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!