[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. It's Friday afternoon. It is getting late. Shabbos is coming.
[00:00:12] I am so excited. Hope you are excited as well.
[00:00:16] I just want to sit down for a few minutes and share an episode about this week's Parsha. I know it's late, but it's better late than never. You still have plenty of time till Shabbos to listen to this episode, to enjoy it, to say it over at your Shabbos table, to be inspired.
[00:00:36] And actually, this week, I wasn't even going to do an episode, you know. You know, I, uh, usually do it Wednesday night, Thursday night. Very rarely do I do an episode on Friday. It's already. It's usually too late. For whatever reasons happens to be for this week, like many people, I took a small family vacation with everybody, with the whole crew. Thank God. It was a beautiful vacation. We went to Washington, D.C. if you want to know some good places to go with the family, you could send me an email.
[00:01:07] But happened to be on the trip. There was a little bit of a, uh, snafu, I guess I would say. The first day of the trip, you know, we had a beautiful first day, and we finished it with a barbecue in the park and we're clearing up, and my daughter, who is turning five, she's little, very cute, she fell down.
[00:01:28] And my wife and I knew right away that we would probably need to go to emergency room. And we were in Northern Virginia, and it's always stressful these situations, especially when you're traveling.
[00:01:40] And thank God we were able to find quality care. We brought her to emergency room, we got X rayed, they put her into a splint, and the doctors actually told us we could continue our vacation till we got back to the Philadelphia area, where she was seen by, you know, an orthopedist. Thank God she's doing well. So it's been a little bit of a busy week, and I was thinking, um, I'm probably not going to do an episode this week at all. But it happens to be today when I was by the doctor's office.
[00:02:09] I, you know, when we're going back and forth between the different rooms. And my daughter, I actually met a nurse who, you know, told me she was Jewish. And actually I told her about my podcast, you know, shameless plug. If you're gonna meet me and tell me you're Jewish, I'm gonna tell you about the podcast. So that's just part of the deal. But either way, she seemed very interested in wanting to listen to the podcast specifically in her situation, to help give her a little inspiration. So I felt that was a push for me to sit down today, a little bit of time to share some thoughts on the Parsha. So it's her merit today.
[00:02:51] And all of you should know, all the listeners, everybody in the practical Parsha podcast family should know that. I hope this podcast inspires you, but just as much as this podcast inspires you, you inspire me that, uh, there's been many times where listeners have pushed me to get episodes out when I otherwise wouldn't, you know, interactions with people who are interested in growing their Judaism.
[00:03:22] So just like I hope I'm pushing you to grow, to become closer to Hashem, to become closer to God, you're pushing me as well, to give over more Torah and to become closer to Hashem as well. So with that, before we begin, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out to say hello, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you. This week's Parsha, this week's Torah portion is Parshas Re Ei. And just to give a quick overview of the Parasha before we jump into some beautiful ideas, it's Parshas Re Egg is really a continuation of Moshe Rabbeinu's speech that he's giving to the Jewish people as they're about to enter into the land of Israel. And really, these next three Torah portions are really the bulk of the commandments that are contained in the book of Deuteronomy. Right? The book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Torah. It's a inspirational speech that Moshe is giving that Moses is giving to the Jewish nation before they're about to enter into the land of Israel. And the speeches, you know, telling them where they made their mistakes, where they could improve, giving them messages of inspiration, and also reviewing parts of the Torah, reviewing different commandments that the Jewish people were given, and also giving them new commandments now before they enter into the land of Israel.
[00:04:42] The Parsha starts off with Moshe telling the Jewish people that the blessings and the curses, right, that if we do what we're supposed to be doing, we'll have blessings. Blessing. And if, God forbid, we don't, then the curses which are going to be said at a later time can, God forbid, come upon the Jewish nation.
[00:05:00] He talks about the sanctity of the land of Israel, that the um, permission, the different halachos, different laws regarding offerings and sacrificial food, where they could be eaten and how they could be eaten. The permission to eat regular meat, unconsecrated meat.
[00:05:17] And there's uh, a general prohibition in this week's Parsha about copying the rights, the practices of the Canaanim, these nations, the non Jewish nations that dwell in the land in Israel, and to really just copying the non Jewish nations, that we do things differently. We don't copy them and we don't follow them. In regards to idol worship, the Parsha talks about the false prophet and those who entice others to go astray. We talk about the wayward city and how the Jewish nation is a treasured people and the different permitted and forbidden foods that a Jewish allowed to eat.
[00:05:55] Finally, the parasha finishes off about being warm and open hearted to our, uh, brethren. And we talk about the obligation of going to Yerushalayim, going to the temple when it existed during three times a year for the three holidays of Pesach, Shavuis and Sukkis. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha. The first verses of the Parsha begin as Re e' ya nochi no sein lefneichem hayom bracha ukloloh. See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. The next verse continues. ESA bracha hasher tishmu el mitzvois hashem eloke hasher anokimitz chemayom.
[00:06:36] Next verse as well. Vaklola im loishishmu el mitzvos hashem eloke.
[00:06:47] The blessing that you hearken to. The commandment of Hashem, your God that I commanded you today. And the curse if you do not hearken to the commandments of Hashem, your God and you stray from the path that I commanded you today to follow. Gods of others that you did not know.
[00:07:01] So it's very interesting if you look at the beginning of the parsha, the first word.
[00:07:07] What's the first word of the parsha?
[00:07:10] It's the word re ei. See, now in Hebrew there's different, um, tenses. There's past, future, there's different ways of referring to one person individually versus a whole, you know, group of people.
[00:07:27] The word re e in Hebrew is singular.
[00:07:31] But it's. If you continue reading the verse, and we know the whole book of Devaram, the whole book of Deuteronomy is something which Moshe was speaking, Moses was speaking to the entire Jewish nation.
[00:07:42] Why is he using the word re e si, which is singular in Hebrew when he's addressing the entire Jewish nation? It doesn't fit in.
[00:07:54] It should be the appropriate, you know, way of saying it in Hebrew, that it's more of a plural. Why are we using a singular here? So the Ibn EZR explains this.
[00:08:05] He says that when the word rei is used, it says that Moshe was speaking to every individual, every person specifically.
[00:08:17] Now it's interesting. When I saw this idea brought down, it sort of reminded me a little bit about podcasting and radio in general and really how this is gonna something a lesson for us as well.
[00:08:28] There's different methods when it comes to podcasting or radio. And maybe you noticed this yourself.
[00:08:34] Some people, some hosts, they speak to everybody.
[00:08:39] They speak to all of us. They speak to we, they don't speak to the individual.
[00:08:45] And then there's others that speak to every person individually, that when they're speaking through the mic, they're not looking at it, that they're speaking to 100, 200, 1,000, a million people. They're thinking that they're speaking to one person.
[00:08:58] And you'll see in their speech, you'll notice it, that that's the way they talk, that they're having a face to face conversation. You know, if you take a listen to any podcast or radio show, you'll see this right away. There's different types of methods. For myself, I try to do a little bit of both. And that's what you probably pick up. I try to make it that people feel that I'm speaking to you, to each and every one of you, and to speak to all of us.
[00:09:23] So I try to do both.
[00:09:25] That's my, uh, that's how I operate. But what am I trying to bring out here? What does this have to do with us? In the weekly parsha, what was Moshe Rabbeinu trying to do? What was Moses trying to give over to the Jewish nation? When he's saying this word, re ei singular, what was he doing?
[00:09:40] And the answer is that a lot of times if we hear like, you know, uh, maybe it's in our work, maybe it's where there's, you know, there's some type of criticism being handed down by the higher ups.
[00:09:50] So it's easy for us to say that it's, you know, it's the next person. In Yiddish, it's yennom, it's the next guy that he's not talking about me, that I don't need the Improvement. It's not me who needs the criticism. It's not me who needs to be better. It's the next guy. It's the other person. It's my co worker. It's everybody else. You know, it's yenem. Yennom means it's somebody else.
[00:10:13] So the point here is that when Moshe Rabbeinu, when Moses was giving this speech, he specifically started off in a singular, you know, with a word that implies singular. That it's that each person should think, should know, not should think, that should know. That he's talking to each and every one of them, that he's giving this rebuke and inspiration, you know, uh, it was not necessarily the easiest package to swallow yet. It had to be done. But he was speaking to every person. And I think there's two ideas here that we can bring out. That when people are. Obviously, there's ways of giving criticism, but let's assume it's given in the proper way.
[00:10:50] If there's someone speaking to us about, you know, giving us over a message, we should. We should try to. Don't think it doesn't apply to us. You know, when someone's trying to point something out to be. To improve upon, Try to take ways that it can talk to us. Because if you do that, you become a better person, you become a better worker, you become a better Jew, you become closer to Hashem. Um, we're always looking to improve. That's what life is all about.
[00:11:16] Another I think, way we can, you know, lesson we could take out of this is that when we speak to another person, we should make them feel that we're talking to them. And this is very important. People don't get this enough. You know, there's a famous story where a guy holds them up with a gun, and he says he just starts talking. And the guy's sitting there for 20 minutes, and then he's like, do you want my money? He's like, no, I just wanted to talk. That's it. You can go now. He needed to talk to somebody. But the point is, is that when we talk to other people or people are talking to us, that's better. When people are speaking to us, and sometimes they're going. It's. Maybe it's mundane, the conversation, or maybe they actually need to. It's a more heavy conversation. Uh, it's a dmc. The. The point is, we should make them feel that we're speaking to them, we're listening to them, that actually someone's there. And this goes such a long way when dealing with other people, that we want to be authentic, real people. And if you want people to see you as such, listen to them.
[00:12:16] Actually, genuinely listen to them. Maybe even remember what they say to you the next time.
[00:12:22] When people do that, uh, you get this certain. They get a certain sense of value, they get a certain sense of appreciation. I think maybe that's also. I'm adding a little bit my own thought, what the Ibn Ezra is saying. Maybe this idea of what Moshe is doing, he's saying in singular, he's telling the Jewish nation, I'm talking to you, talking to you. It's also giving us a lesson. We talk to people, we should speak, focus on what we're doing, focus on who we're talking to. And also we should listen as well, in the same way that we should listen to somebody when they're speaking to us directly as well. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the prohibition in the Torah, where the Torah states that an individual cannot inflict damage upon themselves because of grief or aggravation or mourning. And it seems it was common practice in earlier times that people would cut themselves out of grief, perhaps because of the death of a loved one or any other challenging situation that they would face. And I think this concept exists still in different forms. But either way, there's a prohibition in the Torah where a Jew is not allowed to do that. And the posseq reads as follows. The verse reads as follows.
[00:13:38] And the next verse continues. Ki am um kaddesh ata la hashem elokecha uvachob bochar hashem lyos loy la' am segula mikola amim asher al penei ha adama.
[00:13:50] You are children to Hashem your g D. You shall not cut yourselves, and you shall not make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person.
[00:13:58] For you are a holy people to Hashem your God. And Hashem has chosen you for himself to be a treasured people from among all the peoples on the face of the earth.
[00:14:10] So this is the prohibition for a Jew to inflict harm upon themselves because a person has passed on.
[00:14:18] Now, if you look at these verses, it's very interesting.
[00:14:21] We know that when a person passes, a, uh, loved one passes especially. It's a very challenging situation. It's very painful.
[00:14:29] And there's no prohibition to cry and to have grief. In fact, that's what a person is supposed to do. There's a whole. In Judaism, there's a whole grieving process.
[00:14:40] There's the funeral which is, uh, many different parts of it, which is supposed to, you know, there's part of that process, of the grieving process. Then there's Shiva, where there's seven days where a person sits. And that's supposed to also help them, console them through this process. And also for a parent or for other loved ones is an extended period of time where they're in a state of mourning. So it's not like the Torah says, you can't have grief when there is. A person passes away.
[00:15:09] When a loved one passes away.
[00:15:12] Everything has its time and place. But what the prohibition here is is that a person can have.
[00:15:19] A person cannot have excessive grief.
[00:15:22] To have aggravation and grief to the point where a person will cut themselves or do damage to themselves. That is forbidden. You're not allowed to have that. Why is that? So if you look actually at the words of the verses, it'll give us a little bit of an insight into why this is so and how we deal with grief for our loved ones, the pain of that void, and the challenge. So let's look at the verses. It starts off, bonim atem la hashem lokehem los es Goduduv loses simukarch b' enenechem lames. You are children to Hashem, your God. You shall not cut yourself, and you shall not make a bald spot between your eyes for a dead person. The first thing is that person has to realize that we are children of Hashem.
[00:16:06] And really, like a lot of things, the parent child relationship, that's our relationship with God, that we're considered the children, Hashem is the parent. And a lot of our relationship with our children mirrors that relationship with G D. But the point is here is that number one, and this is not necessarily the always the easiest thing to swallow, but it's a mindset, and we have to try to get there because it will help us. The first thing we have to know is that we are children of Hashem.
[00:16:33] That just like a parent does the best for their child, Hashem, God does the best for us.
[00:16:43] And no matter what situation we find ourselves in, that is what we're supposed to be in. Doesn't mean we should do our best if sometimes we need to get out of it. But we have to realize that what we're in, the situation we find ourselves in and the circumstances that we have in life, Hashem gave it to us. And if that's what he gave to us, that's what's the best for us. It might not be easy for us to understand that right? And a child, it's not always easy for the child to understand why the parent is doing certain things to them, giving them a shot, bring him to the dentist, so on and so forth. The list goes on and on and on.
[00:17:18] But the point is, the parent knows what's best for the child. Hashem, uh, is our parent. Hashem is our loving father. He knows what's best for us. And for different reasons, things must be as they are, we're just not going to understand that. That's one point, a second part of the verse that also gives an insight into this, how to deal with grief and why we can't have excessive grief.
[00:17:41] It says, ki am um kadosh atala Hashem elokecha uvachab bochar ah Hashem leos loy am segulami kol hame mashir al panay haadama.
[00:17:52] For you are a holy people to Hashem your God. And Hashem has chosen you for himself to be a treasured people from among all the peoples on the face of the earth. So the Jewish people is called the. We're called the chosen people.
[00:18:06] And that's because we accepted the Torah. We're special.
[00:18:10] Now. The Ramban explains, what does it mean? A person cannot make a cut on themselves out of grief, out of pain, because they're, um, they're a holy people. What does it mean, we're a holy people? The Jewish nation is a holy people.
[00:18:25] The Ramban explains on this that when it says ki am um kadosh that we're a holy nation, it's referring to the fact that a Jew never dies. What does that mean? A Jew never dies?
[00:18:40] He says as follows. It says that we know that we're made up of physicality. We're flesh and blood, but also within ourselves is a godly soul.
[00:18:54] And this godly soul is something which can never be destroyed.
[00:19:01] It never ceases to exist. It goes on to the next world to be closer to Hashem. Right? This world is our place to do this. The physical world is the place. To do mitzvos is to do good deeds and to learn Torah and to study and to do. And the next world is the place where we reap our reward, where we are closer to the Shechina, to the divine presence.
[00:19:23] And the soul we have, we're just sort of trapped in this body while we're here. This body is a physical body. The soul is what gives the life. The body is useful. It's a key component to this because that's the vehicle that helps us accomplish.
[00:19:38] But the point is that all that happens when a person passes away is that the soul leaves the body and moves on to the next world.
[00:19:47] So when it says in the verse Ki am um Kadaish that we're a holy nation, it's referring to the fact that a Jew never dies, that the soul of a Yid, the soul of a Jew, is everlasting. It keeps going.
[00:20:04] It's existing in another form in the next world.
[00:20:07] So that in itself should be a consolation for us, to prevent us from having grief that's over the top. We should cry. It's important to cry. And we could have pain, and we can go through challenging situations, but we have to also realize that there's a limit to it. One thing we can do is that when we feel this excessive grief, and I think this pasuk cues us onto this, is that we realize we're am um Kadesh, that we realize that we have a godly soul within us.
[00:20:34] And whenever we feel overcome with pain and grief, for whatever reason, we need to remember that we have to find a way to channel it and into something positive. And in Judaism, the way that we do that is we do mitzvos, we learn Torah. And that channeling into something positive elevates the soul of our loved ones, makes us feel connected to them, pushes them to a higher place in the next world, pushes us to a higher level in this world, and it's a win win and makes us feel better.
[00:21:12] You know, you ever noticed if a person's going through a situation, um, and I could speak for myself, you know, a person going through a challenging time, and you daven, you pray to Hashem, maybe you prayed in the formal davening in the different Amidah, or maybe you use your own words. But do you ever notice that you feel better afterwards? You feel better, a certain sense of relief.
[00:21:34] And I think it's this idea you're channeling the. That pain, you're channeling that frustration to something positive to help yourself to closer your connection with Hashem, to elevate your loved one, and so on and so forth. I think that's a very beautiful idea we see from this week's Parasha, which cues us in onto this idea of the prohibition of having, you know, cutting oneself, cutting oneself out of grief. Right. We have to remember that there's always, no matter what situation we're in, you know, uh, putting not even just a person losing a loved one, but any situation of pain or challenge, there's always a way for us to channel that pain, that challenge into something positive, to use it and turn it around for inspiration, for goodness, for elevation.
[00:22:24] Because we're realizing that Hashem put us in this situation where, children of Hashem, God does for us, only the best for us, and we realize we're a holy nation. It goes together. That's what those two ideas in the verse are teaching us, that everything, you know, sometimes it's hard to hear, but we're in every situation. There's no such thing as coincidence. Everything is divine providence.
[00:22:44] And the situation we're in, we're meant to be in. But realize you're, um, a holy people. You have an eternal soul. And therefore any situation you find yourself in, you can turn around to use for something positive, to channel it for something good and elevate yourself, our family, our loved ones, and the world. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo kon
[email protected]. have a great day and a good Shabbos.
