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Balak %! %%% % diritto d'autore 20Ϯϭ di Mechon Beer Emunah [email protected] Traduzione a cura del team VedibartaBam " $$ %#% Table of Contents Torah Wellsprings - Balak The Joy of Mitzvos ...........................................................................................................4 "How Good are your Tents" – the Mitzvah of being in a Beis Medrash ...............5 Yishuv HaDaas ..................................................................................................................7 Emunah ...............................................................................................................................8 Open Your Eyes and See Hashem's Salvation............................................................9 Bitachon and Parnassah................................................................................................10 Tefillah ..............................................................................................................................12 Or HaChaim HaKadosh ................................................................................................13 Torah Wellsprings - Balak The Joy of Mitzvos cramped accommodations. They loved Hashem immensely, and Hashem planted a lot of joy in their hearts when they were in מה עשיתי ,(The donkey said to Bilaam (22:28 What did I do to you Yerushalayim. Therefore, no one ever said it" ,לך כי הכתני זה שלש רגלים three times?" was crowded. As the saying goes, 'When ,שלש רגלים ,that you hit me alludes to the three holidays, our love was strong [we were able to sleep שלש רגלים Pesach, Shavuos, and Succos.1 As Rashi on a knife's blade]'" writes, "You are trying to uproot a nation Now we understand why the malach that celebrates the three regalim (Pesach, rebuked Bilaam for trying to uproot a nation Shavuos, and Succos)!" that celebrates the three regalim. As the The donkey was implying, "How can you Kotzker zt'l explains, Bilaam complained narrow place, and ,מקום צר even think of uprooting the Jewish nation? when he was in a They celebrate the yomim tovim in the Beis felt some discomfort. That discomfort HaMikdash, three times a year!" prompted him to hit his donkey. The malach chastised him, "You don't compare to the The Jewish nation performs many Jewish nation? They are in far more cramped mitzvos. The donkey could have said quarters, but they don't complain. They something like, "How dare you try to uproot don't feel the difficulties because of their a nation that wears tefillin" and the like. love for Hashem and their joy when What is unique about the three regalim? performing the mitzvos. And look at yourself The Kotzker Rebbe zt'l explains that and how you react when you have some .Yerushalayim was discomfort שלש רגלים during the crowded, and miraculously, no one A king had a loyal servant who served complained. As the Mishnah (Avos 5:5) states, the king with love and devotion, and the No" ,ולא אמר אדם לחברו צר לי המקום שאלין בירושלים king loved him very much. one ever said, 'There's no place for me to sleep in Yerushalayim.'" After this servant's demise, the king Generally, this is understood to mean continued to remember his loyal servant, so that there was miraculously enough room he summoned the servant's grandson, as he for everyone in Yerushalayim. However, the wanted to do a favor for him. The king told Chasam Sofer zt'l (vol.2 234) explains that it him, "Sunday, come to my treasury with was in fact crowded in Yerushalayim due to two large bags. Fill the bags with the ".treasures. You can keep whatever you take עולה the millions of people who came to be The miracle was that no one ever .לרגל complained. The grandson didn't understand why he deserves a reward because he didn't do so As the Chasam Sofer writes, "The miracle much for the king. "Probably the king wants was that no one ever complained about their to clean out his treasury; it is too cluttered which is a more ,שלשה פעמם three times," it would say" ,שלש רגלים Because if the pasuk solely means .1 to go to the Beis HaMikdash on ,עליה לרגל alludes to the mitzvah of שלש רגלים .common way to express it Pesach, Shavuos, and on Succos. Torah Wellsprings - Balak 5 in there, so he hired me to do his work for deserves reward just for being in the beis גדולה ,him." medrash. As the Rema m'Pano writes היא ישיבת בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות אפילו [מבלי] תורה ובלא It is a great deed to sit in beis" ,תפילה The grandson saw bars of gold and silver in the treasury, but being from a poor town, haknesses and beis medrash, even without he didn't recognize their value. He thought Torah and tefillah." angrily to himself, "The king isn't even paying me for this service; he's just offering Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 151:1) states me some gold and silver bars that I don't that if someone comes into a beis medrash need. I will not be a fool and carry heavy for his own purpose, such as to call out bricks of gold and silver. Instead, I will someone, he shouldn't leave immediately. ישהה מעט ואחר כך יצא שהישיבה בהם מצוה ,gather a few golden and silver trinkets that Rather He should stay in the" ,שנאמר אשרי יושבי ביתך ".are easy to carry beis medrash for a short time and then he He worked lazily, his bags remaining can leave because sitting in a beis medrash ,אשרי יושבי ביתך ,almost empty, when the guard came and is a mitzvah. As it states said that it is time to leave. fortunate are those who sit in Your house." The grandson threw the two lightweight writes, "One (פס"ו אות א') The Chareidim bags over his shoulder and walked out of should spend most of the day and night in the treasury with large strides, glad that he the beis hakneses and beis medrash, and he didn't fall for the injustice he felt was being will find solace and joy. As Chazal say, the done to him. batei medrash are like an orchard for This mashal was told by Reb Eliyahu tzaddikim and like a prison for resha'im." Dessler zt'l (with some variations), and the Rabbeinu Yonah (Brachos 3.) quotes the nimshal is self-understood. We are היוצא מבית הכנסת אל יפסיע פסיעה ,(:Gemara (Brachos 6 descendants of the holy avos Avraham, When one leaves the beis haknesses, he" ,גסה Yitzchak, and Yaakov, who served Hashem shouldn't take large steps," and explains that with their hearts and souls. Therefore, this is because by taking large steps it would Hashem loves their descendants, and He appear that he is leaving a place where he granted them the treasure of Torah and doesn't want to be to go to a place of mitzvos. But people think that Torah and relaxation, but the opposite is true, because mitzvos are chores that the King requests the beis haknesses, the place of tefillah, is and they don't realize that they are treasures. menuchah, and one must be happy that he is Therefore, they do a few small mitzvos, here there." and there, but don't take the hard and heavy אם פגע בך מנוול זה משכהו ,mitzvos. They work lazily and fail to take Chazal (Succah 52:) say If you are confronted with the" ,לבית המדרש advantage of the treasures being offered to them. menuval, the yetzer hara, draw him into the beis medrash." Reb Shlomo Zalman Aurbach "How Good are your Tents" – the Mitzvah (Minchas Shlomo, Succah) asks, the Gemara of being in a Beis Medrash doesn't say to flee the yetzer hara, instead to drag him into the beis hamedrash. What is How good gained by that? You are still with the yetzer" ,מה טובו אהליך יעקב (It states (24:5 are your tents, Yaakov." Similarly, it says hara. Yaakov" ,ויעקב איש תם יושב אהלים (Bereishis 25:27) was a righteous person, who sat in the tents." The answer is, when the yetzer hara is in These pesukim are referring to the tents of the beis medrash it isn't the same yetzer hara Torah, and as the Rema m'Pano explains, as when it was outside the walls of the beis ,sitting in the tents. medrash. The yetzer hara has many names ,יושב אהלים the praise is for outside the beis מנוול Even if one doesn't daven or learn Torah, he and it is only called 6 Torah Wellsprings - Balak medrash. In the beis medrash, even the Torah discusses this halachah, it hints at the yetzer hara is tamer. importance of studying Torah, as it states, see Brachos 63: which) זאת חקת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל This idea can be compared to a person explains that the pasuk is alluding to studying Torah stuck in a traffic jam, and gets out of the car with mesirus nefesh). The importance of learning and stands next to it. Someone tells him, Torah is put together with the halachah of "Why did you leave your car?" contracting tumah in a tent to teach us that He replies, "We are anyway not going even when we aren't studying Torah, but we anywhere." are in the tent of Torah, this will have a positive influence on us. "True, but you can sit inside your car and enjoy the air-conditioning instead of being Chazal (Sanhedrin 105:) explain that we can outside in the burning sun." This is one learn from Bilaam's brachos what he truly reason we should prefer to be in the beis wanted to say. He wanted to say precisely medrash, even when we aren't accomplishing the opposite of what he said, only Hashem much. It is better to be there than to be prevented him and turned his words around exposed to the intense heat of the yetzer hara to be a blessing for the Jewish nation. that is found outside the beis medrash. מה טובו אהליך ,For example, when he said he wanted to say that there shouldn't be ,יעקב The Baal HaTurim (Shemos 7:12) notes that .staffs, twice in the Torah.