Parshas Naso )(Outside of Israel and Israel have a different Parsha)

" When he found my wallet with $1000 and gave it back, I asked him if
it was hard not to keep it for himself. He looked at me like I fell off the
moon and said ' It's a mitzva (fulfillment of a commandment) to return lost
objects.' "

The Ibn Ezra (Bimidbar 6:7) says that the root of the word Nazir (one
who vows not to drink wine etc.) which means "to abstain", comes from the
word Neizer, a king's crown. Why? Because a king rules over everything--his
desires.

Are you a king ??

Have a great Shabbos !!

Rabbi Chaim Flom
_______________________________________________

Rav Flom,

Do you think it would have been a greater Mitzva for him if his Yetzer Hora [eveil inclination] had tried to persude him not to give it back and he overcame his Yetzer?

quote:

Originally posted by Yisroel Phillips:
Rav Flom,

Do you think it would have been a greater Mitzva for him if his Yetzer Hora [eveil inclination] had tried to persude him not to give it back and he overcame his Yetzer?

Dear Yisroel,
An excellent observation, and there are two parts to the answer.First of all, the general rule is "lefum tzaar agra" "reward is based on pain (effort or difficulty)".There is greater reward if there was a greater battle. (An interesting note: Rav Aharon Kotler zt"l writes that if a person had to overcome a great desire to do a mitzva, and does it frequently, and therefore becomes easier to do, he still gets the reward as though he had a great battle.)
The second point is though, that we should raise our children with the values of being revolted by the thought of stealing.There is a famous Rambam in the Shemona Perakim (the Rambam's introduction to Pirkei Avos) that discusses the Safra that says a person shouldn't say that he won't eat treif because it is disgusting, but rather he should say that even though it is good, Hashem said I can't eat it.The Rambam says that this is only true by a "chok", a mitzva whose reason is not based on our logic. However when it comes to laws like stealing or killing etc., we shoul feel that it is digusting to do that aveira. Bottom line: We should raise our kids to be disgusted by stealing and not have them feel any sort of desire for the sin. In other words-even though there is greater reward for overcoming the Yetzer Horah-evil inclination, we should always be in a situation where we don't have a big battle. This also applies to treif, that even though I understand that it might taste good, but we don't create a Yetzer Horah for it. The Mesillas Yesharim says our job is to avoid the battle.
Take care.
Chaim Flom

Quote "Do you think it would have been a greater Mitzva for him if his Yetzer Hora [eveil inclination] had tried to persude him not to give it back and he overcame his Yetzer?"

It would even be greater that if he overcomes his Yetzer to make himself want to give it back for the sake of wanting to keep Hashem's Mitzvah than to overcome it to reluctantly give it back.

In other words, there are two concepts. One which deed is actually better. Another which deed had more pain involved to acomplish it. If someone who has verry little ability and temparment to learn and he learns a half hour and someone else learns four hours, it could be the first gets more reward because it was harder, yet we cannot say that learning a 1/2 hour is a better actt han learning 4 hours.

Thank you both - most interesting and certainly food for thought.

Dear Rabbi Flom,
What is the Safra?

[QUOTE]
discusses the Safra that says a person
[QUOTE]
Sincerely,
Mark

B"H

Mark,

I think what Rav Chaim Flom meant to say was "savara" = סברא (an opinion).

David

Dear Mark and David,
The Safra is another name for the Toras Cohanim.It is a halachik(legal) (as opposed to Aggadata) work on Chumash Vayikra from the Tannaim(Rabbis of the Mishnaic era).It was written primarily by Rav Yehuda bar Aloy, one of the 5 later students of Rabbi Akiva, and also was a beloved student of Rabbi Tarfon. We have also on the Chumash halachik works of Tannaim on Shemos, the Mechilta primarily Rabbi Yishmael, and on Bimidbar& Devorim, the Sifri according to Rabbi Akiva the author is primarily Rabbi Shimon. I guess there is no equivalent work on Biraishis because of the fewer amounts of Mitzvos. If you look at the Malbim's Chumash, the Mechilta, Safra, and Sifri are on the top of the page.
Take care.
Chaim Flom

Shalom:

I would like to say that as The Shema states we ought to walk along g-d path faithfully and as The Torah directs we must not change our direction to the left neither to our right.

The Torah states that we are created as G-d (of Divine name)image, This image is not physical but intelectual that means that we are able to see the good and the bad and by the mean have the capacity to choose to be closer.. . Then if we encounter the ways of getting closer to our father then G-d ( Hakadosh Baruch Hu)will let it be. What I understand is that we have to recognize these situations when we are able to do mitzvot and get closer to Eretz Israel.

Lej Leshalom