Category Archives: Sefer Bamidbar

Behalosacha

The twelve-day inauguration of the Mizbaiach by the Tribal leaders had concluded. The Torah continues its ‎holy narrative with specific instructions on how to kindle the Menorah. Rashi, quoting a Tanchuma explains ‎this unusual juxtaposition. ‎

When Aharon saw the dedication offerings of the chieftains, he felt distressed over not joining them; ‎neither he nor his tribe. Hashem said to him “By your life, yours is greater than theirs, for you will light and ‎prepare the lamps”.‎

Question

What exactly is the consolation afforded to Aharon? How does the kindling and cleaning of the Menorah ‎comfort him for the lack of enthusiasm offered by his tribe?‎

Answer

Maimonides is most famous for codifying the entire Oral Law in his magnum opus Mishneh Torah. In this ‎momentous work he condensed the complete gamut of the law into just fourteen volumes. Classically, ‎each volume has in own particular name, with the second designated as “The Book of Love”. This book ‎contains the laws of Brochos, Tefilloh, Tzitzis and other similar Mitzvohs. Why did the Rambam choose to ‎head this tome with such an attractive title?‎

My father-in-law, Dr. Yoel Jakobovits, pointed out to me a rather obscure fact. The Rambam in his ‎prologue to Mishneh Torah documented a small blurb on the contents and particular nomenclature of each ‎volume. ‎

Second book: I included Mitzvohs that occur regularly which we have been commanded in order to love the ‎Omnipresent and to remember Him constantly, for example Krias Shema, Tefilloh …. And I called the name ‎of this book “The Book of Love”. ‎

Maimonides tells us that he called this volume “The Book of Love” because it deals with commandments ‎that arise with recurring frequency. Incidentally, the Rambam has given us insight into the formation and ‎development of love. He teaches that it is the regular constant activities that breed love, and therefore for ‎an order which contains the everyday Mitzvohs ‘love’ is the most fitting label.‎

This information is heartwarming, this elusive emotion after which many people hanker is truly within ‎everyone’s grasp. It is not the generous gift of a diamond tennis bracelet that will build adoration and ‎affection. Rather it is constant giving which will do the trick: saying good morning, bringing coffee, taking ‎out the garbage etc… these giving behaviors which exhibit dependability and steadfastness to our ‎counterparts will generate true fidelity and friendship. ‎

‎(I am indebted to my father-in-law for this important piece of marital advice). ‎

We can use this idea to solve the problem of how Aharon was placated by Hashem. Aharon’s trouble was ‎that he saw all the other tribes charged with religious fervor; they were passionately inspired to inaugurate ‎the Temple, each leader had his very own day in the limelight to offer gifts on the Mizbeach. But from ‎Aharon’s own Shevet there was no showing, there was no commitment, no eagerness and no dedication. ‎It seemed to him, that from his nearest and dearest there was a severe lacking in their love of G-d or at ‎least in the exhibition thereof. Aharon was distraught. ‎

Hashem consoled him telling him not to be concerned, “Yours is greater than theirs, for you will light and ‎prepare the lamps” you have the opportunity to engender a long lasting love, this will develop in a far ‎greater measure by your constant daily activity in the Beis Hamikdash. You will switch on lights every ‎evening and clean them out the next morning. Those wonderful gifts from the others made an immense ‎loving impact but that is incomparable to the feeling that will grow out of your daily service. Yours is ‎greater than theirs.‎

Parshas Balak

Bilam was engaged by Balak to curse the Jews. Hashem discouraged his participation initially by declining his request to travel with the Moabite princes, and later by obstructing his journey with Angels the route. Bilam’s desire to meet Balak prevailed and he finally met up with Balak, however he did not end up cursing the Jewish people as his curses were switched to blessings.

Question

Why did Hashem make so many efforts to prevent his antics, if Hashem was prepared to alter the curses into blessings? Why discourage him in the first place?

Answer One

Hashem would rather avoid meddling into the affairs of man. Man has free will and this capability is given as much freedom as possible. It was not ideal to manipulate the vocal capabilities of Bilam, denying his ability of speech therefore Hashem preferred to discourage his attendance, ultimately extreme measures were called into play to preserve the continuity of the Jewish people.

Answer Two

Protecting Bilam’s dignity. Bilam suffered much embarrassment, both on the journey when he was humiliated by his donkey and when he was unsuccessful in carrying out Balak’s wishes. Hashem is interested in protecting the self-respect of a man as wicked as Bilam. We similarly find that Bilam’s donkey was killed after answering him back, in order to preserve his honor.

Answer Three

The Talmud tells us that all the cursed intentions of Bilam, when he actually blessed the people, eventually ended coming true. The one exception was “Ma Tovu” where he praises our Shuls and Batei Medrash. In this curse Bilam had intended to eradicate their houses of worship, but his intention never bore fruit, this “curse” was permanently turned into a blessing, but the other curses were only temporarily changed into blessing, hence it would have been more ideal if he didn’t make the trip.

Story

Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach (1825 – 1894) was the second rebbe of the Belz dynasty. He combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Chasidim and to fight the Haskalah (“Enlightenment”) movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century. His pioneering activities included founding the Machzikei Hadas organization.

Once a man who struggled with his evil inclination once came to the Belzer Rebbe, asking for him to pray that he die a Jew. The Rebbe replied “even the wicked Bilam asked that he die like the tzaddikim ‘let my end by like them’ the challenge isn’t to die as Jew, but to live as a Jew”.

Weekly Halachah

On Shabbos one may not use a grater to grate cheese.

Parshas Chukas

Miriam passed away towards the end of forty years in the desert the only woman to die during this era. This information is juxtaposed to the laws of the Red Cow, a law which was activated 39 years earlier. Rashi picks up on this anomaly and answers that this comes to teach us in the same way sacrifices atone, so too does the death of the righteous atone.

Question One

Why both? Why do we need sacrifices and the passing of the righteous? What does the death of tzaddikim attain that korbonos fail to achieve?

Question Two

Granted that the loss righteous are needed what sin prompted the need for Miriam’s death?

Answer

Perhaps we can pick up a clue from what transpired when Miriam expired. After her departure the well which existed in her merit vanished and the people started to grumble for water. Their request for water was legitimate, however the manner in which they demanded water was incorrect. This revealed an underlying flaw in their Middos, it is perhaps for this reason that Miriam died, and her death was to atone for their bad characteristics.

This then is the difference between Tzaddikim and Korbonos. Sacrifices come to atone for wrong actions; it is even possible to bring a korbon for wrong thoughts. However, it is possible that a person can be wicked even though there is no action to pin on him. For example a person can become frequently angry and frustrated without physically or emotionally injuring anyone, yet that person is far from the right path.

Not only do individuals exhibit faulty character development but sometimes an entire community may be going down the wrong road, a community might be sliding without actually transgressing any law. Tzaddikim who anchor and protect the generation, atone for the “community”. The death of a tzaddik can serve as a wake up message and provide forgiveness.

Lesson

When a tzaddik dies – Think.

Story

Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach (1899 – 2001) besides for being recognized as the Gadol Ha-Dor, was the Rosh Hayeshiva of “ Ponevezh”, a world renowned Yeshiva located in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Chaim Friedländer, filled the position as Ponevezh mashgiach.

Rabbi Chaim was diagnosed with cancer and the disease already in its advanced stages. The doctors told Reb Chaim he had two weeks to live.

With just two weeks left Reb Chaim was unsure how to maximize his time left in this world. Should he try and finish a mesechta, or start an interest free Gemach, or give as many public lectures as possible. Unsure of what to do, Reb Chaim approached Rav Shach for his sagacious advice.

Rav Shach told him “Work on your Middos, the Vilna Goan tells us that our primary purpose in this world is to refine our character, and therefore improving your Middos should be your main focus”!

Weekly Halachah

It is proper not to postpone consoling mourners till Shabbos. (Mishna Berurah 287:1).

Parshas Korach

Dasan and Aviram the notorious rabble-rousers finally met their fate. Moshe realized the futility in trying to convince them of the truth however Moshe didn’t just have them executed, which is the right of the Jewish king, but resorted to a miraculous method, they were to perish in a hitherto unknown manner: If I am correct said Moshe, let the ground open up its mouth and swallow them alive.

Question One

Why did Moshe not have them executed? What was Moshe’s point in having them depart in such an astonishing process?

Question Two

The punishment for Machlokes – quarreling, has an aspect more severe than any other crime. For in a fall-out not only are the active participants removed, but even their minor children and infants who are unable to reason, die with them. What is so unique about Machlokes?

Answer

A closer look at the Pesukim reveals the solution. Moshe says “the ground should swallow them alive” – this means that they had forfeited all right to existence. Dasan and Aviram were buried alive, they did not go through a stage of dying followed by burial, instead they were covered over while still energetically active.

This is not a punishment, but removal.  Harmony is crucial for perpetuating human existence, people are co-dependent beings. Arguments and quarrelling take over a person’s entire outlook; everything is viewed through the prism of their disagreement, and this inhibits any development. Therefore for those who engage in the antithesis of harmony, they threaten their very right to existence.

The swallowing of Dasan and Aviram was not because the humble Moshe was avenging his honor. It was the natural result of people who are at odds with making peace, people who argue for the sake of arguing. Dasan and Aviram rejected Moshe’s advances and showed their true colors, confirming they were disputatious personalities. They lost their life and existence retroactively, they had no right to life, and if they don’t exist nor can their children, that is why the ground swallowed them and their offspring.

Lesson

Arguing cannot co-exist with life.

Story

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969) known as the Ponevezher Rov, was once approached by one of his students who was seeking guidance in the process of divorcing his wife. He was dissatisfied with his marriage, which stemmed from the way his wife kept their home. It was always untidy and dirty. Otherwise, he had no complaints against his wife. 

“Let’s meet again tomorrow night to discuss this further,” the Rov said. “Please come to my home, where we can analyze your situation with no interruptions.”

The next evening, before the young man was due to arrive, the Rov and his wife messed up their apartment. They pulled the furniture out-of-place, emptied the cabinets haphazardly, and tracked dirt on the floors. By the time the student entered, their home looked as though a tornado had taken up permanent residence there. Anything to keep the young couple from further argument.

“Please, come in, come in,” the Rov said, and led the way through the chaos to his study. “Now, what was it that was bothering you?”

Having seen the Rov’s house in such disarray, the visitor gained fresh perspective on his own situation, and decided that divorce was not an option.
Weekly Halachah
Where there is no Eruv, one should not go outdoors with ordinary sunglasses on Shabbos.

Parshas Shelach

After the Jews accepted the evil report of the Spies, they were sentenced to forty years of wandering in the desert. This was no arbitrary number; the forty years corresponded to the forty days that the Spies spent surveying the Land of Milk and Honey. One year for each day that they failed to capitalize on the positive attributes of Eretz Yisrael. The Talmud (Chagiga 5b) questions how is the punishment consummate with their sin, after all did they sin for forty years? Answers the Talmud, that someone who sins for but one day of the year, it is considered as if he sinned the entire year.

Question One

How are we meant to comprehend this concept that one day is equal to a whole year? On the surface this seems to defy basic logic. Secondly it implies that if someone erred, he has a green light to sin until the end of the year!

Question Two

Even if we grant that one day of a year is equal to an entire year, surely that doesn’t mean that we multiply everything by 365. Rather, sinning a year and sinning a day are equalized. This being the case why were the Jews castigated 40 years corresponding to the 40 days, since the 40 days were part of one year they should have been punished for but a single year?

Answer

The rationale behind why one day can carry the weight of an entire year, is because the resolve and commitment that a person shows in one day can have sufficient input to sustain a years’ worth of activity. A person can be carried through the entire year based on the resolution of a day’s undertaking.

Of course there is no amnesty for the person who has sinned one day to sin the rest of the year, and he will be held accountable for every continued act, however this does not negate that one day can carry energy for the rest of the year. Thus a person who sins an entire year or a person who sins once, might have the same resolve to sin and therefore their punishments are equal.

We can now understand why the punishment meted to the Generation of the Desert was one year of traveling for each day of spying. Each day the people remade their minds to reject the land of Hashem. Each renewed descion carried the weight of an entire year, thus for their 40 rebellious days, they received 40 years of wandering.

Lesson

Sometimes its not the action that counts, but the determination behind the action.

Story

The Talmud (ibid) recounts that the father of the famous scholar Rabbi Yaakov bar Idi, maximized the time he could spend at Yeshiva. This entailed spending three months on his outward journey travelling to Yeshiva, one day at the school and three months on his return trip.

Some of the Rabbis called him the “one day scholar”. Rav Idi took personal offense at the appellation and became dispirited. He applied to himself the verse: “I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor” (Job 12).

Rabbi Yochanan was worried about divine retribution and said to Rav Idi: I beg of you, do not bring down punishment upon the Rabbis.

Rabbi Yochanan then went forth to the College and delivered the lecture: “Yet they seek Me day by day” (Isiah 58),  Do people learn Torah by day, and not learn Torah by night? The meaning of the verse is: Whoever studies the Torah even one day in the year, Scripture accounts to him as though he had studied Torah the whole year.

Weekly Halachah
Shabbos is suspended even to prolong the life of the terminally ill by a few hours (Shulchan Aruch 329:4).