To the Upright in Heart – Re’ei
This week’s parshat hashavua, Re’ei, is one of the main reasons according to Chazal, that Sefer Devarim is also known as “Sefer Hayashar”. I would like to share with you some insights from a shiur I heard by HaRav Baruch Rosenblum (Shlita), on parshat Re’eh (תשע"ט) and Bisiyata DiShmaya add some chidushim on how they relate to the Lechem Hapanim.
We all know that Sefer Devarim is also known as Mishne Torah, but not everyone knows that it is also called “Sefer Hayashar”. The sefarim Iyun-Yaakov and the Ben-Yehoyada explain that reason Devarim is also known as Sefer Hayashar is because - no less than five times in Sefer Devarim is there mention of the concept of being “yashar” in the eyes of Hashem (3 in our parsha, Re’ei)–
וְעָשִׂיתָ הַיָּשָׁר וְהַטּוֹב בְּעֵינֵי ה' (דברים ו:יח, פ' ואתחנן)
כִּי תַעֲשֶׂה הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי ה' (דברים יב:כה,פ' ראה)
כִּי תַעֲשֶׂה הַטּוֹב וְהַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי ה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ (דברים יב:כח,פ' ראה)
לַעֲשׂוֹת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי ה' אֱ-לֹקֶיךָ (דברים יג:יט, פ' ראה)
כִּי תַעֲשֶׂה הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי ה' (דברים כא:ט, פ' שפטים)
What does it mean to be “yashar” in the eyes of Hashem? David Hamelech says – אוֹר זָרֻעַ לַצַּדִּיק וּלְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב שִׂמְחָה (תהילים צז:יא). We will soon be reciting this passuk B”H on Yom Kippur as we open the Aron Kodesh and bring out the Sifrei Torah before beginning Kol Nidrei. In the Gemara (תענית טו ע"א), Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says “not everyone gets light (אור) and not everyone gets joy (שמחה) - the Tzaddikim get אור and the Yesharim get שמחה” and he quotes the passuk in Tehilim above.
In the Heichal in the Beit Hamikdash, two (of the three) keilim stood alongside each other, the Menorah (on the southern side) and the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim (on the northern side).
The essence of the Menorah was אור, the light of the Torah. Someone who follows the Torah to the letter, is called – a Tzaddik.
The essence of the Shulchan Lechem Hapanim was the connection between שמחה and פרנסה - איזהו עשיר השמח בחלקו (see my shiur Lechem Hapanim and the Power of a Smile, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwOrMb1QAs ). The Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim were a symbol of paranasa and every aspect of them related somehow to parnasa. The Sefer Hachinuch explains that every component of the Shulchan has some association with parnasa and embodies a hint(רמז) . For example the “menakiyot” are so called because we are required to be נקי in our business dealings and they were upright (supporting the breads), because we must be yashar and upright in conducting business and everything related to our parnasa.
What is the difference between a “Tzaddik” and a “Yashar”? If someone asked you, “What is better, to be a Tzaddik or to be Yashar?” what would you say? Most people would say – to be a Tzaddik, right? Wrong! Rashi on the Gemara above (תענית טו ע"א) says “דישרים עדיפי מצדיקים” It is better to be a Yashar than a Tzaddik. In the Gemara (פסחים ח, ע"א) it says –
סלע זו לצדקה בשביל שיחיה בני או שאהיה בן העוה"ב הרי זה צדיק גמור
Rashi there says, what does it mean to be a Tzaddik Gamur? – בדבר זה, in “this thing” - the person does exactly (and only) what he is obligated to do – he follows the Torah to the letter of the law! To be a Tzaddik is certainly a great מעלה. If we were all so medayek to follow the Torah to the letter of the law, we would look a lot better as a nation today than we do!
But HKB”H does not want us to be just a Tzaddik! Like Shlomo Hamelech says - אַל תְּהִי צַדִּיק הַרְבֵּה (קהלת ז:ט), HKB”H wants us to be BETTER than a Tzaddik, he wants us to be Yashar! What is a Yashar? A Yashar is not someone who simply follows the letter of the law and does exactly and only what he is obligated to, he goes BEYOND what he is obligated to - לפנים משורת הדין! HKB”H wants us to be Yashar, He tells us this THREE times in our Parsha! He wants us to be lifnim mishurat hadin. If Noach would have been a Yashar instead of a Tzaddik, there may not have been a Mabul.
HaRav Rosenblum gives a great mashal to illustrate this. Imagine the mother in the family is a nurse and has to work Fridays. She leaves home at 6:00am Friday morning to get to the hospital in time for her 7:00am shift, not before leaving a note on the refrigerator for her husband, listing all the things she wants him to buy at the supermarket for Shabbat – challahs, ice cream (she already cooked the chicken on Thursday night), drinks, nosh for the kids, etc. The husband goes to the supermarket and buys exactly what she asked and comes back laden with provisions for Shabbat. Is he a good husband? The simple answer is yes, he is a Tzaddik! But the Torah and our parsha tells us – no. It is not enough to be a Tzaddik, we have to be Yashar, lifnim mishurat hadin. The wife made a list of all the things that the family needed, but not anything that she personally needs. If the husband is a Yashar, he will get all the things on her list and in addition, he will go buy her a bunch of flowers (she is not going to write flowers on her list). He knows that she likes pistachios, so instead of getting the 500g she listed, he will get 1kg so she will have some extra oneg Shabbat. This is the way Hashem wants us to serve Him, not just according to the letter of the law, but beyond than that, lifnim mishurat hadin, out of אהבה for HKB”H and not simply because we are obligated and commanded to.
We should first aspire to be Tzaddikim, because most of us, including myself, are far even from that level. But we should know that that is insufficient, HKB”H requires more from us. We should strive to conduct our lives and our relationships, with our families and with HKB”H, lifnim mishurat hadin, out of love.
Getting back to the Lechem Hapanim, everyone knows the story of Beit Garmu, the family of Levi’im in the time of Bayit Sheini who baked the Lechem Hapanim. They appear in a Mishna and Gemara (יומא לח ע"א) in a negative context (לגנאי), because they wouldn’t reveal the secret of how the Lechem Hapanim was made. (I go into this in much more detail on our website - https://www.showbreadinstitute.org/The-Mystery-of-the-Garmu-Family ).
Beit Garmu were a “freak of nature” (in fact all 4 families/ individuals listed in that Mishna were). They had a supernatural, G-d given talent for making the Lechem Hapanim that nobody could match, not even the world’s most expert bakers from Alexandria. The chachamim were mistaken when they tried to replace them and admitted as such “כל מה שברא הקב"ה לכבודו בראו”.
By all accounts, Beit Garmu were Yesharim – they had to be, anything or anyone involved with the Lechem Hapanim had to be Yashar (וּלְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב שִׂמְחָה). The Gemara details exactly how Yashar and lifnim mishurat hadin Beit Garmu actually were – that they would not allow the members of their family to eat פת נקיה, bread made with high quality solet. They were super makpid on mar’it ayin that nobody would suspect them of using the solet from the Beit Hamikdash for their personal use, at home. That is the epitome of being Yashar.
But in one thing they were not Yesharim, they were Tzaddikim. They would not reveal their secret to the chachamim. Yes, they had a good reason. They did not want the secret to be used for avodah zara. They were following the letter of the law to a “T”. That is why the conclusion of this Gemara is what it is. It concludes that the first two (families mentioned in the Mishna, Bet Garmu and Bet Avtinas) were זכר צדיק לברכה. They were certainly not Resha’im, like the latter two (Hugras ben Levi and Ben Kamtzar), but the chachamim’s conclusion still contains a veiled reprimand. As they were Yesharim in all other respects, they should also have been Yesharim and lifnim mishurat hadin, in regard to revealing the secret to the chachamim. The sting of references like גנאי and צדיק in the Mishna still linger, even though Bet Garmu were reinstated and exonerated, because to be a Tzaddik, especially where the Lechem Hapanim is concerned, is insufficient. Everything about the Lechem Hapanim had to be Yashar and lifnim mishurat hadin.
As we approach Rosh Chodesh Elul, a unique and special time when the King is in the Field (המלך בשדה), we should strive to apply these lessons of Parshat Re’eh and the keilim from the Mikdash. We should use the Menorah, the light of the Torah as a starting point, to get to the level of a Tzaddik, but not to stop there. To transcend that and move to the next level, the level of the Shulchan where we attain the status of Yashar, lifnim mishurat hadin, using the midah of Simcha (וּלְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב שִׂמְחָה ) being שמחים בחלקנו. It starts with our spouse, our parents, our children, our neighbors and continues to where we eventually achieve Avodat Hashem Besimcha, out of love, lifnim mishurat hadin.
Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Showbread Institute
www.showbreadinstitute.com
To subscribe to receive these weekly shiurim by email, please send an email to machonlechemhapanim@gmail.com with the word SUBSCRIBE
