Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Chukat: You Breathe, Don't You? Volume XVI, No. 35 12 Tamuz 5762 June 22, 2002 Sponsored by The Edeson and Stern families on the second birthday of Dovid Levy Stern Martin and Michelle Swartz on the yahrzeit of grandfather, John Hofmann a"h Today's Learning: Avot 3:12-13 Orach Chaim 668:1-669:1 Daf Yomi (Bavli): Bava Batra 94 Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi): Orlah 3 This week, congregations outside of Israel read a double parashah, while those in Israel read only one - Balak. Because the second day of Shavuot, which is not observed in Israel, fell on Shabbat, Diaspora congregations have been one parashah behind until this week. The first of this week's parashot in the Diaspora is Chukat. G- d's commandments can be divided into several categories, among them "chukim" / laws that seemingly are irrational. The first mitzvah in this week's parashah, the commandment to burn a parah adumah / red heifer and sprinkle its ashes on a person who has come in contact with a corpse, is a chukah. Rashi refers to chukim as laws that the yetzer hara and the gentile world ridicule. It would seem at first glance that chukim would be the most difficult commandments to observe. In reality, says R' Elazar Menachem Shach z"l (Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak), this is not so. Paradoxically, the seemingly irrational commandments are the easiest to observe. How so? Nature has laws, too. For example, a person who eats healthful food will generally have a healthy life. One who does not eat or does not eat properly will likely be sick. A person who breathes will live. A person who has no air to breathe cannot live. These laws are chukim. True, they have explanations (just as the parah adumah has an explanation which is hidden from us), but understanding these laws is irrelevant to their "observance." We readily accept that breathing is not optional and that we must breathe whether we want to or not. This should help us observe the chukim; we need only recognize that such observance is G-d's Will no less than it is His Will that we breathe. In contrast, observing the mishpatim / rational laws and edot / testimonial laws (e.g., matzah and kiddush which "testify" to historical events) may be harder. We think we understand those laws, and we try to apply our intellect to them. Ideally, we would observe all laws as chukim. (Mai'rosh Amanah) ******** "Then Yisrael sang this song: `Come up, O well, announce it'." (21:16) The Midrash teaches: At the Sea it says, "Then Moshe and Yisrael sang." Here it says, "Then Yisrael sang." This may be likened to a child. When he is young, he reads after the teacher, but when he is older, he reads on his own. So, too, after Bnei Yisrael grew up in the desert for 40 years, they began to sing on their own. R' Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook z"l (1865-1935) explains: There are two luminaries that light the path through life for us. One is Moshe's prophecy, through which we have the Torah. The other is all other prophecy. The difference between them is like the difference between sanctifying an animal as a sacrifice (which gives the animal intrinsic holiness) and sanctifying something for the upkeep of the Temple (which merely gives holiness to the value of the thing). The former sanctification creates something new - the animal which was not holy before is now holy - while the purpose of the latter sanctification is merely to strengthen an existing holy thing, i.e., the Temple. Similarly, through Moshe's prophecy, we got something new - the Torah. All of the other prophets did not give us something new. Instead, their works serve merely to strengthen the Torah. After the splitting of the Sea, just before the Torah was given, Hashem promised Moshe, "They will also believe in you forever." Through these early miracles, our belief in Moshe as the Giver of Torah was established. At that immature stage, we still needed Moshe to sing with us. Not so the later miracles (such as the miracle of the well described in our parashah). By the time they occurred, our faith in the Torah was "grown-up." These miracles, like the later prophets, were intended to strengthen our belief. (Haggadah Shel Pesach Im Peirush Harav Kook p. 314) ******** "Bilam arose in the morning and said to the officers of Balak, `Go to your land, for Hashem refuses to let me go with you.' "The officers of Moav arose and came to Balak and said, `Bilam refused to go with us.' [Then] Balak kept on sending officers -- more, and higher ranking than these." (22:13- 15) Rashi writes that the implication of Bilam's words was: "Go to your land, for Hashem refuses to let me go with you." That is why Balak responded by sending higher ranking officers. Asks R' Dovid Povarski z"l (Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak): Are we really to believe that Bilam, a prophet, spoke so coarsely? Moreover, we read later (24:12-13): "Bilam said to Balak, `Did I not speak to your emissaries whom you sent to me, saying, "If Balak were to give me his houseful of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of Hashem to do good or bad on my own"'." Had Bilam forgotten that he did not say this to the emissaries; rather he said, "G-d does not want me to go with you, only with higher-ranking officers"? The answer is that Bilam never uttered the statement that G-d wanted him to go with higher-ranking officers, nor was he even conscious of that implication in his response. Rashi is merely pointing out the carelessness of Bilam's manner of speech. In contrast, one would never have caught our forefather Avraham, for example, speaking in a way that would leave such an unintended impression. How could a Bilam, whose level of prophecy the Gemara compares favorably to Moshe Rabbeinu's, be so careless? The lesson is that one can never relax his vigilance over the yetzer hara. Once a person stops being vigilant, there is no telling how far he may fall, as Bilam's own story demonstrates. (Mussar Vada'at III p. 112) ******** "Bilam answered and said to the servants of Balak, `If Balak will give me his houseful of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of Hashem, my God, to do anything small or great'." (22:18) R' Elchonon Wassserman z"l (Rosh Yeshiva in Baranovitch, Poland; murdered by Lithuanian Nazi-sympathizers approximately 13 Tammuz 1941) writes: We read (Yirmiyahu 19:5), "They built the high places of the [idol] Baal, at which to burn their sons in fire as burnt- offerings to the Baal, which I never commanded, nor spoke of, nor even considered in My heart." The Aramaic Targum explains: "I did not command this in My Torah, I did not send instructions through My prophets to do this, and I do not desire it." We learn from here, writes R' Wasserman, that there are three parts to Torah observance: (1) Keeping the Torah as it was commanded, (2) obeying the words of the Prophets, and (3) doing what we know to be G-d's Will, even if He did not expressly command us or speak to us about it. (This last category includes the Rabbinically-ordained mitzvot.) In this light we can understand Bilam's sin. At first glance, he did nothing wrong. To the contrary, he acknowledged that even "if Balak will give me his houseful of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of Hashem, my God, to do anything small or great." However, these very words contained his sin. True, he would not transgress the word of Hashem. However, if Hashem withdrew his prohibition on going to Balak, Bilam would gladly go, even though he knew it was contrary to Hashem's Will. (Kovetz Ma'amarim) ******** Pirkei Avot Ten things were created on Friday, just before dark . . . Some say, "Also the first pair of tongs." (Chapter 5) R' Ovadiah of Bartenura z"l (15th century; Italy and Eretz Yisrael) explains: The process of making tongs requires tongs in order to lift the iron out of the fire. Obviously then, the first pair of tongs must have been created by Hashem. R' Yaakov Kaminetsky z"l (died 1986) suggests that each of the items listed in our Mishnah reminds us that Hashem created the world. Hashem therefore created them at the last minute, so-to- speak, because it was then that He prepared to transfer the world to man's control. The tongs which Hashem created symbolize all future technological developments. Let man not think that his own strength and wisdom brought about the Industrial Revolution. It would not have been possible without those tongs. (Emet L'Yaakov, Korach) ******** Rabbi Dr. Esriel Hildesheimer z"l Part II In 1867, R' Hildesheimer was invited to return as a faculty member to the Bet Hamidrash in Berlin where he had studied. The reason for this invitation was that the older roshei yeshiva had difficulty relating to the new generation of university-educated rabbinical students. R' Hildesheimer agreed to come, but only if the institution would be independent of the Berlin community leadership, which was heavily dominated by Reform Jews. (Prior to the last third of the 19th century, all Jews in Central Europe, including Germany and Hungary, had to belong to semi- autonomous, government-recognized "kehillot" / communities. However, with the advent of the Reform movement in those countries and that movement's successful takeover of many community institutions, many Orthodox rabbis, particularly R' S.R. Hirsch, fought for, and received, recognition as a separate group from their assimilated brethren. Interestingly, R' Hildesheimer had stood up against such secession many years before, but the passage of time changed his mind.) Not until the late summer of 1869 were negotiations completed, and R' Hildesheimer took up the post of rabbi of the Adas Yisroel congregation and lecturer at the Beth Hamidrash. In Berlin, R' Hildesheimer set out to establish a new rabbinical seminary that would train rabbis fit for Western European positions. This institution opened in October 1873. The Rabbinical Seminary, as it was called, was opposed by many of Germany's leading rabbis, including R' Hirsch and R' Seligmann Baer Bamberger of Wurzburg, because of a concern that it would produce "scholars of Judaism," not rabbis. As it turned out, however, the majority of German Orthodox rabbis in the last 65 years before the Holocaust were trained at the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary. To be continued . . .