Friday, September 29, 2006

Parshas Haazinu



This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.



A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.





Question:

This week's parshah summarizes Jewish History, from the birth of our nation, to sin and exile, and ends with our ultimate redemption. Well, actually, it ends with G-d taking 'revenge' on our enemies (see 32:36-43, especially 43) and makes no mention of our repentance and redemption. Why not end describing them like elsewhere in the book of Deuteronomy (4:29-31, 30:1-10)?

(I saw this question asked in Rav Nebenzahl's sermons for the Ten Days of Repentance.)







Blessings on the Torah





"When I call out Hashem's name, ascribe greatness to our G-d" (Deuteronomy 32:3).



The Talmud understands this verse to be the source for making blessing before learning Torah (Brachos 21a). The way I understand it, whenever we call our Hashem's name, we must 'ascribe to Him greatness', i.e. make a blessing, and the Torah is all names of G-d (Ramban's introduction to the Torah). I am not sure what it actually means that everything in the Torah is a name of G-d and it is not the focus of this devar Torah.



[[It appears to me that the Torah being G-d's names is the central piece of the Ramban's introduction to the Torah.]]



It can be implied from the Talmud that this blessing is Biblical and thus we should examine it. (For practical halacha regarding whether the Blessing over Torah is Biblical or Rabbinic, and the ramifications, speak to your local Rav.)





What exactly is the blessing we make on Torah?



Well, actually, in the Talmud, there are two, and we say them both (Brachos 11b, Tosafos 46a DH Kol…).



[[According to Tosafos 46a DH Kol, the first two are combined. I think a proof for this is that it says Rebbi Yochanan, unlike Rav Hamnuna who simply presents his own text, would conclude Shmuel's bracha with his piece, which implies that the first two really are one.]]



The translation given in the Artscroll siddur (page 17) is as follows:



Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to engross ourselves in the words of Torah. Please, Hashem, our God. Sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouth and in the mouth of Your people, the family of Israel. May we and our offspring and the offspring of Your people, the House of Israel – all of us – know Your Name and study Your Torah for its own sake. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who teaches Torah to His people Israel.



Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who selected us from all the peoples and gave us His Torah. Blessed are You, Hashem, Giver of the Torah.





When reciting, instead of pronouncing Hashem as Hashem, one should either say G-d or Adonai. Following recitation, one learns a little Torah.





It seems we can detect three themes contained within the blessings:

The command to learning.
A request to make our learning sweet.
Praising G-d for selecting us and giving us His Torah.


[[See also the Penei Yehoshua on Brachos 11b]]



Why these three themes? For the first two, I base myself on Rav Aharon Lichtenstein.



Theme 1: Jewish Males are commanded to learn for learning's sake and woman too, must learn, at the minimum, the laws that they must keep. This learning is a necessity. ( http://www.vbm-torah.org/archive/ralbirk1.htm)

Theme 2: While learning is a necessity, ideally we strive to love our learning. To thirst for Torah. It must not remain some dry intellectual endeavor but rather must engage our hearts as well as our minds. Ideally, our souls should be ablaze for the love of Torah. ( http://www.vbm-torah.org/archive/ralbirk1.htm)

Theme 3: I think we can explain the third theme based on a quote from Rav Aryeh Kaplan who, citing the Zohar, says "the Torah is like the oil in a lamp, with Israel as its wick, causing the light of God to shine forth upon all creation" (The Aryeh Kaplan Reader, page 166, citing Tikunei Zohar 21 (60a)). Our national mission is to perfect humanity in G-d's service, based on the Torah's teachings. One reason why we were given the Torah was to spread it among the world and we must give thanks that we have the opportunity perform this task.







Food for further thought and discussion:



Since we are supposed to love learning Torah, should we strive to make learning fun and/or easier or would this contradict the first theme, that we simply must learn Torah? How do we balance these two values?



Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai

Friday, September 22, 2006

Rosh HaShanah



This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.



A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.





In the Kingdom of G-d



"The Holy One, Blessed is He, said… on Rosh Hashana recite before Me [versus from scripture that speak of G-d's] Kingship… so that you should make Me your Kind" (Talmud Rosh HaShanah 16a, 34b).



So to speak "crowning" G-d as our King, accepting His Kingship over us, is a major aspect of Rosh HaShanah. On this day, we make G-d, who truly loves us and cares for us, our King and we do it without worrying about the past or the future. We don't worry about previous sins and we don't concern ourselves with whether we return to those sins in the future. All that matters is now (Rav Wolbe, 44).



This acceptance of G-d's sovereignty ideally must he complete. When a king commands, subjects obey. When our ancestors stood at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah, they uttered the famous words "we will do [whatever G-d commands unconditionally] and [now] we will hear [G-d's commandments]" (Exodus 24:7) which classically are viewed as the quintessential acceptance of G-d's kingship. However, for all of this, even if intellectually we subscribe to this ideal, we fail to implement it within our lives.



Understanding this situation well, Rav Yisroel Salanter said something which seems counter-intuitive:



"The person who is sincerely working on himself should see to it that he at least observes the easier part of a mitzvah – each person according to his situation…" (R. Miller, 55, quoting Ohr Yisroel letter 6).



Should one not focus on the harder elements of commandments? Why the easier ones ? One reason is that since it is harder to perform a hard mitzvah, the punishment for failure is significantly smaller if it exists at all. (Lack of punishment however does not mean lack of obligation.) The fact of the matter is that change takes time and it requires tremendous strength to simply refrain completely from say speaking ill of others with the snap of the fingers. Based on this, we all should certainly this Rosh HaShanah, think of as many easy things as possible that we can do and through them, accept G-d's Kingship.



Another reason I believe is that "one mitzvah leads to [another mitzvah]" (Pirkei Avos 4:2). While again, on Rosh HaShanah, we certainly should not think of the future, performance leads to understanding and more performance. When one for example decides to keep Shabbas for say two hours in the afternoon, an entire world of peace and joy will open up. "The action is the key to understanding and growth" (Rav Wolbe 21).



Thus, we can rest assured that any and all actions will slowly reveal new worlds. This is at the same time that we do not, cannot let ourselves become bogged down in concerns of the future such has 'Who am I fooling ? How will these changes last?' and worries of the past such as guilt over past sins.



May this Rosh HaShanah herald forth a new year in which our King is accepted by all of His children.





Food for thought and discussion:

What simple things can I do to enhance my Rosh HaShanah?





Have a sweet new year and a good Shabbas
Mordechai



Sources:

Alei Shor 1, by Rav Shlomo Wolbe

30 Days to Teshuva, by Rabbi Zvi Miller

Friday, September 15, 2006

Parshas Nitzvaim/Vayelech



This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.



A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.





Question:

"God said to Moses, 'When you go and lie with your ancestors, this nation shall rise up and stray after the alien gods of the land into which they are coming. They will thus abandon Me and violate the covenant that I have made with them. I will then display anger against them and abandon them. I will hide My face from them and they will be [their enemies'] prey. 'Beset by many evils and troubles, they will say, 'It is because my God is no longer with me that these evils have befallen us.' On that day I will utterly hide My face because of all the evil that they have done in turning to alien gods." (Deuteronomy 31:16-18)



If we recognize that our abandoning G-d is causing the problems, why will G-d then intensify the 'hiding of His face' ?







Choosing to Be Ourselves





Currently, as we approach the High Holidays, we are in the month of Elul and this time is classically viewed as a time of intimacy with our loving Creator. I would like to analyze an aspect of this very special time and, with the insights gained, answer some questions within the weekly parshah.



As mentioned, Elul is viewed as a time when we are especially close to G-d. An allusion to this may be found in the famous phrase from Song of Songs:



"I am to my Beloved and my Beloved is to me" (Song of Songs 6:3)



Taking the first letter of each word spells Elul. Thus, if this verse is a hint to this month, examining it should yield insights regarding the nature of this time and what we should be focusing on and how we should prepare for the upcoming High Holidays.



My teacher, R. Dov Moshe Lipman, last year pointed out that the verse actually contains two more words: "I am to my Beloved and my Beloved is to me, the shepherd among the Roses" (Song of Songs 6:3). G-d is being compared to a shepherd and we to roses. The first metaphor is clear, G-d loves us and takes care of us like a shepherd cares for his flock. But what of this comparison to roses ? What does it mean?



Elsewhere we also see ourselves being compared to roses. Thus, "I will be to Israel like the dew, and he [Israel] will blossom like a rose" (Hosea 14:6). The great Rav Hirsch beautifully comments, "The Lord is ready at all times to send Israel the dew of revival. Let Israel only open its heart, as the rose unfolds its petals, and turn it upward to accept the life-giving dew drops of God's word" (commentary of Psalm 80). Thus, one meaning of the comparison is that just as roses must open spread out their pedals to receive needed water, we must open ourselves up to receive G-d. Based on this, I think we can say that opening ourselves up, i.e. Teshuva, should be one of our goals during this month of Elul.



Let's think about this, about what Rav Hirsch is saying, for a moment. What is Teshuva? It means returning but returning to what or whom?



Rav Hirsch is not saying that our task is to become somebody else, rather, our goal is to unfold our pedals, essentially, to be ourselves. Just as the rose unfolds its pedals and reveals its true beautify, so must we return to ourselves, to who we really are deep inside.



Rav Soloveitchik gives expression to this idea:



"[Man is ignorant.] Let me qualify: when I say man is ignorant, I do not refer to his scientific achievements; in this area modern man is clever and ingenious. What man fails to comprehend is not the world around him, but the world within him, particularly his destiny, and the needs of which he is supposed to have a clear awareness… Quite often man loses himself by identifying himself with the wrong image. Because of this misidentification, man adopts the wrong table of needs which he feels he must gratify. Man responds quickly to the pressure of certain needs, not knowing whose needs he is out to gratify. At this juncture, sin is born. What is the cause of sin, if not the diabolical habit of man to be mistaken about his own self? ... While, in sin, man mis-identifies and alienates himself from himself, in the case of Teshuva he reverses the process of mis-identification: he discovers himself, and 'returns' to his true self" (Redemption, Prayer, and Talmud Torah, pages 7-9).





[[My friend Yona Meir, showed me a piece from Rav Kook's Orot HaTeshuva where he makes the same point. See also Ein Ayah on Shabbas regarding Chanukah. See On Repentance page 182-186, Redemption, Prayer, and Talmud Torah pages 7-9, and http://tamimah.blogspot.com/2006/07/parshas-chukasbalak-this-is-in-merit.html for more sources from Rav Soloveitchik. Many, many more sources point to the need to develop one's uniqueness. Thus, Alei Shor 1 page 20, Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky's biography page 51, my Rav, Rabbi Pasternak's two interpretations of Sen Chelkenu BiSorasecha, please put our portion into Your Torah and please let us find our own unique portion in Your Torah, Bemidbar Rabbah 13:14 regarding the Princes and how halacha transforms us from a flashlight to a laser beam - I am sure I wrote about this but can't remember when. My Rosh Yeshiva, R. Wolicki, mentioned (sicha 9/14/06) Rav Levy Yitzchak of Berditchiv of Lech Lecha and order of places Abraham is to leave. If I remember correctly, Rav Hirsch there says the same thing.]]



Having established that our task during this month is Teshuva, meaning returning to ourselves, I would like to use this to explain three issues in this week's parshah.



"Today you are all standing before God your Lord - your leaders, your tribal chiefs, your elders, your law enforcers, every Israelite man, your children, your women, and the proselytes in your camp, from the woodcutters to the water drawers" (Deuteronomy 29:9-10).



The intention of this verse apparently is to show that all Jews were gathered together. But then, how do we understand "from the woodcutters to the water drawers" ? This is like saying 'I like all fruits, from green apples to red apples'! They must be referring to two different groups but what is the difference?



My Rosh Yeshiva, R. Pesach Wolicki, said (sicha 9/14/06) metaphorically, we could say that woodcutters and water drawers refer to two different ways of "standing before G-d." Sometimes we need to have obstructions and barriers, which obscure our true selves, cut away (woodcutters) and sometimes we need to have the depths of our personalities drawn out (water drawers).





"This commandment that I am prescribing to you today is not too mysterious or remote from you. It is not in heaven, so [that you should] say, 'Who shall go up to heaven and bring it to us so that we can hear it and keep it ?' It is not over the sea so [that you should] say, 'Who will cross the sea and get if for us, so that we will be able to hear it and keep it?' It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can perform it" (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).



What exactly is this commandment? Ramban says it refers to teshuva. This can explain why we are told it is within our hearts. Teshuva is returning to ourselves, a more glorious personality is embedded deep within each of us, we just need to let it shine forth.





"I call heaven and earth as witnesses! Before you I have placed life and death, the blessing and the curse. You must choose life, so that you and your descendants will live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).



Free choice is in our hands. We can choose life and live or choose death and die. The consequences for choosing wrongly are quite grave! But wait a second, exactly what do "life" and "death" mean ? It cannot mean that if we do not keep the Torah, we will literally die; plenty of non-observant Jews live long lives.



I understand this verse to be a command for us to choose to live our own life, not another's! If we do not return to ourselves and live our own lives, we will in effect, be choosing death because living another's life is not life.



[[Although not the simple explanation, I take the text out of the contextual meaning because the command is in singular]]









Food for further thought and discussion:



Rav Soloveitchik (Redemption, Prayer, and Talmud Torah) says two ways we can discover our true selves are Torah study and prayer. How will prayer help us discover our true selves ? And how can we practically implement this in preparation for the High Holidays?



Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai
Parshas Ki Savo



This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.



A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.





Question:

"If you are not careful to keep all the words of this Torah, as written in this book, so as to fear this glorious, awesome name of God your Lord… God will bring back on you all the sufferings of Egypt that you dread, and they will cling to you" (28:58,60)



What are these sufferings of Egypt and why will they serve as our punishment?





Being a Part of Jewish History



When you come to the land that God your Lord is giving you as a heritage, occupying and settling it, you shall take the first of every fruit of the ground produced by the land that God your Lord is giving you. You must place it in a basket, and go to the site that God will choose as the place associated with His name. There you shall go to the priest officiating at the time, and say to him, 'Today I am affirming to God your Lord that I have come to the land that God swore to our fathers to give us.' The priest shall then take the basket from your hand and place it before the altar of God your Lord. You shall then make the following declaration before God your Lord:

'My ancestor [Jacob] was a wandering Aramaean. He went to Egypt with a small number of men and lived there as an immigrant, but it was there that he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. The Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and imposing harsh slavery on us. We cried out to God, Lord of our ancestors, and God heard our voice, seeing our suffering, our harsh labor, and our distress. God then brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm with great visions and with signs and miracles. He brought us to this area, giving us this land flowing with milk and honey. I am now bringing the first fruit of the land that God has given me' (Deuteronomy 26:1-10)



The bringing of the First Fruits is classically seen as an act of gratitude. Regarding the declaration made, Nechama Leibowitz (Studies on Devarim, 260-261), points out an oddity:



'My ancestor [Jacob] was a wandering Aramaean. He went to down to Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number, but it was there that he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. The Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and imposing harsh slavery on us. We cried out to God, Lord of our ancestors, and God heard our voice, seeing our suffering, our harsh labor, and our distress. God then brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm with great visions and with signs and miracles. He brought us to this place, giving us this land flowing with milk and honey. I am now bringing the first fruit of the land that God has given me'



The farmer, hundreds of years later, never was enslaved in Egypt, miraculously redeemed, or brought into the land. Why then does the farmer say 'us', 'we' and 'our' ?



Nechama Leibowitz answers that the farmer, like all Jews, must identify personally with Jewish history. As I understand it, this does not mean simply knowing Jewish history, in a dry academic sense. Rather, it means that we must see it as relevant, as a guiding force in our lives, and ultimately, we must strive to become a part of Jewish history.



What does our history tell us? Among other things, we see that:



There is a G-d
G-d intervenes in history
G-d chose the Jewish people for a mission, to guide the world back to Him
Our national existence is dependent on our service of and commitment to G-d and fulfillment of our mission


[[See News for Jews, Parshat Vayigash (page 31 in News for Jews booklets) for sources about our dependence on Torah. See Rav Hirsch in the Nineteen Letters for a Jewish view/philosophy of history.]]



Without accepting such beliefs, many facets of national existence of simply unexplainable, such as:



Our survival, without a homeland, scattering around the world in typically hostile nations
The age, widespread nature, and intensity of anti-Semitism (see http://www.aish.com/seminars/whythejews/index.htm)
Jewish movements in the past which have deviated from our historic practices, namely both the Written and Oral Torah, have faded away.
We have, after almost 2000 years, returned to our ancestral homeland, the Holy Land of Israel
Only the Jewish people have been able to successfully settle the Land of Israel


[[While quite probably we truly need prophecy to explain historical events, this is not a natural event and in Brachos (don't remember where), it says miracles are only done by G-d. Thus this return must be a kindness from G-d. It says in his Artscroll biography that Reb Yaakov Kaminetsky held this and my teacher, R. Moshe Lichtman, also told me this in the name of Rav Menachem Kasher. This of course need not mean that the state of Israel is the beginning of the flourishing of our redemption. As Rav Moshe Lichtenstein pointed out in the Jewish Action, such a claim means that our existence in the land is no longer dependent on mitzvos. This could be refuted saying that one way or another, we will do teshuva and thus never need to lose the land. This may be implied from Ezekiel but requires further thought. Rav Soloveitchik and Rav Yaakov Weinberg rejected messianic claims based on a Rambam regarding the Messiah. This entire discussion requires further thought]]



Indeed, we are hated for our differences but when we assimilate, we are still hated. Both Rav Yitzchak Arama and Rav Yitzchak Abrabanel, two prodigious scholars who left Spain in the expulsion, find this hinted to in our parshah:



"God will scatter you among the nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will gods of wood and stone, unknown to you and your fathers. Among those nations there will be no tranquility, and there will be no place for your foot to rest…" (Deuteronomy 28:64-65) (Nechama, 296-297)



And they see this echoed in the words of Ezekiel:



"But what enters your mind shall not come about, what you say, 'Let us be like the nations, like the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone.' As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with poured out fury, will I reign over you" (Ezekiel 20:32).



[[Rav Soloveitchik and fate]]



It is historical truths such as these which must guide our lives.





Food for further thought and discussion:



While identifying with our history is an essential component of the Jewish experience, why is it specifically ordained regarding bringing the first fruit ?
What is the significance of the rampant rates of intermarriage and assimilation found in the United States?
Based on all of this, how do we understand the requirement on Passover to see oneself as actually having left Egypt?


[[Why is the passage for bringing first fruits chosen as for midrashic amplification during the Seder?]]







Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai





[[Dr. Dershowitz book about What Israel Means to Me and essays from Rabbi Erich Yoffie, Natalie Portman, secular humanist Rabbi, and Reb Noach Weinberg, and then Rav Soloveitchik on destiny and in Prayer, Redemption, and Talmud Torah]]

[[Rav Moshe Eisemann's hagaddah]]

Friday, September 01, 2006

Parshas Ki Tetzei



This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.



A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.



If readers have any comments, especially critical ones, they would be most appreciated.





Question:



“Fathers shall not be put to death for the children and the children shall not be put to death for the fathers: every person shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16)



“…I keep in mind the sin of the fathers for [their] descendants, to the third and fourth [generation]” (Exodus 20:5)



How do we resolve this contradiction?





Keeping the Torah



“When you wage war against your enemies, God will give you victory over them, so that you will take captives. If you see a beautiful woman among the prisoners and desire her, you may take her as a wife. In such a case, when you bring her home, she must shave off her head and let her fingernails grow. She must take off her captive's garb and remain in your house a full month, mourning for her father and mother. Only then may you be intimate with her and possess her, making her your wife. If you do not desire her, however, you must send her away free. Since you have had your way with her, you may not sell her for cash or keep her as a servant.” (Deuteronomy 21:10-14).



In this passage, the Torah seems to say something insane, that Jewish soldiers are allowed to take females captive. With all of its emphasis on family purity and self control, how could we be allowed to do this?



And yet, it is not a blanket permission for soldiers to do whatever they want. The Torah requires that the soldier wait a period of time while the woman shaves her hair and lets her nails grow. If the soldier still desires the woman after the wait, and despite her bald head and long ugly nails, he can marry her.



G-d understood the power of a soldier’s passions in battle and created a mechanism to control the situation. It is only after certain requirements are met that the soldier can marry her. And if he chooses not to marry her, he must let her go.



This is exactly what Rashi says:



“and desire her, you may take her as a wife. The Torah [in permitting this marriage] is speaking only against the evil inclination. For if the Holy One, blessed is He, would not permit her to him, he would take her illicitly…”



[[The whole concept that mitzvos sometimes are concessions to our nature seems very strange. How does the Sefer HaChinuch (and Rav Soloveitchik) who say we simply can control our emotions deal with this? Also, will we keep these concessions in the messianic age? (And this one particularly, one can maybe imply from that it still is a sin because sin causes sin and he will hate her and father a rebellious son. I am unsure if this is correct. Rashi makes no mention of sin causing sin and though hating one’s wife I bet is a sin, is fathering a rebellious son a sin?)]]



Last year, spending Shabbas at Yeshivat Lev HaTorah, I heard R. Natanel Lebowitz cite the Chofetz Chaim who, based on this, said that since only here G-d makes concessions for our human nature and expects us only to go through this process rather than simply not take the woman at all, it means that everywhere else, G-d, knowing who we are, expects us to keep His Torah because we can do it!



Elsewhere, the Torah says:

This mandate that I am prescribing to you today is not too mysterious or remote from you. It is not in heaven, so [that you should] say, 'Who shall go up to heaven and bring it to us so that we can hear it and keep it?' It is not over the sea so [that you should] say, 'Who will cross the sea and get if for us, so that we will be able to hear it and keep it?' It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, that you can keep it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).



Although we can keep the Torah, G-d does not expect us to be perfect immediately. If He did, why would He allow for atonement? (http://www.messiahtruth.com/eternal.html) Returning to G-d is a long road which we are must walk.



[[Rav Dessler and Free Will]]



I heard that Franz Rosenzweig would, when asked if he performed some mitzvah and he did not keep that mitzvah, respond, no, I do not do that yet. He did not say, I don’t do that, rather he said, I don’t do that yet.



This is an important idea to remember as we approach the High Holidays.



Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai