The entire yeshiva
wishes mazal tov to Michael
Alweis, on his engagement
to Malka Lebovic of Baltimore.
Shetizku livnot bayit
neeman b’Yisrael!

Last
night, Rav Wolicki gave
the sicha ruchanit on
the topic of, “The Jewish
Perspective on History”.
Following the mishmar
cholent and snacks, Rav
Wolicki taught a shiur
on, “Three Approaches
to ‘Kafa Aleihem Har
K’Gigit’”, Rav Kahn offered
insights into, “Moshe
Rabbeinu, the Angels,
and Matan Torah: How
to Interpret an Aggadata”
(download here), and
Rav Arram spoke about,
“The Chosen City: Why
Doesn’t Jerusalem Appear
in the Torah?”

On
Motzaei Shabbat, the
yeshiva will begin its
Yom Yerushalayim celebrations.
Some of our students
plan on joining the group
dancing to the Kotel
at midnight from the
Merkaz HaRav yeshiva,
and will return to Beit
Shemesh following Shacharit
k’vatikin. On Sunday
at 2 PM, Rav Lichtman
will offer his annual
“Yom Yerushalayim Multimedia
Presentation.” Afterwards,
the entire yeshiva will
go to Jerusalem, where
we will participate in
the Rikud Degalim, dancing
from King George Street
down to the Old City
and the Kotel.

Blessings and Rewards
By Rabbi Scott Kahn

“If you walk in My statutes, and you guard My mitzvot, doing them, I will give your rains in their seasons…” (Vayikra 26:3-4)

This verse presents an explicit Divine promise that proper shmirat hamitzvot – guarding and keeping G-d’s commands – leads to direct physical benefit in this world. This idea, however, is directly contradicted by Rabbi Yaakov’s statement in Masechet Kiddushin (39b) that, “There is no reward for a mitzvah in this world [i.e., all reward is reserved for the World to Come].” How can the Gemara’s statement be reconciled with the above Biblical promise?

The Maharsha suggests that Rabbi Yaakov’s claim that reward is reserved exclusively for the World to Come refers only to reward given to an individual for his good deeds. When the community as a whole is deserving, however, the reward is, indeed, manifest in this world. All the Biblical promises for worldly good represent reward for the community, rather than the individual.

The Rambam, however, presents a very different approach:

“Given that it is known that the reward for mitzvot and the good we will merit if we keep the way of Hashem as written in the Torah is the life of the World to Come… What, then, is the meaning of that which is written throughout the Torah that if you listen you will receive so-and-so, and if you don’t listen the following will happen – all in this world – such as plenty, famine, war, peace, kingship, lowliness, dwelling in the Land, exile, success, loss, and everything else in the Covenant? All of those things truly happened and will happen; when we do all of the mitzvot of the Torah, we will receive all the good of this world, and when we violate them, the evils that are written will occur to us. However, those good things are not the end of the reward for mitzvot, and those evils are not the end of the vengeance that is avenged because of violating all the mitzvot. The meaning is as follows: The Holy One, Blessed is He, gave us this Torah – a Tree of Life – and anyone who does all that is written in it and knows it with a full and complete knowledge merits the life of the World to Come through it… and He promised us in the Torah that if we do it with joy and exuberance and constantly meditate upon its wisdom, He will remove all of the things which prevent us from keeping it properly, such as sickness, war, famine, and so forth. He will also bring upon us all the goodness which help us to keep the Torah, such as plenty, peace, and wealth, so that we do not need to be involved in physical needs all our lives, rather we may be free to learn wisdom and do the mitzvot, in order to merit the life of the World to Come.” (Hilchot Teshuvah 9:1)

In the Rambam’s view, the promises written in the Torah are not types of reward, but rather blessings which enable us to keep the Torah without distraction. Our success in keeping the Torah’s commands engenders blessings which further ease the path for us to keep the Torah, thereby allowing us to merit the true reward in the World to Come.

This idea is echoed by the great Chassidic leader, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. In his work Kedushat Levi, he suggests that while there is no physical reward in this world, there remains a distinct reward that we do receive: “The reward for a mitzvah is a mitzvah.” (Avot 4:2) This means that each mitzvah we do further enables us to perform additional mitzvot. Thus, explains Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the performance of mitzvot leads to “rains in their seasons” – that is, a strong economy which in turn enables a person to do mitzvot that cost money, such as giving tzedakah. Just as the Rambam suggests that rain is not a reward per se, but a means for us to avoid being preoccupied with worldly affairs, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak states that rain is valuable not as a reward, but as a wellspring from which the opportunity to perform additional mitzvot flows.

The principle that, “There is no reward for a mitzvah in this world” holds particular resonance when circumstances present obstacles to concentrating fully on learning Torah and performing mitzvot. The blessings G-d confers upon us cannot be seen as a reward for our good deeds, but rather as a means for us to perform additional mitzvot, and with ever greater alacrity. The absence of these blessings makes the performance of mitzvot significantly more difficult: a person who must work harder than before has less time and energy to learn; a person who has lost money has fewer resources with which to give tzedakah; a person who is preoccupied with a dwindling stock portfolio has less ability to concentrate on the most important things in life. The message of the Rambam and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak is that, to the best of our ability, we must overcome the psychological and physical difficulties, and attempt to perform mitzvot and learn Torah with even more energy than before.

May the message that the true reward still awaits us in the World to Come serve both as a source of comfort when life is difficult, and as a source of motivation in happier times so that we work harder than ever before to fulfill the Divine will.

Our Yovel, Our Land
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki

You shall sanctify the year of the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all of its inhabitants; it shall be for you a jubilee and each man shall return to his ancestral land and each man shall return to his family.” (Lev 25:8,10)

Briefly stated, every fifty years, two laws would be effected. All Israelite slaves would be freed and all lands would be redistributed back to their original tribal owners. If a man had sold his land since the last jubilee, the land would become his again. At first glance this seems unfair to the purchaser of the land. Why should this person have to surrender land that was legally purchased? To solve this problem the Torah lays out a system for purchasing land according to the years of the jubilee.

“According to the number of years after the jubilee shall you purchase land from your neighbor; according to the number of produce years he shall sell it to you. Based on the abundance of years, you shall increase its purchase price and based on the lack of years you shall decrease its purchase price, since it is the number of produce seasons that he is selling to you.” (Lev 25:15-16)

When land is sold, the price is calculated based on the amount of time that the land will be owned by the purchaser – until the next jubilee. Essentially, all land purchases in Israel are to be leases rather than actual purchases. According to Ramban, even if one were to attempt to sell land permanently, the transaction would be invalid. Land is forever owned by the family to whom it was allotted after the original conquest of the land. However, even if these guidelines were not followed, the land would still return to its original owner. No financial recompense is made to the purchaser of the land. The original owner gets the land back free of charge.

Throughout the centuries of persecution, one of the most common restrictions placed on Jews in the lands of exile was – and still is in certain Arab countries – the prohibition from owning land. To own land is to be a full citizen – to be free. Ownership of land is critical to national identification. To be forbidden from owning land is to be excluded – to be forever a foreigner.

The rules of land ownership and the jubilee teach us a profound lesson. All Jews are landowners forever. There are no serfs. In fact, each and every Jew alive today has a plot of land that actually belongs to him by patrimonial birthright. If the laws of jubilee were in effect today, the land owned by my family would return to us. It has always been ours. Those same Jews who were being denied rights of land ownership in the lands of the dispersion, were, at the same time, owners of land in Israel.

Seen this way, the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is not only a religious or historical connection. Wherever we are, it remains our birthright and our literal home.

On Wednesday night,
Lag BaOmer, many of our
students took the opportunity
to visit Meron and the
burial site of Rabbi
Shimon bar Yochai. Those
who stayed in Beit Shemesh
enjoyed our annual bonfire
at the home of Rav Lichtman.
The event included music
and singing, along with
barbecued hot dogs, marshmallows,
and more delicious food
prepared by Mrs. Lichtman.
Everyone had a great
time, and we thank the
Lichtmans for hosting
this event once again.

On
Thursday night, Rav Kahn
gave the sicha on the
topic of, “Don’t be a
Jerk!” (download here)
Following the mishmar
cholent and snacks, Rav
Kahn gave a shiur entitled,
“Yovel, Hallel, and the
Eschaton” (download here),
Rav Wolicki offered insights
into “The Philosophical
Machlokot of Beit Hillel
and Beit Shammai”, and
Rav Arram delivered a
shiur explaining the
meaning of the phrase,
“Ma’arichin lo Yamav
u’Shenotav”.

This
Shabbat is our annual
Old City Shabbaton, in
anticipation of Yom Yerushalayim.
Our students will spend
Shabbat in the Old City
of Jerusalem, and will
have the opportunity
to daven in their choice
of synagogues, in addition
to a yeshiva-wide Kabbalat
Shabbat at the Kotel.
The shabbaton will also
include a tour, a guest
speaker, and shiurim
by Rav Arram, who, along
with his family, is joining
our students for Shabbat.

Note
to all our alumni, friends,
and family: if you have
a simcha to announce,
please email the yeshiva
office at yeshiva@yesodei.org
so that we can include
it in our newsletter

The Living Divine
By Rabbi Scott Kahn

There are two forms of proximity to death: physical proximity and emotional proximity. The Halachah states that physical association with death results in tum’ah, ritual impurity, whereas emotional closeness to death engenders a state of aveilut, mourning. These states of being reflect a fundamental Jewish concept: that G-d is a living G-d, that life is symbolic of our ongoing connection to Him, whereas death represents the experience of His absence from our lives. The experience of the void, the inability to sense His presence, is nowhere more apparent than in the experience of death.
Accordingly, tum’ah and aveilut symbolize the gulf which sometimes appears between man and his experience of the divine.

The Kohen Gadol must always be the antithesis of such experience, for he alone may enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, and he accordingly must always exist as a symbol of G-d’s constant presence, even when He is not apparent. For this reason the Torah in Parashat Emor forbids the Kohen Gadol from approaching a dead body – even that of his closest relatives! – and, moreover, allows him to continue his service in the Temple even after the death of any member of his family. The Kohen Gadol represents our awareness that G-d is always near, even when we sense the exact opposite.

The fourteenth of Iyar – Sunday – is the holiday of Pesach Sheni, the day when those individuals who were in a state of tum’ah on Passover and, accordingly, could not bring the korban Pesach, are offered a second chance to perform this mitzvah. Four days later – this coming Wednesday night – is the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer, the day that we celebrate the end of the period on which Rabbi Akiva’s many students died almost two thousand years ago. These two days are a celebration of the same reality represented by the Kohen Gadol: that the impurity of the past will pass away, that the period of mourning comes to an end, and the People of Israel are afforded a new opportunity to bring G-d into our lives. Death is a temporary state of being; it, too, will one day come to an end, and we will experience true eternal life, filled with the ongoing presence of G-d.

How appropriate, then, that according to the masters of Kabbalah, the week of the Omer on which both Pesach Sheni and Lag Ba’Omer occur is associated with the divine attribute of hod, or splendor, which in turn is personified by Aaron, the first and greatest Kohen Gadol. Just as the Kohen Gadol represents G-d’s eternal presence, so, too, do the days of Pesach Sheni and Lag Ba’Omer symbolize the fleeting nature of G-d’s absence. May we merit to always experience G-d’s presence in our lives, and may we recognize that every feeling of distance from G-d will one day be followed by the revelation that He was, indeed, with us all along.

After last week’s celebration
of Yom Haatzmaut, the
yeshiva got back into
high gear this week,
as our students continued
their spring zman learning.
This zman, the yeshiva
is continuing to learn
Masechet Kiddushin b’iyun,
and both shana alef bekiut
shiurim are moving forward
quickly in order to finish
Masechet Berachot in
time for the end of the
year siyum. Additionally,
our regular shiurim in
Chumash, Nach, Jewish
Philosophy, Munachim,
Torah Research Skills,
and more are continuing
apace, and everyone is
eager to get the most
out of the final five
weeks of the zman.

Last
night, Rav Wolicki gave
the sicha ruchanit on
the topic of, “Using
the Spring Zman as Preparation
for Life”. Following
the mishmar cholent and
snacks, Rav Wolicki offered
a shiur entitled, “600,000
Letters of the Torah:
Approaches to a Puzzling
Aggadata”, Rav Kahn spoke
about “Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi
Shimon bar Yochai, and
Lag BaOmer: What is the
Real Date?” (download
here), and Rav Arram
gave a shiur on “The
Life and Adventures of
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai”.

This
coming Wednesday night,
on Lag BaOmer, some of
our students will join
the hundreds of thousands
who journey to Meron
each year, while others
will enjoy the yeshiva’s
own bonfire. Next Shabbat
we will have our annual
Old City Shabbaton, in
anticipation of Yom Yerushalayim.