Welcome back to another episode of NachDaily with Ezra, Chapter 7, where we finally get to meet Ezra Hasofer and the 2nd Aliyah.

[May this segment be a merit for the aliyas neshamos of Raizel bas Moshe, Avraham Aharon ben Yisroel Yitzchok, and Refael ben Yehoshua Falek.]

When Koresh had called the Jews to return to Yerushalayim about 23 years earlier, Ezra and his students had remained to continue learning from their Rebbe, Baruch Ben Neriah. Baruch Ben Neriah was one of the links in our Mesorah going back to Har Sinai. He had learned from his Rebbe, the great Yirmiya HaNavi. Baruch Ben Neriah was nearing the end of his life, which meant it was now time for Ezra to come to the Holy Land.

Rav Shwab points out that in those days the Torah SheBa’al Peh, Oral Law, was not yet written down. It was therefore of the utmost importance for Ezra to stay back to receive the transmittal of the Torah for future generations. Every word Ezra learnt from his Rebbe was precious. Ezra, among the last of the Neviim, passed on what he received to the Anshei Kenness HaGedola, Men of the Great Assembly.

Ezra was a truly great individual. In fact, the Koheles Rabba 1:8 brings that if Aharon Hakohen had still been alive, Ezra would have been even greater than he. In fact the Ramad Walli brings that there were 17 generations from Aharon HaKohen to Ezra, which is the gematria for “tov – good.” Ezra was just as good and important as Aharon HaKohen.

Sanhedrin 21B alludes to the similarity between Moshe and Ezra, who were both fitting to give the Torah. The Ramad Walli points out that Ezra’s name means help, to demonstrate what a big help Ezra was to Am Yisrael.

With all that in mind we can begin the chapter.

The perek opens with Ezra’s Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. The pesuskim trace back his illustrious lineage to Aharon HaKohen, again highlighting his greatness.

In verse 6 it says that Ezra was “alah m’Bavel, ascended up to Eretz Yisrael from Bavel and was a great scribe. Chazal use the word “alah, ascended,” to point out its similarity to Moshe who was alah up to Har Sinai. Ezra was the giver of the Torah in his generation, and set it up for our 2,000 years of exile.

Verse 6 also states that Ezra was “a scribe expert in the Torah of Moshe which had been given by God.” Ezra was a sofer par excellence. He was the one who copied the original Sefer Torah written by Moshe Rabbanu, which is the Sefer Torah from which all others were copied.

There’s a conversation amongst the Meforshim [not really for this shiur] about whether Moshe wrote the Torah in “Ksav Ivrei” which is different than “Ksav Ashuris,” which is seemingly the type font Ezra used to copy the Torah.

King Artaxerxes granted all of Ezra’s requests. At that time most people did not return to Eretz Yisrael with Ezra. Rab Shwab notes that this Aliyah was pitifully disappointing. Most people chose to live in their fancy homes in chutz l’Aretz with better financial security, comfort and luxuries.

This is something to which we can relate. Eretz Yisrael is open yet many of us don’t choose to live there. We have to ask ourselves if much has changed.

B’H Nefesh B’Nefesh recently said that they are expecting 50k new olim this year from America! In this June 2020, they had close to 1,100 applications while in June 2019 they only had close to 400! Let us all feel connected to the land and learn from our mistakes of the past.

The rest of the chapter records the letter and favorable decree written by the King which gave the Jews a certain level of autonomy and put power in the hands of Ezra Hasofer. The basic gist of the

letter is the King giving full permission and authority for the Jews to return to Eretz Yisrael. They were encouraged to take gold and silver and bring Korbanos at the newly built Beis Hamikdash.

They were also ordered to bring Korbanos on behalf the King to Hashem. Ezra was given complete authority to lead in the surrounding areas, given the ability to decide matters of life and death. The King ended his letter by praising and thanking the God of the Jewish people for allowing him to have the merit to lead Am Yisrael back to their land.

May we all merit making Aliyah as in the times of Ezra. Stay tuned to the next episode of NachDaily.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.