An Introduction to the Nesachim

The topic of today's talk was very very much, hopefully this is not news, the nusachim. That together with carbonis, not all carbonis, but together with many many many carbonis, there was a wine libation that had to be brought. They [snorts] were nusachim. By the way, just to bring out in our own mind from chasha, what a big deal the nusachim was, the whole sugiyah of yayin nesach, all those gemaras that we learned together in meseches avodah zarah, is a person, a very bad person, who's going and he's pouring wine for his getchka, for his deity, for his pagan. The point is is that nisuch yayin was a very very basic form of avodah, and there was a nisuch yayin that although wasn't primary in the Beis Hamikdash, but it was secondary. And it was something that came along with many of the carbonis. Now, why was yayin brought together with carbonis? Al derech hashachat. If you take a look at the Abarbanel, right here, in parshas shelach, so he has a whole arichus on the [snorts] nusachim, and then he concludes as follows. He says, "Vahoyah inyan hamichah, the whole idea of bringing a carbon in this way, where you have the animal, and then you have the minchas nesachim, the soidis that came along with it, and then the yayin, it was baderech shekashya kribun doyroin ladonaya, because once upon a time where there were kings, and if you had avadim that were going to bring a gift to their king, so yakrivu lechem, they would bring bread, uvassar, they would bring flesh, vashamen, and they would bring oil, vesachnoi, to make the food that they're bringing good, veyayin veshtoiz, and they always bring a a little bit of wine." Says the Abarbanel, "When a yid brings a carbon, he's bringing lachmei shamayim he's bishteiya chiruv he's bringing food for Hakadosh Baruchu. Avdei Hashem, are you kidding me? Give it to God in the mizbei'ach. But by the obviously the way you feed Hakadosh Baruchu kaveyachol is by being makriv it on the mizbei'ach. But says the Abarbanel, it's kederech, it's poshut the way the eved used to bring his avodah. He would bring lechem, he would bring basar, he would bring a little bit of shamen, and he would bring yayin. And that's the tzurah of the way we're supposed to go ahead and we're supposed to bring our gifts to Hakadosh Baruchu. Of course, the havanah of what the Abarbanel is saying is right that we spoke about very much in the chumash here, and that is that on the most simple level, what the Beis Hamikdash was, what the Mishkan was, is like the Rambam says right in the beginning of hilchos Beis Hamikdash, mitzvas asei lasos bayis lashem. It was a bayis for Hakadosh Baruchu. And the Ramban talks about this throughout his pirush al haTorah in these parshiyos, and Rabbeinu Bachya, and really all the rishonim say this idea in their nosach. And that is the Mishkan, the Beis Hamikdash was a bayis for Hakadosh Baruchu. And kaveyachol the Shechinah was living in the Beis Hamikdash. Ramban says that's why parshas Terumah came immediately after ma'amad Har Sinai. Because ma'amad Har Sinai was velakachti eschem li le'am. Well, if we're the nation and Hakadosh Baruchu is the melech, the melech needs to live amongst the nation. That's always the way it is. And as a result, we have to build a bayis. He built a bayis for Hakadosh Baruchu, and you're spiritually fit, HaShem is going to come, he's giving mashchei Shechinasei. And the ikar sh'sar Shechinah was mebein hakruvim, davening ad Hashem, that was the aron, that's what the lifnei velifnim is. But a bayis has a menorah, a bayis has a shulchan. When [snorts] you go to a bayis to greet the king, you bring him food. And that's bisoid what the carbonis was. But the point is, says the Abarbanel, when you understand that in the simplest level, that's what a carbon is, so of course you have to have yayin. Who would ever feed somebody a meal without a little bit of wine? And it's for that reason you're coming to feed Hakadosh Baruchu, it's poshut that you would have to give a little bit of yayin. There's another very basic elementary point that we need to mention as relates to the nusachim, and that is why are the nusachim mentioned in in parshas shelach? Why is it not in Vayikra, not in Tzav, not in Shmini, not in Tazria metzora. Now, there's mentions of nusachim prior to parshas shelach, but the ikar parshah of which carbonis, all the drashos that we saw in today's daf, they're in parshas shelach from all places. Why would they not be Why would they not be in the parshiyos of Terumah Tetzaveh? So, the giveaway is right in the beginning of the parshah. Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, "Daber el benei Yisrael ve'amarta aleihem, ki savo'u el ha'aretz asher ani nosein lachem." In other words, it seems a little bit from the pasuk that even though there was a mitzvah of nusachim, but the mitzvah of nusachim wasn't noheg until the yidden came to Eretz Yisrael. Ke'ilu, all the halachos of the carbonis that are mentioned in Terumah Tetzaveh, these halachos are when they gave the Mishkan, these halachos are when they gave at the time that the yidden were in the midbar. But this is already from the mitzvos of tzius ba'aretz. And as a result, this is in a separate parshah, and it's mentioned in parshas shelach. The yidden are getting closer to preparing to go to Eretz Yisrael. So, it's over here it's in this context, it's over here that we mention it. The truth is, the rishonim all quote a Sifri that discusses whether the nusachim were takke noheg in the midbar. They weren't noheg in the midbar. But on some level for sure the nusachim were be'ikar Eretz Yisrael. It's a pasuk in the Torah, "Ki savo'u el ha'aretz asher ani nosein lachem, va'asitem ish lashem." It's then and only then that you're supposed to go ahead and bring the nusachim. So, in pshat, it seems like that's the reason that this was singled out. But it's adayin omed darshanei. And the reason is because the location location location of where the Torah mentions the parshah of the nusachim is mamesh flabbergasting. It mamesh is. Right, where does it say it? It's in parshas shelach. Do you know where in parshas shelach? Right after the parshah of the meraglim. The Torah mentions the parshah of the meraglim, right? If you look at the pasuk right before this, the last pasuk in perek yud daled, "Vayiru es Hashem Elokei Yisrael ba'aretz hahu, vayakumu vayaksumu ad haChormah." That's the story of the ma'apilim. That's the story of Kol Machmal Yisrael mitzei u'mitzei with all that chassidishe heilige Torah. But the bottom line is, is where did the Torah mention the parshah of the nusachim? It's right after, immediately following the story of the meraglim. And all the rishonim asked the kasha, "Why in the world would the Torah feel that the right place to mention the nusachim is over here?" I saw this Sforno says a davar nifla. And it's the Sforno sheitah for those holding in the chumash here. The Sforno says that to bring a carbon with nusachim is an add-on to the carbon. Had the yidden not sinned with the chet of the meraglim, they wouldn't have needed that add-on. They could have been yoitza by bringing the ikar carbon, and that in and of itself would have been enough. Abenoch the chet of the meraglim, now they needed their carbon to be a bisl memuchad. In order for their carbon to be a re'ach nicho'ach lashem, they were going to have to do more. And that's why it's davka after the parshah of the meraglim that the Torah said, "Ki savo'u el ha'aretz asher ani nosein lachem." Now already you can't just be yoitza with the carbonis of Vayikra. Now you're going to have to go ahead and do more. Why is this the Sforno sheitah? The Sforno, if you remember, holds that the Mishkan was a result of the chet ha'egel. He learns like Rashi that the parshiyos in Shemos and it was because of the chet ha'egel that they needed a Mishkan. In fact, the Sforno says, if you look at the pesukim in the parshas Yisro, right after that seris hadibros, Hakadosh Baruchu says, "Mizbach adamah ta'aseh li." Right? If I can't, don't make it fancy. "Bechol makom asher azkir es Shmi, ovei elacha u'veirachticha." You could do whatever you want, wherever you don't need the temples that the Egyptians used to have. Anything is going to be fine. Then all of a sudden, "Va'asu li mikdash vesachanti besocham, zahav, kesef, nechoshes, chevel vesargaman, what's going on over here?" So, the Sforno, in a perfect world, had the yidden not sinned with the chet ha'egel, it would have been "Bechol makom mizbach adamah ta'aseh li." You don't have to make all these fancy zachin. A yid in his own heart can have ashrei Hashechinah. We don't need temples to connect to Hakadosh Baruchu. But the problem was Klal Yisrael sinned. They did the chet ha'egel. And once it was the chet ha'egel, we fell madregas, and now already we needed to do a little bit more. This is mamesh this next level of the Sforno. It's poshut. Noch the chet of meraglim, which is the next greatest chet Klal Yisrael had. Now again we needed to pick our game up a little. We already have a Mishkan, we have all the carbonis. Now was nischadesh the nusachim. The nusachim was nischadesh as a result of the chet of the meraglim, just like the ikar of the Mishkan was nischadesh in the world of the Sforno, as a result [laughter] of the chet ha'egel. Azoy steit in Sforno, mamesh right here offen aron in this parshah. But the ikar pshat that's brought out in the rishonim, u'veiroishum de Ramban, is a little bit of a different nosach. The Ramban says, "Ve'ulai hoyah zeh atah." Maybe the reason Hakadosh Baruchu was metzaveh Klal Yisrael with the inyan of the nusachim right now was lenachemam u'lehafteicham. It was to give the yidden nechama and and to give them haftacha. "Ki oyu no'ashim leimar." Because they were very sad. They were no'ashim, they were giving up. "U'vlashon Yiddish." Klal Yisrael had just sinned with the meraglim. And Hakadosh Baruchu said that because you cried bevil Tisha B'Av, it's going to be bechiya doros, and you're going to be in the midbar for 40 years, and no one from this generation, with the exception of Yehoshua bin Nun and Calev bin Yefuneh, is even going to go into Eretz Yisrael. And it's going to be your children, your grandchildren, they're the ones that are going to ultimately go ahead and they're going to inherit the land. But the yidden looked at themselves, and the yidden realized, "We just lost that we were promised." Imagine, you know, when you think of it in the context, we just finished yetzias Mitzrayim, right? We're still holding Pesach. When you think of it coming out of Pesach, and we did it, all the tachlis was to go to Eretz Yisrael, and then the tachlis was for the Eibershter to be Elokeim, "Velakachti eschem li le'am." And then everything got lost. It's takke an incredible postscript when you when you internalize it in a very simple way. Everything was the the deflation was lo omed. And they were told that they ain't going to go in. Okay, okay, you could live like curiously through your children. That's that's a very noble thing. That's very harsh. But they were saying that themselves that in 40 years maybe our children are also going to sin. I don't even know if we're going to make it and he saw they were in a state of he saw they had given up. They wanted to go ahead and he wanted to be them. But they were wanted to give them the and he gave them the you know he gave them the he told them the parish of the parish of the starts he gave them a for that and when they heard that it was a of the words of the this was a that they were going to enter the land at some point. So the reason it's placed over here it was in a it was a sick. It was to give them a little bit of hope. That despite the fact despite the fact that in their minds right now who knows if we're going to be to be able to enter the land over the said no. You're going to be able to enter the land. We mentioned in the past that the you say over the name of his father who said over in the name of the who used to say so comes at the whole parish of the was a parish of but why this parish there's so many different parishes in the that maybe so many is it because the says like was created to be that's the whole is the whole of wine. It's to give somebody a pick me up. That's why the created one coming off of but that's the whole of what is all about. So said the said he said wanted to be like the said how was the like the he was with because that is the that is the that's exactly what wine does. Who is the who is the who is when went to so >> [snorts] >> say says the of the really the that we pour in the is also a like the said that we're giving a of there was a certain of where was morning and and the of what we do in a it's all with wine. It's got a of we're supposed to be the like who is the the bottom line is it was through the parish of the the got the that is the rest of the story. That's why the parish of that immediately follows the parish of the of is the parish of the wine. We'll save the second rate by tomorrow and we'll stop here.