The Role and Greatness of a Woman of Valor

“‘SAY…AND TELL’ – TO WARN THE GREAT AS WELL AS THE SMALL” (RASHI ON VAYIKRA 21:1)

CHIDUSHIM ON PARASHAT EMOR BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A

“A WOMAN WHO FEARS HASHEM – SHE SHALL BE PRAISED” – A WOMAN’S FAITH IS GREATER THAN A MAN’S

A woman has fear [of Heaven].  A woman has more fear than a man because the women were not involved in the sin of the Golden Calf, nor did they take part in the sin of the spies.  As soon as the women took onto themselves the Ten Commandments, as soon as they accepted onto themselves the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, nothing in the world could sway them, nothing could entice them – no claims or persuasions – because a woman’s faith is much stronger than that of a man.  That is a woman’s nature.  If she hears some sort of word of Torah, nothing in the world can sway her from it.

When they came to the women [to take their jewelry for the Golden Calf], every husband tried to convince his wife: “What? You don’t believe Aharon HaKohen?  Don’t you have faith in Tzaddikim?  Aharon HaKohen said to make a calf!”  The women answered: “What do you mean, ‘He said to make a calf’?  What is this?  Can Aharon change the Ten Commandments?”  The holy Zohar says on [the verse], “The entire people removed [the gold rings].”  What is meant by the expression “removed (vayitparku)”?  The Zohar explains that actually the women would not remove the rings under any circumstance!  They grasped and pressed their hands to their ears.  Therefore, it is written “vayitparku,” as in “Mefarek (Breaks apart) mountains and shatters rocks.”  The men simply tore them away by force – “They destroyed and ‘broke’ their ears” in the words of the Zohar.  Because when the men were seized by some sort of insanity, God forbid, and wanted to make the calf – Hashem have mercy – the women remained in their innocence, their uprightness, their modesty, their pure faith, and nothing swayed them, nothing in the world!

THE HEAVENLY CHAMBERS OF RIGHTEOUS WOMAN

The holy Zohar says that in Heaven there are chambers (heikhalot) that righteous women merit to.  There is a chamber called “Batya bat Pharaoh,” where thousands of women innovate Torah insights every day.  There are thousands of women there who left behind their houses, their wealth, their careers.  Batya was a princess and abandoned everything in order to be a simple Jewess.  So every woman who could have been a great executive yet gave up everything in order to stay at home, raise children for Talmud Torah, send her husband to learn Torah, say Tehilim, and go to the Kotel – she ascends to levels that no other woman can reach, and merits the levels of Batya bat Pharaoh, who entered the Garden of Eden alive.

WOMEN ARE THE ASPECT OF THE ALTAR, BECAUSE THEY TRULY SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR HASHEM

Women sacrifice themselves.  They receive the children, take care of ten children.  The mothers do everything.  They devote themselves to the children, feed them, give them drink, wash them – doing it with self-sacrifice.  They sacrifice themselves for Hashem, and therefore they can be prophetesses, like Devorah HaNavia and Miriam HaNavia.

What is a home?  A home is a Mishkan (Tabernacle).  Mishkan is an acronym for mitah (bed), shulchan (table), kisei (chair), norah (lamp).  The woman cleans the house, educates the children.   There are Torah scrolls at home because the children learn Torah.  The husband can sit and learn Torah, and when the woman washes dishes, lights candles, cooks, and sets the table, she builds the Mishkan.  If she performs her role, her mission, she can receive prophecy because of this.

Although a woman is exempt from learning Gemara, she is not exempt from cleaving to Hashem; that she is not exempt from.  She can cleave to Hashem cleaning house, cooking, or washing dishes.  Like it’s told about the wife of Rabbi Yitzchak Drohovitzer, the mother of Rabbi Michel of Zlotshov, who in the middle of sweeping the house said, “Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh (Holy, Holy, Holy).”  Rabbi Yitzchak, her husband, asked her, “Why are you saying ‘Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh’?”  She replied, “I hear the song of the angels, and the angels are saying Kedushah right now.”

Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov became blind.  He was asked, “Why did you become blind?”  He told them, “Because of my wife I became blind… Everything [she does] she says, ‘In honor of Shabbat, in honor of Shabbat.’  When she kneads the dough and cooks, she says, ‘In honor of Shabbat.’  And for every ‘in honor of Shabbat’ that she says, an angel is create.  From every “in honor of Shabbat,” angels were created, until the entire house became full of raging fire.  The entire house became full of angels, until I became blinded from all the light.”  If a woman does what she needs to in her matters, fulfills her role faithfully, joyfully, with fear and love, for the sake of Hashem, then from the simplest things, she can receive prophecy.