Balak & Pinchas - Challenge at Redemption

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's neverending assistance in urmat israeli 782 2022. this week's parsha is precious bullock in hutzlarz and his parties pinchas in eretz israel and these two parties are special to me as i mentioned last week because it is the con the completion of the round started 15 years ago with parches pinchas and i encourage you to go to arigoldwag.com hit the donate button go to the donate part of my site or go to to our golden.com new album working on a new album special for the three weeks songs of you shalom exile redemption take part help these podcasts to continue work hashem 15 years going strong and we shall continue like to share with you a thought based on the madrish in partial bullock at the end of purchase balak it's actually very easy to connect these two parties because the end of the parties at the end of bullock and the beginning of us are the same story it's the story of pinchas coming in to save the day doing a radical act not something that we are accustomed to hearing about in our modern day in our western thinking but in order to stand up for licentious behavior to stand up for god in the face of improper behavior so pinchas stands up and he kills zimri and the the woman the evil midjianite woman who was causing these terrible sins amongst the jewish people twenty four thousand people had died from a plague because of pinchas pinocchio's brave act he was able to prevent the plague from continuing also not an idea we're used to hearing we think of a plague we think of corona we don't associate that directly with sin we don't associate great things that happen in the world with our spiritual condition our spiritual state but the torah teaches us not that way i'd like to share with you what the measure says before i get into the medrash i want to point out something which i mentioned previously and i want to mention it again and that is that we in this story in the description of events of the torah we are currently about to get into the land of israel the jewish people are on the cusp of entering the land of israel it's been 40 years that they were in the midbar 40 years that they were in the wilderness and they're about to enter into the land of israel moshe urban is about to die yahushua joshua is about to take over and lead them into israel seven years of conquest seven years of distribution of the land and so we need to understand that when we talk about this point in time it's a pivotal point in time and it directly relates to us as you've heard from me many times because we are also on the cusp on the moment of transition between the old world and the new world there was a transition that happened already 70 almost 75 years ago um with the jewish people receiving permission so to speak from the nations of the world to be able to live in israel and to run our own country but we're about to transition hopefully very soon into a new world where mashiach the messiah a righteous jewish individual human being will lead us and become the king of the jewish people and because we are at that point in time so there are all kinds of things that are happening which we can look at and we can relate to what happened then and we can understand how it relates to us because whenever we have a transition time whenever we are moving from one state of the world into another state of the world from land from the sojourn in the wilderness to taking over the land of israel or in our current time the the advent of mashiach hopefully very soon so we need to understand that there are certain characteristics of these times which present themselves and which are important to understand in order for us to deal with them for us to face off with them and to know that these things are typical typical of these kinds of situations of transition times so it's very remarkable and interesting that over here we have as the jewish people are about to enter into the land of israel they're faced off with a very difficult incredible nissan an incredible challenge in the area of arias in the area of licentious behavior inappropriate behavior in regards to relationships between men and women it's important to understand that it's also interesting i will point out i've mentioned this in the past i haven't mentioned it in a long time but the ishbitster talks about the fact that at the party of achashverosh there was a request as the gemara tells us the megillah for the queen to appear in a certain state which will not get into but to appear in a way which was not varied sneeze let us say not very modest and what is the idea behind that why did that happen at that moment in time so the ishbitsar explains that asakusa as god is about to reveal himself to the world he's about to take off the mask he's about to take off all of the ways that he clothes himself and and protects us really from him because we will be overwhelmed by his presence we'll lose a certain aspect of our free will so shem has all these masks and all these ways of hiding himself so that we maintain our own individuality we choose to allow hashem into our lives but when hashem is about to bring the world into a new place into a new reality into a state of call a perfection or a state of a higher state which was about to happen the jewish people were about to rebuild the bay sam english their temple right after the story of the magilla right after the story of esther so because of that transition time so hashem is about to reveal himself so there's a sense or there's a feeling amongst the nations of the world which is one of wanting something that's revealed and that that manifests itself says israel sir and the relationship between men and women and in the relationship between the king and the queen in that case and wanting it to be revealed in an open way which of course is always inappropriate it's only appropriate as a torah lays out and prescribes for us between a man and his wife completely private completely holy and special and powerful that's what keeps it holy and special is that it's special it's only for the man and the wife okay but as you're in a transition time so there's a desire for that that's what we see here in our parsha as the jewish people are about to enter into israel there's a nissan in this area of inappropriate behavior between men and women there's any sudden in our times of course as we all know very very well there's a tremendously sign which is another one of the signs that we are in a stage where who as it were god is about to reveal himself in a much more open and manifest way but it involves that revelation as we've spoken about and we will continue to speak about involves a tremendous amount of din tremendous amount of judgment because in order to be in a relationship like that let's think of it in terms of a man and a woman so you have to have established certain boundaries you have to be married it has to be completely special it can't be the way that the western society has made it into something which is cheap and this and and has no value has no specialness the fact that it's special and pure and untainted and between two people who have a tremendous commitment to each other that is representative of the way it's supposed to be between us and hashem we get that revelation of the work of god because we have retained our commitment to hashem for the last two thousand years and godless in in our exile and it's a time of din it's a time of judgment when that's revealed because who can who can receive that kind of light who can receive that kind of revelation only those who are worthy those who aren't get destroyed by it heaven forbid so it's important to understand that's kind of like a lot of background here but to understand why was this deciding happening here why was this challenge happening with the smithyon i mean obviously there was something because the the king of moab wanted to he wanted to cause damage to the jewish people but the fact is that no enemy of the jewish people can cause us damage without it being something that kurdish broker that god himself wants to bring so we need to understand why it was and this is the partial exponent explanation of it but i want to see some more inside of the measure to help us understand this even deeper because there are ways to deal with this how do we face off with this challenge it's a challenge that's very common in our time because as we said we're in a transition time and a special time leading up to the advent of meshiach so we need to know how do we deal with this how did the jewish people indeed succeed because the magic is going to tell us that there was a tremendous success of the jewish people at the end of their time in egypt in regard to this particular instant uh in regards to this particular challenge but there was a failure at the end of the 40 years so what was the difference we need to understand what the difference was and we also need to understand what was it that pinchas was able to accomplish as an individual we're going to see how to how does a whole nation overcome it how does a whole nation uh deal with this problem this challenge and how does an individual stand up as a leader in order to stop the mageifa stop the plague the scourge that's affecting us so let's see the mattress the medicines like this yes so there's some really interesting things that have to do with the place that they were the jewish people resided or they sat they encamped in a place called sheetim which was around the mo avi medyani area so the metrics tells us like this before we get into the concept of where they stayed what's the significance of the name of this place shi team so the message says there were four things that were the merit which the jewish people had which enabled them to be able to be redeemed from egypt these are famous things but one of them is not as famous as the others let's see some that's famous they didn't change their names the jewish people retained their jewish names when they were in egypt and they did not change their language they spoke in hebrew they spoke in ibrite or iris third the legitimacy they didn't reveal the secrets the mysteries shall mush um tell the jewish people you are now at the time they're about to leave egypt they're to ask their neighbors their egyptian neighbors for vessels of silver vessels of gold [Music] they knew this they knew that that was coming and and and that they were going to be asking for that for 12 months they had been told by mushroom 12 months before that they were going to be able to ask that we're going to take all of the gold and the silver of the egyptians can't get into right now what's the idea behind it but it was a matter that was kept secret they were careful about not revealing secrets but i never too barius and the fourth thing which i believe is not as famous is that the jewish people were extremely careful about licentious behavior they didn't allow themselves to to be involved with other people's spouses to be involved with people who are inappropriate between men and women that brings the puss against you in the song of songs referring to the fact that they were closed they were locked gardens the men were locked gardens they didn't allow themselves to be with someone who was inappropriate for them and the women were locked gardens they didn't allow someone to be with them who was inappropriate for them [Music] okay so we have this concept when the jewish people left egypt and we're gonna see in contrast to when they were about to walk into the land of israel which is where we had this issue this problem we need to understand what's the difference between these two times [Music] points out that there was one person who indeed had had a problematic relationship and had birthed a mom sir an illegitimate child that was the one who cursed hashem a particular woman her child so that was the only one the tells us that that was the only person who had some kind of inappropriate relationship [Music] but the entire jewish people was especially especially careful about this idea of inappropriate behavior between men and women we call eisen so in that marriage and the merit of those four things the jewish people were freed from egypt and one of them before says they were freed early there was either 400 years they were free left at only 210 years the counting started earlier i'm sorry all the 40 years that they were inside of the wilderness the jewish people were extremely careful about this area as well they didn't fall into any licentious behavior as long as they were in the wilderness but at this moment at this moment when they got to sheep team this place so something switched something changed that's why it says the jewish people came to him that's when they started to be involved in licentious behavior [Music] what is the word what does this name of this place indicate the word the root of this word is a foolishness there's a foolishness when a person does a licentious act when he's with an inappropriate person adultery he's missing heart he's missing his thought he's missing his it's not a foolish act so the word him comes from the same word as which means foolish and this teaches us that there was something that was foolish that came into their hearts at this moment in time we need to understand why but the message tells us a little bit of why is very interesting the message tells us that in sheetum in this place there was a type of well there was a type of well a spring which provided water and the waters of the place which we have to understand what it means because the pacifist it doesn't mean that there you know there's good waters and bad waters but it means that the the spiritual life that's given as represented by waters and represented by springs in a location the spiritual life that's given we'll see soon that it's referring to spiritual life so it comes in with a certain energy in a different place the places affect the place that you live affects the spiritual energy that comes into that place is brought down to that place through a type of well through a type of pipe at synora we could call it through a type of spring so the springs can say in that place there's gonna be very powerful people there's gonna be weak people there it's gonna be beautiful people they're gonna be ugly people there there's going to be modest people there is ema and there are places where the energy of that place the spiritual energy of that place is licentious behavior there was a spring and that spring was a spring of licentious behavior and that was the same water that would go out to sudom sodom and amara the two cities that are kodashpur who destroyed in the time of avraham avinu so that licentious behavior came from this same spiritual spring so to speak the same spiritual source which was in him tells us about this the people of saddam they wanted to have mishka of zachary they wanted to have men and men together which is a terrible hash hassa a terrible destructive behavior against nature the opposite of the way hakusho created the world that where the way that children are created right so it's a it's a it's a representative of the opposite of kadush the opposite of holiness that was the way it was in saddam as the pasik describes the verse tells us where did that come from it came from a certain spiritual energy if you look around the world today you can figure out where this spiritual energy is is situated but the jewish people came into a place that had that spiritual energy well efficient escalation mayan oh so before we get to the end of the match which is very interesting very very interesting the point of the message here is that the the place that we are in affects us now what protects us and we have the jewish people in egypt somehow we're protected let's not forget egypt was a terrible place of zima also they had terrible life sentence behavior in egypt as well the pop circum and acharyas tell us which we read orsonium kippur to remind us of the importance of of spiritual purity in these areas what do we see what do we see here we see that the jewish people were protected in egypt because of four things they were protected because of four things and these four things served them in egypt and we need to understand why it didn't help them when they got to xi team they were there their names were different they had their own identity they had their own recognition of who they were that's what a name is their own language we are special people we are unique people they had a recognition of who they were the specialists children of of israel of israel children of israel it's a powerful spiritual uh idea calling better what was the third thing the third thing was that they were careful not to reveal mysteries they were careful not to reveal secrets that's also indicative of a sneeze of a modesty of not being sh not being show-offy right the jewish people are the gemara tells us where we're embarrassed we're modest we're merciful we do kindness with others that's our these are our character traits so as long as they held out to that they were able to hold on to the fourth which is they were careful about sneeze and not being involved in inappropriate behavior between man and woman now what happens at the end of the 40 years and i think that if we think about it there's a very big difference between when they were at the end of their time in egypt and at the end of the time in the wilderness both times were transition times both times were redemption times the jewish people at the moment of rejection in egypt were in a very different state than they were at the end of the 40 years in the wilderness and if we think about it as it relates to us it's very powerful and very important and i do want to read the end of the magistrate it talks about what happens when mashiach comes because it's very important also relates to us but the difference is essentially the difference is that the jewish people were in a state of downtroddeness when they left egypt they were slaves they were slave people they were in fear of the egyptians and they were mukhnah they were completely subservient their subservience was about to switch from servants to the egyptians to subservience to god but they were in a state of contrition they were contrite they didn't think of themselves as wow they didn't have like they didn't have an expansive consciousness in a certain sense they weren't haughty and because of that these were able to make them feel the the separateness that they felt because of the language because of the because of their names because of their modesty that was able to help them in their ability to be careful in the area to be careful in the area between men and women and to not allow themselves to get out of hand to be involved in inappropriate behavior at the end of the 40 years however the people the jewish people were pampered for 40 years they were not slaves of course they were sitting in in learning they were studying the word of god they were involved in service of hashem they had a mishkan but at the same time there was an in the expandedness of it in the richness of it they were rich they took all that money from egypt they had tons of wealth they were rich and in what comes with that sense of expandedness is a different feeling when it comes to this area yes they still had their names yes they still had their language yes they still had their modesty but it was able to be easily broken because of the expanded feeling in their hearts that lack of contrition that lack of humility i'm interested in psychology i'm interested in things that have to do with addiction and one of the things that that's written in the addicted in the literature in regards to addiction is that the person who is the addict has a certain lack of humility now i'm not saying this this is what the addicts write there was a certain lack of humility that was the source of their problem that is what it comes down to when it comes to the end of the 40 years there is a feeling how does a person make a mistake like how does a person how is it nicholas how does the foolishness come into the person because you can have whatever you want we live in a society where you can have whatever you want and if that's not enough here's more here buy more here have credits so you can buy more here have whatever you want especially in this area and so because we're living in such a time that's the in the intense importance of what pinchas does and of course we look at pinchas as an extreme person but in a certain sense when you're living in the 40th year of the wilderness which is where we are we live in this expanded state where you can have whatever you want there needs to be inside of us a little pinchas or a big pinhos that's able to jump up and to have that courage i want to read to you for just 30 seconds what the ramban says about about pinchas at the beginning of parches pinchas does the plastic mention who it was that got killed and who the woman was that that were having this relationship this evil relationship sister rabban liked god to teach us that pinchas was it was appropriate that he received a tremendous amount of reward shahari nasivi israel israel he was incredibly courageous he killed a prince of the jewish people one of the most one of the most uh russian people one of the most important people of the jewish people and he killed this princess of of the daughters of media and that takes tremendous courage when we see people who are famous even if we think that they're not so good but we still have tremendous respect for them we still have inhibitions around around them but he didn't he didn't care he didn't care he stood up for what was right he acted with tremendous courage in order to stop to to lay down a a a wall between what was going on and what should be going on the boundary needs to be strong in a time when the boundaries are completely open there are no boundaries in the world that we live in there are no boundaries it's the most important time to have an intensity on our boundaries jewish people in egypt they had their boundaries they had their language they had their names they had their their modesty their ability to keep secrets we need to be able to have boundaries and strong ones you know you hear about something like a great asifa where people come and they gather together and they have a very powerful experience that encourages them to do what's right and to create strong boundaries that's what will protect us it's the strong boundaries and i want to finish off with the end of the majority of the fiction is broke very interesting that very mayan that very spring which was the cause of the people of saddam having this negative type of behavior i call it negative abominable behavior right and and the the source of what happened in she team over here in the story with the with the midnight women that very mayan spring is so this is where we see that the the the spring that we're talking about could be a physical spring but it also is representative of a spiritual spring there will be a spring that comes out from the house of hashem from the base it's going to be the one that gives the water to that same exact na the very place that very place where the waters were the source of terrible evil the water is going to come out from the basamine and replenish that location with spiritual positivity with powerful spiritual waters that's what it's going to be flipped around it's going to be changed but what we see is that the base hamikdash itself the temple itself the revelation hashem wants to bring and i'm sure that he's bringing very soon it's all about purifying us it's all about bringing the use of our powerful desires to their proper location to their proper boundary so i want to bless you i ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should indeed be able to understand what is the challenge of our time what are the ways that we can strengthen ourselves create the proper and healthy boundaries and use our spiritual powers in the correct way thank you so much for listening have a great 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 [Music]