The Yiddish Word Bashert: What Does it Mean? What is the Origin of the Word?

The word means predestined or predetermined as in the sentences:

He or she is not married yet because they have not met their bashert.

If it is bashert to have wealth, one has wealth.

Rav Dovid Cohen in his book, Ha-Safah Ha-Kedoshah: Yiddish, writes that the etymology of the word is from the Yiddish word sher, meaning a scissor. Just as a scissor can cut the shape of an object, bashert means the future shape of events was pre-cut or predetermined to be a certain way.

Two Lessons from The Rav: Don’t Wear Sneakers on a Date and …

Rabbi Yissachar Frand related the following story about Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik:

When the Rav was getting older he needed a student to serve as his personal aide in his apartment. One evening, after taking care of the Rav, the student said:
-- I have to leave now. I am going out on a date.

The Rav saw that his aide was wearing sneakers, and said:
-- Don’t wear sneakers on a date. I think you should wear dress shoes on a date.

The student responded, without thinking:
-- I am wearing white socks and I cannot wear dress shoes with white socks.

The student immediately realized that the Rav always wore white socks with black dress shoes. He was very embarrassed that he just said this to the Rav.

The Rav offered that he could borrow any pair of black socks or blue socks in his drawer. When the student heard this, he asked why the Rav wears white socks instead of blue or black. The Rav explained that the Rebbetzin is ill and it is hard for her to match up the black and blue socks. He makes it easier for her by wearing white for an easy match.

The second lesson is: … Be Considerate to Your Wife

Sheva Berakhos: The Holiness of Kiddushin

What does holiness mean?

The root of kiddushin is kuf, daled and shin which means to separate. Something is holy because it is separated, distinguished, dedicated, sanctified and apart from something else.

The world is divided into three realms: Space, Time and Intellect; olam, shanah and nefesh. Hashem has given us mitzvos that sanctify each realm.

Some examples include:
Space – Eretz Yisrael as Eretz ha-Kodesh, the Holy Land
Time – Shabbos Kodesh for the holy day of the week, Shemittah for the years
Intellect – Purification of the mind through Torah study, kedushas and taharas ha-guf with the laws of tum’ah / taharah and kashrus

The Rambam named one of the 14 books that comprise the Mishneh Torah, Sefer Kedushah, Book of Holiness. There are only two sets of laws in Sefer Kedushah: 1 – Forbidden sexual relationships and 2 – Forbidden foods. The Rambam explains that with these two areas of law Hashem sanctified us and separated us from the goyim. In both cases the Torah says separation, ve-hivdalti and va-'avdil:

22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them; that the land, where I bring you to dwell in it, vomit you not out.
23. And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you; for they committed all these things, and therefore I loathed them.
24. But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey; I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people.
25. You shall therefore differentiate between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean; and you shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by bird, or by any manner of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.
26. And you shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
--Vayikra 20

Marriage is called kiddushin because it sanctifies and dedicates the chassan and kallah to each other and separates them from everyone else. The birkas ‘erusin says:

Ve-tzivanu ‘al ho-‘aroyos, ve’asar lanu ‘es ho-‘arusos, ve-hittir lanu ‘es ha-nes’uos lanu ‘al ye-dei chuppah ve-kiddushin.

…Commanded us regarding forbidden unions; Who forbade betrothed women to us and permitted women who are married to us through canopy and consecration….
Holy matrimony is kiddushin. The chassan and kallah are holy to each other; dedicated to each other, permitted to each other and separated and forbidden to others.

Although, according to Rav Kafih, the Rambam did not conclude the birkas ‘erusin with the words ‘al ye-dei chuppah ve-kiddushin. The Rambam stopped at mekadesh yisrael because the kedushah of ‘am yisrael is not based solely on the chuppah and kiddushin of a pe-nuyah alone. Rather, kedushas ‘am yisrael is based on the laws of ‘isurei biah and ma’achalos ‘asuros.

May all chassanim and kallos be zokheh to a life of kedushah and taharah, kedushas ha-nefesh and kedushas ha-guf.

Sefer Yetzirah: The Letter Sav

Last Shabbos I spoke at a Sheva Berakhos about the mystery of the letter sav in the Sefer Yetzirah. The Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Creation, attributed to Avraham Avinu, tells about how God created the world with the alefbeis.

According to the Sefer Yetzirah, when God created the world, him’likh, He elevated, the letter sav b’chen, over chen.

What does this mean? The Sefas Emes (Parshas Vayishlach, 5646) explains, that when the inner light, ‘or ha-penimi, is seen in a person that is the appreciation of the ultimate, infinite truth about that person (i.e. the letter sav is the last letter of the alefbeis symbolizing infinity, the superlative).

I believe that when a chassan sees the true inner beauty in the person he chooses to marry that is the realization of emes, of the full range of qualities of that person [which starts with alef and ends with sav]. Then the true chen becomes apparent, as opposed to the chen that is false as in, sheker ha’chen v’hevel ha’yofi i.e. outward, superficial charm and beauty (Mishle 31). At that point chen, spelled with ches and nun get the letter sav added to it in the middle, and that spells, chassan.

And if you transpose the letters you get nachas, the pride and joy that the parents draw upon when they see the chassan and kallah aware of the inner light that they see in each other, ‘ad me’ah ve-esrim shanah.

Yishma’el’s Descendants and Prayer

I have recently heard people saying that the Arabs are as successful as they are against the Jews because they are descendants of Yishma’el , another son of Avraham, and they have a powerful faculty for prayer. God listened to Yishma’el and now He is listening to their fervent, sincere prayers five times a day.

I find this idea odious and contradictory to the belief in Hashem and that we are His chosen people.

If there are people out there who think that this will inspire Jews to be more righteous and daven more and better they are off the track. How could anyone imagine that the prayers of terrorists who blow themselves up with innocent people on a bus or a pizza shop would be answered by Hashem.

We read in Parshas ‘Ekev last Shabbos:

6. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people to himself, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;
8. But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
9. Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10. And repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them; he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.
11. You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do them.
12. Therefore it shall come to pass, if you give heed to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord your God shall keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers;
13. And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain, and your wine, and your oil, the produce of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
14. You shall be blessed above all people; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all those who hate you.
16. And you shall destroy all the people which the Lord your God shall deliver you; your eye shall have no pity upon them; neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you.
17. If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
18. You shall not be afraid of them; but shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;
19. The great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord your God brought you out; so shall the Lord your God do to all the people of whom you are afraid.
20. Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves from you, are destroyed.
21. You shall not be frightened by them; for the Lord your God is among you, a mighty God and awesome.
22. And the Lord your God will clear away those nations before you, little by little; you may not destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field grow numerous upon you.
23. But the Lord your God shall deliver them to you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they are destroyed.
24. And he shall deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
-- Devarim 7

Rambam’s 13 Principles of Faith: Missing the 14th ?

Is there a fourteenth principle that the Rambam does not enumerate?

The number 14 has special significance for the Rambam. Rambam consistently classifies the mitzvos into groups of fourteen: fourteen books, classes, or categories. This scheme is first mentioned by Rambam in the Sefer ha-Mitzvos and is also used in the Mishneh Torah and the Moreh Nevuchim.

The Mishneh Torah is also referred to as Yad ha-Hazakah, alluding to the fourteen books; the numerical value of the letters Yud and Dalet (Yad) equal fourteen.

Yet, the Rambam has 13 ‘ikkarim, principles of faith, in his introduction to Perek Chelek. The most familiar version of these 13 are the Ani Ma’amin’s in the Siddur.

Many reasons have been offered for the use of 14 in Rambam’s writings.

Rav Dovid Cohen feels that the Rambam memorialized his brother and benefactor by using the number 14, the gematria of Dalet Vav Dalet, 4+6+4 = 14.

R. Yehoshua ha-Nagid (1310-1355, a descendant of Rambam), quoted by R. N.L. Rabinovitch in Mishneh Torah im Perush Yad Peshutah, Hakdamah u-Minyan ha-Mizvot (Jerusalem, 1997), 68, offers the following explanation: [The number fourteen] is an allusion to the positive and negative commandments. The numerical value of the 248 positive commandments in small numbers is as follows: 200 = 2, 40 = 4, and 8 = 8. 2+4+8 = 14. Similarly, the 365 negative commandments in small numbers are as follows: 300 = 3, 60 = 6, and 5 = 5. 3+6+5 = 14. R. Rabinovitch questions this explanation in light of the fact that it was not customary to refer to the different numbers 248 and 365 as the breakdown between the positive and negative commandments in the time of Rambam. Rambam’s thirteen ikkarim, the Principles of Faith, are also actually fourteen. The fourteenth principle, not listed with the others but nonetheless underlying them all, is the belief in free will. Rambam says in Hilkhot Teshuvah 5:3 that free will is an important principle and it is the pillar on which the Torah and the mitzvos stand. Perhaps, R. Rabinovitch argues, Rambam therefore chose the number fourteen as the numerical scheme for his writings.
--See Elimelekh Polinsky, “Parent-Child Relationships and Ta’amei ha-Mizvot” in The Legacy of Maimonides: Religion, Reason and Community edited by Yamin Levy and Sahlom Carmy (Yashar Books, 2006), pp.175-176 n. 4. http://www.yasharbooks.com/Legacy.html

The Kotel: How the Western Wall Survived and its Meaning

Titus told four commanders to destroy the Beis ha-Mikdash in order to squelch any idea of rebellion and political independence by the Jews. Titus understood that the only way to subdue the Jews was to destroy their spiritual center.

In the Tish’ah be-Av Kinah, Zekhor asher asah, R. Elazar ha-Kalir, tells us how the Kotel survived when the Beis ha-Mikdash was destroyed: “He left the one on the west side as a memorial.” The commanders were told to destroy their assigned walls and yet one did not do his job. The poet Kalir does not say why, but, the attack on the western side failed. Hashem wanted to leave a remnant. Hence, we have the Kotel today.

The poem continues later with the idea that the Shekhinah resides on the Har ha-bayis even after the churban, ve-tzag achar kosleinu. The Shekhinah is still there today behind the wall that He chose to keep standing.

Hineh zeh ‘omed achar kosleinu mashgiach min ha-chalonos mei’tzitz min ha-charakim, Behold, he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice (Shir ha-Shirim 2:9).

The Midrash Shir ha-shirim Rabbah (2:26) says:
BEHOLD HE STANDETH BEHIND OUR WALL: behind the western wall of the Temple. Why so? Because God has sworn to him that it will never be destroyed….

The Shekhinah is behind the Kotel, in the shadow and shade of the Kotel.

The Rambam in Beis ha-Bechirah (6:14-16): kidsha le-sha’atah ve-kidshah le-‘asid lavo. The sanctity of the mikdash is from the shekhinah and the shekhinah is always present, u-shekihnah einah betelah (Vayikra 26:31).

Based on: The Lord is Righteous in All His Ways: Reflections on the Tish’ah be-Av Kinot by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, edited by Jacob J. Shacter, (Toras Horav Foundation, 2006) pp. 204-207.

Yetzias Mitzrayim: Because God Loved Bnai Yisrael or Hated Them?

Va’teirognu ve’oholeichem va’to’mru be’sinas Hashem o’sonu hotzianu me’eretz mitzrayim la’ses o’sonu be’yad ho’emori le’hashmideinu

And you murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
--Devarim 1:27

How could Bnai Yisrael think that Hashem hated them? They were slaves, worked to the bone and experienced other tortures and horrors. Then, they were taken out of Egypt with miracles to cross the Red Sea and receive the Torah. Are things like that bad or done out of hatred?

The Chafetz Chaim explained (as related by Reb Velvel Soloveitchik) that when the Communist revolution took place in Russia many Jews were happy and looked forward to better times. But after some time they realized this was not any better for the Jews than the Czar. The Chafetz Chaim said this does not mean that it had to be bad for the Jews. Rather, this is the way of God in the world. It might have been good depending on the behavior of Klal Yisrael. If they deserved, it would have been good. If not, it was turned into something bad.

So, also, in our pasuk: Bnai Yisrael felt if they deserved it to be good, it would have been good for them. If it was turning out bad, it was a sign they did not deserve yetzias mitzrayim as a reward. Therefore, at this moment of despondency they legitimately thought, leaving Egypt could lead to their destruction.
--from Bad Kodesh, A Collection of Chidushim on the Torah said by R. Barukh Dov Povarsky, Ponivezher Rosh Yeshiva

Decisions on Attending Kollel

I attended a lecture last night by R. Shlomo Pearl, Rosh Kollel at the Bostoner in Flatbush. He raised a number of interesting questions on Kibud Av v’Em that deserve further study. One case follows:

You learn in a kollel and your parents are so against it that they threaten they will take your younger siblings out of yeshiva and place them in public school unless you quit kollel and get a job or go to college.

What should you do?

Rav Yitzchak Zilbershatyn held that sending children to public school is like shmad and to prevent that he should go to work and learn between 4-6 am and 8-11 pm.

Rav Elyashiv held he should go to kollel and the rest is in Hashem’s hands. The mitzvah of Kibud Av does not apply when it conflicts with doing a mitzvah.

The Holiness of Man Rests in the Power of Speech

In Parshas Matos we are given the mitzvah of nedarim, vows. The Midrash says:

If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth (Bamidbar 30:3). This pasuk means to say: v'adam biy'kar bal yalin nimshal ka'behemos nidmu. Nevertheless [if a] man does not abide in honor [i.e. does not keep his word or is not careful with his speech]; he is like the beasts that perish (Tehillim 49:13).

This Midrash is very difficult to understand. What does honor have to do with changing your mind? Why is the Torah so strict concerning breaking your word or not following what you said? What is so terrible? What if you just changed your mind? Why is it any different than acting one way today and changing your behavior tomorrow? Does something get broken in the process of change when you change your mind with with words, that does not break when you act differently? What is the big deal if you are not careful with what you say?

I believe the Rambam’s explanation of the Gemara, hirhurei averah kashu me’averah is relevant to understanding this Midrash. The Rambam says:

There is a well-known saying of the Rabbis, “The thoughts about the sin are more dangerous than the sin itself (Yoma 29a).” When a person is disobedient, this is due to certain accidents connected to the corporeal element in his constitution; for man sins only by his animal nature, whereas thinking is a faculty of man connected with his form, -- a person who thinks sinfully sins therefore by means of the nobler portion of his self; and he who wrongly causes a foolish slave to work does not sin as much as he who wrongly causes a noble and free man to do the work of a slave. For this specifically human element, with all its properties and powers, should only be employed in suitable work, in attempts to join higher beings, and not in attempts to go down and reach the lower creatures…This gift of speech, therefore, which God gave us in order to enable us to perfect ourselves, to learn and to teach, must not be employed in doing that which is for us most degrading and perfectly disgraceful; we must not imitate the songs and tales of ignorant and lascivious people. It may be suitable for them but not for a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Those who employ the faculty of thinking and speaking in the service of that sense which is no honor to us, who think more than necessary of drink and love, or even to sing of these things; they employ and use the divine gift in acts of rebellion against the Giver, and in the transgression of His commandments.
--Moreh III, 8

The Midrash means to say: Why is the Torah so strict concerning breaking your word or not following what you said? Man is on a higher level because he has the power to think and speak. When man lowers himself, acts disgracefully, abuses the power of speech for lewdness and obscenity or is careless about the vows he makes with his mouth, then he is indeed lower like a behemah. When man does not act honorably, he is like a beast.

The holiness of man should be elevated, not degraded. This concept is something that was part of the Slabodka derekh in mussar. The concept of romemus ha’adam, that the elevated status of man should be a constant reminder to refrain from vulgar speech and low behavior. Rather, man should strive to reach the highest levels of kedushas haguf and kedushas hapeh, holiness in behavior and speech. It behooves man to act according to his higher status.

Sinas Chinam and the Matzav in Eretz Yisroel

I spent last Shabbos at a Satmar summer resort where one of the speakers spoke about Sinas Chinam and the Matzav in Eretz Yisroel. In the course of his talk he quoted Yeshayahu 27 and Yirmiyahu 1, which follow below. The main point was that the time for sinas chinam is over. Finding fault with each other is not the way. It is time for rapprochement amongst Klal Yisrael. In the end, despite our faults, there is a geulah. Hashem has had enough of the criticism of Yisrael. Yisrael is atoned. May the geulah come soon.

In days to come Jacob shall take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
Did he strike him, as he struck those who struck him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of those who are slain by him?
By measure, by exile, you contended with them; he removed her by his rough blast in the day of the east wind.
By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be atoned; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones crushed to pieces, the Asherim and the sun images shall not remain standing…
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat out his harvest from the strongly flowing river to the brook of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you people of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great shofar shall be blown, and those shall come who were lost in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
--Yeshayahu 27

Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land…
And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, said the Lord, to save you.
--Yirmiyahu 1

Why is a Shochet’s Knife Called a Chalaf ?

Whom did you hear saying that the place between Hall and altar was [considered] north? R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon, for it was taught: What is [considered] north? From the northern wall of the altar up to the [northern] wall of the Temple court and opposite the whole altar on the north, this is the opinion of R. Jose son of R. Judah. R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon adds also the space between the Hall and the altar. Rabbi adds also the space for the treading of the priests and the place for the treading of the Israelites within, and all agree, min ha’chalifos, that from the inside of the knives’ cell it was illegitimate.
--Yoma 36a

This remaining space is called beis ha’chalifos…because they stored the holy knives there and a sakin, a knife, is called chiluf in Arabic…
--Rashi Yoma 36a

I once saw a source which said a shochet’s knife is called a chalaf because it changes, cholef, the state of the animal from life to death. Does anyone know the source for this explanation?

Story on shochet’s knives: I was once boarding a plane and security stopped an Israeli shochet who spoke English poorly. Security found a chalaf in his bag and asked him what this was about? He said, “I am a killer.” In the midst of the commotion that followed, he asked me to help explain it to security.

How Can Eliyahu Attend Every Bris?

How Can Eliyahu Attend Every Bris simultaneously everywhere?

On Mount Carmel, Eliyahu proved himself by bringing fire from heaven, and the multitudes responded, Hashem hu ha’Elokim, Hashem is the God, Hashem hu ha’Elokim, Hashem is the God. R. Elimelekh of Lizhensk says, because he brought the entire nation to repent, he merited to have a neshama, a soul, that encompasses all of Klal Yisrael. When a baby boy is being circumcised, a spark of Eliyahu’s nefesh flies off and reveals itself at the bris to the baby. Each baby gets his share. When he grows up and leads a good life this part of Eliyahu reveals itself in him.

The Tur (Orach Chaim, 295) writes that after Shabbos we mention Eliyahu because the prohibition against crossing the Techum Shabbos prevented him from attending any bris on Shabbos. Once Shabbos is over, Eliyahu can come, and so we mention him at that time. If that is the case: How could Eliyahu ever attend any bris on Shabbos anywhere outside the techum?

According to the answer offered by R. Elimelekh the problem is solved. However, the Chasam Sofer offers another answer: There are two types of revelations of Eliyahu. One is where he appears in bodily form. In that form he is required to observe the mitzvos and the issur of techumin apply. The second type of revelation is in the spiritual form in which he appears at a bris. In this spiritual form he is not obligated to observe the mitzvos, just as a dead person is exempt from mitzvos. Therefore, Eliyahu can attend every bris everywhere, even on Shabbos.

Self Esteem: A Lesson from R. Zelig Pliskin

Last night I heard R. Pliskin speak about his new book, Building Your Self-Image. He told a story about someone who thought he was stupid because, in comparison with his brother who was a creative genius, he felt stupid. Everything is relative. However, upon further discussion this fellow revealed that he was a math major and graduated with an award that only 1 in 800 received. Yet, he thought of himself as stupid.

The lesson is to be objective about oneself. People should not be self-demeaning. Each person has his own gifts that should help provide self-esteem.

Ma’aser A’ni – The Poor Man’s Tithe: Where Does the Torah Specify The Third and Sixth Year?

Parshas Re’eh:
At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall lay it up inside your gates; And the Levite, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are inside your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
--Devarim 14:28-29

The Rambam (Sefer haMitzvos, Aseh 130) says we are commanded to set aside the poor man’s tithe in the third year and sixth year i.e. three years later means every three years, of every Shemittah cycle. This is contained in His words: At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in that year….

When learning this mitzvah in the shiur Reb Yitzchak Klein asked: Where does the Torah specify the third and sixth Year?

Reb Labe Marcus pointed to the Ibn Ezra who says: At the end of three years – that is ma’aser shlishi and ma’aser sheni is not taken in that year….

The Torah says further on in Parsha Ki Savo more explicitly:
When you have finished tithing all the tithes of your produce the third year, which is the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite(ma’aser rishon), the stranger, the orphan, and the widow(ma’aser a’ni, that they may eat inside your gates, and be filled.
--Devarim 26:12

The Gemara says:
R. Joshua b. Levi says: [It is written], When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, which is the year of the tithe. This means the year in which there is only one tithe. How is then one to act? [He gives] the first tithe and the tithe of the poor, and the second tithe is omitted. Is this correct, or should the first tithe also be omitted? — [Not so], because it says, Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance. The text here compares the tithe [of the Levites] to an inheritance, [to signify that] just as an inheritance is to be held uninterruptedly, so their tithe is to be given without interruption. It has been taught to the same effect: ‘When thou hast made an end of tithing etc.’ [This means] a year in which there is only one tithe. How is one to act? [He gives] first tithe and tithe of the poor, and the second tithe is omitted. Should perhaps the first tithe also be omitted? — [Not so], because it says, and the Levite shall come, which means to say, every time he comes give him. So R. Judah. R. Eliezer b. Jacob says: We have no need [to appeal to this text]. It says, Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take from the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance. The text here compares the tithe to an inheritance, to signify that just as an inheritance is held uninterruptedly, so the tithe is to be given without interruption.
--Rosh Hashanah 12b (See also Rambam, Matnos A’niyim 6:4)

Daily Motivator: The Opening Lines of Mesilas Yesharim

A Kollel student who had enviable motivation and enthusiasm for learning year after year, day after day confided that his motivator was reading the opening lines of Mesilas Yesharim every day before leaving home:

Man needs to realize clearly his duty in this world and what goal is worthy of his endeavors all the days of his life.
--Chapter 1

These few lines inspired him and by his behavior he inspired others.

Erev Shabbos Parshas Chukas: Fasting for Talmud Burning in Paris 1242

Some segments of the Ashkenazic Jewry in the Middle Ages observed a fast day on Erev Shabbos Parshas Chukas. This fast commemorated the public burning of twenty-four carriage-loads of the Talmud in Paris in 1242.

The Magen Avraham and Sefer Eliyahu Rabbah (Orach Chaim 580) mention this custom. The fast is observed on Erev Shabbos Parshas Chukas, not on a specific day of the month of Tamuz (like the 9th of Tamuz when it occurred), because it was determined after consultation (she’elas chalom) that Parshas Chukas was foretold as the time when a decree against the Torah would occur. Targum Onkelos on Parshas Chukas makes a hidden allusion, remez, to some decree against the Torah in history by translating zo’s chukas haTorah, v’da gezeras ora’yso, meaning, on day vav, the sixth day of the week, da gezeras ora’yso this is the decree, gezera, against the Torah (Shibalei Haleket 263, the reading of da with vav as a connective is not in our versions of Onkelos). The Magen Avraham adds that two major Jewish communities were destroyed on that same day, Erev Shabbos Parshas Chukas, during the devastating riots of Tach V'tat, the Chmelnitzki uprising.

Rabbi Hillel Ben Rabbenu Eliezer of Verona, a student of Rabbenu Yonah, wrote that he believed that the public burning of the Talmud was a direct punishment for the burning of some works of the Rambam, which happened forty days earlier with the encouragement of leading Rabbis in Europe. Some Rabbis rejected some of the ideas found in the Rambam's Guide for the Perplexed and Sefer haMada. Rabbenu Yonah led the campaign to ban these books. His student describes the deep sense of regret felt by Rabbenu Yonah after the Talmud burning. Thereafter, whenever he would teach halakha he would mention the opinion of the Rambam and not dispute the ruling. It is said that Rabbenu Yonah wrote Sha'arei Teshuva, his classic work on the laws and methods of repentance, to atone for this incident. However, there is no historical evidence to support the belief that Sha'arei Teshuva was written for this reason. Nevertheless, R. Hillel of Verona writes that after the Talmud burning there was deep regret in the Jewish community for burning the Rambam’s books. After the Talmud burning the controversy over the Rambam waned.

The Talmud burning has some additional historical background of interest.

In the year 1240, the apostate Nicholas Donin laid a charge before the authorities in Northern France that the Talmud contained blasphemies against Jesus. The Jews were compelled to surrender their copies of the Talmud pending clarification of the charge; this took the form of the Disputation of Paris, at the end of which Louis IX ordered that all copies of the Talmud be confiscated and burned. Twenty-four cartloads were consigned to the flames in 1242. The occasion was commemorated in R. Me'ir ben Barukh of Rothenburg's dirge Sha'ali Serufah be-'Esh, which was subsequently included in the dirge of the Ashkenazi rite recited on 9 Av. The precedent of 1242 was followed in later centuries; instances of Talmud burning are recorded in Italy, Poland, and elsewhere. After 1242 the popes continued to advocate burning the Talmud. In general, although censored, the Talmud was not burned on a large scale until a renewed order in 1552 by Pope Julius III led to a big bonfire in Rome (commemorated thereafter by an annual fast among the Jews of Rome), followed by many others in Italy under the instructions of the Inquisition. It was reported that in Venice over a thousand copies of the Talmud and other sacred literature were burned. The last such public burning was held in Kamieniec-Podolski in Poland in 1757, when a thousand copies were put into a pit and burned following a disputation between the Jews and the Frankists (see Frank, Ya'aqov), who played a leading role in hunting down copies of the Talmud for incineration.
-- The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion based on:
Salo W. Baron, "The Burning of the Talmud in 1553, in Light of Sixteenth-Century Catholic Attitudes toward the Talmud,", in Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict; From Late Antiquity to the Reformation (New York, 1991). Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century (New York, 1966).

Our tefillah can be the same as that of the Shibalei Haleket (263) regarding the Talmud burning in Paris:

May its ashes serve as atonement for us like a burnt-offering on the altar, and it should be pleasant for the people of Yehuda like a meal-offering properly sacrificed…and May all of the consolations of the prophets for Israel come true with the ingathering of our exiles.

R. Akiva Eiger and the Dry Socks: A Foot Warming Story

R. Akiva Eiger once traveled in a rain storm with his aide in a horse-drawn carriage. The carriage in which he was riding got stuck in a puddle of rain and mud. His aide got out to push the wagon out of the mud. When he got back onto the carriage his feet were wet. RAE said, “Your feet must be wet, here is a pair of dry socks. The aide was very appreciative and put on the dry socks.

He wondered: Where did RAE get the dry socks? His suitcase is in the trunk and I have the key.

When they arrived and RAE was walking, the aide noticed that RAE had no socks on. The aide realized that RAE must have taken his own socks off when he was pushing the carriage.

RAE not only had great kashes but great compassion, as well.

Is it Today or Is it Now? Hai dena or Ha’idna yoma d’kipurei

The Gemara says:
Now to-day is the Day of Atonement
--Yoma 19b, Soncino translation

The word spelled: heh alef yud nun alef is customarily pronounced Ha’idna and is translated as now. However, on closer examination the word is really a contraction of two words: Hai and dena, meaning today.

Proof for this is in the traditional way the Yemenites count sefira in Aramaic. Instead of saying Hayom yom… they say, Hai dena yom….

May a Doctor Get Up Early to Learn Torah?

On Shabbos I was learning the Sefer Alenu leShabeach, by Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtain, on Parshas Korach, where he relates the following case. He was once asked by an MD: May a Doctor Get Up Early to Learn Torah? Or, perhaps, since it may interfere with his duties, he should not get up so early?

Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtain cited the Rambam which says:

A worker is not allowed to do his own work at night and hire himself out during the day, nor is he allowed to starve himself or otherwise deprive himself of his basic needs, because he is then unable to perform his duties for his employer with full strength. A worker is warned against idling away his time on the job, a little here and a little there, thus wasting the day deceitfully. He must be scrupulous throughout the time of work. Also, he is required to work to the best of his ability, as Ya’akov ha’Tzadik said (Breishis 31:6): “I have served your father with all my strength.” For this reason he was rewarded even in this world, as it is written (Breishis 30:43): “The man became exceedingly rich.”
--Hilkhos Skhirus 13:6–7

Rav Zilbershtain argues, if this is true of an ordinary worker, how much more so for an MD who is dealing with issues of saving lives, pikuach nefesh. The doctor must use all means necessary to practice to the best of his ability.

The Pachad Yitzchak, who wrote many sefarim on halakha, use to get up early every day despite the fact that he was a doctor. But he did the opposite; first he attended to his practice of medicine and afterwards he studied Torah. Before the time for shema and tefillah, he visited his patients in order to be as fresh as possible and only afterwards did he learn. It would appear the Rambam kept the same type of schedule, according to his letters.

Rav Zilbershtain concludes, a doctor who wants to learn has to evaluate himself. If he can handle getting up early to learn and still be fresh and strong to perform his medical responsibilities, he may get up early. There are people who love the Torah so much that they are energized all day from starting the day with Torah. The Rambam did not have such people in mind when he wrote the halakha in Skhirus. However, if the doctor is not energized from getting up so early, it is forbidden for him to do so.