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Parshat Shemini
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"להבדיל בין הטמא והטהור"
"And purify our hearts to serve You in truth". (Shabbos prayer) Torah is called 'truth' not only in many places, but in many cases is considered to be synonymous with the concept 'truth'. In this way we can understand that a very important part of Torah study is the concept of 'purity'.
Since Torah study is not just a mere intellectual endeavor, but rather a spiritual quest for Godly truth, it is imperative that one clears the spiritual 'blockage'/'clogging' called 'tuma' (impurity), described by our Sages as a type of spiritual blockage (see p. Vayeshev of our first year on this). Interestingly, much of the mitzvot concerned with purity are fufilled by intellectually knowing their laws and being able to discern the pure from the impure. This matter once again reflects the relationship of purity to Torah, as Torah too has strong emphasis on the intellect. Indeed, the order of Mishna that deals with purity, Taharot, is called by our Sages 'Daat' - 'Knowledge' or 'Intellect'.
Taking another look at the grand scope of laws of purity, we also find that their practice is almost exclusive to the Land of Israel. Even leaving the concept of Rabbinical impurity in the Diaspora aside, it is clear even on a Biblical level that the main issues of purity that pertain to truma, kodashim (holy articles), and their like are unique to the Land of Israel and the Bais HaMikdash. This can be explained once again as being due to the Holy Presence in the Land and in the Bais HaMikdash, a matter that requires spiritual 'plumbing'/purification to open the channels for the manifestation of this Godly light in the consciousness of People and upon this holy earth. Nevertheless, it should be noted that impurity does not always totally invalidate one of the holy articles we just mentioned. In the case of truma, for example, one is forbidden to impurify pure truma, but if truma is impurified it is still given to the Kohen, albeit only for the use of fuel (for a fire, etc) but not as food.
The concepts of purity, Torah, and 'daat'-knowledge, and the Land of Israel come beautifully together in Hebron. Of the cities of the Land of Israel Hebron is singled out by 'Shaar Hahatzer' as a city that one can achieve special purity. In the Zohar 'Hebron' is considered synonymous with Torah, for one who occupies oneself with Torah is called a 'haber' by our Sages. Hebron also means connection, while 'daat'-knowledge means connection, as it says "and Adam 'yada'-'knew'/'connected' to his wife". Of course, this is Hebron, Beacon of our Holy Land.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #114:
"For many years I have been delivering shiurim on Daf Yomi to the public, while sometimes there are more those that attend and sometimes there are less. One summer day, I came to deliver the shiur, but nobody came, so I decided to deliver the shiur as usual announcing the daf we were on (which was 10 days behind the worldwide Daf Yomi...), as if to the 'walls of the Bais Midrash'. Suddenly, from the other side the shul quickly came an elderly man and sat before me, listening to the shiur attentively. After the shiur he told me that he was so grateful that I delivered a shiur on this specific daf, for he had married off his daughter just 10 days ago and had missed this very daf on that day..." T.S.H
Sources: Rambam Trumot 2, 14
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. Shmini Shel Pesach
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"May it be Your will HaShem our God and God of our Fathers that that You raise us in joy to our Land and establish us in our boundaries, and there we shall fulfil the the mitzvot of trumot and maasrot and all the commandments of the Land that You have given to our Fathers, a Land flowing with milk and honey..." (Prayer after Blessing on Trees in Nissan)
Spring heralds a new recognition of God's mastery over creation, renewing our senses in the natural world along with the renewal of our People in the 'Month of Spring' on Pesah. Indeed, the renewal of Jewish settlement in Hebron began about 45 years ago on Pesah. In addition, the culmination of the halachic agricultural cycle culminates and begins again on the last day of Pesah.
According to Halacha on the fourth and seventh (shmita) year of the Shmita cycle on the last day of Pesah one is to conduct 'biur maasrot', the consummation of maasrot of the years before. Practically, this means that one is to take any coins used to defile the value of maser sheni upon them and destroy them or discard them to the sea (flush down the toilet). Ideally, when the Bais HaMikdash is standing these coins should have been taken to Jerusalem and used to buy produce to be eaten in the boundaries of sanctified Jerusalem. However, today we continue to defile the value of maser sheni produce on coins Rabbinically, and since we cannot use these coins in their ideal state, but with the same token also cannot preserve them past the fore-mentioned halachic agricultural cycle (which ends on the fourth and seventh year), therefore we must destroy or discard them according to Halacha. Afterwards, one is to proclaim a general declaration on the fulfillment of the laws of the Land in regard to trumot and maasrot as found in the beginning of parshat Ki Tavo.
Our Sages explain that the reason this declaration of parshat Ki Tavo is to be mentioned on Pesah is because the Torah uses in context of this declaration the word 'miketz' - the culmination, which, by inference, is tied to the Festival-'Regel' which also uses the term 'miketz'. Since after Succos people still gather produce of the trees, our Sages inferred that it cannot be called such a 'culmination' and cessation of the previous cycle, and therefore one must wait to declare til Pesah, when trees blossom anew in differentiation of the previous cycle. In this way, we can link the name of this week's parsha in the Land of Israel, Shmini, which refers to Rosh Hodesh Nissan - the eighth day of the Miluim ceremony, to the reading of the Diaspora on Shmini/Last Day of Pesah.
On Rosh Hodesh Nissan the custom is to bless upon the blossoming of trees of the new season, and the Last Day of Pesah is also linked to the ending of the previous season with the commencement of the new season with the declaration fore-mentioned. This is Hebron, the uniting link between worlds, the bridge between the Holy Land and the Diaspora.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #114:
"We once had a problem with a mouse infestation in our house. Even though we put traps, etc. nothing helped. Once, someone told us of a segula of hanging a picture of a particular tsaddik to remove mice and other pests. Since we are not so keen on segulas, we decided to contemplate what is special about this tzadik. We were told that this tzadik was particularly careful about theft and all its permutations. We therefore, started to doo a 'heshbon hanefesh' to see how we could be more careful with the possesions and money of others. As we did such, immediately a mouse entered the trap and got caught..."
Sources: Rashi p. Ki Tavo on Declaration of Trumot and Maasrot
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. Parshat Tzav
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Bonding with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
והנותרת ממנה יאכלו אהרן ובניו
"If God be with me and give me bread to eat and clothing to wear and HaShem shall be my God, and then this rock shall be a house of God and all that You shall give me I shall tithe.” (Yakov's prayer)
In numbers of places, we see how the Torah sees not only food, but also clothing as an essential part of living. We can see this in mitzvot between man and God such as tzitzit on clothing, in mitzvot between people such as a husband's obligation to clothe his wife, and also in para-Divine-human mitzot such as the obligation to give the first shearing of wool, used for clothing, to the Kohen, the servant of God in the Mikdash. In the instance of the Kohanim we find that Kohanic garments used in the service of the Bais HaMikdash also take high importance. Studying this matter more in depth we find that clothes are called by the great Amoreaic master “my honor”. Simply, this means that one's clothing reflects one's honor, position, and status. Delving deeper we find that honor itself is, in a sense, a type of 'clothing', the reception of one's essence in an external atmosphere. In this way, we can gain a slightly greater comprehension in the meaning of 'HaShem's Honor', which is translated by the Aramaic translations of the Torah as none other than the Holy Presence. We cannot have any comprehension of HaShem's Essence, as Rambam puts it: 'if I knew Him (His Essence), I would be Him”. Rather, what we aspire to is to cleave to His Holy Presence, i.e the Honor of God, unseparated from His Essence, somewhat similar to a soul in a body or a body in clothing (as we just described), with our intent always only towards the One Essence (serving the 'Presence' alone is idolatry, God forbid).
In our title quote of this week's parsha is the command to give the remaining parts of the sacrifice, not put on the altar, to the Kohanim. This is one of the 24 gifts given to the Kohanim, this one being unique to the Bais HaMikdash. We have discussed in the past gifts given to the Kohen in the Land of Israel in general such as truma and halla. Another example of such a gift in the Land in general is the first shearing of wool. After what we just explained, we can gain greater understanding of this mitzva. As explained before, giving the first of something represents 'putting them first on the list', and shows a sign of superiority befitting something given to a Divine purpose. 'Shearing wool' represents the concept of clothing/honor we explained here, as from a Biblical perspective 'clothing' is either from flax or wool only (perhaps flax is not included here because it is already a vegetable and vegetables already have laws of truma and maaser). Thus, by 'enclothing' the Kohen, one is giving honor to God's priests. This is tantamount to 'cleaving to HaShem', for our Sages teach that when one cleaves to the righteous, I.e those connected to God, one cleaves to His Holy Presence.
Similarly, by giving honor to Hebron- 'City of the Patriarchs'- we give honor to our Godly Patriarchs, which ultimately means giving honor to the Holy Presence.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #113:
"One day, one person suddenly jokingly remarked (about a Torah-computer program), 'this might be a nice gift your wife could give you for your birthday', which seems to be the first time I have received such a remark. Little did he know that my birthday was indeed just about 3-4 days later..."
Sources: Rambam Bikurim 1, 6
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. Pesach 5775
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Connecting to the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"שבעת ימים תאכל מצות"
"Blessed are You HaShem our God Master of the Universe who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to eat matza."
Pesach has such a strong emphasis on eating that its most dominant name in the Torah is the 'Festival of Matzot'. Ideally, when we can bring the Pashal sacrifice, the eating of the Paschal lamb and the bitter herbs are all Biblical commandments. Yet still, when we don't have the Paschal lamb the eating of matzot is still Biblically ordained while Marror is Rabbinically ordained. The obligation on eating on Pesach is so strong that we are even bidden not to leave any remnants of the Paschal lamb uneaten till midnight (Rabbinically, Biblically-till morning), and if such remnants are found, they must be burnt. We can tie the levels of this eating obligation to levels of sanctity. In regard to seder night the day is holy but the matza within itself is not a holy food. In contrast, the Paschal lamb is a holy food, and therefore must be eaten entirely, as is the case with other holy sacrifices.
Interestingly, we find that in the Holy Land too there are foods that must be eaten (drink/used as ointment) and not discarded or used for other purposes, albeit not in such rigid constraints of time, place, and people, such as is with sacrifices. One example of such a food is truma, which is mandated by the Torah to be eaten, and our Sages learn that drink is considered under the category of 'eating' along with ointment which is considered similar to drink, as it says, 'and it entered his innards like water and like oil upon his bones'. Another example of this special conduct with food is in the case of the fruits of Shmita year, which, although not called 'holy' in the same sense that truma is called 'holy', are considered to retain a certain type of 'holiness'. In this matter too our Sages interpreted the Torah's command on Shmita's produce 'to be eaten' to mean that this produce must not be ruined. Practically speaking this means that the fruits of shmita may not be discarded in a way that ruins their edibility. This holiness has other ramifications as well, such as 'sanctifying' the money used to buy such produce to be used in the same manner as were the fruits.
Hebron, our roots to the Holy Land, conveys both the message of the sanctity of the Land of Israel and the roots of our people as conveyed in the matza, our People's first food. Actually, the first place that the Torah teaches us that matza was eaten is no other than Elonei Mamreh, Hebron, site of Avraham's encounter with the three angels. This reminds us that just as matza conveys the first vital food of our People as 'nursing milk for the infant' that must be re-lived every year at Pesach- the holiday of re-birth, so too Hebron conveys the first vital location rooted to our People, its message evermore powerful throughout the generations.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #114:
"One night, I organized a group of people to learn at Maarat HaMachpela, but I was detained from coming to learn there myself that night. Nevertheless, I decided to 'join' them virtually by learning at home. At 2:15 I became tired and fell asleep. The next day I checked with my friends till when did they study at Maarat HaMachpela. To this they answered: 2:15."
Sources: Trumot 11, 1
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. Parshat Vayikra
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס"ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Uniting with the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
"כל חלב לה'"
"Praise O Jerusalem HaShem, Laud Your God O Zion. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates and has blessed your children in your midst. Who has put peace in your borders, the choicest ('helev') of wheat He shall satisfy you.” (Psukei dezimra)
Our People are called “the children of Zion”, for, as we have explained before, Zion, dominion of the Holy Presence, gives 'birth' to our People, enlightening our souls with the light of God. Thus, 'peace' - 'Shalom', considered a name of God, rests in our borders, for all are united in the Godly light shining from Truly One. In this reality the 'choicest of wheat' of our Holy Land satisfies us, for it has absorbed the Godly light of the Holy Land, and can therefore truly give our souls satisfaction. Just as HaShem provides us with the choicest, so too are we supposed to elevate the choicest of what we have towards HaShem.
An example of this concept is in this week's parsha which commands us to bring the choicest fats of the sacrifices - 'helev' - to HaShem upon the altar. The term 'helev' in general refers to the choicest, and is exactly the same term used in the term 'the choicest of wheat' above. Indeed, as befitting the fore-mentioned contemplation on the produce/wheat of the Holy Land, we are, in-turn, commanded to give the choicest produce when separating Truma. So Rambam rules, that one is to give the choicest/good-looking produce as truma to the Kohen, unless the Kohen is not present in which case one is to take from the most long-lasting part of the produce (so it can survive to be brought to the Kohen eventually). However, in today's reality, when truma is respectfully put aside and not to the Kohen (for numbers of reasons), the Shulhan Aruch rules that it is not necessary to separate the choicest for truma. Nevertheless, the Shulhan Aruch goes on to say that one should still separate the choicest for Maaser to the Levi, for maaser is still given today to the Levite. Just as there are levels of superiority in the fruits of the Land, this Land itself also ranks as superior over all other lands.
On the verse, “and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt” our Sages remark that this verse comes to tell that Hebron was choicest even more than Zoan of Egypt by seven levels/'years'. Maharal explains that this comes to teach that not only Hebron, but also the entire Land of Israel which contains Hebron, has 'a superior Godly level' in parallel to its 'physical' superiority described in the verse. This is Hebron, the Beacon of the Land of Israel, one of the choicest of cities.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #112:
“One month, my bank account was under overdraft, and my credit card was in danger of bouncing the very next day. Desperately, I contacted my work to pay me early, so this would not happen. However, just then I was notified that I just 'happened' to receive a tax-return, covering my deficit and amounting to more than a 1000 NIS more than my monthly salary.” (R.M)
Sources: Rambam Trumot 5, 1, Maharal Gur Aryeh Bamidbar 13, 22
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