Beit Midrash

  • Torah Portion and Tanach
  • Ki Tetze
קטגוריה משנית
To dedicate this lesson

The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of

Hana Bat Chaim

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The Torah writes: "When you build a new house, you shall make a fence for your roof, and you shall not place blood in your house, should the one who falls fall from it" (Devarim 22:8). What does the fence accomplish? Will it really save someone, or will its absence really cause someone’s death if it is Divinely decreed that he should either live or die? This dilemma is actually one of the applications of a major, theological question. To what extent is one’s fate affected by natural acts of precaution and to what extent it is determined only by direct Divine Providence? (See Rashi, ad loc. & Sefer Hachinuch #545).

But whatever approach we take on that important issue, the Torah seems to put a lot of stress in this mitzva on the house. "When you build a new house." Halachically, it doesn’t have to be new (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 427:1)!? "You shall not place blood in your house." Why not write that one should not be responsible for another’s death? "Should the one who falls fall from it." Obviously we are talking about falling from it? Why not mention what will happen to him if he falls?

It is likely that the Torah is stressing that the point of making a fence for the roof is more than a precautionary step to prevent tragedy. Rather, building the fence helps define the house. When one builds the fence, the house is as if new, even if it has been standing for decades. It is a house that transmits outwards that life has value and must be safeguarded. It is the potential for falling off, as much as any eventuality, Heaven forbid, which makes a house lacking precautions "a bloody house."

In this way, the fence and any other elements of safety that exist in the house are parallels to the mezuzah. The mezuzah is a sign that the house must protect those within from spiritual dangers, trying to ensure that all that enters the doorway conforms to the basic truths of our religious foundations. So too, the fence exhibits a concern for the physical welfare of those who live in the house or come to visit there.

The two concerns must go hand in hand. The spiritual concern is not sufficient if one does not have a healthy respect for the gift of life. But the world’s strongest and safest fortress is not of true value if it does not allow one who is safeguarded in it to live his life in a significant manner.
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Lessons
  • Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
    Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
  • Rabbi Chaim Drukman
    Rabbi Chaim Drukman
  • Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
    Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
  • Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Zt"l
    Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Zt"l
  • Rabbi Benny Elon
    Rabbi Benny Elon
  • Rabbi Yaakov Ariel
    Rabbi Yaakov Ariel
  • Rabbi Chaim Yerucham Smotrich
    Rabbi Chaim Yerucham Smotrich
  • Rabbi Chanan Porat Z"l
    Rabbi Chanan Porat Z"l
  • Rabbi Chaim Katz
    Rabbi Chaim Katz
  • Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg
    Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg
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    4 min
    Beha'alotcha

    The Menorah and the Flat Tire

    Rabbi Moshe Leib Halberstadt | 17 Sivan 5785
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    Beha'alotcha

    From Pain to Humility

    Those who have humility are open to things greater than themselves while those who lack it are not. That is why those who lack it make you feel small while those who have it make you feel enlarged.

    Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Sivan 10 5782
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    Kohanim

    Birkas Kohanim

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Sivan 9 5780
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    Covenant & Conversation

    Camp and Congregation

    Beha’alotecha 5779

    Beha’alotecha 5779

    Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | Sivan 7 5779
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    Beha'alotcha

    Until One Hundred and Twenty

    Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon | 5778
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    Beha'alotcha

    Do War and Happiness Go Together?

    The Torah, in our parasha, discusses uses of the chatzotrot (trumpets) that Moshe made. After mentioning their use in war (Bamidbar 10:9), it says: “On the day of your joy, your special days, and your new months, you shall blow the trumpets over your offerings” (ibid. 10). Is there a connection between wars and days of joy? Also, what is this day of happiness, if the yamim tovim are referred to with the next word? The Sifrei (Bamidbar 77) brings two opinions: Shabbat (during the time of the Shabbat offerings); the daily set offerings. The Ibn Ezra explains that the trumpet blasts that were done on Shabbat during the offerings made the people concentrate on their connection to Hashem.

    Rabbi Yossef Carmel | Sivan 10 5777
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    Prayer

    ?How we should dress for Prayer

    Chapter five-part two

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    Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775
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    Beha'alotcha

    The High Priest and the Menora

    The process and commandment of lighting the menorah served as a constant reminder to the High Priest of the important role that he was to always play in the furtherance of Torah and holiness in Jewish society.

    Rabbi Berel Wein
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    Basics of Financial Laws

    How Does a Heter Iska Work?

    What is the prohibition of "Ribbit"? who does it apply on? How does the "Heter Iska" bypass the prohibition? and more...

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | 5770
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    Berachot - Blessings

    When Do We Not Make a Bracha on a Fragrance?

    When do we not make a Brachaon a Fragrance?

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | 5770
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    Redemption - Geula

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    A summary of the different Brachot we will bless when the Moshiach will walk through the door.

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Iyar 5768
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    The Laws of Three Weeks

    Remembering the Temple's Destruction

    The sages ruled that when a person builds a house for himself and arrives at its final stage, the whitewashing of the walls, he must remember that the Holy Temple still lies in ruins. He must therefore leave a square cubit of wall without whitewash.

    Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
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