~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha – Mattos / Masei

איש כי־ידר נדר לה'... לא יחל דברו, ככל־היצא מפיו יעשה

“A person that makes a vow to Hashem… should not defile his words, rather he shall do as he promised.”

In Shaarei Teshuva, Rabbeinu Yonah discusses Chazal’s statement (Avos 5:9) that plague increases in the fourth and seventh year of the shemitta cycle due to the neglect of the obligation of maser ani (the poor man’s tithe) of the previous year.

As Rabbeinu Yonah points out, this teaches us the great severity of failing to fulfill our obligations to the poor. He goes on to say that this severity also applies to failing to uphold a promise to give tzedaka.

Perhaps the most commonplace application of the halachos of nedarim in our lives is in regard to pledges toward tzedaka. A tzedaka pledge can have the halachic status of a neder. In such a circumstance, the obligation to fulfill the pledge is particularly great. For this reason, donors and organizations are often careful to explicitly state that all pledges are made bli neder (without a neder).

In any case, with or without a neder, the Shaarei Teshuva stresses that it is very important to fulfill our obligations toward the poor.

~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha – Matos Ma’asei

The תורה gives the ability to nullify vows to the ראשי מטות. רש"י explains that each individual נשיא is able, on his own, to nullify vows. A בית דין of three Rabbis is not needed. שפתי חכמים wonders, how did רש"י know this?

It would seem that each נשיא has to lead his שבט on his own. He is inherently alone. Only when receiving instructions do the נשיאים gather under משה. After getting instructions, each must return to his שבט to lead them.

The takeaway: every shul, ישיבה, community needs its own רב or ראש ישיבה.

Only B’Simcha Parshas Matos – Ma’asei

This week contains the longest possible קריאת התורה, as well as the end of חומש במדבר. חזק חזק ונתחזק!

In the beginning of פרשת מסעי, the תורה lists off the 42 stations the Jews stopped at in the desert. Why so many places? And why does the תורה recount them especially since they had been previously mentioned as the stops were made?

It would seem that the תורה is teaching us that we would go through many גליות, wandering throughout our history from place to place. As we do so, we should learn the תורה, just as the Jews did in the מדבר. They traveled around for 40 years on a big learning spree.

May this continuous learning stay with us and lead us back to ירושלים.

תבנה ותרונן with the rebuilding of the בית המקדש במהרה בימינו.