Parashas Mishpatim

It is frequently noted that the first parashah the Torah presents following mattan Torah deals with a host of laws related to interpersonal relations and commerce.

In fact, the very beginning of the parashah deals with the laws of a Jewish “slave” – a man who had stolen money and had no money to repay it, so Beis Din sold him to raise money to pay off the the debt.

This “slave” may not be given especially menial or degrading tasks to do. And he is entitled to the same comforts as his master’s family.

Indeed, the gemarah comments that one who purchases such a “slave” has essentially purchased a master for himself, because if there is only one pillow – or one steak – it goes to the slave, since the master cannot have more or better than that which the slave has.

But the Torah teaches us more: While he owns this slave, the master must provide for the needs of the slave’s wife and children.

Part of what happened at Sinai is that we undertook arvus, guarantorship for one another. We each have a responsibility for the spiritual well-being of everyone else.

But how can we meet that responsibility?

There’s a great magnet from Partners in Torah that reads: “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

To meet our obligations, be must first know and understand how far we must go to take care of one another. That breeds love and camaraderie. It is only then that we can hope to influence and inspire them.

May we truly achieve love of our fellow, and meet our obligations to Hashem and to others.

Gut Shabbos.

Parashas Yisro

As the Jews encamped around Sinai in preparation for receiving the Torah, Moshe was instructed הַגְבֵּל אֶת־הָהָר, cordon off the mountain, וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ and sanctify it.

 

What was the significance of sanctifying Mount Sinai?

 

The Torah is Hashem's Word. Indeed, until the Revelation at Sinai, the Torah was the provenance of the angels on High.

 

How could mortals possibly connect to the Divine?

 

Before the Torah was presented to us, Hashem sent a message: A mountain is mere earth and rock. Yet those mundane elements can become sanctified when they are set aside for God.

 

 When we recite a brachah upon performing a mitzvah, we say: אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, Who sanctified us with His commandments. When we learn Torah and do mitzvos our essence changes. we become holy people.

 

One lesson of Har Sinai is that if a simple, inanimate mountain can become holy, certainly we can, no matter how lowly we think of ourselves.

 

May we all be granted that holiness, so that we may fulfill our purpose on earth.

 

Gut Shabbos.

Parashas Beshalach

After the Jews miraculously crossed the Sea on dry land, they sang Az Yashir, the song of gratitude and praise to Hashem.

It is a song so profound, it was instituted as part of our daily Shacharis, and it will be sung at the time of techiyas hameisim, the Resurrection of the Dead (see Rashi 15:1).

When Moshe first approached Pharaoh to allow the Jews to leave Egypt to serve Hashem, Pharaoh responded by harshening his subjugation of the nation. When Moshe cried out to Hashem, Hashem responded by noting that our forefathers had been given many assurances, but although they never actually experienced the “Name Ado-nai,” – they never saw the fulfillment of those promises – they had never complained.

In Az Yashir, it is the Name Ado-nai is the one used almost universally. Az Yashir celebrated the fact that the Jews perceived how all the pieces fit together.

We are taught (Mechilta Shemos 15:2) that when the Jews crossed the Sea, even a maidservant saw G-d more immanently than the Prophet Yechezkel, whose prophecy describes in detail the Heavenly retinue. The Kotzker Rebbe famously commented that somehow, despite this experience, the people did not all become righteous prophets. The maidservant became a maidservant.

Interestingly, when the Jews demanded food in the wilderness, Hashem responded, הִנְנִי מַמְטִיר לָכֶם לֶחֶם מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם וְיָצָא הָעָם וְלָקְטוּ דְּבַר יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ לְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ הֲיֵלֵךְ בְּתוֹרָתִי אִם לֹא, Behold I will rain upon you bread from the Heavens, and the nation shall go out and collect the portion of each day on that day so that I might test them to see if they follow in my commandments or not.

G-d could have provided the Jews nourishment and satiation without the manna. The purpose of the manna was not to provide food, it was to see if the Jews had learned their lesson, it was to test whether the experience of the Miracles at the Sea had left a lasting impact.

As Ramban notes, Hashem performs the open, obvious miracles, to show us that he controls all events.

In our own lives, we must thank Hashem for his goodness and kindness not only when we experience open acts of Providence; it behooves us to seek out and acknowledge Hashem at every juncture. We repeat Az Yashir every day to remind us that.

As Chaye and I give gratitude to Hashem for blessing us with the simchah of the upcoming marriage of another child, we thank Him for the infinite other kindnesses that He does for us every day, and be beseech him to continue to grant us and all Klal Yisroel simchos, berachos, refuos and yeshuos.

May the day soon come when all of us merit to sing Az Yashir after techi’yas hameisim, when we will actually again perceive how every event and all of history fits into place in the Divine Master Plan.

Gut Shabbos

Parashas Bo

Among the laws that apply to the eating of the Korban Pesach are that a person must eat it as part of only one group, and he may not move from one group to another, nor may one break any of its bones as he eats it.

 

The Pesach observance marks the celebration of our emerging from bondage to freedom. When the Jewish Nation left Egypt, they were taken l'cheirus olam, an everlasting, true freedom. Theirs was a freedom from bondage, but not freedom from restrictions.

 

The freedom we enjoy as a result of Yetizas Mitzrayim offers us the opportunity to find fulfillment by connecting with Hashem. We can, however, abuse that freedom.

 

So as we mark our Exodus from Egypt, as we relish eating the roasted meat of the Korban Pesach, we are reminded that while are free, rules still apply. And it is those rules that ensure that we have make use of our freedom to find true joy and fulfillment.

 

May we merit to properly use the opportunities we are afforded, and may we enjoy the Korban Pesach in Yershalayim this year, b'vias goel tzedek.

 

Gut Shabbos. 

Parashas Va'eira

In this week’s parashah, Hashem tells Moshe how Pharaoh will refuse to release the Jews, and that He will bring plagues that will lead to the Jews’ redemption. “…And I will take out my legions, my nation, the Childen of Israel from Egypt with great judgments. And Egypt will know that I am Hashem as I stretch my hand over Egypt and I take out the Children of Israel from among them” (7:4-5).

This seems to tell us that the purpose of the plagues, of the miracles, and of the Exodus was for Egypt to recognize Hashem’s greatness.

However, at the beginning of Parashas Bo we are told that the reason for the plagues was “and so that you might recount in the ears of your children and your grandchildren that I toyed with the Egyptians…”.

The purpose of the miracles, then, was so that the Jews would acknowledge Hashem’s control of events.

It would seem that the Torah is teaching that each of these reasons would, in of itself, have been adequate reason to bring about the wondrous events that took place.

In Parashas Beshalach, we find that, only days after the Exodus, the Egyptians regretted setting the Jews free and pursued them to the Sea of Reeds. After the Jews crossed safely, the Egyptians all drowned.

Ultimately, then, the Egyptians recognized Hashem only for those few days and for their final moments as they drowned in the Sea (see 14:25). Yet the many miracles in Egypt and at the Sea were all worth doing just so that the Egyptians would acknowledge Hashem for those short periods of time.

Each day offers us countless opportunities to see and acknowledge Hashem. These parshios should encourage us to take advantage to those moments and use them to mekadesh Shem Shamayim by making a point of recognizing His greatness.

In that zechus, may we merit to the ultimate yisgadal v’yiskadash shmei rabbah, with the arrival of Mashiach.

Gut Shabbos.

Parashas Shemos

In this week’s parashah, the Torah tells us that when Yocheved, the mother of 3-month old Moshe, could no longer hide her child from the officers enforcing Pharaoh’s edict to throw all Jewish boys into the river, she didn’t simply comply. Instead, she took a basket and coated it with tar and plaster. She then placed him inside. Additionally, rather than place Moshe into the water, she left the basket in the reeds at the banks of the river.

Chazal explain that while she put tar on the outside to protect against the water, she used plaster on the inside so that the righteous Moshe would not have to smell the unpleasant odor of the tar.

Oftentimes we meet a person in need – physically or emotionally – and it is beyond our capacity to fully help them.

The Torah’s sharing these details teaches us that we must still do whatever we can to ameliorate another’s distress. Yocheved didn’t have a way to save Moshe, but she could make her infant son’s stay in the basket less distasteful. And rather than place him in the water, she could leave him more securely on the shore.

Interestingly, as a midwife, Yocheved was known as Shifra, because mishaperes es havlad, she would beautify the newborn child.

The word mishaper also means to “improve.” Yocheved lived in a time of crisis. Many of the babies she delivered would soon be put to death. She couldn’t change all that. But her role, her avodah,  was to be mishaper, to do what she could to improve the lot of the mothers and their children.

May we be inspired by her example to do all that we can for others, and may we merit to see bi’yeshuasan shel Yisrael.

Gut Shabbos.

Parashas Vayechi

As Yaakov fell ill prior to his death, Yosef came with his sons, so that might receive their grandfather’s blessing.

Yaakov told Yosef: And now, your two sons that you have borne in the land of Egypt, until I came to you to Egypt, they are mine. Efraim and Menasheh will be to me like Reuven and Shimon – Yaakov declared that the two sons of Joseph would, like his own sons, be the progenitors of Tribes.

After a discussion, he asks that Efraim and Menasheh approach him to be blessed, but as they do, he suddenly asks: Who are these [men]?  

What does that mean? He knew who they were; he had just appointed them as Fathers of Tribes, he just asked that they come over to him. What does his question mean?

Chazal explain that as they approached, the Shechinah, the Divine Presence, suddenly abandoned Yaakov. Yaakov sensed that these two young men would have wicked descendants, and he now doubted whether he should bless them. Yosef prayed, the Divine Presence returned, and Yaakov blessed his grandchildren with Hamalach Hagoel, a blessing that we continue to use to this very day.

We find a similar episode later in the parashah. Yaakov is about to bless his sons. Those blessings outlined the personalities of each son and encapsulated the role and destiny of the Tribe that was to descend from him.

Before those blessings, Yaakov asks his sons to gather so that he might share with them “what would transpire to them at the end of the days.”

They gather and the Shechinah again departs from Yaakov.

Now Yaakov is concerned that perhaps they have abandoned their faith, so they cry out in unison the phrase Shema Yirsael.  Yaakov responds by saying Baruch Shem... . He then proceeds to bless them.

Our sages explain that the Yaakov intended to reveal to them when the ultimate End of Days would commence, but Hashem did not want him to.

It is interesting that before each set of blessings, the departure of the Shechinah caused Yaakov to question the righteousness of those he was about to bless.

Just before Yitzchok blessed Yaakov – transmitting the power of Divine blessing invested in him by Avrohom – we are told וַיָּרַח אֶת רֵיחַ בְּגָדָיו וַיְבָרֲכֵהוּ..., and [Yitzchok] smelled the scent of [Yaakov’s] clothes and he blessed him…. Our sages teach (Sanhedrin 37a) that the word בגדיו can also be vowelized בֹּגְדָיו, his traitors, the sinners.

Why was it important for Yitzchok to sense the sinners before he gave the blessing?

The commentators explain that had Yitzchok given the blessing to a son he felt was fully righteous, with no whiff of sinners, those blessings would have been in effect only as long as the descendants were completely good. Hashem wanted him to smell the traitors, so that the blessings would remain effective even when the Jews would be remiss in their spiritual duties.

In our parshah, too, Hashem wanted Yaakov’s blessings -- first to Efraim and Menasheh then to his sons – to always remain in effect. So as he was about to give the berachos, their was the suggestion that they may not be fully righteous. And although they really were, the berachos were given with the recognition that although the Shechinah may depart, the blessings will remain.

May we always be worthy of all the blessings, but even when we fall short, may we always be the beneficiaries of the spiritual and material bounty they offer.

Gut Shabbos.