Transcript
Okay, good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us remotely as we continue to come together and be unified through our distance and our commitment to keep that distance in order to keep all of us, particularly the most vulnerable among us, healthy. But it is great to see so many of you across different venues to be able to study the פרשה parsha together as we do every week. I know for me, in a week where we don't have this class, the פרשה parsha is entirely different for me. So I appreciate you're being here and allowing me to prepare and to share some insights together with you. I want to thank our sponsors this morning, David and Sharon Karpel, in memory of William Karpel, זאב משה בן שלמה יעקב Zev Moshe ben Shlomo Yaakov; Mildred Karpel, מלכה בת מרדכי Malka bas Mordechai; and Merrill Karpel, פרידה מרה בת פסח הלוי Freida Mera bas Pesach Halevi; and Carol Wald in commemoration of the yahrtzeit of her friend מרים בת אליהו הלוי Miriam bas Eliyahu Halevi. Also, a special thank you to our dear friends Becky and Avi Katz who sponsored this whole year's פרשה parsha series in memory of Becky's father, David Grossman, דוד בן מנחם מנדל Dovid ben Menachem Mendel. Thank you so much for your, for your generosity.Okay, we begin our פרשה parsha, and not only our פרשה parsha, but we're really beginning the third book of the Torah, ספר ויקרא Sefer Vayikra. And with it, what feels like an enormous transition from the sections that have been narrative and story. The book of בראשית Breishis, which tells us about the founding and the birth, the development of the first family, to the book of שמות Shmos, which tells us about the birth of a nation, of a people that go through the struggles, the adolescence of a people, the rebelliousness of a young people, and emerge at the end of the book of שמות Shmos as now a bonafide people operating in the desert, in the מדבר midbar, with the משכן Mishkan and so on. And it brings us up to this third book, the book of ויקרא Vayikra. And many of us hesitate. Many of us, when we get to the book of ויקרא Vayikra, we let out a sort of groan or a sigh. This is the book that's filled with esoteric teachings that are antiquated, unrelatable to us, inaccessible to us. They reference the כהנים kohanim and the sacrifices and the קרבנות karbanos and the משכן Mishkan, and it seems so irrelevant to the time in which we are living. But as we try to do every year, and we'll try to do again beginning today, the book of ויקרא Vayikra is filled with countless timeless messages for every single one of us. And we long for the day that these קרבנות karbanos will be returned, and we will be able to once again be in a בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash offering them and tapping into their deeper meaning, enriching and elevating our lives. But until then, certainly the great symbolism of them carries us very, very far.So we begin with the opening words of the פרשה parsha itself, which are unusual. We could spend five hours just literally on the opening פסוק pasuk itself. I'm tempted to, but we won't. ויקרא אל משה וידבר השם אליו מאהל מועד לאמר Vayikra el Moshe vayidaber Hashem eilav mei'Ohel Moed leimor. Those who have the ArtScroll Stone חומש Chumash, we're on page 544. ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe. It's an unusual thing. Normally the Torah formulates in first telling us who is calling whom. God is calling Moshe. God is speaking to one of his prophets. And yet here, in a very unusual departure, the Torah doesn't position that God is speaking to whom. First it tells us ויקרא vayikra, first we have, generically, somebody, a pronoun called out, and we have the subject, we have to whom comes before who is the one who's calling. ויקרא Vayikra, someone called אל משה el Moshe, to Moshe, and only then is God's name mentioned after Moshe. וידבר השם אליו מאהל מועד לאמר Vayidaber Hashem eilav mei'Ohel Moed leimor. God called him from the אהל מועד Ohel Moed saying. What's going on here in this פסוק pasuk, in this word ויקרא Vayikra?The truth is the אלף alef here, we speak about every year. The בעל הטורים Baal Haturim points out, as many others do, if you look in your חומש chumash, if we had the privilege and we long to return soon to have the privilege during הגבה hagbah to see the lifting of the Torah and the words within, you'd see that the ויקרא Vayikra, the word ויקרא Vayikra is written with an אלף זעירא alef ze'ira, a small אלף alef. Why a small אלף alef? The בעל הטורים Baal Haturim tells us, because Moshe Rabbeinu really wanted Hashem to print it, to publish the book and say ויקר vayikar, like it does with בלעם Bilam. Really God wanted it to appear as if this was happenstance, chance. Moshe was no big deal, Moshe was no one special. God happened upon him. God says, \"Nice try, Moshe. I love the humility, but I want in perpetuity the world to know that you are the אב הנביאים av ha'nevi'im, you are the most distinguished of all prophets of all time. So I won't print it without the אלף alef, but I'll tell you what, Moshe, I'll make a compromise. We'll do a small אלף alef, an אלף זעירא alef ze'ira.\" ויקרא Vayikra, with a small אלף alef. To which, of course, everyone asks on the בעל הטורים Baal Haturim that the word ויקרא Vayikra appeared much earlier with Moshe several times. For the סנה sneh, when God first recruits Moshe to be the leader of the Jewish people, it says he called him, the word ויקרא Vayikra. Why isn't the אלף alef there small? At הר סיני Har Sinai it says God called him with ויקרא Vayikra. Why isn't the אלף alef small there? Why is it only here now, at the beginning of this fourth book of ויקרא Vayikra, why is it only now here in the context of קרבנות karbanos of sacrifices, does the אלף alef appear small? Are we told of this negotiation and the compromise that's reached between Hashem and Moshe?And many explain, explain that the notion of the small אלף alef, the אלף זעירא alef ze'ira, is entirely consistent with what the theme of ויקרא Vayikra is all about. ויקרא Vayikra is about קרבנות karbanos, it's about sacrifices. The willingness to bring sacrifices, the willingness to be of service comes from a sense of humility within us. A person who's arrogant and thinks they're all that, a person who thinks they're arrived, a person who feels entitled and special, is such a person who will not be of service to others. Is a person who will not be willing to sacrifice or compromise for or towards a relationship with others. The prerequisite to an ability to connect in this way is a willing, is a sense of humility, is being humble. And that's why specifically here. It's a tradition which is brought back already down by the ראשונים Rishonim, that goes back a long time, that we begin to teach children with the book of ויקרא Vayikra. Which is not really our custom in our time. You can imagine a lot of children would rebel. The book of ויקרא Vayikra is not exactly the most scintillating, it's not exactly the most, the most gripping. And so we don't generally today. But back even in recent times and still many חיידרים chadarim today, they begin teaching חומש Chumash or פרשה parsha to children with the book of ויקרא Vayikra, hinted to with the אלף זעירא alef ze'ira, the small אלף alef is an allusion to small children. Why? I think the answer is very simple. Because we need to understand in life, whether it's relationships with parents, with a spouse, with friends, and ultimately a relationship with our creator, they are predicated on our willingness to make sacrifices. If we're sitting back waiting with a sense of entitlement that everyone has to serve us, meet our needs, make us happy, we're not going to have meaningful relationships. We're going to see the kind of statistics we see today about how many marriages failed. But if we go in with a willingness to be מוסר נפש moser nefesh, to make sacrifices, to give. If we understand that the prerequisite to healthy relationships is the ability, the capacity, the willingness to give and to sacrifice. And the same is true within Judaism, within יהדות Yahadus. It's true as we sing, it's גשמאק geshmak to be a ייד Yid. It's גשמאק geshmak. We love שבת Shabbos, we love יום טוב Yom Tov. Even in a year like this, we love פסח Pesach. We love everything about being a Jew. It's גשמאק geshmak to be a ייד Yid. But you know what? At the same time, it remains challenging to be a ייד Yid. Right now, it's very difficult. How are you going to make פסח Pesach? How will you afford the מצה matzah and the wine? How will we get it done? That's the אלף זעירא alef ze'ira. The small אלף alef communicates to children and it communicates to the children in us, the immature voice in us that says, I want everything to be easy. I want it all to be convenient and comfortable. I want it all to be pleasant. No, ויקרא Vayikra with a small אלף alef, we have to be humble and we have to be willing to do the עבודה avodah, to make sacrifices. We have to be willing to compromise, we have to be willing to give.But let's look at רש\"י Rashi together. If you have a חומש Chumash, and I hope you do. Says רש\"י Rashi, לכל דבורים ולכל אמירות ולכל ציווים קדמה קריאה l'chol dibburim l'chol amiros l'chol tzivuyim kadmah k'riah. When it comes to all the other cases, וידבר vayidaber, God speaks, or אמירה amirah, first preceded by קריאה k'riah, calling. Why? Because this language of ויקרא Vayikra, the language of Hashem calling, is לשון חיבה lashon chibah. It is a language of affection. It's a language of love. לשון שמלאכי השרת משתמשים בו Lashon she'malachei ha'shareis mishtamshim bo. This is the language that angels communicate to one another. ויקרא Vayikra, they call out. שנאמר וקרא זה אל זה ואמר קדוש she'ne'emar v'kara zeh el zeh v'amar kadosh, as we're familiar from our קדושה Kedusha, וקרא v'kara, to call to one another. אבל נביאי אומות העולם נגלה עליהם בלשון אראי וטומאה שנאמר ויקר אלקים אל בלעם Aval nevi'ei umos ha'olam nigla aleihem b'lashon arai v'tumah she'ne'emar Vayikar Elokim el Bilam. When it comes to בלעם Bilam, it uses the word ויקר vayikar, chance, happenstance, randomness. That's a לשון של טומאה lashon shel tumah, the attitude, the mentality, the voice in us that says there is no meaning and purpose and order in the universe. Everything is the result of chance and randomness. That voice, that attitude, that influence brings impurity, אראי arai, it's just happenstance, it's just chance. We dismiss that. We overcome that influence. It's an influence of עמלק Amalek, of לשון מקרה lashon mikreh, of קרי keri. But rather, we see ויקרא Vayikra. We see the notion of Hashem calling us all around. ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe. רש\"י Rashi continues: הקול הולך ומגיע לאזניו וכל ישראל לא שומעים ha'kol holeich u'magia l'oznav v'chol Yisrael lo shom'im. He was calling out, but you know, only Moshe had his antenna extended. Moshe is the one who heard. יכול אף להפסקות היתה קריאה תלמוד לומר וידבר. לדיבור היתה קריאה ולא להפסקות Yachol af l'hafsakos haysa k'riah, Talmud lomar vayidaber. L'dibbur haysa k'riah v'lo l'hafsakos. What are these הפסקות hafsakos that רש\"י Rashi is talking about? If you look inside a חומש Chumash, the ArtScroll maintains it and preserves it. If you look inside a ספר תורה Sefer Torah, you'll find what are called סתומות ופתוחות stumos u'psuchos. You'll find there's a break in the text. Sometimes there's a break, a white space in the text, and the text continues on the same line. And sometimes there's a break in the text and the text doesn't continue until the next line. What is the difference, פתוחות psuchos and סתומות stumos? So חז\"ל Chazal tell us that these breaks represent and reflect Moshe Rabbeinu stopping to be able to contemplate, to think, to absorb what Hashem had just told him, what Hashem had just told him. So one might think, says רש\"י Rashi, that this לשון lashon of קריאה k'riah that Hashem called Moshe even before the breaks. No, that it wasn't before the breaks themselves. ומה היו הפסקות משמשות? ליתן רווח למשה להתבונן בין פרשה לפרשה בין ענין לענין, קל וחומר להדיוט הלמד מן ההדיוט. U'mah hayu hafsakos m'shamshos? Liten revach l'Moshe l'hisbonen bein parsha l'parsha, bein inyan l'inyan, kal vachomer la'hedyot halomed min ha'hedyot. If Moshe Rabbeinu needed that white space, if Moshe Rabbeinu needed what we call margin in order to sit and think and absorb and contemplate, then all the more, says רש\"י Rashi, do we. ר' וולבה Rav Wolbe expands upon this. The great משגיח mashgiach, ר' וולבה Rav Wolbe, and he says it's especially true in our time. And that's one of the lessons of this challenging crisis in which we find ourselves, which also is presenting simultaneously this opportunity. You see, we imbibe, we absorb so much information, terabytes of information in record speeds. We have at our fingertips technology that enables us to Google and search and access endless information. There is noise constantly being broadcast in our ears and to our eyes and filling up the space in our head. But you know what? We need פתוחות וסתומות psuchos u'stumos, says ר' וולבה Rav Wolbe. If Moshe Rabbeinu, who had the greatest teacher of all time, the Almighty himself, if Moshe Rabbeinu, who was receiving the message directly from the messenger, he needed the space and Hashem provided it. And Moshe said, \"That's incredible. I need to think about that. Give me a moment to absorb that, to reflect on it, to be mindful of it.\" Then all the more so we need to build margin into our lives. That's the white space of the Torah. We weren't just given a Torah that was filled with ink, and the Torah specifically does not fill from one margin to the other. If you speak to a publisher, they'll tell you, you know, it would be much more economical, it would be much more efficient to print books where the ink goes from the edge of the page to the other edge of the page and the top all the way to the bottom, and you cut out any spacing between the lines, books could be much shorter, and therefore would cost much less to publish. They'd still charge the same price to buy. Why don't they do that? Because they understand that the ratio of white space to ink, of white to black, is critical on the page so that your mind has the ability to absorb and to think and to shut down, the break between what you're reading. Says רש\"י Rashi, the same is true for us. Sometimes we need to shut down, disconnect, think. We need to provide the פתוחות וסתומות psuchos u'stumos. Why? להתבונן בין פרשה לפרשה l'hisbonen bein parsha l'parsha. We have פרשיות parshiyos of our lives. There are conversations and there are interactions. There are events and there are moments and there are experiences. And we need להתבונן בין פרשה לפרשה l'hisbonen bein parsha l'parsha. Sometimes between those conversations, between those moments, between those experiences, we need to disconnect, stop reading, create some margin, create some space in our lives in order to be able to think, in order to be able to breathe, in order to be able to observe, absorb, in order to be able to be transformed. Says ר' וולבה Rav Wolbe, if it was true for Moshe with the Torah, Moshe the אב הנביאים Av ha'Nevi'im, all the more so it's true for us. What a critical lesson. And therefore, as much as for many who have children are home, they're being schooled right now on technology. For many working at home, we're reliant on technology. For many trying to stay sane at home, we are relying on technology. And the technology provides a beautiful ability. Right now, it's giving us this ability to be together, learning Torah, to enrich ourselves, but it also clogs the brain and the mind. And sometimes we have to remember like Moshe, to create פתוחות וסתומות psuchos u'stumos, להתבונן בין פרשה לפרשה l'hisbonen bein parsha l'parsha, to disconnect, go for a walk, sit on a couch and close your eyes, spend a few moments in mindful meditation, disconnect to be able to absorb, and therefore permanently connect to that which we are, to that which we are learning.I want to share with you a beautiful insight on these opening words of ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe and the distinction between the word ויקרא vayikra and דיבור dibbur and, and the, as רש\"י Rashi alludes to the different types of speaking: אמירה amirah, דיבור dibbur, and קריאה k'riah. And I want to draw your attention to a comment of the חלבן Chalban. The חלבן Chalban was ר' חיים כהן Rav Chaim Cohen, he passed away this year. `Zichrono...` may his נשמה nishama have an עליה aliyah. חלבן Chalban was a fascinating personality. He was steeped, he was a great תלמיד חכם talmid chacham in נגלה ונסתר nigleh v'nistar, in both the hidden and the revealed Torah, but he himself was hidden. חלבן Chalban is a milkman. He was clean-shaven and wore blue shirts and a cap, and he went to work every day in the milk factory, and he was a simple milkman until it was discovered just what a genius he was and just how, and just how well-versed he was both in the revealed and the hidden Torah. And at that point, they published his ספרים sfarim, of which there are many. So this is a ספר טל החיים Sefer Tal Hachaim, and here he says the following: כי ידוע דספר ויקרא אומר הראשון. I'm sorry you don't have the text in front of you but allow me to share it in his words because I think they're very poignant. We know that the opening word of a ספר sefer tells us, גונז בקיצור ומסתמצץ כל הספר כולו gonuz b'kitzur u'mistamtzetz kol hasefer kulo. It tells us the theme, the essence, what the ספר sefer is really all about. במילא בפסוקים הראשונים של ויקרא במילה ויקרא, רומז את כל המהות הפנימי של ספר ויקרא. B'meila b'psukim harishonim shel Vayikra b'mila Vayikra, romeiz et kol hamahus ha'pnimi shel Sefer Vayikra. So in these opening words and this opening sentence, which really only represent a fraction of our פרשה parsha, let alone the ספר sefer, it's worth our spending so much time because this opening sentence and this opening word ויקרא Vayikra captures the essence of everything the book is about. ונעשה בחסדי השם להתבונן מעט בענין זה V'na'aseh b'chasdei Hashem l'hisbonen me'at b'inyan zeh. And so we'll try with the help of God to understand. ובייחוד במילה ויקרא באלף זעירא U'b'yichud b'mila Vayikra b'alef ze'ira, with the word ויקרא Vayikra and the small אלף alef. By the way, the חלבן Chalban is very verbose. Everything he says are essays that are pages and pages and pages. They're worth reading. It's precious every, every word. Obviously, we don't have time to study it all, but I want to just give you some of the flavor of what he shares. ראשית כל Reishis kol, first of all, לאור הדברים הנ\"ל אין אנו קודם רואים אלא להבין את תחילת הספר תחילת פרשת ויקרא. L'or ha'dvarim ha'ne'el ein anu kodem ro'im ela l'havin et t'chilas ha'sefer, t'chilas parshas Vayikra. We have to begin to see the beginning of the book. So, how does the book begin? ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe. Hashem calls Moshe. It doesn't say Hashem. It just says, ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe and Moshe is called, and God speaks from the אהל מועד Ohel Moed and he tells them, אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem. When a person sacrifices מכם mikem, from themselves. כאן אנו רואים את ההתעוררות של אדם להתקרב. Kan anu ro'im et ha'hisorerus shel adam l'hiskarev. We see here the awakening. We see here the arousal. We see here what it means to welcome somebody towards the conversation with Hashem. אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem. עם ישראל צמא להשם יתברך Am Yisrael tzamei l'Hashem yisbarach. We're thirsty for Hashem. We who are confined to our homes, we who are trying to understand and interpret current events, we who are trying to be able to withstand and weather this crisis. צמא להשם יתברך Tzamei l'Hashem yisbarach, we're thirsty for Hashem's love and his support, to feel his presence, to make sense of it all. רצוננו להיות סקר ודבק בו יתברך בכל עוז R'tzonenu lihiyos sakar v'davek bo yisbarach b'chol oz. We want to be close to him. We want to attach ourselves to him with all of our strength. קרבן של התקרבות Karban shel hiskarvus. We want to bring a קרבן karban at the root of that word קרבן karban is קרוב karov. The goal, see, many people think, I remember a few years ago, somebody who feels enlightened wrote a whole article about why he thinks that that sacrifices, he prays that they will not be restored because they are archaic and cruel to animals and the like. It's entirely against our מסורה mesorah, it's against everything we believe. We believe the opposite. Sacrifices are not barbaric. They're not archaic. They don't tap into the worst of humanity. The spirituality and the symbolism of the sacrifice is the highest. We take the animal representing the animal in us, and we sacrifice it to state that we're going to suppress the animal in us and express our godliness, the best of us, the best version of ourselves. ר' הירש Rav Hirsch writes every aspect of the sacrifices. We don't have time now, but a flower sacrifice and the burning of the fats and the sprinkling of the blood, and each element of the sacrifices is symbolic of another element of our lives, the statement we're making to God, the statement we're making to ourselves that we're going to submit and we're going to suppress and we're going to sacrifice the animal in us so that what's left is the godly disciplined soul that's reaching for something higher that is the best version of ourselves. The root of the word קרבן karban is קרוב karov. We want to draw close to God. And the best way to draw close to God is to be like God. God doesn't have an animal instinct, an animal impulse. God doesn't give into a temptation. God is the ultimate of dignity and discipline. And when we sacrifice the animal in us and we emulate him, when we are the godly best version of ourselves, is the way we draw closest to him. So the קרבנות karbanos represent that that yearning, that desire, that burning longing. לאסקרב l'hisakrev, קרבן karban, קרוב karov. כאן התורה פותחת את כל ענין ההתקרבות שלנו Kan ha'Torah posachas es kol inyan ha'hiskarvus shelanu. So listen to what the חלבן Chalban writes. ונהי פרשה זו מתחילה בקריאת הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה. ויקרא. V'hinei parsha zu matchila b'kri'as haKadosh Baruch Hu l'Moshe. Vayikra. Our פרשה parsha begins with God calling Moshe. הקריאה היא בקשת התקרבות Ha'kriah hi bakashas hiskarvus. What is קריאה k'riah? Here he says the fundamental difference between קריאה k'riah and דיבור dibbur. קריאה k'riah is the calling. הקריאה היא בקשת התקרבות Ha'kriah hi bakashas hiskarvus. כשאדם קורא למישהו, הוא מבקש ממנו לבוא אליו. K'she'adam korei l'mishehu, hu m'vakesh mimenu lavo eilav. When you call your child, your spouse, a friend from the other room, when you call out to them, even the language, the vernacular, the way we describe it as calling out to somebody, what does it mean? What does it sound like? I'm calling out, I want to be close. Could you come draw near to me? ממילא כשם שהקדוש ברוך הוא קורא למשה, הוא מבקש ממנו להתקרב. Mimeila k'shem she'haKadosh Baruch Hu korei l'Moshe, hu mevakesh mimenu l'hiskarev. This represents God's calling Moshe saying, \"I want to be close to you. Draw closer to me. Please come here. Please draw near. Please come.\" שונה בוידבר, המתייחס לפעולת הדיבור. Shoneh b'vayidaber, hamisyacheis l'peulas ha'dibbur. וידבר Vayidaber means speaking. It refers to the act of speaking. ויאמר מתייחס לתוכן המדובר Vayomer misyacheis l'tochen hamidubar. ויאמר Vayomer is the content of what is being spoken. ויקרא מתייחס לעצם ההתקרבות בין השניים. Vayikra misyacheis l'etzem ha'hiskarvus bein ha'shnayim. ויקרא Vayikra means the bond, the connection, the desire to be together. That's ויקרא Vayikra. So, וידבר vayidaber is the act of speaking. So a speech pathologist could talk about וידבר vayidaber. What does it mean? The the voice box and the tongue and the larynx and how the act of speaking. And ויאמר vayomer is what's being spoken. But ויקרא vayikra is the calling. Come, draw close. I want to be connected. לכן אומר רש\"י ויקרא לשון חיבה. La'chein omer Rashi, Vayikra lashon chibah. That's what רש\"י Rashi means, says the חלבן Chalban, that ויקרא Vayikra is a language of חיבה chibah, of affection, of love. שכן במהות הקריאה גנוזה אהבה גדולה ומבקש ממשה לבוא אליו יתברך. She'ken b'mahut ha'kriah genuza ahava gedola u'mevakesh mi'Moshe lavo eilav yisborach. It is love. ויקרא Vayikra is come, come, I want to be close, I want to feel close. So נמצא תפילת בקשת התקרבות כל בניו יתברך, הרומז במילה אדם כי יקריב מכם, כבר מתגלה בבקשת התקרבות. Nimtza t'filas bakashas hiskarvus kol banav yisborach, ha'romeiz b'milah adam ki yakriv mikem, kvar misgaleh b'bakashas hiskarvus. Before we reciprocate, before we offer the sacrifice, before we offer מכם mikem from ourselves, which we'll talk more about in a moment, before we reciprocate, Hashem puts out the call. Hashem says, \"ויקרא Vayikra, you can hear him calling. He wants us to be close to him.\" עומק גדול גנוז במילה זו ועצם היותה שורש ופסיחה לכל עבודת הקרבנות. Omek gadol gonuz b'milah zu, v'etzem heyosa shoresh u'psicha l'chol avodas ha'karbanos. This is Hashem's קריאה k'riah. באומקו הקריאה קימס b'umko ha'kriah kayimis. There is a deep inner calling. קריאתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא k'riaso shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu, this calling of God reflects his boundless love, his friendship, his connection to כנסת ישראל Knesses Yisrael, to each and every one of our נשמות neshamos in particular. קול דודי דופק Kol dodi dofek. The voice of Hashem is knocking on our door. פתחי לי אחותי רעייתי יונתי תמתי Pischi li achosi rayati yonasi tamasi. The שיר השירים Shir Hashirim tells us שלמה המלך Shlomo Hamelech says, the voice of Hashem is knocking. My dear friends, in every one of our lives, Hashem is calling out to us, ויקרא Vayikra. It's not just a וידבר vayidaber. He speaks to us through his שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch and the הלכה halacha and the Torah. דברינג davening is our speaking to God, learning Torah is God speaking to us. That's the וידבר vayidaber. And you know, the ויאמר vayomer, the ויאמר vayomer is the content of the message. It's what he's telling us. But the ויקרא vayikra, the ויקרא vayikra are the things that are going on in our lives, the things that are happening for good and for bad that make sense and that we're still trying to understand. The ויקרא vayikra is Hashem calling out to us when we extend our antenna. The קול דודי דופק kol dodi dofek, when we answer the door from his knock, he is there trying to grow close to us. And the חלבן Chalban points us to a comment of the Alter Rebbe in ליקוטי תורה Likutei Torah, who is the one who describes this notion. וכן נאמר ויקרא אל משה, פירוש קריאה זו היא הארה והשפעה למשה כדי שעל ידי זה יוכל לעלות ולבוא אל אהל מועד. V'chein ne'emar Vayikra el Moshe, peirush k'riah zu hi he'ara v'hashpa'ah l'Moshe, k'dei she'al yedei zeh yuchal la'alos v'lavo el Ohel Moed. This is how you enter the אהל מועד Ohel Moed. The way to get into the house of Hashem, the way to access him, the way to feel intimately in his presence, a rendezvous with him, is ויקרא Vayikra, to hear his call. You see, if if your antenna is not extended, and a young person listening right now has no idea what an antenna is. But there used to be on the car, you know, the antenna would go up, and the fancy cars, the antenna would go up when you turn the radio on and off when you turn the radio would come down. If you wanted to get reception on your TV, you had to hold the antenna in just the right place. There used to be an antenna. Today, your phone has an antenna, but you don't see it, you don't even know about it. So young people have no clue what I'm talking about, the antenna needing to be extended. But the Alter Rebbe says that the prerequisite to entering an intimate rendezvous with Hashem, to be in the same space as God, to feel his presence, to be uplifted and transformed and changed by simply being with him, to have a confidence and a knowledge that he's intimately involved in our lives, the prerequisite to that is to hear his call. If you're just going through motions, if you're simply performing mitzvos through rote, if you're simply discharging obligation with a checkmark, but there's no actual warmth, there's no passion, there's no romance, there's no relationship, you're not listening to God talking to you each and every day through the miracles he's doing every day, then you're not really involved in a relationship. There's no sense of a ויקרא Vayikra. It's not genuine, it's not real. I wish I had the rest of the day to learn with you the many, many pages of this piece, but I wanted to share with you to give you a flavor of what this book is all about, says the חלבן Chalban. It's this sense of a, of a ויקרא Vayikra. It's extending our antenna, looking and listening and hearing the message of Hashem talking to us all around. I've shared many times in many contexts that my family started a practice because I had learned with one of my daughters this past summer a letter of ר' משה Rav Moshe or ר' יעקב Rav Yaakov who said that if you want to draw close to Hashem, start a daily journal of השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis, the little things in your life where you see Hashem, the things that didn't need to work out but have worked out, the seeming coincidences really are by design. So we started a family WhatsApp group called השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis, my nuclear family, me, my wife, and my children. And I encourage our children, we try every day, every few days, someone leaves a voice note or writes out something that happened in their life which was השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis. It's unbelievable. To hear the call of the ויקרא Vayikra. What is השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis if not hearing the call of ויקרא Vayikra? Go through life and live it in high definition, not in black and white. Go through life and look for the hand of Hashem, extend that antenna so you hear him. I want to share with you an insight from ר' דרוק Rav Druck, ר' ישראל מאיר דרוק Rav Yisrael Meir Druck, is a ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva today, a great תלמיד חכם talmid chacham in ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. His father was also a great רב Rav in ירושלים Yerushalayim, the דרש מרדכי Drash Mordechai. And ר' ישראל מאיר דרוק Rav Yisrael Meir Druck has a set on חומש Chumash called אש תמיד Eish Tamid. And in here he writes the following. As I said, I pointed out before, ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe. First, we have to whom the speech is directed, even before who the speaker is. First it's ויקרא אל משה Vayikra el Moshe, before it's וידבר השם אליו Vayidaber Hashem eilav. Why? לשון זה תמוה במקצתו Lashon zeh tamua b'miktzaso. It's a very peculiar language. לכאורה היה ראוי יותר לכתוב ויקרא השם למשה וידבר אליו L'chora haya ra'ui yoser lichtov, Vayikra Hashem l'Moshe vayidaber eilav. It should have said God called Moshe and he said. דבר ראשון לגלות מי הוא זה שקרא לו Davar rishon l'galos mi hu zeh she'kara lo. The first thing you do is you identify who the speaker is. Then you can identify the subject, who the listener is. It doesn't make sense to refer to the listener before you've even identified who the speaker is. Listen to what ר' דרוק Rav Druck says. הנראה לבאר בזה כי כשהקדוש ברוך הוא קרא אל משה, באמת לא קרא אליו באופן כה גלוי וברור שיבין כי השם הוא הקורא אליו. Hanir'eh l'va'er b'zeh ki k'she'haKadosh Baruch Hu kara el Moshe, b'emes lo kara eilav b'ofen ko galui v'varur she'yavin ki Hashem hu ha'koreh eilav. The answer is, because when Hashem calls out to us, it's not always so revealed or so clear who the speaker is. If you want to see it as chance or randomness or coincidence, if you want to see it as the act of other human beings, you can mistakenly confuse it and you can mistakenly misidentify it. משה רבינו היה מוכן לכך והיה קשור לקריאתו, הבין מעצמו כי השם הוא הקורא אליו. וממילא אחר שהבין כי הקריאה באה אליו מהשם יתברך, אז ממשיכה התורה במפורש וידבר השם אליו. Moshe Rabbeinu haya muchan l'kach, v'haya kashuv l'kriaso. Heivin mei'atzmo ki Hashem hu ha'koreh eilav. U'mimeila, achar she'heivin ki ha'kriah ba'ah eilav mei'Hashem yisborach, az mamshicha ha'Torah b'meforash Vayidaber Hashem eilav. You see, it doesn't say who the speaker is before the listener, because it's telling us that Moshe positioned himself to be a listener, always listening for the word of Hashem, and then when Hashem saw that Moshe understood it was him speaking, now he was prepared to speak. We shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that it's random coincidences, it's a string of events, it's other people, but we have to extend that antenna. We have to live our lives with that sense of ויקרא Vayikra, looking for and listening to that call, keeping a journal of the השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis of the many ways in which Hashem speaks to us in our lives in a daily and on a regular basis. And here too again, ר' דרוק Rav Druck expands, other examples of this. That's what happened in the סנה sneh. Moshe, everyone else walked by. Moshe Rabbeinu heard the call. Why? God spoke louder when Moshe walked by than when others walked by? No, Moshe's antenna was extended. Is our antenna extended? Do we see and identify and express our gratitude for the ויקרא Vayikra, for that intimate connection, not only the וידבר vayidaber and the ויאמר vayomer, but the ויקרא Vayikra. I think that this is something that we need to continue to educate, particularly to the young people in our lives, but educate ourselves too, that the core of a meaningful, vibrant, active, passionate, romantic Judaism and relationship with Hashem is not only to focus on the וידבר vayidaber and the ויאמר vayomer, not only on the, how much did you learn and did you learn and how much did you open the ספר sefer and did you complete the learning? And not only the content, did you observe and do you understand and did you memorize and do you know? Both of which are very, very important, but also that sense of a ויקרא Vayikra, that Hashem is talking to us. When we learn Torah, he's talking to us. When we live life, he's talking to us. When we experience the things in our life, Hashem is talking to us as well.Now, there's an amazing מדרש Midrash here. There's an amazing מדרש Midrash on this פסוק pasuk of ויקרא Vayikra, in these opening words. And the מדרש Midrash tells us the following. The מדרש Midrash says, ויקרא אל משה וידבר השם אליו. Listen to the words of the מדרש Midrash. מכאן אמרו כל תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת נבילה טובה הימנו Mi'kan amru kol talmid chacham she'ein bo da'as, nevelah tova hemenu. It's an incredible מדרש Midrash. It's a very perplexing מדרש Midrash. The מדרש Midrash says we see from here that any תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, any righteous scholar, שאין בו דעת she'ein bo da'as, who lacks דעת da'as. We have to define momentarily, and we've spoken about this before, but I want to share with you two new definitions today. What is this דעת da'as? A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, a scholar, a righteous person, but who lacks דעת da'as, נבילה טובה הימנו nevelah tova hemenu. It doesn't just say, you know, they really need to work on themselves, improve themselves, learn more, grow more. It says a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who has no דעת da'as, a putrid corpse, a נבילה nevelah, a rotting corpse is better than them. How do you know this? תא דא לך שכן מצינו למד ממשה אבי חכמים ואבי נביאים, שהוציא ישראל ממצרים ועל ידו נעשה כמה ניסים במצרים ובנוראות על ים סוף. Tei da lach she'kein matzinu, lomed mi'Moshe avi chachamim v'avi nevi'im, she'hotzi Yisrael mi'Mitzrayim, v'al yado na'aseh kama nisim b'Mitzrayim, u'v'nora'os al Yam Suf. We learn it from Moshe. Listen to this. Moshe the אב הנביאים Av ha'nevi'im, Moshe was incredibly brilliant. Moshe is the highest level of prophecy. Moshe is credited with taking the Jewish people out of Egypt, and through Moshe, countless miracles occurred. And yet, עלה לשמים alah la'shamayim, he went on top of the mountain to receive the Torah, and he built the משכן Mishkan, and yet, לא נכנס לפני ולפנים עד שקרא לו. שנאמר ויקרא אל משה וידבר. Lo nichnas l'fnai v'lifnim ad she'kara lo, she'ne'emar Vayikra el Moshe vayidaber. Moshe didn't walk into the אהל מועד Ohel Moed, he didn't enter the משכן Mishkan until he was first called. He didn't go in without permission. So you see that a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who has no דעת da'as is worse than a putrid rotting corpse from where? From the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu had the דעת da'as to know don't enter until you're invited in. What in the world is going on here? So the simple understanding of it is. that Moshe's a role model. What's he a role model of? We know that דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה Derech Eretz kadma laTorah. You can be a great scholar and a great תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, but if you have no דרך ארץ derech eretz, if you enter places before you're invited in, if you breach confidentiality, if you don't knock before you enter, if you share what you shouldn't be sharing with others, if you breach דרך ארץ derech eretz, then what's the value of your תורה Torah? דרך ארץ Derech Eretz is קדמה לתורה kadma laTorah. And here, according to this first understanding, we're going to share four, in the first understanding, דעת daas can be defined or interpreted as דרך ארץ derech eretz. Basic common courtesy, good manners, etiquette, decency. Knock before you enter. Wait to be invited in before you come. משה Moshe did, and a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who doesn't, נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu.The problem with that is why, why is a נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu? True, דרך ארץ derech eretz is קדמה לתורה kadma laTorah. And by the way, where do we learn that from? Because דרך ארץ derech eretz preceded the תורה Torah by 26 generations, the מדרש Medrish tells us. אדם Adam was commanded in דרך ארץ derech eretz long before we got the תורה Torah. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu had expectations of how we treat one another and how we behave and the manners that we exhibit long before he gave us the תורה Torah. So mastering דרך ארץ derech eretz really is a prelude to the תורה Torah itself. But I want to share with you a second definition, maybe a deeper meaning to the use, the מדרש's Medrish's use of the word דעת daas instead of דרך ארץ derech eretz. And maybe what it means is the following. You can have an intellectual knowledge. You can have information that sits in your brain. It's cognitive, a processing knowledge. But one needs that information to filter down. You see, the three types of knowledge, the three terms that we use, the origin of the ליובאוויטשער Lubavitcher movement, the אלטער רבי Alter Rebbe, put together חכמה בינה ודעת chachma, bina, and daas. We had in ספר שמות Sefer Shmos, בצלאל Betzalel. בצלאל Betzalel was endowed with חכמה בינה ודעת chachma, bina, and daas, which is why he is the architect of the משכן Mishkan. חכמה Chachma is information. It's knowledge of an area or a discipline. בינה Bina is the capacity להבין lehavin בין bein this and בין bein that, to analyze and to dig deeper within the information. דעת Daas is different than חכמה chachma or בינה bina. חכמה Chachma is the information you could memorize it. בינה Bina is להבדיל בין lehavdil bein this or this. Why do we say הבדלה Havdalah in אתה חונן Ata Chonen? Because הבדלה Havdalah, the ability to be חונן דעת chonen daas is להבין בין lehavin bein this or בין bein that. So חכמה chachma is information, and בינה bina is the capacity to analyze the information, to process it. What is דעת daas? דעת Daas is when we take the information from the abstract, and we show we have the capacity to analyze it, and now we know how to execute it. We can absorb information in a way that transforms us, that impacts us, that changes us, that we live with it. And maybe that's what משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu, that's what the מדרש Medrish is telling us. That משה's Moshe's דרך ארץ derech eretz was not simply an exercise in etiquette. It is the result of a sense of דעת daas. חכמה Chachma is to know what to do. And בינה bina is to know why to do it. And דעת daas is to be committed to do it. So a תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת talmid chacham she'ein bo daas. A great תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who's brilliant, who's a genius, who has a photographic memory. A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham with a credible capacity for recall, who could tell you everything in the world, but doesn't know how to execute it in their lives, נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu. They're worse than a putrid, rotting corpse because the purpose of all that information, the purpose of all that תורה Torah is to transform us, is to execute on us, is for us to bring it out into the world. We live in the information age. And the information age is a wonderful time to live. But it can't just stay information. It has to be processed and brought down to a place of, to a place of reality. That's explanation number two.Number three, רב וואלבע Rav Volbe says, דעת daas, רב וואלבע Rav Volbe writes in his commentary on פרשה Parsha, that דעת daas is כוונה kavana. It's the capacity for mindfulness. It's the capacity to be present. דעת Daas in דאווענען davening is כוונה kavana, to concentrate. A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who has no דעת daas, a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who's aloof and distracted, a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who can't be mindful and present, תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who's always elsewhere, נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu. So to have דעת daas, says רב וואלבע Rav Volbe, is the capacity for כוונה kavana, it's the capacity for mindfulness. In דאווענען davening it reflects itself as כוונה kavana. It's the capacity for דיבור dibbur with דעת daas, in conversation and communication with the people around us, particularly the people that we love, the ability not to be distracted, not to be looking all over, not to be fragmented, but to be mindful, to be present. Think about the expression, says רב וואלבע Rav Volbe, that we use. A person who lives in the moment, a person who's present in every activity they're doing is living with a sense of יישוב הדעת yishuv ha-daas. יישוב הדעת Yishuv ha-daas is a calmness and a serenity and a confidence and the capacity to be engaged fully in whatever it is that one is doing. So definition number three of דעת daas. What does it mean? כל תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת Kol talmid chacham she'ein bo daas, you could be a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham, you can have all this information and knowledge, but if you don't have peace of mind, you don't have serenity, you don't have mindfulness to be fully engaged and present in the conversations, in the דאווענען davening, in what you're doing, נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu. Definition number three. Number four, rather, comes from רב דרוק Rav Druck, right? We had the first one is דרך ארץ derech eretz. And the second one is חכמה בינה ודעת chachma, bina, and daas. And the third one is דעת daas is כוונה kavana. And the fourth one is back to רב דרוק Rav Druck. So רב דרוק Rav Druck says the following. What does it mean דעת daas? He quotes the whole מדרש Medrish and he too wonders why this peculiar phrasing. צריך ביאור, מדוע שייך ענין זה לתלמיד חכם Tzorich biur, madua shayeich inyan zeh l'talmid chacham. Moreover, why are we saying it specifically in the context of a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham? It should say כל אדם kol adam, כל איש שאין בו דעת kol ish she'ein bo daas, every person who doesn't, however we define דעת daas, have דעת daas. Why specifically a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham? So therefore he says the following. And why טאקע taka didn't משה Moshe go in until he was called? Didn't he know the whole essence of building the משכן Mishkan was to have access to השם Hashem, was to give a sense of שכינה shechina, שוכן shochein, to make God our neighbor, to draw him down דירה בתחתונים dira b'tachtonim. So why didn't משה Moshe go in? That was the תכלית tachlis, that was the purpose, that was the goal of why building this משכן Mishkan. So why didn't he just go in? Here he distinguishes between משה Moshe and בלעם Bilam. With משה Moshe, first we have קריאה kria, God calls him, and then God speaks to him. With בלעם Bilam, God speaks to him. And he says why? The reason God calls you is so that you can prepare for what's going to be spoken to you. So that you can free your mind, so that you can carve space, so that you can calm your nerves, so that you can be present in where you're at. So when you have קריאה kria before דיבור dibur, it is the preparation phase. אין קדושה בלי הכנה Ein kedusha bli hachana. There is no holiness without preparation. There is no, only the one who is works to be able to prepare for Shabbos will be able to eat on Shabbos. Only the one who who's טורח toreach for Shabbos has what to eat on Shabbos. So therefore says רב דרוק Rav Druck, you know what it means כל תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת, נבילה טובה הימנו kol talmid chacham she'ein bo daas, nevela tova heimenu? A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who doesn't work to have the peace of mind, who doesn't prepare for those holy moments, who tries to just engage them on the fly as random and chance and happenstance like בלעם Bilam, such a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu. It means זאת היא מעלתו של תלמיד חכם, שאינו עושה ופועל דרך המקרה והמזדמן, אלא מכין עצמו בכל מעשה טוב לקבל השפע הרוחני שבא ממנו Zot hi ma'alaso shel talmid chacham, she'eino oseh u'foel derech hamikra v'hamizdamein, ela meichin atzmo b'chol ma'aseh tov l'kabel hashefa haruchni she'ba mimenu. וזה נלמד ממשה רבינו שהמתין לקריאת השם V'zeh neilmad me'Moshe Rabbeinu she'himtin l'krias Hashem. True, משה Moshe could have just entered the משכן Mishkan. That was the תכלית tachlis of the building of the משכן Mishkan. He could have just walked in. He understood that's why it's there. And yet, he paused. He paused for a moment to get ready. He paused for a moment to prepare because he understood that if you want to be fully engaged and fully transformed by the holy moments of our lives, you can't rush into them. When we will be able to please God soon return to שול shul, and we'll be back on a schedule that we need to come on time. If you don't come a few minutes early and frame your mind and clear your mind and create the margin we spoke about, then you won't fully be able to have that experience. It's said about רב שלמה זלמן אויערבאך Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach that when he would climb the steps to his home in שערי חסד Shaarei Chesed before he'd walk in, he would first, you know, clean off and straighten out and make sure that he looked well. Why? Because he said he was going into see his wife. You know, those moments, the precious moments, even the places that we should feel the most relaxed or casual, but if they are the holiest moments and opportunities of our lives, then there is no קדושה kedusha without הכנה hachana. So the קריאה kria before the דיבור dibur, God called to משה Moshe and he stood outside, he waited to be called in. Why? Because a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham understands that if you want to engage, you want to encounter, you want to experience holiness, you need to prepare. You need to be ready. You need to clear that space and that margin. You need that mindset. There are many who've given the advice and I try to incorporate it myself when we say that עמידה Amidah, when you take those three steps forward for that שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esreh, to take a deep breath. I personally have a mental image of taking my hands and clearing out all the space, my whole head, which is filled with all the things I have to do and the people I have to get back to, all the נאַרישקייט naarishkeit, all the sounds and sights, and the head, our head which is, which is filled with all the things that are competing for space there, you need to have a mental image of clearing it out, of carving that direct line, that space. The קריאה kria before the דיבור dibur, of getting ready before we enter, of taking that deep breath, השם שפתי תפתח ופי יגיד תהילתך Hashem sefasai tiftach u'fi yagid tehilatecha, of taking that deep breath and being ready to be able to be transformed. I want to give you the fifth and final explanation. And then we're ready to start the פרשה Parsha class, beyond the first פסוק pasuk. I want to give you the fifth and final explanation. And it's based on an insight of רב ליכטנשטיין זצ\"ל Rav Lichtenstein zatzal. רב ליכטנשטיין Rav Lichtenstein has an article whose title is 'If there is no דעת daas, how can we have leadership?' And the context of רב ליכטנשטיין's Rav Lichtenstein's article is the notion of דעת תורה Daas Torah. And this too, I think, is very timely for our time, in which we've seen different forms of leadership and different degrees of leadership to respond to what's happening around us, and how that leadership is informed, and how that leadership is out front, and how that leadership is protecting. So, it's a long essay which I won't be able to, you can find it if you Google online, 'If there is no דעת daat, how can we have leadership?' by רב אהרן ליכטנשטיין Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, translated by Joseph Faith. And it's well worth reading the entire essay. But the essay is the discussion on the concept of דעת תורה Daas Torah. Do we believe in דעת תורה Daas Torah? Do we have categories of religious leaders in Judaism? Do we have תלמידי חכמים talmidei chachamim who are endowed with some sort of divine inspiration, so that they are infallible in their message, in their leadership, in their guidance, in what they tell us? Do we turn to them for דעת תורה Daas Torah? Tell me, should I buy this house? Should I take this job? Should I send my child to this school? Should I marry this woman? Tell me, should I shut down my שול shul? How should I react and behave to the challenge of our time? Do we believe in דעת תורה Daas Torah? That is the topic or theme of this essay. But in this essay, he says the following. He says, one of the most difficult questions in this field relates to and encompasses the topic of our discussion. If there is no דעת daas, how can we have דעת תורה Daas Torah? And he says, to illustrate this, I'll relate a story. Many years ago, I traveled to בני ברק Bnei Brak to console my רבי rebbi and teacher, רב יצחק הוטנר זצ\"ל Rav Yitzchak Hutner zatzal, in his mourning when his wife passed away. When I went to see him, says רב אהרן Rav Aharon, I found him sitting alone. We had a private conversation and this was conducted in a very open and honest fashion, from one heart to another. רב הוטנר Rav Hutner told me that one of the תלמידי חכמים talmidei chachamim who came to console him tried to convince him to explain how his wife's passing was positive, in as much as she was now in the world of truth, a world which is entirely positive and other such nonsense. And indeed, it's not uncommon to hear such things when one goes to console a mourner, especially when the deceased passed away while being involved in a מצוה mitzvah or has fallen in battle in קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. It is superfluous to state that saying such things is totally unsuitable. I remember that when רב הוטנר Rav Hutner told me this, writes רב ליכטנשטיין Rav Lichtenstein, he raised his voice and he applied the following severe words of the מדרש Medrish in ויקרא רבה Vayikra Rabba: כל תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת, נבילה טובה הימנו Kol talmid chacham she'ein bo daas, nevela tova heimenu. Any תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who lacks דעת daas is worse than a putrid carcass. רב הוטנר Rav Hutner added in his thunderous voice, did you hear this? Any תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who lacks דעת daas. Consider this, we're not discussing an ignoramus who lacks דעת daas, but rather a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham. A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who's filled his belly with תלמוד Talmud and the responsa literature, who's an expert in the קצות Ketzos and the נתיבות Nesivos, but if he lacks דעת daas, which can direct and guide him so that he'll act with understanding towards others and interact with them in a civil fashion, he's worse than a putrid animal carcass. Had I not heard these incisive comments with my own ears from my רבי rebbi and teacher, I would be fearful of voicing such sentiments of my own accord, said רב ליכטנשטיין Rav Lichtenstein. So without getting too involved in the question of the correct balance between דעת daas, wisdom and understanding, in this context it will suffice for us to note that one can certainly conclude from this מדרשי medrashic teaching that דעת daas is not bestowed from on high, as a free gift which is passed automatically into man's hands, even if he is a supreme תלמיד חכם talmid chacham. דעת Daas does not necessarily accompany knowledge and analytical skill and is not necessarily bound up with them like fire is with hemp fibers. We've learned from רב הוטנר's Rav Hutner's comments that there's a certain level of דעת daas that is vital for a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham to possess and without which his wisdom is severely impaired. And so even if we adopt the approach which requires obeying גדולים gedolim, it'd be logical to assume that this obligation applies only to a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who has דעת daas, and not a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who's full of knowledge like a pomegranate, but lacks דעת daas. A תלמיד חכם talmid chacham according to the מדרש Medrish who's worse than a putrid animal carcass. Would we approach this carcass who according to our sages is better than a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham to ask for advice on medical matters? Can a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham who lacks דעת daas be relied upon? Can we accept the words of a תורה Torah genius lacking human and emotional sensitivity who possesses no psychological insight? And I encourage you to read the rest of his essay. I think also as I said very timely. It means כל תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת kol talmid chacham she'ein bo daas, the fifth and final definition we'll offer this morning of what דעת daas means is דעת daas is common sense. דעת Daas is common sense. You could know כל התורה כולה בעל פה kol haTorah kulah b'al peh, but if you don't listen to medical advice and experts, if you don't listen to socio-political experts, if you're not listening to the guidance, if you lack common sense about how to respond and guide people, then you're a תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת talmid chacham she'ein bo daas. It doesn't say anyone who doesn't have דעת daas, it specifically says תלמיד חכם שאין בו דעת talmid chacham she'ein bo daas, which רב הוטנר Rav Hutner understood to mean you can be a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham and lack דעת daas. So if you lack דעת daas, you have no דעת תורה Daas Torah. Now there are many תלמידי חכמים talmidei chachamim who are both a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham and have extraordinary amounts of דעת daas, and perhaps they are a source of דעת תורה Daas Torah for us. But before someone turns or listens to the guidance of a תלמיד חכם talmid chacham they have to ask, do they just know a lot, or do they also have the foundation of common sense of דעת daas? Because if not, נבילה טובה הימנו nevela tova heimenu.פסוק ב Pasuk Beis, moving right along in פרשת ויקרא Parshas Vayikra and ספר ויקרא Sefer Vayikra. פסוק ב Pasuk Beis. דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם, אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם, מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן תקריבו את קרבנכם Daber el Bnei Yisrael v'amarta aleihem, adam ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem, min habeheima min habakar umin hatzon takrivu es korbanchem. Speak to the Jewish people and what is the message now? The אמירה amira, what is the content you're supposed to tell them? אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן להשם Adam ki yakriv mikem korban l'Hashem. מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן תקריבו את קרבנכם Min habeheima min habakar umin hatzon takrivu es korbanchem. When a person is offering a sacrifice to God, they offer it from their cattle, from their flock, they offer this sacrifice. Which word is entirely superfluous in this פסוק pasuk? It could have read, אדם כי יקריב קרבן להשם Adam ki yakriv korban l'Hashem. When a person offers a sacrifice. Why does it say אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן Adam ki yakriv mikem korban, when you offer from yourself a sacrifice? So here, I share with you the insight of the אלשיך Alshich. The אלשיך הקדוש Alshich Hakadosh of משה אלשיך Moshe Alshich says, the word מכם mikem teaches us something critically important. When you bring the קרבן korban, it's not some external, superficial gesture. We don't just write the check to God. Here's the קרבן korban. Here's the דאווענען davening I mumbled. Here is the obligation I'm discharging. It's not superficial. It's not external. We're not simply trying to unload it. It's got to be מכם mikem. מכם Mikem means it's us, it's from within us. It's genuine and it's real, and it comes from inside us. מכם Mikem, it's authentic. It is us. Says the אלשיך Alshich, a person should realize that the truth is we belong on that altar. We belong being sacrificed and slaughtered. We are unworthy. We have violated השם's Hashem's will. אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem, it has to come from inside us, it has to be genuine and real, it has to be animated, inspired, it has to be passionate and filled with romance, as we've been trying to communicate with ויקרא Vayikra is really all about, to hear השם's Hashem's voice and that call. We don't live a life that is simply on the surface or superficial. It has to be something which is much deeper. And this is reflected in the פסוק pasuk. Says the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the אפטער רב Apter Rav, רב אברהם יהושע העשיל Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of אפט Apt, he says the following, the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, incredible ספר sefer, where he connects every פרשה Parsha to the מצוה mitzvah of אהבת ישראל ahavas Yisrael, of loving our fellow Jew. So here he says the following. A person can fulfill and offer sacrifices in one of two ways. Just like you can דאווענען daven or do מצוות mitzvos in one of two ways, just like you could relate to your spouse or your friends or your neighbors or co-workers or children in one of two ways. It can be real and genuine, it could come from the depths of your being, or it can be external and superficial, you could just be mailing it in. So when it's אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem, when the person is offering really themselves, I'm here. You know, sometimes somebody's having a conversation with their spouse and they say, I know that you could repeat the words I just said, but I don't feel you're really here. You're not giving me yourself. You're not giving me your full attention. You're not confiding in me. You're not revealing yourself or giving me access to who you are. I don't feel that you're giving me the whole or the real you. So אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem, when a person gives the real them to השם Hashem, then קרבן להשם korban l'Hashem. Then it's a real קרבן korban, it's genuine to God. But if it's only מן הבהמה מן הבקר ומן הצאן min habeheima min habakar umin hatzon, if all they're doing are the motions on the surface, if it's an external act of bringing from the animal, then תקריבו את קרבנכם takrivu es korbanchem, it's just making you feel better. Then it's just a gesture on the outside to make you feel like you've discharged the obligation. So says the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the אפטער רב Apter Rav, רב אברהם יהושע העשיל Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, that in the פסוק pasuk itself is this mission and mandate and the description of the result. When it's אדם כי יקריב מכם Adam ki yakriv mikem, when it really comes from us, when it's genuine and real, קרבן להשם korban l'Hashem. Then it's for God, then we're connected, it results in קרוב karov and feeling close to him. If it's מן הבקר מן הבהמה מן הצאן min habakar min habeheima min hatzon, if it's only on the surface, if it's an external act of the animal, then תקריבו את קרבנכם takrivu es korbanchem, it's just for you. It makes you feel better about yourself. It just makes you feel a certain way.The מגיד ממזריטש Maggid of Mezritch has another פשט pshat. I'm sorry, in the next פסוק pasuk, before we get to it. כתב סופר Ksav Sofer. The כתב סופר Ksav Sofer says this, רב שמואל בנימין סופר Rav Shmuel Binyamin Sofer. כתב סופר Ksav Sofer writes about another anomaly in the פסוק pasuk. The פסוק pasuk says אדם כי יקריב מכם קרבן Adam ki yakriv mikem korban. Why doesn't it say איש ish? The מדרש Medrish asks why does it say אדם adam and not איש ish? To be more consistent with how it appears elsewhere in the תורה Torah, איש כי יקריב מכם ish ki yakriv mikem. If a person, why does it say אדם Adam specifically? So the מדרש Medrish says to tell us, to remind us, to invoke us, אדם הראשון Adam haRishon. What does אדם הראשון Adam haRishon have to do? So he says here's what it means. יש שני מיני בעלי תשובה Yesh shnei minei baalei teshuva. There's two ways one can repent or seek to draw close to God. One is, you're really good inside, but you've made mistakes. So the person has to atone for and repair the mistakes that they've made. And then you have a second person who's become rotten on the outside. What here it's telling us is אדם כי יקריב Adam ki yakriv and not איש ish, to remember that this, we should invoke our sense of אדם Adam. Why was אדם Adam called אדם Adam? He's named אדם Adam because מן האדמה min ha'adama, we come from the ground. We're born with this capacity for growth. We are growth-oriented. As opposed to the animal, the בהמה beheima, is בה מה ba ma. What you see is what you get. The animal is complete the day it's arrived. But the אדם Adam is אדמה adama. We are always growing, we're striving, we're reaching, we're improving. So if you want to draw close, you want to be an אדם Adam, you want to be growing, כי יקריב מכם קרבן ki yakriv mikem korban, then you have to genuinely offer השם Hashem a קרבן korban from within ourselves.Next פסוק pasuk, פסוק ג pasuk gimel. אם עולה קרבנו מן הבקר, זכר תמים יקריבנו, אל פתח אהל מועד יקריב אותו לרצונו לפני השם Im olah korbano min habakar, zachar tamim yakrivenu, el pesach ohel moed yakriv oso lirtzono lifnei Hashem. If one's offering is a קרבן עולה korban olah, an elevation offering, then you bring it from the cattle of an unblemished male, and you bring it at the opening of the tent of the of the meeting. Here's the מגיד ממזריטש Maggid of Mezritch. Says רב דב בער Rav Dov Ber, the מגיד ממזריטש Maggid of Mezritch. אם עולה קרבנו Im olah korbano, if you want to be עולה olah, if you want to be going up, this is consistent with what we just said from the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer, why it says אדם Adam. If you want to be an עולה olah, if you want to be striving and reaching and growing and improving, קרבנו korbano, you have to be willing to sacrifice. No pain, no gain. You have to be willing to, it's true in the world of exercise and diet, it's true in the world of work ethic, it's true in the world of relationships. Every area of life, no pain, no gain, לפום צערא אגרא lifum tzaara agra. According to the effort and according to the sacrifices we're willing to make, according to the pain we're willing to endure will be the results that we're able to achieve. אם עולה Im olah, if you want to go up, if you want to achieve and you want to grow, then קרבנו korbano, you have to be willing to sacrifice. You have to be willing to sacrifice in life.Let's skip ahead. פרק ד Perek Daled, פסוק ב pasuk beis. Now the פרשה Parsha is going through the different types of sacrifices that we have. And among them is the קרבן מנחה korban mincha. The מנחה mincha is the flower sacrifice. We have many, many, many מנחות minchos, many different types of flower offerings or sacrifices that are referenced in the פרשה Parsha. And פסוק יג pasuk yud gimel tells us something that goes with them. וכל קרבן מנחתך במלח תמלח, ולא תשבית מלח ברית אלקיך מעל מנחתך, על כל קרבנך תקריב מלח V'chol korban minchascha b'melach timlach, v'lo sashbis melach bris Elokecha mei'al minchasecha, al kol korbancha takriv melach. You salt, you shall salt your every meal offering with salt. Don't discontinue the salt of your of God's covenant from upon your meal offering, on every offering shall you offer salt. This is the origin of our custom of having salt on our table. Our table is like a שולחן shulchan, is like a מזבח mizbeach. When we eat, people mistakenly associate this just for Shabbos. When do you have to dip the חלה challah in the salt or put the salt on the חלה challah? That's a law about Shabbos. Not true. It's a law every time that you have bread, we have it with salt. There's a big discussion in הלכה Halacha. Today, our recipe for bread includes spices, seasonings, or salt. So maybe today you don't need to, maybe we still do. But all of this is connected to the idea of the ברית מלח bris melach, this covenant of the salt, which the פסוק pasuk here is is referencing. What is the role or significance of salt? We spoke about salt back in ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis. When did we speak about salt in בראשית Bereishis? When we talked about the wife of לוט Lot who turned around and turned into a pillar of salt. Salt is a preservative. It's captures you, it stops you where you are and the way you are. So here we have this covenant of salt, the salt appears on our table, this idea of of the of the salt. We've spoken about in the past last year or two years ago, we quoted an amazing מי השילוח Mei Hashiloach and an amazing איז'ביצר Ishbitzer about the salt. But I want to tell you another insight here from ישראל מצ'ורטקוב Yisrael of Chortkov, the צ'ורטקובער Chortkover, who says the following. Salt, what's the significance of salt with sacrifices? And why is it that you're not allowed to offer a קרבן מנחה korban mincha, this flower offering without salt? And why do we have salt on our table? What is the image, the symbolism, what does salt remind us of? By the way, this is brought in הלכה Halacha too even in אלול Elul or ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah time or the period through through סוכות Sukkos. There are those who put salt on their חלה challah even when they continue to use honey, but even those who don't use salt when they're using honey still have a tradition or custom of leaving the salt on the table. Because we have an idea of a ברית מלח bris melach, the symbolism or significance of the salt, its presence, even when we are not still using it on our table. So listen what the צ'ורטקובער Chortkover says. He says, salt is the only ingredient that has no value on its own whatsoever. There is no healthy normal person who eats salt alone. I've never seen someone. A person puts a handful of salt in their hand and and licks it or eats it. We would look at the person askance. We would look at the person as being peculiar. Salt is never eaten alone. The whole value of salt, salt only achieves a value when, when it's mixed together with other ingredients. When the salt contributes as an ingredient among others, that's when the salt gains value. But when the salt is all alone, then the salt has no purpose. Then the salt contributes nothing. So said the צדיק tzaddik, רב ישראל מצ'ורטקוב Rav Yisrael of Chortkov, the same is true with an individual. When you see that salt which is connected with a קרבן korban, and when we see that salt on our table, the salt should remind us that if we think that we have value on our own, if we live with a sense of אנכי anochi, I, if we have an inflated sense of arrogance, then we have no value. Our value is in the contribution we make to others. Our value is in being מעורב עם הבריות me'urav im habriyos, in our being interconnected, in our contributing positively, in caring about others. If through this crisis each of us has retreated only into our own homes, then what are we and who are we? But if from within our own homes we're calling and we're FaceTiming and we're offering to shop for those who can't go out and we're מעורב me'urav, we're helping the others, then in fact we are worthy. That's the ברית מלח bris melach. The covenant with God is to recognize and realize that on our own we are unworthy. We gain our worthiness in connection and in the role that we play when we show that we care about others.פרק ד Perek Daled, פסוק ב pasuk beis. We're flying right along now. Skip ahead to פרק ד Perek Daled. פרק ד Perek daled, פסוק ב pasuk beis. Again, we're going through this list and litany of the different sacrifices. We had the קרבן עולה korban olah and the מנחה mincha, and now we have a קרבן שלמים korban shlamim, and we have a קרבן חטאת korban chatas. And here in the context of the קרבן חטאת korban chatas. פרק ד Perek daled, פסוק ב pasuk beis. דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר Daber el Bnei Yisrael leimor. This is a קרבן חטאת korban chatas. A חטאת chatas is brought when a person violates something by accident. So you bring a קרבן חטאת korban chatas, a sin offering. דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר, נפש כי תחטא בשגגה מכל מצות השם אשר לא תעשינה ועשה מאחת מהנה Daber el Bnei Yisrael leimor, nefesh ki sechta b'shgaga mikol mitzvos Hashem asher lo se'asena v'asa mei'achas meihena. Tell the Jewish people the following, if a person will make a mistake unintentionally from among the commandments of השם Hashem that can't be done, and you commit one of them. If you violate a לאו lav, then you have to bring and do it by accident, you have to bring a קרבן חטאת korban chatas. What word is unusual here in this פסוק pasuk? What word seems like it doesn't belong? The word נפש nefesh. נפש כי תחטא Nefesh ki sechta. Why doesn't the פסוק pasuk simply say, speak to the Jewish people and tell them, כי תחטא בשגגה ki sechta b'shgaga, when you make a mistake. When you violate my word by accident. Why specifically is it introduced with the word נפש nefesh? נפש Nefesh, a soul, when it makes a mistake. Why is the word soul being invoked here? So I bring your attention to the רמב\"ן Ramban. And writes the רמב\"ן Ramban, נחמנידיס Nachmanides, בעבור היות המחשבה בנפש היא אשר שוגגת, הזכיר כאן נפש B'avur heyos hamachshava b'nefesh hi asher shogeges, hizkir ka'an nefesh. Because where does contemplativeness, where does mindfulness take place? What happened? Why did you violate? If you think about it for a moment, why are we accountable at all for our accident? A person who has to bring a קרבן חטאת korban chatas has to spend a lot of money, a lot of energy, a lot of time in order to get the animal and bring the animal to the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, to ירושלים Yerushalayim, and offer it. That's a tremendous inconvenience and it's a tremendous expense. Why do they have to do that? What did they do wrong? We've already considered, we've acknowledged that the whole thing was an accident. If the whole thing is an accident, why do they have to go to this extent? Says the רמב\"ן Ramban, because you know, there are kind of different kinds of accidents. We remember back to when we were children or we find ourselves now as parents still saying this. There are accidents that could have been avoided. There are accidents which were unavoidable, and there are accidents which reflect negligence, accidents which reflect a lack of mindfulness. If only we were paying attention, if we were more mindful, if we were more careful, the accident could have been avoided all together. Where does mindfulness take place, says the רמב\"ן Ramban? In the נפש nefesh. It takes place in the soul. And writes the רמב\"ן Ramban, says the רמב\"ן Ramban, if when you violated something by accident you weren't accountable, people would be very flippant and negligent in how they behaved, and they would still feel entitled and they'd still feel the right to draw close to God. So therefore, we are held accountable even for the things that we... you do by accident. Why? Because, says the Ramban, and this is fundamental and axiomatic to our faith and to our relationship with השם Hashem and to this entire ספר ויקרא sefer Vayikra, to the whole תורה Torah. Because when we do something wrong, even by accident, it leaves a blemish, it leaves an imprint on our soul. Our נשמה neshama, our נפש nefesh is changed. First of all, he uses the word נפש nefesh, not נשמה neshama, because maybe it shows that that negligence or mindlessness was the result of our animal soul, not our human, our godly soul. נפש Nefesh, animals have a נפש nefesh. Humans have not only a נפש nefesh, we have a נשמה neshama. We know there are four types of of creation. So you have, you have that which is, you have that which is inanimate, and then you have the plant world, and then you have the animal world, and now the human world. So the animal world has a נפש nefesh. Only the human being has a נשמה neshama. Why does the פסוק pasuk use the term נפש nefesh, not נשמה neshama? To tell us that that negligence and mindlessness was the result of our using our נפש nefesh, not our נשמה neshama. But what happens is when we do something wrong, even by mistake and by accident, it leaves a blemish on our נפש nefesh, on our נשמה neshama, on our soul. And therefore we need to be accountable. We need to cleanse. We need to purify and restore our soul, as we say every day in our דאווענען davening, אלוקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא Elokai neshama shenatata bi, tehorah hi. The soul you gave me is clean, is pure. And even the things I do by accident, even if I'm not directly accountable, but I nevertheless need to take the steps in order to purify, I need to take the steps in order to improve, I need to take the steps in order to, so we have to understand that it's not just our body, it's not just when we intend to do things, even when we do them by accident, we're trying to preserve and maintain the purity and the cleanliness of our of our soul.I had a few more things I wanted to share with you. A beautiful קוצקר Kotsker, a beautiful רב הירש Rav Hirsch, so much more on this and each and every פרשה parsha, but we are out of time. Thank you so much for joining me in whatever medium that you are. I look forward to continuing to learn together. You can join one of our WhatsApp groups where we're sending תורה Torah out daily by going to RabbiEphraimGoldberg.org/whatsapp. Or you can join us tomorrow. We have our 10 minutes of meaning at 8:15 a.m. and our Living with אמונה Emunah שיעור shiur at 8:45 a.m. Looking forward to continuing to learn together. Please God, back in person sometime very soon. Thank you.
