2) Halakhat Hashavoua (Halakhot related to day to day life) By Hazzan David Azerad -
The Establishment of Torah Reading -Peninei Halacha
3) Holy Jokes!
4) For KIDS
This Week's Parasha Insight with Rabbi Eli Mansour
Parashat Shelach: We See What We Want to See
When the scouts returned from Eretz Yisrael and reported about their findings, they told the nation that the land is "Eretz Ochelet Yoshebeha" – "a land that consumes its inhabitants" (13:32). The Gemara explains that everywhere the spies went, they saw funerals. People were dying throughout the time the spies spent in the land, and they therefore concluded that Eretz Yisrael must be a dangerous, deadly place that kills its inhabitants. In truth, however, as the Gemara relates, G-d saw to it that people would die during the scouts’ sojourn so that the inhabitants would be preoccupied with burying and mourning their loved ones and would thus not notice the foreigners. The large number of funerals was actually a sign of G-d’s kindness, yet the scouts interpreted it as a sign of His disdain for His people, that He was bringing them to a "land that consumes its inhabitants."
The Steipler Gaon (Rav Yaakov Kanievsky, 1899-1985), in Birkat Peretz, observed that people see what they want to see. Two people can witness the exact same event, or look upon the exact same sight, and see two entirely different things. Our vision is affected by our mindset and attitude. The scouts embarked on their mission with an interest in dissuading the people from entering the land, realizing that they would likely lose their leadership positions once the nation entered Eretz Yisrael. And thus when they saw the funerals in Canaan, they saw an "Eretz Ochelet Yoshebeha." They did not see G-d’s Providence protecting them, but rather a dangerous land that should not be inhabited.
The Gemara in Masechet Gittin (45a) tells the story of a Rabbi named Rav Ilish, who was once imprisoned. One day a raven flew by and began chirping. Rav Ilish turned to his cellmate, who understood the language of birds, and asked what the bird meant. The man said that the bird was exclaiming, "Ilish escape, Ilish escape," indicating that the time had come for the Rabbi to make his escape from the jail. Rav Ilish felt that ravens were not trustworthy, and so he refused to escape until a dove came and began chirping. The man interpreted the dove’s chirping, too, as bidding Rav Ilish to escape, and so he fled. Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761-1837) cites a source claiming that Rav Ilish himself understood the language of birds, and he notes that this claim seems very difficult to accept in light of the Gemara’s account. If Rav Ilish understood the language of birds, then why did he have to ask his cellmate to interpret the raven and dove’s chirping? Didn't he understand the meaning of the chirping himself?
Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz (1901-1978) answered this question by suggesting that Rav Ilish indeed understood birds’ language, but in this instance he did not trust his interpretation. He obviously wanted to flee prison, and was thus naturally inclined to interpret the birds’ chirping as advising him to do so. Rav Ilish realized that people hear what they want to hear, and he was thus prone to deceiving himself by interpreting the chirping to mean that he should escape.
This is the one of the lessons we can learn from the story of the spies. We often approach matters with a jaundiced eye, with a predisposed mindset that does not allow us to understand things correctly. In order to properly understand the world around us, we need to recognize ourselves and our natural instincts, and try to view things from a true, objective perspective.
Halachot this week are selected and Translated by Hazzan David Azerad
The Torah Scroll -Peninei Halacha
The Torah must be read from a kosher scroll. This means that it must be a Torah scroll written for the sake of Heaven, with ink on parchment, just as the first Torah scroll was written by Moshe Rabbeinu, according to the direct word of Hashem. Even a congregation that sets aside time for Torah study must assemble at least every three days to read from the original Torah scroll, just like the Torah which Hashem gave to Moshe on Mount Sinai. If there is no minyan present, the mitzvah of reading the Torah cannot be fulfilled, since it is a matter of sanctity requiring ten Jews.
If the Torah scroll is missing even one letter, it is invalid and cannot be used to perform the mitzvah of Torah reading. This halachah emphasizes the extraordinary quality of the Torah. Its entirety is one complete Divine idea expressed by all of its narratives, mitzvot, teachings, and letters together. If even one letter is lacking, a flaw exists in the absolute completeness of the Divine Torah.
According to several Rishonim, it is permissible, b’dieved, to read from an invalid Torah scroll (Rambam’s responsa to the sages of Narvona; Mordechai). Still, in practice, the opinion of the majority of poskim is that the mitzvah of Torah reading can only be fulfilled with a kosher Torah scroll, and that is the halachah (Rashba, Rosh, and Rambam in his halachot; Shulchan Aruch 143:3).
If, in the middle of the reading, a faulty letter is discovered which renders the Torah scroll invalid, a different Torah scroll is taken out and the reader proceeds from where he stopped in the first. We do not continue reading from the first Torah since, according to most poskim, it is forbidden to read from an invalid scroll. On the other hand, we do not require the congregation to repeat the beginning of the Torah portion, since b’dieved we rely on the poskim who maintain that the obligation of Torah reading can even be fulfilled with an invalid Torah scroll.
If a defect is found in one of the letters, and there is doubt as to whether or not it invalidates the Torah scroll, the reading is continued from that Torah. There are two reasons to act leniently in such a case. First, the Torah scroll may be kosher. Second, even if the Torah does possess something which renders it invalid, we have already learned that there are opinions which maintain that b’dieved it is permitted to read from an invalid Torah scroll. Still, the Torah must be repaired promptly after the reading.
Bevirkat Shabbat Shalom Umevorach
David Azerad
3) HOLY JoKeS!!
Selection of funny snippets, loosely related to this weeks parashah or current events, to brighten your day
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