Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hodu lashem ki tov ki li olam hasto give thanks to Hashem. For he is good. His kindness endures forever. Hello, my friends, this is Rabbi Shlomo Coh. Welcome back for another great episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. And before we begin, I wanted to share some really exciting news with you.
[00:00:22] This past Tuesday, thank God my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
[00:00:29] Thank God everyone's doing well. Mommy's doing good, the baby is doing good, and even the daddy is not doing too bad.
[00:00:36] And God willing, this coming Tuesday will be the Brismila.
[00:00:43] So keep listening for next week. If you want to know what the name is.
[00:00:47] And as always, if you have any questions, comments, would like to say mazel tov. Maybe you want to send me a baby gift. Please feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo Konkohnil. Uh dot com. I'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:02] This week's Parsha is Parshas Bamidbar.
[00:01:05] And as I mentioned last week, we're beginning the fourth book of the Torah, the Book of Vamidbar. So aside from being Parshas Vamidbar, it's also we're in the Book of Bamidbar.
[00:01:20] And if you translate Bamidbar, it doesn't necessarily mean numbers. That's how people call it in English. The Book of Bamidbar is referred to the Book of Numbers, but it's not correctly translated. Bamidbar means in the desert.
[00:01:34] The reason why it's referred to as numbers is because in this week's Parasha, we talk about the census. G D commands Moshe Rabbeinu to take a census of the Jewish people.
[00:01:45] This is the fourth time in the Torah that there's a commandment to count the Jewish people. Now, the way that we are counted is not by just counting people. We don't do that. But rather each male Jew over 20 would give a half a shekel coin. And by counting up the coins, we would know how many people there are in the nation. Now, there's different reasons that are given as to why there is a commandment to count the Jewish people. Um, the primary idea that we see is that the reason why Hashem gave the commandment to Moshe Rabbeinu to count up the Jews is that just like a person counts things which are dear to them. Right. If we have diamonds, we always. People are checking their retirement accounts all the time. Maybe not now so much. Hopefully not. But the point is that we check things that are important to us. We check our bank accounts, right? So to Hashem, each Jew is important to him. And therefore, there's a special commandment to show the love to the Jewish people to count us. Now, there's additionally different reasons that are given.
[00:02:50] Um, such as the fact the Jewish people were about to cross into the land of Israel. They needed to know the amount of men that would be able to fit to serve in the army. That they would do battle with the seven nations that lived in the land of Israel.
[00:03:05] But the idea that we see that's conveyed through the Of Macht has a shekel, of giving a half. A shekel is this idea that in the eyes of Hashem, in the eyes of G D, everyone is equal. Because everyone had the same obligation of giving a half of a shekel. Even a rich person, a poor person, didn't make a difference. Everyone had that same obligation. And the lesson is, is that when it comes to our, you know, to us, to how Hashem looks at us, G D looks at us all the same. And it's up to us. It's up to what we do, how we act and what we accomplish to elevate ourselves, you know, maybe how other people view us down here. Sometimes we feel that people look down on us. We're not in a certain class or, you know, we're in a certain part of society. But that doesn't really matter, because when it comes to Hashem, the real relationships, comes to our spiritual life, our, uh, real life, our eternal life. It has to do with how Hashem views us. And Hashem views us all the same. And it's up to us to do our part to make the most of what we have. Now, just to give a quick overview of the parsha. The parasha, as I mentioned, tells us about the mitzvah of this commandment of counting the Jewish people.
[00:04:18] Now, aside from that, there's also a special commandment that's given to the Jewish people.
[00:04:24] That is the Degalim, the banners, the flags that. The formations that God gives specific instructions to Moshe Rabbeinu to assign the Jewish people in a different formation.
[00:04:39] When they rested in the desert and when they traveled in the desert. And aside from putting them in specific spots and specific locations around the tabernacle, he also gave each tribe a special banner, a special symbol, right? A seal.
[00:04:58] And these seals weren't just like, you know, sort of to make a separation, like the king of England has a seal.
[00:05:04] These seals had spiritual connotations to them as well. And it made the Jewish people complete and whole.
[00:05:13] And, you know, it's brought down in the midrashim that the nations of the world looked at the encampment of the Jewish people with their dagalim, with their flags, and they had this certain sense of aura on them. And it was befitting that the divine Presence rested on them.
[00:05:30] Now, the parasha also tells us about the Leviim, the Levites who had the special job of transporting the Mishkan, transporting the tabernacle, guarding it, and different families within the Leviim had civic jobs. And the Torah tells us the jobs of each one of the families, as well as how the Mishkan, how the tabernacle would be transported, and how it would be set up as well. And the parsha concludes with a prohibition, a warning to the Leviim to make sure to treat the Mishkan, the tabernacle, with complete honor. To not, you know, to not disrespect it in any way, especially because of the fact that they would be dealing with it in more of a mundane manner, so to say, by transporting it, by taking apart it warns them to be extra careful when they're dealing with the vessels of the Mishkan and the actual tabernacle itself, to have a specific honor regarding it. Now, the first idea, uh, I wanted to share with you today is on this concept of digalem. These banners, these flags, these formations.
[00:06:39] And as I mentioned before, there were different deep spiritual connotations to these banners, to these formations, that each tribe was placed in a specific spot for a specific reason, to guard against specific sins, to protect against certain things. And the strengths or weaknesses of the tribe sort of determine where they were placed. And similarly, regarding the banners, their dagal and these special insignias and flags that they had, each one had a certain connotation of their strength and where they excelled in and so on and so forth. Now, the question that's asked that I saw brought down is that when the Jewish people came out of Egypt, when they left Mitzrayim, it says in the posseq in the verses that they left with a strong hand, that they with a yad Rama.
[00:07:39] They left Egypt with a strong hand. They were armed, they came out with pride. They didn't leave Mitzrayim as a nation that was running away from their master. No g D took them out.
[00:07:51] And now the Jewish people are in the desert. They're about to enter the land of Israel. This is before the sin of the spies. So the original plan was before the Jewish people sinned, they're supposed to go right into the land of.
[00:08:04] They were supposed to go right into the land of Israel.
[00:08:08] And now God gives the people this mitzvah of the degalim of these formations, of these flags. And the question is, is that why now did God give the Jewish people these flags, these banners, right, These formations?
[00:08:27] And to make the question even stronger, it would seem that maybe these formations and the flags and this, this. What were this commandment that God is giving is sorting, leading to divisions within the Jewish people.
[00:08:43] Hm. Right.
[00:08:44] Because when the Jewish people came out of Egypt, they were all together. They are one. We don't see in the verses any indication that there was a difference. They're all Jews. They're all one. They're all together. They're coming out of the land of Egypt. And now we're sort of making divisions within the 12 tribes.
[00:09:03] We're saying, you go here because of this, you have this flag because. Because you have this strength.
[00:09:11] And we're making a separation.
[00:09:14] So maybe the flags, the Galim, are not a good thing. It's making a pirate. It's making a separation. It'll make people start fighting with each other. One tribe will think they're better than the other tribe because they have this strength. And this tribe will say, no, they're better.
[00:09:30] And it will lead to more fighting and more division.
[00:09:34] And the answer to this is that Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky brings down.
[00:09:38] He says that now specifically it was given to the Jewish people this commandment of the.
[00:09:47] Because they had the Mishkan, now the Jewish people had the tabernacle. The Mishkan was the central focal point of the Jewish people.
[00:09:57] They now had a unifying factor of. Of the Mishkan. That's where the Shekhinah rested. The Divine Presence rested in the Mishkan.
[00:10:07] And it was a unifying factor for the Jewish people.
[00:10:10] So it was appropriate now to give each tribe their specific mission and to sort of split them up in a way to tell them their unique traits and their unique abilities.
[00:10:24] And it was given to the Jewish people with the intention to make them stronger, to make them more unified.
[00:10:32] Because the idea is that just because people have different strengths and different abilities doesn't make one person better than the other.
[00:10:44] And it's really on the contrary, when people who have different abilities and different strengths and can do different things in different ways come together with a central focal point.
[00:10:57] It makes a perfect nation, a super strong nation.
[00:11:04] And the way that we can understand this is really two examples. Because if a person has a body, right, no one thinks themselves, oh, my hand is better than my Foot, right? Or my eye is better than my ears. No, Everything is needed to have a perfectly functioning body, right? No one wants to be without hands or, God forbid, without feet, without eyes. We want all these factors in order to be the most, to reach our potential as human beings. And similarly, if you have an army, in an army, there's different parts of the armed forces. You have the Air Force, the Army, the Marines, the Coast Guard, the Navy. And within each one of these divisions, you have many different jobs, right? Just in the army itself, there's so many different parts of the army. And to make this point even stronger, the overwhelming majority of the troops in the army are not soldiers fighting on the front line. It's support personnel, people driving trucks, cooks people, mechanics, people doing, quote, unquote, mundane jobs that have nothing to do with the people shooting and jumping out of helicopters. Those are the minority of the soldiers.
[00:12:16] But the point is that if we don't have all the supporting personnel, so then the army cannot function perfectly. It's going to be lacking. The way that you become the best fighting force is if everyone does their job to the best of their abilities. That means a guy sitting in an office, doing his job the best he can. That's what he excels at. And it means similarly so the guy jumping out of the airplane, right?
[00:12:42] But it doesn't mean that one is better than the other.
[00:12:45] It means that they're all needed to have this perfect army fight in the best way possible.
[00:12:52] And that's the idea of the degalim here as well, that when the Jewish people left mitzrayim, they were not capable of receiving the degalam, receiving these flags, because they did not yet have a focal point that they were all looking toward. They did not yet have a mishkan. They did not have the tabernacle.
[00:13:09] But once they had the tabernacle, they had the mishkan. So now it was appropriate, it was a good time for them to receive this mitzvah of the dgalim of these formations, that they should know their strengths and they should know their abilities. Because ultimately, when you have the same focus of what you're going towards, it doesn't make a difference if someone else could do something better than you. Because we're all on the same team. We all want the best thing to happen, right? We all want to be mekare shem shemayim. We all want to sanctify God's name. And really, that should be our outlook in life as well. Because our goal, our mission should be one goal that is, like I mentioned before, to sanctify God's name, to be Kadashim Shemayim. And when we have that outlook in our lives, so it doesn't make a difference. If someone does something better than me, it doesn't make a difference. You know, my ego is less.
[00:14:03] I'm not saying it's the easiest thing to do. But the point is, if we have the same outlook and the same goal, it helps us push aside the ego and accomplish more towards the betterment of everyone around us. And it's not just in our spiritual lives, it's in our family, it's in our jobs, it's with our friends.
[00:14:24] Because if we ask ourselves, what is my goal? Is my goal to. To have honor? Is my goal to be better than someone?
[00:14:32] And if the answer is yes, then might have a problem. But if your answer is that no, there's a higher mission here. My goal is to be the best friend I could be. My goal is to have the best family I could have, to have the best friendship, to have the best job, to be the best I could do, to be Mekad M Hashem Shemayim, to sanctify God's name. So then it doesn't make a difference. We all could do the best we could do with our skills. And if someone could do something better, it shouldn't bother us at all. A, uh, second idea I wanted to share with you is regarding the aron.
[00:15:04] Now, the aron, the ark, was the most holy vessel in the entire Mishkan.
[00:15:12] And the way that it was transported signified this elevated holiness.
[00:15:18] Now, the family of Kahas was given this job.
[00:15:23] And even in the way that the aron was transported was very unique.
[00:15:27] The people who would carry the aron would have to walk backwards facing the aron as to not disrespect it. While transporting the aron, the Leviim, the B' Naika, has sang a special song to Hashem.
[00:15:42] And it was a great honor and privilege for the. For the family of Kahas, one of the sons of Levi, to carry the Aaron.
[00:15:52] Now, although the Torah gives a commandment to the family of Qahas to carry the aron, it was obvious to everybody that the aron was carrying them.
[00:16:08] And, uh, the commentaries tell us that they would be lifted up and carried by the holy vessel of the Aron, the Ark.
[00:16:18] And it wouldn't weigh anything.
[00:16:21] It's even though that they were supposedly carrying the poles of the ark, the ark was carrying them.
[00:16:30] And there's different stories in Tanakh which show how the Aron, the ark, carried its carriers.
[00:16:39] And really what I wanted to bring out from this is a deeper, uh, idea over here. The Maral explains that just like in the Mishkan, the holiest part of the Mishkan was the ark was the Aron.
[00:16:56] And it sort of gave life to the Mishkan, it brought the divine presence into the tabernacle.
[00:17:04] So too the neshama of a person, the soul of a person upholds our bodies.
[00:17:13] That it's, you know, we think our body is a resting place for our soul, but it's really the other way around. It's the soul that's giving our body life.
[00:17:28] That without an Ashama, without that breath of God into us, we would just be a mound of dirt. Right? And that's what, when a person leaves this world after 120 years, right. The reason why a person passes away is because the neshama leaves a person. The neshama is our life force. And I feel like with that outlook, sometimes it helps us have a recognition of who is truly supporting who.
[00:17:58] You know, many times we look at ourselves that we follow the Torah. We do mitzvos, right? We're upholding the Torah. That's how we look at it, right?
[00:18:12] But if we think about a little bit deeper, is it possible that the Torah is upholding us?
[00:18:20] You know, there's expression when it comes to m, it's more referring to Shabbos, but the. They say that Jews don't keep Shabbos. Shabbos keeps the Jews.
[00:18:31] And that means is that Shabbos keeps us as Jews. If there wouldn't be a Shabbos, there wouldn't be Jews.
[00:18:39] And the idea, uh, can be said regarding our Torah observances, our mitzvos, that we think we're doing, we're learning, we're keeping the Torah, but really the Torah is keeping us.
[00:18:53] And if you think about the world as a whole, you know, you don't want to look at the world. So much craziness is going on. You want to just have your sanity. And I hope this podcast gives you that sanity and that peace of mind.
[00:19:08] But, uh, the message I want to bring out here is that when we live our lives with the Torah, right, We shouldn't necessarily look at it. That we're doing a favor for God, is that God is doing something for us, that when we observe the mitzvos, we have certain benefits, that the ills of society are not affecting us.
[00:19:34] The maladies which are affecting society at large don't affect us because we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're not letting in the outside noise.
[00:19:45] The problems that, that the world faces at large doesn't necessarily affect a person who's living within the confines of the Torah because the Torah upholds us, it makes us uplifted, it makes us better people. And just because the rest of the world has a problem, we have to appreciate the physical and spiritual sicknesses that we are speared from by living with the Torah, by upholding the Torah. And really, in essence, it upholds upholding us. And that's a very important lesson that we see from the ark, from the Aron, that although the people, it maybe seemed that they were carrying the Aron, really, if you looked very closely, the Aron was carrying them.
[00:20:31] And that this example, this idea is not just about the Aron, it's about our neshamos, our spiritual side and the Torah, which is also spirituality. It's how we find spirituality. It's how we have that connection to Hashem M that we think we're upholding the Torah, but really the Torah is upholding us. With that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you all enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or just like to reach out, please feel free to send me an email at Rabbi shlomakonko hnmail.com I'd love to hear from you. Have a great day.
