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Home -> 5775 -> Terumah

ויקחו לי תרומה מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Terumah, 5775

And let them take for Me a Terumah/portion. (25:2)

The pasuk has been used for much homiletic discourse concerning the attitude one should manifest upon contributing to a worthy cause. In V’chai Bahem from Horav Weiss, zl, the author quotes the well-known concept, posited by the Baal Shem Tov, that the faults a person notices in others are actually his own failings. Since Ein adam ro’eh nigei atzmo, “One does not perceive his own plagues/failings/shortcomings/indiscretions.” We notice everything regarding others, but never that which applies to us. Thus, the pasuk is informing us that, whatever indiscretions one notices in others, are a mirror image of his own failings. Likewise,…

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Home -> 5775 -> Metzora

כי תבואו אל ארץ כנען... ונתתי נגע בבית ארץ אחזתכם

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Metzora, 5775

When you arrive in the land of Canaan… and I will place a tzaraas affliction upon a house in the land of your possession. (14:34)

V’nasati, “and I will place.” The structure of the pasuk is such that it implies good tidings – when, in fact, it means the destruction of one’s home. Rashi explains that, when the Canaanite inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael saw that their sojourn in the Holy Land was soon coming to an end, they concealed their valuables in the walls of their homes. They were not about to enrich their Jewish victors. In order to avail His People of the Canaanite wealth, Hashem placed an affliction on the part of the wall in which the treasure was hidden. Once the tainted…

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Home -> 5775 -> Metzora

ולקח למטהר שתי צפורים חיות טהרות... ושחט את הציפור האחת... ושלח את הצפור החיה על פני השדה

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Metzora, 5775

And for the person being purified there shall be taken two live clean birds… and one bird shall be slaughtered… and he shall set free the live bird upon the open field. (14:4,5,7)

As part of the process of purifying the metzora, two birds are brought as an offering to Hashem. Only one of them is killed, however, while the other one is set free. Birds are used for the korban, sacrifice, because birds are constantly chirping, and the metzora had not stopped spewing his slander when he should have kept his mouth shut. This explains why one bird is killed, but what about the second bird? Why is it released? The explanation as cited by the commentators is that the Torah is hereby circumventing a common error, thus imparting an important lesson….

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Home -> 5775 -> Tazria

אדם כי יהיה בעור בשרו שאת או ספחת או בהרת. והיה בעור בשרו לנגע צרעת.

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Tazria, 5775

If a person will have on the skin of his flesh a s’eis or a sapachas, or a baheres, and it will become a tzaraas affliction on the skin of his flesh. (13:2)

Lashon hora, slanderous speech, which is the cause of tzaraas, is most often the result of envy and controversy in their various states. In the scheme of things, for every dispute among people, every point of contention which catalyzes animus towards one another and the resulting inevitable lashon hora, there is one simple point, one solitary position, that would make the controversy dissolve, if the individual would opt for it. If so, the envy dissipates and harmony continues to reign. What has the power to mitigate dispute, to put an end to contention between people? Vitur, acquiescence, submissiveness. One who…

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Home -> 5775 -> Shoftim

וענו ואמרו ידינו לא שפכה את הדם הזה ועינינו לא ראו

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shoftim, 5775

They shall speak up and say, “Our hands have not spilled this blood, and our eyes did not see.” (21:7)

The elders of the city closest to the unknown victim of a homicide declared, “Our hands have not spilled this (innocent) blood, and our eyes did not see.” Rashi explains that this does not mean that the elders are in any way suspected of homicidal intent. They lament that they had not seen the victim; thus, they had not sent him off properly with food and accompaniment, as is the appropriate procedure for sending off a welcome guest. It seems from Rashi’s explanation that had we accompanied the victim, he might not have become a victim. People pick on loners,…

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Home -> 5775 -> Shoftim

מי האיש הירא ורך הלבב

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shoftim, 5775

Who is the man who is fearful and fainthearted? (20:8)

Prior to selecting those individuals who were to represent the nation in war, we find the Kohen Gadol asking all those who had just made family commitments– a new wife; a new house; a new vineyard– to leave the circle and return home. The Kohen left the scene, and the officers took charge. According to Rabbi Yosi HaGelili, the last declaration, which exhorted he who was afraid to leave, focuses on a person who is not as much a coward as he is afraid of dying. He is fearful of the impact that his sins will make on his successful…

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Home -> 5775 -> Shoftim

ואמר אליהם שמע ישראל אתם קרבים היום למלחמה על אויביכם אל ירך לבבכם אל תיראו ואל תחפזו ואל תערצו מפניהם

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shoftim, 5775

He shall say to them, “Hear, O Yisrael, today you are coming near to the battle against your enemies; let your heart not be faint; do not be afraid; do not panic and do not be broken before them. (20:3)

Chazal (Talmud Sotah 44) teach that, during a war, it is absolutely prohibited to run from the enemy. While today, outside of Eretz Yisrael, we cannot really say that the Jewish People are involved in a physical war, we are certainly embattled in a spiritual battle against an anti-Semitic world that does not want to see us observing Torah and mitzvos. What a sad commentary it is that anti-Semitic gentiles have a greater perception of the value of Torah and mitzvos to the Jew than do our secular brethren. They have long ago relegated our People’s treasure, Hashem’s Divinely authored…

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Home -> 5775 -> Shoftim

לא תסור מן הדבר אשר יגידו לך ימין ושמאל

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shoftim, 5775

You shall not deviate from the word that they will tell you, right or left. (17:11)

Some individuals find it hard to follow the direction set forth by the Torah sages of each generation. They feel that the guidance of the gedolim, giants of Torah, must be consistent with their personal line of thinking. Accepting the sage advice of a Torah leader is a bit too much for them to handle. The ben Torah who conforms to the direction of the chachmei haTorah, wise men of Torah, lives a life of peace and calm, serene in the knowledge that he is following the path that Hashem has established for him. He realizes that, after all is…

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Home -> 5775 -> Shoftim

לא תקים לך מצבה

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In Shoftim, 5775

And you shall not erect for yourself a pillar. (16:22)

It is forbidden to set up a single stone for worship – even if it is in order to worship the true G-d, Hashem. He has despised these stones ever since the pagans decided to employ them as a means for their own worship. Only an altar comprised of numerous stones or of earth creates the proper modality of worship. Horav Levi Yitzchak, zl, m’Berditchev, renders this prohibition homiletically as referring to the most common form of worship: self-worship. Chazal state (Pirkei Avos 4), “This world is compared to a vestibule before Olam Habba, the World to Come.” Our world…

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Home -> Shemos -> 5775

ויצא אל אחיו וירא בסבלתם

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum
In 5775, Shemos

And (he) went out to his brethren. And (he) saw their burdens. (2:11)

Rashi defines vayar b’sivlosam, “And he saw their burdens: Nasan einav v’libo liheyos metzar aleihem, ‘He focused his eyes and heart to be distressed over them.’” Literally, the phrase means that Moshe Rabbeinu “saw into their burdens.” He delved into their adversity. Apparently, the word va’yar, or its root raoh, to see, means much more than superficial perception. It demands cognitive application in conjunction with the perception. To see, and not to see beneath the surface, is not reiyah, seeing. I think that we have just uncovered a deep insight into the concept of “seeing” as evinced by the word…

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