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Leviticus

The Role of the Levites

1. The tribe of Levi was elevated to perform holy service, in the Tabernacle of the desert and in the Temple. Hence, it is a affirmative command for all Levites to be available and prepared for Temple Service, as stated in the Torah, “The Levites shall be for Me” (Numbers 18:14), indicating that the special relationship with the tribe of Levi is permanent. The prophet Jeremiah relates God’s promise that there will always be Kohanim and Levites fit to serve: “As I will never renege on My covenant with day and night, so is my covenant with…the Levites, the Kohanim, My servants” (Jeremiah 33:21).

2. The choice of the tribe of Levi for the highest spiritual service was due to their ability to channel their strong character in the service of God. Levi, the son of Jacob, was chastised for his anger by his father: “Cursed is their zealousness for it is brazen and their wrath for it is hard. I will separate them in Ya’akov and scatter them throughout Israel” (Genesis 49:6-7).

Four generations later, Moses blessed the same tribe of Levi: “Your righteous men…keeper of Your word and covenant; He shall teach Your judgment in Ya’akov and Your Torah in Israel…Blessed of God is his valor and his actions are pleasing…” (Deuteronomy 33:8-11). The Levites were able to apply their physical and spiritual strength to the fulfillment of God’s will and gain forever the role of God’s trusted servants.

3. The name Levi is derived from the words “he shall accompany”. This name was given to the third son of Jacob and Leah to indicate that he was to bring a strengthening of relationship between his parents, for now with three children, Jacob would need to accompany his wife Leah.

It was a natural development, therefore, that the task of the Levite became to accompany the Divine Presence and serve in the Temple. His role as teacher and spiritual example is to lead and, thereby, accompany others back to their spiritual purpose. The Midrash relates that in the future, Levites will lead the people of Israel back to their Father in Heaven.

4. Levi ben Ya’akov, the father of the tribe of Levites, lived 137 years, the longest of all of the sons of Jacob. He had a particularly strong influence on the spiritual development of his progeny, and lived to see his great-grandsons Moshe and Aharon.

5. The loyal nature of the Levites was most clearly demonstrated at the episode of the Golden Calf. The general population was influenced by the evil promptings of the mixed multitude. The Levites rallied to the side of Moshe to avenge God’s honor. They were rewarded with the spiritual service lost at that time by the firstborn of the other tribes. The Levites were tested and proved themselves able, thereby earning their elevated spiritual status.

The Levites were constantly willing to risk their lives for God’s service. They carried the sanctified vessels of the Tabernacle, which if mishandled, resulted in death.

6. The independent nature of the Levite was balanced by his role of Temple functionary. The Levites carried the Tabernacle and its vessels on its wanderings in the desert. Levites served as the honor guard, gatekeepers and musicians of the Temple. They also assisted the Kohanim in preparing toe offerings and in other aspects of the Temple’s functioning.

7. The economics of the tribe of Levi were unique among the tribes of Israel. In contrast to the other tribes, Levites had no inherited portion in the Land of Israel. Forty-two cities scattered throughout the portions of the other tribes were set aside as cities of Levites. In these cities, the Levites served as spiritual teachers to the people of Israel. These cities also served as shelters for those guilty of accidentally causing a person’s death. Whereas the other tribes worked the land, the Levite was dependent on the tithes and food gifts of others. Levites were made to be economically dependent on others for their income. In exchange for his life’s service, the Levite received God’s ordained sustenance through the required tithing of the nation. There was a mitzva upon the people of Israel not to abandon the Levi.

8. Levites were exempt from general military service. They were not counted in the census of the army in time of Moses or the Judge Deborah. Though relieved of the specific mitzva of waging war, they are required to take part in the mitzva of saving lives in times of direct threat.

The service of the Levite is the service of the spirit. Thus the tribe originally chastised for its warlike behavior became the tribe which exemplified peace, blessing and fraternal harmony. Yet the Levites throughout history were able to rise to the occasion to fight for values when necessary, as in the case of Channuka where they led the Jewish struggle against Greek influence.

An interesting contrast to the general army exemption of the tribe of Levi was the office of the “Kohen Anointed fir War”. This Kohen, whose position was an honored one in the hierarchy of Kohanim, was appointed to inspire and spiritually prepare the army of Israel before battle.

9. God’s special relationship with the tribe of Levi is promised to last forever. No other family is allowed to perform the Temple Service. Levites have been among the spiritual leaders of the nation from earliest times and continue to fulfill leadership roles until today. The true fulfillment of the soul of a son of the tribe of Levi is to once again serve God in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

From The Tribe, here.

‘With All Your Getting Get Understanding’

Commencement Season

By

May 24, 2016

This is the season of college Commencement speeches — an art form that has seldom been memorable but has increasingly become toxic in recent times.

Two themes seem to dominate Commencement speeches. One is shameless self-advertising by people in government, or in related organizations supported by the taxpayers or donors, saying how nobler it is to be in “public service” than working in business or other “selfish” activities.

In other words, the message is that it is morally superior to be in organizations consuming output produced by others than to be in organizations which produce that output. Moreover, being morally one-up is where it’s at.

The second theme of many Commencement speakers, besides flattering themselves that they are in morally superior careers, is to flatter the graduates that they are now equipped to go out into the world as “leaders” who can prescribe how other people should live.

In other words, young people, who in most cases have never had either the sobering responsibility and experience of being self-supporting adults, are to tell other people — who have had that responsibility and that experience for years — how they should live their lives.

In so far as the graduates go into “public service” in government, whether as bureaucrats or as aides to politicians or judges, they are to help order other people around.

It might never occur to many Commencement speakers, or to their audiences, that what the speakers are suggesting is that inexperienced young graduates are to prescribe, or help to dictate, to vast numbers of other people who have the real world experience that the graduates themselves lack.

To the extent that such graduates remain in government — “public service” — they can progress from aides to becoming career politicians, bureaucrats, and judges, never acquiring the experience of being on the receiving end of their prescriptions or dictates. That can mean a lifetime of people with ignorance presuming to prescribe to people with personal knowledge.

However well-educated the students might be in particular narrow fields — and, in too many cases, they have not gotten even that — what the graduates might have, at best, is a foundation for acquiring the real world experience necessary to complete their education and fulfill the ancient admonition, “With all your getting, get understanding.”

The presumption is not understanding. It is the antithesis of understanding.

It was my personal good fortune never to have been present at a college or university Commencement speech until I was 46 years old. In my earlier years, my college and postgraduate degrees had been mailed to a forwarding address that I left behind when I took leave of the campus at the earliest opportunity.

At age 46, I was a Commencement speaker and had to be told and shown how to wear the regalia. By the time I actually heard someone else give a Commencement speech, I was in my 50s — and knew enough by that time to be appalled, rather than inspired.

It was also my good fortune not to have gone to college until I was several years older than most people. At an age when too many young people have been told too often how brilliant and exceptional they are — presumably to promote “self-esteem” — I was working at unskilled labor jobs and struggling to buy food and pay my room rent.

Having to start work at the bottom was a blessing in disguise — and extremely well disguised at the time.

I learned the hard way that the good grades I had earned before dropping out of school were of no use to me in my low-level jobs. No one told me how brilliant I was. They were too busy correcting my mistakes.

It was painfully obvious that adults around me understood much more about their work — and about life. This taught me inescapable lessons and respect for people who had no academic pretensions but a lot of common sense.

It would take a lot more than lofty Commencement speeches to undo those lessons. We all have windfall gains and windfall losses. But, all in all, I feel lucky compared to those graduates who are so vulnerable to slick Commencement speakers.

From Lewrockwell.com, here.

Ribbis In Fiat Currency

THE RIBBIS PERILS OF FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS

Currency fluctuations can wreak havoc on people’s finances. Many investors and lenders sustained large losses with the recent plunge of the Russian ruble. When lenders granted ruble-denominated loans, even if they are repaid the entire face amount of their loans, the value and purchasing power of such repayment is substantially lower than the value at which the loan was originated. An American investor who purchased Russian bonds just two months ago lost around 20% of his investment simply because of the exchange rate fluctuations. Similarly, Russian homeowners who had outstanding foreign currency mortgages now pay substantially more rubles to service their loan.

Of even greater concern to the Torah Jew are the potential ribbis violations present in foreign currency transactions. These challenges apply to all of us, not just to the international businessman. People often borrow shekels from a friend or neighbor in the US for use when they arrive in Eretz Yisroel. There is no interest on the loan; they intend to simply repay with the same amount of shekels upon their return. This seemingly innocent transaction likely violates hilchos ribbis, as we will explain. Another seemingly innocuous case would be a dollar-based, non-interest-bearing loan between two individuals in Eretz Yisroel. This too can pose serious ribbis concerns.

In order to understand the issues at hand, we must first introduce certain basic tenets of hilchos ribbis.

Ribbis Ketzutzah

Ribbis that is prohibited min haTorah (biblically prohibited) is generally referred to as “ribbis ketzutzah,” meaning that the interest was set at the time the loan was initiated.[1]  However, in order to safeguard against violating ribbis min haTorah, Chazal extended these prohibitions to certain other transactions and loans. There are many forms that are included in this category, but one in particular is pertinent to the issue at hand:

Seah B’seah (Measure for a Measure)— Although lending out goods for repayment in kind is perfectly permissible according to Torah law (since the lender is receiving the same quantity of goods that he lent out), Chazal forbade such transactions. The reason for this prohibition is that if the price of the goods appreciates at the time of repayment, the lender will profit from the transaction. For example, if someone lent 100 ounces of silver when it was trading at 10 dollars an ounce, and was repaid in kind when it was valued at 12 dollars an ounce, the lender will have earned two hundred dollars from the transaction, despite the fact that he received the same weight of silver he initially lent. Although the profit was a result of a price fluctuation, and the price was just as likely to decrease, nevertheless Chazal prohibited such transactions.

Currency or Commodity

The prohibition of seah b’seah does not apply to local currency: If a person in the United States borrows one hundred US dollars, he may repay the same hundred dollars even if there was deflation and the purchasing power of the money increased at the time of repayment. The prohibition does not apply to currency, and is only applicable to items defined as “peiros” (literally, fruits), i.e., goods. The reason for this is that currency is treated in halacha as having a fixed value. Therefore, when prices increase, we view the increase as a change in the value of the peiros/goods, and not as a decrease in the value of the currency. By this definition, a lender who receives the same amount of currency he lent out is not considered to have made any profit off the transaction, regardless in the change in price levels. Rather, it is only when lending and receiving goods whose value appreciated during the course of the loan that a lender can be halachically deemed to have received more value than he lent out.

This distinction between currency and goods leads to some fascinating questions. In the US, it is easy to define currency —  the US dollar. However, in the times of the Gemara, currency in most countries consisted of gold, silver, and copper coins. These coins, even if minted in the same country, constantly fluctuated in their relative values. For example, the exchange rate of copper coins to silver coins would vary on a regular basis (unlike today, when a quarter is always twenty-five cents and a nickel is always five cents). The question that arose was which coins were considered currency — the gold coins, the silver coins, or the copper coins? The Gemara tells us that only silver coins were considered currency, while gcy rates only on a daily basis, this is sufficiently stable to qualify for yatza hasha’ar.[11] Others argue that even daily fluctuations are not considered as stable.[12]

However, there is another important issue: In the times of the Gemara, price instability was indicative of a lack of supply. Without regular availability, the borrower could not be considered in theory as having the product in hand (yesh lo); therefore, the problem of seah b’seah would apply. Today, however, regular fluctuations in terminally-traded markets (such as currencies) are generally not due to a lack of availability. On the contrary, the fluctuations occur because of minute shifts to the supply and demand equilibrium.  At the market price, freely traded currencies are virtually always available in significant quantities. Since the supply of currency is readily available, despite the fluctuating price, the problem of seah b’seah should not apply. This, however, holds true only if stable pricing was required only because it was indicative of ready supply. If however, the leniency of stable prices is not because of availability, but rather because stable prices allow the borrower to replace the material before the price appreciates, currencies, whose price fluctuates extremely rapidly, would not qualify for the leniency. This question seems to be a matter of dispute among both the Rishonim and Achronim.[13]

This discussion illustrates some of the challenges in applying halacha to modern-day scenarios. As commerce evolves, it is important to be sensitive how these shifts impact halacha. It also illustrates how seemingly insignificant factors can materially affect the halachic status.

As such, the purpose of this article is to create awareness of the halachic issues, and to stimulate discussion. It is not intended to be used for a psak halacha, and one should consult a competent halachic authority before engaging in such transactions.

[1] Some are of the opinion that in certain instances, even ribbis that was arranged subsequent to the loan can be a violation of Torah law (Rashi, Bava Metzia 68a, s.v. “velav milsa”; Shulchan Aruch 164:1; Shach 164:2).

[2] Bava Metzia 45a. The rationale for this will be explained later.

[3] See however, Minchas Shlomo Vol. 1, 27:4 (also quoted by, Nesivos Shalom p. 250) who suggests that nowadays, seah b’seah would not apply to currencies since all forms of legal tender are valued solely based on their worth as a currency (representative value) and not based on their material (intrinsic) value.  As such, they are never classified as a commodity.

[4] Teshuvos HaRashba 4:287; Chazon Ish, Yoreh De’ah 72:9. However, the Ritva (Bava Metzia 44a, s.v. “vechol hametaltelin” disagrees.

[5] Section 2:54

[6]  162:1

[7] HaRav Mendel Shafran, shlit”a, in Hayashar Vehatov Vol. 18, pp. 21–23.  See Nesivos Shalom p. 250, who quotes HaRav Elyashiv zt”l

[8] Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 162:2

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid., se’if 3

[11] Shevet HaLevi Vol. 3:109

[12] Mishnas Ribbis 6n12, quoting HaRav Elyashiv zt”l

[13] Bais Yosef (Tur, Yoreh Deah 162), citing Teshuvos Rashba Chadashos 76; Ba’al HaMaor, Bava Metzia 45a (dapei haRif); Sha’ar Deah 162:3

From Business Halacha, here.

America – Who Will They Invade Next?

Ask Your Government if Another War is Right For You

By

May 21, 2016

I think anyone with a sense for the obvious agenda hidden in plain sight but beneath media-minced deviled ham is that we are on the road to war. Not approaching the freeway exit that says “Gas-Food-Slaughter Next Exit” but actually on that exit and looking for the McMassacre.

Why do I think this? Several reasons, among which are: Assad has been given until August 1st to step down. A second airliner out of Egypt has now blown up in mid-air rather all of the sudden and suspiciously, the first being several months back and now a second this week. ISIS has not been daunted despite over a year of alleged aerial bombardment from Obama’s Flying Circus Stuka Squadron. But why now?

Remember back in 2004 when people didn’t want to vote for Kerry in the middle of a war? So they voted for Bush again? What if we get into a war so people will want to “stay the course” with the Democrats and fear bringing in the proverbial “unknown quotient”? However, there never need be any reason such as that for the United States to get into another war. The United States government thrives on mayhem, conflict, and chaos. And there is a big reason for that: It keeps the masses entertained and their minds off of the abject failure of the government here at home. There is no better way to drum up paperback patriotism than another war. Then even the people that fought in previous no-win, quagmire, and futile wars will all rally behind the latest waste of human life for no coherent objective beyond ego self-gratification.

The economy is in a rest area toilet, our society is fractured and broken, our “culture” is sick and immoral, and the government itself is corrupt and criminal. Therefore, if you need to keep the eyes of the sheep trained on something, what better way than to put an inflatable wolf on the horizon to scare them into subservience to the state? I can almost hear the “Support The Troops” stickers being peeled off and plastered on the Priuses now. Because if a Democrat starts a war, even the anti-war Democrats will support it. Just look at Syria. Have any Democrats come out and criticized Obama for this disaster that we are spending billions of dollars on in the middle of an economic hurricane? Hurricane Obama made landfall here in America first and then went on to Syria! What a scientific marvel! And these people act like Obama has accomplished great things for America!

On the face of it all, it makes absolutely no sense. We’ve been involved in military action across the planet since the 1890s. I tend to think our government simply cannot resist violence. Of course, if we have to admit that as a people, what it says is that our government is more akin to a mass murderer or a serial killer than any force for good or justice in the world. We sit in denial of it because then it begs the question of what that makes those of us that support the behavior. That’s not just being an enabler, it’s being an accessory to the crimes.

All the American flags waving, all the pro-war rallies and pre-game hoo-ha shout-outs to the neo-Luftwaffe over in Guernica East and for what? Pride? What is this, a football game except with bombs and artillery? “Top of the second battle…the air force is going in for a long pass…they shoot!! They score!! Oh, that napalm run has got to hurt!” This is disgusting. But this is what’s going on. Surely you’ve noticed this perception that it’s all just “what we do” in America like football, mom, apple pie, and prescription painkiller addictions?

Or is it just me here? Am I the guy that hitch-hiked into this Twilight Zone town where everyone is a robot made to look human and they’re all telling me what they think I want to hear? And when they find out I don’t believe in it, they screech, point their finger, and bellow, “Unpatriotic!” Gosh, it’s easy to see why prescription painkiller addictions are so common here. It’s not the easy availability of those medications that causes that. It’s the easy availability of despair for these people. I mean, they just open the paper and see they’re living in a dystopian science fiction movie and they don’t even need a prescription to undergo the government’s hallucinations.

Sure, why not have another war? The government is obviously trying real hard to sell us on it. They ought to have commercials for it during televised sports events. “I used to sit around the house bored and watching re-runs of the Iraq War. I wondered what would give meaning to life again, besides nachos and prescription medications. Then my government suggested another war. I asked my doctor if another war was right for me. He worked with me, convinced me it wouldn’t be my kid going off to die in it or come home maimed. He said the horrific scenes of children with third-degree burns from U.S. airstrikes would be kindly and gently censored from the news, and reporters that tried to show them blacklisted. I was thrilled. I even felt like shopping again! My wife saw the wonderful changes as I shouted ‘Kill them all and let Allah sort them out!’ on the television. I lost twenty pounds of humanity and integrity within a week! And another war can do this for you, too. Ask your government if another war is right for you. (Side effects may include, but are not limited to: A cease-fire that leaves the dictator in power, a quagmire longer than the Vietnam War, frequent lying, loss of morality control, civilian massacres, economic downturns and depression, suicidal thoughts in returning vets, and sudden death.)”

Continue reading…

From Lewrockwell.com, here.