One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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"And we were in our own eyes as grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes."
The baalei mussar point out that the first step in this scenario was the meraglim lacking in self respect. Because they had no confidence in their own abilities, the people around them also perceived them as having little worth.
The take away from this passuk is that we need to respect ourselves as being a tzelem Elokim and one of Hashem's chosen people. With this appreciation we will see that others will also come to value us.
From a recent דף יומי:
אמר ריש לקיש אין התורה מתקיים אלה במי שממית עצמו עליה (מס' שבת דף פ"ג)
תורה is only מתקיים by someone who kills himself over it.
This can be compared to a story about ריש לקיש. He was the head of the gangsters when he met ר' יוחנן. ר' יוחנן saw him jump over a small river and said, “may you use your energy for תורה.” ריש לקיש agreed. He was not able to jump back over the river. His commitment to תורה had weakened him. In a sense, his former self was killed by his commitment to studying תורה.
Unfortunately some of our youth have wandered off and seem to act like bums. ריש לקיש leads the way in “killing” his old self in exchange for a life of תורה. R’ Yaakov Bender, a tremendous name in Chinuch, has said that 95% of the youth who are off the derech come back. Indeed, we see many who come back. They “kill” their former selves bringing so much נחת to their parents and כלל ישראל.
May we all be zoche to have תורה be מתקיים through us.
After the משכן was completed, the twelve נשיאים brought their קרבנות, one each day. The מדרש states that אהרון הכהן felt bad for not being given the same opportunity as the twelve נשיאים. Hashem comforted him with the command to light the מנורה on a constant basis. This would be a greater act than the sacrifices by the נשיאים. The חזקוני quotes the מדרש and points out that אהרוןwas told to light the מנורה already on the day the first נשיא brought his קרבן. It would seem that אהרון had already anticipated the rest of the קרבנות and therefore, felt bad. At that point it was appropriate to comfort him immediately.
A takeaway: We should anticipate people’s hurt early on and fix it as soon as possible “with light”.
This week contains the longest possible קריאת התורה, as well as the end of חומש במדבר. חזק חזק ונתחזק!
In the beginning of פרשת מסעי, the תורה lists off the 42 stations the Jews stopped at in the desert. Why so many places? And why does the תורה recount them especially since they had been previously mentioned as the stops were made?
It would seem that the תורה is teaching us that we would go through many גליות, wandering throughout our history from place to place. As we do so, we should learn the תורה, just as the Jews did in the מדבר. They traveled around for 40 years on a big learning spree.
May this continuous learning stay with us and lead us back to ירושלים.
תבנה ותרונן with the rebuilding of the בית המקדש במהרה בימינו.
In this week’s Parsha, although each נשיא brought an identical קרבן and performed an identical act, the תורה still lists each one separately, as if it were unique. The תורה usually writes as briefly as possible. Why is each קרבן and עבודה repeated?
A possible answer is that bringing the קרבן for the inauguration of the משכן was a special, once in a lifetime experience. To the נשיא it did not feel the same as another’s קרבן.
The נשיאים are mentioned in the previous two פרשיות; They are mentioned in פרשת נשא bringing קרבנות and they are mentioned in פרשת בהעלותך as leading their respective שבטים through the מדבר. In this week’s פרשה, the נשיאים are mentioned again as the מרגלים , who were going to spy on ארץ ישראל . However, this time, the נשיאים listed are different people than in the previous two פרשיות. What happened to the previous נשיאים?
A possible answer is that the original נשיאים wanted no part in what the מרגלים would do. בני ישראל wanted different נשיאים who would be willing to have a negative attitude about ארץ ישראל as מרגלים.
We can learn how important it is not to participate in something that begins with a negative attitude.
The name נח comes from the same root word as the word מנוחה - rest. The Meforshim explain that נח received this name because he invented much farming technology including the plow, thus elevating the tremendous difficulty of farming by hand which people had been doing previously.
Our treasured Shabbos is also praised for it’s מנוחה שלמה-total rest. In the שבת davening we say, “on the day of the queens` מנוחה they will praise your name. ” מנוחה-rest is clearly a positive concept. Chazal say that word will exist for seven-thousand years and the seventh millennium (After the coming of משיח) will be analogous to שבת. As time goes on, we are drawing closer to the seventh millennium. Simultaneously, the advances of technology are bringing us more and more מנוחה, leading to the ultimate מנוחה. If the people who produce beneficial technology would only do so with this intention they would be achieving greatness!
The Census
In this weeks’ Parsha, the world is created and the first man is created. Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of the day man was created.
Why did Eliezer go to find a wife for Yitzchak instead of Yitzchak going himself? One answer can be that a chosson is not supposed to go out without a shomer. Since Choron was far away and there may not have been many people along the road, Yitzchak did not want to have to travel back home with his kallah.
Lot deserted Avraham Aveinu for the fertile land of סדם. He should have stayed with Avraham and his way of life. He was happy “to leave Avraham and his God” (Rashi).
There is a פסוק in a הפטורה from עושה עושר ולא במשפט בחצי ימיו יעזבנו - ישעיה . One who gets rich in an unjust manner, his money will leave him halfway through his life. This means that either he will die young or that he will lose his money while still young. By leaving Avraham on behalf of fertile land, Lot was earning his riches extremely unjustifiably. Lot soon lost his money and almost lost his life. The land was fertile like a “גן ה'“ but for Lot it was like going to “ ארץ מצרים“ ultimately “באנה צער” coming toצער – pain.
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All learning should be a zechus for a refuah shelaimah for Yosef Ezriel Ben Chaya Michal