Back in Chicago

I'm back in Chicago, and I've finally had the chance to upload a whole bunch of photos from the last two months of my trip. I wasn't out of contact, but the internet connection just couldn't keep up under the load of uploading photos. Most of them have gone into the existing albums, but there are a couple new ones as well:

• Greater Israel
• סובו ציון והקיפוה, views from the ramparts of the walls of Jerusalem.
• My Siyum on Masechet Chagiga

and the old albums that were updated:

• Jerusalem
• Ohr Somayach People and Places

I'll rotate, caption and tag photos as I find the time to waste over the next few weeks. For now, I have an important job this week: being David Dulin's shomer. Mazal tov to him and Sarah Rut on their wedding this upcoming Sunday.

Devarim 5768

In parshat Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu discusses the sin of the spies at length (דברים א׃יט־ב׃א). He mentions the decree forbidding that generation from entering the land, saying "If even a man of these people, this evil generation, shall see the good land that I swore to give to your forefathers..." (דברים א׃לה). Then, strangely, he mentions that he too was forbidden to answer the land, saying "With me, as well, Hashem became angry because of you, waying: You, too, shall not come there" (דברים א׃לז). What is this explanation doing there? How was Moshe Rabbeinu's prohibition related to that of the rest of the generation of the midbar? After all, his sin was 40 years after theirs, when he hit the rock to get water for the people, instead of speaking to it (במדבר כ׃יב).

The Ohr HaChaim explains (דברים א׃לז) this. The paseuk says in connection with the sin of the spies, "and the nation cried that night" (במדבר יד׃א). The Gemara (תענית כט ע״א) explains that this night was Tisha B'av, and because the nation cried on that night for no reason, Hashem decreed that they would cry on that night throughout the generations, because the Bet HaMikdash would be destroyed then. Another Gemara (סוטה ט ע״א), explains that if Moshe Rabbeinu had entered Eretz Yisrael, and built the Bet HaMikdash, then it could not have been destroyed. A midrash (מדרש תהלים עט) further explains that the result would have been the complete destruction of Am Yisrael when they sinned, and not the (relatively) minor destruction of the Bet HaMikdash. Thus, Hashem decreed Moshe Rabbenu's death at that time, so that he could not build the Bet HaMikdash.

So what about the Moshe Rabbenu's sin of hitting the rock instead of speaking to it? The Ohr HaChaim hints that if Moshe Rabbeinu had sanctified the name of Hashem at that time, then Am Yisrael would have returned to the level of purity that they had before the sin of the spies, and Hashem would have reversed the decree of Moshe Rabbenu's death.

It seems to me בס״ד that the peshat behind this is as follows: the sin of the spies was in believing (and convincing Am Yisrael) that they would need to work hard to conquer the land on their own, and that the nations then in the land were too powerful for them to conquer. Moshe Rabbenu was asked to speak to the rock and a miracle would be performed. Had he done that, Am Yisrael would have understood that Hashem would do a lot for them effortlessly, particularly the conquest of Eretz Yisrael, and this would have reversed the sin of the spies.

In the end, it took Am Yisrael 7 years to conquer the land sufficiently that they could settle it, and they never fully uprooted the original inhabitants. There are numerous warnings of the corrupting effect of letting the original inhabitants stay in the land (דברים ז׃א־ה), but since Am Yisrael never fully kicked them out, they were susceptible to the sins that eventually caused the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash. It was possible to have an effortless, complete conquest of Eretz Yisrael, as we see in Sefer Bemidbar that Israel conquered Sihon, Og, and Midian in a matter of days, an area totaling the size of Eretz Yisrael. Why couldn't they do that in Eretz Yisrael? Because Hashem made it hard in accordance with their expectations. Had Hashem granted us this kind of conquest of Eretz Yisrael, none of the inhabitants would have remained to be a thorn in our sides to cause the sins that eventually led to the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash.

May we merit to see the Bet HaMikdash rebuilt, speedily in our days. (Preferably before Sunday, but if not have a good fast.)

Looking for a place in WRP

I'm coming back from Ohr Somayach Yerushalyim on August 12 and looking for a place to live in West Rogers Park. I'm particularly interested in finding a basement apartment, boarding with a family, or a 1 bedroom apartment, but I'm also interested in roommate offers (though tired of dealing with turnover every few months). Anybody have any leads?

Parshat Mattot

I composed this post on Thursday afteroon, but got delayed a bit in actually posting it, as I spent Friday afternoon reflecting on a very exciting week, rather than running to the computer to post this.

In Parshat Matot, the torah tells us in great detail the disposition of the spoils of the war against Midian (במדבר לא׃כה־נד), providing multiple reduntant counts of how the spoils were divided between the men who fought, the rest of the nation, and the kohanim. Why so much detail? Our clue is in Sifre in Parshat Balak.

"They conquered sixty cities [in Bashan], all fit to be the capitol of a kingdom, as it says ששים איר כל חבל ארגוב ממלכת בשן (Sixty cities, the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in the Bashan דברים ג׃ד). And Israel came and makde war with them, and took all that was theirs, but when Israel became full from the booth, the soldiers wasted the spoils, tore the garments [they found], and killed the anmials, because they only wanted silver and gold vessels, as it says וכל הבהמ׳ ושלל הערים בזונו לנו (And all of the animals and spoils in the cities we looted for ourselves (דברים ג׃ז)."

The war against Og, King of Bashan, came after the war with Sihon, king of Heshbon. The Jews were filled up with the spoils from Sihon, and didn't feel they needed any more when they conquered Og. The Netziv explains the progression: the soldiers wasted the spoils, this was the beginning of the sin, they devalued the great kindness that Hashem did for them. They tore the garments, thereby transgressing the commandment of בל תשחית (don't waste/destory) and killed the anmials, thereby coming to cruelty to animals. Then end was that they came to idol worship and sexual immorality in the plains of Moav, with the incident of Ba'al Peor (מבדבר כה׃א־ט). The war against Midian was commanded to fix the sin of Ba'al Peor by destroying the nation that had enticed the Jews to sexual immorailty and idol worship. But since the root of this sin was their cavalier attitude toward the spoils of war, the Torah tells us that in this war they fixed up the root of that sin too, by giving us a meticulous accounting of the spoils of that war, that none of it was wasted.

It appears to me בס״ד (and I found my words were confirmed by the Maharal's Gur Aryeh in Parshat Vayishlach) that the root of the commandment of בל תשחית (don't waste/destory) can be found that God gives us everything we need, and everything Hashem gives us is useful for us in our mission to serve him. By using not using it properly, we deny that we need everything that Hashem has given us, and we thereby do not use it for the mission that Hashem intended it.

Sepharadi and Ashkenazi

Since someone (who doesn't actually read this blog) asked:

There are definite cultural differences between sepharadim and ashkenazim. For one, the askhenazim have fractured into numerous different groups over the course of history. The oldest of the groups to split are Chassidim, but Reform and Conservative Judaism have mostly eaten up any idea of having a community that includes Jews who are not personally observant, but retain a connection to the Torah community and correct Torah values. Not that Jews who are not personally observant are a good thing, but it's better than institutionalizing kefira. I think the most recent split is between Haredim and Dati Leumi, Modern Orthodox, and black hat orthodox. The sepharadi world really doesn't have that split (though they may be inheriting it a bit in Israel, I don't know well enough to say). Most sepharadi communities have a range of observance levels and are welcoming to people at their level. Besides that, hiloni sepharadim keep some mitzvot that hiloni ashkenazim would never even think existed, like niddah. Sepharadim have different emphasis on some mitzvot, like a serious emphasis on kavod for talmedi chachamim, and kavod for the bet kenesset. Sepharadim also have a more authority based style of psak, while Ashkenazi psak seems to be much more lomdish. Sepharadim see less need for chumrot, though they have a few good ones of their own. (Gefilte fish, it seems, is the result of a specific chumra of the Rema in the melacha of borer on shabbat. On the other hand, I think one reason for the sepharadi emphasis on kavod for talmedei chachamim comes from a single chumra in the halachot: we have to stand every time the talmid chacham comes within 4 amot, unlike the Rema who poskins that only the first time is required. And I'm not even getting into the obvious things like selichot, pesach, and bet yosef meat.)

Sepharadim seem to read everybody's books. Ashkenazim, on the other hand, seem to reject or emphasize certain books based on the hashkafa they want to teach. For example, many haredi communities will have have nothing to do with Rav Kook, or Rav YB Soloveitchik.

There's a definite blurring of distinctions between sepharadim and ashkenazim in some communities. Many sepharadim in the US are influenced by the much larger ashkenazi community that surrounds them. I'm not sure how the cultural differences I have described would affect the family I hope to create, but even minhag differences are no small thing. Many Ashkenazi girls in the US do not wish to change from what they were raised with.

The park that makes you want to get married

It's been a few weeks since I posted an update, and I've hardly had the time or presence of mind to write an update since then. There hasn't really been an interesting story line to my visit beyond learning over the past couple weeks. I helped participate in a siyum mishnayot in honor of a shloshim. (I learned Mishnayot Yoma). I don't know if that counts as a siyum of my own, but if it doesn't then I'm on track to make ב״ה a siyum on Chagiga before the end of the summer.

I've been going to R' Yaakov Hillel's shiur on Tefillah on Monday nights, at his yeshiva in Meah She'arim. They're recording the shiur with the intention of eventually transcribing it into a book. This is how Ascending the Path on Mesilat Yesharim was written, and I've actually been thinking that it would be nice to pull together the resources somehow to do this with Rabbi Raccah's shiurim.

To get to the shiur, we walk across Arzei HaBira, along Rechov Yoel, through the Bukkhairian shuk, then down Meah She'arim. David Luna has described Arzei HaBira as "the park that makes you want to get married" when he sees all of the young couples with little kids playing there in the evenings. (Next time I upload photos, there will be some photos of this park at its peak.) Along Rechov Yoel, there's a Sephardic minyan factory that I daven at a few mornings a week, and also on the off chance that I miss mincha at the yeshiva for some reason. I've also gone there a few times to buy seforim from what is literally a hole in the wall bookseller. Seforim are really cheap here. I was able to get Mesilat Yesharim for 15 shekels (about $4.50), and the first volume of the Halacha Berura Kitzur for 35 shekels.

For those keeping score at home (Rabbi Raccah and Rabbi Azose), I've seen two volumes of Chazon Ovadia on Shabbat in stores, as well as the 9th volume of Halacha Berura, but haven't bought them. I may consider a purchase before I return depending on how full my luggage is.