Pinchas & Matos - One G-d, One Nation

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's name running assistance in our mapping israel 57 82 2022. this week's parasha and khutzlar says parshas pinchas and the narcissist we're going to read and parches mantos next week we will finally join and the code starts you guys will read matos and marseille and we in arts israel will read just mase and it's been an interesting journey and actually this week i think is quite interesting because there's a connection between the two parties at the very end of pinchas beginning of matos which i wasn't familiar with and the ramban brings out i'd like to share this connection with you and teach you and learn together really an incredible idea [Music] which is very uh relevant to us the very end of our parsha of parches pinchas we have a description of all of the carbonus all of the sacrifices which were brought from for the times when the kurdish borg who meets is a celebration of meeting between hackerspark between god himself as it were and the jewish people the sacrifices that were brought in honor of this meeting are delineated here at the end of the precious princess pesach sukis each of the holidays had their own special list of carbon sacrifices that were brought to bring the jewish people together with god as it were to join us to connect us for us to come to the best in the time of the temple to the mishkan the tabernacle in the times of the tabernacle and there is a part of this uh description which perhaps we've spoken about in the past and i'd like to focus on again a little bit of a different angle than we've seen in the past the very end of practice pinchas the very end gives us on the eighth day of sukis the eighth day of circus is a very special day circus itself is a special time we sit in our sukkas we shake the lulav but after all of that the eighth day we exit our sukkah we exit we stop taking the lulav and the asteroid and we have a different set of carbonus there's like a set the carbonace as is well known there are 70 param70 bulls that are brought as sacrifices throughout the days split up the numbers descending thirteen twelve eleven ten nine and on yom shimini at series which is makes its own special it's its own special celebration we bring one power we bring one bull as a sacrifice the 70 as is well known and we're going to discuss a different angle of this well-known idea as is well known there are 70 perim which correspond to the 70 nations and there's a diminution 13 12 11 10 9 representing the diminution the the lowering of the power of the kritsayanam of the powers that are outside the nations of the world and there's a smithyan series on the eighth day that number eight represents the aspect of the spiritual represents above the natural we have that on that day of the eighth day we have a single power a single bull which is offered and represents the jewish people famous gemaran sukkah which i made into a song what is the idea of this single bullet corresponds to the single nation the jewish people are a single nation and the 70 represents the big party that the king throws for all of his servants the single bull represents the small party that he has just alone together with his beloved friend which is the jewish people which is what happens at the end of time that's the that's the famous idea which is also brought by rashi we'll see soon a different idea but i'd like to bring it through to parches matos so we can see the connection and begin to think about a very deep idea so the so can bring this idea interestingly also part there's a para hud according to one of the explanations we have one bull and one ram what is the idea of the single bull the single ram one represents hakado shibaru who got himself as it were one represents the jewish people correspond to each other we find that it's said in our deeper sources the jewish people god the torah all are one aspect somehow whatever that means but we have this this unification occurring on the schmidt series now the next possible is very interesting right after the description of the car bonus the sacrifices of shemini at saras the eighth day of sukis so the plastic tells us like this something which seems unrelated but it's not unrelated because it's very much related it's continuation as you can see from where the summit is where the end of the section is where the end of the parties is chapter 29 verse 39 these are what needs to be done on your moyadim on your meeting times the regular when we come to come together to meet with hashem besides the dharma and under the davis there are there's an opportunity for the jewish people at all times to make a nether and to make a commitment to bring an animal as a as an offering for us to hashem as it were and that's something that we do generally we fulfill our vows around the shahi shrigam around these three maya dim these three festivals pesach and sukkos [Music] departure finishes off the chapter breaks are incorrect here but our parsha breaks of course are based on arma sora our tradition which goes back 3 300 years and there's not a break until after this pasuk that's this verse moses spoke to ben israel all of that which god commanded moshe and we have this concept of the nadarim which is the completion the the last idea of our partial part is pinchas and leads us into the beginning as the ramban explains of precious matters precious matters moshe speaks to jewish people actually to the leaders of the jewish people interestingly he says this is the matter that god commanded each kid or nederlashem when a person will make a vow to god or he shall vashvue alas or israel or if he makes an oath to create some kind of uh something forbidden upon himself that which he says he must do and the partial continues speaking about different types of vowels different people who make the vowels how you can annul the vowels but generally speaking a person makes a vowel a person makes a promise he's going to bring a particular sacrifice he's going to create a certain forbidden nature upon himself he wants to prevent himself from doing a certain thing so he can make a vow and in that way he purifies himself he makes an offering another in a certain sense as an offering to god you find the concept of nazir the person who uh makes it forbidden for himself to drink wine to cut his hair certain things a person can use a vow in order to make himself more holy in order to strengthen his relationship with hashem in order to strengthen his commitment that's the right word that we're looking for his commitment to god beginning of matos and the penthouse has to do with vows what is the idea of vows what is the concept what is the depth of the idea and how does it relate to the concept of the omahazers what what is the idea of shrinianceres that singular that that expression of singularity of connection between hashem and the jewish people the one nation the one nation the jewish people in america a unique nation amongst the many nations of the world the 70 nations of the world what is the idea how does that connect to the concept of nadarim to these special vows that a person makes an order to strengthen his relationship with hashem perhaps we could say in order to in order to create some kind of issue a lot more i'd like to read to you a madrish another idea which is also brought in rashi which means explanation and perhaps you can have an understanding through this madrish of what is the difference between the um asylum the nations of the world and the jewish people and how does that relate to the concept of nadaram clearly there's a contrast when we speak about sheminati's contrast that the midrashim are trying to draw between the jewish people as the singular nation as opposed to the seventy nations of the world the uma islam and there are hints to what is the difference what is the contrast and how do we understand and and what is the approach that we are to take from it this is a mattress like this this is the final matrix so when it comes to the eighth day so we see that there is a progressive a progressive diminution like we said of the corbonus the bulls starting from the beginning of sukis and then it skips down to one on the eighth day so what is the concept so the measure says something interesting or derek ericson is teaching you the way of the world the proper way of being the proper way of acting from the car bonus and i must say i don't completely understand exactly what is the limit to regular day life to normal life but in concept and in theory i do have a depth of understanding and let's discuss that together we see that the numbers go down there's a diminution what is the idea behind it this teaches you that if you go to you go to to visit somebody you're a guest you keep the kavere so your friend greets you and you're a guest there young mission so the first day this is what you should expect this is what you should expect on the first day he's going to give you wow the best delectable foods he's going to feed your chicken he's going to feed you you know delicious dishes shane mchillibusser the second is going to feed you meat which it seems like is not as good but dog in the third day you're going to get fish or via yaric on the fourth day you're going to get vegetables on the last day that you're there the seven days that you're there the last day is going to give you beans okay so you see that there's a diminution and if you're a guest you should expect that it's not going to you know he's not going to bring out his best stuff as the days continue he's going to continue you know it's going to give you the best stuff on the first day and it's going to get less that's that's what you can expect so what is the idea what is the idea of this diminution and that's the way of the world that's okay i understand i need to expect that as a guest but what is what is the teaching here okay so that's point number one let's hold on to that question let's hold on to that point and let's see the next part of the message which is a very important point as well okay so the passage says that the eighth day is going to be for you um hashem is telling us that the mayadim these festivals are beautiful for you these are special for you now the message brings a story which has to do with the maya dim which are hakadosh baruch maya dem gods god's festivals as opposed to the man-made festivals [Music] a particular idol worshiper asked the following question of rabbi akiva the famous rebel akiva arena why do you continue ask this particular idol worshiper why do you continue to keep your festivals did not god say it's a verse in isaiah chapter one verse i hate your festivals i hate the way that you celebrate your rasheed khadoshim your first day of the month i'm an arabic kiva serbikiva responded and he said like this so so the idol worship was saying god hates the way that you celebrate god hates your festivals he's found it to be lacking he's found it to be selfish he's found it to be that you're insincere so why do you continue to do this survey keeper responds with a very important response says you would have had a valid claim if hashem had said my khadoshin my mayadim the festivals that i instituted the dishes that i instituted i hate the way that you're keeping them but hashem did not say that he said your festivals was referring what did he hate what does god hate he hates the festivals that were created yoraven benavat who was one of the you know one of the most wicked kings of the jewish people causing jewish people to sin prevented the ten northern tribes from going to jerusalem to to to bring sacrifices in the temple he created his own muadhim he created his own festivals create a new festival in er which god hated and he created this festival in order to bring sacrifices to these two to these golden calves the alamo is better also a base sale created a new altar in bethel terrible travesty religious in the month that he created from his own heart when he is what god hates god hates the festivals that were created by human beings that are not his own festivals that he created but the festivals that god himself instituted for the jewish people they will never they will never ever be bothered they will never be nullified the jewish people will continue to keep them throughout their long journey through exile throughout the gulles and all the way on to the future time to mashiach these are my festivals passage says hashem moses spoke about the maya the festivals of god first says that they are trustworthy forever they are made with truth and straightness and that's the very end of the magician partial but there's an idea that the moyadim are a time when we are committed to hashem's version of reality we are committed to hashem's version of the festivals we don't do it our way we don't do it based on our understanding we do it the way hashem says we don't create new things on our own because god hates the new things that are created by a european and rabbi akiva says when we are doing the mayadam of hashem when we are keeping the festivals of god that is the center of what it means and that's the center really of the young concept of yemeni we are aligning our will parikh is as we said before one bull one ram representing god and the jewish people we are aligning ourselves with god we are becoming one with god's will doing the festivals coming together with hashem that's what the muay them are it's this moment of time where we connect to god his way we bring the karbalas his way the sacrifices are brought what's the understanding of all of these different you know combinations of animals different this amount this amount a higher amount a lower amount descending order etc all these things represent the fact that we are about to ourselves we we give up we nullify that's our sacrifice so to speak in a spiritual sense in an intellectual sense we nullify our will to god's will we do the festivals his way we keep the rashik his way we don't try to bring our new our new ideas and and put them into the torah whether it's liberalism whether it's all a different newfangled concepts that today are are prevalent and popular and which are destroying the fabric of society right we don't try to fit our way into the torah but rather we fit ourselves we do what the torah says we we align our will with hashem that's what this magist seems to be saying and that i believe you know we could ask why is it that the nadaram it's very interesting that nadarm are very much connected when a person makes a nether a vow so there's an obligation to complete that vow you have three regalam you have you have a set of three of pesach and sukis you have that set of time that amount of time to to fulfill your vow and it's very much connected to the maya very much connected to the regal and the question is why what is the idea what is the concept here and we're going to bring it back to trying to understand the contrast between the 70 param and the the visitors we still need to understand that point we didn't explain it yet why is it that a visitor has to expect that the numbers are going down the the type of food are going to go down what's the idea behind that so we have here the nadarum the vows right because a person this is perhaps how we could explain it and how it's connected to the regal to the moyadim as we have seen here the maya didn't represent our our wrought sign our will to do god's will his way when a person makes another you know a person can make a vow that will actually prevent him from being able as the ramban explains at the beginning of parshasmantos you can make a vowel that will prevent you from being able to fulfill a mitzvah for example let's say you're on a desert island a deserted island and you have a lulav and an esterg somehow you were able to obtain it there's only one a person can make a vow he says i'm not going to have any benefit from this lula of an estrogen he makes a vow preventing himself from touching the little of an estrogen throughout success he won't be able to perform that mitzvah as laraman says and he will be say he will nullify a positive commandment but that's using the vow in the wrong way when the torah connects the concept of vows to the concept of regalim to the concept of the shminatsaris the one the single power the single aisle it's teaching us that the vow needs to be used in order to enhance our relationship with hashem in order to enhance our connection to god and our commitment to our relationship to him that's i believe what the teaching is and that's the depth of this madrish and that's the depth of the difference between the jewish people and the umass and the nations of the world we find for example that ghazal says rosh hashanah that if a person says person says i'm going to give sadaq i want to give charity on the condition the person has a sick child and he wants the child to get better and he's giving the charity on condition that god like he's making a deal with god and the child that the child must get better and i'm going to give this charity or he's making a condition i'm giving this charity in order that i have a place in the world to come the gemara says i raised it so the government is a righteous individual and before shamans but what about or i think it's the actually the more itself that asks what about a non-jew if an andrew does that we find that he's considered wicked so they explain that the difference is that the essence of a jew is that he's committed to his relationship with god whether or not his demands so to speak of god comes true if the child doesn't get better the jew is going to be matstika sadin he's going to say god is righteous that's the character that's the innate nature of the amicirel of the amma yehudi of a jewish person his connection to god is unbreakable but an idol worshiper someone someone from the um from the nations of the world they don't have that intrinsically it's something that they can work on they can attain but it's not intrinsic to their nature and therefore if they don't get what they want they give their child they could regret giving the charity as a result of not getting what they want from god as it were that's the difference between the essence of israel the connection to at their root the jewish people are connected to hashem and so another is something a vow is something which reconnects us to our connection to god that's what the that's what these are the points of connection these are the times when we connect to hashem which is who we are at our essence when we see that the 70 nations there's a diminution it's a reference to an ahsanya to a guest what is the concept of a guess it's somebody who's visiting but doesn't belong there right the aksanya is somebody who's visiting but doesn't belong there they're not intrinsically connected to the place that they're visiting and for that kind of person there's a diminution that's what the measures are saying at the beginning you know you you treat them to to meet and then the next day a little bit less fish next day vegetables the next day beans but there's a diminution when someone is not intrinsically connected that represents the woman's island the nations of the world and now i want to just bring it to another concept which you're going to hear me talk about a lot and that is the return to eretz israel which represents this is the place of connection to god and our feelings should always be like this nether like we're supposed to be feeling like we are heading back to earth's israel that's the whole entire torah heading to arizona to land of israel that's the feeling that a jew should have that is the feeling that uh that a person should have because they're intrinsically connected there's a feeling just like i'm always coming back to you shalom i'm bringing my nidarim i have to fulfill those vows honor a golem the modern the festivals represent our intrinsic relationship to god and the what is hashem hashem hates the mawadim that are created and made up so too when it comes to our feelings about the nations of the world we have to feel like we are guests always feel like we are guests in the nations of the world in the lands of the nations of the world we have to always feel like we're coming back to earth israel we're dreaming of coming back to the land of israel to coming back to jerusalem we're not necessarily waiting for mashiach to come and bring us back we're wanting to come we're heading back there's israel how can i get back how can i get back to that place which is my intrinsic connection and that's what the three weeks are about we're in this time between shavasana thomas and tisha of we're remembering and feeling the loss of the baseline english the loss of that connection but we have that concept of nadarm which reminds us where is our focus where is our commitment where are we headed we are headed to the muaden we're headed to the places of connection the times of connection to hashem and the place of connection to hashem which is israel which is you shall in jerusalem which is the base hamikdash the temple and which is expressed through this carbonus through the parrahood and the ilachad the single bull the single ram i want to bless you and ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able to make those commitments we should be able to recognize the power of the of the times of connection and tish above didn't really speak about this at all but tishwa was also a time of connection that time and the base of israel's destruction is still a representation of our connection unbreakable connection to hashem our desire to return hashem should help us to strengthen our desire to return to eretz israel should help us to always feel that specialness to always feel that uniqueness and we should always be able to align our will with hashem's will thank you so much for listening have a wonderful show miss this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ari goldwag [Music]