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1. Vebbe Rebbe
2. Words of Wisdom; Words of Wit
3. Candle by Day
4. From the desk of the director

From the virtual desk of the OU VEBBE REBBE
The Orthodox Union – via its website – fields questions of all types in areas of kashrut, Jewish law and values. Some of them are answered by Eretz Hemdah, the Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, founded by HaRav Shaul Yisraeli, zt"l to prepare rabbanim and dayanim to serve the National Religious community in Israel and abroad. Ask the Rabbi is a joint venture of the OU, Yerushalayim Network, Eretz Hemdah... and the Israel Center. The following is a Q&A from Eretz Hemdah...

Q I am in charge of a teenage group at a religious camp. Every year that group goes on a five-day camping trip far from camp. Past experience tells us that this is an important experience for them beyond the good times, and the atmosphere enables us to make real educational gains. We are unable to bring along a Sefer Torah and will not be near any shuls. (There will be regular minyanim.) May we go on the trip, knowing that we will miss kriat hatorah (Torah reading)?

A We will deal with both halachic and educational issues, starting with the former.

The institution to read the Torah, both on Shabbat and during the week, is an ancient and beloved one initiated by Moshe Rabeinu (Bava Kama 82a). Yet, there are ample sources in halacha that one can travel in such a situation that he will be unable to hear kriat hatorah. There is discussion as to the circum- stances under which one is allowed to go on a boat or in a caravan through the desert in such a way that will com- promise one's ability to properly keep Shabbat (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 248:1,4). It discusses cases where the trip is halachically deemed as optional, not a mitzva. Yet, the poskim do not raise the issue that he will be missing kriat hatorah (it is implausible that they assumed that a sefer Torah was being brought along). See the discussion about travelling for non-mitzva purposes in a way that makes one miss a minyan (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 90:16-17 and Mishna Berura, ad loc.).

There is one way in which missing kriat hatorah may be more lenient than other mitzvot. The mishna (Megilla 23b) lists kriat hatora among the things which require a minyan, but omits megila reading. Ramban (Milchamot to Megila 3a of the Rif) explains by making the following distinction. All of the things mentioned in that mishna are obligations of only the tzibbur (community), as opposed to the reading of the megila, which is an obligation of the individual, as well. If this is the case (which is certainly not unanimous – see Yabia Omer IV, YD 31), then it is not critical for an individual who was forced to miss kriat hatorah to find a later minyan to make it up (see examples in Yalkut Yosef II, pg.23, 27).

The question is, though, how to define a tzibbur. If your minyan of campers is a tzibbur, then the full weight of the obligation is on the group. (It might still be permitted if the need is great enough, as cited above, but the question is still pertinent.) Yabia Omer (ibid.) cites stories of talmidei chachamim who had minyanim in their homes without a sefer Torah, and understands that it was sufficient that the tzibbur in the set shuls in town had kriat hatorah. In your case, this require- ment could be met by the rest of the camp, which remains behind. However, it appears logical that when the group begins to daven, they become a tzibbur, but one which lacks the means to carry out the obligation. It does not seem that this situation should be able to prevent them from leaving camp before the day's obligation to read the Torah begins.

One should, though, explore a variety of options (including time consuming ones that cost money) in order to make kriat hatorah a possibility, for educational reasons, even beyond halachic require- ments. If you can get to a place with a Sefer Torah only at Mincha time, this is a halachic possibility (Mishna Berura 135:1), especially for Ashkenazim (see Yabia Omer IV, OC 17). Besides technical concerns, it is problematic to have a Sefer Torah travel with the group (see Shulchan Aruch, OC 135:14). The educational message of making the extra effort not to miss kriat hatorah can have a positive impact on your campers. Even if you are unable to arrange it, it is educational to let them know how hard you tried and perhaps discuss the issue with them. For teenagers, most of whom are not from backgrounds where they make it to shul every morning, a con- versation in which you express how hard it was for you to miss kriat hatorah even once is likely to be more effective than docking them from night activity for oversleeping.

Ask the Rabbi Q&A is part of Hemdat Yamim, the weekly parsha sheet published by Eretz Hemdah. You can read this section or the entire Hemdat Yamim at www.ou.org or www.eretzhemdah.org. And/or you can receive Hemdat Yamim by email weekly, by sending an email to eretzhem@netvision.net.il with the message: Join Hemdatya –Please leave the subject blank. Ask the Vebbe Rebbe is partially funded by the Jewish Agency for Israel

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WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WIT by Shmuel Himelstein
A stranger once walked into the beis midrash of R’ Yechiel Michel of Gustinin early in the morning. The shamash went over to the man and asked him whether he had prayed yet. R’ Yechiel Michel became very angry at the shamash and told him: “When a Jew who has come from afar walks into the beis midrash early in the morning, one doesn’t ask him if he has prayed yet, but whether he has eaten.”

When all his chassidim would push forward to hear him speak, R’ Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apta would say: “It doesn’t pay for you to push forward. One who is able to hear will hear even if he is standing far away, while one who is not able to hear will not hear even if he is standing right next to me.”
We must commend and reward the good in our children, not so much to reward them, as to apprise them that what they are doing is good.

How many appreciate the gardner when they gaze upon the garden? - From A Candle by Day by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein

Divrei Menachem
Parshat Bemidbar describes the tribe- by-tribe census that took place in the wilderness. Unlike a regular count as we know it, the Torah uses special terminology to portray the process by which the census was to take place. Moshe was to record each individual according, "to their families, fathers' household, number of the names, [and] legions" (Bemidbar 1: 2,3).
The term used for 'You shall count' is ‘Tifkedu,’ a word that recalls Hashem's visit to Sarah ("Va'hashem Pakad"), after which she conceived. In that sense, Ramban teaches us, there is a specific concern for the individual to whom the term is addressed. In a similar fashion, the Torah alerts us to the fact that every person is unique, that every person in the census counts.
Indeed, the detailed instructions locate each member of the Jewish people as a member of his tribe; not, as in the previous census, as [just] another member of the nation. R. Yaakov Kaminetsky notes, however, that rather than encouraging sec- tionalism, the goal was for each tribe to actualize its unique propensities for realizing the national destiny.

Each person, we see, was to give his name and that of his family in the presence of Moshe, Aharon, and the leader of the tribe. He was to stand before his mentors and acknowledge, as the Shelah Hakodesh reminds us, that maybe he, alone, holds the balance as to whether the Shechina would descend on Israel or not. Could we say the same for ourselves today?
Shabbat Shalom, Menachem Persoff