Archive for the ‘R’ Shamshon Ostropolier’ Category

Reverence and the Ten Martyrs

Every year, in the Yom Kippur Mussaf, we recall  the death of the Ten Martyrs in the prayer of  ”אלה אזכרה” – ‘These I shall recall’.

One of the reasons revealed to us about their death is expounded on by the prayer itself, quoting the Midrash, that the Ten Martyrs died as an atonement for what the brothers did to Yosef. It’s a beautiful prayeriyut, but the problem is that there were Ten Martyrs and only nine brothers around at the selling of Yosef. This was because Rueven left at that very moment to do T’shuva, Binyamin was a small child, and Yosef probably didn’t want to sell himself. So why do we focus so much on ten when in truth there should only have been nine deaths?
The Nizuztei Shimshon (see Forgiveness – Big Deal) in Parshas Baholoscha answers by saying that after the brothers sold Yosef they made a חירם (excommunication decree) to be applied on anyone who revealed the truth about what happened to their brother to Yaakov Avinu.

But, as mentioned above, there were only nine brothers present and for the חירם to come into effect there would need to be ten male Jews present – a מנין. Thus says the מדרש that Hakodesh Baruch Hu joined together with the nine brothers to be the tenth and to create the official חירם.
Nine Martyrs gave up their lives as a קבלה from the heavens to be an atonement for the nine brothers. One of the Martyrs gave up his life כנגד ה who joined the minyan to complete the חירם as mentioned above. The Nizutzei Shimshon tells us that R’ Akiva was merited to give up his life כנגד ה. Why Hashem joined with the brothers to sell Yosef is a story in its own, but why was R’ Akiva merited to be killed כנגד ה?
In גמרה Bava Kama 41b it discusses how there were two Tanaaim who expounded on all instances of the word ”את” appearing in the torah. “את”, according to these Tanaaim, was always including another rule that was very well hidden in the Torah. Everything was going well until these Tanaaim reached the pasuk of “את ה תראה”  – ‘Hashem your G-d you shall fear’. They couldn’t learn anything from this “את” because what could it be adding? What should man be fearing more than G-d himself? Therefore they were unable to complete  their entire ‘project’ from lack of being able to expound upon this one “את”.

Generations later Rabbi Akiva figured out that final explanation. He said the “את” was including Talmidei Chachamim, that one must fear the Talmidei Chachamim just as much as he fears G-d. Now we have a basic explanation for why Rabbi Akiva was chosen כנגד ה . Rabbi Akiva brought Hashem and the Talmidei Chachamim to the same level. Not חלילה that they have the same power, but to say that a Talmid Chacham must be revered just as we revere Hashem. With this power that Rabbi Akiva had, to bring the world to recognize the trepidation one must have for his Rav, he merited to be taken כנגד ה.

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Forgiveness – Big deal?

When the brothers apologise to Yosef, he rebutted this by saying “אַל תִּירָאוּ כִּי הֲתַחַת אלֹהִים אָנִי – “Don’t be afraid, for am I instead of God?” (50:19). It is unclear what exactly he means, but certainly he is not annoyed.

The Baal Haturim suggests that this is is poetic justice as this is precisely what his mother had been told when she begged for children from their father, at which point he said “הֲתַחַת אֱ־לֹהִים אָנֹכִי אֲשֶׁר מָנַע מִמֵּךְ פְּרִי בָטֶן - “Am I instead of God, Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” (30:2)

The Maharil Diskin wonders why a simple yes/no answer isn’t enough, and we can (and have) explained that he did not actually forgive them, but did not say this. We can look deeper into his words: In Parshas Matos (30:7-9) the pasuk describes a woman who makes a vow, but then her husband annuls it. In an event where she did not know he had annulled it, and she thinks she is deliberately breaking it, the pasuk says “‘והֹ יִסְלַח לָהּ“ – “…and the Lord will forgive her.” This is astounding – she has technically done absolutely nothing wrong – her vow had been annulled at the time of her actions, and yet there is a certain something that requires forgiveness! And the same thing was true here:

The brothers thought they had committed a horrendously evil act to their brother, and even though circumstantially it turned out for the best in the end, and the family were reunited – just as in the case of a woman who circumstantially did nothing wrong – there was still a certain something that required forgiveness. The Maharil Diskin suggests an alternate explanation to that which the Baal Haturim suggested, that this is exactly what Yosef was saying here.  Due to the turn of events they had done nothing wrong, but he was not in the place of Hashem, because as we said by the woman, they needed G-d’s forgiveness.

In layman’s terms, the ends do not justify the means. Yosef was telling his brothers that they were only circumstantially sorry.

Rabbeinu Bachaye  shares a frightening thought that is brilliant. He takes the concept of Yosef not forgiving his brothers a step further, and suggests that this resulted in the Asara Harugei Malchus, one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history, and one died in lieu of each of the group who’d sold Yosef. Yaakov was not told, as an oath was made as a group of 10 (a minyan) to not tell him, and such an oath cannot be annulled.

But why were there 10 martyrs then, as there weren’t 10 men present at the sale? Binyamin was not there, Reuven had gone home, and we can’t include Yosef as part of such a minyan? There is a concept that a minyan can take place with 9 as Hashem joins in – Hashem was the 10th member of this group.

R’ Shamshon Ostropolier points out that we can expand the pasuk in Bechukosai - “וְכָל מַעְשַׂר בָּקָר וָצֹאן כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹר תַּחַת הַשָּׁבֶט הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה קֹּדֶשׁ לַהֹ – Any tithe of cattle or flock of all that pass under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the Lord” (27:32)- and there is a deeper meaning to this pasuk, in reference to Rabbi Akiva - וכי למא מת עקיבא, שהוא רואה בקר וצאן הכֹּל אֲשֶׁר יַעֲבֹר תַּחַת הַשָּׁבֶט הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה קֹּדֶשׁ לַהֹ – Why did Akiva die? He was just a shepherd! When he passed under the staff (judgement?) he was the tenth, holy for G-d.

There is another allusion to this in Parshas Vayigash (45:15), that “וַיֵּבְךְּ עֲלֵיהֶם – and he cried on them” – we can break up עֲלֵיהֶם and read it על י ה”ם - for the ten Harugei Malchus.

Scary. So not that any of us are like Yosef and his brothers, but it’s clear that we should be more forgiving to people for what they may do to us.

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United We Stand

The Pasuk says ” וַיִּיקַץ יַעֲקֹב, מִשְּׁנָתוֹ, וַיֹּאמֶר, אָכֵן יֵשׁ יְהוָה בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה; וְאָנֹכִי, לֹא יָדָעְתִּי – And Yakov awakened from his sleep, and he said, “I now know the Lord is in this place, and I did not know before.” (28:16)

Clearly this means something else, and R’ Shamshon Ostropolier obliges us. He explains that we know from Sefer Yechezkel there are 4 images on the Kisei HaKavod(G-d’s Holy Throne), a lion, an eagle, a cherub and a man.

He then explains that אָכֵן is Roshei Teivos Aryeh (lion), Cruv (cherub, the angel that appeared on the Aron) and Nesher (eagle), and אָנֹכִי is Roshei Teivos Aryeh, Nesher, Cruv, and Yakov. This is what he was really saying; “”אָכֵן” I already knew were on the Kisei HaKavod, but after I saw the Kisei Hakavod in my dream, I saw “אָנֹכִי” with the additional yud, for Yakov ie that my face was the fourth, fitting enough to be on the Kisei HaKavod, לֹא יָדָעְתִּי“.

I heard a very interesting explanation on how he saw himself as fitting from when he woke up and not before. There is machlokes how many stones Yakov took as the pasuk does not say how many. Pirkei D’Rebi Eliezer says that Yakov took 12 stones to put around his head. Before, all the stones were seperate and individual, and Yakov/Yisroel was not fit to be on the Kisei HaKavod. But once he woke up and saw they had combined to make 1 stone, then he was fitting to be on the Kisei Hakavod, and that’s why he didn’t know before. We can apply this to ourselves by saying that the 12 stones is a metaphor for the 12 Tribes, and clearly from this we can see that divided we are not fit to be on the Kisei HaKavod, but united, we are.

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ראש חודש ניסן

This Weeks Parsha

Israel: Bechukosai

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