Shavuos is past and it is already Parshas Naso.
So let us start with a very short vort on the Parsha.
This Parsha teaches us the Birkas Cohanim which most of
us also use as part of our personal Birkas HaBanim on Shabbos and before Yom Kippur. In
a recent conversation, somebody told me as follows.
The three segments of the Birkas Cohanim can be
corresponded to three stages of a young person’s life.
יברכיך – May Hashem bless you and guard over you.
This is when a person is in his childhood years. He needs
to grow and thrive. He will be running, climbing, exploring and doing all
kinds of risky stunts. For this he needs a special beracha of shemira –
protection.
יאר – May Hashem enlighten His face to you and
train you.
This is when a person is in his school and Yeshiva
years. We pray for Hashem to shine upon him the light of Torah and education
for his adult life.
ישא – May Hashem acknowledge you with favor and
place upon you peace.
After his schooling and education, he must marry and
deal with the outside world. He must learn to get along with his wife and the
rest of his society in order to succeed. For this he needs a special beracha of
Shalom – peace.
Let us focus on the first segment of the Birkas Cohanim
– the need for shemira for small children.
To us, Shavuos and Parshas Naso marks the second half
of “summer zman”, when the learning season winds down and the thrills of summer
escapades are on the horizon. And things start getting hot. Sometimes very hot.
In fact, here in Yerushalayim we were blessed last week with a day or two of
almost 100⁰
highs. And when it’s close to 100⁰ in the open air, it can
become a real oven inside a car.
We are all aware of hot car deaths. They are among the
most heart-wrenching tragedies imaginable. Especially since they are 100%
avoidable. It can happen to anyone. The most caring, conscientious, and experienced of parents (or older siblings). All it takes is a very fleeting understandable bout of absent-mindedness and
one’s life is lost (a recent news item actually mentioned two twins, R”L), at
least two others are ruined and a marriage, even if it survives, is irreparably
damaged.
There seems to be an organization that keeps track of
these incidents. You can find it HERE. They claim that since they started
tracking in 1998 they have documented 749 cases in the US. Comes out to almost
40 per year. This is in the US. Here in E"Y it is even hotter and there's less shade. We are not strangers to these tragedies.
These are the known cases and these are the ones that
ended badly. I am certain the number of cases which had a happier ending, but were
just as perilous, is in a multiple of – who knows? – 5 or 10 times. I can even
attest to perhaps two minor (B”H) incidents involving my own children under my
care.
The reason I am writing this is that I very recently
saw in a news write-up a very effective method of minimizing these devastatingly
tragic incidents and I cannot hold back from sharing it. If it prevents even
one incident, it is mekayam an olam malei.
The method is this:
When you strap your child into the car seat in the
back, take something you cannot be without such as your wallet, your
pocketbook, your cellphone (if you can spare it), or even one of your shoes,
and wedge it underneath or behind the child’s car seat.
This way, in case you forget to drop the kid at the
babysitter or nursery and go on to your personal destination, when you get
there, you will want to retrieve your missing accessory and VOILA! –there’s the
baby - quiet as a mouse!
A shoe is a bit awkward but is relatively fool-proof.
Wallets and cell phones may still be overlooked (I have left them in my car
plenty) but still you will discover it’s absence [hopefully] soon enough.
May we all have a great and safe summer and never ever
hear of these needless tragedies.
May the children be blessed with shemira, Torah, and
Shalom!
Good Shabbos
Additional posts on Parshas Naso – my magnum opus on
Evolution:
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