Hamaayan/The Torah Spring Edited by Shlomo Katz Parashat Bechukotai Volume VI/Number 33 (267) 27 Iyar 5752/May 30, 1992 "Bayamim Hahem, Bazman Hazeh" 1 Sivan 3830/29 Iyar 5727 This coming week marks two anniversaries for the city of Chevron: 1,922 years ago, the forces of the Emperor Vespasian conquered the city, and 25 years ago the armies of Israel returned it to Jewish control. The "Field of Machpelah" - that part of Chevron where our Patriarchs and Matriarchs are buried - was the first parcel of land which Avraham bought in Eretz Yisrael. Rabbenu Yonah - unlike most other commentators who consider "Akeidat Yitzchak" to be the greatest and last of Avraham's ten tests - writes that the negotiations surrounding Avraham's purchase of that land were the culmination of the tests to which Hashem put him, while the Akeidah was the ninth. How can this be? Could anything be more difficult than being asked to sacrifice one's son? Can a real estate transaction, of all things, be so difficult?! After passing the first nine tests (which included surviving Nimrod's furnace, uprooting from his homeland, and offering his son as a sacrifice), Avraham might have thought that his mission in life was complete. What more could be asked of him? But Hashem complicated the purchase of a burial place for Sarah to test Avraham again, to see whether he would complain, "I have passed the most difficult tests. Haven't I earned the right not to have such minor annoyances in my path?" But Avraham did not complain. He made no demands and he passed the test. (Heard from R' Yissachar Frand) ************************************ Bechukotai Parasha Overview This Parasha is closely related to last week's in that a large part of it discusses the punishment for failing to keep the "Shemittah" - Sabbatical year. Chazal teach that the curses of this Parasha refer primarily to the seventy year exile in Bavel between the first and second Temple periods. The final section of the Parasha deals with the Mitzvah of "Erachin", the procedure by which a person donates the monetary value of his being to the Bet Hamikdash. In this way, the ending of the Book of Vayikra parallels the beginning (which discussed "Korbanot"), for Ramban explains that one who brings a sacrifice must picture that he is the offering. Through Erachin, one can be an offering of sorts. The Haftara read by many communities (Yirmiyahu 16:19-17:14) discusses those individuals who build altars to nature, thinking that it is the source of their sustenance, and do not recognize Hashem (R' J. Breuer). It is precisely such people who refused to observe Shemittah, and thus caused the destruction of the true altar in the Bet Hamikdash. However, the prophet promises, a day will yet come when all will recognize Hashem and the Bet Hamikdash will be rebuilt. ************************************ Pirkei Avot There are four types of students...3) a strainer ("Mishameret") which lets the wine pass through but keeps out the dregs... (ch.5) R' Yoel Teitlebaum, the "Satmar Rav" elaborated: The Gemara mentions that certain pious individuals used to spend nine hours a day in preparation for, and in, prayer. The Gemara asks, "How then is their Torah guarded ('Mishtameret')?" and answers, "Because they are pious, their Torah is 'Mishtameret'." This answer, said the Satmar Rav, is difficult to understand. If "Mishtameret" in the answer refers to being "guarded," it can only refer to the Torah which these pious individuals have already learned. How, however, will they learn more if they are so occupied in prayer? Rather, the Gemara means "Mishtameret" in the sense of the "Mishtameret" - strainer - of our Mishnah. For the ordinary person, accomplishment in Torah requires extraordinary effort; for the pious, who spend the bulk of their time in prayer, Torah is easily "strained". True insights are acquired with less effort, while the "dregs" - false leads and misunderstandings - fall by the side. (Mimayanot Hanetzach, p.274) ************************************ "If you will go in [the way of] my decrees...I will give you your rains in their proper times." (Vayikra 26:3) Rashi comments: On Friday nights. The Gemara states that the appearance of a rainbow is a bad sign, for it means that Hashem is angry at the world. [Ed. note: The rainbow "reminds" Hashem not to cause a flood, and if He needs that reminder, it is a sign that we are sinning.] At first glance, Chazal's statement is difficult to understand; after all, is not the rainbow a naturally occurring phenomenon? How then can it be a sign from Above? R' Moshe Isserles ("Rema") explains, based on another Talmudic statement: "If Bnei Yisrael were deserving, all rains would fall on Tuesday and Friday nights." If that happened, notes Rema, the rainbow would never appear, as the creation of a rainbow in the heavens requires the light of the sun. The fact that the rainbow does appear means that rain is falling during the day, and this, in turn, means that Bnei Yisrael have sinned. Rema's contemporary, R' Yehuda Loewe ("Maharal"), took a different approach to the above question, and devoted a significant portion of his work Be'er Hagolah to it. He writes that whenever the Gemara attributes a phenomenon to a particular sin, one must take care to distinguish between cause and the means. For example, a rainbow is not seen because the sun strikes moisture in a certain way; it is seen because man has sinned. The moisture and the sun are simply the tools which Hashem created to send that message. Similarly, the Gemara attributes eclipses of the sun and the moon to certain sins, but this does not mean that Chazal were unfamiliar with the relevant laws of nature. Even the fact than an eclipse can be predicted centuries in advance does not contradict the Talmud, notes Maharal, because it is the nature of the world that mankind will sin. Does this mean that man has no free will? No, says Maharal. It is only guaranteed that mankind will sin, but each man or woman make the choice for himself. ************************************ R' Reuven Grozovsky One of the less well-known, but among the most influential builders of Torah in the United States, R' Reuven ("R.R") was born in 1896 in Minsk, and died in 1958. For a decade-and-a-half he headed the Torah Vada'as Yeshiva in Brooklyn and Monsey. Even earlier, as an older student in Slobodka, he was charged with the spiritual care of three young students whose own contributions to Torah-life in America are inestimable: R' Aharon Kotler, R' Yaakov Kaminecki, and R' Yaakov Ruderman. R' Reuven's students said that he had three teachers: R' Moshe Mordechai Epstein of Slobodka, R' Baruch Ber Lebowitz (R.R.'s father-in-law), and R' Akiva Eiger. The last of these died more than fifty years before R.R.'s birth, but his influence on the latter's learning was legendary. R.R.'s style of learning was the Lithuanian "P'shat" approach, but, according to one student, he tried even more than the typical Lithuanian scholar to find the meaning of a Talmudic passage within its lines, without resort to outside sources. R' Reuven demanded that every word be examined with great care. He used to say, "If a commentary poses a question and gives two answers, we now have three ways of understanding the passage." R.R. disapproved of "gut reactions"; answers had to be proven, not intuited. [Ed. note: Compare "Telz", discussed in a previous issue.] And just as every word of the Talmud contributes something, every word of a lecture did too. R.R. once asked a noted Rosh Yeshiva why he included a certain commentary in his lecture, and the latter replied, "I thought it was interesting." "Yes," said R'R., "it was. But it did not add anything, and it therefore distracted the listener from your presentation." (The Torah World, p. 214) Some of R'R.'s lectures are published in Shiurei Reb Reuven. ************************************ The learning schedule for this Shabbat is: Mishnah Yomit: Ohalot 15:4-5 (Learn two Mishnayot every day) Halacha Yomit: OC/MB 404:1-405:2 (Learn three paragraphs every day) Daf Yomi: Moed Katan 25 (Learn two sides of a page every day) Rambam Chapter/Day: Hilchot To'eyn V'Nitan - Chapter 11 3 Chapters/Day: Hilchot Mikvaot - Ch. 11, Hilchot Nizkei Mammon - Ch. 1-2 Sefer Hamitzvot Sh:P109,P237; Su:P240; M:P238; Tu:P241; W:P241 Th:N244,P239; F:P208,N271,N272 ************************************ The hard copy distribution of this week's Hamaayan is sponsored by: Friends of the editor Sandra and Eliot Shimoff in honor of their children, Gayle and Dan Shimoff, and their grandson, Netanel Chaim Shimoff ************************************ Donations to Hamaayan are tax deductible.