’s more than what meets the eye.

You see rich people walking around and they’re not content. This means they are only partially happy. השמח בחלקו he is happy השמח בחלקו... incomplete

Then there are some rich people who become really happy when there’s s was glitch in the system and they buy airline tickets for the whole family.

Someone who’s really rich is happy when he can share his wealth with others

We Daven ותן חלקנו בתורתך so when one learns Torah with joy is rich

There’s the story of a king who was always sad and no cure was good enough to alleviate his melancholy. They announced throughout the kingdom that whoever would provide succour to the king would be richly rewarded.

Many sorcerers, doctors and clairvoyants came and left - until a wise man turned up at the palace gates and offered to heal the king.

He told the king that his sadness will disappear once he put on the shirt of a happy person who has no worries. Off they went all the king’s soldiers and all the king’s men to find this person. Whoever they saw smiling they stopped and interrogated: are they really happy? Don’t they have any worries?

No one could unequivocally state that they’re worry-less. One day they saw a pauper sitting in the gutter and playing a happy tune. They approached him and asked him if he had any worries. He gave them a bewildered look and said worries?!  I have no worries whatsoever!

Immediately they picked him up and brought him to the king. The king looked at this bedraggled beggar and asked him to lend him his shirt. The beggar apologised and said: “this shirt is all I possess”.

This is the meaning of שמח בחלוקו: he’s happy with his shirt.

The Segula to become rich is to be happy with his portion - literally. The Gemoro says in one place that even for burning his broth may a husband divorce his wife. The Mussar great explain that when a man comes home and there’s this smell of burnt food in the air he deserves an apology form his wife for burning his supper however if she sits down to a plate of hot soup and in between one spoonful of delicious soup and the next she manages to tell him that she managed to salvage her portion form the top of the pot and only his portion at the bottom of the pot became inedible - if he makes peace with the situation and overlooks this blatant indifference on his wife’s part he will become rich. As the Gemoro says אוקירו לנשותייכו כי היכי דאיעתרו keep your wife’s respect do that you’ll become rich.

The Gemoro says נולד בן זכר נתרפא כל המשפחה and here we are welcoming a new Ben Zochor - the Choson. Let’s hope this will bring good tidings Amen.