{"id":1199,"date":"2015-05-28T00:36:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T00:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=1199"},"modified":"2015-05-28T00:36:56","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T00:36:56","slug":"drash-cards-for-balak-5765","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=1199","title":{"rendered":"Drash Cards for Balak (5765)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Drash Cards for Balak (5765)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Marc Mangel<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Between the talking she-donkey (Ch 22, v 28ff) and the blessing of Israel (Ch 24, v 5) is a great mussar lesson<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ch 23, v 10: &#8220;May my soul die the death of the upright&#8221; (Mot Yesharim)<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Hertz is the only commentator to point out that this is not achieved by Balak, who is slain with the Midianites (Ch 31, v 8) &#8212; he was at the wrong place at the wrong time<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Hertz says &#8220;It would have been better had he said &#8216;Let me\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">live\u00a0<\/span>the life of the upright&#8217;. That is the only way to die their death&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 What does it mean to be Yashar? \u00a0R. Moshe Gorelick, Modern Orthodox, writes: &#8220;There are two dimensions to piety. \u00a0The first, represented by the word tzaddik, implies strict adherence to the laws of Shulchan Aruch. \u00a0A tzaddik is meticulously observant. But while one may be scrupulously attentive to the laws of Torah, he may still overlook the Torah&#8217;s ethical substratum. The tzaddik may pay special attention to the application of the law, while remaining insensitive to the ethical quality of the mitzvah&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 He goes on &#8220;Being yashar, on the other hand, denotes strict adherence to the moral values as well as the observance of the commandments. \u00a0Yashar implies&#8230;a commitment to the ideals and values symbolized by the law..Torah life possesses religious significance only when it transcends narrow legalisms, only when a person internalizes its moral qualities and ethical values and responds to events and challenges accordingly. \u00a0Only then does he transcend tzidikut. \u00a0Only then is he yashar&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 May we all become yashar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drash Cards for Balak (5765) by Marc Mangel \u2022 Between the talking she-donkey (Ch 22, v 28ff) and the blessing of Israel (Ch 24, v 5) is a great mussar lesson \u2022 Ch 23, v 10: &#8220;May my soul die the death of the upright&#8221; (Mot Yesharim) \u2022 Hertz is the only commentator to point &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=1199\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1199","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1199\/revisions\/1200"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}