5785 - "And these are the laws that you shall place before them": Regarding mitzvos whose matter is understanding and comprehension, it would seemingly have needed to be written 'that you shall teach' and not 'that you shall place'? By Rabbi Shimon…

00:01 Speaker 1 “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu instructs Moshe Rabbeinu what to teach the judges of Israel, what to rule and how to rule. At first glance, since these are matters of understanding and comprehension, it should have said, “These are the laws that you shall teach.” Why does it say “set”? These are matters of wisdom, matters of study. Why “that you shall set before them”? Because teaching alone is not enough. It is like the verse says, “Set your hearts”—you have to understand the matter inwardly in order to rule on the halacha. It is not enough to be able to recite what the halacha says. You have to know the actual circumstances to which the halacha applies. That is “which you shall set before them”: like “set your hearts,” you have to enter into the matter, understand the situation, and connect the halacha to the actual situation. It is like they say: a judge, a rabbi, needs to know the fifth section of the Shulchan Aruch—so to speak, what is not written there. In this connection, they tell a story. There was once a town whose rabbi, the mara d’asra, was very old and passed away. They needed to appoint a new rabbi. There were two candidates. One was a young married Torah scholar with a sharp mind, a student of the Noda BiYehuda, Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, who was truly fit to be the rabbi. But there was another young man, the son-in-law of the town’s wealthy man, and the wealthy man thought his son-in-law should be the rabbi. So the community split in two. Some thought the Torah scholar was fit to be the rabbi, while others were close to the town’s wealthy man and sided with him, arguing that his son-in-law should be appointed. There was quite a commotion in the town. The landowner who ruled the area heard that there was a commotion among the Jews, a dispute over who would be the rabbi. So he sent word: “I am in charge. I will decide who will be

02:16 Speaker 1 the rabbi.” All right, how would he decide who would be the rabbi? He would test them and decide. They set a day to bring the two candidates before him for the test. When the day came, the landowner called in the Jew who worked for him and asked, “What is the most important book the Jews have?” He answered, “The prayer book. Every Jew has a prayer book.” “Bring me a prayer book.” So he brought him a siddur. The two candidates arrived. He called over the wealthy man’s son-in-law, opened the siddur and said, “Start reading.” It opened right to “Happy are those who dwell in Your house.” Well, everyone knows how to say Ashrei. He read it clearly and fluently. Very good. Then he called over the other candidate, who really was a Torah scholar, opened the siddur and said, “Start reading.” It opened to the yotzros for Shabbos Zachor. In Ashkenazi synagogues, they recite yotzros after the prayers—various passages, various things said there. And for Parshas Zachor, the words are very difficult. They say them once a year. So of course he did not read it very fluently; he struggled to read it. The landowner decided that the wealthy man’s son-in-law would be the rabbi. The other young man, who really was a Torah scholar, was deeply hurt, and he went to his teacher, the Noda BiYehuda. He told him the whole story and said, “Why did Hashem do this? It’s true, everything is from Above, everything is by Divine Providence. But why did Hashem arrange it so that he, of all people, was chosen?” His teacher said to him, “Because you really are not fit to be a rabbi.” That hurt him even more. Why couldn’t he be a rabbi? His teacher, the Noda BiYehuda, said to him, “Tell me, when the landowner opened the siddur for you to the yotzros, why didn’t you just carry on with Ashrei? After all, the landowner

04:20 Speaker 1 doesn’t know or understand a thing. You could have kept reading Ashrei. It didn’t occur to you. You are not meant to be a rabbi. You really are not fit to be a rabbi.” That is “which you shall set before them.” You have to “set your hearts,” enter into the matter and understand the situation in order to give a true halachic ruling. This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevarchim for the month of Adar. “When Adar begins, we increase in joy.” May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us have reason to rejoice with true joy.

04:48 Speaker 2 Amen.