Interpreting prophetic visions

Hi,

"Do not be seduced by Rambam's statement that prophetic parables are general messages, parts of the parable having no meaning and only beautifying the parable. It is not so; no element of Divine prophecy is meaningless."

(Abarbanel to Zecharyah 1:8)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Why chesed [kindness] matters so much

Hi,

"The Talmud says that one who only studies Torah, and does not engage in kindness, is as though he has no Gd to protect him, as though he had no true Gd, Gd-forbid. This is because Gd's traits are acts of kindness, and one is supposed to follow Gd's traits."

(R' Shmuel Eideles, Maharsha to Avodah Zarah 17b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

What we say and what we do

Hi,

"At first, one comes to shul and stands and declares before Gd that he will sanctify His Name in the world as do the celestial hosts of Heaven. In the course of this he departs the Beit Midrash and someone offends his honor, and fire comes from his mouth and he removes his mind entirely from serving Gd, and he dirties his soul with various prohibitions, harmful speech, gossip, strife, mockery, sometimes also theft and taking by force.

"Within some hours he returns to the Beit Midrash to daven minchah with the community before Gd, and he returns and cloaks himself in the sanctity of an angel, saying, 'We will sanctify Your Name in the world, as they sanctify it in the Heavens!'"

(R' Yisrael Meir Kagan (Chafetz Chaim), Shem Olam II Chapter 11)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Jewish Unity

Hi,

"Regarding Esav there were six people and they were listed as many "lives", as it is written, "And Esav took his wives, his sons and his daughters, and all of the lives of his house."

"Yaakov had seventy lives and they were listed as one "life", as it is written, "And they were, the whole life, those who emerged from Yaakov."

"Esav worships many gods, and so his people are described as many lives. Yaakov worships the One Gd, and so he is described as one life."

(Midrash, Vayyikra Rabbah 4:6)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Prayer and Peace

Hi,

"Intense prayer is a form of creating peace, for prayer brings peace between Israel and their Father in Heaven."

(Rav Shemuel Eideles, Maharsha to Shabbat 127b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Types of Biblical Prophecy

Hi,

"The power of refined souls which receive Divine inspiration as prophecy is not uniform.

"When there was honour in Israel, before they were exiled, there was no need to interpret prophecy. For example: 'Behold, a son is born to the house of David, and his name is Yoshiyahu.' It was clear on its own.

"After the exile, prophecies are visions and they require interpretation, like the visions of Daniel, which Daniel could not have understood without an angel to interpret them."

(Ibn Ezra to Zecharyah 1:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Collective Punishment

Hi,

"The Torah says, 'That which is hidden is for HaShem our Gd; that which is revealed is for us and our descendants forever [עד עולם].' Why does the Torah include dots on 'for us and our descendants' and on the ע in עד?

"It teaches that Gd did not punish [communally] for hidden sin until the Jews crossed the Jordan, per R' Yehudah.

"R' Nechemiah asked: Does Gd ever punish [communally] for hidden sin? It says, 'That which is hidden is for HaShem our Gd… forever!' Rather: Just as Gd did not punish for hidden sin, so He did not punish for public sin until the Jews crossed the Jordan."

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 43b)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

On surrogate motherhood

Hi,

"To use another person as an 'incubator' and then take from her the child she carried and delivered for a fee is a revolting degradation of maternity and an affront to human dignity."

(Lord R’ Immanuel Jakobovitz, public statement, cited by R' J. David Bleich in Contemporary Halakhic Problems Vol. 1 pg. 106)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Which Succot did the Jews use?

Hi,

"Initially the Torah wrote בסכת ("in huts"), and later it wrote בסוכת (also "in huts", but spelled differently) to show that they lived in two types of Succot - (1) The Succot of the clouds of glory, and (2) the actual Succot when they lay siege to the cities in the war of Sichon and Og."

(Rabbi Avraham Danzig, Chayyei Adam 146)

Good moed,
Mordechai

Bring the children to learn

Hi,

"It was taught: Once R’ Yochanan ben Berokah and R’ Elazar Chisma went to great R’ Yehoshua in Peki’in. He said to them: What novelty was stated in the study hall today?

"They responded: We are your students, and we drink your water.

"He replied: Still, it is not possible to have a study hall without a novelty. Whose Shabbat was it?

"They replied: It was the Shabbat of R’ Elazar ben Azaryah.

"He asked: What was the lesson topic?

"They answered: The section of Hakhel [the mitzvah of gathering the nation to hear sections of the Torah read aloud by the king at the site of the Beit haMikdash, every seven years].

"He asked: What did he say?

"They answered: He taught: “Why do the children come? In order to give reward to those who bring them.”

"He said: You had a great gem in your hands, and you tried to make me lose it!"

(Talmud, Chagigah 3a)

Good moed,
Mordechai

The Joy of Succot

Hi,

"Although there is a mitzvah of rejoicing on all holidays, there was an extra joy in the Temple on the holiday of Succot, as it is written, ‘And you shall rejoice before HaShem your Gd for seven days.’

"How did they do this? On the eve of the first Yom Tov they would establish a place for women above and men below in the Temple, to prevent the groups from mixing, and then they began to rejoice from the night following the first Yom Tov. On each day of Chol haMoed they would begin to celebrate after they brought the daily afternoon afternoon, for the duration of the day and the entire night."

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Yom Tov 8:12)

Good moed,
Mordechai

Hillel's Song

Hi,

"They said that Hillel, when rejoicing at the Simchat Beit haShoevah, used to say, ‘If I am here then all is here, if I am not here then who is here?’ He also said: ‘My feet bring me to the place I love to go. If you’ll come to my house, I’ll come to your house. If you will not come to my house, I will not come to your house.’"

(Talmud, Succah 53a)

Good moed,
Mordechai

Be happy!

Hi,

"Eulogies and fasts are prohibited on the seven days of Pesach and the eight days of Succot, along with other holidays. One is obligated to be joyous and of good heart on these days - him, his children, his wife and the members of his household, and all who are joined on to him, as it is written, ‘You shall rejoice on your holiday, etc.’

"Although this joy refers to the Korban Shelamim, as we explained in the Laws of Chagigah, it also includes the joy of a person and his children and household, each with whatever is appropriate for him."

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah Hilchot Yom Tov 6:17)

Chag sameach,
Mordechai

Joy and Terror

Hi,

"There is an Orthodox Jew who dwells in timidity, tethered to what he knows; there is an Orthodox Jew whose life is punctuated by the joy and terror of the gooseflesh."

(Rabbi Shalom Carmy, The House I Lived in: A Taste of Gooseflesh, Tradition 44:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Religious tension regarding fasting

Hi,

"One who fasts voluntarily [as opposed to observing halachically required fasts] certainly is called a sinner… but the mitzvah he performs by fasting is greater than the sin of fasting."

(Tosafot, Taanit 11a אמר שמואל)

Pitka tava,
Mordechai

How to avoid arrogance regarding one's Torah knowledge

Hi,

"Sometimes the yetzer hara adds to a person's sins; not only does it seduce him to desist from learning Torah, but it inspires him with a spirit of arrogance, to think himself an honored person because of his breadth of intellect and his ability to question and answer and gauge the authenticity of words of Torah.

"In truth, this is fundamentally flawed. To what may this situation be compared? To a servant of a great Count, appointed over inspection of forgeries. He becomes a great expert in recognizing documents to identify them as valid – but can he therefore think himself wealthy?!...

"There is counsel to help him conquer his yetzer: Let him stand before a shelf holding a complete Shas [Talmud], and contemplate the fact that he does not have so much as a single volume inscribed on his heart, so that he is truly impoverished. As the sages said, 'One who lacks this, what has he acquired?' And then he will be humbled, and he will repent and be healed."

(Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Chofetz Chaim), Shem Olam II, Chapter 6, footnote)

Pitka tava,
Mordechai

The value of bekius [broad but superficial study]

Hi,

"I heard regarding the Gaon, Light of the Diaspora, our Master Rav Chaim, that a certain man in his city was expert in Shas [the Talmud], and the Gaon would honor him, standing before him. His students were surprised at this.

"He told them, with his customary clarity: Is a Sudilkov edition of Shas not a Shas? True, the Amsterdam edition is checked and without errors, and so it is finer, but this is also a Shas."

(Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (Chafetz Chaim), Shem Olam II, Chapter 5, final footnote)

[I am not sure who "Rav Chaim" is - perhaps it is Rav Chaim Ozer?]

Gmar tov,
Mordechai

No tzedakah in the next world

Hi,

"It is known that in this world even the poorest Jew, who has no home and must beg at doors, is still not cast out in the streets - every Jew is instructed to give him a place to stay, at least.

"However, in the next world it will not be relevant for one to bring another into his place in the Garden of Eden, for a rotating sword's blade guards the path to the tree of life, and one who lacks merit will not be permitted to enter there at all."

(R' Yisrael Meir Kagan (Chofetz Chaim), Shem Olam II, Perek 4)

Gmar tov,
Mordechai

The purpose of our existence

Hi,

Worth repeating, in the run-up to Yom Kippur:

"My father always used to rebuke me, as he saw that I would not take part in the pain of others.

"This is what he always told me: 'This is a person's entire purpose. A person is not created for himself. A person is created only to benefit others, with whatever power is in his possession.'"

(R' Yitzchak of Volozhin, citing his father Rav Chaim of Volozhin, Introduction to Nefesh haChaim)

Gmar tov,
Mordechai

Even a villain is created "in Gd's image"

Hi,

"Leaving the body of an executed criminal exposed is degrading to the King, for Man is made in His image, and Israel are his children.

"This may be compared to twins who resemble each other, and one becomes king while the other is caught for banditry and hanged. All who see him say, "The king is hanged.""

(Rashi to Devarim 21:23)

Gmar tov,
Mordechai

The source of all wealth

Hi,

"R' Meir said: One should teach his child a clean, easy craft, and pray to the One who owns all wealth and assets, for poverty and wealth are not a result of a particular trade but are sent by the One who owns all wealth."

(Talmud, Kiddushin 82b)

גמר חתימה טובה,
Mordechai

The Fast of Gedaliah

Hi,

We fast on the day after Rosh haShanah; this is called "Tzom Gedalyah," "The Fast of Gedalyah."

The Meaning of the Fast: After the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, they appointed Gedalyah as governor of Israel's Jews. A group of Jews, supported by another nation, wanted the Jews to rebel against the Babylonians, and they accused Gedalyah of sympathizing with the Babylonians. They ambushed him and killed him, and in the aftermath, the remaining Jewish community in Israel went into exile.

This day is commemorated as a public fast from first light to the emergence of the stars.

This year, the day after Rosh HaShanah is Shabbat. Therefore, the fast is pushed off (nidcheh) to Sunday.

Have an easy and meaningful fast,
Mordechai