The Matzah of Change | Rabbi Aharon Weinberg

Dear Yidden, I would like to share a personal story that I heard from my uncle, who passed away this year, HaGa’on R’ Hershel Weinberg, who was a Rosh Kollel for Slonim in Yerushalayim. An episode that happened to him, firsthand. There was a very anti-frum activist in Eretz Yisroel, who fought Yiddishkeit in every way he could, in the government and in every possible way. But it happened to be so that his one and only son got drawn to Yiddishkeit, he wanted to become frum. He ended up in the Slonimer Yeshiva, and he became extremely close to my uncle, who was a father figure for him. After a few years, my uncle got, one day, a frightening phone call, that the father of this Bochur all of a sudden, had a massive heart attack, and he passed away. My uncle was struck in shock, and he knew it's a שאלה, What's going to be with אבילות, with Kaddish? So across the street from the Slonimer Yeshiva lived Rav Elyashiv, who was the local community Posek. My uncle ran to him. Rav Elyashiv told him: I knew this person. He was so anti-Yiddishkeit. He was so secular. He's an אפיקורס. The Halachah is, there’s no אנינות, no אבילות, no Kaddish, no Shiva, no Shloshim, no yohrzeit. Actually, the Halachah is אוכלין, שותין ושמחין you eat, you drink and you throw a party. My uncle was stunned, he was shocked, and he told him: Blood is not water. It's his only son. I must find a היתר for him to sit Shiva. I can't tell him this Psak. And Rav Elyashiv coldly said, יקוב הדין את ההר. You cannot override Halachah. This is the Halachah. My uncle ran to the boy and he tried against all odds, Is it possible that your father ever fasted Yom Kippur? He said: Never. He actually would make a party on Yom Kippur. Did he ever keep Shabbos? -Never. Did he ever eat Matzah? He said: He used to eat Matzah, but as a custom, he also ate Chometz at the same table. But it lit something by my uncle. He ran back to Rav Elyashiv and he came and he told him, You should know that this Yid, he ate Matzah. Rav Elyashiv turned white and said: It can't be. He ate Matzah? Pesach? So my uncle got afraid and he told him: I'll tell the Rav the truth, he also ate Chometz. He only ate it as a custom of tradition. Rav Elyashiv said, There's no such thing custom. no such thing tradition. If he ate Matzah Pesach by night, means he believed, means he's a Yid, which means it's going to affect all the Halachos of אבילות, Shiva, Shloshim, yohrzeit, Kaddish, to the full extent. Dear Yidden, if a Yid that, nebech, ate Chometz, only ate Matzah as a tradition custom, this turned him in to be a Yid, we, that we clean our homes and we prepare ourselves to eat the Matzah with the proper elevation, how much more Yid could the Matzah turn us to be? How much better could the Matzah make us? And as the Zohar HaKadosh explains, Matzah is Which means just like when you take a pill, a vitamin, there's a coating, but inside there’s medicine, so the Matzah has a coating which happens to be holy, the wheat and water, but it's only the coating. Inside there's vitamins of Emunah, that strengthens your Neshama and makes you believe more, with more clarity. It makes you a better Yid. And as the Zohar says: It's It's food that could heal you. Let's utilize that power of the Matzah that we eat ליל פסח, to make a proper change during the ימי הספירה, until we receive the Torah. And the Ko’ach and the power of this night make a real, everlasting change in our lives, forever.