Teens Question, Ki Savo 2025

Question

What mitzva can you keep in chutz la'aretz even though it's תלויה בראץ and in our times even though it requires the בית המקדש?

Answer

A man of Gd

We need to start this week with some background. It's very common in navi for a pasuk not to refer to a navi by name. Instead, it will use the title "איש האלוקים" - "man of Gd". Why? To answer that we need to understand what it means to be a navi of Hashem.

Consider the gemara the mesilas yesharim quotes in his introduction

מכאן אמר רבי פנחס בן יאיר: תורה מביאה לידי זהירות, זהירות מביאה לידי זריזות, זריזות מביאה לידי נקיות, נקיות מביאה לידי פרישות, פרישות מביאה לידי טהרה, טהרה מביאה לידי חסידות, חסידות מביאה לידי ענוה, ענוה מביאה לידי יראת חטא, יראת חטא מביאה לידי קדשה, קדשה מביאה לידי רוח הקדש, רוח הקדש מביאה לידי תחית המתים.

From here, Rebbe Pinchas ben Yair learned: learning Torah causes a person to be careful with aveiros, being careful with aveiros causes a person to run to do mitzvos, running to do mitzvos causes a person to search out and eliminate every remnant of sin, searching out and eliminating remnants of sin causes a person to separate himself pleasures of this world, separating from pleasures of this world causes a person to purify himself, purifying himself causes a person to seek piety, seeking piety causes a person to be humble, humility causes a person to fear sin, fearing sin causes a person to become holy, holiness causes a person to develop ruach hakodesh, and ruach hakodesh causes a person to be able to perform techiyas hamesim.

Avodah Zarah 20 quoted in the introduction of Mesilas Yesharim

Pay attention to each of those levels Rebbe Pinchas ben Yair describes. Each of these 10 steps represents a slightly more pure connection to Hashem. We start with learning Torah. There are parts of the Torah that are accessible to anyone. A person can sit and learn in the morning and go eat chazir treif in the afternoon! This isn't just a theoretical idea. There are batei midrashim filled with yehudim who were not fortunate to be brought up in homes of Torah and mitzvos that do exactly that! B"H, they fill their mornings with the opportunity to learn Torah, but they turn around and continue with their lives in the afternoon.

From there, we see a person who is careful with aveiros. He's begun to remove the bad from his life. This continues to a thirst for mitzvos, a desire to eliminate all sin, etc. Step by step a person removes everything from his life except for his connection to Hashem. And what does he get if he succeeds? Ruach hakodesh. That's like "mini nevuah". It's the natural outgrowth of the direct connection he made with Hashem. Hashem knows everything. He sees everything. He can do anything. When we connect with Him, we're zoche to see some small part of that in the form of ruach hakodesh. If we're the connection is even more pure, it upgrades to level of nevuah.

This might all sound a bit "airy-fairy". Spiritual connection? Spiritual purity? What does that actually mean? It's simpler that it might sound. Imagine a cell phone call. How many times have you had trouble making out what the person on the other end was saying because of static on the line? Or one of your phones stops working and you can't hear? Sometimes one person can hear but the other can't. Sometimes the voice gets chopped up and you sound like a robot or some of the words drop. No matter the type of interference, the result is the same - there's no way to communicate.

A spiritual connection works the same way. The connection let's us communicate with our creator. The interference? It comes from aveiros. From anti-kedusha generated by getting involved in non spirituality. That interference blocks us from connecting. It results in us not being capable of receiving any type of signal from Hashem. No nevuah. No ruach hakodesh.

The takeaway is that Hashem doesn't randomly choose someone to be a navi. It's quite the opposite! A person spends his life working on his connection with Hashem until eventually, memeila he becomes a navi. The connection is so strong the nevua just flows out of him.

That's why the pesukim use the words איש האלוקים - "man of Gd" - to describe a navi. When you see a navi, you know with absolute certainty he must be a man of Gd. If he wasn't, he couldn't be a navi.

If you let it, this idea is actually a powerful lesson that can change your life. There are leaders in our lives that profess to be men of Gd. Do they stand up to this test? Are they focused on improving their spiritual connection to Hashem? Are they careful with sin? Do they run after mitzvos? Whether or not they do can be a fantastic way for us to understand when a leader is fit to actually follow!

Gifts to a talmid chochom 

ואיש בא מבעל שלישה ויבא לאיש האלהים לחם בכורים עשרים לחם שעורים וכרמל בצקלונו

And a man came from Baal Shlisha and he brought the man of Gd bread from bikkurim, twenty loaves of barley bread and cultivated barley in its bag

Melachim 2, 4:42

The "man of Gd" in the pasuk is Elisha Hanavi. We've already understood the immense stature he must have had to have achieved nevua and be described as a man of Gd in the pasuk. But why would someone bring him bikkurim? The gemara in kesuvos (105b) explains Elisha was not a kohen so he shouldn't have been allowed to eat from bikkurim. But the pasuk clearly uses the words "לחם בכורים" the bread of bikkurim to describe what he ate!

The gemara resolves the apparent inconsistency with an incredible concept

וכי אלישע אוכל בכורים הוה אלא לומר לך כל המביא דורון לתלמיד חכם כאילו מקריב בכורים

Did Elisha really eat bikkurim? Rather, the pasuk is telling you that anyone who brings a gift to a talmid chochom is considered as if he brought bikkurim.

Kesuvos, 105b 

It's true, Elisha is not a kohen. In fact, the man from Baal Slisha did not bring bikkurim. He just brought a דורון, a present, for Elisha. But that's no small thing! The gemara teaches us that Hashem finds the act of bringing a דורון to a talmid chochom equivalent to bringing bikkurim. It seems from the words of the navi and the words of the gemara this isn't just a metaphorical description. Hashem actually uses the phrase in the pasuk in melachim "he brought the man of Gd bread from bikkurim." It doesn't say "bread like bikkurim". It doesn't say "and he considered it to be bikkurim." It says it actually was bikkurim.