Transcript
A person wakes up and says everything's amazing, everything's going to be amazing. By the way, I have some feedback. I have constructive criticism. We can make this better. So our mission is not to be מסוננים misonenim, which is התפעל hitpa'el, the reflexive, never be a complainer, be a positive tourist who has some feedback. You're allowed to fill out the the thing at the end of your stay, the survey. You know, it was amazing, it was wonderful, here are all the things that were great. This little tweak would have made it better. The tourist is allowed to fill out the survey. But do you bring the mentality that the mission is to be a tourist?We're tourists through life. We're tourists at our שבת Shabbos table and our dinner table, everything that was good, everything that was right, in the food, in the people. We're tourists on the family vacation. We're tourists at the family שמחה simcha. We're tourists when we come to שול shul and we interact with the community. Let's tour. What's right, what's good? What can we positively experience and remember? And if you come as a spy, ooh, let's find what's wrong. Let's catch them. Let's be hypercritical. Let's be negative. Ten of the twelve didn't get it. They all went to do the same thing, but ten misunderstood the mission, only two got it. And that changed the course of our, of our history, of our history.So משה Moshe calls יהושע Yehoshua ben, הושע בן נון Hoshea ben Nun, יהושע Yehoshua. Says, all right, hold on, let's go back. שלח לך אנשים Shlach lecha anashim. The word לך lecha. When else in the Torah do we see the word לך lecha, and we're told לך lecha is for your own good? לך לך Lech lecha. אברם's Avram's first test in the Torah is לך לך lech lecha. זאגט רש״י Zogt Rashi, לטובתך ולהנאתך letovatcha u'lehanascha, it's for your own good. So where's the לך lecha in this mission? It's a big debate among our commentators. Did God send us? Did God demand of us to send spies? Or did he allow us to send spies? Did he say, look, I know you haven't seen the land. You're still coming out of Egypt. You're still a slave nation. You got some questions. Go check it out. I'm okay with that. You're good to go. You don't have to, but if you want to, if you'll feel better, feel free. Did he allow us or did he send us? It's a big debate. But the word לך lecha, if לך lecha normally means as in לך לך lech lecha for your own good, then how can the לך lecha here mean for your own good? שלח לך Shlach lecha, how was this for our own good?So רב דוד פיינשטיין Rav Dovid Feinstein answered and he said, had the Jewish people entered Israel right away, who would not have been with them? משה Moshe. משה Moshe wasn't destined to enter the land. Why not? Why couldn't he? For another time, פרשת חקת Parshas Chukas. But משה Moshe wasn't going to join them. Had they entered right away, they would have been sans משה Moshe, no משה Moshe. So the לך lecha in the שלח לך shlach lecha, the one silver lining, the one benefit was 38 more years with משה Moshe. 38 more years they were able to get with משה Moshe. And that was the לך lecha. There was a silver lining. A silver lining. I think in this of רב דוד פיינשטיין Rav Dovid Feinstein, you can see one of our phrases that we come back to in אמונה שיעור emunah shiur all the time. We're going to talk about it tomorrow morning, particularly addressing the countless, incredibly inspiring texts and emails I've gotten from Jews running in and out of bomb shelters, from those who were supposed to have returned from their seminary year or ישיבה yeshiva year, for those who were supposed to make a שמחה simcha, and they're not able to go where they want. And they're writing, I am where I'm meant to be. A Jew is never stuck. Embrace your place. You are where you're meant to be.So here the Jewish people are spending 38 extra years in the desert. All because of what? שלח לך אנשים Shlach lecha anashim. Because the מרגלים meraglim blew it, they messed up, they came back, and they gave a negative report. For those 38 years, they could have walked around saying, can't believe we did this. Such regret. Why'd you have to do that? You messed everything up. We're still here in the desert. But that's not the way a Jew lives. A Jew lives saying we're accountable. It was a mistake. We have to learn from it. We have to make sure to never repeat it or do it again. But you know what? Now that it happened, we are where we're meant to be. And where's the silver lining? What's the לך lecha in where we are? That we're with משה Moshe. 38 years with משה Moshe. A girl reached out from a particular seminary, asked if I could do a Zoom. I don't know if I will or combine it with the אמונה שיעור emunah shiur, but one of the messages, whichever way I get it across, is the לך lecha, if you're stuck but you're stuck in Israel. Okay, there were summer plans. You were gonna come back, you were gonna work, you were gonna go to camp, you had a family vacation, you were gonna start dating. But the לך lecha. Where can we find the silver lining when we have to embrace our place? When יש השם במקום הזה yesh Hashem bamakom hazeh. Where is the לך lecha? Says רב דוד פיינשטיין Rav Dovid Feinstein, the לך lecha in the שלח לך shlach lecha was 38 more years they got with משה Moshe. Otherwise, that would have been it, had they entered the land right away. That doesn't justify. It was a mistake. They were accountable. You have to learn from it. But there's a silver lining when you bring the attitude of always embracing your place.The גערער רבי שליט״א Gerer Rebbe shlita also addresses this. ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע Vayikra Moshe l'Hoshea bin Nun Yehoshua. Back to פסוק טז pasuk tes zayin. משה Moshe calls הושע Hoshea and adds the יוד yud and gives him the name יהושע Yehoshua. And רש״י Rashi here explains why. קה יושיעך מעצת מרגלים Kah yoshiacha me'atzas meraglim. May God save you from the plot, the conspiracy of the מרגלים meraglim. Many מפרשים meforshim point out, says רב שלמה אלתר Rav Shloime Alter, that we already saw his name as יהושע Yehoshua earlier. Where do we see that? In the context of the war with עמלק Amalek, back in שמות פרק יז Shemos perek yud zayin and חטא העגל chet ha'egel, twice. When יהושע Yehoshua leads the army in the war with עמלק Amalek and after the terrible mistake of the חטא העגל chet ha'egel, he's already referred to in both those contexts as יהושע Yehoshua with the יוד yud. So how can the Torah tell us that right now משה Moshe changes his name and says, I'm setting you off on a difficult mission and therefore I want to give you all the כח koach that you'll need. I'm adding a letter to your name. You're no longer הושע Hoshea, but now you're יהושע Yehoshua. He was already יהושע Yehoshua.So the ראשונים Rishonim, the רשב״ם Rashbam, the חזקוני Chizkuni, they answer that although his name was already יהושע Yehoshua before the story of the מרגלים meraglim, משה Moshe was trying to impress upon him that he'd been called that as a תפילה tefillah to be saved from the מרגלים meraglim. It's true, earlier, already you were called יהושע Yehoshua, but you need to know that your name itself is a prayer that you be spared from their influence, that you not give into that peer pressure. But what was so unique about the חטא מרגלים chet meraglim that משה Moshe had to remind יהושע Yehoshua? Why now? When it came to עמלק Amalek, he didn't remind him that his name is יהושע Yehoshua. When it came to the חטא העגל chet ha'egel, he didn't remind him that his name is יהושע Yehoshua. So why now? What's so special about this? What's so pernicious or dangerous about this that משה Moshe has to remind him, by the way, your name is יהושע Yehoshua, be careful. So says רב שלמה אלתר Rav Shloime Alter, says the גערער רבי שליט״א Gerer Rebbe shlita, עמלק's Amalek's attack on the Jewish people was a spiritual, religious attack. It was an attack on our קדושה kedusha, on our holiness. It was a spiritual war. פסוק Pasuk says מלחמה להשם בעמלק milchama l'Hashem b'Amalek. God maintains a war against עמלק Amalek. We don't understand it. But with regarding, so יהושע Yehoshua, יהושע Yehoshua knew עמלק Amalek was attacking our spirit, our soul, our holiness, our sanctity. יהושע Yehoshua understood on his own that a war like that can only be won with Hashem's assistance. Just like the גמרא Gemara in קידושין Kiddushin explains, you cannot defeat the יצר הרע yetzer hara without Hashem's help. So יהושע Yehoshua understood עמלק Amalek is wickedness, is evil, and you can't defeat evil who are trying to attack the spirituality, the soul, your religious values without Hashem's help. יהושע Yehoshua was fully cognizant. חטא העגל Chet Ha'egel also. חטא העגל Chet Ha'egel was a machination of the יצר הרע yetzer hara. חטא העגל Chet Ha'egel was the evil inclination convincing us to go astray, and it needed to be fought how? מלחמת השם Milchemes Hashem. But all, by all appearances, the journey of the מרגלים meraglim was no cause for concern. After all, all its members, the מרגלים meraglim, were the twelve heads of the tribes, upstanding people who wanted to just scout the land. What could go wrong? What could be bad? And that's why משה Moshe impressed upon him at the time of the message, קה יושיעך מעצת מרגלים Kah yoshiacha me'atzas meraglim. יהושע Yehoshua, what you think you're setting out on is benign. It's innocuous. Nothing particularly dangerous. You need to remember, remember, your name is יהושע Yehoshua. Hashem should spare you. There's a hidden conspiracy, a hidden יצר הרע yetzer hara on this journey. And a hidden יצר הרע yetzer hara is more dangerous than the open one. Only with Hashem's help, says משה Moshe, can you be saved from the מרגלים's meraglim's scheming. That's one of the tactics of the יצר הרע yetzer hara, to be hidden, to be hidden. So it's exactly what made this look so not dangerous is what made it dangerous, says the גערער רבי שליט״א Gerer Rebbe shlita. חטא העגל Chet Ha'egel, on his own יהושע Yehoshua saw something very bad is going on. The עמלק Amalek, יהושע Yehoshua saw on his own there's an attack against our ideology and our religious identity. But the מרגלים meraglim, what's the problem? So a Jew needs to know that even when you're going with what looks to be admirable, upstanding people, there's a particular danger, and therefore he changes his name יהושע Yehoshua. Now you have to דאווען daven to Hashem that it all goes right, you have to be very careful. פרק יג פסוק כב Perek yud gimel pasuk chaf beis.ויעלו בנגב ויבוא עד חברון Vaya'alu ba'negev vayavo ad Chevron, they came up from the south, they reached חברון Chevron, and they run into אחימן ששי תלמי ילידי הענק Achiman Sheshai Talmai yelidei ha'anak. וחברון שבע שנים נבנתה לפני צען מצרים V'Chevron sheva shanim nivneta lifnei Tzoan Mitzrayim. חברון Chevron. And רש״י Rashi here tells us when they arrive at חברון Chevron that why, who takes this detour to חברון Chevron? Who's on this detour? None other than כלב Kalev. And why does he take this detour? To דאווען daven. Says רש״י Rashi, כלב לבדו הלך שם Kalev levado halach sham. כלב Kalev alone went there, ונשתטח על קברי אבות v'nishtateach al kivrei avos, and he spreads himself out, he davens over the קברי אבות kivrei avos, the graves of our forefathers, שלא יסיתוהו חבריו להיות בעצתם shelo yesisu'hu chaveirav l'hiyos b'atzasam. And he says, give me the fortitude, give me the strength to not give in, to not, to not, to not succumb to the peer pressure. To not succumb to the peer pressure. Says the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel, wonders רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum. צריך עיון Tzarich iyun. אף על פי שכלב עשה דבר גדול והתפלל בקברי חברון Af al pi she'Kalev asa davar gadol v'hispalel b'kivrei Chevron, כלב Kalev of course did something remarkable by praying. You see that where did BB go hours before the initial attack, the preemptive attack, the attack that was so highly coordinated and precise. Everyone right now, we don't need 30 years, is saying that it's greater than the Six-Day War. What I always heard my whole life about the miracle of the Six-Day War and what Israel pulled off. Israel pulled off in those opening hours in ways we barely know 5% and that 5% is enough to know it's extraordinary. And where did the Prime Minister, the leader of the Jewish people go hours before he launched the attack? He went to the כותל Kosel to דאווען daven. Under the guise, he was with the president of Argentina. It was innocuous, he was heading off on vacation. It was part of the deflection, part of the distraction. But we know the real reason. You know, there's a pictures all over the internet. I don't know if it's real or fake, it doesn't matter, that the note that Bibi put in the כותל Kosel said, הן עם כלביא יקום Hein am k'lavi yakum. Forboding for what was about to happen. That's the Jewish people. הן עם כלביא יקום Hein am k'lavi yakum. That's the Jewish people. So where did כלב Kalev go? We're about to set out on a mission. We're launching a mission. Where does he go to חברון Chevron to דאווען daven, to דאווען daven.And what is the, what does רש״י Rashi tell us? Because כלב Kalev went there to דאווען daven, what did he earn? What was he given? The city of חברון Chevron. כלב Kalev was gifted, granted the city of חברון Chevron. That's it? You דאווען daven someplace, you get to get it? That's it? That's as simple as it goes?Says רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum, גמרא ברכות Gemara Brachos tells us אמר רב הונא כל הקובע מקום לתפילתו אלקי אברהם בעזרו Amar Rav Huna kol hakovea makom l'tfilaso Elokei Avraham b'ezro. Whoever has a set place to דאווען daven, God is by your side. And when a person dies who had a מקום קבוע makom kavua where they davened, not all over, and not walking around the back, and not wearing out the carpet, and not changing seats, and not changing מנינים minyanim, but this is the מנין minyan I go to, this is the seat that I sit in, I have a certain consistency and constancy, dependability, reliability to me. So when that person passes away, we say, wow, that person is an offspring of of אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu. So, how do you know that? Because it says וישכם אברהם בבוקר אל המקום אשר עמד שם Vayashkem Avraham baboker el hamakom asher amad sham in עמידה אלא תפילה amida ela tefillah. Because אברהם Avraham got up, he davened in a set place, we are a student, the progeny, a disciple of אברהם Avraham if we have a set place. Says רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum, ויש להבין מה המעלה הגדולה של קביעות מקום V'yesh l'havin ma hama'ala hagdola shel kvius makom? What's so great about davening in a set place? אברהם Avraham is praised, having a set place he davened. רבינו יונה Rabbeinu Yonah by the way understands this, not only in שול shul. In fact, in שול shul, our שול's shul's policy, as most have and should have, is that you don't have a set seat. You're not entitled to kick someone out of your seat. This isn't JetBlue and you got the aisle and someone's in it and you have to replace them. A מקום קבוע makom kavua means ד' אמות daled amos. Draw a six-foot circumference around where you want to sit. Two seats in front, two seats to the left, two seats behind. Find another seat near where you sit, that's also called a מקום קבוע makom kavua. Says רבינו יונה Rabbeinu Yonah, all of שול shul is your מקום קבוע makom kavua. All of שול shul is the place that you set to דאווען daven. When the גמרא Gemara, when our rabbis tell us set a place to דאווען daven, they mean in your house. In your house. In our home, we have a wall, happens to have Jerusalem stone, we have a שטענדער shtender, we have a sign that says מזרח mizrach, that's where the סידורים siddurim are. Anyone who is davening in the home, that's a set place to דאווען daven. A set... don't דאווען daven sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes in the living room, sometimes in the hallway, sometimes while walking around, putting the slippers back in the closet, sometimes... there's a set place. Changes your mentality. But that's such a big deal that אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu is so lauded, and a person who passes away who had a set place is called a disciple of אברהם Avraham? And what earned כלב Kalev חברון Chevron just because he chose to דאווען daven there? What's going on over here?Says רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum the following. A set place to דאווען daven doesn't just mean physically you have a set place. It means ענין קביעות מקום הוא מה שמרגיש האדם שמקום התפילה אינו רק אמצעי לתפילתו אלא הוא מרגיש שעיקר מקומו ורצונו להיות קבוע במקום התפילה Inyan kvius makom hu ma she'margish ha'adam she'makom ha'tefillah eino rak emtzai l'tfilaso ela hu margish she'ikar m'komo v'retzono l'hiyos kavua b'makom ha'tefillah. Set place means this is my default. This is where I want to be. This is where I am. When I live my life, it's interruptions to it. But the default of where I am is in that conversation. Someone told me a couple weeks ago, it's possible they're sitting here right now, they were sitting having lunch, their husband, each of them were reading on their own, and she said to her husband, can I interrupt you? Can I interrupt what you're reading? And he said to her, so romantic, and they're not 22 years old. He said to her, my whole life is a conversation with you. I was reading was interrupting that conversation. Of course you could tell me whatever you want. Not the most beautiful thing? You're not interrupting my reading or what I'm doing. My whole life is a conversation with you. If I'm reading or doing something else, it's interrupting that conversation. Such a beautiful, beautiful... What a, what a bar for marriage, which is where we should want to go.Says רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum, that's what the גמרא Gemara means, כל הקובע מקום לתפילה kol hakovea makom l'tfilah. It means your conversation with Hashem should be your מקום makom. That's my, my whole life is one conversation with Hashem. I gotta go to work, I gotta do laundry, I gotta cook dinner, I've gotta also talk to other people and interrupt that conversation. But as soon as I'm done, where do I go back? What do I revert to? Where do I pick up? The conversation with Hashem that is my life. My whole life is an ongoing conversation with him that gets interrupted. And that's what it means. So when כלב Kalev goes to חברון Chevron to דאווען daven, and he begins to have this conversation with Hashem there that says, this is my life, this is my מקום makom. He said, this is my place. I feel Hashem here. I'm in conversation with Hashem here. This is my home. This is where I want to be. This is where I want to return. This is what I want to revert to. This is my anchor. This is the anchor of my life. When you make that set place to דאווען daven, you say, I go to work, I go to gym, I go to the supermarket, I go all over, but where do I want to come back to? What's my anchor? My spouse, my children, my home, Hashem. That's my anchor. That's my safe space. That's what I want to return to. That's my place of refuge. So when כלב Kalev felt, he perceived חברון Chevron is my place, כל הקובע מקום לתפילתו kol hakovea makom l'tfilaso, Hashem says, I feel you, brother. You feel me here, I feel you. It's yours. This is going to be our special place. This is our shared home now together. This is what it's really all about.פרק יד פסוק ז Perek yud daled pasuk zayin. Spies come back and they report. There's national hysteria. Top of page 804. כלב Kalev interrupts. ויאמר כלב ואס את העם אל משה והארץ אשר עברנו בה לסור אותה טובה הארץ מאד מאד Vayomer Kalev v'has es ha'am el Moshe v'ha'aretz asher avarnu bah lasur osah tova ha'aretz me'od me'od. The people can't be placated. יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev tore their garments. They spoke to the entire people. They said the land that we passed through, it's מאד מאד me'od me'od. טובה הארץ מאד מאד Tova ha'aretz me'od me'od. What does it mean for the land to be מאד מאד me'od me'od? Says the רמב״ן Ramban, להכחיש הדיבה l'hachish hadiba, למר שאינה אוכלת יושביה l'eimor she'eina ocheles yoshveha. They're trying to contradict the poor report that was given, the misinformation. Fake news. Essentially, יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev get up and they say, fake news. Fake news. דיבה רעה Diba ra'ah is fake news. שאינה אוכלת יושביה She'eina ocheles yoshveha. It's not a land that eats its inhabitants. כי אוירה טוב Ki avira tov. The air is amazing. והיא ארץ זבת חלב ודבש V'hi eretz zavas chalav u'dvash. What are you talking about? Don't say that if you move there, you can't make it. You know how do you make a small fortune in Israel? Start with a large one. That's the old joke. The terrible things that people say. חס ושלום Chas v'shalom. חס ושלום Chas v'shalom, they come to correct it. האויר טוב Ha'avir tov. Amazon now delivers in Israel. You can get Heinz ketchup in Israel. Every American sugar cereal you can get now in Israel. I was talking to someone last week who was here from Israel, unfortunately still here from Israel. And it used to be in our day, you know, you'd pack your duffel for a year or years in Israel, you'd bring all these things that you couldn't get in Israel. There's nothing you can't get in Israel. In fact, the food's better, everything's better. Nothing you can't get in Israel. ESPN, it's all in Israel. You got SportsCenter, you get it all in Israel. There's nothing you can't get. So the כלב Kalev and יהושע Yehoshua get up and they say, what are you talking about? האויר טוב Ha'avir tov. It's a magnificent environment, the air is amazing. It's flowing with milk and honey. Why do they have to say טובה הארץ מאד מאד tova ha'aretz me'od me'od? Very, very good. Do the second very add to the first very? Very means very. So what's very, very good? טובה הארץ מאד מאד Tova ha'aretz me'od me'od. Why wasn't it enough to say טובה הארץ מאד tova ha'aretz me'od? And that's what the רמב״ן Ramban comes to answer. הוצרכו להכחיש הדיבה Hutzrachu l'hachish hadibah, but they were coming to contradict two things. Two things. מאד שהאוויר טוב Me'od she'ha'avir tov, number one, the air is great. And number two, it's flowing with milk and honey. Where else do we find the words מאד מאד me'od me'od? When you see words, they should trigger hyperlinks. Where else do you see מאד מאד me'od me'od? משנה מסכת אבות Mishnah Maseches Avos. רבי לויטס איש יבנה אומר מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח Rabbi Levitas ish Yavneh omer, me'od me'od hevei shfal ruach. A person should be exceedingly humble. מאד מאד Me'od me'od. Don't just be very humble, be very, very humble. כי רק מי שמאד מאד שפל רוח יכול לראות שטובה הארץ מאד מאד Ki rak mi she'me'od me'od shfal ruach yachol lir'os she'tova ha'aretz me'od me'od. What's the connection? When they say the land is very, very good, to our rabbi saying be very, very humble. If I had to, if I prepared the פרשה שיעור parsha shiur better, I would have presented it as one theme. Because we saw it at the beginning. תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel says, why are we accountable when we're not listening and learning from everything being broadcast around us? The end of last week's פרשה parsha. They should have seen what happened when מרים Miriam wasn't careful with her words, and they should have learned we have to be careful with our words. A person has to have a growth mindset. Rabbi Sacks said, a person has to have a growth mindset. Don't be fixed, don't be finished. The change of יהושע's Yehoshua's name is, indicates a person is always growing. And now the third, רב דרוק Rav Druk. And רב דרוק Rav Druk says, what's the connection between the land is very, very good and be very, very humble? Because who sees the truth? What investigator comes back with an accurate report? The one who's humble. If you're humble, you'll see the truth. But if you come in arrogantly thinking you have all the answers, then you're going to come in and you're going to project your predispositions, what you're predisposed to think, your judgment on what you see. You're seeing through a filter, you're not seeing clearly. Who sees clearly with no filter? הוי מאד מאד שפל רוח Hevei me'od me'od shfal ruach. If you're very, very humble, you'll see the truth of what's in front of you. But if you're arrogant and you think you have all the answers, you're going to miss what's right in front of you and you're going to come in with an arrogant, arrogant attitude. פרק יד פסוק ח Perek yud daled pasuk ches.אם חפץ בנו ויביא אותנו אל הארץ Im chafetz banu v'hevi osanu el ha'aretz, if you bring us to this land, אם חפץ בנו השם Im chafetz banu Hashem. What is אם חפץ בנו השם im chafetz banu Hashem? Hashem, if you want us. אם חפץ בנו השם im chafetz banu Hashem, what does that mean? מה נפקא מינה אם חפץ בנו השם Ma nafka mina im chafetz banu Hashem? כיוון שאמר המרגלים כי חזק הוא ממנו, מה יועיל אם חפץ בנו השם? Keivan she'amar ha'meraglim ki chazak hu mimenu, ma yo'il im chafetz banu Hashem? יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev don't set that straight. They don't say it's not true. You're claiming that the others are stronger, חמאס, חזבאללה, הות'ים Chamas, Hezbollah, Chutim, Iran, they're too strong. You're crazy, World War III will break out. Russia and China are going to get involved. You can't do it. And the answer wasn't, it's not true, we're stronger, you don't know what the מוסד's Mossad's got planned, you don't understand how powerful we are. That wasn't the answer. What was the answer? אם חפץ בנו השם Im chafetz banu Hashem. What does that mean? What does it have to do with anything? וגם צריך עיון V'gam tzarich iyun, אחר שבעיניהם ראו ניסים ונפלאות achar she'b'eineihem ra'u nissim v'niflaos. Also, more fundamentally, this is a nation that all just experienced ten plagues, a splitting of a sea, they saw extraordinary miracles. And this is where they draw the line? They experienced unbelievable miracles. They stood at the base of a mountain and God revealed himself and spoke. And now they're saying לא נוכל לעלות lo nuchal la'alos, כי חזק הוא ממנו ki chazak hu mimenu. We can't go up. חמאס Hamas, they've got Kalashnikovs and they've got jeeps and bicycles. We can't do it. You just saw ten plagues. You just saw a splitting of a sea. You just stood at the moment of revelation. And now you're intimidated from that? The מרגלים meraglim told them, we've seen they're גיבורים gibborim, בנים של ענק banim shel anak, we saw there. We're going to need a miracle as great as splitting the sea to defeat them. And we are not worthy, that a miracle so great as splitting the sea should happen for us. We're not worthy. We used up all of our miracles. We used up all of our merits. It's gonna take a miracle. And you know what? I don't know if God's got any miracles left for us. I don't know if we're worthy. I don't know if it's going to happen. I don't know if we could bank on it. And what are you going to answer? No, no, no, God, God can do anything. Yeah, but the whole premise of the problem is not questioning whether God could do anything. What was it questioning? Are we worthy? Will he for us? Is he going to come through? I can't see a way out. I can't see a way out. God could theoretically do it, but we can't depend on him, because we've messed up. So what are you going to answer? No, no, no, God... So that's why יהושע Yehoshua and כלב Kalev had to answer, אם חפץ בנו השם im chafetz banu Hashem. כיוון שיש קרבה גדולה בינינו לקדוש ברוך הוא, בודאי יעשה לנו ניסים למענו Keivan she'yesh kirva gedola beineinu l'Hakadosh Baruch Hu, b'vadai ya'aseh lanu nissim l'ma'ano. What's their answer? Is not, we're stronger, we've got more, Air Force, we've got more bombs, we've got more bullets. The answer was not, we're smarter, we're better, we got beepers, we interrupted their supply chain, we've got מוסד Mossad, they've built a drone base in Iran. The answer was not disputing the facts. What was the answer? You think that Hashem is not going to bring, and can't bring another miracle, we don't deserve, we don't merit, maybe he doesn't have any left. You know what our answer is? אם חפץ בנו השם Im chafetz banu Hashem. If Hashem wants us, if we're close to him, then nothing is beyond him. Just sit back and watch what's going to happen. Then believe and trust. We have to do our part, don't just sit back. We do our part. Our holy and precious and heroic soldiers of the IDF, our incredible pilots. Could you be more proud? The 2,000-year image of the meek, weak, pale Jew, who can't defend themselves and goes like sheep to the slaughter. We've got the most precise, greatest pilots on the planet right now, pulling off missions no one would believe. I don't know about you, I've been getting goosebumps when I'm watching non-Jewish military experts interviewed on the news, who are gushing and saying, I don't know how the מוסד Mossad pulled off what they did. I don't know how they got it done. Pinpoint holes in the wall, that general was sleeping in his bed, they knew which floor, which apartment, which bed. No civilian casualty, they took him out in Iran in his sleep. The מוסד Mossad was operat... If Hashem wants, אם חפץ בנו השם im chafetz banu Hashem, if we have a קרבה kirva, בודאי יעשה לנו ניסים למענו b'vadai ya'aseh lanu nissim l'ma'ano. כשכלל ישראל בצער K'sheklal Yisrael b'tza'ar, הקדוש ברוך הוא גם כן בצער HaKadosh Baruch Hu gam ken b'tza'ar. Hashem is with us. Hashem is with us in that pain. Hashem is also under attack. Hashem is also a victim of the enemy. I mentioned this past שבת Shabbos, it was a רש״י Rashi on last week's פרשה parsha. Again, you have to live with the times, says the אלטער רבי Alter Rebbe. When we sing every Monday, thur... every שבת Shabbos when we put away the Torah, קומה השם ויפוצו אויביך וינוסו משנאיך מפניך Kuma Hashem v'yafutzu oyvecha v'yanusu misanecha mipanecha. ויהי בנסוע הארון U'v'hi binsoa ha'aron, when we, when we take out the Torah. When we say משנאיך misanecha, who are the enemy? What did רש״י Rashi in last week's פרשה parsha say? אלו שונאי ישראל Eilu sonei Yisrael. These are the enemies of the Jewish people. Anyone who hates the Jewish people hates the creator of the universe. שונא מי שאמר והיה העולם Sonei mi she'amar v'haya ha'olam. They hate the one who spoke and the world came to be. Hashem goes with us. If you hate the Jewish people, if you're an enemy of the Jewish people, you are declaring war on God. And I gotta tell you, spoiler alert, you're never going to win a war against God. We know the way that this story ends. We know the way every one of our stories ends, and it ends with us winning. The reason that we're concerned, we דאווען daven with the bottom of our hearts, is at what cost? What price will we have to pay? How many times will they run into bomb shelters, wake children in the middle of the night, assist elderly? God forbid, how many casualties, how many buildings will be bombed? That's the only part we don't know. But how it ends, that we win, that we know. We've won for the last 2,000 years, we're still here to testify, and that we know. Because משנאיך misanecha, אלו שונאי ישראל eilu sonei Yisrael, those who hate the Jewish people also hate שונא מי שאמר והיה העולם sonei mi she'amar v'haya ha'olam. They hate the one who spoke and the world came to be. When we're in צער tza'ar, כשכלל ישראל בצער, הקדוש ברוך הוא גם כן בצער k'sheklal Yisrael b'tza'ar, HaKadosh Baruch Hu gam ken b'tza'ar. מצד קרבה שכלל ישראל להקדוש ברוך הוא, יעשה בשבילנו כמו שעושה בשביל עצמו כביכול Mitzad kirva sheklal Yisrael l'Hakadosh Baruch Hu, ya'aseh bishvilenu k'mo she'oseh bishvil atzmo k'viyachol. So when Hashem is doing for us, he's doing for himself. He's defending his name, his brand, his vision, his blueprint for this world. He's with us, he's on our side. He's on our side. He's with us. He does it through our Air Force pilots, our IDF, our courageous leadership who called the shots, our מוסד Mossad, our intelligence. He's doing it through them, but it's him. הגאולה דכלל ישראל הוא גאולת הקדוש ברוך הוא בעצמו Ha'geulah d'klal Yisrael hu geulas HaKadosh Baruch Hu b'atzmo. Writes רב שמואל בירנבוים Rav Shmuel Bornbaum years ago, זצ״ל zatzal. The redemption of the Jewish people is the redemption of God himself. The redemption of God himself. And therefore he comes and he stands up on our behalf. We turn to him, we rely on him. And that's why כלב Kalev and יהושע Yehoshua, there are always detractors, there are always cynics, there are always doubters, there are always spies instead of tourists. And they're compelling and they're persuasive and they're trying to change public opinion. And that's what the spies did. 10 out of 12. got public opinion on their side, and the people cried the whole night and said, we can't do it. It'll never happen. If on October 6th I would have told you that in a year and a half Hezbollah will be decimated. So much so that when Iran is at war and messaged to Hezbollah join the fight, Hezbollah sent an email to Iran. I mean, how how degrading. An email. said, sorry, we're sitting this one out, you're on your own. Iran was banking on all their proxies that they had spent billions of dollars on, that if they would ever be attacked, Israel could never, Israel could never sustain Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the militias of Iraq, Syria. If on October 6th I would have told you, Syria, Syria is no longer, and in fact, they told Israel, feel free to use our airspace in bombing Iran. If I would have told you on October 6th, Hezbollah decimated. Beepers blew up in the pants of all the Hezbollah fighters, and in a moment, decimated. Hamas, still fighting, but decimated. Decimated. The militias of Iraq on the retreat. And that Iran, at the very beginning, before they even knew what hit them, their military's been taken out. And that the entire Middle East has changed in a year and you would have said impossible. לא נוכל Lo nuchal, we can't do it. We'll never happen. How many casualties, at what cost, what world war? We'll never happen.But you know, when השם Hashem is a target, when השם Hashem is a victim, when they're declaring war with השם Hashem, nothing is beyond him. קודשא בריך הוא Kudsha Brich Hu is fighting this battle, and he's fighting this battle with us. And that's what Yehoshua and Kalev have to fight, the fake news. They have to fight those who are trying to win the public opinion in the wrong direction when they say we can't. And they have to come out. And what's the argument? They don't get into the details of why we have military superiority, because that's not what it's about. What's their ultimate response and answer? אם חפץ בנו השם Im chafetz banu Hashem. If השם Hashem wants us to win, you don't you're not going to believe what's about to happen. You're not going to believe what you're about to see. You're not going to believe how this ends. So there's much more in the פרשה parsha I wanted to get to.יום לשנה יום לשנה Yom lashana, yom lashana. They gave the negative report, so they wandered 40 years. Why'd they wander 40 years? How long was the negative report? One day. So if you're going to calculate the punishment based on how long the negative report was, they should wander for one day. Why do they wander or wander for one year for the one day they gave a negative report? Why do they wander for 40 years? What's the 40 days? 40 days they investigated the land, but they only reported negatively one. So they should have wandered one year. Why do they wander 40 years?So we'll learn next year אם ירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem in ירושלים Yerushalayim together. But Rav Druck and Rav Moshe Weiss both say the same answer. You know why? Because the spies' mistake was not the report they gave when they got back. That was one day. It's that all 40 days when they went, they were looking for the bad. We'll bring it full circle. This is now the fourth or fifth. Again, if I were doing this right, if I were a decent teacher, I would have given you the whole theme, beginning to end, all these ideas and showed you that's what it's going. This whole פרשה parsha is about, don't come in with predisposed ideas. Don't come in and project. Be a student. Be a tourist. Learn, listen, extrapolate, extract, be a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. The spies went in with a fixed mindset. They said, here's the deal. We'll go through the motions. We'll spend 40 days, but I'm telling you right now how it's going to turn out. So when they got back and gave the negative report, they were punished 40 years for 40 days because the mistake wasn't one day. How long was the mistake? 40 days. Because all 40 days, there was confirmation bias. They were biased about what they were going to see, so what they saw confirmed what they were already biased to see. When you're going as a spy, you'll find what's bad. If you're going as a tourist, you'll see what's great. Our mission, like Kalev and Yehoshua were the only ones who understood. Our mission, live life like tourists. A growth mindset. Don't go לחפור lachpor or לרגל leragel. Go לסור lasur. Go tour the world and life, see what it has to offer, all the positive. And next year we'll cover חלה challah and ציצית tzitzit. I wanted to get to חלה challah and ציצית tzitzit so badly, but אם ירצה השם im yirtzeh Hashem next year. Should be a day of בשורות טובות besoros tovos.
