Parshat Emor | Rabbi Baruch Taub

Parshot Emmore and Lag Balmer. Okay, we're going to do a little bit of both because tonight is Lag Bulmer. My son's birthday. I'm sorry. My son's birthday. Okay. Happy birthday. Right. It's a nice day to have a birthday. That's next week. Okay. We'll learn for a rafu for barl benga mutashem. Okay. So we'll start off with mishm and we have dealt with this question that he's going to deal with in the past and he has a different approach an interesting approach. Um, we know that one the reason why Lag Bum is celebrated is because one of the tragedies that took place, the main tragedy was the 24,000 students of Rabaka died in a plague and that it stopped on okay so he says we have to think about this based on what the rabbis tell Gammorasa Reba had 24,000 students. Actually, the Gomorra doesn't say it that way. The Gomorrah says Yud Bugim 12,000 kuses 12 pairs of which is very important because that's what we'll see in a minute. I'll I'll fill you in on that one. They all died from because they didn't have give cover to each other. So uh one of the one of theor the the yids the 16 16th century uh says that you know we have the um the 48 ways you know of acquiring Torah and one of them is no to to feel your other person's position right so he said that The the tragedy was that they were dismissive of each other. They would sit the two kuses would sit and learn and one kusa would say shot in the gammorra and he'd be very dismissive of his shot. My I have a better shot. Right? That was the low cover zeb on the highest level of tragedy. No, not no cover at Torah. Right? In any case, so that's why it makes sense the way the Gmorra said 12,000 pairs. In any case, they didn't give cover to each other. So Pascu Lammer they died. Now there um when they when they died according to one opinion it was lagg the other is the 33 days are the days was the days that we we say it's a little bit complicated. I'm not going to go into that but this is the simple answer. But here's his question, right? How is it [Music] possible? I mean, they were on the highest level, right? How is it possible that these students of did not treat each other with respect, right? And the punishment was during this period from this whole idea of not giving cover one to another. Milo what's cover why why don't why do I give cover to someone because I recognize in the in the other person Milo something that he has that I don't have right so if you're a healthy person you're not jealous but you respect the person for it right al so you give him cover in this particular regard. He's bigger than I am, right? He has this thing and I I have cover for him and it goes both ways, right? So shalom. So I mean it it it stands to reason that every single person is unique. Every single person has something that another person doesn't have, right? So, so what what's going on here? So, maybe at the end we'll see what he has to say. We might add a few things, but let's see what he says now. So, how could they do this? You know, an a human being. So, he's got an arm. He's got two arms. He's got two legs. But you don't say you don't say my left hand should give cover to my right hand and I'll shake my right hand, right? Give cover, right? I'm part of one collective body, right? So um there's there's a unified a unified body, right? the the students of Rabbi Aka who were all united in their in their in their study of Torah. They were a a a large group to be sure, but they were a group. They were a right. They were a unified group, right? You could say I don't have to give. We're we're all part of the same we're members of the same club, right? We're we're we're learning Torah. We don't we don't have to give covet one to each other, right? We're one person, right? Your covet is my co, right? This was what they were thinking. He's going to say really there are two dimensions to life. There's two dimensions to Torah. There's two dimensions to uh h humanity, right? One is the collective and the other is the individual. The tragedy is they put the emphasis on the collection, right? So they don't have to worry about Okay, but they made a big mistake. Truth be told, it's incorrect. Every human being has his own individuality. It's not enough just to be part of the collective, right? You and and since I'm part of the collective, I don't have to recognize your individuality, right? or I think it's supposed to be every person is different even though we we we're dependent upon the right the unity the the the we we need that individuality too. You need both dimensions, right? call and everybody is judged based upon his own heart, his own conditions, his own circumstances ai heard from my father the shamish says the the great aer who died in 1911 this shamish's father dramed he explained to medish kish who wrote at kamad You see in the Torah that sometimes God refers to us as a collective. Sometime he calls us together as a collective. Sometimes he calls us together as individuals right uh for example in last week's para right um kadoshim uh he spoke to kadat Israel spoke to the wholeat Israel collectively and rashi says um why did why was the whole collective there so rashi says um bipesa ruframe because the the uh the major portions of the Torah are mentioned in parat kadoshim. Parsha kadoshim last week is a very central parha in the Torah and and so the way we understand that rashi I'm just going to give you another twist on that but the way we normally understand that rush is why is it why was the Torah given this para with the whole congregation present because the majority of Torah depends upon it meaning this para Brilliantly says a different shot in this rashi. What is it? Adat the uni the unity. Why is this para said in front of the entire congregation? Because the whole Torah depends upon it upon unity upon everybody together. Okay. So that's one dimension right? So you see that he gives you an example here that that calls us sometimes as individuals sometimes he calls us by the collective two important dimensions we are important that the role of a Jew is is part of the Israel and also his independent position is a fascinating The order of the months Nissan eriv these are the months of spirm. The months of Omir were Nissan are Nissan Eer and Sivan. So listen to what his father says. What did my father says? Shenissan now you know that the signs of the zodiac alpikabah are very important to us right I mean you know you're going to not what you read in the paper that your zodiac sign is this month so therefore you're going to I don't know who these people are that write this but alicabola there is something very s significant about our sign of the zodiac which is called our mazal right our mazal depends on the sign of the zodiac. So, right is a sheep, right? Right. Sheep are are unified, right? They're not independent. You know, they've got a shepherd. They're all it's it's a it's a group. It's it's the unity dimension, right? Azman, Haritsui, Mitsad, Claw, Israel. So the counting of the omare during this period of the er days is to function to work on the the unity right. So you have uh Pesak right the whole family has the whole group has one she one lamb for the cor pes right er I'm sorry that's what did I say nissan excuse me excuse me that's nissan okay er maslo shore er is taurus right taurus an ox right this is independent animal, right? A shore, right? Latmo. You skip the that reference, the Gmorra reference, go to the middle of the next [Music] line. This is the individual dimension. So when we count now, we get into right for counting, which actually is the majority of days of counting, we have to focus on the individual. And that's the significance of counting the omare, right? It's not just the number, you know, okay, today's the 32 days in the R, but where am I headed? Where was I yesterday on 31? Where am I today on 32? Where am I going tomorrow on 33 besides a bonfire? Where am I going? Right? That's the significance of the little words when you see Spherus Homer that's all the cabola that it's every day is it is to develop uh one's uh one's personal growth. I I saw that there's a new book out, a new safer in English, but a woman a woman scholar. I don't know if don't remember her name. Um, but it's a fantastic book. I saw a review of it. I'm sure you can Google it somewhere. Maybe art school puts it out. Fel, I'm not sure. And she goes through each day and she explains what the significance is of each day. I I'll pe I'll pe this these lessons, right? She she Erica Brown. It's not Erica Brown. It's not it's not Erica Brown. She's great, but it's not Erica Brown, right? Uh and I don't know how she writes as much as she writes. And she's she's very good with a book. Another book. She Yeah, I know. I know. I know. But this one, I don't know. This woman is the first time that I I I've seen her name, but uh you can find it, you know, just I leave it to your Google expertise to find it. Uh I I'd like to find it myself, but Okay. So, this is the shore. Find it. Send it to me and I'll send it out. The shore, the shore is the individual, right? The what is the sign of the zodiac of the mazal for right to umim, right? Gemini. Gemini. What's Gemini? Twins both together. The closer we get to Cababal Torah now we take the individual dimen the the unified dimension of the clal dimension of um Aris of Nissan and the individual of and is twins that two come together because that's the goalimav isn't it brilliant this is a brilliant idea from the So you're you're growing in both together now the closer we are to to kabalish the he quotes a medishu that's what we were when we got to we were one one one body we were like one body we're so unified God said to us harsh This is now I'm ready to give the Torah to my people because they've reached that plateau. Medish also says this medish he's quoting from um actually it's also in the name of I believe if one person would have been missing one individual would have been missing by Torah would not have given the Torah haru is every individual also got his unique portion in Torah as the rabbis teach us the okay okay just another quote let's go to the next so you see this is a brilliant idea from the not that he needs our accolades the the naser but this idea of the masalot coming together in the period the three months the counting is both the two dimensions, right? We can say now the fact that the majority of the days of counting are in the months of by the way is in the para right because you're always medic we have to learn the para not it's in the para this week right is in the para right so the majority of the days are Because ultimately the grow the purpose of of the sphere is individual growth. that every single person has to count. You can't be filled the mitzvah with somebody else's counting, right? um you know which is you which is an anomaly because in mitzvah we have a concept called shame right what's you sit around 20 people are sitting at a shabas table Friday night you all have the mitzvah of kushhat shabbat the shabas but only one person says kdish he is moas right how does that work that's a concept called shamea kona when you hear it you participate in it someone is doing it for you and him collectively then your y was shame we don't say shame according to most pkim and that's really the way we puskin you don't say shame by spir for example let's say you forgot a day I'm not going to ask for a show of hands okay but let's say you forgot a day and you're in shul at night and what happens the rabbi counts out loud and he has in mind the braha for you. And then what do you do? You count. Why? Let the rabbis counting go for you also. Why do I have to count? Right? Because we're counting for our own individual growth. Are you Every Jew has something unique in Torah that nobody else has. Believe it or not, every single one of us has something unique spiritually that no one no other Jew has. And we have to develop that and reach that point. Every Jew counts. Now, the way I've always said it is every Jew counts because every Jew counts, right? And that's that's the shot here. That's what that's what it means, right? So, you can't count for your friend. You have to count for yourself. But you also have have to respect the other person. That's how these this whole idea the two because there's two notions with spher two two different themes by sphere. One is the counting the days from PES to sh the physical freedom to our ultimate real freedom. Right? So you're counting from our physical freedom to our spiritual freedom. Right? And the other is it's a the period of national mourning. These are two separate concepts and they're divided in the by five chapters. Each one has its own chapter. The chapter of counting, the mitzvah of counting and the mitzvah of the morning. All the things we cannot do during this period. But the two those two ideas come together here. You see how the how they come together because the morning is about the fact that we lost we lost sight of the uniqueness of everybody. Not just my uniqueness but his or her uniqueness. That's what we lost sight of. So that's the tragedy and that's that is the count that's Torah that every single Yid has something unique in Torah that nobody else has. Right? Okay. Let's continue. We have the individuality of but you also have the unification vu each one has the uniqueness and I'll give you there's a hint actually in the in the because mitzvah mitzvah leimn So the mitzvah is to count the days and to count the weeks. Right? So he says something brilliant. He says that what's the you may you count the days that again that reflects on the individuality right each day each person the day the weeks that's for the right you have both at the end the end. Okay. And all of this is preparatory for that grand moment of when both come together right. So what was the tragedy? Halalua. These holy students of Rabaka. They should have focused on the theme of Ear, right? The individ not just the collective but the individuality was just the opposite of what they were thinking. They were only thinking about the clal. This is his thesis right bel and that's why they were actually punished. Okay. So that's his approach. Okay. Now the question that many people ask and somebody again asked me this question last week. Where was Rebaka? Right. Okay. How could they do it? So there's a there's an idea philosophical idea how they did it. They only focused on one dimension of Jew. But where was there be ava in all this? So I think we you have to say logically right let's say for KL Israel in a certain sense or Mosha Feinstein was the posigori who was the rebby of Kal Israel all these gd right he's a rebby thousands of people reb 25,000 students but logistically practically speaking did he have a personal relationship with every single one of his students probably not right they would go by his sock maybe they went to see him once a year they said show to him they would ask him a question but they considered him his rebi they're rebi right so there it wasn't a kind of a hands-on relationship that reba had with 25,000 students so what do you want from but still rebi from his part was devastated he felt that responsibility that I'm their rebi so how do we know that so I want to suggest you know there's a song we all sang in in in our younger years Right. Rebaka said right love your neighbor as yourself. Love every other Jew. This is a grand idea central motif in the Torah. So the question is what what do you mean? Is that the Torah? It's a P in the Torah. It's a central P in the Torah. And it really is central. It's in Kadoshi, you know, and it's right smack in the middle, right? What do you mean I'm a reb? So I I once suggested I'm sure somebody says this but um that this was his mantra after the tragedy after the tragedy of losing 24,000 students or for the rest of his life would get up every day in the base med and say half right that's that's what I think maybe is the here of okay so that's where was the other thought that I had is it could very well be that this was a plague, a worldwide plague like the black plague, right? And a lot of people died, but that why did the you would think the Talma should be spared, right? Why did they also die in that plague? Because of this spiritual deficiency. Okay, another thought to ponder. Okay, let's go to the next um the next piece. uh this is from uh Ravakov Kamitki in the Amis Leakov and it's a very special idea we have in the mitzvah in the para not only the mitzvah of spira we have the mitzvah of kushashem right mitzvah of sanctifying god's name the mitzvah of kinhashem right is in is in the parha so here this is what talks about And I I want to just say as an introduction I might have said this years ago this piece this idea of Rabyakovs is presented in another safer also. Ravlau, the first Ravlau, his father was a a RV in Poland and wrote a cipher on the mitzvah of Kesh, but the the manuscript went with him to Avitz. But he gave his two sons one chapter of the safer to take with them and that if you get to Palestine, look for the chabiner. Chabinarov was one of the three great or three or four great Gdole in Jerusalem that had no official position, right? But the Chabarov he take this to him, right? Um so um or I think that's the story. I'm not sure. Or he sent one copy to the No, I think he sent one chapter the chabina and that's the only thing that survived. and he told his sons, "Go to the chabina when you get to Palestine. Go to him." So that's what happened, right? We know everyone's seen that famous picture of uh Napali Levi, the older brother and and Ravlau as nine years older, right? Standing together after the war. So they went to Shabb and Shabb sat them down and he went in the back and he brought out this piece. He said, "Your father sent me this chapter right on keshm." Now, what was the chapter? It was about keshm. If children under the age of baritzvah in the mitzvah of keshm, right? Which is a very big why why should that be different? Right? That was the one chapter that survived. And this is what rabakov talks about. And if you look at what is in that safer, it's it's not word for word, but the same ideas that Ryakob says here are in Ravlau's Ravl safer also. So let's see it now. Let's see what he says. Ra if you look at the Rambam that's where the laws of kdeshm sanctifying God's name and desecrating God's name are zal raam writes call is mitsu kidushem every house of Israel is commanded on sanctifying god's name question you don't see that anywhere other mitzvah called b israel could say by muza it's a mitzvah on the house right he says says this is to include the children also children even though they're not baritzvah mitzvah they're still involved in the mitzv of keshm the whole household how do I know that kosha we say it in we say it in hal Right. We ask to bless the B Israel definition the children and the adults. What's the reason why there's this anomaly this uniqueness that the mids of kdesem is for children also even though they're not bar mitzvah. Right? It doesn't say in the Torah there's a mitzvah of it doesn't say sanctify my name. That's not how the mitzvah is presented. How is it presented? Israel. I shall be I shall be sanctified. In other words, it's in the passive. It's not a command. Although it is a command. It's a mitzvah. So why is it presented in the passive? I should be I should be sanctified. Right? He's talking to the right. My name should be sanctified. Right? You're focusing on me. Right? everybody my name should be sanctified amongst the Jewish people right so that doesn't that it's not it's notesh that's like every other mitzvah mitzvah mitzvah but not before but no my name should be sanctified it's it's everybody right and I and I suggested a a memory an idea a pusk that perhaps points this out the safer you know this is the Rambam that I quoted in the that's his safer he goes into all the mitzvah of to mitz in great detail but he wrote a safer amitus he wrote a safer amitz which just lists the mitzvah in short little paragraph on each on each mitzvah right so the realm say mitzvah shal mitzvah on this mitzvah right the ninth mitzvah there by the way. What's the Pik he brings? What's the proof text he brings for this mitzvah? It's a Yesh quoteish the children right. He brings that post in the midst of keshmos to doasha vira based on this. Now I want he want makes a historical statement here makes a historical statement here perhaps for this reason someh what's the benim the middle ages and perhaps based on this idea this understanding of the mitzvah of kdish hashem our forefathers in the middle ages when they were up sent to the stake to be burnt al keshashem that they also sanctify sacrif they took their children with them to be die at the stakeh to avoid that they should not be taken into a monastery and become to and to be converted and so on right it would appear I can understand that the parents themselves, they're adults, they have this mitzvah, but why are they taking their children with them? They're not commanded inv who gave the license for this. But according to what we're saying, it makes sense. It was only on them if it would come out that the children would not be in this mitzvah, right? his children, they'd be influenced. There'd be the opposite of there'd be a great right tremendous therefore this also the children also were commanded. And as I say, this very same piece from Yakov was said by uh Rablau's father in the safer. Okay, let's do this last piece. We won't be able to get through the whole thing, but we'll we'll give it a try. Um among the other things in the para at the end of the para you have the yumtovim you have the right smack in the middle of the yamim between you have this when you harvest your crop the mitzvah leaving over the corner of your field for the poor right and le All the things the portions of the the the sheave that you you left behind that you dropped all the portions that go to the poor person in harvesting right brings a medishi why is this mitzvah in the smack in the middle of the right why here between shuas and rash right um pes on one side and right and it interrupts this discussion by talking about the these these gifts of of pay of giving to the poor right says to teach whoever gives these portions to the poor is given the credit as if he built a bikdash and offered carbon. He offered sacrifices there. What's going on here? What's he talking about? He says, I don't get it. what's the quit proquo that if I do the mitzvah of and for the poor people I will have the building and giving carbonas right and why is it this mentioned here so we have two mysteries that have to be understood what's the nexus what's the connection and secondly what's the connection of putting it in in this place right the f shalomar he says something brilliant this is rough by the way he says something brilliant He's hinting to a actual yamto that a secret yamto which is between pes and rashash between shuis and rash. There's another ytov. It's not a yumptv yet but it's going to be a yamvali. The future says which is the four these four they will become will become so it's part of this list of right it's hidden here between righte Mikdash were destroyed on right the third will be built on right and will be a great y for us right okay so now it's going to start to come together Here I the third Bikdash is according to most opinions going to be built by the Msiah Ben David right migillis r which is the forbearing of of Msiah right Boaz Ruth right David is David right listen to this you know this if you study Ruth you know is what was Boaz's great that he married root and was the forebearer of the of the Mashiach was that he was medic that's what was going on in the field they were medic and these mitzvot these mitzvot are what created the op the the the the pattern of Jewish history which which eventually re came to be the the Msiah the Bishi the the at this time of the year and David was born where the David will will build the Bikash where all the corban will be sacrifices comes out and his whole thing began with what these mitzvah which were put smack in the middle of in this week's para of and rash right why because it's all about that y right it's in the right place and it's became a yontka because of these mitzvah, right? here is to teach in the future. great yont will will be parachuted in between shu and rashal and based on this this that's what rashi quotes right the mystery is solved right first of all the mystery of wise place there is certainly solved and the statement of rashi now right whoever does this mitzvah l for a poor person properly ma ku He has the as if he built the mikdashban and offered corban there. Okay. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Okay. We'll stop here as a parent.