SONG OF THE SEA: With Your
loving kindness You led the people You redeemed; You led [them] with Your might
to Your holy abode.
HAFTORAH: there they will
tell the righteous acts of the Lord, the righteous acts of restoring open
cities in Israel.
TALMUD SOTAH: Daf 14
GENERATIONS FROM ADAM TO
THE LAST KING OF JUDAH: Eber
JOURNEY IN THE DESERT: They
journeyed from Kivroth haTaavah and camped in Hazeroth
On Week 14, also the week of Chanukah, the verses of the
Song of the Sea speak of G-d’s redemption and might, leading the Jewish people
to His holy abode. This again is a basic theme of Chanukah. This is also the
week of Rosh Chodesh Teveth. Teveth is related to the power to multiply,
particularly when things seem hopeless.
The Haftorah’s verses continue to describe the Chanukah mitzvah
to tell of G-d’s miracles, Pirsumei Nissa. It also speaks of “restoring open
cities in Israel,” very much like how the Temple was restored on Chanukah.
Daf Yud Dalet (Folio 14) of Sotah is primarily about the
burial of Moshe. Moshe is buried across from (as a protection against) Baal Peor, which is related to
promiscuity, intermarriage and idolatry. This is related to Chanukah, as fighting against these negative qualities was one of thr primary ibjextives of the Maccabees. On Daf
14, the tractate also begins a new chapter, returning to the subject of the Sotah
ritual. It introduces the topic of the kind of offering that the Sotah brings,
which is made of barley, animal food. The actions she is accused of are those
of an animal, therefore the offering is also one of an animal. Again, there is
a parallel here with Chanukah.
Eber, along with his great grandfather Shem, had established
a yeshiva to study God’s laws already back in those days. The destruction of
the Temple that took place in Teveth is connected to the fact that Torah study
was not given the proper respect. Eber seems to be assisting Shem in the
struggle against the values of Yaffeth and his grandson Yavan (Greece). Furthermore, it was by studying Torah in the Yeshiva of Eber that Yaakov prepared to face the deceit and the risk of assimilation in the house of Lavan.
In the fourteenth week, the Jews journey from Kivroth
haTaavah and camp in Hazeroth. Hatzeroth is where Miriam slandered Moses, and
some say it is also the place where Korach rebelled against him.[1] The personal journey is to use Chanukah to internalize
the concept of burying one’s physical desires and focusing on the spiritual. We
then turn to focusing on avoiding bad speech and rebellion against our leaders.
Lashon Harah is equal to the sins of idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder. (BT
Arachin 15b) The Talmud also suggests that it was because of these three things
that the First Temple was destroyed. (Yoma 9a)[2]
[2]
http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/3weeks/vol5no8.html
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