Torah Down Under

T he possuk says at the beginning of this week’s sedrah: וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם . “These are the laws that you should place before them.” Rashi explains: לפניהם " - (גיטין פח) ולא לפני עו"א ואפי' ידעת בדין אחד שהם דנין אותו כדיני ישראל אל תביאהו בערכאות שלהם שהמביא דיני ישראל לפני ארמיים מחלל את השם ומיקר את שם האלילים להשביחם (ס"א להחשיבם) שנא' ( דברים לב ) כי לא כצורנו צורם ואויבינו פלילים כשאויבינו פלילים זהו עדות לעלוי יראתם “These are the laws that you should place before them – and not before idolaters. Even if you know that in one law that they judge like the Torah, do not bring it to their courts. Someone who brings Jewish cases before non-Jews desecrates Hashem’s name and honours the name of idols to praise them as it says ‘Their rock is not like our rock and our enemies are judges’. When our enemies are judges this is testimony to the raising of their deity.” ·          Why is b...

It says in Avos de’rebbi Noson (22:1): רבי חנינא בן דוסא אומר... כל שמעשיו מרובין מחכמתו‏ חכמתו‏ מתקיימת‏ וכל‏ שאין ‏ שמעשיו מרובין מחכמתו אין  חכמתו‏ מתקיימת‏  שנאמר נעשה ונשמע Rebbi Chanina ben Dosa said – anyone whose actions are greater than their wisdom their wisdom will endure and anyone whose actions are not greater than their wisdom their wisdom will not endure as the passuk says נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע However, the possuk says in Shir haShirim (1:15): עֵינַיִךְ יוֹנִים - “you have dove’s eyes.” The Vilna Gaon explains that if someone has different size or shape eyes this is unsightly, however the ‘eyes’ of klal yisroel are identical as they observe נַעֲשֶׂה  and נִשְׁמָע to the same extent. How can the Vilna Gaon say that naaseh and nishma are identical? We know from the Avos de’Rebbi Noson that naaseh is always greater than nishma ? Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner z”l explains as follows: Klal yisroel were commanded various mitzvos before H...

The Mechilta says (shemos 15:2): ראתה שפחה על הים מה שלא ראה יחזקאל בן בוזי “A shifchah saw at the see more than Yechezkel ben Buzi.” The gemara says in Chagigah (13b): אמר רבא כל שראה יחזקאל ראה ישעיה למה יחזקאל דומה לבן כפר שראה את המלך ולמה ישעיה דומה לבן כרך שראה את המלך “Rava said, everything that Yechezkel saw, Yeshaya saw. What is Yechezkel similar to? To a villager who saw the king. What is Yeshaya similar to? To a city dweller who saw the king.” We see from the gemara that Yeshaya’s nevuah was greater than Yechezkel’s because he is compared to a city dweller, who is closer to the king than a villager. If so, why does the mechilta say that a shifcha saw more than Yechezkel. It would be better to say that she saw more than Yeshaya? Moshe said to Hashem (shemos 3:13): וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל הָאֱלֹקִים הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי בָא אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתִּי לָהֶם אֱלֹקֵי אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם וְאָמְרוּ לִי מַה שְּׁמוֹ מָה אֹמַר אֲלֵהֶם “Moshe said to Hashem,...