When Will All the Haredim Enlist in the Army? • The Daily Lesson from Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Everyone should learn with his wife the third chapter of Bava Kamma ("Chovel BeChavero" - One Who Injures His Fellow), and also about the word "Vayikra" (And He called), where it does not explicitly state who called to Moshe.

The only reason the Iranians are firing missiles is to wake us up for Chatzos (the midnight prayer).

Instead of the missiles falling on us, today seven Arab women were killed. Poor things, they serve as an atonement for everyone. As we say in the Kaparos prayer: "This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement; these will go to their deaths, and we shall enter a good, long life."

Because right now, during the Bein HaZmanim (intercession) break, there are no yeshivas; the yeshiva term has ended. The girls' seminaries will continue until the 8th of Nissan, and after that, there are no more seminaries. The girls will help out at home and recite Tehillim (Psalms) once a day—that is sufficient. But the boys will need to learn Torah 24 hours a day. Everyone has already slept enough for a million years; now is the time to finish all the stories in Tractate Sotah and in Tractate Yevamos (76b).

How is it possible that the verse first states that King Shaul said about David, "and he loved him greatly," yet later he asked, "Whose son is this youth?" and even swore that he did not know him, saying, "By your life"? Rather, the Gemara explains that Shaul wanted to know his exact lineage. To this, the commentaries ask: What didn't he know? After all, David's father, Yishai, was a prominent leader who would go out with the multitudes, commanding six hundred thousand soldiers!

Because in those days, everyone enlisted. Today, too, if the army were completely kosher, everyone would enlist. Everyone wants to enlist; there isn't a single person who doesn't want to enlist. To sacrifice one's life for the homeland is the ultimate peak of devotion. But it must be a strictly kosher army.

Rather, Shaul's question was whether David descended from Peretz—who was destined for kingship—or from Zerach, who was destined for wealth. Then Doeg the Edomite said to him, "Before you ask whether he is from Peretz or Zerach, ask whether he is even permitted to enter the congregation of Israel! For it is written, 'An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the congregation of Hashem' (and David descended from Ruth the Moabite)." Then Yisra the Ishmaelite came forward and declared: "This is the tradition I received from the Rabbinical court of Shmuel HaRamati: The prohibition applies to an Ammonite man—but not an Ammonite woman; a Moabite man—but not a Moabite woman." This distinction was made because the Moabite women acted with good will.

The verse says, "If her father were to spit in her face" (referring to Miriam). Her father, Amram, figuratively "spat in her face" (rebuked her). Because the men in Egypt did not want to bring children into the world to be killed, Amram separated from his wife. Then Miriam said to her father, "Your decree is worse than Pharaoh's!" Hearing this, everyone arose and took back their wives. When the Egyptians subsequently arrived and threw the newborn babies into the Nile, the angels descended from Heaven to save the infants.

Moshe Rabbeinu did not want to write the letter Aleph in the word "Vayikra" (making it "Vayikar," a term of casual encounter used for Bilaam), because in his immense humility, Moshe insisted that he was on the level of Bilaam, while Bilaam arrogantly insisted that he was on the level of Moshe.