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Issue No: Shabbos In: Shabbos Out:
The lesson R Gamliel is teaching us and the reason he wrote this Mishna is that for the sake of the unity of the Jewish people, one must search for an authoritative figure and remove himself from any doubt in Jewish law. R Gamliel always strove to remove division and disunity from the community and I feel that it is a lesson which our generation, a generation inflicted with pointless and needless division can learn a great deal from. In Part 2 next week, we will discuss to what lengths a leader should go to force this unity and There are three cases mentioned in the Mishna when he must learn not to force his people and which describe incidents where R Gamliel and R allow them to merge together themselves. Yehoshua have disagreed and R Gamliel has exercised his authority commanding R Yehoshua to Shabbat Shalom. agree with him. One instance mentioned in Rosh
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The Beis Halevi answers: When entering the Beis Hamikdosh, above all, a person And he put the Menorah in the tent of has to know that any actions of his day-tomeeting towards the south side of the day life all have to be undertaken Leshem Shomayim. If a person puts learning Torah Mishkon. and Ruchniyes to the left (the least imWe learn that the Menorah hints to wis- portant side) he can still be satisfactory in dom (Ruchniyes). As it says, The wisdom his deeds because of the principle of of a person will light up his face. This is - a persons Torah why the Menorah was on the right side of and Mitzvos will have an outcome of being the Mishkon. The right side is always pre- Leshem Shomayim. However, if one does sented as the sign of wisdom and the most not have the correct Kavonos with Geimportant side. The Shulchan however, shamiyes and mundane matters, one will represented the food and material needs not be able to rectify it and transform it (Gashmiyes) of a person and therefore into something holy. Accordingly, ones was on the left hand side, of lesser im- work of Olam Hazeh will be for the wrong portance. reasons and one will remain striving for The Beis Halevi asks an important ques- Geshamius simply for the sake of Gashtion. When a person entered the Beis mius. Hamikdosh, the Menorah was on the left and the Shulchan was on the right since a person came in at the eastern side, to the north (the right) was the Shulchan and as the Posuk reveals the Menorah was on the south side (the left). Although the Menorah was situated on the right and the Shulchan on the left, as far as a person is concerned when coming in to the Beis Hamikdosh the Shulchan is on the right and the For that reason, when entering the Beis Hamikdosh we try to stress that the Shulchan (Gashmius) has to be Leshem Shomayim on the right as it is far more important to affect the Gashmius as part of serving Hashem. The Ruchnius will follow suit and become Leshem Shomayim by itself. Gut Shabbos.
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Story
Dvar Torah
Unbound generosity
Every man and woman who had the generosity of heart to contribute to all the work that God had commanded to be done through Moshe, the Children of Israel brought their donations to God" - Shemos 35:29 Anyone who has learnt Gemara in depth will be familiar with the Maharsha. When the Maharsha, R' Shmuel Eidels, served as the Rabbi in the Polish city of Ostrog, he established a Yeshiva there. Due to the popularity of the Yeshiva and the high levels of learning it entailed, students flocked to Ostrog from far and wide in order to be a part of the Maharsha's Yeshiva. This meant that there was not enough room for everyone as the number of students quickly outgrew the building's capacity. The heads of the community decided it was to time to fundraise in order to be able to build a larger building and accommodate all the students. Shortly after announcing the fundraising campaign, a humble and righteous man came to the man in charge of the building campaign and asked to be able to donate the cornerstone for the new Yeshiva, and handed over a generous sum of 500 roubles. There was one condition that not a living soul should come to know of his donation. The Maharsha was very impressed with the donation and especially at the manner in which it was given. The Maharsha wanted to known what prompted the man to give such a large donation, and thus asked the man what his motivation was. Answered the man, "I am not a rich man by any means. But I have no children to take my place. Therefore I thought it would be appropriate to give over most of what I presently have in order to build the Yeshiva and enable many young men to learn Torah. The Maharsha listened to the man and then quoted the Gemara in Moed Katan which tells us that during the dedication of the Mishkan, every Jewish housewife conceived and gave birth to a son. Therefore the Maharsha gave the man his blessing that his wife should also be blessed and give birth to a son, who will be able to study in the Yeshiva that his father donated the cornerstone for. The blessing of the Maharsha was fulfilled and the man's wife gave birth to a baby boy. Several years passed and the man wanted his son to learn in the Yeshiva. However, the child was too young, so the Yeshiva's administrators automatically denied the boy a place in the Yeshiva.
Thus, when the auction for the various parts of the building began, the man instructed the campaign man- When the Maharsha heard what had happened, he ager to purchase the cornerstone for him for 500 rou- immediately told the man that his son had a place in bles, a large sum that no one would top. the Yeshiva and he was welcome to start learning there; fulfilling his promise to the boy's father many The large donation sparked the community's curiosity years prior. as they demanded to know who was the man that contributed towards a crucial part of the Yeshiva. Thus the boy learned at the Maharsha's Yeshiva and When the time for laying the cornerstone came, the grew up to be a big Talmid Chacham. man instructed the Maharsha to lay the cornerstone for him, thus keeping the man's concealed identity intact.
Shabbos is a day of rest and by losing ones temper Hillel wrapped himself in a robe and went to see one is damaging the sanctity of the day. what the man wanted. My son, what do you Chazak Chazak Venizchazeik seek? he asked. I have a question to ask said the man. Please ask me whatever you want! I wish to know why the Babylonians have such Good Shabbos. Mazal Tov to the author on his Bar-Mitzvah.
Gematria:
This weeks Sedro begins with a brief insight into the holy day of Shabbos. The Baal Haturim, in his usual, insightful manner explains the short series of Pesukim in a much deeper fashion. The Posuk begins, Eileh hadvorim asher tzivoh Hashem laasois oisom. The Pesukim then describe the issur of kindling fire during Shabbos. How can we see from here that there are, not one, but 39 melochos that are forbidden on Shabbos? The Baal Haturim points out several remarkable ways. Firstly, the word eileh has the gematriah of 39, a familiar number. Secondly, the letters of the word laasois can be split into lamed teisha, again the familiar 39. The Baal Haturim points out a third remarkable remez to the 39 melochos of Shabbos. In the first Peirek of Breishis, until ...boroh eloikim laasois a group of shorshim, roots, are used often. Words involving the roots of osoh, boroh, melocho, havayoh, hoitzoh and havdoloh are used a total of 39 times.
Riddle:
The Black and the White, the Man and the Woman, the long and the short. What are we?