Shoftim

The Torah commands us to appoint judges in all our cities to lead the people and settle disputes. Then it tells us that if the lower courts don't know the answer or there is disagreement, they should take the case to the high court to decide. The Torah continues and says, “you shall do what they tell you; don't deviate to the right or left.”  לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין לשמאל. Rashi explains, even if they tell you that right is left and that left is right, you still have to listen to them. The פני משה explains a little differently and says that the Torah is telling us to listen to the chachamim when they expound the pesukim. 

For example, the Torah states: עשר תעשר, which is pronounced, aser tiaser, which means to give a tenth of your money to charity. The chachamim expound and say pronounce it "tiasher" with the dot on the right side of the shin instead of the left, making it mean, "give the tenth so that you will become wealthy." There are numerous other instances where the chachamim change the dot on the shin from right to left or visa versa to teach us something, so, in this posuk, the Torah is telling us that all those teachings are straight from the Torah. When one listens to the chachamim, it strengthens one’s trust in Hashem, too. If we trust them and listen to what they tell us, then it makes it easier to follow a later posuk in the parsha that says, תמים תהיה עם ה, that we should be complete with Hashem, which, says the חרדים , is the mitzvah of bitachon, to have complete trust in Hashem. 

There's a story told that exemplifies this point. There was a respectable woman who was married to a wealthy man who was not too smart and didn't know much. She would encourage him to go out to the Shir of Reb Moshe Alshich. As the wheel of fortune turned, the man became poor. To support his family, he would take his wagon and go dig up lime and take it to the market to sell. One day, he was at the Shir and the rabbi was telling them about bitachon and said that if a person really believes, then Hashem will give him his sustenance without him doing anything. The man went home and sat in his house and didn't go out to work. When his wife asked him why he's not going, he said that the rabbi said that if you really believe that Hashem will give you what you need, it will happen without you doing anything, so I'm waiting for Hashem to take care of me! Nothing she said to him helped. He was steadfast in his belief. 

Left with no choice, she hired an Arab to go dig up the lime to bring her and she was going to sell it. While the Arab was digging, he found a treasure, put it on the wagon and planned on bringing it home before he went to give the woman her wagon of lime. As he was about to go back, he realizes he forgot his shovel, went back to the pit to get it, when all the dirt that was dug up fell back on him and he was buried alive. The donkey, once no one was there to lead him, goes back the way he was accustomed to. The woman saw the wagon, went out to it and found the treasure. She went in to her husband and told him, “go take what Hashem brought you.”

The woman went to the Alshich and told him what happened and asked, “how does that work?  I believe, you believe and this doesn't happen to us. Why did it work for him?" The Alshich answered her, “your husband is a very simple person with no knowledge, so when you tell him something, he accepts it completely with no questions. However, we who are intelligent, search to understand why and how, so our bitachon is not as complete."

Perhaps what the Torah is trying to teach us is how strong our trust in the chachamim must be, that we believe without a doubt that this is what Hashem really wants. Even if it's against our limited understanding, we have to follow what the chachamim tell us and that will insure that we are complete with Hashem!

Re'eh

This week’s parsha begins by telling us the blessings if we will keep the Torah and the curses if we won't. The posuk states: ראה אנכי נתן לפניכם היום ברכה וקללה, see, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. However, why does this posuk start off, ראה, “see” in the singular then switch a few words later to, לפניכם, “before you”, in the plural?

One reason given by the Sefer Hachaim is that Moshe was teaching the future leaders, that when they rebuke their followers, even if only one person is affected, or if they teach and even if  only  one person grows, it's still worthwhile just for that individual.

Reb Menachem Mendel of kotzk says the switch from singular to plural is to show us how to internalize the messages of the Torah, the Torah is first given to all of us by Hashem as a group, then it's up to each person to make the most of it with one's individual effort.

The Vilna Goan explains that posuk this is giving us a tool to help us grow. If one is trying to better himself to grow, but those around him are not on the same page, he should not be afraid to go alone, hence the singular. See that great blessing that will come to those who are not afraid to make their way alone. Perhaps the plural thereafter is teaching us that the reason not to be afraid is that we are never really alone; Hashem is right there with us all the time.

One of the hardest parts of deciding to make change and give yourself a new beginning is how other people react to it. Most of us know the story of Rabbi Akiva who didn't start learning until he was forty and then became the greatest rabbi in history. However, another part of the story is not as famous. Akiva was working for Rachel's father, a very prominent man. Akiva knew nothing about Torah and was even hostile to the rabbis. Akiva and Rachel became very close and Rachel told him that, if he promised to go and learn, she would marry him. He agreed and against her father's wishes they got married. He went to the yeshiva but didn't know anything, so a forty year old man had to sit with the five year olds and learn alef bais. He came home and told his wife, “I can't do this; they are all laughing at me.”

She said, “ok. Go to the market and buy an old donkey”. He went and came home with an old donkey with holes in its back. She filled the holes with dirt and planted flowers in the dirt. A few weeks later, they had a donkey with flowers growing out of its back. She told Akiva, “go to the market with the donkey; don't talk to anyone; just walk around all day with the donkey. When he came home, Rachel asked, “how was your day?” Akiva answered, “I did what you said and everyone was laughing at our funny donkey with the flowers growing out of its back.” She said, “ok, do it again tomorrow”. He went again and same thing occurred.

She insisted that he continue doing this for a few more days. After a week, he notices that no one is even looking at him anymore.  People just got used to the guy with the funny donkey and went back to their own business. Rachel tells him that the same thing will happen at the yeshiva. For the first couple of days they will laugh at the forty year old sitting with the kids, but then they will get used to it and no one will notice. He listened to her and went back to eventually become the leader of his generation.

Additionally, the wording of the posuk teaches us something else, says the Otzer Hatorah - the call for us to choose is constant. Just because one made poor choices in the past has nothing to do with the future. The posuk speaks in the present tense: I present.. constantly the power to choose. Then the posuk says: Today, teaching us that each day is the start of a new beginning.

Let's take this opportunity as we approach the month of Elul to make that choice and better ourselves, not caring what people will say. That won't last, but what we change and the blessings that come with it will be with us for eternity!

Eikev

In this parsha, Moshe informs the Jewish people of all the goodness they will receive by keeping even the relatively small mitzvos. He reminds them how Hashem took care of them throughout the years in the desert and now He would be bringing them to the promised land. He warns them to be careful; when all is going good and one has all that he needs, the tendency is to forget Hashem. “Don't say it is my strength that got me great wealth; remember Hashem, כי הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל, for it is He that gives the strength to amass wealth.”

The Ben Ish Chai says that when a person has to be told to remember something, it's because it's something that's easily forgotten. There are six times that the Torah tells us to remember a commandment. Each one can be attributed to nature or just forgotten. The מהרי”א ז''ל explained by Shabbos, why does it say to remember the Shabbos? Because the nature of a person involves doing all of the activities that you can't do on Shabbos all six days of the week. It becomes second nature to do them, so we need to consciously remember that on Shabbos we can't perform these actions. Similarly, in our posuk, says the Ben Ish Chai, a person is working in all the pursuits of this world and things seem to be “going good." In the natural course, one tends to believe that it's his work, his efforts that made everything come about. To counter that, the Torah tells us here, too, remember that it's Hashem who gives you the strength and who is masterminding everything that goes on. Everything comes to us from Hashem.

Once, a poor man came to the Kutzku Rebbi asking him for help since his daughter was getting married and he had no money for the wedding. The Rebbi gave him a letter and told him to go to a certain town where there was a philanthropist named Moshe Chaim Rotenberg, and to give him the letter in hopes that he would help him. The poor man took the letter and treks from town to town until he came to the town of the wealthy man. He arrived at the house and was greeted warmly by Moshe Chaim, who gave him some food and drink and allowed him to relax a little from the long journey. After a little while the poor man took out the letter, sure that Moshe Chaim would give him all that he needed for the wedding. After all, he has the letter from the Rebbi.

The wealthy man read the letter and handed him a few dollars. The poor man was taken aback. The trip cost him way more than that, but nothing he said would change the wealthy man's mind. Left with no choice, he went on his way. Dejected, he headed back home praying to Hashem to help him.

As soon as he departed, Moshe Chaim went out and bought everything he would need for the wedding, loaded it all on wagons and chased after the dejected poor man. He caught up to him, gave him the wagons with more than enough money to pay for everything else. The poor man was ecstatic, thanked him profusely, then asked, “if you were going to give me everything anyway, why did you not just give it me when I came to you?” Moshe Chaim answered him, “when you came with a letter from the Kutzku Rebbi to Moshe Chaim, you were confident that nothing could go wrong; you had all you needed, the ultimate guarantee. You were relying too much on that letter and forgetting that really everything comes from Hashem, so I didn't give it to you at first, so that you would remember that everything comes from Hashem.  It's not the letter that gets you what you need, rather it's Hashem. When you left, you undoubtedly davened to Hashem to help you,and He did."

We have to remember that no matter what’s going on in our lives or how much we think we're controlling the situation, everything is from Hashem!

Va'eschanan

The midrash tells us that all mitzvos are actually contained in the Aseres HaDibros, commonly translated as the Ten Commandments, so that the revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Aseres HaDibros constituted the creation of our covenant with God. Reading this section on Shabbos Nachamu, then, constitutes a renewal of that covenant, in the face of the exile and suffering that we commemorated on Tisha B'av. One of the commandments that we read is: כבד את אביך ואת אמך כאשר צוך, "Honor your father and mother as I commanded." Rashi comments that the words “I commanded” was originally said in מרה. The Ksav Sofer explains that we need to know where this was originally commanded  because the Torah is trying to teach us that the reason we have to honor our parents is not because they took care of us, fed us and clothed us. For these reasons, of course one should honor them. Rather, these laws were given in the desert where there was the manna, the well of Miriam, and the clouds, so that the parents didn't even have to take care of the children. Hashem took care of everything. The Torah tells us these laws here to teach us that the reason we must honor parents is just for the simple reason that they brought us into the world, no matter what they did or didn't do for us.

The Torah also tells us the reward for honoring parents. למען יאריכן ימיך ולמען ייטב לך על האדמה, "In order that you lengthen your days and in order that it will be good for you on the land." The sefer ישמח ישראל asks why the wording of the posuk seems to indicate that the reward for honoring parents is given to a person in this world even though we know it is given in the world to come. The Gemara brings a story of someone who went up the ladder for his father and fell. The Gemara says that his reward is in the next world. If that's the case, then why does it say למען ייטב לך על האדמה, it will be good for you on the land? The land implies that the reward will be here on the land, not in the next world? The חיד”א answers that even though the true reward will be in the next world, there is a reward that one could get in this world, which is if one is happy when he does the mitzvah and does it with joy. That reward he will get in this world, so when one honors his parents with joy and happiness, then, besides the great reward that’s waiting in the next world, there will be reward in this world too.

There is also another benefit in this world as we can see from the following story. When the אמרי חיים first became Rebbi, a family asked him to help them settle a dispute they had regarding their inheritance. Now the Rebbi knew that the father had been a wealthy man. When he got sick, some of the children came to him. One had written up a paper which stated that he wanted certain assets and asked the father to sign. Another came with different papers for him to sign outlining what he wanted, etc. Then the father died without signing anything, so they came to the rabbi to settle their disputes. 

He told them to come to shalosh seudas and he would have an answer. They didn't understand. Didn't he hear any of their arguments?  Also, one can't judge on Shabbos? However, left with no choice with their curiosity peaked, they all came to shalosh seudas to hear what the young rabbi would say. The rabbi started off with our posuk and asked a question, “why does it say למען יאריכן ימיך, in order to lengthen your days, in plural instead of יאריך in singular like the rest of the posuk?” He explained that the normal way of the world when a person gets sick, if he has children, the children will call the doctor to get him medicine and try to help in any way they can. That gives the parent a renewed energy, seeing that the children care and that helps the sick person to live longer. When the grandchildren see how their parents take care of parents, they learn that when their parents get old or sick, they will take care of them the same way, extending their lives. Therefore, the posuk uses the plural to show if one extends his parent’s life, then his children will do the same for him. However, if a parent gets sick and, instead of calling a doctor and trying to help, the children come with papers to divide the inheritance, they, in essence, seal his fate.  The parent sees that all the kids care about is the money and that shortens his life. Now, these people also have children and that's the message that their children will get. The family got the message.

We can learn from here how careful we must be with this mitzvah and do it happily, for not only is there immeasurable reward in the next world, we can reap the benefits in this world, too!