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According to the Rav Abarbanel and Maasei Hashem they should have not publicized their findings as they were responsible to Moshe Rabbenu sending them as it says shelach ‘lecha’. They also emphasized the negative by saying good but bad rather than saying bad but good. The Rav Malbim explains the difference between ויתורו and וירגלו. The original intention of Moshe Rabbenu was that each shevat should look at the positive qualities, what they like. This was the reason why each shevat was sent. However, they switched their mission looking for bad qualities, what they didn’t like. Moshe Rabbenu wanted them to realize that they need the help of Hashem and they cannot conquer EY by themselves because they are strong.
I asked the above question from Rav Shafran, as Korach argued that everyone is holy, so what makes him better than anyone else? He told me that when one has self interest they will not argue logically.
We got the greatest brachas from Bilam which we would have never gotten. Hashem showed His great love to us by reversing Bilom’s curses to blessings. Hashem wanted to show that Bilom accomplished with his curses the opposite. The speaking of the donkey reflects this. Even a donkey can speak when Hashem wants it to. Bilom was only able to speak what Hashem wanted him to say. Hashem can give water from the rock, blessings from the wicked.
When you believe that you are right like Korach and Zimri over here, you will never do teshuva,
The Ksav Sofer needs some explanation what tragedy personally struck them? When Moshe Rabbenu was passing away, the Jews realized that life is temporary and even a tzadik does not live forever, so it reminded them of their day of demise. Therefore, it brought them to teshuva by willing to accept mussar more easily.
We are not suppose have a king ככל הגוים, like other nations but the king keeps the Torah in front of him to know how to lead as Chasam Sofer explains וקרא בו כל ימי חייו, his life behavior he should read from the Torah.
By wanting a king it says ככל הגוים, like other nations but when placing a king, שום תשים עלך מלך, you can get a king but not to be like other nations.
The Mitzriyim elevated Yosef and provided a haven for Yaakov Avinu.
The Kli Yokor at the end of parashas Vayigash explains that, the reason for the suffering and enslavement was because the Jews forgot an important lesson that must be remembered in diaspora. We must constantly keep in mind that we are strangers in a strange land. Moishe Rabbenu constantly kept this in mind, and therefore the G-d of his father was constantly helping him. This was the lesson that Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to teach us through the naming of his children. The Jews wanted to become part of the Egyptian establishment. They forgot that they came to Egypt just as a temporary dweller, who is fleeing his problems temporarily by escaping to a strange land. They became rich and acquired land. They built on it fancy houses which the Egyptians resented.
When we give something on behalf of something else than the second thing for which the first thing is given is more beloved than the first. We bring bikurim to show that Hashem is more beloved than the first fruits, which is much loved as the first dollar earned, is being sacrificed in His name by our recognizing all He has given to us. This is also the reason that we show recognition at the Hagaddah for Hashem taking us out from Mitzraim by saying the same pesukim.
The Rabbenu Bachaya sasys that the center rules. The mouth should follow the heart and the actions should also follow it especially for teshuva.
Maybe both are true as it says with the mouth indicating learning where by the heart only one forgets and actions indicating teshuva where the mouth alone is not enough and the heart is also required.
It does not say kovato torah leitim, to set the Torah to the times but kovato itim latorah, set the times to the Torah. A man bought a small hat, so he went to the goldsmith to squeeze his head to make it fit to the hat rather than expand the hat to make it fit to his head. We don’t change the Torah to make it fit to the times.
Moshe Rabbenu was like the above by having a special ability to lower himself to everyone’s level when teaching the Torah. He lost this strength now שנסתמו ממנו מעינות החכמה, the water flow of his wisdom became closed him.
If I understood you correctly, the last pshat from Rav Ilan ,is a good tzu-shtel to what you wrote. Piska Tuva
We read toward the end of Parashat Vayelekh (31:28) of Moshe’s instruction to the Leviyim to assemble the nation’s leaders so he could present to them the poem of Ha’azinu. Rashi, citing the Midrash Tanchuma, raises the question of why the chatzotzerot (trumpets) were not used for this purpose. As we know from Sefer Bamidbar (10:1-10), Moshe was instructed to make two silver chatzotzerot which the kohanim would blow on certain occasions, including to announce the assembly of the entire nation or its leadership. Seemingly, if Moshe wanted to summon the nation’s elders, he should have had the kohanim sound the chatzotzerot. Rashi explains that the chatzotzerot were not used because they were buried that day. The trumpets were not left for Yehoshua, Moshe’s successor, and they buried on the day of Moshe’s death – even before he died – as an expression of the concept, “ein shilton be-yom ha-mavet” (Kohelet 8:8), meaning, that even the most powerful figures forfeit their authority in the face of death. Thus, when Moshe summoned the elders, his chatzotzerot had already been buried, and Yehoshua was not yet the nation’s leader, and so his chatzotzerotcould not be used.
Rav David Mandelbaum, in his Pardeis Yosef He-chadash, presents three possible reasons for why Moshe’s chatzotzerot were not handed down to his successor. First, Rav Mandelbaum suggests a halakhic reason, noting that Moshe had the formal halakhic status of a king. (The issue of Moshe’s status as king is discussed at length earlier in the Pardeis Yosef He-chadash – Bamidbar, vol. 1, pp. 376-7.) The Gemara in Masekhet Sanhedrin (44a) establishes that after a king’s death, his scepter may not be used, even by his successor. And the Rambam (Hilkhot Melakhim 2:1) rules that all the king’s personal items are destroyed after his death. For this reason, perhaps, Moshe’s trumpets had to be discarded, and were not to be used, even by his successor, Yehoshua.
In a much different vein, Rabbenu Bechayei, in his commentary to Parashat Beha’alotekha (Bamidbar 10:2), writes that the sounds blown by thechatzotzerot were actually expressions of profound wisdom, which only Moshe, through his unparalleled prophetic capabilities, could understand. The chatzotzerot made by Moshe were buried, and not used by anybody else, as an indication that only he was capable of understanding the deep messages conveyed by the sounds of the trumpets.
Finally, Rav Mordechai Ilan, in his Mikdash Mordekhai, views the burial of the chatzotzerot as expressing the notion that each leader uses different “instruments” in proclaiming the immutable messages of the Torah. Moshe’s chatzotzerot were not used because leaders should not necessarily look to mimic the precise methods and strategies used by their predecessors. While the laws and values remain the same from one generation to the next – just as the precise same sounds were blown with every set of trumpets in every generation – the “instruments” used by leaders and educators to communicate those laws and values must be altered and modified to suit the needs of each particular age. Yehoshua was, without doubt, to transmit the same Torah as taught by Moshe; however, he was to use different “chatzotzerot,” different tools and media to convey the Torah. Moshe’s trumpets were therefore buried on the day he died, to teach that each leader must choose the means of communication that best suits him and the particular needs of his generation.
The Haflaah explains the passage הכהן אשר יהי’ בימים ההם, each Rav is chosen for the need of his generation. The generation declined at the time of Yehoshua. The elderly realized that Moshe Rabbenu was greater when he was Yehushua’s age. Moshe Rabbenu was like the sun an Yeshuah like the moon where Yehoshua was acquiring the light from the sun. The trumpets required a different sound for the next generation.
We should see the Torah daily as something new like a kallah encouraging the striving to learn and not get tired of it. It says morasha, an inheritance but we should read it as morasa, an engagement.
To learn Torah and arrive at the truth through questions and answers requires unity קהלת יעקב. The Taz O’CH 47,1 explains our bracha on the Torah לעסוק בדברי תורה to make it a business of give and take.
It says אשר ברא אלקים לעשות, Hashem wanted us to build on His creation.
The midrash says that תהו is Bavel, ובהו is Media and וחשך is Greece ורוח אלקים מרחפת על םני המים Meshiach will arrive when Torah (water) will persist.
I think the Ibn Ezra and the Kli Yakar.
Here is the source from
Rav Chaim PaltielRav Chaim Paltiel (Peirushei HaTorah LeRav Chaim Paltiel, Bereishis 2:3) explains the pasuk and its switch of tense in a way that dovetails with our discussion. Hashem wants man to be a partner in the creative process, to be devoted to recreating himself into an improved and better person. The Torah writes that Hashem stopped doing all His work “asher bara,” that He had created, in order for us to be the ones “laasos,” to do and continue where He left off, making us, in a real sense, partners in creation.
I believe the following would be a good tzu-shtel and the flip side of what Reb Moshe wrote.
1rst Half Idea – We Learn From Tohu Vavohu To Hard Work And Meet Potential
The second verse of Bereishi famously describes the state of the earth pre-creation as tohu va-vohu. This term is generally translated as “chaos,” but Rashi interprets it to mean “astonishingly void.” In his view, bohu denotes emptiness or nothingness, while tohu stems from the root t.h.h., which means wonderment or astonishment. Rashi thus explains, “…that a person is bewildered and astonished over its [the world’s] bohu.” The sheer nothingness of the universe causes – in retrospect – bewilderment and shock.
Rav Moshe Feinstein ( Kol Ram, vol. 3) raised the question as to whether the earth’s primordial state of nothingness is indeed cause for astonishment. One could argue that to the contrary, creation far surpasses pre-creation in terms of the marvel and wonder it evokes. The more a person probes and examines the intricate workings of nature, the more he marvels at the brilliance of the Creator. Why, then, does Rashi speak of the pre-creation nothingness as a source of astonishment? Shouldn’t we be more astonished by the wonder of creation?
Rav Moshe suggested that Rashi’s comments work off the assumption that nothing could be more jarring and mystifying than unfulfilled potential. Once the world has come into existence, in all its majesty and splendor, one can only wonder how it once did not exist. When we consider what could be achieved, we are astonished when that achievement is not reached.
The practical implication of this insight, as Rav Moshe discusses, is obvious: each person must strive not merely to achieve, but to achieve to very fullest of his individual potential. As Rashi’s comments suggest, there is no greater tragedy than wasted opportunities and unfulfilled potential; it thus behooves us all to work towards actualizing our individual potential to the fullest, rather than allow these valuable resources go to waste.
2nd Half Idea – We also learn from Tohu Vavohu that Meeting Potential Is A Prosses Paved With Failures.
tohu va’vohu is part of the process of creation
1. The opening of Braishis is the story of creation. Why then are we treated to the introduction of “v’ha’aretz haysa tohu va’vohu,” a description of the pre-creation void? B’shlama if you interpret the pesukim like Ramban, namely, that tohu va’vohu is some kind of building block matter necessary for all else to be created, then I guess it makes sense. But according to Rashi, who understands tohu va’vohu to simply be a void and chaos, why mention it? If you were to describe an artist at work, you would talk about the brushstrokes on the canvas, not the blank canvas that was there before he started to paint. Why talk about what was there before G-d started making our world and the universe?
Sefas Emes explains that the Torah / Hashem is teaching us about how to create, what creativity means. The artist doesn’t just sit down and produce a great work of art, a great piece of literature. There are dozens of prior sketches that are first tested and discarded, dozens of drafts that don’t make it further than the trash bin. Hashem was “birei olamos u’machrivan.” At first there was tohu va’vohu. This is not pre-creation — this gufa is part of the process of creation. Every act of creation, growth, advancement, always first starts with chaos and void.
It’s difficult as a parent when your kids are growing up and sometimes it seems like they have no idea what direction that are going in or what direction they want to go in and you wonder why they just can’t get on with it and mature. Yet this is the Sefas Emes — you can’tget the “ye’hi ohr” without first having a little “tohu va’vohu.” And it doesn’t just apply to kids either :
Yaakov Avinu dreamt that a ladder is extended from the ground to the heaven and the angels climb up and down. The Ksav Sofer sees this as the potential of the human being to climb from the ground to the heavens being above or below the malachim, angels. We must sanctify the mundane. The mizbeach is made from the mundane and we sanctify it.
The Ramban says that since Sarah chotoh, sinned by afflicting Hagar therefore we will be afflicted by the Yishmaelim. The Abarbanel questions that Sarah by afflicting her forced to follow her teachings, so why did she sin? Also, the malach says go back and continue to get afflicted. When one eats garlic and mouth smells is not told to eat more. Maybe, the word chotoh can also mean to err, make a mistake. The gemora says that a Jewish servant if not behaving properly is allowed to be afflicted. Sarah Imenu, if not afflicting Hagar, could have given us an excuse to say that Sarah could have afflicted Hagar but she didn’t. Therefore we should not be punished when we don’t behave properly.
The Baal Haturim on the connection between the end of Chayeh Sarah and the beginning of Toldos explains that Meshiach will come when Yishmael falls so Hashem will stop our affliction before Meshiach can come.
It strengthens the belief by actually uttering or doing it as it says heemanti ki adaber as in the Hagaddah Shel Pesach. The starting letters are שפה, the lips. One thing to want to do it and another to actually do it.
When we examine Rashi we see that maybe Rashi meant something else. Rashi says that Sarah Imeinu died when she heard that כמעט ‘שלא’ נשחט he was not sacrificed. It should have said that she heard that he was almost sacrificed. When Sarah Imeinu heard that Yitzchak was not sacrificed, she taught that she was at fault by her upbringing him improperly thereby making him not worthy to be sacrificed, so she died. The Sifsei Chachamim explains that the meaning might be, before they had the the time to tell her that he was not sacrificed she died. The midrash asks where did Avraham come from? The Midrash answers from Har Hamoria. The meforshim explain that the question is what was his eulogy’s inspiration? To demonstrate that Sarah Imeinu raised a son who was great and worthy to be sacrificed on Har Hamoria.
He was not transparent but said one thing with his mouth and another thing he kept in his heart. The Yad Yosef in Yoma 9 explains sinas chinam as hatred that is kept in the heart. When one has a good excuse for hatred, will reveal the hatred to another in order he could apologize. However, hatred like jealousy is not revealed as it is not accepted as a justifiable reason.
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