AHARON

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov to Zalmy on his amazing achievement of qualifying as a lawyer after 5 hard years of studying BH!! And with a First Class pass! Amazing achievement Zalmy. We all wish you a wonderful future begashmius and ruchnius!

Mazal Tov on your upcoming birthday Devorah Leah. Wishing you a happy year with much nachas from all of your Family.

This week's Sedra is Matos- Masai on which Hirshy had his Barmitzvah. It is a significant Sedra Hirshy - see Dvar Torah below! Mazal Tov!

This Shabbos is Rosh Chodesh Av, and it marks the start of the 9 Days leading up to Tisha BeAv.

The 9 days are a period of mourning for the destruction of both Temples, which took place on the 9th of Av, a day of mourning throughout the Jewish world.

It is interesting that this week's Sedra Matos - Masai (or Masai, when the Sedras are read separately), address this problem.

It is always read very close to Rosh Chodesh Av. This year it is actually read on Rosh Chodesh Av.

The reason given can be found in verse 33:38, which records the day of the death of AHARON. I believe this is the only place in the whole of Torah, where an individual's date is recorded so specifically. Ie Aharon passed away on Rosh Chodesh Av, 40 years after coming out of Egypt, and he was 123 years old.

Our Rabbis have explained to us that just as as Rosh Chodesh Av and the 9 Days (referring to our long Exile) are always related to Sedra Masai, so too the antidote for or Exile is also in this Sedra.

And this antidote is Aharon. That is why Torah is pointing so specifically at him.

In the same way as Aharon's nature was "Ohev shalom, verodef shalom, ohev es habrios, umekarevan leTorah" (- He loved peace, pursued peace, loved his fellow-creatures, and tried to bring them close to Torah), so should we be acting, especially in the 9 Days, to counter the cause of our Exile, which was mainly due to baseless hatred.

May these days of mourning be converted to days of the greatest joy, this year!

Gut Shabbos to all