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The Kli Yakar - Parshat V'Etchanan

30/7/2015

This week's parsha focuses on:

The importance of love and gratitude
How to remember your learning, using angels and gematria
What to do when the need for instant gratification disturbs your spiritual progress
Serving Hashem out of love vs. out of fear
A beautiful insight into the Shema
Hashem loves YOU, but not necessarily what you're doing

How to Pray in the Face of Hashem's Great Kindness to Us

“I entreated Hashem...My Lord, Hashem, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand....” (3:23-24)

Rashi interprets etchanan (entreated) as pleading for a free gift (matanat chinam).

Regarding “...You have begun to show....” Rashi defines this as: “An opening for standing and offering prayer even though the decree has been fixed.”

The Kli Yakar concurs with both, then quotes the Gemara: “A man should always offer praise to God before he prays.”

Expounding on that idea, he states that every tzaddik should request a free gift and consider himself as one for whom everything Hashem does as Divine Kindness all day long, explaining that Hashem is the initiator of good in the relationship between a person and Hashem, with the emphasis that Hashem has no obligation to grant people goodness and kindness, but He does so anyway out of “His Great Goodness.”

For a Lack of Instant Gratification, People Need to Coaxed into Spirituality

“Please let me cross over and see the good Land....” (3:25)

Here, the Kli Yakar notes a fundamental truth about all-too-human nature:

A person needs coaxing upon receiving anything spiritual because spiritual gratification is not experienced immediately.

This is how it goes:

Hashem presents some form of beautiful spirituality to people, and then He needs to coax them to accept it.

The Kli Yakar explains how Hashem initially even needed to coax Adam Harishon to enter Gan Eden! (“Now Hashem took the man, and He placed him in Gan Eden....” Beresheit 2:15)

And he states that Avraham Avinu needed to be coaxed, too.

(Of course, these were very great men and the execution is very different for them than it is for us. In other words, each according to his or her own level.)

For a man according to his nature doesn’t ask for this [spirituality/ruchniut] so much.

Therefore, Hashem needs to ask it of him.

And although by perfected people like Moshe and Avraham, it’s not necessary to speak [coaxingly], nonetheless, He spoke as if relating to a regular person.

How to Remember What You Learned

“But watch yourself and guard your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw....” (4:9)

The Kli Yakar speaks of the existence of an angel in charge of remembering and an angel in charge of forgetting.

But first he points out some important gematria:

shachach (forgot) = 328
zachar (remembered) = 227

The difference between them is 101.

And he who wants to abolish forgetfulness from himself should review his learning 101 times...and he won’t forget anymore.

Why is that?

The angel in charge of memory is named “Zachar” and he possesses 227 (written as רכז, which also means “concentration” or “focus”) powers (kochot) and the angel in charge of forgetfulness is called “Shachach” (שכח) and he possesses 328 powers.

Notice that he possesses 101 powers more than the angel of memory and that’s why forgetfulness overcomes a person.

And therefore, one needs to review his learning 101 times because each time he reviews, he reduces and weakens the powers [of the angel of forgetfulness].

Be Like the Sun

“But the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron crucible, out of Egypt, to be a people of His possession, as of this day.” (4:20)

Why is day mentioned?

The sun doesn’t serve to receive a prize.

And it seems to me that regarding this, it is said, “And the ones who love Him are like the rising sun” – they serve out of love.

Double Transgression vs. Double Consolation

“...that perish you shall perish quickly from upon the Land...” (4:26)

The word “perish” is doubled – meaning that it’s mentioned twice in the same phrase. Why?

The Jews sinned doubly within in one act:

They worshiped idols and abandoned Hashem.

So Hashem abandoned the Jews and filled the non-Jewish cities.

But the Kli Yakar never leaves us feeling bad for long.

And the consolation will be double: the abandonment of the non-Jewish nations and the success of the Jewish nation.

The Difference Between Serving Hashem Out of Fear & Serving Him Out of Love

“You approach....” (5:24)

The Kli Yakar explains the great difference between one who serves Hashem out of love and one who serves Hashem out of fear:

Every person who loves cleaves to his beloved and one who fears distances himself from his beloved.

Although serving Hashem out of fear is still a high level of avodah, it is impossible to achieve true closeness with Hashem until you start serving Hashem out of love.

A Beautiful Insight into the Shema Prayer

“Hear O Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem is One.” (5:4)

As we know, different names of Hashem express different qualities of Hashem.

The four-letter name used at the end of the Shema expresses the qualities of mercy and compassion.

In the future, the name Hashem will be One because no other Name will be used except the Name of Compassion.

Hashem Loves YOU, But Not Your Klippah

“Not because you are of greater number than all the other nations did Hashem desire you and choose you, for you are the least of all the nations. But out of Hashem’s Love for you....” (7:7-8)

The Kli Yakar states:

Out of Hashem’s great Love for you, you yourselves are desirable from the point of your origin and His keeping His Oath in that the merit of the Avot is still in effect.

And this is implied in the word etchem – “you,” meaning that you alone are wanted, but your deeds are not wanted.

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my translation and any errors are also mine.

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How I Only Discovered Emuna 20 Years After I Thought I Was Already Religious

28/7/2015

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I was brought up in a traditional-secular home. Though proud of my Jewish identity, I wasn’t interested in keeping the parts that either seemed inconvenient or meaningless.

At one point, I even believed that it didn’t matter if I married a Jew because my kids would be Jews and I’d raise them with the Jewish stuff I found personally meaningful, so who cared who the father was?

I came to Eretz Yisrael for the first time with a traditional-secular summer program and absolutely fell in love with the Land.

Though I never considered myself spiritual, I felt a beautiful tranquility at the Kotel and kept coming back for more. The program also made us keep some semblance of Shabbat. That, combined with the Israeli Shabbat atmosphere, sparked within me the need to seek out a shomer Shabbat lifestyle, which led me to the frum community.

Following the Torahdik Road

I went along the baal teshuvah path, mostly loving it and wanting more of it. The only thing I was not able to resolve was the issue of emuna and bitachon. I was able to mouth the words in order to fit in and hoping to “fake it ‘til I make it,” but though I’d always believed very deeply in God and felt Him guiding me, I still possessed some inner resistance to the idea of total emuna.

It wasn’t anybody’s fault as many people possess emuna on only the most superficial level without even realizing it, making it impossible to pass it on to others.
So when it came to emuna, I was basically presented with two role models.

Role model #1: The simple Jews who believed that Hashem runs everything and who are quite generous, giving freely to tzedakah and yeshivot and the like.

They truly believe that tzedakah and acts of chessed, like visiting the sick, bring them bracha.
And they certainly did talk to Hashem whenever they had a problem, though it seemed to consist exclusively of complaints and embittered requests.

But that was still far above what I and most of the people I knew were doing.

The problem was that many of these simple people (but not all!) seemed pretty unhappy. They also frequently transgressed some very serious and fairly obvious prohibitions. Spreading rumors, slandering, hating others, inciting machloket, behaving with petty immaturity, and the like were standard by many of these people.

To confuse things even more, I kept hearing about how much we should admire the emuna of these same simple people. (I realized later that it was their deceased parents and ancestors who were the truly God-fearing and self-sacrificing simple Jews I’d heard so much about.)

Of course, their religious beliefs and their willingness to speak directly to Hashem were spot-on and far more elevated than those of the oh-so educated traditional-secular Jews with whom I’d grown up, but outside of their basic belief in Hashem and their dedication to certain mitzvot, many of these simple Jews were simply not people to emulate (although one could still admire their good points as described above).

Role Model #2: Then there were the Jews who constantly chirped, “Just have emuna!” or “Just daven!”

If they ever saw you struggling with an issue, they tried to cut you off as soon as they could with one or both of these phrases, often accompanied by a smile and chuckle that implied you were a bit of a nitwit.
They never lent a listening ear nor a shoulder to cry on (so to speak), and rarely offered any meaningful help; they just chirped.

I couldn’t help noticing that they also often had some pretty serious problems in their own lives which they handled by pasting on a beautific smile and relegating even the most pressing problems to the status of spilled milk, playfully mocking anyone who took the issues more seriously.

They said Tehillim and some even spoke to Hashem (a couple of sentences here and there, as far as I could tell), while keeping everything very superficial.

I couldn’t help getting the impression that they more interested in finding a hashkafah that justified their chosen state of denial, and a declaration of emuna simply fit the bill.

A very few gave lip service to searching for Hashem’s message in it all, but gave no sign of actually doing so. They reminded me of little girls who enjoy playing house and stumbling around in a pair of Mommy’s old pumps and shaitel...except the emuna-chirpers sincerely didn’t seem to know they were pretending.

So I thought that emuna meant either that I’d be generous but kind of depressed with bad middot OR that I’d be lazy, superficial, and delusional.

But I didn't want to be either one.

Going through the Motions of Gratitude and Emuna

Furthermore, the other reassuring concepts were actually not so reassuring in my ignorant state. Every time I heard how everything is from Hashem, even the bad stuff, I didn’t find that comforting; I found it frightening. Some pretty nasty stuff happens. If Hashem is actively making that happen, well, then...?

Plus, I would hear a lot about seeing the good in everything and feeling grateful, but every time I felt inspired to get all appreciative (“Changing diapers is geshmack! Think of all the childless women who yearn to perform this tedious and yucky chore!”), I’d always come crashing down shortly after, leaving me with a kind of spiritual PTSD that meant I couldn’t pick myself back up because I so dreaded the inevitable smash and burn.

Furthermore, the benefits of gratitude and appreciation were rarely explained, just that it was something you were supposed to do.

I was getting lengthy and profound explanations about the benefits and truths inherent in Shabbat, kashrut, netilat yadayim, and the Creation of the Universe as written in Beresheit...but when it came to the Jewish fundamentals of emuna and gratitude to Hashem, it seemed like there was no deeper understanding or compelling reason for them – except to quip that internalizing such concepts would make me a happier person.

(And as I described, it did for a very short while...until the smash and burn, making me feel even worse than before.)

Emuna – It’s the Real Thing

So I did what many others seemed to be doing and I pushed it to the back of my mind, living a life of frum dissonance – which was still a million times better than my former life of secular dissonance.

At one point, I read Gate of Trust in Duties of the Heart, and that helped a lot. But I was too stuck to really internalize the concepts.

Finally, after a lot of resistance, I forced myself to read Garden of Emuna.

“Only a paragraph a day,” I promised myself so I wouldn’t feel overwhelmed.

But to my surprise, I couldn’t stick to just a paragraph. The book was answering every single one of my reservations! All the things I never wanted to admit to anyone were addressed – and resolved – in this one little book.

Now I understood why so many of the romanticized simple people seemed so miserable: Connecting with Hashem consists of three parts (praise/gratitude, self-introspection/confession, and requests) and they were only doing the last part.

And I also finally understood why the second group was such a turn-off:

First of all, they gave only lip service to accepting Hashem’s Judgements and chirping, “Baruch Hashem!” It wasn't deep or meaningful - or real (as far as I could tell).
Secondly, while they made requests, there was almost no cheshbon hanefesh. Ultimately, they couldn’t deal with their own pain or questions, so they couldn’t deal with anyone else’s either.

And at long last, I understood why simply having "a positive attitude!" or just randomly forcing myself to be more appreciative wasn’t working: I needed to be plugged in first.

Needless to say, pushing buttons and turning dials on a radio does nothing if it’s not plugged in.

Now that I finally had the whole truth whomped in my face, I realized what I ultimately needed to do.

A Spiritual Awakening - Take 2

Gritting my teeth (so to speak), I forced myself to ram against certain attitudes I’d clung to my whole life (even my frum life) – attitudes that were essentially against the Torah and actually harming me and keeping me from having any chance of breaking out of the klippah I’d always sensed had ensnared me. So I went against my nature and did what the book said. And I had a momentary breakdown that was painful yet liberating – sort of like shattering out of a glass prison:

You break free, but gosh, all those little shards hurt like the dickens while you're doing it.

Getting a Glimpse

Okay, this next part gets a bit weird, but that's how life is sometimes.

In His great Kindness, Hashem then sent me a few dreams which were clearly glimpses of past lives. And even though I didn’t (and still don’t) have the whole picture, I finally understood a smidgen of why I’d had to go through certain painful events and why other things had never (and still haven’t and may never) worked out, no matter how hard I’d tried.

And I got a taste of Hashem’s tremendous Grace in allowing a one-time mitzvah in an otherwise barren former gilgul to be the window into getting yet another chance in this lifetime to get it all right. Or realizing that in His great Generosity, He had previously given me all the things I lacked and craved so badly in this life – but I’d wasted those gifts or used them wrongly in past lives. Those wonderful gifts had ended up becoming stumbling blocks.

Depriving me of them now wasn’t punishment, but merely a removal of stumbling blocks in order to facilitate my way to the victory I’d missed several times before. Hashem gives us a LOT of chances, but eventually, you end up on your last. So this lifetime was now more grueling, but also less likely to end in failure.

And at this point, I divide my life between before I read Garden of Emuna and after I read Garden of Emuna.

Tending the Garden

With newly discovered emuna, it was like becoming frum all over again. The excitement and passion were back (along with the normal BT ups-and-downs and the newly BT state of "I'm Not Always Sure What the Heck I'm Doing, But At Least I Know The Right Direction, So I'll Just Give It My Best Shot!").

And I wanted to share my new-found knowledge with everyone and engage in lots of exploratory discussions, but couldn’t because fellow frummies either mocked me or found me extremely irritating (just like when I become frum in the secular world!). This was quite painful and disheartening, but it taught me some valuable lessons and paved the way toward meeting like-minded people from whom I could learn.

After reading Garden of Education and applying the principles, I saw how even the most unsolvable chinuch problems were either now solved or at least improved, and I got rid of all my other chinuch books. The emuna method both demanded more effort yet was simpler than any other method I’d ever tried.

Although I was told that I was burying my head in the sand, it was obvious that facing head-on the ugliest parts of yourself only because you know that’s best for your child demands more courage and grit then all the running around to different experts, lectures, and schools (which I’d been doing before – with hardly any result, except feeling exhausted and beaten).

Now that I’m going through Garden of Gratitude, I understand more that true gratitude is not a superficial or lazy. Real gratitude is work!

And now I’m grateful for all those role models of false emuna because they were so repellent (especially the well-meaning chirpers) that they kept me from taking the easy way out and forced me to hold out for the real thing. If I hadn’t kept searching, I never would have found it.

Obviously, I am not a baalat bitachon and emuna, and I still fall on my face (even though it’s not the smash-and-burn of yore).

But words can’t express the tremendous relief of finally being pointed in the right direction.

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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Devarim

22/7/2015

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How to chastise so that people will actually take it to heart
Some Jewish astrology regarding the signs of Cancer and Leo
Powerful advice for every generation

How to Chastise the Authentic Jewish Way

What we usually do with explicit reproof

These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Yisrael (Devarim 1:1)

This taught them the proper way of chastisement because every chastiser wants his words heard and obeyed.

To prevent the people from kicking at his reproof, he should correct them with hints and subtlety, and not explicitly.

Beware the Astrological Influences of Tammuz and Av

Between Paran and between Tofal (1:1)

The Kli Yakar explains why Jews tend to sin in the month of Tammuz (like with the Sin of the Golden Calf), and give Hashem the back of their neck, so to speak, rather than their face:

….the month whose sign is Sartan [the Crab] in that his nature is to go backwards and so they [the Jews] went backwards....

Later, he explains why the Destructions of the Beit Hamikdash occurred in Av:

That was in the month of Av whose sign is Aryeh (the Lion) because each person became like a lion who longs to attack his fellow.

And then they [the Jews] lost all natural rescue because if there’s no love between them, then there is no one to support and help his fellow....

However, in Parshat Bo, the Kli Yakar emphasizes the remedy to fight oppressive mazal:

Fear Hashem
Think about His Name
Keep the mitzvot

And that's all you need to do to keep on track and re-direct the constellations away from harming you and yours.

(For personal experience with and more insights into handling this, please see this post.)

Very Pertinent Advice for Today

You have circled this mountain for too long; turn yourselves northward (2:2)

The Kli Yakar says this verse contains a secret for every generation.

The word tzafona can mean “northward,” but it can also mean “toward concealment.”

He quotes the Midrash Rabbah on Devarim: “If Esav’s hour arrives, conceal yourselves.”

...if a Jew in Galut finds that he begins experiencing a small success there, then he should hide and conceal everything from before Esav because there is no nation more envious of Israel than Esav because in their [Esav's] opinion, everything has been stolen from them, from the blessing of Yaakov Avinu, who took the blessings of Esav deceitfully...both Bnei Yishmael and Bnei Esav believe that Yitzchak stole Yishmael’s success and that Yaakov made a conscious effort to steal Esav’s success.

Therefore, Hashem commanded davka about Esav to “turn yourselves toward concealment” so that he won’t be envious of you.

And that is the opposite of what Yisrael does nowadays in the lands of our enemies.

Whoever has his portion displays himself in regal attire and decorative residences and are considered to have several thousands and incite the nations against them and transgress what is said “turn yourselves toward concealment.”

And this practice occurs among many members of our nation and it encapsulates all the plights in which we find ourselves.

[All emphases are mine-MR.]

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.

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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Masei

22/7/2015

7 Comments

Why the Erev Rav CAN'T Change Themselves

(All text in block quotes are the actual words of the Kli Yakar.)

“And Moshe recorded their origins for their journeys according the word of Hashem.” (Masei 33:2)

The Kli Yakar notes in the following verse (33:3) that the Torah says about Bnei Yisrael: “They journeyed from Ramses...on the day following the Pesach, sacrifice, Bnei Yisrael went out.”

But later it says, “Hashem took you out from Egypt at night” (Re'eh 16:1).

We know that “Bnei Yisrael” refers to the Jews, while “Am” hints at the Erev Rav. In Shemot 14:5, it says, “And it was told to the King of Egypt that the Am had fled” — “fled” and not, “is fleeing.”

The Erev Rav were already gone.

The Kli Yakar points out that the best way to flee is at night and that fugitives don’t just “go out,” but that they escape immediately—they flee.

(Remember, the plagues had been quite terrifying.)

So if we have a group called “Am” who is fleeing at night, then it must be...the Erev Rav.

The Kli Yakar goes on to contrast their exodus with that of Bnei Yisrael who went out in the day “with an upraised hand,” adding another telling verse: “And Bnei Yisrael went after them.”

The Kli Yakar emphasizes how the way of fugitives is to go out at a run, which is why they preceded Bnei Yisrael.

(Picture people crazed with panic who abandon everyone else in their desperation to save themselves first.)

But Bnei Yisrael left Egypt with fearlessness and dignity.

The Kli Yakar concludes that now Moshe is referring to Bnei Yisrael’s journeys:

Their basic foundation is from the Holy Land, so they always turned their face from the place which they came because the goal of facing toward their journeys was to come to the Land that is promised to their Avot.

But the Erev Rav, whose source derives from Egypt, didn’t go out according to the word of Hashem, but according the opinion of Moshe.

And it’s said about the Erev Rav: “And these are their journeys to their origins”—because they always had a desire and a will to return to Egypt, to their source.

And we see this today.

While we often consider the Erev Rav to be sneaky, cunning, and manipulative (and they’re that, too), we can understand from the Kli Yakar’s words that despite their craftiness, they aren't really thinking.

It’s their innate instinct to go back to Egypt—a place of darkness, atheism, debauchery, and materialism.

It’s like a powerful reflex that they are powerless to resist—which makes them even more dangerous.

Doesn't that explain why it seems impossible to reason with them or to convince them of the beauty and light of Torah?

They don't want light.

Light feels all wrong to them.

They want darkness.

They automatically look back to Egypt because that feels most natural.

And like any creature going purely by blind instinct, they seem unaware or unconcerned about the consequences.

Simply put, the Mitzrayim mentality just feels “right” to them.

And we real Jews must hold on tight to our emuna so as not to get caught in the Erev Rav slipstream.

Update: Since this was first posted, there is a fascinating booklet about the Erev Rav by Rav Itamar Schwartz, which delves deeply into this phenomenon, including dealing with Erev Rav sparks in an otherwise non-Erev Rav soul:
Erev Rav Talks

Also, Rivka Levy has published a book that can help you if you've discovered Erev Rav qualities in yourself or you find yourself with Erev Rav types that you can't avoid completely (like family members, neighbors, your group's leader, your husband's rav, etc.):
Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav

Think this is a welcome sight in a dark cave? Well, the Erev Rav sure don't think so.....

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.

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Update! New Section: Aliyah - Cultural Tips

19/7/2015

There are new sections with new posts for those considering aliyah and for recent olim: Aliyah - with articles of its own and also includes an increasing number of tabs, like a tiny introduction and general cultural insights that include insights and advice on apartment living in Israel, getting along with Israelis, cultural nuances that are helpful to know, and more.

For those interested, there is also a subscription option in the right upper-hand corner. You will receive an email everytime a new post goes up.

The Kli Yakar - Parshat Matot

16/7/2015

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A Small Warning about a Big Issue

Territory of the Tribe of Reuven - today known as Madaba, Jordan

Territory of Shevet Gad - today known as Balqa, Jordan (Photo: Samer425)

(All text in block quotes are the actual words of the Kli Yakar.)

“And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuven came....” (Bamidbar 32:2)

First, the Kli Yakar reminds us that Bnei Reuven should have been mentioned first because Reuven is the tribe of the first-born, with previous commentators opining that Bnei Gad preceded Bnei Reuven because Bnei Gad's greater amount of livestock placed a greater strain on Bnei Gad as far as sustaining all that livestock.

Then the Kli Yakar says:

And I say that...it wasn’t because of their [greater] strain that they jumped to the front, but because of their haughty hearts...

...because that is the nature of wealth; it gives a feeling of superiority to its owners and a wealthy layman jumps to the front and will brazenly answer and he will not do teshuvah before any man.

He doesn’t give honor to the first-born and not to any people of true greatness...

Then the Kli Yakar quotes Midrash Rabbah, which quotes Tehillim 75:7-8:

“For not from East nor from West nor from the wilderness comes 'mountains.' For Hashem is Judge; He lowers this one and raises that one.”

The Kli Yakar notes that every mention of the word “mountains” in the Torah refers to actual mountains – except this one.

This time, it indicates a state of superiority, of feeling above others:

...HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t want a man to feel superior because of his money because Hashem is Judge; He lowers this one and raises that one.

The Kli Yakar then describes the cycle of wealth:

A person becomes wealthy.
Then that person starts feeling superior...
...which compels Hashem to lower him for his own good by transferring his wealth to someone else.
In turn, that new wealthy person starts feeling superior.
This compels Hashem to also lower him...

...and so on.

As the Kli Yakar notes, Bnei Gad didn't make themselves wealthy; Hashem made them wealthy (the implication being that their wealth was transferred from Bnei Reuven, I think).

...he should take mussar and not let his heart grow haughty lest it will happen to him what happened to his friend, from whom he is taking that money.

Then he sums it all up by referring to the desire of Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven to settle east of the Jordan River (which is not in Eretz Yisrael proper, so to speak.):

And it is also a very precious interpretation according to the meaning of the verses that caution against a haughty spirit as it says [Tehillim 75:5-6]:

Don’t feel superior, etc. and ends its words with, He lowers this one and raises that one....

The sons of Gad and Reuven were so permeated with the pursuit of money that they despised the Desirable Land (Eretz Chemda) for the sake of wealth.

And it is enough in this small warning to those who are full of knowledge.

And the discerning one will listen and take a lesson from it.

The whole peirush on this verse is worth a look.

Toward the end, the Kli Yakar goes into a poetic discussion (based on the first half of Tehillim 75:7) of how Bnei Gad and Bnei Reuven's settlement in the East necessitates them to travel to the West (where the rest of the Tribes dwell) for their livelihood.

He likens it to the sun's cycle of rising in the East and setting in the West, just as the successful journey of a traveling businessman means that he sets out (comes from the East) and returns home safely (sets in the West).

He concludes:

...the East (Mizrach) is a good sign (siman tov) for he who goes out from there...

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.

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The Kli Yakar - Parshat Pinchas

13/7/2015

2 Comments

Why do Jewish women possess such soul-love for Eretz Yisrael?
What made the Daughters of Tzelafchad so special?
What can we learn from Bnot Tzelafchad?

(Note: All text in block quotes are the words of the Kli Yakar in direct translation.)

The Women Who Love Eretz Yisrael & Tzedakah

"And of these, there was no man counted by Moshe and Aharon Hakohen..." (Bamidbar 26:34)

The Kli Yakar starts off by repeating the statement within the verse:

"And of these, there was no man."

Yet then the Kli Yakar emphasizes:

But there were women....

The Kli Yakar goes on to explain:

Praying at the Kotel

But there were women because the decree of the Spies was decreed upon the men because the men hated the Land and had said (Bamidbar 14:4):

"We’ll appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

But the women cherished the Land, and thus Tzelafchad’s Daughters said,

"Give us a possession."

The Kli Yakar gives two reasons for this, but we will look at the just first reason he gives:

Just like you have a land that cultivates tzanuim (people who behave with personal dignity), you have a land that cultivates adulterers.

He goes on to explain the reason why the Jews strayed in the land of Sheeteem: Sheeteem cultivates adulterers. Then the Kli Yakar returns to the subject of Eretz Yisrael and states:

The Land does not tolerate immorality as is said in the parsha of immorality (Vayikra 18:25-27)

"Because of all the abominations the people of the Land committed, the Land vomited out her inhabitants."

And we have already written above that the men were licentious and because of that, they hated the Land.

But the women were kosher and tzanuah....and because of that, they cherished the Land that cultivates tzanuim.

And you should know that even Sheeteem, which cultivates adulterers, can still draw healing from the Holy Land as indicated in Yoel 4:18:

"And a spring will come out of the House of Hashem and irrigate the River of Sheeteem"...

...So it states that there wasn’t a man in this number in order to tell you:

"But there were women."

That’s because this number hints at the tsniut of the women, which was greater than that of the men.

Still commenting on this same verse, the Kli Yakar continues:

Then men hated the Land because they were hard-hearted and distant from tzedakah; they didn’t possess the yearning and the will to go from a Place of Exemption [a place where they are exempt from many mitzvot] to a Place of Obligation [a place where they are obligated in more mitzvot].

As noted in Parshat Shelach, "hate" is very strong word and the idea of the men hating the Land is originally from the Yalkut, with which the Kli Yakar apparently concurs.

As written in Parshat Shelach, this idea doesn't seem to reflect many of the Jewish men living in Eretz Yisrael today.

In that post, I offered a theory to explain this dichotomy, but maybe I'm wrong.

Furthermore, we also see today that the vast majority of tzedakah donors are men.

Actually, men have always been the biggest contributors of tzedakah. So I don't know.

But this is what it says.

The Kli Yakar goes on to explain that the men resented giving terumah and maaser, and that they possessed an “ayin tzara” regarding Hashem’s Kohanim.

But the women of that same generation were tzidkaniyot [righteous] and loved tzedakah; and likewise with the mitzvah of challah, which is unique to women and connected to the Land, and likewise with the rest of the terumot and maaserot.

Therefore, they loved the Land, to go to the Place of Obligation because the average woman does not have authority and control over her husband’s possessions.

Therefore, they [the women] had a desire to go to a place where the obligation to give is forced upon their husbands.

And this was said by Chazal in Sotah 11:

"Our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt in the merit of righteous women"...

....In their merit, they [Bnei Yisrael] left the Place of Exemption for the Place of Obligation, which was their [the women's] soul-yearning.

Haifa--The territory of the Tribe of Menashe so cherished by Bnot Tzelafchad

Yosef’s Daughters and Their True Inheritance

The Kli Yakar, quoting Baba Batra 119, explains that Bnot Tzelafchad were tzidkaniyot who loved tzedakah.

Pointing out the Torah's emphasis on calling their tribe Menashe ben Yosef, he says that just as Yosef Hatzaddik loved the Land, so did his daughters.

According to the Kli Yakar, the inheritance of Tzelafchad’s Daughters comprised the two traits they inherited from their great-great-great-great-grandfather, Yosef Hatzaddik:

Tzedakah – Just as Yosef Hatzaddik generously provided for his father’s entire household, Bnot Tzelafchad wanted to acquire a portion of the Land so that they would be obligated in the mitzvot of tzedakah (terumah and maaser).
Just as Yosef Hatzaddik protected himself from licentious behavior, thus did Tzelafchad’s Daughters protect themselves from licentious behavior (by being careful to only marry men suitable to their lofty goals).

Territory belonging to the Tribe of Menashe--what is known today as Ajlun, Jordan. Photo courtesy of Smart Viral.

Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.

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Talking to God in a Lesser King's Palace

13/7/2015

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A Secret Passageway (photo courtesy of Deror Avi)

One Erev Shabbat, I found myself at the ruins of an ancient palace on a high Judean hilltop.

Signs decorated with an artist’s renditions of how the palace might have looked lined the trail that wound past what was left of the courtyard, various living quarters and underground storerooms and dovecotes, and the elaborate irrigation system that provided the grounds with pools and gardens – a system that must have been the pinnacle of technology of its time.

The perfect place for hitbodedut! (Photo by Deror Avi)

I decided it was the perfect place to do hitbodedut and talk to Hashem right there.

Hardly any one was around and even the sounds of the highway were muted from so high up among the little forest.

I skirted the occasional canine dropping and made my way through a spacious dirt courtyard to what was supposedly once a small parlor that now had a bare-branched tree growing out of it.

Doorway Header (courtesy of Deror Avi)

I’ve always loved Ancient Near Eastern architecture.

Whenever I ride past the undulating hills of Eretz Yisrael and see the abandoned stone homes on the rocky green slopes, I’m struck with a longing to take a soaring leap into that ancient dwelling – even though I know I’d be miserable without electricity, indoor plumbing, and more than one room. But still.....

And so, my heart was captivated by the artistic renditions of the ivory stone palace with its decorative doorway headers, tile pools, and lush gardens on the serene hilltop surrounded by all kinds of trees.

The Ancient Courtyard (courtesy of Deror Avi)

Something like the ancient parlor where I sat (by Deror Avi)

Pottery Shards (by Deror Avi)

Not far from a pile of ancient pottery shards, I sat down on what was left of the wall, making sure there were no droppings in sight.
And I began.

You can't take it with you. (Photo by Deror Avi)

I won’t go through the whole thing (which I don't remember anyway), but I do remember being walloped by the blatant futility of worldly vanities and achievements. Of course, we all know that in the end, we can only take our deeds with us to the Next World.

But faced with what was once someone’s crowning accomplishment and the result of artistic genius and backbreaking work (not to mention the upkeep) and to see it now inhabited by canine droppings and sparse trees with walls so broken they could be used as benches and the dusty neglect amid the former glory....well, it drills the intellectual understanding right into your heart.
In other words, huge mussar.

The Ancient Dovecote (Photo by Abigail Klein Leichman, israel21c.org)

Yet all the excavation has revealed nothing about the owner’s identity, not a name or nationality or status. Was he a king?
A prince?
A military hero?
A powerful official?
Or perhaps it was the residence of a favorite wife?
We don’t even know the religion of the owner.

All that glory and human innovation – ravaged by time and neglect.

Despite the glory, pride, and gratification that such a luxurious residence likely brought to its owner, designers, and inhabitants, the estate’s greatest accomplishment actually lies in its ruins: a palpable reminder of This World’s transience and vanity, making it the perfect place set one’s mind straight and really connect to the One Architect of Everything.

All photos except the last are courtesy of Deror_Avi
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Deror_avi/Jerusalem:_Ramat_Rachel

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How Ingratitude Leads to Genocide

9/7/2015

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"If the Torah is so Adamant, Then That Must Mean Something Huge" Series: Thanking & Praising Hashem

I was looking at a Holocaust exhibit of Nazi propaganda ads. Amid all the nauseating caricatures, one heart-wrenching poster caught my eye.

It featured an older chassidic man with two teenage girls nearby. They were standing on a hill, lugging heavy buckets. Their backs bent and bodies starved, the chassid’s face was pinched and dark with raw misery.

How could this possibly be propaganda for the Nazis? The people were so obviously suffering. Looking at the poster, my heart felt broken, not hardened or gleeful.

Then I read the translation: See how the parasites of our country get what they deserve!

Or something like that.

I was shocked.

Did people really look at this photograph of heart-wrenching suffering and feel gratified?

Apparently so.

The Nazi Call to Action: “Poor Me!”

An analysis of the Nazi brainwashing of Europe shows that they used “victim status” to propagate their ideology.

Isn’t it irrational for an inherently "superior master race” to portray its members as inferior, servile, helpless victims?

(Such a thing goes against nature and could only happen if a Higher Power intervened to make it so. Otherwise, the smarter and stronger — even if they're the minority — would naturally overpower the disadvantaged, as we see throughout history.)

Sure it defies logic, but it is also the most effective way to perpetuate a genocide.

Jews were considered useless parasites.

Or conversely, tyrants who controlled the world.

That made all the Aryans into pitiable, innocent victims.

People who bought into Nazi ideology no longer needed to struggle with the uncomfortable truths God sends our way to help us achieve our tikkun in This World — such as a corrupt leader, an abusive parent, unsustainable economic or social policies, a problematic child, or an incurable disease.

They didn’t need to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions or push themselves to find solutions. No need for self-introspection or prayer. They could just blame the Jews.

Put in the simplest terms: Aryans were innately good; Jews were innately bad.

If you do good things for bad people, that hurts good people and helps the bad people.

Following that line of thought, if you do bad things for bad people, that hurts the bad people and helps the good people.

So it becomes bad to help Jews and good to hurt them.

All that meant that anything Aryans did against the Jews could be considered good – or at least, not bad.

Including Auschwitz.

This same thread pops up continuously throughout history. To name just a few:

Communism (“Aack, the rich!” – which soon came to mean anyone with any money or assets of his own)
the French Revolution (“Aack, the bourgeois!”)
the post-Yosef-Hatzaddik Egyptians (“Aack, the Jews!”)

Fighting Darkness with Darkness (or Focusing on the Negative)

All these terrible "isms" (except Judaism) share a common goal:
To achieve benefit by focusing almost exclusively on what you don't like and trying to destroy it.

Okay, Judaism also does that a bit because at some point, cockroaches must be exterminated.

But much of Judaism is a call to positive action:

"Pursue justice!"
"Judge favorably!"
"Rise, walk in the Land...!"
"Hear!"
"And you shall love...!"

Jewish sources even describe how the best way to overcome our negative qualities is by utilizing our positive qualities.

But evil people do exactly the opposite. They focus on the negative and start chanting, "Kill, kill, kill...."

Look through history until and including today, and you'll see that destructive movements focus on what they don't like and how to eradicate it. They're constantly on search-and-destroy missions.

Victimhood Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Perpetual victimhood is obviously an atheistic state.

In such a state, suffering has no purpose and no Source; it’s just harsh and pointless.

The victim, desperate and angry, feels fully justified to avenge his suffering or to do anything to end the suffering. Even if innocent people get hurt along the way, that’s still okay and definitely forgivable according to the victim mentality.

With this mentality, it’s no different than a choking victim, his limbs flailing out of control, who accidentally kicks an innocent bystander.

A victim can’t be held responsible for his actions.

The victim is therefore always basically “good” and always has a legitimate excuse for any harm caused.

Interestingly, Nazism and other victim-based ideologies focus very little on encouraging good. They focus on punishing whatever they consider bad.

However, for the sake of lip service, they may create lackluster systems for health care and education.

For example, the schools heralded in Nazi Germany as bastions of superior education actually provided a very poor education in comparison to similar schools in nearby countries.

Likewise, the Hamas initially distributed food to fellow Muslim Arabs before instituting policies that led to even greater deprivations for those same Muslim Arabs.

Which is why the end of WWII saw Germany’s last resources diverted to slaughtering Jews even as German soldiers died on the front due to lack of supplies. The Nazi army became so decimated that boys as young as thirteen were sent to the front.

But in a state of gratitude toward Hashem, it is impossible to feel like a victim.

Battle Darkness (including the Darkness in Yourself) by Creating Light

Jewish liturgy is replete with praise and thanksgiving to Hashem. Commentary after commentary on the Tanach point out how a bad situation (like an attack of Amalekites) came about due to lack of gratitude or appreciation (like the people — particularly the Erev Rav — crying out in complaint despite the abundant kindness and generosity of Hashem).

Sometimes, we can get kind of rote about our prayers and our attitude. “MercifulSlowtoangerKindRemembersthedeedsofourPatriarchsGreatRevivesthedead...yaaaawn. Just the same-old same-old....”

But if the Torah is so adamant about doing something (or to refrain doing something), then it must be absolutely essential. It must be incredibly powerful. And its opposite must be incredibly evil.

Our very name Yehudim basically means “thanks.” It’s the essence of who we are and what we are supposed to be doing.

When we realize — even if only intellectually — that our suffering has a purpose, that it is “good” in some way because Hashem is Good and everything that comes from Him can only be considered Good (even as it’s also excruciating at times), then we won’t see ourselves as victims; we’ll see ourselves as beloved.

Grateful people naturally focus on creating more light to fight darkness, rather than creating their own kind of darkness to fight the already existent darkness (a process which inherently needs to extinguish more light).

Gratitude and appreciation elevate a person.

The grueling struggle to acknowledge Hashem’s Goodness in profoundly bitter and painful situations can propel a person to astonishing spiritual heights.

And the opposite is also true.

Seeing the world as sourceless and refusing to acknowledge the Good (including Hashem’s hidden benefit in grueling trials) lowers a person to the point where he or she could end up sending harmless babies to Auschwitz.

In His great love for us, Hashem gave us the key to achieving true righteousness and eternal life while protecting us from being profoundly evil and becoming totally obliterated: hakarat tov — recognizing and acknowledging Hashem’s goodness.

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