Positive Commandment # 37 (Aveilus)

Maimonades in Sefer Hamitzvoth says that A Cohen must become Tameh to his six close relatives. The source for this obligation is the Passuk "Lah Yitamuh". Maimonades continues to state that this is the source for the general obligation that everone must mourn their six close relatives (mideoraysah one day). However, only a Cohen must become Tameh while a Yisroel just has to mourn. This Rambam seems strange indeed, especially in light of the fact that the Rambam in Hilchos Aveilus 1.1 brings a different source for the obligation to mourn. That source is the statement of Aharon Hacohen "Ocholti Chatas Hayom Hayitov Be'enei Hashem". The Keseph Mishna in fact asks why the Rambam brought a different source. He continues to ask that seemingly becoming Tomeh has nothing to do with availus. Proof in point is the fact that a Cohen has an obligation to become tomeh to a meis mitzvah and obviousely has no din aveilus regarding the same. Further complicating matters is the rambam in Hilchos Aveilus 2.6 "kamah chamurah mitzvas aveilus" The rambam states that it is so strict that even a cohen who otherwise is not allowed to become tomeh becomes tomeh to a relative. We see from this rambam that in fact "lah Yitamuh" is a fundemental part of the mitzvah??????? (as an aside, the language the rambam uses "kamah chamurah" seems out of place in that how do we see a chumrah when the mitzvah is to become tameh?!!

Strange indeed. One Mitvah with two different sources, telling us two seperate halachos which do not logically have much to do with eachother.

Hypothetical Restraint

The Gemarah in Avodah Zara 24B discusses the argument if the story of Yisro happened after the Torah was given on Mt. Sinia or before. Tosfos asks how it can be possible that Yisro came to join the Jews after the Torah was given. We know that Yisro came with his daughter Tziporah who was Moshe's wife. There is also another Gemarah that states that Moshe deliberately did not have relations with his wife on his own volition. Tosfos asks how it can be possible for Moshe to not have relations with his wife when she wasn't even there? Tosfos answers that it was considered as if he held himself back from having relations because he would have if he had the opportunity.

Let's consider the flip side of this supposition. What if someone would not restrain theirself if they had the opportunity, would that be considered as if they did the act. Obviousely we would say that a positive act is judged more favorably than a negative one in the heavenly court. However, in light of this Tosfos's reasoning the point must still be seriousely considered.

Turning the Other Cheek

Gemarah Shabbos 88B "Those who get insulted but do not respond by insulting back, Those who hear people ridiculing them but do not respond, they serve God with love and are made happy with their suffering. Upon them the Torah states "As the sun rises with all its strength.""

This Chazal is often quoted to show the greatness of turning the other cheek. The problem is that upon further analysis this Chazal requires further explanation. What does serving God with love have to do with not responding to an insult? Furthermore what does being happy with suffering have to do with the whole topic?

This short maxim is a prime example of how Chazal will describe an ideal together with the roadmap as to how to attain that ideal. We all know that Jesus Christ says to turn the other cheek. However, turning the other cheek goes against all fundementals of human nature thereby making it almost impossible for the vast majority of humans to practice it on a regular basis. How does one build this behavior into his/her everyday life?

The answer lies in the words of this Chazal. The only way to ignore an insult is to appreciate the source of the insult. One who believes in God realizes that God is the source of all that happens to him in his life. Therefore he must realize that the person who caused him the hurt was just a messenger similar to the way the negative commandment of revenge is explained. So if you believe in God and therefore are happy when God sends you a message in an innocuous way by having you insulted you will feel no inclination to respond to the insult. It would actually seem ludicrous because the insulter is playing a very minor role in the message. It is between you and God not between you and the insulter. Moreso if you can rejoice in your suffering which is a higher level of serving God and understanding his ways. Rejoicing in suffering can only be accomplished by someone that serves God out of love not out of fear. Someone that knows that God loves him and would never do anything to hurt him. The more one realizes this the more one has to thank the insulter for sending him a message from God. This is truly what Chazal is telling us.

Ethical and Moral Society

The Mishna in Avodah Zara 22A States "A Jew shall not put himself in a situation where he is alone with a gentile for (the gentiles) are suspect of murder."

The question that we must all ask ourselves is how can we understand this halacha in its simple context knowing gentiles the way we do. We do business with gentiles, we buy from them, sell to them, and generally interact with them on a regular basis. Any Jew honest with himself knows that there is much a chance of that gentile killing him as there is of his wife killing him at home.

The answer is that of course today in America in our current setting there is no chance of this happening and that is because most people (besides a few crazy ones) live within the guidelines of a moral code hardwired into our society. However, without getting into a major philosophical discussion we must understand that there is one caveat to this moral code. The caveat is as previously mentioned the word society. Any way you wish to describe this moral code one thing is obvious, it is defined by society. Even if you subscribe to theories regarding absolute morals those absolutes have to be defined and somebody has to do the job of defining them. For example, everybody is against murder. Abortion however, will be considered a noble act of defending a woman's right to choose because society has defined murder to exclude abortion. The other extreme will be animal rights activists that would consider murdering animals an act of murder on par with killing a human being because they have expanded the definition of murder. So although we all seem to agree on certain fundamental morals it is only the words we agree on but not the definition of these words.

Being that there is no absolute arbiter on definitions and it is societies job to define terms there cannot be a real moral code that people follow other than what society has defined. This will go a long way in explaining the Nazi killing of Jews. Nobody seems to understand how such a cultured nation could go about butchering humans in such a barbaric way. However, we must understand that once society decided to exclude the murder of Jews from their definition of murder it became socially acceptable and even noble. That same Nazi that killed 200 Jews in one day would never shoot another German for that would be Murder and he is no murderer.

The Mishna in Avodah Zara is telling us that every gentile is suspect of murder because he has no inherent moral issue with murdering. Today killing Jews is unacceptable in certain societies but that can change tomorrow or if that specific gentile is in a different circumstance. The Mishna is telling us that that a moral code defined by a society is not enough to trust your life with. Only someone who has a defining deity that he follows can be sure that his definitions will not change.

About Black People

I know, I know, we have a lot to say about black people. However, One common misconception (which does not change whatever inherent nature we think they have) is that they were cursed by Noach to be slaves. The Iben Ezra on Parshas Noach 9, 25 says "Some say that the black man (Kooshim) are slaves because Noach cursed Cham (that his offspring will be slaves) however, they must have forgotten that the first king after the Flood was a decendant of Koosh (Nimrod) as it states "Vatehi Reishis Mamlachto Bavel." " We must remember that Kena'an was cursed and not Koosh.

Bitul Torah

batei kirkasaos "mevi liyidei bitul Torah"
-Why mevei? It should be considered bitul torah in and of itself?
Maharsha says that even though these types of entertainment have a purpose in that they "revive the depressed spirit in people" and also sometimes (with regard to certain theatrical productions) have constructive messages and inherent wisdom from which people can gain knowledge and education, they are still forbidden. Maharsha explains that actually because of these beneficial elements these entertainment venues are considered unhealthy for one striving to learn torah. Being that torah is m'sameach, the torah should be the tool to gain these benefits and any other outlet utilized to that end is "mevi liyidei bitul torah". According to the Maharsha the gmarah is telling us that any pastime used to replace the experience of studying Torah is considered "bitul torah".

The Destruction of European Goyari

This article was written by Sebastian Villa Rodriguez in one of Spain's newspapers.

He wrote:

I walked along the streets of Barcelona when suddenly the horrible truth hit me. Europe died together with Auschwitz. We killed 6 million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned an entire culture of intelligence, talent and creativity. We annihilated these brilliant people, truly brilliant and grand people, who helped change the face of this earth.

The contribution these people made in all phases of our life such as: science, art, international trading and especially providing this world with a conscious. These are the kind of people we burnt. And, under the illusion of the need to be more tolerant, we had the desired to prove to ourselves that we are healed from our prejudices, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims who brought unto us stupidity and ignorance. Religious zealously and impatience, crime and poverty, all which stem from their lack of ambition to work and support their families, honorably. They turned our beautiful cities of Spain into a third world country, drenched in filth and crime. Locked in their dwellings which were given to them by the European governments, they confer secretly and plan acts of murder and destruction against their naive hosts.

Thus... to our shame, we traded a culture with fanaticism and hatred, traded the ability to create with the ability to destroy, intelligence with primitive thinking and superstition. We traded the desire for peace of Europe's Jewry and their talents and their continued hope for a better future for their children and love for life with all their might since life is their sanctification. We traded it all for the pursuers of death, people who wish death upon themselves and others, who wish death upon our children and theirs. What a terrible mistake this miserable continent has made.