MISC section - contents:
1. Vebbe Rebbe
2. Words of Wisdom; Words of Wit
3. Candle by Day
4. Hebrew Word
5. From Aloh Naaleh
6. From the desk of the director

[1] 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 a student who sold a product to friends on behalf of a business- man for a percentage of the sales. I mentioned to the owner my concern about a safe place to keep the sales money until I would find time to give him the money, but we decided it would be okay. I thought that if something happened to the money, it would be his loss. It turns out that a significant amount of the money was stolen, and the owner expects me to pay. I told him that I didn't think I had to pay, and that we could go to a Din Torah (rabbinical court case). Then the idea arose that instead of having a din Torah, we would make a p'shara (compromise). Which way am I better off?
A First of all, we have a problem giving advice on how you can come out monetarily ahead at someone else's expense. The mishna in Pirkei Avot warns us to avoid being like orchei hadayanim (translated, in modern Hebrew as, lawyers). While there are different opinions exactly when this applies (see Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 17:9), our policy, as a service dedicated to helping Jews further their Jewish knowledge and appreciation, is to not take sides in disputes between litigants, as honorable as either side might be.

The next thing you need to understand is what "I am better off" should mean. While society, in general, concentrates on how to get every penny one can, the Torah teaches that it is at least as important to pay every penny you owe. Now it is true that when one is not sure if he owes money, the halacha often is, "the burden of proof is on he who wants to extract money," and the "one who is holding on" doesn't need to volunteer the money. However, if the defendant knows he owes the money, he is obligated to pay everything he owes unless the other side relinquishes his rights.

P'shara, whether by means of arbitration or mediation, is the best way to solve a conflict (see Choshen Mishpat 12). Even a Beit Din which is approached to adjudicate should try to convince the parties to agree to a compromise (ibid.). However, that is the case as long as the litigants believe that they are, or are likely, to be correct. The Shulchan Aruch (CM 12:6) rules: "Someone who is demanded to pay money is forbidden to search for means to get out of paying in order that the other party will make a p'shara with him and relinquish his rights to the rest of the money."

Realize that if you want us to look into the facts, as you present them, that we cannot assure you that you deserve to win the case, as we do not know what the other party would respond to your claims. But we might be able to deter- mine that, according to your story, you clearly do not deserve to win all or part of the money in dispute. Then you would be bound to pay what you owe, and a p'shara would only be possible within the range of the money that is still in doubt. You would have a responsibility to inform the other side how much you concede, in order that any money he relinquishes through compromise would be based on informed consent, not ignorance.

The following are exceptions to the rule that you must willingly pay that which Beit Din would require you to pay. If you are correct, in principle, but are unable to prove your claims, then you could take certain steps to pressure the other side to a p'shara rather than lose the Din Torah (Tumim 12:5). Other circumstances and steps are discussed (see Pitchei Teshuva 12:8), but are more tenuous. You are permitted to tell the other side that, although halachically you have to pay (if that is the case), you have claims that strengthen your side morally, and you can appeal to your counterpart's sense of fair play to go beyond the letter of the law. (This can be done even after a formal verdict of Beit Din has been handed down (see Shach 12:6).
Outcome: The student requested that we try to determine his status. Based on his story alone, he was seen to owe at least most of the money [details beyond our present scope]. He informed the other side and appealed to him with a variety of claims, and they reached a gentlemanly compromise somewhere in the middle, to the satisfaction of each.

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

[2] ArtScroll Series • Mesorah Publications Ltd.
WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WIT by Shmuel Himelstein
A Jew came to R’ Yechezkel of Kuzmir to ask his advice as to where he should live - in a town or a village. “The answer,” said R’ Yechezkel, “can be found in Rashi. When Moshe sent the spies to Eretz Yisrael, he instructed them to check if the people lived in open cities or in cities which were fortifies. On this, Rashi comments: ‘If they live in open cities, it is a sign that they are strong and rely on their own strength to defend themselves, whereas if they live in fortified cities it is a sign that they are weak.’ From this we see that a person who feels himself strong - and the truly strong person is the one who is able to contain his passions - can live anywhere. If, however, he has a weak nature and can be easily swayed, he must choose a place which is fortified - where there are many other observant Jews and rabbis to lead him.”

R’ Moshe Leib of Sassov would say: A person attains a higher level of piety by con- quering his anger than he would by fasting a thousand days.

[3] Candle by Day
There is much greater danger of success going to one’s head if it did not come from there in the first place. - From A Candle by Day by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein

[4] Hebrew Word
Here’s a good one from theAcademiya L’Lashon HaIvrit. How do you say “marker” in Hebrew? “Lord”, “Tush”, “Mahrkehr”? No. The “official” word is MAZBEI’A. <nyk>

[5] CHIZUK and IDUD (for Olim & not-yet-Olim respectively)
This Sidra opens with incident of the Meraglim and closes with the parsha of tzitzit. The juxtaposition of these two parshiot leads one to search for some sort of relationship. A verbal identity crops up. The meraglim were sent "latur" - to scout or traverse; (nowhere is the idea of spying mentioned in the Torah). The parsha of tzitzit relates "lo taturu", "do not follow after your heart and your eyes after which you go astray". Here we find the literal meaning of latur - to go astray. The Targum employs the same word TA’AN for both taturu and zonim. Rashi calls the heart and the eyes spies for the body - "the eye sees, the heart desires, and the body commits the sins". The Torah, however, places the heart (i.e. mind) first and then the eye.
This reveals a profound psychological truth. We see what our minds con- dition us to see, or simply, we see what our thoughts make us see. The Rohrshach test of psychologists is based on this truth. Some nebulous shape attains a certain configuration because of the way we think. Our thoughts shape our observations.

Unfortunately, in the consideration of ALIYA our thoughts are often shaped by looking at the negative aspects, as did the meraglim, economic situation, intafada, adjustment difficulties etc. We must learn to emulate Kalev - "aloh naaleh v'yorashnu otoh", for with the help of the Almighty -"yochol nuchal" WE CAN DO IT! - Rabbi James I. Gordon, Jerusalem
TORAH THOUGHTS as contributed by Aloh Naaleh members for publication in the Orthodox Union's 'Torah Insights', a weekly Torah publication on Parshat Ha'Shavuah

[6] Divrei Menachem
Parshat Shelach tends to raise in us very strong feelings regarding our longing for Eretz Yisrael and bewilderment regarding the astound- ingly strict punishment meted out to Bnei Yisrael for their lack of faith in Hashem.
For we surely recoil when we read: "How long will this people provoke me…? I will smite them…and annihilate them" (Bemidbar 14:11-12). And, cognizant of this alarming potentiality, we ask for what are we being punished, as we count the ever-increasing number of terror victims in our midst.

We must thus take comfort from Moshe's poignant plea (ibid. 13-21) in which he successfully argues that the nations of the world will only scoff at G-d if the people are destroyed. More powerfully, Moshe invokes the Attributes of Hashem, entreating G-d to let "Slowness of anger" prevail over "Strict justice" - to let patience prevail over punishment (Rashi).
Because the people were unrepentant, Moshe could not invoke all the characteristics of the Thirteen Attributes (Shemot 34:6-7). But we, today, can cry to G-d that if we have sinned we are repentant. We can then appeal to Hashem's attributes of Compassion and Truth. We can exclaim "Ve'ata Hashem Ad Matai?" - 'And You, O Lord, how much longer?' (Tehilim 6:4) - while committing ourselves to renounce forever those who slander Eretz Yisrael.

Shabbat Shalom,
Menachem Persoff