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Behaaloscha-Shlach - Seeing and Feeling
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What was the mistake that Miriam and Aharon made in speaking about Moshe in a negative light? What should the meraglim (spies) have learned from them? What would have been different if Moshe had sent women instead of men as spies? Why do women have a special capacity to see the good in Eretz Yisrael? What is the secret of the blue thread of the tzitzis? How does it parallel the concept of the blue covering of the Aron (Ark)? How does one use one's eyes to change how one feels? Find out in this week's Parsha Podcast.
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You're listening to the weekly partial
podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with
Hashem's never running assistance in
Israel 5786 2026.
This week in you're going to read Bahala
in our two we're going to reach and I'd
like to share with you a thought that
connects the two paras at the very end
of paral
the Torah tells us about Miriam and Aram
and tells us how they spoke about Mosher
Rabeno
Miriam in 12:1
Miriam spoke Aon Miriam and Aaron spoke
Mosha about Moshe Odos Notice how
about the woman that she that he had
married
usually means a black woman
but it's referring tell us his wife and
as we'll see there was something that
Moshe was doing different to Aon and
Miriam
they said did Hashem only speak to Mosha
has spoken to us as Well,
they as the mfort explained, they felt
that Moshe should not have separated
from his wife.
They felt that there they were on the
same level as Moshe. They also received
Nva. They also, Hashem also spoke to
them, but they didn't have to separate
from their spouses.
But Hashem heard this.
Moshe was very humble.
Maybe the is saying that it's not like
motion needed retribution.
So Hashem suddenly appears to the three
of them and says go to the go to the
place where I speak to you
and the three of them went out.
Hashem appears in a cloud which means to
say he shows his presence.
And the clouds stood at the entrance
and they called out to Aaron and Miriam
and to them came out
and it said
hear my words.
You need to know. Hashem says to them
that there's a a qualitative and
substantive difference between your type
of nva, your type of prophecy and Moshe.
with you. I appear in a dream
and I and I might speak in a way which
is not per se clear.
And we find also by other prophets that
they they had a vision and the vision
had a certain mushel and an analogy in
it. Po boiling pot, hot water boiling
over the north side [snorts] and stuff
like that.
Hashem says to them, "It's not true of
my servant Moshe. In all of my house, he
is faith faithful." Which means to say
has a different kind of nva.
His vision, the way that Hashem speaks
to him is more clear.
I speak to him mouthto mouth. There's no
It's like we're face to face, so to
speak, and I show him clearly. There's
no riddles. He sees the true picture of
Hashem.
Put it is
he had a clear looking glass.
Why were you not afraid? So gets angry
at them and Miriam gets Saras as a
result of it. And the can speak about
the fact that they waited there seven
days. The Jewish people waited their
seven days. And I will add, by the way,
they saw it brought down that the seven
days that they waited were the seven
days that are coming up right now, the
end of Sie.
The story of the spies happens on
Rashesh
um Tamuz, right? They are sent out on
Rashesh Thomas. They return on Tishab.
Israel cries on the night of Tishb, but
they were sent out 40 days earlier,
which is either or maybe a day or two
before.
But the seven days of waiting for for
Miriam happened at this exact point of
the month. Today is the 20th of over the
next few days is when this was going on.
Miriam speaks about Aram. I'm sorry. Mir
speak about Moshe and she's given Saras
and Kisra waits for her for seven days.
and
Mosha being prays for her. But the
bottom line is that we see that Miriam
speaks negatively of her brother. She
sees a certain thing. She thinks a
certain thing. And because of the way
that she sees things, her understanding
of reality
causes her to say something negative
about Moshe.
And
in a certain sense, there was a hubris.
Obviously,
you know, Miriam, it it was Nvilla.
Miriam is one of the the guuline people.
She was a Messiah person.
Miriam and Mosa and Aaron.
But on her level, there was a speck of
pride. Why is Moshe different than us?
Why is he behaving differently than us?
Why is he separating from his spouse?
So as a result of that, Miriam got Saras
and because of the Saras they waited
seven days and that of course leads in
to the beginning of parl
beginning of parl.
So, we have the 10 men who are sent. I
point out that they're men because I
want to share with you a cleaker. It
says it would have been better if the
women were sent. 10 women. 12 women.
The the 10 I'm sorry, the 12 men I'm
thinking 10 because of the 10 who do the
a 12 men including Khaliv and Yoshua who
spoke positively positively of Israel.
They were sent and the magic says that
they made a mistake
that was put right next to the story of
Miriam
because it's a similar mistake and they
didn't learn from Miriam. This is a
famous Rashi but Rashi quotes the
Medish. says like this. It's interesting
the language of the maj
says
previously we just saw and spoke about
immediately after that story Torah tells
us about
the sending of the spies.
Now, here's an important thing, and I
specifically stressed it earlier when I
said the way that she saw things. Miriam
spoke based on the way that she saw
things.
And the the spies as well spoke based on
the way that they saw things.
This is an important concept. We're
going to have a powerful message and
lesson for us. Pik says in Isshia
they didn't know they didn't understand
because they they spread in their eyes
something that would cover up their eyes
the bias that they had kazal tell us
about the moragum about the spies why
they speak negatively of Israel they
were afraid they were afraid they would
lose their position maybe they were
afraid the wouldn't be able to make it
in Israel but they were afraid And as a
result of their fear, they saw things
differently. They saw things in the
wrong way.
That's important thing for us to know.
Often the way that we see things is
tainted by our ego, tainted by our
hubris, tainted by our bias.
But the description of the Pik that the
measures brings is that they they spread
a type of covering on their eyes like a
an an eye lotion.
Why do we have one story following
another?
It's knew that they're going to speak
about the land of Israel.
It's one after the other in in in
chronology as well.
says, "I don't want them to ever say we
didn't know the punishment of speaking
lash."
When you see a physical manifestation
of a spiritual disease, right? So, you
understand that this thing is bad and it
has immediate and powerful impacts. And
I would point out that it wasn't just
the punishment wasn't just that she got
saras because the saras was removed
right away. The punishment was that had
to wait.
Waited for seven days because of her.
There was that seven days that they
waited was seven extra days that they
would have been closer to Israel. They
could have moved already on their way to
Israel. They they lost seven days. Why?
Because of lashhara.
And then the spies should have learned
from that that if you say lashhara it
creates a a negative impact and they it
creates a global negative impact on cli
and just like we waited seven days for
Miam we're going to wait 40 years
because of the spies.
Okay. The says the issue was that what
was her punishment that she got?
You need to know the punishment for
they should look at what happened to
Miriam.
They didn't want to learn from that.
They didn't understand. They they didn't
look into the matter. So the question
becomes well I have biases. I have
hubris. I have ego. I'm a human.
What's the what's the how do we get out
of this? How do we get out of this? So
with that I want to share with you a
clear
the cleer
says this amazing thing and it it says
in the that he sent men. It would have
been better if he sent women. Why?
So he says like this
brings from
the men hated the land of Israel
they were the ones who said when push
came to shove let's go back to Egypt we
were better off in Egypt
we find that women were those who made
the land of Israel dear. They they were
endeared.
The the land of Israel was dear to them.
How do we know that? Where do we see
that?
tribes. There was a family, a group of
women. They had no brothers. They were
the Ben.
And when they saw that was being
distributed, they said, "Hey, what about
us? We also want a portion in Israel.
What about us?"
They were makavo. They had a love for
Israel.
And I would say I would say it this way.
The spies saw Israel, but there was a
hatred. That's what he's saying. There
was a there was a or maybe a fear of
Israel. The language uses this hatred.
There was a there was a negative way
that they looked at Israel and as a
result of that, they came back with a
negative report. But women,
and I don't know if it sounds like from
the measure that this is true of all
women, they have a natural capacity to
love, right? the mother who where does
the child go? Right? The child goes to
the loving mother naturally. The the
women have that ability to look at any
child and say, "My child is amazing."
Right? They love their kid. They don't
notice therinus.
Someone tells them, "Oh, your kid did
this and that and the other." No, my kid
can't be my kid, right? Because a
parent, a mother has natural love for
the child and sees only the good.
We should only see the good in our kids.
But the women had a natural love forem
says, "Look, I know what's going to
happen in the future.
Kiloa,
it would have been better if you would
have sent women to be the ones to spy
out the land of Israel because they're
the ones who have a natural affinity for
Israel. They see the beauty of Israel.
They don't think about all the problems
and I don't need to enumerate today what
issues might be. But the women have the
capacity to see the beauty of Israel.
What an amazing thing it is. We can go
to the Kaiso. We can go there anytime.
We have a special relationship with with
Hashem. Every time we are in our garden,
we're where Makayam the mitzvah or any
any place we go, every dollar, every
four cubits you walk, fulfilling a
mitzvah of Yeshua,
when you go and you and you pick off
your lemons from your lemon tree, you
got to take off chumus and mistress
is
unbelievable. What an opportunity. What
an amazing place to live.
That was the power.
That was the power that women had. They
had the ability
to use their heart in a positive way to
see things
that the ability to have a natural
positive bias
towards Israel.
We can see things and as a result of our
bias, we see things differently. That's
one aspect that I want to talk about.
Says
says in David, we say it during
my heart has the ability to speak on
Hashem's behalf.
My heart has the ability on behalf of
Hashem. My heart says inside of me on
Hashem's behalf, search for my face.
Search for my countenance. Try to have a
relationship with Hashem. That's what my
heart says to me. But I have two hearts.
The says
with all of your hearts. Sometimes it
says one heart. Sometimes it says two
hearts. Because I have two hearts. I
have a heart that sees negative that
sees negatively that biases me in a
negative way. A fearful heart, an angry
heart, a constricted heart, a heart of
stone.
But I also have another aspect of my
heart which is called the heart of flesh
and
the loving heart. The heart that wants
to connect to others that wants to
include others that wants to do what's
right.
My heart says Hashem on your behalf do
what's right. Come in front of me. Be a
good person.
Despise. They engaged the the side of
their heart which was anger, which was
hatred, which was negativity, which was
fearful.
Women have the natural capacity to
engage the side of their heart which is
positive,
which is loving, which is which can see
the good.
How does a man or you know women are
also human, they also have a side of
fear. How do we engage our hearts to see
the positive? How do we engage our
hearts in a way that's that's positive?
So there's a p and I believe I pointed
it out recently. The says on one hand
that's in parl for us this week in for
whoever's in it will be next week. But
the Pik says
which means to say we're supposed to
have the titus. We look at the
remind us we look at the titus. There's
a looking there's a seeing of the titus
that reminds us of the mitzvah.
Don't go after your heart and after your
eyes. Right? Sometimes the heart
motivates us in a negative way. It draws
us to do something wrong and then we see
things based on that. So the buzz says
don't follow your heart and after your
eyes.
The heart sometimes motivates us
negatively but we need to reverse that.
And the way that we reverse that is the
secret inside of the mitzvah of
somehow by looking at the
and the word as is pointed out is from
the word
is is
peeping through the holes at us looking
through the cracks. It means to look.
Titus is something that we look at.
Looking at the tit somehow reminds us
changes our heart, brings us to love
instead of instead of seeing things in a
way which is yet in a in a base desire
way.
So how do we do that? So the measures
tells us a secret and the secret is that
on that sitsus
one is supposed to place a blue string
of
the corner is supposed to have a string
of blue
and what is the concept of the blue
string? So tell us and it's very famous
that
what's special about this color blue
from all of the colors happens to be my
favorite color. But what's special about
it? Why is the single it out?
The measure says it's slightly different
than we're used to in the in the I
believe it's Rashi says the blue is
looks like the like the sea. The sea
looks like the sky. This guy looks like
the
but it says here's
string is the same color as the sky.
We find that the throne of Hashem's
glory was this color. And
how do we see this? How do we know this?
We know this because the PK tells us in
a in a description of what Cl Israel saw
at Hina Mount Si. They saw Hashem
sitting on his throne. And they saw that
the foundation upon which the throne was
standing was a lia
was like a a was stones or bricks of
sapphire.
And and the description is haraka like
the pure blue sky
or maybe the sky at sunset.
Maybe it's purplish,
but the color is the color of blue that
sits. You look at it and it and it moves
you. It moves your heart. It reminds you
of something. It reminds you of the sky.
It reminds you of the kiss, of Hashem's
throne of glory. Which means to say even
even deeper,
it reminds us of the heavens opening
and Hashem appearing at Mount Si and
giving us the Tyra and saying, "Hashem,
Hashem is saying to us, I love you. I
want you to be my kids. Here's what I
want you to do. I want you to have I
want to have a relationship with you."
So the titus reminds us of our
relationship with Hashem. And Hashem is
the king, but where are his kids?
Now, what's interesting is there's
another medish.
Medish is earlier in speaking about the
urin
the the ark of the covenant. And that's
where Hashem speaks from, right? When
Moshe and Aaron, bringing you back to to
Moshe and Aaron and Miriam, they go to
the oil mo. Why do they go to the tent
of meeting? Why do they go there?
Because Hashem's voice speaks
from between the cru from between the
cherubs on the ark. And what's inside of
the ark is the Tyra. Hashem's voice
speaks from the Tyra.
Hashem's voice speaks from the the
center of the Shem's voice speaks from
the crew of him have to do with our
relationship with Hashem when we're in
good with God. So they were in an
embrace.
Hashem speaks from between them. But
Meouch points out interestingly that
what was
what was the covering of the Auron
meaning when they would travel. So each
of the caum each of the different
vessels of the Mishkum would re they
would cover them with an orakash which
was a certain type of leather. leather
of a certain kind of animal.
But the but the aron
was covered
with such with that kind of uh leather
piece. But it was also covered
with a garment, I'm sorry, with a piece
of a huge piece of cloth of
this blue dyed wool which was the color
of the heavens of course, right?
When they would travel, they would put
upon the Aron says the medish, not a
purple dyed wool, not a red dyed wool,
but specifically this blue dyed wool,
the the wool which was made completely
of
says the exact same thing. Oh, here it
says the is similar to the sea.
It's the same color as the sky
covered
brings our so the is also covered with
this blue you see you see the you see
that color it brings you back brings you
back to mountain tyra right what's
inside of the aron is the lis the ten
commandments
the original ten commandments had on it
the entire tyra
All of the entire Torah was written
there.
So what's the idea?
Says the
teaches us that the itself was similar
served the same function
as the as the throne of Hashem's glory.
It was completely
similar to it.
If you would look at them traveling, you
would see the aring, you see the tyra,
you would see the you would see Hashem's
divine throne. You would be brought
back. Your heart would be moved and
brought back
to seeing only our relationship with
Hashem.
Only our relationship with Hashem.
So what do we learn from this? What do
we see from here? It's an amazing thing.
It's that our heart of course affects
what we see. Right? That's what happened
with Miriam and and and Aaron.
They had a certain way of thinking about
things and it affected how they saw
things. They saw something negative
about Moshe, but it was wrong.
They had to be brought to the Aron
to be told.
You are missing something about the
relationship that I have with my Rabenu.
the the arin is all about relationship.
The speaking of Hashem is all about
relationship.
And when the relationship is missing or
when there's a a mistake in the way
we're seeing things, it's a it's a
mistake in my heart. My heart is causing
my eyes to see things wrong. And the
lesson here is I need to get my eyes to
help my heart see things right.
You look at your tetsis the the the eyes
can be used to look and be reminded that
I am connected to
the remind me of all of the mitzvah of
all of the commandments which are all
about my relationship with Hashem. It's
all about relationship with Hashem.
If I can get into that space of love
that women naturally have, women
naturally have a love for Isel and Isel
is about a relationship with Hashem. And
by the way, when you're in a deep
relationship with somebody becomes more
challenging. Yes, initi there there are
more challenges, different kind of
challenges.
You want to be closer to you got to you
got to pull yourself together.
But the idea is I got to keep reminding
myself I got to keep looking for the
thing that what did the see they saw
everyone's getting a piece of they saw
that
they saw that and it moved them and they
also wanted a piece they loved Israel
they were affected by what they saw in a
positive way and that's what we have to
do
we have to look at the titus
We have to look at the mitzvah. We have
to look at the aon. Have to look at the
tyra. Have to look at the sky. We have
to always be seeing the kakav. We have
to always be seeing hareni the
revelation at si. That's what we need to
see. We need to see that we are his
kids. He's ready to show us
that we're that that's what we are. That
that's who we are. All we have to do is
read the Tyra, open our eyes, let that
Tyra, let that penetrate to our hearts.
Is going to take How does Hashem take
away our heart of stone? How does Hashem
move us? This is at to the point where
our hearts speak on his behalf.
When we let him when we open our eyes
and learn his Tyra, when we open our
eyes and we talk about the
it's in our mouth and in our hearts.
We're looking at it. The eyes affect our
hearts. The mouth affects our hearts.
How we speak about it, what we speak
about, what's important to us. What do
we talk about at the Shabas table? We're
talking about our relationship with
Hashem. We're talking about how Hashem
loves us. That is what moves our heart
to say, I want to do his mitzvah. I want
to have a relationship with him. I want
to see the good of Israel. I want to
bless you. I ask you to bless me. Hashem
should help us that we should indeed see
the right things. We should indeed see
Hashem's
his his
place where he speaks to us and it
should hit our hearts and move us until
all we see is the good. Thank you so
much for listening. Have a wonderful
Shabas.
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