Ein Yaakov – Lesson 006b – Shabbat 49-53 – Tefillin – Miracles – Income – Ashrei – Key to Parnassah – Income – Tzniut – Modesty

Ein Yaakov – Lesson 006b – Tefillin – Miracles – Income – Ashrei – Key to Parnassah – Income – Tzniut – Modesty – Speaker: Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld zal. Shabbat 49.
00:00 – Shabbat 49. The mitzvah of tefillin signifies belief in HaShem in a very powerful way, similar to the observance of Shabbat.
00:55 – The miracle of Elisha Baal Knafayim – “Elisha – Master of Wings” and how he got his name.
08:37 – Shabbat 53. The miracle of a man who was able to nurse his infant child when its mother died.
11:56 – Income. Only HaShem Himself has the key to parnassah.
*12:06 – The importance of saying “Ashrei” (Tehillim 145) three times a day. Kavanah (focus, intention, sincerity) is necessary when saying the verse פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון “You open Your Hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
12:54 – Tzniut – modesty. Story of the tzaddik who didn’t notice that his wife had only one arm. (Shabbat 53).

TRANSCRIPT:

We spoke about the mitzvah of Tefillin, which is one of the most important mitzvot that is found in the Torah. There is one mitzvah that the Torah compares to Shabbat. Just as Shabbat is the symbol of faith in HaShem, that’s on Shabbat, the Seventh Day. Tefillin is the symbol of a person’s faith in HaShem during the six days of the week.

A person who does not put on Tefillin means that he is revolting against the King. The King has given him His symbol, His crown to wear, and he rejects it. That means this person is a traitor the King. So, one who does not wear Tefillin is called an apikores and this person cannot receive Olam HaBah, the Gemara says.

Now the Gemara tells us that Tefillin should be worn with a pure mind and with a clean body. Pure body and mind.

The Gemara gives us an example: a man name Elisha Baal Knafayim – “Elisha the Master of Wings”. The Gemara says, why was he called “The Master of Wings”? Because one time the Roman government issued a decree that any person, any Jew, who puts on Tefillin on his head will have a hole bored through his head at the spot where the Tefillin Shel Rosh are placed.

Elisha Baal Knafayim was a Tzaddik who wore Tefillin all day, and therefore there were times that he had to go outside and he did not remove the Tefillin. He’d go right into the marketplace, the center, wearing these Tefillin in defiance of the Romans. This meant, of course,
if he’s caught – it’s death.

One day he walked out to the marketplace and a Roman officer saw him. He chased him. He ran after him and when he caught up to him, Elisha Bar Knafayim removed the Tefillin from his head, and he held them in his hands. He cupped his hands over them.

When the Roman officer asked him, “What do you have?” He said, “I have the wings of a dove in my hand”. And he said, “Open your hand”. He opened it, and there were the wings of a dove. A miracle happened. This is why he is called Elisha Baal Knafayim – “Elisha – The Master of the Wings”. Because of the fact that he was so strict in performing this mitzva, he deserved a miracle to happen to him.

The Gemara says, why did he select these words? A miracle happened. He could say anything else. He has an egg in his hand. Anything. Why did he say “the wings of a dove?”

Because he knew that the Jewish nation are compared to a dove. The dove is a bird that stands for holiness. The dove is the bird that Noah sent out that reported dry land. The dove is a messenger of peace. The dove is the symbol of the Jews. Because the wings of the dove protect the dove. It uses its wings for protection. Every other bird fights with its beak or with its claws. The dove, when attacked, strikes at its attacker with its wings.

Also, it protects the dove at times when it must travel. And it’s tired, the dove flies with one wing while the other wing rests and then it alternates. Just as the wings of a dove protect the dove, so do the
mitzvot of the Jews protect the Jews. Therefore, the mitzvah of Tefillin is so great that it was comparable to the wings of a dove where it protected Elisha Bar Knafayim from death. This is the mitzvah Tefillin.

And yet, the Gemara says elsewhere that we find this mitzvah of Tefilin is somehow either ignored or discounted by an alarming percentage of Jews. For instance, the mitzvah of Tefillin should certainly be considered as important as the mitzvah Brit Milah.

Yet we find that all Jews, practically all Jews without exception, will never dream of missing out of the mitzvah of Brit
Milah. The mitzva of Tefillin, we find a sad number of Jews who ignore this mitzvah and go without Tefillin. Why is this?

Because any mitzvah which is accepted with simcha, which was accepted with simcha originally, that remained. If there was no simcha, then
it didn’t have that mazal.

In addition, the Gemara says that Tefillin was harmed by the
fact that it was defiled. If something happens to a mitzvah were some wrong, harm comes of it, then it affects the entire nation, chas veshalom.

The Gemara tells that at one time thieves, liars, frauds would use Tefillin as part of their acts of crime. There was one man, a rich man who lent someone a large sum of money. But as he placed this large sum of money with him for safekeeping, a time later he asked him for the money and this person denied the fact that it was given to him.

He brought him to court and the person still denied it. The man said, “The fact is, I did not lend you the money. I did not give the money to you. I gave it to the Tefillin you were wearing. When I saw you wearing Tefillin and I thought you must be an honest person. I see now that the Tefillin you wore were only to act, served as a mask, as a pretense of being a religious and honest person.”

And therefore, this mitzvah became lax in the eyes of many others because of this incident. So that the Gemara warns now that a person should know the extent of the importance of the mitzva of Tefillin. It is the basis, the foundation, the origin of the Jewish faith.

A Jew must have two witnesses to testify at all times that he is a Jew. The one witness is the Brit Milah. At all times he must have a second witness. The second symbol – a witness – is seven days a week. Six days it is the mitzvah of Tefillin. This is his testimony to the fact that he’s a Jew. On the 7th day the אות is Shabbos. On holidays – חגים – any Jewish holiday, major Jewish holiday, they are also called a symbol and a witness.

Therefore, when there is a Jewish holiday, we do not wear
Tefillin because we then have a symbol which acts as the second witness. Not only that, but the holiday stands as a higher level of אות – of symbol. Therefore, we do not wear Tefillin, but it is forbidden to wear Tefillin at that time.

The big controversy, as you know, on Chol Hamoed, the intermediate days of Pesach and Sukkot, where the Ashkenazim, because of safeik [doubt], wear Tefillin without a berakha. The Sephardim, meaning the Syrians, Nusach Sephard, or the Chassidim too, do not wear Tefillin because Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai zal in the Zohar HaKadosh warns any person wearing Tefillin on Chol Hamoed is חייב מיתה – [receives] the death penalty for it.

Because this shows the person does not consider the holiday as being equivalent to the crown of HaShem. Tefillin is the crown of HaShem. The holiday is the crown of HaShem. He rejects the original crown of HaShem of the holiday, and puts on the Tefillin which is only a symbol of the crown. This means that he is rejecting or violating his loyalty
to HaShem and therefore the penalty is death.

Despite this, the misnagdim, the certain factions, the great portion of those who follow the Shulchan Aruch of the Ramah, do wear Tefillin on Chol Hamoed. But to cover themselves, they wear it as sofeik,
without a bracha.

We, of course, follow the words of the Zohar Hakadosh, the Ari HaKadosh – the Arizal, all the sifrei chassidim, which state emphatically that Tefillin are not to be worn on Chol Hamoed as well as the holidays, because Chol Hamoed, too, is called an אות – a symbol – a testimony of the faith of a Jew.

But aside from holidays, every single day of a person’s life, he should never miss out on the mitzvah of Tefillin. A person, no matter how
poor he is, no matter how little he can afford, his first requirement is, the first dollar he has, is to spend it on Tefillin and to be particular about the mitzvah. To see that the Tefillin are kosher to the fullest extent. This is called beautifying a mitzvah. Beautifying the Name of HaShem which he carries upon him, on his arm next to his heart and on his head next to the brain, show that his faith in HaShem is complete.

One final statement. The Gemara tells us [Shabbat 53b] that there was a case of a man, “bar minan” – [apart from us], his wife passed away. And she left a son, a small infant who required nursing. This man was so poor he could not hire a woman to nurse a child. He was in a predicament. Without the child being nursed, the child would die. In those days they did not have the formulas or food that could be made, man-made for a child. The child had to be nursed. There was no alternative. This child’s life was in jeopardy.

A miracle happened and suddenly the man found himself able to nurse the child himself. This was a clear miracle. The Gemara says let’s analyze this case. One rabbi, Rav Yosef, says, “How great was this man that a miracle happened for him, a miracle that was completely contrary to nature.”

Abaye said, “The contrary. How low is this person that the entire order of creation, the order of creation – in the beginning, HaShem created
the world with the male and female species, two different types. The whole order of creation was changed for this man. How low this person is.”

A third Rabbi says, “Let’s see how difficult parnassah is – earning a living. How difficult the parnassah is. The Gemara says that parnassah for a person is as difficult as the miracle of dividing the waters of the Red Sea. How difficult this was that the miracle had to happen. The miracle could have happened – the person would find money. You’d have, you’d make a living. It’s a smaller miracle it would seem. It was easier for heaven to change the laws of nature, of creation itself, than for this person to be able to have a miracle happen where he could find money or food for the child.”

What was the reason that Abaye would say this person is so bad that a miracle happened to him? How will you ever find that a miracle happens to a person who was bad?

Only for tzaddikim, does a miracle happen to change nature, contrary to nature.

Why do we call this person poor – poor in greatness? The answer is, as we mentioned previously in a former shiur, the Gemara says that a person should never call upon a miracle to save himself. Never go to a place where there is definite danger, because the person’s life might be forfeited. But even if a miracle does happen that would save his life, this miracle is very expensive because he uses up his credits. His mitzvot that he had done are used up for the sake of this miracle, which means he’s left without mitzvot. Therefore, avoid miracles at all cost.

Abaye said this person was so poor now because a miracle happened. It cost him a fortune. How bad it was for this man, that he had to use up the credits that he had in mitzvot, to have so great a miracle happen to him that the laws of nature and creation should be changed for him. And Rebbe Yehuda explains why this was necessary, because any other miracle would be simple to perform.

Parnassa is so difficult – bar minan – that it’s easier for this type of miracle to happen than for money to come to him easily.

And that’s why the Gemara says that the key to parnassah is something that was never given to an angel even. Only HaShem Himself holds this
key – a person’s livelihood – that the person should pray very much to HaShem for parnassah.

The major tefilah for parnassah is one passuk in Ashrei. That’s why the Gemara says that a person says Ashrei three times with kavana – he sees Olam Haba. Because then he has parnassa without having to resort to miracles. That passuk is: פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון.

This passuk is so important that it’s the only place in all the tefilah, aside from the Amidah, aside from the Kriyat Shema, where we find that if a person happened to have had his mind wander, he did not have kavana when he says that passuk, he must go back to repeat it again. This passuk requires kavana while saying it – one passuk:
פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון in the Ashrei.

The Gemara says now, again, similar to this case, the case of a man who married a woman who was one-armed. She had one arm that was amputated, completely amputated, and he lived with her her whole life. And when she passed away he found out that she had only one arm. The Gemara says, one Rabbi says, “Look at the degree of tzniut [modesty] this woman had.”

She always kept herself completely clothed, completely dressed to the hilt, where it couldn’t be recognized the fact that an arm was missing. A woman that goes dressed immodestly, it would have to be seen at one time or another, or often. This woman dressed so modestly, continually, that even an arm that was amputated cannot be detected by her own husband for so long a period of time.

Rabbi Chiye said, “This is no sign of her tzniut. On the contrary. This is the sign of the tzniut of her husband. The fact that he was so much of a tzenua, he never looked at women, even his own wife he did not study that closely. He lived with her a whole life, didn’t recognize the מום – the חסרון – the deficiency, the lack in his own wife.”

Here was a case of a tzaddik who had a wife, for the purpose of a wife, but never gazed that closely to detect this point during an entire lifetime.

This debate, this controversy, teaches us, of course, how the Gemara stresses the mitzvah of tzniut – modesty – how great and important this is. And how a person can rise to the degree of tzaddik or tzadeket by abiding by this mitzvah strictly – the mitzvah of tzniut.

(Edited by S.Y. Wurtzel.)

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