פרשת כי תבוא

פרשת כי תבוא

ולקחת מראשית כל-פרי...

That you shall take the first of every fruit…

                The first מצוה that is talked about in this week’s פרשה is the מצוה of ביקורים (the bringing of the first fruits to the כהן as a tax to ה'). רשי points out that when a Jew brings the ביקורים, the need to do it בשמחה. We need to be happy when we are giving away the first of out fruits. 

                Now, this is an interesting idea. Not only do we need to give our hard work away but we need to be happy about it. It seems kind of strange. Why do we NEED to be happy? Another question is, why is this פרשה of being בשמחה during one of the scariest parts of the Jewish year? This is the time of year where the Jewish people as a whole and each individual is judged and written in either the Book of Life or the Book of Death. This period should be (and hopefully is) full of תשובה and fear. So why is there a פרשה talking about being happy?

                I believe that these two questions are connected. We need to realize that whenever we are judged by ה', it is His ULTIMATE KINDNESS.ה' created us, we are His servants. When a slave does something wrong the master doesn’t need to forgive him, he can punish him any way he wants. However when the master does forgive, and doesn’t punish the slave, that slave is eternally grateful. ה' is our master, not only that, He is the only master who knows everything that we do, everything we think, even everything we may do in the future. ה' could easily say, “well he is behaving badly, you know what, his time is up”, and guess what… Game over, that’s it. However, He doesn’t do this. Not only does He not do that, but ה' doesn’t even judge us with everything He knows about us. He judges only with what the מלחים bring against us. I would say that is pretty kind. Therefore as afraid as we are during this period we are also very happy.

                There is a similar situation when it comes to ביקורים. ה' controls our farming. He could very easily watch us do all of our hard work and toil away for nothing. We may pour our blood sweat and tears into our farms, and not grow any produce. However, ה' doesn’t do this. The only way we CAN bring ביקורים is if our produce grows. When it grows, we are בשמחה because we know that at least this year we have a way of making our money, and we have food to survive on. What do we have to pay for that? Basically nothing, all we need to do is bring the first fruits to the כהן.  We need to and even choose to do this because it is the small price that we need to pay for our success.

                אי''ה all of us will be able to be successful in our lives and be able to happily pay our small debt to ה' no matter what we do.

Have an Amazing Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

פרשת כי תצה

In this week’s פרשה we are introduced to the מצוה of שלוח הקן, sending away the mother bird.  This is מצוה of shooing away the mother bird before taking away the eggs from the nest. What is the reason behind this מצוה? Why do we need to send the mother away?

The answer to this question is a מחלוקת between רמב"ם and the רמב"ן. The רמב"ם says, the reason for this מצוה is because, just like humans animals have feelings towards their children. Within every animal there is a certain amount of love that they have for their offspring. Therefore in order to not cause pain and suffering to the mother bird we send her away so that she does not have to see the eggs being taken. The רמב"ן gives a different answer. He says that it is all about psychology, if you are cruel to animals it may lead you to become cruel in regards to human beings.

We see this example very often (at least on CSI) by serial killers. What is one of the first questions they ask about the killer? They ask about his childhood. Did he ever have a traumatic experience etc… They also ask whether he ever used to experiment on animals and kill them. They ask this because they are trying to understand his psychology. When you hurt an animal it is only a step away from hurting humans.

The רמב''ן is telling us that this מצוה is for our wellbeing. It is for our protection. It is protecting us from ח''ו becoming desensitized to ה'’s creatures, and rationalizing the bad treatment of them. There is more than just that however. What the רמב''ן is really saying is even more than becoming desensitized, this מצוה is making us “sensitized” to all of ה'’s creations. Just like with the מצות of צדקה and חסד, we are not doing it because we want to. We don’t give צדקה because we feel bad for the poor guy. We aren’t doing חסד because we like the person we are doing it for. ה' is actually teaching us to act in His image. ה' is the ultimate definition of רחמנות, in all of these מצות we are being trained to be a person of רחם. ה' doesn’t need our help to take care of His children.

This is why we do the מצוה of שלוח הקן, when we learn how to treat even some of the smallest of ה'’s creatures with compassion, we will learn how to become a person of mercy.

Have an Awesome Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

With Help From- Rav Moshe Beigelman and Rav Shaya Greenberg

פרשת שופטים

In this week’s פרשה the תורה tells us about the command ה' gave to בני''י of choosing a king over the nation. In פסוק טו it says "שום תשים עליך מלך...", “place upon yourself a king…”. The next פסוק warns that the king should not take too many of the worldly things; horses, wives, silver, etc…

                The Da’as Zikainim comes and explains that the reason that each one of these specific excesses is mentioned is because we want to be careful that the king will not even have the chance to become arrogant.

                This Da’as Zikainim is difficult to understand. The Jewish people were OBLIGATED to treat the king with great honor. In order for a king to be effective in leading his nation, he needs to be respected and honored. It doesn’t matter what your status in the nation is, from peasant to the richest man, from simpleton to the biggest Talmud Chacham, EVERYONE needed to treat the king, well, like a king. They needed to bow down to the full extent when he was near; whenever they entered his chambers they needed to stand for the entire duration of their meeting. The king wasn’t even allowed to stand up for anyone in public. If someone disobeys they king’s wishes, even if he asks them to leave the room, the king could have them killed.

                However, our king, the Jewish king is expected to be a humble person, and to remain humble. The Torah does not worry about him becoming arrogant because of all the situations I stated before. So, why is the Torah afraid that here, when it comes to wealth he will become arrogant. It seems to be saying that honor; the king is able to handle, but wealth? Forget it. Why?

                One possible answer comes from the understanding of the human being. When someone is honored because of a position they hold above someone it is natural for them to feel different and above others.  When someone feels that they are above the rest of the world they may begin to feel self-important, and may forget that everything they have is from ה'. However, all of that is something that man can fight by working on themselves. They can work on being humble and realizing that the only reason they have all that is honor is because ה'.

                Wealth on the other hand is very different.  Wealth brings a person to a much more dangerous sense of himself. It gives the person a sense of independence that he doesn’t need anyone else anymore. My wife, she didn’t do anything for me, I don’t need her. I don’t need my children; all they want is my money. I don’t even need ה', I have enough money to do whatever I want.

                This seems to answer the question of the Da’as Zikainim. Because of the sense of independence is a natural outgrowth of wealth and power, the Torah warns a king of Israel not to amass to much of it. However great of a man he is, however he is able to keep his ego in check when it comes to honor, with wealth it is different. Even a man as great as the king of Israel is, wealth can destroy him.

                This is a great lesson to all of us. Whether we are considered wealthy or not, we are blessed with living in the 21^st century. We have wealth nowadays that cannot even compare with the wealthiest people in previous generations. We need to remember that everything we have comes from ה', and that ה' has a reason for giving us what we have. WE COULD NOT DO IT WITHOUT HIM. We need to be humble and remember where we come from.

Have an Amazing Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

Adapted From: The Shmuz on The Parsha- Rav Ben Tzion Shafier 

פרשת מטות

פרשת מטות

            In this week's Parsha the Children of Reuven and of Gad wanted to stay in the land outside of Eretz Yisroel. The reason for this was because the land that was outside was better for them to feed their cattle on. They approached Moshe and said “pens for our flock shall we build here for our flocks and for our small children”. A few pasukim later Moshe agrees to let them live there and says to them “The land will be for your small children and for your cattle”. Rashi says that when the children of Reuven and Gad originally came to Moshe to ask about the land they were wrong about the order.

            This looks pretty bad on their part. Can it be that they cared more about the money than they did of their children?

            Honestly I don’t believe that. Let's try to look at this in a positive way. The parents who went to talk to Moshe were not just worried about the money. Of course they care about their families, but in order to be able to take care of them, they needed to be able to make the money for them. However, over here, that was a mistake. They wanted this land in order to set up a living for themselves so that they could provide for their families.

By Moshe flipping around the order, he was telling them “even though you may have your priorities correct, right now, you need to be more concerned for your family. You need to build up the land for your families first and then, when you are finished with that, you can set up your business.

            We should all keep this in mind during this period of the three weeks. As much as we need to work in order to make money and provide for our families. We also need to work on caring for our families as a nation. Hopefully with our work we will be able to bring the geula soon!

Have an Amazing Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

פרשת פינחס

בס''ד

והיתה לו ולזרעו אחריו ברית כהנת עולם...

And it shall be onto him, his children, and to his grandchildren a covenant of an everlasting priesthood…

            In this week’s Parsha, Pinchas kills Zimri and Cuspi. When he did this a vicious plague that was wiping out Bnai Yisroel was halted and things went back to normal. One of the rewards of Pinchas’s actions led to his receiving the Kahuna. The question is, why did Pinchas need to “earn” the Kahuna? Wasn’t he the son of Elazar HaKohen? And the grandson of Aharon HaKohen!

            Rashi answers, that the reason is because by the time Aharon was given the kahuna, Pinchas was already born, therefore, he was not included in it.

            There is another answer I would like to suggest. Aharon was one of the biggest tzadikkim the world has ever known. He was also the world’s biggest Rodef Shalom. He would do anything to keep the peace. Unfortunately, this personality of wanting to keep peace caused him to make a mistake. During the time of the Egel Hazahav, the nation came and asked him if they could do it. His answer was, “If I say yes, they will kill me, but if I say no I may be able to make peace with them and make sure that they don’t do it”. Unfortunately they listened to him, and they did the sin.

            This was not the way Pinchas thought. Pinchas knew that sometimes in order to get to peace, there needs to be war. Look at what happened in World War Two, the American’s didn’t want to join because they wanted to “keep the peace”. However, the peace didn’t come until they helped to defeat the Nazi’s.

            By killing Zimri and Cuspi, Pinchas was able to stop the plague, and quell Hashem’s anger towards the Jews. He knew that sometimes it is appropriate to fight to defend the name of Hashem.

Have a Great Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

Adapted from: Rabbi Shimon Schwabb and Moshe Hammelman  

פרשת בלק

וירא פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרון הכהן ויקם מתוך העדה ויקח רמח בידו

פינחס the son of אלעזר, son of אהרון הכהן saw, and he stood up from amid the assembly and took a spear in his hand…

                At the end of this week’s פרשה, the בני ישראל (once again) sin towards ה' by taking for themselves the daughters of מואב (which eventually brought them to idolatry). This problem reached its pinnacle when זמרי, the head of שבט שמאון, took for himself a מואבי princess, brought her into the camp, and began to have relations with her in public. This was s Jewish leader! People looked up to him! This could have, and almost did DESTROY THE JEWS!! ה', angered by this, sent a plague that was going to kill the nation.

                פינחס, seeing what was happening, ran to משה to ask what he could do. רש''י says over here, that פינחס came to משה and said “you were the one who told me that there is a הלכה that if there is a person having relations with a non-Jew, another person who is jealous (angry) in the name of ה' can go and kill him. [WARNING SPOILER ALERT] As we all know from next week’s פרשה, the answer משה gave was “yes”.

                What does this mean!? Ok so first of all, this Dvar Torah is in NO WAY promoting going out and killing people who intermarry. I’m not some crazy guy preaching mass homicide. This whole idea is really hard to understand. However, we do need to know that, in our times, we have NO IDEA what it really means to be on level of holiness and care for ה' that פינחס was on. We can’t fully understand what it really means to be “jealous” for the sake of ה'. But I would like to see if we can get an idea of what it means.

                In order to try to figure this out I would like to make a comparison. Parents. Parents may be the best example of this kind of jealousy or anger. How? Here is an example: a child comes home from school one day, he is crying, and has a black eye because the bully beat him up. To make it worse he got pushed into a locker and everyone was laughing at him. How does this child feel? He feels sad, depressed, his self-esteem is shot. Basically the child is just hurt. So the parent of this child gets angry, and in a way jealous. Parents care about their children and are very closely connected to them. When something happens to the child, the parent feels it. The parents become jealous of the time when that child was happy. It is not the type of jealousy that we think of. This parent isn’t trying to take anything away from anyone, they just want so badly for their child to be happy.

                ה' was watching His nation destroy itself. He was angry, sad, and hurt by what they were doing. פינחס understood this. All that פינחס wanted was for ה' to be happy and treated with the respect that He deserves. The Jews were destroying that relationship with ה'. It was like פינחס watching the children of the nation that he loved all leave the Derech. So, פינחס got jealous. Jealous about the time when they were happy with all that ה' did for them. Therefore, in order to save the nation פינחס was allowed to kill זמרי and in turn stop the plague from killing everyone.

Have a Great Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

With Help From: Rav Moshe Beigelman

פרשת חקת

וידבר ה' אל-משה ואל-אהרון לאמר. זאת חקת התורה...

ה' spoke to משה and אהרון saying. This is the statute of the תורה…

                  At the beginning of this week’s פרשה, we are told about the פרה אדומה (Red Cow). The מצוה of פרה אדומה is a מצוה that is done by the כהנים when they need to make someone who has touched a dead body and is טמא (impure), טהור (pure) again. The מצוה consists of burning the cow and then sprinkling the ashes on the person in need. The פסוק that introduces this חוק (unexplained law) says זאת חקת התורה... (This is the statute of the תורה…).

                Why is it written this way? It seems like the פסוק is saying that this is the only חוק in the תורה. However we know that there are more! What’s going on?!

                רש''י explains that the reason for the way it is phrased is, because the other nations of the world are going to bother בנ''י  by saying, “what is this commandment?” And “where does it come from?” Therefore, the פסוק wrote חקת, which implies that “it is a decree from before Me (ה')”.

                To the Jewish people, ה' is the ultimate father. When our fathers tell us to something, we (should) do it. We trust our fathers! We understand that when they tell us to do, or not to do something that they are really looking out for our good.

                According to רש''י, the same thing is happening here. ה' our ultimate Father, is telling us, it doesn’t matter what the other nations say or do. You are My are my children, I love you, and you know that everything I do is for your best. So what that you don’t understand what this specific מצוה is about?! You just need to know that I am looking out for you.

                This is really a very important message for us. There are going to be times where bad things are going to happen to us (sorry to say but that’s just a fact). We are going to get hurt, we are going to feel sad, and there are going to be times where we may feel that there is no way we can handle what’s going on in our lives. There is one thing we ALWAYS need to remember, our Father in Heaven IS LOOKING OUT FOR US. He knows us, and he hears us. We just need to talk to Him and ask Him for His help. We need to know that ה' is and always will be on our side, there is no challenge that He gives us we can’t overcome. He is always taking care of His children. 

Have an Great Shabbos

Yoni Spigelman

With Help from: Rav Moshe Beigelman