Category Archives: Holidays

Shavuos: Learn Torah or do a Chessed? Flip a Coin??

Shavuos

LEARN TORAH OR DO A CHESSED? FLIP A COIN??

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Boaz said in reply, “I have been told of all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and came to a people you had not known before.”  (Rus 2:11)

Dr. Meshulam Hart is a well-known and respected pediatrician in Bnei Brak, Israel. He has become very knowledgeable about medical information related to the coronavirus. Since the coronavirus pandemic began spreading around the world, Dr. Hart has been receiving thousands of calls every day from all over Israel and the world asking for his advice. He was even asked by the Gedolei Hador to advise yeshivos how to safely re-open. He has also published instructions on this topic for the public. Dr. Hart asked HaRav Chaim Kanievsky shlita, the following question, “I have a chavrusa in the afternoon every day for at least an hour”. However, in the past few weeks, the telephone rings every minute with people calling for advice. May I shut off my phone at least while I learn…I’m also obligated to learn Torah.” Harav Chaim heard the question, thought for a long while and then uttered one word: ‘Chessed.’” Dr. Hart clearly understood that for the current time and in the current situation, since he was one of the few people capable of helping, his obligation to do chessed came before his Torah learning. (Yeshiva World News, May 26, 2020)

The Mishna (Meseches Peah 1:1) states, “And Talmud Torah is equal to all of them.” We receive part of our reward for learning Torah, in this world.  Most of our reward will be given in the next world. Learning Torah is greater than all the mitzvos. The Vilna Gaon in his sefer Shnos Eliyahu writes that every word of Torah learning is a separate mitzvah.  The Chofetz Chaim writes that a person can usually speak two hundred words a minute. If he speaks two hundred words of Torah learning in a minute, he receives two hundred mitzvos every minute that he learns Torah (based on a lecture by HaGaon Rav Gershon Edelstein shlita, Parashas Vayechi 5776 and Sefer Binyan Olam)

Even before the Torah was formally given, Jews learned Torah. Shem and Ever, Noach’s sons had a yeshiva. All our forefathers learned Torah. There are so many stories of people learning Torah both day and night, managing with little sleep because of the preciousness of every word of Torah.

Why is learning Torah so special? Learning Torah enables a person to be as close as possible to Hashem. This is as the Zohar (Acharei Mos) states, “Hashem, Torah, and Yisroel are one.” In other words, Torah is what connects Bnei Yisrael to Hashem. The Tana Dvei Eliyahu (ch. 18) writes that when a person learns Torah, Hashem sits opposite him and learns with him. The Talmud (Gittin 6B) states that when Rebbi Evyasar and Rebbi Yonasan were learning Torah together, Eliyahu Hanavi approached them. They asked him what Hashem was doing at this moment. He said that Hashem was saying, “My son Evyasar says this, and my son Yonasan says this.” (from a lecture by HaGaon Rav Gershon Edelstein shlita, Parashas Vayechi 5776).

 As great as Torah learning is, there are times that it must be temporarily put aside. Rabbi Yisroel Salanter was once learning in shul, late into the night, when he heard a conversation between two homeless Jews. (It used to be the custom that the very poor or homeless would sleep in a local shul.) One said that he was very thirsty and asked the other to accompany him outside, to the well, to get a drink of water. The fellow refused to go, saying that he was too tired. Rav Yisroel closed his Gemora and went to the well himself, to get his fellow Jew a drink of water!

The Rambam writes (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:4), if you have a choice to either perform a mitzvah (for example, chessed) or learn Torah, you should learn Torah. However, if the mitzvah cannot be done by others you should perform the mitzvah first and then continue learning.

When Rus came to collect grain from Boaz’s field, Boaz gave her special privileges. When she questioned why, he told her that he was very impressed with two things that he had heard about her (Rus 2:11). Rus took such good care of her destitute and lonely mother-in-law, even after her own husband had died. Furthermore, Boaz was impressed that Rus gave up so much to convert to Judaism. Rus was a princess. She gave that up, leaving her family and birthplace to convert. Now she was so poor that she had to gather grain just like the rest of the Jewish poor, by gathering it from other people’s fields. The Targum Onkelos says that Boaz told Rus a prophecy that he had received. Jewish kings and prophets would descend from Rus because of her two actions. In fact, the pasuk refers to her act of chessed first. We see from Rus the importance of chessed.

The Sforno says (Vayikrah 25:38) that doing chessed for someone is not just acting with kindness to one individual. It is as if one is doing chessed to all the Jewish People! Despite the importance of doing chessed, learning even one word of Torah is greater! We see the importance of learning Torah. Yet, if you are the only one who can do a time-relevant chessed, then doing the chessed comes first. We see the greatness of chessed. Rev Henach Leibowitz zt”l said (as heard from Rabbi Binyamin Luban) that if someone else can do the chessed then you should not stop learning Torah. However, if you are the only one who can help, it is your obligation to help. The reward for this chessed will ultimately be greater than the reward you would have received for learning Torah. However, if you constantly do chessed instead of learning Torah, you will be ignorant of Torah. What should you do if you are in a group of people learning Torah and you are approached to do a time-relevant chessed? If the chessed is needed immediately and there is no one else to do it, then you should quickly volunteer. You should not think, let one of my friend’s do it while I continue learning. You should quickly volunteer since all of you have an equal obligation to do the chessed.

Let us take advantage of the special opportunity to learn Torah throughout the night of Shavuos, this Thursday night. The night of Kabbalas HaTorah is an especially significant time to learn. However, if we are needed to do a chessed and there is no one else available, we should stop learning Torah to do it. Afterwards, we should resume our learning.

Pesach: Soccer and the Mitzvah of Not Eating Chometz

Pesach

Soccer and the Mitzvah of Not Eating Chometz

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Rabbi Sholom Schwadron had noticed that one of the students at the yeshiva missed his lecture, two days in a row. That was very unusual for this student. Rabbi Schwadron found out that the student was home, even though he wasn’t sick. He went to visit his student, to find out why he was absent. After some prodding, the boy finally said that he was an avid soccer fan and he stayed home to watch the finals. In fact,” the boy added in embarrassment, “I probably won’t be in yeshiva tomorrow as well. It’s the final day of the championship.”

Rabbi Schwadron furrowed his brow in interest. “It sounds very exciting. How do you play the game?” “Well,” began the student filled with enthusiasm, “The object is to kick a ball into a large goal.” Rabbi Schwadron’s face brightened! “Oh! Is that all? Let’s go to the backyard and we will kick the ball into the goal. Then you can return to yeshiva tomorrow.”

The boy laughed. “Rebbe, you don’t understand! There is a goalkeeper whose job is to stop the team from getting the ball into goal!”

“Tell me,” Rabbi Schwadron whispered. “is the goalkeeper there at night also?” “Of course not!” laughed the student. “Rabbi Schwadron suggested “We can return in the evening and kick the ball into the goal when the goalkeeper is not there. Then you can win and return to yeshiva!”

The boy threw his hands up in frustration. “Rebbe! You don’t understand. There is no challenge to kick a ball into an empty net. The excitement is to try to score if there is someone trying to stop you!”

“Ah!” cried Reb Sholom in absolute victory. Listen to what you just said! It’s not as challenging to come to the yeshiva when nothing is holding you back! When it’s difficult, when you have a temptation holding you back, that’s when it’s special. When the Yetzer Harah (evil inclination) is “crouching in the goal” to prevent you from doing the right thing, that is when it is most difficult to score. That is when you really score points. Come to yeshiva tomorrow, and you can’t imagine how much that is worth in Hashem’s scorecard!” The student understood the message and was there the next day, in class!

We are so careful not to eat chometz (bread/leaven) on Pesach (Passover). So much so, that when the matzah is baked before Passover, many hurry every 18 minutes to carefully clean all the utensils, to prevent the dough from rising. Some people are so scrupulous that they don’t even put matzah balls in their soup, concerned lest any raw dough become chometz from the liquid. There is a simple solution! Instead of using flour, why not make matzah using potato starch (flour from potatoes)? Potato starch doesn’t rise so it can’t become chometz. How much easier that would be. Yet, you are not permitted to use potato starch or other flours that can’t become chometz if left unchecked. Why not? The Chasam Sofer learns a beautiful lesson from this: To prevent potato starch from becoming chometz isn’t a true accomplishment. Only by carefully supervising the preparation of baking matzah to prevent it from becoming chometz, does a Jew show his love of Hashem and his loyalty to the Torah. Similarly, Hashem put the world into our hands, with our evil inclination, tempting us to act improperly. We will elevate ourselves spiritually, only when we work hard to overpower our evil inclination.

Through overcoming our Yetzer Harah, we achieve great successes!

Chanukah: The Lesson we can Learn from the Story of Chanukah

Chanukah

THE LESSON WE CAN LEARN FROM THE STORY OF CHANUKAH

based on an essay by Rabbi Yisroel Miller

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The Holiday of Chanukah is enjoyable and fun.  We light the menorah, play dreidel, eat latkes and jelly doughnuts, and give gifts to children.

We can learn two very important lessons from this holiday:

1) G-D saved us from a mighty superpower and G-D continues to save us, even today.

2) The actions of the Chashmonaim (those Jews who fought the mighty Syrian-Greeks) teach us we must be willing to do battle for Torah. We must also have the courage to risk our lives, if necessary, and be willing to sacrifice for the sake of G-D.  We need to show self-sacrifice and the courage to fight against all odds.

The question is, if we are cowards by nature, how can we summon our courage to overcome all obstacles and difficulties for the sake of G-D and the Torah?

This question can be answered by a Midrash which contains a beautiful parable (story to teach a lesson):

A king, traveling on the side roads, saved a princess (from a different kingdom) from being attacked by bandits.  The princess thanked the king very much.  Sometime afterward, the king (who was not married) called the princess for a date.  She brushed him off, and refused.    The king wanted a date, so what did he do?  He hired the very same bandits, that originally attacked her, to attack her, again.  That provided the king with another opportunity to save the princess a second time (and hopefully get her to agree to go on a date). However, the second time, the princess was not in danger. It was a charade-just like a play.

There used to be a TV show called Candid Camera. Funny situations were created to see how people would react. The moderator of the show, Mr. Alan Funt, was once on an airplane that was being hijacked to Cuba. The passengers on the plane were not scared at all-they thought they were on the tv show, to see how they would react. Since they felt it wasn’t truly happening, they were not afraid.

This illustrates a very important point.  Sometimes, we are faced with great challenges and hardships in our lives.  Yet, they are not real!  They are “set-up” by G-D to encourage us to react the proper way, encouraging prayer (and more closeness to G-D) and/or spiritual growth.  It is as if G-D hired actors to challenge us, hoping we will succeed in overcoming the challenge.

If this is true, we don’t need any courage.  All we need is an awareness that G-D is the only Power in the World.  Every stressful situation, we find ourselves in, is only a test by G-D to see our reaction.  There is nothing to fear!

At the time of the Chanukah story, the Jews slackened in their service of G-D.  G-D sent the Syrian-Greeks to forbid the observance of mitzvos, as a test to see how the Jews would react.  Matisyahu and his sons and many other Jews understood that they were being tested and passed the test.  They showed their willingness to risk their lives to perform mitzvos and then to fight the Syrian-Greek armies.

This awareness, that all that happens to us is only a test from G-D, should give us the courage to conquer any obstacles and difficulties that we face.