Shmini - Going For The Right Goal

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag. Recorded with Hashem's never-ending assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 5786-2026. This week's parsha is parsha Shmini. And in our parsha, we have the inauguration of the Mishkan on the eighth day, Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and we have the death of Aaron's sons. Nadav and Avihu, they pass away. They bring a strange fire into the Holy of Holies. According to one understanding, they were yayin, they had drank wine, they were drunk. In their service of Hashem, there was a pegam, there was something wrong, and as a result, they lost their lives. Only way to get into the Holy of Holies is in the deepest, holiest way. And unfortunately, their lives were lost. And after that, the Torah tells us that Kohanim are not allowed to drink wine. And actually, that's where the Medrash says we deduce that the problem was that they had drank wine. They came in drunk. Maybe they felt spiritually high, maybe they were connected. Yayin v'shikhar yet aside, but nevertheless, the Torah tells us that a kohen, a priest, is not allowed to drink wine when he's serving Hashem. Yayin v'shikhar al tisht. Pasuk says, perek yud, pasuk tes, chapter 10, verse 9. Wine and any intoxicating beverage are not to be drunk by the kohen, the priests. Adonai tzevaot. And the Medrash is now going to tell us a whole number of different ideas about those who get drunk. Those who are alcoholic. And I want to focus on them. I want to read what the Medrash says. First of all, cuz it's interesting. But second of all, because I think that there's a lot that we can learn. There's a lot that we can learn from the alcoholic. Because each of us have our own vices, our own things. It might be pursuit of money, it might be pursuit of honor, might be pursuit of any number of worldly desires. And in a certain way, they all look the same. They're blinding, and they are all consuming. And the result of them is never really good. Adonai tzevaot. Pasuk says in chof gimmel, chapter 23 of Proverbs, verse 30. Al tira yayin ki yisadam. You don't want to see the wine when it gets red. You don't want to see how it creates bloody problems. What does that mean? Mao ki yisadam, says the Medrash. What is the idea of it being red? So, we know that wine is red. Ki yisaveh l'dam. Says the Medrash, it gets red. Red is the color of blood. Ki yisaveh l'dam, nidah l'dam zivah. Medrash says that when a person drinks, and I'll add each time, when a person is obsessed with any kind of pursuit of of ta'avah, so then a person can get to the point where he's so driven that he'll do things that are wrong in order to get what he wants. Medrash says, dam nidah dam zivah, that even if his wife is forbidden to him because she has become she's menstruating, or a different kind of blood, which is forbidden, still that person who's running after their ta'avah, running after the wine in this case, so they're going to end up intoxicated and lose sight of the real goal. When a person has the wrong goal, when a person's goal is some kind of pleasure in this world, or some kind of intoxication, it can be any kind, so then they lose sight of the real goal. They lose proportion on what the Torah says is forbidden. Ki yiteima keis einayim, says the Medrash. He will put his eyes upon the keis. Where keis means a cup, but it's I believe it's written kis, which means a pouch. But kis k'siv, it's written as a pouch. Lashon naki, this is a clean way of saying something. Ki d'ksiv, kisa l'chol yeladim. Pasuk refers to a licentious woman, a woman who is sells herself. So, it refers to her as someone who who is one pouch for many people. Okay, so person who is involved in intoxication, so they can end up being involved in licentious behavior. And that's that's a easy to get to. That's one of the reasons that we find that Chazal say, areiya yisha b'chol b'chol kulah yazer as min yayin. Someone sees a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, and she has this whole punishment that happens in the Beit Hamikdash, in the Temple. So, a person who sees that experience has to learn from the experience of what happens when a person gets drunk and say, I'm not going to ever drink. I'm not I'm going to have a set time that I acknowledge the danger of drinking. Yisalech b'meisharim. Pasuk says, yisalech b'meisharim, which is interesting, which which literally means he will go in a straight path. So, she must like a shoshana duma in a parish. The Medrash understands that yisalech b'meisharim means he's going to do whatever he feels like doing. Whatever is straight in his own eyes in that moment. Again, the dangers of intoxication, the dangers the dangers of obsession, of placing our focus wrongly. Right, when a person and it's a powerful lesson in a negative sense, but it's also true in a positive sense, right? It's possible for me to place, and we're going to see a story shortly, it's possible for me to place my focus and my desire and my goal upon a certain negative goal. In this case, it's getting drunk, it's getting wine. Right, nothing's going to stop me. I'm going to do it I'm going to do whatever that goal defines for me as the means justify the ends. The ends actually The ends justify the means, sorry. Where I want to get to allows me to do whatever I want. Everything is okay in my eyes. So, he says that his wife, the person's wife is going to say to him, look, I saw I saw I saw blood. I became a nidah. He's not going to separate himself from her. Right? Issur d'oraita, chayav kareis. He can do what he feels like doing. He's going to perhaps find some halachic excuse. U'rav Asi im talmid chacham hu. Saf sh'mitamei tzei tamei tahor tzei tahor. Now, this person might even be a Torah scholar, might be a wise individual, might be a an erudite person, someone who's learned a lot of Torah. But it starts off with a personal issue. This is what my son pointed out, actually, as we were studying this together, Moshe Dovid. It starts off with a personal issue between me and myself, or me and my wife. But then it starts to pour out into the effect that I have on others. It becomes something that leaks out. I'm someone who people come to and ask me shailos. So, that's what we're talking about in the in the Medrash. Somebody who who they come and they ask questions to, but he's going to end up giving them a wrong psak. He's going to say something which is tahor is tamei. Something that tamei is tahor. It might be because he's drunk, or might be because he's become biased. He wants this thing to be mutar for himself, maybe. So, he says it's mutar for everybody. These are the dangers and the the potential, I would add. Right, when a person is focused, he can get what he wants. But that's also true in a positive sense. If my focus and my goal is to do Hashem's will, that's so to speak what I'm addicted to, so then I won't let anything stop me. Doesn't mean I can do whatever I obviously have to find Hashem's will in the means as well. Ends still don't justify the means. I have to do what's right. In the end, I have to do what's right along the way. Davar acher, al tira yayin ki yisadam, vada mast miklei. Another pshet, that it's going to for sure it's going to for sure get red. What does red mean? The I'd like to read you to you from the Yalkut Shimoni. Pasuk yisadei malshon yispael. V'ayin b'atzmi faru adom itol dam t'lo arta l'peirush yispael adom sh'shoiseh. Yesh nikarim panav sh'shikur buzya v'uzulo. His face will turn red. Okay? The person who gets drunk, his face will turn red. Either it means literally cuz a person gets his face is flushed, or it can mean that he'll be embarrassed. People will make fun of him. It will come out that the thing that he's done wrong, everyone's laughing at him. And he may not he might not even know about it. Yeah. When I say ki yiteima keis einayim, another pshet in this pasuk, he will put his eyes on the keis. When I say anything about case, when one and I say anything about case, but the word is written case. It's written I'm sorry, it's written case, it's read coast. It's written as a pocket, it's read as a a cup. He's interested in the in the cup of wine. The the bartender is interested in selling him the wine. He's interested in the money in his pocket. Okay, so he sees a the bartender sees a willing customer, a good customer. He's going to What does it mean in the selling which we explained before means he's going to go on the way that he sees fit. The word may sure means straight. But it can also mean flat. But I think it there that the question is of it kids of the house he's going to make all of the possessions in his house flat. He's going to end up with nothing. Why? He's going to say, "Look, I have a a metal pot. It's worth a certain amount. 100 bucks. I'm going to sell it so I can buy more wine. And I'll buy a I'll buy a an earthenware pot. It's cheaper, it's only $20. I'll use the I'll use my profit. So he's going to end up using all of his money, selling all of his his possessions in order to get what he needs. So he's going to to his obsession, his focus on this negative behavior is going to cause him to give up everything for it. And again, I'll point out that sometimes a person is very focused in a negative way, but a person can also be focused in a positive way. They say, let's say learning Torah is so important to me. I'm willing to give up some of my has it for it. It's a great lesson we can learn from the drunk. Right? I'm willing to give up some I don't need such a fancy car. I don't need such a fancy pots. I don't need such a fancy house, whatever it is. I don't I I can live in our sister all on a lower standard maybe. Cuz I appreciate the the value of focus on spirituality. Right? That's in a positive sense. But we see that a person can give up in a negative sense for the thing that he's obsessed with. Again, he says person will sell all of his possessions in order to drink wine, to get whatever he's obsessed with. Give up his possessions for his obsessions. And he tells us a story. It's a interesting story. And again, I kind of brings an interesting light into this person, the drunk person's world. But it gives us a lesson as well about what it means in a positive sense to be focused. We can learn from someone who's focused negatively how to be focused positively. There's a particular person who would constantly sell all of his possessions in order to drink wine. The kids were concerned. We're not going to end up with any inheritance. He's taking everything that he has. He's selling it for what? For nothing. To get himself drunk. Okay, so They had a plan. They actually planned. him drunk. They put him in a burial cave. As the fortune say, they put him there to die. Hoping that either he'd wake up and quit or he'd just die there. No food, no nothing. So he's there in the in the cemetery. And it happened to be that a wine seller was passing by this particular cemetery. They heard that in that city where they were about to go and sell their wine there was some kind of either shady dim robbers had come or maybe they came to take the youth away to the army. So they decided that to quickly let people know what's happening. They wanted to spread the news about this potential danger. So they put all of their wine down into the base island, into the cemetery. Now this guy who was the drunk wakes up. And he sees these big casks of wine. He put one of them right above his head. He took the spout, stuck it in his mouth. He opened up the spout, stuck it in his mouth. Lesson So 3 days passed and the kids said, "Let's go see what our father is up to. Let's see if he Let's see if he's still alive." They found him. They had left him with nothing. They found him with a barrel of wine over his head drinking merrily. They gave up. They said, "Look, clearly if God wanted you to have wine you got it." Since I shall give it to you in in the most unlikely place, the most desperate place. I shall give you your wine. We don't know what to do. So between the three of them or whatever the whatever however many kids he had they established a precedent for themselves that they would switch off days each one each day take care of their father giving him drink. Giving him drink. I think that I it's a funny story. It sounds like do something wrong, get rewarded. But I think that that's not the the message. I think that the message is that you can have you can have multiple focuses. You can have different ways of focusing and I shall The way that a person wants to go they lead that person. Person wants to do something wrong. Person wants to drink wine. If a person has an obsession with some physical desire So I shall say, "Okay, here you go." And sometimes a person can think, "Oh, I got what I wanted." And that proves that it's right. Doesn't prove that it's right. And we spoke about this in the podcast some time ago. A guy who can have talking that he'll get away with it. And it can work. Person can have talking that it's going to succeed in doing something wrong and it can work. Doesn't prove that it was right. Proves that he wanted it enough to get the to the smile. But on the other side of the sign I say But where a person wants to go even if it's negative they let him. But a person who comes to purify himself on the other side of it it's a much more powerful thing. If you have the same it's it's I would say it's easier to have a desire and a focus and to get what's wrong, right? Participates in that kind of situation. I don't know if Right, but we need to have that kind of desire, that kind of wanting when it comes to when it comes to our spirituality. >> [sighs] >> I'd like to go over to the to the next section of the measure, skip over. Brings here like this. That person that we quoted was in the measure. This one is in two later. Like it's if I need he'll be separated. I think it means a snake. Not sure. What happens? I don't know if I need Maybe it means poison. I'm not sure what the word means. I apologize. But it's something that has the power to to a person is affected by it. It separates between life and death. Maybe it's a poison. So the poison gets the person. Maybe it's an antidote. Not sure. Between It has the ability to separate between life and death. One of the others. We find that wine One second, I I missed it. Kakh keifish ayin bein Adam l'Chava. Wine created a separation. Wine creates a separation. And and I would say that even a spiritual This is an important point. Even a spiritual goal can create a separation. I can be so focused on my goal that I forget about everyone around me. It's also a danger. It created a separation between Adam and Eve. What does it mean? Torei v'Hudo v'Rabi Loi, "Asah ish achlei mein Adam Rishon and Adam hayu." There's an opinion that what was it that was the tree that Adam ate from in the Garden of Eden that caused him death and separated between him and his wife, created an anger between them, where the curse of Adam and Chava that man and woman would not see eye to eye? That there would be angst between people, a separation, yetzer hara. What was the fruit? It was the grapes. "Ana demai in ve rosh v'goyim pasuk says, "Lo avinu rishus l'olam." It was these that brought bitterness to the world. So, the the wine has the power to separate between man and his wife. Adam Rishon separated from his wife for 130 years. They weren't together until he saw Cain do teshuvah. He did teshuvah. Then he was back together with his wife and he had Sheis. D'var acher k'tsinei ha'afish k'chivish ayin bein Lot u'vein b'no u'vein Amora'im Zeresh. Kakh keivish ayin bein Adam l'Chava. Wine caused a separation. What happened with Noach? Noach gets drunk. "Lo tzei v'ayish min hayayin v'yishkov b'soch ha'ohel." He makes wine. He gets drunk. He ends up without clothes on. And what happens? Sh'mitzei Cham over Kena'an. In the process of him being covered by his sons, so there's a whole story with Kena'an and Cham. He curses his his son and his grandson. Comes an aved. So, there's a separation between them. One part of mankind ends up ruling over another part of mankind. The separation instead of brotherhood, there's shilton. There's trying to lord over others. It's caused by the wine. Wine causes the separation. D'var acher k'tsinei ha'afish k'chivish ayin bein Lot u'vein b'no u'vein Amora'im Zeresh. Lot and his daughters, they got him drunk. "Lo tzei v'ayish v'yishkov b'soch ha'ohel." As a result, his daughters became pregnant with Moab and Ammon, these nations that came from a an illicit union. So, where did it come from? It came from wine. And and I would add that it came from in their minds a positive They thought the world was over. So, they had a positive focus. Stay to goal. Let's re re uh populate the earth. Right? But wasn't uh wasn't the right path. Maybe they should have waited and noticed and realized the world was not destroyed. D'var acher k'tsinei ha'afish matzif u'matziv b'misah l'chaim k'chivish ayin bein Aharon u'vein b'no l'misah. Now we come back to our parsha. Wine is something that it separates. It separates a person from his own intellect. It separates a person from the right goal. Having the wrong goals, having it could be wine. It could be pursuit of money. It could be pursuit of happiness, physical happiness. Those pursuits and not a pursuit of a relationship with Hashem, not a pursuit of spiritual goals has the power to blind a person and separate them from the real goal. And And Nadav and Avihu thought per- perhaps that they were doing what's right. By getting drunk, they felt more connected. Maybe they felt felt more spiritual. But that's not the path in, says the Medrash. Kakh keivish ayin bein Aharon u'vein b'no l'misah. The wine caused the separation between Aharon and his sons. Aharon lived. Nadav and Avihu died. Shimon says the reason that the sons of Aharon died was because of the fact that they came to the Ohel Mo'ed, into the into the sanctuary, and they had drank wine. And because of that, they were in an they were in the wrong state. They were in the wrong state. They weren't connected properly. B'mishum shem Rabi Levi Amar Mashal, "Melah sh'hayah lo ben bayis ne'eman." How do we know that this is true? We said at the beginning, but it's worth hearing it inside the Medrash. It's analogous to a king who has a his trustworthy servant. He has a guy working for him. Top of top of the heap in his in the palace. "U'mitzei oto b'pesach chanut. She'eila, "Zeh sh'hayah b'shtika." He found him standing in front of the stores. I guess it was some kind of wrong the wrong kind of stores. I don't know what it means exactly. It doesn't say here. But he saw him in front of a particular store and he didn't explain to anybody why, but he he had his the king had his right-hand man man killed. "U'minyan ba'al ha'sakanah v'hu meyu'ad l'pesach chanut." He appointed a new uh a new person to be in charge of his palace. "V'ein anu yodim b'mah harag es ha'rishon." It's not It's not clear exactly why he killed the first one. Nobody knows. "U'mashmi'an tzeiva'ah l'sheini v'omer lo, "Tikonis b'pesach chanut." I don't want you to go to that mall. So, the king says to him, the new guy, "Don't go to that mall." It doesn't say what the repercussions will be. Maybe it does. So, from that we can we can deduce "U'mashmi'an tzeiva'ah l'sheini v'omer lo, "Tikonis b'pesach chanut." Ani yode'a sh'mitzei Cham over Kena'an." We can understand that that's the reason why the first guy got killed. He went to the wrong place. Kakh b'dei ha'ishah achlei v'Adam achal. "V'ein anu yodim b'mah meisu." Pasuk says the fire came down, consumed them. We don't know why they died. It doesn't say. "V'ein anu yodim b'mah meisu." "U'Moshe achal tish." Immediately after, what does it say? Pasuk says to Aharon Hashem says to Aharon, "Don't drink wine." "V'ein anu yodim b'mah meisu." We can understand and deduce that that was the reason that was the cause of their death. Kakh keivish ayin bein Aharon u'vein b'no l'misah. "V'ein anu yodim b'mah meisu." "U'Moshe achal tish." Interestingly, the Torah shows a chibuv to Aharon, interestingly. There's a lesson to be learned in the in the negative. There's a lesson to be seen from the person who is wrongly focused. Focused on a on a physical thing that perhaps makes him feel spiritual, but the wrong way, the wrong path in. He's focused wrongly. There's something right about it, though. It's good to be focused, but let's focus on the right thing. Aharon gets a new revelation from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is the real focus. Hashem says, "This is the mistake that was made. Use your focus for the right thing. Serve me rightly. Serve me. Make me the focus. Make Hakadosh Baruch Hu the focus of what I don't want to say what our obsession is to be, but what our true goal is to be. What is the thing that no matter what we want to get to? And that thing can permeate all of the paths. Right? If my focus is on spirituality, I can't have a negative effect on my family. Right? It can't negatively impact my wife. Can't negatively impact my children. My relationship with them has to also be included in the goal of serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu in every moment. But I have to watch out. Have to watch out and have to make sure that I learn. I can learn from the from the alcoholic. I can learn from the one who has a focus, gets what he wants. He might get what get what he wants. There's going to be destruction. There's going to be embarrassment. There's going to be lots of things, but he might get what he wants. In a positive sense, if I'm focused properly on my relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, if that is my focus and I keep my focus there, and I draw Hashem into every moment and into every interaction and into every every moment is an opportunity to say, "Hashem, be with me. Hashem, help me. Hashem, be on my side." If that's the focus, so then everything good is going to happen. About the time of Mashiach, I say, the one who comes to purify himself is helped. I want to bless you. I ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us that we should indeed make him the focus. And that which we are after, the goal of our lives, it should be Hashem should help us that our focus and our goal should be to have a relationship with him, to draw him into every moment of our lives. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabbos. This podcast was made possible [music] through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.arigoldwag.com [music] or search on iTunes >> [music] >> Ari Goldwag.