Great Eitan Katz Post-Chupah Od Yeshama Video - Beautiful (but listen before Three Weeks)!

Very worthwhile, but listen before the three weeks start tomorrow...

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Rav Yudin, Rav Moshe Weinberger (talmid), & Rav Ari Waxman (grandson) Speaking at Azkara for Rav Dovid Lifshtiz, zt"l



HT Rav Ari Waxman.

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My Hamodia Piece in Tomorrow's Paper: Inter-Communal Animosity, the Chareidi Draft, and the Bread of Humiliation

Baruch Hashem, Hamodia's Friday Daily edition includes a piece I wrote looking at a deeper aspect of the conflict relating to the Chareidi draft. That comes out tomorrow morning but their online edition has it tonight.

The title of the piece is Inter-Communal Animosity, the Chareidi Draft, and the Bread of Humiliation

Here's the beginning:

The anger on both sides of the chareidi draft issue is palpable. The following observation risks sounding naïve by making a fundamental observation regarding a complicated issue: the chareidi and secular camps should theoretically get along splendidly. We have the perfect Yissachar-Zevulun relationship. The chareidi community in Eretz Yisrael provides the infinite merit of Torah learning to the entire Jewish people and provides the State with physical protection and security (Bava Basra 7b). On the other hand, the Israeli government grants exemptions from IDF service for yeshivah students, funds yeshivos and Bais Yaakov schools, and provides the chareidi community with a variety of other health and welfare benefits.

The easy answer is that secular people do not have any appreciation for the value of Torah and therefore view chareidim as “moochers” or “parasites” who should “share the burden.” The problem is that this explanation of secular Jews’ motivations oversimplifies the issue and conveniently places the blame and the burden of finding a solution squarely on the “other guy,” our more secular brethren. It absolves us of the need for self-reflection as a community.

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Rav Moshe Weinberger on Parshas Chukas - Speaking the Language of the Generation

Below, please find a write-up of Rav Weinberger's morning drasha from parshas Chukas. Baruch Hashem, this version reflects his review of the write-up. I'm trying something new by not including the original Herew text (except where it's relevant to understand a shoresh) to see if this makes it easier for most readers. Please let me know your feedback on this change. See here for past write-ups. Also, thousands of Rav Weinberger's shiurim are available onlin HERE. Please note that these drashos will only be available online for one month. Shalosh Sheudos will remain up. If you are interested in a particular drasha that is no longer online, you can email me and I'll send it to you IY"H, BL"N.

Rav Moshe Weinberger

Parshas Chukas 5773

The Language of the Generation

Regarding the nature of Moshe Rebbeinu’s sin in striking the rock to bring forth water for the Jewish people, Rav Shmuel Dovid Luzzatto, זצ"ל, the great-grandson of the Ramchal, wrote that “While Moshe Rebbeinu only committed on sin, the commentaries heaped thirteen or more sins upon him because each one attributed some novel sin based on his own understanding...” The Torah tells us very little about the reason for the drastic consequences of Moshe’s sin. We must therefore understand the commentaries’ explanations rather than inventing any new sins to add to the already-long list.

There is a well-known dispute between the Rambam (Shmonah Perakim, Ch. 4) and Rashi (on Bamidbar 20:12) regarding the nature of Moshe’s sin. According to the Rambam, his sin was excessive anger when he said (Bamidbar 20:10) “Listen, you rebels.” According to Rashi, however, his sin was disobeying G-d by hitting the rock when he was commanded to speak to the rock. While the Ramban takes issue with both of these explanations, the Maharal in Gur Areye and Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev in Kedushas Levi explain that on a deeper level, the Rambam and Rashi’s explanations are not mutually exclusive. Each refer to a different stage in one process. The process began with Moshe becoming angry and that anger caused him to disobey Hashem’s command to speak to the rock.

Hashem speaks to us in every generation through the Torah as if it is being given today. We must therefore understand what we must learn from the nature of Moshe’s sin in order to know what is right in our own generation. The first step in that process is understanding the difference between the events in parshas Chukas and the events in parshas Beshalach when Moshe first drew water from a rock (Shmos 17:1-7). There, the people lacked water and came to complain to Moshe, Moshe told Hashem that he was afraid they would kill him, Hashem told him to hit a rock, he did so, and water began flowing from the rock to fulfill the Jewish people’s need for water. What is the difference between these two events? Why was it a mitzva for Moshe to hit the rock shortly after the Jewish people left Egypt but a grave sin to do so in their last year in the desert before entering Eretz Yisroel?

The difference was the generation. Moshe was commanded to hit the rock for the generation who left Egypt. This older generation grew up as slaves in Egypt. They were familiar with the language of force and harshness. For them, when Moshe hit the rock, using force to extract the water, he was speaking the language of the old style of education understood by that generation. However, the generation in parshas Chukas lived forty years later. They grew up in the desert protected by Hashem who provided for all of their needs. They were a softer, weaker generation. This new generation, on the brink of entering Eretz Yisroel, understood a different language. Hashem expected Moshe to speak to the new generation in a language it understood, the language of conversation, speech, and dialogue. That is why He commanded Moshe only to speak to the rock and not to strike it.

In our times too, we see this distinction between the “old generation” and the “new generation.” Our parents and grandparents who lived through the war, grew up for the most part under the control of totalitarian regimes or dictatorships and were accustomed to the harsh language of force. That generation also educated its children using the language of strict discipline and force. That approach does not work in the current generation. The old generation was not broken by the old approach to education. But if anyone tries to use the old way of discipline on the new generation, he will only shatter the lives of his students. Such an approach to education no longer works. It is simply outdated.

What happened to Moshe Rebbeinu in parshas Chukas? When he lifted up his staff to hit the rock just as he had done forty years earlier for the previous generation, he revealed that, on his level, he did not appreciate the difference between the generations. As great as he was, he could not speak the language of the new generation. He was still educating people the way it was done in the “old country.” He did not understand how to communicate with the generation in its way, which was through speech, conversation, and dialogue. The new way is one of (Devarim 6:7) “And you shall teach your children and speak to them.” The way of the new generation is speaking with one’s children rather than using force to elicit their compliance.

It was not so much that Moshe was punished by not being allowed to bring the Jewish people into Eretz Yisroel. Rather, it was a natural consequence of the fact that he was no longer able to understand the true nature of the new generation. He could not be the person who would lead them into the land. But Yehoshua, his successor, did lead them into the land. It is known that Rashi (on Bamidbar 11:28) teaches us that Eldad and Medad has prophesized that “Moshe will die and Yehoshua will bring the Jewish people into the land of Israel.” What was Yehoshua’s approach to education? The pasuk at the end of the book of Yehoshua (24:27) tells us that at the end of his life, Yehoshua established a large stone as a monument and said that “it has heard all of the words of Hashem which He has spoken to us.” Yehoshua understood that one can also speak to a stone and it will hear. He understood that the nature of the new generation is one of conversation rather than coercion.

These two approaches to education also manifest themselves in a remarkable teaching by the Gemara (Sanhedrin 24a), which says:

Rav Oshea says, “What is meant by the pasuk (Zecharia 11:7), which says ‘And I will take two staffs. I will call one pleasantness and I will call the other violence.’ The one called ‘pleasantness’ refers to the sages of Eretz Yisroel, who discuss halacha sweetly with one another. ‘Violence’ refers to the sages of Bavel, who do violence against one another in their discussion of halacha.”

We therefore see from this Gemara that the way of education for the old generation, the generation of exile, Bavel, is violence, force, and coercion. But the way of education in Eretz Yisroel, the way of the new generation, the way of redemption and Moshiach, is one of pleasantness.

For reasons only truly known to Him, Hashem conducts the world in this way. Each generation has its own unique character. Some people may want to rail against this, asking, “Why does it have to be that way?”, “If it worked then, it should work now!” or “That’s our mesorah in education!” They can ask these questions but if they attempt to educate this generation the way the previous generations educated their children, it simply will not work.

Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Zohar 128a) even said in his time that while in previous generations the main point was strictness and fear of punishment, “For us, the matter is dependent on love.” In our generation too, we see that fear was the modus operendi for prior generations who lived in monarchies and dictatorships. To a large extent this worked. But we now live in democracies, countries in which everyone has a right to his opinion. Now, we communicate with one another by talking things over, with the staff of pleasantness. It goes without saying that we do not turn our houses into democracies, giving our children a vote on all household decisions. There must be authority, limitations, and boundaries. It is difficult to find the correct balance between dialogue with parental authority but we may not ignore the nature of the generation.

A friend of mine attended parent-teacher conferences for his sixth grade son one year. This son gave my friend a lot of aggravation at home, so he expected to hear a similar report from his son’s rebbe. But the rebbe’s report was glowing. After confirming that he and the rebbe were indeed referring to the same boy, my friend told the rebbe that he did not understand why his son acted so different in yeshiva than he did at home.  This rebbe was a baal teshuva from the Midwest with a very sweet, simple approach, and he asked my friend, “Do you every talk with your son?” After thinking for a few moments, he answered that he really hadn’t. He asked his son to do things. He learned with him, He disciplined him. He even told him he was doing a good job once in a while. But he never actually had a conversation with him. The rebbe then suggested that he should talk with his son because he has some very deep thoughts about things. We must educate our children in the context of dialogue, of actually communicating with them.

It is the same thing in the caustic bitter dispute between the Chareidi and the secular elements in Eretz Yisroel today. Both sides largely carry only the “staff of violence” in their dealings with one another. Each side may only skewer each other with the point of a pen, but that is still violence. Certain voices in the secular media condemn the Chareidim as parasites who are a greater threat to Israel than Iran. And some in the Chareidi camp compare anyone who disagrees with them with history’s worst anti-Semites. Neither side is, for the most part, willing to hear out the other side, to have a true conversation. A chassidishe friend of mine says that whenever he travels to Eretz Yisroel, he finds himself in conversations with secular Israelis and they inevitably wind up discussing the Chareidi draft issue. He explains his perspective and they explain theirs and at the end, they usually hear where he is coming from and he understands their perspective. But that can only happen when people engage in a true dialogue.

Persuasion through conversation is the way to bring redemption in this generation. In fact, the Hebrew word Moshiach, משיח, shares the same root as the word “שיחה,” “conversation.” The prophet Yeshaya (11:4) says about Moshiach that “He will smite the land with the rod of his mouth and will put the wicked to death with the breath of his lips.” Using only his mouth, words of dialogue, teaching, conversation, and persuasion, he will turn the wicked around and bring about the ultimate redemption. May we merit to recognize the nature of our generation and education our generation according to its unique path and thereby see the revelation of Moshiach soon in our days.

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Videos of African American Ger Tzedek's Tena'im, Chasuna, & Mitzva Tantz in Williamsburg - Beautiful!



HT to A Simple Jew for this!

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Bilvavi Author Shiur and Appointments Sunday May 12th in Flatbush!

Join Rav Itamar Shwartz,the author of
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh בלבבי משכן אבנה
Sunday May 12th 3PM
online registration »»»

At Cong. Shevis Achim
1517 Avenue H,
off of East 16th St., Flatbush
• Separate seating for men & women
• Drasha delivered in easy hebrew
• $20 admission (voluntary)
$125 sponsorship
(includes private meeting with the Rav)
• see schedule below
online registration »»»
pre-registration necessary ONLY for sponsorship

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SCHEDULE
1:00 – 1:25 RESERVED(RB)private appoinment
1:30 – 1:55 private appointment
2:00 – 2:25 RESERVED(RS)private appoinment
3:00 – 4:00 Drasha
4:30 – 4:55 RESERVED(CJ)private appointment
5:00 – 5:25 private appointment
5:30 – 5:55 private appointment
6:00 – 6:25 private appoinment

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for further info
till May 3rd - 212.461.1130
after May 5th - 917.301.7047

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proceeds earmarked for printing
more Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh seforim
www.bilvavi.net | info@bilvavi.net

If you cannot make it but would like to donate online, you may do so at Bilvavi.us.

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New Community in Ramat Beit Shemesh for Bnei Aliya! (Update - Video Fixed)

 

Check out this video promoting the new community in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The city calls it "Ramat Hamishkafayim," but the people there who are working on developing it as a Torah/growth centered community are calling it "Ramat Haro'eh," after Rav Kook. Check out this video I just found on it.

R. Judah Mischel is involved and appears in the video. Anyone thinking of aliya, or finding a growing community in Israel for people who already live there, very worthwhile to check this out. Very exciting!

UPDATE (4/17/13): The host of this video apparantly took it down and put up a revised video in its place. This post is now updated with the new video. Kol tuv!

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I Need to Know Who Gave This Shiur! - The Problem of the Generation

I need some help. There is a great shiur given by a Rav and I got the recording from R' Dovid Teitelbaum's blog, in a great post on speaking honestly about the problem of our generation.

You can get the shiur he linked to HERE. Can you listen to it because it cuts right to the core and talks about what Rav Weinberger's been crying about? he starts off by telling some heartrending stories that he has heard about as a Rav in Brooklyn I think. Can you please let me know who's giving this shiur? I think from something he says at the end that he has a very well known father in America at least as far back as the 1940's.  Sorry for not recognizing his voice. Thank you!

Related reading: Rav Moshe Weinberger: Just One Thing is Missing: the Soul

 

Related MP3: Rav Weinberger:The Long Way and the Short Way, Especially in a Filtered World 

 

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Guest Post - Technology in the Third Beis Hamikdash

I have had conversations with people of the years about how technology would be incorporated into the third Beis Hamikdash when it will be built. But my friend wrote up a "handbook" for those offering korbanos in the third Beis Hamikdash, imagining in detail what it would be like, and incorporating many halachos in the essay as well. So enjoy the below guest post and IY"H, may we be zoche to see how technology will be incorporated soon in our days!

Bais Hamikdash Tech Update

            Due to several documented mix ups with korbanos, the Mikdash Committee has instituted new technology and procedures.

            First, all animals to be sold for sacrifices on the Temple Mount area have already had magnetic bar codes firmly affixed to their hooves. Birds have a smaller tag attached to the right foot. Anyone bringing in their own animals for korbanos will have similar bar codes affixed in the examination area. There will be no additional charge for this service.

            All of the Klei Shares have embedded tags as well.

            Next, korbanos need to be registered on the system with full owner information and korban designation before offering. This can be done online, by cellphone app, or on one of the dedicated terminals installed on the base of the temple mount. Any changes in owner information (particularly for korban pesach group status) needs to be completed before shechita. No exceptions.

            Owner information will be checked with Department of Health records in real time. A chatas whose owner has died will not be offered.

            Temurah registrations, while discouraged, will still be accepted by the system.

            All Kohanim On Duty have been assigned small portable scanners. Before shechita, the KOD must scan the animal as well as the Kli Shares to be receiving the blood. If the animal is in the wrong location (i.e. slaughter in the north is required), the system is programmed to alert the KOD with both audio and visual alerts.

            Several help stations have been strategically placed throughout the Azarah. If the KOD has forgotten which avodah he needs to perform or where, he can just scan the kli and a full diagram will come up.

            For semicha, the owner(s) will receive a text message when their animal is ready to go. They will then enter the azarah and proceed directly to the automated hoist number of their korban, perform the semicha, and leave. More viewing of the avodas can be done by the AzarahCam at any time.

            Due to concerns about tahara and chometz, we will no longer allow people to bring flour, oil, wine, etc. from home to be offered (with the exception of the kohen gadol). Therefore, we have purchased all the supplies needed for menachos and sell them using our system.

            The system will go like this. The person purchasing a mincha will enter their information and the korban needed, whether it is challos or wafers, deep fried or shallow fried, kohen owned, etc. A ticket will be generated and sent to the bakery to fill the order. For a minchas nesachim, the ticket will not be generated until the blood of the associated korban is sprinkled. The bakery employee will place the finished mincha in the window facing the kodesh in an ordinary container.  The kohen will take the mincha, scan it for the owner info, and place it in a kli shares while verbally consecrating it for its owner. He will then proceed to perform the proper avodah of the mincha. The system will assist in reminding the kohen of the proper procedure, whether it needs waving, hagasha, kemitza, etc. with audible alerts. Any questions on identifying a particular mincha can be easily resolved with a quick scan of the kli.

            A korban Todah will be prevented from being slaughtered until all the loaves have been baked.

            Non Jews are not required to pay for minchas nesachim.

            Salt will be added to all offerings at no charge.

            The system will also arrange the proper order of offerings. This has previously been a very difficult principle to achieve by hand. For example, chatas blood comes before olah blood, but olah limbs are offered before chatas sacrificial parts. The queuing will be done automatically and signal the nearest KOD to perform the next avodah. Audio and visual alerts will warn any KOD about to perform an avodah out of order.

            Additional tags will be affixed to the cut up parts of the korban in the flaying area, near the sinks. Absolutely NO meat is to be placed in the Mikdash Refrigerators without proper tags.

            The Mikdash Refrigerator doors have sensors as well.  Notifications will be sent out for any meat that is nossar, which will now be easy to locate.

            Tracking the hides are important for determining ownership. Depending on circumstances, the hide may belong to the mikdash, the kohanim, or the donor. We will auction off each hide and track the sale price to the owners. At the end of each day, all of the kohanim that swiped in (even those with a mum that performed non-avodah labor, but not Mikdash employees) will be automatically credited their share by direct deposit.

            Cooking pots have been tagged as well. Pots have to be koshered after use with korbanos, within the time frame allowed for eating the korban, unless the pot is used for another korban, which resets the clock again. This system will track each pot and signal those needing koshering.

            The mizbeach has been outfitted with special metal-free sensors. As the kli filled with blood approaches for sprinkling, the KOD will be gently prompted as to which corners to approach and the proper order, and whether sprinkling needs to be done above or below the red line. Similarly, birds post melikah will be sensed if the sprinkling is about to be performed in the wrong place.

            After the afternoon Tamid has been offered, the system will go into lockdown mode, and no further sacrifices may be brought until the next morning. Any blood waiting to be sprinkled is to be placed in one of the oscillators until the morning. The next shift of kohanim will be able to identify the blood through the tag on the kli.

            The Ulam has sensors installed at the doorway to prevent any korbanei chutz from entering lifnim accidentally.

            Sensors and alarms have been set up around all the exits. If a korban that is not allowed to leave the area approaches the exit, an alarm will sound. Similarly, the system will guard against theft of Mikdash property.

            Outside in the Ezras Nashim, large screen displays have been installed with real time information on offering status. Text or email alerts to the owners are available at no extra charge. 

The Mikdash Bank

            Previously, there were 13 ‘horns’ that held coins used for purchasing sacrifices for when the altar was unoccupied. The Kohen entering the room where they were stored had to enter there barefoot in clothing without a hem or pockets etc. -a difficult procedure. We have eliminated this, and set up a Mikdash Bank, with multiple accounts. Balance and activity information is openly available online. All donors will receive a receipt number that can be tracked, with their name listed if they desire. Any withdrawals will list the kohen signing off on it, as well as the tag number of the animal purchased. The main branch of the bank is located near the base of the Temple Mount, eliminating the need for private money changers.

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Chometz, Matza, and the Chareidi Draft

Although the notion that 100% of our children should learn only Torah full-time, indefinitely, into adulthood is outside of our mesorah, the current compromise in E"Y regarding the Chareidi Draft has been called a decree of "shmad," forced conversions. In such a situation, even actions which would be permitted according to halacha become forbidden if those requiring it are attempting to take us away from the Torah. Generally speaking, this compromise provides that approximately 75% of our sons should go on to army service/national service (which will enable them to work legally) after age 21.
 

Because this agreement comes shortly before Pesach, some have hyperbolically applied the line from the Hagada, "ולבן ביקש לעקור את הכל," "And Lavan tried to uproot everything" to the actions of Livni, Bennet, and Netanyahu. Indeed, the initial letters of the last names of these three individuals spell "Lavan." But is it true that our children will leave the path of Torah and yiras Shamayim if they do not stay forever in the four walls of the Beis Medrash? Is it the ratzon Hashem, the will of Hashem, that 100% of our children remain forever in yeshiva and never bring their Torah into the world?
 

I would like to quote a section from the Zohar (183b - Don't worry, it's not too kabbalistic) which also relates to Pesach and is very enlightening with regard to the current situation.

The Zohar asks a question. Chometz is so horrible that one must seek it out and destroy it, one may not own even a single crumb of chometz, and if chometz gets into a pot on Pesach, it is not nullified no matter how great the proportion of non-chomitzdik food is to the chometz. Why are we so strict? We know the seforim teach that chometz is a literal manifestation of the yetzer hara, the "other side," i.e., everything that we hold abhorrent and all aspects of this physical world which bring us away from Torah, emunah, and yiras Shamayim. So if chometz is so horrible, why is permitted the rest of the year?! The Zohar answers with an parable and then it spells out the lesson as follows: 

למלכא דהוה ליה בר יחידאי וחלש, יומא חד הוה תאיב למיכל, אמרו ייכול בריה דמלכא (ס"א מיכלא דאסוותא) אסוותא דא ועד דייכול ליה לא ישתכח מיכלא ומזונא אחרא בביתא, עבדו הכי, כיון דאכל ההוא אסוותא אמר מכאן ולהלאה ייכול כל מה דאיהו תאיב ולא יכיל לנזקא ליה, כך כד נפקו ישראל ממצרים לא הוי ידעי עקרא ורזא דמהימנותא אמר קודשא בריך הוא יטעמון ישראל אסוותא ועד דייכלון אסוותא דא לא אתחזי להון מיכלא אחרא, כיון דאכלו מצה דאיהי אסוותא למיעל ולמנדע ברזא דמהימנותא, אמר קודשא בריך הוא מכאן ולהלאה אתחזי לון חמץ וייכלון ליה דהא לא יכיל לנזקא לון

[There is a parable of] a king who had an only son who became sick. One day, the son wanted to eat. [The doctors] said, let the king's son eat [a certain] healing food. Until he completes his regimen of eating this food, do not let any other kind of food even remain in the house. They did this. Once the son had eaten this healing food, [the doctor] said, "From now on, let him eat whatever he desires. Now, it cannot harm him." Similarly, when the Jewish people left Egypt, they did not yet know the foundation and the secret of emunah. The Holy One, Blessed be He, therefore said, "Let the Jewish people taste of [the bread of] healing, [Matza,] and while they are eating this medicine, let them not even see any other kind of food. But once they have eaten the Matza, which is the medicine which causes a person to ascend and to know the secret of emunah," Hashem says, "From now on, they may see chometz and eat it because it can no longer harm them."

Based on the Zohar, we are not forbidden to have anything to do with the physical world of eating, drinking, and working, just like we are not forbidden from eating kosher chometz during the year. When the Jewish people were young, their faith was weak so they would not have been able to maintain a connection with Hashem if they had contact with the physical world. That, however, was a state of sickness, when we had weak faith. Once we strengthened our emunah by eating Matza, the "bread of emunah" in the right way,  we could begin relating to the physical world and elevate it, rather than have it bring us down.

On an individual level, when our children are young, we have to have pure Torah with a clean environment with no contact with outside, worldly influences wherever possible. However, for reasons only He truly understands, Hashem's ratzon is not that we remain that way forever. For the majority of people, their tafkid is to eventually go out into the world and attempt to elevate the world (and not the other way around). We have to consume only the bread of faith for a while when we are young to build up our emunah. That is while we are weak and vulnerable. But once we have emunah, the outside world should not frighten us. It should be "frightened" of us because we will elevate it and we will not be brought down by it. In the words of the Zohar, when Jews have emunah, the chometz of the world "can no longer harm them." Hashem's plan is that the time of non-exposure to this world is temporary, while we are young and weak. But that non-exposure should not exist indefinitely.

May we be zoche to raise our children right for the first 21 years of their lives so that  when they go out into the world, as indeed it is the will of Hashem that the majority of them do at some point, we do not need to be afraid that they will all leave the path of Torah. We have surely failed in our role as parents and rebbeim if that is a realistic fear. Rather, they will go out filled with emunah so that they can fulfill Hashem's desire "להיות לו דירה בתחתונים," "to have a dwelling place in the lower world."

-Dixie Yid

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Article by R. Yitzchok Adlerstein on Chareidi Draft

I found this article on the topic very interesting by R. Yitzchok Adlerstein from Cross Currents. Here's the first couple of paragraphs of the article:

The coalition government government’s plan for drafting charedim should give rise to some sighs of relief, and some guarded optimism. That is not likely to happen, because it is just not the way charedim in Israel react (at least publicly), and because there are definite grounds for concern.

It could have been much worse. Hence, the sigh of relief. Non-charedi Israels were determined to address the financial burden they believe is placed upon them by a huge community that is underemployed and expanding. Something was going to happen. As one major Torah figure said (privately, of course), “After decades of treating them like garbage, we should be surprised when they want to treat us the same way?” Many feared that the plan would be draconian and counterproductive. If it went too far, it would undo all the quiet progress that has already been made providing alternatives for those who do not find it within them to spend their time in productive, full-time learning and want to enter the work-force, or serve in Tzahal. While the public rhetoric in the community strenuously opposes both, literally thousands are voting with their feet. Programs to provide academic and vocational skills to charedi men and women are booming. The charedi contingent in the army has established itself, although the government’s performance in supporting it has been lackluster. It looked like economics was already forcing change, at a rate that was likely to accelerate. If the government would go too far, it would be taken as a gezeras shmad (which is in fact what one major Israeli Rosh Yeshiva called any plan to draft any number of students) and force all charedim to resist.

This did not happen. Like the plan or not, it does show some serious thought and consideration.

Click here to read more.

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New Maccabeats Pesach Video - Les Mis Songs to the Pesach Story

 

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Rav Moshe Weinberger - Yisro 5773 - Mending Broken Vessels

Below, please find a write-up of Rav Weinberger's morning drasha from the Parshas Yisro. Baruch Hashem, this version reflects his review of the write-up. See here for past write-ups. Also, thousands of Rav Weinberger's shiurim are available onlin HERE. Please note that these drashos will only be available online for one month. Shalosh Sheudos will remain up. If you are interested in a particular drasha that is no longer online, you can email me and I'll send it to you IY"H, BL"N.

Rav Moshe Weinberger

Parshas Yisro 5773

Mending our Vessels

When Hashem gave us the Torah on Har Sinai, He was our Rebbe, our Melamed, and He brought us into His “yeshiva” in order to give us the Torah. Every morning, we refer to Hashem as “המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל,” “the Teacher of Torah to His people, Israel.” As the pasuk (Devarim 4:5) says, “רְאֵה לִמַּדְתִּי אֶתְכֶם חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים,” “See, I have taught you ordinances and statutes.” We learn many of the principles of chinuch, educating our children and ourselves, from how Hashem gave us the Torah. For example, the Torah teaches that the manner in which Hashem gave the Torah was (Devarim 5:4) “...פָּנִים בְּפָנִים דִּבֶּר ה' עִמָּכֶם,” “Hashem spoke with you face to face...” From this we learn that a rebbe or morah must engage directly with his or her students and not in a backhanded way which is not truly directed at who the students are and what they need.

Rav Yaakov Galinsky, שליט"א, one of the last great magidim, quoted a fascinating Midrash from Koheles Raba 3:15:

ראויין היו ישראל בשעה שיצאו ממצרים שתנתן להם תורה מיד אלא אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא עדיין לא בא זיוון של בני משעבוד טיט ולבנים יצאו ואין יכולין לקבל תורה מיד מלה"ד למלך שעמד בנו מחליו ואמרו לו ילך בנך לאיסכולי שלו אמר עדיין לא בא זיוו של בני ואתה אומר ילך בנך לאיסכולי שלו אלא יתעדן בני שנים ושלשה ירחים במאכל ובמשתה ויבריא ואחר כך ילך לאיסכולי שלו כך אמר הקב"ה עדיין לא בא זיוון של בני משעבוד טיט ולבנים יצאו ואני נותן להם את התורה אלא יתעדנו בני ב' וג' חדשים במן ובאר ושלו ואח"כ אני נותן להם את התורה אימתי בחדש השלישי

The Jewish people were fit to be given the Torah as soon as they left Egypt. But Hashem said "The radiance of their health has not yet returned to my children.  They have just left the slavery, mortar, and bricks and they cannot receive the Torah immediately.” This is comparable to a king whose son has just survived a serious illness and people begin to say “Your son should go back to school.” [The king answers,] “The radiance of my son’s health has not yet returned and you say that he should go back to his school?! Instead, let him take it easy for two or three months with food and drink in order to recover and afterward, he can go back to his school.” So too, Hashem said, “The radiant health of of my children has not yet returned from the slavery, mortar, and bricks from which they just left. Shall I give them the Torah?! Instead, let them take it easy for two or three months with the mann, the well, and quail, and afterward, I will give them the Torah. When? In the third month[, Sivan].

We learn a fundamental principle of education from this Midrash. One can only act as a vessel to receive the Torah if he feels like a “mentch,” with a sense of dignity and wholeness. Otherwise, he is a broken vessel, and a broken vessel cannot contain the light of Torah. We can see this principle illustrated through several stories. Rav Galinsky relates that although he was never in a concentration camp, he lived in a displaced persons camp in Berlin immediately after the War. At that time, once the War was over, the enormity of what everyone had been through and what they had lost began to sink in. The camp was in a constant state of mourning. The sounds of crying, groaning, and weeping came from all directions at all hours of the day and night; “Everything is lost!” “Everyone was killed!” “There is no point in living!” The brokenness of our people at that time stood out in stark relief when, one day, a young man came to Rav Galinsky and asked him to officiate at his marriage to young woman in the camp. It is known that a number of weddings took place at that time in the camps, but this was the first one and Rav Galinsky was taken aback. When he asked the young man if his kallah, his bride, would cover her hair, he responded that he thought so, but that he did not even have a little piece of cloth to use as a tichel, a hair covering. This was the state of the brokenness of our people at that time. They managed to find a piece of cloth and they held the chasunah, although everyone in attendance had only the torn clothing on their backs to wear for the occassion. Reporters even came to cover the “crazy” Jews who were trying to build a new life after losing everything.  

Our people were broken after the War. When I was little, I would look at an album of pictures taken shortly after the War in America of my parents and the family members who had survived the concentration camps and managed to come to America. I was taken aback by the fact that none of them wore yarmulkes and that the women did not dress in an orthodox manner. I asked my father to explain this. Sighing, he tried to explain to me that it was very difficult after the war to rebuild a life of Shabbos, kashrus, yarmulkes, and the like. It wasn’t that they lacked faith or had any great theological questions because of the Holocaust. Really, it was a case of  “משעבוד טיט ולבנים יצאו ואין יכולין לקבל תורה מיד,” “they have just left the slavery, mortar, and bricks and they cannot receive the Torah immediately.” Everything and everyone they had, including their sense humanity, had been taken from them. They were broken vessels and needed time to come back to themselves in order to regain their ability to receive the Torah. The “radiance” of life never returned to them. 

As a child, I was once at a friend’s house and his non-frum uncle, who was a survivor, was visiting. He asked me what we were learning in yeshiva. I told him that we were learning Bava Metzia. He asked what page were on, and when I responded, he put his arm over his head to cover it, since he had no yarmulke, and began to recite the page of Gemara I was learning by heart. My friend asked why he didn’t just wear a yarmulke and he responded vaguely that we simply did not understand. Some people were so broken that they were never able to heal and re-receive the Torah. 

Dovid Hamelech summed this up when he said (Tehillim 116:7-8) “שׁוּבִי נַפְשִׁי לִמְנוּחָיְכִי כִּי-ה' גָּמַל עָלָיְכִי. כִּי חִלַּצְתָּ נַפְשִׁי מִמָּוֶת אֶת-עֵינִי מִן-דִּמְעָה אֶת-רַגְלִי מִדֶּחִי,” “Return, my soul, to your rest because Hashem has dealt generously with you for You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.” One’s soul can rest only after it has been rescued from death, tears, and stumbling. We can only receive the Torah after “בא זיוון של בני,” Hashem’s children have returned to a state of health. 

It is well-known that when the Satmar Rav first came to Williamsburg after the War, there were very few survivors from Hungary who were able to join him. He began giving a Gemara shiur and at that time, there were only four or five people in attendance. They were learning Chullin and as soon as he began giving the shiur the first day, he started telling stories of tzadikim and giving chizuk. The second day of the shiur, he again started the Gemara but continued telling more stories. The third day, after telling a few stories, he started asking people how they were doing, whether they were able to find jobs, and the like. Finally, on about the fourth day of the shiur, one of the men asked him, “Nu, Rebbe, the Gemara?” The Rebbe answered him, “Does your Gemara have a daf alef, a page 'one?’” “No,” the man answered, “no Gemara has a daf alef.” The Satmar Rav then explained, “Do you know what daf alef of the Gemara is? Feeling like a mentch. Having a little chizuk. Having someone ask, ‘how are you doing?,’ ‘Did you get that job interview?’ That is daf alef of the Gemara.” These broken Jews around the table needed to begin with daf alef. 

This is a great principle in educating our children, other people’s children, and even ourselves. It is brought in Chayei Moharan (432) that Rebbe Nachman taught not to push children too much because you don’t know what a boy or girl is going through in life. Many children grow up in difficult environments. It is very hard to push a child to do his or her homework if there is a divorce, some sort of abuse, or a serious illness at home. Rebbe Nachman continued “ואי אפשר לבאר הדבר הזה, והוא ברור למשכיל, ונצרך מאד למלמדים, וכן לכמה ענינים. כי זהו כלל גדול, שלא לדחוק עצמו ביותר על שום דבר, רק בהדרגה ובמיתון,” “It is impossible to explain this matter properly but it is clear to those who are wise and is extremely important for teachers and so too in many other areas. This is a great principle: Do not push yourself more than is appropriate in any matter, rather it should be gradually and patiently.”

We see that Rebbe Nachman teaches that even with our own growth, we must not force our selves to grow until we fulfill our own basic human needs. I know a morah in a girls’ high school who told me that the school keeps a very private file of issues that girls are dealing with at home so that their teachers can keep this in mind in school. They will know if a girl’s home has some serious sickness, divorce, abuse, or any other serious disruption in her life so they can take this into account when working with the girls.

Rav Galinksy related another story from shortly after the War. Many of the survivors who made their way to Eretz Yisroel settled in Bnei Brak. The residents there found two apartments for a group of orphan girls in one apartment building. Because all of these girls had lost their entire families, the apartments were constantly filled with sadness, mourning, and tears. Finally, one of the girls became a kallah, got engaged. She was the first girl in the group to get engaged and the Shabbos before her chassuna, during her Shabbos Kallah, the girls broke out into song and began singing zmiros together for the first time. One of the neighbors ran down to the Chazon Ish, זצ"ל, complaining, “הקול באישה ערוה! יש למחות!,” “It’s Kol Isha, a woman is singing! We should protest!” The Chazon Ish asked him who was singing and he answered that it was the orphan girls in the apartment. The Chazon Ish answered, “They’re singing!? They’re finally singing! Let them have a little joy! You can take a Shabbos walk in order to avoid hearing them, but the girls must continue singing.” Their “radiance” was finally returning after all the years of misery. 

When teaching other people or even trying to learn and grow ourselves, we must realize that a person must be a “mentch,” must heal and have human dignity in order to become a solid vessel to contain the Torah. Torah which is poured into צובראכינער כלים, broken vessels, will only spill out. We must build our children and ourselves up so that we will be able to receive and hold onto the Torah. That is why Chazal (Avos 3:20) say “אם אין דרך ארץ, אין תורה,” “Without the way of the earth, there is no Torah.” People must have their basic human needs met, must be able to smile, must have the “radiance of their good health” back before they can truly receive the Torah.

 

May Hashem fill all of our needs and make us proper כלים, vessels, so that we may fulfill our ultimate purpose of receiving, learning, and fulfilling the Torah.

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