Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlemocon, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] This week it's my bar mitzvah Parsha, Parshas Eikev.
[00:00:13] That means a bunch of years ago, I got up and I read the Torah in front of the congregation.
[00:00:21] And it also means that my birthday is coming up.
[00:00:27] Happens to be in most years, my Hebrew birthday is before Parshas Eikev. But this year, with how the calendar is set up, it comes out on Sunday.
[00:00:40] So it's my bar mitzvah parsha means my birthday is coming up.
[00:00:46] If you want to wish me a happy birthday, I'll take it.
[00:00:49] My email address is rabbi shlomo kon kohnail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:55] This week's Parsha is Parshas Eikev.
[00:00:58] Just to give a quick overview of the Parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu Moses is continuing his speech to the Jewish nation, a speech of inspiration, a speech of reinforcement, a speech of even rebuke, loving rebuke, to make sure that the Jewish people now, as they're about to enter into the land of Israel, have what they need spiritually and they have the instructions to do what they're supposed to do in Eretz Yisrael in the Holy Land.
[00:01:32] And part of that, which is continued to this week's Parasha, is reminding the nation where they went wrong, where the potential pitfalls are, the assurances of they do the right thing. If you follow the Torah, things will work out for you for the Jewish nation.
[00:01:53] This week's Parsha also talks about the death of Aaron, the elevation of the Levites as leaders of the Jewish nation, as well as speaking about the Jewish people's reconciliation with Hashem, uh, after they had sinned with the different, you know, Averos, the different transgressions of the golden calf and the sin of the Miraglim and the different numerous sins that are talked about in the, in the Torah that Jewish people committed specifically in the desert.
[00:02:26] And it speaks about how Hashem forgives his people and still will show assurances to them and love to them and bestow bounty upon them. Even if they had made mistakes in the past, especially now going to the land of Israel, they needed that reinforcement because they're going to have to fight, fight for the land. So they needed to know that Hashem was with them. And really, to reinforce this even more, Moshe Rabbeinu speaks to the people about, uh, this love that Hashem has for the Jewish nation.
[00:02:58] And how he showed them directly the miracles of going out of Mitsrayim, going out of Egypt, taking them through the going out of Egypt, the. The miracles, how he took them out of Egypt with miracles, how they crossed the sea, how they survived in the desert with nothing directly from the hand of Hashem. For 40 years.
[00:03:23] They knew firsthand that Hashem, uh, took care of them.
[00:03:28] And they would use that assurance to help them go to propel into the future, to conquer the land of Israel. And really to take that with us forever, wherever we may be, that Hashem took care of us, and he is taking care of us and will take care of us in the future as well.
[00:03:48] The Parsha finishes off with the great virtues of the land of Israel that they are going to be going into.
[00:03:55] And it closes out with the second paragraph of the Shema, which is known as the paragraph of Vahoya, uh, which really delineates to the Jewish people to us that if we do the commandments of, uh, Hashem, if we follow His Word, then things will work out for us. And if G D forbid we don't, things will not. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parasha.
[00:04:23] The beginning of the parasha, it says, Um, This shall be the reward when you hearken to those ordinances and you observe and perform them. Hashem, your G D will safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness that he swore to your forefathers.
[00:04:48] And the verses continue to say all the blessing that will happen to the Jewish people if we follow the Torah. One interesting idea I saw, and actually I think it ties into a later idea. I want to tie them together right now.
[00:05:04] Is that right? Here it says right, and it shall be.
[00:05:10] Vahoyah denotes a wording of happiness, of joy. This is based on the Talmud. The Talmud tells us that whenever the word vahoya is used, it is signaling joy and happiness. And we know other times when the word vayehi is used, it is portending to something bad, to something negative.
[00:05:41] And the classic example of that is vayihi bime achashverosh. It was in the days of achashverosh, during the Purim story, that it's portending to the decree that happened to the Jewish people. Right? The days of Achashverosh. The story is starting off, but something not so great was going to happen now. Sure, the Jewish people got saved eventually, but it was an ominous sign. But when it says and it shall be, it is Connoting joy. This is a rule we have in the Talmud.
[00:06:15] Whenever we see in the verses the different words, it is connoting, different ideas, different feelings.
[00:06:23] Now, Rabbi Tversky brings down that if you look at the, you know, these two words and the significances behind it, there's, uh, a, there's a very important, I guess, foundation. Vayihi is a past tense. It's focusing in the past, and it was in the days of achashverosh, meaning we're looking backwards.
[00:06:52] But the word vahaya and it shall be is future facing.
[00:06:59] And I think this is just a very powerful idea that, sure, these two words, they imply different feelings, different emotions.
[00:07:09] The word vahi, which is the past, is negative. The word vahoia and it shall be, which is the future, connotes joy. The lesson here is that someone who is a joyous person is future facing and someone who is not so happy, who's maybe more negative, is always looking back.
[00:07:35] Now, obviously we want to look back to those memories. There's nothing wrong with that. But there's a difference in our outlook.
[00:07:43] The rabbi of my community, Rabbi, uh, Trovitzky, always says, what's the difference between an old person and a young person?
[00:07:54] And is it age?
[00:07:56] Is it how old a person is? You know, there's no, you know, even though you get Social Security at 65 and you're eligible for Medicare, does that make you old? You get the senior citizen discount. Does that make you old? Just because they say that's the age.
[00:08:09] Some people say they're old and they're 35 years old. You know, talking about birthdays, um, I'm still young, but what's the difference? What makes the difference between someone who's old and someone who's young? And I think it ties into this idea as well.
[00:08:22] The differences he explains is that when someone is looking towards the future, they're still young.
[00:08:32] But if someone is always looking back, that's, you know, a sign of older age.
[00:08:39] It's not to say that we can't look back, but the point is, are we looking to accomplish, are we looking to go forward?
[00:08:46] And really if that's our outlook, so then it's possible that a person could be very, very old, but really young, because it's all the outlook. And I think this idea really ties into what we're saying over here as well. Based on what Robert Twersky is saying, the word vahaya, when you look to the future, when you have that positive outlook, you're not dwelling in the past, rather you have the focus to accomplish the next challenge, that is joy. Because life is about overcoming challenges.
[00:09:22] And really to take this idea another step forward, we see that in this parsha the word vahoyah is used numerous times.
[00:09:32] And probably the next most famous place in the parsha where it uses the word Vahoya is in the paragraph of Vahoya Imshamaya, the paragraph of Shema. The second paragraph of Shema, which is I said earlier, is known as Vhoyah.
[00:09:48] And what does that paragraph teach us? Right, so if it's connoting joy, it's connoting in the future. But what if you look a little further in the paragraph regarding Shema, in this paragraph of Shema of Vhoya, what do the verses say over there?
[00:10:03] It says as follows.
[00:10:08] M M.
[00:10:13] It will be that if you hearken to my commandments and that I command you today to love Hashem, your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
[00:10:24] And the verse continues.
[00:10:29] Um, Um, the verses, you know, tell us. It says, then I shall provide rain for you for your land in its proper time, the early and the late rains, for you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil. I shall provide grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and you will be satisfied.
[00:10:59] So the Psokim, the verses go on to detail all the good things that will happen if we follow the commandments of Hashem. The Orochayim Hakadosh explains that the Vahoya and it shall be which is connoting joy in this verse.
[00:11:14] What is it? Where do we see it? Over here. He explains that this is teaching us from this verse. It's teaching us that true joy comes from doing mitzvahs, from doing good deeds.
[00:11:28] We can do so many things in our lives that can make us happy, that could give us a sense of fulfillment, but they're only temporary. The only thing that will give us everlasting satisfaction and joy is a spiritual satisfaction, is the feeling of doing a mitzvah. Uh, is the feeling of getting closer to Hashem.
[00:11:53] That's the Vahoya in the Pasik, that that's the joy that's being connoted over here. That we have to remember that the way that we get to a place of true happiness is in the future. Right? Both of them could go together, both of these ideas. Because in the beginning of the Parasha we're saying we got to be forward focused of accomplishment. And I think at the same time, the Orochayim Hakadosh the Orochayim is explaining to us that what are the methods, what are the steps that we can take, what's the growth, what's the forward facing thing that we need to have? What is it in regards to that's really going to give us that true and everlasting joy? It's fulfilling the word of Hashem, it's doing a good deed for another, because everything else, it's just like a sugar high. It makes us feel good then, but goes away. We get a new car, we're happy for a few days, and then we're thinking about the next car. We get a new phone, we enjoy it for a couple days, we show it off, and then we're thinking about the next one. We eat a good steak and after five minutes we forget about it. Everything in the world, all the pleasures that we enjoy that make us feel good are, uh, only temporary. The only thing that's going to give us everlasting satisfaction and joy and happiness is fulfilling the will of Hashem. Um, and that's something which is forward facing.
[00:13:18] Can't think about the past, what we didn't do. I mean, sure, we have to just try to rectify, but the point is we can only control the controllables. And that is what we do right now and in the future.
[00:13:32] So that's. And to take this idea a step further, when we do mitzvos, when we do a good deed, sometimes we're doing it because that's what we do. Sometimes it's not so easy for us to do it. We do it because of routine. We just is what we do.
[00:13:49] Rabbi, uh, Plitzken explains that if we focus on the fact that this is what's going to give us true happiness and satisfaction.
[00:13:59] It helps us give fulfillment and makes the acts of kindness that we do, the good things that we do more meaningful and easier to do and easier to fulfill. If a person is doing, working in occupation where he's helping people, people are not easy. It's very hard to always be a nice guy all the time. But if you focus on the fact that you're helping another person and you're, you know, making life easier for them, and you focus on that, you're doing a mitzvah. Think about the fact that, that this is going to give you true fulfillment. When you help another person out, that's a mitzvah. When you fulfill the different, you know, mitzvahs of the Torah, even if it's not so easy, you remember that it's the key for you to have a meaningful and joyful and satisfactory life.
[00:14:55] It'll help you perform those mitzvahs. It'll help you achieve those goals, because it'll make everything more enjoyable. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the verses in this week's Parasha, where Moshe Rabbeinu is exhorting the Jewish nation not to succumb to the financial success, that they should forget where they came from. Don't forget where you came from. Because there's a certain instinct and almost like reflex in a person that when they become successful, they forget Hashem.
[00:15:29] Moshe tells the Jewish people, don't do that.
[00:15:33] And he gives this beautiful speech that they shouldn't forget Hashem, they shouldn't forget where they came from. One of the verses that he says to the Jewish nation, he says, uh, He says that he's talking through the mindset of a person.
[00:15:51] Once they reach the pinnacle of their success, they think to themselves, ah, uh, I built this empire, it says, lest you will say in your heart, My power and the strength of my hand did for me all of this success. That a person will think to themselves that they're the cause of their success.
[00:16:12] Because person works hard and thank God they see results. It's very easy for us to. To believe that we did everything. Sure, we got to do our part and we have to do our ishtadlas to put our due diligence in. But ultimate success is the hands of Hashem. Many people worked extremely hard and were not successful. And many people didn't work hard at all and were successful. So the point is, is that there's no guarantee. We have to remember success comes from the hands of Hashem.
[00:16:46] So Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking, and he's saying, don't think that your mind might go. You know, you might have this mindset. You might say to yourself, uh, ah, look what I did. My strength, my power created all the success.
[00:17:00] That's the simple way of understanding the pasuk. The verse Rabsholm Shvron brings down from the Bris Garav.
[00:17:09] That this verse is not just referring to somebody who was financially successful and now he's looking at his wealth, his company, that he can't look at it, that it's just, it was his power. He has to remember it's from Hashem, but it's also referring to anybody who maybe is doing the right thing and things are working out for him, right? Uh, he's doing what he's supposed to be doing.
[00:17:35] And thank God his life is going well.
[00:17:40] He shouldn't say to himself, it's because of my righteousness that everything is going good for me, right? Because of what I did, because of my merits, because of who I am and what I do in Haidavan, I do all these mitzvahs. You can't think that because that's what the verse is referring to here, that a person shouldn't think to himself, my power, my strength, my hand, right? My mitzvahs, my merits, who I am, I prayed.
[00:18:13] That's why I have all this success. We shouldn't think like that. Maybe could be that's part of the reason why a person has success.
[00:18:19] But we have to remember it's Hashem who's giving us a success. And we have to be thankful for that. It's not that we deserve it. We don't deserve anything.
[00:18:28] We have to realize that everything we have is a chesed from Hashem. We have to keep everything, our humility.
[00:18:34] So when we have this mindset, not just when it's our financial successes, but even when it's the things go right for us, we shouldn't think it's because of us. We should be thankful. But we need to keep that humility, that no matter what comes our way, good things, it's all a blessing and a gift from Hashem, a gift from God. And just for myself as well, thank God. And really, I think a lot of people, all of us can look at our lives and say, like, wow, so many things have gone right in our lives.
[00:19:10] We have to be so thankful and so appreciative for all the good things that Hashem, uh, does for us. And there are so many of them. I think this is a very powerful idea from this week's Parasha. The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to the end of Parsha's Eikevish.
[00:19:28] Moshe finishes off the Parsha Ki imshamar tishmarun es kolamitzvah, Hazois hasheranohi mitzavah eshem la' asoysa la avos Hashem and lo kem lo leches Bechal de Rochav ah le dov kabay.
[00:19:43] For if you will observe this entire commandment that I command you to perform it, to love Hashem, your g d, to walk in all his ways and to cleave to him the psukim continue. How to tell the Jewish nation that everything will work out for them.
[00:20:00] Now, what's interesting about this verse is the word and to cleave to him, to cleave to hashem.
[00:20:11] What does that mean? That we should love Hashem with all our heart and we should cleave, we should attach ourselves to the Almighty.
[00:20:19] So there's different understandings of what that word means, uh, to attach ourselves to cleave. It's a very close connection.
[00:20:28] One understanding is that we have to imitate the ways of Hashem. We just like g D is merciful, we have to be merciful. You know, just like God does kindness, so too we should do kindness.
[00:20:39] That's one understanding. Rashi explains this for us to that it means that we need to cleave to attach ourselves to Torah scholars, because how could we attach ourselves to God? God is like a fire. We can't attach ourselves to that. But it means to the talmidich hacham, to the Torah scholars who are godlike, they themselves are godly. So we follow them, uh, we listen to them.
[00:21:02] Rav Meir Simcha Akoyn of Dvinsk has another understanding of what it means to cleave to the Almighty.
[00:21:11] He says as follows, that in the Torah there is a mitzvah to to have bitachon.
[00:21:17] To have bitachon means to have trust in God. Now, trust is different than belief.
[00:21:22] It's a different level. It's trust. It's like, you know, it's almost like a fact that although there's no direct m, you know, commandment in the Torah to have bitachon, it doesn't say and a person should have bitachon in hashem, that a person should have trust in hashem.
[00:21:39] The source for that mitzvah, according to Rav Meir Simcha Hakayn from Dvinsk, is from this Pasaqa Bay that we should cleave to the Almighty. And what that means is the way for us to understand that is that if a person is a child of a king, he knows that his father is the king.
[00:22:00] And the king can do anything. The king can supply the son with all of his needs. And it's something that he knows intrinsically. It's not a question. It's not something which he doubts about. The king could do anything. The king has all the resources, and of course he's going to give his child everything he needs to succeed.
[00:22:21] That's what it means.
[00:22:24] How bitachon is sourced from this posseq, the mitzvah of trust in Hashem is that we have to realize that Hashem is the king. Hashem, uh, is in charge.
[00:22:34] He's the king, he's the father, we are the child.
[00:22:38] And we have to cleave to him. We have to realize that he can do anything for us, and we are his son, and he is going to take care of us. It's the mitzvah of Bitachon. And just the reason why this is important is because when we live our life, there's two different ways to live a life. We could live a life of worry, of concern, of not knowing what the next day is going to bring.
[00:23:06] Or we could live a life of Pitachon, a life of trust.
[00:23:10] Because if we know, if we trust that Hashem is running the world and there's a plan, and we're part of that plan, and he put us here for a reason, and he's going to give us what we need to accomplish the reason that he put us here, so then there's nothing to worry about. I'm not saying this is something easy to attain. It takes a life of working on ourselves. But if we have the mindset, we're already more than halfway there.
[00:23:40] It's a way for us to live a life of serenity, of happiness, of calmness.
[00:23:46] It's a way for us to deal with our concerns, to deal with our challenges, to deal with our worries, because we know it's not random. It wasn't an accident that we're here. There's a reason, there's a purpose.
[00:23:59] Uh, Hashem is the king. Uh, Hashem is in charge. We're the child. He's going to take care of us. And we just need to cleave to him. We just need to attach to him. We need to trust in him, to stay close.
[00:24:11] 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 shlomo kon kohnmail.com have a great day.
