Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
Good morning in the conference.
>> Okay, good morning everyone. Tomorrow
we're continuing in our sheer room.
As
we've mentioned, today is our first day
of our annual campaign.
Please go to charity.com/mmh26
and support the efforts of the Maggid
Rakia and our beloved Sifrei Torah.
In
Devarim,
one of the main subject matters of the
parashah is the cheit hamaraglim,
which is amazing. We've discussed this
in the past. You know, in the opening of
Devarim, Moshe Rabbeinu alludes to many
sins that the Jewish people committed
throughout their sojourn in the midbar.
And
the
even before
alluding to the cheit ha'egel in the
words "v'dizahav",
Moshe Rabbeinu alludes to a sin that
happened after that.
Namely, Bein Paran.
He alludes to the cheit
hamaraglim.
Bein Paran. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu
alluding to the cheit hamaraglim before
the cheit ha'egel? This was a question
Rav Emanuel Bernstein asked me a few
years ago.
And according to our principle of davar
b'ito, of the appropriateness of a
parashah to the time of the year,
there is no more appropriate subject
matter this time of the year than the
cheit ha'egel. So, almost the cheit
ha'egel is mentioned
than than the cheit hamaraglim. After
all, the cheit hamaraglim is the sin of
Tisha B'Av. So, the cheit hamaraglim is
up front and center in our attention
even before the cheit ha'egel. That's
why
the main subject matter of parashah
Devarim is the cheit hamaraglim.
In describing the cheit ha- hamaraglim,
the pasuk says like this, "Vayikchu
v'yadam mipri ha'aretz." They took in
their hands from the fruit of the land,
"Vayoridu eleinu." And they brought it
down to us. They brought it down to us.
Rashi says, "Why does it say they
brought it down to them?"
Why does it say
they brought it down?
You know, it's interesting. It doesn't
say such a an expression
in the context of the Miraglim and
Shlach. But here it says Vayoridu Aleno.
They brought it down to us. Oh, says
Rashi, "Magid She'eretz Yisrael Gavoha
Mi'kol Ha'aratzos." And here we see that
the land of Israel is taller than all
the lands.
Really?
No, it's not.
It's not taller than all the lands.
That's the first question. Eretz Yisrael
is not the tallest land.
The The Catskills are in general taller
than the land of Israel.
So A, there's a question about the
uh veracity of that statement. And B,
even uh let's say that we have a way to
understand what Chazal mean that Eretz
Yisrael is the tallest of all the lands.
But why in the context of describing the
cheit ha'miraglim does the Torah say
Eretz Yisrael is the tallest of all the
lands? Why?
So there's an amazing Tshuvas Ha'Chasam
Sofer. Keep the door open a little.
And according to this Tshuva, it will
also explain the appropriateness of
mentioning this in this context.
The Chasam Sofer says, "When you have a
ball,
when you have a circle, when you have a
ball, what's the highest part on the
ball?
Even when I was a kid, I had a a nice
globe. I don't know I don't know what
happened to it. I I still I I would like
to get one. You know the ball the globes
that show the altitude where by the
mountains it it puffs out a little bit?
What's the tallest What's the high point
of a globe?
I mean, anywhere. It depends It depends
how you hold it. Wherever you turn it,
then the top of the circle is the
highest point.
There is no high point on a on a ball.
Whatever you hold as the top of the ball
is the high point.
So,
says the Ram Sofer, the reason why
Chazal say Eretz Yisrael is gavoha mikol
ha'aretzos, and Yerushalayim is gavoha
mikol Eretz Yisrael, that's not to say
Yerushalayim is taller than the Chermon.
What that means is it's the epicenter of
the world. Eretz Yisrael is the
epicenter of the world, and Yerushalayim
is the epicenter of Eretz Yisrael. It's
the high point because that is the focal
point.
That That is the point that Hashem's
eyes are fixated at. Hashem is focused
on that.
I would suggest humbly that the reason
why Chazal teach that Eretz Yisrael is
the high point of the world in the
context of the cheit hamaraglim is to
show the absurdity and the severity of
their sin. Here it is, they're trying to
criticize the greatness of Eretz
Yisrael, but the Torah is responding to
that. The Torah is saying, "How could
How could you possibly have criticized
the land? This is the focal point of the
world. This is the epicenter of the
world, and this is therefore a very
appropriate uh message for this time of
the year, namely
part of the the uh when we say that the
cheit hamaraglim was the aveira of Tisha
B'Av,
it is still the aveira of Tisha B'Av.
The Netziv writes,
the sin of the meraglim that we cried
over Eretz Yisrael
is a sin that we're still guilty of.
When we say in Eichah, "Bacho sichki
balailah,
v'dim'atah al l'cheyah." We We say in
Eichah, she cried bitterly at night
that's referring to when the
returned.
But the tear is still on our cheek. What
does that mean?
The same way the Jewish people
cried because they didn't want the
destiny of Israel we're still crying. We
still
unfortunately are guilty of that sin. We
still reject our Israel.
And the proof is
our very
insufficient
attempts to figure out a way
how to get there.
And that is
the the smatterings and that is a vac
maraglam.
And therefore the Torah we read before
Tisha B'Av, don't you realize
Israel is the color of the epicenter of
the world. The epicenter of the world is
not New York City.
It's not Lakewood. It's Israel.
And that's what we need to correct
to rectify the sin that got us in the
mess in the first place. Okay, one more.
>> Recording stopped.
