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Guidance for Trying Times from HaRav Gershon Edelstein zt"l
It is well known that the government has been issuing harsh decrees against the chareidi public, causing it great difficulty and suffering. Some of these decrees have already been implemented
Let us keep in mind what the Chazon Ish once said, that Torah study is meant to be lived under stress and distress to begin with. He expressed it thus: "This is what Hashem desires." Hashem prefers that Torah be studied under duress and whoever lives such a life is beloved unto Him.
Our Sages reiterated this theme in many places throughout the gemara. For example, they commented on the verse, "False is charm and futile is beauty - a G-d-fearing woman is to praised." This refers to the generation of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ila'i where six Torah scholars would cover themselves with one tallis garment while studying Torah. Poverty was rampant. It was extreme, but within this scarcity, they persevered in their study. The words "a G-d-fearing woman shall be praised," were about them. This degree of devotion to Torah is the ultimate level desired and the most praiseworthy.
We find a similar comment of Chazal on the words, "Even (af) my wisdom stood me by," namely: what one studied under stress (af) was what sustained him. Study in stress, or deprivation, so to speak, or hardship, is the greatest merit of all.
It follows, thereby, that avreichim who persevere in their study through economic hardship, are very meritorious!
Every hearing in the Netanyahu case of the trials exposes the corruption and decay of the investigators detailed on it, all of whom should have been long since put behind bars.
At the beginning of the week, the defense subpoenaed a retired police officer from the national unit of fraud investigation who was one of those involved in the inquiry of the case. The officer, Oded Ben Moshe, was interrogated by attorney Amit Hadad, who dwelled on the exposure of the investigative steps which were taken by the security system of the prime minister's office. The prosecutor waived aside Ben Moshe's testimony and for good reason.
In the course of the inquiry, it became clear that the prosecution at first sought Ben Moshe's testimony and even requested his presence at refresher meetings so that he could examine the inquiry's various records and be duly prepared for the testimony, but then various discrepancies became clear and were discovered by Attorney Hadad.
The attorney presented the police activation report documenting the lifting of facts from the prime minister's computer records, without any judicial warrant thereof. One of the judges, who could not believe what he heard, asked the man under investigation if this had been at all authorized. He adamantly replied: "No, there had been no official approval."
The children sing: Torah, unzer Torah! A mattono fun Der Borei! but we often do not appreciate the full power and myriad consequences of our learning Torah. We present here this discussion of Mishnayos with emphasis on its importance in benefiting deceased relatives, in honor of Shavuos as we recall and relive our getting this wonderful gift from Hashem.
Part I
"Run To [Learn] a Mishna!": The Power Of Mishnayos
In many places, Chazal stress the very great importance of learning mishnayos. A basic and comprehensive digest of these sources, from the Bavli, Yerushalmi, midroshim, Zohar and tikkunim, the writings of the Ari z'l and his disciples, and Maran the Beis Yosef, compiled by Rabbi Yeshaya Osher Zelig Margulies z'l, appears as an introduction to the edition of the Mishna published by the Eshkol Publishing House of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Margulies begins by quoting the Shloh Hakodosh (in Maseches Shavuos) who writes that today, when we are fortunate enough to possess the commentaries of the Bartenura and the Rambam, who explain the mishna in accordance with the gemora's conclusions and note which opinion is accepted as halacha, the value of learning mishna is very great indeed.
The Shloh writes: "One's greatest involvement should therefore be with Mishnayos, learning and reviewing them without limit or interruption... happy is he who merits [knowledge of] Mishna, achieving fluency in all six sedorim, even without the text. He then makes a ladder for his neshomoh to ascend upwards to the first level, the sign for this being that mishna is made up from the same letters as neshomoh."
Here are a few of the sayings of Chazal concerning learning mishnayos....
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Outstanding Articles From Our Archives
Opinion & Comment
Can we Believe G-d Spoke at Sinai?
by HaRav Yaakov Weinberg, zt"l
This is an edited transcript of a tape of a lecture provided by the Aish Hatorah Audio Center. We have smoothed it out for written publication, but have not removed the sound and feel of the talk on which it is based. That is how most of his many talmidim remember HaRav Weinberg, zt"l.
We can assume right away that there is something about what happened at Sinai that a reasonable person can believe because reasonable people believe anything. There is literally nothing that intelligent reasonable people have not bought (which is not an inconsiderable problem).
Obviously, reason is subject to wanting as well. It is not a pure act. Will has something to do with reason.
We have to identify that which is nonsense. It will be necessary if we are to talk intelligently at all, to make a statement very bluntly that all religions except for the Jewish religion are clearly nonsense. No intelligent, reasonable person who is using his reason has ever decided that he wants to be a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim. I will explain why this is the case.
I will tell you a story that goes back several hundred years among Jews. The joke goes as follows. A Rebbe died without leaving instructions as to which of his two surviving sons he wanted the community to install as his heir. There were those who favored the older son and those who favored the younger son. It was an unhappy situation.
One day, one of the two sons called together the congregation and said: "Last night in my sleep my father appeared to me in a dream and he said: `I want you to call together the elders of the congregation and say to them in my name that it is my wish that they appoint you as my successor.'"
Everybody was silent. One person got up, however, and said: "If your father wanted us to appoint you, he should have come to us in our dreams not to you."
If G-d had wanted Mohammed to be his prophet he should have come to the people to say "Mohammed is my prophet." He can't have talked just to Mohammed and told him to tell everyone that he is G-d's prophet.
How do you believe someone like that? What reasonable human being can buy it? There are liars, there are well-meaning deceivers, there are scoundrels, there are true visionaries. How can one know? Why believe a person who comes to you and says that G-d spoke to him and said that you should believe that he is a prophet? It is obviously nonsense...
Opinion & Comment
Every Day's Matan Torah
by HaRav Yehoshua Shklar
The Toras Chaim has a wonderful secret to reveal to us: each and every one of us can have his own personal Matan Torah! The secret has been right there all along in the Torah itself, hidden in two little words. "It was a loud clamor (at Matan Torah) velo yosof" (Devorim 5:19). The gemora (Sanhedrin 17a) examines the meaning of the words "velo yosof": either they mean "it did not continue" or else they mean "it did not cease." The gemora concludes that since this posuk refers to the Shechina, it makes no sense to say that the clamor did not continue, so lo yosof must mean that it did not cease.
What does the posuk teach us? asks the Toras Chaim. Can it possibly be that the clamor heard at Matan Torah never ceased, and still goes on today and eternally?
It could indeed. In fact, the Torah here discloses an astounding concept that can change the course of our lives.
The ceaseless clamor of Matan Torah alludes to the spiritual bounty that descended from Sinai when the Jews received the Torah. The entire Torah--the Written and Oral Torah, the Midrash, and the Aggada--was bestowed by Hashem on Shavuos. It is a limitless bounty that has not vanished; it can be attained also today.
Anyone who toils over the Torah lesheim Shomayim receives the same spiritual wealth that descended on Sinai. This form of ruach hakodesh aids one to delve deeper into the Torah and to grasp new, profound insights into the Torah's wisdom.
Opinion & Comment
Let Us Fulfill Our Purpose
by Mordecai Plaut
The mitzvos of the Torah, says the Maharal (Tiferes Yisroel, 4) are like a rope that hauls a person up from the bottomless pit that is the lower world into the upper world, to "seat him with the King, Hashem Tzevokos, eye to eye."
With the Torah, we are in daily contact with eternal spirituality as we observe its limitations, perform its commandments and study its wisdom. We do not just muck around in a search and struggle to satisfy our physical needs, but we constantly haul ourselves up with the Maharal's rope, higher and higher.
This is not "extra credit." This is the very purpose for which we were created. This is why Hashem made man, and this is why each and every one of us was put into the world. If we fail to progress in this direction, we are not doing our job. When we do come closer to this wonderful goal, it is no more than what Hashem intended.
On Lag BaOmer we sing the praises of R' Shimon Bar Yochai, one of which is, "`Na'ase Odom' was said because of you."
R' Shimon Bar Yochai is the source of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of halachic comments throughout the mishna and gemora. Moreover, he is the primary source of the esoteric wisdom known as kabolo, including the Zohar and especially the Idra Rabbo and the Idra Zutto which describes the great revelations that R' Shimon made on the day of his passing, as well as the Tikunei Zohar, seventy discourses based on the first posuk in the Torah. It is for him and people like him that Hashem said, as the song we sing on Lag BaOmer notes, "Let us make man."
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