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. I'm sorry about last week's missed episode. It's just that time of year again, as some of you may remember from previous years, that for part of the summer, my wife, she should be blessed, is the arts and crafts director of a Sleepaway Girls camp in West Virginia. Yep, the Mountain State. There are Jewish camps in West Virginia.
[00:00:35] But it's a great experience for my wife and my kids, and I enjoy going there as well. At the same time, I can't stay there straight for four weeks. So I go back and forth during the week. I'm home, I go to work, and Thursday evening or Friday morning I head back for Shabbos to be with my family.
[00:00:57] And it's actually a little interesting to be home by myself. Makes me appreciate all the mayhem that goes on throughout the year. Thank God. But I'm managing, doing okay. I made supper for myself tonight. It was not scrambled eggs, so I'm doing better than that. But I'm here tonight to share some, some Torah with you. And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email@rabbi shlomokonkohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:35] This week's parsha is Parshas Pinchas.
[00:01:39] And just before we begin this week's Practical Parsha episode, I just want to start off with a little bit of current events.
[00:01:49] So today is Wednesday evening, and tomorrow Thursday is the Hebrew date is Shavasir Betamuz, the 17th of Tammuz, which is a fast day on the Jewish calendar. Now, the reason why it's a fast day is because it sort of starts this period of mourning for the Beis Hamikdash for the temple, which culminates on Tisha Bav on the 9th of AV.
[00:02:17] And this time is called the Bay n Hametzarem, the three weeks where the morning which we do for the Beis Hamikdash starts, you know, really this evening, tomorrow the fast begins. Because the fast, this fast commemorates when the walls of Jerusalem were breached.
[00:02:36] And this period, which is a sad time, you know, it starts tomorrow with it's a fast day. And going forward, there's no music, there's no weddings that are held.
[00:02:48] We don't take haircuts, we don't shave.
[00:02:52] It builds up until Rosh Chodeshav, the, you know, the month of Av or the beginning of the month of Av, where the restrictions become more intense as we're getting closer to the tragedy of the destruction of the Bes Hamikdash.
[00:03:07] But really what I want to talk about quickly tonight is what's this whole idea of the Beis Hamikdash and what does it have to do with me and you?
[00:03:17] So if you think about it, the Chachamim, the sages, they knew what they were doing when they made these restrictions. It's not just a fast day tomorrow, it's a build up Rosh Chodesh. Once it comes to Rosh chodesh Av, the restrictions increase.
[00:03:29] We don't eat meat, we don't. We don't just bathe for pleasure. We don't wash our clothes. There's more restrictions. Then once it comes to Tisha Bav, it's even more severe. It's another fast day. And it's not just a regular fast day. We can't. There's a lot of other restrictions as well. We don't wear leather shoes. There's no marital relations, there's no washing ourselves on Tisha Bav. That's the ninth of Av, uh, which is at the end of this.
[00:03:52] That's the climax of this whole period. But really the question that needs to be asked is, what's the whole point of this? The Beis Hamikdash was thousands of years ago and we never saw the Beis Hamikdash. Our parents, our grandparents, we have no concept of what it is. It's hard for us to relate and just really to give this answer, to talk about a very, you know, give a little idea on one foot to help us understand, maybe appreciate tomorrow when we go through the day, the Jewish calendar.
[00:04:22] The idea is really Tisha B'Av and the fact that we don't have a Beis Hamikdash is really the source of all the problems of the Jewish people.
[00:04:32] So you might say, uh, what do you mean by that? What do you mean? How is it that we don't have the Beis Hamigdash, which was thousands of years ago, is the source of all of our problems, Everything, all of our issues have to do with there is no Beis Hamikdash.
[00:04:45] The answer to that is that the Beis Hamikdash, the temple, was a place where Hashem's glory, where the shechina with the divine presence of G D manifested itself in this world.
[00:05:00] It was a place where a person could come to and see Hashem. I mean, not like see Hashem. But it was a place where the shechina was manifested. It was G D's dwelling place on this earth. And when a person would come to the temple, to the Beis Hamikdash m in Jerusalem, there was a certain clarity of mission that they would get in their life. They would know what to do. They would know why they are here. They would have this. They knew what they needed to do.
[00:05:29] Now it comes out from that. The fact that we don't have that. The fact that we don't have that clarity of what our mission is and what we're supposed to do. There's a lot of haziness. There's a lot of ambiguity.
[00:05:44] So we make mistakes. Our judgment is not the same. And because we don't have a Beis Hamikdash, that's really the source of all of our problems as a Jewish people. And that's, you know, why there's this commemoration still to this day for the Beis Hamikdash such a focus on it that what we're lacking. Because even though we didn't see it, our parents never saw it, our grandparents never saw it.
[00:06:10] It's a void within us that we are not able to reach our potential. It's a lot harder to reach our potential when we don't have that clarity in life of what we need to do. So this is a little bit of a side note of current events before we jump into the parsha. Now, just to give a quick overview of the weekly parsha. This week's parshas. Parshas Pinchas.
[00:06:29] Pinchas was a. It really is a continuation from last week's parsha, which unfortunately, I missed. I'm sorry. You could have listened to the, uh, rebroadcast as well.
[00:06:41] But Pinchas stood up for the name of Hashem Zimri, who was the leader of the tribe of Shimon. He got up and he was committing an immoral act with one of the princesses of Midian.
[00:06:57] And the Midianim, the Midianites, they actually sent their daughters to seduce the Jewish men. And unfortunately, people got ensnared in their trap. Pinchas stands up while the leader of one of the tribes is committing this immoral act, and he kills both of them, the perpetrators of this act who are doing this.
[00:07:23] And he stands up for Hashem's name, and because of that, he merits to become a kohen. That's the reward that Pinchas gets for actually stopping this plague that was engulfing the Jewish people. He stood up and his action put A stop to it. His action, which maybe you could have seemed cruel, really was the biggest action of peace. Because he saved the Jewish nation. And because of that, Hashem gives him Bris y Shalom, a covenant of peace where he makes him into a kohen. The him and his descendants are Kohanim forever and ever.
[00:08:00] The Parsha also tells us about the new attitude that the Jewish people will have to the nation of Midian after they did this act of trying to seduce Jewish men to sin. We discuss in this week's Parsha the census. There's a new census which is taken of the Jewish people. The Parsha continues with the grievances of the daughters of Tzalafkad.
[00:08:22] Salafkad died. He was a one of the. He was part of the Jewish people. And he didn't have sons, he only had daughters. And his daughters come to Moshe Rabbeinu asking that they should also have a place in the land of Israel. And because of them, the laws of inheritance come out through their merit. They're asking Moshe Rabbeinu. The laws of inheritance are discussed in this week's Parsha.
[00:08:48] The Parsha discusses as well the successor of Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Moses asked God to give him a worthy successor to lead the Jewish nation into the land of Israel. And Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu to anoint Joshua Yeshua, the son of Nun, to take the Jewish people into the land of Israel, to take over the mantle, to take over the mantle of leadership from Moshe and to take the people into Erik.
[00:09:18] The Parasha finishes up with different carbonos, different sacrifices that the Jewish people are to give. First one is the Tamid sacrifice, which is given twice daily.
[00:09:28] And then the verses continue with the different Musaf offerings, right? Musaf offerings are a special offering which is given on Shabbos, on Rosh, Chodesh, and on the different holidays. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:09:48] In past years I've discussed how sometimes people do something that looks cruel but really is merciful. And sometimes when people do things merciful is really cruel. And that's the question that could be asked about Pinchas.
[00:10:05] He does something violent and gets a covenant of peace.
[00:10:11] The truth is, though, that's the case. His action of killing Zimri and Kazbi, who were doing this immoral act, saved the entire Jewish people.
[00:10:27] And because of that, he gets Brisi shalom. He gets his covenant of peace, where he becomes a Kohen. If you look at the Pasuk. It says as follows.
[00:10:35] Pinchas Benalazer ben Aron hakohen heishiv is chamosi meal B' Nai Yisrael bikano eskinosi besaichem veloikilisi esbenei Yisrael Bekinosi. Pinchas, the son of Elozer, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the children of Israel by bringing my rights to beer in their midst, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel by bringing my rights to beer.
[00:10:59] Now, Rav Hirsch explained something so beautiful. It's so simple, but yet so, so beautiful and so powerful.
[00:11:06] If you look at the verse, right, uh, what does the verse say? It says, if you read it, that Pinchas did an act that saved the entire Jewish people.
[00:11:22] Because Pinchas stood up for the name of Hashem. He stood up for what was correct.
[00:11:28] And he did this act, which was a violent act.
[00:11:32] He saved all of Claude Yisrael. He saved the entire Jewish nation. We could think to ourselves for a second, there's so many times we think about our actions.
[00:11:41] I'm just one person.
[00:11:44] What importance does my act or my doing something have?
[00:11:49] I'm just a person, um, by myself, and it doesn't really mean much. It's not going to do anything.
[00:11:58] We see from the Pasuk, we see very clearly from the story of Pinchas the power of an action of one person, one individual, that, uh, because Pinchas did this act of standing up for Hashem's name, he saved all of Kla Yisrael. It's an amazing thought, the power of the individual, that it's possible for a person to save the entire Jewish people, just one person. He saved everybody because of his act.
[00:12:33] I think that the message here to us is so clear and so powerful.
[00:12:38] We have to really take into consideration the power of our own actions that we have the ability to save entire nation. And in fact, the Gemara tells us. The Gemara tells us that if a person saves one Jewish soul, it's like he has saved the entire world. There's this idea that a person is like a entire world. That's number one. But the point is, it's even more than that, that us as individuals have the power, have the ability to do an action that can actually affect everybody. And actually the Mesil Sharm explains, he says that a person might say to themselves at times, like, what.
[00:13:17] What power do I have when it comes to Mashiach, when it comes to the final redemption? Who am I that I'm going to be Able to make it come. And the answer is that number one is, he says, two different answers. But one of the answers is that it could be that a person, action that a person could do is going to tip the scales, is going to do that action to push us over the finish line.
[00:13:41] You never know the effect of your action that you're going to do.
[00:13:46] We should take that in consideration. We should internalize that when it comes to our mitzvahs, to our learning, you don't know the power of your actions. And just even as a person to person, there's so many stories where people did things that were seemingly so insignificant and so small, but yet were so meaningful to, to many, many, many other people. And a huge effect had an effect on thousands of people, right? A person could do one thing, and it can affect one person. And that one person could do something which, uh, affects thousands or millions of people. Who knows? But the point is you don't know the power of your actions. We do things all the time.
[00:14:34] And we underestimate that. That's the word I was looking for. We underestimate the power of our actions, and we underestimate the power of our mitzvahs, and we underestimate the power of our Torah learning and our davening. We have to remember it's powerful. One person was able to save the Jewish people. And when you have an effect on just one person, each person is like a world unto himself.
[00:15:00] And it's, I think maybe one way of understanding that is that, you know, when we make that effect on another individual, that individual now could, you know, is many more people, because he might affect 100, 200, 500, 1000. He has his family.
[00:15:16] Point is, is that it doesn't end. It continues. And that's a very powerful idea from this week's Parasha. Another idea I saw brought down regarding this story of Pinchas is that we know the reward he got was this brisi shalom. It was a covenant of peace. The netiv brings down that the reason why Pinchas was rewarded specifically with a this brisi shalom, this covenant of peace, was because he had done a violent action, meaning it was the correct thing to do. He needed to stand up for Hashem's name to stop this plague.
[00:15:55] But because he did that, Hashem gave him this, you know, he gave him kahuna. He gave him to be part of the priesthood, which is oyev shalom, vredev shalom, which is loving peace and pursuing peace, precisely because he had just experienced this violent experience.
[00:16:14] And the Lesson here is that sometimes a person has to act tough. A person has to be a little bit rough. A person has to do something that's maybe not exactly their character traits, but it's the right thing to do. Whether it be. Is to be tough with somebody.
[00:16:33] Uh, you know, there's so many examples that we can take into our personal life. Whether it's terminating somebody at a job. Whether it's giving someone direction or reprimanding somebody.
[00:16:43] But the thing is, is that when we do these things, many times we repeat it.
[00:16:49] Do we start becoming like that person? Do we start becoming a tough person? Do we start becoming a Terminator? Do we start becoming a. You know, this. A violent person?
[00:17:01] So Hashem was telling Pinchas, you just did something which was. For the sake of God, it was my name. And it was the right thing to do. But don't let it affect you as a person. You still. He had to reiterate to him that. That I'm giving you brise. Yah. I'm giving you a covenant of peace. To know. To not let those tendencies take over.
[00:17:21] That they should, you know, become. You know, they should. To not let those tendencies take over. That they should become normal to him. That that's now how he operates. Sure, he had to do this in that moment. That was the correct thing to do.
[00:17:35] But that was a very limited circumstance. And that should. That's not how he should conduct himself all the time. Rather, he should conduct himself with peace. And that's a lesson for us. When we have to be tough in different ways. And I'm sure we all know the ways that we fill that, you know, description. The point is, is that we don't want to let that toughness or the act that we need to do, which is a difficult thing to do. We don't want that to become us of who we are. We want to stay the same person.
[00:18:08] Someone asked me this week, oh, if you would make a lot of money, do you think you'd be the same person? And I said, I sure hope so. But, uh, the answer to that is that when we go through different situations, we start because of those situations, we could change.
[00:18:25] So unless we're actively cognizant of the different things we're doing.
[00:18:31] Or we're pushing back against it, we're gonna naturally change.
[00:18:36] So that's why it's brisish shalom. Um, it's this bris of peace. To remember that when we. Pinchas, even though he did this action of violence, he needed that reiteration. Of peace. You acted like this for that moment it was correct. But remember, the way you conduct yourself is peacefully. Don't let it become who you are. That's something for us as well, that when we act tough, when we have to go through a situation that's not exactly like us, not, uh, how exactly we want to be, we have to go back to the soft way, to the peaceful way, to the humble way, to not let those sporadic actions, which are the right thing to do for us at times, to not make them define us of who we are. The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to the Karban Tamid, to the Tumid sacrifice, which was offered in the morning and in the afternoon.
[00:19:31] At the end of the Torah's description of the carbon Thomad, the Talmud sacrifice, it says as follows.
[00:19:46] Continual elevation offering that was done at Mount Sinai for a satisfying aroma. A fire offering to Hashem, the carbon Tamid, was done twice a day, every day, as long as the Beis Hamikdash, the temple was standing in the morning, and in the afternoon, the sacrifice was brought.
[00:20:06] So it's. The question asked is, why is it over here when the Torah describes the carbon Tamid, the tummid sacrifice that it mentions to us, do it like you did it on Har Sinai by Mount Sinai when they. When we got the commandment of bringing the carbon Tamid, this communal sacrifice, we should do it like that.
[00:20:36] What's the connection to that?
[00:20:38] When the Torah describes the other sacrifices, doesn't say like you did at Har Sinai, only by the Karban Tamid. We all know that when we start something new, there's a certain freshness, there's a certain excitement that we have whenever we begin something exciting, something new. One classical example that's given is the first time someone puts on tefillin. A bar mitzvah boy, he's just getting bar mitzvah, he puts on tefillin for the first time. There's a certain excitement that you have doing this mitzvah.
[00:21:09] But slowly, human nature as such is that the more you do something, the more it becomes routine and we lose that excitement.
[00:21:20] This is not just with spiritual, uh, things. People have this in a lot of areas in their life, whether it be a job, it could be, you know, maybe in certain situations, it could be in marriage. How do people with. We need to keep the excitement, right? But the tendency of people is that we lose excitement as time goes on. So the message here, Rabbi Friend explains that the Torah is telling us when it Comes to the carbon tamid, the sacrifice, the tummy sacrifice, which is twice a day, which is the most classic example of something that we could just.
[00:21:53] I don't even say we could maybe get bored of. G D forbid. We're doing it all the time.
[00:21:57] Torah tells us, do it like you did it at, uh, Harsinai. Remember the first time when you got the commandment to do this karban, to give this sacrifice, there was excitement.
[00:22:10] Do it with that same enthusiasm.
[00:22:14] And if the Torah says to do it in this way, that means we could do it in this way. We could tap back into that, to have that excitement. When it comes to mitzvahs, when it comes to learning, when it comes to our service of hashem, you know, to have that freshness to the things we do. Now, I must say that this is a struggle because on one hand, Judaism is very much focused on routine. We have a lot of things that we do on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a yearly basis.
[00:22:46] So it is good to have routine.
[00:22:50] But there is a balance, because at the same time, we don't want to become, you know, too much into our routine. It has to have that freshness.
[00:22:59] So this is something we have to be aware of. That's step number one, to have this awareness that when we have that good routine of doing things good, we have to just remember to appreciate each and every day.
[00:23:13] And I think it's not just with spiritual endeavors, but it's also with life in general.
[00:23:20] We think of a family. You know, maybe I can relate to this now that, um, my family's in West Virginia and I'm home alone, Right. We go through every day, and there's so many good things that happen to us. There's so many blessings in our lives. But because it's every day, we don't take it for granted. Unfortunately, it's only when things are, you know, you don't have it. Do you recognize what you have? But it shouldn't be like that. We see from the pasuk, we see from this week's Parasha from the verse, that we have the ability to remember it like we did it at Harsinai, like we did the carbon tummit at Harsinai. We have the ability to tap into it like it's the first day, like it's the, you know, the first day of that job, or it's the first day your kid did something and you are so proud of them, or it's the first day of, you, your marriage. We have that ability within ourselves to balance this, to have the routine, but yet keep it fresh. Keep it fresh. So that beautiful idea we see from this week's Parsha. So with that, I'm going to finish. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Schlomocon Kohn at gmail com. Have a great day.
