About KBY

God gave the Torah to human beings, and God created human beings. Hashem knows the way the human mind works; despite something being so obvious and matter-of-fact, there is reason why God nevertheless commanded us in those obvious areas. This week’s Torah reading contains many mitzvos that are in the man-to-man category. Many of them are obvious, but nevertheless emphasized and illustrated shortly.

In this week’s Parshas Mishpatim 22:20, 21 the Torah states “V’Ger Lo Soneh V’Lo Silchatzenu……Kal Almana V’Yasom Lo S’Anun”. “And a stranger you should not wrong, nor shall you oppress him…. Any widow or orphan you shall not afflict”. Most Israel recognize the three individuals the Torah calls out to be treated with extra special care: the Torah says a stranger NOT a convert, but our rabbis say convert, the widow and the orphan. These are the most obvious people who, logically, emotionally and psychologically require this special recognition and attention, yet Hashem feels it necessary to mention it anyway. I will take some literary license and suggest that perhaps the answer to the “obvious” may be found in the short two pesukim that appear right before this section. 22:17 the Torah states: “MeChasheifa Lo S’Chayeh” and 22:18 states: “Kal Shocheiv Im Beheima Mos Yumas” - a sorcerer shall not live and one who lies and fornicates with an animal shall be put to death. It is important to realize these two mitzvos are in their own separate section and, oddly enough, are placed in the middle of monetary considerations before and monetary discussions after the statements.

The M’Chasheifa, sorceress, is not limited to the literal definition of black magic but to the purpose and goal of what it accomplishes. The purpose of magic is to change the reality of a certain thing or situation. The Mitzvos of the Torah are in effect today just as they were thousands of years ago. Some Mitzvos manifest themselves in different ways and situations. For example, today we do not have sorcerers and black magic, nevertheless the mitzvah applies and its fulfillment arises in a different way. The Sorcerer of today tells us we are not to make believe or create the disappearance of a certain reality, i.e., we are not to come up with a rationalization or excuse explaining why we do not have to have extra compassion to an orphan, widow or convert. Sometimes a person may say about a widow, “Oh, don’t worry about her. Her husband had a big insurance policy. Or… She has a lot of family support and money”. Or to say about the orphan, “Oh, he or she will be an adult soon.” Or to say about the convert, “Well, didn’t they know this is what they were getting into”? These and similar thoughts are the inner workings of Kishuf/magic to change the reality that stares us in our face.

Once we start to figure out ways not to have compassion, we are acting like animals. Therefore, the Torah juxtaposes the two commandments of magic and not lying with an animal together, immediately before the portion of where we need to have more compassion and extra sensitivity. Life in general presents different social challenges within our immediate community and the community at large. We must observe these particular Mitzvos in today’s world by not changing a situation with our perception. Rather, Hashem tells us that these Mitzvos of compassion and care must be upheld despite our crooked thinking. By violating these particular mitzvos we continue to polarize our families and the Hebrew people. If we observe this Mitzva properly, we will create a stronger sense of Achdus/Unity and ultimately bring B’Nei Yisrael closer together as one big family.

Remember Torah is all about relationship NOT religion!!!

Shabbat Shalom!!!

This coming Monday - the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month Shevat - is known at TU B’Shevat because the two letters used to illustrate the number fifteen is a ‘tes’ and ‘vav’, spelling out “TU”. The halachik and historical significance of this date is considered Hebrew Arbor Day, and the official beginning of the tree season. The rabbinical holiday TU’ B’Shevat, the New Year for trees, usually falls in January or February. Even though the Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world, organized by its mayor in 1594, Israel have been reckoning with this concept for thousands of years. Today, the holiday is most often observed by planting trees or by raising money to plant trees, and by eating fruit - specifically grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates which are five of the seven species for which Israel is praised. Originally, the objective of this day was to calculate the age of fruit trees for tithing as mandated in Vayikra 19:23–25. Rosh Hashanna for the new tree when it blossoms, the fifteenth of Shevat, or when the rain that enables their blossoming has finished falling, to be the beginning of Shevat.

When a man gets called up to the Torah it is called an ‘aliyah’, meaning going up. In many Shuls and synagogues, the Bimah is raised and a person literally ‘goes up’ to read from the Torah, and when they finish, they go back down. Getting an aliyah is much more than just saying the blessings and perhaps making a donation of some sort. Rather, the ultimate goal and purpose is for the individual to ‘go up’, to have a ‘spiritual experience’ that will continue to be with the person for as long as possible. Perhaps there is a correlation between the attitude and the intent the person has when receiving the aliyah to the time it takes to wear off.

That been said this week’s Haftorah, taken from the Navi Shoftim, is one of the famous ten songs of Tanach known as Shirah Devorah. In Shoftim 5:28 the Navi states: “B’Ad HaChalon Nishkpha V’T’Yabeiv Eim Sisra B’Ad HaEshnav, Maduah BoShesish Richbo Lavo Maduah Echeroo Paamei Markevosav”. “Through the window the mother of Sisera looked forth and peered through the window stating,” Why is his chariot late in coming? Why tarry the strides of his chariots?”

The fascinating story of how Yael killed Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite army of King Yavin of Chatzor, is mentioned in Shoftim 4 -5. After being defeated by the Israeli forces of the Zevulun and Naphtali under the command of Barak and Devorah, Sisera was killed by Yael, who hammered a tent peg into his temple.

The navi goes on to describe how the mother of Sisera waited for her son’s return as she did after the dozens of battles that he fought in his lifetime. This time, however, she waited and waited and asked herself why was he late. The word she used for being ‘late’ is “BoSheish”. The Midrash Rabbah in Bereishis teaches us that there are three places in Tanach which use this form of a word to describe time. The first time it is used is when Adam and Chava were in Gan Eden prior to sinning in Ber. 2:25. That verse states that it was already six hours and Adam and Chava were naked - V’Lo Yisboshashu - and they were not embarrassed. The second time was when Moshe Rabbeinu was thought to be late coming down from Har Sinai. In Shemot 32:1 the Torah states: ‘And the people saw Ki Bosheish Moshe’ - that Moshe was late coming down from the mountain.’ The third time refers to the line I mentioned above regarding Sisera’s mother. Six hours had passed and still her son did not return. The midrash explains the word BoSheish is a contraction of ‘Baoo Sheish’ meaning “they came six” - six hours late from their anticipated arrival.

In all three instances the same six-hour window of time is expressed. Why, in each case did the individuals involved wait six hours before growing concerned? Why were they not concerned immediately? I would like to suggest that six hours is a quarter of a day which is either one side of the day or the night. The initial phase of news or a situation will remain the same for a while until more information changes the previous status. A person will hear or learn about something, digest it and then react to those circumstances which will settle within the person for a bit. Once it has been adapted, then change from new information will lead the person to react differently to the new circumstances.

I believe the same is true about the Torah. It takes time to determine if the new information will take hold and successfully do what it was designed to do. Using hindsight, we think to ourselves, “Why didn’t we just jump to the current level of physical advancement rather than having had to go through so many different stages of development?” The same is true when growing spiritually, emotionally, and even physically. Life is a process of growth. We each need to hit the markers of different levels, growing step-by-step, maintaining a healthy, sensible life on each platform i.e Aliyah before jumping to the next level. Hopefully, with God’s help and our own inner-patience, we will “come with six” in order to climb to the greatest heights of life.

Remember Torah is all about relationship NOT religion!!!

Shabbat Shalom!!!