Sruly Schnair – Page 130 – Peninim on the Torah

כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך... לא נפלאת היה ממך ולא רחוקה היא... כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו

For this commandment that I command you today – it is not hidden from and it is not distant… rather, the matter is very near to you – in your mouth and in your heart – to perform it. (30: 11,14)

This mitzvah? To which mitzvah is the Torah referring? What mitzvah might we think is distant, inaccessible to the average person? Rashi implies that the Torah refers to the mitzvah of limud haTorah, Torah study. Many people err in thinking that Torah erudition is beyond them – almost impossible to master. While it is true that Torah knowledge has no limit, nonetheless, through constant diligent study, one can achieve a high degree of Torah scholarship. Torah is Divinely authored, thus making it impossible for the human mind to grasp its profundities without Divine intervention. When Hashem sees that a Jew…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Savo

בבוקר תאמר מי יתן ערב ובערב תאמר מי יתן בוקר מפחד לבבך

Sruly Schnair In Ki Savo, 5778

In the morning you will say, “Who can give back last night?” And in the evening you will say, “Who can give back this morning?” for the fright of your heart. (28:67)

Rashi explains this practically, with conditions deteriorating on a daily basis to the point that the anguish of today will be so painful it will make one yearn for the suffering of yesterday. This can also refer to those who wake up too late to realize that the life which they led yesterday (in the past) was the precursor to the tzaros, troubles, which they experience today. Whether it be satisfaction with one’s personal spiritual growth or the lack of nachas, satisfaction and pleasure, derived from one’s children – nothing happens in a vacuum. The decisions that we make today…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Savo

והיית ממשש בצהרים כאשר ימשש העור באפלה

Sruly Schnair In Ki Savo, 5778

You shall grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in the darkness. (28:29)

The Yalkut (also Talmud Megillah 24b) questions the implication of this curse. Does it matter to the blind person whether it is dark or not? He does not see anyway. Rabbi Yosi explains that he once had an experience which provided an answer for him. It was late one night when he saw a blind man walking down the dark street with a torch in his hand. “I questioned him, ‘What is the torch to you?’ He replied, ‘When the torch is in my hand people see me and prevent me from falling into pits.’” What a powerful lesson for…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Savo

ובאת אל הכהן אשר יהיה בימים ההם ואמרת אליו הגדתי היום לד' אלקיך כי באתי אל הארץ

Sruly Schnair In Ki Savo, 5778

You shall come to whoever shall be the Kohen in those days, and you shall say to him, “I declare today to Hashem, your G-d, that I have come to the Land.” (26:3)

The mitzvah of bringing Bikurim, the first fruits, is paradigmatic of the middah, character trait, of hakoras hatov, gratitude. This middah is one of the most fundamental principles of human and Heavenly relationships. Indeed, one who is makir tov, acknowledges his debt of gratitude to Hashem, even in the areas that affect his interpersonal relationships with people (he understands that what he receives is from Hashem, with people serving as His agency) will ultimately achieve shleimus, completion/perfection, in his relationship with Hashem. The nature of man is to focus on what he is still missing, rather than on what he…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Seitzei

והיה אם לא תמצא חן בעיניו... וכתב לה ספר כריתות... ושלחה מביתו

Sruly Schnair In Ki Seitzei, 5778

And it will be that she will not find favor in his eyes… and he wrote her a bill of divorce… and sent her from his house. (24:1)

At the end of Meseches Gittin, the Talmud states: “One who divorces his first wife – even the Mizbayach, Altar, sheds tears over this.” Why do Chazal underscore the Mizbayach as the object that weeps? Why not the Heavens, the oceans, the trees – indeed, everything in the world? Why specifically the Altar? Horav Avraham Benuchovski, zl, explains this based upon the meaning of Hashem’s declaration (prior to the creation of Chavah): Lo tov hayos ha’adam levado. E’eseh lo eizar k’negdo, “It is not tov, good, that man is alone. I will make for him an eizar, helpmate, opposite him”…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Seitzei

כי יקרא קן צפור לפניך בדרך בכל עץ או על הארץ אפרחים או ביצים והאם רבצת על האפרחים או על הביצים לא תקח האם על הבנים

Sruly Schnair In Ki Seitzei, 5778

If a bird’s nest happens to be before you on your way, on a tree or on the ground – young birds or eggs – and the mother is roosting on the young birds or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. (22:6)

The laws of shiluach hakein, sending away an ownerless bird which is roosting on her young, is a mitzvah for which a number of humanistic “rationales” are suggested. Obviously, these explanations are primarily for us, human beings, with our mortal minds, so that we have an understanding of a mitzvah which seems to be simple to perform and carries with it the awesome reward of longevity. Like everything else in the Torah, there is also a homiletic and esoteric side to it, which often sheds a completely new perspective on the mitzvah. Horav Levi Yitzchak m’Berditchev, zl, explains the mitzvah of…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Seitzei

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלך

Sruly Schnair In Ki Seitzei, 5778

Remember what Amalek did to you. (25:17)

What did Amalek really do to us? They came after us three times: in Refidim; the Maapilim, after the spies; following the death of Aharon HaKohen. There were casualties, and every Jewish soul whose life is cut short is worth all of our enemy – and more. Nonetheless, we have been persecuted and hounded, murdered like animals led to the slaughter; from the Egyptians who persecuted us for 210 years, who slaughtered our babies, to Titus, Nevuchadnetzer, Crusades, Inquisition, hundreds of pogroms, Chemelniki, and finally the cataclysmic Holocaust, which destroyed one third of our nation – yet we are not…

Home -> 5778 -> Ki Seitzei

כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה איננו שמע בקול אביו ובקול אמו

Sruly Schnair In Ki Seitzei, 5778

If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother. (21:18)

Concerning the incident of the ben sorer u’moreh, the wayward son, and its accompanying laws causes one to pause and ask: Why? This could never happen. Why take up precious space to write about a wayward son that (according to the demanding laws that accompany it) has characteristics which are not likely to develop. D’rosh u’sekabel s’char, “Learn and you will receive reward”: Probably the greatest reward will be derived from learning it properly – with a focus on one’s parenting. This way, he will not have to address such a child personally. Having said this, we turn to one…

Home -> Pekudei -> 5756

Sruly Schnair In 5756, Pekudei

“And they attached the Choshen by its rings to the rings of the Eiphod… the Choshen shall not be loosened from the Eiphod.” (39:21)

We may infer from the pasuk that once the Eiphod and the Choshen were attached, they were to remain that way always. Consequently, Aharon donned a single garment. This is inconsistent with the pasuk in Parashas Tzav (Vayikra 8:7,8), which implies that Aharon put on two separate garments. Horav David Feinstein, Shlita, suggests that in Parashas Tzav the Torah‘s intention was regarding the threads which connect the two garments, whether to be loosened or tightened, so that it fit the Kohen Gadol properly. Horav Feinstein proceeds to expound upon the symbolism between the two garments which were worn as one….

Home -> Pekudei -> 5756

Sruly Schnair In 5756, Pekudei

“And they made the holy vestments … as Hashem had commanded Moshe.” (39:1)

The phrase “As Hashem had commanded Moshe,” is written eighteen times in the parsha. Chazal note the Torah’s emphasis on the people’s strict compliance with Hashem’s command. We may wonder at the significance of this phrase. Can one do other than “as Hashem commanded”? If one is told to perform a duty in a specific manner, then he should execute said activity in the prescribed manner — as he was told. Is that unreasonable to expect? When we explore the tendencies of human nature, we note that even when people are instructed to do something in a specific manner, when all…

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כי המצוה הזאת אשר אנכי מצוך... לא נפלאת היה ממך ולא רחוקה היא... כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד בפיך ובלבבך לעשותו

For this commandment that I command you today – it is not hidden from and it is not distant… rather, the matter is very near to you – in your mouth and in your heart – to perform it. (30: 11,14)

בבוקר תאמר מי יתן ערב ובערב תאמר מי יתן בוקר מפחד לבבך

In the morning you will say, “Who can give back last night?” And in the evening you will say, “Who can give back this morning?” for the fright of your heart. (28:67)

והיית ממשש בצהרים כאשר ימשש העור באפלה

You shall grope at noon, as the blind man gropes in the darkness. (28:29)

ובאת אל הכהן אשר יהיה בימים ההם ואמרת אליו הגדתי היום לד' אלקיך כי באתי אל הארץ

You shall come to whoever shall be the Kohen in those days, and you shall say to him, “I declare today to Hashem, your G-d, that I have come to the Land.” (26:3)

והיה אם לא תמצא חן בעיניו... וכתב לה ספר כריתות... ושלחה מביתו

And it will be that she will not find favor in his eyes… and he wrote her a bill of divorce… and sent her from his house. (24:1)

כי יקרא קן צפור לפניך בדרך בכל עץ או על הארץ אפרחים או ביצים והאם רבצת על האפרחים או על הביצים לא תקח האם על הבנים

If a bird’s nest happens to be before you on your way, on a tree or on the ground – young birds or eggs – and the mother is roosting on the young birds or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. (22:6)

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלך

Remember what Amalek did to you. (25:17)

כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה איננו שמע בקול אביו ובקול אמו

If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother. (21:18)

“And they attached the Choshen by its rings to the rings of the Eiphod… the Choshen shall not be loosened from the Eiphod.” (39:21)

“And they made the holy vestments … as Hashem had commanded Moshe.” (39:1)

YEARS

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