פרשת כי תשא 5771

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the Mitzvah of building the Mishkan. The Torah then put the commandment not to desecrate the Shabbos immediately following the commandment to build the Mishkan. The Pasuk describing the prohibition of not doing work on Shabbos says the following: Keep the Shabbos since it is a sign between me and you and you should guard the Shabbos since it is holy for you and whoever desecrates the Shabbos is subject to the death penalty and is also subject to the penalty of Kareis.

 The Siforno explains that the Torah is actually giving over different reasons why a person should not go ahead and build the Mishkan on Shabbos. The three reasons are as follows:

1. The first one is that Shabbos is a sign between me and Bnei Yisroel and if you destroy this sign then there is no need to build a Mishkan for God to rest his presence in as God will not rest his presence amongst you.
2. The Mitzvah to build the Mishkan is a Mitzvas Esai while the sin of desecrating the Shabbos is a negative commandment that carries with it the punishment of death and it is not correct to transgress such a serious sin in order to perform a different positive commandment.
3. The last reason is that someone who desecrates the Shabbos is denying the fact that God is constantly keeping the world going and by definition has no portion in the Mishkan or with God.

 If we look at this Siforno a little more closely, we can ask the following question. Why would it be necessary for the Torah to give three reasons why Bnei Yisroel should not build the Mishkan on Shabbos? It should be enough to just say not to do it just like all of the other transgressions the Torah lists but even if a reason was necessary why did the Torah have to give us three reasons?

 The answer could be that when a person gets involved in what he considers to be such an important project he will sometimes be blinded and not realize that other things should take precedence. This is what the Torah was telling us regarding the building of the Mishkan. Bnei Yisroel had just received Kapara for the sin of the golden calf and the news that God would no longer be able to rest his presence amongst Bnei Yisroel but rather He would rest his presence in the Mishkan. To Bnei Yisroel this must have felt like the most important thing they could do to build a Mishkan where God could rest his presence amongst them and they couldn’t imagine anything standing in the way of that goal. This is why God told Moshe to explain to them that there are some things that can’t be pushed aside to accomplish this goal one of which was Shabbos. However, in order to get the point across to all of Bnei Yisroel God told Moshe to tell them the incredible damage that can be done by the desecration of Shabbos. The reasons given were those that would make Bnei Yisroel understand that the goal that they were trying to achieve would be uprooted by desecrating the Shabbos either by breaking the nation’s bond with God, the individual bond with God or by having them realize the severity of desecrating Shabbos in relation to the reward for building the Mishkan.

 This is very important in our lives as well. There are many times where a person can come upon a situation and believe with his whole heart that the end result is so important that it justifies any action. For example a person might feel that the importance of helping a certain charity going is so important that it even justifies lying or cheating. A person must focus on their actions and ensure that for each and every action he takes not only the goal should be righteous but also the means used to achieving those goals.

 5770 פרשת כי תשא

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah discusses the occurrences that brought the Jews to the worship of the golden calf. Chazal describe to us how when according to the calculations of Bnei Yisroel of the time Moshe was supposed to return to them from Shamayim (an incorrect calculation) and he had not yet returned they assumed he was dead and they confronted Aaron Hacohen and demanded that they make them a God to lead them. Aharon as a delaying tactic then told Bnei Yisroel to bring all their gold which he threw into a furnace type of instrument and due to the actions of some members of the Eirev Rav out came the golden calf. Bnei Yisroel then cried out “this is your God, Israel that took you out of Egypt”.

 The Ohr Hachayim asks how is it possible for the generation that left Egypt who were on an incredibly high level of spirituality believe something so ridiculous that an inanimate object was a God. Furthermore, even if we say like the Midrash explains that through magic they were able to get the golden calf to talk, how could Bnei Yisroel have said that this was the God that took them out of Egypt as it was just created and that would be a blatant falsehood?

 The Ohr Hachayim answered that in truth they were not trying to make the golden calf into a God nor did they believe the golden calf took them out of Egypt but rather that they believed that God’s power must run through a medium in this world and Moshe was that medium and took them out of Egypt and now that Moshe was no longer there, they felt they needed another physical medium through which to channel God’s power in this earth. This belief was obviously incorrect and in fact is the equivalent of idol worship which Bnei Yisroel was punished for as the Torah tells us and if not for the Tefilos of Moshe they would have been totally destroyed.

 The Ohr Hachayim further explains that from the language of the Pasuk that Bnei Yisroel said “this is your God, Israel that took you out of Egypt” that it was not all of Bnei Yisroel that made the mistake but rather it was the Eirev Rav that did the entire sin of the golden calf. He continues and explains that the reason that all of Bnei Yisroel except for the tribe of Levi was punished even though only the Eirev Rav actually worshipped the golden calf was that they did not protest the actions of the idol worshipers and are therefore considered to be on the same par as the idol worshipers.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim more closely we can ask the following question. The people that worshipped the golden calf were the Eirev Rav who took advantage of the exodus of Bnei Yisroel from Egypt to leave also and they converted to become members of Bnei Yisroel. However, the problem of the idol worship was limited to this small group and did not spread to any of the mainstream of Bnei Yisroel why was it such a great sin, that Bnei Yisroel was so severely punished, to not protest the actions of the Eirev Rav as long as it wasn’t penetrating into the core of Bnei Yisroel?

 The answer could be that we do not fully appreciate the responsibility a Jew has to ensure that each and every other Jew is following in the ways of the Torah. By ignoring the actions of the Eirev Rav who were converts to Judaism they showed that as long as the problem did not relate to them or those close to them then they did not have to take responsibility for another Jew. Every Jew is connected and when one Jew is being torn away from keeping the Mitzvos it must cause all of us pain even if that person is not part of our circle of acquaintances.

 פרשת כי תשא 5769

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah tells us about the ingredients used to make the Ketores. Among the list of ingredients was something called Chelbena which was know to have a very bad smell.

 Many commentaries are bothered by why the Torah would have the Ketores made of at least one ingredient that had a bad smell.

 Many commentaries give the same answer which is that in any of our public fast days and our public prayers we must also include the sinners of Bnei Yisroel along with the rest of the congregation.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai explains this idea more thoroughly:

 The sinner should not be cast away from the congregation since a kiddush hashem is created when the sinners repent and become righteous and if this is not done (the sinners are cast away) the righteous will be caught up in the sins of the Reshaim due to the fact that all of Bnei Yisroel is responsible for each other.  

 If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai there seems to be a missing step. He explains that if the sinners are not cast away then there will be a kiddush hashem when they repent, however if they are cast away the righteous will be caught up in the sins of the Reshaim due to Arayvus. However, what seems to be missing is the possibility that the congregation will include the sinners and they won’t repent.

 We see from here an incredible idea relating to the interaction of the different parts of Bnei Yisroel. When the congregation of an entity of Bnei Yisroel feels the pain of seeing a sinner and puts its efforts into bringing the sinner to repent than the sinner will invariably repent. This can also be why according to Rabbeinu Bechai that if the congregation does not include the sinners, the righteous are held accountable since they have a tremendous potential to cause the sinners to repent since they are all part of Bnei Yisroel and they declined to use their potential.

 As we are coming close to Pesach, we should recall the part of the haggadah that describes to us that the Torah was written for every type of child and person from the Tzadik to the Rasha. When looking around at our surroundings we must realize that there are many people out there that we can inspire to closeness to God and Torah both by davening for them and also by teaching them Torah and Mitzvos. Based on the above Rabbeinu Bechai we must realize that we have an incredible potential to impact others. If we keep even our non-religious associates in our minds and in our prayers and not disregard them from our society, we should merit that once again all of Bnei Yisroel should recognize God with the coming of Mashiach.

 5768 פרשת כי תשא

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes the occurrences relating to the creation and the worship of the golden calf by Bnei Yisroel in the midbar after the exodus from Egypt. When describing the worship of the golden calf by Bnei Yisroel, the Pasuk says the following:

 Bnei Yisroel got up early in the morning and they brought various sacrifices to the golden calf and the people sat to eat and drink and they got up to be “Metzacheik”.

 The Midrash on this Pasuk gives over the following very interesting insight:

 The word ”letzacheik” refers to Bnei Yisroel committing the sin of idol worship. Then the Midrash adds that everywhere the Pasuk says a language of sitting  you find some kind of ”bad situation” coming about.

 The Yefe Toar asks on this Midrash, what does the concept of sitting have to do with the coming about of bad things for the people involved?

 The Yefe Toar answers the following way:

 A person thinks that there is something real about the physical desires he has which include a desire for food, money, illicit relationships and power.

 The question that can be asked on the Yefe Toar is granted that if a person gives in to his physical desires it will of course lead to tragedy, but what does this have to do with the concept of sitting?

 The Yefe Toar himself gives us an insight into how to answer this question. He explains that the word sitting is used to refer to a feeling of calm and serenity.

 With this idea we can now explain this Midrash. What enables a person to give in to their physical desires? The most basic requirement a person needs to indulge in his physical desires is free time. If a person is constantly struggling to stay alive and worried about his enemies and trying to eke out a living, there won’t be time and energy to indulge in the physical desires. When a person is living with a feeling of serenity, there is time for a person to follow their desires which can chas veshalomlead them to tragedy.

This is what the Midrash meant. Every place that we find the Torah describing Bnei Yisroel living in serenity it led to tragedy because they were able to involve themselves to some degree in following after their physical desires.

 With this idea, we might be able to give a novel explanation to a very famous Mishna in Avos. The Mishna says the following:

This is the path of Torah: bread in salt you should eat and drink water in small amounts and sleep on the ground and put effort in your Torah learning. The reward for this will be both in this world and the next world.

 There are two ways brought down by the commentaries to understand this Mishna. The first way is that it is talking to someone who is poor and telling him that poverty is not a reason not to learn Torah. The second idea is that the Mishna is talking to everyone and saying that the way a person should learn Torah is through living a life of privation.

 Based on how we explained the Midrash, we can explain this Mishnah using a third track. No one would doubt that it is easier to learn when a person is not being harassed by his enemies and struggling to make a living and pay his bills; however that sense of serenity can also lead to the empowering of our physical desires. This could be what the Mishnah is telling us. When a person wants to reach incredibly high levels in Torah learning, he must weigh the best path to achieving that goal. It would appear that the easiest way to reach that goal is through living a life of serenity where you feel your mind will be totally clear of everything but Torah. However, warns the Mishnah, the life of perfect serenity can draw you away to follow your physical desires which will actually leave you with less focus for learning Torah.

 We thank God are able to live lives of serenity and plenty that the generations before us could not even dream of. This would seem to be the optimum situation for the growth of Torah and service of God in our lives. However, as we see from the Midrash, that the same good that could enable us to grow in Torah also has the ability to drag us after our physical desires for money, power etc. We must put a lot of effort into ensuring that the wonderful lives we have, lead us to greater heights in our servoce of God and in that merit, we will merit to enjoy the tremendous Berachos of God in the Beis Hamikdash with the coming of the redemption.

 5767 פרשת כי תשא

 One of the major aspects brought down in this week’s Parsha is that of the story  of the golden calf. When discussing the story of the golden calf the Gemara  describes the interaction between God and Moshe Rabbeinu as Moshe was requesting that God forgive Bnei Yisroel for worshipping the golden calf.

 The Pasuk says the following:

And now leave me and let me be angry at Bnei Yisroel and I will destroy them and I will make you (Moshe Rabbeinu) into a great nation.

 The Gemara explains the Pasuk the following way:

Moshe Rabbeinu said to God don’t destroy Bnei Yisroel and make a new nation from my descendents for the following 2 reasons. 1) That if Bnei Yisroel with the merits of the Avos could not stand up to the anger of Godwhen they do sins – why would my descendents be any better? Also, I would be embarrassed in front of the Avos because they will say about me look at the leader that was appointed forBnei Yisroel he wants greatness for himself and did not ask for mercy for Bnei Yisroel.

The first reason is very understandable. If Bnei Yisroel with all the merits of the Avos  were not worthy to receive forgiveness  for their serious sins, how could the descendents of Moshe Rabbeinu who is only one Av receive forgiveness for their serious sin.

 However, the second reason is very hard to understand for the following two reasons:

1. First, why would Moshe Rabbeinu be embarrassed for not successfully getting Bnei Yisroel the forgiveness, not every prayer is answered and maybe the sin was just too great to get the forgiveness even with all of the prayers?
2. Furthermore, even if we say that if Moshe Rabbeinu had davened a little bit better, he would have been answered, and his prayer wasn’t perfect, how can we say that Moshe Rabbeinu was after his own greatness? We know the opposite is true. Chazal tell us that the last thing Moshe wanted was his own greatness, so how could Moshe say that the Avos would say he is out for his own greatness?

 There are times when we analyze a statement of Chazal, in which the question that is asked helps us bring out the idea that Chazal wanted to give over.

 The first question we asked was why would Moshe be embarrassed that his prayer wasn’t answered, there are some things that even prayer can’t resolve?

 The answer is that we underestimate the power of prayer. There is nothing that proper prayer can’t do.

 This idea actually also answers our second question, which was even if we say that the prayer of Moshe wasn’t perfect why would the Avos assume that it was due to the desire of Moshe for greatness, as Moshe said, maybe his prayer just wasn’t enough?

 The answer is that Moshe understood that if a person truly feels for the person or thing that he is davening for then he will definitely be answered. Only when a person does not daven with his full heart, will his prayers not necessarily be answered.

 The question then is what causes a person’s prayers to be said with less than a full heart even for something they truly care about? There are 3 possibilities:

1. A person doesn’t really believe that God can answer him.
2. A person doesn’t really believe that God will answer him.
3. A person has even a slight ulterior motive where on a subconscious level he does not want his prayer to be answered.

 Regarding Moshe Rabbeinu, we know the first 2 possibilities are not correct. Moshe, who was actively involved in taking Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt and saw the hand of God even more directly than anyone else would not have a lack of belief in the ability of God to do anything. Also,God answered the prayers of Moshe before so there would be no doubt in his mind that God would answer him again.

 If this is the case then the only possibility would be that deep down Moshe would not have wanted hisprayers to be answered since he wanted greatness. This was obviously not the case but this was the point Moshe was making to God. If I stopped davening now and let you destroy Bnei Yisroel, the only conclusion the Avos could have is that I really just wanted greatness since if I was really davening for Bnei Yisroel with my full heart I would not stop since my prayers would ultimately been answered.

 As we know Moshe did continue to daven and his prayers were ultimately answered.

 We can learn a tremendous lesson from this Chazal about the power of prayer. We have the potential to accomplish great things when we daven. God is there and is waiting to hear and answer our prayers. However to get the best results out of our prayer we have to work on ourselves to ensure we are davening with a full heart. Before we daven, we should try to remind ourselves of the following 3 ideas:

1. God can do anything we ask.
2. God wants to answer our prayers and do what is best for us.
3. Let us ensure that the things we are asking for are really deep down what we want and that they are what is best for us.

 If we can work on harnessing the power of our prayer, we will hopefully merit that all our requests should be answered by God for the good.