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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…

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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…

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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”…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shoftim

ידינו לא שפכה את הדם הזה

Sruly Schnair
In Shoftim, 5778

“Our hands have not spilled this blood.” (21:7)

Chazal (Sotah 45b) ask: “Did anyone suspect the elders of committing murder?” They mean to say that they did not see the traveler (deceased) and had no part in allowing him to go on his way – alone, without food or escort. If the elders would have been guilty of this neglect, they would be considered as having (his) blood on their hands. The elders/leaders of a community have an enormous responsibility. When they renege their responsibility, and, as a result, someone is hurt – they have blood on their hands. The commentators debate whose blood the elders are atoning….

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Home -> 5778 -> Shoftim

כי ימצא חלל באדמה

Sruly Schnair
In Shoftim, 5778

If a corpse will be found on the land. (21:1)

The Torah relates the halachah of eglah arufah, the axed heifer, which is used to atone for the murder of a Jew whose death came about possibly due to communal neglect or indifference. A public ritual is performed, during which the elders of the community closest to where the corpse is discovered declare their innocence and non-culpability in this incident. They then pray for forgiveness for the Jewish People. Baal HaTurim notes that the laws of eglah arufah are placed between “two wars”, the parsha of going out to war which is in Parashas Shoftim; and the war at the beginning…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shoftim

תמים תהיה עם ד' אלקיך

Sruly Schnair
In Shoftim, 5778

You shall be wholehearted with Hashem, Your G-d. (18:13)

Temimus, simple faith, is not so simple. It takes a special person, whose faith in Hashem is unequivocal, to achieve temimus. It requires one: to live a life of acquiescence; to ask no questions; to believe that everything is for the good; to maintain wholesome belief in Hashem that everything that occurs in one’s life is Divinely orchestrated. The tamim lives only in the moment. The future is completely in the hands of Hashem. Horav Pinchas Koritzer, zl, teaches that only two mitzvos or observances are to be carried out with Hashem: temimus, wholehearted faith; and tznius, modesty. (Hatznea leches im…

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Home -> 5778 -> Shoftim

על פי שנים עדים או שלשה עדים יומת המת

Sruly Schnair
In Shoftim, 5778

By the testimony or two of three witnesses shall the condemned person be put to death. (17:6)

The word shnayim connotes two. Yet, later in this parsha (19:15), the Torah uses the word shnei (eidim) to specify two witnesses. Why does the text change from one pasuk to the other? Horav David Cohen, Shlita, quotes the Gaon, zl, m’Vilna, who distinguishes between shnayim and shnei (although both words mean “two”). Shnayim refers to two people (or objects) which come together or meld together as one unit, while shnei refers to two individuals, separate and/or disparate, who just happen to be together. In other words, shnayim is a “two” which maintains a stronger sense of unity. With the…

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