"Mr. Gorbachev! Tear Down This Wall"
How a Single Letter in the Torah Captures the Story of Five Millennia
Parshas Behar
- May 3, 2010
- |
- 19 Iyyar 5770
Rabbi YY Jacobson
3150 views- 5Comment
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Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein In the loving memory of Alta Shula Swerdlov; and in honor of their daughter Yetta Alta Shula, "Aliyah" Schottenstein
Class Summary:
Sometimes there is a difference between the way a word is written in the Torah (and printed in the Chumash), and the way that it is read. The textual spelling is called the “ksiv” and the traditional way we read the word is called the “kri.”
As every letter in the Torah is meticulous, dictated by G-d to Moses, these are not merely careless editors’ typos; rather these are two ways to interpret the same word; G-d is essentially saying “Write it like this, but read it like that.”
This class will explore not a section from the weekly portion, Behar, not a story recorded in the portion, not a law, a mitzvah, not even a paragraph, a sentence, or even a word in the portion. Rather we will explore a single, solitary letter, a single cell. The class will embark on a fascinating journey upon which we will discover how a single letter in Torah often encapsulates all of history; from a single letter, you can glean philosophical, psychological, sociological and historical perspective.
In this week’s Portion, Behar, we discover something shocking: The kri and the ksiv—the way the word is written vs. the way it is pronounced—not only have two separate meanings, but they diametrically contradict one another!
The Torah is discussing the laws concerning the sale of land in Israel. After the Jewish people entered the land of Israel in 1273 BCE (2488 in the Jewish calendar), Joshua assigned a plot of land to every tribe and family. If a Jew fell upon hard times and was compelled to sell his ancestral field or his home, the Torah gave him the right to “redeem it” from the buyer. The seller would refund the money to the buyer and take his property back. Even if he did not redeem the land, the field would return to the seller automatically with the arrival of the Jubilee (Yovel) year."
But there is one exception. If a poor Jew sold his home located within a walled city in the Holy Land. Here the law changes dramatically. This home, the Torah states, could be redeemed only until the first anniversary of the sale. After that it remains the property of the buyer permanently, and did not return to the seller, even with the arrival of the Jubilee year. Even Jubilee could not cancel and reverse the sale; it remains forever in the domain of the buyer. It is here we encounter a stunning discrepancy between the “kri” and the “ksiv,” which captures the defining secret of Jewish history.
Parshas Behar
Rabbi YY Jacobson
- May 3, 2010
- |
- 19 Iyyar 5770
- |
- 3150 views
Dedicated by David and Eda Schottenstein In the loving memory of Alta Shula Swerdlov; and in honor of their daughter Yetta Alta Shula, "Aliyah" Schottenstein
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shmuel רוזנבלום -2 years ago
שלום לך רבי ומורי
בשיעור על פרשת בהר (בעינן לו\לא חומה)ציינת
ליקוטי שיחות כד שיחה לפרשת וילך.
טובי החבדניקים באה"ק תובב"א-אינם מוצאים.אולי תוכל לשלוח?
שמואל רוזנבלום החונה כאן גבעת שמואל
[email protected]
תודה מראש
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danny -8 years ago
חזק ברוך ממש מחזק!!!!
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Aryeh Lev -11 years ago
Very good!
Amazing class. Thanks!
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Meira L. -11 years ago
B’’H
For almost five years we are showered with fascinated insight of Torah knowledge from TheYeshiva.net and it it’s nice to see when we really get it or, on the contrary, when we couldn’t get it:
Questions and Exercises
What were the legal differences between sales of fields, homes in open cities, and homes in walled cities in ancient Israel?
Strictly legally it is all about long term right to “redeem” your property from the buyer in case of field (with or without a house) V. short term right to get it back only until first anniversary of the sale in case of a home in walled city, and lose it forever after first annivasery.
But on pure psychological level we can glean a lot of wisdon from this:
“ It is painful to lose things (“fields”) in life. It is far more painful to lose people (“homes”) in life. But the worst pain of all is when we lose our connection with the quintessence of life and reality, with G-d. We simply can’t afford to lose our souls. None of us can afford to sacrifice our few intimate moments of prayer and communion with G-d because of other responsibilities or pleasures. For without this relationship, we might one day look in the mirror and observe a living body encasing a dead soul.” (http://www.algemeiner.net/g... />
What is the difference between “kri” and “ksiv” in the Torah?
On Pshat level it is the same as difference between “likrot” and “liktov”-" to read" and "to write" in Hebrew.
What is the dramatic discrepancy between the “kri” and the “ksiv in the portion of Behar?
It is similar to contemporary phenomena at mainstream media when their avoiding of mention or ignoring something can be easily recognizable and got sudden shadow between the lines.
What is the reason for this discrepancy, according to Rashi?
Pshat level: “It took place only in the past; in ancient Israel where there were walled cities but not now”
(… so go back to your sluggishness, reading what it is written and thinking WYSIWYG… )
And according to a deeper symbolic explanation? -Talmud Baba Basra had left for us eternal Torah evidence: “I am a wall”.
What was the significance of the “Jubilee year” in ancient Israel?
Is it about G-d and His evidence: “Kelee haoretz!”?
Do you feel a sense of entitlement? Sure, but it is only when I look at my name in my vehicle title. Are you humble with your successes and your resources? Can I have taste of them and then I will decide to be or not to be. It’s difficult to be humble without any reason to be opposite.
Is there anything in the world that can withstand the natural cycles of “Jubilee” in which all ownerships’ are canceled?
Dear Rabbi YY Jacobson and Co.!
Thanks for our “transactions” but now what had come from you to my sieved, full of holes head is MINE! And in case if you (G-d Forbid) decide to return my money back or put limits on what got from you to my mind-, it's all irreversable: and "Jubilee” is powerless to do that!
Why did Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakei ask the Roman Emperor Vaspasian for Yavneh and its sages?
Because he wanted to preserve for us the only eternal power that a mortal man can preserve: Divine Knowledge. He wanted us to know among other splendor of the Divine script that:
“When you allow the external pressures or enjoyments of life to rob you of your core self, when you no longer dedicate twenty minutes a day to speak your heart out to your Creator, when you have no time for the essence of it all, you will soon lose touch with the notion that you ever had any innocence to lose. You may no longer know that there was anything to liberate.” (or to live for) (http://www.algemeiner.net/g... />
What is it that you are giving your children or students that no storm can wipe away?
We’ll came back with it after the storm will be over…
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Leo Michel Abrami -12 years ago
Viktor Frankl
Setting aside Mr. Fuchs' accomplishments as a lecturer on the Shoah at various institutions in Argentina, for which he should be congratulated, his comments contain many unfortunate errors and regrettable misinterpretations about a fellow survivor of the Nazi concentration camps whose memory he is trying to tarnish for no good reasons.
. The late prof. Viktor Frankl was invited by the Hebrew University for the first time in 1988 and he gave a number of lectures which were very well received. During that same visit, a ceremony was organized by Dr Mignone Eisenberg at the Kotel to enable him to be called to the Torah, seventy years after his Bar Mitzvah in Vienna before the war.
. Prof. Alexander Vesely of Vienna has just confirmed to me in a recent email that Viktor Frankl attended High Holiday services in the great Synagogue of Vienna every year and on other occasions too.
. When he was invited to the USA, he would usually meet with prominent Jewish colleagues and on one occasion lectured to the students at a Rabbinical school, as I mentioned in another comment.
. He had a long and meaningful correspondence and several visits with Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Ottawa, Canada and with my teacher Dr Joseph Fabri-Epstein of Berkeley, California who became the pioneer of Logotherapy in the USA.
. The one thing Mr Fuchs will not forgive Frankl is the fact that he visited prof. Martin Heidegger after the war while he was writing his doctoral thesis on existential philosophy. True, Heidegger had some sympathy for the Nazi regime in the early years, but he was also a great philosopher and Frankl was eager to pursue his research at this stage.
. Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning" has done more to expose the evil of the Holocaust than many other survivors' testimonies. It was, no doubt, the reason Mr. Fuchs was invited to speak to the Institute of Logotherapy of Buenos Aires.
So Mr Fuchs' complaints are too self-centered to be paid much attention.
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