terumah

The posuk says ועשית שלחן עצי שטים: make a table of shittim wood. We need to understand why the command to build the שלחן came before the command to build the מנורה. In reality, the מנורה should have been built right after the ארון, for like the ארון it symbolizes Torah & it was also situated closer to the ארון in the mishkan. So why list the שלחן first? The sefer 'אמרות ה brings down the gemara in חגיגה that tries to prove from the posuk of המזבח עץ שלש אמות גבוה........ זה השלחן אשר לפני ה that the שלחן was made of wood. The gemara asks, why does the posuk start off by calling the שלחן  the "מזבח"?  The gemara answers by quoting ר יוחנן and ריש לקיש who both say that it's teaching us that at the time of the בית המקדש the מזבח was there to gain atonement for people. However, now that we don't have the מזבח, one's own table can grant him atonement. How does that work? There's a story that occurred with the אריז"ל, told over by ר' משה חאגיז, who heard it from the elders of that generation. In one of the shuls in tzfas there was a rov who was giving a drasha about the לחם הפנים & how it was brought every שבת, and was bemoaning the fact that we no longer have this special bread. Amongst the people who were listening to the drasha was a man from Portugal who settled in tzfas. This man was not learned, but did whatever mitzvos he could to the best of his understanding, with a pure heart. When this man heard how upset the rov was that there was no more לחם הפנים, he decided that he was going to prepare the best & finest challos every friday & put them in the ארון הקודש, and hope that 'ה would accept his offering and eat his challos. The next friday his wife prepared exquisite challos, & the man went & put them in the ארון, and stood there davening that 'ה accept his challos & eat them. When he finished his prayer, he left.   When the shamash came into shul to prepare for shabbos, he saw the beautiful challos, & without asking any questions he took them for himself. Later, when the man came to shul and saw that his challos weren't there, his happiness knew no bounds, for he thought that his offering was accepted by 'ה. This continued on every week until one week when the man went & put his challos in & was saying his prayers unaware of anything around him. The rabbi happened to be there and was watching what was going on. The rabbi got angry at him & said, are you a fool? Do you think 'ה is eating your challos?? The shamash is definitely taking them! It's a great sin to give food to ה like He's a physical being! As the rabbi went on & on, the shamash came in to take "his" challos, & readily admitted that he was the one who took them every week. When the man heard that, he broke down crying, asking the rabbi to forgive him, for he thought he was doing a mitzva, when in reality it was a sin. As this was going on, a messenger from the אריז"ל came & summoned the rabbi to come to the אריז"ל telling him that tomorrow at the time he usually gives his drasha he was going to die. The rabbi, alarmed & shaken, rushed to the אריז"ל and asked him, what did I do? What's my sin? The אריז"ל answered, you took away the greatest נחת רוח that 'ה had. From the time of the destruction of the בית המקדש He has had no greater satisfaction than this man bringing his heartfelt offering, & now you ended it. We know that the קרבנות are the way 'ה normally gets a נחת רוח from us , and nowadays the only way to get credit for the קרבנות is by learning about them, so the נחת רוח that 'ה gets nowadays is from us learning Torah. Maybe this is how we could understand what the 'אמרות ה said. The way our tables can be מכפר is if our tables are pure, & when we're around the table we talk about Torah and not gossip. That's why the שלחן is after the ארון, to teach us that the way our table can be מכפר is by talking Torah around them, and by doing so, giving 'ה a נחת רוח from us!

mishpatim

The parsha starts out saying ואלה המשפטים: these are the laws. The first one it discusses are the laws of עבד עברי, the Jewish slave. One who  בית דין sells so he can pay back what he stole. The question is, why would the Torah want to start the section of laws off dealing with a thief? Wouldn't it be better to start off with laws of those who do good  like lending without interest or a free watchman; people who do kindness & good deeds? Why start out with a lowly criminal? When it's time for this slave to go free, if he doesn't want to, and would rather remain a slave, then the law is that the owner has to take him to the door & bore a hole in his ear. Rashi brings the מכילתא that says, why does the ear get pierced over any other body part? רבן יוחנן בן זכאי said, the ear that heard don't steal on הר סיני, & then he went & stole, should be bored. And if he sold himself as a slave, it's the ear that heard on הר סיני the בני ישראל  are slaves to me , and then he went and took a different master for himself, should be bored. Asks רב אליהו מאיר בלוך, why did chazal need to give us two separate reasons to differentiate between one who sold himself as a slave and one who stole? Now, six years later, no matter why he was there to begin with, he's getting bored because he doesn't want to be free and would rather remain a slave. To answer why we started by discussing slaves, the סבא מקלם answers that had the Torah been man made it would have started with honorable laws of kindness & benevolence and not with a lowly thief. However, 'ה gave us the Torah and we are all his children. When one has a troubled son all his thoughts are on him & how he can help him turn his life around. The good son doesn't need all that attention. That's why he started with the thief, to find ways to rehabilitate him such as having him move in with a good family to learn to mend his ways.    Now says  רב אליהו מאיר בלוך, if we want to help someone to mend their ways, we can't look at the surface & what they're doing wrong. In order to try to fix it we have to get to the root of the problem. We need to figure out why they're there to begin with. That's why the Torah tells us there's a different reason why each one gets bored. If he didn't get the message yet, we have to get to the root of the problem to see how we can help him. We can take a great lesson from this. Each time there's a tragedy or economic upheaval, everyone is quick to pin the blame on whatever issue they feel is paramount, be it tznius, internet, texting, loshon hara etc. In reality, we need to get to the root of the problem to see why these issues are so predominant. Why are people so lax nowadays? All the speeches & articles won't & can't help if we don't get to the root of the problem. We need to figure out the cause & only then can we fix it. Maybe the lesson we could take from the slave is that instead of throwing the thief in jail & distancing ourselves from him, we bring him into our home to be part of the family, hoping he will learn & grow into an upstanding member of society. So too if we see someone doing something we feel is improper. Instead of getting angry or distancing ourselves, we have to embrace them, befriend them and draw them closer with love. Only then can there can be hope for change!

Yisro

T

he posuk says לא תבנה אתהן גזית כי חרבך הנפת עליה ותחללה, the מזבח  has to be made with whole stones as they were pulled out of the ground. You're not able to cut them, and if a sword were to touch them they would be פסול for the מזבח.

The Rav asks why that is. If we're going to use uneven, unsmoothed stones, the מזבח won't be as nice. Why wouldn't we want the מזבח to be nice like all the other kaylim?

He answers that just like the stones of the מזבח need to be rough and uncut, so too when one comes to the מזבח to get atonement, he has to be a mirror image of the מזבח. He has to look at all his "rough edges", not trying to smooth over his failings with excuses, but to see them and commit to improving them.

Rashi brings another reason. He says that the מזבח's purpose was to make peace between 'ה and the Jews, therefore something that was made to cut and injure should not come over it. Then rashi brings a קל וחומר . Just as stones can't hear or speak or see, because they make peace, a sword can't come over it, so surely if one makes peace between people, how much more so no evil will befall him.  How can we reconcile the Rav's reason with Rashi's?

The חתם סופר told over a story that happened in the days of the מהרש"א. There was a fellow who was a complete רשע who passed away, and while they were doing the טהרה one of the guys started hitting him on the mouth and the other people around were laughing.

That night the dead man came to this boy in a dream and said, you embarrassed me, now I want to take you to a din torah in בית דין של מעלה. The boy went to his father and told him what happened, but he just dismissed it. This happened every night until the boy was so tormented by this vision he became very sick. The family was worried about him and went to the  מהרש"א to ask his advice. He told them that the next time the boy has this vision he should be brought  to him. That night as the boy had his vision they brought him to the מהרש"א who started speaking to the spirit. He asked the spirit what he wants from the boy? The spirit answered, he embarrassed me. The מהרש"א said, you were a רשע your whole life, and  for this little embarrassment you're coming back? The spirit answered him, I wasn't a רשע my whole life. Once I was walking by the river and there was a תלמיד חכם who was drowning and I jumped in and saved him. Ever since then I supported him and his family. When I came up here, not only did I get the merit of saving, I also got a share in his torah. I was treated like a תלמיד חכם  with no mention of sins. So now I'm taking this boy to court for embarrassing a תלמיד חכם .The מהרש"א heard him out and said, in reality you have a multitude of sins, but they can't judge you on them because the good you did stands like a brick wall between you and your accusers. However, know that your sins weren't forgiven, and now the satan is trying to trip you up, for if you cause this kid to die, then the satan can get you מידה כנגד מידה. Granted you once saved a תלמיד חכם , but now you're causing one to die and that will negate the one you saved. Then they can get you on all your sins. Don't be a fool and just forgive him. He was never heard from again.   

Maybe this is what the Rav means, that we have to look at ourselves and see what's lacking in us instead of looking at the other guy to see what's lacking in him. If we're not looking at others' faults and focusing on our own, then we will have peace with our friends. We have to realize that no matter how you might perceive someone, it's not necessarily how they truly are. The good that we do can only save us if that's really what we're about. We shouldn't help with one hand and hurt with the other. We have to learn from here how sensitive we have to be to others' feelings, and be like we were at Har Sini, !כאיש אחד בלב אחד

In the zechus of each one of us committing to be more sensitive to others' feelings, may  הרב יוסף שלום בן חיה מושא. have a complete רפואה שלמה !

beshalach

The posuk says מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו: Hashem says to Moshe why are you crying to me? Talk to the Jews & go. It is interesting to note how Rashi, תרגום יונתן and אונקלוס translate these words.

Rashi says this teaches us that Moshe was praying, & Hashem told him now is not the time for prayer; all they have to do is go. The תרגום יונתן says that 'ה said to Moshe, why are you davening to me? The prayers of your nation came before yours, all they have to do is go. While אונקלוס says that 'ה said to Moshe, I accepted your prayer, all they have to do is go.

What are these three different ways of translating the same words teaching us? The בן איש חי says that this posuk of  מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו teaches us the greatness of the מצוה of ביטחון. To explain, he divides ביטחון into three categories. The first & most predominant type is when a person is in a tough spot & he trusts that 'ה will come to his aid & help him out. However, often this kind of ביטחון comes from a "what do I have to lose" perspective. If he doesn't have anything to put his trust into, he will totally give up, so he puts his trust in 'ה. However, he still has doubts as to whether he'll be saved or not. He has ביטחון, but he still worries. That's ביטחון, but not complete ביטחון.

The next level up of ביטחון is when a person is sure without any doubt that 'ה will protect him. However, it's usually private, & the person knows without a doubt that 'ה will protect him, but it's on a personal level. Like the wife of רבי חנינא בן דוסא, who every friday would burn wood in the oven so that smoke would come out of the chimney so that no one would know how poor they were. One such friday one of the nosy neighbors knocked on the door & the wife, not wanting to be embarrassed, went into a back room, while the neighbor came in & yelled out to her to hurry because the challos were burning. Bring the board to take them out! She replied from the back room, that's just what I went to get. The gemara continues that she wasn't lying. She really went to get it, for she knew that  'ה wouldn't let her be embarrassed.  

The third and ultimate level, is when a person knows that 'ה will perform a miracle for him, & doesn't hesitate to broadcast it to the world, so strong is his trust in 'ה's salvation. Like the story told about the time of drought in ירושלים, when the wells were empty & the people were in danger of dying of thirst, the ruler at that time sent a message to the rabbis to either bring rain in three days time, or they'd be banished from town. For three days they prayed & fasted. Finally it was the end of the third day, &  רבי משה גלאנטי told all the men, women & children to go home & put on raincoats, boots, hats etc. They all went to the kever of שמעון הצדיק. As they were walking all dressed for rain on a hot sweltering day without a cloud in the sky, the arabs they passed were all laughing at them saying, "look they think its going to rain". When they got to the kever they all poured out their hearts to 'ה, & suddenly the skies turned dark & the rain began to pour down.  

Maybe this is what the three different translations are. תרגום יונתן who says that the people already davened is addressing the first level: we're in trouble, help! And אונקלוס, who says that 'ה  accepted Moshe's prayer is addressing the second level: Moshe pray for us because we know that would work. And Rashi, who says that 'ה says now is not the time because he's addressing the ultimate level: I don't want you to daven, I want you to do something that shows you know I'm going to save you. Jump in the water until the drowning point & show everyone that you believe 100%, no questions asked, that 'ה will come to your aid.

Be like the people who put on their boots when there's no rain, for they're so sure of the miracle to come. That's the level 'ה wanted says the בן איש חי. This miracle was going to be talked about for thousands of years so the Jews had to show all the future generations how to have the ultimate ביטחון, & that's what they did, showing us what we have to strive for!