Shabbat Parshat Tzav - 5763
The Mazal of Adar is Fish

When I was selecting a tie to wear to shul for the reading of the Megilah, I was about to reach for one of my standard ties, but all of a sudden I heard a voice saying, “Wear me for the reading of the Megilah! I have a design of fish swimming and this is most appropriate for this month, because the Mazal of Adar is fish. And the People of Israel are compared to fish. Just as fish live in the water, so does Israel, for their entire existence is tied to Torah, and Torah is compared to water.”

The shock of hearing a tie talk would probably have caused me severe psychological problems, if not for the fact that I had been prepared by the story of the “Talking Fish of New Square” that has swept Monsey and the local Jewish world in the past few weeks. And, with the aid of a front-page article in the New York Times, the story will undoubtedly reach a world-wide audience. According to the story, a twenty-pound carp was about to be clubbed over the head by a non-Jewish worker in a New Square fish store, when it suddenly began speaking in Hebrew. It said that “the end is coming!” and it had come back to earth to achieve a “tikkun,” a rehabilitation for the soul of a certain recently departed individual before it was too late. Who knows? Comparably strange things have happened to the Jewish people (talking donkeys, miraculous bread from Heaven that appeared double on Friday and not at all on Shabbat, water gushing from rocks, traveling wells, fiery steeds from Heaven, etc etc)

Fish are indeed a particularly appropriate symbol for the Month of Adar and its Holiday of Purim, because one of the central ideas associated with Purim is hiddenness, “hester” in Hebrew. And the idea of hiddenness applies well to the lives of fish, because they live hidden in watery depths. And this corresponds to the way HaShem manipulates, and manipulated events in the Megilah with great irony, from behind the scenes, for the redemption of His People, after they had done proper repentance. For perhaps the most striking example of many, we find in Megilas Esther (6:1), “On that night, the sleep of the king was disturbed.” So that the Annals of the Royal Court should be read to him to discover if there were anyone to whom he owed a favor, who in its absence might be plotting a coup against him, and it was found that Mordechai the Jew had indeed saved his life, and had never received a reward from the king. But just on that night, Haman was on his way to advise the king to hang Mordechai!

The fact that the New Square story involved a carp is also indicative of a tie with the Jewish People. For there are three basic kosher fish: tuna, salmon and carp. Although it is true that if HaShem had created only the tuna, it would have been enough to praise Him, because in the form of tuna sandwiches (with mayonnaise), that fish has provided healthful nutrition to generations of Jewish children. But it is still only a “voche-dik” (a weekday) fish. Although salmon are used sometimes as part of Shabbat menus, their basic function seems to be to ease the lot of Jewish caterers. Important, but not as important as carp, that constitutes the basic ingredient of gefilte fish. Either Friday night or as part of Shabbat lunch, this dish has enhanced “Oneg Shabbat,” the enjoyment of Shabbat, throughout the ages.

On a more serious note, by the time this essay appears, it is likely that the U.S. will be at war with Iraq, and the State of Israel might be involved as well. Since we are now between Purim and Pesach, we pray to HaShem with Purim’dik and Pesach’dik tefilot. “V’Nahafoch hu!” May the evil plans of tyrants be overturned upon them. May Saddam and his sons meet a similar fate as did Haman and his sons, who wound up at the end of the Megilah swinging from a gallows! And we also “...thank You with a new song, for our salvation, and the redemption of our souls; Blessed are You, HaShem, Eternal Redeemer of Israel.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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