Now that we’re in the middle of sefira when we read the parsha of the moadim, the posuk of וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת, you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the rest day, has special meaning to us. A few questions need to be explored. First, asks the כתב סופר, what is the meaning behind the Torah’s writing the word לכם, for yourself; it would have sufficed to say וספרתם, you shall count? He answers that the word לכם teaches us that the counting of the seven weeks is not merely to accomplish the count, but rather for us to refine our character & better ourselves a little more each day.
Additionally, asks the ילקוט יצחק, why, after we count sefira, do we say הרחמן הוא יחזיר לנו עבודת בית המקדש למקומה במהרה בימינו , the merciful one who will return the worship in the Bais Hamikdash to its rightful place speedily in our day. Why is this prayer said specifically after this mitzva & no other?
He answers that since the mitzva nowadays is only מדרבנן, as a remembrance to when we had the Bais Hamikdash & the Omer, therefore we say a prayer that we should be able to do this mitzva when we have an actual Bais Hamikdash to fulfill it to the fullest extent.
How do we get back the Bais Hamikdash? What character traits should we be perfecting?
Chazal tell us that we keep many laws of availus during the days of sefira because twenty four thousand students of Rebbi Akiva died since they did not honor each other properly. We know that the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred, so perhaps the midda we should be working on to regain it is to rectify the sin of Rebbi Akiva's talmidim by honoring each other & eradicating any hatred so that the Bais Hamikdash can be rebuilt.
There's a story told about the חתם סופר that exemplifies this point. When הגאון רבי ישראל יצחק אהרן לנדסברג came to learn in the Chasam Sofer's yeshiva, he told the other boys that he would write down all of the Chasam Sofer's chidushim word for word. The other boys even offered to pay him to do so, he would write & then he would say over everything the Chasam Sofer said in shiur. One day, the Chasam Sofer had a feeling that something was up with this boy & asked one of the other talmidim what was going on. This boy said that איציק אהרן was writing the shiur & then giving it over again to the boys just as the Rav gave it over. The Chasam Sofer was outraged & closed his gemmara & walked out of the yeshiva. איציק אהרן was mortified that he had caused the Rosh Yeshiva such anguish. The next day, the Chasam Sofer sent out an edict that everyone must come to his shiur today. Whoever didn’t come would have to leave the yeshiva. Even איציק אהרן had to come. If he refused, they were to bring him by force. The poor boy was shaking with fear; he had no strength. After what happened the day before, he couldn't even walk by himself requiring his friends to bring him to what he was sure would be his public humiliation & expulsion from the yeshiva.
After everyone was seated, the Chasam Sofer began to talk. He said, “my beloved children, yesterday at the shiur I did not act properly. Instead of praising איציק אהרן for his uncanny abilities,I stumbled in the sin of embarrassing someone in public".
He then started crying bitterly shaking up everyone who heard him. He continued by saying, “being that one who embarrasses his friend has no portion in the world to come, I don't feel that I am worthy to still teach here. However I want to appease you, so I am asking forgiveness first from Hashem & from you איציק אהרן. Please forgive me.” It wasn't until he was certain that there were no hard feelings, did he continue to teach in the yeshiva.
This, says the אוצרות התורה, teaches us how careful we have to be with someone else's feelings. Look how far the rosh hayeshiva, the gadol hador, went to rectify a slight that he made to someone's feelings. He made a public apology in front of close to four hundred students! Imagine how careful we must be to merit the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdash !
Friday, April 26, 2013
Friday, April 19, 2013
Acharei Mos - Kedoshim
Among the list of Mitzvos the Torah tells us that will help to make us holy if we follow them is the posuk of לא תקם ולא תטר do not take revenge or bear a grudge.
Rashi says that revenge is one who asks his friend to loan him something & the friend refuses. The next day the friend asks to borrow something. One can't say I won't lend it to you just as you didn't lend to me.
The חזקוני asks, why is it that we warn the person who wants to avenge himself for being refused a loan by his friend, however, nothing is said to the one who refused to loan to begin with. Surely his sin is greater for initially refusing to lend!
He answers that there is an inherent difference in the reasons of these two people. The first one is a stingy person who can't bear to part with his possessions; Hashem won't force someone to lend against his will. The second person however, is really generous & would normally lend, but now won't because of the hatred that he feels & because he wants revenge. The Torah tells him, let the natural love you have for your friend overcome the hatred you feel from his actions if one could do that then there will be peace in the world.
Easier said than done. How is one able to put those feelings of hurt & being wronged aside & act as if nothing happened?
There's a mashal from the כלי יקר that could help us to understand. There was a little boy who was playing in the sand. He spent hours building a big beautiful sand castle, expecting it to last forever. As he was admiring his masterpiece his big brother came along, & as big brothers will do knocked down the whole castle. The little boy was so upset! This castle was everything to him. He went to his father crying & told him what his brother did, expecting his father to be so infuriated by the destruction of his castle that he would punish his brother terribly.
But the father, knowing that it was really only a sand castle, just a temporary plaything, didn't do anything.
This, says the כלי יקר, is why one can't take revenge. If we understand that all the problems of this world are just like the sand castle of the little boy then we will realize that whoever tries to hurt us are really only causing us minimal damage, not even worthy of retaliation. Just as the father wouldn't punish the older brother because he knew what he did was really nothing so too Hashem, who's controlling everything knows exactly what we need. As we saw by דוד המלך when שמעי בן גרא cursed him and אבישי wanted to kill שמעי because he cursed the king. Dovid said to him, leave him, for Hashem told him to curse. Meaning that שמעי was only Hashem's messenger so how could we punish him?
This, explains the קרן לדוד is why it says 'אני ה at the end of the posuk, for if a person will realize that 'אני ה is controlling all that happens to us then there won't be any reason to ever get angry at another person for then we will realize that they're just the messenger!
Rashi says that revenge is one who asks his friend to loan him something & the friend refuses. The next day the friend asks to borrow something. One can't say I won't lend it to you just as you didn't lend to me.
The חזקוני asks, why is it that we warn the person who wants to avenge himself for being refused a loan by his friend, however, nothing is said to the one who refused to loan to begin with. Surely his sin is greater for initially refusing to lend!
He answers that there is an inherent difference in the reasons of these two people. The first one is a stingy person who can't bear to part with his possessions; Hashem won't force someone to lend against his will. The second person however, is really generous & would normally lend, but now won't because of the hatred that he feels & because he wants revenge. The Torah tells him, let the natural love you have for your friend overcome the hatred you feel from his actions if one could do that then there will be peace in the world.
Easier said than done. How is one able to put those feelings of hurt & being wronged aside & act as if nothing happened?
There's a mashal from the כלי יקר that could help us to understand. There was a little boy who was playing in the sand. He spent hours building a big beautiful sand castle, expecting it to last forever. As he was admiring his masterpiece his big brother came along, & as big brothers will do knocked down the whole castle. The little boy was so upset! This castle was everything to him. He went to his father crying & told him what his brother did, expecting his father to be so infuriated by the destruction of his castle that he would punish his brother terribly.
But the father, knowing that it was really only a sand castle, just a temporary plaything, didn't do anything.
This, says the כלי יקר, is why one can't take revenge. If we understand that all the problems of this world are just like the sand castle of the little boy then we will realize that whoever tries to hurt us are really only causing us minimal damage, not even worthy of retaliation. Just as the father wouldn't punish the older brother because he knew what he did was really nothing so too Hashem, who's controlling everything knows exactly what we need. As we saw by דוד המלך when שמעי בן גרא cursed him and אבישי wanted to kill שמעי because he cursed the king. Dovid said to him, leave him, for Hashem told him to curse. Meaning that שמעי was only Hashem's messenger so how could we punish him?
This, explains the קרן לדוד is why it says 'אני ה at the end of the posuk, for if a person will realize that 'אני ה is controlling all that happens to us then there won't be any reason to ever get angry at another person for then we will realize that they're just the messenger!
Friday, April 12, 2013
Tazria/Metzora
One of the laws that the Torah teaches us about צרעת is that if the צרעת spreads to the whole body of the person, he is considered not afflicted; he's pure. The wording of the posuk is וכסתה הצרעת את כל עור הנגע מראשו ועד רגליו, if the צרעת covers from his head to his feet, לכל מראה עיני הכהן , as much as the kohen is able to see.
Rashi says לכל מראה עיני הכהןcomes to exclude a kohen who lost his eyesight.
Obviously Rashi felt those words were extra because it could only be what the kohen could see. However, Rashi's explanation is a little puzzling for if a kohen can't see the צרעת , how could he possibly be מטמא the person? What is Rashi really telling us here?
Later on in parshas Metzora where the Torah teaches us the purification process, one of the items the metzora has to bring is a קרבן אשם The Seforno says that the אשם is brought because the person was מעל בקדש took something that belonged to Hashem & used it for himself.
He took the power of speech & instead of using it in the service of Hashem, he used it to hurt someone.
Chazal say that you can't look at a נגע on a cloudy day. Included in that, says the גלילי זהב is that when it’s cloudy for the Jewish people, when misfortune falls upon them. אין רואים את הנגעים, we don't look at the sins of the Jewish people, rather we have to look at the cause of these sins & judge the people favorably. For this reason, it also says that a kohen who is blind in one eye can't look at נגעים, for the kohen has to look with both eyes, one to see the נגע & one to see what caused it. Someone who can only look at the effect & not at the cause can't look at נגעים because he can't help.
I heard a story this week told by Reb Yitzchok Shain who heard it from the person to whom it happened about his father, Rabbi Moshe Shain, when he was principal of RJJ Yeshiva.
It became known that one of the boys had stolen the regents. Reb Moshe, when all the boys were in the auditorium, came in & said "I know that one of you stole the regents. Whoever did it must come to my office right away" and walked right out. A few minutes later, the boy who stole it walked trembling into the office, hardly looking up and said, “I stole them” Reb Moshe looked up at him & said " not you! " & looked back down. The boy walked out of the office & thought to himself, “if my rebbi doesn't think that I could be the guy who stole the regents, if he thinks I'm better than that then maybe I am.”
From that day on this boy did a complete turnaround. Even more, for the rest of his life when confronted with a challenge to do something that might not be right, he always had those words ringing in his ears "not you"
Perhaps this is what Rashi means when he tells us that the kohen has to be able to see, to see what the person needs to better himself, to know the right thing to say to someone. Not always should you look at what they did, rather what caused them to do it & be the one to make them feel that this is really "not you"!
Rashi says לכל מראה עיני הכהןcomes to exclude a kohen who lost his eyesight.
Obviously Rashi felt those words were extra because it could only be what the kohen could see. However, Rashi's explanation is a little puzzling for if a kohen can't see the צרעת , how could he possibly be מטמא the person? What is Rashi really telling us here?
Later on in parshas Metzora where the Torah teaches us the purification process, one of the items the metzora has to bring is a קרבן אשם The Seforno says that the אשם is brought because the person was מעל בקדש took something that belonged to Hashem & used it for himself.
He took the power of speech & instead of using it in the service of Hashem, he used it to hurt someone.
Chazal say that you can't look at a נגע on a cloudy day. Included in that, says the גלילי זהב is that when it’s cloudy for the Jewish people, when misfortune falls upon them. אין רואים את הנגעים, we don't look at the sins of the Jewish people, rather we have to look at the cause of these sins & judge the people favorably. For this reason, it also says that a kohen who is blind in one eye can't look at נגעים, for the kohen has to look with both eyes, one to see the נגע & one to see what caused it. Someone who can only look at the effect & not at the cause can't look at נגעים because he can't help.
I heard a story this week told by Reb Yitzchok Shain who heard it from the person to whom it happened about his father, Rabbi Moshe Shain, when he was principal of RJJ Yeshiva.
It became known that one of the boys had stolen the regents. Reb Moshe, when all the boys were in the auditorium, came in & said "I know that one of you stole the regents. Whoever did it must come to my office right away" and walked right out. A few minutes later, the boy who stole it walked trembling into the office, hardly looking up and said, “I stole them” Reb Moshe looked up at him & said " not you! " & looked back down. The boy walked out of the office & thought to himself, “if my rebbi doesn't think that I could be the guy who stole the regents, if he thinks I'm better than that then maybe I am.”
From that day on this boy did a complete turnaround. Even more, for the rest of his life when confronted with a challenge to do something that might not be right, he always had those words ringing in his ears "not you"
Perhaps this is what Rashi means when he tells us that the kohen has to be able to see, to see what the person needs to better himself, to know the right thing to say to someone. Not always should you look at what they did, rather what caused them to do it & be the one to make them feel that this is really "not you"!
Friday, April 5, 2013
Shemini
The parsha this week tells us about the death of two of the sons of Aaron who brought a sacrifice that they weren't commanded to and instead of the heavenly fire consuming the sacrifice it consumed them.
The posuk then says that Moshe told Aaron הוא אשר דבר ה' לאמר בקרבי אקדש, this is what Hashem said with my close ones I will be sanctified.
Rashi says, Moshe says to Aaron, my brother, I knew that the mishkan would be sanctified by someone who was close to Hashem. I thought it would be either me or you. Now I see that they are greater than us.
The שערי ארמון asks, by mattan Torah it says ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו, and to the אצילי בני ישראל Hashem didn't punish. Rashi says that the אצילי were Nadav & Avihu who really deserved death for gazing at Hashem while eating & drinking.
The אור החיים says that the reason Hashem didn't punish them then was because He didn't want to mar the joy of mattan Torah for all of klal Yisroel would mourn for them.
So why now by the inauguration which was as great to Hashem as the day heaven & earth were created, would He want to mar the joy of the people with the death of Nadav & Avihu?
The Otzros HaTorah relates a parable to help explain. There was a king who wanted to build a city where everyone would be happy; a city that had everything. He appointed someone to be in charge & build this beautiful city. They were to build spacious homes, parks, gardens, wells and anything else one could want.
After the city was built & the people were living in it the king came to see that all was the way he envisioned. The people made a big meal for the king & while they were all at the meal the king asked if they were all satisfied with the city. All as one they answered with a resounding yes. Again, the king asked is there anyone with any problem? Finally one man got up & said the only thing this town is missing is a doctor. Immediately the king promised to send them a doctor.
On the day the doctor came to town they once again made a big meal. The whole town came to greet the doctor dressed in their best clothes. The doctor was a little taken aback by all the honor bestowed upon him & thought to himself, these people probably don't know what a doctor is. They probably think a doctor is a miracle worker who can heal the blind & bring the dead back to life.
At the meal the king took attendance to make sure all the people were there & there was one person missing. After investigating where he was, they reported that he was sick. The king turns to the doctor & says, go heal him. The doctor goes to the man, gives him a bunch of pills & comes back. A short time later there's a commotion in the hall. The sick man had died! The king angrily turns to the doctor & says, what happened?? He wasn't that sick! The doctor responds," I killed him"! The king recoils in shock.
The doctor continues and explains, had I healed him it would have been detrimental to the people of this city, for then they would all rely on me to cure everything. They wouldn't be careful about what they do because they would think that I could just heal anything. I wanted them to know that my powers are limited & I cannot always help so that they would take care of themselves too.
Here too, before there was a mishkan the Jews were warned not to sin for there was no way to get forgiveness ואיש בחטאו יומת, man died for his sin. Now that the mishkan was built & there were karbonos to gain atonement for their sins, there was a fear that the people would do as they please & rely on the korbonos to grant them forgiveness. In order to dispel this misconception Hashem had to punish Nadav & Avihu at the inauguration of the mishkan for a minor infraction in a big way. Their merits didn't help nor did the fact that they were Aaron's children or Moshe's nephews. This placed the fear of sin back on the Jewish people & showed that no matter who you are or what korbanos you can bring, you still can't rely on outside forces to help you.
Rather, each one of us must take care of ourselves by avoiding sin to ensure that we don't get "sick".
The posuk then says that Moshe told Aaron הוא אשר דבר ה' לאמר בקרבי אקדש, this is what Hashem said with my close ones I will be sanctified.
Rashi says, Moshe says to Aaron, my brother, I knew that the mishkan would be sanctified by someone who was close to Hashem. I thought it would be either me or you. Now I see that they are greater than us.
The שערי ארמון asks, by mattan Torah it says ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו, and to the אצילי בני ישראל Hashem didn't punish. Rashi says that the אצילי were Nadav & Avihu who really deserved death for gazing at Hashem while eating & drinking.
The אור החיים says that the reason Hashem didn't punish them then was because He didn't want to mar the joy of mattan Torah for all of klal Yisroel would mourn for them.
So why now by the inauguration which was as great to Hashem as the day heaven & earth were created, would He want to mar the joy of the people with the death of Nadav & Avihu?
The Otzros HaTorah relates a parable to help explain. There was a king who wanted to build a city where everyone would be happy; a city that had everything. He appointed someone to be in charge & build this beautiful city. They were to build spacious homes, parks, gardens, wells and anything else one could want.
After the city was built & the people were living in it the king came to see that all was the way he envisioned. The people made a big meal for the king & while they were all at the meal the king asked if they were all satisfied with the city. All as one they answered with a resounding yes. Again, the king asked is there anyone with any problem? Finally one man got up & said the only thing this town is missing is a doctor. Immediately the king promised to send them a doctor.
On the day the doctor came to town they once again made a big meal. The whole town came to greet the doctor dressed in their best clothes. The doctor was a little taken aback by all the honor bestowed upon him & thought to himself, these people probably don't know what a doctor is. They probably think a doctor is a miracle worker who can heal the blind & bring the dead back to life.
At the meal the king took attendance to make sure all the people were there & there was one person missing. After investigating where he was, they reported that he was sick. The king turns to the doctor & says, go heal him. The doctor goes to the man, gives him a bunch of pills & comes back. A short time later there's a commotion in the hall. The sick man had died! The king angrily turns to the doctor & says, what happened?? He wasn't that sick! The doctor responds," I killed him"! The king recoils in shock.
The doctor continues and explains, had I healed him it would have been detrimental to the people of this city, for then they would all rely on me to cure everything. They wouldn't be careful about what they do because they would think that I could just heal anything. I wanted them to know that my powers are limited & I cannot always help so that they would take care of themselves too.
Here too, before there was a mishkan the Jews were warned not to sin for there was no way to get forgiveness ואיש בחטאו יומת, man died for his sin. Now that the mishkan was built & there were karbonos to gain atonement for their sins, there was a fear that the people would do as they please & rely on the korbonos to grant them forgiveness. In order to dispel this misconception Hashem had to punish Nadav & Avihu at the inauguration of the mishkan for a minor infraction in a big way. Their merits didn't help nor did the fact that they were Aaron's children or Moshe's nephews. This placed the fear of sin back on the Jewish people & showed that no matter who you are or what korbanos you can bring, you still can't rely on outside forces to help you.
Rather, each one of us must take care of ourselves by avoiding sin to ensure that we don't get "sick".
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