Shlomo's Thoughts on the Torah

The Mishna in Pirkei Avot mentions the difference between a disagreement for the sake of Heaven and for personal ego is the dispute between Shammai & Hillel, for the sake of Heaven, and Korach and his congregation for ego.  The difference is that if the dispute is for the sake of Heaven, then they might disagree, but they did not look on their opponents as enemies.  Korach and his co...

Korach led a rebellion against Moses based on "equality".  Why should Moses be the leader over all of the Jews?  Aren't we all equal?  The answer is that Moses became Moses because he worked on himself.  He was not born into leadership.  He earned it.

This week's portion includes the admonition about idolatry.  This is no accident.  Idolatry is trying to make God human. Our goal should be to be Godly.  It includes the Sabbath desecrater.  Violating the Sabbath is denying that God created the universe.

The problem with the men that Moses sent out to scout the land was that they let their egos get in the way.  They had a preconceived notion and bent the facts to their opinions.  A true spy is unknown to all and presents the facts as they are, not what they want them to be.

When Joshua was chosen to be one of the scouts Moses gave him an extra letter to his name for protection.  He did not do this for Caleb.  The reason was that Caleb was already protected.  He was married while Joshua was not.  Marriage is the protection that was needed on this mission.

The reason that the Jews were upset with the report of the scouts was that it meant that when they would enter the Land of Israel, they would have to put into practice all the laws that they were learning in the wilderness.

In this week's portion we watch as Moses chooses the wrong people to scout out the Land.  The problem with the men chosen was that they had a vested interest in staying in the wilderness.  That they did not want to lose their position of leadership.  Sometimes a leader has to recognize when it is time to leave.

The Complainers are back again in this week's portion.  They will continue to plague Moses throughout the Exodus.  The question is what they were really complaining about.  The limits that the Torah places on us.  That we cannot do whatever we want in society.

In this week's portion we learn that the Levites had a 5-year apprenticeship for their work in the Temple.  Why did it take so long for them to learn their job?  More important than learning the workings of the Temple, they had to learn how to behave in the Temple.

The Torah wants us to make ourselves better.  Perfection is a state that we will never attain and the attempt to attain it will end in failure.  But if we work to improve ourselves, we will become better people and thus improve the world.

This week's portion leads with the commandment to Aaron, the High Priest, to clean & prepare the Menorah.  Why does he have to do this?  Can't he delegate this job to an underling?  The answer is that to the Torah leadership means to lead by example.  Sometimes you have to do the dirty work yourself.

In this week's portion we find that the penalty of theft is that the thief has to make the victim whole.  He also has to compensate the victim for pain and suffering due to the theft.  If the thief cannot make the victim whole financially then we sell him into slavery until the victim is made whole.

In this week's portion we again hear the complaints of the Jews regarding the food that God is providing.  They remember the good food that they ate in Egypt.  They seem to be forgetting the real price they had to pay for that "free" food.  They were slaves and God does not want us to slaves.

In this week's portion we learn about the punishment for the wayward wife.  That is a woman who is warned not to be wife a certain man and she does so anyway.  Part of the punishment is that she is given animal feed to eat.  This is to teach her that just as she behaved like an animal, so we treat her as such.

In the Book of Ruth we are introduced to a character known as Ploni Almoni, the Hebrew equivalent of John Doe.  He is presented as a good man who does not want to marry Ruth.  He has solid reasons not to, and he was wrong.  Boaz could have used the same excuses but chose not to.  That is why we remember Boaz and not Ploni Almoni.

In the Book of Ruth, Boaz is presented as a great man of charity.  Yet he allows the poor to glean his fields and thus forces them to go to the threshing floor, then to the bake the bread.  Wouldn't it be kinder to the poor just to give them bread?  The answer is that would take away from the poor's dignity.

The Book of Ruth begins the story with the statement "In the days when the Judges judged.  The Hebrew, though, can be read as "In the days when the Judges were judged."  The meaning is clear.  Every decision that the Judges made was criticized.  In a society in which the legal authorities are constantly challenged will lose its cohesiveness.  We must realize that the law h...

Today is the anniversary of the Liberation of Jerusalem in 1967.  For Jews this was an open miracle.  There were many miracles during the 6 Day War and Jerusalem's liberation was the high point.  The question is do we recognize it when God performs miracles for us.

The Vilna Gaon, who died in 1797, predicted that two dates would be important in the future, the 18th Day of the Omer, (that is the 5th of Iyar), and the 28th of Iyar.  Today we recognize these days as Israel Independence Day and Jerusalem Day.  Both for events that happened in the 20th Century.  How did he know?

When a Jewish court was required to hand down a death sentence they would go out to the country and bemoan that breakdown in society.  The idea that the crime did not happen in a vacuum.  It happened because there is something wrong in society in general.

Many people blame their actions on others or things.  The fact is that we make our own decisions.  God gave us free will.  It is always our choice, and we suffer the consequences when we make the wrong one.

The curses of this week's portion have to do with a breakdown of society.  One of the problems is that people say, "that is your truth".  Interestingly, the Hebrew word for truth, אמת, has no plural.  This infers that there is only one truth, not multiple truths.

When we read the portion we see that God will judge us not so much on how well we pray or perform our rituals, such as the sacrificial service, but on how we treat each other.  As the Mishna says the first question that you will be asked in the next world will be "Were you honest in your business dealings?"

This week's portion has the blessings and the curses.  That if we follow the Torah then great things will occur but if we do not then disaster will happen.  The interesting thing is that the curses will be caused by a breakdown in society.  God does not have to curse us, we can do that all by ourselves,

The Talmud, Tactate Shabbat 33b, relates that the reason Rebbe Akiva's students died of a plague was that they did not respect each other.  This underlines the idea that even if we disagree, we need to show each other respect.  To disagree without being disagreeable.