Shalom Friends;
Our Breish’t vort is being sponsored by Benyamin and Barbara Lemkin and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh and dedicated to the Jewish heros who fight Amalek in accordance with Torah values as well as for the safety of the Chayalim and the liberation of all remaining hostages and their return home without experiencing any further harm, as well as for the good health and security of kol Am Yisrael. To the Lemkin family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring (or as the case may be, co-sponsoring) a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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As we leyn Parshat Breish’t in our Hebrew Year 5785, The War of Simchat Torah will have passed a year in duration. Therefore, this author writes this vort on Parshat Breish’t with the perspective (noun: a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance) of the past year.
Torah records:
“Hashem G’d took the man and placed him in the Garden [Gan] of Eden, to work it and to guard it. And Hashem G’d Commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat; but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad [Eitz Hadat], you must not eat thereof; for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.'” (Sefer Breish’t Perek 2, posukim 16-17 Rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Chumash)
After Chava was created — “a helper corresponding to him” [Ezer Kanegdo] (citing the Artscroll Stone Chumash Perek 2, posuk 18). Assumably, Adam conveyed Hashem’s Command to Chava. But it seems that something got lost in the transmission for Torah relates that that Chava was confronted in the Garden by the serpent.
Torah relates the dialogue between the serpent and Chava:
Serpent to Chava: “Did, perhaps, G’d say: ‘ You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'” (Sefer Breish’t Perek 3, posuk 1 Rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Chumash)
Chava to the serpent: “Of the fruit of any tree of the garden we may eat. Of the fruit of the tree which is in the center of the garden Hashem has said: ‘You shall neither eat of it nor touch it, lest you die.” (Sefer Breish’t Perek 3, posukim 2-3 Rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Chumash)
Serpent to Chava: “You will not surely die…” (Sefer Breish’t Perek 3, posuk 4 Rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Chumash)
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin notes, in his sefer, “Unlocking the Torah Text” on Sefer Breish’t, pages 16-19 :
…It is unclear where the breakdown in communication between Hashem and man actually take place.
Hashem originally Commands Adam concerning the Eitz Hadat…, before Chava is created. One would assume that Adam then shares the Commandment with Chava and that Chava repeats it to the serpent.
The Torah seems to deliberately leave this process of communication vague. At what point do the mistakes occur? Does Adam misunderstand Hashem’s words? Does he understand properly but communicate mistakenly to Chava? Or is it Chava who fails to properly comprehend the Commandment?
By leaving the point of breakdown unclear, the Torah conveys an additional lesson… The task of communication is at once important and delicate. We should be most cautious with how we deliver and receive verbal messages.
Midrash states that when Chava tells the serpent that she is forbidden to touch the tree, the serpent proceeds to push her against it. Upon seeing that nothing happens to her, Chava then eats from the Tree and falls into sin. (Rabbi Goldin citing Midrash Rabba Sefer Breish’t, Perek 19, posuk 3) This event, continues the Midrash, supports the dictum stated by King Solomon: “Do not add upon His [Hashem’s] words.” (Rabbi Goldin citing Mishlei 30:6)
Absent in Chava’s words is any indication of the specific nature of this tree. By failing to refer to it as the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” Chava ignores that Hashem may have His reasons for the prohibition, More importantly, she fails to understand that the thrust of the prohibition is a demand upon man’s behavior, rather than a warning concerning a dangerous tree. She would rather believe that she is facing an arbitrary danger, created by a capricious [adjective: subject to, led by, or indicative of a sudden, odd notion or unpredictable change; erratic] god [in the lower case], than confront the reality of a thinking Deity Who is making demands upon her behavior.
…Chava’s version of the prohibition: “Not only can’t we eat from the tree [she says], but we can’t touch it.” The tree is so dangerous that it must be avoided at all costs. According to the Midrash, the serpent sees an opening. He pushes her against the Tree, thereby demonstrating that it is not inherently dangerous. (Rabbi Goldin citing Midrash Rabbah, Breish’t 19:3) Once the danger disappears in Chava’s mind there is no longer any reason to avoid eating from the Tree.
The Torah is indicating that Chava originally thought that the fruit of the Tree was poisonous. When she sees that it is apparently not — but instead beautiful — she proceeds to eat from it. (Rabbi Goldin citing Sefer Breish’t Perek 3, posuk 6)
What began as a reasoned, moral Commandment has become a superstitious fear. Once the fear disappears, for Chava, the prohibition dissipates as well.
So, in a way, we could relate the dialogue between Chava and the serpent (the nachash) where the serpent allays (verb — used with object; to put fear, doubt, suspicion, anger, etc. to rest; calm; quiet) Chava’s fears regarding touching or eating the Eitz Hadat with the rejections of the IDF high command and command hierarchy upon hearing what were dire warnings by the IDF border observers of Hamas’ preparations for the mass terror attacks on Israel’s southern border towns. We now know that the rejections of these warnings resulted in over 1,200 fatalities among both Israelis attending the concert near the Gaza border and the deaths and atrocities suffered by the residents of the border towns, as well as the 250 plus hostages taken by Hamas and their “innocent Gazan civilians” cohorts (noun: companions or associates) during the invasion.
Upon hearing the fearful warnings from the border observers, reports have indicated that the high command and/or officers somewhat lower down in the command hierarchy, including the IDF head of intelligence denounced the warnings claiming that Hamas was not strong enough to launch such a major attack. When the warnings kept coming in, reports indicate that commanders intimidated the border observers telling them to cease and desist from issuing warnings or that they will face Court Martial proceedings (Law, the instituting or carrying on of an action at law). As apparently evil and agendized as this current IDF high command and command hierarchy was/is against the current government and against the Divine Truth of Eretz Yisrael as the sovereign Land of the Jews, they are devoid of any notion or mindset of a Divine Mandate of Victory in a Milchama Shel Torah. There are indications that, at the onset of the mass terror invasion. the high command may have slow-walked by many hours full activation of the IDF as well as holding back for many hours on notifying the Prime Minister.
Important issues were clouded by the IDF high command, as well as the command hierarchy, in the run-up to Hamas’ catastrophic, animalistic invasion of Israel’s southern border towns, just as the nachash seems to have done regarding the Eitz Hadat.
Rabbi Goldin concludes (ibid, pages 19, 22) :
Rooted in Gan Eden, therefore, are the seeds of sin and failure. From the moment that Chava speaks to the serpent, the struggle is joined: a struggle between religion and superstition; between thought-filled dedication to Hashem’s Will, and rote, unthinking ritual; between what Hashem wants and we are willing to give. This battle can be traced across the generations as time after time, man seems to deliberately misunderstand what it is that Hashem desires from us.
Hashem clearly tells us that what he wants from us is ourselves. Over and over again, frightened by that demand, we desperately try to offer Him anything and everything else.
…Hashem calls to man, …at the moment of the birth of Am Yisrael. Approach Me, He says. Come close enough to feel the heat, to learn what I desire from you. Be willing to offer yourselves to this relationship. For what I desire is you, and nothing else.
Tragically, Am Yisrael falls into the trap first established in Gan Eden. Frightened by the demands which a close relationship with Hashem will create, the people instead choose to retreat and distance, ultimately sinning through the creation of the golden calf.
May it be that our Chayalim, regardless of the machinations of their high command, emerge totally victorious — eradicating from the face of the earth Hamas, their terrorist buddies and the so-called “innocent civilians” of Gaza who joined with Hamas in their murderous deeds, that the Chayalim return home whole — physically, mentally and spiritually and that the Chayalim Liberate and bring home all remaining hostages. And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his fourth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we see, in 5785, the REAL Jews from the Ukraine and Russia as well as the US and Canada, the real Jews via matrilineal descent, make Aliyah enmass — via thorough review by Misrad HaPanim. And may we soon and finally see the total end to the Communist Chinese Wuhan Lab corona virus pandemic and all like viruses and variants. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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