A gitte voch! I did not have time erev Shabbos this week to write anything, so to make tashlumin I want to share a thought on this week’s parsha.
In Parshas B’Haloscha there’s the incident with Klal Yisroel kvetshing about not having any meat and fish, so Hashem sent it to them, gets angry and many people die and are buried in a location known as Kivros HaTaava, literally the Graves of Desire, because those buried there succumbed to physical desire. From there, they traveled to the place known as Chatzeiros. It says in the Mizmor Shir L’Yom HaShabbos that the tzaddikim will be planted in the house of Hashem, in the courtyards (Chatzros) of our God they shall blossom/flourish. When it comes to the layout of a house, as you walk in the courtyard, or Chatzer, comes first, then the entrance to the house itself. Chatzeiros and Chatzros are spelled the same in loshon kodesh, חצרות. What we can learn from the posuk in this week’s parsha, along with the various pesukim in Tehillim speaking about the tzaddikim dwelling in Hashem’s courtyard or His house, is that the first step towards true avodas Hashem is the burying of taavah, destroying desire. Once purely gashmiyusdik and useless desires are rid from the body and mind, then one can begin to enter the courtyard of Hashem and serve Him truly.
Yismach Lev 