For the week ending 28 June 2025 / 2 Tamuz 5785
Kriat Shema Al Hamitah (Part 17)
Kriat Shema al Hamitah then continues with a series of verses from Tanach that revolve around Hashem’s mercy: “May the angel who redeems me from all evil bless the lads, and may my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak, and may they proliferate abundantly like fish within the land.”(Bereshet 48:16)
Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (1475-1549) is famous for his magnificent commentary on the Torah. It offers brilliant insights and elucidations and is considered to be a timeless masterpiece. He makes a poignant comment about the phrase “and may my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak.” Rabbi Sforno says that when a person behaves in a praiseworthy manner, people tend to draw a comparison to the person’s righteous descendants, and to point out how similar they are. It is truly uplifting to be compared to one’s righteous parents!
Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1713-1793), was the illustrious chief rabbi of Prague, and the author of several scholarly works that are regarded as indispensable to Jewish scholarship. He was also a close personal friend of Emperor Josef of Austria. When Rabbi Landau died, the emperor asked his son whether he was as wise as his late father. “No,” answered the son. “I am much less than him.”
“That is not the proper way to answer,” replied the emperor. “You should have answered that your father was much greater than you. By saying that you are less than your father, you are casting aspersions on that brilliant man!”
Conversely, Sforno points out that, unfortunately, the opposite is equally true. When a person behaves in a less than desirable way, those around them make a comparison with the person’s wicked and immoral ancestors. To paraphrase the Chazon Ish (Emunah u’Bitachon chapter 4), “If a parent disciplines their child with anger, the child will learn that anger is an important trait to have and use. Yet, in fact, anger is a horrible trait to acquire and use! However, children do not understand this, as they merely mirror what they see.” Nevertheless, there are occasions when copying a negative quality of a parent can actually work in the child’s favor. Many years ago, there was a Yeshiva for Ba’alei Teshuva in Teveria. One of the fathers was furious that his son was learning there and was becoming religious. So, one morning he arrived unannounced at the Yeshiva in order to compel his son to return home. His son refused to cooperate, and the infuriated father accosted the Rosh Yeshiva and started berating him. The Rosh Yeshiva took the irate father into his study in an attempt to explain to him exactly what his son and the other students were accomplishing in the Yeshiva. The father angrily told the Rosh Yeshiva “not to waste his time.” He insisted that he knew exactly what Yiddishkeit was. He had grown up in a very religious family in Eastern Europe, but he had “seen the light” and had jettisoned any semblance of anything overtly Jewish by the time he arrived in Israel. And now he was absolutely livid that his son was rebelling against him, choosing to return to everything that the father had given up. “I want my son to follow in my ways!” he bellowed.
“But he is,” the Rosh Yeshiva calmly pointed out. “You rebelled against your father, and your son is now rebelling against you!”
When Yaakov Avinu blesses Yosef’s two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, he poetically declares that they should “proliferate abundantly like fish within the land.” What is so special about fish that Yaakov blessed Ephraim and Menashe to be “like fish”? Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes, with his customary eloquence, “That is, in a separate habitat in depths beyond the range of the human eye. In other words, the children of Yaakov will live quiet, happy lives in the midst of mankind, but set apart as if in a separate habitat to which those around them cannot follow them, and the significance of which the others cannot surmise.”
Within the turmoil of this chaotic and unpredictable world, there is only one real, lasting source of refuge and tranquility for us, Hashem’s children: To remain completely immersed in His Torah.
*To be continued…
Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (1475-1549) is famous for his magnificent commentary on the Torah. It offers brilliant insights and elucidations and is considered to be a timeless masterpiece. He makes a poignant comment about the phrase “and may my name be declared upon them, and the names of my forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak.” Rabbi Sforno says that when a person behaves in a praiseworthy manner, people tend to draw a comparison to the person’s righteous descendants, and to point out how similar they are. It is truly uplifting to be compared to one’s righteous parents!
Rabbi Yechezkel Landau (1713-1793), was the illustrious chief rabbi of Prague, and the author of several scholarly works that are regarded as indispensable to Jewish scholarship. He was also a close personal friend of Emperor Josef of Austria. When Rabbi Landau died, the emperor asked his son whether he was as wise as his late father. “No,” answered the son. “I am much less than him.”
“That is not the proper way to answer,” replied the emperor. “You should have answered that your father was much greater than you. By saying that you are less than your father, you are casting aspersions on that brilliant man!”
Conversely, Sforno points out that, unfortunately, the opposite is equally true. When a person behaves in a less than desirable way, those around them make a comparison with the person’s wicked and immoral ancestors. To paraphrase the Chazon Ish (Emunah u’Bitachon chapter 4), “If a parent disciplines their child with anger, the child will learn that anger is an important trait to have and use. Yet, in fact, anger is a horrible trait to acquire and use! However, children do not understand this, as they merely mirror what they see.” Nevertheless, there are occasions when copying a negative quality of a parent can actually work in the child’s favor. Many years ago, there was a Yeshiva for Ba’alei Teshuva in Teveria. One of the fathers was furious that his son was learning there and was becoming religious. So, one morning he arrived unannounced at the Yeshiva in order to compel his son to return home. His son refused to cooperate, and the infuriated father accosted the Rosh Yeshiva and started berating him. The Rosh Yeshiva took the irate father into his study in an attempt to explain to him exactly what his son and the other students were accomplishing in the Yeshiva. The father angrily told the Rosh Yeshiva “not to waste his time.” He insisted that he knew exactly what Yiddishkeit was. He had grown up in a very religious family in Eastern Europe, but he had “seen the light” and had jettisoned any semblance of anything overtly Jewish by the time he arrived in Israel. And now he was absolutely livid that his son was rebelling against him, choosing to return to everything that the father had given up. “I want my son to follow in my ways!” he bellowed.
“But he is,” the Rosh Yeshiva calmly pointed out. “You rebelled against your father, and your son is now rebelling against you!”
When Yaakov Avinu blesses Yosef’s two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, he poetically declares that they should “proliferate abundantly like fish within the land.” What is so special about fish that Yaakov blessed Ephraim and Menashe to be “like fish”? Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes, with his customary eloquence, “That is, in a separate habitat in depths beyond the range of the human eye. In other words, the children of Yaakov will live quiet, happy lives in the midst of mankind, but set apart as if in a separate habitat to which those around them cannot follow them, and the significance of which the others cannot surmise.”
Within the turmoil of this chaotic and unpredictable world, there is only one real, lasting source of refuge and tranquility for us, Hashem’s children: To remain completely immersed in His Torah.
*To be continued…
