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שבת שלום - פרשת כי תשא - שבת פרה

Video Shiur

Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Pesach Wolicki

News and Notes

This week the yeshiva celebrated Purim in grand style. On Monday night, following Megillah reading and dinner, our teachers and students danced and sang to the music of the yeshiva band at our Fifth Annual Rockin' Purim Eve Bash. This was followed by several Purim shpiels- both live and on video - put on by both the students and the rabbeim. On the morning of Purim, following Shacharit, students delivered mishloach manot and visited with their rabbeim around Beit Shemesh. In the afternoon, students enjoyed their seudot at the homes of their morning seder rabbeim. Everyone later reconvened at the yeshiva for a gala dessert spread. On Wednesday, Shushan Purim, most of our students visited Yerushalayim, and enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate a second day of Purim. The three days from Taanit Esther through Shushan Purim provided everyone with an experience they will long remember. Our students are now gearing up for the final two weeks of the zman. Several students are preparing siyumim, while others are working on various projects in preparation for the Pesach break. As always, we are extremely proud of the tremendous spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth exhibited by our students throughout the zman, and we eagerly anticipate further progress in learning during the last weeks before Pesach.

The Chiddush that Changed the World
By Rabbi Scott Kahn

"Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, Go descend." (Shemot 32:7) What is the meaning of [the double phrase] 'Go descend'? Rabbi Eleazar says, the Holy One, Blessed is He, said to Moshe, 'Moshe - Descend from your lofty position! I only gave you greatness for Israel's sake; now that Israel has sinned, why do I need you?' Immediately Moshe's strength was sapped, and he had no strength to speak. Once Hashem said, "Leave Me alone and I will destroy them," (Devarim 9:14) Moshe said, 'The matter depends upon me!' Immediately he stood and strengthened himself in prayer, and begged for mercy [on behalf of Israel]. (Berachot 32a)

In this classic explication, Chazal inform us that Moshe was initially unsure what to do when Hashem threatens to destroy Am Yisrael following the debacle of the Golden Calf. Upon hearing the words, "Leave me alone," Moshe notes the implication that a refusal to leave G-d alone - that is, an insistence upon praying - will, so to speak, prevent G-d from destroying the people. Only at that time does Moshe insist upon pleading for mercy, and he then successfully averts the decree through his prayer.

Clearly, Hashem wanted Moshe to understand this implication, and to recognize that prayer can avert the decree even for the gravest offense. Nevertheless, it is shocking that Moshe would need to be taught such an idea. The Gemara says that upon hearing Hashem's statement, "Go descend," Moshe was unable to say a word. Why would he have doubted that prayer might be effective? He surely knew that Avraham Avinu had petitioned G-d to spare the residents of Sodom; while Sodom was ultimately destroyed, G-d did accept Avraham's plea that He save the city if a certain number of righteous individuals could be found within. If Avraham did not need to be taught the value of prayer, why would the greatest prophet of all express doubts of prayer's efficacy?

The surprising answer can be discovered through a careful reading of the Torah's introduction to Avraham's prayer, and the words of Avraham' prayer itself:

Hashem said, the cry of Sodom and Ammorah is truly great, and their sins are truly very weighty. I will descend now and judge: if they have done as the cry coming to me indicates, I will destroy them, and if not, I will know [not to punish them to that degree]... Avraham came near and said, 'Will you destroy righteous and wicked alike through anger? Perhaps there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city! Will you destroy through anger without forgiving the place for the sake of the fifty righteous men in its midst? It is far from you to do something like this, killing righteous and wicked alike, and treating the righteous like the wicked; it is far from you! Should the Judge of all the world not act justly?! (Bereshit 18:20-25, according to Targum Onkelos)

The overarching theme of Avraham's prayer is that G-d must judge fairly. Hashem is the True Judge, and He should not violate His principles of justice no matter how grievous the iniquity. Indeed, Rashi understands Avraham's continued pleas to spare the five cities for the sake of ever lower numbers of tzaddikim as a direct request for justice, rather than mercy. Rashi explains that a quorum of ten righteous men would be sufficient to spare each of the five cities; accordingly, Avraham's final plea to spare the place for the sake of ten tzaddikim would only be applicable if one of the cities had ten righteous men. Similarly, the request to save Sodom for the sake of twenty righteous individuals was a request to save the two cities which would have ten righteous men each. But it never occurred to Avraham that G-d would or should spare Sodom even if there were no righteous people there. Hashem is a Judge, and justice demands consequences.

In fact, the concept of divine mercy is never explicitly mentioned in the Torah until Parashat Ki Tisa, after Moshe prays on behalf of Israel. Every previous instance of man's interaction with G-d presupposes G-d's goodness, love, and fairness, but the assumption that G-d would change His mind never appears. Adam is threatened with mortality for eating of the Tree, and that is exactly what happens. Kayin's plea to Hashem that people will kill him is not so much a request for mercy as a complaint that he will receive a worse consequence than that which Hashem imposes. The Flood destroys the wicked of the world, while sparing the righteous Noach; the evil actions of the builders of the Tower of Bavel lead to their dispersion; the Egyptians are punished for their continued enslavement of Bnei Yisrael. Hashem is a G-d of truth, and consequences for evil actions are inevitable.

When Hashem says that He will destroy AmYisrael, Moshe recognized that there was nothing he could do. Hashem certainly is good and merciful, but His mercy works together with justice. (See Rashi on Bereshit 1:1) How, then, could Hashem violate His own words? When Moshe heard G-d's threat, he assumed that all was lost.

For this reason, Hashem taught Moshe the great chiddush that would change the world: that mercy not only works within justice, but even can overcome justice. G-d's own statements can be revoked through His attribute of mercy. Although we now take such an idea for granted, it is only obvious to us because G-d revealed this idea to Moshe. Until Moshe's prayer, no one realized that Hashem's mercy could overcome G-d's words themselves. Once Hashem revealed this secret to Moshe, the world would never be the same. From this point on, we repeatedly see Moshe begging for mercy and understanding that justice need not always prevail. Indeed, only at this point is he taught the thirteen attributes of mercy, which indicate Hashem's willingness to literally ignore the demands of His attribute of justice.

Of course, the fact that the power of mercy was only revealed when justice left no hope indicates that it is better to acquire something through divine justice; divine mercy should be utilized only when we fail to earn something through the ideal of justice. This is why Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, precedes Yom Kippur, the Day of Mercy. We hope that we will emerge vindicated in judgment and have no need for G-d's mercy on Yom Kippur. Only upon recognizing our failures do we enter Yom Kippur and beg for the mercy which Hashem lovingly bestows upon us.

May our lives be filled with righteousness such that we earn our reward though the rigors of G-d's justice. And, failing that, may we remember Moshe's success in praying for Hashem's mercy so that we, too, can succeed in coming close to Him, whether we deserve it or not.