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Shabbat Parashat Pekudei| 5766

Pekudei | | 01/01/2005

Inclusiveness vs. Exclusiveness

Our parasha’s first pasuk has been explained in several, symbolic ways. Let’s first translate it the simple way before learning lessons from other explanantions. “These are the countings [of the collected material] of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), the Mishkan of Testimony, which was counted based on Moshe’s instructions, the work of the Levi’im, by the hand of Itamar son of Aharon the Kohen” (Shemot 38:21).

P’ninat Mishpat

Case: A couple decided to get divorced and signed a divorce settlement, which stated, among other things, that the wife would receive the store they owned and operated jointly, and the husband would receive their apartment. The husband now refuses to give a get, and since there is no divorce happening, he claims that the divorce settlement should not be implemented.(Thehusbandhad already signed over his rights to the store.)

Moreshet Shaul

The Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 288:15) and Rama say that one may not add any writing on the inside of a mezuzah (there is a minhag to write certain things on the outside of the scroll). The source is the gemara’sderivation (in Menachot 32b) from a pasuk that when one writes a mezuzah like a letter, including extra letters or missing ones (Rashi and Tosafot, ad loc.), the mezuzah is not valid. The Shulchan Aruch extends this concept to writing extraneous matters (see Gra, ad loc.).

Ask the Rabbi

Question: Is a Jewish physician permitted to give his parent an injection, such as of insulin or a flu shot?

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim is dedicated to the memory of
Gershon (George) ben Chayim HaCohen Kaplan and
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).