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.
[00:00:09] Did you hear that extra perkiness in my voice?
[00:00:13] Did you wonder why I am extra excited about this week's episode?
[00:00:18] Well, if you listened to last week's episode, you probably know, but if you didn't, this week marks the beginning of the fifth cycle of the Practical Parsha podcast.
[00:00:31] This is a, you know, thank God. This is an amazing accomplishment. That means for four years we've gone through the cycle of the Torah four times, and now we're beginning the fifth time.
[00:00:44] And it's really something very special.
[00:00:47] And I was actually looking into some stats about podcasts.
[00:00:51] Thank God. We're up. This is episode 175.
[00:00:55] That means 175 episodes have been produced. Thank God. I was looking online for some stats about podcasts, and it says that 90% of podcasts never make it past episode three.
[00:01:13] Right.
[00:01:14] That means nine out of 10 people who start a podcast, they don't make it past the third episode.
[00:01:21] And then on top of that, so there's 10% of people that are remaining.
[00:01:25] Of those 10% that are left, 90% of those people quit the podcast before they hit episode 21.
[00:01:36] And I'm sure the percentages keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller the more episodes you do.
[00:01:46] Doing a podcast is something which is, you know, it's a challenge every week to come back and to record an idea on the Torah on the Parsha.
[00:01:58] What gives it a little bit of a challenge as well is that you don't necessarily see the people that are listening to it. You don't know the feedback. When you speak to a crowd, you feed off the crowd. But with a podcast, you're just sending out your message into the ear, into the atmosphere, into the Internet, and you're hoping, God willing, that people are enjoying it. People are, you know, it's affecting them in a positive way. And, you know, I want to thank Hashem. Uh, I want to thank God that I've been able to get to this point.
[00:02:30] In the beginning, I'm not going to lie, it was very tough.
[00:02:34] Who's listening?
[00:02:36] Does anyone really appreciate this podcast?
[00:02:40] And I really have to say that I have to thank my wife, Penina, may she be well.
[00:02:46] She really encouraged me tremendously just to keep going, to keep doing it. There's people that are listening, there's people that are appreciating it.
[00:02:56] And actually, I've been blessed in my Four plus years of doing this podcast, as you guys probably know already.
[00:03:06] I encourage you to reach out to me. I encourage, send me an email, say hello.
[00:03:14] And in fact, I've been blessed that I've got to know people throughout the world who listen to this podcast, who appreciate it, who it means to them. Something and a lot of amazing stories have come out from the podcast. A lot of amazing things, meeting a lot of amazing people.
[00:03:31] And I'm, um, very grateful for that. It gives me an extra sense of satisfaction when I do this every week.
[00:03:39] And additionally, I gotta also thank my kids. They know already. It's part of the routine every single Wednesday night. I know tonight's Thursday night, but every Wednesday night or Thursday night, depending on the week, I'm out of the house. They want me to do this. They're proud of me as well. And I want to thank my wife and, um, my kids for being behind me on this project.
[00:04:01] And I want to thank you, each and every one of you, who listen to this podcast every week.
[00:04:07] It really means a lot to me.
[00:04:10] I really appreciate it. I hope it adds to your, you know, your Judaism. I hope it inspires you to be a better person, a better Jew, to serve Hashem on a higher level.
[00:04:22] And that's really the goal of this podcast, to make the parsha practical and relatable to every single person.
[00:04:32] I hope I am doing that. And God willing, I pray that I should be able to continue doing this for many, many years to come.
[00:04:41] And we should continue to share in happy occasions with each other, God willing.
[00:04:47] And I hope they renew my contract for the next year. Yeah, I think they will. But really, I really thank you all for listening. And if you want to spread the message around, tell your friends, tell your family, send me an email, say hello. Maybe you want to introduce yourself. Maybe you want to thank my wife for letting me go to the shul to record. I actually have a little recording studio in my shul.
[00:05:13] Maybe you want to thank her for letting me do this.
[00:05:16] Send me that email. Rabbi shlomo kon kohnmail.com and actually, to celebrate this accomplishment, I am actually sponsoring the Kiddush and Shulde Shabbos in honor of the podcast. I'm very excited. It's important to make celebrations on things that are important. And with the help of Hashem, I look forward to celebrating many more years together with you.
[00:05:42] This week's parsha is Parshas Baha Loskha. Just to give a quick overview of the parsha, the parasha begins with Hashem, uh, speaking to Moshe to give a commandment to Aron Hakohen and his descendants to light the Menorah special mitzvah, uh, for Aron Hakon and his children. Parsha tells us about the consecration of the Leviim, the Levites, their responsibilities and their apprenticeship.
[00:06:07] Additionally, the mitzvah, uh, of the Pesach Shanei offering the Paschal Lam. The second paschal line, meaning to say, is if a person was tame, they were impure. On Pesach, they have an opportunity to do the mitzvah over again. A month later, with the Mitzvah of Pesach Shaini, the Parsha continues with the special signs that the B' Nai Yisrael, the Jewish people had that told them when to camp and when to travel. The special, you know, when the cloud would raise or when it would go down, would tell them what they should do, they would follow the cloud and how they should go.
[00:06:46] Additionally, the Parasha tells us about the special Chatsois Rois, the trumpets that the Bene Yisrael used when they are breaking camp and stopping and how they used it and how they made it. In this week's Parsha, Yisroel, the father in law of Moshe Rabbeinu, he leaves the camp and he goes on his own.
[00:07:03] And the Parsha gives us a description how the Ark, the Aron, is going to go forth in the travels of the B' Nai Yisrael. Another storyline in this week's Parsha is the complainers. The misogym part of the Jewish people come to Moshe Rabbeinu complaining and saying they're not happy with the divine food, the Mun, which is coming down from heaven every day and they want meat.
[00:07:28] Moshe gets upset with Jewish Nation, but he acquiesces to the Jewish, Jewish people's demand for meat and he davens to Hashem and Hashem sends the quail, the slough to the Jewish nation. But it is not without incident as Hashem anger is flared up against the Jewish nation and he strikes some of the Jewish people with a plague as a punishment for the speaking against Moshe Rabbeinu, for speaking against Moshe and his leadership, as well as challenging him and challenging Hashem.
[00:08:02] The first idea I'm going to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parasha. And I gonna say now that I'll give a little disclaimer. Some of the ideas might tie in to starting a fifth year of a podcast. So bear with me. It's only once a year you got to celebrate. So I got to chap a rein, I got to grab the opportunity to give myself encouragement. And hopefully encouragement for you as well.
[00:08:26] Beginning of the Parasha. The parasha tells us about the commandment that Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu to give Aaron this special mitzvah, uh, to light the menorah.
[00:08:35] And, you know, Aaron has this mitzvah. Now Moshe tells him about it, and the posse says something very interesting. It says, vayas kain aron elmo pene aminora heelo nerosech Hasher tivo Hashem es Moshe.
[00:08:53] Aaron did so toward the face of the menorah, he kindled its lamps as Hashem, uh, had commanded Moshe.
[00:09:01] Now it's very interesting. Like Hashem gives, you know, tells Moshe to tell Aaron to give him the special commandment only for him and his descendants.
[00:09:12] And the Torah repeats that Aaron did what Hashem told him to do.
[00:09:17] And if you look at Rashi, Rashi adds a few words which make this question a little even stronger. It says, vayas King Aaron and Aaron did. So.
[00:09:31] It's to tell the praise of Aaron, the praise of Aaron that he didn't change anything. He didn't change from what Hashem commanded him to do. He did it exactly as how he was commanded to do this mitzvah of lightning, the menorah. He did it exactly, didn't change one bit.
[00:09:47] And the question that's asked is, you know, if G D would ask you to do something, right, you know, of course we would do it exactly the way that G D told us to do it.
[00:09:57] Why does the Torah have to say these words, vayaski and Aaron that Aaron did it exactly, which is trying to show the praise of Aaron that he did it in the same way that God had commanded him to do it. That's what we would all do. What's so special, you know, how does this show the praise of Aaron, how great he was? He did exactly what he was told, right? When someone gives you a task to do something, you do it exactly as you're told to do it, right? When your boss tells you to do something, you do it exactly as you're supposed to do it. When your wife tells you to do something, you do it exactly as you're supposed to do it. I hope, right?
[00:10:32] The point here is, this is the question, what is the praise of Aaron?
[00:10:37] And the sephosemus brings down a beautiful thought on this.
[00:10:42] We know when we start something, we start new things, a new job, we undertake a new project.
[00:10:51] There's a certain amount of enthusiasm that comes along with it, there's excitement, it's fresh, it's new.
[00:11:01] We want to accomplish.
[00:11:03] But what happens, right? What did I say about the podcast episodes?
[00:11:09] A lot of people start podcasts and people should, um, I'm not discouraging, go for it, start.
[00:11:15] But what happens?
[00:11:17] People burn out.
[00:11:20] Whether it be after two episodes, three episodes, 20 episodes, 100 episodes, right? Yeah. I could burn out, right? Daven d Hashem. I shouldn't. I should have the strength to continue. It's all.
[00:11:32] It's heavenly help.
[00:11:33] But the point is, is that it's human nature that after a little bit, after a while, we lose that enthusiasm. We don't have that bren, as they say in Yiddish. Bren means fire.
[00:11:46] We lose it.
[00:11:48] What the Torah is telling us here about our nakohen and what Rashi is pointing out is that when it says in the posse vayas aron he did it, it means he didn't change it one bit. He did it exactly.
[00:12:03] He always did. In the same way. He always had that enthusiasm. This is what the Sevasemos is explaining to us. That Aaron Hakoheim, when he had this mitzvah, it was always the same way. He always had that same excitement and same enthusiasm to do what Hashem wanted to light the menorah. It never waned on him.
[00:12:22] I think for myself and I think, uh, for everybody, we have to keep our enthusiasm up. Sure, we have times where we're down and it's harder.
[00:12:35] But that's why it's important to make a kiddush for the podcast to celebrate your wins, because we need to sometimes draw back on those moments where we had the inspiration, where we're on a high for the times that we're not always on a high and just being personal here, and I mentioned this a little bit in the introduction, certain weeks for me to sit by the mic, it's torture. It's very hard. Not because I don't love doing it, I love it.
[00:13:07] It's a privilege for me to speak words of Torah to you. It's a privilege and it's an honor. It's not something which I take lightly, but for certain weeks, it's the certain weeks which are busy and hectic and crazy, and finally, I don't even have time during the week. And some weeks to prepare, I'm preparing on Wednesday night or Thursday night, right when I'm sitting down. I've had times at 10 o' clock at night, that's when I'm starting the podcast. That's when I'm looking Over which ideas do I want to say on the podcast?
[00:13:39] And I try to think to myself and my wife reminds me of all the people that appreciate it, all the people that are gonna learn Torah because of this episode or, you know, so on, uh, putting out this podcast. And I have to draw back on those moments to push me through. And there's been many times where I was like, okay, I can't do it. And then I think about it again one more time and I give it another shot and thank God it goes.
[00:14:09] And I think this is a very important idea for all of us to remember, internalize on the different projects that we do and anything we do, especially when it comes to, uh, serving hashem, serving God and our Yiddishkeit, and to always to keep that enthusiasm up. And even at the times where we are, where it's lacking, we don't feel so excited. We gotta keep pushing. We gotta remember how important the mitzvahs that we're doing, the Torah learning that we're learning how important it is, how much of an, uh, effect it has.
[00:14:40] We got to draw back on the moments that we got inspired to use it for the times that we're not feeling it so much. I think that's a very beautiful idea from this week's Parsha. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the story in this week's Parsha where Yisroel Jethro, the father in law of Moshe Rabbeinu, tells Moshe that he's going to go back to his land. He's going to leave from, from the encampment of the Jewish people. And Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses tries to convince his father in law to stay. He doesn't want him to go.
[00:15:16] If you look at the psukim, it's very interesting. Yisroel is answering back to Moshe Rabbeinu.
[00:15:22] He says, vayom reylov loy ey leh ki im m el arzi vel moyladeti eyelech. He tells Moshe, he says to him, I shall not go.
[00:15:35] Only to my land and my family shall I go. He's telling Moshe Rabbeinu that he's going to return to where he came from.
[00:15:42] Moshe Rabbeinu responds to Yisro, to Jethro Vayomer, al na ta' azoivoisanu ki alkein yada chanoisenu bamidbar vahayisa lanu le noyim.
[00:15:57] He said, please do not forsake us. Inasmuch as you know, our encampments in the wilderness. And you have been as eyes for Usher. Yitav Hashem ah imanu v' he tav nu loch.
[00:16:12] And it shall be that if you come with us, then with the goodness which Hashem, uh, will benefit us, we will do good to you.
[00:16:19] He's trying to convince his father in law, please stay with us. You know the area, you know the encampments, you know, you know all the ins and outs.
[00:16:29] You know the terrain. You have a certain sense of knowledge, as we know that Yisroel, the father in law of Moshe, gave Moshe a tremendous amount of advice as far as how to, how to set up a court system, that Moshe shouldn't be doing it all himself. He gave Moshe these tremendous ideas to implement, to help, you know, make things efficient, to make things run smoothly in an entire Nation, all the 12 tribes. Rav Hirsch explains on this that the Torah is signifying, uh, to us something very important by recording this interaction between Moshe Rabbeinu and Yisroel. And I wouldn't say it myself, it's Rav Hirsch. He brings this idea down, I think, and it's something very powerful that we can gain from.
[00:17:16] Ravurz explains that we see from this episode how Moshe is trying to convince his father in law to stay with the Jewish nation because of his excellent nation building skills, because of his organizational skills. It shows us that Moshe Rabbeinu himself wasn't necessarily the expert nation builder.
[00:17:42] He didn't necessarily have the best organizational skills.
[00:17:48] And we know that Moshe Rabbeinu, that Moses, he himself, his speech, he had a speech impediment. He wasn't the most dynamic person, but yet what was he? He was the messenger of Hashem.
[00:18:01] And therefore the Torah is showing us that it wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu, that he became this leader of the Jewish nation nation, the best leader that we ever had. Moshe, he took us out of Egypt, right? As the messenger of Hashem. He led us through the desert. Person might think that he was dynamic. He had super organizational skills, he was super talented. He had this ability to build things out of nothing.
[00:18:28] We see from this interaction where he's trying to get Yisro to stay because he knew how to help Moshe Rabbeinu organized. He knew how to help Moshe Rabbeinu implement systems into the Jewish people to make things run efficiently, right? Moshe Rabbeinu didn't necessarily have those traits.
[00:18:47] It's teaching us here that Moshe was an instrument of Hashem. He was the messenger of God.
[00:18:56] And that's what, you know, he fully gave himself over to that cause.
[00:19:02] And that's how he merited to be this great Jewish leader. It wasn't. He was putting some type of halo on his head to be this superhuman.
[00:19:12] He gave himself over to the mission. He was a tremendously righteous person, right? But it wasn't because of the physical skills and abilities that he had that made him that leader. It was because of his great level that he reached in service of God and his care and concern. The fact that he was giving himself over to the mission. That's why he merited it.
[00:19:35] Now, the lesson for us here, which is something we can take to heart, is that if we want to start, you know, we want to do something great, something amazing, we look at a lot of times people, organizations that have done great things, and we look to them as superhumans, that they must be amazing. And therefore, I'm not amazing. Maybe we say that to ourselves, and I don't have to do that, and I can't do that.
[00:20:03] Uh, and we look to the accomplishments of others and say to ourselves that they have these traits and they have these abilities and they have organizational skills and they're great speakers.
[00:20:15] That's not necessarily true.
[00:20:18] Sure, people have talents and abilities and shining character traits of leadership and so on and so forth, but people are people, end of the day.
[00:20:30] And many great people, you know, when you get close to them, you realize that they're people too. But the point is that they had a dream, they had a mission. They were determined to keep going, and God gave them success.
[00:20:49] That's the key.
[00:20:51] We should have lofty goals and lofty aspirations.
[00:20:55] And we shouldn't think that you need to be a superhuman, have the best to be a, uh, a student to accomplish something amazing.
[00:21:06] Regular people can do great things.
[00:21:09] We see that from Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu was the greatest.
[00:21:14] And what did he do? He led the people out of Egypt to Sinai, through the desert. You know, uh, amazing, amazing accomplishments. The greatest leader the Jewish people ever had.
[00:21:27] But he didn't have those, you know, all these traits that you would think a leader would necessarily need, right?
[00:21:34] The organizational skills and the leadership skills and the this and being a dynamo. So the Parsha tells us here, the Torah records us to teach us that if we. We're regular people, most people think they're normal. We all think we're normal. We all think we're regular. That us regular Joes, us regular people can accomplish amazing things. We just have to put the effort in we have to put have the focus, the effort and to have those goals. And God will give us the success to achieve amazing things. The last idea I want to share with you today also is going to tie in to this anniversary episode.
[00:22:15] And I think it's another amazing message.
[00:22:19] There's a verse in this week's Parsha which is very famous.
[00:22:24] And the reason why it's famous is probably you're familiar with it from Shol vayhi bin soaharon Vayomer Moshe Kuma hashem v' afutsu vaivecha v' yonusu misanecha mi'. Panecha. Uh, I'm sure you've heard that tune before.
[00:22:42] That's in this week's Parasha.
[00:22:44] This week's Parsha. When the Torah is telling us about the journey of the Jewish people and how the ark would go first. It says that when the ark would journey, Moshe said to the Jewish nation, arise Hashem and let your foes be scattered. Let those who hate you flee from before you.
[00:23:03] Now, how do we know that verse?
[00:23:06] When I sung that tune to you, where did you recognize it from?
[00:23:12] When we take out the Torah from the ark, anytime we always say that verse. And on Shabbos and many shoals, they sing it according to that tune.
[00:23:26] Now the question is, why do we say that verse? This verse, Vay heben sora Aron, when we take out the Torah, what's the connection?
[00:23:37] What's it teaching us?
[00:23:40] So I think we could see a basic connection so that when the ark would start moving, Moshe would say this pasik.
[00:23:48] So I think there's a connection, right? We're taking the Torah out of the ark.
[00:23:51] But there's a deeper lesson here.
[00:23:53] And there's a very powerful thought which I saw brought down.
[00:23:57] What does the verse mean when we say Vahibin TSO Aron?
[00:24:01] It says it was when the ark traveled, Moshe said, arise hashem, uh, and disperse your enemies and those who hate you will flee from you.
[00:24:11] It's brought down from Rabbi Plisken. He brings down from different sources from Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, that he would say the connection is, is that when a person is taking the Torah out of the ark, right, we're going to start something good.
[00:24:29] We're going to do something positive.
[00:24:32] We have a mission. We want to do something we want to achieve. We have a spiritual goal.
[00:24:40] There's always going to be people that, that are going to try to stop you. They're going to be people that maybe put you down, make fun of you.
[00:24:51] And it's going to be difficult sometimes in the beginning.
[00:24:55] So the lesson here is that when you're on a sacred mission, don't let opposition, uh, stop you from spreading Torah. And that's the lesson. That's why we take it out. When we take the Torah out, we say this verse that the enemies should flee, they should run away from us, the people that are going to criticize us and say what we're doing wrong. And it's not worthwhile to start that project or to be involved in this good thing. You're wasting your time. I'm sure we have all heard these lines before.
[00:25:25] We have to not allow them to stop us from the good things we want to do, because if we do, nothing would have ever been accomplished. And I'm thinking to myself for a moment, in the beginning, I had my detractors, people maybe making light of what I'm trying to do. If I got a, uh, download from somewhere, maybe making a little bit of fun, people chepping with me, I remember it would bother me sometimes more than others, but I didn't let it get to me. And I think, looking back now, I'm smiling about it and these people are looking to me that, um, thank God I'm still doing it. There's a certain sense of respect. And it's, again, it's not me. It's all siyata deshmaye. It's heavenly help. I thank Hashem for that opportunity. But the point is that we can't let the naysayers hold us back from the great things we want to do and need to do.
[00:26:24] So that's a very beautiful and powerful thought from this week's episode, so that I'm going to finish for today's episode a little bit longer than usual, but I'm taking that liberty because it's a special episode, and I'm asking of you this Shabbos, no matter where you are, take a l' chaim and have me in mine. In honor of the Parsha podcast, we should continue for many more years together, God willing. Have a great day and a Shabbat shalom.
