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 for this week. The listeners of this podcast that are in Eretz Yisrael, Israel, South Africa, Australia, are getting a special shout out. You might ask, why do they get a special shout out on, um, Practical Parsha podcast?
[00:00:25] And it's because right now It's Thursday night, 11:15 Eastern Standard Time.
[00:00:33] And as you notice, for the past few weeks I've been releasing the episodes on Friday morning Eastern Standard Time. And if I do that, if I release it on Friday morning here, my time, where I am in the Philadelphia suburbs, it's already Shabbos in Australia, it's almost Shabbos in Eretz Israel in Israel, and it's almost Shabbos in South Africa.
[00:01:01] And I know this podcast has listeners in Israel, South Africa, Australia and other parts of the world as well. So I'm giving you a special shout out because this week, Thursday night, I decided to push myself to get the episode out earlier than I have been doing the past few weeks. Thank God it's been busy. One of the most busy times of year for a rabbi is probably the lead up from Purim through Pesach. So now I am sitting, um, down to get this episode out. So you could have it before Shabbos and not after Shabbos. Although the parsha never expires, it's always good to have something to say at your Shabbos table or when you go to shul or before we read the weekly parsha. So here we go. And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi, ah, Shlomocon Kohnmail, uh dot com. I'd love to hear from you. This week's parsha is Parshas Tzav. And as I mentioned last week, the book of Leviticus, the book of Vayikra, deals with the carbonos, the different types of carbonos, different types of sacrifices. You know, the service of the sacrifices. And this week's Parsha of TZAV is no different. It continues along this theme. The parsha starts off with the mitzvah of taking out the ashes of the altar, the fires on the altar, the different types of meal offerings, the sin offerings, the chatas, the guilt offerings, the ashrams, different types of gifts that were given to the kohanim, the Thanksgiving offering, the olah offering, different types of rejections, things that disqualify sacrifices Such as pigle, which is, uh, a person having improper thoughts. When he's sacrificing a carbon. Or eating in a state of contamination. The prohibition of doing that. And the different order and processes that had to be done with the fat and the blood of the sacrifices.
[00:03:08] The parsha continues with the different parts of the karbonos, their order. And the parsha finishes with Moshe consecrating the kohanim, consecrating the priests. The first idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha, the first two verses.
[00:03:28] The parsha begins, vayedaber hashem omosha lamor Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, tsav es aron v esbonav lamor zos Torah saolah. Uh, he haoilo al moikdo al mizbeach kolala ada boyker ve'eish ha mizbeach tukadboy command. Aaron and his son saying, this is the law of the elevation offering. It is the elevation offering that stays in the flame on the altar all night until the morning. And the fire of the altar should be kept aflame on it. Now the commentaries discuss the wording of the second verse, tsav, which is a command. It's a very direct wording, very strong wording, which Hashem, uh, is telling Moshe Rabbeinu to tell Aaron, to tell Aaron the high priest.
[00:04:20] And if you look in Rashi, Rashi addresses this in his commentary on the Chumash.
[00:04:27] He says as ein tzav eloshen zeros. This word of tzav, which the parsha is named after, is a wording of like command. It's a strong wording. Miyaru ludaires. It means zoroz miadulodaires. It means that it's to be careful, to be. It's for now and for generations. Omar rab shimon b'y sorcha kasav lazarez be'makam shiyesh be'chsaran kis. That the reason why it says here, specifically the stronger wording of tzav t'aron that, you know, sort of implying that they should be careful, that they should be very, very diligent with this carbon. The carbon ola is because there was a loss of money. Now, this is very interesting. Let's give a little background here. Some of the carbonos, some of the sacrifices, the kohanim, who brought the sacrifices, were able to eat after it was offered on the altar. Certain parts of it were permitted for the kohanim to eat. And they were even allowed to bring some of the carbono sacrifices home to feed their family.
[00:05:35] But a ola carbon ola, which was, you know, uh, given because your thankfulness to God. You just wanted to give something to Hashem. It had to be totally burned on the altar. No part of it the Cohen was allowed to have. It was totally burned up. And Rashi is telling us something very interesting. Hashem had to tell Moshe Rabbeinu to tell Aaron to be extra careful with this olah sacrifice. That they should do it in the proper way, the kohanima, because there was a loss of money.
[00:06:08] That means that since the kohanim, um, weren't going to get a benefit from this carbon, they wouldn't treat it as well, maybe. Right. They weren't going to get anything out of it. So they wouldn't be as careful as they normally would be. Because other carbonose had to be done in the proper way. So they could eat from it. If it wasn't done in the proper way, they couldn't eat from it. They couldn't have a. A piece in it. But now this carbon ola, which was totally burned up on the altar, they had to be careful. Because since there was a monetary loss, they weren't gaining from this carbon. There was a concern that maybe they wouldn't be as careful as they needed to be to bring it in the proper way, in the proper order. So therefore, the Torah says a wording of tsav to be careful. Very strong wording. Now, I saw brought down that there's a question that's asked. We know that in the beis Hamikdash in the temple, there was constantly carbonos being brought, tons of carbonos. There was the morning sacrifice, the afternoon sacrifice. There was even a fund that there should always be a sacrifice on the altar. It's called the kit samizbech, the dessert of the altar. That there should never be a moment where there was no sacrifice on the mizbeach on the altar. But the idea is that if you were a kohen working in the Beis Hamikdash, you had tons of meat. You had. It was almost like as much meat as you wanted to eat. There was plenty of meat for everybody. So why is this wording of tzav necessary? Because of this loss of money, the koin had tons of meat. Why is this the fact that they weren't able to benefit from this carbonola that was totally burned up? Why are we worried that they're going to not do it the right way? Because they're not getting a benefit from it. They have everything they need. They have all the meat that they need.
[00:08:13] What's, ah, going on over here? Why is this necessary for the Kohanim? And really to add the question and to make this question stronger, we know that the Kohanim were of elevated status to begin with, that the Kohanim were chosen to be the ones that would do the service in the Beis Hamikdash, because they precisely were very careful to do everything the exact way. They made sure to follow the halachos, to follow the laws of how the sacrifices should be brought. Right? So if we're dealing with an elevated people, the Kohanim, who know how to do things the right way and they have what they need, there's tons of meat to go around. Why is the Torah using this strong wording of tzav suddenly when it's, ah, a few bucks here for a few pounds of meat that they're losing out on? What are we afraid of? And the answer to this really gives us an insight to the human psych. Logically, the Kohanim had no need for extra meat. Like I said before, they had everything they needed. And logically, the Kohanim were an elevated people.
[00:09:26] But emotionally, we learned something very powerful here, that the acquisitive drive of people could be so powerful emotionally that it can overpower logic. That even if the Kohanim had everything they needed, and they were people already who were above just wanting a piece of meat, right, they were great people.
[00:09:53] Still, this drive for more possessions can be so powerful that could overpower our logic.
[00:10:05] And the lesson that we can take out of this, and I think we can relate to, is that sometimes we make decisions, especially when it comes to the area of our possessions, our wealth, that don't make sense. That it is emotion, it's this inquisitive drive which is overpowering our logic and not letting us think clearly. You know, it's quoted the philanthropist John Paul Getty was asked, how much wealth is enough? And he said, just a bit more.
[00:10:42] This billionaire who had enough money to live for the rest of his life, he just wanted more. And we know that the Mishnah tells us that if a person has 100, he wants 200. This is the natural tendency of a human being. And the Torah is telling us here, when it comes to tzav, this strong wording of tzav, that Hashem is telling Moshe Rabbeinu to tell Aaron to tell his children to tell the Kohanim that even you who are elevated people and have what you need. Be careful of that drive for meat. Be careful of that drive, that it's innate in every single person. And you have to be careful that the logic has to overpower the emotion. And we know in Judaism we have the emotion and we have the logic. And I feel like nowadays in our generation, many times we focus more on the emotion than the logic. It's all how you feel. It's not about what's right, it's what you feel is right. So it's more emotion over logic. But the Torah is telling us just the opposite, that it has to be logic over emotion. And especially in the area of our possessions and money and power and wealth, we have to think of it, not emotionally try to remove ourselves. That logic over emotion. And that's a very powerful idea which the beginning of this Parsha Tsavas Aron is teaching us. The second idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the cleaning out of the altar. Naposik tells us, as he shall remove his garments and don other garments, and he shall remove the ash to the outside of the camp to a pure place, that the first thing that was done in the morning on the altar on the Mizbeach was that the ashes from yesterday's carbonos, from yesterday's sacrifices was cleaned out and brought outside of the Beis Hamikdash. Now, the commentaries explain many lessons from the fact that this is brought down first. Even before describing the different order of the carbonos that are brought on the Mizbeach and how they're brought, the Torah tells us about cleaning out the altar and bringing the ashes out of the Beis Hamikdash out of the temple, out of the tabernacle. Now, one idea which I wanted to bring out is that Rab Shamsher Fel Horsh explains that the fact that none of yesterday's axes were left on the Mizbeach on the altar, and only today we were starting fresh, teaches us this concept that in the Beis Hamikdash, everything from yesterday was taken out, and each day they started anew.
[00:13:31] And in fact, even the clothing that Tucohain wore while he took out the ashes was other clothing. It was old clothing which represented yesterday. But now going forward, he used the new clothing. And this teaches us something very powerful, that when it comes to every day, we have to look at each day as a new day, as a day that we could, that we're starting fresh, that, you know, sometimes we go through a day we don't have such a great day. Don't let that time, don't let that day ruin the next. Go to sleep, wake up in the morning and start again. That's the beauty of life.
[00:14:09] And God willing, you have a good day, get up the next morning and continue the streak. But the point is that don't let one bad day ruin the next day. And that's something which is signified with the trumas Hadeshin, the taking out of the ashes, being listed first and being done right away in the morning on the mizbeach, that none of yesterday's ashes should be here today. Yesterday is carbonos. Yesterday's sacrifices are yesterday, and today's sacrifices are today. And when we think about that, we're able to go forward in our lives and not let the baggage of previous days weigh us down going into the future. The last idea I wanted to share with you today takes us to the Karbon Todah. Now, the Parsha tells us that there was a special sacrifice that was given when something good happened to you, a miracle happened to you, you were saved. A person would come and give a carbon toda, a sacrifice of thanks to God. And it's very interesting because this carbon toda had certain specifications that had to be brought with the carbon, which was 40 loaves of bread, and it had to be eaten in one night and one day. So a person brought this animal with 40 loaves of bread and it had to be eaten in one day. Now, it's very interesting. I don't know about you, but it's not so easy for a person to eat a whole animal and 40 loaves of bread, sure, four of them were given to the Kohanim. So that's 36. 36 loaves of bread had to be eaten in one day and one night, and it couldn't be left over.
[00:15:58] The Sferno comments that the purpose of the Torah giving so many loaves of bread and, uh, having it had to be eaten, the carbon and the bread that went along with the Karban in such a short amount of time was to ensure that he would share the bread with other people.
[00:16:18] And thus when a person had to share all this bread and all this sacrifice with others, it would publicize the good event that occurred to him or her.
[00:16:29] And this is something which teaches us a very important idea when it comes to talking to other people.
[00:16:36] You know, a, um, lot of us, and I'm included in this as well, when we speak to other people, to our friends, to our family, what do we Talk about.
[00:16:46] Do we kvetch about all the things that went wrong in our day? You know, when we come home, what do we tell our wives? What do we tell our spouse? Do we tell them all the good, positive things that happen in the day, or do we tell them all the bad things that happened in the day? Who was not nice to us, who treated us this way? And we kvech, we see from this week's parsha something very important, that when it comes to publicizing things, to talking about things, what does the Torah talk about? We see that when it comes to a carbon chatas, a, uh, sin offering, there was no public fan fear. A person did it very privately and in fact talked about in last year's episode how the Torah makes it that a person could give his karbon chatos his sin offering in a very discreet way.
[00:17:37] So no one talked about it. But when it comes to a carbon toda, to a, uh, sacrifice of thanksgiving, he has to do it with much fan fear. He has to do with a lot of bread. He has to eat that bread up right away to publicize it. So what do we see that people are talking about or what they should be talking about? About the good things that happen to you. And that's a lesson for us.
[00:18:03] We should try to focus and talk about the good things that happen in our life, the positive things.
[00:18:12] I heard a story that there was once a great rabbi who davened a very long Shmon Esreh. His Amidah was a very, very long, very, very long, took a long time. And one of his students asked him, said, rabbi, why do you daven such a long Amidah, such a long Shemon Esre?
[00:18:32] And he said to him, truthfully, I don't daven very long, but rather, I daven very quick. It's just that when I get to the blessing of Modim, which is the blessing in Shmona Esre in the Amidah, which gives thanks to G D for all the good things that we have in our lives. I think before I start that blessing, of all the good things in my life. And I keep thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking. And finally, after I go through all the good in my life, am I able to start that blessing? And I think this is a very important lesson for ourselves, to try to focus on the good, focus on the blessing, focus on the things that are going well throughout our day, try to make that the things that we talk about to our spouse, to our family, the. You know, sure that there are times we have to speak about the negative things that happen to us. We need a vent, but make it that overwhelmingly, we want to focus on the good. We want to. And that's really how we be or how we that's how we become positive people or keep ourselves positive by focusing on all the good things that happen. And even in any situation, to just always have that good eye. Carbon toda. And that's the lesson we learned from this week's Parasha from the Carbon Todah to publicize the good things that happen to us and to have that eye to always look for the good in everything that happens around you. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi shlomakon k o h nmail.com have a great day.
