Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

Moshe instructs the people of Israel to appoint judges and law-enforcement officers in every city.

A minimum of two credible witnesses is required for conviction and punishment.

A Jewish king may only have possessions and symbols of power adequate for the honor of his office, but not for self glorification.

Hashem promises the Jewish people that he will send them prophets to guide them, and Moshe explains how a genuine prophet may be distinguished from a false one.

The Parsha includes the prohibitions against idolatry and sorcery; guidelines for the creation of “cities of refuge” for the inadvertent murderer. Also set forth are many of the rules of war: the exemption from battle for one who has just built a home, planted a vineyard, married, or is “afraid and soft-hearted”; the requirement to offer terms of peace before attacking a city.

If a corpse is found between cities, the elders of the nearest city must take a heifer, slaughter it, and wash their hands over it, saying that they are not guilty of the death.

” Dvar Torah ”

The foundation of civilization is based on justice! No civilized society can survive without a judiciary system, and a set of law and order. And Judaism cannot agree more with this system. This week’s parsha starts off by telling us to appoint judges and lawmakers for ourselves. It continues by telling us the famous quote, “tzedek, tzedek, tirdof”….. “Righteousness, Righteousness, you shall pursue”….. The Chachamim are puzzled by the repetition of word “righteousness”. Why does the Torah need to repeat it twice? Rabbi Frand explains that “The pursuit OF righteousness must also be pursued WITH righteousness”. We are not merely being taught to run AFTER justice. We are told to run AFTER justice WITH justice. The torah continues to explain that in order to pursue justice, we have to appoint a righteous judges. A judge cannot take a bribe. A judge cannot take the side of the weak or the powerful, since the Torah says that a judge cannot show favoritism towards a widow or an orphan, nor towards wealthy and powerful. Indeed, a judge has to be totally unbiased and try his best to make a fair judgment.

In a western society’s court of law, where there is a dispute between two parties, the judge has to determine who is right and who is wrong; who has to be rewarded and who has to be punished. The judge’s main role is to find who is guilty and who is innocent. The judge has the full authority to make this decision. However, in a Jewish court of law, the judge has a different role. His role is not to just find the guilty party and punish him, but rather, his main role is to  give people a fair trial — a trial which is based on fairness and righteousness. Indeed the Torah sets down numerous rules and regulations which delimit the judge’s power to judge, and ensure that when he does judge, he does so with utmost caution and sensitivity.

To get a better understanding of what it means for a judge to pursue fairness and righteousness, we can look at the laws governing the “indefensible criminal”. It goes as follows: In the time of Beit Hamikdash, under the Jewish law, capital crimes were tried by a tribunal of 23 judges called a “Minor Sanhedrin.” After hearing the testimony of the witnesses, the judges themselves would split into two groups: those inclined to argue for the defense of the accused would serve as his “defense team” and seek to convince their colleagues of his innocence; and those inclined to convict him would serve as prosecutors making the case for his guilt. Then the judges would vote. A majority of one was sufficient to set him free, while a majority of two was necessary to convict.

But what happens if all the twenty-three judges form an initial opinion of guilt?! What if the evidence is so compelling and the crime so horrifying that not a single member of the tribunal chooses to argue in the accused’s favor? In such a case, says the Jewish law, the accused cannot be convicted and that court is disqualified from making a judgement!

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains the rationale behind this law as follows: No man is so utterly evil that there is nothing to be said in his defense. There is always some explanation, some justification, some perspective from which the underlying goodness of his soul can be glimpsed. This does not mean that he is going to be found innocent, in the legal sense, by a court of law. But if not a single member of the court perceives the “innocent side” of the person standing accused before them, this court then obviously has very little understanding of who he is and what he has done. Such a court has disqualified itself from passing judgment on him. The Lubavitcher Rebbe therefore says that you cannot judge a person until you see something good in that person! Justice has to be done with righteousness, and righteousness is achieved when you can see a good in everybody!

Yes my friends, judging people is one of the most difficult tasks. That’s why the Torah asks us to appoint professional judges who should make judgments and not us, since we don’t know all the facts. In the Talmud it says “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached his place.” The commentators explain that what the Talmud is really saying is, “Don’t judge your fellow, ever,” since “his place” is a place where you can never truly be. Why do you think that the Torah is so much against “Lashon Hara”? It’s because when you hear something evil about someone, you immediately become judgmental. But that’s wrong since you haven’t heard anything in his defense. You cannot judge a person by just listening to one side of the story?! And that’s why we should try to avoid judging the people as much as possible.

The Torah wants us to pursue justice, but it wants us to do it the right way! And the only right way to find justice is to see the good in everyone!! Remember, we are not here to judge people —— we are here to love them!!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin

Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

Moshe says to the people of Israel, “I place before you today a blessing and a curse” —  the blessing that will come when they fulfill G-d’s commandments, and the curse if they abandon them.

A Temple should be established in “the place that G-d will choose to dwell His name there”, where the people should bring their sacrifices to Him; it is forbidden to make offerings to G-d in any other place.

A false prophet, or one who entices others to worship idols, should be put to death; an idolatrous city must be destroyed. The identifying signs for kosher animals and fishes, and the list of non-kosher birds are repeated.

A tenth of all produce is to be eaten in Jerusalem, or else exchanged for money with which food is purchased and eaten there. Firstborn cattle and sheep are to be offered in the Temple and their meat eaten by the Kohen.

The mitzvah of charity obligates a Jew to aid a needy fellow with a gift or loan. On the Sabbatical year (occurring every seventh year) all loans are to be forgiven.

Our Parshah concludes with the laws of the three pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot — when all should go to “see and be seen” before G-d in the Holy Temple.

” Dvar Torah ”

Once again, in this week’s Parsha, Moshe revises the commandments of the Torah with Benei Israel in the last few days of his life. One of the commandments that he reviews with them, is the mitzvah of giving charity! He tells them the following: ” If there will be among you a needy person, from one of your brothers in one of your cities, in your land that Hashem, your G-d, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not close your hand from your needy brother. Rather, you shall open your hand to him, and you shall lend him sufficient for his needs, which he is lacking.” Then a few pasuks later, Moshe continues to say: ” You shall surely give him, and let your heart not feel bad when you give him, for in return for this matter, Hashem will bless you in all your deeds…”.

Interestingly, there are two phrases that has catched our commentators’ eyes.  One is,”You shall not harden your heart”…… and the other, “Let your heart not feel bad”….. Accordingly, they come up with the following question. Why is Moshe so concern about the feelings of heart when it comes to helping the poor? Why does it matter if we feel good or not when we give charity?! After all, when the poor comes and knocks on your door, he is not after love and affection, but rather, he’s after your money! He doesn’t want you to “open your heart”….. he wants you to open your wallet!! Subsequently, the Chachamim derive from these two phrases that helping the poor has to be accompanied with good feelings of heart, meaning that you have to give charity with a joy. To feel happy is as important as the act of giving charity itself! Some Chachamim go as far as to say that the money given to charity without a joy and happiness of the heart, does not count as part of your “Ma-aser”- 10% obligatory donation towards charity!!

But you may still ask yourself, what is the big deal if we are not so happy when we are giving charity and helping the poor? If a guy, for example, wants to write a $500,000 check for a charity organization, why should it matter if he gives the check with a frown on his face? Shouldn’t the organization take the check anyway? Money is money; isn’t it??!! Also, it is not so easy to be joyous when giving money to charity. After all, you might think that the money you give to charity, is the amount that you would be able to spend less on yourself and on your family! So, why does the Torah insists so much that we should be happy when giving charity?

To answer this question and how to reach the ultimate level of joy when giving charity, once again, Rabbi Frand comes to the rescue. He quotes a story from the Talmud that best explains the reason for being joyous when giving charity:

During the time of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem, a Jewish livestock owner was obligated to give 10% of his new flock to the Temple. How was this done? Every year, around Rosh Hashana time, he would pen all his cattle, from a year old and younger, in an enclosure. He would then open up the gate and let them out one at a time. As each animal exited the enclosure he would count: one, two, three,…… seven, eight and nine. When he counted the tenth he would mark the animal with a red dye. That animal would then be set aside to be brought to Jerusalem. The procedure was repeated until all the animals were counted.

A question is asked regarding this prescribed procedure. Why make the rancher endure this whole process of penning the animals and then driving them out the exit one at a time? Why not just take ten percent off the top, add a few extra to ensure that no less than required ten percent was given, and avoid this seemingly time consuming and senseless procedure?

The answer is that a very profound message is being conveyed to the rancher by virtue of this process. As each animal goes out the door, it is as if the Almighty is telling the person, ‘One is for you, two is for you, three is for you…’ After giving the owner nine, the Almighty then asks for only one. After getting to keep nine, the rancher is content and realizes how all of his wealth comes from the G-d Almighty and although he is giving, but he gets to keep much more for himself.

Rabbi Frand says that this is precisely the reason why we should be happy when we give charity. We first have to realize that everything we have comes from Hashem and we should be delighted that we are able to share a very small amount of it with others! If G-d forbid, we feel unhappy about giving charity, it may be because we think that we made our money with our hard work and our own intelligence, and it’s hard to give it away! But this is the wrong way of thinking and it’s not true. And that’s why the Torah is so concern about feelings of heart when it comes to giving charity.

Yes my friends, the reason that we give charity is not because we have pity for the poor; we give charity in order to acknowledge that whatever we have are given to us by Hashem and we should be extremely happy to be given the opportunity to help the poor. Everything we have is a blessing from Hashem. And if Hashem has blessed us with wealth, he expects us to share a little of it with others. If Hashem can be so giving, then why can’t we?!

So the next time a poor knocks on your door, make sure you smile when you open the door. Don’t think for a moment that you are doing him any favors by giving him money! On the contrary, he is doing you a favor! Because he is giving you the opportunity to take part in this wonderful mitzvah. You’ve been given the privilege this time……… don’t let it go to waste!!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin

Dear Friends;

I hope you’ll enjoy the following Parashat summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

Moshe continues to encourage the Children of Israel to trust in Hashem and in the wonderful rewards which He will provide them if they keep the Torah. Moshe assures them that they will successfully defeat the nations of Canaan, at which point they must remove every trace of idol worship remaining in the Holy Land.

Moshe reminds them about the miraculous manna and the other wonders which Hashem provided for them throughout the past forty years, and he warns them to beware of their own future prosperity and military success which might cause them to forget Hashem. He further reminds them of their transgressions in the desert, retelling the story of the golden calf at length, and describing Hashem’s abundant mercy with them.

Moshe teaches the people the second paragraph of the Shema which stresses the fundamental doctrine of reward and punishment based upon our performance of the mitzvot. The Parsha concludes with Hashem’s promise that He will provide the Jewish people with protection if they observe the laws of the Torah.

” Dvar Torah ”

In this week’s Parsha, Moshe once again, reviews the adventures of the Benei Israel in their forty years journey in the desert. He tells the people that all of their accomplishments throughout their lives are not because of their own intelligence and strength, but rather, they are all because of Hashem’s generosity and blessings that he has bestowed upon them. And to prove his point, Moshe reminds the people of the “Manna”, the heavenly bread that Hashem provided for them throughout their forty years journey in the desert. He tells them that “Hashem afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna……. in order to make you know that man does not live on bread alone, but by the utterance of G-d’s mouth does man live.” Then a few pasuks later he says: ” He (Hashem), who fed you manna in the desert which your forefathers did not know, in order to afflict you and in order to TEST you, to do good for you in the end.”

Well, accordingly, the Chachamim ask the following question. What kind of a test is Moshe talking about? Up till now, we thought that the purpose of the manna was to supply the Benei Israel with nourishment, but now, Moshe is telling us otherwise that the purpose was to test the people?! So, what kind of a test was the test of manna?

Well, as usual, the commentators have different interpretations in regards to this question. Since the time and the space don’t allow us to discuss them all, so we shall discuss just a few of them.

Rashi explains that the “Test” was referring to the laws that govern the manna. One could not store away any manna for the next day. One had to collect a double portion on Friday, since there was no manna showered down on Shabbat. And so forth. Hashem wanted to see if we could follow a simple set of rules or not! But unfortunately, some people failed the test and kept some manna for the next day and it got rotten. And some people went out on Shabbat to collect manna, but they couldn’t find any!

Rambam on the other hand, explains that the “Test” was to see if the people who have received the heavenly bread on a daily basis for forty years, do they still see it as a miracle after a while, or does it become part of their normal lives and they see it as an act of nature? He says that unfortunately, after a while, for most of the people traveling in the desert, the manna became part of their routine lives and they didn’t see it as a miracle anymore. Only when they entered Eretz Israel, when the manna stopped, then they realized what a great blessing they’ve been having in the past!! Sometimes, unfortunately, we don’t realize what a great blessing we have until we don’t have it any more!!

Sforno, who is another great medieval commentator from Italy, explains that the test of Manna was a test of affluence. When Hashem provides your livelihood with an ease, it gives you a comfort of mind, and plenty of leisure time. You see, in the desert, the Benei Israel had it very easy. They didn’t need to worry about making money since everything was provided for them for free. They didn’t need to worry about food, they had Manna. They didn’t need to buy new clothes, because their clothes never wore out. They didn’t need to worry about their mortgage payments since they all lived in tents. They didn’t need to work in order to make a living. They had a lifestyle which gave them a lot of spare time on their hands. But the test was to see what would they do with their spare time? Would they spend the time thanking Hashem for all their blessing and try to study Torah in order to get closer to G-d, or did they spend the time complaining to Moshe and going after the forbidden sins? Unfortunately we see that the Benei Israel didn’t pass this test either. They didn’t appreciate the easy life that Hashem provided for them in the desert and they kept complaining to Moshe instead of appreciating G-d’s miracles!

Yes my friends, the test of manna is an ongoing test in every generation. When, G-d forbid, we are faced with troubles and sickness, life-threatening danger or even death, we all become religious. We all come to Kanissa. We all pray with enthusiasm. We all say Tehillim with tears streaming down our cheeks. We all give charity generously. But when things are going well, when they are going extremely well, do we give much thought to the Almighty? Do we still put on our tefillins everyday? Do we still go to Kanissa every Shabbat? Do we still give charity generously? And above all, do we still spend time on studying our precious Torah?

So remember my friends, showered with blessings without an effort is a dangerous thing! When we are blessed with prosperity, health and happiness with an ease, it gives us a great amount of leisure time and freedom of action. What would you do with you spare time? And this is the great test of “Manna” that challenges us in every generation! Let us hope that we are all challenged with this test and let’s hope that we’ll all pass it too.

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin

Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah on Tisha B’Av;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

Moshe begins his revision of the Torah to the assembled Children of Israel, reviewing the events that occurred in the course of their 40-year journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, rebuking the people for their failures and sins, and encouraging them to keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the land that G-d is giving them as an eternal heritage, into which they shall cross after his death.

Moshe recalls his appointing of judges and magistrates to ease his burden of judging people; the sending of the Spies and the people’s subsequent rejection of the Promised Land, so that G-d decreed that the entire generation of the Exodus shall die out in the desert. “Also against me,” says Moshe, “was G-d angry for your sakes, saying: You, too, shall not go in there.”

And at the end of the parsha, Moshe gives assurance to his successor, Joshua, who will take the people into the Land and lead them in the battles for its conquest: “Fear them not, for the L-rd your G-d, He shall fight for you.”

” Dvar Torah ”

“Mourning”, is a period of time that a person grieves for the death of a loved one. Mourning can be a very difficult and devastating period of time. A loss of life can be very painful, since it creates a vacuum in a person’s life which is very hard to fill. So, how can you be comforted in these difficult times? How do you cope with the pain? How does a mother who loses her dear child in defending our land continue with her life? Will she ever find comfort and solace?!

Well, our sages tell us that in order to receive comfort and feel relief from the pain of mourning, G-d has blessed us with a sense of “forgetfulness”. As the time passes by, and as much as we try not to, we start to forget about the deceased. And as we tend to forget, slowly, slowly, the pain starts to go away and we begin to get a feeling of comfort. If G-d forbid, the human mind didn’t have the power to forget, then the mourning period will never come to an end and the people will continue to mourn for the death of a loved one till the end of their lives. Although, memory is one of the most important functions of the mind, but on the other hand, forgetfulness which is the loss of memory, is a great blessing that Hashem has bestowed upon us in order to get consolation in a time of mourning!

Tisha B’Av is also a period of mourning for us. We are mourning for the destruction of our two Batei Hamikdash (Temples) which were destroyed almost 2000 years ago. We are not simply grieving over a magnificent building which was destroyed a long time ago, nor are we crying over the Temple’s physical structure which was burned, but rather, we are crying over the loss of our connection to G-d which we still miss to this very day. By losing the Beit Hamikdash, the Shechina (G-d’s presence) seems to have left from our midst. We can no longer witness open miracles; we can no longer bring sacrifices for Hashem on daily basis and we cannot perform the Yom Kippur services in the holy of the holies. To this day, many people still cry heavily and mourn on Tisha B’Av because of the loss of our connection to the G-d Almighty.

But the question that you may ask yourself is why can’t we get comforted after so many years? Why doesn’t the formula of forgetfulness work in the case of Tisha B’Av? Why do the tears still come out of our eyes after so many years? Surely 2000 years should be enough to forget!! Why should the Tisha B’Av mourning be any different to the mourning for a loved one?? After all, we tend to forget a loss of life after a few years, but it seems that we can’t get over the loss of our connection to G-d after 2000 years?!

Once again, Rabbi Frand gives the following explanation which really touched my heart. He says that we start to forget about someone, and feel relieved from the pain of mourning, only after the person is actually dead. But if the person is only missing and he is still alive, then the formula of forgetfulness does not work. Yaakov Avinu continued to mourn for his son Yosef, for a full 22 years and couldn’t find comfort– because Yosef was not dead; he was still alive! Accordingly, if we still feel the pain, if we still express the sorrow over the loss of Shechina, then it surely means that our connection to G-d is not dead. It is still alive! We just don’t see it, but the connection is still there! Although, the Shechina is not among us anymore, but the Torah tells us that Hashem would never abandon us and he would still protect us from the far. And this is why we still can’t get over the pain!

On the day of Tisha B’Av, “Tachanun” is not recited because the day has elements of festivities to it. Although, Tisha B’Av is the saddest day marked on the jewish calendar, but it’s also the ultimate day of “hope”! We believe that Mashiach is going to come and build the third Beith Hamikdash and the Shechina is going to come back to us once again. Even though, we might not have the “zechut” to see the Beith Hamikdash rebuilt in our times, but we are confident that our children, our grandchildren or great grandchildren will have the merit to see the glorious Temple build once again. And because of these happy thoughts, we don’t say Tachanun on this day.

Indeed, Tisha B’Av will be a day of festival and celebration one day and the whole world will know that our G-d is the only true G-d and we are his chosen people. We will all go back to the land of Israel and we will be respected by all of the nations around the world. We have no doubt that the Beith Hamikdash will be built again. The question is not “if”we’ll ever have a Temple again, but it’s only a question of time, “when”?!

I wish everyone an easy and a meaningful fast and hope that Hashem will answer our prayers and protect us from the hands of our evil enemies.

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin