Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Sections
- Chemdat Yamim
- Ein Ayah
Ein Ayah: It is true that Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira was against publicizing the personal sin of a righteous person [mentioned in the Torah] if it did not impact on his whole personality. It would run counter to the proper path of the Torah. Even if the person has sin attributed to him [as Tzelufchad did – see Bamidbar 27:3], we are not allowed to take it from a general statement of sin to specifying the sin that he committed.
However, the ma’apilim were a whole group of people and the individual participant is swallowed up in their midst. Associating Tzelufchad with that group is not like giving his personality a specific imprint of a sin, when his sin should have been left as an unsolved mystery.
There is another advantage of his sin being that of the ma’apilim. Despite the fact that they sinned, they at least raised their spirits with that of the greatness of the nation. They were moved to go up toward the Land out of a holy connection that impacted upon them. It is true that they acted upon it in a sinful and rebellious way, which is why it did not succeed. However, the general content behind the action, after you remove the impurities from it, is something that remains as a sign of extreme bravery, stemming from a connection to the desired Land deep in the natural Jewish spirit. This is an eternal love that is not extinguished by much water and not washed away by rivers (see Shir Hashirim 8:7).
Since the imprint of the sin is relatively modest, it is better to attach Tzelufchad to the enterprise of the ma’apilim, who sinned a temporary sin but were attached to greatness and a holy and internal flame, which is hidden in the Jewish people’s soul. Even when they are in a difficult time, they view their ability to be provided for as in the Hands of Hashem, to Whom Israel sets its hopes. It is an imprint that includes elements of positive power, and in which the element of sin is not as blatant, as it is included in a stature of almost ideal bravery, as the ma’apilim demonstrated.
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit
Igrot Hare’aya Trying to Arrange Purchase of Land in Eretz Yisrael
#222 Date and Place: 2 Elul 5669 (1909), Rechovot
P'ninat Mishpat Who Breached the Contract? – part IV
Based on ruling 81087 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Igrot Hare’aya Trying to Arrange Purchase of Land in Eretz Yisrael – part II
#229 Date and Place: 13 Tishrei 5670 (1909), Yafo
Rabbis in Midrash
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Various Events FOR WHOM NOT TO VOTE
Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook stressed that Israeli politics is G-dly, so I have no problem answering this common question on a Torani blog. Also, Free-Will is a G-d-given right and obligation, to "destine one's fate" (R. Soloveichik, Kol Dodi Dofek, 67), so I obviously don't tell others how to vote. But once not a few (especially young) have already asked, a couple of personal words from experience and thoughts from chazal & Rav Kook which may be of help to others, mainly for whom NOT to vote.
P'ninat Mishpat Fallout from Failure to Install Elevator – part II
based on ruling 85007 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
