Transcript
Good morning, בוקר טוב Boker tov, welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. So glad and grateful to be together again for this week. Just a reminder of our schedule. We're together this week, then we're off again for a few weeks, and then at the end of August, we will resume, מירצה השם mirtza Hashem, going forward. I want to thank, as always, our very generous series sponsors, our dear friends Becky and Avi Katz and family, who've dedicated our Parsha Perspective שיעורים shiurim in memory of David Grossman, Becky's father. Our learning should be לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מוניש l'ilui nishmas David ben Menachem Monish. This morning we have the privilege of beginning the fifth and final book of the Torah. And that is the book of דברים D'varim, פרשת דברים Parshas D'varim, page 938 in the Artscroll Stone חומש Chumash. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה אל כל ישראל בעבר הירדן במדבר בערבה מול סוף בין פרן ובין תפל ולבן וחצרות ודי זהב Eila hadvarim asher diber Moshe el kol Yisrael ba'ever ha'Yarden bam'midbar ba'arava mol Suf ben Paran u'ven Tofel v'Lavan va'Chatzeiros v'Di Zahav. These are the words, אלה הדברים Eila hadvarim. These are the words that Moshe began to speak. And we've looked in the past, we won't get into it again today. You could always, of course, find our previous שיעורים shiurim online, particularly while I'm away. Feel free to review previous years or listen to many other far superior and incredible teachers of Torah. But we've discussed in the past אלה הדברים Eila hadvarim, how ironic that משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu, our quintessential leader, Moshe, the great Moshe, who bursts onto the scene, whom when Hashem tries to recruit him to be the leader, his response, he hesitates, he demurs by saying, לא איש דברים אנכי Lo ish devarim anochi. I'm not a man of words. לא איש דברים Lo ish devarim, that same word, דברים devarim, I'm not a man of words. And that same Moshe, our פרשה parsha begins by אלה הדברים Eila hadvarim. These are the many, many words. Indeed, we know that this פרשה parsha represents the last weeks of Moshe's life. This is his monologue. This is his soliloquy. This is his final charge as the people are on the cusp of entering the land. Really the story of the sojourn through the desert came to a conclusion last week, מסעי Masei. And now דברים D'varim, these are the words, a whole book, one fifth of the Torah, these are the words of Moshe. So that same man, the לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi, all of a sudden he discovered his words. And maybe we will reference it by starting with Rabbi Sacks. Rabbi Sacks, again, there's a חומש chumash coming out, I don't know if it's out yet. I have a advanced copy. It's a collection of Rabbi Sacks's insights, all organized on the חומש chumash and according to the פרשה parsha. And Rabbi Sacks says this in introducing this ספר sefer. The Hebrew name of the mosaic books convey important insights into the nature of the ספר sefer. The fifth book of the Torah is named in Hebrew, דברים D'varim, words, taken from the opening פסוק pasuk. The whole of Torah is דברים d'varim, is words. What then is the connection between the title of this particular book and its contents? What is Torah if not a collection of words? So really all five books, the totality of Torah, deserve to be called דברים D'varim, words. Why specifically this fifth book? What is it about this fifth ספר sefer that's called דברים D'varim? So Rabbi Sacks says the following. The first connection is Moshe himself. He is a man transformed. Recall his words to Hashem at the burning bush, at the very outset of his mission. Hashem said, \"Please, God.\" Moshe said, \"Please, God, I am not a man of words, לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi. I am כבד פה וכבד לשון k'vad peh u'k'vad lashon. I am slow of speech and tongue.\" Of Moshe alone, more humble than any other man on earth, could it be said that his words, דברים d'varim, were the words of God. It was precisely because he said, \"I'm not a man of words,\" that he became the man of דברים d'varim, the one whose words were not his own, but those of the divine presence, the שכינה Shechina, speaking through his lips, the most eloquent spokesman of God in all of history. It's not despite or ironic or contradictory that Moshe introduces himself as לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi and now אלה הדברים eila hadvarim, he has all these words. It's specifically, says Rabbi Sacks, the man who's לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi, the man who will not distort or pervert or manipulate or compromise or editorialize God's words because he's not a man of words himself, he is the perfect ambassador. He is the perfect vehicle to communicate the word of God. Because he's לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi, אלה הדברים Eila hadvarim, he is reliable, dependable, and faithful that what he will transmit is unadulterated. It comes directly from Hashem. So often today, in life, in general, maybe all of history, people insert and they inject their own editorial comment, their own commentary, their own bias, their own ideas. How do you know if what you're accessing is true, is authentic? Because Moshe positioned himself as the לא איש דברים אנכי lo ish devarim anochi, he is the perfect platform, the perfect person, the perfect vehicle to transmit the word of Hashem. He is the most eloquent spokesman of God in all of history. And he still is today. We call him until this time, he's משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu. His title, in perpetuity, is משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe our teacher. He hasn't lived in thousands of years, and he still is our teacher. He is alive and well. There is not a day that a Jewish child, a Jewish adult, that in every home, in every shul, his name is not invoked, his teachings aren't taught. He continues to be our teacher, the most eloquent spokesman of God in all of history. That's number one. Then Rabbi Sacks continues. The second significance of דברים d'varim, words, is that it is the supreme expression of the politics of the word. A society founded on the basis of a covenant, a text, a set of mutual promises by which Hashem and his people pledge themselves in loyalty to one another. So the first use of דברים d'varim is about Moshe. He's reliable, he's dependable. בכל ביתי נאמן b'chol beisi ne'eman, he's faithful, because he's not distorting or perverting, he is not inserting any bias. Number two is, the significance of דברים d'varim, words, is it captures our covenant with Hashem. We have a relationship, not because Hashem is filled with power, and not because we recoil with fear, but because we have a contract, a covenant, a commitment, a set of mutual promises, a text, a Torah. We have words that bind us together. The third significance is that Israel's existence as a nation is not based on power or a land, but on words. The word of Hashem to Israel, and the acceptance of those whose words by Israel. So long as the world exists, כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael exists. And because Hashem is eternal and never revokes his word, the Jewish people always exist. Because Israel's very being as a nation is constituted by דברים d'varim, the words of God, there is always the possibility and promise of return. Israel alone among the nations of the world survives the loss of power and land because there is something we never lose, God's word given and received in love. Wherever we were exiled and dispersed across the diaspora, we never, we lost our land, so to say, we lost power and sovereignty, autonomy, but we never lost being the people of the book, the people of word, being those who are responsible for the word of God. God's word given and received in love. Take words, the words of the covenant, with you and return. קחו עמכם דברים ושובו אל השם K'chu imachem d'varim v'shuvu el Hashem. Israel survived because it never lost the words that bound it to Hashem and Hashem to it. That was the basis of its survival in exile. Those words were never rescinded. Hence, Israel never lost the promise of return. Because we basically took our compass wherever we went. And what's our compass? What is the compass of the Jewish people? The תורה הקדושה Torah HaK'dosha, the sacred Torah, a תורת חיים Toras Chaim. It's a Torah that is the guide to life, the blueprint of creation, the formula, the prescription for meaning, for purpose, for life. It's our compass. And it came with us wherever we went. So you're never lost if you have a compass. You're never lost if you have Waze, Google Maps, whatever you prefer, the age-old debate. But you're never lost if you have a navigation tool and you'll be able to find your way home. So what is our navigation tool? The word of Hashem, his Torah. So therefore, wherever we would disperse or exiled, we were never lost because we always had a compass to come home. The decision to call the fifth and final book of the Torah דברים D'varim brought together in a single word the three main themes of the book. The uniqueness of Moshe as a prophet, the uniqueness of Israel as a nation, and the uniqueness of Jewish history as a narrative of exile and return. The book of דברים D'varim, words, is the supreme expression of the power of the word to link heaven and earth, God and a people in an unbreakable bond of mutual loyalty. Beautiful insight of why this book therefore is called דברים d'varim, that one word, words, דברים d'varim, captures the essence and the theme of this final ספר sefer. That is number one, that is number one of Rabbi Sacks. Okay, number two, we'll continue with Rabbi Sacks. אלה הדברים Eila hadvarim, these are the words אשר דבר משה asher diber Moshe that Moshe spoke to whom? To whom did Moshe direct these words? Sometimes we see it's the זקנים z'keinim. It's the elders, the spokespeople. Sometimes it's all of בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael. But here we find an unusual formulation. Moshe speaks to whom? It's not a trick question, it's open book test, you got it right in front of you. אל כל ישראל El kol Yisrael. To all of Israel, all the Jewish people. All the Jewish people. A simple understanding is, not only was Moshe speaking to this conference, this assembly, this convention of all of his contemporaries, but אל כל ישראל el kol Yisrael, as we said, Moshe is רבינו Rabbeinu forever in perpetuity. He is our teacher forever. He's speaking to us. When he said those words then, he was speaking to us. It's always אל כל ישראל el kol Yisrael. But the כלי יקר Kli Yakar, the great Rav Ephraim Luntschitz, who lived in the 16th century, he noted that the phrase כל ישראל kol Yisrael, which appears 11 times in דברים D'varim, exists nowhere else in חומש Chumash. כלי יקר Kli Yakar notes, כל ישראל kol Yisrael, we have בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael, עדת adas, עדה eida, we have all kinds of formulations. But those words, כל ישראל kol Yisrael, all the Jewish people, only appear in the fifth book in דברים D'varim and do so 11 times. Until now, the Jews have been described as בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael, the children of Israel. Now for the first time, they are no longer the children of Israel, they are simply Israel. Until now they have been linked by biological descent. They have a common ancestor, Yaakov, who was given the name Yisrael. They're part of the same family tree. But now Moshe is preparing the Israelites for a new mode of existence. They're no longer just children, writes Rabbi Sacks, but are about to become moral adults. Their unity is no longer simply a matter of common past, they are to create a shared future. They're no longer to exist in a state of dependency, relying on Moshe and through him Hashem to provide their needs, welfare, and safety. Henceforth, they will have to take אחריות achrayus. They'll take responsibility for one another. Through the subtle linguistic shift, Moshe indicates that once the Jewish people cross the Jordan, they will become a nation, not just a family. They'll have to fight wars, defend themselves, institute systems of justice and welfare, and learn the necessity for as well as the limits of politics. So in other words, בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael, בני b'nei means children. So what binds you? What links you? What unites you? Your descendants, your genealogy. Go on ancestry.com, go on some other genealogy website and trace distant cousins and figure out and find where you come from. I'm going to share more about, but Yocheved and I took an extraordinary trip to Hungary and to Ukraine, specifically to revisit the graves of our great, great grandparents who are buried in Bushtyno, which today is Ukraine, used to be Hungary. And she spent a lot of time researching ancestry.com and tracing history and finding, it was extraordinary, incredible stories. We'll find the right opportunity to share in the right time. בני ישראל B'nei Yisrael means, you know who I am? I'm the bottom rung of all who came before me. I'm bound by this shared DNA, this ancestry. That's the only thing that binds me. I'm the child of, the progeny of, the inheritors of what comes before. Now is the subtle linguistic shift, says Rabbi Sacks, so brilliantly, from בני ישראל B'nei Yisrael, you're graduating, קינדערלעך kinderlach, children. You're graduating. You're not just bound because you have parents. There comes a time, some of you, most of you know too well, when parents pass away. And the children have to decide, do they come together only because they had the same parents? Is the only thing that unites them is they have the same ancestors? Or are they also shaping a future? Do they have a charge and a mission and a purpose? Are they building a future? So we go from בני ישראל B'nei Yisrael, just children, just beneficiaries, to becoming כל ישראל kol Yisrael, just the Jewish people. It's not just that we have the same אלטער זיידע alter zeida named Yaakov, but it's that we're building a same destiny, a same future. Through the subtle linguistic shift, Moshe indicates once they cross the Jordan, they'll become not just a family, בני b'nei, we're bound not only because we have the same DNA, but we become ישראל Yisrael, we become a nation. We become a people. None of that necessary in the wilderness. Hashem provided their needs, fought their battles, sent them food and water, gave them shelter. In the land of Israel, Hashem will still be with them, but only rarely in the form of miracles. No longer will it be Hashem serving the people, giving them all they need, it will be the people serving Hashem. The nation will be defined by the covenant their parents made at הר סיני Har Sinai. It will be their constitution, their mission, their task, their destiny. They're about to change from a group of individuals with a common ancestry to a nation bound by collective responsibility. God does not choose, nor does he make a covenant with individuals as individuals. He makes a covenant with an entire people, righteous and not yet righteous alike. This is the כל ישראל kol Yisrael being addressed for the first time here. So until now, first four books, בני ישראל B'nei Yisrael, children, a family. From now on, 11 times, כל ישראל kol Yisrael, no longer a family, a nation, no longer children, adults who are forging a future and a destiny. So brilliant, so incredible, so grateful for Rabbi Sacks. Says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, the great תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel. אלה אל כל ישראל Eila el kol Yisrael. He points us to Rashi. Rashi tells us, אילו הוכיח מקצתן, היו אילו שבשוק אומרים Ilu hochiach miktsasan, hayu eilu she'b'shuk omrim. Why didn't Moshe just call some? You know what a big deal it is? We're talking about two to three million people in the desert. He's got this big soliloquy, this big monologue, this big speech to give. No teleprompter. Off the cuff. משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu. It's a long, long speech. שבת הגדול Shabbos Hagadol, שבת שובה Shabbos Shuva, put together times 10, and many more. This is a long speech, the last few weeks of his life. And he doesn't just deliver it to leadership. He delivers it to whom? אל כל ישראל El kol Yisrael, to everyone. And Rashi says, why everyone? Because אילו הוכיח מקצתן ilu hochiach miktsasan, if he only had some of them there, היו אילו שבשוק אומרים hayu eilu she'b'shuk omrim, אתם הייתם שומעים בן עמרם, ולא השיבותם לו דבר מכך ומכך atem hayitem shom'im ben amran, v'lo heishivtem lo davar m'kach v'm'kach, אילו היינו שם, היינו משיבים לו ilu hayinu sham, hayinu meishivim lo. Because the people at the local kosher supermarket, the people outside the Starbucks Dunkin Donuts, they're going to be schmoozing and saying, I heard you attended that speech of the rabbi. You know, you're pathetic. If I was there, I would have told the rabbi, I would have pushed back, I would have told him off. That rabbi got up and he gave מוסר mussar, the guy rabbi got up and he gave rebuke, the rabbi gave up and he got up and he gave a message. Nobody talked back, nobody pushed back, nobody told him the truth. If I was there, I would have spoken up. לכך כנסם כולם L'kach kinseim kulam. So in anticipation of that, to what we'd say ב'ווארען b'vorn, to preclude that, Moshe says, \"I'll tell you what. I want to meet with everyone.\" Everyone to the conference room. I've got something to say, and I want everyone there, so no one later could say or claim if they were there, they would have spoken up. You have something to say? You have an objection? You want to speak up? Now's your chance. ואמר להם הרי כולכם כאן, כל מי שיש לו תשובה, ישיב V'amar lahem harei kulchem kan, kol mi she'yeish lo tshuva, yashiv. You're all here. Everyone in attendance. Anyone have anything to say? Speak now or forever hold your peace. Don't be a big talker and claim later if you were there, you would have had something to say. This is everyone to the conference room, big meeting for all. That's for Shmuel, so far that was Rashi. Rashi. That's for Shmuel Berenbaum, the הילכות תפארת שמואל Hilchos Tiferes Shmuel. למה היה כל כלל ישראל צריכים להיות שם בשעה שמשה רבינו הוכיח אותם ממה נפשך Lama haya kol Klal Yisrael tzerichim l'hiyos sham b'sha'ah she'Moshe Rabbeinu hochiach osam m'maneh v'shach? אם דבריו של משה נוגעים למישהו, היו מקבלים כמו שהם בלי להשיב Im dvarav shel Moshe nog'im l'mishehu, hayu m'kablim k'mo she'heim b'li l'hashiv, אפילו אם אינם נמצא שם afilu im einam nimtza sham. If Moshe had something to say that was relevant, that resonated for someone, they would accept it even if they weren't there. ואם דבריו של משה אינם נוגעים לו V'im dvarav shel Moshe einam nog'im lo, and if the thing that Moshe said wasn't relevant, didn't resonate, יוכל להשיב עליהם אפילו אם ימצא שם yuchal l'hashiv aleihem afilu im yimtza sham. למה ביקש משה דווקא כולם אל כל ישראל Lama b'keish Moshe davka kulam el kol Yisrael? Why everybody? How did this answer it? So says the תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel. יש לומר Yesh lomar. כשאחד שומע דברי מוסר, היצר יכול להסיסו בכמה טענות k'she'echad shomeia divrei mussar, ha'yetzer yachol l'haseisoi b'kamah ta'anos. When a person hears rebuke or a message, when they hear something said, they can ללעבען l'leben in fantasy, לחיות בדמיונות l'achyos b'dimyonos. A person can live in a world of imagination and fantasy. למה אינם נוגע לו lama einam nog'ea lo? You know the rap? I can tell you, I've been doing this now for a few years. And I can't tell you how often someone comes up to me and said, \"Rabbi, that speech was so important. It needed to be said. I'm so glad you said it. I hope my neighbor heard it.\" My neighbor, my friend, this person that sits next to me in shul, the guy in the other minyan, I hope they really take it to heart. I'm so happy you said it. It was so important. Because our יצר הרע yetzer hara has this incredible ability to make us believe it's relevant for my neighbor. It's speaking to my friend. Me? What does that to do with me? I'm perfect. I do my best. I give myself the benefit of the doubt. I'm good enough. אין לו מה לסכן ein lo ma l'sakein, כי אין כוונתו מוכיח עליו ki ein kavanaso mochiach alav. The speaker can't be talking to me. This isn't relevant for me. I'm happy I'm here to hear it because someone else it's relevant for, but not me. אז יוכל להמשיך בגידכו מקדם az yuchal l'hamshich b'gidacho m'kedem. And we just go on in our way. אבל אם רואים איש אמת שנותן דברי מוסר והוא דוגמא Aval im ru'im ish emes she'nosein divrei mussar v'hu dugma, כיצד צריך אדם להראות אז ישראל רחוק, דעתו של השומע, ויחשוב keitza tzrich adam l'haros az Yisrael rachok, da'ato shel ha'shomeia, v'yachshov, אמת'דיק emes'dik, שתמיד יש מקום לסכן ולשפר מעשיו she'tamid yesh makom l'sakein u'l'shaper ma'asav. שיש תמיד מקום יכולות יותר ויותר she'yesh tamid makom yecholos yoseir v'yoseir. You know, if you're sitting there and the speaker, you know, it's a, many speakers, many orators will, they teach this like in homiletical school, you know, lesson 202, that you should say, I'm speaking to myself, I'm just letting you listen, I'm really talking to myself. An audience knows is the speaker speaking to himself, herself, or are they directing מוסר mussar to others and they think they're perfect. You know if someone's genuine. You know if they're real. Or you know if they're fraud, you know if they're counterfeit. So when an audience hears somebody who's genuine and real, who's working on themselves, who's trying to grow, who's just sharing what they're going through themselves. If a person is in an audience and looks around and sees others and says, \"Wow, look at that person who's better than me, greater than me, more righteous than I, older, more life experience, and they're here and they're listening and they're trying to improve. You know what? I can too.\" משה רבינו שהיו רבים של ישראל ידעו שאם כולם יעמדו לפניו Moshe Rabbeinu she'hayu rabim shel Yisrael yad'u she'im kulam yaamdu l'fanav, בבחינת והיו עיניך רואות את מוריך b'bchinas v'hayu einecha ro'os es morecha. Moshe Rabbeinu knew, I can't have you hear this secondhand. It won't land. It won't have the impact. It won't transform change. If you hear a secondhand or third hand, it's not the same as if you're here, as if you're here. To hear the passion, to hear how earnest, how genuine, how authentic where it comes from, to look around a room and see people who are בני עליה b'nei aliya, a community that's striving, that's growing, that's working. ולכך כשירו כולם את דמות יקנה של הרבים, תצרף דעתו לחשוב בדרך אמת v'l'kach k'she'yiru kulam es d'mus yekna shel harabim, titzaref da'ato l'achshov b'derech emes. When you see a דוגמא dugma, when you see a personal example, when you see an image of someone that you can strive to be, בלי החשבונות b'li ha'cheshbonos, and without calculations, and without excuses and justifications, then you say to yourself, \"I can and I want to be bigger, I want to be better. I have an image. I have an icon. I have an idea of who and what I can be.\" And that can't be read in a book. That's why Torah requires personal transmission. We don't, we don't, you know, order a set of Artscroll Shas, disappear to a deserted island, want to be left alone and not have to deal with any fellow Jews. Torah is בעל פה Ba'al Peh. Originally, it was meant to be transmitted only and exclusively orally. It was a tremendous concession that we wrote down our oral Torah, and we only did it for its survival, a very controversial decision of the great Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in the second century. But until then, and in many ways, still since then. Rav Futerer writes, תלמוד Talmud is called תלמוד בבלי Talmud Bavli, it's all מבולבל mevulbal. It's all mixed up. It's all disorganized. The תלמוד Talmud, you have no idea where to look for what. And that's by design, because it means even though it preserved the content, you still need a teacher, a teacher-student, interpersonal, to be there. אין הדומה Ein hadomeh, you can't compare just trying to read on your own or being able to hear and see and and exchange the energy of and be connected with. And והיו עיניך רואות את מוריך v'hayu einecha ro'os es morecha to see before you the image of someone and say, I can do better. I want to be bigger. I want to be better. I can change. I can grow. I want to ride the wave of this energy. And that's what Moshe was trying to achieve by bringing everyone together, says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. It wasn't so much only as Rashi to remove the excuse if I was there, I would have spoken up, I would have told him off, I would have. No, it was, if somebody hears it second hand and third hand, if they read the transcript of it later, that's not the same as hearing it. It's not the same as hearing it. To that end, to see the way of hearing with the rabbi, even for the news of the one, it's very important that you don't even need it. When you hear the the voice, when you hear the the the intonations, when you hear everything, והיו עיניך רואות את מוריך hayu einecha ro'os es morecha, it's able to transform you. This is, he elaborates, I don't want to spend all the time, when Yosef is prepared to sin, Yosef is all alone, abandoned, isolated in Mitzrayim, is in Egypt. He's working hard and bringing tremendous success to the house of Potiphar, his employer. Only for only problem is, Potiphar's wife relentlessly pursues and propositions Yosef. And one day he comes לעשות מלאכתו l'asot m'lachto, מחלוקת רב ושמואל machlokes Rav v'Shmuel. One is of the opinion, it means Yosef was ready was that ready that day to indulge his יצר הרע yetzer hara. This beautiful woman, the woman of the house, his boss's wife, nobody else is home, and she's been relentlessly propositioning, pursuing him for an enormous amount of time, and he can't take it anymore. He has nothing to lose, and no one's around, and no one will know, and no one will see. And he's about to indulge and give in, when what? He sees דמות דיוקנו של אביו demus yukna shel aviv, he sees the image of his father. That might mean he saw a mirror for the first time in a long time, and we know Yosef was the spitting image of his father. When he saw his reflection, it reminded him of his father, and how could he do this to his father? It could mean דמות דיוקנו demus yukno, as we've shared many times, the pronoun, דיוקנו d'yukno, he saw his image. Whose image? His image, the image of his father, or his father's image of him. His father has painted an image of Yosef, do you know who you are and who you could be? Constantly building him up and lifting him up, constantly giving him a vision of who he can be. And when he was reminded of that image, that vision, that potential, that ambition of who he could be, he couldn't, he couldn't do it. He couldn't lower himself. But the simple understanding is, he saw in his mind's eye his father. And in that moment, that is what protected him. That's what helped him. He couldn't violate his boss's trust. He couldn't compromise or corrupt himself morally because he saw this image. You see the power of the image of another. You see the power. We should expose ourselves to see great people and to carry their image in our mind's eye, the impact that can elevate and rescue and help us through difficult times. It was the image of Yaakov that saved Yosef. And Moshe understood in that moment that it was his image and the image of Yehoshua, the זקנים z'keinim, that required כל ישראל kol Yisrael. Everyone get together and see how authentic, how earnest, how genuine. See a people who are growth-oriented and striving and struggling, because the impact of that versus hearing secondhand, thirdhand, it's so different to listen, not everyone I know watching or listening who lives in Boca, it's not easy to come in person. And certainly having the gift of technology to tap into our Torah teachings, it's wonderful. But אין הדומה ein hadomeh, you can't, you can't compare coming in person, the energy in a room, hearing a voice, seeing an image, learning together, being a community where striving and growing. You can't compare to while you're cooking or shopping or on the treadmill or driving, you have it playing on the podcast in the background. You can't compare. You can't compare that experience. When the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim was older, he wanted to make עלייה aliyah, he wanted to move to Israel. And Rav Chaim Ozer came on behalf of the גדולים gedolim of his time and begged the חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim, you have to remain in Radin. You can't go. The חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim said, what good am I? I'm אני עובר ובטל oiver u'botel. I'm old, I have no strength, I can't teach. I I have what good am I here? Let me live my final years there. So Rav Chaim Ozer said, אפילו אף כן, כשהסבא יושב על השולחן, הנהגת המשפחה היא אחרת Afilu afi kein k'she'ha'saba yoshev al ha'shulchan, hanhagas ha'mishpacha hi acheres. When the זיידע zeida is sitting at the table, the family acts different. When the זיידע zeida, when the grandfather's sitting at the table, the family acts different. We need you still sitting here at the table. You can't speak, you don't have so much to say, you're not running the table. Just your presence. Your mere presence sitting at the table, everyone acts different. So you can't go. That's what Moshe understood. כל ישראל Kol Yisrael, bring and gather, get everyone together because the impact of bringing everyone is critical. One more תפארת שמואל Tiferes Shmuel on this opening פסוק pasuk, and I promise that we're going to get past the opening פסוק pasuk. אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה Eila hadvarim asher diber Moshe. Rashi continues. We then list all these places. What do we say? בערבה, מול סוף, בין פארן, בין תפל, לבן, חצרות, די זהב ba'arava, mol suf, bein paran, bein tofel, lavan, chatzeiros, di zahav. All these places? What are we, what is this, like the AAA book, making our way through the 40 years in the desert? What do I need this map quest? So Rashi tells us הוכיח על העגל hochiach al ha'eigel. This was an allusion. Moshe was giving them מוסר mussar. He says, look, you're going into the land of Israel. It's filled with promise and possibility and opportunity. You're going from a family to a nation. You're going to create an agriculture and agrarian society, an army, a police force, a judicial system. Maybe one day you'll write a constitution even. You're going in. Moshe tells them, you're going to become from a family to a nation, but in order to succeed in where you're going, you have to remember the missteps in where you came from. So I want to remind you, you're not perfect, you're vulnerable, you're fragile. This world is filled with temptation and opportunity for mistakes and missteps. But Moshe doesn't want to outright, I mean, these are his last days. This is going to be his final message. You stunk here, you messed up over there, you were a disaster over there. What kind of message is that? So he embeds messages through code. He says, oh yeah, remember when we were over there? And sometimes a parent can remind a child, you remember when we were over there? And the child says, yeah, over there is where I got into the fender bender and you had to come rescue me because I was texting and shouldn't have been on my phone and but you didn't have to remind them, do you remember you weren't careful and you were driving? Just say, you remember the corner of here and there and when I came to get you and yeah, okay, yeah, I remember. So Moshe is embedding this message and we'll get to it in a moment, why? Why, through the place. But anyway, די זהב Di Zahav through gold. What was the message of די זהב Di Zahav? What's די זהב Di Zahav? is a place. is a place. די זהב Di Zahav. So Rashi says, די זהב Di Zahav was a reference to חטא העגל chet ha'eigel. שעשו בשביל רוב זהב שהיה להם she'asu bishvil rov zahav she'haya lahem. They had a lot of gold. When they left Egypt, they left with the spoils, the riches, fulfilling the promise that Hashem had told them, you'll leave wealthy from Egypt. So they left with all the gold, וכסף הרביתי להם וזהב עשו לבעל v'chesev herbeisi lahem v'zahav asu l'baal. So, אז עשו שם דירם תצרחין. תמה מראשי, שהטיינה היתה ששתמשו בכספם לעשות העגל. So Moshe says, hey remember when we went to the place called Gold? Remember when we went to the golden orchards? No, that's bad, that's not kosher. The golden, the Golden Gate Bridge? Remember the Golden Gate Bridge? Golden Gate Bridge. And that's a reminder to the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. But Rashi seems to imply that where was the failure of the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel? That they misused the gold that they were gifted, that they were given on their way out of Egypt. That wasn't the problem of the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel. הלא מה שתופס מקום מה השתמשו בכסף שלהם. עיקר הטיינו מה שעשו עגל. The issue wasn't what they misused gold, the issue is they built an idol. They cheated on God. They were unfaithful. The issue is they built an עגל egel. Not that they, oh, you had gold and you used it on the wrong thing. Isn't that the emphasis on the wrong place? The golden, golden gate bridge. You had gold and you didn't use it the right. That wasn't a problem. Should have said, remember when we went to the zoo and we saw the calf? And that would have reminded the people. Oh yeah, the calf. The calf, we shouldn't have built the calf. It's the wrong embedded message, the wrong code. It's focusing and emphasizing the wrong thing. Says רב שלמה בערמאן, יש לומר שהיה כאן עיקר הטיינה על האנושיות שלהם, שהקדוש ברוך הוא נתן להם ברכה גדולה של עשירות, ומקיים בהם אחרי כן יצאו ברכוש גדול. והם הלכו והשתמשו בהברכה של הקדוש ברוך הוא לעשות דבר שהוא נגד רצונו. יש חסרון גדול בזה באנושיות, הוא טיינה גדולה. You see that this was not the wrong focus. This was not the wrong emphasis. This is exactly the point. Moshe says, look, you had a moment of panic. I didn't come down the mountain in time, you panicked, you didn't know what to do, and you were genuinely craving a closeness to השם Hashem. I was your leader, you didn't have me, you built an עגל egel, forgivable, excusable. But you know what's not? When you take the gift and the blessing that God gave you and you squander it and misuse it, and you abuse it. God fulfilled his promise, ברכוש גדול b'rchush gadol you left Egypt with great wealth. And what could you have done with it? What difference could you have made with it? And instead you wasted it and you squandered it. And you squandered it. מזה צריכים ללמוד, says רב שלמה בערמאן. You see what a powerful message. That the מוסר mussar is not about the mistake of the חטא העגל cheit ha'egel because that was forgivable. That was a moment of panic and fear. What's unforgivable is, we have resources. השם Hashem gives us health, wealth, prosperity, energy, talent, skills. And we squander them? And we waste them? And we're indifferent and lazy about them? And we misapply them? That's not forgivable. כשהוא נותן הקדוש ברוך הוא לאדם א געוואלדיגע קאפ, ואינו משתמש בו ללמוד תורה ולקיים מצוותיו, והוא משתמש בו נגד רצון השם, זה חסרון גדול. That's a huge lacking. And that's true in every area. If a person has money, if a person has health, and energy, if a person has talents and skills, how we apply it and how we use it, and how we use it. And he has again a long essay, חדשות ודברי מוסר הנה, מי שחס ושלום אינו בקו הבריות, אינו יכול לישון בלילה וסובל ביום מעייפות רחמנא ליצלן. ולאחר אשר גמר שנתו, כשמתעורר, מתגבר כארי לקום לעבודתו, ובזה אומר להקדוש ברוך הוא זכור את הטובה הגדולה על השינה. If you sleep well, many don't. If you can fall asleep, stay asleep, and sleep well, and you wake up with energy, what do you do with that energy? To take the very gift that God granted you and use it and turn it against him, it's unacceptable, it's inexcusable, it's unforgivable. That's what they did. השם Hashem gave them gold. And what did they do with that gold? They didn't use it for a proper purpose, they turned it and they used it against him. They used it against him. And that is, that is what went wrong and that's why it was the focus, not the עגל egel, that was a moment of panic and fear. But it's the misuse and abuse of the gold. The גר\"א Gra famously, we've said it many times. What's the difference between לפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון? The משנה בפרקי אבות Mishna b'Pirkei Avos tells us, before whom we will have to give דין וחשבון din v'cheshbon. דין Din is judgment. What's חשבון cheshbon? A reckoning, an accounting, a reckoning they say in England. We have to give דין וחשבון din v'cheshbon. An accounting, a judgment, and a reckoning. What's the difference between judgment and a reckoning? So the גר\"א Gra says דין din is what you did wrong. חשבון Cheshbon, the accounting, is what you could have done right. So, you use the power of speech to criticize. You're guilty for the criticism that you shouldn't have given, but you're also guilty because those same words, that energy could have been used to compliment. You used money to buy, to pursue the wrong thing. So there's דין din, you're going to have to give judgment for that mistake. But there's also חשבון cheshbon. What could you have done, what impact could you have had positively with the same money? Energy, time, every commodity, every resource we have, there's the דין din, the judgment for the mistake, but then there's also the חשבון cheshbon, the accounting or the reckoning for we could have done right with it at the same time. Rebbe Nachman, I mentioned, why does Moshe embed or code, why does Moshe embed or code, leave it, embed or code his מוסר mussar through places? Why through places? Why not Morse code? Why not by winking? Why not through song, through melody? Why not through so many other possibilities? מדוע מפרטת, this is Rebbe Nachman על הפרשה al ha'parsha. Why does the Torah באריכות כזאת את שמות המקומות? Why all the places? So Rashi tells us the places he's embedding his מוסר mussar, his rebuke. ודאי נשאלת השאלה, but you can still ask the question, wonders the great, wonders the great Rebbe Nachman, that why places? So אפשר להבין, you can answer based on a teaching of Rebbe Nachman, that appears in ליקוטי מוהר\"ן חלק ב' סימן א'. And there Rebbe Nachman writes, אי אפשר לדון שום אדם. You can't judge anybody. Don't judge your fellow man. Why? Because חז\"ל Chazal tell us the משנה mishna on the second פרק of אבות avos, אל תדון את חברך עד שתגיע למקומו. Don't judge your friend until you arrive at his or her place. Says Rebbe Nachman, can you ever walk in the shoes of another? Do you ever have their history, their DNA, their child, their upbringing, their background? מי יכול להגיד באמת למקומו של חבר? Who can ever claim, who can ever say they've been in the place of another? רק הקדוש ברוך הוא שהוא מקומו של עולם, ולכן אדם כל אדם ואדם יש מקום אצלו, רק הוא יכול לדון את האדם באמת. The only one who can judge is השם Hashem, because השם Hashem is המקום HaMakom. One of the names for God is 'the place', he's everywhere. He's been in our place, he knows our place, he created our place, and you can't hide from him in your place, and you can't hide behind your place from him. So הקדוש ברוך הוא haKadosh Baruch Hu can decide what and when and how and where to hold us accountable. He can decide. But no man can judge a fellow man. Because עד שתגיע למקומו, until you arrive in their place and no one can ever be in someone else's place. לכל אדם יש מקום שבו הוא נמצא. לא רק מקום פיזי. Everybody has their place, not only physically, not only geographically. אלא גם מקום רוחני ונפשי. We have a spiritual and emotional. We use this in our vernacular. Someone describes, I'm in a really good place. I'm in a bad place right now. They're not talking about their GPS coordinates. They're talking about their emotional, their mental, their spiritual wellbeing. I'm in a great place. I'm in a terrible place. לאדם יש תכונות מולדות, חינוך שקיבל, יחסים מבני משפחתו, דברים שלמד וחוויה שחווה. כל אלה פועלים מצבו אישיותו ונטייתו. תמיד יש לאדם בחירה חופשית. But a person always has free will. Even within whatever place we're in, we have what's called a נקודת הבחירה nekudas ha'bechira. We have that moment, that ability to choose. Hashem can decide where our free will was. There's so much that actually limits or eliminates our free will. What's our IQ, our artistic ability, our athleticism, our socioeconomic status, our DNA, where do we come from, when are we born, where do we live? What are the challenges we face? What are the skills and talents, and what are the liabilities and shortcomings? All that was predetermined from above from השם Hashem. So where's our נקודת הבחירה nekudas ha'bechira? Where is the free will we have within a world of so much determinism? I've had this conversation with some of you about how do you understand if someone's acted in a psychotic way? If someone has what the world has told us, if someone has the illness of addiction, is that a chemical illness? Is that predetermined psychological profile? Is that their מקום makom in life and therefore they're never accountable because they have no free will, or within it there still is free will? The only one who can determine and decide where is the free will of that person even with everything else that's been predetermined is השם Hashem, the מקומו של עולם mekomo shel olam. ברוך המקום ברוך הוא. המקום ינחם אתכם. השם Hashem is the מקום makom. He knows every place and he can see within your place, good or bad, or where you're holding, or where you come from, or what you're contending with, he knows where is your free will. But fellow man can never do it, can never do it. So Moshe mentions their mistakes in the context of place to remind them two things. Don't judge each other because you've never been in the place of another. But you know who can judge you and hold you accountable? השם Hashem, because he knows every place. So it's not a coincidence that when Moshe wants to use an embedded code to communicate his rebuke, he does it by engaging מקום makom, place, to transmit both those messages. Number one, no one can judge a fellow man because we've never been in their place. We've never walked in their shoes, we don't know what they're going through. But number two, that the one who can is the מקומו של עולם mekomo shel olam, which is the Almighty himself, הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu. הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu. One more on the opening פסוק pasuk and then we'll move on. Wow, this might be a record. The אמרי טהרות Imrei Taharos. What I love about our שיעור shiur, am I allowed to say that? I don't know if there's another פרשה שיעור parsha shiur in the world where you'll have Rabbi Sacks and the רחמיסטריווקא רבי Rachmastrivka Rebbe. Rav Shlomo Berman, the ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of the מיר Mir, and Rebbe Nachman. But ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, they all are on one פסוק pasuk. We could spend the rest of our lives on one פסוק pasuk. That's how rich Torah is. Every word, every vowel, we could spend the rest of our lives on one פסוק pasuk and not scratch the surface. And look at the diversity of who we've quoted, of the insights that we've gleaned. So the רחמיסטריווקא רבי Rachmastrivka Rebbe, the אמרי טהרות Imrei Taharos, אלה הדברים אשר דיבר משה Eleh ha'dvarim asher diber Moshe. He quotes the נועם אלימלך Noam Elimelech, כי בשעה שאדם עושה מצווה, הוא ממשריש קדושה בנפשו ובאיבריו. When a person does a מצוה mitzva, a positive thing, the word of השם Hashem, that person plants holiness, a spark in their soul, and also in whatever limbs they use to do that מצוה mitzva. אמנם בעושה עבירה חס ושלום, but the opposite is also true. If you use your body, your limbs, to do an עבירה aveira, to make a mistake, אז נעשה חסרון באותו איבר שעשה בו העבירה. That limb is now lacking, is missing, is compromised by how you used or misused it in the pursuit of a, of a mistake. ונסתבב מזה שאף אם אחר כך יעשה מצווה באיבר ההוא, לא תחול עליו קדושת המצווה. And it's hard to repair, it's hard to make up. If you've damaged or compromised that, that limb, even if you do a מצוה mitzva later, it's hard to bring it back. אחרי ששורה עליו, רחמנא ליצלן. So מה יעשה אדם לתקן את נפשו? So what do we do? How can we become whole? If we've become spiritually, spiritually, what's it called when you have to cut off a limb? Spiritually amputated, thank you, Lee, thank you. So how do, I'm out of practice. Spiritually amputated, how do we recover? How do we become spiritually whole? העצה היא שיכלול עצמו בתוך כלל ישראל. The answer is when we identify with and immerse ourselves in and connect with and live with service to the Jewish people. כי למעלה בעולמות העליונים יש עולם הנקרא כלל ישראל. We spoke about כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. Rabbi Sacks brilliantly quoted the כלי יקר Kli Yakar. The first four books, בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael. The fifth book, כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. From a family to a nation, from children to parents, from recipients to givers. So the רחמיסטריווקא רבי Rachmastrivka Rebbe is quoting the נועם אלימלך Noam Elimelech. He's coming from another perspective. כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael means כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael is not just 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. The Jewish people are not just you take a census and then you have our final number. Ooh, we broke the barrier, there's now more than 10 million in Israel. You know that 80 years after the Holocaust, we've still not recovered the number we were before the Holocaust. Which is a reflection of the atrocity of how damaging the Holocaust was, but if you really do an analysis, it's also revealing of how much we've become accomplices to Hitler eliminating ourselves, that intermarriage is destroying the Jewish people. That statistic is because intermarriage. We've not recouped those numbers. We've not surpassed them as we should have demographically, because statistically, because of what we've done to ourselves. So if you take a census of the Jewish people, we are not just the sum total of our numbers that you count. There is an entity that exists called כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael. The Jewish people are not just 1+1+1+1. בוקע פלוס בושתינא פלוס ירושלים. No, there's something called an entity called the Jewish people. What Rabbi Soloveitchik called covenantal Israel. שבו לא שייך שיהיה לסטרא אחרא אפילו שליטה כל דהו. Individually we could be lacking. Individually we've made mistakes. Individually we, we have spiritual, we're spiritual amputees. Individually we could be compromised. Individually we're imperfect. But collectively, the total, the whole of who we are, that identity, that entity called כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael is perfect. כי כללות ישראל הם תמיד בשלימות הטוב בלי שום חסרון. Because when you add all of us up, when we complement and supplement one another, we present something which is perfect. When you take כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael, and when we identify and connect and are united with who we are as a whole, we complement and supplement in such a way that we're perfect. And that's why the נביא ישעיהו Navi Yeshayahu said, ועמך כולם צדיקים. How are we כולם צדיקים? How do we become all צדיקים? ועמך. Soloveitchik said the word עם am comes from the word אם im. When are you a nation? When you are together. So when we are together, when we are united, when we live and breathe, when we feel the pain and the empathy and when we care and we concern, when we are connected, when we see ourselves as part of that entity that is transcendent, that is beyond, then we achieve perfection. We become part of כולם צדיקים. We are all the righteous. How? When ועמך, then כולם צדיקים. כשאדם הפרטי כולל עצמו בכללות ישראל, when the individual says I'm not an individual, there's no me, there's no ego, there's no I, there's we, there's the people, there's a nation, and there's no me separate than that, than them. פועל הדבר שגם בנפשו ואיבריו לא יהיה שום חסרון. So you transform yourself that you're not an amputee spiritually anymore. And that's why חסידים says the נועם אלימלך, before they do every מצוה, what do they say? לשם ייחוד קודשא בריך הוא ושכינתיה, בשם כל ישראל. They say I'm about to do this מצוה not just for myself, not so I earn the merit, I earn the reward, it's all about me. I'm not only doing it for my ledger, my spreadsheet, I did the right thing. I'm doing it לשם כל ישראל. I'm doing this on behalf of, this is my contribution to, my part of the covenantal community, the whole Jewish people. ועל ידי זה יכול לקיימה המצווה כראוי. ועוד יש עצה לזה and there's another way to observe this he says, which is שבת Shabbos, and that's what he gets into. אלה הדברים is a רמז לשמירת שבת, אל כל ישראל is the second רמז. How can we achieve perfection? What was Moshe saying? See yourself part of כלל ישראל. You're never alone, you're never apart from, you're never away, you're always כלל ישראל, part of the collective Jewish people. פרק א' פסוק ה', I told you we turn the page. Page 940. בערב הירדן בארץ מואב הואיל משה באר את התורה הזאת לאמור. On the other side of the Jordan, in Moab, הואיל משה ho'il Moshe began explaining the Torah by saying the following. He began to explain the Torah by saying the following. We've mentioned in the past this Rashi, I can't help but say it again. באר. Rashi says בשבעים לשון פירשה להם. How did Moshe tell it to them? In pretty impressive. Moshe spoke how many languages? 70. The nations of the world, 70 languages. The punishment for the Tower of Bavel. But Moshe spoke, why do you have to say it in 70 languages? They only spoke one language. Everyone there was born in the desert. Remember all those who left מצרים Mitzrayim died. All were born since then. They spoke one language together as one camp, one people, one journey. So why did he have to say it in 70 languages? If they only spoke one, they all spoke the same. So we mentioned in previous years the insight that if Moshe was in perpetuity our teacher, Moshe was teaching Torah not only for his time. What Moshe was telling us was, Torah is relevant for every generation, in every place, in every time, Torah has something to say. Torah can be transmitted in every language, it means to every generation and in every time. But the דגל מחנה אפרים, one of our two of our second אמרי טהרות, רחמיסטריווקא רבי, the דגל מחנה אפרים, the נכד, the grandson of the בעל שם טוב, says הואיל משה באר. The word באר can mean to explain, לבאר, to explain. Give a ביאור, an explanation. But the word באר also means something else. What else does it mean? A well. Why do we have the same word for well and explanation, elucidation? Says the דגל מחנה אפרים, כל העוסק בתורה לשמה נעשה כמעיין המתגבר. חז\"ל, the משנה בפרקי אבות, in אבות tells us, the ברייתא in אבות, the sixth פרק tells us, anyone who learns Torah לשמה, genuinely and faithfully, turns into a overflowing wellspring. A מעיין המתגבר ma'ayan ha'misgaber. והנה כעניין מצאנו כמה פעמים בגמרא שנקרא אמוראים בשם משה. משה שפיר קאמרת. כי כל אדם ישראל שלומד תורה לשמה מקבל מהדעת של משה רבנו, ונקרא לימוד התורה כראוי, תורה לשמה. Anyone who's teaching Torah becomes this wellspring. Moshe, he's no longer, but he began this flow, this wellspring and it continues to flow. His teaching, his commentary, his elucidation, it continues to flow. But it means more than that. It means באר, when you understand, when you get excited by, you become this מעיין המתגבר ma'ayan ha'misgaber. When you have or you hear an amazing דבר תורה dvar Torah, you can't wait to share it with others. You're so excited. You become a מעיין המתגבר ma'ayan ha'misgaber. You're an overflowing wellspring. My dear friend Ben in the 11559, he hears or he remembers a great דבר תורה dvar Torah, it's on his status, he's telling everyone on the street, tells everyone he can find, tells everyone he knows. When you're excited, when you're moved, when you're shaken by a דבר תורה dvar Torah, when you have a ביאור biur, a באר be'er, you become a באר be'er, a מעיין המתגבר ma'ayan ha'misgaber, a well, a wellspring of Torah, and that's why it is these same word. That's why it is the same word. פרק א' פסוק ו'. רב לכם שבת בהר הזה. Enough of your dwelling at this mountain. It's time to move on. Stop clinging to הר סיני Har Sinai, it's time to move on. There's a beautiful teaching of the תפארת שלמה of רבי שלמה מרדומסק. But I want to keep going so I'm not going to read it to you inside even though I really want to but I'm not. But he repunctuates not רב לכם שבת בהר הזה, but רב לכם שבת בהר הזה. When Hashem speaks to us בחורב, why do we always read this פסוק in the week before תשעה באב? שבת חזון. In our case it'll be on ערב תשעה באב. Because חורב is a mountain, it's where Hashem gave the Torah, but חורב also comes from the word חורבן. חורבן means the destruction. Hashem Elokeinu, God spoke to us from the destruction telling us רב לכם שבת. That even when you don't have a בית המקדש and you don't have קרבנות, you know where you can find me? שבת. You still have שבת. Wherever you go in the world, you will always have שבת. That's why it's מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי, Hashem says, I've given you a great gift in my storehouse called שבת. The בית המקדש was only in ירושלים and when it was destroyed, we can no longer bring קרבנות. But wherever you go and wherever you are, and I was in some wild places this past couple of weeks including שבת, and it's amazing. Because the moment you decide you're keeping and observing שבת wherever you are, you light those candles, you lift that cup and you make that קידוש, you sing that קה אכסוף, you transform, you're in the מקום המקדש. מקדש is in time and מקדש is in space. And when you observe and you keep שבת, you're not bound or limited by this world. Wherever you are and wherever you go and wherever you find yourself, hostages, and may the rest of them be freed immediately. But hostages who come out talked about keeping שבת in the tunnels, when they knew when it was, they were determined. You can be oppressed. Victor Frankl and man's search for meaning. Even if you're captive, even if you're held hostage, even if you find yourself isolated, the trip, the flight was canceled, the business trip, you find yourself having to keep שבת somewhere far off, the moment you decide, when Hashem speaks to us בחורב, the tunnels under Gaza are בחורב, that's חורבן, it's a place of חורבן. But Hashem speaks to us even from a place of חורבן. How? He says רב לכם, says the תפארת שלמה, רב לכם not שבת, רב לכם שבת. The power and the capacity to keep, to observe, to find Hashem in שבת, even when we can't find Hashem anymore in מקדש. That's the power of this שבת that's coming. And we'll see, it's a wild שבת. This שאלת שלוש סעודות, you could eat פליישיגס. Normally the סעודה the last meal right before תשעה באב, bread, ash, water. It's the, it's the meal right before we're commemorating the destruction, the calamity, the tragedy, everything that's gone wrong. But this week שבת right before תשעה באב, it's so powerful. Seconds before the fast will begin, you could be drinking wine and eating meat, because that's the power of שבת. Even בחורבן בחורב, רב לכם שבת. The transformational impact of שבת. I have a lot more to say about this, particularly שאלת שלוש סעודות, but I'm going to spare you. But now we move to the פרשה moves on. It's where sadly running out of time, but it moves on to the issue of Moshe's beginning his soliloquy and he's walking them through Jewish history until that point. And not every way that he invokes and remembers Jewish history till that point is consistent with the way we were told it in the first four books of the Torah. And case in point is, he begins to talks about the appointment of judges, but he quickly pivots to the case of the spies. פרק א' פסוק י\"ח, page 942. Chapter one, verse 18. ואצווה אתכם בעת ההיא את כל הדברים אשר תעשון. I told you everything. וניסע מחורב ונלך את כל המדבר, and we made our way. And sorry, what happened? Go backwards. I turned the page too quickly. See what happens when you turn the page too quickly? Where is it? They ask for spies. פרק א' פסוק כ\"ב. ותקרבון אלי כולכם. Sorry, page 944. You approached me. ותאמרו and you said נשלחה אנשים לפנינו, let's send in advance people. ויחפרו לנו את הארץ and they'll investigate the land. וישיבו אותנו דבר, they'll bring back, את הדרך אשר נעלה בה, what's the right way for us to ascend, ואת הערים אשר נבוא אליהם, give us a little information about the cities that we're going to confront and we're going to have to, we're going to have to face. So Moshe reminds them all about the story of the spies. וייטב בעיני הדבר. I thought it was a good idea. So I took 12 men. ויעלו ההרה ויבואו עד נחל אשכול, they went, וירגלו אותה. You see here Moshe began by invoking which word? What was the verb? ויחפרו. And now he turns to what's the word? וירגלו. ויקחו בידם מפרי הארץ, they came back with all this wonderful fruit. וישיבו אותנו דבר ויאמרו טובה הארץ. Wow. הטובה. טובה הארץ. ולא אביתם לעלות ותמרו את פי השם. But we didn't go up. And you went and you cried, and it all went downhill from there. Let me ask you a simple question. They said טובה הארץ. The land is good. Why didn't the people hear the land is good? In the report was, the land is good, the fruit, the vegetables, the breakfast is unbelievable, the shwarma, the hikes, it's unbelievable. Oh, also there's giants and I'm concerned, and here are the military installations, and here are the rockets and the missiles. Here is you're gonna have to have a bomb shelter in every house. But הטובה הארץ, the land is good. Why didn't they hear the טובה הארץ part? So the מים עמוקים, I got a beautiful text yesterday from Netanel Weil, who listens and learns, we learn together online, our שיעורים. And he sent me, he's in מילואים for who knows how many times, and he said he prepares a דבר תורה to learn with his fellow soldiers in מילואים, and he came across this מים עמוקים, this teaching of רבי כלפה, and he thought I'd enjoy it, so he sent it to me. So I want to share it with you. מטבע, מטבע האדם, the nature of a person, שדבר שהקרוב אליו ברוחו ובלבבו, that that which you are predisposed, that which you're predetermined, that which you've already decided in your heart, לא יועילו כל העצות ופתויים להחריגו ממנו. Nothing anyone will say, no convincing, no persuasion, no one will get you to abandon. אדרבה, מתוך דברי העצות עצמו יקשה וישמע טעם את הדבר, וימצא חיזוק לדבריו יותר. When you come in with a preconceived notion, when you've already decided, when you're already predetermined, when you've already made up your mind, nothing anyone will say will get you to change. And not only that, you'll read into what they're saying to actually support your position, even if it's the opposite. ולכן אף על פי שהמרגלים הסיטו את ישראל ובלבלו את דברי הארץ, בכל זאת אילו היו רוצים באמת לעלות לארץ ישראל, לא היו משגיחים כלל בדברי הבלה של המרגלים. אדרבה, כך מתוך דבריהם עצמם היו מקשיבים טובה הארץ אשר השם אלוקינו נותן לנו, ורק מכיוון שלא אביתם לעלות, הטיתם את אוזניכם לשמוע טובת הארץ. Because they were predecided and predetermined, we're afraid we don't want to go, they even though the report included טובה הארץ, they didn't hear it. They didn't hear it. So we all have an antenna, we all have a filter. We all have a filter. I'm not talking about the kosher time kind. We all have a filter on what we see and what we hear. And it only lets through what's going to support our preconceived notions. In the world of social media or online, you call that an echo chamber. You know, the algorithm only plays for you what you already know and what you already believe and what you already have. And it's filtering for you to support your preconceived notions, and you're not getting exposed to other ideas and another side. And that's what went wrong and that's what happened over here, was that even though the report included טובה הארץ, they didn't hear it because they already were predetermined, predecided, they didn't want to go up. They didn't think they could go up. So forget about it. So they didn't hear the טובה הארץ. And then Moshe quickly turns on them. We're going to have to get to this next year. But Moshe in פרק א' פסוק ל\"ז, on the next page, shockingly, he says, we had this whole disaster called the spies. You asked me, I thought it was a good idea, we sent 12, they came back, you cried for nothing. Hashem said, I'll give you a reason to cry. גם בי התאנף השם בגללכם. And then God got angry at me also because of you. גם אתה לא תבוא שם. Moshe... he turns to the people and he says, God told me I can't go in. And you know why that happened? Because of you. Whoa. Is that accurate? Is that fair? Why was Moshe not allowed in? Was it because of them? No, because he hit the rock instead of speaking to it, or because he yelled and gave into anger, or because he took credit for the water even though it wasn't him. Whatever the hundred reasons are about about Mei Meriva, it wasn't because of חטא המרגלים cheit hamiraglim. It had nothing to do with the spies.So what, Moshe just, God forbid to even say, but Moshe conveniently found a reason to peg his problem on the people? You messed up, you weren't allowed in, you and because of you, I also couldn't go in. Yeah, that's it. That's why. Because of you, I also couldn't go in. That's not very fair. Doesn't seem intellectually honest. It's not accurate. This is not my question, the אור החיים הקדוש Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh and the כלי יקר Kli Yakar and the רמב\"ן Ramban. And there's a beautiful insight we'll share from Rabbi Soloveitchik and Rabbi Sacks. And I have my own חידוש chiddush, one of the few I ever had on this, but we're out of time. If you give me another hour, I'd love to tell it to you. But alas, we're out of time. But I will call your attention again, and this is in the Rabbi Sacks חומש Chumash again. He points out discrepancies between the way the story of the spies is told here and the way it was told back in פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach. And there are several of those discrepancies. I won't give you the answer, but at least I'll I'll whet your appetite with his question.And he says the following. The story of the spies he tells is very different, the version in שלח Shlach, which describes the events as they happened almost 39 years earlier. The discrepancies are glaring and numerous. He focuses on only two. First, who proposed sending the spies? In פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach, it was Hashem who told Moshe. Hashem spoke to Moshe, שלח לך אנשים shlach lecha anashim. In our פרשה parsha, Moshe presents it as who instigated the sending of the spies? The people. The English does not convey the sense of menace in the original here. They came, says Rashi, in a crowd, without respect, protocol, or order. They were a mob. This mirrors the people's behavior at the beginning of the story of the golden calf, but not the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel.In במדבר Bamidbar, we noted a second discrepancy. In our פרשה parsha, the people said, let us send men, ויחפרו v'yachperu. The twelve men went up, וירוגלו vayiraglu. In other words, our פרשה parsha uses the two Hebrew words לחפור lachpor and לרגל l'ragel, but the account in שלח Shlach conspicuously does not mention spying. Thirteen times it uses the word לסור lasur. It means to tour, to explore, to travel, to inspect.So two discrepancies between the way it appears here in פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach, Rabbi Sacks points out both, gives a beautiful explanation. But alas, we are out of time.So thank you for coming. אם ירצה השם Im yirtzeh Hashem we'll spend this תשעה באב Tisha B'Av in ירושלים Yerushalayim, enjoying and eating from the קרבנות korbanos of the rebuilt בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. We דאווען daven the hostages are home today, and the soldiers are safe with their families. We're taking off a few more weeks, so look forward to resuming at the end of the summer and continuing each and every week from there. For bonus material, for extra דברי תורה divrei Torah, for the write up, and to follow the schedule, please join the WhatsApp group, rabbiefremgoldberg.org/whatsapp. You could join all of our WhatsApp groups. Until then, may we hear בשורות טובות, ישועות ונחמות besoros tovos, yeshuos v'nechamos.
