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Weekly Torah Email
Jan. 14, 2010 |
Weekly Torah Email
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A Thought On Parshas Va'era
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"...l'man tei'da ki la'HaShem ha'aretz..."
"...so that you will know that the Earth is HaShem's..." (9:29)
As Moshe forewarns Pharaoh of the onset of yet another plague, he patiently explains that a purpose behind these Divine decrees of destruction is that the people understand that this world is HaShem's.
The Rambam (Moreh HaNevuchim 3:29, 54) explains how the appearance of wondrous events, including the plagues which struck the Egyptians, can lead people to understand and accept Divine omnipotence. Many people somehow find it possible to accept that there is Majesty in the universe. They look to the sky and spy planets and stars coursing the heavens. This is a humbling moment for some, since we clearly recognize that there are vast luminary and celestial bodies which are "under control" and operate in an orderly way.
A Power, a Source, a Cause has created and choreographed the heavens and there can be nothing stronger, greater or unitary as the Creator. We cannot begin to control the skies, and can accept that the stars and planets and cosmic forces are under the precise hashgacha which is required for them to exist and to operate.
The appearance of extreme earthly events, moments when the earthly order is altered and the lives of mortal and other creatures are directly impacted, is also wondrous and miraculous, even when the toll is devastating. At those moments, there are those who can understand and accept that there is an event of Divine craft occurring. The wise person concludes that just as the heavens get the Divine directed hashgacha which they require, so does the world below get the directed hashgacha which it requires at that moment, as the earthly order is altered and impacts humanity.
Until that event, the complacency of routine order is present, and there are many who have no cognizance of HaShem. When the world changes, momentarily or for a set interval, that change must be Divinely ordained. It has to be intended and calculated. The same power which orchestrates the events on high is apparent. When HaShem's majesty is manifest on the Earth below. explained Moshe, people must concede that we live in HaShem's world and are but a part of His vast universe.
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The Rosh takes the same concept but illustrates it in reverse. We note that the "magicians" of Egypt seemed to replicate some of the signs and wonders which Moshe had facilitated. After a certain point, however, the magicians gave up and were unable to imitate the Heaven-sent events.
A magician, writes the Rosh, may be able to perform his deceptions and manipulate an object or a person's perception only of the tangible and mundane. The skies and heavens, the higher realm, cannot be accessed by those "arts." The skies and the galaxies, the wind and the climate, are the exclusive messengers of HaShem.
One might conclude that the material world operates on its own power and that HaShem is limited to the cosmic realm. When wondrous signs are brought about in the material world as well as in the skies above, this demonstrates that HaShem is indivisible. HaShem alone empowers all events and circumstances. Human beings are limited and the Earth is HaShem's.
Good Shabbos. D Fox |
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Reader's Question:
As I was growing up, I remember people (I dont remember if friends or adults) would say that you're not supposed to look at the moon. Is there any truth to this?
Answer:
Yes, there is a lot of truth to this!
The Sefer Chareidim, one of the holy Mekubalim in the times of the Bais Yosef and the Arizal, writes (Perek 45:5) "It is prohibited to gaze at a rainbow...It is likewise prohibited to gaze at the moon. Rabbeinu Meir used to be extremely stringent with this...as it is quoted in Sefer Shoshan Sodos"
In the Sefer Taamei HaMinhagim (Kuntres Achron to Siman 464:22) he quotes the Sefer Shevet HaMussar that Al Pi Kabalah it is just as bad to gaze at the moon as it is to gaze at a rainbow.
In the long Nusach of Vidui from Rabbeinu Avraham, father of the Shla HaKadosh, where he enumerates hundreds of possible sins that a person needs to do Teshuva for, he lists as one of the sins " Gazing at the [new] moon"
The Mishna Berura Siman 426:13 brings this as well, and says that by Kidush Levana when we must look at the moon before commencing the Bracha, acording to some opinions the moon should be glanced at for a moment and that's all, and according to others it can be looked at for the duration of the Bracha, but it seems clear that any extra gazing at the moon is indeed something that should be avoided at best and may even be considered a sin!.
Reader's Question:
Why do they say that each Jew is represented by one letter in the Torah, and there are 600,000 Jews and 600,000 letters in the Torah, whereas all the Chumashim say the count of letters in the Torah is only 300,000?
Answer:
A: Although there are only a little more than 300,000 letteres in the Torah, kaballistically there are more as certain letters are broken into 2 and many of the Tagim, crowns of the letters, are used as well.
Just as there are more Jews than 600,000 yet they are all somehow a part of only 600,000 souls, so too there are 300,000 letters that are somehow broken up into 600,000 parts to correspond kabalistically.(See Zohar HaChadash to Shir HaShirim 74:4, Megaleh Amukos 186 and Shu"t Chavos Yair Siman 235).
A Torah a Minute
What blessing on vegetables grown in water?
Nowadays, there are certain vegetables such as lettuce, that are grown in water and not in the earth, and are commonly found in our supermarkets. Does the Beracha (blessing) of "Borei Peri Ha-adamah" (Who created the fruit of the earth) still apply, or, since it did not come from the earth should another blessing (Shehakol) be recited instead?
Even though the actual vegetable that one is eating was grown in water and not in the earth, nevertheless, the origin of the seed that was used in its planting, was from the ground. In view of that it is considered to be fruit of the earth and the Beracha (blessing) of Borei Peri Ha-adamah is recited as usual.
(See Ohr LeSion 2, 14: 13)
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