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Shabbat Parashat Pinchas | 5769

Pinchas | 19 Tamuz 5769 | 11/07/2009

Parashat Hashavuah: Moshe’s Leadership and Yehoshua’s Leadership

In our parasha, Moshe is told to pass on the leadership to Yehoshua, a fine candidate to replace an irreplaceable leader (Bamidbar 27:18). The midrash illustrates the seriousness of the loss of Moshe, saying that had he brought Bnei Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael, the Beit Hamikdash would not have been destroyed and no nation would have been able to stand up to them. The author of the Mishne Lamelech asks how Moshe would have prevented destruction, considering that the nation committed the three cardinal sins.

Ask the Rabbi: Birkot hamitzva

How can we make the beracha on netilat yadayim (=neya) in shul some time after we washed our hands, as birkot hamitzva are always recited at the time the mitzva is performed shul?

Ein Ayah: Order of Acceptance of Spiritual Levels, What to Do With a Long Life

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said: why did the section of Shema precede V’haya Im Shamoa? It is so that one should accept upon himself the yoke of the Heavenly Kingdom and afterward accept the yoke of mitzvot.

P’ninat Mishpat: The Proper Level of Shemira (Watching an Object)

A shomer chinam’s (unpaid watchman) type of shemira depends on the object (Rambam, She’eilah 4: 2-3). The gemara (Bava Metzia 42a) says that money must be stored in the ground. Yet, says the gemara, if one received money on Friday, when he lacks the time to bury the money, he is not required to do so.

Hemdat Hadaf Hayomi: The Prohibition to Lend without Witnesses

This week in the Daf Hayomi, the Gemara (75b) states that it is prohibited to give a loan without witnesses. The Gemara gives two reasons for this prohibition. The first is that it is considered "putting a stumbling block before the blind," since one is "putting" the temptation to deny the loan before the borrower. The second reason is that this will bring a curse on the lender, since it is possible that the borrower will forget the loan and deny it, and people will think that the lender is lying and will curse him.

Pinchas 5769
Microsoft Word Document

Pinchas 5769

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.

Mina Presser bat
Harav David and Bina

on the occasion of her yahrzeit, 24 Tammuz
and members of her family who perished in the shoah Al Kiddush Hashem

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).