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Shabbat Parashat Matot 5771

Matot | 21 Tamuz 5771 | 23/07/2011

Parashat Hashavuah: Nothing for Naught – Including Nun

When the tribes of Gad and Reuven accepted Moshe’s conditions for their acquisition of the East Bank of the Jordan, they said “we will go forth before the other troops…” (Bamidbar 32:32). There is an innocuous looking linguistic peculiarity in the word for “we.” Instead of the usual word anachnu it is spelled nachnu, without the letter aleph. As far as we can find, Chazal did not speak about it. The Ibn Ezra did not think that this is a troublesome matter, as the basic word is nachnu and the aleph is just a common addition. Rabbeinu Bachyei has a simple yet interesting explanation. Since the Tribe of Gad had great warriors, who were capable of great feats on the battlefield, as they themselves hinted, they wanted to speak with humility and thus referred to themselves with the humbler word nacnhnu (as we find in Shemot 16:8). (He has a second explanation that is more mystical, having to do with p’sukim that contain Names of Hashem).

Ask the Rabbi: Who leads zimun when some eat dairy and others meat?

I understand that if three people eat together, where some are eating dairy and some eating meat, the one who is eating dairy leads the zimun because he can eat from his friend’s food but not vice versa. Is the same so if four people are eating, three meat and one milk, as the three do not require the dairy eater for the zimun? Should the dairy eater do zimun even if one of the others is a kohen?

Ein Ayah: Close to the City

“… His property and our property should be successful and close to the city”

P'ninat Mishpat: An Appeal of a “Beyond the Letter of the Law” Ruling

A worker (=pl) was fired from a bank (=def) for embezzlement from def. She did not receive severance pay, but beit din awarded her lifnim mishurat hadin (=lmshd - beyond the letter of the law) the contents of one of the funds that employers put aside for workers. Def appealed the ruling to the Supreme Rabbinic Court, arguing that pl does not deserve special treatment.

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated
to the memory of
R' Meir
ben Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld

o.b.m

Hemdat Yamim

is endowed by

Les & Ethel Sutker

of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and

Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

Dedicated in memory of
Mina Presser

bat

Harav David and Bina
on the occasion of her yahrzeit,

24 Tammuz,
and members of her family who perished in the Shoah
Al Kiddush Hashem

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim
is dedicated to the memory of

Rabbi Shlomo Merzel o.b.m,
who passed away
on the 10th of Iyar 5771

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).