Israel and The Sin of Expulsion

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by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha notes:

“And Aaron did so, toward the face of the Menorah he kindled the lamps, as Hashem had commanded Moshe.” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 8, posuk 3 translation as rendered in the Artscroll Chumash, page 775)

Many commentators including Rashi and the S’fas Emes, as cited by by R’ Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah”, note that this posuk expresses the epitomization of the enthusiasm and constancy of Aaron HaKohen’s Service in the Mishkan as a paradigm for B’nai Yisrael to emulate.

R’ Pliskin writes (Sefer “Growth Through Torah”, Parsha Beha’aloscha, page 318):

Rashi comments: “This is to tell the praise of Aaron that he did not change.”

The S’fas Emes explained that usually when a person starts something new, he feels very enthusiastic about what he is doing. He is excited about the good he is doing and feels very motivated. But after some time passes the enthusiasm and excitement get lost. This is the praise of Aaron. Every time he lit the lamp in the Tabernacle [Mishkan] he did so with the same enthusiasm as on the first day.

In this context, Shem Mishmuel (translated to English by Rabbi Zvi Belovski) provides commentary on both Aaron HaKohen and the Kohanim and the service of the Levites (page 319-322). He cites Midrash Tanchuma, on Beha’aloscha 5:

…All of the tribes brought offerings, except for the tribe of Levi…. Aaron did not offer together with the other princes. He said, “Perhaps the tribe of Levi is not acceptable because of me.” Hashem said to Moshe, “Go and say to Aaron, I have prepared you for greater things than that! … As for the offerings, they are only applicable when the Beit HaMikdash stands. But the lights are everlasting… and all of their berachot which I gave to you so that you may bless My children will also never be cancelled.

Shem Mishmuel then cites Ramban from Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 8, posuk 2, and then comments:

…The whole tribe of Levi were servants of Hashem…. When the Beit HaMikdash is not extant and the korbonot are cancelled, lighting the Menorah becomes defunct. Rather, this midrash hints at the Chanukah of the Chasmonaim [the Chanukah familiar to us], which applies even after the destruction…

Thus, in place of the temporary offerings which the other tribes, Aaron was promised something which would be everlasting. The dynasty of the Chasmonaim, who were Kohanim…, fought against the Greco-Syrians in the time of the second Beit HaMikdash. They rededicated the defiled sanctuary and when they came to relight the Menorah, … one day’s quantity of oil burned for eight. In the merit of the Chasmonaim, Jews throughout the world have celebrated Chanukah celebrated Chanukah ever since.

He then contrasted the Kohanim and the Levi’im:

…The Levi… connect[s] earth to heaven. His role in the Beit HaMikdash is as a singer…. He inspires the people to turn heavenwards, lifting them from their physical limitations to the spirritual world. The Kohen, on the other hand , connects Heaven to earth. He draws Hashem’s presence into the Beit HaMikdash, the fire into the altar, and infuses the world with the Divine.

And so, whereas the offerings of the other Tribes at the inauguration of the Mishkan was temporary, the service of both the Kohanim and Levi’im are permanent, i.e. that even throughout the generations of Galut with no Beit HaMikdash, the Kohanim are able to perform Birkat Kohanim daily, or at least on Yom Tov, anywhere in the world, and the Levi’im can sing in any Shul, bringing man to lift soul to Shemayim, to the spiritual heights.

So, what does Aaron Hakohen’s enthusiasm and constancy, and the respective services of the Kohanim and the Lev’im have to do with Aleinu?

Well, as if it weren’t enough that we blow through P’sukei d’Zimra and that the Sh’liach b’Tzibbor’s repetition of Shemona Esrei ranges between the speed of Kentucky Derby winner “CarryBack” and a 100-plus mph Aroldis Chapman fastball, by the time we get to Aleinu, most blow through it at warp-speed in a mad rush out of shul. This author has several times previously noted that it seems as if Aleinu is but an after-thought to most. If it weren’t for Kaddish afterwards, gang-way for the stampede! Not exactly the personification of the paradigm of Aaron HaKohen’s enthusiasm and constancy. This mad dash sounds more like what R’ Pliskin subsequently writes on the above posuk (ibid - Sefer “Growth Through Torah”, Parsha Beha’aloscha, page 318):

…After doing the same thing over and over, people get bored… In order to accomplish anything, one needs to master the ability of sustaining enthusiasm…. as if it were the first time.

Aleinu L’Shabeiyach: The verbalization of OUR Chiyuv — it’s our obligation as Jews to praise and glorify Hashem’s name. Aleinu is the most often said, the most repetitious and unchangeable, yet the most under-rated, least respected, but perhaps most of all of our daily tefillot. Noone even bothers to take the time, when vocalizing the tefillah, to even focus on the meanings of it: that Yehoshua davened it forwards, backwards, sideways through as the Jews encircled Yericho and the Shofars blew until Yericho’s walls fell in heaps. Heck, a Shliach Tzibbor was recently timed at less than 30 seconds. He must’ve blown off the second paragraph.

Rabbi Ari Enkin makes this compelling statement regarding Aleinu in his Halacha Sefer (”Daled Amos” pge 24):

I have heard interpretations that the entire prayer service is simply one gigantic preparation for the recitation of Aleinu.

Rabbi Enkin then includes a reference footnote to the Mishne Berura 132:8A where the Rama tells us:

Say “Aleinu L’Shabeiyach” while standing after tefillah and be careful to daven it with kavanah.

From where and from whom did the impetus for Rabbi Enkin’s compelling statement come? R’Shimshon Pincus, who asks a startling question in his well-known and oft-referenced sefer on Tefillah; Nefesh Shimshon, as well as other sources, provide jaw-dropping citings, some of which are para-phrased here give clues to back Rabbi Enkin’s compelling statement:

1. R’ Pincus cites a responsa of the Gaonim from sometime between 500 to 1,000 CE where someone asks: How is it possible that Aleinu is said in Chutz L’Aretz? Such a high-level tefillah shouldn’t be permitted to be davened except in a place close to Hashem, Yehoshua only davened Aleinu upon entering Eretz Yisrael.

   From this question, we see the specialness of Aleinu — that on no other tefillah is such a question asked. There must be something
   great, mighty and elevated in Aleinu which can’t be appreciated in any other locale.

2. R’Pincus cites the Gry’z Z’l as noting that the whole power of the Yetzer Hora and its troops on the human mind is through the imagination, convincing man that he (man) is in control.

   If only man would say with vigor and strength that… [all that the Yetzer Hora has convinced man of man’s control of] are Hevel V’rik — vanity and emptiness and that there is nothing real in them, he (man) would then find it easier to recognize that… Hashem Keilokim — that there is nothing else. Afterwards, Satan would not have power to mess with man’s mind because man realizes that everything is dependent upon Him. R’Pincus brings as Aleinu’s purpose that it reinforces the feeling of the Jew, as he leaves tefillot, that he is totally dependent upon Hashem.

3. Another Sefer, L’David Shiur by Asher Elbaz seems to answer R’Pincus’ citing from Gaonim responsa citing R’Hai Gaon which indicates that by those in Chutz L’Aretz aiming their tefillahs toward Israel and toward the Beit HaMikdash, the Jewish world’s tefillahs rise to Shemayim from the Mikdash.
4. Sefer L’David Shiur cites the Rokeach who notes that Yehoshua Ben Nun repeated Aleinu on his knees in awe and in a loud voice in a tune which makes the heart rejoice. Therefore, a person should have kavanah to sing Aleinu with all of his might to his Creator.
5. Sefer L’David Shiur cites the Chida which says to say Aleinu word-by-word [seeming obvious to not slur or mumble-jumble them] because it is a very awesome praise full of very high secrets.
6. 6/ L’David Shiur also cites the M’Chazik Bracha (Koof, Lamed, Bet) which indicates that there is no other praise to our Creator like Aleinu and that it is higher than all of the praises in the world.

But, yet we have the unmitigated gall to blow through Aleinu and then flee out of Shul three times a day, like kids running from school lest they be piled with more lessons and homework? Indeed! People don’t seem to realize, or they seem to discount, that Aleinu is an integral part of Our Service — Our individual and collective Divine Service. It’s Our chance to emulate Aaron HaKohen and pray for the world to cleave to Hashem — the Creator of the world and all that is in it..

And when someone questions why or how it is possible to give such short shrift to Aleinu, the responses seem with defensiveness,
invoking oft-overused expression: “ti’erka b’tzibbor”, and with rationalization about how they have to get to work, drive the kids to Gan or to Yeshiva Ketanah, etc. — as they run out of Shul like a bunch of scared rabbits, afraid of their shadows, in dread fear of being fired, or of being yelled at by their spouse, etc. instead of acting like men.

But whose time is it anyway?? And if Hashem controls all, might it then stand to reason that, if they took a little more time — if the Shaliach Tzibbor slowed down and properly pronounced the repetition of Shemonah Essrei and didn’t rush through Aleinu, to get to the Kaddish afterwards, so that everyone could then flock out of Shul like a buffalo herd, that Hashem would then bring a reconfiguration to our day such that the extra time wouldn’t make kids late for school, wouldn’t make adults late for their jobs, that all of their work would get done on time and that noone would fear for their jobs?? Or, if things didn’t happen precisely that way, that what did happen would show for the best anyway?

And could it be, that just as Hashem Gave unto the Kohanim and Levi’im eternal abilities far greater than the fleeting offerings, He Gave Kol B’nai Yisrael an eternal gift — our Aleinu prayer? Again Rabbi Enkin’s compelling comment in his Sefer:

I have heard interpretations that the entire prayer service is simply one gigantic preparation for the recitation of Aleinu.

Shouldn’t B’nai Yisrael always treat Aleinu with the same degree of seriousness to which Aaron HaKohen treated his daily service and to which Kohanim and Levi’im throughout our generations treated their respective service, with or without the Beit HaMikdash??

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

Like last year, our Parsha Naso falls out on the Shabbos after Shavuot, and Shem Mishmuel (translated to English by Rabbi Zvi Belovski) provides commentary about one of the 12 princes — Elishama, prince of Shevet Ephraim — all of whom brought identical gifts at the inauguration of the Mishkan.

Shem Mishmuel cites our Parsha (Bamidbar Perek 7, posuk 48) and comments (Shem Mishmuel, pages 315-318):

“On the seventh day, the prince of the children of Ephraim — Elishama ben Amilud.”

“Ephraim is the strength of my head…” (Tehillim 60:9) — this refers to the prince of Ephraim, who brought his offering… on Shabbos, as the verse says…. We know that it was Shabbos, for we have… demonstrated that the princes started to bring their offerings on Sunday… (Bamidbar Rabbah Perek 14, posuk 1)

He then cites Sifri on Naso 51 and comments:

“This one pushed aside Shabbos and tumah [ritual impurity], although the offering of an individual pushes aside neither.”

This indicates that had any one of the princes come to offer their gift on Shabbos, their donation would have superseded the Shabbos regulations. (The same would have applied to the laws of tumah.)

Shem Mishmuel links the offering of Shevet Ephraim on the seventh day, Shabbos, with Yaakov’s blessing of Ephraim, Yosef’s younger son, before blessing Menasheh, the older son. He cites Sefer Breish’t, Perek 41, posukim 51-52:

“Yosef named the firstborn Menasheh, ‘for G’d has made me forget all of my trouble and all of my father’s house.’ He named the second Efraim, ‘for G’d has made me fruitful in the land of my oppression.’”

He explains that Yosef wanted Menasheh to precede Efraim as Yosef’s philosophy, as described in the verse of Tehillim concerning Menasheh’s name, which indicates:

“Depart from evil” and only then “do good.” (Tehillim 34:15)

Shem Mishmuel explains that Yaakov, however, saw things differently as exemplified by Ephraim’s name (Perek 41, posuk 52) which:

…First concentrates on performing good deeds. Then, due to the influx of holiness generated by one’s new mode of life, any evil traits will automatically dissipate. In Yaakov’s view, this approach to life was preferable to his son’s mode of waiting until the bad has been destroyed before worrying about good deeds. In Yaakov’s opinion (which we may assume is the norm) …the general rule in Jewish life: we must begin our observance of the Torah by seeking mitzvos and learning…. As the holiness of a Torah lifestyle enters our being, any bad will be consumed or expelled.

The problem with Yosef’s approach to life is evident from examining its application to Shabbos. The Shabbos is very holy, and, as such, perhaps we should engage in great spiritual preparations to be ready to accept its holiness. The trouble with this is, who could ever say that he is ready? Surely, still more preparations could be performed. The inevitable result of this is that we would never consider ourselves ready, and hence we would never have Shabbos! Instead, we each do our best during the week, and Shabbos just comes; somehow, we are ready to receive its majesty.

Yaakov’s special selection of Efraim over Menashe meant that the emphasis in Jewish life was forever placed on “doing good”…. The Divine wisdom [imbued to Yaakov] underscored the rationale behind this departure from normative halacha by arranging it that Efraim and no other tribe was scheduled to bring their offering on Shabbos.

…Doing good does not apply only to the members of Efraim — it is, since the blessings administered by Yaakov [first to Efraim, then to Menashe], a universal rule, applicable to every member of klal Yisrael.

That is what is meant by the Sifri, which claims that any one of the tribes could have offered on Shabbos had it been necessary. Once Yaakov had determined the suitable path for all of his descendents, any one of them [any one of the tribes] could have and would have brought their offerings on Shabbos.

One cannot help but wonder whether, if we in the religious world would put aside our sectorial biases toward our fellows in other sectors [”Depart from evil”] and focused on the Good in each of the other respective religious sectors and sat with each other in honest L’Shem Shemayim dialogue, as the Kedusha of living a Torah life would enter our collective beings, that all of the bad, of the divisiveness among the sectors of the frum world would be consumed or expelled.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

The Sefer Shem Mishmuel (page 302) cites Rabbi Berachyah in Shemos Rabbah Perek 28, posuk 1:

“The Tablets were six tefachim (handbreadths) long — in some sense, Hashem grasped two tefachim, Moshe grasped 2 tefachim and 2 tefachim bridged the gap between them.”

Shem Mishmuel then explains (pages 302 - 304):

We can sub-divide all mitzvot, and indeed, all human endeavors into three spheres: thought, speech and action. There are some Mitzvot which require a Jew to think in a particular way. For example, the first of the Ten Commandments demands belief in Hashem.

Other Mitzvot are dependent on speech. For example, one must verbally recall Shabbos…. not lie to at Beis Din or speak badly of another. Finally, there are many Mitzvot which utilize the Jew’s power of action. There are requirements to put on tefillin, shake the lulav, eat matzah, etc.

…Each of these three divisions reflect different interactions between man and Hashem.

Action… is entirely in an individual’s domain. He is not forced to do anything that he doesn’t want to do.

The actions of the Jew determine everything, even the ultimate success or failure of the peoples of the world. This idea is illustrated by Chazal:

“After Yisrael did that wicked act [the sin of the golden calf], Hashem wanted to grab the tablets from Moshe. However Moshe prevailed and snatched them back.”

To conclude, the actions of a Jew can have enormous consequences for good or for bad. Literally, everything depends upon it. And it could be that when the Jews received the Torah at Sinai they had all this in mind when they proclaimed: “All that Hashem has said, we will do and hear.”

In reflecting on Shavu’ot and the story of Ruth, I am struck by the similarity of actions between Ruth’s cleaving to Naomi and to Jewishness, and Jonathan Pollard’s actions on behalf of Israel and B’nai Yisrael — putting his life on the line, the price — come what may — now in his 28th year of incarceration, for the survival of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael — Our Land. Jonathan is not a Ger Tzeddeket as Ruth was when she clung to Naomi saying;

“Do not urge me to leave you, to go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people are my people, and your G’d is my G’d; where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Thus may Hashem do to me — and more! — if anything but death seoarates me from you.” (Megillat Ruth, Artscroll Tanach series, Perek 1, posukim 14-17, pages 79-81)

There was no mandate, no earthly obligation for Ruth to follow Naomi. She could have done what her sister-in-law Orpah did — they were both widowed of Naomi and Elimelech’s sons Machlon and Kilyon. When after the deaths of her husband and two sons, Naomi sought to return to Eretz Yisrael and bid the two widows to return to their Moabite people and land. Orpah tearfully left Naomi and returned to Moav, while Ruth clung to Naomi and her Jewishness thus charting her life unalterably along a Jewish path.

In much the same way, Jonathan Pollard, Yehonaton ben Malka, then working in the US defense department, could have taken the easy path — the path undoubtedly taken by many others, to just do his job without giving a thought to his people. He would have been free man, not incarcerated for some 27 years plus — but where would Israel be??

Pollard was not under any earthly superior’s orders to provide the dire intelligence which Israel needed to protect herself from what was then an Iraqi nuclear threat and to eliminate that threat.

The point this author is about to make seems needed to heard, understood and internalized by Rabbanim in the chinuch (teaching of observant youth in Yeshiva katanah (religious elementary schools) with such subject matter taught to young minds with more sensitivity.

Just as Ruth heard a Divine Imperative, the full extent of which she probably didn’t near fully comprehend — the lineage of Jewish Kingship, so too Jonathan Pollard, although guilty of spying against his nation, his employer, acted on internal impetus and initiative in service of a Divine Imperative — the security and wellbeing of his people.Yes, Jonathan Pollard spied on behalf of an Ally — but he provided Israel with information regarding Iraq and Sada’am Hussein’s capacity for chemical warfare and weapons of mass destruction — information which the US was bound by it’s Strategic Co-operation agreement with Israel to provide her. That agreement was violated and abrogated by the United States with Jonathan Pollard’s apprehension, American violation of its plea bargain with Jonathan and in the 27 plus years of Jonathan’s incarceration — excessively far more than even that meted out to spies who cost American lives and assets by the information they provided to hostile and/or enemy nations. One further note: It is thanks to Jonathan Pollard that Israel has sealed rooms in all homes and buildings constructed over the past 25 years.

And so, as we re-read and re-learn the Megillat Ruth and the impact upon Am Yisrael — Am Yehudi, and upon all mankind for all time, of Ruth’s cleaving to Na’omi, of her brief union with Bo’az and their offspring from whom descended David HaMelech, we must also consider Jonathan Pollard’s selfless actions on behalf of Am Yehudi and their impact upon the Jews and upon mankind. We must contemplate on how he acted to save countless hundreds or thousands of other Jewish lives and to save the Jewish nation by the information provided.

In the spirit of Matan Torah, of Am Yehudi, of Megillat Ruth, of Malchut Shemayim we must daven fervently beseech Shemayim, and scream out letting our voices be heard by Israel’s leaders to push the United States on behalf of our fellow Jew in distress — Yehonaton ben Malka. May Hashem see fit to bring about Jonathan’s speedy release, liberation and return to his Eretz Yisrael in spite of a mean-spirited adversarial American president and his predeccesors.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!.

Chag Kosher V’Same’ach!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha Bamidbar deals with the numbers crunching of the census taken “on the first of the second month, in the second year after their exodus from… Mitzrayim” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posuk 1):

“Take a census of the entire assembly of the B’nai Yisrael according to their families, according to their fathers’ household, by the number of the names, every male according to their head count. From twenty years of age and up — everyone who goes out to the legion in Israel — you shall count them according to their legions, you and Aaron.” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posukim 2-4)

Rabbi Mordechai Katz writes, in his Sefer L’lmode U’lamed, which this author regards as a snapshot of the weekly parshiyot:

These males automatically became liable for military service.

And indeed, Rabbi Artscroll (The Artscroll Stone Chumash, Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, pages 726-727) cites Ramban who offers:

Since the people were about to go directly into Eretz Yisrael — and would have had they not sinned in the episode of the spies (chapters 13-14) — a census was needed to prepare the military cmpaign and to know how many people were eligible to receive prrotions in the land.

But Ramban also states two other reasons why Hashem ordered the B’nai Yisrael counted, and in light of the sin of the Eigel Zahav (the golden calf):

The miraculous growth of the nation, which had come to Mitzrayim as a family of only seventy people but two hundred and ten years before, showed conclusively that God loved them very much. So, too, did the need to count them after every significant loss of life [show that] every Jew is important to God.

Each member of the nation had a right to benefit from the personal attention of Moshe and Aaron, and the census was a great opportunity for every Jew who came before “the father of the prophets his brother, the holy one of God” to tell them his name and to be counted as an individual of personal worth. Surely Moshe and Aaron would bless them and pray for them, and the half-shekel contribution would bring them atonement. (The Artscroll Stone Chumash, Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, page 726)

R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, z’l explains these reasons even more clearly with this poignant commentary in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman, Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posuk 1, pages1-2):

The end of the second book [Sh’mos] of the Chumash tells of the construction of the sanctuary of the Torah. The third book [Vayikra] is devoted entirely to the standards set for Israel by this Sanctuary — in symbolic terms, by the offerings, and in practical terms, by the laws that sanctify every aspect of daily life. Thus an outline is presented of the idea [turned] into reality by every individual member of the nation as a whole.

The fourth book [Bamidbar] now returns to national reality. It shows us Israel as it actually is; it presents before us the actual nation in its relationship to the ideal as outlined in the third book. It opens with the command to take a census of the nation as… a community united by its common calling. All… members of the nation are to be counted, one by one. A census of this nature makes it clear to the nation’s representatives that the community is not merely an idea but, …exists only in the actual totality of its members. At the same time, every individual is made aware that he personally “counts” as an important member of the community, and that the task that devolves on the nation as a whole requires the faithfulness and devotion of each individual to the common calling.

The purpose of this census is neither economic or political — …economics and politics have no relevance to life in the wilderness…. This census is to be made in the service of the Torah which was given on Sinai, and to which homage is to be paid in the Ohel Mo’ed [the Mishkan, the Sanctuary]. Now, on the first day of the month of Iyar, all of the tribes, the families and the men are to be counted for the sake of… Torah. From now onward they are to gather and encamp around the Torah as its guardians and keepers.

And so what is the “common calling” we have as the guardians and keepers of Torah down through the generations, through today? As we glean from our Holy Torah, from the great commentators through our history to today, this common calling includes the emulation of Hashem through kindnesses — one to his fellow, Divine Service through our Tefillot (including Aleinu) and serving as a “light unto the nations as to how a G’dly nation acts when sovereign over its Land.

To reiterate how this author concluded last years discussion of Parshat Bamidbar, The Sefer Shem Mishmuel (pages 302-304) cites Chazal:

…The actions of a Jew can have enormous consequences for good or for bad. Literally, everything depends upon it. And it could be that when the Jews received the Torah at Sinai they had all this in mind when they proclaimed: “All that Hashem has said, we will do and hear.”

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

Rashi asks a critical question on the very first posukim of our Parsha Behar:

“Hashem spoke to Moshe on Har Sinai, saying: Speak to the B’nai Yisrael, and say to them: When you come to the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Shabbat to Hashem.” (Parsha Behar, Vayikra Perek 25, posukim 1 & 2)

Rashi asks why the laws of Shemittoh are singled out as having been given at Sinai. Were not all of the Mitzvot said at Sinai?” He answers that just as all of the Mitzvot; their general rules and their specifics were taught at Sinai, so too were the general rules and specifics regarding Shemittoh taught at Sinai. Rashi then reasons that the posuk comes to teach us that every utterance said to Moshe, they were all from Sinai. (Rashi on Parsha Behar, Vayikra Perek 25, posuk 1)

The Hatam Sofer reiterates and expands on Rashi’s explanation, asking;

“Why did the Torah list all of the specific rules of Shemittoh rather than doing so with any other commandment? The reason for doing this is because the laws of Shemittoh prove that the Torah was given in Shemayim (heaven). Had the Torah been of mortal origin, how could any human promise, ‘I will command My blessing during the sixth year and it will provide produce for three years’? — something which is beyond the realm of the natural, and a way to test whether Torah is genuine.” (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, Parsha Behar, page 331)

When contemplating this posuk, this author can’t help but recall the first introduction to observance some 24 years ago in East Windsor, NJ. As vivid as day, the recollection of Rav Motti Berger at an Aish HaTorah Shabbaton, giving his analogy on Shemittoh.

Rav Berger, in endeavoring to prove that Torah was real, genuine and from Shemayim, would ask how, if Torah was merely a nice document which a group of guys once got together in one guy’s basement to write as a set of guidelines for how men should properly live, how could mortal man make such a fantastic promise as Shemittoh? How could man promise that if we refrain from working the land in the seventh year, we would be provided for during the sixth year to sufficiently cover needs for the sixth, seventh and eighth years? People who were not previously knowledgeable in Shemittoh and who held that Torah was man-made were hard-pressed to disprove the fact that Torah was given to Moshe from Shemayim.

But it seems to this author that both Rashi’s and Hatam Sofer’s answers are not mutually exclusive. It would seem that not only is Shemittoh HaKadosh Borchu’s vehicle for proving that ALL of Torah was given over on Har Sinai, that it was “a way to test whether Torah is genuine” leaving future disbelievers; such as Israel’s political, academic, judicial elitists and intelligencia who would give the land or any part of it away as just ordinary real estate — hard-pressed to disprove the fact that Torah was given to Moshe from Shemayim. But because they can’t disprove the authenticity of Torah from Shemayim, they’ve therefore created a short-circuit disconnecting our historical truth from their contemporary “reality.”

It seems to this author that the mitzvah of Shemittoh, the Shabbat for the land, was given to in order to connect the Shabbos of B’nai Yisrael with the Shabbos year of the Land of Israel. In this way, it seems obvious to this author that Hashem has inextricably linked the two — the B’nai Yisrael and the Land of Israel — for all time. And in doing so, Hashem serves a reminder upon B’nai Yisrael that, He, our Creator is our ruler and that He is the sole and ultimate owner of Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (pages 291-292) cites Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz regarding Hashem’s Rulership of the B’nai Yisrael and Ownership of Eretz Yisrael:

Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz cites the Raavad (Introduction to Baalai Nefesh) that a fundamental principle behind the commandments is that: “they are to remind us constantly that we have a Creator who is our Ruler.” The Almighty gave us this earth, but after using the earth for some time a person can mistakenly think that the earth belongs to him, and can forget that the Almighty is the real owner. Therefore, in all that we do there are commandments that contain restrictions to show that the Creator is above us. …The Torah stresses… that the commandment to rest on the seventh year applies to the land which the Almighty gave us…. A commandment to refrain from work on the land in the seventh year [is] to help us internalized the awareness that He is the true boss of the earth.

This is also the lesson we learn from the weekly Shabbos… It shows a person that the Almighty is the One who gives him the power to work on the other days of the week…. a weekly reminder that we have a ruler who is our ultimate authority. (Daas Torah, Sefer Vayikra)

For us, the Land of Israel is a one-of-a-kind, exclusive, prime piece of real estate to be loved, embraced, possessed, tended and cared for. We see this precious, beautiful land, from Gush Katif to Chevron to the Banias, as a precious gift from G’d to his special bride, his unique people. We thank Hashem at every opportunity for giving us this glorious land and for the fact that we live here; in Jerusalem, in Chevron, in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, in Beersheva, in Tzfat, in Yehuda, the Shomron, the Golan and, not to mention — in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Hashem seems also to be conveying to us, to all perceptive enough and with sufficient emunah to hear, that there is but one place that Am Yehudi can call home and where a Jew can be complete — Eretz Yisrael, and that all else is temporary, transient.

And to reinforce that bond and connection, Parshat Bechukotai contrasts the brachot which the B’nai Yisrael will receive for cleaving to, sanctifying and elevating adherence to the laws of Torah with the klalot, the punishments which will befall the Jews if they stray away from Torah or rebel against Hashem’s dominion over the world.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (page 304) cites the Kotzker Rebbe regarding an individual’s and a nation’s elevation and sanctification of their holiness in Eretz Yisrael:

“A person who sanctifies his house…” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 27, posuk 14)

The Kotzker Rebbe commented (Sefer Amud Haemet) …. When a person is involved in spiritual matters, it is relatively easy for him to do so in a sanctified state. But true holiness is when a person sanctifies the seemingly mundane daily activities of running his house. When one behaves in an elevated manner in his own house, he is truly a holy person.

Rav Pliskin explains:

Torah ideals and principles are not only for when one is in a yeshiva or [shul] synagogue. Rather Torah principles and values apply in all areas of our lives.

Rav Pliskin goes on to speak in the context of proper behavior towards, and the opportunities to extend kindnesses to, one’s own family. But while Rav Pliskin contends that proper behavior and extension of kindness may be more difficult in the home than toward strangers, this author contends that it may either be equally difficult, or that it may be may be more difficult to act properly — uprightly, and to extend kindnesses toward one’s extended family — his fellow Jews in Eretz Yisrael than toward his immediate family. This author would, therefore, conclude both from Rav Pliskin’s citing of the Kotzker Rebbe and, from our Parsha, that such elevation and sanctification extend beyond the home to every aspect of one’s day in interacting with his fellow Jews in the street, in business, etc. in Eretz Yisrael.

Rabbi Meyer Fendel wrote in a Young Israel Parsha Sheet on Bechukotai in 1995 regarding a posuk from amidst the terrible tidings of the Tochocha (the reproof);

“I will make the land desolate; and your foes who dwell upon it will be desolate.” (Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 32)

He then brings a Rashi on the posuk:

“This is good tidings for Israel, that her enemies will not find happiness in the Land and she will remain … barren from her inhabitants.”

Rabbi Fendel then reasons that a question may be asked:

“How will Israel benefit if her enemies will… be unable to inhabit the land?”

He brings a Ramban which concurs with Rashi but which adds something more:

“This is also a great proof and promise, for in the whole inhabited world, one cannot find such a goodly land which was [once] inhabited and yet is as ruined as she is today, for since the time that we left her, she has not accepted any nation or people, and though they all try to settle her, their efforts are in vain.”

In essence, Rabbi Fendel expresses that the Ramban tells us that the Land ‘went into Galut’ along with the B’nai Yisrael and could not bear harvest to strangers on her soil:

“Herein lies the good tiding, in which … Chazal found a source of hope: the Land would never produce for strangers — but for Klal Yisrael returning home, she would. Eretz Yisrael lay dormant for 2,000 years, … simply because she was awaiting the return of her children.”

“… The Land was so barren and so desolate that one could not fail to see this as fulfillment of the Biblical “I will lay waste to the land.” (Another translation; Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 32)

And yet Chazal saw the hope and foresaw the return of B’nai Yisrael to the land: “The Land will wait and remain desolate, as a sign both of the sins of Israel and it’s guaranteed return.” (Parsha Bechukotai, Rabbi Meyer Fendel, National Council of Young Israel Parsha sheet, 27 May, 1995)

Earlier in Parshat Bechukotai, the Tochochah, the admonishment, the reproof, is explicit as to the punishments that will befall B’nai Yisrael if they violate Hashem’s Torah:

“I (Hashem), will set my face against you and you will be smitten before your enemies. They that hate you will rule over you.” (Parsha Bechukotai, Sefer Vayikra, Perek 26, posuk 17)

This commentary in Sefer L’lmode Ul’lamed (Parsha Bechukotai, page 126) adds another dimension to Rabbi Fendel’s Parsha HaShevua:

“The text implies that included among the enemies will be those from Yisrael, enemies from within. These enemies say our Rabbanim, are the most vicious of adversaries.” They are the most dangerous of all enemies. “They are traitors against their own kind who know where their fellow men are most vulnerable.”

They are Jews who seem to deny their roots and do not accept their Judaism. They put their “Emunah” in mortals — in the prowess of man, in themselves and their self-interests and self-enrichment, in the super-power of the time while seeking to destroy their fellow Jews, Jewish roots, laws, history and heritage.

It is tragic that often the worst enemy of the Jewish people, and those most dangerous to the Jews, are the Jews themselves.

As a result, the B’nai Yisrael is often deceived by it’s own evil rulers, and by disunity and sectorial rivalries, into feeling fatalistic, that all is hopeless, that there is no Divine being. And through sectorial divisiveness, apathy, self interest, self-concern and self-enrichment at the expense of our fellow Jews, we play right into the hands of the leftist elitists as well as the corrupt politco, academia, courts and media — all of those who seek to subvert Torah, our history and our traditions to suit their own ends and self-interests.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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Shalom Friends;

This week, our Parsha HaShevua is being sponsored by Avraham and Miriam Deutsch of Efrat in commemoration of the Yahrtzeit of Avraham’s parents, Mordechai ben Avraham Aba and Sarah Reetza Bat Tzion bat Avraham Yaakov. The Yahrtzeit of Avraham’s Dad is on Yud Tess Iyar. To the Deutsch family, many thanks for your kindness.

You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua. Please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.

Best Regards,

Moshe Burt

Parshat Emor 5773: The Kohanim: Paradigm of Service, Chessed, Purity; As Am Yisrael Should Be to All Mankind

by Moshe Burt

The positioning in Torah of our Parsha Emor, following last week’s Parsha Kedoshim gives rise to thought and contemplation.

In the previous 2 twin Parshas; Acharei Mos and Kedoshim, and Tazria and Metzora before them, we learn about the Kohen as the only one Divinely invested with ruling as to Tumah or Ta’Hara regarding ones’ skin, hair, clothing or homes as well as with being the vehicle for Yom Kippur avodah in the Kadosh Kedoshim and as the model, the paradigm of the Darchim for the entire B’nai Yisrael to emulate as a model for all mankind.

In Parsha Emor, we learn how the Avodah, the Service of the Kohanim necessitated them “…to maintain an especially high standard of purity and perfection.” (L’lmod L’Lamed, Rabbi Mordechai Katz, Parsha Emor, page 119)

Shem Mishmuel (Sefer Shem Mishmuel, Parsha Emor, pages 273-275) explains the function of the Kohen and the manifestation of his Kedusha in this way:

“The Job of the Kohen is to join the physical world to it’s spiritual counterpart.” He performs the Avodah in the Beit HaMikdash, the place where heaven and earth meet. He brings Hashem’s fire upon the Mizbei’ach (altar) in a service which joins the physical earth to Hashem.

Shem Mishmuel continues by saying that the co-existence of physical and spiritual is broken by the tumah (defilement) associated with death. Therefore, it is inappropriate for a Kohen to come into contact with death as death tears apart the unity of the physical and spiritual.

He adds, in the name of the Arizal, that prior to death, a person is attacked by impure forces;

“The holy soul which rests within a person can’t bear to be connected with those forces and departs from the body to alleviate it’s discomfort. This is the moment of death. The tumah induces a split between the body and soul which is totally opposite of the Kohen’s role as a unifier or ‘joiner.’”

We gain deeper insight from this explanation as to why it is the Kohen, rather than a Talmud Chacham, who rules as to tumah or tohar in cases of tzara’as as we previously learned in Parshas Tazria/Metzora.

Shem Mishmuel extends the Kohen’s attribute of being a unifier or a “joiner” even to the subject of prohibited Kohanic marriages and quotes Rabbi Akiva;

“A man and a woman, if they so merit, the divine presence rests between them: if they do not merit, fire consumes them.” (Sotah 17a)

Further, Shem Mishmuel relates that Chazal tell us that when a couple divorces, the power of divine unity is removed from them leaving both of them with a sense of division and disunity:

“Thus a divorced woman is no longer in a spiritual position to marry a Kohen whose very being demands contact with only unifying forces.

For a divorcee to have a relationship with a Kohen would frustrate the Kohen’s personal mission.”

The divorcee has lost the innate ability to be solely unified with one person and thus may not marry a Kohen.

This last part of the citing from Shem Mishmuel brings to mind a scene from an old Woody Allen movie, many may recall which one, but the title will go unmentioned here.

And so, the function of the Kohen in relationship to his fellow Jews is meant to be the paradigm of how the Jews are meant to relate to the nations as a light unto the world. The point is that the Kohanim are meant to be a paradigm, to set an example for all of B’nai Yisrael regarding derech, midos, chessed to one’s brothers — one’s fellow Jews, and of Avodat Hashem.

As this author noted in Parshiyot Achrei Mos/Kedoshim:

There is a connection between the mido of loving kindness to our brethren and the role of the Kohen Godol as a unifier and as a national emissary. The Kohen’s very essence is the paradigm of unity and of the concept of “V’ohavta L’rei’acha Komochah” in which we all unify as one. There is a citing to illustrate this. R’ Hirsch, z’l in the new Hirsch Chumash (on Sefer Vayikra, published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Rabbi Daniel Haberman) comments on the opening of Parsha Sh’mini that for seven days, Aaron and his sons were instructed regarding the service in the Mishkan, and on the eighth day the Kohanim were consecrated to Hashem. But just as the Kohen is Hashem’s emissary to the B’nai Yisrael, so too, as Rav Chaim Zev Malinowitz said in [a recent] drash, that there must be both a Shabbos and a full week of life for a newly-born male before Bris Milah is performed on him on the eighth day. The newly born male is thus consecrated to Hashem upon his Bris, just as Aaron and his sons, the Kohanim were consecrated to Hashem upon completion of their seven days of training. And so, the Jews are the “light unto the nations”, consecrated to Hashem, His Emissaries to the world, just as the Kohanim are Hashem’s Emissaries to all of Klal Yisrael.

There is a posuk in our parsha (Sefer VaYikra, Perek 22, posuk 9) regarding the Kohanim and their consumption of donations:

“They shall observe my charge, and they shall not bear sin for it.”

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (pages 283-284) notes that Rashi explains that this warns the Kohanim not to eat terumah while in a state of tumah (spiritual impurity). R’ Pliskin explains:

Even though eating terumah is the fufillment of a mitzvah for the priests, they must be careful not to do so in a manner that will transform the potential good into a transgression. Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz (Daas Torah, Vayikra, page 210) commented that we see here an important principle: even when a person is involved in doing the Almighty’s service, he must be very careful that no transgressions should come from it. On a practical level, whenever… engaged in doing a good deed or involved in a worthwhile project, be on guard that the good… is complete and does not include any transgressions.

The above citing would indicate that a mitzvah, a chessed done should be out of pureness of heart and mind, untainted by any ulterior motivation, i.e. lust for kavod (for credit or notoriety), or any tinges of wrongdoing. From R’ Pliskin’s citings of Rashi and of R’ Levovitz, it would seem that tzedakah, mi’eser (10% of earnings) given of dirty, ill-gotten, laundered money is not tzedakah at all. Similarly, those organizations which are recipients of tzedakah need to be straight and above any possible opening for criticism.

R’ Pliskin’s citing of R’ Levovitz provides food for thought in light of media revelations in recent years regarding various alleged fraud or corruption charges against chessed institutions, such as the alleged fraud charges against an officer and a number of employees of a chessed organization in Israel which runs soup kitchens, vocational training courses, free dental clinics as well as food distribution centers. Chessed organizations need take special care to insure that their activities are lilly-white and totally above reproach.

Extending on the concept that a mitzvah, a kindness be clean and devoid of wrongdoing, the Admor Piaseczna, R’ Kalman Menachem Shapira, descended from the renowed Aish Kodesh, teaches that the purest kindness or tzedakah is that done or given in anonymity.

In short, it seems that not only should a mitzvah, a chessed, a tzedakah be complete, wholehearted and devoid of even a tinge of wrongdoing. A mitzvah should be done in the model of being free of desire for praise, or perhaps, even thought and desire for mitzvah points in Shemayim.

If the B’nai Yisrael were to only glean from the Kohen, and apply the unity of loving kindness to our brethren, as to ourselves, corrupt governance in Israel would cease to exist, would be turned upside down and replaced by Torah governance. And then, B’ezrat Hashem, we’ll be zocha to fulfill our assigned mission, to serve as a light, a model to the nations of Hashem’s blueprint for creation and how a G’dly Nation acts on Its Land.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

Parshiyot Acharei Mos and Kedoshim are normally what baseball fans refer to as another of the “doubleheader” parshiyot. And just as Parshiyot Tazria and Metzora are extensions of each other, visa vi Tumah and Ta’Hara regarding post-birth, regarding skin, hair, clothing or regarding one’s home or building; Acharei Mos and Kedoshim are extensions of each other regarding Kohanim, Yom Kippur, the Kohen’s Yom Kippur avodah in the Kodosh Kedoshim and the Kohanic model of Darchim, which ideally the entire B’nai Yisrael would embrace and exhibit as a paradigm, as model, as a light for all mankind.

Parsha Acharei Mos opens with Hashem speaking with Moshe Rabbeinu explaining that he (Moshe) must inform Aaron HaKohen, in the context of the deaths of his sons Nadav and Avihu, that he can not enter Kadosh Kedoshim at all times.

And so, Rabbi Artscroll explains that our Parsha connects Yom Kippur with the service of the Kohanim in that it is the one and only time of the year when only the Kohen Godol, adorned in his white garments, is permitted, required to enter the Kadosh Kedoshim to atone for himself, his household and for the nation. At all other times of the year, the Kodosh Kedoshim is off-limits to all.

The Sefer “L’lmod U’lamed”, by Rabbi Mordechai Katz, notes in its summary of Parshat Acharei Mos (pages 112-113):

The Kohen Godol, himself… offered all of the sacrifices [korbonot]. These consisted of his personal sin and burnt offerings, which he paid for himself, and similar communal offerings brought on behalf of the populace.

The Artscroll Chumash (Parsha Acharei Mos, on the deaths of Aharon’s sons and the Yom Kippur Service on page 636), provides commentary by way of a citing from the Yerushalmi Yoma 1.1, which connects Yom Kippur’s atonement with atonement inherent in the death of the righteous, i.e. Aaron’s two sons Nadav and Avihu. An explanation is brought in the commentary from the Meshech Chochmah which says that:

Yom Kippur is… a time of favor, and thus an opportune time for atonement.

However, …this is crucial, both Yom Kippur and the deaths of the righteous bring atonement ONLY on one condition. Yom Kippur atones only for people who recognize it as a holy day and treat it as such; those to whom it is merely a day of refraining from food and work, but with out a spiritual dimension, do not find atonement on Yom Kippur. Similarly, those who do not honor the righteous in life, do not benefit from their ascent to Shemayim in death.

In Tazria and Metzora, we learn that it is the Kohen who is the only one Divinely invested with ruling as to Tumah or Ta’Hara regarding ones’ skin, hair, clothing or homes. So too, it is the Kohen who atones for the nation and is the conduit to bring about unity among, and Divine Brachot for B’nai Yisrael. He is the paradigm of both; kindness and loving care for his brethren and the conduit for unity.

Shem Mishmuel (on Parshat Acharei Mos, English translation of parsha selections by Rabbi Zvi Belovski, pages 254-256) speaks at length about reasons for the distinction between the Kohen Godol’s white linen tunic and white linen tunic trousers worn when entering the Kodosh Kedoshim on Yom Kippur and his normal gold attire worn during his service at all other times of the year.

He first cites gemora Rosh HaShannah 26a:

Why does the Kohen Godol not enter the Holy of Holies wearing his gold vestments to perform the Divine service? Because an accuser cannot become an advocate.

Shem Mishmuel then indicates that this concept relates to the Eigel Zahav and writes:

The sin of the eigel has been with the Klal Yisrael throughout their history and is still with us today. The sin is so deeply etched into our national consciousness that we will not be entirely free of it until Messianic times.

Aharon’s… intentions in involving himself with the calf…. were considered good, for he wished to reunite the people and refocus them toward their correct goal…. Given that Aharon lost his two sons, at least partially in response to his involvement in the eigel episode, no trace of the sin remained within him. This means… that the principle “an accuser cannot become an advocate” should not have applied to him… for there was no remnant of the sin [in him] which could be recalled at this crucial time.

But this applied only to Aharon acting in a personal capacity; what about his role as emissary for atonement of the whole nation? In that capacity, the rule would pertain, for the people still had (and have) a remnant of the sin of the eigel in their national character which needed to be expunged. Thus Aharon experienced a dichotomy: as himself he could wear his usual gold garments, but as representative of the nation, he could only wear white.

Thus, we learn the Halacha that Aharon HaKohen Godol, and every subsequent Kohen Godol wore white vestments when serving in the Kodosh Kedoshim and atoning for the nation on Yom Kippur. And we learn that Aharon HaKohen Godol was THE paradigm, the role model for every subsequent Kohen Godol to emulate in order that the masses of Am Yisrael throughout the generations would follow suit.

One of the main themes underlying Parsha Kedoshim is the loving care with which each Jew is to treat his Jewish brother. Indeed, we see that the first posuk of our Parsha conveys that spirit, “Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, “Speak to the entire assembly of B’nai Yisrael and say to them: You shall be holy, for holy am I, Hashem, your G’d.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 19, posuk 1) Our Parsha then goes on to enumerate the Asseret HaDivrot, the Ten Commandments in depth.

But the spirit of our Parsha is best expressed by the principle taught by Rabbi Hillel to the convert, on one foot, that the entire Torah can be summed up with this one key concept whch says “V’ohavtoh L’rei’achoh Komochoh” — “… you shall love your fellow as yourself…” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 19, posuk 18); to want for your fellow Jew what you would want for yourself, to not do to your fellow Jew what you would not want to happen to youself.

Sadly, in our times we’ve lacked the Beit HaMikdash, the Kohen Godol, the Kodosh Kedoshim for generations, and V’ohavta L’rei’acha Komochah, more often than not, seems lacking amongst B’nai Yisrael, supplanted by “Me”, “Mine”,“my convenience”, “Me first” both on a national level — how the political/governmental leadership rules the governed, as well on an individual level — about what is often the way one Jew might treat his Jewish brother.

On a national level, long gone is the founding precept of modern-day Israel; what happens at your doorstep is like it happened at mine — whether we live as neighbors next door, or down the block, or in different cities or towns, whether on the northern-most and southern-most towns near the borders of Eretz Yisrael. Today’s governance in the Jewish state seems directed toward detention and persecution of Jews for the crime of being connected to The Land of Israel as it pits sector vs sector, dividing and conquering the Jewish masses through agitating sectors against each other, thus endangering our very existence on our land and through offering a give-away our Divine legacy and birthright — the Land of Israel.

On a closer-to-home Bein Adam L’Chaveiro level, This author made some points at Shabbos tables and at a Shalom Zachor during the Shabbos of Parsha Sh’mini regarding Kohanim, types of unauthorized, unprescribed service such as which cost Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu their lives and the impacts of such unauthorized, unprescribed service throughout history.

One of these impacts has been reflected thoughout our history in Galut, to this very day, by efforts by some of our brethren to fudge Halacha, Jewish law and traditions so as to conform to the ways of the nations. Many of our brethren and ancesters had the faulty perception that assimilation of the Jews would lead to acceptance by the nations. The perceptions grew in the minds of many to override accepting Hashem’s reishut (command) over the world. They perceive[d] that if only they didn’t look and act sooo Jewish, that then they’ll be loved by the gentiles. And, if they are loved and held of by the gentiles, they reason that then they would be able to live forever in peace, never to be harrassed, belittled or persecuted for their Jewishness — what little, if any, Yiddishkiet would be left. But, counter-intuitively to these Jews throughout the generations and today, as well, the gentiles, the nations view[ed] us with contempt, as hypocrites and hate and disdain us even more. In retrospect, history records what the Nurenberg Laws were all about: separating Jews from the rest, i.e. because we assimilated into German society; the Nazis Yemakhshamam, sought to in essense impose Torah, the separation of the Jews from the nations, which the Jews rejected, upon us. If their eyes would only be wide open so as to see how abysmally wrong assimilation and emulating the ways of the nations has been; again, again and in the US again — such as when Jews most recently twice voted in droves for a President with an Islamic-sounding name who, it becomes more and more increasingly clear and obvious, is intent on Israel’s demise.

There are other dimensions to “unique service” and “cutting corners.” This author spoke about characteristic of the chazeir — the split hooves, but without chewing it’s cud as equating with the Jew who outwardly appears pious both in dress and in prayer but is lacking inside, i.e. dishonesty toward his fellow in business, speaking or acting falsely against their fellow, seeking one’s own self-interests at the expense of his fellow, etc.. This author has made a point repeatedly on this blog, which could be referred to as “cutting corners,” on Hashem’s time, i.e. a mumble-jumbled repetition of Shemonah Esrei by a Sh’liach Tzibbur. This author noted in previous posts on this blog;

No less than Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Reichman of Yeshiva University discussed the need for Teshuvah regarding tefillot in a video shiur just before Yom Kippur.

In that video, R’ Reichman spoke about his feelings regarding his own personal tefillot as well as indicating a necessity for Sh’lichim Tzibburim to do teshuva in perfecting their davening in Chazarat HaShatz (repetition of Shemonah Essrei). To this author’s recollection, R’ Reichman is THE FIRST prominent Rabbi to have addressed issues relating to the Shaliach Tzibbur “System.”

Presumably the same holds true for the shot-gunned less-than-1 minute Aleinu.

And we give our brother a blank countenance, or a state of indifference and/or blunt insensitivity for we are only self-concerned. We are not totally forthcoming and truthful with our brother concerning the facts of a business or banking transaction often putting “obstacles in the way of the blind” as we grub for that last shekel at the other guy’s expense.

In Mitzrayim even then, a Jew reached out to help another Jew. But in modern-day Israel, Israeli merchant after Israeli merchant flatly refuse to reach into one’s cash register, or pocket, to make change for a Jewish pedestrian’s 10 shekel piece. We seem, often at the hghest communal levels, to turn a blind-eye and deaf ear to domestic or child abuse, criminality in the neighborhood, etc. And we invoke protexia to advance ourselves even though, in fairness — in a just society , our brother may actually be more needy, more worthy, more qualified.

And so this author, set against a backdrop of a drash on Shabbos Parsha Sh’mini by Rav Chaim Zev Malinowitz where he spoke of the relationship of midot, derech eretz and Torah — that midot and derech eretz are prerequisite to sincere Torah learning, equates one’s shot-gunned tefillot, aliyot, Aleinu, or acting dishonestly, speaking or acting falsely against their fellow, seeking one’s own self-interests at the expense of his fellow, etc. — the lack of midot tovot with the Chazeir — hooves out, but devoid of the internal characteristic of Kashrut.

There is a connection between the mido of loving kindness to our brethren and the role of the Kohen Godol as a unifier and as a national emissary. The Kohen’s very essence is the paradigm of unity and of the concept of “V’ohavta L’rei’acha Komochah” in which we all unify as one. There is a citing to illustrate this. R’ Hirsch, z’l in the new Hirsch Chumash (on Sefer Vayikra, published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Rabbi Daniel Haberman) comments on the opening of Parsha Sh’mini that for seven days, Aaron and his sons were instructed regarding the service in the Mishkan, and on the eighth day the Kohanim were consecrated to Hashem. But just as the Kohen is Hashem’s emissary to the B’nai Yisrael, so too, as Rav Malinowitz said in the above drash, that there must be both a Shabbos and a full week of life for a newly-born male before Bris Milah is performed on him on the eighth day. The newly born male is thus consecrated to Hashem upon his Bris, just as Aaron and his sons, the Kohanim were consecrated to Hashem upon completion of their seven days of training. And so, the Jews are the “light unto the nations”, Hashem’s emissary to the world, just as the Kohanim are Hashem’s emissaries to all of Klal Yisrael.

If the B’nai Yisrael were to only glean from the Kohen, and apply the unity of loving kindness to our brethren, as to ourselves, corrupt figures like Olmert, Barak, Bibi, Livni, Mofaz, Shelly Yechamovich, and now Ya’ir Lapid and their like would cease to exist, and Israel’s system of governance would be turned upside down. And then, B’ezrat Hashem, we’ll zocha to fulfill our assigned mission, to serve as a light, a model to the nations of Hashem’s blueprint for creation and how a G’dly Nation acts on Its Land.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

In learning about the laws of tzara’as, we find posukim which are a pelah, a wonderment.

Torah relates in our Parsha;

“If the tzara’as will erupt on the skin, and … will cover the entire skin of the afflicted from his head to his feet, wherever the eyes of the Kohen can see — the Kohen shall look, and behold! — the affliction has covered his entire flesh, then he shall declare the affliction to be pure; having turned completely white, it is pure. On the day healthy skin appears …, it (the affliction) shall be contaminated.” (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posukim 12 - 14)

In “Studies in the Weekly Parsha” (pages 726-727), Yehuda Nachshoni cited a quote from R’ Simchah Bunim of P’shischa which states:

“Loshen hora … utilizes man’s animalistic instinct only for evil purposes, simply to destroy and tear apart, just as a wild animal.”

R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, z’l provides commentary in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman) on the posukim at the beginning of our Parsha regarding Negi’yim — spots, Tzoras (Sefer Vayikra, Parsha Tazria, pages 420-422):

…Every spot of tzoras that strikes a member of the Jewish nation is to remind him of the experience of Miriam. This will lead him to careful observance of relevant halachot. Every spot of tzoras, is to be regarded as punishment for social wrongdoing; and the confinement outside the camp — national area around the Sanctuary of the Torah — has no other purpose or reason than…. to instilll in man the awwareness of his unworthiness.

Metzora, … Motziya rah [transliteration of the 2 words which form Metzora], a slander.

Why just for the Metzora is it ordained, ‘…He shall dwell apart, outside the camp shall his dwelling be’ (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 13, posuk 46)? He induced a rift between a man and his wife, between a man and his neighbor; therefore he too, is to be seperated from everyone and remain alone outside the camp.

In a wider sense, seven social sins are cited (Arachin 16a) as causes of negi’yim [spots]…. “slander, the shedding of blood, perjury, sexual immorality, arrogance, robbery and stinginess.”

…These sins and faults are… attributed to the organs of the body which are misused in praacticing them…. Thus, the eyes, the mouth, the hands, the heart, the feet — in short, the whole person is despised by Hashem…. Instead of using his organs and faculties that have been granted to him to conduct himself with humility and truth, to practice lovingkindness, justice and good deeds, and to speak words of truth and peace, he has become the opposite of all these. Hence he is despised and abominated by Hashem, who sends a mark upon his body as a sign of his anger; thus He expels him from the social sphere…, so that he recognize his guilt and reflect on rectifying his character.

With all of this in mind, let’s return to the case of tzara’as erupting on the skin, and covering the entire skin of the afflicted from his head to his feet, everywhere visible to the Kohen.

“But someone whose entire skin has turned white is so morally corrupt that he’s too convinced of his rectitude to think of changing. There is no point in continuing to isolate him. By telling him … that all hope for his ability to improve is gone, Torah shows him dramatically how low he has sunk.” (Artscroll; The Stone Edition Chumash, page #613)

A number of years ago, this author saw a National Council of Young Israel weekly Parsha sheet (the parsha sheet subsequently misplaced by me) which spoke of how Israel, in the depths of it’s corruption and idolatry during the reign of King Achav, won all of it’s wars.

The Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities, by Yishai Chasidah, brings a quote from Mesechta Megillah 11a;

Three men ruled over the entire world — Achav, Nevuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus. The world was comprised of 252 provinces and Achav ruled over them all. (Esther Rabbah 1:5)

The Rav who prepared this Parsha HaShevua was indicating that, just as an individual whose affliction covered his own body because there seemed no hope for repentence, so too, when the spiritual level of a the nation seemed beyond rectification, they waged war successfully while being largely Ovdei Avodah Zorah. But yet, later on, when the Avodah Zora was more covert during a period of mass Teshuva, we lost Bayit Rishon.

One might follow-up on this equation by asking what the moral of this is for the Jewish people in contemporary times.

The contemporary Jewish State, largely unified, fought 3 wars, in 1948, 1956 and in 1967 winning each one convincingly, particularly 1956 and 1967 when they won overwhelmingly and completely. To recollect and understand how complete Six Day War victory was is to recall reports of relative hands full of Israel soldiers chasing hundreds or thousands of Arabs in confirmation of biblical prophesy, the Arab windows drapped in white sheets of surrender pleading for their lives and thousands of Egyptian combat boots found in Sinai when Arab soldiers shed them in order to run, for their lives faster, from the oncharging IDF.

A great T’shuvah movement took hold in Eretz Yisrael and throughout the Jewish world after the Six Day War. And so, as this author understands the essence of that National Council of Young Israel weekly Parsha sheet, just as a Melech (King) subsequent to Achav was dedicated to wiping out avodah zora such that its instances became more covert where they had previously been blatant, the great T’shuvah movement after the Six Day War may have caused what may be understood as a collective national tzara’as to recede from covering the entire national body. As a result, derision of the religious intensified among elitists and an increasingly leftist-controlled media, as well as among those few who held monopolistic control over national capital. Sectors in Israel, including amongst the religious, have become more openly polarized toward each other where previously animosity was beneathe the surface subserviant to a national unity of purpose.

So we learn that as long as the tzara’as covers the entire, visible body, the afflicted is deemed pure, but when affliction recedes and no longer covers the entire visible body, the afflicted is deemed ta’amei (contaminated) and most be quarantined.

That may possibly be the message behind our current national travails as we mark 92 months since Jew evicted Jew from Jewish land in Gush Katif and 4 Shomron towns, since the results of the Lebanon conflict almost 7 years ago, and since Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in January, 2009. And one would be remiss to omit Amona, Hevron’s Beit HaShalom, the trashing of Federman’s farm, the expulsion from the outpost at Shvut Ami and the government’s “10 month” building freeze in Yesha a few years ago — all of which carry the shadow of corrupt political, judicial, bureaucratic, academia and media plans jeopardizing 100,000 or more Jews living in Yehuda and the Shomron.

Now let us deal with the sincerity of an individual’s rectification of the aveirah of loshen hora — Motziya rah, which R’ Hirsch, z’l defined above as “a slander”, and how this author views such rectification when it would seem required on a national scope.

We learn in Parsha Tazria, as well as in upcoming Parshiyot that unity is the very essence of the Kohen.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (page 253) cites the Rabbi of Alexander who cites as the reason why, when one suspected an affliction with tzara’as, that he must go to… the Kohen and not to a scholar, a Talmud Chacham;

“One of the traits of Aharon was that he did everything he could to make peace between people.”

The Sefer relates how Aharon “exaggerated and told untruths in order to bring about peaceful relationships between people.” When people quarreled, he would tell each side how highly thought of they were to the other. “When someone was told that the other person was speaking positively about him, he automatically felt positive about the other person and this greatly improved their relationship.”

This trait of Aharon, his sons, of Pinchas; of conveying and facilitating unity was to be an inherent trait in Kohanim (priesthood) throughout the generations — with the Mishkan (Tabernacle), with both the Beit Hamikdash Rishon and Sheini (both the 1st and 2nd Temple) and down through the Galut to comtemporary times. It seems axiomatic; with peace, there is unity — between a Jew and his brother and on a national level amongst all groups and sectors of B’nai Yisrael.

In “Studies in the Weekly Parsha” (pages 726-727), Yehuda Nachshoni cited a quote from the S’fas Emes on our Parsha Metzora;

“In everything, there is a mixture of evil and good. And so with man. In general, good overcomes the evil, for there is more good. But one must be careful not to exclude evil from the community… ‘Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit … seek peace and pursue it,’ which means that (the evil) is to be engulfed by the common good, as indicated in the act of taharah of metzora…’ The emphasis is to return to the source and to cleave to the root, and when one is within the common good he can be rectified.”

This explanation seems to add meaning to the words of the third and final section of Birkat Kohanim (Artscroll Mesorah Series Birkat Kohanim, pages 80-81);

“V’Yaseim L’cha Shalom” — “and may He grant you peace.”

In light of the above, the message of the 2nd posuk of Parshat Metzora seems profound (Sefer Vayikra, Perek 14, posukim 2-4):

“This shall be the law concerning the Metzora when he is purified: he shall be brought to the Kohen. The Kohen shall go outside the camp, where he shall examine the Metzora to determine that the tzara’as has healed. The Kohen shall then order that for the person undergoing purification there be taken two live kosher birds, a piece of cedar, some crimson wool, and a hyssop branch.”

And, R’ Pliskin in “Growth Through Torah” (page 259) cites and explains an Ibn Ezra on why the purified former metzora is brought by another person to the Kohen:

…After the tzara’as clears up, he will not want to bring the offerings that he is responsible to bring.

When a person has tzara’as, he will definitely claim that of course he will bring the necessary offerings when the tzara’as clears up. But once he is cured, he can easily forget his obligations. Now that nothing is pressing him, he will focus on other things and not on meeting his obligations.

Some people find it difficult to meet their responsibilities. When they need favors from someone or want to impress someone, the might make many promises. But when the time comes to keep their obligations, they do all they can to avoid meeting them. A person with integrity will derive pleasure from meeting his responsibilities and not need others to coerce him to keep them.

This author finds R’ Pliskin’s explanation of Ibn Ezra a bit hard to understand in the context of the metzora; i.e. that it would be possible that one who was afflicted with tzara’as due to his loshen hora — slander, and did genuine teshuvah for his aveirah resulting in his purification, that such a person would avoid bringing the atonement offering to complete the teshuvah/purification process, thus continuing his slander.

But one can easily see the Ibn Ezra’s point that “teshuvah” followed by avoidance of obligations and responsibilities seems part of general human nature, as does loshen hora, and as does slander by way of complacent complicity, i.e. turning away from one’s fellow Jew’s matzav (difficulties) either on a one-to-one level, or on a national sectorial level. Whether it is the Jew who was cheated by a disreputable Jewish merchant or businessman, or the Jew who received committment for work - for a job under false pretenses, the aggrieved and battered spouse, or those who pled teshuvah for their lack of support and actions regarding the evicted former residents of Gush Katif, but who remain equally silent regarding the possible media-publicized machinations of the government, or who would actively support a repetition of Gush Katif on a wider, larger scale — to make biblical Jewish land Yudenrein, Ibn Ezra’s point and R’ Pliskin’s explanation seem mostly well-taken. It seems to this author that to bring real peace and unity among B’nai Yisrael, we Jews need to rise above common human nature and care for our fellows — V’Ahavtah L’re’icha Komocha. Only then will our collective contrition for the previous aveirot be sincere and complete.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

After learning in Parsha Tzav that for seven days, Moshe taught Aaron HaKohen and his sons the laws of their Avodah (the Kohanic Service, i.e. in the Tabernacle and later in the Beit HaMikdash — ” The Temple”) in the Mishkan, our Parsha Shemini begins by relating that on the eighth day, Aaron and his sons commenced their Avodah HaKodosh (Holy Service). It is interesting and ironic that our parsha is the other side of the term; “Tzav-Shemonah” which is the document or order issued by the Israel Defense Forces calling reservists to active duty in event of war. But the alignment of these two Parshiyot, one-after-the-other, seems to this author, to have deeper meaning, above and beyond mobiliation and deployment in time of war. This deeper meaning seems to denote a constancy of vigilance, of guard over Am Yisrael and their connection to Hashem, to Torah and to their sanctity (consecration, purity, holiness). And with this constancy of vigilance of Am Yisrael’s sanctity , our Parsha also teaches us about Kashrut, and “abstain[ing] from impure, non-Kosher item[s].” (L’ilmode U’Lamed, by Rabbi Mordechai Katz, Parsha Shemini, page 108)

Our Parsha also relates the tragedy of the deaths of Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadav and Avihu who died while performing an unauthorized Service, offering a “strange fire …, which he did not command them…” (Artscroll Chumash, Vayikra, Perek 10, posuk 1)

Our Parsha relates that:

“Hashem spoke to Aaron saying: Do not drink intoxicating wine, you and your sons …, when you come to the Ohel Mo’ed (the Tent of Meeting), that you not die — this is an eternal decree for your generations. In order to distinguish between the sacred and the profane …” (Artscroll Chumash, Vayikra, Perek 10, p’sukim 8-10).

We see that Nadav and Avihu were so wrapped up in the joy and euphoria of the moment that they chose to serve Hashem in a unique way, untaught by Moshe during the previous training. And they chose to offer their fire without asking Moshe for his ruling. The Imrei Shefer quotes R’ Eliezer as saying:

“Aaron’s sons died because they gave rulings in the halacha in front of Moshe, their teacher” (rather than asking him for p’sak Halacha). (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaakov Greenberg, page 267)

Yehuda Nachshoni, in the Sefer Vayikra volume of “Studies in the Weekly Parsha” (pages 683-690) cites numerous other commentators who indicate that Nadav’s and Avihu’s uncommanded foreign fire service carried with it a multitude of other attendant possible wrongs:

Disrespect for the Mishkan, the korbonot (sacrifices), and the Divine Service: (a) They entered the Mishkan wearing the robes of a regular Kohen rather than those of the Kohn Gadol. (b) They had previously imbibed wine. (c) They brought in a foreign fire, which they took from a stove and not from the outer Altar. (d) They offered a sacrifice which they had not been commanded to bring.

Other commentators accuse the sons of improper behavior which discredited the Kehunah: (e) that they did not take wives because of their conceit, for they felt that no other family was as distinguished as theirs, and (f) they did not have children.

There are also commentators who find other halachic or moral blemishes… They were among those about whom it was said (Shemot Perek 24, posuk 11) “And they ate and drank, and they saw Hashem.” They awaited the death of Moshe and Aaron, so that they could take over the leadership of the nation. They were not friendly toward each other.

The possibility that Nadav and Avihu may not have been on friendly, brotherly terms with each other may also explain why, if they didn’t ask Moshe Rabbeinu about the fire service’s halachic permissibility, according to R’ Zelig Pliskin’s “Growth Through Torah” (Parsha Shemini, page 247 ) “They also erred by not asking each other for advice.” R’ Pliskin writes:

…If they would have discussed the matter between themselves they might have reached the conclusion that they should refrain… Neither one might come to this conclusion on their own. But together they might.

And while we note that Nadav and Avihu sought to perform a unique service, thought by them to be pleasing to Hashem, many others through our history have sought to alter, to change the traditional modes of service, more often than not, in ways and for reasons not L’Shem Shemayim (not honoring Hashem’s name) and perhaps, eventually rendering whatever service they attempted as unrecognizable in Shemayim, and actually an aveirah (a sin).

The message of the tragedy of the deaths of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, seems timely as well for the seventh day of Pesach — K’riyat Yom Suf — for it brings to mind what seems a similar chutzpah on the part of some amongst the B’nai Yisrael after crossing the Reed Sea. This author cited in this year’s “Dayenu” post, that Yosef Deutsch’s sefer “Let My Nation Go” notes:

After some 402 pages of describing the evolvement of the Jewish enslavement in Mitzrayim, Moshe’s birth and time in Pharaoh’s palace, Hashem’s placement of leadership upon Moshe, the Divine Makkot upon the Mitzriyim, Hashem’s release of B’nai Yisrael from enslavement and finally, the crossing of the Yom Suf (the sea) with Pharaoh and the Mitzriyim in full pursuit — on the sefer’s final couple of pages, Deutsch indicates that when the Jews saw the dead Mitzriyim float up to the surface with all of their riches and booty, there were some among them who had the unmitigated chutzpah to suggest that with all the booty in their possession, they should go back and take over Egypt.

Throughout our history, there have been, and continue to be in our days, those who sought/seek to “cut corners” in their Avodah in an effort to achieve a perception of being “like the nations.” In recent generations, many among our Jewish brethren evolved to deny Hashem’s control of the world in seeking to tailor Torah and their Jewishness to fit the ways of the nations thinking that this was the path to gaining their love, admiration or respect.

From the desecration of Shabbos, as a result of desperate want of parnossa, to moving away from Kashrut, to driving to shul (or later called synagogue or temple), to loss of family purity, to inter-marriage, etc., the Jews have evolved away from closeness to Hashem, their traditions, and many are now in denial of their heritage.

The perception that assimilation of the Jews would lead to acceptance by the nations grew in the minds of many to override accepting Hashem’s reishut (command) over the world. They perceive that if only they didn’t look and act sooo Jewish, that then they’ll be loved by the gentiles. And, if they are loved and held of by the gentiles, they reason that then they would be able to live forever in peace, never to be harrassed, belittled or persecuted for their Jewishness — what little, if any, would be left. If their eyes would only be wide open so as to see how abysmally wrong their theorim have been; again, again and in the US again — most recently having voted in droves for a President with an Islamic-sounding name who, it becomes more and more increasingly clear and obvious, is intent on Israel’s demise.

There are other dimensions to “unique service” and “cutting corners.” There are others among us who, while seeming to be and wearing the outward trappings of frumkeit, are wanting on the inside. And it seems that during Purim or Shushan Purim, the inner realities of some are laid bare for others to see.

Case in point; a Shushan Purim foray into Jerusalem a few years ago; the unlocked door of a private, moving mini-van flung open by a young enibriated bocher who, in his distorted, drunken state, thought that he was “having a good time”, obviously at the expense of the those in the vehicle who could have been endangered by the act. This and other similar type acts witnessed by this author, and not only on Shushan Purim, make travelling to Holy Yerushalayim on a chag (festival day like Shushan Purim) or on Chol Hamoed (intermediate holiday, i.e. Chol HaMoed Passover or Succot) a dreaded drudgery rather than the eagerly awaited and anticipated Shalosh Regalim (the three Halachically-mandated trips to Jerusalem for Passover, Shavuot, Succot).

There is one more point to be made here. Our parsha teaches us about Kosher and treif (non-Kosher) animals — that only meat from kosher animals with split hooves and who chew their cud are halachically (according to the laws of Torah) permitted to be eaten by the Jewish people. And this author vividly remembers Rabbanim who explain that when the chazeir (swine) would lay-down, its split hooves would face outwards, its as if it is saying to all, “see, I’m kosher!”

This author views this characteristic of the chazeir as relevant, and as reinforcement of a previous post for Parsha Tzav, which makes a point repeated numerous times on this blog, which could be referred to as “cutting corners,” on Hashem’s time — a mumble-jumbled repetition of Shemonah Esrei by a Sh’liach Tzibbur. In the Parsha HaShevua for Tzav, this author noted:

No less than Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Reichman of Yeshiva University discussed the need for Teshuvah regarding tefillot in a video shiur just before Yom Kippur.

In that video, R’ Reichman spoke about his feelings regarding his own personal tefillot as well as indicating a necessity for Sh’lichim Tzibburim to do teshuva in perfecting their davening in Chazarat HaShatz (repetition of Shemonah Essrei). To this author’s recollection, R’ Reichman is THE FIRST prominent Rabbi to have addressed issues relating to the Shaliach Tzibbur “System.”

Presumably the same holds true for the shot-gunned less-than-1 minute Aleinu. It seems apparent to this author that the litmus test of true sincerity of observance begins with the effort put into proper tefillah, not just by each individual of the minyan, but as at least of equal importance, by the Sh’liach Tzibbur — the one reciting the repetition of Shemonah Esrei.

There are those who learn that by time of the Moshiach, of the Ge’ula Shlaima (the Ultimate Redemption), there will be an era when the chazeir, too, will do Teshuva, and that the animal will evolve into chewing its cud as well as already having split hooves — thus becoming kosher. But meanwhile, this chutzpah of the chazeir; sitting or laying down with split hooves out for all to see as if proclaiming himself “kosher”, could be said to have its parallel lesson regarding the midos, derech and actions of some who wear the clothes and who talk the talk, but who seem not to walk the walk of true observance.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!
_______________________________________

Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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by Moshe Burt

Shalom and Chag Same’ach Friends;

Seems I keep harping on the same theme regarding the Pesach Seder in recent years. I remember back some five years ago when Rav Chaim Zev Malinowitz spoke before Pesach 5768 saying that to truly experience Pesach, we need to put ourselves in a mindset of feeling the Yetziyat Mitzrayim (the leaving of Egypt) as if WE were THERE, as if WE had been through the slavery, bondage and persecution, as if WE watched the naisim of the Asserah Makkot (the 10 plagues) and were now dressed like Kings and Queens eating the Seder meal –the Korban Pesach which had been tied to our bedposts before slaughter, the Matzot (the bread of affliction which was baked in haste because of the haste of departure from that iron crucible: Mitzrayim) and the Maror — the bitterness of the affliction..

I’ve gotten very into R’ Shimson Rafael Hirsch z”l as is evident from citings from the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Rabbi Daniel Haberman) included my various Parshiyot HaShavua’s in recent years. I’ve also been learning R’ Hirsch’s “Nineteen Letters”, translated with commentary by Rabbi Joseph Elias. There are some passages from the text of Letters # 8 and 9 of “Nineteen Letters”, as well as commentary on the letters which, to me, speak to contributing to an ADULT’s focus in Being and Feeling as if “There” — being with the rest of Am Yisrael in Mtizrayim, feeling their pain of persecution and enslavement, as well as their euphoria upon Yetizot Mitzrayim.

Please feel free to print out copies of these exerpts appropriate to the number of teens, young adults and adults of all ages at your Seder table so that they can read them during the week before Pesach, or take a few moments before the Seder gets under way, to transplant themselves to that time in Mitzrayim and to “Be There.”

Also, if you and your guests enjoy and are enriched by these exerpts, I invite you all to view my ongoing Parshiyot HaShevuas each week on http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/ , to sign up to receive the current Parshat HaShevua each week by email or to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua to commemorate a family simcha, a Yahrtzeit or other event worthy of sponsorship.

Many thinks for printing this out. I hope that by doing this exercise, that I have helped to make your Seder more meaningful.

May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brethren Jonathan Pollard and Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the other MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Yom Tov! Chag Kosher V’Some’ach and, remember: BE THERE at the Pesach Seder!

Moshe Burt

Rav Hirsch z”l, the B’nai Yisrael and “Being There” at the Pesach Seder 5773

It is perplexing that there are soo many blanks, soo many vagueries as to the history of that era such that it is difficult at best to frame the period in one’s mindset and perspective.

I cite here from my Parshat HaShevua on Sh’mos a few years ago:

the evolution of Jewish enslavement and persecution seems quite difficult to impossible due to great disparities between googled sources like this one, and Jewish historical chronologies. These disparities range from at least 200 to 500 years in terms of which Pharoah reigned in the times of Yosef and the deaths of the brothers and the ensuing enslavement, in which era and Dynasty, what Pharoah’s name was and what wars were fought when. And in the process of searching, it seems likely that ancient historians may have obscured or obliterated hundreds of years of Mitzri history, as Middle East expert Daniel Pipes claims. But it seems that Pipe’s dates are off as well, by about 175 years as to when Yaakov entered Mitzrayim and, in a later citing regarding the beginning of the reign of Shlomo HaMelech. The closest chronology seen by this author is one compiled by a Rabbi Hochheimer where it nearly agrees, only being off by 4 to 20 years and with agreement as to the date the Jews left Mitzrayim in 1313 BCE. But it is a mere snapshot chronology with no corrolating history as to which reign, what wars connection with Yosef and the Jews.

There are also those who write claiming that Yosef interpreted Pharoah’s dreams and was thus appointed Viceroy during a period when a foreign power held the seat of government and the Kingship in Mitzrayim. They claim that it was this Pharoah who designated that Yaakov and the brothers settle in Goshen and who had an affinity with the Jews. The Freeman Institute, whose dates also seem disparate from Jewish chronology — off by about 140 years, indicates that:

Joseph was promoted… in the middle of the Hyksos occupation of Egypt. But it is impossible to identify the individual before whom Joseph appeared, because the dating and succession of Hyksos kings remains indemonstrable today.

One could therefore question:

Who is the “new king” of Exodus 1:8 who “came to power in Egypt” and “did not know Joseph”? Was this new pharaoh Egyptian or Hyksos? What was the identity of the pharaoh who initially refused, but eventually was obliged to acquiesce to Moses’ demand that the Israelites should be released from bondage?

Perhaps one could theorize that if it was a Hyksos Pharoah whose dreams Yosef interpreted and who appointed him Viceroy and who ceded Goshen to the Jews, then pehaps the “New Pharoah” who “didn’t know of Yosef” was a Mitzri who became King when the Mitzriyim ousted the Hyksos invaders. Then it could be very understandable how the Mitzriyim would disdain the Jews who had by then penetrated Mitzrayim proper and could be found in all sectors of society; the trades, professions, arts, theatrical, business, economic, etc.

And so, a Pharoah schemed the enslavement of the Jews — mida keneged mida — to isolate the Jews from Mitzri Society.

With this background, we can now introduce citings from R’ Hirsch’s “Nineteen Letters”.

“Nineteen Letters,” Letter # 8, pages 114-115:

Hashem revealed Himself in the lives of these individuals as the “invisibly ruling Providence”, until they grew to a family of seventy, the nucleus of the nation-to-be. Starting with this nucleus, however, this people still had to be trained in order to be able to carry out its future mission. Unlike other nations, it could only attain nationhood only in the school of suffering. Hence, it had to be deprived of everything that makes a people a nation — in fact, even of that which, superficially seen, makes them men. Until the time of its liberation, this nation was to lose everything — except its morality, the promise of a better future and its trust in the One Alone — only to receive it all anew from His hands when it was freed.

The crucible of suffering in which Yisrael was to be forged in order to fulfill its future mission was Egypt, the country which then enjoyed the highest standard of civilization and which considered its land and its river to be its gods. Yisrael had been invited to Egypt in reward for a favor rendered by one of its members. Initially a guest, Yisrael established itself there. Egypt, however, worshipping material wealth only, did not acknowledge the One Alone and did not consider all men to be His children. In the arrogance of its power, it flouted the rules of hospitality and human rights, and made Yisrael its slaves. Yisrael, by now grown into a people, was reduced to the lowest level of human existence; and it was confronted by an Egypt that was in the full flowering of its might, proud of its greatness and contemptuous of the oppressed. At this moment, the One Alone appeared.

“Upon a light cloud, He appears… and Egypt’s gods tremble.” (Yeshayah perek 19, posuk 1)

He reveals Himself as the sole Creator, the Lord of nature…. he reveals Himself, too, as Lord over the life of nations, as Vindicator of the oppressed, as Judge of the arrogant. Egypt’s glory collapses before the majesty of a people that has nothing but Hashem alone. Hashem speaks __ and the walls of Egyptian prison tumble down; and the people… is free to march out.

From the hands of Hashem it obtained its freedom and nationhood, and the goal of its liberation, the revelation of how Hashem wants man to live — the Torah. From Yisrael’s schooling in Egypt and its training in the wilderness, one basic trait was to be forged: Emunah, rock-like trust in the One Alone Whom it had come to know, no matter along which paths His providence would lead it.

Commentaries on Letter # 8:

4. Suffering, page 120

Rabbi Hirsch stresses, the suffering in Egypt was necessary so that the Jews themselves, as well as the entire world, would realize that they [the Jews] were redeemed, and thus became a people, purely by miraculous Divine intervention. All this had to take place in Egypt because it was both the most powerful and the most civilized nation of the time.

5. Still in its fetters, page 121

“The fact that they were driven out of Egypt and that they could not even prepare the necessary bread for the journey… impresses forever on this exodus the stamp of its being exclusively the act of Hashem… they were still, even at this moment of their exodus, completely, as before, in the power of their oppressors and it was Hashem alone Who was directing matters…” (Commentary on Sefer Shemot)

6. Wilderness, page 121

The Torah was not given in Egypt, some commentators declare, because it might have been felt in later generations that the Jews would have consented to anything to escape from the house of bondage. On the other hand, [as cited from R’ Sa’adya Goan re: Letter # 7] R’ Hirsch indicates, the Torah could not be given in Eretz Yisrael because it had to be made clear that the Jews would become a nation without any of the appurtenances, such as a common territory, that usually are necessary for the emergence of a nation. (Commentary on Sefer Devarim)

At the same time, the giving of the Torah in the desert was intended to make it clear for all generations that the Torah does not depend on any material conditions (see Maharal, Derush al ha-Torah), just as the survival of the Jewish people does not depend upon them. The Torah and the Jewish people are inseparable and unaffected by the vagaries of time…

8. One condition, pages 122-123

Even though the existence and nationhood of the Jewish people do not depend upon the possession of land and state (Letter #7), the land of Yisrael has a crucial role to play as the Jew seeks to fulfill his Divine mission.

The land was to be received by the Jewish people for the realization of its national ideal: a state ruled by Hashem’s Law…. Eretz Yisrael was to be a Gan Eden for a people serving Hashem, and in return, receiving the Divine blessings of material and spiritual prosperity Commentaries on Sefer Devarim). On the other hand, if the Jewish people failed to live up to its duties, Divine providence, which is particulary manifest in this land (Sefer Devarim Perek 11, posuk 12), would cause it to become barren and desolate of its inhabitants who would be exiled. (Commentaries on Sefer Breish’t, Devarim) “This Jewish land, in its prosperity and in its ruin, is the pledge of the special historical position oof Israel on earth… The Divinely promised land can only be visualized in the context with the covenant [of Avraham] and the Torah.” (Commentary Sefer Devarim)

That the fate of Eretz Yisrael depends on our obedience to Hashem, rather than on political power and military might, is shown not only by the fact that in due course, “we were exiled from our land because of our sins” but also by the fact that we were given a number of Mitzvot that particularly tested our trust in Hashem rather than in military and economic calculations…

It should be clear, of course, that our eagerness for the return to Zion has never been due to a desire for political independence and material prosperity as ends in themselves, but to our longing to regain the closeness to Hashem’s Presence that the Beit HaMikdash, “the sanctuary of the Torah, the seat of Hashem and the Divine word.”

Letter # 9, pages 125-126:

…As a state Yisrael had committed no sins other than those evident among all of the other nations; but that which could be tolerated in the case of the other peoples could not be excused in Yisrael, for the entire purpose of its existence was to remain pure of such aberrations , since Hashem was its G’d! The collapse of the state, then served in its way to educate Yisrael just as much as its former prosperity had done; and its dispersion opened a new, great and far-flung field in which to carry out its mission.