אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
ג׳ כִּסְלֵו תשפ״ז
The sugya is Sanhedrin 104a. Tape: Perek Chelek 28. Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l. On 103b: His bread was there.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
Call him that he may eat
Kera'en lo ve-yochal lechem: call him, that he may eat bread.
Yisro said to Moshe, "Call him that he may eat bread," and brought him into the house. For that meal his descendants sat in the lishkas ha-gazis. The Kenim, Tir'atim, Shim'atim, Sukhatim, from Chamos the father of the house of Rechev, sat before Yavetz, Osniel ben Kenaz. They are the children of Yisro. One meal for a stranger draws the far near. Neglect pushes the near far.
Bread always ready does more. Michah's pesel of the Name was left standing because wayfarers could eat there. A false prophet who fed Ido haNavi received the Word at the table: "And it was as they sat at the table, the word of Hashem came to the prophet who had turned him back."
Shogeg ba-lechem, mazid: an unwitting failure over bread is counted as deliberate.
The mind was occupied. Had he known, he would have given. Preoccupation does not excuse it.
Two loaves
Ilmalei leivahu Yehonatan le-David shtei kikarot lechem, lo nehergah Nov ir ha-kohanim, ve-lo nitrad Doeg ha-Adomi, ve-lo neherag Shaul u-sheloshet banav: had Yehonatan accompanied David with two loaves, Nov would not have been slain, Doeg would not have lost his share, and Shaul and his three sons would not have fallen.
David came hungry to Achimelech in Nov. Doeg was there and heard. Achimelech gave bread, the sword of Golias, and inquired of the Urim ve-Tumim. Doeg told Shaul. Shaul called Achimelech a rebel and destroyed the city. All of it hung on two loaves. Nothing is accident.
Between two tzaddikim
Mipnei she-hayah ben tzaddik u-ben tzaddik: because he was the son of a tzaddik and the father of a tzaddik, Yosam and Chizkiyahu.
Achaz is not listed. He was placed between Yosam and Chizkiyahu. Or he had shame before Yeshayahu. Hashem sent the prophet to the road of the laundryman's field. Achaz saw him and covered his face, or pulled a laundryman's pot, with holes, over his head. Shame before a tzaddik is a redeeming virtue. The name of the field records the concealment.
A son gives merit
Ben zekai av, av lo zekai bra: a son gives merit to the father; a father does not rescue the son.
The deeds of the son are counted as the father's because the son is the result of the father. The deeds of the father are not the deeds of the son. Avraham does not rescue Yishmael; Yitzchak does not rescue Esav. A living father's prayer can still help: David prayed for Avshalom and brought him up from Gehinnom. After death one cannot pray. Zechus avos rests on the prayers the fathers made while alive and on the covenant Hashem made with them and their seed. Reward can come to the children in this world because of the father's mitzvos; the share in the World to Come needs one's own. The son's mitzvos are like a limb of the father; they go to the father's account.
Amon is omitted for Yoshiyahu, whose repentance none had equaled. Menashe is not omitted for Chizkiyahu. The son gives merit to the father. The father does not rescue the son.
This and something more
Zot ve-od acheret: this and something more.
Yehoyakim rebelled against Bavel and died as he left the gates. They dragged him like a dead donkey onto the garbage. R' Perata's grandfather found the skull, buried it, and it would not stay buried, as Yirmiyahu had said: the burial of a donkey. He wrapped it in silk. His wife thought it was the first wife's skull and burned it. That last indignity was kaparah. After death there is still atonement. That is why one says kaddish and gives tzedakah, and why Chizkiyahu dragged Achaz on a rope bed.
I did what was good
Atah asita ha-tov be-einecha: I did what was good in Your eyes.
On his sickbed Chizkiyahu said that. Appeal to the fathers, not to your own deeds. From that he asked for a sign. The sundial went back ten degrees. One sin draws another. The king of Bavel sent messengers with gifts. Chizkiyahu seated them at his table and called his wife to pour. Do not become excited over Gentiles. Do not bring them into the house or serve them with the wife. She is a treasure to conceal.
That brought the early exile of his children. Daniel, Chananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and others of the royal house went to the palace in Bavel as chamberlains. He showed them the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oils, his wife, and even secret weapons that could consume iron.
Like a widow
Eicha yashvah badad: how does the city sit in solitude.
They transgressed the thirty-six things that carry karet. That is the number of eicha. A minority did it, and the punishment came. The lament is in aleph-beis because the Torah was given with those letters.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu had offered another solitude: "Yisrael shall dwell in security, alone, the eye of Yaakov, in a land of grain and wine. His heavens shall drip dew." Rich enough to need no ally. They did not take it. They sat poor, and without friends.
Rabati am: great in people.
They married young girls to old men and old girls to young men so that no one remained unmarried. Being married is better than waiting.
Ki almanah: like a widow, not a widow.
Like a woman whose husband went overseas and means to return. The Shechinah departed into concealment but is still with us. In exile they remain princes among the provinces. They never fall as low as the lowest of the place. In Lithuania and Poland the local Gentiles worked in Jewish homes. That is the point the Kuzari makes.
How far can merit left after death still lighten suffering in this world, and never open the share? The tape ends on the status of Israel in exile.
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