Yeshiva University Torah MiTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov

Parshat Shemot 18 Tevet 5774/December 21, 2013 Vol. 5 Num. 15

Toronto Torah
With all of the benefits Rabbi Hirsch describes, it is not hard to accept that following the Torah's laws and living by its rules are not optional; living a Torahtrue lifestyle is obligatory. This is emphasized in Rabbi Hirsch's commentary to Vayikra 3:11. The verse, describing the process of bringing a shelamim [celebratory peace-offering] in the Temple, describes it as, " food of the fire, for Hashem." Rashi explains this verse to mean, "food consumed by the fire for the sake of the Most High." However, Rabbi Hirsch describes us, the Jewish people, as the food of this fire: "We, on our part are to give up every phase of our lives to be food, fuel for this Fire of G-d, to nourish and keep the fire of godliness burning here on Earth." Rabbi Hirsch's idea is beautiful, but its all-consuming vision is potentially overwhelming. Must we abandon all of our earthly desires, our wants and dreams, sacrificing it all for the sake of the full-time pursuit of holiness? Let us turn to our parshah's description of another famous fire. The Torah flies through Moshe's life to this point; in a mere twenty-six verses the Torah tells us that Moshe is born, is saved from the Nile, is nursed by his mother, is given to Pharaoh's daughter to raise, rejects his palace upbringing by striking an Egpytian and then fleeing, is married and has a son, all before informing us that Moshe finds himself face to face with G-d at a bush that was burning and would not be consumed. This last point is particularly interesting, given our comparison between fire's impact on its fuel and the Torah's impact on the Jew. If we are supposed to be the "fuel for this Fire of G-d", what might

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Burning, but not Consumed

Jewish tradition often connects Torah and fire; as the Talmud (Taanit 7a) states, "Rabbah bar bar Chanah said: Why are the words of Torah compared to fire, as it is said (Yirmiyahu 23:29), 'Is My word not like fire, says HaShem'?" There, and in several other passages, the Talmud offers practical examples of how Torah and fire are quite similar; for example, the Talmud declares, "Just as fire does not endure with a single piece of wood, so, too, the words of Torah are not retained [by someone who studies] on his own." The Torah turns this from comparison to identification, speaking of itself as an actual flame. Shemot 19:18 states, "All of Mount Sinai was smoking, because Hashem had descended upon it in the fire." This imagery is also seen in Shemot 24:17, "The appearance of the glory of Hashem was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop before the eyes of the Children of Israel." The idea, as eloquently expressed by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, is that, "[G]odliness, taking up its home down here on earth, and wishing to be found down here, always announces itself as Fire." Rabbi Hirsch supports this notion with an additional verse (Devarim 33:2), which he explains to mean that, "The Torah itself is nothing but Fire taking the form of Law." Turning to the Torah's impact upon us, Rabbi Hirsch contends that fire and Torah affect the Jew similarly. "As fire, it contains the power to penetrate us, to refine and purify us, to warm us, and to quicken and enliven us."

Adam Frieberg
the fact that the bush wasn't depleted mean to us? Perhaps this episode answers our question of how to serve Hashem fully without feeling that this task will overwhelm our personal identities. Rabbi Hirsch suggests that part of the mission of accepting "godliness" in our lives, of dedicating our lives to Torah and its values, need not come at the expense of our personalities, our interests and our strengths. Just as the bush isn't consumed, so, too, our inclinations and abilities need not be obliterated by this mission. On the contrary - in our mission as servants of G-d, we must turn our unique talents towards these goals of bringing holiness and Godliness into the world. We are not only allowed, but encouraged, to do this in our own way, using our G-d given skills and interests to accomplish this mission to the best of our capability. This idea was beautifully expressed in a poem written by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, To My Mouth, a Shofar. Rav Kook writes (translation by Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner), "Each person toward his heart's desire will travel and succeed, and from the fruit of their hands, their nation will be elevated. Each in his trade will breathe the breath of life; when he builds for himself a home, the ruin of our people will be rebuilt." May we take advantage of this opportunity. afrieberg@torontotorah.com

OUR BEIT MIDRASH

ROSH BEIT MIDRASH SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH AVREICHIM RABBI MORDECHAI TORCZYNER RABBI BARUCH WEINTRAUB ADAM FRIEBERG, JOSH GUTENBERG, RABBI ADAM LAW CHAVEIRIM EITAN AZIZA, HILLEL BIERBRIER, ELI GELERNTER, DANIEL GEMARA, KEVIN HEYMANN, ALEX HUBERMAN, JOEL JESIN, SHIMMY JESIN, YISHAI KURTZ, YOSEPH LEVI, AKIVA MARESKY, JACOB NEMIROV, MITCHELL PERLMUTTER, KOBY SPIEGEL, GRAHAM TUGETMAN, MENDY WEISBROD, YOSSI WELTMAN, SHALOM WISE

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Haftorah: Yeshayah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23

Who is the prophet of our haftorah? Yeshayah (Isaiah) was a prophet in the period leading up to the exile of the ten northern tribes of Yisrael by the Assyrians. He lived in the southern kingdom of Yehudah, and he prophesied during the reigns of Kings Uziahu, Yotam, Achaz and Chizkiyahu. According to the Talmud (Sotah 10a), he was a descendant of Yehudah and Tamar. The prophecies of Yeshayah may be classified in two categories, Rebuke and Redemption; the former dominates the early chapters of the book, while the latter occupies the latter portion. The split is not clean, though; portions of the former include redemption, and portions of the latter include rebuke. What is the message of our haftorah? Our haftorah can be divided into two essentially different parts. The first part, from 27:6 to 27:13, is a prophecy of consolation. The second part, from 28:1 to 28:13, is a prophecy of rebuke. Two verses of comfort from Chapter 29 (29:22-23) were annexed to the second part, in order to create a 'happy ending', as is done in many other haftorot. In the first part of the haftorah, Yeshayah tells us that even in exile, when the Jewish people are defeated, Hashem will always ensure that some remnant is spared. When the time comes and the enemy 'dries up' and loses his vitality, this remaining seed will spring forth and fill the land. On that day, the scattered people of Israel will be gathered from their places of exile Assyria and Egypt - and return to Yerushalayim, where they will all bow in front of G-d. The second half of the haftorah is a bitter rebuke of the hedonistic lifestyle of the Shomron's high society. The people are described by Yeshayah as an arrogant mob, awash in desires and lust. They refuse to hear the prophet, mocking his teachings as appropriate for children, not mature and realistic adults. With whom do you think you are speaking, they ask him 'To those who were just weaned from milk?' (28:9) Yeshayah's answer is that they are correct; to them, the prophecy does sound distorted and foreign. However, they are to be blamed; they refused to heed to G-d's commands, to 'give rest to the weary,' (28:12) thereby preventing themselves from being able to receive and accept G-d's words as they are. What is the connection to our parshah? As we have seen on other occasions, the connection to the parshah manifests in two layers. Explicitly, the

Rabbi Baruch Weintraub

verse in the end of the first half of the haftorah promises that those who are 'lost in the land of Egypt shall worship Hashem at the holy mountain in Jerusalem.' (27:13) However, there is another, implicit layer of connection between the haftorah and our parshah. It seems to me that the duality in the haftorah, with Yeshayah swinging from an elevated vision of redemption into a despairing reality of people who do not want to hear him, describes perfectly the situation in which Moshe finds himself at the end of our parshah. However, in our parshah the people are not open to hearing Moshe because they are immersed in hard labour imposed on them by the Egyptians. In our haftorah, the people of Shomron are not able to understand Yeshayah because they are slaves of themselves. This striking contrast, with its sharp lesson for our days, is, in my opinion, the main message that our sages wished to teach us by assigning this particular haftorah to our parshah. bweintraub@torontotorah.com

613 Mitzvot: #336 Handling Business Disputes

The Torah presents many laws governing commerce prohibitions against price gouging and false advertising, commandments regarding honest weights and measure, etc. The Torah also requires us, as a society, to set up a system of courts which will adjudicate disputes between buyers and sellers; this is the 336th mitzvah. As the Sefer haChinuch explains, this mitzvah ensures the on-going functioning of society. The Sefer haChinuch also notes that despite the Torah's multiplicity of mitzvot regarding establishing a legal system and adjudicating complaints, nonetheless, the Torah adds a special note requiring justice in our commercial interactions. He explains, "There are other commandments regarding this, such as the commandments to adjudicate between plaintiff and defendant, and between victim and vandal. Technically, any commercial case is included within the rubric of 'plaintiff and defendant'. Nonetheless, we have a special mitzvah dedicated to commerce because these human interactions take place perpetually; it would be impossible for people to survive, even for a day, without commerce. This is the way of Torah in many places, designating mitzvot for specific cases because of their need or because of the seriousness of the matter. Prohibitions will be repeated many times, as seen in

Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner

the Torah's forty-four different iterations of the prohibition against idolatry, with a special prohibition for Molech because its evil service was once common. Similarly, Shabbat has twelve prohibitions, with special prohibitions for certain tasks like kindling a flame and transporting items. Granted that there is rabbinic exegesis as to why those are singled out, whether to teach special laws regarding them or to teach that they are of a different level of prohibition, nonetheless, this exegesis does not contradict our point; there are many aspects to Torah." Many of the Torah's laws governing commerce are default positions, overridden when parties create contracts stipulating that their interactions will be governed by special arrangements. As the Tur (Choshen Mishpat 368) wrote, citing Rav Sherira Gaon, "All are obligated not to diverge from the custom. As we say: 'How do we know that custom is substantive? Deuteronomy 9:14 states, 'Do not trespass the boundary of another, set by early generations.'' This is certainly true for a practice which involves great improvement and elimination of strife. Therefore, do according to your custom, do not diverge, and be at peace." torczyner@torontotorah.com

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Biography

Torah and Translation

Rabbi Betzalel Stern

Josh Gutenberg
Rabbi Betzalel Stern was born in 1911, to a rabbinical family living in Slovakia. He was one of five boys, of whom only he and his younger brother survived the Holocaust. His younger brother, Moshe, moved to New York, and later became known as the Debreciner Rebbe. Rabbi Stern lived in numerous countries during his lifetime. As a child, he studied in the Pressburg Yeshiva in Hungary. During the Holocaust he served as Rabbi of a community in Romania, where he survived together with the majority of the community. In 1948 he returned to Hungary, but soon afterwards he moved to Italy and opened a yeshiva. In the subsequent years he served as a Rosh Yeshiva in Israel and as head of batei din in both Melbourne and Vienna. In 1982, he returned to Israel where he once again served as a Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi Stern wrote a set of responsa, titled Btzel HaChachmah, between the years of 1959 and 1986. In this sixvolume set, he discusses a wide range of halachic issues. In one responsum (Vol. 4 No. 104) he discusses the appropriate time to recite Shema and observe Shabbat while aboard a spaceship. He suggests that despite making several revolutions around the world each day, one would only need to recite Shema twice every 24 hours, and to observe Shabbat one out of every seven Earth days. In another responsum (Vol. 3 No. 35) he discusses under what circumstances it is permissible to fly out of Israel after Yom Tov if the plane will land in a city which is observing the second day of Yom Tov. Rabbi Stern died in Israel in 1989. jgutenberg@torontotorah.com

Reciting the Berachah for Tefillin Early

Rabbi Betzalel Stern
BTzel haChachmah 5:167
Translated by Josh Gutenberg

" ... , ,"" ...

...Reciting a blessing for eating matzah on the eve of Pesach close to nightfall is different, because under no circumstance would the blessing be relevant at that time. Behold, even if he were to eat matzah at that time he would not fulfill his obligation, for the time to eat matzah would not not have arrived yet, neither for him nor for anyone else around him. And how could he say, and has commanded us regarding the eating of matzah, for behold, at that time there is no obligation [to eat matzah]... And so is explained in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (30:3), If one wants to travel early in the day, he should don [tefillin], and when the time [to don tefillin] arrives, he should touch them and recite the blessing etc... Behold, even though the tefillin will remain upon him until their time arrives in the morning, he should not recite a blessing when donning them at night. The reason is that ideally one certainly should not recite a blessing on any commandment before the time to fulfill the commandment arrives. And the same is said regarding the blessing on tzitzit in Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (Rama in 8:16). However, we should examine that which is written by Shaarei Teshuvah (30:3) in the name of the Birkei Yosef, that if one recited a blessing on tefillin at night, or he thought it was day but it was night, he need not recite the blessing when the time to don tefillin arrives. Behold, even though it is not the time to don tefillin for anyone, neither for him nor for others, until the morning when one can recognize a friend at the distance of four cubits, nevertheless the blessing is valid. It appears that this is not similar to [reciting] the blessing on eating matzah or sitting in the sukkah on the eve of these holidays, because [in those situations] the time [to perform the commandment] has not yet arrived. Whereas for tefillin, we have established that on a biblical level night is a time for tefillin and only on a rabbinic level is it not considered the proper time until one can recognize etc... Therefore, post factum, the blessing recited for donning tefillin at night is valid.

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This Week in Israeli History: Tevet 19, 1901 - JNF Founded

Sunday is the19th of Tevet Over the centuries of foreign domination of the Land of Israel, long before the modern vision of an autonomous Jewish state, various Jewish leaders attempted to purchase land in Israel for Jewish settlement. In one notable example, Dona Gracia Mendes leased Tiberias from Suleiman the Magnificent in 1558. This idea was adopted by various Jewish Zionist groups at the end of the 19th century, and it became a cornerstone of Theodor Herzl's vision. On the initiative of mathematician Zvi Hermann Schapira, and with Herzl's suport, the Fifth Zionist Congress formed the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on the 19th of Tevet, 5662 (1901). The stated goal was to purchase land for Jewish development. The organization's Hebrew name, Keren Kayemet l'Yisrael, was drawn from a mishnah (Peah 1:1) which describes certain mitzvot as bearing fruit in this world and establishing an enduring resource a keren kayemet for the future.

Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner

During the decades following the founding of JNF, the organization branched out into reclaiming land for development, planting trees, and initiating water conservation projects. In recent decades, JNF has promoted development work in the Negev, making that resource more livable for new immigrants. Almost ten years ago, groups lobbying for Arab rights in Israel launched a legal challenge to the JNF policy of leasing land only to Jews. The organization countered by claiming that they are a private entity, therefore entitled to devote their energies to promoting the well-being of the Jewish people. In 2007, an arrangement was concluded in which the JNF would agree to lease land to non-Jews, but that this land would first be transferred to the Israeli government's Israel Land Authority, and JNF would receive the purchase price and an equivalent piece of land in the Negev. torczyner@torontotorah.com

Highlights for December 21 December 27 / 18 Tevet - 24 Tevet

Time
SHABBAT DEC. 21 7:45 AM 10:20 AM Before minchah After minchah 6:30 PM SUNDAY DEC. 22 9:15 AM After maariv 8:00 PM MONDAY DEC. 23 9:15 AM 8:00 PM 8:00 PM TUESDAY DEC. 24 9:15 AM 8:45 PM WED. DEC. 25 8:30 AM to 12 PM 8:00 8:00 9:00 9:00 PM PM PM PM Yarchei Kallah with R Baruch Weintraub R Baruch Weintraub R Mordechai Torczyner R Yehoshua Weber R Baruch Weintraub Tefillah: Expression of the Heart, Worship of the Mind Prophecy for Our Time Business Ethics: Lending Responsa: Surrogacy Chabura: Sanhedrin Yeshivat Or Chaim 8:30 AM Shacharit Breakfast, Chavruta 11:15 AM Shiur Community Beit Midrash Night Maariv at 9:50 PM Winterlearning! with Adam Frieberg Adam Frieberg Is it all in the name? Exploring Laws of Shabbat BAYT Shaarei Tefillah High School Students After 8:30 minyan Winterlearning! with Josh Gutenberg R Baruch Weintraub R Mordechai Torczyner
You are your brothers keeper

Speaker

Topic

Location

Special Notes

R Baruch Weintraub R Baruch Weintraub R Mordechai Torczyner R Mordechai Torczyner Rabbi Strauchler

Moral Values in Bereishit

Parshah

Or Chaim Clanton Park BAYT BAYT Shaarei Shomayim

Daf Yomi
Gemara: Intermarriage

Parent-Child Learning

R Baruch Weintraub R Baruch Weintraub R Baruch Weintraub

Parshah Revisited Shlichut Reflections Shlichut Reflections

Zichron Yisroel Clanton Park 4 Tillingham Keep

Hebrew Hebrew, men Hebrew, mixed

BAYT Shaarei Shomayim

High School Students After 8:30 minyan Community Beit Midrash Night

Parshah Medical Halachah

Yeshivat Or Chaim

THU. DEC. 26 8:30 AM to 12 PM 8:30 PM Yarchei Kallah with R Mordechai Torczyner R Baruch Weintraub Tefillah: Overriding Minyan Chabura: Sotah Yeshivat Or Chaim Clanton Park 8:30 AM Shacharit Breakfast, Chavruta 11:15 AM Shiur

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