Torah Parallels

Parshas Chukas The Power of a Zechus By: Daniel Listhaus “ ...And Miriam died there....And there was no water for the assembly.” -Chukas 20:1-2         Rashi 1 comments that from the juxtaposition of these verses we see that for the entire forty years in the desert prior to this point, the well that the Jews had access to, which followed them on their journey, was only deserved through Miriam's zechus (merit). This is why when she died, the well disappeared and hid among the other rocks.         What was Miriam's zechus which had the capacity of providing drinks to an entire population and their animals in the hot desert?       Before Moshe Rabeinu was born, Pharaoh made a decree that all baby boys be killed. Rashi 2 there writes that in response to this, Amram, the father of Moshe, divorced his wife, Yocheved. Once he divorced his wife, the rest of the Jews then divorced their wives as well, as Amram was a leading Gadol Hador...

Thoughts on The Parsha Parshas Korach Remember to Remember By: Daniel Listhaus וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח בֶּן יִצְהָר בֶּן קְהָת בֶּן לֵוִי וְדָתָן וַאֲבִירָם בְּנֵי אֱלִיאָב וְאוֹן בֶּן פֶּלֶת בְּנֵי רְאוּבֵן “ And Korach the son of Yitzhar son of Kehas son of Levi took...” -Korach 16:1         Rashi 1 , as well as the Medrash 2 , describe that Korach came to Moshe with the following two questions. The first was, “Does a tallis made entirely of techeiles require a string of techeilis ”? The logic behind this question is that we know that we are required to put tzitzis strings on each corner of every four-cornered garment that we wear. The real mitzva of tzitzis includes that one of the strings on each corner be techeiles 3 . So, essentially, Korach was asking that if, for a regular tallis, a string of techeiles is enough to fulfill the requirement, then certainly if the whole garment is made of techeiles , it should require no such thing.       The seco...

Parshas Shelach Who Are You Going to Believe, Me or Your Own Eyes? 1 By: Daniel Listhaus “ ...We were like grasshoppers in our eyes, and so we were in their eyes!” -Shelach 13:33        The Medrash 2 tells us that there is nothing loved before Hashem as much as one who is a sh'luach mitzva (someone sent to do a mitzva ) and who puts in tremendous efforts to carry out the mitzvah. This is why sh'luchei mitzvos are exempt from doing other mitzvos 3 . As an example, the Medrash provides the story of the spies sent by Yehoshua, which we actually read in this week's Haftorah 4 . The Medrash, though, also does not fail to mention that the story of the spies in this week's parsha , reflects a polar opposite case to the Haftorah , and is far from showing an example of sh'luchei mitzvah .          The question is, what did the meraglim (spies) that Moshe sent do wrong? A spy's job is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of enemy countries 5...

Parshas Beha'aloscha and Shavuos 613 Problems By: Daniel Listhaus “ ...We have nothing before our eyes but the manna !” -Beha'aloscha 11:6       This week's Parsha relates the first couple of what will be a sequence of disastrous events which occurred in the desert. The Torah tells us that the people started complaining that they wanted meat. They recalled how they used to get free fish while in Egypt and how good life was there, whereas now they complained how they had nothing but the manna .        When reading these verses, a couple of questions immediately come to mind. First-of-all, life in Egypt was horrible. As a matter of fact, so many of the things we do by the Pesach Seder are actually remembrances of this. We dip the karpas in saltwater and eat maror specifically to recall the bitter lives of the exile at that point in time. So, how could it be that the Jews in the desert complained that their lives in Egypt were better? If it were a whole...