Israel and The Sin of Expulsion

Parshat Bamidbar 5772: 600,000 Jewish Neshamot in Bamidbar — But What About the Levi’im?

moshe — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:47:21 +0000

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… Mitzriyim.” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posuk 1)

This author addressed the transference of the Kehuna (priesthood) from the first-borns to the Kohanim in vorts on Parshat Ki Tisa in successive years.

But the Kehuna was not all that was taken from the first-born after the Eigel Zahav — the golden calf. The census of our parsha Bamidbar reveals that Hashem kavei’yokel (as He is) transferred, replaced, or as the word is used in the parsha — “redeemed”, the Kedusha of the first-borns through the Levi’im. Our parsha states (Artscroll Chumash rendering of Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 3, posukim 11-12):

Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, “Behold! I have taken the Levites from among the B’nai Yisrael, in place of every first-born…”

Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posukim 47 through 50 state:

The Levi’im according to the tribe of their fathers were not counted among them [the total number of the B’nai Yisrael]. Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, “…You shall not count the tribe of Levi, and you shall not take a census of them among the B’nai Yisrael. You shall appoint the Levi’im over the Mishkan [Tabernacle], over all its utensils and everything which belongs to it…”

R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, z’l provides commentary on the above posukim in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman):

There was one tribe that remained faithful to Hashem and his Torah, defending the inviolability of Torah against the rest of the nation…. This tribe, the tribe of Levi is now appointed “guardian” of the Torah, and for this purpose is to remain apart from the rest of the nation. Levi does not belong to the community, but solely to the Testimony [presumably meaning Torah] which is the ruling soul of the community.

Just as they serve and represent the Torah in their personal lives, so are they to serve and represent the sanctity of the Torah. The service consists of bearing the Sanctuary and its furnishings when the nation is on the march, and in reassembling the Sanctuary when the nation sets up camp…. camping around the Mishkan [Sanctuary] and guarding it.

….The whole purpose of the separation of the Mishkan and setting apart of its Servants was to constantly remind Israel of this character of Service of the Sanctuary.

Further on in the parsha, we learn that the count of B’nai Yisrael (all but the Levi’im) from twenty years and up numbered some 603,550 (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 1, posuk 46, Perek 2, posuk 32) about whom commentators seem to always round-down in referring the “600,000 neshamot in the Bamidbar (the desert). The Levi’im, who were not counted among the B’nai Yisrael “as Hashem had commanded Moshe” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 2, posuk 33), but were counted separately and from the age of one month numbered 22,000 (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 3, posuk 39) in the census. Rashi notes (on Perek 3, posuk 39) that the counts of the families of Kohath, Gershon and Merari added up to 22,300 but that:

“Three hundred of the Levites were themselves first-born, so that they themselves required redemption. By dedicating themselves to the service of Hashem, they redeemed their own persons, but could not redeem others as well.” (Artscroll Chumash rendering of Rashi on Perek 3, posuk 39)

Hashem then instructed Moshe to make a count of “…every first-born child of the B’nai Yisrael from one month of age and up…” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 3, posuk 40). The count of the first-born of the B’nai Yisrael totalled 22,273 (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 3, posuk 43).

The transference of the Kedusha of the first-borns onto the Levi’im took place 22,000 onto 22,000 by lots drawn by the first-borns, with the 273 remaining first-borns paying, by Divine command, 5 shekalim each to Aaron and his sons (Perek 3, posuk 48) — ostensibly going for use regarding the Mishkan. Perek 3, posuk 45 states:

“…And the Levites shall be Mine, I am Hashem.”

The Artscroll Chumash cites the Ohr HaChaim on Perek 3, posuk 45 as stating:

“I am Hashem, just as I am eternal, so the status of the Levites is eternal.”

The census numbers, and Hashem’s redemption of the first-borns through the Levi’im prompt several questions worth pondering over this Shabbos, which is followed on its heels immediately afterwards by Shavu’ot:

1) Commentators seem to always make mention of the “600,000 neshamot in the Bamidbar” when referring to the B’nai Yisrael. But in doing so, one’s perception might be: But aren’t the Levi’im also Jews and part of B’nai Yisrael?
2) Commentators often make the equation made between the “600,000 neshamot” and the number of letters which make up the Torah. But isn’t Torah actually comprised of 200,000 plus letters?
3) If we learn that the entire generation of the B’nai Yisrael above 20 years old were destined to die in the Bamidbar, what about the Levi’im who were counted separately, and on a different basis (from one month, rather than from twenty years old) than were the rest of B’nai Yisrael?
4) Since the Levi’im also accepted the negative report of the Miraglim: the spies, why didn’t their generation die in the Bamidbar, as did the generation of the B’nai Yisrael?
5) Seeing that the first-borns were replaced, redeemed by the Levi’im, what became the status of the first-borns?

One could gain the perception that the Levi’im were totally separate and distinct and a different nation from the rest of the B’nai Yisrael, and in effect, they were separate and distinct within the Jewish nation, as R’ Hirsch explains above, and as indicated Ohr HaChaim on Perek 3, posuk 45.

Regarding equating the census of the “600,000 neshamot” with the letters of Torah, an anonymous Tzaddik in RBS indicates that commentators such as Rabbi Moshe Wolfson, Mashgiach Ruchani of Mesivta Torah Vodaath and Rav of Beis Medrash Emunas Yisrael in Brooklyn, and who is a revered rabbinic figure in our time, seem to tell us that although Torah is comprised of 200,000 plus letters, many of those letters are made from two or more letters. One could also understand that the spelling of each of the letters could be made up of two or more letters, i.e. Alef = Alef, Lamed and final Fay, or Bet = Bet, Tuf.

Chassidic commentators indicate that the 22,000 Levi’im constitute the white spaces in Torah which hold the letters in place for eternity, just as the the Levi’im, in the words of R’ Hirsch above, are the “ruling soul of the community”, teaching Torah to the B’nai Yisrael and acting to prevent them from straying for all time. Therefore, we learn that the generation of Levi’im in Bamidbar survived to enter Eretz Yisrael while the 600,000 of tht generation perished over the forty years.

R’ Zelig Pliskin, in his sefer “Growth Through Torah” cites the Sifsai Chachomim on our Parsha (page 308) regarding the Levi’im and the Miraglim:

…The Levites also accepted the negative report of the spies. But the decree of dying in the wilderness was because of the double transgressions of the Golden Calf and the spies. Since the Levites were not guilty in the incident of the Golden Calf, they were not included in the decree.

With the Kedusha of the first-borns transferred to the Levi’im by Divine Command, those first-borns between the ages of twenty and sixty years retained their count within the “600,000 neshamot” of B’nai Yisrael. Those first-borns less than twenty years or over 60 years reverted to a status of not having been counted in the census.

And so the Levi’im, with the Kehuna, served as Divine paradigms for the B’nai Yisrael to emulate in their thoughts, speech and actions in keeping with the spirit of the Matan Torah experience as Shabbos Parsha Bamidbar ends and our annual Shavu’ot Matan Torah experience begins this year immediately thereafter.

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

“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.”

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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all or any part of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos and Chag Same’ach (Shavu’ot)!

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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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Parsha Bechukotai 5772: The Tochocha and Measuring a Jew’s Connection With His Home — Eretz Yisrael

moshe — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:19:46 +0000

by Moshe Burt

Our Parsha Bechukotai is but another in the series of Parshiyot usually paired with the one it preceeds as a doubleheader, in this case Parsha Behar.

Therefore, yet another opportunity exists to emphasize, in another way, the connection between the Jew and Eretz Yisrael.

In Parshat Behar, Hashem instills in us to parallel the laws of Shabbos: six days you shall work and you shall rest, refrain from all
manner of avodah on the seventh day… to keep it Holy, just as in emulation of Hashem’s creation of the universe; with the laws of
Shemittoh: ‘I will command My blessing during the sixth year and it will provide produce for three years’ we see beyond the Hatam Sofer’s explanation that:

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)

We see that the halachot of Shabbos and the halachot of Shemittoh connect and bond the Jew and his Land — “Eretz Yisrael” for eternity. For us, the Land of Israel is a one-of-a-kind, unique land granted by Hashem ONLY to His Am Yehudim — his Am Segula: Light unto the other nations and His Land — a land like none other, to be loved, embraced, possessed, tended and cared for.

Or, as this author noted on last week’s Parshat Behar:

It seems… 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… that Hashem has inextricably linked the two — the B’nai Yisrael and the Land of Israel — for all time.

Hashem seems to be saying 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, our parsha 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 our Parsha, 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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all or any part of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

Sefer Torah Poster for Sponsorship of Parshat HaShevua

moshe — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:20:58 +0000

Sponsors of a Parshat HaShevua for $200 or more will receive a framable Sefer Torah Poster which they can hang in their home, or give as a gift. Contact this author at: olehchadash@yahoo.com for more details.

Below is a 3-column sample of the Sefer Torah poster.

Parsha Behar 5772; Thoughts on Shemittoh, and Who Really Rules Eretz Yisrael?

moshe — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:16:47 +0000

by Moshe Burt

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

“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 21 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 ti 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.

Parshat Emor 5772: The Kohanim as a Paradigm of Chessed Purity

moshe — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:45:25 +0000

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.

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 would also provide food for thought in light of recent media revelations 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 run 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.

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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all or any part of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

Parshiyot Acharei Mos/Kedoshim 5772: The Kohen Gadol’s Clothing of National Atonement and Paradigm

moshe — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:34:50 +0000

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, commentary on the deaths of Aharon’s sons and the Yom Kippur Service on page 636), by way of a citing from the Yerushalmi Yoma 1.1, 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 — how Jewish brother treats 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 Bein Adam L’Chaveiro level, that V’ohavta L’rei’acha Komochah is superseded by personal expediency, selfishness or self-
advancement at the next guy’s expense. As was indicated in a Dayenu d’rash during Pesach, speed-of-light davening is symptomatic of traits of indifference and insensitivity which find their ways into the place of business, our interactions with our Jewish brethren and dealing with our families. We, in our autos, speed past our brother, ignoring his welfare or that he has his finger out to go exactly where you are going. We see our brother running to catch a bus and don’t make an effort, on his behalf, to get the driver to wait that extra second. We see that Kupat Cholim doctors care more about meeting their personal contract “quotas” — jamming 6 patients into an hour, rather than fighting the system and providing their brethren with the quality of health care and support to which they are entitled as fellow Jews. We flatly refuse to help a brother in even the smallest of ways and we are given excuses and rationalizations why we are refused, i.e., how they live such a hard life in Israel. A hard life?? A hard life?? Are there still slaves with a quota of bricks each day and no straw to produce them?

Are there still unmerciful whip beatings? 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.

Instead 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.

There is a connection between this 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.

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 or Mofaz 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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all or any part of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos! Chodesh Tov!

Parshiyot Tazria/Metzora 5772: Today’s Gauge of National Level Ta’amei/Tahara and Genuine Contrition

moshe — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:07:21 +0000

by Moshe Burt

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

Torah relates in Parsha Tazria;

“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 Hirch, 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 awareness 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 NCYI Rav who prepared the Parsha HaShevua mentioned above was indicating that, just as an individual whose affliction covered his own body because there seemed no hope for repentence and was thus deemed “pure” by the Kohen, so too, when the spiritual level of a the nation seemed beyond rectification, they still 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 one could understand, 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. And whereas the sight of a few Israeli soldiers chasing hundreds or thousands of Arabs was seen in those previous wars, now the military is handcuffed by hands-full of terrorists and terror rockets from Gaza and Lebanon.

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 must be quarantined. Conceptually, it seems apparent that this principle would apply on a national level as well.

Parsha Metzoral deals with the sincerity of an individual’s rectification of the aveirah of loshen hora — Motziya rah [transliteration of the 2 words which form Metzora]: a slander <1>, and how one could view such rectification when it would seem required on a national scope.

Firstly, we learn 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 light of the above, the message of the 2nd posuk of our Parsha 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.

One could find 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.

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 matzavim (difficulties) either on a one-to-one level, or on a national sectorial level. Whether it is the Jew cheated by the disreputable Jewish merchant or businessman, or the Jew who received committment for work - for a job under false pretenses, the aggrieved and battered spouse who is abandoned by heretofore friends and community, the mafia criminal, spousal or child abuser who is permitted to walk the streets free as a bird due to bribery of police and judiciary — while the community turns away, or those who pled teshuvah for their lack of support and actions regarding the evicted former residents of Gush Katif, but who are now equally silent regarding the possible media-publicized machinations of the government — to make biblical Jewish land Yudenrein, Ibn Ezra’s point and R’ Pliskin’s explanation seem mostly well-taken. It would seem that to bring real peace and unity among B’nai Yisrael, we Jews — ALL of us, need to rise above common human nature, show sincere, genuine contrition as a nation, and care for our fellows — V’Ahavtah L’re’icha Komocha.

It would seem that such contrition would manifest by standing solid, every Jew as one with his brethren, against the political class who would seek to divide and conquer us. Only then will our collective contrition, i.e. toward our former Gush Katif brethren, be sincere and complete. But Am Yisrael today seems a very long way from such real genuine contrition.

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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

Footnote:
<1> As defined by R’ Shimshon Rafael Hirch, z’l in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman) on the posukim at the beginning of Parsha Tazria regarding Negi’yim — spots, Tzoras (Sefer Vayikra, Parsha Tazria, page 420).

Parshat Shemini 5772: Discerning Kosher from Treif, and the Sincerity of One’s Service

moshe — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:54:43 +0000

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.

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) notes, citing numerous other commentators, 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 imbibd 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’Sheim 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 afew 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 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 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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Shabbos!

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

moshe — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:50:38 +0000

Shalom and Chag Same’ach Friends;

This Author has been 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. Have 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 seem to speak loudly in 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.

Here’s hoping that by doing this exercise, that this author has helped to make your Seder more meaningful.

Best,

Moshe Burt

“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 Hw 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.

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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 — restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Dayenu 5772: That “Being There” Feeling at the Pesach Seder

moshe — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:07:27 +0000

by, Moshe Burt

This year will mark seventeen years, and my fourteenth Pesach in Eretz Yisrael, in which I have emailed, as it has become tradition with me from prior to my Aliyah, the rendition of Dayenu quoted from the book “Dear Brothers.” In each year, Dayenu holds a unique perspective, unlike the perspective of any previous year.

Each year, this author tries to put forth factors that relate to the state of B’nai Yisrael — right here and right now.

And so, the lessons of Dayenu are vital now, just as they were in the first year that I emailed this vort out or, for that matter, as vital as they were when it was quoted in Segal’s compilation of the book in its copyright year 1988.

As we approach Pesach 5772, we take time again to ponder this brief section about Dayenu and wonder what tests of emunah Hashem will toss our way as a Klal which might approach or exceed his tests of our forefathers in Mitzrayim; i.e., taking the Mitzri avodah zora — that parody about “Tying the Korban Pesach to the Bedpost Overnight”, then slaughtering it, and applying its blood to our doorposts so that the Moloch HaMavet passes over our Jewish homes… and eating it at the Seder table on the night before going out from Mitzriyim. Are we there? Can we place our mindsets there?

Approaching nearly any Shul after after Maariv, just the final Kaddish, one is struck by the mass exodus. Are we really there? Are we really into having that personal dialogue with Hashem three times daily? Or, are we merely, one-two-six, carrying out the by-rote rabbinic injunction and obligation? And similarly, at the Pesach Seder, Are WE really there? Can we feel and understand how it was to be in Mitzrayim, how it was to live through the generations following the death of Yosef HaTzaddik and through the evolution of the enslavement and persecution of B’nai Yisrael by Pharoah and the Mitzriyim? As we make the primary focus of our Pesach Seder experience toward the young children, are we still able to direct the Seder experience in such a way as to instill, among the other age segments around the Seder table, insghts and transplantation such that they feel as if they are/were there and experiencing the dire pain of their ancestors?

What tests akin to the Korban Pesach, or Kri’yat Yom Suf (crossing the Reed Sea) does Hashem have in mind us this Pesach, as Moshiach approaches B’ezrat Hashem, to test OUR mettle, both individually and as a kehal, as a nation, as Jews? Do we have the backbone, the “fire in the belly” to stand up and physically express in a multitude of ways our sovereignty and our ownership of Eretz Yisrael? Do we have the inner strength and gumption to do right by our fellow Jews? Are the modern-day tests akin to the tests, the challenges our brethren faced in the day of Pharoah and Mitzrayim?

Dayenu!!!

My Introduction

In the Book “Dear Brothers”, the story is told how Pesach 5738 (1968) was approaching when the first group of Pioneers endeavored to establish themselves in Chevron. Among this hearty group were Rabbis Haim Druckman, Eliezer Waldman, Moshe Levinger, Shlomo Aviner and others.

We pick up the story as the participants, “Sixty people sat down to that historical first Seder…” in Chevron:

“Another participant was the author Moshe Shamir, formerly affiliated with the leftist Hashomer Hatzair(the Young Guard). As he did with each of the celebrants during the Seder, Rabbi Druckman asked Shamir to make some comments appropriate to the festival. The others braced themselves for the minor unpleasantness that was sure to result…”

But at every Seder since then; other guests have repeated the Drosh that Moshe Shamir delivered that first Passover Seder in Chevron and so I try to give it over each year to my friends and relatives on Pesach via the Internet:

“The fourteen verses in the song Dayenu (It would have sufficed) have drawn the attention of the commentators throughout the ages. Why should we imply that we could forgo even one of the gifts given to us by Hashem three thousand years ago? How would we have gotten along at all without every one of them? The truth is that this part of the Haggadah has only one aim: to teach us how each and every generation of Jews tends to settle for the achievements of the past, to settle for what its forefathers had accomplished — and to rest on its laurels, with no aspiration for anything not achieved thus far. We, too, right here have that same tendency to say Dayenu — ‘It would have sufficed for us.’ The State of Israel? Dayenu. Unified Jerusalem and liberated Hebron ? Dayenu. Wasn’t it just last year at the Seder that we said, ‘If Hashem had given us Israel but had not given us Jerusalem and Hebron — dayenu? That’s why we’ve got to know that we’ll be facing many more ‘dayenus’ until we reach full redemption.”

The book recounts that Rabbi Druckman stood up and kissed Shamir’s forehead.

The commentary in the Artscroll Pesach Haggadah cites the Malbim and speaks about Dayenu in this way;

“…The bondage of our forefathers was two-fold — physical and spiritual — and so was their redemption. The physical bondage came to an end on Pesach night, but the spiritual redemption reached it’s climax only with the building of the Temple and Hashem’s self-revelation in his sanctuary.”

“Every step on the road to this ultimate goal was a further act of Divine kindness to us, a further revelation of Hashem’s majesty. That’s why we give thanks for each …favor (MB; kindness) bestowed upon us. For every single step, we say Dayenu — it would have sufficed by itself to give our thanks (attributed to Malbim).”

This does not mean that any one step would have sufficed by itself to bring us to our goal. It does mean, however, that each of the happenings of Yetziyat Mitzrayim, Giving of Torah at Har Sinai, the travels through Bamidbar, entry of the Jewish People into Eretz Yisrael through to the building of the Beit HaMikdash “represented a new remarkable miracle — …that Hashem need not have performed these miracles if he had not seen a particular purpose for each.

Dayenu seems to mean recognizing the great chessed that Hashem has done for us with every gift that he has given to the Jewish people from Yetziyat Mitzrayim until now as well as the chessed inherent in the gifts yet to come — B’Ezrat Hashem; Moshiach, Ge’ula Shlaima, Torah leadership and government and an end to the current cruel, often brutal, heartless, totalitarian, dictatorial rulers.

In our time, the road continues for B’nai Yisrael. Entebbe, Israel’s successful bombing of the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor, Gulf War 1, The 10 1/2 years of the continuing “Oslo” War, 9/11, the bombings of a Syrian nuclear site as well as bombings of military convoys in the Sudan carrying military contraband to terrorists in Gaza, and other such events, as well as ever-growing concern about Iranian Nuclear Reactor and developments, the Roadmap/Separation wall/Expulsion/Annapolis machinations of recent and current governments of Israel … — these are physical, political national road.

And the spiritual road leading to Jewish self-esteem?? It seems travelled by way of our kavanah (intent) and ratzon (desire) in our tefillos, our Avodat Hashem and common decency toward our fellow Jews — V’ahavtah L’rei’cha Komocha as existed amongst B’nai Yisrael even in the depths of Mitzri enslavement, as well as by way of the strength of our convictions regarding Emunah in Hashem and by striving for the perceived “unachievable”; both inward and outward expressions and manifestations of limitless love for our fellow Jew and for our Holy Land.

But an indispensable key to the spiritual road is our chessed — not just throwing money at a need, but expressing our chessed through kindnesses done for our fellow Yid in need, even in the Eikev Mitzvot — like providing a fellow Yid with change for a 10 shekel piece in the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

We tend to function, each in our own domain first and foremost. We operate out of expediency — with speed-of-light Davening, at the place of business, dealing with our families. We, in our autos, speed past our brother, ignoring his welfare or that he has his finger out to go exactly where you are going. We see our brother running to catch a bus and don’t make an effort, on his behalf, to get the driver to wait that extra second. We flatly refuse to help a brother in even the smallest of ways, like mall vendors who refuse to make change for their fellow who is stuck with a ten shekel piece, or 2 fives for want of a single shekel. And we are given excuses and rationalizations for this refusal, i.e., how they live such a hard life in Israel. A hard life?? A hard life?? Are they slaves with a quota of bricks each day and no straw to produce them?

Are they beaten unmercifully with whips? 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. And 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.

Instead we give our brother a blank countenance, or a state of indifference and/or blunt insensitivity as 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. We give and take bribes — protexia at all levels, if it’ll increase our personal influence, our place in history or our position on “the bottom line.” And we, both here in Eretz Yisrael and in Chutz L’Aretz, seem blase’ about OUR Land — Eretz Yisrael, so much so that we continue, business as usual, even as we are in mortal danger from the external Arab/Islamic foe, as well as successive evil regimes controlling affairs of state who turn a blind eye and deaf ear to their constituency, their fellow Jews. Each sector among us seemingly has an agenda working against every other group thereby dividing us all and letting the evil ones “divide and conquer.”

We’ve lost our sense of unity of national purpose — the bond that in the past held us together as one such that an attack on my brother in Hevron, in Beitar, by Arab forklift drivers in Jerusalem, in the Golan or in Ramat Aviv Bet, on a Mall in Haifa, or massacres such as took place in Adura in 2002, or in Itamar last year would previously been felt by all to have been an attack upon ME — and I would get my dander and do something about it.

We’ve lost our sense of unity of national purpose of which all of our sectarian differences, prejudices, etc. were heretofore subordinate and subserviant.

Having read the sefer “Let My Nation Go” by Yosef Deutsch, it is interesting that, 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 unmitigaated chutzpah to suggest that with all the booty in their possession, they should go back and take over Egypt.

The sefer “Let My Nation Go”, and indeed the Pesach seder, also holds within an important lesson for the Jews in Chutz L’Aretz. That lesson is how the 70 beings who went down to Mitzrayim with Yaakov Aveinu grew, mushroomed and evolved into viewing that residence as their permanent home, due to their understanding (passed on from prior generations) of 400 years of residence in Mitzrayim. The lesson is how assimilation — calling their country of residence “home”, thus conforming to and melding into the general population losing our Jewish identity, spirituality and connection in the process. It is a lesson inherent in the Pesach seder and one which seems an imperative, as fundamental an imperative as that ALL Jews belong being in Eretz Yisrael — our biblical, historical homeland and the only place where a Jew can live feeling spiritually and Jewishly whole and completed.

And so, there is the old adage that a Government is but a mirror image of the people it leads. I hold that the purity, intent, desire and freshness of our Tefillah, Avodah, Mitzvot and awareness of OUR unique relationship with Hashem, as well as our outward displays of unity and love for our brethren are directly related to Dayenu. These outward displays of unity would be manifested by fighting the current anti-Torah, cruel decrees of evil regimes and the modern-day medina’s mega-evil “justice system” in every way in order that every believing Jew grasp the true extent of the evil being contemplated against them. While today’s modern-medina’s cruel decrees and evil “justice system” may not even closely reach the depth of Mitzri cruelty, dire persecution and enslavement, “being there” at the Pesach Seder and thus feeling the generation’s pain and agony may provide us with lessons of perspective and new strength to stand-up and face today’s anti-Torah cruelty straight-on.

As writer Moshe Shamir said years ago in his little Pesach vort;

“That’s why we’ve got to know that we’ll be facing many more ‘dayenus’ until we reach full redemption.”

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 — totally restituted for all that was stolen from them at leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized gunpoint, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage, backbone and moral stength of conviction to prevent both the eviction of Jews from their homes in all of Eretz Yisrael and the handing of Jewish land over 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 — the Ultimate Redemption bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim” — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!

Good Yom Tov! 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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