| Dvar Torah for Parshat Matot-Masei
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With thanks to God for sparing His holy city from tragedy. May our prayers that He “have compassion on Israel, Your people, and on Jerusalem, Your city” be answered soon, in the most beautiful way. Based on Likutey MoHaran I, #62 and Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Yibum 3:5
We wrote last week that the current exile is a result of sinat chinam (baseless hatred) and that the redemption we longingly await can only come about if there is shalom among the Jewish people. When shalom is lacking we cannot talk honestly with another and therefore cannot help one another be rid of emunot kozbiot (false faiths). For the geulah (redemption) to come we have to perfect our faith. In order to progress toward faith, we have to bring an end to machloket (dissension, argument, strife). How do we go about this? Rebbe Nachman tells us that to uproot machloket we must learn halakha (Jewish law). The study of halakha is a clarification process. Is some thing (or some act) permitted or forbidden? kosher or not kosher? tamei or tahor (ritually impure or pure)? (BTW: Kosher in its halakhic sense may mean valid or fit, and is not used to describe the status of a food. A food is permitted or forbidden.) This suggestion is surprising in two ways. First, how can knowledge of ritual law positively impact on inter-personal behavior? Second, the study of halakha itself itself involves machloket, from the Tanaim right on down to contemporary Torah scholars! How does the study of their disagreements get rid of machloket?! Machloket comes about from misunderstanding. Sometimes, because we merely misunderstand what was said or meant, we draw all sorts of mis-conclusions and end up having unwarranted feelings and taking unwarranted action. That this can have disastrous results is proven—for any who need proof beyond their own experience—by the infamous incident of Kamtza and barKamtza, one of the catalysts of the Second Temple’s destruction (Gittin 55b). A second type of misunderstanding involves weighing competing claims.We know there are “two sides to every story.” But which is correct? On occasion both claims may be true, but we don’t know which should be applied? This is often complicated when one of the claims is presented by someone else, someone we may not be prepared to defer to. Within our own selves we often have to deal with choosing between two competing claims of correctness, that of the yetzer tov (good inclination) and that of the yetzer hara (evil inclination). Which one is which?! This confusion, this blurring of intellectual vision, is a result of Adam’s sin of having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both of these types of misunderstanding are in the realm of what Rebbe Nachman calls “questions whose answers can be understood.” When it comes to dealing with such questions, “It is a great mitzvah to sharpen the mind.” To the extent that one engages in study of halakha—the Scriptural sources, the Rabbinic exegesis, the discussions of the commentaries, etc.—one comes “to know what to answer the heretic” (Avot 2:14). This, says the Rebbe, is referring not only to the heretic “out there,” but to the heretic in one’s heart, the yetzer hara, who is not an enemy that we have to destroy, but an energy we have to harness. When one harnesses that energy via a halakhic decision, peace of mind is achieved. That peace of mind is not limited to decisions affecting only ourselves. It carries over to our relationships with others, as well. This comes about when we believe that the rules and principles of halakha are Divine and that their correct derivation and application is, at bottom, an expression of Divine will. Rebbe Nachman tells us that we need emunat chakhamim (faith in Torah sages). When Hashem (God) commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge He had already imbued in Adam the ability to correctly understand what was included within that mitzvah. However, when Adam and Eve were confronted by the Serpent they lost faith in themselves and mis-interpreted the law. They concluded: Just as we did not die from touching the tree, so we will not die by eating its fruit (Rashi on Genesis 3:4; even though it was the Serpent who proposed this thesis, it was they who accepted it as valid and as worthy of living by). So, one part of emunat chakhamim is believing in ourselves, that if we honestly want to know what God wants of us, we have the resources to figure it out. Another part of emunat chakhamim is accepting that there are people (dead and living) who know better than we do, who are capable of correctly determining what is proper for the Jewish community at large. (In personal or communal situations where you had strongly preferred a different halakhic decision, apply Rebbe Nachman’s other mitzvah gedolah: “It is a great mitzvah to always be happy!”) agutn Shabbos!
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