From: Netvort@aol.com

Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 11:45 AM

To: JoshHoff@aol.com

Subject: Netvort : Shemini 5769

                                         Take A Good Look


                 By Rabbi Joshua (optically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


Following the inauguration of the mishkan, God tells Moshe and Aharon to speak to the nation and tell them which animals they may eat and which animals they may not eat. The Midrash Tanchuma, cited by Rav Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz, zt"l, in his Chidushei HaLeiv, says that God, as it were, grasped each of the animals and showed them to Moshe, so that they would know precisely what each animal looked like. The Midrash adds that one should not be puzzled by the fact that God did this, because He also showed each animal in the world to Adam before he assigned them names. Why, asks Rav Leibowitz, was it necessary to show the animals to Moshe? In regard to Adam, we can understand that he needed to see each animal in order to understand its nature and give it the name which fit its essence. However, in regard to the kashrus status of the animals that God was teaching to Moshe, the situation was different. After all, God gave Moshe specific signs, of split hoofs and chewing the cud, by which to identify which animals are fit to eat and which are not. Why was there a need to actually show Moshe the various animals? Apparently, answers Rav Leibowitz, there would be an added clarity gained through this process, and, when it comes to teaching Torah, there is no end to the need to delve into every detail, in order to increase one's understanding. This was a lesson that Moshe needed to learn before teaching the laws of kashrus to the nation. The connection to Adam, says Rabbi Leibowitz, is that just as the assignation of names to the animals by Adam, which defined their function in the world, constituted part of the creation process, as the Ramban says in parshas Bereishis, so, too, clarity in Torah completes the creation process, since the existence of the world is dependent on the study of the Torah by the Jewish nation.


  One question that Rav Leibowitz does not ask in regard to the  midrash he cites, is why this lesson of the importance of clarity in the teaching of Torah, and its connection to the completion of the creation process, needed to be taught at this particular point in time, after the inauguration of the mishkan. That question, however, may be answered very simply, by citing another midrash, which says that the joy experienced on the eight day of the inauguration was similar to the joy experienced when the world was created. We have noted in the past that the Netziv, in his introduction to the book of Shemos, mentions that the Bahag refers to that book as 'sefer sheni,' or the second book. The reason for this, explains the Netziv, is that while the first book of the Torah describes the physical creation of the universe, the second book describes the spiritual creation, through the giving of the Torah. The Ramban writes that the function of the mishkan was to serve as a continuation of the process that was witnessed at Mt. Sinai when the Torah was given. According to the Ramban, the mishkan is referred to, in parshas Pekudei,  as the 'mishkan he-edus,' or the sanctuary of witness, because it housed within it the Torah, that was given at Sinai, in the ark. Through the Torah housed in the mishkan, says the Ramban in parshas Terumah, God's presence would continue to dwell among the nation on a constant basis (on a larger level, this concept can find application even today,  because it is through the Torah that we have access to God, as Rav Chaim of Volozhin explains in his Nefesh Hachaim). Thus, the giving of the Torah to the Jewish nation, and its subsequent placement in the mishkan, constituted the spiritual completion of creation, and, therefore, the joy experienced at the inauguration of the mishkan paralleled the joy experienced at the physical creation of the universe. In this context, we can understand why the lesson that God taught Moshe in regard to clarity in Torah teaching was appropriate for that time, following the inauguration of the mishkan.

  I believe, however, that there was a further need for that lesson to be taught specifically when it was, directly following an exchange between Moshe and Aharon on a certain point in Torah law. As the Torah describes it, Moshe became angry when he saw one of goats brought as part of the inauguration process being burned on the altar. He asked why it wasn't being consued, and Aharon replied that it would not be fitting for him, as an onein, one who had just sustained the loss of relatives for whom he was bidden to mourn, to consume that particular offering. Without getting into the details of the halachic debate between Moshe and  Aharon, Moshe, in the end, accepted Aharon's argument. The rabbis tell us that this was one of several times that Mishe forgot the halacha as a result of becoming angry. Perhaps, then, God taught Moshe the lesson of the importance of providing detailed information and analysis in reaching Torah at this time, because teaching in this way requires patience, and Moshe had just forgotten a halacha because of his misplaced anger. Moshe was, therefore, in a better position to appreciate the need for clarity in teaching Torah because of what he had just experienced, and perhaps that is why God chose that particular time to teach him that lesson. Why it was specifically the laws of kashrus that were used as the vehicle to convey this message, is a separate issue, which we have discussed in the past, in regard to a midrash in parshas Tazria.  In short, however, we can suggest that teaching the laws of kashrus after the inauguration of the mishkan, which constituted the spiritual completion of thr universe, parallels the the commandment to Adam, whose creation constituted the completion of the physical creation of the universe, to eat from the other trees of the garden and not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the interested reader is referred to the last piece on Shemini in Rav Nissan Alpert's Limudei Nissan for further elaboration).



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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