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.
In Mikeitz 42:1-2, the Torah tells of Ya'akov's observation that there is food in Egypt and his question to his sons as to why they are making themselves conspicuous (Lama Tisraoo) - they should go down to Egypt and obtain provisions. Rashi comments that Ya'akov and his family had food at the time, however, Ya'akov still wanted them to go down to Egypt, because he did not want them to give the appearance (to the children of Esav and Yishmael) that they were without need for food.
Rabbi Frand then mentioned the gemara in Ta'anis which discusses that when a person travels (in a time when there is a lack of rain') from a city where they are not fasting to a city where they are fasting, he must observe the fast. Furthermore, if he forgets and breaks the fast, he must eat in private, quoting the pasuk in Mikeitz where Ya'akov tells his sons not to be conspicuous.
Rabbi Frand then mentioned that R' Pa'am used to open his shades for chanukah so that the outside world could see the lights. However, once the lights had gone out, he would shut the shades immediately. R Frand explained that the mitzva of pirsumei nisa is significant and the world should see the menorah. However, once the lights have gone out, it is important not to be conspicuous.
Rabbi Frand also had a Pesach oriented vort this evening. In Mikeitz 44:12, the Torah recites that when Yosef's servants were searching the brothers' bags for Yosef's cup, he instructed them to search all the brothers' bags from the oldest to the smallest, despite the fact that he knew the cup was in Binyamin's bag.
Rabbi Frand then quoted the Tczabiner Rav (excuse the spelling) who said that he once heard a vort from a watchmaker in Krakow who connected this story to bedikas chameitz. When we search for chametz on the evening of the 14th day of Nissan, our spouses or children put out ten pieces of bread and we then look for the bread, although the locations are fairly obvious. We then complete the task and return to our Pesach preparations. The gemara explains that we learn the mitzva of bedika from the metzia (finding) and the chipush (searching) by Yosef's servants for the cup in the brothers' bags.
The watchmaker explained that although Yosef knew where the cup was hidden, he still had the servants check all the bags from the largest to the smallest. So too when we do bedikas chametz - although we may know where the bread is hidden, we still make a complete search of the house in order to properly prepare for Pesach.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
In Mikeitz 42:1-2, the Torah tells of Ya'akov's observation that there is food in Egypt and his question to his sons as to why they are making themselves conspicuous (Lama Tisraoo) - they should go down to Egypt and obtain provisions. Rashi comments that Ya'akov and his family had food at the time, however, Ya'akov still wanted them to go down to Egypt, because he did not want them to give the appearance (to the children of Esav and Yishmael) that they were without need for food.
Rabbi Frand then mentioned the gemara in Ta'anis which discusses that when a person travels (in a time when there is a lack of rain') from a city where they are not fasting to a city where they are fasting, he must observe the fast. Furthermore, if he forgets and breaks the fast, he must eat in private, quoting the pasuk in Mikeitz where Ya'akov tells his sons not to be conspicuous.
Rabbi Frand then mentioned that R' Pa'am used to open his shades for chanukah so that the outside world could see the lights. However, once the lights had gone out, he would shut the shades immediately. R Frand explained that the mitzva of pirsumei nisa is significant and the world should see the menorah. However, once the lights have gone out, it is important not to be conspicuous.
Rabbi Frand also had a Pesach oriented vort this evening. In Mikeitz 44:12, the Torah recites that when Yosef's servants were searching the brothers' bags for Yosef's cup, he instructed them to search all the brothers' bags from the oldest to the smallest, despite the fact that he knew the cup was in Binyamin's bag.
Rabbi Frand then quoted the Tczabiner Rav (excuse the spelling) who said that he once heard a vort from a watchmaker in Krakow who connected this story to bedikas chameitz. When we search for chametz on the evening of the 14th day of Nissan, our spouses or children put out ten pieces of bread and we then look for the bread, although the locations are fairly obvious. We then complete the task and return to our Pesach preparations. The gemara explains that we learn the mitzva of bedika from the metzia (finding) and the chipush (searching) by Yosef's servants for the cup in the brothers' bags.
The watchmaker explained that although Yosef knew where the cup was hidden, he still had the servants check all the bags from the largest to the smallest. So too when we do bedikas chametz - although we may know where the bread is hidden, we still make a complete search of the house in order to properly prepare for Pesach.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
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