Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well. It's a few hours after Yom Kippur, Motzi, Yom Kippur.
[00:00:15] And I hope you had a meaningful and uplifting fast.
[00:00:19] And as they say in Yiddish, I want to wish everybody a good year.
[00:00:24] A good year.
[00:00:26] And actually, in fact, many people have the custom on Kippur right after Yom M. Kippur on that night to start building their sukkah.
[00:00:36] And the reason that they do this, even though you just had a fast and you might be tired and you might want to just relax a little bit after a nice 26 hour fast, is because after Yom Kippur, we just cleansed ourselves, we committed ourselves to being better in the future, that this year we're going to do better than we did last year.
[00:01:01] So right away, as soon as Yom Kippur is over, we want to start with the next mitzvah, which is building a Sukkah, which is going to be happening in a few days, the holiday of Sukkot, of Sukkos, which is going to be Monday night. So people build their sukkah right after Yom um Kippur. They start with the next mitzvah.
[00:01:20] And for myself, I decided that another great mitzvah I could be involved in is doing this week's Practical Parsha podcast episode. It's Thursday night and the parsha still is happening this week, Parshas hazinu. So I wanted to sit down for a few minutes, start my year off and continue, you know, to go from Yom um Kippur straight into another mitzvah, which is this podcast.
[00:01:51] So before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out just to say hello, don't be shy, feel free to send me an email at rabbi shlomo kon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:02:07] This week's parsha is Parshas Hasinu.
[00:02:11] And we're closing in on finishing the Torah.
[00:02:15] This is the second to last Parsha in the whole Torah.
[00:02:20] And this week the parsha, Parsha.
[00:02:24] It is the song that Moshe Rabbeinu referred to in last week's Parsha. In last week's Parasha, Moshe Rabbeinu made this covenant and he referred to this song, this special song of hazinu that he says to the Jewish people on the day that he's going to pass on and this week, Moshe Rabbeinu says this special song to the Jewish nation and really the Parasha. Just to give a quick overview, the Parasha begins with Moshe Rabbeinu, with Moses calling heaven and earth to be a witness to the covenant. And this song that he's about to tell the Jewish nation and the reasoning that's brought down Rashi explains that Moshe Rabbeinu said that he's flesh and blood, he's going to pass on.
[00:03:16] And just in case in the future there would be people, Jewish people, that would say that we didn't accept this covenant upon ourselves.
[00:03:27] Heaven and earth are the witness to say that the Jewish nation accepted upon themselves the covenant between God and the nation.
[00:03:40] And they. And, um, Heaven and earth would be either the first one to give reward to the Jewish nation or to, God forbid, give punishment. And actually, it's interesting because if you think of the many blessings that are listed for fulfilling the Torah, a lot of them are tied to the land of Israel.
[00:04:00] That the blessing the Jewish nation will receive, and specifically that the land, the land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael, will produce for the Jewish nation.
[00:04:11] And we see actually very clearly throughout our history that the Land of Israel only produces when the Jewish people are in there, when other nations have conquered it and lived in, has been a barren and dry, arid desert land. And actually, if you look into some of the writings of Mark Twain, he describes, you know, in Eretz Yisrael of that time, the land of Israel where nothingness and in fact, we see nowadays where the Jewish people are back in the land, that it's come alive again. But it's very interesting, this covenant between heaven and earth and the Jewish nation, that when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, that, uh, Moshe is bringing them as witnesses, so to say, so to speak, to our responsibilities to Hashem. And just to give a quick overview of this song of Hazinu that Moshe Rabbeinu is saying to the Jewish nation.
[00:05:12] Moshe Rabbeinu calls heaven and earth to bear witness. He also talks about Hashem's kindness to the Jewish nation.
[00:05:20] He gives the Jewish people this warning, how prosperity brings to dissolution and how it will lead us in the future to sort of kick to. For us to in a way, deny Hashem.
[00:05:33] And it also tells us in this week's Parasha how this will cause Hashem's wrath upon us.
[00:05:39] Additionally, the Parsha also talks about the enemies of the Jewish people, their false notion, their foolish conceit, talks about the source of Jewish people's suffering. And finally, the Parsha finishes with a comfort to the Jewish nation about the eventual redemption, how God will take care of the Jewish nation and redeem them, and how he will never leave them.
[00:06:08] The Parasha concludes with Hashem commanding Moshe Rabbeinu to go up the mountain and to pass on Har Nebo, which he will do at the end of the Zos Habrach after giving a blessing to the Jewish people, which is next week's Parsha.
[00:06:23] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:06:31] The beginning of the Parsha states as follows. Moshe Rabbeinu begins this song to the Jewish nation.
[00:06:38] It says, give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and may the earth hear the words of my mouth.
[00:06:49] The second verse reads as Yaroif kemotar likchi tizal ketalim rosi.
[00:07:01] May my teaching drop like the rain. May my utterance flow like the dew, like storm winds upon vegetation, and like raindrops upon blades of grass.
[00:07:14] I saw a very beautiful idea that's brought down from Bunim Mipshischa and also Rabbi Shah Salanter. He says there's a. We know sometimes the Torah is compared to rain and specifically to do.
[00:07:33] And he says that, you know, we sometimes can look at ourselves and look at the spiritual things that we do and think, you know, I'm still the same person.
[00:07:45] It hasn't changed me.
[00:07:48] Maybe we might say to ourselves, you know, I don't feel spirituality. I do a mitzvah and I don't feel different.
[00:07:55] It hasn't changed me. Maybe that's a thought we could think in ourselves.
[00:08:00] And Ravbunu Mepshika, he says based on this posseq, uh, based on this verse, that the words of the Torah are like rain.
[00:08:09] And how is Torah like rain?
[00:08:13] We know that when rain falls, the moment the rain falls, nothing happens on the ground. Everything's wet, everything's muddy, nothing grows, everything pretty much is the same. But yet we know that when the rain falls, it's integral, it's doing something, it's changing the reality.
[00:08:35] Because maybe if at this moment, um, nothing's happening, but we know that tomorrow, when the sun comes out, or after, when the storm passes, when it gets, you know, nice weather, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, the process of growth is going to happen.
[00:08:55] It's not something that happens instantaneously.
[00:08:59] Rather, it takes time, and it's something which develops. And we know that the rain is an integral part, that that rain falling is changing the situation on the ground. It is causing the vegetation to grow. It is making the trees get taller and stronger.
[00:09:20] And he says that's the same thing with the Torah and the mitzvos that we might say to ourselves sometimes that, you know, maybe, uh, the mitzos I'm doing, it's not affecting me. I'm still the same person or the spirituality that I'm, you know, experiencing, the things that I do, the learning the Torah, the mitzvahs, I don't feel anything. I feel the same.
[00:09:47] We have to know that the Torah is like rain, that it takes time. It's not something that we see instantaneously.
[00:09:57] It's something which goes into us slowly.
[00:10:00] And I think the, uh, you know, another way for us to understand this is that the hair on our body, we don't see our hair grow.
[00:10:11] But after a few weeks of not getting a haircut, we look different or, uh, noticeably the hair is longer because you can't see yourself grow. You can't see your hair grow.
[00:10:24] That's how it is with spirituality as well. Sometimes.
[00:10:27] Sometimes it takes time for us to become different people. But slowly we do change. And maybe we don't feel that feeling we think we need to feel or that experience we need to feel to, you know, whatever spirituality is that we think spirituality is.
[00:10:45] We have to know that the Torah is like rain. And that's what Moshe Rabbeenu is doing, telling the Jewish nation that the Torah should come down like rain on a person. And actually, I'm thinking about this a little bit more as I'm speaking is that ultimately in life, real change that is long term for people is change that happens slowly, that changes that happen very fast, Just as fast as they come, they go.
[00:11:16] And if we want something to change within us permanently, to be better people in the long run, it's much more likely to stay with us if something happens subtly, slowly, if there's a transformation over time. And I think ultimately with Ruhnius, with spirituality, that's how we want our growth to be. And I think it doesn't mean that we won't have a good feeling. I think everybody who learns Torah does get a feeling that they want more, that it's not enough for them. There's this quench. Maybe they realize it or not, but, uh, at the same time, there's no massive revelation of like, oh, my goodness, I'm having that moment. And spirituality. Because spirituality is not the way that Hollywood makes it out to be. Rather, it's like the rainwater and we need to keep that in mind. It's a very important thing to keep, keep in mind as we grow and just to add on to this idea a little bit more. Rabbi so Lanta brings down that just like rain, you know, in order for rain to take effect and to make things grow, the field has to be, you know, plowed, has to be seeded, has to be fertilized, has to be prepared for the rain to come.
[00:12:36] And then once those initial steps are taken, so then the rain causes all the natural, you know, steps to happen, Right?
[00:12:46] But if you have a field that just is rained upon and rain comes onto a field and it wasn't worked, and there's no seeds, no plowing, no fertilizing, so what are you gonna have?
[00:12:59] Nothing. And in fact, it's not nothing. It's gonna be worse off than before. You're gonna have a huge mud field. It's going to be worse than before. Right. That's the most challenging thing I remember, you know, going away in the summertime to fields. You know, when you're in these. When we go to the camp in West Virginia when it rains and there's just tons of water, there's mud everywhere. I mean, the kids love it. But the point is it's destroying in a way. It's not helping, it's hurting. And this is a very important idea that Rabisol Salanta brings down, that we have to also make ourselves, you know, that field ready for the rain to come, to help it grow.
[00:13:39] We have to prepare ourselves to make ourselves a, uh, field that the rain can actually do something. We have to do the planting, we have to do the plowing. So once we do that step, we do the initial steps of wanting to learn Torah, of trying to do mitzvos, of taking that step, you know, to make that little opening for Hashem, he's gonna send that rain down to help us grow much more than we could ever imagine. And actually think about it for a moment as well. Like, you know, you look in the summertime when the rain comes down and the amount of growth after a rain, let's say the grass, even how fast it grows, you know, just from, I notice it from when I have to mow my lawn, the weeks that it rains, the grass grows so much faster.
[00:14:31] Like, it's amazing how much faster it grows. But the point is, I think the idea here is that when we do that preparation, so the. We're going to get that godly assistance from Hashem, the rain is going to come, which is that Siyata deshmayah, that heavenly help to help, that growth be exponential, to be amazing. And I think it's a very powerful idea we see from this week's parsha. The next idea I want to share with you takes us a little further into the parasha. The posse reads as Ki chele k Hashem, amo Yaakov chevel nachalasa. For Hashem's portion is his people.
[00:15:08] Jacob is the measure of his inheritance.
[00:15:11] And the posseq is implying, is telling us that the Jewish people are Hashem's portion. Jacob, which is. He's one of our, uh, forefathers. The. Through him is the Jewish people. There's a beautiful idea I saw brought down by the Chavitz Chaim. He asked as follows. If the Jewish people, if the children of Jacob, right, B' Nai Yisrael, they are Hashem's, uh, portion, and Hashem chose them to be his people, why did Hashem put them down here in this physical world?
[00:15:45] Right. Why did Hashem bring us down to this lowly physical world? Right. We know Fashem as the heavens and other worlds, right? God could have put us there as a nation. We could have been his people in a higher place, right? Why was it necessary for God to take his treasured people, this group, uh, of people that are his, and to put them down here in this world where there's so much challenge, where there's so much evil, where there's so much temptation, where there's. It's so hard to do the right things at times, right? If we're the people that have this mission, put us in a place where we for sure could do the mission and not in a place where we could, you know, there's so much pulling us to go off, so much pulling us to not do what we're supposed to do. Uh, wouldn't that make more sense? Why. Why did Hashem have to put us into this world, you know, if we're his people? To help us understand this question, the Chavitz Chaim brings down a mushel, a parable.
[00:16:48] He says, there was once a boy, and he was looking for something. He was crying. He was in the courtyard of the synagogue, and he was crying and very, very, uh, distraught.
[00:17:02] And the people in the synagogue, they come out to the courtyard, they see this boy crying, and they ask him, you know, what's wrong? Are you okay? What's going on? And he says, I'm crying because my mother gave me a coin today to go buy stuff, to buy things for her.
[00:17:20] And now I lost the coin. And I'm so sad that I lost this coin, my mother's coin that she gave me to help her.
[00:17:29] So the people in the congregation, they also feel bad for him. They want to help him. So they start searching around the courtyard, all over, everywhere around the courtyard to help him find the coin.
[00:17:44] And in the middle of the search, they're not having any success.
[00:17:48] They ask the boy, like, where was the place that you lost the coin?
[00:17:53] Where exactly do you think you dropped it just to help him?
[00:17:59] And the boy says, I lost it when I was in the street in one of the main streets. So they asked him, so if you lost it in one of the main streets, why are you looking around in this courtyard of the shul for the coin?
[00:18:15] And he answered them. He said, well, the streets are dirty, especially after a, uh, rain. It's muddy, it's dirty, and if I search for the coin in the street, my shoes are going to get dirty, I'm going to get dirty, and it's not going to be good.
[00:18:34] The Chavitz Chaim says so too. That's the understanding to this question. True, God could have put the Jewish nation in the higher worlds, whatever that means. Exactly right. That are more lofty and more exalted than this world.
[00:18:52] But nevertheless, Hashem put the Torah, he brought down the Torah to this quote, unquote, this lowly world.
[00:19:03] And once Hashem brought the Torah to this physical world, to this world that we're in, we also had to be put here as a nation, because we're the nation who's going to fulfill that Torah and do the mitzvahs. And even if that means we're going to get our shoes dirty or covered in mud and covered in dirt, that's the job we have.
[00:19:28] And just thinking about this idea after going through Yom um Kippur, when Hashem, when G D cleanses us, it reminds me of a thought I heard just the other day before the holiday of Yom M. Kippur.
[00:19:42] Because also, a person might, you know, we go through Yom um Kippur, we do everything like angels, but at the same time, we could think to ourselves, like, am I tricking myself?
[00:19:53] Am I an angel? I'm not an angel.
[00:19:55] And the answer to that is that Hashem, uh, put us here in this world.
[00:20:02] We have the ability to be higher than angels, because an angel doesn't have a choice.
[00:20:08] An angel only does good. They have no pull to do evil. They're not in this physical world with desires, with emotions, with pulls they don't have a chance to get covered in the dirt. But we're here.
[00:20:23] And I think this idea coming out of Yom Kippur, we have to look at this world that we're in, right? We have this good feeling we just came out of Yom Kippur. We're cleansed.
[00:20:35] We have to take that feeling. We look at the world around us and the challenges that face us and the things which are not so fun to experience.
[00:20:46] We have to look at it as an opportunity for ourselves to separate ourselves, to overcome, to overpower our desires, to help us, elevate us, to be even higher than angels. And I think this is a very powerful idea we see from this week's Parasha. And that's, in fact, the reason why Hashem, um, put the Torah into this world and put us here to fulfill that Torah. He's giving us the opportunity to rise up higher than angels in this physical world. And that's what he wants to show, that even here in this physical world, where the pulls are pulling us the other way, the other direction, it's still possible to have spirituality, to have connection to Hashem, to cleave to Torah, to get to become a great person and have Dvekis and Hashem connection to G D even when everything else is pulling you the other direction. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. Hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo kon k o h nmail.com have a great day.
