Parshas
Miketz
and
Chanukah
Thanksgivakkah:
It's
Never Late, Nor Is It Early... It Arrives Precisely When We Mean It
To
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיִּיטַב
הַדָּבָר בְּעֵינֵי פַרְעֹה וּבְעֵינֵי
כָּל עֲבָדָיו:
וַיֹּאמֶר
פַּרְעֹה אֶל עֲבָדָיו הֲנִמְצָא כָזֶה
אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר רוּחַ אֱלֹקים
בּוֹ:
וַיֹּאמֶר
פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף אַחֲרֵי הוֹדִיעַ
אֱלֹהִים אוֹתְךָ אֶת כָּל זֹאת אֵין
נָבוֹן וְחָכָם כָּמוֹךָ:
אַתָּה
תִּהְיֶה עַל בֵּיתִי וְעַל פִּיךָ
יִשַּׁק כָּל עַמִּי רַק הַכִּסֵּא
אֶגְדַּל מִמֶּךָּ:
וַיֹּאמֶר
פַּרְעֹה אֶל יוֹסֵף רְאֵה נָתַתִּי
אֹתְךָ עַל כָּל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
“The
matter appeared good in the eyes of Pharoah and in the eyes of his
servants. And Pharoah said to his servants, 'Could we find like this
– a man in whom is the spirit of G-d?” Then Pharoah said to
Yosef, 'Since G-d has informed you of all this, there is no one so
discerning and wise as you. You
shall be over my house and by your command shall all my people be
sustained; only by the throne shall I outrank you.'”
-Miketz
41:37-40
If
we were to stop for a moment and take a look at the world around us,
we would find a scary parallel between the mentality of our time and
that which filled the air during the story of Chanukah. In early
America, one of the biggest challenges that Jews faced was keeping
Shabbos.
In a world where Saturday was another workday, it was almost
impossible to maintain a steady position without giving up Shabbos.
This caused many people to be mechalel
Shabbos (desecrate
the Shabbos) and distance themselves from orthodox Jewry. Over the
years, these families became less and less religious and are now
completely intermarried and assimilated Jews who are parents to
families of goyim.1
Unfortunately, early American Jewry was not the end of the struggle
to keep Shabbos. Nowadays, with the questions that many have, the
general lack of emotional bond to Judaism, and the strong lure to
want to fit into the 21st
Century culture, there is a contemporary challenge of keeping Shabbos
as well, which draws from an addiction to technology and search for
pleasures which the Torah perspective does not endorse. This is a
struggle which is affecting even our sheltered frum
communities
and circles, let alone the non-frum
Jews
across America and throughout Israel. What will happen to the Jewish
nation without Shabbos
as the time to stop and think about Hashem being the borei
(Creator)
and manhig
(Director)
of the world?
Moreover,
as if the spiritual rebellion of teens and adults is not enough, even
things as basic to Judaism as bris
millah (circumcision)
are
now being called into question. In many European countries over the
past few years there have been a number of governments which tried to
outlaw bris
millah because
of its “danger” to a baby's health. Recently, however, there has
been a disturbing story a little closer to home circulating
international news about a women who has been refusing to give her
son bris
millah.
Beis
Din (Jewish
court) of course ruled that she must give her son bris
millah
and established a fine of 500 shekel per day (equivalent to about
$140 dollars) for every day that she does not allow her baby to get
bris
millah.
The woman has already brought her case to the beis
din of
appeals, arguing that she has the right to disallow her baby son from
getting bris
millah,
however, the beis
din of
course upheld the ruling of the first beis
din.
After all, unless the baby would be in mortal danger, no one could
forbid a baby from getting a bris.
When in history has there been such a craziness that a Jewish mother
prevent her son from bris
millah?
Additionally,
this year, with all the hype of Chanukah falling out so early this
year – on Thanksgiving, as opposed to around the Christian holiday
season – there has been talk about Thanksgivakkah and how this year
that Chanukah falls out so ridiculously early there is such a
confusion because it is not what people are used to. We have become
so used to living simultaneously with two calendars – celebrating
Hebrew birthdays, English birthdays, American holidays, and Jewish
yomim
tovim,
that we have become insensitive to the uniqueness of the Jewish
Calendar itself.
How
unfortunate that these three areas which we have done to ourselves
and are so greatly affecting us as a nation in our times, are exactly
the three things which the Hellenistic Greeks worked so hard to try
to get us to give up during the time of Chanukah. It is documented
and well known that like our enemies before and after, the Greeks
made many decrees targeted specifically against Judaism. Among these
decrees were the outlawing of performing bris
millah,
keeping Shabbos,
and declaring the rosh
chodesh (new
moon) each month.
If
we were to put ourselves in the shoes of our enemies and were
plotting to solve the “Jewish problem”, we would think that the
rituals to stop would be those that seem most provocative. Perhaps
decrees against wearing a yarmulka,
putting on tefillin,
or having tzitzis
flying out would be on the list of things which make us stand out;
but why Shabbos,
bris
millah,
and rosh
chodesh?
Keeping Shabbos
is
at best passive-aggressive, bris
millah is
something which is kept private, and declaring the new moon is
definitely not one of the first things that comes to mind when
thinking about the weird activities Jews do. However, it must be that
when it came to their discussions of how to solve the “Jewish
problem” they found that the three most threatening mitzvos
were
exactly these three – bris
millah,
Shabbos,
and rosh
chodesh.
How could we understand this?
In
order to understand the decrees of the Greeks, we must get some
clarity on what their underlying interests and goals were. Simply
put, the Greeks were fighting a war on ruchniyus
(spirituality).
Unlike by the story of Purim when Antiochus and Haman wanted to wipe
out the entire Jewish nation, the Greeks wanted to do no such thing.2
Instead, they preferred that every Jew convert their beliefs and
instead blend with the Hellenistic culture. The Hellenistic culture
which was spreading at the time advocated the perfectness of the
human body and the importance of understanding science, because,
after all, science has an explanation for any question.
With
this in mind, let us revisit the three decrees that the Hellenistic
Greeks declared against us during the time of Chanukah. When we do
bris
millah,
we are taking the naturally created human body, and turning it into a
source of kedusha
(holiness)
by
making a sign with Hashem. Shabbos
too
is something intangible that we cannot feel or see, yet somehow we
accept this invisible force and feel compelled to stop ourselves from
doing certain activities. There is no room for such invisible forces
within Hellenism. The human body is good straight from the package
and there is no such thing as a force which cannot be seen unless it
rhymes with gravity and has a scientific explanation.
When
the Greeks discovered that we declare rosh
chodesh each
month, they found this too to be intolerable. The concept of
declaring rosh
chodesh
is really fascinating. This first mitzva,
which
was given to the Jewish people as a nation,3
is one which commands the Sanhedrin
(Jewish
court)
to
declare rosh
chodesh.
Every month is either malei
('full'
– 30 days) or chaseir
('missing'
– 29 days). This will depend on when the new moon is seen and when
beis
din officially
declares it to be rosh
chodesh.
It is not too hard to understand the types of ramifications which
could potentially occur as a result of beis
din
deciding when to declare the new moon. It could make a difference
when a boy becomes a bar-
mitzva or
when the Yomim
Tovim
(Holidays) will fall out that year.
As
a matter of fact, there is an incredible story in the Mishnayos
which demonstrates this idea. The Mishnayos4
relate
that Rabban Gamliel (the head of the Sanhedrin
at
the time) had diagrams of the shapes of the moon on his wall. He
used to show these to the witnesses who would come testify about the
new moon, and would point to these diagrams and ask, “Did you see
it like this, or like that?”
One
time, a pair of witnesses came in and said, “We saw it at its
proper time”. However, on the following night it could not be seen.
Yet, Rabban Gamliel still accepted them as good witnesses. Rabbi Dosa
ben Hurkanus, however, said that they were false witnesses, and Rabbi
Yehoshua agreed that they were indeed false witnesses. Obviously,
with this dispute between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua, there
would be major practical differences in the Jewish calendar, as they
were arguing over what day of which month they were in.
Rabban
Gamliel then sent a message ordering Rabbi Yehoshua to appear before
him on the day that Yom
Kippur
fell out according to Rabbi Yehoshua's calculation with his staff and
wallet in his hand.5
After Rabbi Yehoshua had received this letter, he was greatly
troubled. Rabbi Akiva came to him and convinced him not to worried
because whatever Rabban Gamliel rules is the truth. He explained that
being that Rabban Gamliel was the leader of the generation, the head
of the Sanhedrin
HaGadol,
what he says represents the Toras
emes and
we cannot argue. Now confident, Rabbi Yehoshua took his staff and
wallet on the day that he had calculated to be Yom
Kippur
(which Rabban Gamliel did not because of the difference in
calculations) and he went to Rabban Gamliel. Upon seeing him, Rabban
Gamliel stood up and kissed him on the head and said to him,
“Come in peace, my master and my disciple! My master in wisdom,
and my disciple because you have accepted my words.”
This
principle, that Hashem gave the power to the Sanhedrin
to literally change when the end of a month and beginning of the next
would be, is something which bothered the Hellenistic Greeks so much.
How could it be that we have the ability to turn mundane things into
Holy experiences and how could it be that a nation has the ability to
change a calendar based on the word of a beis
din?
These were indeed questions which shook the Greeks to their core and
why they came to the conclusion that declaring rosh
chodesh was
such a big threat to their Hellenistic culture. These two very
different ideologies certainly do not mix, just like water and oil.
Let
us focus for a minute on the decree against the Jews declaring Rosh
Chodesh,
but at the same time let us zoom out to understand the bigger picture
of what it represents.
In
this week's parsha,
after
Yosef had interpreted the dreams of Pharoah to Pharoah's
satisfaction6,
he advised that the Egyptian government do something to prepare
itself for the years of famine. Yosef advocated that there should be
an overseer set up to organize a
country-wide hoarding of
food during the seven good years so that they would be able to make
it through the seven years of famine.7
Pharoah immediately demanded that Yosef take the position. He
commanded that everyone listen to whatever Yosef tells them to do.
Yosef's tale was the ultimate from-rags-to-riches story. One day, he
was a slave thrown into prison; the next, he had the entire Egypt at
his fingertips having to answer to no one but Pharoah himself.
One
of the most fundamental laws of Mitzrayim (Egypt) at that time was
that a slave cannot rule. As a matter of fact, when Pharoah was
bothered by his dreams and the Sar
HaMashkim (cup-bearer)
informed
him of Yosef – the master dream interpreter, the Sar
HaMashkim told
Pharoah that Yosef was a “youth, a Hebrew, and a slave”.8
Rashi9
explains that the Sar
HaMashkim was
hinting to Pharoah that Yosef was a fool, not capable of greatness,
not familiar with the culture and language of Mitzrayim,
and is anyway unable to rule because it says in the constitution of
Mitzrayim
that
a slave may not rule or even wear royal clothing. If this was true,
why did Pharoah allow Yosef to take such a high position?
When
Pharoah appointed Yosef as the overseer of Mitzrayim, he said, “Since
G-d has informed you of all this, there is no one as discerning and
wise as you. You shall be in charge over my house and by your command
shall all my people be sustained; only by the throne shall I outrank
you.”10
The Beis
HaLeivi11
writes
that when Pharoah was telling over his dreams to Yosef, he purposely
changed some details of his dream in order to test him. However,
Yosef saw through these fabrications and was able to construct a
logical and true explanation of Pharoah's
dreams,
even including the parts that Pharoah left out. When Pharoah saw that
Yosef was able to interpret his dream, he immediately realized that
Hashem must have helped him and therefore appointed him as vice
president of Mitzrayim.
However,
there seems to be something basic missing from this whole picture.
What is so special about being able to interpret dreams correctly
that merits such respect? Interpreting dreams sounds like something
anyone can do. As a matter of fact, the Gemara12
brings a statement from Rav Huna, who said, “A dream that has not
yet been interpreted is like a letter that has not yet been read.”
The Gemara13
continues
and explains that all dreams follow after the mouth. Meaning, that a
dream alone is vacuous, and until it is defined by some
interpretation, it will remain having no effect on anything. Only
once it is explained will it come to fruition in this world. The
Gemara14
offers
a story of someone who had a dream and went to twenty-four different
interpreters. Each of these interpreters gave their own
interpretation, and indeed all twenty-four came true. Through each
one's explanation, many realities came into being. How could we
understand this concept? Why do dreams follow after the mouth of the
interpreter? Also, still, what is so special about being able to
interpret dreams, if seemingly one could explain it any way? And
furthermore, what does it mean to interpret a dream properly?
In
the society we live in where animals are given almost as many rights
as people – a world where dogs have “Bark-Mitzvahs”15
and cats inherit their owners,16
it is sometimes hard for us to realize what in fact are the
differences between man and animals. Animals and people seem to share
a lot in common. We both are not only alive, but can move around.17
Animals seem to get attitude swings and emotions, just as people do.
We both get hungry, both need sleep, and both could get sick.
However, if one were to stop and contemplate about some of the most
fundamental and basic differences between man and animals, there are
two things which immediately come to mind. The first is that humans
think. Although at times we may seem to sometimes be operating on
auto-pilot or instinct, one of the incredible qualities that we have
is that we have the ability to think, discern, and reason. This is
something that we acknowledge and thank Hashem for multiple times a
day.18
Another
incredible aspect of man is his ability to speak. Speech is something
unique to humans who were created b'tzelem
Elokim (in
the image of G-d), because speech is a quality which is special to
Hashem Himself. Every day in davening we declare, “Baruch
She'amar V'haya Ha'olam”
- “Blessed is He Who spoke and the world came into being.”
Furthermore, the Mishnayos19
describe that the world was created with ten utterances. It was
through Hashem's speech that the world was created. There is
something G-dly special about the power of speech, and yet, that
ability was given to man to utilize.
It
is not a coincidence that these two G-dly factors are essential parts
of us. Thought and speech are inter-related, and depend heavily on
each other. The mouth is the tool we have to transform our thoughts
and materialize them into words. Speech is the medium between the
spiritual, intangible world, and the physical world we live in. One
can not tune one's ears to hear someone else's thoughts; however,
with speech we could translate the language of thought into something
that could be physically heard.
The
halacha
(law)20
is
that when one davens
(prays)
one must move his mouth and utter the words. Simply thinking
the tefillah
(prayer)
is
not enough, davening
has to be actually expressed in words. This idea is a little
difficult to understand. Why is it so important to mouth the words?
If we know what it means and we are taking the time to think about
it, why should Hashem care how we express ourselves? With our
comprehension of the connection between thought and speech, this
concept makes perfect sense. When we daven,
we are trying to make a connection between us and Hashem. The first
step in connecting our physical bodies to Hashem is through
translating our thoughts into speech. This is the way that we as
humans express the spiritual feelings and thoughts within us.
As
mentioned earlier, when one has a dream, the Gemara
tells
us that it is like an unopened letter. Depending on how it is
interpreted, it will come to fruition in different ways. However, the
quality of the interpretation itself depends on how much a person is
in-tuned to the spiritual world. The higher the level one has
achieved in developing his ruchniyus
(spirituality),
the better one has an understanding of the messages that Hashem tries
to send us through dream. The person who attains this strong
relationship with the spiritual realm has the inherent ability to
utilize his mouth to better convey what people's thoughts and dreams
are trying to communicate.
This
is what Pharoah realized about Yosef. Yosef did not simply make up an
explanation to fit into Pharoah's dreams, like Cinderella's
step-sisters trying to squeeze their feet into the glass slipper.
Rather, he demonstrated that he knew precisely what the dreams were
trying to forewarn. Someone like Yosef who understood, on his level,
the ways of Hashem, had a deep comprehension of what messages the
dreams were trying to convey. His power of interpretation was
strongly linked to his da'as
Hashem
(Hashem's knowledge). He was therefore able to give Pharoah not just
an
explanation,
but the
explanation
with perfect accuracy.
Let
us now take this whole idea a step further. We know that there is
only one Torah and that the Torah is emes
– absolute
truth describing the ultimate way that man is supposed to live.21
Having said that, the Torah is comprised of two elements, two sides
of the same coin: Torah she'bichsav
(the
written Torah) and Torah she'ba'al
peh (the
Oral Torah).22
Torah she'bichsav
is
the written Torah we have from Har
Sinai.
Torah she'ba'al
peh,
on the other hand, is its explanation, using the tools and
guidelines23
Hashem gave us to decipher the Torah.24
Torah is obviously an incredible gift Hashem gave us to help us try
to understand the world from Hashem's viewpoint, and live according
to the system that the Torah demands. However, perhaps the most
profound aspect of Torah is the Torah she'ba'al
peh.
Hashem tells us that the Torah is not in the heavens,25
however, it is more than just 'not in the heavens', it is in the
hands of man to achieve great levels and interpret the Torah in a way
parallel to da'as
Hashem,
by utilizing the tools Hashem gave us.
The
fact that one who honestly learns the Torah for the pure sake of
trying to understand Hashem's ways has the ability to define what the
Torah means to say, is something which is almost too hard to
comprehend. Yet, even this is not the extent of the responsibility
that man has in keeping the Torah. We all know that the Torah is the
blueprint of the world. For example, the Torah titles certain animals
as not kosher and others as kosher. As Jews, we are prohibited from
eating non-kosher animals. We do not necessarily understand why
Hashem decided that there should be these differences among animals.
However, we do understand that because there is a prohibition in the
Torah against eating such animals, there becomes something inherent
to the animal which will cause us to somehow be endangered if we eat
it – even if it only be in spiritual ways which we do not
necessarily feel or understand or even relate to. With this in mind,
let us re-examine what it means that man was given the privilege to
interpret the Torah. If Hashem gave us the ability to understand the
Torah in different ways, and the Torah is the blueprint of the world,
a conclusion is that a talmid
chochom
(Torah scholar) has the power to affect the way of the world by
defining the blueprint in a way he has determined to be emes
(absolute
truth and reality).
There
is a famous story of a person in the city of Volozhin
who suffered from a certain form of lung disease. The man consulted
his doctor who advised him to move to Switzerland where the air
quality was better. However, one night, the man's father came to him
in a dream and warned his son not to leave Volozhin. The father
explained, “The type of lung-illness you have is one which is the
subject of a machlokes
(dispute)
between the Beis
Yosef
and the Rama,
regarding if such an illness in an animal renders it treif.
In other words, is such a lung illness one which is life-threatening.
The Rama
holds that such an illness is indeed life-threatening and therefore
considers such an animal treif.
The Beis
Yosef,
though,
maintains
that it is considered kosher. The Rama's
opinion
is followed by the Ashkenazic
Jews throughout Europe, including Switzerland. However, in Voloshin,
the Rov is the Sha'agas
Aryeh
who rules like the Beis
Yosef
that such an illness is not life-threatening. Therefore, just as in
Volozhin such animals are considered one-hundred percent kosher, so
too your condition, by definition, must not be life-threatening.”
This man's father therefore urged his son to stay in Volozhin and not
move out to Switzerland where he would be putting himself in mortal
danger. The son listened to his father's advice and ended up living a
long life into his eighties, despite having this lung disease.
Similar
to interpreting dreams, a person with da'as
Torah
has the ability to define Torah she'ba'al
peh.
One could only do so after working on oneself tremendously and
ultimately achieving a level of emes
and
learning with a clarity. One cannot just force an explanation into
Torah, it must follow the guidelines we have from Hashem for learning
the Torah and must match with all the intricacies of Gemara
and
halacha.
When there is a machlokes
whether
a certain illness is deemed as treif,
it is not just a ruling pulled out of a hat. Rather, it is a
conclusion drawn from mesorah
(tradition),
drashos
(exegeses), conclusions from other sugyos
(topics)
throughout shas
(all of Gemara),
and s'varos
(logic).26
A person who is on the level to be a poseik
(halachik
authority) for the Jewish people has the enormous responsibility to
use the correct tools
to
reach true halachos.
Only a person who has trained his mind to think along the lines of
da'as
Hashem
is able to convert his thoughts and conclusions into p'sak
halacha (a
final ruling in Jewish law) through the power of speech.
As
alluded to earlier, another basic result of man having the ability to
act as a medium between the physical and spiritual world is that,
with our thoughts and speech, we have the power to transform even the
most mundane things we do into actions of kedusha
(holiness).
By saying brachos
(blessings)
and
having the right intentions in mind, we could modify our lives to be
ones of eternal purpose.
Chanukah
is the time when we celebrate these ideas. The Greeks tried to spread
the Hellenistic culture throughout Europe and Asia. They were
particular disturbed about Judaism because so many aspects of Judaism
were so diametrically against their culture. We recite in “Al
Hanisim”
(“For the miracles”),27
that the Greeks wanted to “…Ulehaviram
meichukei retzonecha…” (they
wanted to remove us from Hashem's decrees). Chukim
(decrees)
are the mitzvos
for
which we do not know a reason.28
The Greeks were so adamant about uprooting our chukim
because the Greeks only believed in things that could make sense to
the human brain. Only things that made sense scientifically were
things which they believed to be true. This is why the Greeks heavily
worshiped the human body and believed only in things having to do
with the physical realm. As Jews, however, we do not limit our
beliefs to things which are comprehensible to the human brain.
Rather, we receive our charges from a source that is boundless in
knowledge – the Creator of the world Himself.
We
believe that there is a deep connection between our world and the
spiritual one. Torah connects us to Hashem and when we think and
speak in Torah we have the ability to tie these two worlds together.
The separation of Jewish and
Hellenistic beliefs is what Chanukah is truly about. We can see this
idea symbolized by the miracle of the olive oil. A single flask –
still bearing the precious seal of the Kohen
Gadol - was somehow left undiscovered,
untouched, and uninfluenced by the Hellenistic Greeks, later to be
found by the Jewish people. As Yehuda HaMaccabee
re-lit the Menorah in 165 B.C.E. with this very oil, he was showing
that the continuity of the Jewish people lies within their purity and
special identity.
The
halacha29
is that even a poor person must sell what he owns in order to acquire
the minimal amount to fulfill the obligation of lighting the menorah.
One might ask, who gave the Rabbis the authority to make such a rule
that the poor should sell their possessions and clothing to buy
Chanukah candles? However, according to everything we have said so
far, perhaps we could see their reasoning clearly. The Chanukah
lights, with their unique requirement of parsumei
neesah (publicizing
the miracle), are a reminder of the separation between our ideology
and that of the rest of the world. This is the foundation of being a
Jew and for this it is worth giving up everything.
There
is only one people in this world who have a Torah she'ba’al
peh,
and that of course is the Jewish nation. Torah she'ba’al
peh
is what separates us from the goyim.
Everyone has a ‘Bible’ of some sort, but only we have a Torah
she'ba’al
peh.
It was this that the Greeks were fighting against – the irrational
uniqueness of the Jews because of our oral law – our proverbial
spiritual glasses which allows us to read the Torah and see the world
in a different light. The fact that we have the ability to make real
differences in the nature of the world itself through various
applications of Torah was something that the Greeks could not
understand and to which they would never admit.
Every
motzei
Shabbos (Saturday
night) we recite in Havdalah,
“Blessed are you, Hashem…who distinguishes between the sacred and
the secular, between light and darkness, between Israel and the
nations, between the seventh day and the six days of labor…” When
we say this, we are thanking Hashem for making us special and lifting
us above the other nations. For in reality, the same difference
between light and darkness exists in between our way of life and
their ideologies. The Mishna30
mentions a similar concept: “He [Rabbi Akiva] used to say: Beloved
is man that was created in the image of G-d…. Beloved are the Jews
that are called sons to Hashem…” We have to be proud of the fact
that we are Jews, children of Hashem and princes to the one and only
King. Furthermore, we must realize our responsibility to act as a
light for the other nations to show that there is a Hashem who is
involved in our daily lives, and that there is a real connection
between the spiritual world of kedusha
and
this world. We must advocate that with the ability to think and speak
comes an incredible responsibility to use these tools correctly and
keep them pure in emes.
When
we pretend that there is nothing wrong within the frum
communities,
we are hurting no one but ourselves. How could we sit back while the
Hellenistic culture seeps into our people and stops many from keeping
Shabbos? How could we not be internally torn by the international
news of Jews preventing their children from having bris
millah?
And how could we so easily laugh along at the term “Thanksgivakkah”
without thinking twice of the concept that Chanukah is never early,
nor late, it arrives precisely when the beis
din declares
it? We must hold on tight to the neiros
Chanukah during
these dark times and always keep in mind our uniqueness of being
created b'tzelem
elokim,
with the ability to use thought and speech to make real differences
in this world and the calendar.
May
Hashem help us internalize these lessons and so that when we look at
the lights of the menorah,
we see the real light of Chanukah, in order that we could continue
the job that Yehuda HaMaccabee
reignited years ago.
1A
Jewish man who marries a non-Jewish woman will have kids who are not
Jewish from birth.
2As
a matter of fact, they did not even intend to destroy the Beis
Hamikdash. Rather, they just
wanted to turn all of our activities into ones that were impure.
This is alluded to in Al Hanisim.
4
Rosh Hashana (mishnayos)
2:8-9
5This
is prohibited on Yom Kippur.
Rabban Gamliel was demanding that he recognize and accept the
Sanhedrin's ruling as
to when Yom Kippur would
be and that there would be nothing special about the day Rabbi
Yehoshua had held was accurate. Therefore, it would be completely
permitted for him to carry on the “fake Yom Kippur”.
6Unlike
the necromancers and wise men of Mitzrayim who were unable to
interpret the dream to Pharoah's satisfaction. See Rashi
Beraishis 41:8.
7Ultimately,
with the arrival of the tzaddik Yaakov
to Mitzrayim, the
famine stopped after two years. See Rashi Beraishis 47:19
8Beraishis
41:12
9Ibid.
10Beraishis
41:39-40
11Parshas
Miketz
12Berachos
55a
13Berachos
55b
14Ibid.
15Yes.
Sad but true...
16No,
this was not a joke either. A couple of years ago, Maria
Assunta, a wealthy Italian woman who died at the age or 94, left a
$13 million dollar fortune to her cat, Tommaso. Believe it or not,
Tomasso is not the wealthiest animal in the world. Kalu, a monkey,
has $80 million dollars and Gunther IV, a German Shepard, is the
proud owner of $372 million dollars (who actually inherited the
money from his father, Gunther III).
17Gemara
Bava Kamma 2a
18In
Shemoneh Esreh in the
b'racha of “Attah
Chonein”
19Avos
5:1
20For
example, see Shulchan Aruch - Orach Chaim: 62:3 and see
Mishna Berura there. Similarly, by Birkas HaTorah, see
Shulchan Aruch - Orach Chaim 47:4
and Mishna Berura
there regarding if thinking Torah requires birkas HaTorah
to be said. See also Gemara
Berachos
(20a).
21This
idea is captured in the Rambam's eighth and ninth Ani Ma'amin
(Principles of Faith) as well as reflected in Yigdal.
22The
Oral Torah was meant to be passed on by word of mouth from
generation to generation without being written down. This was the
way it was taught and learned until R'
Yehuda HaNasi decided to
compile the mishnayos,
when he saw that Torah
she'ba'al peh was in
danger of being forgotten.
23The
thirteen middos one can use to be doreish the
Torah, which are brought down by Rabbi Yishmael in the Sifra.
This could be found in the
siddur right before
p'sukei d'zimra.
24Orchos
Tzadikkim: Sha'ar HaTorah
25Devarim
30:12
26This
is why even when there is indeed a machlokes,
there is also a concept of eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim Chaim
– Both this opinion and that opinion are from the word of Hashem.
For example, see Gemara Gittin 7b.
After all, if both conclusions were made based on the emes
of Torah, it must be that both
are indeed completely accurate.
27We
recite this after 'Modim' in
Shemoneh Esreh as
well as after 'Nodeh' in
bentching.
29See
Shulchan Aruch - Orach Chaim 671:1
and Mishna Berura 3
30Pirkei
Avos 3:18
