CHOCHMAS NASHIM: A FEW THOUGHTS
By: Suri Davis
This week’s torah portion discusses several interesting topics. In a discussion of the kohanim/priests preparing for service, they had to wash their hands and feet. The Ohr Hachaim comments that the way this is written in Hebrew, we interpret that they have to be washed at the same time. The Rashi commentator on the Gemara Zevachim 19B elaborates that the right hand is on top of the right foot and the left hand is on top of the left foot to symbolize that the hands which can be raised over the head and the feet, which are the lowest point in man’s body, have to be fully utilized for the service of G-d. The priests are to follow the exact preparation instructions, “vlo yamutu/so they don’t die.” The commentator, the Gur Aryeh, uses these words to expound on the difference between having G-d carry out the decree of punishment by killing and the court. The court has no discretion when a man is sentenced to death, it must be done immediately. On the other hand, G-d has discretion as to when He will punish based on His own determination. When do we see this? When it comes to a woman who is suspected of adultery and she is provided bitter waters to drink by the Priest. If she is guilty, then her stomach expands and she dies. But the gemara Sotah expounds on this revealing to us that it might not be immediate, if she is deserving to have a child, and that child must be born and then the waters will work their way to kill as G-d determined.
Speaking of Sotah. Daf/page 13 discusses the death of Chizkiyahu, as it does in the Gemara we are about to complete this weekend, Bava Kamma. There was a discussion as to whether a Torah should be placed on his coffin, and the answer was yes, and Chizkiyahu was eulogized with “kmo zeh, kmo shekasuv bazeh/this person is analogized to the Torah itself (as he carried out the Jewish law, as if he was the Torah itself). Bava Kama discusses the very famous verse of “an eye for an eye,” which is proof of the importance of the Jewish oral law, for without it, one would think, as the Muslims do, that it is literal, and yet the oral law informs us that it is monetary value.
Finally, I have spent the last 147 days saying the daily Psalm for the hostages. Psalm has 150 verses. As I am saddened by the length of their pain, I don’t even know how to complete this sentence. How much pain can they endure, from the youngest 13 months, to the oldest in his 80s. How much must a chosen nation endures before G-d sends Moshiach with a complete redemption. We are instructed to increase joy in the month of Adar, and this year the commandment is doubled as we have two Adars, and yet the hostages are in our minds, hearts and actions. Ad Matai?/Until when?
Good Shabbos.
-Suri