Thursday, May 21, 2015

5 Questions Bi-inyanei D'yoma

1] Chazal say [first perek Kiddushin] ושננתם לביך אלו תלמידיך - Your students are like your own children.

They say elsewhere [see Rashi bamidbar 3/1] that if you teach your friends' son Torah it is as if you are his father. [That is why it says אלו תולדות משה only to then list the sons of Aharon. They were not his biological sons but his talmidim].

What is the difference between these two statements?

2] Dovid Hamelech called Torah zmiros [זמירות היו לי חוקיך] for which he was punished severely [see Sotah 35]. On the other hand - the pasuk made it into tehillim [פרק קי"ט]. If it is such a terrible statement, then why do we say it?

3] The Rambam [Talmud Torah 1/7] distinguishes between Torah she-bial Peh and Torah she-bichtav. One may receive pay for teaching the latter but not for the former. What is the difference? [Note - The gemara in Nedarim 37a makes no such distinction and says that one must teach both for free].

4] The Rambam [Talmud Torah 1/9] says that great rabbis were wood choppers and water drawers and were מעתיקי השמועה - part of the chain of transmission of the Torah. What halacha is he teaching us [other than not every Jewish boy has to be a doctor, lawyer or stock analyst]?

5] Hashem first said the Aseres Hadibros in one split second simultaneously, something the ear couldn't hear and the mind couldn't grasp. Then he said each of the dibros separately [Rashi Shemos 20/1]. If they didn't understand it when Hashem said it all at once, then what was the point?

לזכות ידידי אהובי ר' משה גבריאל בן יהודית לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיו