Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Volume 20, No. 45 23 Elul 5766 September 16, 2006 Sponsored by Rose and Bob Margolis on the first yahrzeit of her father Yisroel Aryeh ben Ben Zion Zev a"h The Greengart and Lerman families in memory of father Zvi ben Ben Zion a"h Today's Learning: Yevamot 11:7-12:1 O.C. 629:6-8 Daf Yomi (Bavli): Sukkah 14 Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi): Challah 15 Hamaayan will not be published for Rosh Hashanah. The next issue will appear for Shabbat Shuvah. We wish our readers a Ketivah Va'chatimah Tovah. The first of this week's two parashot opens: "Atem nitzavim" / "You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G-d." R' Moshe Avigdor Amiel z"l (1882-1946; rabbi in Lithuania; later Chief Rabbi of Antwerp and Tel Aviv) observed in a derashah: In the two preceding weeks we read "Ki Tetze" / "When you go out" and "Ki Tavo" / "When you come in." This week, immediately prior to Rosh Hashanah, "Atem nitzavim" / "You are standing" reminds us that we can come and go, we can run around no end in pursuit of whatever goals we have set for ourselves, but in the final analysis, "[We] are standing before G-d." One may be ending the year happy because he succeeded in business, or he may be sad because his endeavors failed, but one thing has remained constant since last Rosh Hashanah--"You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your G-d." The entire world is filled with the Glory of G-d, and there is no escaping it. R' Amiel continued: R' Moshe Chaim Luzzato z"l writes in Mesilat Yesharim, "The foundation of all foundations and the root of piety is for a person to know what his obligation in this world is." Without this recognition, R' Amiel said, we are no better than animals. Yet, we do not appear to consider the knowledge that Mesilat Yesharim describes--to know what our obligation in this world is--to be the "root," or even a "branch," of our existence. Why? Because we are too busy with "Ki Tetze" / "When you go out" and "Ki Tavo" / "When you come in." Pharaoh was the first one who had the idea to keep the Jewish People so busy that they could not think of their souls (see Shmot 5:9), and now the yetzer hara adopts the same strategy. (Derashot El Ami No. 5) ******** "The later generation will say - your children and the gentile who will come from a distant land . . . `For what reason did Hashem do so to His land, this great wrathfulness'?" (29:21-23) R' Chaim "Brisker" Soloveitchik z"l (1853-1918) observed: This verse contains a terrifying prophecy - that there will be a generation of Jewish children whose knowledge of Judaism and G-d's ways will be no more than that of a gentile from a distant land! (Quoted in Torat Chaim, p.180) ******** "Hashem will make you abundant / `vehoteercha' in all your handiwork . . ." (30:9) R' Yehuda He'chassid z"l (author of Sefer Chassidim) writes: The same blessing appears in last week's parashah, but there it is "lacking," i.e., the word "vehoteercha" is missing the letter vav. This is because the earlier blessing refers to the building of the Second Temple, which lacked permanence. The blessing in this week's parashah, however, refers to the final, and complete, redemption. (Ta'amei Masoret Ha'kra) ******** "It is not in heaven, [for you] to say, `Who can ascend to the heaven for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?' Nor is it across the sea, [for you] to say, `Who can cross to the other side of the sea for us and take it for us, so that we can listen to it and perform it?' Rather, the matter is me'od / very near to you--in your mouth and your heart--to perform it." (30:12-14) R' Moshe Yehoshua Hager shlita (the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in Bnei Brak) said in his the name of his father R' Chaim Meir Hager z"l: The word "me'od / very" alludes to humility, as in Pirkei Avot (ch. 4), "Be me'od me'od / very very humble." These verses thus provide a source for the Gemara's teaching that Torah is like water--it leaves high places (arrogant people) and flows towards low places (humble people). The younger R' Hager added: "me'od" also can allude to money (the meaning the word has in the second verse of Shema). If one pursues Torah the way others pursue money, the Torah will be very close to him. (Divrei Mussar 5736-5740, p.164) ******** "Hashem spoke to Moshe, `Behold your days are drawing near to die . . .'" (31:14) When R' Yehoshua Leib Diskin z"l (died 1898) was rabbi of Shklov, Lithuania, he was oppressed terribly by certain members of his community. Once, as he finished delivering his daily Talmud lecture, two strangers entered. R' Yehoshua Leib greeted them and asked, "What can I do for you?" "We wish to hear words of Torah from you," they answered. R' Yehoshua Leib directed the visitors to take the midrash Yalkut Shimoni from the bookshelf and to choose a paragraph that they wished him to explain. They did so and chose the following midrash: "Behold, a tzaddik is paid on this earth" (Mishlei 11:31) - this is Moshe, about whom it is said, "Behold your days are drawing near to die." "Despite the wicked one and the sinner" (Mishlei, ibid.) - this is Korach and his followers. "What is the connection between the quoted verse in Mishlei, the verse from our parashah, and Korach?" the visitors wanted to know. R' Yehoshua Leib explained as follows: There are two ways that a person's time can come. Some complete their life's work while still young and move on to the next world, while other people die of old age without having completed their missions. In Moshe's case, the Torah testifies (Devarim 34:7), "His eye had not dimmed and his vigor had not diminished." Clearly then, Moshe did not die of old age; rather, his mission was complete - the time during which he was meant to lead the Jewish people had ended. But Moshe could have complained, "I was cheated out of those days when Korach and his followers rebelled against me and I was not recognized as leader!" This is the message of the midrash: The tzaddik is paid his full time on earth. If Moshe's time to die was drawing near, it is "despite the wicked one and the sinner." Moshe's suffering at the hands of Korach was already taken into account. R' Yehoshua Leib concluded: Anyone who wants to inflict suffering on a tzaddik should know this! Nothing that the wicked do has any impact on the tzaddik in the end. In Hashem's "books," it is all accounted for. (Quoted in Yalkut Lekach Tov p.186) ******** "So now, write this song for yourselves . . . so that this song shall be for Me a witness against Bnei Yisrael." (31:19) What purpose does this witness serve? R'Meir Leibush Malbim z"l explains with the following parable: There was once a king who appointed a convicted felon to guard his treasury. However, since the king knew this servant's nature, he made a note that the servant was a convicted felon. Most people assumed that the king did this to serve as a reminder to the guard so that he should not fall into his old ways. In fact, that was not the king's intention. Rather, he wanted to remind himself that he assumed a great deal of risk in trying to rehabilitate this man. If the guard did steal from the king, the king wanted to remember that he had himself to blame. Similarly, Hashem knows that man is spiritually weak, as the Torah records (31:21), "For I know his inclination." Since Hashem adopted us nevertheless, if He must punish us, He must be lenient. (Ha'Torah Ve'ha'mitzvah) ******** R' Chaim Leib Auerbach z"l R' Auerbach, father of the famed posek / halachic authority R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and father-in-law of R' Shalom Schwadron (the Maggid), was a noted scholar in his own right. He was born in 1887 and grew up in Yerushalayim. At age 18, he received semichah / rabbinical ordination from R' Chaim Berlin. In 1907, R' Auerbach married the daughter of R' Shlomo Zalman Porush, one of the lay leaders of the Jewish community in Yerushalayim. (A descendant of R' Porush continued that leadership tradition by representing one of the religious parties in the Knesset for many years.) Together with his new brother-in-law, R' Akiva Porush, R' Auerbach secretly began studying kabbalah. He also began studying that discipline under a teacher, R' Shimon Lieder Horowitz. R' Auerbach related that at about that time he had a recurring dream in which a distinguished looking man sighed and asked, "Why does no one study my teachings?" Finally, R' Auerbach set out to ask his teacher the dream's meaning. However, on the way to his teacher's house in the middle of the night, R' Auerbach met his teacher, who described having the identical dream. They concluded that the man was R' Yitzchak Luria, the Arizal, and that he was bemoaning the paucity of Ashkenazic scholars studying kabbalah. Soon after, R' Auerbach founded Yeshivat Sha'ar Ha'shamayim for the study of kabbalah. Until the end of his life, R' Auerbach headed that yeshiva. He also founded a chassidic shul in the Sha'arei Chesed neighborhood of Yerushalayim and served as the shul's rabbi. During World War I, R' Auerbach repeatedly endangered his life to save Jews from being drafted into the Turkish (Ottoman) army. Somehow, he had himself appointed Ethiopia's consul in Yerushalayim, and from that position he issued Ethiopian citizenship to countless young residents of Yerushalayim. Eventually, R' Auerbach's deception was discovered and he had to go into hiding. R' Auerbach passed away on the 28th of Elul 5614 / 1954. He is buried on Har Ha'menuchot. (Source: Kedoshim Asher Ba'aretz)