This is a nice vort from rav frand about keeping one’s word. I really like Rav Frand. He's very interesting and he doesn't just talk about Torah study. But I do wonder about this part where he says “Rav Yaakov was a quintessential Litvak (Lithuanian Jew). He was born in Lita, he was raised in Lita, and he studied in the Slabodka Yeshiva. He was a full-bred Litvak and Misnagid. Misdagdim and Litvaks do not put on Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin (a practice more prevalent among Chassidic Jewry). So why at the end of his days was he putting on Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin?”
Actually he is from White Russia not Lita, which is not exactly the same, certainly not by the 1880s. I believe this is not accurate. Rav Yaakov was from Belarus, not Lita. He was born in a folwark called Kalyskovka in Russia and raised in Dolhinov which is a village in the Vileyka District, Minsk Region of Belarus. It is located 50 mi north of Minsk and 25 mi east-northeast of Vilejka. It’s North-Central Belarus, 100 miles from Vilna. Between the 1790s – 1915 it was part of the Russian Empire (Jewish population in 1900: 1,230) Between the two World Wars it was part of Poland. It’s not far from Lita, but at that point in history, it wasn’t Lita. Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, Rav Yaakov’s cousin, was born in Dolhinov, and he grew up a Chabad chosid. But more importantly, his mother had been raised in a Chabad house. That’s got to have an influence. Rav Soloveitchik was influenced by his Chabad melamed. He talked about that many times.
from https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/dolginovo/dolginovo.html
Brief Timeline of Dolginovo
- Today: Dolginovo, Belarus
- 1390s - 1790s: Part of Polish/Lithuanian Kingdom
- 1790s - 1915: Part of Russian Empire (Jewish population in 1900: 1,230)
- 1921 - 1939: Part of Poland
- 1939 - 1941: Annexed by the Soviet Union
- 1941 - 1944: Under Nazi control
I’m seeing that both sides invent a fiction of the pure Chosid or the pure Litvack. I hear these terms often – pure bred Litvack, Chassidishe stock. Yet, I’m seeing that many people are products of both worlds. Take R’ Moshe Feinstein, who the yeshivah world claims as its own. His grandfather was a Koidinover Chosid as was his father in his youth. He dropped it only in order to get a shiduch. Perhaps the famous warmth of both men comes from a Chasidic influence.
Subject: Rav Frand - A Person's Word Is His Word
By Rabbi Yissocher Frand
Parshas Toldos
A Person's Word Is His Word!
In this week’s parsha, Hashem promises Yitzchak, “I will increase your offspring like the stars of the heavens and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your offspring. Because Avraham obeyed My voice and observed My safeguards, My commandments, My decrees, and My Torahs.” (Bereshis 26:4-5). Rishonim marshal this last pasuk as a proof that Avraham kept the entire Torah even before it was given, and in fact claim that this was the practice of the other forefathers as well. The Ramban raises apparent counter-examples to this principle that the Avos kept the entire Torah prior to its being given. One of the points he mentions is that Yaakov Avinu simultaneously married two sisters, which is one of the Torah’s arayos (forbidden marital relationships).
In a famous answer, the Ramban says that the Avos only fully kept the future laws of the Torah in Eretz Yisrael, “for the Torah is the rule of the G-d of the Land” and Yaakov’s simultaneous marriage to two sisters ended before Yaakov returned from Charan to Eretz Yisrael. This is how everyone reads this famous Ramban: He is trying to answer the question ‘How can it be that the Avos kept the entire Torah before it was given, and yet Yaakov married two sisters?’ The Ramban answers: His marriage to them was only in chutz l’Aretz!
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky takes issue with this understanding and argues that this is not the correct interpretation of this Ramban. Rav Yaakov says the question ‘How could Yaakov marry two sisters?’ never begins! The reason Yaakov married two sisters is because he made a commitment! He promised Rochel “I am going to marry you.” Once he gave his word to Rochel, he had to marry her. A person is not allowed to go back on his word. The fact that he and the other Avos kept the laws of the Torah that would be given in the future was only a ‘chumrah‘ (an act of optional piety on their part). However, if a personal chumrah contradicts my word to someone else, my word must take precedence!
“There is no justification for allowing Rochel to suffer because of my chumrahs!” This must be seen as a general rule with broad applications: When a person’s personal stringencies impinge upon someone else, he needs to forego his stringency. Once Yaakov gave his word to Rochel, it was a ‘no brainer’ that he would need to marry her. Lavan pulled a fast one on him and he wound up marrying Leah, but that would in no way stop him from keeping his word to Rochel.
So, according to Rav Yaakov’s explanation, what does the Ramban mean when he says that the Avos did not keep the entire Torah in chutz l’Aretz? Rav Yaakov explains that the Ramban is coming to answer a different question with that statement. We know that there is a rule: The Holy One Blessed Be He will not bring a takalah (‘misfortune’) through the actions of the righteous. For instance, if a Tzadik went into a restaurant and he had a steak and then it came out that this restaurant was selling neveilah (non-kosher meat) the piece of meat that the Tzadik ate could in no way be treife (non-kosher). Heaven would have seen to it that some other customer was given the non-kosher meat. It could not have entered the mouth of the Tzadik, because of the hard and fast rule that the Almighty would not allow a Tzadik to stumble.
Therefore, the Ramban is asking, according to Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, how did the Almighty let this happen to Yaakov? How did he let Lavan pull this fast one on Yaakov, if the Almighty will never allow a Tzadik to spiritually stumble? How could it be that Yaakov was put in a situation where he ‘had to sin’ by keeping his word to marry Rochel (who was now his sister-in-law). The Ramban answers by saying that it was in fact not an aveira (sin) at all, because they were living in chutz l’Aretz and only in Eretz Yisrael would it be considered an aveira for the Avos to marry two sisters.
The takeaway lesson from this interpretation of the Ramban’s question and answer is that this is Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky l’shitaso (consistent with his life’s major ethical behavior). Rav Yaakov’s practice in life was that a person’s word is sacred. If someone has given his word—that’s it! There are very few things that trump a person’s word, and certainly personal chumras do not trump a person’s word.
I will cite two incidents from Rav Yaakov (the name of whose sefer is Emes L’Yaakov) to demonstrate how he personified and exemplified this attribute of truth and personal integrity throughout his life.
Rav Yaakov lived into his nineties. Towards the end of his life, he started putting on Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin (which have the parshiyos placed in a different order within the Tefillin compartments) in addition to the standard Rashi Tefillin. Rav Yaakov was a quintessential Litvak (Lithuanian Jew). He was born in Lita, he was raised in Lita, and he studied in the Slabodka Yeshiva. He was a full-bred Litvak and Misnagid. Misdagdim and Litvaks do not put on Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin (a practice more prevalent among Chassidic Jewry). So why at the end of his days was he putting on Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin?
Many years earlier—fifty or sixty years earlier—someone asked him, “Why don’t you wear Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin?” He answered, “I don’t wear Rabbeinu Tam Tefillin because I am a Litvak. I am a Misnagid. We don’t wear Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin.” The fellow said to him, “But, the Chofetz Chaim, toward the end of his life, also started wearing Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin (even though he too was a Litvak and Misnagid). Rav Yaakov said something to the effect of: “When I get to be the Chofetz Chaim’s age, I too will wear Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin.”
When someone is 25 or 30 years old, he can easily say “Yes, when I’m 85 I will put on Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin.” In those days, people’s life expectancies were certainly not into their eighties or nineties. But because a young Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky said, “When I get to be the Chofetz Chaim’s age, I will put on Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin,” he kept his word. That is why he wore Rabbeinu Tam’s Tefillin. A person’s word is his word.
The second incident is similar. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky did not eat ‘Gebrokts’ on Pesach. Now, this too is atypical of Litvaks and Misnagdim, who are not particular about eating matzah products that have come into contact with liquid on Pesach. It is a Chassidishe minhag. Litvaks generally eat kneidlach, matza-brei, matzah with butter and jelly, and all such good things.
Rav Yaakov did not eat ‘Gebrockts’. He let his family eat Gebrokts, but he did not eat it on Pesach. How did that happen? Rav Yaakov learned in Slabodka. In those days, there was no such thing as a Yeshiva dining room. So how did Yeshiva bochrim eat? There was an institution known as ‘teg.’ Every day or every two days, various Yeshiva bochrim would be assigned to a different host in the community, and they would be guests by that household.
In those days, it was not like today when everyone goes home for Pesach. Those were the good old days where men were men, and if you were in Yeshiva, you were in Yeshiva for years at a time without a break. Who had the money to travel back and forth from Yeshiva to home for Yomim Tovim (the holidays) and Bein HaZmanim (Yeshiva breaks)? So the Yeshiva assigned different bochrim to eat in different houses during Pesach as well.
Rav Yaakov was assigned to eat in a certain person’s house. Rav Yaakov, for whatever reason, was not satisfied with the level of kashrus in that house. But what was he going to tell them? It would be insulting to say “I don’t trust your Kashrus.” What did he say? He said, “I would love to come but I don’t eat Gebrokts!” After all, this was Slabodka, where virtually everyone ate Gebrokts. The hosts bought his excuse. They were not insulted and he did not need to eat by them over Pesach.
But once Rav Yaakov said, “I don’t eat ‘Gebrokts’ on Pesach” he did not eat Gebrokts on Pesach for the rest of his life. He kept his word. When you say something, you need to keep it.
That is Rav Yaakov’s perspective in this vort on the Parsha. It is easy to ‘talk the talk’ but Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky also ‘walked the walk.’ He was a yafeh doresh (someone who expounded nicely) v’yafeh m’kayem (and who also put his nice words into practice).
Rav Frand © 2022 by Torah.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment