Ta'am Hachaim Pinchas 5773 Shabbos in the Parasha

Shabbos: Ta’am HaChaim Pinchas 5773 (From the archives) Shabbos in the Parasha HaShem loves the Jewish People no Moav umeh anah oso Balaam ben Beor matter how much they have sinned min hashitim ad haGilgal limaan daas tzidkos HaShem, My people, hear, now, Introduction what Balak, king of Moav, schemed, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן השיב את חמתי [and all the events] from Shittim to מעל בני ישראל בקנאו את קנאתי בתוכם ולא Gilgal - in order to recognize the Pinchas son ,כליתי את בני ישראל בקנאתי righteous acts of HaShem. The Gemara of Elazar son of Aharon the Kohen, explains that this verse teaches us that turned back My wrath from upon the HaShem was informing the Jewish Children of Israel, when he zealously People that if He had become angry avenged My vengeance among them, from the time that the Jewish People so I did not consume the Children of arrived in Shittim until they reached Israel in My vengeance. (Bamidbar Gilgal in Eretz Yisroel, the entire Jewish 25:11) nation would have been destroyed. The At the end of last week’s parasha we Gemara is referring to HaShem’s wrath learned how Balak had facilitated the against the Jewish People for having Moabite women to seduce the Jewish sinned with the Moabite women. This men. HaShem became angry at the Gemara, however, is difficult to Jewish People and they were threatened understand, because the Torah states with annihilation. Pinchas, the grandson explicitly that HaShem did become of Aharon HaKohen, saw that there was angry and almost annihilated the Jewish a need to act and he killed Zimri, the People. In fact, if not for Pinchas’ act of leader of the tribe of Shimon, and Kazbi, heroism, the Jewish People would have the Midianite woman, and through this been destroyed. How, then, could the zealous act he appeased HaShem’s Gemara state that HaShem did not wrath. In the beginning of this week’s become angry at that time? The Netziv parasha HaShem informs Moshe that in his commentary Heemak Davar at the Pinchas will receive HaShem’s covenant end of Parashas Balak and in Harchev of peace. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 105b; Davar at the beginning of Parashas Brachos 7a) presents a perplexing Pinchas offers a solution to this statement regarding this time period in difficulty by stating that there is a the Wilderness. It is said (Micha 6:5) distinction between charon af and ami zichar na mah yaatz Balak melech cheimah, two forms of anger. Thus, 1 although HaShem did not display charon clearly that HaShem has bestowed upon af, He did display cheimah [Both words us His greatest gift, which is the Holy are translated as wrath in English.] The Shabbos. Even during the period of the Netziv’s commentary is difficult to Three Weeks, when the Jewish People comprehend, as the Torah states clearly are in a state of mourning for the loss of that HaShem became angered with the the Bais HaMikdash and for the ongoing Jewish People. Rashi (Bamidbar 23:8 exile, HaShem has not abandoned us. and Sanhedrin 105b s.v. kol osan HaShem loves us more than anything hayamim) indicates that the anger the else in the world, and He will Gemara is referring to is at the time that demonstrate this love for us when He Balaam attempted to curse the Jewish brings us the redemption with the arrival People, but the verse that states “from of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily, in our Shittim until Gilgal” does not reflect this days. explanation. Shabbos in the Zemiros All of Balaam’s attempts to cause HaShem to despise us were in vain Kiddush G-d ,וַיְב ָֽרֶ ְך א -ֹלהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ The Gemara is difficult to reconcile with the verses in the Torah and in Micha. blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Nonetheless, we can glean from the The Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 11:2) Gemara an important lesson in how states that this verse refers to the manna HaShem views His relationship with His that HaShem provided the Jewish People Chosen Nation. Balaam was attempting with in the Wilderness. HaShem thus to curse the Jewish People, and when blessed the Shabbos with a double HaShem thwarted his efforts, Balaam portion of manna, and sanctified the employed a different tactic. Balaam’s Shabbos by not sending down manna on strategy was to cause the Jewish People Shabbos. One must wonder, however, to sin and thus incur HaShem’s wrath. why this phenomenon, which only lasted HaShem did get angry but He would not for forty years in the Wilderness, is the allow Balaam the satisfaction of seeing definition of the blessing and his actions bear fruit. Thus, the Gemara sanctification of Shabbos. The answer to states that HaShem did not become this question is that while there are many angry during the entire time that Balaam aspects to Shabbos, such as the rest, the sought to destroy the Jewish People. sanctity, and the prohibitions and other The Shabbos connection laws relating to the sanctity of the day, one component of Shabbos that is a We may think that HaShem has left us to beacon of light for all generations is the the elements, and we are under the fact that on Shabbos, one need not work jurisdiction of the forces of nature. to earn a living. While it is true that When Shabbos arrives, however, we see many religions and faiths observe one 2 day of the week as a rest day, the Zohar to inquire about the payment. Of course, states that only our Holy Shabbos Reb Zalman was astonished. He had provides us with a source of blessing for paid the loan in full on the day it was the entire week. Thus, desisting from due! The Rav could not recall payment work on Shabbos is not just an excuse to and insisted that they go together to Beis be lazy and spend the day in an idle Din (Rabbinical Court). manner. Rather, the opposite is true. On the Holy Shabbos one is exhorted to Word in town spread rapidly, and people engage as much as possible in spiritual began to shun Reb Zalman. His business pursuits, such as praying, studying Torah declined, and his children and wife were and eating and drinking in honor of affronted by their peers. The only Shabbos. When one observes the recourse the Beis Din had was to have Shabbos correctly, he can be assured that Reb Zalman swear that he had repaid the Shabbos will “work” for him too and loan. Rav Shmuel did not want to allow provide him his sustenance during the a Jew to swear falsely on his account and week, akin to the manna that the Jewish decided to forego the procedure by People received in the Wilderness. annulling the loan. This latest event brought even more scorn to the tailor, Shabbos Stories and eventually he felt forced to leave Vilna and establish himself elsewhere. All paid up Rav Shmuel Shtrashan of Vilna (1819- A year later, Rav Shmuel was analyzing 1885) was a wealthy banker as well as a a section of the Talmud and opened a renowned Torah scholar. In addition to volume he had used sometime in the his commerce, he maintained a free-loan past. He could not believe his eyes when society to provide interest-free loans to he saw a thick envelope with Reb the needy. One time he granted a one- Zalman's return address, containing 300 year loan of 300 rubles to Reb Zalman rubles. Quickly, he ran to find the the tailor and carefully recorded it in his hapless tailor who had been so ledger. One year later, to the date, with besmirched. After unsuccessfully 300 rubles in an envelope, Reb Zalman searching Vilna, he found that the tailor knocked on the door of Rav Shmuel's had moved. Rabbi Shtrashan traveled to study. The Rav was in the midst of a Reb Zalman to beg forgiveness. The deep Talmudic contemplation and hardly tailor, a broken man, explained that there interrupted his studies while tucking the was no way that anyone would believe money away in one of the volumes he the true story. They would just say that had been using. A few weeks later, while the pious scholar had shown mercy on reviewing his ledgers, Rav Shmuel the unscrupulous tailor. Finally, they noticed that Reb Zalman’s loan was decided that the only way to truly atone overdue. He summoned him to his office and give back the tailor his reputation 3 was for the scholar to take Reb Zalman's R' Yeshaya Bardaky zt”l son as his son-in-law. The shocked town Died 18 Cheshvan 5623 / 1862 of Vilna rejoiced at the divine union that R' Bardaky was a son-in-law (in his helped re-establish a reputation. second marriage) of R' Yisrael of (www.parsha.net) Shklov, who refers to his son-in-law as, "an important man and a talmid Pinchas and Pinchas chacham, the sharp and erudite rabbi who is more G-d-fearing than most . ." R' Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz zt"l (1726- R' Bardaky was born in Pinsk and taught 1791; student of the Baal Shem Tov and Torah there, but he decided to settle in early chassidic rebbe) lived in terrible Eretz Yisrael after his first wife died. poverty. His house was shabby and it looked ready to fall at any moment. When the ship carrying R' Bardaky, his son, Shmuel Akiva, and his daughter, Once, R' Pinchas' chassidim in another neared the port of Akko, it was wrecked, town invited him to spend Shabbat with and all the passengers were thrown into them.

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