05 May BEHAR-BECHUKOSAI: HASHEM DESIRES THE HEART

Rebbe Shlomo of
Bobov zy’a said in
the name of his holy
father, the Kedushas
Tzion zy’a hy’d, that
there is a Midrash (it
is also written in the
sefer Emunas Yisrael,
Avodah #8, printed
year 5580) that talks
about a boy who was
an orphan from a very
young age. He wasn’t
raised among Yidden, so he knew nothing
about Torah and mitzvos. But he remembered
that he was a Yid. He also remembered one
word from his father’s home – “tamei.” His
father told him this word is lashon hakodesh –
from the holy language.
When the child became older, he felt an
intense desire to serve Hashem, but he didn’t
know how. So, every day, he would jump over
a well, and as he did so, he shouted “Tamei!
Tamei!” He did this for a long time until he
was exhausted and couldn’t continue.
Once, this child met with one of the tana’im.
The tana asked him why he did this. The child
replied, “I do so every day because I very
much want to serve Hashem, and this is the

only holy word I know. I learned it in my
father’s home.”
The tana replied, “You are doing a very great
deed, but ‘tamei’ isn’t an ideal word. It isn’t
a word of ‘praise’. It is a negative word. I
will teach you something else to say: a word
of praise.” He taught him to say “tahor”. He
advised him to continue his avodah jumping
over the well, saying “tahor.”
The lad wasn’t very clever, and it took him a
long time until he could say tahor. Then the
tana blessed him and went on his way.
Sometime later, the child forgot the word
tahor. He knew that tamei wasn’t a good
word, so he couldn’t say that, but he also
couldn’t say tahor because he forgot the word.
He didn’t know what to do, and he was very
distressed.
Also, the nachas ruach that this child brought
to heaven with his “avodah” was lacking.
Heaven revealed to the tana that he should
quickly tell the lad to return to his avodah
with the word tamei, as he had done until
then. Heaven told him that if he didn’t give
over this message, the child’s life would be
in danger.
The tana immediately passed on the message
to the lad, and the lad returned to his old
avodah, jumping over the well as he shouted
tamei. Once again, he brought a nachas ruach
to Heaven with his avodah.

The Bobover Rebbe zt’l concluded, “If this
child accomplished so much by shouting
tamei, how much nachas ruach does Hashem
receive when one shouts, ‘I want to be clean
and tahor before Hashem!” How much nachas
ruach this will bring to our Father in heaven!”
A similar story is written in Sefer Chasidim.
It teaches about the nachas ruach Hashem
has from our mitzvos, even when they are
far from perfect, because Hashem desires the
heart. Furthermore, the story will show us the
power of desire, the greatness of wanting to
do a good deed before Hashem. We quote the
Sefer Chasidim:
“Every mitzvah that a person can do, he should
do. And whatever he can’t do, he should think
that he wants to perform the mitzvah. There
was a person who worked as a shepherd, and
he didn’t know how to daven. Every day, he
would say, ‘Ribono Shel Olam! You know,
if You had animals and would give them to
me to watch, I would charge everyone, but I
would watch Your animals for free because I
love You and because I am a Yisrael.’ Once,
a talmid chacham was walking by and heard
the shepherd say these words. The talmid
chacham said, ‘Fool, don’t daven like that.’
“The shepherd asked, ‘So how should I
daven?”
The Chacham immediately taught him how to
recite brachos, kriyas Shema, and Shemonah
Esrei, so he would stop saying what
he was saying until then. But when the
talmid chacham left, the shepherd forgot
everything he was taught, and couldn’t
daven. He was also afraid to say the prayers
he used to, because the tzaddik told him he
shouldn’t.
“In a dream, the talmid chacham was told
that he must tell the shepherd to return to
his old tefillah. ‘If you don’t do so, bad
will befall you, because you stole away this
person’s Olam HaBa.’
“He immediately went to the shepherd and
asked him which tefillah he was saying
lately. The shepherd replied, ‘I didn’t say
any tefillah. I forgot what you taught me,
and you told me that I shouldn’t say my
previous tefillah…’ The talmid chacham
repeated the dream and told him to return
to saying his tefillah, the original one he
had been saying
“This shepherd didn’t learn Torah, he
didn’t perform a mitzvah, but he wanted
to do a good deed. [He wanted to guard
Hashem’s animals for free, if there was a
need for it]. This desire was considered to
be a very great deed, Hashem desires the
heart. Therefore, a person should think
about doing good deeds before Hakadosh
Baruch Hu.”
Sefer Chasidim (18) teaches, “Our Creator,
who examines the heart of man, doesn’t
ask from a person more than what his heart
should be for Hashem. If he doesn’t know
how to daven properly, he will receive
credit like he davened properly and with
kavanah. Also, someone who says pesukei
dezimra out loud, in a sweet voice and
with kavanah, but he doesn’t know how

to say the pasukim correctly, and he says
the words wrongly, his prayers will create a
nachas ruach, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu will
be extremely happy. Hashem will say, ‘How
beautifully he sings before me, according to
his abilities.’”
Sefer Chasidim tells a story about a kohen
who didn’t know how to say birkas kohanim
properly. Instead of saying V’yishmerecha
(Hashem will guard you), he said Y’shmadcha
(which means Hashem will destroy you,
chalilah). A certain talmid chacham didn’t
permit this kohen to say birkas kohanim in
beis medresh anymore. He explained that not
only wasn’t he giving a brachah, but rather he
was giving a curse, r’l.
Sefer Chasidim writes that the talmid
chacham was wrong for stopping this man
from saying birkas kohanim. “Heaven showed
this chacham that he would be punished if he
didn’t allow the kohen to return to say birkas
kohanim.” The kohen was doing the best
he could, and it became a nachas ruach for
Hashem.
Similarly, the Ben Ish Chai (Od Yosef Chai,
Matos) tells a story about a G-d fearing person
who didn’t know lashon hakadosh. He didn’t
understand what the words of the tefillah
meant. Once, he was in a beis kneses, and he
heard a chazan sing the words “Both of them
are burned in the place of the ashes.” The
simple man assumed that these five words
must be a tremendous blessing, which is why
the chazan sang these words so beautifully.
Therefore, the simple person memorized the
words, and when he blessed his children on
Friday night, he would say with kavanah
“Both of them are burned in the place of the
ashes.”
Once, a talmid chacham, a gadol b’Torah,
came to his home for Shabbos, and heard
him bless his children with these words.
The talmid chacham became very afraid. He
asked, “Why do you curse your own children
that they be burned in the place of ashes? You
are cursing them instead of blessing them!”
That night, the chacham was shown in a dream
that he didn’t act correctly. He shouldn’t have
stopped this simple person from his custom.
He was saying these words with good
intention, and Hashem took the words and
turned them around to be a brachah. What’s
important is one’s intention, and he wanted to
bless his children.
This story is also written in brief by the Or
HaChaim HaKadosh (Rishon l’Tzion Mishlei
3), and he writes, “Whoever intends his heart
for Hashem’s will, Hashem will remove the
crookedness and make it straight.”