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Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei 5773

Ki Teitzei | 11 Elul 5773 | 17/08/2013

Parashat Hashavua: “You Wipe Out, and I Will Wipe Out”

We find two p’sukim in the Torah about the destruction of Amalek: “You shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven (Devarim 25:19) and “I [Hashem] will certainly wipe out the memory of Amalek” (Shemot 17:14). Who is going to wipe out Amalek: Bnei Yisrael or Hashem? The Midrash (Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 11) asks this and answers that after they were involved in the destruction of Yerushalayim, Hashem took upon Himself to wipe them out.

Ask the Rabbi: Mistakes in the Reading of the Haftara

In my shul, the maftir reads the haftara out of a Chumash, and still many people do a poor job. No gabbai stands with him. People used to correct, but the maftir so often ignored them that no one bothers anymore. How does this affect those who read along and those who do not?

Ein Ayah: Preserving the Greatness of Previous Generations

When Chananya the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshua went out to the Diaspora, he would set leap years and decide on the beginning of the new month. [The Rabbis of Eretz Yisrael] sent two scholars, Rabbi Yossi ben Kipper and the grandson of Zecharia ben Kabutal [to protest his usurping of the authority reserved for the scholars of Eretz Yisrael]. When Chanaya saw them, he asked: “Why did you come?” They answered: “We came to study Torah.” Chananya announced about them: “These men are leaders of the generation, and their forefathers served in the Beit Hamikdash” …

P'ninat Mishpat: Exaggerated Ketubot

It is not uncommon for the shekel sum listed in a ketuba to be an apparently exaggeratedly high one. While at the wedding it seems just like a curiosity, batei din must grapple with the question of whether to abide by it literally in the case of divorce. In one case, beit din (headed by Rav Eyal Yosef) dealt with the claim for payment of a 1,000,000 shekel ketuba, in a case where the husband’s only property was his portion of a 500,000 shekel home. The husband was clearly not capable of paying the full sum.

Refuah Sheleimah

for

Rabanit Itah bat Chana

Ehrenreich

amongst the sick

of Klal Yisrael

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated
to the memory of
R' Meir
ben

Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld

o.b.m

Hemdat Yamim

is endowed by

Les & Ethel Sutker

of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and

Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

This edition of

Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated to

the memory of

Yitzchak Eliezer

ben Avraham Mordechai

Jacobson

Hemdat Yamim
is dedicated
in memory of
Shmuel Rozenhak
o.b.m
who passed away
Iyar 6, 5773

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).