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 for this week's parsha. It's Parshas Vezous Habracha. We're about to finish to complete the Torah and then start again. It's an amazing cycle. We complete the Torah every year on Simcha's Torah, and we're about to do it this week.
[00:00:25] Simchas Torah begins really in Israel, begins on Friday night, and in Chutzla Aretz in the Diaspora, tomorrow night is Shmini ah Hazares. But we dance with the Torah on Saturday night. And Sunday, we will be completing the Torah and starting again.
[00:00:42] And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, we'd like to say hello and share your thoughts about going through the cycle with the Practical Parsha podcast.
[00:00:55] Feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:01] So, as I mentioned, we're going to be completing the Torah.
[00:01:05] Now, the beauty of this, of this completion really is not the fact that we're completing, that's something we're happy about, but it's also about the fact that we start again.
[00:01:17] In Judaism, we're always about continuation.
[00:01:21] It's a circle. And every week, every Shabbos, we read the Torah portion, we complete it on Simcha's Torah, and then we start again. And hopefully when we start again in the coming year, it's a little bit deeper, it's a little bit with more understanding.
[00:01:39] Maybe it's we learn a verse in the Torah, we share a new idea, we have a new idea on the Parasha that's really the beauty of Torah. There's layers and layers and layers. And thinking about myself personally doing this podcast already in my fifth cycle, right. You would think maybe I would. God forbid I would run out of ideas, but truth be told, there's plenty. The Torah is never ending, so I'm happy.
[00:02:03] Congratulations. Mazel tov that we're about to finish the cycle of the Torah. And I wish everyone hatzlacha on the coming year going through the Torah portions of the week.
[00:02:14] I encourage you if you've been with us for a while.
[00:02:18] Thank you. And I look forward to sharing more Torah thoughts with you. And if you've just joined up, welcome aboard. I hope you stay for the ride. And just to give a quick idea over here regarding Simcha's Torah. Finishing the Torah, you know, it's Interesting.
[00:02:35] Simcha's Torah is when we complete the Torah. And what do we do on Simcha's Torah? When we finish reading the Torah, we dance with the Torah, we celebrate.
[00:02:45] But it's interesting because on Shavuos, which is the holiday that God gave us the Torah, we don't dance around, but rather we study. We study the whole night.
[00:02:56] And that's the focus of the holiday. And really, to make the question even more. Bring this out a little bit more, the different holidays that we have, usually there's some type of mitzvah, there's certain commandments that's associated with the holiday. For example, we had Rosh Hashanah, right?
[00:03:14] So the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah is.
[00:03:16] It's not raisin chala, of course it's good, but it's blowing the shofar, right? We blow the chauffeur in Rosh Hashanah. That's the mitzvah which is exclusively associated with Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur, we have a mitzvah to fast. We abstain from food, from drink.
[00:03:32] We pray Sukkos, which we're in the middle of right now, we go into a sukkah, a hut, temporary dwelling. We shake Elula vanesser, We bind the four species. These four species, the Torah speaks out for us, to bring them together, to shake them, to make a bracha and, you know, pesach.
[00:03:52] We eat matzah, we have morar. We have the whole seder of the holidays, though only shmini atzeres, Simchas Torah, that's how it's known, right? The second part of Sukkos and shavuis, which is the giving of the Torah, do not have a specific mitzvah that's associated with the holiday. I know Shavuos, you might say, oh, you gotta eat cheesecake. It's the cheesecake holiday. But that's not a mitzvah, that's just a custom. It's nothing. It's no commandment in the Torah that says you must eat cheesecake.
[00:04:25] But we see that every other holiday pretty much, right? Holidays from the Torah have a mitzvah associated with it, right? Like I said, shofar, matzah, lulav, and even, like on a rabbinic level, you have Hanukkah, has lighting, the menorah, and Purim has different mitzvahs that are associated with Purim. But shmini atzeres, Simchas Torah, which is coming up, and Shavuis, which is the holiday that we got the Torah, no special mitzvah. Associated with the day.
[00:04:58] Why is that? Why is it that the, uh, the two holidays, the holiday that's associated with completing the Torah and the holiday that is when God gave us the Torah, there's no special mitzvah that we can do to celebrate this occasion. After all, Judaism is a very experiential religion. We don't just say words. We try to do actions that connect us spiritually into the things we're trying to accomplish. Right? That's the whole idea. You think about chauffeur, you're trying to. Supposed to awaken us, going to a hut. It's supposed to help, you know, for Sukkos, it's supposed to make us recognize what's truly important in life and so on and so forth. So why not for these two holidays which have to. The focus is on the Torah, completing the Torah and actually giving the Torah, there's no mitzvah associated with it that's special for it. The mitzvah is just to rejoice.
[00:05:46] And the answer to this, it really gives us an insight into what it means to have true happiness.
[00:05:54] When we think of physicality and materialism, they do make us happy, right? Having money makes us happy. Eating good food makes us happy. You know, other pleasures in life gives us certain enjoyment. But the truth is, is that these material pleasures are only temporary. They're very superficial.
[00:06:19] They're not something that lasts. And you look at it, uh, think about it, they say the zip codes with the highest incomes have the most amount of therapists or whatever psychologists in it. Because there's a clear connection that having more money or having more of something doesn't necessarily equal being more happy.
[00:06:42] And even for ourselves, wherever we may be in our finances or, um, materialistically, we always get bored of things. We get a new car, eventually we get bored of that, we get a new pair of shoes, we get bored of it. Like maybe we're excited in the beginning, we go on vacation, we get excited, and then we get bored of that.
[00:07:04] The pleasures that we seek, the materialism that we go after, eventually it wears off and it's gone.
[00:07:11] So the truth is that materialism and physical pleasures are really superficial pleasures now. Doesn't mean you have to withhold yourself and not enjoy life. Obviously, it's there for a reason. We have to. You know, we've talked on previous episodes of the purpose of, you know, materialistic pleasure, the Torah's outlook on it, right? We're supposed to use it to elevate ourselves spiritually. But the truth is, is that what is the focus. What is the priority? And actually happens to be just tying this idea a little bit more.
[00:07:42] The whole celebration of Simcha's Torah civically comes after the holiday of Sukkos. The holiday of Sukkos is a holiday which is meant for us to recognize the temporary setting that we find ourselves in in this world.
[00:07:59] We go out of our house for seven days. We eat our meals in the Sukkah, we sleep in the sukkah, we go out of our. Like this, our comfort zone. And we stay in this little hut. And the idea is we're commemorating the clouds of glory that Hashem provided for the Jewish nation when they were in the desert. And the idea is that Hashem is the one who's taking care of us. We're going out of our permanent structure and we're recognizing. We go into this little hut and we realize that it's really Hashem that is protecting us. We realize what truly makes us happy in life, right? Is it the fancy house and is it the fancy car? No, you don't need that to make us happy. And actually, in fact, the mitzvah, uh, the holiday of Sukkos, one of the big focuses, more than any other holiday, is its Zman Simchaseinu. It's the time of our rejoicing, that Sukkah, specifically when we're going into the hut and we're going out of our house. We're getting rid of the materialism that is the time when we're supposed to be the happiest.
[00:09:06] So there's a major insight here. The insight is that it's not the material pleasures that make us happy. It's knowing the truth of why we're here and what we need to do while we're on this earth, which is, we have to know, number one, is Hashem is watching over us. There's a plan, there's a mission, and we have to follow that plan and mission. And when we have that recognition, that truth in our mind, then we're the happiest. We're the happiest people because it doesn't matter if we're in a hut for in a temporary dwelling, because there's a certain clarity in life that we have that creates a certain sense of fulfillment that is unlike anything else a person can experience in this world.
[00:09:46] And just to take this over to Simcha's Torah and, uh, Shavuis, this idea is that when it comes, you know, you know, Simcha's Torah is about completing the Torah and Shavuos is when we got The Torah. So if we're celebrating the Torah, there can be no goodness that is better, that is higher than the spiritual pleasure of fulfilling the word of Hashem, the word of G D itself. And that's why the focus of the holiday is the Torah itself. Because there is no greater pleasure, there is no greater enjoyment. That's the Mitzvah to focus on that. And specifically it comes after Sukkos Simchas Torah, the celebration of the Torah, when we realize it's not the materialism that's the most important, it's the spiritual that's more important. Because when we realize that the spirituality is the most important aspect, so then we'll be able to utilize the material world in the proper way. We'll be able to enjoy this world, we're able to have that good meal, that good vacation, to have those pleasures. But the point is we, we're not losing sight of what's truly important. We have a focus, uh, we have a mission. We're clear sighted and we know what we need to do. And that's just a little thought I wanted to share with you as we go into Simcha's Torah and complete the Torah, God willing, this week's Parasha of Parashas Vazos Habracha is really Moshe's blessing to the Jewish nation. As he's about before he's about to pass on, he is going to bless the Jewish nation. And really he goes through all the tribes specifically, and the Parsha speaks out the different blessings that Moshe gives to each tribe. Finally, the Parsha finishes off with a general blessing to the entire nation as well as Moshe Moshe's death and how Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe himself, how his level of prophecy, the prophet that he was, the leader he was, will never be, only he had a certain level that was superior to any other prophet the Jewish nation ever had. And it's only something that he got to.
[00:11:48] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:11:54] As I mentioned, the Parsha starts off, uh, Asher Beirach Moshe Ishaelokim as B' nei Yisrael.
[00:12:03] And this is the blessing that Moshe, the man of God bestowed upon the children of Israel before his death. So the question that's asked is that if Moshe Rabbeinu, if Moses is giving a blessing to the Jewish nation, why, you know, it would make more sense if we said zos habracha like this is the blessing, what's the vizos habracha, the vav which connotes an and.
[00:12:28] And this is the blessing that Moshe, that the man of God bestowed upon the children of Israel before his death. What's the and and is implying to us that there's a connection to something earlier, right?
[00:12:40] So what's going on over. What's the connection? If this is just the blessing, it should have just said, this is the blessing. What's the end? This is the blessing. It's signifying that it's. This blessing is connected to something else previously.
[00:12:56] And, uh, the, you know, the. The commentaries explain different answers to this question.
[00:13:00] The Ramban and the Rabbeinu Bachaya point this visos the an to a connection to the blessings of Jacob, which Jacob Yaakov gave to the Jewish people at the beginning of their existence. And now Moshe Rabbeinu was tying this, his blessing, which is at the end of his leadership as they're about to enter in the land of Israel. Tying it together.
[00:13:21] I saw brought down from Rabbi Torsky that the vazos that's showing this connection to something prior is referring back to parshas hazinu, which is the prior parsha to vzos habracha.
[00:13:37] And the question that's really raised, if that's the case, if it's connected back to Hasinu, what's the blessing that was in Hasinu? Hasinu is really more of a reproof. It's more of an admonition that Moshe Rabbeinu is giving to the Jewish nation, that they've made mistakes in the past. They shouldn't make mistakes again. So what's the and this is the blessing, right? That if this is the last week's parasha, and parasha is not a blessing, it seems like, you know, a reprimand, uh, a tochacha, where Moshe is telling off the Jewish nation. So what's going on over here? What's the connection here to the blessing? And the answer, he says is that.
[00:14:15] And he brings down sources from mishle, from proverbs, that we see that the truth is that when a person who loves us, gives us criticism, that in itself is a blessing.
[00:14:31] Now, obviously, it doesn't mean we should go around, uh, giving rebuke to people. But the point is we have to do it in the right way. But the truth is that if we're really honest with ourselves, right? And we really want to improve.
[00:14:41] So if somebody who's truly out for our concern and loves us, right?
[00:14:47] So when they say something thus, which is maybe a little hard to hear, maybe we need to hear it, maybe it's important for us to recognize this.
[00:14:56] There's, uh, a rabbi of mine. He should be blessed. He used to say that a Rebbe, a teacher that, you know, you love, everything he says to you, it means he's not a good teacher. He has to teach you. He has to tell you things sometimes you don't want to hear. A good friend tells you things you don't want to hear.
[00:15:14] And that's the connection here, that the blessing in last week's Parasha, that even though Moshe Rabbeinu, even though Moses had to give a sharp rebuke to the Jewish nation, he did it out of love. There was nobody who loved and defended the Jewish nation more than Moshe Rabbeinu, than Moses, nobody.
[00:15:33] And if he had to do it, if Moshe had to say these words to the Jewish nation, it was because they needed to hear it.
[00:15:41] And if they needed to hear it, it's what they needed to do in order to be able to survive, to become better.
[00:15:47] So for us as well, I think it's a mindset.
[00:15:52] Now, obviously, it's hard to hear criticism of ourselves.
[00:15:55] No one likes to hear criticism of ourselves. But the point is, if we could sometimes process and try to think, you know, is there any truth to this? Or maybe not even that, but just the point is, especially maybe when it's the people that we know love us. We're not talking about an anger, um, when anger, people just say things. But the point is, someone points something out to us, we should do our best to be open, to learn from it, to improve from it, to become better from it. Because if we do, that is truly a blessing for us. If we're able to take that constructive criticism to be better, we will be better. And it will come out that it is a blessing. And that is the connection to vezos habracha, that last week it was a blessing for the Jewish nation because they needed to hear it, to become better, to improve.
[00:16:40] The next idea I want to share with you today takes us to one of the next verses in the weekly Parasha. It says Torah, Tziva lanu, Moshe, Morosha, Kihilas, Yaakov.
[00:16:51] The Torah that Moshe commanded us is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. Now, this verse is a very famous verse because one of the first psukim, one of the first verses that a child learns is Torah, Tsiva lanu, Moshem, Oroshaki las Yaakov. This verse, the Torah that Moshe commanded us, is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob. And I think I've shared This idea in previous years, but I felt like I want to repeat it because it's such a beautiful and powerful thought.
[00:17:24] What is the difference between a heritage and an inheritance?
[00:17:30] Right. We translate this Torah, Tziv Lanu Moshe Moroshach y Las Yaakov. It's a heritage for the Jewish nation. What is a heritage and how does it differ from an inheritance?
[00:17:42] So Rav Mordechai Gifter explains on this that the difference is that when someone gives someone an inheritance, it's for that person, for that individual to use as they please. They give money, they leave money, they leave land, they leave stocks, whatever it is. So now the person who is the one who gets it, the inheritor, he could use the money forever. He wants. He can go to Vegas, he could spend it, he can invest it, he could do whatever he wants with the money.
[00:18:09] It's his. That's an inheritance.
[00:18:13] A heritage is. Is different than that. A, uh, heritage is a recognition that this, what you have is not just your property, but it's something which your great grandparents had. Your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents. And it's something which your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren are entitled to as well. It's not just for you, meaning you're part of a bigger picture.
[00:18:43] And this is, I think, a beautiful idea when it comes to our outlook with the Torah and Judaism in general. Right? Because Judaism, it all comes down. What makes us a nation, what makes us a people, is our commitment and connection to the Torah.
[00:18:57] And the idea is that the Torah is not just, you know, it's not. And religion in general. Judaism is not just something. It's not like, uh, something we got, and we could decide what we want to do with it. No, it's something which has been going on for generations and generations, and you are lucky enough to be part of that. And also you have an obligation to pass that forward to your children and grandchildren. It's not just for us to decide. I don't want to be part of it. I don't, um, observe. No, you're part of something which has been going on for thousands of years, and you have an obligation to give that over to your children and grandchildren. It's not just something for you to decide that, you know, this is what I do. No, it's a heritage and sort of like a family heirloom, like you can imagine, to, you know, help us understand this. Let's say the royal. The royal jewels. What's it called? The jewels in London? The royal crown. You know, the family, they don't Think they own it. The king doesn't own it. It's something which is part of the, you know, the kingship of. Of England. And it gets passed from generation to generation to generation, or any family heirloom. There's somebody here in this community. He should have a complete recovery. He has a special kiddush cup, which is from a great, great tzadik, from a righteous, righteous person, his great, great, great, great grandfather. And he doesn't view it that he's the owner of the cup. Rather, he's just the person who holds onto it for the family. And that should be our connection as well. We have to recognize that we're part of a bigger picture. And. And it's, you know, we can't be selfish to say that I don't observe. I don't do this. No. It's something which has been going on for thousands of years. You're part of this, and you have an obligation to continue this, to keep going forward.
[00:20:38] The last idea I want to share with you today takes us to the blessing of Levi. It says in the posse as ul Levi Omar, tumeca vu urecha lish chasidecha asher nisi soybe ma' sa tirivehu amey mariva of Levi, said your tummim and your urim befit you, your devout ones, whom you tested at Masan and whom you challenged at the waters of Meribah.
[00:21:06] And the next verse continues. Hayimr laviv li maylay raeese vas achive la hikir vas banav lo yada ki shamru imraska ubrischa yin seiru. The one who said of his father and mother, I have not favored him, his brothers he did not give recognition, and his children he did not know. For they, the Levites have, uh, observed your word and your covenant they preserved. On a simple understanding, the verses are referring to the tribe of Levi, their dedication to the word of Hashem, to doing God's will.
[00:21:38] Now, if you look at the verses very carefully, there's a few words which teach us a very powerful lesson. Rabbi Cheskel Abran Pishi brings down that. The two words here, if you look at them, it says, kishamru imrasecha uvrischa yinzeru, that they guarded your covenant, and they also preserved it. Right. So there's a shimer to watch.
[00:22:07] And yinozir, which comes from the word neutzer, someone who preserves.
[00:22:12] So the verse is saying that Levi, they preserved the covenant of Jewish people by standing up for what was correct.
[00:22:18] But if you look at the two words, the two words are different.
[00:22:21] Shamru and yitzeru. Shamru comes from the word of shimer, from a watchman. And yinotsru, which is preserved, comes from the word neutzer, which is somebody who takes care, a carekeeper.
[00:22:37] Now, these two things are different.
[00:22:40] A shimer, someone who watches, he's a security guard. He's making sure nothing bad happens. He's watching the warehouse, he's watching the property. But a neutzer, someone who is preserving, is more of a caretaker. He's making sure that this garden is being planted and watered and everything's being kept in order and everything is being done right. So really, these two words are different.
[00:23:08] So the question is, why are we using two different words when it comes to describing the tribe of Levi in the Parsha? And what can we learn from it? So Rabbi Chazkal Abramsky explains on this is that the job of the Leviim, they were the teachers of the Jewish people, and they stood up for what was correct. They had to hold the. Hold the line right by the time of the. The Chet Hagel, by the sin of the golden calf, they stood up for what was correct.
[00:23:34] They had to execute judgment on the people that went up against Hashem.
[00:23:40] Now, there are other times, but they also had to preserve. They had to preserve. And the truth is, if you think of these two positions, one is not exclusive of the other. You have to have both things. You could have a security guard, but if you don't have the knights there, the king, caretaker.
[00:23:57] So then the garden is not going to blossom. You'll be overgrown with weeds. It won't be watered. It needs to be, you know, it has to be taken care of. That's one of the Torahs describing. The tribe of Levi uses both of these words. They were the watchmen and also the preservers. And there's a story that's. That Rabbi Twersky brings down, that the king of Prussia was giving over his kingship when he was passing away to his son, saying, you always should keep expanding the borders.
[00:24:23] But the son said, you know, father, our empire is. It's big enough. He says, if you don't expand, you will eventually shrivel.
[00:24:32] This is, uh. You know, I think in business is similar ideas, that you always have to be expanding and growing, because if you're not growing, you're going to be shrinking. And really, in a spiritual sense as well, you know, aside from the Leviim, the Kohanim, this tribe, but really every Jew, every person, if we're not growing, then we're shrinking, right? If we're not going up, then we're going down. In life, there's no plateauing. There's no. Either we're going. We're getting closer to Hashem, we're getting closer to G D, or we're going further away. Either we're getting better at the things we're doing or getting worse. There's no middle ground. And that's why the posse is teaching us Kishamru, Imrasecho, Brischa Yin, Seira. They protected the breaches, they preserve the covenant, but also they were also looking to preserve, to grow, to make things get better. I think this is the mindset we need to have. And I think especially as we finish the Torah and we go around to our second cycle, we gotta think, you know, appreciate the victories that we got, right? We gotta hold the breaches, we gotta preserve the things we're doing.
[00:25:36] But also in the coming year, look for something a little bit more. That's what you. We're going around the Torah again. Get something a little deeper, a little understand a little better, Do a mitzvah a little better, right? When we do things, we shouldn't be doing it the same way every single time. We should always be improving and doing better. That's a very powerful lesson we see from this week's Parasha, and especially to take us into the next year. God willing, everyone have a great day and wish everyone a good Yontif and a Chag Sameach.
