Toronto Torah Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov

בס“ד Toronto Torah Yeshiva University Torah MiTzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov Parshat Masei 28 Tammuz, 5774/July 26, 2014 Vol. 5 Num. 43 To sponsor an issue of Toronto Torah, please email [email protected] or call 647-234-7299 On the Road: A Personal Introspection Rabbi Baruch Weintraub An Introduction The road and its destination of years, to be fully reached in the end Everything a man says or writes Our parshah begins with the list of of times. And in the meantime, it is the reveals something of his intimate journeys made by our forefathers road that counts. personality. And when one through the years in the desert. contemplates, at length and in depth, However, as some of the commentators To the kingdom of ends the words of our holy Torah, it is only point out, this summary is written in an I, too, stand on the verge of a Promised more so – the Divine teachings unusual way: instead of stating all of Land, receiving an opportunity to affect resonate in the depths of his own soul the places in which the people dwelled, - hopefully for the better – a community (see Avodah Zarah 19a). the parshah highlights the road in Israel. When I look back on the last between them, with each verse three years as a continued journey, I Many times over the last three years I dedicated to describing one journey can clearly see the meaningful progress have had this feeling; but in writing rather than one campsite. I made, and how it has enabled me to this article it is ten times stronger – I take one small step towards this vision. can almost see my own soul pouring Different reasons are offered for this through my fingers and into the phenomenon: perhaps it comes to This journey could not have been made, keyboard and the letters formed on the emphasize G-d’s benevolence, in that or even begun, without your central role screen. The reason for this strength is He did not cause us to wander too – you the reader, you the participant in that I find myself in a situation very much (Rashi); or perhaps it comes to the shiur, you who learned with me in similar to the one we encounter in the emphasize the nation’s devotion to G-d, chavruta or who just shared your beginning of our parshah. Just as the as expressed by walking through the thoughts. I only hope that all of you, Children of Israel stand, as their desert, an unsown land (Seforno). who reconciled your path of journey journey seems to come to its end, on with mine, had gained no less than me. the verge of the Promised Land, Rabbi Moshe Alshich suggested a third looking in retrospection upon the last answer: the journeys are presented as a And to the Avreichim of the Beit forty years, so do I stand in the end of detailed exposition of their introduction, Midrash, and to its head, my friend, my personal journey as a Sgan Rosh “These are the journeys of the Children Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner, I can only Beit Midrash in the Yeshiva University of Israel who left the land of repeat the wish of the departing shift of Torah Mitzion Beit Midrash Zichron Egypt.” (Bamidbar 33:1) What the Torah kohanim in the Beit Hamikdash to the Dov of Toronto; And I too, look back wants to emphasize, then, is the entering shift: “May He who has caused retrospectively on my experiences in journey out of Egypt, and ultimately His Name to dwell in this house cause these years, and try to make sense out into the Promised Land. (33:51) The to dwell among you love and of them. journeys, therefore, are important not brotherhood and peace and for the places in which the nation friendship.” (Berachot 12a) And while, Thank G-d for small camped and stayed, but for the walking mercies, I have been granted the merit in itself. In the sojourns through the [email protected] to continue writing in Toronto Torah desert, the road, as the famous saying next year, I will no longer be able to do goes, was much more important than it as an organic part of the Toronto the destinations along the way. community, but as a former resident. Thus, I would like to read the first This lesson, I believe, is correct not only section in the parshah in accordance regarding the temporary destinations in with my current position in life, and I the desert. The entrance to Israel was hope that readers will find some of the not, in any which way, the end of the lessons applicable for themselves as road. The Promised Land is not only a well. place, but also an idea – a utopian ideal to which we have aspired for thousands OUR BEIT MIDRASH ROSH BEIT MIDRASH ABBI ORDECHAI ORCZYNER R M T SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH ABBI ARUCH EINTRAUB R B W AVREICHIM ABBI DAM RIEBERG ABBI OSH UTENBERG ABBI DAM AW R A F , R J G , R A L CHAVEIRIM EITAN AZIZA, JOSH AZIZA, EREZ DISHY, CHAIM TZVI FRIEDMAN, YONI GLASENBERG, MICHAEL IHILCHIK, RYAN JENAH, AVRAHAM KANOFSKY, AARON KOROBKIN, YONATAN MARKUS, KOBY NAUENBERG, JACOB NEMIROV, MITCHELL PERLMUTTER, ARYEH ROSEN, ARI SHER, NOAM SLODOVNICK, BENYAMIN SMITH, We are grateful to YAKOV SMIITH, YAAKOV SPIVAK, GRAHAM TUGETMAN Continental Press 905-660-0311 Haftorah: Yirmiyahu 2:4 - 2:28, 3:4 Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner Who is the prophet of our haftorah? d’s voice, asking the Jews what ugly inside, so Israel – when they stood Yirmiyahu was the last major prophet of motivated them to reject G-d. In on Mount Sinai and answered, ‘We will the first Beit haMikdash, and his particular, the prophet notes that: do and we will hear,’ that was with experience may well have been the most G-d has only helped the nation and their mouths. Their hearts were not bitter of any prophet in Tanach. He provided them with blessing; (2:5-8) aligned… Grapes contain food and lived in the 5th century BCE (according Other nations do not abandon their drink, and so Israel contains people of to Seder Olam), and his task was to deities; (2:10-11) Torah and people of deeds.” However, warn the Jews of his day that time was The Jews have abandoned G-d in there is another possible point of short and destruction was coming. The favour of powerless idols; (2:12-13, comparison here. nation did not heed Yirmiyahu’s words; 27-28) In Shoftim 9, a man named Yotam instead, they beat him and imprisoned The Jews have failed to recognize him (Yirmiyahu 20 and 37), threw him that their national suffering is rebukes the Jewish people for their into a cistern (ibid. 38) and threatened punishment for their sins; (2:14-17) selection of an inappropriate leader, his half-brother, Avimelech. In the to kill him. (ibid.) The Jews have turned to Egypt and Assyria, their enemies, for support, course of his rebuke, Yotam describes Rembrandt’s Jeremiah Weeping Over the rather than turn to G-d. (2:18) different flora and their greatest traits, Destruction of Jerusalem is hauntingly and he describes the fruit of the grape evocative of the mood of Yirmiyahu’s At the conclusion of our haftorah, the as “gladdening G-d and man.” Wine book; Indeed, the word “jeremiad” was Jews are told that despite their gladdens the human being who drinks coined to refer to a prophecy of doom wandering, G-d stands ready to take it; wine gladdens G-d when it is and gloom. Throughout his misery, them back at the moment of their poured on the altar as a libation. though, Yirmiyahu carried with him a return. (3:4) Perhaps this is another point in the Divine promise, “I am with you, to save comparison of the Jew and the grape; Jews and Grapes you.” (ibid. 1:8) when we offer ourselves to G-d then we Various prophets compare Jews to gladden Him, and when we offer According to the Talmud (Bava Batra grapes and grapevines; see, for ourselves to assist other people then 15a), Yirmiyahu authored his own book, example, Yeshayah 5, Yechezkel 17 we gladden them. the book of Melachim, and the book of and Hosheia 9:10. In our haftorah Eichah. (2:21), G-d declares, “I planted you as Yirmiyahu rebukes the Jews, saying a vine, in entirety a true seed; how that G-d planted us as an “entirely What is the message of our haftorah? have you now become a straying, true seed,” outfitted with the spiritual Our haftorah is the second of three foreign plant?” What is the genes to produce fruit which would haftarot, gimel d’puranuta, which Jews relationship between Jews and grapes? serve G-d and serve the world. We have historically read between the strayed and became foreign, seventeenth of Tammuz and Tishah A midrash (Tanchuma Lech Lecha 21) unadapted to our soil and to our task. b’Av; the practice dates back at least offers two bases for comparison, G-d calls us to return to our figurative one thousand years. (Sefer haManhig saying, “When [the Jews] stood on roots, and to again be the nation “Lifnei Tishah b’Av”) In this haftorah, Mount Sinai they were compared to which will “gladden G-d and man.” the prophet Yirmiyahu speaks with G- grapes. Grapes are pretty outside and [email protected] 613 Mitzvot: #393 Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner The Irredeemable First-born In Parshat Bo (Shemot 13), the Torah instructs us to bring sheep or the firstborn goat.

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