Parshas Shoftim

Among the many adages of the world that have nothing to do with reality is the famous 'all is fair in love and war.' In love nothing could be farther from the truth but according to the Torah even in war when lives are on the line there are still standards to maintain and valuable lessons to be learned from those standards. This weeks parsha spends time on the nature of a Jewish war and particularly on the role of trees in war.

The Torah teaches us not to cut down fruit trees when we lay siege to a city. "for is it a man this tree of the field that you lay siege against ? asks the Torah. You are fighting against people leave the trees alone. "Only trees that you know don't produce fruit can you cut down and build battlements". Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra reads the possuk differently. You need to eat the fruit of the tree to live, therefore read "for a man is the tree of the field' killing it is to kill oneself. Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz was the spiritual Dean of the Mir yeshiva in the early part of the 20th century. He wrote a book called Limmud Musrei haTorah literally learning ethical lessons from the Torah. In it he cites the prohibition of cutting down trees for man is a tree. This verse says rav Yerucham and tells us that the Torah wants us to use the tree as a model of life. He continues to quotes the Mishna in the ethics of the fathers / Pirkei Avos "One whose wisdom is greater than his deeds is compared to a tree with many branches and few roots a storm comes and uproots it. One whose deeds exceed his wisdom has many roots and fewer branches all the storms in the world cannot budge it from its place.

Deeds are our roots says Rabbi Levovits. We have begun the the month of Elul. Exactly 30 days from today we will be celebrating rosh hashnah. We use the month of Elul as a time of preparation repentance elevation. If we want to repent says rav Yerucham we must force ourselves to do good deeds. Subject our body to the service of Hashem. Why do we have to force ourselves. is it not logical to do good deeds. the answer is of course except that right nowI am very tired, hungry, hot. I would love to help but just now happens to be a very inconvenient time. Rabbi Levovitz teaches us that inconvenient as it may be there is no option. The body can be elevated not with wisdom but only with action. Maimonedes writes that if a person repeatedly performs good deeds his reward increases exponentially. A person who gives one hundred gold coins to charity is not on the same level as one who gives one coin one hundred times. Rabbi Levovitz says the principal here is that the more a person performs a certain deed, the more likely it is to become habitual and improve his nature permanently. More classes and more study are not even going to do it. Just actions. Of course getting up and getting out of the house to go to the class is a pretty big action.

A few month ago Dafna Kadosh travelled to Israel to celebrate her Bat mitzvah with her Israeli family. This morning Dafna is going to share words of Torah and celebrate at a kiddush with her Atlanta family. Dafna is an exceptional student at GHA a great athlete a good friend and all in all a very smiley child. Dafna comes from a home of mitzvot. The actions of Shabbat, chagim, hachnasat orchim. These are the deeds that elevate us. These are the actions that create habits for us to live by. When we get up in the morning we take a wash cup and pour water over our hands three times alternating. This action repeated day in and day out reinforces the message that our day is to be 0ne of cleanliness and purity and it goes on from there. We leave the room we kiss the mezuzah. As we go out into the world we take the guidance of the Torah with us. These actions are not just drudgery or mindless rituals. These actions are helping us develop our root system. On and on action by action deeper and deeper. Soon we have very deep roots that tie into the root system of our parents and their parents. Then when the great storm hits be it the horrors of the holocaust that your grandmother experienced or the challenges and lures of the classrooms, offices or streets of the 21st century all of the wind in the world cannot budge you from your place just as it cannot budge your parents. You will produce beautiful fruit that will be admired and enjoyed, just as your parents have done. Happy are you Dafna for the first chapter of sefer tehilim the book of psalms says people like you whose desire is in the Torah vhayah ketz shasul al palgei mayim,You will be like a tree planted by flowing waters, asher piryo yiten b'etow whose fruit is produce regularly, people can count on you and your leaves will not whither but you will remain vigorus and provide shelter to those around you. Vchol asher yaaseh yatzliach and everything you do will be succesful. Mazal Tov