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.
[00:00:08] For this week we're continuing with Parshas Rey.
[00:00:12] But before we jump right into the Parsha, I wanted to invite you to reach out to say hello to send me an email. Rabbi Shlomo konkohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:26] This week's Parsha is Parshas Re E.
[00:00:29] And just to give a quick overview of the weekly Torah portion, the Parsha is continuing this book of Deuteronomy, right? The whole book.
[00:00:39] The fifth book is Moshe's, you know, last will and Testament, which began 45 days before Moshe is going to pass. And it continues.
[00:00:49] And in Parashas Rey, Moshe Rabbeinu is continuing his inspirational speech to the Jewish people before he's going to pass on and give the leadership over to Joshua. The Parasha talks about the blessings and the curses which the Jewish people. It's this process that the Jewish nation will go through when they enter the land of Israel. You have Hargrezim and Har Evel, Mount Gerizim and Mount Avil. These are two mountains which the Jewish people stand in between. And then they will accept. They will hear the blessings and the curses. This will happen when the Jews enter into the land of Israel. But Moshe is preempting them to telling them about this covenant, this ritual that's going to happen, then that if the Jewish people do Hashem's will, they follow the Torah. They do what Hashem wants. They'll get all the blessings. But if they do not, God forbid, then curses can come upon them.
[00:01:45] And they'll have to answer, ameen, they'll have to answer to, you know, to these blessings and curses when it will happen.
[00:01:54] The Parasha continues with the sanctity of the land of Israel, as well as different, um, halachos regarding different types of offerings and eating different types of sacrificial foods where they are to be eaten m and the permission to eat unconsecrated meat that we're allowed to slaughter and eat meat. The Parsha continues with principles of observance as well as the prohibition against copying the rights of the Canaanites, of the Canaanites who live in the land of Israel.
[00:02:31] We shouldn't copy their practices to do what they do. The Parsha tells us as well of this false prophet that if a, uh, prophet comes to you and tells you to leave the Torah, to not do what the Torah says, even if he performs miracles, you are not to listen to him because Hashem is testing you. In this parsha as well, we have mesis umediach, one who tries to entice others to go astray, and the ear Hanidachas, the wayward city. These are different halachos of how we deal with a city that goes off the path. And that's in this week's Parsha, how we deal with them.
[00:03:11] Finally, parsha finishes up with permitted foods, forbidden foods, maisar sheni, the second tithe, remission of loans, and to be generally to be warm hearted and giving to our Jewish brethren.
[00:03:29] And the parsha finishes off with, uh, the mitzvah, the commandment of the three pilgrimage festivals, that there's a mitzvah to go three times a year to Jerusalem, Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos, to go to Jerusalem to be by the temple and to offer sacrifices three times a year.
[00:03:49] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha.
[00:03:54] Re e' y anoki noseyen lefneich hamayom um bracha uklala. See, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. And Moshe Rabbeinu goes and expounds to the Jewish people about this ritual of the blessings and curses that will be said on Hargrezim, Mount Gerizim, and Har avel, Mount Aval.
[00:04:13] Now, the commentaries discuss a lot about this whole word. The first few words of the parsha, re ei, which means see. And we see that Moshe Rabbeinu spells out for the Jewish people, I'm, um, putting before you today bracha and klala, blessing and curse. And I've talked in other years about this idea that everything in life, there's no middle ground, there's only blessing and curse. Ultimately, you're getting closer to God or further away from him. What I want to talk about today, though a little bit different, I saw an orachayim hakadosh.
[00:04:47] He brings down a very interesting idea. And I also heard it over from Rabbi Mansour that he says that re ei anokhi, uh, no seyn lefnech hamiyan brachu klala. The wording is very interesting.
[00:05:01] It says re ei anokhi, ah, which is singular. And it also uses this word, rei si see, I present before you today a blessing and a curse. It's a little strange. Moshe Rabbeinu, you know, why is Moshe Rabbeinu saying, see, look like, he's saying, sort of saying, look at me, right? And then he's saying, anochi, uh, ay. The whole parsha is speaking to the Jewish people.
[00:05:26] You know, why is he using the singular? And that's the question which the orochaim hakadosh brings down. And just to really preempt the answer. And this powerful lesson that we're going to learn out from the parsha brought down from the orochayim hakadosh is that we know when you give someone a compliment, people don't care who you are. They don't care if you're true or not true. I mean, you try to be authentic, right? But people don't care where you're coming from. You give a compliment, they're all ears. Hopefully you say it in a convincing way that you actually mean it. People accept it, you know, they don't care who you are. Compliments we always take.
[00:06:07] But when it comes to criticism, when it comes to us telling us what we should be doing, how we're doing things wrong, so then it's a different story.
[00:06:18] So then we'll say, you know, we could look at the person giving the criticism and say, uh, oh, how do you know the challenges that I face?
[00:06:28] How do you know? And what's Moshe Rabbeinu think about this Parsha? Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the Jewish people.
[00:06:33] He's giving them, you know, criticism.
[00:06:36] He's telling them, rey, Anokhi, uh, nose.
[00:06:42] There's blessing and curse. There's this world and there's the next world. There's the physical world and then the spiritual world.
[00:06:49] He's telling them, don't focus so much on the physical.
[00:06:54] What's truly important is the spiritual. It's not this world. It's the next world. We have to have that focus, for this world has its importance, of course, goes together.
[00:07:05] But we always have to have this focus on the next world, on the mitzvos, on the Torah, and things that are in this world. Money, wealth, honor, you know, desire, those things are not important. They're only to be used in the service of hashem, in the service of God. So what's the first reaction if I would criticize or I would tell you that, you know, Moshe Rabbeinu is telling the Jewish people, you know, these. Money is not important. Honor is not important.
[00:07:35] What's important is hashem. What's important is the mitzvahs, right? So the first reaction we would have is that, you know, you don't know. You know, if Someone comes over to us and says, it's not important to have, uh, a fancy car. So someone might say to me, what do I know about having a fancy car? I can't afford a fancy car. But if I would have the money, maybe I would have two fancy cars, right? So I can't say. A person would say, if I start giving a speech about not having, you know, fancy things, they could say about me, I, uh, can't afford it anyway. So I don't know what it is to say that it's not good, Right? But, you know, and the people, maybe they'll even say a little more, uh, and if he had the money, he would have two of those things, right?
[00:08:19] So there's a certain feeling inside of us. And when people come to give criticism to us, even if it's positive or constructive criticism, we always will look, uh, at who they are and where they're coming from. Right? Because maybe if a person had those things or went through those challenges, they have a little bit more cred. And I think this is very common in our world. You have sometimes therapists and, um, people who overcame addiction that they themselves, after they overcome these things, they go into that field that they overcame, and they have a certain, um, people, you know, give them a certain respect and a certain air to what they have to say because they themselves went through it. It's not to say that if someone doesn't go through something, they can't help people who went through certain challenges. Right? It. It doesn't mean that a therapist or, uh, a counselor who didn't overcome drug addiction can't help somebody or someone who didn't go through a specific challenge can't help, uh, someone through it. But people who go through civic challenges, sometimes they have extra cred when it comes to helping people in the similar circumstances. So Moshe Rabbeinu, he was telling the Jewish people what's truly important.
[00:09:38] And he's saying, re E.
[00:09:40] He's telling them, see, see, look at me, Moshe Rabbeinu. I was there. He's saying, I was upstairs, as our rabbi, uh, Mansource says. He says, I was upstairs, and I was downstairs. I was in the next world. He was with Hashem, you know, writing over the Torah word from Word for God.
[00:09:58] And I was downstairs. I was in this world. We know that Moshe Rabbeinu was one of the richest men of his generation. He had everything right. But yet he's still telling the Jewish people, focus. Know what's truly important in this world.
[00:10:13] Know what's truly Important Re E' e anochi. Uh, noseyn lefneichem hayom brachuklala. Like, there's two things here. You have good and bad. You have to make the right decision.
[00:10:23] And he's saying, see me, I experienced it both. I experienced this world. I had all the pleasures of this world. And I. And I'm still telling you what's really important. So that's the re ei, that's the sea. So that answers question number one. Question number two. What's this singular wording of anochi, of ay?
[00:10:46] It should be plural.
[00:10:48] And it's brought down that the orachayim, uh, hakadosh. He explains that the Jewish people recognized Moshe as such. That the reason it uses this singular wording is that Moshe Rabbeinu sees. Look at me, um, and I was there.
[00:11:09] I know both worlds. And I'm telling you that the focus on the next world is what's truly important.
[00:11:17] The singular wording over here of I is a reference to the fact that the Jewish people saw Moshe Rabbeinu in this way, that they all saw him as someone in the same vein, that he was somebody who was there, who experienced it. Then they respected him. They saw his authenticity, that he was real and he meant it. And they saw through him that he was through and through. He was true, he was emes.
[00:11:47] And that's the singular wording that the parsha uses here. And I think there's a very. There's a few powerful lessons we could bring out from this.
[00:11:56] Number one, I think when we're dealing with people, and obviously not just when we're not just criticizing people or giving constructive criticism, you know, that's for sure. This is for sure an avenue where we can use this lesson. We always have to have a certain level of empathy.
[00:12:14] We have to empathize with people.
[00:12:17] So if we went through a similar situation, we are able to empathize because we went through it. And even if we didn't go through a certain situation as the person we're talking to or the person we're dealing with, we have to be able to empathize with them, to help them, you know, recognize that we're on the same page as them.
[00:12:38] And when we do that, people are more receptive to what we have to say.
[00:12:45] It's very important, because if we just give criticism, the natural inclination is for people to say, you don't understand me. You know, I see it with my kids. Sometimes my kids, uh, say, you don't understand me, right?
[00:12:57] But if we're able to empathize properly based on our experiences, and even if we don't have similar experiences, just trying to understand, even when we're trying to criticize them to help somebody become better, it's our job as a parent, as a friend, as an employer, whatever it may be, just to be more empathetic. And when people see that empathy, they're more. They'll hear what we have to say. And I think this ties into the next part of the parasha, because Moshe Rabbeinu, from the fact it says I, like I mentioned before, it shows us that the Jewish people heard what he said, and they didn't hear it because of just being preachy.
[00:13:43] They heard it because they saw it. They saw that Moshe Rabbeinu, that Moses was real, he was authentic.
[00:13:50] And I think when we are empathetic again, we give off this certain aura of being authentic.
[00:13:58] And I think in this day and age, in our generation, authenticity is something which is lacking. And when people meet someone who truly stands for what they believe and they're real, people will gravitate towards you and they'll respect you even more. And I think this is what happened. Moshe Rabbeinu, he was telling them, look at me. And the people saw in him his empathy because he experienced it and he knew both worlds. But because of that, it sort of created this situation of re e' anokhi le nosey lev nechemeiim brachola. The people were all unified in their vision, that they all saw Moshe Rabbeinu as real, as authentic. And I think these two ideas go together. It's a very powerful lesson for us that, you know, that our words should be heard, that people should respect us for who we are. That if we want that, I think we need to be empathetic towards others and also be. Which creates this aura of authenticity, which in turn helps us be heard and be respected for who we are.
[00:15:09] The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the Mitzvah of Maester Sheni, the second tithe.
[00:15:16] Now, the way it would work in earlier times is that when the Jews were in the land of Israel and the temple stood, there was a seven year cycle.
[00:15:27] Now, the seven year cycle was based on the Shmitah year. The Shmita year was the seventh year, where all the, you know, all the produce, the, uh, land would lay fallow and no produce would be planted, but the count would start again. So one through seven, there was different tithes that have to be given on Each of those years, and on the first, second, fourth, and fifth years, Maisar's was to be given the second tithe. And the parasha, the Torah spells out for us that this tithe was very unique, that they would take this tithe and you can give it to yourself.
[00:16:10] You know, you would normally, tithes were given to the Kohen, to the kohanim, the priests, the Leviim, the Levites, and they would eat the tithe. It was a way that the priests and Leviim, who were the teachers of the Jewish people, would be supported.
[00:16:25] But the second tithe, maizashini, was essentially given to yourself.
[00:16:31] You took this tithe and you gave it to yourself. Now, there was one condition.
[00:16:36] The condition was that you would have to take this produce, or if it was too much for you to take, it was such a big load of produce to take to Jerusalem. It was too far to travel. With all this food. You could transfer the value of that tithe onto money and then take that money to Jerusalem and spend it on any food that you would like.
[00:17:00] You could spend it on food, drink, and enjoy to your heart's content.
[00:17:06] That's the only requirement. So you would give this money to yourself or this produce, right, which could be exchanged onto money, the value of it, and you would have to take it to Jerusalem and eat food in Jerusalem. That is the mitzvah of the second tithe.
[00:17:24] So you think it looks like a expense, all expense paid vacation to Jerusalem. Sounds great. If you look at the verses, it's very interesting. The.
[00:17:35] The order of the psukim, it says as follows. Aser to aser es kotfu, as are yoti, asadeh, shanna, shanah.
[00:17:45] You shall tithe the entire crop of your planting, the produce of the field, year by year.
[00:17:52] Pause. It continues. The next verse continues.
[00:18:03] Huh?
[00:18:09] And you shall eat before Hashem, your God, in the place that he will choose to rest his name. The tithe of your grain, your wine and your oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and your flocks, so that you will learn to fear Hashem, your God all the days. So you could take this tithe from your grain, your oil, your firstborn cattle, or the value of that, and you take it to Jerusalem. That's the place where Hashem is resting his name in Yerushalayim.
[00:18:42] And you enjoy there for what? What's the reason?
[00:18:45] So that you will learn to fear Hashem, your God all your days.
[00:18:49] So the question I'm gonna ask you is, how is it if I'm gonna, you know, pay or give you money to go eat food in Jerusalem, right? Have a. You know, to go out to the restaurants in Jerusalem. There's plenty of amazing eateries in Yerushalayim.
[00:19:05] How is that going to help you or me learn to fear God, to fear Hashem all my days, and I heard a very beautiful idea from a friend.
[00:19:19] There are different cities that are known for different things.
[00:19:24] You know, you think of Philadelphia, right? I'm, um, not too far from Philly. It's the cradle of democracy, city of brotherly love.
[00:19:35] You think of Detroit.
[00:19:37] Detroit is Motor City, right? That's where the cars are made.
[00:19:43] You think of Los Angeles. You think of Hollywood, right? Every city has their industry, has what it specializes in. What is the industry?
[00:19:57] The specialty of Jerusalem.
[00:20:00] The specialty of Jerusalem is rukhniis, is spirituality.
[00:20:06] We know that when the Beis Hamigdash, when the temple stood, the shechina, the divine presence, manifested itself in the city. Uh, it's, you know, and we pray every day when we daven, we pray towards Jerusalem, us as Jews. There's a tremendous focus about Yushalayim, about Jerusalem, returning to Jerusalem.
[00:20:31] Um, the Beis Hamikdash, the temple was built in Jerusalem. In this week's Parasha, we talk about the pilgrimages that three times a year men were required to go to the temple, to go to Jerusalem, to Oyloregel, to make a pilgrimage to Yerushalayim.
[00:20:50] And the specialty, the industry of Yerushalayim is spirituality is getting close to hashem.
[00:20:59] And Rabbi Ephraim brings down that. The sifri explains that this mitzvah of maizosheni, the whole purpose of it, I mean, obviously it's a commandment that God gives us. But in the verses, we see there's a concept of learning to fear Hashem. And the sifri brings down. I also saw it's a. Rashbam also explains that when a person would go to Yerushalayim, when they go to Jerusalem, they would have to spend some time there to eat, you know, to use up this money. They would. They would take this trip to Yerushalayim, to Jerusalem, and they would be there for a week or two.
[00:21:37] And the just being in the city of Yerushalayim and seeing the goings and comings and watching the kohanim, the priests, you know, do the service in the Beis Hamikdash and seeing the elevated status of the residents who lived in Yerushalayim, where their only focus was one thing. Their focus was serving God, they didn't care about this world. They were focused on serving Hashem, that when a person would just be in that environment and they would see that and experience that, it would cause them to. To be elevated, to learn to fear Hashem. And that's exactly what the puzzuk says. It says.
[00:22:19] It says so that you will learn to fear hashem, your God all the days, just by being in Yerushalayim, just by eating food there for a week, for two weeks, and seeing what's going on, experiencing that spirituality, it influences us.
[00:22:44] And I think a very practical lesson for us, a very powerful lesson for us is, you know, influences that the people we are around and the situations we place ourselves in influence how we act and how we behave.
[00:23:05] If we are in a situation where people speak a certain way, they talk a certain way, they make certain jokes. So very soon, very shortly, we'll be doing the same thing.
[00:23:17] And if we're in a positive environment where people watch what they say, their focus is on more spiritual matters and worldly pursuits are not so important.
[00:23:28] So then we're going to also get sick. Similar focuses. And just to finish off this thought, we know now we're approaching the month of Elul, which is, you know, the high holidays, Rosh Hashanayom, Kippur. And I heard that the Darshanim, the commentaries, explain that the word rey is sort of an acronym. It's a shortened version for the words rey, el ba C L is coming. And this whole concept in the parsha of choosing between good and bad and having the focus on what's positive really ties us into what's going to be upcoming in the next month, an extra focus on what's truly important in life. And I think one way that we can help ourselves is to be in a good environment, to sort of, you know, to put ourselves in situations that are positive, to try to tap into that feeling of exaltedness, whatever it may be, trying to do something extra to. You know, one example, we can't go to a Beis Hamikdash anymore. We don't have a temple. But we could find other places to get that inspiration, whether it be listening to a Shiur, a Torah podcast, or going to a place of study to get something to invigorate us, to sort of touch that feeling, to experience that, you know, dynamic of osmosis, of upliftedness. And, God willing, when we do that, we become higher and better people. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments or like to reach out, feel free to send me email at rabbishlamokon kohn@gmail com. Have a great day.
