Beha’aloscha 5782 – Excuses: Their Meaning & True Source
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Shiur presented in 5779
לזכות רפו”ש צבי מרדכי בן
הדסה ברכה בתשח”י
Consider sponsoring a shiur
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Shiur presented in 5779
We are in the middle of the aseres yemei teshuvah and the subject which we want to discuss today is obviously going to be teshuvah. First of all, the question is how do you make someone a ba’al teshuvah? That would be a very nice thing to know. Many of us have relatives that are, nebach, not connected, not observant, maybe grandparents, maybe parents, maybe uncles, cousins, friends, with whom we have some type of relationship;
We learned about the koach habitachon that Yitzchak Avinu needed to have in order to daven to Hashem. We also mentioned a yesod from Rav Tzadok that a person could have bitachon for anything that’s al pi teva. That’s why even though Chana did not have children, she was able to daven to Hashem because beteva she could have had children.
This week’s parshah is the parshah of zivugim. The gemara in Brachos (8a)says when a man married a woman, they would ask him the following: מָצָא או מוֹצֵא, as the passuk in Mishlei (18:22) says: מָצָא אישה מצא טוב – he who finds [motzo] a wife finds goodness, or [motzeh] מוֹצֵא, as the passuk in Koheles (7:26) says, מוֹצֵא אני מר ממות את האישה – I find [motzeh] the woman more bitter than death.[i] It could be the ultimate tov or it can be the ultimate ra.
In this week’s parshah, the Torah tells us how the meraglim returned from their tour in Eretz Yisrael and brought back a bad report. Initially, they were very diplomatic; they didn’t say it openly. What they did, was they hinted to it. They spoke about the strength of the great nation that was in Eretz Yisrael. They compared their strength to that of Klal Yisrael. But anybody who could add one plus one would have asked themselves, “What chance do we have against such odds?” In this way, the meraglim created a feeling that it was a helpless matzav.
The parshah begins with a story out of the life of Yitzchok and Rivkah. It tells us that they – who had gotten married in such a wonderful and miraculous way through the hands of Hashem – had a difficulty with having children. At the time, Yitzchak was 40 years old, and his bride, Rivka, was a young girl. Yitzchak understood he wasn’t going to have children right away, but then “right away” became a longer period of time. The Torah tells us “Yitzchak pleaded with Hashem” because his wife was barren.
The passuk in Parshas Ma’asei says: אלה מסעי בני ישראל אשר יצאו מארץ מצרים לצבאתם ביד משה ואהרן – These were the marches of the Bnei Yisroel who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moshe and Aaron. One of the subjects of training that the Klal Yisrael experienced in the midbar was the parshah of masaos. It’s very interesting to take note of that.