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Timely Torah Insights Timely Torah Insights Parshas Yisro by Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim Using our Parental Foundation Associate Rosh Yeshiva This issue is dedicated L’Ilui Nishmas Harav Mordechai Yisroel Tzvi ben Moshe Aharon (Rindenow) zt”l My cousin, Rabbi Nachman Seltzer, tells the following story.1 The Tzcherbiner Rav loved to listen and converse with Yeshiva students about any topic of Torah they were learning. Every Shabbos afternoon, anyone could visit the Rav to speak with him on any topic they were studying. Rav Moshe Sternbuch (currently age 92) was a young man at that time and wished to talk with the Rav. Rav Moshe spent weeks preparing the topic. When he felt ready to present his Torah topic, Rav Moshe walked over one Shabbos afternoon. The Tzcherbiner Rav listened very carefully to what Rav Moshe was saying. Rav Moshe presented his idea with compelling questions, proofs and refutations. It was a masterpiece, and he could tell by the look on the Tzcherbiner Rav’s face that he was clearly enjoying it. When Rav Moshe finished, the Rav said, “This is not your Torah!“ Rav Moshe was taken aback, worried the Tzcherbiner Rav was accusing him of plagiarizing. “I prepared this with my chavrusa. He can testify that what I presented to you today was not taken from a different person,” said Rav Moshe humbly. “This is not yours,” repeated the Rav. The Tzcherbiner Rav explained what he meant. “I know you were orphaned at a young age from your father. Your mother raised you and your brothers with extreme dedication. Her dream was to raise you to be a talmid chacham. Life was difficult for her as a widow. Every year on your father’s Yahrzeit, she would take you and your brothers to your father's kever. There, she would daven. ‘Hashem! The Gemara says there are three partners in the creation of each child: mother, father, and Hashem. Hashem, you took away one of the partners. I ask you to please take upon Yourself two thirds of the responsibility and help me raise my children to be talmidei chachamim.’ “Moshe, everything you said was brilliant and way beyond your years. It’s unusual for someone your age to have such sharpness. Clearly this is divine intervention. This is why I tell you “this is not your accomplishment” but rather, it is the accomplishment of your mother's efforts, dedication and prayers.” All of us owe our parents a debt of gratitude. They brought us into this world and gave us the ability to serve Hashem. The Ramban notes that the first five commandments are between man and Hashem and the second five are between man and his fellow-man. Honoring one’s parents is the transition between the two. We must honor our parents as we honor Hashem. Our parents are partners with Hashem in our creation. Parshas Yisro contains the ma'amad har sinai - the Aseres Hadibros - Ten Commandments. The fifth commandment is to honor your father and mother. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 56) tells us that a few days after the splitting of the sea, the B’nei Yisrael camped in Marah. There, Hashem told Moshe to tell the B’nei Yisrael a few of the Mitzvos. One of those Mitzvos was ‘honor your parents.’ What was the imperative need to have this mitzvah transmitted before Har Sinai? Rav Avrohom Schorr asked this same question at our yeshiva before Pesach. He answered that Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, the famed Kaminetzer Rosh Yeshiva, says that honoring parents is a hechsher mitzvah - a preparation for other mitzvos. But how can this be, when it’s an explicit command! An example of a preparatory mitzvah would be sharpening a milah (circumcision) knife or gathering schach for a sukkah. Rav Baruch Ber explains that we observe the mitzvos because we trust our parents and Rabbeim who have transmitted them to us from parent to child and Rebbe to student (honoring a Rebbe is actually included in the mitzvah of kibud av). This transmission chain is an essential preparation for us to have an interest in, and actually perform the mitzvos. Our parents and Rabbeim give us the foundation; they prepare us to be receptive. This is a crucial message to understand before Pesach. Children and teenagers have many things to say at the Seder. But…the grandfather or Seder leader—they are the key. Respect what they have to say, even if you think you have something better, as the whole Torah is contingent on the transmission of parent to child. Parshas Yisro is my bar mitzvah parsha. It reminds me of my parents and how they raised me. This week is also the Yahrzeit of my maternal grandmother, Mrs. Toby Blechner, Toyba bas Binyamin Menachem. My parents and grandparents instilled in me a love for Hashem and His Torah. I daven that I may transmit this love to my children and grandchildren and future generations. 1 Sefer Zera Shimshon 2 Halacha in the Parsha by Rabbi Moshe Silverstein Parshas Yisro Maggid Shiur The Mishnahi, when recounting the order of the davening in on this answer because in the case of the gemara as well, the Beis Hamikdash, says that as part of the Brachos of Parshas Shema was being read, and nonetheless there was Kriyas Shema they would recite the Aseres Hadibros. The a concern. Certainly, in our case when we are according it gemaraii says that they wanted to (re)institute this practice special prominence by standing during its reading, it in the context of davening outside the Beis Hamikdash as would be a problem. well, but they did not because of the “argument of the 3. Rav Moshe himself justifies the practice by explaining heretics”. Rashiiii explains that doing so would give that we shouldn’t create our own fears about what may credibility to the heretics who claim that only the Aseres happen. He explains that the gemara was not just Hadibros were given at Sinai, and the rest of the Torah is concerned with what may happen, but initially it was the not of Divine origin. Giving prominence to the Aseres practice to recite Aseres Hadibros and it did lead to heresy, Hadibros by specifically reciting them on a daily basis and they therefore abolished the practice and latter would convey the mistaken impression that the heretics opposed its reinstitution. However, to extend that to be are right, and the common folk would believe their claim. concerned for repercussions that may or could occur as a Yet, Tur and Shulchan Aruchiv do say that it is good to recite result of standing during the Aseres Hadibros, which are the Aseres Hadibros before or after davening every being read anyway, would be unfounded. morning. Seemingly, this is contrary to the above gemara. 4. Rav Moshe quotes from his son, Rav Dovid, who answers Beis Yosefv answers that it is only a problem to say it that the fact that there are other instances where we stand together as a tzibbur, but an individual is allowed to recite during Kriyas Hatorah, such as during Shiras Hayam as we it, and Remavi in fact rules that it can be said individually do on Parshas Beshalach and the seventh day of Pesach, but not as a tzibbur. Drishavii quotes the Maharshal, who demonstrates that we are not standing because of the answers that it is only a problem when said in the context Divine origin of these pesukim to the exclusion of all others, of brachos such as Kriyas Shema, but it may be said but because of some other reason. separately even as a tzibbur as he records was the practice 5. Rambam, in quoting the opposition to the minhag to viii of the Maharshal. However, Mishnah Berurah follows the stand, writes that the fact that in Bavel and the stringencies of Beis Yosef and the Maharshal and only surrounding areas they did stand is not a proof that it is allows it to be said individually and cannot be said as part allowed because they were not standing for the pesukim of tefillah. being read, but rather in deference to the Rav or talmid Based on the above, Rambamix opposed the minhag, which chacham who received the aliyah. Perhaps, we can then is prevalent even today, for the tzibbur to stand when the suggest a solution to the problem and also explain the Aseres Hadibros are read in shul as part of the Kriyas minhag to specifically give this aliyah to the Rav: If we give Hatorah. By standing when the Aseres Hadibros are read the aliyah to the Rav, everyone will stand as he approaches while sitting during the rest of Kriyas Hatorah, we give the bima and then should remain standing for the aliyah prominence to those pesukim, which can be misconstrued itself. In this manner, everyone will stand for the Aseres as giving credence to the heretical claim that only the Hadibros without demonstrating the prominence of the Aseres Hadibros are from Hashem. We should therefore pesukim themselves, as the standing can be attributed to never accord special status to one part of Torah over the honoring of the Rav. another. 6. The minhag in many places is to stand for the entire However, there are many justifications for the practice as aliyah in which the Aseres Hadibros is read, which includes well as solutions to avoid the problem: the preceding pesukim as well, and therefore it is not as 1. Bechor Shorx, in answer to Beis Yosef’s above mentioned conspicuous as would be if everyone were to stand in the question, explains that although there was once a concern, middle of the aliyah immediately prior to the reading of the as recorded in the gemara, “nowadays” heretics are not Aseres Hadibros themselvesxiii.
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