Parshat Matot Maasei | Rabbi Baruch Taub | July 24th 2025

Good morning everybody. Parat I should say parot right masai. I hope you have a good balore. A little bit longer than usual. That's good. More Torah more sukim to hear. So um morning good morning. Please come in. Come in. Have a seat. Okay. >> So, last week I used uh two sources that I'm going to repeat again this week. Okay. Not not what I said, but I'm I I'm using the same sources. Um happens sometimes. s you get involved in in someone's Torah and you just don't let go. So the first piece was from uh Rafim Shvitz, the great late great Rashiva of the Mir Yeshiva. And uh as I mentioned last week for those who were not here, I just repeat it that somebody came out with a new uh safer last year which I just picked up when I was in New York a couple weeks ago and he took the schmus of and he divided them up para by para by para with and he see divided them up para by para little pieces from each para. So the first piece that we're going to do is from from there and let's see what he but there's going to be a theme here and it's in a certain sense it's a it's a theme of of the parha which we'll see from a number we start the para starts out with nadarim with vows um goes on to a number of other things the war with midyan but there's going to be a bit of a theme here so let's see what says we have the ar mikl in the parha right there There are six cities of refuge. If someone kills somebody, the shog right inadvertently. So if he he can escape to the six cities of refuge and be spare his own life because the person who's chasing him to kill him, the relative who wants to kill him won't won't reach him. Right? Um incidentally when Mosha Rabenu was commanded that to start the Yari Miklat there were going to be three initro and three in uh across in the other side right um Moshe immediately went to build them right he was commanded to build them I have to in the Torah he has to do the mitzvah and Rashi points out there um I'm just paraphrasing Rashy's comment but you have start to do the mitzvah right away So the question over there is what mitzvah the the the den of arim miklat did not come into play until we were init right. So what does it mean that Moshe fulfilled the mitzvah of building the ar miklat even before when b is were not ready to go into the midbar and all the years that the 14 years of preparation for ar mikl to be ready. So the answer is that there are two purposes for the mitzvah mikla. One is the obvious a refuge for the murderer by shog. But secondly, it's to highlight to highlight to highlight the importance of life and and and how we should value our lives and of course to plug into Torah and with our lives. So that already was part of the mitzvah, right? Because when you see that as a mikla, we know that you know life is important. Someone else's life is as important as my life and I have to be careful. Okay. So let's see what says first apost he quotes mlatim you should have these cities of refuge uh ven venam wrote wroteak the roak the murderer will will uh run there and be and be safe. the person we're talking about who killed somebody inadvertently. Galut lishkaga. The obligation for the murderer bish to go into golosapor aside from the fact that number one it serves as an atonement for him he's there for all his life until the death of the current cohen god vahhat salahadam. So number one it's a capora for him an atonement. Number two, it's saving him from the redeemer, the fellow who wants to kill him, the relative gam. But thirdly, it's a punishment. Obviously a punishment. I mean, he's out of society. You know, he's in a you want to say a minimum security uh prison. If you ever bid visited someone in minim minimum security prison I mean you know somebody pointed out to me that uh you know there's a lot of complaints amongst the Palestinians that they the way the jail treatments right but in in in the Palestinian society there's a tremendous effort purposefully to do crimes to get into Israeli prisons because once you get into Israeli prisons you know you've got three decent meals you can go to school and right this is Okay. So, we can't get off our what we're dealing with today, right? Boru should continue make things better for all of us. So, but but here this, you know, it's an onish. It's a punishment. Whatever you want to say, he's not in society, right? So, that's kind of the the end of the line for him. We have to ask a simple question. metro. Why is he punished? He killed somebody inadvertently. So why does the Torah say that he's punished? What why is there a punishment for this? Right? Answer. And this is this is really in a certain sense a theme that's going to we're going to see through the para. It's a subconscious idea. There's uh there's something deep in our nishama that we we have to that we have to spend our lives creating a sense of purpose and direction not only in what we do but in why we do it and it should become second nature for us in our in our someone who is confronted with the moment and of the of the act of killing someone inadvertently. You have to say he says that somewhere deep in his recesses he is capable of doing such a thing. Right? For some reason, he hasn't he hasn't worked on understanding the crime, the if you will, uh the inappropriateness, the no of murder to the extent that even is a terrible thing, right? It is a terrible thing. someone you're taking someone's life says if if he obviously still has not removed that in the inner recesses of his heart that understanding and it's it's there right it's activated if through heaven right it is decreed that he's going to kill somebody haru It's because somehow there is that it's not been removed yet from his the ability to do this right uh even therefore he goes to gol he goes into the miklit It is actually a punishment for the remaining the remaining unelt with problem of killing bishog that he did his nishama did not reject. This is a very um a very as I say dakut kind of an idea but this is what raim says and we're going to take it we're going to remove it into the into the general para for the next piece. This is again these are this is form that we have not used regularly and I I want to share with you again safer called notena not dea is um from uh yon David who is the rashivitk inim the son-in-law of rav hutner whose Torah we have we have studied all over the years um a tremendous raison his wife rabbitson brilliant David Zron was the dean of BJJ which Baka which was the Harvard of Karedi seminaries in Yushlim. She herself had a doctorate from Hunter College in from Colombia Rahutnner's only child. So, Rabion is a a a massive wonderful uh and here he goes into this idea that actually there's okay so let's see moving moving to another item on the para that the Jews were commanded was commanded to go to war against Midyan. Midan did a horrendous uh thing to Ami Israel, involved Ami Israel in promiscuous activity with Nishamean. The Nishamean uh came and enticed them and uh and Pinas uh of course was the was the hero of all of this. We spoke last week about Ko and defining Kanu which Pinhus did. Um he killed he killed the nussi of the shvit uh who was publicly desecrated boru by by having relations with the princes of uh of midan. And so we were commanded to go to war to destroy all the midyanid who were involved in this. Right? So but now Moshe gets angry and who is he angry at? Uh he's angry He's angry at the generals, the leaders, the the etc. He says, [Music] at Moshe. This is a this is a that Moshe commanded you. It'll become clear in a minute. So, Moshe. So, what what was going on here? What was the P? What did he What did he what did he yell at? He lost his school with the leadership. Why? Because they allowed certain people to stay alive. They were they were the the den was that they had to deal with was killing all those who were complacent complicit in the in the sin the terrible horrendous kill and they didn't they saved certain people they saved certain children they the children maybe they could have saved but they saved certain animals whatever whatever they were supposed to do they didn't do a complete job and so Moshe was was angry at that right so now Rashi says that Elazar you know who was working together with Moshe on this spoke to the those who [Music] at Moshe Rashi again. Now let's see what Rash says. Vomazar Shab Moshe. Why did why did why was Alazar the one to give it over? Moshe got angry and he forgot what the den is for these people. There's a certain den. There's a certain judgment of the people who went against and did not complete what they were supposed to complete. So Moshe forgot Moshe forgot what the den was for them for these people. Right? Elazar had to give it over. Right? His student Elazar, right? But why is that? Moshe Moshe got angry because he got angry. He he aired he made a mistake. And now here's the strange the strange connectedness to the parha. He didn't forget the what the punishment has to be for these people. He forgot the very next thing that's in the para. Immediately after this, immediately after this moment in the parha, the the soldiers fail to do what they were supposed to do. Moshe gets angry at them. You should have killed everybody. And then the the Torah goes on to discuss the laws of koshering caim goes on to talk about how we kasher kaim if our vessels you have gold silver metal whatever you have how to kasher them whether it's this is the origin of it right after the because they had possessions from midyan they had all the the vessels the the utensils the pots the pans from midan so so here we have the first the introduction of boiling, right? Burning out and also kaleim also the mitzvah of putting kaim in the mikvah to purify them right. So here he says and he and Moshe forgot the den of how we cleanse and purify the caim from midy. So Elazar had to take over and he gave it over. He forgot Moshe forgot the laws of Kashers. I mean imagine you call your rabbi with a shil and kash and he if if he's honest and tells you I forget the law that's a that's not a that's not a bad thing. That's a very impressive thing. If he says I have to get back to you, right? That's an honest rabbi, right? And it happens. You know you're asking a very good question. I'll get back to you. I have to look it up. I have to check it out. Right? But we're talking about Mosher Rabenu here, right? And Mosher Rabenu, it was a a kind of a punishment, right? We have to say, right, on a certain level, right? And he forgot the and there's two other episodes like this which we're familiar with, right? On the going back to Vayikra on the eighth day of the dedication of the Mishkan, Moshe forgot the halaka here you had the two brothers of Aaron who were surviving uh after of Aaron's children who were surviving they died right and they had to they had to do the avoda they had to do the work in the Mishkan and they were but they were onim they were an onin is someone who is between uh between death and burial of a relative. So, but here there was a dispensation. Cole can do the can continue the avoda even if he's an owning but the regular kohanim can't. But here there was a special dispensation that all these kohanim these two kohanim could continue to do the work. However, and there were three carbonaut that were given, two specially for the occasion of the dedication, but the other was a regular um regular corban which is very timely for us. It's going to be rush kesh on Shabbat. It was the the the corbin of rash kesh. So Mosha said all the carbon, you're allowed to do everything, all the sacrifices, even the regular ones, right? Aaron took an ombrage and Aaron and had an argument so to speak with Moshe. He explained to Moshe and Moshe got angry because he came in and he saw that they did not burn the Corban of Roshkesh. They did not eat rather the Corbin of Roshkesh. They burnt it completely. Right. So he took omrage at this and and Aaron without going into the details too many details already. But Aaron explained to him no that the the dispensation of the kohanim to give sacrifices while there are in the state of Onain is only for the special corban of the day. But the regular corban rashes corban which is a year is a monthly corban that that was okay. And Moshe Moshe acquiesed he agreed right? But he did get angry. He was angry with them. Why did you do this? And therefore he forgot the was not the den. The den was the way they did it. theeshban had to go as you know in a third case which we're all familiar with when he when he hit the rock he saidim listen now you rebellious people speaking to bene Israel at hellah and he hit he struck the rock to again through anger anger he made a terrible mistake and he forgot it was he forgot to did so you have all three cases of anger and anger is related to forgetfulness of Torah right I just want to interject here there's a safer called sharon an excellent safer written by from Ben on on all the he deals with a lot of rashonim and he brings in there 26 what was the of Moshe by hitting the rock, right? So, we're so familiar with some of them, right? We've talked about it. But he brings like I think 26 26 explanations of different refor you know it's like the rabbi is the the board of shne renewing the rabbis contract. So there's like everybody's got a different thing to say, right? So Mosher Rab goes back to Mosher Rabenu, right? 26 things. I want to share with you one of them, right? is a kind an interjection here and it's it was a comment of the um of theam sofur which was not published until later in the 1980s they found a manuscript of theam sulfur and he said in there this is an an amazing I I just don't want to pass this by it came to my mind now what was his sin so what did Mosha sayim how do you translate that listen now what's now na please Well, please no please, please. No hamoreim. What's hamoreim? You rebellious people. So says theam for you know what his sin was? He gave over mixed signals. Make up your mind. If you're punishing a child, if it's a no, it's a no. Hamari. If you're praising the child, it's nah. Right? Mixed signals, right? Mixed signals. not a healthy thing. Right? Mother takes one position, father takes another position. Right? So this according to Sofur was his misstep. Okay? I I just wanted to share that with you. It's a beautiful idea. Okay. But now let's get back to the back to the ranch. You've got three missteps of Mosher Rabenu where he actually forgot a and it was because of his anger. Right? So in next paragraph he asked what's the relationship what's the nexus between his that anger and forgetting right why is why is that what's going on here um now he says this is not happen stance not by back to our para that he forgot the of purifying the kaim that come from non-Jews right that's what he forgot those are the why what's the relationship between his anger and forgetting the laws of of cleansing purifying uh vessels Right? So you hear it coming, right? Hey, the garra says shal first of all at they asked this uh asked they asked the rabbi what do you attribute your longevity to right he said to them right didn't say you know I never smoked right I never had red meat right I never got angry. I never lost my cool in my house. Now that's very strange statement but doesn't mean only in his house he didn't get angry that doesn't mean for that you don't get along you know he doesn't get angry in his house but he goes in the street and he starts yelling and cursing at people right Ella uh you know we had a a Jew came into shul this morning into the 6:30 minion and uh he wanted to collect which you Listen, I have a policy. Anybody who's sticks his hand out, you give him he obviously needs it. He came in and he asked me, "Can I speak now?" You know, this is my So I said, "No, we don't." You know, I said, "We don't do it." Okay. Looked at me. Then he started to go around to every single person sitting there dvening and it was it was going on and on and on. He started speaking before Torah. They stopped him. It was it was a disaster. And he would have done very nicely because the people are very generous. They constantly in fact there there are two ladies that sit outside the shul every morning and they've even brought them chairs the balabat and every morning nobody asked questions you know right and one of the ladies had an operation this week she never forma she was telling us last week she's not going to be here for a week right she's not going to be here for a week it wasn't she wasn't looking for a mission bar she was want looking for a you know uh exactly so in any case what do you mean talk bey didn't lose his cool right That can't be. It's not what it means. Butto means something else. Says, says Rabos. Um, he says there's another concept here. You've got to look at in a in a more poetic way that the Torah can speak that speak, right? One's home, my home, my heart, right? Home and earth, right? He's talking about in his himself in his persona that he never lost his cool. His he developed himself that anger was simply not part of his persona is so understanding here. There are times there are times that a person has to act act with anger and better act out angrily, right? Ravo, right? A father to his son, right? A rav to his to his student, right? I mean this is from old older Talmidium of Raf Salvich will tell you that in his sheer if somebody said something that made asked a question that was that made no sense he he made it clear that it made no sense to him right so in his later years he got a little but there's a purpose for it there's there's a whole cha from the kavasar there are many many places in shas where you see this and there's a chuva from one of one of the great a in the the kavasar you bakra who incidentally uh I think that if you're if I'm aging myself but there's a musician right there was a musician named Bakra right Bert Bakra so I understand he was a Ben he was a direct descendant of the uh of this particular rabbi right okay a couple of we're talking about 300 years back right in any case right that's okay right to get angry at a child you have to discipline a child but it's acting out it's Not can't be real anger, right? The rabbis teach us it should only be external. The shouldn't be anger in your heart. You should be able to switch it off. Right? Okay. That's he's giving the example of not he the anger that he had to sons and now he okay so now over the page [Music] zoo zul I can't read here um just as we you know god is we have to be careful with this we have to work on these midot Right. Um, in other words, the where does this come from? The Rambam, the Rambam in tells us there's a mitzvah called we have to walk in the ways of Hashem. Walking in the ways of Hashem, God is merciful. You have to be merciful. He's loving. You have to be loving. Right? And then he says that the proper way for in mid is the middle road. The middle road. And uh the middle road normally is understood as the golden mean, right? To go to be in the middle. Not to this but not to that, right? Can't be. That's not what the Rama means because we have to we're imitating God. Sometimes God gets angry. Sometimes God's very angry. Sometimes God is extremely merciful and extremely loving. So it doesn't mean I'm I'm making a long story short. What it means is that you have to have the entire rainbow. To be in the middle means that I'm in the middle. I can I have the entire panorama. I've developed in myself. I've worked on myself and I have the entire panorama of midot from anger to gentility and that if I have to call on my anger, I'll call on my anger. But it's it's not exter. It's only external. It's not that's what the means. The Ram keeps using both of those terminologies. That's what that's the it's not moderation, right? God was not a is not is not a moderate, right? He can be very angry. He can very very loving. So we have to draw on what's on what's necessary, right? So and you see he's and he uses K as an example, right? He says that if a person is is an angry man, an angry person, he should go into he should do midot therapy on his anger and work on himself and go go to the other extreme completely and then go back to the middle to read the words of the Rama very carefully and he said that's the middle of the road right that you have to bring it all back to the center so so here and he wants to say here same thing in Shmaya kuresh who works with us the same We have this from there are times that deals with us with anger. We have to know to know that loves us, right? Father doesn't punish his child because he hates him. He punishes him because he loves him. Right? the same with but the essence of we just said it this morning right everything is right so uh here we go that that's what was wrong even he's going to say on his level Mosher Rabenu So the reason why Moshe was punished is because his anger was not only external even even there was still inside of him some right. So why what's the nexus? So why did he forget after the after the so we're being after this questions questions afterwards because we're being videoed. Okay. So uh why why the nexus that because he was angry he forgot the laws of kashing caim. It's very simple. We can figure it out ourselves. Right? What's the basis, the underpinning basis of these? You've got a trafe dish, right? What's tra about it? Use palm of liquid. You put it in your in your dishwasher, right? With two cycles, right? A cold cycle and a hot cycle. It's and it's shining. the dish is shining because the trafe used the we'll just use the colloquial word the tarfus the tuma or whatever is inside is inside the dish you don't see it what's the problem it's clean what do I have to do what do I have to take it to the mikvah for right we have to right he says it's not it's internal the whole problem the whole issue of kashering kaim is not external it's internal it's an internal thing on the vessel right So here the the the misstep of Mosher Rabenu if we can say such a thing we we we have to go very delicately right on however we understand it to whatever extent but it was an internal thing right and because he lost it internally right he forgot the laws of kash which is an internal purging ourselves purging from ourselves of internal impurity they're forbidden these vessels As we said it was it was didn't remain as outside anger external only it was everything and he puts parenthetically we have to understand whatever it was with Mosher Rabenu is a minuscule minuscule minuscule right Shak Mosher Rabenu Abdullah Mosher Raenu on his level al was caught on it right whatever whatever that is but that's the way we understand it that's the nexus that's the connection now he goes on to another area in the para we'll see this this theme right so let's go to the beginning of the parha the the mitzvah of ner we are forbidden to make nadarim to make vows making a vow Now is a very dangerous thing because first of all you're saying the 613 mitzvah are not enough. I'm going to make another right to do something else. You in a sense hakically you have added a 614th mitzvah and you are responsible for that if you go against it. It's a very serious significant crime. Right? So let's talk about that. And there's there's the really what's what the what the mitzvah here is is cancelling vows. Right? There are two ways of vows to be cancelled for um we either we go to a and that's called and we know that that's what we do and we have that let's say a father uh can can nullify can get rid of uh may fear a vow from a daughter or uh if she's if she's not if she's not uh if she's engaged or married her husband can do the same thing. So it can make make the vows it's it's gone, right? The vow is gone, right? So you don't have to worry about it. And um in fact, we take that very seriously. We're very careful about not making the dorm. And if you think that you're really not, you are because we don't talk about you. I don't we never heard people walking around. I'm going to make a vanetta now. But I do hear many people saying biner biner right you know we might not understand what but it's in our it's in our it's in our we don't want to make a vow right because there's a danger make a vow right fantastic example he's bringing from rashi on on how we nullify a vow Okay, I'm going to go quickly go a little late, but I'll I'll explain everything. She's forgiven. This is a case Rashi explains. What are we talking about? We're talking about a girl, a young lady who made a vow to become a Nazer. Now, that's pretty serious stuff. That means she can't drink wine. She has to let her hair grow. Maybe for a little lady that's okay, right? To be a ner. She wants long hair, but she can't come in contact with with Misa with dead a dead body, right? And she did it. She wants to do it. I'm going to do this. I want to become, let's say, more holy. I want to try to be closer to Hashem, right? There is a law of Nazir. So, I'm going to I'm plugging into Nazir. And her father hears about it and he cancels it. She doesn't have to be there. He hears about it. I can't do this. I know she's going to get into trouble for this. Right? Two hours later, what happens? She accidentally picks up a cup of wine. She's at a kdish, an engagement party, whatever it is, and somebody gives her a little wine, makes a she drinks the wine. O, what do I do? Right? I'm finished now. Right? That's what it's talking about, right? So, I'm just going to skip through to give it to you inside. Now, shouldn't shouldn't do anything wrong, right? the father cancelled, right? But she has to the Torah says she has to even though the vow is canled and the Gomorrah concludes when it talks about this says you know imagine a person who does a sin uh inadvertently he doesn't really do the sin right and he has to he has to get to chuva all the more so the rest of us who do sins not in inadvertently right so but what's the here. What is she asking for forgiveness for? She has to do forgiveness. Right? That's the that's the it's the and that's it's a puzzle in the Torah, right? Here what you can answer the question right he is a very the the is like very very limited soft there was no ma there was really no ma I'm skipping because we're getting late here. So um Right? In other words, a person a person has the ability, as we said before, to add add something to to the Torah, so to speak. Right? But but but here I I wanted to become something special, right? But if in the in the essence of the bottom of that page, a person has the power that they can add something to their nishama, but if the nishama is not ready for it, right? You have to be ready for it. And if you're not ready for it, it's not going to happen. And this is what happened here. She wasn't ready for it. She did not she made a an externally a vow that she's not going to she's going to be another but internally she she on her level of spirituality which was obviously a great level that she wanted to do this but on her level of spirituality she was not ready to do this and since she wasn't ready to do it happened she she did something to to counter her nerut right it was internal again we're dealing with a kind of subconscious internal the persona the entire entire persona has to change and if the tire persona has not been totally corrected you'll do something but shog that's the point he's making um okay and that's why we can that's what no so he says here in the second paragraph on the third on the last page the on the left so there's a reality I'm not going to go through the whole paragraph I'm going to go to the last the last the v we're going to Z will do but there's a reality of the of the there's a reality that I have to deal with that's and the beyond the reality is Torah is to of the the power of the oral Torah that can remove even even something like Nazerus. Okay. But I just want I want to so you get the idea here. We get the idea from uh Rabayen when he when he spoke uh about the Mosha Rabenu's kas. We have Mosha Rabenu's kas which is anger and it led to his forgetting the caim. It was internal and that's the conscious of of of kaim and nidorim here this ma that we gave with with nidorim is also uh internal and ar mikl right it's a sin because he killed somebody but internally there was something right now last last piece and this is the icing on the cake right I want to add here a PS with sweetness [Music] who right age-old question. Why do we start you know the day this is it the holiest day of the year but we start with we nullify our vows what what's that all about right what is chuva actually you know before we answer the question what is chuva how is it possible a person can sin and he goes to says I'm sorry and he can be forgiven. Now there's a caveat you know you have to ask the person as well and it's just not done but I go to and I say I did something wrong please forgive me right that's chuva right that's chuva it's kind of it's it's abstract it's not in the world of reality chuva is a mitzvah that is beyond reality right because when you do something there's There's a reality in this world what we do. You rob a bank. So you've robbed the bank. You have the money. That's the chuva. Real chuva. In order to do chuva, you don't just have to revisit the bank robbery, the reality of what you did. You have to revisit yourself, your heart, your nishama, the source of this. Why did I do this? What's in me that I did such a thing? I've got to purge myself. I've got to kasher my kalin, my nishama in my heart. I have that's what I have to do. There's something wrong with me. I I I am I I covet something that doesn't belong to me. I'm not I I don't have self-respect that I should work earn a living myself. Right? That's that's chuva. That's chuva, right? That I I confront myself not just the misa the external reality of what I did, but the what what was behind it, the person, my persona, and I correct that persona. That's chuva through this internal thing that is related to the actual thing that he did. That's what when you go to the rabbi, when you go to the bin to enull vows, they say to you, you know, when you made the how do you enull a vow? You know, they don't just say abracadabra, right? No more vow, right? That's not was there something. Would you have done this thing if your mother knew about it? No, I would never do it. Okay, that's a that's a pak. You don't we can we then you would would not have done it. It's not a vow, right? So that's you're already thinking about it, right? internalizing it to be a better person. So that's that is why Kipper starts with to confront ourselves to cancel our vows, right? What what do we what do we what did we all of our missteps during the year to look in we have spending 25 hours now to look inside of ourselves and see where we went wrong and try to correct that and and I know that it's me Rabon right I'm not I don't make excuses please forgive me that's why nidre is at the beginning of yum kipper okay thank you all very much.