Shabbos Chazone July 17 2010

This is the part of the jewish calendar that most of us never really get into. Tisha B’av , tragedy, mourning. In the meantime it’s summer vacation, trips camp relaxation. How exciting is it to attend a program that might make you cry. Either out sadness or boredom. So we look for new angles and try to present the day in a new way but in truth the old message screams louder and louder.




Our sages tell us that the 2nd Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. Sinas Chinam. What does that mean. There was a rabbi named Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin better know by is acronym the N.Tz.Y.V. The last name, Berlin in Hebrew begins with the letter Bais which is also read as the letter vais and makes the acronym work better (Netziv). Rabbi Berlin the Netziv wrote a commentarty to the five booksof the Torah called hamek Davar. In his introduction to the first Book, Braishis Genesis he notes that the Talmud refers to the Book of brasishis as Sefer Hayashar the book of the upright or the straights. This is a reference to our Patriarchs who were straight. Why charactarise them particularly as straight? Why not tzadikim , righteous or Chassidim pious or a host of other terms? Rabbi Berlin explains that ……