At the table where I generally sit for the morning prayer service recently there was a cohein and a levi. I joked, "Hey if R' Ploni were here we would have all of Klal Yisrael represented -- cohein, levi, yisrael, and me -- the eirev rav." (They weren't born as part of Klal Yisrael, I wasn't born as part of Klal Yisrael... get it?) 😁 I thought it was funny, but the cohein and levi both looked at me and said, "You are not eirev rav; don't talk like that!" It was parshas Ki Sisa, so "eirev rav" is a bit of a trigger, after all. I started thinking about the eirev rav, though, and -- as often happens -- the simple, superficial understanding of the situation started to unravel. How did they get there? They crossed though the Yam Suf with Klal Yisrael. What did the eirev rav eat? Presumably the mahn along with everyone else. Moreover, even though it certainly was (a relatively small number of ) individuals from the eirev rav who built and worsh
During the recent celebration of the bar mitzvah of a grandson, many divrei Torah were shared. Among them, the following thought was shared: Lashon HaKodesh is unique. In all other (human developed) languages, the words are merely labels that folks in a certain region have agreed to apply to this or that concept, this or that object. Lashon HaKodesh, though, captures the essence of the objects with the words it uses to describe them. In fact, the word דבר is translated as both "word" and "thing". (Except for Google Translate, which can't distinguish between דבר and שום דבר! That's certainly the peak of human invention!) Here's a specific example: the word for "hand" is יד. The gematria of יד is 14, and there are 14 moveable joints in the hand; three on each finger, two on the thumb. Go ahead and try it; I'll wait. Now wasn't that satisfying? Cute. Nice short vort to add spice to a larger d'var Torah. Is it more than that, or just a