Parashas Ki Savo

September 15, 2011
The Torah contains two passages called tochachah (admonition), with a litany of curses that will befall us if we do not obey Hashem’s will. One of these passages appears in parashas Bechukosai, while the second, a much longer one, appears in this week’s parashah. The Midrash teaches (Devarim Rabbah 4:1):
A question in halachah: Is it permitted to split the reading of the tochachah into multiple segments? Thus the Sages taught: “We do not interrupt the reading of the curses.” … Said R. Chiya bar Gamda: “For it is written (Mishlei 3:11), ‘The chastisement of Hashem, my child, do not disdain, and do not abhor (al takutz) His rebuke.’ Do not break up the litany of admonitions into separate ‘thorns’ (kotzim). Rather, one person should read them all.”
The final accepted halachah is that (1) it is forbidden to split up the tochachah in parashas Bechukosai (where Moshe was speaking in Hashem’s Name), and (2) it is technically permitted to split up the tochachah in this week’s parashah (where Moshe was speaking in his own name) but customary not to do so (Megillah 31b; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 428:6). The Maggid elaborates on why we refrain from splitting up the tochachah.
He brings out the idea with a striking parable. A young boy fell ill to the point of being bedridden, and his father called in a doctor to treat him. The doctor examined the boy, and stated that he would have to prescribe medications to make the boy vomit. The father told the doctor to be cautious, because the boy had a very delicate constitution and could not withstand powerful medicines. The doctor replied: “Yes, I saw that he is a delicate boy the moment I set eyes on him. But still, we have to do what we have to do in order to cure him, and he must be made to vomit at least ten times.” The father said: “Even so, try to minimize the medicine as much as you can.” The doctor responded: “As I just told you, I realize that your son has a delicate nature. I will take care not to overload him. Now, bring me a pen and paper, and I’ll write down a list of the medications I wish to prescribe.” The doctor proceeded to fill the page, top to bottom and side to side, with a long and varied list of medications. The father, seeing the list, pleaded with the doctor: “Please hold back – my son can’t take all this!” The doctor replied: “Just wait, you’ll see that I’m making it easy for him with this fearsome-looking prescription. He won’t be overloaded at all.”
The father, having no choice, sent his errand boy to the drug store to get the medicine. The errand boy returned with several large bundles of medications. The father was extremely distressed. The doctor took the bundles of medications and asked to have a table for preparing them set up next to the boy’s bed. He began chopping up various herbs and grinding various other materials. Fumes began to waft through the room, and the foul smell nauseated the boy: He vomited twice. The doctor continued chopping and grinding on and on, the smell grew fouler and fouler, and the boy vomited more and more. Eventually he vomited for the tenth time. The doctor then announced: “All right, we can pack up the medicine now, we’re finished.” And then he said to the father: “See, my dear friend, it is just as I told you. Had I planned to actually administer medication, I wouldn’t have needed to write out such a long list. One or two spoonfuls would have been enough. But I saw that your son was too delicate to withstand any medicine at all. So I had to write out a long list of medications, and make a big deal out of chopping and grinding them, so that the process of preparing the medications by itself would effect the cure.”
So it is with us. If Hashem intended, far be it, to put us through calamities of the type listed in the tochachah in order to cure us of our spiritual ills, surely just a few of these calamities would have been enough to achieve the goal. Why, then, does the Torah present such a long list (98 curses in the tochachah of this week’s parashah)? The reason is that Hashem, in His love and compassion for us, sized up our constitution and concluded that we could not bear the dose of affliction needed to cure us, and He therefore sought to present us with a list of curses so fearsome that merely reading it would do the job. We can now understand very well why we do not split the reading of the tochachah into multiple segments. When the long list of curses is read in a series of short segments, it makes little impression on us. Reading the list of curses all in one shot heightens the impact it has on us, and makes it a more effective means of purifying our hearts.

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Haftaras Ki Seitzei

September 8, 2011
In this week’s haftarah, it is written (Yeshayah 54:4): “Do not be afraid, for you shall not be shamed. Do not feel humiliated, for you shall not be disgraced. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you shall remember no longer.” The Maggid discusses this verse in connection with a Gemara in Berachos 32b.
The Gemara expounds on Yeshayah 49:14-15 (in haftaras Eikev), interpreting these two verses as a dialogue between Hashem and the Jewish People. Hashem tells the Jewish People: “Can I possibly forget the offerings that you brought before Me in the wilderness?” The Jewish People reply that His having not forgotten these offerings leads them to conclude that He has also not forgotten the sin of the golden calf. Hashem replies that He has forgotten this sin (i.e., He directs His attention away from it). The Jewish People then say His having forgotten this sin leads them to conclude that He has forgotten their acceptance of the Torah at Sinai. Hashem replies that this merit He has not forgotten.
The Maggid explains this Gemara as follows. Sometimes a person’s conduct is not virtuous enough to be rated highly on an absolute scale, but can still be rated favorably in comparison with his past conduct. For example, when Achav delayed his first meal of the day as an act of repentance, and ate three hours later than usual, he was viewed as having fasted (Melachim Aleph 21:27-29, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:36). Based on this principle, on occasion Hashem purposely recalls our past misdeeds, in order to justify a favorable judgment. In this vein, it is written (Hoshea 7:1-2, homiletically): “When I set out to heal Yisrael, the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, along with the evils of Samaria …. Let them not say in their hearts that I raised the memory of all their evil deeds; rather, their misconduct brought them [into view].” (The word savavum in the verse, which in context means “surrounded them” [i.e., surrounded the Jewish People] can be read as meaning “brought them” [i.e., brought their evil deeds into view].) Hashem was saying that the Jewish People’s misconduct at that time created a need for Him to recall more serious evils that they committed in the past, in order to show them mercy.
In the dialogue recorded in the Gemara, the Jewish People were worried when they heard Hashem speak of their righteousness in the days of the wilderness. They feared that they might (again) reach a state where they could be rated favorably only in comparison with their past conduct, and they reasoned that if Hashem would recall only their past merits they would have no hope. They would be indicted for neglecting the Torah they had previously accepted. In order for them to be rated favorably in comparison with the past, Hashem would have to recall not only the Jewish People’s acceptance of the Torah and their good deeds in the wilderness, but also the sin of the golden calf. Hashem replied that He had forgotten the sin of the calf but still recalled the acceptance of the Torah; He was telling them that He knew they were approaching the level where they could be rated highly on an absolute scale, without reference to the misdeeds they committed in the past.
In the same vein, Yeshayah declares elsewhere (verses 29:22-23): “Therefore, thus said Hashem, who redeemed Avraham, to the House of Yaakov: ‘Yaakov will now not be ashamed, and his face now will not pale, when he sees his children, My handiwork [evident] within them, sanctifying My name – indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Yaakov and show awe for the God of Yisrael.’” When Yeshayah speaks of Hashem’s handiwork being “[evident] within them,” he is saying that the Jewish People will be imbued with such Godliness that they can be judged as eminent in an absolute sense, just observing them as they are. There will be no need to recall their previous lowliness – and they therefore will suffer no shame. Yeshayah’s prophecy in this week’s haftarah is along the same lines: “Do not be afraid, for you shall not be shamed. Do not feel humiliated, for you shall not be disgraced. For you shall forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you shall remember no longer.” The time will come when we will no longer suffer the humiliation of having our past disgrace called to memory, for we will reach the level where we can judged as eminent based solely on our current state.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas Shoftim

September 1, 2011
The Torah exhorts (Devarim 16:20): “Justice, justice, shall you pursue, so that you shall live and possess the land that Hashem, your God, is giving you.” The Maggid, expounding on this verse, links it to a verse about unjust gains (Yirmiyah 17:11): “Like a partridge chirping to summon chicks it did not bear, so is one who amasses wealth unjustly; in the middle of his life it will leave him, and at his end he will turn into a spoiled man.” The Maggid asks why Yirmiyahu chose to speak about the unsoundness and fragility of unjust gains using the analogy about the partridge, as opposed to other possible analogies, such as to a stillborn or a spider web. He asks further why Yirmiyahu notes only the partridge’s chirping to summon the chicks, without mentioning its other efforts in caring for them: sitting on them to warm and protect them, feeding them, and so on. He answers as follows. Chirping is the partridge’s most prominent activity; indeed, the Hebrew word for partridge is korei – a “caller.” A typical bird, such as a hen, which raises chicks that are its own, need not chirp so much to summon its brood. The chicks are naturally drawn toward their mother. The partridge, however, which raises chicks it did not bear, must chirp persistently to get them to come. The chicks regard the partridge as a stranger, to which they have no ties, and they therefore tend to stray from it. Similarly, if a person gains assets unjustly, so that they are not truly his, he has to struggle constantly to keep hold of them – and ultimately they will leave him. But if a person gains assets justly, he need not put forth exaggerated effort to keep hold of them; since they are truly his, they will naturally remain with him.
In general, misfortunes that cause a loss of money or other assets affect only those assets that a person gained by unjust means. Justly gained assets are immune. Thus, Shlomo HaMelech writes (Mishlei 10:22): “Hashem’s blessing is what brings riches; it adds no grief with it.” Assets that are gained justly, so that they may be called “Hashem’s blessing,” bring only satisfaction, without a trace of grief. The Gemara in Berachos 20a brings out the same idea, describing Yosef as demonstrating the principle that “one whose eye does not generate a desire to feed on what is not his, the evil eye has no power over him.”
Speaking of the end of days, Yeshayah states that people “will build houses and inhabit them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit” (verse 65:21). He then continues (verses 65:22-23): “They will not build and have another inhabit; they will not plant and have another eat. For the lifetime of My people will be as the lifetime of the tree, and My chosen ones will wear out their handiwork. They will not toil in vain or produce to reap confoundedness. For they are progeny that are blessed by Hashem, and their descendants will be with them.” The Maggid explains that there two reasons that a house which a person builds may be inhabited by someone else: either the house outlives its builder, or it is stolen from him. Yeshayah is ruling out both of these possibilities, saying that the builder’s lifetime will match his house’s, and that the builder will not be confounded by having his house wrested from him. Yeshayah then explains why: The people will be “blessed by Hashem” – with hands clean of theft – and therefore their assets will be immune to loss.
In this vein, the Torah tells us that if we pursue justice, we will live and possess the land that Hashem, our God, gave us. As the Torah puts it elsewhere (Shemos 34:24), no one will covet our land – our hold on it will be firm.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas Re’eh

August 24, 2011
This week’s parashah begins (Devarim 11:26-27): “See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing – that you hearken to the commandments of Hashem your God, that I command you today. And the curse – if you do not hearken to the commandments of Hashem your God ….” The Midrash expounds (Devarim Rabbah 4:1):
Said the Holy One Blessed Be He: “It is not to do you evil that I gave you blessings and curses. Rather, it is to inform you what is the proper path for you to choose and thereby receive reward. From where do we know this? From that which is written: “See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse.”
The Midrash is teaching us, the Maggid says, that we can tell that Hashem is acting for our good from the very fact that He presents before us the curses we will face if we disobey His instructions. The Maggid quotes another Midrash that brings out the idea explicitly. When Hashem assailed Egypt with the ten plagues, He gave Pharaoh advance warning before most of them. He issued an especially elaborate warning before the plague of hail. The Midrash remarks (Shemos Rabbah 12:1):
Thus it is written (Iyov 36:23): “Verily, in His power, God will boost. Who is like Him as a guide?”  He boosts the power of the righteous to do His will, and He shows the way to repentance. … Hashem did not wish to send the plague until He warned Pharaoh, so that he would repent.
If Hashem wished to cause suffering, He would conceal the calamities He has ready to deploy. Instead, He discloses them openly, so that people will repent and thereby avoid being struck. A verse in Tehillim reflects this idea. The psalmist Asaf declares (Tehillim 76:9): “From heaven You made judgment heard; the earth feared, and quieted.” Our Sages expound (Shabbos 88a): “First fear, and afterward quiet.” That is, Hashem’s giving notice that He is going to impose judgment is the very cause of the judgment’s eventual cancellation – if the notice is heeded, and the sinners mend their ways.
The Maggid links this idea to a message from Hashem to Yirmiyahu (23:34-36): “Any prophet or priest or member of the people who says ‘burden of Hashem,’ I shall deal with that person and his household. … Although a burden comes to a man of His word, you have inverted the word of the living God.” A prophecy of calamity, the Maggid says, has two effects. First, it prompts people to repent. Second, it “locks in” the calamity, so that if people fail to repent, the calamity will strike. Thus, the way a person relates to such a prophecy depends on his attitude toward Hashem’s directives. If a person is interested in listening to Hashem, he welcomes an ominous prophecy as an enlightening message informing him that he needs to improve his ways. Through the prophecy, Hashem boosts his power to do His will, and he appreciates this boost. If, on the other hand, a person is not interested in listening to Hashem, he regards an ominous prophecy as a burden that is going to cause him suffering. Hashem’s intent is for the ominous prophecy to lead to repentance and thereby serve as a source of blessing; a person who considers the prophecy bad is thus inverting His word.
In our day, we no longer receive prophecy, but Hashem has other means of awakening us. Misfortune is one of the key methods. Thus, earlier in the passage from Iyov quoted in the Midrash above, it is written (Iyov 36:8-12):
If they are fettered in shackles, trapped in ropes of affliction, He [thereby] informs them of their [evil] doings and their egregious sins, for these have waxed great. He opens their ears to discipline, and tells them to turn back from wrongdoing. If they listen and serve, they will finish their days in goodness and their years in pleasantness. But if they do not listen, they will pass away by the sword, and expire for lack of knowledge.
When misfortune begins to strike, we should repent before it strikes with full force. Even better, we should pay careful attention to the curses that the Torah presents, and mend our ways without having to undergo actual suffering. We should not be numb to the Torah’s words, “like a horse or a mule, devoid of understanding” (Tehillim 32:9). If we take the Torah’s blessings and curses to heart, we will reap the blessings.

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Parashas Eikev

August 17, 2011
In this week’s parashah, Moshe reviews the sin of the golden calf. The Midrash relates (Devarim Rabbah 3:15):
Moshe restored Hashem’s favor toward the Jewish People. What did he do? He ascended to Hashem in an angry manner. … When Hashem beheld Moshe’s angry demeanor, He said to him: “We have here two faces showing anger toward them, Mine and yours.” And right afterward (Shemos 33:11): “And Hashem spoke to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks with his fellow.”
The Maggid notes how baffling this Midrash is, and sheds light on it with a parable. A king gave one of his servants a silver goblet as a present. The servant discovered that it was imitation silver. He did not have the nerve to tell the king outright that the silver was fake, so he concocted a clever scheme to convey the message. He told the king: “I don’t want to take this goblet from you for free. Rather, let me buy it from you for full price.” The king named a price, and the servant brought him a number of gold coins corresponding to the named sum. Among these coins, the servant included one counterfeit. The king spotted it and said: “This coin is fake.” The servant replied: “By my life, Your Majesty, this coin is just like the goblet.”
The parallel is as follows. Hashem occasionally shows us anger, but He is never really angry at us. Thus, in regard to the statement in Eichah 2:5 that “Hashem was like an enemy,” the Midrash in Eichah Rabbah 1:3 remarks that it is not written that Hashem was an enemy, but only that he was “like” an enemy – He acted like He an enemy, but He was not really an enemy. The episode of the golden calf was one of the occasions that led Hashem to show an angry face toward us. Moshe saw the angry face and realized that it was just an outward show of anger, but he did not have the nerve to tell Hashem so directly. Instead, he approached Hashem with an angry face of his own. If Hashem would point out that Moshe’s anger was feigned, he could respond that his face was like Hashem’s face. And, indeed, Hashem ultimately acknowledged what was taking place, saying: “We have here two faces showing anger against them, Mine and yours.”
The Midrash then goes on to say that immediately afterward Hashem spoke to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks with his fellow. The intent here, according to the Maggid, is that Hashem and Moshe dropped the act and spoke the way they actually felt. In connection with the Torah’s statement about Hashem speaking with Moshe face to face, the Gemara relates (Berachos 63b):
Said the Holy One Blessed Be He to Moshe: “In the same way as I showed you a face, so, too, you show the Jewish People a face, and return the Tent of Meeting to its place [Moshe having moved it after the sin of the calf].”
The Maggid, in line with his explanation above, presents an interpretation of this Gemara differing from the usual one. In the Maggid’s reading, Hashem is telling Moshe the following: “In the same way as I just showed you a face of anger, but was not actually angry, so, you, too, make sure that you do not actually get angry at the people, but just show them a face of anger in order to strike fear in their hearts and lead them to repent. And when they do, return the Tent of Meeting to its place.”
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas Vaeschanan

August 11, 2011
This week’s parashah includes, among other topics, a review of the events surrounding the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. At that time, the Jewish People heard Hashem’s voice, and they were overwhelmed. Moshe relates (Devarim 5:21-26):
They [the Jewish tribal leaders and elders] said: “… You approach and listen to all that Hashem, our God, shall say, and you tell us all that Hashem, our God, shall speak to you, and we shall listen and we shall do.” And Hashem heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and Hashem said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they spoke to you – they did well in all that they spoke. Would that they have this heart to fear Me and to observe all My commandments all the days, so that it will be well with them and their children, forever.”
The Maggid analyzes this passage. He begins by noting two questions. First, what did Hashem mean when He said that the Jewish People “did well in all that they spoke,” and, in particular, what is the import of the word “all” here? Second, why did Hashem, in expressing His “hope” that the Jewish People would always fear Him, use the phrasing “this heart to fear Me” rather than saying simply “the heart to fear Me”? The Maggid then explains the passage in a way that answers these questions.
There are two prerequisites, the Maggid says, for a person to get on the right path. First, he has to have a teacher to tell him what the right path is. Second, he has to have the desire to heed the teacher’s instructions. A teacher who merely conveys information to his student without instilling within him a desire to listen will not get him on the right path. Thus, a teacher must have two qualities in order to succeed. First, he must be wise and knowledgeble. Second, he must have a captivating personality, radiating holiness and God-fearingness, so that his students will eagerly accept his words and live by them unswervingly forever.
A teacher can convey information about how to act through an intermediary or a written message. But he can instill a desire to listen only by speaking to the student directly. It is therefore essential that the teacher meet with the student face-to-face at least at the start. A single face-to-face meeting may make a strong enough impression on the student to instill within him a permanent desire to follow his teacher’s instructions. In such a case, further communication between the teacher and the student can be conducted via messages conveyed either though an intermediary or written notes. After an initial meeting, a student may promise his teacher to heed all messages he receives from him from then on. Such a promise will obviously please the teacher. On the other hand, the teacher cannot be certain that the student will keep his promise.
With this background, the Maggid turns to the passage from the parashah. The Jewish People had had a “face-to-face” encounter with Hashem and were overwhelmed by it. They asked Moshe, from that point on, to act as intermediary between Hashem and them, conveying Hashem’s instructions to them. And they promised to heed these instructions, saying: “We shall listen and we shall do.” Hashem reacted to their statement to Moshe by saying: “They did well in all that they spoke.” In using the word “all,” Hashem was referring to the Jewish People’s having spoken both about obtaining Hashem’s instructions and about their desire to obey them. Hashem then continued, saying: “Would that they have this heart to fear Me and to observe all My commandments all the days, so that it will be well with them and their children, forever.” Here, Hashem is expressing His “hope” that the Jewish People will keep their promise: that they will maintain the resolve they just expressed – “this heart” – to observe His commandments even when conveyed through an intermediary.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Haftaras Devarim – Chazon

August 5, 2011
In this week’s haftarah, Hashem exhorts us (Yeshayah 1:15): “Cleanse yourselves, purify yourselves – remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes, cease turning to evil.” The Maggid links this verse to the following passage in Megillas Eichah (verses 3:39-40):
Why should a living man lament, a stalwart man over his sins? Let us search and examine our ways, and return to Hashem.
He presents an analogy to bring out the message that Yeshayah and Yirmiyah are conveying. A person who makes his living through a good occupation can handle a loss due to an incidental misfortune; he can take steps to avoid the specific circumstances that led to this misfortune, and continue securely in his business. By contrast, a person who makes his living through a bad occupation should not worry about individual losses; instead, he should abandon his occupation entirely and find a better one. The same idea applies on the moral plane. If a person is on the path of good, but occasionally falls into sin, he should lament these sins and take steps to avoid them. But if a person is on the path of evil, it is pointless for him to lament specific sins; instead, he should search and examine his ways, and move to the path of good.
Dovid HaMelech declares (Tehillim 14:7, 53:7): “Would that Yisrael’s salvation come forth from Zion! When Hashem returns the captivity of His people, Yaakov shall jubilate and Yisrael shall rejoice.” Homiletically, we can interpret this declaration as saying that if Hashem would release us from the bondage of the evil inclination and set us upon a well-paved path toward an honorable livelihood and a life of sanctity, we would jubilate and rejoice. But, before Hashem extends His help, we have to take the first step by forming within our hearts a desire to abandon evil.
The Midrash relates (Vayikra Rabbah 3:3):
It is written (Yeshayah 55:7): “Let the wicked man abandon his way, and the crooked man his thoughts.” Rav Bibi son of Abaye said: “How should a person confess on erev Yom Kippur? He should say, ‘I acknowledge that, in all the evil I did before You, I was positioned on the path of evil. And I shall no longer commit deeds like all these.’”
The Maggid explains this Midrash as follows. We can often trace a wide variety of sins to an underlying evil character trait embedded in a person’s soul. For example, if a person’s heart is stricken with a lust for money, he will be led to rob, steal, use false weights, encroach on other people’s businesses, and commit other similar misdeeds. When a person is caught up in a pattern of sinning of this sort, it will not help for him to repent specific sins on an individual basis. Before he manages to correct one type of misdeed, he will start committing other types. Time will come to an end, but his sins will not. Instead, he must search and examine his ways to identify the evil character trait that lies at the root of his sinning, and then eradicate it.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas Masei

July 25, 2011
This week’s parashah begins as follows (Bamidbar 33:1-2):
These are the journeys of the Children of Israel, who went out from the land of Egypt, according to their legions, under the hand of Moshe and Aharon. Moshe wrote down their goings forth according to their journeys at Hashem’s command, and these were their journeys according to their goings forth.
In the second verse, the Torah initially places “goings forth” before “journeys,” but afterward it reverses the order. The Maggid offers several explanations for this. I present one of them here.
The Maggid introduces the explanation with a parable. A man lost his wife and married a second one, bringing into this second marriage a young son from the first. His second wife was mean toward the boy. The man was aware of the situation, and he looked forward to the day when he could marry the boy off and get him away from his stepmother. Eventually the boy came of age. Some time afterward, while the man was traveling on business, he met a girl who was suitable for his son. He discussed the matter with the girl’s father, and the match was made. He returned home and told his son: “I have made a match for you with a girl from the town I just went to. Soon you will get married. And then you will be free of your stepmother’s mistreatment, except for visits once every few months.” The son counted the days until the date of the wedding, when his suffering would finally be over. Finally, the time came to go to the other town for the wedding, and the father hired a wagon to take him and his son there. The stepmother was not going. The young man boarded the wagon with great joy, and then they set out on the way.
After some time, the young man asked the driver: “My friend, how far have we traveled now from where we started?” The driver told him. The next day, the young man asked the driver the same question, and the driver answered again. The day after, the father asked the driver: “How far do we have to go now to reach our destination?” The driver stated the remaining distance. The son remarked to the father: “It is interesting that I asked the driver how far we had gone, while you asked him how far we had left to go. I wonder why we asked about the progress of the trip in different ways.” The father replied: “You have never seen your future wife or father-in-law. You have no idea what lies ahead of you. You are thinking only about getting away from your stepmother. So you asked how far we have gone. I, on the other hand, know how what a fine girl your future wife is, and what a gentleman your future father-in-law is. I am really looking forward to the wedding. So I asked how far we have left to go.”
Similarly, when the Jewish People left Egypt to go to Eretz Yisrael, they did not understand the virtues of the land. They understood only that they were leaving Egypt, the place where they had suffered horrible affliction. Therefore, in reviewing their travels, they counted upward through the succession of stations, measuring how far away from Egypt they had gone. Moshe, on the other hand, was well aware of the virtues of the land, and he therefore counted downward through the succession of stations, measuring at each stage the distance left to travel to reach it.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas and Haftaras Mattos

July 19, 2011
In this week’s parashah, we read of the war the Jewish People waged against Midian – at Hashem’s command – for luring them into lowly acts of idolatry and immorality. We will develop a link between this episode and the closing passage of this week’s haftarah. The passage reads (Yirmiyah 2:1-3):
The word of Hashem came to me, saying: “Go forth and cry out in the ears of [the people of] Yerushalayim, saying, ‘Thus said Hashem, “I recall on your behalf the devotion of your youth, the love your bridal days – how you followed after Me in the wilderness, in a land unsown. Yisrael is holy unto Hashem, the first of His crop; all those who consume them shall be held guilty – evil shall come upon them,” – the word of Hashem.’”
The Midrash comments (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:13):
Why are the Jewish People compared to sand [in Hoshea 2:1]? If a person puts a handful of sand in a dough or a cooked dish, this addition has a marked effect – the sand blunts the teeth of anyone who eats the food. Thus it is with the Jewish People: whoever despoils them or steals from them in this world has his teeth blunted in the world to come. Thus it is written: “Yisrael is holy unto Hashem, the first of His crop; all those who consume them shall be held guilty – evil shall come upon them.” Whoever lays his hands on holy goods is subject to the penalty of death.
The Maggid explains this Midrash with a parable. A rabbi with a very wise son made a match between his son and the daughter of a certain villager – a man who was very rich, but also very unlearned. The young man spent a lot of time in the villager’s house, was exposed to the lowly ways of the villager’s family and friends, and started to turn into a degenerate. The young man’s saintly father heard what happened, and he took his son back home. The villager rushed to the rabbi and asked: “My master, why have you taken this step, to separate the young couple from each other? What fault is it of mine that your son has taken an evil path?” The rabbi replied: “Look, every since he was a little boy, my son has been exemplary in his conduct – diligently devoted to Torah and mitzvos and refined in his dealings with other people. He adopted the righteous ideals that I transmitted to him. It is only when he began spending time with you that he turned to lowly and empty pursuits. You exerted a negative influence on him, and so I hold you accountable for what happened to him.”
Similarly, when others exert a negative influence on us and cause us to fall short in fulfilling our holy duties, Hashem calls them to judgment. They may ask: “Why do You blame us for their lapses?” To this question, Hashem has a ready answer. He recalls on our behalf our formative years as a nation – the devotion of our “youth,” the love of our “bridal days,” the way we followed after Him in the wilderness, in an unsown land. He notes that when we were under His wing, we carried out our duties faithfully and wholeheartedly. He declares further: “Yisrael is holy unto Hashem, the first of His crop.” Here, Hashem is alluding to our forefather Yisrael – the Jewish People’s primary forefather, whose offspring all remained part of the Jewish People – and noting that Yisrael’s holy home is the source from which we all stem. It is in our blood to tread the path of life of holiness and devotion to Hashem. We step off this path only because of negative outside influences that lead us astray. Ultimately Hashem will exact retribution from all those who emitted such negative influences. All those who consumed us by ravaging our souls will be held guilty: evil shall come upon them – the word of Hashem.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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Parashas Pinchas

July 14, 2011
The Midrash expounds (Bamidbar Rabbah 21:3):
Just as the Holy One Blessed Be He involves Himself in the praise of the righteous, to publicize them within the world, so, too, He involves Himself with the denigration of the wicked, to publicize them within the world. He publicized Pinchas with praise, and Zimri with denigration. Regarding them both it is written (Mishlei 10:7): “The remembrance of the righteous shall be for a blessing, while the name of the wicked shall rot.”
The Torah presents, along with the laws that govern our lives, a number of stories about events in the lives of various prominent people. It describes the successes of righteous people such as Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Yosef. And it describes the downfall of wicked people such Korach and Zimri. Both the stories about the righteous and the stories about the wicked help motivate us to do good and avoid evil, and Hashem therefore saw fit to include both types of stories in the Torah. There is, however, an essential difference between the two types of stories, which is hinted at in the verse from Mishlei with which the Midrash concludes. The Maggid brings out this difference with a parable.
An aging merchant decided to take his son on a business trip, as a step toward readying him to take over his business. In preparation for the journey, the young man’s mother packed him a suitcase with clothes for various types of weather and a large quantity of delicious home-cooked food. While packing the suitcase, she remembered that her son would occasionally come down with a certain illness, and she therefore also included a vial of medicine for treating the illness in case of need. When she finished packing, she called her son over and showed him all the items in the suitcase. She described the food at length, and gave him an enthusiastic blessing that he should eat heartily and enjoy. She also pointed out the vial of medicine, and said: “I put your medicine here, if you need it.” She did not give him a blessing after showing him the medicine like the one she gave him after showing him the food, urging him to use it – she hoped he would stay healthy and be able to leave the medicine alone, rather than get sick and need to use it.
Similarly, Hashem packed the Torah with the supplies we need for our journey through life. He included stories about the successes of the righteous, in order that we savor these stories and yearn to follow in the footsteps of the people they tell about. He also included stories about the downfall of the wicked, to cure us if we fall ill and feel a desire to commit similar evil deeds. Hashem wants us to focus on the glorious tales of the righteous – to take a large helping of them, reviewing them again and again. In parallel, He hopes that we only rarely fall ill and need to take in the unfortunate tales of the wicked. The remembrance of the righteous should be for a blessing – it should enter our hearts in great measure and well up inside us. But the name of the wicked should rot – the unfortunate tales of the wicked should, so to speak, rot away out of lack of use.
David Zucker, Site Administrator

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