Haazinu

Parshas Haazinu, the song of which Moshe spoke in last week's Parsha,  is the song of the history of the nation, for just as musical compositions contain decrescendos ‎& crescendos, so too the history of the Jewish people has its diminished periods, times of calamity, that will be followed by the joyous crescendo of the great finale, the ultimate redemption (Torah Treasury) 

One of the stanzas in this song is הצור תמים פעלו כי כל דרכיו משפט, The Rock, perfect in His work, for all His ways are justice. However, it's difficult to accept this, for all too many times, we see the righteous one begging for a piece of bread to calm his hunger & a coat to warm himself, while the wicked one has all that he needs. This is the age old question of why does the tzaddik suffer while the rasha indulges? 

This is exemplified by the Chofetz Chaim’s wife, when their poverty got to her, asked her husband why the neighbor who is an ignorant boor, whose children are rude & ill-mannered  gets taken care of by Hashem. They’re wealthy & have all that they need. We, who you are totally sanctified in Torah with children who are fine & good mannered, yet we live in abject poverty! Where is the justice?   

The Chafetz Chaim then asked his wife, would it be fair that that person whom Hashem didn't give much intelligence, ‎who never experienced the light of Torah & who wasn't successful in bringing up his children the right way should he be punished with poverty too?  You, whose husband is a Ben Torah & you have a love for Torah & your children are good mannered & on the right path, would it be fair to make you wealthy too? Would that be fair? 
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Of course, to most of us that's a very hard level to reach to be able to think like that.  How can we come to some understanding not to question Hashem?

The אבן עזרא was once asked this question and answered with the following true story.  Two men were traveling. When they sat down to eat, one of them had three loaves of bread while the other only had two. As they sat down, a third man came & said to them, my brothers I'm starving. I have no food; please share your bread with me & I will pay you. They sat down to eat together & the three men ate the five loaves of bread. After they finished, the guest paid them five coins. The question arose of how to split the five coins. The one with the three loaves said he deserved three coins because he had three loaves while the one with the two loaves said they should split it because the guest ate from both of them equally. Not able to come to an agreement, they came to the Rav of the town.  The Rav said that the one who had three loaves should get four coins & the one who had two should only get one coin. 

When the people heard that psak, they asked the אבן עזרא what kind of psak is that?  The Rav gave him even more than he asked for? He asked for three & the Rav gave him four? When the אבן עזרא heard their question, he said, "if you people can't even understand the reasoning of a mere mortal, a flesh & blood judge, how can you expect to understand the reasoning of Hashem? I will explain the Rav’s ruling. 

Each of the three men ate a third of the bread for they ate together. If you split each loaf into thirds, you have fifteen thirds. So each of the men ate five thirds. It comes out that the one who had two loaves ate five thirds so he only gave the guest one third. Therefore, he gets one coin.  The one who had three loaves or nine thirds, also ate five thirds leaving four thirds over that the guest ate so he gets four coins. 

We have to realize that we will not be able to understand the reasoning of Hashem. All we need to do is have faith that Hashem knows best.  It was my grandmother's first yahrtzeit this week & I was reading an interview she did years ago on the war. She was asked, "how did you keep your faith in G-d during the Holocaust & afterwards? Her answer I think sums up this concept. 
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"I just kept it. Some people lost their faith, but a lot of people who didn't keep any of the laws before, became frum afterwards. I just felt that the only way that could happen was if Hashem wanted it to happen. Otherwise it would have been impossible. There must have been some reason for Hashem to do this. I simply didn't question anything. Once you start questioning this kind of thing,  you’re in trouble. I guess I just accepted things the way they were. There are some things we simply do not understand. There is an awful lot in the Jewish religion that  we just don't understand, and we cannot. Faith is what you can't see & you don't understand, but you have faith anyway!‎"


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Vayelech

Moshe begins this parsha by speaking to the people, telling them that it has come time for him to leave this world & that he will no longer be leading them. ‎He continues that Hashem will take them into the land & destroy the nations that stand before them.  He concludes with חזקו ואמצו, be strong & courageous , אל תיראו ואל תערצו מפניהם , do not be afraid and do not be broken before them, כי ה אלקיך הוא ההלך עמך, for Hashem your G-d - it is He who goes before you , לא ירפך ולא יעזבך, He will not loosen His hold on you nor will He forsake you. 

The חיד"א asks, “why does the posuk start off in plural:  ‎אל תיראו ואל תערצו מפניהם & then end in singular ‎כי ה אלקיך הוא ההלך עמך‏ ? He answers that it's to teach us that when there is complete ‎‏unity among the Jewish people so they were considered all like one, then Hashem will be with us & we will have nothing to fear.  Hashem will be with us & not forsake us. 
 
‎How do we attain this goal? How can we as a people unite so that we will have Hashem on our side & have nothing to fear?

The parsha begins, וילך משה , Moshe went. There are numerous commentaries on why the Torah uses the word וילך , that Moshe went. Eben Ezra says that it teaches us that Moshe went to every shevet to say good bye, to tell them he was leaving this world & not to fear because Hashem would be with them. The Malbim says that Moshe went to each person to get a bracha from them before he passed on. 

Moshe Rabenu, who took us out of slavery, split the sea for us, led us for forty years in the desert, went up to heaven for forty days & nights to get the Torah, this leader, the greatest man to ever live, has nothing better to do than go say good bye to everyone as he's about to enter the next world? He needs a bracha from all the people? 

During World War ‎One, the Chaftz Chaim's yeshiva was forced to move out of Radin & moved to Smilovitz. Then, in 1916, a new refuge was sought as the battle-line drew closer; the yeshiva moved further into Russia, to Shumyatz in the Province of Mohilov and later to Snovsk in the Province of Chernigov, (currently Shchors City, Ukraine). When the Holiday of Sukkos arrived, there was no esrog to be found. Finally, after much effort, they were able to get one set of the four species. After the chazan finished Shemona Esray, he waited for the Chafetz Chaim to take the lulav & esrog before he started Hallel. To his & everyone else's surprise, the Chafetz Chaim just signaled him to start Hallel without taking the lulav & esrog. 

After davening, they went over to the Chafetz Chaim to inquire why he didn't take the lulav & esrog. He answered that it was impossible for everyone to take the lulav & esrog because there were too many people. I, alone, couldn’t take it; who am I that I should merit what no one else does? For just some of the people to take the minim wouldn’t be proper for if someone who didn't get to do it would be upset at me, then I would be transgressing a Torah prohibition. It's better to lose the mitzva of lulav than to hurt someone's feelings. he concluded that hurting others is like playing with fire!

Perhaps Moshe was teaching us this too, he went to the people to say good bye &/or get a bracha from them not because he needed to but rather to make the people feel good about themselves. When people feel good about themselves, they are more peaceful with each other which would be the way to have Hashem with them to protect them. We can learn from Moshe that even if sometimes we have to do something which would be beneath our dignity, if it will make someone else feel good then do it anyway. Even more, learn from the Chafetz Chaim that if doing a mitzva would hurt someone in the slightest, he would pass up the mitva. How much more so do we have to be careful not to hurt someone's feelings. Perhaps this year on Yom Kippur, we should take upon ourselves to be a little more cognizant of other people's feelings. We should not just avoid hurting them but go out of our way to make them feel good. With that, we will ensure that we have Hashem on our side & will be blessed with a great year!‎
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Nitzavim / Rosh Hashana

The previous sedra tells us all the blessings which will be given to us when we listen to Hashem as well as the curses that would befall us when we don't listen.  Ramban says this is talking about the future; at some point in time, the blessings will happen & at another point in time the curses will happen. 

Now, Moshe tells the people about these blessings and curses.  When they are in exile amongst the nations of the land, and will return to Hashem to listen to His voice & all that Moshe commanded them today, then “ושב ה אלקיך את שבותך ורחמך, Hashem will return your captivity & have mercy on you.” Then, Hashem will gather us all from the four corners of the world & bring us back home to the holy land. 

All the curses will then be placed on our enemies, those that ‎persecuted us throughout the exile. All the blessings will come to us when we listen to Hashem & keep His commandments. We just need to do teshuva & choose the path of good & be granted life. The posuk goes on to list numerous ways that we choose good, of which one is ללכת בדרכיו, to walk in His ways . 
What are the ways of Hashem? What characteristics of Hashem are we supposed to emulate?

‎In his sefer, Reb Chaim Shmulevits mentions various ways to ensure that one has a good judgment on the Days of Judgment. One of them is דן את כל האדם לכף זכות, judge every person favorably, for the gemara says that if one judges other people favorably, then Hashem will judge him favorably too. 

Reb Chaim asks what does that mean that Hashem will judge favorably? As humans, we're not sure what someone is doing so we can judge him either for good or bad. However, Hashem knows the person’s intentions. He knows exactly what's going on, so how can we hope that He judges us favorably?

He explains, the posuk says, "there is no one righteous in the land that does only good & does not sin" meaning that even though the tzaddik doesn't actually sin & do bad things, in the good that he does there might be something that's lacking, or he didn't do it happily or to its fullest extent etc.  Included in the Mitzva to judge people favorably is the occasion when one sees someone doing something good with some bad possibly mixed in. Rather than thinking that he's doing it for ulterior reasons, one has to think that he's doing it only because that's the will of Hashem. So, מידה כנגד מידה, Hashem will judge his actions by the good that's in them not the bad. Even if his mitzvos are not done one hundred percent, he will be judged by his good intentions. 

Similarly, says the Chafetz Chaim, one has to be very careful to judge people favorably, for by this very judgment, one seals his own fate. We know that the merit of a person is based on how many mitzvos or avairos he has. We also know that if Hashem would judge us strictly, not many of us would have too many mitzvos. After all, many are done without the proper intent & enthusiasm, or they are lacking in some other way. If, however, Hashem judges us with mercy, then the good parts of our mitzvos will be what He looks at & our mitzvos will count. More than that, He will see our sins as lacking intent or that they were accidental. No matter what we do, Hashem can really make it go either way depending on what He focuses on. 

What He focuses on depends on how we judge other people. If we always looked to see what the bad was in what people were doing, then Hashem will look to see the bad in what we're doing. If we look to always see the good in what people are doing, then Hashem will look to see only the good in our actions. 

Sometimes we don't even see someone doing anything wrong but just think that it must have been this person that hurt us because who else could it be? We have to learn to not jump to conclusions as can be exemplified by the following story.  There was an egg merchant in Jerusalem who, during a bad economic year, started noticing that every morning he was short thirty eggs. He realized that there must be a thief & started checking to see how he might have entered. Not seeing any forced entry, he came to the logical conclusion that it had to be his neighbor in the store next to him. However, he couldn't catch him. Day after day, the same scene repeated. At his wits end, he went to Rav Shmuel Salant & told him of his problem & asked what he could do to confront his neighbor. 

Rav Shmuel told him to boil up thirty eggs & put them on the top of the egg pile.  The man was wondering how that could help but did what he was told, listening to his Rav even though he didn't understand. In the morning when he opened the store, imagine his surprise when he saw a huge snake dead on top of the eggs! It became clear that this snake was the thief & would eat the eggs.  Now, when he ate them hardboiled, he choked & died.  
Had he confronted his neighbor, imagine the embarrassment.  

This is how we should be careful to emulate Hashem, מידה כנגד מידה , knowing that Hashem will treat us as we treat other people. For, if we would take it ‎to heart & really believe that we will be treated as we treat other people, then who among us would ever treat someone else badly? No one would, for then he’s just doing bad to himself! Before judging others or jumping to conclutions  we must think if I was doing that, what would I want people to say?

Ki Savo

Upon entering the Land, the Jews assemble at Har Gerizim & Har Ebal to ‎swear their loyalty to the Torah. They recognize the blessings that Hashem gives to those who fulfill His commands & the curses and calamities that come to those that ignore the word of Hashem. 
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After the Torah enumerates all the curses that will befall the Jews if they do not keep the Torah & mitzvos, the chapter ends by saying, אלה דברי הברית אשר צוה ה את משה לכרת את בני ישראל, These are the words of the covenant that Hashem commanded Moshe to forge with the Bnei Yisroel.  Rashi interprets "to forge with Bnei Yisroel" that they accepted upon themselves with a curse & an oath.

‎Asks רב שמואל לנדא, why did Hashem have to make us accept the Torah & mitzvos with an oath which either way we are required to fulfill? Does a master who acquires a slave have to make him swear to do his commands? Does a king have to make his country swear to uphold his laws? They are required to do so without it so why make them swear?

‎Before the Torah lists the curses, it tells us of all the blessings we will get if we keep the Torah & mitzvos. One of them is ברוך אתה בעיר וברוך אתה בשדה ‏, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. The Meged Yerachim says that this beracha has a lesson attached to it too. There are people who have two different standards of behavior, one for the shul & one for the home. Those who observe this person in shul will think that he\'s the paragon of piety while his behavior at home leaves much to be desired. The shul which is בשדה has no similarity to his home which is בעיר. 

The beracha is that one who follows Hashem’s mitzvos will have his mundane affairs positively affected by his spiritual ones & the same level of piety displayed in shul will come home with him. People might act differently in shul and in public because sometimes people are embarrassed to openly display their commitment to Torah & mitzvos for fear of being called old fashioned; so the Torah is saying if you want to be blessed you must remain loyal to the Torah even in the public eye. However, sometimes people find that hard to do. How can we motivate ourselves to remain loyal no matter where we are?

Perhaps ‎we can answer our original question with the answer to this. The reason we had to accept the Torah & mitzvos with an oath is to help us when we are out in the city. We know that there are times when we don't want to do things & can rationalize not doing them. However if you also promised someone to do it, then even your rationalization won’t help because of your promise. 
Maybe here too, there are times when one is out in the city where one can rationalize not staying committed to mitzvos & the Torah. However, having sworn to keep them might be the push needed to ensure that one keeps the commandments even when one is out of one's comfort zone ‎& in return merit the blessings of Hashem no matter where one is!
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