Help! I’ve Been Minimized!

Jan 28th, 2011 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Portion of the Week, Reflections & Observations
Mini Me You probably can’t see me, but I’m here. My wife and I were on Skype talking to one of her friends, when Debbie walked out of video range for a moment and her friend minimized the screen while I was on it. I’ve been screaming for help for hours, but the minimized me is so tiny that no one can hear me. Debbie is desperately searching for me. I have to jump on each key of the computer in order to type and I am exhausted. We minimized people have minimum strength. I hope she reads this post so she can find me, “I’m down here!”

I’ve had people minimize my problems, but this is worse. Some minimized my accomplishments, but this is worse. Some teachers minimized my questions, but this is worse. I’ve had my strength minimized, but this is worse. I feel so unimportant, as if I don’t exist, and I hate that feeling. My tiny tears couldn’t water a plant.

Someone once asked me how the common people felt at Sinai. There were the usual big stars, Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the Seventy Sages, who were the center of attention. Everyone knew that something major was happening and that they were all participants, but did they feel a sense of maximization at being one of the participants in the Covenant of Sinai?

It was an enormous camp. Few people could actually see Moshe. Did they feel just that little bit removed or minimized? I have sat at a Chassidish Tish with hundreds of people and everyone was fighting and pushing to be as close to the front as possible. The further away they were from the Rebbe, the more minimized they felt. Did that happen at Sinai?

I think not. “K’ish echad, b’leiv echad,” usually understood as, “As one person with one heart,” can also mean, “To each individual, to each heart.” Each participant in the Covenant of Sinai had a personal experience of God and the relationship being offered. And each participant knew that each and every other person present experienced his or her personal connection. No one had what others did not. Everyone had what everyone else experienced. That is why they were able to connect to each other “as one person, with one heart.”

This experience can be recreated each time we study Torah or pray to God. Each of us can have our own personal experience that is uniquely ours. We are never minimized no matter how unworthy, unprepared, or unimportant we may feel.

If we remember that everyone has that same ability, we can connect to all souls as one person with one heart every time we study Torah and every time we pray. They are both maximizing experiences.

Hey! I’m back!

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

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1 Comment

  • moshe stepansky

    R’ Moshe Leib Sassov used to exclaim that he learned what true Ahavat Yisroel should be from a Russian peasant.
    He stopped by an inn and saw 2 Russian peasants sharing drinks.One of them tells the other ‘Ivan, I’m your best friend.’Ivan turns to him and says ‘If you were really my friend you would know what hangs heavy on my heart.’

    The Talmud in Masechet B’rachot Perek HaRo’eh, the chapter that deals with blessings we recite upon seeing different things,tells about a special blessing one makes upon seeing a multitude. The blessing ‘Baruch… Khacham HaRazim’, literally Who Knows all the Secrets, is made upon seeing a multitude of 600,000 yidn. The MaHaRShA explains the significance of the multitude equaling Matan Torah, since G-d shined the Torah into each person’s heart at the individual level.

    One may say that G-d truly knows what is in one’s heart and therefore G-d is each person’s best friend on an absolute level.Distance is illusory. As mentioned elsewhere, R’ Leibele Eiger (Parshat Yitro) expounded that one who is closer to G-d invariably feels further at a distance, whereas someone who feels they ‘have arrived’ and are closest to G-d, perhaps are not as close as they think they are.

    VaYee’khan, they encamped(in singular voice)or as alternatively suggested, they were full of khein,inner beauty => because it didn’t matter who was ‘closer’ or ‘farther’ ==> everybody was just soooo happy to be there.

    It wasn’t a competition of who’s more connected.There was true unity.

 

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