Remembering Rav Shach zt"l

Today, the 16th of Cheshvan, marks the 10^th anniversary of the passing of Rav Elazar Menachem Mann Shach zt”l, the great gaon and Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponevezh yeshiva in B’nei Brak and author of the Avi Ezri on the Rambam.

I never had the privilege of meeting Rav Shach in person, but when he died I took the opportunity to pay a shiva call to his only son, Rabbi Dr. Efraim Azriel Shach z”l (who lived in Jerusalem until he passed away just before Sukkot of this year).

Dr. Shach had a very interesting story – much of which is well known by now. After learning in some of the finest Yeshivot in Israel at the time, he went on to join the Irgun and later went to University in North America. He ultimately returned and spent much of his professional career filling senior positions in the Israeli Ministry of Education. Suffice it to say that he didn’t exactly fit the assumed mold of the son of the Ponovezh Rosh Yeshiva.

I was at the beginning of my second year of learning in Yeshivat Hakotel at the time, and so one afternoon in the week of shiva during my lunch break, I hopped in a cab with a Rebbe from the Yeshiva and friend. Together the three of us made the short trip to the other side of the city to visit Dr. Shach.

We walked into a very welcoming but simple apartment. I was immediately struck by the large painting on the wall depicting Rav Shach davening with tallit and tefillin.

The apartment was busy with visitors, but not overly crowded. Dr. Shach patiently and warmly gave his full attention to each and every one of his visitors – weather he had met them previously or not (we didn’t even realize that R’ Zalman Nechemia Goldberg was sitting right next to us while we waited for our turn!).

When it was our turn to approach Dr. Shach he told us about his time spent in the United States as a faculty member and administrator in the Yeshiva of Flatbush. He joked with my friend who was a graduate of MTA – “we used to beat you guys in basketball all the time!”. 

He also shared some stories about his great father.  Dr. Shach related that once while he was in the New York, he wrote his father a letter marveling at the huge skyscrapers in Manhattan. His father responded that he was unimpressed by such physical, temporary things. “After all”, wrote Rav Shach to his son, “these buildings could fall to the ground in an instant” if Hashem willed it so. Being that the events of September 11, 2001 were not even two months behind us at that time, this particular vignette gave us goose bumps.

Dr. Shach also recalled how one morning he and his father were together in Rav Shach's apartment in B'nei Brak. His father was eating a piece of dry toast for breakfast and learning Rambam. Dr. Shach asked his father if he would like something with his toast - perhaps some butter or jam. Rav Shach looked at his son as if he was speaking Chinese. "I don't understand what you mean" replied Rav Shach, "I am having Rambam with my toast". Dr. Shach said that this response from his father was 100% serious.

A few months after my visit with Dr. Shach, he came to Yeshivat Hakotel at Rav Bina’s invitation to address the student body as a whole. In a moving display, Dr. Shach implored us to put all of our efforts into the study of Torah and keeping of the mitzvot. Dr. Shach explained that as his father taught him – everything in this world is rooted in and connected to the Torah. For a Jewish person there can be nothing that exists outside of this reality. Dr. Shach with all of his “other” pursuits and accomplishments in this world taught us that at the end of the day the Torah is the umbrella that encompasses everything in life.

This was the message of Rav Shach as told by his only son.

In this politicized and polarized world, many disagreed with Rav Shach on one issue or another. But perhaps on this, his tenth yahrtzeit, we can all agree on his bottom line - that for us Jews the Torah was, is and always will be the center of our lives.

O.C. 1:1 - Am I Allowed to Sleep In????

The Shulchan Aruch and Rama begin with what looks like some words of encouragement for getting going in the morning:

יתגבר כארי לעמוד בבוקר לעבודת בוראו, שיהא הוא מעורר השחר הגה: ועכ"פ לא יאחר זמן התפלה שהצבור מתפללין 

At first glance this looks like a pep talk of sorts to encourage getting up early in the morning as well as a reminder from the Rama that you need to at least get up to daven with the community (I know this is not an exact translation of the Rama - but we'll leave it at this for the time being) . There is nothing in this short formulation of the Shulchan Aruch that makes us think that there is an actual obligation to wake up early in the morning.

The Tur however elaborates and gives us a different impression:

 לכן צריך האדם להתגבר כארי לעמוד בבקר לעבודת בוראו ואף אם ישיאנו יצרו בחורף לאמר איך תעמוד בבקר כי הקור גדול או ישיאנו בקיץ לאמר איך תעמוד ממטתך ועדיין לא שבעת משנתך התגבר עליו לקום שתהא אתה מעורר השחר ולא יהא הוא מעירך כמו שאמר דוד ע"ה עורה כבודי עורה הנבל וכנור אעירה שחר אני מעיר השחר ואין השחר מעיר אותי... ואם אינו יכול להשכים קודם אור הבוקר מכל מקום התפלה אשר היא מועד לכל חי אל יאחר אותה ויחשוב בלבו אילו היה בעבודת מלך בשר ודם וציוהו להשכים באור הבוקר לעבודתו היה זהיר וזריז לעמוד לעבודתו כאשר ציוהו כ"ש וק"ו בנו של קל וחומר לפני מלך מלכי המלכים הקב"ה

When reading this Tur, I get the strong impression that getting up early is actually a full-fledged obligation. At the beginning of his comments the Tur clearly adds the word "tzarich" - "one must” work hard to get up in the morning.

Also at the end of his comments, the Tur introduces a parable for emphasis – “One should think in is heart that if he was serving a king of flesh and blood who commanded him to wake up early in the morning to begin his service, one would be careful to do so… How much more so with regards to the service of Hashem”.

It is difficult to understand this mashal of the Tur unless we say that just as this human king is commanding his subjects to wake up early, so too Hashem is commanding us to do so – the lesson being that we must be at least as careful with the commandments of Hashem as we would be with the commandments of a mortal king. 

The question then is, what is the source of this obligation to get up? How does the Tur know that we must wake up so early in the morning? 

Maybe the Tur answers this question himself in his continuation where he quotes support for this idea from the passuk/Gemara about David HaMelech: 

עורה כבודי עורה הנבל וכנור אעירה שחר - אני מעיר השחר ואין השחר מעיר אותי 

David HaMelech set a precedent of waking up early in order to serve Hashem. It is this precedent that obligates us to wake up early to serve Hashem as well. 

I found what sounds like a second answer in the Prisha (in his commentary to the Tur here). The Prisha suggests that since the obligation to say shema and daven begins and sunrise, a person must obviously wake up before then and be prepared (the Prisha then ties this into the reference to David HaMelech – take a look inside there).

Regardless of how you understand it, it seems clear from the Tur that a Jew is expected to wake up as early as he can (ideally before sunrise) to start his service of Hashem. 

One final point worth mentioning is that in general we assume “zereizin makdimin l’mitzvot” – One should hurry to perform a mitzvah at the earliest possible time. It seems that the Prisha is starting to go in this direction with regards to getting up early to get ready for tefilla, but I have not found anyone of the major poskim apply this principle anywhere in this context.

This last question not withstanding, the bottom line seems to point to an obligation (on some level) to get out of bed and start your day as early as possible. 

[After posting, I found support for this idea (that there is an actual obligation to wake up early) in other sources as well. The Biur HaGr"a here quotes several sources discouraging sleeping during the morning hours. One of those sources is a Mishna in Pirkei Avot that says that sleeping during the day is one of the things that removes a person from this world.

While most mefarshim explain this to be referring to one who sleeps past the time for kriat shema and tefilla, the Sefat Emet (in his commentary to Gemara Sukka 26b) seems to explain that the Mishna is prohibiting sleep in the morning since there is an obligation to recite Shema and Tefilla right away, similar to the approach of the Prisha discussed above].

I'm Back

Shavua Tov.

I am inclined to start by quoting a cultural icon from my youth who once proclaimed simply and famously - "I'm Back". 

I too "am back" in a sense. Not that I ever really went anywhere, but as far as this blog goes, I have been absent for a few weeks and hope that with this post we're back into the swing of things.

Just a reminder to my multitude of readers - for the most part the content of the blog will revolve around the Shulchan Aruch - matters of halacha and minhag. I also intend to post Divrei Torah on the Parsha and Holidays and possibly other random ideas and musings as they come to mind. 

I will continue to try and blog by the words of wisdom that my father continues to remind me of to this day - before opening your mouth, be sure what you are about to say is an improvement over silence.

 

Brief Blogging Hiatus

At the outset, I maintained that I would not be posting to this blog just for the sake of posting... The goal was to post content that I felt was worthwhile.

The last 8 weeks for us have been exciting - Baruch Hashem we've welcomed a new daughter - Talia Rachel - into the world and into our family. This, combined with a busy few weeks at the office have kept me from having the time to keep up with the blog. Instead of just trying to quickly throw something together, I opted to wait until things settled down a bit.

Time permitting and G-d willing, I will try to pick it up again soon.

In the meantime, G'mar Chatima Tova to you and yours

Shabbat Nachamu

Last year at this time I was just arriving in New York for a visit/some meetings for work.

I was graciously invited by the Rav of my in-laws' shul - R' Moshe Rosenberg - to speak briefly Shabbat morning. The following is a summary of the idea I shared with everyone in shul.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Purpose of Man's Existence according to R' Chaim Volozhin

As we mentioned previously, The Gemara teaches us that the second Beit Hamikdash was destroyed as a result of sin'at chinam - hatred for one another. 

On the topic of our interaction with others, I think the following source speaks for itself:

In the introduction to sefer Nefesh Hachaim, one of the son's of R' Chaim of Volozhin tells of the rebuke that he would often hear from his father regarding the treatment of others:

[My father] would often rebuke me upon seeing that I did not concern myself with the suffering of others. And this is what he constantly said to me: 'This is the entire [reason for the existence of] man - [man] was not created for his own sake, but rather [man was created] only for the purpose of assisting others to the best of his abilities'.

The 3 Weeks - Sin'at Chinam

This time of year, the issue of "sin'at chinam" - baseless disrespect and even hatred for others - receives much attention. Many of us are aware that Chazal teach us that it was none other than sin'at chinam that caused the ultimate destruction of the second Beit Hamikdash.

I just wanted to offer the following observation on the actual source of this Chazal. The Gemara in Yoma (9b) says:

מקדש ראשון מפני מה חרב? מפני שלשה דברים שהיו בו: עבודה זרה, וגלוי עריות, ושפיכות דמים…אבל מקדש שני, שהיו עוסקין בתורה ובמצות וגמילות חסדים מפני מה חרב? מפני שהיתה בו שנאת חנם.

The Gemara clearly says that the first Beit Hamikdash was destroyed because the Jewish people were violating the prohibitions of idol worship, illicit relations, and murder. And then the Gemara asks: But what about the second Beit Hamikdash in which the Jews were constantly involved in Torah, Mitzvot and Gemilut Chasadim (acts of kindness to one another)?? There, the reason for destruction was sin'at chinam.

What is fascinating about this Gemara is that it says explicitly that the generation that lived during Bayit Sheini was constantly involved in gemilut chasadim, and yet the reason that was singled out as the cause for the ultimate destruction was senseless hatred. How can both be true??

I'll admit that I have not had a chance to look at the mefarshim, but off the cuff I would say the following: 

You could answer that these opposite behaviors were directed at different people - they were nice to their family and friends and showed hatred to others. This might be the p'shat here.

However, it is also possible that the Jews of that time really were consistently involved in gemilut chasadim towards everyone in the community and they did not discriminate.

The issue then was that they outwardly performed acts of kindness to one another, but this kindness was superficial at best. It was not done with the intention of sincerely making another person feel good or really trying to feel the pain of a neighbor. Beneath the surface, there was still cynicism, criticism and even hatred.

Perhaps the avoda of the 3 weeks is to try and make our gemilut chassadim a little more sincere and make sure it is not just superficial acts that make us look good to others.

The Rambam writes in (Hilchot De'ot 6:3) that one of the ways to fulfill the mitzva of "v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha", is to speak nicely about someone else (see the Pri Megadim in Eshel Avraham O.C. 156. Also see Sefer Hachinuch #343 for a possibly different approach). 

According to the Rambam, it isn't enough for one to just perform the act of kindness itself, but rather one is obligated to also try to sincerely develop kind feelings towards his friend and express these feelings to others. The mere expression of these feelings indicates a level of sincerity and also helps to etch these positive feelings into the psyche of the one expressing them.

In terms of practical application, I was thinking that it might be a bit awkward to suddenly start going around complimenting everyone, so I thought it might be better to start small. The Gemara (Kiddushin 40a) clearly says that the mitzva of  v'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha applies to one's spouse, so maybe that is a good place to begin... 

Talk about a good deal - sincerely compliment your wife (or husband) and you gain not only brownie points, but a mitzvah d'orayta as well, and you bring us that much closer to the next Beit Hamikdash.

Not too bad.