ROSH HASHONAH כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה

The final parshah read on the first morning of Rosh Hashonah recounts how Avimelech the King of Gerar and his commander in chief came to Avrohom in Beer Sheva and stated that they could see that Hashem was with Avrohom in all that he did. Avimelech then said “I would like you to swear that you will not treat falsely or unfairly myself or my descendents up to four generations” כחסד אשר עשיתי עמך תעשה עמדי in the same way as I was kind to you, you should be kind to me and the land in which you are sojourning.

What was the חסד, the kindness which Avimelech was referring to, which he asked Avrohom to reciprocate? This was the fact that when Avrohom and Soroh came to Avimelech’s country, Soroh was taken into the royal household but Hashem came to Avimelech and said “Don’t touch her because she is married to Avrohom” and Avimelech, after protesting that he knew nothing about it, gave her back to Avrohom and in addition, allowed them to live wherever they liked in his land. (Unlike Pharoh, who told Avrohom here is your wife, get out of Egypt.) For that “kindness” Avimelech was asking Avrohom to promise that would deal nicely with not only Avimelech but with his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Avrohom duly swore to this and the parshah continues telling the story of how there was a well which he stated had been stolen by the servants of Avimelech, Avrohom then took seven lambs, took them aside, gave them to Avimelech and the place was called Beer Sheva. We then have the penultimate posek before the end of the krias HaTorah for the day as follows.

ויטע אשל בבאר שבע ויקרא שם בשם יהו' קל עולם and he, Avrohom, planted an “Aishel” in Beer Sheva and called there in the name of Hashem the Master of the world.

That verse has apparently very little to do with the previous pesukim. Chazal tell us that the word אשל is an acronym for אכילה, eating שתיה drinking and לינה, lodging (alternatively לויה, seeing off a person). Namely that Avrohom opened a sort of guest house and that he provided food and drink as well as lodging etc. for any wayfarers who passed by. We are told that this tent had four entrances, one to each side, so that it should be even more inviting to allow people to come in.

Chazal also tell us that people came, ate and drank and asked to pay but Avrohom refused. They then attempted to just thank him, but he said thank the One above, Hashem in heaven who created the whole world and so ויקרא שם בשם יהו' קל עולם he spread the word among the populace who were idol worshiping, that idols were nothing, that there was one G-d in heaven who created the world and provides food, drink etc. for mankind.

I would suggest that after Avrohom has considered what Avimelech had said regarding חסד, he was appalled. I did you a favour, therefore, you do me a favour. In colloquial English, I scratch your back, you scratch my back. This, Avrohom knew was not true חסד; proper חסד is performing good deeds for the sake of it as Hashem wishes, without receiving reward or favours. Dovid Hamelech tells us about Hashem, in Tehillim, כי אמרתי עולם חסד יבנה because I said I will build a world of kindness. Hashem does not need the favours of any people, as we all understand.

It was because of that and to show the world what true חסד means that Avrohom created an אשל, a lodging house where he could show proper kindness in a true Jewish way.

There is another explanation given by Chazal of the words ויטע אשל, namely that he planted a tree so that the travellers could rest in the shade and this a further sign of חסד.

I believe that this verse is read right at the end of the krias HaTorah for the first day of Rosh Hashonah which is the anniversary of the creation of Odom Harishon and the start of the Jewish New Year to emphasise to all of us the importance of חסד, true kindness. We are blessed nowadays with beautiful examples of גמילת חסד, including loan societies and all types of help given in an organised as well as in an informal manner, in our wonderful communities. May it long continue and provide us with זכיות for the New Year and to help bring משיח , במהרה בימינו אמן

כ''ה אלול

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ROSH HASHONAH מסירת נפש - למעלה מן הטבע

We read in the Sefer Torah on the first day of Rosh Hashonah the Parshah which commences וה' פקד את שרה that Soroh was blessed with a child.

On the second day of Rosh Hashonah we read the Parshas עקידה, the famous story of the binding of Yitzchok on the altar and at the last minute the angel coming and telling Avrohom not to kill him. In his place a ram was sacrificed. Because of this in the tefillos of Rosh Hashonah, we request זכור ברית אברהם ועקידת יצחק. Furthermore, we blow the shofar which is, itself, a remembrance of the horn of the ram of Yitzchok.


Accordingly, it seems strange that we should read the Parshah of the עקידה on the second day whereas the story of the birth of a son to Soroh takes first place and is read on the first day.

It is true that the Gemorra tells us that on Rosh Hashonah, Soroh conceived, but nevertheless, we mention time and again the עקידה as a zechus and we blow the shofar for the first time, on the first day.

One might also conjecture that as the Parshah of ה' פקד את שרה comes in Torah before the Parshah of the עקידה it takes precedence, but we find that when our Rabbis wished to, they changed the order. This, for example, took place in the Hatftoras of the weeks prior to Rosh Hashonah, the שבעה דנחמתא which are all from the Prophet Yeshayah. They are not in the order of the chapters of the Prophet.

I think that one can explain the reason for the reading in the Sefer Torah of the ה' פקד את שרה on the first day as follows.

We find that the Gemora in סנהדרין ל''ח states that when Odom Harishon was created there were twelve hours of the daytime and the Gemora states what happened in every one of these twelve hours. In short, in the first hour the dust was gathered together, the second hour a body was formed, in the third hour the limbs were put into shape and in the fourth hour the neshomo was put into the body. In the fifth hour Odom Harishon stood on his feet, the sixth hour he named all the animals, in the seventh hour he was presented with Chava as a wife. In the eighth hour he had children etc. From this we can see that the timescale was not according to the laws of nature as we know it. It was one nes after the other למעלה מן הטבע, including being presented with a wife in the seventh hour and having children an hour later.

In the same way Soroh, together with her husband Avrohom had a child, Yitzchok, born supernaturally. As the Torah itself states they were both elderly and long past the age of childbirth. Nevertheless, בדרך נס they were blessed with a son Yitzchok.

We are told that each year when the anniversary of a day or an event comes round, the spiritual uplift and effect is repeated but has to be grasped and utilised.

I believe that the implication is clear. The first day of Rosh Hashonah is a day where miracles can take place, things which are למעלה מן הטבע, as things took place in the past, on that very day. Therefore, we read וה' פקד את שרה

It is, of course, true that Avrohom taking his son Yitzchok and preparing to sacrifice him on a altar shows extreme מסירת נפש, but it is not supernatural.

Accordingly, we can gather from this, that on the first day of Rosh Hashonah, we can pray to be helped למעלה מן הטבע, supernaturally, to all have a blessed year בגשמיות וברוחניות.

כ''ה אלול

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22nd ELLUL

Let me pose a question. We all know that Ellul is a time for introspection, coming up to Rosh Hashonah. Pashas Nitzovim which is this week’s sedra is particularly relevant as the parsha of teshuva, repentance, which starts off “Ata Soshuv” is actually in this sedra.

We also find that the Haftorah for each sedra has a relevance to the sedra leyned. However, there are exceptions to that rule.

You will recall that between Shiva’ Oser B’Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, we have, what is called shelosha of paranusa, three Haftorahs of warning of calamities, followed by shiva de nechemta, seven Haftorahs for the next seven weeks of nechoma, comfort. The first one starts off in fact, Nachamu, nachamu ami.

We all understand why we should have the three haftorahs of paranusa, during the three weeks, dealing with warnings about problems that will arise unless people improve. We can also understand why this should be followed by say three weeks of Haftorahs of comfort, nechamo, and we could readily understand that there should be even four of nechamo so that we are given a bigger antidote than the original blows. Why should there be seven haftorahs? In fact the whole of the month of Ellul has these Haftorahs of comfort culminating in this week’s sedra. Nitzovim is always read on the Shabbos prior to Rosh Hashonah.

I would have thought that the week before Rosh Hashonah is an ideal time to mention teshuvah in the Haftorah especially as Nitzovim itself, as I mentioned earlier on, has in it, the parsha of teshuva. Why was it that our Chazal when enacting which Haftorah should be read with each sedra, overrode the norm and chose a different Haftorah, one of comfort and encouragement? That is my question.

I think that the reason for this is bound up with the way we are supposed to approach Rosh Hashonah. There are people who, when looking back on last year, and for that matter earlier years, get very worried, they get depressed, concentrating on all the bad things and negative things that they had been involved in. This is, of course, a negative approach.

The other way of looking at the approaching Rosh Hashonah, is to look forward to the opportunity to be able to appear before Hashem Himself, the Melech Malchei Hamluchim Hakodesh Boruchu. If one appears before a normal judge in court, he looks up the law books and decides according to what is written in them. The only one who can decide otherwise is the judge who is also the lawmaker. He can decide to override what is in the law books.

Hashem is, of course, the ultimate judge and king. When a person appears before Him on Rosh Hashonah and sings praises to Hashem, and proclaims Him to be the one and only King and at the same time asks for forgiveness, Hashem is favourably disposed towards him and grants him a good year. That is a positive approach to Rosh Hashonah.

Now let us look at the Haftorah of this week’s sedra. It starts off “ שוש אשיש בה' ” I will rejoice and rejoice even more intensely with Hashem “ תגל נפשי באלקי ” my soul will exult with Hashem.

I believe that our chochomim were pointing us strongly in the direction of taking a positive attitude to our imminent appearance before Hashem. Parsha Nitzovim and this Haftorah always occur in the week before Rosh Hashonah and, therefore, we are enjoined to rejoice and to rejoice even more intensely with Hashem. If you look carefully it says בה' which is spelt Yod Kay Vav Kay the middo of rachamim, the merciful G-d. The next expression is תגל נפשי באלקי my soul will exult with Elokim, middus hadin. In other words the middo of rechamim should be mumtik, sweeten, middus hadin. We are asking Hashem to sweeten the pill, as I mentioned before, by singing praises to Hashem, proclaiming Him to be the King in a joyful manner. He will, therefore, even on a day of judgement, exercise mercy and look favourably upon us.

I would like to also add a further thought on the beginning of the Haftorah. If you take the word שוש which is written Shin Vov Shin, the gemmatria adds up to 606. I rejoice that Hashem gave us a further 606 mitzvos over and above the sheva mitzvos Bnei Noach, the seven mitzvos that were given to Noach. אשיש, is Alef Shin Yud Shin which adds up to 611, and we find the Gemora at the end of Makkos says that Torah Tzivo Lonu Moshe, Moshe Rabbenu gave us 611 mitzvos as the gemmatria of the word Torah is 611 and for that we are also most joyful; but the main thing is בה'. Bais, referring to the 2 mitzvos we had the privilege of hearing from Hashem Himself. The gemora there says אנכי ולא יהיה מפי הגבורה שמענום

We heard the first two of the ten commandments from Hashem himself

As you can see the whole emphasis is rejoicing with the fact that Hashem has given us Torah and mitzvos and we have the privilege to be able to appear before Him once a year.

I would mention that the first time I, myself, felt that Rosh Hashonah was not only a Yom Hadin but also a Yom Tov, was when I first went to Gur in Jerusalem to my unforgettable Rebbe the Bais Yisroel ז''ל. There was in the air this mixture of din and rachamim.

I would venture to suggest that somebody who gets to Rosh Hashonah in a positive frame of mind and remember, Rosh Hashonah is the first day of the ten days of repentance, asseres yomei teshuva, that person will do teshuva (because we all have to repent) in a different way than somebody who starts with a negative attitude. There is a difference between teshuva meyira and teshuva meahava. Repenting because one is fearful of the consequences if one does not, or repenting because one sees the goodness and greatness of Hashem and, therefore, one would like to please Him and are upset that sometimes, we have let Him down and not done the right thing. We all appreciate that teshuva meahava is much higher level.

Finally, on this particular subject, once Yom Kippur has gone by and the whole of Klal Yisroel has a kapora, an atonement, we get to Sukkos, that is a level of teshuva meahava that we can all appreciate. We go into the sukka, out of our comfortable houses, we use the esrog and lulav and we culminate everything by dancing on Simchas Torah with the Torah.

Let me pose another question, if we look at the leyning, the Krais Hatorah of Rosh Hashonah, we find that the first day starts off “ וה' פקד את שרה
That Soroh had finally given birth to a son Yitzchok and goes into the detail of what happened subsequent to that.

The second day we read the Akeidah, the famous story of the tenth nesoyon, the greatest test, which Avrohom Avinu was faced with. He took Yitzchok and was going to bring him as a sacrifice on the mizbeach on Har Hamariyah. The question is, Why do we read the two parshas in that particular order? Surely the Akeidah is relevant and more important to read on the first day of Rosh Hashonah which is normally the day that Hashem makes his decisions on the scales of justice. We say in our tefillos זכור ברית אברהם ועקדת יצחק we ask Hashem to remember the bris of Avrohom and the Akeidah of Yitzchok. In addition, the shofar itself came originally from the איל shel Yitzchok, the ram that was taken in place of Yitzchok when Hashem told Avrohom to take Yitzchok down from the altar. Avrohom looked for a substitute sacrifice and found a ram with its horns caught in the thicket. That horn is what we use as a shofar. Surely, we should be מעורר the zechusim, to try and wake up all the merits of the Akeidah of Avrohom and Yitzchok on the first day of Rosh Hashonah?

On a simple level one can answer, that the first parsha is written in Torah earlier than the Akeidas Yitzchok and furthermore, we are told that the conception of Yitzchok took place on Rosh Hashonah, but, nevertheless, I believe that my question is still very relevant.

I suggest that there is a deeper answer. The fact that Avrohom and Soroh who were respectively 100 and 90 years old and at that time had a child, was למעלה מן הטבע , a miraculous event, the Torah tells us.

The test of the Akeidah was a very, very severe test, Avrohom brought his son, who by then was 37 years of age onto the altar to be sacrificed. It was his beloved son Yitzchok and of course Yitzchok was also not a little child, he was 37 years of age a full grown man and yet both of them were willing to fulfil the rotzon of Hashem, the will of Hashem, without question. Indeed, a very great, unbelievable test, but nevertheless, still within the bounds of something natural. It was not supernatural.

Therein I think lies the answer as to why we read the leyning for the two days in the particular order.

Our chochomim decided that in future generations there were likely to be people in Klal Yisroel who might just give up, thinking, we have been so bad, there is so much trouble, so many problems, they would get so depressed that they would think that it is impossible to have a good year. Therefore we read וה' פקד את שרה , to impress on us that Hashem can make miracles in the same way as then, when Yitzchok was born, supernaturally Hashem can help us all supernaturally. The second day, we step down a level. Even in a natural way, if one puts 100% effort in and unquestionably follows what Hashem wants, Hashem will help as well. I believe that is a deeper lesson of the reason for the order of the krias Hatorah.

You may also recall Rashi’s comment on the first words of Nitzovim אתם נצבים היום כלכם לפני ה' Rashi comments after the Tochacho, people were very miserable and pessimistic, their faces were ashen, therefore Moshe Rabbenu comforted them and said “See, you are all standing here today, healthy and well” This ties in with the sentence in the Tochacho that it all came about תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרב כל Because you did not serve Hashem with joy and a glad heart, because that is the way to serve Hashem, and all this underlines the necessity for a positive attitude at all times.

Let us just deal with one further thought today. Towards the end of the leyning on the first day, we read that Avimelech, the king of Garar, together with his commander in chief came to see Avrohom. You may recall that earlier on they had suggested to Avrohom that he leaves the territory and Avrohom did, but they came back and said to Avrohom, when they visited him that ה' עמך בכל אשר אתה עושה
G-d is with you whatever you do, and therefore, we would like to make a covenant with you. And Avrohom eventually did make a bris with Avimelech. Right at the end of that parsha, it says ויטע אשל בבאר שבע ויקרא שם בשם ה' קל עולם
Our Rabbis explain that Avrohom started virtually a guest house and people came and received free food and lodging, they thanked Avrohom. He in turn, said, don’t thank me thank the One and Only above and they did. Therefore he proclaimed ויקרא שם בשם ה' קל עולם The Name of Hashem being the one who is G-d of the whole universe, so creating a Kiddush Hashem.

What has that verse got to do with the previous parsha and to do with Avimelech’s visit. I would suggest that the key lies in the words used by Avimelech when he was trying to persuade Avrohom to make this covenant. Avimelech asked Avrohom to make a covenant with himself, his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and continued כחסד אשר עשיתי עמך תעשה עמדי

Namely, in the same way as I was kind to you, when you were staying with me, you should be kind to me. It was a type of reciprocal kindness paying back one for the other.

Avrohom was not satisfied with that attitude. He decided to start an open house to everybody without an ulterior motive. For us the lesson is clear מעשי אבות סימן לבנים the deeds of our forefathers are a sign of how we should behave. That is the way a Yid should behave and always try to create a Kiddush Hashem. This is another lesson in the Krias Hatorah of the first day of Rosh Hashonah. By doing so and emulating Avrohom Avinu, we will, no doubt, all be zoche to a כתיבה וחתימה טובה and hasten the coming of Moshiach Tzidkainu bimhero veyemanu. Omein.

כ''ב אלול

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RE’EH כ''ו אב 5767

Good morning everybody, I am once again, pleased to be back speaking to you.

This week’s sedra, parshas ראה, has numerous mitzvos in it. There is, however, one major thread which runs through the sedra and is mentioned especially at the beginning and towards the end. The first time we encounter this is before sheini and Moshe Rabbenu was telling the Bnei Yisroel that they must destroy all vestiges of avodah zoro when they enter the promised land. They should destroy their altars, burn their idols and effigies etc. Then the Torah continues


“You shall not do the same to Hashem.” And the next verse is
כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלכיכם מכל שבטיכם לשום את שמו שם לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה

“But to the place which Hashem will choose from all his tribes to place His name there, you should search for His Shechina and you should come there.”

And the Torah continues that you should bring all different karbonos etc. Immediately after sheini the Torah again uses the expression
והיה המקום אשר יבחר ה' אלכיכם בו לשכן שמו שם

Virtually a repeat of this and three verses later again it says
כי אם במקום אשר יבחר ה'

If that is not enough another three verses later it again says
במקום אשר יבחר ה'
The place Hashem will choose.

Very strange that the Torah is emphasising again and again this expression of the place that Hashem has chosen to cause his Shechina to dwell. Of course, this does mean the Bais Hamikdosh as I am sure you have understood.

At chamishei we read the famous parsha of עשר תעשר which is also read on the last day of Yom Tov. Once again the Torah keeps on mentioning from there right to end of the sedra, this phrase.
במקום אשר יבחר ה'

The penultimate posuk of the sedra has once again those very words.

And then the final verse of the sedra is
שלש פעמים בשנה יראה כל זכורך את פני ה' אלכיך במקום אשר יבחר בחג המצות ובחג השבעות ובחג הסכות
Three times every year all males should appear before Hashem in the place I will choose, on Pesach, Shavuos and Succos.

You will find, if you go carefully through the sedra that this expression or something like it, is mentioned no fewer than 15 times in this sedra. As usual I am asking a simple question. Why does it need to be repeated again and again and again and why 15 times.

Some of you may recall that many months ago I spoke about the importance of the Mishkon. That, of course, was the edifice erected in the midbar and which carried on serving as the focal spiritual point of the whole Jewish people for the first few hundred years that they were in Eretz Yisroel. Eventually, as we know, Shlomo Hamelech built the Bais Hamikdosh and it was consecrated 480 years after the Jews left Egypt.

This was המקןם אשר יבחר ה' the place that Hashem had ordained would be the spiritual focus of all the activities of Klal Yisroel and a beacon of light for the whole world. It remained so for 410 years until the first Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed. 70 years later it was rebuilt and the second Bais Hamikdosh stood a further 420 years. This Holy and magnificent building which was erected by Shlomo and a further magnificent building which was erected for the second Bais Hamikdosh, was not just an ornamental palace or museum, it was the place that gave spiritual inspiration to the whole of Klal Yisroel all the year round. Even more so, on Yom Kippur when the Kohen Godol carried out the whole avodah and atoned for the Bnei Yisroel.

As far as the Yidden were concerned, the mitzvah mentioned at the end of Re’eh was very relevant to them. This was that three times a year on every one of the שלש רגלים , it was a positive commandment, a מצות עשה to come to the Bais Hamikdosh and bring with presents and karbonos as mentioned right at the end of the sedra.

What was the point of them coming three times a year? Our meforshim tell us that this was to give them spiritual uplift that they could then take home and pass on to their own families. The atmosphere of קדושה, holiness, and טהרה, purity, was palpable there. You will, no doubt, all recall the Mishna in the fifth perek of Pirkei Avos which starts עשרה נסים נעשו לאבותינו בבית המקדש , there were ten miracles that happened to our forefathers in the Bais Hamikdosh. This was a place that was למעלה מן הטבע , supernatural. Therefore, there was, in fact, a recharging of spiritual batteries.

The Gemora in Menuchos כ''ט says on the posek כי בי'ה ה' צור עולמים that Hashem created the two worlds, our world and the world to come with a י and with a ה and the ה represents our world and the י represents the world to come and proof is brought from right at the beginning of Torah because it says בהבראם This word is explained as ב''הא'' בראם our world was created with a ה and the reason is because a ה looks like a veranda so that anybody who wishes to, can fall down (in a spiritual manner) from sitting on the roof of the ה . If he wishes to do teshuva he then climbs up the leg of the foot on the left hand side. The י represents the world to come, because it is the smallest of all letters and there are very few tzaddikim who will be able to aspire to the heights of it and it is also bent in the same way as tzaddikim, who do not walk haughtily but with their heads inclined.

The long and short of the Gemora is that י and ה represent the two worlds and where, I would ask, did the two worlds meet? In the Bais Hamikdosh, because you had the spiritual level coming down represented by the י and the people coming in to the Bais Hamikdosh and all the animals as korbonos and other physical entities such as the shulchan with the show bread on it representing the ה, all together. This was the place that Hashem chose for the purpose and, therefore, one has this constant emphasis, במקום אשר יבחר ה' the place which Hashem had chosen to rest his Shechina there.

We now also understand why it is mentioned 15 times because that is exactly what י and ה add up to.

You may recall the numerous Shir Hamaalos שיר המעלות . If you look carefully and add them up, there are exactly 15. What does the translation of those two words mean, “A song for the steps”. The Levi’im sang the Shir Hamaalos on these 15 steps going up to the בית המקדש as the water was brought up to the Bais Hamikdosh on Sukkos for the ceremony of ניסוך המים There were exactly 15 שיר המעלות and 15 steps to bring together the spiritual and the physical. In fact, the whole ceremony was known as שמחת בית השואבה and we are told that from there רוח הקודש was drawn.

I recall that in 1968 shortly after the whole of Yerushalyim was united, I went to an Arab school which overlooked the whole of the Bais Hamikdosh and it was a very interesting sight. One thing that caught my eye was, that even nowadays, there were 15 steps going up towards the actual mount on which, unfortunately, at the moment, there is a mosque as you are aware.

This idea of 15 joining together and fusing the י and the ה is mentioned in davenning as well every day. Right at the beginning of davenning among the korbonos there is a paragraph which starts off with אביי הוה מסדר סדר המערכה stating the order of the service in the Bais Hamikdosh each day. There are exactly 15 items mentioned. Furthermore, the middle one, number 8, is the ketores that was brought each day. As we know ketores was the most spiritual of all the items brought as an offering and therefore, it is at the heart of all the avodah that was carried out each day.

In the pesukei d’zimra, we have numerous kapitelech which commence and also end with the word הללוי'ה. The Gemora at the end of Pesochim, tells us that this can be viewed as two words namely הללו and י' ה We are praising Hashem who created the two worlds with the י and the ה We go into detail in the pesukei d’zimra of the numerous ways that the world shows that it is created by Hashem. One mizmor talks about the heavens, the earth, the people living in it and others speak about other facets of our world, י' ה as you all appreciate adds up to 15 and represents the fusion of the spiritual and physical worlds. By praising Hashem we are elevating the הto join to the י. Furthermore, the word הללוי'ה adds up to 86 which is exactly the gemmatria of Elokim which is known as middos Hadin. By praising Hashem, we sweeten and offset the middos Hadin. This is known as המתקת הדין.

We are told that the tefillos that we make are in place of the karbonos brought in the Bais Hamikdosh ונשלמה פרים שפתינו our lips should move in place of bringing offerings.

We also find that in ישתבח, which is, of course, a praise of Hashem, you have 15 expressions of praise and the like, commencing שיר ושבחה up to ברכות והודאות

Immediately after Shema every morning we have אמת ויציב which go up to וטוב ויפה again 15 expressions of praise of Hashem. The idea is that we, in our prayers, are also striving to bring together the two worlds, the physical world, Olam Hazeh with the spiritual upper world in the same way as the avodah was carried out in the Bais Hamikdosh.

The mekubalim tell us that the four parts of tefilla, represent the four levels of world. The korbonos represent the Olam Ha’sia, this world, the pesukei d’zimra of which ישתבח is the culmination, represents the Olam Ha Yiztira, the world of formation. The Olam Ha’ Bria, the world of creation, is commenced with יוצר אור all the way up to Shemona Esrei and therefore, we have this idea of 15 mentioned at all three levels. At Shemona Esrei which is the highest level and comparable to Olam Ha’Aztilus as near as possible to Hashem, there is absolute fusion and, therefore, no need to emphasise the 15.

The very posek that I quoted כי בי'ה ה' צור עולמים comes right near the end of ובא לציון after which we say the special Kaddish תתקבל namely that Hashem should accept our prayers and entreaties.

You will, no doubt, recall the famous maamer chazel איש ואשה שכינה שרויה ביניהם a husband and wife have the Shechina that dwells between them, there is a Yod י in איש and a ה in אשה. Together there is a י and a ה . The other letters in each is אש fire, because if the Shechina does not dwell among them, unfortunately there are problems. Whereas, if the Shechina does dwell among them, together they elevate this mundane world to a high spiritual level.

One further thought regarding the original question I posed with the expression במקום אשר יבחר ה' is repeated time and again, there is a possek which we say in יהי כבוד during pesukei d’zimra and in fact it comes from a Shir Hamaalos
כי בחר ה' בציון אוה למושב לו
Because Hashem chose Zion and was anxious that there should be a place for Him to dwell.

Referring again, of course, to the Bais Hamikdosh. The word בחר is, of course the root of יבחר. If one spells out the letters that is ב being ב י ת which adds up to 412 ח which is ח י ת which adds up to 418 and ר which is ר י ש and adds up to 510. This totals 1340.

As we know, Parshas Re’eh was part of the speech of Moshe Rabbenu in the last days of his life and it was 440 years later that Shlomo built the Bais Hamikdosh. The first Bais Hamikdosh stood for 410 years. There were then 70 years of the first golus followed by 420 years of the second Bais Hamikdosh. This also totals 1340 as well. A very deep remez for this constant repetition of יבחר. The י refers to Hashem being the first letter of the name of Hashem and the rest, as I mentioned, in depth, refers to the total years from the statement by Moshe Rabbenu until the second Bais Hamikdosh was destroyed.



As you are all aware, we are almost up to Shmitta year and this week’s sedra we have a particular mitzvah mentioned, of not ignoring a poor person because Shmitta is coming and therefore not giving him a loan which would automatically be cancelled because of Shmitta. The Torah tells us, you should give him, and continue giving him, and not be upset כי בגלל הדבר הזה יברכך ה' because if you do support him Hashem will bless you and all your works and everything that belongs to you.

The Gemora at the end of Shabbos takes the word, בגלל , which is a very unusual word in Torah and explains גלגל הוא החזיר בעולם namely money is like a wheel turning, it sometimes is with one person and afterwards it goes to somebody else.

I came across a beautiful story about this concerning a famous Tzaddik, R’ Mendel Kossover. When he was a young man and very poor, he heard that his Rebbe, known as R’ Feivish of Zeborz was going to visit for Shabbos near where he lived in a place called Skula. R’ Mendel decided that he would, therefore, go to be with his Rebbe for Shabbos and, having no transport, he walked. He had to walk for two or three days and on Thursday evening he reached a village still a quite a few miles away from Skula and spied an inn. Seeing that it had a mezuzah on the door, he went in and asked the baalabos if he could stay there overnight. He had not eaten all day and was very tired.

The answer was “Yes, you can come in and stay here overnight but I am sorry I have not got anything to eat. My children are crying for food and I haven’t got anything for them even. I have absolutely no parnosa and the Poretz, the local squire, is threatening to throw myself and all the family into prison because I haven’t paid him for such a long time.”

R’ Mendel Kossover was, of course, upset and could not sleep all night because of it. When morning came, he left blessing the baalabos that Hashem should help him and started walking towards Skula. He had only walked a few miles and a coach came by and stopped, there was a Yid who was obviously wealthy sitting there and he asked him “Tell me, young man, where are you going?”

He replied “I am going to the Rebbe of Zeborz.”

“Good,” said the other gentleman, “I am also going there, come and join me.”

R’ Mendel Kossover answered, “I am not coming with you unless you give me five roubles.”

The other gentleman was annoyed “Not enough that I want to give you a free lift, you want me to pay you for it as well.”

“I am not asking for myself, believe me,” Said R’ Mendel, “It would also be good for you if you listen to me.”

“How come?” said the oisher, the rich gentleman.

“Well,” said R’ Mendel “except for the fact that you are going to give tzedoka, you should know that nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow or in the future, גלגל הוא החזיר בעולם.

The other gentleman took it to heart and gave him the five roubles. “Right,” said R’ Mendel “we are not going on now, lets turn round and go back to the village we have just passed and you will see how great a mitzvah you are going to perform. OK?”

They turned round and then went back. R’ Mendel gave the inn keeper the money and said, “Please go into town and buy some liquor.” And he also promised him, “You will see, from now onwards, you are going to be a changed person and you will have hatzlocha.”

Then he said to the rich man “You know what, one mitzvah brings another one, lets daven here and we will give some more money to your wagon driver and he can buy something to eat for breakfast for the children and for ourselves,.”

So he agreed to that as well, handed over some more money and meanwhile, they davenned and afterwards the wagon driver came back with a whole lot of bread and so the children got bread, the inn keeper and his wife got bread and what was left he gave to the wealthy man for Shabbos, after that he took a little bit for himself.

Just as they were leaving R’ Mendel said to the innkeeper “You should know that from now onwards you are on the up and up, you are going to become very rich and the person who just helped you is going to have exactly the opposite fate, so remember that you should pay him back in the fullness of time.” He also suggested to him that he should leave that place and go and live somewhere else.

Meanwhile, R’ Mendel and the rich person got to the Tzaddik of Zeborz and there were lots of people and they could not get in, but suddenly they were spied and R’ Mendel was let in. This surprised the rich man who realised that the young man who he had taken on board was not just an ordinary Chosid of the Rebbe but must be something special himself. When R’ Mendel came into the Rebbe, R’ Feivish of Zeborz, he told him the whole story and was interrupted. “I know,” he said, “I understand what you did but did you tell the innkeeper how he is supposed to act later on?”

“Yes I did” replied R’ Mendel.

Shortly after this, the oisher started losing all his money and after a time he became an absolutely poor man and had to join a group of עניים who used to go from one town to another to beg for funds.

Meanwhile, R’ Mendel of Kossov himself became known as a Rebbe and people flocked to him. After many years, this previous oisher who was now such an onei, reached Kossov and had no idea who this Rebbe was, but was told by other poor people that he was very generous in giving tzedoka. He, therefore, went to see him.

R’ Mendel recognised him and said to him “I know who you are and I am going to give you a letter to a very rich man and you will see that you will be helped.”

The poor fellow was absolutely astounded but he took the letter and went to where he was told. He then handed over the letter to this wealthy man. 15 years had elapsed since the original story and before the man had opened the letter he called in his wife, and said “Do you recognise this man?”. They both looked intently at him and something clicked. Meanwhile, he said to his wife “You know that I had a dream last night, that the Rebbe of Kossov was going to send me a letter stating that I have got to now pay back a favour that was done to us long ago.” They discussed it with the poor man and he finally remembered that he had many years ago helped as mentioned at the beginning of the story. They then journeyed back together to R’ Mendel of Kossov who instructed the rich man to give a very generous sum to the poor individual who once again started business and became very successful and an oisher again.

As I said גלגל הוא החזיר בעולם

כ''ו אב 5767

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NOACH א מרחשון 5768

Good morning everybody, I am once again, pleased to be back speaking to you.

This week’s sedra parshas Noach is, as we all know, a very interesting one. As we read in the first posek of the sedra אלה תולדת נח נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדרתיו את האלקים התהלך נח Noach has titles and praises showered on him more than any other person in the whole of Torah איש ,צדיק ,תמים. Neither Avrohom nor any other of the Avos or Moshe Rabbenu have so many praiseworthy titles appended to them. Why did Noach merit this?


I have other questions regarding Noach. If you go back to the last posek of the previous sedra it reads as follows ונח מצא חן בעיני ה' If we look carefully at that posek the words נח and חן are actually the same letters but inverted. The Torah does not play with words and here you can see that there is a definite correlation and that the Torah is trying to tell us something. In fact, if you read that verse first, and then the next one that we started off with, you get a whole picture. Noach found grace in the eyes of the Hashem. These are the history of the generations, and history, of Noach. Noach was an איש צדיק תמים in his generations and he walked with Elokim, Hashem.

The name נח is mentioned four times in these two pesukim. I don’t believe that it happens anywhere else in Torah that you have the same person’s name mentioned so many times in just two verses.

Let us go back further, to when he was actually born. The Torah tells us that Lemach was 182 years of age and he finally had a son and the Torah continues
ממעשנו ויקרא את שמו נח לאמר זה ינחמנו
The whole wording is strange. Lemach called his name Noach “saying”, What is this לאמר?. What did he say; the Torah continues this (person נח) will comfort us from our works and the toil of our hands. We find that Rashi, at great length, discusses the fact that his name should really have been Menachem מנחם which means comfort or comforter and is related to ינחמנו so why was he called Noach rather than Menachem? Rashi concludes that during Noach’s time the earth rested from the original curse that there would be difficulty in producing food and, therefore נח means “rest”

One other interesting thing is that on the word זה “This”, we have two טעמי המקרא the נגינות, trop, they are תלישא גדולה followed by a גרשים. It is very unusual that there should be two נגינות on one word and even more unusual when there are only two letters to the word. Even more peculiar is that fact that when the Baal Koreh reads this he sings the גרשים before the תלישא גדולה.

One final difficulty is that there is a אות משונה in the ז and this, of course, I must explain. There are certain letters in Torah that by tradition were not written in the normal way. We all know about the big ב of בראשית and the small א of ויקרא but in addition, on rare, but some, occasions there is an אות משונה . That means they are written with something different about them, not in the normal way and I have, today brought with me a copy of these unusual ways of writing letters as extracted from a Sefer called מחזור ויטרי written by a Talmid of Rashi. If you look at each individual letter, you will see that they are sometimes most extraordinary and if you look at the ז it looks like almost a ת with a line through the middle. The ז of זה has by tradition this similar split in it.

I feel sure that by now, you all realise that Noach birth and Noach’s life were all something very special.

In order to explain this special quality, I think we have to go back to the creation of Odom Harishon who was created by Hashem as the perfect man, both physically and spiritually. The Torah tells us when he was created on the sixth day of Maasei Beraishis, ויברא אלקים את האדם בצלמו בצלם אלקים ברא אתו and Hashem created the man in his image, in the image of Hashem he created him.

צלם אלקים is a special spiritual affinity with Hashem.

If you go back to the beginning of the sixth day of creation and count the words commencing from ויאמר אלקים תוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה and you keep on counting the words until you come to ויברא אלקים את האדם בצלמו בצלם אלקים you will find that there are exactly 58 words. The gemmatria of נח and חן is each 58. What I am suggesting is that ונח מצא חן means that Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem because he adhered to the חן namely the צלם אלקים the special spiritual affinity with Hashem.

The Zohar Hakodesh at the end of Parshas Beraishis and the Midrash likewise both comment on a posek in tehillim which says אשר שם שמות בארץ The Rishonim, the original inhabitants of this world used to have kavona, they gave names to their children according to their attributes. The word שמות is interpreted as “names”.

If we go back two generations, the great-grandfather of Noach was the famous חנוך Here, in his name also, we have the Ches and the Nun, the חן but in addition we have a Vov and a Chof which adds up to 26 which is the same gemmatria as the name of Hashem. What I am suggesting is that his father also gave him a name which had in it this hint that he would attain a very high spiritual level, that he would have this צלם אלקים and הוי' integrally in himself. In fact, we find that he unusually died very young for those generations, he was only 365 years of age and the Torah tells us
ויתהלך חנוך את האלקים ואיננו כי לקח אתו אלקים
Rashi comments that he was a Tzaddik and he looked as if he would possibly be going to sin and, therefore, Hashem took him from the world earlier than he should have otherwise departed. There is a medrash which says the כוחות הטומאה ganged up on him and I suggest that because his name so clearly showed that he had this spiritual affinity, extreme pressure was put on him to make him sin.

When his grandson, Lemach, had a son, he realised that this boy also had the potential to be spiritually bound up with Hashem as had happened to חנוך. He was scared that the same thing might happen to his son as had happened to חנוך. Therefore, he did not name him חנוך after his great-grandfather but named him נח and when asked about the name explained that he, נח, would comfort everybody by inventing a plough to make agriculture easier. That being the implication of לאמר, saying ממעשנו זה ינחמנו

We find that when ראובן was born to Leah, the Torah tells us that she called him ראובן because כי ראה ה' בעניי Hashem saw my humiliation (because Yaakov was still upset that she had replaced Rochel) Rashi there quotes Chazal who explain that she said ראו מה בין בני לבין חמי etc. See the difference between my son and the son of my father-in-law (namely Eisav). Why was it that our Chazal gave a different explanation from that which is written in Torah as being the reason for Reuvain’s name? If you look carefully at what is written in Torah it says כי אמרה, when she was asked she said, see my discomfort and humiliation. That was the טעם גלוי, the official explanation. But deeper down there was a hidden reason, a hidden meaning טעם כמוס.

What I am suggesting is, that a similar occurrence took place when נח was born. His father gave an official reason for the name but there was this deeper explanation, namely, that Noach had the potential to adhere to the צלם אלקים

We can now understand the last posek of Beraishis ,ונח מצא חן בעיני ה'because he, unlike all of his generation had not gone astray.

The third verse in Noach states
ותשחת הארץ לפני האלקים ותמלא הארץ חמס
(All the inhabitants of) the earth had become corrupt before Hashem and the earth had become filled with robbery.

The next posek itself states כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו everybody was affected and it was only Noach who stood out against the depravity, permissiveness and loss of spirituality and lack of affinity with Hashem. It is because of this that he was given such extraordinary titles.

Let us enumerate them again, איש a man, a mensch, the way every person should be, צדיק righteous, תמים perfect. If that is not enough את האלקים התהלך נח he walked with Hashem. Every action of his was in accordance with what Hashem really wanted and that is precisely the idea of adhering to צלם אלקים.

Avrohom Avinu was 58 years old when Noach passed away. As the אבן עזרא puts it כשנח נח היה אברהם בן נח. The midrash says that he, in fact, did meet Noach and obviously knew the background of why the mabul had taken place. He, followed by Yitzchok, Yaakov and Moshe Rabbenu etc., had the example of Noach and what happened in his lifetime to learn from and, therefore, it was not so difficult for them to retain their צלם אלקים .

Let me come back to other points I have raised, namely the two neginos on the word זה and even more extraordinary that the Baal Koreh reads them the other way round. First you have a תלישא גדולה and then you have a גרשים and yet when the Baal Koreh reads them he intones the גרשים first.

The word תלישא is similar to תלוש which means to tear out, so תלישא גדולה means a great tearing out. The Zohar Hakodesh says that תלישא also means תל אש a mound where there was previously a property that has all been destroyed., aish is fire. This is exactly what happened at the time of the מבול, the whole world was uprooted and Hashem used boiling hot water. So the תלישא גדולה is a hint to the mabul which took place in the lifetime of Noach, namely זה, this one, during his lifetime this will happen.

The other side of the coin is that you have Noach standing out against the yetzer horah and all the evil influences. He pushed them away and that is, גרשים. To divorce, to drive away these bad influences and yetzer horah etc. He succeeded.

If you would ask most people what was the greatest event that happened during Noach’s lifetime, the immediate answer would be the mabul but really on a spiritual level, it was even more impressive that he managed to stand out against the whole of his generation. Therefore, when it comes to the Baal Koreh reading these two niginos, both on the word זה , he reads the גרשים first to emphasise that at a very high level that was the first and foremost and primary achievement of Noach.

The fact that the ז is split into two, an אות משונה, comes to tell us that Noach spanned two different epochs of the world one before the mabul and the second after the mabul. The world after the mabul was quite different, for example, things grew differently, people were already allowed to eat meat and there was little comparison with before and after the mabul.

However, Noach remained steadfast in his adherence of צלם אלקים and as it says איש צדיק תמים היה בדרתיו in his generations, both before and after the מבול

Looking carefully at the two words צלם אלקים we can discover a deeper meaning than just the simple explanation mentioned above of being a special spiritual affinity with Hashem. Taking the word צלם the letter צ has a numerical value of 90. The ל has a numerical value of 30, the מ is an end ם. The mekubulim tell us that in addition to the letters of the אלך בית, up to ת the end lettersץ ף ך ם ן also have numerical values. ת equals 400 and ם equals 500, ן equals 600 etc.. Accordingly, in respect of צלם we have, therefore the 500, as well as the 90 plus 30 totalling 620. This is equivalent to the 613 mitzvos the Torah has given us, together with the 7 mitzvos d’rabbonon which, therefore, total 620. Furthermore, it equals the word כתר, a crown. By adhering to all the mitzvos, we are, in effect, figuratively speaking putting a crown on the head of Hashem, namely confirming that He is King of the whole universe.

This dovetails with the expression לעולם ועד יהו' מלך יהו' מלך יהו' ימלוך (total numerical value 620) which, in fact, is not a verse anywhere but is taken from three different posukim. This is said every morning in the middle of יהי כבוד and elsewhere in davening. Once again, we are stating that Hashem, Was King, Is King and Will always be King, proclaiming His ultimate Kingship over the whole of the universe. All this is part of us retaining and proclaiming our צלם אלקים.

Turning to the second word namely אלקים utilising on the numerical values, we have א equals 1, ל equals 30, ה equals 5, י equals 10, and ם is again 500 all totalling 546.

We have a tradition that 91 is the total of two words namely א - ד - נ – ' equals 65 and י - ה - ו – ' equalling 26. Those two words signify our acceptance of Hashem as Lord, Adnus and Havaya, not only Hashem of mercy but the true Name of Hashem שם העצם 6 times 91 is 546. This alludes to the fact that אלקים which represents מידת הדין , in depth, has in it qualities including mercy and the ultimate Name of Hashem. This is true for all points of the compass, North, East, South, West as well as Up and Down, namely, 6 times 91 = 546.

There are other mekubolim who tell us that the numerical values ofץ ף ך ם ן are in the order of how the letters are in the אלך בית so therefore, ך would be 500, ם would equal 600 etc.

According to that calculation the word צלם would, therefore, be צ equals 90, ל equals 30 and ם equals 600 and therefore the total is 720.

The name of Hashem הוי' can be spelt out in full, מלוי in four ways. The one with the greatest numerical value is יוד הי ויו הי, that totals 72. This is known as the spelling of the Shem Haviya associated with the highest world עולם האצילות . From that very high point through the ten ספירות, the קדושה of Hashem descended to this world. 72 times 10 equals 720. Once again, the implication is that by adhering to צלם אלקים one has a unbroken cord right up to the highest spiritual world as when Hashem created Odom Harishon.

Furthermore, ע''ב is the same gemmatria as חסד and by adhering to this, one brings down from the upper worlds Hashem’s loving kindness to ourselves. אלקים on the other hand being מידת הדין represents the fact that we have to always have יראת ה' we must never forget to be in awe, full of reverence for the בורא עולם the creator of the whole world.

To sum up, we, therefore, have in the depths of צלם אלקים much deeper spiritual affinity with Hashem, than just appears on the surface.


I feel sure that you will agree that Noach can serve as a great example for all of us nowadays. I do not think that we need to dwell too much on the frightening moral decay and lack of standards of behaviour taking place over the past decades, the permissive society. We, at least, have the example shown by Noach and also all the mitzvos of Torah to help us to withstand the moral decadence and continuing new inventions which are used in a bad way to try to influence us in an incorrect manner.

I have just returned from Los Angeles having spent an inspiring and spiritually uplifting Succos with my family who live in Los Angeles. There is a thriving Yiddishe kehilla there. In the Toras Emes school alone there are well over 1,000 school children studying and experiencing חנוך, על טהרת הקודש, there are thriving Botei Midrash with limud Hatorah, kollelim, mikvoas, a strong Beth Din and a reliable Kashrus organisation etc.

Do you know in which part of Los Angeles this is all situated, in Hollywood!! Yes, one mile or so from Sunset Boulevard the מקור הטומאה there are Yidden who proudly adhere to the צלם אלקים. There are, in addition, numerous בעלי תשובה among them, many of whom have progressed so far that they are completed integrated into the original kehilla.

This just goes to prove that if Noach could do it, against all of his generation, we can certainly try to emulate him and retain our צלם אלקים together with the rest of Klal Yisroel until the coming of משיח , במהרה בימינו אמן

Thank you.

Start the Day the Torah Way א מרחשון 5768

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