Devarim

The final sefer of the Torah begins with Moshe's rebuke of the Jewish people. אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר משֶׁה אֶל כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן בַּמִּדְבּר These are the words which Moshe spoke to all Israel on that side of the Jordan in the desert. Rashi tells us that Moshe enumerated all the places where the Jews had angered Hashem. However, out of respect for the Jewish people, he only hinted at them and didn't specify. For example, במדבר in the desert: At that time, they were not in the desert, but in the plains of Moab.  Accordingly, what is the meaning of בַּמִּדְבָּר, in the desert? It means that he rebuked them for their having angered Him in the desert by saying, “If only we had died”.

The chachamim found even more sublime hints in the wording. For instance, the word דברים, could be read “devarim” words, or “devorim” bees, alluding to the fact that, just like bees whose honey is sweet but their sting is bitter, so, too, the words of Moshe contained both bitter and sweet. Even the word במדבר was used as a hint to the sweet side of all the great things that Hashem did for them in the desert, like the maana and the clouds, while also the bitter things, all the complaining that the Jews did in the desert. What was Moshe trying to teach the people? The Ramban, when explaining why Moshe was admonishing now, says that Moshe was teaching a very important lesson. He alluded to all the times the Jews angered Hashem over the years to show them, “look what you did; look how you rebelled, and still look what Hashem did for you. Look at all the miracles that kept happening; the manna didn't stop nor did any of the other miracles.” He was telling us that no matter what we did or what we do, Hashem still loves us. Moshe's last speech was to imbue in us this concept by showing us look how many times we had angered Hashem but yet he still does everything for us.

I heard this Ramban from Rabbi Shlomo Diamond who said, based on a Zohar that we have to know that Hashem loves is and is not out to get us. People sometimes think that because of their sins, Hashem is going to get them, take away their livelihood or health etc. He says that that is not true; when a person sins, he generally feels bad about it. Since Hashem is like a parent, when a child feels bad about something acknowledging he did wrong, what parent wouldn't forgive him? Of course, the parent forgives. So does Hashem. Therefore, illness, catastrophe and the like do not come to a person because of sin; they come about for reasons that we don't understand, for תיקון עולם, that only Hashem knows why. The kind of punishment that does come for sin, the Gemara tells us, is a person putting his hand in in pocket to take out a quarter and instead takes out a dime and has to go back into his pocket. That’s the kind of inconvenience, the type of punishment, Hashem gives to get us away from sin, little inconveniences to remind us to be better.

Rabbi Diamond continued with a parable. Imagine a twenty two year old daughter who's living in her parents’ home. The parents always have taken care of her and she had all that she needed. One night, in the middle of the winter, when it’s freezing cold outside at three o'clock in the morning, the mother comes into the room where the girl is soundly sleeping under her covers, yells, “get out, get out of my house” and takes her and throws her outside. After the initial shock, the girl will say to herself, “I don't know what's going on here but my parents have always had my best interest at heart, have given me everything my whole life. There must be a reason that my mother just did this.”

This is how we must view Hashem. He gives us everything our whole lives. He only wants what's best for us. If He does something that seems to us irrational, we have to trust that there is a reason. We must look at the good that we have had and realize that it's the same Hashem giving it to us. The sweet and sting are always together. Let's strengthen our trust and let the little inconveniences be our hint to improve!

Mattos / massei

The beginning of our parsha states the laws of vows:  אִישׁ כִּי יִדֹּר נֶדֶר לה’ אוֹ הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה לֶאְסֹר אִסָּר עַל נַפְשׁוֹ לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ כְּכָל הַיֹּצֵא מִפִּיו יַעֲשֶׂה: "If a man makes a vow to Hashem or makes an oath to prohibit himself, he shall not violate his word; according to whatever came out of his mouth, he shall do." Rashi interprets לֹא יַחֵל דְּבָרוֹ, like לֹא יְחַלֵּל דְּבָרוֹ “he shall not profane his word,” meaning he shall not treat his word as being unholy. 

What does this mean? What makes a word holy? The חיד”א explains that a person should view all his mundane activities as a means to have the strength to do the mitzvos. If one does that, then all his mundane activities are actually holy. His eating, sleeping, working are all considered mitzvos, for they are all just to enable him to do the mitzvos. A person who fulfills this obligation has the title of tzadik, on whom Hashem said, מושל באדם צדיק מושל יראה אלקים, meaning: I rule over man, who rules over Me; the tzadik, for I make a decree and the tzadik annuls it. This is what the posuk means, לא יחל דברו, a person who doesn't profane his words.  Rather, all his words are for the sake of heaven; then ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה, then Hashem says whatever comes out of his mouth I will do. צדיק גוזר והקב”ה מקיים, the tzadik decrees and Hashem fulfills. 

Because the גר”א  had something bothering him in his throat, his son went to call the doctor to see what was wrong. The doctor looked in his throat and saw a wart that was full of pus and said that it must be dissected to be able to remove it.

There was a woman in the town who knew an incantation that would heal the sick. They told the גר”א, about her and he agreed to see her. When she came to him, he wouldn’t let her say her incantation until he was sure that it was from a holy source and not from the forces of evil, so he asked her what it was and where it came from. She told him that when she was young, she was widowed with small children and no means of support. One night, when there was no food for her to give her children, she went in the middle of the night to the bais medrash to cry her heart out to Hashem. She opened the aron kodesh and poured her heart out. When she finished crying, she heard a heavenly voice that told her to start saying incantations to heal people, from which she would make a living. She asked what she should say. The voice answered her to ask for a drink, and after she drank, she should whisper the bracha of borai nefashos over the sick person. She went home and told people that she could heal the sick. It worked, so she was able to support herself all these years.

When the גר”א heard this story he laughed so hard that the wart shot out of his mouth and he was healed. Sometime later he explained, “the night she was talking about I was learning in the bais medrash behind the bima. In the middle of the night, I heard this woman crying and I couldn't concentrate so I had to say something to her to calm her down. I'm the one who told her to say that incantation just to calm her down." This demonstrates that someone like the גר”א , whose words were always for the sake of heaven, always had his words fulfilled by heaven  even when he had said something just to calm a woman down. 

The second parsha we read tells us about all the travels of the Jews in the desert, the forty two different stops they made along the way. The רבי מסקולן says that this parsha is always read during the three weeks in which we remember the exile from Israel, to teach us that,  just as all those travels in the desert were for the sole purpose of getting us into the land, we have to know that all journeys we have to go through in this long and bitter exile are only for the sole purpose of bringing us back to the land for good.

Perhaps we could take the lesson from the parsha of vows to be careful with what comes out of our mouths and try to have all our words for the sake of heaven, so that we will be much closer to having our prayers answered and being brought back into our land!

Pinchas

The posuk states that, after Pinchas avenged Hashem's honor, the plague that was destroying the nation stopped. פִּינְחָס בֶּן אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן הֵשִׁיב אֶת חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת קִנְאָתִי בְּתוֹכָם וְלֹא כִלִּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּקִנְאָתִי: "Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel by his zealotry, avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel because of My zeal."

Rashi comments, אֶת קִנְאָתִי ,בְּקַנְאוֹ, By his avenging My vengeance, by his releasing the wrath that I should have released.

The main reason for Pinchas being rewarded, says Reb Moshe Feinstein, is that he did what Hashem was supposed to do. This, says Reb Moshe, teaches us that when a person does something which Hashem was supposed to do, the reward is very great. He compares this to other mitzvos that are really supposed to be done by Hashem which, if we do, the reward is great. For example, the Gemara tells us that when the Roman general asked Rebbi Akiva if Hashem loves the poor people so much, then why doesn't He feed them? Rebbi Akiva answered him: in order to give us a chance by helping them, so that we are saved from the fires of Gehhenum. From Rebbi Akiva's answer we can deduce that really Hashem was supposed to feed the poor people, yet he lets us do it so that we have the merit to gain great reward. It's similar to a small child who wants to help his mother carry the packages. He can't really help, yet the mother gives his something small to carry. Even though it's not really a help, since the child wants to help, it gives the mother pleasure to give the child something to help with. So, too, with mitzvos like tzedaka that we are trying to help Hashem; even though He doesn't really need us to help Him, still, it gives Him great pleasure that we want to help.

A person went around to a number of people asking the following question: “If you could invite one person from the last two thousand years to come join you for a Shabbos meal, who would you choose?” The answers varied; some people said the Rambam; others said Rashi, while still others said a parent or grandparent. For others, it was the Ben Ish Chai or the Baal Shem Tov. When Reb Dovid Feinstein was asked this question, he answered, I would find the person who was the most in need of a meal, someone who was hungry, and invite him in for the meal because that's who needs it.  This is how we have to train ourselves to think. We have to look at how we can do the most good, not what looks good on the resume. That's real chesed. We can’t even imagine what we can accomplish with real chesed.

Rabbi Paysach Krohn tells a story about a menahel of a yeshiva who was telling a story of his origins, how he stayed on the path of Judaism in his small town because of the one shul that was there. This town only had conservative and reform shuls. Even the young people that would have gone to an Orthodox shul, went to them because there was nowhere else to go. One day, a rabbi came into town and wanted to open an Orthodox shul. However, he didn't have the money, so he went to the bank hesitantly, afraid to say that he wanted to build an Orthodox shul, for they knew that the Orthodox in that town didn't have any money. He went to the bank manager and pleaded his case trying not to mention the denomination of the shul he wanted to open. However, the manager pressed him, so he finally had to admit he wanted to open an Orthodox shul. The manager looked at him and said, “I'm going to give you the money and I'll tell you why. When I was a little boy, my father passed away and my mother had children and very little income. There was an Orthodox Jew who owned the general store in town and he came over to my mother and said, 'as long as I own this store, you will always have food for your children; just come every morning and take what you need. We will never ask you for a penny.’" Then he said, “As long as I own this store, you will always have clothes and whatever else you need that we sell, for your children.” In that store, one could basically get anything he needed to live. "Rabbi, continued the bank manager, that's how we survived; without him, there is no way we would have made it. He was an Orthodox man now it's time for me to pay back. I will give you the money to build an Orthodox shul." The shul was built and because of it many people in that town remained frum and spread yiddishkeit to others, all because one man took pity on a woman and her children. We have no idea the ramifications of one act of chesed. As Robert H. Schuller said, “Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed.” We have no idea how far reaching our actions can go!

Balak

After seeing that the Jews are successful in defeating the Emori, Balak is afraid that his country is next. He sends a delegation to go hire the sorcerer, Bilaam, to curse the Jews in the hope of stopping them. The posuk states: וילכו זקני מואב וזקני מדין אל בלעם, "and the elders of Moav and the elders of Midian went to Bilaam." They explain their mission and why they need him to come. He tells them to stay overnight and, then, in the morning, he will let them know what Hashem said he can do. Then the posuk concludes, וישבו שרי מואב עם בלעם, "the elders of Moav stayed with Bilaam." It only states that the elders of Moav stayed; what happened to the elders of Midyan? They didn't stay, they went home. Why? They thought, “could it be that a father will curse his son? There is no way that Hashem will let this happen," so they left. Now what was their thinking the day before? If they believed that Hashem would not let this happen, why did they bother coming in the first place? Rav Zaitchik answers that when Bilaam told them to stay, they had time to think, while before that it was all heat of the moment. Since Balak was frightened, he got everyone worked up, so they ran to Bilaam without thinking. However, once they stayed the night, they had time to stop and think, so they realized that it was a waste of time and they left.

The Chafetz Chaim points out an anomaly in the parsha. Throughout the whole parsha of Bilaam, there is not one stop. Whereas normally there is a Samach or a Phey ending a section, in this whole parsha there isn't one stop. Why? The Chafetz Chaim explains that the reason for the stops was Hashem, while teaching Moshe the Torah, gave Moshe time to think. He paused, contemplated what he learned and then went further. Bilaam, however, once he got the request to curse the Jews, didn't stop for a second. He didn't give it a second thought; he just kept going and going. No matter how bad things were working out, he just forged ahead without thinking.

A traveler once came to the house of the Chafetz Chaim. The visitor looked around and was appalled at the simplicity of the home. It had only the barest necessities needed to live. The man asked the Chafetz Chaim, “how do you live like this? Where is your furniture? Where is all your stuff? There is nothing here?” The Chafetz Chaim looked at him and said, “I can ask you the same question; where is all your stuff, you're just here with nothing but a suitcase!”  The visitor answered, “you’re right. When I’m away, out of my hometown, I stay in hotels and take along with me only what's absolutely necessary. At home, though, I have all the luxuries that one could imagine.” The Chafetz Chaim answered him, “I’m just like you; in this world I act like a traveler taking only what’s absolutely necessary, for my main home is in the world to come and there I, too, have a most luxurious home."

One of the lessons we must learn is to reexamine what our focus is in life. What is important to us? Instead of just going full speed ahead without taking pause, we should stop and think about what we are doing to determine if it's the right thing. For example, one of the brachos that Bilaam gave us was: מה טובו אהלך יעקב, "how great are your tents," which the sages tell us refer to the study hall and shuls. These are a sanctuary for us to be close to Hashem. Do we ever take a step back and think before we walk into a shul, that this is Hashem's place? This is where we connect to Him? Or, do we just jump in without thinking and treat it like our living room? 

The Torah is trying to teach us that, in all aspects of our lives, we must take a step back, think about what we are doing to make sure to do it right!