Transcript
Okay, good morning, בוקר טוב Boker tov, welcome back. פרשה Parsha Perspectives for today, our analysis of פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas with an emphasis on trying to extract insights and lessons and inspiration for today. I want to thank our generous פרשה Parsha series sponsors for the year, Becky and Avi Katz and family in loving memory of Becky's father David Grossman, לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מענדל le'iluy nishmas David ben Menachem Mendel. If you've not yet joined our one and one campaign, one dollar a day of צדקה tzedakah, one minute a day of Torah learning, please do so. You can find it online at BRSonline.org/oneandone, BRSonline.org/oneandone. It's for a רפואה שלמה refuah shleima, אסתר טילה בת אריה צפורה Esther Tila bas Aryeh Tzipora for Esti Moskowitz. All those who are ill, may they have a speedy and a painless and a complete רפואה שלמה refuah shleima. We're on page 838 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash, פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas. One note, tomorrow, 10 minutes of meaning and living with אמונה emunah will be streamed live online but not in person. So live online, but not in person tomorrow only, then we're back in person next week.פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas. וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon leimor. Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon, זאת חקת התורה Zos chukas haTorah. This is the חוק chok of the Torah. אשר צוה ה' לאמר Asher tziva Hashem leimor, that God commanded, דברו אל בני ישראל ויקחו אליך פרה אדומה Daber el Bnei Yisrael v'yikchu eilecha para aduma. What is that חוק chok? What is the חוק chok that God commanded? That you take for yourself a פרה אדומה תמימה para aduma temima. Take a completely perfect red cow with no blemish. אשר אין בה מום Asher ein ba mum, אשר לא עלה עליה עול asher lo alah aleha ol. Has no blemish and it never worked. And these are some of the criteria the משניות בפרה mishnayos in Para elaborate on exactly what are the qualifications and criteria to be a פרה אדומה para aduma in order to be able to, in order to be able to purify the impure.So even before we delve into the פסוקים psukim themselves, a few words of, a few words of introduction. Let's start with a שיחת מוסר sichas mussar of רב חיים שמואלביץ Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz. The great רב חיים שמואלביץ Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says the following. רש\"י Rashi, זאת חקת התורה אשר צוה zos chukas haTorah asher tziva, this is the חוק chok of the Torah. Says רש\"י Rashi, לפיכך שהשטן ואומות העולם מונים את ישראל לומר, מה המצוה הזאת lefichach sha'ha'Satan v'umos ha'olam monim es Yisrael lomar, ma ha'mitzvah ha'zos. The Satan and the non-Jewish nations of the world, they come at the Jewish people and they say, what is this מצוה mitzvah? לפיכך כתב בה חקה Lefichach kasav ba chukah. גזירה היא מלפני, אין לך רשות להרהר אחריה Gezeira hi milfanai, ein lecha reshus le'harher achareha. Stop trying to comprehend. Stop trying to understand, stop trying to analyze. Simply submit and surrender, recognize this is the will of Hashem. אין לך רשות Ein lecha reshus, you do not have permission, you do not have license to demand, to seek, to understand.The אור החיים הקדוש Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh is bothered. למה כתבה התורה בלשון זאת חקת התורה Lama kasva haTorah b'lashon zos chukas haTorah? פרה אדומה Para Aduma of course is a חוק chok. A חוק chok is a מצוה mitzvah that defies understanding or explanation. A חוק chok is a מצוה mitzvah where we, Hashem says jump, and we say how high. חוק Chok. So why not just say, this is the חוק chok of פרה אדומה Para Aduma? This is the חוק chok of טומאה וטהרה Tumah v'Tahara? What do you mean זאת חקת התורה zos chukas haTorah? It's a little grandiose, it's a little large. This is the חוק chok of the whole Torah. It should have said זאת חקת הטהרה zos chukas ha'tahara, זאת חקת הפרה zos chukas ha'para. What does it mean to every מצוה mitzvah to call it תורה כולה Torah kula? And then he adds ודרך רמז יוצר באומרו חקת התורה, שאם יקיימו מצוה זו, הגם שהיא חקה בלא טעם, מעלה עליהם הכתוב, כאילו קיימו כל התורה שצוה ה' לאמר v'derech remez yutzar b'omro chukas haTorah, she'im yekaymu mitzvah zu, ha'gam she'hi chokah b'lo ta'am, ma'aleh aleihem ha'kasuv, k'ilu kiyemu kol haTorah shetziva Hashem leimor. The אור החיים הקדוש Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says we have no other conclusion to reach other than that if you fulfill, if you obey, if you are obedient to this מצוה mitzvah, this חוק chok, it is as if you fulfilled the entire Torah. The whole Torah is subsumed, is included, זאת חקת התורה zos chukas haTorah. If you exceed to this חוק chok, then the Almighty treats as if we kept the whole Torah. How? Why? It's one מצוה mitzvah, the 613. How could one out of the 613, our allegiance, our loyalty, our observance of this one מצוה mitzvah, how could it count as if we kept all 613? So רב חיים שמואלביץ Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains as follows. בזמן שאדם מקיים מצוה שיודע טעמה, עדיין לא ברור שאדם זה מוכן לקיים מצות בוראו Bizman she'adam mekayem mitzvah sheyodea ta'ama, adayin lo barur she'adam zeh muchan lekayem mitzvah boro. We've said this every year, פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas, this is a very clear understanding of why the חוק chok here in this context means so much and makes so much sense. If your חברותא chevrusa asks me to do something and it makes a lot of sense to me, it's for us both, it's rational, I understand it, comprehend it, I buy into it, and I understand why it benefits us as a family, including me. When I do that thing, am I doing it for the relationship or am I doing it for me? Doing it for me. But if and when she says, can you do X, and I say, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know why I have to do that. I don't know why I have to do it now. I don't know why we need to do it at all. It doesn't make any sense to me. It doesn't benefit me. I don't believe it benefits the family. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. She says, okay, that's fine, nice. Will you do it anyway? The entire relationship is subsumed into how we answer and respond in those moments. Because if we only participate, if we only accept, if we only take action and do when it makes sense, when we see the benefit for us, then we're not really invested in a relationship with the other. We only care about ourselves. But when we're willing to do it even when it makes no sense to us, when we're willing to do it even when we don't see how it benefits us, when we're willing to do it because the other party says, just do it because I asked, then it in fact reflects on all the other things that we do, that they're not only because we see the benefit. That the whole relationship is informed and animated by a devotion, by a loyalty, by a commitment to want to make the other party happy. The רמב\"ם Rambam writes in הלכות מלכים Hilchos Melachim, המקיים מחמת הכרעת הדעת, אינו גר תושב, ולא מחסידי אומות העולם ולא מחכמיהם ha'mekayem machmas hachra'as ha'daas, eino ger toshav, v'lo mei'chasdei umos ha'olam v'lo mei'chachmeihem. אלא צריך לקיימן שיצוה עליהם על ידי משה מפי הגבורה Elah tzorech lekaymam she'yetztaveh aleihem al yedei Moshe m'pi ha'gvura. The רמב\"ם Rambam when he's defining not only a Jewish attitude towards מצוות mitzvos, but the non-Jewish approach to the שבע מצוות בני נח Sheva Mitzvos Bnei Noach, the רמב\"ם Rambam writes, a person shouldn't do it because they feel compelled, because they comprehend or understand, they shouldn't do it because it makes sense or it enriches. They should do it because the ריבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam, the Almighty says jump, and we say how high. He says do, and we say we're in. So it is specifically in the moments where it defies comprehension, and it defies understanding, and we're incapable of it making sense, that's when we reflect back on everything, on the total, on all that is involved. It is in those moments that define the entire, the entire relationship.You know, the מדרש Medrash tells us that when אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu said, הריני אנכי עפר ואפר hareini anochi afar ve'efer. When אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu remarks to Hashem with tremendous modesty and humility, he says I'm dust and I'm earth. איך בין א גארנישט Ich bin a gornisht, I'm a nothing. I'm nobody. With tremendous humility and modesty, he turns to Hashem and he says, you're in charge, you're in control. I submit and surrender to you and I, me, עפר ואפר afar ve'efer. I'm dust and I'm earth, I'm a nothing at all. The מדרש Medrash says, חז\"ל Chazal say, it's a גמרא חולין פח Gemara Chullin pei ches. The גמרא חולין פח Gemara Chullin pei ches says אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu in that moment was rewarded with two מצוות mitzvos. What מצוות mitzvos was he given? פרה אדומה Para Aduma, because there's אפר הפרה efer ha'para, and the מצוה של סוטה mitzvah of sota, because the מים המאררים mayim ha'me'arrerim, the concoction, the cocktail that the woman who had infidelity or is accused of infidelity, that she drinks in order to test whether in fact she violated that boundary, it collects from the dust, the earth of the floor of the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. That is one of the ingredients of this concoction. So אפר efer and עפר afar, ash and dust and earth, אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu by saying all I am is ash and dust, I'm nothing, in the merit of the humility and the modesty that he showed to God by saying that, his children, his progeny, we are rewarded with the two מצוות mitzvos that include ash and earth. Namely אפר הפרה efer ha'para and the מי סוטה mei sota. Okay, so is that just a cute play on words? It's the same ingredients, the same substance, so therefore it's a cute play on words? There's something there I haven't figured it out. I'll challenge you to think about it. That both, both פרה אדומה Para Aduma and the מי סוטה mei sota are are mysterious, but more than just mysterious, they're paradoxes. When it comes to the פרה אדומה Para Aduma, the pure person who sprinkles the ash on the impure, the impure become pure and the pure become impure. It's a paradox. In fact, שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech said that's part of אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני amarti echkema ve'hi rechoka mimeni. שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech said I want to become smart, I want to gain from its wisdom, but it was too beyond even for me. שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech says the wisest of all people, of all men, why? Because of this paradox. If it's capable of purifying the impure, how can it make the pure impure? It's a paradox, it makes no sense. But similarly with the סוטה sota we see that הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu allows his name to be erased. In the in the pursuit of holiness, he allows the unholy act of his name being erased. So there's something there about the paradox maybe, and the connection אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu.But there's a much more simple explanation, a much more simple understanding. Because what do these two מצוות mitzvos have in common, the סוטה sota and the case of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu, the פרה אדומה para aduma? In both, there's something strange, there's something unusual, there's something that makes no sense, there's something that we don't understand. פרה אדומה Para aduma, the paradox we just mentioned, why should this work? Why did the pure become, the impure become pure, the pure become impure? It makes no sense whatsoever. And the same is true with the with the סוטה sota, she's tested and this drink and God's name is erased. It's mysterious, it's peculiar, it's enigmatic, it makes no sense. And yet, the willingness to submit and to accept and to participate in two מצוות mitzvos is a reflection ultimately of humility. When אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu expressed and affirmed and stated that humility, Hashem rewarded with two מצוות mitzvos that are all about humility, that are all about submission and acceptance, that are all about a willingness to forfeit our understanding. I don't have to understand. It doesn't have to make sense to me. It doesn't have to be rational. God, if you are the omnipotent, infinite being, and more importantly, even if you were finite, if I want to be involved in a relationship with you, I don't need to understand. I don't have the expectation of understanding. I don't demand to understand, but I'm committed and I am devoted even when I don't. The reward for אנכי עפר ואפר anochi afar ve'efer, the reward for אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu saying that I'm dust and ash, the reward for that was, the reward for that was these two מצוות mitzvos that include the humility of not understanding, that include the humility of of not understanding.Which brings us to another insight. I think that brings our פרשה parsha to a whole. And with this we'll conclude the introduction and get into the פסוקים psukim themselves, but I think this introduction is very, very important. Our פרשה parsha is very unusual for a number of reasons. First of all, we don't appreciate it when we read it, but do you know how many years it spans? How many years our פרשה parsha includes? We know that כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, the Jewish people they wandered the desert for how many years? 40 years. 40 years. שנה ליום שנה ליום Shanah l'yom shanah l'yom, a year for every day that the spies came back and gave the negative report. 40 years. Our פרשה parsha includes and spans, our simple פרשה parsha alone, חקת Chukas, 38 of those 40 years. 38. When we read the book of במדבר Bamidbar, we get the sense that they were an incorrigible people, always complaining non-stop. And in some ways they were. I mentioned this past שבת Shabbos in the דרשה drasha an insight of רב יחזקאל אברמסקי Rav Yechezkel Abramsky. רב יחזקאל Rav Yechezkel would say to me, that how could it be this דור דעה Dor Deah, this generation who had the greatest revelation of all time, who lived and saw the 10 plagues and the splitting of the sea, who stood at the base of הר סיני Har Sinai and they heard God give the first two of the of the decalogue, of the עשרת הדברות aseres ha'dibros. This generation who saw, who experienced, who had a revelation unlike any other, this is the most incorrigible, this is the most negative, this is the biggest group of complainers? So the חזון יחזקאל Hazon Yechezkel, רב יחזקאל אברמסקי Rav Yechezkel Abramsky says, you only complain to the one that you think is in charge or in control. You're standing in Publix, you're standing in Costco, something is wrong, something is upsetting you, you want something fixed, you don't turn to a stranger and start complaining to them because there's nothing they do about it. Who do you ask for? Who do you demand to see? The manager. You have a challenge with an airline. This is not a hypothetical. You're at the airport and you have a problem. Your flight's been canceled, it's been delayed, your seat has been switched, whatever of the myriad of other problems happens. You don't just talk to the other person in line at the airport. You don't talk to the other person paying $30 for a bottle of water in the store at the airport and start complaining how could it be and you need to fix this. They look at you and you say I need to fix, what are you talking about? Go speak to a manager. You only complain to the person you think is in control. You only complain to the one you think is in charge. You only complain to the manager. So, were they a nation of complainers? Yes. Is complaining an attractive quality or a good quality? No, most definitely not. We need to stop and remove and purge that tendency of that character from ourselves to never be complainers. But is complaining a contradiction to the revelation they had experienced? Says רב יחזקאל אברמסקי Rav Yechezkel Abramsky, at least by complaining, you know what they were saying? Hashem, we believe you're the manager, so we've got some complaints. So on the one hand, I'm not interested in your complaints. On the other, they know he's the manager. They know he's the supervisor. They know he's in charge, they know he's in control. So when you read the book of במדבר Bamidbar, you get the sense, you get this feeling, all 40 years they were miserable. All they did is complain. Which of course begs the question later, the פסוק pasuk that we invoke on the ימים נוראים Yamim Nora'im, הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, ah, זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך zcharti lach chesed ne'urayich. I remember those 40 years, they were delicious, they were amazing, we were in love, it was romantic. לכתך אחרי במדבר Lechtech acharai bamidbar. You read that and you go, excuse me? They were amazing? They were miserable. This reminds me, today my kids, all kids, they make these video stars. You go on a family trip, a vacation, they take little video snippets and they weave it together to be a video to music, or you've got a picture frame in your house, a digital picture frame, and it's beautiful pictures. And you look at life and you say, wow, that trip was amazing. And it is, but it conveniently edits out the complaints and the fights and the delays and being late and the struggles, and it just looks like utopian and bliss. So that's Hashem. לכתך אחרי במדבר Lechtech acharai bamidbar. It's a beautiful insight there too that Hashem invokes selective memory. These little video stars and these picture frames and these picture albums that we make, that's the way we're meant to live life. Don't hold on to all the bad moments. Take snapshots, and live with selective memory. It's really healthy to live with selective memory. So anyway, 38 years in our פרשה parsha. 38 years. The events from the beginning of that time period and the end, but very little from the majority of those years. So the point is they were not complaining most of the years. It just feels that way because of the way. So the פרשה parsha begins with the most mysterious מצוה mitzvah in the Torah, the פרה אדומה Para Aduma. And this is the paradigm of a חוקים chukim and that's why it's called חקת התורה Chukas haTorah. And that's the answer to the אור החיים Ohr HaChaim, we didn't finish. Why is it called זאת חקת התורה zos chukas haTorah? Not זאת חקת הטהרה zos chukas ha'tahara, זאת חקת הפרה zos chukas ha'para? Because our attitude to all מצוות mitzvos, even the ones we understand, is revealed by our attitude to the one we don't. It's a reflection of our embrace of the total Torah. This is the quintessential חוק chok. שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech says I didn't understand it. I'm the smartest, the wisest, I've got the highest IQ, I killed it on the SATs, I got into every school I applied to, שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech says, I'm the smartest person and I didn't understand. Why is it that the ashes of a perfectly red heifer, unblemished, have a purifying effect, except for the person who sprinkles them, they become impure? It's a paradox, it makes no sense. It's a, it's a make no sense. Good. That's the beginning of the פרשה parsha. Fast forward. What's the other major part of our פרשה parsha? Although there's so much in this פרשה parsha we'll never get to, it's action packed, is the story of מי מריבה Mei Meriva. Miriam dies. It was in her merit we had the באר מרים Be'er Miriam, the well. Therefore, the well dried up, the water fountain stopped working. The faucet was no longer producing water and the people complained, shockingly. And Hashem tells Moshe, go speak to the rock, but Moshe doesn't speak to the rock, what does he do? He hits the rock. We'll see if we have time to analyze this story a little. Hashem says, יען אשר מריתם בי להקדישני Ya'an asher meritem bi le'hakdisheni. Moshe, what are you doing? What are you doing? Because of you, there was just a breakdown of אמונה emunah. Because of you, they don't believe in me. Moshe, what are you doing? And Moshe, I've got bad news for you. I know you've sacrificed and you've devoted and you've given up your entire life, your children, your wife, everything, but because you blew it in that moment, I know your life dream, your life mission was to go into Israel, it's not happening. It's not happening. It's unbelievable. His whole life mission, his whole life work, everything he gave up because in that moment, because of one mistake? Unclear even what the mistake was. So we have a lot to say about that. We'll see if we have time today, if not another time. But when you look at the narrative, you're baffled. What did he do wrong? What was so egregious? What was so bad? What could justify punishing him and taking away his life mission? So many hypotheses are offered that the 19th century Italian פירוש peirush of שמואל דוד לוצאטו Shmuel David Luzzatto was moved to say, quote, Moshe committed one sin, but the commentators have accused him of 13 or more, each inventing some new one. That was his observation. He did one thing wrong, but we ascribe to him dozens and dozens because it's so unclear what he did, we conjecture and we offer countless, countless. The שערי אהרן Sha'arei Aharon, which is a ספר על חומש ופרשה sefer on Chumash and Parsha that collects different מפרשים mefarshim, has 25 different approaches to what Moshe did wrong. 25 approaches to what he might have done wrong. What he might have done wrong. But how do we understand it? How do we understand it? So I would humbly suggest to you that we need to read this פרשה parsha like so many of our פרשות parshos, there's a theme that permeates the entire פרשה parsha. And here, the theme, I think, that permeates the entire פרשה parsha, here I think the theme is the notion of a חוק chok. There's a חוק chok in מצוות mitzvos and there are חוקים chukim in life. There are times that we don't comprehend what we're asked to do, and there are times that we don't comprehend what happens to us. The פרשה parsha begins with a חוק chok in מצוות mitzvos, the פרה אדומה Para Aduma, and the פרשה parsha continues with a חוק chok of life. Ultimately, we can't say with certainty what Moshe did wrong, and even more so, we cannot say with confidence why he wasn't allowed to go in. But it was a חוק chok. Sometimes that's the way it is. Sometimes that's the way Hashem has determined it meant to be. That's how he's פוסק'ן paskening for us. So just like there's a חוק chok in מצוות mitzvos, there are sometimes חוקים chukim in life. And just as we're asked to submit and surrender when it comes to our understanding of what we're asked to do, sometimes we're asked to submit and surrender when it comes to our understanding of why things happen. If we feel entitled to understand, then we're competing with and we think we're God. And we're going to live a very unhappy life because there are things we will never, ever have answers to. We are finite and we are limited. He is omnipotent and He is infinite. We don't and we can't understand the way he runs his world, the way the world works. And if we think that we can live with a confidence or an overconfidence, these two major topics of our פרשה parsha juxtaposed one to the other, the פרה אדומה Para Aduma and the מי מריבה Mei Meriva, Moshe's punishment why he wasn't allowed in. We don't understand these מצוות mitzvos and we don't understand these decisions. And with all due respect to the 25 options or attitudes or approaches, we'll never fully comprehend and we shouldn't have confidence in saying what he did wrong. We cannot suffer. There's a concept of overconfidence, a Nobel prize winner, Professor Kahneman, who was a cousin of the ראש ישיבה of Ponevezh, a Kahneman. In his book talks about overconfidence. I've shared many times, when asked one thing he would change in this world, he said overconfidence. The overconfidence effect. Wars have been launched, financial institutions have collapsed, relationships have been broken, all because of overconfidence. When we think we understand, when we think we know, when we think we're capable of comprehending, when we think we can predict, that overconfidence effect, it destroys. When we think that we're rational and we're intellectual and we're intelligent and we're capable of understanding, it brings an end. And I think that this insight where this theme of our פרשה parsha as a whole is really important specifically for our generation. We talk about a פרשה parsha perspective for today. Because we feel entitled to understand, you know why? Because there's so much we understand. Because you can type into your Google or you could speak into your Siri and you get terabytes of information at your fingertips in milliseconds. So in generations past where you didn't understand and you didn't know and you didn't even know how to know, and you'd have to go to a library and you'd have to use some Dewey Decimal System to look up some book, and then you'd read one entry which would just be one limited piece of information, so you knew I don't know. You knew there's so much I don't know. But today you feel I know everything because I have the tools, I have access, I have the technology to know everything, it's at my fingertips. So we're an arrogant people and an arrogant generation and an arrogant time. I think this also overlaps, I wrote about it last week, that the recent study shows Americans' belief in God is at an all-time low. Because the more arrogant you get, the less you see or believe or make contact or connection with God. The more you're connected to God, the more you realize the little you know. It should be that the more you know, the more you realize the little you know, because the more knowledge you realize is out there. So this notion of the theme of our פרשה parsha, both the פרה אדומה Para Aduma at the beginning and the מי מריבה Mei Meriva at the end, זאת חקת התורה zos chukas haTorah. זאת חקת התורה Zos chukas haTorah is that the whole Torah is a חוק chok. Even the מצוות mitzvos that we study the טעמי המצוות ta'amei ha'mitzvos, we study the reason and we think we understand and we see the beauty and we do, but even then, we need to understand that we barely begin to scratch the surface of comprehension. We have to surrender and submit. We have to forfeit. We have to stop fighting or demanding or expecting to understand. We have to stop being confident and overconfident because it's bringing about so many problems and so many challenges.זאת חקת התורה Zos chukas haTorah, the whole Torah is a חוק chok. So maybe that's obvious and clear when it comes to the פרה אדומה Para Aduma because of the paradox involved, but it's actually entirely also true for the Torah as a whole, and maybe that's why it's called זאת חקת התורה zos chukas haTorah. פרק יט פסוק יד Perek yud tes pasuk yud daled. So it describes the entire thing and then the Torah ends, זאת התורה Zos haTorah, this section, זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באהל Zos haTorah, adam ki yamus b'ohel. פרק יט פסוק יד Perek yud tes pasuk yud daled. 19:14. זאת תורה אדם Zos Toras adam, this is the teaching, the rule when it comes to a person, זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באהל zos haTorah, adam ki yamus b'ohel. When a person expires, when they die in a tent, כל הבא אל האהל וכל אשר באהל יטמא שבעת ימים kol ha'ba el ha'ohel v'chol asher b'ohel yitma shivas yamim. What is the פרה אדומה Para Aduma trying to purify you from? Contamination with a corpse. The contamination that comes from death. What's an example of that? If a person finds themself in a tent, under a roof, together with a corpse, they absorb, they are contaminated, and the פרה אדומה Para Aduma comes to purify them. How long are they contaminated? For seven days. So let's see some of the rules, some of the laws, some of the deeper insight of this הלכה halacha. The גמרא בברכות Gemara in Brachos says, זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באהל zos haTorah, adam ki yamus b'ohel. Now the simple understanding is this is the law, this is the rule of טומאה tumah if a person expires or dies in a building, in a tent, in a room. However the גמרא בברכות on דף סג עמוד ב Gemara in Brachos on daf samech gimmel amud beis understands it differently and reads it homiletically. זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באהל, אין דברי תורה מתקיימים אלא במי שממית עצמו עליהם Zos haTorah adam ki yamus b'ohel, ein divrei Torah miskaymim elah b'mi she'meimis atzmo aleihem. זאת התורה Zos haTorah, you want Torah? אדם כי ימות באהל Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Are you willing to die for it? Are you willing to kill yourself for it? What is your drive? What is your appetite for Torah? If you have a casual relationship with Torah, a superficial relationship with Torah, you will distort Torah. You will not really access the depth and the profundity and the truth of Torah. You will not become transformed by Torah. Torah will be this, this casual, sort of peripheral relationship that you have. You're familiar with a little bit, but it won't turn you into a בן תורה ben Torah or a בת תורה bas Torah. What will do it? What do we need to do for it? אדם כי ימות באהל, במי שממית עצמו עליה Adam ki yamus b'ohel, b'mi she'meimis atzmo aleha. We have to be willing to die for it. We have to kill ourselves over it. We have to drive an appetite for it. That's what the גמרא בברכות Gemara in Brachos says. Literally die for it, we give our lives for the principles of Torah, but it means, the person is in medical school is killing themselves. We describe somebody who's working hard. We describe somebody who's studying diligently, that they're killing themselves over their studies. Torah needs that level of you kill yourself. The level of mindfulness and attention and focus, the level of review. The ט\"ז Taz writes in אורח חיים סימן מז Orach Chaim siman mem zayin. The ט\"ז Taz in Shulchan Aruch writes, התורה אינה מתקיימת אלא במי שממית עצמו עליה HaTorah eina miskayemes ela b'mi she'meimis atzmo aleha, דהיינו שעוסק בפלפול ומוציא מטעם של תורה כמו שכתוב, אם בחוקותי תלכו de'hainu she'osek b'pilpul u'mat'am shel Torah k'mo she'kasuv im b'chukosai teileichu, על מנת שתהיו עמלים בתורה al menas she'tihiyu ameilim baTorah. מה שאין כן בעוסקים שלומדים מתוך עונג ואינם יגעים בה, אין התורה מתקיימת אצלם Ma she'ein kein b'oskim she'lomdim mitoch oneg v'einam yegieim ba, ein haTorah miskayemes etzlam. We spoke about this on שבועות Shavuos when we spoke about making time for Torah. That real Torah is not, as we said, superficial or casual. It's not passive. You're not a spectator. I love that you're all sitting here right now, or watching live or later online. I love it. It's beautiful that we're learning together. ממש Mamash means the world to me. I'm inspired by it, and I thank you for it. And I hope you get something out of it. But you're spectators, you're listening passively. Do you open a חומש Chumash? Do you read? Do you analyze? Do you think? Do you ask questions? Do you challenge yourself to find answers? One should not be satisfied with a superficial level of understanding. To only be a spectator to Torah, a passive audience to Torah, but to really be involved in פלפול pilpul, and asking and analyzing and challenging, and then trying to come to conclusions. אם בחוקותי תלכו, שתהיו עמלים Im b'chukosai teileichu, she'tihiyu ameilim. עמלות Ameilus, because we'll only acquire it, no pain, no gain. According to the effort is the reward. So what's going on here? So ר' יעקב קמנצקי Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky in his אמת ליעקב Emes L'Yaakov writes the following. Why is this דרשה drasha learned specifically in our פרשה parsha? זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל Zos haTorah adam ki yamus b'ohel. מה הקשר בין עמל התורה למצות פרה אדומה Ma ha'kesher bein amal haTorah l'mitzvas para aduma? What is the connection? It's a cute play on words. זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באהל Zos haTorah, adam ki yamus b'ohel, kill yourself over Torah. Cute, we found a homiletical דרשה drasha in our פסוק pasuk, but what's the deeper connection? What's the deeper connection between the laws of פרה אדומה Para Aduma and this notion of diligence, the demand of the requirement of real focus and effort in Torah learning? Why here? According to the ט\"ז Taz, says ר' יעקב Rav Yaakov, however, now we understand based on the ט\"ז Taz, שהיות ונאמר פרשה זו כהקדמה והכנה לקבלת התורה, להורות להם שהתורה למעלה משכלם ובהבנתם she'heyos v'ne'emar parsha zu k'hakdama v'hachana l'kabalas haTorah, l'horos lahem she'haTorah l'ma'aleh mi'sichlam u'm'havanasam, לכך נרמז בפרשה זו גופא שאי אפשר להשיג את עמקות התורה רק בהרבה עמל ויגיעה תמידיים, כי למעלה משכל אנוש l'chach nirmaz b'parsha zu gufa she'i efshar l'hasig es amkus haTorah rak b'harbeh amal v'yegiah tmidiyim, ki l'ma'aleh mi'sechel enosh. When you go into Torah and you're struggling to understand Torah, we can't demand or expect to have access to the secrets of Torah. It is the effort that matters, not the result. Again, are we held accountable for what we know? We have דרשות drashos that teaches that a person should have clarity, it should be at the edge of our lips, we should be fluent in Torah on the one hand, but on the other, it's the effort, not the result. We say at a סיום siyum, אנו עמלים והם עמלים Anu ameilim v'hem ameilim. אנו עמלים ומקבלים שכר, והם עמלים ואינם מקבלים שכר Anu ameilim u'mekablim schar, v'hem ameilim v'einam mekablim schar. We make effort, they make effort. We make effort, we're rewarded, they make effort, they're not rewarded. I don't know, they make effort, they're rewarded. We sometimes make effort and we don't feel like we're rewarded. How can we say that so confidently, so conclusively? It's said in the name of many, including the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim, that the answer is, I think I shared this recently, if you sit trying to solve a math problem, a math equation, and you're unsuccessful, your scraps of paper and doodles and you tried over and over to solve it, but you're unsuccessful, you didn't solve it, so do you get שכר schar, are you rewarded? The answer is no, you wasted your time. You didn't write, reach the right answer. You didn't solve the problem. You put three hours in, you broke your teeth, you broke your head over trying to solve this math equation, and you were unsuccessful, it's a big fail. There's no reward, you got nothing out of it. You failed. But if you sit in a קצות Ketzos, you sit in a קצות Ketzos and a מסיבתא mesivta, you sit in on a רבנן על התורה rabannan al haTorah, you're breaking your teeth trying to understand something in Torah, and three hours later you walk away and you say, I don't know that I fully understand. I didn't really get what was the question, what was the answer. Are you rewarded? Was the time well spent? The answer is absolutely yes. Absolutely yes. There is reward. Because when it comes to Torah, we shouldn't demand or expect, it's not only or all about the comprehension or understanding, it's not about the result, it's about the exercise. It's about the experience. And now that is the connection, says רב יעקב Rav Yaakov.פרה אדומה Parah Adumah. We forfeit and we concede our understanding. And that's the attitude one has to bring into Torah and Torah learning, that I'm not going to necessarily understand. I'm not going to necessarily understand.רב דסלר Rav Dessler has another interpretation. רב דסלר Rav Dessler, the great משגיח בפוניבז' mashgiach b'Ponevezh, says so beautifully. אין דברי תורה מתקיימין Ein divrei Torah miskaymin. What's the דרשה drasha, what do we learn from our פסוק pasuk? אדם כי ימות באהל Adam ki yamus b'ohel. זאת התורה Zos haTorah, you want to learn Torah, you have to be willing to die. You sit in a tent, the אוהל ohel is likened to a, what's an אוהל ohel? The בית מדרש beis medrash. יעקב היה יושב אוהלים Yaakov was yosheiv ohalim, he went into several בתי מדרש battei medrash. He diversified his רביים rebbeim, his learning. He sat in the שער הכולל Shaar Hakollel. He understood and extracted the beauty from so many different approaches. אוהל Ohel is the בית מדרש beis medrash. איש תם יושב אוהלים Ish tam yosheiv ohalim. יעקב Yaakov sat in the בית מדרש beis medrash. אדם כי ימות באהל Adam ki yamus b'ohel, you got to kill yourself in the בית מדרש beis medrash. You got to kill yourself in the בית מדרש beis medrash. So how do you do it? חז״ל Chazal say, מי שממית mi shemeimis עצמו עליה atzmo aleha. Says רב דסלר Rav Dessler, what do you have to kill? If you want to learn Torah, you know what you have to kill? עצמו Atzmo. So the simple understanding of עצמו atzmo is you have to kill yourself. Everyone else is going out to party, you've got to stay in the בית מדרש beis medrash. Everyone else is going to sleep, you have to stay in the בית מדרש beis medrash. Everyone else is going out to play, you have to stay in the בית מדרש beis medrash. Everyone says it's good enough, I think I understand, you have to stay in the בית מדרש beis medrash. You have to work harder. You have to try harder. You have to try harder. So, but רב דסלר Rav Dessler says that's not what it means. מי שממית עצמו Mi shemeimis atzmo. What does the word עצמו atzmo mean? My sense of I, my ego. If you really want to learn Torah, you want to have a breakthrough in Torah, you've got to kill the ego. The ego is in the way of understanding Torah. Because when you think it's all about your honor and your glory, when you think it's got to be your way or the highway, when you think that you're going to project or impose your understanding on השם's Hashem's sacred תורה הקדושה Torah HaKedosha, then you'll never really understand the Torah לאמיתה l'amitah. You're never going to understand the truth of Torah. When you sit down to study Torah, the very first thing you have to do is ממית עצמו עליה meimis atzmo aleha. You have to kill your ego. You have to kill your ego. You have to come to Torah as a blank slate. טאבולה ראסה Tabula rasa. You have to clean and wipe down that whiteboard. And you have to say, Torah, I'm here. Now tell me, what's your truth? השם Hashem, what's your truth? What am I meant to believe? How am I meant to understand? How am I meant to live my life? ממית עצמו Meimis atzmo. You have to kill the ego, the id, that sense of I. That's what the פיאסצנא Piaseczna and others, the בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov writes. אנכי עומד בין השם וביניכם Anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu after הר סיני Har Sinai says, השם Hashem spoke the first two דברות dibros, then you panicked. So then I, אנכי anochi, I stood between you and השם Hashem, I gave you the rest. But the בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov said, read it differently, homiletically. You know what stands between us and God? If you're struggling to connect, if your davening's not flowing, if you're not finding meaning and purpose, if you're not living with faith and it's not coming easily, then you know what the problem is? אנכי עומד בין השם וביניכם Anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. Check your אנכי anochi. How's your ego? Are you willing with humility? Are you living like אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu, הרי אנכי עפר ואפר harei anochi afar v'efer? Or are you living with an ego, עצמו atzmo, אנכי anochi. It's all about me. אנכי Anochi. My way or the highway, my view, what I want, what I need, the way I think it should go, my demands, my expectations. אנכי עומד בין השם וביניכם Anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. If it's not flowing, it's not working, if you're not connecting, check your אנכי anochi. See if you are pushing too much sense of ego and I. אנכי עומד בין השם וביניכם Anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem. And here too, says רב דסלר Rav Dessler, ממית עצמו עליה meimis atzmo aleha. You have to be willing to kill that sense of עצמו עליה atzmo aleha. You have to kill the sense of עצמו atzmo.רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank has another interpretation. Why does it say אוהל ohel and not בית bayis? Why אוהל ohel? A person has to kill themselves in the אוהל ohel. So we gave one explanation. אוהל Ohel, the imagery of an אוהל ohel should invoke what? A בית מדרש beis medrash. An אוהל ohel is a euphemism for a study hall. יעקב איש תם יושב אוהלים Yaakov ish tam yosheiv ohalim, to sit in the אוהל ohel. But רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, who was the chief rabbi of ירושלים Yerushalayim, the author of the הר צבי Har Tzvi, he says that the אוהל ohel, the imagery of the אוהל ohel of a tent, should evoke a different imagery. Namely, חז״ל Chazal coming to remind us that דירת אדם בעולם הזה אינו אלא דירת עראי, בבחינת אוהל diras adam b'olam hazeh eina ela diras arai, b'vchinas ohel. What's the difference between a tent and a house? A house has a certain permanence to it. There's walls, there's a roof, there's heating, there's air conditioning, there's furniture. A house implies, a house suggests permanence. What does a tent suggest? Temporary, fleeting, temporal. You go and you camp, I don't mean you glamping, I mean camping, and you put up a tent. And the tent is temporary. You put it up, you take it down, you move to the next place. It's flimsy, it's vulnerable, it's fragile. It's an אוהל ohel, it's temporary. ובכן גם מסוסו של אדם בעולם הזה אינו אלא מן יציאה מדירת עראי, כאדם היוצא מאהלו Uvchein gam mesoso shel adam b'olam hazeh eino ela min yetziah midiras arai, k'adam hayotzei mei'ohalo. So when we leave this world, we should realize the whole world is really a tent. It's not a house. It's not permanent. It's temporary. We were just passing through. We were just passing through. The משנה in אבות Mishnah in Avos, רבי יעקב אומר Rebbi Yaakov omer, העולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור בפני העולם הבא ha'olam hazeh domeh l'prozdor bifnei ha'olam haba. This world is like a hallway, it's an antechamber in front of the world to come. התקן עצמך בפרוזדור כדי שתיכנס לטרקלין Hasken atzmecha b'prozdor kedei shetikanes l'traklan. ופרוזדור הוא דירת עראי u'prozdor hu diras arai. ואין אדם אלא עובר ולו חיות קבוע בעולם הבא v'ein adam ela over v'lo chiyus kavua b'olam haba. So if we realize we're only here temporarily, everyone knows the famous story of the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim who was asked why he lived with such simplicity, with such humility, he was מסתפק במועט mistapek b'muat, so frugal. His home barely had anything. And he said, let me ask you when you go to the hotel, do you move in and hang up your own pictures and bring your own linen and line it up with your own furniture? A person says, of course not. He said, why not? Because I'm only there temporarily. I'm there for a night or two. I'm there at most for a week. What am I gonna move in and decorate it with my own things? I'm only there temporarily. So the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim said, the same with me. I'm only here temporarily. I'm only passing through. I'm only here temporarily. עולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור Olam hazeh domeh l'prozdor. Now we can indulge and enjoy beautiful and nice things in life. השם Hashem wants us to, as long as it has a place and we know this doesn't define us. This is not in our priorities what's most important. This can enrich us, can enhance our life, but it doesn't define our life. Our life, what we're living for and towards, is the next world. That's where we're going. That's the place of permanence. Here, passing through. You could also try to stay at a nice hotel. But even when you stay at the nice hotel, you know I'm only here temporarily. You can make your journey through this world nice, as long as you know I'm only here temporarily. So says רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, that's the פשט pshat. אדם כי ימות Adam ki yamus, where do we die? Not בבית b'bayis. Where do we die? באהל b'ohel. We die in a tent, we don't die in a home. We don't leave a permanence because this place is not a world of permanence. This world is not a world of permanence. Don't be overly invested in this world. If you are, it'll be painful when you leave. We've given the talk before, I was recently asked to give it again, what happens when we die? First of all, ברוך השם Baruch Hashem it hasn't happened to me, so I can't tell you with overconfidence. I could tell you some of our traditions. We'll know when it happens. And there are not a lot of נפקא מינה nafka minas. There's not a lot of practical differences other than saddling our curiosity.But one of the things that we know happens when we die, it comes from our פרשה parsha actually. We'll speak about it. מרים Miriam dies בנשיקה b'neshika, the kiss of death, and אהרן Aharon dies בנשיקה b'neshika. Both died through the kiss of death in our פרשה parsha. And משה Moshe asked for and craves to be taken from this world the same way, through a kiss. What does that mean? יציאת הנשמה Yetzias ha'neshama through a kiss, נשיקה neshika. The רמב״ם Rambam in his מורה נבוכים Moreh Nevuchim explains, the more that a person defines themselves by their body and thinks I am a body and I've heard some rumor that I have a soul, but really I am a body, and I pamper the body and I indulge the body, I'm defined by the body, and that's what I care about is the body. Oh yeah, by the way, I once heard and I once even maybe felt that I have a soul. So what happens at the moment of death? יציאת הנשמה Yetzias ha'neshama. When השם Hashem reaches down and extracts the נשמה neshama from that גוף guf, when he reaches down because it's time to pull out the soul that has only temporarily been housed in that instrument, in that vehicle called the body, the soul is in excruciating pain. Because now the soul hovers above looking down at that body and says, \"Whoa, wait a second. That that that body that I always looked in the mirror, that body that I thought was me, that I shopped for and that I got mani-pedis for and I got haircuts for, that I fed and that I gave to drink, and that I pursued pleasure of, that body is not the real me? There is a me outside of that? Eternity won't be me the body, but it's going to be me, this soul without that body? Wow, that's painful.\" It's excruciating. Both that realization of how much time was wasted in this world and that adjustment and transition to that reality, that that's not me, there's a me independent of that. And that's why all of our traditions, again, now's not the time to elaborate, but we don't leave a person alone at the end of their life. We offer companionship. There's someone there always. And that's why we have a שומר shomer. Somebody's with that soul until the נשמה neshama can have an עליה aliyah and go up on high, which our tradition says takes place after the קבורה kevurah. When the body goes back into the ground from which it came, now the soul has closure and the soul says, I know now that's not me. I'm going where I'm meant to be. The body permanently is in the ground. Until then, the soul is over the body, pained by its extraction from the body. And therefore, we offer companionship, שמירה shmira, and the חברה קדישא Chevra Kadisha, the טהרה tahara. We treat that body that was the vehicle instrument of the soul, we take care of it and we send it off pure and clean and dressed like the כהן גדול kohen gadol.But what happens to the soul who all of its life says, \"I'm a soul. I'm housed in this body, temporarily.\" רבי נחמן מברסלב Rebbe Nachman of Breslov writes, רב נחמן Rav Nachman writes, \"You know, I'll give you a משל mashal. I wear a suit and tie for a living. I wear a suit and tie for a living all the time. To the point that once I came home and took my tie off and changed early in the evening, and one of my children asked me if I got fired.\" Was very concerned about me. I wear a suit and tie all the time, so you know that if you wear this straight jacket called the suit and tie, when you come home and you can change into something more comfortable, ah, it's the greatest feeling. I always joke with doctors, they wear pajamas for a living, scrubs, so they have nothing more comfortable to change into when their day is over. So we can change into something more comfortable. So רב נחמן Rav Nachman said, \"I can't wait to take off this garment that is the body. I can't wait to take off the suit and tie that is the body.\" Because a צדיק tzaddik, רב נחמן Rav Nachman understood, \"I am a soul.\" This body is a distraction. It needs to eat and drink and sleep and bathe and shower and eliminate food and procreate. This body's just a distraction to the soul. I can't wait to undress from this body and just be a soul. Not that he longed for death, of course. לא המתים יהללו קה Lo hameisim yehalelu Kah, we don't glorify death, we live for life. But he couldn't wait to disrobe from the body. The proper attitude is that a body is like clothing. We take good care of it, we cherish it, it's not ours, we're taking care of it for someone else. We appreciate what it did for us, but we're going to take it off. We're going to change out of it. Maybe we'll put on a new body in the future, it depends if you believe in reincarnation or not, in גלגולים gilgulim, separate topic altogether.So what's a נשיקה neshika, מיתת נשיקה misas neshika? מיתת נשיקה Misas neshika is, the kiss of death is, when you live life knowing I am a soul, I have a body temporarily, it's a vehicle, it houses, the instrument through help me have free will and make choices. Then when the soul is extracted from the body, you're not in excruciating pain, you say, \"Finally, I'm set free. I can soar. I don't have that distraction, I don't have those temptations, I don't have those needs. Ah, finally, נשיקה neshika.\" It's bliss, it's glory. It's the ultimate pleasure, it's a נשיקה neshika, it's the kiss of death. For מרים Miriam, for אהרן Aharon, for משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu, the רמב״ם Rambam in מורה נבוכים Moreh Nevuchim, it was a נשיקה neshika, it's a kiss of death. So the degree to which we understand our place in this world, is this permanence? Do we think this is the be-all and end-all? Is this what it's all about? Is this where we're entirely invested? Do we think that we are a body that has a soul? Do we realize we are a soul that has a body? So says רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, says the הר צבי Har Tzvi, that's the פשט pshat. אדם כי ימות Adam ki yamus, not בבית b'bayis. אדם כי ימות באהל Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Where does death happen? In a tent. This world is temporary. When you live that way, זאת התורה zos haTorah. That's the Torah. The whole Torah is to know that we're here temporarily. The whole Torah is to know that we're living for the placement of our soul in the world to come. And the body, and the material, physical world we live in is the way that we express free will. That's how we make choices. That's what will determine our place in that world. But that's the world. This is the פרוזדור prozdor. That place is the is the טרקלין traklan. We're getting ready to go to the palace, to the world. This is just the antechamber. פסוק Pasuk says, כי הולך האדם אל בית עולמו ki holech ha'adam el beis olamo in קהלת Koheles. נקט לשון בית Nakat lashon bayis. Why does it say there כי הולך האדם אל בית עולמו ki holech ha'adam el beis olamo? So רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank contrasts. Here it says, אדם כי ימות באהל adam ki yamus b'ohel. This world is אוהל ohel, it's temporary. But כי הולך האדם אל בית עולמו ki holech ha'adam el beis olamo, בית bayis, why? Because that's עולם הבא Olam Haba. עולם הבא Olam Haba is a בית bayis. There's a permanence. So that's why חז״ל Chazal say, לימוד גמרא נקרא ובנית ביתך limud Gemara nikra u'vanisa beisecha. When you learn, it's called building your home. על ידי לימוד גמרא בונה האדם לעצמו בית לדור בו דירת קבע Al yedei limud Gemara boneh ha'adam l'atzmo bayis ladur bo diras keva. So learning Torah, חז״ל Chazal called, ובנית ביתך u'vanisa beisecha. You build your house. Because you're building your world to come. The פסוק pasuk in משלי Mishlei, we mentioned it last week because the wife of און בן פלת On ben Peles by discouraging him from joining קרח's Korach's rebellion, the חז״ל Chazal attribute to her the פסוק pasuk in משלי Mishlei, חכמות נשים chachmos nashim, how does the פסוק pasuk end? בנתה ביתה Bansa beisa. The wisdom of women, בנתה bansa, it builds, ביתה beisa, her home. It means her family's future, her family's world to come, her family's place of permanence are the positive choices they make in this world. מן אינון בניו תלמידי חכמים Man inun bonav? Talmidei chachamim. Who are the builders? תלמידי חכמים Talmidei chachamim. So you see, says רב צבי פסח פרנק Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank so beautifully, this contrast. When we use this, you see the term אוהל ohel, that's this world. This world is flimsy, it's temporary, it's fragile. This world is an אוהל ohel, it's a tent. The world to come is a בית bayis, the place of permanence that we're building and leaning towards, that בית bayis, that is the world to come. מורינו ורבינו רב שכטר Moreinu v'Rabeinu Rav Shechter in volume two of Rav Shechter on the פרשה Parsha, also has something to say about this, about this דרשה drasha. זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל Zos haTorah adam ki yamus b'ohel. Teaching regarding a person who dies in a tent. Anything that enters that tent, in the tent, becomes טמא tamei for seven days. A מת meis is מטמא metamei in three ways. A corpse contaminates three ways: מגע maga, and משא masa, and אוהל ohel. מגע Maga means touching. And משא masa means carrying. If you carried a corpse even if you didn't touch the corpse, there was a barrier between you and the corpse, you wore gloves, they were on a stretcher, you also become impure. So by touching, even if it's stationary, by carrying, even if you don't make contact, or באהל b'ohel, even if you're under the same covering, you're under the same roof. That's אוהל המשכה ohel hamshacha. If you're under the same roof. The way our shul is constructed, my predecessor was a כהן kohen, Rav Brand was a כהן kohen. My office just off this main shul of the main sanctuary, technically is a separate building. It looks like it's attached, but if you look between the doors and you look up, you'll see the sky. So that we can have a לויה levaya in here and the מת meis is in that office, because if we were under the same roof, כהנים kohanim couldn't attend. אוהל המשכה Ohel hamshacha, that's the טומאת אוהל tumas ohel. The גמרא יבמות Gemara Yevamos, making a סיום siyum Thursday, as in two days, the גמרא יבמות Gemara Yevamos, דף ס״א daf samech aleph, cites the opinion of רבי שמעון בר יוחאי Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai. What about a non-Jewish corpse? Does a non-Jewish corpse contaminate? A Jewish corpse contaminates, that's why a כהן kohen can't go into a hospital if there's a morgue. A כהן kohen can't go into the funeral home. A כהן kohen can't attend a funeral because under the same roof the כהן kohen will become contaminated and they're not allowed. We become contaminated, we don't have a פרה אדומה parah adumah to get out of it. That new ספר sefer I mentioned last week that has all these fascinating obscure ideas on the פרשה parsha, has a whole section this week's פרשה parsha, I didn't I didn't bring it to share it with you because we don't have time. Who was the last generation that had פרה אדומה parah adumah, אפר פרה efer parah? First בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, second בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash? תנאים Tannaim, אמוראים Amoraim, ראשונים Rishonim? He brings fascinating sources. Which was the last generation to have actually a container of פרה אדומה parah adumah of אפר הפרה efer ha'parah. So we become contaminated, we, I mean non-כהנים kohanim, if we are under the same roof as a corpse, but we are not precluded, we don't have a prohibition. פרשת אמור Parshas Emor, אמר ואמרת emor v'amarta, כהנים kohanim have a prohibition. So what about, what about a non-Jewish corpse? In other words, what if you go to the hospital and the majority of those in the hospital or potentially deceased in the hospital are non-Jews? So, the גמרא יבמות ס״א Gemara Yevamos samech aleph quotes רבי שמעון בר יוחאי Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai. קברי עובדי כוכבים אינן מטמאין באהל Kivrei ovdei kochavim einan metamin b'ohel, that the the graves of non-Jews do not transmit, they do not contaminate through the principle of an אוהל ohel. Why not? Because אתם קרויים אדם ואין עובדי כוכבים קרויים אדם atem kruyim adam v'ein ovdei kochavim kruyim adam. פסוק Pasuk uses the word אדם adam, different פסוק pasuk, and Jewish people are called אדם adam, non-Jews are not called אדם adam. What are we now, some biased, discriminating, prejudiced religion? Are we a group of supremacists? And we look down at non-Jews? Torah uses the term אדם adam to describe a מת meis, טומאת אוהל tumas ohel, but the laws apply only to מתי ישראל meisei Yisrael and not to מתי אומות העולם meisei umos ha'olam, to non-Jews. Now, both the מחבר Mechaber and the רמ״א Rama, just a הלכה halacha, a quick הלכה halachic aside, they write the proper practice for כהנים kohanim to also abstain from going to a non-Jewish cemetery. The מחבר Mechaber and רמ״א Rama both פסק'ן pasken, any כהנים kohanim here, that not only should you avoid contamination from a Jewish corpse, but from a non-Jewish as well. One reason for the חומרא chumra some suggest is, because maybe among the non-Jews is a Jewish משומד mushmad. Maybe there's a Jew who gave up their Judaism, you can't, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא Yisrael af al pi shechata Yisrael hu, you can't, but maybe they think they did, they tried to convert out, so they try to be buried among the non-Jews, maybe there's really a Jew buried there. A כהן kohen should be careful. That is one opinion that is, that is offered. Other suggest that really we don't פסק'ן pasken like רבי שמעון Rebbi Shimon. Maybe עכו״ם akum are מטמאים באהל metamim b'ohel. So because maybe we פסק'ן pasken to be strict, one should be strict. Or a third way of understanding it is that even if they don't technically contaminate, the כהן kohen is is encouraged to avoid impurity altogether. So even if technically they don't contaminate באהל b'ohel, the כהן kohen shouldn't have his קרבת למת kirvas l'meis, they shouldn't be near a מת meis, come close to a מת meis, and so on. A lot more to say about this הלכה halacha. But let's go to the question of what do you mean that a non-Jew is not called an אדם adam? אתם קרויים אדם, ואין אומות העולם קרויים אדם Atem kruyim adam v'ein umos ha'olam kruyim adam. Really? What are we, such supremacists? We sit with such judgment? Are we so discriminating that we're called an אדם adam, we rise to the level of being called man, but non-Jews are not man? What are they, animal? What does that mean that they are not, what does it mean that they're not man? Throughout history, non-Jews, I'm reading from Rav Shechter on the פרשה Parsha volume two. Throughout history, non-Jews have been offended by the דרשה drasha of אתם קרויים אדם atem kruyim adam. 1913, Menachem Mendel Beilis was falsely accused of committing the ritual murder of a Christian child. He was tried in a notorious court case in Kiev. The well-respected government-appointed Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rav Yaakov Maze, who was university trained in the practice of law and had a reputation as an eloquent Russian orator, was chosen to defend Beilis from the blood libel. In the end, Beilis was acquitted. Rabbi Maze addressed the court, delivering an eight-hour-long detailed speech. Among other points, he explained the פסוק pasuk ודם חללים ישתה v'dam chalalim yishteh, and Israel will drink the blood of the slain, is meant to be understood metaphorically, not literally. Jews in fact were אסור assur, were prohibited from drinking blood. In his presentation, Rav Maze dealt extensively with the Jewish attitude towards non-Jews, as the Jewish religion, specifically the Talmud, was accused of not respecting the value of non-Jewish blood, of inciting Jew against non-Jew. In this context, Rav Maze was asked to explain the meaning of the Gemara's statement, אתם קרויים אדם ואין עובדי כוכבים קרויים אדם atem kruyim adam v'ein ovdei kochavim kruyim adam. What does it mean? How can you claim that Jews don't discriminate against non-Jews, don't feel superior to non-Jews? What about this statement? אתם קרויים אדם ואין עובדי כוכבים קרויים אדם Atem kruyim adam v'ein ovdei kochavim kruyim adam, which seems to consider non-Jews subhuman? The interpretation that he offered of the statement, attributed to Rav Meir Shapiro, in defense of the Jewish religion, has since been quoted by many rabbonim, including the Rav, Rav Soloveitchik. Rav Maze explained this talmudic quote reveals a very important insight into the nature of the Jewish people, and it is not at all derogatory towards non-Jews. You ready? You're listening? In Hebrew, there are four synonyms for man. Can we think of any of them? איש Ish, גבר gever, אנוש enosh, and אדם adam. איש Ish, גבר gever, אנוש enosh, and אדם adam. Of these four synonyms, three of them have a plural form: אנשים anashim, גברים gvarim, אנשים anashim. What's the plural of אדם adam? There is none. אדם Adam is the same in the singular, and אדם adam is the same in the plural. The Gemara is teaching the principle that when it comes to non-Jews, there's no concept of a united ציבור tzibbur as there is with כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. Non-Jews are considered יחידים yechidim, they are individuals and even a group of individuals. But the Jewish people is a sense of solidarity and a shared responsibility. The fate of a single Jew is borne by every Jew. Rav Maze told the judge how Rav Meir Shapiro, then the גאון gaon of Galina, Poland, sent a letter to him in Moscow, urging him to defend Beilis in Kiev. If a non-Jew were accused of a similar crime was standing trial in a distant country, would people in other countries take a personal interest in him? Certainly not. There is no such connection between people in different countries. So that is how Rav Maze understood, quoting from Rav Meir Shapiro, that this is not disparaging or superior, discriminating against the non-Jew. We're called אדם adam and non-Jews are not, because of the four terms for man, אדם adam has no plural. And what it means is we are all united, we are solid, we have a solidarity one with the other. We're unified, we're one people, we are one body made up of different organs. And the evidence, said Beilis, is this trial itself. A non-Jew is put on trial, every Italian, every German, every Puerto Rican, every whatever culture, ethnicity, people, religion, they don't show up. But one Jew is put on trial, Jews around the world are concerned for their fate. Jews around the world are concerned for their fate. They follow the trial like it's Johnny Depp. Jews around the world. Not pop culture following the trial for their own entertainment, they follow the trial because it's as if their own fate all together. So that's how he answered, that's how he explained what it means to be an אדם adam. And that is what it means the Jewish people. That's what it means the Jewish people. Rav Shechter goes on, indeed the גמרא Gemara in נזיר Nazir teaches that נזירות nezirus only applies to one who belongs to a ציבור tzibbur, not to a non-Jew, who would not only be accepting נזירות nezirus by himself as an individual. So a non-Jew can't become a נזיר nazir, only a Jew. A non-Jew is not subject to the דינים dinim of טומאה tumah or דינים dinim of נזירות nezirus. The source of this distinction is the פסוק pasuk, איש אשר יטמא ולא יתחטא ונכרתה הנפש ההיא מתוך הקהל ish asher yitma v'lo yischata v'nichresa hanefesh hahi mitoch hakahal. Because they cut themselves off from the קהל kahal. So a non-Jew is never part of a קהל kahal. Non-Jews can have a connection, a bond, but they don't have a unity, an integration, a solidarity, the way Jewish people really are all made up, we are all part of one united entity. In truth, this assessment is correct. It is in accordance with the הלכה halachic principle כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה kol Yisrael areivim zeh bazeh. A shared communal accountability for מצוות mitzvos and עבירות aveiros of each individual. As we've seen, both the individual Jew and the ציבור tzibbur are called אדם adam. The application of this term to the Jewish people implies an equality between the individual and the collective, and the actions of the individual are indicative of the rest of the people, just as the welfare of each individual becomes the responsibility of the ציבור tzibbur. It is not only in the eyes of הלכה halacha that all Jews combined to form a singular entity, but also in the eyes of non-Jews who treat us that way as well. Non-Jews practice their hate against all Jews because of one Jew, because they too implicitly see us as intertwined. They too implicitly see us as having one destiny, as being shared all together as one. Okay, moving along. פרק כ פסוק א Perek kaf, pasuk aleph.Page 842. ויבואו בני ישראל כל העדה מדבר צין בחדש הראשון וישב העם בקדש Vayavo'u vnei Yisrael kol ha'eidah midbar Tzin bachodesh harishon vayeshev ha'am b'Kadesh. ותמת שם מרים ותקבר שם Vatamas sham Miriam vatikaver sham. Miriam dies there and Miriam is buried there. ולא היה מים לעדה ויקהלו על משה ועל אהרן V'lo hayah mayim la'eidah vayikahalu al Moshe v'al Aharon. And what happens? There's no water. So they rise against Moshe and Aharon. We're thirsty, we're tired, there's no water. How could you do this? What made this, what made them do this? What is the connection? למה נסמכה מיתת מרים לפרשת פרה אדומה Lamah nismicha misas Miriam l'parshas parah adumah? לומר לך מה קרבנות מכפר אף מיתת צדיקים מכפרת Lomar lecha mah korbanos mekhaper af misas tzaddikim mekhaperes. The placement of Miriam's death is perfectly placed and positioned between the juxtaposition of what comes after and what comes before. Namely, what comes after is the complaint about the water. מי מריבה Mei Meriva happened, why? Because the באר מרים be'er Miriam was in her merit. We no longer have the water in her merit. They therefore went thirsty and that led to that precipitated the story of מי מריבה Mei Meriva. What comes before? פרה אדומה Parah Adumah. Why? The גמרא מועד קטן כ״ח Gemara Moed Katan kaf ches tells us, because likening מיתת צדיקים לקרבנות misas tzaddikim l'korbanos. פרה אדומה Parah adumah is the קרבן korban. Just like קרבנות korbanos are מכפר mechaper, just like the פרה אדומה parah adumah purifies and atones, so too the death of צדיקים tzaddikim. But פרה אדומה parah adumah is not the quintessential קרבן korban. If you really wanted to convey a teaching that just like sacrifices, קרבנות korbanos are מכפר mechaper, so too the death of צדיקים tzaddikim, so quote the קרבן עולה korban olah, קרבן חטאת korban chatas, קרבן אשם korban asham, quote a קרבן korban. Why are you invoking the פרה אדומה parah adumah? Why the פרה אדומה parah adumah? So רב גדליה אייזמן Rav Gedaliah Eiseman, who was משגיח of כל תורה mashgiach of Kol Torah, says in his לקח טוב Lekach Tov, דוקא סמיכות זאת התורה לפרה אדומה שבא ללמדנו לימוד שאי אפשר ללמוד משאר קרבנות davka smichus zos haTorah l'parah adumah sheba l'lamdeinu limud she'i efshar lilmod mishar korbanos. פרה אדומה היא חוקה, גזירה מלפני אין לך רשות להרהר אחריה Parah adumah hi chukah, gzeirah milfanai ein lecha reshus l'harher achareha. You know, often the death of צדיקים tzaddikim, you sit and you observe and you say, I don't understand. How could it be? My friend, who was a צדיק tzaddik, he died young. He left orphans. He was a צדיק tzaddik. Sometimes it seems like the people taken the most prematurely, terror events in Israel or from horrific illnesses here. They were the biggest צדיקים tzaddikim. If הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a quota he's got to meet of glioblastomas, we can make some suggestions who he should take. We have some suggestions. The wicked people in the world. And sometimes it seems like and feels like he takes the biggest צדיקים tzaddikim. So you look and you say to yourself, how? And why? And where is he? And nothing makes sense. So that's why it's likened to פרה אדומה parah adumah. Just like קרבנות מכפר, מיתת צדיקים היא מכפרת korbanos mechaper, misas tzaddikim hi mekhaperes. Because implicit with every מיתה misa of a צדיק tzaddik is the submission that I don't understand. A צדיק tzaddik should live the longest. A צדיק tzaddik should have the greatest health. The צדיק tzaddik should be the most prosperous, prosperous. How does it make sense? How does it make sense? So the teaching was specifically through פרה אדומה parah adumah and not a קרבן עולה korban olah or a קרבן חטאת korban chatas or קרבן אשם korban asham, because פרה אדומה parah adumah is all about forfeiting our understanding. And often, too often, the מיתת צדיק misas tzaddik includes a forfeiting of our understanding, and that's why it's connected.That's why it's connected. ולא היה מים לעדה V'lo hayah mayim la'eidah, there was no water for the people, and they complained. רש״י Rashi says מכאן שכל ארבעים שנה היה להם הבאר בזכות מרים mikan shekol arba'im shana hayah lahem ha'be'er bizchus Miriam. All 40 years it was in the merit of Miriam. The גמרא תענית דף ט Gemara Taanis daf tes tells us, באר בזכות מרים, מתה מרים נסתלקה הבאר וחזרה בזכות שניהם be'er bizchus Miriam, meisa Miriam nistalka ha'be'er v'chazra bizchus shneihem. What did they drink from the rest of their time in the desert? If it dried up and they were complaining and the water came out of that rock temporarily, where was the water the rest of their time in the desert? So the גמרא תענית Gemara Taanis tells us God turned off the water when Miriam died, but then he turned it back on. The same source of water throughout their journey in the desert was restored and was returned. So the מהרש״א Maharsha wonders, why did he turn it off? If he was going to just turn it back on, then what was the point of turning it off? And not only by turning it off, did he turn it off gratuitously for a few moments, what happened as a result of turning it off? משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu didn't get into ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael. If משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu had gone into ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, משיח Moshiach would have come. We would have settled the land the way it was meant to be. There would have been a coming together of עם ישראל, ארץ ישראל, תורת ישראל Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, Toras Yisrael. All of this. history, your whole destiny, everything changed because he turned off the spigot. He turned off the water for a moment. What was the point? What was the point? It led to the complaint about the water and the rock instead of speaking to the rock and the punishment of Mosheh. What was the point? So the answer is, to pause for a moment, to give הכרת הטוב hakaras hatov to Miriam, it was all worth it. The risk of how Mosheh would respond, and ultimately the punishment he endured, and ultimately the pivoting of our whole destiny was all worth it to pause for that moment to say thank you to Miriam.Because even though water was going to come back on, you don't keep going. When someone leaves this world and they made a difference to you, life doesn't continue as normal. You stop and you pause. You live without. You recognize the gift and the kindness and and what they gave you. You don't just keep going, you don't just continue, but you stop and you pause. You stop and you pause, like we have to do now, even though there's so much more.יעלה האמנתי בלקטי שני Ya'aleh he'emanti bilakti sheini.But ויבכו Vayivku, why they cry? I'll tell you one last one because I love it. One last insight by the מגיד Maggid Yosef, of Yosef Salant. Rashi says ויבכו את אהרן Vayivku es Aharon. Aharon dies later in the פרשה parsha. We lose Miriam and Aharon. It's as if we don't even, we read חקת Chukas every year, but it's as if every year I read חקת Chukas and I'm like shocked and stunned. Oh my gosh. Miriam died, Aharon died. We're only in במדבר Bamidbar, we're not even up to דברים Devarim. How could it be? The rest of חומש Chumash is without Miriam, without Aharon. It doesn't matter how many times you learn חקת Chukas, it feels like, it seems like it comes out of nowhere. What do you mean they died? So we didn't just lose Miriam, we lose Aharon. ויבכו את אהרן שלשים יום כל בית ישראל Vayivku es Aharon shloshim yom kol beis Yisrael. They cried for Aharon thirty days. כל Kol, everybody. Says Rashi, who's כל kol? כל Kol? האנשים והנשים Ha'anashim v'hanashim, men and women, שהיה אהרן רודף שלום ומטיל אהבה בין איש לאשתו shehaya Aharon rodef shalom u'matil ahava bein ish l'ishto. Aharon was the greatest marriage counselor, greatest marriage therapist in the world. Aharon this איש שלום ish shalom, when Aharon was there, through who Aharon was and how Aharon lived, but also through the counseling that he offered, he was able to maintain and preserve שלום בית shalom bayis between husband and wife. So ויבכו כל בית ישראל Vayivku kol beis Yisrael. Men and women, husbands and wives, everyone cried, because of the שלום בית shalom bayis that Aharon had given them.Now, when it came to מיתת משה misas Moshe, it says ויבכו בני ישראל Vayivku Bnei Yisrael. Doesn't say כל kol. Doesn't say everyone. And there Rashi says, רק הזכרים בכו rak ha'zcharim bochu. Only the men cried. The women didn't appreciate Mosheh? The women weren't taken out of Egypt, weren't given the Torah? They didn't appreciate Mosheh? How could it be? When it came to Aharon, men and women cried. כל בית ישראל Kol beis Yisrael. When it came to Mosheh, only the men. So the גרא Gra and the מהר\"ל Maharal wonder, סוף סוף על ידי משה גם כן נתפרנסו כל ישראל sof sof al yedei Moshe gam kein nitparnesu kol Yisrael. It was through the merit of Mosheh that they were alive. גם הנשים היו מתפרנסות Gam hanashim hayu mitparnesos. The women too were sustained. They too were given shelter and food. למה לא בכו גם כן הנשים Lama lo bochu gam kein hanashim when it came to Mosheh?So says the מגיד Maggid of Yosef, יש לומר עוד yesh lomar od, דמזונות חייב הבעל לפרנס אשתו, אם כן לא היה טובה זאת אלא לנשים בלבד d'mezonos chayav haba'al l'farnes ishto, im kein lo hayah tovah zos ela la'nashim bilvad. Sorry, it's still the, the מדרש midrash says that livelihood, פרנסה parnasah is incumbent on, this is a traditional viewpoint, traditional viewpoint, is the husband, the man is the breadwinner. The man has the responsibility, אחריות achrayus. Earning a פרנסה parnasah is a מצוה mitzvah. And a man has to learn and take and practice אחריות achrayus. He's responsible to take care of his family. So says Rav Sorotzkin, לי נראה שלאישה שלום בית חשוב יותר מפרנסה li nir'eh she'l'isha shalom bayis chashuv yoser mi'parnasah. Aharon gave שלום בית shalom bayis, Mosheh gave wealth and prosperity. They cried more for Aharon than for Mosheh. You know why? Because the women understood, you know what's more important? You know what's more valuable? You know what they would miss more and they cried for more? שלום בית Shalom bayis over פרנסה parnasah. וזה אבל יותר על אהרן מאל משה v'zeh evel yoser al Aharon mi'al Moshe.רוצה אישה בקב וטיפלות מעשרה קבין ופרישות Rotzah isha b'kav v'tiflus me'asara kabin u'prishus. אישה מעדיפה שבעלה יהיה עמה אף שמפרנסה בדוחק, יותר ממה שבעלה יהיה עשיר במרחקים Isha ma'adifa she'ba'alah yihyeh imah af she'mefarnesah b'dochak, yoser m'mah she'ba'alah yihyeh ashir b'merchakim. A woman, the חזון איש Chazon Ish note, again, you could debate times have changed, but Rav Soloveitchik at least felt these were axiomatic, ontological truths, that a woman would rather her husband be around and have less than be on the road away and have more. Her priorities are right, that שלום בית shalom bayis and companionship trump or supersede wealth and prosperity. So therefore the women cried for Aharon more than they cried for Mosheh because they understood and they got that. Maybe the men, he doesn't say this explicitly, but the inverse would be, the men cried more for Mosheh than for Aharon because פרנסה parnasah, either it was their responsibility as the breadwinner, or because they valued it incorrectly more. Whichever way, a fascinating insight. We will pick up. So tomorrow morning, ten minutes of living with אמונה emunah are streamed online only. You can watch live at 8:15 and 8:45. Tomorrow night behind the Bima. And we'll pick up in a minute to next week. Until next time, stay happy.
