"The righteous man will flourish ... Planted in the house of Hashem, in the courtyard of our Lord they will blossom."

The Hebrew word "shisulim," used in our passage to mean "planted," usually means "transplanted." The Midrash reads it in this sense and comments, "Just as the cedar has many roots in the ground below, and even if all the winds of the world come and blow upon it, they cannot budge it from its place, so are the Jews transplanted in the house of Hashem. And in time to come, Hashem will collect them from all the four corners of the earth ... and like grasses they will grow and blossom at the Temple."

We Jews have been in exile now for almost 2000 years, and yet we have managed to retain our own identity, our own culture and our own teachings--where so many other great cultures have flourished and then passed into oblivion.

How did we accomplish this?

We did it because we were able to take along the house of Hashem wherever our wanderings took us. "Transplanted in the house of Hashem ..."--wherever we have gone, we have taken with us the holy books which contain the teachings of the Torah. We have sat in our houses of study and pored over these texts, and thus we have ensured that our Jewishness remains faithful to that of the Jews of old.

The true house of Hashem is the Temple, which one day will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But we have taken with us the essence of this great House, and we have "transplanted" it into every civilization within which we have found ourselves. "'And I have been for them for a small sanctuary'--these are the synagagues and the study halls of Babylon." (Talmud) This is the secret of the survival of the Jew.

The Midrash continues, "Said Rabbi Chonon bar Pazi: 'In the courtyard of our Lord they will blossom'--these are the youngsters pursuing their studies in the schools." This interpretation is really but a continuation of the earlier theme. Our schools are in fact courtyards of Hashem, for it is through teaching our children and perpetuating our tradition that we ensure that the essence of Divine will always remain within Israel.

Copyright (c) 1998 by Rabbi Levi Langer

Courtesy of www.JewishAmerica.com
Have a good Shabbos!