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These
divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: #1234 Can Your
Wife Put Your Tefilin on You? Good Shabbos!
The Mishna
(Pesachim 35a) enumerates the types of grains that can be used for making
matzah to
fulfill the mitzva
of eating matzah
on Pesach. The Gemara notes that the five grains listed in the Mishna are
an exhaustive list, implying that—for example—rice or millet, which are
not mentioned in the Mishna, cannot be used to make matzah. What is
wrong with using rice or millet? The Gemara infers a connection between chometz and matzah from the pasuk “You shall not
eat upon it chometz,
seven days you shall eat upon it matzah,
the bread of poverty…” (Devorim 16:3): That which can potentially become chometz (leavened)
is the type of grain from which we can make matzah. Rice, millet, and other grains
that are not listed in the Mishna can reach the state of sirachon (spoilage)
but they cannot reach the state of chimutz
(leavened).
This concept may
seem counterintuitive. Since we are so particular about preventing matzah from becoming
chometz,
shouldn’t we go out of our way, when baking our matzah, to
specifically use grains which do
not leaven? Why do we put ourselves in a situation where,
if the dough is not baked quickly enough, it will become chometz? With all
the difficult stringencies that are involved in baking matzah, why didn’t
the Torah sanction the use of a type of grain that will never become chometz? Why does
the Torah insist that we use a type of grain which could become chometz,
necessitating the baker to zealously guard that it does not so become?
The Tolner Rebbe
from Yerushalayim gave several drashas
when he was in Los Angeles for Parsha Bo several years ago. In one of his
drashas,
he commented that in this particular halacha
lies a great practical lesson.
Chazal teach that chometz is symbolic
of the Yetzer haRah
(evil inclination). On the other hand, matzah
is symbolic of the Yetzer
haTov (good inclination). Chometz
rises. It is puffy. It is blown up. This is symbolic of a person’s
haughtiness and passions. Matzah,
which is plain and is flat, does not rise or get blown up. It is not
haughty. It represents modesty, humility and the ability to manage with
the bare necessities of life. In other words, chometz and matzah are at the opposite ends of the
spectrum. Chometz
represents negative spiritual character traits, and matzah represents
positive spiritual character traits.
The lesson,
therefore, is that the Torah wants us to take that very thing that could
potentially become chometz
and make it into matzah.
Extending the analogy of the Yetzer
haRah and Yetzer
haTov, the Torah wants us to take that which is our Yetzer haRah (our
problems, our temptations, and our foibles) and convert it to Yetzer haTov. This
means that man’s spiritual mission is to try to work on those very
personality traits and characteristics that in the past have proven to be
his weak points. If a person is mute then he will not receive reward in
the World to Come for not speaking lashon
haRah (gossip, slander, etc.). That is not his problem. The
reason that it is not his problem is because of an unfortunate physical
disability. But nevertheless, he will not receive reward for that because
there is no challenge.
Likewise, for
example, if a person is unfortunately blind, he has no challenge of “shmiras aynayim” (guarding
his eyes) from viewing inappropriate matters. That is not his challenge.
The avodas ha’adam
(man’s spiritual challenge) is to take those very things that are areas of
spiritual weakness, where perhaps in the past he has fallen short
of the Torah’s ideals, and to conquer them and elevate them. In fact,
perhaps he will even be able to take that very thing and turn it into a dvar mitzvah.
Let the person
channel his passions—which have perhaps led him astray in the past—in a
positive direction. This is the symbolism of the chometz and the matzah. Don’t try
making matzah
out of something that cannot become chometz
anyway. That is no great accomplishment! Take something that without
careful watching and care can
become chometz.
That is the very item we turn into a “cheftza
d’mitzvah” (an entity with which a positive command is
fulfilled).
This halacha regarding
the grains with which matzah
may be baked is a metaphor for a person’s spiritual mission. We must seek
out that which has been our Yetzer
haRah and turn it into our Yetzer
haTov.
We can perhaps
relate this idea to a very peculiar Medrash (Yalkut 187) that we have
mentioned in the past. A certain Tanna fasted 85 times because he did not
understand a particular matter: Dogs are creatures which are called azei nefesh (brazen,
insolent) in Yeshaya 56:11. And yet, in Perek Shira, in which each of the
animals recites Shira
(Song of Praise) to the Ribono
shel Olam, the dogs are recorded as saying “Come let us bow
down before Hashem our G-d.” This Tanna, Rav Yeshaya, the student of Rav
Chanina ben Dosa, was very perturbed by this. How could it be that these
dogs, which possess the attribute of insolence (azus), are the ones
that recite the praise “Come let us bow down before Hashem our G-d?”
Therefore, he fasted 85 times to beseech Divine Help in understanding
this anomaly.
The Medrash relates
that a malach
(heavenly angel) came down and revealed “the secret” to him. At the time
of Yetzias Mitzrayim (the Exodus), the pasuk
says, “But against the Children of Israel a dog will not sharpen its
tongue…” (Shemos 11:7). In the merit of this ‘action,’ the dogs merited
to recite the pasuk
attributed to them in Perek Shira.
The precise point
of this Medrash is the idea mentioned above: Dogs are full of chutzpah by nature.
It is a dog’s innate nature to bark, especially when it senses that
something unusual is transpiring. For the dogs not to bark at such a time
demonstrates a tremendous conquest over their normal inclinations. The Ribono shel Olam
appreciates that. Thus, the Medrash’s point is the following: Despite the
fact that dogs are azei
nefesh, and in spite of the fact that they normally bark,
they were greatly rewarded by virtue of the fact that they conquered this
natural inclination and remained silent at the time of the Makas Bechoros
(the Plague of the First Born). We learn from dogs to people: People too
should strive for kvishas
hayetzer (conquering their evil inclination) in service of Hashem.
The Lesson of Sensitivity in Halacha
On that same visit,
the Tolner Rebbe shared another practical lesson from a different halacha as well. The
halacha is
that the Korban Pesach
(Paschal Offering) needs to be eaten “b’chaburah”
(in groups). If two different chaburahs
are eating in proximity—even in the same room—no individual is allowed to
leave his chaburah
and go to the other chaburah.
They are certainly not allowed to leave the room and go to another room to
join a different chaburah.
The Mishna
(Pesachim 86a) states that if two groups are eating in one room, one
group sitting at one table and the other group sitting at another table,
they may not even face one another. Each group must face only the people
in their own group. The halacha
is that if in fact they do turn around and face the other group, they are
no longer allowed to eat the Korban
Pesach. That is considered “eating in two different groups,”
which is a Biblical prohibition.
The Mishna allows
only one exception to this rule: A bride may turn away and eat. The
Rambam in fact codifies this law (Hilchos Korban Pesach 9:3-4). The Gemara
explains the reason for this leniency (which is also mentioned by the
Rambam). It is because the kallah
(during the first thirty days after her marriage) is embarrassed. During
the first month after her marriage, she is particularly self-conscious
and she thinks people are staring at her.
Consider the
following: On the night of the Seder,
Leil Pesach,
everyone is on a different level. We all know the importance of the mitzvos.
Unfortunately, today we do not have the Korban Pesach, but we still have a
certain seriousness and focus regarding our matzah, marror and daled kosos. We focus on properly
fulfilling these mitzvos
of the evening. We can only imagine what an elevated state people were in
during the time of the Beis
HaMikdash when everyone had a Korban Pesach at their table as well.
Do we really think
that at such a moment people would be staring at a kallah to see how
she looks or how she eats? The answer is no! So why did the kallah think that?
It was a figment of her imagination. She is embarrassed because she
THINKS people are looking at her. Therefore, she is embarrassed. Nobody
is staring at her while they are eating the Korban Pesach!
Do we need to
accommodate this figment of her imagination and let her transgress that
which would otherwise be a Biblical prohibition? Apparently, yes!
Apparently, we acquiesce to her mishugaas
(foolishness). Why is that so? What is the lesson?
The lesson is
sensitivity. We need to account for a person’s sensitivity, even though
it may be based on a figment of their imagination. If we need to be so
careful and sensitive when there is really nothing there, how much more
so must we be careful and sensitive when people ARE justifiably sensitive
about certain things.
This is an amazing
insight. We let the kallah
do something that under normal circumstances should disqualify her from
eating the Korban
Pesach, simply because of her embarrassment regarding a
non-existent phenomenon.
The Tolner Rebbe
added that we see the same principle in another halacha that is more
familiar to us. There are five things prohibited on Yom Kippur, one of
which is that a person is not allowed to wash any part of his body. There
is a dispute among the early commentaries whether anything beyond the
prohibition to eat and drink is a Biblical prohibition, but there are
those who hold that all five ‘prohibitions’ are Biblical.
If that is the
case, why does the Mishna (Yoma 8:1) allow a kallah to wash her face on Yom Kippur?
The allowance is made “so that she does not look unseemly to her (new)
husband”. Again, do we think a kallah,
within thirty days of her chuppah
is going to become ‘unseemly to her husband’ because she does not wash
her face one day? Will this cause her husband to lose interest in her and
think she is not beautiful anymore? Of course not! How do we permit a
Biblical prohibition for such a reason?
It is the same
answer. Yes, it is a figment of her imagination, but that is the way she
thinks and that is the way she is super sensitive. Since in her mind, she
is afraid she might lose her husband’s adoration, we again make an
accommodation for that.
This again is a
tremendous lesson in sensitivity. How sensitive must we be to a person’s
feelings, even when those feelings are not based on reality. How much
more so is that the case when we know that people are hurting, for
example widows, orphans, or divorced people. These are classic examples
of people who are in pain. These are realities of life. People who are in
pain or sick or beaten down are very sensitive. If we need to be
sensitive to these two kallahs—by
the Korban Pesach
and on Yom Kippur—al
achas kamah v’kamah, we must be sensitive to people whose
embarrassment is based on fact and not just fiction.
Transcribed by
David Twersky; Jerusalem DavidATwersky@gmail.com
Technical
Assistance by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD dhoffman@torah.org
This week’s write-up
is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter
Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic
portions for Parshas Bo is provided below:
- # 040 Amirah L’Akum: The “Shabbos Goy”
- # 083 The Burning Issue of Smoking
- # 131 Sephardic vs. Ashkenazic
Pronunciation Is There a Correct Way?
- # 178 Tefillin and Long Hair
- # 224 Kiddush Levanah
- # 268 The Consequence of Dropping Tefillin
or a Sefer Torah
- # 314 Chumros in Halacha
- # 358 Mezzuzah-What Is a Door?
- # 402 Doing Work on Rosh Chodesh
- # 446 The Dog In Halach
- # 490 The Lefty and Tefilin
- # 534 Rashi & Rabbeinu Ta’am’s
Tefillin
- # 578 Tefilin on Chol Hamoed
- # 622 Ya’ale V’Yovo
- # 666 Dishwashers on Shabbos
- # 710 Checking Teffilin by Computer
- # 754 Cholent on Pesach – Why Not?
- # 798 Kiddush Lavanah – Moonshine on Purim
- # 842 What Should It Be? Hello or Shalom?
- # 886 Women and Kiddush Lavana
- # 930 Eating Matzo An Entire Pesach – A
Mitzvah?
- # 973 Yaaleh Ve’yavoh
- #1017 Kiddush Levana on a Cloudy Night
- #1061 Rosh Chodesh Bentching (Bircas
Ha’chodesh)
- #1104 How Long Must You Wear Your
Tefillin?
- #1147 Hashgacha Pratis – Divine Providence
– Does It Apply To Everyone?
- #1190 Kiddush Levana Issues
- #1234 Can Your Wife Put Your Tefilin on
You?
- #1278 Oy Vey! My Tephillin Have Been Pasul
Since My Bar Mitzvah
- #1322 Chodesh Issues: Women and Kiddush
Levana; Getting Married in Last Half of Chodesh?
- #1366 I Don’t Open Bottle Caps on Shabbos,
You Do. Can I Ask You to Open My Bottle?
- #1410 Saying U’Le’Chaporas Pesha In Musaf
Rosh Chodesh In a Leap Year
- #1454 Why Don’t We Wear Tephillin at
Mincha?
- #1498 What Should You Write January 21
2022 or 1-21-22 Or Neither?
A complete
catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511,
Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail tapes@yadyechiel.org or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for
further information.
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