Helping The Family Of Our Fallen Hero

For all those who want to help R' Ari's wife Miriam and their four orphans, you can do so here. 

Testing A Navi - Part 3

לע"נ ידי"נ הקדוש ר' ארי פולד ז"ל הי"ד

The resolution is as follows [based on HaGaon HaGadol Rav Dovid Yitzchak Mann ztz"l]: 

Rav Saadiah Gaon proves from the story of Gideon that there is no איסור unless one tests Hashem Himself but there is no איסור to test if a person is worthy of Hashem's reward for performing his mitzvos [which is what Gideon was doing]. Indeed, the pasuk seems to bear out this understanding. All it says is "לא תנסו את השם" - don't test Hashem. It mentions nothing about testing Him to see if He will reward mitzva performance [as many of the Rishonim hold]. Why would one think that it is forbidden to test Hashem to see if one is worthy of reward?? That would be less a test of Hashem and more a test of oneself??!    

The explanation is that something can only be considered a test if it is supposed to happen. But if something is not expected to happen, why would checking if it happens be considered a test?? Therefore it was a test in the desert to see if Hashem would provide the Jews with water, because after taking us out into the barren desert, Hashem is expected to provide water. That is the meaning of the pasuk לא תנסו את ה' א-להיכם כאשר ניסיתם במסה - Don't test Hashem you G-d as you did in מסה [to see if He will give you water]. He was expected to give us water and were "checking Him out" to see if He would make good on the unspoken deal. Otherwise, it is only considered a test in a case where one fulfilled a mitzva, where a reward is expected, and the person waited to see if Hashem would follow through. That is where we see in the pasuk that the איסור is testing Hashem to see if he will reward us. It says "don't test Him as you did in מסה with the water", meaning that just like there you were expecting water which qualifies as waiting for the water as a test, so too, when you do mitzvos don't test Hashem to see if He will reward you. [This explains the opinion of the סמ"ג, יראים and טור that we mentioned in the previous post that the איסור is testing Hashem to see if He will reward mitzvos]. 

Now we can explain the view of the Rambam: He holds that there is no reward for mitzvos in this world [as we will see בל"נ], so for him the only way we can test Hashem and expect Him to "pass the test" is with respect to verifying the validity of a Navi. Now, once a Navi attained the status of a bona fide Navi, it is no longer necessary to test him. If one does, even though the test is superfluous, there is still an expectation that Hashem will provide the sign and He will pass the test. So according to the Rambam, the היכי תמצי [instance] of testing Hashem when there is an expectation that the test will be passed is with respect to the validity of a Navi. 

It emerges that even though practically speaking the person is testing the Navi, at the root the intention is to test Hashem, as the pasuk says "לא תנסו את ה' אלקיכם". This would explain why the same Rambam who wrote in Hilchos Yesodei Hatorah [10-5] that the איסור is testing a Navi himself to see if he is a נביא אמת, wrote in his preface to the Sefer Hamitzvos [ל"ת ס"ד] that the איסור is to test the word of Hashem ["שלא לנסות דבר ה' שנאמר לא תנסו את ה' א-להיכם"]. How do we reconcile this contradiction? Now we know! The external manifestation of the איסור is testing an already proven Navi [or if He will provide water in the desert], but at the root one is testing Hashem, seeing if He is going to provide the expected sign that this person/prophet is the "real deal" [or provide the expected water]. 

So now the pasuk reads beautifully according to the Rambam: 

לא תנסו את ה' א-להיכם - Don't test Hashem, כאשר ניסיתם במסה - as you did in מסה when you waited for and expected water, so too you shouldn't test an already proven Navi, expecting Hashem to give you another sign of his validity.   

       

R' Ari Fuld הי"ד

Li-ilui nishmas my beloved friend R' Ari Fuld who was murdered today by an Arab in Gush Etzion. He was a hero in life and a kadosh in his death. I knew him for about 25 years and was in awe of his idealism and passion for the Land of Israel, the Torah and the Jewish people.  

 

Ari Fuld wasn't surprised when he got his draft call last summer during the Lebanon war. "For me, serving in the Israeli Defense Forces is another puzzle piece in a Jewish person's life." He says. "I literally smile when I get my draft in the mail." He had 12 hours to say good-bye to his wife and four children, including his newborn son. Within eight hours after that he was at the Lebanese border. After one day of intensive training, his unit was going into Lebanon to dismantle a faceless terrorist infrastructure.

"The night before we went in, I wrote out the Torah portions about going out to war. I needed to instill myself with confidence. I couldn't even tell my wife where I was going as the calls were being intercepted by Hizbullah. I told her I was going to France."

On his first day in Lebanon, he walked seven kilometers over craggy mountains into Lebanon carrying all of his gear, as well as a hundred pound guided missile on his back. There he encountered his first fire-fight. "Terrifying is the only word I can use to describe it," he says "Everywhere we walked there were eyes on our backs. We were the underdogs. We didn't know the terrain."

Secular, religious, it didn't matter. They were all Jews standing raw and exposed before God.

Every day before setting out to battle, Ari and his platoon would recite the Vidui prayer, a prayer of confession usually reserved for Yom Kippur or before one dies. Secular, religious, it didn't matter. They were all Jews standing raw and exposed before God; they literally felt their lives were in the balance.

The Hizbulla guerilla fighters were lying in wait. The next day the Israeli soldiers were moving in deeper.

"We walked 28 kilometers deep into Lebanon," Ari says. "We finally got to the Litani river. It was absolutely beautiful."

Low on food and water, Ari's elite paratrooper unit hid out in an apple orchard for cover and sustenance. It was then that they received warnings that there was a terrorist hotbed of activity around them. They were ordered to go in and clean up the area.

"Our highest commanding officer led off with five soldiers," said Ari. "He said – 'Acharai', you come after me." This legendary characteristic of the Israeli army is no myth. The highest ranking officers stake things out for the underlings, jeopardizing their own safety. "I think the Israeli army is the only army in the world that operates this way," says Ari.

70 yards from where Ari was waiting, his commanding officer was hit in the neck by sniper fire, and missiles were falling all around him and his men.

"We can't let this turn into a kidnapping," said the next-in-command. They sent out a group of evacuation soldiers to try and help the first group, and they were hit by a missile as well. The highest ranking officer who remained turned to Ari.

"Grab four men," he ordered him. "We have to go collect as many bodies as we can. We're not leaving them out there alone."

Ari grabbed four of his comrades. They dropped their gear on the floor and grabbed stretchers. He knew what he was doing. He had made a choice. In moving forward into the inferno of injury and death that lay ahead, he may as well have been walking his own plank. But he wouldn't abandon his comrades.

"We left most of our protection behind, and all of our gear. All I had on me were my Tefillin, a book of Psalms, and some other holy writings. Oh -- and bullets. A whole lot of bullets."

They took only ten steps out of the orchard when they heard the whistle.

Three missiles had landed exactly where the five soldiers had been sitting only moments earlier.

"You hear a whistle and then three seconds later the missile hits," says Ari. "The scary thing is that it gives you no hint as to where it's going to land." Looking behind them, they saw where the missiles had fallen. Three missiles had landed exactly where the five soldiers had been sitting only moments earlier. The gear that they had hastily dropped was decimated.

Missiles were falling behind and in front of the group. It seemed like God was clearing a space for Ari.

They started dragging back wounded officers. Ari called a medic who tried unsuccessfully to stop the bleeding on his commanding officer. That's when Ari felt something trickling down his back. Blood and water were coming out of him.

"I knew that I had been hit by a piece of shrapnel. I also knew that if shrapnel had entered my bloodstream, I would die in a few minutes. My legs buckled."

The medic came and took off Ari's vest. The piece of shrapnel had penetrated his vest, but had gone no further. All he needed was bandaging.

"There was no reason for that piece of shrapnel to stop," Ari says. "It was a piece of Iranian mortar shell." Those things don't stop. But Ari knew that there was someone higher than him calling the shots.

Ari and the remaining members of his unit plodded on in Lebanon a few more days. While he had passed through the real thickets, he still had to deal with gathering food and water in hostile territory that was booby trapped in every corner.

Finally, his beleaguered brigade was ordered home.

When his unit crossed the threshold into Israel, all of the soldiers spontaneously knelt and kissed the holy ground of Israel with palpable emotion. It was more than good to be home.

Ari felt that the man who had entered Lebanon was not the same man who was exiting.

But Ari felt that the man who had entered Lebanon was not the same man who was exiting.

"It was like birth," he said. "It was more powerful than anything I had ever done. Like your wedding day and the birth of your child and more -- all wrapped up into one."

He made a feast of thanksgiving to God. But that was not enough. Ari had encountered miracles. He had been given immeasurable gifts. And now it was payback time.

"I sat with myself first and then I sat with my wife, and I said, ‘Something has got to change. I don't want to go through life as a cycle. If (my life) would have ended right there, there would have been something missing.'"

He took an accounting of his hours each day and realized that only a small minority of his day was involved in pursuit of the spiritual. His religious study had been on a "low flame." He wanted to turn it up to high. And he did, taking a year off from his professional pursuits in order to strengthen himself in his service of God.

"It was financially hard, but I had to do it. I'm happy that I did. In the end, it (being in Lebanon) was nothing less than a blessing for me."

Sometimes the impressions made upon us by inspiration can be fleeting. That's how the term "New Year's resolution" came to be coined. Every year we try to clean the slate and begin again. It is part of the human condition. But Ari will never forget his pledge to repay his gifts. He had said the Vidui confession prayer of Yom Kippur, and he had been granted life. His appreciation is unbridled. And that is where Ari's experience differs from most people. His experience in Lebanon continues to mold his life today.

When his year of study was up he turned down hefty financial incentives and instead joined the staff at Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, where he could continuously immerse himself in cultivating his spiritual side.

And what about us? During this High Holiday season, we can also file through the list of gifts that God has bestowed upon us and make our own New Year's resolutions to give back for what we have received. Maybe this year we can devote just a little bit more time to the spiritual? Open up a prayer book even after the high holidays have passed? Commit to taking that next step that we think about every year?

In Ari's breakfront, he proudly exhibits the piece of Iranian mortar shrapnel that nearly cost him his life, its serial number still intact. Some people find it strange, seeing it displayed so prominently next to his Kiddush cup and his silver Menorah.

He doesn't find it odd at all. "That warped piece of iron that you're looking at... it looks like a piece of garbage – but that's my miracle."

[aish.com]

Testing A Navi - Part 2

 לע"נ הקדוש ר' ארי פולד ז"ל הי"ד 

The סמ"ג, the יראים, the טור and other ruled that the איסור of לא תנסו is not to test Hashem to see if He will reward us for mitzvos. This opinion is difficult to understand because where do we see in the pasuk that the Jews had done a mitzva and were waiting to see if Hashem would reward them? 

In Sefer Shoftim [6, 39] it says: Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—  look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.”  And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.  Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.”  That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

How was it permitted for Gideon to test Hashem when the pasuk says לא תנסו את השם - DON'T test Hashem? 

The Chinuch [מצוה תכ"ד] first rules like the Rambam that one must not test a Navi. Then he continues and says that this איסור also includes testing Hashem to see if He will reward us for the mitzvos we perform. The Ramban says the same. 

How are these two seemingly unrelated mitzvos included in the same pasuk?  

Testing A Navi

לע"נ הקדוש ר' ארי פולד ז"ל הי"ד 

The Rambam says [Yesodei Hatorah 10-5]: 

נביא שהעיד לו נביא אחר שהוא נביא הרי הוא בחזקת נביא ואין זה השני צריך חקירה שהרי משה רבינו העיד ליהושע והאמינו בו כל ישראל קודם שיעשה אות וכן לדורות נביא שנודעה נבואתו והאמינו בדבריו פעם אחר פעם או שהעיד לו נביא והיה הולך בדרכי הנבואה אסור לחשב אחריו ולהרהר בנבואתו שמא אינה אמת ואסור לנסותו יותר מדאי ולא נהיה הולכים ומנסים לעולם שנאמר לא תנסו את ה' אלהיכם כאשר נסיתם במסה שאמרו היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין אלא מאחר שנודע שזה נביא יאמינו וידעו כי ה' בקרבם ולא יהרהרו ולא יחשבו אחריו כענין שנאמר וידעו כי נביא היה בתוכם:

When a prophet proclaims that another individual is [also] a prophet, we accept the latter as a prophet without requiring [any further] investigation. Thus, after Moses, our teacher, proclaimed that Joshua [was a prophet], all the Jews believed in him before he performed any wonders. The same holds true for subsequent generations.

Once a prophet has made known his prophecy, and his words have proven true time after time, or another prophet has proclaimed him a prophet, if he continues in the path of prophecy, it is forbidden to doubt him or to question the truth of his prophecy.

[When establishing the authenticity of a prophet,] it is forbidden to test him more than necessary. We may not continue to test him forever, as [Deuteronomy 6:15] states: "Do not test God, your Lord, as you tested him in Marah," when [the Jews] said [Exodus 17:7]: "Is God in our midst or not?" Rather, once an individual is established as a prophet, we should believe in him and know that God is in our midst. We should not doubt or question him, as implied by [Ezekiel 2:5]: "They shall know that a prophet was in their midst."

We see from the Rambam that the איסור from the pasuk "לא תנסו" is to test a Navi. Once he has been established as a Navi we must accept him. 

There are a number of problems with this. 

1] The Gemara in Taanis [9a] says as follows:

עשר תעשר עשר בשביל שתתעשר

“A tithe shall you tithe [te’aser]” (Deuteronomy 14:22)? This phrase can be interpreted homiletically: Take a tithe [asser] so that you will become wealthy [titasher], in the merit of the mitzva.

אשכחיה ר' יוחנן לינוקא דריש לקיש אמר ליה אימא לי פסוקיך א"ל עשר תעשר א"ל ומאי עשר תעשר א"ל עשר בשביל שתתעשר אמר ליה מנא לך א"ל זיל נסי

Rabbi Yoḥanan found the young son of Reish Lakish. He said to the boy: Recite to me your verse, i.e., the verse you studied today in school. The boy said to him: “A tithe shall you tithe.” The boy further said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: But what is the meaning of this phrase: “A tithe shall you tithe”?Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: The verse means: Take a tithe so that you will become wealthy. The boy said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: From where do you derive that this is so? Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: Go and test it.

אמר ליה ומי שרי לנסוייה להקב"ה והכתיב (דברים ו, טז) לא תנסו את ה' א"ל הכי אמר רבי הושעיא חוץ מזו שנאמר (מלאכי ג, י) הביאו את כל המעשר אל בית האוצר ויהי טרף בביתי ובחנוני נא בזאת אמר ה' צבאות אם לא אפתח לכם את ארובות השמים והריקותי לכם ברכה עד בלי די

The boy said to him: And is it permitted to test the Holy One, Blessed be He? But isn’t it written: “You shall not test the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:16)? Rabbi Yoḥanan said to the boy that Rabbi Hoshaya said as follows: It is prohibited to test God in any way, except in this case of tithes, as it is stated: “Bring the whole tithe into the storeroom, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now by this, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing that there shall be more than sufficiency” (Malachi 3:10).

So we see that from the pasuk of לא תנסון it is forbidden to test Hashem if He will reward us when we do mitzvos - and has nothing to do with a Navi, as the Rambam claims?! 

2] Also, the Rambam quotes the pasuk of לא תנסו את השם כאשר ניסיתם במסה and explains that the test was היש ה' בקרבנו - Is Hashem among us. But this seems to be ALL WRONG. The Rambam, לשיטתו, SHOULD have said that you are not allowed to test MOSHE because the issue here is testing a Navi and is not testing Hashem. So why the pasuk about testing HASHEM? 

3] After the Torah says לא תנסו  it goes on and says

שָׁמוֹר תִּשְׁמְרוּן, אֶת-מִצְוֺת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם, וְעֵדֹתָיו וְחֻקָּיו, אֲשֶׁר צִוָּךְ.  וְעָשִׂיתָ הַיָּשָׁר וְהַטּוֹב, בְּעֵינֵי יְ-ה-וָ-ה לְמַעַן, יִיטַב לָךְ, וּבָאתָ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה, אֲשֶׁר-נִשְׁבַּע יְ-ה-וָ-ה לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ.

"Diligently keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, and His testimonies. and His statutes, which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is proper and good in the eyes of the Lord, in order that it may be well with you, and that you may come and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your forefathers." How does that connect to the previous pasuk about not testing a Navi??

Meilah On Bigdei Kehuna

לזכות ר' שמואל בנימין בן תשנה רחל לאה וכל ב"ב היקרים

The Rambam writes [Meilah 5-14] that there is מעילה on the בגדי כהונה that wore out.

"כתנות כהונה שבלו מועלין בהן כשאר קדשים. והחדשים הואיל וניתנו ליהנות בהן אין מועלין בהן".

The משנה למלך asks that we have a rule that whenever a mitzva was already performed - נעשית מצותן - then there is no longer מעילה. So how is there מעילה on the used בגדי כהונה after they were already used for their mitzva??

He then suggests that since we have the pasuk of "והניחם שם" that tells us to store away the used בגדי כהן גדול [Yoma 12], we learn that there is an איסור מעילה and from there we can extract that there is also an איסור מעילה on the בגדי כהן הדיוט. But this answer doesn't hold water because the Rambam paskens that we may use the used בגדי כהן הדיוט as wicks for the שמחת בית השואבה and if he equated בגדי כהן גדול to בגדי כהן הדיוט then he would have permitted the בגדי כהן גדול to be used as well - and he doesn't. [Only the Yerushalmi equates the two but the Rambam doesn't pasken that way].

Here are the words of the משנה למלך:

בגדי כהונה שבלו מועלין בהם כשאר קדשים. אני תמיה בדין זה טובא דהא קי"ל 

דכל דבר שנעשה בו מצותו שוב אין מועלין בו וכדאיתא בפ' כל שעה (דף כ"ו) ובכמה דוכתי, וכי תימא שאני בגדי כהונה דכיון דרחמנא אמר בבגדי כ"ג והניחם שם ואמרינן בפ' קמא דיומא (דף י"ב) דטעונים גניזה וכיון דאשמעינן קרא בבגדי כ"ג דאף שנעשה בהם מצותם שיש בהם מעילה מינה ילפינן נמי לבגדי כהן הדיוט שאף שנעשה בהם מצותם שיש בהם מעילה, הא ליתא דא"כ יהיו טעונים בגדי כהן הדיוט גניזה דומיא דבגדי כ"ג שטעונים גניזה ואילו בפרק החליל (דף נ"א) תנן מבלאי מכנסי כהנים ומהמייניהם מהן היו מפקיעין ובהן היו מדליקין, וכי תימא דלעולם דטעונים גניזה לפי שיש בהם דין מעילה אף שנעשו בהם מצותם אלא דשאני שמחת בית השואבה דלכבוד הקרבן היו עושין וכצורך קרבן חשיב וכמ"ש התוס' בפ"ב דשבת (דף כ"א) ד"ה שמחת, הא ליתא דא"כ גם מבלאי בגדי כ"ג יעשו פתילות לקודש ולשמחת בית השואבה ואילו מדברי רבינו פ"ח מהל' כלי המקדש הל' ה' והל' ו' נראה דס"ל דלא היו עושין פתילות כי אם מבגדי כהן הדיוט אבל מבגדי כ"ג לא והטעם ע"כ הוא משום דרחמנא אמר והניחם שם שיהיו טעונים גניזה ואפי' למנורה לא היו עושין מהם פתילות ואע"ג דהאי קרא בבגדי לבן משתעי קרא מ"מ ס"ל דכל בגדי כ"ג דין אחד יש להם אבל בגדי כהן הדיוט לא ילפינן מיניה וא"כ כיון דלא ילפינן בגדי כהן הדיוט מבגדי כ"ג מנא לן דבגדי כהן הדיוט יהיה בהם מעילה מאחר שנעשה בהם מצותן. הן אמת דבירושלמי פ' החליל הלכה ג' מצאתי תני מבלאי מכנסי כ"ג היו מדליקין את הנרות שבפנים ומבלאי מכנסי כהן הדיוט היו מדליקין את הנרות שבחוץ. וכפי דברי הירושלמי הללו ניחא דלעולם דין בגדי כהן הדיוט ובגדי כ"ג שוין הם בדינם וטעונים גניזה אלא דלצורך מצוה התירו אלא דבגדי כ"ג שקדושתם יתירא יחדו אותם למנורה ובגדי כהן הדיוט יחדו לשמחת בית השואבה אך לרבינו דס"ל דמבגדי כ"ג לא היו עושין פתילות קשה מה שהקשיתי והדבר אצלי צריך תלמוד:

Maybe the following approach can work to answer this question:

Tosfos in Kiddushin [נ"ד. ד"ה בכתונת] write that even though בגדי כהונה have the קדושה of כלי שרת which means that they don't become חולין after מעילה and thus one can be מועל repeatedly [יש מועל אחר מועל], nevertheless as long as they have not been inaugurated for עבודה, they still don't have קדושת כלי שרת and merely have קדושת בדק הבית [see there].

According to this, even AFTER the inauguration of the בגדי כהונה they will have a dual קדושה a] קדושת כלי שרת which is a קדושת הגוף and b] קדושת בדק הבית which makes them ממון הקדש. That would mean that as far as מעילה is concerned there are also two types of מעילה when benefiting from בגדי כהונה - One, they are קדשי מזבח because that category includes כלי שרת and two, they are קדשי בדק הבית. The Mishna in Meilah [15] says that if one is מועל less that a שוה פרוטה on both קדשי מזבח and קדשי בדק הבית they combine to constitute an איסור. This is because there are two separate sources in the Medrash for the two types of מעילה, so the Mishna has to teach that they combine to form a shiur.

According to the foregoing, we can say that the דין that there is no מעילה if נעשית מצותן applies only to the קדושה of כלי שרת. But as far as the קדושה of ממון הקדש is concerned there is no דין of נעשית מצותן אין בהן מעילה because after all is said and done - it remains ממון הקדש so how does נעשית מצותן remove the איסור מעילה??!

Continuing with this line of thought it would appear that even if we say that there is a דין of נעשית מצותו and there is no longer a דין מעילה on the קדושת כלי שרת nevertheless there will be a דין מעילה due to the דין of קדושת בדק הבית as there was before these בגדים were inaugurated for the עבודה [as the Tosfos in Kiddushin said]. So that is what the Rambam meant when he said that there is מעילה for the בגדי כהונה. According to this, after מעילה the בגדי כהונה become חולין as קדשי בדק הבית even though they had a דין of קדושת כלי שרת where they don't become חולין [because יש מועל אחר מועל] but since נעשית מצוותן they no longer have קדושת כלי שרת and are only left with קדושת בדק הבית where they do become חולין after מעילה. 

Now we can understand why we only used the בגדי כהן הדיוט as wicks for the שמחת בית השואבה and not the בגדי כהן גדול. The בגדי כהן הדיוט still had קדושת בדק הבית which may be used לצורך הקדש such as to light a fire for the שמחת בית השואבה. But the בגדי כהן גדול retained their קדשות כלי שרת as evidenced by the לימוד of והניחם שם which teaches us that they must be respectfully stored away. Since they still have קדושת כלי שרת we may not use them for another purpose such as wicks. But the בגדי כהן הדיוט don't retain their קדושת כלי שרת after נעשית מצותן as we see from the fact that there is no לימוד of והניחם שם so we are free to use them for wicks. 

[עפ"ד הגאון ר' בערל פוברסקי שליט"א]  

ועי' עוד בשער המלך, משנת יעקב עבודה עמ' שנ"ד, ספר זכרון עץ ארז מ' רט"ז, שארית יוסף ח"ב סי' י"א.  

2 Approaches To Mitzvos

Says the Gemara [Brachos 35b]: 

ואמר רבה בר בר חנה אמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי יהודה ברבי אלעאי בא וראה שלא כדורות הראשונים דורות האחרונים דורות הראשונים היו מכניסין פירותיהן דרך טרקסמון כדי לחייבן במעשר דורות האחרונים מכניסין פירותיהן דרך גגות דרך חצרות דרך קרפיפות כדי לפטרן מן המעשר דאמר רבי ינאי אין הטבל מתחייב במעשר עד שיראה פני הבית שנאמר בערתי הקדש מן הבית

Along these lines, Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda, son of Rabbi El’ai: Come and see that the latter generations are not like the earlier generations. In the earlier generations, people would bring their fruits into their courtyards through the main gate in order to obligate them in tithes. However, the latter generations bring their fruits through roofs, through courtyards and through enclosed courtyards, avoiding the main gate in order to exempt them from the mitzva of tithing. As Rabbi Yannai said: Untithed produce is not obligated in the mitzva of tithing until it sees the front of the house through which people enter and exit, and it is brought into the house that way as it is stated in the formula of the confession of the tithes: “I have removed the consecrated from the house” (Deuteronomy 26:13), as the obligation to tithe produce whose purpose has not yet been designated takes effect only when it is brought into the house.

Why is there an "escape clause" in the mitzva of taking maaser specifically? 

There are two reasons people keep mitzvos - 1] Because they have to but would really prefer not to. Such people perform the mitzvos by rote. 2] Because they really want to keep the mitzvos and value them greatly. 

By offering an escape clause, we are tested to see if we are doing the mitzva out of true desire or just because we are obligated, for here we have the opportunity to avoid the mitzva in a halachically prescribed manner. 

The mitzva of maaser is unique in that it represents the covenant between the kohanim who dedicate themselves completely to service of Hashem and the masses who also must involve themselves in physical activities. By not taking the easy way out and causing themselves to be obligated in the mitzva of giving maaser, we are showing that what really matters to us is what the kohanim represent - a complete immersion in spirituality.

This should be a paradigm for all of our mitzvos - we do them not out of compulsion but with good will.


ההבדל שיש בין המכיר ערך המצות ותכליתן הנשגבה וחפץ בהן באמת ובין מי שעבודתו היא רק מצות אנשים מלומדה הוכן להיות יוצא אל הפועל בהרבה מצות מן התורה, שנמצאו בהם דרכים ע"פ דין תורה להפקיע החיוב מעצמו. אמנם רק בזה יוודע שלימות העובד מאהבה, בהיות לאל ידו לפטור עצמו ובהיותו מכיר את ערך המצוה וקדושתה הוא נכנס להתחייב בה. ע"כ במצות מעשרות, שהיא המצוה הראשית המחזקת את כל אושר הכלל כולו, בהיותה לברית בין המיוחדים לעבודת ד' שבט הלוי ובין כל העם כולו, דאגה החכמה האלהית ביותר שתהי' נעשית ע"פ רוח נדיבה המכרת את ערכה הגדול. ע"כ נתנה מקום להחלץ ממנה על [ידי] הכנסה דרך גגות חצירו' וקרפיפות, למען שתגיע הרגשת העושה לעשות המצוה מיקרת רוח ונפש נדיבה, שבזה תצא אל הפועל תכליתה להשלים את הכלל כולו כחפץ האדון השם יתברך.

[עי"א]