OTHE OHRH SOMAYACH TORAHR MAGAZINE ONN THE INTERNET E WWW.OHR.EDUT SUMMER ISSUE NO. 2 SHABBAT PARSHIOT EKEV - REEH - SHOFTIM 5762 2002 VOL. 9 NO. 37 THIS ISSUE IS SPONSORED BY KOF-K KOSHER SUPERVISION WWW.KOF-K-.ORG [email protected] PARSHA INSIGHTS Ekev Reeh FIRE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, DUE TO The carved images of their gods you shall burn in the fire for it is an abomination of Hashem, your G-d. (7:25) CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR ur sages teach us that extreme anger is like wor- CONTROL Oshipping idols. What is the connection? Imagine youre a courtier in the palace of the king. While The blessing that you listen to the commandments And the curse walking past you, one of the other courtiers treads on your that do not listen and turn aside from the way (11:27-8) toe, and rather than apologize he turns around and pokes his remember being the grateful father of a newborn son. tongue out at you. IThere are very few occasions that compare with the joy Do you curse and shout at him? I doubt it. Not, that is, of a brit mila, the spiritual rite of passage when a Jewish unless you are unconcerned about your head staying in nod- boy is brought into the covenant of Avraham on the eighth ding contact with the rest of your body. Your awe of the day of his life. A feeling of expectancy filled the house. king, not to mention the fear of his punishment, make it easy Relatives came from thousands of miles away. The sage and for you to swallow your pride and smile a wan and insincere the saintly were duly informed of the time and the place. smile at your fellow courtier. Everything was set. When a person becomes angry its as though hes saying However, as happens quite often, the baby decided to that hes not in the courtroom of the king. Or worse develop non-threatening infant jaundice. It cleared up with- there is no courtroom, no king. in a couple of weeks and, with great joy, I brought our young Everything in this physical world has a spiritual cause. son into the Covenant of Avraham. By that time, however, Anger is always compared to fire. Anger consumes like a the eighth day had already been and gone. fire the person who feels the anger. Anger turns the face In a certain sense, however, I really had brought my son flame-red. Anger burns you up. into the brit on that eighth day. Sometimes, we may even get a glimpse of the connection At the beginning of this weeks Torah reading, when of the spiritual to the physical: describing the blessings that come from following the Torah The Hayman fire, the largest fire in the history of path of spirituality, it writes that you will listen Colorado consumed tens of thousands of beautiful forest- However, when speaking about the devastation caused by land. The fire was caused by a 38-year old Forest Service not listening to the Torah, it adds the phrase and you will turn technician who took a letter from her estranged husband aside from the way and burned it in anger. Apparently, she thought she had Why the additional phrase? extinguished the fire and left, only to find later it was spread- Sometimes we want to do a mitzvah, like bringing our son ing out of control. into the covenant on the eighth day as the Torah mandates, When we ignite the flames of wrath, its very difficult to but circumstances beyond our control prevent us. put them out. If one act of anger can burn half a state, one However, G-d, in His infinite kindness, fuses our desire to do shudders to think what happens in the spiritual forest-lands with the doing, and considers the mitzvah as though it was above when a persons anger flames. actually done it. The mere thought of doing a mitzvah that you will lis- continued on page ten www. ohr.edu 1 PARSHA OVERVIEW Ekev Aharons passing is recorded as is the ele- with a description of the three pilgrimage f Bnei Yisrael carefully observe even vation of the leviim to Hashems minis- festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Succot. Ithose minor mitzvot that are usually ters. Moshe points out that the 70 souls trampled underfoot, Moshe promis- who went down to Egypt have now Shoftim es them that they will be the most blessed become like the stars of the heaven in oshe tells Bnei Yisrael to appoint of the nations of earth. Moshe tells Bnei abundance. After specifying the great Mjudges and officers in their cities. Yisrael that they will conquer Eretz Canaan virtues of the Land of Israel, Moshe speaks A bribe of even an insignificant little by little, so that the land will not be the second paragraph of the Shema, con- sum is forbidden. Trees are not to be overrun by wild animals in the hiatus ceptualizing the blessings that accompany planted near Hashems altar, as was the before Bnei Yisrael are able to organize keeping mitzvot and the curse that results way of idolaters. Blemishes in animals des- and settle the whole land. After again from non-observance. ignated for offerings and other points of warning Bnei Yisrael to burn all carved disqualification are listed. The Great idols of Canaanite gods, Moshe stresses Reeh Sanhedrin is to make binding decisions on that the Torah is indivisible and not open oshe presents to the nation the new situations according to Torah criteria to partial observance. Moshe describes Mblessing of a spiritually oriented to prevent the fragmentation of the the Land of Israel as a land of wheat, bar- life, and the curse of becoming Torah. A very learned scholar who refuses ley, grapes, figs, and pomegranates, a land disconnected from Hashem. When the to accept the Halachic decisions of the of oil-yielding olives and date-honey. nation enters Eretz Yisrael they must burn Sanhedrin incurs the death penalty. A Moshe cautions Bnei Yisrael not to down any trees that had been used for Jewish king may only have possessions and become haughty and think that their suc- idol-worship, and destroy all idolatrous symbols of power commensurate with cess in Eretz Yisrael is a result of their own statues. Hashem will choose only one the honor of his office, but not for self- powers or vigor; rather, it was Hashem place where the Divine Presence will aggrandizement. He is to write for himself who gave them wealth and success. Nor dwell. Offerings may be brought only two sifrei Torah, one to be kept with him did Hashem drive out the Canaanites there; not to a private altar. Moshe wherever he goes, so that he doesnt because of Bnei Yisraels righteousness, repeatedly warns against eating animal become haughty. Neither the kohanim nor but rather because of the sins of the blood. In the desert, all meat was slaugh- the leviim are to inherit land in the Land Canaanites; for the road from Sinai had tered in the Mishkan, but in Eretz Yisrael of Israel, rather they are to be supported been a catalogue of large and small sins meat may be shechted anywhere. Moshe by the community by a system of tithes. and rebellions against Hashem and lists the categories of food that may only All divination is prohibited. Hashem Moshe. Moshe details the events after be eaten in Jerusalem. He warns the promises the Jewish People that He will Hashem spoke the 10 Commandments at nation against copying ways of the other send them prophets to guide them, and Sinai, culminating in his bringing down the nations. Since the Torah is complete and Moshe explains how a genuine prophet second set of Tablets on Yom Kippur. perfect, nothing may be added or sub- may be distinguished from a false one. tracted from it. If a prophet tells the Cities of refuge are to be provided an people to permanently abandon a Torah accidental killer to escape the blood- O H R N E T law or indulge in idol worship, he is to be avenger from the deceaseds family. put to death. One who entices others to However, someone who kills with malice THE OHR SOMAYACH TORAH MAGAZINE ON THE INTERNET worship idols is to be put to death. A city is to be handed over to the blood- of idolatry must be razed. It is prohibited avenger. Moshe cautions Bnei Yisrael not Published by OHR SOMAYACH to show excessive signs of mourning, such to move boundary markers to increase TANENBAUM COLLEGE POB 18103, Jerusalem 91180, Israel 02-581-0315 as marking the skin or making a bald spot. their property. Two witnesses who con- Moshe reiterates the classifications of spire to frame a third party are to be General Editor: kosher and non-kosher food and the pro- punished with the very same punishment Rabbi Moshe Newman Editorial & Web Advisor: hibition of cooking meat and milk. that they conspired to bring upon the Rabbi Reuven Lauffer Produce of the second tithe must be innocent party. A kohen is to be anointed Associate Editor: Rabbi Reuven Subar eaten in Jerusalem, and if the amount is specifically for when Israel goes to war, to Contributing Writers: too large to carry, it may be exchanged for instill trust in Hashem. Among those dis- Weekly Daf, Love of the Land: money with which food is bought in qualified from going to war is anyone who Rav Mendel Weinbach Insights, Overview: Jerusalem.