Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב boker tov. Welcome back to Partial Perspectives for today. We have the privilege of learning and reading פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach together. I want to thank our פרשה Parsha series sponsors for the year, our dear friends, Becky and Avi Katz and family in loving memory of Becky's father, David Grossman, דוד בן מנחם מנש David ben Menachem Manesh. This morning's פרשה parsha class is also sponsored by Alex and Debbie Marcus on the occasion of the first יארצייט yahrtzeit of Rabbi Jonathan Brown, רב יונתן משה בן אברם Rav Yonasan Moshe ben Avram, Debbie's father's נשמה neshama should have an עליה aliyah. And it is also co-sponsored by Jennifer and Dr. Ronnie Herman in memory of שרה צירל בת יודל Sarah Tziro bas Yidel Price, courageous woman who never lost her אמונה emunah, despite having to endure the Holocaust, an אמה omah who was privileged to live and see five generations. Her נשמה neshama should have an עליה aliyah as well. Thank you to all of our sponsors. If you'd like to sponsor a future שיעור shiur, please email Lee at BRSonline.org, L-E-E at BRSonline.org. As I said, this week we have the privilege of learning פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach, page 798 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. And this is an action-packed פרשה parsha. Unfortunately, it is in a string of פרשיות parshios that do not reflect well on כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, on the Jewish people. The Jewish people at this stage are in their adolescence, growing pains. They are emerging and trying to mature as a people. From ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis, a family, שמות Shmos, we emerge as a nation, ויקרא Vayikra, we have our sacred charge, the כהנים kohanim, תורת כהנים Toras Kohanim. And here in במדבר Bamidbar, as we are journeying through the desert, which should have been a direct route into the land of Israel, we're also on as much as we are a physical geographic journey, we are on a metaphysical, spiritual journey of self-discovery. The people are experiencing their adolescence and growing into themselves. As we've been doing all this year, we're going to tap into the איש תמיד Ish Tamid, the beautiful insights of רב דרוק Rav Druk. Last week when רב דרוק Rav Druk was in Boca, he gave me a new copy of his ספר איש תמיד sefer Ish Tamid on במדבר Bamidbar, just published now תשפ\"א Taf Shin Pei Aleph, a new expanded edition that has more דברי תורה divrei Torah. And we'll weave together דברי תורה divrei Torah from all over, but including many from the איש תמיד Ish Tamid. So he says the following. The beginning of our פרשה parsha, שלח לך אנשים Shlach lecha anashim, ויסורו את ארץ כנען אשר אני נותן לבני ישראל veyasuru es Eretz Canaan asher ani nosein l'Bnei Yisrael, איש אחד איש אחד למטה אבותיו תשלחו ish echad ish echad l'mateh avosav tishlachu, כל נשיא בהם kol nasi bahem. Our פרשה parsha begins where the Torah tells us, Hashem spoke to Moshe and he said, send forth men, and let them investigate the land that I'm giving to the Jewish people, one man from each of his father's tribe, everyone a leader among them. And רש\"י Rashi here tells us, רש\"י Rashi begins and describes, שלח לך shlach lecha לדעתך l'daatcha. Who is the one who initiated? Who is the driver of this episode, of the sending of the spies? Is this Hashem's will? Is he the one who wants it? Is this the will of the people? Is Moshe instigating? Why? Why do they send ahead advanced spies to investigate the land? So רש\"י Rashi says שלח לך shlach lecha, send for you, God tells Moshe, לדעתך l'daatcha, according to your opinion, אני איני מצוה לך ani eini metzaveh lecha, I, says God, I'm not commanding you. אם תרצה שלח im tirzeh shlach, if you want to, send. שבאו ישראל ואמרו sheba'u Yisrael v'omru, נשלחה אנשים לפנינו nishlecha anashim l'faneinu, כְּמַה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר ותקרבון אלי כלכם kema shene'emar vatikrevun elai kulchem. ומשה נמלך בשכינה u'Moshe nimlach b'Shechinah. So the people approached Moshe and they said, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're going to another land? We got to get passports, we got to get visas, we got to pack. It's a different language, different culture, different electricity, different plugs, transformers. Whoa. We need to send people ahead. We need scouts, they need to investigate. God checks with Moshe. אמר אני אמרתי להם Amar ani amarti lahem, שהיא טובה shehi tovah, שנאמר shene'emar, אל ארץ el Eretz, מצרים Mitzraim. חייהם שאני נותן להם מקום לטעות בדברי המרגלים Chayaihem she'ani nosein lahem makom litos b'divrei ha'meraglim, שלא יירשוה shelo yirshuha. So רש\"י Rashi quotes this back and forth here. Who instigated, who initiated? What is the reason? So writes Rav Druk, בענין חטא המרגלים רבה המבוכה b'inyan cheit ha'meraglim rabbah ha'mevuchah. האם הבקשה שישראל לשלוח מרגלים לארץ ישראל ha'im ha'bakasha she'Yisrael lishloach meraglim l'Eretz Yisrael היתה ראויה או לא hay'sa re'uyah o lo? Was this legitimate? Was this considered to be a virtuous request or not? Was this a form of doubting the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam? Did they in fact express rebelliousness? Were they doubting the Almighty? Or were they doing something worthy? Was it appropriate and correct? מצד אחד Mitzad echad, on the one hand it says שלח לך אנשים ויסורו את ארץ כנען shlach lecha anashim v'yasuru es Eretz Canaan. And רש\"י Rashi says לדעתך l'daatcha, that God says this is not from me. I'm not initiating, I don't want, I'm not commanding it, it's for you. It's a concession. ואם היה חטא בעצם שליחות המרגלים V'im hayah cheit b'atzmo shlichus ha'meraglim, מדוע לא מנע זאת הקדוש ברוך הוא madua lo mana zos haKadosh Baruch Hu, ועושה אותו באופן ברור v'oseh oso b'ofen barur. Now if it was entirely wrong, if it was an act of rebelliousness, if it was challenging Hashem, then why didn't הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu squash it? Why didn't he nix it? Why didn't he say, not I'm doing it for you, but don't do it at all? You don't belong, trust me, we're going in, nothing more to talk about. מצד שני Mitzad sheini, on the other hand, כאשר מוכיח משה רבינו את ישראל ka'asher mochiach Moshe Rabbeinu es Yisrael, the beginning of ספר דברים Sefer Devarim, when Moshe offers his soliloquies, monologue, he recounts all of Jewish history until that point, and he rebukes them for this episode. He says, ותקרבון אלי כלכם vatikrevun elai kulchem, and רש\"י Rashi says, בערבוביה b'irbuvya. You all came upon me with chaos, a stampede. You all came upon me aggressively, you bullied me. ולהלן הוא אומר ותקרבון אלי כל ראשי שבטיכם וזקניכם U'l'halan hu omer vatikrevun elai kol rashei shivteichem v'zikneichem, ותאמרו הן הראנו v'tomru hein her'anu, אותו קריבה היתה הגונה oso kriva hay'sa hagunes. ילדים מכבדים את הזקנים ושולחים לפניהם y'ladim m'chabdim es ha'z'keinim v'sholchim l'fneihem. There was another gathering which was done correctly. Everyone was orderly, organized, dignified. אבל כאן, בזה aval kan, b'zeh, but this, when you initiated, says Moshe to the people, when you approached me and you initiated, let's send spies, let's send scouts, let's investigate, you didn't come to me calmly and orderly and with dignity. You came, ותקרבון בערבוביה vatikrevun b'irbuvya, ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים, זקנים דוחפים את הראשים yeladim dochfim es ha'z'keinim, z'keinim dochfim es ha'rashim. There was pushing and shoving, there was aggressiveness and bullying. You came upon me confrontationally. הרי שעצם הדרישה לשלוח מרגלים גנאי היא לישראל ha're she'etzem ha'drisha lishloach meraglim g'nai hi l'Yisrael. So which is it? Which is it? Is this something that הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu himself can get on board with? Did he endorse it? And even if he didn't initiate it, was he okay with it? Seems to be from our פרשה parsha, שלח לך Shlach lecha. True, it's לך lecha for you, but God didn't say, don't do it. On the other hand, משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu rebukes the people and he said, what a terrible idea. You bullied me, you pressured me, you came upon me in a stampede, you pushed me and shoving. ומאידך רק פסוק אחד אחרי כן U'mei'idach rak pasuk echad acharei kein, but then Moshe says, וייטב בעיני הדבר Vayitav b'einai ha'davar, I thought it was a good idea. זאת אומרת שהיה נראה בעיניו ראוי ונכון לשלוח מרגלים Zos omeres she'hayah nir'eh b'einav ra'ui v'nachon lishloach meraglim. So it sounds like he thought it was a good idea. So which is it? Is it a good idea? Is it a bad idea? What is the reality? What is the reality over here? I think I keep losing everybody. The internet looks like it's going in and out. For those who are watching, but we're going to try nonetheless to continue. ביאור הענין צריך לומר Beur ha'inyan tzrich lomar. לעולם ודאי שליחות l'olam vadai shlichus, המרגלים היתה דבר טוב ha'meraglim hay'sa davar tov. Really Rav Druk suggests the sending of scouts, of spies to investigate the land was in fact a good idea, וחיובי v'chayuv, and it was required. It was appropriate. וכשם שמצינו אצל יהושע u'k'sheim she'matzinu etzel Yehoshua, just like later, if it was such a bad idea, why does יהושע Yehoshua emulate? Why does יהושע Yehoshua in the beginning of the book of יהושע Yehoshua, he too identifies not 12 but two, and he sends them into Israel to investigate. And if it was such a bad idea with such a disastrous result, why did יהושע Yehoshua emulate? Why did he imitate? So says Rav Druk, so what went wrong? If the initial idea, if the drive to send investigators, scouts was good, what went wrong? So, הדבר היחידי שגרם לחטא כל הענין ha'davar ha'yachidi she'garam l'cheit kol ha'inyan, הוא ההתחלה, האופן שבו נעשה הענין hu ha'hatchala ha'ofen shebo na'aseh ha'inyan. The answer is everything follows the start, the beginning. And look at the way it was initiated. ותקרבון אלי בערבוביה Vatikrevun elai b'irbuvya. ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים yeladim dochfim es ha'z'keinim, children were pushing the elders and the elders were being knocked over. And you see, כאשר תחילת הענין נעשה באופן שאינה הגון ka'asher techilas ha'inyan na'aseh b'ofen she'einah hagun, when something begins, even a good idea, even a noble goal, but when it begins with an ignoble way, then ultimately, it falls flat. אזי כל ההמשך נגרר אחר ההתחלה azai kol ha'hemshech nigra achar ha'hatchala, everything follows the start, the beginning, עד כדי כך שבסופו של דבר נגזר עליהם ארבעים שנה ad kidei kach sheb'sofo shel davar nigzar aleihem arba'im shana. And you see ultimately what results is a disaster. Ultimately what results is a catastrophe. Ultimately what results is 40 years of wandering in the desert and a בכיה לדורות b'chiya l'doros. That our תשעה באב Tisha B'Av today, we sit on the floor, we mourn, we cry that until this very day we are suffering the consequences of that horrific mission, that failed mission. Why did it fail? Was it a bad idea to begin with? No, you see that from the fact that יהושע Yehoshua imitates and emulates it. Why did it fail? Because of the way it started. It started with aggressiveness. It started with bullying. It started with elbowing, pushing and shoving. It started with disrespect and disregard. It started with a lack of dignity. יסוד זה השריש המשגיח ברב ירוחם Yesod zeh hishrish ha'mashgiach b'Reb Yerucham. רב ירוחם Reb Yerucham of the Mir explains, says Rav Druk, לעולם אין החטא מתחיל בשעת החטא ממש L'olam ein ha'cheit mas'chil b'sha'as ha'cheit mamash. The mistake did not begin when they came back and gave the negative report. לכל חטא יש הקדמה l'chol cheit yesh hakdama. Every time we make a mistake, every time we fail, we give into the voice of self-sabotage, every time we choose poorly, that moment of the poor choice is not when it began. There was a setup, there was a build-up, it happened even earlier. בתחילה אומר לו היצר עשה כך, ואחר אומר עשה כך B'tchila omer lo ha'yetzer aseh kach v'acher omer aseh kach, עד שאומר לו לך ועבוד עבודה זרה ad she'omer lo lech v'avod avodah zarah. The יצר הרע yetzer hara slowly, very incrementally, very perniciously, the יצר הרע yetzer hara pushes us, it goads us, slowly, it seduces us, and little by little, we cross our own boundaries. Little by little, we violate our own red lines, until we find ourselves on the other side, until we find ourselves having made a big mistake. And that's what you see here as well. זה יקרו של חטא המרגלים Zeh yikaro shel cheit ha'meraglim, התחלה נעשתה בצורה גרועה hatchala na'asta b'tzura g'ru'ah. It began in a very low level. And even though the goal was a good goal, and even though the mission was not inherently bad, and even though the idea was not wrong, and you see that from the fact that יהושע Yehoshua imitates it, but the way they went about it, the pushing, the shoving. I think this is a partial perspective for today because unfortunately כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael has suffered several tragedies this year, which were the result of aggressive pushing, shoving, irresponsible, failed safety and so on. We need to learn from it. You could be pursuing the most holy activity. You could be trying to climb the mountain to get close to השם Hashem. You could be trying to climb the bleachers in order to get close to הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You can have the most lofty goal and mission, but if you do it with disregard for safety, for dignity, for honor, even if it's the most noble goal, but it's an ignoble means to achieve it, then it results in disaster. It results in catastrophe. It was true going all the way back to the חטא המרגלים cheit ha'meraglim, and it remains true until this very day. Rabbi Soloveitchik has a different approach of why we wanted to enter the land. Was it a good idea, a bad idea, inherently right, inherently wrong? And says the Rav, why was it necessary to send spies at all? What were they supposed to do? What report did Moshe expect from them? And the report they brought back was actually the truth. Why were they so severely punished? Right? Spoiler alert, let's skip ahead. We know that they go 40 days, they investigate, they come back, they give a negative report. Yoshua and Kalev, they act differently. We'll study and unpack exactly their approach momentarily. And of course, the people accepted the negative report. They cried all night, and God said, you cried for nothing, I'll give you a reason to cry. And again, תשעה באב Tisha B'Av was established, the ninth of Av, the night of that crying in perpetuity as an inauspicious day on our calendar. Terrible calamities have happened to our people throughout the centuries and millennia on that day. But we're going to look further at this also. What did they do wrong when they came back and they reported? They described what they saw with their eyes. They didn't really give such a judgment. They used the word אפס efes, we'll see. But what did they do so wrong? So what did Moshe expect from them? How did they fail and what did they do so wrong? And what were they meant to do? Says the Rav, the spies' mission was not to spy, לרגל l'ragel, but rather לסור את הארץ la'sur es ha'aretz, to scout the land. לרגל l'ragel means spying to identify the military weak spots in the defense system of a potential enemy. Yosef accuses his brothers of being spies, מרגלים אתם meraglim atem. You're spies. You've come to see the nakedness of the land, says the פסוק pasuk. Nothing of that sort was entrusted to these 12 spies. Their assignment, spelled out by משה Moshe, was to search, to explore, to scout. It wasn't military intelligence. It was a study mission. They were to see the land, and after their return, they were to submit a number of reports. One was a demographic report. Are the people strong or weak, few or many? The other was an agricultural study. Is the soil rich or poor? Moshe needed no military intelligence when the Jews left Mitzrayim. He needed none here. He knew very well the entry to the land of Israel would be accompanied by miracles, as was יציאת מצרים Yetzias Mitzrayim. There was no need to send spies to collect intelligence. Instead, Moshe acted in accordance with the principle that one must not propose to and let alone wed a woman he does not know, no matter how highly recommended. It's a very beautiful insight of the Rav. When Moshe sent the meraglim, the spies, it wasn't to investigate or to collect intelligence. It wasn't intelligence gathering. We trusted Hashem to take us out of Mitzrayim. This was a generation that saw 10 plagues, a splitting of a sea. All that was good enough for them to emancipate and to liberate them. Now they lost their faith that the same Ribbono shel Olam, the same Almighty, the same God who could bring 10 plagues, who could intervene and intercede with nature, who could make the sea split, that the same God would not be able to bring them into the land of Israel? That was not the goal. That was not the mission. That was not the purpose. So what was it? Says Rav Soloveitchik, the goal was not intelligence gathering, it was not to develop a military strategy. That was in the hands of Hashem. They had faith, they had trust, they knew Hashem would get it right. So what was it for? So we have a halacha, the Gemara in Kiddushin daf mem tells us, mem aleph, that before a man can be betrothed, before he can be mekadesh an isha, a woman, he has to see her. Why? Because he might come to violate ואהבת לרעך כמוך v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. We have to know there's chemistry. We have to know that there's attraction. You're not allowed to get married, it doesn't matter how much the shadchan is recommended, it doesn't matter how impressive her resume or profile, it doesn't matter how photoshopped or wonderful her picture, which should never even be on the resume or the profile, it doesn't matter how many endorsements and how much the references say she is the most perfect thing that ever lived, a man still needs to see the woman before he marries because he may violate ואהבת לרעך כמוך v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. The פסוק pasuk tells us, the Torah tells us that יצחק Yitzchak and the servant told Yitzchak all the things he had done, and יצחק Yitzchak ויביאה האהלה vayevi'eha ha'ohela, he brought her into the tent of שרה Sarah his mother, and he took רבקה Rivka to become his wife. Notwithstanding the servant's portrayal of רבקה Rivka's wisdom, intelligence, hospitality, kindness, יצחק Yitzchak didn't take her for a wife immediately, as רש\"י Rashi tells us, יצחק Yitzchak brought her into שרה Sarah's tent before marrying her to see if she was a worthy successor to שרה Sarah. Would she restore the glory and the pristine beauty of שרה Sarah's tent? יצחק Yitzchak waited to see if the same cloud would return, if the yeast in the dough would rise, if the candle would be relit. When he saw it all returned, he married רבקה Rivka. אליעזר Eliezer was trustworthy, devoted, loyal. אליעזר Eliezer was a good שדכן shadchan, but יצחק Yitzchak did not marry רבקה Rivka until he became convinced she was the equal of שרה Sarah. Marriage is not an ordinary transaction. It is not just a civil commitment or a mundane partnership. It is an existential commitment, a covenantal union. Two lonely people join their souls, two strangers decide to unite their destinies to share the same fate, to suffer and rejoice together, to travel, to pay the toll of the road jointly. When one takes on such an all-inclusive, all-encompassing commitment, one cannot trust anybody, no matter how loyal and trustworthy the other person might be. Because of the nature of marriage, it's so intimate, it is something so transcendent, it is something so core to our identity, two halves becoming a whole, we don't rely on a שדכן shadchan, you don't rely on references, you don't rely on the report of others, we have to go investigate, we have to go see, we have to go believe, we have to go learn ourselves. The Jews at this time were ready to march to the promised land. The entry into the land of Israel, we have to understand, was not just a physical act of crossing the ירדן Yarden, the Jordan River. It was a marriage between a people and a land, a union of the rocky hills and the sandy trails with the people returning to its origin. The entry signified the destiny of a people united with the destiny of a land. Consequently, the people could not just enter the land without meeting it first. They knew it was a land of milk and honey, but they had to experience it, to get acquainted with it before they became united. That is why a short time before they planned entry into the promised land, Moshe sent explorers to study the land, not to gather intelligence data, which was completely unnecessary. He sent the would-be groom to meet and see the would-be bride. What a beautiful insight. It's a beautiful insight halachically and it's a beautiful explanation of what's going on in the psukim. But I think it's also a very, very beautiful and romantic description of the relationship of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael with ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. This is a singular relationship. It is one and one only, unlike any other. This is a unique, distinct relationship. And before we entered into it, we had to know what we were getting into. Not from a military intelligence gathering perspective, from the perspective of falling in love, of courtship, of curiosity, of going to see, of contributing to that chemistry and to the attraction that we were meant to have. So again, in the Rav's interpretation, by the way, this carries on until this very day. We don't have time now. I once gave a talk, maybe online, but I could share the source sheets with anyone. You know, when when in one of the Zionist Congresses, when Herzl proposed moving or beginning the land, the state of Israel in Uganda, not in the land of Israel, ironically, the Mizrachi, the religious Zionists voted in favor. They thought it was an excellent stepping stone to getting ultimately to עם ישראל Am Yisrael, תורת ישראל Toras Yisrael and ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. It would be a beginning. But ironically, it was the secular Zionists who voted it down and who were against it. And Baruch Hashem, the plan failed. But why? Why is that a bad thing? Why can't the Jews have a homeland somewhere else? Some mistakenly, tragically, horrifilly, mistakenly think that if only the Jews would give up on the land of Israel and stop fighting with Palestinians, with Arabs, and we would agree just to live in the five towns and Teaneck and Boca and LA and be comfortable where we are, then they'll love us, then they'll accept us. We see that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Israel. Even those who distance themselves from Israel are subject and targets of anti-Semitism. One has nothing to do with the other. But why does it have to be in the land of Israel? What is that unique, special relationship? So here the Rav describes very beautifully, it's a love affair, it's romantic, it's a marriage that we have with the land. It's not a land like any other. There are no מצוות התלויות בארץ Mitzvos Ha'T'luyos B'Aretz, there is no mitzvah that depends on the earth and the soil in Uganda, or in Boca, or in anywhere else. That's unique, it's distinct, it's singular, it's exclusive to the land of Israel. It's a very, very special relationship. There's a lot more to say, another time, but I love the Rav's description here that the purpose and the goal of the meraglim was not to gather intelligence, but it was to promote the relationship, the chemistry, the attraction, the romance, the energy between the Jewish people and the land that we were going to marry and marry in perpetuity. Even for 2,000 years when we were exiled and driven from that land, we longed to be reunited. We longed to be reconciled. We longed to come together once again. We didn't divorce the land, we didn't find new land, but all we did is long and דאווען daven and sacrifice to be able to come back together and to be with the same land again. It's a very, very beautiful description. So the goal of the meraglim was a noble goal, at least in the Rav's interpretation. But according to Rav Druk, it was a very innoble mechanism or manner, בערבוביה b'irbuvya, pushing and shoving and crossing boundaries of safety and danger, and in the name of even the most spiritual experience or elevation, we cannot ever cross those boundaries. פרק יג פסוק לב Perek Yud Gimmel, pasuk Lamed Beis. We're skipping right ahead. Moshe davens for Yoshua that it be a successful mission. We're going to come back to that. And the spies report. יג לב Yud Gimmel, Lamed Beis. The pasuk says the following. What happens, the spies come back and they report. ויספרו לו ויאמרו באנו אל הארץ אשר שלחתנו vayesapru lo vayomru banu el ha'aretz asher shlachtanu. We've come to the land. וגם זבת חלב ודבש היא וזה פריה v'gam zavas chalav u'dvash hi v'zeh piryah. We're going to come back to in a moment, what did they say that was so wrong? They're saying something flattering. They're saying something positive. Isn't that good? Isn't that what they were meant to do? ארץ זבת חלב ודבש Eretz zavas chalav u'dvash, it's a land flowing with milk and honey. וזה פריה v'zeh piryah, this is its fruit. אפס Efes. That might be the problem. However, אפס Efes, but, עז העם היושב בארץ az ha'am ha'yosheiv ba'aretz, people who dwell there, they're very powerful. והערים בצורות גדולות מאד וגם ילידי ענק ראינו שם he'arim b'tzuros g'dolos m'od v'gam yelidei Anak ra'inu sham. The people there, the cities are fortified. The cities are great, they have a stronghold. And the offspring of the giants who live there. עמלק יושב בארץ הנגב והחתי והיבוסי והאמורי יושב בהר Amalek yosheiv b'eretz ha'negev v'ha'chiti v'ha'yevusi v'ha'emori yosheiv ba'har, והכנעני יושב על הים ועל יד הירדן v'ha'Knaani yosheiv al ha'yam v'al yad ha'yarden. They're reporting. What did they say that was so wrong? What did they say that wasn't accurate? In fact, they're not even giving a judgment here. So far, they haven't said we can't go. All they're doing is reporting and it seems that all they're reporting are facts. First they begin with saying something positive, flattering. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. This is its fruit. Look at it. It's enormous, succulent, it's delicious, sweet. However, אפס Efes, is that where they went wrong? The אפס Efes? However, but then again, the however is continuing to report data, facts. What they're reporting is accurate and true. The cities are fortified, the people are enormous, they're very strong. And all of a sudden Yoshua, Kalev interrupts. ויהס כלב את העם Vayahas Kalev es ha'am, אל משה ויאמר עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה el Moshe vayomer alo na'aleh v'yarashnu osah, כי יכול נוכל לה ki yachol nuchal lah. He says, עלה נעלה alo na'aleh. He says, let's go up. We've got to go up. Let's climb up. עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה alo na'aleh v'yarashnu osah. Let's climb up and we can conquer it. כי יכול נוכל לה ki yachol nuchal lah. והאנשים אשר עלו עמו אמרו לא נוכל לעלות אל העם v'ha'anashim asher alu imo amru lo nuchal la'alos el ha'am. So he's the one who instigates. Now the rest of the spies respond to him. We can't. כי חזק הוא ממנו ki chazak hu mimenu. Only now after Kalev interrupts, is it when they weigh in and say, however, we can't. So what did they do so wrong? What did they do so wrong? What's going on? And Kalev's עלה נעלה alo na'aleh is somewhat peculiar. עלה נעלה alo na'aleh. He doesn't rebut anything they say. He doesn't offer a counter argument to what they are saying. He doesn't challenge their facts. He just says, enough, quiet. Sha, shtil. Let's go. Everybody, pack your bags. God said we're going, we're going. What's really going on here? So Rashi tells us that Kalev was being very strategic, one can argue manipulative. Kalev says the following. ויהס כלב Vayahas Kalev, השתיק את כולם hishtik es kulam. He silenced them all. They're reporting on what's going on. He says, sha sha sha. Now, what does it mean? אל משה el Moshe. He silenced them, not to himself. Kalev doesn't interrupt. Look at the pasuk. Page 802 in the Artscroll Stone Chumash, chapter 13, verse 30. פרק יג פסוק ל Perek Yud Gimmel, pasuk Lamed. ויהס כלב את העם Vayahas Kalev es ha'am, he silences them אל משה el Moshe. Why does he silence them? What's his motivation in silencing them? To whom does he silence them? אל משה el Moshe. Says Rashi, what does it mean he silences them אל משה el Moshe? לשמוע מה שידבר במשה lishmo'a mah she'y'daber b'Moshe. Let's hear what Moshe has to say. סבור ואומר, וכי זו בדבר עשה לנו בן עמרם Sovach v'omar v'chi zu b'davar oso lanu ben Amram. השומע סבור שבא לספר בגנותו ha'shome'a savur she'ba l'saper b'gnuso. He's silencing them and saying, let's listen to Moshe. Hey Moshe, is this your plan to get us slaughtered? To get us murdered on the land of Israel? What's your plan here? To get us wiped out? But that wasn't the reason. He really silenced them so he could say the עלה נעלה alo na'aleh. He really silenced them to remind them everything that Hashem had done for them and the promise that he was going to continue to do it yet again. It's a beautiful chassidic insight here. Rav Yechiel Michel of Strovtza who says the following. Rashi says עלה נעלה alo na'aleh. Look at Rashi, עלה נעלה alo na'aleh. What did Kalev say? עלה נעלה alo na'aleh, we can go up. אפילו בשמים afilu ba'shamayim, והוא אומר עשו סולמות ועלו שם v'hu omer osu sulamos v'alu sham. We can go up. Not just עליה aliyah to ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. Not just let's go up נפש בנפש Nefesh b'nefesh to Israel, but אפילו בשמים afilu ba'shamayim. Let's go all the way. Let's go all the way, not just geographically, not just physically, let's go all the way to heaven. והוא אומר עשו סולמות ועלו שם v'hu omer osu sulamos v'alu sham. Let's make ladders and climb. להצליח בכל דרכיו l'hatzliach b'chol drachav. Let's succeed in all that we are doing. So says רב יחיאל מיכל מאוסטרובצה Rav Yechiel Michel of Strovtza, כך העליה בדרך התורה ובנשיאת המצוות kach ha'aliyah b'derech ha'Torah u'vin'sias ha'mitzvos. If a person wants to be a בן עליה ben aliyah, a בת עליה bas aliyah, you want to be somebody who aspires to grow, you want to be a growth-oriented person, a person who's improving, who's not living the same year over and over again and calling it a life, but is constantly improving and progressing and growing, אם יבוא אדם ויאמר לנו לעלות כמה וכמה מדרגות בבת אחת im yavo adam v'yomar lanu la'alos kama v'kama madrigos b'vas achas, אין לשמוע לו ein lishmo'a lo. If somebody says skip steps, let's just run up those stairs and skip steps, skip the rungs on the ladder, just climb two, three at a time, say no. We reveal our nakedness, the Torah tells us, if you run up the ramp, you reveal your nakedness. הדרך הנכונה היא כפי שהורו לנו רבותינו ha'derech ha'nechona hi k'fi she'horu lanu Raboseinu, לעלות קמעא קמעא, לאט לאט, ומדרגה למדרגה la'alos kim'a kim'a, l'at l'at, u'midarga l'midarga. כשם שעולים בסולם k'sheim she'olim b'sulam, שלב אחרי שלב shalav acharei shalav. זוהי הדרך הראויה לעלות בבית השם zuhi ha'derech ha're'uyah la'alos b'beis Hashem. The proper way to climb and to get close to Hashem, when it comes to תורה Torah, when it comes to מצוות mitzvos, when it comes to מדות middos, if we're trying to improve our character, if we're trying to improve our behavior, our performance, if we're trying to live our better or best selves, it doesn't come by trying to expedite. It doesn't come from trying to fast pass. You can't skip steps. Slowly, incrementally, methodically. person has to go לאט לאט le'at le'at. And perhaps you see it here, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh, Rashi, when you want to climb all the way to the שמים Shamayim, the image we has is, we image we have of a סולם sulam, of a ladder. You have to go rung by rung. You have to climb slowly, slowly, says Rav Yechiel Michel of Ostrava. Rav Soloveitchik now says, what does it mean עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh? Kalev was the only one who saw things in their right perspective. What does he mean עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh? So, sorry, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh, Rabbi Soloveitchik. In the same fashion that he was just describing, here it is, we can surely go up. חז\"ל Chazal say three grants have bestowed upon the Jewish people: Torah, the Land of Israel, and the World to Come. But the Jew has to acquire all of them through יסורים yissurim, through suffering. It's in ברכות דף ה Berachos Daf Hey. Hashem rewards a person in accordance with their effort. A person appreciates something in proportion to the level of hardship we have to undergo to create the eternal bond between spiritual values and the Jew, we have to work for it, to experience the pain. Holiness has one source: sacrifice. Holiness and sacrifice, both literally and figuratively, are fundamentally the same concept. Holiness can only be created through self-sacrifice, pain, effort, and exertion. If a person does not anticipate and struggle, holiness cannot come into being. We don't stumble or trip upon holiness. Holiness doesn't just happen on its own. Holiness is the result of effort, of toil, of sacrifice. That is the, that the existence of the state of Israel is a miracle, writes the Rav, is beyond doubt. At the same time, it's a miracle that came at great cost. At Israel's very inception, in the first night of the state of Israel's existence, bombs were dropped on Tel Aviv. Subsequently, in the years since it has become into being, the relationship of world Jewry to the state of Israel has been like the relationship of a mother to her only child, saturated with trembling, trembling fear and insecurity. Insecurity because one is never sure if a passenger bus will be attacked. One is never certain if a small fishing vessel in the Gulf of Akaba will not be fired upon. A mother whose son is stationed only a few miles from her home is never sure if he will not be the next victim of Arab snipers. Why is the suffering that has been accompanying the entire history of the state of Israel necessary? Because the state of Israel involves holiness. And holiness only exists if man, through sacrifice, becomes a partner with Hashem. The paradigm of this partnership is the mitzvah of ברית מילה Bris Milah. בדמיך חיי B'damayich chayi, the blood and suffering allows to merit the continued existence of מדינת ישראל Medinas Yisrael. We experience this uncertain period in our history because our very insecurity is a sign that Hashem indeed desires the state of Israel. If he didn't, the birth and subsequent building of the state would have proceeded smoothly. Jewish history, he writes, is a zigzag trajectory. Avram was repeatedly promised a child by Hashem and yet, had to wait many long years for Yitzchak's birth. Ultimately to be commanded to sacrifice him. Moshe had to wait atop a cold mountain for forty days until Hashem revealed himself with the message of בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael's forgiveness. The suffering, the worry, the uncertainty is precisely what Hashem wants of us. We shouldn't have any expectation of everything being smooth, of smooth sailing. Rather, that sacrifice, that effort, that toil, that stress, that anxiety, that worry is a reflection of the holiness, of the worthiness of this mission, of all that we are trying to, of all that we are trying to achieve, of all that we are trying to accomplish. עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh, says Kalev, let's go up. It won't be easy. It'll take effort, it'll take sacrifice. כי יכול נוכל לה Ki yachol nuchal lah. Indeed, we can overcome it. So, in, in the words of Kalev, when he began, in the words of Kalev at the very, very beginning, was, it'll take effort. It takes sacrifice, it's not easy. Shavuos, we had our Aliyah reception for the families from Boca who are making Aliyah this year and as we always say and promote, while there are legitimate reasons not to live in Israel, there are no legitimate reasons not to struggle with, not to plan, not if, but when we will go. We all belong, and we all should be there. And though it will take sacrifice, it's not easy. Less sacrifice than it ever did, but still not easy to leave one's comfort zone to make that transition. That was what Kalev said, just like he said to the מרגלים meraglim, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh, we can do it. עליה Aliyah. כי יכול נוכל Ki yachol nuchal, we've got it. We've got it. Because things that are worth it are worth sacrificing for. Holiness is the result of that sacrifice and that effort and one should never have had any expectation of anything in the opposite direction that would have been a terribly unfair expectation. חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim has a different interpretation of what's going on here in this entire story, and it's worth sharing this insight of the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim. He has it in שמירת הלשון Shmiras HaLashon, the second חלק chelek. And I couldn't find it in חפץ חיים על התורה Chofetz Chaim Al HaTorah, but I understand it's there too, maybe in another edition. The חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim wonders the following. We don't have time to read inside, so take my word for it. Of these twelve spies who go in, only Yehoshua and Kalev remain loyal. Only they stay true to Hashem and trust and have faith in him, that if he says we're going in, we're going in and there's not going to be a problem. But the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim has a number of questions. חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim asks about Kalev. Number one, we know that Moshe added the letter יוד yud to Yehoshua's name. He went from הושע Hoshea to יהושע Yehoshua. Why, why didn't he do something for Kalev? So we know that Moshe davened Hashem save him from the plan of the spies. Why didn't he daven for Kalev? Why did Moshe feel compelled to daven for Yehoshua, but not for Kalev? Kalev goes to חברון Hebron, he comes up in the south, because we know that הרוצה להחכים ידרים ha'rotze l'hachkim yadrim, you go live in South Florida, in Boca Raton, if you want wisdom, you turn to the south. So he went up from the south and he came into חברון Hebron, he went to go visit the graves. Kalev went to חברון Hebron to daven. So why didn't Yehoshua go with Kalev to חברון Hebron? So both questions, why didn't Moshe daven for Kalev, only Yehoshua? And why didn't Yehoshua go with Kalev to חברון Hebron? And finally, the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim notes, Hashem praises Kalev. Later, he says that Kalev has a different spirit, a different רוח ruach, and he followed me. He has a different רוח ruach. פרק י\"ד פסוק כ\"ד Perek Yud Daled Pasuk Kaf Daled. י\"ד כ\"ד Yud Daled Kaf Daled, Hashem himself testifies about Kalev and says, ועבדי כלב עקב היתה רוח אחרת עמו v'avdi Kalev ekev hayta ruach acheres imo. As for my son, as for my servant Kalev, he had a רוח אחרת עמו ruach acheres imo. He had a different spirit with him. וימלא אחרי Vayimalei acharai, and it filled him to follow me. והביאותיו אל הארץ אשר בא שמה וזרעו יורשנה V'haviosiv el ha'aretz asher ba shama v'zaro yorishena. I'm bringing him into the land and his progeny, his offspring will inherit the land. Why is Kalev singled out? So these are the questions. Number one, the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim wonders, Moshe davens for Yehoshua and gives him the letter יוד yud. Parenthetically, we're not going to address it today, but if you paid attention to the חומש Chumash, you know back in Parshas Beshalach, when Yehoshua fights Amalek, Moshe calls him Yehoshua then. He already had the יוד yud in his name all the way back to the battle with Amalek. So it doesn't seem accurate that the letter יוד yud was first added to his name here, but let's go with it for a moment. Moshe davens for Yehoshua, why didn't he daven for Kalev? He adds the letter יוד yud to Yehoshua's name. Why didn't he change Kalev's name? Kalev goes to חברון Hebron to daven at, excuse me, מערת המכפלה Me'aras Hamachpela. Why didn't he take Yehoshua with him to daven there? And lastly, why is Kalev the only one singled out by Hashem as having this רוח אחרת ruach acheres, this different spirit that he had? So the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim says the following. He says when it comes to spiritual growth, and you can argue when it comes to leadership, there are two parallel paths, there are two legitimate approaches when a person is facing the danger of being harmed, being influenced by negative surroundings, by being influenced by the negative voice within ourselves. One way is to openly resist. One way is to stand up and confront and shout down and speak the truth and be very open and aggressive and confront that element that's seeking to harm, seeking to sabotage. The other says the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim, is to be more strategic, to be quiet and even to pretend that you agree and then when they come to publicize what they're doing, when they come to really strike, that's when you reveal who you are and that you are opposed. So there's two methods. One is to be oppositional to begin with, confrontational to begin with, to take on and try to take down the force that threatens. Or the other is to go along with the force for now, to quietly look like and sound like you are agreeing and only at the moment it's going to strike, that's when you stand up. There's an advantage and disadvantage to both approaches writes the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim. The first approach has a risk that when you openly and directly and immediately confront that which threatens you, you're in danger. It might then escalate and it then might negatively impact you. However, it has the advantage that it's unlikely you're going to negatively be influenced by to go along with something. So if there's a group of people trying to seduce you or recruit you to do something wrong, if you get up confrontationally, you say this is wrong, I want no part of it, you people are all wrong, then it's unlikely you'll be influenced and affected by it, but you're in danger. When you call people out, when you confront them, they might harm you. The second approach writes the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim, has the advantage that you're not going to be harmed. You look like you're going along. You look like you're part of that group. However, it has the risk that maybe you will be influenced. It has the risk that maybe you will be corrupted and that ultimately you may not rise to the occasion to take it on. The חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim says, Moshe understood, Moshe prophetically knew with his great wisdom, Moshe understood that Yehoshua belonged to the first approach, that Yehoshua operated in the first manner, that he would openly oppose the spies, that Yehoshua would be confrontational. He also knew that Kalev was more predisposed to work in the second methodology, that he would hide his beliefs, that he would look like he was going along, that he would act like he was on their side, and only when they would rise, would he rise to the to the occasion to confront them. Says the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim, knowing and understanding there are two of these methods and knowing the risks and the advantages of both and knowing that Moshe understood which one Yehoshua and which one Kalev were predisposed towards can answer all of our questions. Why did Moshe only daven for Yehoshua and change his name but not Kalev? Moshe understood that the תפילה tefillah was for Yehoshua's physical safety. Kalev's physical safety would never be in danger because he wasn't revealing that he was oppositional. But Yehoshua who was taking the opposing perspective was in danger. So Moshe davened for him. When the spies however reached the land, Kalev realizes their wicked plans. Kalev realizes that they're going to come back and try to undermine and compromise the entire mission. And he then decides to take the second approach. He blends in, he hides, he acts like a spy not with them, but almost like he's a spy against them. So he needed special סיעתא דשמיא siyata d'shmaya. To complete that mission to go undercover, there are heroic, heroic, heroic members of the IDF who go into very, very dangerous neighborhoods, territories, befriend terrorists, get inside. We all know Eli Cohen, whose body, please God should be returned to us. The risks that he took going into Syria and the impact it made on the Jewish people and protecting the north of Israel, and others until this very day. That needs tremendous סיעתא דשמיא siyata d'shmaya, it needs divine intervention and protection and therefore he went to חברון Hebron to go daven. Yehoshua in contrast didn't need that because he was immediately confronting. So the final question was, why did he have a רוח אחרת ruach acheres? The חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim says based on this Rashi, it means Kalev had two spirits. He had two ways of behaving, one in speech and one in heart. He knew that if he agreed with the spies, they allowed him to speak to the people. They thought he was going to support their arguments and then he pulls brilliantly the switcheroo. They thought that he would speak and be an advocate on their behalf. They thought he would speak as their spokesperson, and the last moment, he brilliantly, brilliantly switches things around, and when he's given the microphone, when he's given the platform, he uses it at the opportunity not to go along with them and not to advance their mistaken notions and misconceptions, but rather to confront them. So you see that Kalev and Yehoshua epitomize two approaches to how to confront the threats that challenge us, to surviving when we have מרגלים meraglim around us, negative, dangerous forces in our own lives, that we can take both approaches, each has a risk and each has an advantage and we have to figure out writes the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim the one that works for us. But I want to share with you now a very powerful and very beautiful insight of the אש קודש Aish Kodesh on these words. Kalev confronts, he speaks up, he speaks out and he says, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. Let's go. We've got this. Let's go. And we asked and we said, but I don't understand what's going on over here. The מרגלים meraglim, they gave facts, they gave data, they gave what seems like an accurate report. Kalev interrupts them by screaming, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. Enough with the information, enough with the report. Let's go. What's the עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh? Where is that coming from and why is he saying that? Now to understand the אש קודש Aish Kodesh, the Rebbe of Piasetzna, Kalonymus Kalman Shapiro of Piasetzna, השם יקום דמו Hashem yikom damo, זכר צדיק לברכה zecher tzaddik livracha, זכותו יגן עלינו zechuso yagen aleinu. The Rebbe of Piasetzna was murdered by the Nazis after losing his family. He was an extraordinary, extraordinary individual. We presented about his life in the people of the book, you can listen online. So his אש קודש Aish Kodesh, which is a collection of the sermons he gave in in the Warsaw Ghetto, can't even begin to imagine. It's hard enough to get up and give sermons to inspire ourselves and inspire others on an ordinary, during ordinary times, to do it during the ghetto, people were being murdered, a genocide, a systematic attempt to exterminate our people and to get up and find messages of hope and optimism and faith to try to inspire. He wrote down his notes, he scribbled notes from the sermons he gave, he buried them in canisters underneath the Warsaw Ghetto, and they were included in the עונג שבת Oneg Shabbos archives. Two of the three canisters were uncovered. Third has not yet been recovered, that included many, many, many writings beyond just the Piasetzna's writings. It's a beautiful documentary that came out a couple years ago about the עונג שבת Oneg Shabbos archives, how the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, thinking or not believing that they would necessarily survive, but wanting to chronicle, wanting to memorialize what they were going through, collected all these records and buried them. And again, we have two out of the three canisters. The third canister we don't have. So the אש קודש Aish Kodesh, these sermons were expanded upon. They were corrected, they were expanded upon and so on. But a great contribution was done by my friend Dr. Henry Abramson of Touro University, of Touro College, when he published a wonderful, wonderful book on that's called Torah from the Years of Wrath, 1939 to 1942. The historical context of the אש קודש Aish Kodesh. We've quoted it before, where he takes these drashos that the Piasetzner gave in the Warsaw Ghetto, and he says, in order to really appreciate their depth, their profundity, their courage, you need to know historically what was taking back, taking place in the backdrop. You see, the Piasetzner Rebbe when he gave these drashos, he never explicitly referenced what was happening. He didn't talk about concentration camps or crematoria, he didn't talk about gas chambers, he didn't talk about Nazis and murderers, he didn't talk about the ghetto. He stuck exactly with the parsha and with the message that he was trying to draw from it. But he didn't provide the historical context. It seems that was a conscious decision he was making, not to remind the people explicitly what they were going through, but the implicit message. So Dr. Abramson gave us the great gift of providing us the historical background. So here's the historical background he writes to this drasha, Parshas Shlach, ת\"ש Taf Shin, 1940. This was the drasha that the Piasetzner gave in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940. What was happening there? So writes Dr. Abramson, the Chassidim of the Piasetzner Rebbe who gathered for on Shiras in his Bais Medrash on 5 Dzielna Street in Warsaw, must have been unusually somber that faithful June 1940 afternoon. Over the previous week, ominous news had filtered into the ghetto. France had fallen to the powerful Nazi armed forces. With the collapse of this major Western power, Hitler was nearing his high water mark of European domination, occupying the continent from the English channel to the borders of the Soviet Union. Many in the ghetto had hoped that France would be able to halt the advance of German forces. But in the summer of 1940, it looked as if the thousand-year Reich was ever closer to becoming a reality. Germany appeared invincible. The Rebbe by contrast was undaunted. Taking his cue from the weekly parsha, he fearlessly delivered a bold, undiluted message of courage. His starting point was Kalev's call to action, exhorting the Jewish people once a slave nation to begin the conquest of Israel. Contradicting the fearful report of the other spies, who bemoaned the military odds facing the Israelites are hopeless, Kalev and Yehoshua remained steadfast in their faith and in their divine promise. And here is what he writes in his אש קודש Aish Kodesh. This is the drasha of the heilige Piasetzner. עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה כי יכול נוכל לה. ונבין נא, המרגלים דברים של טעם ושכל אמרו, אפס כי עז העם, הערים בצורות, ולמה לא הוכיח כלב עמהם לסתור השכל והדברי טעמיהם? רק סתם עלה נעלה. Says the Piasetzner, what an abrupt response. What a strange, bizarre response. What an uncompelling response. The meraglim said, here's compelling evidence, here's data, they're fortified cities, they have strongholds, they're giants, they have military superiority over us. What they reported was factual. And Kalev does not confront their facts, Kalev doesn't challenge that they're wrong, he just says, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. He's a total disregard, he ignores everything they said and he responds, סתם sasom, he just simply says עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. So says the Rebbe, you know why? אבל כך צריך להיות אמונת איש ישראלי. Listen carefully, my friends. Listen to the words of the Piasetzna, 1940, June 1940, the Nazis are marching across Europe, they're taking the continent and they seem they're invincible. And everybody else is giving up hope. Everybody else is filled with despair. Everybody else is is despondent. But not the Piasetzna Rebbe. In that Warsaw ghetto, he turns to those Jews, the skeletons of Jews, and he turns to them and he says, כך צריך להיות אמונת איש ישראלי Kach tzrich l'hiyos amunas ish Yisraeli. This is the אמונה amunah of a Jew. לא בלבב בשעה שרואה מבוא בדרך לישועתו Lo bilvad b'sha'ah she'ro'eh mavo b'derech l'yeshuaso. Not only when the Jew sees the path of how they're going to persevere, how they're going to be saved, גם על פי שכל ודרך הטבע יאמין בהשם שיושיעו ויתחזק. A Jew has to live with a level of faith that is supernatural. It can't just operate within the natural world. It can't just be, okay, we're going to have a meeting, we'll sit in a boardroom, we'll have a whiteboard, we'll come up with a plan. Oh, only when we can see a path forward, only when we can see a path out, only when we can the natural order makes sense or strategically come up with a plan, that's when we trust in God. That's not the way a Jew has to live. רק גם בשעה שאינו רואה חס ושלום שום מבוא על פי שכל בדרך הטבע Rak gam b'sha'ah she'eino ro'eh chas v'shalom shum mavo al pi seichel b'derech ha'teva. Even or especially, when a Jew sees no way out and no path forward and nothing makes sense and nothing within the natural world should enable or allow salvation. Nevertheless, יאמין בהשם שיושיעו ויתחזק באמונתו ובטחונו yamin b'Hashem she'yoshienu v'yischazek b'emunaso u'v'bitchono. One has to have all faith, unconditional faith in God, that he is capable of anything, even when we can't see or imagine or dream of a way out. אדרבה, בשעה זו טוב שלא ישא קל לשום עצה ושכל ולמבוא דרך הטבע. In the moment it seems most hopeless, in the moment it seems most helpless, in the moment we're most despondent, in the moment we're tempted to have the greatest despair, is when we should have the greatest faith. That's when we should stop, stop looking for solutions, stop exploring ways out, stop trying to understand how in the natural order it can still happen. כי כיוון שעל פי פשוט אין עצה אז חס ושלום יוכל לבוא מזה לידי פגם. Because the more you study, the more you dissect, the more you strategize, and the less solutions you find, the less faith you'll have. ופגם באמונתו ובטחונו בהשם יכול לאטות ישועתו. And what's going to happen? The less faith you have, the less merit you'll earn to be saved. רק צריך לומר הכל אמת Rak tzrich lomar hakol emes. Person in those moments has to say it's all truth. שהעם היושב בה, כי הם אדברים והערים בצורות she'ha'am ha'yoshev bah, ki hem adbarim v'ha'arim b'tzuros. It's true, cities are fortified, it's true. The people are giants, it's true. They have the military superiority, it's true. מכל מקום הנני מאמין בהשם שהוא למעלה מהגבול והטבע שיושיענו Mikol makom hineni ma'amin b'Hashem she'hu l'ma'aleh mei'ha'gvul v'ha'teva she'yoshienu. But nevertheless, even with all those truths, we're not taking on the truths, we're not challenging or undermining the truths. Even with all those truths, nothing is beyond Hashem. עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh, says Kalev to the people in that moment, says the Piasetzna to the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto in that moment, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. It's all true. The odds are against us, and in the natural world, in the natural order, there is no way out. It's all true. Let's not try to seek or or or perceive or understand. ולא סכל ולא סברה, והאמונה וביטחון כזה בהשם מקרב ישועתו b'lo sechel v'lo svara, v'ha'amuna u'bitachon kaze b'Hashem mikarev es yeshuaso. In that moment, if we can put our unbridled faith in Hashem, if we can put our irrational faith in Hashem even in that moment, then we will hasten the salvation, will hasten the redemption. That redemption never came for the Piasetzna, and undoubtedly for countless other Jews who listened to his message of hope that day, but it did happen collectively to our people. That Nazi march against Europe did come to a halt, and there was opposition, confrontation, and there was liberation, and shortly after was the founding of the state of Israel as we discussed earlier. And today the Jewish people thrive in the land of Israel and around the world. The message of the Piasetzna resonates, it resounds, it continues to echo in our ears. It was the message of Kalev, עלה נעלה Alo na'aleh. I'm not even going to take on what you're saying. I'm not going to try to challenge it. I'm not going to try to explain why it's wrong. I'm not going to debate it, because it doesn't matter, even if in the natural order there is no explanation, even if in the natural order all there is is hopelessness and despair, that's when we dig deeper, that's when we lean in further and closer, that's when we put even more trust in Hashem, because that's what we need, that's what will hasten the redemption. Again, even more powerful to understand the message of the Piasetzna against the backdrop of what was happening in Europe, what was happening in the Warsaw Ghetto at that time. If he could find the courage, the strength, the resiliency to give that message then, then we can listen to it and continue to hear it, continue to feel it in our time. Okay, moving right along. י\"ג ל\"ב Yud Gimmel Lamed Beis. ויוציאו דבת הארץ אשר תרו אותה אל בני ישראל לאמר, הארץ אשר עברנו בה לתור אותה, ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא Eretz ocheles yoshveha hi. When they wanted to describe negatively the land, what do they say? The spies come back and they say it is a land that consumes the people inside of it. It consumes the people inside of it. What does that mean it consumes the people inside of it? So the אשתא מדרדרוק Ishta d'Reb Druk says the following. The Gemara said, Rashi quotes, חז\"ל Chazal, Gemara in סוטה דף ל\"ה עמוד א' Sotah Daf Lamed Hey Amud Aleph, בכל מקום שעברנו מצאנו קוברי מתים B'chol makom she'avarnu matzanu kovrei meisim. The spies come back and they say everywhere we went in Israel on this mission, wherever we went, we saw people burying dead. הקדוש ברוך הוא עשה לטובה כדי לטרדם באבלם ולא יתנו לב לאלו Hakadosh Baruch Hu asa l'tova kedei l'tar'dam b'avlam v'lo yitnu lev l'eilu. Now the truth is God made a kind deed for the people. Everyone in Israel was so consumed, Canaan at the time, by burying their dead, they didn't notice the spies. Therefore the spies' cover was not blown, they were never endangered because everyone was so occupied and preoccupied with burying their dead. However, points out Rav Druk, the spies came back and they didn't see it as a good, they only saw the bad. They said ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא Eretz ocheles yoshveha hi. So many funerals, so many graves, so many cemeteries, so many burials, so much mourning. This is a land that eats people alive. This is a land that's killing people off. All they came back with seeing the negative. They could have recognized the positive. They could have recognized the positive and that was their mistake. We won't read it inside because I have many more ideas and very little time left. But Rav Druk says, this is the choice that we have. We could live life and even that which appears negative, we can put our trust in Hashem that he's doing it with a plan, that he's choreographing our lives, that there's nothing random or chance but there's a meaning to it all. Or we can try to interpret it. We may get it wrong and interpreting it, we sabotage and we undermine our own success. These spies should have come back understanding, wow, Hashem wants our mission to succeed so much that he preoccupied the inhabitants of the land with funerals so they wouldn't notice us. Instead they come back ארץ אוכלת יושביה היא Eretz ocheles yoshveha hi. We should be very, very, very careful not to draw our own conclusions because we could easily be mistaken and when we are mistaken and we look at something that really is for our good and we interpret it as being negative and for our bad, then we undermine our mission in life, we undermine our very success in life and what a mistake that is. פרק י\"ג פסוק ל\"ג Perek Yud Gimmel Pasuk Lamed Gimmel. י\"ג ל\"ג Yud Gimmel Lamed Gimmel. He tells us that we saw the giants there, and we appeared to them like, like grasshoppers. ושם ראינו את הנפילים בני ענק מן הנפילים, ונהי בעינינו כחגבים וכן היינו בעיניהם V'sham rainu es ha'nefilim bnei Anak min ha'nefilim, va'nehi v'eineinu k'chagavim v'chein hayinu v'eineihem. We were like grasshoppers in our eyes and we so we were in their eyes. There's a very famous Kotsker Rebbe. Kotsker says, how do we know how we appeared in their eyes? That's how we appeared in our eyes and so we appeared in their eyes. Soloveitchik has a long entry on this in his Chumash and he basically says there's two type of slavery. The first is juridic, a political condition. Man is chattel, private property, קנין כסף kinyan kesef, an object belonging to an owner. First type of being enslaved is physically being in bondage to another. But there's a second type of slavery, not juridic, but typological, a mental state of servility rather than a physical imposed enslavement. Second type of enslavement is a slave mentality. It's a victim mentality. There's the physical bondage, the physical slavery, and then there is the slave mentality, the slave attitude. When we got out of Egypt, Hashem liberated us and he freed us from the physical bondage. But you see from the sentence says the Rav, that we continue to suffer from the slave mentality. ונהי בעינינו כחגבים Va'nehi v'eineinu k'chagavim. Okay, maybe in our own eyes we know what we look like. We were grasshoppers in our own lives compared to them, they were giants. וכן היינו בעיניהם V'chein hayinu v'eineihem. How do we know how we appeared in their eyes? So Soloveitchik writes this, what the Kotsker says too, you see that when a person has an inferiority complex, when you have a slave mentality, when you're insecure, when you lack self-confidence, you project onto others. They couldn't possibly know what the Nefilim thought of them. However, when a person lives with insecurity and inferiority, they project, they imagine, they assume what others think of them. And that is a form of slavery. We need to liberate ourselves from that slavery. So Hashem liberated us from the physical bondage of Egypt when we left, but we still had a slave mentality, we still have an inferiority complex, we still lack self-esteem and self-confidence, and that we need to liberate ourselves. That's the bracha we say in the Hagadah of gratitude from the redemption, and we shall chant unto you a new hymn, a שירה חדשה shira chadasha about our redemption and the liberation of our soul. אשר גאלנו Asher ga'alanu in the bracha before we eat the meal, we say in the second cup, we say about our redemption, about our גאולה geulah and about the liberation of our soul, about our soul. Because those are the two types of freedom we need, the juridic and the typological. We need freedom from the physical enslavement and we need freedom from the slave mentality, freedom from the inferiority complex that too many people suffer from. The, this Kotsker, you see from here also, a very powerful message of this Kotsker, they say, as a beautiful sefer that someone got me called אהרן העדות Aron Ha'eidus. אהרן העדות Aron Ha'eidus. It's a collection of the sichos of Rav Elazar Nissen Rubin, שליט\"א shlita. And in here he quotes in the דגל מחנה אפרים Degel Machaneh Ephraim, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu before Matan Torah, איש לא יעלה עמך Ish lo ya'aleh imach, שאף אחד לא יעלה במחשבתך כלל she'af echad lo ya'aleh b'machshavtecha klal. When he said to Moshe climb on top of the mountain and no one should climb up with you, what he meant was, you shouldn't have anyone else in your head. Don't worry what other people think about you. Don't imagine, don't project, don't rent space to others in your head. They, they don't pay you nearly enough. And so, איש לא יעלה עמך ish lo ya'aleh imach, don't take someone else up with you. What other people think about me is not my problem. I read an article a few months ago, what other people think about me is not my problem. That's the mentality, the attitude we're supposed to have. We believe in מראית עין maris ayin. We believe that we have to be careful how we behave, not to mislead people. But what other people think about me is not my business. It's none of my business. What other people think about me is none of my business. איש לא יעלה עמך Ish lo ya'aleh imach. The Gra writes in ברכות דף ל\"ו Berachos Daf Lamed Vuv, עיקר החסידות שלא יתבייש מבני אדם במילי דשמיא Ikar ha'chasidus she'lo yisbayesh m'bnei adam b'milei d'shmaya. Don't worry what other people think about you if you believe you're doing the right thing and you believe the Ribono Shel Olam thinks you're doing the right thing. And that's what the Baal Shem Tov says on the חתן וכלה chosson v'kallah who is called a מעשה תענית ma'aseh tanis and the Rebbe Hakadosh of קוצק Kotsk, we just quoted this Kotsker Rebbe, זהו חטא zehu cheit, כי הלא השם יתברך שלח אותך k'halo Hashem yisbarach shlach oscha. Hashem sent you to the land of Israel, למה תרגיש כחגב lama targish k'chagav? Why do you feel like a grasshopper? Who told you? Hashem says you're great. Hashem says you're a giant in my eyes. Hashem says I have a giant mission and a giant plan for you to go do, and you decided that you appear like a grasshopper in the eyes of others. מה החטא בזה mah ha'cheit b'zeh? סוף סוף אמת הוא Sof sof emes hu. But isn't it true? These are giants. Wasn't it true that these mere mortal humans were like grasshoppers in the eyes of those giants? So he writes, אלא החטא היה ella ha'cheit hayah, you know what the חטא cheit was? מה אכפת לך איך אתה נראה בעיני אחרים ומה הם אומרים עליך Ma ichpas lach eich ata nireh b'einei acheirim u'mah heim omrim alecha? What do you care how you appear to them and what they're saying about you? What other people say about you is none of your business. What do you care? That was the חטא cheit. Maybe it's true that's what they were saying. That wasn't the חטא cheit, repeating what they were saying. The חטא cheit was, why are you paying attention? What other people think about you or say about you is none of your business. That is the attitude here of the Torah. Got about halfway through what I wanted to talk about. Halfway through. Beautiful interpretation of the mitzvah. שלח Shelach, ציצית tzitzis, why the punishment was יום לשנה Yom LeShana. סלחתי כדברך Salachti ki'dvarecha, how do we earn forgiveness? Caleb says the land is מאוד מאוד me'od me'od, is very, very good. Where do you see the language of מאוד מאוד me'od me'od in חז\"ל Chazal? Oy, halfway through. Tempted to do another hour, but I'm going to quit while we're behind. So, thank you for learning with me. Thank you to our sponsors. We continue tomorrow morning with 10 minutes of meaning with at 8:15. Living with אמונה emunah at 8:45. Tomorrow night 9:00 p.m., we're going behind the במה bimah with Dr. Leah Goldin, the mother of Hadar Goldin. Hadar Goldin and Oron, his friend, the two bodies continue to be held illegally, unjustly, by חמאס Hamas. Negotiations are back underway, many years unfortunately still later, to recover their bodies. They are missing in action, even if they're no longer alive, they were murdered by חמאס Hamas terrorists. And we will speak to Hadar Goldin's mother, Leah Goldin tomorrow night on Behind the במה Bimah at 9:00 p.m. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay.
