​Friends:

There is much discussion in the Talmud and Midrash about identifying the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One opinion was that it was a fig tree, and it makes sense because figs were mentioned in the story – that Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves for themselves to wear. Another opinion is that it was actually a grape vine. A third opinion is that it was wheat stalks. The Midrash further goes on to suggest that it might have been an etrog. All of these have some form of connection to the text itself. One of the interesting aspects of the discussion is the suggestion that it was wheat, because we know that wheat does not grow on trees! Including wheat as a possible identification of the Tree of Knowledge is a comment about life in the Garden itself. Humanity did not have to work the land in order to obtain food. It was divinely provided for them. Prior to the sin of the Garden of Eden, wheat grew on a tree so that it was easily taken by humans and worked into however they decided to ingest it. The tree, in essence, represented a divine gift of the Almighty for us to enjoy with a minimum amount of work, or no work whatsoever. As a result of the sin of the Garden of Eden we were punished by having to work hard for the food that would sustain us. Wheat would no longer grow on a tree but would grow as we know it today in nature. This is a valuable lesson for us as certain aspects of nature would change as a result of Adam and Eve’s interaction with Hashem and with nature itself. The bigger change, of course, we would see after the Flood in the days of Noach. The acts of Creation, those that cannot be taken for granted, do require our involvement. Even in our prayers we say that God renews the acts of Creation each day, for without Hashem’s supervision and involvement the phenomena of Creation would cease and would not offer benefits to the human race. We therefore extend Adam’s role in the Garden of Eden where he is called upon to “work it and to guard it” to be the responsible way that we have to work and preserve the gifts of God and nature in the world today as well.
Avraham was supposed to rectify Adam’s sin. When he asked Hashem, “How will I know that I will inherit the land?” (Genesis 15:8), it showed that he had not rectified his knowledge completely. Therefore, Hashem told him, “Know that your children will be slaves in a land that is not theirs” (Genesis 15:13). Knowledge needs to be improved. All the miracles in Egypt were to increase knowledge. After the Exodus Hashem told the Jews, “You have been shown to know…” (Deut. 4:35), the sentence that begins our Simchat Torah liturgy. If not for the sin of the Golden Calf, the rectification of knowledge would have been complete. Now it would not be complete until the coming of Mashiach when “the earth will be full of knowledge of Hashem…” (Isaiah 11:9).
“Hashem gave Cain a sign.” According to one view of the Midrash, Hashem gave Cain a dog to accompany him. What was the significance of giving Cain specifically a dog? The Chafetz Chaim explained that the Midrash says that Abel was stronger than Cain and in the original altercation Abel was in a position to kill his brother. Cain pleaded with him to have mercy and spare his life. After he was released, Cain attacked Abel when he was unprepared and was thus able to kill him. According to this, Cain came to kill his brother because of his lack of Hakarat HaTov, an ability to show gratitude to someone who had performed a kindness to him. It was for this reason that Hashem gave him a dog to accompany him, since a dog is known for its Hakarat HaTov and total devotion to its master who feeds it. Our Sages say (Horayot 13a): The dog recognizes its master. Its appreciation is so great that it will sacrifice its own life to protect its master. By giving him a dog as a companion, Hashem afforded him the constant reminder of the importance of demonstrating Hakarat HaTov, and hoped in this manner he would correct this most serious deficiency in his character. A real endorsement of having a dog in our lives!

Rabbi David Grossman

Friends:

Each year on Sukkot, we read these famous words of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet):
“A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven. ...a time for tearing down and a time for building up.” (Kohelet3:1,3)
To speak of building during a holiday dedicated to erecting a temporary structure seems fitting. And yet, the order of the ideas in this verse is at odds with our Sukkot experience. Surely, “a time for building up and a time for tearing down” would align more closely with the sequence of the holiday. So why this order? And what exactly are “we tearing down and building up”?
The Torah portion for ShabbatChol HaMo-eid Sukkot — Exodus 33:12-34:26 — can help us answer these questions.    In this Torah portion, we are presented with a slice of a story — a short vignette of a significant moment in the history of the people of Israel that covers several key events. The portion begins with Moses’ request to “behold Your [God’s] Presence,” (Exodus 33:18), continues with the carving of the second set of tablets (Exodus 34:1), and concludes with a short summary of the three Pilgrimage Festivals (Exodus 34:18).  At first glance, this somewhat disjointed section seems a strange fit for the Shabbat of Sukkot and appears to offer no answer to our questions about tearing down and building up. As we examine the narrative more closely, however, we realize that the story
enacted in this text is indeed one of rebuilding — not of structures but of relationship.
In their original context, Exodus 33 and 34 occur in the aftermath of the sin of the Golden Calf. God is furious, Moses is distraught, and the people are in peril. Our small section is the coda to the entire episode — the events that transpire after Moses intercedes, God forgives, and the people are
spared complete destruction. Here, God, Moses, and the people all try to move forward — to rebuild their relationship and their eternal covenant.
In just a few short verses, the Torah portion reveals a path to repair:
 Reassurance of God’s Presence: Moses asks God to lead the people and reveal God’s Presence (Exodus 33:12-18)
 Granting a Second Chance: God commands Moses to write the second set of tablets (Exodus 34:1)
 Restating the Terms of Relationship: God restates the conditions of the three Festivals (Exodus 34:18-26)Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום. 
Rabbi David Grossman

​Friends:

Most of the parshah of Ha’azinu is a song. Moses sang this song to the Jewish people on the day he passed away, singing to them about their experiences together, rebuking them for the things they'd done wrong, and reminding them that even though G‑d gets very angry at their sins, He will always come back to His people. Here are some quotes from the song, which is called, like the Parshah itself, by its first word, Ha’azinu, "listen." Remember that because it is a song, the words are sometimes unusual, with many metaphors and figures of speech:
Reminding them of how G‑d took care of them:
"Because the Lord's portion is His people Jacob...He found them in a desert land, and in a desolate, howling wasteland. He encompassed them and bestowed understanding upon them; He protected them as the pupil of His eye. As an eagle awakens its nest, hovering over its fledglings, it spreads its wings, taking them and carrying them... So God guided them alone... He made them ride upon the high places of the earth, that they would eat the produce of the field. He let them suck honey from a rock, and oil from the mighty part of the mountain."
Rebuke and criticism:
"You forgot the [Mighty] Rock Who bore you; you forgot the God Who delivered you."
G‑d's anger at their sins:
"And the Lord saw this and became angry, provoked by His sons and daughters. And He said, "I will hide My face from them. I will see what their end will be, for they are a generation of changes; they are not [recognizable] as My children whom I have reared."
In the end, G‑d will come back to his people:
"Sing out praise, O you nations, for His people! For He will avenge the blood of His servants, inflict revenge upon His adversaries, and appease His land [and] His people."
At the end of the Parshah, G‑d tells Moses to go up the mountain of Nebo. From there, he will see the Land of Israel, but he will not be able to enter. After he sees the land, G‑d tells him, his soul will be gathered to heaven, and he will pass away.                                                                               
Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

​Friends:
 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Other traditions celebrate death. The ancient Egyptians used their priests to prepare bodies for deaths, building the elaborate pyramids as ancient tombs. Creating mummies to preserve dead bodies was a science for the Egyptians. Among the Greeks, Socrates willingly drank the hemlock to enter what he considered a better world. In contrast, Jewish tradition does not even allow its priests (kohanim) to go into a cemetery. 

One of the central features of Judaism is this absolute separation between life and death. Jewish tradition forbids the eating of milk and meat together, or even eating them off the same dishes. Milk is a symbol of life, it gives life to the baby animal. Meat is the symbol of death, the flesh of an animal properly slaughtered. The two realms should never meet. 

Our thoughts are on the High Holidays which begins in days. We speak about sefer hayim, the Book of Life. We ask God to write us in the Book of Life. Our tradition holds that God has a Book of Life and on Rosh Hashana our fate is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed. But proper behavior can reverse the severe decree. Over and over as we pray on these holidays, we declare that God is a God of Life. How do we understand these ideas?

Death is the fate of everything that exists. All living things will one day die, the earth and the sun will die. The universe itself will die one day. Scientists have a name for it – entropy. Entropy is the natural tendency of all things to wear down, become more chaotic, to eventually break down. When your cell phone or your car begins to break down and stop working, that is entropy. When our bodies begin to break down, no matter how healthy we eat or how often we go to the gym, that is entropy. As W.B. Yeats wrote in his famous poem The Second Coming, “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.” Entropy is the way of the world.

But there is an anti-entropy force at work in the world. It is the force that goes from chaos to order, from death to life. It is the force in the universe that went from hydrogen atoms to carbon atoms, then to organic molecules, then to proteins and D.N.A., then to metabolism and to life. We live in a world where there is a force for life at work. Evolution points towards the fact that over time higher and higher, more complex forms of life develop. Evolution is the greatest proof for the existence of God. Whenever entropy is overcome, when chaos moves towards order and randomness moves towards organization, that is the hand of God at work in the world. That is the God of life, as God created the universe from Tohu VaVohu, chaos. 

A major theme of the High Holidays is that we can choose between death and life, between bringing more chaos and entropy into the world, or bringing order and enhancing life. God is a God of life. We humans are called to reaffirm life. Whenever we work to reaffirm life, we become God’s partners in the creation of this world.


Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

Friends:
​Our Parsha’s final Aliyot describe the assembly of the entire nation on one mountain or another as a series of blessings and then curses are enunciated. Before this took place, the Torah describes the division of the tribes between Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival. The tribe of Levi, the group supplying our Leviim for ministrations in the Mishkan and later the Beis HaMikdash, as well the Kohanim, the Priests, was told to stand in the valley between the two mountains and pronounce a series of blessings and curses that would befall those who obey/disobey the Torah. It is in the form of curses in the Torah, but the implication is that these are preceded by a declaration of blessings corresponding to each line. When you go through the list of statements: people who honor or dishonor parents, or remove a neighbor’s landmark, or make the blind go astray, or pervert justice due the stranger, orphan or widow, one begins to search for the connection between all these statements. The Ibn Ezra, among others, connects them by the simple statement that these verses mention 11 sins that can be committed in secret. When a person does something in public the community and the courts have to respond. But the court cannot actually involve itself with crimes or sins committed in private. Behind closed doors, in the shadow of secrecy, people do commit the worst of offenses. They are not only harming the other person, but they are harming themselves and they can bestow great injury to the welfare of the Jewish nation. This entire chapter is involving itself with what people do in private. One should never think that closing the door and doing what you wish, and thinking you are not harming anyone else, is therefore okay. The sin is deeply ingrained within the individual’s personality, and taken within the fabric of Klal Yisrael the harm might not be easily noticed, but this is something that has to be addressed by every individual. We have to be aware, of course, that Hashem watches everything we do, in public and in private. There is no escaping Hashem. The realization of this fact is perhaps the ultimate upshot of this chapter. We should try to make sure that our dedication and honesty to the Torah commitment is consistent and constant. Just as we should not take a vacation from mitzvah obligations, so, too, we hope and pray that Hashem never takes a vacation from protecting us.
Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

Friends:

This parsha has the most mitzvot in it than any other Parsha in the Torah. The first law is the law of the captured beautiful woman who is not Jewish and is forced to convert if the Jewish soldier desires her.  She is required to make herself not so beautiful and to cry for her father and mother for a full month. This denotes her separation from her parents. The Ramban emphasizes that the separation is really more than just from her parents, it is from her former religion and homeland, which she will be leaving forever.  The difficulty in conversion is not just embracing the new religion and all its laws and restrictions; it is also the strength necessary to cut ties to a former religion and reject a non-Jewish culture. 

In the story about the expulsion of Yishmael from the house of Avraham, Hagar and the lad were in the desert and Yishmael was in a serious compromised state of health. Hashem saves the boy by presenting a well to give them water. Rashi (on Breishit 21:17) states that Hashem is judging Yishmael on his current state and not based on what was going to happen in the future. The Midrash presents the dialogue between the angels who question God’s merciful judgement. The angels: How can You (Hashem) be merciful toward this child whose descendants will kill Your children? Hashem: What is he now, a righteous or evil person? Angels: Righteous. Hashem then decides on judgement on a person’s current state. Yet in our Parsha, the Torah tells us the story of the Wayward Child (21:18-21) whereby the Torah states this Wayward Child should be executed. Rashi comments that he is going to be judged for his future actions because the indication now is that he will be thoroughly evil in the future. These two cases, the one of Yishmael, and the one of the Wayward Child, seem to contradict each other. Some of the factors to bring out: one is that in Yishmael’s case it is his descendants who will be evil toward the Jewish people, not Yishmael himself. Secondly, in the case of the Wayward Child, his current activities create a seemingly inevitable future of evil activity. 

In our parsha (22:8) the Torah states that we are required to make a fence around the flat roof of one’s house; otherwise you will be placing blood in your house when a person falls from it. The structure of the sentence almost states that the inevitable has occurred and we can draw the conclusion of the transgression’s terrible ending. Hence there is a distinction between the Wayward Child and Yishmael. 

The Torah states that when it comes to harvesting olives, a person is not required to go on a ladder; he will have such an abundance of produce (with God’s blessing) that he will just have to stand on the ground and beat the branches with a stick and the olives will fall to the ground. “Do not remove all the splendor behind you.” The literal interpretation means: do not take off all the olives – leave some of them on the tree so that poor people can have some. Rabbeinu Bachya expounds on the Midrashic idea of not being over glorified and boasting of your financial status. When you give charity and help poor people, do not look for credit. Instead you should have an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness to Hashem that He has provided for you and you are able to be a giver and not a taker. Do not look for credit should be a message for many other mitzvot that we perform as well. 

Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

Friends:

The Torah discusses the Cities of Refuge again. It was already discussed at the end of Chumash Bamidbar but each time it adds a certain dimension that was not brought up before. It says in the beginning of Chapter 19, “When Hashem your God will cut down the nations whose land Hashem Your God gives to you, and you will possess them, and you will settle in their cities and in their houses….” (19:1). Even though this chapter is dealing with Cities of Refuge, it has stipulated something else in the first verse. It is a brachah that in settling the land of Canaan and possessing it and creating the Land of Israel, Hashem grants the Jewish people the opportunity not to have to build the cities from scratch. You will drive out the non-Jewish element and take over their cities and their homes. You will live in homes that were built by non-Jewish people and you will possess them. This is a major brachah. 

The Torah describes to us the role of the judges, the Kohanim, the king, and all religious leaders and political figures in this Sedrah, and then later we will see it in the course of the narrative throughout the Books of Yehoshua and Judges, and the Books of Samuel and the Books of Kings. Each segment of Jewish leadership in the nation is granted authority and powers as well as importance of government-ordained institutions. This does not negate the sanctity of life given to each individual. It is difficult sometimes for all the pieces of the national puzzle to blend together properly. There is always a ruling party, a new government, and an opposition party as well. It is proper for national leaders to contend for leadership roles but then it is even more important that the roles complement each other and they begin to learn to work together for the benefit of the nation as a whole. We saw this in ancient times through the narrative in TaNaCH. We also see it post-TaNaCH period again and again in Jewish history in the Land of Israel. Society today also has certain divisions of leadership and they still have to work together for the benefit of the people. 

The law of the accidental killer is subject to analysis by the court. Was it really accidental? If the two individuals have a history of hate between them, that mars the possibility of accepting the death as an accidental killing. This is what the Torah is talking about when it mentions that the killer “hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him…” (19:4). The Midrash explains that the question of a relationship of hatred in essence refers to anyone who did not speak with his fellow man for three days out of hatred. This is a potent statement because we are now defining the “accidental” killing as being intentional because of a past behavior and the sense of enmity that exists between the two parties. So, if a person ends up injuring or killing another individual whom it is known that he hates, the court will assume that there was some malice in this incident. We see this over and over again and it makes relationships very difficult if two parties are living in hatred. 
There is a cogent example in “The Godfather.” The godfather is making peace with the other Mafia families after his son Michael had killed one of them and is now returning. The godfather says to his compatriots that if anything happens to his son, even an accident, or if he is hit by lightning, the other members will be faulted because there was a previous sense of hatred towards his son. It is the same premise we see here in the Parsha. 

Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

Friends: 

The opening verse in today’s Parsha deals with the subject of making choices in life. In this case the choices will have serious ramifications: obeying the will of God will earn us Hashem’s blessings, while disobeying God’s commandments will earn us Hashem’s curses. It would seem simple to understand that making this type of a choice is obvious. Who would want to earn God’s curse? Conscientious and intentional disobedience would indicate a lack of belief in Hashem. Most of our sins might not be in that category. That is not to say that all sins are unintentional. Even intentional ones might not be as a result of our lack of belief, or a result of the fact that we feel that we can get away with it. As the Talmud would indicate, sins usually accompany a lack of rational thinking. Most situations of sinning indicate that we lack the strength and fortitude of a committed dedication to Hashem’s word. We realize that the temptation of sin is there and standing in front of us, just as the satanic angel in the road confronted Bilaam. Bilaam doesn’t see the satanic angel; his donkey does. We are like Bilaam in the sense that we realize that there is temptation and do not recognize it, yet we are able to rationalize doing something that is obviously incorrect. 
Throughout the Torah, the city of Yerushalayim is not mentioned anywhere with its full name. The first time that it is mentioned by name is …. This is a good trivia question: Where in TaNaCH is Yerushalayim mentioned the first time? A follow up question for extra credit: Where in TaNaCH is the expression Eretz Yisrael mentioned for the first time? Neither of these words is in the Torah. The Rambam in Guide for the Perplexed III:45 writes, “the fact that the Torah does not make specific mention of Yerushalayim, but rather hints at it and says: ….[the place] which God will choose, etc. appears to me to have three explanations.  The first: so that the nations would not seize the place and wage power struggles over it, knowing that this place – out of the entire Land – represents the ultimate purpose of the Torah; secondly – lest whoever possessed it at the time destroy it and devastate it to the limit of their power; and thirdly – the strongest reason of all – that a situation would not arise in which every tribe would want it included in its inheritance, so as to be able to rule over it, and it would fall to [whichever tribe would emerge victorious] as a result of controversy and strife, as did the quest for the priesthood. For this reason, we are commanded that the Temple not be built until after the coronation of a king so that there is one single ruler and all strife falls away…” The Rambam is trying to explain our question. All three points that he makes are valid, not just in history, but even in our time. The first two are more applicable than the latter one, but when you think about it, it will not be the tribes arguing but segments of the Jewish population who certainly do argue over who has the authority and dominion over the Temple Mount and Yerushalayim as a whole. 

Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום.
Rabbi David Grossman

Friends:

Hashem tested Bnei Yisrael in the desert. The tests went both ways. Hashem was testing B’nei Yisrael to develop their sense of faith and trust in Him. The people tested Hashem as a child would test a parent. The beginning of the story of the Exodus produced the initial test of the mannah. Moshe told them that every day (except Shabbat) there will be mannah descending like dew from heaven which will sustain the people. Rav Ovadiah Bartenura wrote that the initial test that Hashem gave the people was in telling them “don’t go out” and yet they did go out. They were further told “do not leave over to the next day” and they did that as well. The only way they could pass the test of the mannah was for Hashem to extend the test. As it turned out, that is exactly what did occur and over the forty year period there were no problems. The people got used to the test of the mannah. The entire forty year period could be understood in this fashion. It is not only that they were being punished for the sin of the spies; it was also that by being under Hashem’s protection in every physical way they learned to trust Hashem. On the eve of their entry into the Promised Land Moshe understood that the conditions under which this new generation was raised would change drastically, and unfortunately the people would fail the future tests. Moshe knew this and spoke about it in today’s Parsha and throughout the Chumash of Devarim.

The Torah gives us the list of the seven fruits with which Eretz Yisrael is blessed (8:8) “a land of wheat and barley… a land of olives that produce oil, and honey.” It is interesting to note that the Torah says that olive oil is one of the blessed fruits of Eretz Yisrael. Why not state that it is the olive? Why mention olive oil? The Talmud posits that olives are not to be considered as beneficial to the human being as olive oil is. The Talmud even suggests that eating olives is detrimental to one’s memory. When praising the land of Israel, the Torah used the most useful forms of the produce of the land. It is of note that for many years Israel was an exporter of olives. This was true in the Roman period 2,000 year ago. Rome was actually importing olives from Israel and they could be found sold in the marketplaces in Rome. This is bizarre considering that Italy is a major producer of olive oil in the modern period. But in ancient times this was obviously not so. As it turned out, this was not always a major blessing as it was economically. Because of the trade agreement the Romans had, ships were coming to Israel for economic trade as in olive oil and olives, and became knowledgeable of the geography and topography of the land of Israel, which proved helpful when the Romans invaded and conquered the land in the 1st century C.E.
Moshe says that the people will be blessed with a great amount of gold and silver (8:13). A wealthy Jew once boasted to the Chofetz Chaim that Hashem had granted him all his desires and he lacked no worldly pleasures. The Chofetz Chaim said that if that was the case, he should devote a number of hours every day to Torah study. The man replied that he had no time. Said the Chofetz Chaim, “If that is the case then you are like the poorest of the poor. If you have no time, then what have you? There is no poorer man than one who is lacking time…” It is recorded that a man came to the Vilna Gaon and said to him, “Rebbe, I have only ten minutes free. Should I learn Talmud or should I learn Mussar (moral instruction)?” The Vilna Gaon responded that he should learn Mussar because after ten minutes of Mussar he would realize that he did have a lot more than ten minutes of his time. Whenever God blesses us there is always an ability that we should have to improve upon it and not be enslaved to it.

Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום
Rabbi David Grossman