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!)