Weekly Dvar Torah
frum.org 5.1


Friday, January 27, 2012 / 3 Shvat 5772
Preparation is the key to success
By: Michael Winner

Very rarely do I get inspired.

I try not to in general, because then I would need to think of an excuse not to use that inspiration to improve myself. Usually, I try to think of ways to discredit the person doing the inspiration, but in this case, I’ve been having a hard time.

I spoke to a friend last mine in the States. We do so every once in a while to keep in touch. He’s a father of several children, works full time, busy 25 hours a day. You know… busy.

He told me that last month, he completed the entire tractate of Brachos (the largest in the Talmud). He’s in the middle of doing it again, in order to finish by Shavous. On top of that, he’s learning Bava Kamma (which gets very involved) with a friend of his every day.

Did I mention that he works full-time and has a family?

Here he is, finishing entire tractates of Gemara.

Why? Because he has spiritual goals in life and he’s going to do his best not to be sidetracked by other things. He knows that he has 120 years in this world, and he’s going to do his best to use that time wisely.

Can’t stand people like that….

Okay, on to Torah.

“This month shall be for you the beginning of the months” (Shemos 12:2)

From this pasuk, we learn that Nissan, the month of Pesach, is to be counted as the first month of the year. While Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the new year, Nissan, is counted as the first month of the year.

Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that it’s unclear why Nissan was chosen to be the first month. The creation of the world did not occur in it, nor did the giving of the Torah, two huge global events. What happened in Nissan? Pesach! What was Pesach? A mere preparation for the giving of the Torah.

Here, says, Rav Feinstein is the lesson. Without the preparation, there would be no giving on the Torah. Without the giving of the Torah, there would be no point to creation. This is why Nissan was chosen to be the first month. The key to success is preparation and determination. Without it, you go nowhere. However, when you prepare your goals and prepare a plan for yourself to achieve such goals, you can accomplish anything.

Have a great Shabbos!
Friday, January 20, 2012 / 25 Teves 5772
Traces in Life
By: Michael Winner

We have not seen such a winter in years!

Thank G-d, for the past several weeks we have seen nearly non-stop rain coming down at a nice pace. Every once in a while, we’ve even had thunder, which is a rarity here.

The only downside is the mix between housing construction and the electric company.

In Israel, homes are created to maximize “coolness” because of the hot summers. We don’t have carpets, we have tiles. We don’t have insulation, we have rock walls.

While in the summer, it does help a bit, the winter brings very cold and drafty homes and mold. If you want to heat up the place, you need to use your A/C on heat. However, it’s constantly battling the cold tiles, so it just helps thaw you out. Plus, you need to turn on the homes hot water boiler to get hot water since solar power is out for the winter months (remember to turn it off though!).

The electric company doesn’t help by charging something like 0.60 shekel per kilowatt, which is pretty darn expensive. It hurts even more, since the electric company is closely tied with government officials in a not-so-consumer-friendly way. So your money is going to very high salaried and benefitted company workers (not just the top guys), instead of investing it in more efficient means of delivering electricity. So… we do our best by bundling up, sleeping with hot water bottles, and drinking lots of hot drinks. At least it increases my love for my Shabbos Night Chicken Soup.

Okay, on to Torah!

“He that heard the word of G-d… made his servants and cattle flee into the houses. He that didn’t pay attention to the word of G-d left his servants and cattle in the field.” (Shemos 9:20, 21)

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz comments that the Torah doesn’t say, “Those that didn’t fear G-d”, but rather, “those that didn’t pay attention”.

In the times of the Beis HaMikdash, it was possible to see open miracles on a daily basis within and sometimes outsides the confines of the Beis HaMikdash. Since the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, Hashem’s Presence has been hidden from us. However, he always leaves small “traces” of His Presence for us to find. However, we need to look for them carefully.

When we run our lives without giving much thought to Hashem every day, we lose track and we lose sight of His personal involvement. However, when we are on the constant search for these “traces”, we are bound to find them.

Just look at your own life. Look from where you come from, where you are, and where you want to go. If you are in a good spiritual position, take a closer look and see where your life could have taken a different direction, and see how for “some strange reason”, things didn’t pan out correctly.

This Shabbos we’re celebrating our seventh year of kollel in Eretz Yisroel. Had you asked us ten years ago if we would be where we are today, we would have laughed at you. However, X happened here, Y happened there, we took a few blind jumps here, there, and everywhere, and thank G-d, strange things have happened, all for our good… and here we are today.

By paying attention to our past and seeing Hashem’s help in everything, we can strengthen ourselves in the present in order to create a better future.

Have a great Shabbos!
Friday, January 13, 2012 / 18 Teves 5772
The Rules of Davening
By: Michael Winner

How can people not live here?

The mikvah is a 20 minute walk from my house. Every erev Shabbos, I go to the store, which is half-way there, buy what I need for Shabbos, leave my cart, go to the mikvah, come back, pick up my cart, and walk back home.

Nearly every week, I meet the same person at the mikvah. Very sweet guy. Your stereotypical “working man sfardi”. Very nice, very friendly, very spiritual, yet you know, deep down inside, he probably knows enough kabala to turn you into a frog if you cross him. Every Thursday night, around 1am, he drives to Meron to learn until davening. After davening, he comes back, heads to the mikvah, and gets ready for Shabbos. He’s a great example on what a person should focus on in life.

As I was leaving the mikvah, he was coming in. I guess he was running a little late. He looked at me, handed over the keys to his car and said, “It’s raining out here. Go in the car, there are sfarim in the door, learn, and wait for me, and I’ll take you back right after”.

“Who is like you O’ Israel?”


“And they cried out” (Shemos 2:23)

Rav Meir Shapiro, the Rosh Yeshiva of Lublin yeshiva was renowned for his davening. He was once asked by one of his students, “If you spend so much time praying, doesn’t that affect the amount of time you are able to learn?”

Rav Shapiro replied, in the name of the Chasam Sofer, that if a person prays at length, his life is lengthened; and therefore if a person spends additional time praying, he is compensated for that time with the additional time he is given to live.

That is how Rav Shapiro viewed davening.

After several years, the level of the davening in the yeshiva decreased dramatically. People started to come late and leave early, there was walking around, some started to talk to others during that time, etc… In response, Rav Shapiro formed a committee consisting of some of the best students, to make new regulations intended to improve the situation.

They composed and circulated a strong-worded proclamation concerning this deterioration. Along with this, they made the following new rules that if not followed, would result in punishment:

1. The doors of the beis medresh/shul would be closed from the beginning of davening until after the end of davening
2. Every student in the yeshiva has to stand in his assigned place and not walk around during prayer.
3. Learning or looking in other books was prohibited during prayer.
4. Whoever was unable, for whatever reason, to attend the prayer services in the yeshiva had to receive prior permission from the committee.

THIS is how important proper davening is!

Can you imagine what would happen if your local shul made the above rules? Can you imagine that outcry against them? This is how far we have fallen in this realm.

Davening is one of the pillars of our relationship with Hashem. If you had to meet with somebody who was willing to give you a million dollars, would you be late to the meeting? Would you dress improperly? Would you speak to other people during this meeting? So how can we do such things when we’re speaking to the King of Kings?

May we use our davening opportunities this Shabbos as best as we can, showing up on time, not talking, davening clearly, and with as much concentration as possible.

Have a great Shabbos!
Thursday, January 05, 2012 / 10 Teves 5772
The Battle for Torah
By: Michael Winner



I was wondering …

Let’s say I had an issue with Ethiopians. I had a bad run-in or two with them. Would it be acceptable to write to the papers, voicing my beefs with the group as a whole? How they do this, that and the other thing disturbs me, because I had a few run-ins …

You see … for some strange reason, it’s perfectly okay to write similar articles about the Chareidi (Ultra-Orthodox) community. Assigning group-blame is par for the course.

For example (all together now): They don’t pay taxes! They don’t work! They don’t participate in the Army! They don’t educate their children! They freeload off the government! They keep women at home, taking care of children! They force women to go out to work to support them in kollel, leaving the kids in the street! They sit around and do nothing! They’re parasites!

Minus the Army bit, all those claims are false … and have little or no relation to religiosity.

Currently, there’s a big religious-secular war being fought in Israel. What brought it to a boil?

There’s a small group of … oh … meshugenas … that live in parts of Meah Shearim and Beit Shemesh. In Beit Shemesh, all told, the population of meshugenas numbers maybe 35-40 families. They decided the girls in a nearby Religious-Zionist school were not dressed appropriately. So they spent their mornings protesting and calling the girls names. In some cases, they even spat on them.

The media and politicians caught wind of it and zoomed on over. The next thing you know the headlines are spewing anti-religious ra-ra, all about the Ultra-Orthodox troubling little girls. And, once again, everybody’s up in arms about the people they love to hate: the entire Ultra-Orthodox community.
Ironically, the same group of meshugenas has a record of making trouble for the Ultra-Orthodox community as well. They belong to a small, breakaway Chassidic group, do not listen to any Torah leadership (which is, of course, also being blamed for not stopping them somehow), nor do they (obviously) follow the Torah. They number 35-40 families out of a city of 100,000 people (many of whom are Ultra-Orthodox themselves). Yet, suddenly, they represent the entire spectrum of the Ultra-Orthodox world. According to what I’ve seen, the Ultra-Orthodox comprise about 10 percent of Israel’s population. Suddenly, the 35-40 families now represent all 750,000 people.

If that wasn’t enough, a second wave of attacks began.

Many publicly-owned bus companies in Israel run special lines for the religious community. Although these lines are based in religious neighborhoods, anybody is allowed to use them. On these buses, men sit in the front and women sit in the back. Couples can usually sit together in the middle, depending on the line.

Not surprisingly, attacks on the mehadrin bus lines began almost as soon as we could sniff anti-religiousness in the air. Remember, the religious Israeli world does not have the same history as the American world. Sitting in front and sitting in the back is no reflection, indication or representation of who is better and who is lesser.

Egged, the company that runs bus lines in Jerusalem and many other cities, created the majority of these lines because it saw profit in them. It was Egged who offered to create new lines for the religious communities. Now, these are lines VOLUNTEERED by Egged. And because there is a demand within the religious world for them, they have maintained popularity. And they haven’t impacted other, regular lines in any way.

Nonetheless, on more than several occasions in the last two weeks, secular women, in the name of “women’s rights” (and, ahem, to get their names in the press), have boarded these buses and sat with the men. In some cases, they even harassed the men to provoke a fight. Granted, they never used the lines before. Granted, the religious women don’t seem to side with their “sisters.” Granted, it doesn’t affect them. But they wanted to fight discrimination against women.

Why they didn’t protest in Tel Aviv, where advertisements use women for their bodies? Where the streets are paved with women’s “business cards” and there’s a nice amount of illegal trafficking of women going on … Oh, never mind, that’s not “in.”

Last week, a female soldier pulled such a stunt, starting a verbal fight with a man. He responded in kind and called her a “prutzah” -- wrongly translated in the media as a “prostitute,”but more like “immodest woman”. Lo and behold, a few stops later, the police boarded the bus and arrested him! Now he’s being charged with sexual harassment.

I’ve been riding the buses here for years. I’ve heard secular Jews use FAR worse language on the bus. Yet NEVER did I see an arrest! But when a religious Jew is provoked and calls somebody an inappropriate name, the police and media are there two minutes later, filing charges for SEXUAL harassment???

Logic would state, then, that if you argue with a woman and you’re not careful, you can get arrested for sexual harassment! He didn’t touch her, nor did he make any lewd comments. In fact, he hardly was able to see her in the crowd! While I don’t agree with how he handled the situation, he most certainly did not deserve to be arrested.

On the other hand, just yesterday, a young religious girl had her life threatened. She was pushed and spat on while riding a bus. A secular Israeli did it -- several times -- and in front of everybody on the bus, including the driver. Nobody stood up to defend her. No one called the media. And, most importantly, no arrests were made.

Then, in one of my old neighborhoods, a young boy was beaten by two secular Israelis. Again, no arrests were made. Then a secular Jew declared on national television that he wanted to take an Uzi and gun down Chareidim. And, gasp: no headline stories!

While the above-mentioned incidents were reported, they were parts of a regular report, with no media backlash against the entire secular community. I didn’t see one article written about withholding funds from secular schools until they clean up their act (secular Israeli schools are well-known for the violence issues they have), nor do I see a call for secular society to stop and introspect.
After the mehadrin bus issues, our meshugena friends decide to hold a protest, portraying themselves as “victims.” How do they do it? They protest in Jerusalem’s Kikar Shabbos, wearing concentration camp garb. This drew the wrath of everybody across the board, from the far-left to the far-right, up to and including Chareidi leaders and newspapers.

But you would never know that if you read the secular papers. After all, the headlines blare: “Hareidi protests.” Because if some do it, everybody else must be thinking the same thing. Remember, “there is no individual thought in the religious world.”

Why? ‘Tis the season to hate Torah Jewry.

I don’t like it when people, including the frum community, cry victim for the sake of crying victim. But let’s quickly play a number game. Let’s say there are 40 meshugena families in Beit Shemesh that have been ostracized by the frum community. Obviously, there are more in Jerusalem. Those two places are where these folks are located.

Now, for fun, I’m going to wildly inflate the numbers and say there are 5,000 meshugena, trouble-causing rabble rousers in the frum community. And there are 750,000 Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. That means these meshugenas – whose population I wildly inflated -- comprise 0.66% of all Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel.

That means the media, politicians, armchair Israelis in America and all other talking heads are speaking about the entire Ultra-Orthodox community based off the behavior of 0.66% of their population.

Does this make sense to you?

You know, just for fun, let’s double the numbers. Judge a segment of society based off 1.2% of their population.

Any better?

Can you imagine if I spoke negatively about the black community based off of even 10% of their population? What if I wrote that all black churches should lose their tax-exempt status until they clean up gang problems in the black world? Or perhaps schools that are 90% minority should lose funding until they keep their single-mother population under control? Anybody feel comfortable reading that?

The frum community is finding itself in the corner and feeling victimized for that exact reason. The entire community is being portrayed as non-working, non-tax paying parasites, who are violent and anti-woman -- and all because 0.66% of their population cannot behave.

What are all the “enlightened” ones saying? Because the “entire” Chareidi community cannot behave itself, it’s obvious that they need to undergo certain changes immediately. All funding needs to be cut off from their yeshivas and kollelim. Their schools must toe the line, adhering to secular curriculums. And, gosh darnit, all Chereidim should join the Army (just don’t put them in my platoon!). Oh, right, a nice percentage of secular Jews don’t join either; but, then again, that “medical” reason is a legitimate excuse, as opposed to sitting and learning in yeshivah.

Let’s look at the facts briefly. The Israeli public school system has rated in the bottom 50% educationally among Western nations. Never mind that Chareidim annually – and on an ongoing basis – score higher than their secular counterparts on the Israeli “SATs”. And then there’s the violence issues plaguing the Israeli public school system. Those don’t exist within the religious educational framework. How, exactly, will this help the poor Chareidim get over their poor education and violent tendencies?

Concerning the Army and work -- they’re tied together. Until you hit a certain age or receive an exception, you will not be hired by many companies until you do the Army. That’s because the Army could draft you at any time. This is a problem, since, as the Army recently stated, much to the chagrin of the religious, that they will no longer honor the agreement they’ve made with religious soldiers allowing them to serve within the bounds of halacha, and have already begun to enforce that decision (The Army has recently stated that a commander’s orders supersede Torah). This has already led several prominent Religious-Zionist rabbis to say that unless this is reversed, they will instruct their students not to join as well, only widening the rift between the Religious-Zionists and the government that has been ongoing for several years.

These are the simple facts. We’re not talking about a religious vs. secular fight here. Most people on both sides could care less. Thankfully, for the most part, on the individual level, the religious and secular get along. They live in different worlds, but they respect that and leave it be. The fight is more of the “enlightened” left vs. Judaism (both the Ultra-Orthodox and Religious Zionist). The media and politicians are using 0.66% of the Ultra-Orthodox community to attack the entire group en masse -- and to finally strike where they were unsuccessful before: the Torah.

Since the founding of the state, the secular government has always wanted to get their hands on the religious education system. I can understand why. They want a perfectly functioning Israeli society. On the other hand, the religious want a Jewish society.

And since 1948, they’ve been going head-to-head on this. And that’s why the education system is repeatedly targeted by the government and media. He who controls education, controls children. Yes, they will say it’s in the name of educating the children -- so they can earn a living and not live off the State – but the reasons run much deeper.

Then why not give Army exemptions to those who will never serve anyhow? That would solve the issue of not entering the workforce.

But, alas, it’s just an excuse.

An excuse to battle over Torah in Eretz Yisrael.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I do know one thing though: Torah Judaism has yet to lose a fight.
Friday, December 30, 2011 / 4 Teves 5772
Keeping the Streets Clean
By: Michael Winner

A special thank you for all the davening.

I just spoke with the mother of Dafna Yael bas Rivke, and after a 12 hour surgery, they were able to remove 95% of the tumor in her head. She’s in the ICU right now and will G-d willing come out before Shabbos.

Please continue to daven for her!

After Yosef reveals his true identity to his brothers, he instructs them to quickly go back to Eretz Yisroel to get his father and bring him to Egypt, so Yosef can support everybody. He uses an interesting language which brings a whole slew of possible interpretations. He says, “Do not become agitated on the way” (45:24).

The Baal HaTurim writes: “There are those who interpret this as follows: Do not rely on me, saying ‘Our brother is great in the land’ in order to do something evil to any other person. Do not cause harm to anyone on your way, by travelling through a planted field’”.

Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein asks, “Why would Yosef suspect his brothers of being capable of perpetrating such a thing? Who gave them permission - on the basis of their brother being ‘great in the land’ – to damage a planted field?”

He gave a few possible reasons towards their thinking, including “being brothers of the king, they might think that, like a king, they are permitted to travel through others’ fields, as the Gemara (Bava Kamma 60b) teaches: ‘If a king breaks through to make a road, he is not rebuked’. Therefore, he warned them not to think of doing such things”.

Rav Zilberstein continues and writes the applicable lesson for us today is how we treat other people’s property, including that of the public.

When we take out the garbage, he says, we shouldn’t get too lazy and simply leave the garbage by the bin, and not actually put it in. You wouldn’t do it in your house, don’t do it to others.

In our old apartment, the building would be fined every month by the city inspectors. Why? Because people would walk by, and without any embarrassment, throw their cups or plastic wrappers in the courtyard of the building.

Just think! After 120 years, these people will show up to receive their rewards and see that they were causing financial loss to other people, and they won’t even remember why!

When we walk in the streets, we need to be careful to treat them with respect. We have an obligation to keep it clean and to recognize that we are not the only ones using them.

Rav Zilberstein concludes, “A person’s concern for the cleanliness of shared property is the measure of his observance of the mitzvos between himself and his fellow man. Only in this way can he demonstrate the depths to which that all-important lesson has penetrated his psyche: ‘What is hateful to you, do not do unto others’. Furthermore, caring for the public property the way he cares for his own belongings elevates a person spiritually. The Torah of the living G-d is not like other fields of study; in order to glean the happiness hidden within it, one must purify oneself. And one of the best ways of doing this is by respecting his neighbor’s needs and wishes”

Have a great Shabbos!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 / 2 Teves 5772
Important Announcement
By: Michael Winner



For those who did not know, Frum.org's hosting has been sponsored by a friend of mine from Chicago who know lives here in Israel. He's been kind enough to allow me to host my site on his business server, free of charge, allowing me to send out the dvrei torah throughout the past several years, without any overhead.

For the past six months or so, his young daughter has been battling a very strange case of cancer. I can't go into details on what makes it so strange, but they found not-so-normal tumors throughout her body.

Tomorrow, she will be receiving brain surgery to remove one of the major tumors. I would like to ask everybody to please daven for Dafna Yael bas Rivke and that she should have a complete recovery soon.

Thank you very much.
Friday, December 23, 2011 / 27 Kislev 5772
The Preciousness of Hashem
By: Michael Winner

On the first night of Chanukah, my wife and I got “home sick” for Jerusalem. Every year, we would light our menorah in the window overlooking the street. At the same time, one of our neighbors would be out with his sons lighting theirs down below and singing ma’or zur. Within 30 minutes, the entire block was lit up with menorahs. Here? I saw three menorahs on the way to shul. There were more homes that had the glow of the television coming out than that of the menorah.

HOWEVER, we realized the extra bracha of being here. We lit our menorah in its glass case right outside our door way. The kitchen has a window overlooking said doorway. Later that night, my wife saw a father and daughter walk past the menorah and making note of its existence. After a few more seconds of walking, the daughter asked her father if they can see the menorah again.

The entire point of the menorah is to publicize the miracle. Perhaps in Jerusalem, it looks nicer to see everybody’s menorahs all lit together, but here, where it’s noticeable, you’re REALLY doing the mitzvah properly.

Okay, on to Torah!

A member of the kollel told me a nice thing he heard from Rav Shimshon Pincus directly, when he was younger….

We have a few questions on Chanukah. When the Gemara speaks about Chanukah, its primary focus is NOT the war, but rather the miracle of the oil. Why is that? Also, the Rambam at the end of Hilchos Chanukah seems to use an interesting language, saying that lighting the menorah is a “mitzvah chavivi ud meod”; it’s a very previous mitzvah. I’m not an expert on the Rambam, but it seems that there are many experts who are confused by his choice of words. It’s unlike him to talk about the “preciousness” of any mitzvah. He’s usually more cut and dry. Why is he getting all “warm and fuzzy” on us?

Rav Pincus answers with a parable.

There was once a rich man who wanted to get married. However, he did not want to marry a rich girl. Instead, he wanted somebody who was modest and nice, from a good, but non-wealthy background. Finally, after a while of searching, he found such a girl.

As the wedding day approached, he told her and her family, that they have nothing to worry about. He has a huge mansion with servants and maids to take care of them. She won’t have to lift a finger, and whenever her family would like to come and visit, they are more than welcome to enjoy the hospitality.

Her parents were somewhat surprised. Knowing that he lived so far away, they found some scrap word and made an extra wall in their one-room apartment for the couple to stay in. They were hoping that instead of moving away, they would come and join them.

Now… what is more chaviv (precious)? The couple living with the parents, or the parents coming to live by him? The answer is the couple living by the parents. By lowering his standards exponentially, he his showing how precious they are in his life.

So too with Chanukah, says Rav Pincus.

In the first Beis HaMikdash, there were ten noted miracles that occurred every day. One of them included the Menorah. Yet, the second Beis HaMikdash had none of them… in fact, the menorah that they used (for the first nights of Chanukah) was made of wood. On top of that, but the second Beis HaMikdash was also sitting in disarray, and up until recently had an idol set up inside.

In the first Beis HaMikdash, it was a given that you should have miracles seen by everybody on a daily basis. This is Hashem’s house after all! However, the second Beis HaMikdash? It was a poor man’s home in comparison. It needed cleaning, purifying, and a lot of “fixing up”. Yet, what happened? Hashem came to “our house” and performed a miracle using the oil, like He did in the first Beis HaMikdash. Not only did he save us in the war and secured our victory, but more importantly, he showed us that we were still chaviv, precious, to him.

This kollel member continued and explained. Since 1948, the Jews in Eretz Yisroel have been saved many times by Hashem in several wars. Each of these wars were expected to wipe Israel off the map. Yet, each time, somehow, we were victorious. Yet, we don’t have established holidays for each of these miracles. Why is that? He answers that while we were certainly saved through miracles, we never saw signs of Hashem showing us how precious and close to Him we were. Yes, He saved us, but He remained “distant”. We didn’t see something “extra” to show us that He was still close and chaviv to us, like He did during Chanukah. That is why we don’t celebrate the miracles of each war.

It’s interesting to note, that Chanukah was the last holiday and last “big miracle” that occurred to us before the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed and we were sent into our current exile. Perhaps it’s a sign that no matter how dark the times, as long as we try to invite Him into our “house”, he will always come.

Have a great Shabbos Chanukah!






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