Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב Boker Tov. We have the privilege of studying פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach together this morning. As always, we'll give an overview of the פרשה parsha, and then we'll delve into our specific פסוקים pesukim together. The פרשה Parsha begins famously with the command to go investigate the land. It's recording. We used to have a member Norman Morkowski, עליו השלום alav hashalom, who passed away. Every year פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach he would remind me that there's no English word to spy out land, it's an abuse of the English language. You investigate land. It's always in my head, his his voice. So שלח לך אנשים ויטורו את ארץ כנען shlach lecha anashim veyaturu et Eretz Canaan is not to go spy out the land, but rather Moshe instructed to send the men. These were not ordinary men, as we'll see, these were men of great distinction, men of greatness. These were אנשים anashim, who were צדיקים tzaddikim. These were the נשיאים nesi'im, these were the leaders, which makes their failure, their egregious mistake, their error in judgment, all the more perplexing. How could such great people of great wisdom, of great knowledge, of great Torah, how could they miscalculate so badly, a miscalculation which has been memorialized in perpetuity. We experience it every year with תשעה באב Tisha B'Av and to a degree, we continue to struggle from it. So ויטורו את ארץ כנען v'yaturu et Eretz Canaan, they're sent to investigate the land that I'm giving. איש אחד איש אחד למטה אבותיו תשלחו Ish echad ish echad l'mateh avosav tishlachu. כל נשיא בהם Kol nasi bahem. Again, these were not ordinary men. These weren't שלעפערס shleppers. These weren't the greatest military men. These were the righteous, the צדיקים tzaddikim, as if השם Hashem, in the 20th century, said to the רב Rav, and רב משה Rav Moshe and the לובאוויטשער רבי Lubavitcher Rebbe, and רב הוטנר Rav Hutner and רב רודרמן Rav Ruderman and the list could go on, 12 of you I'm sending to Israel. I've made you the promise. I'm giving it to you. It's a no-brainer. It's easy, it's simple. I'm handing it to you. You'll be successful, you'll conquer it, you'll inhabit it. But it's a concession to the people. They like a little advanced mission to be able to come back new. What's the hotel like, before we sign up for פסח Pesach? Has anyone checked out the room? Does anyone know the buffet, the caterer, will it be good? So the Jewish people, even good news, they can't accept without someone checking it out a little bit. So you check it out, you'll come back. When the people come back, you see their first mistake. They start to report on things that no one ever told them to look at. Whether it's שמנה היא אם רזה shmeina hi im raza, what's the nature of the land, and and so on. So Moshe sends them and the point was just to come back and validate, just to affirm, the land's great, no brainer, השם's Hashem's gonna take us, it's great, this is our homeland, it's what we've been waiting for, it's why he took us out of מצרים Mitzrayim, let's go. וישלח אותם משה ממדבר פארן על פי השם Vayishlach osam Moshe m'midbar Paran al pi Hashem. He sends them, אנשים ראשי בני ישראל המה anashim rashei vnei Yisrael heima. The text goes out of its way multiple times to tell us, not ordinary men. These were leaders of great esteem, leaders of incredible, of incredible merit. And then lists, in fact, the names. ואלה שמותם V'eileh shmosam. Moshe sends them. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע Vayikra Moshe l'Hoshea bin Nun Yehoshua. יהושע Yehoshua gets a name change. Why does יהושע Yehoshua get a name change? רש\"י Rashi quotes, נתפלל עליו, קה יושיעך מעצת מרגלים nispallel alav, Kah yoshiacha me'atzas meraglim. May השם Hashem spare you from the עצה eitza of the מרגלים meraglim. That's kind of perplexing. Both the name change given to יהושע Yehoshua, and where did he get the י yud, יהושע Yehoshua? Who dropped a י yud? שרה Sarah. שרה Sarah dropped the י yud, יהושע Yehoshua picked it up. What's the deeper meaning of that for another time. So he sends them to go investigate the land and to see וראיתם את הארץ מה היא u'reisem es ha'aretz ma hi, to see the land, what is it? ואת העם היושב עליה החזק הוא הרפה המעט הוא אם רב v'es ha'am hayosheiv aleha he'chazak hu ha'rafeh ha'me'at hu im rav. Are they many? Are they few? ומה הארץ אשר הוא יושב בה הטובה היא אם רעה U'ma ha'aretz asher hu yosheiv bah hatova hi im ra'ah, and what's the land like? Is it good? Is it bad? ומה הערים אשר הוא יושב בהנה הבמחנים אם במבצרים U'ma he'arim asher hu yosheiv ba'henah ha'bimchanim im b'mivtzarim, and is it fertile? Is it lean? ומה הארץ U'ma ha'aretz, and what is the land look like? השמנה היא אם רזה Hashmeina hi im raza. Someone told me on שבת Shabbos that in dating, they once heard a, it's terrible, they wanted to know about the proposed שידוך shidduch, השמנה היא אם רזה hashmeina hi im raza. היש בה עץ אם אין Hayesh bah eitz im ayin, that was before pictures, now you just demand a picture, and you know the answer yourself. היש בה עץ אם אין והתחזקתם ולקחתם מפרי הארץ Hayesh bah eitz im ayin v'hischazaktem u'lkachtem mipri ha'aretz. It was all about the nature of the land, the nature of the fruit, not the military stations, not where they were. Not where they were. The, later in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim it says that Moshe sent them to find out את הדבר et hadavar. רש\"י Rashi says איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon hem medabrim. Why were they sent? Don't look at the military installations, don't assess what kind of weapon capability, capacity they have. You're going why? To listen. Listen. איזה לשון הם מדברים Eizeh lashon hem medabrim? The מהר\"ל Maharal there in his גור אריה Gur Aryeh wonders איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon hem medabrim? Who cares? You really care? Spanish, French, English, Hebrew, Yiddish? Who cares what language they're speaking? So the מהר\"ל Maharal says, no, not what language as in which language, listen to what they're speaking about. You want to know about someone, listen to what they speak about. Listen to what they choose to speak about. Famous Eleanor Roosevelt quote that I love. Do they speak about things, people or ideas, right? Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, small people talk about people. So go listen, איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon hem medabrim. You want to know everything about your potential enemy, your adversary, you want to understand who they are, what they're about, what makes them tick, איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon hem medabrim, what we choose to speak about says everything about us. So Moshe sends them for this purpose, to investigate. It's interesting, the language he uses is וראיתם את הארץ מה היא u'reisem es ha'aretz ma hi. וראיתם U'reisem. Where do we see the beginning of the פרשה parsha and the end of the פרשה parsha? We've spoken about this at length in the past. I saw, I looked online on YUTorah, I have like five or six or seven שיעורים shiurim on שלח Shlach, so we've talked about a lot of these things already. We're going to get into a new section together this morning. But previously we developed the idea that the beginning of the פרשה parsha and the end of the, most of the things I repeat from others, this was one of my very few novel ideas, so I'm proud of it. The beginning of the פרשה parsha and the end of the פרשה parsha have a lot of symmetry. There's a lot of parallel. The beginning of the פרשה parsha, the mission is לתור את הארץ latur et ha'aretz, וראיתם u'reisem. And the end of the פרשה parsha is ציצית tzitzis. And what's included in the מצוה mitzva of ציצית tzitzis? וראיתם אותו ולא תסורו U'reisem oso v'lo sasuru. The exact same words, the beginning of the פרשה parsha, in the mandate to the מרגלים meraglim, in the mission to go investigate, and the same words at the end of the פרשה parsha in which we're told to wear ציצית tzitzis. I'll tell you the upshot since I told you I like this תורה Torah. I think, I would humbly suggest, that what's the parallel, why are we using the same language, what's the connection between the beginning and the end? So at the end of the פרשה parsha when we're given the מצוה mitzva of ציצית tzitzis, we're given the מצוה mitzva of ציצית tzitzis. We tie strings, one of them is blue, תכלת techeles. Should we be wearing them, not wearing them? That's a whole separate discussion. רב שכטר Rav Schechter wears them. רב שכטר Rav Schechter quoted that רב אלישיב Rav Elyashiv said that these תכלת techeles are the real תכלת techeles and should be worn. So why didn't רב אלישיב זצ\"ל Rav Elyashiv zatzal wear the תכלת techeles? Because he asked those who produce it how many they can produce at a time. And when they were answered several thousand, he said, \"I can't wear them.\" So they asked, \"Why not?\" He said, \"Because if I put on a pair of ציצית tzitzis and the Jewish newspaper has one picture of me wearing the תכלת techeles, so the whole חרדי Chareidi world is going to want to go buy תכלת techeles, but you can't provide enough. So the supply will be much less than the demand. The price of תכלת techeles will go through the roof. And we can't do that to the מצוה mitzva, to those who are already wearing it or want to wear it.\" So he says רב אלישיב Rav Elyashiv really held of the תכלת techeles but didn't wear them for that, for that technical reason because people who couldn't afford would spend money they couldn't afford because the price would be so driven up. But anyway, we wear the תכלת techeles, we wear the blue string and the white string. רש\"י Rashi quotes the גמרא Gemara that says why the blue and the white? The contrast is supposed to remind us of something. We see that turquoise, that blue, it reminds us of the ocean, the sea. And when you look at the sea, the ocean, it reminds you of, in fact, it meets where the ocean meets the sky, where the ocean reminds you, the blue of the ocean reminds you of the sky. And when you see that sky, not the sky the way it's been in Florida for the last month, or I was in New York yesterday for the day, the way it is in New York most of the year, sorry New Yorkers, but the sky the way it is, parts of it today, the royal blue, the deep blue, the beautiful shades of blue, so you look at the ocean, it reminds you of the sky. Look at the sky and it reminds you of the כסא הכבוד kisei hakavod. It reminds you of the heavens and it reminds you when you start to think about, contemplate the heavens, you think about God's throne of glory. So you look at the ציצית tzitzis and you realize what starts at looking at some twisted wool ends with you contemplating the heavens and the throne of the Almighty himself. What does ציצית tzitzis mandate? What does it obligate you to employ? The power of your imagination. The power of imagery, the power of your imagination. Don't see things as they are. Don't look at the blue and white strings and only see wool. Don't just see strings. But employ the power of your imagination and now picture the ocean and picture the heavens and picture the כסא הכבוד kisei hakavod. That's וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso. A Jew looks differently than anyone else. A Jew doesn't see only what's before them. A Jew has the power of the imagination and the power of vision to picture not only what is, but what could be. And that's what השם Hashem was telling them, וראיתם את הארץ מה היא u'reisem es ha'aretz ma hi, וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso. Look at the ציצית tzitzis, but don't see strings, see the כסא הכבוד kisei hakavod. Look at the land, but don't see giants. See a homeland, see the fulfillment of a promise, see the destination of a journey. They were to have used their imagination. Don't just see what's on the surface. If we throughout our history would have only looked at what was, we would never be today. The Inquisition and the Crusades and the pogroms and the oppression and the expulsions and the Holocaust, would we ever have arrived at today if all our ancestors ever saw was what was in front of them? If they had to report on the threats that they faced, who would have the courage to overcome, to endure? We're only here because of our collective power of our imagination. And I think that's the beginning and the end of the פרשה parsha. וראיתם אותו ולא תסורו U'reisem oso v'lo sasuru. Don't follow the מרגלים meraglim. Don't just see what's right in front of you. ולא תסורו V'lo sasuru, לתור את הארץ latur et ha'aretz, the same word. But rather וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso, look at your ציצית tzitzis and use your imagination and that's what they were supposed to have done, וראיתם את הארץ מה היא u'reisem es ha'aretz ma hi. That was their failure, the failure to use imagery, to use the imagination, to employ vision to see what will be, not only what is. I'll tell you a ווארט vort already for five months from now. But for סוכות Sukkos, the ד' מינים daled minim we take, and the ד' מינים daled minim, the four species correspond with many things, but one of the suggestions made is they correspond with different organs of the body. So the לולב lulav is the spine. Have a backbone, have a spine, stand up for something. And the אתרוג esrog is our heart. Have a heart. And the ערבות aravos are our lips, the willows, and the הדסים hadasim are... Now it all works out. We have one spine, there's one לולב lulav. We have one heart, four chambers, but one heart, the אתרוג esrog. We have two lips, there's two ערבות aravos. What's the only question? Three הדסים hadasim. Why do we have three הדסים hadasim when we have two eyes? Three הדסים hadasim, we only have two eyes. What's the third הדס hadas? It's exactly this, וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso. It's that the Jew has a third eye. We have two eyes, we see what's right in front of us. We're realists, we're pragmatists. We're able to overcome what we need to. The Stockdale Paradox I spoke about this past שבת Shabbos. What I speak about this past שבת Shabbos? What פרשה parsha was it? בהעלותך Beha'aloscha. What I speak about? Was anyone there? The spelling bee, the טשולענט cholent, nonchalant, nonchalant. Everyone always remembers the joke, the story. Nobody, nobody including me, it's already Tuesday, remembers what I spoke about. Miriam. Oh. Why we have a מצוה mitzva to remember the episode of Miriam? I'm in the right group. Yeah. We, why we have a מצוה mitzva to remember the episode of Miriam? And the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim gave a reason, the רב Rav based on רב קוק Rav Kook gave a reason, and I suggested the reason is we remember that Miriam, quoting the גמרא Gemara in סוטה Sotah, she waited for משה Moshe, we waited for her. The Jewish capacity to wait. But not just to wait, but to wait with a sense of hope, a sense of vision, a sense of optimism. And the Stockdale Paradox that Jim Collins spoke about where on the one hand, Stockdale was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for eight years, and when he described how he survived when others didn't, he said the optimists died. They were sure they were going to go free by this date, when it came and went, the next date, and it came and went, the next date, and then they died of a broken heart. They were optimists. They believed in something because they wished it were true, even though there was no evidence it would be true. And therefore, they failed to take care of what they needed to in the moment. They died. He said the Stockdale Paradox, what he coined this phrase, is that you have to find that balance between being a realist and a pragmatist, living in the moment, bless you, confronting whatever, whatever comes your way, but never losing your hope, never losing your vision, never losing your belief in where it's going to go. Both at the same time. That's why we have three eyes. Two eyes on the here and now, what do we need to overcome, what do we need to endure, but we have that third eye. The third eye is that sense of vision, where we're going and how we're going to get there and the belief that we're going to get there. The belief that everything is going to be okay in the end because if it's not okay, it's not yet the end. That was how I ended the דרשה drasha. They say it's a quote from John Lennon, but when I researched it, Lennon took it from some Brazilian poet who said it in Spanish, and I researched that and he quoted it from someone else. By the time I was done, I decided I made it up. It's so unclear where it came from. So I don't like to, I always am אומר דבר בשם אומרו omer davar b'shem omro. I don't like to steal from other people, but it's unclear who said it. So you could say it's a זוהר Zohar somewhere. It's a מדרש Medrash somewhere. So that's the beginning and the end of the פרשה parsha. לא תסורו Lo sasuru, לתור את הארץ ולא תסורו latur et ha'aretz v'lo sasuru, and וראיתם את הארץ מה היא u'reisem es ha'aretz ma hi, וראיתם אותו u'reisem oso we look at the ציצית tzitzis. That was their mission. But we know they failed in their mission terribly. Now by the way, it says ויעלו בנגב ויבוא עד חברון vayalu va'negev vayavo ad Chevron. They came up from the south, they came to חברון Chevron, ושם אחימן ששי ותלמי v'sham Achiman Sheshai v'Talmai, and there were these great giants there who who greeted them. וחברון Ve'Chevron was built seven years before. This so the פרשה parsha tells us that רש\"י Rashi rather quotes the גמרא Gemara in סוטה Sotah that all the spies entered from the south, but the Torah continues in the singular because there was only one spy who arrived in חברון Chevron. They all came up through the south, they headed one way. One spy actually made it to חברון Chevron. Who made it to חברון Chevron? כלב Kalev made it to חברון Chevron. He detoured to חברון Chevron. Why? מערת המכפלה Me'aras Hamachpeilah. Why does anyone go to חברון Chevron? מערת המכפלה Me'aras Hamachpeilah. To visit the בּאַבי and the זיידעס Bubby and the Zeidys, to visit our great-grandparents. That's why you go to חברון Chevron. So he went to go דאווענען davenen at מערת המכפלה Me'aras Hamachpeilah in order to invoke their merit that he would have the resolve, the resiliency to overcome the urge or the pressure, the peer pressure to join the מרגלים meraglim. Who sent him there? Moshe. So Moshe changes הושע's Hoshea's name to יהושע Yehoshua in anticipation so that he will have, the י yud will give him God's strength, God's speed, I don't even know what that means, but it probably came from us. He will have השם's Hashem's strength in order to do the right thing. And כלב Kalev goes to חברון Chevron for the same reason. And in fact, those two then are the only spies. There's so many questions you could ask on this. If Moshe knew it was going to go wrong, why didn't he abort the mission? A. B, if he knew that they would be tempted to report negatively, why does he only save יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev by giving them merits? Why didn't he take all 12? Go visit the קבר kever of the רבי rebbe, go stop in Crown Heights, go stop in מערת המכפלה Me'aras Hamachpeilah, go put a קוויטל kvittel over here. Why didn't he give merit to all of them? Why only two of them? But most of all, why doesn't he tell יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev, don't go? Or lastly, if he knows that יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev are going to be tempted, why do they need extra merit? This is the biggest question. The רב Rav asks this question. If he knows that יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev are going to be vulnerable to be persuaded by the negativity of the others, just tell them, stay strong. When it's time to report, don't go with them. What do you have to go to חברון Chevron? What do you have to change your name? Just stay strong. You hear? All good questions. So the רב Rav answers the last question with a very powerful insight and he says, you know, there's two stages to doing the right thing. The first is to recognize the right thing from the wrong thing, and the second is to have the strength to stand by the right thing. So yeah, Moshe knew in advance that יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev were going to be vulnerable. He didn't do it for the rest of the spies because they had made up their mind. We're going to get to that ווארט vort soon. They had already made up their mind even before they left. So he knew it was too late to persuade them. But these two, יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev, they could still stand by their principles, they could still stand true, they could still stand tall. Ay, why didn't Moshe just tell them, when it comes time, just don't go with, don't, don't join them? Why does he have to actually take action for them, changing a name and going to חברון Chevron? Because even when you know what the right thing is to do, when you're about to confront tremendous pressure to do the wrong thing, there needs to be some change in you to give you the strength to do the right thing. Had he remained הושע Hoshea, he might have gone along with them. He had to be, you know, the guy who frummed out, and now he's going by his Hebrew name and he's got a new name, יהושע Yehoshua. And the fact that he's got a new name, יהושע Yehoshua, that gave him the strength, the willingness to be different. כלב Kalev, everybody else went that way, he said, I'll rejoin the group, I got to make a stop. Ay, where are you going? You think you're better than us, different than us, cooler than us? You think you can't join us? Where are you going? I have to make a stop. The fact that he differentiated himself gave him the strength to differentiate himself later. Sometimes when we can anticipate that we'll be in a situation where there'll be amazing peer pressure to have us do the wrong thing, the first step is identifying it as the wrong thing, but we still remain vulnerable. Even when we know it's the wrong thing, we're still vulnerable. So we have to take action. We have to do something that distinguishes, differentiates ourselves so that we know we'll have the courage to do the right thing, to do the right thing later. Good, let's keep going with the פרשה parsha. Oh, there's so much to talk about. Even with so much we've spoken about already. Okay, they come back, we know they report negatively, and they instill this tremendous fear. Not כלב Kalev. What does כלב Kalev say? Because he had gone to חברון Chevron, so he had the strength. And what does כלב Kalev say? עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל לה Aloh na'aleh v'yarashnu osah ki yachol nuchal lah. כלב Kalev comes back, he shouts down the rest of the מרגלים meraglim, and he says, \"Don't listen. We can surely go. עלה נעלה aloh na'aleh. We're making עליה aliyah. נפש בנפש nefesh b'nefesh, we're going. וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל לה V'yarashnu osah ki yachol nuchal lah. We're going to inherit the land because we can.\" It's a beautiful רש\"י Rashi here. רש\"י Rashi says עלה נעלה aloh na'aleh. Sagt der Rashi, עלה נעלה aloh na'aleh, אפילו בשמים והוא אומר עשו סולמות ועלו שם נצליח בכל דבריו afilu ba'shamayim v'hu omer asu sulamos v'alu sham natzliach b'chol d'varav. עלה נעלה Aloh na'aleh. You know, for us, all it takes is an airplane. An airplane ride. For them it was much harder. כלב Kalev says, \"We're going up.\" But you know what? Even if we were asked to climb to the heavens, we're going to take a ladder and we're going up to the heavens. This is within our reach. It's within our grasp. We can do it. עלה נעלה Aloh na'aleh, אמונה emunah, בטחון bitachon, דביקות dveikus, spirituality. השם Hashem has a mission, השם Hashem has a plan, השם Hashem loves us, he's giving us a gift. And if you start with the premise that he's giving us a gift, it means we have the power, the grip to be able to receive that gift. And even when the gift is difficult, and even if it takes sacrifice, and even if it takes selflessness, but it is a gift. And good things come to those who wait. Ask every woman who's given birth. Nine months of pain and discomfort, of contractions, of labor, of birth for the greatest gift, the greatest pleasure. Those who want should be זכה zocheh to have children and experience it themselves. That we know in life, לפום צערא אגרא l'fum tza'ara agra. According to the pain is the gain. So כלב Kalev says, \"Will it be hard? Maybe. It'll be challenging? Probably. But it's a gift. We're given a promise of what it is on the other side. עלה נעלה Aloh na'aleh, it is well worth it. We're going up. Even if we have to climb up to the heavens. Climb up to the heavens, that spirituality is possible.\" And writes Rav Soloveitchik on this, חז\"ל Chazal say that three gifts have been given to the Jewish people: Torah, ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, and עולם הבא Olam Haba. It's a גמרא Gemara in ברכות דף ה Berachos daf hei. But even though these three gifts are given to us, how are they acquired? They're נקנה nikneh, they are acquired ביסורין b'yissurin. They're not easy. Not easy. Three יסורים yissurim. I was thinking about this two weeks ago when I went to Israel, and the guy next to me took up his seat and half of my seat and the guy in front of me pushed his chair back on me, and I said, \"Oh, ארץ ישראל נקנית ביסורין Eretz Yisrael nikneis b'yissurin.\" הלוואי, הלוואי Halvai, halvai those should be the יסורים yissurin. הלוואי Halvai. So all three of these are gifts that are promised to us, but the גמרא Gemara, חז\"ל Chazal already predict that the way they are acquired is דוקא davka through יסורים yissurin, through effort. 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, you had to work for it, to experience pain. You can't begin to compare somebody who worked hard and gave up hours and energy and life to have that car or that home or that possession, and the person who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth and they just had an endless bank account and they bought whatever they want. I don't remember the context, I spoke about this recently, and I described that someone I know who there was a watch they wanted very badly, so they put a picture of their watch, this watch on their computer screen at work and on their mirror in their bathroom and next to their bed in their bedroom. And they were driven to work hard, that if they met certain goals in their income, they'd buy themselves that watch. And I promise you, he wears that watch, and every time he checks what time it is, he has such נחת nachas and such pride and such joy, such nostalgia for how hard he worked, such pride in having earned it and achieved the goal that he had set. All on that watch on his wrist, in his wrist, is that feeling, is the feeling of accomplishment and achievement, the feeling of success, the feeling of השם's Hashem's support to help them get to where he wanted to go. As opposed to some wealthy person who has a drawer full of watches, and just slapped that watch on that day and doesn't think twice when he checks the time on it, and the watch means nothing, and if it broke or got lost, אה eh, I'll buy another, they'll buy another. The harder we work for something, the more we appreciate it. And that's why by design, if you say these are three gifts from השם Hashem, the תורה הקדושה Torah hakdosha and ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael and עולם הבא Olam Haba, it's like if השם Hashem loves us, just give it to us. But we as parents know that the gifts we give our kids that are unearned are less appreciated than that which if you do this on a test, if you get this done, if you do this for your summer, if you fulfill these chores, you'll get this. Oh, that which you worked hard for, it is such a special, more special place. Holiness has one source, writes Rav Soloveitchik. Holiness has one source. You know what it is? 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. אין קדושה בלא הכנה Ein kedusha b'lo hachanah. There is no holiness without effort, without work, without preparation. שבת Shabbos is not שבת Shabbos if you don't have an ערב שבת Erev Shabbos. You can't stumble into שבת Shabbos. If you didn't prepare דבר תורה dvar Torah and prepare to set the table and prepare to cook the meal and prepare to have clean שבת Shabbos clothing and prepare who your guests will be. You don't just stumble and trip into שבת Shabbos and think you're gonna find sanctity. Whatever you want that's holy needs you to work. Marriage is called קדושין kiddushin, and it's the area of life that takes work, takes work. It's a generation, our generation, our society today doesn't believe this. Whatever makes you happy, it's supposed to come easy. If it's inconvenient, if it's uncomfortable, ditch it, move on, don't stick with it, replace it. Everything is replaceable, disposable. You car lease, your new home, and your spouse, and your, you just replace disposable. And that's why there's a struggle, because there's an emptiness, because there's no holiness. Because holiness is the result of work, of effort, of planning, of sacrifice, of sacrifice. People don't want to sacrifice anymore. They don't want to sacrifice in any area. קדושין Kiddushin, marriage, takes work. It's called קדושין kiddushin. If you want holiness in marriage, you got to work at it. You got to work at it. It's a process, it's a journey. The existence of the state of Israel is a miracle, writes the Rav, is beyond doubt. At the same time, it's a miracle that came at great cost. At Israel's very inception, the first night of the state of Israel's existence, bombs were dropped on Tel Aviv. Subsequently, in the years since it has been coming to 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 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 the state of Israel necessary? Because the state of Israel involves holiness. And holiness only exists if man through sacrifice becomes a partner with השם Hashem. The paradigm of this partnership is the מצוה mitzva of ברית bris to which the prophet refers בדמייך חיי b'damayich chayi. The blood and suffering allow us to merit the continued existence of מדינת ישראל Medinas Yisrael. We experience this on a certain 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. In other words, whatever comes easily is mundane, is profane. It doesn't have holiness. The fact that it took hard work, the fact that it takes effort is evidence of the potential for holiness within it and evidence it's a gift from השם Hashem. If it's handed to you on a silver platter, if it comes too easily, double check whether it's what השם Hashem really wants. Jewish history is on a zigzag trajectory. אברהם Avraham was repeatedly promised a child by God, and yet had to wait many long years for יצחק's Yitzchak's birth, ultimately to be commanded to sacrifice him. משה Moshe had to wait atop a cold mountain for 40 days until God revealed himself with the message of Israel's forgiveness. The suffering, the worry, the uncertainty is precisely what השם Hashem desires of us. ארץ ישראל נקנית ביסורין Eretz Yisrael nikneis b'yissurin. So even this process itself, the first acquisition of ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael to begin with through this episode of the מרגלים meraglim, fast forward thousands of years until today, it continues to be the result of of hard work and of effort. So כלב Kalev says, עלה נעלה aloh na'aleh. We can do it. It's a gift from השם Hashem, but עלה נעלה aloh na'aleh, we have to work for it. We have to work for it. We have to be willing to sacrifice. The people have a national hysteria, they cry the whole night. השם Hashem says you cried for nothing, you're going to cry forever, you're going to cry for generations and generations to come. The people couldn't be placated, they couldn't be appeased. השם Hashem says I'm going to destroy you, you ungrateful, incorrigible, miserable, low-life, negative, אייסוואַרף eisvarf people. What am I gonna do with you? I saved you, I took you out of Egypt, I interfered with the laws of nature. I took care of you in the desert. And I gave you protective clouds of glory, you didn't need an army, and I gave you food, and I gave you drink. I did everything for you. I've done absolutely everything to get you to this day. And now I told you this is what we need to do and you're doubting me? And I'm doing this for you. And I have to fight with you for it? You ungrateful, incorrigible people. Forget it. It's over. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. So Moshe turns to השם Hashem and begs him. And what is the source of Moshe's argument? What does Moshe say to הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu that gets him to agree? that appeases השם Hashem? It's a brilliant formula, it's a formula that we've repeated since then. It's a very compelling argument. השם Hashem is ready to destroy, and Moshe puts forth this very compelling argument, so compelling that it in fact persuades השם Hashem. How is השם Hashem persuaded? You could listen online, we spoke about that in a previous year. השם Hashem forgives them, but he decrees 40 years in the desert, and this is the part we're going to study together momentarily, where he spells out exactly what the decree is and why. And the people hear it, now they say, \"Oh, okay, fine, we could do it. Never mind. Never mind, fine.\" And and then it's realized it's too late. It's too late. You can't come back at this point. And then the Torah very bizarrely, if you're looking at the succession or the theme, the continuity of the פרשה parsha, somewhat bizarre. Right? We have the whole episode of the מרגלים Meraglim is the first half of the פרשה parsha. This narrative. And then the פרשה parsha ends with three seemingly random, disconnected מצוות mitzvos. What are they? First, the libations, that when קרבנות karbonos are offered, they're offered with a wine libation. Libation is a fancy word for saying that you pour some of it on the altar together with the sacrifice, or coordinated with the sacrifice. There's a wine libation, there's a water libation in סוכות Sukkos. מצוה Mitzvah number one. מצוה Mitzvah number two is חלה Challah. The obligation that when you're making חלה challah, you have to take off a portion of it. You give it to the כהן kohen. Today we don't give it to a כהן kohen. It's the only מצוה mitzvah that's connected to the land which applies even outside the land. חלה Challah applies in חוץ לארץ chutz la'aretz as well, outside the land of Israel as well. Why don't we give it to the כהן kohen today? That's not why. We don't give it to the כהן kohen today, no offense to כהנים Kohanim, because how sure are we that you're a כהן kohen? Talking about a מצוה דאורייתא mitzvah d'oraisa, how how do we know that you're in fact a כהן kohen? So because there's some doubt within the יחוס yichus, the status, we burn it in the oven. We get rid of it. Are there other methods you could get rid of it? Big discussion among the פוסקים poskim. ראשית עריסותיכם Reishis arisoseichem, the first of your of your dough. So the מצוה mitzvah of חלה Challah, and then the Torah ends, the פרשה parsha ends rather with the מצוה mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis. With the מצוה mitzvah of of ציצית tzitzis. מצוה Mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis. What what connection is there between these three things? And we're interrupted for the story of the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim, discussed that in the past also. The holy sinner. He's known as the holy sinner. How could you be a holy sinner? Who is the מקושש עצים mekoshesh eitzim? The גמרא Gemara says it was צלפחד Tzelafchad. When בנות צלפחד bnos Tzelafchad say our father died in the מדבר midbar, he was the one who מקושש mekoshesh, what was exactly the מלאכה melacha he was doing according to most opinions? He was gathering wood, he was violating one of the 39 categories of forbidden creative labor on שבת Shabbos. He was the first. The גמרא Gemara says he did it on purpose. Why? He was willing to take one for the team. He knew the consequence, but he was trying to model for the people that this, they mean business. This is serious. You violate שבת Shabbos, it's it. You're going to get it. שבת Shabbos is very significant. It's a whole story worth investigating. Again, you could listen online, we did previously. And then you have the מצוה mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis. So what do the wine libations, חלה challah, and ציצית tzitzis have to do with the story of the מרגלים Meraglim? What do they have to do with the story of the מרגלים Meraglim? So in order to answer that, you have to actually understand the story of the מרגלים Meraglim.What went wrong here? And again, we've discussed this also in the past. I'm not going to tell you at length, but you need to understand it before we go into before we go into the section we're going to study together. What what went wrong for the מרגלים Meraglim? These were the נשיאים Nesi'im. I said before, רב משה Rav Moshe and the רבי Rebbe and the רב Rav and רב הוטנר Rav Hutner and רב רודרמן Rav Ruderman and other great, go to the 20th century, any century. Take in our time, the greatest ראשי ישיבה Roshei Yeshiva, the greatest פוסקים poskim, the greatest צדיקים tzadikim, the greatest חסידים chasidim, the ל\"ו Lamed Vav, those who are revealed, those who are hidden, and you send them on this mission, and they failed so miserably. So miserably. The Torah depicts them as villains, villains who destroyed our destiny. 40 years we wandered in the מדבר midbar. A whole generation died there. And we continue for תשעה באב Tisha B'Av every year. The ninth of Av was designated inauspiciously on our calendar as a day of suffering. And it's been revisited throughout our history. Terrible, terrible events have happened in fulfillment of God's promise. You cried for no reason, I'll give you a reason to cry. So how could they have miscalculated so badly? So many say this, but רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht really said it, רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht, רב חיים יעקב גולדוויכט Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht, the ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of כרם ביבנה Kerem B'Yavneh, my ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva. He said it very beautifully, and it appears in his ספרים seforim. The זוהר Zohar says that these ראשי עדה Rashei Eida, these heads of the tribes, what drove them to give this negative report? They didn't want to go into Israel. Even before they ever stepped foot on this investigation, on this journey, even before they ever embarked, they had already come to their conclusion. And what was their conclusion? This is a bad idea. We've got to stay in the desert. And why did they want to stay in the desert? So the זוהר Zohar, and רש\"י Rashi also alludes to this, the simple understanding, which רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht says is inaccurate, but the simple understanding is they were big shots. They had a big role. They were the elected, they were the officers of the שול shul. They were the executive board, and they were going to go into Israel, there's going to be new elections. And no one wants to lose their position of power, their position of fame, their position of distinction. So they said, you know what, we'll concoct the whole explanation for why we need to continue one more term. After our term, when we're gone, the next generation can go in. But we're the executive board, we're the head of the HOA, we're the, we're the leaders. We don't want to give it up. We don't want to give it up. Says רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht, are you telling me that the ראשי ישיבה Roshei Yeshiva, the צדיקים tzadikim, the גאונים geonim, the חסידים chasidim, the נשיאים nesi'im, these incredibly righteous people would have been so egotistical that they would have insisted on holding on to their power? That's what's going, impossible. Impossible.So what was really going on? So he explains the following. It was a fundamental, it was an ideological debate. What was the lifestyle like in the מדבר midbar? What was the lifestyle like in the מדבר midbar? The lifestyle in the מדבר midbar was a כולל kollel lifestyle. כולל Kollel. What was the כולל kollel lifestyle? Do you need to serve in the army? Do you need to be in the police? Do you need to be a member of the שומרים Shomrim? No, they had the ענני כבוד Ananei Kavod to protect you. You're good to go. You got the ultimate alarm system, השם Hashem's watching over you. Do you need to be a farmer who works the land, who plants and harvests and breaks her back and burns in the sun? No. You're hungry, you collect the מן man. You want it to taste like General Tso's, you want it to taste like pizza, you want it to taste like whatever you want, you got it. If you're thirsty, do you need to dig a hole and search for water and schlep up from a well? You're thirsty, you got the באר Be'er. In the middle of the desert, you got the, in the middle of the desert, you got water. מי עדן May Eden, whatever you want to drink, you're good to go. So what were they doing in the מדבר midbar? You don't have to work. You don't need a police force, you don't need an army, you don't need a judicial system, you don't need an agricultural system, you don't need, you don't have a government. What are you doing? What are you doing? You're sitting and learning תורה Torah. השם Hashem had just given the תורה Torah to משה Moshe. משה Moshe is teaching the תורה Torah, and the entire existence in the מדבר midbar is a spiritual existence. It is the pursuit of the spiritual. The physical, the material is all provided, is all taken care of from השם Hashem. It's very simple. So these נשיאים nesi'im, these heads of the tribes who served as these spies said, we're going to go into Israel, what's life going to be like in Israel? There goes the ענני כבוד Ananei Kavod, there goes the מן man, there goes the באר Be'er. What's life like in Israel? Got an army, and we all, they already anticipated then what the fight's going to be. Do you leave ישיבה yeshiva, do you leave the כולל kollel to serve in the army? Well, someone's got to protect us because there's enemies all around. So there will be no ישיבה yeshiva, there will be no כולל kollel, there will be no learning if no one's protecting us because there's enemies who want to destroy us and we don't have those ענני כבוד Ananei Kavod to rely on anymore. And what are we going to do for food? Well, Angel's Bakery can make amazing רוגלך rugelach, but someone's got to plant the wheat and then harvest it and grind it and knead it and bake it. Who's going to be, who's going to be the farmer with the farmers in the fields? Who's going to do it? Plaza's got a great omelet station at its breakfast, but somebody's got to have all those hens and roosters and chickens and chicken coops and get the eggs. We're going to do some really strange thing, we'll put milk in a bag, but somebody's got to milk the cows to put the milk in the bag. So they said to themselves, what, are we crazy? We're going to go into Israel and give up the כולל kollel and have to go to work? Forget about it. We'll come back and we'll give this negative report and we're going to stay in the מדבר midbar. It was a very noble intent. It wasn't self-centered, it wasn't egotistical, it wasn't that they didn't want to yield or give up the power. They wanted another term. It was very noble intent, but it was miscalculated. And why was it miscalculated? Because what the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam wants from us here on earth is not to disengage from the material and physical. It's not to live a spiritual by transcending the physical. It's to engage the physical to transform and to elevate it into spiritual. In ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, says רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht, the only place on earth that you have something called מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos ha'tluyos ba'aretz. תרומות Trumos and מעשרות ma'asros, tithing the fruit and the produce, מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos ha'tluyos ba'aretz means that the soil, the earth, the dirt, the most physical, the most material, the most lowly substance becomes holy where? When I tend my garden in Boca? I don't have a garden. If I had a garden and I tended it in Boca, is it a מצוה mitzvah? No, it's a hobby. Enjoy the red pepper. Enjoy the tomato in your salad, fresh, homegrown, no pesticides, organic, enjoy it. But is there a מצוה mitzvah? Is it a holy tomato? Absolutely not. But the farmer in ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael who's going to observe שמיטה shmitta and תרומות ומעשרות trumos and ma'asros and ערלה orlah and כלאי הכרם kilei ha'kerem and that farmer who's observing all these מצוות mitzvos with the soil, with the earth, with the ground, with the dirt, there are מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos ha'tluyos ba'aretz. What the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam wants from us is to do מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos ha'tluyos ba'aretz, to take the physical world and transform it into the spiritual, to make it a holy place. To make it a holy place. And so that's why he was so devastated. Not just because of their yearning to stay in the land in in the desert, not just because they rejected his promise that don't worry, everything's going to be okay. But because of this ideological, fundamental debate. And says the שפת אמת Sfas Emes, that's why the Torah gives us these three מצוות mitzvos right after right after the חטא המרגלים chet ha'Meraglim. What are these three מצוות mitzvos? They're all physical, mundane, material things that are transformed into spiritual by the way we use them. So, libations. You could take wine and you could become intoxicated, you could become drunk, you could go to a club which makes you so passed out, you miss the שבת סעודה Shabbos seudah and you're a terrible example to your children. You could misuse and abuse alcohol, or you could take wine and it's a libation on the מזבח mizbeach, you have elevated it, you've transformed it into something which is holy. Bread. You could bake the bread or you could take חלה challah from it and make it something קדוש kadosh, make it something holy. Wool. You could knit another sweater, you could make ציצית tzitzis. And ציצית tzitzis become the mechanism, the instrument that bring you to the כסא הכבוד Kisei HaKavod. Says the שפת אמת Sfas Emes, these are not three random מצוות mitzvos. These מצוות mitzvos were chosen by design to tell us that we need to atone for the חטא המרגלים chet ha'Meraglim. The antidote to the mistake, the sin of the spies is to recognize that we are here to engage the physical world and transform it, not to disengage, not to recoil, not to isolate, not to hide. ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael is the greatest vehicle on earth to do that. ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael is the land of that. If you're a policeman or a fireman, you serve in the army in Israel, you're doing a מצוה mitzvah. You're in the government, you're doing a מצוה mitzvah. You walk four אמות amos in Israel, you're doing a מצוה mitzvah. You grow tomatoes and red peppers in your backyard, you're engaged in a מצוה mitzvah. It is the land of מצוות mitzvos, it's the bridge between heaven and earth is Israel. Boca is earth. Heaven is heaven. But the bridge between heaven and earth where the physical is transformed from mundane and profane to holy and consecrated, that place is ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. Which is also why, I don't want to take the time now, פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas, I probably won't be here, but it's why משה Moshe was not allowed to come into Israel. This is another one of my, I only have a handful of original ideas, two in one שיעור shiur, wow. Why was משה Moshe not allowed into Israel? It wasn't a punishment. It was a reality. This is my theory. It's based on a מדרש midrash that השם Hashem tells משה Moshe you're going to be the leader and he says, not me. Why not me? לא איש דברים אנכי Lo ish devarim anochi. I'm not a man of words. I don't speak well, I'm not an orator, I can't lead the people, that requires public speaking, not for me. Not for me. השם Hashem says, okay, not for you. By the way, the מדרש midrash connects and says משה Moshe's hesitation is why God says you can't come into into Israel. But השם Hashem recruits him, makes him the leader nonetheless. Fast forward 40 years, פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas, and it's time to go into Israel and משה Moshe wants to lead them in. And what does השם Hashem say to משה Moshe? ודברתם אל הסלע V'dibartem el ha'sela, speak to the rock. And what does משה Moshe do? He hits the rock. And what does he reveal to השם Hashem? Has he learned the power of speech in those 40 years and beyond? He's still not a speaker. Because he doesn't employ the power of speech, he hits the rock. What is the power of speech? The מהר\"ל Maharal writes, speech is the bridge between the physical and the spiritual. We live here in the physical world and we have thoughts about our life in the physical world, but how do we bring those thoughts into reality? How do we communicate? How do we transmit? The bridge between the physical and the spiritual is the power of speech. It's the union, it's the place that connects theory and concept with reality and with the world. משה Moshe, says the מהר\"ל Maharal, משה Moshe was not a speaker, לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi, why? That's not a criticism or it's not a negative, it's not disparaging משה Moshe, it's actually amazing praise of משה Moshe. משה Moshe was so spiritual, so disconnected from the physical world that he he struggled in the power of speech. Because the power of speech is that bridge between physical and spiritual. משה Moshe was so רוחני ruchni, so spiritual, he had כבד פה, כבד לשון k'vad peh, k'vad lashon, he had a speech impediment, he meant, I have an impediment to engaging the physical world. So spiritual, so holy, so transcendent that he struggled to engage that physical world. And I would like to suggest that what השם Hashem is telling משה Moshe is, when he said ודברתם אל הסלע v'dibartem el ha'sela, speak to the rock, משה Moshe says, I can't, and he hits the rock. What השם Hashem says is if you can't, then you were the right leader for the desert where there was a כולל kollel spiritual lifestyle. But as we're about to go into Israel, I need a יהושע Yehoshua. I need a leader who can speak. I need a leader who can connect the spiritual and the physical, who's relatable. I need a leader who understands that the purpose of life is integration, is synthesis between the spiritual and the physical. It wasn't a punishment for משה Moshe. After all he had done for the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam, for כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, because of one mistake he can't go in? And it's a mistake by the way that there are 50 suggestions what he did wrong. So unclear the text never tells us what he did wrong exactly. The רמב\"ם Rambam, he got angry. And others that he was arrogant. Others that he took the credit. He said, you rebellious one. Everyone has their own suggestion. That's how unclear it is from the text what he did wrong. And my suggestion is it's not that he did something wrong, it's that he showed השם Hashem that he was not the right fit to be the leader going into Israel, the Israel lifestyle, the ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael lifestyle would need someone new. So that was the mistake of the מרגלים Meraglim. Those are the three מצוות mitzvos who get afterwards because it's the reminder. Wine, it could be used to intoxicate, it could be used for a libation. חלה Challah, bread, it could be used to indulge, it can be used for a מצוה mitzvah, חלה challah. Wool, it can be used for the clothing, could be competing for brands and fashion. It could be the מצוה mitzvah, these wool, the strings, the strings. Strings that by the way the שפת אמת Sfas Emes develops so beautifully based on another מדרש midrash, like a person who's in the ocean, falls overboard in the ocean and the waves are throwing him back and forth and threatened to take him out to sea or pull him under and drown. How do we save the person? We throw him a rope. And that's the image of the ציצית tzitzis. השם Hashem throws us a rope and on the other side is אמונה emunah. If you add up all the twists and the knots, you get 613. וזכרתם את כל מצוות השם Z'chartem es kol mitzvos Hashem, you remember the מצוות mitzvos. ציצית Tzitzis is השם Hashem throwing us a rope, and when we hold on to it, when we hold on to אמונה emunah, then even when the world is throwing us around and the waves are slapping us in the face and the current is threatening to pull us under, if you hold on to that rope, the rope of אמונה emunah, then you can get through. Okay, let's get to the section I want to study, as we're almost out of time. Rav Moskowitz isn't here, so I have three hours now.Okay, we're going to start. We'll just share a little bit. פרק י\"ב Perek Yud Beis, פסוק כ\"ו pasuk Chaf Vov. I'm sorry, פרק י\"ד Perek Yud Daled. פרק י\"ד Perek Yud Daled, פסוק כ\"ו pasuk Chaf Vov. So the top of page 808 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. Interesting series, I called the Stone חומש Chumash today. Okay. וידבר השם אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר Va'yidaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon leimor. This is right after השם Hashem forgave the people, He ostensibly forgave the people, but yet he's about to tell them the decree. וידבר השם אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר, עד מתי לעדה הרעה הזאת אשר המה מלינים עלי? את תלונות בני ישראל אשר המה מלינים עלי שמעתי. How long? השם Hashem tells Moshe and Aharon, how long for this עדה הרעה הזאת eida ha'ra ha'zos? This evil assembly, they provoke complaints against me. They instigated against me among the people. I've heard what my children have to say that they've provoked against me. I heard it. Let's read the whole thing then we'll come back and analyze. אמר אליהם חי אני נאום השם Emor aleihem chai ani ne'um Hashem. השם Hashem says, tell them, I swear, רש\"י Rashi says, חי אני chai ani is השם Hashem saying I swear. What is he swearing? אם לא כאשר דברתם באזני, כן אעשה לכם Im lo ka'asher dibartem b'oznai, kein e'eseh lachem. What they spoke in my ear, what they said, what they were afraid of is exactly what I'm going to do to them. במדבר הזה יפלו פגריכם Ba'midbar ha'zeh yiplu pigreichem וכל פקודיכם לכל מספרכם מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה v'chol pekudeichem l'chol misparchem m'ben esrim shanah va'ma'alah, anyone who's 20 years old and and over who was part of this process, אשר הלינותם עלי asher halinosem alai, they're goners, they're going to die in the desert. אם אתם תבאו אל הארץ אשר נשאתי את ידי לשכן אתכם בה, כי אם כלב בן יפונה ויהושע בן נון Im atem tavo'u el ha'aretz asher nasasi es yadi l'shakein eschem bah, ki im Kalev ben Yefuneh v'Yehoshua bin Nun. None of them are coming in, with two exceptions: Kalev and Yehoshua. Now the truth is the whole tribe of לוי Levi was coming in, they didn't participate. And who else was coming in? Who's always the righteous one? The women. The women and the children were coming in too. But 20 years old and male, non-לויים Levi'im, you're all goners, you're going to die in the מדבר midbar. They used to dig their own grave and lie down in it in anticipation. וטפכם אשר אמרתם לבז יהיה והביאתי אתם וידעו את הארץ אשר מאסתם בה V'tapeichem asher amartem l'vaz yihyeh v'heiveisi osam v'yad'u es ha'aretz asher ma'astem bah. Says השם Hashem, your young children who you said they'll be taken captive, I'll bring them in. They're going to know my land. אשר מאסתם Asher ma'astem, you despised it, you denigrated it, they're going to get to know it. ופגריכם אתם יפלו במדבר הזה U'pigreichem atem yiplu ba'midbar ha'zeh, but your lowly carcasses, you're goners. ובניכם יהיו רעים במדבר ארבעים שנה U'vneichem yihyu ro'im ba'midbar arba'im shanah, your children will be רעים ro'im. What are רעים ro'im? Shepherds. They will roam for 40 years. ונשאו את זנותיכם V'nas'u es znuseichem, and they will bear your זנות znus. What's זנות znus? עד תם פגריכם במדבר Ad tom pigreichem ba'midbar. השם Hashem is pretty hung up on this carcasses. במספר הימים אשר תרתם את הארץ B'mispar ha'yamim asher tartem es ha'aretz. And how did השם Hashem arrive at 40 years? Why 40 years? The number of days that you toured the land, ארבעים יום arba'im yom, 40 days, יום לשנה yom la'shanah. A day for every year. יום לשנה תשאו את עונותיכם ארבעים שנה Yom la'shanah tis'u es avonoseichem arba'im shanah, 40 years, וידעתם את תנואתי v'yda'tem es t'nu'asi, you will you will know. You will know that you the consequence of having instigated against me. אני השם דברתי, אם לא זאת אעשה לכל העדה הרעה הזאת הנועדים עלי, במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו Ani Hashem dibarti, im lo zos e'eseh l'chol ha'eida ha'ra ha'zos ha'no'adim alai, ba'midbar ha'zeh yitamu v'sham yamusu. והאנשים אשר שלח משה לתור את הארץ וישבו וילנו עליו את כל העדה להוציא דבה על הארץ, וימתו האנשים מוציאי דבת הארץ רעה במגפה לפני השם V'ha'anashim asher shalach Moshe lasur es ha'aretz v'yashuvu v'yalonu alav es kol ha'eida l'hotzi dibah al ha'aretz, va'yamusu ha'anashim motziei dibas ha'aretz ra'ah b'mageifah lifnei Hashem. So in fact, while 40 years he gave to the rest of the nation, the spies themselves, these ten died of a terrible plague right then and there. But the exception to ויהושע בן נון וכלב בן יפונה חיו מן האנשים ההם ההלכים לתור את הארץ Yehoshua bin Nun v'Kalev ben Yefuneh chayu min ha'anashim ha'heim ha'holchim lasur es ha'aretz, they were the only survivors of those who had gone to investigate the land. Okay, let's go back and look now. So השם Hashem says, עד מתי לעדה הרעה הזאת אשר המה מלינים עלי ad masai la'eida ha'ra ha'zos asher heimah malinim alai? עדה הרעה הזאת Eida ha'ra ha'zos. השם Hashem gives a name to this group. What does he call them? עדה הרעה הזאת Eida ha'ra ha'zos. This evil עדה eida. What's an עדה eida? Evil congregation. Says רש\"י Rashi, אלו המרגלים מכאן לעדה שהיא עשרה eilu ha'Meraglim, mi'kan l'eida shehi asarah. From here we know that a congregation, an עדה eida is made up of how many? Ten. Why ten? Extract Kalev and Yehoshua, they were good. The rest of these were the ten. And from here we learn, we derive the whole origin of the concept of a מנין minyan. How do you know you need a מנין minyan of men in order to say דברים שבקדושה dvarim she'b'kdusha, קדיש Kaddish, קדושה Kedusha, and the like, ברכו Borchu? From here. How do you know it's ten? עדה הרעה הזאת Eida ha'ra ha'zos. השם Hashem chooses to call these an עדה eida, a congregation, a מנין minyan. How many were in them? Ten. So you know that it takes ten to be a מנין minyan. רב משה Rav Moshe points out something amazing from here. Says רב משה Rav Moshe, you see what you learn from here, השם Hashem, עדה הרעה eida ha'ra. השם Hashem derives a מנין minyan not from ten צדיקים tzadikim, he derives a מנין minyan from ten רשעים resha'im. עדה הרעה Eida ha'ra. These wicked people who miscalculated, whose ideology was distorted, was perverted, was wrong, who came back and tried to mislead the people and caused this hysteria and led to this great consequence, they were so wrong, and yet, this is where we derive the concept of a מנין minyan from. Writes רב משה Rav Moshe in אגרות משה Igros Moshe in a תשובה teshuva, the תשובה teshuva is סימן כ\"ג Siman Chaf Gimel. אם לצרף מחלל שבת בפרהסיא לעשרה לקדיש וקדושה Im l'tzareif m'challel Shabbos b'farhesia la'asarah l'Kaddish v'Kedusha. Can you count a מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos for a מנין minyan? Not somebody, רב משה Rav Moshe wasn't likely talking about מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos someone who grew up not knowing better, but a מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos. Somebody who grew up knowing better and chose to be מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos. Can you count a מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos to a מנין minyan? So he says, אם כן בהכרח גם לענין לומר דברים שבקדושה מצטרפי Im kein b'hechrach gam l'inyan lomar dvarim she'b'kdusha mitztarfei. If the מרגלים Meraglim are the whole source of a מנין minyan, and the מרגלים Meraglim denied or defied or rebelled against השם Hashem even more than a מחלל שבת בפרהסיא m'challel Shabbos b'farhesia. They were כופרים בפרהסיא kofrim b'farhesia, and yet they are the origin, they are the source of a מנין minyan, then certainly, פסק'נט paskins רב משה Rav Moshe, you can count a מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos in a מנין minyan as well. So in a later תשובה teshuva somebody says, but how can you say that, רב משה Rav Moshe? I don't understand. Because why? We have the טור Tur and אורח חיים Orach Chaim quotes from the בה\"ג Bahag. There's a תקנה takanah to fast on certain days of the year. And this תקנה takanah was accepted by כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, even though we haven't accepted it. None of you fast on these days. One of those days is י\"ז אלול Yud Zayin Elul, 17th of Elul. Anyone here fast on the 17th of Elul? No. Why would you fast on the 17th of Elul? The טור Tur quotes from the בה\"ג Bahag, מתו מוציאי דבת הארץ במגפה meisu motziei dibas ha'aretz b'mageifah. The פסוק pasuk we just read that the ten original spies who died of a plague immediately, they didn't live the 40 years. They didn't die at the end of the 40 years, they died immediately. When did they die? The 17th of Elul. And we fast to commemorate their death. And the question the בית יוסף Beis Yosef asks is why? Asks the בית יוסף Beis Yosef, why would you fast to commemorate the death of רשעים resha'im? So concludes the בית יוסף Beis Yosef, שמא מפני שלא זכו שתתקבל תשובתם מצטערים, דמסתמא שבו ולא נתקבלה shema p'nei she'lo zachu she'tiskabel teshuvatam v'tz'tarim, d'mistama shavu v'lo niskablu. They tried to do תשובה teshuva, but their תשובה teshuva wasn't accepted. Maybe they tried to do תשובה teshuva, so we fast to honor their effort that they tried to do תשובה teshuva, but their תשובה teshuva wasn't accepted. So רב משה Rav Moshe was asked based on this בית יוסף Beis Yosef and the whole notion that we fast for them, that maybe, maybe they were בעלי תשובה Baalei Teshuvah. And maybe that's why we learn מנין minyan from them. We're learning מנין minyan that you could always come back. So how could you רב משה Rav Moshe פסק'נט pasken מחלל שבת m'challel Shabbos can be part of a מנין minyan from the fact that we derive מנין minyan from the מרגלים Meraglim, they were רשעים resha'im? Maybe they weren't רשעים resha'im? They did תשובה teshuva. So רב משה Rav Moshe dedicates another תשובה teshuva, בענין המרגלים, לתארץ דברי, דברי באגרות משה b'inyan ha'Meraglim, l'tareitz divrei, divrei b'Igros Moshe in earlier. And he writes, שודאי היו רשעים גמורים בכפירה ביכולת השם ובהבטחתו, וגם בעשיית הדבר להוציא דיבה, שאין למד עליהם זכות בדין מסיס ומדיח וחתם she'vadai hayu resha'im gemurim b'kfira b'y'cholos Hashem u'v'havtachaso. V'gam b'asosas ha'dvor l'hotzi diba she'ein lamed aleihem zchus b'din meisis u'meidiach v'chatam. They were a מסיס ומדיח meisis u'meidiach. They didn't just sin themselves, they instigated it for others. They were for sure רשעים resha'im. ואין כוונת הבית יוסף שנחשבו בתשובתם צדיקים, שלכן מצטערים על מיתתם. דאם כן, והקב\"ה קיבל את תשובתם, והרי פסוק הקב\"ה הרוצה במקבל תשובה, אין תשובתם כלום. וממילא הם רשעים, אף אחר ששבו. ואין להצטער על מיתתם מצד החיוב. ופשוט שאין התענית ביום שמתו מצד תענית על מיתת צדיקים, כי אף אם היו שבו בתשובה גמורה, והשם יתברך מקבל תשובתם, נמי לא יוכלו להפקח לצדיקים V'ein kavanas ha'Beis Yosef she'nechshevu b'teshuvatam tzadikim, she'lachein mis'arin al misasam. D'im achad v'hakel kibel Hashem Yisborach es teshuvatam, v'hai pasuk Hashem Yisborach ha'rotzeh b'm'kabel teshuva, ein teshuvatam klum. U'm'meila heim resha'im, af achar she'shavu. V'ein l'hitz'ta'er al misasam mi'tzad ha'chiyuv. U'poshet she'ein ha'ta'anis b'yom she'meisu mi'tzad ta'anis al misas tzadikim, ki af im hayu shovu b'teshuva gemurah, v'Hashem Yisborach mekabel teshuvatam, nami lo yuchlu l'hipakach l'tzadikim. Even if they did תשובה teshuva, doesn't make them צדיקים tzadikim. That's not why we're fasting. So why are we fasting? He gives another reason and he defends his פסק psak that a מחלל שבת בפרהסיא m'challel Shabbos b'farhesia can be part of a מנין minyan, you see this from the from the מרגלים Meraglim. But the question still lends itself or begs itself. Why in the world would you learn the concept of a מנין minyan from these מרגלים Meraglim? From these מרגלים Meraglim? So Dr. Yitzchak Belazan, for whom our בית מדרש Beis Medrash is named, used to be very fond of saying, I don't know if this also came from רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht, I think it did, that the פשט pshat is the following, a very very beautiful idea. The מרגלים Meraglim were wrong. Their ideology of a כולל kollel lifestyle permanently was wrong. You get a כולל kollel lifestyle. You know, if if somebody wants to learn when they get married or learn for a few years, they should be supported. It's beautiful. What an what an ambition, what a drive to want to learn, it's incredible. But as long as they have a plan, they're going to come into their ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael and they're going to participate, contribute, integrate with the world. That's what השם Hashem wants of them. That's the mission, that's the goal. You get a מדבר midbar lifestyle, but it's got a deadline. It expires. It's not permanent. It's not endless. The מרגלים Meraglim were wrong. Our mission is not to disconnect from the world. Our mission is not to withdraw. Our mission is not to transcend. It's to engage the world and transform and to elevate it. They were wrong. But said רב גולדוויכט Rav Goldvicht, three times a day they were right. When were they right? שחרית, מנחה, וערבית Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv. When you דאווענען daven, you're not thinking about the stock market, you're not thinking about your customers, you're not thinking about your email and your phone calls you have to return. When you're davening, you're not at the gym or in the supermarket, you're not thinking about the physical, material world. Three times a day the מרגלים Meraglim were right. They were wrong altogether. You can't be in כולל kollel permanently, you need a plan. You got to enter your ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. השם Hashem wants us, a world of synthesis and integration. They were wrong. But three times a day they're right. When we דאווענען daven, you leave your phone in the car. When you דאווענען daven, there is nothing in this world. All there is is the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam. The ideology en masse, on the whole writ large, is wrong. But the ideology three times a day when we דאווענען daven, and that's why he suggested, that's why he suggested we דוקא davka learn, we learn the concept of a מנין minyan דוקא davka from מרגלים Meraglim because three times a day they were right. There was so much I wanted to share with you. There's beautiful ספרים seforim out here on the רמב\"ן Ramban and the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. We didn't actually get through these פסוקים psukim at all. But apparently we're going to stop here. Right? Okay. All right. Have a great day everyone.
