Purim 5782 – An Unspoken Topic of Purim
In Honor of our Parents Alfred & Esther Harary by their Children & Grandchildren
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Shiur presented in 5777
In Honor of our Parents Alfred & Esther Harary by their Children & Grandchildren
Visit YTATorah.org
Shiur presented in 5777
We speak about the greatness of the Chashmonaim. But any time you talk about the greatness of someone, you always have to know, how do you translate that to your life? We talk about the Chafetz Chaim or the Vilna Gaon, and I can tell you how superb and how great they were and how committed they were. But then the question is, “How do I plug into that?”
In this week’s parshah, we encounter a game-changing episode in the history of Klal Yisrael. The meraglim, the spies, came back and gave a bad report about Eretz Yisrael. The consequences were terrible. These great tzaddikim ended up forfeiting their lives. It caused tremendous issues for Klal Yisrael. The Torah tells us about a group of Yidden who felt very remorseful after the whole episode came to an end.
In Honor of our Parents Alfred & Esther Harary by their Children & Grandchildren Visit YTATorah.org Shiur presented in 5780
Chazal say in masechta Eiruchin (8b), “Rav Papa says, it says, ‘Your benevolence is like the mighty mountains’ (Tehillim 36:7). Hashem’s tzedakos are like tall mountains. What does that refer to? The gemara says these are nega’im discussed in this parshah, that come upon people.” That’s amazing tzedakah. The end of the pasuk ends off with, “Your judgment is like the great deep.” The gemara says this refers to negei batim.
The Torah tells us a story about a person in the midbar who cursed Hashem and they put him in prison. That was a very rare occurrence. The prison system wasn’t common. It wasn’t common at all in Klal Yisrael. They put him in prison until it would be clear what his din was. When they found out that he was supposed to get sekilah, everybody subjected him to sekeilah.
Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, the mashgiach of Mir Yeshiva, once came into the beis medrash of Mir and went over to two bochurim who were learning and asked them what day in Elul it was. They didn’t know right away, so they started to make a cheshbon, trying to remember when Rosh Chodesh Elul was. One of them turned to the other and asked, “Nu, what day of Elul is it?” His chavrusa said, “It’s either the 9th or 10th of Elul.” When Rav Chatzkel heard this, he gave a shrei and said, “Bochurim! You don’t know what day it is in Elul?!