Don’t Give It To The Kohen

There is a mitzvah to separate a portion of the dough (if the flour used was at least 1.2kg if it was wheat; there are different amounts for the other 4 species) and give it to a kohen. This is the mitzvah of hafrashas challah. A non kohen is not allowed to eat challah. An impure kohen is also not allowed to eat it. Furthermore, a kohen who is pure may not eat contaminated challah. Impure challah should be burned, but a kohen may benefit from the fire whilst it is burning.

Nowadays we do not have the means to purify ourselves from the different types of impurities transmitted from a corps, therefore we are all assumed to be impure. Therefore a kohen may not eat challah even if it is not contaminated.

The custom nowadays is not to give even contaminated challah. Why not? There is still a mitzvah to give it to a kohen and the kohen can benefit from it whilst it is burning! We are worried that maybe the kohen will use it in an inappropriate way, maybe he will eat it (Radvaz). Another reason why we do not give challah to the kohen is that benefit of using impure challah whilst it is burning is not significant for the kohanim and they have no interest in receiving the challah (Maharit). (Mishpatei Arezt)

The Sin of the Spies – Who’s in Charge?

This week’s parsha (Shelach) contains the difficult episode of the sin of the spies. Our forefathers in the desert were aware that upon entering the Land of Israel the manner in which Hashem related to us would change from one of open miracles to one of miracles within nature. Manna would no longer descend from the heavens; rather we would plow and plant and harvest in order to eat. A well would no longer accompany us; rather we would depend on rainfall to quench our thirst.

Their mistake, however, was to reason that if their lives were apparently subject to the same natural order as the rest of the world, then their ultimate success or failure depended on their own military prowess. This was a grievous error. Even though there would be more effort required to secure a livelihood in the natural setting of Eretz Yisrael than in the desert, the final result would depend no less on G-d than when the manna descended directly from Heaven.

Unfortunately, only Calev and Yehoshua grasped this point. The others saw only that it was beyond their “natural” abilities to conquer the land, and concluded that even God Himself, as it were, could not help them sinceHe had chosen to let them be governed by the natural order. This reasoning led to the purposeless crying on the night of Tisha B’Av when the people wept as a sign of hopelessness.

To correct the purposeless tears of that Tisha B’Av eve in the desert, our Temples were destroyed on Tisha B’Av and we were thrust into exile where we would come to see clearly our dependence on Hashem. But rather than crying of our helplessness, our tears on Tisha B’Av must proclaim: “Hashem, You promised that we would be redeemed from this exile. We cannot achieve this redemption through our own efforts. Therefore You must redeem us. ”

Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, the great Mirrer Mashgiach, explains the Mishnah at the end of Sotah to mean that Mashiach will not come so long as we attribute our successes and failures to “natural” causes. As .long as we look for political, economic and sociological explanations of world events and excuse ourselves from Torah learning on the grounds that we must earn a livelihood, we will not merit an end to our exile.
(Rabbi Zev Leff)

Miller’s Musings

To receive Miller’s Musings as text and audio by WhatsApp or Email, text/WhatsApp 07531322970 or email millersmusingsrabbi

This week’s Miller’s Musings is sponsored לעילוי נשמת דוד משה בן חיים

Quote of the Week: “Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates”

Miller’s Musings

בהעלתךפרשת

Giving It All They’ve Got

It is often not the load that breaks you, but the way that you carry it. Moshe obviously ascribed to this point of view when he asked for assistance from Hashem. The burden of leading the people had apparently grown too great for him, after the grievances they aired about the manna, so Moshe is told to select seventy elders who will be able to shoulder some of the weight and share the leadership duties. In order to ensure their worthiness, Hashem informs Moshe that he will “take some of the spirit that is on you and place it on them.” The problems here are twofold. Firstly, if Moshe was not able to manage with the spirit that he possessed, how would sharing it help matters? There would still not be enough. And secondly, surely losing some of his holiness is something that Moshe would never have wanted, no matter what the gain!

The answer to these questions, as is the case for so many others, is found in the words of Rashi. He tells us that there was no loss at all when it came to Moshe’s passing on from his spirit. The analogy he brings is that of a lamp placed in a candelabra. Other candles can perpetually take light from this lamp and indeed light others, but the original lamp’s flame will burn just as bright as before. There is no decrease in the fire that burns within it, nor the light that is given off from its glow. So too with Moshe, although his spirit was placed on others, it was only to ignite what was inside of them, without affecting Moshe’s own level of spiritual purity in any way. The elders would grow tremendously from being exposed to the greatness within Moshe. They would attain levels that they could have never achieved at this point without the gift of this inspiration, but Moshe remained unaffected by the process. Nothing was taken from him, yet at the same time so much was given to others. With the already formidable power that Moshe retained and the new elevated status of the elders, the task of leading the Jewish people was collectively attainable.

Considering the objective importance of the role of education in society, it is incredible how little prominence, respect or reward it is given. Educators are tasked with taking our youth and endeavouring to produce whatever it is our communities need. So a definition of education is a basic necessity, equally so for parents or any group who see education as their function. It is described beautifully at the beginning of Chovos Hatalmidim, as the process of extracting the latent potential within every child and actualizing that potential. Just as Moshe did not give of himself, but rather kindled that which was inside those leaders, so too we must do that for our children. We must not expect nor attempt to create replicas of ourselves; children created exclusively in our own image. Rather we must look for who they are and who they can be and then do all we can to nurture them into being the best version of themselves. Of course there are Torah frameworks which they must be guided to live inside, but their path and their role within that context is unique and exceptional and the reason Hashem created them.

*May the clarity that Shabbos provide help us to see who our children can be*

If you would like to sponsor a week of Miller’s Musings l’ilui nishmas someone, for a Refuah Sheleima or to celebrate a Simcha please send a message to millersmusingsrabbi or to 07531322970

Parshas Beha’aloscha

Yisro, Moshe’s father in law, had come to join the Jewish people in the desert. Moshe invited him to go with the Jewish people to Israel. But Yisro wanted go back to his land. Moshe requested that Yisro not leave them, “inasmuch as you know our encampments in the desert and you have been as eyes for us.” (10:29-31)

This seems very strange. In which way were the Jewish people lacking that they needed Yisro to guide them? They were surrounded by the clouds of glory! They had Moshe and Aharon leading them as well as the seventy elders! Why did they need Yisro to be “eyes for us?”

Moshe and Aharon were indeed very great people. But there greatness could have been ascribed to their environment, their teachers or their parents. Although he may not have been as great as them, Yisro possessed a quality that they did not have – Yisro was a self made man. He was not brought up Jewish. He was a gentile. But he overcame his natural tendencies and found G-d and changed his whole life. This was the example that Moshe wanted the Jewish people to be able to see. Therefore he told him not leave and to be “eyes for us.” (R’ Elya Meir Bloch – quoted)

Whatever a person’s status is, and wherever he comes from, he can always change. He can always become a self made man.

Enduring Enthusiasm

This weeks’ parsha, Behaaloscha, opens with the temple service involving the lighting of the candelabra. Hashem instructed Moshe to tell his brother Aharon about the commandment to light the temple candelabra on a daily basis. The following verse relates that “And so did Aharon perform (the said commandment)”. Rashi comments that with these words the Torah is praising Aharon that he “didn’t deviate” from his instructions.

The commentators ask what kind of praise is it that the great Aharon actually fulfilled the Divine commandment directed personally to him- wouldn’t you?

An explanation offered is that the words “lo shinoh” in this context doesn’t mean “didn’t deviate” but rather “didn’t change”- throughout his life, the enthusiasm and excitement that he felt when he performed this mitzvah was no different from what he felt the very first time that he performed his personal mitzvah- his attitude was always upbeat and filled with excitement. Aharon understood and appreciated the enormous privilege that he had, as we do, to keep G-d’s commandments and thereby further his/ our relationship with his/ our Maker.

How fortunate we are.

R’ Ezer Pine

(Based on the writings of the Sfas Emes)

בלי וירוסים. www.avast.com

Double Portion

We know that at our seudos of Shabbos we have two challos – known as lechem mishna. This is because when the Jewish people were in the desert and were miraculously sustained by the manna, the manna did not fall on Shabbos, rather there was a double portion on Friday. (It is a dispute whether the obligation is Biblical or Rabbinic). Each person does not need his own lechem mishna. He can fulfill his obligation by listening to the berachah of the person who has the lechem mishna and then eating from the lechem mishna. (It may even be sufficient to eat less than the volume of a kezayis from the lechem mishna and then he may eat the rest from other challah).

These challos should be whole. Two challos that got stuck together when they were baked, can be used for lechem mishna even when they are still stuck together. But some argue and hold that they should be separated. If they are are separated and are whole, even though it is clear that they were stuck together once upon a time, they are still considered to be whole. If a little bit of one of the challos is still attached to the other one, it is better to remove it so that it appears to be whole. (Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchasa)

בלי וירוסים. www.avast.com

Consistency and Faithfulness

When the Ark would travel, Moses would say, “Arise Hashem, and let Your foes be scattered, let those who hate You flee from before You.” And when it rested, he would say, “Return, Hashem, to the myriad thousands of Israel.” (Bamidbar 10:35-36).

According to one opinion in the Gemara (Shabbos 116a), these two verses are set off by inverted nuns (the Hebrew letter nun) to constitute a break between three episodes in which the Jewish people sinned. The first of the three episodes, according to Tosafos and Ramban, was when the Jewish people left Mount Sinai as children who flee from school, i.e., relieved that they would receive no more mitzvos. Later, after traveling without stop for three days, the people complained and bemoaned the frantic pace at which God was driving them. The third of their sins was complaining about the mannah and demanding meat.

Since a threefold repetition constitutes a pattern in halachah, the Torah did not record these three events in succession, without a break in between. Still to be explained, however, is why the division falls between the first two episodes and not between the second and the third.

To answer this last question, we must understand the importance of consistency in our service of Hashem. The Midrash in Tana D’vei Eliyahu records an instance of rebuke. Eliyahu The Prophet found himself mocked by an ignorant boor, who did not even know the aleph-bais. Eliyahu asked the man if he did not fear for the day the Heavenly Court would ask him why he did not learn Torah. The man replied that he was not afraid because he was not given the intelligence to learn and therefore could not be blamed. Eliyahu then asked him to describe how he made his living, and the man commenced an animated description of how he made fishing nets and set them out in the most efficient possible fashion. At the end of this discussion, Eliyahu told him, “For fishing you have wisdom, and for Torah, which is even more crucial to life, you do not?” Immediately the man burst into tears at the realization that he had refuted himself.

Eliyahu concluded by pointing out how rampant is such inconsistency. There are those who will plead before the Heavenly Court that they were not given the means to give tzedakah. They will be shown how for their own personal pleasures the money was somehow found. Others will defend their lack of Torah study on the grounds that they were too busy making a living. They will be shown the time spent doing nothing or in idle chatter. There is no more telling refutation of all our excuses than those we ourselves provide.

We can now understand why the Torah separated between the eager departure of the Jewish people from Sinai and their complaints about the swift pace at which they were moving. When the Jewish people ran to avoid a proliferation of additional mitzvos, Hashem observed, “My children, if you have the energy to run from Mount Sinai, let us harness that energy and direct your running to your final destination, Eretz Yisrael.” Immediately the Jewish people complained that they lacked the strength and stamina to run. That was the ultimate self-condemnation—inconsistency. To run from Torah you have the stamina, and yet to run to Eretz Yisrael you lack that same capacity. To minimize the inconsistency involved, the Torah distinguished between these two episodes.

The letter nun represents — faithfulness and consistency (Shabbos 31a). The inverted nuns, therefore, represent inconsistency and self-contradiction.
(Rabbi Zev Leff)

בלי וירוסים. www.avast.com

Miller’s Musings Parshas Nasso

To receive Miller’s Musings as text and audio by WhatsApp or Email, text/WhatsApp 07531322970 or email millersmusingsrabbi

This week’s Miller’s Musings is sponsored לעילוי נשמת שושנה רוזה בת נפתלי משה

Quote of the Week: “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”

Miller’s Musings

Parshas Nasso

A Little Respect

As the leaders of their respective tribes, the Princes collectively decided that they wished to donate gifts and offerings of their own towards the Mishkon. And so they came forward, every day one of the Princes bringing his own contribution. Curiously, though each one brought identical donations, the Torah still lists each and every Prince’s offering. Considering the Torah’s axiom that every single word and letter contained within it are absolutely essential, not one being superfluous, we must ask why there was a need to repeat each one? It would surely have sufficed to say after the initial gift “and so too did each of them bring forward likewise”. Why the duplication?

Whereas it is certainly true that this Parsha could have been written in a far more concise manner, just because something can be done, it does not mean that it should be done. Although brevity is indeed paramount in the Torah, in this case Hashem’s priority was the respect given to the Princes. For if only the first donation, by Nachshon, would actually be stated, and the others inexplicitly referred to, this would be to some degree belittling their contribution. This, says the Ramban, is why the Torah deemed it worthwhile to replicate the presents brought by each and every Prince, despite the seemingly unnecessary duplication. This is the pedestal on which respect for another is placed by the Torah and an incredible affirmation of its tremendous value. Even that which would only somewhat detract from the esteem due, must be avoided at all cost. Such is the value of respect in Hashem’s eyes.

We have spoken previously of the central role that performing kindnesses, big and small, plays in a Torah life. This may be through charity, giving of one’s time or being there for another person when they need you. But from our Parsha and the lengths it goes to in order to convey this message, we see that one of the most vital ways one is required to benefit another is by taking into account their honour. To show that no matter who they are, how they look or what their life situation is, they are valued as someone put here to achieve what only they uniquely can achieve. Respect can be shown in a multitude of ways, each bestowing self-worth on another. Showing that you care by really listening to what they say. Expressing gratitude for what they do. Complimenting them whenever an opportunity arises. Disagreeing by all means, vehemently if necessary, but respecting the person nonetheless. Giving them your time, making it clear that they deserve it. These are simple ways of conveying their importance, irrespective of who they are. They have been created by Hashem and are therefore precious to Him, so must be treated as such by us. Everyone needs to feel wanted, appreciated and cherished. Treat every person you meet with dignity. You are giving them something more valuable than anything else you could give.

*May we honour Shabbos this week and all those we meet in it*

If you would like to sponsor a week of Miller’s Musings l’ilui nishmas someone, for a Refuah Sheleima or to celebrate a Simcha please send a message to millersmusingsrabbi or to 07531332970

Miller’s Musings Parshas Naso-A Little Respect.docx

Parshas Nasso

Hashem instructed Moshe to tell Aharon and his sons that they should bless the Jewish people with the priestly blessings (6:23-26), “So you should bless the children of Israel… May Hashem bless you and guard you. May Hashem illuminate His countenance towards you and be gracious to you. May Hashem lift His countenance to you and give you peace.” The Torah stresses that this is exactly how they should bless the Jewish people, not in another way. And what is so special about the priestly blessings? They emphasize that it is Hashem that is the source of the beracha, nothing else. “May Hashem bless you and guard you. May Hashem illuminate His countenance towards you and be gracious to you. May Hashem lift His countenance to you and give you peace.” (R’ Yehudah Leib Adil, the Maggid M’Slonim)

Hashem is in charge of the world and He is the only source of beracha in this world. There is only one address for our hopes – our Father in Heaven.

בלי וירוסים. www.avast.com

You’re Not To Pick A Pocket Or Two

This week’s parsha, Nasso, contains the following prohibitions: 1) not to steal from one’s fellow Jew (and swear falsely), 2) not to steal from a convert and 3) for a Kohen or Levi not to steal the priestly gifts (ie taking away the farmer’s right to choose which Kohen/ Levi will receive his produce).

The commentators question the Torah’s bringing together these different mitzvos- what are we to learn from this noteworthy grouping?

An answer offered is as follows. The Torah is coming to address a popular misconception.

A person may think that the wrong with theft is (solely) the causing of loss to one’s fellow man, therefore if the victim were to be a very wealthy person or if he was very old without any inheritors (because he was a convert) or if the perpetrator stole something which anyway the victim would have been obliged to give away (like stealing priestly gifts from the farmer), then this wouldn’t really be considered theft seeing that the victim didn’t lose much. By grouping these three prohibitions together, the Torah is telling us that that in addition to causing a loss to the victim, there is something else fundamentally wrong with unlawful distribution of wealth and that is- money “earned” through illegal means, isn’t part of the thief’s divine “lot”.

Hashem determines who and how much each person receives which is tailor made for what he needs and what is appropriate for him. A person who attempts to make ill-gotten gains, even if it is painless for the victim, is in effect proclaiming that G-d is not the decider of distribution of wealth, rather he is!!

R’ Ezer Pine

בלי וירוסים. www.avast.com