Notes from the Underground -- erev Shabbos Emor, amazing chiddush of the Meshech Chochma

1) Lots to say on the parsha (don't miss the Meshech Chochma in point 5 at the bottom if you are going to skip), but let me get the article of the day out of the way.  Chairman of emergency services at St Barnabus writes in the NY Post: "Everyone seems to be avoiding the health system — an important and unfortunate consequence of the stay-at-home strategy...The growing numbers ­dying at home during this crisis must include fatal myocardial infarctions, asthma exacerbations, bacterial infections and strokes."
For those who support the lockdown, let me grant for now whatever figure you want to use, whatever imaginary number of lives you think have been saved -- 1 million, 10 million, 100 million -- I don't care.  Just tell me the halachic justification for being allowed to cause the deaths of others in the process to achieve that end.   

2) Baal haTurim on the din of shivas yamim tachas imo quotes a Midrash that says if the animal was offered on day #1 it would be like a korban to shamayim v'aretz that were created on day #1, on day #2 it would be like a korban offered to the heavens, etc. until 7 days pass and a person knows Hashem created everything and the korban can be offered lishma.  We are talking about someone who wants to offer a korban, not an ovied avodah zarah.  What's going on here?

 

R' Shteinman in Ayeles haShachar explains the Midrash based on shitas haRambam (Yesodei Torah 2:2) that ahavas Hashem comes from contemplating creation.  If a person contemplated Hashem's handiwork on day #1 of creation, when there was only shamayim va'artez, his appreciation of Hashem would be lacking because he did not experience the other days of the briya.  On day #2, his appreciation would still be lacking because he still only sees part of the picture.  It's only after a person sees the totality of the briya, after 7 days, that his lishma can be complete.  Ahavas Hashem takes time to grow and develop; therefore, the Torah says wait awhile before you bring your korban.  Go through a week thinking about the borei olam and then come to the Mikdash. 

 

3) Targum Yonasan writes on the pasuk "oso v'es bno lo tishchatu b'yom echad" that just like Hashem has mercy on us, so too we should have mercy and not shecht the mother and calf together. 

 

The Mishna in Megillah (25) says that a person is not supposed to ask Hashem in davening to have rachmanus on us just like he has mercy and gave the mitzvah of shiloach ha'kan.  The gemara explains that Hashem's mitzvos are gezeiros, decrees -- not acts of mercy.  So why is oso v'es bno any different?  See Maharasha there.

 

4) The gemara (Chulin 79) has a machlokes Tanaim whether the mitzvah of oso v'es bno applies only to the mother cow or also to the father.  When translating the pasuk, Onkelus switches the words from masculine (oso, bno) to feminine form.  Ramban (see also Rosh in Chulin) writes that Onkelus deliberately changed the gender used by the pasuk because he held the mitzvah only applies to the mother cow, not the father. 

 

One might argue that the mitzvah applies at least mi'safeik to both mother and father; however, since it is much harder to know which animal in the herd is the calf's father than which is its mother Onkelus changed the gender to reflect the metziyus where the mitzvah is most likely to apply.  See Ma'adanei Y"T on the Rosh who rejects this idea.  In any event, according to Onkelus it is hard to understand why the Torah would phrase the mitzvah in lashon zachar when it only applies to the mother cow  (see Ramban).

5) Finally, an amazing chiddush of the Meshech Chochma based on no more than his understanding of peshuto shel mikra.  Here is the case: you have a cow located at the north pole and its calf is located at the equator  When you shecht the cow at the north pole, it is already night=the next day at the equator.  Can you shecht the calf immediately because it is not "yom echad" relative to the mother's time zone, or do you look at things relative to the calf's time zone and say that since the mother was shechted when it was night at the equator, you can't shecht the calf until the next night?

 

Meshech Chochma says that everything is relative to the time zone of the initial shechita.  Since in the time zone of the shechita of the mother cow it was day, the calf that is located someplace where it is night can be shechted right away.

 

Then he goes a step futher: not only can you shecht the calf at the equator, but since the pasuk is written in plural -- "lo tishchatu" -- it alludes to the fact that if there was another calf at the north pole, it too can be shechted!  Even though this calf is in the same time zone where it is still the same day as when the  mother was shechted, since the issur does not apply to the calf at the equator, it also does not apply to the one at the north pole -- it's all or nothing.

 

There are similar questions raised with respect to other dinim.  The Oneg Y"T (#35) already discusses whether there is an issur of owning chametz in another time zone where it is pesach if it is not yet Y"T in your own time zone.  These days it is possible to control appliances in your home with the touch of a button.  If you are in a time zone where it is not yet shabbos, can you remotely turn on the air conditioner in your home which is in a time zone where it is shabbos?  Yesh l'chaleik between each one of these cases...