Toronto Torah Beit Midrash Zichron Dov

בס“ד Toronto Torah Beit Midrash Zichron Dov Parshat Chayei Sarah 22 Marcheshvan 5770/October 30, 2010 Vol.2 Num. 9 Havdalah: Recuperation or Preparation? Dovid Zirkind world with spirituality (the soul), putting וינפש, כיון ששבת ווי אבדה נפש. As a general rule, time-bound mitzvot are required of men in Jewish law and into place the final piece in the creation “Reish Lakish said: G-d gives man an not women. However, one notable of the world. Without Shabbat, all of additional soul before Shabbat and takes exception to this rule is Shabbat. Our creation would not have had the it from him after Shabbat, as it says in the Rabbis teach us, based on the independent strength to continue verse, „He rested, Vayinafash.’ Once the descriptions of Shabbat in the Torah, existing. Once there was a Shabbat, an resting is complete, woe (Vay), for he has that anyone who is obligated in the infusion of spirituality, the world was lost his soul (Nefesh).” prohibitions of Shabbat is likewise complete - and therefore able to commanded to observe its active We work for seven days in anticipation of continue. mitzvot. This explains why women are Shabbat, and so havdalah can be seen as Along the same lines, the Zohar writes obligated in kiddush despite its time- a bittersweet moment in our week. We that the brit of a baby boy must be on bound nature. The Rambam writes are thrilled to have Shabbat, and the the 8th day because this insures that (Hilchot Shabbat 29:1) that women are break and the enhanced spirituality that every baby will have already lived a obligated in havdalah based on the comes with it, but the loss of the Shabbat and therefore been given his same principle. However this opinion is neshamah yiteirah at the end of Shabbat is nefesh. not universally accepted: The Shulchan a painful one. Aruch (296:8) cites the Rambam, but From this perspective, havdalah can be In this model it is understandable that also notes that there are those who seen as an introduction to the week havdalah parallels kiddush as a bookend argue. ahead. If so, the mitzvah of havdalah of the day, part of the rites of Shabbat; belongs to the week, inaugurating that This debate over a woman‟s obligation one rite welcomes Shabbat and the other continued existence enabled by in havdalah may teach us a valuable bids Shabbat farewell. Within this Shabbat. Therefore, it is removed from lesson about the dual nature of paradigm, women do recite havdalah, the active commandments of Shabbat havdalah, and of Shabbat itself. just as they perform the other mitzvot of and consequently from a woman‟s Shabbat. In one model, havdalah is the obligation to fulfill it. termination of Shabbat. This is However, there is a second model of For every person the Shabbat highlighted by a statement of Reish havdalah, in which this mitzvah is not just experience is something different. Some Lakish (Beitzah 16a): a farewell to the week that was, but also people react to the power of its prayers an initiation of the week ahead. or the time there is to learn Torah while Commenting on the same verse as Reish their phones are off and their computers Lakish, Rav Chaim Ibn Attar (Ohr אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש: נשמה יתירה נותן are unplugged. Others wait all week for ”HaChaim) suggests that “Vayinafash הקדוש ברוך הוא באדם ערב שבת, ולמוצאי שבת family time and a delicious home refers to the Divine act of infusing the נוטלין אותה הימנו, שנאמר )שמות לא( שבת cooked meal. However we experience it, Shabbat can give all of us the strength Parsha Questions Meir Lipschitz and rejuvenation we need to make the next week a successful one. (Sources are provided to help the reader research answers) [email protected] Answers are provided on the back page. Who was Keturah? (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Kli Yakar, and Siftei Chachamim to Bereishit 25:1) How old was Rivkah when she married Yitzchak? Beit Midrash Zichron Dov וכן”(“ Rashi to Bereishit 25:20, Ibn Ezra to Bereishit 23:2, Tosafot Yevamot 61b) extends its condolences to the Did Yishmael do teshuvah? (Kli Yakar Bereishit 25:1, Rashi Bereishit 25:9, Bava Batra 16b, [Rashi Bereishit 21:9 and entire Gelberger and Beck 21:17 with Siftei Chachamim], Rosh haShanah 16b, Ritva to Kiddushin 68b, Ritva to Yoma families, on the passing of 38b) Samuel David Beck. For Children: What do we learn from the way the Torah tells us Sarah‟s age of death? (Rashi Bereishit 23:1) [email protected] This Toronto Torah is dedicated in memory of Oscar Reichner, husband of Magda Reichner, and father of Chani Braunstein and Renee Rubinstein. To sponsor a Toronto Torah in memory or in honour of a loved one for $180, please email [email protected] or call 416-781-1777. The Akeidah and Life’s Everyday Challenges R’ Azarya Berzon I would like to share with you two of the truly been affected, right down to our Avraham…”, and the Torah continues to ideas that I‟ve heard in the name of the very beings? If our souls have been tell us in detail about the children born to Rav, Zatzal, concerning the Akeidah. genuinely uplifted, we should be able to Milka, the wife of Avraham‟s brother 1) At the very end of the Akeidah, but enhance our closeness to G-d in every Nachor. The list of names is long, and before the Parsha closes (as indicated by aspect of our life. Thus the Torah testifies (frankly) difficult to pronounce. The the space in the Sefer Torah following about Avraham, that he returned to his Torah doesn‟t fail to tell us about another the end of a section), the Passuk reads: ordinary life, surrounded by the same four children born to Nachor through “And Avraham returned to his young associates and disciples, living in the Re‟uma, his concubine. After all, are we men (“Ne‟arav”), and they rose up and same neighborhood and the day-by-day really concerned with these tidbits? Why went together to Be‟er-Sheva” (22:19). existence, but now with the Akeidah would the Torah tell us these facts, which The Rav asked, isn‟t this verse so anti- experience very much a part of his being. seem to be so trivial, and directly climatic?! Following the intense drama of Every mundane and familiar act would be following the great drama of the Akeida? the Akeida, at the Rashi explains that the conclusion of what was entire section of perhaps the most Nachor‟s generations is traumatic and profound Book Launch: An Italian Renaissance: recorded as an religious experience in Choosing Life In Canada introduction to next the history of man (about Please join Beit Midrash Zichron Dov and Torah In week‟s Parsha, since which the philosopher Rivka is the daughter of Kierkegaard wrote his Motion to hear Eli Rubinstein discuss his fascinating Be‟tuel, one of Nachor‟s most famous work “Fear and deeply moving account of how his Holocaust sons. This explanation and Trembling”), couldn‟t survivor parents succeeded in reconstructing their lends itself to a number the Torah have told us of objections, the most something more moving shattered lives in Toronto. outstanding of which is and significant than the Where: Shaarei Shomayim Congregation the fact that Chazal fact that Avraham Avinu When: Sunday, November 7 at 8:00PM included this section in picks up his other boys the “k‟riat (Yishmael and Eliezer) haTorah‟ (public Torah and returns to good, old reading) for Rosh dusty Be‟er-Sheva? different; the change in his soul, as a HaShana. We know that the purpose of result of the Akeidah, would have an the reading of Parshat HaAkidah on Rosh The Rav explained that the challenge of impact on every occurrence, even the HaShana is to mention the great “Zechut” the Akeidah, indeed the challenge of most ordinary. That‟s the true indication of the Akeidah on the Yom HaDin. But every intense, religious experience, is that Avraham Avinu had passed the test of why do we read the section of Nachor‟s not the moment of spiritual exaltedness. the Akeidah with flying colors. generations on the Day of Judgment? We all live through such “highs” and undergo powerful encounters with the 2) The Rav zatzal was bothered by the Divine Being at various moments in our very next set of verses (22-24) as well. The Rav explained that apparently this lives. The real challenge is to take these Immediately following the great episode section too is part of the Akeidah. The intense experiences back to real, of the Akeidah, the Torah notifies us that “nisayon” (=test) of the Akeidah does everyday life. The question is: have we “it came to pass after these things (i.e. not end when Avraham is told not to after the Akeidah) that it was told to slaughter his son. The real test is how Avraham Avinu will respond when he descends the mountain and receives the 613 Mitzvot: Mitzvah 57-60 news that his brother Nachor, and Nachor‟s family, is living a normal life, Guarding the Property of Others having children, getting married, with no challenges or “nisyonot”. It would be a most natural response for Avraham to One who agrees to guard the from theft or destruction. A guardian ask “How can it be that I, who have property of others accepts who is permitted to use the item dedicated my life to discover HaShem responsibility proportionate to his without charge is responsible to take and to teach the world about Him, I own benefit.

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