Shlach-Korach - Grab the Lifeline

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's neverending assistance in roma bitchin israeli 782 2022 this week in khutsarats we're reading parties and arts israel we are reading parshas korach i'd like to share with you a thought from the end of the madrish and a ramban at the beginning of parshas korach amazing connection between the two concepts a very powerful idea that we can take with us and we can use in our lives the end of the parsha speaks about the mitzvoth the mitsubishi is an obligation to place on the four corner garments special strings made out of wool preferably the plastic tells us that the reason what is the purpose of these strings what do they accomplish for us how do they help us what's the idea behind them pasik says the mantis guru i see that somehow within the mitzvot titus i will soon see what is the concept behind it but the mitzvot contains within it all of the commandments of the torah it reminds us it's our uniform where that sits us where we see that specifically and it reminds us somehow of all of the missiles of the terror all the commandments of god of course we need to understand how what is the concept behind it there's also the concept of the trailers which we don't have today unfortunately we don't have that blue string and yet the blue string as the as the gemara tells us i believe it's a menace that the blue string reminds us of the sea reminds us of the of the heavens reminds us of the throne of god's glory somehow it serves to bring us back to hashem to bring us back to our relationship and our servitude to god the question is how what is the concept behind it also the pussic says and we say this every it's natural for a person to be drawn after their eyes after their heart person person's emotions persons that which we see draws us in but somehow the mitzvah tutsis serves to help us to be reminded of our service to god and not be drawn after our eyes and not be drawn after our hearts and we need to understand how that works what is the concept before we actually get into the madrish i want to mention something that i've heard from mahesh yeshiva i'm going to mention a few things from him prince hashem today and he talks about something which he said i remember this is i heard this 25 years ago but i've heard it again since listen to him almost every day he said that i'm going to tell you something that you probably won't hear anywhere else you're not going to hear anywhere else because most people don't think about this idea or speak about this idea but we are human beings and when we learn muscle when we learn ethical teachings of the torah so we find things out about ourselves that we may not have known we find out that we have an idea we find that we have bias that our bias leans us in a certain direction to make certain choices that we may not actually want to make intellectually right we're drawn after our eyes were drawn after our hearts our emotions pushed us in a certain direction we'll see about that with regards to partisan korach himself he was drawn after his heart his emotions his desire for honor we'll get to that as well but we're naturally drawn after these things and we need to recognize that within ourselves we don't necessarily even realize it the more we learn about it the more we understand the concept of bias that we have naturally and we're all human but how can we shift it in the direction how can we shift it towards rookies towards spiritual strivings that our bias should be towards service of god towards less selfishness more humility how do we do that so one of the means with which i could spoke who blessed us is mitzvahs and this is something if we understand in concept even if you may be someone who's not obligated them it's what sits this but still we can understand and concept this idea and we can apply it to ourselves no matter what so let's read the message together and we'll see what our great stages teach us says do not be drawn after your hearts like is written with a tough tough vow which literally means like the the spies were sent into israel in order to latur et ta'arez that's the same word la sura means to to scope out this the city to scope out the land right so we scope out with our eyes and we are drawn after that which we see says the madish a powerful thing hallel now this word sarsouran is similar it sounds similar to suru but it's actually written with a summit instead of a tov [Music] the heart and the eyes they turn a person they are that which is used by the body the desires the lower parts of the human being to bring a person to do particular actions sometimes those actions we could define them as sin they turn a person away as we said you know the the example i like to give is kid walks into the house really this is true of all of us we're all kids kid walks into the house sees that their sibling has a candy has a has an ice pop has something that they got as a present from somebody from a for a birthday whatever it is child sees that not the child wants it a moment ago he was happy he was coming in whistling as he walked up the steps now the child is upset i want that too right so the eyes and the heart desire things that we don't really need per se sometimes we do need those things sometimes you know those things are necessary but when that's we we are drawn after our eyes there are so means to turn la means to turn sarsara means we return and turn right artivas or nagis our biases our desires they turn us and turn us and they cause us to do sins okay so that's the problem we're presented with the issue how do we deal with this issue so the measure offers us a way out montesquieu the purpose of the of the mitzvot sitsis and the which represents the entire torah as we'll soon see it represents all the teachings all of the commandments it starts to remember and and fulfill all of the mitzvos the commandments what is the idea says the magician amazing thing mashallah this is comparable to somebody who fell into the water he's outside of the ship he he somehow fell off the ship and and he fell into the water so the captain of the ship throws a rope towards the person [Music] the captain of the ship says hold on to this rope don't let go of if you let go of the rope you'll be you won't have life [Music] this is a beautiful mushroom a guy is drowning in the sea he's he's he's it looks like it's over for him the captain sends him a rope and says grab onto this rope it will save your life [Music] israel hashem says the same thing to the jewish peoples the people of israel calls manchester united as long as you hold on to the rope what's the rope we're drowning here in the sea of our biases of our yetzer of our evil inclination as long as you hold on to that rope what's the rope the rope is the torah the rope is the commandments the first verse that the message brings is as long as you hold on to the commandments as long as you hold on to torah you have you have life you have a way out of the sahara of the entrapments of this world so it's beautiful it's such a beautiful mushroom because we're talking about the titus which are strings right all you need to do is look at your titties let's take a look the titus are strings and they're ropes and they're they're tied on to the four corner garment which somehow represents the mistress it represents the torah there's this is the rope that we hold on to that we look at and remind ourselves we see the trailers we'll have the trailers again you see the the blue colored string it reminds us of the sea of the heavens it ties us back to the keys to the throne of hashem's glory and it reminds us to hold on to hashem hold on to mistus that's the only way that we're going to have life because hashem is life and here we are we're drowning in the sea of this world means literally rebuke but it means though it has the same uh shoresh as the same root as the word cyrus we have before those things that turn and turn right the sarsarin the eyes and the and the heart are pulled along they're turned by the eights of herod evil inclination by our biases by our desire for for honor money typists desires there's something called moosa musa also turns us it's the rebuke it's the ethical teachings that turn us in the direction of good that's moosa moosa hold on to moser hold on to the words of wisdom of king solomon of the torah al-taraf nisreha don't let go of those things that protect you because they are your life when you hold on to muslim when you hold on to ethical teachings when you hold on to torah when you hold on to the titsas what they represent the mitzvos the commandments so then you're going to be led in the correct direction [Music] you're going to learn the correct direction but the question is how how do we get into that space because here's the question the issue remember shashiva put it this way again i heard this recently in a in a shir based on madrigal agam the altar of the verdict he says the following question you know i mentioned this before in podcasts if you've been listening for a long time you might have heard this idea but it's always worth repeating it the mind the intellect is that which reminds us of what we seek of what we want of spirituality of avada's hashem of serving god [Music] but the problem is like this our emotions and our biases and our pull towards ties towards physical desires towards emotional desires are so quick that pull comes in a moment in a flash and by the time our intellect says you know i really shouldn't be eating that chocolate as my sushi says it's gone the chocolate's already gone down our throats so how do we how do we get our intellect to catch up with our emotions and with our automatic responses how do we as a certain secular but very spiritual uh writer says how do we find the space between stimulus and response so the alternative teaches an incredible idea of a muslim muslim side in ethical teachings that was used in the in the 100 years ago on through many many years later i heard personal accounts from one of my robin robbie who uh i'm sorry rabbi uh norman ekritz [Music] so i heard this from a great grandson of the altar of the verdict that the way that they would do it shiva says this as well the altar himself says it what they would do is they would learn monster but they wouldn't just study the words in an intellectual way they would actually get emotionally involved it's called muslim spires which means they would awaken their emotions they would read the musa and they would sing it and they would get into it they would sing it they would say it emotionally when a person awakens his emotions you get excited about something you get excited about that thing as a has much more of an impact when we engage our emotion and the importance of torah in the importance of learning and the importance of of awaiting hashem service of god working on medus when we arouse our emotions so it's not just our intellect battling the automatic emotions of our of our biases we actually engage our emotions and so to speak our biases in a direction of time you know you can have a person who's very into sports let's say you can have a person who's very into learning you read swarm you read the books about gdalem great people and i read recently some some stories about the stipler where you hear stories about revue zaro passed away recently and you see the incredible hasmada the incredible dedication the importance of tyra to them they were emotionally involved in it they got themselves entirely they became fans of tyra what what what's the difference why does one person become a fan of this type of thing and another person becomes a fan of torah the answer is emotional involvement making myself excited about it investment into it right a person can know all of the stats and a person can know all of the gemara i'll tell you a secret when you learn a gemara you try to memorize it you try to understand it and know it inside and out by heart you invest your emotion into it it becomes exciting like what do you talk about with your kids do you talk about of course you talk about normal things you talk about their day what's exciting to you different torah can be exciting to you words of mustard can be exciting to you amazing thing but that's the power here there's an emotional connection we look at the tzitzis and hold on says king solomon hold on to musser hold on to spiritual teachings hold on to torah and what's the result you use some kedation then you become holy bisman when you says to manage something really beautiful and as is the way of the matrix at the end of a parsha it finishes off the parsha with a particular teaching which gives us hope for the future because you know this is a daunting task of course it's something that we can accomplish the message is telling us that we can overcome our emotion and that which we see the natural desires that we you know you walk in the street you see things you want those things you walk by a store you see something nice you want that thing you see someone is driving a tesla you want that tesla right it's a nice thing but how do we control it we control it with our emotion attaching ourselves excitement around tire and misses when we do that i say mitzvahs when we are doing the misuse when we are emotionally attached to torah atamukudashim you're holy mask it says to mention another thing our fear is placed on our enemies on the on the idolaters on the nations of the world who wish to fight against us when we are doing what we're supposed to be doing they see an aura of holiness in us and they are not going to fight with us they're not going to start up with us this is an important thing if we haven't forbid separate ourselves from tyra amidst us so then we become hollow our lives are hollow they don't fear us when we are filled with life when we are filled with the life of hashem which we attain through keeping the torah when that's what that when that's that shines out through our faces we see it they see it and they're even inspired by us they fear us but if we don't heaven forbid the opposite i don't know israel then just finishes off with a hopeful thought god says to people of israel in this world because of the asahara because of your evil inclination because of your biases so heaven forbid people can separate themselves from torah separate themselves from mitzvos well i should love any icumi cam but in the future i'm going to uproot the tsahara from you shanamar as the puzzle says god promises that in the future time he's going to remove the heart of stone we have a heart of stone inside ourselves that makes us selfish it makes us uncaring that makes us not have empathy towards others that we only care about ourselves numero uno le sham's going to remove it he's going to take out that heart of stone basar is going to give us a heart of flesh a caring heart a heart that cares for others and i'm going to place my spirit in you says hashem in the future when the meshiah comes when the messiah arrives there's going to be a removal as the governor suka tells us nitsar is going to be slaughtered it's going to be removed the evil inclination is going to be removed from us we're going to naturally do that which is god's will care for others all of these things it's gonna be natural for us but now it's not that way right but it can be that way if we grab onto the rope if we grab on to the the torah's ropes so to speak when we do that so then we are we are holding on to life we're holding on even in these stormy seas of the world that we exist within that we're drowning in the waters but we can hold on to the rope of life that sits this remind us of that now it's very interesting let's move for a moment into parshas korach because in parish quran we have a very powerful representation of this idea as we said at the very beginning in korach himself because he was somebody who followed after his heart the ramban says it's so beautifully he says what's the shot the verse says something very strange it uses a very unusual language it says let's see the words inside the husband levy took who is he he was karate the son of utsar the son of kahalas the son of lady with dawson and eliav and aston and navier i'm the children of elijah palace and um the sons of roofing it doesn't say what they took doesn't say well it's he took right it's korak himself doesn't say exactly what he took then what fortune struggle to explain this language what does the verse mean the ramban offers a very powerful shot he says that means that his heart took him he was taken by his heart as we spoke about it's very interesting these two concepts are right next to each other the concept of tsitsis and the concept of korach coming to rebel against moshe what happened he was taken by his heart his emotions took him he said what's going on here it's not fair there's nepotism going on moshe's giving preference to his brother moshe is giving preference to his family kahus it's not fair he was from the tribe of levy as well why should we lose out why should we not have that honor that aaron hakainen has the honor that the family of cass has so he was taken by his heart his heart drew him but beyond that says the the ramban i want to read this inside right so besides the fact that his heart took him the word doesn't just mean to take says them says whenever you have the beginning of an action it's a language of inspiration [Music] means i was inspired to take to take action in this case doesn't mean that he took anything means he took inspiration what did he take inspiration from he took inspiration from the thought right you know recently in le mix magazine it sounds gonna sound funny but in the chat magazine there was a conversation back and forth about the the fact that people write negative comments more often than they write positive things to the magazine why what's the reason for it it's very clear a person is upset about something that was written in the magazine and they are motivated to write right they take pen in hand and they write or they take their keyboard in hand of their computer and then write a a negative response that's natural and of course that discussion inspired people to write positive things as well but the emotions are aroused as we saw and they're inspired and they're motivated now korach was motivated with an evil intent because he allowed himself to be motivated desire by his bias by his desire for honor by his desire for accomplishment which with with the right guidance could be a good thing masha says to them you guys have a lot you people are the ones who carry the mishkan the parts of the mishkan you are the ones who are the the mesher and you sing in the mishkan you sing and you are involved in the veda you may not have the spits the highest level of of service but still you have a great level and you need to be happy with that level so the the his iris the inspiration is not necessarily a bad thing it depends how it's directed and that is a powerful idea that we can all take with us that sits his serve to remind us and to awaken with us and to inspire us to use the torah to hold on to the rope of the torah that the torah is our guide and the ways of the torah the commandments of hashem those are the parts of our minds and his service the inspiration that we have that we need to use to guide us to follow we need to be aware of the biases korach made this mistake he was not aware of his bias he was not aware of the fact that he was jealous that he was motivated by jealousy in his mind he thought that he was doing the shame shamayim for the sake of heaven but he was wrong because you can't do something wrong for the sake of heaven it has to always be the means don't justify the ends we don't say that entire theology entire thought better said the ends do not justify the means the means are just as important as the ends because the means are how we get there to the ends you can't skip you can't do things based on the ends rather it's necessary and important to to realize that we have to focus on are we holding on to that rope of torah what is motivating us what is inspiring us we need to be aware we need to think about it and we need to be focused on it properly because if we're not focused on it properly so that heaven forbid we can go in the wrong direction we can be pulled after artists don't be sar don't be turned and turned don't be led astray by our eyes we can't be led astray by our eyes and by our hearts by our biases our emotions but rather we have to be following musar which is that which turns us in the right direction in the direction of torah we need to be pulled along in the correct direction and hold on to that rope i want to bless you and ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able to indeed hold on to the rope of tyra not be led astray as quran was led astray he was this ira he was inspired but he was inspired in the wrong way he took the wrong inspiration hashem should help us to be inspired to take the correct direction to take the correct inspiration hashem should help us to indeed hold on to the torah hold on to him so that we have life and so that we merit to get to that time when indeed the asahara the biases are removed from us and all that we have is that natural inclination towards doing the will of hashem 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.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ahri goldwag you