Simhat Torah 5769 – Gilayon #572


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Simhat Tora

AND THIS IS THE TORAH WHICH

MOSES SET BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.

(Devarim

4:44)

 

R. Yehoshua ben Levi said: What

is the meaning of the verse, And this is the Torah which Moses set [Hebrew:

"sam"] before the children of Israel?

If one is worthy – it will be

an elixir [Hebrew: sam] of life for him, if one is unworthy – it will be

an elixir of death for him.

This is as Rava said: If one engages

himself in it and loves it – it is an elixir of life; if one does not engage in

it and love it – it is an elixir of death.

R. Shmuel bar Nahmani said: R.

Yonatan pointed out a contradiction. It is written The orders of the Lord

are upright, causing the heart to rejoice (Psalms 19) but it is also written: the word of the Lord is refined (Psalms 18). If one is worthy – it causes him to

rejoice; if one is unworthy – it refines him.

Resh Lakish said: This can be

learned from the [original] verse itself: If he is worthy – it refines him for

life; if he is unworthy – it refines him for death.

(Yoma

72b)

 

They explained in Yoma: If one

is worthy – it will be an elixir of life for him, if one is unworthy – it will

be an elixir of death for him. This is as Rava said: If one engages himself in

it and loves it… it is impossible to interpret "is unworthy" as

referring to study for the sake of mocking, because it would be inappropriate

to use the expression "unworthy" to refer to study for the sake of

mocking, since only a completely evil person mocks at the King's Crown. Rather,

[the one who is unworthy] did not study [Torah] for its own sake. This

interpretation is required by another part of the same Talmudic discussion, which

states that, "If one is worthy, it becomes a crown for him; but if one is

unworthy, it becomes strange to him" and Rashi explains [that

"becomes strange" means] "He forgets it." This certainly

applies to someone who studies [Torah] not for its own sake, and that is the

meaning in the original statement as well. If so, we face an even greater

problem: If someone learns [Torah] not for its own sake, it is not – God forbid

– an elixir of death for him! On the contrary: "A person should always

engage in Torah study [even if] not for its own sake." Also, the

expression oman la [translated above as "engages in it and loves

it"] is not so intelligible in connection with study… it is not talking

about the study of that which has already been received, but rather, which

Moses set – the derivation of new laws, which was Moses' special role. That

is why it says sam ["placed"], for this exalted path is like

an elixir [sam]; if one derives new laws in a manner which is not for

the sake of Torah, but rather twists the law as he pleases, it is "not for

its own sake" and it becomes a death potion for him, since he has twisted

judgment in accordance with his own mind and will, and then "he does not

engage in it and love it," for he toils and invents but does not aim at the

truth and he sins in his activity. That is why it is called "a potion of

death."

(Ha’emek

Davar Devarim 4:44)

 

And concerning joy [I said], "What does this accomplish?"

Pinchas Leiser

In

one of his books, Adam Baruch z"l wrote that as a young man studying at

the Hevron Yeshiva he once danced enthusiastically at the hakafot for

Simhat Torah. The rosh yeshiva came over and tapped him on the shoulder and

said: "Young man, for what you have studied – you have danced

enough."

I

think that this encounter with Simhat Torah, (which in the Land of Israel has

overshadowed Shemini Atzeret and is rooted in the Babylonian custom of reading

the Torah in a one year cycle and which has developed into a folk holiday of

dancing and the loosening of various restraints) with the content of the

parasha read on that day expresses the same paradoxical dialectic.

In

the Diaspora a distinction is maintained between the original holiday of

Shemini Atzeret, which is firmly founded in Scripture and rabbinic literature

and Simhat Torah, which is celebrated on the "second festival day of the Diaspora."

However, no sign of Shemini Atzeret survives in the Land of Israel except for

the maftir reading and the amidah prayer. The entire People

Israel celebrates Simhat Torah.

On

this day, even when it does not fall on Shabbat, we read parashat VeZot

HaBrakha, which is, of course, the concluding parasha of the Torah.

As

we all know, the Torah devotes a few verses (Devarim 34:5-12) to describing Moses' death:

5.

And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, by the

mouth of the Lord.

6. And He buried him in the valley, in the

land of Moab, opposite Beth Pe'or. And no person knows the place of his

burial, unto this day.

7. Moses was one hundred and twenty years

old when he died. His eye had not dimmed, nor had he lost his [natural]

freshness.

8. And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in

the plains of Moab for thirty days, and the days of weeping over the mourning

for Moses came to an end.

9. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the

spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the children

of Israel obeyed him, and they did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

10. And there was no other prophet who

arose in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,

11. as manifested by all the signs and

wonders, which the Lord had sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, to

Pharaoh and all his servants, and to all his land,

12. and all the strong hand, and all the

great awe, which Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel.

Moses, servant of the Lord and the prophet who

achieved the greatest intimacy with God, died by the mouth of the Lord; there was no medical explanation for his

death, rather, he died because that is the common fate of human beings as

decreed by God. Midrashim describe Moses' dialogue with God, expressing his

desire not to die and not just his desire to enter the Land of Israel. Thus,

when Moses joins the rest of humanity, dying by the mouth of the Lord, the man of God

is transformed into a human figure rather than an angel or a part of the Divinity.

Furthermore: Our Rabbi Moses, greatest of prophets, has no gravesite! His

burial place is unknown. One can only imagine what kind of rites would have been

practiced by his grave, and indeed, various commentators (Hizkuni and R.

Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio) discuss the matter. R. Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio (Northern

Italy 19th century) writes:

And no person knows the place of his burial – Behold this is a wonderful matter; the

Torah tried to specify the place of burial as thoroughly as possible – in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite

Beth Pe'or – but despite

all that God arranged things so that no person knows the place of his burial. He did so that future generations would

not err and worship him [Moses] as a god in reaction to the fame of the wonders

he worked.

The Jerusalem Talmud (Shekalim chapter 2, 47a, halakhah 5) also expresses concern that the graves of the righteous should not

become places of worship:

We learned: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: "A nefesh

[memorial structure built over a grave] should not be made for the righteous;

their words are their memorial."

And the RaMBaM (Hilkhot Avel

4:4)

states:

The entire cemetery should be marked and a nefesh

should be built over each grave, but a nefesh should not be set up over

the graves of the righteous for their words are their commemoration and one

should not be given to visiting graves.

Regarding the Torah's concluding words, which

Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel, Rashi writes:

before the eyes of all

Israel [This expression alludes to the incident, where] His heart stirred him

up to smash the tablets before their eyes, as it is said, and I shattered

them before your eyes (Devarim 9:17). – (Sifrei 33:41) And [regarding

Moses shattering the Tablets,] the Holy One Blessed is He gave His approval, as

Scripture states, "[the first Tablets] which you shattered" (Shemot

34:1);

[God said to Moses:] "Well done for shattering them!" – (Shabbat

87a).

(Judaica Press translation)

It would appear that the death of the ultimate

leader is a sad event, and so concerning

joy, What does this accomplish? Why conclude the Torah reading of the festival known as Simhat Torah –

the rejoicing of the Torah – with this depressing episode?!

I think that investigation of this short passage teaches us something

about the paradoxical joy that is appropriate on this day. Verse 8 states: And

the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, and

the days of weeping over the mourning for Moses came to an end. That is

to say, Moses' death was mourned in the same normative and limited fashion as

is the death of anyone else: for thirty days.

This limitation, together with other elements discussed above,

highlights the fact that despite his fame as the greatest of prophets, Moses

was only human. Perhaps this can teach us that each of us can, as a human

being, rise spiritually in his own way, even if we cannot achieve Moses'

station. This is not a matter reserved for "angels."

Let us conclude with a clear statement from R. Meir Simha MiDvinsk's Meshekh

Hokhma:

All of the types of holiness, [that of] the

Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple, they are but details and branches of

the Torah, and they are sanctified through the Torah's holiness… Do not

imagine, God forbid, that the Temple and the Tabernacle are intrinsically holy

objects! God dwells among His sons in order for them to worship Him, and if they,

to a man, have transgressed the Covenant (Hosea 6:7), all holiness is

removed from them [the Temple, etc.], and they become like profane vessels

"intruders came and desecrated it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies

with a prostitute and was not harmed (Gittin 56b) because its

holiness had been removed. More than that – the Tablets – the writing of God –

are not holy in themselves, but only for your sake when you observe that which

is written in them… no created thing is holy in itself, but only in that

Israel observes the Torah.

…None of the holy places are founded in

religion… [As for] Mount Sinai, the place of religion, as soon as the Divine

Presence left it – the sheep and cattle climbed up it (Shemot

19:13)!

(Meshekh Hokhmah Shemot 32:19;12: 21)

Yeshayahu Leibowitz broadened this principle

to encompass every phenomenon in our lives that we tend to call

"holy":

Our Rabbi Moses exemplified this when he broke

the tablets as soon as he saw the people transgress the commandment make no

idol or image for yourself. We must understand that the expression idol or

any image applies not only to the golden calf made by Israel, but to every

natural existent: Nation, land, homeland, flag, army, idea, a personality, and

so forth, whenever they are treated as being holy. (Y.

Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 401)

Perhaps

it is precisely the knowledge that what is left for us is "the Torah of

Moses" – which is the "Torah of Life" that can be interpreted in

every new generation, and that we are commanded to choose life and not worship

of the dead, of graves, or of other objects – that can be a source of true joy

and significance.

Pinchas

Leiser, editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist.

 

He dwells securely…

between his shoulders he dwells.

Traditional commentary, part plain

interpretation, part legendary drash, applies these words to the Temple

service on the Temple Mount which lies in the inheritance of the tribe of

Binyamin; and if the Temple is the residence of God's glory, then He dwells

between its shoulders. But this raises a question: He surrounds him all day. All day? What day?

The reference is not to a 24 hour period, a revolution of the earth around its

axis; a day of The Holy One, Blessed Be He, is eternity. This means that the

dwelling place of God is eternal. But we see that it was not eternal; the Temple

was destroyed and the site profaned, and upon it stands an alien sanctuary.

There is an eye-opening midrash (found in the book Pitron HaTorah which

won acclaim a few years ago when published by one of our generation's scholars,

R. Efrayim Urbach). This midrash, from the Gaonic period, contains much

material from other, more familiar, midrashim, and also from midrashim which

may be original or may have been taken from sources unknown. In this midrash we

read something new about, He surrounds him all day and between his shoulders

he dwells. Moses' prophetic blessing was actually realized, for the

sanctuary which stands there today, the sanctuary of an alien nation, is not a

site of idolatry. This sanctuary is a temple of a people which recognizes the

Oneness of God and means to serve God, even if it did not receive the Torah and

does not serve God by observance of the commandments. We find, then,

that this is still a temple for those who worship God in truth. These

words were said during the Gaonic period, an era of Arabic rule over the Land

of Israel, and they certainly preceded the crusades, during which rule over the

Temple Mount passed into the hands of those who do not share our understanding

of faith in the Oneness.

(From Prof. Yeshayahu

Leibowitz, z"l He'Araot al Parshiot HaShavua, pp. 140-141)

 

…as manifested by

all the signs and wonders, which the Lord had sent him to perform in the land

of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants, and to all his land,

12. and all the

strong hand, and all the great awe, which Moses performed before the eyes of

all Israel.

(Devarim 34:11-12)

 

Tablets were made by

God – is it possible that they be used by idol worshippers?! Therefore he

broke them. Witness, then, the greatness of Moses: Aaron and the seventy elders

were holding Moses' arms and could not overcome him. Not they alone – even The

Holy One, Blessed Be He, did not want him to break them, as is written, by

all the signs and wonders – the Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to Moses:

Peace be upon that hand, as is written: and all the strong hand.

(Shemot Rabba, Parasha 46)

 

At the

Completion of Our Eleventh Year of Publication…

On Shabbat parashat Bereishit of 5758 we started on our way

"in love and fear," knowing that many parashat ha'shavua

sheets were already being distributed in the synagogues every week. Some of

them included articles by famous rabbis, figures of influence in the religious

community. Most of them emphasized the importance of the commandment to settle

the Land of Israel, sometimes by staking clear stands on controversial

political issues, which were presented as the Torah view [da'at Torah].

Sometimes the impression was created that settlement of the Land was presented

as being "equal to all the rest of the commandments," as a factor

that overrides any other Torah-value.

At the outset of our journey we felt – and we believe even

more strongly today – that it is important to let the community hear an

alternative voice, a more complex voice, a voice which we hold to be the

authentic voice of religious Zionism, one which views our Torah as a "Torah

of life."

At first, we were unsure how a sheet expressing a different

message would be received by the religious-Zionist community.

Great demand for the sheets, both in Israel and in the

Diaspora, and the responses we receive from our readers – including from those

who disagree with some of the ideas we propagate – strengthened our impression

that today, especially in times when deep disagreements divide the nation,

there is room for discussion and debate to take place in a mutually respectful

manner, and in cognizance of the notion that "the Torah has seventy

aspects." There is room for a "disagreement for the sake of

Heaven" regarding fundamental issues as long as all agree that discussion

requires attentiveness to the various standpoints and compliance with democratically

decided matters of policy.

At this time, when Israeli society is grappling with

difficult questions that sometimes require difficult solutions, it is important

for us to continue emphasizing those Torah values that seem to us to be no less

important than the commandment to settle the Land of Israel. It is important to

remind all of us that human beings were created in the Divine image, that we

are required to protect the rights of the stranger, that the Torah is a Torah

of life and that therefore we must do everything possible to avoid bloodshed

and to create a just society, a society committed to fulfilling the needs of

its weaker members. These are among the foundation stones of a Jewish Torah

society, and the pursuit of peace is also an important religious value.

We have managed to fulfill this mission, and, God willing, we

shall continue to fulfill it with your help.

With the completion of this cycle of publication and the

beginning of a new year, I would like to thank Miriam Fine, who is responsible

for distribution and fund-raising both inside and outside of Israel, Daniel

Lazare, who faithfully and devotedly

attends to the graphic editing and online publication, our English translator,

who prefers to remain anonymous, our regular illustrators, Dov Abramson and

Harry Lanbeheim for their pictorial midrashim which grace our pages, our

printer, Graphos Print in Jerusalem, and all of our authors, contributors, and

readers who make Shabbat Shalom possible.

Hazak hazak

ve'nit'hazeik

Pinchas Leiser – Editor

 

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