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Shabbat Parashat Ki Tisa| 5766

Ki Tisa | | 01/01/2006

If You Will it, it is not a Dream

Those who are familiar with the world of segulot know that there are many that require things to be done for 40 days straight. Moshe outdid all by spending 40 days and 40 nights on Har Sinai, without eating, drinking (Shemot 34:28), or sleeping (Shemot Rabba 47:7). The midrash (ibid.) tells how Moshe was rewarded for his mesirut nefesh (selfless dedication) by being the conduit for more Torah than he otherwise would have been. In fact, the midrash (Devarim Rabba 11:4) explains his description as “man of G-d” (Devarim 33:1) that he was sometimes human-like and other times angel-like.

P'ninat Mishpat

Case: The plaintiff (=pl) and the defendant (=def)are neighbors. Def built a balcony upon which to place a sukkah. Pl objects with the claim that the balcony takes away from the view and the light of the room over which it was built and demands to be compensated. Def responded that pl’s window is anyway facing a cliff and adds no significant view or light. Additionally, pl’s room that is being covered was built beyond pl’s propertyline with the permission of all of the building’s apartment owners, including def. Def claims that he did so with an understanding that he would be allowed to build on top of it. Evidence of this is that def built a door from his apartment to the area above the room in question prior to the construction of pl’s added room, which can only be explained by his understanding that he too would be able to build out.

Moreshet Shaul

The Rambam (Korban Pesach 8:3) writes: “The choice manner to fulfill the mitzva is to eat the meat of the korban Pesach an eating of satiation (sova). Therefore, if he brought shalmei chagigah on the 14th, he should eat them first, and then he should eat the meat of the Pesach, in order to be satiated from it. And if he ate only a k’zayit of it, he fulfilled his mitzva.” What is the rationale of this halacha of eating of satiation, taken from a tosefta (cited in Pesachim 70a)? Tosafot (ad loc.) cites a Yerushalmi that says that the Pesach should be eaten afterward because if one ate it when he was hungry, he might break its bones in the process, which is forbidden. In other words, it is a gezeira mid’rabannan.

Ask The Rabbi

Question: My father-in-law died recently and was buried in America. My mother-in-law plans to move to Israel, where her children live. She has indicated clearly her desire to be buried next to her husband in chutz la’aretz. Will we be required or allowed to execute her will, given that it violates the halacha that she should be buried in Israel? Realize also that we will have no place to sit shiva in America and will not be able to visit her grave on yahrtzeits.

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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).

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