Thursday, 4 December 2014

START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 30th November 2014 ח' כסלו

The sedras Toldos, Veyeitzei and Vayishlach outline the birth of Yaakov and Eisav, how they grew up to be so different and to have such a contrastingly different way of life. The brochos that Yaakov Avinu received and, therefore, Eisav’s hatred to him followed by Yaakov Avinu’s years with Lovon, having children, returning to Eretz Yisroel, meeting Eisav on the way and diffusing Eisav’s anger. Before encountering Eisav, an angel, who is known to be the patron angel of Eisav, fighting with Yaakov and all that he managed to do, was to give him a dislocated hip. Yaakov finally to be given an extra name, Yisroel.


I would like to day to explore in more detail the stark divergence between the two brothers and their children, which has continued to this very day.

Whereas Yaakov Avinu did not get married until he was 84 years of age and then married two sisters within the space of a week, in Padan Aram, Eisav was already married at the age of 40 to local girls from Canaan. They worshipped avodah zora. Subsequently, he married Mocheles the daughter of Yishmoel and their children have in them the blood of both Eisav and Yishmoel.

Furthermore, I feel sure that over the generations there were many cross marriages between the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and further generations of the descendents of Eisav and Yishmoel and not just Eisav having married the daughter of Yishmoel.

We have only to read, towards the end of Parshas Vayishlach, regarding the generations of Eisav and Rashi’s comments regarding the various mamzerim to begin to appreciate the depths of their depravity.

The oldest son of Eisav was Elifaz. The Sefer Hayosher, which is a medrash, states that Elifaz was commanded by Eisav to chase after Yaakov when Eisav found out that Yaakov had been told by his parents to go and find a wife from the children of Lovon, his mother’s brother.

Elifaz, so the Sefer Hayosher states, was 13 years old at the time and he pursued Yaakov together with a whole band of men, ready to kill. When he caught up with Yaakov, Yaakov, his uncle, begged Elifaz to have mercy on him. Elifaz was moved by the request but asked Yaakov “what do I do with the command I received from my father”. “Well”, said Yaakov, “I was given silver and gold and other possessions by my parents so that when I go to look for a wife I should not be penniless. If you take it all from me, I will become a poor person and we have a rule which states  חשוב כמתעני , a poor person is reckoned as if he was dead.”

Elifaz departed with the money and Yaakov was allowed to continue on his way.

We have to understand this. Eisav was known as a killer, he had killed Nimrod and, no doubt, many other people. If he had told his own son to dispose of Yaakov what was going to happen when Elifaz returned. Eisav might be so annoyed that he would kill Elifaz. What was Elifaz’s rationale in taking the money rather than disposing of Yaakov?

The Shem M’Shmuel, the son of the Sochotchover Rebbe and grandson of the Kotzker Rebbe asked another question. What was the use of Yitzchok and Rivkah sending Yaakov to Padan Aram in order to save him from Eisav. We know, because the Torah tells us at the end of Parshas Toldos that Yitzchok blessed Yaakov and sent him to Padan Aram and Eisav was aware of this. That meant that Eisav knew exactly where Yaakov was going and could find him.

The Shem M’Shmuel explains that Eisav’s hatred for Yaakov was fuelled by the fact that Yaakov had received the brochos, which included the one that stated that his brother would be a servant to him, namely, all the goodies that would come to Eisav would, in fact, belong to Yaakov. We have a rule, כל מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו, all that a servant acquires belongs to his owner.

However, Yitzchok said to Eisav והיה כאשר תריד ופרקת עלו מעל צוארך, namely that when Yaakov would be troubled and busy, the yoke of Yaakov removed from Eisav. This would be caused if Yaakov or his descendents did not adhere to the standards of the Ovos and did not keep the Torah. Therefore, Eisav reckoned to himself that he should let Yaakov go to Lovon who had a reputation as a first class rogue and drei kopf . Eisav believed that Lovon would influence Yaakov to be the same and therefore, the עול, the yoke, of Yaakov would be removed.

Accordingly, if Yaakov became like Lovon then Eisav would no longer be under the domination of Yaakov. That is what the Shem M’Shmuel suggests.

We can, therefore, similarly explain Elifaz’s reasoning in taking Yaakov’s money and sparing his life.

Elifaz reasoned that if Yaakov would have arrived at Lovon’s house with plenty of funds, it would be sensible to assume that Yaakov would stand up to Lovon and not be influenced by him. He would marry one of the daughters, come back to Eretz Yisroel and, therefore, continue in his path as איש תם, as perfect man, a yiras shemayim, because he would not be influenced by Lovon However if he arrived at Lovon’s home town penniless, he would be sure to be influenced.

In fact, what happened was that Yaakov served Lovon for seven years before acquiring Rochel as a wife and nevertheless remained a tzaddik.

This idea is borne out by the expression used when Yaakov sent the angels to Eisav and told him, עם לבן גרתי, I sojourned with Lovon, and Rashi gives two explanations.

The first is “I did not become a שר, a special person”, alternatively Rashi says “I kept the 613 mitzvos”. The word גרתי equalling 613.

The way we have explained the reasoning, the two explanations fit together. Yaakov was implying to Eisav even though “I did not become a great person, שר, in Padan Aram, I was still only a stranger, גר, in the place and I had to be under the yoke of Lovon, nevertheless, I still did not change my ways and remained a tzaddik.”

I think we can extrapolate something which is relevant to our generation from all these exchanges. We have experienced over the last 50 to 60 years a profound increase in Torah learning, a baal teshuva movement, a great increase in what is colloquially called Bnei Torah. However, especially, in Eretz Yisroel, pressure is put on to try and keep these people poor, on the basis of trying to then influence them to change their ways, for the bad.

We know that in the same way as Paroh in Mitzraim wanted to destroy the Yidden and it states אשר יענו אותו כן ירבה וכן יפרוץכ, and the more they afflicted them, the more they increased, so it is nowadays. The כח of Torah continues to grow despite the pressures and problems.

Let us now consider Yaakov Avinu and his children.

The Torah tells us that Yaakov Avinu was איש תם יושב אהלים. He was not just a perfect Tzaddik, he studied in the Yeshiva originally run by Shem and after his petirah continued by Ever and according to the Sefer Hayosher he learned there the best part of 40 years. This includes the 14 years he was at the Yeshiva immediately before he went to Padan Aram.

Despite the fact that he worked very hard for 20 years from the age of 77 to 97 looking after Lovon’s sheep, as the Torah eloquently tells us, he remained a tzaddik. The first 7 years he worked for Rochel, the next 7 were for Leah, both of whom he married and the final six years that he should acquire some wealth before going back to his father in Eretz Yisroel.

During the course of the middle seven years, he had 11 sons and one daughter all of whom were tzaddikim, as were his wives, Rochel, Leah, Bihla and Zilpa.

Altogether this was a colossal achievement. He was not at home with his parents Yitzchok and Rivkah, he was in the environment of Lovon. Furthermore, the people of the whole of the town of Padan Aram were, likewise, not tzaddikim, nevertheless, despite all the difficulties, מטתו שלימה, he had a special family.

What was the secret of this success story. I believe that there were a number of factors but will just point out a couple. First of all Yaakov’s upbringing, learning, time spent in Yeshiva and personality had rounded him into an individual who could be firm yet understanding and remain a tzaddik under pressure. He was a living example to his children.

We know that the middoh of Avrohom was chesed, kindness, the middoh of Yitzchok was gevurah, strength. Yaakov’s middoh was known as tiferes, splendour, that is a mixture of the two and because he had this mixture was able to run his household and bring up his family in an exemplary manner.

He was, of course, ably assisted by Rochel and Leah who were themselves צדקניות, very righteous ladies.

I also believe that there was one other major factor that helped considerably in ensuring that all his children followed in his ways.

I mentioned earlier on that Yaakov was busy day and night looking after Lovon’s sheep and, therefore, it was down to his wives, who were at home with the children  to bring them up as he would wish (and, of course, as they wished). What I think helped considerably was that the wives gave the names to the children, not Yaakov, but Rochel or Leah named the children. This gave them an additional incentive for each child to be a tzaddik. Psychologically, a person deciding a name for a child feels more responsibility for the upbringing of that child.

One other point that should be mentioned is that Rochel and Leah were actually sisters which could have also caused a lot of friction but they co-existed very well in all the circumstances.

The Torah states at the beginning of Toldos after the birth of Yaakov and Eisav, Eisav was איש יודע ציד איש שדה, he was hunter who loved the outdoor life. The Torah continues Yaakov was איש תם יושב אהלים, he was perfect man who sat in tents, meaning studying Torah.

Rashi tells us about Eisav that the expression יודע ציד, he knew how to hunt, did not just mean hunting animals, he also had confrontations with human beings, he killed Nimrod, and others. But Rashi adds that he tried to emulate Yitzchok and so impress Yitzchok that he, Eisav, was really a good man and a bit of a tzaddik. For example, he got married to two Hittite women at the age of 40 because Yitzchok also got married at the age of 40. However, Rashi brings a medrash that until then, not only had he been hunting animals and killing people, he had been enticing married women away from the their husbands.

The medrash tells us that Eisav asked his father, how to you take maasar, tithes, from salt. As far as his father was concerned, he projected himself as very righteous and honoured his father, in his own way.

One could say that he had a similar basic nature to Yitzchok in that Yitzchok was a strong character who spoke his mind and made people understand in no uncertain terms that there was an Hashem who created the world and runs the world.

For example, when Avimelech sent Yitzchok away from Gerar and afterwards Avimelech came to ask him to renew the pact that his father had made with Avrohom, Yitzchok’s reaction was “Why are you coming to me, you hate me, you sent me away.” Not very diplomatic, to say the least. Therefore, Yitzchok was taken in by Eisav who had a similar type of nature but unfortunately had flaws in his character in that he used his physical strengths and mental abilities in a twisted manner.

Yaakov, by contrast, was more like his mother, he had the firmness of Yitzchok but he had a great dose of the chesed of Rivkah and he was the intellectual and not איש שדה.

The differences between the two brothers became even more pronounced in the next generation or two. We have already mentioned Elifaz, the oldest son of Eisav, but one generation later, his son, was עמלק Amolek.

We all know that the tribe of Amolek was the one that attacked the Yidden when they came out of Egypt, when everybody else was in awe of them.

Unfortunately, this difference in basic nature and attitude has continued over the generations.

I mentioned earlier on that Eisav married the daughter of Yishmoel and, no doubt, there were many cross marriages later on between the two nations.

In that context, I would, once again like to mention the story of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, the Rov of Yerushalayim which happened about 120 years ago.

Rabbi Diskin was coming home one Friday night in the Old City of Jerusalem from davening, accompanied by a number of baalebatim. All of a sudden stones were being thrown at them by Arabs. The baalebatim scattered and the Rov took one look and carried on walking home.

Later that evening, the baalebatim began coming round to his house to apologise for having left him on his own. One of them asked him why was it that he appeared not to be shocked, as they were, at the stone throwers.

He answered. “It is written clearly in Torah”. We are talking here about people who could really learn, they were  יקירי ירושלים. One ventured to suggest that the Rov was referring to a posuk which reads as follows:-וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך. Namely, that all the people of the world will see that the name of Hashem rests over you and will fear you.

No, said Rabbi Diskin, I did not mean that. They tried other pesukim, but to no avail.

Eventually he told them what he was driving at. When the angel came to Hogor and told her that she was going to have a son, the following statement was made:- והוא יהיה פרא אדם , and he will be a wild man.

In English we refer to somebody of that ilk as a wild man, the adjective comes before the noun, wild-man. However, in Hebrew, Loshen Hakodesh, it is always the other way round, namely the noun comes before the adjective. For example, if you would like to call somebody a “good man”, you do not say טוב אדם, you say אדם טוב, namely the אדם comes first. Rabbi Diskin continued, significantly, the Torah refers to ישמעאל as פרא אדם, in other words the noun is פרא  wild, אדם is only the adjective. He just looks like a man. So Rabbi Diskin completed his statement, “In the circumstances, I was not surprised to see stones being thrown at us”.

The combination of stone throwing and that for Eisav of על חרבך תחיה, you will live by the sword, unfortunately is in the blood of the Bnei Eisav and Yishmoel mixed together, as I mentioned.

I know that it is very painful to mention but we all know what has happened very recently in Eretz Yisroel, stone throwing, stabbings, culminating in the most painful incident of the four kedoshim in Har Nof just a fortnight ago. I have seen it reported that Reb Chaim Kanievsky when he heard about this, commented with just two words חבלי משיח. I feel that there is no doubt we are very much in the last throes of the חבלי משיח. We just have to be strong in face of all the problems and pressures.

Let us come to our day and age, I mentioned that we have been blessed over the last 50 years or so by having a tremendous upsurge in Torah learning, new seforim being produced and shemiras hamitzvos are on the up and up. Not only that, a great proportion of the shomrei Torah and Mitzvos live in Eretz Yisroel which has not happened for thousands of years.

The other side of the coin is the hatred shown by the nations around the Middle East in particular, but also anti-Semitism generally has again reared its ugly head and we see the background of Eisav and Yishmoel threatening.

We must remain firm in our belief that Hashem will look after us and that Moshiach will soon come. Meanwhile, we must continue in our path of learning Torah, keeping the mitzvos and with middos toivos, showing a good way to other Jews and to the nations of the world, making a Kiddush Hashem.


By doing that, we will hasten the coming of Moshiach, במהרה בימינו אמן.

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Monday, 15 September 2014

START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 12TH ELLUL 5774 WAR WITH HAMAS 2014

I would like to start by posing a question regarding the descendents of Yishmoel.

In the sedra that we have just read כי תצא, there are no less than 74 mitzvos enumerated. Among them are the following:-

לא יבא עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה'   עד עולם
Namely that a male person from the nations of Ammon or Moav could not ever be allowed to become a convert to the Bnei Yisroel.

The Torah continues by saying that somebody from Edom (children of Eisav) or from Egypt were not allowed to join the Bnei Yisroel until the third generation.

What strikes me as strange is that if one of the descendents of Yishmoel wishes to become a ger the Torah does not forbid this at all.

The Torah tells us that the descendents of Ammon and Moav cannot be accepted, because their forefathers did not give assistance by providing food drink when the Bnei Yisroel went out of Egypt and they went so far as to hiring Balaam to curse the Yidden, therefore, they can never be allowed to join our people. The Edomites and the Egyptians both caused considerable problems to Bnei Yisroel up to the time the Torah was given, but are excluded for two generations. Bear in mind the fact that right at the end of the sedra we are told that the tribe of Amolek which is one of the Bnei Eisav must be completely wiped out.

And yet the descendents of Yishmoel do not have an exclusion clause!!

If we go back to Parshas יראו, we find that Soroh suggested to Avrohom that he should send away Hogor and her son Yishmoel. Unwillingly, Avrohom did so. Hogor and Yishmoel were in the wilderness, did not have what to drink and Hashem made a miracle by showing them where there was a well. Rashi explains on the words וישמע ה' אל קול הנער באשר הוא שם that Hashem listened to the cries of Yishmoel. We have to consider the unusual phrase באשר הוא As he is. Rashi quotes a Gemora in Rosh Hashonah that the malochim said to Hashem, these people are going to cause major problems to the Jewish nation. They referred to the fact that when the Yidden went into Golus after the first churban and were trudging through the sands on the way to Bovel, modern Iraq, they asked to be allowed to go to their cousins, the Arabs, descendents of Yishmoel, who, they thought would help them by giving them food and drink. They were allowed to but what they received were salty foods and gourds which had holes in them so that instead of drinking water, they inhaled air which killed them.

To me it seems very strange that no mention is made in Torah of any prohibition to one of the descendents of Yishmoel becoming a ger.

I will return to this later.

Meanwhile, I want to turn to a different subject.

When Moshe Rabbenu was a young man, living in the palace of Pharaoh, the Torah tells us that he went out and saw the distress of fellow Jews. He saw an Egyptian hitting a Jewish brother of his. Moshe looked each way, saw that there was nobody there and the Torah continues ויך את המצרי, he smote the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Rashi comments that Moshe’s method of killing the Mitzri was to use one of the names of Hashem which caused the Mitzri to die.

The Torah continues that the next day, when Moshe went out again, he found two Jewish men (we are told Doson and Aviram) fighting and he made the following statement:-                         ויאמר לרשע למה תכה רעך

He said to the evil one, why did you hit your friend, to which he was answered, Who appointed you as a leader and judge over us.     הלהרגני אתה אמר כאשר הרגת את המצרי
Do you wish to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?

Significantly, the expression used is אתה אמר “you say”, and from this, Rashi quotes a medrash that the Jewish person was accusing Moshe of wishing to kill him by word of mouth the same way as he had killed the Egyptian, using the expression אתה אמר you say.

Rabbi Yitzchok Luria, the Arizal, comments on this. He clarifies which one of the שמות, names of Hashem, was used to carry out this act. Surprisingly, he says that the word תכה was actually used. You may have never heard of such a Shem and in fact, it is not one of the 7 names of Hashem that one may not delete if they are written down.

However, I would refer you to what we say in the Hoshanas prayer on Succos when we state אני והו הושיעה נא.

אני means I. והו does not have any recognisable translation (הושיעה נא means please save us). This expression, in fact, is brought in a Mishna on Sukkah in the name of Reb Yehuda. Rashi explains there that there is a special Shem known as Shem ע''ב, 72. This is made up of letters taken from three separate pesukim, verses, which occur before the famous Krias Yam Suf, the splitting of the Reed Sea. There are three consecutive verses, each of which have 72 letters, in Parshas בשלח (Shemos 14 verses 19, 20 and 21). The first verse starts off:-

ויסע מלאך האלקים etc,

The second one starts, ויבא and ends with the word הלילה.

The third verse starts יטו and ends with the words ויבקעו המים.

In short, an angel of Hashem together with the pillars of cloud instead of going in front of the Jewish encampment went behind them and separated, therefore, between them and the Egyptian encampment. The two camps did not have any contact all night. Moshe lifted his hand up over the water and a very strong wind came and the famous נס, miracle, of the splitting of the sea took place. That is the translation of the words ויבקעו המים, the waters split.

If you look carefully at these three verses, you will find that each one has 72 letters and Rashi explains that if you take the first letter of the first posuk, a ו, the last letter of the second posuk which is the ה of הלילה and the first letter of the third posuk ו of יטו, you have והו.

Just to explain in more detail. Why does one have to go forward in the case of the first verse, backward in the second verse and in the third verse forward again? The Zohar Hakodosh explains that the first posuk refers to the zechus of Avrohom Avinu whose מידה was חסד, kindness and therefore this starts from the beginning and goes smoothly to the end.

The second posuk is in the zechus of Yitzchok whose מידה was גבורה, strength, in order to counter act גבורה, one has to start at the end and work backwards and, therefore, one starts from the last letter with the ה of הלילה.

The third posuk is in the zechus of Yaakov Avinu whose מידה, his special quality, was תפארת, splendour which is a mixture of the two qualities of Avrohom and Yitzchok but more emphasis given to that of chesed, therefore, one once again starts at the beginning.

And so, in order to create 72 separate combinations, you take the next letter of the first posuk, that is a י, you go back one letter from the end in the second posuk, that is a ל and then you have the second letter of the third posuk a י  and this makes  ילי. By continuing with this method, frontwards, backwards and then frontwards again, one has 72 separate combinations. The 37th combination, right in the middle, is אני. Rashi says that the import of אני והו הושיעה נא, is that we are asking Hashem to save us in the zechus, the merit, of these Shaimos which were used at the time of Krais Yam Suf.

The 8th one of the combinations is כהת, which rearranged is תכה “to smite”. This, the Arizal says, was the word which Moshe Rabbenu utilised in order to get rid of the Egyptian.

The Arizal then refers us to a posuk which is the penultimate one recited in ובא לציון every day, near the end of Shacharis. This reads as followsויבטחו בך יודעי שמך כי לא עזבת דרשיך יהו-ה, loosely translated as “and those who know your name (Hashem) have trust in you because you do not forsake those who seek you, Hashem” The Arizal says, that looking at the final letters of the last three words which are עזבת דרשיך יהו-ה,  כ הת they make up the word תכה and, therefore, this alludes to what Moshe Rabbenu said. He was obviously a person who was of the יודעי שמך, knew the name of Hashem and was therefore, capable of being דורש  Hashem, to seek Hashem. He would not be disregarded by Hashem.

All this I have just mentioned is quoted in the name of Arizal.

I would like to add the following.

Looking at the next verse, that is the final posuk that we say at the end of ובא לציון namely יהו' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר, this can be loosely translated as follows “Hashem wishes, in order to evoke his righteousness, that the Torah should be made great and glorious”.

I would like to suggest that in the present situation with rockets flying from Gaza and even occasionally from Lebanon, there is a way that one can influence the outcome in our favour, other than physically being in the army or saying tehillim etc. (and this applies even if there is a ceasefire. Who knows how long it will last?)

The numeric value, גמטריא of תכה is 425. The numerical value, גמטריא, of ישמעאל, Yishmoel, is 451, the difference between the two words is therefore 26, (425 plus 26 equals 451). By invoking the first word of the last verse, namely 'יהו which equals 26, one creates a situation that neutralises the power of Yishmoel, however, that is not sufficient to overcome it completely.

Utilising the same method as suggested by the Arizal in taking the last letters of the three words עזבת דרשיך יהו-ה, if one takes the last letter of the next word חפץ " the numerical value of the צ is 90. Adding 90 to 451 one comes to 541. This is the exact numerical value of Yisroel, ישראל.

Well that is very nice, therefore, one has now got numerical superiority.

All the Gedolei Yisroel have been mentioning and entreating people to increase their Torah learning in the last few weeks. Let us continue with the posuk I quoted יהו' חפץ .למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר

How can Hashem be entreated to ensure that we have victory and quiet without any missiles being thrown and people being killed etc.? By increasing Torah learning and adherence to Torah values. That is exactly what the posuk says, יגדיל תורה ויאדיר the Torah should be made great and glorious

It is in the hands of every Jew to learn Torah and increase their learning of Torah. They should also assist others in learning Torah as well as adhering to the mitzvos and making a Kiddush Hashem in all ways. All this is part and parcel of the expression יגדיל תורה ויאדיר. The translation is, the Torah should be made great and glorious.

Hopefully, this will also hasten the coming of Moshiach in our times.

Looking carefully at the three final words יגדיל תורה ויאדיר the second letter from the end, of these three words יגדיל תורה ויאדיר, are ירי. I mentioned earlier on about the Shem ע''ב and that it consists of 72 different combinations of letters. You might be interested to know that one of them is ריי which, working on the same basis as the Arizal did, can be rearranged as ירי.

There is a lot more depth in Torah that appears on the surface.

I think it would be appropriate to consider the whole situation in the Middle East. Fighting involving the Arabs בני ישמעאל, is extraordinary. The savagery, bloodshed and lack of consideration even for their own brethren is mind boggling.

A war has been going on in Syria for years now and according to reports, over 190,000 people including many children have been killed unmercifully as well as over a million people having fled the country. This is just one part of the story. We now have ISIS, this very extreme Islamic, fundamentalist group occupying considerable parts of Iraq as well as Syria and carrying out beheadings, forced conversations etc. It does not stop there, Libya is now encountering the same problems and one can only conjecture as to where this all leading to.

I believe that if somebody would have written a novel ten years ago utilising the above facts and figures, he would not have sold many copies. The book would have been treated as fantastic, beyond the realms of possibility.

I am reminded of a story of Reb Yehoshua Leib Diskin, Rov of Yerushalyim about 120 years ago who was coming home one Friday night in the Old City of Jerusalem from davening, accompanied by a number of baalebatim. All of a sudden stones were being thrown at them by Arabs. The baalebatim scattered and the Rov took one look and carried on walking home.

Later that evening, the baalebatim began coming round to his house to apologise for having left him on his own. One of them asked him why was it that he appeared not to be shocked, as they were, at the stone throwers.

He answered. “It is written clearly in Torah”. We are talking here about people who could really learn, they were  יקירי ירושלים. One ventured to suggest that the Rov was referring to a posuk which reads as follows:-וראו כל עמי הארץ כי שם ה' נקרא עליך ויראו ממך. Namely, that all the people of the world will see that the name of Hashem rests over you and will fear you.

No, said Rabbi Diskin, I did not mean that. They tried other pesukim, but to no avail.

Eventually he told them what he was driving at. When the angel came to Hogor and told her that she was going to have a son, the following statement was made:- והוא יהיה פרא אדם , and he will be a wild man.

In English we refer to somebody of that ilk as a wild man, the adjective comes before the noun, wild-man. However, in Hebrew, Loshen Hakodesh, it is always the other way round, namely the noun comes before the adjective. For example, if you would like to call somebody a “good man”, you do not say טוב אדם, you say אדם טוב, namely the אדם comes first. Rabbi Diskin continued, significantly, the Torah refers to ישמעאל as פרא אדם, in other words the noun is פרא  wild, אדם is only the adjective. He just looks like a man. So Rabbi Diskin completed his statement, “In the circumstances, I was not surprised to see stones being thrown at us”.

I now come back to the question I asked right at the beginning, namely why is there no prohibition on a descendent of Yishmoel being accepted into the Jewish people.

I believe that the reason for it is that which Hashem answered the angels with the words באשר הוא שם “I look at the circumstances as they are at the moment”. At the time that Yishmoel was dying of thirst as a young boy he was not a rosha and Hashem said “I am looking at the current situation”. If we go forward, we do not find that the Bnei Yishmoel actually done anything wrong collectively to the Jewish people. That is up to the time that Moshe Rabbenu, in his 40th year a few weeks before his petirah, mentioned the prohibitions in respect of Ammon, Moav, Edom and Mitzrayim and the reasons for them.

Therefore, I would suggest, there was no prohibition enacted against accepting descendents of Yishmoel as geirim.

Whilst it is true that 900 years later, after the first churban, they did horrible things, that was much later. Hashem had set out his way of dealing with the Bnei Yishmoel on the basis of באשר הוא שם. What is his position at the moment. It therefore follows that if the descendents of Yishmoel are nasty to the Bnei Yishmoel, as they are at present, they deserve to be punished and will be punished. We nowadays are at that juncture and we can see how things have been panning out in the Middle East.


The situation is indeed grave and menacing. However, we have אמונה and  בטחון, belief and faith that Hashem will look after us and especially our brethren in Eretz Yisroel, who have seen so many ניסים, miracles, over the past weeks . These are part of the חבלי משיח. We hope and pray that ה' will speedily bring Moshiach Tzidkanu in our time, במהרה בימינו אמן.

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Monday, 25 August 2014

START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY EREV LAG B’OMER 5772

From the time that Moshe Rabbenu is first mentioned in Torah at the beginning of Shemos, there is only one sedra, I believe, Tetzaveh, where he is not mentioned by name. In fact, in most sedras he is mentioned 10 or even 20 times. He personifies the Torah. So much so, that the Novi tells us zichru Toras Moshe avdi, remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant.

Let us try to understand the special stature of Moshe Rabbenu.

Right near the beginning of שמות, the Torah tells us (second chapter verse 1, and verse 2)

וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי ותהר האשה ותלד בן ותרא אתו כי טוב הוא ותצפנהו שלשה ירחים

A man from the house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son, she saw that he was good and hid him for three months.

We all know that, in fact, it was Amram a grandson of Levi who got married to his aunt Yocheved and the child being referred to here was our famous Moishe Rabbenu.

It is extraordinary that no names are mentioned, a man, a woman and a child but no trace of any actual name.

There is a Gemora, סוטה יב. which states that Yocheved was 130 when she bore Moishe. She had passed the menopause and similar to the story of Soroh returned to her youthful state by miracle and then bore Moishe.

What is extraordinary in this particular case is that Aharon was only three years older and Miriam possibly five years older than Moishe and yet they, apparently, were born in a normal fashion. It is only after that, that Yocheved ceased to be able to have a child in the normal way.

Indeed, a very strange chain of circumstances all round, I think!!

What can be gleaned from the whole story is that Moishe Rabbenu was born on a different plane than normal human beings. The Hebrew expression is למעלה מן הטבע, super natural.

What follows from that will explain, in my opinion, numerous facts that we are told in Torah about Moishe Rabbenu.

At the end of Parshas בהעלתך, there is the story of Miriam and Aharon speaking what amounted to loshen hora about Moishe and the Torah tells us (in Bamidbar chapter 12, verse 6, 7, & 8)

ויאמר שמעו נא דברי אם יהיה נביאכם ה' במראה אליו אתודע בחלום אדבר בו לא כן עבדי משה בכל ביתי נאמן הוא

And Hashem said to Aharon and Miriam, “Please listen to what I say, if you are prophets, Hashem shows himself to you in a vision, in a dream that speaks to you. Not so, My servant Moishe he is faithful in all My house.”

פה אל פה אדבר בד ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת ה' יביט

Mouth to mouth I speak to him, and he sees clearly, not in riddles and can look at the image of Hashem.

Indeed staggering statements. The Gemora says that Moishe Rabbenu saw with such a clear vision that it is called אספקלריה המאירה, whereas all other prophets did not have that clarity of vision.

With what I mentioned earlier on, one can understand that as Moishe Rabbenu was born on this much higher plane, his relationship with Hashem was also on a different level and plane to other human beings. The statements of Moishe’s greatness are, therefore, not staggering.

In the same vein, the Chazal tell us that Moishe Rabbenu and all other prophets used the expression כה אמר ה', so Hashem said, but Moishe Rabbenu himself used the expression זה הדבר אשר צוה ה'. This is the command that Hashem gave. He could see precisely and enunciated precisely what Hashem had said.

If we go back to the first vision that we are told about, that Moishe Rabbenu had, at the burning bush, also in Parshas שמות. Hashem saw that he had noticed the bush which was not burning out. It says that Hashem called him from that bush and He said  משה משהMoishe Moishe, The Zohar Hakodesh comments that two other people were called twice by their name. The first was Avrohom, where is says אברהם|אברהם (this was when he was told not to sacrifice Yitzchok at the Akeidah). The other one was יעקב|יעקב. The Zohar states that whereas in the case of Avrohom and Yaakov, they started at a lower level and worked themselves up to an extremely high level, Moishe was born at the same level as he continued for his whole life. This is inferred by the use of משה משה without a line between the two words.

We find at the beginning of the last Sedra in Torah that Moishe is called איש האלקים and our Chazal tell us “part man” part “higher being”. According to the previous comment of Chazal, quoted just above, I would suggest that he was born like that.

In fact, regarding the words I started off with ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא and Yocheved saw that this child was good, Rashi quotes a medrash נתמלא הבית אורה, the house became filled with light, and we are told that that means that the Shechina, Hashem’s presence, came down with the birth of Moishe.

There are numerous other examples of how great Moishe was and how different to other human beings. Let us just quote one further example. After the Torah was given Moishe Rabbenu went up to Heaven, obtained all the details from Hashem and stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights. He, himself, stated לחם לא אכלתי ומים לא שתיתי, I did not eat or drink at all.

With my opening thoughts, one can now understand that because he was on a different plane, it follows that he was not bound by normal human needs and could go 40 days and nights without eating or drinking, and I assume, also without sleeping.

With all this, one can understand another midrash that tells us that when he found the Egyptian beating a Jewish person, he killed him and the midrash tells us that it was by uttering a special name of Hashem שם המפורש. Where did he learn this name? Surely not in Pharaoh’s palace where he was brought up. However, according to what I have suggested, he knew it because he was born on such a high level that automatically this was part of what he had been born with and imbibed.

Turning to the request by Hashem that he should undertake the task of leading the Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, and his refusing, as we told for seven days. We find that Moishe Rabbenu’s reason was כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, because I am a stammerer and heavy of speech.

What I think Moishe Rabbenu was saying is that he knew himself that he was on a different level to other human beings and that the only way in which he was like them was that he had a body which was human. If his speech was impaired and impeded, he felt that he was the wrong person to try to take the Yidden out of Egypt in the circumstances. The main thing that he was supposed to do was to speak to Pharaoh as well as the Yidden and he could not relate to either properly. To which Hashem retorted מי שם פה לאדם, who gave man a mouth. I would ask you carefully note that it says לאדם I think this refers to Odom Harishon and Hashem was saying to Moishe, in the same way that I created Odom Harishon and gave him all his faculties and senses, I can repair your defect of speech.

There is a midrash which says that this was caused by Moishe Rabbenu having burnt his mouth on glowing coals. The midrash comments that at some time as he was growing up, Moishe decided to try on Pharaoh’s crown and Pharaoh got very agitated and wanted to have him killed, but one of his advisers, Yisro, who later became Moishe’s father-in-law, suggested that the child should be tested with a golden dish on one hand and glowing coals on the other to see which one he took. As he was only a child, by taking the coals it would show that he was too young to understand what a crown represented. Nevertheless, Moishe made for the golden dish and the angel Gabriel came and pushed him until he picked up the coals and burnt his tongue.

There is a מאמר חז''ל that the original inhabitants of the world understood why they gave particular names to their children. This was either to do with their characteristics or events that took place during the children’s lives. What I suggest is that Moishe did not have a name at birth because he was above such things, super natural and even his father and mother were not mentioned as the whole episode was above and beyond the norm. He was born to a father and mother, Amram and Yocheved, but had this special supernatural aspect.

We do, however, find one other incident where a child was born in similar circumstances, I am, of course, talking about Yitzchok who was born to his mother when she was already old as the Torah tells us clearly.

However, I think the case there was different because Hashem told Avrohom immediately after informing him that Soroh was going to have a child, that he should name him יצחק. Rashi comments that each letter signifies a particular important point. The י is in commemoration of the ten tests that Avrohom was put through, the צ was the 90 years that Soroh was old when she bore Yitzchok, the ח was the eighth day of the bris mila and the ק was the 100 years that Avrohom was old when Yitzchok was born.

In each case, this is what is known as צימצום and so Yitzchok was born with a specific name tailored to the circumstances and, therefore, not above the normal human way of life in contrast to Moishe Rabbenu, the supernatural child איש האלקים.

לעילוי נשמת אמי מורתי גיטל בת אברהם אבא ע''ה נפטרה ד' אדר תשס''ו לפ''ק

In memory of my mother, yarzheit 4th Adar

  

As we are all aware, we are, at the moment, in the middle of the Sefira days, just coming up to Lag B’Omer. The reason why the sefira is a time of mourning is because the 24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died during that period. There is a Gemora in Menochos כ''ט which says that Moshe Rabbenu went up to receive the rest of the Torah after hearing the Aseres Hadibbros with all the other Yidden, he noticed that on top of the letters there were kessarim, crowns. Moshe Rabbenu was curious and asked Hashem what are these for, is there not enough written in the Torah itself. Hashem retorted, after many generations there is going to be somebody called Akiva Ben Yosef and he will darshan, explain every single one with numerous halachos. Moshe Rabbenu was extremely curious and said, “Can I please see this gentleman?” Hashem told him to sit down in the eighth row and listen to a shuir Rabbi Akiva was giving, Moshe Rabbenu could not understand what was going on, which, of course, upset him. Until at one point, Rabbi Akiva’s pupils asked him, Rebbe, where do you know this from, and he said ”It was halacho L’Moshe M’Sinai.” At that point Moshe Rabbenu was relieved to hear that it was all coming back to what he had learned from Hashem.

He then said to Hashem, “In that case, if You have a person of such great stature as Rabbi Akiva, why did you give the Torah through me?” and Hashem said “That is My business, it is not yours.” Indeed a remarkable Gemora.

However, we can see from this that Rabbi Akiva must have been an extremely great person and I thought it would be instructive to compare the lives of Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva. Please remember that Rabbi Akiva was the son of Gerim, we also know about Rabbi Akiva that for the first 40 years of life he was an Am Ha’Aretz. For the next 40 years he studied Torah under great Tannoim. For the final 40 years of his life, he was the head of the Rabbonim and the greatest Rabbi in Israel.

At some time during this latter period he lost 24,000 talmidim but he did not give up. He then taught 5 new talmidim who became stars of the Tannoim including R’ Shimon Bar Yochai who, tradition tells us, Yahrzeit is on Lag B’Omer. Remarkably, Moshe Rabbenu had a similar background in certain respects.

True he was born to Amram and Yocheved but as a little baby of three months he was brought up in Paroh’s palace and only later on fled from Egypt. He ended up, eventually with Yisro (although I do not know at what age this took place) that initial period of his life would be comparable with the first 40 years of Rabbi Akiva.

Yisro, however, was a different kettle of fish, he had known all the avoda zoras in the world, rejected them and accepted that Hashem was the creator of the world. Moshe Rabbenu was with him for many years and eventually had the vision on Har Sinai of the burning bush. That was at the end of the next forty years. This we know because the Torah tells us that when Moshe Rabbenu finally appeared before Paroh he was 80 years of age. For the next 40 years he was the leader of Klal Yisroel who brought down the Torah and taught it to the Yidden with mesiras nefesh. This was very similar to Rabbi Akiva who in his last 40 years had a similar profile.

Furthermore, in the same way as Rabbi Akiva lost 24,000 talmidim, Moshe Rabbenu, at the time of the story of Zimri, lost 24,000 Yidden. However, Pinchas saved the situation at that time and no doubt he was one of the leading talmidim of Moshe Rabbenu. Pinchas was given a special gift of Kahuna, he was not supposed to be a Kohen and in fact he became Kohen Godol. This is very similar to R’ Shimon Bar Yochai who had revealed to him the secrets of Torah and has become a beacon for all generations.

One the other hand, there are striking differences between Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva, as I said earlier on Moshe Rabbenu was born to Amram and Yocheved, children and grandchildren of the Ovos. Rabbi Akiva was born to parents who became Geirim. Although both Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva knew that they were going to die at a particular time, there was a great difference, Moshe Rabbenu was in full command of all his faculties and just went into a cave and disappeared. Rabbi Akiva, because he taught Torah, was tortured by the Romans as the Gemora describes vividly, he said Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echod and as he said the word Echod, yotzoh nishmosoi b’teharah.

I think that one of the lessons that one can draw from this is that whether one is born into a family that has a great Yichus or into a family which has no Yichus, whether one learnt Torah early on or not, whether one heard Torah from the Rabbonu Shel Olam or not, one can achieve great heights, no very great heights, extraordinarily great heights, by perseverance.

I will only just end with the famous story of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai quoted in the Gemora Shabbos ל''ג who was sitting one date with his colleagues, R’ Yehudah and R’ Yose and discussing the Roman conquest and rule in Eretz Yisroel. As we know R’ Yehudah was complimentary of the fact that the Romans had started rebuilding the land after having caused all the destruction and had created new road and new bridges etc. R’ Yose kept quiet R’ Shimon said they did it all for their good and not for ours. The net result, as we know was that R’ Shimon’s words got back to the Roman authorities and they issued an death edict against him. He ran away, ended up for 12 years in a cave with his son and great miracles took place there, in that a spring of water came out and a carob tree grew. Eventually he came out alive not only physically but spiritually immensely greater because at that time was revealed to him the great secrets of Torah, many of which are embodied in the Zohar Hakodosh.


All the four people I have mentioned, Moshe Rabbenu, Pinchas, Rabbi Akiva and R’ Shimon Bar Yochai showed mesiras nefesh in keeping to Torah and the commands of Hashem. Let us try to emulate them.

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START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 13th NOVEMBER 2012

Daf Hayomi, learning one blatt a day, the same daf itself being studied all over the world, suggested originally by R’ Meir Shapiro over 80 years ago, has taken off lately. The latest siyum worldwide to celebrate finishing the whole of Shas, attracted hundreds of thousands of people including a few thousand at the Royal Festival Hall here in London.

We are now learning Mesechta Shabbos and I felt that this is a good opportunity to discuss a particular matter which puzzled me for many years. There are 39 אב מלאכות, major works, which one may not carry out on Shabbos. Interestingly enough, the mesechta does not start with them and the Mishna which enumerates the 39 is on daf ע''ג right in the middle of the mesechta. That itself should raise a few eyebrows as to why the fundamentals are buried in the middle of the mesechta. Furthermore, going through the 39 one finds that literally the last one is Hamoitzie mareshus lereshus, namely, carrying from a reshus hayoched to a reshus harabim or vice versa, that is a private domain to a public domain or public domain to a private domain.

What puzzled me always, was why does the mesechta start with the laws of carrying to or from a private domain or a public domain?

In fact, the first Mishna starts with












“The laws of carrying in and out on Shabbos are two which become four inside the private domain and two laws which are also four outside in the public domain”. It continues “namely the poor man stands outside and the owner stands inside, in his house, etc.” There is lengthy Mishna giving various examples of what one may not or may do.

Looking at the 39 malochos, the Mishna on daf ע''ג starts as follows:-



The first eleven melochos are a series commencing with זורע, sowing and continuing with ploughing, reaping produce, gathering together the sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, and finally baking. Baking includes all types of cooking.

What we are told is that all the melochos which were needed for the construction of the Mishkan and all the preparations of its components thereto, are the ones which are considered melochos as far as Shabbos is concerned. When the Torah tells us לא תעשה מלאכה ביום השבת, that we may not perform any melocha on Shabbos, this is the list that we are referring to.

These first eleven melochos commencing with sowing, according to Rashi’s interpretation, all had to do with the cooking that was needed to produce the dyes for the colourings of the curtains etc. of the Mishkan.

That is one series of melochos. The Mishna continues with other ones.

The next series starts with הגוזז את הצמר, shearing wool and continues with all the different processes including weaving in order to produce the curtains of the Mishkan.

The Mishna continues with various other melochos such as shechita, writing two letters, building and demolishing, extinguishing fire and kindling fire and מכה בפטיש, which the Gemora understands as being administering the finishing touches for the completion of a job. Last and apparently least is transferring from public to private domain or vice versa.

Why I say apparently least, is the fact that in all other cases, as explained in masterly fashion by the late Dayan Grunfeld in a book on the subject, the state of the particular object referred to, changes either immediately or over a period of time and is therefore considered a melocha which is ossur on Shabbos. For example, sowing, means taking a seed and putting it in the ground. It then disintegrates and becomes eventually a new grown plant, so one has changed the status, albeit over a long time. Baking occurs after taking raw dough and other such materials and making it edible immediately. So can be explained 38 of the 39 melochos.

However, in the case of carrying in and out from one domain to another, this does not apply, there is no change in the status of the object that one takes from reshus hayoched to reshus harabim or vice versa. In fact, Tosefes at the beginning of the mesechta, calls it, therefore a melocha geruah, a lesser type of work.

Nevertheless, we have a kabalah, a tradition, הלכה למשה מסיני that this was one of the 39 melochos. This is learned from the request by Moshe for all the Yidden to bring materials for the Mishkan which they all brought enthusiastically. He then commanded them to stop as stated in Shemois ל''ו (see the Gemora in Shabbos צ''ו the top of omod ב for the details). There, it is stated, that this was in fact a commandment not to bring items on Shabbos from people’s own private dwelling houses, each a private domain, to where Moshe resided in the camp of the Leviim, which was a public domain.

I would reiterate my question namely why does the Mesechta start with the laws of carrying to or from a private domain or a public domain?

I believe that one could understand the reason for starting with these laws of הוצאה והכנסה, as follows:-

If one examines all the 39 melochos in detail, one can find that there are numerous of them that most people would not carry out ever in their lives. For example, sowing, dyeing the wool, or setting two heddles in order to start a weaving process, etc. There are others, that one might occasionally carry out and there are a few that one would carry out more frequently, including baking which includes all types of cooking.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible for many people, especially men who have wives who are very good cooks and baalaboostas, never to actually cook anything themselves.

There is one melocha which virtually everybody performs every day and that is carrying between two domains, leaving ones house and going into the street and vice versa. Therefore, very sensibly, the mesechta starts with a practical melocha which is the most frequent that one would come across. Our chochomim decided that that was the appropriate way to start off Mesechtas Shabbos, giving a practical example which everybody would be able to appreciate and would come across time and time again.

If one would have started with a different melocha, for example, sowing, people might say to themselves “Oh I never do this” and, therefore, it would not have the same effect.

This might also be the reason why the mesechta starts off not, as I said at the beginning, with the enumeration of the 39 melochos but with a practical example, because the chochomim felt that one has to first concentrate on halocho l’maaseh, what is the law in practical cases and then after having considered various melochos, enumerate the whole list.

In fact, if you look carefully through Shas, you will find that this is true of many Mesechtas, which commence with a practical holocho. The principles being mentioned much later in the mesechta.



I would like to suggest an alternative and deeper idea as to why the mesechta starts with the laws of הוצאה והכנסה.

If we go back to the first day when Odom Harishon was created, it was a Friday, the sixth day of creation and the Gemora in Sanhedrin ל'ח  omad ב right at the top, states exactly what happened in the 12 hours commencing 6am in the morning.  I quote below the actual wording of the Gemoro.







Namely, in the first hour 6 am to 7 am, Hashem gathered together the dust in order to create Odom Harishon. The Gemoro then carries on with what happened every hour until in the 4th hour, that is between 9.00am and 10.00 am, Hashem gave Odom Harishon a neshomo. In the 5th hour, he already stood on his feet and was placed in Gan Eden. By the 7th hour he had been given Chava as a wife, in the 8th hour, they had two children.

During the 9th hour, that is, between 2pm and 3pm, he was commanded not to eat from the Etz Hadaas. Between 3pm and 4pm he did eat, then he was judged by 5pm. Late in the afternoon, literally before Shabbos, Odom Harishon and his family were expelled from Gan Eden, where, earlier on in the day, Odom Harishon had been placed, some six hours previously. Then we are told that Odom Harishon tried very hard to get back into Gan Eden and that is why there was להט החרב המתהפכת, the flame of the ever turning sword, to stop him getting back in.

He was excluded from Gan Eden just before Shabbos, as of course, would have been Chava and the other two who were born in the 8th hour (incidentally, one would assume that they were Kayin and Hevel but Tosefes suggests it was Kayin and his twin sister).

Hashem rested on the seventh day as it says clearly in Torah, and no doubt, Odom Harishon also did, in fact, we are told that on Motzei Shabbos, he took stones, created a spark and so created fire, after that, he had to perform numerous other melochos, in order to carry on with his life.

As we are aware, the world degenerated from a spiritual point of view and only re commenced uplifting properly from Avrohom Avinu and the Avos onwards. Eventually the Torah was given which brought the world back to the level of Odom Harishon before he sinned.

Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, the story of the eigel hazohov, the golden calf, took place and the world was once again plunged into spiritual chaos. Therefore, Hashem commanded that a Mishkan should be erected and that this should be the focal point of the shechina in future. This was analogous to the Gan Eden in which Odom Harishon was supposed to serve and to guard it and that is the meaning of the words לעבדה ולשמרה. To keep positive and negative commandments as commanded by Hashem to Odom Harishon.

With the building of the Mishkan, the focal point of the spiritual side of Klal Yisroel, Hashem wanted to recreate an oasis comparable to Gan Eden and this continued with the building of the Bais Hamikdosh, where, once again, the Shechina, Hashem’s presence, dwelt. In fact, we are told that there were ten nissim, miracles, which took place regularly in the Bais Hamikdosh.

What I am suggesting is that the idea of   reshus hayoched, namely Gan Eden and the place outside, namely reshus harabim, was the first set of circumstances that occurred with Odom Harishon just before Shabbos Beirishis and in the same way as these were completely delineated and separated by Hashem in that Odom Harishon had originally been inside in Gan Eden and then was placed outside and not allowed to go back in, and, of course, this happened just before the onset of Shabbos, there remains every erev Shabbos, just before Shabbos, an echo of what happened originally. In consequence, carrying from one reshus to the other became an important idea to be remembered and rectified.

In the same way as Odom Harishon made a mistake and, therefore, was excluded from his original dwelling place, by us not carrying between reshus hayoched and reshus harabim, we are in some small measure rectifying matters.

Also in consequence, because this was the first major thing that happened and before any other מלאכת, works, were performed by Odom Harishon, therefore the whole mesechta starts off with the mitzvo concerning public and private domains.

We learn all the 39 melochos from the Mishkan and what was needed in order to build and be used in the Mishkan. That itself echoed the original Gan Eden in which Odom Harishon was placed.

Just to reinforce the idea, please look at the opening words of the first mishna which I mentioned earlier on.






Namely, the laws of going out on Shabbos are two which became four inside. This is an allusion to Odom, Chava and the two children born to them whilst they were still in Gan Eden. The mishna then continues, two that became four outside, meaning when they were all excluded from Gan Eden and stood outside. Obviously Odom Harishon would have liked to have gone inside, but he was, in fact, the עני, the poor person, standing outside and the Rebbono Shel Olam, Hashem who created the world, was the בעל הבית, the owner, inside Gan Eden.


I believe I have demonstrated a deeper idea as to why the mesechta starts off with the laws of הוצאה מרשות לרשות

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