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Shabbat Parashat Ki Teitzei 5779Ein Ayah: Too Basic for Free Choice(condensed from Ein Ayah, Shabbat 9:67)Gemara: “They stood at the bottom of the mountain” (Shemot 19:17). This teaches that Hashem held the mountain over them like a flask and said to them: “If you accept the Torah, that is good, and if you do not, this will be your burial place.” Ein Ayah: Freedom of choice has special value in enabling the enhancement of man’s moral level. Therefore, it has special dominion in the areas to which it applies. However, the essence of a person’s set of desires is what defines him as a person. In that regard, one cannot fundamentally give any standing to freedom. We do not have freedom to desire or not desire. Desire is part of a person’s very life, and life is something that we have that is not based on our choice. What we control is how we push our desires to one side or the other, to the right or to the left. This is where the hand of choice comes into play. If the Torah only applied to a person’s moral standing, it would make sense for it to have been given with full free will. But actually, the Torah is an expression of a person’s essence. If a person violates the Torah, he is betraying his own identity and changing his nature for the worse. It is as the pasuk says (about Adam’s sin – Bereishit Rabba 11:2): “He changed his face and was sent away” (Iyov 14:20). It is, therefore, appropriate that the Torah will be revealed in a manner that is of essence [and by necessity], in a manner that the root of desire is revealed and not the revelation of the branches of desire (i.e., what he decides given his desires). A byproduct of this fact is that the Torah does not relate only to Israel, and it follows that Israel does not exist on its own in the world. Rather, everything is interwoven within the broad existence of everything in the world. All of existence necessitates that the Torah must exist, that it be mandated to mankind, and that Israel must accept it. Top of page
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We daven for a complete and speedy refuah for: Nir Rephael ben Rachel Bracha Netanel Ilan ben Sheina Tzipora Netanel ben Sarah Zehava Yehuda ben Chaya Esther Meira bat Esther Yair Menachem ben Yehudit Chana Rivka Reena bat Gruna Natna David Chaim ben Rassa Lillian bat Fortune Yafa bat Rachel Yente Eliezer Yosef ben Chana Liba Ro'i Moshe Elchanan ben Gina Devra Together with all cholei Yisrael Hemdat Yamim is dedicated to the memory of: for our homeland and Members of Eretz Hemdah's Amutah Tishrei 9 5776
Rav Carmel's father Iyar 8 5776
bat R’ Moshe Zev a”h. Tamuz 10 5774
Kislev 9 5769 Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld z"l
and Chana bat Yaish & Simcha Sebbag, z"l
Rav Moshe Zvi (Milton) Polin z"l Tammuz 19, 5778 R' Yitzchak Eliezer ben Avraham Mordechai Jacobson a”h R' Abraham Klein z"l Iyar 18 5779 Mr. Isaac Moinester z"l Elul 5 Hemdat Yamim
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