Parshat Vaera By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

Parshat Vaera

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron   

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

 "וָאֵרָא אֶל אַבְרָהָם אֶל יִצְחָק וְאֶל יַעֲקֹב.. וְגַם הֲקִמֹתִי אֶת בְּרִיתִי אִתָּם לָתֵת לָהֶם אֶת אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן אֵת אֶרֶץ מְגֻרֵיהֶם אֲשֶׁר גָּרוּ בָהּ:."

"Because of Fathers You shall save the sons..." It is because of HaShem's covenant with our Forefathers of Hebron to give their descendants the Holy Land that He redeemed our ancestors in Egypt, and it is because of this covenant that He will redeem us in the future, ending Exile and returning our People to our Holy Land. 

 

It is fascinating to note Rashi's commentary on the opening verses of this week's parsha, which shows that the memory of the covenant with our Patriarchs is actually the cause of HaShem's listening to Israel's prayers for redemption, and not the other way around, as we may think. Only in the fourth verse are the shouts of Israel unto HaShem mentioned, and there Rashi comments that as a result of the covenant with the Patriarchs "therefore I listened to the shouts of Israel". 

 

It is also fascinating to note which covenant is the cause of redemption here. We would think that most obviously the cause of redemption would be HaShem's covenant with our Fathers to make the People of Israel a great Nation as numerous as the stars, etc. which negates the present state of suffering and bloodshed on the People in Egypt. However, as we look at our title quote, the cause for redemption is the Patriarchal covenant in regard to the Land of Israel. 

 

Here again, we can link the preference of this covenant to a cause-and-result connection. Although the suffering of Israel is a very important matter before HaShem, as seen in last week's parsha, it is the state of Exile, i.e. Israel's absence from the Land, that is ultimately the cause for Israel's suffering. Therefore, the alleviation of this suffering must come through, first and foremost, the memory of the covenant with our Fathers in regard to the Land. 

 

It is also interesting to note that these beginning verses of this week's parsha come as an introduction to the latter part of our parsha which focuses on the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. In halacha we find that a man, who lives in the Diaspora, who buys a slave from another man, living in the Land f Israel, is penalized to free the slave he just bought free of charge, "since if he had not made this purchase, this slave would not have left (the Land of Israel) for the Diaspora". 

 

In a somewhat similar sense, the Egyptians were penalized on keeping Israel in the Diaspora in Exile, as it says, "My firstborn son Israel.. you refuse to send - therefore I will kill your firstborn son". The verse does not explain the reason for killing the firstborn because of "killing Israel", but rather because of refusing to send Israel back to the Holy Land. That said, when we pay closer attention to the emphasis on the Land in our title quote, we notice that a specific point in the Land, as hinted in the words "the Land that they lived" may take especially high importance in this covenant. 

 

This may hint to Hebron, the only place in the Holy Land all our Patriarchs lived and were buried in, as a crucial point in HaShem's remembering the covenant, and ultimately redemption.

Real Stories from the Holy Land #50: In the great blizzard in Israel last week, a few children played underneath a pergola. Suddenly, a great crack was heard - the pergola collapsed in the snow... but no children were there. Just two minutes before, the children changed their place of play elsewhere.

To share your story too please contact gmoshemoran613@gmail.com 

 

Sources: Gittin 43, Rambam Avadim 8, 6,, Yoreh Deah 267, 82,  Exodus, 4, 23

Parshat Vaera By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

Parshat Vaera

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron   

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

 "וָאֵרָא אֶל אַבְרָהָם אֶל יִצְחָק וְאֶל יַעֲקֹב.. וְגַם הֲקִמֹתִי אֶת בְּרִיתִי אִתָּם לָתֵת לָהֶם אֶת אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן אֵת אֶרֶץ מְגֻרֵיהֶם אֲשֶׁר גָּרוּ בָהּ:."

"Because of Fathers You shall save the sons..." It is because of HaShem's covenant with our Forefathers of Hebron to give their descendants the Holy Land that He redeemed our ancestors in Egypt, and it is because of this covenant that He will redeem us in the future, ending Exile and returning our People to our Holy Land. 

 

It is fascinating to note Rashi's commentary on the opening verses of this week's parsha, which shows that the memory of the covenant with our Patriarchs is actually the cause of HaShem's listening to Israel's prayers for redemption, and not the other way around, as we may think. Only in the fourth verse are the shouts of Israel unto HaShem mentioned, and there Rashi comments that as a result of the covenant with the Patriarchs "therefore I listened to the shouts of Israel". 

 

It is also fascinating to note which covenant is the cause of redemption here. We would think that most obviously the cause of redemption would be HaShem's covenant with our Fathers to make the People of Israel a great Nation as numerous as the stars, etc. which negates the present state of suffering and bloodshed on the People in Egypt. However, as we look at our title quote, the cause for redemption is the Patriarchal covenant in regard to the Land of Israel. 

 

Here again, we can link the preference of this covenant to a cause-and-result connection. Although the suffering of Israel is a very important matter before HaShem, as seen in last week's parsha, it is the state of Exile, i.e. Israel's absence from the Land, that is ultimately the cause for Israel's suffering. Therefore, the alleviation of this suffering must come through, first and foremost, the memory of the covenant with our Fathers in regard to the Land. 

 

It is also interesting to note that these beginning verses of this week's parsha come as an introduction to the latter part of our parsha which focuses on the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. In halacha we find that a man, who lives in the Diaspora, who buys a slave from another man, living in the Land f Israel, is penalized to free the slave he just bought free of charge, "since if he had not made this purchase, this slave would not have left (the Land of Israel) for the Diaspora". 

 

In a somewhat similar sense, the Egyptians were penalized on keeping Israel in the Diaspora in Exile, as it says, "My firstborn son Israel.. you refuse to send - therefore I will kill your firstborn son". The verse does not explain the reason for killing the firstborn because of "killing Israel", but rather because of refusing to send Israel back to the Holy Land. That said, when we pay closer attention to the emphasis on the Land in our title quote, we notice that a specific point in the Land, as hinted in the words "the Land that they lived" may take especially high importance in this covenant. 

 

This may hint to Hebron, the only place in the Holy Land all our Patriarchs lived and were buried in, as a crucial point in HaShem's remembering the covenant, and ultimately redemption.

Real Stories from the Holy Land #50: In the great blizzard in Israel last week, a few children played underneath a pergola. Suddenly, a great crack was heard - the pergola collapsed in the snow... but no children were there. Just two minutes before, the children changed their place of play elsewhere.

To share your story too please contact gmoshemoran613@gmail.com 

 

Sources: Gittin 43, Rambam Avadim 8, 6,, Yoreh Deah 267, 82,  Exodus, 4, 23

Parshat Shemot By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

Parshat Shemot

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron   

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"ה' א-הי אבתיכם נראה אלי א-הי אברהם יצחק ויעקב לאמר פקד פקדתי אתכם..ואומר אעלה אתכם..אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש"(שמות ג)

 

"...And He remembers the kindness of Fathers and brings a redeemer for the children of their children for the sake of His Name with love..." It is the memory of our Fathers of Hebron that sparked HaShem's love and compassion to redeem us in Egypt, and it is this same memory that will spark our future redemption, may it come speedily. 

It is also this memory and connection to our Avos among the People which awakened the faith in redemption in Egypt as we see in our title quote, and so too this very connection awakens our faith towards our future redemption. Indeed, it is via our Forefathers and Hebron-Mamreh that we touch on a key part of breaking from bondage to become truly free, not only from Egypt or other historic bondages, but also from the bondages of every-day life that enslave us from noticing God in our lives, from perceiving the Holy Presence. 

As Moshe describes HaShem to Pharoh as God of the "Hebrews - Ivrim", a term coined with the inception of our Patriarchs, we understand that in the eyes of those people or matters that enslave us, a beginning crucial point in breaking free is the knowledge that our God is "the God of the Hebrews". 

In explaining the meaning of "Hebrews -Ivrim" in its first context in regard to Avraham, our Sages say that Avraham was on one side - "ever" (sing. of "ivrim") of the world in the service of the True God, while the rest of the world was on the other side of the world, in foreign worship.  

Thus, to be a "Hebrew" means to have the courage to surpass ("laavor" - same Hebrew root as "ivrim") the conventional modes of thinking that keep the rest of the world bound in spiritual slavery, to arise to the "side" of Truth. Our Patriarchs, the original "ivrim" bravely paved the path for us to continue in their ways despite the rest of the world on "the other side", thereby emancipating our people to be subject only to the True God and no other power. 

Similarly, we find in halacha that a slave who takes the courage to flee from his master to the Land of Israel, the Land of the Holy Presence, is thereby let free. Therefore, it is not surprising that the location our Patriarchs cherished both in life and death, Hebron, is called Mamreh, meaning to go "despite - lamrot (same root as 'mamreh')" the conventional. Thus, by connecting to our Patriarchs and Hebron-Mamreh, we are instilled with the strength and courage to surpass bondage despite all that blocks us. "Free is only one who studies Torah". "Hebron refers to Torah, for one who involves oneself with Torah study is called haber..."

Real Stories from the Holy Land #49: "Our boiler had been causing numerous power-outages in our private home in Kiryat Arba. One evening, my wife decided to change the boiler "shabbos-clock" in hope that this would solve the problem. At the very second she just finished installing the new "shabbos-clock" there was a power-outage, what seemed to be obviously connected to a faulty installation. However, we were wrong - at that very second, there was a general power-outage in the entire city/neighborhood. This taught us the value of giving benefit of the doubt..." 

To share your story too please contactgmoshemoran613@gmail.com 

Sources: Breshit Raba Lech Lecha 41, Rambam Avadim 5, 10, Avot, 6, 2, Zohar Shlah

  

Parshat Vayechi By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Vayechi

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

וַיִּשְׂאוּ אֹתוֹ בָנָיו אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ בִּמְעָרַת שְׂדֵה הַמַּכְפֵּלָה"(בראשית נ)"

"... Therefore we have come before You HaShem our God... that You remember the merit of our Forefathers buried here, that You have mercy upon us, that Your compassion overcome Your attributes (of judgment), and cease our exile, quicken salvation.. and bring our.. Messiah." 

With HaShem's mercy, more people than ever can indeed plead these words at the real burial site of our holy Patriarchs, Ma'arat HaMachpela, Threshold of the Garden of Eden, the Gateway of all souls to Heaven. Indeed, the spiritual value of Ma'arat HaMachpela as the Gateway to the Afterlife is so great that it champions with Jerusalem as one of the choicest spots in the world in regard to burial. 

So writes Rabbi Tokachinsky zt"l, one of the foremost halachic authorities on modern burial and mourning in "Gesher Hahaim" (p.299) "It is an ancient tradition that the dead (who died in Hebron) are not to be sent to be buried outside of  Hebron, even to Jerusalem, and even if the deceased had bought a grave or had a family grave-site in Jerusalem. And this is not only because of the honor of the burial-site of the Avot, but even more so because of the teaching in the holy Zohar (1, 57b), that Adam saw light coming out of the Garden of Eden to Ma'arat HaMachpela, and therefore he decided to be buried there, and so saw Avraham our Father a"h (ibid 127). 

And also they said that when a man's soul leaves This World, it first comes to Ma'arat HaMachpela (Zohar Hadash Noah) , and there is the gateway to the Lower Garden of Eden (see Rabeinu Behayei p. Hayei Sarah and Tuv Haaretz p. 37): 'and we can thus conjecture that for this reason our teacher, Ramban zt"l, left Jerusalem for Hebron at the end of his days to dig a grave there, as he wrote to his son, Rabbi Nahman. And according to tradition he was burieded next to Ma'arat HaMachpela' ". 

Based on these words, it is no wonder why all our Patriarchs wished to be buried not only in the Holy Land, as burial therein is also of great value as explained last year, but also specifically in Ma'arat HaMachpela. Not only Adam and our holy Patriarchs chose to be buried in Hebron. According to a number of amazing sources, although Moshe Rabeinu's first burial spot "is unknown", he was subsequently led after death in tunnels to Ma'arat HaMachpela to be buried with our Avot. 

With that, let us conclude the book of Breshit, "the book of the Avot" and commence with the book of Shemot, the advent of Moshe Rabeinu...

Real Stories from the Holy Land #48: "On my way to Kiryat Arba, I was waiting quite a while to hitch a ride in Jerusalem to the "tunnel road" leading to Kiryat Arba, but nobody stopped. Even after praying for a ride, nobody stopped. Then I remembered that hazal say that prayer without Torah learning is not received, so I started to discuss Torah with another person also waiting. Immediately,  a car stopped and took me just where I needed..."

Sources: Prayer at Maarat HaMachpela, Gesher Hahaim, Sifri veZot Habracha, Sefer  HaTmuna 3, p.60 

Parshat Vayigash By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman

Parshat Vayigash

By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

"וְכִלְכַּלְתִּי אֹתְךָ שָׁם כִּי עוֹד חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים רָעָב פֶּן תִּוָּרֵשׁ אַתָּה וּבֵיתְךָ וְכָל אֲשֶׁר לָךְ"(בראשית מה)

 

"Bless upon us, HaShem our God, this year and all kinds of its produce for goodness, and bestow dew and rain for blessing on all the face of the earth; and make abundant the face of the world and fulfill the whole of Your goodness... Blessed are You HaShem who blesses the years." 

 

The request for rain in Shemoneh Esreh, while beginning this week in the Diaspora, has already been said in the Land of Israel for close to two months since the 7^th of Heshvan. In general, we see a higher sensitivity to the need for rain in the Land of Israel than the Diaspora, as the Torah teaches us that this Land is not like the Land of Egypt which receives water from the Nile, but rather is dependent on rainfall, a matter that strengthens the need for prayer and greater faith, as befitting this Land of Faith. 

 

Nevertheless, Torah does not maintain that residents of the Land of Israel should pray alone, but also mandates regulations in commerce, agriculture, and more in order to provide for good sustenance for the residents of the Holy Land. The importance of sustenance in the Land of Israel is highlighted in this week's parsha in our title quote, which shows that in lack of proper sustenance, Jewish settlement in the Land is under danger of exile, God forbid, as our ancestors went into exile as result of the famine in the Land. 

 

One example of such regulations in commerce is the ruling brought from the Talmud in the Rambam and Shulhan Aruch: "It is forbidden to do business (earn a profit from selling second-hand) in Eretz Yisrael with articles on which our lives depend (i.e the staple products: flour, oil, wine). Instead, one person should bring from his produce heap, and another person should bring from his produce heap, so that they sell cheaply. In places where oil is abundant, it is permitted to do business with oil." 

 

The poskim extend the permit on oil to all products that are abundant, so it is difficult to find a case where this law is applicable today, although we do see that the government today does subsidize basic necessities, a matter that seems in accordance with the spirit of halacha (even if not instituted with that intention). 

 

Nevertheless, we learn from this law, along with others, that the material well-being of the residents of the Land of Israel is a matter that concerns Torah, for as we have shown many times before, the settlement of the Land of Israel is a great mitzvah/value in Torah and in the Divine plan to greaten the power of the Holy Presence in our Holy Land. 

 

It is also Hebron which stands as a symbol of our People's most ancient source for both spiritual and material devotion to our Holy Land in the purchase of the Field of Machpela by Avraham our father for 400 silver pieces.

Real Stories from the Holy Land #47: "One week, I lost my cell-phone's charger. A day or two later, my cell-phone's case broke, and a little bit later that week I lost the cell-phone itself. Since so many unusual things regarding my cell-phone happened at such a short period of time, I decided to examine my ways in regard to speech, etc. and repent. Suddenly, the next week my cell-phone was found by the same people who the previous week said they searched thoroughly and didn't find it..."

Sources: Bava Batra 91a and Yad Rama there, Rambam Mechira 14, 4, Hoshen Mishpat 231, 23