Transcript
Okay, good morning. It's great to be back together to resume our parsha class. I hope everyone was studying the parsha in the interim on your own. You know, you're allowed to do that as well. No rule against that.So we resume פרשה שלח Parshas Shlach, a fantastic parsha. Not a fantastic story of the Jewish people, not a fantastic result, but a fascinating story and a fascinating narrative, so much to learn from. And I want to delve into a section today with you that is often neglected or not necessarily studied in depth. It's not usually the highlight of of the parsha, but I think there's a tremendous amount to extract, a lot to learn from it. So as usual, we'll do our overview of the parsha, and then we'll delve into the specific פסוקים psukim together.So פרשה שלח Parshas Shlach begins with the command to send the Jewish people, allocate or designate spies to go investigate the land. And the late Norman Morkowski, עליו השלום alav hashalom, former member of our shul, used to be very upset when rabbis say they were sent to spy out the land. He would say that's not English. There's no such thing as spying out. They're sent to investigate the land. That's the proper English. I think he told me that 15 years ago and it's still stuck with me. So the spies are sent to investigate the land, to do an analysis, and to come back. Who exactly sends the spies? Whose idea was this wonderful idea? In our parsha it sounds one way, later in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim, when משה Moshe in his monologue recalls the story, he portrays it differently. It's not our subject for today, but it is a fascinating question. Whose idea, what was the genesis of this idea of sending the spies? The spies were not ordinary men, they were שלח לך אנשים shlach lecha anashim. רש\"י Rashi says they were אנשים חשובים anashim chashuvim. These were, these were the leaders of the people. We read the story and we tend to think, these were the rejects, these were the negative people, these were the complainers, these were the, there was never a shot it would work out. But it's not the truth. These were the heads of the tribes. As if God tapped רב משה Rav Moshe and רב יעקב Rav Yaakov and the רב Rav and the רבי Rebbe and רב הוטנר Rav Hutner and every גדול gadol of the 20th century and said, twelve of you, I need you to go, I have a mission for you. Which makes the, their report even more perplexing. So he taps these אנשים חשובים anashim chashuvim to go, but first on their way, the names change. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע Vayikra Moshe l'Hoshea bin Nun Yehoshua. יהושע Yehoshea, the יוד yud is added to הושע Hoshea's name, the יוד yud from שרי Sarai who became שרה Sarah. That יוד yud was saved all these years, added to הושע Hoshea's name. יוד Yud stands for God, God's name was added to יהושע Yehoshua, and he was ready. And there was one other stop that had to happen, and that was, they all came up from the south except for כלב Kalev. Why did כלב Kalev come from another direction? Where did he stop for a detour? חברון Chevron. Why did he go to חברון Chevron? He went to go pray. Where did he pray? מערת המכפלה Ma'aras Hamachpela. Why did he stop? All of a sudden it's quiet. Why did he stop? חז\"ל Chazal tell us he stopped because, same way יהושע Yehoshea's name was changed to יהושע Yehoshua, to fortify him to do the right thing on this mission. So רב וואלבה Rav Wolbe asks, if כלב Kalev knew that something was going to go wrong, enough that he made a detour to stop to דאווען daven, why'd he go? Why not pull out of the mission? Why not object or protest? If he had an instinct that something was off, something was going to go wrong, just pull out. Be a whistleblower. Blow the cover off this thing and tell everybody, bad idea. We're going to leave us 40 years in the מדבר midbar. There's this thing תשעה באב Tisha B'Av, they're going to hate us forever, they have to fast for 24 hours. Forget it, it's off. The mission's off. Why did he go anyway if he knew enough to have to stop in חברון Chevron? That's רב וואלבה Rav Wolbe's question. Not for now. I like to ask you a lot of questions so you have something to think about over over Shabbos. So they go, they're on their way, their mission was ראה את הארץ מה היא re'eh es ha'aretz mah hi, go see, החזק הוא הרפה המעט הוא אם רב hechazak hu harafah hame'at hu im rav. What are the status of the people that live there? Are they strong? Are they weak? Are they many? Are they few? What's the status? In our parsha, it's depicted that the purpose of the mission is to identify the military installations where they are, topography of the land. But if you look in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim, again when משה Moshe is recounting the story, he says something different. He says their mission is not to go and investigate the strength of the army, but it's והשבתם אותנו דבר vahasheivosem osanu davar. Bring back a דבר davar. What's a דבר davar? A דבר davar is a thing. So he sent them why? To bring back a דבר davar. What's a thing? Usually, you know, someone asks you to bring something back from Israel, marzipan רוגלעך rugelach, a new טלית tallis, a new כיפה kippah, a new מגן דוד Magen David, a שווארמה shawarma. What's a דבר davar? So רש\"י Rashi says that משה Moshe sent them to see what? איזה לשון הם מדברים Eizeh lashon heim medabrim. What language are they speaking? What language are they speaking? Who cares what language they're speaking? That's what matters. What matters is the way it's depicted in our parsha. החזק הוא הרפה המעט הוא אם רב Hechazak hu harafah hame'at hu im rav, are they strong? Are they weak? Are they many? Are they few? Where are they? Eli Cohen, the great spy, whose body still has not been returned to our people, whose tremendous sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, was so greatly responsible for our people's victory. So you think he went in Syria and he was checking what language are they speaking? He was sending them exactly where the military was encamped, brilliantly, and at such personal risk. So what do you mean איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon heim medabrim? So the מהר\"ל Maharal there in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim, מהר\"ל Maharal has a magnificent insight. He says, you know why the mission was to go see what language they're speaking? It's not the language, what language is it? Aramaic, Hebrew, English, Spanish, French. It was go eavesdrop to what they're talking about. If you want to know the strength of a people, if you want to know everything about someone, or if you want to know everything about a people, listen to what they talk about. Is it significant or insignificant? Sophisticated or unsophisticated? Are they gossiping? I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who once said that small people talk about people, and average people talk about things, and great people talk about ideas. So what were they talking about? Are they talking about people? Are they talking about things? Are they talking about ideas? You know everything about how strong they are by if you listen to what exactly, what exactly they're talking about. Anyway, so that's the mission, and מה הארץ אשר הוא יושב בה הטובה היא אם רעה ma ha'aretz asher hu yosheiv bah hatovah hi im ra'ah, and so on and so forth. What happens? They come back and they report. And what is their report? So if you really read it at first glance, again, we are so ingrained that the spies, the מרגלים meraglim, are villains. They're villains of the Torah, it's their fault we have תשעה באב Tisha B'Av, it's their fault they wandered 40 years. Some of the challenges of Israel continue because of them. They're villains. But if you read their report, on page 800 now in the Artscroll Stone Chumash on the bottom, ויספרו לו ויאמר באנו אל הארץ אשר שלחתנו וגם זבת חלב ודבש היא וזה פריה Vayisapru lo vayomer banu el ha'aretz asher shlachtanu vegam zavas chalav u'devash hi v'zeh piryah. We got there, we landed, we waited on line in customs, it's an incredible land. It's flowing with milk and honey. This is its fruit. Look at the size of this fruit. Unbelievable. We had breakfast at the Waldorf, you should see how fresh the vegetables are, you should see the fruit, they're perfect, they're magnificent, the רוגלעך rugelach, the guy making the omelets, it's unbelievable what's going on here. אפס כי עז העם היושב בארץ והערים בצורות גדולות מאוד וגם ילידי הענק ראינו שם Efes ki az ha'am hayosheiv ba'aretz v'hearim betzuros gedolos me'od v'gam yelidei ha'anak ra'inu sham. However, the people that live there are powerful, the cities are strong and great. And we saw the offspring of the giant. עמלק יושב בארץ הנגב החתי והיבוסי והאמורי יושב בהר Amalek yosheiv b'eretz hannegev, Hachiti, v'haYevusi, v'haEmori yosheiv bahar, and so on. And that's the report. Tell me, where did they go wrong? What did they say that was so terrible? They did what was asked of them. They came back and they reported on what they saw. Great breakfast, land flowing with milk and honey. Look at the size of this fruit. And you asked us to check out, are they many, are they few, are they strong, are they weak? And here's the report. They're fortified, they're great, there's a giant, עמלק Amalek's there, these nations are there, כנענים Kna'anim live there. And all of a sudden, כלב Kalev tries to intercede, he shouts it down, there's hysteria, the people are crying, what what did they do, why are they villains? What did they say that was so wrong? Anyone see anything in their statement that was so wrong? So the רמב\"ן Ramban says one word, אפס efes. That word אפס efes captured everything. אפס Efes means but, however. They began by saying the land is beautiful. ארץ זבת חלב ודבש היא וזה פריה Eretz zavas chalav u'devash hi v'zeh piryah, it's beautiful. אפס Efes, however, as magnificent, as attractive as it looks, as promising as it is, we've got a problem. אפס Efes, however, got a problem. There's giants, and there's strong nations. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says you have this whole report spanning numerous פסוקים psukim, their mistake was in the one word, however. They put a negative spin, it couched it in a uphill battle. However, yeah, there's so much promise, but odds are against us. There's giants there, it's very, it's very unlikely. The רמב\"ן Ramban says that word אפס efes is everything. כלב Kalev tries to intercede by first aligning himself with them as if he's on their side, impugning משה Moshe. Then they're on to him, and there's national hysteria as we know. We're going to see this in a moment. The mistake of the spies, if you go back to the opening רש\"י Rashi, go to page 798. The opening רש\"י Rashi. למה נסמכה פרשת מרגלים לפרשת מרים Lama nismicha parshas meraglim l'parshas Miriam? לפי שלקחה על עסקי דבה שדברה באחיה והרשעים הללו ראו ולא לקחו מוסר Lefichach she'laksa al iskei dibba she'dibra b'achia, v'harsha'im halalu ra'u v'lo lakchu musar. Why do we have a juxtaposition of the end of last week's parsha, מרים Miriam's לשון הרע lashon hara on her brother משה Moshe and the beginning of our parsha שלח Shlach, the report of the מרגלים meraglim? Torah is not random. When we have a juxtaposition between the sections, when there's a continuity between the sections, there's a reason, there's something to learn. Says רש\"י Rashi, what's the connection between the end of last week's parsha, מרים's Miriam's לשון הרע lashon hara, the beginning of our parsha מרגלים meraglim? They didn't learn from the consequence to מרים Miriam. מרים Miriam spoke negatively, she gossiped about her brother. She was held accountable. They should have learned the impact of, of gossip. And they didn't. They came back and they spoke negatively. Now, in the מרגלים meraglim's defense, in the מרגלים meraglim's defense, should they really have learned from Miriam's episode to here? Miriam spoke about a person, a person with feelings, a person who has rights, a personality, a person who has a standing, the greatest standing. They spoke about a land. They spoke about the possibility of conquering the land. Is that really fair to hold them accountable they should have learned from the consequence to Miriam when, yes, on the one hand, in both cases it's לשון הרע lashon hara, but on the other hand, it's totally different type of לשון הרע lashon hara. How could you compare the two and how could you hold them accountable to learn? So in the brand new Rabbi Soloveitchik Chumash on במדבר Bamidbar, that coincidentally just came out in time for ספר במדבר Sefer Bamidbar. So Rabbi Soloveitchik writes the following, Rashi quotes the מדרש תנחומא Midrash Tanchuma, why is the section with the spies juxtaposed here? She was punished for matters of slander and they didn't learn from her lesson. Miriam had overlooked the סגולה segula element in משה Moshe, and they overlooked the סגולה segula element in the land. Miriam ignored the chosenness of her brother, his numinous character and charisma. The spies likewise could not grasp the secret of a סגולה segula land and its unique metaphysical relationship to the people. There was a common denominator in the two episodes. In her protest against משה Moshe and in their report submitted to משה Moshe, the element of סגולה segula was absent from both. Rabbi Besdin writes in Reflections of the Rav, not having to do with our parsha, but the Rav defines, what's a סגולה segula? עם סגולה Am segula. A סגולה segula, I'm not going to go on my usual סגולה segula rant, don't worry, but a סגולה segula is not the red bendel. That's דרכי האמורי darchei ha'emori, that's idolatry. A סגולה segula is not heebie-jeebie, you put the key, you do the thing, you don't. A סגולה segula is not shortcuts. When it says we are an עם סגולה am segula, a nation of סגולה segula, that's not what it means. סגולה Segula whenever we see that word used, and we see it in relation to the Jewish people, we see it in relation to the land of Israel. סגולה Segula means singular, unique, special. Jewish people are a singular, unique people. True, all are בצלם אלוקים b'tzelem Elokim, all are created in the image of God, but we alone are בנים בכורים לישראל banim b'chorim l'Yisrael. בנים אתם למקום Banim atem l'Makom. We are the children of the Almighty. We are in fact his eldest child. We are his בכור bachor. We are among humanity, we are unique, we are singular. We are an עם סגולה am segula. The land of Israel is unique among all the places on earth. Yes, it's made up of soil and mountains and valleys and it looks similar to other countries, to other lands, but it is a country which is a סגולה segula. It is unique, it is special. It is the land, the soil itself has possibility, has a richness, a spiritual richness. It's the only place on earth where there are מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos hatluyos ba'aretz. You can fulfill a mitzvah by getting your hands dirty with the soil itself, the only place on earth. It is unique, it is singular. It is a סגולה segula land. So says the Rav, the mistake of the spies was not the cute, like we're taught as kids, oh, she spoke לשון הרע lashon hara, they spoke לשון הרע lashon hara, you can't talk לשון הרע lashon hara about Israel. That happens to be true. We should not speak negatively, one should not speak לשון הרע lashon hara about Israel. But says the Rav, that's not the connection. The juxtaposition is what they should have learned from Miriam is Miriam failed to recognize the uniqueness, the singularity of her brother. One of the 13 principles of our faith, one of the אני מאמינים Ani Ma'amins is that משה Moshe is the greatest prophet to ever live. No one came before him, no one will come after him. He is our greatest teacher and master. He is singular, he is unique in the annals of the Jewish people, in our history, in our scholarship, in every way. He is singular. And she failed to see his singularity, his uniqueness, and that's why she challenged why is he separated himself from the people, from his family. And similarly, the מרגלים meraglim come back and they failed to see the singularity, the uniqueness of Israel. And they say, you know what? It's an uphill battle. There's giants there, it's tough. The מדבר midbar is not so bad. We've got the cloud and the fire, we've got the מן mun and the באר be'er and the שליו slav. Not too bad. And if the מדבר midbar doesn't work out, maybe we should take Uganda. The great the third Zionist Congress when Herzl proposed Uganda instead of Israel, and anyone know who voted in favor of the Uganda plan at the time? It's fascinating. The מזרחי Mizrachi voted in favor of the Uganda plan because the מזרחי Mizrachi were so afraid, looking over, some things haven't changed. They were looking over their right shoulder at the חרדי chareidi world who was critical of their aligning themselves with Zionism, and to try to prove that no, we're not trying to take back Israel before redemption. We're just looking for a place of refuge for the Jewish people. The מזרחי Mizrachi in order to prove their religious credentials said, Uganda will do as a place of refuge. The מזרחי Mizrachi said we're in, they voted in favor and it was the secular Zionists who looked at Herzl and said, are you out of your mind? Uganda? That's not what we waited all this time for and prayed for and so on. It was the secular Zionists who turned it down. It actually, the Uganda plan passed by a small margin, but it was such a small margin Herzl and the Congress didn't feel comfortable going forward with it. So the spies here, so what was the failure of a proposal of the Uganda plan? I once gave a whole shiur about why not Uganda? Why can't we set up shop anywhere else, somewhere else in the world? When I gave that shiur, I began with an article I found online where somebody proposed that Israel should have been set up in Germany. The way that Germans can get German, the retribution for what they did for the Holocaust is they should turn Germany over to the Jewish people to set up their homeland there and get out of Israel, let the poor Palestinians have it. That was this brilliant suggestion. As if we don't have a further back claim to the land. I don't want to get into this, but the point I'm making is that those who proposed or supported the Uganda land or this ridiculous proposal about Germany fails to see the singularity, the uniqueness of the land. You can't trade Israel. It's not, you can't just take somewhere else. It doesn't work that way. You know? That's like, oh, I deny you your mother, but there's this other old woman over here, she'll do. She's good. You know, your kids, you can't have access to your kids, but I found this baby and here, take this one. There are certain singular, unique relationships that can't be transferred. They can't be replaced. One of them are the Jewish people and Hashem, another is the land, and another is משה Moshe. And says the Rav, that's what they failed to learn. Just as משה Moshe is singular and unique, he is a סגולה segula in the אני מאמינים Ani Ma'amins, so too the land is unique, and that was their that was their failure. They come back, they report so negatively. There's disaster, hysteria ensues, they cry the whole night. We'll come back and we'll see this in a moment. God wants to destroy them, משה Moshe davens for them. This is the cycle that we've now entered. The people make a mistake, משה Moshe davens for them, God says, fine, I'll give them one more chance. Until they make the next mistake. But they're punished. And what is their punishment? They have to wander in the desert for 40 years. And why do they wander in the desert for 40 years? Why? Not a trick question, because because the mission was 40 days long. So a year for a day, a year for a day, 40 years in the desert corresponding to every day of their mission that they were in Israel. Asks רב אשר וייס Rav Asher Weiss, the מנחת אשר Minchas Asher, שליט\"א shlita, I don't understand. The mistake was not the 40 day mission, the mistake was one day. They came back and the night they gave the report where they said אפס efes, however, I don't know, I don't think it's gonna be hard. The mistake was one day, not 40 days long. So why is it a punishment of 40 years? The whole punishment should have been one year, corresponding to the one day in which they gave the bad report. I've said this to Rav Torah before because I love it. Should I give you the answer to this one or let you leave you with this question too? I'll give you the answer he gives, because I think it's a brilliant answer. Says רב אשר וייס Rav Asher Weiss, the mistake wasn't one day, the mistake was 40 days. Because they went with a negative attitude. Sometimes you go into a situation, you've already made up your mind. And it becomes a self-fulfilled prophecy. You're just confirming what you've already decided before it even began. They went to Israel with a negative attitude. And they looked for the problem and the obstacle, they looked for the excuse and the reason to come back and to say we can't do it. אפס Efes. So all 40 days on their mission was not 40 days of neutrality, 40 days, 40 days of, Switzerland and we'll see what it'll be. They were negative, they had made up their mind and when they came back it was one day of reporting what they had already concluded before they ever left. And that's why it was a year for a day, a year for a day. They're punished for all 40, says רב אשר וייס Rav Asher Weiss. And how often do we do that? We go into a situation where we're supposed to be neutral, making a decision about something, could be a שדך shidduch, could be a job, could be a decision we have to make, and we've already made up our mind, we've reached our conclusion before we ever begin our investigation. So by the end, we're just confirming what we already knew from the beginning. And that's what the spies, that's what the מרגלים meraglim, says רב אשר וייס Rav Asher Weiss, are held accountable for and they're punished for 40 years. Okay, now they try to rush, it's too late. They can't go. Hashem says no. Good. Parsha then gets into a couple of what seem to be random מצוות mitzvos, which we don't have time for. The ניסוך היין nisuch hayayin, ניסוך המים nisuch hamayim, the libations on the altar. Then we have the מצוה mitzvah of חלה challah, a beautiful מצוה mitzvah of חלה challah that applies even in חוץ לארץ chutz la'aretz. It's the one mitzvah. חלה Challah is like the תרומה terumah of bread. It was given to the כהנים kohanim. We today don't give it. Why don't we give it to the כהנים kohanim? תרומה Terumah in Israel or חלה challah in America? I'm sure many here make חלה challah. Maybe they do it with 39 other women and on a certain day in the סגולה segula of which there is no source anywhere in the entire Torah, פוסקים poskim, רב עובדיה Rav Ovadia and others have written there is no source. רב שמואל וואזנר Rav Shmuel Wosner, not רב שמואל וואזנר Rav Shmuel Wosner. The rav of צפת Tzfat, I forgot his name, and רב עובדיה Rav Ovadia, they've all written that there's no source in the Torah of making חלה challah a סגולה segula, 40 women, only on a Thursday. But if someone's doing a מצוה mitzvah, it's a beautiful thing. If it encourages women to make חלה challah, separate the חלה challah, make a ברכה bracha, do a מצוה mitzvah, it's געשמאק geshmak. It's beautiful, wonderful. You just shouldn't think the סגולה segula part of it. Anyway, the מצוה mitzvah of חלה challah. Why don't we give כהנים kohanim today? I don't want to insult any, do we have any כהנים kohanim here? So the, the נוסח כהלם Nussach K'halim in שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch right, because they're not מיוחסים meyuchasim. We don't know with full confidence that the כהנים kohanim can trace their lineage back. So it's enough to bestow them the first honor that they get the first עליה aliyah. It's enough to allow them to get up there and to דוכנ'ן duchan, even to make a ברכה bracha on דוכנ'ן duchaning. But for תרומה terumah, they're not מיוחסים meyuchasim. We don't know for sure that they are, that they are, can trace their lineage. So we burn, we destroy the חלה challah instead. Oh, it's a good question. When it comes to פדיון pidyon, right. So in some areas we rely. By the way, that's why when it comes to פדיון הבן pidyon haben, some are strict to only use כהנים kohanim with certain last names who can, Rappaport. Rappaport is a very established כהן kohen. רב שבתי כהן רפפורט Rav Shabbsai Kohen Rappaport, the ש\"ך Shach. There are other last names that people with פדיון הבן pidyon haben are מקפיד makpid to find a כהן kohen with that last name because those prominent last names, one of those last names by the way is not Cohen. I know several Cohens. Hillel and Doni Cohen in our community, my buddy Ezra Cohen, Rabbi Doni Cohen, they're not כהנים kohanim. Steve Cohen, right. I think more Cohens I know are not כהנים kohanim than are כהנים kohanim. Katz is an established name. Rappaport is a very established כהן kohen name and so on. The beautiful מצוה mitzvah of, What? True, although if it's טומאת חוץ בציבור tum'as chutz b'tzibbur there are certain, maybe it would be permissible in certain circumstances. Maybe they should have to safeguard it at least until it rots and then dispose of it. But we get rid of it. How you get rid of it? You burn it in the oven. Double wrap it, put it in the garbage. It's actually a big discussion in הלכה halacha with different practices and מנהגים minhagim. Torah then gets into the prohibitions of idol worship, and then we get into the story of the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim. ויהיו בני ישראל במדבר וימצאו איש מקושש עצים ביום השבת Vayihyu Bnei Yisrael bamidbar vayimtzu ish mekoshesh eitzim b'yom haShabbos. Somebody who was gathering wood on Shabbos. What exactly was his מלאכה melacha? What did he do wrong, the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim? Which מלאכה melacha was he violating? That's a big discussion. And does anyone know who he was, the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim? צלפחד Tzlafchad. The daughters of צלפחד Tzlafchad. Our father died in the desert. Why did he die? It was צלפחד Tzlafchad. צלפחד Tzlafchad is such a righteous man. Why would he be violating Shabbos? So there's a whole discussion here that in fact it was an act of righteousness because צלפחד Tzlafchad understood, he wanted to demonstrate the death penalty for the violation of Shabbos to ingrain within the people just how significant and sacred Shabbos is. And so it leads to the whole discussion of, can a person, can you sin in order for, for the purpose of a מצוה mitzvah? Is there such a notion as a, an עבירה לשמה aveira lishma? Can you do an עבירה לשמה aveira lishma? We gave a shiur on this a couple years ago, it's available on Why U Torah. But רב שלמה קרליבך Rav Shlomo Carlebach has on our parsha something very interesting. He says the מקושש mekoshesh was not a simple יד Yid. מקושש Mekoshesh was not, not somebody who was a מחלל שבת בפרהסיא mechalel Shabbos b'farhesia. מקושש Mekoshesh said the Jews are about to go into the desert for 40 years, and people are going to say the whole Torah is invalid. You know, we were supposed to go into Israel, and the whole plan is changed, and the Torah therefore doesn't apply, and Shabbos is not as significant as it was supposed to be. So therefore he was מחלל שבת mechalel Shabbos intentionally, so he would be stoned to death publicly to demonstrate that the Torah still applies, הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu still has expectations of us, even if it's not in Israel. In other words, people might say, all of this only applied in Israel. So we're still in the desert, now we got 40 years here, we'll keep Shabbos when we get to Israel. We don't have an institution of Shabbos here in, in the מדבר midbar. And again, that leads to that entire discussion. So רב שלמה Rav Shlomo quotes from the זוהר Zohar who says that the מקושש mekoshesh was one of the greatest students of משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu. And again, חז\"ל Chazal tell us the מקושש mekoshesh may have been none other than צלפחד Tzlafchad. So he says, רב שלמה Rav Shlomo, when אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu went up to the עקידה Akeida, it says, ויבקע עצי עולה vayevaka atzei olah. He split the wood. And the זוהר Zohar says that אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu by splitting the wood was paving the way for the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim. That אברהם Avraham was splitting the wood because אברהם Avraham was going on מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh with יצחק Yitzchak, and the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim was מוסר נפש moser nefesh for the Jewish people. אברהם Avraham passed his test, he was willing to give up his son יצחק Yitzchak, and the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim was willing to give up his own life to demonstrate and teach the Jewish people. It's not a simple idea, and don't try it at home. An עבירה לשמה aveira lishma is not something that we can take into our own hands. I'm only pointing, we again, we gave a shiur on the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim in the past, you could look at it online. My only point in bringing it up is that the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim is not a simple parsha. And then finally our parsha ends with the מצוה mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis, a מצוה mitzvah which is שקולה כנגד כל המצוות שבתורה shkula k'neged kol hamitzvos shebaTorah. Such a great מצוה mitzvah, it stands opposite all מצוות mitzvos in the Torah. Within the, within the ציצית tzitzis, the the גימטריה gematria and the number of strings and the knots it adds up to 613. We think of השם Hashem. The מדרש Midrash says, a very powerful מדרש Midrash. It says a person is drowning, they call out for help. So the lifeguard throws a rope. And you say to them, hold on to the rope and you'll live. Let go of the rope and you'll float out to sea, you have no chance of living. And the מדרש Midrash says the same is true with the ציצית tzitzis, which are the means to Torah and מצוות mitzvos. When you hold on to the rope of ציצית tzitzis, meaning, when you remember about Torah and מצוות mitzvos, you'll live, you have life. And if you let go of the rope, right, it's, it's עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה eitz chaim hi lamachazikim ba. It's the tree of life, it's the rope. You could hold on to the branch, you have life, but if you let go, you get washed away. Last Shabbos we spoke about the current of the stream, of the river, that will just, if you go with the flow, it will take you downstream to a place you no longer recognize yourself. And the willingness to swim upstream, to go against the tide, like the salmon who spawn at the end of their lives. We talked about the life cycle of the salmon, the willingness to swim upstream. You have to be able to swim upstream. It's למחזיקים בה lamachazikim ba. How do you have the courage to swim upstream? When you hold on to the ציצית tzitzis, the rope that that allows you to, and when you hold on to Torah and מצוות mitzvos, a very beautiful. Another מדרש Midrash says ציצית tzitzis represent the logo, the insignia. You know, it's an amazing thing. We walk around and we don't get paid to advertise the logo of the clothing that we wear, and yet we pay a premium to wear it. So people buy an expensive Nike hat or shirt, they buy an expensive, I don't even know the names of expensive clothing. I um, I'm trying to remember the name. What's the name of that expensive, I got one tie that's so expensive that was given as a gift to me. What's it called? With an F? Ferragamo. I got one for, you buy the, you think Ferragamo is paying you to wear their belt? Paying you to wear their shoes because you're advertising? No, we pay that premium to wear that logo. Why? Because when we identify with that logo, we identify with the emblem on the front of the car, or the logo on our belt, or the logo on our shirt, or our cap, or our golf club bag, we identify with that logo, we think somehow it makes us cool, it makes us in, it makes us have status. They don't pay us, they should be paying us to promote their logo. We are paying a premium to promote their logo. So the מדרש Midrash says, ציצית tzitzis are the logo of the ריבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam. It's the uniform. That a a uniformed officer, a person who has to wear a uniform to work, a person wears a uniform in order to identify with their mission, with their job, they make clear to the world who I report to and what I'm here to do. ציצית Tzitzis are the uniform, the logo, the emblem of הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu's children. We have a boss, this reminds us of him, we report to him, we have a mission, we're here to accomplish it. What's the point of ציצית tzitzis? It's וראיתם אותו u're'isem oso. We look at them. And why do we look at them? What does it help us do? ולא תסורו V'lo sasuru. It helps us not, ולא תסורו lo sasuru. What does the word תסורו sasuru mean? Not to stray, not to follow our eyes. Is that word familiar? This is my own insight, I'm very proud of it. I think our parsha ends the very way it begins. Why were they sent to spy the land? What does it say? They're sent why? ויתורו את ארץ כנען V'yasuru es eretz Canaan. We have the very same word at the beginning of the parsha and the end of the parsha. They're sent ויתורו v'yasuru, and then when it comes to ציצית tzitzis, it's to help us ולא תסורו v'lo sasuru. So what is that word? What does it mean? And why at the beginning are we supposed to use it, and here we're not supposed to use it? Spoke about this in the past also, it's online. I don't have time, I want to get into the psukim we want to look at, but I call that to your attention. It's not a coincidence the parsha ends... ends the way it begins with that same word, and I think because ציצית tzitzis is the antidote to what went wrong with the מרגלים meraglim. I'll give you a little hint. ציצית Tzitzis requires to see beyond what you see with your eyes, to live with a sense of vision. ציצית Tzitzis is about imagination. Why is there blue string in the ציצית tzitzis, the תכלת techeiles? The contrast of the blue and white caused what? The תכלת techeiles is דומה לים domeh l'yam. ים דומה לרקיע Yam domeh l'rakia. לרקיע דומה לכסא הכבוד L'rakia domeh l'kisei hakavod. You see the contrast of the blue and the white, you say, oh, that blue reminds me of the ocean, of the sea. Huh, the sea reminds me of the sky. Oh, the sky reminds me of כסא הכבוד kisei hakavod. Oh, כסא kisei, oh yeah, there's a רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam. So when you look down and you see the blue and white, you don't see the blue and white strings, what do you see? The רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam when you use your imagination. And when the Jews went into Israel to investigate, they were not supposed to just see giants, fortified cities, a massive army. They were supposed to use their imagination to see beyond what the eye sees. For the Jew to be here today, we only exist because we've always lived with a sense of vision. If we would have seen the enemies we faced and what we confronted, we would have given up long ago. We would have had the same attitude of אפס efes. The only reason we've survived and the only reason we're here is that capacity to use our imagination to have vision for beyond what meets the eye. That's the message of ציצית tzitzis, which is the antidote to the mistake of the מרגלים meraglim. So they were sent, שלח לך אנשים ויסורו את ארץ כנען shlach lecha anashim v'yasuru es Eretz Canaan. Go and use your imagination and vision when you see the land. See what could be. Dream of what could be. You know, that's the story of the פוניבז'ער רב Ponevitcher Rav, saw a hill and he saw the city of בני ברק Bnei Brak. רב עמיטל Rav Amital saw a hill in גוש עציון Gush Etzion and he saw a vision of of ישיבת הר עציון Yeshivat Har Etzion. It's a very similar story, the פוניבז'ער רב Ponevitcher Rav and founding בני ברק Bnei Brak or what רב עמיטל Rav Amital זצ\"ל zatzal saw and when he founded ישיבת הר עציון Yeshivat Har Etzion. But these were men of great vision. Everyone else saw a sandstorm and a mountain and a barren land and said it can't be. And they saw a thriving, bustling בית מדרש beis medrash. And that was the mission. שלח לך אנשים ויסורו את ארץ כנען Shlach lecha anashim v'yasuru es Eretz Canaan. Don't just see giants. Don't just see the obstacles and the impediments. Use your imagination just like at the end, ציצית tzitzis is the וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso, so we use our imagination when we see the תכלת דומה לים, דומה לרקיע, דומה לכסא הכבוד techeiles domeh l'yam, domeh l'rakia, domeh l'kisei hakavod, which is a reminder of השם Hashem himself. Okay, פרק י\"ד פסוק י\"א Perek Yud Daled Pasuk Yud Aleph. That's what we're going to study together. פרק י\"ד, פסוק י\"א Perek Yud Daled, Pasuk Yud Aleph. Why am I starting in the middle here? You'll notice it is a סתומה stuma. It is a section where we don't follow the chapters were introduced later. We've said this countless times. The chapters of the תורה Torah were introduced later by Christians. Why were they introduced later by Christians? Not for very good reasons. Because when they wanted to, when they had the, what are they called? The רמב\"ן Ramban and the disputations. When they had the disputations and they wanted to disprove to us the authenticity of the תורה Torah, they wanted to reference chapter and verse. And it was inconvenient the way we had it laid out, so they had to introduce chapters in order to be able to use the chapters for the disputations. In fact, Rabbi Soloveitchik, the רב Rav, didn't like to invoke the word פרק perek to suggest that it came from a מסורה Mesorah. He would call it a capital. In capital this. In order to reflect that this isn't our authoritative, authentic delineation of how to reference our פסוקים psukim. So, and so on. My my great uncle, עליו השלום Alav Hashalom, wrote a book about this, but I don't know if it ever came out. Did Uncle Menashe's book on the תורה Torah and why it was written that way? I don't know if it ever came out, but it's a fascinating area to study. So if you look here on page 804 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash, you see that a break where a paragraph ends and a new paragraph begins. When you get an עליה aliyah at the תורה Torah, if you look in a Torah scroll, you'll see that we don't have chapter breaks. Doesn't say פרק י\"א, פרק י\"ב, פרק י\"ג Perek Yud Aleph, Perek Yud Beis, Perek Yud Gimmel. How do you know? You have a break between פרשיות parshios in the תורה Torah. And then within פרשיות parshios, you have sometimes a break and it continues on the same line, and sometimes a break where it only begins with a new paragraph. What are called פתוחות psuchos and סתומות stumos. Why do we have those? So חז\"ל Chazal tell us because משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu when he was taking dictation from the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam, when God was dictating the תורה Torah, Moshe said, you know what? Give me a minute. I need to think about what you just told me. I need to absorb it. Give me a minute. These pauses were the margin when Moshe was absorbing, the margin in this conversation where he was absorbing what השם Hashem had just told him. Sometimes a longer break, which is a סתומה stuma, where it begins in the next paragraph, and sometimes a shorter break, I'm sorry, a פתוחה pesucha where it's open, and sometimes where it continues on the same line. So here you see a break, and therefore, all of that was just to justify why we're starting right here. So פרק י\"ד, פסוק י\"א Perek Yud Daled, Pasuk Yud Aleph, page 804. And you'll see why השם Hashem or or Moshe added the break here. This is a natural section break. And by the way, that's why we learn by the section breaks in the תורה Torah, not by the counterfeit breaks that were introduced later and from outside of our tradition. So what's the break here? This is right after the national hysteria. The people, the spies come back, they report negatively. Again according to the רמב\"ן Ramban, their entire negativity was captured in that one word, אפס efes, and the people react hysterically. They have hysteria. What do you mean? What do you mean we can't go in the land? What do you mean we're going to be slaughtered? What do you mean we can't make it? What do you mean? We came out of Egypt for this? And God looks down at this people and he says, are you kidding me? After are you kidding me? After everything I've done. After everything I've done. Like, are you kidding me? You know, one of my children, no matter what we propose to do as a fun thing, they don't want to go. And each time we force them to go, each time they had the best time of their life. So the next thing comes up and they say, I don't want to go. We say, hasn't it every single time it's been fun? When are we going to trust us? You think we don't want you to have fun? It will be השם Hashem says I've bailed you out every situation. I've had your back. I've turned the rules of nature upside down. I've intervened in the world. Enough. What do you mean? You don't trust me. You're back in your tents, everybody's crying all night. You're worried about what will be. Really? Really? So he says, I gave you a בכיה של חנם bechiya shel chinam, I'm going to give you a בכיה של דורות bechiya shel doros. You cried for nothing, I'll give you a reason to cry. And he gave us תשעה באב Tisha B'Av. And the reason to cry is not because you can't eat or drink for 24 hours. The reason to cry is because throughout our history on תשעה באב Tisha B'Av, it's been the most inauspicious day on our calendar, designated as such. The רב Rav has a whole insight of שכטר Shechter who writes it up in בעקבי הצאן Bikvei Ha'tzon. Not for now, but why don't you say מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo on תשעה באב Tisha B'Av? When it comes to the laws of morning, we say part of the day is like the whole day. So mourners get up on the seventh day after the morning. You sit for a little bit, דאווענען davening, or you sit for a moment or two, the day is over. מקצת היום Miktzas hayom, part of the day, ככולו kekulo is like the whole day. שלושים Shloshim, on the 30th day, מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo. You don't apply מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo to the end of the year. You only apply it to the day and the month, not to the year. For separate reasons, separate למד'ס lamdos. So the רב Rav asks, why don't you apply מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo to תשעה באב Tisha B'Av? Could you imagine we'd all love that. If תשעה באב Tisha B'Av is designated as a day of mourning, say a קינה kina, wake up, one קינה kina, a little bit. נו Noo, by 9 o'clock you're back to eating and drinking. Why don't we say מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo on תשעה באב Tisha B'Av? And the רב Rav answered because תשעה באב Tisha B'Av is designated, the entire day as an inauspicious day on our calendar. You don't, you only apply מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo to to periods which are superimposed onto the calendar. So mourning is not part of the calendar. You don't put in your Outlook calendar, your Google calendar, you schedule 10 years from now in סיון Sivan you'll be mourning from this day to that day. Mourning is not part of the calendar. It's superimposed on the calendar as a reaction to a sense of loss. So you apply מקצת היום ככולו miktzas hayom kekulo, part of the day is like the whole day, to something which is not intrinsic to the calendar, but is imposed onto the calendar. Ah, what about תשעה באב Tisha B'Av? He says תשעה באב Tisha B'Av is not like ordinary mourning. תשעה באב Tisha B'Av is a day in the calendar. It's intrinsic to the calendar. The calendar day has been designated as an inauspicious day as a fulfillment of the promise of this מדרש medrash that God says, you cried a בכיה של חנם bechiya shel chinam, you cried for no reason, I'll give you a reason to cry, I'll give you a בכיה לדורות bechiya l'doros, and כך הוה ka'chava, that is exactly what has happened. We have been crying ever, we've been crying ever since. So the people react hysterically and God says, they're an incorrigible people, I've had it. I just can't do this. He gets ready to wipe us out. He gets ready to wipe us out. But, sorry, I'm just going to read to you this insight of the רב Rav. Let me read you this inside of the רב Rav. On the verse, עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל לה alo naaleh v'yarashnu osah ki yachol nuchal lah. Right? Right when when they give their report, they say, עמלק Amalek lives there and so on. So ויהס כלב את העם vayahos Kalev es ha'am. כלב Kalev says, עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה alo naaleh v'yarashnu osah, no we can do it, we can do it. כלב Kalev tries to protest them and say, what do you mean, you're so negative? So says the רב Rav. חז\"ל Chazal say that three grants have been bestowed upon Israel: תורה Torah, the Land of Israel, the world to come. But the Jew had to acquire them through effort, through suffering. גמרא Gemara in ברכות דף ה Brachos daf hei. God rewards a person in accordance with his effort. A person appreciates something in proportion to the level of hardship he had to undergo to achieve it. To create the eternal bond between spiritual values and the Jew, he had to work for it, to experience pain for it. Holiness has one source, sacrifice. Holiness and sacrifice both literally and figuratively are fundamentally the same concept. Holiness can only be created through self-sacrifice, pain, effort, and exertion. If a person does not anticipate and struggle, holiness cannot come into being. So the רב Rav says, this is so critical to our generation. We talk spirituality, holiness. It comes, the רב Rav has a famous footnote, footnote four in הלכתית Halachic Man, where he talks about religion requires submission, it requires sacrifice, it requires effort. Spirituality is not, yes, you can achieve spirituality with a קומזיץ kumzits and a magnificent sunset in the Grand Canyon and a meditation, they all contribute to a sense of spirituality. But the most genuine everlasting spirituality comes as a result of endurance, a willingness to sacrifice, submission. And that's what he says is true here. He he doesn't write it here, but he says elsewhere the רב Rav. That's why we all know where הר המוריה Har Hamoriah is and we don't go to הר סיני Har Sinai. הר סיני Har Sinai where the תורה Torah was given, we don't know where it is, we don't go visit, it has no holiness. The moment that מתן תורה Matan Torah was over, it went back to being a pile of stones and dirt and rubble. Whereas הר המוריה Har Hamoriah, the Temple Mount, is the most holy spot in the Jewish people. It's revered, we pray for it, we return to it, we long for it, it retains its קדושה kedusha. קדשה לשעתו לעתיד לבא Kidsha l'sha'ato l'asid lavo, that's why the whole controversy, can you go on the Temple Mount today? Why the difference? One would have thought מתן תורה Matan Torah, the place הר סיני Har Sinai should retain its holiness. And said the רב Rav, holiness is the result of sacrifice and effort. הר סיני Har Sinai was top down. God gave us the תורה Torah. We didn't do anything. הר המוריה Har Hamoriah is the place where אברהם Avram was willing to sacrifice יצחק Yitzchak, where יעקב Yaakov had the dream, where we bring קרבנות korbanos, we make sacrifices. Holiness is the result of sacrifice, it's active not passive. Holiness is the result of bottom up, not top down. Holiness has one source. And here he continues, that's why I'm sharing it with you. That the existence of the State of Israel is a miracle is beyond doubt. At the same time it is a miracle that came at great cost. At Israel's very inception on the first night of the State of Israel's existence, bombs were dropped on Tel Aviv. Subsequently, in the years since it has come into being, the relationship of world Jewry to the State of Israel has been like the relationship of a mother to her only child, saturated with trembling fear and insecurity. Insecurity because one is never sure if a passenger bus will be attacked. One is never certain if a small fishing vessel in the Gulf of Akaba will not be fired upon. A mother whose son is stationed only a few miles from her home is never sure if he will not become the next victim of Arab snipers. Why is the suffering that has accompanied the entire history of Israel necessary? Because the State of Israel involves holiness and holiness only exists if man through sacrifice becomes a partner with God. The paradigm of this partnership is the מצוה mitzvah of ברית bris, to which the prophet refers, בדמיך חיי b'damayich chayi, through your blood shall you live. The blood and the suffering allow us to merit the continued existence of מדינת ישראל Medinas Yisrael. We experienced this uncertain, he writes מדינת Medinas, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael. We experienced this uncertain period in our history because our very insecurity is a sign that השם Hashem indeed desires the State of Israel. If he did not, the birth and the subsequent building of the state would have proceeded smoothly. Jewish history is on a zigzag trajectory. אברהם Avram was repeatedly promised a child by God and yet had to wait many long years for יצחק Yitzchak's birth, ultimately to be commanded to sacrifice him. Moshe had to wait atop a cold mountain for 40 days until God finally revealed himself with the message of Israel's forgiveness. The suffering, the worry, the uncertainty is precisely what God desires of us. So, it's difficult. I don't want to suggest that's easy. Why couldn't God have created a world where you can attain holiness without sacrifice? Why must one suffer? And that's not really our tradition. The suffering servant, Isaiah 53, is another religion, that's not ours. So why is this notion of suffering? So it's not that suffering, it's that the result of the effort, of the endurance, of the willingness to sacrifice is what creates that bond which could never be achieved without it. I remember in my year in Israel in כרם ביבנה Kerem B'Yavneh, the whole ישיבה yeshiva went on this טיול tiyul near אילת Eilat. We took this incredibly grueling טיול tiyul, I guess what we thought at the time, was an incredibly long and treacherous and and hot טיול tiyul, and we ended up on top of this mountain with the most magnificent, magnificent view, magnificent view. And I still remember the משגיח mashgiach רב ריבלין Rav Rivlin saying to us, you know, had we taken you on a helicopter and dropped you in this spot, the view would have meant nothing. But because of what it took for you to get to this spot, that's why it feels like everything. And it was a metaphor for religious growth. And it's what the רב Rav is saying right here, is that it's with the sacrifice, the submission, the endurance that one achieves that sense of holiness, is true for ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. And that's what כלב Kalev was telling the מרגלים meraglim. אפס Efes, there's giants. It's going to be hard. It will come with sacrifice. It may come with losses. Says כלב Kalev, exactly, but that's what holiness is about. That's not a reason to shy away. That's not a reason to hesitate. That is how we will achieve, that is the path forward towards holiness. The people cried that entire night, as we said. And I'll read to you what the רב Rav says about this, that תשעה באב Tisha B'Av was established as this day of of loss and of crying. The State of Israel tried to establish a new fast day for those who were killed by the Nazis, but they did not succeed. They did succeed, but the רב Rav at the time thought they didn't. I once told Ben-Gurion, or not a fast day, that's why. They succeeded with יום השואה Yom HaShoah, but they were unsuccessful to establish a fast day. Said the רב Rav, I once told Ben-Gurion that there had been many occasions to establish a fast for the Crusades, but those in positions of authority chose not to. תשעה באב Tisha B'Av should be utilized as a day of mourning, not only for the חורבן בית המקדש churban Beis Hamikdash but for all Jewish tragedies. The רב Rav, Rabbi J.J. Schachter has written a long scholarly article on this. The רב Rav, maybe counterintuitively, was very opposed to יום השואה Yom HaShoah. When יום השואה Yom HaShoah was established, יום השואה והגבורה Yom HaShoah v'haGvurah, on the day to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and it took several years after the founding of the state for יום השואה Yom HaShoah to be established, the רב Rav was very opposed because he felt all of Jewish suffering and tragedy is subsumed under תשעה באב Tisha B'Av. תשעה באב Tisha B'Av is the בכיה לדורות bechiya l'doros. That is the day designated. We sit in קינות kinos, we talk about the burning of the ספרי תורה Sifrei Torah, and the Crusades, and the Inquisition, we talk about expulsions and pogroms, and we talk about the Holocaust. And the רב Rav felt it was wrong for יום השואה Yom HaShoah to be designated as a as a separate day. He opposed it. Certainly he would say that once it was established we should honor it and the survivors who observe it, but fundamentally, when it was being debated, the רב Rav opposed it because of our פרשה parsha, because of this notion of the בכיה bechiya. But now I want to get to our section. Okay? That was all by way of introduction. But I really want to get to our section because this is fascinating. פרק י\"ד, פסוק י\"א Perek Yud Daled, Pasuk Yud Aleph. ויאמר השם אל משה עד אנה ינאצוני העם הזה ועד אנה לא יאמינו בי בכל האותות אשר עשיתי בקרבו Vayomer Hashem el Moshe, ad ana y'na'atzuni ha'am hazeh, v'ad ana lo ya'aminu bi b'chol ha'osos asher asisi b'kirbo. Let's read all these verses and then we'll go back and analyze them. God says to Moshe, how long will these people provoke me? How much longer will they not believe in me after all the signs and the miracles I've given them? Or put differently, are you kidding me? Really? Are you kid, are you kidding? אכנו בדבר ואורשנו Akenu b'dever v'orishenu. You know what? It's fascinating. God is asking Moshe for permission. Unbelievable. That's why I love this section. השם Hashem is saying to Moshe, let just let me at him, let me at him. Like השם Hashem, Moshe is holding השם Hashem back. השם Hashem's like, just let me at him, let me at him. אכנו בדבר Akenu b'dever. Let me wipe them out. I can destroy them. ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול ועצום ממנו V'e'eseh oscha l'goy gadol v'atzum mimenu. We'll rebuild, we'll start again. Me and you. We can do it. Moshe, you're the only one who gets it. What is the matter with these people? Are you kidding me? Ten plagues, splitting of the sea, מן man from heaven, שלו slav, water, are you kidding me? When I say come into the land and we're going to realize my whole purpose of your existence and their answer is we're afraid, we don't trust you, it could go wrong. השם Hashem says, are you kidding me? Moshe, you and me, let's start again. And what does Moshe answer? I might have been like, you know what? In last week's פרשה parsha, Moshe was erase me from the book, I'm done, count me out. I'm out of here. Now God is taking him up on the offer. Let me destroy him and it'll be you and me. And if I'm Moshe, I say, done. Just do me a favor, be gentle. Take them out gently. But you and me will start again. You and I. But that's not what Moshe says. What does Moshe say? ויאמר משה אל השם ושמעו מצרים כי העלית בכוחך את העם הזה מקרבו Vayomer Moshe el Hashem v'sham'u Mitzrayim ki he'elisa b'chochecha es ha'am hazeh mikirbo. God, what one second, one second. You want to wipe them out now? We've gotten this far? After everything you've done, what you showed and taught the world, and now you want to eliminate them? What will Egypt say? Egypt will say, here you turned their lives upside down in order to liberate this people. ואמרו אל יושב הארץ הזאת שמעו כי אתה השם בקרב העם הזה אשר עין בעין נראה אתה השם ועננך עומד עליהם ובעמוד ענן אתה הולך לפניהם יומם ובעמוד אש לילה V'amru el yosheiv ha'aretz hazos shom'u ki ata Hashem b'kerev ha'am hazeh asher ayin b'ayin nir'eh ata Hashem v'ananecha omed aleihem uv'amud anan ata holech lifneihem yomam uv'amud eish lailah. What are they going to say? The inhabitants of the land who have heard you, those who are in כנען Canaan will say, God who is in this people who have appeared to them eye to eye. This people who saw God, you spoke to them at the mountain, you revealed yourself to them. They saw eye to eye, face to face. You've been protecting them with the cloud, with the fire. So in Egypt, where you came from, what are they going to say? Israel, where you were supposed to go to, כנען Canaan, what are they going to say? והמתה את העם הזה כאיש אחד ואמרו הגוים אשר שמעו את שמעך לאמר V'he'imata es ha'am hazeh k'ish echad, v'amru hagoyim asher shom'u es shim'acha leimor, you know what the nations of the world are going to say? מבלתי יכלת השם להביא את העם הזה אל הארץ אשר נשבע להם Mibilti yecholes Hashem l'havi es ha'am hazeh el ha'aretz asher nishba lahem. God couldn't do it. God ran into a wall. God couldn't fulfill his promise. וישחטם במדבר V'yishchatem bamidbar, so he killed them in the desert because God couldn't take on the giants in the land. God couldn't get it to the finish line. So the whole section is unbelievable. The רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam is asking Moshe permission. No, Moshe, what do you think? I'm considering wiping out the people, starting again with you. What do you think? And Moshe's response is, God, let me offer you an angle you haven't thought of. Let me tell you an implication or consequence you haven't considered. There's an unintended consequence, השם Hashem, that you're not thinking about. Yeah, they do the people deserve to be wiped out? Absolutely. I'm as frustrated with them as you are. But what are they going to say? Those Egypt, כנען Canaan, גוים goyim, the nations of the world, what's everyone going to say? So instead, Moshe continues, ועתה יגדל נא כח אדני כאשר דברת לאמר v'ata yigdal na koach Adonai ka'asher dibarta leimor. Instead, let the strength, let your strength be increased as you taught me to say to you. השם ארך אפים ורב חסד נשא עון ופשע ונקה לא ינקה פקד עון אבות על בנים על שלשים ועל רבעים Hashem erech apayim v'rav chesed nosei avon v'fesha v'nakeh lo yenakeh pokeid avon avos al banim al shileishim v'al ribei'im. Where did we see those words originally? פרשת Parshas כי תשא Ki Sisa. After the sin of the golden calf, God tells Moshe, I want to wipe them out, I've had it, I'm destroying them. But listen, there's this formula that if you say it, I can't help but appease me. I can't help but forgive you. And Moshe now invokes that formula. Now, interestingly, does he invoke the entire formula? How many elements are there to the formula? 13, the י\"ג מדות yud gimmel midos. Does Moshe invoke all 13? No. Why does he leave some out? I see we're not going to have time to get to it, but look at the רמב\"ן Ramban. The רמב\"ן Ramban goes through exactly which ones he left out and why he left those out. But Moshe taps into that formula that השם Hashem had already given him. סלח נא לעון העם הזה כגדל חסדך וכאשר נשאת לעם הזה ממצרים ועד הנה Slach na la'avon ha'am hazeh k'godel chasdecha v'cha'asher nasasa la'am hazeh mimitzrayim v'ad heina, as you've born these people from Egypt until now. ויאמר השם סלחתי כדברך Vayomer Hashem salachti kidvarecha. And השם Hashem says, you know what? So Moshe gives this argument. God says, I'm considering wiping out the people. What do you think? We start again, me and you. Moshe says, unintended consequence. Nations of the world are going to say you couldn't do it, you couldn't get the job done. So instead, God, let me remind you, you're slow to anger, you're kind, you're forgiving, you're good, you're amazing, I love you, you know, you look so handsome in that, you're perfect, everything everything Moshe could think of. And השם Hashem says, you know what? סלחתי כדברך Salachti kidvarecha. You know what, you're right Moshe, we're good to go. כדברך Kidvarecha. Your argument, you're right. I didn't think, you're right. I hadn't considered that angle. I hadn't considered that consequence. You're right. I forgive them. ואולם חי אני וימלא כבוד השם את כל הארץ V'ulam chai ani, v'yimalei chvod Hashem es kol ha'aretz. But then השם Hashem says, but there is a consequence, the 40 years of wandering, a year for a day, as we spoke about earlier. What in the world is going on here? First of all, I want to remind you that in פרשת כי תשא parshas Ki Sisa, we quoted the beautiful מהר\"ל Maharal on the גמרא Gemara in ראש השנה Rosh Hashana. The גמרא Gemara in ראש השנה Rosh Hashana that had said, אמרו imru, it didn't say אמרו imru. יעשו לפני Ya'asu lefanai, when השם Hashem tells Moshe, here's the formula. Do it in front of me and I can't help but forgive you. The גמרא Gemara in ראש השנה Rosh Hashana which quotes the that conversation, that מתעטף הקדוש ברוך הוא בציצית mis'atef k'kadosh baruch hu b'tzitzis, השם Hashem put on a טלית talis and he taught Moshe סליחות slichos. השם השם קל רחום וחנון Hashem Hashem ke'rachum v'chanun. It doesn't say אמרו לפני imru lefanai, points out the מהר\"ל Maharal, it says יעשו לפני ya'asu lefanai. The formula works not when we just recite it. The formula works when it reminds us to live it. God, you have these מידות midos and we need to emulate your way. And that's when it works. Remember פרשת כי תשא parshas Ki Sisa, we spoke about it and I told you that great story, about the רבי Rebbe who was late for סליחות slichos because he was helping the woman with the fire, with the wood. He was saying סליחות slichos while he was putting the wood in the fireplace. קל רחום וחנון K'el rachum v'chanun. And the מתנגד misnaged came back and he said you're right, your רבי Rebbe does go up to heaven and higher. You don't remember that story? It's such a good story. All right, anyway, it's a good story. So the the פרשה parsha is Moshe is now invoking. We see the second time already, oh, he remembers the formula. Oh, if my argument's not good enough, that God, it's not good for business, it's not good for your business if you wipe out the people. If that argument doesn't work, oh, don't forget the formula. But the formula is not just saying it, one has to one has to live the formula. What's going on over here? So first of all, I want to point out to you an amazing insight that this is not just I have so much to say here. I wanted to really go through these פסוקים psukim and talk about it and and get through what this was. Everyone have another hour? Yes. I'm just joking. Rabbi Moscowitz has his wonderful class. I would never violate his class. So we'll end with this, even though we ממש mamish didn't get into one פירוש peirush I wanted to get into. Okay. I'm sorry. What could you do? So רש\"י Rashi when it says, when השם Hashem says סלחתי כדברך salachti kidvarecha. You know why this is so worth learning? Because believe it or not, in a very short time from now, two short a time from now, we are going to be saying this over and over and over again. אלול Elul, סליחות slichos, עשרת ימי תשובה aseres yemei teshuva, יום כיפור Yom Kippur. How many times are we going to find ourselves saying these words? סלחתי כדברך Salachti kidvarecha, סלח נא לעון העם הזה כגדל חסדך slach na la'avon ha'am hazeh k'godel chasdecha, we're going it's important to know what they mean, to tap into them. So listen to this great insight. רש\"י Rashi says, I'll tell you one פירוש peirush. ויאמר השם סלחתי כדברך Vayomer Hashem salachti kidvarecha. God says I buy it, that's a good argument. You know what? I'm going to go with you. I forgive them. What's כדברך kidvarecha? Which part of Moshe's argument? The fact that Moshe invoked the formula, ארך אפים ורב חסד נשא עון erech apayim v'rav chesed nosei avon. Look at רש\"י Rashi. No. בשביל מה שאמרת פן יאמרו מבלתי יכלת השם Bishvil ma she'amarta pen yomru bilti yecholes Hashem. The part of Moshe's argument where he says, God, it's bad for your business. Why is it bad for God's business? Rabbi Menachem Liebtag was here a couple weekends ago and gave a brilliant שיעור shiur about ירושלים Yerushalayim. And he shows what ירושלים Yerushalayim's name is never mentioned in the חומש Chumash. Mentioned many names in תנ\"ך Tanach, many times in תנ\"ך Tanach, not in חומש Chumash. It's only identified as מקום אשר יבחר השם לשכן שמו שם makom asher yivchar Hashem l'shaken shemo sham. And Rabbi Liebtag in his hour, which I'll tell you in 10 seconds, traced from אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu until we get to ירושלים Yerushalayim, דוד המלך David Hamelech and שלמה Shlomo, God's entire mission for us is to promote his name. שם השם Shem Hashem. קדוש השם Kiddush Hashem, חילול השם chillul Hashem, לשכן שמו שם l'shaken shemo sham. Right? Everything about the conversations with the אבות avos on השם Hashem are, how can I best promote your name? What does promoting Hashem's name mean? His mission for the world, his reputation, godliness. That's our whole mission as a people. And ירושלים Yerushalayim is the capital in which we can fulfill that purpose, that mission. And that's why דוד המלך David Hamelech couldn't do it, not because he was a warrior because he fought, he had blood on his hands, but Rabbi Liebtag said, because since he was still fighting, if you have enemies, the brand is not really recognized and appreciated, so you can't, you can't build the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. It's only שלמה Shlomo who in his name, שלום shalom is in the name שלמה Shlomo. David is telling his son, you will have peace with your neighbors, they will appreciate you, you're ready to establish the capital with the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash לשכן שמו שם l'shaken shemo sham because the entire mission and purpose of the Jewish people is to promote God's name. And that's what Moshe here, Rabbi Liebtag didn't mention this, but that's what Moshe is quoting Rabbi Menachem Liebtag שיעור sheir to השם Hashem. And he's saying, the whole reason you tapped אברהם, יצחק ויעקב Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, the whole reason you took us out of מצרים Mitzrayim is to promote your name. What are they going to say about your name if you wipe them out? It's bad for business. You're undermining the whole purpose of why we're here. You can't do it. And when it says סלחתי כדברך salachti kidvarecha, says רש\"י Rashi, that's the argument that Moshe accepted, that's the argument that Moshe bought. How did רש\"י Rashi know that? How did רש\"י Rashi know that כדברך kidvarecha was referring to that argument and was not referring to the formula, ארך אפים, רב חסד, נשא עון erech apayim, rav chesed, nosei avon, and so on? So the צ'יבינער רב Tzibiner Rav, זכותו יגן עלינו zechuso yagen aleinu, answered because רש\"י Rashi had a tradition that whenever one דאווענען'ס davens not for themselves, but they דאווענען daven for כבוד שמים kvod shamayim for the honor of השם Hashem, it has to be answered. רש\"י Rashi was familiar with this tradition. And the צ'יבינער רב Tzibiner Rav added מצוה לפרסם mitzvah l'farsem is a מצוה mitzvah to promote the idea that when you say to השם Hashem, help me have good health, help me have finances, it's not so that I have good health to play mahjong or golf, help me have good health because I want to make a קדוש השם kiddush Hashem. I want to be מרבה כבוד שמים marbeh kvod shamayim. Help me have money because I want to make a difference in your world. That's why. מצוה לפרסם Mitzvah l'farsem. Now, the truth is, we all do it every day, three times a day, and this is going to change your שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei forever. And with this I end. I'm sorry Rabbi Moscowitz. suddenly he came back there. With this I end. How do we end שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei every day? עשה למען שמך, עשה למען ימינך, עשה למען תורתך, עשה למען קדושתך Asei lema'an shemecha, asei lema'an yemincha, asei lema'an torasecha, asei lema'an kedushasecha. השם Hashem, that whole litany and list of things I just asked you for, חונן לאדם דעת chonen l'adam da'as, רפאנו refa'einu, ברך עלינו barech aleinu, שמע קולנו shma koleinu, all the things I asked you for, and the personal pleas I interspersed within, you know why I'm asking for it? עשה למען שמך, עשה למען ימינך, עשה למען תורתך, עשה למען קדושתך Asei lema'an shemecha, asei lema'an yemincha, asei lema'an torasecha, asei lema'an kedushasecha. Do it for your namesake, do it for your right arm, do it for your תורה Torah, do it for your holiness. What we're saying is, don't do it for me, do it so I can be an instrument and a vehicle for you. That's why. So incorporated into our שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei, three times a day, is the same argument Moshe's making here. השם Hashem, it's bad for business. השם Hashem it's bad for your business if I'm sick in bed, if I have no money, if I can't do מצוות mitzvos. It's bad for business. My whole life is to be מרבה כבוד שמים marbeh kvod shamayim, is to make a קדוש השם kiddush Hashem. position me and enable me to be able to do it. That is the way we end שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei, that all the things I just asked for, help me do it really for you. And the same way that השם Hashem accepted that argument of Moshe, בעזרת השם b'ezras Hashem, it'll accept the argument from us as well. Have a great day. I apologize.
