#Rabbi Dovid Weinberger

[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."

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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.

[rabbidavidweinberger-blog]

How to Become an Exceptional Jewish Teacher?

A Jewish teacher bears great responsibilities on his shoulders. He has to perform as a Jewish community leader who helps people know about different areas. A Jewish teacher has to have a composed nature, be knowledgeable, organized and excessively disciplined so that he can leave a positive impact on the students. Becoming a Jewish teacher will give you a lot of satisfaction as you will be in a position to help and teach a huge amount of people.

Leadership skills:

Since Jewish community leaders have to lead a great number of people, they need to have certain qualities in them which will set them apart from the others. They have to be different because only then people would want to follow them. Nobody gets convinced on following someone who is just like them.

Know your skills and yourself:

If you are aware of your skills, you will get a chance to be in the spotlight because of this. There is a huge difference between knowing your skills and enhancing them. There is a constant need to polish your skills otherwise you will lose the track. Having skills is a great thing but polishing it on a regular basis is necessary. While you will be polishing your skills, you will be able to have an exceptional idea about what you have got and what else you can offer as a professional.

Focus on your personal development and growth:

People are usually focused on various things that include a number of professional things which distracts them and they are not able to figure out the importance of personal development skills. Your skills will help you in analyzing the situation and circumstances in an analytical manner. Thus, it is important to have this kind of approach as this is going to help you in dealing with a number of issues. 

Go online:

How active are you on social media? Your activity on social media matters a lot because a great number of people can be accessed through social media. You can start different social media campaigns to promote your books and increase awareness and you will see the results in just a few days.  

[rabbidavidweinberger-blog]

Rabbi David Weinberger

Rabbi David Weinberger is also a Pastoral Counselor and he has provided Pastoral guidance and counseling for over 30 years to hospital patients, nursing home residents and senior citizens.

Rabbi Dovid Weinberger is a passionate and dynamic Rabbi with an excellent rabbinic career. He is an experienced Pastoral Counselor, Advisor, Decisor of Jewish law and a teacher.

Rabbi David worked as Senior Rabbi for Congregation ShaarayTefila, Lawrence, NY for 10 years. He also has an extensive teaching career and he has taught classes in Jewish Law and Jewish Philosophy.

Rabbi David also has publications under his name including The Women’s Prayerbook, The Bible Commentary of RavNison Alpert, Raising Jewish Children, and much more.

Rabbi Dovid Weinberger has worked as Rabbi for Congregation ChevraBachurim Synagogue, Manhattan, NY. He has also worked as Interim and Assistant Rabbi for Congregation Kneseth Israel (The White Shul), Far Rockaway, NY.

Rabbi Dovid Weinberger is a congregational Rabbi and he has been working for more than 30 years in this profession. Rabbi David Weinberger has served in all aspects including leading the services, speaking from the pulpit, lecturing, and supervising religious matters.