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kapusta: thank you! nah no competition here pal! 😉
72: can ya choose a Karbon for Wednesday’s DT?!
Hold it. I might be able to help you guys out.
Morah mepal’s DT for the night.
I hope this is the kind of stuff you guys like. I’m not a big follower of this thread.
Behaloscha (Numbers 8-12)
Fulfilled Desires
Imagine if we lived in a world where all our desires were fulfilled. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Well, maybe we do live in a world like that.
In Numbers 8:2 Aaron HaKohen is commanded to light the holy menorah in the Tabernacle. This is juxtaposed to the preceding passage dealing with the consecration, “chanukah” in Hebrew, of the Tabernacle by the leaders of the tribes. The kohanim, not being an official tribe, were excluded from this ceremony. And even though the entire Temple service belongs to Aaron and his descendants, still he felt left out and disappointed.
The commentaries explain that this juxtaposition was God’s way to hint to Aaron that he and his descendants would always be associated with a different “chanukah-consecration” that was destined to come about years later in the times of the struggle against the Greeks. The symbol of that “chanukah” we know as the lighting of a menorah in the home, reminiscent of the miracle done through the menorah at the time of the Hasmoneans.
So strong was Aaron’s desire to be a part of the consecration of the Temple, that God fulfilled his desire at a later time. We can’t change reality. If it wasn’t meant to be that Aaron be involved in the original consecration, nothing can be done. But a strong desire for spirituality, when it comes from the heart, will be fulfilled somehow, sometime. Aaron was compensated for his yearning, albeit centuries later through his descendants.
* * *
WHAT IS YOUR DESIRE?
Rabban Gamliel said, “Make His desire like it was your desire, so that He’ll make your desire His desire.” (Avot 2:4)
It is the desire of the Almighty that we reach the greatest heights of spiritual accomplishment. Whenever you have a spiritual aspiration, you are making God’s will your will. Whenever you pray for the welfare of humanity, for universal consciousness of His presence, or for others to be happy and healthy, you are making His will your will.
Every prayer that goes up to Heaven may not get answered the way we want it to, not in the time or place we want it to, but it doesn’t just dissipate into the atmosphere. That’s not how the spiritual realm works. Every prayer, every good desire, gets logged in and inevitably has some effect. The heavenly balance of justice demands it.
* * *
SKY’S THE LIMIT (EVEN HIGHER)
Infinity is a hard thing to grasp. Our mind is finite, so we have limited ability to understand the infiniteness of the Almighty. But our abilities and desires are entwined with His. If He has unlimited capacity to fulfill His own desires, and we make our desires His desires, then we have unlimited capacity in our own life. Obviously, the way God created the universe leaves us generally speaking with natural limitations at every turn, but that need not leave us in a realm completely circumspect by gravity and other “laws” of nature.
We are cautioned by our Sages not to rely on a miracle, but miracles small and large do occur constantly. Sometimes they are seen, sometimes not.
When it comes to our ability to grow spiritually, we, more likely than not, sell ourselves way too short. If the Almighty wills it, is there anything you couldn’t accomplish?
Take a good look at your personality, your yearning for spiritual growth. How strong is it? Do you assess your potential to become holy and righteous on your past deeds and the strength of your yearning? “I’m just not designed to be like Abraham or Moses, Sarah or Rivka,” some people think.
Well, guess what: Who do you think made you the way you are? God commands you to be holy, so you must have it in you. And if you don’t, you can pray for Him to give you more potential. Chances are if you’re built like Danny DeVito, you’re not going to become the size of Shaquille O’Neal. Yet spiritual potential can and will change if you desire it badly enough, and if you pray hard enough. It won’t be just your desire; it will be the desire of God.
[On a side note, look at Numbers 11:4 and 11:18 to see how negative desires are also fulfilled, but in an unpleasant way. We have to be very careful about our desires. As the sages say, “For the one who comes to purify himself, we come to his assistance; for the one who comes to impurify himself, we open the door.”]
(credits: aish.com)
Hey! you could’ve just saved it for tomorrow night! you’re loss 😉
LOSS??? this was a tremendous gain!!! 2 great DT’s is far from a loss! :o) YW Moderator-72
mepal & ames to the rescue 🙂 nice ones, thanks
72: maybe i shouldn’t have given you such a big cup of coffee, you’ve started using too many !!!!
But what are you gonna do about tomorrow night? Can I email you a DT tonight (since I have time and access) that you can post tomorrow? Or was it taken yet? Not quite sure how this thread works.
but if it has to do with the parsha, there’s only one more night to the week. Is thurs taken already? (like i said, not sure how this works)
that much I got 😉
I actually found something else on the Parsha. But its ok, maybe another time.
hey tomorrow we hear from nooseisko 🙂
you can do one too, mepal. it’s minimum one person a night. you can post a DT whenever you want.
Fine. So if the CR chevra really want 2 tomorrow, I’ll send something in.
mepal, nice to see you on this thread! nice DT!!!
mepal: very nice peice! welcome to the DT thread/the CR Bais Medrash! 😉
ames: beautiful! nice to see your still hooked on fishy topics! 😉
Hope u guys didn’t lose faith in me!!!!! i just didnt have a chance to reply, but thanks for all the comments!!!!
here goes this weeks feable attempt ( sorry….. its on shlach)
If we were ever presented with a nisayon like the one the meraglim went through, we would DEF pass it! right? i mean there is no chance in the world that we could far so far, so fast, right? i’m sure these r pretty much the thoughts that go thru all of our (i.e. MY) mind when we read shlach every year, and as a result we end up looking down at the entire dor hamidbar, and obviously at the meraglim who were their leaders, we conclude that there is nothing for us to really learn out of this episode (besides for the fact that ppl had weird names back then), and we just look elsewhere for inspiration (k, i might’ve exaggerated a bit, but let’s call it poetic license)
So what really went on back then? how can we actually make sense of the whole episode?
Firstly, let’s present the question very clearly, and then build it up, so that when we give the answer (which quite frankly is a very very simple, and yesodosdik answer) we will be able to see how the huge balloon we inflated POPS in 1 swift prick of a needle (k, i think i took the whole poetic thing a bit too far…..sowwy)
First attempt is to say that they honestly thought that (r”l) hashem didn’t have to power to take them in, and to that we say- hashem had made it very clear that the entire point of yeztiyas mitzrayim, and ALL the nissim which came along with it was so that bnet yisroel should receive the torah and the proceed to go into eretz yisroel. Would hashem really go thru all that trouble if he didn’t have an exact plan of how to get them in? Giants u say? the mitzrim were considered the world superpower at the time, and it didn’t really seem to bother hashem! he already showed that he was quite versatile with his powers, he beat the mitzrim on land, in the sea. u name it, and so why should these nations be any different? so there must have been something else going on!
And so, rashi tells us that there was indeed something else going on, the meraglim were scared that once they come into eretz yisroel they will loose their stature, they would lose their position. Huh? how could such a thing actually get the meraglim to do what they did????? so they would lose their position, that gives them the right to doom the entire nation? where is the logic in that? at least they should have had a plan B…….um let’s go back to mitzrayim, no no no no lets stay in the midbar FOREVER!!! once again totally nonsensical, and true ppl become corrupted when it comes to power, but we r not dealing with stam any ppl, these were the leaders (sarey chamishim, but nonetheless sarim!!!) of the jewish nation, so once again…….WHAT’S GOING ON?
Now, lets move on to the whole nation, what were they thinking???? after all they went thru? “ro’aso shifcha al hayam, ma shelo ra’a ben buzi” (i just LOVE the hebrish!), they had just gone through months of daily nisim, so what if there r 7 nations?
It goes like this. In reality (that is the real reality and not the olam hasheker “reality” which we seem to keep on thinking is the real one, “forcing” hashem to slap us every once in a while to wake us up… did anyone say financial crisis???) we never ever have a chance to beat the yetzer hora…EVER, the only way we ever do is with the help of hashem, he literally holds our hand and walks us through the nisayon, true we have to WANT to pass the nisayon and try as hard as we can, but at the end of the day, if it wasn’t for the help of hahsem we just wouldn’t have a chance.
Why were the meraglim sent? cuz the nation ask for ’em to be sent, they had a slip up in emunah, and they thought that they were the ones that would really be fighting the battle, and so they needed a PLAN, when in fact it was a situation of “hashem yilachem lachem ve’atem tacharishun” (i wasn’t actually gonna write that but it was the hebrish within that got me to do it!), as we see actually happened in yericho, and with the tzirah etc.
And so in affect (never sure if i get the right one) what bney yisroel were telling hashem was, “this one is on us”, we can take care of this one, hashem can take the day off, and the great jewish minds will figure out how to take care of these 7 nations….. and so, “bederech she’adam rotze leylech” (last one, i promise!!!). hashem let go…..
That was that, the second hashem let go, the second hashem left it up to us, we didn’t stand a chance of going through with it, true it made no sense, true with bney yisroels track record there was no reason for them to be scared, true the nations were petrified of us, just go through az yashir, just look at where the girgashi got their name from, but they chose to go on their own and so they stood no chance and they knew it……… (now all u wise aleks will be saying that if bney yisroel really had no chance then lemayse they did nothing wrong, cuz if they would have gone to fight in that situation [as did the ma’apilim] they would have lost, true but all they had to do was teshuva, and bring hashem “back” into the mix, and everything would have been fine and dandy…..)
SO…… do da (get it? dooda) meraglim have to do with us or not? how many times in our lives to we think that we r in a position to “take over”, we tell hashem to take a back seat and think we can handle things on our own……..IT WILL NEVER WORK!!! even the smallest most generic nisayon will be totally unpassable (not a real word? well then write it down…. and it will be!) if we try going “solo”. so just………DON’T
nooseisko: thanks 🙂 that was great
thanks, mepal
wish you could be here to post in person 🙁
nooseisko: outstanding! brilliant DT! i love your style of writing! keep em coming every Thursday please! it was so entertaining reading it!
Thanks 72 for posting.
AOB, I was here in spirit!
I received this e-mail from Jaymatt
Gut Voch to all,
Don’t ask, but I can only e-mail, so Mod-39 and Mod-72, whomever gets this 1st kindly post this for me.
In Parshas Shelach, We see that the Miraglim are told to search to analyze the trees and the fruits. Being that this passuk is phrased rather oddly, Rashi uses it to learn out that tree means an Adam Gadol. I saw in the Tallelei Oros (forgot who said it) asking how to learn the passuk according to Rashi.
Rashi says that the spies were sent to discover the nature of the fruit, and in what merit they grow that way. If the spies found tzaddikim in the land, then they could conclude that it’s in the z’chus of the tzaddikim which created wonderful fruit. However, if they found wonderful huge fruit without any tzaddikim, then it must be that the land itself is blessed.
Yasher Koach Mod for posting
JayMatt: great vort! we miss you here!
72, I’ll take sunday or monday (whichever you prefer) if I can do it as a zchus to do well on my regents. 🙂
You have been assigned Monday
Parshas Shelach (and also on Davening)
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The Meshech Chachma asks why here, by the miraglim, Moshe only says Hashem once, yet by the eygel, Moshe says Hashem twice.
The Meshech Chachma responds that we say Hashem twice, once for the action and once for the thoughts. We need teshuva for our evil thoughts, and we need an additional teshuva for the actions which are a result of said thoughts.
By the eygel, there was a need for two types of teshuva, one for the thoughts of avoda zara, and one for the action of idolatry. By the miraglim, however, there was no actual action. Klal Yisroel as a whole only committed an aveira via thoughts, not actions.Therefore only one type of teshuva was needed, thus Moshe only davened for that teshuva, so he only needed to say Hashem once.
Jaymat, nice explanation!
JayMatt19: very nice one! thank you!
Mussar HaTorah
[Moshe] said [to Yisro]
chofetzchaim: beautiful DT! keep em coming!
Heres my DT for monday:
CHICKEN YIDDLE
Volume 3 Issue 39
by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
“The sky is falling!” they shouted. Well not quite, but when the ten spies who went to examine the Land of Israel brought back tales of horrific stories of mighty and formidable enemies they threw a confident nation into sheer terror. It is almost inconceivable that a nation that saw a sea split and Egypt humbled would shirk in utter terror — because of reports of giants and fortified cities in their new country. The Medrash details the episode. Upon returning to the Jewish camp the ten spies dispersed amongst their own families and began to bemoan their fate. “Woe is to us!” they cried. “Our daughters will be taken captive, our sons murdered, and our possessions looted!”
Neighbor to neighbor, the tales spread, and within hours, the entire nation was in a rebellious uproar, ignoring the positive reports that Calev and Yehoshua brought back. They even besieged Moshe, demanding to return to Egypt.
The Torah details the Jews’ mordant reaction to the malicious tales of gloom. Yet, it seems that it was not the tales of fortified cities or the sight of mutated-looking giant fruits or even the actual giants themselves that caused the Jews to lament. The way the story is related, the actual wailing and rebellion occurred only after an interesting detail. The spies described the giant men whom they encountered and the way they felt during that experience. “And there we saw the sons of giants; we felt in our own eyes like grasshoppers next to them” (Numbers 13:33). Immediately, the next verse tells us, “The entire assembly raised up their voices and wept that night, saying if only we had died in the land of Egypt or in the wilderness!” (Numbers 14:1-3) It seems that the final words of the spies, “we felt in our own eyes like grasshoppers next to them,” set up this tragic and futile reaction. Why?
My brother, Rabbi Zvi Kamenetzky, a rebbe in Skokie Yeshiva, loves telling the following story:
Yankel, one of Warsaw’s poorer folk, received a first-class train ticket from a wealthy cousin to visit him in Lodz. Yankel arrived at the station clutching his ticket tightly. He never took a train before and had no idea where to go. He spotted some well-dressed individuals and just knew he was not sitting with them. Then in the far corner of the waiting room he noticed a group of vagrants with packs on their shoulders, their eyes shifting back and forth. Yankel meandered toward them, figuring that their place was his. The first class passengers began to board but the vagrants still waited. All of a sudden, the whistle blew and the train began to move. The vagabonds quickly jumped aboard the baggage car, Yankel following in pursuit. He slithered into the dark car and lay with them underneath a pile of suitcases, still clutching his ticket in fear. He endured the bumps and heat of the baggage car and figured that such was his fate until the door of the baggage compartment flew open and a burly conductor flanked by two policemen entered. They began moving suitcases and bags until they spotted poor Yankel and some of his new-found friends cowering in a corner.
The large conductor loomed over them and asked with a sneer in his voice, “can I see your tickets?”
Yankel looked up from his coat to see the officers staring at him. He emerged from the group, shaking, and presented the sweat-infused ticket that he had been clutching ever so tightly during the entire ordeal.
The conductor looked at it carefully and then began to laugh hysterically.
“Young man,” he barked, “you have a first-class ticket! What are you doing here lying with these dregs in the baggage compartment? When you have a first-class ticket you ought act like a first-class passenger!”
The Jewish nation had no fear of giant fruit or giant men. They knew they had leaders that could overcome any obstacle. After all, Moshe led them across the Red Sea. Yehoshua and Chur helped defeat Amalek. But when they heard the ten spies – princes of the tribes — claim that they felt like insects they knew that they had no chance to conquer the land of Israel. They had nothing left to do but cry. Because if you are holding the first class ticket but act as if you are a itinerant then your ticket is worthless.
The giant fruit, fortified cities and powerful giants – all tiny acorns compared to the power of the Almighty – suddenly loomed large. And the sky began to fall on a self-pitying nation that was led by self-pitying leaders. And with the falling sky, fell the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of a generation that once yearned to dwell in the land of their forefathers. The Jewish nation was left to ponder that message for 40 years in the desert and perhaps thousands of years in the Diaspora.
That is what happens when mighty princes with first-class tickets to paradise think that they are tiny grasshoppers holding tickets to nowhere.
kapusta that was great!!
jax!! batter up!!
kapusta: loved that DT! it was a great one!
GoldieLoxx: mine will be up soon!
************Jax’s Tuesday DT–Ki eshmira Shabbos…*******************
“Ki eshmira Shobbos, K-ail yishmeraini…” – Zemiros L’Shobbos.
“When I safeguard the Sabbath, G-d will safeguard me…” – Sabbath Liturgy
There is an old Jewish saying, “More than the Jews keep Shobbos, Shobbos keeps the Jews.” When Jews are faithful to Hashem’s commandments everyone merits special Divine protection, as the following true story illustrates:
Shalom Dadoun began flying for United Airlines in 1986. Shortly after, he married a sweet pious girl, whose good influence led him to be a more observant Jew. Eventually, Shalom gave up flying on Shobbos.
This however is easier said than done. United pilots sign up for their flight assignments one month at a time in advance. When pilots of Shalom’s seniority level sign up to fly the Boeing 767, they are assigned a month worth of flights and have no say in the particular flight dates. It would be possible to be forced into flying on Shobbos.
If a pilot chooses to fly the Airbus, he would have control of his actual flight dates for the upcoming month. The 767 flights paid much more, but Shalom would not put himself in a position where he might be compelled to work on Shobbos, so he always chose the Airbus.
One of Shalom’s favorite flights was the Boston-LA flight, which had always been flown using the Airbus. In September, 2001, that route was given to the 767 fleet. Since Shalom would not fly the 767, due to the possible Shobbos consequences he could not fly the Boston-LA route which he usually flew.
Had it not been for the inspiration of his virtuous wife and his Shobbos No-Fly policy, he would have been on the Boston-LA flight on September 11, 2001. United Flight 175. The flight that crashed.
Jax, wow! EXCELLENT DT!!!
Anyone on for tonight? If not, I’ll go.
OK, here goes.
Timeline of the Miraglim
The Parsha of Shelach opens up with the story of the miraglim. Rashi notes that the previous Parsha ended with the story of Miriam getting tzaras and being sent out of the camp because she spoke loshon harah about Moshe. Since this Parsha begins with the miraglim, it implies that these two events are connected. But Rashi is bothered by the fact that they did not happen in chronological proximity. The events of the Korach rebellion were sandwiched in between.
Why does the Torah forbid Loshon Harah?
I am having a jolly time!
The power of speech
Understanding the power of speech would have caused them to think about the consequences, and the results might well have been very different.
kapusta: thank you!
mepal: Jax’s DT was for tonight, just i post it the night before so the CR daytime members can get a chance to read it too!
mepal: great DT! scratch my last comment to you, i just chapped that your doing Wednesday’s DT, but anyways the more DT’s the better! 😉
Jax, I thought you got the days wrong. Nice and considerate of you to post your DT for all the daytime users to read!
mepal: LOL, i know my days of the week! yeah, thanks! 😉
Even at 2, 3, 4 in the morn? 😉
hey, hope u guys aren’t fed up with me yet…………. so here goes it
Today i shall be positive…..yeah right!!!
2 very very interesting details are hidden in the entire korach story, 2 details that totally go under the radar, 2 details that are overlooked cuz they actually point the whole story in another direction. huh?
1st off- Elazar the son of aharon is commanded to take the machtos and deal with them cuz they they r holy. huh? holy? why in the world would korach and his cronies machtos be holy? they just did a huge aveyra with them, where in the world is the kdusha coming from?
2ndly- Moshe goes out of his way to ask hashem to not take notice to korachs offering, once again, huh???? why would moshe have to ask for such a ridiculous thing? isn’t it obvious that hashem won’t listen to them? they r reshaim, trying to overthrow moshe, MOSHE, the best leader the jewish ppl have ever had, why would moshe have to waste his breath to ask hashem to not turn to korachs side?
Here is why- in essence what korach and his cronies were asking for was spiritual, they were asking for a better ruchni position, true the request was totally baseless, and for the wrong reasons, and not spiritually backed, BUT at the end of the day..it was spiritual.
Hashem always sees the FULL picture, and if there is a bit of good mixed in with the bad, he will take notice of that bit, and act upon it, and so that little RUCHNI aspect of their request is what caused the machtos to have kedusha, and the SPIRITUAL dot which was involved in the whole episode is what “forced” moshe to make a mention (i am not saying that if it wasn’t for moshe’s request that would mean that we would have been led into israel by korach, yet it was enough to get the honorable mention).
Isn;t that nice? hashem always searches for even the smallest dot of good in all our bad. sweet no? come on, give me some credit……i was actually pointed towards the other side!
We do many things daily which seems to be the most altruistic, sweet, thoughtful, spiritual actions a person can make, and we bank on the fact that no one really knows what we r REALLY thinking, and no one will ever figure out why we REALLY did what we just did (i was gonna give some examples…….. but there might be some impressionable minds out there), problem is we seem to forget that hashem is out there, and he sees, he knows, he keeps the score, and……..he is actually in power to act upon it as well.
Just look what korach’s little “good” did, and you will realize just what your little “bad” can do. U always gotta look at the details, look into yourself time and time again, be honest with yourself. Why ru REALLY doing what ur doing? and only once u r convinced that u r really doing it for the right reasons……………JUST DO IT [all ye annoying ones- i am not knocking “mitoch shelo lishma ba lishma”, i am NOT saying that u shouldn’t do a mitzva unless it is 100% pure, i am just saying that ur fooling only yourself when u think u can get away with something like that!]
Very nice, noosie! Very important lesson!
nooseisko: beautiful peice! it was wonderful! thanks for sharing it with da CR! a gutten shobbos to you!
28 Sivan, 5769 Vol. 10, No. 34 Parashas Shelach
The Ralbag (Shelach Toeles 8) explains a reason for giving the separated portion of challah, as well as other gifts, to the kohanim: Hashem wanted the kohanim to be free from worldly concerns and obligations. This would allow them to study the Torah and to understand its secrets in order to teach the Torah and its laws to the people of Israel. By commanding the rest of the Jewish people to provide the kohanim with a steady and reliable source of bread and sustenance, Hashem ensured that the kohanim will have the independence from mundane concerns and be able to devote themselves to learning and teaching.
I won’t be able to log on after shabbos. So Mod39 I’ll email you the dvar torah now, you can post it after shabbos.
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