‫בס"ד‬

‫פרשת בא תש"ע‬ ‫שיחות רב עוזר‬

Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman ‫שליט"א‬
‫ר"ם בישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן‬
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On the Road
ָ ‫ְהו֖ה בּ ִ ְ֑פי< ֚ ִכּי ְבּ ָי֣ד ֲחזָ ָ֔קה הוֹצִ ֽאֲ<֥ י‬
‫ְהו֖ה ִמ ִמּצ ָ ְֽרי ִם׃‬ ֥ ַ ‫ְו ָהי ָה֩ ל ְ֨< ל ְ֜אוֹת עַל־ ָי ֽדְ ֗< וּ ְלזִכָּרוֹ ֙ן ֵ ֣בּין עֵי ֶ֔ני< ְל ַ֗מעַן תִּ ֽ ְה ֶי ֛ה‬
ָ ‫תּוֹרת י‬
New Jersey Transit's No. 167 connects Manhattan's Port Authority to a handful
of bedroom communities in Northern New Jersey. The early morning express, which
starts in Teaneck, is not unlike a hashkamah minyan- quiet because most of the partici-
pants are not yet awake enough to talk. It's on the busride home that the conversational
fireworks begin. There is the annoying cellphone user whose blather is punctuated by
raucous laughter and loud interjections. If he is not in my end of the bus, I try to read or
simply think. Other quieter conversations can sometimes reach my ear.
Because the first express stop is in Teaneck, the 167's ridership represents the de-
mographics of that diverse town: Jews both Orthodox and otherwise, and Gentiles of
varying ethnicity and persuasion. And because the citizens of Teaneck seem to talk
about religion more than some others, the chatter across the aisles is often like reading
The Jewish Week.
I can usually ignore the Orthodox gabbers on the bus. Some conversations can't
help but catch my ear. It was very disconcerting to hear the words "‫ "בית דין‬and "menage-
a-trois" in the same sentence and I couldn't help but look up from my ‫ספר‬. Usually,
though, it's just your everyday ‫ רכילות‬about people I don't know and simply don't find
interesting (or permissible ).
It's when Gentiles or apparently non-Orthodox Jews discuss Jews and Judaism
that my head always turns. It seems that extreme instances of ‫ חילול שם שמים‬in our for-
merly insular community spread insidiously throughout the non-observant world via
web sites and e-mail.
One such exchange prompts my comments on this week's ‫פרשה‬. The scandal dis-
cussed in the row behind me was a decision by the Israel Supreme Court to deny a re-
quest by the United States to extradite an alleged child molester. The apparently
Catholic participant voiced his ironic sense of relief that other clergies have their own
share of pedophiles. Sexual predators hide in the clergy, he hypothesized, because of re-
ligion's ambivalence toward the human body and the asexual ideal of the Judeo-Christ-
ian tradition.
What was most maddening for me was that the Orthodox Jew to whom this was
addressed politely agreed. As I was debating whether to speak up, the two stood and
got off the bus.
Where to start? To mention that the alleged perpetrator has no discernible semi-
kha (or any other degree for that matter) is hardly the crux of the story. What disturbs
me is the confusion of alien ideas with Torah teachings under the banner of a Judeo-
Christian tradition. In recent years, some in our community have embraced this mis-
leading term to assert our common struggle against Islamicism, the extreme form of po-
litical Islam which perpetrates violence in the name of religion. We do share a commit-
ment to morality with Christians but with many other religions as well. Christianity has
Hellenistic elements that are wholly in discord with the Torah perspective. Perhaps the
most fundamental one after the rejection of the identification of Jesus as Messiah or di-
vine is the attitude toward the realm of the physical. In its classical form, Christianity
accepted the pagan notion that the human body and this world are base and instead of
reveling in it retreated from it. Its spiritual ideals are far removed from the activities of
this world. For us, however, marriage is not a compromise with humanity's base nature
but a ‫מצוה‬. Dietary restrictions are not a diluted asceticism in recognition of humanity's
animal appetites but a challenge to sanctity in acknowledgement of its angelic ones.
There is hardly a rejection of the physical world. The Torah mandates a single day of
fasting in the entire year and it is to be preceded by a day of feasting.
We can learn a lesson about the integrated nature of body and mind in every
‫ פרשה‬of the Torah. This week's portion is no exception.
There are ‫ מצוות‬that are nearly fully cognitive, like ‫ תפלה‬and ‫תלמוד תורה‬, and there
are those that at the core are more physical like ‫ נטילת לולב‬and ‫אכילת קרבן פסח‬. And then
there is ‫ מצות תפילין‬which is singularly physical. It involves two places on the body, the
arm and the head. ‫ רבי ינאי‬declares ‫( תפילין צריכין גוף נקי‬tefillin require a clean body).‫א‬
When the ‫ גמרא‬mentions ‫ פושעי ישראל בגופן‬and then wonders who they are, ‫ רב‬identifies
them as ‫( קרקפתא דלא מנח תפלין‬any skull upon which tefillin are not placed).‫ ב‬Yet the func-
tion of this most physical of ‫ מצוות‬is itself cognitive. The ‫ תפילין‬are an ‫ אות‬and ‫לזכרון‬. They
are to evoke thoughts of ‫יציאת מצרים‬, the archetype of God's involvement in human his-
tory. But one does not fulfill the ‫ מצוה‬by pondering ‫ ;יציאת מצרים‬a concrete physical act of
‫ הנחה‬is required. The ‫ אות‬has rational, cognitive content but is itself physical: the ‫של ראש‬
sitting prominently on one's head.
An ‫ אות‬is an external sign that one can see. This lies at the bottom of the practice
to cover one's ‫תפילה של יד‬: the ‫ תורה‬commands us "‫ "והיה לך לאות על ידך‬leading ‫ רבי אליעזר‬to
conclude "‫ ולא לאחרים‬-‫"( "לך‬to you" implying not to others).‫ ג‬The sign is directed only to
you and therefore not for others.
Similarly, we do not wear ‫ תפילין‬on ‫ שבת‬and ‫ יום טוב‬since they are themselves a
sign (‫ד)מפני שהם עצמם אות‬. So explains ‫ רבי עקיבא‬in a ‫הברייתא‬. His argument, I think, is not
because the ‫ תורה‬refers to ‫ שבת‬as an ‫ אות‬in the ‫ פסוקים‬we call ‫ ושמרו‬but rather because the
nature of the day itself marks the Jew externally. Reading the ‫ גמרא‬suggests that the ‫אות‬
must be prominent and conspicuous. It is not an identifying mark but the single unique
identifying mark. This is why ‫ הלכה‬does not just exempt us from wearing ‫ תפילין‬on these
holy days but prohibits it. If the ‫ אות‬meant merely an identifying mark, there would be

.‫ שבת מ"ט‬.‫א‬
.‫ ראש השנה י"ז‬.‫ב‬

:‫מנחות ל"ז‬ .‫ג‬

'‫לשון המחבר או"ח סי' ל"א סע' א‬ .‫ד‬

‫ דתניא ושמרת את החוקה הזאת למועדה מימים ימימה ימים ולא לילות מימים ולא כל ימים פרט לשבתות וימים טובים דברי רבי יוסי‬.‫ה‬
‫הגלילי ר"ע אומר לא נאמר חוקה זו אלא לפסח בלבד נפקא ליה מהיכא דנפקא ליה לר' עקיבא דתניא ר' עקיבא אומר יכול יניח אדם תפילין‬
‫בשבתות ובימים טובים ת"ל )שמות יג( והיה לאות על ידך ולטוטפת בין עיניך מי שצריכין אות יצאו שבתות וימים טובים שהן גופן אות ע"כ‬
no limitation on the number of ‫אותות‬. The ‫ אות‬is the external mark of our internal
essence. It does not compete with others.
‫ שבת‬and ‫ יום טוב‬mark us externally through concrete action, i.e., the utter avoid-
ance of forbidden activities. One sees that it is ‫ שבת‬by marking the behavior of the Sab-
bath observer. This is precisely why ‫ חול המועד‬engenders a difference of opinions. Note
the language of the ‫מחבר‬:
.‫בחול המועד גם כן אסור להניח תפילין מהטעם הזה בעצמו שימי חול המועד גם הם אות‬
On the Intermediate Days of the Festivals ii is also prohibited to wear tefillin from this self-same
reason, i.e., that the Intermediate Days also constitute a sign.‫ו‬
The ‫ רמ"א‬writes, however:
...‫ויש אומרים שחול המועד חייב בתפילין‬
But there are those who say that on the Intermediate Days one is obligated to wear tefillin...
The ‫ מחבר‬and the ‫ רמ"א‬represent two opposing approaches in the ‫ראשונים‬. If the
external concrete action that marks the ‫ שבת‬and ‫ יום טוב‬observer is the avoidance of
‫מלאכה‬, then we conclude that the Jew requires an external sign on ‫ חול המועד‬and therefore
must wear ‫זתפילין‬. If any external concrete action constitutes an ‫אות‬, e.g., ‫ישיבת סוכה‬, then
we conclude no additional external sign is permitted on ‫ חול המועד‬and it is therefore
forbidden to wear ‫חתפילין‬.
This conceptual indeterminacy leads to a halakhic one. The ‫ משנה ברורה‬concludes
that one should honor this indeterminacy by thinking to himself before reciting the ‫ברכה‬
that his wearing ‫ תפילין‬should be accounted as ‫ לשם מצוה‬only if one is indeed obligated in
this ‫ מצוה‬on ‫טחול המועד‬.
The ‫ פוסק‬formulates his comments carefully. The two positions in the ‫ ראשונים‬are
mutually exclusive: it is either obligatory or forbidden to wear ‫ תפילין‬on ‫חול המועד‬. How
does one construct an intermediate position in which one can act in accordance with
both positions? According to the ‫'מחבר‬s approach, it is only forbidden to perform the
‫ מצוה‬of ‫הנחת תפילין‬. The external act without the internal intention is meaningless.
How unfortunate that Pope Pius IX did not share this view. When not quite
eight-year-old Edgardo Mortara was baptized secretly by a Catholic servant working in
his Orthodox Jewish home, there was no intention on the part of the child or his parents
to convert to Catholicism. The ignorant teenager who sprinkled water on the feverish
child to whom she was devoted worried lest he not die in a state of grace. It resulted in
an act of terror, the forced estrangement from his family. The sacraments, externals in
the language of the Church, are not as at all analogous to the precepts of the Torah. In
the digitalized world in which we live, a world of instant communication, everything
becomes accessible. The corrolary that everything is analogous simply does not follow.
‫שבת שלום‬

'‫או"ח סי' ל"א סע' ב‬ .‫ו‬

‫הטור שם בשם הרא"ש‬ .‫ז‬

‫ הרא"ש בשם ספר העתים ושו"ת הרשב"א מובא בב"י שם‬.‫ח‬

'‫ שם ח‬.‫ט‬
 These sichos are published by students of Rav Ozer Glickman shlit"a. We can be reached at ravglickmanshiur@gmail.com
Rav Glickman can be reached directly at ozer.glickman@yu.edu

Come hear Rav Glickman on the road:

February 14, Philadelphia
Congregation B'nai Israel-Ohev Tzedek
Rabbi Aaron Felder ‫שליט"א‬

February 20, Dallas

Congregation Shaare Tefilla
Rabbi Ari Perl ‫שליט"א‬
In honor of the Quadrennial Chag ha-Semikhah and local musmakhim Rabbi Joe Hirsch ‫ נ"י‬and
Rabbi Jay Weinstein ‫נ"י‬.

TO BRING RAV GLICKMAN TO YOUR COMMUNITY, KINDLY CONTACT:

Ms. Rebecca Goldberg
YU Center for the Jewish Future
rebecca.goldberg@yu.edu
212-960-5400 ext.6350