Answers to this Week’s Riddles

(For the riddles, please see back page)

1) The Chasam Sofer (Shu”t, Orach Chaim 12) answers that because Moshe’s condition developed miraculously, it was not considered a disqualifying blemish. Alternatively, the Chavatzeles HaSharon writes that all the Jews were cured at the time of the giving of the Torah. Even though their illnesses returned when they sinned with the eigel, the shevet of Levi, which included Moshe, did not take part in the sin and remained healed, in which case he was no longer blemished and was eligible to be a judge. (Parsha Potpourri)

2) Tosfos in Kiddushin (31b) cites the Yerushalmi (Peah 1:1 and Kiddushin 1:7) which relates that every time R’ Yishmael would return home from the beis hamedrash, his mother would wash his feet, and she would drink from the water. When R’ Yishmael heard about this, he refused to let his mother do this, and she went and complained to the Chachamim that her son wasn’t fulfilling the mitzvah of kibbud eim properly. When the Chachamim heard this, they were shocked, and they asked R’ Yishmael to explain himself. R’ Yishmael told them what was happening and how he didn’t let his mother drink the dirty water, and they instructed that he let his mother do what she wants and that it is included in kibbud eim.

The question is, why would R’ Yishmael letting his mother drink the dirty water be a mitzvah of kibbud eim, surely, when drinking such water she violates the issur de’O’raisa of ba’al teshaktzu, and there is no mitzvah of kibbud eim if a mother wants to do something which is an aveirah?

i) The Poras Yosef (Kiddushin 31b) asks this question and answers that ba’al teshaktzu is dependent on the one doing the act, and if the person doing it doesn’t find it disgusting then there is no issur. Since R’ Yishmael’s mother wasn’t disgusted by this, and on the contrary, she held this to be a zechus, there was no issur for her to do it, and therefore, due to kibbud eim her son should have let her drink the water.

ii) The Alay Tomar on the Yerushalmi explains that the mother of R’ Yishmael was drinking the water as a segulah for refuah. Based on this we can understand why there was no issur of ba’al teshaktzu, as when doing something for refuah there is no issur of ba’al teshaktzu (see Kaf HaChaim, Yoreh De’ah 81:7). Since there was no issur of ba’al teshaktzu, R’ Yishmael had a mitzvah of kibbud eim to let his mother drink the water.

iii) R’ Elyashiv in his sefer He’oras answers that perhaps R’ Yishmael’s mother washed her son’s feet twice, the first time was to get rid of the dirt, and the second time was for extra cleanliness, and the water she wanted to drink came from the second washing.

3) Rav Betzalel Ashkenazi (Shu”t Rav Betzalel Ashkenazi 39) suggests that although a child knows he is being kidnapped, his parents do not, and it is in reference to them that the Torah uses this phrase. The M’rafsin Igri points out scenarios in which even the person being kidnapped is unaware, such as when he is asleep. Alternatively, a person's knowledge that someone stole his money makes a difference since he can try to recover it, so many thieves try to steal money in a way in which they are not detected. On the other hand, in a kidnapping where the person himself is “stolen,” the victim's knowledge about the identity of the thieves is practically irrelevant since he was taken against his will and can do nothing to rectify the situation. (Parsha Potpourri)

4) Tremble. By the Yidden it says: ויחרד כל העם – “All the people trembled” (19:16) and by Har Sinai it says: ויחרד כל ההר – “The entire mountain trembled” (19:18).