Hebrew | Francais

Shabbat Parashat Matot| 5766

Matot | | 01/01/2005

The Words of Yirmiyahu

The first of the three, important haftarot leading up to Tisha B’Av is taken from the very beginning of Sefer Yirmiyahu. Yirmiyahu’s activities are dated as follows: “That Hashem’s word was to him in the days of Yoshiyahu ben Amon, in the thirteenth year of his reign. And it was in the days of Yehoyakim ben Yoshiyahu, King of Yehuda, until the completion of eleven years of the reign of Tzidkiyahu ben Yoshiyahu, King of Yehuda, until Yerushalayim was exiled in the fifth month” (Yirmiyahu 1:2-3). Why does the pasuk mention separately Yirmiyahu’s activity at the time of Yoshiayahu and then again at the time of his sons?

P’ninat Mishpat

our beit din’s Rules and Regulations (chap. 8) it is written: “There will be no appeals based on circumstances that were brought up after the end of the proceedings or based on proofs and facts that were not brought before the ruling court panel.” The question of the ability to bring new evidence to change a ruling after it is complete is discussed in Sanhedrin 31a.

Moreshet Shaul

The gemara (Sanhedrin 47b) relates that people took earth from Rav’s grave to use as medicine. Shmuel said that this was permitted because the dirt was part of the ground, and ground cannot become forbidden. This idea is learned from the proximity of words (hekesh) in Melachim (II, 23:5) between idolatry and graves. Only if one worships idolatry that is detached from the ground does it become forbidden in benefit, not if he worships the ground. So too, the earth of a grave does not become forbidden.

Ask the Rabbi

Question: I live in Israel but have a business in America. I speak with some of my managers after work hours. May I call non-Jewish workers on Saturday night, which is still Shabbat in America?

This edition of Hemdat Yamim is dedicated to the memory of
Mina Presser bat Harav David and Bina on the occasion of her third yahrzeit,
24Tamuz and members of her family who perished in the shoah,
Al KiddushHashem
and in memory of
R’ Meir ben Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld o.b.m.
Hemdat Yamim is also dedicated by Les & Ethel Sutker of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of Max and Mary Sutker and Louis and Lillian Klein,z”l.
May their memory be a blessing!

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).