Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב Boker Tov, and welcome back to our weekly פרשה Parsha perspectives for today, where we analyze and investigate the themes and the messages and the lessons of the פרשה Parsha in a way that can inspire and inform our daily life today. I want to thank our generous sponsors, dear friends Becky and Avi Katz, who sponsored for the year in memory of Becky's father David Grossman, לעילוי נשמת l'iluy nishmas דוד בן מנחם מנוש Dovid ben Menachem Manush, whose נשמה neshama should have a עליה aliya.פרשת במדבר Parshas Bamidbar begins the fourth book of the תורה Torah, named aptly by the same name במדבר Bamidbar, page 726 if you're following in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash at home. וידבר ה' אל משה במדבר סיני באהל מועד באחד לחדש השני Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe bemidbar Sinai be'ohel mo'ed b'echad l'chodesh hasheni, and so on and so forth. ה' Hashem spoke to Moshe, and here, the תורה Torah feels a need all of a sudden to give us the topography, to tell us the climate, to tell us the geography of where this section of the תורה Torah was given. Not just that ה' Hashem communicated or transmitted these lessons, these values, and ideals, but that he did so במדבר סיני bemidbar Sinai, that he did so specifically in the מדבר midbar, he did so in that environment. We'll come back to in a moment why the תורה Torah felt a need to give us that particular detail. But he begins, this fourth book begins with a practice that generally we've seen the תורה Torah frown upon. שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל למשפחתם לבית אבתם במספר שמות כל זכר לגלגלתם Se'u es rosh kol adas Bnei Yisrael l'mishpichosam l'veis avosam b'mispar sheimos kol zachar l'gulg'losam. Take a census, count the Jewish people in order to know how many there are according to their families, according to their father's household, by the numbers of their names, every male member, according to their count.Now the תורה Torah earlier in ספר שמות Sefer Shmos in פרק ל' Perek Lamed, פסוק י\"ב pasuk yud beis, שמות ל' י\"ב Shmos Lamed yud beis, if you have the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash, it's on page 484. There the תורה Torah tells us, כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל לפקדיהם ki sisa es rosh Bnei Yisrael lifkudeihem. We have an earlier example of a census which is taken, where הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu counted the Jewish people, and counted them through the means of their donation of a מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel, counted the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel. And there רש\"י Rashi tells us ולא יהיה בהם נגף v'lo yihyeh bahem negef, that the reason to account through the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel so there won't be a plague. And why would I have thought that there would be a plague if the census was taken directly, if the count was taken directly? רש\"י Rashi tells us שהמנין שולט בו עין הרע והדבר בא עליהם shehaminyan sholeit bo ayin hara v'hadavar ba aleihem. Because a count in Jewish in Judaism, in Jewish tradition, when you count something, you welcome עין הרע ayin hara. You make it vulnerable to negative energy, to criticism, to judgment, to jealousy, to envy. You invoke and you invite people to look critically upon it and to invoke a sense of of judgment of it. עין הרע שולט בו Ayin hara sholeit bo. And therefore we are against the notion of of counting. We know, please God, please God, soon we'll be together again having a מנין minyan, and we will be counting that מנין minyan more closely than ever before, because whatever the מנינים minyanim is beginning outdoors, we're going to be doing so very carefully with a maximum number of people. So we're going to count, are we at the 15 or the 20 or however we can be distancing and maintaining the guidelines, safety and security, are we at the 15 or the 20, or are we at the minimum of 10? הושיעה את עמך וברך את נחלתך Hoshia es amecha u'vareich es nachalasecha. We have even tradition of פסוקים pesukim with 10 words so we can arrive at that number 10 without explicitly pointing and giving a number. It brings an עין הרע ayin hara, and it demeans and dehumanizes and demoralizes to give something a number. In fact, the גמרא Gemara in יומא Yuma tells us on דף כ\"ב daf chaf beis there's an איסור דאורייתא issur d'oraisa. There's a potentially biblical prohibition in counting, in counting human beings, in counting Jews, in giving them a number and denying them a name.רש\"י Rashi tells us there in שמות Shmos that ה' Hashem ends up counting the Jewish people no less than 10 times. So we have this duality or dichotomy where on the one hand, we are against counting. Counting demeans, dehumanizes, we take away the individuality, the name, they're just a piece of data. Counting shows how many, and therefore invites and invokes the עין הרע ayin hara. People look critically, people look with judgment. And on the other hand, we have this precedent and here it's repeated to begin the very fourth book of the תורה Torah, where ה' Hashem is counting. For him it's okay to count. For him it's okay to be able to see how many we are. So רש\"י Rashi tells us במדבר סיני באחד לחדש bemidbar Sinai b'echad l'chodesh, the opening רש\"י Rashi on the fourth book of the תורה Torah, מתוך חבתם לפניו מונה אותם כל שעה mitoch chibasom l'fanav moneh osam kol sha'ah. Why does ה' Hashem keep counting us? Like the person, להבדיל l'havdil, counts their baseball cards, like the person who keeps going to the stock market or the bank account. Yesterday they were happy. I don't know, it opened six minutes ago, I have no idea what it's doing today. If you were counting yesterday, you were happy, the single single highest rise in the in the stock market in a long time. If you're looking the last few months, you're unhappy. But חבתם chibasan, what you count, what you review, what you take inventory of, reflects what you love, what is dear to you, what you have affection for. Some people count their children and grandchildren, some people count, as I said, their baseball cards, their real estate holdings, their portfolio. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu counts us, כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, the Jewish people. וכשיצאו ממצרים מנם k'sheyatzu mi'Mitzrayim manam. When we left Mitzrayim, he counted us. כשנפלו בעגל k'shenaflu ba'eigel, when we fell, we made the mistake of the golden calf, he counted to see how many were left. כשבא להשרות שכינתו עליהם k'sheba l'hashros shechinaso aleihem, and when we wanted to rest his divine countenance upon us, he counted us. ובאחד בניסן הוקם המשכן ובאחד באייר מנם v'echad b'Nisan hukam haMishkan v'echad b'Iyar man'am. The תורה Torah here gives us the background of that counting of why. So when is counting negative? When is counting bad? When is counting something we criticize and we refrain from? And when is counting something which is good? Rav Volbe has a very, we'll get to Rav Volbe in a moment, but רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya says, notice the language. To count, for example, we find ourselves right now in a period of counting. We find ourselves counting up towards standing at Har Sinai. במדבר סיני Bemidbar Sinai, we're going back to Sinai, the Jewish people, once a year, really every day, but very poignantly and very pointedly, on שבועות Shavuos every year we go back to Sinai. And we count. 49 straight days, ספירת העומר Sefiras HaOmer. And the word for על ספירת העומר al Sefiras HaOmer, the מצוה mitzvah that we count is called ספירה sefira. לספור L'spor is to count. And yet, whether it's back in פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa, or here at the beginning of במדבר Bamidbar, what is the language which is used to describe? רבנו בחיי Rabbeinu Bachya says, note, it doesn't say go count, לספור l'spor or מנה monet to count. What does it say? שאו se'u, or we have the לשון lashon of לפקוד lifkod, פקד pakad to count. What do פקד pakad and שאו se'u have in common that are different from לספור l'spor or למנות limnos? The word שאו se'u, in fact, doesn't mean to count. What does the word שאו se'u mean? It means to lift. It means to elevate. You see, you can count in a way where you degrade. When you make people come to a lineup, right? The Nazis, ימח שמם וזכרם yimach shemam v'zichram, who began every day by dehumanizing and and by and by humiliating the Jewish people, by coming to a lineup where there were numbers on their arms and where a person was denied the very dignity and the individuality of having a name, they were simply a number. A number can dehumanize and demean when it's used to lump everyone together, to see everyone as as blurred as one. But הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu counts not to dehumanize or demean, not to erase individuality. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu instructs to count for the exact opposite reason. We count as a way, as a means of elevating. That is the very purpose of of the count. So שאו se'u means to lift, שאו se'u means to elevate. A person becomes elevated, how? By passing before Moshe and Aharon and by being counted by none other than ה' Hashem. To realize that they count and to realize that their lives count. This is evident from the רמב\"ן Ramban. The רמב\"ן Ramban in his commentary here at the beginning of our פרשה parsha, the רמב\"ן Ramban describes this. And the רמב\"ן Ramban writes, תפקדו אותם ענין פקידה זכרון והשגחה על דבר כלשון וה' פקד את שרה Tifk'du osam, inyan p'kida, zikaron v'hashgacha al davar, k'lashon v'Hashem pakad es Sarah. We read on ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, and we invoke the notion that ה' Hashem remembered Sarah. He counted Sarah. He had made a promise to Sarah that there would be a continuity from her, and she was so desperate for a child. And when ה' Hashem remembered and was ready to fulfill that promise, it's וה' פקד את שרה v'Hashem pakad es Sarah. ה' Hashem fulfilled that promise to Sarah. Hold on. Sorry. ה' Hashem fulfilled that promise to Sarah. כלשון וה' פקד את שרה והוא פתרונו בכל מקום לא ימלט מעון איש על דתי וגם פקודת נשים שמירתו והשגחתו עליו k'lashon v'Hashem pakad es Sarah. V'hu pisrono b'chol makom, lo yimalet me'on ish al dati, v'gam p'kudas nashim sh'miraso v'hashgachaso alav. This is a count that doesn't say I'm not interested in you and I erase your individuality and I lump you together, it does the exact opposite. וכשציוה למנות את ישראל יאמר תפקדו אותם לרמוז שלא יספרים רק יתנו כופר נפשם מחצית השקל ובהם ישגיח וידע מספר העם v'kasher tziva limnos es Yisrael yomar tifk'du osam l'ramoz shelo yisaprim, rak yitnu kofer nafsham machatzis hashekel uvahem yashgiach v'yeida mispar ha'am. To use through the means of a gift. You know how you make yourself count? By being, you know how you make yourself counted? By making yourself count. Contribute, give, participate. ויאמר בדבר מספר מספר פקידת העם כי ידע מספר פקידת הכופר Vayomer b'davar mispar mispar p'kidas ha'am ki yadam mispar p'kidas hakofer, and so on and so forth. So the רמב\"ן Ramban tells us, you know what the process was? The Jewish people would walk before Moshe and Aharon, and they were taking this count. They were responsibility for this, they were responsible for this census. And this, my friends, is really the theme of our פרשה parsha, of the opening of the book of במדבר Bamidbar. In many ways, it's the theme that perhaps inspired חז\"ל Chazal to say that we read במדבר Bamidbar before שבועות Shavuos. For those who haven't been checking the calendar, next week is שבועות Shavuos. And we always read במדבר Bamidbar before שבועות Shavuos. And perhaps the reason we read במדבר Bamidbar is because the theme that permeates throughout במדבר Bamidbar, whether it's the census at the beginning, whether it is the logo and emblems that describe the design of the encampments, the assignments, whether it is the, we'll see, the relationship Moshe has with Aharon's children, these are all the areas of our פרשה parsha that we're going to take a closer look at today. But the common theme of all of them is the notion of our purpose, our meaning, our mission, that we count, that we're consequential, that we matter, that we are worthy, that we're individuals, and that we're here for a reason. And that's how the פרשה parsha begins. שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל Se'u es rosh kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Don't just count them. You're not filling out a little oval and submitting your census form. You don't go online and just give the data, but rather שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, the goal and the purpose of counting is to ensure that people can feel counted, to know that they matter, to know that ה' Hashem doesn't just see everyone as one big number lumped together, but each of us as individuals, we matter. למספר שמות L'mispar sheimos. We have a name and we have a number. We have both. The counting of Bnei Yisrael is a manifestation of ה's Hashem's השגחה פרטית hashgacha pratis, his love for every Jew, his חיבה chiba, his affection that he has for us. The תורה Torah instructs Moshe and Aharon to be present during the counting. You see, it's terribly inefficient. They're counting an enormous number of people. And it's a terribly inefficient way of counting. It would have been much more efficient to simply walk around the different segments of where the camps were and to count in that manner. This is a very inefficient way of doing it. And yet, and yet Moshe and Aharon are instructed to be present. And why are they instructed to be present? Sorry for the technology problems we're having this morning. Hold on one second. I think we're back. We're back. Everybody sees? We're good? So why were Moshe and Aharon instructed to be present even though it's terribly inefficient in that way? Because a person felt, you're passing before the גדולי ישראל gedolei Yisrael. You're coming before Moshe and Aharon, the greatest of the generation. They're going to pause and stop and they're going to say, שלום עליכם Shalom Aleichem, how are you? What's going on in your life? What's your name? And here is your number. Here is your role and here's your place and here's your mission, and we see you and we know you, and you matter and you make a difference. And that experience of being counted in that way is שאו את ראש se'u es rosh. It has the effect ultimately of lifting, of שאו את ראש se'u es rosh. It ends up lifting everybody up. And that is the goal. And that's what the רמב\"ן Ramban says, they passed before. The גר\"א Gra says, the גר\"א Gra writes, Rav Volbe quotes the גר\"א Gra. And the גר\"א Gra writes that in the era of prophecy, a person, there was no need for anyone to try to determine what their purpose was. In an era of prophecy, everybody knew what their purpose was. The prophet was able to instruct them. I need a technology manager to manage all this while I'm trying to concentrate on the teaching. Okay, I think we've muted everybody, and I think we're back. We got knocked off on Facebook. Let's see if we can go back on there for one second. Thank you for all your patience and kindness. A second. Yeah. So the גר\"א Gra says, a person who came before Moshe, the greatest of all prophets, through that encounter, Moshe was their mirror, saw into the deepest recesses of their souls, and there was really a deep feeling of why they were here and what they were meant to do, and they walked away having encountered a true prophet and getting a glimpse into their own soul. And afterwards Aharon, the leader of his שבט shevet, would bless people individually, give them that ברכה bracha, and give them a ברכה bracha just like יעקב Yaakov blessed his sons and the שבטים shevatim. And the ברכה bracha was, appears to us to be a criticism, but it's not a criticism, is really again, a mirror, a window into telling them who they're meant to be and how they're meant to achieve it. And today, every one of us need to look into the mirror for ourselves, men and women alike, and figure out, adults and children, who we are and who we're meant to be and what difference we're meant to make in this world. That is the essence and that is the theme of our פרשה parsha. The census proper, women weren't included, and by the way, those under 20 weren't included either. It was no more discriminating against an 18-year-old male than it was a woman. The purpose of this census was, they're going in the desert, they're going to enter the land of Israel, and they need to be prepared to know their military, how many they have for the purpose of their military. But Rav Volbe writes on עלי שור חלק א' Ali Shur chelek aleph, it's on page קס\"ח kuf samech ches. כל אדם חייב לדעת שיש לו חשיבות Kol adam chayav ladaas she'yeish lo chashivus. A person has to know they matter, they make a difference, they're not invisible. לא חשיבות מדומה שמחשיב את עצמו בעצמו כפי שהמסילת ישרים מגדיר את הגאוה Lo chashivus meduma shemachshiv atzmo b'atzmo k'fi she'ha'Mesilas Yesharim magdir es ha'gaiva. It's not an arrogant way of mattering, that I am all that, I'm the center of the universe, the world revolves around me, I matter more than others. It's not an I matter in a way that breeds an arrogance. אלא חשיבות הבאה מחמת הכרה עמוקה באפסות וניצוץ Ela chashivus ha'ba'ah machmas hakara amuka b'afsus v'nitzutz. It means I matter because I am a child of God, I'm a prince, I'm a princess. If I am here, it's because I have a purpose. I have something to contribute and to accomplish and to give to this world. The גמרא Gemara says in סנהדרין Sanhedrin, כל אחד ואחד חייב לומר בשבילי נברא העולם kol echad v'echad chayav lomar bishvili nivra ha'olam. A person has to every day say this whole world, its technology, its magnificence, the natural order, it's all here for me. It's all here to serve me. I'm here to serve it. And רש\"י Rashi says, כלומר חשוב אני כעולם מלא, לא אאבד את עצמי מעולם בעבירה אחת klomar chashuv ani k'olam malei, lo eved es atzmi me'olam b'aveira achas. The thing, realizing I matter, I make a difference, I have a mission, I have a purpose, should not make us swell with pride or arrogance, but the opposite, should humble us to realize it's beneath me to waste time, it's beneath me to indulge in that which is negative or bad or sabotages me, it's beneath me to undersell myself or underachieve. We have to overachieve and realize why we're here. כעולם מלא K'olam malei, each of us is a world unto ourselves. זוהי חשיבות, בלי תודעת חשיבות אין עבודה בתורה zohi chashivus, bli toda'as chashivus ein avoda b'Torah. Who are you to even learn תורה Torah, teach תורה Torah, share תורה Torah? Who are you to do חסד chesed? Who are you to engage the holiness and sanctity of ה' Hashem and his מצוות mitzvos unless you realize that you are royalty, that you're worthy. And that's what it means, שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, to be lifted and to be counted. The purpose of the book of במדבר Bamidbar as the Jewish people are in their adolescence, traveling through the desert in this way, we are encountering the notion of making a difference of mattering. You know, there's among young people in particular, among teenagers, there's an enormous growth of of mental health challenges and mental health issues. And so much of it is from the the proliferation of social media. Again, all of this was before this this pandemic and how it impacts everything, we don't yet know. But when a person sees everything else going on, and it seems like everyone else is so much bigger and better and experiencing so much more of life and has accomplished and has more friends and followers and has more status than I do. When a person feels invisible and inconsequential, they feel depressed, they feel bad about themselves. The message to them, the message to us is שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, is to take a census in our homes, in our lives of others, to take count of others and to be counted by them, not as a number which is degrading, not as a number which is dehumanizing, but as a name and a number, that combination that lifts, that gives a person a sense of mission, of שאו se'u, to elevate, to lift, to realize we matter. And that's part of the reason I think why we read פרשת במדבר Parshas Bamidbar before the holiday of שבועות Shavuos, because before we can receive the תורה Torah, we have to realize each of us are worthy, we have to realize each of us have a mission and a mandate. Each of us have a person, a purpose and a חלק chelek. ותן חלקנו בתורתך V'sein chelkeinu b'Sorasecha. Give me my חלק chelek in תורה Torah. Each of us have access to תורה Torah, each of us have novel ideas to introduce, interpretations for תורה Torah, each of us have a contribution to make to the תורה Torah community and to the world of תורה Torah. And that's what it means, and that's why perhaps we read it before שבועות Shavuos. You see a continuation of this very theme, of this very essence of this idea in פרק ב' Perek Beis. We're going to come back to what is in between, but I want to continue this theme that I'm trying to describe, I believe is really throughout our פרשה parsha. If you go to פרק ב' Perek Beis, פסוק א' pasuk aleph, the very beginning of the next chapter. וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר איש על דגלו באותת לבית אבותם יחנו בני ישראל Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon leimor, ish al diglo b'osos l'veis avosam yachanu Bnei Yisrael. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu now assigns the camping assignments. We didn't just, it's not like Southwest Airlines. Remember airlines when you used to be able to travel on a plane? It's not with Southwest Airlines where you scramble for your your order in the line, and then it's open seating. And you get on the plane, I hate traveling Southwest. I need to know where I'm sitting. I need to know do I have a window or an aisle, what my leg room will be like, will I have enough overhead, when will I board. I'm like the, I Southwest doesn't work for me. But Southwest, first come first serve. You get your order in the line and then whatever you get on the plane, you take the seat that you want. So the מדבר midbar was not like Southwest. The מדבר midbar was like JetBlue. You had your exact assignment. North, West, South, East, the לויים Levi'im surrounding the משכן Mishkan on the inner circle, and then on the outer circle, North, South, West, and East, the twelve tribes divided into four, three tribes on each side, North, South, West, and East. איש על דגלו Ish al diglo. And where did you go? Under your encampment. Each person under their banner, באותות b'osos, under their sign. The graphic designers in the מדבר midbar were working overtime. All twelve tribes had an emblem, had an insignia, had a logo. They flew their flag, and they would encamp each one underneath specifically their flag. מנגד סביב לאהל מועד יחנו Mineged saviv l'ohel mo'ed yachanu, the the tent of the meeting, the sanctuary, the holiness, the משכן Mishkan. והחונים קדמה מזרחה דגל מחנה יהודה V'hachonim keidma mizracha degel machane Yehuda, and then the תורה Torah goes on and gives us these exact formations, and I might add, the תורה Torah takes up precious real estate. It spends significant time telling us exactly where. Why is that important? That's part of history. How does that inform or inspire us? Exactly. Why do we really care the seating assignments or the logos or insignias in the מדבר midbar? And the answer is, it is extremely significant for us. It's very, very important for us. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes about this. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes, איש על מחנהו ואיש על דגלו ish al machanehu v'ish al diglo. The תורה Torah spends a great deal of time discussing the demarcation of the various camps and where precisely each tribe should encamp relative to the others. Just as the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam has established specific varieties of plants in the botanical realm, which must remain separate and not be grafted together, so too, each person has his own talents and role in society. In order for society to function harmoniously, each individual must play his specific role. Some people delude themselves into thinking their abilities are endless, while others are so self-effacing they believe they can accomplish nothing. God wanted every Jew to realize where his strengths and weaknesses lie. Each man by his own camp, each man by his division. איש על מחנהו ואיש על דגלו Ish al machanehu v'ish al diglo. This is a continuation of that theme that we began with at the beginning of the פרשה parsha, the notion of שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, lift our heads to know that we're counted. How do you know you count? Because you don't sit randomly. You have a place. You know, there's a there's a notion in Judaism of being מכיר את מקומו makir es mekomo, to know our place, to stay in our lane. Who am I? Who am I meant to be? What does the best version of myself look like? What difference am I meant to make in the world? What am I good at? What is my worthiness? How can I be consequential? This is not something which is just motivational talk and gibberish. This is Judaism at its core. It's a foundation of what helps get us out of bed in the morning. It's what all of תורה Torah and מצוות mitzvos are meant to promote, that we matter, that we make a difference. The ברכה bracha you make on that apple matters. Whether you דאווען daven and how slowly you דאווען daven this morning, it matters. The חסד chesed you do influences and impacts the cosmos. It all matters. The difference that we make, the actions that we take, speech, thought, and action. And therefore, each one of us is unique. Each one of us has a unique mission and a unique difference to make. And the דגלים degalim, the insignias, the logos, the camping assignments reminded us of that. Just, the Rabbi Soloveitchik said, just like when it comes to vegetation in the plant world, there's an איסור issur. You're not allowed to have כלאים kilayim, you're not allowed to mix them together, you can't create a hybrid. הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu created species the way he meant them to be created. And to try to compete with God as creator and mingle the species is to deny and deprive the unique role of each of those species. It's true in the world of vegetation, כלאים kilayim, it's true in the world of material, שעטנז shaatnez, it's true in כלאי הכרם kil'ei hakerem in the world of the of the vine, and it's also true, it's also true with people. We each have a purpose, we each have a mission, it's why we're here. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, זצ\"ל zatza\"l, had a beautiful שיחה sicha, and he described it's also true with time. You know, when it came to the שקלים shkalim, we're talking about the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel, the census was taken through the gift of the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel. And on ראש חודש אדר Rosh Chodesh Adar they would announce, be careful to check the שעטנז shaatnez, the כלאים kilayim in your field, oh, and everybody give the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel. And the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the שיחה sicha wonders what is the connection between checking the כלאים kilayim in your field and the donation, the giving of the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel. And he says the common theme of both is not to mix things that belong separate together. Just like in the field, your vegetation needs to be separate, don't let them mingle and mix. So too, the giving of one year has to be counted for separately than the giving of another year. Because who we are and who we're meant to be, 2019 and 2020 are different. תש\"פ Taf Shin Pey is different than תשפ\"א Taf Shin Pey Aleph. Every year is different. What we're meant to accomplish, who we're meant to be, the accounting and the difference we're meant to make with our income. We're not allowed to create כלאים kilayim in space. We can't create כלאים kilayim with material, with with חומר chomer, and we can't create כלאים kilayim with זמן zman in time. And that's what these encampments were meant to teach. So that again, the theme that permeates throughout our פרשה parsha, whether it's the notion of our being elevated and lifted by being counted, whether it's the notion of how we encamp and where we encamp, to know that we each are unique and we're under our specific insignia, it's all about our uniqueness and not not giving up and not feeling we're inconsequential, and not thinking we're invisible, we don't matter, we don't make a difference, I don't have so many followers or friends or celebrity status or spotlight. What difference does it make? Why am I even here? which can lead to a sense of depression. I've been sharing with you beautiful insights and I want to share a couple more this morning from the beautiful ספר sefer איש תמיד Ish Tomid written by Rav Yisrael Meir Druk, שליט\"א shlita, a great ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva in ירושלים Yerushalayim. Who writes the following. It says on this פסוק pasuk we just read about the insignia, the logos, the דגלים degalim. הביאני, the מדרש medrash, I'm reading to you from the מדרש רבה פרשה ב' סימן ג' במדבר רבה Medrash Rabbah Parsha Beis siman gimmel Bamidbar Rabbah. The מדרש medrash says הביאני אל בית היין כשנגלה הקדוש ברוך הוא על הר סיני ירדו עמו כ\"ב רבוא מלאכים והיו כולם עשויים דגלים דגלים שנאמר דגול מרבבה. כיוון שראו אותם ישראל שהם עשויים דגלים דגלים התחילו מתאוים לדגלים. אמרו הלוואי כך אנחנו נעשים דגלים כמותם לכך נאמר הביאני אל בית היין זה סיני שניתנה בו התורה שנמשלה ביין ודגלו עלי אהבה אמרו אילולי הוא מגדיל עלי אהבה אמר להם הקדוש ברוך הוא מה נתאויתם לעשות דגלים חייכם שאני ממלא לשאלותיכם. מיד הודיע הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה ואמר לו לך עשה אותם דגלים כמו שנתאוו Heviani el beis hayayin. K'she'negleh hakadosh baruch hu al Har Sinai, yardu imo chaf beis riv'vo malachim, v'hayu kulam asuyim degalim degalim, she'ne'emar dogul mei'revava. Keivan she'ra'u osam Yisrael she'hem asuyim degalim degalim, hischilu mis'avim l'degalim. Amru halevai kach anachnu na'asim degalim k'mosam. L'kach ne'emar haviani el beis hayayin, zeh Sinai she'nisna bo haTorah she'nimshal b'yayin. V'diglo alai ahava. Amru ilulei hu magdil alai ahava. Amar lahem hakadosh baruch hu, ma nisavisem la'asos degalim? Chayeichem she'ani memale lish'aloseichem. Miyad hodi'a hakadosh baruch hu l'Moshe v'omar lo, leich asei osam degalim k'mo she'nis'avu. The Jewish people craved their own sign, their own logo. ה' Hashem said at the giving of the תורה Torah, which is likened to the sweetness of wine, I'll give you your logo. And that's why במדבר סיני bemidbar Sinai, after leaving הר סיני Har Sinai, in the מדבר midbar, ה' Hashem says here's how you're meant to encamp, here are the logos. Asks Rav Druk, צורך ביאור tzorech biur. What in the world do angels have to do with signs, logos, insignias? What does this have to do with angels? And why would the Jewish people be jealous of these angels? What is the message? What is going on? Where does this come from? And he says, הנני רואה בזה שכל ענין הדגלים הוא לסמל את היחודיות והתפקיד של כל אחד ואחד. הדגל שונה שיש לכל אחד ואחד מורה על העבודה המיוחדת והתפקיד המוטל עליו Hineni ro'eh b'zeh she'kol inyan ha'degalim hu l'sameil es ha'yichudiyus v'ha'tafkid shel kol echad v'echad. Ha'degel shoneh she'yesh l'chol echad v'echad moreh al ha'avoda ha'meyuchedes v'ha'tafkid ha'mutal alav. What is the very idea of an angel? Every angel we know has their own assignment. The three angels that visited אברם Avram, each came for their own assignment. An angel is an expression of God in this world. An angel is ה' Hashem executing on a purpose, on a mission, something He wants to do in this world. So every angel by definition has a unique mission. We know that an angel doesn't come to this world in order to do two things. Each angel only comes for one reason and for one purpose. So therefore, the message, the idea of the angels, says Rav Druk, is just like an angel is an expression of God in this world, just as every angel is unique and just as every angel only comes for one mission. It doesn't compete with the other angels' mission. It doesn't overlap. It's not jealous of the other angels' mission. It knows it's why it's here. So too, כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. That's what God was communicating. Every angel had its own logo, its own insignia, its own emblem. Every Jew has their own logo. Every tribe has its own camp assignment, its own seat assignment, its own logo. בזאת יובן ענין הדגלים אצל המלאכים כי לכל מלאך יש תפקיד מיוחד שלצורך הוא נברא ואילו לא היה יכול מלאך אחד למלא את השליחות הזו לא נברא כלל אותו מלאך B'zeh yuvin inyan ha'degalim eitzel ha'malachim, ki l'chol malach yesh tafkid miyuchad she'l'tzorech hu nivra, v'ilu lo haya yachol malach echad l'male es hashlichus hazo, lo nivra klal oso malach. Well, my dear friends, we are ה's Hashem's angels. We are each his unique expression in this world. We each have a mission and a purpose. We each have a way we're meant to matter. And therefore, we each have to realize, שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, lift each of us. We're a name and a number. We have a mission and a purpose. במספר שמות כל זכר לגלגלתם B'mispar sheimos kol zachar l'gulg'losam. It says במספר b'mispar, a number, שמות sheimos is a name. יש בחינה של מספר שכל אחד ואחד הוא חלק מהכלל Yesh bchina shel mispar she'kol echad v'echad hu chelek me'ha'klal. On the one hand, we're a number, we're part of a bigger number. Because if we each see ourselves only as the individual logo, then where's the אחדות achdus? Where's the unity? Where do we come together as community and people and nation? So on the one hand, we're a מספר mispar, we're a number. We're just one number of many. We're one number in the שול shul, one number in the community, one number of a nation. But on the other hand, שמות מורה על הפרטיות של כל אחד ואחד מצד עצמו sheimos moreh al ha'pratius she'l'chol echad v'echad mitzad atzmo. So we are that balance between a name and a number simultaneously. We are the name, that's our individuality, and we are the number that even though we're individuals, we're soldiers in one united army, fulfilling one united mission and and purpose. And in that way, it's likened to the angels. ועל פי זה V'al pi zeh, based on this, we know, says Rav Druk, מפני מה קוראים פרשת במדבר קודם לשבועות mipnei ma korim Parshas Bamidbar kodem l'Shavuos. This is why we're reading במדבר Bamidbar before שבועות Shavuos. כי על פי המבואר עד כאן יובן למה שיש ענין מיוחד שידע כל אדם שאחד ואחד יש לו תפקיד יחודי K'd'al pi ha'm'vo'ar ad kan yuvin lama she'yesh inyan miyuchad she'yeida kol adam she'echad v'echad yesh lo tafkid yichudi. Before you could receive the תורה Torah, you have to know that the תורה Torah is not trying to make us all conform or blend together or become invisible. The תורה Torah, the opposite, is trying to empower us, enrich us, and enable us to be part of one army, but to realize what is my pin, what is my badge, what is my beret? How am I a soldier under what mission, under what unit am I fighting? And we דאווען daven ותן חלקנו בתורתך v'sein chelkeinu b'Sorasecha that every one of us get our unique and individual חלק chelek in תורה Torah. Each of us have access to תורה Torah, each of us have novel ideas to introduce, interpretations for תורה Torah, each of us have a contribution to make to the תורה Torah community and to the world of תורה Torah. And that's what it means, and that's why perhaps we read it before שבועות Shavuos. You see a continuation of this very theme, of this very essence of this idea in פרק ב Perek Beis. We're going to come back to what is in between, but I want to continue this theme that I'm trying to describe, I believe is really throughout our פרשה parsha. If you go to פרק ב Perek Beis, פסוק א pasuk aleph, the very beginning of the next chapter. וידבר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן לאמר Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon leimor, איש על דגלו באותות לבית אבותם יחנו בני ישראל ish al diglo b'osos l'veis avosam yachanu Bnei Yisrael. This is the theme of our פרשה parsha. It is the theme that begins our פרשה parsha and it permeates and carries us through the פרשה parsha, is that we matter, we make a difference, שאו את ראש se'u es rosh, we elevate and we lift our head by counting and by making our lives count, by being part of a bigger number, but also recognizing our individuality and our sense of uniqueness. I'll just add also that Rav Yeruchem in his דעת תורה Da'as Torah, the הייליגער heiliger Rav Yeruchem of the Mir, writes is the following. He says, העריכה התורה כל כך בענין הדגלים Ha'aricha haTorah kol kach b'inyan hadegolim. This is in דעת תורה Da'as Torah on פרשת במדבר Parshas Bamidbar. The Torah elaborates here so much about the logo and about the flags and about the encampments, והעריכה בהזהרות חמורות על שמירת חוקותיהם v'he'ericha b'hazharos chamuros al shmiras chukoseihem, וישראל היו נזהרים מאוד v'Yisroel hayu nizharim me'od. We see that we were accountable if a person tries to break into another tribe. You know, when you were in camp as a kid, you went on a raid in the middle of the night to someone else's bunk. You hoped you didn't get caught, you came back that night, not me of course, but I heard about others who went on a raid in the middle of the night. So, says רב ירוחם Rav Yeruchem, if you went on a raid in the middle of the night, you said, you know, I'm sick of being south of the משכן Mishkan. I'm going to go on a raid. Let's go raid the tribes north, or east, let's go raid the tribes on the west. It was punishable by death, it was a capital crime. It was very, very dangerous. It was very high stakes. ואין לומר הטעם משום שמירת מצות עשה V'ein lomar hata'am mishum shmiras mitzvas asei ועונש על ביטול מן העשה v'onesh al bitul min ha'asei. כי אף בשלא ביטלו מלאכתם וטעותו וחייב מיתה Ki af b'shelo bitlu melachtam v'ta'usu v'chayav misa. If a לוי Levi from the tribe of Levi tried to abandon their post and their mission, their job and their contribution, they were חייב מיתה chayav misa. Why? So he elaborates, we're not going to read the whole thing, but רב ירוחם Rav Yeruchem talks about what he received from the אלתר Alter of קלם Kelm, the importance and the need for סדר seder, for order. This is what השם Hashem said, this is the seating assignment, this is the order. You're meant to maintain and preserve order. And the moment you become disorder, chaos, everyone can move around and reshuffle and things are out of order, then you've undermined the mission, the ability to fulfill it. We've spoken about this several times lately, but the אלתר Alter of קלם Kelm gave the metaphor of a of a pearl necklace, where of course the value of the pearl necklace are the pearls. The string that holds them together is negligible value. It's insignificant altogether. And yet, without that string, if the string snaps, the pearls roll everywhere. You don't have a pearl necklace. So what matters is the pearls, but without the necklace, without the string, you don't have a pearl necklace. And the same is true in our lives. What matters is family, what matters is חסד chesed and תורה Torah and דאווענען davening and מצוות mitzvos. What matters is improving and repairing the world. Those are all the pearls of our lives. But the necklace, the string is סדר seder, is order, is being organized. And רב ירוחם Rav Yeruchem learns this in פרשת במדבר Parshas Bamidbar on the notion of the דגלים degalim. Why such an emphasis and why so much Torah real estate taken with where you should be and when you should be and how you should be and don't deviate from there? Because סדר seder, order is the core of it all. The מכתב מאליהו Michtav MeEliyahu of Rav Dessler also elaborates on this theme. Rav Dessler elaborates on the דגלי המדבר diglei hamidbar. It's in מכתב מאליהו Michtav MeEliyahu, and he writes the following. He says, יש גימל גדרים של סדר yesh gimmel gedarim shel seder. There are three categories of being ordered. יש סדר לשם סדר yesh seder l'shem seder, כי רואה נעים ומערכת מסודרת k'ro'eh na'im u'ma'areches mesuderes. There are people who, you know, יעקעס Yekkes, they just love everything to be organized. Everything, you know, it's a fine line between the people who like things to be organized and a שטקיל shtikel OCD. But everything's got to be exact. It's got to be in exact place, it's got to be hanging exactly even, it's got to be put away exactly the way it's meant to be. יש סדר לשם תוצאותיו, שידע היכן נמצא כל דבר yesh seder l'shem totz'osav, she'yeda heichan nimtza kol davar. So there's seder for the purpose of seder. There are some people who are organized and they live with order because they worship order. The second category are people who use order because order brings results. If you have order, you can accomplish more. You know where things are found. And then גימל, יש סדר לשם אחדות הפעולה gimmel, yesh seder l'shem achdus hape'ulah, כגון במכונה שלכל חלק צריך שיעשה פעולתו במקומו k'gon b'mechona shel'chol chelek tzarich sheya'aseh pe'ulato b'mkomo, כדי שיצא תכליתם בן כולם k'dei she'yetzei tachlisam bein kulam. Sometimes things need to be in order and organized so that they work. You know, you buy something from IKEA and you're trying to put it together, and you think you're smarter than the instructions, so you're just going to wing it, and then all of a sudden you're left with six extra pieces and you don't know where they go. And the door doesn't close or the thing isn't balanced and it doesn't function because you thought you're such a כּנאַקער knacker, you're going to skip reading the instructions, you know, you intuited it. You pretty much figured it out. That's just for sissies, you can do it on your own. And then you're left with extra parts and the whole thing doesn't work. Sometimes the סדר seder, the order is because it doesn't work. So, again, Rav Dessler says there are three types of order. There's order because you're OCD, you can't live without order, you worship order, you love order, you love order for order's sake. There's order because how are you going to know where your files are? How do you know where your clothing is? How do you know where you put the books? How do you know where you put the ingredients if you didn't put them away in an organized ordered way? And the third thing is it can't work without order. If you're building a watch and you're going to just randomly throw all the watch parts in a bucket and shake them up, you're not going to have a watch. Things need to be in order in order for the watch to function. Three ideals of of order.So he says, בּרוחניות נדרש הגדר השלישי b'ruchnius nidrash hagader hashlishi. When it comes to spirituality and רוחניות ruchnius, we invoke, we care about, we elevate order because of the third definition. פירוד של יחידים וכן פירוד של אגודות אגודות מונע התכלית Peirud shel yechidim v'chein peirud shel agudos agudos mone'a hatachlis. You see, when we're divided, when we're fragmented, when we're operating independently, then we can't accomplish our means and our goal. Just like the parts of the watch that are not put together in order, you won't have a watch. So too this world of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, if the individual parts of a community don't come together with a sense of order, then we can't function. אבל גם בעיבור ועיבוד הטוב, כל יחיד צריך לפתח את מידותיו וכליו החיצוניים המתאימים לו Aval gam b'eibur v'ibud hatov, kol yachid tzarich l'fateach es midosav v'keilav hachitzoniyim hamat'imim lo. A person has to know their strengths and their talents and their blessings in the community. You have to know what can you offer, what can you give, what can you contribute, how can you participate? And you have to be ordered in doing it. Don't compete with your friend, don't overlap with your friend, don't be redundant with your friend. Everybody has to know within their family, what is their order. And here too again, Rav Dessler elaborates on the idea of the דגלי המדבר diglei hamidbar. He says that was why Hashem put us in the מדבר midbar in that way. He north, south, east, west, everyone had their logo, their insignia, their emblem. Why? To reinforce the notion that there needs to be order. And the order is not because we're an OCD nation, we might be that too, but the order is because for כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael to function at maximum capacity, to make the maximum difference, to be in sync, to have synergy, collaboration, to be working in a way which we can best impact the world, we need to have order. And that order was dictated by the Almighty himself, who gave us exactly the seder assignments and exactly the flags, he organized exactly that sense of order that we were meant to have. So again, this is the theme of our פרשה parsha. Our individuality, our uniqueness, but filling into the bigger people, represented by the census that was taken in front of Moshe and Aharon. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't count, he's not so fair or מונה moneh, but rather it's שאו se'u or פוקד pokeid, והשם פקד את שרה v'Hashem pakad es Sarah, because it comes from חיבה chibah, it comes from love, it comes from affection. He wants us to realize that we count, that we matter, that we're consequential. And therefore we each have our own logo and our own seat assignment because the order in the universe we play a role. If we're missing, the watch falls apart. And if we're not doing what we're meant to do, then the purpose of the order of the world of the universe falls apart as well. Okay, let's move over now to the second word in the opening פסוק pasuk, the fifth word, במדבר Bamidbar. וידבר השם אל משה במדבר סיני Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe b'midbar Sinai. We alluded to this when we began. What do I care about the topography, the geography, the climate? Why in the world do I care about where this teaching was given, במדבר סיני b'midbar Sinai? We haven't seen that until now. What is it specifically about the מדבר midbar, במדבר סיני b'midbar Sinai?So the קאצקער רבי Kotsker Rebbe says, you know why it specifically invokes במדבר b'midbar? This is in the desert. And not only is this invoked here, this is in the name of the whole fourth book of the תורה Torah. The story of the bulk of our 40-year journey, our adolescence, our maturing, our growth as a people and a nation, is all described as happening where? In the מדבר midbar. I would have said do it in Club Med, do it in in the Four Seasons, the Ritz Carlton. You want to give the Jewish people a beautiful benefit, 210 years we worked, we were slaves, we deserve the vacation. You put us in a desert, a barren, desolate desert? Says the קאצקער רבי Kotsker Rebbe, absolutely. Why? So the קאצקער רבי Kotsker Rebbe says because what happens when a person is in the desert? They realize that they have no resources. And if you have no resources, you have no independence. You rely utterly and entirely and exclusively on השם Hashem. Similarly, the Jewish people are beginning as a nation took place where? In the מדבר midbar. Because when we can't have independence, when we can't live on our own, when we rely on השם Hashem, then we will feel his presence. And therefore במדבר סיני b'midbar Sinai, the teaching was given in the מדבר midbar, where we realize a sense of אמונה emunah and בטחון bitachon. We were living with this incredible deep and profound faith in השם Hashem. We felt his presence in our life all the time, and that's why specifically it's במדבר b'midbar in the in the מדבר midbar. Okay. The רבי אלימלך Rebbe Elimelech of ליז'ענסק Lizhensk, the הייליגער רבי ר' אלימלך heiliger Rebbe Reb Elimelech says, there's another idea, במדבר סיני B'midbar Sinai. Why specifically במדבר סיני b'midbar Sinai? We're reading this פרשה parsha before שבועות Shavuos. What is the prerequisite to קבלת התורה kabbalas haTorah? Before we can receive the תורה Torah? See, if you're arrogant and egotistical, if you think you have all the answers, you think you're in power and control, you could compete with God, you could micromanage your world, if you're arrogant and you know everything, you can't receive the תורה Torah. To truly receive the תורה Torah, you have to make yourself a tabula rasa, you have to be a blank slate, you have to let תורה Torah inscribe and write its messages, ideals and values on us. Where do we learn that lesson from, says the רבי ר' אלימלך Rebbe Reb Elimelech? במדבר סיני B'midbar Sinai. We learn it from the מדבר midbar, a place of humility because we're so utterly dependent, and we learn it from סיני Sinai. סיני Sinai was the lowest of all the mountains. We all know the story, our children if they were in school, not just on Zoom, but in person would come home with all kinds of projects and know that all the mountains competed and said, give the Torah on me, give the Torah on me. And השם Hashem chose הר סיני Har Sinai. Why? It was the נמוך namuch, it was the lowest, the humble of all the mountains. And השם Hashem was communicating that one can only receive תורה Torah when you make yourself as the lowest of all the mountains. I shared recently in another context, that's what it means in the beginning of פרקי אבות Pirkei Avos. משה קיבל תורה מסיני Moshe kibel Torah miSinai. Moshe received the Torah from Sinai, ומסרה ליהושע u'mesarah l'Yehoshua, to the זקנים zekeinim and so on. What do you mean משה קיבל תורה מסיני Moshe kibel Torah miSinai? What should it say? Moshe received the תורה Torah בסיני b'Sinai. He got the Torah at הר סיני Har Sinai. What do you mean מסיני miSinai? No, he received the prerequisite, the lesson, the message of תורה Torah, he received from סיני Sinai, namely, be humble, be low, be modest, and then let תורה Torah speak to you. Don't try to impose and superimpose. Don't make תורה Torah conform to you. You, we conform to תורה Torah. במדבר סיני B'midbar Sinai, specifically in a place of humility, specifically in a place of modesty. That's what the קאצקער Kotsker and the הייליגער רבי ר' אלימלך heiliger Rebbe Reb Elimelech say. But back to Rav Druck. Rav Druck tells us another idea.And he brings us back to the מדרש Medrash. The מדרש Medrash says, וידבר השם אל משה במדבר סיני vayedaber Hashem el Moshe b'midbar Sinai. למה במדבר סיני Lama b'midbar Sinai? Why specifically were these lessons, was the תורה Torah given in the מדבר midbar? מכאן שנו חכמים בג' דברים ניתנה התורה Mikan shanu chachamim b'gimmel devarim nitnah haTorah. Our Rabbis deduced that the Torah was given with three things, namely, באש, במים, במדבר b'eish, b'mayim, b'midbar. The Torah was given with fire, it was given with water, and it was given in the desert. באש מניין, והר סיני עשן כולו B'eish minayin, v'har Sinai ashan kulo. The whole mountain was smoking, it was on fire. במים B'mayim, גם שמים נטפו גם עבים נטפו מים gam shamayim natfu, gam avim natfu mayim. ובמדבר, וידבר השם אל משה במדבר סיני Uv'midbar, vayedaber Hashem el Moshe b'midbar Sinai. So the מדרש במדבר רבה Medrash Bamidbar Rabbah at the very beginning of the פרשה parsha of our of ספרא במדבר Sefer Bamidbar tells us the תורה Torah was given with three elements: fire, water, and desert. Why? What's the message? What's the illusion or the symbolism of these three elements? Why was the Torah only given in that way? And as we prepare to receive the תורה Torah, as we are getting ready for קבלת התורה kabbalas haTorah, we're not simply recreating, we're not simply remembering the giving of the תורה Torah thousands of years ago. We're counting towards our actual accepting the תורה Torah ourselves. How can we invoke, what can we learn from these three things? So he quotes Rav Meir Shapiro, the great לובלינער Lubliner, the one who introduced the דף יומי Daf Yomi, the ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of ישיבת חכמי לובלין Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. So the לובלינער Lubliner Rav Meir Shapiro has a ספר sefer called אמרי דעת Imrei Da'as. And in there he says the following, very beautiful idea. He says, you know what these three things have in common? Fire, water, desert. The Jewish people expressed מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh, self-sacrifice. We gave, we compromised, we sacrificed in all three of these areas. And the prerequisite to receiving the תורה Torah is the willingness to be מסר נפש moser nefesh. If you want life to come easy and to be handed to you on a silver spoon or a silver platter or whatever the expression that I just messed up is, if you want life to come easy, then תורה Torah is not for you. תורה Torah takes עמילות ameilus, which we just saw at the beginning of last week's פרשה parsha, בחוקותי B'chukosai. It takes work, it takes toil, it takes effort, it takes compromise. לפום צערא אגרא L'fum tza'ara agra, according to the work is the reward. Or, put differently, no pain, no gain. The best things in life come to those who work hard for them. And the same is true for תורה Torah. What are we willing to put on the line? How much are we willing to fight for it? How hard are we willing to work for it? We worked in all three of these ways, said Rav Meir Shapiro. For example, בשלושה מראות של דברי ימי העם b'shlosha mar'os shel divrei yemei ha'am, אברהם אבי האומה Avraham avi ha'umah נזרק לכבשן האש nizrak l'kivshon ha'eish. When Avram made the supreme sacrifice of embracing ethical monotheism, of abandoning the paganism of his forefathers, he was thrown into the furnace, into the fire. He was ready to give his life, he was ready to be consumed by fire, all for the purpose of Torah. עד כדי כך Ad kedei kach, that's how far his his מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh went. And we דאַווען daven, we say, he doesn't say this, but I'm suggesting, we say in our דאַווענען davening, ברוך אתה השם מגן אברהם Baruch atah Hashem magein Avraham. I was just talking with my children about this this past שבת Shabbos. We say, מגן אברהם magein Avraham, that Hashem is the shield of Avraham. What happened to Yitzchak and Yaakov? Why don't we invoke Hashem as the shield of Yitzchak and Yaakov? Why only the shield of Avraham? Perhaps what it means, מגן אברהם magein Avraham is, Hashem protects the Avram in us. You see, Avram made that supreme sacrifice and he embedded in his spiritual DNA that he bequeathed to us that same capacity, the same strength, the same tenacity, the same resolve to be able to be מסר נפש moser nefesh, the willingness to sacrifice, to give in order to advance Hashem's goals and his mission in this world. מגן אברהם Magein Avraham, when you say at the beginning of שמונה עשרה Shmoneh Esrei, here's a little extra bonus siddur snippet for you. מגן אברהם Magein Avraham means not just that Hashem protected Avram, as if he abandoned Yitzchak and Yaakov, it means מגן magein the Avram in us. He has protected and he has shielded. We too, just when you think you can't do it, I can't do it. It's enough of this quarantine. It's enough of these distancing. I can't take it anymore. I have to have a מנין minyan, I have to have the שמחה simcha, I have to have the, I can't take it. I'm going to ignore, neglect, there are ways to do those things. There are ways to have a שמחה simcha with the guidelines, ברוך השם baruch Hashem. Soon, we will, please God, slowly, incrementally be starting מניינים minyanim again. But just when you think I can't do it, I'm just going to give it all up, you have to be willing to be מסר נפש moser nefesh. Reach deep inside yourself and find that Avram, because Hashem has been protecting it there. מגן אברהם Magein Avraham. Then we come to קריאת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf. ויסעו Vayis'u, the water. The water was a barrier between the Egyptians and we were going to drown. And נחשון בן עמינדב Nachshon ben Aminadav had the courage, the tenacity, that Avram's strength in him, and he took those steps into the ים סוף Yam Suf and it split. In שיעור shiur snippets, we just yesterday introduced ויושע השם vayosha Hashem. We're up to the שירה shirah. We're talking about קריאת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf and how every one of us can live through it and sing שירה shirah each and every day as if we'd just come out the other side of our own ים סוף Yam Suf. The water represents the ים סוף Yam Suf, and there כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael on the whole, on mass, were מסר נפש moser nefesh, were willing to put it all on the line. And of course, then we have the מדבר midbar when we went into the desert. Wild animals, dangerous animals, a dangerous environment, לא מזון ולא מים lo mazon v'lo mayim, there was no food, there was no water. We were there for a prolonged period of time, and Hashem says, זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך, אהבת כלולותיך, לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה Zacharti lach chesed ne'urayich, ahavas kelulosayich, lechtech acharai bamidbar b'eretz lo zruah. I remember you followed me to a desert. And when you walked after me in the desert, and you did it only because I God said, just don't worry, I have your back. Follow me, stick with me, I got you covered. And we didn't say, what do you mean stick with you? There's nothing to drink there. There's nothing to eat there. My kids wouldn't do that. I can't tell you almost every Sunday of my kids' life, almost every time we do something fun, here's how it works. My wife and I say, we're going to do X today. We don't do things every Sunday. When we were allowed to go out, we said, we're going to do X. No, that's not fun, we don't want to go there, that's not going to be good, I never heard of it, everybody doesn't like it. And by the end, they're raving and raging and it was amazing and we loved it, it was fantastic and it was phenomenal, it was excellent. So the next Sunday we say, remember last Sunday when you said it, just stick with us. We tell you it's going to be good, we're going to have fun, it's going to be great. So לכתך אחרי במדבר lechtech acharai bamidbar. Hashem said, stick with me. And we didn't say, no, we're not going, there's nothing to eat, there's nothing to drink, it's going to be hot, I'm going to be thirsty, there's no shade, it's the sun. We said, oh, we should follow you? Stick with you? Sure. We're in. No problem. Now we did say those things, which begs the other question, why does Hashem have a selective memory? Hashem לכתך אחרי lechtech acharai, so romantic, such a selective, revisionist memory. Remember when you followed me and nobody complained and it was so amazing and romantic? No, that's not how it happened. So there's a lesson there too, by the way. If you want to have a good relationship, be willing to have a selective memory. You don't have to hold on to every hurt, every pain, every complaint, every fight. You don't have to have a spreadsheet of everything that your spouse did wrong in the 47 years of your marriage. And now in quarantine, you've taken out the spreadsheet. Remember in '76 when you said this thing? And I still haven't gotten over it. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu had a selective memory and it's a precedent for all of us to have a selective memory. But anyway, back to Rav Meir Shapiro, back to Rav Druck. So these three things, the fire, the water, and the מדבר midbar are three examples of a willingness to be מסר נפש moser nefesh, to compromise, to sacrifice. Firstly, the individual, Avraham, and then the beginning of the people at קריאת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf, and then the nation as a whole when we got to הר סיני Har Sinai. And therefore we read this before we receive the תורה Torah because we too have to remind ourselves to be מסר נפש moser nefesh. We're living in a time of bizarre מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh. You know what the מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh is right now? Your willingness not to be able to answer קדיש Kaddish and קדושה Kedushah and דאווענען daven with a מנין minyan. For all the מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh in Jewish history, it ain't bad. I'm not talking about the people who've been threatened with illness or have lost loved ones. It's tragic, it's unbearably painful. That's a מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh and those are נסיונות nisyonos and tests that no one would ever welcome or want. I'm not talking about people who don't know where they're putting the food on the table today or tomorrow, where their income has been absolutely closed down and their savings has been spent. But for anybody else, if the מסירות נפש mesirus nefesh being asked of us is to to not be able to answer קדיש Kaddish and קדושה Kedushah and דאווענען daven with a מנין minyan, it's not bad. But we have that within us from Avram, from our ancestors with קריאת ים סוף Krias Yam Suf and from the journey through the מדבר midbar, all of that planted and cultivated within us and our DNA, the ability to be מסר נפש moser nefesh. And that's perhaps what Rav Meir Shapiro says, what these three elements are referring to, water, fire, and the desert, we have this capacity. The כתב סופר Ksav Sofer has a different interpretation. The כתב סופר Ksav Sofer says, the מדרש Medrash means something different. Water, ניתנה במים nitnah b'mayim, Torah was given with water. What does that mean? למה נמשלו דברי תורה למים Lama nimshlu divrei Torah l'mayim? חז\"ל Chazal tell us the גמרא תענית Gemara Taanis, מה מים יורדים ממקום גבוה למקום נמוך mah mayim yordim mimakom gavoah l'makom namuch, water always runs down from the highest to the lowest point. כך דברי תורה מניחין למי שדעתו גבוהה עליו והולכין למי שדעתו שפלה Kach divrei Torah menichin l'mi sheda'ato gavoah alav v'holchin l'mi sheda'ato shfeilah. תורה Torah runs down. The arrogant, egotistical person who feels superior, the Torah runs down from that person to the more humble person. So the notion that תורה Torah is given ניתנה במים nitnah b'mayim with water is that Torah is like water, it runs downhill and it finds the lowest point. It finds the person who makes himself the lowest person, not the person who is arrogant and feels superior. It's ניתנה באש nitnah b'eish, the Torah is given with fire. כי נר מצוה ותורה אור Ki ner mitzvah v'Torah or. We know that a candle, a מצוה mitzvah is likened to a candle and תורה Torah is likened to light. The purpose and mission of תורה Torah is to illuminate the world, to light the world on fire, for us to be enthusiastic and passionate on fire. And thirdly, ניתנה במדבר nitnah b'midbar. תורה Torah is given in a desert. We have a tradition, לא ניתנה תורה אלא לאוכלי המן lo nitnah Torah ela l'ochlei haman. The Torah was only given for those who eat the מן man. It means that people who are willing to be מסתפק במועט mistapek b'muat, people who are willing to be happy with what they have, their lot in life, and not always need more and more and more. And the כתב סופר Ksav Sofer says, that's what it means, these three elements are an illusion to the Torah being given in these three ways. Okay, we got to share an אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. It wouldn't be a פרשה שיעור parsha shiur without an אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. So let's continue. פרק א' Perek alef. Now we go through the census. We began with the census, why it was given specifically in the midbar, we just shared a few ideas. And then we go through all the names of the census. פרק א' פסוק נ\"ג Perek alef, pasuk nun gimmel, we're on the top of page 732 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. והלוים יחנו סביב למשכן העדות ולא יהיה קצף על עדת בני ישראל ושמרו הלוים את משמרת משכן העדות V'haLevi'im yachanu saviv l'Mishkan ha'eidus v'lo yihyeh ketzef al adas Bnei Yisrael v'shamru haLevi'im es mishmeres Mishkan ha'eidus. The לוים Levi'im camped around the Tabernacle, there was no wrath upon them, and the לוים Levi'im safeguarded and watched the Tabernacle. The לוים Levi'im were not counted among the rest of כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. Their census was different. We shared previously a beautiful insight of Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, why the לוים Levi'im were counted separately. There was a census for all the tribes except the לוים Levi'im, and a separate census that the לוים Levi'im were counted separately. We've shared that previously. Listen to a previous פרשה שיעור parsha shiur. But on this פסוק pasuk, א' נ\"ג alef nun gimmel, והלוים יחנו סביב למשכן העדות v'haLevi'im yachanu saviv l'Mishkan ha'eidus. You know the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the וויז'ניצער רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, the reason I love the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim here, look at the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. You see his commentary? Everything is one sentence, one word. He packs a punch. He says so much into the most succinct way, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. So he writes here, הלוים יחנו סביב למשכן haLevi'im yachanu saviv l'Mishkan. The לוים Levi'im camped around the משכן Mishkan, ולא יהיה קצף v'lo yihyeh ketzef, and there was no wrath. אם רק חונים סביב למשכן העדות ומתחממים באורה של תורה, אז ולא יהיה קצף, אין המחלוקת שורה Im rak chonim saviv l'Mishkan ha'eidus u'mischamemim b'orah shel Torah, az v'lo yihyeh ketzef, ein hamachlokes shorah. If we would only encamp around the משכן Mishkan, meaning, meaning, if the משכן Mishkan were the center of our circle, if it drove our thoughts, our decisions, our desires, our needs, our aspirations, our satisfactions, if the משכן Mishkan is the middle of our life, if we surround the משכן Mishkan and we absorb the light of Torah, לא יהיה קצף lo yihyeh ketzef, there will be no מחלוקת machlokes. עוז לעמו יתן, עוז זה תורה, השם יברך את עמו בשלום Oz l'amo yiten, oz zu Torah, Hashem yevarech es amo vashalom. We say, עוז לעמו יתן oz l'amo yiten, Hashem gives strength. עוז Oz means strength. What is strength? אין עוז אלא תורה Ein oz ela Torah. Hashem gives strength, means gives us Torah. When you give us Torah, then השם יברך את עמו בשלום Hashem yevarech es amo vashalom. There's a beautiful program taking place this Sunday. Rav Reuven Taragin put together, deserves enormous credit, a program being called, כי איש אחד בלב אחד k'ish echad b'lev echad or ויחנו vayachanu, I forgot what it's called, but it is an amazing program of גדולי ישראל Gedolei Yisrael across the Torah Orthodox spectrum. ראשי ישיבה Roshei Yeshiva across the Orthodox spectrum. Couples, my wife and I have the honor and privilege of participating, across the spectrum. He put us all together. What kind of program, what kind of program can get the Roshei Yeshiva of חרדי Chareidi, חסידישע Chasidisha, more modern, YU, הסדר Hesder, all on the same flyer, all on the same program? Can get רבנים rabbonim and can get female educators and can get couples all participating across the spectrum, the Orthodox spectrum on the same program. You know what does it? תורה Torah. Because it's not about debating השקפה hashkafa, it's not about debating the issues that divide us, תורה Torah. When תורה Torah is at the center, then we all cooperate, coordinate, synergize, we come together. And says the הייליגער heiliger Vizhnitzer, the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, that's included in this פסוק pasuk. והלוים יחנו סביב למשכן העדות V'haLevi'im yachanu saviv l'Mishkan ha'eidus. When you יחנו yachanu, when your life is I dwell around the משכן Mishkan, when the center of my circle is the משכן Mishkan, then ולא יהיה קצף v'lo yihyeh ketzef. You're not going to fight with others. This one wears a שטריימל shtreimel, this one wears a כיפה סרוגה kippah srugah, this one wears a covers her hair with a שייטל sheitel, this one wears a מטפחת mitpachat, this one doesn't cover her hair at all, this one does this, this one does that. When תורה Torah is the center of our universe, when we encamp around תורה Torah, when תורה Torah informs how I'm meant to behave and how I connect with others and it unites and unifies us, then אין מחלוקת ein machlokes, then I don't fight. השם עוז לעמו יתן, השם יברך את עמו בשלום Hashem oz l'amo yiten, Hashem yevarech es amo vashalom. Give us תורה Torah and then you give us שלום shalom, then you give us peace. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky has the same idea in אמס ליעקב Emes L'Yaakov. He says, I don't understand. We talked all about the benefit and the beauty of the logo, the emblem, the insignia, the camp, the seedy assignments, but doesn't that also going to breed divisiveness? It's diversity, but won't it also lead to divisiveness? Says Rav Yaakov in אמס ליעקב Emes L'Yaakov, no, you know why? Because true, if all you gave out were seating assignments, people would fight. I'm better, I'm on the north. I'm better, I'm in the south. Everyone knows if you're in the south, you're better. But I'm better, I'm on the west. I'm better, I'm in the east. They'd fight. It leads to divisiveness. Says Rav Yaakov, you know why it didn't lead to divisiveness? Because what was at the center of the circle? What was in the middle of the whole encampment? The משכן Mishkan. And as long as everybody looked up and realized that they were equidistant in a circle from the משכן Mishkan, the משכן Mishkan is in the middle, and the משכן Mishkan empowers and the משכן Mishkan gives each of them their their status, their credibility and their and their mission, then there's a sense of unity. So when we have Torah, again Rav Taragin deserves great credit. It's really such a beautiful, incredible, maybe unprecedented program. should all go off smoothly. But what can bring the full spectrum of Orthodoxy, of the Torah world together? Only when you're sharing Torah. V'haLevi'im yachanu saviv l'Mishkan ha'eidus v'lo yihyeh ketzef. That's how you avoid the fighting that otherwise might take, might take place. Okay, we're running out of time. I wanted to get into some beautiful ideas about אלה תולדות אהרן eileh toldos Aharon. It lists the children of Aharon, of Moshe, and then it lists Aharon's children. Why did it do that? We don't have time for it, but remind me next year to speak about Rav Soloveitchik says an incredible statement. Rav Soloveitchik says something astounding about this, astounding. I'm glad you're all sitting down. Those who have the courage to have their cameras on, are all sitting down, because Rav Soloveitchik says something amazing. You ready? He says, I'm not going to read you the whole comment, but I'm just going to just going to give you an appetizer, whet your appetite. We are all acquainted with the עקידה Akeidah that Avram performed, but we don't pay sufficient attention to an עקידה Akeidah that was carried out by Moshe. Moshe's עקידה Akeidah was perhaps more awesome and terrifying than Avram's. After Avram offered Yitzchak, the two of them returned from הר המוריה Har HaMoriah with great happiness. Moshe never experienced this satisfaction. In his case, the רבונו של עולם Ribono Shel Olam requested and received his sacrifice. The simple, you ready to listen to this? Because it resonates unfortunately and tragically for right now for too many. The simple right to leave a last will and testament, to die in one's own bed surrounded by his children was denied to Moshe. Moshe died alone on a mountain. Before he died, he did not lay his hands on Gershom or Eliezer's sons, but rather on Yehoshua bin Nun. Moshe's power was bestowed on Yehoshua, not his own progeny. And the Rav elaborates on this. We know today too many who passed away without having their family by their side, denied and deprived of their family's ability to even attend their funeral or grieve them properly. Moshe paid a great sacrifice. He made an incredible עקידה Akeidah in in in not having his sons. And again, maybe we'll share more of that next year, but I want to share one other thought in closing. I, so much. So much we're not getting to. Okay, one last thought in closing. It's a beautiful insight by Soloveitchik at the end of the parsha, just to prove to you that we can get to the end of the parsha, only because we're skipping, but we can get there. So the parsha says towards the end of the parsha, it says, ונתנו עליו כסוי עור תחש ופרשו בגד כליל תכלת מלמעלה V'nasnu alav k'sui or tachash u'parsu beged klil t'cheiles milma'alah. You put a covering of תחש tachash skin and on top of that, you spread a cloth of pure blue wool. The כלים keilim, the the utensils of the משכן Mishkan were covered with these items, and only then when they traveled, when they journeyed through the משכן Mishkan, they were first covered before they journeyed. And what were they covered with? They were covered with תחש tachash, a certain type of skin, and with תכלת t'cheiles, with a color, turquoise, we're familiar with תכלת t'cheiles from the מצוה mitzvah of ציצית tzitzis. Rav Soloveitchik points out, why specifically these two things? Why were they covered? Why is it that the the shell or the covering that protects the כלים keilim when you're on a journey through a מדבר midbar are these two things? So he says, חז\"ל Chazal teach us that the תכלת t'cheiles, which is similar to the color of the sky, doesn't fade. In fact, the way you know that you have genuine תכלת t'cheiles as opposed to the counterfeit version is the counterfeit version when you put it through the laundry, it fades. But the genuine, real תכלת t'cheiles, they never fade. They last. Not exposure to sun, not exposure to bleach, not exposure to the wrong color on the laundry, it doesn't make it fade, it retains its color. Number one. What about the תחש tachash? The תחש tachash skin was made from a certain animal that חז\"ל Chazal tell us only existed at the time of the משכן Mishkan, it doesn't exist now. This תחש tachash had the array of the rainbow, it had multi-colored, the skin had bright, beautiful colors, bright, beautiful colors. And says Rav Soloveitchik, you know why these were the covers of the כלים keilim in the משכן Mishkan and they took us through the מדבר midbar? They were takes us now through our history. You have to have Judaism that doesn't fade, it has to be vibrant and alive, it has to persevere and be tenacious. Judaism can't fade. It can't disappear because of the sunlight, it can't disappear because it's confronting and opposing force, it can't fade, and it has to be multicolored, dynamic and vibrant and alive. Those were the two coverings then that protected in the journey through the מדבר midbar, and they are the two coverings for us now as we journey through our מדבר midbar, as we go through our lives, our children, our families, we have to protect the כלים keilim, the holiest things in our lives, we protect it with that which won't fade and with that which is dynamic and bright and colorful, energetic, enthusiastic and alive. So wishing everyone a beautiful week, a happy, healthy and a holy week, a happy יום ירושלים Yom Yerushalayim, this Friday. If you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe to the channel, even if you're not watching, please subscribe to the channel, and wishing everyone a
