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.

Read More......

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.

Read More......

AVROHOM AND SEDOM

Over the weekend whilst reviewing the sedra וירא, I was struck by a thought; ה' revealed to Avrohom that he was about to destroy, or at least, severely punish Sedom and its satellite towns because they were so evil.

Avrohom, who felt responsibility for the whole world, (after all, ה' had named him אברהם, אב המון גוים, father of a multitude of nations) felt the need to spring to their defence. We all know that Avrohom’s middoh was חסד, kindness, and he marshalled all the arguments he could find, חלילה לך You will surely not destroy a Tzaddik together with a Rosha etc. We all know how Avrohom commences with 50 Tzaddikim to save the five towns, he goes down to 45, 40, 30, 20 and finally 10 in the hope that at least one of the five cities will be saved, ה' assures him that if he could find these ten righteous people, He would indeed save them and all the city in their merit.

The posek then continues, אברהם שב למקומו, Avrohom returned to his previous place. The result was that the angels went to Sedom and destroyed all the cities and the surrounding area.

My question was, Why did not Avrohom take matters further, why did he not, instead of going back to a “place where he had been”, proceed to Sedom and try to persuade the populace that they should repent and improve their deeds, to do תשובה? After all, Avrohom had been trying to get people to improve for many years.

We find the classic example of the prophet Jonah. He was very reluctant to go to Nineveh but when he finally did go and announced that ה' was going to destroy the town in 40 days, the populace did repent and ה' relented. Why did not Avrohom do this?

I can think of reasons why and I will outline below further my thoughts on the matter, but what intrigues me most of all is that when I went to the Classic commentators (מפרשים) and for that matter, numerous other ones, I could not find anybody who touched on the question.

I found that the Zohar Hakodesh compares Noach, Avrohom and Moshe as follows. Noach, when told that the rest of the world was going to be destroyed did not pray and intercede on their behalf. Avrohom, when told what was going to happen to Sedom did intercede but stopped after he could not persuade ה'. Moshe, when praying for the Bnei Yisroel after the incident of the golden calf, not only prayed but stated that if ה' would not forgive them, מחני נא מספרך, blot me out from your Holy Book, and indeed ה' said סלחתי כדברך, I forgive them as you requested.

Furthermore, the Zohar also states that Avrohom must have been rather fool hardy, in that when he learned that Lot had been captured by the four kings, and taken away by them, he chased after them and in the middle of the night attacked them and recaptured Lot, as well as all the booty which had been stolen from the king of Sedom etc. However, as the Zohar tells us there, he was intent on trying to save Lot as he had undertaken to always come to his aid, after they had decided to part ways.

We know that Avrohom was no coward and had been in difficult situations from which ה' had saved him. These included אור כשדים the burning furnace into which he was thrown and miraculously was saved. The incident in Egypt when Pharoh took Soroh and she was returned to him. The story just mentioned above about the recapture of Lot. The further story with Avimelech and Soroh etc.

Avrohom knew that ה' stood with him at all times.

Why did he not go the one step further and go to Sedom, as I queried above?

You might very well ask why was it that he even prayed for the people of Sedom. I believe that that lies in the words mentioned to him by ה', ארדה נא ואראה please let me go down and see. The word נא, “please” is strange, as if somebody could stop ה'!! If we compare this with the story after the golden calf, where ה' said to Moshe הרף ממני stop troubling me. From this Moshe deduced that ה' expected him, Moshe, to intervene and intercede on behalf of the Bnei Yisroel. I think here also, Avrohom deduced that the נא was a plea, almost an invitation, by ה' that Avrohom had the right and power to intercede on behalf of the people of Sedom which he did. One might also object to my question and comparison with Nineveh, on the basis that Yonah was actually told to go and tell the king and people of Nineveh what was going to happen if they did not repent, whereas ה' had not told Avrohom this. However, Avrohom was not told that he should not go to Sedom. At least I can’t find anywhere that it says so.

I find it all very puzzling.

Perhaps somebody can help me out and, first let me know of at least one of the מפרשים, commentators, who actually asks the question. I would, then, of course, be delighted if there were any possible answers given.

Let me suggest a possible reason why Avrohom did not go into Sedom.

The Gomorra tells us in Sanhedrin ק''ט how wicked the people of Sedom were and gives various examples. One of them was concerning Eliezer the servant of Avrohom who once went to Sedom, was hit with a stone by a man and blood came out. That man then had the effrontery to demand money for having made הקזה, bloodletting. When Eliezer objected and was hauled before the magistrate, the magistrate confirmed the payment was due. Eliezer then took a stone himself and hit the judge on his face, so that blood ran there and remarked to the judge “You now go and settle the bloodletting money with the person who hit me” and Eliezer left Sedom.

This story and various other incidents are related in greater detail in the ספר הישר.

I believe that Avrohom would have heard about this story. After all, his chief of staff turned up looking very bruised, Avrohom decided that one does not go into a lion’s den even with the best intentions. Even if your name is Avrohom whom the people of the world accept as a righteous man and look up to. When it came to their own patch of land, the people of Sedom and the surrounding towns passed such draconian, beastly laws and carried out such horrible punishments on wayfarers that they would not only not listen to him, Avrohom, but were likely to not let him get out alive.

In all the other cases mentioned above, the ingredients were not the same. When Avrohom was thrown into the furnace by Nimrod, he could not defend himself and he was given no option. When he went to Egypt, he sidestepped problems by saying that his wife was his sister and felt that this would save him from being killed.

Likewise, when he went to Gerar and Avimelech took Soroh.

Even when he went to fight the kings in order to snatch back Lot, this was done on neutral ground, in the middle of the night, by surprise attack. It would have been completely different if he would have turned up in Sedom and been surrounded by the populace.

No doubt, the evil, כח הטומאה in Sedom also acted as a further deterrent.

To demonstrate how bad, thick and callous the people of Sedom were, let us look at what happened when the angels arrived. They went to Lot’s house and the house was surrounded by the whole populace. The angels ensured that everybody suddenly turned blind and, therefore, could not harm the inhabitants of the house. Nevertheless, when Lot went to speak to his sons-in-law and daughters to try and save them, they just laughed at him. The fact that there had been this great miracle and that they, among other people, had all gone blind a few hours before, had no effect at all on their behaviour.

As I have said at the beginning I was struck by this question out of the blue and am still groping for an adequate answer as well as, of course, somebody who could point to a commentator, anyone of the מפרשים who discusses this matter.

כ מרחשון תשס''ט

Read More......

YOM KIPPUR אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה

At the beginning of the holiest day of our year, our custom is to take out the Siphrei Torah and whilst these are being taken round the bimah, the Chazzan intones the verse from Tehillim אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה and this is repeated by the whole congregation with great fervour. The only explanation that I have found for this custom is brought in the name of the Arizal and is very esoteric.

The heads of the community also state at the same time that with the agreement of ה' and the whole community אנו מתירים להתפלל עם העברינים, namely that we allow in to pray with us even people who have sinned grievously.

I would like to suggest an explanation for using the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה, A light is sown for the righteous one and the upright of heart have joy.

There is a Sefer written approximately 700 years ago by R’ Yitzchok of Vienna, one of the Rishonim, known as אור זרוע. He writes in his introduction that he named his sefer אור זרוע in commemoration of a dream that he had concerning R’ Akiva. The famous R’ Akiva’s name is spelt differently in the Gomora Bavli from the Gomora Yerushalmi. The Bavli spelling is עקיבא. The Yerushalmi spelling is עקיבה. His dream was that the name is encoded in the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה. By taking the last letters אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה (ר'עקיבה) you will then find that the last letter of the verse is a ה and this will be the last letter of עקיבה spelt with a ה. To commemorate this dream he therefore called his sefer אור זרוע.

He comments, How praiseworthy are you R’ Akiva that Dovid Hamelech in his prophecy already referred to you in Tehillim. Furthermore, how praiseworthy are you that ה' showed Moshe Rabbenu that you would explain the tagim, the little crowns on top of letters in the Sefer Torah, to the amazement of Moshe Rabbenu.

Many of us are aware of the history of R’ Akiva who for the first 40 years of his life was an Am Haaretz to the extent that he himself stated later that he had hated the Talmedei Chochomim.

He then, with the backing of his wife, commenced learning Torah at the age of 40 and for the next 40 years he studied Torah under the leading Rabbis of the time. He became the leading Rabbi himself for a further 40 years and passed away at the age of 120. I say passed away, but as the Gomora tells us at the end of Brochos, he was tortured and finally killed by the Romans with the posek שמע ישראל on his lips. A צדיק who died על קידוש ה'. The highest imaginable level. However, it is not so well know that this took place just at the onset of Yom Kippur, Kol Nidrei night.

R’ Akiva was the prime example of a Jewish person who had started off as a grievous sinner and changed completely not only to become a Talmid Chochum but eventually the greatest Rabbinical leader of his generation.

I think that it is, therefore, very fitting that the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה is utilised at the opening of our tefillos and at the same time as we are מתיר to pray with the avayomim, those who have sinned grievously. Even they can improve just the same as R’ Akiva improved so dramatically.

It is also noteworthy mentioning the similarities between Moshe Rabbenu and R’ Akiva. Moshe Rabbenu came down on Yom Kippur for the third time after having brought down the second luchos having by then been in heaven for a total of 120 days.

Moshe Rabbenu himself lived exactly 120 years. Furthermore, his life was divided into three parts, the first one where he lived in the palace of Pharoh, which you could compare with the first 40 years of R’ Akiva’s life. Moshe Rabbenu then went to Midian and the famous burning bush. These were years of growing in לימוד and עבודת הבורא learning about and growing in stature in the service of Hashem.

His final 40 years were as the leader, the spiritual leader, of the whole of the Bnei Yisroel.

Finally, one other comparison, that is that we find a Gomora in חגיגה י''ב which says that four great Rabbi נכנסו לפרדס, they attempted to plumb the depths of the esoteric part of Torah. The Gomorra says that only R’ Akiva went through the process without any harm. The word פרדס adds up to 344. משה adds up to 345. This is to indicate to us that despite the fact that R’ Akiva was so great and that he could even expound on every letter and תג the crowns of each letter to the extent that this amazed Moshe Rabbenu, nevertheless, Moshe Rabbenu was that little bit higher even than R’ Akiva.

Moshe Rabbenu himself received the Torah from Hashem as Hashem told Aharon and Miriam פה אל פה אדבר בו ומראה ולא בחידות. That level was never reached by any person before or after.

ג' תשרי תשס''ט

Read More......