ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה. The meforshim all ask, why does the posuk start using the singular form- "You ('Reai' singular) shall see" and continue in the plural- "Before you ('lefnaichem' plural)"?
The Kotzker aswers, the Torah was given the same to every Jew, each one of us have the same potential connection to the Torah. The only difference is how much we as individuals connect and learn the Torah. Every Jew has the potential to fully attach himself to every word of Hashem, for it was given to all of us together. It's our personal choice of how much we realy want to be connected and live with Hashem's words.
With this in mind the question doesn't start, each one of us has to see for himself how much of the Torah- that was given to all of Yisroel- he wants.
29 August, 2008
22 August, 2008
This week’s parsha we learn about the mitzvah of bentching. The posuk seems to tie the mitzvah of bentching and Eretz Yisroel together.
There is a machlokes (Tur, Orach Chaim; 208) regarding the wording of the brocha of ‘Al hamichya’. Some reshonim (so is the Sfardic custom) take out the words ‘Venochal mepirya v’nisba metuva’ where we ask to be able to enjoy the fruits of Eretz Yisroel. Rabbianu Yona explains that in a prayer where we ask for the rebuilding of Yerushalayim, our aspirations shouldn’t be the wanting of eating of the fruits. In such a special brocha we should much rather ask to be able to fulfill the mitzvos that are special to Eretz Yisroel. The Bach defends the Ashkenazic custom. He writes that the land of Eretz Yisroel is actually blessed by Hashem and there is a spiritual manifestation in the actual soil and thus in every fruit that grows in Eretz Yisroel. The only way to get that piece of Hashem into your body is if you go and eat a part of the land- which would be a fruit. So that the prayer and yearning to eat the fruits of Eretz Yisroel isn’t merely to be satiated with delicious fruits, rather a will to ingest part of the kedusha of Eretz Yisroel into our bodies.
Every one of the seven parshios that we read after Tisha B’av has a special message of nechama in them. We could say that this is the message of the Parsha. We are fixing the first tragedy that led to the churban- the meraglim. Their mistake was that they didn’t perceive Eretz Yisroel as Hashem’s land. The Torah puts them both together - the fruits of the land and the mitzvah of bentching - to thank Hashem for what we ate and to remind us to yearn to be able to eat the much more delicious fruits- the ones that have a piece of Hashem in them.
18 August, 2008
The Holiness of A Sefer Torah
The Maharal Diskin as a young bochur would sit in front of his father's bais din room and any question that was brought before his father would be told to him first and while the question was being asked to his father he would do the research and come to his own conclusion. He said that came to the same conclusion as his father in all shailos except for one. The only shailoh that he didn't come up with the same answer as his father was a question regarding a burnt Sefer Torah. The questioners came out from his fathers study and he told them what he thought the ruling was and asked what his father had said. They answered that his father upon hearing the question fainted. In that aspect the Maharal Diskin said, he didn't come close to his father, to react to a Sefer Torah as one reacts to a loved one and to feel the pain of a Sefer Torah and just faint upon hearing that one had been burned. The Alshach in last week's Parsha says that holiness of a Sefer Torah isn't just because it's a holy book that tells us how to live - rather it is a part of Hashem himself. Every letter in the Torah is a name of Hashem- which is the way Hashem manifests himself in this world. That is the meaning of what we say Shabbos Mincha "Ata echad, Veshimcha echad" the name of Hashem is one means that the Torah which is made up of Hashem's names are one. How many of us gave any more then a sigh when we heard that four Sifrei Torah were burned? Was our reaction anywhere close to fainting? Do we really realize that every Sefer Torah burned is just as if Hashem himself is being burned?
08 August, 2008
Shabbos Chazon
The tragedy of Tisha Bav started when Klal Yisroel cried all night and didn’t want to enter Eretz Yisroel, after hearing the meraglim’s report. This was the beginning of many tragedies that befell us on this day. But the Mishna associates it as the first of five disasters that include and are related to the churban habais. And as mentioned last week, parallel the five tragedies of the 17th of Tamuz.
This weeks Parsha when Moshe recounts the story of the meraglim he tells them that when they requested the meraglim the asked for spies that would come back and tell them an answer. In Parshas Shelach- when the story happened the posuk doesn’t say anything about them bringing an answer back to Moshe and Klal Yisroel.
Back in Parshas Shelach Rashi says that the Meraglim all went with bad intentions. The Maharal asks that there is an apparent contradiction, Rashi just a few pessukim before says that at the time when they were appointed they were all tzadikim. When did this turn about from tzadikim to them having bad intentions come about? The Maharahl answers that they might have been tzadikim at the time of departure but they went with their own intentions not that of Moshe. Moshe told them just to spy the land- not with any intention of getting feed back of how to conquer Eretz Yisroel. Moshe knew that there is no need for that knowledge- for Hashem had promised them the land. Moshe’s intention was that Klal Yisroel should see that Eretz Yisroel is not like any other land that even the mere physical in the holy land, is just that- holy. Klal Yisroel was living in a dessert in a pure spiritual environment. The bread they ate was the mann- straight from the heaven, their water was from the well- again straight from heaven and even their living quarters were the clouds of glory. Klal Yisroel wasn’t ready to live in a physical land where they would eat potatoes and wheat that grow from the ground and yet stay and the spiritual level of eating mann. Their mission was to go and see that Eretz Yisroel is precisely that where the water that comes from a well is just like the Well of Miriam and the wheat that makes the bread is just like the mann. They went with their own intentions that Eretz Yisroel is just a land and has to be conquered just like any other land and the fruits are the same as every other land.
There is a story said about the Baal mechaber of the Baer Lachai Roi. He came to Eretz Yisroel and complained to a friend, that he was told that the stones in Eretz Yisroel are diamonds but he looked around and he didn’t see any. The guy told him must be your problem if you can’t see it. He locked himself into a room and sat there and yearned for a closeness to Hashem. He came out and sent a message to his friend that he was right, with proper closeness to Hashem he now sees the diamonds clearly.
The mistake was just like that of the eigal, they took Hashem out of the equation. They didn’t see Eretz Yisroel as The land where ‘The eyes of Hashem’ are focused. And without Hashem even Eretz Yisroel became just like any other land and even the Bais Hamikdosh the holiest place on earth became a trotting ground for animals. And its no wonder how yidden- people that are have a piece of Hashem in them, can be lead like sheep to slaughter- if we ourselves ignore the G-dlieness that lies in our souls.
This weeks Parsha when Moshe recounts the story of the meraglim he tells them that when they requested the meraglim the asked for spies that would come back and tell them an answer. In Parshas Shelach- when the story happened the posuk doesn’t say anything about them bringing an answer back to Moshe and Klal Yisroel.
Back in Parshas Shelach Rashi says that the Meraglim all went with bad intentions. The Maharal asks that there is an apparent contradiction, Rashi just a few pessukim before says that at the time when they were appointed they were all tzadikim. When did this turn about from tzadikim to them having bad intentions come about? The Maharahl answers that they might have been tzadikim at the time of departure but they went with their own intentions not that of Moshe. Moshe told them just to spy the land- not with any intention of getting feed back of how to conquer Eretz Yisroel. Moshe knew that there is no need for that knowledge- for Hashem had promised them the land. Moshe’s intention was that Klal Yisroel should see that Eretz Yisroel is not like any other land that even the mere physical in the holy land, is just that- holy. Klal Yisroel was living in a dessert in a pure spiritual environment. The bread they ate was the mann- straight from the heaven, their water was from the well- again straight from heaven and even their living quarters were the clouds of glory. Klal Yisroel wasn’t ready to live in a physical land where they would eat potatoes and wheat that grow from the ground and yet stay and the spiritual level of eating mann. Their mission was to go and see that Eretz Yisroel is precisely that where the water that comes from a well is just like the Well of Miriam and the wheat that makes the bread is just like the mann. They went with their own intentions that Eretz Yisroel is just a land and has to be conquered just like any other land and the fruits are the same as every other land.
There is a story said about the Baal mechaber of the Baer Lachai Roi. He came to Eretz Yisroel and complained to a friend, that he was told that the stones in Eretz Yisroel are diamonds but he looked around and he didn’t see any. The guy told him must be your problem if you can’t see it. He locked himself into a room and sat there and yearned for a closeness to Hashem. He came out and sent a message to his friend that he was right, with proper closeness to Hashem he now sees the diamonds clearly.
The mistake was just like that of the eigal, they took Hashem out of the equation. They didn’t see Eretz Yisroel as The land where ‘The eyes of Hashem’ are focused. And without Hashem even Eretz Yisroel became just like any other land and even the Bais Hamikdosh the holiest place on earth became a trotting ground for animals. And its no wonder how yidden- people that are have a piece of Hashem in them, can be lead like sheep to slaughter- if we ourselves ignore the G-dlieness that lies in our souls.
01 August, 2008
Serving Hashem
Five things happened on the 17th of Tamuz and five things on Tisha B'av. The Maharal explains that the two sets of five mirror each other, the ones from Sheva Aser Betamuz are the beginning of the churban while the five things that happened on Tisha B'av are the end of the churban. The first thing the Mishna states is the breaking of the Luchas on the seventeenth day of Tamuz, after Klal Yisroel made and worshiped the golden calf. (Interesting to note that there is no mention of the making of the eigal in the Mishna, only the aftermath). What is the relationship between the breaking of the luchas and the churban of the Bais Hamikdash? What about that tragedy led to the churban Habais?
Let us try to understand a little bit of what the sin of the eigal was and why Moshe’s response was to break the Luchas.
In the Kuzri the King of Kuzar asks the Rabbi, how is it that the same people that received the Torah were able to turn around and sin the way they did and worship a graven image? To which the Rabbi answered- had they built a temple and built an alter in the middle and read from a scroll- would you be at peace with it? Of course we would- we do it everyday – it’s part and parcel of our Judaism. The problem we have in relating to the eigal is that the concept of worshiping a golden calf is foreign to us but to them a golden calf was the way everyone served g-d. One of the thirteen Ani Mamins is that Hashem is not a physical being and that no physical being can fathom him. At Matan Torah the skies opened and we all saw the highest levels- Klal Yisroel saw that there is nothing to see- that there is no physicality in heaven at all. Forty days later Klal Yisroel felt that they couldn’t relate to Hashem totally divorced from physicality, they felt that they needed something down here that could connect them to Hashem. R’ Shamshon R. Hirsch says that they were serving Hashem the way they saw fit, not the way that Hashem had told them to. Thus they had taken the G-dliness out of serving Hashem and that is making an avodah zorah out of Hashem. Moshe didn’t break the luchas as a punishment, he showed Klal Yisroel that if you take Hashem out of the picture, even something as holy as the Luchas- something that came straight from Hashem- is worthless and can be broken. Klal Yisroel’s mistake was not realizing that the only way to serve Hashem is by listening to him. The kapporah for the Eigal was the building of the Mishkan, which at every step the posuk says ‘Al pi Hashem’- everything was done solely because Hashem had said. The Meshach Chochma says that the Luchas had to be broken or else Klal Yisroel would have thrown away the Eigal and worshiped the Luchas as an alternative to their idea of serving Hashem and not the way that Hashem had commanded.
The same thing repeated itself many years later in Eretz Yisroel. Klal Yisroel served Hashem the way they felt appropriate and even with the Bais Hamikdosh they managed to lose sight of Hashem and his commandments. With that Klal Yisroel took Hashem out of his own city and only then were the Babylonians and later the Romans able to step foot into Yerushalayim.
Let us try to understand a little bit of what the sin of the eigal was and why Moshe’s response was to break the Luchas.
In the Kuzri the King of Kuzar asks the Rabbi, how is it that the same people that received the Torah were able to turn around and sin the way they did and worship a graven image? To which the Rabbi answered- had they built a temple and built an alter in the middle and read from a scroll- would you be at peace with it? Of course we would- we do it everyday – it’s part and parcel of our Judaism. The problem we have in relating to the eigal is that the concept of worshiping a golden calf is foreign to us but to them a golden calf was the way everyone served g-d. One of the thirteen Ani Mamins is that Hashem is not a physical being and that no physical being can fathom him. At Matan Torah the skies opened and we all saw the highest levels- Klal Yisroel saw that there is nothing to see- that there is no physicality in heaven at all. Forty days later Klal Yisroel felt that they couldn’t relate to Hashem totally divorced from physicality, they felt that they needed something down here that could connect them to Hashem. R’ Shamshon R. Hirsch says that they were serving Hashem the way they saw fit, not the way that Hashem had told them to. Thus they had taken the G-dliness out of serving Hashem and that is making an avodah zorah out of Hashem. Moshe didn’t break the luchas as a punishment, he showed Klal Yisroel that if you take Hashem out of the picture, even something as holy as the Luchas- something that came straight from Hashem- is worthless and can be broken. Klal Yisroel’s mistake was not realizing that the only way to serve Hashem is by listening to him. The kapporah for the Eigal was the building of the Mishkan, which at every step the posuk says ‘Al pi Hashem’- everything was done solely because Hashem had said. The Meshach Chochma says that the Luchas had to be broken or else Klal Yisroel would have thrown away the Eigal and worshiped the Luchas as an alternative to their idea of serving Hashem and not the way that Hashem had commanded.
The same thing repeated itself many years later in Eretz Yisroel. Klal Yisroel served Hashem the way they felt appropriate and even with the Bais Hamikdosh they managed to lose sight of Hashem and his commandments. With that Klal Yisroel took Hashem out of his own city and only then were the Babylonians and later the Romans able to step foot into Yerushalayim.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)