Face value

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In the parsha of tzitzis: וְהָיָה לָכֶם, לְצִיצִת, וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹת ה’, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם; וְלֹא-תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם, וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם – You will wear these tzitzis. When you see them, you will be reminded of all God’s commands, and you’ll do them – and you won’t stray after your hearts and eyes. (15:39)

Beyond the obvious implication of not dwelling on inappropriate sights, the Sfas Emes teaches that this ties in to the beginning of the parsha, with the spies. This charges us to not to be led astray by appearances, one of many of that generations mistakes וְלֹא -תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם, וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם – our eyes and hearts literally “scout” for us, and we are not to be led astray.

What if their worst fears had been confirmed, and they indeed faced a land inhabited by hordes of strong, ruthless, well armed, well trained men? Would Hashems assurances have meant less than if they had no knowledge of the matter?

The Sfas Emes points out how taking things as they appear is a character flaw that is caused by a deficiency in faith and trust. If they had truly believed and trusted Hashem, this episode could not have taken place. This why the very next verse לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹתָי – not “remind yourself” so much as “never forget” – by internalisation. Never lose sight of the bigger picture.

39 vs 40

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 ב. וְהָיָה אִם בִּן הַכּוֹת הָרָשָׁע וְהִפִּילוֹ הַשֹּׁפֵט וְהִכָּהוּ לְפָנָיו כְּדֵי רִשְׁעָתוֹ בְּמִסְפָּר . 

‘and it shall be, if the guilty one has incurred [the penalty of] lashes, that the judge shall make him lean over and flog him in front of him, commensurate with his crime, in number.’

ג. אַרְבָּעִים יַכֶּנּוּ לֹא יֹסִיף פֶּן יֹסִיף לְהַכֹּתוֹ עַל אֵלֶּה מַכָּה רַבָּה וְנִקְלָה אָחִיךָ לְעֵינֶיךָ

‘He shall flog him with forty [lashes]; he shall not exceed, lest he give him a much more severe flogging than these [forty lashes], and your brother will be degraded before your eyes.’ 

This is the famous parsha of malkos (flogging or lashes).

The  Gemara in Makkos 22a asks “How many times do we flog the receiver? – Because the passuk writes, “be’mispar arboim” (in the number 40) and so we understand that  the number must be close to 40 – therefore we give him 39 strokes.  However, R’Yehuda follows the line of the pasuk and says that he receives 40 strokes for a complete flogging.
When the Chiddushei Ha’rim was young, a man asked him the following question: Is there a chance that one day a person will receive the same amount of lashes according to both R’Yehuda and the Chachomim ?

 The young bochur gave a brilliant answer: A Shliach Beis Din  (someone who works for the Beis Din and carries out the punishments)  transgressed 39 issurim in the Torah and therefore deserved 39 floggings. However, before receiving his punishments, he was still doing his job in Beis Din and was flogging someone else. He gave the person 40 strokes. Now, according to R’Yehuda, who says that a person receives 39 strokes, this Shliach Beis Din has given too many, therefore he has transgressed the issur of  “Lo Yosif Le’hakoso”(in passuk 3), and he now must receive a further set on top of the 39 he deserves already. So, altogether, he is obligated to receive 40 sets of 39 strokes.

According to the Chachomim, who says that a person receives 40 strokes, this Shliach Beis Din has not given too many, and therefore, he is obligated to receive his original 39 floggings, each consisting of 40 strokes. When calculated it works out that 39 floggings times 40 strokes = 40 floggings times 39 strokes; so according to both R’Yehuda and the Chachomim, he receives the same amount.

 Upon hearing this answer, the man was so impressed with the sheer genius of the young man that he took the Chiddushei Harim to be his son-in-law.

On that note – Good Shabbos! 

The significance of the Yamim Tovim

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There is a Mishna in Pirkei Avos (4:28) that says:

רבי אליעזר הקפר אומר, הקנאה והתאווה והכבוד, מוציאין את האדם מן העולם – Rabbi Eliezer said: jealousy, lust and pride removes men from the world.

The Chiddushei Harim explains that the Shalosh Regalim atone for these three. Pesach makes up for תאווה , lust, as we eat לחם עוני , poor man’s bread, which is the simplest, most base of all foods. Despite seeming undesirable, it is all we eat for a week, demonstrating how we marginalise our desires, because Hashem asks us to.

Shavuos atones for קנאה , jealousy, as we say that the Torah was given בעין טוב , with a good eye, as opposed to the evil eye, which caused the deaths of R’ Akiva’s students. The acceptance of the Torah shows how the Jews were not looking at what they could get from others, as this was a unique opportunity that Hashem had offered them.

Succos atones for כבוד , pride, as it commemorates our reliance on the ענני הכבוד , the clouds Hashem surrounded us with in the desert. This also shows how we forego our independence, in that we remember our reliance on Hashem.

Each festival serves to teach valuable life lessons.

Matza and Maror – chalk and cheese

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Matza symbolises that the redemption took place with such haste that the dough did not have time to rise. The Maror symbolises the bitterness of the slavery.

Obviously, the slavery took place before the redemption. Yet we eat Matza before the Maror – why don’t we reflect the historical order that events unfolded, and commemorate the affliction with the Maror first, and then appreciate the redemption with Matzah? The Chiddushei HaRim explains with a parable.

There was a king who had one child, the crown prince. One day, the prince got involved in a national scandal and embarrassed the royal family greatly, for which he was banished. Over time, and as he aged, the king’s grief grew at what he’d done – he’d banished his only son and heir! He sent scouts across the kingdom to locate the prince and bring him back. A scout found the prince, dishevelled and a mess, working as a lumberjack deep in the middle of distant forests, with worn clothes and covered in dirt. The scout verified his reports and could not believe his eyes, yet approached the former crown prince; “My lord, the king has requested your immediate return to the palace. Before we get going, what do you need?”.

“I’m not sure about going back, I like it here… But you know, what I really need is a better axe; this one is getting blunt. Could you possibly get me another?”.

The scout was bewildered – when presented with the opportunity to return to his royal heritage, the heir to the throne refused. He had forgotten what it meant to be the prince, he had become a peasant; a simple laborer, who just wanted a better axe to be a better lumberjack.

The Chiddushei Harim explains that we couldn’t understand how terrible the slavery was until we’d experienced redemption and liberty.

If you put your face an inch from this text you can’t read it, you can only see the word right in front of you. To appreciate something for what it is, we need to step back from it. From darkness we understand what light is, and vice versa. Light is brightest coming in from the dark, and dark is darkest when the lights go out.

We need to start with redemption, ultimate freedom to serve Hashem – to illustrate how awful anything else is.

What does a sacrifice do?

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The Torah says in Vayikra how sacrifices work:

וְהִקְטִיר הַכֹּהֵן אֶת הַכֹּל הַמִּזְבֵּחָה עֹלָה אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ לה – The Kohen will offer the animal in smoke on the altar, a burnt offering, with a pleasant aroma to the Lord. (1:9)

Rashi explains that Hashem instructs us to perform this mitzva, and when we carry it out, this generates “a pleasant aroma” (lit. שאמרתי ונעשה רצוני – “That I said, and they did as I wished”).

But all mitzvos are Hashem’s Will – the word “mitzva” is a construct of the word “command”. Do all mitzvos have this formula resulting in “a pleasant aroma”? What is it about sacrifices that distinguishes them?

More to the point, the sacrifice under discussion is not actually commanded at all – it is voluntary! If the formula resulting in a pleasant aroma requires doing as Hashem commands, why would a voluntary sacrifice generate this result at all? There are other examples of this – when Noah offered sacrifices after the Flood, his offerings were called רֵיחַ נִיחוֹחַ לה, yet he wasn’t commanded to bring sacrifices either.

Tangentially; why is the formula for the pleasant aroma inconsistent? It ought to say שרציתי ונעשה רצוני or שאמרתי ונעשה אמרי – “I wanted and My will was done” or “I spoke and what I said was done”. What is the implication of the change?

To understand what the pleasant aroma is, we need to explore the nature of the Will – the רצון. Every morning, women recite the blessing “שעשני כרצונו – who made me according to His will”. But everything exists because G-d wants it to – God perpetually sustains existence just by willing it. R’ Tzadok Hakohen points out that the words for “thing” in Hebrew – דבר and חפץ – translate as “say” and “desire” respectively – in Hebrew, things reflect their essence; in this instance things exist because Hashem desires them to and because He says so.

The Taz explains that this blessing praises the positive aspects of being a woman. But what specific aspects of being a woman is the blessing referencing as being more “virtuous” than other aspects of being a woman?

R’ Moshe Shapiro tells us that from the Patriarchs, we have חסד, אמת, וגבורה – characteristics highly influential in Judaism. But what of their wives?

Sarah saw that her son was being negatively influenced by Yishmael, and she insisted that her husband send Yishmael and his mother back to the land she came from. Rivka was weary of Esav, and made sure that he did not receive the blessings from Isaac, and assisted Yakov in getting them instead. Rachel and Leah both told Yakov it was time to return to Israel after years in Lavan’s house.

The consistent theme is that the women stand up for the way things ought to be.

We see this when Hashem created the first woman: וַיֹּאמֶרְ הֹ’ אֱלֹהִים לֹא טוֹב הֱיוֹת הָאָדָם לְבַדּוֹ אֶעֱשֶׂה לּוֹ עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man is alone; I will make him a helpmate opposite him.”

Rashi explains the dual meaning of עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ. If her husband is righteous, he will find her to be an עֵזֶר – a helper. If he is evil, she will be כְּנֶגְדּוֹ – opposite him, to return him to justice.

This means that Eve was created to prevent a state of things not being good, ie the way they ought to be.

If Adam had no significant other, it could could be said G-d was not the only unique being, Adam was also one of a kind! So he needed a mate to demonstrate he was “human”; so tongue in cheek, but literally, our wives remind us we are not G-d! The Chiddushei Harim writes that the only two un-bluff-ables are G-d, and one’s wife.

The Creation was God’s Will being actualised, culminating in the Torah being given to mankind. The supervisors for the job are women; created to preserve His רצון, literally, שעשני כרצונו , “I was created to preserve His will”.

Since this is what רצון means, it is clear how the formula for the pleasant aroma is ונעשה רצוני. G-d created the world by saying it should be. By doing His will, the world becomes a place to serve Hashem – מקום עבודת ה. This is the purpose of Creation, to draw creation closer to Creator. But this implies that only by bringing sacrifices can we say it is a pleasing fragrance to Hashem, as the only thing called עבודה is the Korbanos! This explains why a voluntary sacrifice is also included, and therefore Noah’s too!