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Today and Its Torah בס“ד Parshat Ki Tavo 18 Elul, 5777/September 9, 2017 Vol. 9 Num. 3 This issue is sponsored by the Goldman Family in memory of Mr. Jeffrey Goldman z”l, לעילוי נשמת ר‘ יעקב זאב בן ר‘ ארי‘ צבי הכהן ז“ל זי“ע Today and its Torah Rabbi Baruch Weintraub At first glance, Parshat Ki Tavo seems people on Mount Sinai! How should Be it a change in the Torah or in reality, stuck in some strange time warp. On Moshe’s assertion here be explained; it seems that all these explanations are the one hand, the parshah emphasizes what changed on that day? summarized in our Sages’ saying, past and future, beginning with the quoted by Rashi (26:16), “Every day, Bikkurim recitation which relates the One school of thought suggests that the you shall regard the commandments as history of the Jewish people, and Torah itself changed on that day: if they are brand new, as though you ending with the description of a • Ramban contends that on that very are just today being commanded covenant that will be ratified only later, day Moshe finished explaining and regarding them.” Indeed, our parshah’s in the book of Yehoshua. On the other expanding upon the mitzvot given repeated use of the word “today” seems hand, the prominent recurring motif in at Sinai; to be the Torah’s way of pointing out the the parshah is the term “today”, • Rabbi Moshe Alshich suggests that dual nature of our sacred Torah: on the signaling the importance of the this day was exactly forty years one hand, a continuing effort to present: after the revelation on Mount Sinai, transmit age-old texts, traditions and • I have declared today to Hashem and so the people were able to values, and on the other hand an ever- your G-d (Devarim 26:3) begin appreciating the Torah and renewing source for relevant and • Today Hashem your G - d its mitzvot. This is consistent with practical guidance. commands you… Today you have the statement of our Sages, “A selected Hashem… and today student cannot understand his The core of the Torah – its teachings, Hashem has selected you (ibid. Rabbi’s mind until after forty years values and commandments – is 26:16-18) have passed.” [It is not clear how metaphysical, belonging to past, present • Observe the entire commandment Rabbi Alshich calculates the and future alike. We learn laws of that I command you today (ibid. passage of forty years.]; korbanot even when the Beit 27:1) • Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin HaMikdash is, as we grieve, destroyed; • You shall set up the stones, claims that even if the Torah and and yet we remain committed to the regarding which I command you its interpretation remained the Torah’s instructions even when the about today (ibid. 27:4) same, the people were now modern world sees them as old and • Today, you have become a people instructed to approach it differently outdated. At the same time, the specific to Hashem, your G-d. (ibid. 27:9) – not as a merely practical book, application of these teachings, values These are only selected examples; but as one deserving a thorough and commandments depends on the there are more. What is the meaning of and deep theoretical study. reality of a given generation, and no less this emphasis on the present? Other commentators underscored not a importantly, on the very personal change in Torah, but rather in reality: understanding of the Torah by its The commentators offered diverse leading scholars, for we should always ways to explain it. Many of the • Rabbi Ovadia Seforno tries to prove that “today” is in fact the day on follow the “judge who will be in those commentaries address this question in days.” (Devarim 17:9) the context of Devarim 26:16, “Today which the covenant between G-d and His people came into effect; Hashem your G-d commands you to Keeping this dynamic balance between perform these statutes and laws,” • Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar (Ohr Hachaim) explains that as the entry the eternal and the momentary is in no which seems to imply that G-d way simple, but it is what has kept our commanded the people only on that to the land of Israel approached, the laws in our parshah which are transmitted tradition both authentic particular day in the Moav desert. This and alive, to our own very day. seems to contradict the Torah’s explicit related to the land came into force practically. testimony that the law was given to the [email protected] OUR BEIT MIDRASH ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI MORDECHAI TORCZYNER SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI JONATHAN ZIRING AVREICHIM ADAM FRIEDMANN, YARON PEREZ CHAVERIM NADAV GASNER, MICHAEL IHILCHIK, ARIEL KELMAN, BJ KOROBKIN, AVISHAI LIGHTSTONE, COBY LYONS, ZACK MINCER, KOBI NAUENBERG, RONI PEREZ, Find our upcoming shiurim on-line at JOSH PHILLIP, AARON ROSENFELD, MORDECHAI ROTH, DANIEL SAFRAN, URIEL www.torontotorah.com WEISZ, BARUCH WISE, YECHIEL ZOBERMAN 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 Israel’s 70th Year! Israeli Landmarks: Rav Kook’s Home, Jerusalem Yaron Perez This week we mark the birthday of The House and its Neighbourhood completed; Rabbi Kook lived there until Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, and so In 1873, Beit David became one of the his passing on the 3rd of Elul, 1935. In we will visit his home, which is now a first Jewish neighbourhoods built that beit midrash he gathered students museum. outside of the walls of the Old City in with the goal of forming a yeshiva Jerusalem. Polish philanthropist David which would be a spiritual centre for Biography Reiss wished to leave a memorial after the Torah of Israel within the Born in Russia on the 16th of Elul, 5625 his passing, and he funded the first rejuvenated nation of Israel in the land (1865), Rabbi Kook made aliyah in construction in the area. of Israel – this would become Yeshivat 1904 and became Chief Rabbi of Jaffa. Mercaz haRav. In 1919, he became Chief Rabbi of Beit David joins the Nachlat Shivah Jerusalem. Rabbi Kook was among the neighbourhood, and the Meah Today founders of the modern Israeli Chief She’arim neighbourhood which was The structure of the neighbourhood has Rabbinate, and he was the first built two years later, to create a chain been preserved almost entirely, and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi under the of Jewish residence. In the 1870’s this several families continue to live in the British Mandate. was a relatively isolated area, along the area. The house of Rav Kook has road to Jaffa; today this is Rechov Yafo become a museum dedicated to his life Viewed as the greatest modern in Jerusalem’s City Centre. The and activities, and the street has been expression of Religious Zionist ideology, neighbourhood is constructed in a renamed for him. The house hosts Rabbi Kook’s writings are used as core square, closed in for protection on all regular Shabbat services, and Torah texts in every Israeli Zionist yeshiva. sides; the gates were closed each night classes are taught there during the Rabbi Kook also established Yeshivat from sunset until sunrise, for defense. week. Every year, on the night after Mercaz HaRav in Jerusalem; the The centre of the neighbourhood hosts Simchat Torah, Yeshivat Mercaz haRav yeshiva, where studies were in Hebrew a water cistern which supplies the holds an extraordinary celebration, and traditional learning blended with drinking water for the residents. dancing a second night of hakafot in its study of Tanach and Jewish thought, original beit midrash. remains one of the leading forces in In 1923, thanks to a donation from Israel’s Religious Zionist movement. philanthropist Harry Fischel, Rabbi [email protected] Kook’s home and beit midrash were The Zionist Idea: Restoring the Crown Adam Friedmann In 1933, Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel, a prominent student of A benefit of this second approach is that it allows for Rabbis Chaim Ozer Grodzinski and Shimon Shkop, and combating the deleterious effects of outside influences, eventually the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, delivered an address to which may have crept into daily Jewish life without the World Mizrachi convention in Cracow. In his remarks, he detection. “We must admit,” says Rabbi Amiel, “even Torah outlined what he viewed as the defining characteristic of the Judaism has been influenced by the galut (exile).” As a Mizrachi worldview which distinguished it from other result, we must consider carefully the fundamentals of our Orthodox groups. religion and reconstruct those elements which have been worn away by a grueling exile. From its inception, Mizrachi was involved with elements of Jewish life which had not traditionally been part of Orthodox To this end, Rabbi Amiel offers that we can divide the activities. Chief among these was broad political involvement mitzvot into three categories. There are those between man with the rebuilding of Jewish settlement in Israel, and mass and G-d, and those between man and man. These are education towards this end. These activities had drawn readily recognized. But there are also “mitzvot which are criticism from other groups who claimed that involvement in incumbent upon us to fulfill for the sake of maintaining the these areas ran contrary to the traditions received from Jewish nation.” These include “milchemet mitzvah (biblically earlier generations, who had not engaged in such activities. mandated war), appointing a king and a Sanhedrin, [and] settling the Land of Israel.” Over the course of time in exile, In response to these claims, Rabbi Amiel distinguished outside influences have diminished our sensitivity to the between two forms of perpetuating traditions: “hachzakah need to actively engage in this third category of mitzvot benoshnot”, maintaining ancient customs, and “hachzarat where possible.
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