אנשי אמנה

On Shabbat Zachor we will surely remember the three wars that Amalek has fought against Israel. The expression Ayil Meshulash is from the Pasuk Bereshit 15:9 , which mentions three sacrifices, the Eglah Meshuleshet, the Ez Meshuleshet, and the Ayil Meshulash, which correspond to three three-fold "wars" in our time . One of the three fits the three parts of Ayil Meshulash , and the other two three-fold wars are as follows. The first three-fold war is Eglah Meshuleshet. The first part of it is the war of independence. It was "predicted" to be related to טצ"ץ, in the sense that the gematria of the date is 999 . Indeed, year 5708 is the year that 999/2 was reached by the exile count. Likewise, the other great wars, the six-day war of 5727, and the Yom Kippur war of 5734 were טצ"ץ wars. In short, all of the above wars were in the years in which the three counts, the exile count, the count of Din, and the count of Chesed, reached the value 999/2. The...

Last night I attended an evening to the memory of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, may Hashem revenge his death. Naturally, he concept of Hester Panim came up, the hiding of the face of G-d. I feel that Hester Panim is partly self-imposed. As we read in Shemot 20:19: "And they said to Moshe: You shall speak with us so we may listen, but let G-d not speak with us or else we will die." We don't want Hashem to speak with us. We are blocking Him from speaking with us. This is very relevant in our days, when the time has finally come for the truth to be known, through the internet revolution. What is our reply? The reply of Rav Raziel was to be Machmir, it appears. The group to which he seemed to belong, promotes the blocking of free internet access, to avoid temptation. People that go by that Psak , give up on the basic human freedom to decide what is good and what is bad. Moreover, they are blocking the truth. This is serious stuff. It says in Devarim 31:17-18: Is it not because my G...

In Shemot 24:9-14, we read about Moshe plus selected individuals, and the seventy elders, the men of truth, seeing the G-d of Israel. The selected individuals are Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and/or, according to 24:14, Yehoshua and Chur. There are thus roughly three levels, the level of Moshe, the level of the people, and in between, the level of the seventy elders and the selected individuals. It seems that all saw a different side of the G-d of Israel, each according to his level. Like the seventy elders that saw Him, there are seventy faces to the Torah, which is therefore likened to "Yayin," which is seventy in gematria. What then is so unique to the level of Moshe? I suggest that it is to see, in peace, all seventy faces simultaneously. Similarly, it says in Shir HaShirim Rabba, "שקול משה כנגד ששים ריבוא." Seeing G-d like He is, Moshe is the soul of the Sanhedrin . הֲלוֹא כֹה דְבָרִי כָּאֵשׁ, נְאֻם-יְהוָה; וּכְפַטִּישׁ, יְפֹצֵץ סָלַע (Yeremyahu 23:29)

In Shemot 18, in a dialogue between Moshe and Yitro a matter is settled that would prove to be essential for Jewish history. In Shemot 18:15, Yitro asks Moshe why from morning till evening the people are standing before him. In Shemot 18:16, Moshe tells Yitro that the purpose is to make known G-d's laws and His Torah. Because Moshe is the only one that can judge according to Emet, the Truth, he is the one to do this. Yitro replies that this is impossible. Rather, Moshe should take it upon himself to determine G-d's laws and His Torah at a general level (Shemot 18:19,20,21). Moshe should leave it to worthy men, who fear G-d, men of truth, who hate bribery, to apply the general Torah in individual cases. Thus the compromise was born. The Torah at a general level became the Halacha, הַדֶּרֶךְ יֵלְכוּ בָהּ. For Moshe, the Halacha did not exist. He would seek divine help in every case. For Moshe, G-d is Keter, Emet, for the people G-d is Hashem. Moshe is the Sanhedrin of the Truth...