#Rabbi ​Yaakov ben Meir

[todaysjewishholiday]

4 Tammuz 5784 (9-10 July 2024)

The fourth of Tammuz is the yahrzeit of Yaakov ben Meir of Ramerupt, known as Rabbeinu Tam (Our teacher, the forthright).

Yaakov ben Meir was born in 4860 to Rabbi Meir of Ramerupt and Yocheved, Rashi’s eldest daughter. His older brothers Shmuel and Yitzhak also became prominent rabbinical leaders of the Frankish Ashkenazi community. But it is Yaakov who became the most influential of them all.

Yaakov ben Meir’s Beis Din was considered the supreme rabbinical court for Ashkenazi Jews of his time, with far reaching decisions in all areas of Jewish life. He maintained an extensive correspondence with poskim across Europe, and his work was known to his Italian, Spanish, and Provençal contemporaries. In approximately 4900 he led the first major conference of Ashkenazi Torah scholars for the purpose of issuing collective rulings for their communities regarding Jewish interactions with the Gentile courts and legal system. He led another such gathering a decade later with similar success.

Rabbeinu Tam’s last days were filled with tragedy as the horrific blood libel at Blois led to a massacre of the local Jewish population. He was heartbroken at the news and decreed a yearly communal fast on the anniversary of the massacre, and then the wise teacher himself passed away barely two weeks later.

If you have a mezuzah mounted diagonally, you too have been directly shaped by Yaakov ben Meir’s halakhic rulings. The standard Ashkenazi minhag regarding mezuzah placement is a compromise between Rabbeinu Tam’s ruling that the mezuzah should be placed horizontally and his grandfather Rashi’s opinion that it should be placed vertically. Rather than take a side between the two great sages of medieval Frankish Judaism, we have split the difference for almost a thousand years. Rabbeinu Tam also differed with Rashi on the proper order of the texts in tefillin, and chasidic Jews worldwide frequently have a practice of donning Rabbeinu Tam tefillin briefly after wrapping with Rashi tefillin to show respect to both sages.

[eretzyisrael]

Parashat Vayishlach

by Meir Anolick

Written for Shabbat, Parashat Vayishlach, י”ג בכסלו תשע”ד:

Thank you to Rabbi Geller for teaching me many of the concepts presented here. Unfortunately, I could not quote exact sources.

In the memory of Yeshayahu ben Yitchak and Rivka z”l, who passed away last Shabbat. May his N’shama have an Aliyah.

In this week’s Parsha, Yitzchak Avinu passes away and is buried by his two sons, as it says, 35:29, “his sons, Eisav and Yaakov, buried him”. Chazal teach from this verse that even at the end, Eisav never did T’shuva, as he placed himself before Yaakov. Contrast this to Yishma’el when he and Yitzchak buried their father, Avraham Avinu. There it says (25:9), “His sons Yitzchak and Yishmael buried him”. From here we see that Yishmaeldid do T’shuvah by the end of his life. Furthermore, at the end of the Parshah this week, we are given Eisav’s family tree and taught, through interepretations of the verses, that their was a lot of immoral behavior in his family.

The question is, why the difference between them? When a carpenter sets out to construct an item, the quality of the item is largely dependent on the quality of the materials used; if poor materials are used, then the quality is poor, but if excellent materials are used, then the quality is excellent. So, too, is it with children. When a very spiritual person has a child, then that child is very spiritually as well, and vice-versa. Therefore, why is it that when Yitzchak Avinu and Rivkah Imeinu, two righteous individuals, had their children, one of them became so much worse than a child born to just one righteous parent (Yishmael, who’s father was Avraham Avinu and mother was a Mitzri handmaid)?

Something Chazal teaches us is that everyone has a certain amount of spiritual strength, but this strength does not lean in the direction of good or bad. Rather a person can take their spiritual strength and put their efforts in either direction, thus giving them equal potential for good and for evil. However, how their spend their strength is entirely up to them, and can be subject to various external influences, such as nature and upbringing.

It seems to me that righteous people don’t necessarily have righteous children, but they have children with a lot of spiritual strength. Therefore, a child of two righteous people, as opposed to a child of just one righteous person, has much greater capacity for evil, and the further one steeps himself in evil, the harder it is to come back out of it.

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[thebeautyoftorah]

ZOT HABERACHA/SIMCHAT TORAH

bs'd Shalom. Exiting news: My second book "Conquering Anger", just went out. It's a very practical guide on developing a deeper understanding of anger and how to eradicate it. A thought from it: "Parents must realize the importance of disciplining their children. Proper discipline is not cruelty, it is education (chinuch). Discipline is necessary for a child’s emotional development, because it teaches him about the fundamental concept of authority." Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know. To join the over 5,000 recipients in English and Spanish and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me. You have the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly review, or refua shelema (healing), shiduch, Hatzlacha. Feel free to print copies of this essay and distribute for the public in your local shul. Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach. ZOT HABERACHA/SIMCHAT TORAH-The Final Lesson The last pasuk of the Torah is a praise for Moshe Rabenu[1], “the strong hand and awesome power that Moshe performed before the eyes of all Israel”. Rashi explains citing the Midrash that, “before the eyes of all Israel” refers to Moshe’s decision to break the luchot in front of all the Jewish people. Why of all Moshe’s great deeds, does the Torah single this one out at its end as perhaps the greatest of them all? Chazal offer a profound insight to answer this question [2]. Moshe invested great effort for many years in bringing the Jewish people from slavery in Mitzrayim to Matan Torah, and he spent forty days without food or drink fending off the angels and securing the luchot for Am Israel.  When he returned from Har Sinai and saw the people worshiping the Golden Calf he realized that they were not on the level to receive the luchot and he destroyed them.  However, what a great test must have been to forsake all that effort and energy that he had invested to get to this moment. Moshe could have rationalized that although they did not deserve the luchot now, perhaps things would change soon and it wasn’t necessary to destroy them right away.  He showed total integrity and intellectual honesty to break the luchot because that was the correct course of action. Sometimes, we are placed in similar situations to that of Moshe Rabenu; we invest time, money or energy into something and then we are faced with the possibility that we have made a mistake and need to start again or that there is a new turn of events that makes our original stand obsolete. We are greatly tempted in such instances to dig our heels in and stand by our initial plan against our better judgment. It is very hard to admit that we are wrong or need to start again after putting in so much effort into something. Maybe the most difficult aspect of knocking down what we have already built is that we are showing that we have made a mistake. It is extremely difficult for most people to admit that their opinions, lifestyle or attitude is wrong. Maybe this is the main factor that prevents non-religious people from changing their lifestyle is that to do so would mean admitting that all of their life up till this point was based on a mistake. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l brings an example of how a person can become so obtuse that he cannot change even when placed under extreme pressure[3].  After the destruction of Yericho, Yehoshua placed a curse on anyone who would rebuild it.  In the time of king Achav, a man named Chiel decided to defy the curse and rebuild Yericho[4].  When he laid the foundations, his first-born died, and as he continued building his sons continued dying one by one until when he completed the city his youngest son also passed away.  How can a person be so foolish to continue in a path that causes his misery and destruction?! Shlomo haMelech says [5], “A person’s every way is upright in his eyes”…  He was so convinced in the rightness of his actions that he preferred to bury all his sons over admitting that he was wrong! In contrast the Gemara [6] shows an example of the greatness involved in admitting one’s mistakes.  The Tanna Shimon HaAmsoni used to explain every word ‘et’[את] in the Torah provides a secondary meaning to the subject mentioned.  For example, in the mitzva of honoring parents, there is an ‘et’ from which he derived the inclusion of older siblings. Consequently a person must honor his parents and also his elder siblings.  However, with the pasuk, “Et Hashem Elokecha tira” he was unable to find a secondary recipient of the fear that we must feel for Hashem.  His talmidim asked him, “what about all the instances where you have explained the word ’et’”?  He replied, “Just as I have been rewarded for expounding them, so shall I rewarded now for abandoning them.”  Rabbi Akiva came and taught that the ’et’ in the pasuk teaches us that a person must fear G-d and also talmide chachamim. The greatness [7] of Shimon HaAmsoni, was that he did not hesitate to abandon the teaching that he had held and developed throughout his life when he felt that he could no longer justify it.  Moreover, he taught his talmidim a priceless lesson that abandoning his teaching which was done in a moment, was as great as all the investigating and explaining he had done all his life! This lesson is connected to Simchat Torah with which Vezot Habracha always coincides.  We end the Torah and then immediately restart it again, reading the opening pasukim of Bereshit. This alludes to us that even though we have completed the whole Torah, we should not feel that we do not need to repeat it again.  We can relearn it and develop new insights, sometimes even contradicting our present understanding and we should not feel embarrassed to acknowledge that we were wrong. [Remarkably, in Lashon HaKodesh the words “review” and “different” are represented by the same word — “shoneh.” This teaches us that the purpose of reviewing is not merely to repeat the old; it is to reach new levels of understanding]. This does not only apply to pshatim on the Gemara but also to our outlook on life; if we see that a part of our hashkafa seems to not fully fit with Torah hashkafa, then we must be willing to honestly assess how we can change it. This idea is also alluded to in the marriage ceremony[8].  When the chatan breaks a glass, most commentators explain that this is a remembrance of the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash.  However, one commentator connects this custom to the breaking of the luchot.  Why do we need to be reminded of that event during a wedding?  To teach the new couple that in order for their marriage to work, they must strive to emulate Moshe Rabenu’s actions in breaking the luchot.  In order for a marriage to work, husband and wife must be willing to act with great honesty and admit their mistakes rather than stand on their pride.  Both need to be prepared to let go of their preconceived notions and prejudices and strive for truth. These are not easy demands, but if we see that Moshe was ready to break the most valuable thing in the world because it was the right thing to do, then we too can surely be prepared to make changes when it is clearly the Ratson Hashem, as it is written[9], “Do what is right and good in G-d's eyes” . ______________________________________________ [1] Vezot HaBeracha 34:12. [2] See Ateret Mordechai quoted by ‘Rabbi Frand on the Parsha, p.297. [3] Sichot Mussar, Maamar 47, p.200. [4] Melachim 1, 17:34. [5] Mishle 21:2 [6] Kiddushin, 57a. [7] Alter of Kelm,  Zaitchik, Sparks of Mussar, p.68. [8] Ibid, p.299. [9] Devarim 6:18 Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Yaakov ben Yosef, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Matitiahu ben Rachel Leah, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, David ben Rifka, Mazal Tov bat Frecha, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha, Yosef Matitiahu ben Yitzchak, Chaya Sara bat Yitzchak, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Rachel Simcha bat Yitzchak, Mazal Tov Rivka bat Yitzchak.

[labellezadelatora]

ZOT HABERAJA / SIMJAT TORA

bs'd

Shalom.

La idea de esta semana de mi libro ‘Healing Anger’ es:

"Loa padres debemos entender la importancia de reprender a los hijos. La disciplina aplicada apropiadamente no es crueldad, es educacion (jinuj). La disciplina es necesaria para desarrollo emotional de los niños, porque les enseña el concepto fundamental del respeto a la autoridad."

El link para comprar mi libro es http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html Si quieres comprarlo en Israel contactame. Por favor no dudes de imprimir copias de este ensayo y distribuirlas al público en tu sinagoga local.  Mi revisión semanal llega a más de 5.000 personas en Inglés y Español en todo el mundo. Les ofrezco a todos la oportunidad de compartir la mitzvá de honrar a un ser querido, patrocinando mi Divre Tora, para shelema refua (curación), o shiduj, Atzlaja. Siéntete libre de reenviar este Divre Tora a otros correligionarios. Tengan un Shabat Shalom con mucha salud y Jag Sameaj.

ZOT HABERAJA / SIMJAT TORA-La Lección Final

El último pasuk de la Torá es una alabanza para Moshe Rabenu [1], "la mano fuerte y el poder asombroso que Moshe realizó ante los ojos de todo Israel". Rashi explica citando el Midrash que, "ante los ojos de todo Israel" se refiere a la decisión de Moshé de romper las lujot frente a todo el pueblo judío.

¿Por qué, de todas las grandes hazañas de Moshé, la Torá destaca esta al final como quizás la más grande de todas? Jazal ofrece una visión profunda para responder esta pregunta [2]. Moshé invirtió gran esfuerzo durante muchos años para llevar al pueblo judío de la esclavitud en Mitzrayim a Matan Tora. Pasó cuarenta días sin comer ni beber defendiéndose de los ángeles y asegurando las lujot para Am Israel. Cuando regresó de Har Sinai y vio a la gente adorando al Becerro de Oro, se dio cuenta de que no estaban en el nivel de recibir las lujot y las destruyó. Sin embargo, qué gran prueba debe haber sido renunciar a todo ese esfuerzo y energía que había invertido para llegar a este momento. Moshe podría haber racionalizado que aunque no merecían las lujot ahora, tal vez las cosas cambiarían pronto y no era necesario destruirlas de inmediato. Mostró total integridad y honestidad intelectual al romper las lujot porque ese era el curso de acción correcto.

A veces nos encontramos en situaciones similares a la de Moshe Rabenu; invertimos tiempo, dinero o energía en algo y luego nos enfrentamos a la posibilidad de que hayamos cometido un error y necesitemos comenzar de nuevo o que haya un nuevo giro de los acontecimientos que haga obsoleta nuestra posición original. En tales casos, nos sentimos tentados a seguir adelante y defender nuestro plan inicial en contra de nuestro mejor juicio actual. Es muy difícil admitir que estamos equivocados o que necesitamos empezar de nuevo después de poner tanto esfuerzo en algo. Quizás el aspecto más difícil de derribar lo que ya hemos construido es que estamos demostrando que nos hemos equivocado. Es extremadamente difícil para la mayoría de las personas admitir que sus opiniones, estilo de vida o actitud son incorrectos. Quizás este es el factor principal que impide que las personas no religiosas cambien su estilo de vida, es que hacerlo significaría admitir que toda su vida hasta este momento se basó en un error.

Rav Jaim Shmuelevitz zt ”l trae un ejemplo de cómo una persona puede volverse tan obtusa que no quiere cambiar incluso cuando está bajo una presión extrema [3]. Después de la destrucción de Yerijó, Yehoshua lanzó una maldición sobre cualquiera que la reconstruyera. En la época del rey Ajav, un hombre llamado Jiel decidió desafiar la maldición y reconstruir Yerijó [4]. Cuando puso los cimientos murió su primogénito y al seguir construyendo, sus hijos continuaron muriendo uno a uno hasta que cuando completó la ciudad también falleció su hijo menor. ¿Cómo puede una persona ser tan tonta para continuar por un camino que le causa miseria y destrucción? Shlomo haMelech dice [5], "Todos los caminos de una persona son rectos ante sus ojos" ... ¡Estaba tan convencido de lo correcto de sus acciones que preferio enterrar a todos sus hijos antes que admitir que estaba equivocado!

En contraste, la Guemará [6] muestra un ejemplo de la grandeza involucrada en admitir los errores. El Tana Shimon HaAmsoni utilizado para explicar cada palabra "et" [את] en la Torá proporciona un significado secundario al tema mencionado. Por ejemplo, en la mitzvá de honrar a los padres, hay un "et" del que deriva la inclusión de los hermanos mayores. En consecuencia, una persona debe honrar a sus padres y también a sus hermanos mayores. Sin embargo, con el pasuk, "Et Hashem Elokeja tira" no pudo encontrar un destinatario secundario del miedo que debemos sentir por Hashem. Sus talmidim le preguntaron, "¿qué pasa con todos los casos en los que ha explicado la palabra 'et"? Él respondió: "Así como he sido recompensado por exponerlos, también seré recompensado ahora por abandonarlos". Rabi Akiva vino y enseñó que el "et" en el pasuk nos enseña que una persona debe temer a Di-s y también a los talmide jajamim.

La grandeza [7] de Shimon HaAmsoni, fue que no dudó en abandonar la enseñanza que había tenido y desarrollado a lo largo de su vida cuando sintió que ya no podía justificarla. Además, le enseñó a sus talmidim una lección invaluable de que abandonar su enseñanza, que lo hizo en un momento, fue tan grande como todas las investigaciones y explicaciones que había hecho durante toda su vida.

Esta lección está relacionada con Simjat Torá con la que Vezot Haberajá siempre coincide. Terminamos la Torá e inmediatamente la reiniciamos nuevamente, leyendo los pasukim de apertura de Bereshit. Esto nos alude que aunque hayamos completado toda la Torá, no debemos sentir que no necesitamos repetirla nuevamente. Podemos volver a estudiarla y desarrollar nuevas percepciones, a veces incluso contradiciendo nuestra comprensión actual y no deberíamos sentirnos avergonzados de reconocer que estábamos equivocados. [Sorprendentemente, en Lashon HaKodesh, las palabras "revisión" y "diferente" están representadas por la misma palabra: "shone". Esto nos enseña que el propósito de repasar no es simplemente repetir lo antiguo; es alcanzar nuevos niveles de comprensión]. Esto no solo se aplica a los pshatim en la Guemará, sino también a nuestra perspectiva de la vida. Si vemos que una parte de nuestro hashkafa parece no encajar completamente con el hashkafa de la Torá, entonces debemos estar dispuestos a evaluar honestamente cómo podemos cambiarla.

Esta idea también se alude en la ceremonia del matrimonio [8]. Cuando el jatán rompe un vaso, la mayoría de los comentaristas explican que esto es en recuerdo a la destrucción del Bet HaMikdash. Sin embargo, un comentarista conecta esta costumbre con la ruptura de las lujot. ¿Por qué necesitamos que nos recuerden ese evento durante una boda? Es para enseñar a la nueva pareja que para que su matrimonio funcione, deben esforzarse por emular las acciones de Moshe Rabenu al romper las lujot. Para que un matrimonio funcione, el esposo y la esposa deben estar dispuestos a actuar con gran honestidad y admitir sus errores en lugar de estancarse en su orgullo. Ambos deben estar preparados para dejar de lado sus nociones y prejuicios preconcebidos y luchar por la verdad.

Estas no son demandas fáciles, pero si vemos que Moshé estuvo listo para romper lo más valioso del mundo porque era lo correcto, entonces seguramente nosotros también podemos estar preparados para hacer cambios cuando sea claramente el Ratson Hashem, como está escrito [9], "Haz lo que es recto y bueno a los ojos de Di-s".

______________________________________________

[1] Vezot HaBerajá 34:12.

[2] Ver Ateret Mordejai citado por 'Rabbi Frand sobre la parashá, p. 297.

[3] Sijot Mussar, Maamar 47, p. 200.

[4] Melajim 1, 17:34.

[5] Mishle 21: 2

[6] Kidushin, 57a.

[7] Alter of Kelm, Zaitchik, Sparks of Mussar, p.68.

[8] Ibíd, p. 299.

[9] Devarim 6:18

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simja, Yaakov ben Yosef, Mordejai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simja, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Java, Abraham Meir ben Lea,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Jaya bat Dovid.

Refua Shelema a los enfermos del Coronavirus, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simja, Menajem Jaim ben Malka, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Gila bat Tzipora, Tzipora bat Gila, Dvir ben Leah,Hadasa bat Sara, Eliezer Jaim ben Jaya Batya, Noa bat Batsheva Devorah,Shlomo Yoel ben Jaya Lea, Yosef Matitiahu ben Yitzjak, Jaya Sara bat Yitzjak, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Rajel Simja bat Yitzjak, Mazal Tov Rivka bat Yitzjak y Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba Malka.

Besorot Tovot para Shmuel Dovid Ben Raizel. Atzlacha para Daniel ben Mazal Tov, Debora Leah Bat Henshe Rachel, Shmuel ben Mazal tov and Zivug agun a Gila bat Mazal Tov, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Elisheva bat Malka.

[jewish-privilege]

This story originally appeared 10 years ago. It is being republished now to mark the events that occurred 90 years ago this week in the city of Hebron.

Jews this week will be marking the 80th anniversary of the Hebron massacre that began on August 23, 1929...

The slaughter that took place in 1929 was part of a series of attacks on Jews. On August 17 in Jerusalem, in what was later seen as a portent, a Jewish boy had been stabbed to death. The killings in Hebron were particularly barbaric, with Arabs wielding hatchets against yeshiva students and women and babies. Before the affrays—to use the word the New York Sun used in its editorial of the time—had passed, scores had been slaughtered.

The story is retold in gruesome detail in a just-published book, Hebron Jews, by a professor of history at Wellesley, Jerold Auerbach. I have known Auerbach for years, as our mothers were cousins, and have admired his work on both labor and Jewish subjects. He uses the skills of a long-tenured professor to remind us not only of the importance of the Hebron story, from Abraham’s original contract on a burial site for Sarah to the return of the Hebron Jews of our generation, but also of its ironies.

Back in 1929 the Jews who called themselves “settlers” were the relatively secular Zionists who lived on the Mediterranean coast and in northern Eretz Israel. The Jews of Hebron had dwelled there intermittently for thousands of years and continuously since the expulsion from Spain in 1492. In the 1920s there was an influx of young scholars from a Lithuanian yeshiva, Knessett Israel. Their arrival coincided with rising tensions throughout Palestine. By August, trouble was sensed by the one British police officer in the town, Raymond Cafferata. He was told by both Arabs and Jews in Hebron that “any trouble” was “out of the question.”

Yet that same week a Jewish teacher named Haim Bagayo was warned, “This time we are going to butcher you all.” Earlier that day, there had been clashes in Jerusalem, in which three Arabs and three Jews died. The Jews of Hebron, Auerbach writes, “refused to believe that their Arab neighbors, with whom they had lived in relatively peaceful coexistence for four centuries, meant them harm.” Cafferata noted that in Hebron “everything appeared normal.” But before the day was out, Arabs began to attack Jews with clubs, and Jewish shops were quickly shuttered.

The first to die was a student, Shmuel Rosenhaltz, who was set upon as he studied, alone, in the main yeshiva. The Jews were warned to stay inside their homes. Early the next morning, Arabs, screaming “Allah akbar” and “Itbach al Yahud,” or “kill the Jews,” began surging through the streets. Two Jewish youths were stoned to death outside the house of the Heichel family. Some 70 Jews sought refuge inside a relatively large house, owned by Eliezer Dan Slonim. Almost the whole family of Slonim—his wife, Hannah, and their son, his father-in-law, who was the chief rabbi of Zichron Yaakov, and his wife—were among 22 persons who were clubbed or stabbed to death and, in some cases, disemboweled. The Slonim’s one-year son survived, having been hidden under dying Jews.

Rabbi Hanoch Hasson was murdered, along with his family. A pharmacist, Ben-Zion Gershon, who’d served both Arabs and Jews, “had his eyes gouged out before he was stabbed to death,” Auerbach relates. His wife’s hands were cut off before she and their daughter were killed. Mr. Goldshmidt was tortured, his head held over a kerosene flame, before he, his wife, and one of their daughters were killed. Twenty-three corpses were discovered in the Anglo Palestine Bank, where women were raped on a floor covered with thick pools of congealing blood. Rabbis Meir Kastel and Tzvi Dabkin and five of their students were tortured and castrated before being murdered. The killings went on for two hours, and the final death toll reached 67.

...One American writer, Maurice Samuel, who’d been visiting Eretz Israel at the time, wrote a book about the event titled, What Happened in Palestine? Like a number of other Zionists, he focused blame on the Mandatory authorities, while insisting relations between Jews and Arabs were broadly amicable. The sheik who incited the slaughter served a month in prison. Any moral standing of the Mandate, if it had ever existed, drained away.

In the years after the establishment of the Jewish state, when Jordan ruled Hebron, the vestiges of Jewish presence were obliterated. The ruins of the Avraham Avinu synagogue were razed and its site given over to an animal pen. Houses of Jewish learning were converted to Arab schools. The ancient Jewish cemetery was torn up. Jews did not return until 1967, when the chief rabbi of the Israeli Army, Shlomo Goren, commandeered a jeep and, carrying a Torah scroll, Israeli flag, and shofar, raced to Machpelah, becoming the first Jew to enter the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs in 700 years...

[eabevella]

Not that this guy is so great himself:

Statement on LGBT rights.

During a February 2016 discussion in the Knesset about Israeli health authorities becoming more sensitive towards LGBT people, Litzman compared LGBT people to the sinners who danced around the Golden Calf.[21][22] (from wiki)

And his statement needs more direct evidence:

Last week, Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman had tested positive for COVID-19, forcing all top leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, to go into quarantine. However, contrary to some media reports that emerged out of UK and Pakistan, he did not blame homosexuality for the virus. The reports had claimed that he said "the coronavirus pandemic was a punishment against homosexuality".

However, according to a Times of Israel report, the remarks were made by the ultra-conservative Rabbi Meir Mazuz, drawing condemnation from rights groups. “A pride parade is a parade against nature, and when someone goes against nature, the one who created nature takes revenge on him,” the rabbi had reportedly said.

It is still hilarious because Israel's Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and Boris Johnson are both gay according to the super conservative’s logic.

[todaysjewishholiday]

12 Tammuz 5784 (17-18 July 2024)

The twelfth of August is the traditional yahrzeit of the medieval sage Yaakov ben Asher, known as Baal haTurim or simply “the Tur” in honor of his most famous work, the Arba’ah Turim (Four Columns), one of the earliest systematic guides to halakha.

Yaakov was the third son of Asher ben Yehiel (known simply as the Rosh) a rabbi of Cologne and student of the illustrious Meir of Rothenberg. When Meir was held for ransom by the authorities of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, Rabbi Asher attempted to negotiate his release. After Meir died in prison, the extortionists who had held him hostage insisted that Rabbi Asher still owed the ransom, and threatened to imprison him as well. Imitating our ancestors back to Abraham, the sage decided to flee the land of his birth and with his family in tow departed for Iberia, where he was offered the position of chief rabbi of Toledo, which had a large and prosperous Jewish community that felt remarkably secure approximately two centuries before the expulsion.

Rabbi Asher’s sons followed him into the rabbinate, with his eldest Yehudah becoming the city’s chief rabbi after him, and his second son Yehiel also being a noted scholar. But it is Yaakov who was to have the greatest impact on future generations of Jews.

Refusing any paid position that would interfere with his studies, Yaakov lived in humble poverty, focusing his efforts on transmitting the knowledge of past generations in a clear and straightforward manner. He began with a compendium of his father’s halakhic rulings, followed by his own Torah commentary. As his magnum opus, he set out to create a practical compendium of the halakhic debates of all the prior generations that could be an accessible reference text for others seeking to know how to observe Jewish law in daily life. He organized this into four books, each of the books a “column” of the Arba’ah Turim. The first concerned the daily and holiday prayer services and the order of worship. The second, ritual laws including kosher observance, nedarim, and avoidance of avodah tzara. Third, marriage and family law. And fourth and last, civil and criminal law. Within his compendium he included the positions of different sages from the early teachers of the mishna down to his own time, showing not only the majority conclusions but the series of logic that had led to them. Along with the Rambam’s Mishne Torah this was one of the primary sources for the Shulkan Aruch when Joseph Caro set about compiling his work over two centuries later.

Because of his humility and poverty, the exact place and year of his death are not known, only that it was at some point in the first decade of the 52nd century AM. Both Toledo and the Romaniote community of Chios claim to be the place of his death. The legacy he left on earth was not a physical one, but a great treasure of learning which has benefited students of Torah law in every generation since.

[eretzyisrael]

Parshat K’doshim

by Meir Anolick

Written for Shabbat Parshat K’doshim, כ”ו בניסן תשע”ד:

For the Refuah Shelaymah of Yosef Menachem ben Sara. May Hashem grant him a cure for his illness and return him to his family.

Sefer Chofetz Chaim is well known as the book of Hilchot Lashon Hara. The primary commandment prohibiting Lashon Hara comes from the verse in this week’s Parsha, 19:16, “You shall not be a gossip-monger among your people”. This constitutes both the prohibition of Lashon Hara and Rechilut. These both are Torah prohibitions, no less severe than breaking Shabbat or eating non-Kosher, and yet they are treated with significantly less importance than they deserve. Most people you ask will freely admit that it is, in fact, a severe prohibition and that they do not speak (or try not to speak) Lashon Hara, and yet they have never studied Sefer Chofetz Chaim, so how would they know whether or not they are avoiding it?

The Talmud teaches us in Masechet Megilla 15. not to take the blessing or curse of a simpleton lightly, and brings examples of when such blessings/curses were fulfilled. With such power given over to us in the form of our speech, that even an average person could affect those around them with mere words, you would think we would be exceedingly careful with how we spoke.

Yet that is not the case, most do not even stop to think about what they are saying before they say it, and freely toss around insults and threats as jokes, to the point where even severe words like “death” and “kill” because naught but a point of humor. Yet these words hold power, and to use them without thinking is like taking a loaded gun and firing it in random directions, for you never know who will be injured by the power in your words.

I heard a story from Rabbi Frankenthal1 about two kids that attended a high school he used to teach at.

The two of them hated each other, and one was constantly saying to the other, “You should just drop dead.” The other boy did not live out to the end of his senior year. Each of us was given this power, and in this case it was used carelessly, with devastating results. If this is the power of improper speech, and this is not even the worst it can do, then surely the good that can come of proper speech is equally as powerful.

The laws of Shmirat HaLashon, guarding one’s speech, as set down by the Sefer Chofetz Chaim all are based on the same baseline concept: think about what you say before you say it.

Before you say how crazy your friend is, consider that fact that not everyone takes that as a compliment. Before you point out that someone else is a terrible person because they are speaking in shul, consider the fact that you probably speak in shul sometimes, too.

Before you start berating a person for embarrassing a fellow, consider the fact that your public rebuke is also a violation of the prohibition against embarrassment.

In all cases, think first, then only speak if you really should. If we can focus our power of speech instead on judging favorably, on compliments and blessings, then our requests are more likely to be heeded, our requests to see the Mashiach speedily in our days.

1Rav Kehilati of the Tiferet Yaakov shul in Kochav Yaakov and teacher at Machon Meir. You can listen to his shiurim here: http://torahforme.org/

Source:

amchachamvnavon.wordpress.com

[thebeautyoftorah]

EMOR

bs'd

Shalom.

The thought of this week of my book 'Healing Anger'

"It is natural to become angry when we have a goal and this goal is blocked in some way. Out of frustration we blame others because we don’t get our way. Maybe the reason why blaming others is so rooted in human nature is because it releases some of the frustration that we feel over a particular incident, and it frees the blamer from taking any responsibility himself..”

Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html

If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know.

To join the over 4,000 recipients and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, to support or dedicate this publication which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me. Shabbat Shalom.

EMOR Being a Role Model

The name of this week's parsha is taken from a word in its first verse: emor - "speak". The act of speech appears three times in this verse: And G-d said to Moshe: Speak to the kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and say to them: Let none [of you] defile himself for a dead person among his people (1).

The verse states that Hashem spoke to Moshe and this is one of the more common formulations in the Torah, one we have come to expect. But it is strange that the next two uses of the verb emor in this verse, translated here as "speak" and "say", create a passage that is uncharacteristic.

One possible answer of this peculiarity in the text is that the Torah's language creates an emphasis that might otherwise have been absent. By doubling the use of the verb, perhaps the message is that Moshe is charged with speaking to the kohanim in a way that will be heard, so that the message is understood, internalized and integrated.

Rashi offers an alternative explanation. He quotess a Gemara [2] that brings this verse in a discussion regarding adults' responsibilities toward children: "Say [to the Kohanim …] and say [to them]," [This double expression comes] to warn (l'hazhir) adults regarding minors. (Rashi, Vayikra 21:1)

Rashi's comments on this verse contain an uplifting message: Not only should adults take responsibility for themselves, we should invest in the next generation and guide the young and innocent away from sin. We might easily use this teaching as a springboard for a broader discussion concerning the importance of positive, proactive education and the need to take responsibility for the next generation.

As opposed to the lofty world of educational responsibility and values

we thought we had discerned in Rashi's comments on our verse, the

gemara's discussion actually contends with a far more threatening

topic: Our verse is quoted in a passage that analyzes a number of

cases in which adults actively and purposefully lead children to sin!

We may attempt to understand the mindset of the adults in these cases and to rationalize their behavior: Maybe these cases involve young children, not yet at the age of bar or bat-mitzvah, who are not legally responsible or culpable for their actions. For example, when there is a limited amount of kosher food available, an adult might conclude that the best option would be to eat the kosher food and give the underage child something non-kosher.

This scenario inevitably leads to a more abstract, and philosophical discussion about the very nature of sin and its impact on the human being. Is sin merely a question of culpability? If the transgression is not punishable, is it of any significance? In other words, can we say that sin is akin to the proverbial tree that falls in the forest; if there is no one to punish, does the sin make a sound, as it were? Or does sin affect the soul, leaving a stain that is independent of culpability? The Gemara seems to extrapolate an additional, even more far-reaching lesson from our verse: Causing someone to sin is equal to feeding them spiritual poison, and this behavior stains the soul of the instigator as well as the perpetrator, particularly when the transgression is committed by a young, unsuspecting and impressionable soul.

The conclusion we are forced to draw from a careful reading of Rashi's source is that the first verse in Parshat Emor teaches responsibility: not, as we originally thought, that we must educate the next generation, but as a warning against corrupting and causing our children to sin. This message is far more poignant and maybe more difficult to fulfill. We teach our children to do good deeds and to avoid things that are distasteful. The question is, do we transmit messages akin to "Do as I say, not as I do"? Are we somehow corrupting the next generation, causing them to sin through unspoken, non-verbal messages and by setting a poor example? The most effective method of education is serving as a role model for our children. We must set a living example of what we want them to be. They learn from what we do and say, not from what we tell them to do. A child is a constant reminder to us as parents that we must behave properly. Children learn best by modeling their parents’ conduct. What they see and hear is what we get!

In Rashi's comments on the verse, he uses the term Gedolim, which we have translated as "adults"; this same term is also used colloquially to describe our great rabbis. The Gedolim have responsibility for the ketanim, those who are underage or of lesser stature and learning. This past weeks we lost several of our Gedolim. one of them was Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, may his righteous memory be a blessing. Tens of thousands of his student, can attest that Rav Aharon not only educated us, he "took care" of us spiritually. He was a living, breathing model of ahavat Torah, love of Torah learning and devout observance, as well as Yirat Shamayim, and holiness. He shared with us his vision and served as a model for proper behavior, setting a very high benchmark for all Jews in the modern world, and he did all this with love, dedication, eloquence, humility and nobility. For this we will be forever indebted, and express our enduring thanks and love. ______________________________ [1] Vayikra 21:1 [2] Yevamot 114a

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema of Mazal Tov bat Gila, Zahav Reuben ben Keyla, Yitzchak ben Mazal Tov, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Menachem Chaim ben Malka, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Mazal Tov Rifka bat Yitzchak, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah  and Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba Malka.

Atzlacha and parnasa tova to Daniel ben Mazal Tov, Debora Leah Bat Henshe Rachel, Shmuel ben Mazal tov, Yitzchak ben Mazal Tov, Yehuda ben Mazal Sara and Zivug agun to Gila bat Mazal Tov, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Yehudit bat Malka, Elisheva bat Malka. For pidyon hanefesh & yeshua of Yosef Itai ben Eliana Shufra

[thebeautyoftorah]

Tetzaveh

bs'd

Shalom, I hope you are well. My second book "Healing Anger" is about to be published. If you want a dedication for a relative or sponsor the book please send me a message. I am also offering all of you the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly parsha review, or for refua shelema (healing), or for shiduch, Atzlacha (success), etc. My weekly review goes out to over 5000 people in English and Spanish all over the world. Please contact me for more details. Feel free to forward these words of Torah to any other fellow Jew. Enjoy it and Shabbat Shalom.

Tetzaveh-How We Can Be A Light Unto The Nations

There is one major paradox that touches the core of what it means to be a Jew and what we believe is the collective mission of the Jewish people here on earth. Allow me to explain.

In the beginning of this week's Parsha, the Torah tells us all about the Menorah that was kindled every day in the Mishkan with pure olive oil.

As Hashem said to Moshe [1]: “Now you shall command the Children of Israel that they shall take for you pure olive oil, pressed, for illumination, to kindle a lamp continually”.

The Midrash Rabbah (36:1) here quotes a verse in the Book of Jeremiah (11:16) in which the prophet compares the Jewish people to an olive tree. It then asks: “Why did Jeremiah see fit to compare Israel to an olive tree? [He could have compared us to many other trees!]”

One interpretation of Jeremiah’s comparison of Israel to the olive offered by the Midrash is as follows: “All other liquids mix with one another, whereas olive oil does not intermingle, but stands separate from other liquids when combined with them. And so, too, the people of Israel do not intermingle with the other nations, as Hashem commanded us, ‘You shall not intermarry with them’[2]”.

So we see from this Midrash (and there are many other sources in the Talmud and elsewhere that say the same) that the Jewish people are to remain separate and distinct from the nations around them, and not to intermingle or intermarry with them, so that we should not be influenced by them.

Yet herein lies the paradox. For aren’t we taught that Israel has the incessant mission of proclaiming G-d’s teachings to the world? As it is written [3] “I, G-d, have called you in righteousness…and have set you up as a covenant of the people, for a light unto the nations”.

In practical terms, this means that the Jewish people are meant to teach the rest of the world the Sheva Mitzvot B’nei Noach, the “Seven Commandments of Noah’s Descendants”: 1. Do not deny G-d. 2. Do not blaspheme G-d. 3. Do not murder. 4. Do not engage in illicit sexual relations. 5. Do not steal. 6. Establish courts/legal system to ensure obedience to the law. 7. Do not eat of a live animal.

As Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson ZT”L, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, explains:

At the dawn of human history, G-d gave man seven rules to follow in order that His world be sustained. So it is recounted in the Book of Bereshit as interpreted by our tradition in the Talmud. At the heart of this universal moral code is the acknowledgment that morality - indeed, civilization itself - must be predicated on the belief in G-d. Unless we recognize a Higher Power to Whom we are responsible and Who observes and knows our actions, we will not transcend the selfishness of our character and the subjectivity of our intellect. If man himself is the final arbiter of right and wrong, then "right", for him or her, will be what they desire, regardless of its consequences to the other inhabitants of earth. At Mount Sinai, Hashem charged the Children of Israel to serve as His "Light unto the nations" by bringing all of humanity to a recognition of their Creator and adherence to His laws.

Can you see the paradox? On the one hand, Hashem warns us not to intermingle with the nations around us, yet at the same time, as part of our collective mission to be “a light unto the nations”, we are meant to teach them about G-d and morality! How does that work? Are we to be inclusive or exclusive? How can we be both?

We can resolve this paradox with the help of a teaching of the Mahara”l of Prague. He writes [4] that the nations of the world are compared to water, as it says, “… release me and rescue me from great waters, from the hand of strangers” (Tehilin 144:7), whereas the Jewish people - and the Torah that defines them - are compared to fire, as it says, “… from His right hand He presented the fiery Torah to them” (Devarim 33:2).

When fire and water come together, the water will extinguish the fire unless there is a separation (e.g. metal barrier, a pot) between them. Once the separation is between them, the fire will now be able to heat up the water and bring it to a boil.

So, too – explains the Mahara”l – it is with the Jewish people and the nations of the world. Our collective mission as Jews is to ‘heat up’ and ignite the world with a passion for Hashem and His laws of universal morality. This we can accomplish – even as we remain separate and distinct from our non-Jewish neighbors - by being living examples and role models for what it means to live a religious, G-d-centered and meaningful life.

But if we attempt to remove the barrier between us, we are in danger of our fire being extinguished by the waters of assimilation and intermarriage, and we will then fail in our mission to be a light unto the nations.

May we all merit to fulfill our collective mission as the Jewish people and to bring the rest of the world closer to G-d. Amen. ____________________________________ [1] Shemot 27:20. [2] Devarim 7:3. [3] Yeshaiah 42:6. [4] Netzach Israel, Chapter 25.

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah.

Refua Shelema of Yaacov ben Miriam, Gila bat Tzipora, Tzipora bat Gila, Dvir ben Leah, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Elimelech Dovid ben Chaya Baila, Noa bat Batsheva Devorah

and  Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba Malka.

Atzlacha to Shmuel ben Mazal tov and Zivug agun to Marielle Gabriela bat Gila.

[jewsome]

The 49 books posted on JewishBookWorld.org in August 2020

Here is the list of the 55 books that I posted on JewishBookWorld.org in August 2020. The image above contains some of the covers. The bold links take you to the book’s page on Amazon; the “on this site” links to the book’s page on this site.

The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects by Laura Arnold Leibman (on this site)

At the Last Moment : The Jewish Struggle for Emigration from Poland before the Holocaust by Irith Cherniavsky (on this site)

Backyard Kitchen: The Main Course by Sarina Roffe (on this site)

A Child of the Century by Ben Hecht (on this site)

Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon by Eric H. Cline (on this site)

European Genizah; by Andreas Lehnardt (on this site)

Faith And Courage: Plus: Del Monte And The Pocketknife by Meir Marcus Lehmann (on this site)

The fate of the Jews of Rzeszow 1939-1944. Chronicle of those days by Francis Kotula (on this site)

Fing’s War by Benny Lindelauf (on this site)

Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland (on this site)

Full Bloom: A Novel of Food, Family, and Freaking by Judith Arnold (on this site)

The Full Pomegranate: Poems of Avrom Sutzkever by Avrom Sutzkever (on this site)

The Ghost in Apartment by Denis Markell (on this site)

The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain (on this site)

Hip Set by Michael Fertik (on this site)

The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand (on this site)

The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921/2 CE by Sacha Stern (on this site)

The Jewish Ethic of Personal Responsibility Volume 2: Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky (on this site)

Jewish Folk Tales in Britain and Ireland by Liz Berg (on this site)

The Jewish Journey Haggadah: Connecting the Generations by Adena Berkowitz (on this site)

Ladder of Light: Parashah Insights on Sefer Bamidbar by Rabbi Yaakov Hillel (on this site)

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman (on this site)

Latkes of Love by Sara Marks (on this site)

LifeLines 3 Ordinary People; ¦Facing Extraordinary Challenges. Their Stories – and the Stories Behind Their Stories by C. Saphir (on this site)

Lives Reclaimed: A Story of Rescue and Resistance in Nazi Germany by Mark Roseman (on this site)

Lot Six by David Adjmi (on this site)

The Misadventures of Rabbi Kibbitz and Mrs. Chaipul: a midwinter romance of laughter and smiles by Mark Binder (on this site)

The New Jewish Canon by Yehuda Kurtzer, Claire E. Sufrin (on this site)

Now for Something Sweet by Monday Morning Cooking Club (on this site)

Of Bitter Herbs and Sweet Confections by Susan Shalev (on this site)

Opening Your Heart with Psalm 27: A Spiritual Practice for the Jewish New Year by Rabbi Debra J. Robbins (on this site)

Our Man in Jerusalem by Rabbi Nachman Seltzer (on this site)

The Patrons and Their Poor: Jewish Community and Public Charity in Early Modern Germany by Debra Kaplan (on this site)

Political Survivors: The Resistance, the Cold War, and the Fight against Concentration Camps after 1945 by Emma Kuby (on this site)

Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee’s Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis by Eric Lichtblau (on this site)

Social Stratification of the Jewish Population of Roman Palestine in the Period of the Mishnah, 70-250 CE by Ben Zion Rosenfeld and Haim Perlmutter (on this site)

Spinoza’s Challenge to Jewish Thought: Writings on His Life, Philosophy, and Legacy by Daniel B. Schwartz (on this site)

Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker by David Mikics (on this site)

The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing by Adam Frankel (on this site)

A Sweet Meeting on Mimouna Night by Allison Ofanansky (on this site)

Sweet Noise: Love in Wartime by Max Hirshfeld (on this site)

The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain (on this site)

There Was a Young Rabbi: A Hanukkah Tale by Suzanne Wolfe (on this site)

Thinking about God; Jewish Views by Rabbi Kari H. Tuling (on this site)

The War of Return by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf (on this site)

What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew about Judaism by Robert Schoen (on this site)

Who Really Was the Biblical Elijah? by Israel Drazin (on this site)

Winning Every Moment. Soul Conversations with the Baal HaTanya by Dr. Yehiel Harari (on this site)

Worse and Worse on Noah’s Ark by Leslie Kimmelman (on this site)

The post The 49 books posted on JewishBookWorld.org in August 2020 appeared first on Jewish Book World.

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[thebeautyoftorah]

TISHA BE’AV/VAETCHANAN

bs'd Shalom. The thought from my book 'Healing Anger' is: "Children are sensitive to their parents’ relationship. They especially notice anger and are enormously affected by their parents’ bickering. It creates a deep and ever-lasting psychological damage." Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know. To join the over 4,000 recipients in English and Spanish and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me.You have the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly review, or refua shelema (healing), shiduch, Hatzlacha. Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom. TISHA BE’AV/VAETCHANAN-Will We See the Holy Temple Rebuilt? In the morning service of shachrit of tisha Be’Av we read some pesukin of this week’s parsha [0] that are connected to the concept that the period of Tisha B’Av has two parts; one of sadness and mourning followed by one of joy and consolation and they are connected to each other. The Gemara says[1] on this topic: All who mourn [the destruction of] Yerushalaim will merit seeing it in its joy. The problem with this teaching is that there is no doubt that the great Torah Sages as Rashi, the Ramban, the Rishonim (medieval Sages), and before them all the great Talmudic sages wept bitterly for Yerushalaim. Yet, all of them died before seeing the rebuilding of the Holy Temple! So what does the Gemara mean when it says that all those who mourn over the destruction of Yerushalaim will merit seeing its joy? The Ritva answers that there are actually two periods of resurrection in the future. The main period will be at the end of Olam HaZeh (This World) as we know it (before we move into the next phase called Olam HaBa, the World to Come), and is for all Jews (unless, of course, they are without any merit). However, there will be an earlier period of resurrection, just before the building of the Third Temple in the Messianic Era. At this time, all the righteous Jews who died in the exile yearning for the Mashiach will merit coming back to life to witness the joy of the final redemption. Migdal David (83a) writes that this is a great consolation for all those Jews who suffered throughout the centuries and who died Al Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying G-d’s Name). Yet, they never got to see the good times which we all pray for, when we will all live in peace and harmony in the Land of Israel with the coming of the Mashich and the building of the Third Temple. All those Jews who longed and yearned for the Messianic Era including Rashi, Nachmanides, the Talmudic sages, as well as all our grandparents who sang ‘Next Year in Yerushalaim’ with great fervor every year at the end of Yom Kippur and the Pesach Seder yet who never got to see it, will rise up from their graves to enjoy this very special time. Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT’L offers a different approach to answer our question: Why did the Rabbis say that those who mourn Yerushalaim’s destruction will merit seeing it besimchatah - in its joy? It would be more logical to say that they will merit seeing Yerushalaim bevinyanah in its rebuilt state. After all, our primary wish is for the rebuilding of Yerushalaim! To understand what the Rabbis were saying, we need to appreciate what exactly our holy ancestors were mourning for. The Rambam writes in Mishneh Torah[2]: The Sages and the prophets did not yearn for the Messianic era in order to have dominion over the entire world, to rule over the gentiles, to be exalted by the nations, or to eat, drink, and celebrate. Rather, they desired to be free to involve themselves in Torah and wisdom without any pressures or disturbances, so that they would merit the world to come, as explained in the Laws of Repentance. We see that it was not the rebuilding of the Temple itself that the Sages were yearning for. Rather, it was the opportunity to study Torah with no distractions that they so desired, and that can only happen when the Mashiach comes and rebuilds the Holy Temple and brings peace on earth. The Gemara [3] says that when we had a Holy Temple there were thousands upon thousands of prophets among the Jewish people: 'Many prophets arose in Israel, double the number of those who left Egypt; but prophecy that was needed for future generations was written and that which was not needed was not written'. [This means that there were 1,200,000 prophets living among the Jewish people!] These prophets helped the Jewish people with spiritual guidance any time they needed it, setting them straight when they made mistakes, and showing them their true potential and how to achieve it. How amazing it was having your own personal spiritual mentor to correct your mistakes and to guide you at every turn in your life! But all this was taken away from us when the Holy Temple was destroyed and we went into exile among the nations, and will only come back when the Mashiach arrives and the Holy Temple will be rebuilt in Yerushalaim. It is the joyous opportunity to learn Torah and wisdom unimpeded as well as the ability to achieve one’s true potential in life that will accompany the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, that the great Torah scholars yearned for, not just the rebuilding of the Temple itself. Rav Avigdor Miller explains that when the Gemara declared that all who mourn the destruction of Yerushalaim will merit seeing its joy, they meant what they said. It is true that all our great ancestors who died in the exile did not merit to see Yerushalaim bevinyanah, in its future rebuilt state, but they did merit to see Yerushalaim besimchatah, in its joy, i.e. in their own lifetimes they were rewarded by G-d with Divine guidance and were able to see the joy that a rebuilt Yerushalaim could give them, the joy of achieving their true potential in life. A true tzaddik like Rashi mourned for Yerushalaim in a perfect manner. So Hashem responded, “You are looking for someone who will set you straight in life? If so, then right now I will give you what you are wishing for: Perfect guidance. You will merit Siyata diShmaya” (Assistance from Heaven). Indeed, Rashi and all the great Torah sages throughout Jewish history were only able to accomplish all that they did in their immensely productive lives through the Divine assistance that they earned because they mourned the loss of prophecy and guidance that the Jewish people once enjoyed, and were rewarded in kind.

We hope and pray to Hashem each day that we one day merit to see the actual rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash. Yet, even if for whatever reason we don’t get to see it, G-d forbid, we can still earn the ability of experiencing now the true joy of unimpeded Torah study and achieving our potential that will be felt by all when the Temple is rebuilt, simply by yearning for this joy and mourning over its loss.

____________________________________________________ [0] Devarim 4:25-40

[1] Taanit 30b [2] Laws of Kings and Wars 11:4 [3] Megillah 14a Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha.

[thebeautyoftorah]

CHUKAT

bs'd

Shalom.

The thought this week of my book 'Healing Anger' is:

"As we said before, maintaining harmony at home is a lifelong endeavor. No stone should be left unturned in order to preserve peace in the home."

Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html

If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know.

To join the over 4,000 recipients in English and Spanish and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me.You have the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly review, or refua shelema (healing), shiduch, Atzlacha.

Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom.

CHUKAT-When Kedusha is Out, Tumah is In

At the beginning of this parsha the Pasuk says, “This is the 'Torah' i.e., the law: ‘Adam‘ [a man] who will die in a tent, whoever will come into the tent will be tame (impure) for seven days” [1]. The Gemara expounds, “You are called ‘Adam‘, but idol worshipers are not called ‘Adam‘ [2]. A dead body in a room creates a spiritual contamination known as tumat ohel [tent impurity], which will, in turn, contaminate anyone in the room (even if they do not come into physical contact with the corpse) and render them tame met [impure by virtue of “contact” with the dead]. This halacha of tent impurity only applies to the dead body of a Jew. The corpse of an idol worshiper will convey death impurity only through touch or transport, but will not make tame a Jew who merely is in the same room.

In order to explain the logic of this distinction we need to get a clear understanding on the concept of tumah. Chazal explain that while a person is alive, we have a neshama [spiritual component; ‘soul’], which gives us a certain degree of holiness. When the person dies, the neshama departs and the source of his sanctity (kedusha) departs as well. Tumah devolves on a person or an animal when there is a diminishment of sanctity (hisroknut shel haKedusha). With the absence of kedusha, tumah takes its place. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, the spiritual realm does not tolerate a vacuum either. That is why when a person dies, the kedusha he possessed, which has now departed, is replaced with spiritual impurity (i.e., tumah.)

The more holy a person or an object is, the greater is the form of tumah that generates when the source of the holiness has departed or has been defiled. This explains why a deceased Jew contaminates in a tent, but not an idol worshiper. Even though an idol worshiper has a soul and indeed during his lifetime has the potential for kedusha within himself and consequently he is subject to other forms of tumah, it is not on the same level as the Jew and consequently is not subject to tumat ohel.

This rule (the holier a person or object is, the greater form of tumah is created) helps us understand many of the principles when we learn the laws of tumah and tahara.

The Shem MiShmuel cites the Kotzker Rebbe: When a woman gives birth, for a certain period of time she is in a state of having ‘tumat leda‘ (childbirth impurity). [This is independent of ‘tumat nidah,’ which comes from normal uterine bleeding]. ‘Tumat leda‘ is a status that automatically comes upon every woman who has a baby. How do we explain this 'impurity'? Here she is doing a mitzvah, bringing a new life into the world. What could be a nobler act than that? Still, she is declared impure by virtue of this great spiritual accomplishment. Why?

The Kotzker Rebbe explains by citing the gemara [3] which says that the “key to life” (the ability to conceive babies) is the domain of Hashem Himself. He does not give over that “key” to anyone else. Thus, when a woman becomes pregnant, she is G-d-like. She has a partnership with the Master of the Universe as long as she is in the process of having that baby. She resides in a higher spiritual dimension throughout her pregnancy. Once she has the baby, mazal tov, but that suspends her special nine-month partnership with Hashem. Where there once was kedusha, and it has now departed (even for the best of reasons), tumah takes its place.

A third example of this phenomenon of impurity is the law of nevelah [a dead animal that was improperly slaughtered] which also conveys tumah. If someone eats the nevelah, he transgresses a negative prohibition for which the punishment is lashes. On the other hand, someone who eats piggul [caused by a person having the “wrong” intent when slaughtering a sacrifice] or notar [“left over sacrificial meat,” i.e., not consumed during the appropriate halachic time frame allotted to that particular sacrifice], receives the severe (Heavenly) punishment of karet (becoming “cut off”). Rabbi Rudderman Zt'l asked: Why is the punishment is so much more severe for eating a korban that has been defiled one way or another, than for eating a regular piece of meat improperly slaughtered? He answered with this same concept. A korban had kedusha [sanctity]. Now that it became piggul or notar, that kedusha departed. The prohibition that is attached to a piece of meat from which holiness has departed is more severe than that attached to a regular piece of meat.

Another example: In the Haftarah of Shabat Chazon (prior to Tisha B’Av), the prophet Yeshaya says about Yerushalayim, “Righteousness dwelt therein, where now there are murderers” [4]. Prior to the Destruction of the First Bet haMikdash, Chazal say that murder was rampant in Yerushalayim. This needs explanation: When holiness and righteousness left Yerushalayim, it fell all the way to the other extreme. Where there once was kedusha and it left because the people strayed, it becomes filled with tumah. Thus, the same Yerushalayim that was previously so holy is now filled with murderers[5].

Based on all of the above, the Avne Nezer asks, Why is a Kohen prohibited to marry a divorcee? Because Chazal say, “When a man and woman are living in peace, the Shechina [Divine Presence] resides between them.” When, unfortunately, a couple must divorce, Hashem departs and the void left by that departure of holiness is replaced by tumah. The Kohen cannot marry a divorcee because the Shechinah that was once there (in her first marriage) has departed and the void has been filled with a spiritual  impurity that would have a harmful effect on the sanctity of the Kohen.

If that is the case, the halacha is that a Kohen Gadol [High Priest] cannot marry a widow or a divorcee, but a regular Kohen can marry a widow. Why should that be? Why do we not say that as long as her first husband was alive, “The Shechinah resided between them” and now that the first husband is dead, the Shechinah has departed from her life and she has a certain metaphysical impurity that prevents her from marrying a Kohen? The Bei Chiya explains: By a widow, Hashem is still there in her life. Chazal say that the Almighty is the Friend and Protector of orphans and widows [6]. Therefore, despite the fact that there was a departure of sorts when her husband died, G-d reappears as the Protector of widows.

We must explain that sometimes a woman is divorced through no fault of her own, Hashem will protect her as well. Rashi says in Chumash that Divine Protection is certainly not limited to widows and orphans, but these are just examples of unfortunate persons and the Almighty is on the side of any unfortunate person. But we do not have the latitude to tamper with Halacha based on such reasoning. (This is the principle of “Ayn Dorshin Taama dikra”, we do not analyze the reasons behind scriptural statements in order to modify application of the law.) Regarding divorcees it depends on the situation: Sometimes G-d will see that she is not the one at fault and be on “her side,” and sometimes not. However, by widows, Hashem is always “on their side” and is not seen as having left them. ___________________________________________ [1] Bemidbar 19:14 [2] Yebamot 60a [3] Taanit 20a [4] Yeshayah 1:21 [5] See Yearot Devash [6] Mishle 15:25 Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha.

[thebeautyoftorah]

SHLACH

bs'd

Shalom.

The thought this week of my book 'Healing Anger' is:

"A wise mother told her daughter as she led her to the chuppah, ‘If you serve him like a king, he will treat you like a queen. But if you act superior to him, he will treat you like a maidservant."

Buy my book at

http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html

If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know.

To join the over 4,000 recipients in English and Spanish and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me.You have the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly review, or refua shelema (healing), shiduch, Atzlacha.

Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom.

SHLACH-Which Heart Is Speaking to Me?

This parsha begins with a famous incident in the Torah: “G-d spoke to Moshe saying, ‘Send forth for yourself men, and let them spy out the Land of Canaan (veyaturu et Eretz Canaan)…'” [1]. The parsha ends with the mitzva to wear tzitzit (fringes ), “…And you shall not spy after your hearts (velo taturu achare levavchem) and after your eyes after which you stray.” [2].

Rashi comments on the using of the same word “tur” at the beginning and the end of the parsha. The word based on the root “tur” (as in veyaturu et Eretz Canaan  and velo taturu achre levavechem) is an uncommon Biblical expression. Rashi [3] notes the repetitious use of the word in our parsha, “The heart and the eyes are ‘spies’ for the body, procuring sins for it. The eyes see, the heart desires and the body commits the sin.”

However there are two difficulties in the pasuk “And you shall not ‘spy’ after your hearts and after your eyes.” The connection between the “spying” at the beginning of the parsha and the “spying” at the end is more than semantics. If we would write this sentence in Hebrew, we would not write velo taturu achare levavchem (plural); we would write velo taturu achare libchem (singular). We have two eyes, therefore, it is proper to use the expression velo taturu achare enechem (plural) regarding straying after our eyes. However, we only have one heart. Therefore, the more correct language should have been velo taturu achare libchem, do not stray after your heart (singular). Why use plural when speaking of heart?

Furthermore, Rashi says, “the eyes see and the heart desires” then, the sequence of the pasuk is also incorrect. It should read “Do not stray after your eyes and after your heart” instead of “Do not stray after you heart and after your eyes.”

The Shemen HaTov (from Rabbi Dov Weinberger) in part two of his Torah commentary suggests the following connection between the spies at the beginning of the parsha and the “spies” at the end of the parsha and also provides insight into what the expression “achare levavchem” really means.

Chazal say that when the Torah says in Kriat Shma [6] “with all your heart” (bechol levavecha) it is teaching that a person must serve Hashem with both his good inclination and his evil inclination. We have only one heart, but Rabbinic teaching views this organ as being “two hearts”, our yetzer haTov and our yetzer haRa, the good in us that wants to do good and the evil in us that wants to do bad.

Normally, we all know what is good and what is bad.  However, many times the yetzer haRa can disguise and present himself in the guise of “I want to do a mitzvah, a good deed”. It is our obligation to discern and to say that in spite of the fact that this looks like a mitzvah and smell like a mitzvah in reality it is NOT a mitzvah.  The classic example of that is the Spies. Chazal tell us that the 12 individuals sent on this Spy Mission were the elite of the Jewish people. Yet, they stumbled into this terrible sin that caused Klal Yisrael to stay in the Midbar for 40 years and they literally triggered “mourning for all future generations”.

How did this happen to such great people? The answer is that they thought they were doing a mitzvah by NOT going into Eretz Yisrael. The Chiddushe HaRim (the Gerer Rebbe) explains that their desire to remain in the Wilderness is analogous to a “son-in-law who lives off the fat of his father in law”. In Europe, after your daughter got married, you brought your son-in-law into your house and you promised him “You can live by me 5 years, 10 years”, whatever the agreement was. They moved in with the in-laws and if one got along with them, he stayed there. His food, expenses, his rent and his utility bills were taken care of. What could be better?

Sometimes it was difficult for the father-in-law to break the ties and tell his children, “The 5 years are up. It is time for you to go out now and earn a living on your own, so that you can perpetuate the routine with the next generation.”  This was the situation with the Jewish people in the Wilderness. Their clothes were taken care of [4]; their “utilities” were taken care of [the Well and the Clouds of Glory]; it was like the Garden of Eden in this world, everything was taken care of. If they did not need to worry about making a living what did they do all day? They learned and devoted their lives entirely to spirituality. When it came time to go into Eretz Yisrael they had no more mann from Heaven and water from the Well.  They would need to plow and sow. They would need to worry about the crops and about the weather. They would need to make a living and work by the sweat of their brows. The Spies, feeling that they were acting on their ‘Yetzer HaTov’, tried to sabotage the Divine Plan: “Who needs it? Let’s stay in the dessert and continue to grow spiritually!”

This thought process warped their view of Eretz Yisrael. They came back with a very negative report, that it was a land that consumed its inhabitants [5].  Who did that?  It was their evil inclinations disguised as the argument “we want to live a life of spirituality; not of materialism”. This is a classic example of the wolf in sheep’s clothing; the Yetzer HaRa is dressed up like the Yetzer Tov.

This is what the Torah means when it says “And you shall not stray after your hearts“. We must always be careful to discern which heart is speaking to us. We have two hearts. Sometimes it is very difficult to discern whether we are hearing the Yetzer HaTov or the Yetzer HaRa. Therefore Lo taturu achare levavchem comes first, because you first need to determine which heart is speaking, the “good heart” or the “bad heart”. This is one of the greatest challenges of life.

We see from the Spies that this is one challenge that even great people stumble. One of the hardest challenges in making proper decisions in life is discerning which of our two hearts is talking to us. We must try to raise above our own biases, hidden agenda and our personal advantage (negiot) in choosing between various options.  When the Torah says, “Bribes blind the eyes of the wise...” [7] it does not only refer to monetary bribes. It may be something sub-conscious that is bribing us. We all have “agendas”. There are things that appear like a mitzvah, walk like a mitzvah, and talk like a mitzvah, but they are not, they are averot.

May we all merit the wisdom and the strength to avoid the trap of “straying after our hearts and after our eyes”. ____________________________________ [1] Bemidbar 13:1-2 [2] Bemidbar 15:39 [3] Idem [4] Devarim 8:4 [5] Bemidbar 13:32 [6] Devarim 6:5 [7] Devarim 16:19

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha.

[thebeautyoftorah]

SHAVUOT/NASSO

bs'd Shalom. The thought this week of my book 'Healing Anger' is: "We seek comfort at home and view it as the place where we can take a break from the pressures of our stressful lives. Consequently, we are not ready to cope with the challenges and pressures of home life. Most of us think that home is the place where we can relax and be ourselves. However, nothing can be further from the truth — at home we must be better than ourselves!" Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know. To join the over 4,000 recipients in English and Spanish and receive these insights free on a weekly email, feedback, comments, which has been all around the world, or if you know any other Jew who is interested in receiving these insights weekly, contact me.You have the opportunity to share in the mitzvah to honor a loved one by sponsoring my weekly review, or refua shelema (healing), shiduch, Atzlacha. Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom.

SHAVUOT/NASSO-We Have Permission to Protect We all met permissive parents who hold the concept of "openness". They don't mind expose their children to just about anything. "After all", they claim, "We teach our kids proper values, it doesn't really matter what the kids see or hear. They should be allowed to look into 'the real world' so they don't become naive. Children have the right to access to information.They'll simply reject foreign ideas against proper values." Are these parents correct? Of course, not. Rashi in this week's parsha tells us why. Rashi asks[1], "Why was the section of the Nazir laws placed next to the laws of sotah, the suspected adulterous wife? To tell us that anyone who sees the sotah in her disgrace, should abstain from wine(one of the nazarite laws), since wine leads to adultery." The common question on this Rashi is that we would have thought the opposite. Wouldn't someone who sees a sinner, like the sotah, being humiliated, become inspired to not dare come close to transgression? If you saw your co-worker being yelled at for coming late, wouldn't you be extra careful not to come late yourself? So why does the Torah suggest that witnessing the sotah's embarrassment will make you more afraid that you'll sin? Why would one establish safeguards to avoid sin by refraining from wine, once he has seen a violation of the Torah in the sotah woman? The answer is that our preconceived notion is not true. In reality, witnessing sin, no matter if we see the sinner being degraded or not, weakens our spirituality. Whenever someone "breaks the rules" in school, inevitably the rules become less hallowed and it's only a matter of time until "breaking the rules" becomes the rule. So too with the Torah. While G-d's "rules" and mitzvot will never cease, witnessing a breach in them automatically removes levels of respect and awe that we have for His commandments. We subconsciously think that the transgression is no longer an untouchable and although we may never dream of doing it, it becomes a possibility. Once the slippery slope of possibility has been opened, terrible results will inevitably occur. This is why Rabbi Moshe Feinstein writes [2] that just as it is a mitzvah to see and be involved in a mitzvah, so too it is a transgression to witness a sin being performed where one can avoid it. By watching a violation of Hashem's Torah, we are watching G-d being humiliated and disrespected. And this negatively affects our own service of G-d because, on some level, we lose respect for Hashem as well. So the nazir decides to enter the institution of the nazarite vows because he has seen the sinning sotah. He realizes that he temporarily needs special laws of holiness in order to return to his former state of awe for G-d's laws and commandments which have been breached. It is an undeniable fact that the environment and nurture play vital roles in human development. The Rambam [3] on this topic says: "It is the way of humankind to be drawn after the ways and actions of friends and associates to follow the local norms of behavior. Therefore, one should connect with and befriend righteous people and be constantly in the company of the wise in order to learn from their ways and to distance oneself from wicked people so as not to learn from their deeds." Maimonides uncharacteristically does not bring a source from a verse in the Torah as a proof. It is a simple fact of life. What is not widely realized though is that anything and everything we see and experience becomes part of our nature. If we allow our kids to free access to the internet, computer, watch television and movies without any restraints, we open them up to potentially harmful influences. Children have natural curiosity. Some times with a tip from friends, they 'navigate' to an adult site where they are confronted with images that with their age, experience, maturity and sensitivities, are completely unable to handle. Even as an adult, we are shocked at the graphic, violent and abusive nature of these sites. We do not know how to process such images and may have a very difficult time getting them out of our head. It is needless to say how entirely destructive such material is to the soul that naturally yearns to be uplifted and not degraded. At first kids are repulsed by what they see. But curiosity made them return. The next time, it didn’t look quite so bad. By the third visit, they are hooked. Needless to say the damage this can cause; they can’t stay focused in school, their grades suffer, and they seem to always be tired and wanting to sleep. It is clear that the high increase among children of sexual promiscuous behavior, violence and guns in schools, and the trend of reduced achievement and intelligence have its roots in the effects of the internet, television and movies. (Many detailed scientific studies and research corroborate this idea) So much for openness in parenting. It is an experiment that has failed miserably. If we are responsible parents we must try our best to shield bad influences from our kids as much as possible. They should not witness thousands of killings, promiscuity, violence on the internet and TV year after precious year in their youth. If they are allowed to, they will lose sensitivity toward hurting others and become more vicious people. The innocence and purity of our children can be taken away and may never returned. We have a tremendous responsibility to ensure that our children be exposed to healthy, loving and positive relationships to educate them in a true Torah way. We also have the moral responsibility to spread the word about these potential dangers to other parents. What we see becomes part of us. We must try to avoid exposing our children to the evils of the world. Society recognizes that the 'movie ratings system' for kids is a positive thing. Although, as a result of the moral descent of our society, what used to be a relatively acceptable and tame PG rating, now probably is the equivalent of a severe 'R' rating, there are still many things that we deem inappropriate for children.[Unfortunately with the internet there is no 'rating' at all]. What we should be asking ourselves is: if we agree that it is inappropriate for children, why is it any more appropriate for us? We must be extremely careful with what we see and experience, as well. In order to be able to receive the Torah this Shavuot we have purify our thoughts. We must protect ourselves and our children of all the contamination around us. Remember, what you see is what you get -- inside your mind and soul. __________________________________ [1] Bemidbar 6:2 [2] Igrot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:156. [3] Hilchot Deot 6:1

Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

[thebeautyoftorah]

BEHAR/BECHUKOTAI

bs’d

Shalom. Help yourselves and your families with the tremendous challenge to be stuck at home. Read my book 'Healing Anger' with practical and spiritual advice on how we can overcome anger and stressful situations at home because of the Corona virus. The thought this week of my book is: "Until a mere few decades ago, divorce was a rare occurrence. Nowadays, the divorce rate has skyrocketed to epidemic proportions — and in the vast majority of divorces, anger rears its ugly head. Ask anyone in the field of marriage counseling and he or she will tell you that a great number of couples go for counseling because of anger issues. They can’t communicate properly. They can’t find peaceful solutions when disagreements arise." Buy my book at http://www.feldheim.com/healing-anger.html If you want to buy it from me in Israel let me know. Have a healthy Shabbat Shalom. BEHAR/BECHUKOTAI-Making our Best Effort The first verse in Parshat Bechukotai tells us[1]: “If you will follow My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them; then I will provide your rains in their time”.

Face value the verse seems to be repetitious. What is the difference between "follow My decrees” and “observe My commandments”?

In order to answer this question we bring a Gemara [2] that teaches us the following:

Our Rabbis taught: Upon entering [a Bet Medrash – a House of Torah Study] what do we say? ‘May it be Your will, L-ord my G-d, that no mistake should arise through me, and that I should not err in a matter of Halachah [Jewish Law] and my colleagues will rejoice [over my embarrassment]. That I should not call unclean clean and clean unclean, and that my colleagues should not err in a matter of Halachah and I rejoice [in their embarrassment]’.

Upon leaving [the Beit Midrash] what do they say? 'I thank You, L-ord my G-d, that You set my portion with those who sit in the Beit Midrash and You have not set my portion with those who sit in the street corners [shopkeepers], for I rise early and they rise early, but I rise early to learn Torah and they rise early to do mundane things; I toil and they toil, but I toil and receive a reward whereas they toil and do not receive a reward…

At first glance, the end of this prayer is difficult to understand. Only someone who engages in Torah study receives payment and reward? What about a carpenter or a tailor? Are they not paid for their work? What exactly does this prayer mean?

The Chofetz Chaim explains that the key phrase is “toil” i.e. intense effort. In most activities in life we are paid for the results. For example, let’s say we hire carpenter to make a closet seven feet tall and he makes a perfect ten feet closet. We will not pay him, because we are paying him for the results, that he produces a closet that fits our space. So no matter how hard he tried and how much intense effort he put into making that size ten feet closet, he will not be paid since he didn’t produce the result for which we hired him.

Another example is in sports competition, it’s not about how hard your team tries, but whether they win or lose. Nobody gets a medal for putting in a lot of effort. The swimmer who comes in 4th place a split second after the third place guy goes home from the competition with nothing, no matter how many years he practiced.

When it comes to the physical world that’s the way things are weather we like it or not, but not so when we are dealing with the spiritual reality.

When it comes to learning Torah and spiritual growth one is paid for the efforts and the toil, not the results. Our Sages told us[3]: ..”The reward is in proportion of the exertion”. If one toiled hard at learning he will be amply rewarded for his exertion, even if one fails to accomplish a great deal. So for example, if we struggle over a difficult piece of Gemara for two hours and did not figure it out, we get the same reward in Heaven as someone who actually does figure it out. When a Jew tries to cope with a particular mitzvah (commandment) or has a difficult test in accepting a particular teaching of the Torah, G-d rewards him for the effort that he put in, even if he didn’t pass the test in the end.

Hashem has no dearer 'wish' than to shower us with His blessings. He therefore “begs” us, ‘Please learn My Torah and fulfill its mitzvot so as to enable Me to give you My blessings.’[4].

So to answer our initial question above about the first verse in this week’s parsha to be seemingly redundant  we bring Rashi, the great Bible commentator, who explains based on the Oral Tradition, that “following My decrees” - which is read in Hebrew bechukotai telechu (lit. “walk” in the path of My decrees) - means that we should toil in Torah study. Whereas the next words in the verse refer to the performance of the actual commandments.

It is difficult to understand where the Oral Tradition got the idea of “toiling in Torah” from the Torah’s words bechukotai telechu, which simply mean “to follow My decrees”.

We can answer, based on the teaching of the Chofetz Chaim mentioned earlier, that if the Torah writes that we should “walk” in the path of G-d’s decrees, it is indicating to us that the most important thing in G-d’s eyes is that we are walking on the right path i.e. we are exerting toil and effort in our spiritual journey to understand and integrate Torah into our lives, even if we don’t ever get to the end of that path.

In Torah and spiritual goals(correcting our middot, to fight the yetzer harah, etc.), our effort is all that counts, not the results.

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[1] Vayikra 26:3.

[2] Berachot 28b.

[3] Pirke Avot 5:26.

[4] Here the word ‘Im’ is normally translated as ‘If’, denotes a request rather than a condition. Our Sages felt compelled to interpret it as a plea since it cannot be assumed that Hashem gives us the choice of either learning Torah or leaving it. Torah Temima. Le Iluy nishmat Eliahu ben Simcha, Mordechai ben Shlomo, Perla bat Simcha, Abraham Meir ben Leah, Moshe ben Gila,Yaakov ben Gila, Sara bat Gila, Yitzchak ben Perla, Leah bat Chavah, Abraham Meir ben Leah,Itamar Ben Reb Yehuda, Yehuda Ben Shmuel Tzvi, Tova Chaya bat Dovid. Refua Shelema to all the people sick with the Corona virus, Akiva Shushan Ben Natalie Penina, Mazal Tov bat Freja, Hadassa bat Sara, Elisheva bat Miriam, Chana bat Ester Beyla, Mattitiahu Yered ben Miriam, Yaacov ben Miriam, Yehuda ben Simcha, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Nechemia Efraim ben Beyla Mina, Dvir ben Leah, Sender ben Sara, Eliezer Chaim ben Chaya Batya, Shlomo Yoel ben Chaya Leah, Dovid Yehoshua ben Leba, Shmuel ben Mazal Tov, Yosef Yitzchak ben Bracha. Atzlacha and parnasa tova to Daniel ben Mazal Tov, Debora Leah Bat Henshe Rachel, Shmuel ben Mazal tov, Yitzchak ben Mazal Tov, Yehuda ben Mazal Sara and Zivug agun to Gila bat Mazal Tov, Naftali Dovid ben Naomi Tzipora, Elisheva bat Malka. Besorot Tovot for Shmuel Dovid Ben Raizel.