Ki Seitzei – Peninim on the Torah

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)

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”…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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)

YEARS

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