These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion: Tape# 93, Melacha Before Havdala. Good Shabbos!
Guarding Against Feeling Too Good About Oneself
In this week’s Parsha we have the culmination of the Seven Days of Consecration, used to dedicate the Mishkan. On the eighth day, Moshe called Aharon and told him which offerings to bring to finish off the process of consecration. After they did everything, Moshe said “This is the matter you shall do so that the Glory of G-d will appear upon you.” [Vayikra 9:6]
The Yalkut on this pasuk [verse] interprets these words to mean “That Evil Inclination you should remove from your hearts.” What specific Evil Inclination (Yetzer Hara) is Moshe referring to over here?
(Several years ago we offered an interpretation from the Netziv on this question. This year we will be giving different insight, found in the Drash V’Iyun, by the Reisher Rav.)
The pasuk in Koheles says, “There is no righteous person in the world who does (only) good, and does no evil” [Koheles 7:20]. The Reisher Rav says that perhaps the pasuk means that even when a person does a mitzvah, there is always the chance that in the mitzvah itself, he will come to do some kind of a sin.
A person can give Tzedakah and feel good about himself, but the Evil Inclination can creep in and he’ll feel too good about himself and become haughty. So, the pasuk means that even when a person does a great act, it can be tainted by the wrong emotions or by feelings of gayvah or the like.
It was at this time, says the Drash V’Iyun, that Klal Yisroel were susceptible to such an Evil Inclination. Imagine the feeling. Here they were, a people who just came out of slavery, and now they built this beautiful edifice, with beautiful vessels. There was a very real worry that they would feel too good about themselves. There was the chance that they would succumb to the emotions of “my strength and the power of my hand made all this might” [Devorim 8:17] — it was our power, it was our money, it was our dedication, etc., etc.
It was at this juncture that Moshe tells them “That famous Yetzer Hara” — the Evil Inclination of feeling too good about doing a Mitzvah, too smug and too satisfied about oneself — is what you have to watch out for at this moment of erecting the Mishkan.
Glossary
Mishkan — Tabernacle
p’shat — interpretation
tzedakah — charity
gayvah –haughtiness)
Personalities & Sources:
Yalkut (Shimoni) –Midrashic anthology of Tanach attributed to Rav Shimon HaDarshan of Frankfurt (13th century).
Rash”i — Rav Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105); Torah commentator par excellence; France.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch –(1808-1888) Frankfurt-am-main; leader of modern German-Jewish Orthodoxy.
Rav Shlomo Breuer –(1850-1936); Papa, Hungary; Frankfurt-am-main.
Technical Assistance by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, Maryland.
This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah portion (#93). The corresponding halachic portion for this tape is: Melacha Before Havdala The other halachic portions for Shemini from the Commuter Chavrusah Series are:
- Tape # 005- Medicines Containing Chometz
- Tape # 050 – The Tuna Fish Controversy
- Tape # 141 – Using a Mikveh for Non-Orthodox Conversions
- Tape # 188 – Netilas Yadayim for Bread and Fruit
- Tape # 234 – Netilas Yadayim for Breakfast: Is One “Washed Up” for the day?
- Tape # 278 – Netilas Yadayim and Chatzizah
- Tape # 324 – Sefiras Ha’omer
- Tape # 368 – Don’t Drink and Daven
Tapes or a complete catalogue can be ordered from:
Yad Yechiel Institute
PO Box 511
Owings Mills, MD 21117-0511
Call (410) 358-0416 for further information.
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection of Rabbi Frand’s essays. The book is entitled: