Avinoam’s Legacy

By: Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin

Mishehnichnas Adar, marbim b’simcha. When the month of Adar arrives, we increase our simcha.

Does the onset of Adar being instantaneous happiness? Magical joy? Does Adar wash away all our pain and sorrow, promising to dissolve all our troubles and concerns?

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l teaches that the arrival of Adar is a most propitious time for each of us to work on removing the worries and sadness we may be harboring in our hearts. It’s not what Adar does for us, but what we do with Adar. Adar is a time to take hold of our emotions and put our trust in HaShem. To say – HaShem, I did mine, and now, I am in Your hands.

Just saying these words lifts the burden off our shoulders. As we read in the Megillah, it was in the month of Adar, the month in which we experienced the miracle of Purim, that our days turned “mi’yagon, from sorrow, l’simcha, to joy, m’aveilah, from mourning, l’yom tov, to festivity.” (Esther 9:22)

Try a small exercise. Visualize pulling out all the dark, negative thoughts, and tossing them away. Fill that space with emunah and bitachon, faith and trust in HaShem.

The word Adar – aleph, dalet, reish – can be understood as meaning aleph – one – the one and only HaShem, and dalet, reish – spelling dor, meaning to reside. HaShem lives amongst us and within us. As the Kotzker Rebbe would famously say, HaShem can be found all over. He is only waiting for us to let Him in.

During the month of Adar we read the parshiyos of Terumah and Tetzaveh, learning about the Mishkan, HaShem’s dwelling place. In Terumah, we learn about the construction of the Mishkan and the making of its vessels. Tetzaveh teaches us about the bigdei kehunah, the special garments worn by the kohanim.

In Parshas Terumah HaShem commands us, “V’asu li mikdash, and you shall make for Me a sanctuary, v’shochanti b’socham, so that I will dwell amongst them” (Shemos 25:8)

Dwell amongst them….. Would it not have been correct to say dwell in it, as in the Mishkan? Why dwell amongst them?

Every word in the Torah is there for a reason. There are no mistakes, each word teaches us a lesson. B’socham, amongst them. HaShem descends from His Heavenly sanctuary to dwell amongst each and every one of us. To be here with us. For us. A message – we are not alone.

The Chumash also uses the word “mikdash”, even though the parsha tells of the building of the “Mishkan – the Tabernacle”, the resting place of HaShem that traveled with the nation on their journey through the desert. The Talmud (Eruvin 2a) teaches that these two words are interchangeable. ”We find that the Mishkan is sometimes called the mikdash, and the mikdash is sometimes called the Mishkan”. Both the portable Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash built in Yerushalayim are resting places of the Shechina.

Today, we have neither a Mishkan nor a Beis HaMikdash. But we do have batei k’nessiyot and batei midrashot. Sanctuaries we elevate in kedusha through tefillah and Torah. We can even transform our home to be a mikdash me’at, a sanctuary in miniature, through the tefillos recited, the mitzvos done, and the acts of chesed we perform. V’shochanti b’socham, and I will dwell amongst them. A gift of love from HaShem to us.

B’socham – amongst them. Within each and every one of us, HaShem gifted a beautiful neshama, a soul that has the power to be a beacon of light to the nations of the world.

Year after year, we study the weekly parsha, and all the details regarding the Mishkan and its vessels. Treasures that were also present in the Beis HaMikdash. Yet, never once have we said that it isn’t relevant… we’ll skip the parsha, put it on the back burner, until once again we have a Beis HaMikdash.

This is the power of our people. Our faith. Achakeh lo b’chol yom sheh’yavo, we wait every day for the coming of Moshiach. We are a nation that longs for the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash, as we say in the daily Amida, V‘le’Yerushalayim ircha b’rachamim toshuv, And to Yerushalayim, Your city, may You return with compassion… u’vnei osah b’karov b’yomeinu, may You rebuild it soon in our days”. Each day we say these words as we face east, towards Yerushalayim.

On my recent trip to Eretz Yisroel, our group met with families of fallen soldiers. We heard the story of Avinoam, who was stationed in Gaza. He would enter the homes, sometimes abandoned, sometimes booby-trapped, to make sure all was safe. He noticed a common fixture in virtually every home. A picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Not just one per house, but one in each and every single room. He internalized this sight as a message. Why don’t we hang pictures of the Beis HaMikdash in our homes?

When Avinoam was on leave, he made sure to purchase a picture of the Beis HaMikdash which he hung in his home. It was of a modern-day Yerushalayim, complete with the light-rail and the Knesset… and then, above it all, was superimposed a photo of the Beis HaMikdash. After a short break, Avinoam was called back to Gaza. BDE. Avinoam never returned home to enjoy his Beis HaMikdash picture.

At the shloshim, Avinoam’s family distributed pictures of the Beis HaMikdash for all who were there to hang in their homes. L’zecher nishmas Avinoam. To bring the Beis HaMikdash into our home. To be a constant reminder of its loss. To daven for it to be rebuilt.

The soldiers in Avinoam’s army unit were so moved by his wish to have the Beis HaMikdash embedded in everyone’s mind, that they made patches with a picture of the Beis HaMikdash. Patches that were sewn onto the shoulders of their uniforms.

Avinoam died as a kadosh, sacrificing his life for Am Yisroel. His last mission was to bring the Beis HaMikdash to the hearts and homes of his people. Contrast that to Achashveirosh, who defiled and brazenly displayed the holy vessels and had the audacity to wear the garments of the koheim gadol at his grand party. His intent was to make the Jewish people feel abandoned by HaShem, to give up on the hope of rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash. But we are forever a nation that clings to its beliefs, and they did not allow Achashveirosh’s mockery to break their spirit and their hope.

Just as the Jewish nation experienced a v’nehafoch hu, a turnaround in Shushan over two thousand years ago, may HaShem make a turnover for us today, taking us from darkness to light, from war to peace, with the coming of Moshiach.

Shabbat Shalom!

Chaya Sora

Chaya Sora can be reached at csgertzulin@gmail.com

This article was written L’zecher Nishmas/In Memory Of HaRav Meshulem ben HaRav Osher Anshil HaLevi, zt”l and Rebbetzin Esther bas HaRav Avraham HaLevi, zt”l