ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
DISTRIBUTION DATE: כ"ז חשון תשס"ט / TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008
PARSHA: תולדות / TOLDOS
SERMON TITLE: PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 1 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
Everyone knows the phrase “Making aliyah.” But what exactly does it mean? So let’s take a look at the word itself. The word “aliyah” has two meanings: One, being called up to the Torah in the synagogue, and two, immigrating to the Holy Land.
Now, there is an expression less known: the word “yeridah.” Does anyone know what the word means?
“Yeridah” means the opposite of “aliyah.” It means “descent.” Someone who moves away from Israel or who emigrates from Israel is called a “yored,” a descender.
But where does the expression of “making aliyah,” going up to Israel, come from?
In actuality, traveling to Israel is the opposite of going up: Israel’s Dead Sea is the lowest point below sea level on the face of the globe, and Nepal, of all places, has the tallest mountains—where, incidentally, Israelis love to flock. If so, why is moving to Israel called “going up”? If anything, the expression should be the opposite: “making yeridah.”
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 2 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
The source for this expression, however, comes from the Torah. In the portion of Lech Lecha, we are told that Avraham left the Holy Land and descended to Egypt. (Chapter 12, verse 10 states,) “Avraham went down to Egypt…” Several verses later,( in Chapter 13, verse 1, it says) “And Avraham rose up from Egypt”—meaning that when he returned to the Holy Land, it is referred to as an aliyah, a rising up.
We find the same expression in this week’s Parsha, (Chapter 26, verse 3) when G- d told Yitzchok, “Don’t go down to Egypt”. A few weeks later, in the saga of Yosef being sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, we read, “And Yosef went down to Egypt… and Yosef’s brothers went down…”
Additionally, the Midrashic commentator Sifri quotes a verse from the Prophet Yirmiyahu (Yirmiyah 23:8) which says, “As G-d lives, Who raised up and Who brought the seed of the House of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands…’ ” The Sifri quotes this verse to prove that “the Land of Israel is higher than all lands.”
The medieval Jewish leader Rabbi Yehudah Lowy of Prague, known as the Maharal, explains that the reason Israel is called “higher than all the lands” is because of its spiritual and material superiorities, not its physical geography.
So now we have a Holy Land that is geographically low but spiritually high.
But with a land that is so holy and elevated, wouldn’t there be a mitzvah of settling in the Land of Israel? And does that mitzvah apply today?
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 3 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
There is a dispute among contemporary commentators about whether there is an obligation upon today’s Jew to make aliyah to Israel. According to the majority there is no such obligation, with some maintaining that it isn’t even a mitzvah. However, there’s one thing that’s clear to all opinions: someone who lives in the Holy Land is forbidden to leave it.
The question therefore, may be asked of any native Israeli you may meet, how were you able leave Israel when it’s clearly against Jewish law?
This question doesn’t just apply to modern-day Israeli expatriates. It applies to Avraham himself, who observed the laws of the Torah even before Mount Sinai, yet himself left the Holy Land.
This question has also been asked of Jews who left the Holy Land all throughout Jewish history. Mordechai the Jew of Purim fame, for example, went up to Israel at the beginning of the Second Aliyah of Babylonian Jewish exiles together with Ezra the Scribe. He was a member of the Great Assembly. Later, however, we find that he returned to Persia, where (according to some opinions) he died.
In like manner, in later generations we find that Maimonides, known as the Rambam, went up to Israel but later came down to Egypt, raising an even greater question—not only are you not allowed to leave Israel, but it is specifically forbidden to return to Egypt. The Rambam himself confessed to such, as we are told that he would sign his letters with the phrase, “The one who transgresses three prohibitions every day,” referring to the Torah prohibition of “You shall not continue
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 4 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
to see them (Egypt) anymore, forever,” and other such Torah prohibitions explicitly barring Jews from going down to Egypt. If so, how did he and many other worthy Jews do just that—live in Egypt?
To understand all this, let us examine the halachah stating that three things permit emigration from Israel. These three exceptions to the rule are: the study of Torah, getting married, and making a living. Let’s look at them one at a time.
Studying Torah: if you feel that you’ll be more successful to learn Torah from a specific Rabbi outside of Israel, you’re allowed to leave Israel for a set time. After you’re done studying, you must return to Israel.
Getting married: if one cannot find a spouse in Israel, he or she may depart the Holy Land, and after getting married abroad, he or she must return.
For livelihood: if one needs to travel outside of Israel for business, he may leave.
But all this is temporary. Settling outside Israel is forbidden—meaning, if one has no intention of returning, he may not leave in the first place, even for the previously mentioned reasons. In other words, permanent relocation is not allowed.
So the question remains how so many people left Israel– including great scholars like the Rambam, Mordechai, and the countless others throughout our history.
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 5 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
To answer all these questions, perhaps we can say the following:
There is a halachah in Maimonides (Laws of Mourning 5:16) and in the Code of Jewish Law stating that a mourner, meaning someone who just lost a close loved one like a child, parent or spouse, is forbidden to study Torah during the first seven days. This is because Torah study makes one happy, and on an individual level, the mourner is prohibited from activities that make one happy.
However, if the Jewish public needs the mourner, we don’t take into account whether Torah study makes him happy: the moment others need him because he is a great rabbi who teaches Torah to the masses, then only the greater need is considered.
In like manner we can say that it’s the same thing here: the law prohibiting emigration from the Holy Land only concerns one’s personal benefit. But when we’re talking about making a difference for the Jewish People… then it’s a whole different story.
Then it’s a case of not what the individual wants—it’s a case of what the Jewish People need.
Mordechai did not return to Persia for his own personal good. Rather, he saw that only 42,000 Jews came back to Israel with Ezra while over a half million remained in Babylon alone, with yet others in other countries. That’s why he went back to Persia—to the rescue of the Jewish people.
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 6 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.
ב''ה SERMON RESOURCE FOR SHLUCHIM תולדות / TOLDOS PUTTING THE GREATER GOOD FIRST
It’s the same thing with Maimonides—when he arrived in the Holy Land, he found nothing there. There were virtually no Jews in Israel in that period. In contrast, Egypt was home to a bustling Jewish community in need of stalwart leadership.
In such cases of public need, the individual situation is not considered.
What can we learn from this? While we here might not be living in the Holy Land, the lesson is that before we make any serious life decision, whether choosing where to live or other weighty issue, we need to consider if our people will benefit from it.
In other words, the greater good comes before the individual good.
If a Jew is involved in a local synagogue and wants to retire to Florida, he or she first needs to consider the good for the local community. Here, their contribution is needed and appreciated, - in another city, we don’t know yet how it will play out….
Sponsored by Shimon Aron & Devorah Leah Rosenfeld & Family A PROJECT OF THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE In loving memory of 7 ר' מנחם זאב בן פנחס ז''ל Emil W. Herman Z כ"ז חשון תשס"ט • DISTRIBUTION DATE: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2008 The author is solely responsible for the contents of this document. who loved and supported Torah learning.