This week, in Parshat Tetzave, we read about the garments worn by the priest in the Tabernacle. One garment, called the me’il –a tunic, was embroidered at is bottom seam with pomegranates (or apples according to some) and bells.
Why bells?
First a story: Reb Zushe of Annipoli, and his brother Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk were once traveling, concealing their true identities under the guise of being itinerant beggars. As circumstances would have it, that they were mistakenly arrested together with the local riffraff.
Reb Zushe and Reb Elimelech were sitting glumly, clearly out of place, while they waited for things to be sorted out. The jails of the time and their undistinguished company, created a miserable situation.
As morning turned into afternoon, Reb Elimelech got up to pray the afternoon mincha prayer. Reb Zusha, realizing that a pail of waste was in the center of the jail cell, quickly reminded his brother that it was strictly forbidden to pray in such a circumstance.
Reb Elimelech was crestfallen and began to cry. Adding insult to injury, in addition to his miserable situation as he sat wrongly imprisoned, he was now unable to serve his creator
Reb Zushe, lovingly put his arm around his brother and comforted him, “Don’t cry”, he said. “The same G-d that commanded you to serve him with prayer, is the same G-d that commanded you to serve him by not praying in an unclean place. Don’t be miserable! Even as you sit here unable to pray, you are serving G-d…by not praying!
Reb Elimelech, realizing the truth in his brother’s words leapt to his feet. He grabbed his brother and they danced a Chassidic dance with gusto in the jail cell, temporarily oblivious to their pathetic situation. They were serving their G-d…by not praying…joyfully.
The anti-Semitic guards, upon hearing the ruckus, investigated and discovered the source of their celebration -- the pail in the center of the cell. They decided to punish those crazy Jewish beggars…by removing the pail from the cell!
A bell makes noise when it clangs and is jostled. There’s nothing gentle about it. When the high priest entered the temple, he represented both the righteous who serve G-d with peace and calm (the pomegranate or apple types), as well as those of us for whom doing ‘the right thing’ is an outright struggle (the bells). Even when we struggle to free ourselves from the gravitational pull of evil – we are also serving G-d.
Yes, even when we feel like we are in the gutter, the musical bells of our struggle ring out – and it is music to G-d’s ears.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yisroel Hecht