A Quick Torah Thought

 There is a short story that I've been reading these past few weeks with my 12th grade students, the "Monkey's Paw:"  Monkey's Paw Full Text For me, the story seems to put into stark contrast the oriental idea of determinism and perhaps more Western conception of choice and personal direction.  The story speaks of destiny being irreversible, wedded and interwoven in our experience of life.  It would seem to me that one of the words in this past week's parsha, vayashkef, resonates Judaism's message that we do have control over our destiny.  Vayashkef , or to look deeply from above, usually strikes a harsher cord. God, it says in Parshat Vayeira, engaged in that very activity when looking down on the people of Sodom, before judging them and eradicating them: va'yashkef al pnei S'dom.  This word, which again, signifies a probing look, is then used to describe how Avimelech spied on Isaac and Rivka, who acted playfully, as husband and wife: Vayashkef A...

 A verse in this week's Torah portion struck me as strange. I am referring to the second of the below two verses, but am quoting the first for contextual reasons: You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it; else he will cry to the LORD against you and you will incur guilt. (Deuteronomy 24:14-15) When the Torah states, "You must pay him his wages," the connotation would seem to be that only a penurious wage earner is deserving of his salary in a timely manner, whereas a laborer who doesn't want for money, can be left high and dry until the employer sees fit to remunerate him for his services.  Rashi, I saw today, answers my question by stating the following. Leviticus 19:13 indeed states: "You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a l...

 Very interestingly, the Ramban makes a clear distinction between the Land of Israel, and lands and states outside of Israel.  Whereas within the confines of Israel, every city is required to establish a court of justice, that is not the case in lands and states outside of Israel.  Rather, outside of Israel, each and every district - or province - must establish a court of law. This more minimal requirement, essentially, reflects a difference in the primacy of establish justice in Israel as opposed to outside of its sanctified bounds.  Israel is the epicenter of Hashem's will in this world, Torah radiating from Zion. The mark of Torah is justice, it being one of the three pillars ensuring the subsistence of this world (Pirkei Avot). Therefore, it would seem, that justice, law, and the truth of God's will in this world, must be reinforced, and be ever-present in the land of Israel, not sought, but ubiquitous, available in each and every city. 

 My grandfather of blessed memory, Rabbi Israel Orenstein, a student of the Pachad Yitzhak told me that when he was a bochur , a young, unmarried man, preparing to get married, his father took him to the Amshinover Rebbe. He said to him the opening words of this week's Torah portion, " Re'eh anochi" in a very thick yiddish accent - my grandfather, had told me that over 65 years later he still remembered the way in which the Rebbe had pronounced the words, "Re'oi Anoichi." "See," the Rebbe then told him, "see who you are before you seek your wife."  My grandfather took those words to heart, engaging, as the Rebbe told him, in self-examination, finding out who he was before he looked for the woman who would complete him, and be with him for many years until she succumbed to kidney failure after years and years of dialysis.  That message is an important message, for everyone, I believe, prior to embarking on a momentous life change; look...