Matot
Rabbi Schapiro on the Parshah: Matot
Weighs the Mishnah's praise of nedarim as a siyag l'perishus against the Yerushalmi's harsher view that making a neder is itself a chet, and the parallel tension found between a nazir's abstinence from wine and his chattat offering. Resolves both through the purpose of creation, that Hashem wants a dirah b'tachtonim built by elevating the physical world rather than fleeing from it, as the Baal Shem Tov taught on the pasuk of chamor soncha. Distinguishes between a person on a high enough madreigah to elevate gashmiyus through use, for whom a neder is a missed opportunity, and one who is still liable to be pulled down by it, for whom the neder is a necessary safeguard, and applies this to why hatarat nedarim requires the elevated koach of a yachid mumche or a beit din.
Parshas Matos-Masei
A vort on Parshas Matos-Masei exploring Moshe Rabbeinu's conditional agreement to grant the tribes of Gad and Reuven land on the east side of the Jordan.