בס“ד

Parshiyot Vayakhel-Pekudei/Parah 23 Adar, 5778/March 10, 2018 Vol. 9 Num. 27 לע“נ נחום אליעזר בן יוסף הכהן ז“ל This issue is sponsored by Miriam and Moishe Kesten

in memory of Larry Roth, who was so dedicated to Torah MiTzion Spiritual Communities - in Time and Space Rabbi Jonathan Ziring The Mishkan, the place where G-d until he could be clothed with the task that could be executed efficiently, would communicate with man, simplest raiment! He had to shear, humanity could grow. epitomizes the notion of “holiness in bleach, beat the wool, dye it, spin it, space.” Shabbat, the seventh day weave it, wash it, and sew it Perhaps, the Torah wanted to stress which has been sanctified by G-d to together, and only after all this was that not only is community necessary to commemorate the creation of the he clothed; whereas I get up in the create our physical world, but it is world, is the paradigm of “holiness in morning and find all my clothes equally needed for spiritual greatness. time.” The Torah juxtaposes the laws prepared for me. (Tosefta, Berachot The Mishkan caused G-d to dwell of Shabbat with the building of the 6:2, and Talmud Bavli Berachot 58a among the Jewish people specifically Mishkan twice, in Shemot 31 and 35. translation from here: http:// because it was built by pooling the From this adjacency, which hints at bit.ly/2CWFyrm) unique contributions, both monetary the connection between the Tabernacle and human, of the entire nation. The in time and space, our Sages derive Rabbi Medan notes that the acts listed Torah emphasizes how each person who many laws of Shabbat, including the are identical to the many of the had a skill would use it to sew and build categories of work prohibited on melachot, categories of action prohibited the Mishkan; it thus became the Shabbat (position of Rabbi Chanina on Shabbat. (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2) unification of the hearts and souls of bar Chama on Shabbat 49b), the way Based on this, Rabbi Medan contends the Jews who had invested so much in which those actions must be that on Shabbat, the laws are meant to into it. performed (the principle of melechet prohibit providing basic human needs. machshevet, as discussed in Chagigah Thus, he argues that this model is It is striking that Ben Zoma rules that 10a-b), and the rule that the distinct from that which derives the the blessing “that all these people were construction of the Mishkan was not to categories of prohibited work from the created to serve me” was said be performed on Shabbat (Rashi, Mishkan (see above link). specifically when seeing a multitude on Shemot 35:2, citing Midrash). the Temple Mount. It is there that we However, perhaps this passage provides remember that no man or woman is an However, the Talmud suggests other insight into both Shabbat and the island, even when forging our sources for the laws of Shabbat which Mishkan. Ben Zoma highlights that food connection to G-d. On Shabbat the capture other models. Rabbi Yaakov and clothes are generally not created by message is the same - we rest from our Medan points to a suggestive passage individuals, but communities. When a collaborative efforts to develop society, in the Tosefta. While discussing single person is responsible for planting so that together we can build our blessings that are said upon various and processing the raw materials for spiritual world. sights, the Tosefta writes as follows: everything he needs, he can get nothing Ben Zoma, when he saw a large done. It is collaboration that has [email protected] body of people on the Temple allowed human beings to build societies Mount, said: “Blessed is He who and civilizations. It is for this reason created these people to serve me.” that the technological advances of the How hard the first man, Adam, industrial revolution, that sped up the Our Beit Midrash is planning a must have labored before he could production of food and goods through Continuing Medical Education and eat a bit of bread! He had to plow assembly lines and the like, allowed Continuing Legal Education and sow and weed and hoe and unprecedented population explosions, trip to Panama for February 2019. reap and thresh, winnow and sift, not to mention an increase in the Hotel, kosher meals, shiurim, tours! grind, sift again, knead, moisten quality and length of life. As goods could If you are interested, please email and bake, and only after all this be created and transported faster, Dr. Mickey Ostro eat his bread; whereas I get up in streamlining work such that each [email protected] the morning and find the bread all person was responsible for an exact for more details. ready for me. What toil Adam had OUR BEIT MIDRASH

ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI MORDECHAI TORCZYNER

SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI JONATHAN ZIRING

AVREICHIM ADAM FRIEDMANN, YARON PEREZ

CHAVERIM NADAV GASNER, COREY KAMEN, JAY KARON, BJ KOROBKIN, YEHUDA Find our upcoming shiurim on-line at LEVI, COBY LYONS, ZACK MINCER, RONI PEREZ, JOSH PHILLIP, AARON ROSENFELD, www.torontotorah.com MORDECHAI ROTH, DANIEL SAFRAN, EYTAN WEISZ, URIEL WEISZ, BARUCH WISE, ELI WOODROW We are grateful to WOMEN’S BEIT MIDRASH MRS. ORA ZIRING, MRS. ELLIEZRA PEREZ Continental Press 905-660-0311 והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה )במדבר לג( Marking the State of ’s 70th Year! Israeli Landmarks: Har haZeitim (The Mount of Olives) Rabbi Baruch Weintraub Ramban sent a letter to his son from who became impure by coming in The list of Rabbis buried there is , circa 1267. There he depicts contact with a dead body (Mishnah, amazing and spans the generations– the sad sight he saw there, “What can I Middot 4:2). As it was of utmost Ramban, Bartenura, Rabbi Yehudah say regarding the land? There are many importance that all those involved with HeChasid, the Or Chaim HaKadosh, forsaken places, and the desecration is the burning should be pure, a large Rabbi Kook, and Rabbi Goren. Other great. The general rule is - the more space was cleaned beneath the site, to significant figures are buried there as sacred the place, the greater its ensure that no one was buried there. well, such as the writer Shai Agnon, the devastation, and Jerusalem is the most This ensured that the kohen poet Uri Tz’vi Grinberg, and politicians desolate of all.” aboveground would not become including and impure from anything that might have Zevulun Hammer. This was clearly seen at Har HaZeitim. been hidden in the depths of the This mountain, second in height only to ground. Today, many tours of the mountain are Har HaTzofim (Mount Scopus), stands promoted by the City of David to the east of the Temple Mount. It When Titus besieged Jerusalem, he Foundation. As we all hope for the played a key role in worship – on it were used the high mountain as a realization of the prophecies about the shops selling supplies needed for command post, building a fortress for mountain - that it will split into two, sacrifices, and the birds which lived on the tenth legion. Thus, the place which with water spouting from within it were used for the various bird was used to enable and enrich the (Zechariah 14) - we shall continue sacrifices. (Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit worship in the Beit HaMikdash, visiting the place that tradition tells us 4:5) Most importantly, from a certain became its source of destruction. will be the first place for our ancestors location on the mountain one could see to rise and join us in accepting the directly through the Temple gates, up to In the years after the destruction, a Mashiach. the curtain of the Kodesh HaKodashim. strange phenomenon occurred: the It was on that spot that the parah mountain which was the source of [email protected] adumah (red heifer) was burned, so that purification became one the most its ashes could be used to purify people important cemeteries in Jerusalem.

The Zionist Idea: Between Snow and Fire: Rabbi Maimon’s War Yaron Perez

Rabbi Yehudah Leib Fishman Maimon was born in Serbia in formation, and after the founding of the state he worked to 1875. A child prodigy, he was a close student of Rabbi enshrine religious principles in law during his service as Yechiel Michel Epstein (author of Aruch haShulchan) and Minister of Religion and member of . He fought to received ordination from him. As a youth he was attracted to establish the place of Jewish jurisprudence in family law, the Zionist movement and was among the founders of the the legal status of rabbinical courts, and more. Mizrachi. At the age of 30 he was appointed Rabbi of Ungheni, Romania, and in 1913 he moved to Israel, where he Rabbi Maimon saw a significant role for rhetoric and led the Mizrachi. symbolism, as well. He sought to include the Name of G-d in the Declaration of Independence; when the committee opted In Rabbi Maimon’s view, chareidim see Judaism as religion, for “The Rock of Israel”, Rabbi Maimon prefaced his and chilonim see Judaism as a nationality. The role of the signature with “with the help of G-d”. When David Ben- Mizrachi is to find the appropriate balance to join religion Gurion completed reading the declaration aloud, Rabbi and state. Thus, he told both sides, “The plan to separate Maimon recited the Shehechiyanu blessing. Rabbi Maimon religion and state is not your own; it is a non-Jewish plan of also promoted inclusion of Hallel in the prayers of Yom their own creation… A strategy of dividing religion from state ha’Atzmaut. will not save the state, sirs; I think it will destroy the state!” (Relations Between Religious and Non-Religious in the Rabbi Maimon was also active in the battle over the First Year of the State, pg. 128) “Teheran Children”, Jewish orphans from Poland who had fled to the USSR, and were permitted to come to Israel via Rabbi Maimon was outspoken in refusing to automatically Iran under a special 1942 agreement with Josef Stalin. The accept the positions of the institutional rabbinate. In 1920, a secular Zionists wanted the children taken into secular group of rabbis – including Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook – kibbutzim, while Agudat Yisrael sought to place them in called for a boycott of the Zionist Congress elections due to religious institutions. Rabbi Maimon tried to steer a middle women’s voting privileges and the presence of female path between them. candidates. Rabbi Maimon participated in the halachic debate, but added that he didn’t truly see this as a halachic Ultimately, Rabbi Maimon saw the path of Mizrachi as issue. He wrote, “Regarding prohibited and permitted “standing between two paths – one of snow and one of fire – issues… we must consult rabbis. But regarding life in the with war ahead and behind.” (Rabbi Maimon in his market, they must ask us.” (Letters, Vol. 2 pg. 268) Generations, pg. 165)

On the other hand, Rabbi Maimon fought against the [email protected] influence of secularism on the development of the State of Israel. He was among the drafters of the “Status Quo” agreement preserving the religious character of the state-in-

2 Visit us at www.torontotorah.com & www.facebook.com/torontotorah Biography Torah and Translation

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Peanuts on Pesach

Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 3:63 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was born in Uzda, Translated by Adam Friedmann near Minsk, Belarus, on the 7th of Adar in the year 5655/1895. He was born into a Note: For practical guidance, please see rabbinic family, descendants of Rabbi your halachic authority. Yom Tov Lipman Heller. Rabbi Feinstein studied in several yeshivot before Regarding the matter of the peanut, of הנה בדבר הפינאט שכתבתי שבהרבה becoming rabbi of Luban, where he which I have written that in many places מקומות אכלו אותם בפסח וכתר “ ה תמה served for sixteen years. During his time people ate it on Pesach, and your honour בטעם הדבר משום ששמע שעושין ממנו in Luban, Rabbi Feinstein wrote was amazed because you heard that in באיזה מקום גם קמח, וגם שמע שנזרעין prolifically, sending responsa to some places they make flour out of them communities far and wide and to the and you also heard that they grow in בשדות כשאר קטניות. אבל ידע כתר “ ה Torah giants of the day. He also led his -fields like other legumes (kitniyot). How שאין זה ענין כלל, שכל הדברים העושין community despite the crushing ever, your honour should know that it is מהם קמח נאסרו ממנהג זה, דאין לך דבר persecution of the Communist regime. not [definitive of] this matter at all, that העושין ממנו קמח כתפוחי אדמה, לא רק anything which they make into flour is במדינה זו אלא גם ביוראפ במקומותינו וגם Rabbi Feinstein fled the Soviet regime in prohibited by this custom. Nothing is בדורות הקודמים, ומעולם לא חשו לאסור barely escaping a pogrom in which ,1936 made into flour as much as potatoes, not זה. וכן הטעם שמיני חטים מתערבין בהם his home was destroyed. Along with his only in this country but also in Europe in שכתב הטור נמי אינו כלל שכל המינים שיש wife Sima and three children (another -the places I lived, and in previous genera לחוש למיני חטים ושעורים שיתערבו נהגו died of whooping cough), Rabbi Feinstein tions, and no one ever thought to prohibit לאסור... ולכן אין לנו בדבר אלא מה came to New York and became rosh them. Also, the reasoning that grains שמפורש שנהגו לאסור, וכן מה שידוע yeshiva of Mesivta Tiferet Yerushalayim in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. On may get mixed in, which is mentioned in ומפורסם. American shores, Rabbi Feinstein’s the Tur, does not entail that regarding reputation as a scholar only grew. any product where there is a concern of

Recognized across the broad spectrum of mixing with wheat and barley, the cus- Orthodoxy as the generation’s leading tom is to prohibit… Therefore, the only halachic authority, Rabbi Feinstein was things included in this are those regard- consulted on every major issue of his ing which they explicitly prohibited cus- day. Among his most widely circulated tomarily, and also whatever is known and responsa and letters on popular issues widely accepted (as prohibited). were his positions on the role of Jews in a -We can also reason that whatever is pro וגם יש ליתן טעם, דדין מה שנאסר במנהג non-Jewish society, on the status of hibited by this custom does not have the הא אין זה דבר הנאסר בקבוץ חכמים, אלא Reform and Conservative approaches to designation of “prohibited through a שהנהיגו את העם להחמיר שלא לאכול Judaism, and on the evolving roles of women in the Jewish community. gathering of scholars.” Rather, they in- מינים אלו שהיה מצוי לאוכלם מפני structed people to be stringent and not הטעמים דחשש מיני דגן שנתערבו שקשה Communal organizations sought out -eat these species which were part of pop לבדוק ומפני שעושין קמחים, אבל כיון Rabbi Feinstein’s leadership. He served ular diet, because of the concerns about שלא תיקנו בקבוץ חכמים לאכול דברים as president of the Union of Orthodox grains which mix in and are hard to שיש חשש שיתערב בהן מיני דגן ודברים ,Rabbis of the United States and Canada and he chaired the Moetzes Gedolei check for, and because these foods are made into flour. However, since they did שעושין מהם קמח, אלא שהנהיגו שלא לאכול איזה מינים לא נאסרו אלא המינים haTorah of Agudath Israel of America for the last quarter-century of his life. not decree in a “gathering of scholars” to prohibit everything which has a concern שהנהיגו ולא שאר מינים שלא הנהיגו מפני Rabbi Yosef Dov haLevi Soloveitchik and of grains mixing in and which can be שלא היו מצויין אז... Rabbi Feinstein were first cousins once made into flour, rather they directed not removed, and they spoke frequently. to eat particular types of food, only those Rabbi Feinstein wrote a warm types for which they directed were pro- approbation for Kvod haRav, the sefer hibited, and not other types which they published in honour of Rav Soloveitchik’s did not direct since they weren’t found eightieth birthday. …then ולכן גם הפינאטס לא אסרו בהרבה מקומות עוד מכ “ ש. ובמקום שליכא מנהג Rabbi Feinstein passed away on Taanit Therefore, peanuts [in addition to other אין לאסור כי בדברים כאלו אין להחמיר Esther 5746/1986, but his halachic legacy lives on. His sons Rabbi Dovid species Rabbi Feinstein enumerates here] כדאיתא בח“י. ולאלו שיש להם מנהג ביחוד Feinstein and Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, as -also were never prohibited in many plac שלא לאכול פינאט אסור גם בפינאט אבל well as his son-in-law Rabbi Dr. Moshe es, all the more so. And in a place where -there is no custom one should not pro מספק אין לאסור. ולכן שייך שיתן הכשר Tendler, are recognized halachic hibit them because in these matters one שלא נתערב שם חמץ ויאכלו אלו שלא נהגו authorities. Second, his volumes of should not be stringent, as is stated in בזה איסור. וכן ראיתי שנותנים הכשר על published responsa (Igrot Moshe), as well Chelkat Yaakov. For those who have a פינאט אויל מהאי טעמא. as his commentaries to Talmud (Dibrot Moshe) and Chumash (Darash Moshe) are specific custom not to eat peanuts, the studied around the world. To this day, peanut is also prohibited, but in case of doubt one should not prohibit. Therefore, resolution of major issues like it would be relevant to certify that no chametz has been mixed in, and those who determining the moment of death and do not have a custom of prohibition will eat. I have seen that they also give certifi- engaging in artificial insemination hinges cation to peanut oil for these same reasons. upon how his writings are parsed.

Call our office at: 416-783-6960 3 Weekly Highlights: Mar. 10 — Mar. 16 / 23 Adar — 29 Adar Time Speaker Topic Location Special Notes

!Mar. 9-10 Shabbaton : 70 Years of Jewish Leaders שבת : After Hashkamah Yaron Perez Clanton Park Nasi or President?

Moshe, Betzalel… Begin? Derashah R’ Mordechai Torczyner Clanton Park Models of Leadership

David and Shlomo: 5:00 PM R’ Jonathan Ziring Clanton Park Ben-Gurion & Rav Goren?

The Altalena Affair and Seudah Shlishit Adam Friedmann Shaarei Tefillah Jewish Leadership

After minchah R’ Mordechai Torczyner Gemara Avodah Zarah BAYT Simcha Suite Sun. Mar. 11 8:45 AM R’ Jonathan Ziring Responsa BAYT Hebrew 8:45 AM R’ Josh Gutenberg Contemporary Halachah BAYT Not this week

10:00 AM to R’ Yechezkel Grysman The Honey & the Thorn Midreshet Yom Rishon BAYT 11:20 AM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Who I Am; Who I Will Be For women

Mon. Mar. 12

Legal Ethics: Facing CPD Accredited; 8:00 PM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Shaarei Shomayim Self-Represented Litigants Laypeople welcome

Tue. Mar. 13

1:30 PM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Nechemiah, Chapter 8 Shaarei Shomayim

7:30 PM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Yehoshua 129 Theodore Pl. Not this week Adam Friedmann Haggadah Night! R’ Zev Spitz Ten-minute 8:00 PM BAYT Simcha Suite R’ Mordechai Torczyner Seder-ready R’ Jonathan Ziring Torah Thoughts

Wed. Mar. 14 Exodus and Hollywood 4: torontotorah.com/ 10:00 AM R’ Jonathan Ziring Beth Emeth The Plagues hollywood 2:30 PM R’ Jonathan Ziring Exploring Bamidbar 32 Timberlane Ave. For Women Adam Friedmann Haggadah Night! R’ Chaim Strauchler Ten-minute 8:00 PM Shaarei Shomayim R’ Mordechai Torczyner Seder-ready R’ Jonathan Ziring Torah Thoughts 8:00 PM Adam Friedmann Why do we do that? Shaarei Tefillah Not this week Thu. Mar. 15 1:30 PM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Shoftim: Battling Binyamin 49 Michael Ct. For women Fri. Mar. 16

10:30 AM R’ Mordechai Torczyner Melachot of Shabbat Yeshivat Or Chaim Advanced

For University Men, at Yeshivat Or Chaim 10:00 AM Sunday, Rabbi Aaron Greenberg, Gemara Beitzah 11:00 AM Sunday, Rabbi Jonathan Ziring, Contemporary Halachah: Judging Favourably on Social Media 8:30 AM Monday, Rabbi Jonathan Ziring, Nefesh haChaim 8:30 AM Friday, Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner, The Book of Yeshayah

For University Women, at Ulpanat Orot 9:30-11:30 AM Monday, Mrs. Elliezra Perez, From Rachel Imeinu to Racheli Frenkel, not this week 9:30-11:30 AM Tuesday, Mrs. Ora Ziring, Shabbat 9:30-11:30 AM Wednesday, Mrs. Ora Ziring, Contemporary Halachah 9:30-11:30 AM Thursday, Mrs. Elliezra Perez, Parshah in the Eyes of Chassidut, not this week