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“And it came to pass on the day that Moshe had completed setting up the Mishkan.” (7:1)

Chazal call attention to the first word of this pasuk hvhu, “and it came to pass.” They say that whenever this word occurs in Tanach, it always refers to a tzarah, a period of sorrow and grief. They question the element of grief associated with the Mishkan. The creation of the Mishkan as a place for the Shechinah to repose should surely be cause for simcha, happiness, and rejoicing. What role do despair and anxiety have during a moment of such exaltation? Chazal present an analogy to a king who had a quarrelsome wife, who would not stop her bickering….

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“Speak unto Aharon and unto his sons saying, so you shall bless the Bnei Yisrael.” (6:23)

Hashem commands that His blessing be conferred only by the kohanim. Horav Moshe Shternbuch, Shlita, suggests a practical reason for this. Regrettably, many people posit that the kohen and his present day counterpart, the Torah scholar are supported by the community without any reciprocation. Many individuals believe that if an individual is not “working” in the way that they are, he is not contributing to the community. This notion is, of course, categorically wrong.  The sustaining power of Klal Yisrael is manifest only through Torah and Torah scholars who devote their lives to its study and dissemination. This also applies…

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“Anything in which grapes have been seeped he shall not drink.” (6:3)

The Torah forbids the nazir to drink any intoxicating liquor or any beverage derived from grapes, even if it contains no alcohol. He may not even eat fresh or dried grapes. The prohibition includes water in which grapes had been briefly soaked, even if only a mere hint of the grapes had been present in the water. Chazal infer from this concept that the taste of a food is regarded as representative  of  the  food  itself,  or the taste is like the substance. In the Talmud Nazir 37b, Chazal also derive from this pasuk that when a half-measure of permitted…

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“Command the Bnei Yisrael that they send out of the camp every leper, and every zav, and whosoever is unclean by a (dead) person.” (5:2)

Horav Zalmen Sorotzkin z.l. offers a homiletic exposition of this pasuk. Many observant Jews ignore their co-religionists whom they notice acting in an offensive manner. When they see members of their community transgressing the Torah by desecrating Shabbos, eating non-kosher food, and acting reprehensibly, they delegate to the Rabbi the responsibility to chastise the offenders. These individuals refuse to get involved, claiming various lame excuses to justify their apathy to the public travesty against Hashem.  They feel that by sharing the details of their friends’ miscreancy with the Rabbi, they have fulfilled their requirements as Jews. Thus, they consider themselves…

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