5782 – Page 4 – Peninim on the Torah

איכה אשא לבדי טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Matos

How can I carry alone your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels? (1:12)

Rashi derives from the word masaachem, your burdens, that the people were apikorsim, heretics. They were skeptics who did not believe in their leaders. Thus, they questioned the motives of everything that Moshe Rabbeinu did. If he left his home early, they asserted that there was trouble at home. If he left late, they claimed that he was busy seeking ways to take advantage or hurt them. They were bogged down with suspicion. Nothing was good enough for them. They had jaundiced misgivings and perspective about everyone who helped them. This is a masa, burden. Apparently, Rashi feels that an…

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הבו לכם אנשים חכמים ונבונים וידעים לשבטיכם ואשימם בראשיכם

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Matos

Provide for yourselves distinguished men, who are wise, understanding and well-known to your tribes, and I shall appoint them as your heads. (1:13)

Rashi notes that the word v’asimeim; and I shall appoint, is spelled missing a yud; thus, it reads v’ashmam, their guilt. This teaches that the moral and ethical failings of the people are the fault of their judges, who should have reproved them when they sinned. If the “class” is unruly due to a lack of discipline, the first address for blame is the teacher. First and foremost, a leader must realize that he is not a private person. He is held responsible not only for his sins, but also for the sins of the people that he leads. While…

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נקם נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Matos

Take vengeance for Bnei Yisrael against the Midyanim. (31:2)

The Torah is commanding Klal Yisrael to initiate a campaign of vengeance against the Midyanim, in order to put a stop to their pernicious influence on the Jewish people. Noticeably, the Torah uses strong language in issuing this command: Take vengeance. The Midyanim sent their young women to pervert the Jewish men. This action provoked a zealous and violent response by Pinchas. Klal Yisrael, as a nation, had never previously retaliated when subjected to physical aggression. We fought back, but never acted in vengeance. We acted passively, withdrawing from the fray. We neither seek — nor approve of — violent…

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נקם נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים ... וישלח אתם משה אלף למטה

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Matos

Take vengeance for Bnei Yisrael against the Midyanim… Moshe sent them a thousand from each tribe. (31:2,6)

Moshe Rabbeinu was the paradigm of a baal ha’koras ha’tov, one who acknowledges his debt of gratitude and repays it at his earliest convenience. This is the definition that applies to everyone. Moshe is not everyone. He lived by a bar whose standards were much higher. When Hashem instructed Moshe to initiate the ten plagues that debilitated Egyptian life, he respectfully bowed out from being the vehicle to strike both the water (Nile River, to transform it into blood and to bring up the frogs) and the ground (to bring about the plague of lice). For both he had a…

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והקריתם לכם ערים ערי מקלט ... ונס שמה רצח מכה נפש בשגגה

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Masei

You shall designate cities for yourselves… and a murderer shall flee there – one who takes a life unintentionally. (35:11)

The Arei Miklat, Cities of Refuge, served as home to two groups of Jews: Shevet Levi, the spiritual exemplars of our nation; and the rotzeach b’shogeg, one who committed unintentional murder. The relationship between these two groups seems to be a bit of a stretch. They are quite the opposite of one another. The Bostoner Rebbe, zl, was one of the founders of the baal teshuvah movement in this country. The Rebbe was called to address the annual Agudath Israel convention. He used his time at the podium as an opportunity to exhort observant Jews to reach out to their…

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ולארץ לא יכפר לדם אשר שפך בה כי אם בדם שפכו

Sruly Schnair In 5782, Masei

The land will not have atonement for the blood that was spilled in it, except through the blood of the one who spilled it. (35:33)

Why does the land require atonement? Did it sin in any way concerning the murder? Is it guilty of some form of murder? Horav Zaidel Epstein, zl, explains that the strictures of the complaint against the land is in its passive response to the murder. It acted with indifference, with cool detachment, as if the murder were nothing at all. The land should have cried out and made demands. Who ever heard of the land expressing its emotion with regard to a wanton act of murder? The Mashgiach refers us to Hashem’s curse of Kayin’s act of murdering his brother. …

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פנחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן

Sruly Schnair In Pinchas, 5782

Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen. (25:11)

When the Torah details Pinchas’ lineage, it does so only up until Aharon. In other instances, while the Torah does not list ancestors all the way to the Patriarchs, it does extend to the rosh ha’mishpachah, head of the family. For example, Betzalel’s lineage is recorded up to Yehudah, and Ohaliav’s is listed up to Dan. The Torah stops short of Yaakov Avinu. Concerning Pinchas, the Torah stops with Aharon. Why not mention Amram and Levi? [Simply, we could say that the Torah is addressing the Kehunah and Pinchas’ relationship to it. Amram and Levi were not Kohanim, since Kehunah,…

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בקנאו את קנאתי בתוכם

Sruly Schnair In Pinchas, 5782

When he zealously avenged Me among them. (25:11)

The zealot acts on behalf of Hashem. After being completely certain that he has expunged every vestige of personal interest and emotion, to the point that he truly feels that he is acting only for Hashem, then he can move forward by acting zealously. The commentators question the meaning of b’socham, among them, and its placement at the end of the pasuk. It is almost as if the Torah is conveying to us the criterion for kanaus, zealousness: it must be b’socham, among them. Simply, this implies that the kanai should view himself as being “among them,” a member of…

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ושם איש ישראל המכה... זמרי בן סלוא נשיא בית אב לשמעוני

Sruly Schnair In Pinchas, 5782

The name of the Yisraeli man who was slain… was Zimri ben Salu, leader of a paternal house of Shimoni. (25:14)

Chazal (Sanhedrin 2a) teach that Zimri was the first Jew to fall prey to the sin of public debauchery. When one is first, he opens the door, releases the floodgates for those who use his example as the green-light for their immoral debasement. His real name was Shlumiel ben Tzurishadai. When he began to sin, he was called Shaul ben HaCanaanis. Only after he had become completely dissolate was he called Zimri ben Salu. In Bereishis 46:10, Rashi explains that Shaul ben HaCannanis was the son of Dinah, Yaakov Avinu’s daughter, who was violated by Shechem. When her brothers, Shimon…

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אשר יצא לפניהם ואשר יבא לפניהם ואשר יוציאם ואשר יביאם ולא תהיה עדת ה' כצאן אשר אין להם רעה

Sruly Schnair In Pinchas, 5782

Who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall take them out and bring them in; and let the assembly of Hashem not be like sheep that have no shepherd. (27:17)

Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem to appoint his successor, presenting criteria for an effective leader, a person: who leads from the front; who takes the nation out and brings them in; who does not remain in the background. He then adds, “And let the assembly of Hashem not be like sheep that have no shepherd.” Horav Aryeh Finkel, zl (Rosh Yeshivah Mir/Brachfeld), wonders why Moshe had to supplement his request for a leader with a comparison to a herd of sheep who are shepherdless. Was not his request sufficient in its own right, without the added analogy about sheep? The Rosh…

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איכה אשא לבדי טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם

How can I carry alone your contentiousness, your burdens, and your quarrels? (1:12)

הבו לכם אנשים חכמים ונבונים וידעים לשבטיכם ואשימם בראשיכם

Provide for yourselves distinguished men, who are wise, understanding and well-known to your tribes, and I shall appoint them as your heads. (1:13)

נקם נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים

Take vengeance for Bnei Yisrael against the Midyanim. (31:2)

נקם נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים ... וישלח אתם משה אלף למטה

Take vengeance for Bnei Yisrael against the Midyanim… Moshe sent them a thousand from each tribe. (31:2,6)

והקריתם לכם ערים ערי מקלט ... ונס שמה רצח מכה נפש בשגגה

You shall designate cities for yourselves… and a murderer shall flee there – one who takes a life unintentionally. (35:11)

ולארץ לא יכפר לדם אשר שפך בה כי אם בדם שפכו

The land will not have atonement for the blood that was spilled in it, except through the blood of the one who spilled it. (35:33)

פנחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן

Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen. (25:11)

בקנאו את קנאתי בתוכם

When he zealously avenged Me among them. (25:11)

ושם איש ישראל המכה... זמרי בן סלוא נשיא בית אב לשמעוני

The name of the Yisraeli man who was slain… was Zimri ben Salu, leader of a paternal house of Shimoni. (25:14)

אשר יצא לפניהם ואשר יבא לפניהם ואשר יוציאם ואשר יביאם ולא תהיה עדת ה' כצאן אשר אין להם רעה

Who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall take them out and bring them in; and let the assembly of Hashem not be like sheep that have no shepherd. (27:17)

YEARS

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