Fields of Faith

Greetings to the World,

This week, we all experienced Lag Ba'Omer. It was amazing for me, as I am sure it was for all of you.
With that introduction, I would like to write about an amazing topic on this parasha - belief in Hashem.
The very beginning of Parashat Behar speaks about the mitzvah of Shemitah. Shemitah basically means that there is a seven-year-agricultural-cycle. For the first six years, you go about working your field as usual (will all know what working our fields is like, right?). However, on the seventh year, we are not allowed to work the field. We are privileged with the opportunity of leaving our field fallow, not touching it at all, and living by Hashem's promise that He will provide enough food for us to live for that year. In fact, the Torah promises that the sixth year will provide enough food for three years. It has to provide for the sixth year itself, for the seventh year (because we won't be working the land), and for the eighth (it will take some time before the field will be up and running).
Right in the middle of giving over all if the details of Shemitah, the Torah takes a very small break and speaks about something else. It discusses the prohibition of cheating in business. "When buying and selling something from/to your friend, do not cheat one another" (Vayikra 25:14). The obvious question is, what does this have to do with our mitzvah of Shemitah - refraining form working on the fields?
[The simplest answer is that the year in the fifty-year-Yovel-cycle is a factor how much you should sell something for. I'm not going to get into the technicalities of that answer, but if you want to know about it, ask and I'll be happy to explain.]
Rabbi Frand offers a beautiful answer to this question. Why do we have a mitzvah of Shemita? One word -- "Emunah," or "belief in Hashem." By not working the field for an entire year, you are demonstrating that you acknowledge that your livelihood doesn't come from you, but from Hashem. When you took off a year from working because Hashem said so, you made just as much money, if not more, than when you were actually working. That can only mean one thing - Hashem is in charge of how much money you really get.
Rabbi Frand explains that mindset must be carried out into the business world, too. The idea of Shemitah and the emunah it teaches shouldn't be exclusively offered to the farmers, but to the businessmen, as well. "When buying and selling something from/to your friend, do not cheat one another" (Vayikra 25:14). When cheating in business, you obviously think that you are in charge of how much money you make. If you nickel and dime people, you will be richer. That shows a huge flaw in your belief in Hashem. You really think that you can cheat and make money off that? Do you not realize that Hashem runs this world?!? You can't steal from people! Hashem says, farmers should take a year off, to know I run the world, and businessmen should make sure to be faithful and truthful in business, to know I run the world.
I would like to connect this to another thought I once heard. Our Sages tell us (Shabbat 31b) that when we go up to Heaven after leaving this world, we will be asked a list of questions. The first question will be, "Nasata ve'natata be'emunah?" - "Were you faithful in business?" That is the very first question we are asked when being judged. That, in and of itself, should stress the gravity of the mitzvah. But I just want to analyze the words - "Nasata ve'natata be'emunah?" Did you do business with emunah, with faithfulness towards your friend. Were your faithful to him when doing business?
But there is another way to understand this question. "Nasata ve'natata be'emunah?" Did you do business with faith in Hashem. Did you really believe that you weren't in charge? Did you have faith that if you did business in the proper way that you will get every penny that you deserved, or did you think that you can cheat people and make more money on your own? Did you have emunah when doing business?
We must all believe that no matter what we do, it is not the strength of our hands that feeds us, but Hashem's hand. We must have this mindset all the way through. Furthermore, we mustn't cheat because that would be showing that we don't really have belief in Hashem. [All this is easy for me to say because I'm not working yet, but I don't think that should take away from the thought at all.]
May we all have the belief that will help us get through the good times and the bad (or seemingly bad, at least). May we all be able to see the truth in life, with complete clarity. And may we all merit to receive sustenance from the hand of Hashem - directly.

Shabbat Shalom!
Be in touch. Please.
Avraham Adam Sabzevari

Peace and Togetherness

Greetings, dear subscribers,

This week's parasha, Parashat Emor, starts off with Hashem commanding Moshe to do the following: "Say to the Kohanim, the children of Aharon, and you should say to them..." Hashem tells Moshe to give a message over to the Kohanim. What should be the next thing Hashem says? The message! But that's not what the Torah says. Instead, the Torah repeats, "and you should say to them..." Why does Hashem command Moshe twice to give over a message? Hashem says, "Moshe, go tell the Kohanim, and go tell them." What does that mean? What was the first thing that he was supposed to say? It almost sounds as though there were two messages, but the Torah only lists the second one. What was the first message?
To understand this, allow me to bring down a story (Yoma 71b). There is one room in the Beit Hamikdash that no one is allowed to enter. It is called the Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holy of Holies. There is only one day a year (Yom Kippur) that only a certain individual (Kohen Gadol) is allowed to enter this room, and he is only allowed to enter to do the specific service of the day.
Over 2,000 years ago, there were two men by the names Shemayah and Avtalyon. They were the two greatest men of their time, serving as the two highest positions (President and Highest Judge). Moreover, they were converts (according to most opinions) and were not born Jewish.
One year, on Yom Kippur, when the Kohen Gadol came out of the Beit Hamikdash, everyone was following him. All of the Jewish people wanted to be next to the man who has just been where Hashem's presence (shechina) is most concentrated. All of a sudden, Shemayah and Avtalyon appeared. What do you think happened next? All of the people immediately left the Kohen Gadol and ran over to Shemayah and Avtalyon. They wanted to be with the men who emulated Hashem, day in and day out.
A little later, Shemayah and Avtalyon were leaving, and they wanted to wish the Kohen Gadol farewell. The Kohen Gadol, who was slightly offended because they drew away his crowd, said the following remark: "Let the nations of the world leave in peace." He was bringing up the fact that Shemayah and Avtalyon weren't born Jewish, but were actually born to other nations of the world. He was saying, "No matter how great you think you are, at the end of the day, you aren't even really Jewish. You are just converts. I, on the other hand, have always been a Jew!"
When they heard this, they too took offense. They responded, in a polite way, "The nations of the world will leave in peace, because we act like Aharon HaKohen, the lover of peace. The son of Aharon, however, will not leave in peace, because he does not act like Aharon." They were saying, "Granted, we may not be born to Jewish blood. But at least we act like Aharon HaKohen, who was the pursuer of peace. On the contrary, even though you are Jewish and are a descendant of Aharon, you do not act like him. You do not act properly."
There is a famous mishna in the first chapter of Pirkei Avot: Be like the students of Aharon HaKohen - Love peace, pursue peace, love people, and bring them closer to Torah.
The Kohanim are supposed to represent peace. They are supposed to be the ones that bring us closer to each other. They are supposed to be the representatives of Hashem and bring us closer to the Torah. This Kohen Gadol did not serve his role and did not act like a son of Aharon.
Back to our first question. Why does the Torah write, "You should say...you should say...?" The answer is, you have to look at the words that are in between those two commandments. I will copy it again: "Say to the Kohanim, the children of Aharon..." The first commandment is, "Say to the Kohanim, they must be the children of Aharon." The first thing the Kohanim must do before they even think about serving Hashem in any way is to make sure that they act like the children of Aharon. They must love peace. They must pursue peace. They must love people. That is a prerequisite to serving Hashem in the Beit Hamikdash. First thing's first - make sure you have exceptional manners.
This isn't a lesson only for the Kohanim. This is a lesson for all of us. Before you can serve Hashem, be it through praying, learning, performing mitzvot, or any other way you can think of, YOU MUST WORK ON YOURSELF FIRST.
May we all know how to treat each other properly. May we all be the students of Aharon: to love peace, to pursure peace, to love people, and to bring them closer to Torah. And after we do that, may we all merit to serve Hashem in the proper way.
Be'ezrat Hashem, may we soon all gather around the Kohen Gadol and the Gedolei Hador in Yerushalayim Eeer Hakodesh, bimeherah beyameinu, amen.

Shabbat Shalom!
Peacefully,
Avraham Adam Sabzevari

Parental Holiness

Hello Everybody!

This past week was an amazing week for me. Experiencing both Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'Atzmaut for my first time in Eretz Yisrael was a moving experience, and I undoubtedly grew from both of them. Every year, my yeshiva has a trip to Yerushalayim on Yom Ha'Atzmaut. Now, I know that doesn't sound all to special. After all, it's my year in Israel. I should go to Yerushalayim every now and then, no? Here's the thing. We walked. Left 4:00 AM. I don't even know when we arrived at the Kotel. I think around 9:00 PM, but registering the time in my mind took too much energy at that point. It was one of the most unbelievable things I ever experienced. There's really so much to say about it. But I'll stop here for brevity's sake.

I have a very quick D'var Torah on the parasha. At the beginning of Parashat Kedoshim (the second of two parshiyot that we are going to read tomorrow), Hashem commands us to be holy. There is an opinion that says this commandment is referring to a very specific act (I'm not going into it). There is a second opinion that understand that this miztvah could also be taken very generally. Hashem is telling us that in everything that we do, we should make the correct decision - we should try to classify every act as either good or bad, and then pick the good.
The hardest part is to assess and define every act -- which acts are good and which are bad. But even after you determine what to do, it is extremely difficult to put that into action. So how do we do both of these things?
Two answers are: by studying Torah and by thinking. By studying the Torah, you will know what is right. You will know how to act. Second, by thinking things through instead of rushing into decisions, you will have a lot more clarity.
I would like to offer a third option. And the third option comes from the very next thing the Torah says. Hashem tells us to be holy, and He then tells us to fear our parents. Why does the very next passuk talk about how our relationship should be with our parents? Why stress the reverence we must have towards them over here, from all places in the Torah?
To teach us this very point. Do you want to know how to be holy? Every time you are about to make a decision, think about your parents. If you are about to do something wrong, and all of a sudden, a picture of your father comes into your mind, you'll definitely think about it twice. We know that when Yosef HaTzaddik was challenged with a certain test, he passed the test only because he thought of Yaakov, his father. The fear of letting down your parents, of not making them proud, of not living up to their expectations - that fear will place you on the right path. I could speak from personal experience as well. Thinking about my father and mother has helped me hundreds of times in the past, and it will continue to do so in the future, IY"H.
Obviously, this idea is not exclusive to your parents. It can be your grandparents, close friends, rebbeim, teachers, or even your children. The idea is, sometimes, if you ask yourself, "Would I do this if there were someone watching - especially someone who I really cared about?," you won't do what you would have done otherwise.
Be'ezrat Hashem, we will learn from our biological parents how to decipher what our Father in Heaven desires from us, and may we all merit to experience the closeness of our Father in Yerushalayim, Ir Hakodesh, in the Beit Hamikdash. Amen.

The Power of Speech

Shalom everybody, I am now typing this email in Eretz Yisrael. I really enjoyed being home. It was really very nice to see the family, and Baruch Hashem, since it was Pesach, I really did get a chance to see a lot of the family. Very enjoyable. I hope everyone enjoyed his/her chagim. I remember when I was a kid, like in third grade, when we would go back to school, we would always spend the first day of classes discussing what we did over vacation --- highly productive academic curriculum. So I started typing up an email about everything I did over the past month, and I just wanted to share it all with you.
I'm kidding. In truth, I did not write this week's Dvar Torah. A good friend of mine, Emanuel Karmely, asked to write the Dvar Torah one week. Being that our goal is to spread Torah and to encourage Torah learning, it is irrelevant who writes it, so long as it is a good thought. Emanuel's Dvar Torah exceeds my approval requirements. It is a beautiful idea that we all need to work on every day of the year. So I have copied his email below. Feel free to respond to him directly, or to me and I will forward the responses.

Enjoy, and Shabbat Shalom!
Sincerely,
Avraham Adam Sabzevari

[From this point on, it's Emanuel speaking.]

Don't worry guys, this won't be a weekly thing, I just felt that it would be nice to write something after coming off such a great Chag. Before I begin, I want to give credit where credit is due. Adam- I want to thank you for sending out this Dvar Torah for me. Also, some of this Dvar Torah has been taken from the introduction of "A Lesson A Day" (based on the Chofetz Chaim's work).
As it is the time of Sefirat Ha'omer now, I'm sure we are all hearing Divrei Torah about Rabbi Akiva's students. The famous question is: why and how did such a great number of people - 24,000 people - die in this short period of time? What possible sin could have been so great to wipe out all of Rabbi Akiva's students? The simple answer that we've all heard is Sinat Chinam (baseless hatred). 24,000 of the greatest in the world died for such a sin. There are even some opinions that say the sin of "Sinat Chinam" they committed, was that when "Person A" was doing a good deed for "Person B", "Person A" wasn't doing it with a smile on his face.I want to bring a Kal V'chomer from this answer. Obviously, these students were held at higher standards than we are. But if 24,000 were wiped out for simply not smiling while doing a good deed, what can we expect for ourselves when we commit the grievous sin of Loshon Hara, which is one of the worst sins one can commit? We have to pay attention to our words. They are more powerful than we realize. Just think for a second - with a few words, a woman turns candles into *nerot shel shabbat*; with about 30 words, we turn bread into *hamotzi*; and with about 50 or 60 words, we turn a cup of wine into the mitzvah of *kiddush*. Our words our powerful, whether we realize it or not. If we see what good our words can do (by turning these things into mitzvot), imagine what it can do in the other direction, chas ve'shalom.We are currently in a time where we should work on ourselves, especially when it comes to *ben adam l'chavero*. So, the next time we have an urge to say something about someone, just think about how powerful our words are and how they should *really* be used. And I believe that is what is meant the statement of Pirkei Avot that says "Weigh the reward of a sin against its cost".
Shabbat Shalom!
Emanuel