Divrei Torah

The following is a Dvar Torah for Shabbos Chol Hamoed Sukkos by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in memory of Rav Eitam and Naama Henkin hy"d.

The brutal murder of Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin in the presence of their four young children has shocked us all. It is hard to enter the spirit of zeman simchatenu, our festival of joy, in the midst of such lacerating grief. Our thoughts are with their children, and with their parents, Chanan and Hila Armony and Rabbi Yehudah and Rebbanit Chana Henkin, two of the great Jewish role models of our time. We ask, Zu Torah vezu sechorah, is this the Torah and this its reward? But we know better than to wait for an answer. In the end all we can do is to join the bereaved in our prayers. These words are dedicated to the memory of those who were killed.

At the end of his life Moses set out the great choice faced not just by Jews but by humanity as a whole: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your children may live.”

Why did Moses need to say such a thing? Did we not know, without his telling us, to choose life? Is it not obvious that, given the choice, we would choose the blessing, not the curse? The answer is given in the book we will read tomorrow, Kohelet, one of the most profound of all reflections on the nature of life and death.

The keyword of Kohelet is hevel. It appears no less than thirty-eight times, five times in a single sentence: “Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Hevel has been variously translated as “meaningless, pointless, futile,” as well as “vanity” in the seventeenth century sense, when it meant, not excessive self-regard but rather, “worthless.” Yet none of these is the primary meaning of the word.

Hevel means “a shallow breath.” The Hebrew words for soul – nefesh, ruach, neshamah – all have to do with the act of breathing. Hevel is a short, fleeting breath. What obsessed Kohelet was how fragile and vulnerable life is. We are biological beings of bewildering complexity, yet what separates being from non-being, life from death, is not complex at all. It is mere breath. When I read Kohelet I think of King Lear at the end of Shakespeare’s play, holding in his arms the lifeless body of his daughter Cordelia, weeping and saying, “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life / and thou no breath at all.”

Kohelet is, among other things, a midrash on the first two human children, whose story has become terribly relevant in our time. It is no accident that the victim of the first murder in the Torah was called Hevel (Abel). Hevel represents the fragility of life.  All that separates us from the grave is the breath God breathed into us: “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” That is all we are: hevel, mere breath. But it is God’s breath.

What eventually killed Hevel was Kayin (Cain). The Torah says explicitly why he was given this name. Chavah said, “I have acquired [kaniti] a man with God.” Kayinmeans “to acquire, to possess, to own.” In the end, unavoidably, this leads to conflict. Ownership is, in the short term, a zero sum game. The more you have, the less I have. Since we all want more, not less, the result will inevitably be violence, what Hobbes called “the war of every man against every man” in which life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” It is this scenario that is currently being played out in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Libya, and other bloodstained arenas throughout the world. It was just such a state that led God, before the flood, to “regret He had created man on earth, and He was pained to His very core.”

That is why, fundamental to the vision set forth in the Torah, is the principle that we own nothing. Everything – the land, its produce, power, sovereignty, children, life itself – belongs to God. We are mere trustees, guardians, on His behalf. We possess but we do not own. That is the basis of the infrastructure of social justice that made the Torah unique in its time and still transformative today.

Kayin means: I am what I own, and what I own gives me power. Cain was the first Nietzschean. His religion was the will to power. That is why God rejected his offering. The sacrifice God accepts, that of Abel/Hevel, is one that comes from the humility of mortality. “Ribono shel Olam, I am mere breath. But it is Your breath I breathe, not mine.” When religion becomes the pursuit of power, the result is bloodshed. To this, God says, “Your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.”

Even the great Kohelet – Shlomo, whose name means peace – at first sought happiness in what he owned: palaces, gardens, servants, wealth. None of these brought what he hoped for, since none makes us immortal, none defeats death. We remain mere breath. That is why Kohelet in the end finds meaning in the very fact of life itself. He finds joy in simple things: eating, drinking, work, and “seeing life with the woman you love.”

Joy comes not from what we own but from what we are. It comes from the fact that we are alive at all. We serve God by celebrating life, sanctifying life, choosing life. That is why Sukkot follows immediately from the days in which we pray to be written in the book of life. The Sukkah, exposed to the elements, the rain, the wind, the cold, the storm, is the symbol of the vulnerability of life. Yet even so, it is where we celebrate the festival of joy.

The great choice faced by humanity in every age is between the will to power and the will to life. No country in the world today is more eloquent testimony to the will to life than the State of Israel. It represents the collective affirmation of the Jewish people after the Holocaust, “I will not die, but live,” and thus give testimony to the God of life. Almost everything in which Israel has excelled, from agriculture to medicine to life-saving technologies, has been dedicated to enhancing, protecting or defending life.

Surrounding Israel, however, have been countries and cultures willing to sacrifice life to the pursuit of power. The result has been nothing short of devastation for all those caught in its vortex be they Jews, Christians, Muslims, Yazidis, Kurds, or other innocent human beings. The end result will be, as described by Shakespeare:

Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite,
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself.

Those who worship at the altar of power, in the end destroy themselves.

Sukkot tells us that life is vulnerable, yet it is all we have. We may be mere breath but it is God’s breath and it is sacred. The day will come when the world will see that the will to life must defeat the will to power if we are to survive at all, our humanity intact. Only when this happens will there be peace in the Middle East. Only when this happens will the children of the world have a future of hope.

Until then, we cherish the memory of two beautiful human beings who lived and taught the sanctity of life. May their example live in all our hearts.

BS"D

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, the renowned psychiatrist, addictions specialist, and Chasidic scholar, has an important insight into the nature of Teshuva, that I wanted to share with you.

BS"D

BS”D

              Being that Parshas Shoftim is frequently the first Torah portion read during the month of Elul, the special month of preparation before the High Holidays, many of its pesukim are interpreted metaphorically to instruct us in the ways of teshuva and introspection. The first pasuk in the parsha is no exception.     

“Shoftim v’shotrim teaten b’chol she’arecha…- Judges and officers shall you appoint for yourself in all your gates…” (Devarim 16:18).

The simple meaning of this verse is teaching us about the importance of establishing a judicial system in the Land of Israel to assure that the society established is just and orderly. However, in light of the special time when this is normally read, many commentaries have shared a different possible lesson that can be learned from this pasuk. They explain that just as a city or country has gates and/or other points of entry, so too each person has ‘gates’ to his or her soul. What are they? Primarily they are the mouth, eyes, and ears. Perhaps this pasuk is reminding us of the necessity to be careful of what comes in and goes out of our mouths, what we look at, and what we listen to. We are asked to consider what it is that we expose our souls to. Is it beneficial or detrimental to our spiritual well-being? Although the verse is clearly making a comment about the conduct and oversight of our society in general, we must not lose sight of the fact that our own inner environment needs the same attention and concern. Are the words we speak and listen to bringing us closer to Hashem or, Heaven forbid, the opposite? What about that which we look at and eat? All of these things affect our ability to experience true spirituality, and either help or hinder our preparations for Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. May we merit to prepare properly.

Have a great Shabbos and a Kesiva v’Chasima Tova.

“The Spice of Life”

The LubavitcherRebbe once said that the weekly parsha gives us advice on how to approach the challenges we face during that week. As we are currently on our second Shabbos of consolation after TishaB’Av an appropriate message would be one that helps us rebuild our relationship with the Creator that we had lost over the period of the Three Weeks.However, when we look to this week’s portion through the eyes of our sages, the message seems quite peculiar.

In the second paragraph of kriasshema, which is read in this week’s parsha, the torah states "You shall place these words of Mine upon your heart..." (11:18). The Talmud interprets “vesamtem" - "you shall place" as "vesam tam" - "a perfect elixir."The Talmud goes on to explain that the torah is the spice for the yetzerhara, our evil inclination. This interpretation assumes that the main focus is the yetzerhara and the torah is just an afterthought. How can we fit this idea with our general understanding that torah takes center stage in our religious identity?

Rabbi Yochanan Zweig explains that our sages are teaching us a powerful lesson about the greatness of the yetzerhara. We understand the yetzerhara to be our evil inclination, but fundamentally, the yetzerhara is a more powerful tool. It is the source of all of our drives in every facet of our lives. It is what provides us with strength and an awareness of our God-given potential. However, when used alone, the yetzerhara can make us reckless. Or worse, because it makes acutely aware of how great our potential is, we try to drown out that awareness with distractions and meaningless pursuits.

This is where the torah's role as a spice for the yetzerhara comes in. The torah is the tool which can help us actualize the potential we’ve been given and help us focus our drives toward positive, productive pursuits.

Coming off of the three weeks that lead to TishaB’Av, we feel a desire to refocus ourselves and reevaluate our goals. We were lost because we allowed ourselves to be overcome by our yetzerhara, just like the Jewish people in the times of the temple had their struggles with the yetzerhara. As we continue the weeks of consolation that lead from TishaB’av to Rosh Hashana, let us take the lessons of the torah and continue our personal growth and increase our closeness to Hashem. May continued progress in proper focusing of our potential help us to rectify the sins that are preventing us from having the BeisHamikdash, and may it be rebuilt with the ultimate redemption, speedily and in our days.

Have a great Shabbos.

I wanted to share portions of the following thought on Parshat Devarim from Rav Eliakim Koenigsberg, Rosh Yeshiva at YU.

Parshas Devorim is always read the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av. Many think it is because of the posuk "eichaesal'vadi" which is read in the tune of Eicha. But there is also an important conceptual connection between the parsha and Tisha B'Av.                                                                 

In his rebuke of Bnei Yisrael, Moshe Rabbeinu focuses much of his attention on the sin of the spies. At first glance, the sin of the spies lay in the fact that the spies and the people refused to trust that Hashem would be able to keep his promise to take them into Eretz Yisrael and defeat the nations living there. But in this week's parsha the Torah adds another dimension to the story. In describing how the people asked him to send spies, Moshe says, "Va'tikrivuneilaykulchem - and all of you approached me." Rashi comments, "kulchem, b'irbuviyah" - the word kulchem implies they came as a mixed-up, confused throng of people. They didn't come in an organized fashion, with the leaders in front, followed by the elders, and then the younger people. Rather, everyone came together, as one mass, with each one pushing the other.

This highlighted an even bigger problem - the people felt that they had to take charge. But the question is: who is running the show? Is it my intelligence, my insight, my effort, that enables me to accomplish? Or are my efforts just a vehicle to enable Hashem to bring me success? The difference is subtle, but critical. This was the underlying mistake of Bnei Yisrael. It wasn't the fact that they sent spies; it was the way they went about sending the spies. They lost perspective. They forgot that Hashem is the One who is really in control. So they pushed their way to Moshe to demand action.

"You cried an unnecessary cry; so I will establish a cry for generations" (Ta'anis 29a). Chazal tell us that the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash on Tisha B'Av was a response to the crying of Bnei Yisrael upon hearing the report of the spies. The loss of the Beis HaMikdash is not just a punishment for the sin of the spies, but is also the result of the same improper perspective that led to the sin in the first place. Since the Beis HaMikdash is the primary dwelling of the Shechina in this world, the Beis HaMikdash should naturally be a place where a person achieves absolute clarity in his perspective on life. In the shadow of the Beis HaMikdash all selfish motivations should disappear. A person should appreciate that "life is not about me," and he should accept to serve Hashem as fully as possible.

And yet, during the first Beis HaMikdash, Klal Yisrael engaged in murder and immorality, both of which stem from a self-centered attitude. They served avodahzarah even in the Beis HaMikdash itself. What greater act of hubris against Hashem can there be! The second Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of sinaschinam - baseless hatred (Yoma9b). The Vilna Gaon writes (Even Shleimah 3:2) that the cause of sinaschinam is a lack of bitachon in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A person who believes that he has to get ahead of others in order to succeed in life will naturally feel jealousy and hatred toward those he perceives as his competitors.

When Klal Yisrael fails to appreciate the gift of the Beis HaMikdash and engages in behavior that runs counter to everything the Beis HaMikdash stands for, if we get too wrapped up in ourselves and we forget the lesson of the spies, then Hakadosh Boruch Hu has no choice but to remove the Beis HaMikdash, to take extreme measures to help us regain the proper perspective. May the day of Tisha B'Av give us the clarity of vision to serve Hashem properly, and in that merit may we see the rebuilding of the Beis Ha Mikdash speedily in our days.

BS”D

Halachos of the Week

The period from Rosh Chodesh Av (Thursday night, July 16^th) through Tisha B’Av (Sunday, July 26^th) is known as the “Nine Days.” Due to its proximity to Tisha B’Av, this period carries six customary signs of mourning above and beyond those of the Three Weeks. They are:

1)      Construction- this refers to any major construction or decorating in the home which can be postponed until after Tisha B’Av without incurring substantial financial loss. All critical home repairs are obviously permitted.

2)      Wine and Meat – consuming these things are prohibited except on the following occasions:

(a) Shabbos during the Nine Days. At Havdala the wine is customarily given to a child (over the age of 6) to drink, but if unavailable, an adult may drink the wine.

(b) When attending a Siyum made at the conclusion of a masechta of Gemara, a masechta of Mishna studied with commentary, or a book of Tanach. 

(c) As a guest at a Bris Milah or Pidyon haBen.

3)      Laundering- the cleaning of clothing, bed linens, and tablecloths, even by a non-Jew on behalf of a Jew is not permitted. The prohibition is suspended (up to but not including Tisha B’Av) in the following situations:

            (a) when all of one’s garments are soiled, then what one requires minimally is permitted.

            (b) Children’s clothing

This also includes the tailoring and repairing of clothing, unless one’s income is from tailoring.

4)      Wearing Laundered Clothing- freshly laundered clothing, except undergarments, should not be worn during the Nine Days. However, if they were donned prior to this period, even briefly, they may be worn. On Shabbos, freshly cleaned clothing may be worn.

5)      Shaving- where an unsightly appearance could be detrimental to one’s profession or business, one can shave during this time, up until the week in which Tisha B’Av falls, otherwise one should refrain.

6)      Swimming and Bathing - one should not bath and swim for pleasure during this time. To relieve discomfort, to clean one’s self, and for halachic and health purposes, they are permitted.

May all these prohibitions soon be a thing of the past, with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days.

HALACHOS OF THE 3 WEEKS

BS”D

The three week period from Shiva Asar B’Tamuz through Tisha B’Av (observed from July 5^th - July 26^th) is known as “Bein HaMitzarim”. This phrase comes from Megillas Eicha: “All her enemies have overtaken her between the narrow passes” (1:3). Commentaries explain “the narrow passes” to refer to this three week period of national anguish and mourning. To commemorate this period, and to prepare a Jew for the intensity of mourning on Tisha B’Av, a number of customs have developed. Please note that much of what is included is based upon the rulings of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt”l who felt that the time periods of the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, and Tisha B’Av generally correspond to the three different halachic stages of mourning for a parent which are, respectively, the Twelve Months, the Thirty Days, and the Shiva. For Ashkenazim, four prohibitions apply to the three week period (for Sefardim, only #4 is applicable):           

1) Weddings – engagement celebrations without music, however, are permitted up to, but not including, Rosh Chodesh Av.           

2) Playing Musical Instruments – this includes listening to live music played on instruments. (During the Nine Days one should even refrain from listening to recordings of musical instruments). It also includes attending entertainment events where music is the primary feature of the program. A professional musician whose source of income is from playing, is exempt.           

3) Haircuts – should not be taken during this time. Other personal grooming needs, such as cutting nails, are permitted during this period.  Cutting nails is a problem during the week in which Tisha B’Av falls out. For men, shaving is a source of some dispute. There are those who forbid shaving from the beginning of the three week period, except in case of great necessity (e.g. job related purposes). According to Rav Soloveitchik, shaving becomes an issue only during the Nine Days, due to his comparison of the Three Weeks with the Twelve Month mourning period for a parent during which shaving is permitted when a person looks unkempt (which for most people in our culture is going every two days, or even less, without shaving).       

4) Recitation of Shehechiyanu – important new clothes (that are bought infrequently), household furnishings of major significance, or a new fruit, should preferably not be purchased, and certainly not used for the first time during the Three Weeks. This prohibition is suspended when: (1) there is a great necessity for the item; (2) its first use will be on Shabbos (when it was purchased before the Three Weeks).

These customs, as well as the prohibitions of the Nine Days and Tisha B’Av, applies equally to men and women. Some are lenient regarding a haircut for a woman in case of great need. Children from age 6 and older should also be trained to observe these prohibitions. However, in regard to haircutting, a child may take one up until the week in which Tisha B’Av occurs.

L’shana Haba’ah b’Yerushalayim.

Have a great Shabbos.

BS”D

            In his opening comments on this week’s parsha, Rashi asks why the Torah deemed it necessary to put the story of the spies back-to-back with the episode of Miriam’s tzara’as. The answer, reflecting his explanation of the connection between the sections of the Sotah and the Nazir (Bamidbar 6:12), is that the Miriam narrative, her being punished with tzara’as because she spoke ill of her brother Moshe, should have been a lesson that the Meraglim, spies, were to have heeded and learned from. Unfortunately they did not. They fell prey to the same mistake that Miriam did: they were not careful with what they spoke about and how they expressed their feelings. The difference being that this time it was not only one person who was punished, but rather the entire generation that left Egypt suffered. 

The challenge of the Meraglim remains to this very day: have we heeded the lesson of Miriam? As we begin the month of Tammuz, and head towards the Three Weeks which culminates with the observance of Tisha B’Av, we must contemplate the significance of our words and our treatment of others. In this way we can make sure that history is learned from, and not ignored.

Have a great Shabbos and a Chodesh Tov.

BS”D

The Chiddushei HaRim (R. Yitzchak Meir of Ger; 1799-1866; founder of Gerrer Chassidic Dynasty) points out that according to Rambam and many others, vidui, confession, is a major part of the teshuva process. For a person to truly be able to return to Hashem after having gone astray, he or she must verbally acknowledge the sin. The source for this view is a pasuk in this week’s parsha (5:7) in the section dealing with gezel, stealing. The Torah teaches that aside for the sacrifice in the Beis HaMikdash to atone for the sin, and the necessary monetary restitution for this errant behavior, one must confess. Why, the Chiddushei HaRim asks, are we taught this lesson about confession when learning about gezel? Why not in the section dealing with murder, or some other “major” transgression? 

The Gerrer Rebbe zt”l explains that at the root of every sin is theft. G-d gave us our bodies, our very lives, to be able to create, do acts of charity and kindness, and continuously grow in a close relationship with Him. When we use these selfsame Divine gifts to move away from the Almighty, to hurt others, we are stealing from Him. Hence, when the Torah wants to teach us a lesson about how to undo the effects of sin, and how to properly rebuild a decayed relationship, it uses the section of gezel as the paradigm. 

Have a great Shabbos.

             The exact origin of the holiday of Lag B’Omer is anything but exact. There are a number of suggestions as to why the day is celebrated throughout Am Yisrael as a day of joy. Some propose that Lag B’Omer was the day that the students of Rabbi Akiva stopped dying. Others point to this day as the day that Torah was essentially saved by Rabbi Akiva when he gave semicha, ordination, to five young students who were not devoured along with the thousands of others. Yet a third opinion points to one of those later students, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and claims that this day is commemorated on his account.

Whatever the source of the celebration, there is one custom which seems to have become the symbol of the day. Although it is not prevalent locally, lighting a bonfire in honor of Lag B’Omer is widespread in Medinat Yisrael, where you can find numerous bonfires in almost every neighborhood. As darkness descends in Israel, the flames light up the sky with their glow, and you can hear the people singing the songs of Lag B’Omer late into the night. 

Trying to search for the source of this practice, we are once again confronted with numerous explanations. However, there is one idea in particular that I find meaningful: a bonfire, a large, raging blaze, is created when you take many small twigs, branches, and sticks, and bring them together into one large pile. When jointly lit, the light and warmth given off by the bonfire is much greater than the light and warmth exuded by the single pieces, even if they had been placed in close proximity to another. By coming together as one unit, the sum of ithe accomplishment is much more substantial.

This lesson is vital for the continuous success of the Jewish People during the darkness of Exile. By joining together in acts of chesed, tzedaka, Torah and tefilla, we merit the light of our collective flame, our bonfire, growing brighter and stronger.

Have a great Shabbbos.

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P.S. We are looking for sponsors for Shavuos night shiurim (in memory of a loved one, for a yahrtzeit, etc.), and volunteers to help with the preparation and serving of refreshments on Shavuos night. If interested and able, please contact me as soon as possible. Thanks so much!                              

BS"D

Especially during the period of SefirasHa’Omer, when we are supposed to be striving for greater sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others, I believe the following dvar torah from Rabbi MordechaiSchifman is quite meaningful.

Among the non-kosher birds listed in this week's parsha is the "chasida" -"stork".  The Talmud explains that a chasida is so named because the stork performs acts of "chesed" - "kindness" for her friends. The Ramban teaches that since the creatures which we are prohibited to eat exhibit negative character traits, consumption of them would infuse a person with these traits. In light of this, it is difficult to reconcile the Ramban's teaching with the Talmud's explanation of the name "chasida".

The KotzkerRebbe explains that since the chasida only performs kind acts for her friends, this too is considered a negative trait. However, it is still difficult to understand since the negative trait of the chasida is that it doesn't perform chesed for those who are not her friends, yet the Torah is identifying her by the chesed she does do, which is not negative.

Rabbi Yochanan Zweig shlitasuggests that the Talmud is teaching us that kind acts that a person performs for his friends should be done out of commitment and obligation to the relationship. Viewing all that we do for friends as acts of "chesed" is a negative trait. Therefore, the chasida is being defined by a negative trait, not a positive one.

Have a great Shabbos and a ChodeshTov.

P.S. People have brought to my attention that many of the carrots currently being sold in Shoprite are from Israel. Being that this year is a Shemittah year in Israel, the major US kashrus organizations advise against purchasing Israeli produce from stores like Shoprite and Costco. Although there are certainly halachic authorities that were permit it, I wanted to make you aware of the issue.

BS"D

The concern of chametz on Pesach is not limited to foodstuff and certain types of goods containing problematic ingredients. As many are aware, pots and other utensils employed in the preparation and service of food that are used year round are not to be used over Pesach. Despite the fact that the utensil might be perfectly clean, its use is forbidden due to the absorption of chametz taste that is in the vessel which would be transferred into the non-chametz food if used on Pesach. As such, it is important to kasher any utensils you might need over the holiday that have been used during the year.

The general rule regarding this process is that utensils made of metal, wood, and natural rubber can be kashered, whereas china, earthenware, and glassware should not. Any utensil that is to be kashered should first be cleaned thoroughly from any dirt or residue. If the utensil is not clean, it cannot be kashered. Any rust (not a mere discoloration or the like) on the inside of a vessel should be removed as well. If there are significant cracks and crevices on the inside of a utensil that cannot be cleaned well and thus might have dirt trapped inside, in all likelihood the utensil cannot be kashered.

This year we will once again be having a representative from the ‘Go Kosher' organization kashering our utensils for us. It will be taking place in the shul kitchen on Sunday, March 29^th, between 9:15 am and 12:00 pm. If you plan on coming that morning, please e-mail me to sign-up for a 15 minute slot during which you will bring your items to the shul and they will be kashered.   

Have a great Shabbos and a Chag kasher v’Sameach.

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SHAIMOS REMOVAL - one night next week a Shaimos removal service will be in the Shul parking lot from 6 - 7 PM. As soon as we get exact information regarding which day it's coming, and pricing, we will send out an email.