[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well. Before we begin this week's episode, I want to take a moment to dedicate this podcast, this episode of this week's Parasha podcast, as a merit for the Jews in Israel and around the world. We all have been, you know, seeing the news coming out of Israel with the war with Iran, and hopefully in this week's Parasha, I want to maybe connect an idea to current events, possibly with God's help, and maybe just give us some inspiration into the happenings that are going on around us.
[00:00:46] So before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, would like to reach out to say hello, give it a shot, send me an email, say hello, introduce yourself. I'd love to hear from you. My email address is Rabbi Shlomo konkohnmail.com this week's Parsha is Parshas Shalach.
[00:01:10] Now, just to give a quick overview of the Parsha. The Parsha deals with the story of the spies, the Margalim.
[00:01:19] Now, the Jewish people are in the desert after leaving the land of Egypt, and they come to Moshe Rabbeinu, they come to Moses to ask him a simple, innocent request.
[00:01:33] They would like to send spies into the land of Israel to reconnoiter the land, to see its defenses, to see what's going on, you know, before they go in to do their eventual conquest.
[00:01:50] And Moshe seeing that the way they approached him, you know, was a little bit interesting, he. He feels that there's something a little bit improper here. But nevertheless, he acquiesces to their request.
[00:02:05] And he asks, obviously he asks God for permission first, and he lets you know, God gives his permission. And the Jews send spies into the land of Israel.
[00:02:15] Now, these spies, there's one from each one of the tribes, 10 of them devise a plan to give over a false narrative about the land.
[00:02:28] And they go in, and they go in with this plan and these negative eyes and everything they see is negative and bad. And they have this plan that they're going to go back to the Jewish people, give this bad report on the land of Israel.
[00:02:45] They're going to spread lashon hara, evil speech on Eretz Yisrael with the hope that they won't have to go into the land.
[00:02:54] And the commentaries discuss how could this have happened? Each one of these, you know, these 10 of the 12 spies who went bad, they were leaders of each tribe, right? There were 12, 12 spies, two of them stayed true to their values. Yeshua and Caleb, Joshua and Caleb, they both did not give over an evil report. And they tried to convince them not to do their bad mission, their evil mission. But these other 10, they were good people, they were leaders. What happened, what went wrong?
[00:03:26] And I've discussed that on previous Parsha episodes.
[00:03:32] But the idea is that they had this idea that they wanted to stay in the desert, where they had this existence of just learning Torah. It was a total spiritual existence. They were supported by God directly. And going into the land of Israel would mean a new existence for them which would be working the land.
[00:03:51] And they wouldn't be able to study Torah all day. They would have to fend for themselves.
[00:03:57] And they thought they knew better.
[00:03:59] And that's just one of the ideas of what happened and why they devised this plan. They thought they had higher intentions, they had good intentions, possibly, but they from their, you know, trying to outsmart what God wanted, they came to a point of denying God, as the Parsha tells us. So the Parsha tells us about the spies, how they come back and give this report. And the Jewish people accept this negative report from the spies. And they cry and they mourn. They tell Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses, which have been better for us to die in Egypt, and Hashem, ah, God gets angry at the Jewish nation. And the Parsha deals with the back and forth between Moshe and Hashem as he is defending the Jewish nation from punishment.
[00:04:47] And finally, G. D acquiesces to Moshe's prayers and grants the Jewish people forgiveness.
[00:04:54] But he declares that that the Jewish people have to spend 40 years in the desert to rectify the 40 days that the spies were in the land of Israel, giving their bad report.
[00:05:09] And the generation that came out of Egypt, it is decreed upon them that that generation will not enter the land, including Moshe Rabbeinu, including Moses. It'll only be the next generation. A generation is about 40 years. Only after the complete generation has passed on will they be able to enter into the land of Israel. The Parsha continues with the special Mitzvah of the Nisachim, the libations, the wine libations that were to be poured in the Tabernacle, as well as the Mitzvah of Challah, which is a separation that any dough that was made over a certain amount, a portion of it would have to be taken out and given to the Kohen. Additionally, the Parasha concludes with the story of the Sabbath desecrator in the wilderness, the Mikoshesh Atzim and finally, with the mitzvah and the commandment of wearing tzitzit, to wear the four cornered garment that has special tassels that are referred to as tzitzis.
[00:06:05] So the first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha.
[00:06:12] Now we know the parsha tells us about the story of the spies.
[00:06:18] And the first rashi in this week's parsha tells us something very insightful into human psychology.
[00:06:27] It says, as lama nismacha parshas meraglim la parshas. Miriam, why is it that this week's parsha is next to the parsha, which is last week's parsha, the parsha about Miriam, right? We know Miriam. She spoke lashon hara. She said evil speech, gossip about her brother Moshe Rabbeinu, and. And was stricken with saras.
[00:06:52] And why is it that the miraglim, the story of the spies, is next to the story of Miriam?
[00:07:01] Uh, because they both were struck because of speech.
[00:07:09] Miriam, she spoke badly about her brother.
[00:07:13] And these wicked men, these spies who went bad.
[00:07:17] Ro. They saw what happened to Miriam.
[00:07:22] They saw what happened to her firsthand, how she spoke about Moshe Rabbeinu, how she got soras, how she had to be secluded and sent out of the camp, but yet they didn't take anything for it. They didn't realize what happens when you speak evil speech. They didn't realize it didn't go into them. The lesson didn't penetrate them.
[00:07:44] And Rabbi Tversky brings down that the focus on Rashi is not necessarily how evil that they were or how evil they became, these 10 spies who went bad, but rather on the fact that they saw something and they didn't take it in.
[00:08:01] They became blind, willfully blind.
[00:08:05] And I think this is very important because if you look in the parsha, the story of the spies, it tells of their travels throughout the land of Israel. And throughout the land of Israel, different, you know, interesting things were happening.
[00:08:20] You know, funny things. People were dying.
[00:08:23] You know, there was, um. And, you know, and if you look at their report, what they say back to the Jewish nation, they say the fruits were very large, right? And they say there's giants.
[00:08:36] But everything they saw, they had the ability to look at it in a positive light.
[00:08:42] Uh, but rather, since they came into this mission to give a negative report, everything was bad. Because no matter what they looked at, they didn't realize that God had made this plague or this epidemic in the land as a cover for them, so that the population should be busy Burying their dead and shouldn't notice these newcomers.
[00:09:04] And to them, it was a negative thing that the fruits were so large, right? When really it's a blessing to have beautiful, succulent, large fruits.
[00:09:16] And, you know, all the different things that they saw, everything was for the negative. And it started before this week's parsha by the story of Miriam, that maybe the idea is that Rashi is telling us here is that because they didn't observe that lesson and didn't let it penetrate their soul to let it go in. And they had this certain willful blindness, it caused them to make such a tragic mistake which ended up with the Jews having to stay in the desert for 40 years. And I think this is very important because we all have things that happen to us on a daily basis and things go on around us in our world, you know, whether it be current events, whether it be just our daily lives.
[00:10:02] And we can go through our day, our week, our year, our lives, and think that everything is a coincidence, everything just happened to work out or not work out.
[00:10:14] And, you know, it's easy to just to look at things in that way. But I think it's us. It's up to us to not have that blindness, to, you know, to put on the special glasses to try to see the world around us with divine providence that's there. I think that's very important. Especially, you know, when you think about a situation that's going on right now in Israel with missiles flying and, you know, this, you know, amazing operation that the Israeli army did, you know, think about it for a second. It wasn't because of the might of the Israeli army alone that they're able to do this mission. It's because God granted them success. That is the reason he gave them success. He let them be mighty. And if you think about it for a second, this operation and the fact that missiles are coming in one life is too much. But thank God, miracles upon miracles of stories of people who were supposed to be somewhere and they weren't, and the building collapsed. I just read a story a couple of hours ago that this missile that hit a hospital, they had just a few hours earlier emptied that wing of the hospital.
[00:11:30] So do we look at it as coincidence, or do we look at it as something more, as divine providence? And I think it's not just how we look at the world, but it's also in our decisions as well.
[00:11:41] Sometimes we just don't want to hear something.
[00:11:45] We make ourselves willfully blind to whatever it is, to hearing someone else, to thinking Differently.
[00:11:54] We just want to think a certain way. We don't want to hear anything different.
[00:11:58] And it's a problem. It's a problem. It's not a good trait. We should be able to hear other things, to be willing to grow, to be willing to learn, to not be so set in our ways that we can't even hear another opinion to something. And Robert Twersky brings down that one way that we protect ourselves from being willfully blinded, which can protect us in a lot of different areas. Obviously, number one is in our relationship with God and looking at the world that we don't just think it's coincidence.
[00:12:30] It'll help us realize divine providence in the world and in our own lives.
[00:12:36] But even when it comes to marriage and decisions about, you know, where we should live or what we should do or what job I should take, if we just make ourselves, we just follow our emotions and we don't, we're not able to hear other opinions or, uh, to hear something that maybe we don't want to hear.
[00:12:57] It could lead us to decisions that we could regret later on. I think we. The way we protect ourselves from that. And this is not me, this is Rabbi Twersky. And it makes a lot of sense, is that we're opening to having mentors, to having people we could bounce ideas off of.
[00:13:11] And a Rebbe of mine told me once, he said, a good Rebbe, a good rabbi, tells you things you don't want to hear.
[00:13:20] Someone who's your mentor, someone you look up to, doesn't always tell you the things that you want to hear, but rather tells you the things you don't want to hear. Because we need to hear them. Because if we just hear the things we want to hear, that means we're doing something wrong, right? They say a sign of a good rabbi is where he's not totally loved and not totally hated. Somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in the middle.
[00:13:43] The point is you know when to give people strength, but at the same time, you know, to set them on the straight and narrow, to set them straight. I think this is a very powerful idea from this week's parsha, which goes back to the maraglim, how their whole downfalls began by not taking in what they saw, by making themselves willfully blind. And from there, one thing led to the next, which led to their ultimate downfall.
[00:14:08] The next idea I want to share with you takes us to the Mitzvah of Challah. And in this week's Parasha, Hashem tells Moshe to tell the Jewish people that every Time they make bread, they make dough.
[00:14:21] They have to take a portion of that dough and separate it and give it to the kohanim. So the kohanim, um, were the teachers of the Jewish nation, and they were supported through the Jewish people. All their needs were taken care of. So whether it be different parts of an animal had to be given to the Jewish people, different parts of an animal had to be given to the kohanim.
[00:14:45] Shearings of wool, a portion of it had to be given to the kohanim um, the, um, different squeezing of the oil, amounts of oil to be given to the kohanim. And when it came to bread as well, that a portion of every dough would have to be given to the kohanim. And it's spoken about in this week's Parasha and this foreknow comments that it's specifically given here after the sin of the miraglim of the spies, that it was going to be a new merit for the Jewish people, that by them giving to the Kohanim, that through them this act of giving tzedakah, giving charity, by supporting the Torah scholars, by supporting the kohanim, they would have a new merit to sustain them and sustain their families.
[00:15:32] The idea I wanted to share, though, today I saw a very beautiful thought by Rab Hirsch.
[00:15:38] The psukim read as follows. Vaydabar hashem waysha lamor.
[00:15:42] It says, uh, G D spoke to Moshe, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land to which I am bringing you, it shall be when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall lift out an uplifted donation for God.
[00:16:07] Reishis arisay seichem chala tarimu truma ketrumas geiren ken truma oiso.
[00:16:14] As the first portion from your kneading troughs, you shall lift out a cake of bread as an uplifted donation. Like the uplifted donation from your threshing floor, so shall you lift up this one. Me reishas ariso seichem titnu la hashem truma go daru seichem. From the first portion of from your kneading troughs shall you give to God an uplifted donation for your descendants.
[00:16:41] So the first thing here, and just to thinking about challah, when I say that word, people think about challah, right? This braided, delicious dough which we eat on Shabbos.
[00:16:52] And if I would ask most people what does the word challah mean, they'll say it means bread.
[00:16:58] But the answer to that is that challah doesn't literally mean bread, it means a portion.
[00:17:05] And it's going back to this mitzvah that the way we know challah, right? This bread loaf of challah, it became known as challah because of this mitzvah, uh, of taking a portion of the dough and giving it to the kohanim. Now, nowadays, this mitzvah, uh, it's still done. It's done as more of a remembrance to the actual mitzvah because as the sukim says, the verses say, it's done when we're in the land, when we're in the land of Israel.
[00:17:38] Now, today we do the mitzvah, we separate the dough and we burn it, because we're not the kohanim. Even if you give it to a kohen, he's impure. He's not allowed to eat challah being impure, so it's burned. But it's more of a remembrance to the mitzvah that would be done when we would be in the land.
[00:17:55] Now, Rev. Hirsh brings down a very fascinating idea. From this mitzvah.
[00:18:01] We see that the focus of the mitzvah, uh, it's when we're in the land, meaning that if a person brings, you know, flour or wheat that was grown outside the land of Israel and creates that wheat dough in the land of Israel, it would be obligated in challah. And similarly, if someone takes wheat that was grown in the land of Israel and takes it out of the land of Israel according to the biblical commandment, on a biblical level, it would not be obligated in challah, right? Obviously, nowadays we do, as everywhere in the world, we always do, the mitzvah of challah. But on a biblical level, you would not be obligated.
[00:18:38] And we see it's very important, this idea of being in the land of Israel to fulfill the mitzvah, of taking a portion.
[00:18:46] Additionally, we see by challah that a person can only fulfill the mitzvah when he takes a portion of the challah and gives it to the kohen. Meaning if a person takes the whole dough that he makes and gives it to the kohen, he's not fulfilling the mitzvah. He has to leave a portion for himself, only separating a small amount, leaving some for himself, and. And then he gives it to the kohen, only then does he fulfill the mitzvah.
[00:19:15] And on another level, the mitzvah of challah applies in almost all situations.
[00:19:22] You know, different tithes of different presents were given to the kohanim depending on the year. Depending on the type of crop it was, depending on which type of food it is, right? But challah always applied to all the five types of grains. Even on a year of Shemitah year, even though it's on the seventh year, when, when generally there's no tithes, challah still would apply.
[00:19:45] So we have to get into, uh, this idea of challah, what it represents, and what's the lesson that we could take out from it.
[00:19:52] And Rev. Hirsh brings down very beautifully, basing it off of the different words that are used in the verse or the verses, that the mitzvah of challah represents. Our, uh, remembering hashem, remembering God, right? When we're about to partake of this bread, we're about to make this dough that we created ourselves and we're about to enjoy shows that Hashem's providence, G D's providence is still on us. That our sustenance, the way we support ourselves, is divinely from God. It's divine providence. Because when we make that dough which represents our sustenance, and we separate a portion from it to give to the kohanim, who are, right, they were the people of hashem, uh, they were the priests, right? They were the rabbis that represent. They are the representatives of God. And we give it to them. We're showing that our sustenance, even though naturally we want to keep it for ourselves, we don't want to have the whole loaf for ourselves. We take a portion and we remember hashem. This is something we see in many aspects of our physical life at the moment. The things we create, we make. We always take a portion, give it to Hashem. Specifically, when it comes to bread, which is sustenance, we take that portion and we give it to the kohen. And it's, uh, showing that we're not forgetting where it comes from. And actually this idea is why challah has gotten the name challah. Because as Jews, that's what something we're going to remember something not necessarily by what it is physically, but what the mitzvahs, the mitzvos, the commandments that are behind it. So when you think of a challah, a delicious challah, it's not. We don't just call it. We could call it lechem, that's bread. But we want to call it by the mitzvah it represents. Additionally, this idea that if you have to leave a portion of the challah for yourself, you can't give it all to the kohen represents that each individual, each Jew has a portion of in this collective in this idea of this number, one is the divine providence is on each individual. And secondly, that each person has a portion in this godliness, meaning to say is it's not just about all, giving it to the Kohanim. Judaism is a very action based religion for everyone to get involved in, not just for the priests. So therefore the mitzvah is for the Jew to give a portion to the Kohen, but keep some for himself, representing that he himself, the individual, you, uh, know, is part of this bigger picture. Meaning, sure, there's the Kohanim, that they're the teachers, but they themselves as an individual are also part of this godly mission of being, you know, learning the Torah and doing the mitzvahs. It's not just for the, you know, the elite or for the priests, or for the rabbis, or for just the upper echelons of the religion. It's for every individual. And just to take this idea a little deeper, Rav Hirsch explains, as we said earlier, that the Mitzvah of Challah is only when the Jewish people are living in the land of Israel. On the biblical level. That's when the commandment begins that uh, when everyone's together in the land of Israel, that's when this mitzvah applies.
[00:23:14] So it comes out that the mitzvah, which shows an individual's connection to Hashem, that he's important, it's not just about giving to the Kohen that, you know, giving the Challah, he keeps a portion as well, that it's about him as well. And recognizing that Hashem is part of the equation, it's also important to remember that it's while the Jewish people are in Israel, which represents the Jewish nation, that it's not just enough to think about yourself and how God sustains you. But, but we need to remember as well that we're part of a bigger picture. We're part of the Jewish nation, the Jewish people, Israel, right, the land of Israel, which also represents the Jewish people as well. That it's not just about me and my bread, rather the collective Jewish people that were also part of that as well. We shouldn't just think of it Hashem watching over me and I have what for myself, but to think of it in a greater sense, in a more collective way, that you're part of something larger as well. You're part of the Jewish people.
[00:24:19] And obviously that has many ramifications. Feeling part. Feeling part of the Jewish nation, feeling connected, obviously lending a hand, whether it be physically or financially, to our Jewish brothers and sisters. This is I think something which is signified and represented in the midst of challah based on the understanding of reverse. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi shlomakon
[email protected]. have a great day.
