Today's Learning
Sukkah 3:11-12
O.C. 74:1-3                                          Sponsored by
Bava Batra 12                                  the Parness Family
Yerushalmi--                                         in memory of
     Yoma 27                                      Max Parness A"H


                    HAMAAYAN/THE TORAH SPRING
                      edited by Shlomo Katz


                          CHAYEI SARAH
   Vol. IX, No. 5 (389), 24 Marcheshvan 5755, October 29, 1994

   Rashi writes that Sarah died when she heard that Yitzchak was
"almost not slaughtered."  Many commentators struggle to explain this
strange language, which implies that Yitzchak was indeed killed, but
that Sarah died because she thought he had not been!  According to
one explanation, Sarah thought that Yitzchak was spared from being
sacrificed because G-d found him unfit.  That disappointment killed
her; there was no purpose to her being a parent other than to raise
a child who would find favor in G-d's eyes.

   (In fact, however, G-d accepted Avraham's offering, as though
Yitzchak was actually killed.  This is why we find allusions in our
prayers to the "ashes of Yitzchak.")

   Some say that Sarah thought that Yitzchak had been killed.  But
as great as it is to die al kiddush Hashem (sanctifying G-d's Name),
it is even greater to live al kiddush Hashem.  Sarah was disappointed
that Yitzchak was not (she thought) found worthy of that.
                                                                 
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   This parashah reminds us that events do not always unfold as we
would wish, says Rav Elazar Shach shlita.  But we should not
complain.  Hashem's ways are beyond our grasp.

   Hashem promised Avraham that all of Eretz Yisrael would be his. 
Nevertheless, when it was time to bury Sarah, Avraham had to purchase
a plot, and at an exorbitant price to boot.  Yet Avraham did not
complain, and we should learn from his example.

                                          (Michtavim U'Ma'amarim)

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     In the progression of verses describing Eliezer's encounter with
Rivkah, we see that only after she offered him lodgings did he thank
Hashem for sending him the right wife for Yitzchak.  Why, asks Rav
Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatz'l, was this so important?  Why was the
quality of welcoming strangers so valued in Avraham's house?

   When a Jew senses that he is far from perfection; that he cannot
always show others the way; that he has much to learn from others,
from strangers; that others, though they are less than he, can tell
him something new--then every guest is important, since by means of
every man one might discover fresh insight into eternal truth.

   On the other hand, if one is convinced of his own righteousness,
of his scholarship, and of his wisdom, he will have no room for
guests.
                                           (The Rav Speaks p.159)

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    "These are the years of Avraham which he lived..."  (25:7)

   What do the words "which he lived" add?  They teach that although
Avraham was a Ba'al Teshuvah, and some of his years were wasted as
a pagan, his later accomplishments were so great that all of his
years are considered equal.
                                     (Rav Moshe Feinstein zatz'l)

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   "Lavan and Betuel replied. . ." (25:40)

   Lavan is considered to be a rasha because he spoke before his
father.  What did he do wrong? asks Rav Shimon Schwab shlita.
Honoring one's parents is not one of the Seven Noachide Commandments!

   The answer is that honoring one's parents--aside from being a
mitzvah--is a matter of derech eretz (common courtesy) and hakarat
hatov (gratitude).  When Rabbi Elazar's students asked him how far
the mitzvah of honoring parents goes (as recounted in the Talmud),
he related to them the story of a non-Jew who was willing to forfeit
a fortune rather than wake up his father.  What Rabbi Elazar was
teaching, Rav Schwab explains, was that this man's actions are merely
what common courtesy and gratitude require (otherwise, as a non-Jew,
he would not have acted so).  That, however, is only the foundation
for the obligation to honor parents which the Torah places upon us.
                                        (Selected Writings p.290)

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   "These were the years of Yishmael's life. . . over all his
brothers he dwelt ("nafal").  And these are the offspring of
Yitzchak. . . ."  (25:17-19)

   These verses from this parashah and the next have been said to
be an allusion to the Balfour Declaration (which was announced this
week in 1917):

   "These were the years of Yishmael's life" is a reference to the
Ottoman Empire, most of whose subjects descended from Yishamel.

   "Over all his brothers he dwelt" is a reference to the vast area
of that Empire.  Also, the use of the word "nafal" (which also means
"fell") for dwelt can allude to the Ottoman Empire's falling in a
war of brothers, i.e., World War I, which pitted most of the nations
in the civilized world against each other.

   "And these are the offspring of Yitzchak," the ascendancy of
Yitzchak's offspring, is the aftermath of that war.
                           (heard from Rabbi Julius Hyatt shlita)

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                      Rav Chaim of Volozhin

   Born in Volozhin in 1749, Rav Chaim studied with the two sages
who served as that town's rabbis in his childhood: Rav Refael Hakohen
Hamburger (see his biography in last week's Hamaayan) and Rav Leib
Ginzburg, author of Sha'agat Aryeh.  From age 19, Rav Chaim studied
under the "Vilna Gaon".  Though Rav Chaim was appointed Rabbi of
Volozhin in 1783 (and held that position for all but one of his
remaining years), he still spent considerable amounts of time with
his teacher, studying Talmud, halachah, and kabbalah, and presenting
questions that had arisen in his own studies.

   Rav Chaim was the primary heir of the Vilna Gaon.  Not only did
his yeshiva popularized the Gaon's method of Torah study, every
aspect of his behavior was patterned after the Gaon's teachings. 
Like the Gaon, Rav Chaim was a leader of the mitnagdim (opponents
of the nascent chassidic movement), although slightly more moderate
in his views towards that group.
   Rav Chaim's best known work, Nefesh HaChaim, is a treatise on the
way to serve Hashem, and is implicitly a response to the chassidic
movement.  (Essentially, the difference between the two approaches
is in the relative weight assigned to Torah study versus prayer, and
also in the content of one's study.  A mitnaged places greater
emphasis on halachah; a chassid, on mussar (ethics) and kabbalah. 
Today, many of the most serious differences between the two groups
have disappeared.)

   In 1802, Rav Chaim founded the Volozhin yeshiva, "The Mother of
Yeshivot."  Not only was this the first yeshiva (as we know them),
most later Yeshivot based their approach on Volozhin's.

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