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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: #1237 The Case of the Sefer That Was Borrowed and Never
Returned. Good Shabbos!
The 25th of Shevat is
the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Mussar Movement.
Yeshivas Ner Yisroel is, in fact, named after Rav Yisrael Salanter, who was
the Rebbi of the Alter from Kelm, who was the Rebbi of the Alter from
Slabodka, who was the Rebbi of Ner Yisrael’s founding Rosh Yeshiva, Rav
Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman. This year is Rav Yisrael Salanter’s 140th
Yahrtzeit.
In 1983, which was
Rav Yisrael Salanter’s 100th Yartzeit, Rav Ruderman made a memorial in the
Yeshiva for Rav Yisrael Salanter. In 1883, the year of Rav Yisrael Salanter’s
passing, the 25th of Shevat was on Erev
Shabbos Kodesh, Parshas Mishpatim. There was not enough time on
Friday to do the burial, so it was delayed until Sunday, the first day of
the week of Parshas Terumah. Rav Yisrael Salanter’s disciple, the Alter
from Kelm, said the following eulogy on his teacher:
It is no coincidence
that Rav Yisrael Salanter died Erev
Shabbos Kodesh on Parshas Mishpatim. Why is that? It is because
Rav Yisrael Salanter, among other things that he preached—after all, he
founded the Mussar Movement—sought to elevate mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro (between man and his
fellow man). His goal was that the mitzvos
bein adam l’chaveiro should be viewed as importantly in the
eyes of the masses as the mitzvos
bein adam l’makom (between man and G-d).
Unfortunately, we see
that this is a common phenomenon even today. People go to great lengths in
order to fulfill mitzvos
bein adam l’makom, such as Kashrus, Lulav and Pesach, in the
most optimum way (which is all well and good). But they do not give the
same importance and the same alacrity to mitzvos
bein adam l’chaveiro.
This was Rav
Yisrael’s life mission, and that is basically the theme of Parshas
Mishpatim. At the beginning of the parsha, on the words “V’Eleh haMishpatim,”
Rashi says “Wherever we find the word Eleh
(these), it excludes or minimizes whatever preceded it. However, when the
word Eleh is
preceded by a vov—as
in v’Eleh haMishpatim—the
intent is to append what follows to whatever was mentioned prior.” The
lesson, then, of the words “V’Eleh
haMishpatim” is that just as the Aseres Hadibros (Ten
Commandments), which were taught at the end of Parshas Yisro, were given at
Mt. Sinai, so too the civil mitzvos
in Parshas Mishpatim were all given at Sinai as well. In the eyes of the Ribono shel Olam,
there is no difference between Mitzvos
that are bein adam
l’makom and mitzvos
that are bein adam
l’chaveiro.
Parshas Mishpatim is
all about how to deal with people—how to deal with their cows, how to deal
with their cars, and how to treat people. All these mitzvos are literally
as important as the mitzvos
bein adam l’makom.
Therefore, the Alter from Kelm said that the timing of the passing of Rav
Yisrael Salanter in the week of Parshas Mishpatim was very appropriate.
The Alter from Kelm
added that the funeral itself took place on Sunday, at the beginning of the
week of Parshas Terumah because Parshas Terumah discusses the construction
of the Aron Kodesh, which
houses the Luchos.
This was very appropriate, because Rav Yisrael Salanter himself was like an
Aron Kodesh
and the Luchos haBris
were deposited within his personality as well.
I would like to share
another hesped
which Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon said on his Rebbi, the Alter from
Slabodka. Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon was the Lomza Rosh Yeshiva in
Poland. People from Baltimore remember Rabbi Samson who was a disciple of
Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon. Rav Gordon eulogized the Alter from Slabodka
as follows:
Why does Parshas
Mishpatim begin with the mitzva
of Eved Ivri
(the Hebrew indentured servant) given that the laws of Eved Ivri would not be
applicable until the laws of Yovel
(Jubilee Year) would be in practice, which was totally not relevant for
that generation? Was there nothing more practical to teach them at this
particular point in history?
Rav Yechiel Mordechai
Gordon said that the Torah is sending us a message here. How someone treats
a Jew is how one treats a Hebrew slave. A person must recognize that an Eved Ivri is not from
the most elegant strata of Jewish society. He is a thief. Not only is he a
thief, he is not a very wealthy thief, because if he was a wealthy thief
then he would be able to pay back his theft. The reason he is sold into
slavery is because he has nothing with which to repay his debt to society.
So he is the lowest rung of society and yet, if we study how we need to
treat such an individual (Rambam Laws of Slavery, Chapter 1), we become
very enlightened:
We are not permitted
to sell him in a slave market.
We cannot impose upon
him avodas perech
(back-breaking labor).
We need to provide
him the same food, clothing, and living conditions as we do to family
members.
All this prompts the
Gemara to say, “Someone who buys a Hebrew slave, in effect, buys a master
for himself.” (Kiddushin 20a).
This is how we need
to treat a thief! So this is what Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon said about
his Rebbi, the Alter from Slabodka, who was a talmid of the Alter from Kelm, who was a talmid of Rav Yisrael
Salanter: The opening pesukim
of Parshas Mishpatim are not just teaching how to treat a Hebrew slave,
they are teaching how to treat everyone, because we are all—even the lowest
of society—created btzelem
Elokim, and must be treated as such.
That is why Parshas
Mishpatim, which is the source of so many mitzvos bein adam l’chaveiro,
begins with, of all people, Eved
Ivri. If even an Eved
Ivri needs to be treated such, how much more so does a person
need to treat his neighbor, his friend, or anyone else with dignity and
honor.
Rav Yechiel Mordechai
Gordon had lived in Lomza. He lost his family in Europe, and then moved to
New York and remarried. After he was in New York for a while, he went to
Eretz Yisrael and was a Rosh Yeshiva in a Yeshiva in Petach Tikva with Rav
Reuvain Katz.
I saw in a sefer that Rav
Gordon’s nephew came from Eretz Yisrael to America to visit his uncle. The
nephew sent a telegram that he would be arriving about midnight. As it
turned out he did not arrive at midnight. He arrived at 3:00 am. He was
about to walk into the house when he noticed that his uncle (who was not a
young man at the time) was waiting outside for him. He was shocked. He told
his uncle, “You could have gone to sleep. You could have just left the door
unlocked or left a note on the door saying where the key was. Why was in
necessary for you to wait up for me until three o’clock in the morning?”
Rav Yechiel Mordechai
Gordon answered, “It is because I wanted to make sure I told you something
before you met my wife. I want you to call her ‘Tanta‘ (Auntie).” Rav Gordon was the
young man’s uncle but his second wife was technically not his aunt. Rav
Gordon said, “She is so good to me and she takes such good care of me that
I want her to feel part of the family. Don’t call her Mrs. Gordon and don’t
call her by her name. Call her ‘Tanta‘
so that she can feel part of the mishpacha!”
Rav Yechiel Mordechai
Gordon was yafeh doresh v’yafeh mekayem (he expounded beautifully, and he
practiced what he preached). He talked the talk, and he walked the walk.
All of us can preach about how you need to treat your fellow man with
sensitivity, etc. etc. But listen to his sensitivity. He stayed up until
3:00 am to head his nephew off at the pass, so to speak, to instruct him
how to talk to Rebbetzin Gordon with sensitivity. “Call her ‘Tanta’ so she
will feel part of the family.”
That is the Torah of
Parshas Mishpatim. That is the Torah of Rav Yisrael Salanter, the Alter
from Kelm, the Alter from Slabodka, and that is our heritage as well. This
is what the Rosh Yeshiva, zt”l, ((1900-1987)) always used to preach.
I remember that Rav
Ruderman used to tell the following incident, which took place in his
boyhood home of Dauhinava (Minsk). He remembers as a child: It was Hoshanna
Rabbah, the chazzan
went to the Amud
to begin to daven,
but the shames
forgot to bring the kittel
which is customarily worn by the chazzan
on Hoshannah Rabbah. The President of the shul (or whoever it was) went
over to the shames
and made him feel like an idiot. (“How could you be such a schlemiel? Everyone
knows the chazzan
needs to have a kittel
when he davens Mussaf
on Hoshannah Rabbah)! The shames
felt lower than dirt.
Rav Ruderman
commented: Think about it. Wearing a kittel
is a minhag b’alma
(mere custom). Embarrassing someone in public is an issur diyoraysa! It is
far more severe. Of course, a person’s prayers will be accepted without the
kittel just
as much as they will be accepted with the kittel. How must this shames have felt when
he went home after davening that day. He was humiliated in front of the
whole shul!
This is our problem,
the Rosh Yeshiva used to say. We may act like the custom of the chazzan wearing a kittel on Hoshanna
Rabbah overrides all Torah prohibitions. But embarrassing a fellow Jew—who
cares about that? This is something the Rosh Yeshiva learned from the Alter
from Slabodka, who learned it from the Alter from Kelm, who learned it from
Rav Yisrael Salanter, who learned it from Parshas Mishpatim.
Edited by David
Twersky; Jerusalem DavidATwersky@gmail.com
Edited 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 Mishpatim is provided below:
- # 043 Malpractice
- # 086 Withholding Medical Treatment
- # 134 Hashovas Aveida: Returning Lost
Objects
- # 181 Medicine, Shabbos, and the Non-Jew
- # 227 Taking Medication on Shabbos
- # 271 Experimental Medical Treatment
- # 317 Wrecking a Borrowed Car
- # 361 Bankruptcy
- # 405 Litigating in Secular Courts
- # 449 Is Gambling Permitted
- # 493 Bitul B’rov
- # 537 Losing Your Coat at a Coat Check
- # 581 Lending Without Witnesses
- # 625 The Kesuba
- # 669 Rabbinical Contracts
- # 713 Adam Hamazik & Liability Insurance
- # 757 Midvar Sheker Tirchak: True or False?
- # 801 Oy! My Wallet Went Over Niagara Falls
- # 845 Is Hunting a Jewish Sport?
- # 889 The Neighbor Who Forgot To Turn Off
The Fire
- # 933 The Mitzvah of Lending Money
- # 976 Will Any Doctor Do?
- # 1020 The Potato Baked in a Fleishig Pan –
With Butter or Margarine?
- # 1064 The Doctor That Erred
- # 1107 5772 or 2012 What Should It Be?
- # 1150 Taking State Farm To Beis Din
- # 1193 “Dayan, If You Know What’s Good For
You, Rule In My Favor”
- # 1237 The Case of the Sefer That Was
Borrowed and Never Returned
- # 1282 Treating Ebola Patients; The Har Nof
Massacre and Kidney Donations
- # 1325 Finding a $20 Bill in Shul / Finding
A Comb in a Mikvah: Can You Keep It?
- # 1369 Lending Money Without Receiving an
IOU Slip – Is It Mutar?
- # 1413 Reinstituting the Sanhedrin in Our
Day and Age?
- # 1457 Milchig Bread and the Bimbo Bakery
Controversy
- # 1501 My Neighbor’s Son Threw a Ball
Through My Front Window – Who Pays?
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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