Today's Learning Horiot 3:2-3 Sponsored by O.C. 407:2-408:1 Ronnie & Shulie Bergman Chullin 73 on the yahrzeit of Yerushalmi- Eliezer Asher ben Tzvi Bergman a"h Makkot 4 Sarah and David Maslow in memory of their fathers Archie Maslow a"h (18 Marcheshvan) and Samuel Holstein (25 Marcheshvan) Rochelle Dimont and family in memory of mother-in-law and grandmother, Chana Dimont a"h and father and grandfather, Louis Tarshish a"h Hamaayan / The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Vayera Vol. XI, No. 4 (487) 20 Marcheshvan 5757, November 2, 1996 In this week's parashah, Avraham reaches the pinnacle of the ten tests which he faced in his lifetime--he is instructed to take his son for whom he had prayed over the course of decades, and bring him as a sacrifice. One would expect, says Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik z"l, that this week's parashah would end with this climactic event. But no, a few verses are added, informing us that after the akeidah Avraham learned that his brother Nachor had children and grandchildren. Why? This was part of the akeidah, explains Rav Soloveitchik. Imagine coming down from the mountain after the akeidah and learning that life goes on as normal and your family and the rest of the world are oblivious to your heroic deeds. This was the test of these few verses. (Quoted in Doveiv Mesharim of Rav Dov Berzon z"l) ****************** Rabbenu Yonah also writes that the akeidah was not the final test. That appears in next week's parashah, where Avraham must haggle with the Hittites over a burial plot for Sarah. How can this be a greater challenge than the akeidah? the commentaries ask. Because after passing the test of the akeidah, a lesser person than Avraham might have expected G-d to let him be (so-to-speak). But a true tzaddik never rests on his laurels. ****************** Parashat Vayera In Halachah - None of the 613 mitzvot/commandments appears in this parashah. (Sefer Hachinuch) [See next section] - "Hashem appeared to him..." (18:1) -- We learn from this pasuk that one should visit the sick. Specifically, we are commanded to emulate G-d (Devarim 13:5), and we see that Hashem "visited" Avraham after the latter's circumcision. (Sotah 14a) - Rabbi Chelbo said in the name of Rav Huna: "Anyone who has a fixed place for prayer, the G-d of Avraham is guaranteed to help him, and when he dies, [the angels] call out, 'Behold this humble and pious man, this student of Avraham, our father.' How do we know that Avraham had a fixed place for prayer? For it says (19:27), 'Avraham arose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Hashem'." (Berachot 6b) This means both that a person should consistently attend the same shul and that he should have a fixed place within the shul. (Shulchan Aruch, O.C. 90:19) - Avraham established the morning prayers, as it is written (19:27), 'Avraham arose early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Hashem'." (Berachot 26b) ****************** We say that none of the 613 mitzvot/commandments appears in this week's parashah, but that the parashah does contain halachot/laws. What makes some of the Torah's instructions "mitzvot" and others "halachot"? Rambam explains that each of the mitzvot is a general heading within which many halachot are included. For example, "Do not murder" is a mitzvah, while "Do not murder with a knife" is a halachah, as is, "Do not murder in an ambush." If each law/halachah were counted as one of the mitzvot, there would be, not 613 commandments, but many thousands. [To take an example from our parashah: Prayer is one of the 613 mitzvot, but its source is not in our parashah. One of the details of prayer is found here, i.e., that one should have a set place for prayer. Thus, our parashah has laws, but not commandments.] (Sefer Hamitzvot: Hashoresh Hashevii) ****************** "For I have loved him [Avraham], because he commands his children and his household after him, and they will keep the way of Hashem..." (18:19) Should it not say, "[H]e commands his children and his household after him, that they should keep the way of Hashem..."? Rav Aharon Rokeach (the "Belzer Rebbe") z"l explains as follows: We are taught (see Bach, O.C. 292) that Avraham's "household" refers to Yaakov. Each one of the Patriarchs had a different name for the Temple, and Yaakov was the first to call it a "house." However, unlike Avraham and Yitzchak, who prayed at Mount Moriah (the site of the future Temple), Yaakov prayed elsewhere (see 28:10-11). This is because Yaakov's role was to prepare his descendants for a life of exile, away from the Temple. In light of this, Hashem did not want to say, in the context of Avraham's "household" (an allusion to "exile"), that they should keep the way of Hashem. Hashem would have preferred that there be no exile. (Sefer HaHaRA) ****************** "Perhaps there are fifty tzaddikim in the midst of the city..." (18:24) Says the Rebbe of Radomsk: In order for a city to be saved because of a tzaddik, it is not enough for the tzaddik to sit in the bet midrash and learn Torah. He must be "in the midst of the city" influencing others. (quoted in Chiyuchah Shel Torah) _____________________________________________________________________ ****************** From the humor of our sages . . . "Perhaps there are fifty tzaddikim in the midst of the city..." (18:24) Rav Simcha Bunim of Pshischa z"l (early 19th century) spent some time in Berlin incognito. One day he was spotted by a businessman who was visiting from Warsaw. "The rebbe is in Berlin and no one knew?" asked the chassid incredulously. Rav Simcha Bunim replied: "Reb Yid, have you ever wondered why Avraham said, 'Perhaps there are fifty tzaddikim in the midst of the city'? If there were tzaddikim there, wouldn't it be known? You see that in a place like Sdom there can be a tzaddik and no one knows about it." ****************** Rav Mordechai Rokeach z"l ("The Bilgoray Rav") 5662 (1902) - 25 Cheshvan 5710 (1950) Rav Mottele, as he was known, was an important figure in the chassidic circles of Belz. He was a younger son of the third rebbe, Rav Yissachar Dov (whose 50th yahrzeit falls next week), and was the apple of his father's eye. Even as a young man, Rav Mottele served as his father's assistant, answering halachic questions and advising others on personal problems and pressing issues. He also took upon himself to write down many stories, traditions and divrei Torah which Belzer chassidim had passed down orally through the generations. At age 25, Rav Mottele was appointed rabbi of the town Bilgoray. The townsfolk related to him as to a chassidic rebbe -- requesting his blessings and coming to his table on Friday night -- but he saw himself as a humble chassid of his older brother, Rav Aharon. (A dvar Torah from Rav Aharon appears inside.) Halachic questions were addressed to the young rabbi from all over Galicia, and he was consulted on issues of public concern. Also, he was an effective advocate for his congregants; for example, when the Bolsheviks entered Bilgoray in 1939 and outlawed matzah-baking, he persuaded them that Pesach is a holiday that celebrates the victory of the working class (i.e., the Jewish slaves) over the Egyptian bourgeois, and that it should be celebrated even in the Soviet Union. Rav Mottele had a daughter from his first marriage, but both his wife and daughter were lost (and presumed killed) in the Holocaust. Rav Aharon also lost his entire family (including the heir-apparent to the rebbe's seat) early in the war, and from then on the two brothers were inseparable. Miraculously, they made their way to Eretz Yisrael, arriving in 1944. There they turned their attention to rebuilding the shattered chassidic world of Belz. Rav Mottele remarried and fathered one son, the current Belzer Rebbe, shlita. In the summer of 1949, Rav Mottele traveled to Europe to raise the spirits of the chassidim there. While in Antwerp, he dreamt that his father ordered him to hurry back to Israel. A longshoremen's strike forced him to spend Rosh Hashanah near Rome, but he arrived home soon after and, on Sukkot, was diagnosed with his final illness. ****************** Donations to Hamaayan are tax-deductible