Page Zero of Torah Tidbits 835 Lead Tidbit cont. from page 1 (below) And here it is... Rashi teaches us a princile when it comes to angels: One angel does not perform two tasks. Therefore, there were three angels sent to Avraham • one to heal him from his recent Mila at an advanced age (R'fa'el); one to announce the upcoming birth of Yitzchak (Micha'el), and one to destroy S'dom (Gavri'el). The Gemara in Bava M'tzi'a gives us the names of the angels and their tasks. Fine, so far. After the angels leave Avraham, two of them continue onto S'dom • one to destroy S'dom (that would be Gavri'el) and one to save Lot and family (Micha'el). What happened to the one task per angel rule? We can say that Micha'el finished with his first task and now continues with Gavri'el to S'dom with a new single task • to save Lot. If there are four tasks • which there are, count them • them why not send four angels in the first place? Because, originally, there were only three tasks: heal Avraham, announce Yitzchak, and destroy S'dom. Lot's being saved was not a foregone conclusion. He didn't have sufficient merit to be saved on his own. He needed • as we've mentioned in the Sedra Summary, twice • additional lmerit to be saved. This merit he "acquired" when the angels were already at Avraham's tent. What happened there? The angels asked Avraham where Sara was and he said that she was in the tent. This is a window to the character of Sara Imeinu and because of her, of all womankind. Women, by nature, are quiet, "behind the scenes" types. (This is obviously an oversimplification of a complex issue • let's leave it simple for now...) And Lot got merit from this? We're not there yet • patience. The Torah tells us that an Amonite and a Moavite may not enter into K'hal HaShem (marry a women born a Jew, even though they have converted to Judaism, which they can do). Does this Torah restriction apply to males only or females, as well? Important question. Our Sages ruled that the restriction applies to males of Amon and Moav, but not to their females. They ruled this way because the Torah gives a reason for excluding Amon and Moav from K'hal HaShem. "Because they didn't offer you bread and water when you approached their land..." Who was held accountable for this reprehensible behavior? The males. They were the ones who There's more on page 3 below L 0 ‹ `xie zyxt zay e"dl 835 In Israel (not yet elsewhere) dkxal xhne lh oze Nov. 14•15, '08 • h"qyz oeyg f"i This Shabbat is the 47th day (of 354), 7th Shabbat (of 50) of 5769 hi:gi ziy`xa ...h®Rt§¨Wy¦nEe dw¨g¨c§v z Fe Uy£¬ rl «© 'd½ Kj¤xCc´¤ ÆEex§nWy§ «¨ e... First Written TT Revisited Har Sinai, NCSY Upstate New York region, June 1971 (maybe) Regional Shabbaton in Rochester, NY • the term Torah Tidbits was coined. It referred to short divrei halacha and Torah, mostly to explain basic concepts that might not have been known to the NCSYers. Torah Tidbits were originally oral. 1990 (rough guess), Israel Center at 10 Straus Street • first use of the term Torah Tidbits to apply to a written D'var Torah. (Torah Tidbits as the weekly Torah publication of the OU Israel Center began in June '92 for Shabbat Parshat Sh'lach.) The first written TT, photocopied onto Correct for TT 835 • Rabbeinu Tam (J'm) • 5:55pm one side of an A4 sheet of paper and 4:04 Yerushalayim 5:18pm placed on the shelves near the door at 4:23 S'derot 5:21pm 4:20 Gush Etzion 5:19pm 10 Straus where flyers were placed, so 4:20 Raanana 5:19pm that people who took flyers of our 4:20 Beit Shemesh 5:19pm activities could also take home a D'var 4:21 Rehovot 5:20pm Torah, was for Parshat Vayeira. 4:20 Netanya 5:19pm I (Phil) heard the DT from Dr. Paul 4:20 Be'er Sheva 5:21pm Slater; he got it from Maayana Shel 4:20 Modi'in 5:19pm Torah, which quoted the Chidushei 4:04 Petach Tikva 5:19pm HaRim. 4:04 Maale Adumim 5:18pm cont. on page zero, above 4:19 Ginot Shomron 5:18pm 4:19 Gush Shiloh 5:18pm Shabbat 3:00pm (Mincha 4:00) 4:20 K4 & Hevron 5:19pm 4:20 Giv'at Ze'ev 5:18pm Rabbi Binyamin Wolff 4:21 Yad Binyamin 5:20pm Motza'ei Shabbat 8:30pm 4:22 Ashkelon 5:21pm Rabbi Ephraim Sprecher 4:06 Tzfat 5:16pm Tel: (02) 999•8440 US toll free: 1866•376•6716 [email protected] L 1 ‹ www.traveldealisrael.com Ranges are 10 days, WED•FRI 14•23 Cheshvan (Nov. 12•21) Earliest Talit & T'filin 5:13•5:20am Sunrise 6:06•6:14am Sof Z'man K' Sh'ma 8:44•8:49am (Magen Avraham: 7:58•8:02am) Sof Z'man T'fila 9:37•9:40am (Magen Avraham: 9:06•9:09am) Chatzot 11:23¼•11:25am (halachic noon) Mincha Gedola 11:54•11:56am (earliest Mincha) Plag Mincha 3:35•3:31¾pm Sunset 4:46•4:41pm (based on sea level: 4:41•4:36pm) Word of the Month If you haven't said Kiddush L'vana yet this month and you are reading these words on Wednesday cont. p.3 Orthodox Union OU ISRAEL OU Kashrut • NCSY • Jewish Action Seymour J. 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Nor do we endorse the email: [email protected] • website: www.ouisrael.org kashrut of hotels, restaurants, caterers or food products that are Torah Tidbits and many of the projects of OU Israel are advertised in TT (except, of course, those under OU•Israel hashgacha). assisted by grants from The Jewish Agency for Israel We recommend that readers check with the advertisers themselves to clarify kashrut and shmita details of their services and products.L 2 Founders‹ and initial benefactors of the Israel Center: George z"l and Ilse Falk Lead Tidbit cont. from page Zero (above) aggressively went to their border to bar Israel's passage through their territory. Their women are not held responsible, because they did not come forward confrontationally. They had the quality of Sara Imeinu of "HINEI VA•OHEL". Not extending the restriction on Moav to its women allowed Ruth to marry Boaz and to become the mother of the Davidic line. And Ruth is the extra merit that her progenitor Lot received. Without Ruth, perhaps Lot would not have been saved. No angel was initially sent for that role, which was not yet a certainty. Whether or not you take all this literally or figuratively, there are lessons to be learned. Sometimes, if the task is important and requires one's full attention, we should remember that even angels do one thing at a time. We each have merit that we ourselves earn, plus Z'chut Avot, "credit", if you will, from our parents and grandparents (especially when we follow in their good footsteps), and can receive further merit from our children • during our lifetimes and afterwards... And sometimes, even lacking full merit, we can benefit from special circumstances. Plenty of food for thought here. oea`za WORD of the MONTH cont. from p.2 A weekly TT feature to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby enhancing our appreciation of G•d's gift to us of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem... (November 12th • when TT first "hits the stands"), then you can still say KL all night Wednesday. But that's the last opportunity this month. (As we've pointed out occasionally, there are some opin• ions that permit KL beyond the midpoint between moladot • you should check with your Rav how strict a deadline you should keep to.) P'sukim above average in length (i.e. number of VAYEIRA STATS words and number of letters per pasuk) explain its 4th of the 54 sedras; 4th of 12 sedras in B'reishit rise in rankings from p'sukim to words (and letters).