Parshas Beshalach

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem (today is the first Yahrtzeit of Elchonon)....
In perek yud dalid posuk chaf alef it says "Va'yeit Moshe es yado al hayam vayoled Hashem es Hayam b'ruach kadim azah kal halayla, vayasem es hayam lecharavah vayibaku hamayim" Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea, and Hashem made a wind come and split it. In Tehillim it says "hayam ra'ah va'yanas" The yam saw the aron of Yosef and split. Hashem told the sea "yanus mipnei ha'nas" as it says by the story of eishes Potiphar, "vayanas Hachutzah" The Darchei Mussar, Rav Yaakov Aryeh Neiman Ztl asks, If Hashem told the sea to split, why would the sea need to see the aron of Yosef to make it split? He answers that Hashem did not tell the Yam to split, rather he told Moshe to stretch his hand over it and split it. Moshe was the one commanding the yam to split, which he had the koach to
 because Hashem gave tzadikkim the power to be mitzaveh parts of the briah to listen to them.  However, the yam did not feel that it had to listen to Moshe because it too did the ratzon of Hashem so what made Moshe better than it? However, when it saw the aron of Yosef it understood the difference between itself and Moshe Rabbeinu, between man and angel. True both of them are doing the ratzon Hashem but its no kuntz for the Malach. Every step that we take is filled with tremendous nisyonos that can hold us back and destroy us. Yes the yam listened to all Hashem commanded, but after seeing the aron of Yosef it understood, man who fights on and continues doing the ratzon Hashem even through tough times, even through a maaseh eishes Potiphar,is far greater than it, and therefore it knew that it should listen to Moshe Rabbeinu..
Good Shabbos.

Parshas Bo

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R'Yisroel Menachem..... In perek yud beis, posuk chaf ches, regarding the karbon pesach it says, "Vayeilchu vaya'asu Bnei Yisroel ka'asher tziva Hashem es Moshe V'Aharon ken asu.  "Rashi says that the Torah is coming to give praise to Klal Yisroel that they did not leave out a single thing that Moshe and Aharon told them to do. The Rosh Yeshivah ztl asks, it's mashma from Rashi that the great thing that Klal Yisroel did was that they did exactly as they were told, what happened to the fact that they were risking their lives to take the god of their masters from right under their noses?  Wouldn't you think that that is a much greater feat, and should be a greater reason for praise?  The Rosh Yeshivah explains that we see that what Klal Yisroel did must have been a tremendous accomplishment.  The teva of a person is not to do things exactly as they are told, not to do
 it, with every single prat.  Klal Yisroel did not leave one single thing out, they pushed themselves to go against their natural genetic makeup, and that is an unbelievable accomplishment. Its brought down in seforim the tremendous difference in schar between doing mitzvos, and doing mitzvos b'shleimus.  By focusing a little more as we do mitzvos, we can fight our teva and bring our mitzvos to a level of shleimus.. Good Shabbos

Parshas Shemos

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R'Yisroel Menachem........ In perek alef posuk vav the posuk says "Vayamas Yosef vchal echav vchal hador hahu. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh says, as long as any of the brothers were alive, the mitzrim respected Bnei Yisrael, and even after they died, as long as there was one person from that generation still around, Bnei Yisrael were still chashuv in the eyes of the mitzrim, and the mitzrim couldn't bring themselves to enslave them. He also says, that when Yosef passed away, Bnei Yisrael were lowered from their stature. Originally, they were greater than the mitzrim, and when Yosef died, they became equal. When the brothers passed away, they became lower than the mitzrim, yet they still did not enslave them. Only after the entire generation was gone did they begin to enslave Bnei Yisrael. Reb Chaim Shmulevitz ztl says that even though the mitzrim were
 terrible risha'im, they were unable to enslave klal Yisrael, as long was Klal Yisrael was Chashuv in their eyes. Only after they began looking at them as lowly beings were they able to enslave them. Reb Chaim says, that there are two sides to this. One mitzad the mitzrim themselves. They just couldn't enslave someone who they believed was great. Two, mitzad Bnei Yisrael themselves. As long as they themselves felt that they were chashuv, as long as they felt confident that they were great, the mitzrim could not get to them. Only once they began to feel that they were not chashuv, were they capable of being enslaved.  This is the derech of the yetzer harah, at first he tries to make us believe things are muttar, when that fails he tries to convince us that we are not worth so much, we are not so great. If we keep in mind how great we are and how much each and every one of us is worth to
 Hkbh, how great all of our actions are to him, then we will all Iyh be zoche to guard ourselves from aveiros, and the traps of the yetzer harah..... Good Shabbos

Parshas Vayechi

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem.......... In this weeks haftorah the first two psukim say, "Vayikrivu yimei David Lamus Vayitzav es Shlomo bno laimor.  Anochi holeich lamus biderech kol ha'aretz v'chazakta v'hayisa l'ish."  Dovid tells Shlomo that he is going to die and Shlomo should be strong and become a man.  The Ralbag says that what Dovid meant by "V'chazakta v'hayisa l'ish," was that he should not act like a youth, rather he should act as an adult, as an "Ish Gadol," and be shaul eitzah from people.  The Rosh Yeshivah Ztl says, that we see from this Ralbag that what seperates an "Ish tzi'ir" from an "Ish gadol" is that a youth will rely on his own wisdom and will not ask people for advice ever, while a real man will seek advice and therfore be matzliach.  The youth believes he doesn't need any help, and by asking he is lowering himself down, and it's a pchisa in his kavod so its too hard for him to ask.  David Hamelech knew how great Shlomo was and how brilliant he was, but Dovid was afraid that in this nekuda, Shlomo would act like a youth and not ask for advice from others.  Therefore, in order to make sure that Shlomo's kingdom flourished David made sure to relay this message to him.  So many times we in our everyday life, whether it's in business or in learning, or in anything that we may need advice, we feel like we are too good to ask, as if asking belittles us.  We don't realize that that's far from the truth.  One who can bring themself to be shaul eitzah is far greater than one who can't.  It's the difference between an "ish Tz'ir" and an "ish gadol." It's what seperates the men from the boys...... Good Shabbos