Shabbos: Ta’am HaChaim Vayishlach 5773

(From the archives)

Shabbos in the Parasha Chashmonaim and Medrash Antiochus) states that one of the decrees that the In this week’s parashah it is said Greeks promulgated against the Jewish (Bereishis 32:25) vayivaseir Yaakov People was that they could not observe livado vayeiavek ish imo ad alos Shabbos. Let us understand this decree hashachar, Yaakov was left alone and a and we will see how it has practical man wrestled with him until the break of applications in our own times. At the dawn. The Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah onset of Shabbos a Jewish woman lights 77:3) states that the man who wrestled Shabbos candles, ushering in the Holy with Yaakov was the angel of Esav. Day. We then pray in shul and we come Why was the angel of Esav wrestling home and eat a festive meal. On Shabbos with Yaakov? The records the morning we again pray in shul and eat result of the struggle. It is said (Ibid another festive meal, and we repeat this verse 26) vayar ki lo yochol lo vayiga in the afternoon by praying Minchah and bikaf yireicho vateika kaf yerech Yaakov eating the third meal. If the Jewish biheiavko imo, when he perceived that People were prohibited from observing he could not overcome him, he struck Shabbos, does this mean that they the socket of his hip; so Yaakov’s hip- actually were forced to desecrate the socket was dislocated as he wrestled Shabbos? It would appear that the with him. It would seem from this that Greeks, unlike the Nazis of cursed the angel of Esav was initially memory, did not intend that the Jewish attempting to overwhelm Yaakov People should be engaged in back- completely, and when he saw that breaking labor on Shabbos. Rather, the Yaakov was a formidable opponent, he Greeks sought to remove the sanctity of merely wounded him. Yet, the Medrash the Shabbos from the Jewish People. (Bereishis Rabbah 77:3) tells us that this Once the Jewish People would not be dislocation of the hip-socket was an engaged in sanctifying the Shabbos ominous omen for the future of Jewish through prayer, Torah study and festive life, when the Jewish People would be meals, what else could they do but visit attacked on a spiritual front, known as the theaters and entertain themselves in a the doro shel shemad, the generation of manner foreign to Jewish lifestyle? This destruction. The commentators point out is what can also occur to us, heaven that this “dislocation” was manifest in forbid, if we do not sanctify the Shabbos the period known as the Greek Exile, properly. It is insufficient to merely which culminated in the miracle of desist from physical labor, eat a few Chanukah. The Medrash (Megillas bowlfuls of cholent, and then assume

1 that we have observed the Shabbos is imprisoned until the Holy Shabbos arrives properly. Rather, we must engage and release the world from bondage. When ourselves in intense prayer, Torah study, Shabbos arrives the Jewish People are then and delight in the festive Shabbos meals, bathed in the light that existed by the creation of the world. and then we will truly be victorious over the Esav-Greeks who constantly Shabbos in Tefillah challenge our service of HaShem. It is further noteworthy that the words the Hamanchil menuchah liamo Yisroel Torah uses to describe the battle between bikdushaso biyom Shabbos kodesh, Who Yaakov and the angel of Esav are gives a heritage of contentment to His biheiavko imo, as he wrestled with him. People, , in His holiness on the holy The word biheiavko contains the word Shabbos day. Why do we say that HaShem avukah, which means a flame. We can gives contentment as a heritage? interpret this homiletically to mean that Contentment is not tangible, so how can one the angel of Esav was attempting to inherit it? The Tiferes Shlomo (Bereishis) remove the “fire” from Yaakov, i.e. to writes that the meaning of this passage is dampen the enthusiasm with which the that HaShem gives a heritage of contentment Jewish People exhibit in their Torah in this world from what will be in the future, study and performance of mitzvos. in the World to Come. Thus, the words biyom Shabbos kodesh that we recite does HaShem should allow us to merit that in not necessarily refer to Shabbos in this the coming days that lead up to the world. Rather, it refers to the light and festival of Chanukah we will reignite the holiness of Shabbos in the World to Come. spark within us that brings us closer to HaShem and His service. We will thus Shabbos Stories merit greeting Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily, in our days. Bris for the future

Shabbos in the Zemiros Chaim Berlin, the head of ’s rabbinical court, lived in in his old age. He would read Askinu Seudasa the Torah in his shul every Shabbos very Composed by the Arizal, Rabbi Yitzchak beautifully and very carefully. Many Luria people in Jerusalem came to daven in his shul just to hear him. On Shabbos during Shevisin ushivikin misaavin dirichikin Pesach, many people streamed into his chavilin dimikin vichol zinei chavushin, shul to hear him read Song of Songs, suspended and relinquished be the distant which he did with fervor and an abominations the afflicting destroyers of all outpouring of love. In particular when he forms of prisoners. Here again we see the reached the verse, “Behold you are theme of Shabbos being a time when all the forces of evil are suspended and beautiful my beloved, behold you are relinquished. It appears as if the entire world beautiful, your eyes are those of doves,”

2 he would read with great excitement and festive meal, as is the Jewish custom, with tears. Rabbi Aryeh Levine, as a and therefore I told him that he should close student, decided one year to ask his be prepared to be the sandak (to hold the rebbi why, when he reached this verse boy on his knees), and then we would be every year, he would break down in able to carry out the bris by ourselves. tears. Does this verse not describe so “’No, I will not be able to do that, beautifully the love that exists between Rabbi,’ replied this Jew in fright. ‘I have G-d and the Jewish people? “Let me tell a soft heart and I cannot bear to look at you the reason,” answered Rabbi Chaim. anyone being hurt. How then will I be “Once when I was a rabbi in Moscow, a able to watch my young son having a Jew came to me and asked to speak with bris? Perhaps my hands will shake and I me privately. I thought, who knows what will, God forbid, drop the baby from my kind of trouble this Jew is in, to the point lap.’ “I asked him for a few more details that he is embarrassed to speak in front about his situation, where he lived and of strangers. We went into a side room, the like, and then I made the following and I was surprised to hear that his suggestion: ‘Firstly, on the day of the ‘secret’ was the announcement that - bris, send away all the non-Jewish mazel tov - his wife had just given birth servants that are in your house, so they to a baby boy. He had come to invite me will not see what you are doing there. to perform the bris. (Rabbi Chaim Berlin Secondly, since there is in the city a was known as an expert Mohel.) “I Jewish doctor, a famous surgeon, whose asked my guest what was the reason for services are requested by many non- secrecy in the matter; after all, every Jews as well, you should ask him to Jewish boy has a bris. What then is there come on the eighth day to be present at to hide? “’Your honor should know,’ he the time of the bris, and you should tell replied, ‘that I live in an entirely non- your neighbors that a physical blemish Jewish area, and none of my neighbors was found in the baby and he needs a or acquaintances know that I am a Jew. I minor operation. And I will come with own a large warehouse of Christian the doctor at the appointed time. The religious articles, and of course if it were doctor will be the sandak, and I the to become known that I am a Jew, I Mohel. And the doctor will be able to would lose my comfortable income, and come afterwards a few times to your there might be danger to my life. house to oversee the healing of the bris, Therefore, while I'm inviting you to give and everything will go peacefully.’ “On my son a bris, I ask for advice as to how the appointed day, the Jew came to lead to arrange the bris so that no one will be me to his house, together with the aware of what is happening.’ “Of course, famous surgeon. We passed through in such a situation there was no room to streets and areas that in all the years I think of fulfilling the in an had lived in Moscow, I had never had exemplary way, with a minyan and the opportunity to pass through, because

3 never did a Jewish foot tread there. We continued. ‘I think that my tender son, reached his house, which was like a who has been given the bris, will be nobleman’s, and there was not a single even more distant than I am from sign that this was a Jewish home. On the Judaism, for at least in my childhood I contrary, it had many types of idols and lived like a Jew. But my son will not many Christian religious objects. We grow up with any sign of Jewish life. arranged the bris according to Jewish Even so, it is possible that this son, when law, with the doctor serving as the he grows up, will become acquainted sandak, and I the Mohel. When we with Jewish life, and perhaps the spark parted I asked him to come to me on the will ignite and he will want to be a Jew. third day after the bris in order to tell me It is for this reason that I don't want to how the baby was doing. “On the third block the way for him to return to our day this Jew came to my house, and source. That is why I made such a great since he suspected that I had invited him effort to give him a bris, so that the road so that he would pay me for my services, will be open to him and he will be able he offered me a bill of 20 rubles. Of to return easily to his source’.” When course I refused to accept it. He thought Rabbi Chaim Berlin reached the end of that I was not satisfied with the sum he the story, he was moved to tears once was offering, and therefore he added to it again and added: “This incident made until I was able to convince him that I clear to me the saying of the Sages on simply refused to accept reward for my the verse above: ‘Behold, you are efforts on behalf of such a great mitzvah. beautiful my beloved, behold you are However I did disclose to him my real beautiful, your eyes are those of doves,’ intention in inviting him to come to me, which I had difficulty understanding which was that I had a great desire to throughout my life. “Our Sages explain know what had brought him to fulfill the the repetition of words, ‘Behold, you are mitzvah of bris milah with such self- beautiful’ in the following way: Behold sacrifice, despite the fact that after you are beautiful - before the sin, and speaking with him and visiting his home behold you are beautiful - after the sin. I saw that he had no connection And the matter is not clear at all; what is whatsoever with Judaism. “Upon the beauty after the sin? But this incident hearing these words, his eyes filled with elucidated their intention to me. The tears. With a bowed head he said: ‘I answer lies in the final words, ‘your eyes know, Rabbi, that I have distanced are those of doves.” “One of the unique myself from the Source. Sometimes my tendencies of a dove is that she does not heart is broken, but with my situation I distance herself so far from her nest that do not know whether I will be able to do she will not know her way back. “This is a full Teshuvah (repentance)...’ And here what our Sages mean by: ‘Behold, you he started weeping uncontrollably. After are beautiful - after the sin.’ A Jew, he calmed down somewhat, he despite the fact that he sinned and

4 distanced himself from his source, still each word hevel corresponds to a day of turns his head backwards and tries not to creation. This is because for every day lose his way entirely back to his nest. Shlomo saw that there was a lack. And if not he, then at least his offspring Regarding Shabbos it is said (Shemos will be able to return to Judaism. And 31:14) michalileha mos yumas, its this is the praise of ‘your eyes are those desecrators shall be put to death. This of doves’.” verse reflects the idea that even Shabbos has a lack, as because of its great Shabbos in Navi holiness and the stringencies inherent in Shabbos, one who transgresses the Shmuel I Chapter 16 Shabbos is punished. The Bais HaLevi Happiness on Shabbos (Bereishis) writes that this is only said if there was no concept of repentance. The In this chapter we learn how HaShem Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 22:13), instructed Shmuel to appoint Dovid as a however, states that Kayin demonstrated king over the Jewish People. Upon being to his father, Adam, that repentance is anointed as king, a spirit of HaShem effective, and Adam then declared rested upon Dovid Subsequently, the (Tehillim 92:1) mizmor shir liyom spirit of HaShem departed from Shaul, haShabbos, a psalm, a song for the and he was tormented by a spirit of Shabbos day. Thus, Shabbos is not melancholy. Shaul then had Dovid lacking and it is complete good. It is for brought before him and when Dovid this reason that the Gemara (Shabbos would play his harp, Shaul was relieved 118b) states that one who observes and he felt well, and the spirit of Shabbos properly will gain atonement melancholy would depart from him. This for his sins, even if he had worshipped incident in Scripture is parallel to idols like the Generation of Enosh. One Shabbos. The entire week we are who observes Shabbos merits having his engaged in the struggle with the forces repentance accepted and he thus gains of evil, and when Shabbos arrives, all atonement for his sins. melancholy and sadness departs. We should use the holiness of Shabbos to lift Shabbos in Halacha our spirits even during the week, as one Removing a pot from a blech by can only serve HaShem with joy. mistake Shabbos in Agadah If one mistakenly removed the wrong Teshuvah fills the gap of Shabbos pot from the blech, he is allowed to return it to that spot, even if he had it set The Medrash (Koheles Rabbah 1:3) it down with the intention of not states that Shlomo HaMelech writes the returning it. An example of this would word hevel, vanity, seven times, and be if on Friday night one assumed that

5 the cholent pot was the soup pot, and This week’s question is, is there an upon removing the pot from the blech, association between the candles that are he set it down with the intention of not lit with the onset of Shabbos and the returning it. In such a situation he is candle that we light by Havdalah, and allowed to return the pot to the blech. what is the association? If you have a This ruling, however, only applies if the possible answer, please email me at food is completely cooked and is still [email protected] and warm. your answer will be posted in next week’s edition of Shabbos: Ta’am Shabbos Challenge Question HaChaim.

Shabbos Challenge Question Shabbos: Ta’am HaChaim Last week we posed the question: why Vayishlach 5773 do we refer to the extra soul on Shabbos as a neshama yeseira and not a second Is sponsored in memory of: soul? Perhaps one answer to this question is that although everything on Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, Alter of Shabbos is doubled, we are expressing Novardok (1849[or 1858]-1919). Born the idea that the extra soul that a Jew has in the Lithuanian town of Plongian to on Shabbos is not merely a replica of the Rav Shlomo Zalman, Rav and Dayan of soul that he has during the week. Rather, the town, Rav Yosef Yoizel joined the second soul is higher and more Kovno’s Perushim where he exalted than the soul that the Jew has studied under Rav Itzele Blazer, Rav during the week. In a similar vein, the Naftali Amsterdam and Rav Avraham Sfas Emes writes that during the week, Shenker, spending at least 18 hours a the soul and the body are equal, and the day - most of the time standing- soul must battle against the body, studying. He also spent two lengthy whereas on Shabbos, the body is periods learning in solitude - first, he subdued by the soul, which has the upper secluded himself in a small room for a hand on Shabbos. year and a half after tragically losing his first wife during childbirth; later, A reader (in 5773) wrote: Neshama learning in a room in a forest for 12 yeseira - yeseira is the feminine of yeser years, leaving only to visit his family for also meaning -- INCREASE, like in Shabbosos. In 1894, Rav Yosef Yoizel "yeser sieis v'yeser eiz". began to visit the Alter of Kelm, Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv. Later, he established Thus it may not mean a second soul but a large in Novardok and was a powerfully “Increased” soul. responsible for creating a whole network Thank you for your contribution. of . During the War, in 1914, he moved the yeshiva - with its bachurim - to Hommel in the Ukraine, as the

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Germans advanced on Novardok. In Rav Avraham Yochanan Blumenthal 1918, he moved it to Kiev. (1877-1966). Born to his parents one year after they made aliyah from Hungary, he married in 1895, and - Rav Chai Taib of Tunisia, author of despite the death of three of his children HaLev Hitin (1835) and his wife’s becoming hard of hearing - he began an orphanage for the destitute of Yerushalayim during . Beis Zion Blumenthal has been Rav , of continued by his grandson, Rav Eliezer Beis Medrash Elyon, Tora Vodaas Rakovsky (d. 1996) and his great (1893-1944). Born in Parenz, near זכר grandson, Rav Baruch Rakovsky , Reb Shlomo entered the yeshiva צדיקים וקדושים לברכה, נפטרו לגן עדן י"ז כסלו, in Halusk at age 12, where he learned זכותם יגינו עלינו ועל כל ישראל לטובה under Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz. He (www.matzav.com) remained there until 1917, when he married Chaya Feiga Rudensky of Daf Yomi Schedule at Maor Torah Center Volozhin. That year, he was appointed by Rav Baruch Ber to serve as Rosh Monday-Friday 6:00 AM followed by Yeshiva in Knesses Bais Yitzchak. Shacharis at 6:55 AM. When anti-Semitic harassment forced Sunday 8:00 AM followed by Shacharis him to leave the area, the Chafetz Chaim at 9:00 AM asked Rav Shlomo to teach in his yeshiva. When WWI ended, Rav Shabbos morning 8:00 AM followed by asked Rav Shlomo Shacharis at 9:00 AM to be a Rosh Yeshiva in Baranovitch. In 1927 Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzenski Shabbos afternoon 45 minutes before invited Rav Shlomo to be Rosh Yeshiva Mincha of the Ramailles Yeshiva in Vilna, a ______position he held for almost eight years. In 1935, with Rav Chaim Ozer’s Have a wonderful Shabbos approval, Rav Shlomo accepted an invitation to head Yeshiva Torah Prepared by Rabbi Binyomin Adler. Vodaas. Thus he was spared, through For sponsorships please call 248-506-0363 hashgacha pratis, the horrors of WWII. Since he arrived in America a few years To subscribe weekly by email, please email before the onset of , he was [email protected] able to aid in the rescue of Bnei Torah and Rebbeim. View Shabbos: Ta’am HaChaim and other Divrei Torah on www.doreishtov.wordpress.com

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