Eikev – Peninim on the Torah

“But take heed to yourselves that your heart does not open itself to enticement and you turn aside and you serve other gods.” (11:16)

Rashi comments that once one “turns away” from Torah, the natural sequence of events is “you will worship strange gods.” Once one leaves the Torah path, he will eventually turn to idols. This is perplexing! We know that the yetzer hora, evil inclination, works in a specific manner. First, it lures one to turning away slightly by performing a simple act of indiscretion. This goes on for awhile as the yetzer hora slowly increases its hold upon the person until it ultimately brings him down completely. Worshiping idols is the last step, the final act of iniquity which is the…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Eikev, 5756

“And I remained upon the mountain for forty days and forty nights – I neither ate bread nor drank water.” (9:9)

The Midrash Tanchuma remarks that Moshe’s mesiras nefesh, self-sacrifice, for the Torah earned him the zchus that the Torah is called by his name, Toras Moshe. This means that Hashem Yisborach gave His Torah, Toras Hashem, to Moshe. What was Moshe’s kinyan, act of acquisition? His mesiras nefesh was the medium which catalyzed his proprietorship over the Torah. What, indeed, was Moshe’s act of mesiras nefesh? What remarkable act of self-sacrifice did he exhibit that was so sublime to cause Hashem to “transfer” ownership to Moshe? He did not eat or drink for forty days and nights when he went…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Eikev, 5756

“I grasped the two Luchos…. and I smashed them before your eyes… at that time Hashem said to me, ‘Carve out for yourself two Luchos like the first ones.’ The Bnei Yisrael travelled…. there did Aharon die.” (8:17)

Moshe’s recounting of his days in Heaven are interrupted so that we should recognize and mourn the loss of a tzaddik to the same extent that we mourn the breaking of the Luchos. The loss of a righteous person should generate within us a sense of loss and despair which is commensurate to the tragedy of losing the Luchos. Chazal offer a number of interpretations for this parallel. The Kesav Sofer explains that despite the loss of the Luchos, albeit intense, they still had the new Luchos. These second Luchos, however, although sublime, paled in comparison to its predecessors. Likewise,…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Eikev, 5756

“It is not by bread alone that man can make a life for himself, but that man can live by everything that comes from the mouth of Hashem.” (8:3)

This pasuk underscores the significance of acknowledging the source of man’s sustenance. The word ojk actually has a dual meaning. It can mean “bread” or to “wage war”. Horav S.R. Hirsch, zl, declares that “bread” is the nourishment that man wrests from nature, competing with his fellow man for the “piece of bread.” “Bread” represents the joint product of nature and man’s intelligence, indicating man’s mastery over the mundane world. Consequently, “bread” is the physical manifestation of the intelligence with which man creates his own sustenance as he interacts with his fellow man to “harness” nature. The tragedy of man…

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Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Eikev, 5756

“This shall be your reward when you listen to these ordinances.” (7:12)

Rashi explains that according to the Midrash, the word ceg also means “heel.” The Torah, therefore, alludes to those mitzvos which people may regard as unimportant. This disregard for the body of mitzvos that people determine to be relatively unimportant, extends to the point that they tend to tread upon the discarded mitzvos with their heels. The Torah promises Klal Yisrael that if they maintain their devotion to all of the mitzvos, even those which have been neglected due to their apparent insignificance, Hashem will reward them. What is the meaning of “treading upon mitzvos“? Horav Moshe Swift, zl, remarks…

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“But take heed to yourselves that your heart does not open itself to enticement and you turn aside and you serve other gods.” (11:16)

“And I remained upon the mountain for forty days and forty nights – I neither ate bread nor drank water.” (9:9)

“I grasped the two Luchos…. and I smashed them before your eyes… at that time Hashem said to me, ‘Carve out for yourself two Luchos like the first ones.’ The Bnei Yisrael travelled…. there did Aharon die.” (8:17)

“It is not by bread alone that man can make a life for himself, but that man can live by everything that comes from the mouth of Hashem.” (8:3)

“This shall be your reward when you listen to these ordinances.” (7:12)

YEARS

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