Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my dear friends. We are back for another great episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen. I hope you're doing well.
[00:00:10] And this week is Parshas Tzav. It is also Shabbos Haggadal, the Great Shabbos. That's the name of the Sabbath before Passover. It's referred to as Shabbos Haggadal. And in many communities, the Rabbi gives a speech about the Halachos, the laws of Pesach, the different order of the Seder, the laws of the Seder, their intricacies.
[00:00:34] And another point which I wanted to talk about today is that we know that on Pesach we don't eat bread, we don't eat leavened product for the whole eight days of Pesach. Additionally, the Torah tells us that we can have in our possession any bread, any cookies, cakes, leavened products.
[00:00:57] So therefore, what has been accepted in our tradition over the last few hundred years is that Jews all over the world sell their chomets to a non Jew, thus renouncing their ownership during Pesach of the Chomets, and not, you know, and not having bread or chomets in their possession during Pesach.
[00:01:22] So if you would like to sell your chomets this Pesach, please feel free to send me an email.
[00:01:29] Rabbi Shlomo Kom with a K.
[00:01:32] I'll be happy to help make that happen and help you fulfill the mitzvah of not having Chometz on Pesach.
[00:01:41] Looking forward to hearing from you.
[00:01:44] This week's Parsha is Parshas Tzav.
[00:01:47] Parsha's Tzav has many different mitzvahs, specifically about the service in the tabernacle in the temple.
[00:01:56] And the Parsha starts off with the Olah sacrifice special karban that was totally burned and totally given to G D. The parsha continues with the different meal offerings as well as the Karbon chatas, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings.
[00:02:17] The Torah also tells us about the different gifts to the Kohanim as well as eating the carbonos, the different sacrificial meats, and different statuses. And the parsha finishes off with the consecration of the Kohanim that Moshe and Aaron during the inauguration of the Mishkan, they they consecrate the kohanim for the service. The first idea I wanted to share with you today is about the mitzvah of Trumas Hadeshin. The Trumas Hadeshin was the special mitzvah, the first mitzvah of the day in the temple and the tabernacle, where the kohanim would pick lots as to who would get the honor of. Of clearing the ashes from the mizbeach, from the altar. Right, the big altar, the mizbeach hagado.
[00:03:07] And as you could imagine, this altar was constantly burning sacrifices. There was always fire there.
[00:03:15] So there was much ashes that were always on the altar.
[00:03:20] And in order to keep it clean, to keep it in the. In the proper way that it should, you know, always be usable and functional. And up tip top, there was a process of truma sedeshin, of clearing out, uh, the ashes and had to be taken out in a special way and placed in a certain area.
[00:03:38] And the first job that tikohanim had in the morning was this task of taking out the ashes. And the question is asked, is that, why is this the first job? Why did the kohen merit.
[00:03:54] Why was there lots to be the one to merit this job? You know, there's so much nice things to do. Sure, it's important to have the altar to be upkept and to be in a good, you know, state and not to be messy. But couldn't it have waited till after the first sacrifice, the carbon tamid? Why is this the first job that the kohanim had to do on a daily basis, cleaning out the altar? And it's not even just that there would be lots to have the zechus, to have the merit to do it, you couldn't just do it if you wanted to do it. You had to win the lottery to do this job.
[00:04:33] And there's different answers that are given.
[00:04:35] One is, obviously it signifies this idea of cleanliness, that a person has to be organized and clean. And obviously, number one is the mizbeach, the house of Hashem, the tabernacle, and specifically the altar where the sacrifices were being given.
[00:04:52] It had to be kept perfectly. It couldn't be messy. It couldn't be, you know, out of order.
[00:04:59] And the idea that the sages say is that, you know, for us, the lesson we take from this is that we also have to live our lives in that way as well, to be organized, to be neat. In the Torah, you see a source that a person has to be organized. A person has to be neat with themselves. You can't be, you know, all a shlomp, as they say in Yiddish.
[00:05:21] And there's even in the Talmud, it brings down that a Talmud chacham, a Torah scholar who has some type of stain on his garment.
[00:05:30] There's a very strong wording in the Talmud criticism of a Torah scholar that has that, you know, it looks messy, looks disheveled, because we represent G D, we represent Hashem, and really all of us, it's not just the Torah scholars or any person that we always have to be, uh, you know, put together and to be organized. Because when you're organized, you accomplish more.
[00:05:54] And when you accomplish more, you feel more good about yourself, it encourages you to do even more.
[00:06:00] Another beautiful understanding of, uh, this mitzvah that I saw is from Shamsha Rafael Hirsch. He says that the reason why the first task of the day was taking out of the ashes is that it shows us something very important. It expresses the idea, the fact that the ashes were taken out every day, that every day yesterday's ashes are gone and today we're starting fresh, that every day on this earth we have a new mission to do. It's like a sense of renewal that the Kohanim, by clearing out the mizbeach, the sacrifices from yesterday, he was showing that today, the mission of today is a new day. There's more yet to be accomplished, there's more to be done.
[00:06:51] That we're not focusing on what happened yesterday and all the things that we have done in our life, on all the sacrifices that we have already offered, but rather we're looking towards the future of what we need to do, of what we need to accomplish, of, uh, what we need to fulfill. And that's an important message for us as well. The rabbi, in my community, where I live, he always says that what's the difference between an old person and a young person?
[00:07:19] What's the difference?
[00:07:21] So would you say it's age? Is that the reason that after a certain age, when you're past your 65, we collect Social Security, you're old, and before that you're young. Is that the defining factor?
[00:07:33] Is it how you look? That if you have wrinkles, you're old. If you don't have wrinkles, you're young?
[00:07:39] The answer to that is no. Those reasons are not what makes a person young or old, but rather it's outlook.
[00:07:49] An old person looks backwards, a young person looks forwards.
[00:07:57] That's how you tell the difference between a young person and an old person.
[00:08:02] Somebody who's always looking in the future to accomplish more, to do, to fulfill, to reach new goals is young.
[00:08:13] Someone who's always looking back.
[00:08:15] And what happened, you, uh, know, in the good old days, in the past, what they accomplished already is old.
[00:08:23] Now, obviously, it's important to think about the past, and you need to talk about the past. Right. We have the whole holiday of Pesach where we're celebrating what happened to us as a people. But sometimes, you know, there's certain people that just totally focus on the past. They don't focus on the future. And that's sort of signifying that what I did already is done. And now I'm just, you know, on autopilot.
[00:08:47] But a young person who's just starting out in life has much they want to accomplish. And they're always looking, you know, to the future. And this is not something which is defined by age, because you have many people that are old and they're always. They want to accomplish just more and more and more and more. And there's plenty of younger people, which, whatever they did in their life, but they're just looking backwards. They're not able to look forwards. Of what more could we do? We have to have this recognition, this lesson from the Chuma Saadshen, that every day we are here, no matter how much accomplishments we have already, we have to keep looking forward of what more we can accomplish, what more we can do. Now, obviously, there are steps and we can't overburden ourselves. And there is a aspect, maybe it's for a different time, of appreciating our accomplishments and the things that we have done, but that we can't totally take, you know, uh, we can't rest on our laurels, as they say, and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Because what we've done in the past, we have to constantly keep pushing to grow, to do more. Because ultimately, the fact that we're still here every day means there's more for us to do. The fact that we got up this morning is a reason for us that we're here. We have to try to find that reason and to push ourselves to reach our potentials.
[00:10:13] Another idea I wanted to share with you today is when the Torah tells us about the carbon ola, it follows with the information about the karbon chatas, right? First the parasha. First we talk about this Karbon, the sacrifice of the Olah, which was totally burned. It was given out of. When a person felt they just wanted to give a present to Hashem, they would offer a carbon ola, which would be totally burnt, and the kohanim. And the person who would give this carbon ola would not benefit from it by eating of its meat. It would be totally given to hashem. Only the skin of the animal would be given to the kohanim. That was it.
[00:10:55] And it follows with the information the Torah tells about the sin offering, the Karbon chatas.
[00:11:01] And if you look at the wording in the verse, it's very interesting.
[00:11:06] It says as follows.
[00:11:09] Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, daber el aron, velbon avleimor. Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, this is the law of the sin offering.
[00:11:27] And in the place where you slaughter the olah offering, Tishachet hatas, vne', Hashem, kodesh, kadashem.
[00:11:34] That's where you should slaughter the chatas offering, the sin offering before Hashem. It is most holy now in the Beis Hamikdash in the temple and the tabernacle, that each one of the carbonos had a civic service and they had to be slaughtered in specific places.
[00:11:54] But we see here something very interesting. The Karbon chatas, which was a special sacrifice that was given when someone sinned and had to rectify their sin, they had to do teshuvah. That part of the process was bringing a special sacrifice to gain that teshuvah to come back to Hashem, you had to give a special Karbon.
[00:12:16] And the place where it's given is in the same spot where the karban ola would be brought.
[00:12:24] That if me as an onlooker, if I would be looking in the Beis hamikdash, I wouldn't know if you were bringing a karban because you did a sin, because you did an avera, or because you were bringing a present to Hashem. The people who were giving these extra special offerings, because everything was going great, was in the same spot as the people who were giving these sin offerings. So we see how far the Torah goes to protect the dignity of people when they came to the temple. Because if there would be a special spot for the Karbonchatas, for people who are giving the sin offerings, everyone would know the reason why they're going to that spot to give that sacrifice, because they just did a sin, they. They did an aveira. And it's embarrassing, but if the spot where the chatas, where the sin offering is given is in the same place as the carbon Olah is, where this elevation offering is being brought. So then no one knows if you're there to give an olah, this elevation offering, which is given out of the goodness of your heart, or if it's a sin offering, and that's how far the Torah goes to protect the identity, to protect the embarrassment of a person. We know the Talmud states that hamabim penechabera Barabim that a person embarrasses his friend in public. Ein loy chilek lolam hab' does not have a place in the world to come. That a person by embarrassing another person, that somebody.
[00:13:57] That if we embarrass somebody in public, we risk losing all of our world to come.
[00:14:05] And, um, this idea reminds me of a story that was said about my great grandfather, Abzarok Spira, that he was a wealthy man. He lived in Hungary between World War I and World War II.
[00:14:20] And he. In his town, they started a special gamach. A gamach is actually an acronym for the word gamiles chasadim. There's different organizations that are out there even nowadays that are meant to help people with different things. For anything you could think of, they have gamachs for. And in his town in Hungary, they sparta a special gamach to help people pay for bris for a circumcision feast.
[00:14:51] But what they would do is that if they would, you know, if their services would be needed, they would come with their tablecloths and they would make the whole party.
[00:14:59] But on the tablecloths it would say chevre sandeqays.
[00:15:04] It would say on the name of. It would say the name of the organization on the tablecloths. So that any person who is coming to this simcha, to this function, to this brismila, to the circumcision feast would know that the person couldn't afford it and had to come onto this organization to help him. And the people of the town came to my great grandfather, who was a wealthy man at that time. Later on, he lost all his money, but at that time he was a wealthy man. They came to him to help, you know, support this organization. And he said, uh, I could be part of it only if you take the name of the organization off the tablecloths. If you do that, I'm, um, happy to help. If you don't, I can't be part of it. They said they didn't want to do that because he felt that it embarrassed the people. And therefore what he did was he started his own organization.
[00:15:51] The name of the organization was not on the tablecloths.
[00:15:55] So people wouldn't know, you know, who's getting supported by this charity organization. Who's the ones getting help to, uh, make a simcha, to make a party. It protected the honor, the dignity of the people. And it's something that we need to keep in mind as well, that when it comes to the honor of other people, the dignity of other people you know, maybe we're not starting organizations that we don't have this issue of putting our names, you know, on, uh, tablecloths or things like that, but we always should have in mind when we're dealing with other people to keep. To protect the dignity of other people. That means never try to put someone into a corner, you know, psychologically. Don't try to, you know, ask someone a question where you're. You're gonna set them up to lie to you or to make them look foolish. Don't make people look foolish. Don't make people look dumb. Try to, you know, make sure you keep people's honor, keep people's dignity. Because the last thing that we ever want to do is embarrass somebody else to make their face turn red, God forbid. And that's an important lesson that we see from this week's Parasha. The fact that the chatas, the carbon chatas, was slaughtered in the same place as the elevation offering that the Torah protects the dignity of people, even when it's offering a sacrifice. No one knew the difference of who's offering what and what carbon. They're offering to protect an individual, to protect them from being embarrassed. That's going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to sell your chomets, please feel free to send me an email at Rabbish nolikon with a kmail.com Everyone have a great day and a happy Pesach.
