local motion | Rabbi Ari Kahn | May 28 2026

So, the sheer today is sponsored by Rabbi Michael and Jerry Laxmeter, who are both much older than they were before. Both? They both had birthdays? They both had birthdays in May. They're born the same day even, different years but the same day, same birthday. And it's for the Refuah Shleimah of their granddaughter Avigail Sarah bat Shayna Aharona. She should have a Refuah Shleimah b'toch shaar shaar. Please pray for also others who need a Refuah Shleimah sh'leima. And today is also the yahrtzeit of my father-in-law, Moshe Chaim ben Mordechai ben Yamin. So, she should have an illui neshama. And let us begin. So, sometimes, wow, that was really bad. I started a sentence with so. Why why don't you why don't you correct? If my students do that, I correct them immediately. You can't do that. That's not how we speak. So, we uh we're in Parshat Balak. I don't know what those in chutz la'aretz are going to do because they are way behind us for a while and we don't seem to care very much. And I actually am work I've been working on something for for months. It was three different shiurim that Rav Soloveitchik gave about Parshat Balak, but two of them I know he gave when in Israel when in Israel they were a week ahead already. So, I figure I don't have to release that yet. I can release it next week in order to make it a bit a bit more authentic. So, go going back to our parsha, there is really one word that I bolded in the first source that kind of makes it hard to miss. Once you see it, you'll realize that's really what's going on over here. And for the for that matter, I'll already tell you the title. And some of you were old enough to remember the original, and the title is Locomotion. Okay? Apparently, the only song in three different releases in three different decades to make the top 10. Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. There we go. So, now at least you Now you have the theme. You have the theme the music in the background over here to to pay attention to. But if again, if you look, it says the unit's pick up pick up the hot sauce road Ulamasa and it's And then And Nosim How many more do you need? And so on. So, I'll If you want, you can count it up. I I did not. I did not count how many, but if you want you have absolutely nothing to do, you can count it up. I mean, my answer is there are a lot of them. That that that that's my answer. And it's always interesting that when you see one word coming again and again and again and again, so now you know, and depending on how you want to phrase this or nuance this, this is either what it's about or at least what you're dealing with is subtext. So, the question is is this the text or is this the subtext? And you realize that it it saturates the text. And as I said, you can then make your decisions about what this is about, but when I say there's movement here. This whole thing is about movement. You You want me to explain it a little more? I'm willing to do it. They've been standing in the same place ever since You want to go back You want to talk about time? You want to talk about Torah? In Torah, they've been sitting here since they arrived here, which was in Sefer Shmot in perek Yut Tet in the very beginning of the perek, which means they've been here through the rest of the book of Shmot, all of the book of Vayikra, beginning the book of Bamidbar, they've been standing in one place. That is, you know, certainly the longest amount of psukim going by where you were standing one place, and now we're moving. And now this whole thing is about preparation movement. For that matter, all of Sefer Bamidbar till this point has been about preparation for movement, whether it be what is the formation that you go in, and whether you again account and know how many people, and so on, but it's all been about preparation for this moment when they're about to go. And in parshat Beha'alotcha is when the cloud lifts and when they travel. So therefore, this is about traveling, so therefore, this is not some kind of an oddity. Oh, look at that, it happens to use this word a lot. No, this is what it's about. The point, however, is that there's so many other things which are happening, it's only other things that are taking place, that this can kind of get pushed to the side, but I don't want to diminish any of the other things, but I also don't want to ignore that this is what's taking place over here, and therefore we have the absolute saturation of this word or forms of this word in terms of movement. Okay? Excellent. >> How long were they sitting in the same place? >> Time-wise. >> You want time-wise? They arrived Rosh Chodesh Rosh Chodesh Sivan, year number one, and the cloud lifts on the 20th day of Iyar, year number two. Wow, you asked me to do this? These are the things you can just ask ChatGPT today. I don't know why in the world you need to ask me such things, but baruch Hashem, I came prepared. I said, "Hey, baruch Hashem, I came prepared today." But that's that that's it. And vaya'an happened in it's also possible in the in the second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month, the cloud lifts. What what what actually what happened is it's connected to other things in the parsha, that they they get this surprise. It really is a surprise. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think in Emor maybe we talked about this, is that the surprise is is that we're going to have Pesach in Egypt because when we got to Emor, we thought it was going to be it's certainly Omer was Ki Tavo El Haaretz. We had Pesach in Egypt and then we thought we'll have Pesach in in Israel. But now especially with you know, if you need matzah, where are you going to get matzah from? I know you can imagine that the manna is matzah. So what what do you imagine? Do you imagine machine matzah or do you do you imagine chocolate matzah? Do you imagine round matzah, square matzah? What what do you imagine? So so you know, there would there would have been a little bit of a challenge to have Hag HaMatzot in Egypt. So it's interesting. I don't know if they had Hag HaMatzot. What I do know is they had Hag HaPesach, which of course biblically are two different things where there's an overlap but when you bring the Korban Pesach and eat the Korban Pesach at Hag HaPesach, when you the next 7 days, again with overlap, is going to be Hag HaMatzot. So um it was a surprise but then the surprise on top of the surprise were the people who then turned and said, "Hold on a second. You know, what you know, we're tamei and so on. What about us?" And then God said, "Oh, you know what? Let's break all the rules. Normally over Shabbat Korbanot, the the rules of the Korbanot are really really rigid but you know what? Let's do it next month." Which then takes us from Nissan, 14th of Nissan, where we're going to do it in in the second year, to the 14th of Iyar, which is Pesach Sheni, and then another 6 days afterwards. Don't ask me what the 6 days are for cuz I've no idea what the 6 days are for but I can tell you that after Pesach Sheni, then on the 20th day of the second month is when the cloud lifts and that's when they start to travel. So that's that's the the longer answer to your question. Along the way over here, there was one thing that I want to focus on and and I'm going to try to help you as much as possible to understand it cuz this is really going to be our second subtext of Parshat Behaalotcha and for that matter, it's going to be something which goes throughout Sefer uh Bamidbar and that is going to be a question of leadership. I don't know about you, but I'm like amused by people who then have uh panels and discussions and people talk about leadership. By the way, are there ever leaders who talk about leadership or they just have uh others who talk about leadership? And I never go to these, but I always wonder what do they talk about in terms of leadership? I unfortunately once heard somebody give the whole talk about leadership about safe by midbar and their conclusion was how Mosha was an absolute failure. So, I hope I don't disappoint you, but I'm not going in that direction. Okay? Well, it's terrible. Again, I agree. I think it's worse than terrible, by the way. I think it's worse. I'm not going to spell it out right now, but um I think when people get to talk about leadership, then they can also say whatever they want. So, I'm also going to say some things along the way and then I mean what do I know about leadership? But one of you probably know much more than I do. So, you can get get up and talk about it. But what happens in the midst of all of this traveling, Mosha turns to someone who we may or may not know and this will take us back. If Rina were here today, she'd let us know. She'll be here only this for the sheer this evening, but then she would have asked me about my my theory of conservation again. Over here it's a theory of conservation of Yitro, but but let's look at the verse itself. In source one pasuk perek source one Vayomer Mosha el Hovav ben Reuel Hamidyani hoten Mosha. So, who is this? So, this goes into this whole discussion about there's a great midrash of Yitro who has seven names. So, my my my father's not here now, but I can quote I do it every year. He's Barto. He's of course he had seven names. He had seven daughters who went bankrupt after each wedding and therefore he had to change his name. If you don't take anything else out of today's sheer, you can have something to say on Friday night. My father only has one daughter, by the way. So, um I mean, who is this Hobab? Previously, he is uh Yitro. So, is this Moshe's father-in-law? Is it his brother's brother-in-law? So, there's intrigue here. I I know once in the past I gave a lecture about this. So, uh if you're interesting interested, I can try to find it for you. For you know, Moshe to Hobab ben Reuel Hamidyani, [snorts] so Midian is where Moshe went to get married, where Moshe ended up meeting a girl. Where do you meet a girl? You meet a girl by a well, right? I mean, that's that's quite obvious. If I opened the club, I would call the club the well. I mean, that that just seems to be the right thing to do. And but it was in Midian. And Moshe says, and now we now we're going to have this convergence of our two subtexts. One is about the traveling, and the other's going to be a leadership. And he says, "No, sim anachnu. We are traveling. We are going." No, now be before you look at this, and before we read what the words actually say, I'm going to warn you that it there is this possibility. Again, I could be wrong, but there is this possibility that in your mind, you have a certain narrative already created about why it is that Moshe wants Yitro to join, which by the way is part of the great narrative, cuz it's not Yitro, well, maybe it is Yitro, which goes back to our previous point. But, what is the purpose of this? So, let's try to go into this with no preconceptions, and let's actually do something which is completely radical. And what's that? Read the words. So, let's let's see what it says. Nosivenu anachnu el hamakom asher amar Hashem oto eten lachem. We're going to the place which God had said, "I'm going to give you." Which Rav Soloveitchik had pointed out is present tense. Moshe believes right now we're going, right now we're entering to the land. There are a number of different places in this foreign of the very very very beginning of of safer by midbar which is absolutely inspired by this verse and that that present tense we're going right now. Of course, you know, it doesn't work out that way. Um I'll I'll I'll say something else which which will sound radical but it isn't. If the safer by midbar didn't exist, none of you would have been disturbed because there was no hint it was supposed to exist when we left Egypt. When we left Egypt as far as we know we're supposed to go straight to land of Israel. Derek Harris Bush been he come over. Ah, but there is this other rendezvous that we had was to go to our Sinai. So go to our Sinai. In the volume we're going to find out that it's only 11 day travel and Rashi is going to say we did those 11 days in three days which means this whole book shouldn't be here. This whole book is about the mistakes that take place which means these are all the wrong turns. Right? It's not supposed to happen. By the way, for that matter if we don't have safer Devorum either, no one would notice cuz if you don't have 40 years in between or 39 extra years in between, you don't need to repeat anything cuz you just said everything. So I just now got rid of got rid of Devorum and got rid of by midbar. If you want I'll get rid of a Yikra also cuz no one would have missed that one. I mean we we We could have we we could have gone from the end of Shmot. Mishkan is done and the next verse would have been, okay, and now we march into the land of Israel. That that that should have been what happened in this next which which which again I know you don't think this way and that's the problem. You don't think this way. You're supposed to think this way. Why? Because I'm right. That that's why that's the reason you're supposed to think this way. And and instead we we we kind of roll with the punches and you know, this is like the theological equivalent of walking around with uncomfortable shoes all all day. You just kind of get used to it and therefore that's just the reality. That's what That's what you do and that's who you are. And and safer by midbar is an uncomfortable shoe. And it's not supposed to be here. Life could be better. Life should be better. This is not what should be happening. But instead, it goes wrong. But but it goes wrong after this. Right now, Moshe says, "We're going. We're going." And now all of this traveling, all of this movement is cuz we're going now. But enough of that. Let's continue. That's an idea also that other occasions we've developed >> developed >> much much more. But no siman Moshe Rabbeinu come with us. So, what's the reason? What's the you. Uh I don't know if you noticed that. I don't know if you remember that. That Moshe is saying, "Listen. We won. Historically, we won. We're the chosen people. God has given us land of Israel. Okay, it happens to be a little bit more complicated than that. We also happen to be the object of all the anti-Semitism and hatred and and so on and so forth. Histor- We won. We did win. Don't don't tell yourself anything else. We did win. But um if you really want to improve your life, you're going to join us." By the way, that that that itself now, you know when someone tries to convert, we tell them, "This is a big mistake. People hate us. You don't want to do this." And uh but Moshe doesn't know that yet, apparently. And he's saying, "Th- This will be good for you." And it's true. It will be good for you. We do say, you know, with the geircotton say that we're we convert them to be cuz it's a good Going back to this point and so far come with him he has been told by Israel. God has spoken good of Israel. So, if we pause right now now, so essentially we are on a mission, if you want. We're on a mission from God. We're going to the land Chicago. We're going We're going to the land of Israel. And this will really be meaningful for you. Vayomer Elo Lo Elech and uh Yitro said, "No, thank you." Ki im el artzi ve'el moladeti moladeti elech. I think I'm It's time for me to go back home. Yes, there's a huge discussion when does this take place compared to the other Yitro episode? The timeline of all of this we're not engaging, we're just observing. Vayomer and Moshe does not back down easily. Al na ta'azovenu. Do not abandon us. Now, that's a little more interesting. Don't abandon us cuz till now it had sounded like we're doing this for you. Don't abandon us ki atah yadata hanotenu cuz you know in terms of the the encampments bamidbar va'yit lanu le'enayim and you will be for us uh you'll be our eyes. Now, what in the world does Moshe want? Why this individual? What kind of leadership can he provide as opposed to anyone else who's been around? Vayok tite lecha imanu ve'haya hatov hu asher yite va'asher imanu nitavnu lach. And then he doubles down that all the good that's going to happen for you for us will happen for you. Vayisu mehar Hashem derech shloshet yamim and that's the beginning. That's the traveling that begins from here. So, um what is the purpose of all of this? And and and now I actually want to back up a little bit. Before I look at the particular thing I'm going to look at, Sefer Bamidbar is about the failure of people around Moshe to give him any kind of support and quite the opposite. You have all kinds of people and some of them closest to him, who are stabbing him in the back, who are causing every single difficulty. So, before anybody tries to tell me, "Oh, you know, look how Moshe failed as a leader." Look how many people are trying to fail him. I mean, in this week's parashah, it's tragic. It's his own siblings. And don't ignore that. It's his own siblings. It's his sister and his brother. And they may And his brother, they may have the best of intentions in the world. But I want to go backwards a little bit. Just think for a second. Let's go back to the previous Yitro episode. There were some people who were put in leadership positions. Where did they go? Why is it in this week's parashah does Moshe feel so absolutely utterly alone? And he feels that this entire burden is placed upon him. Where is anybody else over here? Where are the people who brought the korbanot last week, who were the heads of each one of the tribes? Who are these people? Where I don't need their names. Where are these people? Why aren't they in a supportive system? What happened to them? Okay, do I have to spell out what's going to happen next week? We're going to have another 12 people who will be in leadership positions, all of them nasi'im, who are going to then become the spies, and then work absolutely counter to every word that Moshe just now said. No, see it but not to El Makom. Nachnu lo nosi'im El Makom. We're not going over there. That's not a good idea. So, again, what happened to them? Do you want me to keep on going? His first cousin, Korach, right? Instead of, you know, you know, being there, we got your back, Moshe. So, then what happens? So, should should we we keep on doing this? It's that the book of Vayikra is this absolute failure. You you want to get over to the the end of parashat Balak, where one of the nasi'im leads an insurrection, go, you know, with the girls of Midian Moab. Again. Again. these these are leaders who are messing up in every single one of these things. And what I would have loved what I what I would have expected, what I would have hoped for at least, would have been at every one of these steps, people say, "You are Moshe Rabbeinu." By the way, it's great. If only we had greater leaders, we would be better off now, right? We need better leaders. They had Moshe Rabbeinu, and they're doing everything they can to kill the man. Can I say anything else about this? It's It's It's you read through safer bamidbar. It It is absolutely shocking. But when I ask the this question now, I'm saying, "Hold it. You know, what's there about Yitro?" Now Now Yitro actually has a huge advantage that over everybody else over here, except for maybe Moshe. Him and Moshe have something in common. Quick, what is it? You know there's more than one right answer, so you can say it to people right now. They have more than one thing They They have something in common. What is it? They're the only two in this whole place, with one exception maybe, who are >> They grew up not Jewish non-Jewish environment totally. >> who are born free. Who are born I I agree with you. As I said, there are multiple answers to it, but they're born free. And everyone else isn't. And And And there Again, we could begin to discuss the erev rav, and we'll get to the erev rav. We always need the erev rav. Royalty, leadership. I I Again, they're they're coming As I said, there are multiple right answers, but but they're also born free, which really make a difference, especially in terms of what we're about to look at. In last week's parsha, which again, was Naso for us, in source number two, perek zayin, Vayhi beyom kalot Moshe l'hakim et hamishkan. And again, this is such a great pasuk. Why is this a great pasuk? Because when we talked about standing still in one place, this is where we stand still in time. This is the date which was mentioned at the very end of Sefer Shemot. This was the date that was mentioned in the beginning of Vayikra. It is the date which is there on Parshat Shemini, and it's the date over here again. We're still We're stuck in the same date. The date the Mishkan was completed. It goes through three different books. We're standing still in time. And on this date that the Mishkan was completed, Vayimshaḥ oto vayikadesh oto bekhol kelav and so on and so forth. Vayikrivu nesi'ei Yisrael. So, I'm going to pause there. I shouldn't pause, but I'm going to pause right there. And what we have over here are leaders. That's all that we need to know right now. We have leaders. What I want to know is who are these leaders? Because again, I had all I have all of these leaders along the way and others which I haven't identified yet, which I'm still going to get to. But who are these leaders compared to compared to everybody else that I just now mentioned along the way as far as being failures. Nesi'ei Yisrael roshei veit avotam Okay? So, we just have another way of another modifier. Hem nesi'ei By the way, now we're getting carried away with this. Yes? The descriptions are are are almost in a sense too rich. Nesi'ei Yisrael roshei veit avotam hem nesi'ei hamatot hem omdim al hapikudim. So, they're roshei veit avotam and they stood by the pikudim. That means that when Moshe counted the people, they were the ones who took responsibility, which means they know their tribes. They're leaders of their tribes. By the way, leaders of the tribes is is a two-way street. It's on the one hand you know who your people are. On the other hand, you should be taking responsibility for your people as well. So, what kind of positive responsibility have they taken? And I'm going to say it again. They're standing Okay, you want to say Moshe's right-hand man, left-hand. They're there. They're right there at a critical moment. So, where are they at the other critical moments when they're needed? Cuz I think I've already pointed out that in safer bamidbar we have all kinds of people who are busy not being there. Right? So, who are these people? And a couple verses later via hanasiem himashech via hanasiem korbanam mizbe'ach. Now, one possibility again, I keep coming back to the same idea. This idea of theory conservation of places, people, things, and so on. Are these the same nasiem that we going to meet again in parshat naso? You know, those I don't know how many verses they were some 70 verses that could have been concentrated into a into a lot less time. I actually spoke about that last I forgot Friday night or Shabbat morning. >> They could certainly edit this. It won't take long. >> But these believe it or >> They worked out. >> Are these the same ones that we have day after day after day during the during the during the mizbe'ach? They're the ones who brought the offerings. So, or the is this Nachshon ben Aminadav Nachshon ben Aminadav and crew? Go going further. Is this are these the one from each tribe? Are these the same or these somebody else? We're not told who they are. So, we're told that they did do something, but we don't know exactly who they are. Now, Rashi And and by the way, there was one word that was used that was not word used in the other descriptions. Do you know which word it was? Nesi'ei Hamatot. The the word matot was not used to describe the others. And and that already gives you at least license, maybe reason to say hold it, these might may not be the same people. Maybe that's somebody else. So, in source number three, the Midrash says nasi Yisrael nasi Hamatot bemitzrayim. These were the leaders, the tribal leaders going back to Egypt. By the way, that itself is interesting. I'm going to I'm going to wait to Rashi to open this up a little bit more. Hey Mom, I'll pick him. And they were the ones who were standing. Now, the second point is that they're right because of him. I didn't really need him to tell me that. Why? Because the Torah already told me that. And so how you only on the yard going in. And they were the ones who were there again by the four mid creating the formations, counting the people, and so on. But which I'm going to say it again, all of those things were done in preparation for our What's the word today? Our locomotion to be able to start moving, to be able to start our journey, to be able to go towards the lands of Israel. Rashi in source number four says something which is to my mind far more interesting and far more ominous. And that's what we're going to have to explain and understand. And then we'll talk about leadership. Hey miss you Hamato. Now again, always remember with Rashi, it is a legitimate and not just legitimate, it's obligatory when you read a Rashi to pay attention to his divrei hamatchil. Right? If you don't want to quote me on that, I heard that from the Hamel which you can get that from the Hamel. Okay, that's better. And always you have to name drop. I only quoted Rashi. I quoted Rashi today. Okay, so good. So I'm I'm I'm almost there. So, See, I could become a modern Orthodox rabbi. So, >> [laughter] >> So, So, Rashi continues, Shachayu show trim a lay him in the trim. They were the show trim. They were in a leadership position there. The whole you move came a lay him. They were beaten. They absorbed the beating which means they stood between the slaves and the Egyptians. And when there were a certain amount that they had to produce each day and they didn't do that or they weren't working hard enough, they stood in between. And this is leadership. They stood in between and they took that the whipping and they took the beating. And if you want another ominous interpretation on the ominous interpretation, the look at source number five, you remember re, he writes that's why he uses the word matote. Matote also means sticks. >> Woah. >> I did a matote for my clothes should not say parole she could be him. Which means that what makes these people leaders, they have the scars to show it. Right? I'm saying that there there there really is something powerful about that. And I'm I'm going to say it again. If that's Rashi, all that we saw with the second interpretation is teasing out what Rashi was telling us because sometimes we lack the imagination to actually, you know, to visualize it, to see it, to think it, to really feel what's being told over here. And these are leaders with scars. Now, on the one hand, I do not want to diminish anything about this. They paid their price. They paid their dues. Like you question them at all, what makes you the leader? And they say, what what makes me a leader? You know, you want to you want to you want to see the x-rays of my broken bones? Do you want to see the scars that I have over here? Do you want to see what I absorbed? Which means what we mean leaders, I was the one who took the brunt of the beating so that my people would not. You know, what's leadership if not that? And and I'm being I'm being completely serious about that. On the other hand, there's nonetheless there's a problem. And what is the problem? We'll see if any of you can identify this, if any of you now can speak about leadership. What is the problem nonetheless? The problem is is that they they live in the past. Leaders lead. They don't just have retrospect. And again, and again, I understand that having historical consciousness, understanding where we came from, understanding what we went through, is absolutely essential. You can't only be forward-looking, you can't only be forward-thinking. There needs to be some kind of a balance between the two, but scars by themselves are not enough of a reason to justify that you have the vision to want to go where we're going to. And by the way, how many times are we going to hear throughout the Torah about this generation of the desert who keep on themselves looking backwards? In this week's parsha, you remember, I mean, the most difficult verse in the entire Torah, we miss the kishu'im that we had in Egypt. I do not understand that. Maybe kishu'im means something else. But uh okay, the watermelon, I'll have to assume it's watermelon. But uh they're they're thinking backward. They're thinking about what how great it was in Egypt. Can I, you know, give you a little message over here? Egypt wasn't so great. Right? The nostalgia for Egypt is completely perplexing. Although we understand that, you know, there are times in life that the pain which is knowable is better than the uncertainty which is not knowable. And the uncertainty is part of what is haunting them, and therefore they don't know what the next step is. They don't know, you know, tomorrow what it brings. And it would have been better to stay in Egypt. Yeah. Yeah. And and and therefore, this backward thinking of the people, do you understand my suspicion at this point? Having leaders who are all, you know, going back to the day as opposed to where we're going. Do do you want me to make a a political statement which is contemporary in Israel. Now, this is completely irrelevant to anything that I just now said other than that I think it's relevant and that's really all that's important cuz they still let me get up and talk. And that is in Israel there is a a high concentration of former generals and military leaders who are involved in a leadership positions. On the one hand, they have the scars. Although, by the way, some do and some don't. Some the only scars that they have are emotional and maybe emotional cuz they sent young people to get scars rather than they themselves. But, let's even be positive and say, "No, some of them some of them." And I don't take it away. I mean, but both Netanyahu and Bennett were in absolutely elite forces and you can't take that away from them. And then you start going to the others who are much more career military people which means they are coming essentially from a view of the past. And let's be honest. Some of our best, maybe even brightest, I don't know. But, extremely motivated and extremely idealistic were people who gave 10, 20, 30 years of their life for the state of Israel. But, I'm going to say it again. Does that necessarily give them insight to how to run an economy? Does that necessarily give them insight on how to negotiate peace? Does that necessarily give them a insight into forward thinking because they know about battles that have taken place in the past? Are these people with lots of scars or these people who know how to lead forward? On top of everything else, the the concentration of that group think of coming from the same perspective is never going to be one which is positive. And quite honestly, um having sometimes a woman who was not in the military who comes from a different type of a background and sees things somewhat differently could be incredibly impactful in terms of creating a difference. type. And I used a woman as an as, you know, one particular example, but I think there are others as well who may be coming from a different type of perspective. And when it comes to a group leadership, it's important not to have groupthink. It's important to have different ideas coming into it. So, anybody listening to me now could say, "Okay, why in the world are you talking about politics over here?" Because I think it's important. I think it's important in terms of understanding Safer by Midbar and having this groupthink of all these leaders who all have the exact same experience and they have the exact same scars. Okay, you know, different bones broken along the way, but they have the same experience. And now, what kind of leadership are they offering? And it sounds to me like there may be something which is backward. Now, go back to our observation that we made in terms of what is it different about Hovav and Mosha compared to everyone else is that they don't have any scars. Now, again, you could say, "Well, that's bad they don't have scars." Say, "It's good they don't have scars." But Yitro's coming from completely different perspective. You're going to be first line in iron. He's going to see things differently than other people see because of where he's coming from. So, I'm saying that he's born free, so maybe he knows a little bit more about freedom than others. And he's maybe one of the very, very few people that Mosha can turn to and have this conversation with because the rest of them can't. And the rest of them are going to overly exaggerate their experiences and say how important this is almost to the extent is if you were not part of this, right? I assume that most of you were never in Israeli army. I was. Combat. I was the most pathetic combat soldier ever in the Israeli army cuz I I was drafted in a little bit later and I I've absolutely But I was combat. And it's like you can't make it in Israeli society. I'm going to say to a certain extent unless you have that common kind of uh experience cuz you don't get it. On the other hand, maybe you get something else, which is exactly my point. Maybe you get something else. And maybe leadership requires different types of perspectives and different different types of vision. So, as I said, everything I just now said about Israel today, you can do whatever you want with it. My main motivation was not to talk about anything political right now. My main motivation was let's understand what's going on in Bamidbar because I think that does give us insight into what's taking place over here. Did they overstep or not? We're good. So, I'm fine. And he's a professional, so. Yes. He's spoken in more states than I >> Good. >> Yes? Yes. Okay. You had a con- No? Okay. So, let's uh let's continue. So, now now perhaps we know everything. And again, we saw the Rashi, we saw now the comment on Rashi. The Chizkuni, we can now understand it. I don't think we would have understood it before. He says, "They are the ones who were standing there when they were being counted." Source six. They were the ones standing when they were being counted, "Lefichach vaya'avu et korbanam lekapparah, lefichach manu Yisrael." Now, they have to bring about atonement because they counted Israel. By the way, do you realize this is the same thing as Rashi? In the past, they were absorbing the pain, broken bones, and the scars because of Israel in Egypt. And now they were involved in the counting and now that they count Jews, so now they have to get atonement because they now again absorbed all of the pain and the and and and the and the guilt because they counted Jews. It's the same role in both of these things. That's what I'm saying. I we would never would have gotten that unless I just, you know, really unpacked it the way that I did. And then the Baal HaTurim is even more ominous. "Hem nasi hamatot, hem." Right? "Hem nasi hamatot hem." He says, "Sof ot tevot." "Tevot." Look at the last letter in those four words. Sof et lahafech metim. Death. Now, death is ominous. He's saying death over here. We we which means that maybe we need to ask ourselves a different question. Their whole reputation is based upon looking in the past. So, what happens to these people? I mean, where are they moving forward? So, we were not given any names. I'm going to say it again. Are these the same people who brought those carbonote on those 12 days? Are these the same people who are going to become the spies? Are these different people? Which means we don't know who they are. In source number nine, still in this week's parsha, we get to another possible problem with leaders. Vayehi ha'am kimitonim rav b'nei Yisrael. The people are complaining and it's very bad in God's ears. Vayishma Hashem vayichar apo vatitbaer bam eish Hashem vatokal biktzei hamachaneh. And the anger of God burns and it swallows up the katzeh. Now, katzeh is the problem. What does the word katzeh mean? It means the edge of the tent of of the camp. The edge of the camp. So, I'll just note, this will help us understand Rashi, there could be two edges. There could be the most internal edge and there could be the most external edge. So, which edge are we talking about? And Rashi suggests either possibility. We'll see that in a in a moment. Just want to continue a little bit more of Yitzhak Am Vayikatzef Moshe Hashem vayichar apo Asaf Suf Asher bikrovav. There is an argument if this is the same or a different episode. Is this explaining the previous one or is this another one? Hitavu ta'avah vayishvu kol b'nei Yisrael v'yimomu l'echol basar. And now, you were exactly where I referenced before. The remember the great fish that we had free at the show him. How should we translate to him? We'll leave it. What time is it in in call we have nothing built in El Haman in the only thing that we have. What's the word in English is really interesting. Especially with being in a minute is Haman in a new with an A. The man and it describes the man and they complain about the man and look at this terrible man that we have before the name of so this is all again a terrible episode which is taking place. Now I'm going to say a little bit more about this. We so somehow today have ignored something which is really important and when I pointed out you going to say I'm not sure how we ignored that but give me a couple of seconds but it is going to be connected to the man but not directly tangentially. Are we good? I just want you all to know that somebody who is viewing on YouTube decided that my cup is too old and sent me a new cup. Anybody who wants to send anything else go ahead and she's going to be disappointed that I don't have the new cup this week but I have to take it to tow it first. So I'm just saying that there's no insult over here but somebody just now got upset when they saw me drink from my old cup. I'm just letting you know. The show looks to me like it's swimming in money so So let's let's continue. Let's continue. Um We we wanted to first understand who who these people are. Rashi in source 17, sorry for this not being in sequence, tells us say hey hey be hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey Almost the word hey hey hey hey hey. Really interesting. In terms of the negative, the the the really bad, hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. So, I'll go back again. It's always good to have hey hey hey hey hey hey in your life that you can blame for all of your problems. Who is complaining here? It's the hey hey hey hey hey hey who are complaining. Look how good we had it but but but that I'm going to say it again, I have to be careful. That may be a separate episode. But who was it that that that's complaining here? It's the hey hey hey who are complaining. But Rashi brings a second interpretation. And he writes hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey it's the officers. So, you just now went to the two different extremes. So, who's who are responsible for our problems? Is it the hey hey hey hey hey hey or is it the hey hey hey hey hey the generals? So, the now you realize what I was saying before was not just my imagination. It's it's Rashi already noting this. But again, cuz the word hey hey hey hey hey could be either hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey or the hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey or maybe even it's both cuz again, why would Rashi suggest both? So, I don't know what to do with this. But um I want you to know this. I want you to file this. I mean, there's two different paths I can go right now and I need to both of them. So, this part in terms of the failed leadership, in terms of the people in Egypt, hold on to that cuz I I want to go back to that in a second. But first, I want to double back to I want to double back to I mean, what do we want from him? What what is it that Mosha wanted? So, yes, on the one hand, Mosha had said that it's going to be be for you but but there seems to be something else, especially within this context of all the other leaders who are failing along the way, and wouldn't it be good to have somebody who's born free, has a clear head, and therefore could be of help right now? And especially because of another reason which I'm not saying yet, which you all should be thinking of, but let's continue a little bit more as far as, you know, what is the purpose over here of this? So, sources 10 and 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 all are going to deal this These are all back on perek yud pasuk lamed aleph, which is And first of all, the Targum Yonathan is what you should have been thinking. And he says that, you know, don't leave us, cuz you know all kinds of things, including you taught us about how to uh how to judge. So, keep that in mind, cuz that that that's essentially what do we do? Now we did our complete theory of conservation of Yitro. This is the same person. What he suggested there is the same reason over here, and I'm not finished with this. We're going to come back to that still. We we we still need to explore that a little bit more. The Rashbam also says leinayim. What does mean leinayim? By the way, einayim is forward thinking. Einayim. Letate lanu eitzah tovah. In order to give us good advice. Ibn Ezra is unconvinced, because he's Ibn Ezra, for better or for worse. That depends on you, by the way. Gets into dikduk lots of times, and he'll be here. He notes that she adata makom shechanenu sham lechaytonu bayitenu lanu leinayim leharotcha derech. Which means is it in order to instruct future? It sounds very much future. The Rambam, a lot of people claim kivahayeeta lashon avar. And that's in the past. What what you did do. So, You know, how do you know dikduk? >> Why not? >> Good. So, no, so exactly. That that that's the Ibn Ibn Ezra is unsure about it. Is this forward, and again, based on the context in the verse, or is it going in the back? Um And Rabbeinu Bachya brings out the question. Look at this. We waited till source 13. And this was bothering me from at least last Shabbat when I was thinking started to think about this. And right away this bothered me. What does Moshe want from Yitro or Hovav in terms of you're going to show us the way and so on? Cuz he notes cuz Yisrael you know via a cloud for who will lead them the way? They have a cloud that tells them where to go. We don't need him. We got like sophisticated GPS connected to a cloud. So I hope you realize that's the question all of us should have thought right away. And if you didn't think of that, then you know, the main part of any class is to make people feel inadequate. So then you should certainly be feeling inadequate right now. Let's say, why didn't I think of that? He goes, some people they they they don't trust their eyes. They don't trust the cloud. They don't trust these miracles, which by the way is interesting. I I just want to go back to the cloud. Do you remember the Gemara? If not, I'll I have it here someplace. Do you remember verse 23? Do you remember the Gemara that there there were three things that they had in the desert? They had the cloud, and they had the man, and they had the bear. Right? And they were all connected to right to Aaron and to Moshe and to Miriam. And so far in this week's parsha, they reject the man. Miriam actually gets pushed outside the camp. I'll go back to this idea of the camp. Miriam is a certain type of a sin as well. She is one of the leaders, and she gets pushed outside the camp, "me chutz l'machaneh". By the way, the erev rav are also outside of the camp because go also to this week's parashah, you have Dan, "umasef l'chol hamachanot", who was included within the edge of Dan? It's those who are the erev rav, which means this edge of the camp kind of thing does come up multiple times, including the doubling. So, I I just wondering to myself, so when Miriam is outside of the camp, where's the beer? I- Is the beer now outside of the camp with Miriam, or is the beer inside? But, do they trust the cloud? Well, do they trust the mun? No, we don't like mun. We'd rather have kishu'im. So, and by the way, it's to my mind, and I'm using "Chazal" a little bit, what a lack of imagination. Because if you wanted to, you could have had some mun and imagine kishu'im. Not that I would have done that. There's many things I would have I don't know. What would you have imagined with uh I I don't know. It depends what kind of mood I'm in. But, but I could certainly can certainly imagine Romanian pastrami from Bernstein's, huh? With the brown with the brown mustard, the pickle on the side. I mean, I I again, I I I can't imagine that. I That's the problem. So, so I'm just I'm just saying. I'm just saying that uh and then I'd have to imagine Tums afterwards. And so, but but but going back, the the rejecting the mun, are they also rejecting the clouds? Again, I always ask this question. You know, the day they send the spies, the day that's next week. The day the day that they worship the golden calf, what did they have for breakfast that morning? They had mun. Can you imagine eating mun and then you know, and they're going to get up early in the morning in order to worship a golden calf, and they're eating mun for breakfast. You know, talk about cognitive dissonance. Like like >> Because the question is if we have the man, the human beings have an unbelievable ability to take things for granted and just it's you know, it's nothing special anymore. >> It's unbelievable. It's taken for the And And it's cognitive dissonance as well. It's It's It's phenomenal. It's phenomenal that they have that for breakfast, but but they reject it over here. I'm saying that's what interests in this week's parashah. They're rejecting it. So, if you're rejecting it, are you also rejecting Moshe? Are you also rejecting Aaron? Are you also rejecting Miriam? I'm just saying, what is the the subtext of what's taking place over here? I think it's uh think it's interesting, but we just now had a number of different reasons why you want Yitro, but the obvious one, the one that was obvious to all of us I think before we started say, "Oh, Yitro's traveled this path before. Yitro knows how to go. Yitro knows what path to take." Right? I'm I'm I'm going to say again, that's what all of us thought before we started, and I think we all realize that Rabbeinu Bachya is right. That seems to be on a certain level absurd, but now to say, "Well, we need a human confirmation of a divine movement." That's also really really interesting. Okay, so now we can double back to the other place that I wanted to go before, and that is the failed leaders in terms of these people who are thinking backwards, and back in Egypt. Well, how did they do in Egypt? Which means, the leaders in Egypt, how did they do? So, we have one indication, there's a strong Rashi. The Rashi is it practically jumps out at you. It's in source number 18 is the verse. Right? Moshe and Aaron, they go to Pharaoh, and they say the mission. Now, the Rashi's going to know the problem. You You may not know it's a problem yet. But, you have to go backwards a little bit. We're not going to do all of this now, but in source number 20 Moshe, you know, God says to Moshe, "Go to the people and tell the leaders." And he's going to tell Am Yisrael that and then And he goes, "They're going to believe you." Not only say they're going to believe you, he also says that they're going to accompany you. And by the way, just for good measure here, he also says take the mate. You know, in terms of the mate, the mate. So, we also have that appearing here as well. And he says that they're going to believe you. Motion's not going to leave. No, they're going to believe you. And they're going to go with you. And now look at Rashi in source 19. The after all motion of Aaron, and I love this because this is like almost cartoonish like. I will have the Zikini. What happened to the Zikini? They're supposed to accompany them. Nish Matu a hard a hard You know, as they're walking up the street, one goes up this block, one makes a left, one makes a right. And every street another one disappears. And you know, they're all behind motion and Aaron. By the time they get there, they look around, nobody's there. They're by themselves. I should have called them all called them Shigu before they got to the palace. They were all gone. The fish you get cuz they were afraid. Over Sinai and the fraud of him, but he got motion of a dough him leader show. It's a real lack of rain. So, again, we didn't have this We just now got two more indications of our failed leadership. One is by Sinai. No, no, you can only go to here. Why can't they go further? Because they didn't go further. So, you have like this me that to make it me that. On the other hand, now we realize that these leaders in Egypt, the ones who absorbed all of the beating, the ones who had the scars, they actually did not have bravery. They actually didn't believe in motion. I'm going to say it again. That then becomes interesting in terms of this week's parsha. And we have to ask, did they believe in motion? Did they believe in Aaron? Did they believe in in the things coming from God? Are they following those clouds where they need to? So, it's interesting that motion understands the mental again, motion as a leader understands the mentality of the people. And if the people are a little wary of seeing the miraculous, so at least you can have a guy over here that you can follow. You know, there's something which is really terribly interesting about all of this. And that takes us back to the first Yitro episode. First of all, Yitro comes. And going back to your point, which was great, that sometimes we don't take things we take things for granted and we don't say thank you. Yitro's the one who says thank you. Yitro's the one who brings carbon up. Yitro's the one who baruch Hashem. Yitro's the one who's overwhelmed with with with joy and celebration for another people's good fortune. So, I'm saying that's Yitro. Then we follow that in source number 22, and then the next day. And he says to Mo- he watches, he observes, and again, he has been in a leadership position. There is some tension among the commentaries, Yitro Kohen Midian, if it's a religious job or it is a political job, there are different interpretations. I don't know if it makes a difference. If we say it's a religious job, then you'd have to say he was much more of a quote-unquote baal teshuvah ger. If it was a political job, I mean, either way, he was in a leadership position and someone who Mosha has a relationship with and can talk to. Again, in source number 22, he's observing this, that was pasuk dalet, and he says, right? He says, you can't do this by yourself. You can't which by the way is really interesting. What does Mosha say in this week's parsha? I can't do this by myself. So, I'm just saying it's it's interesting. So, now you want to blame him? You want to blame him for Mosha's sense of defeatism, but it's interesting. And Mosha says, "Ki yavo elaiha am lidrosh Elohim." But people are searching for God. And he says nonetheless, you need to create rod at chukim vetorotav. Again, they want the divine. And Mosha, you know, Mosha with all of his modesty understands that he's the closest thing intermediary that they can have to the divine. He receives the Torah and he can share it with the people and tell them what God said. And nonetheless, Yitro says to him, "You can't do this by yourself." Lo to call us all of the day here. And he says, "Instead, the yacht alone will look him in the eye at the very middle of the king. Big things you will be the intermediary with God, but and and you'll teach them, but he advises him to create this uh this situation where there will be many, many judges who will be there in the camp in order to create peace in the camp, to have to have I'll I'll I'll call it quiet, but in order to put out any small fires before they become big fires, and to be able to allow them to live together as a as a people. And that is the suggestion of Yitro. Essentially, instead of having the man of God, we're going to have people doing this. Now, I wanted to what extent the people internalize this. Because later on, and and and we've been dancing around this the whole time, I don't know if you've noticed it, but cuz I I dropped a couple of things about it along the way. And that's source number 24. And that is the golden calf. By the golden calf, the people say, this emotion delays in coming down. They want a love cool masala Elohim. Right? They want a god. Again, just think about that in terms of the of the Yitro episode. That Moshe wants them to have be as close to God as possible. We have Moshe a man of God, and he goes, "Let's give them people." I show you who the fun in you. Right? We need a god who walk in front of us. Why? He said Moshe issue shall I try and but it's it's to go in front. It it's they're also ignoring something. What are they ignoring over here? They're ignoring the clouds. They've had the clouds with them the whole time. So, now I'm going to say it again. The same way that in this week's parsha we have ignoring or rejecting the man over here they are ignoring the clouds. And can we all admit that as well that we never noticed that that what they're doing over here that they're they're they're they are ignoring what they have and they're asking for something else to replace it. So that that itself becomes interesting because what does Mosha actually do? I mean Mosha's is confirming what what the clouds are doing and and they are seem to be ignoring a much broader process over here. What we're not going to do as much as we could do and maybe we should do and that is if you pay attention to what happens immediately afterwards, you have this great back and forth that God says, "I'm not going to be in their midst. I'll send an angel instead." And Mosha insists, "No, we need you in our midst." And the God says, "You know, you can't take this. This will swallow you up. It's too strong. You're a stiff-necked people." And so on and so forth. And Mosha prays and Mosha and God finally you know, concedes. And and that's that's really the whole backdrop of source 25 and 26 is um and finally in 27 is is that the clouds are what lead them and the clouds is this divine manifestation of God being micromanaging and God being with us in in in the community. And I go back again and say, "So, what's going on with Yitro?" So, I want to finally answer the question cuz I gave you all the hints. It was all here the whole time. What when Mosha turns to Yitro, what what was the what First he says it's going to be good for you. What was the second thing that he said? And and just in case you need to look at it, it's back in source number one. And he he says it. He says it. For it's good. He says You know about the camp, which means it's two separate issues. And it fooled us. What fooled us? Our locomotion fooled us. This whole chapter over here is about traveling. It's about movement. We're going. And what is it And what is it that he turns to Yitro for? Primarily, what does he want him for? Not where to travel. His question was too good. You have the cloud for that. But what does he need him for? He needs him for how to camp. Not how to travel. How to not travel. How to live together in a camp with cohesion, with peace, with dignity, where everyone's able to get along together. That's what he turns to him for. Stability. That's what he turns to him for. And it was staring at us the whole time. We just kind of Again, we went into this with preconceived notions, and all of us imagined, "Oh, he knows the path. He knows how to travel." It was never about that. He knows how to camp. That was exactly the advice that he'd given to Moshe initially, is that how how how do you camp? You camp by creating a cohesive people, nation. Small groups need to get together. Larger groups need to get together. And apparently, Yitro sees things things that others don't see. I just want to compare everything that we've seen so far today with a retrospective, which Moshe then tells us in the beginning of Devarim. And maybe even to add one more word before we go there. You're going to be for us eyes, einayim, which means you know how to see. And it could be that other people's way of looking is drawn to us. Other peo- people's way of looking is only based upon the past. Other people's looking leaders are only based upon the scars. And you need also know how to look in order order to be free. In order to be free, there are building blocks to freedom, and part of that is the dignity of each individual, and sensing that in And even if you you you day in court, and you get to say, and even if the judge says, "Listen, you know, you're partially right, but not completely right. You already had your chance." And Yitro tells Moshe how to do this in the proper way. But let's just go to the retrospective now in source number 28. Moshe says, and and also notice that in this section Moshe is going to go back and talk about leaving Sinai and talk about the spies. Hashem Elokecha holech lifneichem hu yelachem lachem. Again, God goes in front of you, so God's going to fight for you. And then again, that's part of the whole problem of what's going to happen with the spies. If you don't believe the cloud is leading you, you don't believe that God is protecting you, then what's going to happen? You're going to have a crisis in terms of the spies, which is going to come up next. ka'asher hotzi'acha mimitzrayim le'eineichem uvamidbar asher ra'ita. Again, eyes, you saw asher nasata Hashem Elokecha. God carried you ka'asher yisa ish et beno. As a man carries his son. Remember Moshe said, "God, I can't do this. I have to carry them the way that a mother carries a child." And now in retrospect, what does Moshe say? It was God who was carrying you the whole time. Moshe may have felt this, but over here he's coming but I'm I want to be careful but there seems to be an element of chuva here as well. That maybe even the people didn't get the right idea. It's God doing it. It's the cloud. It's God who's taking care of us. Bechol derech asher halachtem uvadavar zeh einchem ma'aminim ba'Hashem Elokeichem. You did not believe in God enough. holech lifneichem baderech latur lachem makom lachanotchem. That God is the one who was who was leading you from trip to trip, step by step until that next place that you park. ba'esh laylah l'erotchem et haderech asher telechu vo uv'anan yomam. It seems to be that again, what Moshe is telling us over here they ignored the clouds. They ignored the cloud, they rejected the manna, they rejected all of these things. So, I'm going to say it again, the irony here is really powerful is that they reject Moshe and they want a false god, they reject God and they want someone to replace Moshe. So, you ignore God, so who is it? Then it's Moshe. You ignore Moshe, we need a false god. It's such a fascinating process. And what does Mosha do because of Yitro? It's that you can't be connected to God all the time. So, let's have some people come and be be real leaders and help the people get to where they need to get to. So, therefore, if they would have internalized I I may be going too far now, but if they would have internalized the message of Yitro that a person can help lead them, they may never have gotten to that mindset of needing an Egel. Because they could have felt connected. They could have felt good. But now you want to go back. So, who do you want to blame it on? You want to blame it on the Erev Rav. I said always convenient to have the blame to have the Erev Rav to blame it on. But but it's not enough because what we're now realizing is things that we went through in the very beginning of Shemot are all coming back now again at this point in Bamidbar. And now comes the time that we're supposed to be moving. And what we're going to end up finding as we continue moving in the book of Bamidbar that we're not moving in the right direction. Instead of going where we should be going, we end up going in circles. Instead of feeling that the clouds are guiding us and God is taking care of us and God is this envelope upon us, you know, God carrying us as a father carries a child, as a mother carries a child, carrying us from place to place, carrying and caring for us. Taking care of every single thing that we need. Instead, what we did is that we don't look in the right way. And maybe part of it is looking at through the vision of the past, looking at it through the scars, looking at it through the pain, and not being able to look at it in terms of future. And it seems to be that Yitro knows how to camp, right? Yitro knows how to try to create peace. And Yitro, it's human logic. And that's perhaps what these people need is proper leadership, human logic to be able to do it. But what we find along the way is I'm sorry to end on a negative note, but is group after group, leader after leader, person after person failing the nation, failing Mosha and Mosha is absolutely you know, there are times that Rav Soloveitchik when he talked about Avraham Avinu, he said, you know, this is totally channeling the lonely man of faith and he said, Avraham Avinu was the loneliest man who ever lived. He said it just like that, by the way. The loneliest man who ever lived. He said, Avraham Avinu was the only person in the world with this idea, with this thought, with this concept and no one else believed it. You know what? If Avraham could have seen the future that billions of people will believe in one God, in monotheism, then maybe he would not have been so lonely. But on other occasions, I heard him say, Mosha Avinu was the loneliest man who >> [laughter] >> who ever lived. So, when he was thinking about Avraham, he was thinking about how lonely Avraham must have been. But when he's thinking about Mosha, he's thinking how Mosha must have been so lonely. And Mosha could have been lonely even with his brother and sister over there and even with his cousins and even with all these other leaders and all these other people of importance, some self-importance and real importance and all of them just left him completely isolated, completely by himself, with no other support system and just Mosha feeling and that's and that he expresses it in this week's parsha, all by himself. And we just have to think, how in the world can I be a person who gives support and not just be a person who looks in the past and complains.