Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello my friends, and welcome back for this week's episode of the Practical Parsha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen and I hope you are well this week. I'm coming to you live from West Virginia. So you might ask, what am I doing there in West Virginia?
[00:00:16] So the answer to that question is that I'm coming to you remote from M, the mobile broadcasting studio of the Practical Parsha podcast.
[00:00:27] But seriously, uh, I am away from my usual settings. That's why this episode is a little bit late. But it's always better to be later than never.
[00:00:37] So I'm coming to you from the camp that my wife works in in West Virginia. I'm here with her and my family for the summer and I'm sitting in my little two bedroom bungalow.
[00:00:50] I shut off the air conditioner.
[00:00:53] Hopefully there's not too much background noise to disturb this, uh, episode and I hope you enjoy. And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or just would like to reach out to say hello, please feel free to send me an email at rabbi shlomo kon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:01:14] This week's Parsha is Parshas Shelach.
[00:01:18] Now, most famously, this Parsha deals with the story of the Miraglim, the story of the spies. The Jewish people ask Moshe Rabbeinu to be able to send spies into the land of Israel, which they'll soon be going into to conquer. Moshe acquiesces, uh, on the direction of Hashem, and lets the Jewish nation send in spies.
[00:01:41] The spies go into the land of Israel and 10 of the 12 spies come back and deliver a bad message, a false message against the land of Israel. The Parsha continues with the Jewish people, unfortunately, accepting this lashon hara, this evil speech and the punishment that ensues. Parsha continues with Moshe Rabbeinu pleading for the Jewish people's forgiveness.
[00:02:05] God forgives the Jewish nation, but there it is decreed that the Jewish people should spend 40 years in the desert wandering instead of entering the land of Israel right away.
[00:02:15] The Parsha tells us about the, uh, mitzvah of the libations, the special libations, wine offerings that were given on the Mizbeach on the altar, as well as the Mitzvah of Challah, the dough that was separated and given to the Kohanim. The Parasha also additionally tells us about the special offerings that were given if someone committed idol worship. And the Parsha finishes with the Mitzvah of Tzitzis. The, the Mitzvah to put these special strings, special tassels on the corners of our garments. Obviously, it's only on garments, uh, that are four cornered, the different halachos. Regarding the mitzvah of Tzitz, and it's given to us in this week's Parasha.
[00:02:54] The first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the story of the maraglim, the story of the spies.
[00:03:00] Now, I just want to give a little background here before I begin this idea.
[00:03:06] The people, the generation of the desert, that generation, they were the people. They were the individuals who experienced the plagues in Egypt. They experienced the miracles of the Jewish people leaving Mitzrayim, of leaving Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, how it split miraculously.
[00:03:24] And they saw these things firsthand. They experienced Mount Sinai, and they were on a very high level.
[00:03:32] Now, the question that's asked is that when the moraglim, when the spies came back and gave this negative report on the land of Israel, the Jewish people accepted it, and they said, they cried.
[00:03:45] They said, you know, this is part of the posse. We cannot ascend to that people, for it's too strong for us.
[00:03:55] They cried out, and they said, we can't go into the land of Israel. It's too hard for us. We're not able to conquer the land.
[00:04:00] We're just gonna, you know, it's horrible. Better, we should have gone back to Mitzrayim. We should have stayed there as slaves.
[00:04:06] The question that's raised is that this generation that was in the midbar right now was in the desert.
[00:04:14] They were the people who experienced the miracles that God did for the Jewish nation. They experienced the plagues of what God did to the mitzvah to the Egyptians firsthand.
[00:04:25] They went through Kuyas, yamsuf, they went through the splitting of the sea. They heard the word of God at Mount Sinai. They experienced the man, right? The food that fell from heaven, right? And God told them that he is going to take them into the land of Israel.
[00:04:42] So maybe you could rationalize for yourself that a generation that, you know, if God just tells you to do something, or he tells you he's going to take care of you, to take you into the land of Israel. Okay, maybe I can understand why the people would have doubts.
[00:04:55] But after this, these people, this generation, they experienced it firsthand. They saw the open miracles with their own eyes.
[00:05:05] Why did they suddenly doubt that Hashem could take him into the land of Israel? God said he would take them, right? And he was correct. Till then, he didn't fail them until this point, right? He took them out of Egypt. Why? What happened? How could they have this doubt, to accept this lashon hara, this evil speech about the land of Israel, to give up hope that they can't get into the land and now assume that they're just going to stay in the desert? What happened? God said he will take them there.
[00:05:32] And I saw a beautiful idea which maybe I've touched upon in the past. Rabbi Twersky explains. He says that although this generation in the desert experienced these miracles firsthand, the faith that they had was a very high level.
[00:05:51] But it wasn't a degree, a level of faith which they acquired on their own.
[00:05:57] It wasn't reached or wasn't gotten to by hard work, by effort, by toiling, but rather it was sort of given to them by God because they just went through these experiences. They experienced it. So automatically they're on a very high level.
[00:06:13] But it wasn't something that they acquired through their own hard work.
[00:06:17] And since it wasn't acquired by their own hard work.
[00:06:21] So just as fast as it came was as fast as it left them, right? That, uh. Even though they were on that very exalted level and different levels because of their experiences, but the first, second, a, uh, challenge to their faith came, those levels left them.
[00:06:41] And there's a very important point that we could bring out here. We know that, you know, it says Roshifchalayam Mashal Yecheskal Bembuzi Biyomov, that a maidservant who crossed the Red Sea had an experience in divine revelation that even the prophet Ezekiel didn't have. But we know that the maidservant stayed the maidservant, and Ezekiel continued to be the great prophet that he was.
[00:07:08] And as I've mentioned before on different. I believe it was Parshas Peshalach, a little bit of different idea, but from this midrash, is that it takes, you know, it's not just experiencing things that get us to a high level. It's hard work. So the maidservant which just experienced that, she got to the high level, but just as fast as it came, it left. But Yecheskel, Ezekiel, when he worked hard, slowly, to implement that faith, to implement those levels of rukhniyas, uh, of spirituality to himself. So therefore it stayed with him and he became the great prophet who he was.
[00:07:43] And I think this is a very important idea when it comes to our own lives, whether it be our spirituality or whether it be other areas of our life, that there's expression and if there's no pain, no gain.
[00:07:58] That if we want things to stay with us in the long run, it's slow and steady wins the race.
[00:08:04] That slowly incrementing, slowly implementing things into our lives, slowly building our faith with hard work. You know, uh, and you know, it's not just our emunah, our faith, but it's also our Torah study.
[00:08:17] If we want our Torah study to stay with us and to really be part of us, to become part of us, to become, you know, ingrained in us, we need to uh, work hard on it, to toil in Torah. And I've talked about this topic before in other episodes, but it's very important to exert effort in the Torah study that we do and the myths of observances that we also, uh, are uh, trying to accomplish. It's not just enough to do it when it's easy. We have to do it when it's hard. To try to push ourselves a little bit beyond our comfort zone. And that's what life is all about.
[00:08:53] To push ourselves just a little bit more, especially when it comes to spirituality, especially when it comes to growth, especially when it comes to emunah, when it comes to faith in God, to just to push ourselves a little bit more than our comfort zone. And that's how the growth is going to stay with us for our lives. So going back to our original point that the generation of the desert, the people that were in the desert came out of Mitzrayim, that although they did experience these miracles and they did hear from G D that he's going to take them into the land of Israel, but it was not something that they worked hard to get to. It wasn't something that they had to put a lot of effort in to get to that level. So it didn't stay with him.
[00:09:36] And the lesson for us is that we need to put effort into our spiritual growth, whether it be our faith in Hashem, whether it be our mitzvah observances, to push ourselves to do a little bit more the than what we're used to. And even when it's learning, when it's Torah study, to try to focus, to try to exert our mind and push ourselves to accomplish.
[00:09:56] The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the Mitzvah of Tzitzis.
[00:10:00] Now the Mitzvah of Tzitzis is that when a person has a four cornered garment and it's a mitzvah that's only for men, when you have a four cornered garment, there has to be Tzitzis which is these strings which attach to the corners of the garment, and they have to be tied in a specific way and done lishma, for the sake of the mitzvah.
[00:10:21] Um, and it's given to the Jewish people in this week's parsha. Now, there's nothing by coincidence, everything in the Torah, and each parsha is exactly where it's supposed to be. So the question I want to ask you today is, what's the connection from the story of the maraglim to the mitzvah of Titus?
[00:10:42] Why is it listed in this week's parsha? What's the connection? What do they have to do with each other?
[00:10:48] Now, to answer this question, uh, it's brought down in the Talmud that tzitzis, really, in earlier times, the tzitzis would have a blue string that would be made. You know, there would be one string which would be blue that would be made from the tchelas dye. The tcheles dye comes from a chilazon fish. Now, the. The identity of this khalilzon fish is not known today.
[00:11:12] But in earlier times, we would use this blue dye that would be put onto one of the strings.
[00:11:21] And the Talmud teaches us that the reason why we have this blue dye on our tzitzis is that when a person looks at his tzitzis, he should think of the blue sea. And when he thinks of the blue sea, he is reminded of the blue sky.
[00:11:39] And when he thinks of the blue sky, he thinks of the kise hakavod, the throne of glory.
[00:11:46] And through that, through those steps, he'll come to remembering about Hashem. He'll, uh, come to think about. Think about God.
[00:11:56] Now, the question is asked, why do we need a mitzvah which has all these different steps to get us to think about Hashem, to think about G D? Why can't we just have one step, Just think about Hashem. You look at a tzitz, make some type of sign on the tzitzis that is going to make you think about G D right away. Why do we need the steps of think about the sea, think about the sky, think about the heavenly throne, and then think about G D. Why is it necessary all the different steps?
[00:12:27] The answer that's given is that the lesson here is that when a person does something small, does something mundane, like look at his tzitzis, look at his clothing, which makes him think about something else more mundane, the color of the sea, which makes the person think about the sky.
[00:12:49] And then the heavenly throne teaches us a very powerful lesson when it comes to how we view things in our lives and how we view opportunities. When it comes to spirituality, the lesson of tzitzis and this, you know, roundabout way of coming to think about G D is coming to teach us that when it comes to spirituality, when it comes to our vodas, Hashem, when it comes to serving God, everything in life can be take, can have a spiritual aspect to it.
[00:13:20] Even something mundane as looking at your tzitzis, even something mundane as looking at the sea, looking at the sky. And the lesson here is that when it comes to looking at our surroundings, looking at the world around us, you don't just need the spiritual things to make you think about God. Even the most mundane things in our lives can be used as tools for growth and be used as a way for a person to get closer to hashem. Um, and that's the lesson of tzitzis. And that's why we have this roundabout way of coming to think about G D.
[00:13:57] Now, how does this connect back to our Parasha? What's the connection back to the Maraglim?
[00:14:03] So the answer to that question is that the Midrash tells us that when the Maraglim came back and gave the bad report in the land of Israel, they didn't say, you know, total falsehood. Most of the things they said were true.
[00:14:17] You know, there were giants there, you know, it was a lot of fortifications.
[00:14:23] There were plagues that happened. Right. The fruits were very large. Right. If you look at the verses, most of the things they said were Ms. Were true. M. But the thing is, how did they look at the things, you know, the truth that was said?
[00:14:38] They looked at it with their negative outlook.
[00:14:41] And you know, as the expression goes, there's two sides to every coin.
[00:14:46] Every situation in life can be viewed in two different ways.
[00:14:51] And it's really up to us to view it in the positive sense.
[00:14:56] And even the small things, the quote unquote bad things that happen to us can be viewed positively.
[00:15:03] Now, I'm not saying it's difficult, and I'm not saying it's challenging sometimes, but if we look well enough and we have our spiritual glasses on, we can do it. And the Medras tells us that when the Moraglan came back and they said that there's plagues there and the land eats its inhabitants, they failed to realize that G D had put those plagues there, that people should be busy burying their dead than to take notice of these strangers who are wandering around the land.
[00:15:33] And Hashem did it for their benefit. But since they were looking with this bad eye, with this bad intention, they twisted it and used it for their own agenda, to speak bad against the land of Israel.
[00:15:46] So the connection between the Maraglim and the Tzitzit is that the Margalim is the diametric. The story of the Maraglim is the opposite of what the Mitzvah of Tzitzis represents. The maraglim, they were looking for bad. They were looking to stay bad in the land of Eretz Yisrael, in the land of Israel. So therefore, whatever they saw, even the good things that were there for their benefit, they twisted it around to give a bad report.
[00:16:09] But the Mitzvah of Tzitzis teaches us that we have the ability to find spirituality in any situation, in any place and anything. And it's up to us to do that. You know, many times in life you have different types of people, people who are not, not necessarily seeking spirituality.
[00:16:28] The most, uh, lofty experience could happen to them right into their face, and they won't even see it.
[00:16:35] God could send them a message directly and it'll go right over their head because they're not looking for that. They don't want to see it.
[00:16:42] But it's incumbent upon us to train ourselves that the different things that happen in our lives and everything around us to use it for positive spiritual experiences, to use it to get us closer to Hashem.
[00:16:56] And when we do that, God willing, we'll fulfill our potential and be the best we can be. So with that, I'm gonna finish for today's podcast. I apologize for any background noise or if the audio is not up to the best quality.
[00:17:10] God willing, next week I'll be more set up and I'll be back to regular.
[00:17:15] So before we finish, if you have any questions, comments, or just would like to reach out to say hello, feel free to send me an email at ravishlomokon Kohn at gmail com. I'd love to hear from you.
