Torah Tidbits Issue 1348 - 23/11/19

ISSUE 1348 NOV. 23TH '19

‫כ"ה מרחשון תש"פ‬

‫פרשת חיי שרה‬

PARSHAT CHAYEI SARAH - SHABBAT MEVARCHIM

ROSH CHODESH BENCHING 5780 4 Page Pullout See centerfold

SPECIAL FOR SHABBAT CHEVRON Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, Rabbanit Miriam Levinger & Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

‫ ֶאל־‬..." ‫ְמ ָע ַרת ְׂש ֵדה‬ ...‫ַה ַּמ ְכ ֵּפ ָלה‬ "‫ִהוא ֶח ְברֹון‬

Starts on page 46

YERUSHALAYIM IN/OUT TIMES FOR SHABBAT PARSHAT CHAYEI SARAH Candles 4:02PM Havdala 5:16PM Rabbeinu Tam 5:54PM

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PARSHAPIX

PPexplanations on p.68 and at www.ttidbits.com Click on the PPW link

WORD OF THE MONTH

from the torah tidbits statistics department

This Shabbat (Chayei Sara) we bench R"Ch Kislev. Kislev's R"Ch is one of two (the other is Tevet's) that vary between one and two days, depending upon whether the month just ending has a

30th day or not. Marcheshvan usually has 29 days, but this year is a SHALEIM and there is a 30 Marcheshvan, therefore Rosh Chodesh Kislev is two days this year. Specifically, R"Ch is THU & FRI (Nov 28-29)

‫וּביוֹם ִשׁ ִשׁי הַ בָּ א עָ ֵ ֽלינוּ וְעַ ל כָּל י ְִשׂ ָראֵ ל לְ טוֹבָ ה‬ ְ ‫ישׁי‬ ִ ‫ר ֹאשׁ חֹ דֶ ש כִּ ְסלֵו י ְִהיֶה ְבּיוֹם חֲ ִמ‬: The molad is WED Nov 27, 7h 18m 7p (6:57am Israel Winter Time) • Rambam notation: ‫שלא‬:‫ד' יג‬ ‫ ְשׁ ֹמנֶה עֶ ְשׂ ֵרה דַ קוֹת ו ְִשׁ ְבעָ ה חַ ל ִָקים אַ חֲ ֵרי ֶשׁבַ ע בַּ בּוֹקֶ ר‬,‫יעי‬ ִ ‫הַ מּוֹלַד י ְִהיֶה ְבּיוֹם ְר ִב‬.

Astronomical (actual) molad TUE Nov 26, 5:06pm (almost 14 hrs before the announced time) 2

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

OTHER Z'MANIM

CANDLE LIGHTING A N D H AV DA L A T I M ES

JERUSALEM CANDLES

4:02 4:20 4:17 4:17 4:17 4:17 4:17 4:17 4:18 4:02 4:16 4:05 4:16 4:16 4:16 4:17 4:19 4:18 4:03 4:12

CHAYEI SARAH

Yerushalayim / Maale Adumim Aza area (Netivot, S’deirot, Bet al)

Beit Shemesh / RBS Gush Etzion Raanana/ Tel Mond/ Herzliya/ K. Saba

Modi’in / Chashmona’im Netanya Be’er Sheva Rehovot Petach Tikva Ginot Shomron Haifa / Zichron Gush Shiloh Tel Aviv / Giv’at Shmuel Giv’at Ze’ev Chevron / Kiryat Arba Ashkelon Yad Binyamin Tzfat / Bik’at HaYarden Golan

HAVDALA

5:16 5:19 5:17 5:16 5:17 5:16 5:16 5:18 5:17 5:17 5:16 5:15 5:15 5:17 5:16 5:17 5:19 5:17 5:12 5:12

TOLDOT

4:00 4:18 4:16 4:15 4:15 4:15 4:15 4:16

5:15 5:18 5:16 5:15 5:15 5:15 5:15 5:17

4:16 5:16 4:00 5:15 4:14 5:14 4:03 5:14 4:14 5:14 4:14 5:16 4:15 5:16 4:16 5:16 4:18 5:17 4:16 5:16 4:01 5:11 4:10 5:11

Rabbeinu Tam (J'lem) - 5:54pm • next week - 5:53pm OU Kashrut  NCSY  Jewish Action  JLIC NJCD / Yachad / Our Way  OU West Coast  OU Press  Synagogue/ Community Services  OU Advocacy  OU Israel MOISHE BANE, PRESIDENT OF THE ORTHODOX UNION Howard Tzvi Friedman, Chairman of the Board, Orthodox Union | Dr. Michael Elman, OU Israel Chair | Gary Torgow, Chair, OU Kashrus Commission ALLEN FAGIN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT | Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Exec. V.P. Emeritus | Rabbi Steven Weil, Senior Managing Director | Shlomo Schwartz, Chief Financial Officer | Lenny Bessler, Chief Human Resources Officer | Rabbi Dave Felsenthal, Chief Innovation Officer OU KOSHER: Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO/Rabbinic Administrator OU Kosher | Rabbi Moshe Elefant, COO/Executive Rabbinic Coordinator ISRAEL: Rabbi Yossi Tirnauer, Rabbinic Coordinator OU Israel | Rabbi Yissachar Dov Krakowski, Rabbinic Field Representative Headquarters: 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212-563-4000  website: www.ou.org

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RANGES ARE 11 DAYS, WED-SHABBAT 22 MARCHESHVAN - 2 KISLEV (NOV 20-30) Earliest Talit & T'filin Sunrise Sof Z'man K' Sh'ma

5:19-5:26am 6:11½-6:20am 8:47-8:53am

(Magen Avraham: 8:10-8:15am)

Sof Z'man T'fila

(Magen Avraham: 9:09-9:15am)

Chatzot (Halachic noon) Mincha Gedola (Earliest Mincha) Plag Mincha Sunset (counting elevation) (based on sea level: 4:38-4:35pm)

9:40-9:45am

11:24½-11:27½am 11:55-11:58am 3:32½-3:31pm 4:42¾-4:40¼pm

Seymour J. AbramsOrthodox Union Jerusalem World CenterAvrom Silver Jerusalem College for AdultsWolinetz Family ShulMakom BaLevBirthrightYachadNCSY in IsraelJLIC in IsraelPearl & Harold M. Jacobs ZULA Outreach CenterThe Jack Gindi Oraita ProgramOU Israel Kashrut

ZVI SAND, PRESIDENT, OU ISRAEL Yitzchak Fund, Former President, OU Israel | Rabbi Emanuel Quint z”l, Senior Vice President | Prof. Meni Koslowsky, Vice President | Dr. Simcha Heller, Vaad member | Stuart Hershkowitz, Vaad member | Moshe Kempinski, Vaad member | Sandy Kestenbaum, Vaad member | Ben Wiener, Vaad member | Harvey Wolinetz, Vaad member RABBI AVI BERMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OU ISRAEL David Katz, CFO, OU Israel | Chaim Pelzner, Director of Programs, OU Israel | Rabbi Sam Shor, Director of Programs, OU Israel Center | Rabbi Sholom Gold, Dean, Avrom Silver Jerusalem College for Adults

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WEEKLY INSPIRATION

‫ צריכים לבוא לארץ‬,‫ ביחוד כלפי העתיד‬,‫כדי לדעת את חיי האומה ואת מהלכה ושאיפתה‬ .‫ וברוח‬,‫ בנפש‬,‫ קבוע בגוף‬,‫ישראל ולהיות קבוע בארץ ישראל‬ )‫יג‬:‫ ארץ חפץ א‬,‫( רב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק זצ"ל‬

In order to comprehend the life of the Jewish nation; her progress and aspirations, and particularly her ultimate ambitions - one must come to Eretz Yisrael, to live in the Land; with one's body, soul, and spirit. (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook zt"l, Eretz Chefetz 1:13)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

06 14 18 24 26 30 32 46 48 50 52

Aliya by Aliya Phil Chernofsky

“Sarah, Esther, & the Sleepy Students” Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb To Have a Why Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Probing the Prophets Rabbi Nachman Winkler All Equally Great Days Rabbi Shalom Rosner

The Most Important Mission Rebbetzin Shira Smiles Simchat Shmuel Rabbi Sam Shor Shabbat Chevron Special Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum Shabbat Chevron Special Rabbanit Miriam Levinger

Shabbat Chevron Special Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider Divrei Menachem Menachem Persoff

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TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

54 58 60 62 66 70 72 74 75 76 78

Sarah's Cry Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider Bankruptcy in Halacha Rav Daniel Mann, Eretz Chemda Unstuck in the Cave Rabbi Gideon Weitzman, Machon Puah Non-Observant Guests for Shabbat Rabbi Judah Mischel Parshat Chayei Sarah Rabbi Berel Wein

Rivka’s Ayin Tova Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher Kilei HaKerem in Chevron Rabbi Moshe Bloom WEEKLY OU KASHRUT PAGE Torah Tidbits This 'n That Phil Chernofsky The Finer Points of Love Sivan Rahav Meir Blessed with Everything Rabbi Benji Levy

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CHAYEI SARAH

ALIYA-BY-ALIYA SEDRA SUMMARY [P> X:Y (Z)] and [S> X:Y (Z)] indicate

STATS 5th of the 54 sedras;5th of 12 in B'reishit Written on 171 lines in a Torah, rank 37 4 Parshiyot; 3 open, 1 closed 105 p'sukim - ranks 32 (11 in B'reishit) same as D'varim (which is longer) 1402 words - ranks 37th (11 in B'reishit) 5314 letters - ranks 36th (11 in B'reishit) Shorter than average p'sukim in a sedra with slightly below average number of p'sukim means a smallish sedra

MITZVOT None of the 613 mitzvot are in Chayei Sara, however, as we mention often, there are Midot and values and other lessons to be learned.

This is one of 17 mitzva-less sedras, 9 of which are in Sefer B'reishit, 3 in Sh'mot, none in Vayikra, 2 in Bamidbar, and 3 in D'varim.

6

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

start of a parsha p’tucha or s’tuma. X:Y is Perek:Pasuk of the Parsha’s beginning; (Z) is the number of p’sukim in the parsha.

KOHEN FIRST ALIYA 16 P'SUKIM - 23:1-16 [P> 23:1 (20)] The parsha begins by telling us that Sara died in Kiryat Arba, which is Hevron. But first it tells us that she lived a full, long life of 127 years.

With the last topic of Vayeira being the AKEIDA, the juxtaposition of Sara's death supports our Tradition that Sara died as a result of the Akeida. The Midrash says that the Satan informed Sara about what Avraham was intending to do with Yitzchak, when they went towards Har HaMoriah. The shock was too great for an old woman, and she died.

SDT

Some commentaries give an interesting twist to this. They say that Sara died, not from fear that Avraham would offer Yitzchak as a Korban, but rather that he might not! She remembered Avraham's reaction when she told him to banish Yishmael (and Hagar). She was afraid that Avraham's love and kindness towards Yitzchak would prevent him from carrying out G-d's command, and that Avraham would thus fail this ultimate test of faith. When she saw (or heard) that

Avraham was returning with Yitzchak still alive, she thought her fears were realized and she died.

Avraham comes (some say from the Akeida, i.e. from Har HaMoriah; some say from Be'er Sheva; either way, it was apparently to Hevron that he came) to eulogize Sara and to cry for her.

Avraham next makes the arrage- ments for providing a suitable place to bury Sara.

(There is a Tradition that Avraham was aware of the burial place of Adam and Chava, and that is the piece of land he was interested in.) He turns to the people of CHEIT, one of whom is known as EFRON. They all exchange niceties and the people offer Avraham any land he wants. He insists on paying full price and that is what he does for the field and cave of Machpela.

PIRKEI AVOT made famous that Avraham was tested 10 times. But the mishna does not enumerate the ten tests.

There are different opinions as to which of Avraham's experiences are considered tests of his faith. Most lists of the 10 end with the Akeida, as implied by the p'sukim themselves. Rabeinu Yona finds a test after the Akeida - Avraham's experience in providing a burial place for Sara. The question on this is obvious - What was so difficult about that, that it should qualify as a test of faith - especially after the Akeida?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that after the Akeida, Avraham still had a couple of difficult things to go through.

Wasn't the Akeida and everything that preceded it enough? No, not finished yet.

This can test a person, sometimes, more OU ISRAEL CENTER

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than terrible trials and tribula- tions.

There is another approach to answer the same question. Eulogizing his wife, acquiring a burial place, finding a "shiduch" for Yitzchak - even remarrying Hagar (Ketura) are all "regular", mundane experiences. Can one who spoke repeatedly to G-d, ascended Har HaMori'ah, had a special relationship with G-d - can such a person return to being a "normal" human being? This too is a test, and Avraham passed with flying colors.

LEVI SECOND ALIYA 13 P'SUKIM - 23:17-24:9 The field, cave, trees, etc. become the lawful property of Avraham, after which he buries Sara.

[S> 24:1 (67)] Avraham is now at an advanced age and has been blessed greatly by G-d. “And G-d blessed Avraham BAKOL”, with everything.

The word BAKOL screams out for explanation. And, sure enough, there are many suggestions as to what this extra blessing of BAKOL is. (Every time we say Birkat HaMazon, we ask G-d to bless us as He blessed our forefathers - BAKOL...

Mikol and Kol are terms associated with Yitzchak and Yaakov.)

The numeric value of BAKOL 52, the same as BEN, son. This alludes to the

ultimate blessing that Avraham received his son Yitzchak.

R. Meir says that Avraham was blessed

by NOT having a daughter. In Avraham's time and in his unique circumstances, who would she have married? What would have happened to her? In this case it was a bracha not to have had a daughter.

On the other hand... R. Yehuda says that Avraham's extra blessing was that he DID have a daughter. There is even an opinion that his daughter's name was BAKOL (as mentioned earlier).

Rabbi Eliezer HaModai says that Avraham was blessed with the art/ skill/ power of astrology and that he was consulted by noblemen from far and wide. (Even when G-d told Avraham that he would have a child, Avraham resisted because he had seen in the stars that he was not going to have children. G-d "explained" to Avraham that it is possible to rise above one's "mazal", and in fact, that is the special quality of the nation that will come from him. ‫ אין מזל לישראל‬Ibn Ezra says in the name of our Sages z"l, true, but only as long as we keep the Torah.)

R. Shimon bar Yochai says that Avraham had a precious stone with curative powers that would heal all who gazed upon it.

These last two opinions identify BAKOL as Avraham's prominent position in the world. This fits with his role as "father of many nations".

Some suggest that Eisav's not sinning (until Avraham died) and Yishmael's repentance during Avraham's lifetime are

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TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

the extra blessings.

There are still other explanations.

The one major task remaining, which will forge the next vital link in what promises to be a great people and a great Chain of Tradition, is finding a suitable "shidduch" for Yitzchak. Everything now will depend upon Yitzchak. However great Avraham was, unless there is "solid" continuity, all will be lost. To this end, Avraham calls upon Eliezer to swear that he will faithfully carry out his task, that he will return to Avraham's family and hometown, and find a wife for Yitzchak there. And that Yitzchak is not to leave Eretz Yisrael (having been consecrated on the Mizbei'ach at the Akeida).

SHLISHI THIRD ALIYA 17 P'SUKIM - 24:10-26 Eliezer (who is exclusively referred to as "The Servant" (HA'EVED) or "The Man" (HA'ISH), as opposed to by name - his name never appears in Parshat Chayei Sara, where we would have expected to find it repeated over and over - takes ten camels laden with a splendid assortment of goods and travels to Avraham's hometown.

Upon arrival, he ties the camels up near the well (and spring), towards evening, at the time when the local girls come to draw water. He asks G-d to be kind to his master Avraham. Eliezer asks for a sign - the girl who will offer him drink and also for his camels, she will be the one sent by G-d.

Almost before he finished speaking, Rivka bat Betu'el of Avraham's family arrives on the scene with her water container OU ISRAEL CENTER

9

on her shoulder. Eliezer runs to her and asks for a bit of water. She immediately gives him his fill and then draws water for his camels. Anxious to find out whether she was "the one", Eliezer waits until the camels have their drink and then presents Rivka with gifts of jewelry. (On the one hand, he has seen her kind nature and tireless act of chesed; on the other hand, he has not even yet asked her who she is.)

When Rivka tells Eliezer that she is indeed from Avraham's family and invites him to stay at her home, he prostrates himself before G-d in grateful acknowledgment.

R'VI'I FOURTH ALIYA 26 P'SUKIM - 24:27-52 Eliezer also says a blessing to G-d for not abandoning Avraham or withholding Divine Kindness from him. Rivka runs home to tell her family what has happened. Lavan (filled with ulterior motives, our sources tell us) runs to greet Eliezer. The gold jewelry adorning Rivka catches Lavan's eye, and he "graciously" offers Eliezer hospitality.

Eliezer is served food but refuses to eat until his "business" is completed.

Heartfelt condolences to Alan Ziegler and family on the passing of his wife

Sophia Ziegler d"r November 4th â&#x20AC;˘ 7 Marcheshvan

milyexie oeiv ila` x`y jeza mkz` mgpi mewnd 10

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

Eliezer proceeds to tell the story of his mission. He tells of Avraham and Yitzchak and of being sent to find a wife for Yitzchak. When he asks for Rivka's hand on behalf of his master, Lavan and Betu'el (commentaries point to Lavan's pushing himself before his father as an indication of a negative personality trait) accept all as G-d's will.

Eliezer again prostrates himself before G-d in grateful acknowledgment of the success of his mission.

CHAMISHI 5TH ALIYA 15 P'SUKIM - 24:53-67 Eliezer gives more gifts to Rivka and her mother and brother, then they all celebrate with food and drink, and Eliezer and his party stay overnight. In the morning, Eliezer asks his leave. Rivka's family asks that she remain for a year, or at least ten months (as was the custom in olden times) but Eliezer insists on leaving immediately (and taking Rivka with him). Rivka is consulted and she agrees to leave right away. They send her off with a "maid" (later identified as Devora) and bless her.

This blessing has been repeated countless times to Jewish brides throughout the generations. Ironic, is it not, that we use Lavan's words for such a special occasion.

The OU Israel Family e its condolences to Ze'ev and Zalli Jaffe and fami the passing mother, Ella Jaffe

Rabbi Sholom Gold speculates as to how a girl growing up in the house of Betuel and Lavan can so quickly step into Sara Imeinu's shoes. His answer (beautifully daeh daiya developed in a shiur) is that it was D'vorah, Rivka's nursemaid, who was her teacher and influence in the waysoeiv of Sara.

D'vorah milyexie ila` x`y jeza mkz` m

was left behind when Avraham and Sara "made Aliya", for just this purpose.

SHISHI SIXTH ALIYA 11 P'SUKIM - 25:1-11 [P> 25:1 (11)] Avraham, having successfully provided for the continu- ity of what will become the Jewish Nation, now lives out the remainder of his life as a "private citizen", so to speak. He takes for himself a wife named KETURA (which we are taught was HAGAR) and fathers six more children. He gives them gifts, but Yitzchak remains Avraham's exclusive spiritual heir. (We can really say that in some ways, other peoples of the world followed Avraham's lead in living monotheistic lives, but the Torah's definition of Avraham's lineage is Yitzchak.)

Avraham dies at the "ripe old age" of 175 (actually, this is 5 years short of the complete 180 that Yitzchak later reached - various reasons are given for the "lost" 5 years). His was a graceful, good, and fulfilling life (despite the tough times he had). He is buried in the Cave of Machpela, where he had buried Sara.

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Both Yitzchak and Yishmael take care of the burial.

The Torah implies that Yishmael had repented his ways and had become righteous. What greater "nachas" for a father than that!

G-d blesses Yitzchak after Avraham's death.

SH'VII SEVENTH ALIYA 7 P'SUKIM - 25:12-18 [P> 25:12 (7)] The descendants of Yishmael are now enumerated. Yishmael is identified fully as the son of Avraham and Hagar the Egyptian maiden of Sara who bore Yishmael "to Avraham". (This is quite parallel to the description of Yitzchak's connection to Avraham as stated in the beginning of next week's sedra. This might further indicate Yishmael's T'shuva in his later years. On the other hand, commen- taries point out that the word TO- L'DOT in the Yishmael context is spelled without any VAVs, indicating a lesser status to Yishmael.)

It is noteworthy that Yishmael fathered twelve sons (not like Yitzchak, but like Yaakov). Note that both Nachor and

The OU Israel Family extends its condolences to Ze'ev, Elli, and Zalli Jaffe and families on the passing daeh daiya of their mother, Ella Jaffe d"r milyexie oeiv ila` x`y jeza mkz` mgpi mewnd 12

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

Yishmael had their 12 descendants way before we did. This indicates a tougher life for the Jewish people (something that has been borne out over and over again in the course of Jewish History, right up to current events).

Yishmael dies at the age of 100 and 30 and 7 years. The wording in the Torah (seems to) purposely parallels that which was used to describe Sara's lifespan, a further indication (perhaps) of the change for the better in Yishmael. Rashi says that the age of Yishmael is included to help us compute the chronology of Yaakov.

The last 3 p'sukim are reread for the Maftir.

HAFTARA 31 P'SUKIM MELACHIM ALEF 1:1-31 The sedra tells of the aging Avraham and his task of providing for the continuity of his beliefs through his son Yitzchak (even though there were other potential heirs). The Haftara parallels this theme by telling us of the aging King David with many potential heirs, providing that it would be his son Shlomo who would be the next link in the Davidic line. This, fulfillment of a promise made to Shlomo's mother, Batsheva - similar to the promise made to Sara that her son would inherit.

The starting points are Avraham Avinu and David Hamelech. But no matter how strong their personalities were, the chain ends with them unless the next generation is as strong as a Yitzchak Avinu and a Shlomo HaMelech.

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RABBI DR. TZVI HERSH WEINREB THE PERSON BY OU Executive Vice President, Emeritus IN THE PARSHA

“Sarah, Esther, & the Sleepy Students”

J

ews live their lives within the framework of the Jewish calendar. At this time of year, we identify strongly with the narratives contained in the weekly Torah portions that we read in the synagogue. Our thoughts are with the biblical characters of the current parshiyot.

We live in the company of Abraham and Sarah, Lot, Hagar and Ishmael, and Isaac and Rebecca.

If we are not thinking of the heroes and villains of the parsha of the week, we have an alternative. We can turn our thoughts to the recent holidays or to the ones which we shall soon celebrate. The holiday of Succoth is now part of the rapidly fading past, so we might be thinking of Chanukah, which is but a few weeks away. We are certainly not yet thinking of Purim.

The list of biblical heroines whose stories delight our children and inspire us at this time of year does not yet include Queen Esther. In this week’s Torah portion, 14

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

Parshat Chayei Sarah (Genesis 23:1-25:18), we do encounter two queenly women. We mourn the death of the matriarch Sarah, and we admire Rebecca’s ability to live up to the spiritual standards of the mother-inlaw she never met.

But Esther? There is neither trace nor hint of her existence.

So why would I be writing about Esther at this time of year? Purim is still many months away, and there are other female role models in the current Torah portions.

Even Chanukah, which occurs much sooner than Purim, features feminine heroines such as Yehudit. Where does Esther shine in?

For the answer let us turn to the Midrash and to that singular sage, Rabbi Akiva. We know that Rabbi Akiva lived a remarkable life, underwent many changes, became a preeminent Torah scholar, and died a martyr.

The Midrash introduces us to Rabbi Akiva in reference to the very first verse in this week’s Torah portion. It is a verse which seems to require no exegesis. The verse simply says, “Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life— came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.” What further explanation or commentary is necessary?

She lived a long and productive life. What more is there to say?

To answer this question, we must remember that Rabbi Akiva was, first and foremost, a teacher. Like every teacher, he had a difficult task. Some students paid attention to Rabbi Akiva’s lectures some of the time, but few, if any, listened attentively to every lecture. Like every teacher before and since, Rabbi Akiva had to devise methods to gain the attention of his disciples.

And so, the Midrash takes us into Rabbi Akiva’s classroom. We really should consider this quite a privilege, for there are very few opportunities given in rabbinic literature to actually enter the classroom of one of our sages, let alone a sage as prominent as Rabbi Akiva.

Here is the Midrashic passage: “Rabbi Akiva was sitting and expounding Torah.

His audience fell asleep. He tried to awaken them, and said, ‘What motivated Queen Esther to reign over one hundred and twenty and seven provinces? We must assume that Esther, as a descendant of Sarah who lived for one hundred and twenty and seven years, considered it proper to reign over one hundred and twenty and seven provinces.’” (Bereshit Rabbah 58:3) What are we to learn from this cryptic passage? To those of us who are teachers, there is a measure of comfort to be derived from learning that Rabbi Akiva too had difficulty maintaining the attention of his students. We also learn that his students were fully aware of the role that the number 127 plays both in the book of Genesis and in the book OU ISRAEL CENTER

15

of Esther. We can assume that there is something about Rabbi Akiva’s mention of this coincidence that awakened the sleepy classroom. But surely there is a much more profound lesson to be learned here.

Many commentators have searched for this deeper meaning. They point out that Sarah’s life was a very full one, and at every stage she displayed the vigor of the seven-year-old child, the idealism of the twenty-year-old, and the wisdom of the aged centenarian. No moment went to waste. She led an active life, overcame numerous frustrations and obstacles, and prevailed. Her life was the paradigm of a life of meaning and accomplishment.

If there is a lesson to be learned from her life, it is that every year is valuable, and so is every month and every week and every day and every hour. If we are to translate 127 years into 127 provinces, then each year is an entire province, each month a region, each week a city, each day a neighborhood, each hour a street, each minute a building, and every second an entire room.

If one allows himself a second of

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slumber, he forfeits a room. If one sleeps for a week, he loses an entire city. Every segment of time represents a significant opportunity, and with every wasted moment opportunities are lost.

This is Rabbi Akiva’s lesson to his sleepy students. “You’re not merely dozing off and enjoying idle daydreams. You are wasting time, killing time, and in the process losing opportunities which will not present themselves again. If you miss a moment of a Torah lecture, you create a void that can never again be filled.”

Rabbi Akiva’s lesson is a lesson to all of us. In contemporary terms, it is a lesson about time management. Time is a gift, but it is an ephemeral gift. A moment lost can never be retrieved.

But Rabbi Akiva insists that this is not his lesson, but Sarah’s lesson. It is the legacy that she left for her descendants.

Queen Esther grasped that legacy. She did not assume the role of a passive queen, but actively reigned over all of her 127 provinces. She studied their needs, recognized their individual differences, and helped each of them best utilize their unique resources. As Grandmother

Sarah valued each and every one of her years, so too did Esther value every one of her many provinces.

So must we all learn to utilize all of our blessings to the fullest, whether they be the blessing of longevity or the blessing of political power, the blessing of wealth or the blessing of grandchildren. Living a full life means appreciating all of our blessings and making the most of them.

What wonderful teachers we have had, and how differently and creatively they taught us these lessons. Sarah taught them in the context of the family tent. Esther taught them from her royal palace. Rabbi Akiva taught them from his classroom lectern.

Whatever our place in life, following their lessons will lead to a life of meaning and purpose, the kind of life for which we all strive.

Thus, although this weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Torah portion carries Sarahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name in its very title, she would be the first to make room for her progeny, Esther, to join her in teaching her lesson to us. Esther too has a place in Parshas Chayei Sarah.

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on the Weekly Parsha from COVENANT & Thoughts RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS CONVERSATION

‫לעילוי נשמות‬ ‫פנחס בן יעקב אשר וגולדה בת ישראל דוד אייז ע״ה‬ ‫עזריאל בן אריה לייב ומעניה בת יצחק שרטר ע״ה‬

To Have a Why

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he name of our parsha seems to embody a paradox. It is called Chayei Sarah, “the life of Sarah,” but it begins with the death of Sarah. What is more, towards the end, it records the death of Abraham. Why is a parsha about death called “life”? The answer, it seems to me, is that – not always, but often – death and how we face it is a commentary on life and how we live it.

Which brings us to a deeper paradox.

A well-known comment by Rashi on the apparently superfluous phrase, “the years of Sarah’s life,” states: “The word ‘years’ is repeated and without a number to indicate that they were all equally good.”

How could anyone say that the years of Sarah’s life were equally good? Twice, first in Egypt, then in Gerar, she was persuaded by Abraham to say that she was his sister rather than his wife, and then taken into a royal harem, a situation fraught with moral hazard.

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There were the years when, despite God’s repeated promise of many children, she was infertile, unable to have even a single child. There was the time when she persuaded Abraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, and have a child by her, which caused her great strife of the spirit.1 These things constituted a life of uncertainty and decades of unmet hopes.

How is it remotely plausible to say that all of Sarah’s years were equally good?

That is Sarah. About Abraham, the text is equally puzzling. Immediately after the account of his purchase of a burial plot for Sarah, we read: “Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and God had blessed Abraham with everything” (Gen. 24:1).

This too is strange. Seven times, God had promised Abraham the land of Canaan.

Yet when Sarah died, he did not own a single plot of land in which to bury her, and had to undergo an elaborate and even humiliating negotiation with the Hittites, forced to admit at the outset that, “I am a stranger and temporary resident among you” (Genesis 23:4). How can the text say that God had blessed Abraham with everything?

1 I deliberately omit the tradition (Targum Yonatan to Gen. 22:20) that says that at the time of the binding of Isaac, Satan appeared to her and told her that Abraham had sacrificed their son, a shock that caused her death. This tradition is morally problematic.

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Equally haunting is its account of Abraham’s death, perhaps the most serene in the Torah: “Abraham breathed his last and died at a good age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his people.” He had been promised that he would be become a great nation, the father of many nations, and that he would inherit the land. Not one of these promises had been fulfilled in his lifetime. How then was he “satisfied”?

The answer again is that to understand a death, we have to understand a life.

I have mixed feelings about Friedrich Nietzsche. He was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the modern age, and also one of the most dangerous. He himself was ambivalent about Jews and negative about Judaism.2 Yet one of his most famous remarks is both profound and true: He who has a why in life can bear almost any how.3 (In this context I should add a remark he made in The Genealogy of Morality that I have not quoted before. Having criticised other sacred Scriptures, he then writes: “the Old Testament – well, that is something quite different: every respect for the Old Testament! I find in it great men, heroic landscape and something of utmost rarity on earth, the incomparable naivety of the strong heart; even more, I find a people.”4 So despite his scepticism about religion in general and the Judaeo2 The best recent study is Robert Holub, Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem, Princeton University Press, 2015.

3 Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and arrows, 12.

4 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morality, Cambridge University Press, 2009, 107.

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Christian heritage in particular, he had a genuine respect for Tanach.)

Abraham and Sarah were among the supreme examples in all history of what it is to have a Why in life. The entire course of their lives came as a response to a call, a Divine voice, that told them to leave their home and family, set out for an unknown destination, go to live in a land where they would be strangers, abandon every conventional form of security, and have the faith to believe that by living by the standards of righteousness and justice they would be taking the first step to establishing a nation, a land, a faith and a way of life that would be a blessing to all humankind.

Biblical narrative is, as Erich Auerbach said, “fraught with background,” meaning that much of the story is left unstated. We have to guess at it. That is why there is such a thing as Midrash, filling in the narrative gaps. Nowhere is this more pointed than in the case of the emotions of the key figures.

We do not know what Abraham or Isaac felt as they walked toward Mount Moriah.

We do not know what Sarah felt when she entered the harems, first of Pharaoh, then of Avimelech of Gerar. With some conspicuous exceptions, we hardly know what any of the Torah’s characters felt.

Which is why the two explicit statements about Abraham – that God blessed him with everything, and that he ended life old and satisfied – are so important. And when Rashi says that all of Sarah’s years were equally good, he is attributing to her what the biblical text attributes to Abraham, namely a serenity in the face of death that OU ISRAEL CENTER

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came from a profound tranquillity in the face of life. Abraham knew that everything that happened to him, even the bad things, were part of the journey on which God had sent him and Sarah, and he had the faith to walk through the valley of the shadow of death fearing no evil, knowing that God was with him. That is what Nietzsche called “the strong heart.”

In 2017, an unusual book became an international bestseller. One of the things that made it unusual was that its author was ninety years old and this was her first book. Another was that she was not merely a survivor of Auschwitz but also of the Death March towards the end of the war, which in some respects was even more brutal than the camp itself.

The book was called The Choice and its author was Edith Eger.5 She together with her father, mother and sister Magda, arrived at Auschwitz in May 1944, one of 12,000 Jews transported from Kosice, Hungary. Her parents were murdered on that first day. A woman pointed towards a smoking chimney and told Edith that she had better start talking about her parents in the past tense. With astonishing courage and strength of will, she and Magda survived the camp and the March.

When American soldiers eventually lifted her from a heap of bodies in an Austrian forest, she had typhoid fever, pneumonia, pleurisy and a broken back. After a year, her body had healed, and she married and became a mother. Healing of the mind took much longer, and eventually became her vocation in the United States, where 5 Edith Eger, The Choice, Rider, 2017.

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she went to live.

On their way to Auschwitz, Edith’s mother said to her, “We don’t know where we are going, we don’t know what is going to happen, but nobody can take away from you what you put in your own mind.” That sentence became her survival mechanism.

Initially, after the war, to help support the family, she worked in a factory, but eventually she went to university to study psychology and became a psychotherapist.

She has used her own experiences of survival to help others survive life crises.

Early on in the book she makes an immensely important distinction between victimisation (what happens to you) and victimhood (how you respond to what happens to you). This is what she says about the first: We are all likely to be victimised in some way in the course of our lives. At some point we will suffer some kind of affliction or calamity or abuse, caused by circumstances or people or institutions over which we have little or no control.

This is life. And this is victimisation. It comes from the outside.

And this, about the second: In contrast, victimhood comes from the inside. No one can make you a victim but you. We become victims not because of what happens to us but when we choose to hold on to our victimisation. We develop a victim’s mind – a way of thinking and being that is rigid, blaming, pessimistic, stuck in the past, unforgiving, punitive, and without healthy limits or boundaries.6 6 Ibid., 9.

In an interview on the publication of the book, she said, “I’ve learned not to look for happiness, because that is external. You were born with love and you were born with joy. That’s inside. It’s always there.”

We have learned this extraordinary mindset from Holocaust survivors like Edith Eger and Viktor Frankl. But in truth, it was there from the very beginning, from Abraham and Sarah, who survived whatever fate threw at them, however much it seemed to derail their mission, and despite everything they found serenity at the end of their lives. They knew that what makes a life satisfying is not external but internal, a sense of purpose, mission, being called, summoned, of starting something that would be continued by those who came after them, of bringing something

new into the world by the way they lived their lives. What mattered was the inside, not the outside; their faith, not their oftentroubled circumstances.

I believe that faith helps us find the Why that allows us to bear almost any How. The serenity of Sarah’s and Abraham’s death was eternal testimony to how they lived.

Shabbat Shalom Covenant and Conversation 5780 is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l.

These weekly teachings from Rabbi Sacks are part of the ‘Covenant & Conversation’ series on the weekly Torah reading. Read more on www.rabbisacks.org.

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RABBI NACHMAN (NEIL) WINKLER PROBING BY Faculty, OU Israel Center THE PROPHETS l

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he haftarah reading this week is taken from the very first perek of Sefer M’lachim and details the final days of David HaMelech. The reading parallels the theme of the parasha which tells of the final days in the life of our first patriarch, Avraham. We have, in the past, reviewed many of the common themes that are shared both by the parasha and the haftarah. The aging of both of these righteous men, their concern for the future and the care they both showed in their choice for a successor.

It is somewhat curious, however, why Sefer M’lachim, the Book of Kings, opens with the end of the reign of David. Would it not have made sense to begin the book with the story of the first king, Sha’ul? Or, perhaps, to start the book by describing the remarkable life and challenges of the second king, David, as he was the progenitor of the Israelite dynasty, generations of Judean kings that followed him. Why then do we begin with the end of David’s life?

The answer, I believe, lies in the seventh perek of Sefer Shmuel B. There we read of David’s desire to build a “bayit”, i.e. a

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Bet Mikdash in which Hashem’s shchina.

Holy Spirit, would dwell. So powerful was this desire that David HaMelech composes a “song”, a “Shir Hama’alot”, to give expression to that yearning. In perek 132 of Tehillim David cries out “I take an oath not to enter my house nor grant sleep to my eyes until I find a place for G-d….”

The prophet Natan encourages David to build that “bayit’ but Hashem corrects him that very night denies David permission to fulfill that desire. However, G-d is so pleased by David’s wish, He blesses him saying that, since the King wanted to build Hashem a “bayit”, Hashem promises to build David a “bayit”, not a physical structure but a “bayit”, a family of kings to succeed him. In other words, Hashem establishes “Beit David”, the Davidic dynasty.

As we do not live in a world of kings and of dynasties we, too often, fail to appreciate the significance of a dynasty in the ancient world. In that world, the death of a regent brought uncertainty to the populace and instability to the government. More often than not, a king’s death was a signal for civil war as rival parties vied for throne and foreign powers prepared to attack a land with no leader. We read of this throughout Tanach and we see that throughout history. A dynasty, therefore, would guarantee safety, stability and a

peaceful ascension to the throne.

It is for this reason that the Book of M’lachim begins where it does. Because in this very chapter, after the story we read as the haftarah, we learn of the ascension of Shlomo to the throne, i.e., the beginning of a dynasty! And that is what was so important, for only now could we speak in terms of a book of ‘M’lachim”, kings who were part of a dynasty. Perhaps even more significantly, David understood well the importance of the dynasty and, given the attempts of his son Adoniya to take over the throne, to the point of gathering followers and army officers to prepare for a possible civil war (as we read in the haftarah), he commands that Shlomo be anointed publicly and even begin his reign in David’s lifetime (!) in order to remove any doubt as to whom he chose as his successor.

Both Avraham Avinu (in our parasha) and HaMelech David (in our haftarah) worked diligently to insure the proper future for their family/nation. They had different challenges to face but, for each of them, preparing for the time beyond their own lives was an essential task to guarantee the future of Israel.

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RABBI SHALOM Kehilla, Nofei HaShemesh ROSNER Rav Maggid Shiur, Daf Yomi, OU.org

All Equally Great Days

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n the first pasuk of the parasha, Rashi tells us that the last phrase of the verse “shene chaye sara” are to underscore that “kulan shavin l’tova” all of her years were equally great. In the sefer L’hisaneg, Rav Yitzhak Zilber is quoted as asking a simple question.

How can we refer to all of the days of Sarah’s life as being equally great? She was childless until the age of 90. She was taken captive by Pharoah and Avimelech.

There seemed to have been better days and more challenging days. Why refer to her whole life as being “equally great”?

To answer this question, he cites the following story. There were two chefs who previously served as cooks in the Russian army. Upon moving to Israel, they secured work as chefs in the Mir Yeshiva. One of the Chef’s would constantly complain of how difficult his job was and how little he was being compensated. The other chef would respond to his colleague’s complaints by stating how grateful he was that he is able to prepare food for students studying Torah in Israel rather than for the Russian army. He would do so for free if he was not in need of a livelihood to 26

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support his family. Both chefs performed the same tasks on a daily basis, yet one was bitter while the other felt fortunate.

Sarah had the attitude of the latter chef. No matter what difficulties she experienced, on a daily basis she expressed gratitude for all that transpired.

Her hashkafa or outlook was positive.

We all have difficulties and face challenges. Yet, we should emulate Sarah Imenu and be able to have a positive outlook. To appreciate the good that we have and focus on the positive rather than the difficulties. We can perform a simple act like shopping for shabbat or driving our children to school. It can be considered an onerous activity, or we can view it as a step towards fulfilling our oneg shabbos and facilitating our children’s chinuch.

While preparing for the chaggim, people may highlight the hardship of cooking and cleaning, rather than the anticipation of spending quality time with the family and partaking in inspirational davening and shiurim. This is a nuance that our children detect and it can have an everlasting negative impact on them. We should act as Sarah and the second cook – viewing the cup as always being half full. Infusing positive energy into our lives to turn all our days into equally great days!

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REBBETZIN SHIRA SMILES Faculty, OU Israel Center

Our Secret Mission

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his was perhaps the most important mission in all of history.

Avraham Avinu sends his trusted servant to look for a wife for Yitzchak Avinu. The Chumash describes Eliezer, as ‘moshel bchol asher lo’, someone whom Avraham Avinu trusted implicitly.

It is therefore curious, why Avraham Avinu insists that Eliezer take an oath before embarking on this mission, to ensure that he acts faithfully.

Rav Shalom Schwadron in Lev Shalom draws a distinction between trusting someone in financial matters and spiritual matters.

Although Avraham Avinu allowed Eliezer total control of his physical possessions, this was an entirely different dimension. Finding a wife was about building the Jewish people, and therefore he needed to be sure that Eliezer would be faithful to this mission. This was not only about the physical continuation of the people; it was about ensuring the spiritual perpuation of the nation. We need to learn from this, how important it is that we get our priorities in order. Often times, people will trust word of mouth about the kashruth of a certain restaurant, yet, when it comes to a business deal, they will make many phone calls to check reliability.

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On another level, R. Mordechai Kokes in Siach Mordechai explains, that Avraham Avinu made him swear, knowing that he may have a personal agenda in this mission, He realized, that Eliezer may not be completely faithful in carrying out the mission, since he really wanted his daughter to marry Yitzchak Avinu.

Swearing, ensures faithfulness on the part of the person to carry out a mission. Indeed, the Gemara notes, that upon birth we swear to be righteous, and not wicked. The purpose of each and every one swearing, is to remind ourselves, that we need to have loyalty to our mission in this world to do the will of Hashem, without allowing our personal desires get in our way.

Swearing also accomplishes something very profound in the one swearing. R. Birnbaum in Bkarei Shemo, notes, that it infuses a person with passion and fortitude to accomplish the mission. Often times we are lazy, and don’t succeed in accomplishing what we have the capacity to do. When we are forced to do something, we suddenly find the wherewithal to accomplish, and to flourish. It is said that the Alter of Novardoak never asked if he was capable of doing something, he only asked if it had to be done. He understood, if it had to be done, then he would get the strength, and the siyatta dishmaya to succeed. Would our lives, and the whole world, not be different if we were to integrate this mindset within us.

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SIMCHAT SHMUEL

BY RABBI SAM SHOR

Program Director, OU Israel Center

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his Shabbat marks the 62nd yahrtzeit of the great tzadik Rabbi Yaakov Friedman, the Admor of Hosiyatin zy’a. A descendant of the illustrious Reb Yisrael Friedman, the Rizhiner Rebbe, z’ya, Rav Yaakov made aliya to Eretz Yisrael in the late 1930’s, and succeeded his father-in-law as the Admor of Hosiyatin in Tel Aviv. His drashot and teachings are recorded in a beautiful sefer known as Ohalei Yaakov.

The Rebbe lived through the formative years of the establishment of the State of Israel, during the turbulent times of both the days leading up to the Declaration of Independence, the subsequent war, and the earliest days of our fledgling state, and was a powerful voice for the importance and significance of the return of the Jewish People to the Land.

Our Sedra this week of course opens with the passing of Sara Imeinu, and Avraham’s purchase of Maarat HaMachpela in Chevron. The pasuk tells us: ‘V’Tamat Sara B’Kiryat Arba, Hee Chevron...’ And Sara died in Kiryat Arba, which is Chevron....’

The Ohalei Yaakov points to a very

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interesting Midrash in the Yalkut Reuveni , which offers a creative interpretation of this pasuk: ‘V’Tamat Sara B’Kiryat Arba-And Sara passed on b’kriat shema-while reciting the daled(the fourth letter) at the end of the word echad- of kriat shema....”

Kiryat Arba- represents Sara’s recitation of Kriat Shema as she left this world and entered the next.

The verse continues to tell us that Kiryat Arba is also called Chevron. Rav Kook zy’a, explained that Chevron is from the word-Chibur- to be joined together and connected. Chevron, represents the eternal connection we feel with our ancestors.

Perhaps these two names together Kiryat Arba and Chevron, and what each of these names represents, are meant to remind us not only of our eternal connection to this sacred Land, which was promised to our ancestors, but also of their spiritual legacy, the legacy of faith in Hashem which is recalled each time we recite Kriyat Shema-Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu HaShem Echad.

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t"yz'd zpyl

ycegd zkxa

Rosh Chodesh Benching is commemorative of the practice in the time of the Sanhedrin (past AND future) of proclaiming Rosh Chodesh based on the testimony of eye-witnesses who had seen the “first visibility of the lunar crescent”. We pray for a good month, announce the Molad (the instant of the new moon - based on average calculation), and announce the day(s) of the upcoming Rosh Chodesh.

This introductory passage is modified for monthly use from a prayer composed by RAV, related to us in the Gemara (B'rachot 16:), originally intended by its composer for daily recital. (Some say the words in parentheses - here and/or on page 4)

,EpizFa «¥ £̀ idŸ¥ l'`e¥ Epi«dŸ¥ l'` ¡ 'd Li«p¤ ẗN§ n¦ oFvx¨ id¦ i§ ,dk̈x¨a§ l¦ e§ däFhl§ d¤Gd© Wc¤ Ÿg« d© z ¤̀ Epi«l ¥ r̈ WC¥ g© Y§ W ¤ lW ¤ miI¦ g© ,mFlẄ lW ¤ miI¦ g© ,miM¦ xª £̀ miI¦ g© Ep«l̈ oY¤ z¦ e§ lW ¤ mii¦ g© ,dq̈p̈x§ R© lW ¤ mii¦ g© ,dk̈x¨A§ lW ¤ miI¦ g© ,däFh z`© x§ i¦ e§ mi¦ n «© Ẅ z`© x§ i¦ md¤ Ä W¥IW ¤ miI¦ g© ,zFnv̈r£ uENg¦ xW ¤ Ÿr« lW ¤ miI¦ g© ,dÖ¦lkE § dẄEA md¤ Ä oi ¥̀ W ¤ miI¦ g© :`h§ g¥ ¨ za© d £ `© Ep«ä `d¥ Y§ y ¤ miI¦ g© ,cFak̈e§ ,mi¦ n «© Ẅ z`© x§ i¦ e§ dxFY ,däFhl§ Ep«A¥ l¦ zFl £̀ W§ n¦ 'd `¥ln© i§ W ¤ miI¦ g© :dl̈q «¤ on¥ `¨ (miA¦ x© or ax© z©Nt¦ Y§ zEkf§ A¦ some add) May it be Your will, HaShem our God and God of our fathers, to renew for us this (coming) month for good and for blessing. And give us long life, a life of peace, of good, a life of blessing, a life of sustenance, a life of health, a life marked by the fear of Heaven and the dread of sin, a life free from shame and reproach, a life of prosperity and honor, a life in which the love of the Torah and the fear of Heaven will be in us, a life in which the desires of our heart shall be fulfilled for good. AMEIN. Rosh Chodesh Benching 5780 • page one OU ISRAEL CENTER

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The Tradition is to announce the Molad in "Jerusalem Time" (which deviates from Israel Standard Time (a.k.a. Cairo time) by an average of 21 minutes during Winter Time and 39 minutes during Summer Time). Below you will find the wording for the announcement of the Molad. (Exact wording may vary depending upon who is announcing the molad and where he gets the words from.) This announced molad should not be changed for time zones or daylight savings time. (The other times on page 4 - "Israel Time" and "Actual Molad" SHOULD be adjusted for your local time.)

The gabbai announces the molad and the KAHAL follows with MI SHE'ASA NISIM

.ax¤¤rÄ WW¥ ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© dẄW¦ e§ zFwc© rÄx§ `© e§ miWŸl ¦ W§ ,i¦pW¥ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

oeygxn

.xwFA© ¤ A ra© W¤ ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© dr̈a§ W¦ e§ zFwc© dx¥U¤ § r d¤pŸnW§ ,iri ¦ a¦ x§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

elqk

.ax¤¤rÄ d¤pŸnW§ ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© dp̈FnWE § zFwc© iY¥ W§ ,iWi ¦ n£ ¦ g mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

zah

.xwFA© ¤ A d¤pŸnW§ ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© dr̈W§ z¦ e§ zFwc© WW¥ e§ mir¦ Äx§ `© ,WcFw ¤ zÄW© mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

hay

.dl̈i©§ NA© rW© Y¥ ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© dẍÜ£re© zFwc© miWŸl ¦ W§ ,oFW`x¦ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

xc`

.xwFA© ¤ A xU¤ ¤ r ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© xÜr̈Îcg© `© e§ zFwc© dx¥U¤ § rÎrÄx§ `© ,iWi ¦ l¦ W§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

oqip

.dl̈i©§ NA© xU¤ ¤ r ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© xÜr̈Îmi¥pWE § zFwc© d¤pŸnWE § miWi ¦ n£ ¦ g ,iri ¦ a¦ x§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

xii`

.xwFA© ¤ A dx¥U¤ § rÎzg© `© ix£ ¥g`© xÜr̈ÎdẄŸlWE § zFwc© m¦iY© WE § mir¦ Äx§ `© ,iX¦ X¦ d© mFI©A d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

oeiq

.dl̈i©§ Nd© zFv£g ix£ ¥g`© mi¦wl̈©g xÜr̈Îdr̈Äx©§`e§ zFwc© WW¥ e§ mix¦ U¤ § r ,oFW`x¦ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

fenz

.m¦Iẍ¢dv̈©A zg© `© ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© xÜr̈ÎdẄin£ ¦ ge© zFwc© xU¤ ¤ r ,i¦pW¥ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

a`

.xwFA© ¤ A zg£̀ © ix£ ¥g`© miwl̈ ¦ g© xÜr̈ÎdẄW¦ e§ zFwc© rÄx§ `© e§ miWi ¦ n£ ¦ g ,iri ¦ a¦ x§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ c©lFOd©

lel`

In some shuls, the chazan takes the Torah into his arms at this point; in other shuls, he takes it right before announcing Rosh Chodesh (next page)

zEca§ r© n¥ mz̈F` l`b̈ © e§ ,EpizFa «¥ £̀ l © miQ¦ ¦ p dÜr̈W ¤ in¦ ¥l Epig «¥ C̈¦p uA¥ wi © e¦ ,aFxẅA§ Ep «z̈F` l`© b§ i¦ `Ed ,zExg§ :on¥ `¨ xn`Ÿ © pe§ ,l ¥̀ x¨U§ i¦ lM̈ mix¦ a¥ g£ .ux¤` «¨ d̈ zFt§pM© rA© x§ `© n¥ He Who performed miracles for our ancestors, and redeemed them from slavery to freedom, may He speedily redeem us, and gather our exiles from the four corners of the earth; all Israel is united in fellowship; and let us say, AMEIN. Rosh Chodesh Benching 5780 • page two 40

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

The chazan, holding a Sefer Torah, announces Rosh Chodesh; the congregation repeats the announcement after him and then says Y'CHAD'SHEIHU (p.4)

mFiaE § iWi ¦ l¦ W§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ oëW§ g¤ x§ n© ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd© iri ¦ a¦ x§

ziy`xa zyxt zay

iW¦ W¦ mFiaE § iWi ¦ n£ ¦ g mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ e¥lq§ M¦ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

dxy iig zyxt zay

Fzẍ¢gn̈lE § WcFw ¤ zÄW© mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ z¥ah¥ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd© oFW`x¦ mFiA§

ayie zyxt zay

i¦pW¥ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ häW§ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

`x`e zyxt zay

iri ¦ a¦ x§ mFiaE § iWi ¦ l¦ W§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ xc̈`© ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

milwy mihtyn t"y

27 Tishrei OCT 26 '19 25 Marcheshvan NOV 23 '19

23 Kislev DEC 21 '19 28 Tevet JAN 25 '20 27 Sh'vat FEB 22 '20

iWi ¦ n£ ¦ g mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ oq̈i¦p ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx ycegd icwt-ldwie t"y 25 Adar :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd© MAR 21 '20 zÄW© mFiaE § iW¦ W¦ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ xïi`¦ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd© WcFw ¤

ipiny zyxt zay

oFW`x¦ mFiA§ xg̈n̈ d¤id§ i¦ oëiq¦ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

xacna zyxt zay

iWi ¦ l¦ W§ mFiaE § i¦pW¥ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ fEOY© ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

gxw zyxt zay

24 Nissan APR 18 '20 29 Iyar MAY 23 '20 28 Sivan JUN 20 '20

iri ¦ a¦ x§ mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ a`¨ mg© ¥ pn§ ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx irqnÎzehn zyxt zay 26 Tammuz :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd© JUL 18 '20 iW¦ W¦ mFiaE § iWi ¦ n£ ¦ g mFiA§ d¤id§ i¦ lEl¡` ycŸ¤ g W`Ÿx :däFhl§ l ¥̀ ẍU§ i¦ lM̈ l©re§ Epi«l¥ r̈ `Äd©

d`x zyxt zay 25 Menachem Av AUG 15 '20

Rosh Chodesh Benching 5780 • page three OU ISRAEL CENTER

41

,l ¥̀ x¨U§ i¦ ziA¥ FOr© lM̈ lr© e§ Epi«¥lr̈ ,`Ed KExÄ WFcT̈d© EdW «¥ C§ g© i§ .dg̈n§ U¦ lE § oFUÜl§ ,dk̈x¨a§ l¦ e§ däFhl§ ,md¥ W ¤ mFwn̈ lk̈A§ miI¦ g© l§ ,dl̈M̈l§ k© lE § (däFh) dq̈p̈x§ t© l§ ,dn̈g̈¤plE § dr̈EWil¦ min¦ Ẅb§ l¦ e)§ ,zFaFh zFxFUa§ l¦ e§ zFaFh zFrEnW§ l¦ ,mFlẄlE § (miaFh) ¦

:on¥ `¨ xn`Ÿ © pe§ ,däFxw§ dl̈E`b§ l¦ e§ ,dn̈¥lW§ d`Et ¨ x§ l¦ e§ (mŸr¦ A§ May HaKadosh Baruch Hu (G-d) renew it (this month) for us and for all His people, the house of Israel, wherever they may be, for good and blessing, for joy and happiness, for salvation and consolation, for livelihood and economic wellbeing, for life and peace, for good news, (for rain in its season,) for good health (lit. complete healing), and for the Ge'ula soon -- and let us say, AMEIN. Generally, AV HARACHAMIM is not said when we bench Rosh Chodesh, so continue with ASHREI (in your siddur). During the OMER (m'vorchim for IYAR and SIVAN) we DO say AV HARACHAMIM (even if there is a person present who would usually "knock out" AV HARACHAMIM. And even if there is a BRIT MILA in the shul on that day.) When we bench Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av, some say AV HARACHAMIM, some don't say it. The opinion of the GR"A is not to say AV HARACHAMIM when we bench Rosh Chodesh (even during the Omer), except for Shabbat M’vorchim Menachem Av, when we do say it. astronomical (actual) molad

Rambam's notation

Israel time (S=summer)

molad (based on avg.)

month

ixyz S M 18h 34m 6p oeygxn W 7h 18m 7p elqk Th 20h 2m 8p zah

Not announced, but determines that RH 5780 is THU (and Fri) Su

5h 50m 5p

M Oct 28 5:39am

dwzz:- 'b

Tu Nov 26 5:06pm Th Dec 26 7:13am

`ly:bi 'c Wed 6:57am cn:a 'e Thu 7:41pm

F Jan 24 11:41pm

flzz:ci 'f

Shab 8:25am

SH 8h 46m 9p

hay

Su Feb 23 5:31pm

pwz:b 'a Sun 9:10pm bqx:fh 'b Tue 9:54am epxzz:c 'd Wed 11:38pm

Su 21h 30m 10p

xc`

Tu 10h 14m 11p S W 22h 58m 12p

oqip xii`

hqyz:fi 'e

Tu Mar 24 11:27am Th Apr 23

5:25am S

Mon 7:13pm

Fri

12:21pm

S F

11h 42m 13p

oeiq

Sun

1:05am

S Su 0h 26m 14p

fenz

dvw:hi 'a Mon 1:49pm W Aug 19 5:41am S gtwzz:f 'c Wed 2:33am

S M 13h 10m 15p

a`

F May 22 8:38pm S Su Jun 21 M Jul 20

9:41am

atz:e '`

S

8:33pm S

1h 54m 16p

lel`

Th 14h 38m 17p

ixyz

S W

Not announced, but determines that RH 5781 w/b Shabbat (and Sun) Molad Zakein and then Lo AD"U - double push from day of the Molad

Rosh Chodesh Benching 5780 • page four 42

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OU ISRAEL CENTER

43

SCHEDULE NOTES

SUNDAY • '` mei

MONDAY • 'a mei

4 Shabbat Chayei Sara Nov 23rd • 3:00pm

Nov 24th • oeygxn e"k

Nov 25th • oeygxn f"k

9:00am Rabbi David Walk T'hilim

9:15am Mrs. Pearl Borow The Book(let) of Malachi

Rabbi Chanoch Yeres In the Ganchrow Beit Midrash...

Sun, Tue, Thu - 10:00am Rabbi Jeff Bienenfeld KETUVOT This shiur is in tribute to Rabbi Fred Hollander z"l Sun thru Thu • 11:15am RCA DAF YOMI Rotating Magidei Shiur Gemara The Daf Yomi shiur is in tribute to Rabbi Yitzchak Botwinick z"l Sun, Mon, Wed, Thu - 4:30pm Rabbi Hillel Ruvel Masechet Gittin 5:30pm Maariv Monday's video: Sponsored by Chanah Florin in honor of Hannah Shenesh hy"d one of our great heroes.

Hanna's demonstration of strength and courage was remarkable and her fortitude serves as a role model for all.

May her memory be for a blessing Please note: Regular shiurim: 25NIS members 30NIS non-mem • 10NIS Life One-time shiurim and mini-series 25NIS members and Life Members 30NIS for non-members unless otherwise indicated Discounted zeiqihxk (punch cards) available at the front desk and valid for all shiurim and classes (as are Courtesy Cards) 44

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

10:00am • L'AYLA Mrs. Sylvie Schatz Tomer Devorah Applied to Modern Times 10:15am Rabbi Aharon Adler Haftara of the Week 11:15pm Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz Wisdom for Life - Mishlei

9:30am & 10:30 Mommy & Me with Jackie 10:30am Rabbi A. Goldscheider Chassidut & Spirituality in the Parsha 11:30am Rabbi Shmuel Herschler Halacha & Reason

12:00pm Rabbi Chaim Eisen KUZARI

11:30am • 050-415-3239 Get Fit While You Sit Exercise with Sura Faecher

2:00pm Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher

VIDEO - see to the left

Kaddish - The Original Soul Food

1:45pm Mrs. Pearl Borow Women in Tanach

Rabbi Sprecher's shiur is in memory of his mother-in-law

d"r dxy za xzq` p"rl 7:45pm • JChat program see flyer-ad elsewhere 8:00pm • no charge Rabbi Mordechai Machlis The Book of Shmuel VIDEO - Monday, Nov 25th 2:00pm 2½ hrs Hanna's War (1988) - On her 75th Yahrzeit - Dramatization of life of Hannah Senesh HY"D. At 18, left Hungary for Israel; joined British Army; volunteered to be parachuted behind Nazi lines; captured, endured merciless torture; executed. Symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice.

2:45pm Rabbi Zev Leff - Pirkei Avot 3:00pm Music for Children with Jackie 3:30pm Phil Chernofsky Mishna, Mitzvot, and More 5:20pm Pri Chadash Writing Workshop for Women Judy Caspi 054-569-0410 Ruth Fogelman (02) 628-7359 7:00pm • 052-384-7230 Dorot OU Intergenerational Choir - directed by Hadassah Jacob

TUESDAY • 'b mei

WEDNESDAY • 'c mei

THURSDAY • 'd mei

Nov 26th • oeygxn g"k

Nov 20th & 27th

Nov 21st & 28th

9:00am Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz Minchat Chinuch

9:15am Rabbi Shimshon Nadel Medina & Halacha

9:00am Rabbi Ari Kahn Parshat HaShavua

9:15am - L'AYLA Mrs. Shira Smiles Torah Tapestries

Nov 20th • 10:15am Rabbi Azarya Berzon Halachot for travelers, cruises, planes, Int'l Dateline

10:30am Mrs. Shprintzee Rappaport ORCHOT TZADIKIM 10:30am Rabbi Shmuel Goldin Parshat HaShavua 11:30am Rabbi Ian Pear • Law & Order 11:30am Watch for date of resumption Rabbi Aharon Ziegler 11:30pm - Women's T'hilim

Nov 27th • 10:15am Rabbi Anthony Manning Contemporary Issues in Halacha & Hashkafa 11:30am Rabbi Alan Kimche Great Jewish Thinkers 2:00pm Mrs. Pearl Borow The transmission of Torah via Pirkei Avot Chumash with Meforshim

The Russian Jews take action

VIDEO - Wednesday, Nov 27 2:00pm 2 hrs • English The Book Thief (2013) Simple German family hides a young Jew in their home. Their daughter bonds with him through challenges, close calls. Movie grabs your heart from opening scene and doesn't let go. A work of art!

VIDEO - Tuesday, Nov 26th see box on Thursday column

7:00pm Rabbi Yonatan Kolatch Topics in Parshanut

3:00pm Verna's Knitting Club

7:00pm Rabbi Chaim Eisen Meaning and Mission of the Chosen People

12:15pm Rabbi Neil Winkler History is His story 1:45pm Dr. Deborah Polster DA MA L'HASHIV

7:30pm Avivah Gottlieb-Zornberg Parshat HaShavua

Wednesday's video Sponsored anonymously by a generous friend of the JewishVideo program in loving memory of her sister a"h

Nov 27th • 7:30pm Rabbi Shalom Hammer Chanuka and Jewish Heroism: Mind with Matter See flyer-ad elsewhere

9:00am Avivah Gottlieb-Zornberg Parshat HaShavua 10:10am Rabbi Baruch Taub -Thursday the Rabbi Gave His Drasha 11:30am Rabbi Shai Finkelstein Unlocking the Messages of Chazal 12:00pm Rabbi Shmuel Herschler Book of Melachim 2:00pm Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher Current Events in the Sedra & Haftara Thank you to Yehuda Lave for helping to make the shiur a reality

8:00pm Rabbi Avrum Kowalsky The Book of Hoshei'a Nov 28th • 8:00pm Rabbi Zelig Pliskin

VIDEO - Tuesday, Nov 26th 2:00pm Double Feature

The Dove Flyer (2013) First time showing - Iraq,1948: 150,000+ Jews; Drama portrays what Jews went through persecution, survival, Operation Ezra & Nechemiya that saved Iraq's Jews. (Arabic/English subtitles - 1½ hrs) AND (2005) The Forgotten Refugees Award-winning documentary on Jews of Muslim countries history, culture, expulsion - (1 hr) Intermission with refreshments courtesy of Ruth Ben-Ari in loving memory of her maternal grandparents Sophie & Avram David Harper a"h OU ISRAEL CENTER

45

SHABBAT CHEVRON SPECIAL WITH RABBI SIMCHA HOCHBAUM

Love, Marriage and the Double Cave

T

his Shabbat we read about the first Jewish real estate agent, Avraham Avinu, who purchases the Mearat HaMachpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) from Efron the Hittite. The Torah goes into lengthy detail of the title, deed, and negotiations for this unique Cave. Eventually Avraham completes the transaction for 400 pieces of silver and buries his wife Sara there. (Genesis Chapter 23).

Another holy site purchased for money was the Temple Mount. King David buys the threshold of Arnon the Jebusite for 600 silver shekel. (Divrei HaYamim 1 Chapter 21). Yerushalayim and Hevron were always known as sister cities “k’ir shechubrah la yachdav’ ‫)שחוברה=חברון‬. One example of this: The daily service in the Holy Temple was

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dependent upon the sunrise in Hevron.

Without the merit of our forefathers, one could not offer the daily sacrifice in the Holy Temple. (Mishna Yoma Chapter 3).

However, despite the many spiritual similarities between Yeushalayim and Hevron there also exists opposing energies. Yerushalayim is represented kabbalistically by the ‘World of Rachel’ - the ‘Open and Revealed Holiness’ (‘‫)'עלמא דאתגליא‬. This is personified by the following: The ascent of Am Yisrael to the Holy Temple and ‘seeing the Divine Presence’ on the Three Festivals.

In addition, the Mishna describes ten revealed miracles that appeared in the Holy Temple (Mishna Avot Chapter 5,5).

Hevron is represented kabbalistically by the ‘World of Leah’ - the world of ‘Hidden Holiness’ (‫)עלמא דאתכסיא‬. In Hevron, one needs to enter into the ‘hidden chambers’ of the Double Cave. The mystics teach that whatever is revealed is susceptible to destruction. However, that which is hidden is protected and remains intact.

In every human being there is a holiness revealed side, based on one’s actions.

One can increase or decrease his level of holiness, dependent on his fulfillment of Torah and Mitzvot. In contrast there is a holiness that is hidden. This holiness is constant and can never be destroyed - it is an intrinsic part of a Jew’s DNA. The Talmud discusses in the Tractate of Kedushin (Chapter 1) three ways in which a marriage becomes validated.

The first way is via money (kesef). At every wedding the groom places a ring (of financial value- ‫ )שווה פרוטה‬on the finger of the bride. This method of marriage is deduced from Avraham’s purchase of the Mearat HaMachpela (kichah kichah m’sdei Efron). We bless the new couple with a relationship similar to that of Hevron: a soul connection, not susceptible to destruction. Just like the Hidden Cave remains intact 3800 years later - so too every new couple should have an eternal bond (‫ )חברון=חבר‬that is protected from all external forces that can be damaging.

On this unique Shabbat of Parshat Chayei Sarah may we be zoche to the deepening our connections; coming even closer to one another and unifying more powerfully as a nation. We are blessed with the ‘hidden bond’ embodied so beautifully in the holy city of Chevron. A bond that can never be broken.

B’Ahavat Yisrael, Rav Simcha Hochbaum Director of Tourism - Hebron Fund

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SHABBAT CHEVRON RABBANIT MIRIAM SPECIAL WITH LEVINGER Raised in the Bronx, Rabbanit Miriam Levinger led the renewal of the Jewish community in Hebron, which she spearheaded together with her husband, Rav Moshe Levinger a”h, for the past forty years, and where she continues to live, along with generations of her family.

I

n 1979, we were a group of ten women and forty children who entered the abandoned Hadassah Medical building in Hebron. Exactly 50 years had passed since the Jewish survivors of the 1929 riots had been expelled from the city. The government placed us under strict lock-down. Our husbands were not allowed in and we were not allowed to leave. The conditions were dreadful.

However, I had brought a Sefer (religious text) with me that brought me tremendous comfort. Entitled ‘Shaar HaChatzer,’ it spoke of Hebron’s centrality and how Hebron was the key to all of Eretz Yisrael.

Surely, we never dreamed of a day where there would be thousands joining us on Chol HaMoed or a Shabbat Chayei Sarah, like we have this week. However, in our hearts, we felt the righteousness of our mission. We were following the directives of our Forefathers: ‘Maaseh Avot Siman L’Banim.’ Abraham acted quite deliberately when purchasing Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, and for what was an exorbitant price. He too 48

TORAH TIDBITS / VAYEIRA 5780

knew that the birthright established for his children in Hebron would spread to all of Eretz Yisrael, and he wanted to make sure it was one that was indisputable and everlasting. Hebron’s centrality repeated itself throughout every stage of history, from G-d telling David that the eternal Kingship of Israel must start in Hebron, to the Bar Kochba revolts, to modern times when my husband, Rav Moshe Levinger a”h, knew that the post-1967 movement to resettle the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, must begin in Hebron as well.

Hebron’s message is not one we can ever afford to forget. With the recent events in Gaza, Iran, and the whole world questioning our right to Israel, we must also hear G-d’s message to us in these Parshiot: that we must be steadfast and confident in our birthright. G-d wants us here. He wants His children to return.

If not, we wouldn’t continue to see the success we have seen in Hebron, against all odds. It is a message that all of Am Yisrael must internalize and one that the holy city of Hebron - the city of our Mothers and Fathers- comes to eternally remind us.

OU ISRAEL CENTER

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SHABBAT CHEVRON RABBI AARON GOLDSCHEIDER, SPECIAL WITH EDITOR, TORAH TIDBITS

Yedidya’s Light

T

his is the true story of a little boy by the name of Yedidya, who had made aliyah with his family to the city of Hebron, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is a small, tight knit community. Only ninety Jewish families live in the city.

It is not an easy nor hospitable place to live for Jews. Nevertheless,these heroic families live in this sacred setting because they passionately believe in the holiness of this biblical city.

Hebron is the city where Abraham and Sarah lived for much of their lives.It is the place where Sarah died, and where Abraham purchased a cave and field so that he could bury his wife and establish burial plots for his family.

The name of the cave is known as Ma’arat Hamachpelah, which means the ‘Cave of the Couples.’ It is where the fathers and mothers of the Jewish nation are buried, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah were laid to rest in this place over 3000 years ago.

According to Jewish mysticism, it is also the burial place of Adam and Eve. Well, beautiful little Yedidya was a 50

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special young boy, loved by all the families of Hebron.

At the age of three and a half Yedidya was diagnosed with autism. he could not communicate with words; sadly, he did not speak. At the age of three, he had still not uttered a full word. His parents prayed each day for his health and wellbeing.

If only he would begin to speak.

Yedidya’s father prays each day in the Ma’arat Hamachpela. He serves as the director of tourism for the Jewish community in the city. One afternoon Yedidya joined his father on a tour of the Ma’arat Hamachpela. Even at this young age, Yedidya knew his way around the cave.

While his father was praying the afternoon services, Yedidya went off on his own, as he often did. This day he ran in the direction of the burial place of Abraham.

The area where Abraham is buried does not have an accessible entrance.

People generally stand outside it and look through steel-gated windows. It is common for people to stand by these openings and peer through these spaces and offer prayers.

Suddenly, policemen who keep a watch on the happenings inside the cave

gathered around the area of Abraham’s burial place. There was commotion.

The guards called out, ‘Get your son out’“ Please get him out!”, “He must get out!”

There was a little boy sitting on the ground, inside the gated area. How he got in is unclear, but he had found his way inside. Incredibly, Yedidya had somehow climbed through the bars.

And he was in no mind to leave.. Little Yedidya sat on the floor, totally unaware of what was happening around him. He did not hear the shouts of the police. He did not sense the commotion.

Yedidya was sitting on the floor and was at ease. He was smiling.

Yedidya uttered just four more Hebrew words before he was removed from the burial place: Abba Po, Ima Po, ‘Father is here’, Mother is here’. He was pointing to the burial place of Abraham and Sarah.

Yedidya sensed the aura found in this holy place; earth that contains within it the very roots of Jewish people.

A very special thank you to Rav Simcha Hochbaum for sharing his remarkable story with me and with thousands of others on his tour of Ma’arat Hamachpelah over the years in Chevron.

This story was published in the book “The Light That Unites, A Chanukah Companion” (OU Press).

And for the first time in his life Yedidya spoke.

He loudly said two words: ohr po , ‘light here’, ‘light here’. He excitingly repeated these words; “Light – Here”, “Light – Here” and he was pointing to Abraham’s burial place.

Amazingly, little Yedidya sensed light emanating from this holy spot. ************************* When we are spiritually sensitive, we can perceive a light from beyond the physical world..

There is light when there is joy.

There is light when we are kind to one another.

There is light when there is love shared between people.

OU ISRAEL CENTER

51

DIVREI MENACHEM

BY MENACHEM PERSOFF

Special Projects Consultant, OU Israel Center mpersoff@ou.org

W

hen we consider the extravagant sum Avraham transferred for the plot in Hevron, as recounted in our Parsha, the negotiations between Avraham and Ephron appear to be nothing more than the attempt of a scheming trader to exploit our forefather.

However, notes Yoel Tzur, it was Avraham who schemed! When Avraham declared that he was a stranger and a sojourner, he thus stated his dilemma: Although the locals honored him, the Hittites could not sell property to a stranger.

Nevertheless, for Avraham, Sarah’s demise was an opportunity to acquire real estate and to promote G-d’s promise that He would give his descendants this land. So Avraham asks Ephron to give him (rather than sell) an estate – not a burial plot. Ephron indicates that Avraham can bury his wife in one of his local burial places – but there is no talk of a sale.

Avraham ups the ante. He prostrates himself and begs that Ephron grant him the cave for its full price, as an estate for a burial site. In front of his elders, Ephron replies that he has “given” Avraham the field, to which Avraham remarks that he

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will accept the gift “for the price of the field.” Ephron cunningly inquires, “What is 400 shekels of silver to you and me?” and Avraham, undeterred by the exorbitant sum (perhaps to Ephron’s surprise), hands over the money.

For Yoel Tzur, this was Avraham’s great achievement. For Yitchak Meitliss, the transfer solved a problem for Ephron: According to local law, if the land was sold only partially, Ephron would still be liable to local taxes. Now, having transferred all the property to Avraham, including the field, the cave, and the trees, Ephron was released from his debts.

Such was the negotiating stance of what appeared to be typical Near-Eastern barter. We know, however, that Hashem arranges things in such a way that even a local rogue can serve as a catalyst to advance the unending saga of the Jewish people in its ancestral home.

Shabbat Shalom!

OU ISRAEL CENTER

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RABBI AARON Editor, Torah Tidbits GOLDSCHEIDER

Sarah’s Cry

I

n the unspeakable tortures of the Warsaw Ghetto, a bright light shone: the guidance and holiness of the Piaseczna Rebbe (1889-1943). Rabbi Kolonymus Kalman Shapiro was the spiritual leader and father to thousands of followers until he was murdered by the Nazis. His powerful and saintly teachings are found in his astonishing sefer, Eish Kodesh, ‘Holy Fire’. The backstory regarding his book is well known to many today: When it became apparent to the Piaseczna Rebbe that the end of the ghetto and all its inhabitants was near, he buried the manuscript of the book in a canister. This canister was found by construction workers after the end of the war and was published in Israel in 1960.

In a remarkable teaching, written amidst overwhelming anguish and pain, the Rebbe addressed the great challenge of continued faith in God’s justice in the face of frightening and agonizing adversity.

The Piaseczna Rebbe delves into the verses describing Sarah’s passing:“And the life of Sarah was...these were the years of the life of Sarah” (Bereshit 23:1).

The repetition of the phrase concerning Sarah’s life is understood as a sign of her righteousness. Her righteousness even exceeded the level attained by Avraham.

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(This is based on the fact that when the text reports the death of Avraham the phrase “the years of Abraham’s life” is not repeated). The Rebbe establishes as a fact that Sarah’s faith and devotion were unparalleled.

And yet this view needs to be understood in light of Rashi’s startling observation.

Rashi asks the question why the death of Sarah is reported immediately after the Akeida, ‘The Binding of Yitzchak’. Rashi answers that this teaches that Sarah died upon hearing that her beloved son’s life would be taken from this world.

The Piaseczna Rebbe makes the following assertion. “The Torah juxtaposed the death of Sarah to the Akieda, in order to demonstrate what happens when there is too much suffering: Our mother Sarah’s soul departed. “If this can happen to Sarah, the most righteous of all people, how much more so is this true for all of us.” The Torah is attesting to the fragility of man.

The Rebbe quotes from the classic work Meor Va’shemesh (his maternal greatgrandfather): The Talmud says that there is a correlation between the ‘covenant of salt’ and the ‘covenant of suffering’.

The Sages state that ‘salt, at first glance, should not be beneficial when placed on meat and yet it brings out its taste; so too, suffering when given to man is beneficial, it is purifying and cathartic.’ The Rebbe

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Menachem Mendel of Riminov was not completely satisfied with this assertion. He commented: “This Tamludic statement is only true when the portion of salt is placed in measure. Too much salt spoils the meat - and too much suffering can devastate and destroy a person.” It is not feasible for a human being to tolerate too much pain.

Courageously, the Piaseczna Rebbe took his analysis of Sarah’s death a step further.

He explained that the words’ shnei chayei Sarah’ actually means: “the two lives of Sarah’, the life she lived and the life that she was supposed to live had she not given up her life. She gave up her life, if you will, in order to ‘teach the Creator” the limits of human suffering. On the face of it, she took away a number of years from her life. She chose to show God the effect of suffering when it is too much to bear. The Rebbe asserts that this act in no way sullied her righteous standing. On the contrary, her response was rooted in love and concern for the welfare of future generations. This only added to her saintliness.”

The written divrei Torah in the book ‘Aish Kodesh’ were first delivered by the Rebbe orally to his chassidim. They were shared by him at the third meal each Shabbos. He taught this particular lesson on Shabbat Chayei Sarah, not long after he endured one of the most excruciating events of his life: the death of his only son, his daughterin-law and sister-in-law, who were killed during the Nazi aerial bombing in Warsaw in September, 1939. It is apparent that the Rebbe is not speaking only of Sarah’s loss.

The Rebbe’s own tormented cry can easily be discerned.

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Three critical lessons emerge from the Rebbe’s compelling Torah teaching: First, the Rebbe acknowledges that severe heartbreak and pain are traumatic.

Such painful experiences can precipitate devastating effects on a person’s psyche and spiritual well-being.

Second, what are legitimate religious responses to suffering? One approach is submission before the Creator. However, here, in the episode of Sarah, the Rebbe identifies a contrastive response. Our mother Sarah confronted the Creator and challenged Heaven to be more responsive and compassionate to the evil that man endures.

Thirdly, struggling and wrestling with the question of suffering and the ways of God by no means tarnishes our standing as good Jews. We are permitted to press God, perhaps even obligated, in our search for truth and in our attempt to unlock the mysteries we encounter in life.

Sarah insists on justice in this world from the Creator.

The Rebbe of Piaseczna concluded his unforgettable drasha with the following prayer: “God, have mercy and redeem us speedily form pain and sorrow.” With humility and deep faith he turned to God in Heaven with a heartfelt petition: “I may not not understand your ways but I will not give up on seeking Your closeness and anticipating the final redemption.”

The holy Rebbe pleaded for that day to come soon.

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FROM THE VIRTUAL DESK OF THE

OU VEBBE REBBE RAV DANIEL MANN

Bankruptcy in Halacha

Q

uestion: I have $30,000 of credit debt (in the US). I lost my job, and my new job pays less. I do not see how I can pay the debt. What does Jewish law say about filing for bankruptcy?

Answer: [We responded to the querier regarding his situation but are broadening (in brevity) the discussion. We will compare elements of bankruptcy law (focusing on the American system, which is more sweeping than many European systems including Israel) to Halacha, survey how Halacha reacts to that (this week), and relate practically to some common applications (next week).]

Of the two elements of modern bankruptcy law, one is found in Halacha.

If a debtor lacks the funds to pay, he must liquidate or give many of his assets to his creditors, or beit din will, in many cases (depending on the type of debt and assets) oversee the seizing of assets. However, the debtor retains basic assets needed for daily

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living (mesadrin l’ba’al chov – Bava Metzia 113b). All bankruptcy systems do this and regulate the apportioning of payment among various creditors, in a way that differs from the halachic system.

The second element of American Bankruptcy is “fresh start,” which makes it unnecessary to make payments (“discharge”) beyond those prescribed by the bankruptcy court. Talmudic Halacha does not recognized fresh start. If someone originally lacks funds but acquires them later, he must pay past debts using new assets.

There are a few possible ways for fresh start bankruptcy to become halachically viable. One is that in some cases, the creditors make a settlement with the debtor over the terms of reduced payment. Agreement actually does not make the question moot, because it can be considered agreement under duress.

This is because the creditors have to deal with the “threat” of a possibly more detrimental, non-halachic bankruptcy judgment or that the debtor’s remaining assets will disappear before they receive payment (the bankruptcy system takes

The Orthodox Union - via its website - fields questions of all types in areas of kashrut, Jewish law and values. Some of them are answered by Eretz Hemdah, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, headed by Rav Yosef Carmel and Rav Moshe Ehrenreich, founded by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli zt”l, to prepare rabbanim and dayanim to serve the National Religious community in Israel and abroad. Ask the Rabbi is a joint venture of the OU, Yerushalayim Network, Eretz Hemdah... and OU Israel’s Torah Tidbits.

steps to prevent such disappearances).

Regarding agreement under duress, a sale is valid, but a present given under duress (i.e., without a significant return) is invalid (Bava Batra 47b). After citing various opinions and distinctions, the Pitchei Choshen’s (Halva’ah 2:(62)) approach is that the parties’ agreement is insufficient to make debt reduction binding unless finalized without an act of kinyan (which may or may not exist in various cases).

A factor that might validate even debt discharge is dina d’malchuta (the law of the land). There are three main approaches regarding the concept’s extent. One limits it to the direct welfare of the governmental entity (opinion cited by the Rama, Choshen Mishpat 369:8). The Rama (ibid.) rules that it applies much more broadly – to cases in which a law is made to improve society (as opposed to for the government’s perception of justice).

The Shach (CM 73:39) argues that even when done to ostensibly improve society, a law that contradicts the Torah is not acceptable (between Jews). The Chatam Sofer (V:44) follows the Rama’s approach, with a slight clarification. We follow dina

d’malchuta when it addresses a societal need in a manner that the Rabbis would have instituted the matter if they had the ability. Most poskim (see Igrot Moshe, CM II:62; Rav Daichovsky in Techumin XVIII) follow the Rama’s approach, and in our beit din, we do so with the Chatam Sofer’s addition. However, it is not always clear when a law contributes to society and/or would the rabbis agree to it. (Regarding bankruptcy, the Chelkat Yaakov, CM 32 views it negatively, and the Igrot Moshe ibid. positively.)

A related reason to accept bankruptcy is that it has become the accepted business practice, and business transactions are made with it in mind. The Maharshach (II:113, accepted by the Pitchei Teshuva CM 12:19 and others) posits that in a place where the minhag is to allow a majority of a person’s creditors to grant the debtor leniency in paying them back, it is binding even on those who disagree. However, not all agree that this can go as far as fresh start bankruptcy.

Having a dispute?

For a Din Torah in English or Hebrew contact ‘Eretz Hemdah - Gazit’ Rabbinical Court: 077215-8-215 • fax: (02) 537-9626 beitdin@eretzhemdah.org OU ISRAEL CENTER

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Puah for Fertility and RABBI GIDEON Machon Gynecology in Accordance with Halacha WEITZMAN

Ill, But No Danger

L

ast time we saw the psak that a couple experiencing fertility problems are not considered ill. Most of the poskim that we asked disagreed with this approach. They were of the opinion that the couple are considered as ill albeit not in any danger, called choleh sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ein bo sakanah. In such a case it is permitted to undergo a medical procedure that involves a rabbinic prohibition. It is also permitted to ask a gentile to perform a medical procedure even if it involves a Torah prohibition.

As such the couple would be able to undergo certain treatments on Shabbat.

For example, would a couple be able to use hormonal injections on Shabbat? Rabbi Asher Weiss wrote to us that the injections

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are intramuscular (and not intravenous) and therefore the person injecting has no intention to draw blood. Even if the act of injecting the needle does cause bleeding.

This is unintentional and so permitted.

Therefore, he claimed that a person may administer their own injections and does not need to spend money in order not to have to give themselves an injection.

Rabbi Weiss raised a different problem with the injections which fall under the general title of medication and therefore cannot be used. He therefore suggested that it was preferable to have a non-Jew administer the injections. However, it is not imperative for a couple to incur loss or to go to great lengths to find an available gentile. In such a case the couple may give themselves the shots by themselves.

Rabbi Ephraim Greenblatt, the late great posek from Memphis, accepted that the couple is considered ill. However, he did not permit undergoing an ultrasound

test or a blood test that was performed by a gentile. Since both these tests involve a Torah prohibition, they must not be performed on Shabbat. While it is permitted for a non-Jew to violate a Torah prohibition for a sick person on Shabbat, if it is unnecessary this should not be done. In most cases the blood test or ultrasound can be delayed or brought forward without any negative effect on the treatment.

There is an additional problem with undergoing treatment on Shabbat related to halachic supervision. Since many poskim hold that it is essential that the treatments be supervised by an external religious supervisor, this presents a problem on Shabbat, especially when the clinic is far from the Jewish neighborhood.

This is a technical problem that we make all attempts to solve, but needs to be considered by the couple before agreeing to be treated on Shabbat.

The Puah Institute is based in Jerusalem and helps couples from all over the world who are experiencing fertility problems.

Offices in Jerusalem, New York, Los Angeles & Paris. Contact (Israel) 02-651-5050 (US) 718-336-0603 www.puahonline.org

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RABBI JUDAH OU-NCSY MISCHEL Mashpiah, Executive Director, Camp HASC Dedicated L'Iluy Nishmas HaChaver Shlomo Michael ben Meir z'l

Unstuck in the Cave

R

ebbetzin Frumeh Rachel was a great Tzadekes, the wife of Rebbe David of Kaminka, a descendant of Dovid HaMelech. The Rav and Rebbetzin moved to Eretz Yisrael (at that time under Ottoman rule) with great Mesirus Nefesh and in the face of grinding poverty. In those times, many women would die during childbirth, Rachmana Litzlan, (may the Compassionate one spare us!). There weren’t skilled doctors in the rural areas, and a primitive sense of hygiene was still prevalent. However people knew that if there was an issue in labor or childbirth, they needed to have the Rebbetzin of Kaminka there. When she was present, things would go well, and often miraculously so.

One day, the daughter of the Turkish Pasha was in labor, and it became an emergency situation. Doctors and officials couldn’t help. The Pasha was beside himself, until his Jewish advisor told him of the holy Rebbetzin of 62

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Kaminka. The Pasha immediately ran to the Rav & Rebbetzin’s little, run down apartment and summoned her. As soon as the holy Rebbetzin arrived in the Pasha’s daughter’s room, the excruciating pains stopped, and a healthy baby was born.

The Pasha wanted to pay the Rebbetzin a reward, but she refused: “I’m sorry, your eminence, it’s not about me, it’s a gift from G-d.” “Please,” the Pasha insisted, “I want to do a favor for you at least. What would you accept?”

Rebbetzin Fruma Leah asked to daven at Me’aras Hamachpela, which was under Islamic control and closed to Jews under penalty of death. When the Moslem doctor who had been in charge of the Pasha’s daughter heard that this reward had been granted, he burned with jealousy and hatred: “So the Pasha said the dirty Jew can enter our sacred place, but he never said anything about her leaving it….”

As the massive iron door at the entrance to Me’aras Hamachpela was unlocked, the Rebbetzin stepped inside and slowly descended the steps, until she found herself in a dark cave within a cave. There she poured out her heart in prayer B’shem Kol Yisrael, in the name of all Israel. After some time, she began to ascend again, but when she arrived

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at the door it was sealed shut. She was trapped! It was pitch black inside and there was no airflow. The guard had clearly been bribed and banging on the door didn’t help. With no recourse, she turned around and descended again, deeper, deeper, her heart crying out.

When she reached the tombs of our holy Avos and Imahos, the Rebbetzin began whispering Tehillim from memory, gasping for breath, growing faint, and sensed she was at her end.

All at once, a light illumined the cave, and a majestic Jew with a crown appeared next to her. “I am your children’s greatgrandfather. Take this,” he said, handing her a small Sefer Tehillim. “Hold on tight to it and follow me.” As they hurried through tunnels, the Rebbetzin saw great light ahead and shielded her face.

When she finally opened her eyes, she wasn’t in Chevron anymore, Rebbetzin Frumeh Rachel was outside her home in Yerushalayim. ~ We re-live, in this week’s Sedra, the

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acquisition of Me’aras Hamachpela, a cave within a cave, as the resting place for our grandmother, Sarah Imeinu. This is an opportunity for us to appreciate the treasures we have inherited from our Avos and Imahos.

The first blessing of our Amida draws down to us the Zechus Avos, the merits of our ancestors: Magen Avraham, “Blessed are You Hashem, Shield of Abraham.” The Gemara in Pesachim reveals Hashem’s words to Avraham: Becha Chosmin, “With you shall the People of Israel ‘seal’ their blessing….”

The Chidushei HaRim, Reb Yitzchak Meir, the first Rebbe of Gur, comments: underneath the rubble of our mistakes, and even beneath our moments of subtle Kefira, ‘heresy’, as it were, lies a ‘sealed’ reservoir of Emunah, true faith.

This is the blessing of Emunah we have inherited from Avraham and Sarah, and it is always protected within us, “shielded” in their merit. The word Kefira comes from the root of the word ‘to cover’. Our shortcomings and rebellions merely ‘cover over’ our unchanging essence of Emunah.

Deep down we are all essentially Maaminim Bnei Maaminim, ‘possessors of Emunah, the offspring of possessors of Emunah’. Underneath all the darkness shines the majestic light of pure faithfulness. Deeper than anything we do, say, think or believe, Emunah is actually who we are.

There are times when we feel stuck, surrounded by darkness, trapped in a cave-within-a-cave, b’Hastara shebeToch ha’hastara, in a ‘double bind’ of concealment within concealment — whether within our spiritual struggles, our relationships or our professional lives. We may feel like we have hit a deadend, with no way out. But all we have to do is connect consciously with the light of our Avos and Imahos, and the gift they have bestowed on us. Whenever we help another Jew, pray from our hearts for Klal Yisrael, or recite a Kapitel Tehillim with faith, we are living in the holy example of Rebbetzin Frumeh Rachel. And one day soon, if we hold on, we will become unstuck, and emerge into great light and find ourselves at home, in Yerushalayim, Ir haKodesh, biM’heira b’Yameinu.

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RABBI BEREL WEIN Rav, Beit Knesset Hanassi, Jerusalem

I

t is very difficult to sum up the experiences, worth and influence of an individual purely in words. That is why many times at funerals people who hear eulogies of the deceased feel that somehow the words of the tribute really did not capture the essence of the individual being memorialized. In the Torah reading this week, Abraham is said to have eulogized his beloved wife Sarah. The Torah does not describe for us the words that he used in speaking about her. However, Rashi, in commenting as to why the Torah listed her life as consisting of 100 and then 20 and then seven years, states that all of her lives – the one that was 100, the one that was 20 and the one that was seven – were devoted to goodness. That simple statement is the true eulogy for our mother Sarah. Everything was for the good, and, therefore, all of her life was devoted to being and creating good for her family and for others as well. When people say that the person was “a person of goodness”, that phrase encompasses many details and many actions that the person performed. However, enumerating all of that individual’s actions of goodness is really unnecessary, because we understand what a person of goodness is and does. This is a state of mind, an emotion of the soul that drives human behavior and actions.

When we say someone was or is a good person everyone immediately knows what is meant by that statement, and, therefore, no further explanations or illustrations are necessary.

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We often mistakenly associate the trait of goodness with a certain weakness of character and a compromise of willpower. We think that good people must automatically be soft people, and in a world that is often harsh and hard, softness is not always a virtue. Nevertheless, when we review the life of our mother Sarah, we cannot help but be impressed by the fact that she was a strong-willed and powerful personality. She took severe and painful steps to safeguard her son Isaac from the ravages of his half-brother Ishmael. Even when her husband Abraham seemed to be in doubt as to how to treat the matter, she stayed firm, and, eventually, the Lord, so to speak, told Abraham to listen and obey whatever Sarah instructed him to do. Goodness should never be seen as weakness. Rather, it is to be seen as the search for ultimate benefit the person himself or herself and for the local and general society as well. In a good society, justice is done and corrective measures are taken to make certain that evil will is not allowed to flourish or go unpunished and unchallenged. This is the type of world that Abraham and Sarah were striving to build, and it was the influence of their personalities that marked their generations and gave it a stamp of goodness and purpose. That task of goodness and its accomplishments has been the challenge to the Jewish people for the millennia of our existence, and remains our mission and goal in our time as well.

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein

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Upper-left: 400 silver pieces that Avraham handed over to... • EFRON (pencil = IPARON, heteronym of EFRON) • Pencil sharpener is a M'CHADEID, to sharpen = L'CHADEID, one of Yishmael's sons, CHADAD • V'LIVKOTAH is written with a small KAF - a small kaf (spoon) • G-d blessed Avraham BAKOL. One opinion is that this blessing included a precious gem that had miraculous curative powers (footer icon too) • Speech-bubble with a chain in it, standing for VAYOMAR, and he (Eliezer) said, which is read with the SHALSHELET (chain) note • BARUCH HASHEM was said by Eliezer (Others in Chumash who said B"H are No'ach and Yitro. Lavan got close, with B'RUCH HASHEM. So did Avimelech to Yitzchak) • One of the gold rings Eliezer gave to Rivka • The Xed out turkey platter is Eliezer's refusal to eat before he had completed "business" • Good thing, too, because Lavan had poisoned the food (poison symbol) • CHUPA is for Yitzchak's marriage to Rivka (also Avraham's to Ketura) • Gift for Rivka and her family, as well as the gifts Avraham gave to the children of Ketura - and play-on-words, gift is a MINCHA, the davening of which is attributed to Yitzchak, end of the sedra • The word TEREM appears eight times in the Torah, twice in Chayei Sara. That's the logo of Terem • Above the Terem logo is the logo of MASA, an Israeli non-profit organization that enables thousands of Jewish youth to spend a semester or a year in Israel in any of over 160 programs, helping them build a life-long relationship with Israel and a firm commitment to Jewish life. MASA is also one of the sons of Yishmael. Different 68

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spelling, but very close in sound • NEVIOT water is for the sound-alike of the first born of Yishma'el • Another son of Yishmael was KEIDAR, spelled the same and sounding similar to KADAR, which is a potter - Harry Potter • The army insignia (near the Terem logo) is a chevron. Pronounce the CH as in Chanuka - Chevron • There are two dots forming a SH'VA - this is a sound-alike for a grandson of Avraham's via Ketura • L and a kite. Kite is also a raptor (preditory bird) in the same biological family as eagles and hawks. Kite in Hebrew is probably the DA'A, listed as a non-kosher bird. ELDA'A was a son of MIDYAN, born to KETURA from Avraham • The animals are mentioned in the haftara - In modern Hebrew, a M'RI is a buffalo (bison? or maybe water buffalo). Likely that the haftara is referring to a different member of the bovine family or a description of a bull or cow • The question-marked chair is from the haftara - who will sit on David's throne after his death? • The arrow is from CHAVILA to SHOR • The badge is Agent 99's of Control. She was a SOCHENET, a term describing Avishag in the haftara • Top-right is Charlie the tuna - he stands for Y'TUR NAFISH whose name sounds like "your tuna fish" • Lower-right is Me'arat HaMachpeila • Above it are the 400 shekels that Avraham paid to Efron for the field and the cave and surroundings • Water with an eye is EIN HAMAYIM • L'TUSHIM (markers) • Lauren Bacall = BAKOL • Willie's number 24 is for KAD, pitcher (he wasn't, he was CF) mentioned repeatedly in the sedra • upper-right, rectangle filled with white for LAVAN • to the right of Harry Potter is a can of TAB, but it's mirror image and reads BAT. Then there is a picture of a bat (the only flying mammal), followed by 5 baseball bats. All toghether we get BAT-SHEVA, from the haftara • V'HINEI is standing on the GIMALIM which is on the AYIN (see 24:30) • B or D lying on their sides are for the two types of camels • and two Unexplaineds - one easy and one challenging, shall we say.

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RABBI EPHRAIM SPRECHER Faculty, OU Israel Center

Rivka’s Ayin Tova

B

oth Yaakov Avinu and Moshe Rabeinu found their spouses at a BE’ER (a well). Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, also met Rivka, Yitzchak’s future wife, at a well. At that event, the Torah first calls the well a BE’ER (Bereshis 24:11). However, in Bereshis 24:42 the Torah calls the well where Eliezer met Rivka AYIN. Why the switch?

The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim informs us that the word AYIN has several different meanings. Sometimes, AYIN means a well, like in our verse about Eliezer and Rivka. In other places AYIN means an eye as in “Leah’s eyes were soft” (Bereshis 29:17).

The word AYIN also means caring and paying attention. As the Torah states, “G‑d’s Eyes are directed to it (Eretz Yisrael) constantly from the beginning of the year until the end of the year” (Devarim 11:12). The Rambam tells us that the word AYIN can also mean to

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focus, as the verse states, “Everyone’s eyes focused their hopes on You” (Tehillim 145:15).

The Talmud in Tanit 24 states that once a person has determined that a bride’s eyes are appealing, it is unnecessary to investigate anything else about her.

What a strange Talmudic statement!

The Kli Yakar states that this Talmudic passage cannot be understood literally.

For one thing, it is not always true. People can have nice looking eyes and yet not be good looking. Furthermore, is the Talmud really telling us that physically good looking eyes are an indicator of a good moral character??

Therefore, the Kli Yakar explains this perplexing Talmudic passage according to the lesson taught to us by Eliezer.

Eliezer needed to find a proper and righteous wife for Yitzchak, someone who possessed the noble character traits fitting to become the Mother of the Jewish People.

So he devised an Eye Test. He rested his camels at the AYIN (well). If the young, perspective bride for Yitzchak would display great CHESED and generosity, it would show that she possessed an AYIN TOVA (a good eye). This means a wise, loving, and generous spirit. Rivka displayed wisdom and incredible grace

while selflessly giving of herself for Eliezer and his camels.

Once Eliezer saw that Rivka possessed such an AYIN TOVA at the AYIN (well), he had no need for further investigation into her gracious and wonderful character traits. Thus, the Mishna in Avot 2 states that AYIN TOVA is one of the best paths in life.

Eliezer found that Rivka passed his AYIN test with flying colors! Therefore, he gave Rivka gifts that represented her destiny, to become the Mother of the Nation of Israel, who would receive the Torah. As the verse in Mishlei 22 states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;One who possesses a good AYIN (eye) will be blessed.â&#x20AC;?

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TORAH VEHA'ARETZ RABBI MOSHE BLOOM INSTITUTE BY www.toraland.org.il/en

Kilei HaKerem in Chevron

S

habbat Chayei Sara is known in Israel as Shabbat Chevron, when tens of thousands of Jews stream to Chevron and pray at Ma’arat HaMachpela.

Rabbi Chayim Yosef David Azulay (the Chida, 1794) was born in Yerushalaim, but had a strong connection to Chevron. He was a descendent of the kabbalist, Rabbi Avraham Azulay, who settled in Chevron in the early 17 century.

In Birkei Yosef, the Chida discusses the prohibition of kilei hakerem, planting grains, legumes, or vegetables close to a grapevine. He specifically addresses the question of whether one should refrain from buying vegetables sold by Arabs in the marketplace throughout the Land of Israel, in light of this prohibition. At that time, Jews were not farmers; they purchased produce from the Arabs. Kilei hakerem is prohibited even when the

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produce is grown by gentiles.

The Chida cites a responsum by his great-grandfather, who was lenient since this was not prevalent, and adds: … and it seems to me that [we can be lenient] even where this is commonplace, such as in our holy city Chevron. Every year squash is planted in vineyards, as this is their practice … however, if a gentile unwittingly mentions that they (the vegetables) were grown in the vineyard, they are definitely prohibited. …

Furthermore, we can permit them, since all the vineyards where squash are planted are still young and do not yet bear fruit.

While planting vegetables was common in Chevron in the 17-18th centuries, the Chida nonetheless permitted buying vegetables in the Chevron market for several reasons. Even today, Arabs of Chevron area plant vegetables in their vineyards.

In practice: we recommend that one not purchase vegetables and grapes sold

by Arabs on the roadsides of Judea and Samaria due to kilei hakerem, but to prefer Jewishly-grown produce.

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WEEKLY OU KASHRUT PAGE

W

hen I brush my teeth, I sometimes see blood on the brush. Must I rinse it off or is it fine to continue using it?

Rav Chanoch Padwa, ztâ&#x20AC;?l (Kol Hatorah, 2001) writes that blood on a toothbrush is forbidden and should be rinsed. Although the intent in this case is not to swallow the blood but to continue brushing, the prohibition of maris ayin applies. Although one could argue that the toothbrush itself should serve as a heker (indication) that the blood came from the mouth, Rabbi Padwa does not view this as a strong

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enough indication. As evidence, he notes that residual blood that remains after biting into an apple is forbidden, even though there are bite marks on the apple which indicate that the blood originated from the mouth. In any event, the concern of blood on a toothbrush is limited to blood that is obvious. However, blood that is mixed with toothpaste and saliva and is no longer recognizable as blood, is not an issue. The Rama makes this point in YD 66:10, where he writes that since the prohibition of human blood is because of maris ayin, and if mixed with other substances, it is nullified and permitted.

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THE DAILY BY SIVAN RAHAV-MEIR PORTION

The Finer Points of Love ‫ ַו ִי ְּק ְרא ּו ְל ִר ְב ָקה‬.‫יה‬ ָ ‫ֲלה ֶאת ִּפ‬ ָ ‫ֲר וְנְִׁשא‬ ָ ‫ּאמר ּו נִ ְק ָרא ַל ַּנע‬ ְ ֹ‫ַוי‬ .‫אמר ֵא ֵל ְך‬ ֶ ֹ‫יש ַה ֶּזה ַו ּת‬ ׁ ‫ֲת ְל ִכי ִעם ָה ִא‬ ֵ ‫יה ה‬ ָ ‫ּאמר ּו ֵא ֶל‬ ְ ֹ‫ַוי‬ And they said, “Let us call the maiden and ask her.” And they summoned Rebecca, and they said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.”

(Gen. 24:57–58) What is love? In her answer to her family, Rebecca highlights one aspect of love in her simple but meaningful answer: “I will go!” With one Hebrew word, elekh, she agrees to go with Eliezer to marry Isaac and join Abraham’s family. It has been said that this terse response (one word in Hebrew) is the most important word in the entire parasha. I will go, despite all my doubts, despite the difficulties in making the decision, despite the fact that agreeing to marry is a somewhat irrational leap of faith into the unknown. I will go!

When Rebecca first lays her eyes on Isaac, she is overwhelmed and falls off her

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camel when she sees him praying in the field. Rebecca had never encountered a person of such stature or observed prayer in this manner. This initial wonderment at seeing her future husband is a pivotal moment. In a marriage, we should strive to retain this feeling of excitement for our spouse.

One of the most beautiful verses in the Torah describes love: “And Isaac brought her to the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted for [the loss of] his mother.” Marriage means continuity. You are not alone. Indeed, you are a part of a bigger picture with a past and a future. When Rebecca enters the tent, the Divine Spirit returns to Abraham and Isaac’s home and the loneliness they felt after Sarah’s demise is lifted. Part of Sarah’s blessing and spirit is now felt again in their lives.

This verse gives a timeline for love. Whereas it is often thought that relationships are primarily built before marriage, the Torah presents a different view. Love between husband and wife develops and deepens over the years, mainly after they have begun building their joint home. First Rebecca enters Isaac’s tent and only then does the verse say “and he loved her.”

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THE NEW OLD PATH

BY RABBI BENJI LEVY CEO Of Mosaic United

Blessed with Everything

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did not occur in Abraham’s lifetime and Ishmael’s repentance (Bava Batra 16b).

With all these interpretations for the term ‘bakol’ the question remains, how are we to know which is correct?

ne of the most elusive – and perhaps pervasive – of all desires is that of having ‘everything’. People want ‘more’, they wish they could ‘have it all’. But what does it actually mean to have everything in life?

Perhaps, rather than being mutually exclusive, all the interpretations are indeed correct, such that rather than each interpretation representing a distinct answer, each could represent a different expression of the same answer.

We are told in no uncertain terms that: ‘God blessed Abraham bakol (with everything)’ (Gen. 24:1). Eliezer became responsible for ‘everything’ that was Abraham’s, (24:2) and later, ‘Abraham gave everything that was his to Isaac’ (25:5).

Immediately after this, Abraham went on to give gifts to his other children (25:6). This implies that whatever it was that he had received from God and passed onto Isaac could not have been physical, tangible items, for then there would have been nothing left to give to his other children.

The Talmud grapples with this idea, bringing no less than six interpretations of what exactly bakol – ‘everything’ means.

Suggested interpretations include: not preventing the loss of the Abrahamic name, having a daughter whose name is bakol, astrological skills that kings of the east and west seek, a special stone that heals people, the fact that Esau’s rebellion

This can be explained by classifying the different opinions into two types. One category relates to Abraham’s investment in his children, whether through actually bringing them into the world, or through the honorable role that they played and legacy that they left behind. Rashi explains that the numerical value of ben (son) is equivalent to that of bakol (everything), implying that our children are everything.

In Abraham’s case, his descendants were one of the greatest blessings he received from God, and were also his greatest blessing to the world, in that they became the torch from which his message of ethical monotheism continues to burn. The second category relates to providing for those in need, whether spiritual guidance or physical healing, suggesting that helping others is ‘bakol’, everything. The common denominator spanning both categories of interpretation is that of the blessing of a

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meaningful contribution to the world.

Earlier, God empowers Abraham with the ability to bless others (12:2), and the Midrash explains that when Abraham gives Isaac ‘everything’, he blesses him with the ability to bless others (Gen. Rabba 61:6). Thus, the blessing does not just stay with Isaac, but rather it continues through to Jacob as he declares to his brother: ‘I have everything,’ implying that this was all he needed (Rashi on 33:11).

It seems that all the interpretations point to one clear idea that is passed down from generation to generation. To have ‘everything’ is to have the ability to bless others. The greatest gift that exists is the gift of giving itself.

Stay in touch with @RabbiBenji and learn more at www.RabbiBenji.com Next week in Toldot: All too often we may despair and get disappointed with the blows that life throws our way. It is not an easy ride, and it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, the knowledge that everything is part of a greater plan. Hidden within an unusually detailed description of Isaac digging wells, we find a profound message of faith, that offers hope and perspective to all of humankind.

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