Parshat Shelach By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Shelach

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron 

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

"Fighting the Case" for the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"ויעלו בנגב ויבא עד חברון... וחברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני צוען מצרים"

"וְעַבְדִּי כָלֵב עֵקֶב הָיְתָה רוּחַ אַחֶרֶת עִמּוֹ וַיְמַלֵּא אַחֲרָי וַהֲבִיאֹתִיו אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר בָּא שָׁמָּה וְזַרְעוֹ יוֹרִשֶׁנָּה"

"Please, King full of compassion: I have come today to the Holy city of Hebron, may it be re-built speedily... to ask from our King... that He have compassion upon us... till when will You not have compassion on Jerusalem? And if not for our sake, have compassion for Your sake and for the sake of Your mighty Shechina trapped with us in Exile... and if because of the Babylonian Exile which lasted only 70 years, the Forefathers of the world made such commotion (to end it - as brought by our Sages), what shall we say about this bitter exile more than 1900 years that we are in exile after exile downtrodden and ashamed... Therefore, we have come before You... that You should remember the merit of our holy Forefathers... so that You should have compassion upon us... and end our Exile..." ("Prayer at Maarat HaMachpela" in "Shaarei Dima")

Although for every week's parsha I must put down the sources and the words available on the topics which we discuss and share with you, this week's parsha Shlah is so dense, from beginning to end, with topics such as Hebron, the Avot, the Land of Israel, and the Shechina that it has been considerably difficult to decide where and how to begin, and even more so how to end. Therefore, let us focus on a practical part of the parsha that all of us are already familiar with - the mitzvah of taking Halla.

For starters, the opening words in the Torah to this mitzvah are, "when you come to the Land", and the Shulhan Aruch begins these laws with (Yoreh Deah 322 - entitled): "the difference between Halla of the Land of Israel and Halla of the Diaspora". One of these laws states (ibid, 2): "Halla is Torah-ordained solely in the Land of Israel... and only when all (the majority - Aruch HaShulhan and more) of Israel are upon it, as it says: "when you come", the coming of all of you and not just part of you... otherwise it is rabbinic."

Although there are many laws pertaining to Halla, one of the most basic requirements for liability is that the batch become one unit, fluids and solids together. We may recommend to meditate on these ideas while kneading dough via the concept of Hebron. It is Hebron, "City of the Patriarchs", which reminds us both of our commitment to the Holy Land "promised to our Patriarchs" and the concept of unity of our people in the Land ("one people in the Land" - Shmuel 2, 7, 23) by its very name "hebron-lehaber", "to unite".

When we raise the Halla to become "the holy teruma", we can meditate on how through the unity of our People, ingathered in our Holy Land, the spirit of holiness is raised towards the Cohanim, messengers of HaShem in the Bais HaMikdash, raising ourselves towards the Holy Shechina in our Holy Land.  It is this "spirit of holiness" that Kaleb tapped into by praying in Hebron many years ago, instilling within him, and all that go in his footsteps till today, "the different spirit"  of courage and bravery to "fight the case" for the Holy Presence in our Holy Land. It is when we connect to our roots, to the Torah, called "Hebron-haber" (Zohar on title quote), to the Forefathers, and to the Holy Presence with them, that we stay faithful and forever true to our Holy Land, despite our enemies and even despite "leadership" among us that confuses us from the truth.

Just as many women add a personal prayer subsequent to raising halla, befitting the auspicious time of committing a mitzvah, may we also add a personal prayer for all Israel while fulfilling this mitzvah, befitting this mitzvah particularly, along (or around) the lines of: " You, HaShem, have commanded us to take halla in our Holy Land as it says: "when you come to the Land... and when you eat from the bread of the Land you shall raise a teruma to HaShem." HaShem, Our Merciful Father! Have mercy upon Your children and return us to Your Holy Land, united, so we may glorify Your Name, and raise Your spirit of holiness. And if not for our sake, please redeem us for Your sake and the sake of Your Holy Shechina."

Real Stories from the Holy Land #20: "Once I had a driving test in Kiryat Arba, but was detained at my home in Efrat, about a 20-minute drive away. I waited for a ride to Kiryat Arba for about 45 minutes at the usual "hitch-hiker spot" till I missed the period for driving tests entirely. Usually, it takes about 5-10 minutes to hitch-hike to Kiryat Arba from that spot. As soon, as I "gave-up" and just started to cross the street, a car voluntarily stopped for me offering me a ride to my home in Efrat in the opposite direction of Kiryat Arba."

Parshat Bha'alotcha By: Moshe Goodman

Parshat Bha'alotcha

By: Moshe Goodman, Kollel Or Shlomo, Hebron         

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Calling for the Shechina in Our Holy Land

וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹבָב בֶּן רְעוּאֵל הַמִּדְיָנִי חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה נֹסְעִים אֲנַחְנוּ אֶל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אָמַר ה' אֹתוֹ אֶתֵּן לָכֶם לְכָה אִתָּנוּ וְהֵטַבְנוּ לָךְ כִּי ה' דִּבֶּר טוֹב עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל: (במדבר י, כט)

  

"Give thanks to HaShem because He is good, for His kindness is eternal. Those redeemed by the Lord shall say it, those whom He redeemed from the hands of an oppressor and gathered them from lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea." (Ps. 107)

It is apparent from this verse, talking of the ingathering of exiles to our Land, and our title quote, that the "good" referred to here is the entrance to "the good Land" (Deut. 8, 10 and more). "Good" is interpreted by our sages in many sources as referring to a high spiritual state, as they said "good only refers to the Torah" (Br. 5a), or that "the good mountain" refers to the Bais Hamikdash (ibid 48b), or that the "goodness" of Moshe at birth was apparent by a spiritual light (Sh. Raba 1, 22).

It is the extent of this "goodness" of Moshe, i.e. the extent of Moshe Rabeinu's connection to the Shechina, which was not fully realized even by Miriam, till she was reprimanded by HaShem at the end of this week's parsha.

This week's parsha also begins with an allusion to the Holy Presence among Israel in the form of the Menorah, as our Sages noted that it was "a testimony to the world that the Shechina rests with Israel" because of its miraculous ever-lasting "western light"(Menahot 86b). Indeed, our haftorah begins and repeats the words: "I (HaShem) will rest among you". It is because of this special connection to HaShem, that we must be aware of HaShem's signals to us in reality.

Thus, in the middle of this week's parsha we are commanded (one of the 613) to sound trumpet calls at time of trouble, and our Oral Tradition teaches us that to "shout out to God in prayer" is included in this commandment of trumpeting,  for "this is the way of repentance, that when trouble befalls... all will know that it is because of their evil actions that they have been troubled... and this (repentance) will be the cause to remove the trouble upon them" (Rambam Taaniot 1, 2). Thus, it seems that as befitting the special Providence in the Holy Land, we are taught that among the fasts "only in the Land of Israel is a public fast day declared as severe as Yom Kippur (except for Tisha Bav) because of rain in ten specific fasts, etc." (ibid, 3, 11 and Orah Haim 575, 10).

This said, however, the Talmud (Taanit 13b), the Rambam, and the Shulhan Aruch do not explain the reason for this law. In explaining this law, one of the primary stances adopted by the poskim is that of the Ramban, explaining that only in the Land of Israel is there an overriding spiritual-political authority, called the "nasi", powerful enough to decree public fast days that indeed bind the people. Thus, this would mean that today, when we don't have such a "nasi", it is impossible to decree such severe fast days even in the Holy Land.

Although this makes sense theoretically, the poskim note that in fact there was at least one instance of a severe public fast declared in Jerusalem and Hebron even after the fall of the "nasi"'s power. Therefore, the Hida, in "Birkei Yosef", explains that even in absence of the "nasi", the leaders of the people may be considered as "messengers"-continuers of the "nasi"-establishment, and thus may decree severe public fast days. If so, then why can't the leaders of the Diaspora also declare such severe fast days?

One of the Hida's explanations for this is that because the Land of Israel is unique in a number of laws, it was also made unique in regard to fasts. As we have shown many times before, much of the unique laws of the Land of Israel are derivatives of its holy status, of the Holy Presence therein. Thus, we may conclude that this law too is representative of the influence of the Holy Presence in the Land. However, after all this is said, in my humble opinion we may perhaps explain this law much more simply.

Rambam taught us that these severe fasts are conducted only in the Land of Israel and only for rain. If we were to look for the most explicit signs given in the Torah for God's "signaling" us to improve our ways, rain in the Land of Israel would be the most known and explicit, as we say at least twice day in the second portion of Shema. In addition, the Torah explicitly connects the Providence in the Land, called "the eyes of God", to "rain of the heavens" in Dvarim 11, 11-12. Since this is such a strong Biblical source, it follows that the fasts based on this sign should be the strongest and most severe than any other fast.

What fasting does to the body, trumpeting does the senses. The trumpets, and with them the shofar, call us to contemplate, to pay attention to God's signal to us. It is also the trumpets that signal, according to God's order, the first encampment of Judah to move forward first. Similarly, when our People first set out to conquer the Holy Land, they asked God via the Urim Vetumim who should go forward first (beginning of Shoftim). They were answered that Judah should lead. Just as Judah is the leading tribe, Hebron is the leading city of Judah, as we see that David is told by HaShem to begin his reign in Hebron of Judah (Shmuel 2, 2, 1) (Jerusalem is "inter-tribal"). This is Hebron - the beginning of our People, the beginning of leadership, the beginning of royalty, the beginning of HaShem's Kingdom.

Real Stories from the Holy Land #19: Immediately at twilight (20 minutes after sunset) of the 49th and last day of the Omer I, and many others, were witness to a rain-storm in the Jerusalem-Hebron area, very rare this season. Then, after the storm ceased, it returned again, complete with lightning and thunder, on Shavuot morning subsequent to the Torah-reading about the Giving of the Torah: "and there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain".

   

Parshat Naso By: Moshe Goodman

Parshat Naso

By: Moshe Goodman, Kollel Or Shlomo, Hebron                                                                                                                                                                                                   

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

 Lifting Our Thoughts Towards the Holy Presence in 

Our Holy Land Land

"ואשא אתכם על כנפי נשרים ואביא אתכם אלי" (שמות, יט, ד)

"... לא יטמא להם במותם כי נזר א-היו על ראשו" (במדבר ו, ו)

"And He said to me: Son of Man, these bones are all of Israel. Behold, they say our bones are dry, our hope is lost, we are lost. Therefore, prophecy and say unto them: So says the Master, HaShem: Behold, I open your graves, and I will raise you from your graves my People, and I will bring you to the Land of Israel... and you shall know that I am HaShem" (Ezekiel 37, 12). 

Yehezkel's  vision of the "dry bones", which we read on Shabbat Hol HaMoed Pesah, describes the return of our People from Exile to our Holy Land  not as a resurrection of recently deceased people, but as a resurrection of those in graves, dry bones, dead very long before. 

It is evident from this prophecy that the physical ascent of our People to the Holy Land is a tremendous spiritual ascent and lifting of consciousness towards the Holy Presence for our People and the world at large. The name of this week's parsha, Naso, meaning "to lift up", ties together much of the topics discussed in the parsha and on Shavuot, always subsequent to this parsha, as well. 

Our first title quote from the reading for Shavuot shows us God's love for us preceding the Giving of the Torah, describing the exodus from Egypt to Mount Sinai as an ascent "on the wings of eagles" towards HaShem.  Similarly,  Midrash Tehilim, 48 says that the future redemption will be by ascent to the heavens (literally (plane-flight?) and/or spiritually) to the Land of Israel. 

In parshat Naso this motif continues, as in the "lifting" or choosing of the Gershonites for Divine service, which involves "lifting" the different parts of the Mishkan. Later in the parsha, we are blessed by the Cohanim in what our Sages call "the lifting of hands", which also concludes with the words: "May HaShem lift His Countenance upon you and give you peace." Our parsha ends with gifts to the Mishkan given by the princes of Israel, called "Nesiim", which means "those lifted above the people." 

While in all these instances, the same root, nun, sin, aleph, meaning "to lift", literally and grammatically reappears, in many instances in this parsha "lifting up" reappears in a conceptual way. Take for example our second title quote: The Nazirite is bid not to defile himself to the dead, because he has a "crown" ("nezer") of God upon his head (growth of hair for the sake of HaShem). A crown is the ornament, par excel lance, lifted upon one's head, signifying an individual's status "lifted above the people", as we explained with the word 

"nesiim". Indeed, a king is called a "nasi" in Vayikra 4, 22. 

Because of this special "lifted up" status, the Nazirite is not to

deal at all with the dead, those whose life-lifting souls have left them. This prohibition from Torah ordained mortal impurity is expanded by our Sages to include Rabbinic mortal impurities. An example of one of these Rabbinic impurities is the land outside the Land of Israel (Rambam Nzirut 7, 6-7). 

This Rabbinic prohibition is so stringent that the Mishna of Nazir (ch. 3) tells us the story of Queen Helen who vowed in the Diaspora to be a Nazirite for seven years when her son returns from battle. For seven years after her son's return she observed Nazirite laws in the Diaspora. When she came to the Land of Israel, she learned that she must keep another seven years in order to observe the Nazirite laws properly in the purity of the Holy Land. 

These ideas come full circle with Yehezkel's prophecy: when our People "ascend" to our Holy Land, our People are "lifted up" from the graves of impurity, "lifted up" as princes (and nazirites)  in the Palace of our Father-King, "lifted up" in the crowns of the Torah of Zion (see Hagiga 5b), "lifted up" in the spirit of Hebron, First Kingdom of David, burial place of Ruth and Yishai his predecessors (auth. by Arizal), springboard of inspiration for Kaleb, his predecessor of Judah: "For my servant Kaleb... a different spirit was with him" (Num 14, 24).

Real Stories from the Holy Land #18: "Last week I dreamt that it poured in the summer months (I did not see or know of any forecast). The next day, on Hebron Day, it suddenly poured in Hebron,