Notes from the Underground - erev shabbos edition

1) Our chametz toaster oven broke just before pesach and a new one came in the middle of the chag.  Do you know what it's like to sit through pesach staring at a box with a picture of toast and bagels on the cover? 

 

R' Shlomo Zalman (footnote 79* in ch 31 of the S"ShK) had a safeik what the din should be if a ben chu"l is in Eretz Yisrael on Y"T sheni and decides mid-day that he wants to stay in Eretz Yisrael, e.g. what if a ben chu"l was in Eretz Yisrael observing Thurs as Y"T and mid-day decided he could not take it anymore and just needed a bagel -- would he have to say havdalah and put on tefillin right away?  Can you even make a change like that mid-day? 

 

R' Shlomo Zalman does not clarify what the tzedadim of the chakira are, but I assume at least part of the issue may revolve around the Rogatchover's chakira of what the mechayeiv of shabbos or Y"T is: whether bein ha'shemashos is mechayeiv observance of the entire day, or whether each minute of shabbos or Y"T is a new mechayeiv.

 

2) When this lockdown started I wrote that this is a large scale trolley problem -- we are saving lives at the cost of other lives, because make no mistake, robbing people of their jobs will lead to divorce, foreclosure, suicide, alcoholism, etc. Families will be destroyed, businesses destroyed, children's lives impacted, not to mention the loss of our freedoms and civil rights that have all but gone out the window (a topic that deserves its own discussion).  Cuomo's extension of the lockdown for another full month will be the final straw for many small businesses and even large firms will be forced to make further reductions simply to be able to meet operating expenses.  Amazing that such actions can be dictated by a small unnamed group of "experts" whose models have been consistently proven wrong just as quickly as they are updated. 

 

"...You don’t know what you need to do to contain the virus if you don’t actually have the details or facts,” said Marty Martinez, Boston’s chief of Health and Human Services.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself.  But lack of details or facts appear to not stand in the way of our leaders.

 

3) A quick idea on the parsha:

 

"Va'yar kol ha'am va'yaronu..."  After the korbanos Aharon offered on the 8th day of the miluim were consumed by the fire that came down from shamayim, the people were awestruck and said shira.  The Sefas Emes (5639) suggests (based on a zohar) that the shirah recited was shiras ha'yam.  As we discussed last post, the shiras ha'yam begins "vayomru leimor;" the word "leimor" seems redundant as there was no one being spoken to.  Sefas Emes says that "leimor" is l'doros -- Klal Yisrael sang shirah with such fervor that the shirah became part of our Jewish DNA.  Unfortunately, cheit  ha'eigel put a damper on things and we lost the melody.  The korbanos of the yom ha'shmini were a kapara for cheit ha'eigel, and so we resumed singing our long lost song.

 

I think the S.E.'s parallel between va'yaronu and shiras ha'yam is already implicit in the Yalkut Shimoni: 

 

״וַיַּרְא כָּל הָעָם וַיָּרֹנּוּ״, וְכֵן הוּא אוֹמֵר (דבהי״ב ז, ג) ״וְכָל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל רֹאִים בְּרֶדֶת הָאֵשׁ״ וְגוֹ׳ לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר ״רַנְנוּ צַדִּיקִים בַּה׳⁠ ⁠״ רַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים לַה׳ אֵין כְּתִיב כָּאן, אֶלָּא ״בַּה׳⁠ ⁠״ בִּזְמַן שֶׁהֵם רוֹאִין אוֹתוֹ. וְכֵן אַתָּה מוֹצֵא (שמות יד, לא) ״וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת הַיָּד הַגְּדֹלָה״ הִתְחִילוּ מְרַנְּנִים (שם טו, א) ״אָז יָשִׁיר מֹשֶׁה״ וְגוֹ׳, וְהָרְשָׁעִים אֵינָם מְרַנְּנִים עַד שֶׁהוּא מֵבִיא עֲלֵיהֶם מַכּוֹת שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שם ט, ז) ״ה׳ הַצַּדִּיק וַאֲנִי וְעַמִּי הָרְשָׁעִים״.

 

Both "vayaronu" and the shiras ha'yam according to the Yalkut are responses to directly experiencing G-d's presence.  Both have a common shared thread. 

 

The Targun interprtes "v'anveihu" in the shirah as a desire to build a home for G-d, i.e. the Mikdash.  Shiras ha'yam is the response to the temporary experience of seeing G-d's presence in the miraculous.  "Va'yaronu" is the same shirah, but this time in response to seeing G-d's presence in a permanent dwelling of the Mishkan, i.e. in our daily lives.