Parshat Shoftim 2017

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Parshat Shoftim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

על פי התורה אשר יורוך

‘Blessed are You HaShem… Who has chosen us from all the nations and has given us His Torah. Blessed are You HaShem Who gives the Torah.’ This blessing is one of the primary rectifications of the sources of Israel’s exile, explained by our Sages to have transpired due to the lack of blessing HaShem for the Torah before its study. This teaching is extrapolated from the verse talking about this exile, ‘why is this Land barren, scorched with no passer? For they have left the Torah that I have put before them… and have not walked in its ways (Jer. 9, 11).’ Our Sages interpret the words ‘before them’ to mean that ‘they have not recited a blessing upon Torah before its study.’

Interestingly, however, we find that this teaching appears in the Talmud, both in tractates Nedarim (81a) and Baba Metzia (85b), in context of the importance of disseminating Torah and causing its continued study onto one’s offspring or students, who are considered like offspring according to the Sages (see Rambam Talmud Torah ch. 1). It can be inferred from the common context of these sources that the Sages wish to teach us an added level of depth, tied to the continuation of Torah study onto the next generation, in understanding the meaning of why the lack of blessing before Torah study caused exile from the Land.

Commentators, such as Rashi, Rabeinu Yona and the Ran, all explain the severity of the absence of blessing before Torah study as being indicative of a faulty mindset in regard to Torah Study. This faulty mindset does not properly see the Torah as an ‘important gift’ originating from Heaven to the Jewish People that one must bless God for, but rather sees Torah study as a more human/personal endeavor.

This faulty mindset also explains why the Torah is not continued properly to the next generation, as we extrapulated from the contexts of the Talmudic passages above. When one sees that the Torah one has received is a Divine gift from Heaven, it is more than natural that this Divine gift will be continued for numbers of reasons. One, the teacher/parent realizes that just as he received Torah as a Divine gift he must by the same token ‘pass the favor onwards’, so-to-speak. Two, the receiver, the offspring or students, realizes the great importance of continuing on this teaching, for it is clear that this teaching is a gift of the Divine, the ‘Word of God’. Thirdly, both the teacher and student are given special Divine aid in continuing the Torah, for both are truly continuing it with proper intentions.   

All this said, it still needs to be explained why this faulty mindset is so tied to the exile from the Holy Land. What ‘measure for measure’ can we find here? Carefully examining the verses in Jeremiah above we find that a common concept that is repeated both in the prophet’s question and answer is the concept of movement [‘no passer’, ‘left the Torah’, ‘walked in its ways’]. This means that the fact that there is ‘no passer’ in the Land, i.e Exile, is in turn due to a lack of ‘walking in its [the Torah’s] ways’. This lack of ‘movement’ is just what we described in the faulty mindset before Torah study which causes the Torah not to be ‘moved on’ to the following generation. Also, it is this very ‘lack of movement’ which yields to negative ‘movement’ in the prophet’s next verse, ‘and they have walked after their own hearts and the Baalim [idolatry] etc.’

The primary topic of Torah which is described as a ‘movement’ is Halacha, which literally means to walk. Indeed, when one learns Halacha properly one must always have in mind ‘the moving’ and the impact of this Divine gift and teaching upon others, and the People at large. This explains why our Sages taught that since the Destruction of the Temple and the Exile of the Holy Presence from it, the Holy Presence rests in the ‘four cubits of halachic study’, for this is a rectification of the sources of the exile as we just explained.

Hebron is the City of the Patriarchs, where the message of continuing the Divine tradition of our holy ancestors flows so naturally in this city’s inspiring air. Also, within Hebron can be found an excellent Torah institution dedicated to halachic study, Kollel Or Shlomo, named in memory of the great rabbi and tzadik, Rabbi [Eliyahu] Shlomo Raanan zt”l hy”d, who was murdered in his home in Hebron on the 29th of Av 5758. This Kollel, by its Torah study and also its location, rectifies the sources of exile from the Land at the Beacon of the Holy Land, the holy city of Hebron.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #232

Real Stories from the Holy Land: ‘It was close to midnight when I finally reached the wedding I had travelled to for numbers of hours. I also needed to return home, several hours away, that night, but I had no car with me. Just as I arrived at the wedding hall, the first person I met was my friend from my home town who offered me a ride towards home. I briefly delivered my wishes for mazal tov at the wedding, and then took the ride with my friend, which brought me towards home quicker than ever imagined.’ A.Y

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