Naso-Behaaloscha - Guiding Light

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never-ending assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel 5780 2020. This week, if you're in Eretz Yisrael, so the parsha is Balak. If you're in Chutz La'aretz, so the parsha is Naso. And what I'd like to do, and we'll see if we can continue in this vein in the coming weeks, is I'd like to say something that's connected to both parshas. A point which runs through both of these two parshas, so that we can all benefit from the idea and we can all enjoy and have something to say perhaps at a Shabbos table, something to be inspired by to take home with us. And I'd like to share with you a medrish in parshas Balak, at the very beginning of the parsha, which connects to parshas Naso as well. It says like this, "Maximal amount of onion." And it's a very famous medrish, it's a famous concept, Rashi brings it I believe. And but let's look at it with in a new light. We're going to see a very beautiful insight that we may not have thought about or may not have noticed before in this medrish. Medrish says, "Maximal amount of onion." And it says, "When he brought the day of Moshe, when he brought the nasi of Yisrael." In parshas Naso, we have the nasiim bringing the korbanos, they are dedicating their there's a Chanukas Habayis, they're dedicating the mishkan for the first time. They are the ones to bring the first korbanos, the first sacrifices on behalf of each of their tribes. So we have 12 tribes that bring these korbanos. So it says, "When he brought the nasi of Yisrael." And then after that, immediately afterwards, at the beginning of our parsha, parshas Balak, so it says, "Daber el Aharon baloscha es haneros." Hashem says the commandment, Hashem says to Moshe, "Tell Aharon that he is to bring he's to light the candles." Okay, so what is the smichus? Why do we have these two ideas right next to each other in the parsha? End of parshas Naso, we have the concept of the nasiim bringing their korbanos. Beginning of our parsha, we have the command to Aharon to to light the menorah. So, Zesha Rakasuf says the Midrash, it's hinting to something which it says in a verse, "Yiras Hashem kedosha ki mas l'orev." There's a concept that those who fear Hashem, those who are His holy ones, they are not missing anything. It can't be that someone is a holy one, a person who's close to God, and he's missing something. Why? Cuz God is the ultimate giver. God is the ultimate uh perfect one, and therefore anyone who's connected to the Kodesh Baruch Hu has everything that they need. Atma tziluma, what does that mean? How does that have What does that have to do with us? Atma tziluma, achas ashuas mikriv shivtei mikriv, kol nesi mikriv nesi shel Levi. An amazing thing. In parshas Nasso, we have 12 tribes bringing the korbanos, bringing these initial sacrifices, and we need to understand the essence of what these sacrifices are. What is the importance of them? Because we're going to see that Aaron, there is a certain sense of of sadness that he wasn't able to be one of those tribes. There were 12 tribes, right? We know that there were really 13 tribes, right? Cuz Yosef is split in two, Menashe and Efraim. When we count Efraim, which is what the Midrash here was saying, we don't count Levi. So, unless we split, we had 12 tribes bring, and two of the tribes were what were the tribe of Yosef. What happened to Levi? Levi didn't get an opportunity to bring a the the initial sacrifice, the Chanukas Hamizbeach. The dedi- the the initial initiation of the Mishkan, he wasn't able to be involved in that. Aaron is worried for his tribe. Right? He's missing something. "Ki im achsar l'orev," the pasuk says that those who are those who fear God, they can't be missing anything. So, this is what he thinks. He sees shivtei Efraim took his place. The shivtei Efraim took the place of Levi. What's going on here? I didn't get a chance to be part of the dedication of the Mizbeach, the initial initiation of the Mizbeach. Umi haya nesi of Levi? So, who was the nasi? Who was the prince of the tribe of Levi? Is that Aaron? It's Aaron and Emma. As we find in Bamidbar per 7 verse 11, Hashem Aaron took the Levi. Each of the tribes had a separate staff. And the name that was inscribed on the staff of Levi, who was the nasi? On all the others on all the staffs was inscribed the name of the nasi, the prince of each tribe. On the tribe of Levi was inscribed the name of Aaron the Cohen. But Aaron even though he was a nasi, he was only for the Mishkan. And Hashem only accepted the tribe of Levi. Amazing thing. Aaron was concerned. Perhaps I'm not able to bring a korban amongst all of the other shvatim cuz I messed up. And as a result of me messing up, I pulled down the entire shevet of Levi. Very interesting thing. Levi doesn't have an opportunity to bring a sacrifice. No one's bringing a sacrifice on behalf of them. The Chanukah of the Mizbeach. The initiation of the altar in the Mishkan. They're not involved. The Levi'im are not involved. Okay, they're involved maybe as the the Kohanim are involved in the actual avodah, but nothing's being brought on their behalf. Nothing's being brought on behalf of the shevet. We're not We're We're just secondary here. We're just agents of those who are bringing it, but we're not actually doing anything ourselves. Aaron thought, perhaps my sin, which is the sin of the Ma'aseh Egel. I was involved in the Ma'aseh Egel. Perhaps my sin brought down my tribe. And Hashem doesn't want us. He's not interested in our avodah. He's not interested in our service. That's the Medrash. It's a famous Medrash. So, what does Hashem say? Hashem says to Moshe. Interesting. Hashem says to Moshe. Doesn't say directly to Aaron. Even though we do find that Hashem speaks directly to Aaron. Here Hashem says to Moshe, you go and tell Aaron, altis yari, don't be afraid. You're afraid perhaps I'm not called the yarei Hashem. I'm missing something. Um Yeshua there's something that I'm missing. My shaver is missing. Perhaps we're not properly Yoya Sham. Sham says, "Don't worry. You're not missing anything. You have your own special Chanukah Shamash gone. You have your own special thing that you are going to to be the initiator of. And this is the Yesod here. We're going to We're going to try to understand. This the Yesod of initiation. Giving a direction. We'll see what that means soon. You have something even greater. You're going to initiate something that's going to last even longer. There's going to be two things says the Madrish that you are going to have the initiation of which will continue even as the initiation of these Nesi'im of the Korbanos is not going to continue. As long as the Beit Hamikdash is around for the initial 850 years of the of the Mishkan and the Beit Rishon and another 400 some odd years of the Beit Sheini There's going to be Korbanos. There's going to be sacrifices. But what happens over the next 2,000 years of Golus? We don't have the sacrifices. But there will be something that you've initiated that will continue. What is that? The candles will continue. As Meforshim explain, what are the candles? It's the candles of the Kohanim. What are the What's the candle of the Kohanim? It's Chanukah. There was a re-dedication Chanukas Hamizbe'ach. A Chanukas Hamishkan. There was a re-dedication to the service of Hakadosh Baruchu that was initiated by the Kohanim, the Hashmonaim. Aaron's great great grandchildren. That initiation will continue throughout the Golus. And therefore, you don't have to worry. You're initiating something amazingly powerful that's going to start now, the lighting of the Menorah, and it's going to continue even when there's no Beit Hamikdash, even when there's no Temple, even when the Jews are in galus, they're in exile. Even when we've returned perhaps the land of Israel so many years later and we still don't have a Beit Hamikdash, but we still light the Chanukah menorah. And what's the second thing? What's the other thing that's initiated now? And that Klal Yisrael continues the Kohanim and the priests continue until this day. To this day, if you're living in Eretz Yisrael, it's every single day that we receive the brachas, the birkas Kohanim, the blessings from the priests. If you're outside of Eretz Yisrael, so it's on the Yomim Tovim, on the Shalosh Regalim, we receive those blessings from the Kohanim, but it's something that continues the the the avodah that they initiated. What did they initiate? They initiated the lighting of the menorah of Chanukah as well as in the Beit Hamikdash. They initiated the concept of blessings, of giving a bracha to Klal Yisrael, bringing the blessings of Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into the world upon the Jewish people. And that continues forever. To this very day, throughout the galus, we still always receive the blessings from the Kohanim. We still continue to light the menorah, remembering the miracle of Chanukah. Okay, so that's the amazing medrash. We might be very familiar with that. We might not have ever heard the idea of the of the brachas being something that continues forever, but that's the medrash. And when I read this medrash, so I wanted to understand I wanted to understand what is the idea here? And then the meforshim discuss, well, uh Levi, you know, they didn't have something in the korbanos or something avodah came out of their pocket. It was their own money that they spent on it. What did Aaron get to do that that that he's spending his own money initially? Okay, that's one of the meforshim explains that. But what exactly was the issue? What exactly was it that Aaron felt was missing? What what was he missing here? What was so important to him? And I think that if we focus into a specific point in the medrash, which I didn't yet get to, which I didn't yet point out, we're going to see an amazing idea which is the foundation of what's going on in the medrash. And this is the question. The question is like this. It says here that Levi was concerned, I'm sorry, Aaron was concerned for the shaven of Levi, he's concerned for the tribe of Levi that perhaps they are not they're not uh getting represented properly in the base of Migdash. They didn't have this opportunity to bring a carbon. They didn't they didn't initiate the carbonus, the sacrifices in the Mishkan. So, what's going to be with them? The tribe of Levi. So, he reassures him, "Don't worry, you have an initiation. You are in the Kohanim, the priests that give blessings. They like the they're going to like the Hanukkah's the Hanukkah candles are going to be because of them. Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second. So, this is the question. That's very nice for the Kohanim. It's very nice for the priests. But how does that help the Levi'im? How does that help the Levites? He was concerned about his whole tribe. He wasn't just concerned about himself. He was concerned about all the Levi'im. The Levi'im aren't involved in lighting the menorah. They're not involved in the brocha, the birkas Kohanim, the blessings of the priests. So, how does What is the answer? He was concerned about his his tribe. They weren't involved in the sacrifices. They they didn't they didn't get to have a hands-on involvement in the Mishkan. What is Levi What is the tribe of Levi get? What Aaron does? What the Kohanim do? How does that help them? So, the idea here is an amazing idea and it has to do with what is the concept of a Nasi. We're talking here about the Nasi'im. A Nasi is a prince. What is a prince? A Nasi, the word Nasi in Hebrew means linso, means to raise up. It means linsones. We talk about the fact that Hakadosh Boruchu is is going to raise up a flag. The Kabitz Galiyasenu. He's going to gather in our our exiles from the four corners of the earth. It's a raise up. That's what a Nasi is. He's somebody that raise He's like a flag. What is a flag? So, we spoke about it, I believe, last week or the week before. The idea of a flag is something that we raise up and we see it's in front of us. It reminds us of who we want to be, what is our mission in life. The Nasi. A Nasi is someone who is raised up. He's like a flag. He stands before us. He stands at the helm of our tribe. He stands at the helm of our base Knesses, of our families, of our shuls, of our Torah institutions. He stands up in front of us and he reminds us of who we are and who we want to be. That's what a Nasi is. That's what a prince is. A prince is somebody who is raised up. He wears a crown on his head. Why? Because he is the crown. He's the mind. He is the the leader, just like the mind leads the body. The Nasi leads the tribe. He is He's the one who guides and leads his tribe. He rises up above them and what he does, the others follow. He leads the tribe. Okay, so now the Nasi, what does it mean that the Nasi brought his Korbanos on behalf of their tribe? What does it mean that that they were the ones who were initiating? So, now hear this. This is really cool. So, now what is the idea of initiation? We're talking about the Chanukah Smas Beis. We're talking about the initiations. What's Why is it so important? What Why is it Why is Aaron so bothered he's going to be involved in the Avodah throughout the years? He's a Kohen. What does he care so much about the that first moment? He wasn't involved in the first moment. And the answer is that the Breishis Baro, the first moment is the Rosh. The first moment, Hakol Holech Achar Haschol. Everything goes after the beginning. Whatever is in that first moment, it's like the seed. It's the seed. You plant that seed in the ground, all of the information, all of the DNA for that awesome tree that's going to grow, is all contained in that little seed in that first moment. All that will follow throughout all of the years of Klal Yisrael serving Hakadosh Baruchu, all the Avodah of Am Yisrael in Mishkan, in the Beit Hamikdash, Beit Hamikdash Rishon, Beit Hamikdash Sheni, and Beit Hamikdash Shlishi was all contained in the seed of that moment that the Nesi'im planted for all of Am Yisrael and represented each and every one of those who are in their shevet. So, when they brought that first korban, what they were saying is, "Here we are. We are planting the seed for our shevet." When the when the representative, the nasi, the one who stands at the helm of the shevet of Yehudah gets up and he brings that korban, he's doing it on behalf of his entire tribe. And now this is for all time. He is now laying down the seed, the foundation for all the korbanos that would ever be brought throughout history. It was in that moment. And that also means that as the nasi, as the leader of his tribe, he is saying he's representing his tribe and saying, "Here, this is who we are. This is what our essence is. It's avodas Hashem. It's serving God. It's bringing the sacrifices. It's doing His will. Here we are. I'm the nasi. I'm the leader. And here we are. We, as represented by me, I'm leading you all in service of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's what the Nesi'im were doing there. Awesome thing. They were doing something historic. Unbelievable. Never to be forgotten. To be spoken about for 3,320 years at least after this after the fact. Here we are, still speaking about it. Right? Never to be forgotten. And it will return. And it will continue because of them, because of the seed that they planted. Now, Aaron says, "Hey, what's going on here? What about me? Huh? I might be here now, but where's it going to be I'm the nasi of my tribe. I'm the leader of my tribe. My tribe didn't get to lay down the foundation anywhere. We didn't get to be in that first moment. We didn't get to be in that first second of the the creation of the Mishkan, that's going to go on forever, that lay down the DNA for for all times. That's what he was That's what he was worried about. He's the Nasi of his tribe. He's the leader of not just the Kohanim, not just the priests, but he's the leader of the Levi'im. And what he does is first of all, representing his entire tribe, and second of all, it's laying down the foundation for all of history. It's laying down the foundation of what's going to be for him, for the Kohanim, for the Levi'im, and really, as we'll see from the answer, all of Klal Yisrael. And to this, Hakadosh Baruchu says, "Don't you worry. Of course you're the Nasi. Of course you're the Nasi of your tribe. Of course you're going to do something that's going to be the seed. It's going to be the the the laying down the foundation, the direction, the the kivun for all of Am Yisrael. For your for yourself, for your tribe, for all of the Levi'im and all of the all of Am Yisrael. And what is that? Something even deeper. The korbanos, that's something, you know, it's something that we do. It's something that's we could call it It's an outer action. Doesn't hit at the essence. Hashem gave him something greater, something deeper. He said, "There's going to be a lighting of a menorah. There's going to be a lighting of a menorah now in the Beit Hamikdash, but this lighting of the menorah, it is so key, it is so to goes to the core. It's it's a foundation. It's a seed that you're planting, not just in a certain avodah in the Mishkan, a certain superficial act that's being done in the Mishkan, but it's something that's so core, so essential, such a such a root idea that it's going to continue even without a Mishkan. And that is What is the What does the menorah represent? It represents the Torah. It represents the fact that we have a connection to Hakadosh Baruchu, and that we indeed we are the ones who are lighting We're lighting that spirituality inside of ourselves. And that's something which is not limited to a Mishkan. It's not something which is limited to that moment in time. It's something that will last forever. It's a seed that's planted and you will always see the fruits of that seed. You will always see the fruits of that of the of the menorah. You'll always see the fruits of the spirituality, the connection to which is represented by the menorah. You will always be the leader. Aaron and his kin will always be remembered. This action that you're doing, the lighting of the menorah, which represents the spirituality of Israel as is represented by the Torah itself, that is something that will never be forgotten. That seed will be planted and you will always bear fruits. Even in this. And how will we see that? We will see that even in the darkest times when we have no Mikdash. We're going to continue to light the menorah and remember our connection to the miracle that he did for us. His connection to us even in a time where there weren't open miracles. And we're going to continue to light those menorah in the in the in the darkest exiles. In the in the in the trenches of of darkness. In the farthest reaches, places where it seems like you are not. Because of you are still you are still there. And that's the idea of the blessings as well. Let me first explain what what what is it mentioned here the blessings because actually right before the the in this I'm sorry in this right before the it speaks about the mitzvah of the blessings that the are to give Israel. And that comes to the essence. The blessings themselves also represent our connection to which is not just on a level, not just on a a superficial level, but also on the level of the core. Who we are, how we're connected to Yes, it will manifest in all the actions that we do. Yes, it will manifest in the in the carbonas we bring in the mitzvahs perform etc. etc. But at the essence, the light of the menorah and the blessings of the Kohanim both represent this idea of who we are at the essence. What is the core? What is the seed? What is it the DNA that's written into our hearts that manifest that we see coming into being in all of our actions, in all of our lives, in all that we do, in all mitzvahs that we perform. The Levi'im are the nasi. The Levi'im, the tribe of Levi is the nasi. You guide Am Yisrael in the Torah. They're there singing in the Beit Hamikdash. They're there receiving the the trumahs and ma'asars, the different tithes that are given to them. They're there involved in teaching Am Yisrael the right way to go. And the Kohanim are at their helm. That's the idea here. The reassurance was that don't worry, Aaron. You're worried about your tribe? Of course you represent your tribe. Of course your tribe will be represented. You, Aaron, in being the the Kohain, in being the priest, in being the one who who lifts up the va'al lecha ha'aretz, you lift up the candles. You're the one who shows what is the center. You raise up. You're the nasi. You raise up and show everyone, your entire tribe of Levi, and the entire Am Yisrael is going to continue to light the Chanukiah, the the the menorah for all times on Chanukah. Because you have planted within them va'al lecha ha'aretz, what is the thing that we raise up? What is the essence of who we are? What is the seed that we plant? What is the key in the direction? It's all about spirituality. It's all about putting HaKadosh Baruchu at the center of who we are, the center of our lives, and everything else comes out. Everything else is a result. Everything else is secondary. It's a it's an offshoot of the central the central beam, the central column of the menorah, which is Avodas Hashem, service of God, Torah. Brocha, the blessings that God wants to bring upon the Jewish people. It all comes upon us because we realize we are able to see what is at the center. What is the Nussi? He is the center. He's the one who leads us and guides us. That's the job of the Nussi. That was the job of Aaron and Cain. And that's the idea of the menorah. That's the connection to the carbonus and partials Nussi that they all brought. They were showing on Israel, who are we? We are Oise Hashem. What is the essence of who we are as a tribe? The Nussi said to his entire tribe, we are those who serve Akodesh Borchu. Yes, Aaron has greater opportunity, a greater seed to plant, which is the essence of who we are is connected to Akodesh Borchu. The light of Akodesh Borchu, the light of spirituality, the blessings that he wants to bestow upon us. And but what how does it manifest? That's something that the Nussi got to do. It manifests in the in the 12 tribes as a service of Akodesh Borchu, as a sacrifices that we bring, as a sacrifices that we make for our spirituality as well. So, I want to bless you and ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us to be able to learn so much to to raise that flag for ourselves, to find those leaders who represent to us what it is that we want to be, who it is that we want to be, what is the center of our lives. Hashem should help us to recognize that the center of our lives is as the Nussi showed us the Avoda, the service of God that we do in his temple, in his Mishkan, in his base medrish, in his base haknesses. And we should learn the lesson of Aaron that what is the central pillar of our lives, it's the light, it's the blessings, it's the connection to Akodesh Borchu. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabbos. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.arigoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.