Flowers of Love | Rabbi Mordechai Stern

There was a fellow who had a handsome house, nice property, a beautiful backyard. And in his backyard, there was a particular spot that could be used as a shortcut. People would come and they'd cut through his property. They'd walk through that spot in his backyard, they were able to get through to get to a different street, to be able to get to Shul, wherever they needed to go. Constantly during the day and at night, especially over Shabbos, people were always walking and taking this shortcut to be able to save themselves time. And it was extremely disturbing and uncomfortable for the guy who owned the house. He had no privacy. There was היזק ראיה. You never know when someone would be walking through his property. So at a certain point, he put up a sign that said No Trespassing. He hoped that people would respect it, but, of course, nobody paid any attention. They didn't consider themselves to be trespassing, and they continued to traipse through his backyard at all times to take the shortcut. So he had no option. He built a fence. And he figured that this way he'd have a little privacy, a little respite. But people kept on coming. They would climb over the fence. So he made the fence a little bit higher. Maybe he put something sharp on top of the fence. But people found a solution. Suddenly, he walked to the back, he saw on the now beaten path to the shortcut, someone had ripped open a hole in the fence. People managed to squeeze their way through and continued to use the shortcut. He thought for a while, and he hired a gardener to plant the most exquisite bed of magnificent flowers. Roses, delicate. A beautifully arranged broad bed of flowers, that blocked the entire area where the shortcut was. At this point, the only possible way to use the shortcut would be to trample and destroy the beautiful, magnificent flowers. And who would have the heart to do such a thing? The Ponevezher Rav זכרונו לברכה says that this story is a Mashal to give us a deeper understanding of the pasuk in Shir HaShirim. The pasuk says, Our observance of Mitzvos, our Shmiras HaMitzvos, is protected by a fence, a hedge of roses. What does this mean? What's the Mashal? Says the Ponevezher Rav, Chazal, in their wisdom, have enacted many, many תקנות, סייגים, גדרים various הרחקות, to keep us far away from the edge of Chas v’Shalom falling into an Aveira. These take place, a Mechitzah, an איסור of Yichud, הרחקות, waiting between בשר וחלב, and so many other areas. Many times we ourselves create הרחקות for ourselves. We put ourselves a certain guideline in place. I'm not going to go to that place, I know it's a sticky situation. I'm going to install a filter. I'm not going to use that device. I'm going to stay away from that type of interaction. How do we look at these? Do we look at them as mere safeguards or something that don't have value in and of themselves? The Ponevezher Rav says no. These are a magnificent bed of flowers, a bouquet of beauty to the Ribono shel Olam, that we show the Ribono shel Olam: Look, Ribono shel Olam, we're trying to be careful. This expresses the beauty of what the lengths that we are going, how careful we are. Ribono shel Olam, our relationship with You, Your relationship with us, our closeness with You means so, so much. These הרחקות that we take, מוריי ורבותיי, they’re שושנים. Let us treasure the moments that we can take an extra step to keep away, to say וימאן, and recognize that with that we're giving a special bouquet of שושנים, of magnificent פרחים, magnificent flowers, of our love to the Ribono shel Olam.