Re'ei 5771

Hashem's Children
The pasuk says (14:1) "You are children to Hashem your God, do not fear."

The Ibn Ezra says on the this pasuk "After you know that you are a child of Hashem and He loves you more than a father, therefore you don't need to fear from anything that happens because everything that happens is for the good. And if we do not understand Him, like a small child who doesn't understand the actions of his father yet he just trusts him, so too we must just trust, because we are a holy nation and we are not like the other nations, and therefore we cannot act like them. And the reason why this parsha is close to the parsha of not eating anything that s disgusting is because we are a holy nation in heart and mouth, and we must be different from them and it must be clear to them, because we don't rip out our hair for the dead, and we don't eat every type of animal. And if you are a holy nation, it is not good that you eat tumah and make yourself tamei."

I read a mashal today in a book called "Ma'ase Shelo Haya" (The story that didn't happen) from the Maggid Midavna. The story goes that a poor person is invited to his friend who is a rich man. The rich man tells the poor man to sit at the head of the table. After the poor sits down he looks around for food but the only things he recongnizes is the potatoes all the way at the other end of the table. He begins to reach for the potatoes knocking over the other plates and making a big mess. After he finishes eating he decides he wants another on. As he begins to reach the rich man tells him that he should switch his seat to the other end of the table. The poor man sees this an insult because that means he is losing his seat at the head of the table. The rich man tells him that it is not that he is not taking away his honor, rather he is helping get closer the the potatoes to make things easier for him.

In the mashal we are the poor person and Hashem is the rich man. While we consider a lose of the head seat to be something bad, Hashem sees it as something good for us.

Sometimes, when we are in the moment it is hard to tell how something can be for the best, but we must have confidence in Hashem that it will all work out.

It is the fact that we are the children of Hashem that make us special. This quality is why Hashem shows us favor over the other nations.

The Ibn Ezra raises a second point, he says "and we must be different from them and it must be clear to them." In recent history many Jews have tried to assimilate to be more like the non-Jews. According to this Ibn Ezra, it seems that their attempt to be more like the non-Jews actually makes them lose their status as the children of Hashem. Therefore, as hard as it may be to be different in comparison to the rest of the world, it is actually this quality that has allowed us to survive throughout history.

Have a good Shabbat!

Eikev 5771

This shabbat will bH be my last shabbat as a ben chutz laaretz. In a few more days I will be leaving to eretz yisrael. I would just like to thank you all so much for joining my divrei torah list, whether you read them weekly or once in a blue moon, it means a lot to me. It has almost been two full years since I started writing these weekly (at it was more like daily...) and I hope to continue in eretz yisrael, if it is possible. I will miss you all.

On the theme of eretz yisrael, I couldn't really resist...

This week's parsha (11:12) Moshe tells the Jews that eretz yisrael is "the land that Hashem your God looks after it,constantly the eyes of Hashem your God are on it, from the beginning of the year until the end."

The midrash asks (Sifri 40) "But doesn't [Hashem] looks after all of the lands?... Rather it is as if it is the only land that is watched over and by watching over it, this watching covers the other lands with it.

The Ramban explains here that everything comes from this land and all other lands get their sustenance from eretz yisrael.

At this point the Jews were afraid of leaving the midbar, where they got so used to constantly being with Hashem. First, Moshe told the Jews that this land is much greater than the land of mitrziam that they left behind. Then, he mentioned that eretz yisrael is constantly under the watchful eye of Hashem, and that the land is constantly dependent on Hashem for water.

All lands, excluding eretz yisrael, are controlled by angels, but eretz yisrael is controlled completely by Hashem.

Later in this week's parsha (11:18) the Ramban explains that the main place to do mitzvot is in eretz yisrael as it says (11:21) "So that your days and the days of your children will be many on the land..." (The last pasuk of the second paragraph of Shema)

May we all be zoche to meet in eretz yisrael!

Next week in Yerushaliam, Have a good Shabbat!

Ve'Etchanan 5771

Moshe tells the Jews that after they stray from Hashem they will eventually return to Him, Moshe tells them that the reason why they will find Hashem is because (4:29) "you will search with all your heart and with all your soul." Right before this pasuk Moshe was telling the Jews that they would eventually sin with avodah zara, but they would eventually return to Hashem.

Later in this week's parsha the same term "with all your heart and with all your soul" comes up again, in the parsha of Shema (6:5) "and you will love Hashem... with all your heart..."

The pasuk before this is the pasuk of Shema where we say (6:4) "Hashem is One." Meaning that Hashem is the only true God, and there are not others.

From these two pasukim we see that the most fundamental thing is that we must completely believe that Hashem controls the world. If we establish this within ourselves then we would be foolish to sin. But there is no such thing as half-believing, either you totally believe or you don't.

For a Jew to repent he must first recognize that Hashem is the master of the world, then the person will be more than willing to use all of his heart and soul searching for Hashem. Once someone has completely established this fact then it will be impossible to not find Hashem, because He controls everything. Also, once we have this established it will lead to our love for Hashem. For one to love Hashem he first must believe that Hashem is the ultimate controller of everything, that He is one, then this person will put in all of his resources to find and attach himself to Hashem. But if someone doesn't first believe that Hashem is one, then it will be impossible to find or love Him.

May we all be zoche to completely understand that Hashem Echad, which will lead us to return to Him, and He will be waiting for us with "open arms."

Have a good Shabbat!

Devarim 5771

As things happen to us we never see understand why they happen the way they do, in fact many times even looking back at a situation it is hard to fully comprehend it. But, even if we can't understand why it happened to us, we must strive to learn from every situation that we were in to see what how we must work on ourselves.

In this week's parsha Moshe reminds the Jews of their travelling in the midbar, all the places they went right and all the places they went wrong. The purpose of going through each event was to teach the people to learn from their mistakes and to fix what they have done wrong.

This coming week, just like every year the week after parshat Devarim, is tisha b'av. The mishna in taanit tells us many of the things that went wrong on that day over the years, but tisha b'av has become the date on the Jewish calendar to remember all of the bad things that have happened to the Jewish people over the years, from the sin of the meraglim to the Holocaust and everything in between.

The gemara in gitten tells us the famous story of kamtza and bar kamtza, and the gemara says that this story is the reason for the destruction of the beit hamikdash, meaning that we must learn from this story what they did wrong so that we can know what we need to fix. Chazal tell us straight out that the reason for the destruction was baseless hatred for our fellow Jews, and that story is the epitome of baseless hatred. The reason why chazal tell us this story is to show us how bad it really was. In the last few weeks Hashem has reminded us of how bad things are. Notice how many of these tragic stories were Jews hurting other Jews!

We have quoted the Ramban in Bo many times before, where he says that everything that happens to the Jews happens because of something we have done wrong, and Hashem always punishes us middah k'neged middah.

Looking at the stories of the past few weeks we see that the main cause of these disasters was our lack of achdut. Hashem is clearly showing us that we are no better than the generation of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza! Chazal tell us "Any generation in which the Beit Hamikdash is not rebuilt, it is as if that generation destroyed it."

Until we fix our achdut we are not moving in the right direction. We have two ways for our achdut to get better. One, to work on it ourselves, or for Hashem to cause sometime horrible enough that it will cause us to join together, and that is exactly what He has done.

May we all be zoche to celebrate this tisha b'av as a moed, joined together hand in hand by the beit hamikdash!

Have a good shabbat!

Masei 5771

After Hashem tells the Jews that they must kill all of the people living in the land He warns them saying (33:55-56) "But if you don't drive them out of the land, the ones that stay shall be pins in your eyes and a barrier of thorns in your sides, and they will harass you upon the land in which you live. And it will be that what I planned to do to them I will do to you."

The Ramban explains this to mean that the ones that stay in the land will eventually cause you to stray from Hashem and do avodah zara. Then because the Jews will do avodah zara it will eventually lead to the galut.

If we look at events later we will see that this is exactly what happened. The fact that the Jews did not rid the land completely of the people that lived there before caused their eventual exile. If we truly want to cling to Hashem and embrace the kedusha of the land of eretz yisrael, we must first rid it, and ourselves, of the avodah zara, otherwise no matter how much we try it will eventually lead to it taking us over.

You can compare it to an virus. When a person gets an virus he can feel it. So he goes to the doctor and gets medicine to take for a few days. After the first couple of the days the person begins to feel better, even though he is still supposed to take the medicine for 2 or 3 more days after that. If one stops taking the medicine at that point, since the virus was not completely gone, it is very likely that the virus will come back. It is only after finishing off the prescription that one can be sure that the virus is completely gone.

This is exactly what Hashem was telling the Jews here. Even if you think leaving just a couple of people over won't effect you, you should be careful because just a few people can lead to your exile.

Have a good shabbat!

Matot 5771

In this week's parsha perek 32 shevet Gad and Reuven request the land east of the Jordan from Moshe. Moshe's response was that their father's had also said they did not want to enter the land and that is what caused the last 38 or so years of the Jews traveling in the midbar. If these two tribes were to now say that after all of this time they do not want to go to eretz yisrael Hashem would get so angry He would make the Jews wander the midbar forever. I have some questions: 1) Why would the decision of these two shevatim cause all of the Jews to travel the midbar forever? 2) Why is this question compared to the statement of their father's? 3) Why is Gad and Reuven's willingness to help the rest of the shevatim fight enough to allow them to live east of the Jordan, because this does not help the problem of wanting to live in eretz yisrael.

The Ramban (32:2) reveals that there is actually more going on behind the scenes here. Shevet Gad was one of the strongest shevatim. This is the reason why they were the ones to come up with the idea to live there in the first place, unafraid of the surrounding nations. But if the other shevatim were to see Gad no go into the land they would think that the reason is because Gad believes that the war against Canaan was one they could not win. Then the other Jews would say that if Gad isn't strong enough surely they have no chance of winning.

Now if this would have happened than the Jews would be back in the same place they were in the time of the meraglim. As we said back in parshat Shlach, when the meraglim came back and said that had no chance of beating the nations in the land it caused all the Jews to loss their emunah that Hashem would win the war for them. So too here, if Gad would not go into eretz yisrael all of the Jews would lose hope in any possibility of winning the wars there. Now, if back in the time of meraglim that caused the Jews, who had left mitzriam, to wander through the midbar for 40 years, surely that same reaction would be worse in the generation that had already spent all of their lives in the midbar.

Now, when Gad and Reuven agreed to come with the rest of the nation and help fight the war this was enough for Moshe to allow them to take the land east of the Jordan, because none of the other tribes would think they are taking it because they find conquering eretz yisrael to be impossible and they would all go in with faith that Hashem would win the war for them.

This is all great, but how does Gad's willingness to help fight lead to the Jews having more emunah? It seems that now the Jews have faith in the abilities of shevet Gad to win a war, not Hashem's abilities!

Well, the Ramban explained that Reuven would never have come up with the idea to live alone east of the Jordan without Gad, because it was too dangerous to live alone. But Gad did not fear, because they were powerful. But if Gad was now agreeing to spend the next however many years helping the rest of the Jews conquer eretz yisrael, leaving their wives, children, and animals undefended, surely the Jews would see the faith of Gad in Hashem that if they went to help the rest of the nation that their children would be protected. This was enough for the Jews to keep their emunah and this is why it was enough for Moshe to allow them to have the land east of the Jordan.

Have a good shabbat!

Pinchas 5771

The Ramban has an interesting explaintion the first few pasukim in this week's parsha. The Torah says (25:13-14) "And it will be for him and his offspring after him, a Brit Kehunat Olam since he took revenge for his God... and the name of the Jew that he killed wit the Midianite was Zimri the son of Salu the prince of the father's house of Shimon..."

The Ramban explains like this. He explains that since Pinchas took vengeance for Hashem and for doing tzedaka for the Jews by atoning for their sins he deserved this brit with shalom attached to it. Then, the Ramban asks why the Torah goes out of it's way to say Zimri's name and position. He says that it is to show that Pinchas deserved this big reward of Brit Kehunat Olam for killing a prince of Yisrael without fear, because all he worried about was the vengeance of Hashem.

How is the reward of kehuna equal to the acts of complete emunah and that it would work out and the ability to atone the Jews?

Much like his grandfather, Aharon who was willing to get spit in the eye for shalom bayit, Pinchas was willing to sacrifice himself to honor Hashem.

On Yom Kippur the kohen gadol gives several korbanot. One of these korbanot is the korban that asks for forgiveness for all of the Jews. This is one of the main jobs of the kohen gadol. The fact that Pinchas had the ability to atone the Jews for their sins shows one quality of a kohen.

These two qualities together in this one act of killing Zimri was what showed Hashem that Pinchas deserved to be a kohen, and that even though he was born after Aharon and his sons had become kohanim he still showed the qualites required to be a kohen, and just as these qualities were passed down from Aharon to Pinchas so too Pinchas would pass it down to his offspring forever.

Have a Good Shabbat!

Balak 5771

The One in Control:

Before Bilam gives his first bracha to the Jews he said (23:8) "How can I curse? God did not curse! And how can I anger? Hashem is not angry!" Rashi here says "I don't have the ability all I know is the time when Hashem gets angry, but He didn't get angry all of the days that I came to you..."

This shows us that at any given moment Hashem is the One in charge. Anything that happens to us can only happen if He allows it to happen.

Every day, twice a day (sometimes more), we all say "Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad" (Hear Yisrael, Hashem is God Hashem is One). Rav Chiam Volozhin in Nefesh HaChiam explains that Hashem Echad means that Hashem is the only force in this world. If this is true and we truly believe this then when anything happens to us, good or bad, the first thing we must do is turn to Hashem and beseech Him, for everything comes from Him.

At every event throughout our history our enemies could not harm us until we ourselves deserved the punishment, otherwise Hashem would never have allowed them to touch us.

We see here that as long as the Jews as a whole follow what we should be doing then nothing can touch us, but the moment we leave Hashem's will we have no chance against our enemies.

Have a good Shabbat!

Chukat 5771

Don't Fear:

Og sent out all of his people to go fight the Jews and the first thing Hashem says to Moshe is (21:34) "Don't fear him, because I have put him in your hand..." Rashi comments here that Moshe was afraid that due to the merit of telling Avharam about Lot Og would be protected, and Hashem is comforting Moshe that this will not protect Og.

The Ramban says that even the chachmim themselves argue on what the fear of Moshe was. The Ramban explains that really Moshe had a different fear. Moshe was not concerned wit the zechut of Og, what he was concerned with was the zechut of bnei yisrael. He was afraid that the Jews would sin during the war and that would lead them to losing, and this is what Hashem was telling Moshe, that they would win the war and there would not be any issues with the people sinning.

Earlier, in the war with Amalek by Har Sinai when Moshe would lift his arms the Jews would be winning, but when he put his arms down the Jews would be losing. Chazal explain that the reason why this happened was that as long as Moshe had his arms up the Jews would be thinking of Hashem and that would lead them to win the war, and nothing else.

We see from here that as much effort as we put in it is really all about our emunah that it will work out that makes us succeed. If we have the necessary emunah then all of the zechuot of our enemies will have no effect on us, but the moment we let our emunah slip then we have no fighting chance.

Our test is that no matter how bad the situation may seem we must have complete confidence that Hashem will make it work out the way it should.

"Hakol bidei shamayim chutz mayirat shamayim!" (Everything is in the Hands of heaven, except the fear of Heaven!)

Korach 5771

We're All going to Die!:

Late in this week's parsha after the mizvah that non-Leviim must stay away from the ohel moed (17:27-28) the people respond "... Look, we perish, we are lost, we are all lost! Everyone who comes close to the mishkan of Hashem will die. Will we stop perishing?"

Rashi on this pasuk says "We are not able to be cautious in this. We are all allowed to enter the courtyard of the ohel moed, and one who goes in more than his friend and enters into the ohel moed will die."

Let me ask a dumb question. Who says you need to go? If you are afraid of dying then just don't go there! You may be allowed to enter the courtyard but no one is pushing you to the front of the group. If you are so afraid then just stay far away, seems easy enough.

If we look earlier in this week's parsha we see that the complaint was (26:3) "All of the assembly is holy and Hashem is with them..." From here we see that a complaint of the Jews was that they could not get as close as Moshe and Aharon could to Hashem. The entire nation wanted to be as close to Hashem as possible.

All the people want to do is get close to Hashem! The cannot go even one moment with feeling closeness to Hashem. In fact, that one of the reasons given why the nation built the eigel hazahav, since they lost Moshe they needed something else to bring to close to Hashem and they could not wait even one moment.

Every morning the Jews would wake up and run to the courtyard of the ohel moed to hear Torah from Moshe's mouth. It was not good enough to just be in the crowd, they had to be front and center to hear every last word perfectly.

This is why they were so afraid. It is true, they could just stay home and not worry about dying but how could they stay away? They could not possibly keep away their desire for Torah was too strong, and this is their reason for their fear of death.

May we all desire Torah so much that we are willing to do anything for it.

Have a great Shabbat!

Shelach 5771

Lack of Faith:

The pasukim in this week's parsha (14:22-23) "If all the people that saw My honor and My signs that I did in mitzriam and in the midbar, and they tested Me these ten times and did not listen to My voice... if they will see the land...! and all who anger Me will not see it."

Why must the people be introduced as the people who saw the signs and miracles? Why is pasuk 22 necessary? Just say "the people who sinned by the meraglim can't go to the land.

Chazal tell us that even the maidservants who left mitzriam saw the shechina like Yichezkel did. This shows that their level of spirituality was higher than any other generation. Chazal also tell us that the punishment of the tzaddikim will be stricter than other people, because they are expected to be on a higher level than other people.

The reason why the sin of the meraglim was so bad was only because it was on the generation that had seen "My honor and My signs that I did in mitzriam and in the midbar," if not for this then Hashem would not have expected anything better from them. After seeing all of the miracles that He has performed until now how could they have the audacity to say that they had no way of conquering the land? This is why they were punished.

As Rashi says, (13:2) "Moshe went to the Shechina, It said 'I said to them that it will be good... now I should allow them to mess it up by sending meraglim?'" It was the fact that they had heard from Hashem Himself about the greatness of the land that made their request for meraglim so bad.

In any other time it would be expected to send spies to the land, but this time they were already told that it was going to work out, their lack of faith was the issue.

May we be zoche to have enough faith to pass all of our challenges!

Have a great Shabbat!

Behalotcha 5771

When one looks at the parsha of the of Moshe's plea to Hashem (11:11-14) where Moshe asks Hashem "why have done evil to Your servant..." it seems very similar to a different story in Tanach (Shmuel 1 8:4-10) where the Jews ask Shmuel to find them a king. Let us look at each of these stories individually then compare them.

The Jews have spent just about a year at Har Sinai, now just as they leave they come to Moshe complaining that they want meat. Their complaint was the first complaint that they had that was not for something that they needed, rather something extra. Instead of having an honest request they were simply complaining. Moshe told Hashem that he did not how to react to their complaints here. Hashem told him that he needed to make a sanhedrin so that other people could deal with the little problems while Moshe spent time on the more important issues.

By Shmuel the complaining was completely different. The people saw that if they didn't act now and get a new leader it would be very bad if Shmuel's sons took over as Shoftim. But the problem was the way they asked him. They said (11:5) "You're old and your sons, are not going in your ways, now give us a king to judge us, like the other nations." From the last part of the pasuk it seems like the real reason why they complained was their want was to be like the other nations. Hashem's response (8:7) "... for it is not you whom they rejected, but it is Me whom they have rejected from reigning over them."

Both the complaints from the people in the time of Moshe and the time of Shmuel were not the normal complaints that Jews had, these complaints were asking for more than they require. But the differences between Hashem's answers are amazing. By Moshe, Hashem changes Moshe's status from that of the leader of the Jews to the rebbe of the Jews (Rav Soloveitchik). While for Shmuel Hashem told him that he would appoint for them a king, meaning that his position as leader would be diminished. Why does Hashem have the exact opposite solution for what seems to be the same problem.

If one looks closer at the story of Moshe they will see that the complaint is entirely to Hashem, not to Moshe. Therefore, Hashem's solution was to make Moshe's position greater, because their issue wasn't with Moshe it was with Hashem.

But when it comes to the story of Shmuel the people had a problem with Hashem and Shmuel equally. Therefore, even though Hashem felt Shmuel's pain that the people were distancing themselves from him, Hashem knew that the only solution would be to replace him for a king.

We see in these two stories Hashem's ability to see the whole picture and understand what needs to be done in each situation, sometimes making hard decisions, but we must know that everything He does is really for our best interest.

Have a good Shabbat!

Shavuot 5771

Sixth or Seventh?:

There is a machloket in gemara Shabbat (86b) where the tanna kamma argues with Rabbi Yossi as to when the Torah was given. The tanna kamma says it was given on the sixth of Sivan, while Rabbi Yossi says it was given on the seventh of Sivan.

Yet there is another gemara (Rosh Hashana 6b) that says that Shavuot can fall on the 5th 6th or 7th of Sivan, since we base the festival not on the date of matan Torah but rather on the 50 day count starting from Pesach.

Why is it that we base our celebration of the holiday on the count from Pesach as apposed to the actual day when we received the torah?

There is a famous Beit Halevi (Bo, Vihigadita Levincha) that says that the mitzvot in the torah came before the reasons for the mitzvot. Even before the Jews came out of mitzriam with matzah Avraham had already celebrated the holiday by eating matzah. He explains that really we do the mitzvot just because Hashem told us to do them and the reason that we have for them are not the real reasons for them. So the holiday of Pesach has a special mitzvah for that day. In fact, it was because of the mtizvot of the day that we were saved from mitzriam on that day.

From the day the Jews left mitzriam they needed 50 days to reach the level of spirituality required to get the Torah. I heard from Rav Avharam Schorr that according to Rabbi Yossi who says that we got the Torah on the seventh the reason why it was 51 days later was because the war of Amalek pushed off matan torah by a day. For Rabbi Yossi it would not be a problem to celebrate the chag on the 6th because the reason for Shavuot is to connect to the koach of matan torah, which was on the 50th day of the count, not on any specific date on the calendar. So, we are remembering the 50 day process on Shavuot, not the actual day of matan torah.

Nasso 5771

The Holy Nazir:

There is a famous chazal (Sotah 2a, also in the last perek of Brachot) that Rashi (6:1) quotes that asks "why is the parsha of nazir close to the parsha of sotah? To teach you that one who sees a sotah in her degradation removes himself from wine, because it leads to bad things."

When one takes upon the vow to become a nazir the basic time period is one month. After the time is up a nazir must bring a korban to end the vow. In this week's parsha one can notice something very surprising. Before the person vows to be a nazir the torah refers to him/ her as a (6:2) "man or woman," but for the rest of the parsha, even after he/ she has brought his/ her korban and the torah (6:20) says "and after the Nazir drinks wine," meaning even after the process is over he/ she is still called a nazir.

The process is not about the short term change, it is about a lifelong goal. As the pasuk (6:8) says "All the days of his/ her nizro, he is kadosh to Hashem." Meaning as long as he remains in this uplifted level he remains kadosh.

There is a gemara (Nedarim 9b) that says "We learn, (Rabbi) Shimon Hatzadik said 'in my life I never ate from the asham of a nazir tamei except one time. A person came from the south, and I saw that he had pretty eyes and he had curly hair. I said to him "my son, why would you cut your hair which is so beautiful?" He answered me "I am a shepherd for my father in my town. I went to fill water from the spring and I saw my beauty. My yetzer was arrogant and wanted to remove me from the world. I responded to it 'Rasha, why do you get pleasure from this world which is not yours as a person who will one day be worms?' So I decided to cut it off for heaven." [After hearing this Shimon Hatzadik] immediately kissed him on the head and said "There should be more nazrim like you in Israel."'"

Notice in this story, the nazir's reason to become a nazir was not for the things that would change during the time while he was a nazir, rather it was about the changes after the period of a nazir was over. This may have been the difference between this nazir and the other nazirim in Israel.

Many times a person is affected by an event that happens to him. For the next few days or even weeks he is changed by what he saw, but as time goes on most people return to their old ways. This happens a lot around Rosh Hashana time, but most changes don't last past Cheshvan.

The Tosfot in Megillah says that Bamidbar is always read right before Shavuot, which the gemara calls a Rosh Hashana. This means that the parsha of Naso is always read right around this time, either the week before or the week after Shavuot. The placement of parshat Naso, and with it parshat Nazir, at this point during the year, is here to teach us that the main change is not the immediate one, but rather the permanent changes a person makes in his life.

May we all be zoche to make changes for the better, and actually stick to them.

Have a great Shabbat!

Bamidbar 5771

Together or Apart:

My Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi David in his sefer Derosh Dorash Yosef quotes the Rav saying that there is two types of counting that someone can do. One way is to count a group of objects, for example, a box of a thousand rubber bands. Another way that one can count is to consider each individual item in it's importance, for example, examining a diamond.

He goes on to say that the first time bnei yisrael was counted was they were counted as large groups, but in this count they were counted by "rosh libeit avotam" (by the heads of their household), meaning each as individuals.

There is two ways one can look at himself. One way is for a person to see himself in a group, he must do what is necessary for the whole at large and not just himself. The other way a person can see himself is as an individual with his own importance. He, alone, is precious without anyone else.

A certain great rabbi used to have a piece of paper in each pocket, one which read "bishvili nivra haolam" (the world was created for me), the other paper said "ani afar viaifer" (I am dist and ash).

The main thing in life is to balance these two points. One cannot live completely for the klal or he will lose his individuality. At the same time one cannot be completely for himself because "If I am only for me, what am I?"

May we all be zoche to learn how to balance between being part of a klal and being an individual.

Have a great Shabbat!

Bechukoti 5771

Lose it all:

In this week's parsha Hashem gives us an option of two paths. One path where we follow the Torah and everything we need He gives us. The other, we don't follow the Torah and lots of unpleasant things happen to us.

We have quoted the Ramban from the end of Bo where he says that one must believe that the world is run completely based on our actions, if we do mitzvot then Hashem rewards us, if we sin Hashem punishes us. This idea can be seen clearly in this week's parsha.

We know from many sources that the amount of money one has is decided by Hashem, and that at any moment it can all be taken away.

There is a story with a very rich Jew who comes to a chassidish rebbe. He asked the rebbe "How can it be that God can take away all of my money? I have my money spread out over many investments, so even if oil crashes I have gold. If that fails I have stocks, if those go bad I got real estate. There is nothing that could make me lose it all. How can the statement be true?" The chassidish rebbe just told him he had to believe it was true.

The man could not accept this answer, because of this he decided to leave Judaism and join the church. He walked in to meet the duke and after showing the duke that he really wanted to convert he was let into the church to learn to become a good christian. After several weeks, the duke said that he was almost ready to completely conv but before he did he just needed to do one thing to truly show his belief in the religion, to give up his worldly possessions to the church. The man pulled out a pen and signed all of his wealth away, now he was an official christian.

Several minutes later, as he is walking down the street he realizes that he has in fact lost all of his wealth in an instant. He ran to the chassidish rebbe crying to him that it was true that Hashem controls all of the money and that he now has nothing. The rebbe said "just as Hashem could take all of the money from you, so too He can get it all back."

That night there was a fire in the city, burning down the church, with this rich man's document giving away all of his wealth. Now, the church could not prove that he had given it over.

If you have been following the news this week, then you would have heard about Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Let's go back to last week. This Jewish man was head of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, a corporation which leads billions of dollars to companies all over the world. He was a strong candidate to win the presidential elections in France coming up very soon. Basically, he was one of the most influential people in the world.

Now fast forward to today. He now sits in a jail cell in Rikers Island prison, with no bail. He was basically forced to resign from his job and lost the support of the people of France in the election. This huge change took basically one day to happen.

In one moment Hashem could take away everything you have, or He can give you more than you could dreamed of. But this choice is up to you, will you follow the mitzvot or not?

In honor of my birthday tomorrow the 16th of Iyar may we all be zoche to choose what is right and may Hashem always be giving to us and not taking.

Have a great Shabbat!

Behar 5771

Just Believe:

The pasukim (25:20-21) in this week's parsha say "And when you say 'what will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow or gather our crops.' I command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will make the crops for three years."

Many people say that they have belief that Hashem controls the world, but how many people truly believe it. While it is true that man must do his hishtadlut he must also learn to balance that with his emunah. If someone truly believed 100% that Hashem controlled everything then they would realize that the effort they put in at work has nothing to do with the amount of money they make.

Imagine that someone came into your office and told you to leave you job for a year and if you did you would still have all the money you needed, would you do it? Most people would laugh at this person in the face and continue working. Hashem is asking so much more.

The average farmer not only got his livelihood from the produce but he also fed his family with the crops that grew there. If you leave the ground for a full years it is very likely that much of the crops with die and not grow back the following year. Not only would they be giving up a year of salary, they would be giving up the food they eat for the year and they would probably have a chance of losing everything they have worked for.

Yet, Hashem promises, if you leave the land alone you will not only not lose out on the crops but you will gain in the long run. Someone who can commit to this has true emunah, willing to give everything up knowing that Hashem always does what is good for him. This is true bitachon!

May we all be zoche to have bitachon that Hashem runs the world!

Emor 5771

True Law:

At the end of this week's parsha the pasuk says (24:22) "There will be one law for you, for the convert and the native it will be, because I am Hashem your God." Rashi comments the He is the God for everyone, just like He made His name special for us He also made it special for the converts.

It seems according to this pasuk that the reason one the native Jews and the converts share the same law is due to the fact that Hashem made His name special for all of us. But what does Hashem's name have to do with law?

A person may think that they can judge things based on their own morals. This pasuk teaches us that the law cannot be based solely on one's own morals, but it needs to involve God. A person can only judge based on his own biased opinion, but only Hashem knows what the true judgement should be and He judges based on truth.

If we remember that the only thing that makes us different from the rest of the world is that we were separated as Hashem's chosen people then that can guide us through life, to help us make the right choices. If this idea remains in your thoughts all day then the true law will be clear to you.

Another important point in this pasuk is that it shows us that there are two ways to be a Jew. The first way is to be born a Jew, the second is to choose to be a Jew. While those born Jewish may consider themselves better, being that they were always from the chosen people, this is not true. This pasuk clearly shows that a convert is considered equal in the eyes of Hashem to a native Jew. There is even a midrash that says that not only the souls of all of the generations of bnei yisrael were at Har Sinai, but even the souls of the converts. A convert is just a special as the rest of us.

Have a good Shabbat!

Kedoshim 5771

Balance Act:

The parsha starts off with the pasuk (19:2) "Speak to the entire assembly of Bnei Yisrael, and say to them 'be holy (kadosh) because I, Hashem their God, am holy.'" The Ramban on this pasuk says that the halacha of being kadosh is not just following the letter of the law, but one must go farther and remove himself/herself even from that which is permitted.

There is a basic idea in Judaism that is brought down in Mesilat Yersharim (Perek 13) "The bad separation... that is done by removing not only that which is not necessary but also removes what is required for living, is not a desire of Hashem's. In fact the talmud says, Taanit (22b) 'A man is not allowed to mortify himself.'"

We see from here what seems to be a clash. The Ramban says that the more one removes himself from the physical the better, but the Ramchal says that if one removes too much he has actually gone against Hashem's will.

The Ramchal himself answers the question. He says that "This is the true principle: Anything that a person does not require in this world it is good to separate from. But, anything that one requires, for whatever reason it may be, since it is required for him, if he separates from it- he is a sinner."

The pasuk seems to hint at this answer. The pasuk uses the phrase "to the entire assembly" according to some mefarshim that means that the way that Moshe taught it to the nation was by first teaching it to Aharon and his sons, then the zikainim, then the rest of the people. From here we see that the Mitzvah was given to the people on their level.

This is the same way one must decide how much hishtadlut he must do. If one completely believes that Hashem controls everything then technically speaking he should not have to work. But for someone who is not on that level, then hishtadlut would be required.

May we all be zoche to reach the highest level we can reach and become kadosh.

Pesach 5771

Introduction to Maggid

Many people spend a lot of their time before Pesach preparing for the seder. Most people can tell you a great vort on the four sons or a deep insight into Avadim Hayinu. The problem is that sometimes people tend to miss the whole point of the seder. So let’s ask the most basic question: Why do we have a seder?

If we take a step back and look at the night as a whole, we will see a pattern. Throughout the entire night, our main goal is to show two fundamental ideas. The first idea is that Hashem took us out of Mitzraim and freed us. But what does it mean to be free? According to the Vilna Gaon, we perform sixty four mitzvot on the night of the seder. What kind of cheirut (freedom) is that?! It is the only true type of cheirut, being an eved Hashem. The greatest freedom is being a slave to Hashem and performing His mitzvot. So the obvious question here would be ‘what is the benefit of being slaves to Hashem?’ If we take a look at the Rambam, Hilchot Teshuva Perek 9, we learn that when one does mitzvot, they are beneficial for him in this world and the next. So, when we were slaves to Pharaoh, we had no enjoyment in this world and we had nothing to show for ourselves in the next world. But when one is a slave to Hashem, he gets benefits in both worlds.

The second idea on the night of Pesach is the importance of Hakarat Hatov (being thankful.) We show this many times over the night by reading the Haggadah. We start the night off by telling the story of our galut, not only our physical bondage, but also our spiritual bondage. As the night goes on we talk about how we are no longer in bondage and that Hashem saved us. At every possible point, we thank Him for freeing us. For example, the Malbim explains that the word Dayainu means that if Hashem had done only this much and nothing more, it would have been enough for us to be forced to have Hakarat Hatov forever. There are many examples throughout the night that show how much we go out of our way to be thankful for everything Hashem has done and continues to do. If we miss out on these two essential points, we have basically missed out on the entire purpose of the seder.

Source: Rav Shlomo Brevda, Leil Shimurim

Acharaimot 5771

The Land of Eretz Yisrael:

The pasuk says (18:28) "Don't let the land remove you in your impurity, like it removed the people before you." The idea that the land of Eretz Yisrael can detect impurity clearly shows the difference between it and every other place in the world. Although the land may look the same as everywhere else in the world, Eretz Yisrael is like nowhere else in the world. Chazal tell us that as opposed to every other place in the world is controlled by a mazal, Eretz Yisrael is above mazalot.

The last Ramban in Bo tells us that a person does not have a part of the Torah of Moshe unless one believes that the world is completely run based on how many mitzvot and avairot that one does. This is only completely true if someone is in Eretz Yisrael.

There is a famous Rav Sheinberg story. When he still lived in America Rav Sheinberg would pass by someone dressed inappropriately and think "what am I doing here?" When he moved to Eretz Yisrael and walked down the streets and passed by someone dressed inappropriately we would think "what are they doing here?" Eretz Yisrael is our land, it is meant for the Jews to come to, and do mitzvot in.

If someone thinks that they can disconnect the two, either do mitzvot and be separate from Eretz Yisrael, or live in the land but keep none of the mitzvot then he/she is missing the whole point.

If we become impure the land may just spit us out.

May we all be zoche to be in the land and fulfill all of the mitzvot!

Have a great Shabbat!

Metzora 5771

Gold in the Walls:

The pasuk in this week's parsha (13:34) says "When you come to the land of Canaan that I gave to you as a possesion, and I gave a mark of tzaraat in the house, the land of your possession." Rashi comments on this pasuk "It was a good thing that the tzaraat would come upon them because the Emoraim hid treasures of gold in the walls of their homes during the forty years while the Jews traveled in the midbar." (Vayikra Rabbah 17:6)

Let's get this straight, a person would speak lashon hara, because of his sin the walls of his house would be afflicted with tzaraat, and when they knock down the walls they get rewarded for it? So people are getting rewarded for speaking lashon hara?! Also, this was all planned out way before the Jews even got into Eretz Yisrael, why?!

Well the first thing we must discuss is how Hashem punishes man in this world. Hashem does not really want to punish us for something that we did, for this reason He gives us some trouble so that we will realize on our own that we have sinned and that we must repent. There is a chazal that says that tzaraat on the house was just the first part of the affliction. If the person failed to do teshuva only then would the tzaraat begin to appear on his clothing. If the person continued to sin then finally the person will get tzaraat on his/ her body and that is the true punishment for the sin of lashon hara. So in actually one's house getting tzaraat was not really a punishment but rather a love tap from Hashem to get us to go in the right direction.

Another point to discuss, that section of the house would only be torn down if after a week the tzaraat actually grew, if it did not grow it was deemed tahor. So it seems that the person continued to not learn his lesson, causing the tzaraat to get bigger.

Later, if the tzaraat still remained then and only then would it cause the people in the house to become tamai. Until this point the people are still tahor. So if it so happened that after the breaking of the walls to remove the tzaraat was enough to cause the person to do teshuva the person would be rewarded. Because it is better to do teshuva for a sin then to be punished for the sin.

But wait, that means that at this point the people already have the gold from the walls. So what does it mean for those people who continued to sin and therefore still had tzaraat when the Kohen came back? It meant that they had no plan to do teshuva and the gold will be bad for them. But those who had done the teshuva now had many treasures, a reward for having done teshuva. So the gold was not a reward for speaking lashon hara, rather it was a reward for having done teshuva.

Now on to the last question, this had all been planned before any of the people who lived in their homes were even alive. This is to teach us that Hashem would prefer to never have to punish anyone. He would rather have everyone always do the right thing, and if someone messes up that they do teshuva on their own. He enjoys this so much that he will give people the ability to do teshuva even before he has even performed the sin in the first place. Hashem creates the cure before the disease. This is why Hashem created the Torah before the yetzer hara.

It is important to remember in life that Hashem is always waiting for our teshuva and that it is never too late. Also, we must remember that no matter how much we have fallen Hashem still wants us back.

Have a Good Shabbat!

Tazria 5771

The Order of Creation:

The first Rashi in this week's parsha (12:2) says "Rav Shmalia says 'just like the creation of man was after every animal, beast, and bird in the creation of the world, so too the Torah explains it [man], after the laws of animal, beast, and bird.'" (Vayikra Rabbah 14:1)

The Vilna Gaon writes that everything in the world can be found in the Torah. Everything that is in the Torah is hinted to in sefer Bereishit. Everything in sefer Bereishit is hinted to in the six days of creation. Everything in the six days of creation is hinted to in the first day. Everything in the first day is hinted to in the first pasuk. Everything in the first pasuk is hinted to in the first word. Some say that everything in the first word is hinted to in the first letter.

We see from here that if we want to learn about something all we need to do if find the first time it comes up in the Torah and from their we can find out about it. From this we see that since the animals were created first it had to be that when it came to teaching the laws of animals and man that animals had to come first, because that is how the world was created.

If we remember that the world was originally designed from the Torah then we learn that really the Torah designed the world with animals being before man, and having it any other way would literally change the way the world works.

We must see the Torah as not only a blueprint for the way the world works, but also as a blueprint for our very lives. If we do this, and truly apply the Torah to every aspect of our lives it will change the way we see the world, through a Torah lens.

Good Shabbat!

Shmini 5771

Seeing the Honor of Hashem:

The pasuk in this week's parsha (9:6) says "And Moshe said 'this is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and Hashem's Honor will appear to you.'" Rav Aharon Kolter explains in this pasuk that a Jew must always put in the effort first before expecting any results from Hashem.

Let's try to understand the pasuk a little differently. It is only if one follows the mitzvot that one can understand what Hashem does. Meaning, only through the lens of a Torah Jew do the events of the world make sense. With a Torah driven eye, what seems like random events all fit together perfectly. As bad as the world looks to the average person, a person who sees with the right lens can see it is all for the best. It is specifically when the world is filled with so much bad that we must remember that everything is for the good.

At each event that a person witnesses/ hears about they must know that it was for the best, even if it is not what we consider to be good. The question one must ask is how he/ she should react to the events. Hashem has His reasons for why events happen, but He also has reasons for why you must hear about it. Nothing happens for no reason.

There is a famous saying that my father loves to tell me, "it is not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it." If a person sees an event and is unchanged by it then he is missing the whole point. One cannot hear about these events and stand idly by! Each person must do whatever is in his/ her power to make the world better.

If one looks at everything from the Torah perspective and says at each event "how is this suppose to help me get closer to Hashem?" then he/ she is seeing the world the right way.

Have a good Shabbat!

Purim 5771

Rav Brevda

Part 1

The Megillah starts off by telling us that Achashverosh was king “HaMolich” the word HaMolich means that he became king on his own. (According to this, he did not become king because he married Vashti, he became king by buying it.) Achashverosh started as the stable boy for Avil Murdach. Since he used to be a stable boy he wants other to forget about his passed and he constantly looks for honor, and he is very careful about his honor. For this reason he did not really know how to be king and he did things that a normal king wold not have done.

Due to his hunger for honor, Achashverosh wanted to build a throne that would be an exact replica of the throne of Shlomo. He search throughout his kingdom for a person who could build such a throne. The only person he could find who could do it was a man who lived in Shushan. After the person finished it it was too heavy to be brought to the capital city of Achashverosh, therefore Achashverosh moved his capital city to Shushan. If he would have been a knowledgeable king he would never have moved his capital just for a throne, rather he would have built a castle in Shushan and he would go there a few times a year to sit on the throne and get honor from the people he invited to see him there. But since he started off as a normal person he moved his whole kingdom there so that he could always be near his throne, because he thought that a place can honor a person. This all happened from heaven because Mordechia lived in Shushan.# Then Achashverosh decided to marry Vashti, the daughter of the previous king to get more honor.

In the third year of his rule, after the throne was finally complete, he moved his kingdom to Shushan. Since he was new to Shushan, and the people did not know him, he wanted to buy the hearts of the people. First, he had a party for the important people that lived far away. He realized that the people of his generation considered money to be the most important thing. So he threw a party to show off his riches, and by this he would show how important of a person he is.

When Nevuchadnetzar was king he collected all of the riches of the world. He did not want anyone to get pleasure from the treasures, even his own son. So he built two large bronze boats on land and placed all of his treasure on it. Then he made the Tigris River flow to the place where the boats were and the boats sank into the river and no one could find them. When Koresh was king and he declared that the Beit Hamidash should be built, Hashem revealed to him the treasures of Nevuchadnetzar, which totalled 1080. These treasures got passed down to Achadashverosh when he became king. These are the riches that he showed the officers during their 180 day party. On each day they only looked at six, as the pasuk says “1) Osher 2) Kavod 3) Malchuto v’et 4) Yakar 5) Tiferet 6) Gidulato.”# During the days of the party Achashverosh became very haughty because everyone praised him for how rich he was.

After that party he had a party for the people of Shushan. To win their love he had to show them that he was a kind person with a good heart. So he had a party for the entire nation from big to small. Even simple people who would not normally be invited to the king’s house got to come, each person in a place fit for them, and he made a beautiful party, where the floor had nice stones in it, and every person drank from golden cups, and after they drank from the cup once they were immediately given another one. Finally, the king commanded that the will of every man should be done.

Vashti, who was actually from the royal line, had to prove nothing to anyone. She also knew that all of the connection that Achashverosh has to the kingdom is through her. Hashem made it that Vashti did not want Achashverosh to get honor. He made it that she could not stand it when Achashverosh looked good. In a normal scenario, it would have been good for her if her husband got honor, but she did not like it, because Hashem gave her haughtiness. She had gone the first 186 days of the party with no issues. Then, on the last day, she made her own party. She had it in the Beit Malchut, a room made by Achashverosh, specifically for him, where no one else could walk into it. She brought all of the women there, just so that she could show that she was the real leader. It just so happened that this room was located right next to the room that Achashverosh was having his party. When the men in the party heard the voices of the women from the other side of the walk they began to discuss who the best looking women were. Some said the Persians were the best looking while others said that the Midian women were the best looking. Achashverosh heard this conversation, and seeing it as another opportunity to show off, said that his wife was better looking than everyone else. So the men said that she should be brought out wearing only a crown. Normally, he would never have aloud this, but since the whole point of the party was to show that he was the richest and the most important, if he would not bring her out everyone would think that he was lying and it would ruin of the whole point of the party. Also, he said that he would do anything that anyone asked, so he had to delivery. But he knew that Vashti was the one who held all of the power so when he sent the people he said “Vashti the queen” putting Vashti before queen, to say that all of the kingdom was from him. But when she sent a message back the messenger said “the queen, Vashti” meaning that she was the true royal line and that he was nothing without her. Normally, she would have been glad to go in front of everyone naked, but since the whole reason for her party was to show that she was the one who was the true ruler she would not go out, and she sent a message to him that he was a stable boy, and that after drinking a little got drunk, but her father, a real king drank much more without getting drunk.

After hearing Vashti’s comment Achashverosh screamed a lot and his anger remained in him. Normally, when a person is mad he says what he is angry about and he is already slightly less upset.# But in this case, even though he screamed he was still very angry. The reason was because he could not say why he was angry. The entire purpose for his party was to show how great he was. So if he would have said that Vashti called him a stable boy it would have ruined everything. So he bottled up his anger.

Achashverosh wanted to punish Vashti for what she did, but he did not want to kill her. In Shushan there were two court systems, the first which ruled according to the laws of the land, the second was more flexible and took other considerations into account, even if it was against the letter of the law. The second court was called the “Yodei Ha’itim” because they knew when to be strict and when to be lenient. Achashverosh specifically picked this court to judge so that they would know that he wanted a lenient ruling. There was a rule in the kingdom that anything that involved the king personally could not be judged by him, so that nobles would not get killed every time he got angry. When the case went to the court Achashverosh strongly hinted to them to let her off easy. It was very important for him that she be kept alive. Normally, the court would be leniet in these types of cases, but Hashem made it that just a few days earlier Haman, the seventh member of this court, would get fed up with his wife who was Persian and was unwilling to speak to him in his native tongue, Amaleki. He wanted to force her to speak to him according to the way he wanted to speak so he judged the case of Vashti so that it would effect his wife as well. Right as the court case started Haman jumped up and told his ruling and everyone else agreed.

Haman realized that if he allowed the others to speak that the case would end leniently so he said that the law that the king could not judge his own cases should be eliminated, because there was nothing that was a personal case of the king that was not a national decision. So even though the case of Vashti was only a personal matter, a law should be passed that effects everyone in the kingdom, that all wives must listen to their husbands.

So the law was past that now the king could judge on his own even for cases that were personal matters. For the case of Vashti, Haman did not want it that the judgement should be direct death, because Haman could not have his wife, Zerash killed for not listening to him. So he made it that only in the case of the king would the ruling be that Vashti could not appear before the king again, which would lead to her death, because a queen who cannot come before her husband has no other use. So now if Zerash did not listen Haman he could say that she could not appear before him anymore. Then Haman said that Achashverosh would find someone else to be his queen, who also had royal blood, who was better looking than Vashti, and this would lead to the kings power being greater than ever before, because now he can judge even in personal cases, and now everyone would fear him. Normally, something like this would never have happened.

The fact that this law was changed would end up giving Achashverosh the power later to hang Haman. Achashverosh later thought that Haman was trying to take Ester away from him. Before now, this case could not have been judged by Achashverosh, but due to the fact that Haman changed the law, it would now be possible. If the old laws would still be in affect Haman would not have been hanged because the case would have gone to the court who were friends of Haman, so he would not have been judged strictly, and eventually the king would have forgiven him. It was only because Haman changed the law at the beginning of the megillah that allowed the king to judge his case alone, which led to Haman’s death. Haman was the cause of his own death.

Even though the whole story of the megillah seems to be natural, if we look carefully we can see how Hashem caused everyone to act out of nature which led to our salvation. If we put all of our faith in Him, He will make sure everything works out well for us.

Part 2

After finally getting over his anger, Achashverosh remembers Vashti. But, he didn’t remember her for her blood line, he remembered her for her beauty. After he had calmed down, the servants of the king, not the nobles were the ones who advised him to get a new wife. Why would Achasherosh be advise by the butlers, chefs and bathroom attendants on such an important matter? Since Haman had passed the law that the king can now rule on any person matter on his own all of the noblemen were afraid to walk into the palace while Achashverosh was still angry. But the servants of the palace had no choice but to be therre all day long even if they were afraid that Achashverosh may kill them. Every day the nobles would come to the servants to see if Achashverosh’s anger had subsided.

One day the servants walked in and saw the Achashversoh was not mad anymore but that he was sad because he missed the beauty of Vashti. The nobles did not get into the palace to advise the king because they were waiting to hear from the servants the Achashverosh was not angry anymore. So the servants thought of how they can cheer the king up from his problem. So since they were not so smart and did not think it was important for the queen to have a lineage they advised that he should look for a girl just based on her beauty.

So basically, they advised Achashverosh to have a giant beauty contest, minus the question round, of course, in order to pick the next queen. There were no requirements except beauty. This was a miracle because now Hashem can place Ester into power. This would never have been possible normally because the other nations hate Jews, in fact even Achashverosh himself hated Jews, and he would never have willingly married a Jewish girl.

If Achashverosh would have waited to take his advise from nobles this would never have happened. Each girl would have had a thorough background check for intelligence and lineage before even getting close to the king.

So once the girls got the the house that they had to wait in before meeting the king the nobles asked them for the basic information. But Ester chose not to tell them, and since the only requirement was beauty they could not stop her from meeting with the king. When Achashverosh met her he did not think about her family or her intelligence all he cared about was her beauty. So it was all because of Haman’s advise to the king to change the law about the king’s personal trials that aloud all of this to happen.

Later, when Achashverosh wakes up in the middle of the night, to think of what to do for Mordechai for saving his life he looks for people to advise him. The people who answer are the same servants who had helped Achashverosh earlier with how to choose his wife. Yet, this time after they advise him, he did not listen. Rather, he looked for a noble, because only a noble can know what honor is. Now isn’t it weird that when it came to choosing his own wife he took their advise, but now, to show honor to someone else, he did not. The reason is because normally a king would never take from servants and the only reason why he took their advise before was due to his sadness. But now, he was not sad so when he heard their advise he did not listen. This is yet another example of how Hashem controlled everything behind the scenes.

Part 3

The Jews did two sins that were the cause for the whole story of Purim. One, they bowed down to the statue of Nevuchadnetzer, and two, they got pleasure from Achashvarosh's party. Since there were two sins there needed to be two saviors, Ester and Mordechai . Ester was for the party and Mordechai was for bowing to the idol. This is why when everyone bowed down to Haman Mordechai did not, because he had to be mitakain for the sin of bowing down to the idol. Not only did Mordechai not bow down, he did not even tremble when Haman past by him, because he had gotten rid of all emotions except for fear of Hashem.

When the Jews went to the party Mordechai told them not to but they did not listen to him. Therefore whenever Mordechai told Ester to do or not to do something the Megillah goes out of its way to say that she listened to him completely. Also, this is the reason why only the people of Shushan had to fast, because they were the only ones that went to the party.

The Gemara says that Ester was green. The Vilna Goan wants to know how it can be that the Megillah says that she was beautiful but yet it says that she was green. He answers that at the beginning of the story she was very beautiful. But, when she got the to the palace were all of the maidens were kept before meeting the king she got very sick. This was not a normal sickness, it happened because her total essence was spiritual, therefore, anything not spiritual was actually bad for her health, for example, the oils and perfumes that they gave her. Then it says she did not want any of the perfumes. The reason for the was because she was doing a tikun for the sin when the Jews got pleasure from the kings party. It then says that when it was her turn to go the king “they brought her before the king.” The Gra says on this phrase that it means that it was against her will, they literally had to drag her to the king. Again the Jews went to the party on their own free will so she, being metakain for them, was force to go to the king. Then it says “she was made queen” again against her will, another tikun.

After Achashvarosh made Ester queen he wanted to find out her lineage, but she would not tell him. The pasuk says “he made a big party for all of his officials and officers in Ester’s honor. Then he gave every country a tax deduction and gave all of them presents.” Why? He hoped that by making the party in her honor she would tell him her lineage. When that did not work he gave the tax deduction hoping she would thank him for lowering the taxes of her country. When that also failed, he gave presents hoping she would thank him for the presents he gave her country. But none of that worked so he asked Mordechai what to do. Mordechai told him to have relations with all of the the women that were in the palace that he had kept after the “contest” to see who would be his wife. So Achashvarosh did that and that is what the pasuk means when it says “he gathered the virgins a second time.” After all of this the pasuk says “and still Ester listened to the word of Mordechai,” again tikun for the sin.

Part 4

The next thing Rav Brevda does in the sefer is prove that Hashem did not save us in the time of Purim because of our hishtadlut but rather because of our prayers. The pasuk says “Mordechai went out in to the town wearing sackcloth and screamed.” If anyone did this nowadays the newspapers would say “Crazy Man Screams in the Street” but for Mordechai it led to all of the Jews doing teshuva. Why did this work? Since all Mordechai wanted to do after finding out that Haman was trying to kill all of the Jews was to go to every country and tell the Jews to do teshuva he realized that all he could was go out in sackcloth and scream. Since he did the most he could do Hashem made it that that was enough.

The next pasuk says “Ester sent him clothes to put on but he would not take them.” Ester had lived in his house for most of her life and he taught her everything she knew, didn’t she think that Mordechai knew what he was doing? Really, she knew what he was doing but she wanted to talk to him. The problem was that no one could go into the palace wearing sackcloth. So she told him to change for a few minutes and then change back. But he would not change out of the sackcloth even for a second, so she sent a messenger to him since she had no other choice. He sent back the messenger saying to go to speak to the king. She responded that all of the Jews of Shushan should fast, to be mitakain for the sin of the party for three days and she would also fast.

It just so happens that the time when she went to Achashvarosh he was not in his normal place, the court room, instead he was in the castle, why? So he would be able see her earlier. Usually when someone fasts for three days they don’t look verey good, but even though Ester went to Achashvarosh looking very sick a miracle happened. The Gemara explains that at that time three angels came, one to lift her head because she was weak from the fasting, a second to make her look beautiful to Achashvarosh (by passing a string of chesed in front of her face), and three to stretch out his scepter. What caused these angels to come, was it hishtadlut or prayer?! Ester then invited Achashverosh and Haman to a party.

Later that night, Haman’s wife told him to go to Achashvarosh to tell him to kill Mordechai. It so happened that that night Achashvarosh could not sleep, he was up thinking about if there was anyone he had forgotten to pay back. The reason why this happened was because he was trying to figure out why Ester would have invited Haman to the party. Maybe it was a plot to try to kill him. If this was true why hadn’t anyone come to try to save him? Maybe it was because someone had previously save him but did not get a reward for it. So Achashverosh decided, if there is such a person then he will be honored greatly then if there would be any plots on his life people would want to tell him. So he got his scribe. Shimshi, who just happened to be one of Haman’s sons to read from his book. After Shimshi had written down the story of Mordechai way back when it happened he erased it. The Gemara says that an angel came and rewrote it. Then it says that Shimshi did not read that part of the book so what happened? The book started reading itself. What caused these miracles, histadlut or the tefillah of the Jews?! Then when Haman got there to tell Achashvarosh to kill Mordechai the first thing Achashvarosh asked him was “what should be done to give a man honor?” This question is a little different than the one he asked the young men. He asked them what he should do for Mordechai. Since this time when he asked Haman he did not say Mordechai’s name Haman was sure that Acha'ashvarosh was talking about honoring Haman.

Later, when Haman went to the party with Achashvarosh and Ester, Ester told Achashvarosh about what Haman was trying to do. Achashvarosh got so upset he was about to kill Haman, but he did not want to kill him so he went outside to his garden. When he got there he saw three angels disguised as men uprooting his trees. He asks them what they are doing and they said that Haman told them to uproot trees from Achashvarosh’s garden, this made Achashvarosh even angrier. What caused these angels to come, hishtadlut or tefillah?!

Then, in his anger Achashvarosh goes back to the party and the pasuk says “Haman was falling on top of Ester” falling is in present tense. The Gemara says there was an angel that kept on pushing Haman down onto Ester. What caused this angel to come…? At that moment Achashvarosh got so angry he had no choice but to kill Haman. From the very beginning of the story Haman was the cause of every event leading directly to his own death and Mordechai’s rise in power. What a Purim miracle!

May we have miracles in our days and may all evil be destroyed leading to Mashiach!