Chukas

When the Torah wants to teach us the laws of the פרה אדומה, the red heifer, it says זאת חקת התורה this is the law of the Torah. ר' משה פיינשטיין asks, why when it's just telling us the laws of פרה אדומה does is say זאת חוקת התורה when it should have said זאת חוקת הפרה, these are the laws of the cow. How do these laws apply to the whole torah? The anomaly of פרה אדומה that defies reason is the fact that the ones who prepare the ashes become טמא while the ones who it's sprinkled on become pure. The same waters have the opposite effect. What does this teach us? There's a story that was told to ר' יצחק זילברשטיין by ר' חיים קניבסקי about his father the Steipler. It was in the middle of a wedding and suddenly there was a lot of commotion going on, for when the chassan & kallah were in the yichud room, a big black rat ran between them! Understandably, the kalla was all shaken up & was going crazy, trying to leave the hall saying that the rat was a bad omen & the marriage was doomed. Her friends & family tried to convince her that it really meant nothing & to just go on, but the more people tried to convince her, the more adamant she became. Psychologists & rabbis all tried to explain to her that it was meaningless, but to no avail. When someone went & told my father what was going on, continued ר' חיים, he asked that they bring the kallah to him. He told her as follows; "I believe that you are right in your fears & that it is a bad sign for you. What the psychologists & your friends are saying about you making a mistake isn't true. They're making the mistake & you are right in all your fears. However, listen to what I am going to tell you now. "You definitely are familiar with the chazal that says אין כתובה שאין בה מריבה there is no ketuba that doesn't have some contention. If chazal say it, it has to be true. Now from what I understand both your parents & your chassan's parents are kind-hearted fine people that don't fight, & up until now there has been no contention. Since what chazal say must come true, 'ה sent this rat to your room just to get the contention out of the way. From now on you'll only have peace & happiness in your life. The girl took those words to heart & went back to the wedding happy & joyous. There are two ways to look at every situation, just as there are two ways to use every character trait. Take for example, humility & arrogance. These are polar opposites & one might think that the only way to serve 'ה is with humility. While humility is fine if that's how you expect people to treat you, without respect & fanfare, if it's the way you treat other people then it's not a good trait. The same is true with arrogance. If one is arrogant when it comes to his respect then it's a negative, however if its used to honor one's friend then it can become a positive. This is what ר' משה says the Torah is teaching us here. Character traits are a double edge sword. Each one can be used two ways - either in the service of 'ה or ח"ו against Him. Just like the פרה that purifies the unclean & contaminates the pure, we have to use our natural inclinations no matter what they are for good, find the best in every situation & then we will lead truly happy lives!

korach

The posuk states ותפתח הארץ את פיה ותבלע אתם ואת בתיהם ואת כל האדם אשר לקרח ; And the ground opened its mouth & swallowed them, their homes and all the people that were with Korach. The Mishnah in Avos mentions ten things that were created on Erev Shabbos at sundown. One of them is the mouth of the Earth that was needed to swallow up Korach. The בן איש חי asks,” what was so singular about this incident with Korach that the punishment for him needed to be prepared at the onset of creation?” He answers that it’s to make us understand the magnitude of the sin of unwarranted hatred & strife. Hashem already prepared the punishment at the time of creation & didn't wait until the crime was done, to instill in us the severity of the crime to encourage us to stay as far away from strife as we would a raging fire. The אוצרות התורה brings from the writings of 'ר חיים פלאגי who says that from the time he can remember there wasn't a man, woman, family or country who was involved in strife that didn't get hurt both physically & monetarily. Anyone who has any wisdom would stand far away & be willing to forgo monetary pleasure or honor just not to be involved in מחלוקת. He furthers this thought by saying that he personally saw that any house that had מחלוקת on Friday coming into Shabbos wouldn't get through the week without something bad happening to them during the coming week. One Friday night he heard an argument between his neighbor and his wife over the food she made. ר' חיים פלאגי left his own table, went to the neighbors, & sat down at their table. When the neighbor saw the rabbi, he was taken aback & quickly made peace with his wife. After that, whenever he saw ר' חיים פלאגי, he would profusely thank him saying he always remembers that night & has been at peace with his wife ever since. The בן איש חי asks, “what's the significance of Erev Shabbos that the mouth of the ground was created then? Also, why does ר חיים פלאגי give that time as the most auspicious time not to fight as it’s an omen for the week? The בן איש חי explains that each day of creation represents one millennium. Therefore, Shabbos, the day that Hashem rested, is parallel to the seventh millennium which will come after Moshiach, when the world will be in its perfect state. Accordingly, Erev Shabbos, the sixth day, is parallel to the sixth millennium and בין השמשות , close to evening, is the end of the sixth millennium heralding the arrival of the seventh, Moshiach, millennium. Chazal tell us that the reason for the destruction of the second בית המקדש was unwarranted hatred & strife. Since a בית המקדש that was in existence was destroyed for these reasons, surly it can not be rebuilt as long as there is still מחלוקת. Therefore, continues the בן איש חי, at a time when the redemption is imminent, by selecting Friday close to sundown for the creation of the Earth’s mouth, Hashem is hinting to us to stay away from strife so that we can ensure that the geula will come in our lifetime. Maybe that's why the omen for the week is Friday night; for at the time when we are supposed to realize the severity of strife & staying away from it could ultimately lead to our redemption, then by resisting the urge to fight , argue or criticize, we will be granted that the upcoming week will have no downfalls, both on a personal level and communal level and we will be one step closer to the bringing of Moshiach!

shelach

When the meraglim were delivering their report, the posuk says, ויהס כלב את העם אל משה; and כלב hushed the people toward Moshe. Rashi says that כלב quieted them all down to listen to what he had to say about Moshe. Then he raised his voice & said, “is this the only thing Moshe did to us? No!” Now everyone quieted down, for they were all upset because of the meraglim’s report and thought that Calev, too, was going to denounce Moshe. So, they stopped complaining for a minute to listen. However, כלב went on to say he also split the sea for us ,he took us out of Egypt, he gave us the מן. Once they heard he was praising Moshe instead of denouncing him, they stopped listening & went back to their complaining.   Later on, when 'ה says He's giving כלב the land of Chevron,  Rashi says it was because he was able to silence the people. The אוצרות התורה asks, “what was so great about silencing them for a minute when they just went right back to complaining? What did כלב think he would gain?” Then, 'ה tells Moshe that He's going to destroy the people instantly. Moshe answers, “wait; what are the Mitzrim going to say?” That You weren't able to bring them into the land that you promised, so You slaughtered them in the desert? Which causes 'ה to say that I forgive them. How is it that 'ה is worried about what people are going to say? There's a story told by the ספר חסידים about a man who honored his father in a superior fashion &, when the  father was leaving this world, he told his son " you honored me while I was alive & I want you to honor me when I'm dead also. I want you to promise me one thing, that whenever you get angry, don't react right away, but wait overnight & then deal with it". After the death of his father, this man had to go overseas for business & left his wife, who unknown to him, was pregnant. Unfortunately, he was delayed for a long time & ended up being away for many years. Finally, he made his way home & arrived late at night. As he was nearing his wife's room, he heard her laughing & talking to  another man! He quickly drew his sword & was about to barge in & kill both of them, when he remembered his promise to his father. He put the sword back & turned around to wait until morning. As he was starting to go, he heard her talking, saying to her son, "if only your father would know that he had a son, he would have come home already!" As he heard those words, he realized what he had almost done & he gave thanks to his father who made him promise to hold his anger. Maybe this is what כלב wanted to accomplish; to get them to stop for a minute & think what they were doing & then they would have no recourse. This could be what 'ה was teaching us too. Had Moshe not stopped His anger, the whole nation would have been destroyed in an instant. 'ה didn't really care what the people would say but once Moshe talked to Him, His anger, so to speak, subsided a little & he recanted. This method of taking a step back & waiting a little until the initial anger subsides, teaches us how to act when we get angry, We need to react rationally just like ר' אליהו לאפיאן who wouldn't admonish his children when he saw them doing something wrong until after his anger passed. It happened that once, one of his children did something very wrong & he didn't say anything for 70 days until every bit of anger was gone & only then did he say something, teaching us how careful we have to be not to let our anger control us!

Beha'aloscha

After the Jews complained about the מן the posuk says שטו העם ולקטו , the nation searched & gathered which implies says the gemara that they had to work hard searching all over to find it., whereas the posuk in בשלח says ויצאו העם ולקטו , that they just had to go out of the camp to find it. And yet another posuk says. ברדת הטל על המחנה לילה that the מן was dropped right in the camp at their doorstep. How do we reconcile these three seemingly contradictory statements? The שלחן גבוה brings the gemara in יומא that says that each posuk is referring to a different type of person. For the צדיקים it came straight to the doorstep, for the בינונים, the middle of the road people, it came right outside the camp & they just had to go get it, & for the רשעים it came far away so they had to search & work hard to find it. Similarly, there are three levels regarding one's parnasa. One is the צדיק for whom the Torah is his livelihood, for him 'ה will arrange that there are people who want to support him so he can just sit & learn. The second level is the average person who have set times for learning & set times for working, 'ה will arrange that his parnasa comes easily so that he will have more time for Torah study. Lastly you have the wicked who totally disregard Torah study, for them 'ה makes sure the work is tough & hard to come by. With this the נודע ביהודה explains the Midrash that says that when ירמיה הנביא rebukes the nation & asks why aren't you involved in Torah study, they answer, if we study Torah how will we support ourselves? He then took out a jar of מן & showed it to them & said look at this & remember your fathers who studied Torah & were supported by 'ה, so too if you study the Torah, 'ה will support you. How do we understand that? Is he telling them not to work at all? How could he say that? We know כל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה סופה בטלה וגוררת עון any Torah study that isn't accompanied by work in the end will be nullified & cause sin. Additionally we know that you're not allowed to rely on a miracle, so how could he tell them to stop working & only learn? Answers the נודע ביהודה, the problem with the people then, wasn't that they didn't put aside enough time for learning, the problem was that they didn't learn at all. What ירמיה הנביא was doing by showing them the מן was saying, don't use livelihood as a reason not to learn at all. Just like by the מן there were three levels & the more a person studied Torah the easier it was for him to get the sustenance, so to here if you just take the middle level & put aside some time for learning you will see that you will make more money in less time & have that extra time to learn. This teaches us that in order to succeed in our learning we have to balance it with work, & in order for us to succeed in our parnasa we have to balance it with learning. The more we show 'ה that we want to learn, the more He'll help us find time, for by doing so we're showing our complete trust that He will ensure that we have all that we need!

naso

The posuk says ביום השני הקריב נתנאל בן צוער נשיא יששכר, on the second day the leader of Yissachar, הקרב את קרבנו brought his offering. Then the Torah goes on to enumerate the same offering that was brought by the leader of Yehuda & goes over the same thing twelve times, once for each of the tribes. Then it does a recount of all the totals. We know that the Torah doesn't use any extra words, so why over here does it use hundreds of extra words when it could have just enumerated one offering & said and so did each one of the leaders bring on his day. Why did it have to go thru each one separately? There was a story told about the students of הגרא"ז מלצר. They were in his house when one of them looked out the window & thought he saw the גרי"ז coming up the steps. He called out "Rebbi the רב מבריסק is on his way into the house". Immediately הגרא"ז מלצר went & put on his shabbos jacket & ran out to greet his distinguished guest. However, it quickly became apparent that this guest wasn't the רב מבריסק, but just a regular guy who happened to at first glance, look like the רב מבריסק. Interestingly enough, הגרא"ז מלצר didn't miss a beat or change his demeanor whatsoever. He gave this man the royal treatment, brought him up to sit at the head of the table, & offered him any food or drink he wanted. Bewildered, the man said I came to you just to get a letter of recommendation. When the man left הגרא"ז מלצר walked him all the way downstairs until the street. When he came back up his students asked, why did you do that? Why did you accord this man so much honor? He answered that in reality, the mitzva of הכנסת אורחים is a great mitzva, & the mitzva of honoring another Jew is also very great. We should treat every jew like he's the greatest rabbi just like Avraham treated his guests, even though he thought they were arabs. Unfortunately, continued הגרא"ז מלצר, the mitzvos have become light in our eyes & we distinguish between Jews. So now when I had the chance, when I was prepared to honor the גאון הדור, should I let the chance to do the mitzva of הכנסת אורחים in its proper form escape me just because the guest is a regular guy? More than that, who knows if he's a regular guy? Do we really know the value of any Jew? This is why the Torah enumerated each & every tribe's offering, so that no one should be slighted. It show us, says the רמבן, how far the Torah goes so that each person's honor is upheld & to show that each one's offering was special. No matter how much greater one tribe was, each one's offering was identical & was just as important, to teach us that no matter what tribe we come from we have to treat each other with respect for in ה's eyes we're all equal!