5771 פרשת יתרו

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes to us how Yisro, the father- in-law of Moshe came to the camp of Bnei Yisroel with Moshe’s wife and his two children after he hgeard about the miracle God performed at the Yam Suf. The Torah then describes how Moshe told Yisro about all the miracles that God performed for Bnei Yisroel in Egypt and during the splitting of the sea and the battle with Amalek. The Torah describes to us that Yisro was happy about all the miracles that God performed for Bnei Yisroel.

 The Siforno makes a very interesting inference from the words of the Pasuk. The Torah says that Yisro was happy about the miracles that God performed for Bnei Yisroel that they were saved from the Egyptians. The Siforno understands that Yisro was happy that Bnei Yisroel was saved as they were the oppressed but was not happy about the destruction of the Egyptians. This explains the Siforno was not the proper reaction as he should have been happy also about the destruction of the Egyptians.

 If we look at this Siforno a little bit more closely, we can ask the following question:

 What was Yisro lacking in his joy? He truly appreciated the fact that God deals with a special level of Hashgacha with Bnei Yisroel as well as being happy seeing the good that God did for Bnei Yisroel.

The answer could be that Yisro was missing out on a fundamental foundation of the Torah which is that one of the reasons we were put in this world is to create a Kiddush Hashem – a sanctification of God’s name in this world. There are two ways that God’s name can be sanctified. The first one is through the positive actions of his people –Bnei Yisroel. When a Jew acts properly and follows the way of the Torah, he sanctifies God’s name to the people around him. The second way that God’s name can be sanctified is when people who rebel against God are punished. The fact that the Egyptians who clearly rebelled against God were punished in such a way where it could only have come from God was a tremendous sanctification of God’s name in the world. Yisro had to be happy not only for the fact that Bnei Yisroel was saved from oppression but even more importantly that God’s name was sanctified in this world.

 We see from here the great importance that the Torah puts on sanctifying God’s name in the world. We must do our part and ensure that our actions only bring about a Kiddush Hashem. However, we must also look at the world around us and try to appreciate the greatness of God through what we see happening in the world and to be happy when we recognize God sanctifying His name in the world.

 If we can do this we should merit seeing the greatest sanctification of God’s name through His bringing of Mashiach.

5770 פרשת יתרו

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us how Yisro saw that Moshe Rabbeinu was judging and teaching all of Bnei Yisroel by himself to which Yisro told Moshe that it was not a good thing to do. Yisro then proceeded to advise Moshe as to how to set up a system where different people would be in charge of teaching and judging different groups of people where only the truly difficult questions that could not be answered at any of the lower levels would be addressed to Moshe. Yisro further advised Moshe as to the character traits that were necessary for each judge to have.

 The Ohr Hachayim asks, why did Yisro merit that this Parsha was written through him? Furthermore, the Parsha was written in a way that implied that no one in Bnei Yisroel could have come up with this idea which was obviously not the case as there were many members of Bnei Yisroel who were incredibly wise and could have also come up with the idea.

 The Ohr Hachayim explains that the Torah had written this Parsha in this manner to teach Bnei Yisroel in that generation and all future generations that the Torah was not given to Bnei Yisroel because they were the only smart people in the world but rather because of the great kindness God had for us and due to His great love of the Avos. This is brought out by the fact that Yisro who was not a member of Bnei Yisroel was able to come up with the idea that in fact Moshe accepted of creating a tiered judicial system and even was sensitive enough to understand what kind of character traits were necessary for a person to be a good judge.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little more closely we can ask the following question. What is the difference whether Bnei Yisroel knew that the Torah was given to them due to God’s kindness or if they thought that it was given to them because they had some great intellect?   

 We can answer this question the following way.

  If Bnei Yisroel thought that the only reason they got the Torah they would not feel that receiving it was anything special. They would basically feel that God had this thing called the Torah and He couldn’t give it to anyone else as they were not intellectual enough to understand it so God gave it to us. It is not because God thought we were special or loved us but rather we were the only people God could give it to.

 This feeling would create two problems. The first one would be that one of the reasons a person has a desire to do things that are sometimes difficult is due to the fact that what they are doing is special. There are many times where it may be difficult to keep Mitzvos so if a person views the Torah as being a special gift then he will go out of his way to keep the Mitzvos. However, if he feels that the only reason he got the Torah isn’t because it is so special and God loved him rather God couldn’t give it to anyone else it will be more difficult for a person to strive to keep the Mitzvos when things are difficult.

 The second idea is similar to the first one but just from a different angle.  Another reason why a person will strive to do something difficult is that the person who asked him to do it special to him. In this case also if Bnei Yisroel realized that in truth God could have given the Torah to anyone but due to his great kindness and love for us God gave the Torah to us then we will strive to keep the Mitzvos to make God who loves us, happy. However, if Bnei Yisroel did not recognize that God gave us the Torah because he loved us but rather because there was no one else to give it to, the desire to strive to the Mitzvos when they are difficult will be diminished.

 In our lives, we are constantly fighting the Yetzer hara who is consistently trying to pull us away from doing Mitzvos. If we can focus ourselves to truly recognize how special a gift the Torah is (especially when we say Birchas Hatorah and the Bracha of “Asher Bachar Banu”) and the great kindness God did for us by giving us the Torah and nobody else we should merit vanquishing the Yetzer hara and seeing the period where the Yetzer hara will truly have no power with the coming of Mashiach.

פרשת יתרו 5769

In this week’s Parsha, the Torah tells us how Yisro, the father-in-law of Moshe Rabbeinu converted and came to join the camp of Bnei Yisroel in the Midbar. The Torah describes how Yisro heard about all the miracles that occurred to Bnei Yisroel and his reaction. The Torah describes his response using the language of Vayichad. The commentaries give different interpretations of the word vayichad. One explanation is that Yisro had the equivalent of goose bumps on his skin since he was pained by the destruction of the Egyptians. The Midrash tells us that we learn out from this Pasuk that a person should not put down someone from one of the nations of the world for ten generations in front of a convert because the convert still has feelings for the nations of the world until after ten generations.

 Let us examine this Midrash a little bit more closely. What was the actual relationship between Yisro and Mitzrayim?

 The Rabbeinu Bechai explains the relationship between Midyan of which Yisro was a member and the Egyptians. He explains that the nation of Midyan was descended from the marriage between Avraham and Keturah. Avraham was a descendent of Shem. The nation of Mitzrayim was descended from Cham the son of Noach. For all intense and purposes they were distant cousins.

 This being the case, I can understand if God punished the people of Midyan and spared Yisro that he would have these feelings of goose bumps when he would hear about his people being killed but why would Yisro feel pain for the Egyptians who were just another one of 70 other nations in the world at that time.

 Secondly, Yisro knew how evil the Egyptians were. The Midrash tells us that when Pharaoh was planning to kill the Jews he had three advisors whom he asked what to do. They were Bilam, Iyov and Yisro. The Midrash tells us that when Yisro heard the plan of Pharaoh, he ran away as he did not want anything to do with evil plans of the Egyptians. If this is the case, why would it bother Yisro that the Egyptians were punished, he knew they were evil people? He also knew that nothing happened to the other nations of the world who were not evil.

 The answer can be that emotions are something that bypasses the intellect. When Yisro heard that the Egyptians were killed, even though he knew intellectually that they were punished for their sins and that in truth they were not the closest of nations he still felt a twinge of pain for them as they were a large nation that was wiped out.  

 From this Midrash we can learn a very important lesson. The natural tendency of a person is that his emotions many times bypass his intellect. This trait, while it can have a bad influence (when used to follow the Yetzer hara), can also be used for good. If a person sees another Jew suffering then his automatic response should be to feel for him. It doesn’t matter if the person is a close relative or friend or someone you read about in the news. If Yisro felt for the Egyptians who he knew were evil and to whom he was only very distantly related, then surely we who are part of one nation should feel for each other’s suffering.

פרשת יתרו 5768

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the occurrences that related to the preparation of Bnei Yisroel to receive the Torah. The Torah tells us that Bnei Yisroel received the Torah at Har Sinai. The Torah then describes to us how Bnei Yisroel encamped near Har Sinai the following way:

 And Bnei Yisroel camped opposite the mountain.

 The question that all the commentaries deal with is why does the Torah use the word ”vayichan” which is the singular tense instead of ”vayachanu” which is plural which would be the more correct term to describe a nation of 600,000 people?

 The Yalkut Shimoni answers as follows:

When describing the Torah, the Pasuk says that all its ways are pleasant and its pathways are peace. God wanted to give the Torah to Bnei Yisroel right when they got out of Egypt, however they were arguing amongst themselves and they were saying we should appoint a leader and return to Egypt. They were traveling in argument and camping in argument.  When they came to Har Sinai they were all like one and not fighting so ד’ said that since the Torah is totally peace I will give it to the nation who loves peace.

 If we look at this midrash a little more closely, we can ask the following questions:

1. Bnei Yisroel when they came out of Egypt were on the 49^th level of impurity. Chazal tell us that it took them 49 days to get to the 49^th level of purity and be worthy to receive the Torah. Why would the major impediment to receiving the Torah be having complete peace in all of Bnei Yisroel?
2. The midrash describes to us the arguments that Bnei Yisroel were having when they left Egypt. The Egyptians were chasing Bnei Yisroel and they were afraid that they would die and they were arguing about how best to save themselves. The arguments did not come about because of hate rather because of fear, so why should this be an impediment to the peace that God required to give the Torah?

We can answer both of these questions the same way. We know that there are two parts to our service of God. The first is between man and God and the second is between man and his fellow man. Each part is integral and a person can’t properly serve God if he keeps only one part.

Let us examine what the causes are for breaches in our relationships with our fellow Jews. We know that many conflicts are caused by either jealousy, by feelings of hurt that come about when we feel someone acted not properly towards us, etc. On the surface, each would seem to be a separate cause. However, if we examine them closely we will see that the underlying cause of all strife is a lack of faith in God. If a person truly believes, as he should, that everything that occurs to us is from God and furthermore, everything we have or don’t have is determined by God and no one can change that, there would not and could not be strife amongst Bnei Yisroel.

Further to this idea is the fact that if a person has complete faith in God, and recognizes all the good God does for him, then he inherently will strive to attempt to “repay” God and keep all the mitzvos between man and God also.

With this idea, we can now answer our two questions. Even though Bnei Yisroel was on the 49^th level of impurity when they left Egypt, if they would have had the required level of faith in God, they would have been able to turn themselves around and be ready to receive the Torah right away. However, it was through the lack of peace that revealed that they did not have that level of faith and were not ready to receive the Torah. It is this level of complete faith in God that enabled Bnei Yisroel to say ”naaseh vnishmah” at the time of the giving of the Torah because they knew God would not do anything bad to them.

We can also now answer our second question. The reason the Torah described the arguments they were having as those regarding what to do at the time of splitting of the sea is because those arguments showed that they did not have the proper level of faith in God. If all of Bnei Yisroel had the proper level of faith, they would have told Moshe we will do whatever God tells us.

From this midrash we can learn out the importance of working to increase our level of faith in God and the understanding that God controls every aspect of our lives. It is this understanding that can truly enable us to work on ourselves and grow in both our mitzvos between man and man and those mitzvos between man and God. 

פרשת יתרו 5767

 In this week’s Parsha we find a very interesting Sipurno that can teach us a very important lesson.  The Pasuk when describing the building of the mizbayach says the following:

 And you should not go up stairs to get to the top of the mizbayach, rather you should go up on a ramp in order that you should not reveal your nakedness (the skin of your leg).

As we know the Pasuk here is describing the building of the copper mizbayach which was not covered in gold.

On this Pasuk the Sipurno comments as follows:

God is saying to Bnei Yisroel even though I did not trouble you to beautify the mizbayach nevertheless be careful not to act without the proper respect for my mizbayach.

 Let us examine this Sipurno a little bit more closely.

The Torah gives a special warning to Bnei Yisroel to treat the mizbayach with the proper respect. According to the Sipurno this warning was necessitated due to the fact that the mizbayach was not covered with gold and beautified.

What are we talking about here?  First of all, this is the mizbayach located in the Beis Hamikdash. Secondly, the people who are going up on the mizbayach were the Kohanim doing the work in the mishkan and bringing korbanos to God. Even without this special warning, would these Kohanim doing the service in the Beis Hamikdash act in a non-respectful manner just because the mizbayach is not physically beautiful?

We see from this Sipurno an incredible idea in the psychology of a person. Even though a person may understand intellectually that something is important, if its physical appearance does not give off the aura of being important then the natural instinct of a person is to give it less respect. People naturally judge things as they see them. Our mind relates to the world through our physical senses (sight, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting). This is why the Torah had to give a special warning to Bnei Yisroel. Even though Bnei Yisroel understood that the mizbayach was incredibly holy and important, nevertheless it was very easy for them to treat the mizbayach without the proper respect since what they were physically seeing did not appear to them to be important.

 In our lives, we must also be very careful of this in 2 different aspects:

1. Every day when we are going about our lives, we are always looked at by the people around us. We always want people to look at us in a good light especially when we wear the outfit of God fearing Jews (i.e. yarmalka, tzitzis). Even though our actions are always courteous and we act like Baalei midos tovos (both very important), if we are not dressed properly and put together, people may not only not appreciate us for the special people we are, they may even look down upon us which can be considered a form of chilul hashem.
2. Many shuls today as in our past are built to be places set aside for the service of God. Consequently, the physical appearance of the shul is very much secondary to the spiritual pursuits that take place there, and money is spent more on increasing the spirituality rather than the physical beauty of the shul. This lack of physical beauty in the shul, which definitely has its advantages, can sometimes lead us to not give the shul its proper respect. When our eyes see a plain beis medrahs or shul we can sometimes be blinded to the true importance of theshul. This might be what enables us to talk in shul during davening or to just act with general disrespect to the shul. For this reason, we must have extra vigilance to prevent ourselves from shaming the shul and beis medrash.

If we can work on ourselves and try to see past the physical appearance of things and to appreciate what is truly behind them, we should merit seeing the true beauty of the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash with the coming of Mashiach.