גזירות ת''ח ות''ט (1648- 1649)-
The Cossacks lived in Ukraine, which was southwest of Russia and southeast of Poland. The Poles took them over and made them into serfs. The Cossacks were very mad that they couldn’t make money, had to pay many taxes, and follow the Pole’s religion. They got themselves a leader for their group, Chmielnitzky. He organized a mob because the king wouldn’t listen to his complaints. The mob was similar to the Crusades. Although they were mad at the Poles, they took it out on the Jews. They robbed, murdered, tortured, and took ס''ת…
In נמירוב, the Jews were hiding in a fortress that was impenetrable. The Cossacks tricked them by waving Polish flags. The Jews thought that they were Poles, so they opened up the doors for them. 6,000 people were killed that day. In order to remember what happened on that day, the Jews of Poland fast on כ' סיון.
In טוצ'לין, a similar incident transpired. The Jews were in a fortress and Cossacks told Polish- if you give up Jews to us, we’ll spare you. So the Polish gave them over and 1,500 Jews were killed and then they killed the Poles.
This lasted for two summers, but it caused tremendous unrest for twelve years.
In 1657, Chmielnitzky died.
Things didn’t settle down though until 1660, right after the two years of גזירות ת''ח ות''ט. The ועד הארצות realized that there was a problem because people were hiding. So wives were אגנות, children were found and no one knew who or where their parents were. Additionally, these children couldn’t get married because maybe it’s their sibling. So they figured out everyone’s יחוס and wrote it down on an amulet.
During these years, 500,000 people were killed and 300 קהילות were destroyed. Yiddishkeit never returned to its previous level.
People left to four places:
1. Hungary
2. Germany
3. Holland
4. Italy- was already a haven for גולי ספרד.
They spread the דרך הלמוד of Poland to these countries.
אחרוני פולין בזמן גזירות ת"ח ות"ט-
1. ר' יהושע העשיל מקראקא- די רבי ר' העשלע- He lived in Brisk where his father was the ראש ישיבה and then לובלין and his father was the ראש ישיבה there too. When his father was נפטר, he moved to Krakow and became ראש ישיבה. He was after the תוספות יו"ט, the מהר"ל’s תלמיד. He was known for his outstanding צדקות, חסד, חכמה, and ענוה.
He traveled to Vienna to wealthy Jews and collected money to help his brethren monetarily and in different ways too. And he reestablished תורה after גזירות again- by building a ישיבה.
2. ט"ז- טורי זהב- ר' דוד הלוי- The טורי זהב was פרוש על שלחן ערוך- הלכה. He was called for his פרוש- ט"ז. He was the son-in-law of the ב"ח. After the גזירות, active in ועד ארבע הארצות. During pogroms, he lost 2 of his sons but he couldn’t be depressed because בנ"י needed him. This was like a Rebbe by WWII, ר"ל. He understood he was the leader and בנ"י needed him. His קבר was opened 200 years after he was נפטר and his body was complete- sign of a צדיק מושלם. Story- the ב"ח said he would support him, and he did this through providing him with a meal of meat every day. This gave him strength to learn. Then the ב"ח couldn’t afford it so he bought a piece of lung for him and he wasn’t as strong and his learning suffered a little. He took his father-in-law, the ב"ח, to a דין תורה. The דין תורה said lung is meat. People wanted to know- how could he do this? It teaches דן לכף זכות- the ט"ז said- there was a קטרוג against my father-in-law that I wasn’t learning as well so the ט"ז understood if he makes a real דין תורה in this world and they decide it’s fine, it’s fine in שמים too.
3. שך- ר' שבתי כהן- שפתי כהן- He was one of the greatest פוסקים after the גזרות. He started writing his פרוש then. His wife was נפטר and his daughter was missing- the adopted princess. He was part of the ועד and one of the people to establish כ' סיון as a יום צום for the קדושים killed in נמירוב- קדושי נמירוב, and he wrote קינות וסליחות for it.
4. מגן אברהם- ר' אברהם גמבינר- he asked the שאך what the answer to a hard question he asked was. They appointed him a מורה צדק in בית דין.
5. של"ה הקדוש- ר' ישעי' הורוביץ- he wrote the שני לוחות הברית. He was buried near the רמב"ן in טברי'.
During the late 1800s, Poland got carved between Germany, Russia and Austria, so it was no longer independent. Poland didn’t become independent again until after WWII. From 1918 to 1937, Poland was split between Germany and Russia. At that point, people went to the German side because Russia was a mean country, so they figured Germany would be better. After WWII, Poland became a satellite of Russia. And in 1989, Poland finally regained its independence.
שבתי צבי¬-
In 1626, שבתי צבי was born in Turkey in Smyrna. He started the beginning of a different תקופה.
He was a משיח שקר. ר' חיים וואלזין said that שבתי צבי started out as a קדוש וטהור, but once he started getting כבוד, it caused him to go astray.
His town put him in חרים right away because they realized that he was doing something wrong. He went to the next town. There he drew a huge crowd and they followed him. Eventually, נתן of Aza joined him as his "נביא" and promoted him.
The גדולים weren’t really clear about what was going on. The ט''ז sent his grandchildren to go check it out and they came back with glowing reports.
שבתי צבי said the שם המפורש out loud, he ate חלב- said the ברכה of מתיר אסורים when he did this… He invited everyone to his wedding, where his כלה was a ס''ת.
Glickel of Hameln lived at this time. She wrote that people really thought משיח was coming. They sold their houses, prepared their luggage, and some did תשובה- this was something good that came out of it.
ר' יעקב סספרטס was one of the only גדולים who clearly took a stand against שבתי צבי.
שבתי צבי went to the Sultan. He was given a choice- או מוסלמות או ימות, and he converted. This caused a tremendous amount of disappointment. This caused trouble in כ''י- people were suspicious of anyone who supported שבתי צבי.
A little while later there was another משיח שקר- Yaakov Frank. The גדולים were suspicious of anyone involved. Some good people were under suspicion:
1. רמח''ל- he learnt קבלה, and this aroused suspicion.
2. ר' יונתן אייבשיץ- ר' יעקב עמדין was against him because he suspected that he had dealings with שבתי צבי but in the end, he didn’t.
A historian says that שבתי צבי suffered from mental illness- he had his high points and his low points.
1700s- 1900s
The Industrial Revolution brought about new inventions and now they had mass production, which is cheaper and easier. Factories were built and the feudal system ended. Much of the change happened in the west, in Germany, France, Hungary… People would go from small town in the east to the west in order to work. Now, they started with last names and addresses because children were no longer under their parent’s jurisdiction. Poland and Russia resisted the change until the 1900s, so Poland was the תורה center. There were many נסיונות in the west.
In eastern Poland and Russia, the Jews were no longer protected by kings and the ועד הארצות wasn’t so strong. They had to pay very taxes so people were busy making a living and didn’t have time to learn תורה. There were ישיבות and גדולים but for the המון עם, they were trying to making a living and didn’t have time to learn. There was a רפיון. רפואה לפני המכה was the בעל שם טוב- he came and made חידות. It was considered a דבר בעתו. The בעל שם טוב said- תורה is the ultimate but you can come close to ה' through davening/singing and שמחה and he built them up and encouraged בנ"י. He preserved Yiddishkeit in the Poland-Russia area. It was special for the simple Yid, for the המון עם, and gave them חזוק.
Western Europe- Germany France...- modernizing and then the world changed and בנ"י too.
The Revolutionary War in America brought about a new change- for the first time, there was no monarch. The French then overthrew their monarch too, in the French Revolution.
Napoleon took over France after the revolution. He conquered a big part of the world. He was in א"י on תשעה באב and בנ"י were crying and they said- a nation who cries for something that happened 2,000 years ago will stay a nation. Napoleon made them a big סנהדרין and gave them rights and said they could be part of the country, but that they had to first be Frenchman and then they could be Jews.
We’re a ‘religion nation’. We’re a strange nation. Because we don’t assimilate. But this started off a Reform Movement- they become friendly with them and assimilated.
“The Open Door”- they opened the ghetto, and the Yidden “lost their balance” (assimilated.)
People said- maybe there are things in Yiddishkeit that we don’t need, and they made changes. Making even one change is a מומר לכל התורה and you’re an אפיקורס to כל התורה כולה. It started like this. In 1808 they built the first temple and the rabbi dressed like a גלאך. They started by taking out things from the סדור- they took out קרבנות- it’s “cruel”, and "ולירושלים עירך"- we’re happy here, who wants משיח. Moses Mendelson- said be a Frenchman outside and a Jew at home.
They all converted ר"ל.
ר' שמשון רפא-ל הירש fought against it in Germany.
The חתם סופר in Hungary- it was called Neologism.
In the east there was the Yeshiva Movement- ישיבת ואלאז'ין- ר' חיים ואלאז'ין. It was the first yeshiva like what we have today. That kept the reform out. Some made problems, though. Eventually, what came was השכלה- learning the חכמה of the גויים- learning outside subjects.
They pressured the government into pressuring ר' חיים to have secular studies in the yeshiva. ר' חיים said I would rather close down my yeshiva than water down my yeshiva with secular studies. He made a statement for the generations to know- this is not לכתחילה. The secular studies רדיפות eventually died down, and other ישיבות opened up.
In 1840 the זוהר said that there will be a מבול of חכמות then. There were unbelievable technologies- steamboats, locomotives, trains… Now it took much less time to travel.
So now they had factories and many “ism”s came:
1. Socialism- workers were afraid of their bosses, but they understood the power of the masses so they formed unions.
2. Communism- Karl Marx wrote Das Capital, his social bible. His philosophy was that all צרות are caused by money, so everyone should share the wealth.
3. Atheism- don’t believe in any god so that you don’t feel guilty if you do something wrong.
4. Zionism- in the late 1800s, many frum Yidden made עלי' to א''י and built up cities like ראשון לציון, זכרון לציון and פתח תקוה.
At the end of the 1800s, there was a new kind of anti- Semitism. They hated us not because of our religion, but because of our nation. By the Dreyfus affair, they accused a not frum general. Emyl Zolar wrote J’accuse- he accused that the Dreyfus affair was wrong. But still, people thought badly about this.
Theodore Herzl- he was a reporter and he went to France, and he was called a Dirty Jew, but he was an assimilated Jew and you couldn’t tell he was a Jew and he was shocked why they called him a Jew. But בנ"י aren’t the usual- we’re strange- we’re a religion nation. He felt that if we have a homeland and army, we won’t be called a Dirty Jew and there won’t be anti-Semitism. He didn’t know the idea that "הלכה היא בידוע שעשו שונא ליעקב" and at first he wanted to make his homeland in Uganda.
As soon as set up א"י without תורה, the frum Jews realized the Zionists are shterring תורה. The גדולים realized they had to unite because Zionism was a world organization, and they formed Agudas Yisroel in 1909 in order to fight Zionism.
They set the year 1914 as a date for a כנסי'ה גדולה to make different strategies to fight the Zionists. But it didn’t happen because WWI was then. It was a terrible war, which ended in1918.
2 things came out that affected the Jews:
1. The Balfour Declaration- the British government recognized the total rights of the Jewish nation and promised to establish their own homeland.
2. Bolshevik Revolution- 5 million Yidden were oppressed under communist rule for 70 years and they weren’t able to keep מצוות.
There was a song to Nikolai- “Dear Nikolai”, written in the form of a boy going to yeshiva in N.Y. what life was like as a frum Yid- Yiddishkeit practiced openly.
In Poland, the Yidden controlled the חנוך and their own newspapers and so they started establishing ישיבות and בית יעקבs now.
In 1923, the Agudah had its first כנסי'ה גדולה.
חרבן אירפה-
It was called the Holocaust. From the time ב''י got the תורה, this was the worst in:
1. Scope- affected so many people.
2. Viciousness
3. Thoroughness
4. They stated their objective to make the world Judenrein.
The Zionists decided to use the term שואה. They felt that this had nothing to do with the rest of history, so they made יום השואה. But we know that this is really just an extension of the חרבן, it happened because we are in גלות. So this is a part of the other חרבנות, which we commemorate on תשעה באב.
משך חכמה sheet- this was written by ר' מאיר שמחה הכהן מדוינסק. He lived from 1845- 1926. He also wrote the אור שמח. The משך חכמה is a ספר on the תורה.
If you learn about חרבן אירופה, you should learn the תוכחה because you’ll see it straight out that ה' warned us. These consequences keep us as a nation.
ה' promises that we will be persecuted, but will never be completely destroyed. Let’s understand a little bit how ה' watches over everything. Just like ה' decreed that כ''י should wander for a specific amount of time, He also didn’t reveal when משיח will come. ה' thought up strategies and ways that כ''י should survive as a nation and not assimilate. Our חכמים recognized this so they gave us גדרים so that we shouldn’t assimilate, that we should survive the upheaval of the waves of the sea and not get destroyed in the depths of the ים. How can כ''י survive?
We learn this from יעקב - ה' showed him all of the צרות and even showed him when משיח was going to come. יעקב thought that since כ''י was only seventy people in a strong nation like מצרים, they were bound to assimilate. So he came up with עצות that they should stand out- they didn’t change their names, language or clothing. יעקב thought that if he was buried in מצרים, כ''י would despair that there’s no hope of ארץ כנען. Then they would sink and consider מצרים "ארץ מולדת". So he understood that he can’t be buried in מצרים because that will cause כ''י to think of themselves as מצרים and they won’t get the special attention ה' gives them. So יעקב made יוסף swear to bury him in א''י so all of כ''י should know that their יחוס is in ארץ כנען. Through this, it was set in the נפש of his sons to yearn for א''י and feel like strangers everywhere else. It says in the פסוק, "ויגר שם"- they went to live there temporarily. This teaches us that anywhere you go is only temporary until משיח and while you are there you shouldn’t consider yourself a citizen. Also יוסף made כ''י promise to take out his bones, as did all of the other שבטים. This set up a tremendous root in כ''י.
It says, "ויקצו מפני ב''י"- they viewed them as קוצים. Just like thorns can’t be grafted, so too כ''י didn’t assimilate. They didn’t consider themselves מצרים. They were different in their qualities and characteristics therefore they were in the eyes of the מצרים like a thorn. From this, עזרא and the אכה''ג learned out that we must remain separate and make גדרים to keep us separate. We must remember that we are strangers in an ארץ נכרי. We are also like שתילי זתים because they don’t mix with any other seeds.
It’s a wonder that כ''י are still in existence. A person who knows הסטרי' and knows of all the terrible צרות that כ''י endured, a nation weak and with no strength- ככבשה בין שבעים זאבים, people who see this say it’s a נס.
We see a cycle of how we go from place to place. ב''י come into a land downtrodden. When they come, they unite and the תורה flourishes. Then they begin to forget that they are גרים and they begin to think that this is their place of origin. They think "יחשוב כי ברלין היא ירושלים" and they stop waiting for the ישועה. Then another stronger wind comes and shakes him up to remind him that he is a Jew and he has to leave because it’s not his place. This is the pattern that happens throughout the years. So this is the cycle: we come into a land downtrodden. Then we build up תורה and get close to ה'. But then we go looking for excitement, and we look to the גויים. We begin to forget that we are not permanent citizens here. Then a storm comes and uproots us.
How did it come about that Hitler was able to rise to power so much so that he was able to take over much of the world and attempt his plan of Judenreit?
In 1542, Martin Luther created a reformation and started the Protestants. He thought the Jews would join him, so he was nice to them. When he saw that they weren’t going to join, he created a religious hatred toward the Jews in Germany. He openly wrote that Jews are the enemy and we are better off without them.
In 1871, Otto von Bismarck made the Bismarck Republic. He unified all the loosely linked states of Germany and put them under one country which eventually became known as Germany. He was a very powerful ruler.
In 1903, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was published in Russia. This was a distinct change in the form of anti- Semitism. This book said that there is a group of old Jews who are in charge of running the world and in charge of all of the money in the world. This fueled the flame of anti- Semitism.
World War I was from 1914- 1918. It began on תשעה באב. This war ended in armistice- a cease fire, if Germany agrees to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles:
1. Limited the army to 100,000 troops.
2. Limited the navy to thirty-six ships.
3. Made the country smaller.
4. Must pay huge reparations.
After WWI, a new government was formed. It was called the Weimar Republic. It was more democratic and a weak government.
Hitler told the people exactly what they wanted to hear- that Germany didn’t lose the war. Additionally, he put down the government.
In 1923, Hitler made a rebellion and tried to overthrow the government. He got thrown into jail and there he wrote Mein Kampf- my struggle. Its main points:
1. Jews dominate the world.
2. We need to rid the world of Jews.
3. Superiority of the Aryan race.
4. Inferiority of the Slavs- Poles and Russians.
5. New World Order- how he envisions the world to look.
6. Rule of the third reich for 1,000 years.
Hitler realized that if he can’t overthrow the government, he must win it over. In 1930, the Nazi party became the second largest party. In 1933, Hitler was elected chancellor. But he wanted to be a dictator. The Weimar Republic building got burned down and he blamed the communists. Hitler took emergency powers and pushed his way in. When he saw that he could get away with it, he pushed further and further and became more brazen.
He put into effect the Nuremberg laws-
1. Jews lost their German citizenship.
2. Jews could no longer marry a non- Jew.
3. Jews can’t vote.
4. Jews can’t engage in certain kinds of work.
5. Jewish doctors had to become medical assistants.
6. Every Jew had to have an ID card and everyone got a Jewish name. If someone didn’t have one, a boy was named Israel and a girl was named Sara.
7. Jews had to wear yellow stars.
Judenreit was the most important thing on Hitler’s agenda. At the end of the war, he focused on killing Jews instead of using his means to win the war.
In 1933, Hitler began breaking the rules of the Treaty of Versailles:
1. Stopped paying the Allies.
2. Started rebuilding his army, navy and air force.
3. In 1934, he started taking back land.
In 1934, Hitler occupied the Rhineland. He brought soldiers in and no one did anything.
In 1938, he went into Austria. People were happy to see him there. Anschluss was the annexation of Austria to Germany.
In 1938, Hitler took control of the Sudetenland. He also told the world that his people were being tortured by the Czechs and he had to go save them. This allowed him to go right into Czechoslovakia.
The Americans weren’t worried about what was going on because they were across the ocean. England had a non-aggression and appeasement attitude because they were tired of war. But non-aggression and appeasement don’t work with dictators- the more you give them, the more they want. Historians believe that at this point, Hitler was still stoppable. But by the time everyone realized how evil he was, he couldn’t be stopped.
November 9 and 10, 1938 was Kristallnacht. What led up to this? Hershel Greenspan, a student in the University of Paris, was upset because his parents were thrown out of Germany. He went to the German embassy and shot Earnest Von Wrath. This became known as the shot heard around the world. It was used as an excuse; really the Germans were just waiting for something to blame it on. This was the first violent act that was sanctioned by the government. This meant that the Jews had no one to turn to for help. Kristallnacht was a type of pogroms- they looted and ransacked Jewish buildings, killed people and mocked them. 191 shuls were burnt, seventy- six of them completely. There was blood and glass all over. The message that people got was that they don’t belong there.
After Kristallnacht, things were difficult. But the war didn’t start until September 1, 1939. So people had a year to leave.
On August 25, 1939- the Molotov- Ribbentrop agreement was made between Russia and Germany that Russia won’t attack Germany. First, Germany will attack Poland and if Russia doesn’t fight back, they will split Poland. Poland had mountains and seas around it, but it also had plains on either side, so Germany and Russia always took land.
September 1, 1989- WWII began. WWII was blitzkrieg- lightening war. The Germans fought with tanks and their air force. Poland only had soldiers and horses. Along the border, there were Polish soldiers. The Germans flew over the soldiers and bombed the area behind them so that they wouldn’t be able to replenish their supplies. Then they invaded Poland from the top and the bottom. Within three weeks, the Nazis took over the whole Poland. On יו''כ, the Nazis bombed Poland extra hard.
At this point, the Nazis started arresting Jews because they wanted to get rid of them. Germany divided Poland with Russia. The Jews of Poland didn’t know which side to go to, so some stayed with the Germans.
It was למעלה מן הטבע to kill six million Jews. It says in פרשת כי תבוא, "והי' כאשר שש ה' עליכם להיטיב אתכם ולהרבות אתכם, כן ישיש ה' עליכם להאביד אתכם ולהשמיד אתכם ונסחתם מעל האדמה אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה"- it’ll be just like ה' is happy to do good for you and make you many, so too ה' will make the enemy happy to destroy you and you will be torn from this land that you came to inherit. ר' משה שפירה says that כ''י run on השגחה פרטית. There will come a point in time when ה' will use השגחה פרטית to destroy them. This was a safety feature to stop כ''י from totally assimilating. Who makes a war against civilians?
In 1929, the ח''ח was bentching and R’ Schwab heard him crying by רחם. The ח''ח told R’ Schwab that he foresees that there is going to be another world war which will make WWI look like child’s play.
People had to decide what they should do- they didn’t have anywhere to go. 1/3 of German Jews did leave. Where did they go?
1. Palestine- was made into a Jewish state by the British in the Balfour Declaration. People were able to come until 1939 when the White Paper was issued- didn’t let people come anymore.
2. England- they had a quota.
3. America- they had a quota and anyone who came needed a sponsor.
4. South America
People didn’t believe that such terrible things would happen. In America they didn’t know anything until much later on and even then they didn’t believe it.
Kindertransport- R’ Schoenfeld got permission to take a group of children from the age of 0-16 out. They went to England. Some children were put into goyish homes. Eventually, they had to leave their homes and go to the countryside. Here, they opened the Shefford school.
With the beginning of the blitzkrieg, terrible decrees and activities began to happen.
A lot of the dirty work was not done in Germany itself. The Nazi leaders got together and made a plan:
1. Many Yidden lived in small shtetluch. If you want to gather the Jews, you must concentrate them in the cities. They made these cities into ghettos.
2. Establishment of Judenreit- council of Jewish elders who bore the responsibility of carrying out German orders. By making the Jews do the dirty work, they were placing Jews against Jews.
a. The Nazis asked a certain רב to give them a list with a certain number of people. If he didn’t do it, they would kill him and his whole family. This is exactly what happened. He didn’t comply, so he and his family were tortured.
b. One day two people escaped. The Nazis were upset about this, so they picked twenty-five people and told them to each choose another person. This is so horrible!
The Nazis also felt that if they had Jews working for them, they could know more about the Jews. Some did take this job in order to help others.
Part of Hitler’s plan was propaganda. He had a ministry for propaganda. He started this brainwashing years before. In the theater, in the middle of the film, they would flash pictures of German soldiers breaking down the Eiffel tower. He did this in order to build up the peoples' moral.
They also used films to promote anti- Jewish propaganda. They would flash pictures of rats in middle of films depicting Jews.
Fritz Hippler was in charge of propaganda films and Joseph Goebbels was in charge of all propaganda. Hippler was obsessed with the idea of films. He had pro- Nazi films played in theaters. If someone seemed indifferent to these films, they were arrested on the spot because they were either a Jew, Jew lover or Nazi hater.
Hippler used two different methods:
1. Simplifications- gave over in a simple way so that people would understand.
2. Repetition- repeat in order to brainwash people until the idea was accepted.
Hippler was in charge of “Eternal Jew”. This film displayed Jews as rats which must be exterminated. He made hundreds of films, in addition to books and other things which would alter German education.
The Nazis had special training schools where they would do horrible things to animals so that they would grow accustomed to it and be able to do similar things to people.
There was a five- step process which Hitler implemented:
1. Ghettoization- Jews were squished into ghettos with horrible conditions. People died from starvation and disease. There was a big ghetto in Lodz. Hitler wanted to dehumanize the Jews. He also wanted to keep them calm up until the last moment, so he did everything in a very organized way so that they wouldn’t understand what was happening. It says in איכה, which death is better, sword or hunger? Sword. Hunger is much slower and more painful.
2. Concentration camps- the concentration camp was a Nazi creation. In slave labor camps, they didn’t treat the inmates like regular people, but they gave them food and a bed so that they could work. In the concentration camps, they really tried to dehumanize people. There were disgusting accommodations and thin clothing. The people couldn’t even relax after work because they never knew what was going to happen to them at the next moment.
3. Eizantsgruppen- their job was to kill people. They would take a group of people, make them dig a pit, undress and then shoot them into it. Then they would cover it up. This is not an easy and efficient way of killing. So at the Wansee conference in 1941, they discussed how they could do the job in a more efficient way. They came up with the solution of a gas chamber. But Hitler had to have this made for him. Different countries offered him different prices. This is so disgusting! The Nazis would take everything from people- their property, clothing etc. They made Jews go around and gather up other people’s things. After the gas chamber, the Nazis had the idea of a crematorium to get rid of the bodies. Everything was done in an organized and efficient way.
4. Deportation- people were deported from the ghettos and concentration camps to death camps or concentration camps. Often they had death camps and labor camps together, for example Auschwitz- Birkenau- Auschwitz was the death camp and Birkenau was the labor camp. Many people say that the deportation was the worst part of the whole experience. Many people were stuffed into cattle cars. Some people were in there for a few hours and some for a few days. In the winter, the people could pull off icicles through small holes and give them to their children to drink. R’ Michoel Ber Weissmandel jumped off of one of these trains.
5. Death camps and death marches- the Nazis would march people from place to place. At the end of the war, the Nazis marched people.
Death camps in Poland:
1. Auschwitz- Birkenau
2. Belzec
3. Chelmno
4. Lublin-Majdanek
5. Treblinka
Mauthausen was in Austria, Stutthof was in Prussia and Donary was in Lithuania.
Resistance:
The Jews didn’t do what the Nazis wanted them to do. They helped other people, did מצוות…
Every person had to ask themselves, “how does ה' want me to act in this situation?”
A Jew saving himself:
How do we know what to do? You must look into the תורה because "מעשה אבות סימן לבנים".
We know that when יעקב prepared for war, he did three things:
1. תפילה- said תהלים, people davened.
2. דרון- they tried their best to bribe officials. In America, they gathered money. They were even מחלל שבת for it because "פקוח נפש דוחה שבת".
3. מלחמה- it says, "הבא להרגך השכם להרגו"- if someone comes to kill you, you must save yourself. It says in the פסוק, "וירא יעקב ויצר לו"- he was prepared to kill back if he had to. By the Holocaust, they couldn’t really fight back. But it was נוגע by the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Here, in honor of Hitler’s birthday they announced that they were going to kill out everyone in the ghetto. They asked R’ Menachem Zemba what to do and he said that in honor of a קדוש ה', they should fight back. The Nazis had to bring in shock troops to fight back.
What does it mean to die with dignity? They said שמע, sang, gave over their food, and used their last bit of water to cleanse themselves… A Yid doesn’t have to fight back to die with dignity.
Hungary came into the war at the end.
Many boats of Jews were sent back to Europe.
A Nazi leader said that everyone looks at them so badly. But at least they openly showed that they didn’t care about the Jews. All the other nations who didn’t let them in are bad, too.
Theresienstadt was a model concentration camp- the Red Cross came and the Nazis tried to make it look like a good camp with children playing.
The Zionists only saved the Jews they wanted to, and not others.
Wallenberg, Shindler and other great men were חסידי עומות העולם. They risked their lives to save so many people.
Denmark stood up for its Jews and chased the Nazis out.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
בקיאות- פרק יג
רשב''ם ג,ד Let’s say a נביא will give a סימן and say that if it comes true you must serve ע''ז and his sign comes true, know that ה' only allowed this so that He could test you and give you זכותים when you pass. So the פסוק warns us not to follow a נביא שקר so that we can increase our זכותים.
רמב''ן ב והנה צוה- you can’t listen to a נביא שקר because you know that he’s wrong. You were taken out of מצרים and personally experienced great נסים, so you know better than to listen to him.
רמב''ן ד והנה מצות- how do you know if a נבואה is אמת or שקר? If the נביא says to abolish a certain מצוה, you know that it’s not true because ה' would never do that. But if a נביא מוחזק comes and tells you to change a מצוה for a short amount of time, להוראת שעה, you can believe him. Ex. אליהו בהר הכרמל.
רש''י ה מצותיו- תורת משה
ובקולו תשמעון- קול נביא אמת
ואותו תעבדו- עבודת ה' במקדשו
ובו תדבקו- cling to ה' by following his דרכים, "מה הוא רחום...".
רש''י ו הפדך מבית עבדים- even if all ה' did for you was redeem you, it would still obligate you to follow in His ways. קו''ח now that He did so much for us.
אוה''ח יח ה' doesn’t want to make כ''י into an אכזריותדיק people. So when He commands you to kill the city, He gives you a הרגש רחמנות so that you will feel like a רחמן. And ה' will act that way in return to you. He will be מרחם upon you and therefore be מרבה you.
רמב''ן ב והנה צוה- you can’t listen to a נביא שקר because you know that he’s wrong. You were taken out of מצרים and personally experienced great נסים, so you know better than to listen to him.
רמב''ן ד והנה מצות- how do you know if a נבואה is אמת or שקר? If the נביא says to abolish a certain מצוה, you know that it’s not true because ה' would never do that. But if a נביא מוחזק comes and tells you to change a מצוה for a short amount of time, להוראת שעה, you can believe him. Ex. אליהו בהר הכרמל.
רש''י ה מצותיו- תורת משה
ובקולו תשמעון- קול נביא אמת
ואותו תעבדו- עבודת ה' במקדשו
ובו תדבקו- cling to ה' by following his דרכים, "מה הוא רחום...".
רש''י ו הפדך מבית עבדים- even if all ה' did for you was redeem you, it would still obligate you to follow in His ways. קו''ח now that He did so much for us.
אוה''ח יח ה' doesn’t want to make כ''י into an אכזריותדיק people. So when He commands you to kill the city, He gives you a הרגש רחמנות so that you will feel like a רחמן. And ה' will act that way in return to you. He will be מרחם upon you and therefore be מרבה you.
בקיאות- פרק יב
רש''י ד לא תעשון-
1. Don’t be like the גויים who bring קרבנות wherever they want. You must bring קרבנות in the בהמ''ק.
2. Don’t do to the מזבחות of ה' what they do to the מזבחות ע''ז. But why would ב''י break the מזבח? It means don’t cause it to be broken by doing bad.
רמ''א You can’t break something in a shul.
ב.ה. כח שמר- learn because "אין בור ירא חטא ולא עם הארץ חסיד".
רש''י שמר- זו משנה.
את כל הדברים- every מצוה, whether it’s easy or hard, it should be important to you.
הטוב והישר- הטוב- do what is good in ה'’s eyes, והישר- do what’s good in other people’s eyes. Don’t be עובר on מראת עין.
ב.ה. The next topic discussed is going out to war against the כנענים. It’s connected because only צדיקים can go out to war.
רש''י לא גם here comes to include mothers and fathers. Not only shouldn’t you bring your children as קרבנות, also your parents. ר' עקיבא once saw a גוי sacrificing his father to ע''ז.
1. Don’t be like the גויים who bring קרבנות wherever they want. You must bring קרבנות in the בהמ''ק.
2. Don’t do to the מזבחות of ה' what they do to the מזבחות ע''ז. But why would ב''י break the מזבח? It means don’t cause it to be broken by doing bad.
רמ''א You can’t break something in a shul.
ב.ה. כח שמר- learn because "אין בור ירא חטא ולא עם הארץ חסיד".
רש''י שמר- זו משנה.
את כל הדברים- every מצוה, whether it’s easy or hard, it should be important to you.
הטוב והישר- הטוב- do what is good in ה'’s eyes, והישר- do what’s good in other people’s eyes. Don’t be עובר on מראת עין.
ב.ה. The next topic discussed is going out to war against the כנענים. It’s connected because only צדיקים can go out to war.
רש''י לא גם here comes to include mothers and fathers. Not only shouldn’t you bring your children as קרבנות, also your parents. ר' עקיבא once saw a גוי sacrificing his father to ע''ז.
בקיאות- פרק טו
א-ב In the year of שמיטה, there was also שמיטת כספים- if someone owed money that he borrowed, once שמיטה comes he doesn’t have to pay it back. But then there was ירידת הדורות and people were no longer so trustworthy, so no one wanted to lend money anymore. So הלל made a פרוזבל- a document that authorized ב''ד to collect the money from the borrower.
רש''י ח אשר יחסר לו- you don’t have to make him rich, but you have to give him what he used to have.
רש''י ח אשר יחסר לו- you don’t have to make him rich, but you have to give him what he used to have.
בקיאות- פרק יד
א When someone dies, don’t self inflict or pull out hair.
א''ע בנים- after you know that you are ה'’s children and He loves you more than a father no matter what happens, don’t self inflict. Whatever a father does, he does for the good. Even if his children don’t understand, they know it’s from their father who loves them.
אוה''ח בנים אתם- when a person dies, it’s not a loss to the person who died. Know that your child is now in a better place. Your child went back to his father.
רמב''ן בנים אתם לה'- why do we cry? When a loved one is separated, טבע makes them cry, even if they are still alive.
ג You can’t eat מאכלים אסורים because it does something bad to your body and ruins your נפש.
ז A kosher animal needs to both chew its cud and have split hooves.
ט Fish need fins and scales.
יא We know which birds are kosher through מסורה.
ד.ז. יב נשר- a נשר is not an eagle, rather a it’s a gryphon vulture.
רש''י יג הראה ואת האי'- it’s all the same. It’s called ראה because it sees a lot. It’s called by all three names to teach us that no matter what it’s called, you still can’t eat it.
רש''י יג לגר אשר בשעריך- it’s talking about a גר תושב- he doesn’t serve ע''ז, so he can still live in ארץ כנען.
תרומה גדולה given to the כהן was a minimum "1" ⁄"60" of produce.
מעשר ראשון is "1" ⁄"10" . It was given to the לוי in years one through six.
מעשר שני is given in years one, two, four and five. It is given to the בעל. He must take it up to ירושלים and eat it there. If he doesn’t want to eat it there, he could sell it, go up to ירושלים and use the money plus "1" ⁄"5" to buy food in ירושלים.
מעשר עני is given in years three and six. It is "1" ⁄"10" .
רשב''ם כג "כי מציון תצא תורה..."- when you go to ירושלים to eat מעשר שני, you gain יראת ה' from everything you see going on in the בהמ''ק.
ר' יונה מעשר שני encouraged people to sent their sons to learn in א''י because they knew that they would have the money or produce of מעשר שני to live off of.
א''ע בנים- after you know that you are ה'’s children and He loves you more than a father no matter what happens, don’t self inflict. Whatever a father does, he does for the good. Even if his children don’t understand, they know it’s from their father who loves them.
אוה''ח בנים אתם- when a person dies, it’s not a loss to the person who died. Know that your child is now in a better place. Your child went back to his father.
רמב''ן בנים אתם לה'- why do we cry? When a loved one is separated, טבע makes them cry, even if they are still alive.
ג You can’t eat מאכלים אסורים because it does something bad to your body and ruins your נפש.
ז A kosher animal needs to both chew its cud and have split hooves.
ט Fish need fins and scales.
יא We know which birds are kosher through מסורה.
ד.ז. יב נשר- a נשר is not an eagle, rather a it’s a gryphon vulture.
רש''י יג הראה ואת האי'- it’s all the same. It’s called ראה because it sees a lot. It’s called by all three names to teach us that no matter what it’s called, you still can’t eat it.
רש''י יג לגר אשר בשעריך- it’s talking about a גר תושב- he doesn’t serve ע''ז, so he can still live in ארץ כנען.
תרומה גדולה given to the כהן was a minimum "1" ⁄"60" of produce.
מעשר ראשון is "1" ⁄"10" . It was given to the לוי in years one through six.
מעשר שני is given in years one, two, four and five. It is given to the בעל. He must take it up to ירושלים and eat it there. If he doesn’t want to eat it there, he could sell it, go up to ירושלים and use the money plus "1" ⁄"5" to buy food in ירושלים.
מעשר עני is given in years three and six. It is "1" ⁄"10" .
רשב''ם כג "כי מציון תצא תורה..."- when you go to ירושלים to eat מעשר שני, you gain יראת ה' from everything you see going on in the בהמ''ק.
ר' יונה מעשר שני encouraged people to sent their sons to learn in א''י because they knew that they would have the money or produce of מעשר שני to live off of.
בקיאות- פרק טז
רש''י א You must bring the קרבן עומר in the spring. If it’s not spring, you must add on אדר ב.
ח In ספירה, there is a מצוה to count the days and the weeks.
יא ושמחת- what does it mean to be happy? To make others happy. The opposite of this is הוללות.
רש''י לוי... אלמנה- I have four כנגד your four. If you make my four happy, I’ll make yours happy.
רש''י יב וזכרתי כי עבד היית- you were free so that you should go and do these מצוות.
ספורנו וזכרתי כי עבד היית- remember where you are coming from. In מצרים you had nothing so you should give to those with nothing.
רש''י יג באספך- סוכות comes out at the time of fall at the point when you are bringing the fruit of the summer into your house. We also learn out from here that you must cover your סוכה with something that grows from the ground.
רש''י טו והיית אך שמח- it’s not a צווי, but a ל' הבטחה. אך שמח is telling us that שמיני עצרת by night, you have an ענין to be happy.
וולנא גאון The only thing you have for שמיני עצרת is to be happy.
רש''י יח שופטים ושוטרים- שופטים decide and tell us what the דין is and שוטרים enforce it.
רש''י יט ולא תקח שוחד- even to judge correctly.
חזון איש He can’t take even if both sides give, because it’s being עובר on an אסור.
רש''י כי השוחד יעבר- because it’s important that it won’t tip the judgment in his favor.
רש''י כב ולא תקים לך מצבה¬- a מזבח of one stone, even if you are bringing קרבנות to ה'.
אשר שנא- used to be allowed to, but when people started bringing קרבנות on it, ה' hated it because the כנענים use it bring קרבנות to ע''ז.
כ ספורנו צדק צדק תרדף- You must appoint the judge who will be best for the position, don’t look at his outside appearance and his height.
כא ספורנו לא תטע לך אשרה- three things that seem beautiful, but don’t do it because it’s נמאס with רוחניות.
1. אשרה- supposed to make things beautiful, but it’s used for ע''ז. So too, the שופט could look beautiful but if inside he isn’t good, you shouldn’t pick him.
2. מצבה- at one point it was good, but at one point it wasn’t. The שופט always has to have been good.
3. קרבן- it could be beautiful and expensive, but if it has a tiny מום even that the naked eye can’t see, you can’t use it. But an animal that’s worthless but doesn’t have a מום, it can be used. You can’t choose a שופט based on if he’s rich or not.
ח In ספירה, there is a מצוה to count the days and the weeks.
יא ושמחת- what does it mean to be happy? To make others happy. The opposite of this is הוללות.
רש''י לוי... אלמנה- I have four כנגד your four. If you make my four happy, I’ll make yours happy.
רש''י יב וזכרתי כי עבד היית- you were free so that you should go and do these מצוות.
ספורנו וזכרתי כי עבד היית- remember where you are coming from. In מצרים you had nothing so you should give to those with nothing.
רש''י יג באספך- סוכות comes out at the time of fall at the point when you are bringing the fruit of the summer into your house. We also learn out from here that you must cover your סוכה with something that grows from the ground.
רש''י טו והיית אך שמח- it’s not a צווי, but a ל' הבטחה. אך שמח is telling us that שמיני עצרת by night, you have an ענין to be happy.
וולנא גאון The only thing you have for שמיני עצרת is to be happy.
רש''י יח שופטים ושוטרים- שופטים decide and tell us what the דין is and שוטרים enforce it.
רש''י יט ולא תקח שוחד- even to judge correctly.
חזון איש He can’t take even if both sides give, because it’s being עובר on an אסור.
רש''י כי השוחד יעבר- because it’s important that it won’t tip the judgment in his favor.
רש''י כב ולא תקים לך מצבה¬- a מזבח of one stone, even if you are bringing קרבנות to ה'.
אשר שנא- used to be allowed to, but when people started bringing קרבנות on it, ה' hated it because the כנענים use it bring קרבנות to ע''ז.
כ ספורנו צדק צדק תרדף- You must appoint the judge who will be best for the position, don’t look at his outside appearance and his height.
כא ספורנו לא תטע לך אשרה- three things that seem beautiful, but don’t do it because it’s נמאס with רוחניות.
1. אשרה- supposed to make things beautiful, but it’s used for ע''ז. So too, the שופט could look beautiful but if inside he isn’t good, you shouldn’t pick him.
2. מצבה- at one point it was good, but at one point it wasn’t. The שופט always has to have been good.
3. קרבן- it could be beautiful and expensive, but if it has a tiny מום even that the naked eye can’t see, you can’t use it. But an animal that’s worthless but doesn’t have a מום, it can be used. You can’t choose a שופט based on if he’s rich or not.
בקיאות- פרק יז
ב. ה. ו יומת המת- רשעים who are alive are called מתים.
אוה''ח יומת המת¬- if there were no עדים and התרעה, ה' will take care of him. If there were עדים, we take care of him down here.
ח יפלא= מכוסה
רש''י דברי רבות- some of the חכמים say one thing and some say another thing.
וקמת ועלית- the בהמ''ק was higher than all other places. The סנהדרין sat in לשקת הגזיז and this was the highest place in ירושלים.
רש''י ט ואל השופט...- you may say that the שופטים from before were greater, but you must listen to the שופטים you have now- "יפתח בדורו כשמואל בדורו".
רמב''ם Later on, it says that if the נביא adds on מצוות, you can’t listen to him. But what about the מצוות דרבנן? You must do all the new מצוות and watch them like it says, "לא תסיר מן הדבר", they aren’t an addendum to the מצוות of the תורה. So why does it say "לא תוספו ולא תגרעו" and that a נביא can’t come be מחדש and say that ה' commanded him on this? It isn’t permissible to add or take away from the 613 מצוות. But if there is a ב''ד and נביא together, and because of something that happened they want to add a תקנה, they can do this. ב''ד established the מצוה to read the מגילה in its proper time in order to mention the שבח and תשועות of ה'. The גמרא tells us that the reason we say "אשר קדישנו..." by מגילה is because we were commanded to listen to ב''ד.
יב זקן ממרא- a ת''ח who פסקיןs different than what ב''ד says for other people.
רמב''ן יא The מצוה that you must listen to ב''ד is very great. The תורה was given בכתב and different things come up and not everyone is going to think the same thing, many people are going to have different ideas. Therefore, the תורה carved out for us the דין- we must listen to the סנהדרין.
רש''י יג וכל העם ישמעו- you want everyone to see what happens to a זקן ממרא, therefore you wait until the שלש רגלים to kill him.
טו The king must be a Jew.
רש''י יח את משנה התורה- the king had two ספרי תורה- one in his treasure house and one which he took with him wherever he went.
רמב''ן כ לבלתי רום לבבו מאחיו- you aren’t allowed to be a בעל גאוה. The פסוק doesn’t want the king to be a בעל גאוה, קו''ח the people. At least the king has a reason to stand up tall. But גאוה is a despicable מידה, even for a king. Only ה' has גאוה. A person can’t have גאוה besides for "אם זאת יתהלל... השכל וידוע אותי".
אוה''ח לבלתי רום לבבו- through reading the תורה:
1. He won’t be a בעל גאוה.
2. יראת הקב''ה
אוה''ח יומת המת¬- if there were no עדים and התרעה, ה' will take care of him. If there were עדים, we take care of him down here.
ח יפלא= מכוסה
רש''י דברי רבות- some of the חכמים say one thing and some say another thing.
וקמת ועלית- the בהמ''ק was higher than all other places. The סנהדרין sat in לשקת הגזיז and this was the highest place in ירושלים.
רש''י ט ואל השופט...- you may say that the שופטים from before were greater, but you must listen to the שופטים you have now- "יפתח בדורו כשמואל בדורו".
רמב''ם Later on, it says that if the נביא adds on מצוות, you can’t listen to him. But what about the מצוות דרבנן? You must do all the new מצוות and watch them like it says, "לא תסיר מן הדבר", they aren’t an addendum to the מצוות of the תורה. So why does it say "לא תוספו ולא תגרעו" and that a נביא can’t come be מחדש and say that ה' commanded him on this? It isn’t permissible to add or take away from the 613 מצוות. But if there is a ב''ד and נביא together, and because of something that happened they want to add a תקנה, they can do this. ב''ד established the מצוה to read the מגילה in its proper time in order to mention the שבח and תשועות of ה'. The גמרא tells us that the reason we say "אשר קדישנו..." by מגילה is because we were commanded to listen to ב''ד.
יב זקן ממרא- a ת''ח who פסקיןs different than what ב''ד says for other people.
רמב''ן יא The מצוה that you must listen to ב''ד is very great. The תורה was given בכתב and different things come up and not everyone is going to think the same thing, many people are going to have different ideas. Therefore, the תורה carved out for us the דין- we must listen to the סנהדרין.
רש''י יג וכל העם ישמעו- you want everyone to see what happens to a זקן ממרא, therefore you wait until the שלש רגלים to kill him.
טו The king must be a Jew.
רש''י יח את משנה התורה- the king had two ספרי תורה- one in his treasure house and one which he took with him wherever he went.
רמב''ן כ לבלתי רום לבבו מאחיו- you aren’t allowed to be a בעל גאוה. The פסוק doesn’t want the king to be a בעל גאוה, קו''ח the people. At least the king has a reason to stand up tall. But גאוה is a despicable מידה, even for a king. Only ה' has גאוה. A person can’t have גאוה besides for "אם זאת יתהלל... השכל וידוע אותי".
אוה''ח לבלתי רום לבבו- through reading the תורה:
1. He won’t be a בעל גאוה.
2. יראת הקב''ה
בקיאות- פרק כה
רש''י א והרשיע את הרשע- I might think that whoever is guilty gets מלקות. But this doesn’t always happen, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. What kind of a person gets מלקות? Someone who is עובר on a לא תעשה where there is no עשה to correct it.
ג The most a person will get is thirty- nine.
רש''י ונקלה אחיך- the whole time he is a רשע. But when he gets punished, he is your brother.
ספורנו יא The wife embarrasses her husband’s brother if he doesn’t want to do יבום with her because he doesn’t care about his brother. However, she has no רשות to be מבזה a man who is fighting with her husband.
ג The most a person will get is thirty- nine.
רש''י ונקלה אחיך- the whole time he is a רשע. But when he gets punished, he is your brother.
ספורנו יא The wife embarrasses her husband’s brother if he doesn’t want to do יבום with her because he doesn’t care about his brother. However, she has no רשות to be מבזה a man who is fighting with her husband.
בקיאות- פרק כד
רש''י ט זכור את...- this is one of the שש זכירות. It is telling us not to get צרעת- don’t speak ל''ה. Remember what happened to מרים when she spoke about her brother.
רש''י יח וזכרת- even if it costs you money. This is why I redeemed you from מצרים, you must do it.
רש''י יט למען יברכך- even though you gave צדקה without כונה, קו''ח to someone who did it with כונה, ה' will bentch you. If you lose money and an עני finds it and is מפרנס from it, you get ברכה for it.
רש''י יח וזכרת- even if it costs you money. This is why I redeemed you from מצרים, you must do it.
רש''י יט למען יברכך- even though you gave צדקה without כונה, קו''ח to someone who did it with כונה, ה' will bentch you. If you lose money and an עני finds it and is מפרנס from it, you get ברכה for it.
בקיאות- פרק כג
ד עמוני ולא עמונית מואבי ולא מואבית
רש''י ח לא תתעב אדומי- don’t totally hate an אדומי.
לא תתעב מצרי- don’t totally hate a מצרי, because even though they threw your males into the water, when you needed somewhere to go, they accepted you.
רש''י ט בנים אשר יולדו- it is worse to be מחטיא someone than to kill him because killing is just taking away his עוה''ז, but making someone do a חטא causes him to lose his עוה''ז and עוה''ב. מצרים and אדום just killed you, but מואב tried to be מחטיא you, so you can’t intermarry.
ר' הירש י When you go out of your מחנה, be on guard.
יח קדשה= זונה
כלי יקר יט It specifically mentions not to bring dogs because they are עזי נפש.
רש''י כה כי תבא בכרם רעך¬- talking about a worker. He can eat on the job, but he can’t take anything home.
רש''י ח לא תתעב אדומי- don’t totally hate an אדומי.
לא תתעב מצרי- don’t totally hate a מצרי, because even though they threw your males into the water, when you needed somewhere to go, they accepted you.
רש''י ט בנים אשר יולדו- it is worse to be מחטיא someone than to kill him because killing is just taking away his עוה''ז, but making someone do a חטא causes him to lose his עוה''ז and עוה''ב. מצרים and אדום just killed you, but מואב tried to be מחטיא you, so you can’t intermarry.
ר' הירש י When you go out of your מחנה, be on guard.
יח קדשה= זונה
כלי יקר יט It specifically mentions not to bring dogs because they are עזי נפש.
רש''י כה כי תבא בכרם רעך¬- talking about a worker. He can eat on the job, but he can’t take anything home.
בקיאות- פרק כב
רש''י ד הקם תקים- this is טעינה- load up.
עמו- he must do it with you.
ו The main לאו is not to take away the mother- send her.
רש''י ז למען ייטב לך- if for a seemingly small מצוה which doesn’t cost you anything you get אריכות ימים, קו''ח for a harder מצוה.
רש''י ח כי תבנה בית חדש- if you do the מצוה of שלוח הקן, at the end you will build a new house and do מצות מעקה because מצוה גוררת מצוה.
ב. ה. י They can’t plow together because they are טמא and טהור- רמז that you shouldn’t have a צדיק and רשע together.
דעת זקנים שור and חמור can’t plow together because the שור is מעלה גרה and the חמור isn’t- this isn’t a good feeling for the חמור. He has צער when he hears the שור eating.
ד. ז. יא Two טעמים:
1. פרוכת was made from linen and wool. ה' doesn’t want us to make a פרוכת.
2. קין brought flax= linen and הבל brought a קרבן from the oldest sheep= wool. ה' doesn’t want to be מתערב the קרבן of a צדיק and רשע.
יב גדילים= ציצית
רש''י סמיכות between שעטנז and ציצית: ציצית are made of linen, can you hang down תכלת (wool)? Yes.
רש''י יד ושם לה עלילות- was עובר on "לא תשנא", at the end will come to do ל''ה.
ואת האשה הזאת- accusation has to be in front of the woman.
רש''י יח ויסרו אתו- give מלקות.
He must also pay her father money and can never divorce her.
רש''י כא אל פתח בית אבי'- look at what you raised!
רש''י כג ומצאה איש בעיר- happened because she went out into the city. Had she sat in her house, this wouldn’t have happened.
עמו- he must do it with you.
ו The main לאו is not to take away the mother- send her.
רש''י ז למען ייטב לך- if for a seemingly small מצוה which doesn’t cost you anything you get אריכות ימים, קו''ח for a harder מצוה.
רש''י ח כי תבנה בית חדש- if you do the מצוה of שלוח הקן, at the end you will build a new house and do מצות מעקה because מצוה גוררת מצוה.
ב. ה. י They can’t plow together because they are טמא and טהור- רמז that you shouldn’t have a צדיק and רשע together.
דעת זקנים שור and חמור can’t plow together because the שור is מעלה גרה and the חמור isn’t- this isn’t a good feeling for the חמור. He has צער when he hears the שור eating.
ד. ז. יא Two טעמים:
1. פרוכת was made from linen and wool. ה' doesn’t want us to make a פרוכת.
2. קין brought flax= linen and הבל brought a קרבן from the oldest sheep= wool. ה' doesn’t want to be מתערב the קרבן of a צדיק and רשע.
יב גדילים= ציצית
רש''י סמיכות between שעטנז and ציצית: ציצית are made of linen, can you hang down תכלת (wool)? Yes.
רש''י יד ושם לה עלילות- was עובר on "לא תשנא", at the end will come to do ל''ה.
ואת האשה הזאת- accusation has to be in front of the woman.
רש''י יח ויסרו אתו- give מלקות.
He must also pay her father money and can never divorce her.
רש''י כא אל פתח בית אבי'- look at what you raised!
רש''י כג ומצאה איש בעיר- happened because she went out into the city. Had she sat in her house, this wouldn’t have happened.
בקיאות- פרק כא
א If you find a dead body between two cities: measure to see which city is closer. Even if you know which city is closer, you must still measure because it’s a מצוה.
ר' הירש עגלה ערופה fits into this פרשה because if you find a body that wasn’t buried, it shows that the murderer didn’t really care to bury the person. There is a killer on the loose- he doesn’t care if ב''ד finds him out, otherwise he would bury the person. So it’s ב''ד’s fault that people aren’t scared of them. The ב''ד of ירושלים comes down to measure and see which ב''ד people aren’t scared of.
רש''י ז ידינו לא שפכה- would you think that ב''ד are killers? The problem is that they didn’t accompany him. They allowed him to go without מזונות and therefore the murderer killed him.
רמב''ן ה ה' commanded them that the closest city has to do עגלה ערופה because had they not done a similar kind of עבירה, ה' wouldn’t have allowed for this to happen. But the רמב''ם says that the reason you make a big deal is to that people will be busy with it and they’ll find the murderer. Very often, the killer will be found around the city. People will be talking and maybe even a שפכה will come and say that she knows who the murderer is. You don’t do the עגלה ערופה until you know who the killer is. The place where they kill the עגלה ערופה can’t be tilled again and people will talk about it. The רמב''ן says that every time a קרבן is brought outside, it’s a חוק. עגלה ערופה is a קרבן.
רש''י יא ולקחת לך אשה- if ה' didn’t give a way to do it properly, people would do it באיסור. But if he goes and marries her, he’ll end up hating her and they’ll have a בן סורר ומורה.
You can learn so much from a בן סורר ומורה- בקולנו- the parents have to have one voice.
גמרא איננו שמע בקולנו- they must have the same voice. The mother must have a man’s voice. A woman who has a man’s voice can’t get married.
ספורנו יח סורר ומורה- fact that he’s rebellious and doesn’t listen means that there is no way he is going to get back on track.
רש''י סורר- he went off the way.
ומורה- he is rebellious.
ויסרו אתו¬- he’s not חייב until he steals, eats a certain amount of meat and drinks a certain amount of wine. He’s called on his end. The reason why he dies is because he has a bad habit and he is stealing to support it.
א''ע כ וסבא- drinks a lot and is drunk. This is like an אפיקורס- believes עוה''ז is to be enjoyed.
רש''י כב וכי יהי' באיש...- סמיכות הפרשיות: if parents have misplaced רחמנות on him, at the end he is going to do some really bad things and he’ll get מיתה from ב''ד.
ותלית אותו על עץ- "כל הנסקלין נתלין"- whoever is stoned gets hanged.
רש''י כג כי קללת אלוקים תלוי- you don’t leave him hanging. A person is made of דמות אלקים and we’re ה'’s children. To leave a person hanging is a זלזול לה'.
ר' הירש עגלה ערופה fits into this פרשה because if you find a body that wasn’t buried, it shows that the murderer didn’t really care to bury the person. There is a killer on the loose- he doesn’t care if ב''ד finds him out, otherwise he would bury the person. So it’s ב''ד’s fault that people aren’t scared of them. The ב''ד of ירושלים comes down to measure and see which ב''ד people aren’t scared of.
רש''י ז ידינו לא שפכה- would you think that ב''ד are killers? The problem is that they didn’t accompany him. They allowed him to go without מזונות and therefore the murderer killed him.
רמב''ן ה ה' commanded them that the closest city has to do עגלה ערופה because had they not done a similar kind of עבירה, ה' wouldn’t have allowed for this to happen. But the רמב''ם says that the reason you make a big deal is to that people will be busy with it and they’ll find the murderer. Very often, the killer will be found around the city. People will be talking and maybe even a שפכה will come and say that she knows who the murderer is. You don’t do the עגלה ערופה until you know who the killer is. The place where they kill the עגלה ערופה can’t be tilled again and people will talk about it. The רמב''ן says that every time a קרבן is brought outside, it’s a חוק. עגלה ערופה is a קרבן.
רש''י יא ולקחת לך אשה- if ה' didn’t give a way to do it properly, people would do it באיסור. But if he goes and marries her, he’ll end up hating her and they’ll have a בן סורר ומורה.
You can learn so much from a בן סורר ומורה- בקולנו- the parents have to have one voice.
גמרא איננו שמע בקולנו- they must have the same voice. The mother must have a man’s voice. A woman who has a man’s voice can’t get married.
ספורנו יח סורר ומורה- fact that he’s rebellious and doesn’t listen means that there is no way he is going to get back on track.
רש''י סורר- he went off the way.
ומורה- he is rebellious.
ויסרו אתו¬- he’s not חייב until he steals, eats a certain amount of meat and drinks a certain amount of wine. He’s called on his end. The reason why he dies is because he has a bad habit and he is stealing to support it.
א''ע כ וסבא- drinks a lot and is drunk. This is like an אפיקורס- believes עוה''ז is to be enjoyed.
רש''י כב וכי יהי' באיש...- סמיכות הפרשיות: if parents have misplaced רחמנות on him, at the end he is going to do some really bad things and he’ll get מיתה from ב''ד.
ותלית אותו על עץ- "כל הנסקלין נתלין"- whoever is stoned gets hanged.
רש''י כג כי קללת אלוקים תלוי- you don’t leave him hanging. A person is made of דמות אלקים and we’re ה'’s children. To leave a person hanging is a זלזול לה'.
בקיאות- פרק כ
אוה''ח א כי תצא למלחמה- talking about the biggest war, מלחמת היצר. You are going out to fight, but you don’t have to be afraid because ה' is going out to fight with you. Proof: "המעלך מארץ מצרים"- He took you out from the מ''ט שערי טומאה. Don’t be afraid. It is true that by yourself you wouldn’t be able to fight, but ה' is helping you.
רש''י ג שמע ישראל- if the only זכות you have is that you say שמע, you are worthy of being saved.
רמב''ן ד-ה Your attitude shouldn’t be “I’m strong!”. It should be that you are going out to fight with ה'. You should have בטחון that He is going to save you. ה' is going to make that they are all going to die in order to save you. There won’t be one casualty among כ''י. By מלחמת עי, they knew there was something wrong because people died.
רש''י ח ההירא ורך הלבב- ר' עקיבא- they’re not able to stand by the war and see a sword. ר' יוסי- someone who is afraid of the עבירות he has on his hands.
רמב''ן ח Someone who’s afraid after the כהן’s הבטחה, he’s lacking בטחון and isn’t ראוי that a נס should happen to him. רך לבב- faint of heart.
אוה''ח מי האיש הירא- someone who doesn’t think that he has עבירות, but is still afraid, his פחד tells him that he has an עבירה.
רש''י יח למען אשר לא ילמדו- if they do תשובה, you can accept them.
ספורנו יט You may want to hurt the other side as bad as possible, but you have הבטחה, you are going win, so don’t do it.
רש''י ג שמע ישראל- if the only זכות you have is that you say שמע, you are worthy of being saved.
רמב''ן ד-ה Your attitude shouldn’t be “I’m strong!”. It should be that you are going out to fight with ה'. You should have בטחון that He is going to save you. ה' is going to make that they are all going to die in order to save you. There won’t be one casualty among כ''י. By מלחמת עי, they knew there was something wrong because people died.
רש''י ח ההירא ורך הלבב- ר' עקיבא- they’re not able to stand by the war and see a sword. ר' יוסי- someone who is afraid of the עבירות he has on his hands.
רמב''ן ח Someone who’s afraid after the כהן’s הבטחה, he’s lacking בטחון and isn’t ראוי that a נס should happen to him. רך לבב- faint of heart.
אוה''ח מי האיש הירא- someone who doesn’t think that he has עבירות, but is still afraid, his פחד tells him that he has an עבירה.
רש''י יח למען אשר לא ילמדו- if they do תשובה, you can accept them.
ספורנו יט You may want to hurt the other side as bad as possible, but you have הבטחה, you are going win, so don’t do it.
בקיאות- פרק יט
רש''י ג תכין לך הדרך- all over there were street signs "מקלט מקלט" so you won’t have to ask. Also, the roads had to be double the size of a regular highway so that it would be easy to go.
In the time of משיח, there are going to be three more מקלטים because the borders will be bigger.
רש''י יא וכי יהי' איש שנא לרעהו- comes to kill him because he hates him. Since he was עובר on "לא תשנא", he ends up being עובר on שפיכת דמים.
רש''י יג לא תחוס עיניך עליו- don’t go and say, “Why should two people die?”. You must give him over.
ספורנו וטוב לך- how?
1. He won’t go kill others.
2. Will sway other people from doing it.
יד In חו''ל, moving the property line is גזלה. In א''י, it’s also הסגת גבול.
טו עדים זוממים get punished with the punishment they wanted on the other person, but only before it was actually carried out.
רש''י יט כאשר זמם- only before it was carried out.
In the time of משיח, there are going to be three more מקלטים because the borders will be bigger.
רש''י יא וכי יהי' איש שנא לרעהו- comes to kill him because he hates him. Since he was עובר on "לא תשנא", he ends up being עובר on שפיכת דמים.
רש''י יג לא תחוס עיניך עליו- don’t go and say, “Why should two people die?”. You must give him over.
ספורנו וטוב לך- how?
1. He won’t go kill others.
2. Will sway other people from doing it.
יד In חו''ל, moving the property line is גזלה. In א''י, it’s also הסגת גבול.
טו עדים זוממים get punished with the punishment they wanted on the other person, but only before it was actually carried out.
רש''י יט כאשר זמם- only before it was carried out.
בקיאות- פרק יח
א In addition to the כהן and לוי not getting a נחלה is someone who wants to donate himself to ה'.
The following three parts of a קרבן go to the כהן:
1. זרוע
2. לחיים- tongue
3. קבע- intestines
כלי יקר ג Why?
1. זרוע- שכר for ברכת כהנים.
2. לחיים- שכר for ברכת כהנים בפה.
3. קבע- in the זכות of the כהנים, ה' sends a ברכה that a person eats little and gets full.
רש''י ו ובא בכל אות...- there were twenty- four משמרות. Each משמר was two weeks. The shifts went by ירושה. Also, during the שלש רגלים, all of the כהנים came up and did work. This teaches about a כהן here that if he brings a קרבן, even not in his shift, he could do it himself.
רש''י ח חלק כחלק יאכלו- when the כהן did עבודה, he got food to take home, but only if it was his shift. By the רגל, they divided everything up. Normally, the כהן of that shift got the stuff.
ט You could learn about it, but not in order to do it.
רש''י יב כל עשה אלה- it doesn’t say עשה כל אלה, it says כל עשה אלה- you can’t do any of the sorcery the גויים do.
רש''י יג תמים תהי' אם האלקיך- go afterה' , בתמימות. Don’t ask after the future, but whatever ה' tells you, accept. You know that you are ה'’s nation.
רמב''ן תמים תהי' אם האלקיך- you should be totally connected to ה'. Believe that He knows everything and knows what is going to happen in the future. Don’t ask from stargazers or believe what they say. Believe that everything is from ה'. Believe that everything is dependent on your עבודה. Don’t be afraid of what people tell you is going to happen in the future. You must שלם in your יראת ה'.
ספורנו טו אליו תשמעון- if he changes it for a short amount of time.
רמב''ם If based on what’s happening ב''ד and the נביא decide to change, it’s ok.
רשב''ם כב ולא יהי' הדבר ולא יבא- only a נבואה טובה. But if a נבואה רעה didn’t happen, you don’t put him to death because it could’ve been that you did תשובה.
רש''י אשר ידבר הנביא- if you have a person who’s proven to be a נביא and is a צדיק גמור (for example אליעזר בהר הכרמל), then you should listen to him if he is changing a מצוה for a short amount of time.
The following three parts of a קרבן go to the כהן:
1. זרוע
2. לחיים- tongue
3. קבע- intestines
כלי יקר ג Why?
1. זרוע- שכר for ברכת כהנים.
2. לחיים- שכר for ברכת כהנים בפה.
3. קבע- in the זכות of the כהנים, ה' sends a ברכה that a person eats little and gets full.
רש''י ו ובא בכל אות...- there were twenty- four משמרות. Each משמר was two weeks. The shifts went by ירושה. Also, during the שלש רגלים, all of the כהנים came up and did work. This teaches about a כהן here that if he brings a קרבן, even not in his shift, he could do it himself.
רש''י ח חלק כחלק יאכלו- when the כהן did עבודה, he got food to take home, but only if it was his shift. By the רגל, they divided everything up. Normally, the כהן of that shift got the stuff.
ט You could learn about it, but not in order to do it.
רש''י יב כל עשה אלה- it doesn’t say עשה כל אלה, it says כל עשה אלה- you can’t do any of the sorcery the גויים do.
רש''י יג תמים תהי' אם האלקיך- go afterה' , בתמימות. Don’t ask after the future, but whatever ה' tells you, accept. You know that you are ה'’s nation.
רמב''ן תמים תהי' אם האלקיך- you should be totally connected to ה'. Believe that He knows everything and knows what is going to happen in the future. Don’t ask from stargazers or believe what they say. Believe that everything is from ה'. Believe that everything is dependent on your עבודה. Don’t be afraid of what people tell you is going to happen in the future. You must שלם in your יראת ה'.
ספורנו טו אליו תשמעון- if he changes it for a short amount of time.
רמב''ם If based on what’s happening ב''ד and the נביא decide to change, it’s ok.
רשב''ם כב ולא יהי' הדבר ולא יבא- only a נבואה טובה. But if a נבואה רעה didn’t happen, you don’t put him to death because it could’ve been that you did תשובה.
רש''י אשר ידבר הנביא- if you have a person who’s proven to be a נביא and is a צדיק גמור (for example אליעזר בהר הכרמל), then you should listen to him if he is changing a מצוה for a short amount of time.
Monday, May 30, 2011
פרקי אבות- משנה טז
This world is compared to a foyer. Prepare yourself in this chamber so that you can enter the palace.
רע''ב Prepare in this world so you will be זוכה to עוה''ב.
מ. י. "היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם"
עוה''ב עוה''ז
שבת ערב שבת
ים יבשה
Story- ר' יעקב גלינסקי came to Novardik. He went to the shul, and he heard a man saying, "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- eat and drink now because we’re all going to have to depart.
רע''ב Prepare in this world so you will be זוכה to עוה''ב.
מ. י. "היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם"
עוה''ב עוה''ז
שבת ערב שבת
ים יבשה
Story- ר' יעקב גלינסקי came to Novardik. He went to the shul, and he heard a man saying, "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- eat and drink now because we’re all going to have to depart.
פרקי אבות- משנה טו
רע''ב אין בידינו- we don’t know why ה' makes a רשע prosper and the good person suffer.
We don’t see in גלות an exacting רשע who has tranquility and צדיקים with crippling יסורים. They have יסורים של אהבה- these don’t cause ביטול תורה. It says, "יצאינו... הגענו"- in גלות there are no real רשעים , but we haven’t reached the level of צדיקים.
כל- even to the גוי in the marketplace. But not like שלומית בת דברי- she was a פתפתה and her son was a מקלל. Story- nun at ר' יעקב’s לוי'.
It is better to be a tail to lions rather than a leader to foxes.
רע''ב אריות- people who are a lion in רוחניות.
שועלים- someone who is a קטן in רוחניות.
ת''י When it comes to כבוד, respect every yid. But when it comes to who you are friends with, it’s better to be מתחבר with חשוב people and be lower than them because the honor of lowly people is good, but the honor of low people amongst honorable people, that is considered כבוד .
We don’t see in גלות an exacting רשע who has tranquility and צדיקים with crippling יסורים. They have יסורים של אהבה- these don’t cause ביטול תורה. It says, "יצאינו... הגענו"- in גלות there are no real רשעים , but we haven’t reached the level of צדיקים.
כל- even to the גוי in the marketplace. But not like שלומית בת דברי- she was a פתפתה and her son was a מקלל. Story- nun at ר' יעקב’s לוי'.
It is better to be a tail to lions rather than a leader to foxes.
רע''ב אריות- people who are a lion in רוחניות.
שועלים- someone who is a קטן in רוחניות.
ת''י When it comes to כבוד, respect every yid. But when it comes to who you are friends with, it’s better to be מתחבר with חשוב people and be lower than them because the honor of lowly people is good, but the honor of low people amongst honorable people, that is considered כבוד .
פרקי אבות- משנה יג
ר' יהודה בר אלאי was one of the main תלמידים of ר' עקיבא. ר' יהודה praised the Romans, so they loved him and because of this he was able to accomplish good for כ''י. More than 600 הלכות are written in the משנה by ר' יהודה. He was the ראש המדברים in his תקופה.
The גמרא gives an accolade to the דור of ר' יהודה- "אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל". Why? Six men sat wrapped in one טלית and learn תורה. We see from here that they learnt מתוך הדחק. They were so poor, but they didn’t use it as an excuse. We can also learn out that they had אחדות נפלאה- they reached the דרגה of אחדות like there was by הר סיני.
"... כיסו, כוסו, כעסו"- this was said by ר' יהודה בר אלאי.
ר' יונה שכחה is something that is the territory of every human being. It is very important to review so that the למוד isn’t for nothing. Part of למוד is reviewing. You must review in order that you shouldn’t forget. People are forgetful. A person should never rely on the first take of an ענין because really, you didn’t go into it deeply. Really you could make a mistake, and you don’t have it in your heart. Then when you forget, it’ll be considered that he’s a פושע.
ר' משה He finished ש''ס 101 times. When he told his nephew, the nephew wanted to drink a לחיים with him. ר' משה said that he’s already drunk with happiness. He finished שלחן ערוך over 700 times!
ר' שמעון בר יוחאי was supposed to be killed, so he ran to a cave in Meiron with his son ר' אלעזר. Here, he was on such a high level and he wrote the זוהר. ה' made a נס for them and there was a spring and carob tree. They buried themselves in the sand up to their necks when they learnt so that their clothing could be saved for davening. After twelve years, a בת קול came out and told them to leave. But when they came out, they saw a man doing something wrong and they burnt him. ה' made them go back in for another year. When they came out, they saw a man carrying two הדסים- one for שמור and one for זכור. When they saw this, they said, "חזי כמה חביבין מצות על ישראל".
Story- a תלמיד of ר' שמעון became wealthy and the other תלמידים began to get jealous of him. So he took his תלמידים to a valley and said, "בקעה, בקעה מלאי דנרי זהב". The valley filled up with gold. ר' שמעון told his תלמידים that they could take as much as they want, but if they take they will lose their עוה''ב. No one took.
He used to say, "שלש מתנות טובות..." and all three are acquired through יסורים:
1. תורה- you must toil for תורה.
2. א''י
3. עוה''ב- מצות and נצחיות come with giving up.
ר' שמעון and ר' עקיבא had a tremendous bond. ר' שמעון attributed everything to his רבי.
אלשי''ך Don’t think that all these כתרים are equal. The first three in the משנה are in one category and כתר שם טוב is in a different category.
רע''ב שלש כתרים הם- the תורה requires us to give כבוד to those who fall into these three descriptions.
כתר תורה- "והדרת פני זקן"
כתר כהונה- "וקדשתו"
כתר מלכות- "שום תשים אליך מלך"- you should place his אימה on you.
רמב''ם יב When were these כתרים built into the structure of כ''י? The structure of כ''י was built around these three כתרים.
ר' יונה רבי שמעון אומר...- Who got these crowns?
1. כתר כהונה was given over to זרע אהרן- "וראה ושמח בלבו".
2. מלכות דוד is like the sun since they are both לנצח. In order to be king, you must be a descendant of דוד המלך.
3. תורה was given over לכל באי עולם. If you want to merit it, you can.
Which one of these is the most important from amongst the three and why? The greatest crown is כתר תורה. Proof: in the בהמ''ק, three of the כלים had crowns.
1. שלחן- מלכות, like the שלחן מלכים.
2. מזבח הזהב- כהונה
3. ארון- תורה
The first two are found in the קדש, but the ארון is found in the קדש הקדשים. This shows that תורה is the greatest of all three. Additionally, מלוכה ("בית דוד כה אמר ה'") and כהונה ("בית אהרן בית הלוי") both have specific בתים. But תורה, "התקן עצמיך ללמוד תורה שאין ירושה לך"- it’s not an inheritance. If you want it, you must go and get it.
אברבנל Why are the כתרים written in this order? תורה is mentioned first because it includes the מצוות באל''מ and באל''ח. כהונה is only קשור to מצוות באל''מ. מלכות is written last because it can’t be fulfilled until after כיבוש וחלוק- "כי תבאו אל הארץ וירשת וישבת... שום תשים אליך מלך".
ת. י. א- someone who has an overflowing amount of חכמת התורה, like a דיין or ראש סנהדרין.
Sheet III רמב''ם: one who’s heart has the שעיפה of being מקיים the מצוה ת''ת and wishes to be coroneted with the crown of תורה:
1. Don’t divert your mind to other things.
2. Don’t work to acquire equal measures of wealth, תורה and כבוד- it’s impossible!
3. Take it step by step- you can’t acquire תורה in one day.
When a person is מרבה לימוד תורה, he’s מרבה שכר. The שכר goes according to how much you were עמל.
If you want to have תורה and עושר in the same measure, you’ll never merit כתר תורה. Rather, "הוי ממעט בעסק ועסוק בתורה". Never say I’ll learn when I have the time, because you’ll only have time if you make time.
מדרש רבה: the crown of תורה is different than the other crowns-
1. When a person wears royal בגדים, it shows that he’s elevated from the common people.
2. Bearer of a crown symbolizes that he’s a leader amidst a following.
3. Bearer of a crown symbolizes that he’s linked to a royal dynasty.
כתר תורה though, is different:
1. It’s permitted for everyone to acquire it- whoever wants to can acquire it, they don’t have to be linked to a dynasty.
2. Someone with a כתר תורה doesn’t stand more elevated than others, he’s elevated from himself, from his נפש הבהמי- מאן מלכי? רבנו!.
3. Doesn’t have throngs of literal followers, they rule over themselves. The תורה rules on their thoughts, minds, kidneys, the moment… He’s a master of every second and day of his life. True royalty is that of תורה- "צדיקים לבם ברשותם".
According to הלכה, the כהן is ראש וראשן לכל דבר שבקדושה- "וקדשתו". Examples:
1. ברכת המזון
2. עלי' לתורה- in an אסיפה of צדיקים, the כהן still gets the first עלי'.
3. Can’t marry a גרושה.
The first time the תורה mentions כהונה- "ומלכי צדק מלך שלם הוציא להם לחם ויין והוא כהן לקל עליון". We learn from here that a כהן is a כהן לקל עליון- his whole essence is to be linked to ה', he is a שליח דרחמנא.
מדרש Three כהנים were discussing the size of their לחם הפנים. One said, my חלק was the size of פי שנים, the second said that his was the size of a כזית and the third said that his was the size of a lizard’s tail. A lizard is amongst the eight רמשים that make a person טמא if they touch it when it is dead. It was inappropriate of him to compare theהפנים לחם to this. When the חכמים heard his remark, they did research and found that he was born from a marriage אסור to a כהן and he was removed from his position. We can learn from this that you are what you say.
A כהן הדיוט has four בגדים and a כה''ג has eight. These בגדים are a reflection of the שלמות within the כהן.
כתר מלכות-
It says, "שום תשים...". רמב''ם-
1. There is a חיוב to have fear of the מלך.
2. You can’t sit on his horse.
3. You can’t sit on his throne.
4. You can’t use his scepter.
5. You can’t use any of his belongings.
6. "מלח שמחל על כבודו אין כבודו מוחל"
We make a ברכה on a king:
1. מלך ישראל- "אשר חלק מכבודו ליראיו"
2. Goyish king- "אשר נתן מכבודו לבו''ד"
ב''י asked for a king, and it was disgusting in the eyes of ה'. Why? Because they asked for it so that they could be like the גויים.
רמב''ם כתר תורה is more מעולה than the other כתרים. Why? Because כהונה and מלכות aren’t שלמים without the כתר תורה-
1. כהונה- "והוא מלך לקל עליון"- he becomes like this by learning.
2. מלכות- the king always carried around a ספר תורה.
מגן אבות The three כתרים are כנגד the three pillars of the world:
1. כהונה- עבודה
2. מלוכה-גמ''ח – since the מלך had a לב טוב and was rich and did good with his people.
3. תורה-תורה
And כתר שם טוב is עולה על גביהן.
How do you define כתר שם טוב? When do מעש''ט not necessarily result in a good reputation?
רע''ב וכתר שם טוב- definition: a person who does good things and he acquires a good reputation because of his מעשים. Why the need for the second half of the definition? To teach us that not everyone who does good acquires a good שם. What is it תלוי upon? Your frame of mind.
ספר החנוך "לא נתנה המצוות אלא לצרף בהם את הבריות"- they were given to us in order to cleanse us.
You should do מצוות for yourself, not for other people. מצוות are like putting us through a refinery- they turn us into sensitive people, turn us into נותנים instead of נוטלים. This will give you a שם טוב and success in life.
Sheet II It’s אסור to be משעבד an עבד עברי with unnecessary work, it’s a לאו. You can do it to an עבד כנעני according to דין, however it is the conduct of the pious that a person should be a רחמן and not give his עבד hard work. The חכמים הראשנים used to preface their food with food for their עבד and animals. You can’t abuse your עבד verbally of physically. Cruelty is found only by the גויים. We are the children of א''א, we have the תורה, therefore we are רחמנים. Although we are allowed we are allowed to be אכזרים to גויים, we shouldn’t be because then we might be cruel to a Jew. By the עיר הנדחת, ה' gave the killers and extra dose of רחמנות so that they wouldn’t become אכזרים. Some people are the same at sixteen and sixty because they don’t absorb their actions. You must refrain from being cruel to an עבד כנעני for yourself so that you shouldn’t absorb it and become an אכזר. You will only get a שם טוב if you absorb your good actions and do them for the right reasons.
Sheet IV A master was leading his שור to שחיטה and it was frightened. The שור came and nestled itself in רבי’s coattails. רבי said, ."קום כי לכך יצרת" Because of what he said, he suffered seven years of kidney stones and six years of thrush. One day, his maid swept up a weasel and he said to let it go out in the field, and right away his יסורים went away. For ourselves, we must be רחמנים.
Sheet III By the מצוה of שלוח הקן, the גמרא says, "האומר על קן צפור יגיע רחמיך משתקין אותו"- someone who says that the טעם מצוה is that you have mercy on the mother bird, make him be quiet. We do it לצד עצמינו, to teach us רחמים. By שחיטה you שחט from the front of the neck, not the back. The גמרא says, "וכי מה אכפט להקב''ה משוחט הצואר לשוחט העורף"- to teach us רחמנות. Even while doing an act of אכזריות, do it with רחמים. There is a לאו that you can’t שחט a mother and her children on the same day. Why? In order to teach us רחמים. Our actions must be more than just skin deep. The מצות of ה' are to mold us and make us into רחמנים. Every מצוה is created for man, to learn from. What do מצוות do to a person?
1. Pluck out bad מידות and השקפות and replace them with good ones.
2. To remember the נסים of ה'.
3. לדעת את ה'.
מצוות extract all impurities and bad השקפות. So who has a כתר שם טוב? A person who has been molded through כתר תורה and the מצוות.
Sheet IV The first three מכות were brought by אהרן. Although objects don’t have feelings, משה couldn’t do the מכות himself out of הכרת הטוב toward the objects (ground, water…) which saved him.
מלאכי "מתורה יבקשו מפיהו כי מלאך צבקות הוא"- from whose mouth should you seek תורה? From someone who is compared to a מלאך ה'. מלאכים are כלו טוב, and they are שואלים זה לזה- shows כבוד.
כתר שם טוב is better than a כתר תורה, because כתר תורה needs כתר שם טוב in order to be שלם.
It says "נשיא בעמך לא תאור". בעמך- he’s מרוצה בין העמים. He’s desirable and has מדות בין אדם לחבירו. Without the כתר שם טוב he isn’t worthy to be king.
כתר כהונה without כתר שם טוב isn’t ראוי to be כתר כהונה. One time a כהן was מבזה שמעי' and אבטליון (they were גרים) by revealing their past. He was removed from practicing his כהונה, he lost his chance to work in the בהמ''ק. So you need a כתר שם טוב.
ר' יונה "טוב שם משמן טוב ויום המות מיום הולדו"- perfumed oil only has a benefit for those in its vicinity. A שם טוב goes from one end of the world to the other. Why is death better than birth? When a child is born, there is tremendous uncertainty of how he will live his life. When someone dies and has acquired a שם טוב and lived properly, there is such שמחה. It’s like a ship returning safely to shore.
מדרש רשב''י said that a שם טוב is more precious than the ארון. Why? The ארון went three days in front of כ''י to prepare the way for them, a שם טוב prepares the whole world for him.
ר' סורנו Who is מוחטר with a כתר שם טוב? When a person is so good that they inspire other to do good and they become a so good that a בעל רגש and בעל לב will try to copy them. They become a paragon to the רבים without even giving lessons. The aura surrounding them makes people want to be better.
אש דות כתר שם טוב is "ענו ושפל רוח ומרוצה לכל".
מהר''ל A כתר שם טוב is compared to the מנורה. The מנורה was made from one solid piece of gold. Also, it was מאיר לעולם. Also a כתר שם טוב is מאיר לעולם.
The גמרא gives an accolade to the דור of ר' יהודה- "אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל". Why? Six men sat wrapped in one טלית and learn תורה. We see from here that they learnt מתוך הדחק. They were so poor, but they didn’t use it as an excuse. We can also learn out that they had אחדות נפלאה- they reached the דרגה of אחדות like there was by הר סיני.
"... כיסו, כוסו, כעסו"- this was said by ר' יהודה בר אלאי.
ר' יונה שכחה is something that is the territory of every human being. It is very important to review so that the למוד isn’t for nothing. Part of למוד is reviewing. You must review in order that you shouldn’t forget. People are forgetful. A person should never rely on the first take of an ענין because really, you didn’t go into it deeply. Really you could make a mistake, and you don’t have it in your heart. Then when you forget, it’ll be considered that he’s a פושע.
ר' משה He finished ש''ס 101 times. When he told his nephew, the nephew wanted to drink a לחיים with him. ר' משה said that he’s already drunk with happiness. He finished שלחן ערוך over 700 times!
ר' שמעון בר יוחאי was supposed to be killed, so he ran to a cave in Meiron with his son ר' אלעזר. Here, he was on such a high level and he wrote the זוהר. ה' made a נס for them and there was a spring and carob tree. They buried themselves in the sand up to their necks when they learnt so that their clothing could be saved for davening. After twelve years, a בת קול came out and told them to leave. But when they came out, they saw a man doing something wrong and they burnt him. ה' made them go back in for another year. When they came out, they saw a man carrying two הדסים- one for שמור and one for זכור. When they saw this, they said, "חזי כמה חביבין מצות על ישראל".
Story- a תלמיד of ר' שמעון became wealthy and the other תלמידים began to get jealous of him. So he took his תלמידים to a valley and said, "בקעה, בקעה מלאי דנרי זהב". The valley filled up with gold. ר' שמעון told his תלמידים that they could take as much as they want, but if they take they will lose their עוה''ב. No one took.
He used to say, "שלש מתנות טובות..." and all three are acquired through יסורים:
1. תורה- you must toil for תורה.
2. א''י
3. עוה''ב- מצות and נצחיות come with giving up.
ר' שמעון and ר' עקיבא had a tremendous bond. ר' שמעון attributed everything to his רבי.
אלשי''ך Don’t think that all these כתרים are equal. The first three in the משנה are in one category and כתר שם טוב is in a different category.
רע''ב שלש כתרים הם- the תורה requires us to give כבוד to those who fall into these three descriptions.
כתר תורה- "והדרת פני זקן"
כתר כהונה- "וקדשתו"
כתר מלכות- "שום תשים אליך מלך"- you should place his אימה on you.
רמב''ם יב When were these כתרים built into the structure of כ''י? The structure of כ''י was built around these three כתרים.
ר' יונה רבי שמעון אומר...- Who got these crowns?
1. כתר כהונה was given over to זרע אהרן- "וראה ושמח בלבו".
2. מלכות דוד is like the sun since they are both לנצח. In order to be king, you must be a descendant of דוד המלך.
3. תורה was given over לכל באי עולם. If you want to merit it, you can.
Which one of these is the most important from amongst the three and why? The greatest crown is כתר תורה. Proof: in the בהמ''ק, three of the כלים had crowns.
1. שלחן- מלכות, like the שלחן מלכים.
2. מזבח הזהב- כהונה
3. ארון- תורה
The first two are found in the קדש, but the ארון is found in the קדש הקדשים. This shows that תורה is the greatest of all three. Additionally, מלוכה ("בית דוד כה אמר ה'") and כהונה ("בית אהרן בית הלוי") both have specific בתים. But תורה, "התקן עצמיך ללמוד תורה שאין ירושה לך"- it’s not an inheritance. If you want it, you must go and get it.
אברבנל Why are the כתרים written in this order? תורה is mentioned first because it includes the מצוות באל''מ and באל''ח. כהונה is only קשור to מצוות באל''מ. מלכות is written last because it can’t be fulfilled until after כיבוש וחלוק- "כי תבאו אל הארץ וירשת וישבת... שום תשים אליך מלך".
ת. י. א- someone who has an overflowing amount of חכמת התורה, like a דיין or ראש סנהדרין.
Sheet III רמב''ם: one who’s heart has the שעיפה of being מקיים the מצוה ת''ת and wishes to be coroneted with the crown of תורה:
1. Don’t divert your mind to other things.
2. Don’t work to acquire equal measures of wealth, תורה and כבוד- it’s impossible!
3. Take it step by step- you can’t acquire תורה in one day.
When a person is מרבה לימוד תורה, he’s מרבה שכר. The שכר goes according to how much you were עמל.
If you want to have תורה and עושר in the same measure, you’ll never merit כתר תורה. Rather, "הוי ממעט בעסק ועסוק בתורה". Never say I’ll learn when I have the time, because you’ll only have time if you make time.
מדרש רבה: the crown of תורה is different than the other crowns-
1. When a person wears royal בגדים, it shows that he’s elevated from the common people.
2. Bearer of a crown symbolizes that he’s a leader amidst a following.
3. Bearer of a crown symbolizes that he’s linked to a royal dynasty.
כתר תורה though, is different:
1. It’s permitted for everyone to acquire it- whoever wants to can acquire it, they don’t have to be linked to a dynasty.
2. Someone with a כתר תורה doesn’t stand more elevated than others, he’s elevated from himself, from his נפש הבהמי- מאן מלכי? רבנו!.
3. Doesn’t have throngs of literal followers, they rule over themselves. The תורה rules on their thoughts, minds, kidneys, the moment… He’s a master of every second and day of his life. True royalty is that of תורה- "צדיקים לבם ברשותם".
According to הלכה, the כהן is ראש וראשן לכל דבר שבקדושה- "וקדשתו". Examples:
1. ברכת המזון
2. עלי' לתורה- in an אסיפה of צדיקים, the כהן still gets the first עלי'.
3. Can’t marry a גרושה.
The first time the תורה mentions כהונה- "ומלכי צדק מלך שלם הוציא להם לחם ויין והוא כהן לקל עליון". We learn from here that a כהן is a כהן לקל עליון- his whole essence is to be linked to ה', he is a שליח דרחמנא.
מדרש Three כהנים were discussing the size of their לחם הפנים. One said, my חלק was the size of פי שנים, the second said that his was the size of a כזית and the third said that his was the size of a lizard’s tail. A lizard is amongst the eight רמשים that make a person טמא if they touch it when it is dead. It was inappropriate of him to compare theהפנים לחם to this. When the חכמים heard his remark, they did research and found that he was born from a marriage אסור to a כהן and he was removed from his position. We can learn from this that you are what you say.
A כהן הדיוט has four בגדים and a כה''ג has eight. These בגדים are a reflection of the שלמות within the כהן.
כתר מלכות-
It says, "שום תשים...". רמב''ם-
1. There is a חיוב to have fear of the מלך.
2. You can’t sit on his horse.
3. You can’t sit on his throne.
4. You can’t use his scepter.
5. You can’t use any of his belongings.
6. "מלח שמחל על כבודו אין כבודו מוחל"
We make a ברכה on a king:
1. מלך ישראל- "אשר חלק מכבודו ליראיו"
2. Goyish king- "אשר נתן מכבודו לבו''ד"
ב''י asked for a king, and it was disgusting in the eyes of ה'. Why? Because they asked for it so that they could be like the גויים.
רמב''ם כתר תורה is more מעולה than the other כתרים. Why? Because כהונה and מלכות aren’t שלמים without the כתר תורה-
1. כהונה- "והוא מלך לקל עליון"- he becomes like this by learning.
2. מלכות- the king always carried around a ספר תורה.
מגן אבות The three כתרים are כנגד the three pillars of the world:
1. כהונה- עבודה
2. מלוכה-גמ''ח – since the מלך had a לב טוב and was rich and did good with his people.
3. תורה-תורה
And כתר שם טוב is עולה על גביהן.
How do you define כתר שם טוב? When do מעש''ט not necessarily result in a good reputation?
רע''ב וכתר שם טוב- definition: a person who does good things and he acquires a good reputation because of his מעשים. Why the need for the second half of the definition? To teach us that not everyone who does good acquires a good שם. What is it תלוי upon? Your frame of mind.
ספר החנוך "לא נתנה המצוות אלא לצרף בהם את הבריות"- they were given to us in order to cleanse us.
You should do מצוות for yourself, not for other people. מצוות are like putting us through a refinery- they turn us into sensitive people, turn us into נותנים instead of נוטלים. This will give you a שם טוב and success in life.
Sheet II It’s אסור to be משעבד an עבד עברי with unnecessary work, it’s a לאו. You can do it to an עבד כנעני according to דין, however it is the conduct of the pious that a person should be a רחמן and not give his עבד hard work. The חכמים הראשנים used to preface their food with food for their עבד and animals. You can’t abuse your עבד verbally of physically. Cruelty is found only by the גויים. We are the children of א''א, we have the תורה, therefore we are רחמנים. Although we are allowed we are allowed to be אכזרים to גויים, we shouldn’t be because then we might be cruel to a Jew. By the עיר הנדחת, ה' gave the killers and extra dose of רחמנות so that they wouldn’t become אכזרים. Some people are the same at sixteen and sixty because they don’t absorb their actions. You must refrain from being cruel to an עבד כנעני for yourself so that you shouldn’t absorb it and become an אכזר. You will only get a שם טוב if you absorb your good actions and do them for the right reasons.
Sheet IV A master was leading his שור to שחיטה and it was frightened. The שור came and nestled itself in רבי’s coattails. רבי said, ."קום כי לכך יצרת" Because of what he said, he suffered seven years of kidney stones and six years of thrush. One day, his maid swept up a weasel and he said to let it go out in the field, and right away his יסורים went away. For ourselves, we must be רחמנים.
Sheet III By the מצוה of שלוח הקן, the גמרא says, "האומר על קן צפור יגיע רחמיך משתקין אותו"- someone who says that the טעם מצוה is that you have mercy on the mother bird, make him be quiet. We do it לצד עצמינו, to teach us רחמים. By שחיטה you שחט from the front of the neck, not the back. The גמרא says, "וכי מה אכפט להקב''ה משוחט הצואר לשוחט העורף"- to teach us רחמנות. Even while doing an act of אכזריות, do it with רחמים. There is a לאו that you can’t שחט a mother and her children on the same day. Why? In order to teach us רחמים. Our actions must be more than just skin deep. The מצות of ה' are to mold us and make us into רחמנים. Every מצוה is created for man, to learn from. What do מצוות do to a person?
1. Pluck out bad מידות and השקפות and replace them with good ones.
2. To remember the נסים of ה'.
3. לדעת את ה'.
מצוות extract all impurities and bad השקפות. So who has a כתר שם טוב? A person who has been molded through כתר תורה and the מצוות.
Sheet IV The first three מכות were brought by אהרן. Although objects don’t have feelings, משה couldn’t do the מכות himself out of הכרת הטוב toward the objects (ground, water…) which saved him.
מלאכי "מתורה יבקשו מפיהו כי מלאך צבקות הוא"- from whose mouth should you seek תורה? From someone who is compared to a מלאך ה'. מלאכים are כלו טוב, and they are שואלים זה לזה- shows כבוד.
כתר שם טוב is better than a כתר תורה, because כתר תורה needs כתר שם טוב in order to be שלם.
It says "נשיא בעמך לא תאור". בעמך- he’s מרוצה בין העמים. He’s desirable and has מדות בין אדם לחבירו. Without the כתר שם טוב he isn’t worthy to be king.
כתר כהונה without כתר שם טוב isn’t ראוי to be כתר כהונה. One time a כהן was מבזה שמעי' and אבטליון (they were גרים) by revealing their past. He was removed from practicing his כהונה, he lost his chance to work in the בהמ''ק. So you need a כתר שם טוב.
ר' יונה "טוב שם משמן טוב ויום המות מיום הולדו"- perfumed oil only has a benefit for those in its vicinity. A שם טוב goes from one end of the world to the other. Why is death better than birth? When a child is born, there is tremendous uncertainty of how he will live his life. When someone dies and has acquired a שם טוב and lived properly, there is such שמחה. It’s like a ship returning safely to shore.
מדרש רשב''י said that a שם טוב is more precious than the ארון. Why? The ארון went three days in front of כ''י to prepare the way for them, a שם טוב prepares the whole world for him.
ר' סורנו Who is מוחטר with a כתר שם טוב? When a person is so good that they inspire other to do good and they become a so good that a בעל רגש and בעל לב will try to copy them. They become a paragon to the רבים without even giving lessons. The aura surrounding them makes people want to be better.
אש דות כתר שם טוב is "ענו ושפל רוח ומרוצה לכל".
מהר''ל A כתר שם טוב is compared to the מנורה. The מנורה was made from one solid piece of gold. Also, it was מאיר לעולם. Also a כתר שם טוב is מאיר לעולם.
פרקי אבות- משנה יב
This משנה was said by ר' אלעזר בן שמוע. He lived in the fourth generation of תנאים. רבי was his תלמיד. The גמרא describes him as being a ת''ח השמח יותר מכולם". He lived a very long life. When asked why he was זוכה to live so long, he said that whole life he was זהיר in כבוד הבריות.
מדרש רבה One time, he was on a טיול at the river’s shore. He saw a broken ship in the water and saw a man bobbing in the water. He saw that the man was still alive and he saved him. He took off his coat and covered the body. He carried the body to his home and nursed the man back to health. He gave him some money and returned the man to his city. After many years, the man became great in the Roman government. The government made terrible decrees against כ''י. When ר' אלעזר heard who was responsible for it, he went to the Roman. The Roman recognized him. He got rid of the גזירה and gave him money and ר' אלעזר went back בשלום. It says in קהלת, "שלח לחמיך ע''פ המים..."- if you do a good act, it will come back to help you later on.
The first part of this משנה is an אזהרה to a רבי.
רוח חיים He connects the three parts of the משנה: the nature of a person is to be מקיל בכבוד אחרים. But we must be מכבד others, even more than they deserve. We see from here that every person should be praised more than they deserve. This way if you fall, you will give him the כבוד that he really deserves, but not less.
רע''ב יהי כבוד תלמידך...- משה ר' said, "בחר לנו אנשים". He was משוה the כבוד of his תלמיד to his own כבוד.
רש''י יהי כבוד תלמידך- בדין הוא, it’s obligatory. We know"לכל אדם מתקנא חוץ מבנו ותלמידו" , because he is an extension of yourself. Therefore, a תלמיד טוב is a source of נחת to his רבי. The תלמיד is the סיבת כבוד of his רבי, therefore the רבי must be מחזיר the כבוד to his תלמיד.
ר' ירוחם ממיר "גדולה שמושה של תורה יותר מלמודה"- it is more important for a תלמיד to be משמש his רבי than למודים. Why? Because it’s תורת חיים. If a תלמיד is serving his רבי, the רבי can ח''ו become a בעל גאוה. Therefore חז''ל made a שמירה- יהי חביב עליך תלמידך יותר מגופך.
ר' נחום פרצביץ gave beautiful שיעורים, but he was handicapped. One time, his תלמידים were lifting him out of his wheelchair and he kept saying, "נישט מייענע איז דייענע". He told them that he said this to remind himself as they were rising him that the honor isn’t for him, it is for ה'’s תורה.
ת''י סז- sometimes, the תלמיד in connection to the רבי is as if the רבי found a pearl in its raw state. The תלמיד still has a thick shell, but the רבי polishes it and then its brilliant light can shine forth. Sometimes the רבי has to bring out the beauty of the תלמיד. Therefore, he must pay close attention to the words that his תלמיד says so that he could see what his תלמיד needs to get rid of and what he should build on. Then the רבי will polish him to the utmost, until he can learn from him, as ר' חנינא said, "הרבה למדתי מרבתי ומחברי יותר מרבותי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם", therefore a רבי must respect his תלמיד.
ר' עקיבא איגר’s sons were preparing a compilation of his שאלות and תשובות. They wrote in the הקדמה that their father instructed them to delete the title "תלמידך" from the letters because he would never call anyone his תלמיד, כי מי יודע מי למד יותר ממי?
ר' חיים וולזין came to visit the גר''א on an ערב שבת. The גר''א was having difficulty understanding a certain piece in גמרא and ר' חיים explained it to him. The גר''א said, "הרבה למדתי מחברי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם".
ר' שלמה קלגר מחנכים must remember to teach their תלמידים the מידה of הכנעה- to be מקבל מורים. This is the יסוד of a yid because it trains him in accepting עול מלכות שמים. So a רבי can’t be מותר on his כבוד. יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך- you should be מחביב the כבוד they give you so that you can raise them to be עובדי ה'. A parent is not a friend to their child. There is a line which can’t be crossed.
ר' אלעזר בן שמוע used to sit in the middle of a circle with his תלמידים around him. He was always there before his תלמידים so:
1. They shouldn’t have to move for him.
2. They shouldn’t have to wait for him.
ר' יצחק אלחנן ספקטר, the ר''י in קבנא, was once fahering a boy who traveled for many days to come take the faher. The first thing he asked the boy was if he eat and or slept, and when he heard of the difficult and lengthy journey, he immediately went to prepare food and lodging for the boy before fahering him.
In ר' חיים וואלזין’s ישיבה, there was extreme poverty. Some boys didn’t have shoes, and the winters were very fierce. The בחורים wanted to buy ר' חיים a present, so they bought him a pair of boots. They noticed though that he only wore them when the snow was extremely high and he would shovel a path so that those without boots would have an easier time entering the בית מדרש.
"וכבוד התורה כמורא רבך"- what is the מקור for this?
רע''ב אהרן called משה "בי אדוני" even though he was his younger brother.
The פסוק in משלי says "הוקר רגליך מבית רעך". Why? Because familiarity breeds contempt.
Story- מיר boys and the policeman. ר' ירוחם said that he seriously thought about closing down the ישיבה- how could you allow your friend to go alone with the policeman in the pitch dark. You might have been afraid, but imagine how afraid he was! If would be כדאי to close down the ישיבה if the בחורים don’t show each other respect.
Concern and care are part of כבוד חברים. You aren’t a true friend if you don’t have a deep care and concern for your friends.
ת''י What does it mean to have כבוד with your friends? Not to disagree or contradict them in a hurtful way. Don’t disagree for the sake of a disagreement. Think of how you give it over- that makes all the difference.
עבודת פנים Why does the תנא compare the כבוד necessary for a friend to the כבוד necessary for a רבי? He’s not equating the amount of כבוד that should be given. But there is a common thread here- the same way you aren’t מכבד your רבי so that he will respect you in return, you shouldn’t be מכבד your friend so that he does the same for you.
בינה לעתיים "הרבה למדתי מרבותי ומחברי יותר מרבותי"- you learn more from a friend than from a רבי, so a friend takes on the שם of a רבי. You must show him כבוד and there even has to be some measure of יראה.
מהר''ל What’s the connection between כנסי' לש''ש and the ענון of כבוד חברים? The כנסי' will only be מתקיים if the people have כבוד for each other.
The גמרא speaks about the סורא and פומפדיתא and the כבוד חברים there:
1. When someone walked into the room, everyone would stand up.
2. When there was a מיתה and someone among them tore קריעה, they would all tear.
So אחדות is another strand of כבוד.
We see the opposite by ר' עקיבא though. All of his תלמידים were נפתר in the days between פסח and שבועות. Why? Because they had an עין צרה, they couldn’t fargin when someone else got ahead in לימוד תורה. קנאת סופרים is when you’re מקנא the thing, but they were מקנא the hole person. They didn’t have אחדות. So they all died from whooping cough, which effects their throat which is where the תורה comes from.
גמרא "שקר החן והבל היופי אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל"-
1. שקר החן זה דורו של משה ויהושע. רש''י- שעסקו תורה הרבה.
2. והבל היופי זה דורו של חזקיהו. רש''י- שעסקו בתורה יותר שבדקו מדן ועד באר שבע ולא מצאו תינוק או תינקת שלא היו בקיאים בהלכות טומאה וטהרה.
3. אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל זה דורו של ר' יהודה בר אלעי. רש''י- שהיו ששה תלמידים מתכסין בטלית אחת ועוסקין בתורה- they were so poor, but they didn’t use it as an excuse. They learnt מתוך הדחק.
ר' חיים ש. You can only have six people under one טלית if they are sharing and giving to each other. They reached such a great level of אחדות here like they had by הר סיני- where כאיש אחד בלב אחד.
ר' עקיבא saw his תלמידים dozing off. He asked, what did אסתר see that allowed her to endure being married to such a רשע? She correlated herself with שרה. שרה lived 127 years and now she is ruling over 127 provinces.
1. How could ר' עקיבא be teaching to students who were dozing off? They weren’t sleeping because they were bored, they were disconnecting because ר' עקיבא was teaching them things far beyond their reach.
2. How is ר' עקיבא drawing them in with this correlation between אסתר and שרה? He was showing them that there is never anything too elevated from where we stand. A person should hold on to the one thing they can you to connect themselves and reign themselves in.
3. What is the פשט in this correlation? אסתר was in the lion’s den- אחשוירוש was an anti- Semite and a scary person. But אסתר didn’t disconnect. She searched to connect herself to something very celestial and draw herself in. She connected herself to the fact that שרה lived 127 years, and rose above all of her trials and tribulations. אסתר connected herself to this and rose above everything she was faced with.
When ב''י were נהנה from the סעודה of אחשוירוש, the שטן showed ה'. ה' made a גזירה on them to destroy them. אליהו saw this and ran to the אבות and משה. They asked him if it was sealed with טיט or blood. If it is sealed in mud, it can be repealed. But if it is sealed in blood, it can’t be. What is the difference between טיט and blood? טיט represents earth, גשמיות. As long as it is not a part of them and is just גשמיות, it can be repealed. But blood is נפש, symbolizes רוחניות. If it is a part of them, it can’t be repealed.
ר' חיים ש. By מתן תורה, it says כאיש אחד בלב אחד. This is אחדות. So why does the תורה write בלב אחד by this ענין of אחדות? It’s not enough to have just a superficial fondness. The תורה requires that כבוד חברים is in your kishkes, that it comes from the depths of your heart. There shouldn’t be any animosity. You must make sure that it’s a relationship of כבוד and love.
It says in פרשת בהר, "לא תרדה בו בפרך ויראת מאלקיך". פרך means something which cheapens a person. רש''י says that a master may not make his servant to unnecessary tasks which will be מזלזל the עבד. This means even if the servant will never no, that’s why it says "ויראת מאלקיך"- ה' will know whether you really needed it or not.
The איסור here is to make the servant do something you don’t need, thereby cheapening him and even if he doesn’t know that it’s for naught that he toiled.
כבוד חברים is in your heart, you must really feel it in your heart.
"זכור את אשר עשה ה' למרים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים". There seems to be a כפה ל' here, בדרך and בצאתכם. When you were leaving, it was a time of ecstasy that you were leaving bondage or you could say that maybe מרים wasn’t thinking straight because she was hurrying. But ה' didn’t overlook it. And even thought she spoke about her brother at a time of שמחה, ה' didn’t excuse her. There are no תרוצים what so ever!
You may have the deepest חשבונות, but it doesn’t matter. If you hurt someone, you will pay for it. "ורבת בנים אומללה"- one with many was left with none. פנינה was a צדקת. It pained her to be mean to חנה, but she did it so that חנה would daven harder. Tampering with someone’s feelings, no matter what your חשבון is, is like placing your hand into a burning fire- there are repercussions for your actions.
In the days of the אמוראים, it took a very long time for people to travel. So when someone would go learn, they would go learn for many months. ר' רחומי used to learn for a long time, and he would come home every ערב יו''כ and stay through סוכות. One year, he came home early. Since no one was expecting him, he went up to the attic to learn. He got so busy and he forgot to come down. His wife, who was expecting him, was looking for him and she began to cry. Suddenly, the roof collapsed and ר' רחומי died. We can’t say that this is an עונש מכ''מ, but we can learn out from here that there is a חוק טבעי ומציאותי- if you hurt someone, there will be an effect.
ר' יוחנן was an old man and he had eyebrows that covered his eyes. ר' כהנא once got a מכה to his lip and it healed into a permanent smile. One time, ר' כהנא had to ask ר' יוחנן a question in person. They had never seen each other before. ר' יוחנן thought that ר' כהנא was laughing at his eyebrows and he was very hurt. ר' כהנא died and came back to life again. This is baffling- ר' כהנא didn’t do anything, it wasn’t his fault that his lip was like this and ר' יוחנן thought he was mocking him. Although he didn’t do anything wrong, ר' כהנא was the גורם which made ר' יוחנן downtrodden. If there is a flame, there will be a repercussion.
בנימין caused his brothers to rip their clothing when the גביע was found in his bag. He was innocent, but he was a גרמה על גרמה. Years later, the עונש came out in שושן- מרדכי, the descendant of בנימין, ripped his clothing. We can’t control what isn’t ours to control, but we could have a התבוננות in כבוד חברים (this will lead to זהירות).
רע''ב ומורא רבך כמורא שמים- it is comparing יראת הרבי to יראת ה' and it brings down the following פסוק- "אדוני משה..."- יהושע told משה to kill אלדד and מידד.
ב''י were all complaining together that they only had מן. משה couldn’t deal with this anymore. He told ה' that he can’t do it anymore, so ה' told him to appoint seventy זקנים and he’ll do the process of אצילות- transfer of the nobility of משה onto the seventy זקנים. משה took seventy- two pieces of paper. On seventy he wrote זקן and two he left blank. Everyone wanted an equal number of זקנים from their שבט, so they did a גורל because it’s משמים. משה called on the ראוים, but two people didn’t come. אלדד and מידד didn’t come because they felt that they weren’t ראוי. Immediately they began to be מתנבא. גרשם בן משה heard this and came to tell his father what they were saying-
מ י א ב נ ת מ
כ ה ל ג פ נ ש
נ ו ק ן ש ו ה
י ש י ו ח
ס ע ם
יהושע was there and he said this פסוק because those who are מורד in their רבי, it is like they are פוגע in כבוד שמים.
Sheet V שמעון העמסוני was explaining all the "את"s in the תורה. When he got to "את ה' אלקיך תירא", he said that you can’t attach anything else to יראת ה'. His students said that maybe everything else he said is invalid. שמעון העמסוני said, the same way I got שכר for explaining everything else, I got שכר for stopping here. ר' עקיבא said that the "את" here comes to include יראת ת''ח. Why? Because through them we come to יראת ה'.
טור "כשם שאדם מצוה בכבוד אביו ויראתו כך הוא מצוה בכבוד רבו ויראתו ורבו יותר מאביו שאביו הביאו לחיי עוה''ז ורבו מביאו לחיי עוה''ב ואמרו חכמים ומורא רבא כמורא שמים"- a person must have a greater measure of כבוד and יראה for his רבי than his father.
גמרא סוטה "וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי"- a man from בית לוי (עמרם) went and took יוכבד, his aunt. "... שהלך בעצת בתו. עמרם גדול הדור הי'. כיון שגזר פרעה כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו. אמר לשב אנו עמלין עמד וגרש את אשתו ועמדו כולם וגרשו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'. אמרה לי' ביתו אבא גזרתך קשה משל פרעה 1) שפרעה לא גזר על הזכרים ואתה גזרת על הזכרים ועל הנקבות 2) פרעה לא גזר אלא אל עוה''ז... 3) פרעה הרשע ספק גזרתו מתקיימת ספק אינה מתקיימת. עמד והחזיר את אשתו, עומדין כולם והחזירו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'". ר' חצקל לווינשטין- weren’t there people who didn’t agree with this? We see from there that they were מבטל their דעת to the דעת of their רבי. From this second לקוחין, משה ר' was born. We see from here that they were זוכה to גאולה because they listened to their רבי.
ר' מנדל מורא insinuates a התרחקות. When a relationship requires awe and fear, it requires distance מפני כבוד. אהבה insinuates התקרבות. A relationship with a רבי is compared to the צבא השמים- the moon gets its light from the sun. When the moon moves close to the sun, it gets overshadowed and its light is less. However, when the moon is far from the sun, its light is greater. So too a תלמיד- there is a התרחקות because of the built in כבוד, and he is influenced greatly. When he crosses that line though, there is no השפעה and his brilliance doesn’t shine forth.
At the סדר, a תלמיד who is at his רבי doesn’t lean. A son at his father’s table does lean. R’ Foyer asked his father-in-law, who was also his רבי if he should lean or not. The רבי said, I consider you my son, but our primary relationship is a רבי- תלמיד relationship. He will gain more from this kind of relationship.
גמרא שבת "דרחמים רבנן הווליה בנין רבנן דמוקיר רבנן הוו ליה חתנוותא רבנן. דדחיל מרבנן הוא גופי' הוי צורבא מרבנן. ואי לאו בר הכי הוא משתמען מוליה כצורבא דרבנן"- someone who has a love for רבנים, he will merit having sons who are תורה sages. If you honor and respect רבנים, you will merit having sons-in-law who will be ת''ח. When you fear the words of רבנים, you yourself will become amongst the fire of תורה and become a רבי yourself. If he is incapable of becoming great in תורה, his words will be accepted by all like the words of an erudite ת''ח.
חז''ל י''ח קללות כלל ישעי' את ישראל ולא נתקרבה דעתו עד שאמר להם המקרא הזה- ישעי' said over to כ''י eighteen cursed conducts that the world will experience before משיח. When he reached the eighteenth, which is the lowest, he calmed down. Why? The darkest point is before the break of light. ישעי' saw that they can’t fall any lower than that so he calmed down.
ישעי' sheet This is the eighteenth- every person will say דעות on the other person (how they should have done it…) and the youth will be arrogant and won’t accept the חכמה of זקנים- אילו שקנה חכמה. There will be no מורא הרב and everyone will say דעות on each other. רד''ק- another קללה is that they won’t be able to be subservient. We challenge our parents and מורות. Everyone will be a boss and say דעות and criticize their friends. The youth will say דעות on the חכמים.
רד''ק They won’t be מכניע to people of authority. It can also mean that someone who is מנוער מן המצוות will be מתגאה over those who are full of מצוות, like a רמון is of its seeds. And someone who is נקלה- a person that even the חמורות are קלות for him will be מתגאה over the נכבד- a person that the קלות are חמורות for him.
מהרש''א This doesn’t mean a literal נער or זקן. It means in terms of תורה. ישעי' calmed down when he said this. This קללה is the greatest of רוחניותדיק depravity of man. They can’t fall any lower and the גאולה must come.
Sheet V כ''י is compared to a bird- just like a bird can’t fly without its wings, so too כ''י can’t do anything without their גדולים.
"רב שמוחל על כבודו..."- because if he is מבטל his כבוד, he is מבטל his השפעה on כ''י, thereby being מבטל the קיום of כ''י.
ת''י סט- the מצוות of ה':
1. You can’t question them even when your מחשבה isn’t מתקיים (like the דור of עמרם). We must always remember "שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד". We must always walk around with מורא שמים saddling us. You can’t correct your רבי, even if you think you know better and even if you aren’t in from of him.
2. An אמתה תלמיד is someone who always does what he thinks his רבי would do, as if he is in front of him. If you question your רבי, you are questioning the שכינה.
3. A person must be מחשיב his רבי as if he’s more than a regular man.
גמרא- you can’t sit in his seat and you can’t stand in his place if he has a specific place for davening.
Before חרבן בית שני, there was a מצר around ירושלים and the Romans didn’t let anyone leave. They cut off the food and water supply. The גדולים felt that it was time to go out and negotiate. ר' יוחנן בן זכאי collaborated with אבא סקראי, the head of the בריונים. The בריונים didn’t want to let anyone leave ירושלים, they wanted to fight. The only person they let leave was a מת. So ר' יוחנן בן זכאי pretended to be dead, and he told אבא סקראי (his nephew) to keep them away from him. The בריונים really wanted to check and make sure that ר' יוחנן בן זכאי was dead, but they were משיג the ענין of מורא הרב וכבודו, and since אבא סקראי didn’t want them to pierce the body they didn’t.
It says in מסילת ישרים that הנהגות of טחיסות כבוד הרב are תולדות of the מדת הגאוה which has a negative effect on people. It turns the חכמים backwards and makes their דעת foolish. Even the young בחורים who barely know anything are מתגאה- they think that they are as great as their חכמים. Even the בריונים understood this and were מוסר נפש because of it.
מדרש רבה One time, he was on a טיול at the river’s shore. He saw a broken ship in the water and saw a man bobbing in the water. He saw that the man was still alive and he saved him. He took off his coat and covered the body. He carried the body to his home and nursed the man back to health. He gave him some money and returned the man to his city. After many years, the man became great in the Roman government. The government made terrible decrees against כ''י. When ר' אלעזר heard who was responsible for it, he went to the Roman. The Roman recognized him. He got rid of the גזירה and gave him money and ר' אלעזר went back בשלום. It says in קהלת, "שלח לחמיך ע''פ המים..."- if you do a good act, it will come back to help you later on.
The first part of this משנה is an אזהרה to a רבי.
רוח חיים He connects the three parts of the משנה: the nature of a person is to be מקיל בכבוד אחרים. But we must be מכבד others, even more than they deserve. We see from here that every person should be praised more than they deserve. This way if you fall, you will give him the כבוד that he really deserves, but not less.
רע''ב יהי כבוד תלמידך...- משה ר' said, "בחר לנו אנשים". He was משוה the כבוד of his תלמיד to his own כבוד.
רש''י יהי כבוד תלמידך- בדין הוא, it’s obligatory. We know"לכל אדם מתקנא חוץ מבנו ותלמידו" , because he is an extension of yourself. Therefore, a תלמיד טוב is a source of נחת to his רבי. The תלמיד is the סיבת כבוד of his רבי, therefore the רבי must be מחזיר the כבוד to his תלמיד.
ר' ירוחם ממיר "גדולה שמושה של תורה יותר מלמודה"- it is more important for a תלמיד to be משמש his רבי than למודים. Why? Because it’s תורת חיים. If a תלמיד is serving his רבי, the רבי can ח''ו become a בעל גאוה. Therefore חז''ל made a שמירה- יהי חביב עליך תלמידך יותר מגופך.
ר' נחום פרצביץ gave beautiful שיעורים, but he was handicapped. One time, his תלמידים were lifting him out of his wheelchair and he kept saying, "נישט מייענע איז דייענע". He told them that he said this to remind himself as they were rising him that the honor isn’t for him, it is for ה'’s תורה.
ת''י סז- sometimes, the תלמיד in connection to the רבי is as if the רבי found a pearl in its raw state. The תלמיד still has a thick shell, but the רבי polishes it and then its brilliant light can shine forth. Sometimes the רבי has to bring out the beauty of the תלמיד. Therefore, he must pay close attention to the words that his תלמיד says so that he could see what his תלמיד needs to get rid of and what he should build on. Then the רבי will polish him to the utmost, until he can learn from him, as ר' חנינא said, "הרבה למדתי מרבתי ומחברי יותר מרבותי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם", therefore a רבי must respect his תלמיד.
ר' עקיבא איגר’s sons were preparing a compilation of his שאלות and תשובות. They wrote in the הקדמה that their father instructed them to delete the title "תלמידך" from the letters because he would never call anyone his תלמיד, כי מי יודע מי למד יותר ממי?
ר' חיים וולזין came to visit the גר''א on an ערב שבת. The גר''א was having difficulty understanding a certain piece in גמרא and ר' חיים explained it to him. The גר''א said, "הרבה למדתי מחברי ומתלמדי יותר מכלם".
ר' שלמה קלגר מחנכים must remember to teach their תלמידים the מידה of הכנעה- to be מקבל מורים. This is the יסוד of a yid because it trains him in accepting עול מלכות שמים. So a רבי can’t be מותר on his כבוד. יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך- you should be מחביב the כבוד they give you so that you can raise them to be עובדי ה'. A parent is not a friend to their child. There is a line which can’t be crossed.
ר' אלעזר בן שמוע used to sit in the middle of a circle with his תלמידים around him. He was always there before his תלמידים so:
1. They shouldn’t have to move for him.
2. They shouldn’t have to wait for him.
ר' יצחק אלחנן ספקטר, the ר''י in קבנא, was once fahering a boy who traveled for many days to come take the faher. The first thing he asked the boy was if he eat and or slept, and when he heard of the difficult and lengthy journey, he immediately went to prepare food and lodging for the boy before fahering him.
In ר' חיים וואלזין’s ישיבה, there was extreme poverty. Some boys didn’t have shoes, and the winters were very fierce. The בחורים wanted to buy ר' חיים a present, so they bought him a pair of boots. They noticed though that he only wore them when the snow was extremely high and he would shovel a path so that those without boots would have an easier time entering the בית מדרש.
"וכבוד התורה כמורא רבך"- what is the מקור for this?
רע''ב אהרן called משה "בי אדוני" even though he was his younger brother.
The פסוק in משלי says "הוקר רגליך מבית רעך". Why? Because familiarity breeds contempt.
Story- מיר boys and the policeman. ר' ירוחם said that he seriously thought about closing down the ישיבה- how could you allow your friend to go alone with the policeman in the pitch dark. You might have been afraid, but imagine how afraid he was! If would be כדאי to close down the ישיבה if the בחורים don’t show each other respect.
Concern and care are part of כבוד חברים. You aren’t a true friend if you don’t have a deep care and concern for your friends.
ת''י What does it mean to have כבוד with your friends? Not to disagree or contradict them in a hurtful way. Don’t disagree for the sake of a disagreement. Think of how you give it over- that makes all the difference.
עבודת פנים Why does the תנא compare the כבוד necessary for a friend to the כבוד necessary for a רבי? He’s not equating the amount of כבוד that should be given. But there is a common thread here- the same way you aren’t מכבד your רבי so that he will respect you in return, you shouldn’t be מכבד your friend so that he does the same for you.
בינה לעתיים "הרבה למדתי מרבותי ומחברי יותר מרבותי"- you learn more from a friend than from a רבי, so a friend takes on the שם of a רבי. You must show him כבוד and there even has to be some measure of יראה.
מהר''ל What’s the connection between כנסי' לש''ש and the ענון of כבוד חברים? The כנסי' will only be מתקיים if the people have כבוד for each other.
The גמרא speaks about the סורא and פומפדיתא and the כבוד חברים there:
1. When someone walked into the room, everyone would stand up.
2. When there was a מיתה and someone among them tore קריעה, they would all tear.
So אחדות is another strand of כבוד.
We see the opposite by ר' עקיבא though. All of his תלמידים were נפתר in the days between פסח and שבועות. Why? Because they had an עין צרה, they couldn’t fargin when someone else got ahead in לימוד תורה. קנאת סופרים is when you’re מקנא the thing, but they were מקנא the hole person. They didn’t have אחדות. So they all died from whooping cough, which effects their throat which is where the תורה comes from.
גמרא "שקר החן והבל היופי אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל"-
1. שקר החן זה דורו של משה ויהושע. רש''י- שעסקו תורה הרבה.
2. והבל היופי זה דורו של חזקיהו. רש''י- שעסקו בתורה יותר שבדקו מדן ועד באר שבע ולא מצאו תינוק או תינקת שלא היו בקיאים בהלכות טומאה וטהרה.
3. אשה יראת ה' היא תתהלל זה דורו של ר' יהודה בר אלעי. רש''י- שהיו ששה תלמידים מתכסין בטלית אחת ועוסקין בתורה- they were so poor, but they didn’t use it as an excuse. They learnt מתוך הדחק.
ר' חיים ש. You can only have six people under one טלית if they are sharing and giving to each other. They reached such a great level of אחדות here like they had by הר סיני- where כאיש אחד בלב אחד.
ר' עקיבא saw his תלמידים dozing off. He asked, what did אסתר see that allowed her to endure being married to such a רשע? She correlated herself with שרה. שרה lived 127 years and now she is ruling over 127 provinces.
1. How could ר' עקיבא be teaching to students who were dozing off? They weren’t sleeping because they were bored, they were disconnecting because ר' עקיבא was teaching them things far beyond their reach.
2. How is ר' עקיבא drawing them in with this correlation between אסתר and שרה? He was showing them that there is never anything too elevated from where we stand. A person should hold on to the one thing they can you to connect themselves and reign themselves in.
3. What is the פשט in this correlation? אסתר was in the lion’s den- אחשוירוש was an anti- Semite and a scary person. But אסתר didn’t disconnect. She searched to connect herself to something very celestial and draw herself in. She connected herself to the fact that שרה lived 127 years, and rose above all of her trials and tribulations. אסתר connected herself to this and rose above everything she was faced with.
When ב''י were נהנה from the סעודה of אחשוירוש, the שטן showed ה'. ה' made a גזירה on them to destroy them. אליהו saw this and ran to the אבות and משה. They asked him if it was sealed with טיט or blood. If it is sealed in mud, it can be repealed. But if it is sealed in blood, it can’t be. What is the difference between טיט and blood? טיט represents earth, גשמיות. As long as it is not a part of them and is just גשמיות, it can be repealed. But blood is נפש, symbolizes רוחניות. If it is a part of them, it can’t be repealed.
ר' חיים ש. By מתן תורה, it says כאיש אחד בלב אחד. This is אחדות. So why does the תורה write בלב אחד by this ענין of אחדות? It’s not enough to have just a superficial fondness. The תורה requires that כבוד חברים is in your kishkes, that it comes from the depths of your heart. There shouldn’t be any animosity. You must make sure that it’s a relationship of כבוד and love.
It says in פרשת בהר, "לא תרדה בו בפרך ויראת מאלקיך". פרך means something which cheapens a person. רש''י says that a master may not make his servant to unnecessary tasks which will be מזלזל the עבד. This means even if the servant will never no, that’s why it says "ויראת מאלקיך"- ה' will know whether you really needed it or not.
The איסור here is to make the servant do something you don’t need, thereby cheapening him and even if he doesn’t know that it’s for naught that he toiled.
כבוד חברים is in your heart, you must really feel it in your heart.
"זכור את אשר עשה ה' למרים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים". There seems to be a כפה ל' here, בדרך and בצאתכם. When you were leaving, it was a time of ecstasy that you were leaving bondage or you could say that maybe מרים wasn’t thinking straight because she was hurrying. But ה' didn’t overlook it. And even thought she spoke about her brother at a time of שמחה, ה' didn’t excuse her. There are no תרוצים what so ever!
You may have the deepest חשבונות, but it doesn’t matter. If you hurt someone, you will pay for it. "ורבת בנים אומללה"- one with many was left with none. פנינה was a צדקת. It pained her to be mean to חנה, but she did it so that חנה would daven harder. Tampering with someone’s feelings, no matter what your חשבון is, is like placing your hand into a burning fire- there are repercussions for your actions.
In the days of the אמוראים, it took a very long time for people to travel. So when someone would go learn, they would go learn for many months. ר' רחומי used to learn for a long time, and he would come home every ערב יו''כ and stay through סוכות. One year, he came home early. Since no one was expecting him, he went up to the attic to learn. He got so busy and he forgot to come down. His wife, who was expecting him, was looking for him and she began to cry. Suddenly, the roof collapsed and ר' רחומי died. We can’t say that this is an עונש מכ''מ, but we can learn out from here that there is a חוק טבעי ומציאותי- if you hurt someone, there will be an effect.
ר' יוחנן was an old man and he had eyebrows that covered his eyes. ר' כהנא once got a מכה to his lip and it healed into a permanent smile. One time, ר' כהנא had to ask ר' יוחנן a question in person. They had never seen each other before. ר' יוחנן thought that ר' כהנא was laughing at his eyebrows and he was very hurt. ר' כהנא died and came back to life again. This is baffling- ר' כהנא didn’t do anything, it wasn’t his fault that his lip was like this and ר' יוחנן thought he was mocking him. Although he didn’t do anything wrong, ר' כהנא was the גורם which made ר' יוחנן downtrodden. If there is a flame, there will be a repercussion.
בנימין caused his brothers to rip their clothing when the גביע was found in his bag. He was innocent, but he was a גרמה על גרמה. Years later, the עונש came out in שושן- מרדכי, the descendant of בנימין, ripped his clothing. We can’t control what isn’t ours to control, but we could have a התבוננות in כבוד חברים (this will lead to זהירות).
רע''ב ומורא רבך כמורא שמים- it is comparing יראת הרבי to יראת ה' and it brings down the following פסוק- "אדוני משה..."- יהושע told משה to kill אלדד and מידד.
ב''י were all complaining together that they only had מן. משה couldn’t deal with this anymore. He told ה' that he can’t do it anymore, so ה' told him to appoint seventy זקנים and he’ll do the process of אצילות- transfer of the nobility of משה onto the seventy זקנים. משה took seventy- two pieces of paper. On seventy he wrote זקן and two he left blank. Everyone wanted an equal number of זקנים from their שבט, so they did a גורל because it’s משמים. משה called on the ראוים, but two people didn’t come. אלדד and מידד didn’t come because they felt that they weren’t ראוי. Immediately they began to be מתנבא. גרשם בן משה heard this and came to tell his father what they were saying-
מ י א ב נ ת מ
כ ה ל ג פ נ ש
נ ו ק ן ש ו ה
י ש י ו ח
ס ע ם
יהושע was there and he said this פסוק because those who are מורד in their רבי, it is like they are פוגע in כבוד שמים.
Sheet V שמעון העמסוני was explaining all the "את"s in the תורה. When he got to "את ה' אלקיך תירא", he said that you can’t attach anything else to יראת ה'. His students said that maybe everything else he said is invalid. שמעון העמסוני said, the same way I got שכר for explaining everything else, I got שכר for stopping here. ר' עקיבא said that the "את" here comes to include יראת ת''ח. Why? Because through them we come to יראת ה'.
טור "כשם שאדם מצוה בכבוד אביו ויראתו כך הוא מצוה בכבוד רבו ויראתו ורבו יותר מאביו שאביו הביאו לחיי עוה''ז ורבו מביאו לחיי עוה''ב ואמרו חכמים ומורא רבא כמורא שמים"- a person must have a greater measure of כבוד and יראה for his רבי than his father.
גמרא סוטה "וילך איש מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי"- a man from בית לוי (עמרם) went and took יוכבד, his aunt. "... שהלך בעצת בתו. עמרם גדול הדור הי'. כיון שגזר פרעה כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו. אמר לשב אנו עמלין עמד וגרש את אשתו ועמדו כולם וגרשו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'. אמרה לי' ביתו אבא גזרתך קשה משל פרעה 1) שפרעה לא גזר על הזכרים ואתה גזרת על הזכרים ועל הנקבות 2) פרעה לא גזר אלא אל עוה''ז... 3) פרעה הרשע ספק גזרתו מתקיימת ספק אינה מתקיימת. עמד והחזיר את אשתו, עומדין כולם והחזירו את נשותיהן שלמדו כולם ממעשיו שגדול הדור הי'". ר' חצקל לווינשטין- weren’t there people who didn’t agree with this? We see from there that they were מבטל their דעת to the דעת of their רבי. From this second לקוחין, משה ר' was born. We see from here that they were זוכה to גאולה because they listened to their רבי.
ר' מנדל מורא insinuates a התרחקות. When a relationship requires awe and fear, it requires distance מפני כבוד. אהבה insinuates התקרבות. A relationship with a רבי is compared to the צבא השמים- the moon gets its light from the sun. When the moon moves close to the sun, it gets overshadowed and its light is less. However, when the moon is far from the sun, its light is greater. So too a תלמיד- there is a התרחקות because of the built in כבוד, and he is influenced greatly. When he crosses that line though, there is no השפעה and his brilliance doesn’t shine forth.
At the סדר, a תלמיד who is at his רבי doesn’t lean. A son at his father’s table does lean. R’ Foyer asked his father-in-law, who was also his רבי if he should lean or not. The רבי said, I consider you my son, but our primary relationship is a רבי- תלמיד relationship. He will gain more from this kind of relationship.
גמרא שבת "דרחמים רבנן הווליה בנין רבנן דמוקיר רבנן הוו ליה חתנוותא רבנן. דדחיל מרבנן הוא גופי' הוי צורבא מרבנן. ואי לאו בר הכי הוא משתמען מוליה כצורבא דרבנן"- someone who has a love for רבנים, he will merit having sons who are תורה sages. If you honor and respect רבנים, you will merit having sons-in-law who will be ת''ח. When you fear the words of רבנים, you yourself will become amongst the fire of תורה and become a רבי yourself. If he is incapable of becoming great in תורה, his words will be accepted by all like the words of an erudite ת''ח.
חז''ל י''ח קללות כלל ישעי' את ישראל ולא נתקרבה דעתו עד שאמר להם המקרא הזה- ישעי' said over to כ''י eighteen cursed conducts that the world will experience before משיח. When he reached the eighteenth, which is the lowest, he calmed down. Why? The darkest point is before the break of light. ישעי' saw that they can’t fall any lower than that so he calmed down.
ישעי' sheet This is the eighteenth- every person will say דעות on the other person (how they should have done it…) and the youth will be arrogant and won’t accept the חכמה of זקנים- אילו שקנה חכמה. There will be no מורא הרב and everyone will say דעות on each other. רד''ק- another קללה is that they won’t be able to be subservient. We challenge our parents and מורות. Everyone will be a boss and say דעות and criticize their friends. The youth will say דעות on the חכמים.
רד''ק They won’t be מכניע to people of authority. It can also mean that someone who is מנוער מן המצוות will be מתגאה over those who are full of מצוות, like a רמון is of its seeds. And someone who is נקלה- a person that even the חמורות are קלות for him will be מתגאה over the נכבד- a person that the קלות are חמורות for him.
מהרש''א This doesn’t mean a literal נער or זקן. It means in terms of תורה. ישעי' calmed down when he said this. This קללה is the greatest of רוחניותדיק depravity of man. They can’t fall any lower and the גאולה must come.
Sheet V כ''י is compared to a bird- just like a bird can’t fly without its wings, so too כ''י can’t do anything without their גדולים.
"רב שמוחל על כבודו..."- because if he is מבטל his כבוד, he is מבטל his השפעה on כ''י, thereby being מבטל the קיום of כ''י.
ת''י סט- the מצוות of ה':
1. You can’t question them even when your מחשבה isn’t מתקיים (like the דור of עמרם). We must always remember "שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד". We must always walk around with מורא שמים saddling us. You can’t correct your רבי, even if you think you know better and even if you aren’t in from of him.
2. An אמתה תלמיד is someone who always does what he thinks his רבי would do, as if he is in front of him. If you question your רבי, you are questioning the שכינה.
3. A person must be מחשיב his רבי as if he’s more than a regular man.
גמרא- you can’t sit in his seat and you can’t stand in his place if he has a specific place for davening.
Before חרבן בית שני, there was a מצר around ירושלים and the Romans didn’t let anyone leave. They cut off the food and water supply. The גדולים felt that it was time to go out and negotiate. ר' יוחנן בן זכאי collaborated with אבא סקראי, the head of the בריונים. The בריונים didn’t want to let anyone leave ירושלים, they wanted to fight. The only person they let leave was a מת. So ר' יוחנן בן זכאי pretended to be dead, and he told אבא סקראי (his nephew) to keep them away from him. The בריונים really wanted to check and make sure that ר' יוחנן בן זכאי was dead, but they were משיג the ענין of מורא הרב וכבודו, and since אבא סקראי didn’t want them to pierce the body they didn’t.
It says in מסילת ישרים that הנהגות of טחיסות כבוד הרב are תולדות of the מדת הגאוה which has a negative effect on people. It turns the חכמים backwards and makes their דעת foolish. Even the young בחורים who barely know anything are מתגאה- they think that they are as great as their חכמים. Even the בריונים understood this and were מוסר נפש because of it.
פרקי אבות- משנה יא
ר' אלעזר בן יעקב lived in the fourth generation of תנאים. He was one of the students of ר' עקיבא.
Sheet I כ''י will be as many as the sand of the sea which can’t be counted. Characteristic of sand- you can dig and form it, but it will always return to its original form. כ''י also has this תחונה. Like sand, they are חוזר לצורתם. There will be generations where ב''י are small in number, but we will always return to our original צורה of רבוי. To prove this idea, look at the Holocaust and see how we are thriving today. It says in ויקרא, "לא מאסתם ולא געלתים לכלותם"- this is a הבטחה that ה' will never make us so dirty that we will be cast away.
יא רע''ב פרקליט- an advocate, a מלאך who is מדבר טוב on כ''י.
קטיגור- a מלאך who is a prosecutor. קטיגור- קורא תיגר- he calls out a טענה (ט and ת are אותיות מתחלפות). The פרקליט is also known as סניגר- שונא תיגר (ס and ש are אותיות מתחלפות).
ר' יונה תשובה is the סור מרע and מעש''ט is the עשה טוב. תשובה and מעש''ט are כסריס- כטריתים= shades. Shades are a מגן. תשובה and מעש''ט are a מגן from the פורענות- מכות וחלאים. פורענות come from עבירות. In order to ward off the פורענות, we need תשובה and מעש''ט.
Sheet Read the חזון איש story. The סניגר protected him against the קטיגורים.
"אחת" seems to be extra. It comes to teach us:
מאירי סניגר= 329, קטיגר= 328. After a person dies, he comes on his יום הדין before ה'. All a person needs to be saved is מצוה אחת. The גמרא in עירובין tells us that a person should live with the following mantra- "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- grab and eat, grab and drink because this world is like a banquet. Eat and drink because there will come a time where the opportunity will be gone. Chap every מצוה because it may be your last.
ילקוט שמעוני A person has three beloved connections in his life:
1. His family
2. His money
3. מעשיו הטובים
When he is dying, he summons his family and asks them, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה", and they answer him "אין שלטון ביום המות"- we have no sovereignty after you die. Next, he summons his money and asks, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה". His money answers, "לא יועיל הון ביום עברה". Lastly, he calls upon his מעש''ט and they say to him, "עד שלא תבא הרי אנו מקדימים לך שנא' והלך לפניך צדקיך"- your מעש''ט will go before you and save you.
לב אליהו Every yid must keep 613 מצוות. Attached to this חיוב, a person should choose a מצוה אחת that he is deeply attached and will be מוסר for it. He is זוכה to a פרקליט אחת, the greatest פרקליט, מלאך גבריאל.
Someone who can’t separate himself from a certain עבירה, he creates for himself a קטיגור- שטן. ריש לקיש says, "בתחילו יורד לפתות האדם לחטוא", and after he convinces you to do it, he goes up to ה' and is a קטיגור against you, and he comes back down and wreaks havoc.
ח''ח This לשון is used in order to teach us that we should keep each מצוה with such איכות- quality as if it’s the only one. You should do it completely and invest your entire heart into it במחשבה הנכונה ובשמחה. Then you will get a מלאך מליץ that is חזק and גבור to be מגן upon you ביום הדין. If you do an עבירה with געשמעק, you going to create a מלאך who is strong in a bad way. Depending on how you do the מצוה is what type of מלאך you will create. If you do it כמצות אנשים מלומדה, you will get a crippled מלאך.
חתם סופר ירידת הדורות is not in חכמה but the לב- הרגש of the מצוה. We now serve ה' with a לב אבן- without פנמיות. We live in a generation of reverse Muranoism.
מהרש''א "בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך..."- someone who does a מצוה in this world gets a פרקליט. We know that "מצוה גוררת מצוה". How is this? The מלאך that you created helps you. The same applies for an עבירה.
בינה לעתים "תשובה ומעש''ט כתריס לפני הפורענות"- when you do a מצוה , you create a מלאך מליץ טוב in that specific area. When you do תשובה and מעש''ט, a person creates פרקליטים כללים to protect him.
כוכבי אור What is the difference between מצוות and מעש''ט? They aren’t equal. "מעש''ט אין כונתם לשמירת התורה בפשטות אלא חובות העומדות מעל לחובות הרגילות"- מעש''ט are the obligations which stand above usual obligations, for example:
1. "כמה גדולה מעשי חייא"- did the חיוב of teaching תורה, but he went above and beyond. So מעש''ט is our חובות. Doing them in a great way shows אהבה and a connection to ה'.
2. "שאני ר' יחזאקל דבעל מעשים הוא"- you do it in the best possible way, not just to get away with it. This shows that you love to do it.
Why does it say תשובה before מעש''ט? To show us, "גדולה תשובה ממעש''ט". חז''ל tell us, "במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין...". Why? Because when you severe your connections with something, it is very hard, therefore תשובה is greater then מעש''ט.
"אמר ריש לקיש: גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כשגגות. גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כזכויות. כן מיראה, כן מאהבה"- תשובה is so great that when you do it מיראה, your חטאים במזיד become חטאים בשוגג. When you do תשובה from אהבה, your חטאים במזיד turn into זכויות. יראה is a lower מדרגה because you do it because you’re scared, not because you have it in you and you want to do it. אהבה is a greater level because you feel the desire to keep the מצוות within you.
There were seven things created before the world. One of them was תורה, "הסתכל באוריתא וברא עלמא" and one of them was תשובה because:
1. It’s למעלה מן הטבע- above the concept of time and place.
2. The world needed תשובה before it was created, it can’t exist without it.
מדרש "שאלו לחכמה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם חטאים תרדף שנאה"- when they asked intellect what the עונש of a חוטא is, it said that sinners should be chased by hate. Why? Because חטאים diminish טוב and are מרבה the רע, so they get רע.
"שאלו לנבואה (מדת הדין) חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם נפש החוטאת היא תמות"- נבואה said that he should die because your נפש is only here to be used למען ה'. So if you’re not using it למען ה', it must be taken away.
"שאלו לתורה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו יביא אשם ויתכפר"- he should bring a קרבן. But what if you’re living in גלות or there’s no בהמ''ק?
"שאלו להקב''ה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו עשה תשובה ויתכפר"- ה' said that he should do תשובה.
It says, "בראשית ברא אלוקים"- in the beginning ה' wanted to create the world במדת הדין. But ה' knew that the world couldn’t have a קיום that way. So he was מקדים the רחמים and set דין up as its partner as the פסוק says, "ביום עשה ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים"- both מידות. תשובה is because there is רחמים that is כלו רחמים.
The פסוק in תהלים says, "טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך". יורהmeans teaches. He doesn’t just give, he also teaches about תשובה, He teaches us how to implement it into our lives.
מלאכי sheet ואשובה אליכם- מוסג of ס''ד. If you take the first few baby steps, ה' will pull you over the hump.
מדרש sheet Open up for me a small opening. It must be the size of the eye of a needle- pierces through and through. You must be sincere and then ה' will open up for you.
רמח''ל Surely the קיום העולם is רחמים. It wouldn’t exist without it. But you may say that there is punishment. There is no מדת הדין that exacts punishment on a person. If it was from מדת הדין:
1. It would happen immediately, without a waiting period.
2. It would be with full fledged potency as is appropriate for someone who has the audacity not to listen to what ה' says.
3. There would be no תקון for the חטא.
Really, how can it be that someone can undo something that was contorted? If a person murders or is עובר on זנות, how can he go back? Can you really remove something you did from reality? ע''פ טבע you can’t. But:
1. We are given a grace period, don’t get destroyed right away.
2. The עונש itself isn’t to a point of destruction.
3. תשובה was given to the sinner as a חסד. When you remove your רצון to do bad, it’s as if you are removing the מעשה.
It’s like a person who made a vow and regrets entirely that he made it. He longs that he had never done it. You must feel the צער and suffering for what you did. By uprooting the רצון, you are uprooting the מעשה and you are granted כפרה. It says in ישעי', "וסר עונך וחטאתך תכופר".
ר' יוחנן הסנדלר is also mentioned in this משנה. He speaks about כנסיות. He was one of the תלמידים of ר' עקיבא. He came from אלכסנדרי', מצרים and that’s why he was called סנדלר. Others say that he was a shoemaker, so he was called by his profession.
מדרש כנסי'= כנס קה- a gathering for ה'. So if it’s a כנס קה, doesn’t it for sure have to be לשם שמים? We see from here that even if it’s a כנס קה, for a דבר מצוה, it is possible for it not to be לש''ש. It is only לש''ש if people have the correct conduct. The הנהגות between the people should be ישרות, with no personal נגיעות or בקוש כבוד.
ר' יונה כנסי'- אסיפה. So what makes it לש''ש? למען תורה ומצוות. What isn’t לש''ש? If he’s motivated by recognition and prestige. If when you make a כנסי' you’re doing it for the sake of your own כבוד, it’s not good. If you’re doing it לש''ש, everyone is working towards one כלליותדיק goal. But it you’re doing it not לש''ש, everyone has his own personal goal in mind and it won’t have a קיום because you’re not working together. It says, "רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום"- everyone in his heart has a different מחשבה. But when you’re working למען ה', היא תקום.
ת''י It can still be לשם שמים even if the essence of the כנסי' was for חול, with no שיכות to קדושה:
1. If the people involved act properly with each other
2. If the מחשבות are pure.
Such a כנסי' will be סופה להתקיים, meaning that:
1. The people within the כנסי' remain connected.
2. The עצה they had set out to do is still being done.
ה' has נחת רוח from this.
ר' חיים עוזר This is a סיבה and מסובב- the cause is סופה להתקיים and the effect is כנסי' לש''ש. If it was מתקיים, then obviously it was לש''ש.
גר''א "ותקרבון אלי כל ראשי שבטיכם וזקניכם ותאמרו... את כבודו ואת גדלו"- this is a כנסי' that was לש''ש. This was by מעמד הר סיני. It was נתקיים because everyone had ד''א. "ותקרבון אלי כלכן ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו"- this one wasn’t לש''ש. When they approached משה to request מרגלים, they approached בערבובי'- ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים, זקנים דוחפים את הראשים". From the beginning, there was a חסרון in ד''א, from the beginning it was doomed to fail. For the forty days that the מרגלים were in א''י, ב''י had to wander forty years in the מדבר until everyone from that generation died.
אבות רבי נתן כנסי' לש''ש- אכה''ג. Whatever they were פועל we still have today. When something endures, it is proof that it was done correctly. ושאינה לש''ש- כנסת אנשי דור הפלגה. They were אפיקורסים. How could you say that their entire wrongdoing was gathering שאינה לש''ש? "ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ ונעשה לנו שם"- they did it because they wanted to be recognized for their act. They were on a quest for גאוה and כבוד so it poisoned their endeavors and they became a כנסי' שאינה לש''ש. Had they not had that מחשבה, it wouldn’t have turned out like that.
The תורה wasn’t given to the מלאכים, it was given to בני אדם and בני אדם are בעלי נגיעות- their judgment is tainted by personal מחשבות and inclinations. So even when a person wants to do something לש''ש, the יצר turns him toward bad. We must be cognizant towards this. Therefore, before every פעולה, a person should proclaim his goal and he should do it verbally. He should additionally daven a short תפילה that the יצה''ר shouldn’t stop you and lead you to become ensnared in the net of personal נגיעות.
Sheet I כ''י will be as many as the sand of the sea which can’t be counted. Characteristic of sand- you can dig and form it, but it will always return to its original form. כ''י also has this תחונה. Like sand, they are חוזר לצורתם. There will be generations where ב''י are small in number, but we will always return to our original צורה of רבוי. To prove this idea, look at the Holocaust and see how we are thriving today. It says in ויקרא, "לא מאסתם ולא געלתים לכלותם"- this is a הבטחה that ה' will never make us so dirty that we will be cast away.
יא רע''ב פרקליט- an advocate, a מלאך who is מדבר טוב on כ''י.
קטיגור- a מלאך who is a prosecutor. קטיגור- קורא תיגר- he calls out a טענה (ט and ת are אותיות מתחלפות). The פרקליט is also known as סניגר- שונא תיגר (ס and ש are אותיות מתחלפות).
ר' יונה תשובה is the סור מרע and מעש''ט is the עשה טוב. תשובה and מעש''ט are כסריס- כטריתים= shades. Shades are a מגן. תשובה and מעש''ט are a מגן from the פורענות- מכות וחלאים. פורענות come from עבירות. In order to ward off the פורענות, we need תשובה and מעש''ט.
Sheet Read the חזון איש story. The סניגר protected him against the קטיגורים.
"אחת" seems to be extra. It comes to teach us:
מאירי סניגר= 329, קטיגר= 328. After a person dies, he comes on his יום הדין before ה'. All a person needs to be saved is מצוה אחת. The גמרא in עירובין tells us that a person should live with the following mantra- "חטף ואכל חטף ואשתי דהאי עלמא דאליזן מיניה כביא הילולא דמי"- grab and eat, grab and drink because this world is like a banquet. Eat and drink because there will come a time where the opportunity will be gone. Chap every מצוה because it may be your last.
ילקוט שמעוני A person has three beloved connections in his life:
1. His family
2. His money
3. מעשיו הטובים
When he is dying, he summons his family and asks them, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה", and they answer him "אין שלטון ביום המות"- we have no sovereignty after you die. Next, he summons his money and asks, "הצילני מדין המות הרע הזה". His money answers, "לא יועיל הון ביום עברה". Lastly, he calls upon his מעש''ט and they say to him, "עד שלא תבא הרי אנו מקדימים לך שנא' והלך לפניך צדקיך"- your מעש''ט will go before you and save you.
לב אליהו Every yid must keep 613 מצוות. Attached to this חיוב, a person should choose a מצוה אחת that he is deeply attached and will be מוסר for it. He is זוכה to a פרקליט אחת, the greatest פרקליט, מלאך גבריאל.
Someone who can’t separate himself from a certain עבירה, he creates for himself a קטיגור- שטן. ריש לקיש says, "בתחילו יורד לפתות האדם לחטוא", and after he convinces you to do it, he goes up to ה' and is a קטיגור against you, and he comes back down and wreaks havoc.
ח''ח This לשון is used in order to teach us that we should keep each מצוה with such איכות- quality as if it’s the only one. You should do it completely and invest your entire heart into it במחשבה הנכונה ובשמחה. Then you will get a מלאך מליץ that is חזק and גבור to be מגן upon you ביום הדין. If you do an עבירה with געשמעק, you going to create a מלאך who is strong in a bad way. Depending on how you do the מצוה is what type of מלאך you will create. If you do it כמצות אנשים מלומדה, you will get a crippled מלאך.
חתם סופר ירידת הדורות is not in חכמה but the לב- הרגש of the מצוה. We now serve ה' with a לב אבן- without פנמיות. We live in a generation of reverse Muranoism.
מהרש''א "בדרך שאדם רוצה לילך..."- someone who does a מצוה in this world gets a פרקליט. We know that "מצוה גוררת מצוה". How is this? The מלאך that you created helps you. The same applies for an עבירה.
בינה לעתים "תשובה ומעש''ט כתריס לפני הפורענות"- when you do a מצוה , you create a מלאך מליץ טוב in that specific area. When you do תשובה and מעש''ט, a person creates פרקליטים כללים to protect him.
כוכבי אור What is the difference between מצוות and מעש''ט? They aren’t equal. "מעש''ט אין כונתם לשמירת התורה בפשטות אלא חובות העומדות מעל לחובות הרגילות"- מעש''ט are the obligations which stand above usual obligations, for example:
1. "כמה גדולה מעשי חייא"- did the חיוב of teaching תורה, but he went above and beyond. So מעש''ט is our חובות. Doing them in a great way shows אהבה and a connection to ה'.
2. "שאני ר' יחזאקל דבעל מעשים הוא"- you do it in the best possible way, not just to get away with it. This shows that you love to do it.
Why does it say תשובה before מעש''ט? To show us, "גדולה תשובה ממעש''ט". חז''ל tell us, "במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין...". Why? Because when you severe your connections with something, it is very hard, therefore תשובה is greater then מעש''ט.
"אמר ריש לקיש: גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כשגגות. גדולה תשובה שזדונות נעשות לו כזכויות. כן מיראה, כן מאהבה"- תשובה is so great that when you do it מיראה, your חטאים במזיד become חטאים בשוגג. When you do תשובה from אהבה, your חטאים במזיד turn into זכויות. יראה is a lower מדרגה because you do it because you’re scared, not because you have it in you and you want to do it. אהבה is a greater level because you feel the desire to keep the מצוות within you.
There were seven things created before the world. One of them was תורה, "הסתכל באוריתא וברא עלמא" and one of them was תשובה because:
1. It’s למעלה מן הטבע- above the concept of time and place.
2. The world needed תשובה before it was created, it can’t exist without it.
מדרש "שאלו לחכמה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם חטאים תרדף שנאה"- when they asked intellect what the עונש of a חוטא is, it said that sinners should be chased by hate. Why? Because חטאים diminish טוב and are מרבה the רע, so they get רע.
"שאלו לנבואה (מדת הדין) חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה להם נפש החוטאת היא תמות"- נבואה said that he should die because your נפש is only here to be used למען ה'. So if you’re not using it למען ה', it must be taken away.
"שאלו לתורה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו יביא אשם ויתכפר"- he should bring a קרבן. But what if you’re living in גלות or there’s no בהמ''ק?
"שאלו להקב''ה חוטא מהו ענשו אמרה לו עשה תשובה ויתכפר"- ה' said that he should do תשובה.
It says, "בראשית ברא אלוקים"- in the beginning ה' wanted to create the world במדת הדין. But ה' knew that the world couldn’t have a קיום that way. So he was מקדים the רחמים and set דין up as its partner as the פסוק says, "ביום עשה ה' אלוקים ארץ ושמים"- both מידות. תשובה is because there is רחמים that is כלו רחמים.
The פסוק in תהלים says, "טוב וישר ה' על כן יורה חטאים בדרך". יורהmeans teaches. He doesn’t just give, he also teaches about תשובה, He teaches us how to implement it into our lives.
מלאכי sheet ואשובה אליכם- מוסג of ס''ד. If you take the first few baby steps, ה' will pull you over the hump.
מדרש sheet Open up for me a small opening. It must be the size of the eye of a needle- pierces through and through. You must be sincere and then ה' will open up for you.
רמח''ל Surely the קיום העולם is רחמים. It wouldn’t exist without it. But you may say that there is punishment. There is no מדת הדין that exacts punishment on a person. If it was from מדת הדין:
1. It would happen immediately, without a waiting period.
2. It would be with full fledged potency as is appropriate for someone who has the audacity not to listen to what ה' says.
3. There would be no תקון for the חטא.
Really, how can it be that someone can undo something that was contorted? If a person murders or is עובר on זנות, how can he go back? Can you really remove something you did from reality? ע''פ טבע you can’t. But:
1. We are given a grace period, don’t get destroyed right away.
2. The עונש itself isn’t to a point of destruction.
3. תשובה was given to the sinner as a חסד. When you remove your רצון to do bad, it’s as if you are removing the מעשה.
It’s like a person who made a vow and regrets entirely that he made it. He longs that he had never done it. You must feel the צער and suffering for what you did. By uprooting the רצון, you are uprooting the מעשה and you are granted כפרה. It says in ישעי', "וסר עונך וחטאתך תכופר".
ר' יוחנן הסנדלר is also mentioned in this משנה. He speaks about כנסיות. He was one of the תלמידים of ר' עקיבא. He came from אלכסנדרי', מצרים and that’s why he was called סנדלר. Others say that he was a shoemaker, so he was called by his profession.
מדרש כנסי'= כנס קה- a gathering for ה'. So if it’s a כנס קה, doesn’t it for sure have to be לשם שמים? We see from here that even if it’s a כנס קה, for a דבר מצוה, it is possible for it not to be לש''ש. It is only לש''ש if people have the correct conduct. The הנהגות between the people should be ישרות, with no personal נגיעות or בקוש כבוד.
ר' יונה כנסי'- אסיפה. So what makes it לש''ש? למען תורה ומצוות. What isn’t לש''ש? If he’s motivated by recognition and prestige. If when you make a כנסי' you’re doing it for the sake of your own כבוד, it’s not good. If you’re doing it לש''ש, everyone is working towards one כלליותדיק goal. But it you’re doing it not לש''ש, everyone has his own personal goal in mind and it won’t have a קיום because you’re not working together. It says, "רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום"- everyone in his heart has a different מחשבה. But when you’re working למען ה', היא תקום.
ת''י It can still be לשם שמים even if the essence of the כנסי' was for חול, with no שיכות to קדושה:
1. If the people involved act properly with each other
2. If the מחשבות are pure.
Such a כנסי' will be סופה להתקיים, meaning that:
1. The people within the כנסי' remain connected.
2. The עצה they had set out to do is still being done.
ה' has נחת רוח from this.
ר' חיים עוזר This is a סיבה and מסובב- the cause is סופה להתקיים and the effect is כנסי' לש''ש. If it was מתקיים, then obviously it was לש''ש.
גר''א "ותקרבון אלי כל ראשי שבטיכם וזקניכם ותאמרו... את כבודו ואת גדלו"- this is a כנסי' that was לש''ש. This was by מעמד הר סיני. It was נתקיים because everyone had ד''א. "ותקרבון אלי כלכן ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו"- this one wasn’t לש''ש. When they approached משה to request מרגלים, they approached בערבובי'- ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים, זקנים דוחפים את הראשים". From the beginning, there was a חסרון in ד''א, from the beginning it was doomed to fail. For the forty days that the מרגלים were in א''י, ב''י had to wander forty years in the מדבר until everyone from that generation died.
אבות רבי נתן כנסי' לש''ש- אכה''ג. Whatever they were פועל we still have today. When something endures, it is proof that it was done correctly. ושאינה לש''ש- כנסת אנשי דור הפלגה. They were אפיקורסים. How could you say that their entire wrongdoing was gathering שאינה לש''ש? "ויאמרו הבה נבנה לנו עיר ומגדל וראשו בשמים ונעשה לנו שם פן נפוץ על פני כל הארץ ונעשה לנו שם"- they did it because they wanted to be recognized for their act. They were on a quest for גאוה and כבוד so it poisoned their endeavors and they became a כנסי' שאינה לש''ש. Had they not had that מחשבה, it wouldn’t have turned out like that.
The תורה wasn’t given to the מלאכים, it was given to בני אדם and בני אדם are בעלי נגיעות- their judgment is tainted by personal מחשבות and inclinations. So even when a person wants to do something לש''ש, the יצר turns him toward bad. We must be cognizant towards this. Therefore, before every פעולה, a person should proclaim his goal and he should do it verbally. He should additionally daven a short תפילה that the יצה''ר shouldn’t stop you and lead you to become ensnared in the net of personal נגיעות.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)