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Thought for the Day: Consistency is (Nearly) Everything in Torah

On Yom Tov there is a Torah obligation of שמחה/rejoicing. The mitvah of שמחה is strongly associated with meat and wine. On Shabbos the obligation is עונג/pleasure. Eat whatever you like best. You can even fast on Shabbos if you like that better than eating. Go figure.

The sefer מעדני השלחן is of the opinion that just as there is a mitzvah of שמחה on Yom Tov for שמחה, there is an equal obligation on Shabbos. We do not pasken that way. The מעדני השלחן points to three sources for his p'sak. One I already discussed in a previous TfdD. Another is a ספרי, the halachic medrash on Bamidbar on verse 10, chapter 10. The verse is talking about when to blow trumpets for the korbanos. It refers to festivals, rosh chodesh, and וּבְי֨וֹם שִׂמְחַתְכֶ֣ם/the day of your rejoicing. The ספרי says that י֨וֹם שִׂמְחַתְכֶ֣ם is referring to Shabbos, and R' Nosson says it refers to the korban tamid. The מעדני השלחן says that proves there is a mitzvah of שמחה on Shabbos just like Yom Tov. He is alone in that opinion and we don't pasken that way. (I think I may have mentioned that already 😉 )

But hang on here a minute... that medrash is a wonder! How do you put Shabbos and korban tamid together at all? I had that question hanging till I heard this year's shiur on Parahas Pinchus by R' Cziment, which you can find on TorahAnytime.com. Starting right from the beginning (ok, about 37 seconds into the shiur for the impatient among you), R' Cziment brings a medrash that brings three different opinions as to the one verse in the Torah around which everything else revolves and build on. The first candidate is Shma Yisrael. That seems pretty reasonable. Second candidate is "you shall love your fellow as yourself." Hard to argue on that one either. I don't know how you'd pick the most fundamental of those two. The third opinion is "bring a korban tamid morning and evening."

What's that you say? If you are my age, you are now hearing "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong" playing on a continuous loop in your mind. The medrash is not finished; it ends by saying the halacha is like that third opinion. So now I understand how the ספרי can be up on the air about whether וּבְי֨וֹם שִׂמְחַתְכֶ֣ם of Bamidbar 10:10 refers to Shabbos or the korabn tamid. Well... more like: I see how these two midrashim go together. But what does it mean?

I would urge you to listen to R' Cziment's shiur, but the message is simply, to make progress in Torah, to perfect your neshama, you need to be consistent. As much as we like weddings, a marriage is built a day at a time. We experienced the most extravagant possible wedding more than 3000 years ago at Har Sinai when Klal Yisrael accepted that Torah as the marriage contract between us and HaShem. But the marriage, the perfection of the soul of each and every Jew is thrice daily davening, fixed times for learning, and those little challenges we face and overcome each minute of every day of our life.
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