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Parshas Sh'lach
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These divrei Torah were
adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand's Commuter
Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: Tape # 773, Kavanah When Wearing
Tzitzis. Good Shabbos
One Can Recognize His Own Greatness Without Being Arrogant
The final statement the Meraglim [Spies] made concerning their report
regarding what they saw in the Land of Israel was: "There we saw the
Nephillim, the sons of a giant from among the Nephillim; we in our eyes
like grasshoppers; and so too were we in their eyes." [Bamidbar 13:33]
We have commented in past years – how did the spies know how they looked
to the Canaanites? They were, after all, not mind readers. The answer
we have given is that if one perceives himself as a grasshopper then
that will be how others perceive him as well! To put it colloquially,
"if you think you are a shmateh [rag], then that is how others will look
at you as well."
This is an important lesson in life. We must
have a certain level of confidence in who we are. No one should make the
mistake to think (as some people do) that
if I think I am not a grasshopper then I am being haughty. This is not a
matter of arrogance. The definition of modesty is not to go around
saying "I am nothing. I know nothing. I am a zero." The definition of
appropriate modesty is to recognize who I am and what talents I have,
but not to be proud about it because I realize that it is all a gift
from the Master of the World.
If a person has a beautiful voice
and they ask him to daven as the Shliach Tzibur, he should not say "I
cannot carry a tune." That would be patently untrue. But when he gets up
to daven he should not think that he is deserving of great honor
because he can sing so beautifully. The ability to sing is a gift from
G-d and that is true of all the human abilities that a person may
possess. We are charged to use the gifts G-d gives us appropriately in
His service.
Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, was the picture of
humility. He was an extremely humble person. I am told that he was once
getting into a
car on the Lower East Side and someone on the street called out in a
loud voice "Moshe!" (to someone else entirely), but the Gadol Hador
assumed it was he who was being addressed and calmly asked "What can I
do for you?" And yet the same Rav Moshe Feinstein was once at a wedding
and a young man approached him and asked him a question to which Rav
Moshe gave him an answer. The young man raised his voice and asked a
question on the answer Rav Moshe gave him and again received another
answer from Rav Moshe. This continued several more rounds with the young
man raising his voice higher and higher with each successive exchange.
Until, finally Rav Moshe Feinstein took him by the arm, led him aside
and said to him, "Young man, I don't believe you understand who you are
talking to!" Meaning, I am Rav Moshe Feinstein and you don't talk to me
like that.
What about the humble Rav Moshe Feinstein on the Lower East Side who responded to someone who yelled out "Moshe"? This is not
a contradiction. Rav Moshe Feinstein knew who he was.
I recently
heard another story where a young man asked Rav Moshe a question at a
wedding and Rav Moshe gave him an answer. The young man asked, "Does the
Rosh Yeshiva know that the Pri Megadim rules just the opposite?" To
which Rav Moshe answered, "Yes. I have learned that Pri Megadim 296
times." How could he talk like that if he was so modest? The same
answer: He knew who he was.
I heard a story many years ago
regarding the Chasam Sofer. I have never verified it. There was a
certain question regarding an Agunah [woman whose husband's death was
doubtful] that became a cause célèbre and involved great Rabbinic
opinions on both sides of the issue. The matter came to the Chasam
Sofer. He thought about it, took out his pen and in a half hour wrote a
responsa to permit the woman to remarry. They asked him, how he could be
so bold and confident when it was such a controversial matter. He
answered "I have the pen o
f authority in these matters in this generation." In others words, he
could say about himself that he was the final word, and what he said
about the matter was the definitive psak halacha. Finished.
These
people were tremendously humble people but they knew who they were and
they knew what the psak was and they were not afraid to exercise their
authority. This is not haughtiness.
The Custom of Praising A Choson At A Sheva Brochos
I saw a Sefer by a Rav Eliyahu Mann who records vignettes
from the life of Rav Chaim Kanievsky. He writes that the widespread
custom is that at a Sheva Brochos celebrating a couple's recent
marriage, one who is asked to give a Dvar Torah
speaks about the praises of the Choson. Sometimes the speaker goes a bit
overboard and makes the groom sound like the next Chasam Sofer, which
in most cases he is not. Our Sages say that a Choson is comparable to a
King. Just as it is customary to say praises about a King, so too it is
customary to say praises about a Choson. The purpose of this is that a
Choson is now starting his married life. It is important for him to
realize who he is and what potential he has so that he recognizes who he
can become. For this reason, it is appropriate to tell the Choson "You
are gifted with many talents. It is your obligation to use them."
The
story of Rabbi Akiva is well known: When he returned home with his
24,000 students after ha
ving been separated from his wife Rachel for 24 years, his wife tried
to approach him through the crowd and the students – not knowing who she
was -- tried to shoo her away. He told them "Leave her, for what's mine
and what's yours belongs to her." The simple interpretation of this
Gemara is that what Rabbi Akiva was saying was that what he accomplished
and what his students accomplished belongs to his wife is because she
let him learn undisturbed for 24 years.
However, Rav Mann quotes a
novel interpretation: Rachel, the daughter of Kalba Savua – the
wealthiest man in town – could have married anyone she wanted. She could
have had the "best guy in any Yeshiva". She took Akiva ben Yosef the
shepherd, who at that stage in his life was an ignoramus. She believed
in him and that gave him the confidence to become the great Rabbi Akiva.
It is for that reason that he credited her for all that he had
accomplished and all his students had accomplished. It is important to
know
that someone believes in you and thinks highly of you as a source of
motivation to encourage oneself to live up to those expectations. This
is the source of the custom of praising a Choson at the Sheva Brochos.
The Wood Chopper's Motivation Was Good, But...
At the end of the Parsha, the Torah
tells us the incident of the "mekoshesh eitzim" [the cutter/collector of
wood on Shabbos]. There is a Talmudic dispute exactly what forbidden
labor was involved, but the bottom line is that this individual
desecrated the Shabbos. Moshe Rabbeinu did not know yet what the proper
punishment was for Shabbos desecration. He inquired of the Almighty and
was told the punishment was stoning and this punishment was carried out.
It
is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva [Shabbos 96b] that this "wood cutter" was
none other than Tzelafchad, whose 5 daughters later inquired of Moshe
Rabbeinu concerning their rights to their father's inheritance.
The
Medrash states that the mekoshesh eitzim carried out his act "for the
sake of Heaven". He desecrated the Shabbos "for the best of reasons".
His purpose, according to the Medrash, was to demonstrate the severity
of Shabbos desecration. He felt he needed to dramatically demonstrate to
the nation
that laboring on Shabbos was a capital offense. This same idea is
brought in the Targum of Yonasan ben Uziel.
Assuming the
interpretation of Rabbi Akiva and the Targum Yonasan ben Uziel – we may
ask: was Tzelafchad righteous or wicked? There are several proofs that
may be brought that Tzelafchad was indeed a tzaddik [righteous].
[Shabbos 96b; Bava Basra 118b]
Although the Talmud does call
Tzelafchad righteous for what he did, Tosfos writes in Shabbos that had
the Jews kept that second Shabbos (which was violated by the wood
chopper), no nation would have ever been able to rule over them. Klal
Yisrael would have been unconquerable. There would not have been a
"Churbun Bayis Rishon" [Destruction of the first Bais HaMikdash], a
"Churbun Bayis Shayni" [Destruction of the Second Bays HaMikdash], a
Babylonia exile, a Roman exile, an Inquisition, a Tach v'Tat, or a
Holocaust. But because of this action our future was infinitely worse.
What
is the lesson? Here
is a person who intended to act for the sake of Heaven. In fact, he was
a righteous person. But look what he caused! He caused all the
destruction we have known as the Jewish people. Rav Simcha Zissel Brodie
says the lesson is that one is never allowed to take the law into one's
own hands. One should follow the Shulachan Aruch and not say that there
is a greater good or a higher purpose or that the "ends justify the
means". This is exactly what the woodchopper did. He claimed that the
ends – to get the message of the severity of Chilul Shabbos across –
justified the means of Chilul Shabbos. But this is not the way Judaism
works! One is not allowed to play fast and loose with the law, even for
the best of reasons.
The Gemara [Shabbos 150b] speaks of a
certain pious person who noticed a breech in his fence on Shabbos. When
he saw what happened, he made plans to fix it immediately because of the
great financial loss the breech would cause him. A few moments later,
he rem
embered that it was Shabbos and decided to leave the breech open. The
Talmud relates that a miracle occurred and a fast growing bush (Tzelaf
tree) appeared in the breech and restored the protection of his property
so that he suffered no loss.
The Ben Yehoyada writes in the name
of the Ari z"l that this "certain pious individual" was a Gilgul of
Tzelafchad. The soul of Tzelafchad, who made an error in desecrating the
Shabbas with the incident of the wood chopping, was given the
opportunity to come back to earth in another body and correct the
mistake he had once made. When he corrected the error by abstaining from
repairing the fence, it was most appropriate that the vegetation which
(miraculously) grew there was named Tzelf-chad (one Tzelaf tree).
This week's write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion. The complete list of halachic portions for this parsha from the Commuter Chavrusah Series are:
016 - Mixed Seating at Weddings
061 - The Minyan: Who Counts?
105 - Tallis: Does it Cover Only Married Men?
150 - Tzitzis: Must They Be Worn?
197 - Carrying Medicine on Shabbos
243 - The Concept of Prison in Jewish Law
287 - Women and Tzitzis
333 - Techeiles Today
377 - Tzitzis: Must They Be Seen?
421 - The Issur of Histaklus
465 - Donning a Tallis for The Amud
509 - Ain Ma'averin Al Hamitzvos
553 - Women and Tzitzis Revisited
597 - Davening at the Graves of Tzadikim
641 - K'rias Shema and K'eil Melech Ne'eman
685 - Art Museums
729 - Making Tzitzis
773 - Kavanah When Wearing Tzitzis
817 - Davening for a Rasha to Change - Does It Work?
861 - Do We Knead Challah in America
905 - The Tallis Over Your Head
949 - The Shul's Tallis−Bracha or No Bracha?
992 - Your Talis Katan: Is it Big Enough?
1036 - Our Tallis - Should It Be Beautiful? Is It Really Chayav in Tzitzis?
1080 - Doing An Aveira for the Best Reasons?
Tapes or a complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail tapes@yadyechiel.org or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for further information.
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Please Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws special in
this time when Abba Yahweh is 'testing' us:
Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem (‘everlasting’ also said of
Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan
7:14 And there was given Him
(Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim,
tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1](worship
as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic)
Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.]see Michoh 5:1[2]; Yahweh Elohai (my
Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed them
(these Chaldean) for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them (these
Chaldean) for reproof.
(Please
read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk?)
Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:
Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi
(prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me Exo
32:30 The next day Moshe said to the
people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh;
maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;
Deu 18:16 According to all that thou
desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev in the Yom HaKahal (day of
the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav
(your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more,
that I die not.
Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They
have well-spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi
(prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him
[Yn 10:18].
Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My
Name), I will require it of him.
Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech
HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of
the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH
41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father)
of me taught me, these things I speak.
[1]
Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח
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