Author: Rabbi Milder

Posted on

Torah Riddles Test #109

  1. Question: Why isn’t it a disruption between the blessing and the mitzvah if he said the wrong number then corrected himself?

Background:

  1. The Be’ur Halacha (25:9 “Vi’im hifsik”) says that even if one speaks one word between the blessing and mitzvah it is considered a disruption and you must say another blessing before performing the mitzvah, normally.
  2. You don’t have to say the blessing over again only if you realized immediately, toch kidei dibur, your mistake but if you realized a few seconds too late it is as if you finished the mitzvah (albeit in the wrong way) and what you said is a disruption so even in this case you would have to say another blessing and count correctly.

Answer: . As long as you are within toch kidei dibur you are trying to fulfill the mitzvah so you verbal action is still attached to the blessing you are just stumbling to say it correctly, that is not considered a disruption because you ae still involved in trying to perform the mitzvah.

Posted on

Torah Riddles Test #108

  1. Question:  If a person counted correctly but then immediately thought he counted wrong and “corrected” himself within toch kidei dibur, why does his counting still count?

Background:

  1. Toch kidei dibur is a halachic axiom that if one immediately corrects himself it is as if the first statement he says was never said and we go with the second statement. This is as long as the correction was made within the time it takes to say “shalom aleichem rebbe umoreh”.
  2. There is an argument between Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurbach zt”l and Rav Elyashiv zt”l whether toch kidei dibur could be applied to ruin something, or it just works to fix a mistake one said by accident. But in this case they will both agree for the same reason that switching the number immediately after one said the correct number of the omer will not erase what he originally said.
  3. The correction was a mistake, though if you did it you can still continue counting with a blessing the next night since the mistake does not count but Rav Elyashiv said you should count again without a blessing when you realize the mistake you made, though you don’t have to.

Answer: When you say the wrong number by the omer after you say the correct number it’s a complete mistake which you didn’t intend because you want to do the right count but according to Rav Aurbach when he says you can ruin something toch kidei dibur that is when there is some level of intent. It is not a complete mistake.

Posted on

Acharei Mos/Kedoshim – Can Fear of Heaven be Measured?

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 dvar Torah is based on part of a shmuz given by Rav Moshe Chait zt”l, who was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Yerushalayim, zechus yagen aleinu.

When speaking in terms of Fear of Heaven, Yiras Shamayim, if a person is a real Yirei Shamayim he will do a mitzvah at the highest level he can reach.

There is a story of a new yeshiva student in Slobodka who was entrenched in his frumkeit, and would daven very loud in a minyan. The Alter of Slobodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, asked one of his students to pass by this yeshiva bachur’s room one time when he was davening alone to see if he davens very loudly alone too.

There is an expression in the world called Yiras Shamayim, people are called “Big Yirei Shamayim” but what kind of instrument is used to measure Fear of Heaven?
This week is the double Torah portions of Achrei Mos and Kedoshim in the portion of Kedoshim in one of the pesukim it says, “You shall not curse a deaf person. You shall not place a stumbling block before a blind person, and you shall fear your G-D. I am Hashem” (Vayikra 19:14).
Rashi on this pasuk writes, “and you shall fear your God: [Why is this mentioned here?] Because this matter [of misadvising someone] is not discernible by people, whether this person had good or evil intentions, and he can avoid [being recriminated by his victim afterwards] by saying, “I meant well!” Therefore, concerning this, it says, “and you shall fear your God,” Who knows your thoughts! Likewise, concerning anything known to the one who does it, but to which no one else is privy, Scripture says, “and you shall fear your God.” – [Torath Kohanim 19:34]”
Rashi explains that this person is not literally blind, but, for example, he does not know how to conduct his business affairs properly. So one should not give him bad advice, such as if  someone were to ask if he should sell his field and his friend says I’ll buy it for a donkey. The friend’s intent was only for his own gain, to acquire the land.

About this kind of thing the Torah says: “And you shall fear Hashem your G-D.” These kind of cases could turn out badly and someone will lose, but the person who gave the advice will say ‘It is not my fault, I only tried to help, I am your friend,’ when in fact he purposefully thwarted his plans. No one will ever know what his real intentions were. That is why it says “and you shall fear Hashem your G-D;” for He knows.

Later in the perek it says, “Before an elder you shall stand and you shall glorify the face of a sage, and you shall fear your G-D, I am Hashem” (Vayikra 19:32). 

Rashi on this pasuk points out, “one might think that he may close his eyes [when the elder approaches], as if he did not see him [and thus evade the obligation to rise before him]! Therefore Scripture adds here, “and you shall fear your God,” for this matter is privately known to the one who commits it, and no one knows about it except the person himself, and, concerning any matter known only in the heart [of one person,], Scripture says, “and you shall fear your God,” [for God knows man’s thoughts]. — [Torath Kohanim 19:80; Kid. 31b, 32b]”
What are a person’s real intentions? When an old person or a sage walks by he looks away and claims he never saw him, but what was he really thinking? Fear of Heaven is purely a private experience between man and Hashem so no one can really claim this guy is a big Yirei Shamayim. Only Hashem knows and any one that tries to judge is acting like they are G-D.

The Alter of Slobodka said that Yiras Shamayim is pure ruchniyus, unadulterated spirituality, and one cannot measure pure ruchniyus.

Posted on

Sefer Chofetz Chaim chapter 5 halacha 1

Today we started the fifth chapter of the laws of lashon hara which discusses speaking lashon hara about a person who transgressed a mitzvah between man and his fellow man. The Chofetz Chaim says that it is still forbidden to speak lashon hara about him even if it is completely true, certainly if there is some falsehood in the story. However this is so if there won’t be any harm to others, but if he becomes a possible threat then we’ll discuss in more detail in chapter 10 when and how it is permissible to speak out against this person. For now we are discussing circumstances where you witnessed a person not doing a favor for another, for example not lending a loan when requested, not giving tzedaka, acting with a grudge or revenge etc., where there is no threat of harm to anyone, in these circumstances you cannot tell anyone what you saw. Even if you see that this person never is nice, is apparently bad in nature and has a lack of fear in Hashem so does not care to fulfill these particular mitzvos, still in all the Chofetz Chaim concluded one cannot speak out against him though in other proactive cases where everyone knows   the transgression is wrong and still this person sins out of spite, it is permissible to speak lashon hara about this type of person since he takes himself out of the realm of “your nation” but in this case, either because you can only be excluded from “you nation” if you actively sin but in this case you are passive by not lending or giving tzedaka, or because we don’t really know what makes a person turn sour, mabe one time he leant money and wasn’t paid back so now he never leands money tough he is able to, this does not mean he is doing the right thing but you still cannot speak lashon hara about him. And if he did not do the favor to you then you will be committing at least two sins of bearing a grudge or even revenge along with speaking lashon hara by slandering him and spreading a bad name about him in public.

Posted on

Torah Riddles #107

Question: What is the reason behind why counting the Omer, according to the opinion that holds that you must count it yourself and you can’t have in mind for someone to do it for you, be any different than any other mitzvah done through speaking like Kiddush, megilla reading and Torah reading etc. where one person can perform the mitzvah for many?

Background:

  1. The Torah does say “Usfartem lachem” meaning that you should count for yourself in terms of counting the omer but why is it different than any other mitzvah where we can apply the halachic axiom of “listening is like answering” (shmiah ki’onah)?
  2. Beis HaLevi on the Torah in the end of his Kuntrus on Chanukah says that a kohen can’t perform birkas kohanim by just going through the motions with everyone else without speaking out the blessing by using this axiom of “listening is like answering” because birkas kohanim does not just need a speech it has to be done out loud.
  3. The Magen Avraham says that one can’t count the omer in Hebrew if he does not understand what he is saying.
  4. You have to count.

Answer: Shomea ki’ona, listening is like answering won’t help for the omer because all that does is make it as if you said the words of counting but you need to be doing an actual counting, verbally, each night, just like the Kohen has to say birkas kohanim out loud it is not enough to be considered as if he said them, therefore one has to do his own counting even if someone else is allowed to say the blessing on the omer for him.

Posted on

Tazria/Metzora – Quarantined with Hashem

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 main theme of this week’s double Torah portion of Tazria and Metzora is tzaraas, a spiritual ailment similar to leprosy. The Sefer HaChinuch, a book on the 613 mitzvos set’s this mitzvah as number 169, “The commandment of the matter of the impurity of a metsora.”

When describing the root of the mitzvah, or the reason behind the mitzvah, the Sefer HaChinuch writes, “It is from the roots of the commandment to fix in our hearts that the providence of God, blessed be He, is individualized upon everyone among people, and that His eyes are observing all of their ways, as it is written (Iyov 34:21), ‘For His eyes are upon a man’s ways; all of his steps He sees.” And therefore, he warned us to put our [minds] to this bad illness, and to think that it is sin that caused it – and as they, may their memory be blessed, said (Arachin 16b) that it generally comes from evil speech, and we should not take it [as being] by way of happenstance. And we need to come to the priest, who is the one that is ready [to effect] the atonement of sinners. And in the company of the one who atones, maybe he will contemplate repentance. And he is put in quarantine for a few days, in order that he put his matters into his heart with deliberation, and examine his deeds (Berachos 5a). And sometimes he is put into two [consecutive] quarantines, lest he contemplated repentance, but not complete full repentance. It is as if you would say by way of illustration, that he thought to return half of his robbery; and then God, blessed be He, renewed some of the signs that he should be quarantined a second time – perhaps he will complete his repentance and purify himself completely. And the whole matter of these quarantines indicates His providence, blessed be He, on all the ways of man – one by one. And because the opinions are many about the providence of God upon all of his creatures, many verses in Scripture and many commandments come about it, to instruct about the matter – given that it is a cornerstone in our Torah. As there are groups of people that think that the providence of God, may He be blessed, is [individualized upon all of the species – whether people or all other animals. And there are groups that think that the providence of God, blessed be He, is] upon all the matters of the world – whether animals or all other things – meaning to say that no small thing in the world moves without His will, blessed be He, and His decree; to the point that they think regarding the falling of one leaf from a tree, [that] He decreed about it that it should fall, and [so] it is impossible that the time of its falling be even a second later or earlier. And this opinion is very removed from the intellect. And there are evil groups that think that His providence, blessed be He, is not put upon any matters of this lowly world at all – whether upon people or other animals. And this is the opinion of the heretics – it is evil and bitter. And we who have the correct opinion, according to what I have heard, place His generalized providence, blessed be He, upon all the species of animals, such that each and every species that was created in the world, survive in the world – [that] it not completely finish and be lost – as with His providence does everything find existence in the world. But with the human species, we believe that His providence, blessed be He, is upon each and every one individually, and He is ‘the One who understands about all of their deeds.’ And so [too,] have we received from all of our great ones; and there are also many verses that instruct that the matter is so. And therefore, the Torah warned us that when this bad illness – and that is tsaraat – reach a man, he should not take it [as being] by way of happenstance. Rather, he should immediately think that his iniquities caused [it]. And he should distance himself from the company of people, like a man who is distanced due to the evil of his deeds. And he should associate with The One who can atone – The One who can heal the fracture of the sin – and show his ailment to him. And through his counsel and through his words, and through the examination of his deeds, the ailment will be removed from him – since God, blessed be He, who constantly watches him, will see the act of his repentance and heal him. And this matter is the matter of the quarantines, as we said.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The Sefer HaChinuch reveals to us that the reason for the metzora to be quarantined from society for a number of days is not because he is contagious or even because we want to keep him away from others so that he won’t speak lashon hara [slander], with them which is the main reason for tzaraas to appear on a person. Rather, the quarantine is for him to contemplate Hashem’s Divine Providence with every individual in every minute detail of action, speech and thought of a human being and to realize the severity of his sin in order to do complete teshuva [repentance].

However, isn’t there a better way to ensure a person realizes his wrong doing, repents, and changes his ways? Why put him in seclusion? When a person gets a speeding ticket he has to take a number of hours of drivers education courses to have the points removed from his license. Wouldn’t it be better for a person who spoke lashon hara to require atonement in a similar manner? For example, an obligation to spend a number of hours or days by a rabbi or in a yeshiva, listening to lectures and learning about the laws of lashon hara, teshuva, and Divine Providence. He would be able to ask questions and get answers on how to change his life, to ensure he won’t fall into the same trap again. Wouldn’t that be more effective than being secluded, all alone, to contemplate his misdeeds and to realize on his own how far away from Hashem he really is, but how close Hashem in fact is to him in his life?

It would therefore seem that all the lectures and inspirational talks won’t make enough of an impact on a person to truly shock him into changing his whole life around for the good. Ultimately it has to be one’s own decision to change, and being put into a situation where there is no one around, it is only you and Hashem, no one is there to help you, to comfort you, to keep you company in a time where you feel vulnerable and ailing, then the hopelessness of the matter will force you to open your eyes and see the Divine Intervention. To see how Hashem is involved in every minute detail of your life and you can’t escape Him. Being all alone with no one else to turn to besides Hashem is in fact the precipitator of changing your whole life around that ultimately leads to complete teshuva.

Though it is always healthy and needed to seek out rabbis and teachers to learn what is right and wrong and how to act at all times, which in fact is why one must go to a kohen when he suspects he might have this spiritual ailment, however because faith and belief in Hashem and the decision to do the right thing ultimately is up to the individual; no one can force you to do anything or correct your deeds for you, therefore being quarantined is the best shock to the system which inspires you or really allows for personal introspection in order to turn your trust in complete reliance on Hashem, regret the sins of the past, and decide to follow whatever Hashem knows is right for oneself and the rest of existence.

Posted on

Passover – Giving of Yourself vs. Emulating Hashem

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 dvar Torah is part of a shmuz I heard from Rav Moshe Chait zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim Yerushalayim at around the beginning of the century.


Equivalent to the seventh day of Passover, by the splitting of the Red Sea, Klal Yisrael reached what is essentially the highest point of Holiness. They sang Shira [songs] to Hashem while crossing on dry land. In the Shira it says, “ זֶ֤ה אֵלִי֙ וְאַנְוֵ֔הוּ” which literally means, “This is my G-D and I will build Him a Sanctuary,” or “I will make myself into a G-dly sanctuary” (Shemos 15:2). This is the loftiest expression because they pointed and said “This is my G-D”. They had such a high level of emuna, belief in Hashem, that they were able to point at something. People recognize things with their senses, and the most realistic sense is sight, as they say, “seeing is believing.” The level they were on was above that because of their emuna [belief in Hashem].

What does אַנְוֵ֔הוּ refer to? The Gemara in Shabbos 133b goes through a list of mitzvos and says it comes from the word, נאה, to beautify the mitzvos. The gemara then quotes Abba Shaul who says they felt that they had to be comparable to Hashem, meaning they wanted to act like Hashem, just like a child wants to act like his parents, אני והוא.

The first view holds there is a level of a person who is putting a part of himself into doing a mitzvah. Abba Shaul is saying you should want to be just like Hashem which is a higher level.

The way Avraham found Hashem was not from a physical understanding of the world, but he saw the kindness that Hashem did in creating the world. Kindness is spiritual. This is how he came to recognize Hashem!

The truest love is trying to emulate someone else!

Click here for recording of Shmuz on Parshas Tzav with connecting to Passover and current events, im yirtzeh Hashem! The password to sign in is 3RmGSUNk.

Posted on

Vayikra – Yearning for Meaning

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.

We find a very fascinating medrish at the end of this week’s Torah portion of Vayikra, that one can share at the Pesach Seder: “Rebbe Abba bar Kahana said that darkness (choshech vi’afela) was used in the land of Egypt for 3 days as it says, ‘and there was thick darkness over the entire land of Egypt for three days’ (Shemos 10:22). But void and desolation (tohu va’vohu) was not used in this world. Where will they be used in the future? In the great metropolis of Rome, as it says, ‘and He shall stretch over it a line of waste, and weights of destruction’ (Yeshayahu 34:11)” (Medrish Rabba Vayikra 6:6).

The Maharz”u explains that it appears from the medrish that since darkness (choshech vi’afela) was used there, then it must be that void and desolation (tohu va’vohu) will also be used at some point. This concept which is being alluded to by the medrish is that at the beginning of creation it writes, ‘Now the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep’ (Breishis 1:2). The main part of creation started from tohu va’vohu and choshech (void, desolation, and darkness). Even though it says that light came forth from darkness and all of existence was brought forth from out of the tohu va’vohu, still in all this choshech and tohu va’vohu did not cease to exist. They were and still are yearning to be used in the world at the right time and place. We in fact see in many places that it says, ‘If the Jews accept the Torah that is good, if not I will revert the entire world back into tohu va’vohu.’ This is what is meant here; that choshech (darkness) found a place to be used in Egypt, but tohu va’vohu did not yet find a place to be used until in the future.”

The Etz Yosef adds that in the future Gog and his allies will be flanked with darkness, but will be preceded with tohu va’vohu, which is a green line that will surround the entire world which, from it darkness (choshech), will spread out into the world. (Click here and here for Hebrew text.)

The darkness that plagued Egypt in the 9th plague was no ordinary darkness; it was something that could be felt. It was so thick that the Egyptians froze and were not able to move for three days, as it says in Shemos Rabba 14:3. This darkness will come forth again in the future, emanating from a green substance of tohu va’vohu which will encompass the Metropolis of Rome, Gog and his allies, who don’t believe in Hashem and have their own line of worship.

Everything has a proper time and place to be used in this world. Nothing ever goes to waste and rather it is recycled; hopefully with excitement, at its designated time and place.

If you think about this a bit, there is something actually quite astonishing going on here. Hashem created the world out of these two substances, choshech and tohu va’vohu. They must have been pretty important to be used as the basis for the entire existence of this world. Yet the Maharz”u seems to hint that one might have thought that once they were done being used they would just have been thrown away and never used again, having lost a purpose for their further existence. Yet that wasn’t the case, and they are reserved for a special time and place which they are eagerly waiting for, to be used again. But if you look what they were used for it would seem highly disappointing. Both were or will be used in seemingly negative and destructive ways. The darkness was used for the 9th plague of Egypt, not even the first or the culminating tenth; rather in the middle, or really towards the end. Tohu va’vohu could have also been used to destroy the world if the Jewish people would not have accepted the Torah, and will be used against the heathens in the future who will not accept Hashem as One at The End of Days. What kind of jobs are those that they are yearning and eagerly waiting for, especially compared to the first position they ever had?

However the truth of the matter is these substances are just ingredients in doing Hashem’s will, and they realize that whatever Hashem wants them to be used for they are willing to do, and yearn for the opportunity to be used again.

All the more so, us human beings, whom the entire world was created for, we are the purpose of creation, and there are multiple roles that Hashem has given us to play in the history of this world. We have to be excited and eager to see how it plays out and to enthusiastically accept whatever roles they are. By realizing that they are jobs given to you by the Master Of The Universe, King Of All Kings, that will make it easier to yearn for the jobs and to wholeheartedly accept whatever comes your way and lands in your plate.

Posted on

Sefer Chofetz Chaim last part of chapter 4 halacha 12

The advice of the Chofetz Chaim is just not to speak lashon hara because if a person regularly speaks lashon hara then it is pretty much impossible to remember everyone you spoke badly about to apologize to them, and those that you do specifically remember you might be too embarrassed to tell them you spoke lashon hara about them if they don’t know you did, and then apologize. Even worse if a person speaks lashon hara about a family it might affect generations and then it literally is impossible to apologize to everyone. We already learned that Hashem won’t accept our apology to him if we don’t first apologize to the people we accosted, therefore the best thing to do is just not speak lashon harato begin with.

This answers the question he had on the Gemara Erechin 15b which seems to say that a person who habitually speaks lashon hara can never fix his wrong. Though everyone knows that Hashem allows anyone to repent even a person who decides to not believe in Hashem has the ability to regret his decision and do complete teshuva which Hashem will completely accept. A person who speaks loshon hara can’t be worse that one who denies Hashem’s existence?!

However the answer is of course anyone can repent to Hashem, feel remorse for what they did, admit, and decide to try never to do it again, and Hashem will accept the repentance with open arms, but when also sinning against one’s fellow man and not being able to apologize to everyone then Hashem can’t fully accept your apology to him and your repentance cannot be complete. In this way, in fact speaking lashon hara is worse than denying Hashem! That is why it is best not to speak it!!!

Posted on

Torah Riddles Test #106

  1. Question: How does the Noda B’Yehuda differentiate between inheritance and a sale in regards to the mitzvah of not owning chometz?

Background:

A. Noda B’Yehuda (Mahadura Kamma Orach Chaim 20) writes that if one dies after the sixth hour and he did not sell or nullify his chometz, his inheritors don’t need to destroy it and it is permissible after Pesach since chometz is not property inherited by his children.

B. The Noda B’Yehuda (Mahadura Kamma 19) writes to answer for a Rambam in the first chapter of hilchos chometz and matzah that if it would not have been chometz it would belong to him therefore the pasuk of “bal yeraeh” should put it back into his possession on Pesach for the asking of attaining a prohibition, in a case of where a person buys chometz, which the halacha is he gets lashes, even though zechia, positive acquisition does not apply to object which are forbidden to get benefit from, but since the Torah reveals that it is his through the verse of “bal yeraeh” then it is considered money/property in regards to zechiah.

 C. Acquisitions work even when not yours like by stealing.

Answer: Chametz on Pesach is only yours in regards to prohibition so it cannot work to inherit because it’s not monetarily yours, and Hashem won’t automatically put it in your possession if you didn’t play any role to get it. But in regards to a sale since you can acquire things illegally like by stealing then you can acquire it in regards to only having a prohibition as well, since you actively tried getting it.