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Beit Midrash Zichron Dov

14 Tammuz 5770/June 26, 2010 Parshat Balak Vol. I Num. 35 R Netanel Javasky

The Three Weeks: Bring Out the Trumpets

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follows: the requirement to blow these Poland about the mitzvah to blow same trumpets while offering trumpets, states, I dont understand sacrifices in the Beit HaMikdash? why we do not do this nowadays, as this is the main component of a fast! The Sefer HaChinuch (mitzvah 384) We are very strict about not eating or elaborates upon the significance of the drinking, but we seem to ignore the When you go to war in your land trumpets, providing the key to main aspect of the fast days, He against an enemy that oppresses you, answering these questions. beseeching Hashem through the you shall blow trumpets and you will introduces the discussion by saying trumpets. be remembered before Hashem your that Man naturally walks this planet G-d, and you will be saved from your asleep, oblivious to his surroundings. Rav Moshe Feinstein (O.C. 1:169) enemies. And on the day of your joy There are few things that could wake suggests that the reason why we no and your holidays and Rosh Chodesh someone up like music, and the longer blow trumpets is related to the The you shall blow the trumpets over your trumpets, the loudest of instruments, second Pasuk quoted above. olah offerings and your shelamim are used to enable one to attain Torah connects the blowing of the offerings and this shall serve as a spiritual closeness with Hashem. With trumpets in a time of need with their remembrance for you before your G- this in mind, it comes as no surprise use during the sacrificial order in the d, I am Hashem your G-d. (Bamidbar that the Rambam (Hilchot Taanit 1:1) Beit HaMikdash. Rav Moshe suggests extends this mitzvah to apply in any that the Torah is connecting these two 10:9-10) situation of public need, no longer opportunities to use the trumpet. If we As one of the 613 mitzvot, Hashem limited to times of war. At any time of can no longer blow the trumpets for commands us to blow trumpets when great need we must beseech Hashem, the korbanot, we can no longer blow we find our land being attacked. blowing the trumpets, requesting His the trumpets in a time of need. Hashem, in return, will remember our intervention. This is the basis for the needs and rescue us from the dire ruling of the Shulchan Aruch (O.C. This week we begin the three-week situation. What is this mitzvah all 576:17) that for every public fast national , time of great sorrow about? What special powers do the declared for misfortunes, there is a and pain. The weeks are bookended trumpets possess that will act as our mitzvah to blow the trumpets and cry w i t h p u b l i c f a s t s a n d y e t , unfortunately, without the coming of shield in a time of great need? out to Hashem. Mashiach, there will be no trumpets. Furthermore, is there any connection Rav Avraham Gombiner (Magen While our performance of this mitzvah between the blowing of the trumpets th during a battle and the pasuk that Avraham ibid.), writing in 17 Century may be lacking, we must remember what the mitzvah is all about. We must cry out to Hashem, implore and beg Parshah Questions R Meir Lipschitz Him to fill our national void: the Beit HaMikdash. We may not have the (Sources are provided to help the reader research answers) trumpets and we may not have the Why did HaShem display anger toward Bilaam for going with Balaks Korbanot, but we must inculcate within messengers, after permitting him to go? ourselves the lesson of this mitzvah (Rashi, Rashbam, and Ramban to Bamidbar 22:22) and arouse ourselves from our spiritual slumber. We must utilize the Who is Agag? What is his relevance to a Jewish monarchy? (Rashi, Rashbam, Malbim, Netziv, and Meshech Chachmah to Bamidbar 24:7) power of our tefilot, instituted in place of the Korbanot, to plead with Hashem To what do the words ( your tents) and ( your dwelling places) for His redemption. May it be His will refer? that through our Tefillot these weeks, (Rashi, Ramban, Seforno, Alshich, Ohr HaChaim, Malbim, Netziv, Ner Uziel, we will no longer witness the bookend and Chanukat HaTorah to Bamidbar 24:5) of Tisha BAv, but instead be greeted For children: Why does the Torah say that Bilaam hit the donkey three , with the glory and beauty of the 3rd rather than use the regular word ? Beit HaMikdash. (Rashi to Bamidbar 22:28) mlipschitz@torontotorah.com njavasky@torontotorah.com

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14# :613 Mitzvot Do not ascend the mizbeiach in haste

HaShem instructed the Jews to build a ramp, rather than steps, leading on to the mizbeiach. As the Torah explains, the purpose is, so as not .to reveal your ervah upon it Certain parts of a person are classified as ervah and are to be covered; taking broad steps on the altar, wearing a tunic, would cause those parts to be more exposed .than usual involved. Taking broad steps ,displays arrogance and/or frivolity and we try to conduct ourselves with gravity in the Beit haMikdash. Using a ramp forces a person to take smaller steps and therefore walk with .a more disciplined gait

Regardless of whether the issue is ervah or arrogance, this mitzvah is ;about the gait rather than the ramp one who takes broad steps in According to the Sefer haChinuch, ascending the ramp is in violation of .there is an added dimension the law torczyner@torontotorah.com 2

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HaAm VHaAretz
R Shlomo ben Shimon Rashbash
Torah in Translation
Russell Levy

Hurva Shul
In the year 1700, Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid (the later Rabbi Yehuda haChassid, not the author of the Sefer Chasidim) and three hundred of his students arrived in Yerushalayim from Poland. They bought the courtyard next to the synagogue of Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman (Ramban), which had been closed by the Ottoman Empire in 1589 because of Muslim incitement. On this site they began building a synagogue to accommodate the increased Jewish population of the city. The immigrants were unable to finish building the synagogue; in 1721, the unfinished structure was burned, together with the 40 Sifrei Torah it contained.

The Value of Aliyah

Rashbash 3
[Question: Does one need to make aliyah to attain spiritual perfection?] Every action of a person has two impacts, one intellectual and one physical. Our perfect faith is achieved through these two elements, through intellect and actions. Indeed, ideas revolve around the axis that is the foundation and pillar of all wisdom: The belief in Gd, His existence and unity, and everything else that stems from this, including His omniscience and oversight, and His role as Creator and Speaker to the prophets and Provider of reward and punishment. This has been the subject of many books written by both Jewish and nonJewish philosophers, and all of this is included in our Holy Torah.

R Shlomo ben Shimon was born in Algeria in 1400, after his father, the Tashbetz, fled there from Spanish persecution. He emerged from quite auspicious lineage: His father was the head of the Algerian community; his grandfather, R Tzemach, was a famous talmid chacham and a descendant of the Ralbag. His mother was a descendant of both the Ramban and Rabbeinu Yonah. R Shlomos genius was recognized early on; he was appointed a dayan on his fathers beit din at a young age. He was active in the area of psak while his father was still alive, and upon his fathers death, R Shlomo succeeded him to lead the Algerian community.

The second element is dependent on range of topics. Themes include not From 1864 until its destruction in 1948, actions: practicing the commandments and o n l y l a w , b u t a l s o T o r a h the Hurva synagogue was widely prohibitions as our Holy Torah prescribed. The level a person achieves in the Garden of Eden is determined by his completeness in his deeds, belief and grasp, as explained by the Sages in a number of places. Nevertheless, actions have an advantage over thoughts: One who performs an action for the sake of their Creator attains eternal life. Our Sages taught that there is not one mitzvah in the Torah upon which eternal life is not dependent. However, one who does not act, but just occupies himself with ideas his entire life without performing even a single mitzvah, will not attain a portion of the World To Come. What advantage is there for one who believes that Gd is one and not two, but does not recite Shema or pray daily, or perform any other mitzvah?

The site remained desolate for about 150 years, until the students of the Vilna Gaon arrived from Lithuania in 1864. They built a synagogue on the site of the ruins and named it Hurvat Rabbi The Rashbash is most famous for his Yehuda HaChassid the ruin of Rabbi responsa, which address a wide Yehuda the Chassid.

commentary and fundamentals of Judaism. He also authored many books, including polemical works in defence of the Talmud. Uncommon for his time, he was vehemently opposed to Kabbalah. In one teshuvah, he wrote: Christians believe in the three, and Kabbalists believe in the ten.

Land, as the verse states, And you shall dwell in it (Bamidbar 33:53). My father, the Tashbetz, wrote similarly in his book Zohar haRakia. Furthermore, the Jews were commanded to perform many mitzvot in Israel, and not in the Diaspora; for this Moshe Rabbeinu prayed and yearned to enter the land (as is written in However, if one grasps the ideas and Masechet Sotah). In 2005, the Israeli government reaches final completeness, achieving the Divine attribute and believing what he is Therefore, both a Torah scholar and a announced its plan to rebuild the supposed to believe, while at the same time simpleton should try to ascend. If he is a Synagogue exactly as it had been perfecting his action, this is the desired goal, simpleton, he will gain at least one before the Jordanian destruction, the highest level if one achieves it mitzvah; all the more so a Torah scholar assigning the project a budget of 28 completely. Therefore, the levels in the who will even add a degree to his place million shekels. The project was World to Come change according to the in the World to Come. completed, and the building re-opened, change in his grasp and deeds. If one adds, Granted, the roads are presumed to be this past March 16. they add a level for him. If he does less, they dangerous; I have already written that This item was adapted from an article decrease for him. one should not force a spouse to ascend, by Torah Mitzion Ascending to Israel, as the Ramban explains for the Sages did not rule for a case of www.torahmitzion.org in his commentary on the Torah and his Book danger. Each should evaluate himself; if of Commandments, is preparation for he wishes to endanger himself he should torczyner@torontotorah.com performing another mitzvah, to live in the ascend, and if not then he should refrain.

considered the largest, most beautiful and most important synagogue in Israel, then known as Palestine. It was the site of the installation of the chief rabbis of both Palestine and Yerushalayim, as well as the center of Jewish life in Yerushalayim. The synagogue was the last outpost of Jewish resistance in the Old City of Yerushalayim in the Israeli war of Independence, and the Arab Legion of Jordan blew it up to show that they now controlled the Jewish Quarter, in 1 9 48 . W h en I sr a el r e - to o k Yerushalayim in the Six-Day War, a 16 meter high stone arch was built on the site of the ruin, showing how high the bottom of the original stone dome of the synagogue had been.

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Shiur in Review: The mitzvah of honouring parents, Part I

, " ; : ? ": + "+ ; , , , - ! , . ' ? , ! ", ; , ,: , ? ": + "+ , ! , : This sugya addresses the case of a parent who asks his child to violate the Shabbat. The violation does not involve one of the 39 categories of labour (like cooking or slaughtering), since a capital crime could not be overridden by a positive command. But rather the violation is a classical Lo Taaseh, i.e. to lead a beast of burden which is a Shabbat prohibition but not an act of labor (melacha). If the general rule were to apply, the positive command to honor ones parents would override this classical Lo Taaseh. However a special Halacha derived from the verse Veet Shabtotai Tishmoru establishes that even your parents have to honour the Shabbat and therefore, one does not fulfill Kibbud in this case. At this point, the Gemorah argues that this derivation should not be viewed as the exception to the rule but rather should establish the rule itself and therefore a positive command can never override a Lo TaAseh. This argument is rejected because the act of Kibbud - when one leads a beast of burden - is not per se a fulfillment of the positive command to honor ones parents, but rather is merely a hechsher mitzvah (a prologue to the mitzvah) but not the act of the mitzvah itself. " " Tos explain that when one leads a beast of burden in order to transport food so that he can feed his parent, he is only preparing for the mitzvah of honouring his parent; thus the transport is defined as a hechsher mitzvah. The mitzvah itself is fulfilled only later when the son actually feeds his parent. A positive command can override a negative one only when at the very moment of the violation of the Lo Taaseh the positive command is being fulfilled. If, however, at the moment of the violation of the Lo Taaseh the individual is only performing the preparatory act but not the mitzvah itself, there is no possibility of applying the rule of overriding a Lo Taaseh. ' , ? , , . : , , , These two sugyot address the following question. An individual well call him C is faced with two competing Kibbud obligations, one to A and another to B. Who should come first, A or B? The following rule is established. If both C and B share a common obligation to honor to A, then A will take precedence over B and A will receive the honor. Therefore one must give priority to ones father over his mother (if his parents are married to each other), and similarly one must give priority to the fulfillment of a mitzvah (one that requires immediate and personal involvement) over his fathers honour. It would seem that the Gemorah establishes this principle based on logic (Svara), since no derivation (Yalfuta) is quoted. "

R' Azarya Berzon

" (' .) . " Tos is baffled as to why the sugya in Yevamot requires a special Halacha derived from Veet Shabtotai Tishmoru to establish that one does not violate the Shabbat for the honour of his parents. Why not derive this from the logical reasoning that you and your parent share a common obligation to honour the Shabbat? Tos offers what would seem to be a very difficult answer, namely, that the sugya in Kiddushin is based not on logic but rather on the derivation of Veet Shabtotai Tishmoru formulated in Yevamot. This is not the simple reading of the Gemorah in Kiddushin! We would like to demonstrate that a careful reading of the Rambam will produce a new definition of the rules established by the Gemorah in Kiddushin, and as a result, the question of Tos doesnt begin! We will study three consecutive Halachot in the Rambam in Chapter VI of Hilchot Mamrim (Halachot 12-14): " , . " , , . " . Part II will be delivered as part of a Tuesday night series at BAYT; watch our schedule.

Schedule for the Week of June 26, 14 Tammuz

Friday night, June 25
Dinner: R Mordechai Torczyner, Stem Cell Research, Machzikei haDas, Ottawa

Monday, June 28

7:30PM R Azarya Berzon: Hilchot Talmud Torah, Clanton Park 9:00PM R Azarya Berzon: Ramban al haTorah, 152 Almore

Shabbat, June 26

After Hashkamah: Russell Levy, Clanton Park After Hashkamah: R Azarya Berzon, Passive Murder, BAYT Derashah: R Mordechai Torczyner, The Silence of Bilam, Machzikei haDas, Ottawa Luncheon: R Azarya Berzon, The Yachid vs. the Tzibbur, Bnai Torah Luncheon: R Mordechai Torczyner, Morality Outside of Torah, Machzikei haDas, Ottawa 7:05PM R Azarya Berzon: Shiur bIvrit: Aveilut Chadasha and Aveilut Yeshana, BAYT 7:10PM R Netanel Javasky: The Product of One's Mind: Does the Halacha Recognize the Right to Own Ideas? Bnai Torah 8:05PM R Azarya Berzon, Pirkei Avot, BAYT Before Minchah: R Meir Lipschitz, Avot, Machzikei haDas, Ottawa Seudah Shlishit: R Meir Lipschitz, Parshah, Machzikei haDas, Ottawa

Tuesday, June 29Shivah Asar bTammuz Wednesday, June 30

11:00AM R Azarya Berzon: Pesachim (Advanced), Clanton Park 8:00PM R Mordechai Torczyner: Minchat Chinuch , Clanton Park 9:15AM R Mordechai Torczyner, Womens Torah Class, 239 Franklin, Summer Hiatus begins 7:30PM R Meir Lipschitz, Ramchals Derech Hashem, Kehillat Shaarei Torah Men and Women 8:00PM Russell Levy: Contemporary Halachah, Bnai Torah

Thursday, July 1

Sunday, June 27

7:30PM R Azarya Berzon: Masechet Kiddushin, Shaarei Shomayim

11:00AM R Azarya Berzon: Masechet Pesachim (Advanced), Clanton Park 3:40PM R Azarya Berzon: Hilchot Muktzah (Advanced), Clanton Park 7:30PM R Meir Lipschitz, Patriotism, Shaarei Shomayim 8:45PM R Azarya Berzon: Halachah and Life Issues, Clanton Park Maariv will follow the shiur

We would like to thank koshertube.com and Rabbi Ostriker for filming our shiurim!

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