Today's Learning: Me'ilah 5:2-3 Sponsored by O.C.551:14-16 Dr. and Mrs. Irving Katz Tamid 31 on the yahrzeit of mother Sarah bat Yitzchak Hakohen Katz a"h Professor and Mrs. Gilbert Ginsburg on their son, Rabbi David Ginsburg's completion of Shas Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Chukat Vol. XI, No. 39 (522) 7 Tamuz 5757, July 12, 1997 In this week's parashah we again find Bnei Yisrael complaining about the mahn which Hashem fed them. How can this be? How was it possible for the generation which saw the miracles of the Exodus to complain so? Moreover, why would anyone want regular food when he could have the mahn, which could taste like anything a person wanted? Rav Natan Zvi Finkel (the "Alter of Slabodka") z"l explains: King Shlomo wrote (Mishlei 3:19), "G-d founded the world on wisdom." Everything that exists is part of G-d's wisdom. Contrary to appearances, there is nothing in the world which is inherently material. Rather, everything that exists is spiritual. What does this mean? A person eats bread, but that is a materialistic act only if he makes it so. Eating can be viewed as consuming a sacrifice before G-d. One's table may be viewed as an altar. (Thus the gemara says that today we can offer sacrifices by feeding Torah scholars.) The Generation of the Desert regretted that they had no opportunity to serve Hashem in this way. They had no materialistic food which they could raise to the level of a sacrifice. They had only the mahn. This was their complaint. Why, then, was this considered to be a sin? Because, explains the Alter, one is obligated to serve Hashem with the tools which he has been given. If G-d gave them the mahn and not regular food, then it must have been His will that they serve Hashem through the mahn. To desire otherwise was a sin. (Ohr Hatzafun III p.31). ****************** Parashat Chukat in Halachah * This parashah contains three of the Torah's 613 mitzvot. (Sefer Hachinuch) * One of the mitzvot in this week's parashah is the mitzvah to burn the parah adumah/the red heifer and have its ashes available to purify those who had come into contact with a corpse. Sefer Hachinuch concludes his discussion of this mitzvah as follows: Because the parah adumah was an important institution to our nation, for it purified people from a stringent impurity and without it one who was impure could not bring a korban Pesach (which is a very great mitzvah), therefore it became customary to read this section of the Torah every year on the Shabbat preceding Parashat Hachodesh [i.e., the second Shabbat before the month of Nisan]. The Shulchan Aruch (146:2) states that reading Parashat Parah is a Torah-ordained (as opposed to Rabbinic) mitzvah. (See also Shulchan Aruch 685:7.) The Pri Chadash writes, however, that he could find no source for this ruling. * "Whoever touches the corpse of any human being who will have died and will not have purified himself if he shall have contaminated the mishkan of Hashem, that person shall be cut off from Yisrael." (19:13) "But a man who becomes impure and does not purify himself . . . if he shall have contaminated the mikdash of Hashem." (19:20) Why does one verse use the word "mishkan" and the other verse uses the word "mikdash"? The gemara explains that there are reasons to think that a person who is impure may enter one of those structures (the Tabernacle in the desert or the "permanent" Bet Hamikdash in Yerushalayim) but not the other. Therefore the Torah teaches that the prohibition applies to both. Rav Shmuel Deutsch shlita writes: It would appear that the prohibition to enter the Temple in an impure state applies even today, for the consecration of the Bet Hamikdash was for all time. Why then is it not customary to post kohanim and levi'im as guards (see last week's Hamaayan p.2)? He explains: Rambam writes that the purpose of posting guards at the Temple Mount was not to protect the Bet Hamikdash but to enhance the glory of the King's palace. Thus, writes Rav Deutsch, when there no longer is a palace there, there is no glory to enhance. In contrast, the mitzvah to be in awe of the Temple is still in effect, for that mitzvah depends on the holiness of the site, and that holiness is eternal. (Birkat Kohen) ****************** "Zot chukat haTorah"/"This is the decree of the Torah" (19:2) The Ba'al Haturim writes: This verse was placed near the verse (at the end of last week's parashah), "Be'harimchem et chelbo mimenu"/"When you lift out the best from it [your tithe]," to teach, in the words of the midrash Mechilta, "The Torah was given only to those who eat of the mahn (i.e., those who place their trust in G-d and make due with what He provides)." How is this alluded to here? Commentaries explain: If you follow the literal instructions of the verse and lift out the word "chelbo" (whose gematria is 46) from the word "mimenu" (gematria = 136), you are left with 90, the gematria of the word "mahn." Thus, "This is the decree of [one who seeks] the Torah mahn." (Vayakhel Moshe, quoted in Chiyuchah Shel Torah; also Shoham Yakar p.383) ****************** In this week's parashah, we read that Moshe and Aharon sinned when Hashem directed them to bring water out of a rock for Bnei Yisrael, and thus it was decreed that they would not enter Eretz Yisrael. Yet, it is not clear exactly what their sin was, and commentaries offer more than a dozen explanations. Rav Yitzchak Meir (the first "Gerrer Rebbe") z"l writes: At first it would seem to be impertinent for the likes of us to analyze a "sin" of Moshe and Aharon, for undoubtedly it was so subtle that we cannot fathom it. Nevertheless, once G-d has written it in the Torah, we have the right to study it. Indeed, in every generation G-d reveals new insights into the Torah according to the needs of that generation and according to how that generation should conduct itself. For example, the Arizal [who revealed teachings of kabbalah which previously had been concealed or unknown] writes that the earlier generations had great souls and did not need to study the secrets of kabbalah as we do. Thus we pray every day (in the berachah before Shema), "Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah [and thereby] attach our hearts to Your mitzvot," for it is our hope that perhaps we will merit to become closer to G-d. (Chiddushei Harim) ****************** From the Humor of Our Sages . . . "And the congregation drank." (20:11) Rav Naftali of Ropshitz z"l was asked: "Why do chassidim drink so much schnapps?" "Because they want to recite the blessing, 'Shehakol nehiyah bedvaroh'/'That all came into being through His word'," he answered. "Then let them drink water!" was the retort. "No," explained Rav Naftali. "Anyone who knows that all came into being through G-d's word deserves a drink of schnapps." ****************** Rav Elya Baruch Kamai z"l born 5600 (1840) - died 12 Tamuz 5677 (1917) Rav Elya Baruch, a descendant of Rav Avraham, brother of the Vilna Gaon, was born in Telz. Rav Elya Baruch's father died when the boy was only two, and the boy's teacher was his stepfather and (future) father-in-law, Rav Chaim Zev Jaffe. Beginning in 1868, Rav Elya Baruch also followed Rav Chaim Zev as rabbi of the town of Shkod, Lithuania. For ten years, Rav Elya Baruch served Shkod in anonymity, but eventually, through the efforts of Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik (the "Bet Halevi") his greatness was publicized. A succession of other rabbinic posts followed until, in 1899, Rav Elya Baruch was called to serve as rosh yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva. There he became known in particular for his sharp intellect and for his encyclopedic knowledge of the works of the Acharonim/sages of the post-Middle Ages. He also changed the way the yeshiva's students were allotted stipends. Before his tenure, it was customary for scholarships to be allotted based on how much each student's hometown had contributed, but under Rav Elya Baruch, a merit-based system was introduced. In 1901, Rav Elya Baruch succeeded as well to the rabbinate of the town of Mir. When his co-rosh yeshiva, Rav Avraham Tiktinsky, retired in 1907, Rav Elya Baruch named his own son-in-law, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, to the faculty of the yeshiva. (Rav Eliezer Yehuda was the son of the "Alter of Slobodka" and was to lead the Mir Yeshiva through two World Wars and until 1965. His biography will appear next week iy"h.) Some of Rav Elya Baruch's lectures were published under the title Zichron Eliyahu. He was succeeded as rabbi of Mir by his son, Rav Avraham Zvi Kamai, who was massacred with 2300 of his congregants on 18 Cheshvan 5702 (1942). ****************** Donations to Hamaayan are tax-deductable