Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Behar - Bechukotai: Bitachon - You Gotta Believe! Volume XVIII, No. 29 24 Iyar 5764 May 15, 2004 Sponsored by Micheline Peller on the yahrzeit of her father Baruch Hercberg a"h Today's Learning: Mikvaot 4:1-2 O.C. 208:1-3 Daf Yomi (Bavli): Chullin 113 Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi): Sotah 28 The second of this week's two parashot begins: "If you will walk following My decrees and observe My commandments and perform them; then I will provide rain in its time and the land will give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit." Rashi writes: "Observe My commandments" clearly refers to keeping the Torah's laws. What then is meant by "walk following My decrees"? He answers: "Walk following My decrees" is a reference to toiling in Torah study. "Perform them" is a reference to studying the laws of the Torah in order to know how to live. [There are two components to Torah study: studying the laws in order to be able to observe them and studying for study's sake.] R' Eliezer Zusia Portugal z"l (the "Skulener Rebbe") elaborates: One who studies Torah is likened to one who plants seeds. One who also applies what he has learnt and observes the commandments is likened to one who harvests what he has planted. If, G-d forbid, a person were to study the Torah but not live a Torah way of life, he would be like a foolish farmer who plants but never harvests. In light of this metaphor, we can understand the reward that the Torah promises for the one who walks following Hashem's decrees and observes Hashem's commandments - i.e., he studies Torah and applies what he has learnt. "I will provide rain in its time and the land will give its produce and the tree of the field will give its fruit." If we plant spiritual seeds and harvest them, Hashem will see to it that the physical seeds that we plant also will bear fruit. (Noam Eliezer) ******** "If you will say: `What will we eat in the seventh year? Behold! We will not sow and not gather in our crops'." (25:20) "Blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem, then Hashem will be his security." (From the Haftarah - Yirmiyahu 17:7) As the choice of Haftarah confirms, the lesson of the shemittah / sabbatical year is to practice bitachon / trust in Hashem. But what exactly is bitachon and what does it entail? R' Yehoshua ibn Shuiv (Spain; 14th century) writes as follows: Trust in Hashem encompasses four beliefs: (1) That He exists at all times and in all places; (2) That He watches over His creations; (3) That He is all powerful and nothing can deter Him from carrying out His Will; and (4) That there are things that please Him (i.e., mitzvot) and things that displease Him (i.e., sins). These four beliefs are alluded to in the Aseret Ha'dibrot: "I am Hashem, your G-d" - He exists! "Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery" - He watches over His creations! "You shall not recognize others gods [i.e., other powers] in My presence" - He is All Powerful! "You shall not . . ." - He is pleased by mitzvot and angered by sins. R' ibn Shuiv continues: One who wants to practice bitachon must act in accordance with these four beliefs. He must attach himself to those things which please Hashem and distance himself from those that anger Hashem. One has to cause Hashem to want to help him. [He must recognized that G-d is all powerful.] Even one who thinks that he is unworthy of Hashem's help should never give up hope that he will be granted assistance as a gift. On the other hand, however, one should never convince himself with certainty that G-d will make things go his way, for then he will have complaints against G-d if they don't. This is alluded to by the Gemara which says (Rosh Hashanah 4a; Bava Batra 10b): One who gives charity is permitted to say, "This is so that my son will recover from an illness." The Gemara explains that this is permitted because a Jew's nature is to have faith that if his son is not healed, G-d has a good reason for it. [He must remind himself that G-d watches over us.] A person who wants to practice bitachon should recall on a regular basis the miracles of the Exodus and other miracles that were done for the Jewish people over the millennia. Finally, one should thank Hashem for His kindness. (Derashot Rabbeinu Yehoshua ibn Shuiv) ******** Pirkei Avot "Ten miracles were performed for our ancestors in the Bet Hamikdash: . . . (8) the people stood crowded together, yet prostrated themselves in ample space; . . . (10) no man ever said to his fellow, `The space is insufficient for me to stay overnight in Yerushalayim'." (Chapter 5) R' Yisrael Dan Taub shlita (the Modzhitzer Rebbe) observes that we find a similar phenomenon in connection with other aspects of the Bet Hamikdash as well, for example, in the Kodesh Hakodashim / Holy of Holies. Our Sages say that the Aron Hakodesh / Holy Ark took up no space; it stood in the center of a room 20 amot / cubits wide, but if one measured from each side of the Aron to the nearest wall, the resulting measurement would be 10 amot. We find that Eretz Yisrael has the same character. The Gemara (Gittin 57a) teaches that the Land of Israel is called Eretz Tzvi / the land which resembles a gazelle. One characteristic of a tzvi, the Gemara says, is that its hide shrinks when it is removed from the animal so that it seems too small to have come off of the animal. So, too, Eretz Yisrael appears too small to hold all of the Jewish people, yet it seems to expand to accommodate all who settle there. Why is this? R' Taub explains that wherever one finds holiness, there he will find a blessing that allows him to be satisfied with less. This is reflected many times in the Torah, for example, in Devarim (12:7), "You shall eat there [in Yerushalayim] before Hashem, your G-d, and you shall rejoice with your every undertaking, you and your households, as Hashem, your G-d, has blessed you." When you eat "before Hashem," your happiness is guaranteed. This is reflected also in the construction of the Mishkan, where the gifts went so far that Moshe had to announce that no more should be brought. The more one connects himself to Hashem - the "Ein Sof" / "Limitless One" - the more one finds that his belongs are not bound by ordinary limitations. (Yad Le'banim) ******** R' Yitzchak Kanpanton z"l R' Yitzchak ben Yaakov Kanpanton, known as the Gaon / Sage of Castile (Spain), was born in 1360 and died in 1463. He headed a yeshiva that produced many great scholars, including R' Yitzchak de Leon, R' Shmuel of Valencia, and R' Yitzchak Abohab II (teacher of the Torah commentator, R' Yitzchak Abarbanel, and the historian, R' Avraham Zacut, and of R' Yaakov Bei Rav, whose student, R' Yosef Karo, wrote the Shulchan Aruch.) After the departure of R' Yitzchak ben Sheshet ("Rivash") from Spain and the death of R' Chisdai Crescas II (in 1415), R' Yitzchak Kanpanton remained the outstanding authority of the Spanish rabbinate. It is said that R' Yitzchak knew his students so well that he could assign a Talmudic problem to them and send them out of the room to work out a solution, and when they returned, he could predict, "So- and-so [one student] resolved it this way and so-and-so [another student] resolved it this way." Other than his being an important link in the chain of Torah transmission, the only significant fact known about R' Yitzchak Kanpanton is that he authored Darkei Ha'gemara, a manual for studying Talmud. R' Yitzchak's instructions in that book include: Pay attention to every word and phrase and ask yourself why that word was used and not a similar word. Bear in mind that every question and every answer in the Talmud [even if later rejected by the Talmud itself] has logic to it. No participant in the Talmud's discussion was a simpleton, and every question represents a position on the issue being discussed. Always ask yourself what Rashi's comments add to the discussion, how one might have interpreted the Talmud's words intuitively if not for Rashi's comments, and why Rashi implicitly rejected the intuitive interpretation. It is not enough to read something once, for each time you read it, you will see new meaning in it. As important as hard work and review are to success in one's Torah studies, praying to Hashem for that success also is essential. (Sources: Artscroll Rishonim; Artscroll Early Acharonim; Darkei Ha'gemara)