Tuesday, December 05, 2006

עם לבן גרתי ותרי"ג מצות שמרתי

Rashi comments based on the medrash that גרתי = תרי"ג and therefore Yaakov was saying to Esav, even though I lived in Lavan's house I kept all 613 mitzvos.

However, there is an obvious question here. No one can actually keep all 613 mitzvos. Some mitzvos are just for Cohanim, some are just for the Cohen Gadol, some just for the King, some just in Israel, etc. Therefore, how could Yaakov say he kept all 613 mitzvos? Additionally he clearly didn't keep all 613 mitzvos because he married 2 sisters.

There are a number of answers I will mention 2.

1. Yaakov was referring to those mitzvos that are שקולה כנגד כל המצות, like talmud torah, tzitzis, etc. He meant that he kept those mitzvos and therefore it was as if he had kept all 613.
2. By the ברית בין הבתרים Avraham asks Hashem based on what will his children be זוכה? Hashem answered בזכות הקרבנות. Avraham then asked, what about when there is no Beis Hamikdash and no קרבנות? Hashem answered that if we say (learn) the קרבנות it is considered as if we were מקריב them. This is why we daven musaf on Shabbos and Yom Tov and mention the Musafim, ונשלמה פרים שפתינו.

As an aside, based on this RHS says that if you come late to shul it is better to say all of קרבנות and skip in פסוקי דזמרא, then skip קרבנות because קרבנות is a קיום דאורייתא while פסוקי דזמרא is just a nice thing.

Some acharonim say that this is not just a din by קרבנות but it applies to other parts of Torah as well. Whatever mitzva you personally cannot fulfill, if you learn the dinim of the mitzva it is as if you fulfilled the mitzva. Based on this, Yaakov was telling Esav that whatever mitzvos he could keep he kept, all the rest he learned the dinim and it was as if he kept them as well.

3 comments:

Chaim B. said...

How do you know there is a chalos din of u'neshalma parim sefaseinu before the Bais haMikdash even stood? The giluy to Avraham was only that post-churban there is such a din?
(Brisker Rav asks similar type kashe on last week's parsha. Why Ya'akov was afraid because he slept in the makom mikdash - can there be a din of mora mikdash even before a bais hamikdash is built?)

bluke said...

What is the sevara to say it wouldn't apply before matan torah?

TheLoneSoldier said...

Who says that the mitzvah is dependant on the reason? Bnei Yisrael ate matzot with their Korban Pesach in Egypt because they left in chipazon-but they hadnt gone yet!?!?!
And anyway from Hashem's perspective, the Bet Mikdash had already stood their, because there is no concpt of time appled to Hashem, so the mitzva can be given any time!
Torah before Matan torah is weird ive never heard a proper explaation to that! Hashem hasnt told us to do them yet. even more Yeshivat Sheim V'Eiver? What did they study if there was no Torah!