Chazal, at the end of Meseches Uktzin, say, “There is no greater container to hold Klal Yisrael’s blessings than peace.” One may have everything – health, prosperity, and fame – but without peace these gifts have no significance. Consequently, the blessings which the Kohanim are to impart upon Bnei Yisrael are sealed with the hope for peace. A community can catalyze peace in one of two ways. The first way is the positive approach, in which people work towards ironing out their differences, seeking ways to increase harmony and good will. Discord is viewed as taboo, so the slightest infraction…
The Torah allows one to become a nazir voluntarily. This status precludes one from eating or drinking grape products or from coming into contact with a dead body. In addition, the nazir‘s hair may not be cut. By becoming a nazir, one enters into a state of extreme sanctity in which what is permissible — and taken for granted by the average Jew — becomes incongruous with the nazir’s elevated status. Chazal explain the reason that the Torah juxtaposes the laws of the nazir upon those of the sotah, wayward wife. One who sees a sotah in her degradation should…
Why would someone choose to become a nazir? It may be the result of a harmful experience associated with drinking wine. Alternatively, it may be the product of a conviction that one should abstain from mundane pleasures. The individual feels that he is too involved with himself. Consequently, he goes to the extreme, taking a vow to abstain from his usual pleasures. The nazir must make sure that he does not defile his nezirus by coming in contact with a dead body. If this does happen, the nazir becomes tamei, ritually unclean. He must go through a purification process after…
Rashi comments that the Torah specifically employs the word tisteh with a sin as opposed to a samach– to describe the woman’s going astray in being unfaithful to her husband. The word tisteh is connected to the word shtus, which means foolishness. Hence, Chazal say that one who commits an act of adultery or becomes a partner in an immoral relationship has “lost his mind”. As Chazal describes it, “A spirit of foolishness has entered his mind.” They cite the pasuk in Mishlei, 6:32, “He who has illicit relations with a woman lacks a heart.” In his commentary on Pirkei…