Transcript
Okay, בוקר טוב *Boker tov*, good morning everyone. It's great to be back. Hope everyone's having a happy and a healthy and a wonderful summer.We have the privilege this week of studying פרשת מטות *Parshas Matos* and מסעי *Masei*, two פרשיות *parshios*. We're finally going to catch up with a double פרשה *parsha* and complete the amazing ספר במדבר *Sefer Bamidbar* together. We begin with פרשת מטות *Parshas Matos*. If you're following in the ArtScroll Stone חומש *Chumash*, it's on page 900. And of course, פרשת מטות *Parshas Matos* begins with the laws of נדרים *nedarim*, of taking a vow, of taking an oath, of making a promise. These are very complicated laws. There's only a portion of the actual intricate laws that are recorded in the תורה *Torah* itself. So much of it is תורה שבעל פה *Torah sheba'al peh*, described by חז״ל *Chazal* as letters that fly in the air, almost difficult to assemble, to understand, and to access. So the תורה *Torah* begins, וידבר משה אל ראשי המטות לבני ישראל לאמר זה הדבר אשר צוה ה' *vayidaber Moshe el rashei hamatos livnei Yisrael leimor, zeh hadavar asher tziva Hashem*. Moshe spoke to the ראשי מטות *rashei matos* and he told them this is what God commanded you. Why did he specifically deliver the מצוות *mitzvos*, the laws of נדרים *nedarim* to the ראשי מטות *rashei matos*? Why did it have to be delivered specifically to the heads of the tribes? It's a good question maybe we'll come back to. איש כי ידר נדר לה׳ *Ish ki yidor neder l'Hashem*, and what was the law he delivered? That if a person takes a vow, או השבע שבועה *o hishava shvua*, the difference between a נדר *neder* and a שבועה *shvua*, one is on the חפצא *cheftza*, one is on the גברא *gavra*. One relates to the object and another relates to the person. You can either take a vow, you can make a promise which forbids an object. So you could declare this chair, right now it's an ordinary chair. Right now the chair is mundane, it's nothing. But if I make a promise that I won't benefit from the chair, I give the chair the status of sanctity, of a holy sacred object, I forbid, I make prohibited to benefit from the chair. So that's a law, that's a דין *din* in the chair, in the חפצא *cheftza*. There's also an oath which is a דין *din* in the גברא *gavra*. If I make a vow, I say, you know what, I gained so much weight this summer. I did nothing but eat over my vacation. I hereby promise I'm never eating potato chips again. It's not on a—I'm not making that promise. בלי נדר *Bli neder*. בלי נדר *Bli neder*. I am, I did start my new lifestyle yesterday, but I'm not prepared to take a נדר *neder* never to eat potato chips again. So that's not on the particular potato chip, that's on me, on the person. Now the תורה *Torah* employs a very interesting phrase because it tells us לאסר אסר על נפשו *le'esor isar al nafsho*, so whether it's a נדר *neder* or a שבועה *shvua*, either way לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*, ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה *kechol hayotzei mipiv ya'aseh*. לא יחל דברו *Lo yachel devaro*. What does that mean לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*? Don't violate your word. Don't violate your promise. You made a promise, you said you're going to observe whether it's the way you interact with an object or you transform your expectations of yourself as a subject, as a person. Either way, לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*, don't violate. Be true to your word, ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה *kechol hayotzei mipiv ya'aseh*, just as you spoke, so shall you do. That's the simple understanding of the פסוק *pasuk*. Look at רש״י *Rashi*. לא יחל דברו *Lo yachel devaro*, says רש״י *Rashi* here on פסוק ג' *pasuk gimmel*, לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro* כמו לא יחלל דברו *k'mo lo yechalel devaro*, לא יעשה דבריו חולין *lo ya'aseh devarav chullin*. What does לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro* mean? Not just don't violate your word. You made a promise, you made a pledge, you made a commitment. Be true to your word, follow through, do what you say. You said you're going to meet someone somewhere at a certain time? Don't be late and keep them waiting. You said you're going to give certain צדקה *tzedakah*? Don't make an empty promise and fail to deliver. You said that you're going to make a commitment to change something in your life, don't just make it on fire one moment and forget about it the next. לא יחל דברו *Lo yachel devaro*, follow through everything that leaves your lips, every word you say, so shall you do. But רש״י *Rashi* takes it a further, a step further, and he says the word יחל *yachel* comes from the word חולין *chullin*. What is the word חולין *chullin*? What do we say every Saturday night? להבדיל בין קודש ל *Lehavdil bein kodesh le*—לחול *lechol*. הבדלה *Havdalah* comes in order to help us re-enter the week. We transition from the sanctity and the holiness of שבת *Shabbos* into the mundane week, from בין קודש לחול *bein kodesh lechol*. חול, חולין *Chol, chullin* means profane, mundane, ordinary. Says רש״י *Rashi*, לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*, don't see your own words as ordinary or mundane. Understand your power of words, understand the potency, your capacity to create new realities, to change the world. I saw it brought down in a ספר *sefer* as an example. What's an example where our words change reality? Marriage. Stand under the חופה *chuppah* and the man says, הרי את מקודשת לי בטבעת זו כדת משה וישראל *harei at mekudeshes li betabaas zu kedas Moshe v'Yisrael*, they're married. If a moment before this woman is intimate with another man, there's no punishment. A moment after he says that sentence, it's death penalty because it's a violation of אשת איש *eishes ish*, she's a married woman. What made the change, what made the difference? Of course, it was מסירת הטבעת *mesiras hatabaas*, he gave her the ring, but he gave her the ring and it was accompanied with those words. הרי את מקודשת לי *Harei at mekudeshes li*. He spoke about it on שבועות *Shvuos*. We printed it in the קונטרס *kuntres* for שבועות *Shvuos*, the insight that if you say הרי את מקודשת *harei at mekudeshes* but you leave out the word לי *li*, you are not married. You have to give over yourself, it has to be to me. One word makes the difference. You omit one word under that חופה *chuppah*, you're not married. But that sentence changes a reality. It changes a reality. A moment ago, the chair was just a chair and I could use it. But now I've turned the chair into a piece of pork. I turned the chair into בשר בחלב *basar b'chalav*. I turned the chair into something which is forbidden. How did I do it? With what mechanism or instrument, what tool did I do it? You know what the instrument is? The power of speech. Says רש״י *Rashi*, חולין *chullin*, לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*. Don't turn your words into חולין *chullin*. Don't let them be so insignificant to you that you use them so freely, so loosely, so insignificantly, so casually, so irresponsibly. Realize that words are קודש *kodesh*, they're holy. With words, we transform, we can impact the world. We create or destroy, we build or we can demolish. With words, we can comfort and console or we can aggravate. Words create reality. We think that the physical world is reality. Words are just פורחות באויר *porchos b'avir*. Words just, they float away. Look at the world we're living in today. I'm not taking a political position on either side. But the whole issue of the rhetoric and the whole issue of of language and words and words mattering, words matter, they create reality. Policies matter, actions matter, but we're living in a time where we see how much words matter. Words matter, לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*. The סלוניםער רבי *Slonimer Rebbe* says, the סלוניםער רבי *Slonimer Rebbe* asks in נתיבות שלום *Nesivos Shalom*, he points out רש״י'ס *Rashi's* לא יעשה דבריו חולין *lo ya'aseh devarav chullin*, and he says why does it say, it should have said לא יעבור על דברו *lo ya'avor al devaro*, not לא יחל דברו *lo yachel devaro*. Don't violate your word, לא יעבור *lo ya'avor*, don't violate what you said. You made a promise, you made a pledge, fulfill it. You promised a certain behavior, do it. It should say לא יעבור *lo ya'avor*, why לא יחל *lo yachel*? And what does it mean then to not make it חולין *chullin*? And what is the end of the פסוק *pasuk*? ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה *Kechol hayotzei mipiv ya'aseh*. Everything that comes out of your mouth, so shall you do. Isn't that obvious? You just made a promise, and the תורה *Torah* said don't violate your promise. So isn't it obvious if you're not violating your promise, it means what are you doing? Fulfilling your promise. That's the opposite of violating your promise. So why the redundancy, why the extra words? Don't violate your promise, make sure to fulfill it. Isn't it obvious? asks the סלוניםער רבי *Slonimer Rebbe*. So he says, עצם ענין נדר צריך ביאור *etzem inyan neder tzorech biur*. In fact you have to ask how does a נדר *neder* work to begin with? How can you change reality with words? So he quotes רבינו יונה *Rabbeinu Yonah*, כי יהודי שמקדש את פיו נעשה פיו ככלי שרת *ki Yehudi shemekadesh es piv na'aseh piv k'kli shareis*. רבינו יונה *Rabbeinu Yonah* in אבות *Avos* says that a Jew, a person who uses their words properly, their mouth becomes a holy vessel. You have a מנורה *menorah* and a שולחן *shulchan* and a כיור *kiyor* and a מזבח *mizbeach*, we have holy vessels in the Temple, and the vessel in our lives, if we see ourselves as a living מקדש *Mikdash*, if we see our בלבבי משכן אבנה *belevavi mishkan evneh*, if we see ourselves as that living Tabernacle, then the holy vessel in our lives is our mouth, are our lips. כשם שכלי שרת מקדש את המנחה המונחת בתוכו *Keshem shekli shareis mekadesh es hamincha hamunachas besochah*, just like a vessel in the Temple when you put the ingredients in it, it makes everything in it holy, it gives it a sacred status that can't be violated, ומציאותו משתנית להיות קדושה *umetziyuso mishtaneis l'hiyos kedushah*, כמו כן על ידי דיבור שיהודי מוציא מפיו שהוא כלי שרת, נוצרת מציאות חדשה של קדושה ונדר *k'mo kein al yedei dibbur sheYehudi motzi mipiv shehu kli shareis, notzeres metzius chadasha shel kedusha v'neder*. So if our mouth is a כלי שרת *kli shareis*, if our mouth is a holy vessel, just like in the בית המקדש *Beis Hamikdash*, whatever was put into the vessel attained the קדושה *kedushah* of the vessel, so too if our mouth is that vessel, that instrument, the words we express and we articulate with it take on holiness, they take on significance. We create reality, and therefore we cannot violate it to make it mundane. And it's a long piece but the סלוניםער רבי *Slonimer Rebbe* basically says, understand the end of the פסוק *pasuk* this same way. What does it mean? ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה *Kechol hayotzei mipiv ya'aseh*, it means whatever left your mouth, יעשה *ya'aseh*, you created something with it. Every word we say we create a reality. So we have to be so careful, so vigilant. We're living in a time where there's never been a time that we can so efficiently spread our words so widely, so virally, with social media and the internet and text messaging and email. It's so easy to thoughtlessly and mindlessly say something, text something, write something, post something, and it spreads, and once it leaves its imprint in the in the cyber world, it's leaving an imprint in reality. ככל היוצא מפיו יעשה *Kechol hayotzei mipiv ya'aseh*. Everything that יוצא מפיו *yotzei mipiv*, if it leaves your mouth, and our fingertips today are an extension of our mouth, if it leaves our mouth, it's created, it's real. It's out there, it can't be taken back, which is why we have to be so careful and so vigilant. There's no such thing as what רש״י *Rashi* is saying is there's no such thing as פרווה *pareve* words. The בעל התניא *Baal HaTanya* was מחדש *mechadesh* something very, very significant. When I first learned it, it had a huge impact on me. According to many other בעלי מוסר *baalei mussar* of schools of מחשבה *machshava*, we have three realms of behavior. We have holy, and we have unholy. We have a מצוה *mitzvah*, we have an עבירה *aveira*, and we have a third realm called רשות *reshus*. It means if I'm occupied with a religious activity, I've done a מצוה *mitzvah*. I've tapped into my נשמה *neshama*. I've accessed the spiritual world. If I do an עבירה *aveira*, I do something wrong, I violate something ה׳ *Hashem* has said be careful about, I've tainted my נשמה *neshama*. I've blemished my נשמה *neshama*. I've done something wrong. But according to most, there's a third area that's called רשות *reshus*. It's neither holy nor is it unholy. It's the opposite of holy. Profane, wicked, evil. It's neither, it's רשות *reshus*. It's what we would call in the world of כשרות *kashrus*, פרווה *pareve*. It's פרווה *pareve*. It's not פליישיגס *fleishigs*, it's not מילכיגס *milchigs*. There are things that are פרווה *pareve*. If I go for a jog, is it a מצוה *mitzvah*, is it an עבירה *aveira*? It's פרווה *pareve*. If I'm reading the newspaper, if I'm having a cup of coffee, if I'm doing whatever, it's פרווה *pareve*. That's according to most. Came along the בעל התניא *Baal HaTanya* and he said, no. That's not how the world is divided. The entire world, for a Jew, our perspective, our attitude to life is, it's either holy or it's unholy. Those are the only two options. There are many people who don't have פרווה *pareve* in their kitchen because they have a phobia of פרווה *pareve*. How do you make פרווה *pareve* and what do you put פרווה *pareve* with and where do you wash the פרווה *pareve* and how do you store the פרווה *pareve*? So the בעל התניא *Baal HaTanya*, no פרווה *pareve* in his kitchen. There is no פרווה *pareve*. There's no neutral. We have to measure and evaluate every thought, behavior, action, speech through that filter or through that metric of is this going to advance holiness or is this unholy? There is no neutral, there is no profane. And I think that's what רש״י *Rashi* is saying about our words. There's no just סתם *stam* blabbering. You don't just סתם *stam* talk for the sake of talking. Is what we're going to say going to contribute positively? Is it constructive? Or is it wasted words? Is it חולין *chullin*? Have I turned something that should be קודש *kodesh* into חול *chol* and into חולין *chullin*? There is no middle ground. Now, yes, there is such a thing called small talk. דברים של מה בכך *Dvarim shel mah b'kach*. The חז״ל *Chazal* already referenced that concept of דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*, which is another way of saying small talk. But small talk is also holy. I'm not going to go back to ספר בראשית *Sefer Bereishis*, but the כתב והקבלה *Ksav v'haKabbalah* once we've shared, offers the interpretation that what were יעקב *Yaakov* and פרעה *Paro* talking about in their very, very short meeting? The כתב והקבלה *Ksav v'haKabbalah*, Rav Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg says, דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*. What's doing? How are you? What do you think of the weather? How old are you? What's the value of דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*? Shouldn't they have like set a מחלוקת *machlokes* between the קצות *Ktzos* and the נתיבות *Nesivos*? Shouldn't they have debated the theology, the origins of the universe? What's the value of דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*? The answer is דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach* are the foundation of a relationship. Not every conversation has to move mountains. The foundation of a relation—see, if I only talk to you because there's an agenda to our conversation, then I'm not really interested in a relationship with you, I'm interested in using you to advance my agenda. I have a question for you, I'm asking you to do something, I'm working with you, I'm relating to you. If my conversation with you is only when there's something that I need, then it's not a relationship with you I need, it's I need to use you to advance what I need. But if we're willing to engage in דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*… If I call and say, you know, some—not me. Other people might get a call from their children and say, what do you need? Child says, why do I have to need anything? I'm just calling to say hi. What's doing? How's your day? A little suspicious. No, come on. Where when's the ask coming? Yeah, דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*. You know, you want the evidence that the relationship is the real, is central, is core, it's not all about needs, it's דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*. So yes, there are דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*, but those two are קודש *kodesh*, they're holy. When you're willing to engage in דברים של מה בכך *dvarim shel mah b'kach*, when you שמועס *shmooze* and make small talk with someone simply because you want the relationship, that's also holy. So the whole first part of our פרשה *parsha*, which as you can tell I can get into a lot more but we're not going to, is this notion that words are not, first of all, they're not endless. They're not endless. You know, the social media platform of Twitter, which it ended up expanding, originally it had a very limited amount of letters you could have, 140 characters, and it ended up expanding because we couldn't actually articulate ourselves so succinctly. But even now still, it's a very very small amount. And if you want to post something on that platform, you have to be very thoughtful of how you're going to say it, how you could say it most succinctly, how you can spell 'you' not y-o-u but just u. You have to use all kinds of tricks. Because words are not endless, we have a limited amount, and therefore if we understand that, we'd be much more vigilant and careful in exactly how we use them. So that's the opening of the פרשה *parsha*. That's the opening of the פרשה *parsha*. The laws of נדרים *nedarim* are that reminder. לא יחל דברו *Lo yachel devaro*, ככל היוצא מפיו *kechol hayotzei mipiv*, everything that leaves your lips, it's creating a reality in the world. It's doing something in the world. It's leaving an imprint and an impression in the world. We appreciate this again now more than ever. Now in schools, there are actually classes or a special assembly for young people to learn about how to be responsible cyber citizens. What are they learning about? They're learning about the footprint they're leaving in cyberspace. That later in life when they apply for the job, the first thing someone's going to do is Google them and look on social media at their previous posts. And in שידוכים *shidduchim*, depending which community of שידוכים *shidduchim*, they may go online and look and they'll yay or nay based on a picture from seventh grade that you posted on the vacation that you weren't thinking about. So young people are are learning lessons, we are learning how to offer a curriculum in how to be a responsible cyber citizen and how to leave the proper footprint in cyberspace. So we understand today that anything you type or write, it is in the world. You could try to delete it or take it down, it's too late. But what's true in cyberspace is true in space. It's true in spiritual space, metaphysical space. Whatever we say has created a reality. If we could actually see our words as they left our mouth, we'd be so much more careful with them. But they feel invisible and they feel limitless, and therefore we waste them and that's what this פרשה *parsha* is about. That's why Rav Soloveitchik explained, we begin יום כיפור *Yom Kippur* with כל נדרי *Kol Nidre*, the most bizarre. Any outsider who said, oh, יום כיפור *Yom Kippur* is your holiest day of the year, everyone's wearing white, and you're coming to the שול *shul*, and you're abstaining from fasting because you're angelic and you don't even need physical foods or physical pleasures. And how do you begin that ceremony? How do you begin that solemn day, that 25 hours of your holiest day of the year? What's the first thing that you do? We annul vows. We convene a court and we recite a long, we sing, we chant three times that we'd like to annul all of our vows and oaths. That sounds so spiritual, so moving, so emotional. That's not exactly ונתנה תוקף *U'netaneh Tokef*. So why do we start with that? Rav Soloveitchik said, because יום כיפור *Yom Kippur* begins by saying, you're about to spend the next 25 hours offering words. You're going to tell God you're sorry and you have regret and remorse, and you're making promises and pledges for the future. We begin by reminding ourselves that words matter, that words count, that words create reality. So you just made a bunch of promises the whole previous year. We're going to begin with התרת נדרים *hataras nedarim*. We have to annul those words. Why? Just start again. Because the promises you made, they matter. They create a reality. And if you want to undo that reality, you need to say כל נדרי *Kol Nidre*. You need to do התרת נדרים *hataras nedarim*. Words matter. They are the means through which we express ourselves and we build those relationships and we make those connections, and therefore words matter and they matter a lot. And I'm using up so much of them that I'm already out of time. Okay. There's another insight that I always share at the beginning here of פרשת מטות *Parshas Matos* with נדרים *nedarim*. The תורה *Torah* says וה' יסלח לה *v'Hashem yislach lah*. What's the case of וה' יסלח לה *v'Hashem yislach lah*? We know that a woman or husband can annul her vow. So what happens if a woman takes a vow, her father or her husband annulled her vow, her vow, but without her knowledge and then she ended up giving into her impulse and violated what would have been her vow but it was annulled. So in other words, she pledges, I ate out all summer and I'm never looking at chocolate cake ever again. I hereby vow. And the husband learns about her vow and he says, there's no, I know my wife and there's no chance she can fulfill this. So he annuls the vow. She doesn't know it. She goes out to lunch with a friend, she's made this promise, this pledge, but she just can't help it. So she orders the chocolate cake. And as she digs in, she thinks that she's violating a נדר *neder*. Turns out, she, if this came before the heavenly court, she'd get off on a technicality. What would she get off on? There was no vow in place. The husband had annulled it. And yet the תורה *Torah* says in the exact circumstance I just described, אם הניא אביה... לא יקום, וה' יסלח לה *im heini aviah... lo yakum, v'Hashem yislach lah*. If her father or her husband annulled the vow, but she didn't know that, and engaged in a behavior which otherwise would have violated it, וה' יסלח לה *v'Hashem yislach lah*, ה׳ *Hashem* has to forgive her. And רש״י *Rashi* is bothered, and to me this is a very, very powerful message here, רש״י *Rashi* is bothered, why? Why does she need forgiveness or atonement? וה' יסלח לה *V'Hashem yislach lah*. If it goes before the court and she has a hefty decent lawyer, he can prove that she's innocent. The vow had been annulled. And רש״י *Rashi* reminds us, because our relationship with ה׳ *Hashem* is not before a court. It's not about the legality or the technicality. It's about a relationship. If a person tried to violate the trust of their spouse, but it turned out because of a technicality they didn't really do it, but their intent was, how would that impact the relationship? You wouldn't say, well, but technically I didn't do it. Yeah, but you tried to do it. You went there to do it, you engaged in doing it. For whatever reason, it didn't work out to do it. So don't tell me you're off the hook and all's hunky dory in our relationship. You intended to, you tried to, you were driven to, you were about to, and there's a technical reason that you didn't. So that passage, those three words, וה' יסלח לה *v'Hashem yislach lah*, are the reminder that the relationship with ה׳ *Hashem* is not litigants and a judge. It's not subjects and a king. Our relationship with ה׳ *Hashem*, at least in its highest form, its aspirational form, is the relationship of a husband and wife. We're in a relationship. It's not just whether we technically did it or not. It's where is our intent? Where is our כוונה *kavana*? Where is our mind? Where is the meaning in the relationship? And that is evidenced through that particular הלכה *halacha*, through that particular law. Okay, the פרשה *parsha* goes on. וידבר משה למור *Vayidaber Moshe leimor*, we're on page 902. After the section of נדרים *nedarim*. What comes next? נקום נקמת בני ישראל מאת המדינים אחר תאסף אל עמך *Nekom nikmas Bnei Yisrael mei'eis haMidyanim achar tei'asef el amecha*. It's time for revenge. It's time to get even. ה׳ *Hashem* doesn't get angry, he gets even. So Midian who had taken advantage of us, Midian who had persecuted us or taken advantage of our vulnerability, come הקדוש ברוך הוא *Hakadosh Baruch Hu* calls for נקום נקמת בני ישראל *nekom nikmas Bnei Yisrael* to take revenge against Midian. Now this notion, we're not going to spend time on now, we've given שיעורים *shiurim* in the past, the Jewish view of revenge. Do we endorse revenge? Do we condone revenge? Are we against revenge? Is there a difference between ה׳'s *Hashem's* revenge? We describe ה׳ *Hashem* as a vengeful God, and yet we have an explicit verse, we are not supposed to take revenge. Is revenge good or is revenge bad? What is revenge? So we're not getting into it now, but I call to your attention that tension in these words. נקום נקמת בני ישראל *Nekom nikmas Bnei Yisrael*. וידבר משה אל העם לאמר *Vayidaber Moshe el ha'am leimor*. So Moshe calls on the people and he says, החלצו מאתכם אנשים לצבא והיו על מדין לתת נקמת ה׳ במדין *Heichaltzu mei'itchem anashim l'tzava v'hayu al Midyan lases nikmas Hashem b'Midyan*. Arm men. He says it's time to form an army. It's time to convene an army. Time to convene an army. This words החלצו מאתכם *heichaltzu mei'itchem*. Rav Moshe of Kozhnitz, the Kozhnitzer Rebbe said, how do we form an army, how do we fight a war, what do we need to be willing to do in order to engage in battle, to be triumphant? It's החלצו *heichaltzu*, how? מאתכם *mei'itchem*. שלא תהיה להם של צבא שום נגיעה מחשבה אישית אלא כל מטרתם צריכה להיות רק לתת נקמת ה׳ במדין *Shelo tihiyeh lahem anshei hatzava shum negiah machshava ishis ela kol matrasam tzricha liyos rak lases nikmas Hashem b'Midyan*. He says when you're really part of צבאות ה׳ *tzivos Hashem*, I never made it past private in צבאות ה׳ *tzivos Hashem*, I'm still a private, but I was a member of צבאות ה׳ *tzivos Hashem* as a child. You hear that Alan? I hope I've ascended now from private a little bit. But if you're a real member of צבאות ה׳ *tzivos Hashem*, if you're part of the army of God, then it has to be מאתכם *mei'itchem*. You have to remove and purge any personal נגיעות *negios*. It's not about you, it's not about your ego, yourself, it's about ה׳ *Hashem*. You're in the army of ה׳ *Hashem*. So the prerequisite, says the קאזשניצער *Kozhnitzer Rebbe*, what he's saying here in this פסוק *pasuk* is, Moshe is recruiting people to serve in the army of ה׳ *Hashem*. And if you're genuinely and authentically in the army of ה׳ *Hashem*, then it's החלצו *heichaltzu*, how do you enlist? מאתכם *mei'itchem*. Get out of yourself. It's not about you, it's not about your ego, it's not about your agenda. You're in the army of ה׳ *Hashem*, you're in the greater army. You have to be able to subjugate, you have to be able to suppress your personal interests in order to truly be in the army of ה׳ *Hashem*. Rav Soloveitchik has a very powerful passage here on the החלצו *heichaltzu* and applying it to contemporary times. He says if you ask me how do I a talmudic Jew look upon the flag of the state of Israel and its banner, does it have any halachic value? I would answer plainly, I do not hold at all the magical attraction of a flag or similar symbolic ceremonies. Judaism negates ritual connected with physical things. Nonetheless, we must not lose sight of the law in the Shulchan Aruch. Says the Shach quotes in Yoreh Deah, the effect that one who has been killed by a non-Jew is buried in his clothes so the blood may be seen and avenged, as the pasuk says. In other words, the clothes of a Jew acquire a certain sanctity when spattered with the blood of a martyr. How much more is this so of the blue and white flag which has been immersed in the blood of thousands of young Jews defending the country and its population. It is a spark of sanctity that flows from devotion and self-sacrifice. For the Rav, the Israeli flag is a holy, holy symbol. And for the Rav, he prefaces it by saying, I don't believe in symbols and in rituals, but that flag carries with it, if the Shach in Yoreh Deah says that if a Jew is martyred, if a Jew is murdered, normally we perform a tahara, we remove the clothing and we put them in the tachrichin that resemble the bigdei kehunah. But if a Jew is murdered, we don't. We bury them in their bloody clothing because the blood ascends with them and it attests, defends on their behalf, advocates on their behalf. And so the Rav extrapolates from that halacha, if that's true for the clothing of a martyred person, how much more so for the flag that carries with it the martyrdom of 2,000 years of exile and of those who've given themselves to found and defend the state of Israel. And he carries forward the following story. The Rav was once visited by a student who served in the Israeli defense forces who asked the following question. He worked in the tank division and his job was cleaning and maintaining the tanks. Often his uniform would get covered in oil and grime. Did he need to change clothing before reciting the afternoon prayer, saying mincha? Since donning proper attire is a prerequisite for prayer. He emphasized that it would be possible to do so, but it would be very inconvenient and difficult. So this mechanic in the tank division of the army asked, I think the questioner was Rav Lichtenstein who asked the Rav. My brother heard it from Rav Lichtenstein, I think is the more accurate version of the story, that one of Rav Lichtenstein's talmidim said to him, I'm in the tank division, I could change, it would be inconvenient, it would be very difficult. Can I daven in my grimy Israeli army uniform? And Rav Lichtenstein quoting the Rav said to him, why would you need to change clothing? You're wearing bigdei kodesh. That uniform are bigdei kodesh. That uniform are holy, are holy, holy clothing. So החלצו מאתכם *heichaltzu mei'itchem*, the notion of החלצו *heichaltzu*, the חלוצים *chalutzim*, to be pioneers, to be recruited, to serve in an army that defends Hashem, that is holy, holy activity. But as the קאזשניצער *Kozhnitzer* said, it has to be מאתכם *mei'itchem*. We have to get past ourselves. So this is true in the physical army to defend the Jewish people, and in the battle that we wage on our own behalf with our yetzer hara, the battle that we wage with our own alter ego, the way to persevere and to triumph is החלצו *heichaltzu*, how? מאתכם *mei'itchem*. If we can transcend our own sense of self and realize that life is much bigger than us, there are other people, there's a ריבונו של עולם *Ribbono shel Olam* we serve, when it is מאתכם *mei'itchem*, when we transcend ourselves, that's when we can, that's when we can triumph. What happens here? אלף למטה אלף למטה *Elef l'mateh, elef l'mateh*. Rav Kook from Rehovot made this medrash on this pasuk famous. Sadly, several summers ago, בלי עין הרע *bli ayin hara*, this has been a relatively quiet summer, בלי עין הרע *bli ayin hara*, but it seems there's almost every summer Hamas or Hezbollah pick a fight. And so Rav Kook from Rehovot promoted the medrash on this pasuk, אלף למטה אלף למטה *elef l'mateh, elef l'mateh*. The medrash says for every thousand in the army, there were a thousand who took the name of a soldier and prayed for them. And he distributed names of soldiers and matched you up so that you can be davening not just globally, but for a specific soldier you sort of have adopted and you have them in mind on this pasuk. וימסרו מאלפי ישראל אלף למטה שנים עשר אלף חלוצי צבא *Vayimasru mei'alfei Yisrael elef l'mateh shneim asar elef chalutzei tzava*. They went out to war, they went out to battle, they fought Midian. What happens after they fight Midian? ויצאו משה ואלעזר הכהן וכל נשיאי העדה לקראתם מחוץ למחנה *Vayaitzu Moshe v'Elazar haKohen v'chol nesi'ei ha'eidah likrasam michutz l'machaneh*. They go out and they and they bring them back. ויקצף משה על פקודי החיל שרי האלפים ושרי המאות הבאים מצבא המלחמה *Vayiktzof Moshe al pekudei hachayil, sarei ha'alafim v'sarei ha'me'os ha'ba'im mi'tzva ha'milchama*. Moshe gets angry. Moshe rebukes the officers. ויאמר אליהם משה *Vayomer aleihem Moshe*, on top of 906. החייתם כל נקבה *Hachiyisem kol nekeiva*? Did you let every female live? הן הנה היו לבני ישראל בדבר בלעם למסר מעל בה' על דבר פעור *Hein heina hayu l'Vnei Yisrael b'dvar Bilam limsor ma'al baShem al devar Pe'or*. ועתה הרגו כל זכר בטף וכל אשה ידעת איש למשכב זכר הרגו *V'ata hirgu kol zachar ba'taf v'chol isha yoda'as ish l'mishkav zachar harogu*, and so on. Moshe gives the strict instructions. The Jewish army has always been a moral army that has very strict moral imperatives, about moral boundaries, about how to engage. Our view of war, our view of warfare has a very strong ethic. It's not just open-ended. It's not barbaric. And here Moshe is giving that very strong charge to the Jewish people. They battle, they conquer, and then what happens? The middle of page 906. ויאמר אלעזר הכהן אל אנשי הצבא הבאים למלחמה זאת חקת התורה אשר צוה ה' את משה *Vayomer Elazar haKohen el anshei hatzava ha'ba'im l'milchama, zos chukas haTorah asher tziva Hashem es Moshe*. To the victor go the spoils. So when we conquered Midian, what did we take? They didn't have flat screen TVs. There were no Teslas in their driveway. What did we conquer? What were the spoils from Midian? What got a Jew excited? אך את הזהב ואת הכסף את הנחשת את הברזל את הבדיל ואת העפרת *Ach es ha'zahav v'es ha'kesef, es ha'nechoshes, es ha'barzel, es ha'bedil v'es ha'ofares*. You know what we took? We took the KitchenAid and we took the bread maker, and we took the microwave, we took the skillet, and we took the pots and pans, and we took the silverware, and we took the champagne glasses. That's what was there to take. כל דבר *Kol davar*, so what do you do with it now? To the victor go the spoils. We took their kitchen. What do you do with the kitchen? The Midianites did not exactly observe the laws of kashrus. So how do you use them? This is the Torah source for how to kasher. This is the source in the Torah, what do you do when you acquire something, either you acquire something that needs to be kashered, or you or more likely your husband messed up something in the kitchen and it needs to be kashered. So how do you kasher it? כל דבר אשר יבא באש תעבירו באש וטהר *Kol davar asher yavo ba'eish ta'aviru ba'eish v'taher*. Anything that needs to go in fire has to be brought through fire and purified. אך במי נדה יתחטא וכל אשר לא יביאו באש תעבירו במים וכבסתם בגדיכם ביום השביעי וטהרתם ואחר תבואו אל המחנה Ach b'mei nidah yitchata v'chol asher lo yavi'u ba'eish ta'aviru vamayim v'chibastem bigdeichem bayom hashvi'i v'tihartem v'achar tavo'u el hamachaneh. This is the Torah source for the idea of for the idea of טבילת כלים tvilas keilim and הגעלת כלים hagalas keilim. I'm not going to elaborate too long on this. This is what we're studying, this incredible new program our shul has been privileged to be part of called the סמיכת חבר Smichas Chaver program. Rav Eliyadah Goldvicht, my friend Rav Eliyadah has created an incredible program, put together a beautiful curriculum. So the first two sections we did so far were טבילת כלים tvilas keilim and הכשר כלים hechsher keilim. Starting this Sunday, we continue with פס עקום pas akum and then בישול עקום bishul akum. There's a בחינה bechina, a test, and those who pass will get a certificate. There's a beautiful סיום siyum coming up. It's a beautiful program for men that it put together. So, each session that we learn begins not just delving into the laws and the minutiae and the details, but the bigger picture. What's the beauty of the מצוה mitzva? What's the deeper reason of the מצוה mitzva? So I'll share with you a few of the reasons for טבילת כלים tvilas keilim and הגעלת כלים hagalas keilim. טבילת כלים Tvilas keilim of course is if you have a new utensil that you acquired from a non-Jew, it has to go to the מקוה mikva before you can use it. What kind of a utensil? So the פסוק pasuk here lists several types of metal: זהב כסף נחושת ברזל בדיל ועופרת zahav, kesef, nechoshes, barzel, b'dil, v'ofares. So glass is not referenced in the פסוק pasuk. Metal has to go to the מקוה מדאורייתא mikva mid'oraysa, biblically, but our rabbis learn that glass has similar property to metal in that it can be melted and reformed and refashioned. I saw glass blowing this summer. It's an incredible thing to see. Since glass has similar property to metal, חז\"ל Chazal concluded מדרבנן midrabanan, rabbinically, glass has to go to the מקוה mikva. Both get a ברכה bracha. People mistake that all the time. They think glass doesn't get a ברכה bracha, metal does. If it qualifies as a utensil that should get a ברכה bracha, whether it's metal or glass, it has to go to the מקוה mikva and it gets a ברכה bracha. Other items do not. What's considered a כלי סעודה k'li seudah? What constitutes a a vessel that's used for a meal? Does a salt shaker have to go? Does a corkscrew have to go? Does pots, pans, does the grates in your oven or your barbecue? That's why we have סמיכת חבר Smichas Chaver. That's a whole area of הלכה halacha we're not going to get into. How do you טובל toivel your sandwich maker and your hot water urn and electronics is a modern question. What do you do about that? Also we're not going to get into. But giving you some deeper reason for this מצוה mitzva of הגעלת haga'alas of טבילת כלים tvilas keilim. Why? Why did the Torah say if you acquire a כלי kli from a non-Jew? In other words, if a Jew made your כלי kli, if you're in Israel and you buy a כלי kli from a Jew that you know it was not made in China and imported to Israel and through Israel to you, but you know it was made in Israel, many of your קידוש kiddush cups are made in China. Just because you brought it and overpaid for it in some tourist trap in Israel doesn't mean that it was made by a Jew. So you got to look at the find out where it was made. So if it was made by a Jew, it doesn't need to go to the מקוה mikva, but if it was made by a non-Jew, it does. And the question is why? The ירושלמי Yerushalmi makes a comment and says, just like a non-Jew becomes Jewish by going to the מקוה mikva, non-Jewish utensils become Jewish utensils by going to the מקוה mikva. What makes them Jewish utensils? That you didn't pay retail for them? What makes them Jewish utensils? What makes them Jewish utensils? So it is the מקוה mikva that converts them. It's the מקוה mikva that transforms them. But the question is, how does the מקוה mikva do that? And why do I have to do that? So the simple understanding of the ירושלמי Yerushalmi is that they're going through the מקוה mikva as a transformational process like a non-Jew to a Jew. The אמת ליעקב Emes L'Yaakov, רב יעקב קמינצקי Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky has a different perspective. He writes, דליטול טבילת כלים עכו\"ם ליבי אומר שאינה צריכה בקבלת טומאה d'leto'el tvilas klayim akum libi omer she'einah tzrichah b'kabbalas tumah. What does it? וטבילה זו אינה משום איזה שרץ טמא v'tvila zu einah mishum eizeh sheretz tamei. This is not about impurity. The non-Jew never used it and the non-Jew never contaminated it. So why does it need to be converted? הרי היא כטבילת כהן גדול ביום הכיפורים להחליף מבגדי זהב לבגדי לבן harei hi k'tvilas kohen gadol b'Yom haKippurim l'hachlif m'bigdei zahav l'bigdei lavan. Says רב יעקב Rav Yaakov, not every time you go to the מקוה mikva is it a convert becoming a Jew, a non-Jew becoming a Jew. The כהן גדול kohen gadol, the high priest on the holiest day of the year, also immersed in the מקוה mikva to take something that was already holy and make it even holier. And says רב יעקב Rav Yaakov, that's the image that we have. Our כלי kli was already holy when you bought it wherever you bought it. By putting it in the מקוה mikva, you are pledging, you are promising, you are trying to transform it into a vehicle, a vessel of even greater holiness. So how do we do that? Through what means do we do that? So the מאירי Meiri makes an amazing comment. The מאירי Meiri in עבודה זרה דף עה Avodah Zarah daf ayin hey says, טבילה זו מכיוון שהיא עיקר לכניסת קדושת מאכלות, אינה בכלים משום חילוף רשות, שכל שנתבשל עד שלא הוכשר, היאך יכניסו בו קדושה? *Tvilah zu mikeivan she'hi ikar l'knisas k'dushas ma'achalos, einah bakeilim mishum chiluf reshuyot, she'kol shenitbashel ad shelo huchshar, heich yachnisu bo kedusha?* Says the מאירי Meiri, the following incredible insight. Where is an area of our life, arguably the biggest, if not within the top three, where we actually achieve holiness? It's not in the shul, it's not in the בית מדרש beis medrash. It's in how we eat. It's in how we eat. I once saw a beautiful פירש peirush. The משנה Mishna in the ערבי פסחים Arvei Psachim, the tenth פרק perek of פסחים Psachim says, אין קידוש אלא במקום סעודה Ein kiddush ela b'makom seudah. And there's a whole halachic topic over there. When you make קידוש kiddish, you need to have some מזונות mezonos, you maybe need to wash, you need to drink a רביעית revi'is of the grape juice or the wine. But if you made קידוש kiddish but you didn't eat something with it, it's not קידוש kiddish. אין קידוש אלא במקום סעודה Ein kiddush ela b'makom seudah. קידוש Kiddish has to be with במקום סעודה b'makom seudah, with a meal, either some are strict to say you have to even only do it on bread. You have to wash, לחם משנה lechem mishna. Others, מזונות mezonos is good enough, which is the מנהג ישראל minhag Yisrael, at קידוש kiddish everywhere. And that's why everyone, you hear the קידוש kiddish and you grab a cracker, you want some מזונות mezonos. אין קידוש אלא במקום סעודה Ein kiddush ela b'makom seudah. I once saw a magnificent פשט pshat, homiletically. אין קידוש Ein kiddush, אין קדושה אלא במקום סעודה Ein kedusha ela b'makom seudah. You know where you find holiness? In how you eat. Did you make a ברכה bracha before and after? Is what you're eating כשר kosher? Is it healthy? Do you stop eating when you're full? Are you eating to have energy to serve Hashem? Are we eating like a pig? Are we eating hedonistically? Or are we eating holy in a spiritual way? אין קדושה אלא במקום סעודה Ein kedusha ela b'makom seudah. So the area of our life where we achieve holiness in the attitude that we bring, the mindfulness that we bring is in the area of eating. So therefore, says the מאירי Meiri, why do I have to bring my כלים keilim to the מקוה mikva? Because the כלים keilim in a Jew's kitchen are different than כלים keilim everywhere else. The כלים keilim everywhere else are about just satisfying my palate, my urge. I I over the summer was forced to when my children were watching a lot of cooking competitions, that's what now they enjoy watching that. So I heard, you know, bring the heat, it's not acidic enough, you got to this. I know all the terminology now. So these cooking competitions, they're just about the food. It's all about the food. Maybe the food is an art, is an aesthetic. I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's all about the food. Those utensils are all about serving the food. When a Jew brings vessels into our kitchen, what we're saying is I put those vessels in the מקוה mikva because my pots and my pans and my silverware and my cooking things, they're not just about the food. They're not just about my בויך boych. They're about where I'm going to achieve קדושה kedusha. I'm going to become holy because I'm using them to cook meals that I'm going to host guests at. I'm using them to cook meals that I'm going to drop off as חסד chesed for those who need. I'm using them to cook because I want my family to have the energy to serve Hashem, and I want to sit around that table and sing זמירות zmiros and share דברי תורה divrei Torah and talk דברים שעל מה בכך d'varim she'al mah b'kach, small talk to build relationships with each other. I'm not just serving my my appetite. I'm serving Hashem. אין קדושה אלא במקום סעודה Ein kedusha ela b'makom seudah. So when I put my כלים keilim in the מקוה mikva, what I'm doing, it's already only כלי סעודה k'li seudah, only the כלים keilim that contribute to the meal. What I'm saying is, these are not ordinary כלים keilim. And they're not just there to advance food or taste or appetite. They're there not just to beat Bobby Flay, they're there in order to serve Hashem, in order to achieve a level of קדושה kedusha. It's an entirely radically different way to see what the purpose of what the purpose of of the כלים keilim are. The שם משמואל Shem MiShmuel, the סאכטשעווער רבי Sochatchover Rebbe has a final suggestion. How do you טבילת כלים tvilas keilim takes place where? In the מקוה mikva. Where do I give it that קדושה kedusha, that sanctity? Where do I give it that mission, that charge? By immersing it in the מקוה mikva. What's the significance of immersing it in the מקוה mikva? Says the שם משמואל Shem MiShmuel, the סאכטשעווער רבי Sochatchover Rebbe, דאשר אדם אי אפשר לחיות במים, על כן כשבא במים הוא כאילו איבד את חיותו, וכשיצא מן המים כקטן שנולד דמי. כך היא טהרת התשובה, ששב למקור כאילו עבר ונסתלק מן העולם, והשם יתברך נותן לו חיים חדשים כקטן שנולד דמי. *d'asher adam ee efshar l'chayos bamayim, al kein k'sheba bamayim hu k'ilu ibed es chiyuso, u'k'sheyetzei min hamayim k'katan she'nolad dami. Kach hi taharas ha'tshuva, she'shav la'makor k'ilu avar v'nistalek min ha'olam, v'Hashem yisbarach nosein lo chayim chadashim k'katan she'nolad dami*. What's the significance of a מקוה mikva? A מקוה mikva is comprised of entirely rainwater. We gather our modern מקוואות mikvaos, you're not immersing in the rainwater. We have a mechanism, you're actually using purified water, but through a connection, through a השקה hashaka, through a kiss, it's connected to a בור bor, a pit of rainwater. Our מקוה mikva has a slanted roof, it collects the rainwater, it comes down through a pipe and goes through channels, the equipment room, it's all set up. But the image is that when you immerse in the מקוה mikva, you are bare as the day that you were born. There is no barrier, there is nothing, you're not wearing anything. You are as bare as the day you were born. You go into natural water, which is like the embryonic fluid. You take a fetal position to dunk underneath that water. In the water, you can't breathe, you can't live, you've suspended your life. And when you come out and you attain life, you're born anew, you're born again. So whether it's women or men, in biblical times or post-biblical times, when people were strict about about טומאה וטהרה tumah v'tahara and needing תרומה trumah and קדשים kodshim and so on, a person had to be pure, had to go to the מקוה mikva. Those who still go to the מקוה mikva, men every day or ערב שבת erev Shabbos or ערב יום טוב erev Yom Tov. The image is, I'm being born again. I'm going down to what I wore when I was born, I'm going into a natural body of water, symbolic of the embryonic fluid. I'm taking the fetal position. My life is suspended, I can't live under water. I'm entirely immersed and then I emerge, I breathe, and I start life again. And says the סאכטשעווער רבי Sochatchover Rebbe, that's the same thing with the כלי kli. You know, today we immerse our כלים keilim we acquire from a non-Jew that was brand new. But the Torah was talking about קלי מדין klei Midyan. You're taking their כלי kli that was used in their kitchen to cook their pork and their בשר בחלב basar b'chalav and to serve it their vulgar meals. How do you make it new? It goes in the מקוה mikva, the same imagery of into that body of water, the place of rebirth, the place of renewal. That's טבילת כלים tvilas keilim. We also have in this פסוק pasuk the laws of הכשר כלים hechsher keilim or הגעלת כלים hagalas keilim. כל דבר אשר יבוא באש תעבירו באש Kol davar asher yavo va'eish ta'aviru va'eish. Anything that absorbed the taste through fire, how do you purge that taste? How do you remove it? By fire. וכל אשר לא יבוא באש תעבירו במים v'chol asher lo yavo va'eish ta'aviru va'mayim. And anything that acquired its taste not with fire but with the medium of water, how do you purge the taste? With water. חז\"ל Chazal learned, כבולעו כך פולטו k'vol'o kach polto. However it absorbed taste is how it purges taste. If it absorbed taste through heat, so you roasted something in a pan in your oven or on a barbecue, it absorbed absorbed through heat, then you כשר kasher, how do you כשר kasher the oven? With ליבון libun. You need heat. If it absorbed through liquid, you cooked something in a pot, how do you get it out? הגעלה Hagala. Put it in boiling water. If it absorbed through steam, the walls of your microwave, how do you remove it? Through steam. However it absorbed is how it is purged. That is the laws of הכשר כלים hechsher keilim or הגעלת כלים hagalas keilim. Again, a lot of more complicated or details to it. The חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim writes on our פסוק pasuk, the חפץ חיים על התורה Chofetz Chaim al HaTorah, our פרשה parsha. He says it's not just about the כלים keilim, the vessels, this is a prescription or formula for how to persevere or win at war, excuse me, with our יצר הרע yetzer hara or our alter ego alter ego. צריכים להכשיר את הכלים כדרך תשמישם tzrichim l'hachshir es ha'keilim k'derech tashmisham. Just like the Torah is telling us that you have to כשר kasher something the same way it was used and it absorbed, so too, we repair ourselves. We כשר kasher ourselves. It's a משנה Mishna in פרקי אבות Pirkei Avos that says, the 48 things the Torah does, תורה מכשרתו Torah machsharto. Torah has the ability מכשרתו machsharto. ר' חיים מוולוז'ין Rav Chaim Volozhiner, his רוח חיים Ruach Chaim on פרקי אבות Pirkei Avos says, what is the word מכשרתו machsharto mean? תורה מכשרתו Torah machsharto? He says the root of the word מכשרתו machsharto is כשר kasher. How do you כשר kasher something? When you כשר kasher it, you have some non-kosher taste embedded in the wall of a utensil. How do you כשר kasher it? You get it out, the same way it came in. Torah has the ability to כשר kasher us. Our minds are filled with all kinds of non-kosher images, ideas, experiences. How do you get them out of our mind? תורה מכשרתו Torah machsharto. You don't stick your head in a pot of boiling water or in a hot oven. How do you get it out? תורה מכשרתו Torah machsharto. It's the study, the engagement of Torah that has the ability to כשר kasher it. So the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim says, כבולעו כך פולטו k'vol'o kach polto in this way and in this realm as well. כן צריכה להיות גם טהרת בני אדם מטומאתם ומחלאתם ומסאובם *kein tzrichah lihiyos gam taharas bnei adam m'tumasam u'machlasam u'misa'uvam*. So what do you do? The הלכה halacha says, when you want to כשר kasher a utensil, you have to peel off the rust. If you have anything caked on or if you have any rust, it has to be removed so that the water can actually hit the pot and כשר kasher it. So ר' חיים Rav Chaim writes, ראשית להעביר החלודה של עבירות על ידי תשובה *reishis l'ha'avir ha'chaludah shel aveiros al yidei tshuva*. We have to remove the rust, the the residue. You know, if you're still proud of or you're still enjoying the mistake that you made, then that residue is still stuck to you. Before you can engage in תשובה tshuva, before you can כשר kasher yourself, you have to peel it off. חרטה על העבר וקבלה על הבא *charata al he'avar v'kabala al ha'ba*. You have to have regret on the past and acceptance about the future. And then ועיקר התשובה תהיה באותו עמד כמו החטא *v'ikar ha'tshuva tihiye b'oso amatz k'mo ha'chet*. אם החטא היה באש בהתלהבות, צריכה התשובה להיות גם כן בהתלהבות *im ha'chet hayah ba'eish b'his'lahavus, tzricha ha'tshuva lihiyos gam kein b'his'lahavus*. If you did the sin with fire, with passion, with energy, you have to bring the same level of energy. You have to bring the heat in order to remove the חטא chet that you had done as well. So the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim says, we see in here, we see in this partial of הכשר כלים hechsher keilim, הגעלת כלים hagalas keilim, how we purge or get rid of the contaminant of life experience in our own lives. The same attitude we brought is the same attitude we have to bring back. The ספר מעינה של תורה Sefer Ma'ayanah shel Torah is the following on our פסוק pasuk. פסוק Pasuk says, we just read it together, page 906. ויאמר אלעזר הכהן אל אנשי הצבא הבאים למלחמה *Vayomer Elazar ha'kohen el anshei hatzava ha'ba'im la'milchama*. אלעזר הכהן Elazar ha'kohen said to the אנשי הצבא anshei hatzava, הבאים למלחמה ha'ba'im la'milchama. I don't understand. It shouldn't say הבאים למלחמה ha'ba'im la'milchama. What should it say? הולכים holchim. Are they on their way to war or are they on their way back from war? They've just finished the war, they've triumphed, they've collected the spoils, and now we're giving instruction about how to כשר kasher. So what should the פסוק pasuk say? Not הבאים למלחמה ha'ba'im la'milchama, it should say הבאים מן המלחמה ha'ba'im min ha'milchama. It's not למלחמה la'milchama, it's מן המלחמה min ha'milchama. What's going on in the פסוק pasuk? None of you noticed. But it bothered the מעיינה של תורה Ma'ayanah shel Torah and he answers with a story, an insight of the חובות הלבבות Chovos HaLevavos. The חובות הלבבות Chovos HaLevavos, רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya says, מעשה בחסיד אחד ma'aseh b'chasid echad, there was a story of a pious person who once saw a group of people, they were coming back from war, and they were happy and they were joyous, and they were waving their weapons, and they were toasting לחיים l'chaim, and they were drinking, they won and war, they were victorious, they were triumphant, they were coming home. אמר להם amar lahem, said this חסיד אחד chasid echad, said this righteous pious person to them, אתם ניצחתם במלחמה קטנה מועטת, ואילו כעת צפויה לכם מלחמה גדולה פי כמה, הלא היא מלחמת היצר *Atem nitzachtem b'milchama k'tana muetes, v'ilu ka'eis tzfuya lachem milchama gedolah pi kama, halo hi milchemes ha'yetzer*. Don't be so satisfied because you're coming back from a small battle, but you're coming back now to wage a much bigger war. And that is with yourself. See, the battle with the enemy from without, it is a it's a tough enemy. It's a hard battle. But the war with the enemy within is even more powerful. It's even stronger, it's even more difficult. So therefore, he suggests, what's the פסוק pasuk? אל אנשי הצבא הבאים למלחמה *El anshei hatzava ha'ba'im la'milchama*. Because what it means is אלעזר הכהן Elazar ha'kohen is telling them, not you're coming back from war, you're coming back and now למלחמה la'milchama, you now have a new war. By the way, the more victorious you are, the bigger the battle you have to fight with yourself because you're going to be arrogant. You're going to be proud. You're going to think that you're all capable and all powerful. So now you're coming back with all the spoils and booty, now you're coming back with this great pride and arrogance. You're not coming back מן המלחמה min ha'milchama, you're coming back למלחמה la'milchama. You're coming back to fight a fight, to wage a war. And now we understand that the prescription for הכשר כלים hechsher keilim, how you כשר kasher the כלים keilim is also the prescription for how we wage that war with ourselves. Whatever through fire, it needs that same fire, that same passion, that same energy, that same excitement, that same strength in order to fight it. Whatever with liquid, with liquid, and so on and so forth. Okay. There's more to say on this, but I wanted to still get in a few more things in the couple minutes that we still have left. Okay. וויטער *Veiter*. tells us in this context that a person has to be very, very careful, of והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. I'm in פרק ל\"ב *perek lamed beis*. We have this division of the spoils among all those who fought in the battle. And then we're told to be very, very careful. Where are we? ל\"ב פסוק כב *Lamed beis, pasuk kaf beis*. In fact, before we get there. מקנה רב היה לבני ראובן ולבני גד *Mikneh rav hayah livnei Reuven v'livnei Gad*. בני גד ובני ראובן *Bnei Gad u'Vnei Reuven* had a lot of cattle. And they said, עבר הירדן ever ha'yarden, east of the Jordan is the perfect place for our business, our factory, our company. This is the perfect place. We can make a lot of money here. And so they say, we're not going in. They tell משה Moshe, look, enjoy, זאי געזונט *zai gezunt*, we'll send postcards, but we're staying here. This is a much better place. משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu turns to them and he says to them, essentially, are you crazy? האחיכם יבואו למלחמה ואתם תשבו פה *Ha'acheichem yavo'u la'milchama v'atem teshvu poh?* Your brothers are going to go to war and you are going to sit here? הנה קמתם תחת אבותיכם תרבות אנשים חטאים *Hinei kamtem tachas avoseichem tarbus anashim chataim*. פרק ל\"ב פסוק יד *Perek lamed beis, pasuk yud dalet*. משה Moshe says, what are you crazy? You're going they're going to go to war and you're going to stay here? I saw in a ספר sefer called חובת האדם בעולמו *Chovas Ha'adam B'olamo*. He says the following, משה רבינו לא מוכיחם על אשר אינם רוצים לשבת בעבר הירדן, אלא אשר אינם נושאים בעול עם אחיהם *Moshe Rabbeinu lo mochiacham al asher einam rotzim lasheves b'ever ha'Yarden, ela asher einam nos'im b'ol im acheihem*. Moshe's criticism is not, hey, where's your Zionism? Where's your longing to return to Zion? Hashem made us a promise to come to the land, and you want to stay in חוץ לארץ *chutz la'aretz*? Moshe does not rebuke them with a message about how could you not come to Israel. How does he rebuke them? How could you not care about your brothers? They have to go to war and you're going to sit tight and under this protection? Let me put this in modern terminology. I can forgive someone who doesn't say the תפילה למדינה *t'filah la'medina*. There are different religious viewpoints and there are different ideologies about the significance of the state of Israel. But to not say the תפילה לחיילי צה\"ל *t'filah l'chayalei Tzahal*? האחיכם יבואו למלחמה *Ha'acheichem yavo'u la'milchama* and you can't even say that תפילה t'filah? That's I think with message of what משה Moshe's saying is, משה Moshe does not rebuke them for not coming. Of course we should come. In the פרשת מסעי parshas Masei, which we won't get to, we have the מוקר makor of the פסוק pasuk of ישיבת ארץ ישראל yishivas Eretz Yisrael, a מצוה mitzva to live in Israel. It's a מצוה mitzva. For all of us, it should not be a question of if, but when. We all belong there and we should be going there. And if we don't go there on our own, השם Hashem looks like he's pushing us all to go there. I believe in all of that, and it's not a question of if, but a question of when. You don't have to lecture me on that. No one has to send me an email about that. However, it's interesting that משה Moshe does not lecture ראובן וגד Reuven v'Gad about that. How could you settle outside of Israel? How could you stay in Teaneck, the Five Towns, and Boca? That's not what Moshe lectures them about. What he lectures them about is, how can you stay there and not care about your brothers who are on the front lines, are battling, are doing what they need to do. You really should be there with them. And if you're not, minimally, you need to be supporting them. You need to be taking care of them. You need to join them, at least for the battle. It's a very interesting insight that what his criticism specifically is about. He's also implicitly criticizing them about their skewed priorities. Because they mentioned מקנה רב mikneh rav. We got a big business. We also have women and children. And משה Moshe says, your families, and then he mentions the business. He gives this kind of subtle מוסר mussar. And in this context of this story, and by the way, then משה Moshe divides מנשה Menashe. He puts half of מנשה Menashe with them, ראובן וגד Reuven v'Gad, and half of מנשה Menashe in Israel. Why does he do that? Why does he do that? So many have suggested the reason he does that is to maintain a sense of אחדות achdus. See, ראובן וגד Reuven v'Gad might not have anything to do with their fellow tribes in Israel, but if you take one tribe and divide it in two, you know they will stay connected with one another, and that will build the bond and create the unity among them all. The חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim says something. I saw this here, it's the חידושי הרי\"ם Chidushei HaRim. I originally heard it at my שבת Shabbos table from my oldest daughter when she was a little girl, she suggested it, that maybe ראובן וגד Reuven v'Gad are not so bad, and maybe they didn't have such negative intent to only for their business. Maybe they wanted the following. משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu was not allowed to go into the land of Israel. But if they would settle east of the ירדן Yarden and thereby extend the boundary of Israel east, משה Moshe will have himself have been in Israel. And it was a gift to משה Moshe. Maybe it was a noble intent, not a negative intent. Maybe it wasn't self-centered for their business. Maybe what they were saying is if we leave the boundary the way they're originally defined, then indeed, משה Moshe will never make it in. But if we settle here and extend the boundary of what's included in Israel, then משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu himself can come in. Anyway, in this context, פרק ל\"ב *perek lamed beis*, פסוק כ\"ב *pasuk kaf beis*, we have a פסוק pasuk. Torah tells us, משה Moshe says, here's the deal. I'll let you go back and settle. First, you have to come in and fight with us. והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. And you have to be נקיים n'kiyim. What does it mean? You have to be clean from God and from the Jewish people. This principle, והייתם נקיים v'hiyisem n'kiyim, חז\"ל Chazal learn from this פסוק pasuk, והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*, that we have to always conduct ourselves in a way that we are above and beyond reproach. A person might say, you know, as long as I know I'm doing the right thing, what do I care what anyone says about me? Where other people think is none of my business. And there's an element that's healthy in that attitude. But the Torah says not entirely. והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael* means that you have to be careful not to give a misimpression. This is the Torah source for a concept we have called מראית עין mar'is ayin. Not Mars, Mars, the planet, מראית עין mar'is ayin. You can't behave in a way which gives people the wrong impression. והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. And there are several examples of this. I'll give you just a few. First of all, the גבאי צדקה gabbai tzedaka has to be very careful how he collects the money, distributes the money, not to look like there's any personal נטייה netiya in it. And and the גמרא Gemara in פסחים Psachim learns that how do you know the גבאי gabbai has to be very careful of that? והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. Simple things. The גבאי gabbai is given change, he shouldn't reach into his pocket to pull out the money, to put some back into the get. Why? והייתם נקיים V'hiyisem n'kiyim. May not be doing anything wrong. והייתם נקיים V'hiyisem n'kiyim, you have to be above and beyond reproach. It says when משה Moshe sends them to war, וישלח אותם משה אלף למטה *Vayishlach osam Moshe elef la'mateh*. And the כלי יקר Kli Yakar explains, משה Moshe didn't want to go to war himself. Why didn't משה Moshe go to war himself with מדין Midyan? Because he was worried that if he went to war and he did something that people perceived was not his full effort, they'll say, well, משה Moshe was protected in מדין Midyan. משה Moshe has an affinity for מדין Midyan. He's not doing his all. So משה Moshe doesn't even engage in the war because he doesn't want to be in a position where people will be suspicious of him. והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael* is to live lives, to engage in behavior that's beyond reproach, not to invite anyone's suspicion of us. We find it elsewhere in the תורה Torah, too. רפא נא לה *Refa na la*. When משה Moshe davens for his sister מרים Miriam, רש\"י Rashi there says, why doesn't משה Moshe, that's all he can give her? קל נא רפא נא לה *Kel na refa na la*. That's not even half a מי שברך *mi shebeirach*. That's not even a third of a פרק perek of תהילים Tehillim. That's all משה Moshe could muster on behalf of his beloved sister who saved his life? רפא נא לה *Refa na la*, that's it? That's what he's got, three words for her? So רש\"י Rashi there says, שלא יאמרו ישראל אחותו מתייסרת בצרעת והוא עומד ומרבה בתפילה *Shelo yomru Yisrael achoso mityaseres b'tzaraas v'hu omed u'marbeh b'tfilah*. So that nobody will say his sister's suffering and he's sitting davenning endlessly. He should be caring about her. Or that he'll daven a long time, they'll say, \"Oh, for his sister, he says תהילים Tehillim all day. But for anyone else who's sick, he doesn't care.\" משה Moshe was very conscientious, והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*, to be beyond reproach, not to invite the suspicion of other people. We see this with יעקב אבינו Yaakov Avinu. We see this in many, many places in the תורה Torah. רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik points out, this is the origin of the הלכות halachos of מראית עין mar'is ayin. What is the what is the source of מראית עין mar'is ayin? Why do we have a הלכתית halachic consideration of מראית עין mar'is ayin? Does it only apply to איסורים דאורייתא issurim d'oraysa? Is מראית עין mar'is ayin only on biblical commandments? Does it also apply to rabbinic commandments? The רמ\"א Rama discusses a case where what if you're having the רמ\"א Rama in שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch, יורה דעה Yoreh Deah, פ\"ה pei-hey is talking about a case where you marinated meat in almond milk. But I'll give you the example, you want a cup of coffee after a פליישיק fleishig meal with almond milk. So בשר בחלב basar b'chalav is an איסור דאורייתא issur d'oraysa. So the רמ\"א Rama says, if you have almond milk, this was the הלכה halacha for a long time. Today, we're not as careful because things have evolved. But it used to be when you had non-dairy creamer, let's say you were at a שמחה simcha that was catered, the השגחה hashgacha would require that there be a sign that says the milk is non-dairy, or you have the actual container of the non-dairy milk. And that's based on the רמ\"א Rama. The רמ\"א Rama paskins, if you just ate meat, and now you're going to have a coffee with milk, because it's non-dairy milk, you need to have, in the times of the שולחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch, you put the שקדים shkeidim near the almond milk, so that you were telling people this is non-dairy creamer, it's not milk, so I'm not violating בשר בחלב basar b'chalav. But the רמ\"א Rama says, you don't have to do it in a case of עוף of. The mixing of of fowl and milk is only a rabbinic prohibition, not a biblical prohibition. So if you just ate chicken, then you wouldn't have to have the non-dairy sign next to the non-dairy creamer. There's no מראית עין mar'is ayin consideration on the דרבנן d'rabanan, only on the דאורייתא d'oraysa. The מהרש\"ל Maharshal disagrees. And the מהרש\"ל Maharshal says that even for עוף of, even for fowl, you'd have to put the שקדים shkeidim near the almond milk so you won't give people the wrong impression. Asks רב סולובייצ'יק Rav Soloveitchik, what's the מחלוקת machlokes between the רמ\"א Rama and the מהרש\"ל Maharshal? What are they arguing about, whether מראית עין mar'is ayin only applies to a biblical commandment or to a negative one? And he says, perhaps the difference is two rationales for why מראית עין mar'is ayin is prohibited. According to the מהרש\"ל Maharshal, מראית עין mar'is ayin is an extension of the prohibition of לפני עור lifnei iver. You're worried someone's going to watch you, see what you're doing, and learn from you and do the wrong thing. So therefore, it doesn't make a difference whether it's דאורייתא d'oraysa or דרבנן d'rabanan. Don't do the wrong thing in public, even if you're doing the right thing. Don't do something that looks like the wrong thing, because people aren't going to understand. So therefore, there's no difference. But according to the רמ\"א Rama, מראית עין mar'is ayin has a different source. What's the source of מראית עין mar'is ayin? והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. It is not I'm not worried about you're learning from my behavior. I'm worried about giving you the wrong impression of me. It's not a דין din in you, it's a דין din in me. That I have to engage in behavior that's beyond reproach, והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. It can't ever be suspect. The גמרא Gemara in יומא Yoma gives two examples of this. The בית גרמו Beis Garmu family who prepared the לחם הפנים lechem hapanim in the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash would not allow members of the family to bring clean flour into their home, so no one would think that they took flour for personal use from the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash. Similarly, the בית אבטינס Beis Avtinas family, who prepared the קטורת ketores in the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash, would not allow a bride from their family to wear perfume, lest someone suspect that they took the קטורת ketores of the בית המקדש Beis HaMikdash in order to perfume their bride for their wedding. Both are a fulfillment of והייתם נקיים מהשם v'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem. והייתם נקיים מהשם ומישראל *V'hiyisem n'kiyim mei'Hashem u'mei'Yisrael*. This notion that we have to care about our reputation. Not for our children's שידוכים shidduchim. We have to care about our reputation because our own integrity. והייתם נקיים V'hiyisem n'kiyim, our own integrity, it matters. It's important. So you can't go into McDonald's to get a Coke. Ah, you're doing nothing wrong. All you got was a Coke. But someone's going to say, I saw that person with the יאמיקא yarmulke or I saw that woman who I know is observant in McDonald's. Maybe the french fries are okay there. Maybe it's just potatoes. So that's the מהרש\"ל Maharshal. Maybe they'll learn. According to the רמ\"א Rama, it's והייתם נקיים v'hiyisem n'kiyim. You shouldn't give anyone the impression that you go to McDonald's. Ah, but all I got was I'm not talking about the bathroom. When it comes to a bathroom, כבוד הבריות kavod ha'brios. כבוד הבריות דוחה את הכל *Kavod ha'brios docha es hakol*. But I'm not talking about כבוד הבריות kavod ha'brios, the bathroom. I'm talking about you're thirsty and a diet Coke. And you can go to the McDonald's or you could drive another block and get it in the CVS or the Walgreens. Don't go into the McDonald's. Either the מהרש\"ל Maharshal, people will learn from you, or the רמ\"א Rama because והייתם נקיים v'hiyisem n'kiyim, a person has to be even beyond reproach. That is פרשת מטות Parshas Matos. We didn't really get to מסעי Masei. Should I say one word on מסעי Masei because we have a double פרשה parsha? One word on מסעי Masei. It's a beautiful word on מסעי Masei. First of all, the whole notion of recounting all of our stops and starting in our journeys. We have a kabbalistic idea that every one of us, every Jew is destined to go on the same number of journeys as the Jewish people went on. And just as they reflect and stop and celebrate each milestone in their journey, so should we. We wouldn't be who we are without all the stops and starts and all the milestones within our own journey, and a review on that is something which is significant, something which is important. At the end of the פרשה parsha, you have the מצוה mitzva of עיר מקלט ir miklat. A person kills by accident, they flee and they are protected in an עיר מקלט ir miklat. We run to a city of refuge. By the way, there were three in Israel and three east of the ירדן Yarden. Why did you need the same for two and a half tribes as you needed for nine and a half tribes? That doesn't sound very uh it doesn't make a lot of sense. So the גמרא Gemara says, you know why? There were more accidental murders that happened in the two and a half tribes than as many as there were in the nine and a half tribes. They needed as many ערי מקלט arei miklat. Why? Why do you think that they were so prone or predisposed to these accidental murders at that proportion? So the גמרא Gemara says, you know why? Their value of money, because they expressed that their priority is their money over their children, when you prioritize your things over your people, you're going to be lax and you're going to be vulnerable and there're going to be more accidental murders when it comes to those people. How do we have the דין din of עיר מקלט ir miklat in our time? Do we have the דין din of עיר מקלט ir miklat in our day? So there's a beautiful אפטא רב Apter Rov, רב אברהם יהושע העשיל Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heshel, the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, the אפטא רב Apter Rov has a beautiful פשט pshat. He says, where do we run to today when we need refuge? When we feel that we're being chased, we're being pursued, we need refuge, we need divine protection, where do we run today? We don't have an עיר מקלט ir miklat. Says the אפטא רב Apter Rov, we do. You know what our עיר מקלט ir miklat is? The פסוק pasuk says, את הערים אשר תתנו ללווים שש ערי המקלט es ha'arim asher titnu la'Levi'im shesh arei ha'miklat. There were six ערי מקלט arei miklat. Says the אפטא רב Apter Rov, the אוהב ישראל Ohev Yisrael, our six ערי מקלט arei miklat are שמע ישראל ה' אלקינו ה' אחד Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Six words in the פסוק pasuk of שמע Shema, when we need a place of refuge and protection, when we want to feel ה' Hashem and find ה' Hashem, where do we go for refuge? We immerse ourselves in שמע Shema. Six ערי מקלט arei miklat are the six words of שמע Shema. ועליהם תתנו ארבעים ושתיים עיר V'alehem titnu arba'im u'shtayim ir. And these are the 42 words in פרשת ואהבת parshas V'ahavta. So where does a Jew turn to today for refuge? When we feel threatened and we feel chased and pursued and we feel vulnerable, we immerse ourselves in שמע Shema, in קבלת עול מלכות שמים kabbalas ol malchus shamayim, in אמונה emunah and בטחון bitachon. And in ה' Hashem, we find that protection and we find that refuge.
