Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב Boker tov, welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. I want to thank as always our very generous series sponsor for the year, Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman, sponsored the Parsha series לעלוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנוש le'ilui nishmas David ben Menachem Manush. This morning's פרשה שיעור Parsha shiur is also sponsored by Gloria and Al Fine and Evelyn and Stanley Weiss in commemoration of the יארצייט yahrzeit of Ruth Weiss, נשמה שתהיה לה עליה neshama she'tihyeh la'aliyah, and by Howard Stricker in memory of his mother, חוה בת משה Chava bas Moshe, whose נשמה neshama as well should have an עליה aliyah. This is our last שיעור shiur for a few weeks. We're going to be taking a break for a few weeks, so please pay attention to when we will resume in person in a few weeks from now. As always, I remind you, we have many years of Parsha classes online. You could find, you could listen to. There are also plenty of other people who give much better Parsha classes online. So, the fact that I will be away does not mean that you are exempt from studying the Parsha. You still have a responsibility to delve deeply into the פרשה Parsha. So, you could still do it together with me from years past or with others, but take advantage of those opportunities. Okay, this week, we have the privilege of beginning the fifth and final book of the Torah, the book of דברים Devarim. Page 938 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה אל כל ישראל בעבר הירדן Eleh hadvarim asher diber Moshe el kol Yisrael be'ever haYarden. These are the words that Moshe spoke to the Jewish people, בעבר הירדן במדבר בערבה מול סוף בין פארן ובין תופל ולבן וחצרות ודי זהב be'ever haYarden, bamidbar, ba'aravah, mul Suf, bein Paran u'vein Tofel v'Lavan v'Chatzerot v'Di Zahav. Here the Torah does something somewhat unusual, and it gives us the exact coordinates. It plots exactly where they were when Moshe begins this monologue. Moshe begins to deliver this soliloquy, this monologue. The Torah tells us exactly where they are standing, where Moshe is. This is the final day of his life and he's going to review all of Jewish history until this point. And he's going to use it as a prism, as a filter through which to communicate where they've gone wrong, what they can do better, give a charge and a mission of where they can go right, who they're meant to be, and how to become those people. The מדרש Medrash already notes that this Moshe, who when Hashem 40 years earlier recruited him and said, \"Moshe, I want you to be my mouthpiece, I want you to be my spokesperson. Moshe, I want you to be my ambassador, my agent, I want you to represent me.\" He recruits Moshe, solicits Moshe to be the leader, and what does Moshe do? What does he say? לא איש דברים אנוכי Lo ish devarim anochi. I'm not a good speaker. I'm not an orator, I'm not eloquent. I struggle to articulate thoughts. I'm not your man. לא איש דברים אנוכי Lo ish devarim anochi. Seven days of negotiation, seven-day recruitment, seven days back and forth and back and forth, the מדרש Medrash says that Hashem in fact didn't let Moshe into the land, and Moshe דאווען davened ואתחנן Va'etchanan for all those days, corresponding with the days that Hashem had to plead, so to say, and push and cajole Moshe to accept the responsibility. But Moshe, he hesitated, he demurred, לא איש דברים אנוכי lo ish devarim anochi. I don't speak well. I'm not your man. So Hashem said, no problem. That's why you have a brother, and your brother will be the mouthpiece, your brother will speak for the two of you, but I need your leadership, I need your presence, I need your stature, I need who you are. לא איש דברים אנוכי Lo ish devarim anochi. Says the מדרש Medrash, this לא איש דברים אנוכי lo ish devarim anochi, this individual who couldn't find his words, אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה Eleh hadvarim asher diber Moshe. We have an entire book, a fifth of the Torah, are the words and the speech of the Moshe who couldn't find his words. Somebody found his power of speech. לא איש דברים אנוכי Lo ish devarim anochi, אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה eleh hadvarim asher diber Moshe. What happened? What changed? Speech therapy? What changed? Where did he find this ability? What was the difference between when he responded לא איש דברים אנוכי lo ish devarim anochi and now? What did he get in between? תורה הקדושה Torah HaKedosha. Some suggest the Torah gives us a vocabulary. The Torah is a language. The Torah gives us the power of communication. The Torah gives us our ability to speak. You know, somebody who is, not that Moshe was חס ושלום chas v'shalom insecure, but somebody who is not confident struggles to speak. When do I speak up and what do I say? And who am I to speak? And how do I know I'm right? But when a person has Torah, when you know that you speak not for God in the name of Hashem, when we're tapping into, when we are spreading the truth of Torah, then Torah tells us without, you don't have to be apologetic, and we don't have to be defensive. We don't have to be in a retreat. The Torah gives us a language. Torah tells us while the world is struggling on what to believe. It's the Torah view on fill in the blank. The Torah view on God, free will, abortion, gender, whatever the issue is, one who ordinarily doesn't know what to say, Torah tells us, here's our viewpoint. Here's what we believe. It's nuanced. It's complicated. It's multifaceted. Torah's not simple, and don't oversimplify it. However, the Torah is the vocabulary, it's the language. This לא איש דברים אנוכי lo ish devarim anochi, the same Moshe who didn't know how to speak, found his power of speech. Okay, we got a lot to say on this opening פסוק pasuk that probably doesn't surprise you. We begin with an Alter of Kelm. רש\"י Rashi says on the words, where are they? What are the coordinates here? They are בעבר הירדן be'ever haYarden, on the other side of the Yarden, במדבר bamidbar, they're in the desert, בערבה ba'aravah, they're in the wilderness, the ערבה Aravah, מול סוף Mul Suf, they're opposite, בין פארן ובין תופל ולבן וחצרות ודי זהב bein Paran u'vein Tofel v'Lavan v'Chatzerot v'Di Zahav. Says רש\"י Rashi, הוה לכם לומר במה שעשיתם בחצרות די זהב על עגל שעשו בגלל רוב זהב Hoylah lachem lomar b'mah sheh'asitem b'Chatzerot, Di Zahav al eigel she'asu b'glal rov zahav. רש\"י Rashi first of all tells us that these are rebuke. There are messages. Moshe's communicating lessons for them to have learned, but he is, he is couching it. He's hiding it. It's nuanced, it's subtle because he's trying to preserve their dignity and self-respect, their honor. He doesn't want to come out, lash out, he doesn't want to embarrass or humiliate, he doesn't want to provoke a sense of shame. So he embeds the message within the locations, and he reminds them subtly, with nuance, you remember when we were there? Remember what happened there? And remember when we were there? You remember how you misbehaved and you complained over there. And then we traveled and camped over there? You remember yet again how you, he doesn't say it outright, he protects the dignity of the people. Says רש\"י Rashi, שהיו דברי תוכחות ומנאן כאן כל המקומות שהכעיסו לפני המקום בהם she'hayu divrei tochachos u'manan kan kol hamkomos she'hech'isu lifnei haMakom bahem. We'll come back to that Rashi in a moment. לפיכך סתם את הדברים והזכירן ברמז כבודם של ישראל l'fichach satam et hadvarim v'hizkiran b'remez k'vodam shel Yisrael. To preserve the dignity, we learn a big lesson that when we have to rebuke, when we have to give constructive criticism or feedback to another, don't do it full force. We don't have to do it in an explicit, strong, attacking way. We can do it with subtlety and with nuance. We can do it in a way that preserves the other person's dignity and respect. But why does he invoke these two places? Why does he invoke חצרות ודי זהב Chatzerot v'Di Zahav? What happened in חצרות Chatzerot? קרח Korach, the rebellion of קרח Korach. די זהב Di Zahav, says רש\"י Rashi, הוכיחן על העגל שעשו בשביל רוב זהב שהיה להם hochichan al ha'egel she'asu bishvil rov zahav she'hayah lahem. What happened? די זהב Di Zahav is a reference to, دی זהב Di Zahav, what happened there? The עגל egel. The חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. And what precipitated, what caused, what brought about the terrible poor judgment of the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel? When they miscalculated and they didn't know when Moshe was going to return, and they panicked, and in their panic, they built an עגל egel, an idol. Why? What enabled them to do that? What commodity did they have? Gold. They had plenty of gold. If they had no gold, if they had no mineral, no expensive jewels, they wouldn't have been able to build an עגל egel. So what enabled and allowed the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel, די זהב Di Zahav was, was that gold. Was that gold. So, says the Alter of Kelm, רום נפלא שעיקר התוכחה אינה על החטא עצמו Rom nifla she'ikar ha'tochachah einah al ha'cheit atzmo. You see that Moshe, the hidden, subtle rebuke he was giving was not for the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. Was not for the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. חטא העגל Cheit ha'egel, you abandoned God, cheated on God on the wedding night, infidelity, you build and you worship an idol. But that's not what Moshe's holding them accountable for. That's not what Moshe is rebuking them for. Rather, Moshe says, אינה רום השם הקדוש ברוך הוא מראה לו, וזה שמביא אותו לחטא, והחטא עצמו כבר התוצאה einah rom ha'shem hakadosh baruch hu marah lo, v'zeh she'mevi oso l'chate, v'ha'cheit atzmo kvar ha'totza'ah. So said the Alter of Kelm, אינני מבקש מכם שתשתבר, אני מבקש שתשתנו eineni mevakesh meichem she'tishtaber, ani mevakesh she'tishtanu. He has it here in the Yiddish but I'm not going to try to read it that way. He says, I'm not asking you to repair, I'm asking you to change. You see, the Jewish people are held accountable here not for the mistake, but what led up to it. If we're not careful with our circumstance, our surrounding, if we're not careful with our priorities and our focus, if we're not careful with what we pursue and where we have our drive, then the fact that we later give in or succumb to that temptation, it's too late. It's too late. We're human, and we have human failure. So what we're held accountable for is די זהב על העגל שעשו בגלל רוב זהב Di Zahav al ha'egel she'asu biglal rov zahav. In a material society with an emphasis and a focus on wealth, if you accumulate and you amass and you have too much and you're haughty and ostentatious and you show, then it's going to lead to a חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. So what משה רבינו Moshe Rabbenu here is alluding to in the subtle, nuanced rebuke he's giving, is not the actual חטא cheit, but what led to it. It's what led to it. Not the symptom, so to say, but the illness itself. That's what he's calling them out, that's what he's calling them out for. ר' וואלבער Reb Volbe also has a comment. ר' וואלבער Reb Volbe, the great משגיח Mashgiach, says here, אלה הדברים Eleh hadvarim where he is admonishing them. די זהב Di Zahav means more די di. Where does the word די di come from? די Di means from the word די dai. What is די dai? Enough. גענוג Genug. די Dai. Enough. When you have enough, enough wealth. So what was he alluding to, Moshe? די זהב Di Zahav, you didn't know how to say די dai. You didn't know how to say, enough. One of Hashem's names we've spoken about this before, is ש ד י Shin Dalet Yud שאמר לעולמו די she'amar l'olamo dai, that Hashem looked at the world and he said, גענוג genug. Could always do better, could always do more. But Hashem had that capacity and introduced and modeled for us the ability to look and to say, גענוג genug, די dai. It's enough. שאמר לעולמו די she'amar l'olamo dai. We invoke that name of Hashem when we are reminding ourselves about the important of that character trait of whether it's מסתפק במועט mistapek b'muat or the ability to simply say די dai. That's why we sing on Pesach night, דיינו Dayeinu, די, דיינו dai, dayeinu. What are we singing? You know what freedom is? Freedom is the ability to say, גענוג genug. It's enough. The person who has this insatiable appetite for more, who can never say enough, is not in fact free. You're enslaved to whatever it is you're pursuing. More friends, more followers, more fame, more money, whatever it is that you want more of, whatever you collect in life, and you can never say it's enough, whatever you feel and want more of, you are a slave to, subjugated to. So what do we do on סדר Seder night? What do we sing? A bizarre song saying each of these things would have been enough when they wouldn't have, right? Now we're not going to take the time. It's not Pesach. But we sing דיינו Dayeinu. די Dai. It's enough. So רש\"י Rashi tells us, sorry, the ר' וואלבער Reb Volbe says, די זהב Di Zahav embedded in the name is the מוסר mussar. You know where your failure, you know what led to the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel? די זהב Di Zahav, you didn't have the ability to say די זהב dai zahav. You didn't say it's enough. רש\"י Rashi writes that Moshe told Hashem in effect, caused the sin of the golden calf by giving so much wealth. The מדרש Medrash expands on this and gives us the example of a king with a son who gives his son food and drink and adorns him and puts a big wallet with money around his neck and puts him at the door of the בית זונות beit zonah. And what can you expect from that son? You set him up for failure. You give him wealth, spray him with cologne, slick back his hair, and put him outside a house of ill repute. And what do you think? That young adolescent son is not going to act on it? So how could בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael be blamed for the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel? So the answer is, says ר' וואלבער Reb Volbe, this is in his שיעורי חומש על דברים shiurei Chumash al Devarim, although בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael were placed in a difficult situation, we always have the ability to overcome that test. So in telling us that their wealth caused their sin, חז\"ל Chazal are telling us that the best way to overcome the test is not wait 'til the moment we're in it. It's like the Alter of Kelm, a very similar idea. But to understand, what are the triggers? What are our triggers? What will lead us to cross that boundary or line? Yeah, if you're outside the בית זונות beit zonah, looking good, smelling good with money to spend, you're going to cross a boundary or line. If you put yourself in a circumstance, you know what triggers you, you know when you're weak and vulnerable, and then you're going to find yourself later in a place that you regret. So the lesson that we have to learn is don't put ourselves in that circumstance. Don't place yourself with that device or with that technology. Don't go shopping and buy that food while you're hungry that you claim you don't want to eat and yet you line the pantry of your home with. Don't surround yourself with the people who bring out the worst in you, and you'll find you say and share and talk about things that later make you feel worse about yourself, not better, that bring out the worst of you, not the best of you. Don't ever say I won't be effective. We need to know not in that moment of the נסיון nisayon, the test, but before we get there to begin with, says ר' וואלבער Reb Volbe, that's what you learn from here and that די זהב Di Zahav, די dai. We have to know what is enough, and when we don't know where to place that boundary and that border of what's enough and we enable ourselves to be triggered, then we will come to ultimately violate it. There's a beautiful, a beautiful teaching of רב נחמן Reb Nachman. Why does the Torah tell us all these places? So רש\"י Rashi, we read this Rashi, that each of these places is an allusion, a subtle, nuanced rebuke. There, this happened and the other place, the other thing happened. Let's go on a journey, a trip down memory lane, not a slideshow of where we had our vacations the pictures, but what the mistakes were and how we could have been, how we could have been better. ועדיין נשאל השאלה אם הכוונה להוכיח את בני ישראל על חטאיהם מה קשר שלא עשו במקומות לחטאיהם Vadain nishal ha'she'elah, im hakavanah l'hochiyach et Bnei Yisrael al chat'eihem, mah kesher she'lo assu b'mkomos le'chateihem? Why do we have to bring up the places? אפשר להדים את העניין פדברי ר' נחמן Efshar l'hadim et ha'inyan p'divrei Reb Nachman. So this beautiful ספר sefer of Nachman on the Parsha, teachings of Reb Nachman connected to the Parsha, quotes here from ליקוטי מוהר\"ן חלק ב' סימן א' Likutei Moharan Chelek Beis Siman Aleph, אי אפשר לדון שום אדם Ee efshar ladun shum adam. We spoke about עשרה בטבת Asarah B'Teves. You can go watch the video or listen online. We spoke about going from hypercritical to hyper-complimentary, to stop being a people who intuitively or instinctively turn to criticism, to judgment, to marginalizing, to dismissing, to pushing other people away. We're not entitled and who are we and what right do we have? And the differences and the distance we place between ourselves and others, and how we sit so haughtily and arrogantly in judgment, in judgment of others. And why is that a problem? We mentioned then, we didn't really have a chance to go into it, it was at the end, the משנה Mishnah in the second פרק perek of אבות Avos that tells us אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו al tadun et chavercha ad she'tagia limkomo. Don't judge your friend until you're in his or her place. So here's the thing. Could you ever be in someone else's place? By definition, you can't. Why not? Because you look different. You have a different IQ, artistic ability, athletic ability. You have different parents and different socioeconomic status. You're born in a different day, a different time. Every one of us is different than another. No two people are nearly the same. So how could you talk about מקומו mekomo? How do you know what it's like to walk in his or her shoes? We don't have the faintest clue what somebody is struggling with or what someone is going through. We don't begin to understand what it is to live life through their perspective. I'll just give you one example. One example. Have you ever had a toothache? Have you ever had a stomach ache? Have you ever had a chronic pain which was debilitating, and you are irritable and obnoxious, and no one would want to be around you because you were in such pain that it just overtook you? Have you ever had such a pain? Hopefully it lasted a day, you got to a dentist. Hopefully it was a couple days till the virus cleared up, and then you went back to being your joyful, cheerful, pleasant self. But for that day or two, you were a misery to be around. And while others were upset at you for your behavior, you said, do you have any idea what pain I'm in? Do you understand how much this hurts? Do you understand how it won't go away? Do you understand that it's in the background all the time? Do you understand that I can't fall asleep and I can't eat and I can't concentrate? And you expected and wanted the world to have sympathy and understand and give you space to live with that pain. Well, do you know there are people who live with chronic pain every day of their entire lives? Do you know there are people who live with chronic pain that doesn't go away? So you might see them as that grumpy, grouchy person. You might sit in judgment of them. Why can't they be happy with what they have? Why are they always in such a bad mood? Why is that person always reacting that way? Why are they always so snap? Do you have any idea the chronic pain? There's physical chronic pain. We'll talk about in, we'll be in ירושלים Yerushalayim so we won't, but if we're going to read איכה Eicha this מוצאי שבת Motzaei Shabbos, sitting on the floor, we'll talk about before and people who are in spiritual chronic pain. And how lonely that feels. אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו Al tadun et chavercha ad she'tagia limkomo. If you have no idea what that's like to be in physical, emotional, or spiritual chronic pain, how dare, how dare you judge another? How dare you judge? We have no idea עד שתגיע למקומו ad she'tagia limkomo. That's what the משנה Mishnah of אבות Avos says. So essentially, if you can't judge someone 'til you can be in their place, and you can never be in someone else's place, what is the משנה Mishnah telling us? You can't judge. Stop judging. And if you're going to judge, because we spoke about people naturally judge, by the way, our Parsha speaks to judges. You can't judge 'til both people are in the room, you have to hear both sides. Don't be afraid of judging, you can't be afraid of the litigants. The Torah in our Parsha when it speaks about the rules of judges is talking to every one of us because we are by default, by definition, by design, we are always in judgment. We need to. We judge our circumstance, we judge our surroundings, we have to make judgment calls throughout our day, all the time we make judgments. We're just supposed to condition ourselves to make positive judgments, to judge positively, to be דן לכף זכות dan l'kaf zechus, to see things positively, positively. So we judge, but condition ourselves to judge favorably. So says Reb Nachman, listen to this teaching, it was worth coming today, it was worth waking up today, just for this teaching of Reb Nachman. Listen to this Lior, it's amazing. Says Reb Nachman, אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו al tadun et chavercha ad she'tagia limkomo. מקומו Mekomo means place. Whose nickname is place? Who do we refer to as place? ברוך המקום ברוך הוא Baruch HaMakom Baruch Hu. המקום ינחם אתכם HaMakom yenachem eschem. Says רב נחמן Reb Nachman, you know what the משנה Mishnah is telling us? אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו Al tadun et chavercha ad she'tagia limkomo. Don't judge your friend until you become God. Until you're מקומו Makomo, until you're God, don't judge anybody. You're perfect. You get everything right? You're never in a bad mood? You're never the grumpy, grouchy guy? You make every call correct? You're God? Until you're God, some people will say, well, I'm already God. But a person who's honest with themselves knows they're not. Until you're God, don't sit in judgment of anybody else. Ah, is that a געשמאק geshmak explanation of this משנה Mishnah? אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו Al tadun et chavercha ad she'tagia limkomo, not his place, until you get מקומו Makomo, His place. Until you're God, until you're infinite, omnipotent, until you're all-knowing, until you know and see everything, until you can really know the truth, you cannot judge anybody else. לכל אדם יש מקום שבו הוא נמצא לא רק מקום פיזי אלא גם מקום רוחני ונפשי L'chol adam yesh makom she'bo hu nimtza, lo rak makom fizi, ela gam makom ruchni v'nafshi. Every person has a place. Every person is in a place. We even use that in the vernacular, I'm not in a good place. Sometimes the person will say, I'm not in a good place. You say, what do you mean? 7900 Montoya Circle, it's not a good place? So it's not the address. It's not your coordinates. You say I'm not in a good place, you don't mean where I'm standing right now. I'm not in a good place means psychologically, mentality, I'm not in a good place. Every person has a place, שנקבע לפי נסיבות חייו. לאדם יש תכונות מולדות, חינוך שקיבל, יחסים בין עם משפחתו, החברה הסובבת אותו she'nikva l'fi n'sivos chayav. L'adam yesh t'chunos mulados, chinuch she'kibel, yachasim bein im mishpachto, ha'chevrah ha'sovevet oso. Our place is defined and influenced, our place is informed and inspired by the family we're born into, by our genetics, by our health, by our everything. כל אלה פועלים על מצב איש יוסיף וניצויף. תמיד יש לאדם בחירה חופשית Kol eleh po'alim al matzav ish yosif v'nitsayof. Tamid yesh l'adam bechirah chofshis. But in that place, the place predetermines so much for us. Our place, not only our physical, our spiritual and our emotional coordinates, predetermines and sets us on such a trajectory in life in so many ways. And yet, in that place, we have so much free will. Yet in that place we have free will. And we can make choices and never forfeit it and never stop believing and never despair. No matter your circumstance, no matter your genetics, no matter the model, good or bad, of your parents or ancestors before you, no matter the cards that life has dealt you, you still get to choose how to play them. You can't change the cards, but you can choose how to play them. And you can make any hand a winning hand if you play them right. That choice is still up to us. So says this wonderful ספר sefer of teachings of רב נחמן Reb Nachman on the Parsha, maybe that's why Moshe Rabbenu is mentioning all the מקומות mkomos. That's why Rashi meant he's invoking all these מקומות mkomos, places, because what he was saying was, you have a מקום makom in life. You're in your מקום makom in life, in your place in life. But you know, and nobody can judge your place until they're in it, because only God, the המקום Makom, knows your מקום makom. And yet, even within our מקום makom, we have free will. We've shared an insight about this before, which I'll remind you of. Who are the biggest casualties in the rebellion of קרח Korach? Here in this opening פסוק pasuk, Moshe reminds them of that rebellion of קרח Korach, and who suffered the greatest casualties? Which tribe was it? Not לוי Levi. קרח Korach comes from the tribe of לוי Levi, and קרח Korach led the rebellion, but it wasn't the tribe of לוי Levi that suffered the most casualties. Which tribe was it? ראובן Reuven. שכויח Shkoyach. ראובן Reuven. So ר' דוד סולובייצ'יק Reb Dovid Soloveitchik, זאל זיין געזונט און שטארק zol zein gezunt un shtark, the rabbi of the Irka, רב נבנצל Reb Neventzal in his beautiful ספר sefer on the חומש Chumash says, if you're ראובן Reuven, you come upstairs to the Almighty and you say, what? What happened here? Because we lived next door to קרח Korach, so many of my tribe, my family were taken by קרח'ס Korach's charisma, joined his rebellion, lost their lives, so many widows and orphans in my tribe and in my family. But Hashem, how did I end up next to קרח Korach? Because I wanted that house? Because I negotiated for that deal? Because I went on Zillow and followed it for years until in Boca, I found the normal price. How did I end up in that house? Who determined, who determined the encampments in the desert? Hashem. It was divinely ordained. Hashem said, you to the west, you to the east, you to the north, you tribe next to this tribe, here's your address, here's where you're going to live, go unpack. So if you're ראובן Reuven, you come upstairs and you say, Hashem, what's the deal? אוי לרשע אוי לשכנו Oy l'rasha, oy l'shcheino. Ah, poor unto the wicked person and unto the... yeah, but how did I become their neighbor? Hashem, you put me there. Says רב נבנצל Reb Neventzal, you think in life just because Hashem made that your מקום makom, sometimes you think Hashem gave me this job, or this family, or this neighbor, or this community, or put my children in this school, so this is just the way it is. I guess it is fatalistic. I guess it is predetermined. I guess that's the way it is. I can let down my guard and I can forfeit my free will because if Hashem planted and put me here, that's what's meant to be. Says רב נבנצל Reb Neventzal, no. If Hashem put us there, it's for a reason we may never know what it is, but we can't let our guard down. Just because for whatever reason that is our מקום makom, doesn't mean that we don't still have free will, that we don't have autonomy, that we can't make the most of it. And that's what's going on here, says רב נחמן Reb Nachman. Moshe is giving the rebuke by mentioning the places because Moshe is telling them, every person has a מקום makom in life. What place are you in, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically? What place are you in? But just because you find yourself in that place in life, doesn't mean that you can stop trying. Doesn't mean that you don't have free will. Doesn't mean that you can't still make decisions and you can't still determine, and you can't still decide where you go from here. One more insight on this opening פסוק pasuk and we'll move on. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eleh hadvarim asher diber. It's a very clumsy language. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eleh hadvarim asher diber. Just say אלה הדברים eleh hadvarim or וידבר משה vayidaber Moshe. What's אלה הדברים אשר דיבר eleh hadvarim asher diber? Seems to be somewhat of a clumsy, a clumsy language. The אור החיים הקדוש Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains these words were not just delivered in that place and in that time. They're meant for all of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, always, wherever. ספר דברים Sefer Devarim is the ultimate מוסר ספר mussar sefer. Long before we had אורחות צדיקים Orchos Tzadikim and מסילת ישרים Mesillas Yesharim or שערי תשובה Shaarei Teshuvah or עלי שור Alei Shur or any other מוסר ספר mussar sefer, we should not gloss over or pass over the opportunity, simply מרבה דרש ולא עיקרא marbeh drash v'lo mikra? ספר דברים Sefer Devarim is the quintessential מוסר ספר mussar sefer. And therefore, it doesn't say, דיבר משה אל כל בני ישראל diber Moshe el kol Bnei Yisrael as it normally does. The Torah normally tells us בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael, why here אל כל ישראל el kol Yisrael? Says the אור החיים הקדוש Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, because Hashem is speaking these words not just to that generation in that place and at that time. He's saying them to who? To whom? To you and to me. אל כל ישראל El kol Yisrael. He's speaking to all of us in all times. So these דברים אשר דיבר dvarim asher diber, it's redundant, it's clumsy. דברים אשר דיבר Dvarim asher diber. Same word is being used in this פסוק pasuk to mean two separate things. דברים Dvarim, אלה הדברים Eleh hadvarim, what are דברים dvarim? Things. אשר דיבר Asher diber, that he said. So which is it? Are דברים dvarim things or are דברים dvarim words? And the answer is, yes. The answer is both. It's a very fascinating etymology, that the same word has both meanings, and whenever in Hebrew we find one word having multiple meanings, there's a close connection between the two. And what is that close connection? And how does this relate to the time in which we find ourselves, the nine days, בין המצרים Bein HaMetzarim, תשעה באב Tisha B'Av, ah, such a sad time and a sad reality of our own making. The answer is, you know what creates things? Words. דברים Dvarim, דיבור dibur, creates דברים dvarim. דיבור Dibur creates דברים dvarim. And that is the source of the magical term. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word Abracadabra, that magicians proclaim before they do a trick, was first introduced and dates back to the second century. But I say it goes back to this פסוק pasuk. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה Eleh hadvarim asher diber Moshe. Because some suggest that the word Abracadabra is actually אברא כדברא Abra Kidabra. אברא Abra means I will create. אברא Abra, I create. Ah, magician. אברא Abra, I create, כדברא kidabra, through my speech. אברא Abra, I create, כדברא kidabra, when I speak. Abracadabra. Because we create reality with our words. We create reality with what we say. Our words get someone a job or a שידוך shidduch, they can move markets and they can close deals. They can lift spirits and they can restore life. or just our words could make markets crash. You know, some newscaster says from an inside source, the Fed is thinking about raising rates and the market crashes through words. Nothing changed. Nothing happened. No one did anything. But when we are not careful with our words, we can destroy, we can undermine, we can corrupt, we can prevent. You could break up a שידוך shidduch. You could cause someone to lose their job. Words can elevate or create, they can destroy and profane. That's what we read last week. When you make a promise, the beginning of פרשת מטות Parshas Matos, Torah tells us we mentioned last week, לא יחל lo yachel. What should you not profane? דברו dvaro, your דיבור dibbur. You know why? Because through your דיבור dibbur, you create דבר davar. Abracadabra. אברא כדברא Avra k'davra. I create through my words. With my words I create. יחל, יחלל Yachel, yechalel. Don't make חולין chulin, don't profane, don't waste those words. Those words create worlds. So the truth is every one of us is a magician. We're all magicians. But you don't need to learn a trick to be a magician. How are you a magician? Simply with our words. We can create with our words. There's some people we wish we could make disappear with our words, but we can't. But you can create reality with our words. With words you can make things appear and disappear. Like someone's entire portfolio or value. With words you can abracadabra, you can do magic. The words we use wire and rewire our brains, they create a physical reality. So אלה הדברים Eila ha'dvarim אשר דיבר asher diber.Moshe says, you ready? Buckle up. I got an entire fifth of the חומש Chumash. I've got something to say. This לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish dvarim anochi says, listen carefully. אלה הדברים Eila ha'dvarim, I've got something to say. And through his words, he creates a reality. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eila ha'dvarim asher diber. I'm not going to belabor it because we've shared before, the ליובאוויטשער רבי זצ\"ל Lubavitcher Rebbe zatzal was very strict about this. About positive language, positive psychology, positive thinking. And that's why the רבי rebbe insisted, he never used the term deadline. What term did he use? Due date. When you talk about something having a due date, something's going to be born. When you talk about something having a deadline, something's going to die. He was asked to give an endorsement to a hospital in Israel and he said, only if you call it a בית רפואה Bait Refuah, not a בית חולים Bait Cholim. If you call it a בית חולים Bait Cholim, the people lying there feel, why am I here? I'm here because this is a place for sick people. I guess I'm sick. But if you call it a בית רפואה Bait Refuah, they say to themselves, why am I here? I'm here to get better. This is a place that people get better. He didn't call it קירוב kiruv. קירוב Kiruv means you're far and I'm close and I have to bring you closer to me because I'm right and you're wrong. I've arrived and you're far away. He didn't call it קירוב kiruv instead. And there the list goes on and on with the examples that the רבי rebbe had. Because through, and why, why was the רבי rebbe so insistent? Books have been written why the רבי rebbe was so insistent in the examples and stories and letters where he was so מקפיד makpid on language. This is language, who cares? Just terminology that we're using. Who cares? It's just a technicality. Who cares? The answer is אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eila ha'dvarim asher diber. The answer is because the רבי rebbe who was a magician for נשמות nishamos, who was a magician in this world, he understood abracadabra. אברא כדברא Avra k'davra. With my words I create. And he did. And we can too. לא יחל דברו Lo yachel dvaro. We bring back דבר davar. That's why later in our פרשה parsha, Torah's going to tell us that Moshe sent the spies. It's going to remind us the story of sending the spies. And Moshe says, if you remember, you recall, the spies I sent you. And why did I sent you? I sent you to be able to bring back, ותקרבון אלי כלכם ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו v'tikravun elai kulchem v'tomru nishlecha anashim l'faneinu. You approached me and you said send spies. ויחפרו לנו V'yachperu lanu, we're going to investigate, וישיבו אתנו דבר v'yashivu osanu davar. We will bring back דבר davar. It's a strange thing to bring back. It's a funny souvenir. My מרגלים meraglim went to Israel and all I got was this lousy דבר davar. What's a דבר davar? וישיבו אתנו דבר את הדרך אשר נעלה בה ואת הערים אשר נבוא אליהן V'yashivu osanu davar es ha'derech asher naaleh bah v'es he'arim asher navo aleihen. What? What's a דבר davar? Marzipan? Now we're talking. Bring back marzipan. What are you talking about? וישיבו אתנו דבר V'yashivu osanu davar. Says רש\"י Rashi, you know what דבר davar is? Our פרשה parsha. You know what they came back with? באיזה לשון הם מדברים B'eizeh lashon heim medabrim. Send the מרגלים meraglim, we're going to come back. Moshe says come back and find out, איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon heim medabrim, what language are they speaking? Okay. Why is that important? What language they're speaking? Which dialect of Arabic? What language are they speaking? Who cares? Are their cities fortified? Where are their military positions? What kind of weapons do they have? What do you mean איזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon heim medabrim? Listen to what the מהר\"ל Maharal says. גור אריה Gur Aryeh in his commentary on רש\"י Rashi. He says איזה לשון הם מדברים ואין תמה מה איכפת לו באיזה לשון הם מדברים eizeh lashon heim medabrim, v'ein tema mah ichpas lo b'eizeh lashon heim medabrim, who in the world cares what language they're speaking? ויראה כי עין לשונות הם כנגד אומות V'yireh ki ayin l'shonos hem k'neged umos. There are 70 languages corresponding to 70 nations. ולכל אומה נעשה לשון והלשון מתייחס אל האומה U'l'chol uma naaseh lashon, v'ha'lashon misyaches el ha'uma. Every nation, every people have a language that corresponds to them. לפי מה שהיא נעשה לה מהקדוש ברוך הוא לשון L'fi mah she'hi naaseh lah mei'ha'kadosh baruch hu lashon. לשון הקודש נעשה לעם הקדוש Lashon ha'kodesh naaseh l'am ha'kadosh. The holy language is given to a holy people. נמצא כי הלשון מתייחס אל מדרגת האומה ולפיכך הם רצו לדעת באיזה לשון הם מדברים והם ידעו כבר אין ענין כל לשון כי יותר שיש ללשון ענינים כך Nimtza ki ha'lashon misyaches el madregas ha'umah, u'l'ficach heim ratzu ladaas b'eizeh lashon heim medabrim, v'heim yadu kvar ein inyan kol lashon ki yoser she'yesh l'lashon inyanim kach. Says the Maharal, the language reflects the people. What language are they speaking means so much more than which dialect, but it means not only which language, but what are they speaking about? What do they talk about? What are they talking about? You learn a lot about someone by listening into what they speak about. The famous quote, are they speaking about things, are they speaking about people, or are they speaking about ideas? What do people speak about around the שבת Shabbos table? What do they talk about at the literal or proverbial water cooler? What someone speaks about, you learn a lot about them. So, וישיבו לנו v'yashivu lanu, you know what you should bring back? Not marzipan. Don't bring back a new yarmulke or t-shirt. Don't bring back a souvenir. וישיבו לנו דבר V'yashivu lanu davar. Find out what they talk about. Because if we need to know who they are and what they're all about, then listen in and tell us what they speak about.What got us into all this trouble? The בכיה לדורות bechiah l'doros. Think about it. What was the problem that night, that fateful night, the חטא המרגלים chet ha'meraglim? What was the, what was the problem that got us into this בכיה לדורות bechiah l'doros that for the last thousands of years we've been crying in גלות galus, תשעה באב Tisha B'Av through the ages, tragedy and tribulation? What was the חטא המרגלים chet ha'meraglim? What did they come back and do? They steal, they rape, they pillage? No. What did they do? They misspoke. Through their language, they created a terribly negative reality. Through their language, through their speech, they destroyed. They came back and they reported. Through their דיבור dibbur they created a דבר davar that continues to reverberate negatively until today. What's the תיקון tikkun and what's the repair? אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eila ha'dvarim asher diber. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eila ha'dvarim asher diber. So this is a time of year, every time of year, but especially now, that we are hyperfocused on our דיבור dibbur. How we use our power of speech. Are we magicians? אברא כדברא Avra k'davra, abracadabra. Are we trying to with these words create positive outcome, compliments, lift spirits, create, build, or God forbid the opposite? We misuse and abuse the power of speech when we create a division, sow division, מחלוקת machlokes, the שנאת חנם sinas chinam that led to the destruction. So if that's what was the cause, then it's also the solution. ודברתם בם U'dibartem bam. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר Eila ha'dvarim asher diber. וישיבו לנו דבר V'yashivu lanu davar. To use that power of דיבור dibbur to bring about the גאולה geulah, to bring about the redemption. פסוק ג Pasuk Gimmel. ויהי בארבעים שנה בעשתי עשר חדש באחד לחדש דבר משה אל בני ישראל Vayehi b'arbaim shana b'ashtei asar chodesh b'echad la'chodesh diber Moshe el bnei Yisrael. It was on the 40th year in the 11th month, the first of the month, Moshe spoke to the Jewish people. ככל אשר צוה ה' אתו אליהם K'chol asher tziva Hashem oso aleihem. According to everything that Hashem commanded him to them. Which two words in that pasuk are extra? Which two words are extra? ככל אשר צוה ה' K'chol asher tziva Hashem, אתו אליהם oso aleihem. Hashem commanded him to them. Seem to be extra words. My good friend pointed out a beautiful insight of the מנחם ציון Menachem Tzion. We got him into the מנחם ציון Menachem Tzion. רבי נחמן מציון זקס Rabbi Nachman miTzion Zaks, you know he's become one of my favorites. So he says on these words, המילה אליהם נראית לכאורה כמיותרת Ha'mila aleihem nireh l'choreh k'me'yuteres. This word אליהם aleihem... Read the pasuk again, let's read it together from page 938 to 940. דיבר משה אל בני ישראל Diber Moshe el bnei Yisrael, Moshe speaks to the Jewish people, ככל אשר צוה ה' k'chol asher tziva Hashem, as God commanded, אתו oso, commanded him, אליהם aleihem. What does אליהם aleihem mean? What does אליהם aleihem mean? To them. It's completely extra. What does it add? אפשר לפרש זה מכוון למה שנאמר Efshar l'faresh zeh mechaven l'mah she'ne'emar. Says Rav Menachem Tzion Zaks, maybe, maybe it's a reference to what we saw earlier back in ספר שמות Sefer Shemos. וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן ויצום אל בני ישראל Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon vayitzavem el bnei Yisrael. God spoke to Moshe and Aaron and he commanded them regarding the Jewish people. Says רש\"י Rashi, צום עליהם tzivam aleihem. Why did God have to command Moshe and Aaron regarding the Jewish people? What was the command? צום עליהם להנהיגם בנחת ולסבלותם Tzivam aleihem l'hanhigam b'nachas u'l'sbolosam. He said this people, they're incorrigible, they're miserable, they're going to complain. They're going to criticize, they're going to be suspicious of you. We have that in our parsha too. I don't think we're going to get to it. But the people were suspicious. Moshe leaves late, he leaves early, he has no שלום בית sholom bayis, he's this, he's that. It's miserable. Leadership can be very, very, very lonely and at times painful. And Hashem warns Moshe at the very outset while he was yet in סמיכה smicha, ויצום vayitzavem. Said, you sure you want to go into this? Because if you do, להנהיגם בנחת ולסבלותם l'hanhigam b'nachas u'l'sbolosam. The אלתר מקלם Alter of Kelm said you see from here, the core critical criteria of a leader is patience. Patience, sufferance, the ability לִסְבֹּל אותם lisbol osam. They're going to make your life difficult. They're going to be miserable, they're going to complain, they're going to be unappreciative, they're going to be unfair. They're going to be suspicious. יתכן אם כן שזה מה שהפסוק מבליט, ויהי בארבעים שנה. ויהי בארבעים שנה Vayehi b'arbaim shana, and that's what the pasuk's telling us. And it was in the 40th year, כלומר אף שכבר עברו ארבעים שנה מאז צוה ה' את משה להנהיג את בני ישראל בנחת ולסבלותם klomar, af shekvar avru arbaim shana mei'az tziva Hashem es Moshe l'hanhig es bnei Yisrael b'nachas u'l'sbolosam. It's been 40 years. Moshe, it's your 40th anniversary in the רבנות Rabbanus. We're going to dedicate a ספר תורה sefer Torah, we're going to name a wing after you, we're going to send you and the רבצן rebbetzin on a vacation. הרי במשך שנים אלו בני ישראל צערו וריבו את משה וגרמו לו צער רב Harei b'meshech shanim eilu bnei Yisrael tza'aru v'rivu es Moshe v'garmu lo tza'ar rav. You know why we're going to do all of that? Because you have no hair, whatever hair you have left is gray and it's because of this congregation, it's because of these people. עם כל זאת דבר משה אל בני ישראל ככל אשר צוה ה' אתו אליהם Im kol zos diber Moshe el bnei Yisrael k'chol asher tziva Hashem oso aleihem. משה לא אבד את סבלנותו Moshe lo ibad es savlanuso, והימשיך להנהיג את בני ישראל בנחת בשלום ובמישור באהבה ובמסירות v'himshich l'hanhig es bnei Yisrael b'nachas, b'shalom u'v'mishor, b'ahava u'v'mesirus. This extra word says the מנחם ציון Menachem Tzion is teaching us that even though it's 40 years in, Moshe has not lost any patience. Moshe like a loving father remains completely patient and loving and doting on the people. אליהם Aleihem, even though ויהי בארבעים שנה vayehi b'arbaim shana, even though it's the 40th year, אליהם aleihem, he continues to have the patience. He continues to care, he continues to shepherd, he continues to be incredibly devoted to them. פרק א פסוק יב Perek Aleph Pasuk Yud Beis. Turn the page, 942. We read this with the איכה Eicha trop. איכה אשא לבדי טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם Eicha esa l'vadi tarchachem u'masa'achem v'rivchem. Some suggest this is why we always read פרשת דברים Parshas Devarim before תשעה באב Tisha B'Av. Because here Moshe says, how can I alone carry your contentiousness and your burdens and your quarrels? איכה אשא לבדי טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם Eicha esa l'vadi tarchachem u'masa'achem v'rivchem. We spoke about this at length last year or two years ago, I don't remember, based on this רש\"י Rashi, not going to repeat it, an amazing רבי נחמן מברסלב Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Not going to repeat it, you got to go back and listen to it. Says רש\"י Rashi, מלמד שהיו חוטאים משה יוצא melamed she'hayu chot'im Moshe yotzei. What happens? This is the suspicion. If Moshe got up early and left, אמרו מה ראה בן עמרם לצאת שמא אינו שרוי בשלום בתוך ביתו amru mah ra'ah ben Amram l'tzeit, shema eino sharui b'shalom b'toch beiso. Why is he leaving early? He has no שלום בית sholom bayis. He tries to stay out as long as he can. He works the longest hours. You know why Moshe works the longest hours? You know why Moshe can be found at the office all hours of the day? Because he has no peace and harmony in his home. אחר לצאת Ichar l'tzeit. You know what happens when he sleeps in? You know what happens when he leaves late after a lovely brunch with his wife? אמרו מה ראה בן עמרם שלא לצאת מה אתם סבורים יושב ויועץ עליכם יועצות רעות וחושב מחשבות Amru mah ra'ah ben Amram she'lo l'tzeit, mah atem svurim, yoshev v'yoetz aleichem yoatzos ra'os v'choshev machshavos. You know why he's late to work? Because he's sitting at that brunch with his wife, scheming and plotting and stealing from us. That lazy good for nothing bum, get to work, Moshe. Moshe could, he was lost either way. He didn't have a fighting chance because they were so cynical. It was the cynics. That's why Moshe, איכה אשא לבדי טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם eicha esa l'vadi tarchachem u'masa'achem v'rivchem. I can't win. I can't win. I don't remember if I told you the story last time. This goes back years. That I once got a call from somebody who's upset. He says, Rabbi, I haven't been in shul for weeks. You didn't notice, nobody noticed, nobody called, nobody checked in on me. I said, I'm so sorry. I feel terrible. You know we have so many מנינים minyanim on שבת Shabbos morning, it's such a seasonal community, people come and go. But I feel terrible, you're right and I apologize and please accept my apology and I'm so sorry, so sorry. How are you? Where were you? Welcome back. So great to have you. I hang up the phone, I say to myself, who else haven't I seen in shul for a little while? I should probably make a phone call. So I thought of somebody I hadn't seen in a few weeks and I call him. I say, so and so, I haven't seen you in a few weeks. Hope everything's okay, I'm just checking in. He says, and I quote, Rabbi, what are you taking attendance now at shul? טרחכם ומשאכם וריבכם Tarchachem u'masa'achem v'rivchem. Sometimes you can't win. You can't win either way. Whatever you do. Whatever you do. רש\"י Rashi quotes חז\"ל Chazal says this was אפיקורסות apikorsus. Where's the אפיקורסות apikorsus in this? Listen to last year's שיעור shiur. רבי אליהו מאיר בלוך Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, ראש ישיבת טלז Rosh Yeshivas Telz said, you see from here, עד כמה אין מנהיג העם יכול לצאת ידי הבריות שכן אם הוא עומד תחת ביקורת של צדדים רבים ותמיד ימצאו בעלי מחלוקת שימצאו חן בעיניהם ויבקרו אותו ויבקשו טענות לבקרו ad kama ein manhig ha'am yachol l'tzeit yedei ha'brios, she'kein im hu omed tachas bikores shel tzdadim rabim v'samid yimtzu ballei machlokes she'yimtzu chein b'eineihem, v'yivakru oso v'yivakshu ta'anos l'vakro. You see that you can't win. Don't expect to win. You're not in it to win. You see from this pasuk and from Moshe Rabbeinu's reality that you're not in it to win. Why טאקע takeh did Moshe sometimes leave early and sometimes leave late? Moshe had an erratic schedule? There's a pretty consistent schedule in the מדבר midbar. The manna fell, the water was available, and the protection of the clouds and the fire. Why did he have an erratic schedule? אבא אמת היא שמשה רבנו ודאי היה בעל סדר ובא בדיוק Ava emes hi she'Moshe Rabbeinu vadai haya baal seder u'va b'diyuk. The truth is Moshe was exact. אלא שלאלה היה נראה שהזמן שהוא קבע הוא בא בו מוקדם ותענו עליו ולבעלי מחלוקת אחרים היה נראה שצריך להקדים ועבורם היה זה מאוחר ובאו גם הם בטענות עליו Ela she'l'eileh haya nireh she'ha'zman she'hu kava hu ba bo mukdam v'ta'anu alav, u'l'va'alei machlokes acherim haya nireh she'tzarich l'hakdim v'avuram haya zeh me'uchar, u'va'u gam heim b'ta'anos alav. Moshe was exact every single day. But if you're looking for problems and criticism, if you want him to be later, then you see him as leaving early and you can conclude he has no sholom bayis. If you wanted him to come early, then you perceive him as leaving late and you suspect him of scheming and plotting against you. It wasn't Moshe who had different schedules, it's when you're looking for the bad, when you're looking for the negative, you will interpret the reality to conform with what you're looking to see. What a great insight by the Telz, no? These cynics and scoffers were not noticing about Moshe that Moshe was inconsistent. Moshe was the epitome of consistency. Ask, how could some say he left early and some say he woke up late? The answer is because each of them were predisposed, each of them wanted to arrive at their suspicious conclusion, so they interpreted the time based on what would support the suspicious reality that they thought they had. פסוק כד Pasuk Kaf Dalet. ותענו אותי ותאמרו טוב הדבר אשר דברת לעשות Vata'anu osi v'tomru tov ha'davar asher dibarta la'asos. You answered me, and you said the thing that you have proposed to do is good. The thing that you proposed to do is is good. What's going on here? Says רש\"י Rashi. ותענו אותי Vata'anu osi, you answered me. היה לכם להשיב רבנו משה ממי נאה ללמוד ממך או מתלמידך, לא ממך שאתה עתה Haya lachem l'hashiv Rabbeinu Moshe, mi'mi na'eh lilmod, mimcha o mi'talmidcha? Lo mimcha she'ata ata. Rashi here tells us what's going on. I couldn't bear the burden alone. So I needed to, הבו לכם אנשים חכמים ונבונים וידועים לשבטיכם havu lachem anashim chachamim u'n'vonim v'yedu'im l'shivteichem, I needed to delegate. I needed to recruit other leaders. And there would be a chain of command, a hierarchy, and I would only deal with the things that no one else could deal with because I couldn't bear it alone. And when that proposal was offered, what did you answer? ותענו אותי Vata'anu osi, what did you answer? ותאמרו V'tomru, you said, טוב הדבר אשר דברת tov ha'davar asher dibarta. It's good that works. You can have a team of rabbis, you can delegate, you can have a robust staff. Absolutely. You answered that works, that's good. But Rashi says something that this is a criticism. Rashi says, ותענו אותי vata'anu osi, you answered something negative. Why, what's going on? כשמשה רבינו תבע את ישראל שכאשר הגיע k'she'Moshe Rabbeinu tava es Yisrael she'ka'asher higia, היה לכם להשיב רבנו משה ממי נאה ללמוד ממך או מתלמידך, לא ממך שאתה עתה Haya lachem l'hashiv Rabbeinu Moshe, mi'mi na'eh lilmod, mimcha o mi'talmidcha? Lo mimcha she'ata ata. You should have said to me, Moshe, who's it better to learn from? From you or from your student? Of course from you. You're our master, you're our teacher, you hear it directly from the שכינה Shechina. The answer is because Moshe Rabbeinu heard it directly from God. So since Moshe Rabbeinu heard it directly from God, it would have been the most authentic transmission. And the people should have objected and said we don't want to hear it one person from another. We want the most direct route that there is. We want to hear it from as close to the source as as possible. The מגד יוסף Meged Yosef, יוסף סולובייצ'יק Yosef Soloveitchik. Moshe here says suggestion was made to delegate. Who does Moshe not mention? Who gave him the suggestion? Who came and said Moshe, you're so overwhelmed, I'm worried about you? יתרו Yisro. Moshe, my dear beloved son-in-law, you need a staff, you need a team, you need to delegate. I'm worried about you. Moshe gives it like, הבו לכם אנשים חכמים havu lachem anashim chachamim, he never mentions יתרו Yisro. Why not? Go back to פרשת יתרו Parshas Yisro and you find that of course this was Yisro's idea. So what happened to אומר בשם אומרו omed b'shaim omro? What happened to bringing redemption into the world by acknowledging the source? Says the מגד יוסף Meged Yosef. נראה לברר על פי מה שהביא רש\"י שהמשה נתכוין בזה להוכיח את ישראל על שנוח להם לקבל תורה ממנו ושהסכימו עם הרעיון לקבוע חוקים ביניהם, והרי משה לא בא כאן לכתוב קורות עם ישראל אלא כל פרשה זו היא תוכחה ומגולה לעם ישראל ואם כן זה שיתרו הגה את הרעיון והציע למשה הוא פרק חשוב בקורות עם ישראל, אבל אין בזה משום תוכחה לכלל ישראל. רק החלק שמשה הביא את עצתו לישראל והם סמכו ידיהם עליו במקום למחות, רק בזה יש תוכחה והוא שייך לפרשה זו. The whole purpose of this פרשה parsha is מוסר mussar. There is no מוסר mussar in saying that Yisro was the one who conceived of the idea. Yisro gets the credit, he deserves the credit. And Yisro gets the credit back in פרשת יתרו Parshas Yisro. But it wouldn't have added to the מוסר mussar to invoke Yisro here. Since the whole purpose is to give מוסר mussar, therefore Moshe only tells them the problem was you accepted it. When I said there would be a barrier in between, when I said I'm giving, canceling the שיעור shiur, we're moving to Zoom, you should have said, what? No way. Not less שיעורים shiurim, we want more. Not online, we want in person. Not through someone else, we want you. And their failure to do that showed a casualness on their part, a willingness to compromise on their part. And that's what Moshe is saying, the emphasis of the reason to repeat the story is not because Yisro originated, but rather to give the מוסר mussar, and that is why, and that is why he leaves it out. פסוק כב Pasuk Kaf Beis, page 944. We're turning pages, don't get whiplash. ראה נתן ה' אלקיך לפניך את הארץ עלה ורש כאשר דבר ה' אלקי אבותיך לך אל תירא ואל תחת Re'eh nasan Hashem Elokecha l'fanecha es ha'aretz alei v'reish ka'asher diber Hashem Elokei avosecha lach al tira v'al teichas. ותקרבון אלי כלכם ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו V'tikravun elai kulchem v'tomru nishlecha anashim l'faneinu. Now we get to the מרגלים meraglim. Moshe's making his way through their short history until that point and again, he is giving a good מוסר mussar. ותקרבון אלי כלכם ותאמרו נשלחה אנשים לפנינו V'tikravun elai kulchem v'tomru nishlecha anashim l'faneinu, you approached me and you said let's send some people. ויחפרו לנו את הארץ V'yachperu lanu es ha'aretz, and we'll go investigate the land. וישיבו אתנו דבר V'yashivu osanu davar, we talked about this earlier, the רש\"י Rashi and the מהר\"ל Maharal, את הדרך אשר נעלה בה es ha'derech asher naaleh bah, how we should go up and send, את הערים אשר נבוא עליהן es he'arim asher navo aleihen and the cities that we have to come upon, come upon them. Says יחזקאל לווינשטיין Yechezkel Levenstein. מבואר בפסוקים אלו שכל סיבת המרגלים היה ביוזמת קרובים ומוסכמת לארץ ישראל, ומכיוון שנכשלו בחטא המרגלים וגרמו לכל העם לבכות בלילה ההוא, נאסו כל הכלל מלנחות את ארץ ישראל ויצטרכו ללכת ארבעים שנה במדבר. הרי יתכן M'voar ba'psukim eilu she'kol sibas ha'meraglim haya b'yozmas krovim u'muskames l'eretz Yisrael, u'mikeivan she'nichshlu b'chet ha'meraglim v'garmu l'chol ha'am livkos ba'laila ha'hu, ne'esu kol ha'klal milinachos es eretz Yisrael v'yitztrachu laleches arba'im shana ba'midbar. Harei yitachen, listen to this powerful message says רבי יחזקאל Rabbi Yechezkel. שאדם יעשה כל ימיו בתורה ובמצוות ובמעשים טובים, ויהיה קרוב מאוד לזכות בנחלת עולם הבא ולקראת הסוף יתן ליצר הרע פתח להיכשל בעבירה אחת, ויאבד במעט אחד כל עולם שבא לו. Says רבי יחזקאל Rabbi Yechezkel. You know what part of the lesson of the story is here? A person could be approaching the finish line. You could work your entire life. You could earn and secure a reputation. You could try to achieve certain goals. And yet, you could throw it all away at the end. One bad decision, one act of poor judgment, one moment of letting down your guard, one giving into your animal instinct, and you could lose it all in a moment of a second. היצר הרע לא יוצא לחופש לעולם Ha'yetzer hara lo yotzei l'chofesh l'olam. The יצר הרע yetzer hara never takes a vacation. The יצר הרע yetzer hara doesn't retire. The יצר הרע yetzer hara doesn't take a break. The יצר הרע yetzer hara is never on vacation. So here the Jewish people are at the finish line, the end of life, they're almost there. Here the Jewish people are about to realize the dream. Here the Jewish people have come so far and yet, in that fateful moment, when they came back and they could have reported positively or negatively, they could have used that power of speech to build and to elevate. Instead, they used it to undermine and to destroy, and because they did, they compromised the entire mission. Wow. הוא אורב לאדם בזמן שהוא סבור שהוא יכול לחתום ותמיד צריך להתפלל הנצל ולסבול ולהתבונן שלא ליפול בהם Hu orev l'adam b'zman she'hu savur she'hu yachol lachtom, v'samid tzarich l'hitpalel l'natzel u'l'sbol u'l'hitbonen she'lo lipol ba'hem. Just when you let your guard down, just when you think you're done, just when you think you've arrived. You ever see a video of somebody in the marathon and the race, and right before the finish line? You ever see in football, the guy who's celebrating at the one-yard line, he tries to moonwalk into the end zone, and just at that second an opposing player knocks the ball out of his hands, he fumbles, he falls, and he looks like an absolute fool. We actually have a term for this. I like to use this term. We say, we say, don't spike the football before you're in the end zone. You ever hear that term? Don't spike the football before you're in the end zone. כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael were spiking the football and they fumbled at the one-yard line. And the lesson for us what Moshe was telling them, you were at the one-yard line. We could have all been in Israel. משיח Mashiach would have come, could have built the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, it would have been everlasting. Moshe himself would have escorted them in. Don't prematurely celebrate. Don't fumble at the one-yard line. Don't let down your guard. Don't feel you've arrived. Doesn't matter what age, what stage of life, doesn't matter what time in your career. The יצר הרע yetzer hara never rests. The יצר הרע yetzer hara never takes a break. The יצר הרע yetzer hara is never, ever done, and therefore don't ever, don't ever let up. Don't ever let up. One more thought. וייטב בעיני הדבר Vayitav b'einai ha'davar. פסוק כג Pasuk Kaf Gimmel. We'll end with this. We have more, as always, but we'll end with this. We have a לוויה levayah of a very special and holy woman, one of the early pillars and founders of our community momentarily this morning. Mrs. Isaac. פרק א פסוק כג Perek Aleph Pasuk Kaf Gimmel, we'll end with this. וייטב בעיני הדבר Vayitav b'einai ha'davar, ואקח מכם שנים עשר אנשים איש אחד לשבט v'ekach mikem shneim asar anashim ish echad la'shavet. And you found favor in my eyes, and we found twelve spies, and they went and they headed out. Moshe testifies, שלא רק שלא התנגד she'lo rak she'lo hisnaged, not just that he didn't oppose their plan, but וייטב בעיני הדבר vayitav b'einai ha'davar. הרמב\"ן Ha'Ramban explains in the beginning of פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach, that Moshe sent people to see the land, not only to see the land but how to conquer it. And from that goal, the people were very happy. So where's the חטא המרגלים chet ha'meraglim? What did they do that was so wrong? If Moshe was happy, וייטב בעיני vayitav b'einai, if he was satisfied and happy, if he bought in, and if he endorsed it, where did they go wrong? So listen to what the אלתר מקלם Alter of Kelm says. עיקר חטא ההיא הייתה פזיזות מצד ישראל Ikar chet ha'hi hayta p'zizus mitzad Yisrael. It says ותקרבון אלי כלכם v'tikravun elai kulchem, you all approached me, and רש\"י Rashi says one word. ותקרבון אלי כלכם בערבוביא, ילדים דוחפים את הזקנים V'tikravun elai kulchem b'irbuvya, yeladim dochfim es ha'zkeinim, shoving and pushing, everybody was בערבוביא b'irbuvya. There was chaos and commotion. You wanted this so bad, שמראים שלא פחדו וחששו לסמוך על משה רבנו שישלח לבדוק את מה שברצונו לברר she'mar'im she'lo pachdu v'chashshu lismoch al Moshe Rabbeinu she'yishlach livdok es mah she'birtzono l'varer. Moshe had a plan, Moshe had a goal from the spies, but the people denied it, they didn't believe it, they panicked. There was hysteria, there was pushing, and there was shoving. And that was the חטא העגל chet ha'eigel. The חטא העגל chet ha'eigel is hysteria and panic. A failure of faith to not believe in a leader that there is a plan and there is a mission. ערבוביא Irbuvya. There was hysteria, there was panic. They had lost their מנוחת הנפש menuchas ha'nefesh. A יהודי Yid, a Jew is always meant to live with מנוחת הנפש menuchas ha'nefesh, a sense of calm, to know it's going to be okay, here's what we have to do. The moment there is ערבוביא irbuvya. Someone just sent me a video yesterday I saw of a small plane where a pilot passed out. So a passenger who'd never flown before had to call the tower that guided him into landing the plane. And while you listened to the voice from the cockpit, it showed the flight pattern. The plane was zigzagging. If you were just looking at it, you'd think you don't know what. And this person who'd never flown a plane while the person walked him through it, landed the plane safely. You saw the zigzag till he finally came in and landed safely.The most remarkable part to me of this little video that was sent was the passenger was completely calm. What do I do next? What do I do now? How do I do this? What do I look at? Am I doing okay? He wasn't screaming, he wasn't panting, he wasn't out of breath, he wasn't hyperventilating. The מנוחת הנפש menuchas hanefesh. If a person really has אמונה emunah and believes in God, then they remain calm at all times. Keep calm and carry on because God's in charge. But when you act with ירבוביא irbuvya, when you act with panic and with hysteria, when you shove and when you push, when you panic, it is a failure of faith. You don't believe it will be okay. You're not confident that there is a plan and that Hashem is watching our back. That was the חטא המרגלים chet hamiraglim. The חטא המרגלים chet hamiraglim was not asking for the מרגלים miraglim. The חטא המרגלים chet hamiraglim maybe was not even the report of the מרגלים miraglim. The חטא המרגלים chet hamiraglim was the response to the מרגלים miraglim. The ירבוביא irbuvya, the panic and the chaos, the failure and the breakdown of faith in Hashem, and that is what we continue to suffer from עד היום הזה ad hayom hazeh until today. Please remember, we're on break for a few weeks. No parsha class. You could listen to old years, you could listen to other people's parsha class. So until we resume, until next time, stay happy, stay healthy.
