OF PRINCES AND PAUPERS
PARSHAT VA'EIRA
In this week’s Torah portion, the Jews are still enslaved by the Egyptians, and God tells the Jewish people: “and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage”.
R’ Avraham Mordechai of the Gerrer Dynasty, was the son of the Chiddushei Harim, the first Rebbe, and the father of the Sefat Emet, the Gerrer Dynasty’s second spiritual leader. He was also my great-great-great-grandfather.
He brings a parable to explain the aforementioned verse.
There was once the son of a King who strayed from the path of goodness and decency and started wasting his father’s resources and within a short period of time had succeeded in throwing away and wasting millions of dollars / pounds / gold pieces, etc.
The King’s anger against his son grew and grew until he could bear it no longer. He exiled his son, the prince, to the poorest part of his Kingdom. Thus the son would appreciate money and not take it for granted.
The King’s son sat with the paupers, and integrated to the point that he no longer remembered he was the prince.
After many years, the King was confident that his son would have learnt the value of money, and he felt pity for his son who had been ejected from a life of luxury to a life of poverty and devastation.
The King’s ministers went to retrieve the prince but couldn’t find him; he had blended in very well to his surroundings.
Finally, the minister found the prince. However, to test if the lesson had truly kicked in, the minister asked the Prince if he needed anything.
The prince replied saying that he needed a new “beggar’s sack”.
My ancestor then relates the message of the parable. We sometimes request the wrong things, confident on what is and isn’t right for us.
However, we fail to realise that the bitter exile we are in is the Prince’s exile. We have to value the true value of the basic necessities in life.
Only when the ultimate spiritual redemption arrives, will we be able to look back at our journeys in exile and reminisce about our actions; whether we acted correctly or not.
But let us strive to illuminate this dark exile, and ensure that we get returned to the King’s palace as soon as possible.
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