Dvar Torah for Parshas Behar

     Parshas Behar opens with Hashem teaching Moshe about the mitzvah of Shmittah. “שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְרַע שָׂדֶךָ וְשֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְמֹר כַּרְמֶךָ…וּבַשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן יִהְיֶה לָאָרֶץ שַׁבָּת לַי־הֹוָ־ה שָׂדְךָ לֹא תִזְרָע וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא תִזְמֹר” “For six years you may sow your field and for six years you may prune your vineyard…But on the seventh year a complete rest there shall be for the land, a Shabbos for Hashem; your field you shall not sow and your vineyard you shall not prune” (Vayikra 25:3-4). The mitzvah is that every seventh year, you are not allowed to plant or do any work in your fields. Anything which grows in the fields, even if it grows on its own, is considered hefker (ownerless), and may be taken by anyone and also obtains a status of kedushah (holiness). This mitzvah is only applicable to Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, anyone in Chutz La’aretz may continue planting like any other year. An explanation is needed to understand the purpose this mitzvah in general, even more so when we see that the punishment for not keeping shmittah is the eventual exile of the Jewish People from Israel!

     A common explanation for this mitzvah is to provide what we call nowadays Ley farming, where in order to replenish the minerals in the ground, the field is not sowed for a length of time, in our case, a year. However, the Kli Yakar asks that this explanation simply does not make sense. Based on this reasoning, why would the punishment for shmittah be exile, why not that the land would not regain its previous strength? Also, pasuk 4 described shmittah as a, “שַׁבָּת לַי־הֹוָ־ה”, a Shabbos for Hashem, this reason makes it a Shabbos for the land rather than a Shabbos for Hashem?

     The Kli Yakar answers that the purpose of shmittah is to have us work on our אמונה וביטחון, trust and faith in Hashem. In general, farming is one of the hardest professions to believe that everything comes from Hashem. Can you imagine what it is to be a farmer? You work for months and months plowing and planting and fertilizing and watering and everything else that comes with planting and then it rains. When the crops grow, even though at the end of the day the rain is the final factor,  how are you supposed to automatically thank Hashem for all of it? Think of all the hard work you had to do over the past few months! Someone who can recognize form the start that the end result is all from Hashem is truly a special person. Now imagine not being able to do any of that work for an entire year… This takes this test to a whole other level. How could you possibly survive without farming! Nothing will grow! The fields will be ruined by all the people coming to take the free food! Someone who can pass this test definitely has a high level of belief.

     This level of belief transcends the realm of normalcy, therefore, for someone who keeps shmittah, Hashem also transcends this realm. First of all, the pasuk tells us to plant for six straight years. In farming, the same field is not planted for six straight years since it will completely drain the land of its minerals, yet Hashem tells us to plant non-stop for six years and to not worry about it. Furthermore, we learn from the pasuk that not only will the land not decrease over the six years, the land will become even stronger, growing enough grain in the six year to last for the six year, the shmittah year, and the year after shmittah until the new crops can grow!

     The question that remains is why would this mitzvah only apply in Eretz Yisrael? If the whole point is to strengthen our belief in Hashem, why would it not be required of every Jew in the world? I believe the Kli Yakar answers this question while explaining the historical perspective of shmittah. Hashem told Moshe this mitzvah right before Bnei Yisrael were expected to enter the land. Since they were now re-entering the normal world after an amazing two years in the desert which included the giving of the Torah and other miraculous events, Hashem was afraid that they would slip into normal human behavior and believe in the power of man over the power of God. In order to avoid that, Hashem gave us the mitzvah of shmittah which proves Hashem is in control of the world and your livelihood. More than that, Chazal say that the land itself will enforce shmittah! Eretz Yisrael wants the zchus that Bnei Yisrael receive from keeping the mitzvah of shmittah to come through it. As it says in the pasuk in next week’s parshah, “אז תרצה הארץ את-שבתותיה” “Then the land will appease its shmittah years” (26:34), the reason the punishment for not keeping shmittah is galus (exile) is because the land needs its time off for shmittah because it needs the Jewish People to have bitachon in Hashem because the land itself wants us to reach that dargah (level)!

     The answer now is obvious. The land outside of Eretz Yisrael is designed for Gentiles, so the land won’t get any zchus for their beliefs anyway. The same is true for Gentiles living in Israel, they do not have to keep shmittah because the mitzvah is not designed for them and because of that, the land will eventually throw them out as well to make room for people from whom the land can benefit.

     Even though this year is not shmittah, it does not mean that we cannot find ways to work on our faith ourselves. This week we commemorate amazing miracles which were done for us in Eretz Yisrael, we see from the pasuk that if we want to keep this land we must work on our bitachon. For at the end of the day, the land does not care if it’s the farmer in the field, the lawyer in the office, or the rabbi in the Beis Hamedrash who is working to become better, as long as we are all headed in that direction.

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Emor

     The time we are in between Pesach and Shavous is known as Sefiras Haomer, The Counting of the Omer. There is a special mitzvah to count the fifty days between these two holidays starting from the second day of Pesach, the day the Korban Omer (brought from barley by the way) was brought in the Beis Hamikdash, which allowed us to start eating from the grain harvested in the past year. Why we count, what’s the significance of the omer, and what is the whole deal with the “new” and “old” grain, is not what I want to discuss here. Instead I would like to focus on another part of the mitzvah.

      The mitzvah to count is brought down in this week’s parshah, Parshas Emor. “וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה. עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת הַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לַי־הֹוָ־ה” “You shall count for yourselves from the day after the holiday, from the day when you bring the omer of the waving-- seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count, fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem.”(Vayikra 23:15-16) As it says in the pasuk, after the fifty days are up, meaning on Shavous itself, there is a mitzvah to bring a מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה, a new meal-offering. This korban acts as a bookend for the korban omer which was brought on Pesach when we started counting. The “new” part of the meal-offering refers to the fact that this is the first meal-offering brought from the new flour. What is the significance of the fact that the korban must be from the “new” flour? The Kli Yakar brings a Chazal that the Torah must be approached every day with the same excitement as if it is your first day learning it. When you first start something new and exciting, you are filled with such an enthusiasm for it and it is very easy to get into. Over time however, it gets less and less exciting until it becomes more like a chore then an exciting activity. Torah must never be treated like this; rather, you must come every day to learn Torah with the same excitement as if that day is the day that we got the Torah from Har Sinai with all the amazing miracles. To symbolize this, when you bring the korban on Shavous, the anniversary of our receiving the Torah, we bring it from new flour.

     The Kli Yakar continues this idea with the following question. Parshas Emor lists every holiday that we have which is an obligation from the Torah (FYI: this excludes Chanukah, Purim, and all fast days besides Yom Kippur). The pasukim go through the laws of each holiday and also state the dates that each holiday starts. All that is, but two: Rosh Hashanah and Shavous. This is extremely puzzling. Shavous, as the anniversary for the giving of the Torah is an extremely important day in Jewish history and Rosh Hashanah is the day when we are judged for all our deeds! Why would Hashem not want us to know those two dates?

     The answer is that we have an obligation that every day we should see the Torah in a new light. Someone who is completely devoted to a certain subject and really delves into it will find something new in it every day! It doesn’t matter what field it is. Similarly, someone who really connects himself to Torah (the same way a scientist or businessman would commit himself to whatever field he is involved in) finds something new in the Torah every day. Because of this, Hashem did not ascribe one specific day (at least in the Torah) to the holiday of Shavous, rather he made it possible that any and every day of the year could be called the day the Torah was given, thus fulfilling our obligation to appreciate the Torah.

     Rosh Hashanah is the same thing, Hashem wants us to be “on our toes” and constantly think about doing teshuvah, not just wait till Rosh Hashanah comes around each year to be forgiven. Also, the gemarah in Maseches Rosh Hashanah (16a) says that there is a judgment done every day to a certain degree. By not giving a date, a person can more easily get into that frame of mind.

     As a last piece to the Shavous puzzle, the Kli Yakar focuses on the end of pasuk 17, which goes into more detail of the Shavous offering. The pasuk says that the bread brought with the korban should be, “חָמֵץ תֵּאָפֶינָה” “they shall be baked as chametz (leaven)”. Chazal in Maseches Brachos (17a) say that the chametz is a parable for the Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination). They explain that wherever there is Torah, the Yetzer Hara has no effect. This is based on another Chazal, this time in Maseches Kiddushin (30b), that Hashem says, “בראתי יצר הרע בראתי לו תורה תבלין” “I created the Yetzer Hara and I created the Torah as spices for it”. Just as spices bring out the true flavor of the food and make it taste good, so too the Torah acts as a spice for the Yetzer Hara and brings out its true flavor. On the holiday when we celebrate the giving of the Torah, we bring a chametz korban to represent the Yetzer Hara, symbolizing that together with Torah, it can be defeated.

     May we use this time of Sefira to prepare ourselves for the giving of the Torah. And when we count each night, think about these two things which are being represented here. The first thing is that the day we are counting towards is not the only day that we received the Torah, we receive the Torah each and every day and must act as such and learn and preform its laws with the proper enthusiasm. And secondly, that with the proper preparation, we will soon have all the tools we need to defeat the Yetzer Hara once and for all!

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Kedoshim

     At the beginning of this week’s parshah, Hashem tells Moshe, “דַּבֵּר אֶל כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם” “Speak to the entire congregation of Yisrael and say to them, You shall be holy, since I, Hashem, your God, am holy” (19:2). So begins Parshas Kedoshim with a statement which controls every decision that we make over the course of our lives. Hashem tells us that we must be holy, meaning that whatever we do, it must be with the thought, “Is this something which makes me a holy person or not” behind it. But what exactly does this mean? What and how must we live our lives and go through the day as a holy person?

     It is difficult to understand how we can be holy spiritually when we live in a physical world. Our first thought in what it means to be holy would be someone who could cut themselves off completely from the physical. The perfect example of this would be a Nazir. A Nazir is someone who for a 30 day period does not cut his hair, drink wine, or become tamei (spiritually impure). The Torah gives an option for someone to accept upon themselves to be a Nazir, the point of which is to separate yourself form the pleasures of this world. However, interestingly enough, when the Nazir finishes his month, he must bring a קרבן חטאת, sin-offering. Obviously, though the Nazir is on an extremely high spiritual level by the time he finishes, there is something wrong with what he is doing. So what are we supposed to do? How do we achieve this status of being holy?

     The Ramban says an intriguing idea which solves this quandary. He explains that the Torah gives us mitzvos where we have to indulge in physical pleasures. For example, we have a mitzvah to eat and drink on Yom Tov. How do we justify indulging on the holiest days of the year? Think of the potential outcomes of this practice! The Ramban explains that Hashem wants us to take these purely physical activities and change them into something spiritual. Being holy doesn’t mean having to turn into something not from this world, though if you can you are truly an amazing person, it means to take what you have here in this world and change it into something spiritual.

     So that’s it, that is the secret of קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ. We all have the power to make this world a very holy place and we all have the power to make ourselves just as holy. And this is not just something which you look at and say that’s nice, this is a mitzvah in the Torah which we are required to keep! Now, during this time before Shavous when we accepted the Torah, now is the time to put this into practice. To change this world into one ready to accept the Torah, a world which is completely holy, made possible by the Holy Nation.

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Pesach 5771

Even though this week is Shabbat Hagadol, since Pesach is on Monday night, I figured I would post the Pesach Dvar Torah early.

Out of all the chagim, Pesach is the one which means the most to us as a nation for this is the time we commemorate Hashem taking us out of Mitzrayim (Egypt) and making us his Chosen People. The Seder night is when we fully commemorate this great event. We have specific mitzvos which we don’t have at any other time, such as Matzah and Maror, which fully enhance the commemorative experience. Another mitzvah we have on the Seder night is the mitzvah to tell over the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim (Exodus). This is different from the commandment we have every day to mention the story but we don’t have to go through the whole thing. The Seder specifically is the time to expound upon the great miracles in Mitzrayim.

Fittingly, one of the most important obligations we have on Seder night is to picture ourselves as if we were the ones who left Mitzrayim. As it says in the Mishnah is Pesachim as well as in the Magid section of the Hagadah, “בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים” “In every generation, each person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt” (10:5). How is this possible? How could we possibly imagine ourselves in a position of slavery since birth, where babies were slaughtered brutally and back-breaking labor was a way of life and then being freed with the greatest display of Hashem’s presence ever seen by man (up to that point)?

The word “סדר” means “order” and as we say in gemarah, “כשמו כך הוה” “like its name, so it is”. The Seder has fifteen steps that must be followed exactly as they are given and the nusach (style) we have in the Hagadah is pretty consistent for all the different cultures as well, meaning that everyone’s Seder should go pretty much the same. But, as anyone who has been to a Seder at more than one location, or heard about a different Seder or even at your own Seder from year to year could tell you, they are NEVER exactly the same! Everyone has different activities at the Seder to make it enjoyable and meaningful. Some people play games, some act out parts of the story of Egypt, and some go into depth of the different parts of the Hagadah. How does this happen? That an event so carefully planned that everyone should be able to celebrate in the same way ends up being completely different depending on where you are!

I believe I can answer both questions with one answer. When B’nei Yisrael left Mitzrayim, over 3 million strong, do you think any two people had the same exact experience? Of course not! Everyone was coming from a different perspective based on their age, status, experiences, and even their position in line probably affected their Yetzias Mitzrayim experience. Based on this, it’s easy to understand why everyone has a different Seder. Since everyone experiences the Exodus in a different way, your Seder, the meal where you should experience personally the coming out of Mitzrayim, will obviously be different from everybody else’s. In fact, it would be more improbable for two people to have the same Seder than to have two different ones! And that explains how every person has an obligation to see himself as if he came out of Mitzrayim, it’s not that you have to put yourself in the situation that the Jews had in Mitzrayim, everyone has their own “Mitzrayim” which they must leave on Pesach. Whatever it may be, we all are slaves to something to which we shouldn’t be. That is what we are obligated to do on Pesach, look back at what happened to our forefathers in Mitzrayim, learn from the story, and apply it to our Mitzrayims nowadays which we must leave.

So this Pesach when we sit around the Seder table with our family and friends let us think of the lesson of the Seder, we must take the experience of our forefathers in Mitzrayim, see how they overcame all their obstacles, stayed on the right path and eventually were worthy of being redeemed and to become the Chosen Nation. We should follow in that same path and leave the Mitzrayims of our lives and hopefully merit this year to the coming of Mashiach and to eat the Korban Pesach together with the entire Jewish Nation in Yerushalayim.

Chag Sameach!

I wish everyone a wonderful Yom Tov and a Chag Kosher V'Sameach. The next Dvar Torah will hopefully be Shvi'i Shel Pesach or after Yom Tov.




AIMeM

No Dvar Torah This Week

It was a real crazy week between vacation starting, Pesach cleaning, and pulling an all-nighter at the Kotel Wednesday night, so there is no Dvar Torah this week. B'ezrat Hashem, next week will be the dvar torah for Pesach. In the meantime, have a great shabbos!
Yosef


AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Tazria/ Hachodesh

      The week before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, we read the last of the four special parshahs, Parshas Hachodesh. In it is discussed the first mitzvah given to the B’nei Yisrael as a nation, the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, Sanctifying the New Moon. This mitzvah is followed in the parshah by the mitzvah of Korban Pesach (Passover lamb offering) and other laws of Pesach.

      It makes sense logically that Hashem would give the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh together with the laws of Pesach since sanctifying the moon would determine what day the holidays would begin. When Bais Din (Jewish Court) would determine based on the testimony of two witnesses that it was Rosh Chodesh, they would declare that day the first of the month and start counting the days of the month from there, therefore determining the starting day for Pesach and the other holidays. However, perhaps we can find a deeper connection between the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh and Korban Pesach. 

      Chazal tell us that in ancient times, the god of Egypt was the sheep. It is for this reason Yosef tells his brothers in Parshas Vayigash that the Egyptians hated all shepherds, for someone to lead their god and not have the god lead itself was the highest form of degradation. Furthermore, the constellation for the month of Nissan, the current month during our Parshah’s events, is Aries, the lamb. Hashem specifically commanded the Jewish People to slaughter a lamb as the Pesach offering in order to show that he was ruler of all the land including up in the sky by the constellations and down on the ground with the sheep. Additionally, Aries is the “first-born” of the constellations as it comes first in line, Hashem wanted to destroy not only the first-born of the Egyptians down on the ground but also the first-born of the sky.

      Hashem commanded the Jews to designate the lamb that they were going to use for the Korban Pesach on the Tenth of Nissan, five days before they actually sacrificed it. One of the reasons Hashem had them separate it so early was to show that even early in the month, when the constellation is still “powerful”, Hashem is still more powerful than it.

      It is for these reasons, says the Kli Yakar, that Hashem gave us the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh right before the mitzvah of Korban Pesach. By knowing the exact date and how far into the Month of the Lamb we were, Hashem’s authority was shown that much more to everyone. So when we read Parshas Hachodesh this week and say Hallel on Rosh Chodesh next week (and in a few weeks when we celebrate Pesach), realize that this is not any old parshah and this month is not any old month, when we celebrate the sanctification of this month, we are celebrating the complete rule and authority Hashem has over the world. May we merit that this month, this realization will be spread throughout the entire world with the coming of mashiach. And may the pasuk “ביום ההוא יהיה ה אחד ושמו אחד” “On that day, Hashem will be one and his name will be one”, be fulfilled.

Shabbat Shalom!

     

        

AIMeM

No Dvar Torah This Week

Due to the short week caused by Purim, there will be no Dvar Torah this week, Parshas Shmini. We will return b'ezrat hashem next week.

Shabbat Shalom!


AIMeM