Questions for Toldos

1.  An example of when it is muttar to say lashon hara. 

 - The question is asked, how was Yitzchak allowed to identify Yaakov as having usurped Eisav's brachos. There are many answers to this question, including that it was obvious to all. Another possibility is that otherwise, Eisav would have hated Yitzchak for cheating him.

2. Two people who married at the age of forty.

 - Yitzchak and Eisav.

3. Which passuk in this parsha has five verbs in a row?

-When Esav takes the Nezid Adashim from Yaakov, the Torah states: "And he ate and he drank and he got up and he went and he degraded the birthright" (25:34). 

- This implies there was something wicked about every one of these actions. I saw a chassidishe translation for use in cheders as

4. The Medrash says that Yaakov’s bris was when he was eight days old, but Yitzchak saw the Eisav was red and thought he might have a condition that made it dangerous to do a bris. He then decided to wait until he was thirteen, and Eisav said no, and remained an areil. Where do we see a remez to this in how they were given their names?

 - By Yaakov it says ויקרא. By Eisav it says  ויקראו, meaning that’s what everyone called him, not that Yitzchak named him. This makes sense if Yaakov was named by his bris, but Eisav never had a bris, so they called him what everyone called him.

5. The Ramban says that the three wells dug by Yitzchak allude to the three Batei Mikdash. What is different about the description of the third well that distinguishes it from the others?

 - 26:19-20

וַיַּחְפְּרוּ עַבְדֵי יִצְחָק בַּנָּחַל וַיִּמְצְאוּ שָׁם בְּאֵר מַיִם חַיִּים.

וַיָּרִיבוּ רֹעֵי גְרָר עִם רֹעֵי יִצְחָק לֵאמֹר לָנוּ הַמָּיִם וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הַבְּאֵר עֵשֶׂק כִּי הִתְעַשְּׂקוּ עִמּוֹ.

21וַיַּחְפְּרוּ בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וַיָּרִיבוּ גַּם עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ שִׂטְנָה.

22

ַ וַיַּעְתֵּק מִשָּׁם וַיַּחְפֹּר בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וְלֹא רָבוּ עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ רְחֹבוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי עַתָּה הִרְחִיב יְהוָה לָנוּ וּפָרִינוּ בָאָרֶץ.

See Rashi Sukka 41a

אי אי נמי - דאיבני בחמיסר סמוך לשקיעת החמה והיא היא ואי קשיא דבלילה אינו נבנה דקי"ל בשבועות (דף טו:) דאין בנין בית המקדש בלילה דכתיב וביום הקים ולא בחמיסר שהוא י"ט דקי"ל בשבועות (שם) דאין בנין ב"ה דוחה י"ט ה"מ בנין הבנוי בידי אדם אבל מקדש העתיד שאנו מצפין בנוי ומשוכלל הוא יגלה ויבא משמים שנא' (שמות ט״ו:י״ז) מקדש ה' כוננו ידיך:

6. Rashi writes (25:21) that although both Yitzchok and Rivkah prayed for children, Hashem listened to and answered the prayers of Yitzchok. This was because Yitzchok’s father was the righteous Avrohom while Rivkah’s father was the wicked Besuel, and the prayers of a righteous person whose father is also righteous carry more weight than those of somebody who is righteous but whose father was not. May we conclude from here that when choosing a shaliach tzibbur weight should be given to the righteousness of the father of the person in question?

 - If you are davening for yourself, Tzadik ben Tzadik outweighs some other considerations, because of zechus avos, that schar for the fathers' zechusim include that Hashem will favor his children. But when you’re davening for the tzibur, your zechus avos is no help for them. All that matters is you, how beloved you are to the Ribono shel Olam. Here, they were davening for themselves. See Taz in OC 53:3. He just relies on the Roash and doesn’t explain why, but I think this is the answer.

בטור כתוב בשם הרא"ש שאין מעלות הש"ץ תלוי ביחוס משפחה דאם הוא מן משפחה בזויה וצדיק טוב לקרב מזרע רחוקים שנאמר שלום שלום לרחוק ולקרוב וכ' רש"ל מ"מ אם שניהם שוים בודאי מיוחס קודם לשאינו מיוחס כי אינו דומה תפלת צדיק בן צדיק כו' עכ"ל. ולעד"נ מדכתב הרא"ש טוב לקרב מזרע רחוקים ש"מ שיש כאן עוד אחר מזרע שאינם רחוקים דלשון טוב לקרב משמע שיש ברירה ואפ"ה טוב לקרב זה שהוא אינו מיוחס כדי לקרבו לאותו זרע לשכינה  דרחמנא לבא בעי ותהיה תפלתו נשמעת יותר מצדיק בן צדיק וזה נלמד מפסוק לרחוק ולקרוב כנ"ל:

Because this is a record from the discussion in our shiur many years ago, I am including it.

When Reb Eliezer davened for rain, nothing happened.  When Reb Akiva did, it rained.  The talmidim murmured that Rav Akiva must be greater, but a bas kol came out and said this was not true, but rather that Rav Akiva was ma’avir al middosav (translate: forgiving of affronts, did not insist on measure for measure), while Reb Eliezer was not.  Ta’anis 24b.  (This may be consistent with what I wrote above re RYBZ and CBD--because at this time Reb Eliezer was rosh yeshiva and Rav Akiva was not.)

Note 1:  Reb Yisroel Salanter in Ohr Yisroel 28 says that the difference between RE and RA was this: RE was a talmid of Shammai (Tosfos Shabbos 130b), and his derech was to be makpid on kovod hatorah.  RA was a talmid of Bais Hillel, whose derech is to be an anvasan and an eino ne’elav (also Tosfos there).  While both drochim are valid, tefillos are answered mido keneged mido.

 

Note 2:   The Eliahu Rabba in Orach Chaim 53:16 (and similarly the Etz Yosef in the Ein Ya’akov in Makkos) brings from the sefer Asara Ma’amoros that the pshat in Ma’avir al middosav is that he overcame character flaws to become an odom gadol.  Rav Akiva, who came from gerim and began learning at 40, had a much harder path to follow than Rav Elazar.  He then notes that the opposite seems to be true in the case of Rivka and Yitzchok, where the tzadik ben tzadik was answered first!  He quotes the Maharshal in the teshuvos (20) who says that a ba’al teshuva’s tefila for others is answered first.  But when he is mispallel for himself, which is always a difficult position to be in (see story of Rav Chanina and Rav Yochanan in Brachos 5:2, but see Rashi Brei’shis 21:7 on why Yishma’el’s tefilla was answered), one must invoke zechus avos, which means that a tzadik ben tzadik will be answered first.  See also the Taz there who brings a Rosh that indicates that a shliach tzibbur who is a ba’al teshuva is better than a tzaddik mei’ikoro, and the Yam Shel Shlomo that indicates the opposite, despite what he himself wrote in his teshuvos.

Lothar Kahn (9-2-99) pointed out that one of the important themes of the Yomim Noraim is zechus avos, as part of zichronos.  Therefore, even the Marshal could agree that at that time, a tzadik ben tzadik would be better.  R’ Kenny Neiman added that the fact that the gemara in Taynis says that the shliach tzibbur should be a person with dependents who doesn’t have enough for them shows that he is not just davening for us, but we want someone who is davening for himself also, and so you can say that we should choose someone whose tefillos for himself are more effective, and not necessarily someone to daven for us only.  On the other hand, someone else pointed out, maybe we look for a chasar lechem not because we want him to daven for himself, but rather because he is used to davening with kavana, so he can do better for us when he is our shaliach.