Shema-Walking On The Way-Neshchiz

The 8th of Nisan is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz (1740-1800) (1880, according to others). Descended from the Maharal of Prague and Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, Rav Mordechai was a disciple of Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov. His sayings were collected in Rishpei Eish. He was succeeded by his son, Rav Yitzchak of Neshchiz.

Rabbi Baruch of Medzibozh once expounded the verse, “If a man has two wives, one beloved and one hated (Deuteronomy 21:15).” Not two wives, but two types of service are under contemplation.

The “One beloved,” is doctrine and prayer; the other, hated, is subservience to corporeal needs. But this too, is Law and Service of the Creator. Even toil for the sake of earning money may be part of divine service, but if it be done in greed, it is like the worship of the Golden Calf, and the breaking of the Tablets of the Law.

It is said of the Neshchizer that instruction and prayer, eating, drinking and sleeping were all parts to him of the study of divinity. Part of the Infinite is hidden in all of Man’s faculties and actions, in speech and sight and hearing, in walking, standing still and lying down.

It is on this account that it is written in the Shema, “You shall speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you get up.”

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef talked, “A man should converse not only with books, but also with men, providing that he always have the fear of God before his eyes.” (Gemeinde der Chassim, page 64)

Haggadah: Use Shulchan Orech, the meal, as an opportunity to practice “speaking words of Torah in every part of your life.

The back and forth of questions, answers and discussions, should be a practice of, “A man should converse not only with books, but also with men, providing that he always have the fear of God before his eyes.”