Friday, June 16, 2017

Parsha Shelach Lecha, 4 condensed stories

Parsha Shelach Lecha


Last week, we finished with the Tribes moving upon the direction and authority of HASHEM Yisborach. Hindsight is better in most cases than foresight. Perhaps good foresight is better. When Moshe sent out the spies, everybody knew that Yisrael acted on Hanhagah HASHEM (guidance). When the cloud went up or the pillar of fire guided them they moved. Each of the men chosen even if they were political figures “everyone a prince among them”, and every tribe (politically correct), they were not checked for Lashon HaRa (security clearance against gossip and leaks). PC Princes might not have been checked other Midos (personal quality). In short, there was not real quality security clearance. We only see that the two spies that really succeeded were from the two tribes that produce the Moshiach Ben Yosef and the Moshiach Ben David. All the other tribes failed.


Yehoshua Ben Nun learned from this failure and we see that before Yericho was captured, he sent out quality spies in a hush-hush operation. He sent out the best and most G-D fearing. He sends out trusted and proven Calev and the zealous and proven Pinchas. So in the end, Am Yisrael learned how to organize a spy agency.  



13:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 2 'Send thou men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel; of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, everyone a prince among them.'


Send for yourself men: Why is the section dealing with the spies juxtaposed with the section dealing with Miriam? Because she was punished over matters of slander, for speaking against her brother, and these wicked people witnessed [it], but did not learn their lesson. — [Midrash Tanchuma Shelach 5] Send for yourself: According to your own understanding. I am not commanding you, but if you wish, you may send. Since the Israelites had come [to Moses] and said, “Let us send men ahead of us,” as it says, “All of you approached me…” (Deut. 1:22), Moses took counsel with the Shechinah . He [God] said, “I told them that it is good, as it says, ‘I will bring you up from the affliction of Egypt…’ (Exod. 3:17). By their lives! Now I will give them the opportunity to err through the words of the spies, so that they will not inherit it.” - [Midrash Tanchuma 5]


Rashi notes that it is a voluntary matter as the people approached Moshe and he then asked the tribes. It was not the same as the scouts that Yehoshua would send out upon entrance into Eretz Yisrael.


אִ֣ישׁ אֶחָד֩ אִ֨ישׁ אֶחָ֜ד each man was supposed to be independent and not dependent on the next. In reality, ten banded together like one man Ish.


3 And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of the LORD; all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. … 16 These are … the men that Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.


Moshe combined the letter Yud to the Hey of his name so G-D, KAH was with him. While Calev prayed at the grave of the Avos in Chevron. The rest fell into the pit. They did not remember or learn from what happened to Miriam.


17 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them: 'Get you up here into the South, and go up into the mountains; 18 and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwells therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;


That was the wrong thing to look for but rather how to infiltrate and destroy their cities by natural means so as to not depend on miracles. However, we see in any event with Yericho miracles did happen and in Ha Ai, it was tactics that lured the enemy into a routed Yisrael while the ambush burned the city to the ground.


19 and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;


If you are getting the land from HASHEM it must be good!


20 and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.' Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.


It will be called the land flowing with milk and honey so why the first half of the Pasuk. Bring back the tremendous fruit should have encouraged. However we see the extreme tall “gigantic men” aka Anak which scared the 10 spies.


21 So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, at the entrance to Hamath.


This is in northern Syria close enough to Iraq. (Previously I thought it was Hamat Geder which is the triangle of Syria-Israel-Yarden but this is not so.)



22 And they went up into the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.  23 And they came unto the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it upon a pole between two; they took also of the pomegranates, and of the figs.  


Tisha B’Av is the time for grapes and figs but the pomegranates must have been unripe.


24 That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from thence.


The valley was named after Avraham’s friend between Schem and Beer Sheva or Chevron-Beer Sheva and not the modern Negev area close to Gaza.


25 And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. 26 And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.


Emancipated slaves did not have a press core or spokesman. The problem is that if you are sent out to spy you are supposed report to the commander who sent you and let him then redistribute the information. This was the error that proved fatal for the 10 spies on that very day and for the congregation over 38 plus years.


27 And they told him, and said: 'We came unto the land whither thou sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.


With every lie one is forced to say a little truth otherwise the lie would not be believed.


28 Howbeit the people that dwell in the land are fierce


Hey do you remember what HASHEM did against 600 chariots and more Egyptian foot soldiers that pursued you? Where are they now? You defeated by looking heavenward the Amalek. So what are you so scared of? Stop the slave mentality, you have had a year of practice in skills of war in the desert. You are an army. However, there was another problem. In the desert they were princes. When they would enter the land, they would be ordinary farms like their neighbors from the tribe. This is called in modern Hebrew holding onto your seat in the Knesset.


30 And Caleb stilled the people toward Moses, and said: 'We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.'


The first and foremost fighters in the army would be from Yehuda and Calev was one of the people under Nachshon.



31 But the men that went up with him said: 'We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.' …we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.'


It is a good thing for modern Israel that we did not think like this in 5708, the Six Day War and until now. The spies felt like grasshoppers not that a human could be so relatively tall for the calcium in the bones could not support giants of this size. There is a physical limit how tall a giant could be unless the bones were composed of a more metallic substance.

14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.


This occurred on the 9th of Av and they cried for no good reason. By your lives said HASHEM I will give you reasons to cry on this night!
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them: 'Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore doth the LORD bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?' … 27 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that keep murmuring against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they keep murmuring against Me. 28 Say unto them: As I live, says the LORD, surely as ye have spoken in Mine ears, so will I do to you: 29 your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, ye that have murmured against Me; 30 surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Yephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, that ye said would be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.

As much as HASHEM is patient with Rav Chessed this time the Am went too far and the 10 spies died on the spot along with some others. The rest would become carcasses over 40 years. This is followed by various sacrifices and against blasphemy.

Right behind blasphemy is Shabbos violation both in the Decalogue and in our Parsha:

… 32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day. 33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. 34 And they put him in ward, because it had not been declared what should be done to him. … 35 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.'

I am glad that we have no Sanhedrin today otherwise we would have to kill so many Jews. However, the war of Gog and Magog will come upon us like a scorpion that appears suddenly. I cannot guarantee anything if people do not repent and even there it must be very sincere with regret.

36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Already a year after the giving of the Torah Shabbos was being violated!

37 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 38 'Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them throughout their generations fringes in the corners of their garments, and that they put with the fringe of each corner a thread of blue. 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray; 40 that ye may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.'



Why is the Mitzvah of Tzitzis voluntary vs. obligatory?


Rav Asher Weiss in his Minchas Asher on Chumash asks a very interesting question.  The Gemara says that the mitzvah of Tzitzis is equal to all other Mitzvos in the Torah [Nedarim 25a].  This is a very easy mitzvah to perform.  All a person needs to do is to go to a Judaica store, buy himself a Tallis Katan for twenty dollars and wear them in order to fulfill the mitzvah of Tzitzis.
The irony of the fact is — and many people do not know this — that a person is not required to wear Tzitzis at all.  The technical requirement of the mitzvah of Tzitzis is that someone who wears a four-cornered garment must attach Tzitzis to the corners of the garment.  If a person does not wear a four-cornered garment — and technically speaking all the clothes that we wear today do not have “four corners” — he does not need to wear Tzitzis.  Even someone who wears a long Lithuanian style frock (as is common among many Roshei Yeshiva) which has a slit in the back, giving the appearance of a “four cornered” garment is not required to attach fringes to the frock. This is because one of the corners is always rounded — check it out next time you see one who wears such a frock.
Technically speaking, then, a person does not need to put on Tzitzis.  Of course, the Tur writes that any person who has brains in his head will avail himself of this special mitzvah because of the guarantee that “you will glance upon them and you will remember all the commandments of the L-rd”.  There is a special Segulah and reward that comes from wearing Tzitzis so anyone with any sense of spirituality and desire for closeness to the Almighty and His Mitzvos will buy himself a special four-cornered garment to fulfill this wondrous commandment.  However, technically speaking that is not required.
The Minchas Asher asks — if this is such a special mitzvah why didn’t the Torah make it obligatory?  We do not say “If you have a pair of Tefillin, put them on in the morning.”  No.  You must put on Tefillin in the morning.  Failing to put on Tefillin makes you in violation of neglecting a positive commandment.  Someone who does not recite Krias Shma is in violation of neglecting a positive commandment.  If someone does not hear Shofar on Rosh Hashanah, he is in violation of neglecting a positive commandment.  Why then, if on does not put on Tzitzis is everything is fine and dandy.  How could this be the case when we are talking about a mitzvah that is “equal in weight to all other mitzvos“?  It is a paradox.  It is an anomaly.
Rav Asher Weiss addresses this issue by quoting a Gemara in Menachos [43b] — Rabbi Meir used to say: “Greater is the punishment (for not wearing) the white (threads) than the punishment (for not wearing) the Techelles (threads).”  The Torah requires that the fringes we place on the corners of our garment contain both white threads and blue-like, Techelles, threads.  Many people say we do not have Techelles today so all we have are the white threads.  Techelles was always much more expensive and much harder to come by.  They need to be made from the dye of a chilazon aquatic creature.  Therefore, the Gemara says that if a person fails to put Techelles on his Tzitzis, the punishment is not that bad.  However, a person who fails to put on the white threads, which are easy to come by, then the Almighty has a significant complaint against him.
Rabbi Meir backs up his statement with an analogy:  “This can be compared to an earthly king who gave instruction to two servants.  He asked one servant to bring back a seal made out of clay and he asked the second servant to bring back a seal made out of gold.  Both were negligent and did not do what they were asked.  Who will receive the greater punishment?  Clearly, the servant charged with bringing back the clay seal, which is readily available, is deserving of greater punishment than the servant charged with bringing back the hard to acquire gold seal.”
The analogy of the Gemara refers to Tzitzis as a “seal of clay”.  Tosefos there explains that seals of clay were typically attached to the bodies of slaves to show they belonged to a particular owner.  Likewise, Tosefos writes, our Tzitzis is our “seal” indicating that we too our slaves.  Even though the word “slave” (Eved) or even “servant” offends the ear and the sensibility of modern man, in Judaism that is not the case.  We take pride in the fact that “avadei hem” (they are My slaves) [Bamidbar 25:42; 25:55].  We are “servants of the L-rd.”
How do we demonstrate that we are servants to the Almighty?  This, explains Tosefos in Menachos [43b; D.H. “Chosam shel Tit“], is by wearing our “clay seal”.  What is our “clay seal?”  It is our Tzitzis!
If that is the case, says the Michas Asher, it is a much bigger statement when someone volunteers to be the “slave” of the Almighty than when someone is forced into wearing that mark of slavery.  This is why Tzitzis is not an obligatory mitzvah.  Tefillin?  Yes.  Shofar?  Yes.  Matzah?  Yes.  However, the whole purpose of Tzitzis is a statement, a demonstration of “I am Your slave.  I accept You as my Master.”   If a person is forced to put them on, the statement is not as loud.  It is not as clear.  When I go out and voluntarily buy that pair of Tzitzis, I am declaring, “Almighty, I want to be your slave.”


This past Shabbos I read two stories that was worth repeating from the Maggid Series of Books by Rabbi Pessach Krohn Shlita. Illuminations of the Maggid.


Two Stories: A dose in time and Emergency flight condensed.  


The names in the story may have been changed. Gideon had a night job. He returned home after praying. It was May 2016 probably Lag B Omer and the children were off from school. He decided to sleep in the house of his sister so that his own children would not disturb him.


He forgot to shut down his cellphone and Rafi called. I know that your worked all night but I took a chance that your phone might be open. Somebody in the family needed medicines from Ashdod and he was in a near-by Moshav without transportation. He begged Gideon and he agreed.


Gideon went to the car and saw that he forgotten his baby there asleep. The baby was red from the heat. Had Rafi not called or he had refused to get the medicine, the baby would have died. He and his sister used compresses and gave the baby to drink. As the baby started recovering, he went and delivered the medicines.

Sometimes we do a favor for somebody and we save ourselves.


… Emergency


El Al 002 was returning to Israel from NY when all of a sudden a baby developed a strange rash. The young mother showed it to her mother who asked the stewardess to see if there was a doctor on board. After a short time, the doctor recommended having an emergency landing and an ambulance waiting. The pilot announced that there was a medical emergency on board and he began dumping fuel to land in Shannon Ireland. As the plane was descending all of a sudden Mr. So and So had trouble breathing and the doctor was again called. She managed to revive him and the ambulance took him. The baby could wait for the next ambulance.


Sometimes HASHEM works miracles. The two stories combined are from pages 155 to 159 (5 pages) and I do injustice and the stories in the book are delightful. If you have many Seforim Kodesh then it won’t hurt to buy books by Chaim Teller or the Maggid Series.


… I also heard two Tephillin Stories and from Rabbi Lieberman Shlita how is temporarily a Chabad Shaliach to South Africa.


In WWII a Russian soldier was caught wearing two black boxes and put into solitary confinement for a month for violating the orders of Comrade Stalin. Upon his release, the commander told him that those two black boxes saved his life as his unit during that month was sent into combat and nobody survived.


Rabbi Lieberman was already 30-years-old and still not married. He wrote to the Rebbe who asked him to check his Tephillin. He received his Tephillin back on the same day that his future wife went to the Mikvah to complete her conversion!



I know that people are confused over the dominations in Judaism
here are statistics that don't lie. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230809


It is not only with the more liberal Jews vs Orthodox but all of the west.
One noteworthy reality about Europe’s current political leadership is summarized here by Phil Lawler:
•  Macron, the newly elected French president, has no children.
•  German chancellor Angela Merkel has no children.
•  British prime minister Theresa May has no children.
•  Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni has no children.
•  Holland’s Mark Rutte,
•  Sweden’s Stefan Löfven,
•  Luxembourg Xavier Bettel,
•  Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon—all have no children.
•  Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, has no children.


To the PC youngsters who were offend by my generation's term "funny farm" in my day the words Casa Loco, Loony House was politically correct too. Woman strips in public taken to the funny farm for evaluation: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230864


Advancing cures for cancer in Israel: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231073




Finally - Public after the death of Shimon Peres, the truth about the kidnapping and medical experiments on Yemenite Jews can come to light. http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=43147



Inyanay Diyoma


59 individuals from Qatar put on terrorist list: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4973564,00.html




Kurdistan looking for independence: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230807






UNRWA school is used for Hamas Tunnel: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230815


Assad’s allies reach the Iraqi border: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4973836,00.html


Terrorist killed in Gaza near Israel: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230816




Three released terrorists rearrested. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230826


Former FBI head tries to damage the integrity of all except himself: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230833




Already there is talk of even Arab war with Qatar as it leans more and more towards Iran: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4974214,00.html


Bill to reduce tax payment to PLO for what they pay prisoners and terrorist families. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4974082,00.html




General confronts UNIFIL Commander in front of Ambassador Haley for not observing his mandate. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230881


Another Gulf State freezes Qatari Bank Accounts: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230890


Wonder Woman boycotted in Lebanon and now Tunisia: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230887


Facial Recognition Technology to be used on trains in Germany right now in testing stage to stop terrorists. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230891


PLO asks Israel to lower quantity of electricity to Hamas: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/230889


Arrow three missile to be tested in Alaska as distance is needed: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4974590,00.html


Three Ed-Ops by Ben Dror Yemeni:
Occupation (victimization) fest. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4974241,00.html                   


Ed-Op Yossi Yehoshua escalation in Gaza the handwriting is on the wall: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4974183,00.html


Lack of funds from Qatar may ferment Gaza Outbreak: http://debka.com/article/26094/Military-crisis-in-Qatar-may-spark-Gaza-outbreak















Commander worried about safety dismissed for refusing orders. Members of the Unit want a transfer out. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4975398,00.html


If NY Times story is true Ed-Op we are damaged: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4975204,00.html







Not sporting of them. 9 members of the “religion of peace” in Kosovo plotted attacking the Israeli World Cup Soccer Team: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4975933,00.html


No stopping of payment to terrorist: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4975845,00.html




Review: The decision to expand an Arab town by 14,000 housing units and for hundreds of thousands of Jews less: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231075


Bennett: Peace = I’ll dictate you sign: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4975727,00.html




Getting ready for ISIS just in case. One side Israeli Children in swimming pools on the other side Arab Children weapons training. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4976364,00.html


Dealing with Arab farm thief and infiltration: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231085


Sanctions on Iran – Russia approved: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/231112


Hamas is to blame for electricity crisis: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4976562,00.html










A blessed, peaceful and wonderful Shabbos to all,
Rachamim Pauli