Category: Food for Thought

זכרון ציפה תרצה – The Food for Thought Archives in blessed memory of Celia Rosenberg a”h

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Yisro – Breaking One’s Ear



There is an expression often heard in yeshiva, לשבר את האוזן, which literally means ‘to break the ear.’ This illustration is used when someone wants to make something that he is saying more palpable for the ear to hear by giving an example or parable.

Rabbeinu Bachye uses this expression to explain how the Torah describes the sight of Ma’amad Har Sinai and the giving of the Torah in this week’s Torah portion of Yisro. The Torah states, “All of Mount Sinai was smoking because Hashem had descended upon it in the fire; it’s smoke ascended like the smoke of the furnace, and the entire mountain shuddered exceedingly” (Shemos 19:18).
Rabbeinu Bachye clarifies the meaning of the pasuk; “The smoke filled the mountain, but did not come from the fire, for the fire that exists before the Honor of Hashem does not have any smoke. When the Torah says it was like ‘the smoke of a furnace’ it’s known that the parable(mashal) isn’t exactly the same as the application (nimshal). But because we are physical beings, we can’t comprehend the intellectual esoteric unless it’s expressed in physical terms which we can relate to. To that end we find the pesukim describing the beauty of the sun and it’s raze with the beauty of man, and the pace it seems to move is compared to the flight of a warrior, as it says,'[in their midst he has set up a tent for the sun.] Which is like a groom emerging from his bridal chamber, it rejoices like a powerful warrior to run the course’ (Tehillim 19:5,6). Everyone knows there is nothing like the sun whose power is hundreds of thousands of times more than any other energy around. There is also a pasuk that compares Hashem to a lion, as it says, ‘A lion has roared; who will not fear? The L-rd Hashem has spoken; who will not prophesy’ (Amos 3:8)? The reason for this comparison is because there is no other beast as powerful as a lion. In order (lishaber es ha’ozen,) to make it more palpable to understand, to make it easier to hear. This is also why Chaza”l say (Brachos31b) ‘the words of Torah are written like the way humans speak.'”

Why would the Torah talk the way humans talk; shouldn’t the Torah be loftier? Isn’t it a lack of respect and honor to Hashem to compare Him to physical beings? Wouldn’t it be better to just keep everything esoteric, with the consideration that understanding the concept of Hashem is so beyond our capabilities that we should just accept it with blind faith? On the contrary, by giving physical properties to Hashem, even if one has in mind that it is just an example and is not anything close to what Hashem really is and does, still in all it is possible that people might perceive and misconstrue Hashem as being less than what He really is?

It must therefore be that giving examples which make it more understandable to people, and speaking in ways that are easier to comprehend, is more of an honor to Hashem than leaving the concept of Him vague and aloof. This is because our whole purpose of existence is to know Hashem, and the better understanding we have, and the closer we get to Him, the greater respect and honor that is to Hashem. The more we grasp on our level the closer we get to Him, and the more we strive to gain higher heights of understanding of Hashem and His ways, the greater the relationship we have with Him. This, in turn, creates a greater level of Kovod Shamayim [honor of Hashem in the world].

Granted, all the tools we use to understand Hashem and His ways must keep in mind His loftiness, awesomeness, and eternal reality. But with that incredible scope in mind, using our physical understanding of Him, with the approach of getting closer to Him and understand Him better, this is the greatest respect and honor to Hashem. As it says in the beginning of Mesilas Yesharim,  “The foundation of saintliness, and the root of the pure service is for every person to clarify and make truthful what his obligation in this world is and what does one have to focus on during all his toil in his lifetime.”

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Bishalach – Breaking the Silence with Song


The reality is that when there is a war not everyone will be fighting. If you have a population of 18 million people, for example, not all 18 million will be soldiers fighting for the army. But Torah Judaism still expects everyone to be participating to some degree. Yet the correct attitude for any war, even if physically the Jews are putting in their efforts to fight, is that it is really Hashem fighting the war for them, and the soldiers on the front line are the messengers of Hashem, going through the motions of battling the enemy. And Hashem ultimately is producing the results. There are even other times when Hashem, with open miracles, fights the fight alone without any human intervention, as we see in this week’s Torah portion of Bishalach with the splitting of the sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army. There is a mysterious and obscure pasuk in which the Mechilta brings an argument, which ultimately boils down to a question of what punctuation should be put at the end of the pasuk to understand its meaning: “ד’ ילחם לכם ואתם תחרשון” The simple translation of the pasuk is “Hashem shall make war for you and you shall remain silent” (Shemos 14:14).

The Mechilta says on this pasuk, “that not only at that time will He fight for you, rather He will always fight against your enemy.” The Malbim adds “that Hashem will fight for you and what you feel is a war that is needed Hashem will fight for you because they are fighting with you, and this is really a war of Hashem, not your war, you shall be quiet.”

The Mechilta goes on to record an argument between Rebbe Meir and Rebbe Yehuda Hanasi (known as Rebbe) on how to read the pasuk. “Rebbe Meir says ‘Hashem will fight for you’ when you are standing there quietly, Hashem will still fight for you, but all the more so when you give Him praise! Rebbe says ‘Hashem will fight for you’ He will do miracles and powerful things and you will just stand around and stay quiet? The Jews said to Moshe Rabbeinu, ‘Moshe, what should we do?’ He said back to them, ‘You should glorify, exalt, give song and praise, greatness and glory to Whom the wars are His.’ As it says ‘The lofty praises of G-D are in their throats’ (Tehillim 149:6). It also says, ‘Be exalted above the heavens, O G-D, above all the earth be Your glory’ (Tehillim 57:6). It also says, ‘Hashem, You are my G-D; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name, for You have done wondrously; Your plan from distant past we kept with firm faithfulness (Yeshayahu 25:1). At that moment the Jews opened their mouth, and they said Shira (song), ‘I shall sing to Hashem for He is exalted above the arrogant’ (Shemos 15:1).” (Click here for Hebrew text.)

The Merkavas HaMishna, a commentary on the Mechilta, says that according to Rebbe Meir the pasuk is making an exciting exclamation, a kal vachomer, fortiori, which was a hint to the times of King Chizkiya. As it says in Eichah Rabba 4:15, that when Sancheriv came with his army to attack Yerushalayim, King Chizkiya was so overwhelmed that he said I don’t have the strength to sing songs of praise to Hashem . And he told Hashem I will sleep in my bed and you can wage war against the enemy. That night an angel of Hashem came and wiped-out hundreds of thousands of soldiers of Sancheriv’s army. Hashem took care of the war when there was silence, no songs of praise were sung, and all the more so, kal vachomer, in this circumstance where the Jews will be singing Shira by the sea, praising Hashem, did Hashem wage war and defeat the Egyptians by Himself. According to Rebbe the pasuk is asking a question in wonderment.  Hashem is doing for you all these miracles and you are just sitting here quiet as a deaf mute?! The Jews response, according to Rebbe was, ‘what are we supposed to do,’ which the Merkavas HaMishna had two options as to what that means. Either, based on a Maharsha in Erechin 10a, we aren’t supposed to sing praises to Hashem for a miracle done outside of Israel because they are done through a messenger and not directly by Hashem. Which to that the response was Hashem is the One personally and directly involved in these miracles, and at that point they started singing Shiras HaYam. Or, based on a gemara in Megilla 10b, Rebbe Yochanan says that the ministering angels wanted to sing praises to Hashem by the drowning of the Egyptians and Hashem responded, ‘My creatures are drowning in the sea and you want to sing before Me?’ So the Jews were hesitant to sing praises to Hashem also for that reason, whereas Moshe is responding that Hashem Himself did this all for you, so how can’t you thank Him and praise Him through song for what He did?! And they started singing.
 Emotionally, why wouldn’t a person automatically start singing Hashem’s praise without even thinking, according to both opinions? For example, obviously King Chizkiya had a tremendous level of belief and trust in Hashem as we see from the fact he went to sleep and told Hashem I’ll rely on you to take care of all the problems. But why didn’t he go through his grandfather’s Tehillim that night, which praises Hashem? And why did the Jews have this mental hesitation and thought process according to Rebbe, whether they should even sing to Hashem or not? Knowing and living through all the miracles of the plagues and redemption from Egypt and now seeing the pillar of fire, a forcefield against the Egyptians before they entered the split sea, and then all the miracles that happened during the splitting of the sea should have created an automatic response to sing and dance over their freedom and salvation; why the hesitation? Especially since the Jews must have hated the Egyptians for the cruel bondage they had to live through. So to see the submission and crippling of their bondsmen should have naturally inspired spontaneous cheering, dance and song!?

We must say that we see from here that emotions aren’t spontaneous, there is an intellectual component that is always there to weigh things. It could be that emotions might get the better of a person and will outweigh and control the intellect. And vice-versa, a person can have a good and strong sense of control over his emotions if he works on his intellectual control over his emotions. But both are always there, one never absent from the other.  Therefore, it took a thought process for the Jews to wonder what to do before they started singing shira/song to Hashem, and it wasn’t just a gut reaction. So too Chizkiya chose to go to sleep and not sing Tehillim or the like all night, still believing and knowing Hashem would take care of the enemy army.

The emotion and intellect are constantly working with each other in one’s body, we have to make sure to work on the healthy balance of using them consistently and properly.

Good Shabbos Shira,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

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Bo – A Good New Month

 Chodesh Tov Chevra,

What is so special about the head of the month (Rosh Chodesh) in the Jewish calendar? What is so important about the month of Nissan, that it is considered the first month of the year? Isn’t the month of Tishrei the beginning of the New Year? Why is the calendar so important in Torah Judaism to the extent that the first Rashi in the Torah says the Torah would have started with the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, the new month, which is in this week’s Torah portion of Bo?
  “This month shall be for you the beginning of the months; it shall be for you the first of the month” (Shemos 12:2). The medrish Mechilta (8) on this pasuk first suggests that the Torah say “this month is yours” whereas Adam HaRishon did not start counting from this month [of Nissan]. However, the Mechilta clarifies: Is the “you” referring to you and not Adam HaRishon or you and not the gentiles? The Mechilta answers that because the pasuk reiterated “it’s the first for you” that sounds like it’s for you and not the gentiles, therefore the first “for you” was as opposed to Adam HaRishon. We learn from here that the Jews count the calendar by way of the moon and gentiles by the sun. Wouldn’t it be enough that once every 30 days [the Jews] would raise their eyes to their Father In Heaven!

The Netziv sees a profound insight from this medrish. The Jews have a mitzva to count months and not the gentiles in order that a Jew can acknowledge that the main thing is the “unique form,” and not the physical form, of every human being. The month of Tishrei is the choicest in terms of the needs of the world, because it was then that the world was created. It’s an important rule that the day that something was created, that day has good fortune for future generations to strengthen the matter of that thing even more. For that reason, the nature of fire is to boil quicker on Motzie Shabbos because that was when [fire] was created (this is what the Rashba in his responsa writes in chapter 413). Also, for this reason, the month of Tishrei is the main judgment of a person for the year to come, because on that day Adam HaRishon was judged, as the Ra”n says in masechta Rosh Hashanah. That month also contains the holiday of Sukkos because it is the main blessing for grain, as in that month the world was created (as the Netziv writes in HaEmek Davar Vayikra 23:34, and Bamidbar 29:12). All this is in regard to nature. So too the month of Nissan is good fortune for the Jewish nation of Hashem, as we were originally created when going out of Egypt. Therefore that month is geared for strengthening our service of Hashem through discussing Yetzias Mitzraim, the exit from Egypt, which triggers trust and faith in Hashem. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

The Malbim has his own unique insight into this medrish. He says that the phrase “to you” always infers ‘and not to someone else;’ here, in this pasuk, the phrase is mentioned twice, because the Egyptians didn’t have months based on the moon at all. Their calculations were solely based on the sun, which they worshipped. According to the Jews there was a custom to count months based on the moon dating all the way back to Adam HaRishon, as we find by the calculations of Noach and the Flood. However up until this point they thought that Tishrei was the first month, for it was then that the world was created and it’s Rosh Hashanah. But the Jews were commanded to count from the month of Nissan in remembrance of their redemption from Egypt, for from then it was integrated into them a higher status than the way of nature. Nature is dependent on the creation of the world, for from that point there was personal Divine intervention by Hashem into our lives. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The reason the month of Nissan is considered the first month on the Jewish calendar is because within that month the Jews became a nation, just as throughout history many kings calculated years from the point in time that they or the monarchy of their royal family first became king. It is a time of beginning, renewal, and uniqueness that should be celebrated and recognized. So too, we find that the very essence of a month, its concept, sets us apart from the rest of the world since it shows we have a higher or different judgement of time than they do. But why is it so important to make a holiday over it, to celebrate and commemorate it as we do every Rosh Chodesh?

We see from this Mechilta that because of how we calculate the months, and because we became a nation in Nissan, it is therefore considered the first month for the Jews. This is even though Tishrei was in fact when the world was created, as the purpose of it all is to instill in ourselves new levels of emuna (faith) and bitachon (trust) in Hashem. It’s to be used to raise our eyes to Hashem and realize He took us in as His children, to be princes and princesses of the King of All Kings, and to appreciate that lofty status.

Rosh Chodesh is the opportunity to thank and praise Hashem for that realization, just as the month of Nissan with the Yom Tov of Pesach is the chance to gain new heights and express an appreciation and understanding of what it means to be Hashem’s people, who He took out of Egypt and made His nation. In this way these times of the year are powerful tools to strengthen our belief, faith, and trust in Hashem, a reason to sing Hallel!

A gutten chodesh!

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Vaera – Shooting for Honoring Hashem


 One of the most fundamental beliefs in Hashem and His Ways is discussed in this week’s Torah portion of Vaera by Rabbeinu Bachye, regarding the bondage in Egypt, the prelude to the ten plagues, and the ultimate salvation from Egyptian servitude. It is worthwhile to go through the majority of the piece in the Rabbeinu Bachye, but I am planning on elaborating on a point towards the end.
 Hashem warns Moshe, “And I will harden Pharoah’s heart” (Shemos 7:3). Rabbeinu Bachye submits, “Many have asked at this juncture that if Hashem hardened his heart so that he would not send them, then why did He pile upon them these great plagues for no reason? Isn’t this an act of violence at first glance, and the Blessed Hashem who is righteous would not do such a terrible thing?! If the hardening of his heart was for him to refuse to send them away, then how could he be punished for hardening his heart with all these plagues? The answer to this is that Pharaoh on the one hand was wicked and had already sinned. If his sin would have been preventing the Jews from being sent out and Hashem then hardened his heart about that prevention and punished him for that then that would have been violence [on Hashem’s part]. However the sin for Pharaoh was mentioned earlier (Shemos 1:9-10), ‘Behold the nation of the Children of Israel are many and mightier than us, come and let’s outsmart them’. So since [Pharaoh] was wicked and a denier of Hashem of his own volition, and he and his nation purposely spited them, they were liable to be prevented from the paths of repentance, in that Hashem put into his heart that he would not send them away. For if they had repented, it would have been impossible to punish them. The proof is the people of Nineveh; in the times of Yonah, they repented and were saved from punishment (and in fact some medrashim say Pharaoh was their king, who had survived the splitting of the sea and fled to Nineveh). Therefore, Hashem needed to prevent them from  walking the paths of repentance. Not that they didn’t have the ability to repent, but the ways to realize, to get to such an idea, were blocked. As He [told Moshe] ‘I will harden Pharoah’s heart;’ this is what the Ramban zt”l wrote.

There is a medrish (Shemos Rabba 13:4) that relates ‘And I will harden Pharoah’s heart;’ ‘Rebbe Yochanan said, this is an excuse for non-believers to say that he had no chance to repent. Reish Lakish said back, close up the mouths of the non-believers, they will scoff if they want. They can be rebuked, one, two, three times and still not change. He (Hashem) closed the door from repentance in order to punish him (Pharaoh) for his sins. So, the evil Pharaoh, after Hashem made it clear to him 5 times (5 plagues) and he did not heed to His word, Hashem said to him you made yourself stubborn, and hardened your own heart, I will add tuma (spiritual uncleanliness) onto your tuma.’ According to this medrish, it explains that when Hashem said, ‘I will harden Pharoah’s heart’ it was in the end, for during the first five plagues, it only says, ‘Pharoah’s heart strengthened’ and ‘Pharaoh made his heart heavy’. Behold he did not want to send the Jews away out of honor to Hashem, (כבוד שמים), it was only when the plagues became too overwhelming, he would become weary from dealing with them and he would soften his heart, and change his mind to rather set them free because of the burden of the plagues and not to do the will of his Creator. But during the last five plagues it says that Hashem hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and Hashem did this in order that His name will be talked about throughout the land as it’s written, ‘and I will make Myself exalted and Myself holy etc.’ (Yechezkel 35:23).” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
It’s implicit from Rabbeinu Bachye that if Pharaoh would have focused and been motivated to free the Jewish People out of honoring Hashem and doing His will, then at some point during the first five plagues Pharoah would have followed through with this plan. Only because his motivation for freeing the Jews was to take off the burden of the plagues that in between plagues when the burden was lightened did he change his mind, ultimately keeping them in Egypt each time. But why would even a proper motivation like Honoring Hashem and doing His will make such an impact on such a wicked person as Pharaoh, who put in much thought to outsmarting the Jews and enslaving them? Even if he came to realize that it was worthwhile to give honor to Hashem, why was it guaranteed that he would not change his mind, just like he ultimately did not change his mind out of the pure pressure from the plagues? The reason why he would have set them free for the sake of doing Hashem’s will would be because he would be inspired and focused by the plagues to follow Hashem’s directive; but isn’t inspiration fleeting, especially for the wicked?

We must nevertheless say, based on this Rabbeinu Bachye, that if Pharaoh would have in fact decided to free the Jews to honor Hashem, and had he realized what he was doing, he would never have changed his mind.

There’s an incredible lesson that can be learned from here. If one focuses on and has a really honest attitude that when he is doing the right thing it is for the Will of Hashem, and to give Him honor, then that realization will be the impetus to never regret and change his mind from his positive actions.

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Shemos – Poverty = Death

 
Moshe Rabbeinu is approached by Hashem for the first time by the Burning Bush on Har Sinai, which was the place that Hashem would give the Torah in the future to the Jewish People. Hashem asks Moshe to lead the Jewish People out of Egypt in this week’s Torah portion of Shemos.
 The Pirkei DiRebbe Eliezer (perek 40) relates part of the conversation Hashem had with Moshe: “Hashem said to him, ‘Go and I will send you to Pharaoh.’ He responded before Him, ‘Master Of The Universe, didn’t I tell You that I don’t have the power, for I have a blemished tongue,’ as it says ‘And Moshe said to Hashem, I am not a man of words’ (Shemos 4:10). ‘Not only this but You are also sending me into the hands of my enemies, who want to do bad to me, didn’t I run away from them?’ As it says, ‘And Moshe ran away from before Pharaoh’ (Shemos 2:15). Hashem said back to Moshe, ‘You should not be afraid from them for all those who have requested to take away your life have already died.’ Did they really die? Weren’t they still alive? Rather they lost all their money. From here you learn that whoever loses all their money is as if they are dead. That is why the pasuk says ‘For all the people who seek your life have died’ (Shemos 4:19).”

The Bayis Hagadol, (or Be’ur Maspik) says these people who wished Moshe dead were Dasan and Aviram. However, it’s obviously impossible to confirm their deaths in Egypt, since the Torah says they died as part of the argument between Korach and Moshe Rabbeinu in the desert after The Exodus. (Click here for Hebrew text.)

The Rada”l, Rav Dovid Luria, says that the medrish is making an inference from the fact that Hashem said that ‘all who were out to kill you have died,’ must mean that Moshe had claimed to Hashem that ‘you are sending me into the hands of my enemy.’ Moshe told  Hashem that ‘I don’t want to put myself in danger,’ even if Hashem had commanded him to, for there is a concept in gemara Pesachim 8b that in cases where there is a “clear and present danger” one shouldn’t rely solely on bitachon [trust] in Hashem. Even though this itself is a big chiddush [leap] and a shmuz [lesson] in and of itself, yet Hashem’s response is what I want to focus on. Hashem said to Moshe that there was nothing to worry about because your enemies are dead, even though they weren’t really dead but were halachically considered dead because they had lost all their money. (Click here and here  and here for Hebrew text.)
 Moshe bought into this, seemingly assuming they were really dead, to the extent that the Rada”l adds in that it’s possible Yisro gave permission to Moshe to return to Egypt with his wife and children and was not concerned about their danger. This was even though he knew Pharaoh had thrown Moshe in jail before he escaped, since he was part of Pharaoh advisors at the time. He had forced Moshe to promise not to go back to Egypt because of the people who wanted him dead. Therefore, it must be that Moshe informed Yisro that Hashem told him they had died, and that only then did Yisro send him to Egypt in peace.

It would seem from this medrish, especially based on the way the Rada”l explains it, that Moshe didn’t really know, probably until he got back to Egypt, that Dasan and Aviram were still alive, but simply penniless. That was how he was able to convince his father-in-law Yisro that it was safe to go back to Egypt, after he had promised him that he would not go back if it would put him and his family in danger. And this must be why he himself felt comfortable going, because if he had known they were still alive but impoverished why would that help? Couldn’t they still kill him even if they were poor? Granted we don’t have to say that Hashem was lying to Moshe, because one who lost all their money is halachically considered dead and Jewish Law is in fact reality; but isn’t it still misleading? How can Hashem who is All Just, All Truthful, and All Trustworthy have said such a thing?

It must be that it’s not considered misleading if you say something which you know without a doubt will not have any possibility of harming someone, And of course, Hashem, All Knowing, knows was not even a possibility of danger for Moshe Rabbeinu.

Hashem knew that Moshe would not go down to Egypt if there was an immediate threat to his life so Hashem had to say something to assure him there wasn’t a clear and present danger. Therefore He had to say they were dead, which was not a lie since they lost all their money and were halachically dead. But it was also not misleading since Hashem knew that there really wasn’t any danger to worry about.

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Vayechi – The Bracha of Speed

This dvar Torah is dedicated in honor of Naftali Shaul ben Elisheva Atara, a student of mine who is now in the Israeli army. He has served in the front lines of Gaza, Lebanon and now Syria and has courageously defended our brethren in Eretz Yisrael since after October 7 of last year. May our prayers and learning be a merit to him, the other soldiers, hostages, and all of Klal Yisrael!


 In the concluding Torah portion of the Book of Breishis, parshas Vayechi, Yaakov blesses his children. The blessing for Naftali was, “Naftali is a doe let loose who delivers beautiful sayings” (Breishis 49:21).
Rabbeinu Bachye‘s simple understanding of this pasuk is that Yaakov blessed Naftali with swiftness, that the children of Naftali will be swift like a doe to run to give good tidings and to be the first to inform people of these good tidings, just like people used to send letters through tying them between deer horns [and the deer running swiftly to its destination.] (Click here for Hebrew text.)
 Rabbeinu Bachye does not say that Yaakov blessed Naftali with the ability to run really fast in order to win track competitions, nor for the battlefield, and not even to run to perform mitzvos with zrizus, speed and alacrity. The Rabbeinu Bachye later, in a different interpretation, quotes a Medrish Rabba saying that as a result of this blessing we find that Naftali jumped all the way back to Egypt, like a doe, to bring the documents of his father Yaakov’s right to be buried in Maaras Hamachpeila. Though before he got back, Chushim the son of Dan got up and murdered Eisav, since he was delaying Yaakov’s burial. Nevertheless, the simple understanding of why he was blessed with swiftness and agility was in order to be the first to send good news to people. Why is that the purpose of the blessing?

However, we must say that by definition a blessing is only for a positive purpose and the purest blessing for this ability is to channel their blessing of quickness and agility towards what is purely good. This is giving good tidings to people which makes people feel good and being the first to do so. Not much can get better than that kindness!

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

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Vayigash – Political Strategy

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.

Is it possible to find a Torah source for the concept of having lower tax rates for big corporations? We find a concept similar to this  in this week’s Torah portion of Vayigash. We see what was virtually an anticipated market crash, but actually much worse, after Pharaoh’s dreams of years of plenty and years of famine. The Torah relates that Yosef, Viceroy of Egypt, made very harsh emergency economic decisions during the years of plenty continuing into the years of famine.

However, the Torah also relates, “So Yosef imposed it as a statute till this day regarding the land of Egypt: It was Pharaoh’s for the fifth; only the priests’ land alone did not become Pharaoh’s” (Breishis 47:26).
 The Toaliyos HaRalbag learns from the last part of this pasuk that “it’s befitting for a ruler, when he is asking of his nation to do something very difficult for them, that he appeases the heads of the nation, in a fashion that they will agree with his decrees. If he doesn’t do this [appeasement], maybe they will rebel against him. For this reason you find that when Yosef collected all the grain of the land for Pharaoh during the seven years of plenty, besides the need to feed all the citizens, Pharaoh made a condition to give to the ministers of the land all their needs for them to eat during the seven years of famine, so that he won’t fear that the citizens will rebel and steal the grains from him or assassinate him and take all the grain, since the heads of state will keep charge of the citizens.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
 The Ralbag is mandating that when a government has to take emergency measures and set up harsh laws that might be against the interest of their citizens, they shouldn’t apply these harsh laws to the heads of state, the entrepreneurs, the leaders of the society. This is so that they can help the government and ensure that the rest of the citizens won’t start an insurrection. Why is it fair that the leaders get an exemption from the law, preferential treatment and keep all their wealth and property but the lower-class citizens must have their food and property confiscated by the government for the sake of saving the lives of every individual? What about equality; is it warranted or not?

We must say, it would seem, that even though this looks unfair and seems to be a show of preference, it is still what is best to ensure law and order in society. Hence what’s best for society under these extraordinary circumstances, is warranted.

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Miketz – Your Prayers Accomplish


Do you ever wonder how exactly your davening and Tehillim actually work for someone who is sick, for the war in Israel, etc.? What direct connection do they really have? The answer is addressed in the last Medrish Tanchuma (10) in this week’s Torah portion of Miketz. When Yehuda convinced his father, Yaakov, to send his brother, Binyamin, with them back to Egypt on behest of the Viceroy, Yaakov said, “And may א-ל שד-י, (Almighty G-D), grant you mercy before the man that he may release to you your other brother as well as Binyamin and as for me, as I have been bereaved, so I am bereaved” (Breishis 43:14).
 The medrish relates that “Rebbe Elazar says that it’s written in the Book Ben Sira, ‘You should give honor to your doctor, before you need him.’ What does ‘and all the effort of his power’ refer to? Rebbe Yochanan said, this is what righteous people do, they exert the power of strength (Gevura).” The Etz Yosef, quoting the Nezer Hakodesh explains this obscure statement, “that through prayer, we add power to the Strength on High to quiet and sweeten the root of the prosecuting judgement through mercy and creating satisfaction to his Creator, without needing to suppress the attribute of judgement with force which would have appeared as an act of hard effort and toil by Hashem, as if He was doing something difficult. Therefore, there is a mitzvah to pray.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
 The Nezer HaKodesh is saying that what prayer does is act as a defense against prosecuting angels who present a case that a verdict should be more harsh. But by praying to Hashem, doing His will, and showing we believe and trust in Him, that arouses mercy in judgement. We are showing we aren’t as bad as we appear to have been considered originally, and it makes it easier to deal with the strict judgement, because we have proven we deserve better.
 The Medrish Tanchuma goes on to bring a proof to the concept that ‘You should give honor to your doctor, before you need him.’  For Yaakov, while Binyamin was still with him, prayed for him, as the pasuk in this parsha quoted earlier stated. The medrish goes on to ask why Yaakov specifically refers to Hashem when praying for Binyamin as Kel Shakai (א-ל שד-י)? It’s coming to teach you that Yaakov suffered a lot. From when he was in the womb he was fighting with Esav, as well as after he came out. He was forced to run away from Esav to Lavan’s house. In Lavan house he lived and worked in terrible conditions for 20 years. After he left, Lavan ran after him to murder him. Yaakov escaped Lavan then came Esav who wanted to kill him and lost much wealth as gifts he had given Esav. Once Esav left, next came the whole episode with Dinah. After that tragic episode came the death of Rochel during childbirth. After that he requested respite from Hashem. But then came the whole episode with Yosef and his brothers. In Egypt Shimon was taken prisoner, and then the incident with Binyamin. Therefore Yaakov prayed to Hashem using His name of Kel Shakai, saying “Who that proclaimed to the heaven and earth, ‘Enough!’ Say to my suffering enough!” For when Hashem created heaven and earth they stretched and kept on going until Hashem said ‘Dayechem’ (like Dayeinu), enough! That is why Yaakov referred to Hashem with the name א-ל שד-י.
 Obviously, it’s not hard for Hashem to pull off any judgement. However the medrish is saying that when a tzadik like Yaakov Avinu davened to lessen his suffering and save Binyamin from any trouble that might come his way, Hashem saw a righteous person reaching out to him. Even if, quantitatively, this was just one small piece of the multiple parts of Yaakov’s life which Hashem had to calculate and exact strict judgement, for whatever reason he was deserving of it. Yet to be able to have a degree of mercy because Yaakov called out at this moment in prayer was a big kiddush Hashem, which made it easier for Hashem to play out what was destined to happen.

It sounds like from the medrish that only tzadikim, like Yaakov Avinu, whose qualitative prayers are so impactful, can stir things up in the courts of Heaven. However, it would seem from the Nezer HaKodesh, from the fact that he says Therefore, there is a mitzvah to pray, that all prayers, even yours and mine, have an impact in Heaven, which makes it easier for Hashem to exact more merciful judgement. This is because in any way in which we turn to Hashem and in so doing, trust in Him, which is done through our tefillos, this proves that we deserve to have mercy in judgment. And it can turn around or at least impact in a positive way any, suffering or strict judgement that is deserving down below in this world.

That is the purpose of the mitzvah to pray, to ease the strict judgement in Heaven and in this way prayer makes a tremendous kiddush Hashem, a literal sanctification of Hashem’s Holy Name.

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Vayeishev – Covering Up a Scandal


Yosef’s brothers felt they were halachically entitled to eliminate Yosef. They convened a rabbinic court and determined that he was out to get them, so they had a right to defend themselves; their lives were at stake. They didn’t realize that on some miniscule level what was driving their decisions was a bias (negia) of jealousy that they had towards Yosef over their father’s favoritism towards him.
 But when they saw Yosef coming towards them, the Medrish Tanchuma (2) in this week’s Torah portion of Vayeishev relates that “they saw him from a far… took him and threw him into a pit… there was no water but there were snakes and scorpions in it. What did Reuvein do? He went and sat atop of one of the nearby hills intending to go down and take Yosef out at night. The nine other brothers were sitting all together in another location all with the same intent to kill him. An Arab caravan came traveling by. They said, ‘Let’s go and sell him to these Arabs, they will bring him to the ends of the desert (i.e. away from us and not a threat anymore). They sold him for 20 silver coins. They each got 2 coins and bought a pair of shoes with them. Does it make sense that such a handsome young man (of the age of 17 at the time) could only be sold for 20 silver coins? Rather because he was thrown into a pit with snakes and scorpions, he was so scared his facial countenance changed, he went pale and looked green, therefore they sold him for 20 silver coins to buy shoes. They then said amongst themselves that we should set up a cherem, boycott, to excommunicate anyone who would tell their father Yaakov. Yehuda said, Reuvein is not here and a cherem, would only be effective with a minyan of ten people. What did they do? They brought Hashem in to be the tenth to establish the cherem, to ensure no one tells their father. When Reuvein came down that night to take Yosef out of the pit and didn’t find him, he ripped his clothes and cried. He went back to his brother and said ‘The boy is missing and I have come back.’ They told him about what happened and about the cherem, and he was quiet. And even Hashem, even though it writes in Tehillim (the last pasuk of perek 147) “He told His words to Yaakov” but this He never told him about because of the cherem. This is why Yaakov said, ‘Yosef was torn apart.’ Rebbe Mana said, for the sale of Yosef the tribes were smitten, and they didn’t have an atonement for their sin until they died…and as a result of what they did a famine came upon the Land of Canaan for 7 years and the brothers of Yosef went down to Egypt to buy food and provisions from the Egyptians and eventually found Yosef alive, and the cherem was lifted. Yaakov heard he was alive, and the Torah says ‘the spirit of Yaakov their father was alive again.’ Was he dead? Rather he was revigorated from the cherem and the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit that had disappeared from him came back and rested upon him again.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
 If the brothers were wrong, and in fact Hashem punished them and didn’t fully forgive them until their deaths, then why did Hashem collude with them to hide the story from their father Yaakov? Indeed this caused their father intense anguish for decades, to the point that the Bechor Shor says Yehuda couldn’t stand watching his father sitting in such mourning, and that’s why the next perek says that Yehuda had left the family for a time. Hashem is All Just, All Truthful; how does it seem honest and justified to be involved in such a coverup?

The Etz Yosef, quoting Rabbeinu Bachye, says that “Hashem’s partnership and enjoining in this coverup was vital for the sake of the safety of the Jewish People and the Honor of Hashem. They were afraid that if G-D forbid the matter was leaked and revealed to Yaakov of what happened, he would curse them with an eternal curse. The result being that the Jewish People coming from the seed of Yaakov would never come about, and there would be no one to spread and publicize the teachings of G-D.” 
Hashem runs the world through the laws of nature for the most part, using miracles as a last resort. Based on the natural psychology of a human being, it is possible that even someone as great of a tzadik as Yaakov Avinu, if he would have heard what actually happened, the results would have been cataclysmic, reverberating to the end of time. There would have been no Bnei Yisrael to be the light onto the nations, princes of the King Of All Kings, to be the shining example of His word, the Torah. However, that being said, Hashem did exact due punishment on the brothers. Still in all, isn’t a lack of transparency a level of dishonesty; Hashem is by definition all-honest and truthful ;so how could He have taken part in a coverup?

We must emphatically say that a lack of transparency is not untruthful or dishonest by definition, and can be justified and needed at times for the sake of preserving stability and the ultimate truth. There are certainly times when hiding something could lead to lies and not fixing or solving things that could be damaging, but there are other times, like in this case, where taking care of the problem “privately” without making a big deal out of it, and making it known to everyone, is not only justified but the right thing to do.

Good Shabbos,
 Rabbi Dovid Shmuel Milder

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Vayishlach – Good Judgement Bad Intentions

A few years after King Shaul and his son Yonatan were killed in battle against the Philistines, Avner, a cousin of King Shaul and the general of his army, appointed Ish Boshes, a son of Shaul, as heir to his throne. Although Avner knew that Shmuel had anointed Dovid (see Shmuel Beis 3:9) he inferred from a pasuk in this week’s Torah portion of Vayishlach that there had to be another king from the tribe of Binyamin before the kingship went to the tribe of Yehuda. When Yaakov was returning to Eretz Yisrael from his long sojourn with Lavan, Hashem blessed him saying: “I am the Almighty G-D; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a multitude of nations shall come into existence from you, and kings shall come forth from your loins” (Breishis 35:11). Since only Binyamin was not yet born, this meant that more than one king would emerge from the tribe of Binyamin. Thus, although Avner did not deny that Dovid would be king, he felt that Ish Boshes should reign first (see Breishis Rabba 85:2). That this would delay the beginning of Dovid’s reign would not be a rejection of Shmuel’s anointment, since even Shmuel had not given the kingship to Dovid while Shaul was alive.


Yet, the Riv”a, after quoting Rashi that the words of the pasuk, “and kings shall come forth from your loins” refer to King Shaul and Ish Boshes, quotes a question the Chizkuni had, based on a gemara in Sanhedrin 20a: “Why was Avner punished for delaying the House of Dovid’s reign for two and a half years? And though Rashi had explained that he appointed Ish Boshes as king, and if Avner had not appointed him then Dovid would have been the ruler, nevertheless, why was Avner punished for this if his psak, decree, was based on a gezeiras hakasuv, a decree from the Holy Scripture? Rather it must be that his intentions were to humiliate Dovid by delaying his rule by two and a half years.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)


We must put in context what exactly Avner did wrong. Avner wasn’t a bad person; in fact, the Mizrachi, commentary on Rashi, says that Avner was a tzadik, righteous, and in analyzing the pasuk that Avner used to justify the appointment of Ish Boshes, Rashi says:

and kings. Shaul and Ish Boshes, who were of the tribe of Binyamin, who had not yet been born. (Avner interpreted this verse [in this sense] when he crowned Ish Boshes, and the tribes too interpreted it [in this sense] and became friendly again with Binyamin, as it is written: “No man from us shall give his daughter to Binyamin for a wife” (Jud. 21:1)-they retracted this and said, “Were he (Binyamin) not to be counted among the tribes, the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have said to Yaakov, ‘and kings shall come forth from your loins.’”) [Old Rashi manuscript from Tanchuma Buber Vayishlach 29] וּמְלָכִים.  שָׁאוּל וְאִישׁ בֹּשֶׁת, שֶׁהָיוּ מִשֵּׁבֶט בִּנְיָמִין (בראשית רבה), שֶׁעֲדַיִן לֹא נוֹלְדוּ (וּפָסוּק זֶה דְּרָשׁוֹ אַבְנֵר כְּשֶׁהִמְלִיךְ אִישׁ בֹּשֶׁת, וְאַף הַשְּׁבָטִים דְּרָשׁוּהוּ וְקֵרְבוּ בִּנְיָמִין, דִּכְתִיב אִישׁ מִמֶּנּוּ לֹא יִתֵּן אֶת בִּתּוֹ לְבִנְיָמִן לְאִשָּׁה (שופטים כ”א), וְחָזְרוּ וְאָמְרוּ אִלְמָלֵא הָיָה עוֹלֶה מִן הַשְּׁבָטִים לֹא הָיָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אוֹמֵר לְיַעֲקֹב וּמְלָכִים מֵחֲלָצֶיךָ יֵצֵאוּ:

This pasuk was used to save the tribe of Binyamin from being annihilated in Sefer Shoftim. So, justifiably, Avner, a righteous person, interpreted this pasuk to mean that Ish Boshes was destined to be anointed as king before Dovid. How then can the Riva and Chizkuni say that Avner had malicious intent to humiliate Dovid?

We must say that in fact Avner wasn’t outright malicious, and only on a very miniscule, perhaps even subconscious level, had some level of bias, a negia, to want to humiliate Dovid. Perhaps because he was from the family of Shaul and his general, and for that reason he deserved to be punished by Hashem.
We see from here that it’s possible to be doing the right thing, but if it’s with the wrong intentions, even if it’s not so obvious that the intentions are wrong, Hashem looks into the nook and crevices of everyone’s heart and knows what his or her true intentions are, and exacts judgement. Therefore, we have to make sure when choosing to do the right thing to try to do it with the best intent possible.