Naso - Protecting Our Land

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's neverending assistance in ramaphish israel 5781 2021. this week's varsity is parshas nasso and in our parsha chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 the torah tells us like this vaidhav god spoke to moses and he said as follows israel speak to the children of israel and you shall say to the children of israel's followers a man or a woman when they will do a wondrous thing where they will make a clear nether clear vow because they want to become a nazir they want to prevent themselves for a certain amount of time or maybe for an unlimited amount of time from drinking wine from having any products that are uh from the grapevine from cutting their hair next pasta versus three meals they shall not drink wine they shall not have anything to do with wine vinegar etc the pasuk continues and describes what happens when a person makes another vow of naziris of becoming a nazir so what is the idea behind this ears what is the idea behind a vowel why does a person want to stop themselves from drinking wine so i'd like to share with you a very powerful madrish that addresses this issue it has a long introduction most of what we're going to see for the next 20 minutes or so is going to be the introduction but we need to understand why would a person make a vowel what is behind the vowel what is the value of a vowel why are we doing this idea why are we involved in this idea why is the torah telling us about such a person what is the myla what is the advantage of this concept so the magist brings the sukkah in the verses in amos chapter six many verses in amos that speak about the jewish people and speak about our relationship with the nations of the world fascinating measures listen carefully this is what the verses say this is what the verse is it's more than one verse it's a number of verses it speaks about the the navi you know the prophets so their job was to give musser to give to to give rebuke to the jewish people whenever they saw that the jews were headed on a wrong path the israelites were not performing the mistresses correctly perhaps they had gone off and served idols hashem heaven forbid or they weren't involved in keeping the torah studying the torah properly so god would send the prophets to chastise the jewish people to set them back on the correct path and he says whoa says amos woe unto those who in sion and zion in jerusalem they're all relaxed this is a reference to the tribe of judah and benjamin we are all called jews why because we come from judah also benjamin they were the kingdom of the south of the jewish people of the israelites the ancient israelites they were sitting the section of the jewish people which was in the south which consisted of yehuda and binyamin they were sitting in these feasts enjoying themselves [Music] involved in physical affairs not involved in spiritual pursuits but the verse refers to those who feel very batuac they feel very confident in the mountain of shomron from the mountains this is a reference to the people in the northern kingdom the other 10 tribes which were led by yosef which were led by the tribe of joseph [Music] they were also very confident in their involvement in the world these two nations these two parts of the jewish people those in the north those in the south the israelites the people from judah so they were outstanding they came the cuvee racism they came from the greats of the nations which is a reference to cesar madrid it's a reference to the fact that we come from shame and ever shame we're called those who don't like jews are called anti-semites shem is the root antisemi in hebrew we are from shame the son of noah and his in his progeny from eva i think it's his great grandson if i'm not mistaken these were these great righteous people who we come from base israel now the people of israel come and this is what they say listen to this carefully very interesting the idolaters the nations of the world when they are sitting and eating so they're involved in matters of foolishness who is as wise as bilaam billam was a great prophet of the non-jews mighty working goliath who is as powerful as mighty as goliath me ushered who is as rich as haman the antagonist of the purim story so now the nations of the world are busy telling us about how great they are they have these rich people they have these wise people et cetera now what did the jewish people come along and do something which on the service seems actually kind of nice they say hey look we also have our wise people we have it we find that korach was very rich we find that king solomon was very rich so the idolaters say hey we've got our rich people we've got our smart people etc the jew is going to say hey we've got our you know nobel prize winners we've got our awesome baseball players sandy koufax et cetera umass gimmick israel and the nations of the world say you're right you've got some real big hitters you've got some real stars albert einstein shy agnon winners of the nobel prize so when i read this message the first time i was trying to understand like is this a good thing that we're saying here you know we're also smart we're all so good but it sounds like these uh statements are foolishness from that like they could cover the nations of the world so are we responding something wise but it becomes clear as we continue to read that this is a mistake the jewish response to the foolishness of the nations and they're agreeing with us they agreed to us yeah we'll give you the nobel prize you guys are really smart you guys are really wise big mistake listen to this go down to khalna it's the name of a place and you will see kitty's fine it's a reference to a certain place called go to these different places where do gam please team go down to the land of the plishtim different places so so the puzzle lists off amazing places rome the beautiful city of rome london washington dc los angeles all the different locations these awesome places awesome locations mount rushmore the great rapids yellowstone national park wow the swiss alps says the verse are we any better than them are they any better than us zitsy and the shimerin jerusalem center of the universe there's a reason everyone's fighting over jerusalem jerusalem you shall aim chamron the west bank what they call the west bank we call yehuda shamron do you think that their portions are any better than our portions listen to this um i gave you the most awesome portion i gave you a much greater portion much more beautiful portion a much more spiritually connected portion there's nothing like you shalom you walk in there you feel it you walk up to the castle you feel it you feel the divine presence there's nothing like it is you're talking about your big nobel prize when you're talking about your famous baseball players and your singers who are the most popular singers in the go in the non-jewish world but you forgot the main thing you've got this awesome piece of land that's called israel you've got jerusalem it's yours your shalom is yours do you appreciate it not only that do you understand what it means to retain that piece of land to be able to get it back and to be able to continue to keep it when do you get it says the madrish only if you miss if you put my word on your heart if you place the torah you make the torah the word of god god's spiritual command if you make that the center of what you think about that's the import what are people talking about before we read this is what they're talking about they're as soon as they're on who's rich and who's strong and who's powerful and who's the who's winning in the wars and who's the who's the winner of the presidential elections etc uh that's what they're talking about that's what they're talking about and we're saying oh we've got great ones we've got well you know we've got amazing like yeah you do that's not it if that's what you're talking about we're in trouble we're in trouble we're headed for disaster says the madrish there's only one thing that allows us to keep this awesome land that allows us to keep jerusalem that allows us to be to be great people and that is and place my words on your heart says god i don't have another verse says all these verses are in amos chapter six verse three the the they're they're moving around on an evil day i'm sure the jewish people why did we end up in exile why are there jews still in exile why is it because we distance from our hearts we don't think about god they think you know no nothing bad is going to happen to us hamas hamas it says in the verse this is the verses and amos i couldn't make it up you set yourselves to sit to live next to hamas hamas means destruction it's a reference to esau who stole from his brothers to feel suicidal it speaks about all of the sins the sins that if we are involved in these sins and the way how does a person end up in sin how does a person get lost is because what's important to me what's important to me what is my focus on who's the greatest who's the nobel prize winner who's the the mightiest warriors where's my focus on tara if my focus is on all these physical things who's rich and how can i get rich and i can be like the billionaire the jewish billionaire uh you know that's that's not what we talk about if we're talking about that we're headed for gullets heaven forbid we're headed for exile we're headed for them shooting rockets at our people heaven forbid welcome back he says says the message a sad thing but it's an important thing to hear because it's an important lesson for us each and every one of the swat team at this time the time when the navy was speaking this is what he was giving mustard he was giving this takaka for each and every shave had their holiday they had their own holidays they would go and look at their at their uh cattle they would grab the nicest animal and bring it for their holiday woohoo new year's party that's not our religion okay but it it's a fun day you know what would they do they would have this big party they would they have the nicest animal for it for them they're playing their music they're playing their music and they think of themselves like king david king david used to play the music he would play his harp and he would sing songs of shirts with shabbat was to god he would sing david he would sing songs to god what did these people do that the navy was giving them this strong rebuke they took that music and they were singing it as they were drinking in the bar at their party they had nothing to do with god that was completely misdirected misguided with three different opinions rather more clear of your number with kaiser's katana or about a number because of zerbias different types of cups that they used they were excited about these parties they had their fancy shot glasses dad you know they did it all for the party that had nothing to do with god and they were copying david amala king david wow king david he played music we're also playing music this wine was that which look all of these things that are being described in these verses are the mistakes that they made they're talking about things that are not really important they're involved in parties that are not really good parties they're hanging out with the nations who are having a negative effect on them all this stuff entices them entices them to follow after their bodily desires to follow after the desire for honor the desire for conquest the desire for all things that are not spiritual erecius they use the best oils to anoint themselves a certain kind of oil that softens the skin causes the hair to come out i have smooth skin so they've done all these things they've gotten all involved in all of these beautiful things their lives are just a pleasure constant pleasure constant enjoyment constant party but they didn't learn the lesson what happened shiver yasser's destruction of the the northern tribes the northern kingdom of the jewish people of the israelites referred to as yosef because the tribes of yosef and frahm and menasha were the leaders of the northern kingdom and what happened there they were sent off into goals they were sent off into exile as a result of their sins as a result of their involvement in idolatry and it disconnects from the base of english from the temple and from god but what happened to the people in the south did they learn the lesson of what happened to the people in the north it says what happened in the end it was because of wine and here we are coming back to what we started with it was because of the mistakes that they made involvement in these parties involving the in the wine getting drunk really getting drunk on this world not just on wine getting drunk on all of the passions and the glory and the foolishness the things that everyone else considers to be great the lack of focus and what's really important that's what caused the southern kingdom to be lost as well to be exiled which is where we find ourselves today slowly returning but nevertheless still exiled the verse says and therefore this is the last verse i'm going to quote from amos chapter 6 verse 7 and that's why they were sent off into exile the jewish people were sent off the southern kingdom the jewish people from judah and binyam and benjamin come out what do we see here we see that the thing that causes us to go into exile and exile notice the word goyle or goyle which is exile and i believe this is what the majority is trying to say here the word exile is from the word legal comes from which means to reveal it means to reveal something improperly we talk about the licentious behavior of the verses in in us and you know we speak about legalize uncovering someone's nakedness inappropriately not in the place of a mitzvah not the place of the the where it's supposed to be there's a guillory there's a revelation of our nakedness of our embarrassment that's what happens as a result of being involved in wine drinking wine this is why god wrote this is the famous concept why does the concept of the nazir come after the departure of sota first to talk about the fact that there's a sota woman who's a wayward wife she's gone on and been involved in senseless behavior not with her own husband if it's followed with the obligation to become a nazir to become to to prevent oneself from drinking wine recognizing the results of what happens when a person drinks wine the fish it causes this licentious behavior you say therefore a person needs to make a vow i won't be involved in that i don't want to make that mistake that's why the verse tells us that a man or a woman and they'll do an awesome thing they'll make a clear vow they're not going to drink wine that's the verses in our parsha now we spoke about a lot of stuff here and we wrapped it up in something that seems not so directly connected talking about wine and taking us off the path but i believe that the whole the whole message the big picture of this measure and something is a powerful lesson there are so many ways to be pulled away there's so many things that pull at us and rightfully so wow it's awesome rich money fame fortune power prestige all these things pull at us they're important to us we're human but where does it take us in the end it ends us up in a lot of trouble it ends up in a lot of trouble and we lose the essence the greatest place the greatest land our eretz israel our holy land we can lose it because where our focus is off the measure is telling us how do we prevent that how do we nip that in the bud how do we get it before those bad sprouts start to come out those bad results stop it at the beginning what's important to me i'm not gonna go near that i'm not gonna go near the wine that's what the that's what another says i'm not gonna go near the wine i'm gonna stop it before it starts i see where that goes i recognize where that goes though that party with the wrong focus those conversations with the wrong focus that's heading off in the wrong direction it leads me into ghosts having forbidden to exile exile for myself exile for my soul exile from god and exile from the land of israel how do i get back to art israel how do i keep her to israel now that i've returned here and i've returned i've returned to my spiritual self how do i stay there clarity a clear decision a clear commitment give you an example this week a very last week i was looking at the headlines trying not to read the news but i was looking at the headlines intensely because of what's going on here in israel so the beginning of the week i felt sick and i decided this week i'm not going to look at the headlines at all i spent the entire week without looking at any headlines you have to i have to ask people what's going on i wasn't so obsessed i wasn't so obsessed and being focused on these types of matters it takes a person away from what's really important and having a re a recognition a realization of what's important i can take a step back and i can say you know this is the line for today for this week whatever for me it's not going to work you know i can have clarity that's the word geography there's clarity there's clarity when i can be clear where this goes i can protect myself and i can stay in the holy land i can stay in jerusalem in sion if i know that jerusalem is the you know red line this belongs to me you don't shoot at me i can draw a line and everyone can scream from today till tomorrow this is my line it's very clear don't cross it i can make that line for myself and i can make that line in my interaction with others it's a very deep and powerful lesson so important the tire is giving us and this measure is showing us where things can lead if we don't have those clear lines if we don't have that clarity and we don't make those commitments i want to bless you i ask you to bless me hashem should help us to have that clarity to recognize where it is that our lines need to be drawn hashem should help us to be able to indeed draw those lines for ourselves should help us to return tetsuya into zion to jerusalem to the holy land to eretz cistrell to ourselves to what we know is really important thank you so much for listening have a wonderful show miss this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ahri goldwag