Shmooze News July 5, 2025
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Moshe’s Parah Adumah
When Hashem introduces the laws of the Parah Adumah (the Red Heifer), in this week’s parasha, He begins by telling Moshe, “Speak to the Children of Israel, וְיִקְח֣וּ אֵלֶ֩יךָ֩ and they shall take to you a completely red cow…” (Bamidbar 19:2). The phrase וְיִקְח֣וּ אֵלֶ֩יךָ֩, “they shall take to you,” indicates Moshe’s personal connection to this mitzvah. Our Sages therefore say, “it will forever be associated with your name: ‘The [red] heifer that Moshe made in the wilderness’” (Tanchuma 8 cited by Rashi ad loc.). Why was it important that this mitzvah be associated back to Moshe?
Also, our Sages say that when Hashem was teaching Moshe the laws of the Parah Adumah, He cited a teaching from a sage in the future named “R’ Eliezer.” When Moshe heard this teaching, he exclaimed, "May it be Your will that this Eliezer be from my descendants” (Yalkut Shemoni, Yisro 268). Why did Moshe feel the need that the teacher of this particular set of laws come from his descendants more so than the teachers of any other Torah law?
To answer these questions, we must first realize that while we do not understand the ultimate reasoning behind the Parah Adumah, our Sages did share with us one crucial piece of the puzzle. They explain that the Parah Adumah in some way was meant to correct the sin of the golden calf. This procedure involving the ashes of an adult female cow [the Parah Adumah] somehow helps address the sin involving the eigel, the calf. In their words, “Let the mother [the Parah Adumah] come and clean up the mess made by her son [the calf]” (Bamidbar Rabbah 19:8).
Moshe, who understood that connection, desperately wanted to have this personal connection to this mitzvah. After all, in the aftermath of that tragic sin, Moshe was the one who stood in the breach and began correcting the wrong. He was the one who destroyed the golden calf and punished the sinners. He was the one who then spent forty additional days on Har Sinai praying for our forgiveness. And Moshe was the one who was willing to sacrifice himself in this world and the next for our sake when he said to Hashem, “And now if You would but forgive their sin! — but if not, erase me now from Your book that You have written” (Shemos 32:32).
Moshe began this process of correcting the colossal wrong of the golden calf, and he wanted to end it as well! Afterall, attribution of a mitzvah goes to the one who completes it. And by performing the very first Parah Adumah, Moshe was able to set into motion the process of the “mother that would clean up after its child.” Therefore, וְיִקְח֣וּ אֵלֶ֩יךָ֩, they shall take to you, for “it will forever be associated with your name.” Moshe began this for us, and he merited to end it for us as well (Kli Yakar, Bamidbar 19:2).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News June 28, 2025
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Some by Heavenly Fire and Some Swallowed by the Earth
This week’s parashah focuses on the rebellion against Moshe and Aharon brought about by Korach, Dasan, and Aviram, and the two-hundred and fifty “wanna-be” priests.
The rebellion came to a head through the incense offering test, where the two hundred and fifty men and Korach, stood side by side with Aharon, each with their incense and coal filled shovels. As Moshe indicated, only the one that Hashem would choose as his kohen would survive, and indeed a heavenly fire descended putting the two-hundred and fifty men to death. Dasan and Aviram, who were not part of the incense offering, were put to death in a different manner. They and their households were miraculously swallowed up by the earth.
What, though, was Korach’s fate? Was he burned along with the incense offerors, or swallowed up by the earth?
On the one hand, he was present with the two hundred and fifty “wanna-be” priests when the incense offering test was taking place. He too came with his incense pan (see Bamidbar 16:16-18). Ostensibly, then, the fire that consumed them should have consumed him too.
On the other hand, he was the main instigator of the rebellion, and whatever fate awaited the rebels, Dasan and Aviram, would seemingly apply to Korach. In fact, the verse does seem to indicate that he was swallowed up together with them, as it says: Then the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korah with the death of the assembly, when the fire consumed two hundred and fifty men (Bamidbar 26:10).
Our Sages thus tell us that in fact both are true. “Korach was among those who were swallowed by the earth and among those who were burned” (Sanhedrin 110a, citing a Barasia; see there for a dissenting opinion). His soul was burned by the heavenly fire, and his body then rolled into the opening of the earth to be swallowed up with the other leaders of the rebellion (Rashi ad loc.).
Ultimately, as the verses make clear, Korach’s insinuations that Moshe’s teachings did not represent Hashem’s will, was not merely a rebellion against Moshe, but against the authenticity of the Torah itself. The Torah though is the very foundation of heaven and earth, as the verse says, “If not for My covenant [the Torah]…I would not have set up the laws of heaven and earth” (Yirmiyah 33:25). It is therefore not surprising that both heaven (with its fire) and earth (with its swallowing mouth) got involved in quelling this rebellion. After all, it was they too whose very existence was on the line (Rabbeinu Bachya, Bamidbar 16:29).
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News June 21, 2025
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Shabbos Mevarchim Chodesh Tammuz
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz will be Thursday and Friday
The Molad for Tamuz will be on Wednesday night {June 25},
58 minutes and four chalokim after 9
Ballistic Missiles and Challah
“Though I am on the western edge of the world, לבי במזרח, my heart is in the east.” These were words were written by the great Sage, R’ Yehudah HaLevi (1075-1141, author of the Kuzari). Through them he expressed that although he was physically in Spain, his mind and heart were firmly fixed elsewhere. They were “in the east” – focused upon Eretz Yisrael.
That is a sentiment we all share at this historically significant time. Wherever we happen to be in the world at this moment, our hearts, our minds, and our tefillos are fixed on Israel. They are laser focused on the unfolding hashgacha, Divine Providence, that is taking place, including the incredible military successes occurring deep within enemy territory, and the safe return – B”H – of the soldiers from each mission.
We are certainly pained by the loss of lives and the scores of serious injuries that have occurred in Israeli towns and cities over the past week. We remain greatly concerned and continue to daven for the safety and wellbeing of acheinu bnei yisrael. At the same time, we recognize that 500 ballistic missiles could have wrought much greater destruction and much more devastating losses. The fact that the wing of Seroka hospital that was hit and destroyed was relatively empty, because services had been transferred from there to a different section of the hospital one day earlier, is nothing short of a miracle. There is a palpable feeling of hashgacha, of Hashem watching over His People.
Towards the end of this week’s parashah, we are given the mitzvah the separate out challah for our dough, effectively declaring it as sacred. For dough to be subject to the requirement to separate out challah, it must have a certain minimum measure. The dough needs to have a minimum volume of an “omer,” which is equivalent to the individual daily allotment of manna we received back in the wilderness. There’s a message in that, explains R’ S.R. Hirsch. While we have an obligation to take tithes off of our harvests in the field (in the form of terumos and maasaros), the mitzvah of challah represents a different – more personal and specific obligation. Tithes in the field remind us of Hashem’s overall Providence, but tithing our dough in our homes, reminds us of His specific attention and care to each home, and to each individual. The mitzvah of separating challah reminds us that just as He took care of our individual needs throughout our sojourn in the wilderness (providing a food allotment for each individual), so He continues to do so through this very day.
May we continue to see the Hand of Providence guiding our unfolding story, both nationally and individually. And may we – please Gd – merit to hear besurot tovot, and to share in goodly tidings, for us and all of acheinu bnei yisrael.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz