Bimidbar - Hashem's Honor Above Mine

You're listening to the weekly para podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Israel 5786 2026. This week's para is parid and towards the end of our para we have an interesting puk. It's speaking about the idea of the kaim the different parts of the mishka and the tabernacle that were carried by different groups of the levim of the Levites. And it says like this. The high priest at that time was Elazar. Actually this is before he would become the high priest. He was destined to be the high priest. But Elazar the son of Aaron. So he had a certain job. He was in charge in the pushup of the puk of overseeing the oil which was used for lighting and the the incense, the flower offering of the oil which was used to to be placed upon the different vessels. He was in charge of the entire mishka and everything in it in the holy and its vessels. That's a pos. Now I'd like to share with you our majish. But before I share with you the majish, I'd like to point out that the majish is brought or a similar idea is brought in the ramban. So again in the pashup it means that he's in charge. He oversees. He directs. He's not actually personally carrying the amishka the the different the the oil which was used for lighting the minora the etc. these these different things that we mentioned he was just he would direct things but there's the says it as well. Um the is in shabasim that he would actually personally carry all of these things. Okay is carrying and this is a huge amount says says it's a it's a very large and difficult thing to carry the was 365 portions it wasn't done halfway the amount of oil that was needed for The minora was 183 lug. It's a very large amount. And as far as the as far as the flower for the for the tid, we don't know how many days he needed to carry. But says the which is what our we find that Jacobu is described as a very strong human being. He was able to single-handedly uh roll off this this huge stone that required a number of shepherds or a whole group of shepherds to be able to push off. Alaser was also superhumanly strong. We find that Mosher Raenu also had superhuman strength as well as his brother finishes off and says those who seek Hashem will have intense strength. Okay. So that's the basic gist of what the Pik is talking about. Pipshot is he oversaw it. The deeper shot is that he actually carried it himself with superhuman strength. And our medish in speaking about this idea teaches us an amazing thing. Brings our says when you are in front of a king don't don't worry about your own honor. in front of a king. That's not your job. When you come in in front of a king, your job is not to impress anyone. Your job is just to give honor to the king. So says if you're in front of a human king and we find that you need to show a proper respect and lower yourself. So if you are in front of before God himself, you are serving Hashem, you also have to act with shifus. You need to act with humility. We find it says in the be brazen like a leopard, light as an eagle, running like a like a deer and mighty like a like a lion, which means to say it might look bad what you're doing. You're running like a mad man in order to get to shul on time. You are uh tough as nails. You're brazen to do what's right. You act with with but you do the things that you need to do because when it comes to serving Hashem, there's no such thing as my pride. My pride is gone. Okay? And think about it in terms of Elazar who's going to be the high priest. He's let's say he, you know, in the US, he's carrying the oil himself in one arm, as we're going to see in the medish, maybe I'll read it soon. It's really at the end, but maybe I'll read it first. Um, but he would carry it in one arm and another arm and he has stuff. He had tons of pockets, filling up the pockets. Is that not That's the honor of a of a coin of a high priest. That's he's, you know, he's got oil spilling all over him. He's got flour everywhere. He looks like a baker. Is that the honor of of the guttle? Elio Elio says, and I think it's any person who is concerned about making the honor of heaven greater and in so doing has to limit his own honor. What happens is the honor of heaven becomes greater and his own honor becomes greater. And whoever wants to minimize the honor of heaven for his own honor, the honor of heaven stays in its place. You can't really dishonor Hashem, but the person's honor becomes smaller. Okay. So that's the foundational is when it comes to serving Hashem, when it comes to honoring Hashem, I give up my own honor and in so doing I get the greatest honor. So I like to read to you just the end of this mish. So it goes on for pages and pages and pages. Going to just read to you some snippets and pieces of it. At the very end of the mish it says he's in charge of all these things. He's in charge of the shame the sham the the different oils the the incense. He's in char how does he how could he carry all these things? That's a lot of stuff to carry. This is how he would carry it. And understand whenever it says a concept of right and left, he's going to hold the in his right hand. So these always have deeper spiritual cabalistic implications. The right hand is the left hand is he held, let's take it for the pushup shot here. He held the oil which was lit on a minor in his right hand. He held in his left hand the incense and the of the tid the flower for the for the constant offering was hung around his neck. Okay. I'm not sure what that's referring to exactly, but how is it? How how did he have it? He had tons of pockets as I'm for explain here. He had some kind of small garment that had lots of pockets and he was able to put it in his pockets. Okay. Alim, he was like a a a servant in front of his master. There's no personal pride when it comes to serving Hashem. If you have flour popping out here, you have incense popping out there, you have oil, every arm is full. You carry it all. You carry it all. It's all of it is hashem. You carry it all. I would think about it conceptually as the manora is the light. Of course, that's the tyra. The incense is kapara right in the gut's a she would bring in the kapar means he's concerned about the Jewish people's atonement the constant offering the mka the flower it's the bread of the Jewish people the true leader of the Jewish people is concerned about everybody everything all the different aspects of and service of hashem infused is every aspect of a person's day and a person's life. There's no place that's devoid of an opportunity to serve Hashem. And the kind carries it all with pride. He carries it all with pride. That's what it means to be a kangar to be a high priest. I carry all of the different aspects of our hashem. It's the Tyra. It's the kapara. It's the daily service. It's the bread of the Jewish people. I carry it all. There's no there's no there's nothing that's too small for the coal to carry. Okay, that's the basic concept. Um he brings here a story. There was a guy who he was sad. He was he regretted the fact that in his youth he hadn't learned how to learn Torah. He hadn't studied. He hadn't had an opportunity to go over that which he studied. This guy was standing one time in they got to and this guy who didn't know anything, he got up and he said very loudly, "Holy, holy, holy is the is Hashem the Lord of hosts. So he did it in such a way that people were a little perhaps astonished. They came over to him after and said him why did you why did you say it so loud? He says, "I I wasn't someone who merited to study, but when I get to sh at least I can say I can say God is holy. I can honor Hashem with what I know how to say. I know how to say." So I said it with all of my heart. shall I let my soul return to me. He felt a sense of satisfaction spiritually from having that opportunity. Which by the way really means to say at its depth that he recognized that no matter where a person is, they can serve Hashem where they are. A person didn't merit, of course, we should try to learn. Of course, we should we got to know stuff. But if a person is in a situation where he wasn't able to, it's it's not it's not impossible for him to serve Hashem from where he is. The year didn't even end. That year didn't complete. That same year it happened that he went from Babylonia to the land of Israel. He he made aliyah. He was made into a a significant officer by the the Caesar. He was in charge of all of the forts of the land of Israel. They gave him a place and he was he built a city and he lived there. He was somebody who didn't have to pay any taxes says the but maybe it also means it's a it could be a language of oh maybe not I'll skip that just go with the here okay so we learn from here that he like, think about it. The guy doesn't know anything. He could just walk into school and be quiet. In a certain sense, he embarrassed himself because he did what he felt was right in in serving Hashem and honoring Hashem in the best way that he could. And so, we see that those who stand up for their own honor, the I didn't read it, but there's another story of those who didn't stand up for Hashem's honor and they were embarrassed. Those who do stand up for Hashem's honor, they are praised and all good things come. It says the who honor me, Hashem says I will honor and those who do not honor me, those who embarrass me as it were. So they will they will lose their honor. Another maj goes in at length and speaks of we find a similar concept by King David. Now a few weeks ago actually we read this part. I'm going to read to you some of it inside. We read it in the ha and I was called up to read it actually and I was very moved by the story. King David. So maybe we'll just say it outside instead of reading it in the in the measure in the in the Nvi. But basically Melik is bringing the Arin back. The Arin was captured. The ark of the covenant was captured by the pushon by the enemies of the Jewish people, the Philistines. And they saw that it as a result of it being in their presence, it was causing massive destruction. People were dying. So they sent back the aron to first to bamesh actually to here didn't work out so well they didn't show a proper honor and then it was sent to curios which is telstone today they sent it to curios actually if you go into telstone which I do actually I teach there on Thursdays so when you drive into the kisa of telstone there's like a model it's not doesn't look really like the the krum don't look like kuim. There's a model of the ark of the covenant because there in kerasim it stayed and it they they honored the arum. They showed it proper. And now David wants to bring back the arum from curios from that area to its rightful place, its rightful home. And at that time there was no right before he would be built to his place in the we see throughout the story with he does everything that he can to show honor to the he goes out of his way and he does it in a way which at times looks like He's embarrassing himself, but he's really showing honor to the Auron. And at the end of the story, so he's dancing and he's career. We'll see what that means. He makes these kind of sounds like a bird maybe. And he's and he and he dances and he does it in a way which his wife felt was not befitting to a king. Mikal who was the daughter of Shaw felt it wasn't befitting to the king and as I read it personally as I read this a few weeks ago I was very moved by it I was like uh I was I was touched that David King David king of the Jewish people would show such deep love for and for the Aron and for the for the return of the urin to its proper place such that he would do something which people could see it and say that's not appropriate for a king but he didn't care he did what he felt was right he did he showed the ultimate respect for the ar even though at the at the expense of his own respect and his wife didn't think it was correct cuz she had learned in her father's home in King Scholes home that sometimes it's important that the king not sometimes of course a king has to have a certain self-respect every person has to have a certain self-respect but Mikal and the Msur that she had from was unfortunately sometimes that one's self-respect would would supersede this the respect of Hashem and David understood I'd like to see more about this we still have some time but David understood that the respect of Hashem supersedes one's own respect. So there's a few different uh themes within the story and one of them is that the Pik says that David didn't just go by himself. He brought it from the house of to bring it to Jerusalem. He got together 30,000 young men. He said, "I'm not going to bring the back to its place quietly. We have to make fanfare, full fanfare." and he took counsel with many great wise people. He got together. He he asked what he should do and everyone agreed. And it's important by the way. This is a very deep thing in serving Hashem. When we're serving Hashem, we might have an idea. We got to check out make sure the idea is correct. You got to ask others. You got to ask other people who their whole life is serving Hashem. But he's he discussed it and he came to the conclusion that yes we should in involve tens of thousands of people if not more. And the message goes on to bring how they came from all over. They came from Judah. They came from all over the land of Israel. tens of thousands and they came to escort the Auron. And there was a mistake that was made that Usuza tried to stick out his hand to carry the AR because it looked like it was going to fall off of the wagon. And it was on a wagon. And that was a mistake that King David had made that he put it on a wagon instead of it's supposed to be carried by the Levim, the Levites, as we find in our para. It's a it's a simple mistake how he made such a mistake. The Medish explains. I'd like to just touch on it for a moment. Says they put it onto a wagon. They didn't carry it according to the way the Torah says to carry. It's supposed to be carried by the bahas. It's supposed to be carried by the kohan by the the why did he forget this? It's something everybody knows and this is an important as well. an important foundational idea referred to the terra as a song, right? And the problem with him calling it a song was that says look the says it's so easy to lose the Tyra. You have to have your full heart in the Tyra. You have to always be involved in the Tyra. When you call the Tyra a song, it means to say it's something that I just like just rolls off my lips. What is a song? A song, you know, you you're just walking along and you're humming a tune, not even thinking about it. The terra is not something that you just do and you don't think about it. It's something that you have to constantly uh be reinforcing within yourself deeper and deeper. So you're calling it a song. You're going to make a mistake that even the kids know. Little kids know this because they've said it over and over again. And the children know by heart and you're going to forget this simple thing that it's supposed to be carried by the caused a mistake caused us to be killed. Was very upset by that. He ended up putting it in a different place in the base until it was time to bring it to the to but there is a lack of respect. Human beings have to be the ones carrying it not a not a wagon. You don't have a you don't have a not the human being carrying something is is a respect. You know I was discussing today with my daughter about AI music. There's something or AI art. There's something about the human being doing it. There's something about the person changing the music comes through me. I developed it myself. Hashem put it into my heart. Person creates art. They developed it themselves. It's it's a gift from aeshu when it's something that's mechanical just a kind of combination of all of the art that exists in the world that's lacking in the in the power that it has on the person. The z is just a song that comes out that's just dam the terra is not like that. The terra is something that has to be processed through the human being. Just the AI can also answer a question, right? You is going to quote you from here and there and everywhere. But there's something about the human being processing it, learning it, change that changes the person. That's what the Tyra is. And when we don't have that recognition, that's the human being who needs to carry the the Ain, not a wagon, not something mechanical. I have to do it. this got to change me. That's the lesson that was lost and Usuza lost his life because of that. and David was uh very disturbed by that says not. Okay. So what happens? So David brings it in and the says as we said we're gonna talk about this which means to like a tarnle a uh a chicken a rooster makes these noises right so he was making noises he was making funny noises says come and see how much embarrass himself in In order to honor Hashem, he should have been walking like a king in his royal garments, respectful, marching, showing honor quietly. That's not what he did. He wore beautiful clothes of course in honor of the he was he was like making he was making in front of the okay he was says the like this his wife sees him being M saw it and she felt embarrassed for him. He was clapping. He was dancing. His feet were up in the air. It was like sounds of bells. Maybe that's not exactly clear exactly what they were, but they were these golden bells. And he was saying kir what is care says he was saying he was just like like just singing joyfully. Maybe he just did that. He was just clapping. He was just singing. He was kicking up his feet in the air. It says it says that he was dancing and and and joking just making bottom line. Bottom line, that's what he says to her when she says to him, "That's not the proper honor. It's not the proper honor." He says, "No, this is the honor." And he says, "That's the difference between my approach and the approach of your father's house. Your father's house were more concerned and their own honor superseded the honor of Hashem. But I don't do that. My goal is to honor Hashem more than my own self. I'll do whatever it takes. Even if it looks like something that's not honorable for me, that's the greatest honor. The one who honors Hashem gives up his own honor. He is truly honored. I want to bless you. I ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us to recognize this thing to try our best to serve Hashem in whatever way we need to run to the mitzvah. Be brazen if needed. Hashem should help us to do that to to indeed get the real honor which is when we honor Hashem. Thank you so much for listening. Have an amazing Shabas. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.argoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.