This Shabbos we discussed the week’s Parsha Chukat. David S. led discussion, which started out with why there is a 38 year gap. This is there to draw attention to a comparison between this parsha and the story of getting water back in Exodus. Back in Exodus, only the elders were brought before the rock and water was provided based on the merit of Miriam. In Parsha Chukat, water is to be provided based on the merit of all of us, so everyone was called to come forth to witness the miracle of the water being provided.
However Moses does not follow his instructions. He strikes the rock instead of speaking to it. He also does not take the opportunity to talk to the Jews about how they have all reached the level of meriting this miracle. Hashem decrees that Moses will not be able to enter the promised land of Israel. Although this seems like a harsh consequence, leaders are expected to uphold the highest standards. We discussed some of the reasons Moses may not have followed his instructions, such as impatience. Regardless of the reason, Moses is still regarded as a great leader.
Efroni brought us another very interesting dvar Torah with material from Rabbi Avigdor Neventzel. We discussed how Abraham could have received the entire Torah, at a time prior to the Jews arrival to Mt. Sinai. We discussed angels and how we all receive our soul and Torah knowledge, which is what happened with Abraham. However, unlike Abraham, once we are born we become oriented and focused in a self-centered way and lose touch with Torah. Although we are created in the image of God, we transform to a state where only some Torah and morality can be figured out on our own.
We discussed the difference between Chukkim and Mishpatim. Mishpatim is Torah that makes sense and is rational. Mishpatim we can probably figure out on our own without learning the Torah. This includes such things as not stealing, and not hurting others. Chukkim includes commandments that we would not figure out on our own without studying Torah. These include kosher laws such as not eating pork. These are commandments that we follow for spiritual reasons because the Torah says so, and for no other reason. Abraham had knowledge of both the Chukkim and Mishpatim, prior to Mt. Sinai, however other Jews like us must learn the Torah, especially to gain knowledge of the Chukkim.
We continued our discussion of Shabbos. There are some people who work on Shabbos and we talked about how they can be paid for this. We do not actually pay them for what they do on Shabbos, but for their preparation. For example, a babysitter we would pay him or her for the work done before Shabbos of preparing a story to tell the children. A caterer we would pay them for preparing the food before Shabbos. A hotel, we would pay them for letting us rent the room before and after Shabbos.
We discussed what type of reading is appropriate on Shabbos. We should stick to what we enjoy, always making sure we do not take away from our Torah study time. As an example, a dentist should not read any type of articles about dentistry on Shabbos. However if someone is not a dentist and really enjoys dentistry, it may be permissible for them to read articles about this if they really enjoy the material.
On Shabbos we try to make this a special day and refrain from our normal weekday activities. We don’t want to spend a lot of time doing things like cleaning. However if the cleaning is taking away from our enjoyment of Shabbos, it may be permitted to do cleaning such as wiping off dishes that have accumulated in the sink. But we would not want to start something like washing windows. We can play games on Shabbos if we really enjoy them, but again, we do not want to take away from our time for Torah study.
During our lunch, we had an interesting discussion about the kosher status of synthetic meat. If a piece of pork was made molecule by molecule would it be kosher? If a piece of beef was made molecule by molecule would it be kosher? In the future rabbis may have to deal with these issues. The kosher laws we have now assume meat is coming from live animals. We never really came up with answers for these questions.
Finally we discussed some miscellaneous topics this Shabbos. We talked about perception and the hallo affect. We should try to be positive about people and avoid lashon hara. If we are negative about people, we will always perceive them this way regardless of how they really are. Brett talked about how we can use secular law to force someone to get a Get. Joey talked about how a child who is not yet born does a conversion along with his/her mother. If a mother does a conversion when her baby is already born, the baby is converted but has to reconfirm the conversion at bar/bat mitzvah time.
This is a summary of what we discussed this past Shabbos. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.
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