Parshat Tzav By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Tzav

By: Moshe Goodman, Kollel Or Shlomo, Hebron                                                                                                        בס"ד

                                      לשכנו תדרשו

Calling for the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"צו את אהרן ואת בניו לאמר זאת תורת העולה היא העולה על מוקדה על המזבח כל הלילה עד הבקר ואש המזבח תוקד בו"
"Our God and the God of our Forefathers! Compassionate King, have compassion upon us... Return to us with Your great mercy, because of Forefathers who have done Your will. Rebuild Your House as of old... and return the Holy Presence within it..." (Musaf of three festivals)

It is evident from this prayer and other prayers that our Forefathers of Hebron play a crucial role in the rebuilding of the Bait Hamikdash and in our Redemption in general. Similarly, our week's haftorah of Shabbos Hagadol may also allude to the role of connecting (also Hebron means to connect) to our Forefathers in bringing the Redemption: "and he (Elijah) will return the hearts of fathers to sons and the hearts of sons to their fathers..." (end of Malachi)

The parshios of the book of Vayikra, and our week's parsha within it, are full of the mitzvoth that we aspire to keep in Redemption, may it arrive speedily. Our title quote illustrates the first mitzvah of this week's parsha, to have fire burn upon the altar every day. This mitzvah entails that the choicest woods be picked for the sake of this Divine service, just as all offerings are to be brought from the choicest animals, grains, etc. as ruled by Rambam in Tmidin Umusafin (ch 7).

There the Rambam adds that although the choicest woods are to be used for burning on the altar, wood from grape-vines and olive trees are not to be used because of "settling the Land of Israel". What the Rambam means by this is that because these trees have special productive value in the form of wine and oil, therefore they are not to be hindered for their wood, even if this wood is used for our holiest site, the Bais Hamikdash.

Here again we see the great value and emphasis the Torah puts on the settlement of the Land of Israel, even on an economic level, and even when this value comes in slight contradiction to the way of service in the abode of the Shechina. However, as we have shown many times before, indeed the Land of Israel is also strongly connected to the Shechina, and therefore the support of its settlement even slightly on account of the Bais Hamikdash, pinnacle point of the Shechina, is justifiable.

That said, what meaning can we gain from this commandment of burning wood upon the altar? "Etz Hadaat Tov" (parshat Tzav) explains that the wood alludes to the wood put on the altar at Akeidat Yitzhak, thus alluding to the merit of our Forefathers Avraham and Yitzhak. This wood is to be burnt continuously in order to allude to the eternal merit of Yitzhak, who, because of his will to be offered, is considered to be as if actually offered and burnt as ashes forever on the supernal altar.

Now we gain added meaning to the subsequent commandment to lift the ashes from the altar, as a sign of merit regarding the "ashes" of Yitzhak. From this idea we can also infer how great is the value of will and effort made towards a mitzah even if in the end one was not able to actually commit the mitzvah. May HaShem see our efforts for the Shechina, and grant us to see in "His return to Zion with compassion".

Israel Hashgaha Story #10: "I called a friend (A) of mine who I haven't spoken with for a number of years to inquire about a town he lived in. Incidentally, he informed me that a different friend (B) of mine is getting married in about two days. After several hours I "happened" to meet this friend (B) while shopping in Jerusalem to whom I wished a hearty Mazal Tov. I hadn't met or talked to this friend (B) for several months, and also I hadn't been or gone shopping in Jerusalem for a number of weeks."

Parshat Vayikra By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Vayikra

By: Moshe Goodman, Kollel Or Shlomo, Hebron                                                                                                        בס"ד

                                      לשכנו תדרשו

Calling for the Shechina Today in Our Holy Land

 

             "ויקרא אל משה וידבר ה' אליו מאהל מועד לאמר"

"May it be Your will before You, HaShem our God and the God of our fathers, that You raise us with happiness to our Land, and plant us in our borders, and there we shall offer before You our obligatory offerings, Tamid offerings in their order and Musaf offerings according to their laws..." (Musaf Shabat) 

These words are just a small example of our many prayers for the return of our People to the Land, for the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdash and the offerings within it, and for the reviving of the Shechina's spirit within us. 

In this week's parsha we learn about one of the offerings in the Bais Hamikdash strongly tied to the Land of Israel. This offering is no other than the Omer offering, so well-known in context of the counting of the Omer kept even today in absence of the Bais Hamikdash. The Omer offering also has other present-day ramifications such as the commandment regarding Hadash, the new produce, prohibited both in the Land and outside it. This new produce is produce of the five grains (wheat, barley, spelt, etc) that rooted before the 16th of Nisan, day of the Omer offering, that is prohibited to be eaten till the date of the 16th of Nisan; or produce which rooted after the 16th of Nisan (or 17th for Diaspora which keeps two days of Yom Tov for both cases) prohibited till the next year on the 16th of Nisan (including)  (Yoreh Deah 293, 1-3). 

ואם תקריב מנחת ביכורים לה' אביב קלוי באש גרש כרמל תקריב את מנת ביכורך 

(ויקרא ב, יד) - Our sages teach that these words of our parsha talking about "bikurim" actually refer to the Omer offering, which is the first (bikurim) grain of the year. How do we know that this offering must come specifically from the Land of Israel? Rambam rules in Tmidin veMusafin 7, 5: "This meal offering may be brought only from Eretz Yisrael,as [Leviticus 23:10] states: "And you shall bring the omer, the first of your harvest, to the priest." 

The explanation of this proof-text is in Rambam's source, the Sifra parshat Emor, which states that "your (in plural) harvest" excludes the Diaspora, which is not the People's (in plural) land as a group whole. Rambam continues in law 13 to explain that even reaping without eating is limited:  "It is forbidden to reap any of the species of grain in Eretz Yisrael before the reaping of the omer, [becauseLeviticus 23:10] refers [to it as]: "the first of your harvest," [implying that] it should be the first [grain] that is reaped. 

To what does the above apply? To a harvest from which the omer offering could be brought. [A field located] in parched land in a valley, by contrast, may be reaped before [the reaping of] the omer, because it is not fit to bring [the omer offering] from it. [Even such grain] should not, however, be collected in a grain heap." (There is controversy if this law applies today in absence of the Bais Hamikdash). The Omer offering reminds us to recognize that before we benefit from new produce we must remember that HaShem is Master of all nature and has caused the fields to grow this new produce. 

The unique connection of the Omer to the Land also reminds us that this recognition is even greater in the Land of Israel, the Land of Special Providence. It is with this recognition and this inspiration that may we merit soon to raise the Omer offering to the Bait Hamikdash, pinnacle point of the Holy Shechina. 

The book of Vayikra which we begin this week begins with the call of HaShem to Moshe. After thousands of years of inability of our People to come to the Land, it seems that the recent ability to come to the Land is like the call of HaShem, calling us to get closer to HaShem, to get closer to our Ancestral roots of Hebron, calling us to get closer ("yakriv") to the Shechina and revive its power -   "אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן לה'"

Real-life Hashgaha Story #9: A yeshiva student tells this recent story: "My son was born with an extremely rare condition in which his knee bends only in the opposite direction which it should. The doctors said it takes at least 3 months to cure this condition with casts etc. We used the casts, and miraculously my son was cured in two weeks. The doctors were astounded." 

Parshat Vayakhel - Pekudei By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Vayakhel - Pekudei

By: Moshe Goodman, Kollel Or Shlomo, Hebron                                                                                                        בס"ד

                                      לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Shechina in Our Holy Land

 

             "ויכס הענן את אהל מועד וכבוד ה' מלא את המשכן"

"Please, Merciful One! With Your great mercy, return Your Presence to Zion and the order of the Service to Jerusalem" (Musaf prayer for holidays).

A common theme of both this week's parsha and the special reading for parshat Hahodesh (Nisan) is the inauguration of the Mishkan which occurred on Rosh Hodesh Nissan. Just as we see in this week's parsha in our title quote that it is not to be taken for granted that the Shechina, "the Honor of HaShem", rests in the Mishkan, as only after the Mishkan was already standing did the Shechina enter it.

So too we cannot take it for granted that the Shechina rests on the Temple Mount or the Land of Israel in general without studying if and what type or level of Divine Presence is involved.

One of the fascinating sources for the study of this matter is the concept of consecrating (added) land to have the holiness of the Temple Mount or the holiness of Jerusalem. This consecration ceremony is only possible by "a king, a prophet, urim vetumim, and a Sanhedrin of 71 elders" (Rambam Beit Habehira 6, 11). After explaining this consecration process, explaining also that the consecration of the Bais Hamikdash rendered the Temple Mount consecrated forever, the Rambam (ibid) asks a question: "Why do I say that the original consecration sanctified the Temple and Jerusalem for eternity, while in regard to the consecration of the remainder of Eretz Yisrael, in the context of the Sabbatical year, tithes, and other similar [agricultural] laws, [the original consecration] did not sanctify it for eternity?"

What the Rambam means in this question is that while with regard to mitzvoth of the Land we require every time a new "consecration", i.e the settlement or conquest of the Land of Israel (with regard to today's settlement and conquest there are differences of opinion - see "Eretz Hemda p. 135 and more), with regard to the Temple Mount, its consecration stays constant even when there is no Temple there and even when there is no new consecration ceremony. Rambam then answers this question: "Because the sanctity of the Temple and Jerusalem stems from the Shechinah, and the Shechinah can never be nullified. Therefore, [Leviticus 26:31] states: 'I will lay waste to your Sanctuaries.' The Sages declared: 'Even though they have been devastated, their sanctity remains.'

In contrast, the [original] obligation to keep the laws of the Sabbatical year and tithes on the Land stemmed from the fact that it was conquered by the [Jewish people, as a] community. Therefore, when the land was taken from their hands [by the Babylonians,] their [original] conquest was nullified. Thus, according to Torah law, the land was freed from the obligations of the Sabbatical year and of tithes because it was no longer in the hands of Israel. When Ezra returned [to Eretz Yisrael] and consecrated it, it was not sanctified by means of conquest, but rather through Chazzakah (peaceful settlement). Therefore, every place which was repossessed by the [exiles returning from] Babylon and consecrated when Ezra consecrated [the land] the second time, is sacred today.

Thus, as explained in Hilchot Terumah, it is necessary to keep the laws of the Sabbatical years and the tithes [on this land] even though it was taken from [the Jewish people in later years]." However, it is to be noted that the Raavad differs with the Rambam on this issue, saying that also the Temple Mount was not sanctified for eternity. In any case, it should be clear that these rulings do not contradict the many sources quoted in previous weeks stating that the Holy Presence rests even when the Land and the Temple Mount are not halachically consecrated.

The key in understanding this differentiation is that these halachic rulings are referring to certain levels of Divine Presence that require and allow certain halachic opportunities. Therefore, as the Rambam stated, the level of Divine Presence on the Holy Mount is greater than the Land in general. That said, it is true that when these halachic criteria are met, then definitely that is a sign of a greater level of Divine Presence in the Land of Israel and the Temple Mount. Indeed, the great goal of the majority of worldwide Jewry settling in the Land is closer than ever, and with that the return of the Shechina to our midst. Just as Kaleb connected to our Land via Hebron (parshat Shlah), thereby delivering the message of the Land of Israel to the masses, it is by Hebron that we may connect (lehaber) our People to the Land of Israel.

Real-life Hashgaha Story #8: "This past week my wife went to megila reading for women and met there a woman she had last met about 10 years ago. In a short conversation this woman "happened" to ask about a certain person from my in-laws' town. I should mention too that all the years we have been married I never heard of this person except for this week. It turns out that this person had suddenly passed away just about two days before."