YNA Newsletter 1 of 8 In This Issue Parshat Shmot HaRav Nebenzahl on Parshat Shmot Staff Dvar Torah By Rav Rafi Roness Netiv HaChinuch - For Parents and Teachers Petuchei Chotam on Parshat Shmot Join Our List Please join us for the annual Emunah Seminar this Sunday, January 15th Links Rabbanit Malke Bina´s Schedule: Parsha Glimpse At the Yeshiva: 10:30 AM Rav Amos Luban 11:30 AM Rav Moshe Shapiro At Matan: (The Sadie Rennert Institute for Women's Studies, 30 Rashbag Street in Jerusalem) 3:15 PM Rav Yakov Thaler - "A Walk Through Jewish History" 4:30 PM Rav Zev Leff - "Torah M'Sinai" 7:00 PM Dr Gerald Schroeder - "Age of the Universe" 8:30 PM Rav David Orlofsky - "Why be Jewish?" 9:30 PM Kumzitz with Shlomo Katz followed by Maariv Shana Bet and alumni will have an Advanced Seminar at Matan running parallel to regular seminar. The Emunah Seminar is sponsored by Yehoshua and Gitty Goldschmidt l'ilyui nishmat Aharon Dovid ben Menachem. Past Emunah Seminar YNA Newsletter 2 of 8 ~~~~ YNA Summer-Kollel dates have been set! June 17 - July 15, 2012 ~ 27 Sivan - 25 Tammuz 5772 HaRav Chizkiyahu Nebenzahl, shlit"a, Chief Rabbi of the Old City of Yerushalyim, together with Rav Chaim Eisenstein, Maggid Shiur at Netiv Aryeh and RIETS Israel Kollel will help you take your learning to higher levels. Recharge from College in the atmosphere of the Old City. Come and continue your Yeshiva experience with a summer of learning at an unbeatable location, overlooking the Kotel. Program includes guest lecturers, visits to Gedolim, exciting Shabbatonim & Tiyulim across Israel. Other YNA Rebbeim will be giving shiurim and chugim. Modern dorms with A/C and catered-style food, however space is limited. For more information or to obtain an application form, please contact Rav Chaim Eisenstein - (+972) (0)507 410 217 or email [email protected] or call 516-829-3120. ~~~~ Save The Date - Alumni Event In Chicago Alumni Melava Malke with HaRav Aharon Bina and Rav Chanan Bina on Motzei Shabbat, February 4, 2012 at 8:30 PM at the home of Adena & Fred Aaron, 6640 North Central Park Ave, Lincolnwood, IL 60712. ~~~~ Shabbat Schedule Alumni Shabbat, with the alumni who have come to learn during their winter break. 4:20 PM Candlelighting 4:35 PM Mincha in the Beit Midrash followed by Kabbalat Shabbat on the Porch 6:05 AM Vatikin at the Yeshiva 8:30 AM Second Shacharit 4:15 PM Mincha at Porat Yosef YNA Newsletter 3 of 8 YNA.EDU | Ask Rav Nebenzahl | Suggestion Box Contact Us | Alumni Update Form | Parsha Archives HaRav Nebenzahl on Parshat Shmot HaRav Nebenzahl asks that his Divrei Torah are not read during Tefillah or the Rabbi's sermon. HAKARAT HATOV "A new king arose over Egypt who did not know of Yoseph" (Shmot 1:8). Our Sages ask: can it be that he did not know of Yoseph? Even if he were a new king, did he not have some basic knowledge of Egyptian history? What the Torah means is that he knew who Yoseph was, but he did not WANT to know who he was! He lacked hakarat hatov for all that Yoseph had done for the Egyptian people. Chazal comment: "today he does not know Yoseph, tomorrow, he is destined to say 'I do not know Hashem'!" (Shmot 5:2) (Shmot Rabbah Parsha 1). This means that one who lacks hakarat hatov for his fellow human being will eventually deny the good Hashem has done for him. The Chovot HaLevavot explains using the following comparison: a generous family took in an orphaned little boy, raised him, fed him, paid for his education and gave him all his needs for many years. At the same time, they took a poor adult who had been imprisoned and cared for him until he was able to get back on his feet. The Chovot HaLevavot asks: which of the two will have greater hakarat hatov? The Chovot HaLevavot answers that the former prisoner will have more gratitude than the child, why is this so? The prisoner was taken out of prisoner as an adult when he was able to appreciate all that had been done for him. The child, on the other hand, grew up in the benevolent person's home, he never knew any better. He was given food, education, and all his needs just as any other child was - it all came naturally, he is therefore less grateful. Hashem provides us with so much, but it all appears so natural. We do not understand how thankful we must be to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for all that He does for us. We say in Nishmat: "Were our mouth as full of song as the sea ... we still could not thank You sufficiently, Hashem our G-d and G-d of our forefathers, and to bless Your Name for even one of the thousand thousand, thousands of thousands and myriad myriads of favors that You performed for our ancestors and for us". How can we begin to thank Hashem for all He does for us, for every atom in our body. Chazal teach us that kol haneshama tehalel Kah, can be read as kol haneshima - with every breath I inhale I must thank Hashem. We are so accustomed for all that Hashem does for us that we are unable to appreciate how much thanks we owe him. We owe a debt of gratitude not only to Hashem but to our parents as well - our parents gave us life and they continue giving us food, clothing, and education. This too seems so natural, my parents do not give me any more than my friend's parents. Many young people do not appreciate all their parents have done for them. I would go even further, children of Torah-observing parents have to be grateful that they were taught that the world has a Creator, and about Shabbos, Kashrus, the Seder night and much more. If a child did not become a great talmid chacham and was not close to other Rabbanim throughout his life, it is possible that his parents have the status of a rebbe muvhak - his source of learning was his parents. Later in Yeshiva he may have learned another halacha, he learned more Gemara such as Kiddushin which we are learning this year. In any event a person must be thankful to his parents for having given him olam hazeh as well as olam haba. Chazal teach us that a person must have hakarat hatov even for a person who opens the door for him, how much more so must he have gratitude for all that HaKadosh Baruch Hu does for him. Chazal state: "What does a good guest say? 'How much trouble my host took for my sake! How much meat he brought before me! How much wine YNA Newsletter 4 of 8 he brought before me! How many rolls he brought before me! And all the trouble that he took, he took only for my sake!'" (Brachot 58a). We must feel that Hashem created the entire universe for each and every one of us individually. Hashem created the sun and the moon for me - "yotzer or uvorei choshech" "Who forms light and creates darkness, "she-asa li kol tzarki" "Who has provided me my every need" - whatever He did was for me! A good guest recognizes this. "What does a bad guest say: 'what trouble did this host take for me? I ate one slice of bread, I ate one piece of meat, I drank one cup of wine. Every trouble that this host took he took only for his wife and his children" (ibid.). Hashem did not create the world only for me, there are many other people benefiting as well. We are Hashem's guests in this world and we must do our best to be good guests. It is true that He created the sun, the moon, food, fruits, and trees for other people as well - but why should that concern me? I must view it as if it were given for me to enjoy. It is my obligation to thank Hashem because I am benefiting from all this. I therefore make a bracha before I derive any benefit from this world. Next week we will read about Hashem teaching Moshe Rabenu about the importance of gratitude even to inanimate objects: The first two plagues against the Egyptians, those of blood and frogs, involved smiting the Nile River. It was Moshe's brother Aharon, rather than Moshe himself, who initiated this plague because Moshe Rabenu had gratitude to the Nile for having saved him has an infant. How could he smite the river that saved him? A river is nothing more than a body of water - did this body of water have any intent of saving Moshe Rabenu? Even so, from Moshe's perspective he owed the river a debt of gratitude. The third plague as well, the plague of lice, involved smiting the ground and was therefore also not carried out by Moshe Rabenu. In this case, Moshe was grateful to the earth for enabling him to bury and thus hide the Egyptian whom he had killed after witnessing him smiting a Jew. As we mentioned above, a person either has hakarat hatov or he does not, it makes no difference whether it is towards water, a human being, or the A-mighty. Not being makir tov is a serious character flaw. After so many years of serving as an Egyptian god, the Nile probably welcomed the idea of being used as a tool for sanctifying Hashem's Name and declaring that He is King of the universe, nonetheless the gratitude Moshe Rabenu felt to the Nile prevented him from striking it.