Notes from the Underground - Shabbos edition

You know already Shabbos in the bunker with the family is going to be a challenge -- no way to dress it up any differently.  Fasten your seatbelts!  Perhaps it is a good idea to avoid setting  out sharp knives on the table.

 

Rashi writes that the voice calling to Moshe, "Vaikra el Moshe," was only heard in Ohel Moed, but it did not echo outward.  This was not because Hashem's voice was soft and weak -- aderaba, this is the same "kol Hashem ba'koach, kol Hashem b'hadar, kol Hashem shover arazim" -- but rather because Hashem's so decreed that only in "m'Ohel Moed" would it be audible.

 

Says R' Baruch Sorotzkin derech derush in his haBina v'haBracha): we see a lot of calamity taking place in the word; we also see glimmers of hope and sparks of goodness. So many people don't get that what they are seeing is the yad Hashem, the kol Hashem shover arazim that can break apart the whole world, the kol Hashem b'hadar that brings beauty into the world even in the midst of darkness and chaos.  Part of Hashem's greatness is that He creates a koach ha'hester to hide his presence -- you wont hear about yad Hashem on facebook, in the media, or at a press briefing.  Hashem allows those who want to to ignore him -- the kol Hashem cannot be heard outside Ohel Moed.  It's up to us to step inside to hear it.

 

The challenge we face is to turn our bunkers into Ohel Moed where we hear the kol Hashem.