בס"ד A Joint Torah Publication of: Shalhevet School HAFTR High School Rambam Mesivta The Ramaz Upper School The Frisch School Atlanta Jewish Academy Maimonides School Fuchs Mizrachi High School Denver Academy of Torah Yavneh Academy of Dallas קול Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy Kohelet Yeshiva High School North Shore Hebrew Academy Bruriah High School for Girls Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School Yeshiva University of Los Angeles Torah Academy of Bergen County DRS Yeshiva High School for Boys Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School The Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy Shulamith School for Girls of Brooklyn Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy הנערים Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys that we must remember, our learning each day must Remembering Har Sinai also be accompanied by that same freshness and שבועות — Every Day SHAVUOT 5776 excitement. It is for this reason that we should by Asher Willner (YULA ‘16) Volume VII remember each day‘s learning like we remember Har In the Rambam‘s account of the 613 mitzvos, he Issue 4 Sinai. includes the positive mitzvah of reminding ourselves A story is told about the Piazetzner Rebbe, the Aish each day of the experience of Kabalas HaTorah, receiving the Hakodesh, who asked in his journal a simple question: ―Hashem, Torah on Har Sinai. The Tur and Magen Avraham give two what can I give you?‖ The Rebbe went on to explain that he manners in which we may accomplish this seemingly simple already learned as much as he could each day and davened with mitvah. The first way to accomplish this mitzvah is by saying the utmost kavanah each davening. The one thing that he the shesh zechiros during davening each morning. the second is wished he could do was to have the opportunity to convert. A to have Kabalas HaTorah in mind when we say ―asher bachar convert has the ability to step into the world of Torah and banu mikol ha‘amim‖ in birchas haTorah each morning. mitzvos with tremendous excitement and zest because it is a The holiday immediately preceding Shavuos is Pesach, in wonderful new gift. The Rebbe wanted the opportunity to which the main theme is The Exodus from Egypt. We reinvigorate his relationship with Hashem, Torah, and mitzvos, remember Yetzias Mitzrayim every day of our lives, as it is just like a person who had just received a gift. embedded in a multitude of mitzvos throughout the Torah. We During the month of Elul, we recite the passage of remember it three times a day in the shemah and say it in ―l‘David Hashem ori‖ after davening, in which David Hamelech kiddush every Shabbos and Yom Tov. On the other hand, the writes, ―shivti b‘veis Hashem…u‘lvaker b‘heichalo‖- [that] I may mitzvah of remembering the experience of Har Sinai is not dwell in the House of Hashem… and visit His Temple. This something that we encounter often; in fact, it rarely comes to phrase seems seemingly contradictory: how can David live in our attention at all. Why is remembering Yetziyas Mitzrayim so Hashem‘s house and yet remain a visitor? The Malbim writes heavily emphasized as part of the fabric of our religion, while that David wanted to have a deeply rooted connection to Judaism the parallel mitzvah of remembering Kabalas HaTorah is much and Hashem, but he also wanted to feel like a visitor each day. less emphasized. Just like visitors gain excitement when encountering something The answer is simple, yet profound. Leaving Egypt was a new, David wanted that renewed excitement for Torah that one-time experience; it was an event that only the Jews at that comes from being a visitor to Hashem‘s house. time experienced and therefore, it must be instilled into our Ultimately, we do not require the Har Sinai experience religion so that the following generations do not forget it. Har to be emphasized as its own mitzvah because it is something that Sinai, however, must be viewed with a different perspective. we must rekindle each and every day with our learning and Har Sinai may have been a one-time experience, but it is an mitzvos. event that must be rekindled each day of our lives. A famous question regarding Shavuos is why the Torah did not give an Rut’s Conversion: True Dedication exact date to the holiday like all the other holidays, but rather by Nina Miller (Maayanot ‘16) gave the date in relation to Shavuos. The Or Hachayim In Megillat Rut, after the death of Naomi‘s husband and two Hakadosh answers that receiving the Torah cannot be defined sons, Machlon and Kilyon, Naomi is ready to travel back to her as a historic date, but it is something that we are involved in home in the land of Yehudah. Her two daughters-in-law, Orpah every single day through the learning of Torah and the and Rut, accompany her as she leaves. Megillat Rut then writes performance of mitzvos. Unlike The Exodus, the Har Sinai that Naomi then tells Orpah and Rut to return to their mothers‘ experience is ongoing. Rashi notes in Parshat Nasso that every houses three times. Rut 1:8 says: ―Va-tomer Naomi li-shtei day we have to approach our learning with the joy and kaloteha ‗lechnah shovnah isha li-veit imah‘ – Then Naomi said enthusiasm of one who has just received a new gift. to her two daughters-in-law: ‗Go, return, each of you to her The Gemara Menachos interprets the pesukim of mother‘s house.‘‖ In 1:11, it is written: ―Va-tomer Naomi Kabalas HaTorah as teaching us not to forget our learning. ‗shovnah benotai lamah telechnah imi‘ – Naomi said, ‗Turn back What does receiving the Torah have to do with not forgetting my daughters. Why should you come with me?‘‖ Naomi our learning? Just like receiving the Torah is a significant event continues in 1:12, saying: ―shovnah, benotai lechnah – Turn back, my daughters, go along.‖ The Gemara (Yevamot 47b) been sincere from the beginning, and the she was ready to K learns from here many laws of geirut, conversion. Naomi continue her Jewish journey with Naomi into Eretz Yisrael. says ―shovnah,‖ or ―return,‖ three times to teach that one This loyalty makes Rut a perfect candidate to be the great- O must turn a potential convert away three times before grandmother of Dovid HaMelech. accepting them. The implication here is that Rut and Orpah From Slavery to Aliyah L had not converted when they married Machlon and Kilyon. by Elisheva May (SAR ‘16) This approach is supported by Rabbi Meir (Ruth Rabba 1:4), The passage of arami oved avi, appearing at the very who states that ―they neither converted nor ritually beginning of Parashat Ki Tavo, concisely tells the saga of the immersed‖ before they married Machlon and Kilyon. Jews descent into Egypt and their ultimate redemption by the H However, this approach seems problematic. Rabbi hand of God, culminating in their entry into Eretz Yisrael. Nosson Scherman, quoting the Zohar Chadash, points out Appearing in the middle of the book of Devarim, the passage A that if it is true that Rut and Orpah did not convert before of arami oved avi is written between the commandment to marriage, then their marriages to Machlon and Kilyon were remember that the nation of Amalek attacked the Jewish N halachically invalid, as one cannot halachically get married people immediately after The Exodus from Egypt, and Moshe‘s to a non-Jew. This is perplexing, as these two women are commandments to Bnei Yisrael about what they should E called ―kaloteha,‖ daughters-in-law of Naomi. According to immediately do upon finally entering Eretz Yisrael. The Rabbi Meir, Naomi would not have been related to them at placement of arami oved avi, in itself a summary of Bnei A all. Furthermore, Rut marries Boaz, a relative of Machlon in Yisrael‘s journey from slavery to entry into Eretz Yisrael, keeping with the mitzvah of yibum. Under Jewish law suggests the importance of the conflation of The Exodus from R however, Rut would have no right to Machlon‘s property Egypt with the entry into Eretz Yisrael. The connection had she not been Jewish when they married because the between The Exodus and the re-entry into the promised land I concept of yibum only applies to a Jewish widow. may be further seen through the liturgical uses of the passage On the other hand, saying that Rut converted before of arami oved avi. M the marriage is problematic because the Gemara assumes that The text of arami oved avi is used as a liturgical text in the conversation between Rut and Naomi after the death of two major events in Jewish life. Firstly, arami oved avi is a Machlon and Kilyon are part of Rut‘s conversion process central passage during the maggid portion of the Pesach seder. even going so far as to derive halachot of conversion based A major portion of maggid consists of the quotation of each S on that encounter. Also, had Rut and Orpah been Jewish this individual verse from the passage of arami oved avi, followed whole time, then Naomi would have no right to tell her two by a detailed explanation of each of the pesukim. During the H daughters-in-law to go back to their homelands and seder, we do not recite the passage of arami oved avi until its idolatrous ways. completion. Instead, we end with the verse, ―And God brought A The Zohar Chadash, as quoted by Rabbi Nosson us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an Scherman, explains that when Rut and Orpah married their outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, V husbands, they converted, but under the influence of ―eimat and with wonders‖ (Devarim 26:8).