Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב boker tov. I want to thank our sponsors this morning. Once again, sponsored by Doctors Ilana and Giuliano Rosenblatt for a רפואה שלמה refuah shleima for ישראל מאיר בן דפנה Yisrael Meir ben Daphne. Should have a complete and speedy and painless רפואה שלמה refuah shleima. Also, this just in, co-sponsored by Gail and Milton Meller in honor of their wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, and many, many more. And lastly, I'll take the personal privilege of saying that our learning this morning is dedicated in the honor of my wife's birthday, which is today. Happy birthday, יוכבד Yocheved. I for one, am very happy she was born. Okay, that's enough mushing for one day.Let's get to the פרשה parsha. פרשת ויקרא Parshas Vayikra, we begin the third book of the תורה Torah, the book of תורת כהנים Toras Kohanim. It's difficult to go through this book because תורת כהנים Toras Kohanim is filled with a lot of details, minutia, rules, so many of which are inaccessible or unrelatable to us, directed primarily to the כהנים Kohanim, the עבודה avodah of the משכן Mishkan, the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, to the service, the sacrifices with which we are, sadly, so unfamiliar. Please God, speedily in our day, we will become familiar once again. But I think that while ספר ויקרא Sefer Vayikra poses a big problem, big challenge in that way, at the same time, as we spoke about when we talked about the architecture, the design, the dimensions of the משכן Mishkan, at the same time, it's a reminder of Torah's timelessness. That when we study, even in the book of ויקרא Vayikra, and we understand the symbolism and the meaning and the themes, and what the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam, what the Almighty was trying to have us achieve and experience, though we may not go through those physical motions, but nevertheless, we continue to draw from those themes, the messages and the values and the ideals are timeless. And so rather than have any hesitation to study the book of ויקרא Vayikra, I think we do so with great excitement. As I've said many years, the book of ויקרא Vayikra begins with the word ויקרא vayikra where the אלף aleph is small, it's called the אלף זעירא aleph ze'ira. We're not going to examine this in depth today. We have several times in the past and you can listen to those online. But the בעל הטורים Baal Haturim says the small אלף aleph reflects משה Moshe's humility. Which begs a question of the חתם סופר Chasam Sofer. משה Moshe's been humble since the book of ספר שמות Sefer Shmos. Why did it take an entire book? Why did it take until ויקרא Vayikra to express that humility that is opposed to the contrast of בלעם Bilam, who's arrogant, who has access to השם Hashem. משה Moshe has this humility, just a small little אלף aleph. The חתם סופר Chasam Sofer says why, why did it wait till now? What is the connection between the book of ויקרא Vayikra and משה Moshe's humility that he didn't insist on expressing that humility earlier? I leave that with you as a question. Another interpretation of the אלף זעירא aleph ze'ira, the small אלף aleph, I spoke about in Century Village this past Sunday, is the small אלף aleph stands for the אלוף aluf, השם Hashem, the one and only, the singular Almighty God. Why is it a small אלף aleph? Because without the אלף aleph you could read it as ויקר vayikar, which is the לשון lashon of מקרה mikrah, chance, happenstance, randomness. With the אלף aleph it means God called. We go through our lives and everything that happens to us in life, and we are invited, we have a choice. We can interpret everything in our life in one of two ways. Either מקרה mikrah or ויקרא vayikra. Is it chance? Is it happenstance? Is it coincidence? Or is it ויקרא vayikra, is God calling out to us? The אלף aleph is small because on the surface, at first glance, it all looks like מקרה mikrah. It's chance, it's happenstance, it's coincidence. The אלף aleph, the small אלף aleph, you have to go look for the אלף זעירא aleph ze'ira. You have to go find the small אלף aleph. You have to find השם Hashem who is in fact the one pulling the strings, the choreographer. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in fact his providence is responsible for all that happens. So that's a second interpretation of the small אלף aleph. The אלף aleph is the difference between מקרה mikrah and ויקרא vayikra. Is it chance or is השם Hashem calling us through what's happening to us? It's hard to sometimes interpret and understand what he's calling. We don't actually get, it's not a text message or a WhatsApp or an email. It's not even a voicemail. You don't get to hear directly or explicitly what he's calling. That, the burden is on us to analyze, interpret, try to come to a conclusion is what's the message? Why did what just happened to me happen? What am I meant to learn? What am I meant to walk away with? How am I meant to grow from it? Not necessarily correlating with a punishment. It must be I suffered this because I did that. השם Hashem can tell us what was a punishment. We also have a concept of יסורין של אהבה yissurin shel ahava. Sometimes השם Hashem is מחנך mechanech, he educates us through the things that happen to us. Sometimes we undergo what feels like a hardship in the moment, and it feels like a punishment, and only later do we find out what a reward it was. Someone very dear to me applying to a position and thought they got it and it looks like they may not get it, and who knows it's devastating. In the short term that feels incredibly devastating. What if in a year or two from now you find out that the job you applied to, that company went under, or there was some scandal, or because you didn't get that, you applied to something else and it was an infinitely better job for you. So we don't know why, and our mission is to pause, not to feel anxious, not to feel bitter, not to feel resentful. Certainly not to say it's מקרה mikrah, it's chance, it's happenstance, but rather ויקרא Vayikra. הקדוש ברוך הוא Kadosh Baruch Hu is calling out to us, I need to now give an answer. When someone calls you, it's rude not to answer. So therefore, we hear the call and we give an answer. That was number two. I wasn't going to talk about. Number two thing I wasn't going to talk about. And number three, the small אלף aleph, the כלי יקר Kli Yakar tells us there was a מנהג minhag, the small אלף aleph represents the children, the little קינדר kinder. And we have a מסורה mesorah, we have a tradition that children begin to study חומש Chumash where? The book of ויקרא Vayikra. So this is all by way of reinforcing that rather than have any hesitation that we're about to begin the third book, it's difficult, it's complicated, it's unrelatable, it's inaccessible, that's דייקא davka where where we chose for many centuries, millennia, that children begin to learn with the book of ויקרא Vayikra. We've suggested in the past, again I won't elaborate, that specifically the message of ויקרא Vayikra, children need to begin their life learning about Judaism by learning מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh, sacrifice. Not everything is is coming to you. I just participated recently on a panel at a rabbinic conference and I suggested there that perhaps the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of it's געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid. You know, רב משה Rav Moshe famously said many years ago that after the Holocaust, you know, the the message that many were were broadcasting to their children and grandchildren of שווער צו זיין אַ איד shver tzu zein a Yid, it's difficult to be a Jew. So people said, out, so difficult to be a Jew? I'm out of here. Who needs to be a Jew? For many years, when Jews lived in a ghetto, so there was no option, there was no alternative. You couldn't walk away. But now that there's not only the opportunity but the invitation to walk away, if you emphasize שווער צו זיין אַ איד shver tzu zein a Yid, how difficult it is to be a Jew, so difficult? Tuition's so expensive, kosher meat is so expensive, cleaning for פסח Pesach is so miserable, everything is so difficult. So I'm out of here. Who needs it? So he encouraged us and we have listened to instead go in the other direction. And today our children are raised singing and dancing, געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid. It's געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid. And it is געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid. שבת Shabbos is so beautiful, and יום טוב Yom Tov is so amazing, and כשרות kashrus makes us so disciplined, it's elevating, it's enriching, it's amazing, it's outstanding. But I humbly suggest that maybe we've gone too far in the other direction because now we've raised a generation of children who say, it's supposed to be געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid, but you know, that's not so geshmak for me. So I'm out of here. I'm done. They're walking away not because of the שווער צו זיין אַ איד shver tzu zein a Yid, they're walking away because it's supposed to be געשמאַק geshmak and why isn't it געשמאַק geshmak? I often tell that I was speaking to a group of teenage boys who I noticed leave their תפילין tefillin in school over the weekend. They weren't putting it on on Sunday. And I talked to them about תפילין tefillin and I told them over this תשובה tshuva in רב אשרי'ס ממעמקים Rav Oshry's Mi'ma'amakim, the he was the רב rav of the Kovno ghetto and he answered just mind-boggling questions of of spiritual resistance and heroism. And he was asked by an 11-year-old boy in the ghetto who said, likely I'm never going to live to my בר מצווה bar mitzvah. I'll not make it. But my whole life I've watched men put on תפילין tefillin, I've always wanted to wear תפילין tefillin. I want the experience of binding myself to השם Hashem, my heart, my head, transforming, elevating the mundane, the animal into the spiritual. I want to know what that's like. Even though I'm only 11 years old, Rebbe, this was his question in the Kovno ghetto. Not where is God, why is there God, why is this happening? His only question was, even though I'm only 11, I'll probably never become בר מצווה bar mitzvah, can I start wearing תפילין tefillin now? So I shared this with this group of young teenagers trying to inspire them that wow, look at us, we're so lucky and fortunate we could wear תפילין tefillin so freely. Isn't it amazing? And the kid said, nah, תפילין tefillin doesn't do anything for me. I said, well, don't don't you feel responsible to do something even when it doesn't do something for you? Because your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, for generations and generations. Don't you want your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren to wear תפילין tefillin? Don't you think that wearing תפילין tefillin binds us not only to השם Hashem, but to a ששלת shalsheles, to a chain of continuity? And even though it doesn't do anything for you, okay, a little kid says brushing my teeth doesn't do anything for me, but you still have to brush your teeth. Don't you think you should wear? Nah, doesn't do anything for me. I don't do it. I only do things that do things for me. So, we teach children, we begin with ספר ויקרא Sefer Vayikra because I think you got to swing back in the other direction a little bit and find a happy medium. It's not שווער צו זיין אַ איד shver tzu zein a Yid. It's not so miserable and difficult and hard. It's amazing, it's joyous, it's uplifting, it's enriching, it's joyful. It's fantastic. We love to be a Jew. It's געשמאַק geshmak. But you know what? Sometimes it's not געשמאַק geshmak. It's not always געשמאַק geshmak. It's not always געשמאַק geshmak to clean for פסח Pesach. It's not always געשמאַק geshmak to cut that check to the day school. It's not always געשמאַק geshmak to use up your vacation days for יום טוב Yom Tov. It's not always געשמאַק geshmak to wake up early when you want to sleep in. It's not always. It is געשמאַק geshmak to be a איד Yid, but ויקרא Vayikra, קרבנות korbanos, you got to be willing to make sacrifices. It's no wonder that our younger, you came for a parsha class, not my editorial on life. So we'll get back to the parsha. But it's no wonder that some of the younger generation who were raised with that sense of pampering and and love and helicopter parenting and everything, you should just be happy and get pleasure. So what happens when they're in a relationship and they're asked to make a sacrifice? I know you want to eat פליישיגס fleishigs, but I want to go for מילכיגס milchigs. I know you want to go here on vacation, I want to go there. I know you want to go to sleep, but I want you to stay up with the baby or change the diaper or, what happens when you have to make a sacrifice in a relationship if you are raised that you should never have to sacrifice anything? You should never have to give up anything, you should always be happy and have pleasure. And the teacher is always wrong and this one's always, you're always right, you should always be happy and have pleasure and have everything you need and everything you want. How is that child going to have a successful marriage, a successful relationship when the core of a relationship is sacrifice? You can't yell at the newborn baby, I want to sleep. It's your problem. Change your own diaper, feed yourself. If you want continuity, literally human continuity, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. Why do we make those sacrifices to stay up at night? Why do we make those sacrifices? Because it's worth it. That's where the real joy, the געשמאַק geshmak. The געשמאַק geshmak is not a full night's sleep, the געשמאַק geshmak is raising, bringing a newborn baby into this world and raising them into a human being. So that's ויקרא Vayikra, that's why we started. It's the small אלף aleph. And no, that's what I'm not going to talk about this morning. So, but the next פסוק pasuk, דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם Daber el Bnei Yisrael v'amarta aleihem adam ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem, מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן תקריבו את קרבנכם min hab'heimah min habakar umin hatzon takrivu es korbancem. This is not only the introduction to the entire book of ויקרא Vayikra, this is the mission statement of what it means to be a Jew. This is ממש mamash the mission statement of being a Jew. אדם כי יקריב Adam ki yakriv, קרבן korban. כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם Ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem. A person brings a sacrifice. Why do you sacrifice? What's the goal of sacrificing? See, unlike other religions, we don't believe in sacrificing for suffering's sake. Nobody died on our behalf or to atone for our sins. There's no such thing as suffering for suffering's sake. What is the purpose of a קרבן korban? Rav Hirsch says, what's the root of the word קרבן korban? קרוב Karov. קוף ריש בית Kuf Reish Beis. The purpose, the goal of a קרבן korban, you sacrifice because it will bring you closer to the person for whom you have sacrificed. You sacrifice for your child because that's what makes you love your child more than your child could ever love you. רב דסלר'ס קונטרס החסד Rav Dessler's Kuntres HaChessed. A parent loves a child more than a child could ever love a parent because love is the result of giving. Love is not the result of receiving. Parents give children infinitely more than children can or will ever give parents, even as good as those children are to parents, even towards the end of a parent's life when they pay it back. Still, the parent gives the child more, loves the child more. The more we sacrifice, the closer we are. The greater the קרבן korban, the more קרוב karov we are. The more we sacrifice, רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam, I want to do A, B, C, but you told me I have to do X, Y, Z. I'm sacrificing. Not in some suffering servant type of way, I'm sacrificing because I'm invested in this relationship with you. So when I had to give things up as an affirmation, as a statement of my commitment to you, the result of a קרבן korban of making a sacrifice is קרוב karov, I feel close. A spouse sacrifices, compromises, gives something up to put the other person's need ahead of their own, and what's the result? קרבן Karov is קרוב karov. It's exactly the opposite, too. If you're unwilling to bring a קרבן korban, you don't feel קרוב karov, you feel רחוק rachok. If you're not willing to sacrifice when asked, if you're not willing to compromise, you're not willing to give, then not only do you not feel closer, you now feel distanced, you now feel further from children, marriage, with השם Hashem. Our whole relationship with השם Hashem is just like our other relationships in life. We often forget that. We think it's about the minutia, the details, and the checklist, check, check, did this, didn't do that, check, check, check. It's not a checklist, it's a relationship. There's love, there's commitment, there's compromise, there's communication. It's a relationship. So where does this relationship come from? אדם כי יקריב Adam ki yakriv. Where are you sacrificing? What are you sacrificing? What and where you're sacrificing from is מכם mikem. It's from us. That word מכם mikem is extraneous. You don't need it. Should just say אדם כי יקריב קרבן להשם adam ki yakriv korban l'Hashem, if a person brings a sacrifice. Why is the word מכם mikem in here? What does the word מכם mikem mean? מכם Mikem means that you're not going to be close to השם Hashem because you spent money on the ox or the bull or the goat or the ram. You don't become close to השם Hashem because you discharged the obligation, the physical obligation of bringing the קרבן korban. Where does the קרבן korban ultimately really have to come from? What is the most genuine commitment? When it's מכם mikem, inside us, who we are. I am molding and shaping my personality. קדוש ברוך הוא Kadosh Baruch Hu, I am creating my identity around you. The קרבן korban is coming from inside me. We spoke about recently in סידור siddur snippets, the recitation of קרבנות korbanos every single morning, ונשלמה פרים שפתינו unshallem parim sefaseinu, that we are as if we brought sacrifices by reading the sacrifices. Why are we reading them every morning? Is it barbaric and archaic and outdated? What are we reading about sacrifice? It's 2019, we're still talking about sacrificing things? The answer is yes. What was the symbolism? Rav Hirsch described, you took the animal inside, when you when you took the physical animal and slaughtered it, you were saying to השם Hashem, and even more importantly saying to yourself, I'm taking the animal impulse, the animal instinct, the animal drive in me, and I'm sacrificing the animal in me. In this battle, in the conflict between the animal in me and the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim, I am committed that the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim will triumph, will win, will rule the day, and I am purging, I'm getting rid of the animal impulse inside me. So I could just offer the קרבן korban, and then while the Cohen's bringing the korban, I'm shmoozing some good לשון הרע lashon hara. While he's bringing the korban, I'm busy thinking about how I'm going to indulge in this material and physical pleasure and this material and physical decadence and this material and physical corruption, then you're not bringing it מכם mikem. In fact, later when the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash is destroyed, the נביא Navi tells us, למה לי רוב זבחיכם יאמר השם lama li rov zivcheichem yomar Hashem. We read in the summer around תשעה באב Tisha B'Av, when we read the tragedy, the נביא Navi says, למה לי רוב זבחיכם lama li rov zivcheichem, I don't need your empty ox. I don't need your empty lip service. Don't read empty words you don't mean, and don't do empty acts that you don't really believe. You hand your wife a dozen roses. Here, I got you the roses. But meanwhile you're going to be cruel and harsh and insensitive, unwilling to compromise and to sacrifice, but I gave you the roses. She says the roses are nice, but I want מכם mikem. I want your heart. I want what's inside you. I want you. I want a relationship. So אדם כי יקריב adam ki yakriv, where the קרבן korban has to come from is מכם mikem. And רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik points out, that's why the פסוק pasuk continues, מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן תקריבו את קרבנכם min ha'beheimah min ha'bakar umin ha'tzon takrivu es korbancem, from animals, from cattle, from flock, you bring your sacrifice. Why does the תורה Torah use the apparently superfluous words from animals, when it later says cattle are from sheep? Why does it say מן הבהמה min ha'beheimah? בהמה beheimah is a generic, animals, then it gets specific, בקר או צאן bakar o tzon. So if you're going to say the generic, leave it at that. If you're going to say the specifics, why do you need to introduce it with the generic? So Rav Soloveitchik answers to indicate that man is separated from animals and is elevated over other creatures in that he engages in self-sacrifice. Who knows of the spirit of the children of men? quotes a פסוק pasuk from קהלת Koheles. The soul of man which lifts his eyes and gazes on high to far distances, to the future, prepares to sacrifice for it. This is the spirit of the children of men. Is that which ascends on high? אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן Adam ki yakriv mikem korban, one who sacrifices himself. What it means is, it's not that the, there's two ways to read this פסוק pasuk. You hear what the רב rav is saying? It's not that bring a sacrifice and where do you take the sacrifice from? From an animal, or from, or from cattle or from flock. What the פסוק pasuk is saying is why, it's not what but why. אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם Adam ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem. Why are you bringing a קרבן korban? מן הבהמה Min ha'beheimah, because you're greater than an animal. מן הבהמה Min ha'beheimah means you you're above an animal. Isn't that a beautiful interpretation? He's reinterpreting the פסוק pasuk. The מן הבהמה min ha'beheimah doesn't mean from the category of animal, like צאן או בקר tzon o bakar. What it means is, אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם Adam ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem, when you're willing to sacrifice, you know what you're tapping into? Your uniquely human character. When you're willing to compromise, when you're willing to give, when you're willing to be most nefesh, when you're willing to do things even when it does nothing for you. Taking out the garbage doesn't do anything for me, why do I have to take it out? Why do I have to take it out? When you're willing to do things when they don't do anything for you, then you're מן הבהמה min ha'beheimah, you're better than an animal. Because the whole nature of an animal, the whole definition of an animal is an animal only does what it wants, when it wants, where it wants, with whom it wants. An animal has an animal impulse, an animal instinct, an animal drive. The animal doesn't have self-awareness, and the animal certainly is not prepared to sacrifice. I know there's going to be dog lovers in here, you're going to email me afterwards, you don't know what my dog sacrifices for my happiness, snuggles with me, and sits with me and brings me the newspaper. That's Pavlovian. You've just trained your animal to have the response to bring you the newspaper. I'm not saying your dog loves you. Your dog absolutely does love you. I agree. Animals do have feelings and you communicate those feelings. There is such a thing as an animal soul, I'm not denying that the animal has a soul. The animal has a soul. We have an animal soul. But on top of that we have a godly soul. The נפש nefesh is the animal soul, the נשמה neshama is the צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim, is the uniquely godly, human soul. The animal soul has no self-awareness. No dog ever says, I better lay off that dog food, I'm not going to fit into these jeans. No animal ever says, you know, before I'm with that female animal in the backyard, I should take her out for dinner and I should get to know her and I should really see if she's in a relationship with someone else. An animal has no self-awareness and an animal is unwilling to self-sacrifice. The animal doesn't sacrifice. The animal has an impulse, and an instinct and a drive, and the animal, it's survival of the fittest. The animal doesn't say, I'm willing to sacrifice, I really want the whole dog bowl, but there's another dog and I've got to share it, so I'll eat half and even though it'll leave me hungry, I'm sacrificing so you can also be hungry. An animal has an impulse, it wants to eat, it eats until there's nothing left or until its belly is full. So מן הבהמה min ha'beheimah doesn't mean you're going to bring the sacrifice from an animal, it means when you sacrifice, you're better than an animal. Which also means the inverse is true. If you're a selfish, self-centered, egotistical person, and you're never willing to sacrifice, it's your way or the highway, everybody's got to conform to what you want, then you're no better than an animal. You're no better than an animal. You haven't conquered your ego. You're unwilling to be able to put someone else first. It's always got to be your way or the highway, then you're not מן הבהמה min ha'beheimah. You're just another בהמה beheimah. You're an animal, you're an animal itself. So this is our mission statement. אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem, we are bringing the קרבן korban, where's it coming from? It's coming from מכם mikem. Now it's interesting, what word is used to introduce this concept? אדם Adam. אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem. What word might you have expected? אדם Adam is an unusual word to use here. What word would you think to have here? איש Ish. איש Ish. The תורה Torah when it teaches a הלכה halacha much more commonly uses the word איש ish. And yet here it doesn't say איש כי יקריב מכם ish ki yakriv mikem, it says אדם כי יקריב מכם adam ki yakriv mikem. Why do you think that is? Why does the תורה Torah deviate from the norm of using איש ish and instead describe אדם adam? I'm glad you asked. The כתב סופר Ksav Sofer, I mentioned this last week, I spoke in New York on the top of extreme ownership, of taking extreme ownership in our lives, of taking אחריות achrayus. And in that context I shared the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer from our פרשה parsha. And the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer in our פרשה parsha says the following. You obviously don't have it in front of you, but I'll share a little bit of it with you. איתא במדרש תנחומא Eiseh v'Medrash Tanchuma quotes the מדרש Medrash, למה נאמר אדם כי יקריב lama ne'emar adam ki yakriv, why does it say אדם adam and not איש ish? לומר Lomar, to teach us the following. אם יחטא אדם כאדם הראשון שהתחיל לחטא, יקריב קרבן ויכפר לו Im yechta adam k'Adam Harishon she'hischil lachto, yakriv korban v'yichaper lo. If you made a mistake, why do you bring a קרבן korban? You're trying to repair the damage done from a mistake. You had poor judgment, you gave into the animal instinct, you you had an indiscretion, you gave into temptation, and nobody is above it. Nobody is above it. Nobody's above it. I I just saw this morning, and I'm not going to get into details and you shouldn't go home and Google it, but a prominent rav, a prominent dayan, not from the United States of America, in another country, sent a letter of resignation from the beis din and resigned from his shul. And he very mysteriously just talked about that he had failed to live up to the ideals and whatever. And other people conjecture what that means. But I had met this prominent rav, a big talmid chacham and a very seemingly ehrlicha person, a wonderful person, and it's a reminder, none of us are above the law, none of us are immune. Everybody, in fact, Chazal thought the opposite. The greater you are, the more susceptible and vulnerable you are. The more knowledge and character and creativity that you have, כל הגדול מחברו יצרו גדול הימנו kol hagadol mechaveiro yitzro gadol heimenu. The more vulnerable you are. If you're a person that has passion pouring, pulsating through your veins and that produces in a and contributes in a positive way, then that passion also puts you at great risk. And some of our greatest Tanach personalities remind us of that. So we're all vulnerable, none of us are immune. In fact, being greater in Torah doesn't make you less immune, it makes you in fact even greater at risk and therefore you have to take even more precautions. It's so important in our world to have these protective notion of an issur of yichud and an emphasis on modesty, not an overemphasis on modesty, but a moderate, appropriate emphasis on modesty, because none of us are immune. So the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer Rav Shmuel Binyomin Sofer in the 19th century says, why does it say אדם adam not איש ish? Because you know, at our core, every time we make a mistake, every time we give into that voice of temptation, every time we have poor judgment, every time we've crossed the line, it's because we've given in to the inner אדם הראשון Adam Harishon inside us. אדם Adam was the first to make a mistake. אדם Adam was the first to make a mistake. Now, interestingly, אדם Adam and חוה Chava are not punished when they make a mistake. They're not. Why? Because כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו ki yeitzer lev ha'adam ra mi'neurav, we all are programmed, Hashem designed us with a virus. He put that voice of temptation inside of us on purpose. It's what gives meaning to life, that when we confront that voice and we have to triumph over is what gives life meaning. So Kadosh Baruch Hu is not punished, does not meet out punishment to Adam and Chava when they make a mistake. You know when he punishes them? When they fail to take responsibility. Says, hey, אדם Adam, anything you want to tell me? Remember that one rule I gave you and anything you want to share with me? Nope, nothing to share. Sure? It was her fault. חוה Chava, remember the one rule I gave you everything, you don't even have to work, you're retired from the day you're born, unlimited all you can eat shmorg, called גן עדן Gan Eden. You've got everything you need. I just said one little thing I said don't do. Anything you want to tell me? It was the snake's fault. The whole story of the beginning of Torah is the story of a refusal to take ownership. The the refusal to take responsibility. That's when Kadosh Baruch Hu says, you made a mistake, I confronted you. If you would have said, I made a mistake, I'm so sorry, couldn't help myself, we could have worked it out. But you failed to take ownership? You're out. Expelled from Gan Eden, you're done. The next story of קין Kayin and הבל Hevel. קין Kayin kills הבל Hevel. Kadosh Baruch Hu comes to קין Kayin and he says, have any idea where I might find קין Kayin? And what does קין Kayin say? Yeah, there's something I gotta tell you about קין Kayin. We had a little bit of a fight. No. He says, השומר אחי אנוכי Hashomer achi anochi, what do I know? How do I know where my brother is? What am I now responsible for my brother? הקדוש ברוך הוא Kadosh Baruch Hu doesn't punish קין Kayin when he kills הבל Hevel, such an egregious, such an egregious mistake, such a irreparable mistake. That's not when Hashem punishes Kayin. When does he punish Kayin? When קין Kayin says, not my fault, not my responsibility, not my problem. הקדוש ברוך הוא Kadosh Baruch Hu can tolerate mistakes, he can't tolerate when we don't take responsibility for them. Says the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer, that's why it says אדם כי יקריב adam ki yakriv. Bringing a קרבן korban is taking responsibility and owning up to a mistake. You come to the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, you spend an exorbitant amount of money to buy an animal, you take off of work, if you know, if you happen to live in the old city of ירושלים Yerushalayim, it wasn't so inconvenient. But if you lived in the גולן Golan or the גליל Galil or the נגב Negev in ישראל Yisrael, or you lived in Boca Raton and you had to bring a קרבן korban, you had to take off work and buy a ticket and make your way. You had to buy an exorbitant sum for an entire animal. And you had to bring it to the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. And what that was all about was taking responsibility, owning up to the mistake. And that's why it's a reminder, not איש ish, but אדם adam. Just like אדם Adam originally made a mistake, that propensity for making a mistake in us comes from the אדם adam in us. אדם Adam refused to take responsibility, to own up, we take responsibility by coming and bringing the קרבן korban. הלואי שכל הבאים אחריו Halevai shekol haboim achrav, ישרו שימעטו לחטוא אחרי שכבר התחילו לחטוא yashru she'yimatlu lachto achrei she'kvar hischilu lachto. וגם צריך למהר כאדם הראשון vegam tzarich lema'er k'Adam Harishon. That's what he says is is the whole notion that's going on over here, and then he elaborates. And then he elaborates. And exactly along the lines of this, um, כתב סופר Ksav Sofer is an insight of the כלי יקר Kli Yakar towards the end of the פרשה parsha. Skip with me towards the end of the פרשה parsha. Then we're going to come back. Then we're going to come back. I have so much to say. You're not going to believe me, but every Tuesday at 9:29, I say, I don't have enough to fill the whole shiur. What am I going to talk about? It's going to be embarrassing. I'm going to end early. This could be the last year, they won't come back again. I that actually is a conversation that happens in my head every week. Believe it or not. Believe it or not. So if you go towards the end of the פרשה parsha, going to פרק ה, פסוק כג Perek Hey, Pasuk Chaf Gimmel. In fact, go to פרק ה, פסוק כ Perek Hey, Pasuk Chaf. I want you to hold that thought of the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer. You see why I'm going to skip to the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, we're going to see. But I want to see the כלי יקר Kli Yakar in context, so hold that thought and you'll see how it שטימט shtimt, how it works very nicely with the with the כלי יקר Kli Yakar that we're going to see in a moment. The פסוק pasuk says, וידבר השם אל משה לאמר Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor. God spoke to משה Moshe, saying. What page are we in the Artscroll? 566. Thank you. The very end of the פרשה parsha. In the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash, just here today, so we say Stone. Page 566. פרק ה, פסוק כ Perek Hey, Pasuk Chaf. וידבר השם אל משה לאמר Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor. השם Hashem spoke to משה Moshe, and he said the following. נפש כי תחטא ומעלה מעל בהשם וכחש בעמיתו בפקדון או בתשומת יד או בגזל או עשק את עמיתו Nefesh ki secheta u'ma'ala ma'al b'Hashem v'chichesh b'amiso b'fikadon o v'sumas yad o v'gazel o ashak es amiso. Hashem spoke to Moshe said, here's the following one. Here's the rule. If a person made a mistake and they committed a מעל ma'al, the מעילה me'ilah, which Artscroll is translating as treachery, they they violate something that should have been holy against השם Hashem. How did they do it? כחש בעמיתו chichesh b'amiso, they lied to a fellow man, בפקדון או בתשומת יד b'fikadon o v'sumas yad. There was a pledge, they pledged to give a certain amount of money, then they claimed they gave it. Or there's a loan where they claim that they repaid it or they never borrowed it. Or a robbery where they said they don't know where it is, or by defrauding. fellow man. עשק את עמיתו oshak es amiso. או מצא אבידה וכיחש בה ונשבע על שקר o matza aveidah v'chichesh bah v'nishba al shaker. Or they found a lost item, but instead of returning it to its owner or declaring that they found this lost item, they kept it to themselves and when challenged they lied. So the common denominator of all these examples is there's a financial benefit, a person should have been transparent, come clean, shared the truth, but lied. על כל אשר יעשה האדם לחטא בהנה al kol asher ya'aseh ha'adam lachto bahenah. swore falsely about any of these things that a person can do and he made a חטא chet, made a mistake or what we call a sin. והיה כי יחטא ואשם v'hayah ki yechta v'ashem, והשיב את הגזלה אשר גזל או את העשק אשר עשק או את הפקדון אשר הפקד אתו או את האבידה אשר מצא v'heishiv es hagzeilah asher gazal o es ha'oshek asher ashak o es hapikadon asher hofkad ito o es ha'aveidah asher matza. So what's the rule? When he sins and he becomes guilty he has to return the item he robbed, or he has to give back the proceeds of the fraud, or the pledge that was left with him, he was guarding something and he claimed he wasn't, he's got to give it back. Or the lost item he found, he's got to get it back to its rightful owner. או מכל אשר ישבע עליו לשקר ושלם אותו בראשו וחמישיתיו יסף עליו o mikol asher yishava alav lasheker v'shilam oso b'rosho vachamishisav yosef alav. Or he lied. Someone said I need you to testify in court that I'm owed money because I know you were a witness and you saw it and you lied. So in all these cases you have to pay back the principle and add a fifth to it. There's a penalty. In addition to paying back the principle of what you stole, you also have to pay a penalty. לאשר הוא לו יתננו ביום אשמתו l'asher hu lo yitnenu b'yom ashmato. on the day that you were guilty. ואת אשמו יביא להשם v'es ashamo yavi l'Hashem and you bring a and you bring a קרבן korban. A guilt offering. איל תמים מן הצאן בערכך לאשם אל הכהן ayil tamim min hatzon b'erkecha l'asham el hakohen. an unblemished ram of the proper value, and it is a guilt offering because you are guilty, you did something wrong. וכפר עליו הכהן לפני השם ונסלח לו על אחת מכל אשר יעשה לאשמה בה v'chiper alav hakohen lifnei Hashem v'nislach lo al achas mikol asher ya'aseh l'ashmah vah. the כהן kohen provides him with a כפרה kaparah, you are forgiven, you get atonement before השם Hashem and you're forgiven for all the things that you did that might have incurred guilt. An איל ayil is the most expensive קרבן korban. You bring a ram. Just like the the section that precedes the, this is נפש כי תחטא nefesh ki secheta is the story of the, is the story of the, אם נפש כי תחטא ועשתה אחת מכל מצות השם אשר לא תעשינה im nefesh ki secheta v'astah achas mikol mitzvos Hashem asher lo sei'aseinah. This is the אשם תלוי asham talui where you're not sure if you sinned or not. When you you bring a קרבן אשם korban asham where you're not sure. If you know that you sinned, if it's by mistake, you bring a קרבן חטאת korban chatas. You bring a קרבן אשם korban asham for something that if you did intentionally you get כרת kareis. If you did it unintentionally you bring חטאת chatas, but you don't know whether you did it or not. For example he brings, the גמרא Gemara brings increases the example that you had a piece of, you had a plate, you had a platter and it had two pieces of meat, fat on meat. One was a forbidden fat חלב cheilev, and one is a permissible fat שומן shuman. And you ate one of the pieces but you don't know which one was the forbidden one and which one was the permissible one. So you have to bring a קרבן korban which is a kind of provisional. Any golfers here? You know you hit a ball on the tee and you're not sure if you're gonna find it or not so you hit a provisional. So it's a provisional קרבן korban. The provisional קרבן korban is I'm not sure whether I did something wrong or not, so in case I did something wrong I bring the provisional, the provisional קרבן korban. It's interesting because the תורה Torah doesn't call it provisional, תורה Torah says for the אשם asham the guilt that you did. Why is it saying that you did something wrong if you're not even sure that you did something wrong? So the ספורנו Sforno says, you know why it's saying that? Because you're going to be kind of resentful having to bring a carbon if you're not even sure you did something wrong. So we want to make clear that you did do something wrong. What was the wrong thing that you did? You were careless. If you don't even know whether the piece of meat you ate was the forbidden fat or the permissible fat, so you didn't necessarily do something wrong by consuming the wrong fat, that you don't know. But you did something wrong in that you consumed something without knowing what it was. Your carelessness is a form of guilt. For that alone you're bringing this carbon. The קאצקער Kotsker asks, why in a case of doubt are you bringing the most expensive sacrifice the איל ayil, the ram? I would expect that in the case of absolute guilt when you know you did something wrong, that's when you bring the most expensive sacrifice. If you're not sure, it's just a provisional sacrifice, you're not sure, that's when you should bring the less expensive one. So the קאצקער Kotsker says, the קאצקער Kotsker says because when you're sure that you did something wrong, you don't need to spend money on an expensive sacrifice. Your guilt comes from inside you. The guilt doesn't have to be in the offering, the guilt is inside you. You know you did something wrong, you feel guilty about it. But when you're not sure if you did something wrong, we're going to get back to this too. We have a predisposition when we're not sure if we did something wrong to justify our behavior, to explain our behavior, to excuse our behavior. So you'll say I'm not sure if I did something wrong, I don't even know why I really have to bring an אשם asham to begin with. Fine, I'll bring the אשם asham, what's the least I can get away with? What's the least I have to spend? That's when we make you bring the איל ayil, the expensive ram because we don't want you to reconcile or justify or defend your behavior in your head. on the צד tzad, on the side that you really did do something to do something wrong, we want you to pledge to be more mindful and conscientious going forward. So that was the previous section. That brings us to this section where there's some financial indiscretion, impropriety, you lied about. You have to pay back not only the principle but you also have to pay back the a fifth. You have to add a fifth as a penalty on top of it. So let's go through some of the מפרשים meforshim here on this. So רש\"י Rashi says on פסוק כ\"א pasuk kaf aleph, נפש כי תחטא nefesh ki secheta. If a נפש nefesh did a חטא chet. Isn't it interesting, it's the נפש nefesh that does the חטא chet. What did we say before? The human being has two souls, at least two souls maybe more. But one of the souls we have is an animal soul. So what did the חטא chet here? Not the נשמה neshamah but נפש כי תחטא nefesh ki secheta. The reason that you made this mistake, חטא chet means mistake, what drove you to this mistake is because you were ignoring your נשמה neshamah and you were listening to your נפש nefesh. The animal soul inside you said, 'Ooh, I could pocket a little extra money. Ooh, I've been dying to get this new iPhone, iPad, piece of jewelry. I'll just keep the thing I found. Ooh, I can' your נפש nefesh, it's the animal soul that drove you to the mistake, not your נשמה neshamah. נפש כי תחטא Nefesh ki secheta. רש\"י Rashi says רבי עקיבא Rabbi Akiva, מה תלמוד לומר ומעלה מעל בהשם mah talmud lomar u'ma'alah ma'al b'Hashem? לפי שכל המלוה והלוה אין עושין אלא בעדים ובשטר lefi shekol hamalveh v'haloveh ein osin ela b'eidim u'vishtar. לפיכך בשעה שמכחיש מכחיש בעדים ובשטר lefichach b'shaah she'makchish makchish b'eidim u'vishtar. אבל המפקיד אצל חבירו ואינו רוצה שתדע בו נשמה aval hamfkid etzel chaveiro v'eino rotzeh she'teida bo neshamah, אלא שלישי שביניהם, לפיכך כשמכחיש מכחיש בשלישי שביניהם ela shlishi she'beineihem, lefichach k'shemakchish, makchish bashlishi she'beineihem. Says רש\"י Rashi bothered by the following question. If you stole something from a friend, what does it have to do with God? Why are you bringing a sacrifice? Why are you apologizing to God? What did you do to God? What'd you do to God? You stole from your friend. You ruined your own integrity and reputation. What'd you do to God? Why do you got to bring a sacrifice? Why do you have to bring a sacrifice to God? So Rashi tells us, you know why you have to bring a sacrifice to God? Because when you lend and there's a contract and there's witnesses, so the witnesses can hold you accountable. But because you did what you did without witnesses and without a contract, you thought that you'd be able to get away with it. But you need to know that there's always a witness. And the witness may not sign his name on a document but the witness is always watching everything that's happening is the Almighty. And when you stole or you manipulated the system or you cut corners or you cheated, you were offending not only your fellow man, but you were offending the great witness who sees all, you were offending השם Hashem himself. השלישי שביניהם hashlishi she'beineihem. קודשא בריך הוא Kudsha Brich Hu who's always present. So נפש כי תחטא ומעלה מעל בהשם nefesh ki secheta u'ma'alah ma'al b'Hashem. We even use the language here ומעלה מעל בהשם u'ma'alah ma'al b'Hashem. You're doing a form of מעילה me'ilah. What's מעילה me'ilah? מעילה Me'ilah is when you've declared something הקדש hekdesh, when you sanctify something and make it consecrated property and then you use it for personal gain, you violate מעילה me'ilah. I dedicate this chair to the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash and then I go sit on the chair and read the paper. That's מעילה me'ilah. I violated מעילה me'ilah. It's a very, very serious very serious mistake, מעילה me'ilah. So why are we using the word מעילה me'ilah here because I found something and I didn't put up a note if anybody lost their keychain. I kept it for myself because I always liked that keychain. Why is that מעילה me'ilah? That's what Rashi's saying. It's מעילה me'ilah because you're challenging not only your fellow man, but what you're doing is terrible to השם Hashem. The בעל הטורים Ba'al Haturim says also, וכיחש בעמיתו v'chichesh b'amito. הרי הוא כיחש בין השם ובין עמיתו, מכחיש בדבר שאין יודע בו אלא הקדוש ברוך הוא וחבירו harei hu chichesh bein Hashem u'vein amito, makchish b'davar she'ein yode'a bo ela Hakadosh Baruch Hu v'chaveiro. The only people who know the truth about this are your friend from whom you've stolen and השם Hashem. So you have violated your friend and השם Hashem. Rabbi Soloveitchik has a beautiful comment here. He says if a person sins betraying השם Hashem by falsely denying to his fellow. He quotes a תוספתא Tosefta from שבועות Shavuos that tells the story of רבי חנינא בן חכינאי Rabbi Chanina ben Chachinai who said it's written that one sins against השם Hashem when he falsely denies having stolen from his neighbor. Why? Since one does not steal from his neighbor unless he also denies the existence of השם Hashem. The Rabbis apparently did not understand why the תורה Torah employed the word betraying the Lord, מעל בהשם ma'al b'Hashem, in reference to one who embezzles funds from his neighbor. They answered that where there is real faith in השם Hashem there can be no social immorality, no embezzlement, no embezzlement, no perjury. Stealing, embezzling, and perjury are a result of a secular ethic of a man who wants to build his own moral world and to be the legislator of a moral law which he himself has created. In other words, in other words, if you have real אמונה emunah in השם Hashem, if you believe in God, if you have בטחון bitachon that everything that you have is from השם Hashem, and השם Hashem gives you everything you need, you would never steal, you'd never embezzle, you'd never cut corners. When you embezzle, when you steal, when you cut corners, you're denying that הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge of the world. You're trying to circumvent his system and access things that don't belong to you. השם Hashem determines what we each get and what we each need. We have ambition, we have drive, we try to do well in life, but at the end of our honest ambition, whatever we have is what we need and what we deserve. And when we embezzle or lie or cheat, we haven't only stolen from our friend, we have essentially declared that we don't believe there's a God. So a person steals or embezzles or perjures himself, they haven't just done so to a fellow man, we've knocked השם Hashem out of the equation. It's מעל מעל בהשם וכיחש בעמיתו ma'al ma'al b'Hashem v'chichesh b'amito. כיחש בעמיתו chichesh b'amito, we've denied it to our friend, but we're מעל מעל בהשם ma'al ma'al b'Hashem. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu put us in this world. I think also the significance of the word מעילה me'ilah. This is my suggestion. Significance of the word מעילה me'ilah in this context is all the material objects and possessions in this world are meant to be used for a holy purpose. They may not technically carry the status of הקדש hekdesh, but they're meant to be used to advance a holy mission. When we use it in an unholy way, then we've done מעילה me'ilah. Just like when I dedicated a chair to the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash and then I sit on it and I've done מעילה me'ilah, if I take things that are meant to be used in an honest way and I embezzle, I cheat, I purger, I steal, then I've done מעילה me'ilah. The whole world is השם's Hashem's sacred stage. And when I take away its sacredness, its sanctity, by using it in an inappropriate, in an unethical way, I've done מעילה me'ilah. I've done מעילה me'ilah. So all that I have and all that I encounter and all that I try to amass and accumulate, I do in order to advance the agenda of holiness, to repair השם's Hashem's world, to transform, to elevate it towards holiness. When I do it because I serve my ego, my honor, my sense of self, my appetite and I cheat or steal to do it, מעל מעל בהשם ma'al ma'al b'Hashem. That is a form of מעילה me'ilah. The תוספתא Tosefta continues with a very strange story. Reuven once spent the Shabbos in Tiberias. He met a philosopher who asked him a question. Who is to be held in contempt and hated? Whom should society consider a contemptible creature? Reuven answered that society should hate the atheist, the agnostic, the skeptic, one who denies the existence of his maker. The philosopher didn't understand. How is this so? Why should a non-believer be held in contempt and hate? Isn't faith the private affair of the individual? His skepticism is not harmful to society. Reuven answered, honor your father and mother, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal. There is no man who can violate these precepts unless he has denied the existence of his maker. The philosopher had expected Reuven to answer, said Rabbi Soloveitchik, that only only the fiends of society, the arch criminals who inflict harm upon others deserve to be hated, but not the innocent agnostic or atheist. The answer to the philosopher's question came swiftly and unequivocally. The absence of faith in God will eventually lead to the breakdown of of social morality. Corruption of man is ushered in by the lack of faith in God. The crux crux of social ethics is faith in the transcendental personal השם Hashem who expects man to imitate him. At the beginning, the skeptic said that the commandment I am השם Hashem your God are socially irrelevant. It's possible to organize a society in the foundation of a man-made morality. They finally realized that without I am השם Hashem your God, man forfeits his ethical sensitivity and becomes oblivious to the most elementary principles of morality. It's a very, very bold statement, but it's what our תוספתא Tosefta says. If you remove השם Hashem from the equation, let me put it to you a little bit differently, to unpack this insight from the Rav. Let me put it to you a little bit differently. Without believing in an objective morality, if you subscribe to relativism, moral relativism that everything's relative, there is no right and wrong. There is no right and wrong. Why do we universally believe certain moral things? Murder is wrong. We say killing is permissible in self-defense. Killing in the context of an army is permissible. But murder is wrong. Who decides what's killing and what's murder? Stealing to save a life that's moral. Stealing for yourself is immoral, unethical. What determines what's moral, what's ethical? Is it relative? Is it society? Do we do it democratically? Do we vote and enough people determine that that's moral, that's what makes something moral? How do we, this is part of a much bigger conversation, not for now, but what determines morality? If it's the result of voting, Hitler was voted in democratically. The Nazi party was voted in democratically. And if Hitler, democratically elected and with the support of the democracy who voted him in, felt that killing six million Jews was not in fact murder, but was killing because you were protecting society somehow, if you don't believe in an absolute morality and objective morality, who are you to say that that was wrong? We all instinctively know in our kishkes that that's wrong. But by what right do we have to tell someone else it's wrong? A. Certainly what right do we have to intervene? So I think the United States of America when it intervenes, maybe not often enough across the globe, when it sees genocide or immoral acts, is essentially subscribing to an absolute morality. Because if it was a moral relativism and this was just our interpretation of morality, by what right or license do we have to impose our morality on another? Put differently, what flavor ice cream you like is not absolute. I can like chocolate, you can like vanilla. It's an opinion, it's a taste, it's relative. You like vanilla, I like chocolate. Are you wrong? Am I right? Am I wrong? Are you right? We both agree that it's a relative, taste is a relative position and that's your taste, that's my taste. I can't impose chocolate ice cream on you, you can't impose vanilla ice cream on me. Anything that you conclude is relative is determined by man, is reached from a democratic vote, one doesn't have a right to impose on another. So you'll say, well in America we democratically voted that these laws are in place and now there's a social contract that we all have to live by that we won't steal, we won't murder. That's true, that's true. And if I choose to be a citizen of a country that has that social contract, I'm bound by that social contract even if it's relative. But what right does my social contract, my country have to impose our will on those who are not citizens of our country? What right would America have had to bomb the tracks to Auschwitz if not for the fact that there's something called an absolute objective morality? As I said, it's a much bigger discussion, but I think it's what Rabbi Soloveitchik is driving at. I think it's what the Tosefta meant. The only way that we can have a world that's truly moral or that we can impose morality on the world is when you subscribe to an arbiter of that absolute morality. And there can be only one arbiter of absolute or objective morality who has to be greater than all of the finite people. It has to be God. So when you believe in God, then you can create a moral society. Now, that too is not simple because many have murdered in the name of God. And different societies each claim to speak in the name of God. So that's not so simple either, but in principle, philosophically, only when you subscribe to an absolute morality can you impose it on others and can you create a universal a universal code of an absolute morality. So anyway, that's this מעל מעל בהשם ma'al ma'al b'Hashem, that if you steal, if you embezzle, if you perjure, if you lie, if you cheat, if you cut corners, you've not just hurt your fellow man. You've actually violated Hashem's trust in why he put us in this world and gave us access to the material, physical possessions. They are to be used in the pursuit of the sacred, and when we cheat, steal, lie, embezzle, we've actually used them for the mundane. We have we have violated מעילה me'ilah. There's a lot more on this, but I want to get to that כלי יקר Kli Yakar I was driving at. So first the כלי יקר Kli Yakar on פסוק כ\"א pasuk kaf aleph says, נפש כי תחטא ומעלה מעל בהשם nefesh ki secheta u'ma'alah ma'al b'Hashem. כאן הקדים חטא kan hikdim chet למעילה l'me'ilah, ובגזל הקדש הקדים מעילה לחטא u'v'gezel hekdesh hikdim me'ilah l'chet and he goes through that. But if you look at the second paragraph in the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, he writes the following. על צד הרמז אומר נפש כי תחטא ומעלה מעל בהשם וכיחש בעמיתו בפקדון al tzad haremz omer nefesh ki secheta u'ma'alah ma'al b'Hashem v'chichesh b'amito b'fikadon. כי בכל לילה האדם מפקיד רוחו ki b'chol lailah ha'adam mafkid rucho ביד הקדוש ברוך הוא b'yad Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ואף על פי שהנשמה חייבת לקדוש ברוך הוא על ידי העוון העונש v'af al pi she'haneshamah chayavess laKadosh Baruch Hu al yedei ha'avon ha'onesh, היא נרדפת אחר חובה hi nirdefes achar chovah. מכל מקום אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מעכב פקדונו ומחזירו לו mikol makom ein Hakadosh Baruch Hu m'akev pikdono u'machziro lo, אף אין שנתן לו af ein she'nasnal lo. וזה המכחיש בפקדון חבירו v'zeh hamakchish b'fikdon chaveiro, אף פי שאין חייב לו af pi she'ein chayav lo. לא כמידת הקדוש ברוך הוא lo k'midas Hakadosh Baruch Hu. ולפי זה הנפש החוטאת בפקדון חבירו u'lefi zeh hanefesh hachotes b'fikdon chaveiro, מעל בשלישי mo'al bashlishi, היינו בהשם אשר ציוה לו להחזיר פקדונו haynu b'Hashem asher tziva lo lehachzir pikdono. The כלי יקר Kli Yakar reads homiletically this whole pasuk as the notion someone gave you something to watch and you deny and lie that he didn't give it to you and then when you're not prepared to return it, and therefore you have to be punished and penalized. And he said all this is a metaphor for our נשמה neshamah which every night Hashem entrusts, which every day Hashem entrusts to us, and we are supposed to watch over. And when we don't use it for the purpose as the steward that we're designated to be, then we have violated his trust. We've lied. We've inappropriately, inappropriately acted with it. But it's the next כלי יקר Kli Yakar that I want to get to. It's on פסוק כ\"ג pasuk kaf gimel. והיה כי יחטא ואשם v'haya ki yechta v'ashem. If a person sins and is guilty. Isn't that redundant? יחטא ואשם yechta v'ashem, your sin and you're guilty. What is the כלי יקר Kli Yakar saying? פירש רש\"י peirush Rashi, כשיכיר בעצמו לשוב בתשובה k'sheyakir b'atzmo lashuv b'tshuva. Rashi says it means, כי יחטא ואשם ki yechta v'ashem, you made a mistake and the guilt is what you feel that now you're motivated to repair, to do תשובה tshuva. כי כל חוטא לעולם לא ישים אשם נפשו ki kol chotei l'olam lo yasim asham nafsho. Why does a person make mistakes? Because we don't feel guilty. We don't take extreme responsibility. This is why I got to this. We're back to that כתב סופר Ksav Sofer, but אדם הראשון Adam Harishon and קין והבל Kayin v'Hevel, and why it says אדם Adam instead of איש ish. So we did the opening פסוק pasuk of the פרשה parsha and the last פסוק pasuk of the פרשה parsha and we'll count it as if we did the whole פרשה parsha. But why does it say אדם Adam not איש ish? Because אדם Adam was the first to fail to take responsibility and take ownership. And says the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, that's why it's כי יחטא ואשם ki yechta v'ashem. The purpose of a קרבן korban is that when you make a mistake, ואשם v'ashem, feel guilty. Take responsibility, own up. דרך איש ישר בעיניו כי הוא מתיר לעצמו היתר בכל דרכיו derech ish yashar b'einav ki hu matir l'atzmo heter b'chol drachav. A person is מתיר לעצמו matir l'atzmo. We don't take ownership. We say, really, it's okay in the circumstance because. Really, now it's not wrong because. Really, it's not my fault if only I had another parent and my spouse and the children and my fourth grade teacher and my rabbi and the, it's really the policeman and my boss has it in for me and the, really it's everybody else's fault. שהיה חייב לו ממקום אחר לפי דמיונו she'hayah chayav lo mimakom acher l'fi dimyono, או נדמה לו כי עשה לו איזה עול, על כן o nidmeh lo ki asah lo eizeh ol, al kein הוא מעכב פקדונו hu m'akev pikdono. לפיכך ביום שישים אשם בנפשו lefichach b'yom she'yasim asham b'nafsho, ויכיר את פעולתו כי לא טוב עשה בעמיו v'yakir es pe'ulato ki lo tov asah b'amav, זהו שנאמר ואשם zehu she'ne'emar v'ashem. You can't begin to become קרוב karov, you can't begin to bring the קרבן korban. כי יחטא ki yechta doesn't bring you the קרבן korban. It's כי יחטא ואשם ki yechta v'ashem. It's not that you made the mistake. Making the mistake and bringing the carbon, but while you're bringing the carbon, you're bringing the carbon because you have to but really you're still saying it's his fault, it's her fault, the other person's fault, it's the way I was made, it's in my genetics, it's my, you have every excuse under the sun. You fail to feel ואשם v'ashem. כי יחטא ki yechta is not enough. It's not enough to have a sincere carbon that Hashem really accepts. It has to be כי יחטא ki yechta ואשם v'ashem. You have to feel not only that you made a mistake, but ואשם v'ashem, you have to be willing to confront the feeling of guilt. You have to take extreme ownership. You have to take responsibility for that big mistake, for that big mistake that was made. So, this is the principle that drives קרבנות korbanos, the idea of taking personal responsibility. The בעל התניא Baal Hatanya said that was the end of the story of אדם וחווה Adam v'Chava. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu calls to אדם Adam and he says איכה ayeka. Hey אדם Adam where are you? And and that's also the ויקרא Vayikra. איכה Ayeka. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu calls us. The איכה ayeka is where are you? Where are you to take responsibility? I put you in this world with a mission, with a charge. I uniquely positioned you with a personality, with a skill set, with assets and talents. And are you doing מעילה me'ilah with it? Are you violating the holiness for which I put you here? Or are you using it to become the best version of yourself? Are you fulfilling the mission, the purpose for which I created you? ויקרא Vayikra. השם Hashem is calling out to us, like with אדם וחווה Adam v'Chava, איכה ayeka, where are you? Where are you to live the life you are meant to live? Where are you to take responsibility and own up when you make a mistake? Extreme ownership. That word אדם Adam, not איש ish but אדם Adam, are the same letters as מאוד me'od. Extreme ownership. When I gave this שיעור shiur originally, it was a שבת שובה Shabbos Shuva, we talked about the book by Jocko Willink called Extreme Ownership that inspired a lot of the the talk. Extreme ownership. אדם Adam is מאוד me'od. איש Ish is not מאוד me'od. אדם Adam. The אדם Adam in us means we have the capacity for מאוד me'od, we have the capacity for extreme ownership. If we want to turn our lives around, if we want to realize the best version of ourselves, it begins with אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem and כי יחטא ki yechta that when we make mistakes, we will make mistakes. Even those who take extreme ownership have to do so after, we all make mistakes. But when we make that mistake, do we come back with כי יחטא ki yechta? Or is it כי יחטא ואשם ki yechta v'ashem? Is it כי יחטא ki yechta and then we blame? Or is it כי יחטא ואשם ki yechta v'ashem? We make a mistake and then we own up, and then we take responsibility for that mistake that we that we made. Okay, I know it's hard to believe, but I had a lot of other things I wanted to tell you. A lot of other. Let me just say one other thing. It's going to talk about דעת daas. I have a good thought. I'll tell you one last thing because it's not a פרשת שבוע parshas shavua without a great אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, without a ויז'ניצר רב'ה Vizhnitzer Rebbe. The ויז'ניצר רב'ה Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, says the following. In the פרשה parsha it says, אם עלה קרבנו מן הבקר זכר תמים im olah korbano min habakar zachar tamim. If you bring a קרבן עלה korban olah you bring it from the בקר bakar, the cattle, זכר zachar a male, תמים tamim pure. So the ויז'ניצר רב'ה Vizhnitzer Rebbe, as he's wont to do, offers a homiletical Yiddish interpretation. He says, אם רצונכם לעלות למדרגת עבודת השם im rotzonchem la'alos l'madregas avodas Hashem, אם עלה קרבנו im olah korbano, if you want to be an עולה olah, if you want to raise yourself up in your service of השם Hashem, צריך להשכים מן הבוקר tzarich l'hashkim min haboker, not בקר bakar, מן הבוקר min haboker. You got to start from the morning, שהמחשבה הראשונה תהיה טובה she'hamachshava harishonah tihiyeh tovah, זכר תמים zachar tamim. that your first thought has to be good. And what's the first thought? זכר תמים תהיה עם השם אלקיך zachar tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. So he homiletically reinterprets the whole פסוק pasuk, a חסידישע ווארט Chasidishe vort. אם עלה קרבנו im olah korbano, אם עולה im olah, if you want to be עולה olah, if you want to be counted among those who rise up, who raise themselves, מן הבקר מן הבוקר min habakar min haboker from the morning, זכר תמים zachar tamim, זוכר תמים תהיה עם השם אלקיך zocher tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha. Remember, תמים תהיה עם השם אלקיך tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha, we have to be pure with השם Hashem. And then he continues, יקריב אותו לרצונו לפני השם yakriv oso lirtzono lifnei Hashem. We bring it לרצונו lirtzono for השם's Hashem's will. What does that mean? את הרצון צריך להקריב להשם יתברך es haratzon tzarich l'hakriv l'Hashem yisbarach, what are we really sacrificing is our רצון ratzon. I want to do this, Hashem wants me to do that. What am I sacrificing? Not the animal. What I'm sacrificing is my רצון ratzon. בטל רצונך מפני רצונו batel retzoncha mipnei retzono, the משנה mishnah in the second פרק perek of אבות Avos says that we should nullify our רצון ratzon in the in the face of השם's Hashem's. By the way, we do that not because we're submitting or sacrificing. His רצון ratzon is what will give us the pleasure we seek. He's infinite, I'm finite. He's omnipotent, I'm limited. If he says to me this is what's best for me, submitting what I think is best for me and following his will probably bring about what's best for me. So the משנה mishnah says בטל רצונך מפני רצונו batel retzoncha mipnei retzono. So when the פסוק pasuk says יקריב אותו לרצונו לפני השם yakriv oso lirtzono lifnei Hashem, bring the sacrifice לרצונו lirtzono, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim is interpreting it to mean what are we sacrificing? Our רצון ratzon. I want to do this, he wants me to do that. השם Hashem, I'm making a statement, I'm willing to sacrifice my רצון ratzon for your רצון ratzon for me. I submit to you. Have a fantastic week.
