Dear Friends;
I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parsha in a Nutshell ”
This week’s Parsha begins with the special laws dedicated to the Kohanim, the Kohen Gadol (“High Priest”), and the Temple service. A Kohen may not become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, unless it’s a close relative. A Kohen may not marry a divorcee, nor a harlot; and a Kohen Gadol can only marry a virgin. A Kohen with a physical deformity cannot serve in the Holy Temple, nor can a deformed animal be brought as an offering.
A newborn calf, lamb, or kid must be left with its mother for seven days before being eligible for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The Torah then discusses the festivals throughout the year: (Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret); followed by two constant mitzvot maintained in the Mishkan: the lighting of the menorah every day and the displaying of the “show-bread” every week.
The parsha concludes with the horrible incident of a man who cursed G-d’s name (blasphemy) and was subsequently punished with the death penalty at Hashem’s command.
“Dvar Torah “
In this week’s Parsha, in the middle of the detailing the Jewish Holidays of the calendar year, the Torah gives us the following commandment: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not remove completely the corners of your field as you reap and you shall not gather the gleanings of your harvest; for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them; I am Hashem Your G-d.” Basically, we are commanded to leave over certain parts of our harvest to the needy and the stranger in our midst. A Jew must leave a corner of his field for the poor. Likewise, if he forgets to pick up certain parts of the harvest, these too become “Gifts for the Poor”.
Rashi explains the phrase “For the poor and the strangers you shall leave them….”, means that you should leave the crops for the poor and they will pick it up themselves; you may not assist them with their gatherings.
Once again, Rashi’s explanation sounds strange to me. It needs clarification. Why can’t we help the poor with his gathering?! If we are suppose to have compassion for the poor, why not go all the way and give him a helping hand too?! I’m sure if you would take a poll whether or not it would be preferable for a field owner to help the poor people collect their gifts from his field or make them do it themselves, the overwhelming response would have been that the field owner should be a nice guy and lend a sickle or offer a helping hand to the poor who came to his field. But strangely enough, Rashi says that the Torah rules to the contrary. The commandment says: “Leave it for them.”…… Do not be a nice guy. Do not help them! The pasuk concludes with the words “I am Hashem your G-d”. Rashi says that the intent is a promise: “If you leave them alone and allow them to pick it up themselves, I am the L-rd who will give you your reward.”
Once again, Rabbi Yissachar Frand gives a beautiful explanation to the words of Rashi. When the poor person comes to the field and the owner comes to greet him and says: “Let me help you collect your stuff”, or alternatively, when the owner rushes to cut down the stalks for the poor person and hands it to him, the owner is in effect telling the poor person, “Listen here, I AM giving you a present.” But the Torah is telling us otherwise! The leftover crops are NOT gifts from the landowner. They BELONG to the poor person! If the owner participates in the collection, he is acting like the OWNER of those items. When the owner gives a gift, he expects the poor person to be grateful to him and appreciate his generosity. But the Torah says, NO! Leave it for the poor and the strangers. The Torah’s message to the land owner is: “You are not the owner of that portion of the field. The portion of the crop that falls or gets forgotten from the outset belongs to the poor!” The way to convey that is for the land owner to take no part in the distribution of these items. Let the poor collect it themselves — it is after all their property in the first place! Only when the landowner comes to realize that it’s not him who is helping the poor, but it’s Hashem our G-d, only then he’ll be qualified to be rewarded by the L-rd!
Yes my friends, when Hashem has been good to us and we’ve been blessed with extra funds to give to charity, we should not think of our charitable donations in terms of “I am giving MY money to you.” G-d made me the steward over this money. It is as if I am the trustee of a foundation. When the trustee of a foundation gives out the money, it is not his money. It belongs to the foundation. He is merely a trustee, charged with guaranteeing that the funds are distributed. Similarly, when we give out money to charity, we are not giving out the money from our own pocket — it comes from G-d’s table!
That’s why the ultimate form of charity is to give money to the poor, without him knowing where the money came from! Because the poor person should not be grateful to the donor, but to the G-d Almighty himself!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin