Today's Learning Nazir 9:5 / Sotah 1:1 O.C. 229:1-230:1 Shevuot 3 Yerushalmi-- Ketubot 40 Hamaayan/The Torah Spring edited by Shlomo Katz Re'eh Vol. IX, No. 46 (430), 30 Av 5755, August 26, 1995 In this week's parashah we read of the mitzvot of shechitah (ritual slaughter) and kisui hadam (covering the blood). The Torah says (12:21), "You may slaughter from your cattle and your flocks that Hashem has given you, as I have commanded you." What is meant by the phrase (in the past tense), "[A]s I have commanded you"? Nowhere in the Torah is there such a commandment! One answer is that this is clear proof from the Torah itself that a companion Oral Torah exists. Moshe's previous commandment on the subject of shechitah was in that Oral Torah. In addition, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook zatz'l (whose yahrzeit falls during the coming week) offers the following explanation: The purpose of shechitah is to lessen the animal's suffering. The Torah says, "When you are doing the shechitah reflect on the fact that it is 'as I have commanded you.' Go ahead, slaughter the animal if that is what you desire (see 12:20) but know that you are taking a life and depriving a family of a member." The Torah wants a person to be sensitive to animals, but not necessarily to stop using them. The proof of this is in the mitzvah of kisui hadam, which requires man to hide the slaughtered animal's blood as if he is ashamed of what he has done. Significantly, the mitzvah of kisui hadam does not apply to the blood of domesticated animals. A person could feel that since he has raised this animal he is entitled to do with it as he sees fit. Were the Torah to require that its blood be covered--were the Torah to make a person ashamed of using the animal which he has raised with his own hands--a thinking person would be incapacitated from slaughtering the animal at all. (From a 1923 article in Ha'peles reprinted in Otzrot Ha'reiyah p. 748) ************************************ "Their trees of worship you shall burn in fire." (12:3) Here the Jews are commanded to completely destroy any tree in Eretz Yisrael which the Canaanites had made an object of idol worship. Yet earlier, in Parashat Mishpatim (23:24), the Jews were commanded simply to smash them or break them, a less complete destruction. Why? Rav Yechezkel Abramsky explains as follows: The trees in Eretz Yisrael never belonged to the Canaanites; they were always Bnei Yisrael's trees because Hashem had given the Land to the Patriarchs. Accordingly, the Canaanites could not affect the halachic status of the trees which they worshipped. Enjoyment of those trees did not become prohibited, and the Torah said (in Parashat Mishpatim) to break those trees only as a reminder not to worship idols. However, after Parashat Mishpatim was taught, Bnei Yisrael worshipped the Golden Calf. They thereby indicated that they did not object to the idolatry of the Canaanites, and that had the halachic effect of ratifying the Canaanites selection of certain trees as objects of idol worship. Thereafter, it became prohibited to enjoy those trees and they had to be burnt. (quoted in Ta'am Vada'at) ************************************ "And you shall eat your tithes before G-d, in the place where G-d will choose to rest His Name . . ., in order that you should learn to fear G-d all the days." (14:23) Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv (the "Alter of Kelm") explained the end of this verse: This does not mean that one must fear G-d all of one's days; that goes without saying. Rather it means that one must learn all of one's days how to fear G-d. Rav Chaim Friedlander adds: This explains why one must eat his tithes before G-d, in the place where G-d will choose to rest his Name, i.e., in Yerushalayim. Even though the Jews would pilgrimage to Yerushalayim three times a year for the holidays, the Torah wanted them to spend even more time in the holy and inspiring city. (Siftei Chaim) ************************************ "You may not slaughter the Pesach in one of your gates [i.e., cities] which Hashem gives you." (16:5) Chazal teach that the Jews in Egypt fell through the 49 gates of impurity and Hashem had to lift them out. So too, at any time, a person may fall through those gates, and Hashem may rescue him. However, says Rav Eliezer David Gruenwald, a person should not be satisfied with the "gates" that Hashem "gives" him, but should work on his own to climb through further gates of holiness. (Chasdei David) ************************************ "You shall make a holiday of Sukkot for yourself" (16:13) Rav Shlomo Halberstam (the Bobover Rebbe) shlita notes that the root of the word "Sukkah" is the name for one of the forms of Ruach Hakodesh--Divine Inspiration, i.e., the ability to see that which is hidden. Thus, this verse may be read as a lesson that every person should set aside times ("make a holiday") devoted to introspection, i.e., seeing himself. (quoted in Sukkat Bet Ropshitz p.31) ************************************ "For seven days you shall celebrate to Hashem . . . and you shall be only joyous." (16:15) From this last phrase Chazal deduce that one must be joyous on an eighth day as well, i.e., Shemini Atzeret. However, numerous commentaries ask: Doesn't the word "only" suggest that something is being excluded, rather than that something is being included? The Vilna Gaon is quoted as explaining that something is indeed being excluded. The Torah is teaching that after the seven days in which we were joyous and performed numerous mitzvot (sukkah, lulav, etc.), there comes a holiday when the only mitzvah is to be joyous. (Kol Eliyahu) ************************************ Yahrzeits This Week Rav Yechiel Schlesinger: born 5570 (1810); died 1 Elul 5651 (1891). Rav Yechiel was among the leading students of the Chatam Sofer, and later was a rosh yeshiva and av bet din (chief rabbinical judge) in Pressburg. Rav Yechiel's son was Rav Akiva Yosef Schlesinger, an author of several sefarim and a fighter against Reform. Rav Yechiel and his son both wrote commentaries on the midrash Tanna D'vei Eliyahu--the former called Divrei Yechiel and the latter called Tosfot ben Yechiel. Rav Yissachar Ber ("Rav Berzi") of Nadvorna: died 3 Elul 5608 (1848), soon after "offering" to Hashem that he take the place of 10,000 cholera victims. Among Rav Berzi's sayings: "My soul has been here three times--once as the prince Kemuel ben Shiftan [see Bemidbar 34:24], once as villager, and now. I accomplished the most for my soul as that anonymous villager." He also said, "Man so desires honor that if he could sit up and count how many people came to his funeral, he would do so." (from Sha'ar Ha'otiot by his grandson, Rav Eliezer Zev of Kretchnov) Rav Moshe Provencal: born 5264 (1504); died 4 Elul 5336 (1576). Rav Moshe and his two brothers were among the leading rabbis of Italy in their time. Rav Moshe lived in Mantua and his word was law there. His oldest brother was the first posek to permit the printing of the Zohar, whereas a leading contemporary (Maharam of Padua) felt that the Zohar should not be made accessible to the general public. Rav Moshe was an opponent of the study of philosophy which was popular in Italy in his time. ************************************ Donations to Hamaayan are tax-deductible.