Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello my friends, and welcome back for this week's episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:07] Definitely feels good to be back behind the Practical Parsha podcast microphone in the Practical Parsha podcast studio.
[00:00:18] I'm, um, back from West Virginia. Camp is finished, we are home, Baruch Hashem, thank God.
[00:00:25] And, um, things are busy, kids are home, school hasn't started yet, and it sort of makes you appreciate what a great invention school is. But with all kidding aside, I'm happy to be back here with you to share thoughts with you on the weekly Parsha.
[00:00:41] And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, just would like to reach out to say hello.
[00:00:50] Please don't be shy, send me an email. Rabbi Shlomo konkohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:59] This week's Parsha is Parshas Devarim.
[00:01:02] Now, aside from being Parshas Devarim, we are also beginning the Book of Devarim.
[00:01:09] Now, this is the fifth book of the Torah, the book of Deuteronomy, and it's also referred to as Mishnah Torah, that it's sort of a review of the entire Torah.
[00:01:22] And the background to the Book of Devarim is that Moshe Rabbeinu, the Jewish people, they're about to enter into the land of Israel. Moshe is about to pass on and give over the leadership of the nation to Joshua, to Yeshua, who lead the Jewish people to conquer the Land of Israel.
[00:01:44] And now, before his death, Moshe Rabbeinu gathers the entire nation to give them a review of the important halachos, the important laws they need to know, to remind them of their history, to give them some musr, some rebuke for the mistakes that they made in order that they shouldn't make them again.
[00:02:08] And this week's Parsha begins with that veiled rebuke, um, that Moshe Rabbeinu is going to give to the Jewish people.
[00:02:16] Also, the Book of Devarim does include mitzvos, new Mitzvos that Hashem commands the Jewish people.
[00:02:23] And aside from the review of some of the other mitzvahs which have been given previously to the Jewish nation. The Parasha tells us of the appointment of judges, as well as the Moshe recollecting to the Jewish nation the mission of the spies, where they made a fatal mistake which caused them to spend 40 years in the desert. The Parsha finishes with Moshe Rabbeinu giving a detailed lesson to the Jewish people on their History of the miraculous victories they had against the other nations, uh, of the world who fought against them. With Hashem commanding the Jewish people to go and conquer the land of Israel. The first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:03:11] So, as I mentioned before, the Parsha in Devarim starts off with a veiled rebuke.
[00:03:19] The verse reads as Elu advar ma' sher diber moishe el kol Yisrael, uh, behardein bamidbar ba' rava molsoif bayn paron ubayin teufeld.
[00:03:30] Um.
[00:03:33] These are the words that Moshe spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan, concerning the wilderness, concerning the Aravah opposite the sea of reeds, between Parah and Tophel and Laban and Chazeroth and Dizahav.
[00:03:47] And the, uh, parasha continues with Moshe giving Musar, giving rebuke to the Jewish nation in a more veiled way.
[00:03:57] Now, Rashi explains to us, when it says Elu Adhvarim, these are the words, it doesn't refer clearly to what Moshe was referring to. We're just saying places, right? These are the words that Moshe spoke, uh, in the wilderness, right?
[00:04:16] And Rashi tells us the Torah is telling us something a little bit more veiled. Why?
[00:04:24] Since Moshe Rabbeinu was giving these words of rebuke to the Jewish nation for the honor of the Jewish nation, because of their honor, didn't want to say it to them more directly.
[00:04:35] And therefore, when it's referring to this devarim, it only refers to the places that the Jewish nation made those mistakes in. Doesn't refer to the actual Averos, the actual sins that they committed, uh, in those places in the desert, but rather only the locations.
[00:04:53] And the reason for that is because Moshe Rabbeinu, um, out of the honor of the Jewish nation, he didn't want to say it out loud. He just wanted to reference the places and then give the lesson of where they made the mistake.
[00:05:08] Rashi spells it out to us very clearly because he's about to give these words of rebuke.
[00:05:19] And he listed, it was listed here, all the places that the Jewish nation angered. Hashem, Lefika, Chsasamaste, Hadvarim. Therefore, it was hidden.
[00:05:32] And it was only mentioned as a. In a. Like a hint, as a sort of a.
[00:05:40] For the honor of the Jewish people.
[00:05:43] Now, when Moshe Rabbeinu gave this speech, it was in this veiled rebuke. Now, the first thought I want to share with you is going to be on this point. And then I want to ask a question and give another answer that will give us another lesson to bring out.
[00:06:01] So the first thought that's brought down, uh, by Rablev Chasman on this point is that we see from here, from the fact that the Torah only hinted about the mistakes of the Jewish people, that when Moshe spoke to the nation, he didn't have to speak to them and tell them directly outright what they did wrong, he only had to hint to it. Right? And the commentaries tell us, the Midrashim tell us that at this time, before Mosheh was about to pass, the nation was open to hearing their rebuke of Moshe Rabbeinu. He only had to hint to it. And they were able to pick it up, pick up the cues to get the message to take it forward with them for all generations.
[00:06:49] And the lesson here is that when a person has a mindset for self improvement to become better, so then it's not necessary to, you know, to lay into the person of what they're doing wrong, but rather even a hint hopefully will get the message over of where they need to improve now. And that's what we see from this Parsha from Devarim and how Moshe dealt with the Jewish nation, that he didn't, you know, at least at this point of the Parsha, speak to them directly, but rather he gave them this hint where they just, you know, they understood from what he was saying what he meant.
[00:07:34] And really the lesson that's very practical for us is that we all have experiences every day and sometimes we have positive experiences, sometimes we have negative experiences, we have interactions with people and it's our job to look at the things that happen to us and, you know, maybe keep our eyes open for the messages that are coming our way.
[00:08:02] Uh, there's a story that's brought down that Rabisol silenter, who was probably the forerunner of the Musra movement, he would use every moment for self introspection to make himself a better person, to correct himself.
[00:08:21] And one time Rab Yisroel was in the home of a shoemaker and it was late at night and he watched how this shoemaker was working by the light of the candle.
[00:08:37] And when the candle was burning, he was working. And as it burned and got lower and got got lower and lower and lower, he was still going. And Rabbi Yisroel asked the shoemaker, it's so late and the candle is so low, why are you still working? The shoemaker replied, as long as the candle is still burning. It's possible to accomplish and to mend.
[00:09:00] And it's brought down that Rabbi so Lanter was very moved by this, by what the simple shoemaker said to him, that if for our physical needs, we're able to.
[00:09:12] The candle's burning and we're able to keep mending and to keep fixing, so all the more so in our lives, you know, if, uh, the fire of our soul is still burning, we can keep fixing.
[00:09:26] And the message is that we're all able to take the message from everything around us, from the experiences that we have, and hopefully use it to perfect ourselves to be better people. From the hints that we get from people, you know, we're able to become better people.
[00:09:44] And I think that's the message for us, you know, obviously. And I think our mindset should be that when we go through our life, when we go through our day, we should have that mindset to take the messages that are coming to us, you know, to internalize things. Uh, you know, we're not always going to have the answers of why things happen or why this is that way and why that is that way, and why am I in this situation and why am I not in this other situation.
[00:10:14] But I think it's our job to internalize the day that we go through internalize interactions. We have to see how we can improve and we can be better. That's what the Mishnah, uh, in Priggiavis tells us to talk, tells us that we're able to learn from every single person, from everybody, from everything.
[00:10:32] And it's not necessarily from the people who are just smarter than us, but it could be even from people who are, quote, unquote, lower than us or not as smart as us or not as, you know, whatever you, you know, maybe they're under us, but that's the ability that we have to take the messages from everything around us to the hints, like we say the devarim, and use it to make us better people.
[00:10:55] Now, the question that I wanted to ask on this week's Parsha from the same verse of Elu Adhvarim, which is referring to hints, is that there's an obvious question here.
[00:11:05] We said that Rashi tells us that the reason why Moshe Rabbeinu used this veiled term of Devarim and referring to the places where the B' Nai Yisrael, where the Jewish people sinned, was because of the honor of the Jewish people. But later on in the book of Devarim, in one of the later Parshios. It clearly states that Moshe Rabbeinu calls the Jewish people rebellious ones. He refers to them specifically as rebellious ones. He tells them straight that you rebelled.
[00:11:39] The verse in Eikev says, mamrim, hey, Yisamim, Hashem miyom dat y eskhem.
[00:11:46] You have been rebels against hashem, uh, from the day that I knew you.
[00:11:50] So what's going on over here? I thought Moshe Rabbeinu was protecting the honor of the Jewish people. But now when he was recounting the mistakes of the Jewish people, he calls them rebellious. And to understand this, Rabbi Twersky brings down on his work on Chumash. There's a very famous question that's asked a similar question that when it comes to noach, we know that in Parshas Noach we're going to be coming to it faster than we think.
[00:12:18] When it discusses the animals that are coming onto the ark, it says the animals which are, um, tahar and the animals that are not Tahar doesn't say the word tame. It says the animals that are pure and the animals that are not pure. And Rashi tells us over there, the reason why the Torah uses extra words is to have a cleaner, you know, cleaner speech. We shouldn't say something not clean. We don't want to say a tame unless we have to. Right? But the question is, is that other places in the Torah, it says the word tame. It says, you know, the animals that are not kosher, the pig, the horse. Right? It says these are the tameh animals. So why only in Parshas Noach, right, when it's discussing coming on to the teva, to the ark, do we say the animals that are tahar, the animals that are pure, the animals that are kosher, and the animals that are not tahar? Right. The animals that are not pure. Right. Other places we say the word tame, we say the word impure. The Torah doesn't use extra words. So this whole lesson of, um, using clean speech, we see in other places in the Torah that we use the word tame.
[00:13:27] And the answer that's given over there is that there's a difference. When there's a lesson to be given, when the Torah is teaching us about which animals are kosher and which animals are not kosher, we use a clear wording. We're very clear with our wording. Even if it's not the best language, we're very, very clear exactly what we mean. We don't want there to be any ambiguity of what we are talking about. So therefore, we're talking about a, ah, cow, it's kosher. We say the word tahar, we're talking about a pig. That's not kosher. We say the word tame. We don't want there to be any unclarity of about what we're talking about. But for the story of the teva, when we're talking about the whole story of noach, where the animals are coming onto the ark, there's no reason to say the word tameh. It's not teaching us about the animals. It's just we're saying a fact that this is what happened. So therefore, the Torah is teaching us the lesson of using clean speech. Now, how does this apply to this parsha, to our question?
[00:14:24] And the reason and the way that this applies is that when Moshe Rabbeinu was actually giving reprimand, was actually giving Musa, was giving this tochochecha, this rebuke to the Jewish nation, he was very clear in his wording. He had to tell them like it is. He had to be very honest with them.
[00:14:44] But when the Torah tells us about his rebuke like before it even happened.
[00:14:51] So it's not necessary to say the rebuke. So clearly, it could be in a veiled manner. And therefore, that's why in the beginning of the parsha, when it's referring to what is about to happen in the book of Devarim, this is one of the things that Moshe Rabbeinu does, right? In order to protect the Jewish nation from making the same mistakes again, in order to keep the honor of the Jewish nation, to protect their honor. So the Torah veils the, you know, the introduction gives an introduction that it's going to be a rebuke here, but it's not necessary at this point to give it so open. But later on, when Moshe Rabbeinu is actually giving the reprimand about the mistakes that they made, he says it very clearly. And that's how the Torah listed to us.
[00:15:37] And the lesson, uh, that we could take out of this is that sometimes, you know, when it comes to, comes to dealing with people and I guess giving over lessons of what's correct, what's not correct, we have to be very clear with things. You know, sometimes people are afraid to say the truth and it's, you know, maybe they're afraid of what the reaction is going to be. But I think it's very important for us to, you know, to say things sometimes to say it like it is.
[00:16:12] Now, that doesn't mean to steamroll somebody, you know, that Expression of. Say it like it is.
[00:16:18] You tell people about. No, it doesn't mean, like, just roll over somebody and just tell them, tell them, oh, you're horrible. That's not what we're doing is that when we have to give over an idea, we have to give over a principle. We have to give over morals. We shouldn't be afraid, um, for what the Torah stands for. You know, we shouldn't be afraid to say where we are, what we truly believe. We should be proud of who we are. We should be proud of what we believe in, and we shouldn't shy away from it.
[00:16:44] Right. There's no reason to, uh, use catchphrases. You know, sometimes we live in a society today where, you know, people are using words to mask their true meanings. You know, like people, uh, won't say a, uh, used car. They'll say pre owned. So it takes away the meaning. You know, I'm just giving one example, right. There's other terms that are, uh, you know, I'm not getting into politics here, right. But there's terms that are used to sort of mask the true meaning of things. And the point is, for us is that we should be proud of who we are and who we stand for.
[00:17:19] Ah. And not be afraid to say the truth. Now, obviously, you always do things with a smile, and sometimes certain things do not have to be said to certain people.
[00:17:28] But the point is, there are other times when things need to be said and your position needs to be known.
[00:17:36] And we should all try to learn. We learned from this week's Parasha from Moshe Rabbeinu that we shouldn't be afraid to say it when we need to say it.
[00:17:45] The next idea I want to share with you takes us to the next part of the Parasha where Moshe Rabbeinu is recounting to the Jewish nation the sin of the spies, the sin of the maraglim.
[00:17:57] And the verse reads as Aretz.
[00:18:08] And all of you approached me, and you said, let us send people before us to explore the land for us. And Rashi points out in this verse that Moshe Rabbeinu was contrasting the gathering of the people by the story of the spies, where they asked for spies to an earlier gathering where the nation, you know, arrived orderly and they made a request and everything was with derech eretz, as opposed to over here, it was be'. Arvuvya. It was with a, uh, like a mixing with an upheaval. And Rashi tells us that when it came to the Jewish people requesting the spies to go into the land of Israel. It says children were pushing the elders and elders were pushing the leaders. It was one big mess.
[00:18:55] And we know that the story of the Maraglim, that it didn't end well, didn't end well for the Jewish people.
[00:19:03] But it all started from the beginning, from when the moment they asked Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu knew something was wrong. He felt that their intentions were not, not good. And the commentaries we've discussed in the past the reason why he let them go ahead with it.
[00:19:22] But there's an important point that's being brought here by Rashi. And really you could ask, like, why is Rashi bringing out this point that the children were pushing the elders and the elders are pushing the leaders in this whole story of the Maraglim, like, why is that an important point when it comes to the mistake that the Jewish people made when it, you know, cut came to the Miraglim, where they said lashon hara about the land of Israel? Right. That's the main lesson that has to be had here. Why is Moshe referencing the actual coming of the nation in this big hullabaloo where everyone's pushing each other and gathering and everyone's.
[00:20:03] It's a whole, um, you know, just bahaullah. It's a whole upheaval. Right. Why is he mentioning it here?
[00:20:12] And the Netziv brings down from his father in law that there's a very important lesson that Moshe Rabbeinu was bringing out to the Jewish people.
[00:20:22] And something we can gain from as well is that, ah, Moshe Rabbeinu sensed right away when the Jewish nation came with this request in the sense of upheaval and this lack of derech Eretz, this lack of respect, he knew something was off and they were held accountable as well for not just the sin of the lashon Hara, but for this lack of deracheretz, this lack of respect.
[00:20:46] And perhaps maybe this was the beginning that he sensed right away in the asking itself that from the way that the people asked, he sensed where this was all going.
[00:20:58] And, uh, from this teaching of the Netziv, we, we learn a very important lesson when it comes to undertakings that the things that we do and the things that we want to accomplish, even if it's lofty and noble goals, it has to start with Derek Eretz, has to start with humility, has to start with respect.
[00:21:20] You can't just steamroll somebody. You can't just, you know, even if you want to do something good and demand it, and even if you want to, I don't know, be better. You have to. Everything is with Derek Eretz.
[00:21:30] When we deal with people has to be with Derech Eretz. And that is the source of everything we know. It says Derech Eretz kad mulletaria. That Derek Eretz is even, you know, it's a prerequisite for acquiring the Torah, for acquiring the traits of the Torah. We have to have this, uh, you know, a person has to be a vessel with some type of Derech Eretz in order for the Torah to go in. And the lesson is that when we deal with things, when we do stuff, we go forward things, we always have to have the Derecheretz, how we deal with others, how we deal with ourselves, the attitude that we have, humility, respect. And when we have that good start with the Derecheret, God willing, it'll continue. It'll give a good foundation to the things we want to do, and it'll show that we're doing things in the right way. Because when we get off to a good start, spiritual matters, it's a good sign and a good barometer as to what our true attitudes, uh, are to the things we're trying to do. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you all enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, please feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo konkohnmail.com have a great day.
