I hope the ideas contained below, will provide you with some topics for discussion, at your Shabbos table.

“Charles Darwin was only able to think that man is descended from the apes, because he never saw Rabbi Yisroel Salanter”. This statement, made by a pupil of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter means, the Rabbi had such obviously spiritual qualities, they could not possibly be explained by a physical process only. They could only be explained, by accepting that man`s origin comes from a higher being.

In 1983 a distinguished Rav, quoted that saying about Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, and said it applied to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein too. He said, nobody who met Rabbi Moshe Feinstein could believe that human beings were descended from apes.

Rabbi Feinstein himself said; the Torah describes the importance of punishing a murderer by saying “Velo Sachanifu es ho-oretz”. This is usually translated “you shall not corrupt the earth”. But the root of the word “Sachanifu” usually means, “to flatter”, so how does it fit in here? Rabbi Feinstein answered, if we belittle the significance of the murder of a person, we are flattering the physicality, what one might call the earthiness, of the person. Hence the phrase, “you shall not flatter the earth”. We are saying the victim was just another form of physical existence, which has now come to an end. In fact, every person has something spiritual and divine in him, and that is why murder is such a terrible thing. In this age of a movement towards euthanasia, this is a timely thought. Of course, the greater the person, the more these spiritual qualities are apparent.

Similarly, when we mourn, during these three weeks, the destruction of the Temple, we are not mourning the destruction of a beautiful building alone. We are mourning the destruction of the place, in which we were given, the guidance and inspiration, to develop the spiritual and divine within all of us. It reminds us, that developing the spiritual qualities in each of us, is what Jewish life is really all about.

SOURCES; Sefer Dorosh Dorash Moshe.

QUESTION FOR THE WEEK;

The Rambam (Chap 7 Laws of Sefer Torah, Par. 7) writes that the number of lines in each column in a Sefer Torah should be 48, corresponding to the number of Journeys made by the Jewish people in the desert, described in this week`s Sedra. What connection can you think of, between the number of journeys they travelled in the desert, and the number of lines in a column of a Sefer Torah?
(Other opinions say it should be 42 lines which corresponds to opinions there were only 42 journeys. See Sefer Shiras Dovid)

ANSWER;

The journeys were ordained by Hashem to give them various experiences which were necessary to mould and shape their character. Everyone of the lines of the Torah is necessary to shape and mould the character of the Jew.

SOURCES; Sefer Anofeho Arzei E-l.

If you have any comments, answers, or information, on any of the above, please E-mail me, or tell me.

My E-mail address is mail@rabbij.plus.com

Have a wonderful Shabbos

Jacob Rubinstein (Rabbi)