Needs and Desires

Parshas Reeh

Posted on August 27, 2024 (5784) By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky | Series: Drasha | Level: Beginner

 

When I stand in line in a pizza shop or bagel store, I anticipate the counter fellow asking me, “So what do you need?” That’s because I often answer, “bread and water.” Then I smile and add, “that’s what I need. Now I’ll tell you what I want.” Of course I go on to order a potpourri of unneeded calories, that are comfortably arranged on a staple of Western man dough. To some of us those toppings are the deep insight to the verse in this week’s portion, “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). Of course, as thinking Jews, we know the verse does not refer to bread or pizza garnishing. The suffix of the verse contains the important message “rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of G-d does man live” (ibid).

 

By all means, this week’s portion tells us to keep life in perspective what we want, what we need and an attitude we must ingest and ultimately exude in the way we live our lives.

 

But the truth is the Torah seems a bit contradictory. It tells us, “He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you the manna that you did not know, nor did your forefathers know, in order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live, rather by everything that emanates from the mouth of G-d does man live.”

 

Did Hashem not sustain us with a physical form of sustenance? Hashem did not say, ” Do not worry; survive without bread;” rather he sent us a form, albeit a miraculous form, of bread. So, if eventually we need bread, and it does sustain us, how is He telling us that man does not live by bread alone?

 

A well-known therapist in the New York Metropolitan area received a phone call late one night.

 

“Doctor.’ the frantic voice on the other end of the phone pleaded. “I must make an appointment for my six-year-old son. He is in desperate need of a therapist.”

 

“And what makes you think he needs a psychologist?”

 

“Well, his mother and I are separated. During the week, our son stays by his mother. On the weekends he is with me.” The man continued. “Well, we just began this arrangement. Tonight as his mother was about to put him to bed, he began to wail. ‘I want to go back to Daddy!'”

 

“She tried unsuccessfully to convince him to go to bed and finally gave up. She got him dressed and drove him across town to my place.

 

“How did that work out?” asked the doctor.

 

“Well,” continued the father, he came to my place. Everything was fine until he was about to go to bed. Then my son began to cry incessantly. ‘I want to go back to Mommy!’ This time I had to drive him, and then…” The doctor listened a few more moments and then he interjected, “I don’t know if your son needs a therapist, but he definitely needs parents!”

 

The Torah is telling us a very special message. Of course, we need bread to sustain us. We must use the world’s physical resources to aid in our sustenance. But there is a message sent when in the evening we have nothing and the next morning we have manna. The message is that the physical sustenance we need be it agricultural nutrition, medicinal remedies, or a boost in business is all Heavenly ordained.

 

Hashem afflicted us and starved us. Then he gave us food that was totally measured, meted, and doled by His Divine hand. That daily ritual became a metaphor for eternity. Physical amenities are the very source of physical existence. But the source of that sustenance may never be overlooked. Man needs bread. That is the way of the world. But just don’t forget our G-d who sends it. We may need therapists. But don’t forget the parents!

 

Good Shabbos!

 

 

The Love Test

Parshas Reeh

Posted on August 7, 2023 (5783) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

 

He is everything you would expect a prophet to be. He has a flowing white beard and eyes that glitter with fire. He is wise and learned, and he seems to have supernatural powers. And he claims to be the bearer of an important prophetic message. But there is one problem. His message runs contrary to the dictates of the Torah.

 

How are we supposed to deal with such a person? The answer appears in this week’s Torah portion. “If there should arise in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of dreams who will show you a sign or an omen, and if the sign or the omen should materialize as he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us follow other gods whom you do not know, and let us worship them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams, for G-d your Lord is testing you to determine if you still love G-d your Lord with all your heart and all your soul.”

 

Why did Hashem allow this false prophet to display “signs and omens”? In order, the Torah explains, “to test us, to determine if we still love Him with all our hearts and souls.”

 

Two questions immediately come to mind: If anything, such a scenario would seem to be a test of our faith or our fear of Heaven. Why does the Torah consider it a test of our love, of all things? Furthermore, what is the purpose of testing our love? Surely, the Creator knows whether or not we love Him. A test of faith would present us with a choice, an exercise of our free will, just like any other commandment in the Torah, but a test of love only determines a fact – which is already known to Him.

 

The solution to this puzzle can be found earlier in the Torah when Bilaam attempts to curse the Jewish people. “But G-d, your Lord, did not want to listen to Bilaam,” the Torah tells us. “And G-d your Lord transformed the curse into a blessing, because G-d your Lord loves you.” Why did He find it necessary to transform the curse into a blessing? Why wasn’t it sufficient to nullify the curse and render it impotent and harmless?

 

The answer, explain the commentators, lies in the next phrase, “Because G-d your Lord loves you.” Such is the power of love! A person who loves cannot bear to hear anything negative about the object of his love. His beloved is pure and good and beautiful, a paragon of virtue and grace. Because of His love for the Jewish people, Hashem found the very sound of Bilaam’s curse abhorrent, even if defanged and rendered harmless. Only by transforming the curse into a blessing was His love fulfilled and satisfied.

 

Similarly, when we are confronted with a false prophet who attempts to tear us away from our beloved Creator, the Torah tells us, “You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreams.” We must turn a deaf ear to him. It is not enough to ignore, reject or disdain his words. That only shows good intellectual judgment, not passionate love. We must place our hands over our ears and blot out those terrible words from our earshot, from our very consciousness. We must show that the love burning in our hearts makes us wince and cringe at each blasphemous syllable, that we cannot bear to listen.

 

“I am having serious problems with my wife,” a man told a great sage. “We bicker. That wonderful feeling we had when we first married is gone.”

 

“Indeed?” said the sage. “I’m not surprised. You see, I’ve heard she was unfaithful to you.”

 

“What!” screamed the man. “That cannot be! She is a fine, loyal woman. My wife would never do such a thing. Take those words back right now! How can you say such a terrible thing about my wife? I can’t even begin to tell you what a wonderful person she is.”

 

“Fine, I take them back,” said the sage. “But if she is such a wonderful person, perhaps your problems are not serious after all. Eh?”

 

Sometimes, when the pristine love in our hearts is buried under the rubble of everyday life, the shock of hearing our beloved maligned will reawaken the dormant love and fan its embers into a flame once again.

 

Unfortunately, the same can happen to our love for the Creator. Therefore, in order to revive our love, He sends false prophets who speak dreadful, blasphemous words. And if there is still some love in our hearts, we clap our hands over our ears, unable to listen.

 

In our own lives as well, the ubiquitous blandishments of contemporary society whisper in our ears and lure us away from a faithful Jewish life. But if we allow ourselves to be scandalized, if we to turn a deaf ear to the modern false prophets and embrace our own ideals and values, we will undoubtedly feel a new surge of love for our Creator, a love that will blossom forth and suffuse “all our hearts and all our souls.”

 

Text Copyright © 2006 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

Rabbi Reich is on the faculty of the Ohr Somayach Tanebaum Education Center.

 

 

 

Important Life Decisions

Parshas Eikev

Posted on August 23, 2024 (5784) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level: Beginner

 

(V’Haya) And it will be, if you hearken to My commandments that I command you this day to love HASHEM, your G-d, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul… (Devarim 11:13)

 

The Talmud tells us that the expression “V’Haya” introduces a matter of SIMCHA, something to rejoice about, anticipation of good news. On the reverse side the Talmud posits the notion that, “VaYehi” is a foreboding, a warning that storm clouds are on the horizon, trouble is coming.

 

The Vilna Gaon explains why grammatically this makes sense. “Yehi” – “will be” is future tense.

 

The letter VUV at the beginning reverses the tense from future to past, “and it was”. The explanation is that there are some matters in life that are on the calendar, sitting there in the future like a dentist appointment, a court date, any invasive medical procedure and we wish it was over. The anticipation of it and the experience itself is so distressing that we would like it to be history. So, there it is, in the future tense, hauntingly present and we are looking forward to the time when it will have passed already.

 

“Haya” – “it was” is past tense and with a VUV in the beginning it is converted to the future, “and it will be”. There are other types of experiences in life that are so pleasant and dear to us that long after they are over, we wish we could carry them forever into the future. That is why people hire photographers and videographers to a wedding or a Bar Mitzvah or any other happy occasion, so that we can bottle and hold on to some part of that delightful experience. That is why we don’t hire a photographer to memorialize a root canal. We wish we could forget the extreme discomfort of one while the other we desire to cherish in perpetuity.

 

Now, these are not just two ways of describing the situations and circumstances of our lives.

 

They are really two choices and two distinct ways of living our lives. Stephen Covey explains something in his classic time management model that I have found this to be helpful and wonderfully true. It is possible to put everything we do into one of four categories.

 

1) Matters that are Important and Urgent: This can include all predicaments that suddenly rush to the head of the priority line, like medical emergencies, crises in personal relationships, notification of utilities being shut off, and anything else that must be taken care of immediately.

 

2) Matters that are Important but not Urgent: This involves studying Torah, exercising, paying bills, spending quality time with those near and dear and anything that, even though it is not pressing and necessary to be done right now, remains a positive and productive habit of doing, and builds and creates a life of accomplishment.

 

3) Matters Not important but Urgent: This is perhaps more common than we think. It may be prompted by getting a phone call in the middle of dinner, only to find out it’s a telemarketer.

 

Life is filled with and a day is often punctuated by untimely interruptions from people and things that add little import or value to our lives.

 

4) Matters not Important and not Urgent: How much time is spent or lost on silly games and mindless videos and in incessant prattle that only leave us feeling empty in the end, like eating a giant glob of cotton candy or drinking zero soda.

 

In which of these four is it most worthwhile to invest the time of our lives? I think every healthy minded individual can agree that number two is the place to be. The more time that is spent in three and four on matters not important, the more one is inviting the experience of number one where suddenly the important things become emergencies – “Vayehi”.

 

How does one decide what is important? Begin with the end in mind, The last act is the first thought! That is how HASHEM made the world and that is how we shape our priorities. We imagine how we would like to be ultimately thought of and then that informs the values and actions we engage in when living our life.

 

It’s been said, “Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, and some ask “What happened?”” “V’Haya” is the happier way of making important life decisions.

 

Reducing The Distance From Head To Heart

Parshas Vaeschanan

Posted on August 14, 2019 (5779) By Rabbi Shlomo Jarcaig | Series: Kol HaKollel | Level: Beginner

 

After relating some of the miracles that G-d performed on behalf of the Jewish people, and prior to commanding us to keep the mitzvos (Divine commandments), the Torah instructs us, “You shall know this day and take to your heart that G-d, He is the Lord – in the heavens above and on the earth below – there is none other.” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 4:39)

 

It is part of human nature that our rational knowledge that certain actions and attitudes are wrong, when this knowledge is not taken to heart, we’ll most likely do nothing to change our behavior and help us to become better people. The Torah, therefore, advises us that in order to truly be a G-d conscious Jew we must take our knowledge of what is right and wrong and actively instill it within our hearts. Our challenge is: How exactly are we supposed to take this knowledge to heart? We are often fully cognizant that we have developed habits that, while enjoyable, are ultimately harmful. What do we have to do to bring our knowledge of right and wrong from our heads to our hearts?

 

In the preface of his classic work, Mesilas Yesharim (Path of the Just), Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1) states that it is quite possible that the reader will not find in the text many things of which he was not already aware. The stated purpose for writing the book was to remind people of these essential concepts and philosophies and, through constant and consistent review, the ideas will be inculcated into one’s daily activity due to his heightened awareness.

 

Another approach to help us take these ideas from the conceptual to the practical is that of Rabbeinu Bachya (2), who advocates intense meditation upon the conceptual truth. A more profound understanding and appreciation of the ramifications of one’s actions can help prevent him from justifying the negative consequence of the deed.

 

Whatever method works for a particular individual, the Torah is telling us that it is our responsibility to see to it that we take our knowledge of true right and wrong to heart, and act upon it. By setting aside at least a bit of time to focus upon our actions, understanding them, and reminding ourselves of the course we genuinely wish to follow, we will be able to excise our bad habits and become the type of people the Torah is encouraging us to become.

 

Have a Good Shabbos!

 

 

Geography Lessons

Parshas Devarim

Posted on August 5, 2022 (5782) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

 

This week’s Torah reading begins the oration by our teacher Moshe during the final months of his life. In this oration, he reviews the 40 years sojourn of the Jewish people in the Sinai desert, and prophesies regarding their future, first in the Land of Israel. and then throughout succeeding history. The Torah tells us that Moshe began his speech when the Jewish people were located between certain landmarks in the desert of Sinai. Rashi, following the ideas of the Midrash, explains that the locations that were identified were not meant to be specific geographic localities, but, rather, they were intended to highlight events that occurred to the Jewish people during their 40 years in the Sinai desert.

 

We have a rule that while there is a myriad of interpretations to the eternal words and depth of the narrative verses as written in the Torah, the Talmud cautions us that while we should always be aware of what the Torah really means, the simple explanation of the words is also primary to our understanding of its values and message.

 

The listing of these geographic locations where Moshe begins his oration to the Jewish people is an intrinsic value by itself. Moshe wants us to realize when and where, and under what circumstances, the message to the Jewish people is being delivered, by describing the place from which he is speaking, and giving it context and background. All statements, no matter how profound and eternal, must be understood within the context of place and time.

 

It is difficult to communicate any message to a generation that is living miraculously in a barren desert. The audience must require great imagination be able to deal with promises and issues concerning a country that they have never yet seen. It is also very difficult to speak to people about the future, which is always so uncertain, and, to a great extent, mysterious. But Moshe’s oration addresses both concerns.

 

He wants the listener to know that he is speaking from the desert, but that his message is also for the future of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. And Moshe also looks far into the future, warning them of destruction and exile, horrendous events, but yet the eventual redemption and hope. It is the greatness of Moshe that he is able to speak in the present from an identifiable geographic location, and, yet project a message that will last for thousands of years, valid and vital wherever one finds oneself on this planet. This is what makes Moshe the greatest of all prophets of the Jewish people, in all areas of life and faith, and for all eternity.

 

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein

 

 

History and Your Story

Parshas Masei

Posted on July 28, 2022 (5782) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level: Beginner

 

Moshe wrote their goings out according to their journeys at the bidding of HASHEM, and these were their journeys according to their going out…” (Bamidbar 33:2)

 

These are the journeys: Why were these journeys recorded? To inform us of the kindliness of the Omnipresent…-Rashi

 

This is the introduction to the 42 journeys made by the Jewish People during their 40-year stay in the desert. There are a few points to take note of here. Their journeys were “at the bidding of HASHEM”. They were not wandering aimlessly. Every move was according to Divine guidance.

 

Also, it seems that Moshe is keeping a journal, a travel log and writing down all of the journeys.

 

What would be the purpose of documenting all the traveling that the Jewish People did? Rashi tells us that it is in order to inform us of HASHEM’s kindliness. How so?!

 

Years ago, I started a big project traveling throughout New York City and the New York Metropolitan area. I was charged with learning Torah with big businessmen, doctors, lawyers, men of industry, and influence. Before taking my first baby step onto the field I realized I had a problem. I had been learning in Yeshiva for years and teaching in Hebrew Day School but I had little experience in the business world and I was feeling outmatched and ill equipped to sit before people with vastly more practical and worldly experience than I had. So, I approached a senior colleague for some advice. Here was a man with many-many years of experience in the field. For sure he could answer my burning question. I asked him, “Which periodicals shall I subscribe to? What should I be reading and studying in order to remain current and in the conversation?” He looked at me oddly. Then he gave an answer I never expected but it turned out to be priceless for this project and ever since. He said, “You don’t need to subscribe to any particular periodical. Just know your own story! Know your story!”

 

I was more than a little surprised, but I took it to heart. I went home and started writing my life story.

 

It was an amazingly therapeutic process and it has proven to be very practical. I have learned to spell out some version of that “story” whether I have 2 minutes in the elevator or an hour in front of a large audience. People are always fascinated and beyond curious to hear about me and how I transitioned from being an all American-Jewish kid who went to public school and was captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams, but ended up in Yeshiva and is raising a Torah family. How does one get from here to there or there to here?

 

Maybe that explains why over and over again the Torah records not only where the Jewish People traveled to but where they came from each time. That’s part of the story. Each move is a fascinating chapter by itself. How does one transition from there, wherever it is we came from, to here, to where we find ourselves now? Life is way too interesting. Truth is stranger and more symphonic than fiction!

 

King Solomon writes, “Trust in HASHEM with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways know Him, and He will make your ways straight.” (Mishlei 3:5-6)

 

What is King Solomon the wisest of all men telling us here? This is how to live a successful life.

 

Trust in HASHEM with your whole heart. We cannot possibly manage enough details in life to create a guaranteed result. We need to work with our Supreme Partner, HASHEM. That is Bitachon. (trust in G-d) It’s a division of labor. I do my job and my All-Knowing Partner I must trust will take care of the rest. What is my job? Know HASHEM in all my ways. We follow daily Torah instructions, some spiritual by nature and others quite earthy. We are painting by numbers.

 

Standing up close to the canvas of life it is hard to discern what we are doing. When we stand back and observe where we have been, a beautiful picture is revealed. We just tried to do the right thing at each moment and in the end a masterpiece emerges. “Who wrote this beautiful story?!” It can only be attributed to the author of all existence and the playwright of history and your story.

 

Growing Pains

Parshas Masei

Posted on August 1, 2019 (5779) By Rabbi Elly Broch | Series: Kol HaKollel | Level: Beginner

 

“These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went forth from the land of Egypt according to their legions, under the hand of Moshe and Aaron.” (Bamidbar/Numbers 33:1) The beginning of the portion details the entire forty-year journey traveled by the nation, from their departure from Egypt until their encampment across the Jordan River, prepared to enter the land of Israel. As the Torah contains no extraneous letters, no less extra words, why was it deemed necessary to recall all these locations, each already explained in detail in the previous sections of the Torah?

 

Sforno (1) expounds that G-d recorded all the stages of the travel to teach us the devotion of our forebears who followed him in the terrible wilderness. It was that devotion that earned them entry into the land of Israel. The Torah reports numerous weaknesses and faults of the Jewish nation – they denied the benefits they had received, often declaring they would prefer to live in Egypt, they slandered the Promised Land and Moshe, and they provoked quarrels. Now, the Torah describes another side of Israel, revealing the national trust in the Divine, following G-d in the harsh wilderness despite the challenges.

 

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 110b) records the statement of Rabbi Yochanan that the generation that traveled the wilderness was very highly regarded by G- d, despite the recorded infractions they perpetrated. This generation was chosen to be witnesses of the most wondrous miracles demonstrating the presence of the Master of the Universe – the Ten Plagues, the Splitting of the Sea, the national prophesy of the Revelation at Sinai. But because of this exalted status and greater responsibility they were the recipients of severe chastisement.

 

The period in the wilderness was the paradigm of how our physical life in this physical world is a test in recognizing the Creator: “And you shall remember all the way which Hashem your G-d had led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to afflict you, to test you…He afflicted you and he caused you to hunger in order to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by all that comes from the mouth of Hashem…As a man chastises his son, so G-d chastises you.” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 8:2-5).

 

A superficial reading of the text could yield the erroneous conclusion that this generation was rebellious, unappreciative, and impudent. However, a careful study reveals that they were subjected to challenges and were faulted for even reasonable arguments due to their exalted stature and privileged existence. G-d was training them to be cognizant of His presence, His love and His intervention, not unlike strict measures a parent may use with his child to impart essential lessons.

 

Rabbi Eliyahu Munk (2) asserts that this lesson applies to every generation. We, the Jews of 2000 years of Diaspora life, have had our travel through “the wilderness”. We have trekked through places and times of great physical and spiritual challenge, filled with our own “fiery serpents and scorpions, arid lands with no water”. And we could not have survived without copious doses of Divine Mercy. The “great civilizations” of history – the Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, and Romans – all exist today as only an archaeological relic. The Jewish people, while our numbers may be small, thrive and flourish to this day.

 

We have experienced various vicissitudes both in our physical and spiritual condition, but as a nation we are still vivacious in following the Creator. As did our ancestors we have crossed the wilderness, the continents and the centuries, by following our devotion to the Divine.

 

Have a Good Shabbos!

 

The Stuff of Real Life

Parshas Masei

Posted on July 6, 2021 (5781) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

 

This week’s Torah portion concludes with an overview of the Jewish nation’s wanderings in the wilderness, as well as key laws and preparations associated with their inheriting the land. Moshe Rabbeinu designated six Levite cities, three in Eretz Yisrael and three in Trans-Jordan, as cities of refuge where an accidental murderer can escape an avenger from the victim’s family.

 

Although his act of homicide was not premeditated, the Torah considers him culpable for being negligent and not adequately protecting another’s life. The time he spends in the Ir Miklat will enable him to realign his values and correct the habits that led to his negligent behavior. The Levite city was the ideal place to achieve this rehabilitation. The Levites were landless and wholly devoted to teaching and guiding their fellow Jews. Even while in Egypt, the Levites were preoccupied with spiritual advancement and distanced themselves from the pursuit of material prosperity.

 

Their conduct was emblematic of the highest degree of moral responsibility. Living among people of this caliber would re-educate and sensitize the murderer to the supreme sanctity of human life.

 

The Talmud asks why were there precisely the exact number of “refuge” cities in Trans Jordan as there were in Israel? After all, Trans Jordan was only home to two and a half tribes, while the remaining nine lived in Israel. Why not distribute the cities of refuge in a way that would more accurately reflect the demographics?

 

The Talmud answers that in Trans Jordan there were more homicides and the population’s sensitivity to human life became diminished. The likelihood of accidental murder was therefore greater. The average citizen was less conscious of the need to exert himself to the utmost to protect his fellow Jew; he would be more likely to pursue his own needs at the expense of his fellow citizen.

 

The great sage R’ Itzel of Volozhin offers a different interpretation of the Talmud’s assertion that bloodshed was more prevalent in Trans-Jordan, thus requiring more cities of refuge in that region. The problem, he explains, lay not in the higher incidences of accidental homicide in Trans-Jordan but in the over-eagerness to avenge it. Since the inhabitants of Ever HaYarden were less sensitive to murder, it was far more likely that an accidental killer would be pursued by a family member driven to exact vengeance for unsavory reasons. The Torah therefore provided the perpetrator with more immediate access to an Ir Miklat.

 

The culture of tolerance toward bloodshed would delude people into thinking they were motivated by moral principles in trying to avenge their relative’s death, when all too often they were simply trying to even the score with a hapless fellow Jew.

 

The underlying message of the portion is that nothing affects our mindset and value system more than our social environment. We are all conditioned by repeated and constant exposure to the prevailing culture. Harmful outside influences can easily pollute our ability to distinguish right from wrong and can easily desensitize us from appreciating the value and sanctity of every human’s life.

 

This underscores the importance of ensuring that our homes are bastions of light, joy and an appreciation for the kedusha of Klal Yisroel. These values must permeate the atmosphere to the point where they are imprinted on the minds and hearts of our children. Only by building our homes according to the Torah’s blueprint can we turn them into lighthouses of positive energy. They will thus become the miniature ‘cities of refuge’ that will protect ourselves and our families from the steady onslaught of moral decay and corruption in the surrounding culture.

 

Wishing you a wonderful Shabbos