Rivkah's Eternal Question Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner
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בס“ד Parshat Toldot 5 Kislev, 5781/November 21, 2020 Vol. 12 Num. 11 (#472) This issue of Toronto Torah is dedicated by Jeffrey Silver נ“י in honour of the first birthday of his granddaughter, Sarena Baila Rivkah’s Eternal Question Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner As twins "race about" in her womb, in the Divine response, “You are Rivkah owned a special identity and Rivkah asks ambiguously, “Im ken, carrying twins who will be bitter, mission related to those two fighters. lamah zeh anochi?” (Bereishit 25:22) lifelong rivals”? You are the one who is suited to Literally translated, Rivkah inquires, handling your twin sons. “If this is so, why am I?” But what was Dr. Tzohar offers a different approach, “this”, and “why am I” what? by pointing to how Rivkah came to this Note that Hashem has not told Rivkah point. Rivkah lived with her pagan anything specific – that she will win Traditional commentators have offered family until Avraham's servant arrived. Esav’s trust, that Yitzchak will be blind, various explanations, including: That servant declared that Rivkah was that she will swap the blessings, or that • Rashi (ad loc.) suggests that special, by dint of her generous conduct she will enable Yaakov to escape from Rivkah regretted praying for at the well. (ibid. 24:14-20) The servant Esav. But Hashem gives Rivkah clarity pregnancy: “If this is the pain of announced that a Divine miracle had of purpose, and this sense of purpose is pregnancy, why did I ask for this?” identified her as special. (24:40- what comforts, and empowers, Rivkah. • In another approach, Ramban (ad 48) When the family hesitated, the Many years later, when the birthright loc.) contends that Rivkah was on servant reiterated that Hashem had and the family's future was at stake, the brink of rejecting her very life: selected her. (24:56) Her family then and Yaakov warned that his mother's “If this is the pain of pregnancy, blessed her, “You shall produce shockingly brazen plan might cause him why should I live?” myriads.” (ibid. 24:60) Rivkah was to be cursed, Rivkah told him as • Alternatively, Ibn Ezra and Radak anointed to mother the next generation Hashem's official delegate, "Any curse of (ad loc.) explain that Rivkah of the family promised to Avraham and yours is on me." I was destined for this questioned her unusual situation. Sarah. position, because Hashem She spoke with other women and wanted me to make this decision. discovered that her pain was Against this backdrop, Rivkah (27:13) unique, leading her to ask, “If interpreted the pains of pregnancy as a pregnancy is normally not this message that something was indeed Hashem’s answer to Rivkah’s question hard, why am I experiencing this wrong, and she was actually ineligible. echoes in our own day. The Divine plan extraordinary pain?” She then asked, "If so, then why choose requires that a nation accept Hashem's me?" Why that miraculous selection? If Torah, live in Israel and stand apart However, Dr. Yael Tzohar of Bar Ilan there is something wrong with my from the world, and that has involved University notes that these and other lineage, if I am personally unworthy, pain for thousands of years. We don’t traditional answers share certain then why did You set me up for this? know why we must be the ones on the weaknesses: spot. But we have stood up to this 1) Read literally, Rivkah’s question This explains the Divine response, as challenge for thousands of years with ends, “Why me?” That may fit with well. Hashem responds, "There are two remarkable success, producing a rich Ibn Ezra and Radak, but not with nations in your uterus. Two nations will culture and a sustained tradition of the others. separate from your womb." (25:23) Yes, intellectual depth and moral heights. 2) Would a woman who prayed for Rivkah - you are the one I have We are here because Hashem knows children for two decades respond selected, you are the one who is suited that Rivkah's descendants are uniquely to pain with this level of rejection? for this task. There is pain now, and suited to succeed at the task. Hashem's Again, Ibn Ezra and Radak escape there will be pain in the future from bet on Rivkah was a good one; may the this problem, but the others do your twin sons, and I need you to fill same be true for Hashem's bet on her not. this role. The comfort wasn’t in telling descendants. 3) And finally, for all of our Rivkah about the two fighters in her explanations: where is the comfort womb. Rather, it was in explaining that [email protected] OUR BEIT MIDRASH ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI MORDECHAI TORCZYNER SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI SAMMY BERGMAN AVREICHIM RABBI ALEX HECHT, NETANEL KLEIN, RABBI CHAIM METZGER SEDER BOKER DIRECTOR RABBI MOSHE YERES WOMEN’S BEIT MIDRASH MRS. SHIRA METZGER CORRESPONDENTS EZER DIENA, RABBI ADAM FRIEDMANN, RABBI BARUCH An affiliate of Torah MiTzion and YU WEINTRAUB, RABBI JONATHAN ZIRING CHAVERIM NADAV GASNER, SHAUL HARRIS, ARI KARON, YEHUDA LEVI, SHIMMY NAUENBERG, NATAN Find our upcoming classes at SNOWBELL, AKIVA WEITZ, ELI WELTMAN www.torontotorah.com CHAVEROT ORLY AZIZA, MINDY CHAPMAN, SHULA DIENA, SOFIA FREUDENSTEIN, TEHILLA HELFENBAUM, We are grateful to ARIELLA MARKUS, SYLVIE MOSCOVITZ, HADASSA NAUENBERG, YEJIDE OMOTOSO, KINNERET WITTY Continental Press Journey Through Tanach: Shemuel II, Chapter 11 Rabbi Adam Friedmann Summary: this, and several other soldiers are that in addition to what is described he A year after the events of the previous killed as well. (11:14-25) also committed adultery, is mistaken. chapter, the war with Amon continues. (Ben Yehoyada to Shabbat, ibid.) This time, however, King David stays Bat Sheva mourns her husband and behind. While strolling on the roof of subsequently marries King David, and By this reading, the Talmud is teaching the palace one evening he sees a gives birth to a boy. (11:26-27) us a profound lesson about judging beautiful woman bathing. He inquires others. Sometimes, especially when it as to her identity, and is told that her Analysis: comes to important leaders, we are name is Bat Sheva, wife of Uriah, one of The talmudic sage Rabbi Yonatan forced to examine another’s moral David's loyal soldiers. David has Bat declares that, “Anyone who thinks that flaws. Even when we do this, we cannot Sheva brought to him, and a physical King David sinned is mistaken.” This overstep the bounds of what is relationship ensues. (11:1-4) statement is supported by an intricate demonstrably true and assume further legal scenario regarding the laws of failures. At this point the imperative to Bat Sheva sends word to David that she divorce by which Uriah was not judge others favourably kicks in, and has become pregnant as a result of technically married to Bat Sheva at the we must assume that the other is their encounter. King David sends for time of her encounter with the king. fundamentally good. We are cautioned Uriah to return from the front. When he (Shabbat 56a) against turning others into simplistic arrives, the king encourages him to moral caricatures on the basis of their spend some time at home. He rejects Rabbi Yonatan’s declaration is perceived mistakes. the advice, arguing that he cannot enjoy confusing in light of the biblical text. the comforts of his house while his Our chapter states explicitly that G-d [email protected] fellow soldiers are out in the battlefield. disapproved of King David’s actions, King David tries again the next day, and highlights his betrayal of Uriah by inviting Uriah to a lavish meal and contrasting it with the latter’s ensuring that he drinks plenty of wine. unwavering loyalty. In the following Even in this more inebriated state, chapter King David is chastised for, Uriah declines to sleep at home and and admits, his sin. And even if Uriah spends the night with the rest of the was divorced, the issue here is King soldiers. (11:5-13) David’s moral failing, not his technical adherence to Halachah. If so, how can The next day King David sends Uriah we rightly claim that he didn’t sin? back to the front with a message for Yoav. Yoav is to send Uriah to the most Rabbi Yosef Chaim (Ben Ish Chai) intense point of battle and then explains that the Talmud does not command the other soldiers to fall back mean to say that David didn’t sin at so that Uriah will be killed. Yoav does all, but rather that anyone who thinks The Israeli Farmer: Terumah from Peels: Esav’s Joke? Rabbi Baruch Weintraub Rambam credits our patriarch Yitzchak as the initiator of the obligation to separate terumah, as long as it is edible in mitzvah of maaser [tithing]. (Hilchot Melachim 9:1) He seems some way. to rely on a verse from our parshah: “And Yitzchak sowed the land, and found in that year a hundred-fold, and he was Regarding this question, three different approaches have blessed by Hashem." (Bereishit 26:12) Our Sages understood emerged from major modern halachic authorities: that Yitzchak took inventory because he wished to separate • Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli (Amud HaYemini 29) thought that tithes. (Rashi, ad loc.) Therefore, it is not surprising that Rambam’s statement is unique to vetch, and has no when Esav was trying to deceive his father, he asked him consequence for other types of produce. According to about tithing from salt and chaff, which concerned Yitzchak's him, farmers would not be allowed to give peels as "favourite” mitzvah.