START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 9th March 2014 ז אדר

Today, as no doubt you are all aware, is the Yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbenu. The Gemora tells us that not only this was his yahrzeit, it was also his birthday which was on ז אדר. The same Gemora, in Megillah, relates that when Homon threw his lots, the פור, on which the name Purim is based, he was pleased that it fell on the month of Adar because he knew that Moshe Rabbenu had passed away on that day. What he did not know was that Moshe Rabbenu was also born on the same day.

We all know that Moshe Rabbenu was the greatest of the novi’im, of all the prophets that the Bnei Yisroel have ever had and that his prophesy was true. This is one of the 13 ikrim that the Rambam enumerates.

In order that we should perhaps obtain a glimpse, at least, of the greatness of Moshe Rabbenu, I think we need to go back to the beginning of Shemos, where we are told וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי, man went forth from the house of Levi and he took as a wife, the daughter of Levi. The Torah continues ותהר האשה ותלד בן, the woman became pregnant and bore a son, and then the Torah continues ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא, and she saw that he was good. Finally, the Torah says, ותצפנהו שלשה ירחים, and she hid him for three months.

What I find remarkable is that there is no mention of a name, it does not say that Amram took Yocheved and they had a son Moshe, no names are mentioned whatsoever.

Later on in Torah, when the Yichus of shevet Levi is enumerated in detail, it states quite clearly that Amram went and took his Aunt Yocheved, the daughter of Levi and they had Aharon and Moshe as well as Miriam. But here at the time of the birth of Moshe no mention is made of who his father or mother were, or a name for him either. I find this very strange, in fact, we do not find this type of wording anywhere else in Torah I believe. Why should it be so?

Furthermore, if we look at the life of Moshe Rabbenu, we find a very unusual pattern, he was hidden in the bulrushes, found by Basya the daughter of Pharaoh, brought into the palace of Pharaoh and lived there for a number of years, brought up in a non-Jewish palace in a non-Jewish atmosphere. He then went out and saw the oppression that was meted out to his Jewish brethren, killed an Egyptian who was hitting a Jewish person and fled to Midian when he was reported to Pharaoh who wanted to kill him. He remained in Midian for many years and had no contact with all his Jewish brethren.

In Midian, he married Zipporah, the daughter of Yisro who had been the Kohen of Midian but had become disillusioned with all types of avodah zorah.

When he was approximately 79 years of age, he had a special revelation, a burning bush. There Moshe was instructed by Hashem to go back to the Yidden in Egypt and tell them that they were going to be freed. He was also informed that Pharaoh will not listen to him and that Hashem will mete out punishment to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Moshe was instrumental in bringing the ten makkos on Egypt. Eventually Moshe was able to take the Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, as we all know.

That was not enough. The same Moshe led the Bnei Yisroel to the Yam Suf and the famous krias Yam Suf, the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea (the Reed Sea) took place. After that the Bnei Yisroel went for a further six weeks into the wilderness, reached Har Sinai and this same Moshe, was the one that went up to receive the Torah as well as the Aseres Hadibros written on special tablets of stone, which were miraculous. The Yidden had this once off experience of a revelation of Hashem actually speaking to them, all the Yidden together, 600,000 males of 20 years upwards and a few million women and children.

The Gemora in Shabbos tells us in detail how great Moshe Rabbenu was. He went up to Heaven and disputed with the malochim as to who should receive the Torah and explained to them that the Torah includes mitzvos which only human beings can perform, not angels. Remember Moshe went up to heaven for forty days and did not eat or drink all that time. This was repeated three times in the space of 122 days.

All this was למעלה מן הטבע, supernatural.

When he went up to be instructed regarding the whole of Torah shel b’ksav and Torah shel baal peh, unfortunately, the mixed multitude, the ערב רב, persuaded the Yidden to join in and worship the golden calf, the עגל הזהב.

Moshe Rabbenu was sent down from Heaven because of this, with the Aseres Hadibros, the tablets in his hands. He threw them down, broke them and proclaimed מי לה' אלי, who will join me, in punishing the Yidden who had actually served the idol. We know that the whole tribe of Levi joined in, but the same Moshe then appealed to Hashem not to destroy the Yidden, ויחל משה את פני ה' אלקיו. Finally, the Torah says וינחם ה', Hashem reconsidered his intention to destroy the Bnei Yisroel immediately and replaced it with the residue of that sin, leading to punishment from time to time, as we are aware.

Moshe was indeed a remarkable man, he could perform all these miracles, and he could also stand up on behalf of the Bnei Yisroel as the needs be.

From where did he have all these כוחות?

The Zohar Hakodesh tells us an interesting fact. Three times in Torah our great ancestors are called by their name, twice in repetition. At the time of the עקידה, just when Avrohom was about to kill Yitzchok, an angel came and said אברהם 1 אברהם, don’t kill him, don’t harm him at all.

When Yaakov was about to go down to Egypt having learned that Yosef was the viceroy of Pharaoh, Hashem appeared to him in a vision at night and said, יעקב 1 יעקב and Hashem told him, Don’t be scared you are going down to Egypt, I will bring you back, Yosef will place his hand on your eyes etc.

The third time that Hashem called an individual was at the burning bush, when He said משה משה and Moshe answered Hineni, here I am.

The Zohar tells us that whereas in the first two cases, a line is put between the first word “Avrohom” and the second “Avrohom” and the first “Yaakov” and the second “Yaakov”, there is no line between the repetition of the word Moshe. The reason for this, states the Zohar, is because Moshe was on the same elevated level from the time he was born until the time he passed away. He was an איש אלקים, all his life. Avrohom and Yaakov had to elevate themselves from a lower level to a higher level and the line between in the cases of Avrohom and Yaakov indicate this.

When Moshe was born, the Torah states, ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא and Chazal tell us נתמלא הבית אורה. The House became full of light. This means that the Shechinah came down with the baby.

Let us return to my question much earlier on as to why no names were mentioned when Moshe Rabbenu was born, not his father, not his mother and not his own name.

Chazal tell us that the early men, the ראשונים, knew why they gave a particular name to their children, it could have been because of a happening later in the person’s life, such as ,פלג כי בימיו נפלגה הארץ, because during his lifetime and not when he was born, there would be the דור הפלגה, the generation that built the tower of Babel. In the case of many of the children born to Yaakov the names are an indicated of what was going to happen or had just happened. For instance, דן was because Rochel said Hashem has judged me, דנני etc.

However, in each case, a name sets a boundary or boundaries for the person, it is a sort of צימצום, a curtailment. What I am suggesting is that Moshe Rabbenu was born on such an elevated level that a name would have been a צימצום for him which would have affected his greatness and his ability to perform miracles and to be למעלה מן הטבע. To emphasise this, even the names of his father and mother at the time of his birth were also not mentioned. Therefore there would be no curtailment, spiritually in respect of this, our greatest prophet, the person who brought down the Torah to the Bnei Yisroel.

I am reminded of a story about the Sfas Emes, the second Gerrer Rebbe, who was a genius from boyhood. Another great Rabbi, a lot older than him, met him and was astounded by his depth of knowledge and his piety and asked him “How did you reach such a level”. The Sfas Emes explained with a parable, about the person who was climbing up a very high mountain, lets say Everest, and of course, it took weeks to reach the summit, when he got there, he found a child playing and he said to the boy “How did you get here?” to which the answer was  “I was born here”.

Similarly, Moshe Rabbenu was born at this very high level and as we are told by Chazal, his prophesy was of a higher category that any other Novi. He saw with a clarity that no other prophet ever enjoyed, that which Chazal call אספקלריה המאירה.

At the beginning of פרשת מטות, Rashi comments on זה הדבר אשר צוה ה', that Moshe was the only Novi who could use the expression זה הדבר, this is the commandment of Hashem, because he was only one who saw things absolutely clearly. The other prophets had to use the expression, כה אמר ה', Hashem said (something) like this.

We also find that Hashem told Aharon and Miriam, How could you dare speak about Moshe Rabbenu בכל ביתי נאמן הוא, in My entire house he is the trusted one. At that time, the Torah says והאיש משה ענו מאד, the man Moshe was exceedingly humble, מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה, more than any other person on the face of the earth.

I believe that Moshe’s humility stemmed from the fact that he had been given the privilege of being the nearest to Hashem and having experienced revelation after revelation carrying out the various makkos etc. and he, therefore, understood more than any other human being, how small he was, in comparison with the mightiness of the infinite ה' יתברך.

The Zohar states איתפשטותא דמשה בכל דור ודור, the influence of Moshe continues in each generation.

We are now approaching Purim and I mentioned that Homon was happy that the Pur, the lot, fell on Adar, because Moshe Rabbenu passed away on ,ז אדר of which today is the anniversary. Homon did not realise that Moshe was also born on ז אדר.

When Mordechai learned about the decree against the Yidden, he took the Jewish children and learnt Torah with them. This, together with the תפילות and fasting brought the downfall of Homon. Eventually, ונהפוך הוא אשר ישלטו היהודים המה בשונאיהם, the opposite happened, the Yidden (led by Mordechai Hatzaddik and Esther Hamalka) ruled over their enemies.

The Torah shel b’ksav and Torah shel baal peh which Moshe Rabbenu brought down from Har Sinai and which he taught the Bnei Yisroel for 40 years continues to be the focal point for us Jews, and on which our whole lifestyle is based. It is also the pillar on which the world exists.

At this moment, we are faced with a spiritual crisis in Eretz Yisroel. The continuing learning of Torah in a pure manner, על טהרת הקודש, together with תפילות of ourselves and our brethren worldwide will ensure that the attempt to undermine the Charedim in Eretz Yisroel will fail and ונהפוך הוא אשר ישלטו היהודים המה בשונאיהם.

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טעמי המקרא - שלשלת

At the same time as Moshe Rabbenu was given the Torah by Hashem, he was not only given the actual words to write down, but the vowels, the way to pronounce words, were given to him at the same time, for example, when to use a קמץ, חיריק, חולם etc. Also at the same time, he was given the טעמי המקרא, the cantillations, trop, the notes to be sung on each word.

You will note that these are called טעמי המקרא, they are not just fanciful musical accompaniments they are, in fact, deeper hints and guidance to understanding some further depth in Torah which does not appear by just reading the words even with the vowels.

There are two types of טעמי המקרא. They are known as מלכים and משרתים, kings and servants.

Basically, a servant is a note or series of notes leading to a final note, where there is then a distinct pause. The final note is known as a מלך, melech, a king.

There are a number of these notes known as melech but the greatest one is the שלשלת, the “King of Kings”.

The note only appears a few times in the whole of Torah and its significance is, therefore, even greater.

I would like to go through the various places that a שלשלת is found and discuss the matter in some depth.

The first time we come across a שלשלת is in the sedra וירא. Lot was told to get out of Sedom fast, in order that he should not be destroyed with Sedom. The Torah continues, ויתמהמה, and he tarried. On that word there is a שלשלת.

In order to understand why there is this “King of Kings” special note at this juncture, let us go back a little while. Avrohom Avinu was told to leave his homeland and go, in fact, to the land of Canaan, and Lot joined him. When they arrived, there was immediately a famine and they went down to Egypt. They were very poor at that time. Avrohom Avinu had to borrow money to keep going.

When they came out of Egypt three months later, not only Avrohom was rich but Lot also. We then see that Avrohom on his way back, as Rashi states, פרע הקפותיו, paid up his debts. Avrohom was not affected by the sudden wealth he received, he ruled his money and not his money ruling him.

Lot, however, did not have the same attitude. Immediately afterwards we find that his shepherds were involved in a squabble with Avrohom’s shepherds. Rashi tells us that Lot’s shepherds were feeding from the pastures of individual people and when Avrohom’s shepherds objected, the rejoinder was, “Well Avrohom has no children and, therefore, Lot will, in due course, inherit his lands and these lands have been promised to Avrohom. Therefore we are doing no wrong.”

Very bad thinking. Obviously, this was coming from Lot himself. Not only had he acquired wealth, he wanted to acquire even more wealth in whatever manner he could, not caring too much about the means. Avrohom said to Lot “We must part company even though we will remain brothers.” What did Lot do? Instead of making up with Avrohom, promising to improve and that his shepherds would not do this in future, he looked out at the best part of the land, namely Sedom and its environs (now the site of the Dead Sea) and decided that that was the place for him to live.

The Gomorra in Sanhedrin ק''ט and in particular, in even more detail, in the Sefer Hayosher, a famous medrash sefer, goes into great details as to how beautiful and lush that particular part of the country was. Because of this, the effect on the citizens was that they became very miserly and did not want anybody to share their good fortune. They passed draconian laws to stop people even passing through their land.

This was the place that Lot wanted to go and live and he did go there. His character was flawed and his eagerness for the good life and luxury, leading to his latent bad middos being brought forth at full blast, was the consequence.

He was once taken away from Sedom by the four kings who rampaged through the area. Avrohom chased the four kings and released him, but Lot went back to Sedom. He could not keep away from the fleshpots of luxury together with the licentiousness.

When finally, the angels came to save him, in the merit of Avrohom, despite the fact that he was told that if he did not leave, he would be destroyed together with the inhabitants and everything else in Sedom. ויתמהמה, he tarried. The שלשלת is a treble note as the word שלשלת implies because it comes from the root of שלש, three. He Tarried, and Tarried and Tarried and the angels had to turn themselves into men and take himself and his wife and daughters by the hand to physically eject them from Sedom.

We can see the importance of the שלשלת.

This was not only a lesson for what happened in the past, history repeats itself. Nowadays, we are in the midst of a major world financial upheaval. The monies which have been made over the past years, one could almost say the obscene monies made over the past years by fair means and foul have unfortunately, in many case, led to people doing almost anything in order to increase their wealth. The money, unfortunately, has been ruling the person and the chickens have now come home to roost, as is well known.

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Turning to the next שלשלת we find, it appears in חיי שרה. Eliezer had just reached ארם נהרים having been sent to look for a shidduch for Yitzchok, and he tethered the camels and then he prayed to Hashem for success. On the word ויאמר there is a שלשלת.

Once again the background leading up to this is very important. Avrohom and Soroh were fortunate enough, after many years of not having children to, at the age of 100 and 90 respectively, to have a son called Yitzchok. When Yitzchok was 37 years of age, the story of the עקידה took place and Soroh died. Subsequently, Avrohom thought to himself that he must look round for a suitable wife for his son as a matter of urgency.

This was a major problem because of various factors. Avrohom was, of course, known as the standard bearer of the new revolution proclaiming that there was a one and only Hashem in the world. People had got used to him and he was even known as אב המון גוים, father of all the nations. He and his wife were known as people of great kindness, אנשי חסד.

Yitzchok, however, concentrated on serving Hashem in a different way, namely with fear of heaven and strength of purpose. There were no compromises, no easy way. He was very strict on himself.

Furthermore, he had to stay in our Holy Land and, in fact, never went out of it for all his life.

Eliezer was faced with three major problems. He had to look for a wife who was suitable for such a person as Yitzchok and also the prospective Choson would not come to visit her or her family and Eliezer realised that in order to create a good marriage, the wife for Yitzchok had to be somebody with utmost kindness, similar to Avrohom and Soroh. He, therefore, started off his plea to Hashem to show him a girl who would fit this task and also belong to the family of Avrohom and so they would be able to continue the dynasty commenced by Avrohom and Soroh.

The Torah emphasises the Tefilla of Eliezer, with the שלשלת on ויאמר.

He was, of course, successful as we all know.

This is also a lesson relevant to shidduchim in our times. People have been known to arrange marriages with an eye on the יחוס of the family, the wealth and prestige and what the world will say, etc.

My Rebbe, the Bais Yisroel, used to quote the verse כי יקח איש אשה חדשה נקי יהיה, When a man takes a new wife he should be נקי, which is normally translated as free or unencumbered. However, if one looks at the three letters, a נ has a numerical value of 50, a ק has a numerical value of 100 and י is 10. The hint, that the Bais Yisroel used to quote, I believe in the name of his father, the Imrei Emess, was how to approach a shidduch. People usually look for three things, first there is the נדן, dowry represented by the letter נ. If only 50% of the figure originally floated is actually forthcoming, be satisfied.

ק represents קרן, the prospective Choson or Kallah themselves. This has to be 100%, it is the most important part of a shidduch.

י represents the יחוס, if this is only 10% of that which is mentioned, that is enough.

The most important thing in a shidduch is that the boy and girl should be of first class quality. They should be compatible and be able to live together happily and bring up future generations in the correct manner. The rest is bonus.

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The next time we find a שלשלת is in וישב. Yosef had been purchased by Potiphar, one of Pharoh’s ministers and he became his “head of the household”. Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him and Yosef refused. ויאמן (“He refused”) has a שלשלת, once again a three fold note, No, No, No.

If we look at the background of the whole story, we will see how great this act was.

Yaakov finally had a son by his beloved wife Rochel. Yosef grew up to be a special lad, the apple of his father’s eye. At the age of 17 he was suddenly torn away from all this and sold by his brothers and eventually was sold to Potiphar a minister of Pharoh in Egypt. Yosef had gone from a household of righteousness, of Yaakov as well as Yitzchok who was still alive and the great matriarchs, into a degenerate society in Egypt. He was depressed and broken. He could easily have been influenced the wrong way and have done the wrong thing. The Chochomim tell us אין אפוטרפוס לעריות

As our Chazal tell us, Yosef saw the face of his holy father and had the strength of character not to be influenced. He emphatically said “No” whatever the consequences. And there were consequences. We all know that he ended up in prison for many years, but the end of the story was that he came out of prison and became the second in command in Egypt and eased the path of Yaakov and his children and the Bnei Yisroel in their going down to Egypt.

Not for nothing, is there a שלשלת at ויאמן.

Today, this is also very relevant to ourselves.

We live in a society where media in general, and the internet in particular, are trying to seduce many people, righteous, naïve etc. with very attractive filth. We must have the strength of character to say “No, No, No”.

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The final שלשלת is in פרשת צו. Once again the background here is very important. Aaron and his sons had been appointed to be Kohanim and the Torah tells us the procedure that was carried out to complete the investiture. After they had put on special clothes and in particular Aaron with the eight special vestments, the Torah continues with the korbonos, the sacrifices which were specially brought all on the 1st day of Nissan, the day the Mishkon was consecrated. The final sacrifice was the איל המלאים, the inauguration ram. Then, Moshe having carried out the final acts that Hashem commanded to do to Aaron, he became the Kohen Godol. On the word וישחט, “he slaughtered” (the איל המלאים) there is a שלשלת. This is because it was the culmination of the investiture of Aaron as Kohen Godol and his children as Kohanim.

This was a great event at the time because it was in the merit of Aaron that the Shechina came down and dwelt in the Mishkon. Aaron blessed the Bnei Yisroel and it was the inauguration of a new way of life for the Bnei Yisroel which has continued ever since.

Once again, it was not just for that particular time, it was for all generations including ours.

Furthermore, the word שלשלת nowadays is applied to a family tree, in the same way as the Kohanim have a separate family tree.

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You may have noted that all the four places mentioned above are leyned in the winter months (צו is actually read before פסח). This is a רמז, hint, to us that even when things look dark, one can overcome difficulties בס''ד.

As one can see the use of a שלשלת highlights very important matters that are not to be glossed over.

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