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Parshat Vayakel
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
כל איש ואשה אשר נדב לבם אתם להביא לכל המלאכה
"And unite our hearts to love and fear You...” (Ahava Raba blessing)
The love of God is pronounced through voluntary actions for the sake of God. Thus, we see that the building of the Mishkan came from the work of volunteers, as seen in in our title quote. Indeed, the building of the Bait HaMikdash is said to come through the 'seeking of the Holy Presence' and then 'coming there' to the Temple Mount, or in other words, an internal seeking of love for the Holy Presence which brings to entering the Temple Mount and building the Temple.
In continuation of our previous issues, which dealt with the seeking of the Holy Presence through the various locations of the Temple in the Land of Israel, we shall continue to our next location after Nov, the city of Givon, where the Mishkan rested for 50 years, beginning with the reign of David in Hebron and ending with King Solomon's building of the Temple in Jerusalem. It seems that it this period, when the permanent Temple of Jerusalem was especially close, we witness an accentuated love for the Holy Presence in Israel in the figures of David, whose name means love (as in 'dodecha' - 'your love' (Songs 1, 2)), and King Solomon, whose name was also 'Yedidya' - 'lover of God'. It is at this point that David takes the initiative to raise the ark from Kiryat Yaarim to the City of David, but is detained from doing so because of the incident of Uza in which HaShem struck down a number of the participant of the procession, since the ark was carried on a wagon, an improper way to carry the ark, which must be taken 'by shoulder' only. Therefore, the ark was taken to the house of Oved Edom instead of the City of David in Jerusalem. This matter highlights how the attribute of love towards God must always be balanced with the attribute of awe and carefulness to obey His commandments properly.
After several months, when David sees that blessing occurs upon Oved Adom, David raises his courage to move the ark to the City of David (not the Temple Mount) with great rejoicing and dancing. According to numbers of sources (including the 'Reshit Hochma' of Hebron), this attribute of great joy too is an exhibition of one's love for God. Indeed, the city where the Temple itself rested at that time, Givon, also hints to this attribute of love. Givon literally means 'hill', as in the word 'giva'. Our Sages teach that Avraham called the Temple Mount a 'hill/mountain' while Yitzhak called this same location 'a field'. It seems that these different perspectives reflect the classic differences between Avraham, representing the attribute of loving kindness, and Yitzhak, representing the attribute of justice. Therefore the low-land 'field' represents the attribute of Yitzhak, the attribute of 'justice', as we explained in parshat Beshalah on the the 'low-lands' of the Philistines. In contrast to these 'low-lands' of Yitzhak stand the 'high-lands' of Avraham - 'lover of God'. Therefore, Givon - 'The Hill' - represents the final step 'of love' towards the Mountain of God, the Temple Mount.
It seems that these overtures of kind love, on the side of David, can be traced to the spirit of Hebron where David first ruled. This is Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, upon who it is said, 'and He remembers the kindness of the Patriarchs and brings a redeemer for their offspring for His Namesake with love.”
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #159
"Once I was writing a commentary on Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), and at a certain point I wrote that one of the verses hints to attributes of the Patriarchs. Just at that moment I heard others learning practically the same idea that I had just put down into writing about the Patriarchs..." M.Y
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Parshat Ki Tisa
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
כי תשא... ונתנו איש כופר נפשו... ולא יהיה בהם נגף בפקד אותם
"May it be the will before the God of the Heavens to have compassion upon us and cease all plague, destruction, war, famine, captivity, and spoilage from upon us and from upon all Israel, and say Amen.” (Announcing the New Moon)
Our title quote teaches us that the giving of the half shekel by each man in Israel protects the masses from plague due to a census conducted upon them. This lesson is echoed at the end of the book of Samuel where King David conducts a census, which leads to a plague upon the People. The correlation between census and plague can be explained by our Sages' teaching that 'blessing rests only on something hidden from the eye'. When a census is conducted the multitudes of the People become 'revealed' and 'specified' by a number, causing the blessing that was with them to leave them, causing them to be susceptible to plague, God forbid. Therefore, the Torah commands us not to count the people directly but rather to take a half-shekel coin from each person which, in the collective, indicates the number of people involved.
That said, the fact that the Torah ties this 'coin-enumeration' process to a debut for the Holy Temple, 'to HaShem', adds another facet in the understanding how God wishes to protect Israel from plague. Indeed, we find that the method David was commanded to take in ceasing the plague that erupted at his time due to his census of the people was none other than collecting monies from Israel and using this money to buy the Temple Mount for the sake of the Holy Temple. More deeply, we can explain that 'specification', as in the census above, is referred to in the Torah by the term 'nakva' as in the dialogue between Yakov and Laban. Of course, 'nakva' ressembles (according to the Sages) the word 'nekeva' - the feminine. As we have explained in the past, Israel and the Temple/Holy Land have a relationship like husband and wife. Therefore, when Israel give monies towards the Temple and the Holy Land, these monies 'protect' Israel from the dangers of 'census-specification', measure for measure, just as a wife 'protects' her husband from danger (as a wife is considered by our Sages (Yevamot 62b) to have the virtue of being a 'wall of protection', so-to-speak, to her husband).
David's purchase of the Temple Mount clearly echoes Avraham's purchase of Maarat HaMachpela. Indeed, the Midrash (P. Derabi Eliezer 36) ties David's necessity in buying the Temple Mount from Aravna the Jebusite, specifically by his own free will, to the agreement formed by Avraham in the purchase of Maarat HaMachpela which stipulated, according to the Midrash, that the Temple Mount only be acquired by the free will of the Jebusites. Here we see again how the 'spirit of Hebron', where David also ruled for seven years before Jerusalem, teaches us the important methods of 'connection' and acquisition in Jerusalem. David's efforts towards the Temple in Jerusalem take greater effect after the downfall of the Temple in Shilo as we showed in last week's issue. From the downfall of Shilo till the building of the Temple in Jerusalem we see that the Temple is in flux, especially since the ark is not in the Temple, but rather in some other location - Kiryat Yaarim, City of David, etc. The Temple itself (not the ark) was first (after Shilo) in Nov which greatly resembles the verb root for 'navi', a prophet. Indeed, during the 13 years the Temple stood in Nov we see an accentuated interest in prophecy in Israel as in the rulership of Samuel the Prophet and King Saul, upon who it is said, 'is Saul also among the prophets?'
The location of the ark in Kiryat Yaarim seems to tie the concepts of Hebron-Kiryat Arba and Shilo we discussed in our last issue (key term: 'connectedness'), since the numerical value of 'yaarim' equals 'shal' (330), the dominant letters in both Shilo ('shalom' and 'shalva' we discussed before) and in Yerushalem. This matter highlights how Kiryat (seemingly related to Kiryat Arba Hebron) Yaarim stands as a middle stage between Shilo and Yerushalayim. Also, the literal translation of 'yaarim' means forests suggesting un-settled land, which describes the 'un-settled' state of of the Temple which during the 20 years of Kiryat Yaarim stood in two - hence the plural 'yaarim' forests - un-settled places - Nov (13 years) and Givon (7 years of David's reign in Hebron) before settling in Jerusalem.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #158
"About two years ago a book called 'Mishpetei HaShalom', on the laws of peace, was handed out in thousands of copies to the residents of Kiryat Arba-Hebron in order to express and strengthen the 'uniting-peace-making' potential of Hebron, the 'City of Unity'. About a month later, 'House of Peace' - 'Beit HaShalom' in Hebron, was occupied by Jews after being detained its occupation for many years..." M.A
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Parshat Mishpatim
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
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Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
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"Return our judges as of old and our consults as of antiquity... Blessed are You HaShem King Who loves righteousness and justice." (Amida)
The Jewish judicial system is meant to be none other than the extension of the Majesty of God, to such an extent that it says 'in the consult of God (a Jewish court) He will judge', the court itself taking on the name of God - 'Elohim'.
This week's parsha presents before us many of the laws that govern a Jewish court, one of them being the law presented in our title quote. This law states that if a debtor admits to only a partial sum claimed by his loaner in court, then the court summons the debtor to an oath that he owes only the sum he admitted and not more. This law is hinted to in the words 'for he says till this (i.e only this sum of the claim I admit I owe), till 'Elohim'-the court (as explained before takes on the Name of God) their claims shall reach' and our Sages learn that it is the court's responsibility in this scenario to order an oath on the side of the debtor.
Our Sages explain the reasoning in this type of oath as being a method of determining truth, since even a somewhat honest man may say that he only owes a partial amount when in truth he owes more, with the intention to pay the rest at a later time at his leisure. Therefore, the court orders him to take an oath, a very severe and serious act before God and before all that have fear of God, to make sure this man is fully sincere. That said, it should be noted that today, due to the general lack of the fear of God of the generation, oaths are never/almost never ordered in court. Nevertheless, it is a mitzvah to study the laws of court-oaths as in all Torah study and especially with the hope that one day the fear of God will be strengthened and the judicial process of oaths as bringing truth and justice will once again come to the fore.
One of the laws of oaths is that, generally speaking, an oath may not be ordered on real-estate, as learned from the edict of the Biblical verses (not based on human logic). Regarding this law, there is difference of opinion among the poskim whether a law-case on land in the Diaspora impedes the ability to swear in court or not. Those who say it does not impede base their opinion on the Sages' teaching that these lands are meant to be sold (see Erchin 29a, Hoshen Mishpat 95, 1 (Sma and more)) similar to the teaching that 'all synagogues of the Diaspora will be re-located in the Land of Israel' because all Israel will be ingathered from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel, which means that Jewish real-estate in the Diaspora is only a temporary matter. This opinion understands that the Torah's decree not to swear on land applies only to permanent land and not to land that at some point is meant to be sold, just as is this differentiation is made for this same reason in the case of sanctified land (Erchin). The differing opinion, the accepted stance in halacha, does not differ on the basic teaching that Jewish communities will be re-located in the Land of Israel, but rather understands that a differentiation should be made between the laws of sanctified lands and the laws of a court case.
Just as we mentioned that God's Presence rests with the Jewish court, so too we see a parallel between the two in our Sages' teaching that just as the Holy Presence went into 10 exiles, so too the Chief Judicial Court, the Sanhedrin, went into 10 exiles, the last ending in Tiberias. Indeed, the 'Jerusalem' Talmud was compiled primarily in Tiberias. Thus, our Sages explain, Tiberias will also be the location of the renewal of redemption/justice. Just as we explained the attribute of justice being tied to low land when we discussed the Land of the Philistines several issues before, so we may say about Tiberias which is explicitly tied to these stages of exile and redemption for the reason that it is 'low land'. However, unique is Tiberias in the connotation of its name meaning 'umbilical cord/navel' - Tabur (see 'Tabur Haaretz' in Scripture), which suggests this city's importance in raising the Holy Presence that resides with justice from a 'fledgling/ prenatal' state.
Hebron too, the First Jewish City, represents a similar concept of a beginning origin, but yet seems to put more an emphasis on doing so through the attribute of kindness in the high lands of Judea - "And He remembers the kindness of the Patriarchs and brings a redeemer for their descendants for His Namesake with love."
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #155
'I once started talking with someone by telephone, but just then I 'happened' to see him just in front of me..." B.N
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Parshat Teruma
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם
"And please build Jerusalem the holy city speedily in our days. Blessed are You HaShem Who builds Jerusalem with His compassion, Amen.” (Birkas HaMazon)
In the next coming parshios, which describe the building of the Mishkan, we will b”h study the various forms of the Mishkan and Temple in its various locations in the Land of Israel, this also being a major theme of all our issues - 'seeking the Holy Presence'. The building of the Bait HaMikdash is a positive commandment, as in our title quote, also tied to the People's entrance to the Land of Israel, as in the verse 'you shall seek His Holy Presence and come there' (לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה), as ruled by the Rambam (M'lachim 1, 1).
Interestingly, we find a kind of reversal of concepts between these two verses, 'build Me a Mikdash (and then) I will rest (my Holy Presence) among them', while the second verse states 'seek His Holy Presence and (then) come there'. The first verse, 'build Me a Mikdash', in context pertains both to the Mishkan as well as the permanent Bait HaMikdash, while the second verse pertains to the more permanent state of the Temple in Jerusalem (according to some, also to Shilo - the 'semi-permanent' Temple). It seems that these verses teach us that while on a basic level of building the Mishkan just initially building is sufficient, nevertheless on the grand level of the Bais HaMikdash a probing 'search' for the Holy Presence must be made.
We see from the books of the Prophets that this 'search' did not reach its 'final destination' till a process of many years and various mile-stone 'encampments' on the way. The first 'encampment' in the Land of Israel of the Temple was in Gilgal, which lasted 14 years. These 14 years seem to be reminiscent of the 14 years Yakov worked to marry his wives Rachel and Leah, for whom he worked 7 years each. Here too these 14 years are divided into 7 years of conquering the Land of Israel and 7 years of dividing this Land between the tribes by allotment and re-allocation of each tribe. Indeed, we may say that the 7 years of conquest correspond to Rachel, while the 7 years of division correspond to Leah. This analogy follows perfectly with the depiction of Israel as husband and the Land as a wife that must be 'worked' for in a process of a 'double-seven' annual process. Rachel represents, according to our Sages, the 'revealed world', which means that her type of 'work' means literal conquest in its worldly and 'revealed' context. However, after this stage comes the 7 years of Leah, the 'concealed world', a much more internal type of acquisition of the Land which involves allotting lands through Ruah Hakodesh and Divinely directed lots. Also, the division of lands between the tribes represents a more internal connection to the Land, 'uniting' each tribe to the portion of land spiritually 'matched' (as in marriage) to them.
The name Gilgal seems to represent this beginning process, for 'gal' means mound/pillar, as if to say this place is the beginning mound/pillar of development of the Land of Israel. This double development of 'Rachel' and 'Leah' seems to be hinted in the double 'gil' and 'gal' of this location. Indeed, the first 'gal' in the Torah is the 'gal' of Laban, father of Rachel and Leah, which was erected as a treaty on the basis of Yakov's proper treatment of Rachel and Leah.
In the past we have also shown how these two concepts of 'Rachel' and 'Leah' correspond to the concepts of Zion-Hebron and Jerusalem respectively. Indeed, it is through this spirit of 'Rachel', of Hebron, 'uniting with' and acquiring the Holy Land, that ultimately the light of the 'complete revelation' (yeraeh shalem) of Leah, of Jerusalem, shines upon us.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #156
"One day I saw a 100 NIS bill drop from someone on to the sidewalk. This person noticed that the bill had fallen and picked it up. This matter triggered me to tell my wife that if we had full faith we could find 100 NIS just lying on the sidewalk (with no signs of ownership) to be picked up and acquired by us. Just several minutes later we really did find a 100 NIS bill at a different location with no signs of any owner..." Y.S
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Parshat Yitro
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Cleaving to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
וכל העם רואים את הקולות ואת הלפידים
"And enlighten our eyes with Your Torah, and cleave our hearts to Your commandments." (2nd blessing of Shema)
At the giving of the Torah described in this week's parsha the People so-to-speak saw with their eyes "the voices and the flares of fire" as we see in our title quote. This miraculous symphony of mixed sensation is only one of the many miracles at the grand prophetic vision found in the Giving of the Torah. The famous Amoraic master's teaching that 'everything is hinted in the Torah' calls for a comparison between the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai to the battle of Barak and Deborah next to Mount Tabor in the Land of Israel, which is explicitly described as being miraculous 'like Sinai' (Judges 5, 5).
According to the Targum of Yonatan ben Uziel, the comparison between Mount Tabor and Mount Sinai hints to the well-known Midrash describing how Mount Tabor and other mountains wished that the Torah be given upon them. However, Mount Sinai was chosen because of its relative 'lowliness' and humility. Nevertheless, because of this 'embarrassment' towards Mount Tabor, Rashi explains, the term 'Anochi' is repeated twice in context of Mount Tabor in the Song of Debora as a kind of 'compensation' for the 'Anochi', the first word of the ten commandments given on Mount Sinai, instead of Mount Tabor. In a similar light, Rebbe Nahman of Breslav (L"M 14) explains the name of Mount Tabor to be indicative of the breaking - 'tviru'/Tabor ('breaking' in Aramaic) of the arrogant who see themselves as 'mountains'. In this way we can say that while Mount Sinai represents initial humility, Mount Tabor represents 'gained' humility through the breaking of arrogance.
This message of Mount Tabor provides us with clues to the secrets of victory in this battle of Barak and Debora. Indeed, according to our Sages, Barak and Debora said before God 'do not perform (a miracle) for our sake', and God answered them that indeed 'I will do for my sake alone.' There are many other parallels between the battle next to Mount Tabor and the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. For example, the word 'lapidim' - 'flares of fire' appears by Mount Sinai while 'lapidot' is a nickname for Barak, the husband of Debora (according to our Sages),who leads the battle at Mount Tabor. Also the name Barak itself seems to allude to the 'barak'-lightening at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. 'Deborah' also seems to allude to the ten 'dibrot'/'aseret hadvarim' (Deut. 10, 4) - utterances at Mount Sinai. Interestingly, the origin of Barak is from 'Kedesh Naftali', one of the three Refuge Cities in the Land of Israel Proper (West Bank of Jordon River).
In the past we have explained at length the relationship between these Refuge Cities, and how they all stem from the power of Hebron (of course ordained by HaShem). In a nutshell, we explained that 'Kedesh Naftali', literally the 'holy city of Naftali', represents the unique filial piety of Naftali towards the Patriarchs to which he is singled out from all other tribes in the teachings of our Sages (see Midrash Raba Naso and more), and therefore his 'holiest city' receives the special status of a Refuge City just like the City of the Patriarchs, Hebron (interestingly 'Kiryat Shmonah' (sounding very close to 'Kiryat Arba') of today is adjacent to 'Kedesh Naftali'...). Therefore, we may say that it is through the spirit of the Patriarchs of Kedesh and of Hebron that Barak draws his courage to fight the Canaanites by Mount Tabor, reminiscent of Mount Sinai, which is itself reminiscent of the Temple Mount as we explained in parshat Shmot.
Here again we see a fascinating synthesis between the spirit of Hebron (tied to the attribute of 'awe' acc. to our Sages) with the spirit of Jerusalem (tied to the attribute of 'humility') as if coming forth in the form of lightening - Barak between Mount Tabor and the Kishon River (near 'Afula' of today) in the Battle of Barak and Deborah, the Battle of HaShem.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #154
"One morning I remembered that I needed to pay a student in my kollel, so I decided to call him to meet him and pay him. However, just that moment this student 'happened' to meet me on the very road I was walking on (both of us don't live close to where we met)... A bit later, several kilometers away, I started pondering what Providence I had witnessed just before, when again I 'happened' to 'bump into' this student once again..." M.G
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