Parsha Vayeschanan 5778

What is "Lebanon" that Moshe references?

The Torah writes (Deuteronomy 3:25):

Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, the mountain and the Lebanon.

Rashi (ibid) explains:

AND LEBANON — this is a term for the Temple (Siphre).

Bartenura (ibid) explains why the Temple is called "Lebanon":

This is the Holy Temple because it whiteness the sins of the Jewish nation

Chizkuni (ibid) explains differently:

The word: הלבנון here is a simile for the permanent Temple. (Ibn Ezra) Seeing that Solomon used the cedar wood of that region to line the inner walls of the Temple that he built, this interpretation is not as far fetched as it might appear to some.

Haktav veHakaballah (ibid) explains:

... Some add a reason for this name because it is always covered with snow which is white ... and some add because of the myrrh and frankincense that grows there ...

What was Moshe pleading for?

The Torah writes (Deuteronomy 3:25):

Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan, the mountain and the Lebanon.

Sforno (ibid):

in order to get rid of all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan so the people will never be exiled from that land. 

Chizkuni (ibid):

the question asked by most commentators is if Moses really only wanted to cross the Jordan for the mundane purpose of enjoying the fruit that grew in the Holy Land. It appears unbelievable to them that this could be the correct interpretation of this verse. They therefore conclude that the meaning of Moses’ plea was that he wished to be able to fulfill the many commandments of the Torah that can be fulfilled only while the person doing so is on the soil of the Holy Land.

Ohr HaChaim (ibid):

... Perhaps Moses wanted to rebut reasons which had prevented him from entering the Holy Land. Our sages say that there had been two such reasons:

1. The time for Joshua to reign had arrived, and the rule of one monarch must not overlap with the rule of a second monarch by as much as a hair's breadth (Berachot 48).
2. G'd foresaw that the Israelites would sin in the future and He would have to pour out His wrath at them. He therefore preferred to use the Holy Temple as the object on which to pour out His wrath rather than on the people themselves ... We explained that if Moses had crossed the Jordan the Temple he would have built would have stood forever, and whenever the Israelites would sin G'd would have to vent His wrath on them rather than on the Temple ...

This is why Moses referred to these two scenarios with his words:

1. Concerning the fact that the time of his reign must not overlap with the time assigned to Joshua, he said "let me cross," i.e. he did not ask to cross in his capacity as the leader but was content to cross as a simple citizen; he did not expect to be given any special honour.
2. Concerning the eventuality of the Temple becoming the excuse for G'd venting His wrath on the people in any future sinfulness by the people, he said: ואראה, "in order that I may see the land," i.e. he had no aspirations to build the Temple. Moses was thus careful to forestall any argument against granting his wish. As to his using the expression נא, this means that he was ready to abdicate his position as king immediately.

another reason:

It is also possible that Moses pleaded for the Israelites to cross the Jordan river immediately before the end of the day so that he could cross at a time when his crossing would not interfere with the period G'd had ordained for Joshua's reign. If you accept my interpretation that the words בעת ההיא referred to the time immediately after G'd decreed that the generation of the spies would not enter the Holy Land, there would not have been any problem with the time, as that event took place 38 years prior to the period when Moses addressed the people here. From Moses' words it is easy to surmise that he prayed on behalf of the whole people seeing that G'd had only decreed that they would die in the desert. He had not decreed that they would die prematurely, i.e. before reaching the age of 60 which would have meant that they died by the karet penalty. If Moses were to enter the Holy Land at that time (38 years ago) it would be understood that the people would enter with him as G'd had not decreed that they had to die prior to age 60.

another reason:

There is another way of explaining Moses' choice of words based on Bamidbar Rabbah 19,13 that the redeemer for the people of the generation of the Exodus would be Moses himself. ... Moses knew of this as G'd had revealed to him that it would be part of his role in the future [in the time of Redemption] to cross the river Jordan to the Holy Land. In view of this knowledge he merely begged to fulfil his role now instead of in the distant future. The words אעברה נא therefore mean: "let me cross now (we are speaking about 38 years ago)."

another reason:

The words אעברה נא may also be part of Moses' answer to something we have learned in Midrash Rabbah that the reason that Moses had to die outside the boundaries of the Holy Land was to enable him to lead his generation to their hereafter, as we have already explained. Moses used the term אעברה, i.e. a temporary crossing rather than a permanent crossing of the Jordan indicating he was quite willing to die and be buried on the East Bank after having first crossed the Jordan, so as to be able to play his appointed role of helping the people of his generation to attain their share in the hereafter.

another reason:

Yet another meaning of the term אעברה may be connected to the statement in Ketuvot 111 that any person who has had the good fortune to walk four cubits inside of ארץ ישראל has thereby assured himself of a share in the hereafter. Moses wanted to assure himself of that by crossing the Jordan even temporarily.

 

Parshas Vayeschanan 5777

Bitcoins and Cows

Earlier this week a virtual currency called Bitcoin had a disagreement on how it is governed. The minority in this dispute ended up splitting off and creating a copy of the existing currency which resulted in every holder of the Bitcoin currency with equivalent holdings in the new "Bitcoin Cash" currency. However, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world which holds these currencies on behalf of their owners, decided not to support the new currency. A well known lawyer commenting on this said that this maybe cause for legal action due to common law precedent.

One would think that the precedent cited in such dispute would be a banking or a stock trading case. However, the precedent is actually related to ... cows. US common law has a principle where a cow that gives birth to a calf while being cared of by someone else on behalf of its owner, results in the original owner having rights to the calf as well. What is surely a cutting edge story of 21st century technology and finance is now directly tied to common law which stretches back centuries.

Those who encounter Judaism are often struck on how much attention is focused on what is seemingly mundane civil law. Most of the material learned in many of the yeshivos is not around the philosophy of Judaism or its core principles, but rather around sundry details of civil law like property rights, laws of damages and similar topics. Similarly in this week's parsha we find that the 10 commandments consist of two parts: the first 5 focus on the relationship between a person and G-d, while the last 5 focus on the relationships between people including civil law. One would expect that the very foundation of Judaism - the 10 commandments - be solely focused on people and G-d, but that is not the case.

The answer is that while details of civil law such as goring livestock and newborn calves may seem mundane, the principles that underlie those laws are in fact not mundane at all. What we find as we examine these is that the minute details of these laws actually reveal important lessons in morality that the Torah teaches to us and can be applied in other areas of our lives as well.

The Kuzari Principle in the Torah

Sefer Kuzari written by Rabbi Yehuda haLevi is an important work of Jewish philosophy which describes how the King of the Khazars decided to convert to a monotheistic religion and invites the representatives of the major monotheistic faiths to convince him. One of the well know things from this book is something often called as the "Kuzari principle" - the fact that mass revelation at Mt. Sinai to millions of people is something that is unique and cannot be faked.

It seems that the original source for this is from this week's Parsha where this event is described along with the Exodus itself as being unique in history (Deuteronomy 4:32-35):

You have but to inquire about bygone ages that came before you, ever since God created man on earth, from one end of heaven to the other: has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known? Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have, and survived? Or has any god ventured to go and take for himself one nation from the midst of another by prodigious acts, by signs and portents, by war, by a mighty and an outstretched arm and awesome power, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? It has been clearly demonstrated to you that the LORD alone is God; there is none beside Him.

The Torah Speaks in the Language of Mankind

In this week's Parsha we find a repetition of giving of the Torah that took place at Mt. Sinai. There are two issues that people often ask about in regards to this event:

1. If G-d knows the future, why did He write in the Torah about all the things that we have today like electricity, space travel, computers, organ transplants, etc?
2. The things that do appear in the Torah are hard to apply to today's world - especially many of the laws that seemingly are out of place with today's society. These include examples such as slavery, stoning, etc.

Practically speaking how would the Torah write down these things? At the time of the Revelation the vocabulary and understanding of these concepts did not exist, and would not exists for thousands of years? Instead the Torah addressed the people and society of that time. There is a well known principle in the Talmud that applies to the Torah - דברו תורה בלשון בני אדם - which can be translated as that the Torah speaks in the language that regular people use. One of the ways this is interpreted is in regards to the imagery used when referring to G-d - the Torah often describes G-d as having a hand or a nose. However, another way to interpret that principle is that the Torah was given during the time that it was, and used the language and setting of that time. However, at the same time the Torah encoded its eternal truths and principles within those laws.

Practically what that means is that since the society of that time had slavery, the Torah legislated laws of slavery. Since society had the principle of lex talionis or "eye of an eye", the Torah legislated that as well,  However, within those laws we find crucial differences - for example slaves could go free if their masters beat or abuse them. People who choose to have indentured servants had to support their entire family and set the servant free after six years. And "eye for an eye" is always satisfied through a financial payment. The principles that underlie these laws which are focused on rights of even the lowest classes of society is what stands eternal and separate from the laws themselves.

At the same time, the Torah also assigned unique power to the Sages. They had the power to enact decrees as the circumstances changed and apply the underlying principles as the circumstances and history changed. As an example, the Written Law requires that loans are forgiven every seven years but because this would lead to people not willing to lend, the Sages enacted the instrument of pruzbul which allowed the loans to remain past the seven year period. In more recent times various great leaders applied the laws of Sabbath of new technologies like electricity and mass transit.

So in order to transmit its core message, the Torah spoke to the people and society of that time, using the terminology and laws that they were familiar with. The Torah encoded its message within those laws and gave the Sages power to apply and adjust them to fit the circumstances that will come in the future.

Ask Your Elders (Parshas Vaeschanan 5775)

Who were the Elders?

The Torah writes (Deuteronomy 5:20):

And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders

Based on an analysis of the term "elders" appearing in the Torah, it appears that it may refer to four different things:

1 - The elders of the Jewish people in Egypt and shortly after the Exodus (Exodus 3:16, 3:18, 4:29, 12:21, 17:5-6, 18:12, 19:7). 

2 - The elders of the Jewish people that served on the Sanhedrin with Moses (Exodus 24:1, 24:9, 24:14, Leviticus 9:1, Numbers 11:16, 11:24-25, 11:30, 16:25, Deuteronomy 5:20, 27:1, 29:9, 31:9, 31:28).

3 - The elders referred in the description of various commandments (Leviticus 4:15, Deuteronomy 19:12, 21:2-6, 21:19-20, 22:15-18, 25:7-9)

4 - The elders of other nations (Egypt - Genesis 50:7, Midian - Numbers 22:4, Moab - Numbers 22:7).

It appears that our verse refers to either #1 or #2.

Rabbeinu Bachya (Numbers 11:16) explains who they were:

... already with the Jews in Egypt there were 70 elders, for from the day they descended to Egypt with 70 souls and the blessing was applied to their children, they appointed over themselves 70 elders to lead and to teach ordinances and judgements of the righteous for they were great sages from the ones accepted by our forefathers ... And that which is written "and gather the elders of Israel together" (Exodus 3:16) - there were 70 of them, and this happened at the Giving of the Torah as it is written (Exodus 24:9) "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel". 

And that which is mentioned here (Numbers 11:16) "Gather unto Me seventy men", these were others that were now chosen anew for those 70 elders of the Giving of the Torah died at Taberah (see Numbers 11:1-3) for they were supposed have been killed for what they did at Mt. Sinai, and therefore it needed to say that they were chosen anew, and they were chosen through lots as our Sages told us... They were among those who were appointed taskmasters in Egypt, in charge of punishing the people...

(see also Rashi [Numbers 11:16])

The elders are also mentioned as the generation immediately following Joshua and before the Prophets, but it is unclear if they were the same ones (Joshua 24:31, Judges 2:7):

And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of the LORD, that He had wrought for Israel.

[This is also mentioned in the Mishnah (Pirkei Avot 1:1)]

Rav Obadiah miBartenura (ibid) explains:

For their days extended after Joshua, and those elders gave it over to other elders until it reached the beginning of the Prophets, which were Eli the Priest and Samuel Ramati

(see also Tiferes Yisrael (ibid) who explains that the elders here refer to the Judges in the Book of Judges)

(Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (Sefer leMakesi Atik Joshua 24:31) explains that these elders were either Eldad and Meidad, or the Tribe of Levi)

(Tisha Bav) Who were Kamtza and Bar Kamtza?

The Maharsha (ibid) suggest they were related:

It is possible that they were father and son, and the messenger got mistaken between them. And also Bar Kamtza, once he knew that the host was looking for his father, who was his friend, also wanted his friendship and make peace with the one who send the invitation

Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt"l explains that the host of the party was a Pharisee, and Bar Kamtza was a well known Sadducee, which is why there was enmity between them.

[Published at parshapeople.blogspot.com]