In this parashah, the Torah teaches us that when a person pledges a korban to Hashem, and comes to fulfill that promise, it is a mitzvah for him to bring the most select of his animals. This halachah is derived from the passuk (Devarim 12:11): “Vechol mivchar nidreichem asher tidru l’Hashem,” and as Rashi explains there: “This teaches us that he should bring from the best.”
It says in Parashas Bereishis that Kayin and Hevel also brought korbanos, but while Hevel’s korban was accepted “El Kayin v’el minchaso lo sha’ah” (Bereishis 4:5). Why? Because Hevel brought a korban from the best of his sheep, as it says “mibchoros tzono umeichelbeihen, from the firstborn of his flock and from the best thereof,” (ibid 5), while Kayin brought from the worst of his fruit (Rashi ibid 3).
Obviously, HaKadosh Baruch Hu does not need our offerings, but a person needs to honor Hashem and to offer the best of what he has. The Rambam says at the end of Hilchos Issurei Mizbe’ach: “He should bring his korban from the best and most select of that kind. As it says in the Torah (ibid) “And Hevel also brought from the firstborn of his flock and from the best and Hashem turned to Hevel and to his offering.”
That is the halachah in everything that is done l’Shem Hashem – it should be from the best and most beautiful. If a person builds a shul, it should be nicer than his home, if he feeds the hungry, he should serve the tastiest and sweetest foods that he has on his table, if he provides clothing for one who doesn’t have, he should give him the nicest of his garments, if he sanctifies something as hekdesh, it should be the most beautiful of his assets.”
Likewise, with the brachos that we recite. There are two kinds of brachos: One that is answered by amen, which is a brachah sheleimah, and from the positive we learn about the negative, that a brachah that is not answered by amen is a brachah that is lacking. When a person wants to bless the Name of Hashem, he is commanded to bring from the “most beautiful and select in that kind,” and therefore, he is commanded to make the brachah in the ears of someone who will hear it and answer amen after it, to make it a complete brachah.
By way of remez we can say that this is alluded to in the passuk itself: the acronym of ...מבחר נדרכים אשר these words is amen to teach us that a brachah that is answered by amen is the most select of all the brachos, and one who wishes to give Hashem from the most select should be strict that his brachos should be completed by amen.
We can add that the passuk does not allude only to a brachah that is answered by amen, which is a most select brachah, but also to the actual answering. In other words, answering amen is the most select gift that we can present to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, as Chazal say (Brachos 53b): “There is nothing greater in front of Hashem than the amen that Am Yisrael answer.” And we can note that Maseches Nedarim ends with daf 91, which is numerically equivalent to amen, to allude that being strict about answering amen as halachah is the “mivchar nidreichem,” the most select of your nedarim.
Let us present to Hashem “the best and most beautiful” and be careful to adorn our brachos and the brachos of other mispallelim with the crown of amen, and this merit should advocate for us all that we should soon be able to sacrifice the temidim kesidram, with the arrival of Mashiach speedily in our day amen!
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
ת.ד 102 בני ברק | פקס : 03-5055919
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