Shalom Friends;<\/p>\n
This week, our vort for Parshat HaShevua for Naso\/Shavu’ot is being sponsored by David and Tzippora Leichter of Ramat Beit Shemesh dedicated for refuah shleima for Avraham Yaakov ben Chaya Leah, a brother-in-law who is recovering from Cancer. To the Leichter family, many thanks for your sponsorship and for your continued kindnesses.<\/p>\n
You can celebrate a Simcha \u2014 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 a Parshat HaShevua.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Best Regards,<\/p>\n
Moshe Burt
\nolehchadash@yahoo.com
\nskype: mark.burt3
\n**************************************<\/p>\n
The placement in Torah of Parshat Naso in close proximity to the Yom Tov of Shavuot is with good reason as this author sees a direct connection between the two.<\/p>\n
Near the beginning of Parsha Naso,Torah states:<\/p>\n
“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, ‘Speak to the B’nei Yisrael: A man or woman who commits any of man’s sins, by committing a trespass against Hashem, and that person shall become guilty –‘” (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 5, posukim 5-6 as rendered to English in the Saperstein Edition “The Torah with Rashi’s Commentary”)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Rav Zelig Pliskin, in his sefer \u201cGrowth Through Torah” (page 312), attributes to Sforno comments regarding the Hebrew phrase “V’Ashmah hanefesh hahi [pronounced hahe],”<\/strong> rendered to English as “…committing treachery toward Hashem” to the effect that:<\/p>\n
\u2026 This refers to one who steals from a convert to Judaism. Harming him is considered a trespass against the Almighty because this person had the idealism to come to Almighty’s Torah. One desecrates the Almighty’s name in his [the Gers’] eyes by deceiving him.<\/p>\n
A person who comes to Torah on his own volition does so because of the beautiful and uplifted ideas he hears about Torah principles. He made his decision on the assumption that those who follow Torah will act towards him in accordance with all of the Torah laws pertaining to interpersonal relations. If someone cheats him financially or in some other way wrongs him, he will not only suffer a monetary loss. Rather, he might also feel disillusioned with his decision to accept a Torah way of life…. The importance of not harming a convert can be seen from the fact that Torah warns us about this in numerous places.<\/p>\n
The Ger Tzeddek has usually given up very much because of his ideals and will experience much pain from his disappointment that the people he is in contact with do not meet the Torah standards he expected of them. The importance of not harming a convert can be seen from the fact that Torah warns us about this in a number of places. From the negative we can learn the positive. The merit of acting with love and kindness toward a convert is great.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThe Midrash Says\u201d (pages 53-54), comments regarding the punishment of the Jewish thief who steals from a Ger or from any other Jew, as follows; <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the gentile nations heard about this mitzvah, they exclaimed, How great is this G\u2019d who formulates laws that benefit those who observe them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThe Midrash Says\u201d continues by saying;<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Almighty \u2026is more lenient, as it were, with sins against him personally than with a wrong committed by a man against his fellow.\u201d <\/p>\n
This applies not only to a sin committed against a native Jew but equally against a Ger Tzeddek, a non-Jew who converted Leshaim Shamayim.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
R\u2019 Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, z\u2019l in the new Hirsch Chumash (published by Feldheim in 2005 and translated to English by Daniel Haberman) illustrates and emphasizes this treachery by way of equation of man’s sins in his business dealings with committing a breach of trust against Hashem (Hirsch Chumash, Sefer BaMidbar, commentary on Perek 5, posuk 6, pages 68-69):<\/p>\n
Every… sin against one’s fellow man is also a breach of trust against Hashem; for… Hashem is the Guarantor of honesty in business dealings between men. The breach of trust is especially serious if the person takes an oath and invokes the Name of Hashem in order to prove his honesty. In such a case, the appeal to Hashem is exploited in order to conceal an injustice. The debt owed to one’s fellow man becomes, as a result of the oath, a debt owed to Hashem. It is elevated to sacred status because the oath taker claims that he is “close to Hashem”; he as it were, wraps himself in the Me’il [the robe — Rashbam: garment of honor — Stone Chumash Parsha Tetzaveh, page 467] of the Kohen, and his treachery against his fellow thereby becomes Me’ilah [in modern day Israeli Iv’rit = embezzlement].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This author has developed and written on Shavu’ot over the years focusing on the middot of honesty and Ahavat Chinom for our fellow Jews and the impact that a lack of these middot makes on our collective mindset at various levels; from personal, to business, to learning, to the levels of governing and politics. It seems that a paradigm of these middot is how we are taught to treat the Ger Tzeddik. We are taught to go above and beyond the norm \u2013 to go, in the vernacular which evolved from American Pro-Football, beyond \u201cthe full nine yards\u201d in extending kindnesses to a Ger Tzeddek. <\/p>\n
In Megillat Ruth, one receives an indication that the road traveled by Ruth was more substantial than love, admiration for Na\u2019omi and concern for her welfare. We reflect on Shavu\u2019ot about the story of Ruth, the Ger Tzeddeket who clung to Naomi saying; <\/p>\n
\u201cDo not urge me to leave you, to go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people are my people, and your G\u2019d is my G\u2019d; where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Thus may Hashem do to me \u2014 and more! \u2014 if anything but death separates me from you.\u201d (As rendered to English in Megillat Ruth, Artscroll Tanach series, Perek 1, posukim 14-17, pages 79-81) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There was no mandate, no earthly obligation for Ruth to follow Naomi. She could have done what her sister-in-law Orpah did \u2014 they were both widowed of Naomi and Elimelech\u2019s sons Machlon and Kilyon. When after the deaths of her husband and two sons, Naomi sought to return to Eretz Yisrael and bid the two widows to return to their Moabite people and land. Orpah tearfully left Naomi and returned to Moav, while Ruth clung to Naomi and her Jewishness thus charting her life unalterably along a Jewish path.<\/p>\n
The Sforno cited above apparently equates cheating or wronging a Ger Tzeddik with \u201ccommitting treachery toward Hashem.\u201d And it would seem that this S\u2019forno would\/should extend beyond the Ger Tzeddik to the Ba\u2019al Teshuva who seeks closeness to Hashem and to the Oleh from a foreign land who starts a new life in Eretz HaKodesh. For we see that Na\u2019omi\u2019s return to Eretz Yisrael with her daughter-in-law, the Ger\u2019es, that Ruth was treated with respect, acceptance and kindness. The chessed shown by Bo\u2019az and his community toward Ruth should serve as a paradigm, not only for treatment of the Ger Tzeddek, but for treatment of the Ba\u2019al Teshuva or new Olim as well \u2014 on a systemic national level as well as on a local communal level.<\/p>\n
It’s important to focus on Ruth’s impact and her legacy, by way of Boaz’s kindnesses and the descendants of their union, leading to Dovid HaMelech, and B’Ezrat Hashem ultimately to the Ge’ula Shleima, the Ultimate Redemption. May we act in ways to hasten seeing and living it in our times. It is also important to focus on the kindnesses of Bo’az toward Ruth, as a paradigm for how we should act with kindness, honesty, sensitivity, fairness, honesty and merit toward the Ger, as well as the Ba’al Teshuvah, the Oleh Chadash and yes, the Elderly among us.<\/p>\n
There is an old axiom that was heard back in Philadelphia, in the “Old Country” amongst Religious Jews that he who was born, raised and has lived his entire life as a Religious Jew can\u2019t fit into the shoes or know the road that the Ba\u2019al Teshuvah has traveled. Chavel Chomer, that all Jews can\u2019t know and internalize the road that the Ger Tzaddik, or the Ba\u2019al Teshuvah has traveled in his evolution toward the Emmet of Judaism. But often, there seems to be a chauvinism shown amongst some of those who are frum-from-birth toward the Ba\u2019al Teshuva, the Ger Tzeddek. The same might be said of attitudes of some native-born Israelis toward an Oleh Chadash (new resident).<\/p>\n
Above, we spoke of Perek 5, posuk 6 in Parsha Naso regarding the \u201csins of man\u201d and \u201ctreachery against Hashem.\u201d The very next posuk of our Parsha reads;<\/p>\n
\u201cThey shall confess the sin that they committed; he shall make restitution for his guilt in his principal amount and add a fifth to it.\u201d (Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 5, posuk 7) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Rabbi Artscroll says on the posuk that: <\/p>\n
\u201cThis law regarding proselytes was especially relevant now that their status was accentuated by the organization of the Sh\u2019vatim. Since proselytes, not belonging to any of the 12 tribes, encamped separately, the Torah now gives the law regarding the theft of their property. This\u2026 teaches that financial treachery toward a fellow Jew is tantamount to treachery against Hashem himself, for He defends the defenseless.\u201d (Artscroll Stone Chumash, page 752) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It would therefore also seem that any treachery, not just monetary, done toward a fellow Jew, at whatever level of religiosity and under whatever guise; trickery, withholding information, speech, etc. would constitute a treachery against Hashem which will eventually have to be answered for by the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
As with the Ger Tzeddek, an indigenous klal \u2014 whether local or national, can\u2019t possibly know the road travelled by a Ba’al Teshuva, or the Oleh Chadash who, heretofore, lived in a foreign land, or the roads travelled by those from whom the Ba’al Teshuva or oleh chadash are descended. It seems obvious, yet often disregarded \u2014 tread upon with the Eikev \u2014 with the heel, that the indigenous klal ought not to use the intricate nuances of their language, or so-called \u201clocal customs\u201d to trick, to put \u201cobstacles in the way of the blind\u201d \u2014 the oleh chadash \u2014 the new resident who made aliyah from a foreign land. The indigenous klal \u2014 whether local or national, must also not walk before either the Ger Tzeddek, the Ba’al Teshuva or the Oleh Chadash with feelings of either superiority or priority entitlements because of “their hard lives,” because of their army service, or because of their pain as terrorist victims or loss of loved ones on the battlefield. <\/p>\n
Who among this indigenous klal can know the pain and suffering of their fellow Jew; Ba’al Teshuva or oleh chadash, instilled as a result of the Sho’ah, or of generations of pogroms, abuse, persecution and more?? It seems obvious that every Jew, that every oleh chadash, by virtue of the sufferings of those from whom he descended, has at least the same merit as the indigenous Israeli Jew, that he merits the same rights to live, earn a living, receive justice in legal proceedings and appropriate, expert, transparent medical care, etc. in Eretz Yisrael as does the indigenous klal — the native-born, regardless of his level of Hebrew language sophistication. <\/p>\n
And the Ba’alei Teshuva and the Ger Tzeddik have earned and deserve the merit, by virtue of the road that they’ve travelled to achieve closeness with Hashem, of being considered fairly for shidduchim based on who they are, what they’ve achieved and continue to achieve in growing in Yiddishkiet. In short, all upright, righteous Jews, be they Ba’alei Teshuva, the Ger Tzeddik, the Oleh Chadash are Holy and merit V’Ahavta L’Rei’echa Komocha from their fellow Jews.<\/p>\n
This author should extend discussion to one additional important sector of Am Yisrael badly in need of fairness, sensitivity, honesty, merit and respect — the elderly, be they native-born or Olim. Having observed, both from afar and up-close and personal, over recent years, via the experiences of my parents prior to their respective passings, the services available in the United States: facilities for the elderly based on their individual medical\/psychological needs; senior patient advocacy, astute management of seniors’ financial affairs, and overall kindness and sensitivity to each senior’s medical and personal\/family circumstances, this author, in observing elderly care here, can only conclude that care for the needs of senior citizens in their advanced years in Israel, when compared with the above, is, to put it mildly, in need of marked improvement. <\/p>\n
In view of the current Chinese Wuhan coronavirus pandemic which the world is suffering under, this author feels personally comforted by both the Ramat Beit Shemesh community’s care and kindnesses extended toward elderly members, as well as the Welfare Ministry’s attentiveness to Israel’s senior citizens through its delivery of meals. May it only be that once this pandemic is permanently in the rear view mirror of history, that this attentiveness and sensitivity, both on the communal, medical and governmental levels, toward seniors’ medical\/psychological needs increases ten-fold.<\/p>\n
May we, the B\u2019nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren \u2014 the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole \u2014 be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free, as Naama Issachar is now free and home \u2014 which can only occur when Jonathan is home in Israel and carrying for his ill wife Esther Yocheved bat Rayzl Bracha, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem \u2014 as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel,<\/a> as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of five and a half years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V\u2019Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V\u2019Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel\u2019s and Judaism\u2019s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem\u2019s blueprint of B\u2019nai Yisrael as a Unique people \u2014 an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with \u201cthe nations\u201d and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge\u2019ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; \u201cKi Karov Yom Hashem Al\u2019Kol HaGoyim\u201d, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b\u2019yamainu \u2014 speedily, in our time\u201d, \u2014 Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!<\/p>\n
Chodesh Tov, Good Yom Tov and Good Shabbos!
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014
\nMoshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network.<\/strong><\/a> He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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