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Shabbat Parashat R'ei | 5769

R'ei | 25 Av 5769 | 15/08/2009

Parashat Hashavuah: Targum Yerushalmi and Nachum Ish Gamzu vs. Targum Unkelus and R. Akiva

Our parasha opens with the pasuk: “See, I am placing before you today the blessing and the kelala” (Devarim 11:26). Unkelus translates kelala, simply, as a curse. However, the Targum Yonatan and Targum Yerushalmi translate it as “chilufa (the alternative) [to the blessing],” which implies something that resembles the beracha. Why do they change the apparent meaning?

Ask the Rabbi: Correcting the ba’al kri’ah when he reads

In my shul, some people correct the ba’al kri’ah when he reads a kamatz katan like a regular (classic Ashkenazi) kamatz (as in the word, “nut”) instead of like a cholam (as in, “note”). Not all ba’alei kri’ah appreciate this, and one refuses on principle to read it as the “correctors” want. What are we to do?

Ein Ayah: The Root of One's Peaceful Relationships With Other

Rav said: Whoever says “Shalom” to his friend before he prays is like one who made him into a bamah (forbidden altar), as the pasuk says: “Refrain yourself from a person whose soul is in his breath, for in what (bameh) does he have importance” (Yeshaya 2:22). Do not read the word as “bameh” but as “bamah.”

P’ninat Mishpat: Laws of Shomrim (Watchmen) – part IV– A Borrowed Object That “Died” During Use

The gemara (Bava Metzia 96b) deals with a shoel (borrower) of an animal, where the animal’s value depreciated due to the normal work that it was used for. One would expect that, since a shoel is obligated to pay in a case of oness (extenuating circumstances), he would pay for the depreciation of the animal as well. However, Rava exempts him even if the animal died as a result of the work (meita machamat melacha = mmm). The reason given is: “He did not borrow it to place it under a canopy.”

Hemdat HaDaf HaYomi: The Right of the Bordering Neighbor

This week in the Daf Hayomi, the Gemara (108) states that, when a person sells a field, the adjacent field owner (=bar metzra) is given precedence on the purchase of the field. Even if one already sold his field, the bar metzra can dismiss the buyer and purchase the field for himself. This Halacha is based on the commandment "thou shalt do that which is right and good" (Devarim 6, 18). Thus, even though a person may sell his field to anyone he chooses, the Sages ruled that it is proper that the bar metzra proceed anyone else, since it would be of great benefit to him to own the field adjacent to his.

R'ei 5769

R'ei 5769

The Eretz Hemdah family expresses its condolences to
Rabbi Yosef Carmel,
the head of the Kollel, on the passing of his mother, Malkah Toibeh, o.b.m.

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.

Hemdat Yamim of this week

is dedicated in memory of

Yitzchak Eizik Usdan ben Yehuda Leib a"h,

whose Yahrtzeit is the 29th of Av

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).