Bereishit 5771

According to the Vilna Goan every single thing that has happened and anything that ever will happen can be found in the Torah. Everything that is in the Torah is hinted to in the book of Bereishit, everything in the book of Bereishit is hinted to in the six days of creation, everything there is hinted to in the first pasuk of this week's parsha, everything there is hinted to in the first word of this parsha (and everything there is hinted the first letter of the parsha [some do not have this addition]). I in no way claim to understand this but it just shows the depths of this parsha. Also, anyone who has been keeping up with the emails knows this is my favorite parsha to talk about (anyone who wants me to resend any of the emails just email me and I will be glad to send them your way). That being said I have probably spoke about the story of Adam and Chava about 30 times in the last year. So let us discuss a different topic.

Kian and Hevel:

The Vilna Gaon (quoted by Rav Brevda in Perush HaGra on Yonah) says that man has three parts to him: 1) Nefesh 2) Ruach 3) Neshama. These three make up everything that is man and use the guf as their vehicle to get what they want. The Nefesh constantly wants food, drinks and other bodily pleasures. The Ruach constantly wants honor and money. On the other hand, the Neshama constantly wants to get closer to Hashem. These three forces fight between each other throughout a person's life. These three forces are what the three sons of Adam repesent. Kian is the Nefesh, Hevel is the Ruach, and Sheit is the Neshama. Kian is a farmer, who works for his food (the attributes of the Nefesh). This is why when Kian gives Hashem a korbon he only gives up flax, something that he cannot eat anyway, because the Nefesh will not get any pleasure from it. Hevel works as a shepherd a job that represents wealth. He did not raise the flock to eat them, only to get their wool to make clothing. Hevel is willing to give up the meat of his animals for honor. The only reason why someone controlled by either the nefesh or the ruach is to get more pleasure. So the nefesh would give up flax to get more food, and the Ruach would give up food to get honor. This is why Kian and Hevel gave their korbanot. But since Hevel was willing to give up something that could have been used, even though the mitzvah was not lishma Hashem rewarded him for it. So throughout a person's life his Nefesh and Ruach fight over which is more important, but this is only when other people are watching. When a person is alone the desire of the Nefesh will always win jealousy or honor of the Ruach. This is what it means that Kian killed Hevel. Then Sheit came along and he was the one that the rest of the world came from. He replaced Hevel (4:25) meaning that now man searched for Hashem instead of searching for honor. But still Kian lived while Sheit was alive because as long as a person lives he will need to eat and drink. (There is a chazal that talk about what happen when they tried to destroy the desire for this world, it would have led to the end of humanity because no one would have had children.)

Yet we see that in the end Kian is killed by one of his own offspring, a blind one, while he was looking for food. When one blindly looks for pleasure in this world and forgets about everything else in the world he just leads to destruction. A person must realize that his eating is for a higher purpose, to help him better serve Hashem. But if a person just looks for pleasure for its own sake that will just lead to his own destruction.

Good Shabbat!

Vzot Habracha 1

If Not Now, When:

The first pasuk in V'zot Habracha says "This is the bracha that Moshe... before his death..." Rashi writes "close to his death, because if not now, when? Why does Rashi add in this last part? What is he telling us here? It would have been enough for him just to say "close to his death" why add more? The reason is because Rashi is trying to teach us a bigger message. This quote is from a mishna in avot (1:14) Rashi there says "If not now when I am alive when? Because anyone who prepares before shabbat will have what to eat on shabbat, but one who does not prepare, what will he eat?" But what does this have to do with a bracha?

We know that during the shabbatot around the Three weeks there are haftorot of tochacha (rebuke) for the Jews. Then those are followed by two weeks of Haftorot about bracha then the haftorot around Elul and Rosh Hashana are about teshuva. Rav Brevda says that it would make more sense for the teshuva to follow directly after the tochacha. So he asks, (Yibane Hamikdash), in the name of the Vilna Gaon (I think), why are there two weeks of bracha in between? He answers that the reason is because Hashem is acting to us like a father would act to his child. If a child does something wrong the father will punish him. But if the father constantly is punishing and is not doing anything nice for the child the child will begin to think that the father does not like him and is just punishing him for the fun of it. So the father must show his love at some point to show his child that really he loves him and the only reason why the father is punishing his son is to teach him how to act. So the two weeks of haftorot of bracha is to remind us the all of the punishment that Hashem is giving to us is completely out of love. We know there is a mitzvah to act like Hashem so Moshe was doing the exact same thing. Even though throughout the last few weeks (throughout the book of devorim) Moshe has been rebuking Bnei Yisrael he wanted to remind them that all of his rebuke was out of love, not out of hate. But if Moshe would have died without having given Bnei Yisrael a bracha they would have believed all of his rebuke was just to be mean to them and not out of love.

We know that after the death of Aharon Hakohen all of the Jews (including the women) wept for 30 days but after Moshe's death only the men wept, why? Mefarshim explain that the reason is because Aharon was constantly going around making people happy especially in the area of shalom bayit. But Moshe was constantly rebuking the people he was not mourned by as many people as his brother. When Moshe was dying the one thing he wanted the most (besides going into Eretz Yisrael) was to die the same way that his brother died. Rashi explains in (32:50) that Moshe wanted to die with honor like his brother did. Elsewhere Moshe's and Aharon's deaths are compared to getting a kiss by Hashem which the gemara in brachot compares to pulling a hair out of milk. Chazal compare death to a man taking off his coat (ie the Neshama removing the body). This is exactly what Rashi writes in 32:50. For some it is easy to remove the outer layer of the body but for others it is much more difficult. All Moshe wanted was to die like that. The only way for him to properly prepare for a death like that was to do teshuva and do gemilut chasadim (Rashi on Avot 4:16) "He is fixing his hair, beard, and clothes before the entrance to the house..." So Moshe, right before his death needed to end his life on a high note of blessing Bnei Yisrael in order to be ready to die by getting kissed by Hashem. "Because if not now, when?"

Chazak Chazak Vinitchazaik!

Sukkot

Sukkot, Hashem's Dwelling Place:

The Gra has a very unique explanation of the sukkah in his parush on Yonah in 4:5. The pasuk says"... and he built himself there a sukkah and he sat underneath its shade..." The Gra explains that everything that happens in olam hazeh and all of its richness and goodness come from the sun. This is what it means when it says in Moed Katan (28a) that things in this world depend on mazalot... When the torah tells us to "gather from your threshing floors..." it means to not chase after olam hazeh and to build a sukkah from "the remainder of the threshing floor..." that normally every meal has bread and wine (see Kohelet perek 10) but the torah tells us that we should not get pleasure from them rather just the remainder and we should separate from olam hazeh. We should sit in the shade which is not under the sun, you should make your torah set and your work temporary and this is what it means to have the shade more than the sun shine."

Rav Brevda has an amazing explanation on this piece of Gra that will change the way you see the sukkah. (Not a literal translation) "Schach is the main part of the sukkah, this hints to two things: 1) the type of material, this hints to separation from the pleasures of this world, and 2) the amount of kosher schach which hints to the fact that man must sit and be busy in torah in this world and that it is not enough to simply separate from the pleasures of the world... the talmidim of the Gra explain in Imrei Noam on Brachot (35b) If someone's olam hazeh is temporary then he will have both an olam hazeh and an olam habah but if his olam hazeh is set then he will not have an olam hazeh or an olam habah... It seems to me (Rav Brevda) the the nations of the world wish to sit under the shade of pleasure and enjoy this world, and they do not want the torah, because they do not want to bend their way of life to the way of the torah. But the Jews who are willing to leave the pleasures of this world to get close to Hashem are willing ot go to the desert of place lacking any protection from the sun because we want to be in the shade of Hashem and this is the Torah, to sit in the ananei hakavod (Clouds of Honor) which protects us from the problems of this world and puts us above nature."

Rav Brevda is explaining what the Gra is trying to hint to us through Yonah. The sukkah is our escape from this world, it is our protection from nature. Once we walk in to the sukkah we are no longer controlled by the mazalot rather we are under the shade of Hashem. The sukkah is Hashem's domain and it is where the mazalot have no control. The reason why a sukkah must be 10 tefachim is because just as the gemara explains Hashem does not come within 10 tefachim of the ground. Also it may not be above 20 amot because that is no longer a protection from the mazalot. The zohar seems to says that once we reach that high we are not in this world anymore. This also explains why the Tur requires a kavannah for this mitzvah. His kavannah is that we must remember that Hashem took us out of Mitzriam and protected us with the ananei hakavod. Some poskim say that if we lack this kavannah we have not fulfilled the mitzvah of sukkah. The reason could be because the whole reason why we sit in the sukkah is to remember how we are not like the other nations, pleasures of this life are not our main goals rather we focus mainly of Torah. If we lack this idea we are missing the whole point. The gemara says that on sukkot your house because your temporary dwelling while your sukkah because your set dwelling. This is teaching us to refocus our lives. Normally during the year our main focus is olam hazeh and torah is only a temporary thing. But on sukkot Hashem is telling us that we need to switch it around, the torah must become our set dwelling while we leave olam hazeh behind. This could be the reason why sukkot follows Yom Kippur. Now that we have shown ourselves that it is possible to completely remove the gasmiut from our lives we have time to put it into our daily schedule. We must take the aspects of Yom Kippur and put them into our normal lives.

The Other Nations:

There is a famous gemara in Avodah Zara (3) that in the end of days the other nations will ask for a chance to repent so Hashem will give them the mitzvah of sukkah. After a few minutes Hashem will make the sun make it hot to the point where the people will leave and on their way out kick the sukkah. With the Gra we can get some sort of peshat in this gemara. Hashem is giving the nations a chance to accept Him and His torah and follow the mitzvot. After some time the problems of olam hazeh will become to great for them and they will be so upset that even though they are fully aware of the rewards of the Torah they would give all of that up for the pleasures of this world so they kick the sukkah which basically another way of telling Hashem to keep is torah. There is a famous peshat that says that if it were hot out then Jews would also leave the sukkah. So it is explained that the Jews would not kick the sukkah on the way out. This peshat is telling us the biggest difference between Jews and the other nations. By the other nation they would give up all of the reward of olam haba for a few minutes of pleasure in this world (remember the gemara says it was the end of days, how much more olam hazeh could there be?) to the point were they are disgusted by following the torah. But Jews are different, even though we have gone centuries of pain and destruction in olam hazeh he still keep true to the torah. Even though when it gets hot (there are problems in this world) we will be forced to deal with them all we want to do at the end of the day is go back to our sukkah and be in Hashem's shade.

Have a Good Yom Tov and Shabbat!

Yonah

Yonah, The Story You Never Knew:

I just finished reading Rav Brevda's Sefer on the Peirush of the Gra on Sefer Yonah. The sefer was by far the most informative sefer I have ever read. Usually when the Gra writes a perush on a sefer in Tanach he writes two, one is the peshat (simple understanding) and the other is the remez (hint). But for sefer Yonah the Gra only writes a perush remez (this is not to say that the Gra thought that the story was fake, rather he believed that it did happen and in addition the story is used to hint to a deeper message). I highly recommend that everyone go and find Rav Brevda or go to his apartment either in Yerushaliam or Brooklyn and purchase this sefer (not that he needs my haskama). This sefer literally changed my outlook on Judaism for the better and any dvar torah I would write would not give this amazing work justice. That being said there are certain things that are in this sefer that I hope will really help us all this Yom Kippur and even after that.

The very basic storyline for the remez is as follows. Perek 1: Yonah is a neshama. Hashem places the neshama into a guf, the boat into this world, the sea. Hashem gives the neshama mission to go to Ninveh, either representing the world and to get the people there to do teshuva. The problem is that the moment the neshama gets into the guf the person immediately heads for Tarshish, representing the pleasures in this world. In response to this rebellion Hashem sends pain to the person which is the storm. The people on the ship which are really the kochot (strengths) try to save the person but it does not work. They are forced to throw the neshama out of the body but right before the body dies it wants to do teshuva but it did not have enough time.

Perek 2: The neshama gets eaten by a fish, representing Gehinom where the neshama must experience pain for its sins in this world. After praying to Hashem he is sent back to try again.

Perek 3: Hashem sends the neshama again with the same mission, to get the people of the world, who have been spending their time enjoying the pleasures of this world, to repent for their sins. Due to the fact that Yonah at the end of his last life wanted to be a tzaddik he was born a tzaddik and quickly ran to complete his mission. He told the people that in 40 days (representing the number of days from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur) the city would be overturned. Meaning if they repent then now they would go from bad to good but if they did not then they would be punished, much like for us on these days. Quickly all of the repented and Hashem forgave them for their sins.

Perek 4: Yonah has completed his mission but know he is jealous of the fact that while he will enjoy his olam haba for having been a righteous person he is living as a poor person all because his last gilgul was a rasha. He is jealous because he just watched as the people of Ninveh, the Jews enjoyed great pleasures in this world and will also get a portion of olam haba for having repented. Yonah is so sad that he davens that Hashem should make it that he is rich. This desire to enjoy the pleasures of this world came from the fact that he had sinned in his previous gilgul in this area. Hashem wants to show Yonah that really enjoyment in this world is pointless. To do this Hashem takes a portion of Yonah's Olam Haba, the leaves of the Kikayon and gives them to him in this world to get pleasure from it. When Yonah receives this he is overwhelmed with joy. But the whole point of Hashem giving Yonah the riches was to show him that it is all really nothing so Hashem took them away. Immediately, Yonah is so sad from losing his wealth that he prefers death then poverty. Hashem tells him that he missed the whole point. Even though he was born a tzaddik he was put in this world to do only two things. One, to complete the mission he had left incomplete until now and two to fight the desire for pleasure in this world, a matter that he failed in last time. So even though Yonah was a tzaddik his whole life it was all for nothing because he still had not completed his mission in this world.

This is a very basic outline of the story. To get a much better picture get your hands on a copy of the book.

Rav Brevda points out many important lessons from the words of the Gra. The most important is possibly the biggest secret in Judaism that may change your life forever!

The Gra says that many people in this world are simply of gilgul of previous person who has already failed at his mission. The whole purpose of your lives is to be metaken (fix) the faults we made in your past life. The Gra says that there are two signs to know what sins you need to fix. These two signs are: 1) The mitzvah that for some reason you continually transgress. As much as you try to avoid it for some reason you just keep on doing the sin. 2) The sin that you desire with all of your heart to do that if you had the chance at any given moment you would do that sin. For Yonah his rebellion against Hashem by not telling the people to repent was his first sin. While his incredible desire for the pleasure of this world was his second sin. While he had completed one he still desired the pleasures of this world and he failed to be metaken his soul.

This is why we read Yonah on Yom Kippur. Because it is the day that we reflect on your mistakes and make a move to fix everything that needs fixing. It is a new slate, another chance to finally rid ourselves of the all of the sins that we have constantly been transgressing for what could be several gilgulim. Let us make a stand today to be different this time and finally complete our tikun in this world and with that bring the Mashiach!

Bringing It Down to Earth:

With this idea I believe there is a much bigger idea here. In the introduction to his sefer, the Chofetz Chiam writes how the sin of lashon hara has been a major cause of our destruction. From the meraglim to the destruction of the second beit hamikdash almost every single event was caused by this sin. We also know that chazal tell us that every generation that does not rebuilt the beit hamikdash is as if they caused it's destruction. If we understand the idea of gilgulim then we can finally understand this chazal. The ramchal explains that our neshamot are really just "branches" of the earlier Jews who were the "roots". So now we can finally understand what is going on. Ever since the Jews sinned in the area of lashon hara all those years ago their neshamot have come back to be metaken for that sin. The problem is that every time they just went back into the same routine. The chazal that says that we are like the generation that caused the destruction is telling us that as long as we do not fix this sin we are just doing the sin because that is what was routine for our neshama to do. Until we defeat the yetzer hara for loshan hara, a sin that is very common, we cannot bring the tikkun necessary to bring about the building of the beit hamikdash. For this coming Yom Kippur let us all try, bli neder, to work as hard as we can to stop the sin of lashon hara and with this tikkun may we be zoche to be the generation that finally builds the beit hamikdash.

Gamar Chtima Tova and have a great Shabbat!

Hazinu 1 & Rosh Hashana

Mishpat and Tzedek:

The pasuk (32:4) says "... all of his ways are mishpat... a tzaddik and straight is He." The Malbim asks (not here) what is the difference between mishpat and tzedek? He explains that mishpat is complete din (judgement). Even when you should probably be more lenient you still follow the strict judgement. But tzedek is knowing that sometimes it is necessary to merciful so even though you be strict according to the letter of the law you still are lenient. So what does this pasuk mean? Hashem's ways are pure din but He is merciful. What does that mean? Rashi explains it very well. When it comes to Reshaim (wicked people) Hashem is quick to judge them and will judge them strictly. But when it comes to the tzaddikim he is slow to judge them harshly. It seems clear that Hashem does not like to be strict. We see this from the words of the pasuk. His ways are mishpat but He Himself is tzedek. So even though He is tzedek He sometimes must be strict in judgement. This is a very important fact to know before Rosh Hashana. Hashem does not want to be harsh with us but we are the ones that force Him to judge us strictly. If we try are best to change our ways then He will happily be merciful.

Are You Even Alive?:

Rav Brevda in another fantastic sefer that I highly recommend, Yimai Ratzon, in his introduction has an amazing point that we must consider this Rosh Hashana (Pages 9-10). (Paraphrased) "Hashem's purpose for creation was so that the Shechina can rest in this world. And the Nefesh should be joined with the Guf of man. So there is no love like the love between the Nefesh for the Guf. Therefore, there is nothing harder in this world than the separation between the Guf and the Nefesh. The connection between the Nefesh and the Guf is called Chiam (life). This is one of the most precious things in the world. The earlier generations who were not effected by the gashmiut of this time spent a lot of time "living". This is why they feared the judgement of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur because it is the day that Hashem gives man life... But in your times we learned from ways of others and we forgot what it means to live. So when we ask that Hashem should remember us for life we do not even know what we are asking for. This is the reason why we do not have any fear on the day of judgement." May we all be zoche to live this year!

Amazing Story of the Chofetz Chiam:

Growth Through Torah page 465-466: "The Chofetz Chayim once asked someone about how things were going for him. "it wouldn't hurt if things were better," the man replied. "How can you possibly know that it wouldn't hurt?" replied the Chofetz Chayim. "The Almighty knows better than you. He is merciful and compassionate. If He felt it would be good for you for things to be better, He definitely would have made them better. Certainly things are good for you the way they are." (Chofetz Chayim al Hatorah, p.284)"

Again, I ask for mechila from anyone who I may have wronged this year, please forgive me.

Have a Chativa V'Chatima Tova, a good Yom Tov and a good Shabbat!

Netzavim- Vayailech 1

The Torah is Right Here:

Hashem explains in a few pasukim 30:11-14 that the Torah is not something hidden, it is not far away, rather it is right here. Many people after hearing a halacha will say "Oh, that halacha is not for me it is for the fanatics. This cannot be any farther from the truth. Hashem created us with many challenges to face, but each one is made possible that we can pass it, otherwise He would not give it to us. So this Rosh Hashana we need to try to remember that there is nothing to hard in Torah for us to do because it is right here for us to follow.

End of Days or That Day:

There is a lot of repetition throughout the Parsha of Vayailech. First it says in 31:9 " Moshe wrote the Torah and gave it to the Kohanim, the sons of Levi, the bearers of the Ark of the covenant of Hashem, and to all the elders of Israel." Then it says 31:24-26 "So it was when Moshe finished writing the words of the Torah onto the book... commanded the Levites, the bearers of the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem saying, 'Take this book of the Torah..." It said 31:15-16 "Hashem said to Moshe, '... this people will rise up and stray after the gods of strangers of the Land... and it will forsake Me and annul My covenant that I have sealed with it." Then later it says 31:27,29 "For I know your rebelliousness and your stiff neck, behold, while I am still alive with you today, you have been rebels against Hashem, surely after my death... For I know that after my death you will surely actcorruptly, and you will stray from the path that I have commanded you..." But then something very interesting happens. Hashem told Moshe 31:17-18 "... I will conceal my face from them and they will become prey and many evils and distresses will encounter it... But I will surely have concealed My face on that day because of all of the evil that it did, for it has turned to other gods. Now when Moshe tells this over to them he says it very differently. He says 31:29 "For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, and you will stray from the path that I have commanded you, and evil will befall you at the end of days..." At the end of days? When did Hashem ever say this? Hashem said 31:18 "But I will surely have concealed My face on that day because of all of the evil that it did" Chazal explain that "that day" means Rosh Hashana. We know that on Rosh Hashana Hashem decides all of the things that will happen for then entire year. Rosh Hashana is the most important day of the year. In just 48 hours (there is a machloket in the gemara if Rosh Hashana is 2 days or 1 long day) every single event that will happen to us for about 385 days (next year is a leap year so the normal 355 plus 30 for the first adar, I am a math major I should know these things...) is being decided. Lets go back to Moshe's statement. He said that the Jews would continue to sin, but they will not be punished until the end of days. This is different than how it was during his lifetime. While Moshe was alive every time someone sinned he was immediately punished. For now on, Hashem would wait out punishment until the end of days. Why did Hashem decide to do this? The reason is because during Moshe's time Hashem was revealed openly to the world. Therefore, if you sinned you knew that you where doing something wrong. But nowadays when Hashem is hidden in the world as the pasuk says " 31:17 " I will conceal my face to them..." So now that He is hidden when we sin we are not sinning purposefully in from of Hashem. So that is why Hashem will wait out his judgement until later. Many people think that Hashem concealed His face out of anger. But the pasuk can be read differently. Hashem will hide His face because of our sins. Since He knew we would sin He first hid his face. Now that His face is hidden, if we sin we are not as bad as when He was revealed. Now that Hashem did that He has the ability to let us do teshuva. Now pasuk 18 says that Hashem will conceal His face on Rosh Hashana. But that is the day of teshuva, why is He picking that day to conceal Himself? The reason is just that because it is only through His concealing that we even have the right to do teshuva. There is only one problem. If Hashem is constantly hidden then how can He change things in the world? Well there are two ways, 1) do any changes in a hidden way or 2) wait until the day that we have all done teshuva and reveal Himself, then He will be able to do open miracles. So on Rosh Hashana when we all do teshuva Hashem decides everything that will happen to us. But some of the punishments cannot be done to the person in this world, they must wait until when the person is dead. So even though the person's fate is decided on Rosh Hashana Hashem will wait until the person dies (giving him more time to do teshuva) to give him his final punishment. So that is what these pasukim mean. Hashem will conceal Himself because of the evil on Rosh Hashana but He will not cause evil until the end of days (for the person).

I would like to ask all of you to please accept my deepest apologies for anything I may have do to you this year, I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. May you have a Chativa V'Chatima Tova! Have a great Shabbat!