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Shabbat Shalom " SHABBAT SHALOM. Today is 22 Adar 5781, Parshat Shabbat), holiness of place (e.g. the Sanctuary), and Parah. We read from two Sifrei Torah. Some say that holiness of an object (e.g. a Torah scroll). Making Kedushah hearing Parshah Parah is a Torah Mitzvah. We omit Av is a lesson in our ability to create it; and to defile it, God HaRachamim. forbid. 4. The Beit HaLevi discusses that there are three types of TORAH DIALOGUE love. There is the love between father and son, for example. (p. 352 Hz) (p. 540 S) (p. 331 Hi) (p. 484 AS) There is the love between a man and a woman in marriage. KI TISSA The father-son relationship is unbreakable. We have no Exodus 30:11 choice in picking a parent. No trade-in. It is an everlasting [Compiled by Rabbi Edward Davis (RED), bond. No matter how low you sink, the parent will not be able Rabbi Emeritus and Sephardic Minyan Rabbi Young Israel of Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale] to disown you. Similarly, Hashem will not disown you. The Hashem-Bnei Yisrael relationship is an eternal bond. The 1. Every Jewish adult male was required to donate a half husband-wife relationship is much more intimate; but not shekel to the Holy Temple once a year, rich and poor alike. permanent. It can be dissolved by divorce. There is intimacy, This money was used to purchase the daily and holiday and there is exclusivity. This is also a description of the sacrifices, to provide for repairs on the Temple, to obtain Hashem-Bnei Yisrael relationship. The third type of love is wood for the altar, salt, libation offerings, the showbread, the the love between a man and a woman prior to marriage. Omer, two loaves of bread for Shavuot, the Red Heifer, the There is a great potential for growth in this relationship. scapegoat on Yom Kippur, and the red string hung on the When Bnei Yisrael commits idolatry there is a break in the door on Yom Kippur. On the first of Adar, they would husband-wife intimacy, and yet, it does not break the father- announce to bring the half shekel. The Kohanim, Leviyim, son relationship. Now there is a road to rebuild the bond. Rav and Yisraelim were all obligated, as well as converts. Soloveitchik said that the bond created with the second Women and children were not obligated, but could do so if Tablets was stronger than the bond created by the first ones. they wished. (Sefer HaChinuch). [I visited a Jewish museum in Brooklyn years ago. The frum owner showed me an 5. “Hashem would speak to Moshe face to face as a man ancient half shekel coin that was found on a sunken ship off would speak with his fellow...” (33:11). Face to face? How the Israeli coast, in the twentieth century. I held it and asked was that possible when Hashem, twelve verses later, would him if I could buy it from the museum, since they had more say to Moshe “...you will see My back, but My face may not of them. He said yes; it would cost $19,000. Well, it was a be seen” (33:23). Rabbeinu Bachya explains that the thrill to hold it.] expression face to face means that there was no intermediary in their relationship. Seforno interprets the 2. The Torah instructs us to wash the hands and feet of expression to mean that Moshe was awake when Hashem the Kohanim before they would serve in the Holy Temple. spoke to him, unlike other prophets. Targum Yonatan The Ramban notes that from this we deduce the ritual explained that the communication between Hashem and washing of our hands prior to praying. But (thank the good Moshe was only audio, with no video. Face to face was Lord) there is no custom of washing our feet at that time. The speech corresponding to speech. I would add that the verse Meshech Chochmah points out that the Kohanim were should emphasize that the communication between the two required to wash their hands (and not feet) prior to eating of them was likened to the communication between a man sanctified foods in the Temple, which would lead us to link and his friend, elevating Moshe immensely in the eyes of our prayers to the consumption of sanctified foods. Rabbi Hashem. No one in the world was ever elevated in this Moshe Sternbuch, shlit”a, quotes the Rambam in his code, fashion! Hilchot Prayer 4:3, that for the morning prayers, we are obligated to wash our face, hands, and feet. The Ra’avad 6. At the end of this same verse (33:11), the Torah states correctly asks: why the feet? Maybe it is to compare us to that Joshua was a lad. A lad? Joshua was about 50 years the Kohanim in the Temple, but Rav Sternbuch suggests that old at the time. That is not young. Maybe the Torah was perhaps going barefoot on wooden floors made our feet contrasting Moshe and Joshua. Moshe had reached the dirty. The Rambam was codifying that we need to have our loftiest of heights in relating to the Almighty. In contrast bodies clean before uttering Hashem’s name in prayer. Joshua was a boy. Reb Yisrael Salanter wrote that Joshua had the traits of youth; he possessed the ability to change 3. “Take for yourself choice spices...” (30:23), the Or and grow. It was as if the Torah was saying to Joshua: you HaChaim writes that Hashem was instructing Moshe to take are young. And “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” spices from his own personal possessions. Furthermore the Feel young, in heart and in mind, even if not in body. I bless Anointing Oil had to be prepared by Moshe, and not by Hashem as I continue to age. I am still able to think and to anyone else. Moshe had reached the highest level of grow in body and heart, and thank Hashem that I do not feel holiness, higher than any other human being, higher than my age mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Therefore I am angels. This Anointing Oil would last forever. This is similar blessed! to the Torah scroll. It is a copy of the Torah of Moshe. And it required the highest level of Kedushah, holiness. Holiness is 7. The Jewish people were labeled as a stiff necked an important ingredient to our religious life. And we can people (32:9). And in some texts, this is treated as a positive create it every day of our lives. There is holiness of time (e.g, trait to have. The Midrash states that this was necessary to " survive Jewishly while we are in Exile. I am reminded of a The prophet compares this experience to purification from story of a young married Israeli, who was living with his wife ritual impurity. It is worthwhile to focus on the particular in Tel Aviv. They were non-observant Israelis. One evening symbolism he used. He did not compare their purification to the husband was working late and received a call from his the traditional immersion process, rather to the purifying wife asking him to buy some ready-made meat for dinner waters of the red heifer. This detailed and mysterious that night. He left his office and stopped by a non-kosher procedure purified one from his direct contact with a corpse. take out place. Waiting in line to order some pork product, Such contact transferred a severe state of ritual impurity he thought of his grandfather, a rabbi, who was in a which required a unique purification process. Yechezkel’s concentration camp during the Holocaust. On the day that symbolism suggests a direct corollary between association the Nazis were about to abandon the camp and run for the with sin and association with death. Apparently, ultimate lives, one German officer ordered the grandfather to eat a removal of any relationship to sin is similar to removal of the piece of pork in front of the other inmates. He pulled a gun ritual effects of death. and shouted at the older rabbi to eat. The grandfather refused adamantly, and the German officer killed him on the SHABBAT HALACHAH spot and left. The Israeli thought of the personal story as he was waiting in line to buy a pork product in Tel Aviv. He The cup used for Kiddush should be intact, i.e. without immediately went home in a hurry and announced to his wife any cracks or holes. In addition, the rim must be whole, that from now on they were going to keep a kosher home! without the slightest chip or crack in it. If the base is slightly This is the necessary and positive position of stiff necked. broken, the cup should not be used for Kiddush even if the base can still support the cup and the cup is otherwise 8. MIDRASH. Shemot Rabbah 40:4. On the appointment undamaged. If a cup without a defect is unobtainable, a of Betzalel and Oholiav as the two major craftsmen to build damaged one may be used as long as it holds at least a reviit the Mishkan, the Midrash states that Hashem declared: Let (see below) of wine. If no cup at all is available, one may him (Dan) come and be associated with him (Judah), so that recite Kiddush over the bottle of wine. If the Kiddush cup is no man may despise him or become arrogant, for both great not clean, it must be washed.
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