Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב boker tov. Welcome back to the weekly פרשה Parsha Perspectives for today. Thank you so much for joining me and hopefully today we'll be inspired by the privilege we have to learn פרשת אמור Parshas Emor together. I want to thank our generous sponsors for this year. Dear friends Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of Becky's father David Grossman, לעילוי נשמת דוד בן נחמן מנש l'iluy nishmas Dovid ben Nachman Menashe. And also, Oops, sorry. sponsored today, today's particular פרשה Parsha class sponsored by Yitzchak and Rifki Shreiber in commemoration of the yahrzeit of her beloved mother, מלכה בת חיים צבי Malka bas Chaim Tzvi, and by Jeffrey and Linda Miller in commemoration of the yahrzeit of his beloved father, חיים בן יוסף Chaim ben Yosef Miller on the 12th of אייר Iyar. Thank you all for your generosity, your sponsorship, and our תורה Torah learning should be לעילוי נשמה l'iluy nishmah, should elevate the precious and beloved souls of those for whom it is dedicated.As I said, we have the privilege of studying פרשת אמור Parshas Emor. אמור Emor appears in the Artscroll חומש Chumash on page 672. ויאמר השם אל משה אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן ואמרת אליהם לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו Vayomer Hashem el Moshe emor el hakohanim bnei Aharon v'amarta aleihem l'nefesh lo yitama b'amav. Our פרשה parsha begins with an instruction specifically to the כהנים Kohanim, directed specifically to the כהנים Kohanim. In fact, the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra understands this opening phrase, אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta. Says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra. We got a million ספרים sfarim open here. We're going to try to balance it all. If you have your מקראות גדולות Mikraos Gedolos, which I always encourage you to have, we'll see some of the מפרשים meforshim inside this morning. Says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, אמור אל הכהנים אחרי שהזהיר כל ישראל בני אהרן בכללם להיות קדושים Emor el hakohanim acharei shehizhir kol Yisrael bnei Aharon b'chlalem l'hiyos kedoshim. In last week's פרשה parsha, the second פרשה parsha we read last week is called פרשת קדושים Parshas Kedoshim. It is the mission, it is the mandate, it is the charge for all of us to live lives of holiness, of sanctity, being elevated and enriched, however we define holiness, not for now. So last week we instructed the totality, the community, the people, קדושים תהיו kedoshim tihiyu, everyone should be holy. And we continue this week, אמור אל הכהנים הזהיר בני אהרן שהם חייבים להישמר מדברים אחרים בעבור שהם משרתי השם ויתכן להיות פרש אמר לכהנים כי הפרשה נזכרת כי התורה בידם emor el hakohanim hizhir bnei Aharon shehem chayavim l'hishamer midvarim acherim b'avur shehem m'sharsei Hashem v'yitachen l'hiyos perush amar l'kohanim ki haparsha nizkeres ki haTorah b'yadam. So the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra understands אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta. אמור Emor, last week's פרשת קדושים Parshas Kedoshim, we're all intended and meant to live transcendent lives, to live lives the best version of ourselves, to be holy, separate, apart, distinguished, elevated from the rest of the world. And even above and beyond that, the instruction to the totality of the Jewish people, above and beyond that, in this week's פרשה ואמרת parsha v'amarta, says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, is now the כהנים Kohanim. On top of the כהנים Kohanim is the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol. So the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra sees the theme of our פרשה parsha as built upon and continuation of last week's פרשה parsha, the קדושה kedusha, the sanctity, the holiness that mandate that was introduced in last week's פרשה parsha, we continue with and we expand in this week's פרשה parsha.However, רב וולבה Rav Wolbe, רב שלמה וולבה Rav Shlomo Wolbe, the great משגיח mashgiach of ירושלים Yerushalayim, has a very different interpretation that I want to share with you this morning, a very, very beautiful insight he has that runs throughout our entire פרשה parsha. It struck me as I saw his insight in particular this year because of the play on words. He says that the theme of our פרשה parsha is not קדושה kedusha, it's not building on sanctity. It is, but it's not directly, but rather the theme of our פרשה parsha is כבוד kavod. Not COVID, but כבוד kavod. What is כבוד kavod? כבוד Kavod is honor. כבוד Kavod is glory. כבוד Kavod is also living a life of dignity. כבוד Kavod is living a life that we can be proud of. And he says, if you look through our פרשה parsha, says רב וולבה Rav Wolbe, that is the theme that carries us throughout. First, כבוד שמים kavod Shamayim, the כבוד kavod of השם Hashem, seeing and feeling and having an awe and reverence and the honor due השם Hashem. Then כבוד kavod of the כהנים Kohanim, the כבוד kavod of the priests, their distinguished role within our people. Then the כבוד kavod of the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol. Within that unit of the כהנים Kohanim of the priests, the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has an even elevated status. And then we have the כבוד kavod of the קרבנות korbanos, the sacrifices. And then we have the כבוד kavod of בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael, to know our capacity, the honor and the dignity that we're meant to carry ourselves and the capacity we have to channel and to be the conduit of כבוד שמים kavod Shamayim. And then of course we have the מועדים moadim, the ימים טובים yamim tovim, the notion of the כבוד kavod we should have for time. That time is not endless, and the time should not be depleted or absent of value or meaning, but rather מקראי קדש mikraei kodesh. When we call the holidays, when we sanctify time, we honor our time, we honor the time that we've been given. So says רב וולבה Rav Wolbe, the theme that permeates throughout our פרשה parsha, if you have to look for one common denominator or one common thread, it's not COVID-19, but it's כבוד kavod. It is the notion and the role, the place of honor. And then he gets into a few specific examples of it. So in our פרשה parsha, we read פרק כ\"א פסוק י\"א perek kaf aleph, pasuk yud aleph. The פרשה parsha's beginning by telling us about the instruction to כהנים kohanim, not just for adult כהנים kohanim but even minor כהנים kohanim to preserve their sanctity. They're not allowed to contaminate themselves, they can't expose themselves to a corpse, to death, to draw that contamination. But there are exceptions. So the Torah tells us in פרק כ\"א פסוק י\"א perek kaf aleph pasuk yud aleph, ועל כל נפשות מת לא יבא לאביו ולאמו לא יטמא V'al kol nafshos meis lo yavo l'aviv u'l'imo lo yitama. The כהן kohen is not allowed to contaminate himself for his father or to his mother. In contrast to the other כהנים kohanim, we're talking about the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol. The High Priest, the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol, is commanded to continue the עבודה avodah in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash, even after the death of a parent, even after the loss of a parent. The loss of a parent, life comes to a standstill. You know, מפרשים meforshim write that the word אבל avel, which is the Hebrew word for mourner, comes from the word אבל aval. However, a person's life is changed forever. There's a new normal. A person with time can recover, can heal. First a scab and then a scar will form from that sense of loss the person has endured. But אבל aval, however, but, life is different. Life changes forever. And the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol who goes through that traumatic experience, the grief of losing a parent, is not given the license to pause and to grieve and to mourn, but the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol, the show must go on, has to continue to serve in the בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. Why? So the רשב\"ם Rashbam, if you go back all the way to פרק י perek yud, פרק י פסוק ג perek yud pasuk gimmel, the רשב\"ם Rashbam back in פרק י פסוק ג perek yud pasuk gimmel gives us the basis of this law. Says the רשב\"ם Rashbam, פרק י פסוק ג perek yud pasuk gimmel, ויאמר משה אל אהרן הוא אשר דיבר השם לאמר בקרובי אקדש ועל פני כל העם אכבד וידום אהרן vayomer Moshe el Aharon hu asher diber Hashem l'emor b'krovai ekadesh v'al pnei chol ha'am echaved vayidom Aharon. This is talking after the death of נדב ואביהוא Nadav v'Avihu, and Aharon remained silent. And the רשב\"ם Rashbam there says, why was Aharon silent? ומדרשו, ביקש אהרן לנהוג אבלות u'midrasho bikesh Aharon l'inhog aveilus. Immediately, Aharon wanted to stop and mourn and grieve his sons. ויאמר משה אל אהרן, אל תתאבל Vayomer Moshe el Aharon, al tisabel. Moshe said you can't mourn. אל תבכה ואל תבדל מן העבודה Al tivkeh v'al tibadel min ha'avodah. Do not wane, do not stop, do not pause in your service. כי הדבר הזה שאני אומר לך הוא אשר דיבר השם בקרובי אקדש Ki hadavar hazeh she'ani omer l'cha hu asher diber Hashem b'krovai ekadesh. בכהנים גדולים הקרוב אלי לשרתיני אני רוצה להיות קדוש ולא שיש חלל שמי בעבודתי B'kohanim gedolim hakrov eilay l'sharteini ani rotzeh l'hiyos kadosh v'lo sheyeschallel shmi b'avodasi. So רשב\"ם Rashbam gives the reason. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has this unique position, this singular distinguished position. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has to serve and the show must go on. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has to set aside their own feelings and continue the עבודה avodah because if there was a cessation, if there was a break in the עבודה avodah, it would be a desecration of God's name. It is that עבודה avodah which energizes and imbues the entire world with a sense of holiness and a sense of sanctity, and so the show must go on, as painful and as difficult it is for the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol. However, רב וולבה Rav Wolbe draws our attention that even though the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol cannot interrupt the עבודה avodah to mourn a mother and father, nevertheless, nevertheless, the Torah here tells us that if the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol encounters a מת מצוה meis mitzvah. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol is on their way to perform the עבודה avodah on יום כיפור Yom Kippur. The holiest person on the holiest day of the year about to enter the holiest place, and en route they run into a corpse. Somebody passed away and we don't know their identity, and there's no one else willing to step up and to undertake their their burial, a proper send-off. In that circumstance, the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol does stop the עבודה avodah. Not only עבודה avodah in general, the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol would even stop the עבודה avodah of יום כיפור Yom Kippur, not even perform the holiest holiest service of the year. Why? Because you see the כבוד kavod of a מת מצוה meis mitzvah. The כבוד kavod of a מת מצוה meis mitzvah, the honor and the dignity that this corpse deserves when no one else is there to take care. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol loses a mother and father, כהן גדול Kohen Gadol probably has siblings, כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has children, כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has others who can take care. כהן גדול Kohen Gadol has the rest of the nation, the rest of the people. But when it comes to a מת מצוה meis mitzvah, you see the notion of כבוד הבריות kvod habriyos, the honor and dignity due to another, that the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol does what he doesn't do for his mother or father, he does for a complete stranger because they deserve that dignity, that honor, even when no one else is taking care. And רב וולבה Rav Wolbe extrapolates from here, if that's the honor due a מת מצוה meis mitzvah, then imagine the כבוד kavod, the honor that we owe a חי מצוה chai mitzvah. We honor a person who's alive. If that's how you treat the corpse who's unidentified, the anonymous corpse, then even all the more so, how we treat other people, the כבוד kavod that we have to give one another. In fact, we know that in this period, we're mourning, we're grieving. We haven't trimmed or shaved or taken a haircut or listened to live music. לג בעומר Lag Ba'omer is not until next week. Why? Because רבי עקיבא's Rebbi Akiva's students, 24,000 died. 24,000 funerals, 24,000 eulogies, 24,000 שבעה shivah calls. You know, until this year, we could never imagine what that means to get that flow of death notices and of שבעה shivah notices. This year, ברוך השם baruch Hashem, it's not 24,000, but it's really this pandemic has opened our eyes to what it means to be losing great people and at such a great rate, how painful, how overwhelming, how traumatic that is. Why did those students die? חז\"ל Chazal tell us because לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה lo nahagu kavod zeh b'zeh. They failed to honor one another. They were חברותא chavrusas, they were learning תורה Torah. And yet the תורה Torah did not was not absorbed, it didn't transform them, it didn't elevate them. It remained intellectual, cognitive, abstract. It didn't transform them into בני תורה bnei Torah, תורה Torah personalities who knew how to treat one another with honor. The כהן גדול Kohen Gadol who doesn't mourn his mother or father, does not interrupt the עבודה avodah, does so for a simple anonymous מת מצוה meis mitzvah. Why? Because כבוד kavod, because the honor we have to show. If that's what we show for a מת meis, says רב וולבה Rav Wolbe, even more we show a חי מצוה chai mitzvah. And therefore the גמרא Gemara in ברכות דף י\"ט עמוד ב Brachos daf yud tes amud beis tells us that כבוד הבריות דוחה לא תעשה שבתורה kvod habriyos docheh lo sa'aseh shebaTorah. That כבוד הבריות kvod habriyos supersedes the negative commandments of the תורה Torah. We're allowed to forgo passively violate a negative commandment in the תורה Torah in order to preserve the, in order to preserve the dignity, the כבוד התורה kvod haTorah. And רב וולבה Rav Wolbe continues along these same lines. I want to share with you from עלי שור חלק ב' Alei Shur Chelek Beis, page רכ\"ה reish kaf hei, page 225. And I want to learn it with you inside because רב וולבה Rav Wolbe here summarizes our entire פרשה parsha, פרשת אמור Parshas Emor, and again, we are fighting and we are confronting COVID, but we have to understand part of the way is by embracing כבוד kavod, the כבוד הבריות kvod habriyos, the way we treat one another. כבוד הבריות Kvod habriyos is the antidote to COVID-19. So רב וולבה Rav Wolbe says the following. עולמנו הוא עולם הערכים Olamenu hu olam ha'arachim. Our world is a world of value, of worth. לכל דבר יש ערך המסתא במחיר שמשלמים עבורו L'chol davar yesh erech hamitsta b'mechir shem'shalmim avuro. Everything has a value, everything has a worth. Whether it's something that you're transacting, you're purchasing, you're buying, and the question is, how much does it cost? How much is it worth? Whether you're negotiating on eBay or Amazon or for a piece of real estate, or you're watching the stock market go up and down its valuations, everything has a value. גם לאומנות אדם יש ערך המבטא בסך שמשלמים עבורו Gam l'umanus adam yesh erech hamitbateh b'sach she'm'shalmim avuro. אומן האומר חכמתי אני מוכר לך ושלו דורש סכום גדול אין בו דין אונאה Uman ha'omer chachmasi ani mocher lach v'shelo doresh s'chum gadol ein bo din ona'ah. When it comes to a person's skill set, talents, a person's allowed to negotiate. You want me to speak, here's how much I'm worth. You want me to sing in a concert, here's my value. I'm a carpenter, I'm a craftsman, I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer. Here's my value. גם לאדם בתור אדם יש ערך, אך במה מתבטא ערכו Gam l'adam b'tor adam yesh erech, ach b'mah mitbateh ercho. Every human being has a value, but how do you evaluate what it is? הרי בקשי ויש להעריך ערכו Harei b'koshi v'yesh l'haarich ercho. ישנו אופן אחר להעריכו Yeshno ofen acher l'haricho. You can't put a price tag on a person, on a human being, on a נשמה neshamah, on a צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim. So what's the value? You know, in a person's שידוך shidduch resume, maybe it has your height, maybe your dress size, what ישיבה yeshiva you learned in, whether you want a מצויין metzuyan. But I've yet to see a value that this person is worth X amount of money. I'm not suggesting that be introduced, although I can imagine others think it should. More like what's the father and mother's value in their bank account. הכבוד הרוכשים לו מבטא נאמנה ערך האדם Hakavod harochshim lo m'vateh ne'emanah erech ha'adam. כבוד אדם אינו מטבע עובר לסוחר, מבהדי יהלו על נרגש נשמתו אין לו גדר קבוע Kvod adam eino matbeah over l'socher, mivadei yehelo al nargish nishmaso ein lo geder kavua. כבוד הוא באיקר אמצעי ביטוי רוחני או נפשי Kavod hu b'ikar emtzai bitui ruchani o nafshi. The truth is when it comes to the value of a person, it's not by their looks and it's not by their talent and it's not by their portfolio. It's by their נשמה neshamah, it's by their soul. Who is their נשמה neshamah? What makes them tick? What is their spiritual contribution to the world? In what way are they a צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim? What is their mission? כל אדם זקוק להערכה וחייו תלויים בה Kol adam zakuk l'ha'aracha v'chayav tluyim bah. Every person needs to know they have a worth. The סבא Saba of סלבודקה Slabodka, the alter of סלבודקה Slabodka, רב נתן צבי פינקל זצ\"ל Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel zatzal would say, האדם אינו יכול להתקיים בלי כבוד ha'adam eino yachol l'hitkayem bli kavod. A person cannot survive, a person cannot live without כבוד kavod. Now that doesn't mean they can't live without כבוד kavod, honor me at the dinner, give me מפטיר יונה maftir Yonah, I need to see my name in lights. Although there are those people who can't live without the כבוד kavod, and that is a very, very bad character trait, a bad quality. What he means is that we know that there's a mental illness, we know that there's a danger of depression when a person says, I'm invisible. When a person says, I'm inconsequential, I'm worthless. Nobody cares about me, nobody honors me, nobody recognizes me. When a person has no self-confidence, when a person has no self-worth, then they are in danger. מי שהוציאו יתייאשו ממנו את כל כבודו, ימות Mi shehutz'u yityashu mimenu es kol kvodo, yamus. Says the alter of סלבודקה Slabodka, if you would take away the entire honor and dignity from a person, if they felt absolutely worthless like they mean nothing and make no difference to the world, they would literally die. And the alter of סלבודקה Slabodka was ahead of his time. I don't think it was being diagnosed then as a mental illness, the challenge of a lack of self-worth. בעל מעלה מכיר את ערך עצמו ואינו תלוי בדעת אחרים Ba'al ma'alah makir es erech atzmo v'eino talui b'daas acherim. A person who really has worth knows that what gives them their sense of worth is הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu and their ability to look in the mirror with pride that they are pursuing their mission, that they are doing their best. Their sense of worth is not drawn from others, it doesn't come from the honor that they're given, but rather that the honor that they live an honorable life. Honor is earned. A person has to live an honorable life. ובו נהפוך הדבר מכבד הזולת כי מכיר את חשיבות אחרים הוא מכבד אחרים Uvo nehefach hadavar m'kabeid hazulas ki makir es chashivus acherim hu m'chabeid acherim. בזאת נדמה שהוא רואה את עצמו כמרכז כל העולם, שכל הכבוד מגיע רק לו B'zos nidmeh she'hu ro'eh es atzmo k'merkaz kol ha'olam, shekol hakavod magia rak lo. When a person wants honor, then it's hard for them to honor others. Why? Because if I'm honoring you, then I live life that I'm the center of the universe. And if I'm allocating a portion of honor in the universe to you, there's less for me. So the person who seeks honor struggles to honor others. But the person who seeks no honor for themselves has no problem living a life trying to honor, being פרגנין fargining, being happy with the joy, the success, the triumph, the blessings of another person. And so, dear friends, that's says רב וולבה Rav Wolbe is what פרשת אמור Parshas Emor is all about. פרשת אמור Parshas Emor is a curriculum in כבוד kavod, not the pursuit of our own כבוד kavod, but how to be מרבה כבוד שמים, מרבה כבוד אחרים marbeh kvod Shamayim, marbeh kvod acherim. And how are you מרבה כבוד marbeh kavod? How do you give greater weight and heaviness and significance? The פרשה parsha is this curriculum. כהנים Kohanim, כהן גדול Kohen Gadol, כהנים Kohanim, כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, השם Hashem, קרבנות korbanos, we how do we treat things as כבד kaveid, as weighty and heavy and significant in time, in space, in food, in service, in relationships, ourselves, השם Hashem, those around us. Says רב וולבה Rav Wolbe, it's what the entire פרשה parsha is about. It's such a beautiful explanation. So the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says, אמור ואמרת emor v'amarta, last week we learned about קדושים תהיו kedoshim tihiyu, and this week we continue with the כהנים Kohanim. But רב וולבה Rav Wolbe says no, we've not left כלל ישראל, בני ישראל Klal Yisrael, Bnei Yisrael. We are continuing with this mandate of קדושים תהיו kedoshim tihiyu. How do we achieve קדושים תהיו kedoshim tihiyu? This is the curriculum. This is the action plan. You know how you achieve קדושה kedusha? By a life of giving כבוד kavod, of treating כבד kaveid the significant weighty things around us. And we see this every day in our lives. There are people who take the holiest things there are, דאווענען davening, learning תורה Torah, spirituality, חסד chesed, family, our נשמה neshamah, our צלם אלוקים tzelem Elokim, and we treat all that lightly and casually, insignificantly, and we talk about it without the awe and reverence it deserves. And then you talk to them about sports scores, the stock market, the Netflix series they're seeing. Ooh, כבד, כבוד kaveid, kavod! The weightiness, the analysis, the significance. You have it backwards, it's upside down. What you do for recreation is to help you recreate, it's to help you reenergize. It's קל kal, it's light. Enjoy, but it's light. Don't put too much attention. What deserves the כבוד kavod, what reflects who we are and what we care about, our priorities is what we treat with the most כבוד kavod. Do we treat הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu with כבוד kavod? Are we careful? Even in this pandemic times where we're דאווענען davening by ourselves, do I דאווענען daven, do I put on something proper? If I'm wearing shorts, do I put on pants? If I'm wearing slippers, do I put on shoes? If I normally דאווענען daven with a jacket, do I put on my jacket? Am I presenting myself properly because I'm about to engage a conversation with השם Hashem? It's כבד kaveid, it's heavy, it's weighty, it's significant, it's meaningful. It's not casual, it's not lightweight, it's not קל kal. Then it's a קללה klalah, I treat it like a curse. If I treat it as כבד kaveid, as heavy, then I'm showing the proper כבוד kavod. And כבוד kavod, my friends, I think is an antidote, is a response we can be having in this time of COVID.Okay, let's keep going. אמור ואמרת Emor v'amarta, we're going to get past the first פסוק pasuk, I promise. I don't know how much fast, but we're going to get past. ויאמר השם אל משה Vayomer Hashem el Moshe. So Moshe says, אמור אל הכהנים ואמרת emor el hakohanim v'amarta. Famous רש\"י Rashi. אמור ואמרת להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים Emor v'amarta l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim. This is to instruct the גדולים על הקטנים gedolim al haktanim, to instruct the adults about the children. Now the simple understanding of רש\"י Rashi, רש\"י Rashi's quoting חז\"ל יבמות Chazal, Yevamos, the simple understanding is that even though normally, someone who's not yet at the age of being responsible or accountable is not yet מחויב במצוות mechuyav b'mitzvos. So here the Torah is instructing, a כהן kohen, that you need to know, teach your son. Not only can you the כהן kohen not go in the hospital if there's a corpse, not only you the כהן kohen can't go to the cemetery, but your child, your minor son the כהן kohen can't go either, can't go either. What about a female כהן kohen, a בת כהן bas kohen, an אשת כהן eishes kohen? Can they go in a cemetery? Can they go to the hospital? So חז\"ל Chazal say they can. Why? Because the פסוק pasuk says אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן ולא בנות אהרן emor el hakohanim bnei Aharon v'lo bnos Aharon. The sons of Aharon, not the daughters of Aharon. A בת כהן bas kohen, an אשת כהן eishes kohen can go to a funeral, they can go to the hospital. Ah, let me throw you a curveball. What about a pregnant אשת כהן eishes kohen? Ooh, wah! She doesn't know what she's having. Is להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim, does that include a fetus, an embryo? Can the in-utero male כהן kohen go to a cemetery, go in the hospital? So this is actually a discussion in the הלכה'דיק halachic literature. What if a pregnant אשת כהן eishes kohen has a sonogram? Is that enough to determine the gender of the baby? If she knows she's carrying a little girl, can she rely on that that she can go into a hospital? If she sees it's a little boy, can she not? Does this whole thing even apply to the fetus to begin with? Believe it or not, a fascinating discussion in the area of הלכה halacha, in הלכה halacha literature. So רש\"י Rashi says להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim. And the רמב\"ן Ramban expands on this רש\"י Rashi. We don't have time already to read the רמב\"ן Ramban inside, but the רמב\"ן Ramban expands on this רש\"י Rashi to say this is not only true in the area of a כהן kohen and contamination, it's true in all areas. A person shouldn't feed their minor child non-kosher food. A person can't ask their minor child to turn the light switch or adjust the air conditioning on שבת Shabbos. That להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim, we are obligated to teach our children and to hold them accountable, to educate them on the way. However, there are so many other deeper messages embedded within this one sentence of חז\"ל, להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים Chazal, l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim. Let me share just a few of them with you. The הייליגער נועם אלימלך Heiliger Noam Elimelech, רב אלימלך מליז'ענסק Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk. Those who came with us to Poland a few summers ago, we went to his holy קבר kever, and we had a טיש tish in the בית מדרש Beis Medrash of the הייליגער רב אלימלך מליז'ענסק Heiliger Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk. So the נועם אלימלך Noam Elimelech says להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim is teaching us the following very, very important principle. That if you want to give מוסר mussar, if someone's a קטן katan in a certain area, says the נועם אלימלך Noam Elimelech, it doesn't mean they're a קטן katan chronologically in age. They're a קטן katan in behavior. They're acting like a minor. They're they're underachieving in who they could be in a certain area of life and you're trying to give מוסר mussar, you're trying to encourage, you're trying to instruct. So להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haktanim. If you direct your מוסר mussar at the person acting like the קטן katan, they're likely to reject it, they're likely to push it away. But if להזהיר גדולים l'hazhir gedolim, but if you turn not to the person who's failing, you turn to the one succeeding, and you give a general, not the small specific מוסר mussar, then the individual. So if you have children, or if you're talking about a family, or you're talking to somebody who you need to give some pushback to, if you direct it personally to them, they're likely to put up a defense mechanism, a shield, and to reject it. But if you say we all need to work on it, and even the best and the greatest among us need to work on it, they'll be more predisposed, they'll be more open. And that's why says the נועם אלימלך Noam Elimelech, we go from the לשון יחיד lashon yachid to the לשון רבים lashon rabbim. אמור ואמרת אליהם Emor v'amarta aleihem. אמור Emor, אמור emor in the singular to the כהנים kohanim, but ואמרת אליהם v'amarta aleihem in the plural. Why? Because if you're giving giving מוסר musar, don't single somebody out. If you single someone out, they won't accept or embrace it. But instead, if you say it בלשון רבים b'lashon rabbim, if you deliver it not in the singular, but if you deliver it in the plural, in a larger way, they will be more predisposed, they will be more likely to listen to it. That is the הייליגע נועם אלימלך heilige Noam Elimelech. The חוזה Chozeh of לובלין Lublin has another פשט pshat. Sorry, he says in the next פסוק pasuk. We'll come to the חוזה Chozeh of לובלין Lublin in a moment. Coming back, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. You know I was going to give you an אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the הייליגע ויז'ניץ רבה heilige Vizhnitz Rebbe. The אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim says the following. אמור ואמרת Emor v'amarta, oh, I love this פשט pshat. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים ועל הגדולים להאיר את הקטנים בזוהר אורם L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim v'al hagedolim l'ha'ir es haketanim b'zohar oram. להזהיר L'hazhir can mean to warn or to caution. להזהיר L'hazhir from the זוהר Zohar can mean to illuminate, brightness, to shine. Says the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, this is a mandate to us, the גדולים gedolim. If you want to teach your children, if you want to inspire them, it can't just be with words. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim. להזהיר L'hazhir through your personal conduct, through your personal actions, through your personal behavior, be a role model, להזהיר l'hazhir, shine and illuminate על הקטנים al haketanim, onto the minors. Isn't that great? להזהיר L'hazhir, let your modeling, let your passion and enthusiasm, let your example shine onto the children. Who is the great, I don't remember the great author who said once, I can't hear what you're saying because your actions are speaking so much louder than your words. We as parents sometimes struggle. We speak but our actions don't match. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim. You know what the answer to חינוך chinuch is? Don't just speak, but ולימדתם אותם u'lemadetem osam, we teach our children בשבתך בביתך ובלכתך בדרך b'shivtecha b'veisecha u'vlechtecha vaderech. ובלכתך בדרך U'vlechtecha vaderech, when we had the privilege of leaving our homes, we teach our children how we conduct ourselves when we go to business, when we go to the store, when we go to the gym, when we go to the park, when we go to life. These days, we still have in Palm Beach county a stay home order and we are being asked to teach our children and to create an environment within our family בשבתך בביתך b'shivtecha b'veisecha, when we have to and we're forced, when we're ordered to remain in our homes. להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים L'hazhir gedolim al haketanim means that the way that the children are going to learn from us is להזהיר l'hazhir, we illuminate, we light up, we shine onto them based on the example that we're living with. That's how the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim understands רש\"י Rashi this גמרא Gemara in יבמות Yevamos.The מדרש Midrash has a different understanding. The מדרש Midrash says the following. The מדרש Midrash says להזהיר גדולים על הקטנים l'hazhir gedolim al haketanim, it's a מדרש רבה פרשה כ\"ו Midrash Rabbah Parsha Chaf Vov. The מדרש רבה Midrash Rabbah says the following: מלמד שהראה הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה דור דור ושופטיו, דור דור ומנהיגיו Melamed she'he'era HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'Moshe dor dor v'shoftav, dor dor u'manhigav. אמור ואמרת אל הכהנים Emor v'amarta el hakohanim, אמור אל הכהנים ואמרת אליהם Emor el hakohanim v'amarta aleihem, says the מדרש Midrash that הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu showed משה Moshe, he gave משה Moshe a little bit of an insight. דור דור ושופטיו Dor dor v'shoftav. This is the generation and their leaders. דור דור ומנהיגיו Dor dor u'manhigav, the generation and their leaders. Asked רב שמחה בונם מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim m'Pshischa, shouldn't it say מנהיג ודורו manhig v'doro, שופט ודורו shofeit v'doro? First mention the leader and then mention the generation. Why does it say דור דור dor dor, the generation, and here's the leader? משה Moshe got an insight. In 2020, here's who are going to be the גדולי ישראל gedolei Yisrael. להבדיל L'havdil, here are going to be the leaders of the secular world, of industry, here are going to be the leaders of of different disciplines. דור דור Dor dor, the generation and their leader. Shouldn't it be the leader and then the generation? And listen to what רב שמחה בונם מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim m'Pshischa says. He says if הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu showed משה Moshe in the order first the leader, then the generation, when it got to the leader, משה Moshe would look and say, \"That, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?\" That's the president? That's the prime minister? That's the רב rav? That's the principal, the head of? Are you kidding me? That's who it is? So says רב שמחה בונם מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim m'Pshischa, that's why השם Hashem showed משה Moshe, דור dor, let me show you the generation. And when you see the generation, then you'll understand the leader that they got is the leader that they deserve. רב שמחה בונם מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim m'Pshischa, this is a theme, not for now, and please don't apply to anything contemporary. This is an apolitical comment. However, we have a principle in Judaism that a generation gets the leader they deserve. יפתח בדורו כשמואל בדורו Yiftach b'doro k'Shmuel b'doro. דור דור ומנהיגיו, דור דור ושופטיו Dor dor u'manhigav, dor dor v'shoftav, the generation gets the leader they deserve. If we're dissatisfied with our leadership, if we are terribly disappointed in the options of leadership, then we should look in the mirror and see who we deserve, how we are living, what is the culture and atmosphere and what have we cultivated in the leadership that has arisen or the options of leadership we have. So says רב שמחה בונם מפשיסחא Rav Simcha Bunim m'Pshischa, who certainly was not commenting on anything in the United States of America in 2020 or in Israel for that matter in 2020, but דור דור ומנהיגיו, דור דור ושופטיו dor dor u'manhigav, dor dor v'shoftav, first is the generation, then the leader, so משה Moshe would not be surprised when he would see those future generations, he would then understand the leadership, they got the leadership that they deserved.Okay, continuing on. Torah says, I'm sorry, still in this opening פסוק pasuk. ואמרת אליהם v'amarta aleihem, what was the message they are to get? לנפש לא יטמא בעמיו L'nefesh lo yitama b'amav. The כהן גדול kohen gadol, the כהנים kohanim are not allowed to contaminate, they can't become impure from טומאה tumah, from anyone in their nation, anyone in their people. Says the חוזה Chozeh of לובלין Lublin, the הייליגע חוזה heilige Chozeh of לובלין Lublin says the following. Listen to this insight. אמור אל הכהנים Emor el hakohanim, tell the כהנים kohanim that what? בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. אמור אל הכהנים בני אהרן Emor el hakohanim Bnei Aharon, says the חוזה Chozeh of לובלין Lublin, בני אהרן Bnei Aharon is not identifying who they are. Speak to the כהנים kohanim. Who are the כהנים kohanim? בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. We know they're בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. What does it mean then? Says the חוזה Chozeh, אמור אל הכהנים Emor el hakohanim, tell the כהנים kohanim what? בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. You're the children of אהרן Aharon. And what does it mean to be the progeny of אהרן Aharon? What do we know about אהרן Aharon? The משנה Mishna in אבות Avos tells us. How is אהרן Aharon characterized? He is אוהב שלום ורודף שלום ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. אהרן Aharon is the quintessential paradigmatic teacher of peace, harmony. אוהב שלום ורודף שלום Ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה Ohev es habriyos u'mekarvan laTorah. This is אהרן's Aharon's mission statement, this is who he is. And this is who you're meant to be. אמור אל הכהנים Emor el hakohanim, tell the כהנים kohanim, בני אהרן Bnei Aharon. You are meant to continue in the tradition, you're meant to continue in the mission of אהרן Aharon. So what's going to happen then? The כהן's kohen's going to say, קירוב kiruv. אוהב את הבריות ומקרבן לתורה Ohev es habriyos u'mekarvan laTorah. I have to love people and bring them close to Torah. אהרן Aharon is the initiator, אהרן Aharon is the first father of קירוב kiruv. ומקרבן לתורה U'mekarvan laTorah, קירוב kiruv. So what's the אהרן Aharon going to do? He's going to say, you know, I'm going to go to the bar and I'm going to hang out in very seedy places, and I'm going to go be לשם קירוב l'shem kiruv. I'm going to lower myself, contaminate myself, compromise myself for קירוב kiruv. ואמרת אליהם V'amarta aleihem, so the כהנים kohanim need the second message. לנפש לא יטמא L'nefesh lo yitama. While you are dedicated to the pursuit of קירוב kiruv, but לנפש l'nefesh when it comes to your own נשמה neshama, לא יטמא lo yitama. Be careful not to compromise yourself. This is a challenge in the world of קירוב kiruv. This is the mission of those who are involved and engaged in קירוב kiruv. How can you lift others without lowering yourself? How can you inspire without becoming compromised? So אמור אל הכהנים Emor el hakohanim, remind the כהנים kohanim, בני אהרן Bnei Aharon, מקרבן לתורה mekarvan laTorah, that's your mission, that's who you're meant to be. But לנפש l'nefesh when it comes to your נפש nefesh, your נשמה neshama, לא יטמא lo yitama. אל תתחבר לרשע Al tischaber l'rasha, don't attach yourself to people whose values are different than yours. If you remember going all the way back to ספר בראשית Sefer Bereishis, we once shared the beautiful insight based on the מדרש פרקי דרבי אליעזר Midrash Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer, which we won't entirely repeat right now, but when אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu asks שרה Sarah, can you go check on ישמעאל Yishmael? Even when he throws ישמעאל Yishmael out of the house, שרה Sarah says, on one condition, you can go check on ישמעאל Yishmael and maintain that relationship, but you can't get off the camel. אברהם Avraham travels several times, a beautiful מדרש Midrash that describes how אברהם Avraham walked that tightrope of that balance and maintained that relationship so that ישמעאל Yishmael knew he was loved. When אברהם Avraham dies, ישמעאל Yishmael shows up, the Torah tells us, to eulogize and to mourn אברהם Avraham together with his half-brother, with יצחק Yitzchak. Why? Because אברהם Avraham communicated his love for ישמעאל Yishmael always. But אברהם Avraham did it in a very interesting way. He continued to visit ישמעאל Yishmael, but he never got off the camel. And some understand it to mean he didn't lower himself. He went, however, he continued to interact with יצחק Yitzchak, with ישמעאל Yishmael rather, but from a little bit of a distance, with boundaries, with barriers, protecting himself with a סייג siyag. He didn't get down off the camel. And that's the mission. I shouldn't retreat, I shouldn't isolate. I have to be part of בני אהרן Bnei Aharon, מקרבן לתורה mekarvan laTorah, but I have to do it in a way that נפש לא יטמא nefesh lo yitama, to be careful not to compromise our entire sense of selves. Okay, let's fast forward. You ready? פרק כ\"ב Perek Chaf Beis now, פסוק י' pasuk yud.Fast forward. והכהן הגדול מאחיו V'hakohen hagadol me'echav. So first this instruction for the כהנים kohanim. And then we move forward to the כהן kohen. כהן גדול מאחיו אשר יוצק על ראשו Kohen gadol me'echav asher yutzak al rosho. This is the law of the כהן גדול kohen gadol. The law of the כהן גדול kohen gadol. The law of the כהן גדול kohen gadol is described as הכהן הגדול מאחיו hakohen hagadol me'echav. It's a very funny language, the כהן kohen who's greater מאחיו me'echav than his brothers. A little bit superiority. A little bit, I don't love that language. הכהן הגדול מאחיו Hakohen hagadol me'echav. So says the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, you know what it means? הכהן הגדול מאחיו Hakohen hagadol me'echav. A כהן kohen who's an עניו anav, a צדיק tzaddik. The כהן גדול kohen gadol is the leader, the example. How is he, how did he rise to the position of such distinction, of prominence? הכהן עצמו מתגדל על ידי אחיו שמתקבצים אליו Hakohen atzmo misgadel al yedei echav shemiskabtzim eilav. הכהן הגדול Hakohen hagadol. How did he become גדול gadol? מאחיו Me'echav. By caring about his brothers, by connecting with the people. You don't become great in Judaism by being superior, holier than thou, by being above others, by sitting in a position of judgment of others. You know how you become הגדול hagadol, הכהן הגדול hakohen hagadol? You know how you become great? מאחיו Me'echav. When you continue to and always define yourself as אחיו echav, that you are part of your brothers, that you care about your brothers, that you are remain מאחיו me'echav, that you remain not different than, but part of מאחיו me'echav. הכהן הגדול Hakohen hagadol. How are you גדול gadol? What is the source of being הגדול hagadol is מאחיו me'echav, because you are from your brothers.Torah says וקדשתו v'kidashto, we have a מצוה mitzvah and a mandate that we have an הלכה halachic obligation to honor the כהנים kohanim. And this comes out in several הלכה halachic forms. וקדשתו V'kidashto. We have to honor the כהנים kohanim, we treat the כהן kohen with greater sanctity. Why? Because the כהנים kohanim, the Jewish people, we are the כהנים kohanim of the world. Right? We are a a nation of כהנים kohanim, ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh. So ממלכת כהנים mamleches kohanim. What does that mean? The commentators explain, just like the priests within every people, not just the Jewish people, the priests within any people are charged with a higher level of living and to be a model and example and teachers of others. That's what the Jewish people are meant to be among the nations of the world, among humanity. Just like that responsibility comes with privileges of the Jewish people vis-a-vis the nations of the world, so too the כהנים kohanim within our people, it comes with certain privileges. וקדשתו V'kidashto, we have to honor the כהנים kohanim because of the lives that they are living. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says it means the way that you think about כהנים kohanim, the way that you speak to כהנים kohanim. The מגן אברהם Magen Avraham says is this a דין דאורייתא din d'oraysa or דין דרבנן din d'rabbanan, biblical or rabbinic? The מגן אברהם Magen Avraham says it is רבנן rabbinic, but it is an illusion, it's hinted to in this word וקדשתו v'kidashto. We have a responsibility to sanctify through the way we treat. This is codified in שלחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch. שלחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch says, if you're a כהן kohen who's listening right now, don't let this go to your head. But the שלחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch says that if you have a כהן kohen who's a scholar, then the כהן kohen goes first. Means for the first עלייה aliyah. That's why we give כהנים kohanim the first עלייה aliyah. We give כהנים kohanim the right to lead benching. The כהנים kohanim can say קידוש kiddush for everybody. It's how we honor the כהן kohen, not only in ritual ceremonies, but even within casual things. You're serving the soup, the כהן kohen goes first. You're holding the door open, the כהן kohen walks through first. We always give the honor to the כהן kohen, they give precedence and preference because of their elevated status, their role within our people, and their greater obligation of responsibility, their greatest responsibility to maintain a lifestyle of of holiness. The רמ\"א Rama on שלחן ערוך Shulchan Aruch expands and says וקדשתו v'kidashto means not only do we show greater honor, but it also means we don't take a favor. So if you're asking somebody to get you a napkin or bring you a cup of water, if there's a ישראל Yisrael, you ask the ישראל Yisrael, not the כהן kohen. We don't ask the כהן kohen to do things for us. You can't be משמש בכהנים m'shamish b'kohanim. You don't ask the כהן kohen to do things, to do things for you. כהן Kohen can be מוחל mochel. רב עובדיה יוסף Rav Ovadia Yosef has a תשובה teshuva that the כהן kohen can be מוחל mochel and bring you the and bring you the napkin or bring you the glass of water. מגן אברהם Magen Avraham wonders why are we not careful about this today? We still give the כהן kohen the first עלייה aliyah, the כהן kohen the benching, but we're not as careful as we should be in וקדשתו v'kidashto. Why aren't we today? And he suggests maybe because כהנים kohanim are not מיוחסים meyuchasim. We don't know that the כהנים kohanim today can trace their lineage back with such confidence as they once did, and therefore מלמד זכות melamed zechus, one of the, one of the considerations of why maybe we're not as strict with this as we should be today is that we're not as sure, as confident in their יחוס yichus as we could be, which has significance because when it comes to a פדיון הבן pidyon haben, when it comes to a פדיון הבן pidyon haben, is he really a כהן kohen? So for example, some are strict. My grandson who had a פדיון הבן pidyon haben earlier this year, the כהן's kohen's name was Rappaport and Rappaport is the ש\"ך Shach, רב שבתי כהן Rav Shabtai Kohen Rappaport. The name Rappaport, those who descend from the carry the name Rappaport, have a greater likelihood of being כהנים מיוחסים kohanim meyuchasim, can trace their lineage back. So some are careful specifically for פדיון הבן pidyon haben. By the way, as an aside, Rav Soloveitchik felt strongly, and this appears in the OU רב חומש Rav Chumash where Soloveitchik felt strongly, וקדשתו v'kidashto means that the כהן kohen has an elevated status. If there's no כהן kohen, you don't give the עלייה aliyah to a לוי Levi. If there's no כהן kohen, you specifically don't give the לוי Levi in its stead. You go right to ישראל במקום כהן Yisrael bimkom kohen because you don't want to give the misimpression that the לוי Levi is on the same status or carries that level of obligation or the level of כבוד kavod as the כהן kohen. The לוי Levi is different than the כהן kohen. Okay, פרק כ\"ב, פסוק ל\"ב Perek Chaf Beis, Pasuk Lamed Beis. We're continuing and moving right ahead. We've talked about the blemishes, מום mum, that would, a מום mum within the כהן kohen that would disqualify the כהן kohen from performing the עבודה avodah, from giving us the ברכה bracha in דוכנ'ן duchaning if it's a distraction, and so on. We have the obligation, פרק כ\"ב Perek Chaf Beis, of safeguarding the the קרבנות karbanos and the תרומה terumah, the sanctified and sacred things. Skip to פרק כ\"ב פסוק ל\"ב Perek Chaf Beis, Pasuk Lamed Beis, bottom of page 680 on the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. And here the Torah tells us a phrase that we are familiar with. Why are we familiar with it? Because when you were a kid and you went on a class trip, your teacher gave you a little pep talk before you went and said, \"Do not stick your head out the bus window, do not throw spitballs. We're on a class trip and what do we have to be careful that we have to make? We have to make a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem.\" And what do we have to safeguard and protect ourselves from חס ושלום chas v'shalom violating? Do not make a חילול השם Chillul Hashem. But my dear friends, it's a terrible mistake and misnomer. חילול השם Chillul Hashem and קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem are not primarily within the nations of the world. Where are they first made? Says the Torah, ולא תחללו v'lo s'chalelu, פרק כ\"ב פסוק ל\"ב Perek Chaf Beis Pasuk Lamed Beis. ולא תחללו את שם קדשי ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל אני השם מקדשכם V'lo s'chalelu es shem kodshi v'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael, ani Hashem mekadeshchem. Do not desecrate my name, rather sanctify my name where? בתוך בני ישראל B'soch Bnei Yisrael. And this is our biggest challenge. This is our hardest effort. We talked about קירוב kiruv, אהרן Aharon, ומקרבן לתורה u'mekarvan laTorah. The overwhelming majority of the Jewish people today are unaffiliated. The majority of the Jewish people today are not observant. And one of the biggest obstacles driving them away from a life of Torah, from fulfilling our mission and mandate of being מרבה כבוד שמיים marbeh kvod shamayim, Rabbi talked about כבוד kavod is when they see Jews, Torah Jews not living Torah lives. And we've seen it. Those who are not properly obeying the rules of this pandemic and are endangering others, the חילול השם Chillul Hashem that it's creating, the headlines, it is so painful. There's an ache in our stomach. It's a חילול השם Chillul Hashem where? בתוך בני ישראל B'soch Bnei Yisrael. So yeah, the nations of the world we care about. But you know where we care about first? בתוך בני ישראל B'soch Bnei Yisrael. Don't worry about sticking your head out the window on the bus for the non-Jewish nations of the world on the class trip. Worry about the secular teacher in the ישיבה yeshiva who sees the way that you're behaving in the classroom. Worry about the the impression we're leaving on fellow Jews. בתוך בני ישראל B'soch Bnei Yisrael. That's where the first, the first address of חילול השם Chillul Hashem or קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya says, ולא תחללו את שם קדשי, ונקדשתי v'lo s'chalelu es shem kodshi, v'nikdashti. The pasuk presents it as these two options. The word חילול chillul, the word חלל chalal, means a hole, a vacuum, something is missing. What is a חילול השם Chillul Hashem? So we just said this beautifully comes full circle to how we began. We began, קדוש קדוש קדוש השם, מלא כל הארץ כבודו Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Hashem, melo chol ha'aretz kevodo. כבודו Kevodo. Hashem's glory, Hashem's honor, the weightiness, the significance of Hashem, it fills the whole universe. Everywhere you look and everywhere you turn, in the beauty and gift of technology, in medicine, in advancement, in spirituality, in חסד chesed, Hashem is everywhere in nature. Everywhere you look, מלא כל הארץ כבודו melo chol ha'aretz kevodo, Hashem is everywhere. You know what a חילול השם Chillul Hashem is? When you actually drive Hashem out of somewhere. You've made a חלל chillul, a חלל chalal, a vacuum, a gaping hole. You've made an opening where Hashem can't be found. When you cheat in business, when you don't obey the guidelines and you think you're above the law, the rules, when you are discourteous to someone else, when you make a חילול השם Chillul Hashem, you've driven God out of a certain space, you've got driven God out of a certain time, you've created a חלל chillul, a hole, a gaping chasm, a hole, a vacuum where Hashem cannot be found. Our mission is to be מלא כל הארץ כבודו melo chol ha'aretz kevodo. That's how we become קדוש kadosh. When you create a חילול השם Chillul Hashem, you've driven Hashem out of that place. Says רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya, what's the antidote? What's the response? What's the repair? ולא תחללו את שם קדשי V'lo s'chalelu es shem kodshi, there's only one answer. ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל V'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael. The only one answer of ונקדשתי v'nikdashti is, now your response is, you have to make a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. The only answer to a חילול השם Chillul Hashem is a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. to obey the guidelines, to do kind things, to honor those on the front lines risking their lives, to be have integrity and honest in business, to be courteous in our personal conduct, to be dignified in the way we treat others. The only answer to חילול השם Chillul Hashem is קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. In fact, others suggest that there is no third option. You might say, well, I don't want to make a חילול השם Chillul Hashem, but I'm also not so committed to a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem. I want to just be. Can't I just live my life? Isn't there a third option? מילכיג'ס Milchigs, פליישיג'ס fleishigs and פרווה pareve. There is no פרווה pareve when it comes to our personal conduct and our lifestyles. Some understand from here, what you're doing is either a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem or a חילול השם Chillul Hashem. The way you speak, the way you carry yourself, the life you live, how you conduct yourself at work, in the gym, at the supermarket, at home, with Jews, non-Jews, observant Jews, non-observant Jews, the way we're living is either a קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem or a חילול השם Chillul Hashem. If it doesn't fit into קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem, by definition it is a חילול השם Chillul Hashem. The two choices that we have, and one is the antidote, is the response to the other. רב ניסן אלפרט זצ\"ל Rav Nissan Alpert zatzal, the great תלמיד talmid of רב משה פיינשטיין Rav Moshe Feinstein, the ר\"י Rosh Yeshiva in ישיבה Yeshiva University, in his לימודי ניסן Limudei Nissan, a beautiful ספר sefer on חומש Chumash, he says, notice the grammatical form of the word ונקדשתי v'nikdashti. ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל V'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael. ונקדשתי V'nikdashti, says רב ניסן אלפרט Rav Nissan Alpert, is נִפְעַל nifal. What is נִפְעַל nifal? The language, the לשון lashon of נִפְעַל nifal means that קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem doesn't only mean dying על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem. It's not the great moment of dying על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem. There's an article in the journal Klal Perspectives several years ago that a teacher quoted a student who said that student said, \"You know, I feel invisible and inconsequential, I don't matter. I wish I lived in the generation of the Holocaust if I could have died על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem, I could have been a hero.\" And the teacher was bemoaning that the impression our children may have is that קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem means I need to be willing to die על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem. You know, sometimes even harder than dying על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem, is to live על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem, to dedicate our lives, not just to to be a מיתת מצוה mesas mitzvah but a חיי מצוה chayei mitzvah, not to die על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem, but to live על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem. How do you live על קידוש השם al Kiddush Hashem? Not in the monumental, grandiose moments. Says רב ניסן אלפרט Rav Nissan Alpert, ונקדשתי nikdashti, נִפְעַל nifal. The small, seemingly insignificant. Did you hold the door? Did you say please? Did you say thank you? Were you courteous? How do you treat others? Do you have integrity and honesty? In the small, seemingly insignificant ways, נִפְעַל nifal, ונקדשתי nikdashti is the difference that we make. It's the impact that we have on the world. רב אלישיב Rav Eliashiv says that this is the challenge. Every generation has their challenge. Every generation has their challenge of מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh. And this is our generation's challenge is to live lives of קידוש השם Kiddush Hashem, to be מרבה כבוד שמיים marbeh kvod shamayim. It's the theme of our פרשה parsha and it's our mission in life. רב משה לייב סופר Rav Moshe Leib Sofer, the great סופר Sofer, says something interesting. You know, what do we learn from here? This is very relevant to what we're going through right now. He says the גמרא בברכות דף כ\"א עמוד א Gemara B'Brachos daf chaf alef amud alef says the following. אמר רב אדא בר אהבה מנין ליחיד שאינו אומר קדושה Amar Rav Adda bar Ahava minayin l'yachid she'eino omer kedusha? How do you know that if you're alone, you can't say קדושה kedusha? We crave it. You know how long it's been since I answered a קדושה kedusha? How long it's been since you answered a קדיש kaddish, a ברכו barchu, דברים שבקדושה dvarim shebekdusha? It's like going eight weeks without eating. It's like eight weeks without drinking. We all spiritually malnourished by the inability to answer them. So why can't we just answer all alone? ונקדשתי V'nikdashti. Over Zoom. Why can't we answer? So the גמרא Gemara learns, you know where you learn it from? שנאמר ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל She'ne'emar, v'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael. כל דבר שבקדושה לא יהא פחות מעשרה Kol davar shebekdusha lo yehei pachus me'asara. Because a דבר שבקדושה davar shebekdusha can't be less than ten people. ונקדשתי V'nikdashti. And there it says in פרשת שלח והבדלו מתוך העדה הזאת, מה להלן עשרה, אף כאן עשרה Parshas Shelach, v'hibadlu mitoch ha'eidah hazos, ma lehalan asara, af kan asara. So we learn from here that just like over there with the מרגלים meraglim, subtract the two good ones, you had ten, so too over here, ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל v'nikdashti b'soch Bnei Yisrael, דברים שבקדושה dvarim shebekdusha, קדיש קדושה ברכו kaddish kedusha barchu, you can only say within a מנין minyan. Says רב משה לייב סופר Rav Moshe Leib Sofer, the הייליגע סופר heilige Sofer, it's an amazing thing. You see the power of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. There could be nine ראשי ישיבה roshei yeshiva, nine צדיקים tzaddikim, nine גאונים gaonim, nine of the greatest ל\"ו צדיקים lamed vov tzaddikim convention, only nine of the thirty-six could get together. Nine can be together, they still can't say a דבר שבקדושה davar shebekdusha. And then you could have ten פשוט'ע אידן pashute yidden. Ten illiterate Jews who can't even make a ליינען leinen on a גמרא Gemara. Ten פשוט'ע pashute, simple, illiterate, ignorant Jews. And you know what? They can say the דברים שבקדושה dvarim shebekdusha. You see, says the הייליגע סופר heilige Sofer, that the power is in a מנין minyan. The power is in a ציבור tzibbur, the power is in community. You could have a community of ignoramuses, but the power of community enables them to do things that even nine great people can't do. The power is in community and that is why we are so desperate. It is why we so desperately crave being able to come back together as community.Okay, a few more, a couple more quick thoughts. פרשת אמור Parshas Emor packed solid. So much to talk about. לחם הפנים Lechem Hapanim and the מקלל mekalel. I don't even know if we're going to get to, we probably won't get to all of this. But good news, you're invited back, פרשת אמור Parshas Emor 2021, תשפ\"א Taf Shin Pey Aleph. There's so much more to talk about in פרשת אמור Parshas Emor. There's a beautiful inside of רב יוסף סלנט Rav Yosef Salant, the באר יוסף Be'er Yosef, a beautiful ספר sefer, the באר יוסף Be'er Yosef, and he has the following. Again, we don't have time. This is one of his longer essays, pages and pages long. He sets it up with a series of questions. But in our פרשה parsha and we are in this time that we are counting ספירת העומר Sefiras HaOmer. We're counting the עומר omer. That same word עומר omer we find being used in four separate contexts, in four separate contexts, that same word עומר omer. I'll tell you what they are quickly. We have that same word עומר omer. We talk about the עומר omer as a count, we're counting the עומר omer. The עומר omer is a period of time. The עומר omer is a קרבן karban brought on the second day of Pesach. And the עומר omer is a flower offering. It is the measure of a flower offering. So the word עומר omer is used in four separate contexts, and the truth is the word עומר omer means almost none of the above. What does the word עומר omer mean? Where does it come from? It is a measure equivalent of an עשרון isaron, a tenth of an איפה eifah, 43.2 eggs, about 95 ounces. So many מצוות mitzvos revolve around the עומר omer. We bring the מנחת העומר minchas ha'omer, a קרבן עומר karban omer, ספירת העומר sefiras ha'omer, the time period of the עומר omer, איפה eifah, we have all this going around this word עומר omer in so many different contexts, meaning so many different things. So the באר יוסף Be'er Yosef says, what do they all have to do with each other? And if עומר omer means a measure, why are we naming a קרבן karban and a count and a time period over a measure? It's like naming a time period or it's like engaging in a count or it's like dedicating a sacrifice after the word quart, liter, pound, ounce. We're calling it an עומר omer. עומר Omer really is ultimately it is a measure. Where does he come from? And listen to what he says. לפי המבואר L'fi ham'voar, this is at the end of pages and pages, really worthwhile, well worth studying this דרשה drasha inside. שתכלית כוונת מצוות העומר וכן מצוות ספירת העומר הוא שישראל ישמו תמיד נגד עיניהם ולבם את מצבם בזמן אכילתם את המן במדבר, שהוא יסוד ושורש האמונה והביטחון בהקדוש ברוך הוא. She'tachlis kavanas mitzvas ha'omer v'chein mitzvas sefiras ha'omer hu she'Yisrael yasimu tamid neged eineihem v'libam es matzavam b'zman achilasam es hamon bamidbar, shehu yesod v'shoresh ha'emunah v'habitochon b'HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You know what the באר יוסף Be'er Yosef says? Unbelievable. He says the first time the word עומר omer appears in the Torah, this measure appears in the Torah is when? The falling of the מן mon. When the מן mon, the heavenly bread fell in the מדבר midbar. And what the עומר omer is teaching us in every context that we engage and counter that word עומר omer again, it is a trigger. It's a hint. It is trying to remind us and take us back to the falling of the מן mon. So an עומר omer was the amount of מן mon that we received in the מדבר midbar. שכל ימי חייהם ילכו ויתנהגו כאותם הימים. She'kol yemei cheihem yelchu v'yisnahagu k'osam hayamim. When we count the עומר Omer, we're supposed to remember that Hashem provides, he gives פרנסה parnassah, he takes care of us, he nourishes us. We get the measure we need, the measure we deserve. It's the root of the theme of the carbon, of the count, of the time period. Every aspect of anything named עומר Omer is to take us back to the falling of the מן mon and to remember that everything we have and everything we need comes from Hashem. ובזה יתאמנו באמונה ובטחון לחלק כל מעשיהם רק לתורה ולעבודת השם. כדוגמת הזמן של הארבעים שנה שהיו במדבר. U'v'zeh yit'amnu b'emunah u'vitachon l'chalek kol ma'aseihem rak l'Torah u'l'avodas Hashem. K'dugmas hazman shel ha'arba'im shana she'hayu bamidbar. To take us and transport us back to those years in the desert where Hashem took care of us and gave us everything we needed, and our entire lives were dedicated to learning, to studying, to connecting, to living, to feeling his presence. That's what עומר Omer is about. So with the count of the עומר Omer is about, so with the time of the עומר Omer about. ימי העומר Yemei ha'omer, ספירת העומר Sefiras HaOmer. We should say על ספירת ימי העומר al sefiras yemei ha'omer. Why do we say על ספירת העומר al sefiras ha'omer? Should be על ספירת ימי העומר al sefiras yemei ha'omer. Says רב יוסף סלנט Rav Yosef Salant, the באר יוסף Be'er Yosef, because we are remembering the עומר omer, this measure of the מן mon that fell. No matter how much of the heavenly bread someone tried to scoop up, you tried to take more, you tried to take less, you always got an עומר omer. An עומר omer is what Hashem determined we needed, and an עומר omer is what he generously and miraculously provided. And these days, we're not just counting the עומר omer, we're counting the עומר omer and realizing that we have like the מן mon, what we have comes from above, it comes from Hashem. And what we have is the עומר omer, it is the measure of what we need. Many wish they had more, and life would be easier if they had more. And while very few, nobody wishes they had less, some people's lives would actually be better and less complicated if they had less. But in these 49 days, what we're working on and when we're counting the עומר omer, we're not counting the days of עומר omer, we're counting the עומר omer, the מן mon in our lives. We're counting the exact measure of what we need. And in fact, this is what we're going to celebrate next week. I'll give you a little preview. Maybe we'll end with this. A preview of ל\"ג בעומר Lag Ba'Omer next week. The חתם סופר Chasam Sofer, משה סופר Moshe Sofer says that the miraculous מן mon, we celebrate ל\"ג בעומר Lag Ba'Omer, the 33rd day of the עומר Omer is when the miraculous מן mon began to fall from heaven. The 33rd day of the עומר Omer corresponds on the Hebrew calendar with when the מן mon began to fall. And what is the kabbalistic formula for that day? ל\"ג בעומר Lag Ba'Omer is הוד שבהוד hod she'b'hod, which means gratitude of gratitude, thankfulness within thankfulness. It is a day dedicated, the theme of ל\"ג בעומר Lag Ba'Omer is not only רב שמעון בר יוחאי Rav Shimon bar Yochai and the יארצייט yahrzeit of the רמ\"א Rama, but ל\"ג בעומר Lag Ba'Omer is הוד שבהוד hod she'b'hod, gratitude within gratitude, when the מן mon fell. This whole time period is על ספירת al sefiras not only ימי העומר yemei ha'omer, but העומר ha'omer. It's a time in which we are grateful. Okay, I wanted to talk about the לחם הפנים lechem hapanim, the miracle, the fact that it never got stale. I wanted to talk about the the מקלל mekalel, the one at the end of our פרשה parsha who curses Hashem and he's killed as a result, the consequence. But we'll have to עם ירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem incorporate those two themes next year. Wishing everyone a great day, a happy, a happy
