Parshat Matot-Masei 5784 by Rabbi Baruch Taub

okay good evening everybody I I I take the liberty of um uh a personal privilege and I want to dedicate this year tonight to a rafu for Rua to a kayal bodade who uh was born and grew up in our community in Toronto in the bot community of Toronto and um I I'm going to take the liberty of saying a capital till Mish reading something to you from him you many of you have everybody has seen that last week a k bodade was severely injured in the north by healah and he is now in the neurosurgery ward in rambam hospital in kifa and uh he will have a rafu and a Yeshua Rua Benjamin Brown who's the son of Jeffrey and Anette Brown Jeffrey was as a past president of the sh uh uh Jeffrey the children were were very young when we made Aliyah so I only knew them as little children but when I come come in contact with them here in AR Isel they're very loving very special and uh they have to be very special there b Yeshiva Benji and and Zach Ben Yeshiva hez Yeshiva and also a kadosh fighting in in Sal and Rabbi kopkin who certainly knows them much better tells me that Benji is just a superstar he's a focused individual thinker someone very special and passionate in everything he does in his yish kite in his CID so um let's just do a I want to just say and then I'll read something that he wrote uh for you before we go into the sh because I am dedicated dedicating the sh to for to B be I've often pointed out that in this cap P of we say look up to the mountains to see where our help comes from Hashem the question is why doesn't DAV is say look up to the Shay look up to the the why look up to theim to see the help that is coming from Hashem so I think theat I think the understanding what DAV had in mind was that the difference between harim a mountain a har and the sheemish and the is that a mountain is climbable we can climb the mountain and D is telling us a tremendous lesson on behalf of a we want A's help it's a two-way street that we have to reach up towards him we have to move in his Direction and he will move in our Direction very fitting for Benji Ben Benjamin let me let me do [Music] the B Be benu I want to read you uh Benjamin sends out every week to family and friends at darar Torah and I want to read to you the darvar Torah usually it is a video and a a WhatsApp message but uh Rabbi kopkin transcribed it and read it out Friday night in the bi it this past week but it it is from parad Bak but I think you'll see why it has tremendous first of all you'll be get get a pict of this this kados this very special uh Benjamin right now we're at the end of The 40-year Journey faced with the unknown threat of balak and Bam their attitude was the Jews are not special they're not going to mess up from now until the time of Messiah why we are going to mess up why choose only the Jews why not let everyone be the same but what they failed to realize is that they thought thought that practicing Judaism was just a box to be checked but that but that they could do whatever they else they wanted without their lives with their lives once that box was checked but really that's seeing Judaism as a checklist what is really is is a lifestyle a full-time life commitment even if you doen with the fervency of yum Kipper but if you make it mundane something that I have to do it loses its value Bam's last effort of the paral was to seduce the Jews he just wanted the Jews to assimilate and make their Judaism at checklist also he wanted them to continue bringing their carbonos but to also party like the midianites how do we view our Judaism is it a check Bo checkbox or a lifestyle part of making Judaism a way of life is to work on oneself and go against the grain of one's nature Aram prayed on behalf of the people of sto he realized that he needed to work on himself this is because Judaism is working on the self facing our failures and then realizing that even when we're in the mundane parts of life we're still connected even when you close the safer after learning you're still connected to it because you've made it an intrinsic part of your life in Paras balak the Jews weren't even involved in the story of Bam's attempt attt to curse us but we were still connected to the story that's because Judaism is our life not a checkbox even when things seem distant and far I'm still connected to Hashem now here's the second last paragraph of this letter from which I bristled by reading it because really it was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy for bmen at this moment I might be a safer that's kissed and closed right now or I might have kissed and closed the safer of Hashem right now for the time being but even so I'm still connected so Bay let us have a look into our inner world of our aod Hashem and our Judaism and have it become more than just a checklist but rather a lifestyle chabas thank you so much for letting me in here these words speak so much about this young man this thisa and we we hope and pray that he will have a and the of the Torah that we're learning now our weapons for Rua and Yeshua are Torah and so let's learn a little bit um on behalf of for bam so the par of our para is um is uh mat Mas it's a double para this week and Matos uh begins with theim of nim of vows of religious vows now there are two kinds of vows the word for a vow in Hebrew is Ned which is really not not enough of an appropriate translation but we translate the word n is a Val there are two kinds of narim one is that we prohibit something of the Torah to our that the Torah allows us to do we prohibit to ourselves um the other is that we take on an extra we vow to take on an extra Mitzvah in a big way now there's a danger there's a danger of of n particularly prohibiting something to ourselves let's say that we don't want to do we want to take on something extra that it really becomes a kind of 614th Mitzvah and it's d words have consequence speech can be useful and it can also be destructive this is the power of speech and this is what this first piece is about this this piece is from the canono which my safer on on the par init and it's called K the power of a is Moshe spoke to the leaders of the tribes the is is more saying this is the thing that God commands and he goes on to explain the name the laws of of vows highlights the r the leaders of the tribes which is unusual you don't generally see that in a Mitzvah that is presented in the Torah Rashi [Music] rash says Rashi gives attention to this here's rashi rashi tells us that the Torah Moshe gave specific place and importance to the N the princes of the tribes to teach them first afterwards he taught all is the truth be told is this is true with all of the mitv of the Torah first he he gathered Aon and the N mosha would gather Aon and N after he receiv received the Torah MOS spoke to them then all came so this was the way the Torah was given but the question is why is this concept emphasizing the the r the leaders the princes of the tribe why is that emphasized da by the Mitzvah of making vows right why this is to teach us that the ability to pencil a vow can even be done by a by an expert as the prince of a tribe one can go to a ba of three three or even to one expert like the head of a tribe if there's no you can take three three Jews the ability to cancel a vow which we want to do because it's a dangerous business is given over by particularly to the to the leader and that point is driven home by Moshe speaking specifically to the and highlighting that even though it's true by other Mitzvah okay if you don't have the sheets I'm going to translate everything I apologize those of you who do have the sheets aside from that there are two other questions that we could ask on this pasuk asked by riss Albert riss Albert who I've mentioned many times in past Albert was taken from this world much too young he was Tom the T muak ofos Feinstein and a rashash in University a very special special and in his safer and he asked another two questions on this number one again against the grain of what the Torah does normally this doesn't begin with him God spoke to mhe goes cuts to the chase the words that Moshe spoke to us question number two or number three to he calls the now m is also a name for a leader a tribe A Tribe right a tribe is a m so he's called they're called the rash mat why does he call them the rash mat right call the princes of the of the congregation or is right what's what's that all about based on these questions I want to tell you says R and Albert and we're gonna explain this that moshe's intent is not simply to give over the laws of vows MOS he wanted to deliv message deliver a message specifically to the leaders of the Jewish people based on my life mosu wants to present a a valuable lesson to the leaders of the Jewish people a lesson they have to learn much way the hard way that I had to learn that message let's see what he means when mosha commanded when commanded mosha to speak to the Rock to bring forth water Moshe made a mistake fatal mistake he assumed that the wanted him to hit the rock not to speak to it I mean there was precedent the first time that's what he did explains the reason why he made a mistake because he told him to take his his staff his scepter with him right is a symbol of of leadership but he told him to take the staff right what does he need the staff for the seit hit the rock what she had what she commanded him to do the first time that he brought water out for B Israel M MOS understood the purpose of taking the staff the speech with a rock is hitting it right Beach to a human being maybe that's speaking but to a rock it's hitting it so that's what he wanted to do over to page two but the truth be told that's not what was going on here that's not what a wanted the M was designed the staff the M was designed to reprove right it was was not simply because of Disobedience marry on the part of the rock so I'm going to punish you and hit you not only to bring out water from the rock wanted to reprove the Jewish people that you can see you can bring out water even from water from a rock even by using the power of speech the power of speech is is is unending in what it can accomplish wasn't about bringing water from the rock only it was from teaching the Jewish people that the power of speech can accomplish great things right continues therefore M wanted to show the people to show the power of speech to the people we say to demonstrate that one can change the order of nature with the power of speech right when you think things are hopeless in interpersonal relationship sometimes the right word can turn things can make a complete turnabout without action without hitting without physical Force even to bring water from a rock this was the real lesson that wanted to bring from Moshe and The Rock the next paragraph the message what he wanted to give over to the leaders of the tribe the leaders of you you're picking up here what's going on with the word m m m he's dealing with the laws of vows which is power of speech which is abusing the power of of speech the power of speech to make a vow a religious vow which can get us into trouble and that's why yipper we begin yipper by nullifying our bows by by canceling them right is the power of speech this is what we're talking about therefore this whole thing is given over not he's answering the first question skips that Torah says MOS Moshe Moshe because Moshe wants to take up close and this is up close and personal look at what happened to me because I made a mistake a fatal Mistake by hitting the Rock by not using the power of De which wanted me to do so this is up close and personal I want to teach you this message right it's about me this was my personal test which I failed at and look at the results not all I'm not able to come in to ER Isel right so what about this this m right come we can drive this home second question the leaders of the tribes the word the word m has two meanings m means a scepter it does it means a scepter or a staff but it also means a group of people a tribe of people same word has two meanings Ines right but a it's the scepter that he used rather than speaking and he's speaking to the r you have the power both of M and M the power of force being a leader by force right or the power of being a leader of people and responding to them B debor the also also to perade that he wanted to teach the leaders the Rau that they are leaders of a mate but this it's a it's it's a double-edged sword right it's not just power it's physical power it's also speech word shave for tribe shav for tribe also is the same as M the word shet also means a scepter a rod a staff and also means a tribe so you have to decide how do you want to treat the sh right it has these two different meanings Ines could mean a group of people both of them mean a group of people it could be a staff of wood sometimes it's used to strike physically you see it in the Torah when some person hits his EV his friend with a with a shave right but it also relates to the the challenge the responsibility of a leader wants to punish people translat shave it leadership Dominion but it has to be done with finally this is the lesson that mosenu wanted to give over m a leader has to understand that his or his which is kind of a metaphor you have the shavit M right mate metaphor dgma it's a dogma of leadership but it doesn't mean that's the it's like a leader goes with a scepter King goes with a with a with a shav but that doesn't mean that it's to be used with physical Force which you leaders I'm giving this over to you because D is all about the power of the word right the May mariva and my test I'm I'm putting up front my fail test at May mariva with hitting the rock right was also with it should have been with debor if it's consistent a leader a leader has to be consistent and constant he can change change the people he's leading to the point of even bringing water from a rock by using the M using the shav by using the mat of speech a leader has to know we all have to know power of speech is is amazing a leader has to know that he has tremendous power with the K of debor of his speech his teaching power his speaking power if he knows to speak with with gentility with gentleness to think to speak with with wisdom so this is the idea of the M of the shet why this par of specifically to the leaders why specifically from Moshe because he wanted to highlight through his humility of mosha right there was no un of like mosha through his own humility of demonstrating his own error with the power of speech to teach us how to use our power of speech properly okay over the page um number two is from R Schwab uh the safer m and um just to point he's going to talk about BOS we know the story of BOS they said to the Ron said to Moshe Z why are are the men only getting an inheritance women aren't getting inheritance so the law of inheritance was actually was actually to women was actually established and codified through BOS through the women the daughters of slat from sh Masha from from yose the daughters of SL who came from Mas and yose it's interesting that we're coming to the end of sabar and the first four kashim of Torah are deal with the power of the miraculous Moshe Miracles right everything is tremendously mean obvious Miracles there's a a watershed moment now at the end bbar we're coming into dorim which is taking us into Israel where the the party of Miracles is mosha leaves mosha leaves and with mosha leaves that that direct relationship to obvious Miracles and now it it it's not only K coming to us but it's the CH the challenge of B Isel on our own building the land Building A Israel creating a just Society bringing the kadush of Torah through our own handiwork reaching up to Hashem that's what the vorm comes to that's there's a watershed moment here so it's interesting that at the end of the safer you have first of all last week Pinas Pinas taught us the law was the law of of Kano and poeno right it was not given to us by Moshe himself it was given by Pinas the law of of inheritance is coming from the daughters of slav from ourselves because Torah this is the first these are the first examples of Toral until now was the written Torah of Moshe and once we we end off from these Force forum and enter into dor we're entering into the stage of the oral Torah which is something that that the oral Torah is something that is created it's given byes but it is fleshed out byel through our learning of Torah which we see from Pinas and the daughters of slav I I maybe just want to add in a kind of PS here I don't know if we're gonna get through we're not going to get through everything here necessarily but speaking about inheritance there's a tremendous question to be asked right uh as important as as and obvious there the inion of an inheritance giving over to our children children inherit from parents everyone does it right children inherit from parents but the the which discusses the laws of inheritance and the laws of inheritance are many uh there is no din in the Torah that a parent has to give over an inheritance to to a child right why is that secondly hierarchically speaking the support that a parent has to give a child ends at the age of six that's the after six years old a parent is not obligated to support a child as incredulous as that sounds that's the so number one there's no din there's no law that you have to give over and inheritance a child number two after the age of six you don't have to you can turn to society to help you to raise your children now that's that's an amazing set of questions right so how do we understand that so I think the Torah is doing something which is which is is amazing you know the uh who was a great once wrote that the love that a parent has for a child is much stronger than the love that a child has for a parent now we who have experienced are who experienced both the love of a parent to a child and love from a child to a parent if we're intellectually honest we know it's true right A Parent's Love for a child the unconditional love a child not so simple parent admonishes a child he or she goes into the room slams the door I hate them right now eventually they cool down and they change their attitude right doesn't happen with a parent unless there's some kind of illness involved right why is that why is the love for a parent other words I remember once a woman in the community many years ago who had a a um a challenging relationship with her mother she was she as at her own her to her own admission she forget about terrible to she was a terrible teenager she was terrible to her mother their relationship was very much at at odds with each other when she gave birth to her baby and the doctor gave her the baby and she was holding the baby her daughter she called her mother and could not stop crying asking forgiveness to her mother at that moment how could I have treated you the way I did and please accept my apology right so the off says why is it true why is it it it is if we're intellectually honest there is some truth to it and he says like this because it it's a genetic thing it's a genetic thing we are from Adam and kav from Adam and Eve we were created as we created we had children we were created as parents to have children right that's genetically there that we had children right but the children to be to be a parent that was not part of the genetic makeup the original genetic makeup of Adam and kava was not as children they were genetically parents a mother and a father that genetically is stronger than the genes of being a child to a parent because it going all the way back to our origin we were parents genetically and children and children to parents came afterwards it was not as strong a genetic ho genius the off re was was a genius So based on that idea I want to suggest to you that's the genius of the Torah Andes r i mean what he what he's after here I mean why is there a Mitzvah to honor parents parents give up for children everything their basic needs right food love shelter everything they need without without being asked right so what's going on here right what parent would not provide for their children after six what parent would not provide something for their children after 120 years the idea of the mitz of inheritance is to for the children to appreciate once they learn a little Torah and they see what the Torah says about inheritance and parents responsibility to children on the books and everything then they look at everything their parents are doing for them and have done for them much the same as this woman in the Maternity Ward they will will appreciate and love their parents even more not because they have to but now they understand and they'll embrace the relationship and every the love the love that their parents have given them not because of a responsibility as a as an obligation as a Mah but they embrace them as children because of Love okay let's do number two on the sheet and he brings out something says something very nice here's the so he commands here's the's the here you're right you said good and this is what you can do you can but you you you can inherit but please be careful right you can get married right because the danger here is that their inheritance will go to another tribe but they were allowed to get married right you know you can you can get married get married you get an inheritance second part of the P inheritance is yours what will happen to it we don't know but then a however but do yourself a favor and marry within the tribe right because then there's going to be problem The Inheritance is going to go to outside the tribe you don't necessarily want that to happen but you can do it if you want right the Mitzvah is you can marry get married to anyone you want but second part of the marry within the tribe so let's see what says the tribes the women of the daughters of were allowed to marry out to marry out of their own tribe of manasha right Ella so that's the first part of the so what do I accomplish with this last part of the but but Merry within the tribe the said for those who are learning you'll get to it eventually right it's a suggestion a good suggestion that the Torah is giving marry within if you'll have less trouble less problems right they were never commanded to do this what's going on here they weren't commanded to do it so what's the idea here second paragraph a good idea in the tor is considered to a God-fearing person to an intelligent person right as a commandment right let's apply this to the whole t a person you do the mitzvas a person can become can do all the Mitzvah in the Torah but he can be a very not nice person just by doing the MIT not enough to do the Mitzvah right do you do the mitv the the intention of how we do mitv it's part of the mitvah as it says and we say this every time we take out the put away the Torah its ways are ways of pleasantness Shalom and all of its paths are peace in other words here's the thing you know someone could say in tongue and Chic well it's not really Ten Commandments it's 10 suggestions not so 613 Commandments but God does make suggestions to us there are suggestions and we we should take them seriously in other words there is there is an ethic of uh of Jewish behavior of Torah behavior that is uh above fact raar great rash raar liin the sonin law Ric raar Lin wrote a a brilliant essay many years ago is there an ethic an ethic outside of H and basically basically there is you know just to give an example from R hutner the other rebi of RAR and liin rutner once said trying to drive this home there's andov there are things that are are non-negotiable and there are suggestions so for example he says if I stand in the Bas medish and and I have a beautiful white Persian Persian cat with a diamond necklace and I'm I'm I've got this cat I'm standing in my place in the front of the base Med is Riva is that AER is it forbidden it's not AER but not a good idea not a good suggestion there are certain things that are not necessarily the letter of the law but we should try to take the suggestion that the Torah is giving that's that's the idea here and one more we'll skip over to the second column actually I think we're we're running out of time I'll just do the the second paragraph the rabbis teach us this here here we have I'll tell you this I'll tell you this outside we won't go inside and I'll end with this yro something we've spoken about in the past yro the first G sedic of the Jewish people comes to Moshe rabenu newly made G and what does he do he has the seeming tarity and and presumptuousness to teach mosu listen you're working too hard you're working much too hard right you're taking this business on your own all by yourself you shouldn't do this you've gota so he wants to reform the judicial process and tells them how to appoint judges judges of th hundreds thud of tens judges of 50 and so on right now that's one thing he did but it's even worse he goes on and he tells him he tells him he tells him the law of to go go beyond the letter of the law which is uncanny here's isra again the newly minted G he comes and he tells them you have to do not only what the Torah tells you to do but you have to do beyond what the Torah tells you to do beyond the letter of the law right and in fact the gorah says that you shal was destroyed because we didn't we didn't do beyond the letter of the law we just went along this is the I'll do the but what about my own my own feeling what about my own emotion what about my own heart and soul putting it into the mitzah so is taught him beyond the letter of the law now by the way a tremendous question what kuta is it for yra to tell us that that beyond the 613 misses the answer is that yra was the only person alive at the time who could properly teach that concept because yra was the first G because a g is a Jew by choice not a Jew because I stood by Haren even though I said n and isma I have no choice isra was a Jew by choice he accepted he he embraced Torah he embraced the Torah as something beyond the letter of the law right so here you have this idea beyond the letter of the law the kind of the 613 suggestions beyond the 613 Mitzvah okay there you have the paraa and I think that our young wonderful youngim and B Yesa that we're all familiar with many of our children grandchildren relatives friends they are they are fighting for us there are two hostages two sets of hostages there are the hostages and there are theim who are also Hostage to this evil enemy and we want them both and all to come home very soon and we want in particular the one that we've been focusing on tonight to enjoy a is