Emor - Expanding Into Giving

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Mesh Israel 5785 2025. This week's par is parasu tells Mosher Rabenu to tell to the kohanim the priests the many laws the many concepts that pertain to them. And the tells us in it talks about about the priest who is greater than his brothers. The high priest in those times it was Aaron the priest and he was the first of the kohanim of the priests. And in subsequent generations there would always be a high priest who had specific and special obligations. He was the one who performed the service on kipper. He was the one who had special rights that he could perform whenever he wanted to. Any service inside of the Mishkan in the tabernacle or in the B mikdash certain laws applied to him only. A regular coh is not allowed to marry a gusa divorce. Cole is not allowed to marry even an almana even a woman who's a widow. But he's referred to as a cotle. We call him the high priest, the great Cohen. But the puss refers to him as the coen who's greater than his brothers. Now our medish tells us like this. Why is he called a high priest? Why is he called the great one says the there are five things that he is greater than his friends that he's greater than his brothers. He's more wise. He's more strong. He's more beautiful, more good-looking with wealthim. And generally speaking, he's an older person before point out that there's a different version where Shaunim is replaced by a different requirement, but we're not going to get into that. The high priest needs to be a good-looking person. He needs to be dignified. You know, as much as we would like to avoid the fact that human beings who are good-looking, that there's some kind of mila, that's some kind of advantage of that, as Marashiva said, I heard him say it a number of times, when a person is good-looking, people pay attention. People show them favor. That's natural. And when we have a cohen, when we have a priest who's going to be the leader of Israel, really, he's a spiritual liaison between Hashem and us. So, we need to respect him. We need to look up to him. We need to appreciate him. And when a person has good looks, naturally we're human and we appreciate that. We respect that. He has to have greater strength. He's strong, physically strong. Or maybe it means that he has self-restraint can often mean that in the measure shows us that it means literal strength the high priest he did when the when the Levites replaced the firstborn, right? The firstborn lost their firstborn rights to be the ones who would serve in the Mishkan. They were replaced by the Levim, the Levites. And there was an obligation to do tuna, to lift them up and move them in four directions or six directions like we do with the Lulov. Aaron was the one who personally did that. 22,000 leim 22,000 Levites. How would he do this? Waving maybe he would go this way and that way forward and backward up and down. So we see that was physically strong. He was a very strong person. How do we know that he has to be wealthy or how would he get this wealth? Let's say he wasn't wealthy. And this is interesting. And this is going to be actually our focus here. So let's let's uh bring it into focus. He needs to be made wealthy. I say if let's say he was not such a rich person. He didn't have like a great job. So his fellow khan would actually give him money. So he became wealthy. And the magish gives us an example of this. There was a story with Pinas where he was a a uh he would used to he stone. He was appointed to be the high priest. They went out to tell him. They found that he was there. He was working. He was out there doing manual labor hewing the stones of dinar and they took the particular area that he was working in and they filled up that quarry with golden coins. So they gave him all the money so that he would be rich. Obviously he's not going to continue to be a quarry worker. So we see that when a person becomes a leader, we spoke previously about the obligation of a leader and the carefulness that they need to have in their relationship with Hashem, if they're going to be a conduit for light to come into the world. So then they have to be on a higher level. They're judged more strictly. We spoke about that last time. But here we're saying something else. Here we're saying that he becomes he is given his power in a certain sense. If we think about money, we think about what money represents. It represents that world who's taking care of you. That's how I would say it. Person has money. It means that that person is taking care of his needs are met. So the coing guttle has to be somebody who his needs are met. He's a person who's rich and that manifests itself if he's not already rich as everyone around him gives him money. We'll have to explore more what exactly that means, what it looks like. But let's see. Oh, we said that. Oh, no, we didn't say that. How do we know that the other indeed give him money if he doesn't have money? So he said the says he is the the priest who is greater than his brothers. It can also be read the great excuse me from his brothers meaning his brothers contribute to him. It's from his brothers that he becomes greater than them. So we get to something really interesting here and listen to the story the Medish tells us about King David. A coing guntle and a melik as we mentioned last week. I think it was last week or maybe two two weeks ago. I believe it was last week. The coing guttle and and the melik have a sim similarity. They have a parallel. The coing guttle is a conduit. He brings us atonement. He connects us to to Hashem. He's a great individual. He's the leader. He guides us. He's the example. He has the safer Torah that's constantly on his arm. On one hand, he has the twill. On the other hand, he has the safer Torah. He's the example for what it looks like. What does a good Jew look like? He's humbled. He is humble. He's a He's a servant leader. And the Cohen is the same. The Cohen is somebody who serves us, who helps us get into a relationship with that is an obligation to him. He has to be a greater person. But it also is an obligation on us. We need to give to him. We need to make sure that he has the money he needs. But there's another aspect here which is extremely interesting and it has to do with the king. The king is also similar. Think about it. The king, where does he get all his money from? He's very rich. gets from all the taxes that are paid to him by the people of his nation. Right? So his money is not his. He didn't work for it. He serves everybody. And this is a tremendous muscal. It's a tremendous lesson. He serves everybody. To the degree that I'm serving more people naturally that person is going to have wealth. And what it means to say based on what we said earlier is that the person is more provided for by Hashem. Right? If I'm a conduit for Hashem, if I'm a liazison between God and people, so then naturally I'm going to have more of my own needs. It's very interesting. We find this by King David. And now listen to the example with King David because it doesn't sound like what we talked about with the other people are giving him money. It's going to sound like something else. And we're going to have to understand what is the concept here. He went to fight with Goliath. So now let's get a little context. Shamelik was still the king, King Saul. And David, I'm pretty sure he had already started to sing for Shaolamel. Maybe I'm mistaken before imply that, but I'm thinking now. I believe it actually happened a little after. But scholamelik was a king. They were in a battle with the pushim with the philistines. And there was a great warrior. His name was Golas. And he said, "Let any Jew come out and fight with me. I will vanquish them." Instead of us having many people go against each other and get killed one-on-one, let's go. And there was no one who was ready to fight with Golas. Nobody felt that they were strong enough. And David Amel was before he was yet king. He was not yet anointed. He came and he had had an experience as we're going to see in the medush that he felt was a sign from Hashem that he had special ability. They had special spiritual strength to fight and destroy and vanquish enemies. We'll see what they were for him before this point. But he felt he was going to be able to overcome that and Hashem would give him special divine assistance to be able to accomplish that. So had made a declaration whoever kills Golas will marry my daughter. of so David says look I I think I can do this show looks at him he's a young man he's a nar he's a very handsome person he looks he's a musician right he's a shepherd he's not necessarily did not look like a warrior but says to him I don't know if you could do this I don't know if you can handle this it's a big job and David says to him I want to tell you a I was a shepherd and I was busy with the sheep of my father. It's not clear if this is one story or two different occurrences, but a lion came and a bear came watching the sheep. the the animal came and it took one of the sheep from my flock and I ran after it. I wanted to get back the sheep. He said, "I I was able to vanquish the lion and the bear and I saved the the sheep from its from its jaws, from its clutches. The animal tried to tried to attack me and I grabbed onto its mane. He's talking about the lion here. It seems grabbed onto its mane and I was able to kill the animal. I was able to kill the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine referring to Golas Goliath. He's going to be the same. I was able to do that with the animal. I'm going to do that with Golas. So the medish adds in a conversation which is not in theim and says to him how do you what what gives you the right to think okay an animal that's pretty unusual human beings don't usually have the ability to battle with such fierce animals but who says you'll be able to destroy golas golas has he has power of choice he might be able to vanquish you so David immediately responded and This is the Pic again. David did not just see or did not just believe that he had had personally had the physical prowess and ability to kill that lion to kill that bear. He said it was Hashem who did it. He he sensed he felt the he sensed coursing through him aesh a holy spirit which had the ability which gave him the ability to overcome this this line on this bear. He knew it wasn't himself. He knew that he didn't really have that ability. He recognized that it was Hashem. And so he felt that if he was able to do that in order to save a sheep, certainly it was a mush, an analogy to teach him that he would be able to do a similar thing in order to save amish people from their oppressors. Now listen carefully to this part. It's really interesting. Saul said, "Okay, I I buy it. I buy your story. It sounds good." And Saul took a suit of armor and put it on to King David, not yet King David. Took his armor, his own armor as the is going to say, and he put it onto. Now had a certain attribute and we need to understand here that although it may have been physically true, the saying a deeper thing physically was tall. He was striking. He was He was good-looking. Scholame was a head taller than most people. So now he's putting Schol is taking his own armor, his own suit of armor and putting it onto David in order to for him to face off with Goyas. Now what happened was a similar thing to what we said about a cohen if the cohen is not physically naturally rich we give him the money he becomes it's been it's given to him by his brothers hear this well it's given to him by his brothers David at this moment as he faces off with golas is stepping into the role of king which means he's the protector of amil He's the one who serves in in a certain way. He steps into Hashem's role. He becomes Hashem's agent to protect the Jewish people from their enemies. And in that moment, the measure says an amazing thing happens. David was not as tall as. And again, I'm not I'm not sure if this means a literal thing or it's a spiritual thing or maybe both. Do was not naturally as tall as Saul. However, the moment that he stepped into those clothing, he put on the king's armor became he became taller. He became stronger. He became was filled with Hashem's light, I would say. And there was an expansion in him. Shaw saw that. Shaw was somebody who had that also, right? So when he see, you know, it takes one to no one. When you see somebody else all of a sudden light up like that, Schul saw it and the measure says there was an iron horror. Schul felt bad. He he immediately saw was going on and later on after this battle destroys and vanquishes Golas kills him and then they come back from the battle and everyone's singing the praises. SH was able to kill thousands they sang and David was able to kill tens of thousands. Everybody sensed that David had risen above saw and Shaw himself saw it and he became jealous. The Medish says and David realized that immediately when David saw what had happened, he realized that something had come over him. Something had changed. He had stepped into his clothes. David felt uncomfortable. He realized he had embarrassed him. His face had turned white. So David says, "I I can't wear these clothes. I'm not he backed off. He didn't want He didn't want Schul to be to to feel jealous of him." He said, "I'm not taking I can't take these clothes." And the pushupsuki was saying, "I'm not used to wearing this kind of clothes. I'm not used to wearing armor. I can't go battle gully in the armor. I'm not going to be able to move." That's a pushup shot. But the deeper shot, it's it's he's saying, "I don't fit these clothes because he didn't want to be jealous." Amazing thing. So he took them off. So what we see is that there's a similarity between a coin guttle and a king. If a person is is appointed to be the king, even if he's short, he becomes tall. He becomes he he steps up to the role. He becomes mighty, becomes strong. And in some cases, if he doesn't have money, they make him rich. But it's just representative of the fact that he has stepped into a new role, a new relationship with Hashem on behalf of the Jewish people. Amazing idea. Medish finishes off. What is this for? What is all this idea? Listen to this carefully because this is also an amazing point. When a person becomes a king and they are anointed with a special anointing oil that's specifically for kings or for kohan and priests they had a special anointing oil says it also by Jacobu that he had an anointing oil it's brought down I've seen that when people would reach certain levels of nva they would have a sensation of oil pouring down them not physical oil but they would have such a sensation when a person becomes a vehicle, a higher person, someone who is going to be a conduit for Hashem's light to others, to his nation, especially to to the entire nation like a king or a kangtle. So he becomes Mishub. He becomes raised up more special than his brothers. becomes taller, becomes richer, becomes more good-looking. Omar, says King David, an amazing thing. He says, "When I was anointed with this with this anointing oil, when I became a leader for AmIrrael, I became joyful." There's an expansion that happens. There's an expansion that happens in this space when I become or you become anyone becomes a leader. Somebody let's say you have kids in your you become a father become a parent or let's say become a leader in your community. There's an expansion that occurs when I become ready to give to others. There's something that that changes in me. There's a joy. It is a sim. And notice it doesn't say this in the magic. But notice the word mishk which means to anoint and which also is the root of the word msiach which means anointed one. Mashiach the messiah is the anointed one. It's the one who has expanded because the word mash which means to anoint is the same letters as the word sak which means to be joyful. There's an expansion when I'm available and ready to be there for other people to serve as Hashem's conduit to other people. It expands me along the way. Shammar brings a puss and worth looking at this chapter. I went over it actually learned this piece with my father. You got into it. The says, "Therefore my heart rejoiced, my honor." Which is a reference to the nish is saying because of all these things. Go look at the thatum if you want to know what all these things are. But the magic understands it to mean that because he became a leader because he became the king because he was expanded. And by the way, the the concept of the the shem of the oil is from the is the same root as the wordina which means eight because you have the seven which is the natural word and you have the eighth aspect which is the transcendent aspect. It's the all-inclusive aspect and the king is the one who is there in the all-inclusive aspect. He's the one who includes all of Israel within him. He cares about everybody. So he's expanded. That's she is expansion. It rises above. The king rises above. My heart is joyous. My soul is rejoicing. And the expansion doesn't just take place in a person's psyche and in a person's emotions and their art, but it also actually affects the physical body. Even my flesh has a sense of confidence. And it's amazing thing. It's an amazing thing when a person is focused on themselves on their petty judgments on their petty feelings and on their petty hey that person didn't honor me didn't respect me didn't do me right everyone you know that kind of thinking so person is very constricted a person is very involved in themselves but you can see person becomes a rv person becomes a teacher person becomes somebody who's giving to others a parent a spouse If a person has the right attitude, so they become expanded, they become greater. When what's the right attitude? It looks like I am here to be a servant leader for others. David Amel, why did he need to prove his bravery? He didn't need to go get in a fight with Golas. But David had been accustomed to taking care of others. First, he started as a shepherd. Mosher Rabeno as well. He was accustomed to taking care of others. He ran in order to save a sheep. He had he got into a battle with a lion and a bear. He cared. He wasn't involved in his own safety. It was he forgot his own safety and he sensed the desay. Why? Because he went to save that sheep. He felt it. He felt the expansion. He felt the joy. That's the feeling that happens when a person goes out to save the sheep. When a person goes out to take care of others, he stands up to Golas. Golas is threatening his nation. He says, "I got to I got to stand up for them." I've seen it before. I've seen it that I get special. I get help. I get help when I care about others. If I'm making up I'm talking about myself now. If I'm making up a song and I know that this song might have an impact on a lot of people, there's this there's a feeling of it happened to me with happened to me with happened to me with other songs on code other songs I've done of late an album I just put out has over a million streams and a capella album. I was in a space of how can I how can I help Kali? What can I do for them that they'll enjoy and they'll be inspired by? When I'm in a space of love and service to others, so the result is that I feel an expansion within myself. I feel a different kind of feel a different kind of joy. Last night it was as we're saying over here. Last night I went and I sang for my shul. We had a beautiful event and kids were coming and as I've done in past years, give out the mic to them. They know the songs. There's a sense of expansion in facilitating others success. There's a sense of expansion in being aware of and trying to give to others. And that doesn't have to be big. It could be small. It could be just my family, just my my siblings, just my parents, just anything. It's easy to get in this a place of constriction and to only care about myself. But the Tyra asks us to do something greater and that is to be like to be like the to be where does it come from? It comes from my brothers. It comes from caring about my brothers. I'm saying a new comes from caring. But that's what the med is saying. It comes from being interested in and seeking to help other people out. I want to say when I love my friend that brings love into myself, into my own life. That's the expansion that we're talking about. I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us that we should be able to see and seize the opportunities to be helpful to be loving to be caring about others. Hashem should help us that to the degree that we get out of our own thinking and our own selfishness. Hashem should help us that there should be an expansion. We should sense that expansion like David with the oil and Hashem should help us to be able to facilitate goodness in all of those around us. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabas. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.rigoldwag.com at reoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]