START THE DAY THE TORAH WAY 2nd May 2013

As you are well aware, we are in the period between Pesach and Shavuos, and have been busy counting the Omer over the past few weeks, we are now up to 37 days ל''ז and there is less than two weeks to go until the Yom Tov of Shavuos.

At the time of the Bais Hamikdosh, the sefiras ha’omer was to enable us to ensure that fresh produce, wheat should be brought as a special offering. However, in addition, it was a time for introspection and the build up between the time the Yidden were originally taken out of Egypt at the beginning of Pesach until kabbolas Hatorah, the Torah was given seven weeks later.

Nowadays, we concentrate on improving ones middos, the qualities that we all possess.

Our great Rabbis enacted long ago the learning and saying Pirkei Ovos, best translated as the Ethics of our fathers, each Shabbos on the six weeks between Pesach and Shavuos.

We know that there are very important fundamental principles and deep insights mentioned in Pirkei Ovos in the name of numerous famous Rabbis, mainly the Tannoim, mentioned in detail.

We are now up to the fifth perek which talks more about generalities. It starts off with the fact that Hashem created the world with ten maamoros, ten utterances, and then talks about the ten generations between Odom and Noach and the ten miracles that happened in Mitzraim and eventually the ten nissim that took place regularly in the Bais Hamikdosh etc.

Later on in the perek, namely mishnas י, that’s the tenth mishna to ט''ו, 15, there are five mishnas all starting with four middos, four different qualities. In a person, In his ideas as far as pupils being taught, Giving tzedokah, People going to a Beis Hamedrash and generally sitting before learned Rabbis, the Chochomim.

If one looks at all this these mishanyos in depth, one finds time and again, the stress on the latent difference between various middos, various qualities, to the extent that one mishna states  הולך ועושה חסיד that a person who goes to the Beis Hamedrash and learns is a chosid and if somebody does not go and does not do things the way he ought to, he is a rosha.

After we have had a whole month of learning in Pirkei Ovos, going through various sayings of great Tannoim on an individual level, the Pirkei Ovos carries on with general principles pointing out the good and bad of middos. This is obviously in order to give people the incentive to improve their middos having highlighted what is good and what is bad in general terms.

We are all individuals, we all have different qualities, some better than others which we are born with or acquire during our formative years and even later.

The challenge is to try to improve our middos. I believe that, unfortunately,  what people very often do not do, is think about where they have weaknesses in their middos.

Fifty years ago, unfortunately, many, many people spoke loshen hora. The Manchester Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Segal ז''ל started a campaign and this has been very successful in highlighting the problem and so many people are now learning the Chofetz Chaim’s sefer or something based on it, that there is a great awareness and that particular problem has been tackled considerably. However, there are many other weak links in the chain.

After all, there are 613 mitzvos and numerous of them are bein Odom l’chaveroi, interpersonal relationships. Whether these are in connection with monetary matters or sensitivities between man and his fellow man, and for that matter ladies and their fellow ladies or any combination of the above, and alternatively between man and his Creator are all part of the same totality of middos. The idea is that during the sefiras ha’omer, we should examine our own selves in depth and try to work on our middos. We all have weaknesses.

By the way, it is no excuse to say “everybody does it”, I still recall, when I was a bochur in yeshiva that somebody else was speaking in a derogatory manner about gedolei Yisroel and when I mildly pointed out that to me it seemed wrong to say such things being loshon hora, rechilas or motzei shemra or possibly all of them, the retort was “Oh everybody does that nowadays”.

It really is not an excuse!!

Some people think that by looking at mussar seforim or articles in our Jewish press this can lead to great improvement. Yes it is possible!! The best way of doing so is to inspect oneself or alternatively ask a good friend, an honest friend, a true friend, to give, in a positive way, an opinion of where a particular person’s weaknesses lie. It is those particular weaknesses that need to be addressed. It is the totality of a person that needs to be brought up to standard.

I mentioned the Chofetz Chaim before, and, of course, his classic sefer on shemiras haloshen helped hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of our brethren to improve themselves and continues to do so. The Chofetz Chaim, himself, was not only a great scholar and educator, he understood human psychology. I was told by one of his grandchildren, who I had the privilege to receive in my house years ago, that the Chofetz Chaim authored numerous seforim but only ones which he felt that the need for them was important and where there was a gap that needed to be filled. For example, he wrote a sefer specifically for Jewish soldiers in the Russian army and all the problems they had, what they could do and regarding which matters they had to absolutely stand firm and not give in. There were many other seforim of a similar nature written by him.

I believe a story that I heard regarding the Chofetz Chaim sums up what I am trying to emphasise today.

When the Chofetz Chaim was elderly, over 85 years of age, he came to Vilna unannounced and called for the Rosh Hakohol, the Jewish president of Vilna, who, of course, immediately came to see the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim told him, I want to make a major speech, a drosha, in the biggest Shul in the whole of Vilna tomorrow night. The president nodded. “But, however,” said the Chofetz Chaim, “I actually want to make two droshos, one night after the other,” The president was taken aback.

The Chofetz Chaim continued, I would like you to arrange that the first night, the only people allowed in are the baalabatim, that is the people who work for their living and do no study full time or act as Rabbis, Roshei Yeshiva, etc. You, as the president, will know everybody and will know who to let in. The next night, I want to reverse the situation, you only let in the Rabbis, the Roshei Yeshiva, the people learning in Yeshiva or Kollel, the melamdim, the Jewish teachers but not the baalabatim.

The Rosh Hakohol went about organising matters and the next evening, he stood at the door of the biggest Shul and carefully ensured that the only people allowed in were the baalabatim, the ordinary lay people. If a Rov or a Rosh yeshiva, or for that matter anybody sitting and learning full time (or most of the time) tried to gain admission, he firmly stopped him. “This is not for you” he said. “I have had instructions by the Chofetz Chaim himself” Finally, he closed the doors and went in to the listen with everybody else.

The Chofetz Chaim spoke for a full hour, even though he was old and weak. He extolled the fact that the baalabatim of Vilna were very good Jews, who kept Yiddishkeit and tried their best. “However,” he continued, “you all work very hard and find it difficult to make parnoso as I am aware, but you must really try and set aside sometime every day, preferably in the morning and in the evening, to learn some Torah. If you can’t learn something difficult like Gemora or Mishnayos, learn Ein Yaakov. Learn Kitzer Shulchan Oruch, learn Chumash Rashi. Learns something, please. Every Jew must learn some Torah to be connected with Torah.”

And then he turned to Tefilla. He said to them “I am sure that you all daven, but does everybody go to daven with a minyan everyday, I know it is difficult especially for Mincha in the middle of the day, but you must realise how great the mitzvah is davenning with a minyan. Not only that, one has to think about what one is davenning and not have the mind preoccupied with business or other matters, and of course, not to speak or interrupt in the middle of davening.” Then he proceeded to tzedokah. “I know that many of you have difficulties in parnoso, but nevertheless, there always is somebody worse off and it is a mitzvah to help other people, giving something to tzedokoh.”

By the time the Chofetz Chaim was finished his drosha an hour later, he was very tired.

The next night, the Rabbonim, the Roshei Yeshiva, yeshiva bochurim, people who learnt in the Kollel as well the melamdim, all crowded in to listen to the Chofetz Chaim, once again the president stood at the door and did not let in any baalabatim, any laymen at all.

However, when he closed the doors, he, himself, being curious as to what the Chofetz Chaim would say, went inside rather than staying outside. He heard a different type of drosha. The Chofetz Chaim started off by praising all these marvellous people who dedicated themselves to learning and disseminating Torah, day and night and mentioned that Vilna was known as the Yerushalayim de Lita, just like Yerushalayim of old, where there were so many Talmidei Chochomim as well as erliche baalabatim.

But the Chofetz Chaim continued, you have also to consider other matters, is there possibly, an almona or yesomim, a widow or orphans living near you, who perhaps have not got what to eat or need some spiritual uplift by being invited for a Shabbos meal etc. Don’t think that because you are learning all day that you have no responsibility when it comes to other mitzvos, maasim tovim, doing good deeds.” And he went on by enumerating various ways that Talmidei Chochomim could help other people, including, of course, learning with laymen who perhaps were comparatively speaking amei Ha’eretz (that means ignoramuses) when it came to learning.

And so the Chofetz Chaim continued with this theme until an hour later, completely exhausted, he finished his drosha.

The president, accompanied the Chofetz Chaim home and then asked the Chofetz Chaim the following “Rebbe, I must confess my sin. Although I heard your drosha the first night, when it came to shutting the doors the second night, I slipped inside the Shul. I see how tired you are, how you are physically and mentally exhausted, why could you not have given one big drosha, one night, for say and hour and a quarter and have mentioned all the points, that you went through during the two different droshas.”

The Chofetz Chaim replied with a smile, “You do not, perhaps, understand human psychology, if I would have done what you suggested, and would have talked about learning, namely, that one has to learn Torah whoever one is, every Jew has the mitzvah, what would have happened is that laymen, the ignorant baalabatim, who work very hard would have said, he does not mean me, he is talking about the Talmidei Chochomim, the people who sit and learn 8 and 10 hours a day. The Talmidei Chochomim would have thought, yes, of course, the Chofetz Chaim is right and they would learn an extra hour or two because of it.”

The same would have happened regarding Tefilla, the klei kodesh would have taken longer over their davenning and tried to increase their kavannah and the baalabatim would think to themselves, it is not for us.

“Conversely, when I made mention of not forgetting the almonos and the yesomim, and looking after such people, the Talmidei Chochomim reaction would have been, he is not talking about us, we learn all day long, we will leave it to the baalabatim.”

“So,” continued the Chofetz Chaim, “the net result would have been that the Rabbis would have learned more whereas the baalabatim would have concentrated on chesed, but I wanted them to understand that each one of them has to be well rounded.”

I think this sums up the point that I am trying to make.

On a practical level, every generation has its own nisyonos, its own tests. In our generation, one of them is the mobile phone. I believe that approximately 90% of the population has at least one such instrument and uses it frequently. However, some people unfortunately, overuse it. It is, of course, vital in special circumstances and very often useful in other circumstances.

However, I believe that it is very often overused to the extent that some people cannot turn it off but must have it open at all times, except, of course, for Shabbos and Yom Tov.

We all know that there are emergencies where a mobile phone is a great asset and can be very instrumental in saving lives etc.

I have, however, found, unfortunately too often, when trying to daven that somebody’s mobile goes off in the middle of davening which not only disturbs the whole atmosphere but is also against the whole culture of davenning and becoming close to Hashem.

I have even, on odd occasions, to my amazement noticed people taking out a mobile whilst davening Shemoneh Esrah. When I remonstrated with a particular individual regarding this, he was taken aback, he genuinely did not remember that he had done so, because it had become such an ingrained habit to forever look at whatever message buzzed, even on vibrator.

On a more mundane note, when people are talking together and the mobile rings it often takes precedence over conversations being held face to face and I wonder whether that is correct.

The only time that I can say that I wish that myself and my wife had a mobile each is when we are at a Simcha and try to contact one another to arrange when to go home.

It certainly has good uses. It just needs training and thought about how to utilise it in the best possible way without it taking over a person’s life and, on occasion, actually transgressing a halocho.

Similar remarks could be made about other modern inventions, but I leave it everybody to reflect on what I am saying in their own specific circumstances.

Looking at the sedra we have just read, Emor, one of the parshas starts off

וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת מיום הביאכם את עמר התנופה שבע שבתןת תמימת תהיימה

You should count from after Shabbos (meaning after the first day Pesach) seven complete weeks.

I have asked numerous people how you spell the word temimos, is it spelt תמימות in Torah or תמימת and most people have plumped for the full word, תמימות and even added that it should be מלא, complete, full, because in fact it is not just 49 days, we are talking about 50 days, if anything over full.

Surprisingly enough, the word is spelt in Torah without the ו, it is spelt תמימת. If you look carefully at this word, you will see that it is a palindrome, it spells the same backwards and forwards. I believe that the remez here is that one should improve ones middos so that they are the same backwards and forwards.

To give you a practical example, if one considers a diamond which has been taken out of the earth, it has to cut and cut again until it forms a perfect shape. If you look at the perfectly cut diamond, every angle that you look at, shines beautifully and that is what תמימת is about, one has to improve ones middos so that they should shine whichever side you look at the personality of each individual.

I would only add that I, like most people, am still working very hard on this, it is not an easy job, but Rabbi Tarphon says in Pirkei Ovos

לא עליך המלאכה לגמור ולא אתנבן חויין להבטל ממנה

A person is not expected to be able to complete his works, but because of that is not allowed to say, I won’t try at all. Let’s all try our best.

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SIMCHA ON YOM TOV

The mitzvah of simcha on Yom Tov is not mentioned on Pesach at all, on Shavuos it is mentioned once and on Succos it is mentioned twice.

In respect of Shavuos the Torah tells us at the end of the sedra ראה, chapter ט''ז, posek י''א.
ושמחת לפני ה' אלקיך אתה ובנך ובתך ועבדך ואמתך והלוי אשר בשעריך והגר והיתום והאלמנה אשר בקרבך במקום אשר יבחר ה' אלקיך לשכן שמו שם

And you shall rejoice before Hashem, your G-d, you and your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid servant, the Levite who lives in your gates, the proselyte, the orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place which Hashem will choose to make his name dwell there.

From the wording of the פסוק it appears that this mitzvah of simcha does not just apply to the males but to everybody in the Bnei Yisroel.

Further on, where Succos is mentioned, the Torah says that on each of the שלש רגלים, the high festivals, the males should come to Jerusalem in the very same place, במקום אשר יבחר.

Here, however, it appears that in the case of Shavuos the Torah is telling us that everybody should join in the simcha and that it should be at the place of the Shechina, namely the בית המקדש, the Temple. Why should it be that just in the case of Shavuos, everybody should be enjoined to come to Jerusalem and the Temple and join the simcha?

Perhaps this could be understood with a fact mentioned by Reb Chaim Vital, the chief pupil of the Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchok Luria and the person who wrote down his deep and mystical teachings.

He stated that the Arizal told him that he had reached his very high levels, מדרגות, because he performed mitzvos and learned Torah b’simcha, joyfully.

One can, perhaps, understand why this was by comparing it in some small way to the fact that the Queen of England has garden parties and many people attend and consider it a privilege. She is shown due reverence and people are in awe of her on these occasions.

If, however, a person shows genuine happiness at being invited and states this to the Queen herself, it would be very possible and even likely that the Queen’s reaction would be to invite that person into her personal apartment for a private audience.

That person would be privy to secrets not afforded to other people.

The Torah was given on Shavuos, Hashem, Himself, בכבודו ובעצמו, proclaimed the ten commandments to all of the Bnei Yisroel, male, female, children etc. Every year, when Shavuos comes round again, a הארה, a certain illumination of that happening returns and we are all given the chance to have a very strong spiritual uplift akin to that which the Bnei Yisroel experienced at מתן תורה.

The holiest place in the world where the Shechina resided was the Bais Hamikdosh and, therefore, I would suggest that all people, men, women, children etc. were enjoined to visit the Bais Hamikdosh on Shavuos with simcha. By doing that, they were enabled to have a special uplift which otherwise they could not have aspired to.

In some small way, nowadays, by us all attending the בתי מקדש מעט, the small Shuls and places of learning on Shavuos and accepting, once again, the Torah, b’simcha, we can also aspire to a special spiritual uplift but, understandably in a lesser form.

I understand that in certain kehillas, including Lubavitch, to this day, it is the custom that all members of each family, young and old come to Shul on Shavuos to hear the עשרת הדיברות.

Perhaps the above idea is the מקור, the source of this minhag.

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עשרת הדברות

The Yom Tov of שבועות has just gone by. The focal point of that Yom Tov is that in the year 2448 after the creation of this world, Hashem gave the ten commandments, the עשרת דברות to the Bnei Yisroel. These were not given, as all the other mitzvos, via Moshe Rabbenu but Hashem Himself, בכבודו ובעצמו, spoke directly to the whole of the Jewish people.

Why were these particular ten commandments given directly by Hashem?

One can easily understand the first one which commences אנכי ה' אלקיך, I am Hashem who created the whole world, who enables the whole world to continue and took you all out of Egypt (just six or seven weeks prior to the giving of the עשרת דברות).

Likewise, one can understand the second commandment לא יהיה לך אלהים אחרים על פני, you should have no other gods, no idol worshipping of any type, as the Torah carries on in detail. Because idol worship is a negation of true belief, namely that Hashem created the world and continues to run it and supervise it completely himself.

When we come to the third of the ten commandments, namely, לא תשא את שם ה' לשוא, you should not take Hashem’s name in vain, I am a little puzzled as to why this should be included in the ten top priorities which had to be given by Hashem himself.

Turning to number 4, which is to remember and keep Shabbos, one could again understand the importance of this mitzvah on the basis that Hashem created the world in six days and on the seventh day, Shabbos, rested. This is fundamental to our faith.

Turning to the fifth mitzvah, to honour ones father and mother. This also seems a little strange as to have such high priority.

Number 6 is לא תרצח, one may not kill. That everybody will understand is a major, important fundamental. Likewise לא תנאף, one should not commit adultery or have any other illicit relations. One can understand the importance of placing it in the ten commandments.

Turning to number 8, לא תגנוב, one should not steal or kidnap, again this is a very important fundamental point.

Let us, however, consider number 9, לא תענה ברעך עד שקר. You shall not bear false testimony. What is the vital importance of this particular mitzvah, what makes it so necessary to be included in the ten commandments?

Why, for example, is not the mitzvah of Talmud Torah, the learning of Torah included in the ten commandments, or the laws of טומאה and טהרה, purity and impurity etc. mentioned in the ten commandments in place of the ones at number 3 and number 9 particularly as mentioned, earlier on.

Number 10, לא תחמד, one should not covet another person’s property, wife etc. this is once again, I believe a fundamental we can all understand.

I should perhaps at this point mention that for a detailed and all encompassing overview of the עשרת דברות, one should study the Maharal’s sefer, תפארת ישראל, which is a masterpiece of Jewish thought in a philosophical manner.

In order to try to understand the reason why the particular ten commandments were given as the עשרת דברות by Hashem himself, I believe that it will be illuminating to quote the Chidushei Horim who states that the עשר מכות, the ten plagues, took away the קליפות, the shells which had over the generations covered the original עשרה מאמרות, the ten utterances with which the world was created.

Over the generations, the original Holy Utterances had become encrusted and covered over to the extent that people no longer realised and knew about the original creation and that Hashem had created the whole world.

This lack of knowledge is highlighted as we read that when Moshe Rabbenu came to Pharoh and told him that Hashem had said that he should let the Bnei Yisroel leave Egypt, Pharoh’s retort was מי ה', who is the “person” you are referring to as Hashem.

He soon learned and after having been afflicted by numerous plagues, stated, ה' הצדיק ואני ועמי הרשעים, Hashem is the righteous one and I and my people are sinners.

The ten plagues revealed to the Egyptians and the whole world, that there was a supernatural power, Hashem, who created the world and controlled and ran it all as He saw fit (and continues to do so). This took away the קליפות which had formed.

Less than two months after the final plague, מכת בכורות, the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai and heard from Hashem the עשרת דברות, the ten commandments.

The Chidushei Horim says that these commandments uttered by Hashem brought the world back to the original pristine state as at the creation of the world and were a תיקון, a rectification of the whole state of the world.

Incidentally, that is the reason why at that time, all people who had been ill were healed, everything came back into an original pristine state.

Based on this statement of the Chidushei Horim, I think we can understand better the reason why the particular ten commandments were given.

The first one, אנכי ה' אלקיך, is obviously bound up with the fundamental belief that Hashem created the whole world and runs it as he sees fit. The last great example of it was the fact that Hashem had just taken the Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, a land which had an iron curtain and in which they had been enslaved.

In connection with the second of the עשרת דברות, namely not to serve idols in any way, it is instructive to read the Rambam at the beginning of הלכות עובדה זרה at length. I recommend you to read the first chapter in detail. In short, he says that in the third generation, that of אנוש, people began to question whether Hashem, who they all knew had created the world, really was looking after everybody individually as there were too many, “small” people and it was suggested that Hashem had created intermediaries such as the sun, the moon, the stars etc. to control day to day life. This developed into false prophets who suggested that those intermediaries should be served as well and this was the beginning of idol worship.

In order to bring the world back to its original state and keep is so, therefore, Hashem commanded us not to serve idols in any shape or form so as not to fall into the same trap once again. (Unfortunately, a few weeks later, there took place the story of the Golden Calf which again spoiled things.)

Coming to the third of the ten commandments, לא תשא את שם ה' לשוא, one should use the name of Hashem in vain, or in connection with a lie. We find that at the time of אנוש the Torah tells us אז הוחל לקרא בשם ה'. Rashi explains that at the time, people began to use Hashem’s name as חולין, in a degenerate and profane, not holy, way and Rabbi Shimshon Rafoel Hirsch goes into detail regarding this and that familiarity began to breed “contempt”.

In order to ensure that this did not happen again, and due יראת הכבוד, honour in awe, be given to Hashem, the mitzvah became the third one in the עשרת דברות. It is also note worthy to mention that אנוש was the third generation being the son of שת who was the son of Odom Harishon.

Turning to the fourth mitzvah, that of Shabbos, we know that Odom Harishon was created on the sixth day and the Gemora goes into detail as to how each hour a different happening took place. Finally, by Friday afternoon, Odom Harishon together with Chava were placed in Gan Eden and were told not to eat from the עץ הדעת, the tree of knowledge. Unfortunately by the middle of the afternoon they had eaten from this and Hashem then questioned them and they were ejected from the Garden of Eden.

Although Odom Harishon did teshuva, Hashem had stated that on the day he ate from the עץ הדעת he would die and as the sun went down before Shabbos, Odom Harishon thought that he was going to be taken from this world. And indeed this might have happened but as the medrash tells us, the day of Shabbos itself intervened and pleaded to Hashem to not spoil the seven days of the creation of the world, and in particular the Shabbos. Hashem relented on the basis that כי אלף שנה בעיניך כיום, a thousand years is in the eyes of Hashem are like one day and on that basis Odom Harishon was allowed to live for 1,000 years. (Incidentally, Odom Harishon, so the midrash also tells us, gave away 70 years of his life to Dovid Hamelech who he saw was supposed to die at birth, and, as we all know, Dovid Hamelech’s Yarhzeit is on Shavuos.)

Accordingly, Shabbos was fundamental in keeping the world going as we know it and the Bnei Yisroel, of course, descended from Odom Harishon and so have to keep Shabbos which enabled Odom Harishon to remain alive.

The fifth commandment is כבד את אביך ואת אמך, to honour one’s father and mother.

There are always people, especially youngsters, who tend to blame anything that goes wrong or any insufficiencies in themselves onto their parents. This has been going on from time immemorial.

In the context of the creation of the world, the first time that children could have had this grouse at their parents was with Odom and Chava who had broken the one rule made for them, namely, not to eat from the עץ הדעת.

Nevertheless, Hashem enjoins us to honour our parents, because, after all, Odom Harishon was created by Hashem himself and every generation that goes by is not only a link to Odom Harishon but one further down the chain. Therefore, we have to look up to our parents and honour them. (This is, of course, in contradistinction to those who mistakenly who think we are descended from apes and, therefore, in their eyes, the further one goes away on the chain the more intelligent?, sophisticated?, refined? becomes the human race, and, therefore, why respect parents who are that one link closer to apes? It shows where misguided thinking can lead!!)

The sixth commandment was לא תרצח. You may not kill. This has an immediate affinity with the first killing of all time, when קין, Cain, killed הבל, Abel. This contributed considerably to the degeneration of the world and therefore, this mitzvah is included in the ten commandments to try and stop it happening in the future.

The next commandment is לא תנאף. One may not commit adultery or be party to any other illicit relationship. This is directly connected with Rashi’s statement that the נחש, the snake, נתאוה, desired, חוה, Eve. The snake was the first to attempt to commit adultery, look at the problems that he then caused.

The next commandment is לא תגנוב, one may not steal or kidnap.

If one looks at the whole story of how Odom and Chava ate from the עץ הדעת and then hid themselves in Gan Eden, they “stole” by stealing the food, eating it and then hiding. We are enjoined not to do anything at all on those lines.

We now come to number 9, namely לא תענה ברעך עד שקר. One may not bear false witness.

I think that the way the snake put it to Chava, namely, that nothing would happen if she ate from the forbidden fruit, was tantamount to bearing false witness as to what would happen. The snake knew full well that she and her husband would die but said “You will not die” and I believe that that is why it is included in the ten commandments, namely, to try to stop future generations from falling into the same trap.

The tenth and final commandment, לא תחמד, you should not covet other people’s property, and wife etc. is once again bound up with the eating of the forbidden fruit. The Torah states clearly that Chava saw, כי תאוה היא לעינים ונחמד העץ להשכילthat the fruit looked delightful and she coveted the fruit and thought that it would give her this extra benefit, pleasure and perception. Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite and it is a lesson for all generations not to covet that which belongs to another individual.

I believe that I have demonstrated the connection which each of the עשרת דברות has to the original story of מעשה בראשית, and in that context, a reason for each of the ten commandments having been uttered by Hashem Himself.

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The Book of Ruth: A Story of Selfless Dedication

The custom is that on Shavuos one reads the מגילת רות , the Book of Ruth. Numerous reasons are given for this, I will just quote a few.

1) In the same way as the whole Jewish People said Na’aseh V’Nishma “We will do and then hear” (all the details), Ruth made the same undertaking, when insisting on joining her mother-in-law, Naomi, on her return journey from Moav to the Land of Israel.

2) The story of how Ruth was collecting the gleanings left in the field for people in poverty, and therefore met Boaz to whom she eventually became married, took place at the time of the wheat harvest which is around the time of year of Shavous.

3) Ruth had the merit to see as her great grand son, King David, Dovid Hamelech the most famous king in Israel who composed the Psalms and from whom the Moshiach will come. King David died on Shavuos.

As we read through this moving story we are all struck by the strength of character and צדקות, righteousness, of the two ladies concerned. One could say that as far as Naomi is concerned, having seen what happened to her husband and two sons, who all died after they had fled from the Land of Israel, because there was a famine, that Naomi was returning to her roots and realised how important it was to be steadfast.

However, as far as Ruth was concerned, she was a Princess in Moav, not only taking a leap into the unknown, but also going to accompany an old broken impoverished lady who begged Ruth not to come with her. We all know how the two daughters in law Ruth and Orpah both started walking on the road together with Naomi imploring them to return to their parents houses and lives of luxury and here we see the difference in that, whilst both cried, Orpah returned to her parents house and to the bad ways of her people whereas Ruth cleaved to Naomi and promised to keep the whole Torah.

It was even more remarkable in that, there is a verse in Torah which says לא יבאו עמוני ומואבי בקהל ה “a descendant of the two nations, Ammon and Moav cannot join the congregation of Hashem” that is become Gerim. Here we find Ruth who was a Moabite insisting that she would try to join.

The Gemora tells us that when there was talk of David becoming King of Israel, there were people who objected because of this verse, but Boaz who was David’s great grandfather had a tradition that when it says a Amoni and Moavi it only means the male members of those nations. מואבי ולא מואבית A Moabite man may not become a Ger but a lady may. This is what is known as Torah Shel baal Peh, our oral tradition of the interpretation of the Torah which was also given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Finally, it was agreed that this was the definite correct interpretation, but can you imagine, this young girl coming from a foreign country, not even knowing whether she would be accepted as a full Jewess.

Her strength of character and steadfastness was extraordinary.

She then got married to a very elderly gentleman, Boaz was certainly over 80 at the time, one can see that both of them meant it לשם שמים, for the sake of heaven. Ruth outlived her husband and in fact lived on to see David crowned as King.

We find in a verse just before the revelation at Mount Sinai, that Moses was instructed
כה תאמר לבית יעקב ותגיד לבני ישראל “So you should say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israel” and our Rabbis comment that first Moshe had to speak to the ladies and see what their reaction was, they were known as Bais Yaacov. Once the women agreed to go ahead, the men would no doubt follow and they all accepted the Torah Na’aseh VeNishma, we will do and we will hear, as we know.

It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the ladies have a pivotal role in keeping and continuing Yiddishkeit, Torah True Judaism. The woman of the house sets the tone, she buys kosher food and she teaches her small children how to behave in a Jewish way and so it continues.

Naomi and Ruth were both prototypes of this, Naomi coming from the traditional background, whilst Ruth was coming from outside. Nevertheless, they made a fantastic team.

I mentioned a second reason for reading the book of Ruth at Shavuos namely that the main part of the story took place at the time of the reaping of the crops. If you look at the wording in the story, you will find at one place it says “And it happened by chance that Ruth went to the field owned by Boaz”. And then it also happened that Boaz asked his workers who is this young girl. But if you look into it more carefully, you will see that although there seems to be a whole series of coincidences, really they were not coincidences.

The scene was set in order that this match should take place. However, we all have what is known as a Bechirah, a choice and it is up to the individual or individuals to do the “right” thing. That is exactly what happened to Boaz, who was under pressure not to take this Moabite convert as a wife and also Ruth who could have had the pick of a number of young men. They both made the correct choice.

I want to repeat to you an idea which I heard from Rabbi Dessler זצ"ל, of blessed memory, (who incidentally officiated my parents’ marriage many years ago) and he discusses this idea of free choice, Bechira. He says that we all have a free choice, for example people have the choice to read this article, people have the choice to walk down one side of a road or the other side. There are some choices which have relatively minor implications but, he says, we all have at certain times in our lives, to take a major step, we are at a cross-roads and we are not sure what to do, if we turn one way our lives and those of later generations turn out completely differently than if we had gone the other way. He refers in particular to the moment when Naomi told her two daughters in law to return to their homes, one did and one didn’t and what was the result after three or four generations, Ruth had a great grandson called David, Orpah had a great grandson called Goliath. It may be a surprise to you but it is so.

So we see the two complete opposites, we all know the story of David and Goliath and in fact Goliath was a distant cousin to David. But look at the way they had drifted poles apart. That is one of the outstanding lessons that we can learn from The Book of Ruth.

We, all of us, nowadays are faced with major choices, we live in a society which some people call Western civilisation and I think of as Western decadence. Increasingly we are pressurised by the media into attitudes and actions which, to put it mildly, are not according to Torah values. Very often, instinctively, we know that the latest Government thinking on education or the general permissive attitudes are wrong. How are we supposed to know the correct way to behave and to ensure that our children and grandchildren, relatives and friends remain true Jews?

One, first of all, must have strength of conviction, we adhere to a Jewish religion and race which has been in exile for nearly 2000 years but nevertheless survived and the ones that survived were the Jews that adhered to their religion. Secondly there must be basic knowledge of Torah in order to be able to keep the mitzvahs, we must know what are the most important points. Not only must we know, we must internalise that they are important. There are certain basic mitzvahs which are the foundations on which Jewish family life functions. There is Kashrus, eating kosher food, and this does not mean just when eating at home but also outside the home, for example when going out to a restaurant or on holiday etc. There is Shabbos, which is a day to recharge our spiritual values, learn some Torah, sit together as a family, sing Zemiros etc. There is Taharas Hamishpocha, going to Mikvah creates purity in a spiritual sense and then there isחינוך , education. But of course, all mitzvas are important and to be adhered to.

If you look back on the communities that were very large in this and other countries but did not have organised orthodox Jewish education, they have virtually disintegrated, whereas others with proper organised Torah True Jewish education are strong vibrant and increasing in numbers.

It is important that a two pronged method is used to withstand bad influences. They are, of course, the home, where I have emphasised the role of the mother but of course the role of the father is also important, and secondly, the Jewish, Torah True, education that each child needs to receive. Going to a cheder once or twice a week is a very poor substitute. Torah True Jewish School for boys and girls is essential. We need to ensure that boys continue to Yeshiva Gedolah and girls to Beis Yaakov type of High School education.

The third reason I gave at the beginning for the reading of the book of Ruth was that King David, who is mentioned right at the end of the book, died on Shavuos. He was a great Tzaddik and an original thinker and psalmist and composed beautiful and eloquent praises and songs to Hashem, including the Hallel. These תהלים, psalms are used by Jews all over the world to this day.

I am sure that Ruth never dreamt, when she accompanied Naomi back to the Land of Israel that she would marry Boaz and that she would witness a great grandson as King David from whom would come the Royal family and the Moshiach .

It shows you what can be achieved with selfless dedication.

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