Bereishis



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:



Why was the snake punished for "tricking" Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil if it, being an animal, lacked free will?





Work Ethic



It is obvious that hard work is necessary in developing one's religious personality. As Rav Wolbe put it, "there is no automatic in Judaism" (introduction to one of the versions of Alei Shor), serving G-d takes work. While we can be guided along a path so our energies are not wasted, nothing can remove the need to exert effort. No pain, no gain.



But while this is true regarding "religious" matters, what of "mundane" or "secular" issues? Should we work hard and strive for excellence when performing "secular" tasks or should is this striving for greatness reserved for religious tasks?



I think in this week's Torah portion, the former, always working hard, is advocated.



"God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work and to serve" (Genesis 2:15).



If the Garden of Eden was perfect, what need was there for Adam to work and serve? It must be that there is some inherit value in work. In fact, it is only after the command to work is (what we would understand to be) a religious command is given:



"God gave the man a commandment, saying, 'You may definitely eat from every tree of the garden. But from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, do not eat, for on the day you eat from it, you will definitely die'" (Genesis 2:16-17).



We could say from here that since the "religious" command immediately follows the "secular" command, a good work ethic is fundamental to religious growth and must precede it.



Our Sages say "Derech Eretz precedes the Torah" (Vayikra Rabba 9:3). What is derech eretz? Elsewhere the Talmud says "Four matters require strengthening, and they are: Torah, good deeds, prayer and derech eretz" (Brachos 32b). Rashi there explains what it means that derech eretz requires strengething:



"If he is a craftsman, he should be strong in his craft; if he is a trader, he should be strong in his trade; if he is a warrior, he should be strong in his martial skills"



We see that working hard is fundamental to religious growth and that in all of our activities, we should be striving for excellence.



When Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky was Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath, a group of high school students started learning Mishnah Breuerah (a Jewish legal book) during their secular classes (which were required by the yeshiva). Despite the fact that Reb Yaakov forbade it, some continued. Years later, Reb Yaakov noted that none of the students who disobeyed him were recognized as Torah scholars. The reason he gave was that laziness in one area (here in secular studies) will eventually permeate all areas of life. (Artscroll Biography, pages 325-326).



Lets all work hard in whatever we do.



[[http://vbm-torah.org/archive/develop/01develop.htm]]



Biography for Reb Yaakov Kamenestky

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaakov_Kamenetsky





Food for further thought and discussion:



How do we understand these statements in light of what we have just said:



Rabbi Meir said "Minimize business and involve yourself with Torah" (Ethics of the Fathers 4:12)

Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah said "Whoever takes upon himself the yoke of Torah, from him will be taken away the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly care; but whoever throws off the yoke of Torah, upon him will be laid the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly care" (Ethics of the Fathers 3:6)



Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai

Vezos HaBracha and Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah



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:



Jacob and Moses both blessed the tribes before their death. (Jacob actually blessed his sons who fathered the tribes.)



Jacob said: "Young lion, Judah, you have risen from prey, my son. He crouches, lies like a lion, like an awesome lion, who will dare rouse him ?" (Genesis 49:9)

Moses said: "To Dan he said: Dan is a young lion, springing from the Bashan" (Deuteronomy 33:22)



Why are both Judah and Dan referred to as young lions, and why the former by Jacob and the latter by Moses ?







Clinging to G-d in Support of Torah



"To Zebulun he said: Rejoice Zebulun in your excursions, and Issachar in your tents" (Deuteronomy 33:18).



Why are both Zubulun and Issachar mentioned together? And what are these "excursions" and "tents" referred to ?



Rashi answers both questions. First, he explains, based on a medrish, why both are mentioned together:



Rejoice, Zebulun, in your departure, and Issachar, in your tents Zebulun and Issachar entered into a partnership [with the following agreement]: Zebulun would dwell at the seashore and go out in ships, to trade and make profit. He would thereby provide food for Issachar, and they would sit and occupy themselves with the study of Torah. Consequently, Moses mentioned Zebulun before Issachar [even though the latter was the elder of the two], because Issachar's Torah came through [the provisions of] Zebulun. — [Gen. Rabbah 99:9]



Thus, the next two Rashis explain that Zubulun's "excursions" refer to business ventures and Issachar's "tents" refer to study halls.



Zubulun supported Issachar's study and was thus placed first which implies that supporting Torah study is in some ways more important than actually learning it. Why should this be the case ? Certainly, we could say Issachar could not learn without Zubulun but would the Torah be studied at all without Issachar? Why is Issachar second?



[[Issachar could not learn without his brother may or may not be implied from Rashi. However, R. Dr. Yehudah Levi (Torah Study, page 47) cites a medrish (MRT VaYechi 11) which says this explicitly. One can also ask according to Juggler and the King (p 69-70) that while in real life water supports trees, the tree is supporting the water. (What is MRT ?)]]



I think the answer is because Zebulun accomplishes two things:

1 – He allows Issachar to learn Torah

2 – He himself supports Torah



Our question was based on the assumption that supporting Torah only has value in so far as Torah is learned. However, supporting Torah is intrinsically valuable.



[[See also Chinuch and Torah Temimah about mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah. Also R. Dr. Levy part 1 section 6]]



For example, the Talmud (Kesubos 111b) says that we "cling to G-d" by supporting Torah scholars. However, why would supporting Torah scholars be classified as clinging to G-d ?



I think the answer is that, by learning and living Torah, one becomes Godlike (but not G-d!) and by supporting one who resembles G-d is like cleaving to G-d Himself.



[[Es Hashem… to include Torah scholars. Also, Maharsha on Kesubos 111b classifies the methods and based on what he says there, we could say that supporting Torah scholars is also a fulfillment of loving G-d with all our means – money. If I remember correctly, Maharal (Derech Chaim 1:5) explicitly says supporting Torah scholars is loving G-d]]



According to this, while there is great importance in supporting Torah learning, perhaps the ideal is to specifically support a Torah scholar. These scholars will, eventually, become leaders of the Jewish people, utilizing their scholarship and piety to serve others.





We finish and begin again the Torah this Simchas Torah. While we should certainly rededicate ourselves to learning, each of us on our own level, among the other important causes which need funding, we should allocate some money to supporting Torah scholars.





Food for thought and discussion:

We begin to pray for rain again on Shemini Atzeres (which really is the same holiday as Simchas Torah). Why pray for rain and restart the Torah reading on the same day ?





Have a Simchas Torah full of joy and a good Shabbas
Mordechai

Sukkos



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.





Basics for building a sukkah: http://www.aish.com/sukkotsukkah/sukkotsukkahdefault/Building_a_Sukkah_-_Basics.asp

Laws for the Lulav and Etrog: http://www.aish.com/sukkotspecies/sukkotspeciesdefault/Laws_of_the_Four_Species.asp





Loving Trust



On Sukkos, we dwell in sukkot, booths, for seven days as it says "During [these] seven days you must live in thatched huts. Everyone included in Israel must live in such thatched huts" (Leviticus 23:42). Why? What messages should we be attempting to internalize while performing this mitzvah? Fortunate for us, the Torah reveals to us:



"This is so that future generations will know that I had the Israelites live in sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt. I am God your Lord" (ibid. 43).



What exactly does it mean that we dwelled in sukkot? What are sukkot? According to the simple meaning, it certainly means booths, that we lived in huts during the years in the desert. But we find in the Talmud a disagreement about the deeper meaning. Rabbi Akiva holds that we understand this verse literally, that sukkot mean booths while Rabbi Eliezer says that metaphorically, sukkot refer to the Clouds of Glory which followed us around and protected us in the desert (Sukkos 11b).



Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer, we are celebrating G-d miraculously protecting us in the desert. And according to Rabbi Akiva, we are celebrating that we… stayed in huts? Why have a seven-day holiday because we stayed in huts?



Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein, in his Aruch HaShulchan, explains that according to Rabbi Akiva, we celebrate Sukkos in order to publicize and internalize our great trust in G-d, that we trusted in G-d, and our entire nation, laden with young and elders, followed Him into the desert, a harsh land inhospitable for life (see Jeremiah 2:2) (Aruch HaShulchan Orach Chaim 625:2-3 I am grateful to my Rosh Yeshiva, R. Scott Kahn, for teaching us this piece).



Thus, according to Rabbi Akiva, we are focusing on our trust in G-d and according to Rabbi Eliezer, we focus on G-d's love for us and His protection.



I believe both of these opinions are important for Sukkos. Sukkos is a time of intense love between us and G-d (Song of Songs 1:4, see especially last Rashi). How do we cultivate such love?



[[According to our current approach, Rashi seems to merge both opinions together.]]



Rav Dessler says that all humans fundamentally can either be a giver or a taker, selflessly looking for ways to help others or selfishly only seeking ways to better oneself (Strive for Truth I, 119-120) and we must strive to be givers. He than says that giving is what creates love, and love without giving will fade away (ibid. 127, 129). My experience has born this out, by giving I increase my care and concern for others and by not giving, I become apathetic. Finally, Rav Dessler says that gratitude, the desire to repay another, stems from the desire to give. A giver, not only wants to give, but does not want to take but rather only to give, and thus must respond to kindness with kindness. Takers on the other hand do not feel gratitude and their display of thanks is only in order to receive more (ibid. 147-148).



Back to Sukkos. Rabbi Eliezer says we must remember all the kindness that G-d showered upon us during the forty years in the desert. Rabbi Akiva says we must remember that we are givers, we fundamentally want to better others. Consequently, because of our love for G-d, we trusted Him to lead us through the desert. We did it because we wanted to give, to give ourselves over to Him.



Because we are givers, we cannot accept free gifts and thus must attempt to repay others to the best of our ability. We cannot truly pay G-d back for all He does but we can do the best we can do the best we can, by redoubling our efforts to serve Him with every bone and tissue in our bodies.



Practically speaking, I think that we must during this time focus on giving to others and being thankful for what we have.



Practically, I think we should every day think of somebody and how we can go out of our way and help them and then do it. Furthermore, I think we should every day think of something new which we are grateful for. I think we should write down both kindnesses we do for others and things we have to be grateful for in order to help us internalize the fact that we are givers who want to give.





Biography for Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yechiel_Michel_Epstein





Food for further thought and discussion:

What can we do to increase our opportunities for performing acts of kindness.





Have a good Shabbas and a wonderful Sukkos,
Mordechai

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.





A Clarification for last week's devar Torah: The Blessing before Torah is recited only once each day, in the morning.





Question:

Describing the Yom Kippur procedure:



"He [Aaron] shall then take the two goats, and stand them before God at the Communion Tent entrance. Aaron shall place two lots on the two goats one lot [marked] 'for God,' and one [marked] 'for Azazel.' Aaron shall present the goat that has the lot for God so that it will [later] be prepared as a sin offering. The goat that has the lot for Azazel shall remain alive before God, so that [Aaron] will [later] be able to make atonement on it and send it to Azazel in the desert" (Leviticus 16:7-10).



According to the Ramban, Azazel means Satan. What does it mean that we send a goat to Satan?! (Remember, Satan is not an independent power.)







The True Truth



Much of this comes from my teachers Rabbi David Fohrman and Rabbi Ariel Greenberg. However, some thoughts are my own so if something seems odd or wrong, do not ascribe it to my teachers.





During Yom Kippur, we read the book of Jonah. I will assume that we all are familiar with at least the basics of the story, the command to preach in Nineveh, Jonah's flight, being swallowed by a big fish, etc.



The question we must ask is why do we read the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur? If it is because we are to be inspired by Nineveh's Teshuva, why not only read chapter 3, and moreover, there are other, perhaps more inspiring acts of repentance in Tanach. There must be a deeper reason why we read Jonah on Yom Kippur.



Textually too, one glaring question jumps out at us, G-d commanded Jonah to travel to Nineveh to tell them to repent, why does Jonah run away? This seems ludicrous! Does Jonah, a prophet, really think he can run away from G-d? The answer must be no but then, why would he do it?



Jonah himself actually reveals this to us. After the inhabitants on Nineveh perform Teshuva:



"God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it. Now it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was grieved. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "Please, O Lord, was this not my contention while I was still on my land? For this reason I had hastened to flee to Tarshish, for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil. And now, O Lord, take now my soul from me, for my death is better than my life'" (Jonah 3:10-4:3).



Jonah was upset that G-d would not destroy Nineveh. He knew that if he preached in Nineveh, they would perform Teshuva, and G-d, being "a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil" would not destroy them. Jonah ran because he did not want Nineveh to be spared. And apparently, he prefers dying than seeing Nineveh forgiven! Let us try to understand Jonah's position.



First, we must compare Jonah's description of G-d to one found in the Torah, the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy revealed to Moses after the Sin of the Golden Calf (see Exodus chapter 34).





Exodus:



Hashem, Hashem, a merciful and kind G-d, slow to anger, with much kindness, and truth. He remembers deeds of love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion and error.

Jonah:



gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, with much kindness, and relenting of evil





The difference is apparent. Jonah has in the words of a friend of mine, 'jacked with thirteen Attributes of Mercy' and has replaced the "Truth" with "Relenting of Evil." Jonah is accusing G-d of not being truth. That instead of being true and punishing evildoers, He relents from punishing. Essentially, Jonah is saying G-d is a pushover!



Unlike G-d, Jonah says he knows truth. His father's name is אֲמִתַּי (Amitai), from אמת meaning truth. Jonah is the son of truth, he knows that truth = judgment. You sin, you die.



To strengthen Jonah's argument, our Sages state that Nineveh did not perform complete teshuva (Yerushalmi Taanis 2:1) and we can infer this from the text.



[[See however the Mishnah Taanis 2:1]]



The King of Nineveh commanded that "…everyone shall repent of his evil way and of the dishonest gain which is in their hands" (Jonah 3:8).



G-d saw that "…they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil that He had spoken to do to them, and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10).



It seems that they abandoned "their evil way" but not "dishonest gain." Their teshuva was incomplete. And yet, G-d accepted it. And it seems that it was this, the acceptance of incomplete teshuva, that Jonah objected to. Jonah certainly agrees with complete teshuva, which results in a person's complete transformation, 'killing' the sinner and leaving a truer self in its place. But partial teshuva, that is falsehood! And Jonah would rather die than see falsehood.



[[See Malbim, although he ties this into Jonah not wanting Israel to look bad.]]



In chapter 4, G-d proves to Jonah he is wrong.



G-d miraculously creates a gourd that protects Jonah from the sun. The next day, He kills the gourd and Jonah feels the sun's full force.



"And G-d said to Jonah; 'Are you very grieved about the gourd?'

And he said, 'I am very grieved even to death.'

And Hashem said: 'You took pity on the gourd, for which you did not toil nor did you make it grow, which one night came into being and the next night perished. Now should I not take pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are many more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and many beasts as well'" (Jonah 4:9-11).



G-d tells Jonah, you have no right to be upset about the gourd, according to truth, it shouldn't exist; plants don't appear overnight! Nineveh, they are a great city, according to truth, they too should die, but look, they don't know what they are doing.



Jonah, could respond that he wants the gourd back, for the simple reason that it protected him from the scorching sun. Jonah would say, even though the gourd's existence ignored the rules of nature, because it had a useful purpose, we could say that truth could make room for its existence.



G-d would then tell Jonah that he has a valid claim. If the gourd deserves to exist simply because it serves a purpose, so too Nineveh, that they are G-d's children too, and as such, have a mission in this world and can do so much good! And unlike the gourd, which according to nature, should not exist at all, the people of Nineveh have already taken the steps in the right direction. Thus, truthfully, Nineveh should remain!



G-d loves us, more than we can ever imagine. We read Jonah on Yom Kippur because, we see that, at least at the start, all we must do is start heading in the right direction, the right direction towards our true selves, our mission, and our destiny.







Food for further thought and discussion:



How do we make sure we continue to travel in the right direction?



May are being written and sealed in the book of life be completed,
Mordechai