Moshe, Bilam and Avraham | Rabbi Baruch Taub | June 25 2026

Good morning everybody. So this morning Shar is sponsored by um the Jewish Legacy Foundation of Toronto and uh by Shashana and Richard Lab in honor of their grandson's bar mitzvah. I have no other information on the bar mitzvah the name or anything but that's it. Okay. Should be simas for everybody. Okay. So, uh what you know what we're doing on top uh because this video goes to also a lot of there are people out there and so we're do a little bit of um hukat from last week and then we'll get into uh to balac. Okay. So, I mean it doesn't really matter. It has to be the para you know. I mean, I remember once going to I was sitting at a at a Chevro with somebody and and he said to me, they asked me to speak and I haven't looked at the para yet. I said, why do you have to speak about the para? You know, speak about last week's para, speak about whatever. It's not it's not in stone that you have to speak about the para. I mean, there is a certain uh element of kaduca to the parha. All right. that that Cohen, one of the great Bali Makova of the 19th century um he said that you know that we say in Dvening and Shabbat Shabbat Shabbat Shabbat the on Shabbat on it Shabbat. So he says that every single shabas has a unique kadusha from the beginning of creation. Not not just last year's parha, this year's para. There's something about about this new this Shabbat which is unique. Okay. Um I wanted to um All right. We'll well we'll get to we'll get to Balok. Uh I have two two pieces here from Sepher Noten Dea from Ravionus and David and um there's an interesting Gammorra. The Gomorrah says um well he's going to quote it. The Gomorrah says how do you know that you cannot achieve in Torah you know it's nice to sit and listen to a sheer you know but you gota you got to get you got to get into it. You got to get into the Torah right? You have to roll up your sleeves to learn Torah. So how do you know that? Um, see he takes it to such an extent the Gomorrah that you don't acquire the kenyan tora unless you you ready to die for the Torah. You're prepared to die for for Torah, right? Uh, how do we know that? Um Adam this is a puk in uh in paratra the whole what's the this strange hawk of paratra right we know the paratra paraduma is that category of mitzvot I think we might have spoken about this last week which areim which don't have an apparent apparent reason for them we spoke last week that All mitzvah really we don't really know fully the extent of the mitzvah even it seems obvious right and we mentioned I think last week that the word for a reason is tom right but tom and iit also means taste so that the reason is a taste it's not the whole thing it's not you know it's there are certain things certain reasons in let's say in cabala or whatever that are beyond ond our pay scale that are still reasons for the mitzvah even though some mean obvious Shabbat right but there there are more there's more to it okay but a is a mitzvah that doesn't have an apparent reason like kashroot is also a by the way doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense and yet we are all obsessive compulsive about kashroot right especially in this country you can you can get be institutionalized with all the the the different right. Okay. So um but it's a the is that if someone comes in contact with a dead body he uh has to be purified. He's tame. Now tame is translated into English as impure which is a very imprecise translation. A person's not impure he's tame. It's a certain there's something missing from him. there's something missing from him. It's when there's the absence of life, a person is tame. So blood is life. For example, let's say ina when there's blood that leaves the body, right? So there's a certain kind of death, right? In the sense that blood is blood is life, right? So there's a certain that's tame, right? So it's not a bath. It's not you're impure you know untouchable right it's a it's a it's a spiritual condition which has to be rectified. So here if a person comes in contact with a dead body which is the ultimate the ultimate tuma right and we'll see why in a few minutes because this is life and death is the whole panorama of our lives from birth until death right it's death right so um we have to we take a we take a red heer and it has to be pure red even if there's two black hairs on the heer it is uh no good. I think I might have mentioned last week that they found a red heffair about 10 years ago in Howell, New Jersey. You know where Howell, New Jersey is? No. Right next to Lakewood, right? So, it's amazing that it was right next to Lakewood. So, when this farmer, a Jewish farmer who was not not um an observant person, maybe now he is after the red effort. So you know he called somebody in the lake with the next day a hundred rabonim came who were learning that particular so and uh it was a red heer it was ship ter is I don't know it hasn't been used yet obviously I don't know where it is t toil went to shilo is it still there really you saw it oh boy nama you're good okay so um so you kill it and you mix it with hissip which is a very low plant and a cedar tree, cedar which is high. So you get the whole panorama, you know, the whole rainbow of life, high, low, vegetation and and perro and you mix it together and you sprinkle it on this person on the third and the seventh day and he is purified, right? Um the part of the is not only that this is how does this work but the person the coen who administers this process becomes tame. So it's That's part of the mystery here. Okay. Okay. Now through all of that you have this strange coming out of why of all places do we learn this notion that you can't really acquire Torah unless you're really prepared to roll up your sleeves and really get into the suguma incidentally I I remember something when I was in yeshiva as a ber A couple years ago, I remember that somebody came to me in the basement said, "You have a phone call." You know, you remember what a pay phone is, right? It was a pay phone. Nobody has phones, right? Uh you so okay. So I got up the morning seder, you know, to leave the base med during during morning seder is, you know, your kisa almost, right? So I'm going out and my rebby at the time was standing at the back of the base manager of Klespki Zatsal was at that time was he was the gave the sheir in in Ner in Baltimore he was known as the muggy cheer in America gave the best shear about 100 boys name she right and um anyway so Rav Kleski was standing in the back looking in a saver and he sees me going where you going I said no I have somebody told me I have a phone call he says but you're dead you're not life. So, what do you mean I'm dead? Revie, what are you telling me? He said, "Maybe not. You're sitting over a gamorrah. You don't exist outside of the Gmorra. You're learning Torah. This is it, right? You can't." So, I'm listen. He said, "Okay." You know, he smiled, ran back to Saver, and I went out to get my phone call. Right? I have no recollection what the phone call was all about. I felt a little guilty when I came back in. He smiled at me again. That was Rabbi Kleski, right? He got his point. So here I'm telling you the story. It's a good story even though I didn't I didn't listen. Okay. So why do we why is this being learned out from Paradum? Okay. It's a good question. That's his question. So now um it says this is the of the Torah which Hashem commanded. You take this pure efer which has no blemish all it was never worked it never worked it was pure uh didn't have to do a day day of work in its life right explains God says to Moshe it's yoursum is going to be called after to you Mosha take to you. This is the porra that Moshe made in the right. This is the second question. Moshe gave us all 613 mitzvah. Why is this one mitzvah called after Moshe? So what's the nexus the connection between porum and this mitzvah of learning Torah in depth and that it's Mosher Rabenu's mitzvah alone right what's that all about okay the explanation of this is what is tuma it. All of somehow relates to the notion of death, the absence of life, the limitations of this world, right? The li that's what death is. There's a there's a limit here. There's a we have a time limit, right? The time limit. The time limit is 120 years, right? Time. You know, I gave a sh last night last night on Birkham, right? And um and one of the things you say in hamil is u protect me from death. In other words, when one goes to sleep at night, that's the closest we come to death. We're, you know, unconscious, we're sleeping, we want to wake up in the morning. So that's part of the bra is to I should please give me the the braha of waking up in the morning for the next day. Right? So there's a limitation to life. So tumor really relates to the limitation of of this world. Right? This is the opposite, the polar opposite of eternal life. When we say we're going beyond this world, right? We mean it here in terms of everything that's going on in the world that we're beginning going to be victorious. But it also means in the met because we live forever in the in the other world right. So the purification process of it is it is the the victory the power the victory you're bringing you're bringing a person back to life right. So it's the victory of of it is the victory of of the of the Torah and the Jew over the um limitation the limited capacity of this world. We're bringing a person back to life, right? In a in a broad way, right? In a broad way. Where does this come from? How do we go beyond the limitations of this world, the physical world with Torah, right? In other words, the world was created. It's a physical. It was six, seven days the world was created. Right? So, you have like this. The Mishnav says with with 10 mat the world was created, right? with 10 m with 10 brought Torah was given right and what do you have in between the makot the 10 plagues right so what's what's the connection between these three right so the world was created physically so most people in this world they're living a physical world they're not there's no spirituality you know they just they live almost like like animals you know they get up they eat they drink whatever they have children they go to work But what what's their meaning in life? What are they accomplishing? What are they doing in this world? Right? It's all it's they're living a physical existence, right? It's all about their physicality, the material world. But but there's something beyond that. And that's the spiritual world. So you have that's the 10. 10 is perfect. The perfect number, right? So you have 10 statements that the world was created. That's your physical world. Then you have the spiritual. But in between you have the 10 mak the plagues. What's the plagues? So I always like to give the mushel. It's like a walnut. You take a walnut and you see the walnut. It's an interesting thing, right? You take a nutcracker and crack it. Inside there's a fruit. It's not about the shell. The the physically created world is the shell of what the world is really all about. So the makot brought us out of Egypt from the physical the physical slavery, right, into the world of spirituality, receiving the Torah. We this is this was the this was the watershed moment of going from the physical world to the spiritual world, right? So we live a spiritual existence with Torah. That's what it's all about. Life is Torah, right? Okay. Can we anything you want but because we're being recorded so just afterwards. Okay. Thank you very much. I'm sorry. Okay. Um so where where am I here? Um, okay. So, that's that's what's going on here. The whole existence in this the Torah in this world, where does it come from? Where does it come from? via Mosher Rabu. So this mitzvah is unique from all the other mitzvah in the Torah. It has a certain uniqueness that it is representative of the total picture of Torah of of eternal life taking over um limited life, right? So Davka, this mitzvah was given in his name because this is everything about Torah, everything about all the other mitzvah. Okay? So, so that's really what's going on here. Poraduma is the ultimate mitzvah which brings a person back to life in this world spiritually. Really brings him back to life. He can go back into Mak Israel. He can now go return to his spiritual existence. Right? And that's what Torah is ultimately. Right? It's through Torah. So that's why it doesn't it makes sense that this mitzvah is given dapka this concept of of involvement in Torah serious involvement in in limuna tora in talmudra comes from the mitzvah of porum because that's our real life life. Okay, next piece. He's like this. And now we're we're getting um we're getting to um Bum right now. I always say this is not on the sheet, but I you know many times I've asked the question, you know, Bum's donkey, right? So first the donkey takes him, I don't know, off into a wall. Then he takes him into a field. Then he crouches down right three times. And and Bam is getting angrier and angrier and finally he starts yelling at the donkey. Why are you doing this? What's going on? And he says, "What do you mean why am I doing this?" And he gives an explanation. Was a mal the whole story. There's one thing missing in the story. There's no mention in the Torah that Bill says, "Wait a minute. My donkey is talking to me." Right, Mr. Ed? Right? If I'm aging myself, you remember that it used to be a television program Mr. Ed about a talking horse. So, uh, he doesn't say anything about it. Why not? Why doesn't he say anything about it? So, I have two answers to that question. First answer is that, um, they're a little different. The first answer is, um, you know, we always have this problem that we're so involved in the details. What's the expression? You don't see the, uh, forest for the trees, right? So, he's dealing with the trees. He doesn't see the forest, right? He's just looking what what this guy with this donkey is doing to me. So, he starts yelling at him and the donkey yells back at him. Right? That's one answer. That's a more of a muser answer kind of a thing. But the other answer is that remember Bim is a prophet, which we're going to get into in the third piece, longer piece, that he was a prophet. The rea gave the world a prophet so that they shouldn't have a tina that only the Jewish people have have nvua. It's I'm giving the world the opportunity also. Right? So he was a prophet. So maybe he did know but maybe Bum's prophecy was on a much lower level. So it could be that bum talked to animals. Right? Mosher didn't go around talking to animals, right? He had talked to us making us into very special human beings. But Bill and maybe part of his prophecy was the ability to understand animals which is a higher level to know what animals are saying and so on and so forth. You know there are um there are studies about this by the way that animals are not as stupid as we think. Um, actually my son, my my one of my children, um, my youngest son was a rabbi in Queens, but he writes a column every week in Ammy magazine. It's Rabbi Young Israel of Hollwood and he wrote a an article two weeks ago and the article was about a scientific experiment that was done by very very sophisticated uh science bi biologists and botnists, right? They um they put mice in uh in a maze. two there were two sets of mice and one of the sets of mice were spoken to softly and were you you're so beautiful they would pick all the you're so beautiful and they would pet the m the mouse right you know that's what they did and they put it in and they talk to it nicely and then they took the other ones you know you're just a you're a mouse you're a rat you know and it turned out in the maze that the uh mice that they spoke to nicely Ra won the race in that maze, you know, heads heads and shoulders against the other the other mice and it was a lot of mice, right? So the scientists concluded that there they didn't understand English. You're going to say they understood what they were. No, but there's a certain you a certain an animal even an animal has an instinct of sensing love and sensing hate, sensing like an animal in the forest. You he can sense a predator coming after him and he can sense maybe an animal that's a friendly animal, right? So he actually got letters from people that this is not true, this can't be true, you know? So then he he sent out all the the uh the official documentation from these very famous scientists. So um so but there is something about speaking to animals and maybe bum on his low level that was part of his prophecy. Okay, whatever. That's just a point. Let's see what he says here. There another point he's raising here. Bam is busy cursing the Jewish people. Everybody knows the story. Don't go Balac. Balak the king of Moab and hires B wants to hire Bum to curse the Jewish people. Um and uh and God he goes to what should I do? Right? And he says don't go with them. Do not curse the people because they're blessed. Basically, you can't curse the Jewish people, but don't do it. Don't even try it. Perish Rashi don't go with them. So he said to answer him Rashi says there was a kind of a dialogue. So I'll give them a lesser curse. I'll curse I'll curse them from a distance. Right? So so no you can't curse them at all. Oh bless them. So, so he said a famous thing to them that Rashi brings. Um, they don't need your blessed there's a martial like this, right? Or for the for a be I'm not interested in your honey and I'm not interested in your sting. That's a common expression in Irid right but many people it's a fascinating thing there are many things like this from the Gabborra or from Rashi that people know this saying they don't know the context of the saying so this is a famous in init you'll hear people saying this I'm not interested in your honey I'm not in your sting right but this is where it comes from okay all right so now but I want to bring point out he says at the end of he did give them So how do we understand that? We have to understand that all of Bum's brahas came from he wanted to give them a but the were turned into brahas. What's that all about? What's that all about? that the clal became the just give a right why didn't he why didn't he do that okay so he says like this need to explain this there's a famous story about camei and he was very he had a problem with his neighbor He had a neighbor that was constantly cursing him. He was afraid. He was afraid these curses were going to happen to him. Right? Go ask him to give you a blessing. Go ask him to give you a blessing. Right? callot. So the clalot the clalot will uh will not fall on you right. Um he went back to the he said toi listen I I could ask him to bless me you know and if he listens The clal is going to he's going to really mean it. He's going to give it to me from his nish, right? There's going to be really power to that, right? But his braha is going to be almost meaningless to me, right? So I mean there are there are unfortunately things in this world that that smack of this idea. You know, what we're dealing with is Yesh. We're dealing with Yeshua has a certain This is the last galut of the Jewish people, right? Edom and Mo and Yeshu coming together. But Yesh have have certain mileers for whatever reason gave a braha to Yesh. But also they dav they pray they pray five times a day, right? That that's a that's a frightening thing. But that is theorum say the rebel says this is one of the we have to we have to fight against it of course with our also aside from everything else we do right so um there is something to this idea right so but he says like this finally says now that's what bum did the bum bum could not be ator he could not be a faucet he could not bring bring um directly because the he wouldn't really mean it. So what did the made it happen that it came from? So here he's saying something and the turns those words into a bra right he did it with so that answers why it was done in this strange trajectory. Okay. So, um Okay. And the Gmoran San Edwin goes through all the braas that he gave, right? Gave a blessing about uh Israel. He he wasn't talking about the mikdash and shilo. That's not what he meant. He meant other things, right? And but it happened, right? Everything that he said turned into a braha. Okay. Okay. Let's go to this piece now. This is a piece that I is from Ravnissen Alpert. Ravnissen Alpert was a Rashiva in Yeshiva University. He was also the one of the Talmid Muhakim of Mosha Feinstein. It was a RV in New York. A very special person who was taken from this world much too young. And he has a piece here which I brought. This is in my safer confeer. But this is all Resis and Albert. So let's see what he says. Uh he quotes a Mishnav that we're familiar with. Call mealu. There's a con a contrast made between bam andu. Whoever has these three qualities shall aim. He's a student of au. Someone who has these other three qualities. He's a student of bilimar. So what are the good qualities? I inva right. He has a a good eye. He's a generous person. Uh, he's a meek spirit. Nephesh, he's a humble person, right? He has stingy heart, right? Not a generous heart. He's arrogant. Very gross kind of a personality. tell me shall he's from the students of Bimar. Okay, it's a Mishna, right? I'm sure that many of you have seen this Mishna. But here's his question. The fact that the Mishna goes out of its way now to make a statement contrasting Bum and Ara like why Bum and Abraham right there a lot of people you can contrast too biblically right why there has to be something similar about them right there's something similar about Bam and Abraham that that that the rabbis have have a need to tell us there's a big difference between them. Right? Don't be confused. Right? In other words, you know, the Gomorrah says um just like two people don't look alike, there's no two people in the world that look alike. There's no two people in the world that think alike. Right? So um no two people um so first of all just I'll share something with you I once heard from my rebby um on this what's the what's the connection between these two say no two people look alike no two people think alike what's the kashame what's the kashame just like two people don't look alike two people don't think alike right so he said did you ever get angry at someone because they don't look like Right? What are you getting angry at somebody because they don't think like you? Right? Of course, we live in a world today where there's there's no narrative. There's no conversation anymore. It's just constant constant makus. Right? That's the tragedy of our our generation today. Right? But in any case, but what do I want to say with this is you have twins, right? You have people who look alike, people who don't look alike, but you have twins. Let's say you have identical twins. Identical twins. They look alike, right? It's hard to tell them apart. But since the rabbis tell us no two people look alike, no two people think alike, there has to be something different about these identical twins. But it's harder. It's much deeper. What's what's the the uniqueness of the difference between these two people has to be on on a deeper level because they're so similar outside. So here we're saying by Bamin and Aram there's a certain similarity to them, right? A they're both prophets, right? There's a certain similarity to them. So therefore, their difference has to be very profound. Okay, that's what he's that's the point he's making. There's no there's no point intellectually of trying to discuss differences between two people to do things that have nothing to do with each other, right? What's the difference between a tree, right, and and a camera, right? Okay. You know what's right? What is the thing that is that they're similar with? What could be similar between right and bip? So he says like this this is remnis and Albert right? This is Albert. They had many things in common. They all went through the world. They had a goal. They both taught monotheism to the world. Bum actually did teach monotheism to the world and we'll see an example he's going to bring from the para just like taught people to to be aware the awareness god awareness and that's that was greatness he had a similar less message in lifeblak. What did he tell Balik to do when Balik said, "I want to Okay, I'm going to bless the Here's what I want you to do. Here's what I Here's what I want you to do. What do what do I want you to do? Um, Mela Rita is calling me. Okay, so I'm just going to I have to turn this off. Forgive me. Okay, sorry. Um, oh, so what does he tell him to do in the para? Tells him a few times. He tells him like this. He wants to curse the Jewish people. My condition is is depends is dependent on something. You have to do something. You have to offer sacrifices to you know it's a point by the way that we can you can go through the para and just not realize it right. You have there has to be an enga if I'm going to do something. I represent God. So you want me to do something which right now he doesn't want. We got to do something for him. We have to gift him something that maybe God will acquies to what I want. But he tells him to offer a corban to the raon. Now he also had he also had ulterior motives here. We'll see in a minute. But still he taught balak to give sacrifices right. This is one of the strangest things in the world that Balik is going to to make Bal make Balik do this, right? It's not easy to accomplish such a thing, right? They're trying to have somebody put on filling, right? Doesn't you know what you're talking about? Doesn't want anything to do with it, right? So, what's going on here? So, but listen, he he had an ulterior motive. There was a certain arrogance here. And he said to him, "I want to make seven altars of seven corban." Why? Rashi Rashi explains why over their life their lifetimes offered se a total of seven corban right bum says to theote shalu the of these Jewish people three of them but I I'm doing what they all did I'm doing everything that they did myself right so but on the one hand he told them to offer sacrifices right it shows you there's a certain something about bum there is something comparable to aim but on a very low level Right. He tried to compare himself to the to the three together which was an absurd thing. The rabbis tell us the are like the chariot of of of Torah. Right over the page. Okay. No. Another another proof of this idea I think we're going to say here he's going to say of the similarity of the Jewish people um yeah that this was the purpose of his life was to teach over monotheism to the world. Right? He also cursed. He cursed Balak's gods. Right? He said, "Woe to you, Moab. You lost your idol. Your idol is meaningless. You know, your children will be will be whatever play. There'll be no nowhere they'll be your your daughters will become captives meli so he cursed them he showed you know that they don't have anything how do you compare yourself to Ben Israel right so there was a certain similarity here at Moab he he basically said the reason why Moab you're not going to why why weren't you successful why are you afraid of fighting You have good reason to, right? because you worship idols rather than than go to the that's what does okay. So, so you see that bum had reached a certain level here, right? We have to move along here. So, maybe I won't do everything inside, but let's see. Uh, right. Why did such a defective individual, why did he have such power? Right. He wanted to emulate the Jewish people. Why did he want to why did he want to if he had this power? Why did he want to go and curse the Jewish people in such an evil way? Why didn't he function like so obviously he didn't? So why didn't he do it? So the problem what he's going to say here is it's all about mid he had the he had the wisdom wisdom the raon gives wisdom to people right the gor migill says you have great intellectuals in the non-Jewish world who made great contributions to the Jew to the world right however if you don't have mid if you don't have the qualities of car character traits, then you're nothing. Right? Listen, you you know Paul Johnson heard of Paul Johnson wrote the history of the Jews. Paul Johnson was a devout Catholic. He wrote a magnificent history of the Jewish people. He also wrote a history of the of Catholicism, but he also wrote a book called The Intellectuals. You must buy the intellectuals, right? I mean, when you're not when your sleeves are not rolled up learning Torah, right? We're supposed by the intellectuals. He it's a book about all the great people that are famous in the world. Socrates, all these great people who made inventions were great in the world. And he writes about the great things they did. And every single one of them was, for better, lack of a better term, a low life. Their morality was terrible. They lived a total immoral existence. Right? So that can't be that's not how kalasur works. Great people. They made an accompl they made a contribution to the world. But for the Jewish people, you have to have both the kma and the gentility the mid. It was I'll just say very quickly my rebie once told me he was a little boy and they lived on the lower east side and his father would send him with a chicken to the rabbi to check a chicken out. Right? used to do that, right? Um, today today everything the butcher cashes everything, right? And uh, anyway, he said there were three kinds of rabbis on the lower east side. Rabbis didn't get paid in those days, right? You're talking a long time ago. So, you went to one rabbi and he sat there with his gamora and there was a plate on his table and he didn't look up from his gamora until he heard a coin hit the plate. Then he would look up and say, "How can I help you?" If you ask Shily, you get your answer. Second kind of rabbi had a plate there and he didn't when he where someone came in, he pushed the plate towards you. Can't make this up. This is what this was his experience as a child. There was a third kind of rabbi and it was only one rabbi on the lower east side who didn't have a plate and that was Feinstein. Now Ramosha Feinstein came to America had nothing. People told him go to Connecticut become right became right he was the posig for us right so what made Mosha Rabenu what made Moshe Mosha what made Mosha find him great right it wasn't just his knowledge in Torah which was but it was his modesty right he writes in the introduction his first of Chu of respons right people are asking these questions and no one's answering them so I have to answer somebody has to answer these questions so I'm going to start answering these questions right so that was the tragedy so bum yes he was on a certain level but it's all about mid it's all about it's not about the that's why they had a right to compare them because there to contrast them there was this sense of comparison that they had Okay, that's it. Zoo, thank you all. Have a wonderful day. Have a wonderful Shabbat. And next week, there's no Shir next week. Okay, Shivasa, right? There's no Shir next week.