5770 פרשת ראה

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah begins with the following statement, “See that I am setting in front of you a blessing and a curse. The blessing you receive when you listen to the Torah and do the Mitzvos and the curse if you do not do the Mitzvos.”

 The Siforno asks, what does the Torah mean by using the word “See” when describing the blessing or the curse there is nothing physical here to look at there is just a concept to understand?

 The Siforno answers that the Torah is telling us that we need to understand that there is no middle ground when it comes to the blessing and the curse rather if a person keeps the Mitzvos then the blessing will be success greater than the average and if Chas Veshalom a person does not keep the Mitzvos the curse will be a great curse.

 If we look at this Siforno a little bit more closely we can ask the following question. Why can’t there be a middle ground? We all know that there is reward and punishment for every action. If a person does something good he gets a reward and if he does a sin he gets a punishment (maybe not right away as there is the possibility of Teshuva). Furthermore, we know that when it comes to the Yamim Noraim, that the Tzadikim and Reshaim are judged on Rosh Hashanah while the judgment of the Baynonim is only completed on Yom Kippur. We also know that most people fall into the category of Baynonim as they are not all good or all bad. If all this is true, then how do we understand Siforno when he says that there is no middle ground; there is either all blessing or all Chas Veshalom curse.

 The answer could be that there are two separate and distinct issues here. When we discuss being a Baynoni when we are discussing Yom Kippur or discussing getting reward or punishment for our actions, there is certainly a middle ground as we are discussing individual actions.

 However, what the Siforno is discussing is something much different and that is the direction a person is going. Regarding the direction a person is going there are only 2 possibilities. A person can either by striving to grow in his Avodas Hashem or Chas Veshalom the opposite (non –growth inherently is falling back). If this is the case there really are only two possible results. If we are striving to grow in our Avodas Hashem then we will get Bracha and if we are not then we are inherently going backwards and we will get the curse. This might also be why God is telling us specifically to “See” the blessing and the curse meaning to analyze and understand that the direction a person takes can impact his life even if he may at this point still be sinning if he is committed to changing for the better he can merit Bracha. The opposite is true as well.

 Many times when a person enters Elul and begins preparing for the Yamim Noraim, a sense of hopelessness comes over them. We look back at the year and realized that many if not all of actions that we said we would improve are still the same. How can we go and face the Day of Judgment anew without anything to hang our hat on. However, just the opposite is true. Granted that we are judged on each individual action and of course we must repent for any sins we transgressed and try to correct our actions, but we are also judged on the direction we want to take. If we are constantly striving to improve in our Avodas Hashem even if we are not always successful we can still merit Bracha. God knows we are not perfect but as long as we are striving to improve and truly want to make changes for the better, God will accept our Teshuva. If we can do this we should merit a year of Bracha.   

 5769 פרשת ראה

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah begins with Moshe Rabbeinu reminding Bnei Yisroel that there are two possible paths to take in this world. The first one will lead to Beracha while the second one will lead to  K’lalla. When Moshe Rabbeinu begins his narrative, he says to Bnei Yisroel “See I am setting in front of you today blessing and curses.” The Ohr Hachayim asks why the Torah uses the word see the two paths instead of listen and furthermore, the language that Moshe uses for “see” is the singular tense even though he was talking to all of Bnei Yisroel and even more so since the rest of his narrative is said in the plural form?

 The Ohr Hachayim answers that Moshe was trying to convince Bnei Yisroel to minimize the pleasures of this world and to put their efforts into acquiring their portion in Olam Habah. In order to accomplish that goal Moshe would need to have two things. The first is that he recognized the greatness of the world to come and that he also had all the pleasures in this world. This is due to the fact that if Moshe did not have any of the pleasures of this world Bnei Yisroel would say the only reason Moshe said what he did was that he did not understand how great the pleasures of this world are. The other side is also true since if Moshe never experience the greatness of the reward of world to come Bnei Yisroel would not believe him when he said the reward for spiritual endeavors is so great. This is why Moshe prefaced his rebuke with the word see in singular tense to tell Bnei Yisroel that I experienced both the physical and spiritual worlds and I can tell you which will lead you to Beracha and which to K’lala. Since this was clear to everyone equally Moshe used the singular tense.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little more closely, we can ask the following question.

 Bnei Yisroel over their years in the Midbar saw the reward for those that followed in the ways of God and the tremendous punishment suffered by Bnei Yisroel when they followed after the pleasures of this world. In fact, Moshe had already rebuked them and reminded them of all the sins that occurred to their parents in the Midbar some of them due to their chasing after the pleasures of this world as in the case of Baal Peor and the Bnos Midyan as well as others, why would Bnei Yisroel require Moshe to have experienced both physical and spiritual pleasures for them to recognize the truth of Moshe’s words as they knew the concepts to be true.

 The answer can be that we underestimate the tremendous power of the Yetzer hara. Even thought they saw the generation of their parents punished for following after their desires, the Yetzer hara still has the power to cause them to rationalize that the physical pleasures of the world are so great and are worth achieving even though they may be punished later and will therefore not benefit from the great potential reward in the world to come. It was only since Moshe had both that he was able to convince them that choosing olam haba over olam hazeh was the correct and logical thing to do.

 In the world we live in, we are constantly facing this dilemma. The Yetzer hara is constantly trying to convince us that we need more and more of the physical pleasures that this world has to offer us which can easily cause us to run after the pleasures and forget about the truly more important aspect of our lives which is Torah and Mitzvos. However, the Torah gave us a remedy to the Yetzer hara. Over our history, there have also been great and God fearing men who also had great wealth but chose to focus all their energies on the ruchnius instead of focusing on the physical pleasures that were surely available to them. They include Moshe Rabbeinu, Shlomo Hamelech, Rebbi Yehudah Hannasi and the many others throughout our history. When we find our focus leaning more towards the physical world than the spiritual world we should think about these great Torah personalities and remember that in truth this world is only temporary and adjust our focus to what is truly important. 

פרשת ראה 5768 

In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us how to deal with a ”Masis” – a person who tries to persuade other people to leave the ways of the Torah and worship idols. The Torah tells us that we should not cover up for this person or should we have any mercy on him. The Torah continues and describes his punishment: death by stoning.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai on the Pasuk describing the Mitzvah of killing the ”masis” says: 

The entire Torah is merciful from the all merciful God. When God commands us to kill someone who is convicted in a Jewish Court for a sin whose punishment is death is not to take revenge for God against him. Killing someone out of revenge is something that will get us accustomed to acting with a trait of cruelty. Rather the thought behind the killing is one of mercy on the rest of Bnei Yisroel. This is so that Bnei Yisroel would not be influenced by the sinner and also sin which would be a great tragedy.

 If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai a little deeper we can derive an incredible concept.

 Let us see who we are talking about. This person was someone who not only worshipped idols himself, (one of the 3 cardinal sins), but was actively involved in trying to cause other people to worship idols. The people who were responsible for judging him and having him put to death were members of the Beis Din, all of them Tzadikim. Furthermore, this is a commandment from God. Even if the purpose was to take revenge on the sinner for what he was doing against God and Bnei Yisroel, why would it impact the trait of cruelty in a person? There is a reason that this action is required but that shouldn’t mean that it will change that person’s makeup from a merciful person to a cruel person.

 The answer is that even if there is a reason for doing an action of cruelty and the person who you are acting cruel to is evil, if the thought when doing the action is one of cruelty it will have the ability to change a person from being a merciful person to a cruel one. However, if the person does the exact same “cruel” action and thinks that he is doing it to be merciful to the rest of Bnei Yisroel his trait of mercy will remain intact.

פרשת ראה 5767

In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the laws pertaining to the ”Ir Hanidachas. The ”Ir Hanidachas” is a city in which the residents of the city were convinced to worship idols.  The law is that the residents of the city who worshiped idols in the city had to be killed and all the property of the city destroyed.

The Pasuk when describing how they should be killed says as follows:

You should kill the inhabitants of the city with the mouth of the sword.

 The Sifri asks, what is the Pasuk telling us by using the words with the “mouth of the sword”?

 The Sifri explains as follows:

 You should use the mouth of the sword in order that the body should not become disgusting.

 The question that can be asked on this Sifri is who are we talking about? We are talking about an entire city who went off and totally worshipped idols which is one of the big three sins whose law is it is better to die than to worship idols.

Why should the Torah be so Makpid on the people who were fulfilling the mitzvah of killing the people who lived in the”Ir Hanidachas” who were anyway required to be killed to ensure that their bodies are not made disgusting when they are killed?

 The answer can be based on a Rashi in Parshas Ki Teitzay.

 The Pasuk when describing how the court would kill someone who receives stonig as his punishment says the following: 

Do not let the body of the person who was killed by Beis Din hang on a tree over night rather it should be buried on that day because it is a disgrace for God.

Rashi explains the concept of why having the body of someone who was killed by Beis Din hanging on a tree over night is a disgrace to God is because a person is made in the image of God.

There is a concept that we know that all people are created in the image of God. One of the famous Mussar concepts taught by theBaalei Mussar is one of ”the greatness of man”. One of the ways that a person is able to reach their potential is by understanding how special they are and how much potential they really have. When a person understands how special every Jew is, he will also be able to treat other people better and thereby excel in the mitzvos that involve man and his fellow man. 

 Even when a person does great sins like in the case of the ”Ir Hanidachas” they still have within them the ”image of God.” Now when Bnei Yisroel had a responsibility to kill a portion of Bnei Yisroel for their sins they were commanded to do it in a way where they would still be showing the proper respect to a person who has the “image of God” within him. When a person doesn’t act with respect to another person, they lose some of the sensitivity they had when it came to appreciating that every person is truly an image of God and very special. This could be why the Torah was so makpid that even when you are required to kill an idol worshipper, you still have to do it properly and showing respect for the image of God within him.

If we can try to appreciate that every person is created in the image of God, it will help us appreciate both our true potential and how important it is to treat other people properly, which  will help us grow in both our mitzvos between mand and God and man and his fellow man.

This is a very important lesson for us to take in our lives. There are many times in our lives that we have to take actions that are on the surface cruel but must be done for the benefit of the person himself or others. For example if a person must fire an employee because their presence is damaging the Company or the other employees, it should be done not because this guy caused me so many problems I am glad to get rid of him, rather it hurts me to fire him but what can I do I have to worry about the other people he was hurting. The same thing would apply to throwing a child out of school. There are many other instances when this can come up. If we act in the proper way then we can grow our trait of mercy and follow in the way of God ”just like he is merdciful so should we be merciful” and if we  pick the wrong way we will be driving ourselves away from our trait of mercy and away from the way of God.

   פרשת ראה 5766  

Over the last couple of weeks, we began discussing the three aspects we concentrate on when we approach Rosh Hashanah and the Yom hadin  which are prayer, repentance and charity. Over the last couple of weeks we discussed aspects of repentance and prayer.

This week I would like to discuss one of the aspects of tzedakah.

One might think that giving Tzedakah is a relatively easy mitzvah, however we can see from Chazal that it is far from the case.

While discussing the Yom Tov of Shavuos, the Torah brings down the following 2 Pesukim:

1)      You should be happy in front of God as well as the convert, orphan and widow amongst you.

The Sipurno asks, how do you make the widow and the orphan and the convert  happy on Shavuos when you are trying to keep the mitzvah of Aliyah La’regel?

The answer he gives is by giving poor people the required special gifts including  leket and paya all of which are aspects of charity.

2) Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and you should keep and do all these laes. 

The Sipurno on the spot is bothered by what this Pasuk has to do with the Pasuk just before it that discussed giving poor people the special gifts  of leket and payah?

He answers that the Torah is trying to give us advice to be able to do the mitzvah of tzedakah properly.

He says what does it mean when it says remember that you were a slave in Egypt – it is to help you understand that when we were slaves in Egypt we had no possessions at all and God took us out of Egypt and gave us money and this is what God wants us to do with it.

Why is this so important? It is our natural inclination to believe that everything we have is from our own efforts . This makes it very difficult for a person to give tzedakah That is why the Torah goes out of its way to show us that the possessions we have only come to us through the generous hand of God and therefore it behooves us to do with our possessions what God commanded us to do.

If we can really appreciate that everything that we have comes from God, we should merit to only receive many Berachos  from God that we can continue to use to further our servie of God.