Dvar Torah for Parshas Re'eh

       In Perek 14 Pasuk 1,the first pasuk  of rivi’i, the pasuk says  “בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַי־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לֹא תִתְגֹּדְדוּ וְלֹא תָשִׂימוּ קָרְחָה בֵּין עֵינֵיכֶם “  “You are children of Hashem, your God. You shall neither cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.”

       The obvious question is, how come these two actions are directly associated with being God’s children? Of all the things that you can think of, are these the two you would have picked?  The answer is that the pasuk is referring to when people would die in those days, the goyim would cut themselves and tear out their hair in grief.

       The Seforno says a very nice idea that since we are children of Hashem, we are guaranteed a portion in Olam Habah, the World to Come. Because of this there is no reason to have to show your grief outwardly over a death. The deceased is in a much better place than we are. I think the Seforno is saying that if you show too much grief, you are showing a lack of belief in this principle. Grief is obviously expected in this situation, but the bottom line must be that you believe the deceased is much better off than they were in Olam Hazeh.

       The Ibn Ezra says something very powerful. Once you know that Hashem is your Father and that he loves you more than any human father possibly could, then you cannot cut yourself over a death or anything bad that happens. Everything Hashem does is for the good! When a parent does not let a child have something that he really wants, do we say that he is a bad parent? No. We assume that the parent knows what’s best for his child. And just like a little child doesn’t understand what his father is doing is good for him, he just trusts his father implicitly, so too we must trust Hashem even without understanding his actions.

       We must show that we are different from the goyim who do not recognize the good in everything and therefore, get so lost in their grief that they physically harm themselves. We cannot be like that for we are Hashem’s children and how sad is it when a child cannot or does not trust their father? Current events do not appear to bode well for the Jewish people, however, we must keep our bitachon and trust that no matter what happens, Hashem is leading us in the right direction.

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Eikev

       Parshas Eikev continues the theme of Sefer Devarim with Moshe giving his farewell address to Bnei Yisrael. The Parshah opens with Moshe telling Bnei Yisrael all the good that awaits them if they keep the mitzvos. “בָּרוּךְ תִּהְיֶה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים…” “You will be blessed more than all other nations…” (7:14), this is one of the rewards Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael that they will receive for fulfilling the Torah. The pasuk is explained not like the simple translation, rather instead of translating the pasuk like we did earlier, you read it, “You will be blessed from (by) all the other nations”, that the nations will bless you. But this will not be a brachah that they will want to give. Instead, it will be the same as when the two malachim (angels), one good and one bad, come to the house on Friday night. If the house is ready for Shabbos, the good angel blesses the home and the bad angel is forced to say Amen. The same way the bad angel is forced to agree with the good angel’s blessing, the nations will be forced to bless us.

       The Abarbanel asks, how is this a brachah? What good does it do the Bnei Yisrael to have the nations of the world forced to agree to our goodness? The Kli Yakar answers that the nations of the world need us more then we need them. We know that Eretz Yisrael is, “ארץ אשר תמיד עיני ה' אלוקיך בה” “the land which Hashem’s eyes are constantly upon it” (11:10). He wants to explain this concept that Hashem looks at Eretz Yisrael first to determine what it needs, and then and only then, based off of that, Hashem distributes the needs of the rest of the world. So the whole world’s supplies come from Hashem’s attention to Eretz Yisrael. According to this, it’s easy to see why the Goyim bless us, only through our good fortunes do their good fortunes come. Still, they only do this begrudgingly since the only reason they bless us is for their own good and not because they love us. If they were not connected to us, they wouldn’t bother to bless us. However, this is only when we keep the mitzvos, otherwise we have no control over the nation’s livelihood.

       How lucky we are to have been given Eretz Yisrael, the land from which the whole world’s fate hinges! We should be zoche to keep the Torah and mitzvos to such a degree that that control of the world is once again in our hands and we should reach a state where the entire world sings the praises of the Jewish Nation, but this time not from necessity, but from pure admiration.   

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Vaeschanan

It's good to be back after a three week layoff. hope you're all having a great summer!

       Sefer Devarim is Moshe’s farewell address to Bnei Yisrael. In it he reviews everything that happened to the nation from after they left Mitzrayim until this point as well as most of the mitzvos. In this week’s parshah, Parshas Va’eschanan, we have several famous passages such as the parshah of Ve’ahavta from the daily Shema, the Aseres Hadibros (with a few changes from the original in Parshas Yisro) and Ve’haya Ki Yiveacha, one of the parshiyos contained in Tefillin, which highlight key mitzvos and events. Even without these important and famous parshiyos we would easily deduce that whatever is contained in Sefer Devarim must be extremely important as this is what Moshe chose to give over right before he died. However, sometimes it’s not only what we see from Moshe’s words, but from his actions that we learn the greatest lessons from.

       At the beginning of Shlishi, the pasuk says, “אָז יַבְדִּיל מֹשֶׁה שָׁלֹשׁ עָרִים בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן” “Then Moshe separated three cities on the side of the Jordan” (4:41). These cities are in connection to the Arei Miklat (Cities of Refuge), the collection of cities where someone who was guilty of killing B’shogeg, accidently, would run to and live until the death of the Kohen Gadol. There were three of these cities in Eretz Yisrael and three on the other side of the Yarden, the Jordan River, where the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half of Menashe lived. The pasuk says that Moshe set aside the three cities that would be used as Arei Miklat outside of Eretz Yisrael before he died. Rashi adds something which makes this seemingly side detail unbelievable. The Gemarah in Makkos (10a) says that the three Arei Miklat outside of Eretz Yisrael had no significance at all until the three cities in Eretz Yisrael were set up. If someone killed accidently in the meantime, they did not go to those three cities. This means that Moshe’s efforts at this time were wholly unnecessary from a practical point of view. We learn from here that when you have the opportunity to participate in a mitzvah, or even just the planning of a mitzvah, you should do as much of it as you can.

       We see this by Dovid Hamelech as well, even after Hashem told him that he would not be the one to build the Beis Hamikdash, he still collected many of the materials needed for its construction to give to his son Shlomo. Another example would be an old man planting an esrog tree. Since esrog trees take a few years to mature, by the time the fruit would be ready to use for the mitzvah, the old man may have already passed away. However, his planting the tree for other people to use is his contribution to the mitzvah even if it isn’t actually part of the mitzvah.

       The Kli Yakar uses this to explain the language of the pasuk immediately before ours. It says, “וְשָׁמַרְתָּ אֶת חֻקָּיו וְאֶת מִצְוֹתָיו אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִיטַב לְךָ וּלְבָנֶיךָ אַחֲרֶיךָ” “And you shall observe his laws and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may be well with you and your children after you…” (4:40). The word “אַחֲרֶיךָ” “after you” seems to be extra, why can’t the pasuk just say “and your children”? He explains that mitzvos that you do are not only for you and your children, they are potentially for children that come even after you’re not around!  

       With all the lessons that we learn from Moshe in Sefer Devarim, it’s the one that he doesn’t say out loud that resonates to us. We always prepare for later in life in order to be set up for when we can no longer take care of things. Perhaps we should do the same with mitzvos. Let’s start to look around and see what steps we can take in order that we will always have mitzvos ready and waiting for us. And if it doesn’t end up being for us, then let’s make sure that someone else will be able to produce a mitzvah from our efforts. As we see from Moshe Rabbeinu and Dovid Hamelech, we must always strive to do mitzvos even if we know that we won’t be the ones fulfilling them. With that attitude, the performance of mitzvos in Bnei Yisrael will only increase bringing mashiach closer and closer.

Shabbat Shalom!   

AIMeM

No Dvar Torah This Week

This week and next week, I will be vacationing in America. There is no Dvar Torah this week and possibly next week as well. Stay tuned.
Shabbat Shalom!!!




AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Pinchas

     Parshas Balak ends with the story of Pinchas killing Zimri, the Nasi of Shevet Shimon, as he was involved in an aveirah with Cozby, the princess of Midian. The halachah is when a person commits Gilui Arayos with a non-Jewish woman, any קנאי (translated as zealot for lack of a better term) is allowed to go and kill him. When Pinchas saw what Zimri was doing, he went straight away and killed both of them! In this week’s parshah, we learn how Pinchas was rewarded.

     When Aharon and his sons became Kohanim, the Kehunah was given to their descendants as well. However, this included only unborn children. Anyone who was already born at the time, including Pinchas, did not become Kohanim. So, at the beginning of this week’s parshah, Hashem rewards Pinchas by making him a Kohen. This sounds all good and wonderful but how is it possible? How can someone just become a Kohen? After all, a Kohen is born not made. You can answer simply that Pinchas did a huge Kiddush Hashem, deserving of becoming a Kohen, but there have been many people throughout history who have done huge Kiddush Hashems. Why did they not become Kohanim?

     There is the possibility of answering on a personal level pertaining to Pinchas. Pinchas showed an enormous commitment to Hashem and his zealotry clearly showed his desire to be involved completely in the service of Hashem. Hashem puts us in certain circumstances which allow us to reach certain levels. If we reach those levels and show our desire to reach even higher, Hashem gives us even greater opportunities. After this act on Pinchas’ part, the only circumstance where he could devote himself even more to Hashem was through being a Kohen, a job where you work in the Beis Hamikdash and your entire livelihood comes from Hashem, basically, a life of complete commitment to God. However, this doesn’t completely answer our question. Pinchas was already a Levi, whose position in the Beis Hamikdash was also a position of great importance and also prevented him from making a living. So why did he need to become a Kohen? Furthermore, this is still not a good enough reason to change the normal process of becoming a Kohen, namely, by being born one!

     A better way of looking at this is by examining the actual act that Pinchas did. He is called a קנאי, so what is it about being a קנאי that becoming a Kohen is a fitting reward? Let us examine what it means to be a קנאי and maybe then we can understand what the connection is to the Kehunah.

     The word “קנאי” comes from the word קנאה, jealousy. Someone who is a קנאי for Hashem is someone who is jealous in place of Hashem. What does that mean? How can you be jealous in place of someone else, either it’s your jealousy or theirs? The Ramchal in his sefer Mesillas Yesharim explains love as having three branches with one of these branches being קנאות. What does this mean? When someone you love is being abused in some fashion, the first thing you do (or are supposed to do) is immediately stand up for that person and do what needs to be done to restore that person’s safety and respect. When you make that person’s honor so important that it hurts you to see him disrespected, when you make someone’s agenda as important as your own, and you act on that feeling, you are called a קנאי. When Pinchas went to kill Zimri, he wasn’t worried that Zimri was an important person, he wasn’t worried about what the general populace would think of him, Pinchas, no more special than anyone else, taking care of business himself. It hurt Pinchas so much to see Hashem’s honor being desecrated right before his eyes that he acted right away. He knew the halachah allowed him to kill Zimri. He took a spear, and went and killed him. Pinchas loved Hashem enough that this desecration of Hashem’s name in public drove him to (permissible) murder. And someone who loves Hashem loves everything about Hashem.

     My mashgiach, Rabbi Elchonon Fishman, explained to us in a shmooz that the parshah introduces Pinchas as “פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן” “Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aharon the Kohen” (25:11). There was only one Elazar at the time who was a Kohen, that should have been enough to identify who Pinchas was. Why did the Torah bother to include Aharon also in the introduction? He answered that Aharon is described as “אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה” “one who loved people and brought them closer to Torah” (Pirkei Avos 1:12). He was prominent amongst the nation not only as the Kohen Gadol, but also as the person who brought peace between families, neighbors, and friends. And because Aharon’s love for the people was so great, he brought them closer to Torah, the most precious gift anyone would want to give! Aharon was the first Kohen Gadol. The Kohen Gadol represents the entire nation. When he brings a korban, he brings it for everybody, when he goes into the Kodesh Hakedoshim on Yom Kippur, he goes in alone, but representing the entire nation while he is in there. He walks around the whole day with the names of the Shevatim on his shoulders as part of the Eifod (apron), and on his chest as part of the Choshen (breastplate). He has the responsibility of keeping the entire nation on the right path. A Kohen Gadol’s entire life is about thinking and caring for the nation, and as we said before, someone who loves Hashem loves everything about Hashem, including his children and chosen nation. Meaning us, the Jewish people.

     Pinchas had this same middah as Aharon, he loved every single Jew so much. Why? Because the kavod of the Jewish people was as important to him as was the kavod of Hashem! That’s why the Torah introduces him as the grandson of Aharon, he inherited that quality from his grandfather. When Pinchas went to kill Zimri, it wasn’t only to defend the kavod of Hashem, it was to defend the kavod of the entire nation! He was concerned that the nation should not be embarrassed by someone committing a horrible aveirah in public.

      Now it’s simple to understand why Pinchas became a Kohen. Who was more qualified to become the next Kohen Gadol than the person who risked his life to defend the honor of Klal Yisrael! Additionally, according to one commentary, all future Kohanim Gedolim were descended from Pinchas. Based on this explanation, this makes complete sense. This quality which they inherited from their grandfather is the perfect gene to perform the job of Kohen Gadol.

     While we might not be on the level of pure קנאות, we can still try to replicate this middah of Aharon and Pinchas, this pure love of every Jew leading us to do everything in our power to help them, care for them, and ultimately give them the ultimate gift of Torah. To start off, we must take care that we treat  the respect of every person as our own.  Through this, we will become true קנאים and defenders of the honor of Hashem and Klal Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Balak

     At the end of Parshas Chukas, the Bnei Yisrael were rushing through the nations of Amon and Bashan on their way to Eretz Yisrael. The next nation in front of them was the nation of Moav which was busy preparing for a potential conflict with the Bnei Yisrael. Balak, the king of Moav, devised a plan to defeat the Bnei Yisrael by hiring the famous magician, Bilaam, who was also the only non-Jewish Navi in history, to curse them. Let’s see if we can discover the thought process behind this decision.

     The Kli Yakar examines the first few pesukim of the parshah and notices several key differences. The first three pesukim in the parshah read like this, “וַיַּרְא בָּלָק בֶּן צִפּוֹר אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יִשְׂרָאֵל לָאֱמֹרִי: וַיָּגָר מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי הָעָם מְאֹד כִּי רַב הוּא וַיָּקָץ מוֹאָב מִפְּנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: וַיֹּאמֶר מוֹאָב אֶל זִקְנֵי מִדְיָן עַתָּה יְלַחֲכוּ הַקָּהָל אֶת כָּל סְבִיבֹתֵינוּ כִּלְחֹךְ הַשּׁוֹר אֵת יֶרֶק הַשָּׂדֶה…” “And Balak the son of Zipor saw all that Yisrael had done to the Amorite. Moav became very frightened of the people, because it was formidable; and Moav was disgusted in the face of Bnei Yisrael. The elders of Moav said to the elders of Midian, ‘Now the congregation will chew up our entire surroundings…’ (22:2-4). In these pesukim, the Bnei Yisrael are referenced four times, each time with a different title. The first time they are referred to as “Yisrael”, the next time they are referred to as “the people”, the third time they are called “Bnei Yisrael” and the final time they are referred to as “the congregation”. What is the meaning of this? Why are all these different nouns used to describe the Jewish nation?

     The Kli Yakar goes through each reference by itself. The first noun, “Yisrael” is said in reference to Balak, “And Balak the son of Zipor saw all that Yisrael had done to the Amorite…” In those days, history was not as widespread as it is today. The only people who really knew all current and former world events were the rulers of the countries. This was because each country had its own history book where they would record events that happened in their own countries as well as the rest of the world and over the years these books became excellent historical records. As the king of Moav, Balak had access to this book and saw a recording of an earlier conflict between Yaakov Avinu and the nation of Amon. After Shimon and Levi wiped out the city of Shechem, Yaakov was afraid of retaliation from the neighboring Amorites. He explains in his final address to his sons in Parshas Vayechi that he was able to defeat them with his “sword and bow”. Chazal explain that these were not actual weapons but were really Yaakov’s tefillos. The power of Yaakov’s mouth was what saved him from the Amorites. As you know, Yaakov was also known by another name, Yisrael. This is the Yisrael that is mentioned in the pasuk. Balak would have known the story having read the Moav history book and sought to counteract this “power of the mouth” that Yaakov had by hiring Bilaam, who also had very strong power in his words. So when the pasuk says “Yisrael”, it doesn’t refer to the nation of Yisrael, but rather Yisrael himself!

     The second time, Bnei Yisrael are referred to as “the nation”. The question is, why was it the formidable size of the nation which scared the nation of Moav? After all the miracles in the desert, why would the size of the nation scare them more than anything else? The answer is that whenever the phrase “the nation” is used to describe Bnei Yisrael, it is referring only to the Eiruv Rav, the collection of non-Jews who came out of Egypt together with Bnei Yisrael. The medrash says that they numbered twice the amount of people who left Egypt, a total of 1.2 million! These were the formidable numbers the nation of Moav was worried about.

     The next time when Bnei Yisrael are called Bnei Yisrael is the most obvious. In terms of Moav’s disgust, the fact that Bnei Yisrael were who they were was Moav’s reason to hate them. In the last instance, the Jewish people are referred to as “the congregation”. In Parshas Matos, the Bnei Yisrael go out to war with Midian. The pasuk specifically mentions that Pinchas went out with them to battle. Rashi explains that Pinchas was a descendant of Yosef (on his mother’s side) who when he was sold, the last group that had him and actually sold him into slavery in Egypt was a group from Midian. So Pinchas went out to battle in order to avenge his forefather’s sale. The elders of Moav warn the elders of Midian of this possibility in this week’s parshah and use the phrase “congregation” which is a special way the Torah refers to the children of Yosef (See Bereishis 35:11).

       Shabbat Shalom!!!

AIMeM

Dvar Torah for Parshas Chukas

     Parshas Chukas is literally packed to the brim with some of the most famous stories in the Torah. From the laws of the Parah Adumah (Red Heifer) to Moshe hitting the rock to the deaths of Aharon and Miriam to the beginning of the end of the journey to Eretz Yisrael, this week’s parshah has no shortage of topics to write about. If only we could spend time on all of them, but sadly, we must only choose one.

     The Torah explains that when someone becomes spiritually impure through coming into contact with a dead body, he becomes pure again by being sprinkled with the ashes of the Parah Adumah. When explaining the topic of the Parah Adumah, Rashi first explains technically how the whole process works along with all the laws and procedures. Afterwards, he brings the midrashic explanation. The question that everyone asks, and rightly so, about Parah Adumah is what is the significance of this red cow that it is used to make a tamei (spiritually impure) person tahor (spiritually pure)? The medrash explains that the first time Bnei Yisrael became tamei after receiving the Torah was from the Egel Hazahav (Golden Calf), the medrash says that the Parah Adumah, the “mother cow”, should come and clean up the mess of the “baby cow”, the Egel. The same way that the Egel made Bnei Yisrael tamei, the Parah Adumah will make everyone tahor.

     The Sifsei Chachamim asks on this medrash that we have a concept called אין קטגור נעשה סנגור, the prosecutor cannot become the defendant. How can the cow which caused the Jewish People to sin in the first place, come back and act as the tool to reach spiritual purity and connect us with Hashem? Similarly, when the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) went into the Kodesh Hakedoshim (Holy of Holies) on Yom Kippur, he did not wear any gold material on his clothing since the Egel was made of gold and it is no longer a material which can be used to facilitate forgiveness. Predictably, the question is answered with another question. If using gold clothing would remind Hashem of the sin of the Golden Calf, why would the Kohen Gadol ever be able to wear gold clothing? The answer is that we are strict about the use of gold clothing pertaining to any service done in the Kodesh Hakedoshim, however for every other part of the Beis Hamikdash service, we are not. The same applies to the Parah Adumah, since it isn’t connected in any way to the Kodesh Hakedoshim, we don’t say אין קטגור נעשה סנגור.

     This rule of אין קטגור נעשה סנגור brings up another question in a later Rashi. The pasuk says, “וּנְתַתֶּם אֹתָהּ אֶל אֶלְעָזָר הַכֹּהֵן” “And you shall give it (the Parah Adumah) to Elazar the Kohen” (19:3). Rashi asks how come Elazar was in charge of preparing the Parah Adumah and not Aharon the Kohen Gadol? He answers, “…ולפי שאהרן עשה את העגל לא נעשית עבודה זו על ידו, שאין קטיגור נעשה סניגור” “…Because Aharon made the calf, this service was not given to him, for a prosecutor does not become a defense counselor” (19:22)! How can Rashi use אין קטגור נעשה סנגור to explain why Aharon couldn’t work with the Parah Adumah when we just explained that this only applies to the Kodesh Hakedoshim? The Sifsei Chachamim answers that since Aharon himself was the one who made the Egel, he could not be directly involved with the process that would help exonerate Bnei Yisrael of this sin. Therefore, אין קטגור נעשה סנגור still applies.

     Nowadays, we no longer have the Parah Adumah and cannot purify ourselves from our impure state. As we approach the time period of The Three Weeks when we commemorate the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, this should be another thing we daven for with its return, the opportunity to become completely tahor and be able to bring korbanos in the Beis Hamikdash together with all of Klal Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom!    

AIMeM