A thought on פרשת כי תצא

'''...Ki yi'yeh l'ish ben...''
''...when a man has a son...'' (21:18)


The subject of the ben sorrer u'moreh has excited much discussion and inquiry since the time of the Mishna and onward. The idea of a youngster earning the abject withdrawing of his parents to the degree that theY bring their despair to the Sanhedrin for severe adjudication is a difficult one for us. There is an opinion in the Talmud that such an event never actually occured in our nation's history; rather the Torah presents the chapter with the charge that we study and learn from it.

What do we learn from it? What eternal lessons does HaShem want us to derive from these unusual and perhaps hypothetical concepts?

The Ralbag offers a novel angle. Much of what troubles us about the ben sorrer verses is that a child who shows early evidence of defiance and disregard for his parents is to be executed, although still not of adult age. We know that there is no other such case in the Torah where a child is judged prematurely as an adult, nor of any person being sentenced prior to actually comitting a capital offense. The Ralbag says that the Torah is in essence employing a form almost subtextual paradox. What we are asked to examine is that childhood is the time when children are ripe for our modeling and grooming them in the ways of morality, deceny and wholesome standards. This is the time of life when it is the responsibility of fathers and mothers to set an indelible and enduring tone of discerning between right and wrong for their children. The verses paint a vivid picture of 'worst case scenario' for us in order to impress upon us how essential our task is as parents. This is what the Talmud intends when it says ''never was there an actual case of ben sorrer but we must examine it and garner merits through studying the underlying message''.

The underlying message, according to the Ralbag, is that we recognize how we must guide our children while they are still young.

Wishing you a good Shabbos from afar. D Fox
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A Thought On Parshas Shoftim

A Thought On Parshas Shoftim

"...ki ha'goyim ha'eleh...v'atoh lo ken nosan lecha HaShem..."

"...for the nations follow sorcerers and magicians, but this is not what HaShem gives you..." (18:14)

The Torah warns us against seeking answers from the occult. We are told about the many forms of sorcery used by the nations, and how we are forbidden to inquire into their sources. Our verse enunciates that those ways are not given to our people by HaShem. The verse suggests, however, that other avenues were given the nations for accessing information about the universe. Many commentaries debate the precise meaning of this implication, and the Ralbag offers an approach of his own.

Our verse's context is that of our obligation to obey the words of the prophets who follow the Torah and guide us in its ways. The Ralbag explains that our gift, given to our people by HaShem, is that we have pious prophets who transmit the words of HaShem to us. This is the only avenue we have for accessing the Sublime, and enduring prophecy is a gift given solely to the Jewish people.

There is much information available within our cosmos. There may be other forms of accessing some of that information, as we learned in studying the saga of Bila'am. The Torah here has highlighted some of the unusual forms of picking up this information, by way of soothsaying, divination, sorcery, witchcraft and magic. Those who have a knowledge of those occult arts have nothing sacred, pious or holy going on. On the contrary, writes the Ralbag, the very fact that they turn to such strange tools and means for picking up cosmic data (such as bones, organic matter and dead artifacts) speaks to the lowliness and impurity of their practices. HaShem "appeased" the nations, the Ralbag says, by allowing some of them some ways of accessing some bits of information, such as being able to detect ominous signs or forecast select occurances. But their medium alone, that of the vulgar and the profane, is enough to discourage the Jew from turning to them and their practices. Ours is a higher road and a purer path.

The Torah directs the Jewish nation to turn solely to Torah scholars and sources in attempting to understand HaShem's ways and the Divine plan. This is HaShem's precious gift to His people. A Jew should avoid and take no interest in seeking any alternative. There is nothing sacred about the occult and there is nothing in it for the Jew.

This Parsha Thought is being written in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Wishing you a good Shabbos. D Fox

A Thought On Parshas Re'eh

A Thought On Parshas Re'eh

"...ha'keh takeh es yoshvei ha'ir ha'hi..."

"...you shall smite the dwellers of that city..." (13:16)

The abomination of those who resided in an Ir HaNidachas, a city whose population had scorned HaShem and who regressed to pagan practices, was a grievous one. Perhaps the most despicable of man's theological crimes, avoda zara en masse contravenes the Jew's role and the world's purpose. The city and all of its inhabitants, after being duly forewarned and admonished, are destroyed lest their influence permeate the land and the nation.

There is a principle associated with the Laws of Repentance that when a person undertakes full and sincere teshuva, he or she can honestly declare to HaShem "I am a different person now." One can become, spiritually, "a new man" or woman by virtue of a full change of lifestyle and conduct. That change can be instrumental, we are taught, in bringing about complete forgiveness, as if HaShem does view the changed person as a reborn or reconstituted being.

A puzzle, however, is in understanding just why this is an actual principle in Hilchos Teshuva. Our sages assert this principle yet a Torah scholar seeks to identify a source for such a powerful assertion: where do we see evidence that one who dissociates himself from past misdeeds is also disassociated from his own history from a Heavenly viewpoint?

The Ralbag finds a source for this in our verse. He notes that HaShem commands us, after our having warned the idolaters to cease their pagan practice, to annihilate them and raze their dwellings. Our verse declares, "you shall smite the dwellers of that city." It is those closing words, "dwellers of that city" which connote to the Ralbag that this commandment only holds if the pagans continue to regard themselves as "dwellers of that city." In the event, however, that they give up those forbidden practices and return to the Path of Torah, they are no longer associated with that place. They are changed people, and they are not consigned to the fate of their erstwhile companions.

Change is a challenge, and thorough change is an absolute challenge. Yet, absolute change brings about absolution, because teshuva changes the person from within.

Good Shabbos. D Fox

A thought on Parshas Ekev

"...u'Bo tidbak...""...and unto Him shall you cling..." (10:20)

The commandment to "cling" or cleave to HaShem has posed theological difficulties for scholars throughout the ages. Given that HaShem is beyond and apart from all things material and corporeal, the concept of somehow holding on to Him presents an impossibility both in theory and in practice.

Our sages have explained that this means "clinging" to Torah scholars. In that they represent the word of HaShem, forming an attachment to a great rabbi is a symbolic means of being closely affiliated with HaShem ka'va'yachol.

The Ralbag offers a different approach, mindful of that Talmudic interpretation. Clinging to HaShem, he writes, which is known as deveikus, is the responsibility of every Jew, and each of us must find a means of doing that "k'fi koch'o" - according to his own abilities. When a person studies the Torah and its wisdom, this allows him to apprehend and draw close, spiritually and in the mind, to his or her sense of HaShem's closeness. It is a very private and subjective process.

A less complex person, or an unlearned person, will fulfill this commandment as our sages say, by associating with Torah scholars. That way, they will have a sense of what it is like to be close to HaShem, since they will have some feel for how the Divine Presence seems near to those who are immersed in Torah. However, the ideal fulfillment of this commandment, according to the Ralbag, is a person him or herself developing a personal closeness to HaShem. That entails Torah study and observance, and the best means of becoming a learned and observant Jew is through close contact with Torah scholars. That process of clinging to scholars becomes a stepping stone for one's richer, deeper and higher personal sense of attachment to the Divine.

It turns out that whereas many commentaries understand the Talmudic interpretation to mean that we fulfill the commandment by getting close to Torah scholars, the Ralbag holds that at best, closeness to Torah scholars is a hechsher mitzva, a catalyst for developing a personal intimacy with HaShem's ways. It is the intimacy, one's subjective sense of drawing close to HaShem, which fulfills the mitzvah. The Ralbag sees deveikus as a spiritual attainment, not as a cognitive-behavioral or psychosocial task.

Wishing you a fulfilling Shabbos. D Fox