Short & Sweet

Behaaloscha: What do you Want?

A peculiar turn of phrase is used to describe when the Jews complained for meat rather than mun. The passuk says they were התאוו תאוה, desiring a desire. What does that mean?

The Akeidas Yitzchak explains that the nation did not actually desire meat. They were not hungry. They did not see anybody else eating meat or smell it’s tantalizing aroma. Rather, what they wanted was something to want. They desired to have something that they could desire, something to feel a passion and longing for. This is far worse than desiring something specific that you happened to have come across.

R’ Aaron Lopiansky takes this a step further. He explains that one who is searching for something to desire only does so because they feel a sense of emptiness in their own life. A basic human need is to feel like one is pursuing something that they want. But the proper way of channeling this feeling would have been for the Jewish nation to seek spiritual pursuits to be busy with, to fill their days chasing opportunities to do Mitzvos and to help others.

The fact that the nation chose to try to build up an appetite for physical rather than spiritual things showed that being an elevated nation was not high up enough on their priority list.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום

Korach: Seeing Both Sides

The Zohar makes a cryptic statement about Korach. It writes that Korach argued on Shalom itself. But what does it mean to argue against peace?

R’ Aaron Lopiansky explains that Korach wasn’t willing or able to see any truth in any perspective other than his own. For example, Korach brought a Tallis that was all Techeiles. This symbolizes that he was only able to see Hashem through one color, and wasn’t able to see any kernels of truth in any other viewpoint. When one cannot take other perspectives into account, their view will always be flawed.

Boaz’s Beis Din decided that one should greet another Jew with the name of Hashem. When two Jews greet each other, the Shechina comes from the duality of both of them acknowledging each other. One who cannot see anything other than himself and his own opinions cannot access the divine.

This is true in perspectives, but also true in personality types. If I am very creative and chaotic, it may be hard for me to get along with somebody who is all about organization and structuring. But it takes all types to make society function. The fact that I gravitate towards one extreme cannot blind me to the value that others bring to the table.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום

Pinchas: Held Back

The Torah refers to only two days as being עצרת – the last day of Pesach and the last day of Sukkos. And yet we find that in the Mishnayos, the word עצרת means the Yom Tov of Shavous. Why is that?

R’ Yechezkel Abramsky explains that the “last days” of Pesach and Sukkos have something in common. The first days each have a special mitzva that makes them memorable – eating matza, shaking lulav. The last days have none of that. They are only עצור ממלאכה, “held back” from doing melacha.

Explains R’ Yechezkel Abramsky, as long as the Beis HaMikdosh was still with us, we had a special mitzva to do on Shavous – to bring the שתי הלחם. However, now that the Beis HaMikdosh is destroyed, we have no special mitzva for Shavous. This why during the times of the Mishnah, after the churban, they began to use the name Atzeres to refer to Shavous.

As we begin the בין המצרים, perhaps this is to serve as a reminder of how much of Yiddishkeit we are missing so long as we do not have the Beis HaMikdosh.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום

Matos: Your Mouth Matters

The Torah uses an interesting turn of phrase when instructing us to keep any נדר or שבועה that we make. The passuk first says לא יחל דברו, “he should not make his words mundane”, and only then tells us that ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה, “he should do whatever he has said”. But why do we need the first instruction not to make our words mundane, if the passuk is separately commanding us to keep our word?

The Chida quotes a homiletic interpretation from R’ Chaim Vital and R’ Shimon Tirano that addresses this point. לא יחל דברו, do not make your speech about דברי חולין, mundane matters. ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה, for all of your words have an effect in the heavens.

The fact that a person can create a new מצוה דרורייתא by making a neder shows us just how much a person’s words can change in the heavens. Every word of Torah and Tefilah can have an enormous effect, both high up in the heavens and deep down within one’s heart. What a shame it would be to waste that ability.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום

Eikev: Don’t Forget

When recounting all that had happened in the desert, Moshe makes an interesting juxtaposition. He starts speaking about how Hashem gave us the מן, then talks about how we are about to go into ארץ ישראל, and then moves on to ברכת המזון. What is the connection between these three things?

R’ Shamshon Refael Hirsch explains that there is a progression here. The point of being in the desert was to הודיעך כי לא על הלחם לבדו יחיה האדם, to teach us that it is not our own efforts and power that sustain us. Rather it Hashem, and Hashem alone, who sustains us.

But that lesson was coming to an end. The Jewish nation was about to enter Eretz Yisroel, and go back to living with the mirage of nature. How would they hold on to their grip of the reality that it is only Hashem who sustains us, and not fall into the trap of כחי ועוצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה?

The answer is the mitzva of ברכת המזון. When are satiated, we are in danger of becoming full of ourselves, of thinking that we are the reason for our success. It is then that we say ברכת המזון and remember that all of our success is due only to the grace of God, and that it is Him alone who sustains us.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום