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שבת שלום - פרשת כי תשא
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Yosef Kaminetsky
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News and Notes
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This Shabbat, Parashat Ki Tisa, the first annual Yesodei HaTorah Alumni Shabbaton is taking place at Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, NJ. Rabbi Kahn and Rabbi Wolicki will be participating in and giving shiurim at the Shabbaton, and a large number of alumni are looking forward to getting together to experience the next best thing to Shabbat at the yeshiva itself.
Also this Shabbat, Rabbi Aftel, Rabbi Arnold, Rabbi Greenberg, their families, and all of our students will be journeying to Tzfat for the weekend. On Friday, the buses pull out of the Yeshiva early in the morning in order to allow us to visit the Kever of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and hike Nachal Meron. Shabbat itself will include davening in some of Tzfat's most famous synagogues, a tour of the Old City, delicious meals, and an oneg, and will conclude on Motzaei Shabbat with a visit with a resident Kabbalist and a stop at the mikvah of the Ari z'l.
Following Shabbat, Rabbi Arnold will be accompanying our students Monday night on a tiyul of the areas around Z'fat. The tiyul will include a visit to the Achula Nature Preserve, a hike of the Banyas, Tzuk Manara cable cars, a trip to Teverya, and more.
And finally, Rabbi Wolicki is continuing to conduct interviews in the United States and Canada through Tuesday of this upcoming week. If you would like to arrange an interview, please call him at 347-225-1791.
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The Merit of the Matriarchs
By Rabbi Moshe Lichtman
After B'nei Yisrael made the Golden Calf, HaShem said to Moshe, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, let Me alone, and My anger shall burn against them and I will consume them; and I will make you into a great nation (32:9-10). Moshe, however, did not like this idea. He proceeded to beseech God to "change His mind" and forgive the Jews. First, Moshe "reminded" HaShem that He took this nation out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand (32:11). Then he asked, Why should Egypt say: "He took them out with evil intent- to annihilate them."? (32:12). And finally, Moshe invoked the merit of the Patriarchs: Remember Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yisrael, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your Own Self, saying to them, "I will increase your seed like the stars of heaven, and this entire Land of which I spoke, I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever" (32:13).
The commentators explain how each of these points was an attempt to "convince" HaShem not to destroy the Jews and re-create the nation from Moshe. Regarding the last point, the Netziv comments:
And they shall inherit it forever: [The Land shall be given to their descendants] as an inheritance, implying that it is eternal. Even when the Jews are exiled from the Land, it is still theirs and they always anticipate returning to it, Therefore, this constitutes an argument [on Moshe's part] to annul [God's] decree of annihilation. For [God promised that] this inheritance, which naturally belongs to the twelve tribes, will never be abrogated. [Moshe, in effect, was saying], "What will it help if only I and my descendants inherit Eretz Yisrael? This is not the inheritance for which the Land was created." (Ha'amek Davar)
In other words, Moshe said to HaShem, "You promised that the Land will always belong to the descendants of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov. Therefore, if You destroy them, You will be breaking Your promise, even if You make me into a great nation."
In a pamphlet entitled Eretz Chemdah, Rav Moshe Tzuriel adds that this coincides with a halachic determination attributed to R. Nachshon Gaon (and also quoted by the Ramban, Bava Batra 44b): Every Jew in the world has four cubits of land in Eretz Yisrael, because of his inheritance from the twelve tribes.
Thus, when Moshe wanted to save the Jewish people after the Sin of the Calf, he invoked the merit of the Patriarchs and "reminded" God of His covenant with them regarding the Land of Israel. A little over a year later, when the Jews committed the Sin of the Spies, slandering and rejecting the Promised Land, Moshe tried once again to save them from destruction. This time, however, he did not mention the Patriarchs or the Land of Israel at all. Why not? The Ramban explains:
The Land was given to the Patriarchs; and their descendants were to inherit it from them. [But now], the descendants rebelled against their forefathers and rejected the gift which the Patriarchs greatly desired. Therefore, how could Moshe say, Remember Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov, Your servants, to whom You swore... "This entire Land...I will give to your descendants," when the people were saying, "We do not want this gift"? (Ramban, BeMidbar 14:17)
R. Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal derives an important lesson from this explanation: "HaShem will remember the merit of the Patriarchs only if we emulate them by desiring and cherishing the Land. If we cherish, desire, and crave the Land as they did, HaShem will remember their merit for our sake. The more we cherish our Holy Land, the more we will receive the merit of the Patriarchs" (Eim HaBanim Semeichah, p. 280).
Nowadays, we could use a little help from our forefathers. So let us take some advice from the Netziv, the Ramban, and Rav Teichtal: Let us ascend to Zion and take hold of our eternal portion in Eretz Yisrael, thus showing HaShem how much we truly desire His special Land.
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