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IYOV 10

MAZEL TOV we have finally finished IYOV (this is one of those books very few people have done and you should all be very proud.

So let’s discuss the last perek “42”. The malbim wants to say here that IYOV never actually believed the things he said, but rather was playing “devil advocate”. He never believed what he said he just wanted to have the answers to his questions, so held a discussion and he played the role as the accuser. Hashem then tells off IYOV’s three friends for not really believing what they were saying but just arguing. Finally IYOV has his possession’s returned, according to the malbim nothing was ever lost all the messengers where only to trick him and really the Satan was just holding IYOV back from his flock and family (rashi and others disagree) now everything IYOV had is doubled and he lives out the rest of his days happily (one opinion says IYOV actually failed his test but hashem wanted to pay him all his reward in the world so not to pay him in the world to come and that’s why he had a good life)

I would like to thank Rabbi Eliezer Parkoff who is the author of the book I have been using to write most of these diveray torah on IYOV.

Ok now that the book is finished in truth it was not that conclusive G-d doesn’t really give too many concrete answers. In truth G-d couldn’t have answered IYOV, as IYOV couldn’t understand but in the end when IYOV had that connection with G-d he realised that he could never understand him but he is true and just.

There is a very intriguing section in the torah when Moshe turns to hashem and says “show me your glory” and G-d replies I shall put you in the cleft of a rock and afterwards you will see my back.

There is a beautiful story that fits perfectly into the answer of what is actually going o here, the story is about a man looking at a pair of footprints on the beach, this is the path that he took in his life, he sees at the beginning very small child footsteps and they slowly grow large as he gets older and he sees how different parts of the beach are different parts of his life. The whole way along the beach a parallel set of footprints ran next to his, this is G-d walking beside him. He comes to a section where the beach is covered in rocks and crabs and he looks down and sees only one set of footprints, he turns to G-d and says “G-d why did you leave me when times got hard” G-d smiled at him and replies “by child I was carrying you”

This is what hashem said to Moshe. I can never really show you myself, the only time you will ever get a glimpse of me is when you are in troubles and times are really hard, and when you are recover you will look back and see G-d was there all along helping you. I didn’t want to talk about the holocaust much in these letters but you do see that every single person who survived had a story, they had something, a help from above that helped them survive.

Just to connect this with what I started with I mentioned the 10 martyrs that we read about on yom kippur, and how they were brutally killed, the story goes that the angels and tzadikim all turned round to hashem and said “hashem why is this happening” and he replied “be quite or I will have to destroy the whole world” rabbi Farhi once asked, what is hashem saying is he just being a bully “if you don’t shut up I will kill you”? No of course not rabbi Farhi explained hashem’s words like this, the way G-d calculates reward and punishment is so deep and complicated, to show you he would have to destroy everything and restart the whole creation again so you can see for yourself.

But there is one more thing I want to explain to you especially as teenagers and I say this a lot. Sometimes you can just be in a down mood, there doesn’t have to be a direct cause but we have to try our best to weather the storm with minimal damage and when we have the opportunity grow to whatever we can.

I wish you all that you should grow up and be happy people, one of the biggest brochus I can give, always remember to try and stay hopeful and in the big scheme of things everything will turn out ok as long as you try your best. Any questions about anything please send me or ask me personally mazel tov again and have a great shabbos.

IYOV 9

In perek 35-37. Elihu is finishing of his speech and tying up loose ends

Previously IYOV asked why doesn’t g-d punish sinners and he was answered that would remove free will, but IYOV answered back that some sinners hurt people and they could easily be killed in ways that others would not notice and free will wouldn’t be harmed. To all of this Elihu says that there is a massive misunderstanding until now we have though hashem is like a big king who pays us when we do what we are told and tells us off we don’t. That’s not the case the good deed itself helps us we become spiritually healthier people hashem is like a doctor who told us a diet and exercise machine and if we do it we get healthy if we don’t and we eat whatever (or whoever) we want we get unhealthy.

Finally Elihu does tell IYOV it started as a test but he shouldn’t have complained so. And Elihu tells IYOV off for the way he acted.

But now g-d comes to speak to IYOV himself

Firstly hashem shows IYOV that he does take into account every person’s actions and look at everyone as an individual, by the mere fact g-d has been listening to everything he has been saying and has now come to speak to IYOV personally.

Hashem also shows IYOV that the soul is eternal (don’t fully understand this), when they spoke somehow IYOV understood he had a deeper soul that is intrinsically connected to g-d and true reward (spiritual reward) is when one day he will rejoin.

G-d explains to IYOV that everything has hashgocha by looking at the wonders of the animal kingdom.

Now hashem answers the final question why evil people are allowed to be so powerful. G-d tells IYOV to look at some of the giants of the animal kingdom would it have been better for g-d to only make tiny insects and have no animal greater than any other, no and from the fact that these giants exists and the smaller animals manage to survive brings out g-d’s greatness even more. So to with people hashem has given some people great power and often they can use it for evil but hashem also looks after the people they oppress and he makes sure to look over them

IYOV 8

And now a new contestant enters the ring... He’s a lightweight rising star... all the way from Buz... put your hand together for... EEELLLIIIIIHHUUUU!!!!!!!!!

Ok so IYOV’s three friends have all been knocked out and now there is new blood in the game, his name is Elihu, and he is angry. Until now he has been holding back hopping his older partners will do the job, but now he has realised if he wants something to happen, it’s gonna have to be him doing it.

Elihu tells off the three friends saying, they should have answered IYOV better, and shouldn’t have just blamed him.

He starts with a very basic logic to IYOV, g-d CAN’T be wrong. By the same true logic that Hashem exists and is perfect, it must be that (whatever the explanation is) g-d is “just” as he is the definition of right and wrong.

Elihu explains why he hasn’t spoke until now originally he thought that the men before him had more experience with life and were wiser. Now he realises that the deepest truths are not gained by experience or wisdom but given by a higher source, knowledge that; g-d exists, we have free choice and even that I myself exist is a knowledge given to you by a higher source, a spiritual knowledge.

IYOV seemed to be saying that g-d is out there to accuse and catch you out and demands everything perfect. Elihu explains Hashem knows what he is doing he gives every man a test he can handle, no more. G-d’s only request is that we try to use the little we can do to serve him.

Elihu also takes care of another point, IYOV said g-d is hiding his knowledge from us and doesn’t tell us anything. Well Elihu says sometimes g-d communicates through dreams and other methods.

Now IYOV’s point that g-d passed order over to another power called nature and if someone has to suffer it’s just the course of nature. To this Elihu gives a moshul there is a king and a loyal subject comes to him and says “my lord why have you been so harsh to me” and the king replies “don’t worry I’m mean to everyone the same” so because hashem has created nature which is equally mean to everyone just trying to get to one goal therefore it’s ok.

Now Elihu talks to IYOV about the fact that g-d doesn’t punish the wicked. He says who are you to judge g-d, firstly he needs there to be a certain amount of doubt in the world for bechirah, and secondly often these even men act as the beating stick of the lord and he even makes them powerful so they complete the job, and when it’s all over he will snap the stick and throw it away.

IYOV 7

Ok lads so Elifaz just said the reason some tzadikim suffer and some reshoim benefit is in order to have free will.

Now in perek 23,24 IYOV is having none of that lets split it up into two arguments

-1) Tzadikim suffer so that they have free will and don’t just serve hashem for the reward because then everyone would serve hashem for the wrong reasons ¦→ so IYOV has two problems with this, firstly doing mitzvos not leshmoh is not a reason to suffer the tzadikim did nothing wrong, and secondly if g-d wants to know if someone is serving him leshmoh he should ASK, g-d is all knowing instead of regourously testing him just look inside him.

-2) Reshoim benefit because otherwise we would all just serve g-d knowing if we don’t we die¦→ IYOV asks a strong question back, I realise that the reshoim need to be able to sin without fear but why does g-d let some reshoim kill whole nations, just so he could have bechiram, g-d could kill these reshoim in a quiet way so the rest of mankind has bechira but kill him.

Ok so now Bildad comes with his hypothesis. G-d makes it rain for plants to grow, if a tzadik happens to be walking around should g-d stop the rain for him, no g-d needs to keep to nature and sometimes the bigger picture is more important. G-d makes it light during the day so people can see should it be dark for the rosha. If you think about it makes sense if a man robs a bank he will get money his sin directly caused his gain. But all of this will get paid back at the end of each mans days.

But IYOV answers simply that Bildad is only a step away from his original logic that everything is predestined and has to happen, also i would argue that bildad’s argument is not true, when a tzadik walks in the rain why can’t g-d stop it raining, so if you want to say its a small punishment for something he did fine but to say it just had to happen and g-d will pay him back later doesn’t sound right.

From 27-28 we have some Paean’s and soliloguys (whatever they are) where he says a lot of things here are some of them. IYOV believes it is better to say how you feel even if it is heresy better than to just keep it inside (an arguable point), he then tells of his three friends for hiding what they really believe. He then says how g-d has infinite wisdom he whatever he is doing he understands it and it is unfair that he holds it back from us.

Looking ahead this is what is up in 29-31

®IYOV talks of the glory and greatness of his previously lifestyle

®He contrasts it to his horrible portion now

®IYOV says how he didn’t sin and by no means deserves the suffering he has received

I wish you all a lovely shabbous and please ask me any questions you have.

IYOV 6

Good morning boys and girls!!!! So when I left you: IYOV had just brought forward the new question of why evil people gain. So Elifaz was the first to answer that evil people don’t really enjoy the things they get from their evil because of their constant evil.

Now in perek 16 & 17 is very uncharacteristic he doesn’t actually answer elifaz’s point, he is saving it in order to answer all three at the same time, he does talk about one or two minor points like the eternity of the soul, gods interaction with the world, the meaning of life and the secret to immortality but I don’t reckon you guys are interested so I left it out.

Now along comes Bildad, Firstly Bildad tries to argue the eternity of the soul saying, If not what is the difference between man and the animals, why did god make us in his image with the ability to think and understand if not for a purpose above the simple animal world.

With this he leads on to apply the same logic to the rosha he says true success is spiritual success as that is the main thing, so you see a rosha gain property in the world all that physical success means nothing, as spiritually he will be punished, he will not get the eternal bliss of the next world, his children will be cut off and he will leave no legacy in this world.

Now Tzofar would like to give the same argument as before about never know if someone is a true tzadik or rosha but last time IYOV made a joke out of it. So instead he holds back a bit but does mention that just because you see a man suffer in this lifetime doesn’t mean in other lifetimes he had a good life.

Now IYOV comes back to answer them all in one swoop. First he answers that you do see many reshoim who live perfectly happy lives, die a fast painless death (What iyov wishes for), and then their children are successful in continuing their estate. And so what if they get punished after death that is something we can’t see to judge and shouldn’t g-d show us what he sees as bad, and even if g-d does punish their children so what if a man does evil he should get the punishment. All these point are good points I would even add one myself, even if spirituality is the main thing, no matter how small it is physicality is something and if a man is a rosha why should g-d give him even the smallest physical pleasures.

Finally in today’s perek Elifaz stands up to give one answer for all these questions. Bechirah, this is something we have all heard many times, if g-d punished you the second you sinned and rewarded you the second you did a good deed, we would have no choice everyone would serve g-d out of purely selfish reasons and there would be no test (the point of the world). This is a comen idea many of you have heard of.

Ok i wish you all a lovely shabbous, and just to compare to this weeks sedra how Avroham is given many hardships and doesn’t complain and always has faith even when things are tuff.

IYOV 5

Ok so now its Tzofar’s turn to answer the question

He says a lot of complicated things about perception, but I will just explain a few things, this is the idea that someone you see as a tzadik, could be being punished. What is a tzadik someone who is fulfilling his potential, and a rosha is the opposite. So someone you see as a complete tzadik could be a rosha compared to his potential.

Another problem with our perception is we can’t see the real reward, i.e. Spiritual reward of the neshama we don’t really understand who is doing well and who is suffering.

Also we can never compare to g-d’s knowledge to ours, as it is complete and whole. So how can we know who he sees as a tzadik and a rosha. Rambam brings five differences between our knowledge and g-d’s. 1) One idea encompassing other ideas, 2) understands things which don’t exist yet 3) infinity 4) his knowledge of future doesn’t mean it will happen 5) g-d’s knowledge doesn’t increase or change as events take place.

Iyov answers saying, a few things again about how perception works that I don’t really want to go into and probably don’t understand. He also mentions the cruel idea of one person who thinks he is a tzadik and find out he is not, it is possible with Tzofar’s idea that someone can be good his whole life think he is doing well and get a very nasty shock when he dies. He then brings another proof about how bechirah doesn’t exist from kings. Saying kings are clearly controlled by g-d as they sometimes take foolish decisions for no reason playing into the plan of g-d. This is not such a weird idea we in mishlie and from stories with Dovid hamelech kings hearts are in g-d’s hand, and somehow kings have a different form of bechirah to us. IYOV also says a lot that the three comforters haven’t done a very good job cheering him up calling him a rosha and an idiot.

Now we go onto the second round and we have a new question previously we have discussed, why do tzadikim suffer now IYOV asks why do roshoim prosper?

OK SO IT’S ROUND TWO OF THIS EXCITING GAME, THE BOWLER IS..... IYOV!!!!

FIRST UP TO THE PLATE IS ......ELIFAZ!!!! LET’S SEE IF HE CAN DO BETTER THAN LAST TIME?

This is what he argues, does a beef burger taste good if you have to eat it while running away from the guy you just stole it from. When people get things in this world from shady means they are constantly scared of losing it all so much so they can’t enjoy it. He can’t trust anyone.

When someone sees wicked people prosper in this world, even though they may smile they are not happy, but they live in constant fear of losing everything.

On that note i wish everyone a good shabbous. (>_<)

IYOV 4

Previously on IYOV: Bildad just explained to IYOV that for g-d to let “fate” or “nature” or whatever he is calling it do harm to people this would make g-d evil, and IYOV is probably being pained for his own good like a rose being replanted.

So this is how IYOV argues back, when g-d made the world (last week) he made it so that everything physical in this world naturally deteriorates, nothing lasts forever and everything ages, he did this for some very good reasons like maintaining bechira and stuff like that but that is how he designed nature. So if in a few years time, all the stars in the universe run out of hydrogen forming millions of black holes, red dwarves and fat monkey, leading to the destruction and implosion of the entire universe (thus creating the ultimate philosophical question if the whole universe explodes and no one was there to hear it would it make a sound, yes it would sound like this cabbbooooghghgmm!) would anyone call that evil on g-d’s part, well not really that’s just the nature he put into the world that nothing lasts forever. So it if by the same principle a earthquake hits a mountain killing thousands is that evil on g-d’s part or is it nature, and even more so if one guy (miniscule in perspective to the universe) was given many pains not from the hand of g-d but just because that’s the way nature works that wouldn’t make g-d evil. As you can see IYOV is struggling with two contradictions as I said earlier. He is being punished and g-d can’t be evil.

Now IYOV answers Bildad’d idea of how a tzadik can be hurt for his own good, he shows there are five possibilities for this and none of them fit IYOV (a lot of this logic has questions one could ask, some given in the book I have but IYOV’s logic still has validity)

1) The suffering was needed for a good outcome, which will give the tzadik a reward – this is like working hard in a field and you get pain but the end of the year you get food, but IYOV’s suffering was not natural and could have no natural connection to reward.

2) The reward is given for the suffering and is directly proportionate to it – if so why are so many people telling IYOV to strengthen his heart and take the suffering with joy, he should let the suffering truly effect him so that he should get more reward and the pain can be over sooner.

3) The pain is to make the person pray and do teshuvah getting him more reward – first he argues how do you expect an innocent man to beg like a villain, and then he says if g-d didn’t listen to my good deeds why would he listen to my prays, and how can pray CHANGE the mind of g-d and infinite being (an age old question there are a few good answers).

4) It is a test that you will be rewarded for passing through- but if you die, where is the redemption? The test was to trust in g-d and he didn’t actual help in the end.

5) Being punished now so that one doesn’t sin later – not vary fair, to get punished for a sin one may do later. (Interestingly this idea does come up in Judaism in concept like bes sora umora the rebellious son and in chagiga 5a, and we see the opposite by Yishmoel and the well. if you want me to talk more about it, or any other subject that I have just touched upon please email me, and I would be more than happy to write something about it)

IYOV finishes off with the age old paradox of how can we have free will if g-d knows what we are going to do, please no one tell me the analogy of the guy watching a replay on television because it doesn’t answer the question and embarrasses the question, of course the guy on television has no free will and you are not watching free will take place again, in truth freewill is one of the hardest concepts to understand for a few reason. Daniel Rowe calls it one of the few things impossible to prove that everyone just has to know for themselves, that it exists. (Again if anyone wants me to explain the problems with free will and some of the thoughts I have come up with please email me)

Hope you are enjoying IYOV please email me with any questions.

IYOV 3

Hey guys here is another Divar Torah on IYOV

So when we left of we had IYOV denying freewill, saying we all get a fixed path at birth and we can’t change what happens so we have no free will then along came Elifaz.

Elifaz mentions how he saw a prophecy “a spirit brushed my face” he talks about how all punishment comes into this world due to sin, and IYOV is probably having a very intense fast punishment to atone for all his sins that will be over soon, and one day he will have nothing left to fear as all his sins will be absolved, and he will walk with no fear of man or beast.

Elifaz hints to an interesting idea that again I saw in my book about how much control we have over our own lives. He says it is impossible man has no control over his life and impossible that everything is dependent on the free-will of man. We see people who tried so hard to do something and then ended up doing the opposite like Yosef’s brothers who tried to kill him and made him a king, and we see people shoved into positions like shual hamelech who was made a king with little of his own effort, and we see people who tried really hard for something and then achieved it like rabbi Akiva, all three levels of the spectrum. In truth most of our lives will be a bit of both like the man who digs and finds treasure he can never argue it was his digging that made him rich because hashem put the treasure there for him and put the idea in his head to dig there, but no one can say he did nothing to get what he has. Elifaz tells IYOV of many cases of the strong rising against the weak and rain and things like that to show hashgacha in the world.

IYOV answers this in a few ways he says:

Iif you could feel my pain you would know that no sin could cause this.

If hashem wanted to send a prophecy should he not have given it to me?

What is the point of g-d punishing me for sinning? Why is sinning bad because it means I’m not completing my purpose on this earth, but I can’t complete my purpose on this world if I’m suffering all day long and can’t get anything done. It’s like a king who throws his workers in jail for not building a bridge in time, at the end of the day the bridge won’t be finished better to just let them finish it late.

Finally IYOV argues it is too late in his life for things to get better as he is old and will die soon. Here he seems to be arguing the soul is not eternal and there is no world to come.

IYOV finishes his speech saying how can g-d really be looking at every single person to the detail that you describe? Man is but nothing, g-d doesn’t take that much interest in us.

Now Bildad answers IYOV, I must be honest with you I’m doing this with the Malbim explanation in my book and I don’t really see how it fits in the text so much, but it’s very clever and the Malbim says it so its defiantly true. To explain this to you lets first go back to one of IYOV’s argument:

-Bad things are happening to me

-G-d is good and does only justice

-Must be another system in this world which isn’t just but is random, fate.

So Bilad argues as follows IYOV you agree that g-d is good, so it would also be an injustice for him to hand over power to an unjust system. IYOV has two possible answers either g-d isn’t good which he can’t say because of a more fundamental logic, or g-d didn’t create fate but it was there already, but that would mean g-d is no longer all powerful which also can’t be true. So Bildad has disproved IYOV’s idea but now he has to answer his question why do bad things happen to good people. Bildad explains like this, imagine a gardener who sees a rose (represents a tzadik) growing among some rocks so what does he do, he pulls it out and replants it in a better area where he can look after it. This would be very painful for the rose and other flowers (represents a rosha) around it would feel lucky as they survived, but in the end of the day the other flowers don’t make real roots as it’s too rocky and they die young. The rose however is taken to a personal garden where his roots grow strong and after a long healthy life his seedlings (represents tzadik’s children) are planted in the garden and looked after as well. You see here sometimes when a tzadik is put through traumas it is not always for a punishment sometimes it’s to help him, often this can be seen in a physical sense that someone loses out somewhere but really gains in the long run, but sometimes it is in the spiritual sense, e.g someone is to connected to a physical thing so Hashem him by shaking him off it or something similar. The idea here is to trust that all g-d does is good as he is perfect and does no evil.

Hope you all have a lovely shabbous and please email me back with any questions (and even if you don’t have questions if you just want to say hi or talk about the weather or something)

IYOV 2

Earlier tonight I was complaining to one of the people doing daily nach that I have so much to write I can’t fit it all in, so he told me to just write more often. So I will but if it’s too much for you guys feel free to ignore me. Again I would like to say, a lot of this is from the book by Rabbi Eliezer Parkoff.

Ok so yesterday the Saton got to IYOV’s body and this time it really got to him, this time he didn’t bless hashem like he did the first time. His wife voiced her opinion which wasn’t very supportive for him and now his friends arrive to comfort or debate with him.

With perek three IYOV shows his philosophy I hope to show it to you in logical steps for you to truly appreciate it. And maybe even understand it.

Firstly he comes to the conclusion ones lifetime has more pain in it than happiness this idea has sources in Muslim philosophy and has its hints in the gemora in some ways. The gemora brings down this:

There was a copher (heretic) called Elisha ben Avura or as he was later known acher. He wasn’t ever really the best pupil in the yeshivah, but one day he saw a father tell his son to shoo away a mother bird and take the eggs. The boy did fell of the ladder and died acher said this, here are two mitzvos both of which hashem said lengthens ones days (nonering parents and shluch hakan sending away the mother bird), and this child dies young. With that he said zu torah zu zchora? (This is torah and this is its reward?) And he gave up Judaism years later his grandson answer this question saying: if ones life is 70 or 80 years at the end it feels like a second so what difference the extra ten years and most of ones life is hard and painful anyway so this can’t be what the torah meant when it said lengthen your days, it must mean something else i.e. olam habo.

This is a clear source of a jewish idea of overall suffering in this world and it has a kind of logic to it, everything you get in this world you loss as eventually you will die so if not before then you will loss everything, the logic of joy and sadness in this world is only with improvement and deterioration as things we already have we don’t appreciate and pains we already have we are used to. As a lot of the things we get in this world we don’t realise at the time in order to appreciate them (our bodies are health two massive things both given to us at a point in our life we can’t remember) so since we start off above zero and we go down to zero and joy and sadness is only movement therefore total joy must be negative. Also since “time flies when your having fun the positive seem much smaller than the negatives which seem drawn out so over all it seems all bad. Did you follow that? It has a few logical flaws, you can talk to me about it or email me but a lot of people see the world that way and it’s not too foreign to Jewish thought we believe happiness is in the world to come so this is not such a crazy thing to say. (perkai avos perek beis last mishna) This is the opposite of rabbi Akiva who used to say everything hashem does is good.

Now even if you don’t agree with the previous bit the next bit stands look at IYOV he is having a lot of pain:- WHY?

PUNISHMENT – but IYOV is righteous

G-D is a big BULLY – g-d is ultimately good (another topic to prove but even so IYOV believed it)

IT’S LOGIC ACTION REACTION – now we don’t believe in this too much, we believe things are controlled by g-d but this does have some effect on the world it’s the idea that because of other events it lead to IYOVS pain by no evil or good simple cause and effect, but it’s not possible here as some of IYOV’s downfalls where quite spectacular like fire coming down from heaven.

SOME ONE ELSE’S BECHIRO IS CAUSEING YOU PAIN – again not such an easy topic happy to discuss it if people want but again couldn’t be here due to the fire from heaven stuff

Finally we reach IYOV’s final logic PREDETERMINATION. IYOV curses the day, this means he curses the day he was born, he curses the stars and the destiny he was born into, he comes to the conclusion there is a predetermined life for all of us irrespective of our bechera (free will), therefore it doesn’t matter if he was good or bad but stuff happens (as they don’t say because they use a ruder word) now this has to be incorrect and Iyov’s friends will answer him back soon but until now this is where we stand It’s how IYOV faced the contradicting logic’s of g-d

IYOV has a simple claim if I was born to suffer I would be better off having died in the womb.

We see somewhere else a similar dilemma Avroham was told to sacrifice his son, and a few years ago hashem told him that his son would be a great nation, seemingly a contradiction Avroham has to deal with. Now Avroham didn’t ask or probe or query he did it and he is massively rewarded for it. None of us can imagine either of IYOV’s of Avroham’s position but we can compare them.

I hope you all have a great Yom Tov if any of you have any question on any of the ides here, any of the theories of pain I didn’t go into them much and I didn’t have a long time to think up too many others so please put forward your own, and please email me with any questions or ask me to clarify something clearer. The thing earlier about how most of ones life being bad shouldn’t get you down I have whole other things about happiness but al lot of people argue for many other reasons and people support it for other reasons but you can appreciate why IYOV thought so. And even people who do believe it can still be solid Jews with the idea that the next world is where we reap the benefit.

IYOV 1

Ok hello everyone I hope you have had a lovely succus so far. Due to lack of supply unfortunately I (Benjy Goldberg) will be writing the diveray torah on IYOV. I am basing a lot of this on a book called “mission possible” by Rabbi Eliezer Parkoff and I lot on my own ideas feel free to question and argue with me on anything that seems weird or wrong. I do have a lot of ideas on subjects like these, but there won’t be enough time to cover most of them just with these weekly instalments. I would also like to apologies in advance for all the many spelling mistakes I will definitely make.

The man theme in IYOV is reward and punishment this is not a simple subject, we are told in the yom kippur davening the story of the ten martyrs,(ten of the greatest jewish rabbis who were all brutally killed) in this tefillah you see how even the angels don’t understand what hashem is doing when he punishes people. So I don’t expect we will unlock the secrets to g-d’s infinite calculations over the next four weeks. An interesting thing to notice about that tefillah and many horrific events over time, none of victims complained about the punishment they only mourned over the death of the other great leaders, the same way a death of a relative often causes much grief for their loved ones, while for them it could be reasonably painless and peaceful. But the fact of the matter is often people unfortunately do suffer and more than not, it’s hard to understand why.

When our story starts IYOV has everything, plenty of wealth, a peaceful family and a good name in the community. He is a tzadik that seems to have no faults. Then the saton comes in the picture, now the weirdest thing here is it seems that g-d and the saton are playing a game with IYOV’s life, there is a Christian idea of a bet between g-d and the devil, and we must be sure not to think that to be the case here. This is merely metaphorical in no way does hashem compete with anyone. Supposedly on a very basic level the saton as the accusing angel is proposing a test for IYOV and hashem lets him do it but only on his possessions not himself.

The shock is fast and extreme, IYOV in the space of five minutes losses everything his flocks and his family all from extraordinary circumstances. IYOV automatically rips his cloths tears out his hair (over the lost cattle because it is against the torah to tear out hair because of a death) and says “naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.” Iyov understood that everything is hashem’s and that even though he may have worked for something in truth it is all from hashem, and hashem owns it all, so he simply says “hashem has given and hashem has taken away” he uses the four letter name of hashem to show rachamim (mercy) saying nothing in this world is mine and hashem has rights over all of this so he has no room to complain.

It then says “...IYOV did not sin...” he had passed the first test

It is important to note that IYOV did mourn, and it did not count as a sin.

There are two stories I would like to share with you that connect to this whole discussion. First a story of a Rosh hayeshivah who used to have a very big gemach for charity where many people would come to borrow money. One day he decided to invest this money and buy a lot of wood and sell it overseas. The boat was gone for many days the rabbi moved on with other thing. One day news came to the yeshivah the boat had sunk and all the rabbis tzedokah money had gone with it. No one wanted to be the one to have to go and tell the rabbi, finally one boy who was close with the Rav, offered to give over the bad news and no-one objects.

The boy knocks on the rabbi’s door and enters. “Rabbi does one have to thank good even for a bad thing that happens” he asked. The rabbi replied “yes”, “but what if it was really bad, like someone died” the rabbi gave him a funny look and said “yes even still”. The boy asked again “ok, but what if it was really really bad and you were really really upset”, now the rabbi was getting feed up and the thought the boy was just mucking around. He said “yes! Why are you wasting my time I thought you were a good boy.” Finally the boy said “but what if it was really really really bad, like if for example all your money that you had saved for tzedokah and you used to buy woods to sell overseas had been lost in a ship wreck.” The rabbi gave a smile stood up and gave the boy a hug and said “yes even still. boruch hashem, and thank you for telling me in such a way”.

The next story is about a young boy called Moshe. It was Moshe’s tenth birthday and he got up early ran downstairs and there on the kitchen table was the present he had asked for, the new RC racer 2009, the best remote control car that was out. He was ecstatic and played with it for a whole hour before he had to go to school but before he left he turned to his six year old brother Yakov, and told him not to touch the car and asked his parents to guard it for him till he came home after school.

After school Moshe ran home and couldn’t wait to play with his new car but as he turned the corner of his road he stopped, he saw his house, all the blinds were shut, and all the lights were off. He came up to the door and it was open inside he saw his father sitting on the floor in the dark.

“Moshe come over here I need to tell you something” the father said in a quiet, slow voice.

“What’s wrong daddy” Moshe said as he came to sit down next to his dad

“Today after you left we let Yakov play with your new race car, he was playing outside and he didn’t really know how to use it and by mistake it went into the road, he tried to get it but he didn’t look, so didn’t see the van...” the father had tear in his eye and Moshe began to cry “...he didn’t see the van and...and...and the van ran over your new car” with that the father brought out from behind him a mangled ball of broken plastic which was once Moshe’s RC racer.

Moshe was thrilled he had thought the worst, when he heard this he ran upstairs and burst into Yakov’s room, Yakov screamed “please don’t kill me” and was in complete shock as Moshe came and gave him a massive hug.

These stories show a look on the happy side approach which is not always the answer but often the things that upset us are small little things, and sometimes there nothing at all just things we invented in our heads. Sometimes a bit of thought and we can see through the darkness.

Have a lovely shabbous and enjoy the rest of succahs I think it’s a bit ironic that we are starting IYOV right in the middle of the chag of simcha, but it was probably meant to be showing us how we take the g-d and the seeming bad from hashem as he knows best for us.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little with you all. The book of mishlei is one of the three books in tenach that Shloma Hamelech (wisest of the wise) wrote for us.

Who, given the opportunity to learn skills which are vital to us, would not jump at the chance to be under the wing of a master craftsman, lapping up every nuance, every subtlety that he may suggest. Yet, when it comes to the most sublime of all character refinement and improvement through the ultimate hand book (the torah), we sometimes ignore that chance – a free and uplifting chance at that, because it removes us from our comfort zone too much.

Basically, mishlei in a nutshell is about the two sides of man, he who follows the concepts of torah – the tzadik, and he who doesn't – the rosha. Shloma Hamelech shows logically, how it just makes so much sense to follow the former path, rather than the latter. He points out a beautiful picture of all the advantages of following an upright life, and its converse – the pain of being a slave t one's own desires. Thus, it becomes clear, that mishlei is not just a safer written by someone who liked learning, telling us to do the same. Neither is it a collection of famous truisms and known sayings ('spare the rod and spoil the child' and those of that ilk). It is infinitely greater than that.

He relates the importance of following a torah pathway through every facet of life. He uses nature ('The tree of life' perek 3), the animal kingdom (the command to the lazy person to learn from the industrious ant, who needs no taskmaster over it to ensure it does the job), even human relationships ( see perek 7, where he goes to great lengths in describing the seemingly real lure of the 'foreign woman'. Yet when reality sets in, one realises that, following that which was just a transitory pleasure can ruin one. Note that eventually we reach one of the climaxes of the safer right near the end, where there is a description of the flip – side to this the ashes chial!)

There really is so much to write, so much to share, but let this serve as just an introduction to a safer that one could spend years on and not get bored. Indeed, a small group of us have been doing just that in a pre-shacharis sader each week.

I hope you enjoy mishlei and i am happy to field questions on it and pretend to know the answers...

Rabbi L.

5 Menachem Av 5768 – Parshas Devarim 6 August 2008

Trei Asar Series - Amos

Fortunately, over the last year I studied the Book of Amos relatively in depth as one of the set texts for my Biblical Hebrew A-level. This has not only speeded up my learning of the daily perek recently but has also given me a deeper insight into some of Amos’ prophecies. In truth, my studying of Amos for Biblical Hebrew was more focused on the linguistic and imagery aspects of the text and less-so on the religious messages emanating out of the nevuos. But fear not, as I am not going to bore you with a ramble about Amos’ use of the ‘lite motif’ or how the political situation of the time affected the economic conditions. Rather, I wish to share with you some of my thoughts from these perokim in view with that which I feel, that the purpose of these sheets is to try and extract from the Navi something relevant and meaningful to us. Therefore, please don’t expect an academic analysis of the Book as all I can offer are a few snippets of inspiration that lie within the Godly words of our Nach.

Although only a small sefer of nine chapters, Amos is considered one of our greatest prophets and according to Chazal he is also one of the eight greatest human beings to have ever walked the earth. Sefer Amos is surprisingly well known, even amongst those who do not study Nach This prophecy is structured as a pattern where Hashem addresses nation by nation with the infamous rebuke of, “For the three sins of [name of nation] I can forgive but for the fourth sin I cannot forgive.” The first six recitals of this reproach are only a prelude to the two main ones which come in chapter 2 and are directed at Yehuda and Yisrael. Amos, like Yeshaya his talmid, is a universal prophet and is God’s messenger to the nations of the world as well as to the Jews. However, his primary objective is to bring God’s chosen people, the Jews, to repent from their evil ways and therefore even though he prophesises to the other nations, this is also part of his message to the Jews themselves. (and yes unfortunately that are still many of those around), mainly because of his first prophecy of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.

There is discussion amongst the meforshim about exactly what the three forgivable sins are. Metzudos Dovid explains that they are the three cardinal sins and that the fourth sin is only to rubber stamp the already impending punishment. Whereas Rashi and Radak are of the opinion that God is willing to forgive the first three sins, whatever they may be, due to His compassionate ways however the fourth sin is one step too far for Him to let off lightly. Saying this, what I really wish to explore is the exact nature of this ‘fourth sin’ that each time it merits such severe calamities to befall its perpetrator. The answer to this, I think, is the word אכזריות.

All eight peoples spoken about here committed different sins (with perhaps the exception of Azza and Tzur) but all invoke the same explosive reaction from Hashem. This is because, even though in practicality their sins differ, what lies at the root of all these sins is the same. Hashem This evil trait which lies at the root of all these sins is אכזריות. It is the unreserved cruelty in which man displays his inhumane capability to destroy in the most gruesome ways. In a world full of diversity, where each race struggles to overcome their competitors; conflict, war and even cruelty is understandable. But אכזריות is when man goes beyond this and brutally inflicts horrors to rob another person of their basic human dignity. This, Hashem cannot allow to go unpunished as it is a direct threat to the very existence of His world. is not looking at the externalities of these sins but rather what He is punishing them so severely for is what caused them all to sin.

If we take a look at the ‘fourth sin’ of each nation, it is blatantly obvious how it oversteps the label of cruelty and enters into the far more sinister realm of אכזריות. To ‘plough’ fellow men like one ploughs a field using instruments with metal spikes is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To hunt down and capture the few remaining escapees of a terrible exile is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To split open the wombs of pregnant women just to gain a meagre bit of land is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To burn to dust the bones of Royalty is not cruelty, its אכזריות. In all these cases, it’s the supposed elevation of man which has been utterly debased and replaced by the mostly lowly of animalistic behaviour. Therefore even though Hashem is willing to forgive time after time, even the worst of sins, but when it comes to אכזריות, in any form it may be, Hashem has no choice but to blot it out and hence, “But for the fourth, I cannot forgive.”

With possuk 6 of perek 2 starts the haftora for Parshas Vayeishev. It is chosen due to the tenuous link between the brothers selling Yosef and a hint to this in the possuk in Amos. After rebuking all the other nations the Navi finally turns to Yisrael and proclaims that the ‘fourth sin’ of Yisrael for which Hashem cannot forgive is “for the selling of a righteous person for silver and a poor man for a pair of shoes.” Chazal explain that the poor man is Yosef and that the brothers sold him for the small sum of two silver pieces each – enough to buy a pair of shoes. But where is the אכזריות in selling a person for the small value of a pair of shoes? What is so bad about this sin that Hashem deems it the one step too far for which He cannot forgive? Furthermore, the brothers’ sin of selling Yosef, which this possuk is in some way referring to, had major repercussions throughout Jewish history. The ten spies, whose sin caused us this everlasting galus, correspond to the ten brothers who sold Yosef. The climax of these repercussions was the terrible deaths of the legendary עשר הרוגי מלכות who were tortured to death in part, as an atonement for the ten brothers who sold Yosef. What was in their selling of Yosef for ‘a pair of shoes’ that such tragedies befell Klal Yisrael because of it?

Shoes represent the exalted status of man over the rest of the entire creation. The shoes on our feet separate us from the ground and raise us up above the earthliness of everything else. The Kuzari famously explains that there are four levels within creation and in a pyramid fashion each ascending level is greater than the one it rests on. The first and most basic level in creation are the inanimate objects, דומם, like stones and earth. The next level up is צומח, the most basic of life forms such as vegetation and trees which grow on top of the inanimate ground. Above that is the level of the animal kingdom, חיה, which sustains itself by consuming the vegetation. The fourth and loftiest level of creation is man himself who puts the lowest point of his body, his foot, into a shoe made from the leather hide of an animal. By wearing shoes we show that we are the pinnacle of creation and that all else is only there to service us.

But on the flip side, that is also why when Moshe is confronted by Hashem at the burning bush he is immediately commanded to remove his shoes as the possuk says, “של נאליך מעל רגליך”. This is because when man comes in front Hashem, his Maker, he can no longer boast his exaltedness over the rest of creation and therefore is required to remove his shoes, to show his true lowliness in the face of God. This also why in the Beis HaMikdash the Kohanim went around bare foot, as in the House of God there is no place for us to demonstrate our greatness. Similarly, at any time when the prominence of the human being is lost we remove our leather shoes. The אבל who is mourning the death of his close family member removes his shoes during shiva to show the loss of an exalted human life and to make him aware of his vulnerability. On Tisha B’Av as well, we remove our leather shoes to show that however great the human being is, we still are not immortal, we still can befall tragedy. On Yom Kippur when we enumerate all our shortcomings and beg for our lives in front of the Master of the Universe we remove our shoes to demonstrate our fallibility.

Our shoes represent our human dignity, our special status. Our shoes tell the story of our exaltedness. Now we can understand why the fourth sin of Yehuda falls under the category of אכזריות. Why the brothers’ sin of selling Yosef for ‘a pair of shoes’ is the catalyst for so much of our suffering. What it means, “For the selling of... a poor man for a pair shoes” is to rob another person of their humanity, to deny them of their basic right to their human exaltedness. This is first class אכזריות and is no different in essence to the unreserved cruelty of the other nations’ ‘fourth sin’. Yehuda may be Hashem’s chosen child, but like the other children when he thwarts the very bedrock of human existence by eradicating the human race’s predominance over the rest of creation, he too must be punished. When the brothers sold Yosef for a pair of shoes they were revealing a desperate lack of appreciation of man’s royalty and dignity and therefore merited the most severe of punishments for this אכזריות.

For many people the most moving experience when visiting the concentration camps is seeing the mountains of shoes. Whether it be the 80,000 shoes in Majdanek or the infamous mass of shoes in Auschwitz, it is hard not to be moved to tears. But why is it that the shoes more than anything else affect us so emotionally? The answer is because when you see these shoes, which represent human dignity and the human exaltedness, they are a testimony to how the Nazis robbed us of that. They represent the אכזריות of the Nazis who totally disregarded the dignity of man, who overstepped any marker of acceptable human behaviour. These shoes tell us the story of what man is capable of doing and more importantly what there is to lose when man loses his humanity.

We find ourselves learning Amos in a difficult time of the year and when we remove our shoes this Motzei Shabbos we can remember the possuk we learned last Wednesday. But it is not all despair, as Chazal tell us that on Tisha B’Av itself the Moshiach will be born and as we move into learning Ovadiah, the message of our impending redemption is clear. May this day of tragedy be transformed into a day of simcha like the finishing words of Amos, “And I will return the remnant of my people Yisrael... They will be firmly settled on their land and they will never again be displaced from their land that I have given to them, says Hashem your God.”

Shmuli

25 Tammuz 5768 – Parshas Massei 28 July 2008

Trei Asar Series - Yoel

In this Sefer, Yoel prophesies about a devastating plague of 4 different types of locusts. With this alarming prophecy, he hopes to persuade the nation to do teshuva. Rabbi Berel Wein suggests that the messages from these 4 chapters can be applied to our lives today.

In the time of Yoel, the people were aware of the reasons for the plague. The prophet warns them of the failure in national behavior and they were thus able to correct their ways and return to Hashem. Yoel explains to them the way in which they should repent and describes what will happen when they follow his pleas. The commentators bring out some valuable ideas from the words he uses:

וקרעו לבבכם ואל בגדיכם – Tear your hearts and not your garments (2: 13)

Mezudat David explains this verse to mean that it is the heart that should be ripped, not one’s external clothes. Rashi comments that the important thing to do is to ’rip one’s heart’; Hashem does not really concern Himself with one who just rips their clothes.

Teshuva has to be complete and genuine. If someone shows remorse on the outside but does not really internalize the message, then they cannot be accepted by Hashem as having truly repented. In this section Hashem wants the nation to turn away from the falsehood mentioned in Hoshea, and repent sincerely.

In 2:20 the Radak interprets Yoel’s description בדרך הדרוש-(not in simple meaning of the words). The Radak compares the leaving of the locusts to the leaving of the yetzer hara when the Jews will heed Yoel’s petition and return to Hashem:

ואת הצפוני ארחיק מעליכם

This is understood by Chazal to be the yetzer hara – the evil inclination which is hidden (tzafoon) in a person’s heart. It will be thrown far away. (Radak)

והדחתיו אל ארץ צייה – And I will banish it (the locust) to an arid and desolate land

Hashem will banish the evil inclination to a place from where it won’t be able to influence people negatively. (Radak)

Thus, the book of Yoel ends on a positive note – the people have a chance to do teshuva, Hashem will accept them if they are genuine and the plague of locusts will cease.

Nowadays however, we do not know the true reason for natural disasters. We do not have a prophet telling us that a disaster is arriving and that if we repent in a certain way then Hashem will stop it. When a plague of locusts attacked Egypt in 2004, the most they could do was to spray them with poison without understanding the actual cause. As Jews, we do not believe in random events, even ones which are seemingly natural. Although the reasons for things are not clear to us today, we should at least take on the message from Yoel about national and personal improvement in faith and behaviour. As mentioned above, ‘it is no use tearing our clothes; we should tear our hearts instead.’ When these ‘natural disasters’ occur, rather than looking shocked and then forgetting about it, perhaps we could think more about Who sent this event and why.

Our country, Israel, is always open to ‘natural disasters.’ It is susceptible to earthquakes and is often in danger of a lack of water as illustrated by the Kinneret line at the moment. It is also vulnerable to sandstorms, and as seen from 2004, to swarms of locusts. This situation can serve as a reminder for us of Who is in control and the weaknesses of humans before Him. All the technology and inventions of the 21^st century cannot overcome the natural forces that Hashem has implanted in this world. These events are therefore a humbling reminder of our place in this world and the necessary faith we should have. We may not have the clarity and prophets of Yoel’s time, but we still have a responsibility to listen to the messages and correct our ways.

As I move on to Sem, I would like to thank the organisers of this programme for all their efforts, and I am sure that this learning has and will continue to enable all of us to gain a deeper understanding of the Jews’ lives at during the times of Nach and to have a greater clarity towards our connection with Hashem.

By Naomi Ebert

22 Tammuz 5768 – Parshas Mattos 24 July 2008

Trei Asar Series - Hoshea

As consistent with other parts of Navi, the Book of Hoshea opens by telling us the time period in which the prophet lived. In our case we are told, that Hoshea prophesised during the reigns of Uzzia, Yosam, Achaz and Yechizkiya who were all Kings of Yehuda which was during the period when Yerovom ben Yoash was King over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Hence, we know that Hoshea was a contemporary of the prophets Amos, Yeshaya and Michah, who all prophesised at some point during these Kings’ reigns. Like his fellow Nevi’im, Hoshea’s message is one of rebuke and condemnation for the way the Jewish people have strayed from the path of Hashem However, he is not a social reformer like Amos, nor is his prophecies laced with comforting images about The Time To Come as are Yeshaya’s. Rather his fourteen short, jammed packed chapters of nevous deal heavily with the unstinting love Hashem has for us, His people, despite our betrayal. and put their faith and energy into other gods.

As we race quickly through large chunks on Nach, we are not afforded the chance to delve deeply into the richness of each chapter and verse, to enjoy the linguistic beauty and individuality of each prophet but what we must strive to do, is to glean the overarching message and theme of the Book. I cannot boast to have a deep understanding of the Book that we have just been learning, but what shouted out to me in nearly every perek is this one underlying theme. It is the message that even though we strayed far away from G-d and sinned terribly, specifically by the worship of idolatry, Hashem could not bring Himself to detach us from Him but rather brings us back to Him, even closer than before. Many of the chapters take on the form where the chapter begins by Hashem detailing our betrayal to Him and just as it seems like we could be no more distant and unwanted to Him, the chapter invariably ends with Hashem’s unwavering commitment to us.

Hoshea’s portrayal of this relationship between G-d and Jew takes on a more intimate and loving form than many of the other prophets. We have already learnt in Yechezkel the long, beautiful and poetic chapters which describe the love and affection Hashem has for us and how in our redemption from Egypt He took us as His young wife. The intensity of this relationship is again revealed here in Hoshea, exemplified by the famous possuk at the end of chapter 2 which says, “And I have betrothed you to me forever.” Here Hashem is telling us how personally and seriously He is affected by our sin and depravity. But at the same time, His unstinting love which causes Him to ‘feel’ this way, is what also drives Him to “overcome this bitter disappointment” and still bring us back to Him, closer than before. Whereas before, as Yechezkel describes to us, we are His betrothed, now we are His ETERNAL betrothed, never to be forsaken again.

These words from the possuk 21 of chapter 2, ”וארשתיך לי לעולם” are the words we say every weekday morning as we wrap the teffilin straps around our finger. The strap of the teffilin is the like the engagement ring and every day we in affect rekindle the eternal bond between us and Hashem as we show that we are His betrothed. Just like the incredible love and deep affection a groom has for his bride on the day of marriage, so too is the love and commitment Hashem has for us, His people, every day and forever.

Moving on to the main part of this piece on Hoshea and what I really wanted to share with you. In perek 10 which we learnt on Sunday, there is a very interesting possuk which I feel has much to be elaborated on. As discussed before, this possuk 12 is already nearing the end of chapter 10 and therefore deals with the more positive aspect of the prophecy in which Hashem is expressing, through the Navi, His favouritism for us. The possuk reads as follows, “זרעו לכם לצדקה קצרו לפי חסד נירו לכם ניר ועת לדרוש את ה' עד יבוא ויורה צדק לכם” literally translated as, “Plant for yourselves in righteousness, harvest in accordance of kindness, plough for yourselves. And it is a time to seek Hashem until He comes and sends charity for you.”

Rashi explains on the words “נירו לכם ניר” that what the possuk is telling us is that first and fore mostly in our lives we need to ‘plough out the weeds’ i.e. overcome our יצר הרע, and the way to achieve this is by learning Torah, as the possuk carries on by saying “ ועת לדרוש את ה'”. This is the same idea as we say in Tehillim 34, “סור מרע ועשה טוב” that in order to live on that higher spiritual plane and to do what’s good in the world we must firstly remove the evil and badness that dwells inside of us. But this is something easier said than done. We all know too well how potent and convincing the evil is, so therefore Hashem granted us the tool with which to combat it. This is as the Gemoro in Kiddushin tells us that every single day our יצר הרע strengthens itself and if it were not for Hashem’s help we could never overcome it. This tool He granted us is Torah, as the Gemoro there quotes, “I created the הרע יצר” says Hashem “and I created Torah as the antidote to it!”

Rashi gives an alternate explanation to this possuk which is similar to his interpretation of a possuk in Yirimiya 4 which also uses this expression of “נירו לכם ניר”. Rashi explains here that the possuk is telling us to do kind deeds, as it says “זרעו לכם לצדקה”, before the trouble comes, just like one ploughs the field before he does anything else to it - “נירו לכם ניר”. Then using this merit, it is legitimate for him to beseech Hashem, “לדרוש את ה'”, and hopefully He will hear the cry and bring the salvation, as the possuk ends “ויורה צדק לכם” – “and He will bring charity upon you”. I think the idea being brought out here is that Hashem is not simply a panic button that only when tragedy strikes do we turn to Him, but rather we can only expect His help when we’re in a long term relationship with Him. Only when our track record is one where we are ‘sowing the seeds of kindness’ can we then expect Hashem to jump in to save us from our troubles.

Metzudos Dovid makes a couple of powerful remarks on this possuk where he explains that the first half of possuk is telling us what we must do so that we merit to receive the reward that the end of the possuk tells us of when it says, “ויורה צדק לכם” – “and He will bring charity upon you”. Metzudos Dovid explains that the non literal phrase “נירו לכם ניר” is telling us that we must uproot all foreign ideologies and philosophies from our mindset, in a similar way that the farmer uproots the weeds in the field when he does the ploughing. If the farmer would leave the weeds in the field they would harm the crops, similarly if we let non-Torah ideologies and philosophies occupy our minds we are harming our capability for true greatness. Another pre-requisite for the blessings that the possuk ends with, says the Metzudos Dovid, is the “ ועת לדרוש את ה'” that the possuk mentions. The Metzudos Dovid picks up on the word עת – time, and stresses the point that our learning and davening, i.e. the times we “seek out Hashem”, have to be something fixed and concrete and not be a case of when we can fit it in or get round to it. It’s the idea of being קובעה עתים לתורה and of fixing a time and place where we daven each day as the Gemoro in Berochos which extols the virtue of having a fixed מקום for Tefilla.

As said before, this possuk is a fully loaded one and the Radak adds another dimension to these same words which we have been discussing. By focusing on the choice of words the Navi uses, the Radak in his typical style brings out a beautiful idea. In the first phrase of the possuk, when it describes us sowing the seeds, it uses the word צדקה however when it talks about harvesting which Hashem gives us, it uses the word חסד. The Radak quotes the Chazal which tells us that “גדולה גמילות חסדים יותר מן צדקה” that acts of Kindness i.e. חסד are greater than צדקה. What the possuk is telling us is that when we do good, the reward we will receive will far surpass that which we strictly deserve. Interestingly the Rabbeinu Yona in Avos 1:2 explains this teaching of Chazal of why חסד is greater than צדקה. Furthermore the Radak brings out the idea of not resting on ones laurels from the continuation of the verse. After telling us that if we sow in righteousness we will reap in kindness the possuk then says, “plough for yourselves a ploughing”. Surly if we have just harvested what is the need to plough again? Says the Radak that the message is, that even though we have done well we cannot afford to stop, but rather need to continue to sow the seeds of righteousness.

We have discussed many ideas already and there is much here to keep our minds busy but I would still like to share with you one more thing. As you all know, but unfortunately weren’t all able to attend, we had a siyyum a few weeks ago to celebrate completing Nevi’im and nearly a year of this awesome learning programme. At the siyyum I told over a story that I had heard only a week earlier when standing in Majdanek concentration camp in Poland. For me, as someone learning my way through Nach, this story took on particular potency and I am sure that it will also add a certain emotional level to your future learning of Nach, as it has done for me. If you don’t mind, I am going to quote you basically what I said.

“I spent last week on a whirlwind trip around Poland and my mind is totally occupied by thoughts on these experiences at the moment. Last Thursday afternoon we were at Majdanek concentration camp in Poland. In truth it is insulting to call it a concentration camp or even a death camp because Majdanek was affectively a torture camp in which thousands of Jews were treated in the most brutal and cruel ways of which our innocent imaginations can hardly comprehend. As we stood in a barracks which is now filled with over 80,000 shoes of men, women and children, young and old, rich and poor; our guide Reb Tzvi Sperber recounted a story from that camp which really hit home with me specially because of our Daily Nach programme. There were two young men, boys really, who managed to smuggle into the camp a Tanach. Smuggling was a crime punishable by death of course however the Cappo /Sondercommando of these two boys’ barracks saw their devotion to the Tanach and let them keep it. In most cases, if you were going to have the dare to smuggle something into the camps you would at least try to bring in something that might save your life. Perhaps a piece of bread so you wouldn’t die of starvation, maybe a warm coat so you wouldn’t freeze to death in winter or even simply some water to save you from dehydration. But for these two kedoshim it was the words of Nach that would keep them alive. After an exhausting day of work with beatings and the like, these two boys would come back at night to their bed of wooden planks and start to learn from their Tanach by the light of the moon. You know what, they were there doing Daily Nach before us. There in the depths of hell, they learnt the same perokim of Nach as we do and hoped to find within it the hope end encouragement that would keep them going to live another day. I can’t stop thinking and wondering, what pesukim would they have learn to give them strength? What perokim did they find interesting and exciting? Maybe it was the possuk we learnt in Yeshaya, “ובאו האובדים מארץ אשור והנדחים מארץ מצרים והשתחוו לה' בהדרת קודש מירושלם....” They hoped and longed that they would be the remnant and remainder that the Navi is talking about here, who would return to Yerushalayim. It doesn’t really matter what exactly they were learning but it is the fact that in the throws of death these two holy boys were determined to show the Nazis that ‘you may be able to crush our bodies but you will never ever be able to crush our souls.’ This surely must give us the strength and the merit to be able to learn the same pages of Torah in more peaceful and comfortable conditions.”

As I expected, writing this piece has been of greater benefit to me than it will be to you the reader but either way I hoped that you have enjoyed it and if you have any thoughts or comments I would be very interested to hear them.

Wishing you Mazel Tov on completing this mini sefer and a good shabbos!

Shmuli

shmulisagal@gmail.com