His Gods Food From the Most Holy and From the Holy Ones He May Eat with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Shalom everybody. Welcome back to the midash. Welcome home to Torah. A warm welcome home to Torah. I won't mention what tonight is because I didn't yet make the bara. So anytime I mention the holiday of the night, we all know we're talking about. Okay. H I do want to mention that this class is dedicated to of Ben Ruth and Shalma for Miriam through the merit of our learning and the merit of our learning later on through the evening at the event for tonight the special night that that shall help um give them for a rama. Now, as I mentioned before every video, every class that for those who are watching online, it's highly suggested to go down below in the description box and find the Hebrew sheets, the Hebrew source sheets. Very important to try, just at least try. And I think you will notice especially that um there's no way you can you'll be able to get what we need to get out of it from the English translation. you do need to focus on the Hebrew at some point at least a few words, a few choice words. Now, I want to just make an introduction about this evening's holiday and that is we're really celebrating in a big way, Rabbi Aka Raba and his and the fact that we have the Torah. Hashem promised us that the Torah would never leave our right our lips, right? This is a braha and we say it often of all you know of all perkot right one of the most famous things that he says and what what is that last week or maybe it was two weeks ago when one of our classes went to there's a special in before we dive into that we were mabel the the mitzvah the We accept upon ourselves the positive mitzvah of loving our neighbor as ourself. Okay, I suggest looking at that. I believe that was Rabbi Flax who now is on the front lines. Can't tell you where he is, but he's somewhere on the front lines and we're praying for him and the safety of all of our soldiers. So going back to this idea that we're really celebrating in a certain sense the the rabbi of as well and as I said and the I don't want to mention the name because I didn't make the bra yet right but there's a lot of great inyanim about not only the hidden light the oragan news that has been revealed but the I think that the revelation especially about how to how to metakim this particular thing that we're talking about loving your neighbor as yourself because of the period of mourning that we're actually in during the omra period that for x amount of days uh the students died reason I'm saying x amount of days I'm not mentioning uh the amount and um they were not for some reason we don't exactly know what it means but they weren't because they were on such a high level because the Rebi was on such a high level. For some reason, they were not honoring each other koi as fitting. And perhaps this is exactly why the bas mikdash has not been rebuilt cuz we have not yet learned the lesson in every area of our life whether family right friends, wives, husbands, children. It starts at home, starts at home and then extends outward. With that, I just want to mention that we are celebrating the concept of the oral Torah, right? The fact that there was a mabel, right, from Rebi to student, Rebi to student and um the Torah would never be forgotten. And after 24,000 students, Rebea died, he took on five students. No coincidence that in the same week as pesak sheni called second chances this is a huge concept in Judaism right repentance second chances so even if it's no fault of your own uh there's forgiveness right let's say for the other person there's always forgiveness that you could elicit and there's rabi and the brezla philosophy that will bring when you forgive give somebody that's going to bring a lot of mercy into the world. Okay? And we could use that right now. So, okay. So, as I mentioned earlier in the introduction that if you don't see the Hebrew, you may not you may not get the message. We deal with text very textual. Hopefully, it'll be spiritually enlightening at least to know that the Torah is a code and there is deep information embedded in every letter in every word. So, we're looking at chapter 17, I'm sorry, chapter 21 verse 17. Let me get my copy of English. And it says like this, and we're going to actually read, I want you to become familiar. Chapter 21 verse 17- 21. Okay? So, it's a few verses. I highlighted certain words in English as well as in Hebrew and I'm going to tell you now, they don't match up. They don't match up. Speak to Aaron. So God is speaking to Moses telling him to speak to Aon Elaron lay telling him the following thing is misaram your offspring throughout the generations. Now that word ye is going to be key will be future tense as the clear will point out when there will be in this uh progeny any of the kim bo literally the words bo because later on we're going to see moombo b the Torah changes the the order of those two words why here it says bone. So in the future there will if there will be a a blemish in one of the he shouldn't come close. He shouldn't approach to offer. Now it says here the bread of his god. Okay, there are offerings of of there are things that are involved with the involve bread. Okay. Then verse 18, for any man who has a defect, you see I highlighted it has in him a we're going to translate as in him a so it's the person who has the so that person should not make the offering. And then there's a list of blemishes such as blindness, being lame, having a bad nose, a mismatched limbs, one longer than the other, a broken leg or a broken arm, or all kinds of things on the face and the eyes. And then go to verse 20. And it says, "Any man among Aaron Aaron the Cohen's offspring who has a defect." See, it's same words who has a defect. And it says um which verse are we in? Um 20 I'm not sure. Oh 21. 21 any among right it's 21 who has a defect and it's it says bow moon. So so far we saw boom three times in that's the beginning of verse 21. Look at the end or near the latter part of verse 21. So then it says right that person shall not draw near to offer up the law lord's fire offerings. Before we saw bread offerings right now this is fire offerings and it says moonbo. If you noticed I would not have noticed it but the clear card is going to point this out. So I'm kind of like giving you an introduction. Now what would mean mumbbo? That the blemish is in him. And that's how they translate it, but I don't know if you would have picked it up. He should not draw near to offer up God's food. Again, the word le. Okay, let's look at the clear car and then we'll look at rashi on that verse. First, let's look at the clear. So, it's on page 535. So a person from the seed from your seed from Aon seed is a coen there will be in him a blemish future tense meaning in verse 17 it says what's the word it's reversed it's right it's inversed and it says mumbbo in the end of verse 21. Also another observation that the kakar gives to us. It says in our verse in 17 it says there if there will be if there will be infers the future something that isn't yet there but will be afterwards in um in the verse 18 we saw called the word boom but he's looking at the word a share. In other words, doesn't have the word yeet. It's not talking about a moon a blemish that will be. It's talking about a blemish that is. So verse 17 is talking about a blemish that will be. Verse 18 is talking about a blemish that is. And the same laws apply that he this cohen who has the the defect the blemish the moon cannot come close to offer. And we saw both and we saw is fire offerings as well. But anyway, the word is the word is present tense. The clear is asking a little bit of a I call it a rhetorical question saying what's the here? What is the Torah trying to give me a reason? It's just repeating the same thing. What's reason was given is the thing itself. Meaning that here's a defect and that's why he can't offer it. And that really is all that's being offered. As it says, no new information. Now, he does look at Rashi and he's not exactly happy with the explanation of Rashi. That doesn't mean he's going against Rashi. In fact, I think what he's doing, he's going to clarify Rashi. But what does Rashi say? Parish Rashi. That's why I said if you look on the English source sheet, I I listed it under number one. Rashi says it's um it's not appropriate that this person with a defect, with a moon, with a blemish should offer, should come close. And then what does Rashi do? He brings this verse from Mali from Mali chapter 1 verse8 which basically is the the prophet is giving rebuke to the people for bringing what? Blemished animals. What are you going to do? You're going to bring a blemished animal to me. God says, "You wouldn't do that to your governor, your I don't know, your president, somebody, and yet you're going to bring um blemished animals to me." That's literally what Maliki is telling them. I'll read the words. When you offer up a blind animal or a lame animal or a sick one, is there nothing wrong? Meaning, of course, there's something wrong. Were you to offer it to your governor, would he accept you or would he favor you? like is that going to get um what do you call favor in his eyes says the lord of hosts now rashi adds one adds one more line this just as the animal with the defect is not fitting which we see in malaki but the truth is we find it in chapter 22 of Leviticus as well so according to rashi he's making like this inference so therefore it's like a jump just like you can't bring a a defective animal if you have a defect within you you can't bring it either. It's not appropriate. The clear says these last three words. I don't see it in the text that like this jump of rashi going from the animal to the person bringing the animal. But that's what we know that kanim who have certain types of blemishes cannot serve in the temple in certain aspects. The clear begins with his insight and answers and I think that it will blow you away. Blew me away. Uh the first time I read it ali therefore the clear says I'm going to tell you there's there's a group of people called the kadmon. Who are they? They lived a long time ago. The ancient ones could have been the tanoyanim. It could have been the aneola. It could have been people who just lived before the clear but these are people who were they were experts in certain disciplines of wisdom. Wow. They actually knew, I'm going to say maybe perceived, but they somehow knew any blemish that was yet to be in a person before it happened. How how is that possible? Well, I'll tell you just for a second. I'm starting to learn the uh the parakim of the Rambam. And he discusses the whole idea of meos, working on your midos. When you are compassionate, when you're kind, when you're patient, right? When you're humble, all these great uh when you overcome your when you're working on yourself, on your character, you can achieve a level of well actually he says, but since we don't have the highest levels of he means within, you know, some of these levels and this is what the person can do. A person is able to know just by we'll see just by looking at somebody what is going on inside has not yet manifest itself in a blemish but it will that's my best translation as he says there were these bikim in wisdom there were these experts in wisdom and they knew they knew about different blemishes they were going to be in a person before they manifested themselves from the aspect of a certain sin that they saw in the person. Now I'm going to use the word sin a little bit loosely because it is a mitzvah to work on our midos right pride is a sin greed is a sin um whatever we have a whole list here he goes and on and says mash so now he's going to try to explain it in a mash in an anal an analogous way an analogy the person this he knows I don't know how he knows I don't think it's public knowledge maybe it has to be but seems like he knows that this person who's he's looking at uh took a bribe he knows that in the end eventually this person will become blind right as we know there's a famous pik right about judges taking bribes, blinds, justice. Now, if he sees that the person is very hotty, right? Is a very obvious sin here. Maybe hottiness is maybe not so obvious, but to this person, it's obvious. It's interesting how he says rego. It must be a phrase. He maybe walks in the pompous way. I'm I'm not sure what regala it's a phrase but gava is definitely haughtiness but it uses the word regala because yuo chevo as if it's measure for measure what's going to happen is this person in the end will come with to a broken foot or broken legar onto bow just looking at a face the recognition of a Okay. Somehow uh David, there's an empty seat over here. Panov means usually when we think of showing favor, which is wrong in judgment, but I think here it means just to recognize the face because that's how it's translated when we talk about showing favor, you know, right? So, you're going to show them favor. So, pan just recognizing and I'm going to use the word facial recognition, right? A person could do their own facial recognition, right? I see this when he's that way and I see, you know, I can see the something it's going on deep inside. The face itself is revealing. The word onto means it's speaking. The face is speaking. I mean, I don't mean through the lips. I mean, it could be through the expressions. It could be because you see below the skin level. and he sees or recognizes through the appearance of his face some type of negative attribute. See, we're not talking about necessarily an outright sin. We're we're really talking about to a certain extent. He's talking about some kind of negative attribute that he has within him. That's a Now, there's two ways to look at this word. It's like if there's a defect, a poggement. It's it's causing a defect in I'm going to just say I think his private parts whether it's the part of his body that's covered literally means uh it's a defect in a particular body part. So I think it's just a nice way of saying maybe it's the private parts like somebody else brought up earlier, but it's definitely something that's covered. mumigla. Eventually this this um blemish will appear in a part that is not covered. These words are very hard to swallow because it's saying that this person it's fitting to exclude him already or to expel him from the priesthood because of what's going to happen at the end. And my friend Yehuda brought out maybe an example like the Ben Sora, right? The the wayward son. Somehow or another, he's innocent now, but the way he's going, Whoa. Right. We'll take him out while he's still innocent, but we know where he's going. Could be the same thing, but that that's not the right says. Now, we understand why it says is inferring that there will be a m there's no moon yet but there will be somehow his face is telling a whole story the recognition of his state face is speaking that in the end meaning eventually there will be a blemish it's through his actions So there's, you know, you have my Rebi taught me once, there's things you can think, but you shouldn't say. There's things you might say, but don't write down. There's things you can write down, but don't publish. Right? Not everything has to go out in the open. So at least we can catch it. If it's here, we have free choice. We can turn it around before it gets too far to the action. Once the action takes place, okay, there's always trua. But he says, So once the action takes place, it's so because of an action that's going to take place. It will be recognizable that in the end it's going to come. This blemish is going to come. It's something that will be something that's going to take place within him. It's going to manifest. It's going to have a manifestation, a realization. Hural ashameo. And I'm putting a question mark. There's no question mark there. But I see that more as because we know that's not the it has to be like more a rhetorical question. Behold, he's going to be disqualified, right? Because of what's going to be. We don't who talks like that. And remember the clear car originally asked in verse 17 and verse 18. There was no no new revelation. the Cohen who has a defect can't be involved in certain parts of the avod. So that's exactly what 18 says it 18 is a response to 717 would if there will be the answer is that's what will be not but he should not be involved in the service. Now, if you're actually going to admit, if you're going to go with the flow, let's say the person, this cohen already has manifest a blemish. Certainly, the law is that he's not going to serve because of what we saw in Mali. Rashi brought Malahi that what was Mali doing? He was um castigating the people for bringing defective animals. But Rashi says from there you can make the leap that just like you can't bring defective animals if you're defective you can't come close to God. You can't do the service. This is thear's thinking. Therefore, according to this gam also this whatever will be there's going to be this blemish it it isn't there yet but it's coming right it's fit to exclude the person already from the kahuna from the service now for this reason we're not going to say that it's actually giving the reason because of y implies the future Now we're going to discuss the difference between somebody who developed the blemish in their lifetime and somebody who unfortunately was born with a defect. Okay. So would there be a difference? Should there be a difference? So far we saw and then we saw right that was and then we saw the following verse lash. But we never found out. What about someone who was born with a defect? Maybe. Well, he's going to say it's it's related. We said it's related to sin. A sin that he's going to do. A soul that's born. All our souls are born pure and perfect. Okay. So, let's He says, okay, so it's so what's the result of that? He was not born with a blemish. This is someone who developed it only through his life and okay according to the clear he's explaining it's because of his actions. Behold his actions is what caused the existence or manifestation of this blemish. It's his actions that caused the blemish in one of his limbs. That's why we saw in in 17 and 18, I think it was again in the beginning of verse 21, it says bow. We were talking before you came in the word boom and mumbbo sounds a little bit you can make a song out of it, but anyway. So we the word boum means that in him is the moon. So he comes first as a healthy individual into this planet into the into this lifetime and only afterwards the moon is developed as opposed to moonbo. Mumbbo is going to refer to the one who was born with the blemish because the moom is the first word and then bow then he comes into existence. With that in mind that's what he says. Now we understand these two verses. One is right that his existence existed before the existence of the blemish. That's the first statement because the mil the word b is in him is is talking about the human being the person who existed before the moon came into being. And then meaning later in the end of verse 21 I'm sorry so this is still talking about the person that was developed the moon afterwards no bo only then the word nad here does not mean born it's the sense of giving birth but no lot here means then developed the the blemish and now Zerak's question comes up right away the dian loan we have not yet heard we don't know So we haven't yet heard if he was born literally born with the blemish. If that blemish is m is going to hold him back refrain him or not. Can he still serve as part of the um the the kanim in in certain parts of the service makumar because there is place to say now usually means mistakenly you may come to certain wrong conclusions and it wants you to know the clear card wants you to know not to think like that but there is place to say maybe We're talking about when you have both aspects that you have both things within you. What are these two things? A blemished soul from a sin and a blemished body. Maybe only if you have both. That's going to pussle the co. That's going to exempt the coen or forbid the cohen from doing certain parts of the service. Maybe assuming that he has a blemish in both his soul and his body, then perhaps it's fitting, right? If the guy has both in his soul and his body that he should be uh excluded from the priesthood and he shouldn't be able to offer the offerings to Hashem. But what about the person who is born with the blemish? He does not have a blemish in his soul. Our right souls are born. were born pure zulatu. The only problem is in his body shear sh perhaps maybe you'll say that it's not m the cohen who was born with this blemish he should be able to serve no kamashan mumbbo remember we've been saying bo all along I know it sounds funny but that's right bo here we're talking about moombo the moom came before he his existence name. So that was the verse in verse the end of 21, right? Even the one who was born with a blemish, the the bread of his God, he shall not approach to offer. Bottom line based on that verse towards the end of 21 where moonbo is said basically be the moon existed before he entered into the air of the world before he exited the womb he he entered into the air of the world he already had this womb in existence now this final paragraph the clear is going to sum it all up right before we get into this a little bit I do want to say something uh maybe you know the phrase Many people we do projection right someone confronts you or let's know let's say you are bothered by somebody it just infuriates you what is the issue doesn't matter what the issue is a lot of times almost every time but let's say a lot of times psychologists have said and the Gora actually says it that what bothers what bothers you about the other person is the blemish that you have deep inside you and I'm just wondering this who has the disciplines he may not be perfected but I think that he has certain honesty about himself perhaps that he knows he has these blemishes and maybe that's why he's able to see it in the other guy you know it's really hard you know in terms of let's say giving the main thing about giving rebuke is always working on yourself first okay Yeah, you cannot give to if you yourself have not fixed what it is within you. So it could be and it's dealing with the honesty. If the person is honest, hopefully then he can fix what he has within him and perhaps he can see it in the other person in a in a helpful way, right? Not in a hurtful way, right? I know a lot of people are bothered and triggered by all kinds of stuff, especially in these generations. But if we stop and take a second, why am I being triggered? Right? Right. I'm not saying we all have the answer, but um it it could give us some insight into our own what we need to do a ton on, right? It's like exactly what I need to work on is exactly what bothers me about you, Ken. I'm kidding. That's a word that they use. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A good one is if someone's opinionated and you and it infuriates you, you have to look at yourself. Am I opinionated? Yeah. And first of all, it's an interesting idea that we should all love to but it always I shouldn't say always a lot of times it depends on how the approach of the other person or especially when we give it. Uh it's a it's it's um some say that we're not on the level anymore to give to but I don't believe that. The question is how and sometimes it's just through example, sometimes it's through love. Sometimes it's through your own patience. But anyway, let's move on. And I thought that was appropriate to say especially since as I mentioned I'm not mentioning what tonight is yet because I didn't make the bra but due to tonight's event right um and the and everything we need to do on one of them I believe is finding out a proper way or an effective way to give to you can't just say we're excused from it because we're not on the level it could be just example it could be just through love But there has to be a way. And we're talking about like through parental alienation. Uh love knows no bounds, right? When you really love somebody, you'll figure out a way even if it's as indirect. You know what I'm saying? Of course, we want to jump and say, "I'll just give it to him." It's usually backfires. Anyway, let's move on. So, this last paragraph is kind of like a summation, but it's very um lumpish. There's a lot of details and there's like a series of learning one thing after another. So we'll all try to follow zuro the clear card saying this is the explanation. Okay, he's going to sum it up. Remember it says a bum. So this is verse 21. So we saw the word a okay but at the end of the verse it says hashem. So the person who was developed a mum he should not be involved in the fire offerings even though it said earlier in verse 17 we already said saw boom but um it was something that would be developed. So that's what we learned so far. Only someone that developed a a mum should not be involved in fire offerings. call. However, think about it. It didn't yet mention, I'm sorry, it's a double negative in verse 17. It actually only says where it says. So, it does include bread stuffs like and so is an introduction to a mistaken premise. You might have thought mistakenly in parenthesis that it's only the food stuffs. By the way, it's interesting. The word is another word like the word mitzvah. We spoke about the word means to to to unite the God doesn't need food. The word the root is also and this is a way where we and in fact when we sit down and eat bread I think in general society they said let's break bread together right there's like some camaraderie there's some bonding going on when you're breaking bread together and we know at the end with the zeon it's like coming back and togetherness of bringing some glory to God and thanks to God in a in a in a group fashion. Anyway, I just want to stop and mention about so you might have thought that it's that it's only for example these are things that the are involved with with flower offerings. But with if you didn't know about the isem you thought you might have thought that the conium with defects can still be involved in the fire offerings. No, it comes to tell you in verse 21 is hashem. Okay. So, so even the the coen who's defective cannot with a defect cannot be involved in the fire offerings. The hashot means to equate across the board. No, any firing offering is ple is not the coen who has a moon and we're talking about a moon that was developed. So we we don't yet know about the moon that he was born with if he if that was holding back or not. Then then I might have mistakenly thought that it's only someone that actually developed a blemish of a lobe. But I not I might not have known about the Cohen who has the def defect from birth. So Kamash Milan that last verse we saw the last ver part of verse 21 where it says mumbbo that's going to teach me about even the person the coen who was born with the blemish cannot offer up. But still, remember, it's still mentioned the bread of his God. It's not necessarily coming to exclude the fire offerings, but we did already equate right on the last line of the previous page all fire offerings in anybody who has a developed mum. And the same law applies for any someone who was even born with a moon. Well, it also it doesn't mention the words except on account to to get this message across uh even the bread of his god. Did you know this that right you have the fire offerings and you have the meal offerings. The meal offerings are actually a higher level of holiness than the burnt offerings. Nevertheless, it's still mut to eat them. So, as you saw, I think it's verse towards the end of the um it's it's number number four on the source sheet, Leviticus 21:22. So, even after the list of all the Cohen's defects, he cannot serve. Nevertheless, he's still allowed to eat from what it says. The holy of holy stuff and then and so basically the theim and the holier holies and the burnt offerings are less holy. What do you need to tell me both? There's a reason. Do you remember? Do you recall when Mosher Rabenu was involved in the erection of the tabernacle for seven days? He ate from the kuchim co from the holy of holy from holy holies. Okay. So he was eating from that. So he was a zar. He wasn't a coate but he was acting like the cohen for those seven. It's different ways to look at it. He was like the the co for those seven days. But you might have thought that he could only eat from the the higher level and not from the lower level. That's what he says here. Like it says in verse 22, how much more so from the lower level from the fire offerings and as it says but you might have thought that the lower level because there is to say as I mentioned about The truth is that it's not permissible to a non but we saw Moshe do it. He's he's quoting and I think we we could have seen it in Arashi which if anybody sees where it is it's somewhere on this page somewhere maybe not but Rashi brings it somewhere and Gomorrah talks about it. Now the last statement is according to what everything we just said you can actually resolve something else by the animals by the animal offerings and I think I did bring that if you look in source number two in Leviticus chap 22 20- 22 right it's talking about all the different types of blemishes of the animals and we have the words in verse boom and later on. If I'm not mistaken, if you just turn the page, um, it's um, Mumbbo or Mumb. I don't see it on the page right now, but there is. Oh, look in number five. It's Leviticus 22:2. It's still talking about the animals. um from the hand of a gentile, you shall not offer up as food for your God any of these blemished animals. Even a non-Jew when they give offerings, they also cannot give blemished animals and we can't accept them for their injuries upon them. There is a defective on them as in Hebrew it says mumb is the same as mumbbo. So you have bum and mumbbo. So the same thing applies to the animals. If the animal was a what let's say developed defect, it's forbidden to offer it. Or if it was born with the defect, it's forbidden to offer it. So hopefully we can walk away number one with learning a little bit more Hebrew, excited about, you know, learning this really fascinating idea that there were these I mean today there actually are a few people. They can look at you. They can tell you uh what's wrong with you in terms of your character and as well as your health. They can they can see defects [Music] and uh bizantem through what I said in the parakim the Rambam's introduction or basically commentary on the peravote it's all about ethics working on ourselves that we could hopefully reach a level of I'm going to call it nva but we'll call you know uh some kind of ruesh some kind of level to be able to understand the inner workings of the human the you know starting with ourselves right starting with ourselves and only after perfecting ourselves we can help others say I know what's wrong with you you know anyway with that um I wish everyone I can't say it because I didn't say the bra yet but you know a happy event right the day that uh that rashi was shameb orb either way we're going to be bame in the Torah of Rabi Ka and his students. And we wish everyone abat shalom and we'll see you and a great life and we'll see you next week. [Music] My [Music] birthday shing. [Music]