Behar

The Torah tells us how we have to treat our fellow Jew especially when one is down on his luck & needs to come to his friend for assistance. The posuk says, וכי ימוך אחיך, if your brother becomes impoverished ומטה ידו עמך , and his hand falters with you והחזקת בו you shall hold on to him גר ותושב וחי עמך, proselyte and resident, so that he can live with you. 

The בן איש חי asks, how do we understand even the simple meaning of this posuk? First, why does it say ‎ומטה ידו עמך, and his hand falters with you; does the hand of the rich man also falter that it says עמך with you? Also, what is the purpose of the end of the posuk ‎,גר ותושב וחי עמך, proselyte and resident , so that he can live with you. 

Rashi explains that not only do you have to help a reguler Jew, but also the proselyte & resident. However, if that were the true meaning, why wouldn't the posuk say it all together? It should have said, if your brother or the proselyte and resident become impoverished, you shall hold on to him. Why does the Torah put these two categories at the end of the posuk?

Additionally, even according to Rashi, why does it say וחי עמך, he shall live with you when it already said והחזקת בו, you shall hold on to him, which in essence is the same thing?  

‎In order to answer these questions, the בן איש חי relates a true story. There were two wealthy men named Moshe & Chaim that lived in a certain town. One day, Moshe invested heavily in a deal that went bad and lost all his money. In the beginning, he was still able to get by with what he still had in the house & kept up appearances as the wealthy man he always was.  However, he could only go on so long & it happened that, one Friday, there was just no food in the house. Left with no choice, he went to his friend Chaim & said, “listen I'm really broke now; I don't even have a dinar to my name.  Can you lend me fifty dinar which I will pay you back right after Shabbos”. Relying on the gemara which says that if you need food for Shabbos, borrow money & Hashem will pay it back, Moshe had no doubt that Hashem would help him get the money to pay right back. However, Chaim answered, “sorry I don't have money to lend right now. ask someone else”. 

When Chaim got home, he told his wife what happened & said Moshe is a liar. If he truly had no money, how come he looks like he does.  Also, why would he wait until Friday afternoon to‎ ask me.  How does he expect to pay me back right after Shabbos? He just wants me to think he's poor so we don't collect the dues he owes to charity. So I didn't lend him anything; he's not going to fool me. 

The years went on & as the wheel of fortune turns Moshe made back him money & became wealthy again. At the same time, Chaim’s luck changed & he started losing his money until he had nothing left.  However, he too, not wanting anyone to know, put on a show & pretended that he had. One day, just as had happened to Moshe many years earlier, Chaim had no food for Shabbos.  Left with no choice, he went to Moshe and said, “I lost all my money; I don't even have a dinar. Please lend me fifty dinar until after Shabbos & I will pay you back right after Shabbos. When Moshe heard, he immediately got him the money & happily gave it to him. Now, Moshe's son was next to him when this happened.  The son said, “why did you give it to him; he's for sure lying; he looks like he still has everything; why would he wait until now; how will he pay you back”? 

Moshe knew the answers to all those questions because the same thing had happened to him. He told his son that one never knows what someone else is going through; no matter what it looks like. When we had nothing, the same exact thing happened to me so I know that it could be true. 

There are times when you see a wealthy man‎ having a hard time or having to go through some embarrassment to get a loan. The purpose of this difficulty is that he should feel some of the pain that the poor man has, so that he will know what if feels like & be more inclined to help. 

With this, we could understand the posuk כי ימוך אחיך . When your friend becomes ‎impoverished and asks for a loan, don't reason in your mind why he doesn't need it. Rather, remember what happened עמך to you, there are times when you also need things. Remember that feeling; help your friend, like Hashem commanded והחזקת בו, be strong in it & don't listen to those who tell you not to help the poor man. The Torah adds that you should know when you help the poor, you're really helping yourself, for the only money one really has which he can take with him, is the money given to charity. So, until the end, one is like a גר to his money, for it’s not really his. When he leaves the world, whatever he gave away is his like a תושב , a permanent resident that no one can take from him. He gets all of this eternal reward because of חי עמך that he revived his friend by helping him out. ‎This teaches us to help our friends without judging them, for you never know what’s really going on.  For that, we will gain for eternity! 

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Emor

The Torah tells us ושמרתם מצותי ועשיתם אתם , you shall guard my commandments and do them. The next posuk says ולא תחללו את שם קדשי , you shall not defile My holy name, ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל, and I shall be sanctified among the Jewish people. 

Rashi explains that ושמרתם, to guard the commandments, means to study them to know what to do &  ‎ועשיתם, to do, means the performance of the commandments. Then, in the next posuk, לא תחללו, you shall not defile, means not to intentionally violate My words. Rashi questions that once it says not to defile Hashem’s words, I can infer that if there is no defilement, then there will be sanctification of Hashem’s name.  Why must the Torah explicitly state "and I shall be sanctified"? He answers it’s to teach us that we have to surrender ourselves even to the point of death to sanctify Hashem’s name. 

Now, even though it's a great mitzva to give up your life for Hashem, ‎it's not one that often presents itself. So how do we, on a practical level, fulfill this mitzva?

The אוצרות התורה , quotes numerous sources that teach us that each one of us is able to capitalize on this mitzva every single day. The Mishna Berura says that one should have intention when he says Kedusha  ‎to sanctify Hashem’s name & with that he will fulfill his obligation. The אר"י ז"ל ‎said that, according to the זוהר, one fulfills this commandment when he says or answers Kaddish and Kedusha. 

These far reaching effects can be learned from the following story. There was a respectable couple that lived in Europe who, for years, would give a sizable donation to the yeshiva on condition that someone would say Kaddish for those that had no one else to say it for them. One day, the man passed away & the woman had a hard time taking over the business so it slowly went down until there was almost nothing left. A few years went by & then, not only was the financial situation bad, but now her two daughters were of marriageable  age, adding to her financial problems. 

However, the woman took it all in stride, accepting her lot. There was one thing, though, that she could not accept; that was her commitment to the souls of those that had no one to say kaddish for them. So she went to the yeshiva ‎and spoke to the ones in charge & said please do not stop saying the kaddish; right now I'm having a hard time, but once I get back on my feet, I will continue to pay. So they agreed & the kaddish never stopped. 

One day, when she walked out of the Yeshiva, she saw a very distinguished looking older man coming towards her. She was mesmerized by his countenance & even more shocked when he came over to her & started asking about her life & her kids.  ‎She started telling him her life story & how now she had two daughters to marry off & no money. He asked her how much she needed & was told a hefty sum. He took out a paper from his pocket & wrote out a note to the bank to give her the full amount. Before he signed it, he asked her to get witnesses, so she went into the yeshiva & got two boys to be the witnesses. The man signed it and went on his way. 

The next morning, the woman went to the bank with her paper. The teller didn't know what to make of it so she brought it to the bank president who took one look at the signature & fainted. When he was back to himself, he asked the woman how she got that paper. She told him the whole story & that there are even two witness that saw the whole thing. He then showed her a picture to which she said, “yes, that is the man who gave this to me.” He paid her the money & she left. 

 The he explained that the man who gave the paper to this woman was his father who had passed away ten years ago. The night before, he had come to him in a dream and said: you should know that once you went off the proper path, married a non-Jewish woman & stopped saying kaddish for me, I had no peace in the upper world. However, once this woman paid someone to say the kaddish for me, I was granted peace for my soul. This woman will come to you tomorrow with a note from me to cover the expenses of her two daughters’ weddings. When I woke up, I told my wife about my dream & we laughed at the whole thing. Now that I saw the paper with my father's signature, I know that it was real. 

‎Reb Yosef Chaim Sonnefeld ended this story by asking, “do you know who the two boys were that witnessed this? It was me & my friend Reb Yehuda Greenwald”.  This banker became a baal teshuva, his wife converted & they became Torah observant Jews ... the power of kaddish!

Kedoshim

Our parsha opens with a general call to sanctity, then defining how a one can live with true holiness, whether in spiritual matters or in financial matters and finally in interpersonal relationships. 

One of the pesukim that deal with courts & judges states, בצדק תשפט עמיתך, with righteousness shall you judge your fellow, which, at face value, is referring to the judge that he should judge every case fairly. Rashi says it also refers to all people; that when you see someone doing something that is questionable, give him the benefit of the doubt & judge him favorably.

This Mitzva  says the מהרי"ל דיסקין, is not only for the benefit of our friend, ‎ it also can be a great benefit to us as well. Chazal praise the character trait of one who embarrasses easily, for one who is brazen & doesn't embarrass easily will end up sinning whereas one who does embarrass easily will not sin so quickly. 

This concept can explain why people who are in a group, find it easier to do something they wouldn’t do otherwise. If one of the people in the group sins, then his friend who sees him doing it won't be as embarrassed to do it himself.  The more people that sin in that group lower the embarrassment level until the last guy, who might never have dreamed of doing this, won't be embarrassed at all. The actions of the group have cooled off the sin making it not seem bad; they took the embarrassment factor out too. 

So how does ‎one prevent himself from being able to sin easily? דן את חברך לכף זכות, judge your friend favorably, for, if you judge him favorably & find an excuse for him that he's not sinning, then the embarrassment factor will never diminish in you. In your view, no one is sinning, then you too will not come to sin easily. 

‎Additionally, we really never know why a person is doing something or what their situation is for us to pass judgment. 

There was a woman who had to travel overseas & once she got to the airport & took care of everything she had to, she saw that there was plenty of time until the plane would take off. Since she was very hungry, she went to the shop, bought a box of cookies, put them in her bag & went to the waiting area so she could eat as she waited for boarding. 

She put her stuff on the table, went to take care of something for a minute, then came back, opened the package of cookies & started eating. To her astonishment, a man who was sitting on the bench opposite her also took a cookie without saying a word. She didn't react to his brazenness & took another cookie. To her surprise, he did too; every time she took one he did too. She was seething inside but was too embarrassed to say anything. When they got to the last cookie, the man took it, broke it in half, ate one half & gave her the other. She was confounded by the audacity of this person, but just got up & walked away. 

     

When she got on the plane, she opened her bag before putting it in the overhead compartment, & saw her box of cookies sitting right there on top. Then it dawned on her what had happened. That box of cookies that she had been eating really belonged to the man across from her; she was the one with the audacity to eat without asking; she was the guilty party, not him. 

Sometimes it's just a misplaced box of cookies or any number of things that we might not realize.  Not only did we suspect unjustly, but the tables could turn completely & make us the guilty ones. We have to learn from this to think positively of others; don’t judge anyone harshly. One, because you never really know the backstory and two, so that our embarrassment to sin will not be lessened by the assumption that others are sinning. Let’s‎ all learn to judge others the way we'd want to be judged...favorably! 

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Acharai Mos

The Torah expounds upon various fundamental laws in our parsha after which it says ושמרתם את חקתי ואת משפטי , you shall observe My decrees and my judgments, אשר יעשה אתם האדם וחי בהם אני ה , which man shall carry out and live by them - I am Hashem. 

Rashi explains that וחי בהם means in the world to come where there is eternal life & 'אני ה, I am Hashem who is faithful to pay reward.

The gemara explains that the reward for mitzvos isn't possible to receive on this world, for that's how great the reward is.  It's an eternal reward that we would only be able to appreciate in an eternal world. However, this   contradicts another gemara that says that Hashem pays back the ones who are hated in this world so that they don't merit the next world. So, we see that there is reward for mitzvos in this world.  Even the reshaim have some mitzvos for which Hashem pays them back on this world, so is there or isn't there reward for mitzvos on this world?

Rav Shmuel Wallkin says in his sefer, that he heard from the Chafetz Chaim how Hashem calculates the reward a person gets.  Really each person determines his own reward.  If a person has a set time for learning or davening & he's on the way & precisely at that moment a big deal comes up in which he can make a lot of money but he doesn't give in to temptation, then that person showed how valuable his learning is & his reward will be that great. However, if when he was on his way to shul & something came up where he would just make a few dollars & still he stopped going to shul to make a measly few bucks, that shows how little value his mitzvos have for him & he will be paid accordingly. 

There's a story told of a person who needed a large sum of money to make a wedding. He went to his rabbi for a bracha which the rabbi gave him. The rabbi told him that he should take the first deal he's offered when he leaves, for that deal will be his blessing. When he left and made his way home, he stopped at an inn where nearby were a group of merchants doing business. When they saw this man coming close to them, one of them thought it would be fun to play around with him & asked him, “hey, do you want to do some business with me?”

Remembering what his rabbi said, he answered yes right away. The merchant asked him, “are you willing to buy my olam habba for a ruble?” The man answered yes. They made the deal, had witnesses sign the document & concluded a real sale. The merchant thought it was all a big joke while the man took the sale very seriously. 

When the merchant got home, he told his wife what happened to him at the inn & how that man bought his olam habba. He was expecting her to laugh along but she got very upset & said, “how could you do that? I don't want to live with a man who would sell his olam habba; go buy it back. 

Left with no choice, the merchant went to find the man to buy back his olam habba. However, the man wouldn't sell it. He tried offering more money but the man wouldn't sell. He couldn't go home, so left with no choice he went to find this man's rabbi to ask him to intervene so he could get his olam habba back. When he told the rabbi what happened, he said my student is right. However I can get him to give it back to you on one condition. He is making a wedding. If you will cover all the expenses of the wedding, I will get him to give it back to you. So the man agreed & the deal was done. Afterward, the merchant turns to the rabbi & says, “I did what you told me but where is the justice? Yesterday this man paid one ruble for the merchandise & now I'm paying thousands for the same merchandise?” 

The rabbi answered that the price of merchandise is based on its value. Yesterday you belittled the value of your olam habba & sold it for what it was worth to you - a ruble. Now, today that your marriage hinges on this same merchandise, you have to buy it for what it's worth to you now, thousands.

One determines his own value.  Maybe that's why Hashem is able to reward the sinners for their few mitzvos on this world, for if the value is determined by them & they don't really put too much value on the mitzvos, then the reward isn't that great either. It could be given on this world. However, for the people that are doing the mitzvos because they want to keep Hashem’s commands & try to do the best they can, their reward is eternal & can't be given on this world. Let's remember this when we do the mitzvos, that we are the ones who determine our reward!