Thursday, February 25, 2010

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Tezaveh Zachor

The following is a brief summary of a thought said over by R' Frand in his shiur this evening. I have attempted to reproduce this vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

Parshas Tezaveh discusses the various garments which the kohanim wore while performing their priestly duties. Rabbi Frand linked this to a vort by the sefer Akeidas Yitzchak (author unknown to me) on the use of clothing.

The Akeidas Yitzchak stated that clothing covers a person's body like middos cover a person's soul. He explains that the end of a garment has a hem and it is tailored so as to not cover the hand or foot. In the same way, middos must be finite as well. A person can have the middah of being patient, but there must be some limit to his level of patience when he must act. Similarly, a person can be a tremendous ba'al tzedakah, but a person cannot give away all of his money to charity.

Rabbi Frand brought a proof to this from the Haftorah of Parshas Zachor. The Haftorah tells the story of Shaul and Shmuel when Shmuel chastised Shaul for not wiping out Amalek as he had been instructed. In response to Shmuel's rebuke, Shaul states that he has sinned because he was afraid of the people and listened to their voices.

Shmuel's message to Shaul was that being the king sometimes involves taking unpopular steps and standing up to others. While it is nice to be patient or the nice guy, there are times when you must act, even if the act was unpopular.

The connection of middos and clothing can be seen a few pesukim later when Shmuel takes leave of Shaul. Shaul grabs the corner of Shmuel's garment in an attempt to prevent him from leaving and the garment tears. The corner of the garment is symbolic that there is an end to the covering much like there must be a limit to the middah of patience. The corner tears off and Shaul learns that his monarchy will be cut off as well.

IYH I will post R' Frand's vort on the megillah in a special Motzei Shabbos post.

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