Mishpatim 5771

Sending an Angel:

Throughout the entire seder on the first night of Pesach (first two for those who live out of Eretz Yisrael) we constantly make it known that Hashem was with us throughout the period of Geulah. We say how it was Him and not an angel or messenger. He was with us throughout our travels to Har Sinai until the sin of the Eigel Hazahav. At that point Hashem left us and instead had an angel who we followed instead of Him.

In parshat Mishpatim the Jews have not yet sinned with the Eigel Hazahav, so why does the Torah (23:20) say "I (Hashem) will send an angel in front of you, to guard you on your way, and bring you to the place that I have made ready"? In fact, Rashi is almost as puzzling as the pasuk itself. Rashi says "This pasuk is a hint to the fact that they will sin in the future as the Torah says later (33:3) "and the Shechina said 'I will not be with out.'"" Then Rashi says that the place where Hashem has designated for them is the Beit Hamikdash, and that Hashem has prepared the Beit Hamikdash Shel Lemala." Hashem then warns the people that as opposed to Him who could forgive them for their sins, the angel will not forgive them for sins they commit. In the next pasuk Hashem tells them that they should be afraid of the angel because His (Hashem's) name is in his name.

The Ramban's understanding of these pasukim are quite revealing. The Ramban says that this angel was not talking about after the sin of the Eigel. Rather Hashem was discussing what will happen when the Jews enter into Eretz Yisrael. The Ramban says that as long as Moshe lived Hashem was always with them and it was only after Moshe's death that an angel began to direct the Jews, while Yehoshua was the leader. This is what the pasuk means when it says that we should be afraid of it's judgment because the sin of one person can effect everyone, and this is exactly what happened by the city of Ei, where many people died because of the sin of one man.

Shir Hashirim (4:6) the Gra explains the pasuk as followed, when Moshe dies and the clouds of glory leave the Jews Hashem will go to Har Hamoriah and Yerushiliam and wait there for Moshe to return.

Rav Brevda in explaining this Gra said that as long as it is not Moshe who builds the Beit Hamikdash it could be destroyed. But when Moshe builds it it will be indestructible. The reason for this is because Moshe will not build the Beit Hamikdash rather he will bring down the Beit Hamikdash She Lemala down to this world.

So in this pasuk Hashem is telling us that He knows the future, and He knows that Moshe will not be the one who brings them in to Eretz Yisrael, and He knows that the Beit Hamikdash will be destroyed because of that. Yet, He will still go there and wait. The pasuk says "the place I have prepared." This means that the everything is ready for Hashem to bring down the Beit Hamikdash, and He has been ready for us to bring it down, but as long as we sin this can never happen.

Hashem has waited hundreds of years for us to make it possible for Him to bring down the Beit Hamikdash to this world. We are the ones who are stopping Him. Even if one of us sins it makes it harder for everyone to get to the final goal.

May we all help bring about the final redemption instead of hindering it's coming.

We will b"H discuss more on this topic in next week's dvar torah.

Have a good Shabbat!

Yitro 5771

Listening Leads to Peace:

Yitro tells Moshe that Moshe must revise how he has been holding court cases. Instead of Moshe being in charge of each case he should choose judges to to all of the minro cases and only the big cases will go before Moshe.

At the end of his proposition Yitro says (18:23) "If you do this thing, and Hashem commands it, then you will be able to endure, and also the nation will get to their destination in peace."

There are a few of questions on this pasuk. 1) Why is Yitro taking his time to explain the whole process to Moshe if Moshe should not do it unless he is commanded by Hashem to do it, in which case Hashem will tell him all of the rules, and Moshe will not need Yitro's ideas? 2) How is Yitro so sure that his plan will save everyone?

Many people believe that they could live on morals alone. The problem with that is that each person has a different set of morals. Since each person's set of morals can be different it can be hard (if not impossible) to live in a completely moral society according to every opinion. What I think is moral does not necessarily fit with what you think is moral. But when it comes to Hashem every rule He has is completely moral. While each person has his or her own subjective morality Hashem has a objective morality. Therefore, following Hashem's rules are the only way to truly be living morally.

Yitro was telling Moshe that even though he believes that this may be the greatest idea that objectively it may not be the best option. Therefore, it should not be followed unless Hashem first tells us that it is a good idea.

Now if it is in fact commanded by Hashem then it must be the most moral choice. This would mean that Yitro's advise is was in fact the correct option. This means that the idea of having more judges would actually be helpful to the people of a whole on a physical level, and "then you will be able to endure, and also the nation will get to their destination in peace."

If we follow the objective morality of Hashem, and do the mitzvot, we will not only be living more spiritual lives, but even a more physically good life.

Have a good Shabbat!

Bishalach 5771

Soul Food:

Imagine going to sleep one night not knowing where your next meal will be. Now, imagine you woke up the next morning and found food. The normal person would save as much of the food as possible so that they have some for the next day. Now, imagine doing this every day for forty years.

Nowadays, most people, b"H, have food to eat. The idea of going without food for a day would not even cross most peoples mind. To be willing to go to sleep every night hoping food just appears at your door would be insane. But in the time while the Jews were in the desert they did this every single day. They had such faith in Hashem that every night they went to sleep confident that there would be food for them the next morning.

If we look at the pasukim closely we can learn a lot about bitachon and hishtadlut from the parsha of man.

In pasuk 16:4 Hashem says to Moshe "Behold, I will send down to them bread from heaven. The nation will come out and collect the amount for each day on that day, so that I will know if they are following my Torah or not." Hashem is saying here how this the entire concept of man is a test. He could have just given the Jews all of their food one time at the beginning of their travels through the desert but then He would not be testing their emunah each and every day.

Then the next pasuk says that for shabbat they will have everything prepared from beforehand. This teaches us the concept that once shabbat comes all preparations are over and once shabbat comes we must forget about everything else.

The pasuk (16:16) says "this is the thing that Hashem commanded, collect from it each person according to the amount he eats... each person for his tent he should take." This shows us that Hashem gives each person the exact amount that that person needs and a person should never be jealous about what another person has, because if you needed more Hashem would give it to you.

(16:19) "And Moshe said to them "A man should not leave over until the morning." Leaving over meant that you thought there would not be any left for the next day. This idea is exactly against the emunah that they were expected to have.

Later, when the Jews collected a double portion on erev shabbat they were very confused. If we are supposed to have emunah that Hashem will provide then why do I have a double portion now? But didn't Hashem already tell Moshe earlier that this would happen? So why hadn't Moshe told them before this whole scenario happened that they should expect it? This was yet another way to show their emunah. Most times when good things happen to people they do not thank Hashem for it, it is only the bad times that people look to God. Here, we see that when the people got more then they were expecting the first thing they do is turn to Moshe to ask Hashem why this happened. If Moshe would have told them earlier they would have known it was from Hashem, this way they got to discover it on their own.

At the end of the parsha of man Moshe tells Aharon to save some man in a jar and keep it in the mishkan. What is the point of this jar? Later, in the time of Yirmihayu many people stopped learning so that they could work. Yirmihayu told them to go learn. Their response was that if they did they would have no food to eat. Yirmihayu walked into the Beit Hamikdash and brought out this jar. He said, just as Hashem could satisfy all of the Jews in the desert so too Hashem could feed all of you. This teaches us that even if we are not all on the level of the people of midbar we should all try to reach our highest potential and the rest will be provided by Hashem.

Have a great Shabbat Shira!

Bo 5771

Because I took you out of Mitzriam:

The Ramban at the end of this week's parsha tells us that Hashem did all of the miracles in Mitzriam to close the mouths of any future denier of God. That for all of history anyone who considers that there is no God in the world should look back at the events of Mitzriam and know that Hashem rules the world. There are many times throughout the Torah that a mitzvah is spoken about and then the Torah reminds us that Hashem took us out of Mitzriam. The reason for this is to enforce our faith in Hashem. When a person hangs a mezuzah on his door he is reminded of all of the miracles of Mitzriam, so too when one puts on tzitzit or tefillin, as these are mitzvot where the Torah tells us that Hashem took us out of Mitzriam. According to the Ramban, by acknowledging the miracles that Hashem performed in Mitzriam we are also acknowledging that every event in the world is a miracle (as we discussed last week.) This is why the Torah reminds us of Mitzriam whenever possible, to help us remember why we do it all.

Rav Brevda quoted a Sifri this week in his speech. This Sifri can really change the way one looks at Mitzriam. It is in Parshat Shelach on Parshat tzitzit (page 62 in the Vilna Goan version: 17) "Why does the Torah remind us about Mitzriam for every mitzvah? To what is it comparable? A king's best friend's son gets kidnapped. The king goes and frees the boy. He doesn't free him to for him to be a son rather he freed him to make him a slave. So if the king tells the boy to do something and he doesn't do it the king will answer that he must do it because he is a slave.When they arrived back in the country the king tells the boy to tie his shoe for him and bathe him. When the boy complained the king pulled out the document that the boy had signed when the king had freed him from his captures. The king said "You are my slave!" When Hashem freed the children of His friend (Avraham) He didn't free them to be children, rather to be slaves, and any time they would not accept it He would tell them "You are my slaves!" Once Hashem brought them to the Midbar He began to establish some easy mitzvot and some hard mitzvot like Shabbat, ariot, tzitzit, and tefillin. Bnei Yisrael began to complain so Hashem said "You are my slaves and this is the reason why I freed you, so that I can establish and you will fulfill."

Rav Brevda continued by saying that this Sifri teaches us that if the Jews ever stop following the mitzvot Hashem will bring them back to being slaves of Paro. Paro has helpers in every generation who can easily find ways to torture us and kill us. If we don't follow the mitzvot Hashem will just put us back in Mitzriam.

On the night of the seder each of us must imagine ourselves as if we had left Mitzriam. The reason for this is now clear. By knowing that at any moment we can be easily brought back we will know that we are truly slaves to Hashem.

On the night of seder we quote a pasuk that says that Esav got Har Seir and the children of Yaakov went down to Mitzriam. The fact that we went down and they didn't is what caused us to be the chosen people and not them. The reason for this is because the Jews got a training in Mitzriam on how to be slaves. Once, they had finished 116 years of slavery they were now ready to be slaves of Hashem. But Esav never went down to Mitzriam so his family never got the necessary training on how to be slaves to Hashem so they could never be the chosen people. (From Leil Shimurim)

If we combine these ideas we have a totally new perspective of Mitzriam. Hashem brought us down to Mitzriam so that we can properly become His people. Once we were His people we were commanded by Him to do mitzvot. By doing the mitzvot we remind ourselves, like the Ramban says, of the source of all emunah, that we know that Hashem runs the world.

Now if we know that Hashem is the one who runs the world and we know that we are His slaves why is that any better than being slaves to Paro? The very fact that Hashem runs the world means that He knows what will happen. So He gave us the mitzvot to help us fix ourselves in this world. So really being a slave to Hashem is actually the greatest freedom there is. By being a slave to Hashem we are now the best candidates to fulfill the purpose of the world.

Whenever we do a mitzvah we should know that this all comes from Yitziat Mitzriam, and this is exactly what the Torah is telling us!

Have a great Shabbat!