“They arrived and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and declared to them, saying, ‘We came to the Aramean camp and behold! Not a man or a human sound is there, only the horses are tethered, and the tents are as they were.’

The Gatekeepers announced it; and it was related inside the king’s palace (II Kings 7:10-11).”

If I were there, I would have yelled out, “There’s food! The siege is over!” I would not have declared that, “We came to the Aramean camp,” which will eventually raise the question of, “Why did you go there?”

If they had decided to, “report to the King’s palace (Verse 9),” why did they not ask to be allowed entry and/or for an audience with the King?

We can tell from the text that the scene described is incomplete: Why did the gatekeepers announce the news before confirming the information? Why did they not send a message directly to the palace, rather than waiting for, “and it was related inside the king’s palace”?

They announced the news, word spread, and eventually reached the palace.

I would imagine that the minute it was announced that the people inside would be clamoring to open the gates and get out, or at least gather before the palace to await confirmation.

Did they allow the four men/metzoraim to enter? Did they risk opening the gate?

If the city is under siege, why have gatekeepers rather than watchmen? Was there no one on the wall keeping the Aramean army under observation? Did no one notice the four men entering the Aramean camp?

An earlier verse (Background Text II) hints that the walls were abandoned; the King went up on the wall to look out. The famine had reached such devastating proportions that the people inside the city gave up. Perhaps they had so given up that no one could believe the report.

This is the way I imagine the scene: The four metzoraim approach the city and request entry and an audience with the king, only to be ignored. They want to offer just enough information to earn them entry, without sharing all the good news.

However, “We came to the Aramean camp,” caused the gatekeepers to suspect the four, and “announce” the news to mock it. No one takes it seriously, but they talk about it until the rumor reaches the King’s palace. They don’t trust the news, as we see in verses 12-13, but they do recall Elisha’s prophecy; there is enough of a hint of hope that the palace must consider the information.

The minute that the palace just considers the news because of Elisha’s prophecy, they are acknowledging his words, something the King had already done when he didn’t follow through on his promise to kill Elisha the previous day. It was the King’s slight belief that triggered the miracle, and it was his refusal to seriously acknowledge Elisha’s words that delayed access to the miracle’s benefits.

Imagine people so desperate for food, and yet, almost equally desperate to deny the truth of Elisha’s promise!

If Elisha was correct, they would have to consider that all the suffering was caused by their sins. A part of them hesitated to get food because they could not afford such a consideration; how would they look at all the corpses of the people who died because of their sins? How would they explain that their sins led to women cooking and eating their children?

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“Who is the man whop desires life, who loves days of seeing good? Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit (Psalms 34:13-14).” Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld zt”l, used to say that although people focus on the second verse about controlling our speech, the first verse is setting a different agenda; “who loves days of seeing good.” is asking for the person who wants to see the good of the world, and who desires to see life in a positive light. A person who speaks negatively of others sees the negative of the world, the bad. The person who speaks only good, and avoids speaking of the negative, will quickly develop the vision of “Seeing good.”

The Metzorah is being punished for speaking evil of others. He sees the negative, and has lost the ability to look out at the world and see the good. He is therefore brought before the Kohen, who sees the affliction, and the afflicted man waits for how the Kohen will rule about what he sees. The man waits hoping that the Kohen sees good, not bad. He is beginning the process of seeing good.

“In every generation a person must see himself as if he went out of Egypt.” He must see himself as the newly freed slaves saw themselves; with joy and confidence. With hope and courage. They were seeing good. We too, must see ourselves the way those people saw themselves; we must see the good in ourselves, the positive, the potential, the promise, and be so joyful about what we see that, rather than speak negatively of ourselves, we sing Hallel!

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

William slipped his hands inside his habit, at the point where it billowed over his chest to make a kind of sack, and he drew from it an object that I had already seen in his hands, and on his face, in the course of our journey. It was a forked pin, so constructed that it could stay on a man’s nose (or at least on his, so prominent and aquiline) as a rider remains astride his horse or as a bird clings to its perch. And, on on either side of the fork, before the eyes, there were two ovals of metal, which held two almonds of glass, thick as the bottom of a tumbler.

William preferred to read with these before his eyes, and he said they made his vision better that what nature had endowed him with or than his advanced age, especially as the daylight failed, would permit. They did not serve him to see from a distance; for then his eyes were, on the contrary, quite sure, but to see close up. With these lenses he could read manuscripts penned in very faint letters, which even I had some trouble deciphering.

He explained to me that when a man had passed the middle point of his life, even if his sight had always been excellent, the eye hardened and the pupil became recalcitrant, so that many learned men had virtually died, as far as reading and writing were concerned, after their fiftieth summer. A grave misfortune for men who could have given the best fruits of their intellect for many years. So the Lord was to be praised since someone had devised and constructed this instrument. (“The Name of the Rose,” by Umberto Eco)

Last night, as I was having dinner with a close friend, he removed his glasses, held them up before his face, and said, “I love glasses! I love living in a time when such marvelous things are possible!”

I love it too, and for more than simply being able to see with my glasses: the Haggadah instructs us that, “In every generation a man must view himself as if he had gone out of Egypt.” So, the way we view ourselves, or, the way we see, is important. It isn’t just glasses that help us see the Exodus story with more clarity; forgive me, but this is one place where we really benefit from television and movies. We have become accustomed to creating scenes of different worlds, of the past and of the future. We have learned that there are no limitations to the power of imagination. We can use that imagination, our cinematic skills, to picture in a way previous generations could not, what it was like to be in Egypt as a slave, what it was like to observe our former masters suffering through the Ten Plagues, what it must have been like to celebrate the original Pesach, and what it must have felt like when we finally left.

We have been blessed with constant reminders of how to create such scenes in our minds. We are better equipped than any previous generation.

That is, in the power of imagination. However, I suspect that when the Haggadah instructs us to view ourselves as if we were there, it is challenging us to not only picture the scene, but to learn from the experience and apply its lessons to our lives.

In all of the chapters about the Metzorah, there is a constant word repeated: see. When the affliction first appears, the Kohen must see the affliction. Even if he sees what is clearly an affliction, the person is not impure until the Kohen declares him so. It is not what the Kohen sees, by how he responds to what he sees. It is not how we see the story of the Exodus; it is what we do with what we see.

If we are instructed to picture ourselves as if we went out of Egypt, why does the Haggadah mention this instruction will be towards the conclusion of the story, rather than at the beginning of Maggid? Would it not make more sense to begin Maggid the with the instruction to be sure that whatever we discuss, we do as if we had actually been there the night of the original Pesach?

It would make sense to have this instruction at the beginning of the Seder if our objective was to produce a movie. However, if the objective is not just to see, but to apply, our real work begins at the end of the story, when we go around the Seder table asking each person what was the most significant idea he or she gained from this seder so far, and how they will apply it in a practical way.

This is why the following paragraph is Hallel: once we have figured out how to apply the experience we can look forward to the future with new glasses, and celebrate what is to come.

We wear our glasses in front of our face because they help us look ahead, near and far, with the infinite joy of a real Hallel.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

When we interact with people do we see them as they actually are?

This week we learn about a particular offering in the temple. It consists of a specified amount of food. But if someone cannot afford (is not capable of) this, a lesser amount is acceptable. In this case, material difference is not a barrier to ending up on an equal level.  What about two people who are on different levels of ability?  Is one greater than the other?

Rabbi Josh Flug gave me the answer. He asked why the Torah sometimes says, “Moses and Aaron,” and at other times, “Aaron and Moses”? Shouldn’t Moses always be first? After all, he was the great leader.

Rabbi Flug then took out two bottles of Coke and placed them on his desk. One bottle was 64 ounces, and the other was 20 ounces. He pointed to the top of each bottle to show me each was filled to the brim. Both Moses and Aaron reached their potential. That is why both men deserved to be placed first, because reaching our potential, our personal best, is the highest achievement. One man is no less than the other.

When I write about my family, my friends and even my casual acquaintances it is because I appreciate what these people have taught me. They have shown me how to get closer to reaching my full potential. Sometimes there are new insights, other times they remind me of what I already know but have ignored or forgotten. I notice what they do for me, and also what they do for other people. I marvel at the way they handle the daily challenges we all face. They instruct and inspire my growth. I learn what to do and how to do it.

Few people are noble by birth. Many people are noble by deeds. Inspiration is all around us. All we have to do is simply look and listen.

This post is a thank you to the noble people who inspire me to come closer to reaching my potential.

These metzoraim arrived at the edge of the camp; they came to a tent and ate and drank. From it they carried away silver, gold, and garments, and went and hid them; then they returned and went to another tent, carried away from there, and went and hid it.

One said to his fellow, “We are not acting properly; today is a day of good news, yet we remain silent! If we wait until the light of dawn we will be adjudged as sinners. Now come, let us go and report to the Kings palace!” (II Kings 7:8–9) By the way, they never made it to the king’s palace!

I guess you can’t blame people evicted from the city for not rushing to inform those people that the siege was over. You can’t blame them for eating and drinking; we can assume that they too were starving. We can’t blame them for hiding some gold and silver. However, we can blame them for visiting so many tents before even considering informing the people of the city.

When they decided to go inform the people of the city, they said that they would go to the king’s palace; they were expecting to be heroes. They probably also expected that they would no longer be excluded from the city. Yet, we never read of them again. They disappear from the story. The people of the city were insane with hunger; they rushed out of the city to get the food. They had no time to celebrate anyone as a hero. I expect that by the time people had collected all the food, they probably figured out that these four men had taken their time to announce the good news.

Can you imagine the scene of these four men sitting down in one of the tents, feasting on food and wine, having a grand old time, fully aware that there were people in the city starving to death?

When we go back to the opening of this story, when the verse describes them as men and as lepers, it is as if the verse is teaching us that they had an opportunity to become “men” once again, or to remain as lepers. When they sat down to party; they chose to remain lepers, outsiders, different, selfish.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

They stood up at evening to come to the Aramaean camp and they arrived at the age of the Aramaean camp, and behold! Not a man was there.

God had caused Aramaean camp to hear the sound of chariots and the sound of horse, the sound of a great army; and they said one to another, “Behold! The King of Israel has hired the Hittite kings and the Egyptian kings to come upon us!” So they stood up and fled into the evening; they abandoned their tenants, their horses, and their donkeys; the camp just as it was, and they fled for their lives. (II Kings 7:5–6)

It seems that God likes to play with Aramaeans! (See Background Text I) God not only made them here what wasn’t there, He instilled fear in them that it was the sound of multiple armies.

The stories of these confrontations between Aram and Israel are stories of people who just don’t get the message. The King of Aram learns that the Jews have a prophet who knows about his secret ambushes, and yet he sends his soldiers to capture is the prophet who seems to always know what Aram is planning! The King of Israel follows Elisha’s instructions, feeds the captured soldiers and sends them home. We can understand that he will blame the prophet for the fact that Aram has an army, and yet, he doesn’t turn to the prophet for help or guidance! His captain refuses to believe a prophecy of salvation, and publicly challenges Elisha!

These four men don’t seem to be to astute or aware either. If they were actually sitting in front of the gate of the city, how could they not see a massive besieging army flee?

They had obviously decided to throw themselves upon the mercy of the besieging army. Why did they wait until evening? Were they trying to sneak into the camp? Wouldn’t that be a lot more dangerous than simply asking for help?

The only possible explanation is that the Aramaean army snuck away from the back of their camp. They believed that multiple armies were coming to help Israel and attack them. They had to sneak away.

God did not want anyone to know that the besieging army had abandoned their siege. Not Israel. Not the king of Israel. Not even the four men. The famine continued to rage in this city until the abandoned camp was discovered by the four men excluded from the city. God wanted this miracle brought about by the very people who were sent away from the city!

The time between the actual miracle and its discovery was a test for all the people inside the city, to see whether they believed Elisha’s prophecy, or whether they, as had the Kings captain, ridiculed his prophecy of salvation. The time in between the miracle and its discovery was a test. It’s almost as if God is teaching us that His miracles are there; they are waiting for us to discover them.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“Four men, were metzoraim, outside the gate; each one said to his friend, “why are we sitting here until we die? If we propose to come to the city, there is a famine in the city and we will die there, and if we remain here we will die; let us now go and throw ourselves upon the camp of Aram; if they let us live, we will live; and if they put us to death, we will die.”

The city is under siege, and for men are sitting at the gate of the city? Isn’t the whole point of the siege that no one can enter or leave the city? How did the Army of Aram allow these men to just sit there in front of the city?

Why doesn’t the verse simply say, “four metzoraim were outside the gate,” rather than say, “four men, were metzoraim?” If the verse had said, “four metzoraim were outside the gate,” it would be as if it was describing four lepers sitting in front of the city, untouchable because they were lepers. We could then imagine that the Army allowed them to remain there because no one wanted to go near them. When the verse begins by describing them as, “four men,” it gives the impression as if it was not their leprosy that allowed them or forced them to sit in front of the gate of the city.

Why are they sitting outside the city gate? Biblical lepers were considered impure, and were not permitted in the city. So how could they say, “if we propose to come to the city,” if they would not even be permitted to enter the city?

There are actually two groups outside the city: one is the besieging army, and the other is this group of four lepers.

The besieging army permitted the group of four men to sit right in front of the city’s gate as a provocation to the people stuck inside the city: “The people you excluded from your city have more freedom than you.” This group of men understood why they were allowed to sit in peace outside the city, and they believed that the people stuck inside would be so bothered by their freedom that they would allow these four “man” to enter; to enter as men, not as lepers.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

It happened after that, that Ben-hadad, the King of Aram, gathered together his entire camp, and he went out and laid siege to Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria, and; behold! They were besieging it, until a donkey’s head cost 80 silver pieces and a quarter of a kav of pigeon’s dung cost five silver pieces.

The King of Israel was passing on the city wall, and a woman called out to him, “Help, my lord the king!”

He replied, “If God does not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?” The king then said to her, “What troubles you?”

She said, “This woman said to me, ‘Give over your son and we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give over your son and let us eat him,’ but she has hidden her son!”

It happened when the king heard the woman’s words that he tore his garments while he was passing on the wall, and the people saw that there was sackcloth upon his flesh underneath. He said, “such may God do to me and such may He do further, if the head of Elisha son of Shafat remains on him today!”

Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him, when the king sent a man ahead of them. Before the messenger had come to him, Elisha said to the elders, “Have you seen that this son of a murderer has sent to remove my head? See to it that when the messenger comes you close the door and push them out with the door; for surely the sound of his master’s feet is behind him.”

As he was speaking with them, behold, the messenger was coming down to him. Then the king said, “Behold, this misfortune is from God; what hope can I have from God?”

Elisha then said, “Hear the word of God! Thus said God: At this time tomorrow, a se’ah of fine flour will be bought for one shekel and two se’ahs of barley for one shekel at the Gateway of Samaria!”

The Kings captain, upon whose arm he was leaning, answered the man of God and said, “Even if God were to make Windows in the heavens, can this thing happen?”

Elisha replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat from it!” (II Kings 6:24–7:2)

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The King of Aram was fighting against Israel. He took counsel with his servants, saying, “My encampments will be in such and such a place.” The man of God (Elisha) sent word to the King of Israel, saying, “Beware of passing by this place, for that is where Aram is lurking.” The King of Israel sent scouts to the place about which the man of God had spoken to him and had warned him, and he took care to avoid that place. This happened not just ones and not just twice.

The heart of the king of our Aram became perturbed over this matter. He summoned his servants and said to them, “Won’t you tell me which of our people is reporting to the King of Israel?”

One of his servants said, “It is not so, my master the king! Rather, Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel even the things that you discuss in your bedroom.”

He said, “go and see where he is, and I will send men and capture him.”

It was told to him, saying, “He is in Dothan.” He sent horses and chariots and a larger army there; they came at night and surrounded the city.

The attendant of the man of God was early to arise and he set out, when behold; and Army was surrounding the city, with horse and chariot. His attendance said to him, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?”

Elisha said, “Fear not, for we have more forces with us than they have with them!” Elisha then prayed and said, “God, please open up his eyes that he may see!” God then opened up the attendance eyes and he saw that, behold, the mountain was full of horses and the chariot of fire, all around Elisha.

The Aramaeans then descended upon him; Elisha prayed to God, and said, “Please strike this nation with blindness!” And He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

Elisha then said to them, “This is not the right way, and this is not the right city! Follow me and I will lead you to the man whom you seek,” and he led them to Samaria.

It happened when they arrived at Samaria that Elisha said, “God, open the eyes of these people that they may see!” God opened up their eyes and they realized that they were in the midst of Samaria.

The king of Israel said to Elisha when he saw them, “Shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down, my father?”

But he said, “Do not strike them down! Would you strike down people who might you have captured with your sword and your bow? Rather, place food and water before that. Let them eat injury and then return to their masters.”

So he prepared a large meal for them, and they ate and drank; and he sent them away and they went to their masters. And the bands of Aramaeans no longer came into the land of Israel. (II Kings 6:8–23)

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

There are few people I have met who have accomplished as much as Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald. It is a daunting task to calculate how many people have been inspired by his Beginners’ Service, how many such services have been formed because of his example, how many people have sat at his Shabbat table and been transformed, how many people have been touched by NJOP, how many people he regularly calls to offer warm words of support. He regularly called me when I was seriously ill to let me know that I was in his thoughts and prayers and was not alone. How many of us can do as much as has Rabbi Buchwald?

And yet; he suffers. He is tortured by the thought that there are so many he has yet to touch. He once told me in response to a compliment, “It’s only a drop in the bucket.”

I once visited Reb Shlomo zt”l in his room upstairs at the Carlebach shul and saw the huge garbage bags filled with small pieces of paper with the names, adresses and phone numbers of all the people he met over the years all over the world; he intended to hand the bags to Mashiach to make sure that not a single “holy yiddele” would miss the news that the Messiah had come. “That’s awesome,” I said, “this is your ticket into Gan Eden (Paradise).” To which he responded, “It’s only a drop in the bucket!”

Why is it that it’s the people who do the most who are most aware of, “It’s only a drop in the bucket”? Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the author of the Zohar, says it. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai says it. These people seem to have a greater sense of the possibilities of life.

I realized that we mention “It’s only a drop in the bucket,” in the Haggadah: We take a drop from our cups of wine for each of the Ten Plagues, as if to say, “What we are describing is only a drop in the bucket of what God did with this plague!” “This plague, one of the ‘big things’ we celebrate, is not even a drop in the bucket of what God does!”

We use the “It’s only a drop in the bucket” approach again with Dayeinu; or, “We are limited,” in our ability to appreciate all the good that God does for us!”

Reb Shlomo, and ybcl”c, Rabbi Buchwald, remind us that it’s not enough to say, “It’s only a drop in the bucket”; we have to live it!

Perhaps this is the reason that the Kohen takes small drops of the blood of the guilt-offering and the oil and drips them on the Metzorah who is coming to be purified; “This is only a drop in the bucket; it’s up to you to make it more!”

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.