Matos 5779 Importance of Speech This week’s Parshah begins with the Parshah of Nedarim. Why is it mentioned specifically here, after the episode with Bilaam and Pinchas and between the story with the בנות מדין and the war against מדין? Rashi in Parshas Balak quotes the Chazal that tells us that Bilaam was given to theאומות העולם as a Navi כדי שלא יהא פתחון פה לאומות לומר אלו היו לנו נביאים חזרנו למוטב (כב,ה)....
5781 Yahrzeit, the Churban, and Moadim The Kiddush was sponsored by Sender Galbut לעלוי נשמת his father, Reb Boruch Tzvi Ben Reuven Nosson Z”L. Dr. Galbut had visited the shul twice when he was already terminally ill and nevertheless he had a captivating smile and radiated Simchah. He was Zocheh that his Yahrzeit be during the ימי המצרים which are anyways days of mourning so he didn’t add another day of sadness....
5780 Chessed Hashem to Connect We begin davening with the Pasuk מה טבו אהלך יעקב משכנתיך ישראל. This Pasuk appears in the Nevuah of Bilaam. However the Maharshal in Tshuvah 64 says not to say this Pasuk because he feels uncomfortable being that it was said by a Rasha such as Bilaam. But according to the understanding that the Pasuk is referring to בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות (סנהדרין קה) (which is why we say it when we walk into shul), it’s a powerful thing that even a Rasha like Bilaam recognized this attribute of Klal Yisrael and therefore all the more so of a reason that it should be included in our davening....
5779 Haftorah This week’s Haftorah discusses יפתח who went to war with בני עמון. The Gemara in ראש השנה דף כה ע"ב says יפתח בדורו כשמואל בדורו. The simple understanding of this Gemara is that in spite of the fact that יפתח was not a prophet and was just a warrior (ילקוט שמעוני ספר שופטים סז goes as far as to say he was not even a בן תורה), nonetheless for his generation he was as good as Shmuel....
5781 Motivation for Machlokes The Parsha begins ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי ודתן ואבירם בני אליאב ואון בן פלת בני ראובן. This coalition was made up of a group of individuals who were all seeking different things, some the נשיאות and some the כהונה. Although און בן פלת didn’t really have a claim, it could be that he was the man behind the ideological טענה of כל העדה כלם קדשים ובתוכם יקוק ומדוע תתנשאו על קהל ה'....