Our Parsha Questions are crafted to be challenging even to Talmidei Chachamim but answerable by anyone who pays careful attention to the Krias HaTorah. I saw this done in Marlboro, NJ. They are meant to be presented before Krias HaTorah and answered afterwards, giving everyone the chance to show the answer chapter and verse. I usually include some that are simple so that everyone can participate. I find that it increases attention to Krias HaTorah and is mentally stimulating both for the audience and for me.
1. An example of when it is muttar to say lashon hara.
- Yitzchak to Eisav that Yaakov had taken the brachos with trickery. The question is, why was this allowed? Among the answers I've seen are that it was obvious to all. Another possibility is that otherwise, Eisav would have hated Yitzchak for cheating him. Or that if it were anyone else, the brachos would have meant nothing- they only were valid for a Yitzchak's children.
2. Two people who married at the age of forty.
- Yitzchok and Eisav.
3. Which passuk in this parsha has five verbs in a row? Also, how do we see from this passuk that you have to kiss a mezuza when you go through a doorway? (Only if you learned in a Chassidishe Cheder.)
-When Esav takes the Nezid Adashim from Yaakov, the Torah states: "And he ate and he drank and he got up and he went and he degraded the birthright" (25:34).
- This implies there was something wicked about every one of these actions. I saw a chassidishe translation for use in cheders as
4. The Medrash says that Yaakov’s bris was when he was eight days old, but Yitzchak saw the Eisav was red and thought he might have a condition that made it dangerous to do a bris, so he decided to wait until he recovered. Ultimately, it was only when he was thirteen that it became obvious that he was perfectly healthy, and there was no risk from doing a bris. When he turned thirteen, Eisav said don’t touch me. That’s why Arabs are mahul, but the Greeks and Romans are strongly opposed to milah, a cultural abhorrence which gave rise to terrible gzeiros during the time of the Greek/Roman dominance.
Where do we see a remez to this difference between Yaakov and Eisav in how they were given their names?
- By Yaakov it says ויקרא. By Eisav it says ויקראו, meaning that’s what everyone called him, not that Yitzchak named him. This makes sense if Yaakov was named by his bris, but Eisav never had a bris, so there was no formal naming, and they called him what everyone called him.
5. The Ramban says that the three wells dug by Yitzchak allude to the three Batei Mikdash. What distinguishes the description of the third well that supports its allusion to the Bayis Shlishi?
- Three things. 1, that nobody will attack it. 2, that it will be far greater than the first two, Rechovos. 3, that it will be built not by a rabbim, by people, but instead by a Yachid, by the Ribono shel Olam alone, as you see in Rashi in Sukkah.
- 26:19-20
וַיַּחְפְּרוּ עַבְדֵי יִצְחָק בַּנָּחַל וַיִּמְצְאוּ שָׁם בְּאֵר מַיִם חַיִּים.
וַיָּרִיבוּ רֹעֵי גְרָר עִם רֹעֵי יִצְחָק לֵאמֹר לָנוּ הַמָּיִם וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הַבְּאֵר עֵשֶׂק כִּי הִתְעַשְּׂקוּ עִמּוֹ.
21וַיַּחְפְּרוּ בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וַיָּרִיבוּ גַּם עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ שִׂטְנָה.
22
ַ וַיַּעְתֵּק מִשָּׁם וַיַּחְפֹּר בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וְלֹא רָבוּ עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ רְחֹבוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי עַתָּה הִרְחִיב יְהוָה לָנוּ וּפָרִינוּ בָאָרֶץ.
Rashi Sukka 41a
אי אי נמי - דאיבני בחמיסר סמוך לשקיעת החמה והיא היא ואי קשיא דבלילה אינו נבנה דקי"ל בשבועות (דף טו:) דאין בנין בית המקדש בלילה דכתיב וביום הקים ולא בחמיסר שהוא י"ט דקי"ל בשבועות (שם) דאין בנין ב"ה דוחה י"ט ה"מ בנין הבנוי בידי אדם אבל מקדש העתיד שאנו מצפין בנוי ומשוכלל הוא יגלה ויבא משמים שנא' (שמות ט״ו:י״ז) מקדש ה' כוננו ידיך:
6. Rashi writes (25:21, from the Gemara in Yevamos 64a,) that although both Yitzchok and Rivkah prayed for children, Hashem listened to and answered the prayers of Yitzchok. This was because Yitzchok’s father was the righteous Avrohom while Rivkah’s father was the wicked Besuel, and the prayers of a righteous person whose father is also righteous carry more weight than those of somebody who is righteous but whose father was not. May we conclude from here that when choosing a shaliach tzibbur weight should be given to the righteousness of the father of the person in question?
- It is a machlokes haposkim. The question is why the Gemara in Yevamos is not a clear proof. I think the answer is that if you are davening for yourself, Tzadik ben Tzadik outweighs some other considerations, because of zechus avos, that schar for the fathers' zechusim include that Hashem will favor his children. But when you’re davening for the tzibur, your zechus avos is no help for them. All that matters is you, how beloved you are to the Ribono shel Olam. Here, they were davening for themselves. See Taz in OC 53:3. He just relies on the Rosh and doesn’t explain why, but I think this is the answer.
בטור כתוב בשם הרא"ש שאין מעלות הש"ץ תלוי ביחוס משפחה דאם הוא מן משפחה בזויה וצדיק טוב לקרב מזרע רחוקים שנאמר שלום שלום לרחוק ולקרוב וכ' רש"ל מ"מ אם שניהם שוים בודאי מיוחס קודם לשאינו מיוחס כי אינו דומה תפלת צדיק בן צדיק כו' עכ"ל. ולעד"נ מדכתב הרא"ש טוב לקרב מזרע רחוקים ש"מ שיש כאן עוד אחר מזרע שאינם רחוקים דלשון טוב לקרב משמע שיש ברירה ואפ"ה טוב לקרב זה שהוא אינו מיוחס כדי לקרבו לאותו זרע לשכינה דרחמנא לבא בעי ותהיה תפלתו נשמעת יותר מצדיק בן צדיק וזה נלמד מפסוק לרחוק ולקרוב כנ"ל:
Because this is a record from the discussion in our shiur many years ago, I am including it.
When Reb Eliezer davened for rain, nothing happened. When Reb Akiva did, it rained. The talmidim murmured that Rav Akiva must be greater, but a bas kol came out and said this was not true, but rather that Rav Akiva was ma’avir al middosav (translate: forgiving of affronts, did not insist on measure for measure), while Reb Eliezer was not. Ta’anis 24b. (This may be consistent with what I wrote above re RYBZ and CBD--because at this time Reb Eliezer was rosh yeshiva and Rav Akiva was not.)
Note 1: Reb Yisroel Salanter in Ohr Yisroel 28 says that the difference between RE and RA was this: RE was a talmid of Shammai (Tosfos Shabbos 130b), and his derech was to be makpid on kovod hatorah. RA was a talmid of Bais Hillel, whose derech is to be an anvasan and an eino ne’elav (also Tosfos there). While both drochim are valid, tefillos are answered mido keneged mido.
Note 2: The Eliahu Rabba in Orach Chaim 53:16 (and similarly the Etz Yosef in the Ein Ya’akov in Makkos) brings from the sefer Asara Ma’amoros that the pshat in Ma’avir al middosav is that he overcame character flaws to become an odom gadol. Rav Akiva, who came from gerim and began learning at 40, had a much harder path to follow than Rav Elazar. He then notes that the opposite seems to be true in the case of Rivka and Yitzchok, where the tzadik ben tzadik was answered first! He quotes the Maharshal in the teshuvos (20) who says that a ba’al teshuva’s tefila for others is answered first. But when he is mispallel for himself, which is always a difficult position to be in (see story of Rav Chanina and Rav Yochanan in Brachos 5:2, but see Rashi Brei’shis 21:7 on why Yishma’el’s tefilla was answered), one must invoke zechus avos, which means that a tzadik ben tzadik will be answered first. See also the Taz there who brings a Rosh that indicates that a shliach tzibbur who is a ba’al teshuva is better than a tzaddik mei’ikoro, and the Yam Shel Shlomo that indicates the opposite, despite what he himself wrote in his teshuvos.
Lothar Kahn (9-2-99) pointed out that one of the important themes of the Yomim Noraim is zechus avos, as part of zichronos. Therefore, even the Marshal could agree that at that time, a tzadik ben tzadik would be better. R’ Kenny Neiman added that the fact that the gemara in Taynis says that the shliach tzibbur should be a person with dependents who doesn’t have enough for them shows that he is not just davening for us, but we want someone who is davening for himself also, and so you can say that we should choose someone whose tefillos for himself are more effective, and not necessarily someone to daven for us only. On the other hand, someone else pointed out, maybe we look for a chasar lechem not because we want him to daven for himself, but rather because he is used to davening with kavana, so he can do better for us when he is our shaliach.
- 27:4
הָבִיאָה לִּי צַיִד וַעֲשֵׂה לִי מַטְעַמִּים וְאֹכֵלָה וַאֲבָרֶכְכָה לִפְנֵי יְהֹוָה לִפְנֵי מוֹתִי.
It would normally be written ואברכך. It is written ואברככה to limit the bracha to Olam Hazeh.
It doesn't seem reasonable that it would be a remez to weakness, as the Gemara darshens by Tefillin in Menachos 37a,
הנחה דבשמאל מנא ליה נפקא ליה מהיכא דנפקא ליה לר' נתן רב אשי אמר מידכה כתיב בה"י כהה
רש'י
מידכה בה' - מדכתיב בה"י כהה משמע לשון נקיבה שמע מינה בשמאל קאמר דאין בה כח כנקיבה ל"א ידכה יד כהה עמיא בלא כח:
8. The future can be revealed to Neviim, but they also can see secret things that exist now. That is why when Shaul was looking for his father's lost donkeys (Shmuel I:9), he went to ask Shmuel where they were- at that time, a Navi was call a "Ro'eh," a seer. (The Gaon says that people would go to a navi and ask them for career counselling- they would tell them their Tafkid- what they were put into this world to do.)
Where do we find that Ruach Hakodesh to know the secrets of the present is more common than Ruach Hakodesh to know what the future holds.
- From the fact that in the beginning of the parsha, Rivka had to go to a navi to find out what her children would be like, and Rashi says that she did not have Ruach HaKodesh. But in the end of the parsha, it says that Rivka knew that Eisav was planning to kill Yaakov, and Rashi says that she knew this with her Ruach HaKodesh.
25:23 Rashi
ויאמר ה' לה. עַל יְדֵי שָׁלִיחַ; לְשֵׁם נֶאֱמַר בְּרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְהוּא אָמַר לָהּ (בראשית רבה):
27:42 Rashi
ויגד לרבקה. בְּרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ הֻגַּד לָהּ מַה שֶּׁעֵשָׂו מְהַרְהֵר בְּלִבּוֹ:
