Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Living Jewishly podcast.

00:08 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome back, welcome back to the Everyday Judaism podcast, where we study practical halacha. Today we're going to study Simmon 140. Oops, simmon 140. Simmon 140 is the Simeon talking about the laws of the four partios, the four portions of the weekly Torah reading that is added for special weeks. We do this four times a year. Four times a year. When? Is it All having to do with the month of Adar, this month that we're in right now? So we're going to talk about that.

00:52
There are four occasions when the rabbis instituted adding a Torah reading from another portion. They are Shekolim, zachor, hara and HaChodesh. On these occasions, a second Torah scroll is taken from the Ark the last Aliyah, the Maftir. The Maftir is called up from the second Torah scroll and the Haftorah always relates to the Maftir. We'll see why this is relevant in a minute. The Haftorah, which is the what is written, what is read from the prophets, always correlates to the last reading of the Torah. So, whatever the Maftir is, generally, the Haftorah, which is the reading from the prophets, will correlate to that. Okay, the first of these four is Parshas Shkolin.

01:46
The Shabbos before the month of Adar that precedes the month of Nisan is Parshas Shkolim. Now why do we say that? Why did I add there that precedes the month of Nisan? Because there are times that we have two months of Adar in a leap year. So on the month of the last month of the year okay, sometimes you have two months of Adar in a leap year, so on the month of the last month of the year okay, sometimes you have 12 months, sometimes you have 13 months. The last month of the year the Shabbos that precedes that last month, is called Parshas Shkolim.

02:17
Anybody know what a shekel means? It's. A shekel is money, it is. The Israeli currency is also called a shekel. The new Israeli shekel is money. The Israeli currency is also called a shekel, the new Israeli shekel. But the shekel is the monetary coin that was used by the Jewish people when they were in the desert, when they were in Israel, wherever they were. That's the name of the monetary currency of the Jewish people.

02:51
So the Shekolim Parsha, the portion of Shekolim, is read from Exodus 30, verse 11 through 16, which commands every Jew to contribute a half shekel towards the communal offerings in the temple. To contribute a half shekel towards the communal offerings in the temple. This contribution was made annually and was due before the month of Nisan. Thus the reminder began a month earlier to remind people to begin contributing. Everybody gave a half shekel. That's also, by the way, how they counted the people. They took the census by knowing how many half shekels did they receive, and that's how they knew how many people they had. Everybody gave a half shekel. These half shekels were used towards the communal offerings.

03:38
Okay, when Shabbos is also Rosh Chodesh Adar. So what happens? Like this year, this year, only two weeks ago, was Parshas Terumah. Parshas Terumah was also Rosh Chodesh Adar and it was also Shabbos Shkolim. Okay, it is also Shkolim, because that's again the Shabbos right before the beginning of the month of Adar.

04:07
On such a Shabbos, three Torah scrolls will be removed from the ark. The first six aliyahs will be from the weekly Torah reading. So that would be this year, was Terumah every year. But wherever they're holding during that cycle of the reading of the Torah, then they will use the second Torah to read the seventh Aliyah for Rosh Chodesh. Then they say half Kaddish. Half Kaddish is recited and then it is followed by the Maftir Aliyah, which is the third Torah scroll that they take out, which is the reading of Shkollim, and then the half Torah will be for Shkollim. Okay, the half Torah will be for Shkollim. Okay, is it clear everybody? Okay, great. Now what's if they made a mistake? And the second Torah scroll they did Shkollim and the third was Rosh Chodesh. So what's the rule? We said at the beginning of class Whatever the last Aliyah is, that's the prophets you read for the Haftorah.

05:20
So if the last one was Rosh Chodesh by mistake, then the Haftorah will also be Rosh Chodesh. You can walk into two synagogues on that same Shabbos and they're going to have the different Haftorah read in each of them. It's a rare mistake, but if it happens our sages got us covered. You always follow the last reading. The Haftorah will follow the last reading. Okay, that's Parshas Shkolen, parshas Zohar.

05:52
Number four Shabbos before Purim is Shabbos Zohar. So the last Shabbos which was for us it was the 8th of March Parshas Tetzaveh was Parshas Zohar. Zohar is read from Deuteronomy 25, verse 17 through 19, commanding us to remember the wicked acts of Amalek when they brazenly attacked the Jews after the miraculous exodus from Egypt. Since Haman was a descendant of Amalek, we remind ourselves on this Shabbos preceding Purim. Always, it's a mitzvah to eradicate the world from the wickedness of Amalek.

06:34
Number five is caution should be exercised to pronounce the word Zecher properly in both ways Zecher and Zecher. The halacha tells us. We are unsure because the Torah is not given to us with vowels, so we're not sure how to read it. Could it be Zecher or Zecher? They are both the same word but pronounced differently. Same meaning. They both mean the remembrance, erase, the remembrance of Amalek. But how do you say it properly? Therefore, that verse will be repeated twice, once Zecher and once Zecher. And it is important for the person reading the Torah, the Balkore, to know which one he did, because in my synagogue this year the Balkore read it twice. The same way he did Zecher twice Twice. So they corrected him oh, zacher, okay, you have to remember which one you did, okay.

07:33
Next, Parshas Parah. The Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh, which is going to be this coming week, is Parshas Parah. Someone tells you what's this week's Parsha? It's going to be Parshas Vayakel, that's this coming Torah reading, but it's also Parshas Parah. What is Parshas Parah?

07:54
We read from Numbers 19, verse 1 through 22, pertaining to the laws of the red heifer, which was used to purify a person ritually contaminated by an encounter with a corpse. Since the first ever red heifer was burned in the wilderness shortly before the onset of the month of Nisan. We read this passage at this time of the year as an expression of yearning for the spiritual purity and prayer that we too merit to it. Okay, so every year at this time we want to, because we're about to step foot into the holiest time of the year, the month of Nisan. The month of Nisan is the first year of the Jewish calendar. The month of Nisan is the time of our exodus. It's the time of our redemption, our sages tell us. Just like the first redemption from the first exile, which was Egypt, began in the month of Nisan, so too our current exile, the final exile, will also the redemption of the Jewish people will come in the month of Nisan.

09:05
It's a time of great, great revelation. Last year, if you remember, on the 14th, I believe it on the 14th, I believe it was the 14th of April we had a tremendous gift from the Almighty, where the Iranians sent us 180 ballistic missiles and, thank God, nobody was injured from them, and miraculous hand of Hashem that we were protected and saved, our homeland was saved and protected. The time of great, great revelation, the time of Nisan, the time and what we're doing is we're saying we want closeness with you, hashem. This is a time of unbelievable revelation. And then the final of the four parashas is parashas haKhodesh, the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh. Nisan, which is next week, is going to be in this year of 2025, or 5-7-8-5, is going to be Parshas Pekudei. So, which is the last portion in the book of Exodus, very good. So we're going to read Parshas HaChodesh. Then we read from Exodus 12, verse 1 through 20, commanding us to proclaim Rosh Chodesh the beginning of the month, and that Nisan Chodesh the beginning of the month. Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the month, and Nisan as the first of all the months. Okay, clear, everybody understands. We got this.

10:38
Okay, good, there are opinions that the reading of Zachar and Parah are biblically obligated, that it's not rabbinic that those two, which is this coming week, parshas Parah and last week of Parshas Zachar, are biblically abrogated. Therefore, although on other occasions a boy under the age of 13 may be called up to the Maftir Aliyah, on these weeks we do not call someone under the age of 13 for an Aliyah. For that Aliyah, generally it would be only Maftir, but since that's the maftir aliyah, we don't call someone under the age of 13 for that aliyah. And another very important and final law regarding this is that in communities where a minyan is not regular, it is proper to come in to the main Jewish areas, obviously for all of Shabbos, to hear these Torah readings, because you want to have the merit, especially if it's a biblical obligation, to hear it in a proper form, which is, with a minion, in a shul. But if this is not possible, someone lives in, I don't know, someplace where there is no minion Fredericksburg, there is no minion. Okay, it's not possible. So at the very least it should be read with the proper cantillations. If a person sits there on their balcony of their ranch and there's no minion to go to, they're too far from a minion. They weren't able to get into the town, to the main city next to them either Austin, san Antonio, houston, dallas, one of the main communities. They weren't able to. They should at least read it from the Chumash, read it from open up a Chumash, open up a Bible and read the portion of these weeks. And this, my dear friends, very short but hopefully meaningful and gives us a little bit of a perspective.

12:42
Again, just to summarize this, there are four times a year where we add a Torah reading to our weekly reading on Shabbos, and these are these four weeks surrounding and in the month of Adar. Before Adar, it's parashat Shekolem, about the Shekel, about reminding everyone that you have 30 days now give the Shekel for the communal service. By the way, we perform this mitzvah, the, on the fast of Esther. In most synagogues they'll have the silver coins, like the, and you'll. You'll do that mitzvah goes to charity and you'll buy that coin and give it. And buy that coin and give it for every member of your family, right? So I was there, lifting it and putting it down for each member of my family and buying that half shekel so that I can perform what is commanded in the Torah for us to give the half shekel coin to the service.

13:42
Now, today we don't have a temple, so what do we do? We give it to a communal purpose, either to a congregation, to a synagogue which is serving a community, yes, so all of keeping the lights on is part of that gift of communal service. Today we don't have the offering, so no one's bringing that karbon, that offering, that sacrifice in the temple. We don't have it. God willing, it'll be rebuilt and that's part of why we continue every single year to maintain this custom of the Shekel.

14:15
Okay, then the Shabbos right before Purim is called Parashas Zachar, where we remember the evil ways of Amalek and that we must eradicate Amalek, who was part of Amalek's descendants. Haman, the wicked Haman, who tried to destroy and obliterate the Jewish people. We remember that we have to remove evil from our midst. Then the Shabbos preceding the month of Nisan is HaChodesh, where we are designating the new month to be, and the Shabbos before that is Parshas Parah, where we already are getting excited for the Passover season, where we're getting closer to God.

15:06
By the way, you should just know that on the 23rd day of the month of Nisan of Adar, it was already the establishment of the temple, and for seven days till the 30th of Adar, every day they constructed and deconstructed the tabernacle practice to get it into work. And it was inaugurated on the first day of the month of Nisan. So for seven days they did preparatory work, set it up and took it down, because they knew they were going to have to travel. How many times did the Jewish people travel in the desert? 42 times. They had to set it up and take it apart. They were getting into that practice. Every day they set it up, took it down, set it up, took it down. Finally, on the first day of Nisan it was inaugurated and they brought offerings every day for the leader of each of the tribes, 12 days, and then the 13th they brought a special offering for the firstborn and then it was Pesach and then they brought the Pesach offerings. And this is one of the reasons that during the month of Nisan we do not recite supplications Tachnun, because it was such a special time during the month of Nisan that there were these offerings being brought. There was the establishment of the new temple and all of the service. It was such a great time, closeness that we don't, because times of celebration, we don't do the extra supplications of the Tachrun. Therefore, during the entire month of Nisan, there is no supplications added to our prayer. All right, my dear friends. This concludes Semen 140.

16:54
And now we will open the floor to our Ask Away segment. Yes, whoa, whoa, whoa. One second, one second. The half shekel was not used in this situation, for the census. It was a different half shekel that was collected for the census, okay, but this one was not used for the census. This was used for the purpose of bringing the offerings. It wasn't only for the offerings, but it was for everything that needed to happen there. Okay, a very good question. And now we're going to go to the Ask Away segment. Ask Away number six, those of you who are online, we're sorry, we're going to part ways now and you're welcome to look at Ask Away 1 through 5, the previous episodes, and send us your questions. Ask away at torchweborg. We look forward to addressing your questions in future episodes. Thank you, have a terrific week.

17:50 - Intro (Announcement)
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