A
person who commits a capital crime that requires death is only punished this
way if he was warned and violated the warning and if the warning was done by
two male kosher religious witnesses. What, therefore, is the status of a
husband who qualifies either for a beating to divorce his wife or for a
humiliation for committing a sin? Does he also require a warning from two
kosher witnesses and does he too have to defy the warning that he will be
punished for that or not?
A
more difficult question is as follows. If a person lives among deeply religious
people and defies the Sabbath, we understand that he, if warned and violates
the warning, deserves his fate. What, however, happens when a person lives in a
time where everybody is not religious, or many people are not religious, and
this person comes from a family where people for generations were not
religious? Does strong punishment still apply there? That I don’t know. Such
people may have the status of shogage or inadvertent sinners and not be
considered guilty at least not at the level that serious punishment requires.
When Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman zt”l the senior disciple of the Chofetz Chaim
came to America to raise money for his Yeshiva, about a hundred years ago, most
Jews were not religious. I was born in 1942 and once I was talking down the
street wearing a yarmulke and a Jew approached me, very agitated, and said, “You
wear a yarmulke in public? Don’t you know that people came from monkeys?” My
father was America’s leading battery scientist who invented a battery that
doubled the capacity of American non-nuclear submarines. He trained me how to
argue. So I knew how to respond to anyone. I immediately thought of an answer
to this fellow: What about giraffes who have huge high necks? Do they come from
monkeys who have no high necks? But I was a very young boy and he was an older
man, so I was silent. But that was America. Children were taught to ignore heaven
and to make money. People like me from parents that I had were rare.
Today,
when the style seems to be for ‘rabbis’ to invent a new Torah to force a GET
and even not to give a GET at all, and there will be a crisis of mamzerim, I
strongly advise people to consider marrying with Pilegesh, because even if it
is somehow less than regular Kiddushin as it does not have Kiddushin or Kesubo,
it also does not have mamzerim, and that, to me, is the main issue.
I
wish to conclude by saying that I agree with the Ramban and the Gaon Rav Yaacov
Emden that one who marries with Pilegesh may do so, but should be
guided by rabbis exactly how to maintain themselves. Yes, technically two
people can marry with Pilegesh, but without constant rabbinical supervision and
guidance for Pilegesh people to succeed is a different story. Also, there are
perhaps certain leniencies in Pilegesh not available in regular marriage, but I
would personally not have interest in helping people use these leniencies,
because leniencies can damage peoples’ respect for Pilegesh. And this is likely
a factor in what the Chelkas Mechokake says that some people protest when a
family member marries with Pilegesh. But people who marry one on one a husband
and a wife with Pilegesh, I say, kol hakode, but again, only if there are rabbis
preferably from the community to guide them and to stand up for them that they
are fine people and following the Torah.
[1] Shulchan
Aruch Even Hoezer laws of Kiddushin 26:1. Ramo there explains that the Shulchan
Aruch feels that if a man and woman marry with intent to marry without
witnesses and without Kiddushin, we force them to separate. The Ramo explains
because we fear that the couple who married without rabbis or witnesses will be
embarrassed to go to the Mikva and thus will sin with Nida. But if the couple
married with the knowledge of rabbonim who supervise the couple to obey all of
the commands, including Mikvah, then Pilegesh is permitted. The Vilna Gaon
provides proof for this to permit Pilegesh from gemora Sanhedrin 21A that
“general marriage requires Kiddushin and Kesubo and Pilegesh requires neither
Kiddushin or Kesubo.” The Vilna Gaon says that the understanding is that the
Pilegesh has no obligation to make a Kiddushin or Kesubo. Nothing is mentioned
about a GET, but major poskim say that no GET is required when the wife or
husband wishes to end the marriage. Thus, the level of Pilegesh has nothing in
the gemora that would obligate a Pilegesh, other than for the husband to
provide his wife with a domicile in his house and for her to be faithful to him
and not deal with other men with zenuse. If she does, she must leave his house
and break up the marriage.
[2] Meyuchesses
means that the Rashbo had many volumes filled with his teshuvose. But one of
these volumes clearly had teshuvose signed by the Ramban. There the Ramban
encourages Pilegesh and says that the Rambam permits it as long as it is not
zenuse. We understand from the Ramban that the Rambam in Melochim who permits
Pilegesh only for a king is talking about a person who takes a Pilegesh who
will sleep with other men not her husband, as zenuse. But if she marries
somebody as a real marriage, as was done by many people mentioned in Tanach,
nothing is wrong. But if done derech Zenuse, a king may do it, we assume that
nobody will go near the wife of a king, even if she does not accept the bonds
of marriage. If the king, for instance, takes a very beautiful woman against her
will, this is not a normal marriage, but is derech Zenuse, but nobody will
antagonize the king and do anything about it. At any rate, the Ramban permits
Pilegesh, along with the Vilna Gaon and Reb Yaacov Emden, and the Vilna Gaon
says that the Rambam agreed. If so, we must explain the Rambam’s opposition to
Pilegesh for one who is not a king as referring to a woman who did not join in
marriage with her husband in the style of true marriage, but was taken by a
person for her beauty or whatever reason, and because the marriage was forced,
only a king may do such a thing.
[3] Shita
Mekubetses Kesubose 64b page 1190 in my edition phrase beginning וכתב רבינו יונה ז"ל וזה לשונו
[4] The word in Hebrew
is ללוותו probably means to walk with
him
[5] See Shaarei Teshuva of
Rabbeinu Yona number 139, 140, 141.
[1] Berochose 17A
[2] Bamidbar chapter
27 from passages 1-21
[3] Devorim 24:5
How Reb Aharon Kotler Redesigned a World without Torah
We want to study a teaching of the Orach Chaim HaKodosh, in the
beginning of Aikev, about head and feet. It answers a very strong question on
the book of Malachi whose final passage produces a threat from HaShem to
utterly destroy the world if fathers and sons don’t learn to get along properly
with each other. But the Mishneh at the end of Sota tells us that before
Moshiach comes boys quarrel with their fathers and ladies quarrel with their
husband’s mothers. Why, then, is the world not destroyed? We will discuss this and
to it add a discussion how my rebbe Reb Aharon Kotler came to America and
revitalized the learning of Torah even in the Kollel experience. Stories about
how he did this.
Goal
Four: We live in a time of great confusion, as taught in the Mishneh in Sota mentioned
above. Reb Aharon succeeded. How did he do it? And what can we do to succeed as
well, in a world teeming with serious errors?
First
of all, Goal One. How can we pray to HaShem if He is in heaven and we don’t
understand anything about heaven with worldly finite minds?
The Torah
begins “In the beginning of ___, HaShem created the heaven and the earth.” It
does not say “the first thing in creation was the creation of heaven and
earth.” It says “In the beginning of ___” meaning, it does not say in the
beginning of what. Thus, the Torah begins with a statement that has no
understanding.
But
keep in mind that heaven is not a dimension open to people. And here the
creation was about heaven as it was about earth. But in the beginning of
creation means the beginning of heaven as well as earth. But people cannot
understand heaven and so how can they understand in the beginning of what
heaven was created?
We are
not able to understand in the beginning of what heaven was created. So it is
left unsaid. But that itself is crucial for us to understand. Yes, there is a
heaven, and yes, we don’t understand it, and yes, G‑d wants us to know that
there is a hidden heaven and that it is hidden from us, but we must know that
it is there, and that HaShem is there, and that we have a role to play in
heaven even if we don’t know what it is or what heaven is. But HaShem gave us a
Torah, and although much of life is hidden from us, when we devote ourselves to
learning Torah and studying under great rabbis, much becomes revealed to us.
In
fact, the missing phrase in “in the beginning of__” has a meaning precisely
what I just said. We cannot with our finite minds know HaShem or heaven, but if
we study Torah properly. the lights of heaven percolate into our system, each
person according to his efforts and piety. Each of us has the potential to
understand things that are beyond us, through Torah and piety and fear of
HaShem.
There
is a famous story from the tsadik Reb Shlomo Schwadron, about the Second World
War, which, when it broke out, and the Germans invaded Poland, led to terror
and killing. A Jew fled Poland and came to Israel, because he realized that in
Poland only death awaited the Jews. But if he came to Israel, perhaps somehow
he could find a way to save his wife and children.
He
came to Israel and remembered a tradition that one who prays forty days at the
Kosel can merit miracles. He went for forty days to the Kosel, crying bitterly
that HaSHem save his wife and children. On the fortieth day, he noticed a man
praying. He realized that this man was not an ordinary person, but a great
saint. Perhaps, he thought, this person can tell me about my family. He went to
the person and asked him to please tell him how his family is. The man was
befuddled and simply ran away. The Polish Jew ran after him, but the man ran
home quickly and shut the door after him. The Polish man rapped on the door,
and he heard inside somebody running. It was that same person who now opened
the door and said, “Now I have the obligation of honoring a guest. Please, come
in, and let me get something for you.” He brought out some food and was quite
friendly. The Polish man said that he wanted to know about his wife and
children. How are they? Is there a way to save them from the fiends?
The
man suddenly grew somber, put his head down and thought a bit, and then asked,
“And if I tell you, will it remain a secret?” “Yes,” said the man. The man
asked, “Do you live in a house on the corner with two floors?” “Yes.” “The
Germans are inside the house, but they are not bothering anyone. Your family
will be safe and sound and come to Israel.” And so it was.
This
is also the idea in “In the beginning of____” You and I don’t know what that
missing phrase is, but that holy man did know. And each Jew has the potential
to increase his piety and holiness and achieve wonderful knowledge through the
Torah and light of heaven.
It was
known that the holy rabbi Rav Yeshayeh Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, would
regularly be consulted by very sick people, and he told them very often things
completely opposite from the doctors. He once told somebody who asked him that
the key to saving a person’s life was a doctor so and so, and the Chazon Ish
added, that this doctor did not have to do anything for the sick person, but he
had to be at the hospital during the surgery. For some reason, the doctor was
unwilling to be the doctor to perform the surgery, and another doctor did it.
But the person got better. The doctor then asked somebody, “Okay, your rabbi
was able to determine that if I would come the person would get better,
something that was not at all obvious to me. But how did he know that I should
watch the surgery if I did nothing?” The answer: The rabbi wanted it that way.
He knows why, I don’t. As I recall the
story the time came when this doctor himself came to the Chazon Ish and asked
him why it was important for him to come if he did nothing. I don’t recall the
answer. But it is known that the Chazon Ish, although a rabbi in a small
farming village which eventually became a large city, was constantly besieged
by people who needed this or that miracle immediately, and he always helped
out. He actually was part of a group of relatives who were saints who did make
miracles regularly. The great saint Reb Chaim Kanievsky is part of that family,
and Rav Shach was also a participant in making miracles. Greatness in piety and
greatness in Torah go a long way.
This
first passage begins with the heaven and the earth, two opposite dimensions.
Angels are in heaven and people are in this world. People in this world are
removed from HaShem as He is in heaven. But HaShem created people who in a way
are holier to Him even more than angels. For this reason the angels cry out in
pain, Why are pious people close to G‑d and the angels outside of that level?
HaShem
created angels who sing His glory and fulfill His will. People, on the other
hand, are not angels, far from it. This world is filled with evil. Even good
people are usually not perfect. As the woman in the Song of Songs said, “I have
been made black as the ancient dead.” But the creation was essentially for
humans who have evil inclinations and do sins, and they are required to live
their lives with their pain and evil thoughts and deeds, and to do penitence,
and then they will be forgiven. That penitence is light from darkness, and a
very high light, the true purpose of Creation.
“From
the darkness you will see the light.” But only from the darkness. The angels
are heavenly and very close to HaShem, but they cry out that people are closer
to HaShem than they are. Only light from darkness is the true holiness. Angels
naturally perfect are remote from that. But people with their remoteness from
heaven who repent their evil ways and seek light from darkness, can find it. And
when their light arrives, it is the true purpose of creation.
People
saddled with darkness and evil thoughts have a hard time finding light, and
surely have a hard time discovering what the first passage of the Torah
teaches, “In the beginning of ____ HaShem created the heaven and the earth.”
Struggling to find that light is the purpose of life. Struggling to battle the
evil inclination is higher than sitting in heaven and singing to HaShem,
because light from darkness is the greatest light.
The
Kabbalists says that when HaShem sent the soul of Adam from heaven into the
world, He even then realized that the world would be filled with challenge,
darkness, and yes, evil, and yes, pure evil. He wanted Adam to taste this evil
even in the highest dimensions as he sailed down into the Garden of Eden.
HaShem always knew that evil would be a great part of the world, as challenge,
as the force that people would conquer to merit the highest light and portions
in heaven greater than the angels who have no evil temptations. For this,
HaShem had prepared in heaven a male and a female set of angels whose job it
would be to bring evil when HaShem wanted them to do it. That job began with
the sailing of Adam into the Garden of Eden. It continued when the angel of
heaven whose job was to tempt men tormented Adam on the way down into this
world, and her husband terrorized Adam’s wife Eve until she ate from the forbidden
fruit and got the first humans expelled from the Garden of Eden. But we are
going too fast.
The
work of the angel whose job it was to torment men and seduce them began her
work, as we explained, higher than this world, as Adam’s soul was coming down
from heaven to the Garden of Eden. Her husband terrorized Eve who ate from the
Forbidden Fruit and got Adam and her expelled from the Garden of Eden. But
after she arrived in this world, she was sitting with her husband in heaven,
during the marriage of Adam and Eve. The marriage of Adam and Eve was a
Kabbalistic affair. They stared at each other and began to count the letters of
the Alpha Beth, the alphabet. Each letter mentioned and studied brought great
powers to the marriage. Soon the angels in heaven, almost all of them, were
watching this, and then, as the letters went higher and higher, they all came
down to watch up close.
The
only angels left were those whose job was to bring evil to the world. They
looked around and saw that they were all alone. This did not appeal to them.
After all, they were created for a purpose. Sitting there while the angels
watched the wedding was not their job. So they went down into the world. This
time, it was the wife, an extraordinary beauty, who did her job. All she did
was to walk near Adam as he was staring at Eve, who was also a great beauty,
but she was not an angel, and Adam did notice the angel. That second, all of
the angels disappeared. The wedding was over. The angel had done her job very
well. Adam and Eve separated, unlike what we would anticipate for people who
actually marry. In the case of Adam and Eve, there was only one woman in the
world for Adam, and he should have accepted her and mollified her for noticing
the angel, but he was so bitter that he decided to have nothing to do with Eve
who had dealt with the snake and got both Adam and Eve banished from the Garden
of Eden. For years, he lived alone. And when he slept, the angel of evil came
to him and tempted him to give birth to forces of evil or demons. That angel
really did a bang-up job. I think she should have asked for a bonus!
Adam’s
misery continued for a long time. One day, he met Kain, the murderer of his
brother Hevel. Kain didn’t appear to be a broken murderer. Adam asked why not
and he said, “I repented and HaShem accepted it. He gave me a power to be saved
from those who want to kill me.” When Adam heard that HaShem accepts penitence,
he realized that that applied to him. The first step, he realized, was to make
peace with his wife and establish a true marriage, based not on perfection but
on the penitence that both of them had to make for what they had done to each
other. Adam went to Eve and declared, “You are the mother of all life.” Now
Adam and Eve were reconciled and the angel didn’t get a bonus for that.
One
day Adam was talking to HaShem and asked how many years he would live. HaShem
said, One thousand years. HaShem then told him about various people including
King David. Adam asked how many years David would live. HaShem replied, a few
hours. Adam said, “I give him seventy years of my life.” HaShem accepted that.
It is
interesting to know that the gemora asks how it is possible that the most holy
people, King David who said, “My heart is still inside of me” meaning it has no
evil inclination, and the Jews at Sinai who died when HaShem spoke to them, and
the angels brought them back to life with great crowns, but they worshipped the
Golden Calf. The gemora explains that these people were not designed to sin,
were far from it. But HaShem wanted to prove that the holiest people, those
farthest from sin, can do the worse sins. Once people realized that even the
holiest people can sin and HaShem accepts their penitence, anyone can repent,
and indeed, the most important thing is not light or darkness, but penitence.
King David did a lot of crying after the sin of Bas Sheva, which he did after
HaShem warned him to anticipate divine testing that he would be forced to sin.
David realized when he saw Bas Sheva that this was what HaShem meant. He realized
also that if he controlled himself he would insult HaShem, and so he did the
sin. For that he had to do a lot of crying and penitence. But that crying and
penitence was what HaShem wanted, not the sin.
I want
here to confess that my rebbe in the beginning of his sefer The Gates of the
Kabbala quotes, as is his wont, the Vilna Gaon and other greats of Kabbala, to
explain why HaShem created the world and how people can know HaShem when we
can’t know Him. I don’t want to quote the exact words of these greats because I
learned the hard way, after studying teachings of many gates of great
kabbalists, that they didn’t necessarily want to reveal everything they said to
people like me. I had to work very hard until I was able to follow their
thinking, at least, to some degree.
Against
my better inclinations, I suppose I should just say a few words of quote from
words of these Kabbalists my rebbe quoted, although I fear it would just make
some people like me confused. But to understand the true confusion here, let me
say that the Kabbala takes literally the fact that this world is not only
different than heaven, but people in this world with their very limited finite
knowledge, are not only unable to know heaven and certainly HaShem, but even
those forces that HaShem created specifically to bring light to people, contain
sections that it not only is forbidden to describe them, but it is forbidden to
even say that they exist!
Yes,
HaShem created, for the benefit of people, Ten Sefirose, or worlds. The highest
world is KESER or crown, and it is only a Sefira designed to bring light to
people. But we may not say that it exists! The second sefira underneath KESER
is CHOCHMO. We may say that it exists, but it is a heavenly body that imparts
nothing of significance to mortals other than the fact that it exists,
something forbidden for KESER.
CHOCHMO
has a wife, BINA, the third Sefira down from the top. BINA is never separated
from CHOCHMO, she has no fear from him, and they are never separated. Both of
them were created simultaneously. But he is above the barrier to heaven and she
is facing down into the bottom seven which are much closer to human
understanding. CHOCHMO is terrified of KESER.
While
we are at it, let us mention one fast fact. The bottom Sefira is a woman,
MALCHUSE. Into her go the evil of this world, and she suffers terribly. She is the
woman in the Song of Songs who cries out, “They have blackened me as the
blackest in the world.” That sounds pretty terrible. But this is Kabbala. Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Lutsato in Adir BaMorom says that MALCHUSE, meaning monarchy, has a
good friend. It is a Sefira. And it is KESER. And guess what? Again, we are
talking about the great Kabbalists. Just listen and don’t faint. KESER and
MALCHSUE are one! KESER comes down to MALCHUSE and MALCHUSE rises, not up to
KESER alone, but past KESER, into the heavenly realm where no humans may think
what is happening there. Yes, MONARCHY and KESER are one, which is not the
whole truth. The whole truth is that MALCHUSE goes farther into heaven than
KESER. If you are not dizzy now, I can’t help you.
While
you hopefully are dizzy, let me throw out some more dizziness, just quotes from
my rebbe and the great Kabbalists such as the Vilna Gaon. HaShem wanted people
to know Him, but that is impossible. How can mortals know heaven and how can
they know HaShem? So HaShem created a force that enables people in this world
to know HaShem enough to pray to Him and worship Him. Its name is צורת מרכבת אדם העליון in English the Form of the Chariot
of the Senior Man. If you are not totally confused, allow me to help you. There
is a passage in Ezekiel about his vision of a heavenly throne and the form of a
man was upon it. Now, this passage was presented to all readers, the throne and
the man. I don’t think it was a real man, of course, and I surely don’t believe
it was HaShem chas vishalom. But could it have been the Chariot of the Senior
Man, created by HaShem to reveal His light to mortals, perhaps when they study
Torah properly? If you are dizzy, what difference does it make?
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