I hope everybody enjoyed their summer "vacation." Thankfully, ours went well.
We rented a second car for five days for a pretty good price and took the family to different hidden hiking spots throughout the North. Since every Israeli enjoys hiking, the key is to find the not-so-popular places, which we were able to find. You won't believe how many hidden springs and rivers there are in the Golan. And with those, despite the 95- to 100-degree weather, we enjoyed a few water hikes together.
On Wednesday night, I took four of my oldest to Har Shifon in the Golan at 11:30 p.m. to catch the Perseid Meteor shower. Since there was no moon out, and this location was known for a lack of light pollution, we arrived there after, at least, 20 other cars. It was amazing. A great view of the Milky Way, lots of meteors, and tons of company around to enjoy the time with.
So, all in all, everybody agreed that we had a successful and enjoyable summer, and I, for one, am happy it passed.
Okay, on to Torah!
As we all know, when a father dies and has a first-born son, that son gets double the inheritance over the other children. So, for example, if he has five sons, the inheritance is split into six, and the first born gets two, and the rest get one. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. If the first born leaves the Torah world, he also loses his right to receiving double.
The Torah describes another situation, where one might think that the first-born loses his right. When the man has two wives, one whom he loves and one whom he hates. If HIS first-born is through the one whom he hates, the first-born does NOT lose any rights. Even if his mother is the hated wife, he is still the first-born and still has the right to receive double.
The Pele Yoetz writes something very powerful on this concept.
The word "Nashim" (wives) shares the same root as the word "noseh," a person who has debt or obligation. The Pele Yoetz did not mention the obvious connection, which every man reading this immediately made, but he did mention another, less obvious, connection.
A person has two "nashim," two types of obligations. One obligation is through mitzvos that he loves. For example, eating on Shabbos! Who doesn't enjoy that? Going to a wedding? Okay, well, most men don't enjoy going to those … but if there is food, then we DO enjoy going … what a mitzvah! Going to learn Torah! Who doesn't enjoy getting out of the house when the kids are screaming to go learn Torah! You see, there are plenty of mitzvos that we get enjoyment from.
On the other hand, there are some mitzvos that we don't enjoy. Who enjoys fasting? Who enjoys not listening to music for three weeks? Who enjoys the mitzvah of changing diapers?
So, each one of us has two "nashim." The one we love and the one we don't.
And the Torah continues to tell us that the first-born of the wife who is not loved, receives double.
Being those mitzvos that we find difficult to do, but we do so anyway, are twice as loved in the eyes of Hashem, then those that we get pleasure from.
In a few weeks, most of us will be getting up even earlier to say selichos before davening. It's not an easy thing to do. We're not talking about ten minutes earlier. However, one should recognize that these mitzvos that come from the "hated wife" are worth double than those from the "loved" one.
Keeping that calculation in mind, will help us do those mitzvos properly and fully.
Have a wonderful Shabbos!