Ki Tetzei 5782

Rabbi Reisman – Parshas Ki Seitzei 5782

1 – Topic – A Thought about the current NYS and NYC Education Department demands on Yeshivos

As we prepare for Parshas Shabbos Ki Seitzei as we are in middle of the month of Elul. As many of you are aware, the NYS education department has proposed regulations to control Yeshivos, and on the coming week’s Monday and Tuesday it appears  that the Board of Regents who have the authority to pass these regulations will do so. I would like to explain for a minute how the Hashkafa of this plays in to our time here in the United States.

The short of this rule is that until now all Yeshivos have had to be equivalent and have an adequate education, but the assumption was that a Yeshiva was good. If there was a complaint the government investigated the complaint. But Stama, a Yeshiva in this country, in this state was considered good.

According to the new regulations, no Yeshiva is automatically considered to be giving a good education. Every Yeshiva has to have some way of proving that they are giving an adequate education. As a matter of fact, the Yeshivos have to satisfy the city and even if the city says that the education is equivalent, then it goes to the state. So that the Yeshivos really have to pass two tests in order to be considered adequate. This is the law in a nutshell.

The Hashkofas HaInyan is that really in this country everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is a basic idea here in the United States. The idea that someone is presumed inadequate until proven adequate is an unfortunate twist and turn. As Jews have traveled through the Galus for many centuries, we realize that we live this way in many countries where people were considered to be proper upstanding citizens, the Jew in Galus always had to prove his allegiance, had to prove that he belongs.

From our Hashkafa, it might be good for us to realize that we are guests in this country, we are strangers in this country. We are here because we are not in Eretz Yisrael, there is no Bais Hamikdash and there is no Malchus Beis Dovid. We were sent to Galus. Over the last 50 – 60 years we have become very comfortable here. The basic values of the United States mirrored to a great degree the basic values of Yiddishkeit, of our religion. That has changed. The basic values of our country have shifted and they do not mirror our religion. The basic values of the political leaders in NYS certainly has shifted. The values are very far and becoming more and more distant from where we are. I think that the lesson in all this is that Yaakov Avinu Davened to be protected M’yad Achi M’yad Eisav. Protect me from Eisav when he is out to kill me and protect me from Eisav when he is out to befriend me.

In this golden age of living in a Medina of Chesed, we were afraid of our enemies always. But we saw the basic American as somebody who had values that somehow could be befriended, could be ours. Now we live in a country and certainly in a state where the values are what we always called Goyish values or non-Jewish values, gentile values. They are not our values. I don’t know if they ever were, but what is in our face is that the values are so different. And so now the board of regents will say that Yeshivos are presumed not to be adequate unless they are proven adequate. You got to prove it. You have many pathways to prove it. But you have to prove that you are good. Not only do you have to prove it once but now you have to prove it twice. You will be inspected by your local NYC school board and if they say you are good you are still not good. The state also has to say that you are good. You need to be checked twice. There is a message there. There is a message that we need to take to heart.       

2 – Topic – A Vort on the Parsha

Rav Moshe in the Kol Rom (Page Taf Nun Aleph, in Os Vav) points out something that we may have noticed but never stopped to think about. When the Torah talks about destroying people who sin, the Torah uses two different expressions. In this week’s Parsha in 22:21 it talks about a (נַעֲרָ מְאֹרָשָׂה), a girl in the process of getting married who is unfaithful to her husband. The Torah says (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ). Get rid of the evil (מִקִּרְבֶּךָ) from among you. In the next Posuk the Torah talks about an unfaithful wife and there is says (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל). Get rid of the evil that is among the Jewish people. Why the change from (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ) to (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל)? As a matter of fact, earlier in the Parsha by the (בֵּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה) it says in 21:21 (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ). And so on and so forth there are a number of such examples.

Rav Moshe gives us a rule. A rule about being wary of people among us who are not the way they should be. To do so, he brings a Gemara in Sukkah 56b (13 lines from the end of the Masechta). (ת"ר מעשה במרים בת בילגה). There was this Jewish woman from the family of Bilga, (שהמירה דתה) she abandoned Judaism. She married a Greek officer (לסרדיוט אחד ממלכי יוונים). Later when the Greeks entered the Beis Hamikdash, she went in and the Gemara says that she was (מבעטת בסנדלה על גבי המזבח). That she was very disrespectful to the Mizbaiach that was there in the Beis Hamikdash and she said very disrespectful things. In response to that the family of Bilga family’s locker area in the Beis Hamikdash and the Bilga family’s Shechita area in the Beis Hamikdash was sealed, because she came from that family.

Asks Rav Moshe, I don’t understand, what is worse, she left Judaism and married a non-Jew and nothing happened. Nobody did anything to the family of Bilga. Then she takes her shoe and bangs on the Mizbaiach and says things that are disrespectful and suddenly we get all worked up. What is worse, being disrespectful to the Mizbaiach or G-d forbid intermarrying and converting out of the faith? Which is worse?

Answers Rav Moshe, there are two types of Aveiros. There are some sins that a person does because he has the passion for a sin, he has a desire for a sin, he has Taiva. A Taiva for pleasure, a Taiva for honor and people sin. That is a type of Aveira which takes place in the normal course of events in the world and of course it is our struggle, it is our battle always to fight off temptation.

There is a second type of an Aveira. There is an Aveira which is not just temptation, it is a type of Aveira which comes from the influence of people around you who have given you false ideas, false concepts, who have misled you. They are people who have created a Shittas Hachaim, an idea of a pathway in life in this world which is perverted. That is a second type of an Aveira. That is a much more dangerous Aveira for Klal Yisrael.

So that, when (מרים בת בילגה) converted to marry a Greek officer, it is terrible, but it is an Aveira of the first type, it is an Aveira of Taiva, of desire. When she sinned the second time and she was disrespectful to the Mizbaiach by taking off her shoe and banging it, that is something else. That is a perversion of values. That is something that indicates that the influence of those around her was a negative influence, and that calls for a reaction.

I would use a Mashul, sometimes you have a splinter in your finger and you have to remove that splinter. Sometimes someone has a disease in the body and the disease has to be removed. The splinter in the finger is the type of Aveira that is the Aveira of Taiva. The disease in the body is something which is a perversion of the health of the entire body, has to be removed.

So says Rav Moshe, An Eishes Ish, a married woman who is not faithful that is a terrible Aveira, but it is an Aveira of Taiva, an Aveira of desire. (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל). Remove it from the Jewish people. When you have a (נַעֲרָ מְאֹרָשָׂה), a girl who is on the path to the Chuppah, she has someone that she likes and wants to marry. During that period of time she is unfaithful, that is not a normal thing. It is a time in life when normal people don’t have that type of an issue. It is a time in life where normal people are caught up in the excitement of their impending marriage. It is a perversion. (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ). You have to get rid of it from wherever it is, you have to search it out and get rid of it. Because a perversion that is a perversion of Shittah, not a perversion based just on a person’s momentary desire, but based on concepts and ideas that are foreign, that is something that is much more dangerous, something that we have to be aware of in a much stronger way.

Therefore, when it is something so perverted, it says (וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע, מִקִּרְבֶּךָ). Get it out of you, get it out of your system, get rid of it. Mimeila there is a difference in expression.

The idea that there are two types of Aveiros as Rav Moshe points out is a significant one. The influence of the United States around us has become an influence that is more and more perverted. It is a more difficult type of Aveira. It is something that we have to be wary of much more. That type of a danger is something we look eagerly to be able to distance ourselves from, to be aware. We need the awareness that it is so different. When you have that awareness you can be careful.

That really is a wakeup call for our age, for our time, for living here in a Medina, in a country which has served us so well all my life. This country which we have feelings of patriotism and feelings of inclusion and here now in the state that has the greatest number of orthodox Jewish citizens in the entire country, in this state they look to attack us with a law aimed at the Jew. It is a Jew law, it is aimed only at the Jews.

And so, as we have done in our journeys through the different countries of the world, we stand our ground, we are who we are and we will remain that way. We take note of the incredible continuation of the journey of Galus, of being included in a country and welcome in a country and suddenly the country drifts away from us. Drifts away after our contributions to the country. Okay, that is our path in Galus,

Boruch Hashem. HKB”H has made available to us Eretz Yisrael where ultimately we will all be. We hope we will have the Seichel to be there while the going is good in the right time and the right moment B’ezras Hashem. A thought for Elul.

The Goyishe world around us is full of perversion, it doesn’t influence you? You really think so? Stop for a moment and think about it. It would do us well as we head into the Yomim Noraim. A Gutten Shabbos to one and all!