Author: Rabbi Milder

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Netzavim/Vayelech – Eternal Unity

For Food for Thought in Spanish: Haga clic aquí para leer en español. Please share this with your Jewish Spanish speaking family, friends, and associates.

The Beginning of this week’s double portion of Netzavim and Vayelech begins by stating, “You are all standing this day before the Lord, your God the leaders of your tribes, your elders and your officers, every man of Israel,” (Devarim 27:9).

At the end of the first paragraph of the Medrish Tanchuma on this Torah portion, the medrish gives another interpretation of the first few words of the portion, “You are standing this day.”  Just as the day sometimes is bright and sometimes dark, so too you, when it is dark for you, in the future you will have an eternal light, as it and the children of Judah together; etc.” (Yirmiyahu 50:4). When they are all says, “and Hashem will be for you an eternal light” (Yeshayahu 60:19). When will this be? When all of you will be a singular society, as it says, “are alive, all of you, this day” (Devarim 4:4). It is the way of the world that when a person picks up a bundle of reeds it is not possible for anyone to break them all at once. But if you would pick up one reed at a time, even a baby can break it. And so you will find that the Jews will not be redeemed until they are a singular society, as it says, “In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they grouped together then they will be able to accept Hashem’s Holy Presence. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

The Medrish is depicting a time when all the Jews will unify together, but it sounds like true unification cannot come about unless it is for an ultimately permanent cause, i.e. the redemption of the Jewish people from exile with the coming of Moshiach, may he come speedily in our days. This will result in the Shechinah, The Holy Presence of Hashem, being focused permanently amongst us in our midst.

What constitutes deserving of redemption according to this medrish is unification, but the parable given to visualize the level of unification required is a lot different then what one would think should be. One would think that a better parable describing unification would be melding together myriads of particles of sand into one piece of glass, where everything is fused together as one. That is true unification! But it is not so, on the contrary glass is very fragile and easily breakable, meaning a utopia where everyone is exactly the same, all molded together in one melting pot is very fragile and unsustainable.  The message of the bundle of reeds is that Hashem wants every individual to remain unique, but with one purpose, to serve Hashem to the highest degree, which is beneficial to all of mankind. But only when each individual comes together with their own unique strengths and character for this one purpose will they be strong and unstoppable. Each individual alone is too weak to create this ultimate purpose, and it would seem that many individuals together are not strong enough to be able to create this unbreakable society, which is deserving of the eternal state of perfection. Only when we are all in it together will we be ultimately deserving of the final redemption, to constantly bask in Hashem’s Holy Presence, may we see the fruits of our yearning and labor speedily in our days!

We can take this message to heart as we enter into Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur when we say in our Shemone Esray at this time, “Let them all become a single society (aguda achas) to do Your will wholeheartedly.” An aguda, literally a bundle, is composed of several items bound together, like a lulav with the hadasim and aravos tied to it. In a humanistic sense, an aguda or society is made up of various diverse personalities, each of whom contributes his and her own best efforts to the common cause. Thus, we do not suggest that all human beings will be of identical stature, but that all will follow the lead of the Jewish people’s finest products in doing Hashem’s will.

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Torah Riddles Test #137

  Question: Why does the Machatzis Hashekel hold one can medicinally wash out his eye on Shabbos to prevent his whole body from aching but cannot do so on Yom Kippur?

Background:

A.      One may do something for severe medical purposes on Shabbos as long as it does not look like it is being done medically. For example, sucking on a hard candy if you have a sore throat.

B.      One of the prohibitions on Yom Kippur besides eating and drinking is washing or anointing for pleasure.

C.      In regards to melacha things aren’t prohibited on Yom Kippur any more than on Shabbos for the most part.

Answer: Since one cannot washout out his eye on Yom Kippur then even though it is permitted on Shabbos even for medicinal purposes in certain circumstances because it looks like it’s not for healing, nevertheless since you can’t do it for pleasure on Yom Kippur then it looks like you are doing it for healing, therefore it is prohibited (See Dirshu Mishna Berura 614:1:2:4).

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Torah Riddles Test #136

1.       Question: According to Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach, why can one say Shehecheyanu for himself and for others when blowing shofar or if everyone is eating the same new fruit, however when a group of people are putting on a new tallis on themselves, though one can make the blessing on the tallis for everyone, each one has to make their own shehecheyanu, so too, if people are sitting around the table eating different new fruits each one has to make their own shehecheyanu. What’s the difference?

Background:

A.      The Shehecheyanu on the shofar and tallis is on the joy of the mitzvah.

B.      The Shehecheyanu for the new fruits are for the joy upon reaching the time where they can eat that type of a fruit.

Answer: Everyone is equal when it comes to the joy of performing the mitzvah of listening to the shofar where as everyone who got a new tallis has his own personal joy of getting a new tallis so he has to make his own shehecheyanu blessing. Similarly, if a group of people are sitting around the table eating the same new fruit then they are getting the same enjoyment out of the new fruit where as if there was more than one new fruit on the table then each type would need its own shechecheyanu blessing to be said on it so one cannot say it for the other (See Dirshu Mishna Berura 585:2:5:13).

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Ki Savo – A Positive Look at Negativity

For Food for Thought in Spanish: Haga clic aquí para leer en español. Please share this with your Jewish Spanish speaking family, friends, and associates.

This week’s Torah portion of Ki Savo opens with the mitzvah of Bikkurim, the ceremony of bringing the first fruits of one’s crops up to Yerushalayim to the Kohen in the Beis Hamikdash. There is an elaborate ceremony and declaration which is made by the owner of the first fruit. Included in the pronouncement he states: “And you shall call out and say before the Lord, your God, ‘An Aramean [sought to] destroy my forefather, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there with a small number of people, and there, he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation. And the Egyptians treated us cruelly and afflicted us, and they imposed hard labor upon us…” (Devarim 26:5, 6). We mention these verses in the haggada on Pesach, and there is a well-known question: why is the history of our servitude in Egypt and it’s redemption mentioned here, when the first fruits are brought to the Beis HaMikdash? What is the correlation?
Rabbeinu Bachye answers that the intent of the figure of speech for this particular portion is to charge a person to focus in his heart, at his time of loftiness and tranquility, about the time of his lowliness and the abjection he had. So too it says in Koheles, “On a day of good, be among the good, and on a day of adversity, ponder” (Koheles 7:14). Meaning, on a good day, ponder a bad day. This is to intensely focus on what you have now, and then give gratitude to Hashem, The Good, that gives good. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
There are many ways in which people deal with their ancestor’s plights in history. Some people used it as a means of survival… “Never forget!” Others used the cruelty and suffering unleashed on their ancestors as an excuse for entitlement. However Rabbeinu Bachye is teaching us a lesson from the declaration by the mitzvah of bikkurim, where we mention our plight in Egypt during which we were slaves and tortured at the hands of our taskmasters; this was before we were saved by Hashem and brought into the Promise Land, and that should be an inspiration for us to appreciate what we have right now and to intensify our gratitude for His giving us such fortune as a fine crop and a means to live.

What an incredible lesson!!! Not only should we not suppress the dark parts of our history, but neither should we take advantage of them; rather we should focus on them and use them as a means to thank Hashem for the bright parts of our lives which we come to appreciate. Specifically, by focusing on our previous plights and comparing them to the good fortunate one currently has will actually intensify the gratitude which one should feel and express to Hashem, for all the good He has done.

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Sefer ChofetzChaim Chapter 6, halacha 5, footnote 14

We began footnote 14 today. It is very long and might last us 3 weeks, but very important. It deals with the second condition of what you must do if you cannot  just walk away from a group speaking lashon hara, neither can you rebuke them or for whatever reason you can’t put your fingers in your ears. Condition #1 was that you cannot believe one iota of what is being said, once you start you automatically transgress the sin of listening to lashon hara. Condition #2 was that you have to feel totally out of place or disgusted by what you are listening to. The footnote says this is based on a gemara in Pesachim 25b which deals with the issue of whether it is permissible to get benefit from a forbidden thing if you can’t escape it and you have no intention of benefiting, for example if you start smelling sweet incense sacrificed to an idol. In that case everyone agrees if you cannot escape the smell and you have no intention of smelling it, you have not committed a sin. If you could escape it but you had no intent of smelling it there is an argument between Rebbe Yehuda and Rebbe Shimon if unintentional benefit is permitted and the Rosh as well as the Rif poskin it is. But if you could not escape and you decided since I can’t do anything about it I might as well enjoy it then that’s a sin and certainly if you could get away and still intend to enjoy it it is a sin. The Ra”n adds that this doesn’t only apply to smelling and idolatry but to any of the senses which you are forced to do like hearing or seeing and it also applies to any sin. Therefore in our case when one sat down in a group let say to eat, at a wedding for example, and there was no intent to listen or speak loshon hara, and he cannot just walk away then he is not committing any sin. Even though we also posking that if a sin is guaranteed to happen, a psik reisha, even if it is unintentional he still transgresses on a Torah level, so if he doesn’t stick his fingers in his ears then listening will automatically happen, that is only an issue if one is actively doing something which will automatically lead to a sin but just listening is passive and he has no intent of listening and he cannot escape so there is no sin on his part. Even if you want to combine his action of walking to the group with his listening, since walking to the group didn’t guarantee he would be listening to lashon hara, then that isn’t considered a psik reisha.

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Torah Riddles Class #135

2.    Question: Why can you not fulfill the mitzvah of esrog with an esrog/lemon hybrid. But there is still a mitzvah of not eating a mother and child on the same day for a deer/sheep hybrid, according to the Magen Avraham? Both are mitzvos if a mixture invalidates a mitzvah why does one mitzvah still apply, and the other doesn’t?

Background:

 A. The Magen Avraham holds the reason why a hybrid esrog does not work is because it’s not an esrog. If that’s the case then the same should be true about a hybrid animal, it’s not an animal so you shouldn’t transgress the prohibition of slaughtering a mother and child on the same day since the child shouldn’t be considered a real animal.

B. The Maharam Shik begins his answer by saying there is a difference between a mitzvah the Torah commands you to do and something which the Torah prohibited.

 Answer: If the Torah tells you to perform a mitzvah with a certain item like an esrog it has to clearly be that item without any mixture, therefore you need a full-fledged esrog not a hybrid. But when the Torah prohibits something then if that something is there in any shape or form in a substantive way then it’s prohibited therefore even a hybrid is a problem for slaughtering a mother and it’s child in the same day.

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Torah Riddles Test #134

1.    Question: Why can a child technically read from the Torah for everyone else but cannot blow shofar for everyone on Rosh HaShana?

Background:

 A. A person who has a rabbinic (lesser) obligation can’t help perform a mitzvah for someone else who has a Torah (higher) obligation.

B. Shofar is a Torah obligation for an adult. Torah reading is a rabbinic obligation from the prophets which is treated like a Torah level obligation according to the Turei Zahav in Megillah 5b. A child only has a rabbinic obligation in all mitzvos to teach them how to fulfill the mitzvah.

C. A maasah mitzvah, an action of an obligatory mitzvah must be accomplished to fulfill and to help others fulfill the mitzvah of shofar.

 D. The mitzvah of reading from the Torah is for people to hear words of Torah.

Answer: By shofar, since the child isn’t obligated on a Torah level then his action of blowing isn’t considered an obligatory mitzvah action therefore he cannot help others fulfill the mitzvah, since his action isn’t a maasah mitzvah, an action of an obligatory mitzvah. But all that is needed by reading the Torah is for words of Torah to be heard and that is being done whether the child has the same level of obligation as the adult or not, therefore he can read from the Torah and others can fulfill their obligation by listening to him.

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Ki Seitzei – Sensitive to Other’s Sensitivities


One of the many mitzvos in this week’s Torah portion of Ki Seitzei is, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together” (Devarim 22.10).

At first thought, one would think the harm of plowing with an ox and donkey under the same yoke might be a physical harm. They just are not compatible together to plow a field and  might come to hurt each other when put together. This is why the Torah made a prohibition to plow with an ox and donkey together.

However, the Rosh and Daas Zekeinim have a different reason. Their reasonings are very similar to each other, yet slightly different. The Rosh says the reason why one cannot plow with an ox and donkey together is because it is cruelty to animals since the ox chews its cud and looks like he is eating all the time and the donkey sees this and is disturbed. The Daas Zekeinim says it is because the ox chews his cud and the donkey is disturbed by listening to the ox eating. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

Neither reason is due to physical harm, both are due to some psychological response of animalistic feelings by the donkey due to the ox chewing his cud. The Rosh holds that the donkey will be in anguish because it will perceive the ox constantly eating since it chews its cud and will be distressed that he is not constantly eating even if it might not really need to eat all the time.  The reality also is that the ox in fact is not constantly eating, rather it is just doing part of his digestive process which is natural for an ox to do. The Daas Zekeinim holds that the sound the ox makes while chewing could be annoying to the donkey and that is why the donkey is suffering. Either way we see that even for something which seems to be miniscule and insignificant, just an annoying sound or a perception which is not really true, the Torah went out of its way to create a mitzvah so that there will not be undue suffering in the world to the donkey.

If that is the sensitivity one should have towards the feelings of animals then all the more so for one’s fellow human beings, who are the purpose of the world’s creation, we should try to relate to and be very sensitive to the feelings and sensitivities of others. Derech eretz kadma liTorah, “Manners come before Torah,” it’s obvious that this is the way one should relate to our fellow human being. Being aware and sensitive to our fellow people’s feelings and insecurities is basic manners and only to animals did Hashem have to create a mitzvah in order to apply sensitivity awareness to them too.

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Torah riddles Test #133

 2.       Question: Why if fruit just ripened as Shabbos came in one cannot eat them even after Shabbos until maaser was taken but if he was eating a cluster of grapes for example and Shabbos came in and he put them down to eat after Shabbos then you can finish eating them after Shabbos and you don’t need to take maaser from them?

Background:

a. Fruits are only obligated in tithing once they are set or designated for a personal use for example if they are brought into the house to be eaten (which excludes selling them) not if they are being noshed on in the field.

b. These cluster of grapes were originally being eaten in the field and did not need to be tithed at the time. But if he would want to continue to eat them on Shabbos then he would have to tithe them (though he can’t on Shabbos) but since he put them down for after Shabbos then when he continues to eat them after Shabbos he is exempt from taking maaser as long as he has not brought them into his house yet.

c. On Shabbos fruit become set because the verse says “and you shall call the Shabbos a delight” where we learn from the verse that we have a mitzvah to eat delicacies on Shabbos. (See Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 331:111, 114 and Shach 127, 130)

 Answer: If you would be eating the fruit on Shabbos then you are designating it for a certain purpose, namely the mitzvah of delighting in Shabbos that set it and makes it obligated in tithing even if it is not brought into the house but if you put down the cluster of grapes as Shabbos comes in showing that you are done eating and you don’t want to eat it on Shabbos then Shabbos can’t set it for tithing because you have no intention of eating it on Shabbos and it is still just in the field to nosh on.


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Torah Riddles Test #132

1.       Question: According to the  Meiri in Rosh HaShana 6b: Why do you transgress only one mitzvah of bal t’acher, being late or delaying doing a mitvah, each day that follows, if you don’t pay your workers on time but if you delay bringing a Korban, a sacrificial offering, then each day you push off bringing the offering you get another prohibition of bal t’acher?

Background:

A. You don’t bring sacrifices at night.

Answer: Once the end of the day comes there is a constant mitzvah to pay your worker which never stops until he is paid so each day he is not paid is part of the same issue of not paying him originally when the mitzvah started but by bringing a sacrifice since it cannot be done at night then the obligation ends at the end of each day and restarts when the next day begins so each day it is not brought is a new prohibition.