Rosh Chodesh Adar 1 5768 – Parshas Teruma
Yeshaya Perokim 32 - 36
Hi Everybody
I hope everyone is beginning to really enjoy Sefer Yeshaya – from here onwards it gets only better and better…
WARNING: THIS WEEK’S IS VERY DIFFERENT TO PREVIOUS WEEKS – AT LEAST FOR THE FIRST HALF – I hope you guys appreciate it… I can’t resist – after all, I can’t quash my personality (not after last week’s edition), and a very meaningful part of who I am, is what I stand for…. So here goes…
Everyone has heard of the 13 Ikkarim of the Rambam – we (try) to say them after davening (usually unsuccessfully – well it is the most pressured time of our day…) – we reaffirm them by singing “Yigdal Elokim Chai”, which has 13 lines, each line expresses a different Ikkar – and generally, people are aware of them. [If u don’t know them, get a siddur right now, and learn them by heart!]
What is an Ikkar? Well, OK, I hear you say it is a ‘Principle of Faith.’ What determines a principle of faith? Why did these 13 make it into the Rambam’s List? In fact when did the concept principle of faith come into Judaism?
Although we don’t really have “dogma” [important word: look it up] in Jewish thought before the Rishonim (From R’ Sadia Gaon, right down to Abarbanel) who laid down “Principles of Faith,” we do, however, find a fascinating Mishna in the 11th chapter of Sanhedrin – also known as “Perek Cheilek”, which reads something like this:
“All of Yisrael have a portion in Olam Haba… and the following don’t have a portion in Olam Haba; One who says that there is no [proof of] techiyas hameisim [in] the Torah, the Torah does not come from Heaven and the Apikores….” [Sanhedrin 90a]
Three things are beliefs for which one can lose Olam Haba:
- Being an Apikores – denying Hashem’s existence
- Denying Torah Min Hashamayim – denying the Divine origin of the Torah
- Denying Techiyas HaMesim – rejecting the future resurrection of the dead.
Interesting, huh?
Well, you probably know all this. This was a major issue for the Rishonim, especially Rav Yosef Albo [1360-1444] from Spain. His Rebbe, Rav Chasdai Crescas, had an arrangement of 6 Ikkarim – but R’ Albo had a number of questions on all the numerations of the Gedolim who preceded him. For example; how are we to define “Ikkar”, it must be something that Judaism as a whole cannot exist without… why can’t Judaism exist without a belief in the coming of Moshiach???? [HE IS NOT DENYING THE BELIEF THAT MASHIACH WILL COME – HE IS JUST SAYING THAT ‘THE COMING OF MASHIACH’ SHOULD NOT BE AN IKKAR!!! A VERY IMPORTANT POINT!!!!]
Rav Yosef Albo (another of Shmelke’s heroes) laid down 3 Ikkarim, which ‘kind-of’ mirror the mishna that we just spoke about. His three Ikkarim were:
- Existence of G-d
- Torah Min Hashamayim
- Reward and Punnishment / Hashgacha
No religion can exist without these three components. (1) Belief in G-d is obvious – without it there is no meaning to anything which we do. (2) We have to know what G-d wants from us and expects us to do. If no communication between Hashem and ourselves exist, we still can have no activity that we know to be meaningful – everything becomes fanciful guesswork. (3) If G-d is not interested in little ‘me’, and He doesn’t care about what I do, and there are no consequences to my actions – then again, religious activity is simply a charade.
In reality, what R’ Albo is saying, that those 3 mentioned in the mishna [Apikores, no Torah Min Hashamayim, no Techiyas Hamesim min HaTorah] are in fact the reverse expression of the 3 Ikkarim [belief in Hashem,Torah Min Hashamayim, reward and punishment]….
I could bore you with details of how the Rambam’s 13 divide neatly [5, 4, 4] into R’ Albo’s three …. And whether they argue or not (The last Chasam Sofer in his shailos and teshuvos…..) but of course, with such a huge topic we cannot cover even the beginnings……
WELL – WHAT ON EARTH HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH YESHAYA???????????
Excellent question, my friends – I see we have observant friends…..
Well, where do we find in Tanach references to these 3 Ikkarim… You guessed it: (Quoted and discussed at length in Sefer HaIkkarim, Ma’amar 1, Perek 4)
YESHAYA 33:22 – “Ki Hashem Shofteinu, Hashem Mechokekeinu, Hashem Malkeinu – Hu Yoshiainu.” - “For Hashem our JUDGE, Hashem our LAWGIVER, Hashem our KING – He will save us.”
KING – Hashem Exists
LAWGIVER – Torah Min HaShamayim
JUDGE – Reward and Punishment
This is really where this week’s thought begins. Now I know that this idea is not necessarily very central to Yeshaya, in other words, we don’t find this trio to be the structure of the Sefer, nor do we find these three themes to be more poignant or present in Yeshaya – but it is central to our lives, and this passuk in Yeshaya is the earliest expression of all three coming together.
Where is it so central to our lives – I mean, Olam Haba is pretty central – so why do we not recite these ideas regularly and daily in our davening and learning? Why is our week not more focused on these? BASICALLY: WHY ARE WE NOT IKKAR OBSESSED IN OUR MITZVOS?
The answer is very simple; we are!!!!!
I would like to give some examples of this. A lot might be obvious to some, and some might be obvious to many – but, as Sherlock Holmes would oft be found repeating to Dr. Watson, “One is found to be in habit of seeing and not observing. It is essential to observe too…” For those of us who might not be reading Sherlock Holmes right now – when we are in routine, we don’t always notice what we are doing. Let me give some examples:
A)
FRIDAY NIGHT SHMONA ESREI – “VAYECHULU HASHAMAYIM VEHA’ARETZ…” – SHABBOS BERAISHIS
SHABBOS MORNING SHMONA ESREI – “YISMACH MOSHE BEMATNAS CHELKO” – MATAN TORAH
SHABBOS MINCHA SHMONA ESREI – “ATA ECHAD USHIMCHA ECHAD” – MASHIACH
We have here three time slots. The Beginning of History. Matan Torah. Mashiach: These three time periods, very clearly mark; Hashem as King. Hashem as the Giver of Torah. Hashem as presiding over the ultimate time of Reward.
B)
The Tur points out that in this middle beracha of the different ‘amida’s’, we have three different nuance changes; FRIDAY NIGHT – VeYismechu Bah, SHABBOS MORNING – BeYismechu Bo, SHABBOS MINCHA – VeYismechu Bam…. Yisrael Mekadshei Shemecha….
The Tur says:
Bah – The World was created with a ‘Heh’ – Beraishis
Bo – Matan Torah was on the 6th of Sivan, therefore with a Vav – Matan Torah
Bam – With a ‘Mem’ for Mashiach – Reward and Punnishment
(See what the ArtScroll siddur says)
C)
We have three berachos around Krias Shema, two before and one after;
YOTZER HAMEOROS – Hashem being King over everything, particularly as He created everything
AHAVA RABBA – ‘Place in our hearts the wisdom to understand all of Your Torah…’
GO’AL YISRAEL - Hashem is The Redeemer of Klal Yisrael….
D)
SH’MA YISRAEL – G-d is One….
VE’AHAVTA – Teaching Torah to children…
VEHAYA IM SHAMOA – The most clear paragraph of Reward and Punishment in the whole Torah…
E)
On Rosh Hashana, the highest point in the year – we crown Hashem as king… What are the main parts of Mussaf? You got it: MALCHUYOS, SHOFROS and ZICHRONOS…. Hashem is King, The Shofar that was blown at Matan Torah, and that Hashem ‘remembers’ every detail and rewards or punishes accordingly…. Amazing, really…..
Well, what is my point, after 3 very broken up pages of writing, quoting, summarizing, and proving… I’m not so much interested in what Sherlock Holmes would say, as much as I am interested to hear what you would say…. Or what Yeshaya HaNavi would say…. These Ikkarim spell out our life – they tell us where we came from, where we are going to…..
Every Seder night, my father (shlita) would tell us ‘The Rocket Story’ over the soup at “Shulchan Orech” – I think now is the time to repeat it (even though we are 10 weeks early…)
A group of scientists wanted to investigate minerals on a distant star, but they realized that it would take hundreds of years of space travel to get there; so they built this huge complex rocket to get to this star – but they realized that they would have to send us families into the rocket, that they could repopulate the rocket over the centuries…. So this is what happened, lift off day came, and the four builders of the rocket, with their families boarded… Lift off… All went well for the first 40 years, the first generation passed onto the next generation information about the rocket, how to maneuver it, why they were on board, what the trajectory of the spacecraft was to be, etc… The next generation, too, told their children “Look, we’ve never been to earth, but that is where we come from. We’ve never seen this star, but that is where we are headed. We know that if we press the green button, the ship turns left, and the red one makes us go right. This lever does this, and that button increases oxygen….” 100 years into the journey, the great-great grandchildren called a meeting, where it was decided “there is no such place as earth, there is no distant star, there is no meaning in how or why we should turn the ship in any particular direction. We are alone in the Universe.” The ship veers from course…. One day, 50 years later, a kid is rummaging through some old magazines… he finds pictures…. They re-establish connection with NASA…. Etc. (I am vey tired right now…)
The point is; we were created in a time, where the universe recognized Hashem’s Kingship (Creation). We are headed to a time period where once again we will see Hashem’s Kingship (Mashiach). We have been given the instructions Manual of how we are to get there (Torah). We need to keep our eye on the ball at all times….
Love from Yerushalayim -
Shmuel
By R’ Shmuel Kimche
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