Vayakhel 5782 – Not Getting Angry on Shabbos
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Shiur presented in 5778
Join Our Aniyei Eretz Yisroel Purim Campaign Lomdei Torah M’toch Chadchak
Visit YTATorah.org
Shiur presented in 5778
What is the highlight of Parshas Yisro? Matan Torah. Matan Torah is the greatest event that happened in history. There is nothing that even comes close to that event. In Parshas Vaeschanan, Moshe Rabeinu warns us, in the strongest terms, to be exceedingly careful and to guard ourselves very much against not forgetting the event that our own eyes saw. You have to see the event, you have to remember the event, and you have to have this event at the front of your heart.
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.
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.
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?”
The Ramban comments on when the command of lech lecha was initially said to Avraham Avinu. He says that initially Avraham was in Ur Kasdim – that’s where they tried to burn him at the stake, and that’s where Hakodosh Boruch Hu found “his heart to be faithful.” After that episode, Avraham Avinu fled Ur Kasdim with the intention of going to Eretz Canaan, even before Hashem commanded him to go there. He went to Charan and was stopped there, and that’s where Hashem came to him and told him: lech lecha
We are approaching the end of the year. What’s coming in a couple of days is the day of mishpat, of judgment. If a person would take into account the mishpat that he got last year and think about what kind of maasim he is presenting to the Ribbono Shel Olam, he might become afraid.