בס"ד
The Weekly Vort 3 Elul 5780 / August 23, 2020
PARSHAS KI SEITZEI ● ושבית שביו... – כי תצא למלחמה על איביךWhen you will go out to war… and you will capture its captive. (21:10) What is meant by its captive? The Baal Shem Tov explains that “it” refers to the enemy – we must adopt his tactics and use them against him. Thus, man must be as obstinate in defeating the enemy as the enemy is in trying to destroy him. One must be as diligent and dedicated in defense as the evil inclination is in offense. One must observe his constant efforts to entrap one’s soul. If he fails today, he returns tomorrow. One must learn from him. Even if one slips, he should pick himself up and begin his spiritual climb again. (The Torah Treasury)
● ... – ותפשו בו אביו ואמו והוציאו אל זקני עירוThen his father and mother shall grasp him [the rebellious son] and take him to the elders of the city… (21:19) “Bring him” seems to be a more appropriate expression than “grasp him.” Furthermore, the obligation to deal with the rebellious son would seem to fall more on the Beis Din than upon the parents. Why must the parents grasp him and bring him before the court? The Skulener Rebbe suggests that the rebellious son’s behavior and lifestyle is the result of poor parenting. The term “grasp him” indicates that the parents must bear the responsibility for his spiritual condition. Because the failure of the child is their fault, the Torah requires them to undergo the embarrassment of publicly bringing him to the elders of the city. (The Torah Treasury) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
PIRKEI AVOS #1-2 – אוהב שלום ורודף שלום..loving peace and pursuing peace... (1:12) The Maharal comments that peace is achieved when the various segments of a society or group complement each other and form a harmonious whole. This type of harmony, however, is hard to achieve since our world is inherently one of disparity. Contentiousness is so natural in this world that at the very beginning of history, strife erupted between Kayin and Hevel. Therefore, one must actively pursue a rare commodity. (The Pirkei Avos Treasury) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
JUDGING FAVORABLY #100 I used to work in an office in Yerushalayim right near the main depot of the inter-city taxi service to Bnei Brak. One morning, my husband was going to Bnei Brak at the same time that I had to go to work, so I accompanied him to the taxi stand. As he got into the taxi, he realized that he only had a big bill with which to pay the fare. He called to me and asked if I had small change. It was awkward to pour out my change in the middle of the street, so I got into the taxi and started to look through my bag. I handed some change to my husband, got out and continued on to work. Later that morning, as I was sitting in the office typing, my boss walked in. He took one look at me and said in a surprised tone, “Are you back from Bnei Brak already?” “Bnei Brak? No, I’ve been here all morning.” “I saw you going into a taxi with your
husband this morning.” “You must have seen somebody else,” I replied. Suddenly I remembered getting into the taxi to hand my husband the money. For my boss, the evidence was crystal clear. There I was on an ordinary morning when I should have been going to work, climbing into a taxi with my husband, obviously heading for Bnei Brak, a two-hour round-trip. I explained what had really happened and the incident was forgotten. But I learned a terrific lesson on the importance of judging favorably. (The Other Side of the Story) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
The gates of prayer are sometimes open and sometimes locked, but the gates of repentance are always open. (Midrash Rabbah, Devarim 2:7) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
RAV MOSHE ARYEH FREUND Part One Many people outside of his circle knew little about him, and even those inside his circle never knew the true extent of his greatness. But it was for good reason that the Chazon Ish called him a Gadol HaDor close to fifty years ago, when he was only in his fifties. Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, Rav of the Eida Hachareidis of Yerushalayim was an outstanding Gaon and Tzaddik, whose accomplishments in Torah and Rabbanus astound the mind and warm the heart. He is a true symbol of pre-WWII Torah greatness R’ Moshe Aryeh was born in 1903 into a legacy of several generations of distinguished Hungarian Rabbonim. He traced his ancestry to such luminaries as the Ramah, the Maharshal, the Shach, and the Beis Yosef. His grandfather, Rav Avrohom Yehoshua, was the Rav of Nosiad, Hungary, and a distinguished chassid of Rav Chaim of Sanz. Once, when the Ksav Sofer was about to visit the Rebbe Yehoshua’le (as he was known), his father, the Chasam Sofer, warned him, “If you say over any Torah to him, do it as quickly as possible, since if you give him any time he will tear your arguments to pieces.” R’ Moshe Aryeh’s father, R’ Yisroel, was the Rav of Honiad and a student of the Rav of Sighet, author of Kedushas Yom Tov. R’ Moshe Aryeh was a worthy link in this golden chain of Torah greatness. By age eight, R’ Moshe Aryeh could quote long passages of Sefer Kedushas Yom Tov from memory. By age 21 he had on the tip of his tongue a good part of Shas with Rashi, Tosafos and Rishonim, as well as significant portions of Yoreh De’ah and Choshen Mishpat and their commentaries. When he was only 18, his grandfather had him participate in the most difficult cases that came before the city’s Beis Din. Prior to WWII, R’ Moshe Aryeh served as Rosh Yeshiva in the city of Satmar, and though he was not officially a dayan, no significant case was decided in the city without consulting him. During that time, he developed an exceptional expertise in the laws of agunos, which he utilized extensively after WWII to help many women. R’ Moshe Aryeh arrived in Auschwitz on 2 Sivan (1944), where he witnessed his wife and eight children being sent to the crematorium while he was sentenced to hard labor. Even under grueling conditions, and with pain of the loss of his family, his faith remained strong. With enormous dedication and self-