THE REALM MEANING OF ZEALOUSNESS - PINCHAS

The parsha begins with Hashem rewarding Pinchas greatly for his act of zealousness in killing Zimri and Cozbi. Pinchas was from the tribe of Levi whilst Zimri was from the tribe of Shimon. This is not the first time in the Torah that these two tribes are associated with one another - Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l provides an illuminating account of the history of these two tribes and how they developed in such different ways . In parshas Vayishlach, we are told of how Shechem kidnapped Deena. All of the brothers conspired to bring her back - their plan was to persuade the people of Shechem to do bris mila and then they would come and retreive Deena whilst the people were still recovering. However, Shimon and Levi planned a more drastic course of action - they believed that all of the people of Shechem were chayav misa for their part in the taking of Deena and proceeded to wipe out the whole city in the process of saving her. Yaakov Avinu strongly disagreed with their course of action, fearing that it would greatly damage the reputation of his family. Shimon and Levi defended their actions, saying, “should our sister be treated like a harlot?!” It was only many years later that Yaakov gave his final tochacha to the two brothers. In parshas Vayechi, in his brachos to his sons, he criticised Shimon and Levi for their impulsiveness. Moreover, he punished them, saying, “I will separate them in Yaakov and disperse them within Yisroel. ” The simple understanding of this onesh it that its purpose was to separate the two brothers in order to prevent them from further violence. However, Rav Kamenetsky notes that Rashi provides a different explanation - that Shimon and Levi will be sofrim and melamdei tinokos who will travel from city to city to fix the tashmishei kedusha and to teach the Bney Yisroel Torah . Why was the future Torah education of Klal Yisroel put davke in the hands of Shimon and Levi, what is the mida ceneged mida here? He answers that Yaakov saw that they possessed a positive mida that the other brothers did not. He recognised their motivation in destroying Shechem - they were willing to risk their whole lives in order to defend the kavod of their sister. The other brothers also saw the terrible situation in which Deena was in, but only Shimon and Levi felt the pain as if it were their own pain. Rav Kamenetsky writes: “Yaakov saw that their actions stemmed from an inner pain and genuine empathy with the pain of another, and this motivated them to a burning zealousness that was without limit, to the point where they could not find menuchas nanefesh until they destroyed the whole city. Only men of this character, who feel the pain of their fellow as if it is their own pain - only they would … be moser nefesh and give up their physical resources, in order to wander from city to city to spread the Torah of Hashem in the world and to teach the children of Bnei Yisroel.” Yaakov Avniu saw in Shimon and Levi a zealousness that could potentially be used for a very positive purpose, spreading Torah in Klal Yisroel. However, in this week’s parsha we see how the descendants of these two Bnei Yaakov, followed very different paths: Pinchas, a member of the Tribe of Levi, was able to channel his zealousness to doing the ratson Hashem - his act of violence brought an end to the plague that killed thousands of people. Hashem rewarded him highly to show that He acknowledged that Pinchas was acting purely leshem shamayim. However, Zimri, a Prince of the Tribe of Shimon, expressed the zealousness of his ancestor in a forbidden way, breaking boundaries that the Torah forbade. How did these two tribes divert so drastically from each other? Rav Kamenetsky explains that whilst most of Klal Yisroel were slaves in Mitzrayim, the tribe of Levi was free to learn Torah. It was this period of internalisation of Torah values that enabled the Leviim to channel their zealousness in the right way. In contrast the members of Shevet Shimon never had the opportunity to learn Torah in the same way. Consequently their zealousness was without guidance and therefore expressed itself in forbidden ways. Rav Kamenetsky observes: “When zealousness is guided and bound by the limits of the Torah then it will succeed…. But without guidance, boundaries, and the hanhagas haTorah… it [zealousness] does not have the power to succeed and ultimately will remove the kanai from the world.” There are numerous lessons we can derive from Rav Kamenetsky’s explanation. One is that extreme character traits should only be applied if they are harnessed by Torah guidance. A person that acts and speaks out against people in the name of ‘kano’us’ risks being guided not by the Torah, but by base motivations such as lust (as in the case of Zimri) or love of machlokes. Another vital lesson is the novel understanding of how zealousness should express itself. The ‘kanoi’ may on occasion, be forced to resort to extreme behaviour, however this should clearly be the exception to the rule True zealousness should bring a person to a tremendous feeling of pain at the Chilul Hashem caused by aveiro or lack of Torah learning. This pain should drive him to strive to rectify the problem by spreading Torah. This is the form of zealousness that the Leviim express on a permanent basis, as is borne out by the words of the Rambam: He asks why the Leviim were not zocheh to their own inheritance in Eretz Yisroel. He answers, “because they were separated to serve Hashem and to teach his just ways and righteous laws to the rabim, as it says, ‘they will teach the laws to Yaakov and the Torah to Yisroel. ’” The tribe of Levi possessed the mida of kano’us and were able to direct it to positive effect - they channel the pain they feel at Chilul Hashem to spread Torah and mitzvos throughout Klal Yisroel. Of course this role is not limited to the Leviim. Many of our Gedolim have expressed the mida of zealousness: One Simchas Torah, Rav Yisroel Salanter zt”l was looking uncharacteristically gloomy. When asked why he looked so sad on such a happy day, he answered, “today is the time to rejoice over our precious holy Torah. But that is just what makes me sad - for Torah is dying today. Few people follow it, even fewer learn it, and their numbers dwindle from day to day. The more I think about the wonderfulness of the Torah, the more upset I become about the low state it is in today. ” Rav Salanter’s great talmid, the Alter of Kelm zt”l emulated his Rebbe in this area: On one occasion he and Rav Zvi Broide zt”l noticed a Jew taking hay from a gentile’s wagon. After that the Alter was sad, and went about all day with a long face. That evening Rav Broide asked what the matter was. The Alter seemed surprised at the question. “How can a person be at peace when he sees so much sin in the world? ” Of course, feeling pain is not sufficient - the true zealot will act upon it. How? By acting to remove the Chilul Hashem caused by aveiro and lack of Torah study. Indeed, our leaders were not restricted to feeling bad about the matsav of Klal Yisroel. Rav Salanter, the Chofetz Chaim zt”l and the Alter of Novardok zt”l as well as many others, all went to great lengths to teach Torah to those drifting from Torah. There are many accounts of their desperate efforts to stem the tide of secularisation that was becoming rampant in their times. Thus we have seen that a person that has the kanao’us sanctioned by the Torah will, in the long-term, direct it, not to destruction, but to building. We live in a time where Chilul Hashem is rampant - our avoda is twofold. Firstly, to develop a sense of deep pain at the sheer number of Jews with no connection to Judaism, and second to act upon this pain. But, as the Chazon Ish writes, nowadays the way we can achieve this is not through force but through love - by teaching them the ways of Hashem we can erase the Chilul Hashem . May we all merit to be true kano’im leHashem.

LIVING FOFR HASHEM - BALAK

BALAK - LIVING FOR HASHEM Chazal tell us that Bilaam harasha had incredible powers of prophecy which in some ways were even greater than those of Moshe Rabbeinu. Yet, at the same time, he possessed numerous bad midos. How can these two opposite factors come together in one man? The answer is that Bilaam never worked to attain his madreiga. In contrast to the Jewish neviim who had to climb the ladder of Rav Pinchas Ben Yair and reach the highest levels of tzidkus, Bilaam was given his prophetic abilities without having earned them. He clearly knew the emes, that the G-d of the Jews was the only true G-d, and that keeping the Torah would reap the ultimate reward, but, he never internalised these truths and therefore was unable to match his behaviour with his hasagos. However, we see from his brachos to Klal Yisroel that he hoped to attain the spiritual reward that awaits tzadikkim. In his first set of blessings he expressed this desire: “May my soul die the death of the upright, and may my end be like his. ” The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh writes that Bilaam did not simply hope to get reward without having done any righteous act, rather he intended “that when the day of death would arrive he would improve his evil ways…he desired that at the time of death he would do teshuva and be like the righteous of the nations.” Bilaam realised that he was living a life of sheker and that he would suffer in the next world, so he wanted to do teshuva, but only at the end of his life. The Ohr Hachaim continues with an amazing observation. “Likewise I have seen reshaim who told me that if they would be certain that if they did teshuva and would then immediately die, that they would do so, but they know that they could not maintain their teshuva for a longer period of time, because the foolish and old king [the yetser hara] dominates them.” These reshaim, like Bilaam, knew the truth but they were not prepared to live by it, they were only willing to die by it. When a Torah observant Jew sees this attitude he is struck by its foolishness, however, in a certain way, it can effect us all. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l demonstrates this point : He quotes a Medrash that discusses the moments before Krias Yam Suf: It tells us that when the Jewish people were at the sea, each tribe was arguing with the other about who should enter the sea first, no-one wanted to take the first fateful steps, until Nachshon ben Amminadav stepped in first. Rav Shmuelevitz asks, how can it be that no-one wanted to step into the sea? Throughout history Jews have been willing to give up their lives and those of their children for the sake of Kiddush Hashem, how is it possible that the Dor Deah were not able to make the same sacrifice?! He answers that had they been commanded to enter the sea in order to give up their lives then they would have gladly done so, but that was not the test in this instance. Rather, “they were commanded to enter in order to be saved, to jump in in order to live.” The avoda at the Yam Suf was not to die for Hashem but to live for Him. It is much easier to give up one’s life for Hashem and then be exempt from mitzvos, than to stay alive and face the challenges that life poses. How is this yesod relevant to us? Rav Noach Weinberg Shlita says that there is a basic question that everyone should ask themselves: ‘What am I living for, what is the purpose of my life?’ This is not such an easy question to answer in a genuine way - Torah observant Jews know that the purpose of life is to get close to Hashem but this can be a vague concept - there are many different ways in which to do this, and it is not so easy to find a specific answer to fit each individual’s unique situation and strength. Rav Weinberg gives one suggestion that can help make it a little less abstract. A person should think what he would be willing to die for. Then, he should say to himself, ‘I want to live for that.’ A good example of this is chinch; we would all willingly give up our lives for our children, yet do we devote enough time and energy towards living for them. There was a baal habayis who worked long hours trying to support his family. He even worked on Sundays. Every week his son would ask him if he had time to play with him on Sunday but his father would always answer that he had to work. One week, the desperate son asked his father, “dad, how much money do you earn on Sunday?” The bemused father answered him, and the son offered to pay the father whatever he normally earned so that he could be free to spend time with his son! This story has a sad irony; the whole reason that the father was working so hard was so as to give his children a good life, but he got so caught up in his work, that he missed the tachlis, he wasn’t being a father to his son. Another example of this is our attitude towards Klal Yisroel. Most, if not all of us, would be willing to give up our lives for the Jewish people if they were threatened with physical or spiritual destruction. But are we willing to live for the Jewish people? Do we spend some time helping our fellow Jew in need? There are many thousands of Jews who don’t have enough food on the table and millions who have no idea what Judaism is about. Do we take out any time out of our busy lives to help them? Rav Pam zt”l drives this point home in his haskama to the biography of Irving Bunim zt”l. “We hear so much talk these days about ahavas Yisroel, but if you want to know the real meaning of these words, translated into action, read the chapters in this book on the rescue efforts of Vaad Hatzala, headed by Reb Aron, Rav Kalmanowitz, and Irving Bunim. These men, along with the Sternbuchs in Switzerland and Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandel in Slovakia, knew no bounds in their persistent determination to move heaven and earth tosave lives, to alleviate suffering. Read it! It will move you. It will inspire you. It will give you a deeper understanding of achrayus for Klal Yisroel…But it may also disturb you, for it may be induce some painful soul-searching. Did we really do all we could to save lives then, or, for that matter, are we doing enough today to respond to the crying, desperate needs of Klal Yisroel in this generation ?” We are living in a time where Klal Yisroel needs us, but it doesn’t need us to die by Kiddush Hashem, rather to live by it. Bilaam is described as a rasha despite his lofty hasagos. He knew what Hashem wanted from him, but he wasn’t willing to live by it, only to die by it. We know better than Bilaam, we are prepared to live for Hashem, but sometimes we can miss the forest for the trees and forget the tachlis. By reviewing now and again what we would be willing to die for, we can remind ourselves of what we should be living for. And what is the reward for ‘living’ for Hashem? At the Yam Suf, no-one wanted to enter until Nachshon be Amminadav went in, he was prepared to live for Hashem, the Medrash tells that that it was because of this act that the tribe of Yehuda was zocheh to Malchus . Rav Shmuelevitz describes the significance of this moment: “At that moment the tribe of Yehuda felt himself responsible for all of Yisroel to do what was required of them, and from this feeling, they became higher and greater than all of Yisroel, and were filled with strength and might to cross the sea as if it was completely dry, and through this, Yehuda was zocheh to Malchus . We too, can be zocheh to greatness if we learn from Nachshon’s lesson and live for Hashem.

THE SPIRITUAL IN THE PHYSICAL - BALAK

BALAK – THE SPIRITUAL IN THE PHYSICAL Yehonasan Gefen Bilaam and Balak are two of the most well-known enemies of the Jewish people. A full Parsha in the Torah is devoted to their efforts to harm the Jewish people. What is unique about their strategy is that they realized that they could not physically overcome the Jewish people and instead strove to use spiritual powers in order to achieve their nefarious goals. The Shem MiShmuel asks two penetrating questions about the approach of these two evil men. Firstly, he observes that they seemed to intend to somehow turn HaShem against His Chosen People; this seems to have been a totally futile and indeed, foolish goal – how could they expect to overturn the unique relationship between HaShem and the Jewish people, going back to the Avos whom were so devoted to bringing the Divine Presence into the world? Secondly, Balak expressed his specific goal to “strike it [the Jewish nation] and drive it from the land.” The Medrash explains that Balak’s main goal was to prevent the Jewish people from entering the land of Eretz Yisroel. The Shem MiShmuel asks that this is a very strange concern; the Jewish people did not have to reach Eretz Yisroel through Moav or Midian, therefore there was no apparent threat to Moav by the Jews’ entering the land – why was it so important to Balak to prevent this from happening? The Shem MiShmuel begins his answer to these questions by quoting the Chiddshei HaRim zt”l on the famous verse in Tehillim: “The Heavens are to HaShem and the land He gave to man.” The Chiddushei HaRim explains that this verse is revealing the purpose of Creation. It means that man is supposed to take the land and turn it into ‘Heaven’ through performance of Mitzvos in the physical realm. The Shem MiShmuel elaborates that it is insufficient to live a purely spiritual existence rather one must be in involved in elevating the physical world. When the Jewish people completely succeed in this ultimate goal they will achieve the goal of Creation and the End of Days will take place. When this occurs, the non-Jewish nations will also be profoundly be effected be this change for they will be forced to reject all forms of immoral living and also strive to elevate their physical existence. This, the Shem Mishmuel explains, is what Balak and Bilaam feared more than anything else. They knew that if the Jewish people would enter Eretz Yisrael they would live a far more physical existence than they had in the desert. During their time in the desert they were living a totally non-physical existence, all their needs were provided by supernatural means and they were free to be completely involved in pure Avodas HaShem. Thus their spiritual existence was unconnected to the physical realm. However, when they would enter the land, they would then be expected to live a physical existence, earning their own livelihood, and yet elevating the physical world around them through the Mitzvos that are connected to the land. Bilaam and Balak were fearful that when the Jewish people entered the land they would attain the ultimate purpose of Creation and now the non-Jewish nations would be forced to drastically change their own lifestyle as well. This was highly undesirable to Bilaam and Balak; up to this point in time, the concept of spirituality did exist but it was totally separate from one’s physical existence. Thus, people like Bilaam and Balak could attain high spiritual levels and yet live lives of base physicality. We now understand the goals of Bilaam and Balak – they did not seek to necessarily destroy the Jewish people, rather they sought to prevent them from joining the spiritual world together with the physical world. However, their goal failed because they misunderstood how a fundamental part of the role of the Jewish people was indeed to be involved in the physical world and make it holy, as the Chiddushei HaRim explained. Indeed, the Medrash tells us that Bilaam was punished for his erroneous attitude: In one of his inadvertent blessings to the Jewish people, he observes that HaShem counts the matings of His people. The Medrash Tanchuma explains the verse to mean that HaShem eagerly awaits the matings between His people to see when a new tzaddik will be conceived. Bilaam found this to be inappropriate, he thought to himself, “He who is holy and His servants are holy, should look at these things!” For this attitude Bilaam was punished by having one eye taken out. The Shem MiShmuel explains this Chazal in the light of his aforementioned explanation; Bilaam misunderstood the nature of the holiness – he could not grasp the idea that physical acts could be holy in HaShem’s eyes. Yet finally even Bilaam admitted his mistake; in another of his blessings he says: “Who has counted the dust of Yaakov?” The Medrash elaborates that he was referring to the numerous Mitzvos that are related to the dust, meaning agricultural activity, such as the prohibitions of kilaim of various foodstuffs and different animals. He specified these kinds of Mitzvos because they are related to the most physical of activities. The Shem MiShmuel brings another Medrash that tells us that HaShem purposefully gave more Mitzvos in areas that are the most physical so that even the most mundane activities will be elevated into acts of holiness. Bilaam finally recognized this fact and realized that his goal of separating spirituality from physicality was doomed to failure as it contradicted the whole purpose of Klal Yisroel. We have seen how Bilaam and Balak shared an incorrect view of the nature of spirituality – they believed that it is in a totally separate realm from the physical world. HaShem showed them the error of their ways – spirituality is not confined to the synagogue and study hall. A Jew is commanded in numerous Mitzvos that elevate his daily activities into acts of holiness. For example, the workplace is replete with laws involving honesty; on one occasion Rav Wolbe zt”l heard that a group of businessmen had a daily learning schedule involving the laws of tzitzits. He remarked that it is a great thing to learn such halachos, however he pointed out that it was vital for businessmen to know the many intricate laws relating to Chosheh Mishpat because they are so relevant in his daily work. The men followed his advice and soon realized how many laws that they had not been keeping properly until they learnt the laws. In a similar vein, the simple act of eating requires a significant amount of knowledge in the laws of kashrus, blessings and derech eretz. Even taking care of one’s bodily needs involves numerous laws. There is even a blessing to be said for this seemingly lowly act; one person who studied hundreds of religions testified that only Judaism has a blessing related to this act. Indeed the blessing, ‘asher yatsar’ has the only reference of all blessings to the ‘Kisay HaKavod which is the pinnacle of holiness that man is aware of. This is to teach us that even the most mundane and even seemingly lowly acts of man are important to HaShem. He wants us to be involved in the physical world, but, as the Chiddushei HaRim pointed out, are job is to make it into Shamayim. Thus it is incumbent upon us to take this lesson and strive to bring holiness into the seemingly mundane aspects of our lives.

MONEY AND HONOR - BALAK

BALAK - MONEY AND HONOR By Yehonasan Gefen The character, Bilaam is considered to be the archetype of a person with bad character traits. The Mishna in Pirkei Avo describes him as having an ‘ayin raah‘ (he looked upon people in a negative way), a ‘ruach gevoah‘ (he was arrogant), and a ‘nefesh rechava ’ (he was greedy). ‘Nefesh Rechava’ refers specifically to Bilaam’s love for money; the commentaries derive his greediness from his response to the request of Balak’s ministers for him to curse the Jewish people. They said, “…So said Balak son of Tsipoor, please do not refuse from coming to me. I will greatly honor you and everything that you say I will do, please go and curse this nation for me.” “Bilaam replied and said to Balak’s servants, if Balak will give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot transgress the word of HaShem, my God, to do small or great. ” On superficial analysis we learn Bilaam’s greediness from the large sum of money that he alluded to in his refusal to go against God’s words. However, the commentaries point out that this cannot be true, because there is another example in the Rabbinical literature where a genuine Torah scholar used a similar expression to that of Bilaam. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot describes the account of the great Rebbe Yosse ben Kisma, who was approached by a wealthy man to leave his place of Torah to dwell in another city that was lacking in Torah scholars. The man offered him an immense amount of money in his attempt to persuade Rebbe Yosse to come to his city. Rebbe Yosse replied, ‘if you give me all the silver, gold and precious pearls in the world I will only live in a place of Torah.” Rebbe Yosse mentioned an even greater amount of money than Bilaam and there is no indication at all that he showed any sign of greediness in his reply. What is the difference between Bilaam’s response and that of Rebbe Yosse ben Kisma ? On deeper analysis it seems that there is a significant difference between Bilaam and Rebbe Yosse ben Kisma. When the man tried to persuade Rebbe Yosse to stay in his city he promised him a great amount of money, and, in response, Rebbe Yosse replied that no amount of money could make him leave a place of Torah. It was appropriate for Rebbe Yosse to refer to money because the man directly mentioned it himself. In contrast, the ministers of Balak never made any mention of money in their attempts to convince Bilaam to curse the Jewish people. Rather, they said that Balak offered to “greatly honor” him. Bilaam replied by saying the even a great amount of money would not enable him to curse the Jews if God did not allow it. From Bilaam’s mention of money we see two things: Firstly that money was something that was so prevalent in his mind that he brought it up even when no-one else had made any mention of it. Secondly, on a deeper level, we see that he related to the concept of “honor” as meaning, ‘financial benefit’ - to Bilaam, honor and money were the same thing. This proves his love for money, because a person who does not love money will not think that it is equivalent to honor. A difficulty still remains with this explanation. It would have seemed that someone who loves money would not necessarily consider that its main benefit is honor, rather people want money so that they can make materialistic acquisitions. Having money enables a person to satisfy his desires for physical pleasures such as a nice house, a fast car, good food, and lots of vacations. Given this, why did Bilaam equate honor with money? There are two possible motivations behind a person’s love of money; one is an attachment to physicality, whereby he wants money to fulfill his physical desires. The second is that having a great deal of money can enable a person to receive honor and respect from others. This means that everyone is looking for some kind of meaning - honor is one of the main ways that a starved soul can try to derive some satisfaction. In western society today, having money is probably the greatest way of receiving honor. When a person wants money in order to receive honor then he will never be satisfied no matter how much money he acquires - for him, money gives him honor, but his soul will instinctively crave more honor as a source of meaning. Consequently he will try to fulfill this desire by acquiring more money, but will constantly feel dissatisfied. It seems that it is this kind of love for money that the Rabbis refer to when they say that when a person gets 100 maneh he wants 200 maneh, and when he gets 200 maneh he wants 400 maneh. For this person, money is his means to gaining honor but he will always crave more honor and therefore he will always want more money to satisfy this desire for honor. For Bilaam money was certainly a vehicle for attaining more honor. From Bilaam’s equating money with honor, it is clear that his ‘nefesh rechava’ caused him to have the more pernicious kind of love for money - the kind that emanates from a desire for honor. The Slonimer Rebbe in his seminal work, Netivot Shalom discusses how damaging this can be to a person - in the aforementioned Mishna in Pirkei Avot the studetns of Bilaam are compared with those of Abraham. Towards the end of the Mishna it asks what the difference is between the two groups. It explains that “the students of Abraham eat in Olam Hazeh (this world) and inherit Olam Haba (the Next World)… but the students of the evil Bilaam inherit Gehinnom and go down to the well of destruction. ” What is the repetitive language used with regard to Bilaam’s students, of ‘Gehinnom’ and ‘well of destruction’? The Netivot Shalom explains that the ‘well of destruction’ refers to Olam Haba, whereas ‘Gehinnom’ actually refers to Olam Hazeh - the students of Bilaam do not only experience great pain in the next world, they also suffer in this world. They are so concerned about gaining more acquisitions and more honor that they can never attain satisfaction in their lives to the extent that they live Gehinnom even in Olam Hazeh! This explanation teaches an obvious lesson that the relentless drive for money can never provide a person with true satisfaction. A certain amount of money is a necessary means to helping people attain the end of a meaningful life, but it is essential to remain vigilant that it remains as a ‘means’ and does not become the ultimate goal in itself. Instead, occupying one’s time with developing a relationship with God can provide the only source of satisfaction that leaves a person truly satisfied.

PRAYING AGAINST THE YETSER HARA - SHELACH

SHELACH - PRAYING AGAINST THE YETSER HARA The incident of the spies is one of the most well-known stories in the Torah and there is much discussion as to how such great men could commit such a terrible sin. Another very important aspect of this maaseh is the actions of the righteous men in their attempts to withstand joining in the sin. The Torah tells us that after sending the spies to Eretz Yisroel, Moshe renamed his closest student . Up till this point he was known as ‘Hoshea‘, but now Moshe added a ’yud’ to make the name ‘Yehoshua’. Rashi explains that Moshe davenned that Yehoshua would be saved from the nisayon posed by being with the meraglim - this tefilla manifested itself in adding a yud to his name. A few passukim later the Torah alludes to the fact that whilst in Eretz Yisroel, another of the spies, Kalev, separated from the group and went to Chevron to daven to be protected from the plan of the meraglim . The Ben Ish Chai and Maskil leDavid both ask that these tefillas seem to contradict a well-known axiom, that ‘everything is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven.’ This means that the one thing that is completely in the control of man is the ability to choose between right and wrong. Davenning for things beyond our control, such as health and parnasa, can be highly beneficial because those things are totally dependent on Divine Providence. However, davenning to not sin would seem to have no benefit because Hashem does not determine whether we sin - that is completely in our hands. Consequently, it is very hard to understand why Moshe davenned for Yehoshua and why Kalev davenned for himself.to avoid sinning - whether they would sin or not was not dependent on Hashem, it was dependent on their own free will! The Ben Ish Chai explains that there are two different ways by which a person can come to commit a sin. One is where he has total clarity that a certain act is forbidden but he nonetheless decides to do it with a clear recognition that he is sinning. The second is where his yetser hara clouds his judgment and persuades him that this act is permissible, enabling him to rationalize that he is not sinning at all. The principle that fear of heaven is completely our own hands only applies to the first form of sinning, where a person is absolutely clear that acting in such a way constitutes a sin. In this area there is no benefit for a person to pray for Hashem to stop him committing this sin, it is purely in his own hands and Hashem cannot, so-to-speak, change his free will decision. However, this is not the case with regard to the second form of nisayon where a person may genuinely believe that he is not sinning. The main factor that causes him to sin in such a case is lack of clarity as to the correct course of action. This it not completely within one‘s free will. When a person wants to do the right thing but is at risk of being seduced by his yetser hara he can turn to Hashem to help him not be clouded by its rationalizations. Therefore, in this situation it is beneficial to pray to Hashem. The Ben Ish Chai continues by explaining Yehoshua and Kalev faced the second form of nisayon where tefilla can help. The meraglim were great people and did not deliberately speak badly about the land without justifying their behavior. The Ben Ish Chai offers a novel explanation of their motivations; they felt that if they would tell the Jewish people about the great prosperity of Eretz Yisroel then they would enter with impure motives of physical gain rather than purely as a result of following Hashem’s command. Consequently, they decided to speak badly about the land with the hope that the Jewish people would nevertheless want to enter the land, leshem shamayim and would thus gain far greater reward. However, in truth, this reasoning was really the work of the yetser hara’s attempts to prevent the people from entering the land at all, as indeed occurred. Moshe davenned for Yehoshua that he would be protected from such types of rationalizations that would make him believe that it was a mitzva to speak badly about the land ! Similarly, Kalev prayed that he should maintain the clarity that would prevent him from falling into the clutches of the yetser hara. We have seen that there are two ways in which a person can come to sin; either by knowingly sinning or by begin duped by the yetser hara that he is not sinning at all. It seems that by far the more prevalent challenge is posed by the threat of being tricked into thinking that one is not sinning at all. The Nefesh HaChaim writes that a lack of clarity as to whether we are doing a mitzva or aveiro originates with the chet of Adam Harishon. Before the sin, Adam had total clarity as to what was good and evil, in his eyes, committing an aveira was as clearly damaging as putting one’s hand in fire. When he ate from the tree of knowledge of tov ve’ra he brought into himself a mix of good and evil. The consequence of this was that he lost that great clarity about the nature of evil, to the point that now, his yetser hara could now confuse him as to what is right and wrong. This is also the meaning behind that Gemara that states that when a person commits the same sin twice it becomes permissible in his eyes. Rav Yisroel Salanter was said to have commented that when he commits the sin a third time it becomes a mitzva in his eyes! We have noted in the past the observation of the Baal HaTania that pertains to this point. He writes that if one were to offer a Torah observant Jew money to blatantly commit a sin, he will not do so because he intellectually understands that the spiritual damage done by the sin will outweigh any material gain. And yet a person sins without any monetary gain because he convinces himself that he is not actually sinning. We learn from the explanation of the Ben Ish Chai that whilst we cannot request of Hashem to stop us sinning, with regard to the challenge of being tricked by the yetser hara, tefilla is a highly beneficial and necessary weapon. The yetser hara is constantly striving to deceive us into sinning and we must maintain a constant vigilance of being caught in the trap of rationalizations. As well as a consistent method of cheshbon hanefesh, the key tool to gaining clarity is to daven that Hashem help us open our eyes and enable us to follow the true path of Avodas Hashem.

SPYING AFTER OUR HEARTS - SHELACH

“And they will be tzitzis for you, and you shall see it and you shall remember all the commandments of HaShem, and perform them; and you shall not spy (loh sasuroo) after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray.” Parshas Shelach ends with the third paragraph of the Shema. That paragraph discusses the Mitzvo of Tzitzit and continues with another fundamental Mitzvo – not to follow our hearts and eyes. The Sifri elaborates on the meaning of these words. It explains that following one’s heart refers to meenus (herecy), whereas following one’s eyes refers to immorality. The simple understanding of the Sifri with regards to following one’s heart, is that this is the source for the prohibition against espousing beliefs that are antithetical to Torah. My Rebbe, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits Shlita, points out that there is a great difficulty with this understanding. Without the Mitzvo of ‘loh sassuroo’, there are a number of Mitzvos in the Torah that prohibit heretical beliefs: In the first of the Ten Commandments, The Torah commands us to believe that HaShem is the only G-d, who is all-powerful, created and sustains the whole universe, and has no beginning or end. The next Mitzvo exhorts us not to follow any other gods, which means that we cannot attribute any independent power to any force in the world. In the Mitzvo of ‘Shema’, the Torah further commands us to believe in the oneness of HaShem. The attitudes that the Torah forbids in these Mitzvos are the main beliefs that represent herecy. Accordingly, it would seem that the Torah has already sufficiently instructed us to avoid heretical beliefs. What is the Mitzvo of loh sassuroo coming to add? Rav Berkovits answers that the other Mitzvos are instructing us to have basic philosophical ideas on an intellectual level; for example, a person must believe intellectually that there is one G-d who created the world. However, an intellectual realization is not always sufficient to ensure that a person will adhere to the fundamental tenets of Jewish thought. A person may intellectually recognize these truths, however, his emotions or his physical desires (taivas) may cause him to act in conflict with his beliefs. In this vein, Chazal tell us that a person only sins when a ruach shtus (spirit of irrationality) enters into him. This means that his actions contradict what he rationally knows to be true. The Mitzvo of ‘loh sasuroo’ commands us to avoid this pitfall. By telling us not to go after our hearts, the Torah is instructing us not to allow our emotions to cause us to act against what we intellectually know to be true. This is not to say that the Torah views emotions in a negative light. This is certainly not the case and there is great room for expression of emotions in Torah. However, when emotions are not channeled through intellect, the consequences can be disastrous. The Torah is the vessel through which we are supposed to mold our intellect and filter our emotions through a prism of the Torah outlook. The incident of the spies provides us with examples of the correct and incorrect approaches with regard to following one’s heart. Here too, the root word, ‘lasur’, (to spy) is utilized by the Torah. HaShem instructed Moshe to send people to spy out the land. Moshe instructed the spies about which features to look for in the land. Included amongst his instructions he told them to observe the produce of the land, in order to see whether it was fruitful or not. He further instructed them to take note if there was a righteous man in the land, whose merit could protect the people there. With these directives, Moshe was alluding to the spies that they should observe the land with a certain disposition, one that was based on Torah hashkafa. He was telling them to view everything that they saw with spiritual eyes, so that large fruit would be viewed in a positive light, and that the significance of tzaddikim there was an important factor. Sadly, the majority of the spies did not heed Moshe’s instructions. They did indeed see large fruit, however they chose to interpret it in a negative fashion, and conveyed the message that this demonstrated that the land was strange in that it produced oversized fruits. They were guilty of a further misinterpretation when they saw a large number of funerals taking place in the land. They used this to show that the land destroyed its inhabitants, when, in truth HaShem caused large numbers of deaths so that the people would be busy with funerals and not notice the spies. What was the cause of their skewed attitude? They fell prey to the pitfall of following their emotions. They lacked trust in HaShem, and therefore felt fear at the prospect of having to enter Eretz Yisroel. Because of this flawed attitude they viewed everything they saw through a distorted vision. The only spies who overcame this test were Kalev and Yehoshua. They viewed everything they saw in a positive fashion because they were strong in their trust in HaShem – this prevented them from allowing any fear they may have had, to overcome what they knew to be true. We have seen how the Torah connects the lesson of the spies to the Mitzvo of ‘loh sasuroo’. The ten spies who sinned provide us with the example of how going after one’s heart leads to sin and ultimately herecy. The Torah imparts a further lesson as to how to avoid the pitfall of interpreting what we see in a detrimental fashion. In the very same verse in which the Torah tells us, ‘loh sasuroo’, it discusses the Mitzvo of tzitzis. “And they will be for you tzitzis, and you shall see it and you shall remember all the commandments of HaShem and perform them; and you shall not spy after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray.” The verse tells us that tzitzis will somehow remind us of the Mitzvos and this in turn will enable us to avoid following our heart and eyes. What is the connection between tzitzis and ‘loh sasuroo’? Rashi points out that Tzitzis remind us of the 613 Mitzvos because the gematria of ‘tzitzis’ is 600; in addition, there are eight strings and five knots – the total of these three figures is 613. In this way, by looking at tzitzis a person is supposed to go through this sequence of thought that will bring him to connect the tzitzis with the 613 Mitzvos. The obvious problem with this is that most people will see tzitzis and fail to make the connection that the Torah seems to expect they should make. It would have seemed to be more effective to command that tzitzis say a big ‘613’ on them, so that everyone will automatically be reminded of the 613 Mitzvos when they see it! The answer is that the Torah is teaching us that one must strive to be the kind of person who sees the world in such a way that a mundane item of clothing such as tzitzis will lead him to a sequence of thought that will remind him of the 613 Mitzvos. When a person brings himself to this level, then, as a consequence he will be able to observe the Mitzvo of ‘loh sasuroo’ because he will not see the world in a skewed manner based on his emotions, rather he will see it with spiritual eyes. We have seen that a constant theme of the Parsha is that the way a person thinks, will play a decisive role in how he interprets what he sees. It is no easy task to become the kind of person who sees everything with spiritual eyes, however the first stage is to strive to make one’s intellect and emotions in line with the Torah’s directives. The more saturated a person is with the Torah’s teachings, the more he will be able to emulate Kalev and Yehoshua. May we all merit to guide our emotions to bring us closer to Torah.

BEHAALOSECHA - HUMILITY - THE KEY TO GREATNESS

BEHAALOSECHA - HUMILITY - THE KEY TO GREATNESS In the end of the Parsha, Hashem describes Moshe Rabbeinu as the most humble man upon the face of the Earth. According to the Torah’s definition of greatness, Moshe represents the ultimate level a person can reach; he attained the greatest closeness to Hashem humanly possible, learnt the most Torah and was the teacher of all of Klal Yisroel. It is clear that his outstanding humility is directly connected to his greatness. This begs the question; there are numerous good midos such as kindness and honesty so why is it the mida of humility in particular that is the one that enabled him to become so great? In order to answer this it is instructive to analyse the mida which is the opposite of humility - arrogance. The Gemara in Sota describes Hashem’s hatred for the arrogant person - Hashem says that there is no room for Himself and the arrogant person (baal geiva) to ‘reside together. What does this mean? The baal geiva believes that he does not need Hashem to succeed in life. He feels that his own talents are sufficient and therefore he does not need Hashem’s ‘help’. Accordingly, Hashem responds mida ceneged mida and complies with this attitude - He provides the baal geiva with no siata dishmaya in his endeavors. That is the meaning of the idea that Hashem won’t reside with him. Therefore, he is greatly limited to what he can achieve by his own talents - because he is a mere human being he is limited. He may be intelligent, but his intelligence will only take him to a certain point. After that he is helpless. The anav has the opposite attitude. He realises that he has talents but that they are G-d given. Accordingly, he acknowledges that anything he strives to do can only be accomplished with Heavenly help (siata dishmaya). This realisation is not limiting, in fact it is incredibly empowering. For once a person recognizes that Hashem provides him with whatever ability is necessary, it becomes obvious that his potential is unlimited because the source for his success is Himself unlimited! If a person is willing to exert the necessary hishtadlus in doing Ratson Hashem then he can achieve success that even transcends the regular laws of nature (derech hateva). This explains why Moshe Rabbeinu’s mida of humility enabled him to reach such incredible heights. He realised that anything he tried to do was only through the power given to him by Hashem. This recognition removed any limitations on what he could do, and as we see many times in the Torah he attained supernatural achievements. In Parshas Vayakhel The Ramban describes an example of how humility - the recognition that Hashem is the source of all our strengths - can enable ordinary people to achieve great things. The Torah, in discussing the building of the Mishkan, tells us that “every man whose heart inspired him came.” The Ramban explains that this refers to the people who came to do the skilled work such as sewing, weaving and building. But there is a difficulty with this explanation - the Jews in Mitzrayim had no opportunity to learn skilled activities such as these so how did these people suddenly possess the ability to do them?! He answers that “their hearts were raised in the ways of Hashem” to the degree that they found in their nature the ability to do things that they had never learnt how to do. They realised that Hashem is the source of all our ability and consequently they were able to achieve the impossible. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zt”l develops this theme even further. He quotes the passuk in Mishlei, “Go to the ant, you lazy one, see its ways and become wise.” The Medrash explains what we are supposed to learn from the ant: “This ant only lives six months and all it needs to eat [it’s whole life] is one and a half kernels of wheat, and it goes and gathers all the wheat and barley that it can find… and why does it do this? Because it says to itself, ‘perhaps Hashem will decree for me life and this food will be ready for me to eat’. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said that he once saw an ant’s hole in which there was 300 Cor of grain, therefore Shlomo Hamelech said ‘go to the ant, lazy one’, you too should prepare for yourself mitzvos from Olam Hazeh for Olam Haba.” Rav Shmuelevitz notes that the ant gathers 300 Cor based on the distant possibility that he may live long enough to eat it - this, he writes, “would be a miracle without comparison, because in six months he eats one and a half kernels, if so to eat 300 Cor he would need to live hundreds of thousands of years! Such a miracle has never occurred in the history of the world… nevertheless the ant works hard to do this. In the same way, man is obligated to work and prepare himself in Olam Hazeh for Olam Haba, and if he does not do so - does not work according to the remotest possibility of a miracle, then he is considered lazy!” He then explains that this is the explanation of the Tana d’bey Eliyahu that everyone is obligated to ask himself when he will reach the level of the Avos. “All one’s behavior and actions must be directed at reaching the level of the actions of the Holy Avos. Even though the distance is extremely far, much farther than the 300 Cor for the ant, and b’derech hateva it is impossible to reach it, nevertheless man is obligated to strive to do whatever he can to attain it.” He continues that such ambitious goals can indeed be attained but only through siata dishmaya. Indeed he points out that our ability to ever conquer the yetser hara is only possible due to Hashem’s help, as stated in the Gemara that “if not for Hashem’s help we cannot defeat the yetser hara.” Thus we have seen that humility, the recognition that we can only achieve anything in life with Hashem’s help, is the key to greatness. Once we tap into this unlimited source then we can reach incredible heights. Of course, the level which Moshe Rabbeinu achieved seems very distant, however we could all find instances in our lives where it was clear that the siata dishmaya was the cause of our success. If we can access the feeling that we experience on those occasions then we can quite easily recognize that Hashem is the source of all our abilities. Thus we have seen how humility should be the catalyst to inspire us to strive to achieve great things. However, it is important to be aware that there is a negative side to humility. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l addresses a common tendency of people to underestimate themselves by claiming that they are greatly limited in their talents and that they can never achieve greatness. He writes that this kind of humility is the atsas yetser hara. Indeed, according to what we have seen thus far, this attitude is exactly the opposite of genuine humility; Genuine humility empowers a person, whilst this false humility only serves to inhibit him. It seems that this attitude actually derives from a different negative trait - laziness, which is really a manifestation of the desire for comfort. It is not easy to achieve greatness; it requires great effort and the willingness to face setbacks and even failure. This is difficult, therefore it is very tempting for a person to ‘write himself off’ and thereby exempt himself from even trying - this is certainly the more 'comfortable' option. However, we must be very weary that Hashem has far higher expectations of us and that we will be judged according to that measure. Moreover, if we do overcome this initial reluctance to try then we can experience the great feeling of actually making an effort to do something that can help many people - this is a far deeper pleasure than that of comfort. How much can a person achieve when he plugs into Hashem’s unlimited power? When one visits the home of a Rabbi in Aish Hatorah it is very likely that he will see a photo of Rav Shach zt”l with a statement underneath it: About 30 years ago, he visited Aish HaTorah and spoke there. He was struck by the remarkable number of baalei teshuva that were standing in front of him. He suddenly decided to speak in the Beis Medrash - he discussed the concept that however powerful the forces for evil can be, the forces for Good must be greater. Based on this he made a remarkable statement: “if one man can kill six million Jews, then it must be that one man can save six million Jews.” This is the statement that accompanies the picture of Rav Shach - this is a lesson that we should never forget. Hashem is infinitely more powerful than the most powerful reshaim. If we only tap into His power then we can genuinely strive to reach Rav Shach’s vision.