Bamidbar

I have the honor of having both boys and girls.  And from them I learned that today's theory that they are "equal in all ways" and are only "acting like boys" and "acting like girls" is simply "a product of society," is pure nonsense.

Just the other day, the baby was in his crib and started to cry.  Sitting in the same room was my 10-year-old son, 8-year-old son, and 2-year-old daughter.  What happened?  My two sons continued to sit on the couch, picking their noses, pondering what life will be like when one day their brains evolve enough to be as sophisticated as those of cockroaches, while my daughter, who, for obvious reasons, doesn't like her baby brother so well, ran over and began to rock him back to sleep, whispering "sssshhhhh ….."

Clearly, both reactions are a result of biology.  Sadly, it'll probably be a while until my boys brains do evolve ….

 I hope I do not have to say that I feel for the families of the hostages.  It's something one cannot imagine and does not want to imagine.  When two of them were rescued, we made a small simcha in the house.  When news that three were accidentally killed, the feelings in our home went the other way.  The toll the entire hostage situation and lack of clarity from the government has taken on Israeli society has been horrific.

However, even if one does not have relatives who are hostages, everybody living here has "skin in the game."  The north, even before the war, had warnings that Hezbollah was planning a similar attack on a much larger order.  And now, as firing and fires have increased in number and strength, we are reminded that things are far from over.

Earlier this week I heard a clip of one of the mothers of the hostages speaking.  She gave a Dvar Torah, which, I'm sorry to say was flimsy and a bit stretched.  In it, she invoked the now famous halacha in the Shulchan Oruch, "There is no act of charity more meritorious than ransoming captives."  Many, in the anti-Netanyahu protests also quote the halacha following it: "Every moment that one delays unnecessarily the ransoming of a captive, it is as if he were to shed blood."  Yet both this mother, and the protesters, seem to have stopped their Torah learning at that point.  Since they forgot to learn the halacha immediately after the preceding two halachos: "Captives are not to be ransomed at an unreasonable cost, for the safety of society; otherwise, the enemies would exert every effort to capture victims."

When speaking with my neighbor a few weeks ago, she too, invoked the first halacha mentioned, thinking that Jewish belief is clear cut.  But, being unlearned in halacha, she had no clue about the last one I mentioned.

(As a side-note, there are many families of hostages who disagree that we should pay "any price" for the above stated reasons.  But, because of Israeli politics, their voice isn't noticed.)

On a similar note, many years ago, the kollel was learning hilchos Shabbos.  Somebody brought in two speakers.  Lo and behold, they were not simply speakers, but were also tying in their talk with the importance of buying their technology to help negate certain issues with modern refrigerators on Shabbos.  In it, they completely negated other companies' solutions as "forbidden" and discussed while, "halachically-speaking," theirs was the only solution.  At that talk was a certain talmid chacham whom many go to regarding anything to do with halacha.  He was furious about the whole thing.  While he's usually stringent for himself, he's a big believer in taking the not-so-stringent path when needed.  He's also a big believer in being honest, and these two were not being honest in regards to the halachic "issues" they had with other companies' solutions.  And those who bought into what they were saying were those who were less knowledgeable of the halachic details involved.

We see, each on their own level, that when people are ignorant on certain subjects in Jewish life, they are easily swayed to what they hear based on how little they know.  We've all been guilty of these things in life, and most likely, we continue to be guilty, even without knowing it.

But the more you learn, the less receptive you will be to falsehood.  The masses that gather in Tel Aviv, many who are proudly not-so-fond of religion, proudly hold up signs quoting the Shulchan Oruch, while making demands that might very well go against the Shulchan Oruch. 

In regards to what is the halacha on the most recent ceasefire deal that will leave Hamas intact, I have no idea, and it's certainly above my pay grade.  I know that regarding the previous deals, there were opinions on both sides.  In regards to the previous ceasefire deal, most (if not all?) rabbanim support it.  But this one is different and it needs to be examined by people who know halacha, not just those who can copy and paste lines that they like, while ignoring the others.  

As for us, we have an obligation to learn and understand as much as possible, not just for the obvious reasons (becoming close to Hashem), but also for these reasons, not being swayed by loud voices that dominate the public sphere, but who know very little.  We see today that the charges of genocide and Hamas's casualty counts are now considered to be "fact."  Why?  Because, it's repeated over and over again.  The Jewish outlook in life is also easily twisted by loud voices that repeat things over and over again.  But it does not change reality.  And the more we learn and the more in-depth we learn, the more we will be able to know what is true and what is not.

And with Shavous only a few days away, it behooves us to take it upon ourselves to learn as much as we can, so we can always follow Toras Hashem, and not the Torah of Loud People.

On a funny note, if you look at the language of the Shulchan Oruch, you will see that the reason we do not redeem captives at too high of a cost is because, and I quote, "Tikkun Olam," which in this case has loosely been translated as "safety of society" for the English-speaker.  It's great to see such an abused term used in one of its original forms.

May we see the return of our hostages soon, hand-in-hand with the destruction of our enemies, hand-in-hand with proper Jewish unity.

Right after Shabbos, my son and a friend of his decided to stop by Meron before returning to yeshiva.  When they were walking around, they saw the famous Israeli singer/song-writer Aaron Razel sitting and learning in one of the side rooms. For those that are not too familiar with the Jewish music world, Aaron and his brother Yonatan (https://613tube.com/watch/?v=vc06J4w5gY4) restored my faith in Jewish music.  They don't sing "prefabbed" music with all sorts of weird things.  Nor do they take non-Jewish music and try to "kosher" it (while making it sound worse than the original).  Their songs are from the heart… even some of their "lighter" ones.

My son, being a boy, went up and asked if he could have a photo with him.  Aaron replied that he has no problem, on condition that my son passes a test in Gemara.  So, they sat there and learned for a little bit, with Aaron throwing a few softball questions, and my son was rewarded with a photo.  Actually, two.  The better one is of both of them sitting and learning together.

This is what I appreciate about such role models.  Many people "talk the talk," but that's about it.  Here you have a famous singer, who has many songs on the importance and love of learning Torah, and he's not just singing it.  He's living it and he's showing it to others.

Which brings us to this week's parsha, which contains a census of the Jewish nation and the naming of all the tribal leaders.

Over the years, I've seen different types of communities.  The ones that eventually fail are led by those who love to "talk the talk," but they themselves refuse to be role models for others.  Yet, there are some, even though they remain small in numbers, they are still strong in spirit, because the leadership gives themselves to the community and they are living role- models for everybody.

A person who is in any form of leadership position should always recognize the fact that as a leader, it is their job to be a proper role model for the team.  And the only way to be a proper role model is to actually believe and do what you preach.  When people recognize that those aspects are in sync, you can make a lasting impression on them.

With that, I wish you an amazing Shabbos! 

Well, if it's not one thing, it's another...

Thankfully, we're outside of Hamas's range.  However, somebody did light a fire (which was put out) to burn down parts of the city  and many neighboring Arab towns have been starting up, but thankfully it's being quiet where we are.

My son though is very excited, since they opened up and are preparing the bomb shelters.  I think every boy is hoping Hizbollah will join in, so they can be part of the "axshun"!

Whatever... this happens every 2 or 3 summers and this is no different....

Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel … each male according to the head count" (Bamidbar 1:2).

There's a famous question on this pasuk.  In the beginning of the pasuk, Hashem tells Moshe to take a census.  In the end of the pasuk he tells him, "according to the head count."  Isn't that a bit redundant?

An answer is given by Rav Moshe Feinstein.  He explained that Hashem wanted to make a point on what type of counting he was looking for.  There are many examples that an individual's greatness makes him worthy of several people.  (INSERT EXAMPLES HERE).  However, given this, Hashem did not want Moshe to make a census on "how many people" each individual is worth.  He wanted a simple headcount that each individual, whether it was Moshe himself, or the youngest person available to be in the census, would be counted equally.

This bears an important message and certainly the timing of parshas Bamidbar right before Shavous, lends credence to the message.

On one hand, it's true.  Some individuals are worth many of those lesser than them.  Some people can be compared to a 100-watt light bulb and some people can be compared to a 15-watt light bulb.  When the 100-watt bulb is lit and is working properly, it outshines the 15-watt bulb.  Is the 100-watt bulb more important?  Not necessarily.  It would not do well in a small room, for example, and would make things too bright.  But, it would light up a bigger room properly.  The same goes for the 15-watt bulb.  In a large room, it might not serve well, by itself.  But it will serve well with others.  Or perhaps, it will serve well by itself in a small room.


The point is, each individual is given their strengths and missions in life.  Some are 100 watters and some are 15 watters.  Each one serves it's purpose and it's mission when lit properly.  And each one cannot change watts.

As we go into Shavous, to receive the Torah once again, we must keep this in mind.  Our job is not to see how many watts we have compared to others.  Rather, our job is simply to light up as much as we can.  Perhaps we cannot learn well as others.  Perhaps we cannot do chesed as well as others.  Perhaps we cannot concentrate as well as others.

Who cares?

If Hashem did not care when He commanded a census to be made, why should we?  Our mission is to accept the entire Torah and to keep it as best as possible.  In that regard, we will be equal to that, even of Moshe himself.

Have a wonderful Shabbos and Shavous!

After last week’s rant on conspiracy theories, I decided to take this time to rant about another issue called “Fake News”.

Just this morning, I checked my email to see if somehow my code broke the company’s systems from the programming I did, half-asleep, from the night before.  In there was an email from somebody from work with a screenshot of some site announcing the death of Chuck Norris from Covid-19 at the age of 80.

One does not need to check on such nonsense, since it is known that nothing can kill Chuck Norris.  Not only that, but it is well known that he is not 80-years old, but much, MUCH older than that.  Maybe he was born a millisecond after the Big Bang… I don’t know.  But to put out such blatantly false information like that… shame….

"And Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Sinai Desert" (Bamidbar 1:1). 

Rav Shimshon Pincus quotes a famous question.  The Torah was given in the middle of the desert.  Would it not make more sense to give the Torah after entering Eretz Yisroel?  After all, the Gemara (Bava Basra 148b) says that the "air of Eretz Yisroel makes one wise." 

He answers the question by quoting the last Mishna in Taanis:

"Similarly it says, 'O maidens of Zion, go forth and gaze upon King Solomon wearing the crown that his mother gave him on his wedding day, on the day of the gladness of his heart' (Shir HaShirim 3:11). 'On his wedding day': this refers to Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah). 'And on the day of the gladness of his heart': this refers to the building of the Temple; may it be rebuilt speedily in our days, Amen."

From here we see that the day of the giving of the Torah, Shavuos, is referred to as a wedding day.

In order to have a successful marriage, both sides must be totally committed to one another.  There cannot be "another woman" or "another man" on the side.  Not only that, but in order to have a successful marriage, both sides need to look at the other as the priority in their lives.  Whenever a decision in life needs to be made, one must always think about the other.

This is no different than Hashem and His Torah.  The more a person wants from Torah, the more of a focus Torah needs to be in his life.

If the Jewish nation entered Eretz Yisroel before they received the Torah, what would be the conditions of receiving it?  They would have had to quickly finish up all their work in their fields, run to wherever they were to go, and receive the Torah.  Anybody who has rushed home from work on erev Shavuos would understand that feeling all too well.

Instead, they received the Torah when there was no work to be done, when there were no fields to be worked on.  Instead, for forty years they sat in a "private room" in the middle of the desert with Hashem Himself.

I just learned the Gemara (Yoma 67b) which asked what do we learn from the word "desert" that is cited several times, beginning in Vaykira 16:22, seemingly without reason.  The gemara itself is discussing the Yom Kippur goat that was thrown of the Azazel Cliff.  It brings a teaching that these three times represent the three different periods in which this particular sacrifice was too be made: 1) When the Mishkan was in the desert, 2) When the Mishkan was in Eretz Yisroel, and 3) When the Beis HaMikdash stood.

It's just a thought, but here the Gemara is comparing the words "desert" with the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash.  Of course, we don't have those today, but rather we have our shuls and yeshivos in their place.

Perhaps we can take this lesson a bit farther.  If, in our regular lives, the more we wish to grow in Torah, the more we need to make it the focus of our lives, so too, in places which are built solely for Torah, we need to be careful to use such places properly.  We need to watch what type of speech we use or eliminate unneeded speech in times of davening.  Perhaps we need to work on treating our shuls and yeshivos more properly by not bringing in things from the outside world.

Either way, whether regarding our personal lives or our lives in shul and yeshivos, if we want to maintain a close connection to the Torah, we need to make our lives like a desert, free of distractions, to the best of our abilities.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

I heard there was a big "hubbub"  shortly before and during Trump’s visit to Israel.  There was talk of security leaks, his trip to Yad Vashem, his stance on settlements, some of his aides' stance on even the Kosel, etc.  What was true or what wasn’t is, of course, up for debate, given the amount of mudslinging against him from the media and those within the government.  What will be?  I have no idea.  The left in the US thinks the right is mad for wanting Trump, the right thinks the left is made for wanting Clinton, and I think everybody in that country is mad, simply by the fact that the top three choices were Trump, Clinton, and Sanders.  That tells me a lot.  I personally didn’t vote.  However, if I did, I would have voted for Trump.  Not because I’m pro-Trump (I’m not), nor because I’m anti-Clinton (I am), but because I truly believe the US is flushing itself down the toilet, and at least Trump will make it entertaining (and maybe nuke a country as well).

What really bothered me during the elections, was hearing that some, and I mean some, (Republican) Jews were treating him as if he were Moshiach himself.  Do I believe he’ll be better than Clinton for Israel?  Yes.  Do I believe he will be good for Israel?  I don’t know.  I don’t trust him, nor do I trust anybody in that position, regarding Israel.  Nor should any Jew.  Yes, we should vote according to our beliefs, but don’t think for one minute that ANYBODY will be good for Israel, if He doesn’t want it.  And here, we have an excellent example.  He said all the right things during the elections, and now that he’s President, people are simply not too sure.

Never put your trust in the President of the United States, nor the Prime Minister of Israel.  We already have Somebody taking care of us.

“These are the descendants of Aharon and Moshe” (Bamidbar 3:1).

The pasuk opens with “these are the descendants of Aharon and Moshe,” yet continues to list the names of Aharon’s children only.  With this we learn that the person who teaches Torah, and certainly one who is a rebbe, to another person, takes on the title of “father.”  While Moshe was not the biological father of Aharon’s children, he was certainly their spiritual father.

There are two big lessons that came to mind when thinking about this.

People in Jewish outreach need to remind themselves that those whom they have brought closer to Judaism, are their spiritual children.  While they would certainly never abandon their children in adulthood, they should certainly never abandon their spiritual children later in their lives as well.  People who left their previous lives to become a Torah Jews, will continue to need to have somebody in the role of a spiritual father later on in life.  And there are few things that will make people feel as lonely as when a parent, physical or spiritual, abandons them.

Another lesson is to parents themselves.  Not only are they the physical parents of their children, they should do their best not to relegate the job of “spiritual father” to somebody else.  A person is allowed to have many spiritual parents, but it is up to the parents to make sure that THEY are the primary spiritual parents.  We should never say, “Okay, our kids with learn this and that from their rebbe/teacher . . .”  Rather, the primary learning, especially in Jewish thought, belief, and behavior should be in the home, not in the school, or even the shul.  Reminding ourselves that we have two roles to play, will help us raise our children on the proper path.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Michael Winner

In this week’s parsha, the Torah goes into a very long counting of the Jewish nation. By family, by tribe, and by division (3 tribes per division). Programmers happen to find this parsha very difficult to learn. We don’t like repetitive code. Simply create a function, loop it 12 times, change the variables, and the parsha will be much, much shorter. However, there is a reason for everything. One of the more … popular… explanations is that just as a collector, counts his collection carefully, enjoying each individual item, so too Hashem was counting over his nation, individually.

Every morning in davening, we say “He is the Healer of the broken-hearted, and the One Who binds up their sorrows. He counts the number of the stars, to all of them He assigns names” (Tehillim 147:3-4)

Years ago, I saw a wonderful explanation to this. Basically, the above can be read: A person, who is feeling broken-hearted and low, should know that Hashem will take care of them. Where is their proof to this? He counts the number of the stars and assigns each of those stars a name. There are around 100 billion stars in the Milky Way itself, and Hashem cares enough to name each one individually. All the more so, a human being, a Jew, is also counted and is also recognized by Hashem, each by their name.

It’s very easy to think that you as an individual is a nothing compared to everybody else, but Hashem has shown that He looks after each person on their individual level.

Have a wonderful Shabbos and a meaningful Shavous!

It is Gidon, in the Book of Judges, not Gilad...

Sorry...

I haven't had my coffee yet.

I friend of my wife’s had to return the States for the first time in many years last week. She told my wife, that in general, she found Americans to be very laid back. She described the “social shock” she went through as she moved from Ultra-Orthodox Israeli lifestyle to completely secular America. However, her “Israeliness” that she picked up, turned out to be very helpful.

One night, her father needed to go to the local medical center. The website said that it was open until 10pm, so they were shocked to learn, when they arrived at 9:30pm, that the clinic was not accepting anybody else, since they want to close by 10:00. Much to the surprise of her family and the clinic personnel, she went from mild-manner woman, to in-your-face Israeli. She got close and personal and reminded them that their website said that they are OPEN until 10:00 and that means that they ACCEPT people until 10:00 as well, and under no circumstances will her father NOT be accepted. I don’t know what else she said, but suffice it to say, her family, who did not know she had this in her, were slack-jawed.

He was immediately accepted.

Like a hot knife to butter.

Many people mistakenly feel that the Israeli way of getting things done is by raving and yelling. Then, when they come to Israel and try it out, they end up not accomplishing what they wanted and getting all worked up. There’s a certain… finesse… to the Israeli “In Your Face” attitude, and if you want to accomplish anything, you need to work on it.

Okay, on to Torah.
Before we begin, though, condolences to the David Ghedini and his family on the loss of his daughter Dafna.

In this week’s parsha, the Torah goes through another census of the Jewish population eligible for military services. The total came out to be 603,550. Now, six months earlier, In Parshas Pekudim, a census was taken and the total came out to be the same. What’s the difference between the two? In the first census, the tribe of Levi was counted; yet in the second one, Levi was already separated out to serve in the Mishkan and to learn in kollel, and exempted from military service.

Hashem was telling the Jewish nation, “Don’t worry. As long as you do your spiritual work, I’ll take care of the rest. Yes, I’m taking a group of people away from military service, but the numbers will be made up… don’t worry”

Many people mistakenly think that the saying “G-d helps those who help themselves” applies to us. They believe that in order to do proper “hishtadlus” or proper preparation, we must allow ourselves to slacken spiritually, so we can ‘grow’ physically. Nothing is farther from the truth. We have countless stories of the opposite happening. One such story is that of Gilad (Book of Judges), who purposely diminished his numbers to 300 righteous soldiers to defeat the thousands of the enemy.

Our job is to focus on our spiritual growth. When we must to hishtadlus for something, we need to it in proper measure. Too much hishtadlus is just as dangerous as too little. But throughout doing hishtadlus, one must always remember, that the spiritual goals are the main goals in life, and what will be in the future, is all in Hashem’s hands, no matter how large or small one’s “army” is.

On Lag B’Omer, the community had a bonfire at the local boys school. The rav came and spoke, which was followed by music and dancing. At one point, one of the teachers brought out a “person” and threw it in the fire. I’m not sure if that person represented Haman (for whatever reason), Amalek, Yaeir Lapid… or if it was just for fun.

However, after 10 minutes of burning, we (those of non-Israeli persuasion) realized something was amiss. Everything burnt away, with the exception of the “t” shaped blanks of wood. So, here you have evil, woman-hating, flag-burning, tax-evading, draft-dodging, Ultra-Orthodox Jews dancing around a cross… which is still burning.

One of the teacher’s wives, recognizing what was happening, frantically got on the phone with her husband, telling him to at least break the cross down. It certainly wouldn’t look good if the media got a photo of it. :)

Okay, on to Torah!
“And Hashem spoke to Moshe in the Sinai Desert” (Bamidbar 1:1)

The air of Eretz Yisroel is known to “make people wise” (Bava Basra 158b). It is in Eretz Yisroel, where a Jew can maximize his spiritual gains and grow in ways that he could never do outside of the Land. However, we see that Hashem gave the Torah OUTSIDE of Eretz Yisroel, forty years before bringing us in. Would it not have made more sense to give us the Torah INSIDE of Eretz Yisroel where it would have made a bigger “dent” in our souls?

Rav Shimshon Pincus explains that in order to properly acquire the Torah, one must be able to focus on his learning without any distractions. He needs to have time for himself and his Torah. In the desert, there was nothing. We received everything we needed directly from Hashem. There was no need to work or for any other distraction. It was the largest kollel system known to date. Had we gone into Eretz Yisroel, we would have received the Torah there and gone off immediately to work in the fields to support ourselves. Where would the acquisition of Torah come from with such distractions?

When a couple gets married, straight after the chuppah, they go into the cheder hayichud, a room where they can have some private time, before returning to the wedding celebrations. Similarly, during their first week of marriage, they are given the week “off” for some private time.

This is why the Torah was given in the desert before entering Eretz Yisroel. Before entering Eretz Yisroel and being involved in the day-to-day life as a farmer or whatever occupation they might choose, the Jewish nation was given “private time” to spend with the Torah, in order to make a proper acquisition.

What’s the day-to-day lesson from this? Well, one of many is probably how we approach our learning. When we sit down to learn every day, it’s our private time with the Torah. Cell phones should be turned off and other distractions put away. No couple wants to be disturbed by others within their first week of marriage; the Torah doesn’t like it as well.

I remember last year, the kollel made a “no cell phones” rule. I went to the Rosh Kollel and asked him what about our wives? What if they need to get a hold of us? (Remember, this is in Hebrew and he doesn’t speak a word of English). He answered that it’s not a problem, because the kollel has a “beefer” which one kollel member will keep with him in case your wife needs to contact you. I gave him a blank look and asked, “What’s a ‘beefer’?” He gave me a strange look in return, “A beefer? You don’t know what a beefer is? It’s a little box that goes, ‘beef, beef, beef’”. At that point it hit me…. a beeper.

Have a wonderful Shabbos and an inspirational Shavous!

A small favour before we begin.

As you know a good friend of mine has donated some space on his server to keep frum.org running without cost.

Unfortunately, his young daughter was taken to the hospital and was found to have several tumors throughout her body from her hip to her head. So far, the ones that have been tested are benign, but there are more and even those needs to be removed. So, I ask that we learn in the honur of Dafna Yael bat Rivka and that she should have a complete recovery.

Also, a father of two that we are friends with has been going through cancer-treatment with no success. Please daven for Moshe Aaron ben Leah Zipporah.

May we only hear good news from this point on.

Okay… on to Torah!
"But you shall not count the tribe of Levi, and you shall not take a census of them among the Children of Israel" (Bamidbar 1:49)

In this week's parsha we are reintroduced to Shevet (Tribe of) Levi "The King's Legion" of the Jewish nation. As we have discussed before, the concept of "Separate and Not Equal" is a Jewish concept, and is used to separate Shevet Levi from the rest of the nation.

Who is Shevet Levi today? The Rambam at the end of Hilchos Shmitta V'Yovel says that anybody who dedicates his life solely to Hashem and His Torah and puts his faith in Hashem to take care of him... THAT person is part of Shevet Levi.

Being part of this legion is not the easiest of jobs, like any other elite force; but it also has its perks.

In Israel, we call it protecia.

That's how one survives here. If you have any problems with any institution, particularly governmental, you have two choices. Go through regular channels, waste a lot of time and money, be very stressed, and in the end, accomplish nothing. Or you use your protecia, somebody you know in this or that position, who can get past all the red tape and actually accomplish something for you.

Protecia is a good thing.

This week, Rashi gives two explanations on why Shevet Levi has to be counted separately.

"The King's legion is worthy to be counted by itself. Alternatively, the Holy One, foresaw that a decree was destined to go into effect upon all those who were counted from the age of 20 and up: they would die in the wilderness. He said, 'Let not these Leviim be included, for they are Mine, because they did not err with the Golden Calf'"

The Taz, on his explanation of Rashi, explains that Shevet Levi did not participate in the sin of the spies, who slandered Eretz Yisroel. Even so, however, the Leviim would have been subject to the decree that people aged 20 and up should die, since this was a general decree on the entire generation, and the world is judged according to the majority. Therefore, has the Leviim been counted from the age of 20, like the rest of the nation, they would have been in the category of those who were to be punished, and even if they themselves were undeserving of punishment.

Hashem therefore, created a way out.

The decree against those who believed the report of Eretz Yisroel, applied to everybody who was counted from the age of 20. Since the Leviim were not counted from that age, they were spared from this decree.

This is the power of the Ultimate Protecia.

We see two lessons here.

The first is to stay away from ... oh…less than positive influential people in life. By becoming too close to them, not only will you possibly pick up on their bad characteristics, but you might also fall into their punishment.

The second is the opposite. Stay close to Hashem. The closer you make yourself to Hashem, the better. While on one hand it's harder, on the other hand, you have far-reaching protecia from the One Above.

With that, I leave you all with a great Shabbos!

I had a dvar torah all written out two days ago. However, after what’s going on in the news here in Israel and how I’ve seen the media and others portray the situation, I had to write another.

Generally, I cannot stand two types of replies to my dvrei torah. The first type is when people living in America think they know better on what’s going on here. The second is when people think that they know better than our Torah Leadership. As if Harry the Worker knows better than Rav Eliashuv or Rav Shteinman. However, I’m willing to take the risk of receiving such emails by encouraging people to forward this dvar torah to others, to dispel the myth that has been created by the Supreme Court and newspapers.

I apologize for any bad grammar. And I hope that I have made the following case clear. It's late, and I really need to start working.

I’m sure many of you have heard the news in Israel concerning the recent Supreme Court ruling dealing with a town called Emanuel. I’m also sure you think, by reading whatever you read, you have an idea on what’s going on.

Before we get to the brief synopsis, you need to know two things.

The first is that the Supreme Court here is different than the one in the US: there is no separation of powers, they are self-appointed, and they have some powers to make and break whatever laws they want (we have no constitution here).

The second is a term that’s used that Americans have no concept of. In Hebrew, they are called “Frankim”. A “frank” is somebody who is a mix of sfardi (middle-east Jews) and “white trash”. They are sfardim who might wear kippas, barely, if at all, keep Shabbos, believe the definition of raising children is by keeping them on the street unsupervised, have little family structure, and whose children have foul mouths and behaviour, who often turn to violence, drugs and alcohol. It most certainly does not apply to all Sfardim, but “frankism” usually hits them over any other group of Jews. We have one family like this in our building and several families on our street. They’re not fun to have around and people you want to keep your children away from.
In Emanuel, there is a school with two “schools” within it. One for the religious students and one for the non-religious (mainly frankim). The religious school has a 30% sfardi population and 70% chassidish population. I believe the vice-principal is also sfardi.
A sfardi man, who I believe doesn’t even live there, decided to enroll his daughter into the religious class, and was denied due to a lack of religious affiliation,. That’s pretty normal here. Religious schools want to maintain a certain Torah environment where the parents can feel free knowing that their children will be friends with people with the same value system and not learn things that they shouldn’t be learning.

This man went to several anti-religious groups, who helped him take this to the Supreme Court, claiming “racisim” in the school, and the reason he was denied was because he was sfardi. Somewhere along the way, the Attorney General researched the school and found the claim to be false. However, the Supreme Court, who have been trying to get their hands on the religious schools, decided that the two “schools” will have to combine and the religious students would have to be with their “frankim” counterparts, which no religious parent wants. Would you want your children hanging out with kids from the south side of Chicago? Probably not. However, the Supreme Court decided it was a “racist” policy and the media picked that up and portrayed it as such. After all, “Racist Ultra-Orthodox Jews” make great headlines and everybody would love to hate them. Forget about the facts that sfardim were for this separation as well…
On top of that, forty pairs of parents, many of whom are sfardi, pulled their children out of that school and started to bus them to another school in Bnei Brak. The Supreme Court ordered the parents that they need to return their children to this school and this school only. If not, both parents and their infants, are to be jailed for the next two weeks. After speaking with the Slominer Rebbe, one of the big Chassidish Rebbes that is personally involved; they opted prison, in order to keep their children in a Torah environment. Hearing this, the one “religious” judge spat out, “I find it disgusting that people would listen to their rabbis over the Israeli Supreme Court”. Really ”religious” guy.

So, in the first time in ten years or so, the Torah leaders in Eretz Yisroel called for a protest and escort of forty pairs of parents to jail in Jerusalem. Rabbis such as Rav Eliashuv, Rav Nosson Tzi Finkel of Mir Yeshiva, Rav Shteinman, etc… Torah giants who rarely call such things and usually boycott protests, called for all Israeli Jews to come and protest the Supreme Court’s reach into Torah education. Naturally, our yeshiva went as well.

110,000 religious Jews; Lithuanian, Sfardi, Chassidish… all showed up. There were no police officers, no violence, no problems whatsoever. Leading rabbis, ashkanizim and sfardim, spoke and lead tehillim and slichos. Afterwards, we sang and danced the parents for several kilometers to the police station where they turned themselves in.

Imagine: forty parents, here in Eretz Yisroel, were imprisoned by the Supreme Court because they wanted their children to be taught in a religious environment. Try saying that out loud and not getting emotional over it. This ruling can have an effect for every religious school in the country, hence the “call to arms”.

The first thing I did when I came home was check the news online to see how they reported it. Needless to say… things were certainly different on what was reported and what happened. Therefore, if you believe the news, you’re believing loshon horah. There were constant reminders that the police were not the enemy and not to provoke them, and that we were here to make a Kiddush Hashem. And a Kiddush Hashem was truly made. The behaviour of 110,000 religious Jews together was unbelievable.

However, the ruling of the Supreme Court and the falsification of stories by the media was 100% Chillul Hashem and Loshon Horah.

In this week’s parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu went confronting Og, King of Bashan, was told by Hashem “not to be afraid”.

What was he to be afraid of? Og? He’s nothing. Moshe knew of Hashem’s powers… why did he need to be told that he shouldn’t be afraid? Rashi answers, it’s because he was afraid that Og had merits that Moshe did not (see Rashi for more details). It wasn’t Og’s physical strength Moshe was afraid of, it was his spiritual strength, that Moshe feared most.

We too, are not supposed to be afraid of Hamas, Hizbollah, Syria, Iran, the United Nations… they are nothing when Hashem is on our side. However, when we “shoot ourselves in the foot” spiritually… that’s when we need to be afraid.

The Supreme Court this week came out with two rulings against the religious community. This was one of them, and this hit us in our most tender spot, the education of our children. They wanted control, and now they are finding ways to get it. It’s known that they have always had an agenda against the Torah community, and it’s easy to simply blame the Supreme Court; but WE have obviously been failing somewhere that gave them the power to hit us in such a way. Perhaps, WE have not been careful in how we transmit Torah to our children, and that’s why they struck in that spot. Perhaps, we need to try harder in educating our children properly and creating a Torah environment in our home. Hopefully through that, our spiritual and physical enemies will be stopped.

With that, I wish you all a good Shabbos.

I hate shopping. All sorts of shopping. Of course, if somebody gave me $4000 to spend on a new computer system, I would enjoy that. Other than that, I hate shopping.

Three weeks ago, I decided to internalizing the rule that anything bought in honour of Shabbos is paid by Hashem and is not included in the amount of money that was decreed on Rosh Hashanah for us (as long as we spend within the guidelines in the Shulchan Oruch).

So, instead of not buying any treats, which I don’t anyhow, for health reasons and waste of money reasons, I changed my tune. On Thursday or Friday, when Shabbos is in the air, when I’m at the local store, if I see something that looks good for Shabbos – I buy it. I don’t look at the price. I simply say, “L’kavod Shabbos” (in honour of Shabbos), and put it in my bag. If there’s a nice chocolate bar my wife would like, “L’kavod Shabbos”, some cookies my daughter would like, “L’kavod Shabbos”. This week’s special was Mike & Ikes. A real treat for me.

Okay, on to Torah!
"But you shall not number the tribe of Levi, nor take the sum of them among the Children of Israel" (Bamidbar 1:49)

Rashi cites that one of the reasons the tribe of Levi was not counted was because Hashem saw that everybody over 20 years of age would die in the desert for believing the loshon horah said of Eretz Yisroel.

Therefore Hashem said, "The Leviim should not be counted among the others in order not to be included with them. They are Mine since they did not transgress in the sin of the Golden Calf".

The cause of dying in the desert was brought upon the Jewish people for listening to reports of Eretz Yisroel. Rashi should have said because they didn't listen to Loshon Horah, NOT because they didn't worship the Calf.

The Sifsei Chachomim wrote that the Leviim also accepted the report of Eretz Yisroel, but because they were not guilty with the Golden Calf AS WELL, they were spared from being punished so harshly.

Rav Baruch Sorotzkin commented that we see from here the dangers of listening horah. Even though the Leviim were strong enough not to fall in the Golden Calf, they were not strong enough not to believe the loshon horah said of Eretz Yisroel. While they had no intention of believing the loshon horah, nevertheless, they were affected by it.

We all know the danger of speaking loshon horah, however, we might not be too careful with hearing it as well. And if our Yetzer Horah tries to fool us with the reasoning, “I’ll listen, but I won’t believe it”, just remind yourselves that the Leviim were on a much higher level, and they still failed.

Have a great Shabbos!