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שבת שלום - פרשת בראשית
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by
Rabbi Scott Kahn about ברכת החמה |
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News and Notes
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Everyone in the yeshiva
enjoyed a meaningful
and joyful Simchat Torah.
The students, rabbeim,
and their families all
participated in the hakafot,
which were filled with
intense and beautiful
singing and dancing.
Yesodei
HaTorah's minhag is to
auction off numerous
Simchat Torah honors
in exchange for commitments
to Torah learning. The
"currency" is units of
learning - that is, one
daf (two sides of a page)
of Gemara is equivalent
to a perek of Mishnayot
or two perakim of Nach.
All learning must be
completed by Rosh Chodesh
Nisan, which is the end
of the winter zman.
- Akiva
Weisinger purchased Ata
Hareita on the first
night for 530 units.
- Dovi
Muchnick and Shmuly Reece
purchased Ata Hareita
on the first day for 613 units.
- Hezzie Raymond
purchased Chatan Torah
- with which he honored
Rav Daniel Katz - for
450 units.
- Shimshon
Seligson and Daniel Lazar
purchased Chatan Bereshit
- with which they honored
Rav Scott Kahn - for
550 units.
- Aryeh Sklar
purchased Maftir - with
which he honored Rav
Ariel Greenberg - for
540 units.
- Gary Willig
purchased Ata Hareita
on the second night for
250 units.
- Aryeh Sklar
purchased Ata Hareita
on the second day for
165 units.
- David Khabinsky
and Michael Alweis purchased
Chatan Bereshit on the
second day for 100 units,
and Maftir on the second
day for 160 units.
- Oliver
Sax purchased Chatan
Torah on the second day
for 90 units.
Mazal
tov to all the students
whose commitments to
Torah learning will ensure
a true "kol Torah" in
the Beit Midrash throughout
the zman!
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Breaching the Fence
By Rabbi Scott Kahn
"Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said, 'They said to the serpent, Why are you found by the fences? He said, I breached the fence of the world.'" (Bamidbar Rabba 19:2)
This enigmatic midrash explains that snakes huddle near fences because of their ancestor's crime of "breaching the fence of the world" in the Garden of Eden. What does this midrash mean, and what is it teaching us?
In order to understand this midrash, we must first address a different question. The Torah tells us that, "The serpent was cleverer than all the beasts of the field Hashem Elokim had made. He said to the woman, 'Did G-d really say, You shall not eat from all the trees of the Garden?' The woman responded to the serpent, 'We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the Garden; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the Garden - G-d said, Do not eat from it and do not touch it, lest you die.' The serpent said to the woman, 'You will not die'..." (Bereshit 3:1-4)
Although the woman explained that she and the man were not allowed to either touch or eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, the Torah only quotes G-d as telling the man that they may not eat of the tree. Rashi explains the discrepancy by saying that she wrongly added to the command, which in turn led to her downfall: "[The serpent] pushed her until she touched it; he then said to her, 'Just as there is no death in touching, so there is no death in eating.'" Rashi clearly attributes her mistake to her "adding to the command." Yet the Men of the Great Assembly - the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah - specifically mandated that we do, indeed, create additional safeguards to the mitzvot: "They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise many students, and make a fence around the Torah." (Avot 1:1) What, then, did the woman do wrong?
The Etz Yosef commentary on Bereshit Rabba explains that her mistake was not in building a fence per se, but in attributing this safeguard to G-d Himself. He writes that, "Although we are warned to make a fence around the Torah... nevertheless, the fence should not be made as an addition to the main point. [That is], that one should not include the warning of the fence with the Torah's own directive, such that it seems to everyone that the entire thing is the Torah's directive from G-d's mouth... lest a naysayer find in your addition something wrong or mistaken, and from this deny and decry the essential law, as well, saying that there's nothing to any of it." (Etz Yosef on Bereshit Rabba 19:4) The man and woman were right to add a safeguard; they were wrong to attribute the same sanctity to the safeguard as to the primary commandment. By confusing the relative values of the Divine and man-made directives, they became vulnerable to the claims of the serpent.
The initial deed that brought sin into the world was, therefore, the result of a well-meaning act - the adding of a fence - which was misinterpreted and, consequently, misused. Ensuring that the mitzvot are properly protected is crucial, but we cannot absolve ourselves of the responsibility to know what represents the literal Torah requirement and what represents a rabbinic innovation. Although we are partners with G-d in protecting the Torah, we must never believe that our own innovations are as important as G-d's. The inability to make such distinctions is the first step on the road to transgression.
According to the Vilna Gaon, this lesson is the deeper meaning of the midrash quoted above. He explains that the serpent represents the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. The question, "Why are you found by the fences?" actually means, why does the evil inclination begin its seduction of man by tempting him to violate the fences around the Torah, rather than the commands of the Torah itself? The answer - because "I breached the fence of the world" - is that the evil inclination's initial success only occurred through it's convincing the woman to ignore the safeguards - that is, to touch the tree rather than to eat from it. Once the fence had been breached, the next step - eating - was not far behind. Thus, says the serpent, "I breached the fence of the world" - meaning, my original success took place through such a method, and I therefore learned to use this method in all situations.
The first step towards a spiritual downfall is neglecting the safeguards put in place by our great sages. The next step is in conflating the value of rabbinic safeguards with the Torah laws they are meant to protect. Safeguards, when viewed properly, are essential; when viewed improperly and misused, they represent the evil inclination's best opportunity.
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