The Weekly Shtikle - Shelach

    Clearly, the most significant part of this week's parsha is the episode of the spies who were sent to Eretz Yisrael. As a result of their negative report, B'nei Yisrael were forced to postpone their entry into Eretz Yisrael for almost thirty nine years. Although the report of the ten spies was, on the whole, a negative one, the pesukim seem to show an apparent progression of the gravity of the spies' arguments.

    When the spies die a horrible death for their sins, the pasuk (14:37) reads, "vayamusu ha'anashim motzi'ei dibas ha'aretz ra'ah.." The men who had slandered the land died. The ten spies are labeled as motzi'ei dibas ha'aretz ra'ah, slanderers of the land, and it would certainly seem, in context, that this is given as the very reason why they were punished this way.

    When the spies come back and deliver their report, they argue that despite the beauty and plenty of the land, they do not believe that they will be able to capture it. This point is disputed by Caleiv after which the spies go on further with their assessment of the land. It is right then, (13:32) that the Torah uses this catch phrase, or a conjugation thereof, "vayotziu dibas ha'aretz..." The Torah seems to bookmark this pasuk as the beginning of the slander. The spies go on to wantonly refer to the land as a "land that devours its inhabitants." This very specific structure seems to imply that until this point, the spies were engaged in a legitimate debate. They were welcome to present the facts of their mission and offer their sound analysis. Had they not gone any further, they would not have been deserving of their terrible plague. They crossed the line when they began to distort the truth, when they offered their own misguided assessments as fact. It was this specific deceitful tactic that transformed them from spies to slanderers and made them deserving of their horrific death.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:
Dikdukian: What's Different About Efrayim? 

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Beha'alosecha

Tomorrow, 16 Sivan, is the Yahrtzeit of R' Ephraim Eisenberg, zt"l of Ner Yisroel. The shtikle is dedicated l'iluy nishmaso, Ephraim Zalman ben Chayim HaLevi.

One of the numerous topics discussed in this week's parsha is the commandment to make two silver trumpets to be used under specific circumstances. The Torah decrees that the trumpets are to be blown at times of war so that we may be remembered before HaShem and we may be saved from our enemies. The pasuk begins with a puzzling wording, (10:9) "Vechi savo'u milchamah be'artzechem..." The word milchamah is singular but tavo'u is a plural verb, thus making the exact translation of this pasuk unclear.

 

According to Targum Onkelos, the pasuk is read as if it were written "Vechi savo'u lemilchamah," when you come to [wage] war. The Sifrei (Beha'alosecha 76) states very simply, based on this pasuk, that the trumpets are to be blown whether you are waging war on your enemy or your enemy is attacking you. Eimek HaNetziv suggests that it is the grammatical incongruity of the pasuk that is the reasoning behind the midrash. Because it is unclear whether the pasuk is talking about B'nei Yisrael waging war or war being waged, we may understand that it is referring to both.

Sha'arei Aharon points out, however, that according to Rambam (Hilchos Ta'aniyos 1,2) it is clear that this does not include a milchemes reshus, voluntary war. Therefore, when the Sifrei includes B'nei Yisroel waging war on its enemies, it refers only to milchemes mitzvah, a Divinely sanctioned war. Rambam defines this elsewhere (Hilchos Melachim 5:1) as the wars against the seven nations, Amaleik and any act of defence. [This definition has According to this, it would seem that any military or political move which clearly undermines the efforts of National security and defence may in fact be a transgression of failure to engage in "milchemes mitzvah."]

 

Rav Hirsch makes an insightful observation in support of the above interpretation. The Torah, in reference to war, will sometimes use the verb tavo, but at times it uses the word teitzei. The word teitzei, to go out, implies a voluntary act of going out to war and thus, it is used in reference to an uncommanded war. The word tavo, indicating the coming to or coming of war, implies a more passive acceptance of the realities and necessities of war. Therefore, it is used, as it is here, in reference to a milchemes mitzvah, which is carried out only by Divine decree.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Al Pi Cheshbon: Piles of Quail 

Dikdukian: The Impure

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Naso

    This week's parsha begins with the counting of the descendants of Gershon and the listing of their responsibilities with regard to the carrying of the Mishkan as B'nei Yisroel traveled, followed by the same for Merari. This is in fact a continuation of a process that began in parshas Bemidbar with the counting of the descendants of Kehas. The obvious question is why are the three sons of Levi split up? Why are they not all together in the same parsha?

 

    I found the identical answer in the Abarbanel and Ta'ama D'kra. First, it should be noted that Gershon is in fact older than Kehas. Nevertheless, since Aharon and Moshe came from Kehas, his descendants were given the honour of handling the holiest of the Mishkan's vessels - the Aron, the Shulchan and the Menorah. Therefore, it was fitting that they be listed before Gershon. However, the Torah did not want to deny Gershon the honour of the first-born.Therefore, instead of being listed first among Levi's three sons Gershon was given the beginning of a parsha. Obviously, the only way to that is to split them up.

 

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: Aleph's and Ayin's

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Shavuos

In the gemara (Pesachim 68) there is a discussion as to how one is to conduct himself on yom tov. One opinion is to either devote the whole day to HaShem (in prayer and learning etc.) or the whole day to one's self (eating etc.)  The other is that yom tov is to be split in half, half to HaShem and half to one's self. However, on Shavuos, everyone agrees that we require devotion to one's self. Why? Because it is the day that the Torah was given to Bnei Yisroel. The Beis HaLevi asks a relatively obvious question. Would it not be more fitting to dedicate the day that we received the Torah entirely to spirituality and service of HaShem? Why is this a reason to eat?

He answers that we are taught that when HaShem was going to give us the Torah, the angels argued over whether man was more deserved than the angels to receive the Torah. Moshe argued that since the angels don't have a physical body, they can not fulfill physical mitzvos that require a body. With this argument Moshe defeated the angels. Therefore, it is appropriate that we celebrate by showing how we differ from the angels and why we deserved the Torah in the first place. This cannot be done by prayer, learning and service of HaShem for even angels could do that. Rather, we must celebrate by eating which angels cannot do.

Also, we see from a different source that one of HaShem's claims against the angels' argument  was that they ate milk and meat at the house of Avraham which even the smallest Jewish child knows is wrong. Therefore, there is a custom to eat milk and then meat on Shavuos to engross ourselves in the relevant halachos of cleaning out the mouth between milk and meat and other mitzvos involving the body to once again show why we deserved to receive the Torah. 

R' Chaim Kanievsky has an interesting observation on the above gemara. Surely, everyone is compelled to agree that we must devote time to ourselves on Shavuos. If it were otherwise, that we don't require any devotion to ourselves but rather all to HaShem in the form of learning, how would it have been possible for B'nei Yisrael to have fulfilled this the year they received the Torah? The Torah wasn't given until the day so until then they must have been engrossed in devotion of the self for devotion to HaShem wasn't fully possible yet.

Have a Chag Samei'ach!

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Weekly Shtikle Blog Roundup:

Dikdukian: On Top of Old Smokey  and Letzais

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Bemidbar

In the beginning of this week's parsha, at the beginning of the second month of the second year since yetzias Mitzrayim, B'nei Yisrael are split into their respective camps. R' Yaakov Kaminetzky, in Emes l'Yaakov, asks that since these formations were a way of organizing the traveling and resting formations, why did it take an entire year for these formations to be actualized? He answers that the concept of dividing B'nei Yisrael into camps is potentially one that could lead to division amongst K'lal Yisrael. Each tribe had their own colours, their own symbols and their own ideals. This could theoretically pose a great threat to the "achdus," the cohesive togetherness that is such an integral component to the survival of our nation.

The only factor that could ensure that this division does not become a reality is the presence of the mishkan in the center of the camp. With the mishkan in the middle, everyone's principal central focus was the mishkan  It established a certain degree of centrality in the realm of serving HaShem, as if everyone davened in the same shul, so to speak. No one had "that shul that they don't go to." This being so, the individuality and uniqueness presented by the division into camps was able to take a secondary role to the unity created by the mishkan  Thus, B'nei Yisroel could not be divided into camps until the building of the mishkan which only culminated a month before in the beginning of Nisan.

The importance of oneness and common focus is, of course, an important theme to bear in mind as we approach Shavuos, celebrating when we stood together "k'ish echad b'leiv echad" to receive the Torah.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Al Pi Cheshbon: Tens and Ones by Ari Brodsky

Al Pi Cheshbon: Rounded Numbers

Al Pi Cheshbon: Discrepency in Levi's Population

Al Pi Cheshbon: Explaining the Uncounted Leviim

Al Pi Cheshbon: Pidyon HaBen Probability

AstroTorah: Navigating 40 Years in the Wilderness by the Northern Stars by R' Ari Storch

Dikdukian: Be or Ba?

Dikdukian: Discussions on Bemidbar by Eliyahu Levin

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Behar / Bechukosai

Quite an eventful week on the Jakobovits side of the family:

Today marks the third Yahrtzeit of my great aunt, Lady Amélie Jakobovits, a"h. The shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasah, Mayla bas Eliyahu

This coming Sunday, 25 Iyar, marks the Yahrtziet of my mother, a"h. The shtikle is dedicated as well le'iluy nishmasah, Tzirel Nechama bas Tovia Yehudah.

And a special Weekly Shtikle Mazal Tov to my Oma Jakobovits on becoming a great-great grandmother this week, and to my aunt and uncle, Miriam and Abie Perlman on becoming great grandparents, and to my cousins, the Davidis on becoming granparents.

     It is only fitting, considering all of the above, that I quote my Opa, a"h. Parshas Behar deals largely with the laws pertaining to the shemitah and yoveil years. The Torah addresses the understandable worry of the farmer who is forced to leave his field fallow for an entire year. "Lest you shall say what will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow nor gather in our crops!. I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year and it shall bring forth produce for the three years." (25:20-21) This is, indeed, quite a valuable guarantee. [Although the haftarah we read is that of Bechukosai, these two parshios are usually together. So it is therefore fitting that the haftarah contains the famous pasuk, "baruch hagever asher yivtach baShem."

    My grandfather, Mr. George Jakobovits, a"h, told me of an intriguing insight that he heard from his rebbe, R' Eliyahu Lopian, zt"l, which is pertinent to this passage and especially relevant to the events of our time. He points out that we, as Jews are commanded as part of the thirteen principles of faith, to believe in the coming of Mashiach and the resurrection of the dead. Yet the gemara in the last perek of Sanhedrin go through great pains to identify a passage that directly and irrefutably refers to this time. Why is it, then, that our Bible contains a precious few obscure references to the world to come while containing many more clear this-worldly promises such as the aforementioned? Conversely, the "testament" of our Christian counterparts is replete with distinct references to the world to come.

    He answers that a promise for the world to come is one that can never be refuted. No one will ever be able to come back and say that the Bible lied about reward and punishment after death, God forbid. This renders these promises empty and meaningless on their own. The promises that offer us assurance in this world, such as the guarantees of shemitah and yoveil, and the promise that no enemy will covet our land when we leave it to go up to Yerushalayim for the shalosh regalim (Shemos 34:24), are far more "risky" pledges. If they are not fulfilled, God forbid, their falsehood would be revealed for all to see.

    The world to come is discussed in great length in the gemara and we are required to believe it. However, blind faith is not demanded of us. The very first words of Rambam's Yad HaChazakah state that the foundation of foundations and the pillar of all wisdom, is to KNOW that there is a God who preceded all existence. This is a far greater level than faith. It is unequivocal knowledge. The hypothetically refutable, yet incontrovertibly authentic promises made in the Torah are part of foundation that allows to know, not believe, that there is a Divine Hand that governs this world. The architects of Christianity, aware of the fraudulence of their treatise, were unable to make such promises and had to resort to empty promises which could never be disproved in this world. This perhaps offers some insight into the diabolic schemes of those who promote heinous, murderous atrocities by means of such empty promises.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Al Pi Cheshbon: Ironic Observation

Dikdukian: Hearing Los by R' Ari Storch

Dikdukian: How Lo can you Go?

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com