From the Rechem to the Rachem

By Dov Shurin

Yes, from the time we leave the womb (Rechem) we spend a lifetime begging Hashem (The Rachem) to guide us through test after test, and to give us our daily bread.

Who doesn’t make mistakes, even in our sincerity and in our innocence. But the power of the Am Yisroel is that each of us can place our faith and trust in Hashem. You know and I know that life for a Jew is building a complete and absolute TRUST in the One Master of the Universe.

Pesach is to our Jewish spirit, like a gym workout is to the body-builder.

We say in kiddush: Shabbos reminds us of the exodus from Egypt. How is this? What does Shabbos have to do with the delivery from slavery?
The answer is: In Egypt we were COMMANDED to work, And on Shabbos we are COMMANDED to rest!

But Pesach is our ‘spirit builder.’

The matza helps us fulfill ‘and my spirit should be like dust to ALL.’ The moror helps our trust in Hashem through ALL of life’s ‘bitter’ experiences, and the Korban Pesach fixes our sin of ‘and there shall be no false gods and hopes, only the consciousness of MY presence.’

From ‘Rechem,’ from birth, we beg all our lives from the Rachem to have ‘rachmonos’ on us at ALL times.

Dovid Hamelech and Shlomo Hamelech composed the ‘Rachem’ prayer of the benching. They were telling us here is what life is all about. The Ben Ish Chai, in his Kuntres, Malach Habris, explains the verse ‘Shebshiflenu’ - in our lowly state in Egypt, ‘Zochar Lonu’ - He granted us many Zochorim (baby boys). And He redeemed us in the zchus of circumcision (‘Va’yifrikenu me’Tzoreinu’) because of the babies, (‘B’damayich chayich’)!

So again, it began in the womb, in the ‘rechem’ of our righteous ancestors, and when Hashem heard the cries of our babies on the 8th day, he brought us forth to where? To follow Him into the desert, where ‘nothing grows,’ which was a ‘spirit building’ of trust.

As I write this article, I am erev my father’s Harav Yisroel Shurin, z’tl’s, 2nd yartzeit and two days before my holy ziedeh, Hagaon Harav Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky’s z’tl’s yartzeit. So I want to tell you a Toraleh that came to my heart, on the brocha, in Shmono Esrei, ‘Al Hazadikim,’ (which is the brocha that asks to fix our trust in Hashem). This Torahleh, I believe, is the p’shat of the brocha and contains the secrets of how to take life’s journey from the ‘rechem,’ with the help of the ‘RACHEM,’ to our fitting place - to be alongside all our righteous ancestors in the next world! This brocha comes complete with a full proof test, of where our ‘trust level’ is holding!

First we declare all inclusively “Al Ha’Tzadikim V’al etc….’ until ‘V’al gereh hazedek,’ converts, ‘v’alenu’ - on all of us. What? ‘Yehemu na Rachmecha.’ Yehemu is a noisy word, let us hear and recognize the ‘Rachem,’ because in Ashrei it says, ‘V’rachmov al KOL ma’asov,’ - He has rachamim on all His creations - but most people don’t know it, don’t hear it.

We Jews want YOUR Rachamim consciously.

And at this point the bracha goes on to our beloved ancestors: ‘V’sein sochar tov’ - give good reward. What reward are we asking for? In this world? NO!
Just as father Yaakov’s son Yisachor (Meaning: he will, in the future, receive reward) learnt Torah ALL his life, and in the afterlife will get proper reward, so too are we saying ‘Give future reward to all those who trusted in You during their lives: B’EMES, in the olam ha’Emes.’

And may our lot be as theirs ‘l’olom’ (in the next world also. And HOW should we come to deserve this? Through reaching the level of “I know I am nothing but dust, empty, low, matzadik, full of morror, mistakes, BUT:

‘V’Lo neivosh’ - I will never feel insulted, or ashamed of what I’ve messed up, I’M ALWAYS IN A TSHUVA frame of mind, and I know I’m a nothing. This state of mind comes because ‘B’cha botochnu’ - I totally trust in You, from rechem to Ha’Mirachem!

So if a Jew feels insulted, he should know that this is a ‘p’gam,’ a failing in his trust in Hashem.

May a kosher Pesach bring us all to the level of my Dad and my holy Grandfather, and all our zeides and bubbes zchusom yagen alenu, to be conscious that Hashem is the ‘Mishon U’miftach La’tzadikim.’