Many years ago, a friend of mine told me that he had spent a Tu B’Shevat in Mezhibuzh, Ukraine, with Harav Itcha Meir Morgenstern. He remembered very clearly that this tzadik, by the seudas Tu B’Shevat took an olive, one of the shivas haminim, and the olive was covered in olive oil. He started wiping off all of the olive oil.
But we know that Chazal tell us that olives are kasha l’shichecha, eating olives can cause a person to forget. Olive oil, on the other hand, is good for zikaron: it enables a person to remember their learning. And the great Tzadik, Rav Itcha Meir, was taking the olive, and he was making sure to wipe off all drops of olive oil off of this olive before eating it!
He explained to all of his Chassidim that were sitting there, that a Yid needs to know that it’s crucial in avodas Hashem to be able to forget. A person needs to be able to put his past behind him at times: to be able to say that, yeah, the aveiros that I’ve done, the challenges that I’ve had, that I haven’t overcome, I’m able to put those behind me.
I’m able to say I can forget about what has been, and I can focus on the future. A Yid needs to be mechazek himself, to strengthen himself constantly by saying, I’m going to focus on ‘hayom.’ I’m going to focus on today. I’m going to focus on the future. I’m going to put all my failings – all my challenges that I wasn’t able to overcome – I’m going to put them in the distant past, and I’m going to be able to move on.
We know that Yosef Hatzadik, who’s the ultimate symbol for the world of kedusha, names his first child Menashe, “Ki nishani Elokim.” He named his first child Menashe because the Ribbono Shel Olam allowed him to forget all of the challenges that he had. But Yosef was doing more than just naming his own child Menashe to remember the fact that Hashem allowed him to forget his own challenges.
Yosef Hatzadik was leaving a message for us: telling us that if we want to grow in our world called “mitzrayim,” if we want to make sure that we’re able to overcome the challenges that are in the world of mitzrayim, the first step to do it is with “ki nishani elokim, with the world called “Menashe.” Only once we have a Menashe, only once we’re able to put all of our failures in the past, then we can work on that world which is called “Ephraim” – “ki ephrani Elokim:” the world of success, the world of greatness, the world of being able to achieve those accomplishments that we’d like to do in the world of kedushah.
Let’s put all our failures in the past. Let’s forget about them for the time being. Let’s be able to move on towards the world of success. And in that way, we’ll be able to go from the world of Menashe to the world of Ephraim.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 23.
