Bilaam and the Presidential Candidates Through the Prism of the Chasam Sofer

progress okay BR welcome everyone we have a very special share this morning Paras Bok to the K AA here uh the Monday afternoon National Shear many may know that today is our uh M's annual campaign this year we're renovating and expanding if anybody would like to participate charity.com slmm charity.com c h r i d y.com mmh whatever you could do is greatly appreciated we have a very interesting topic today studying perhaps the most well-known Rashi on this parha however when we look at it upon further analysis uh there is a glaring question Rashi says why did God rest his on a gentile who is wicked why would God communicate with bam harasha he wasn't just Wicked he was the one who advised balak how to get clol to sin he tried to curse us he was a man who lived with his own animal why would God communicate with such an individual why did God rest on a gentile on an idolator on a wicked person says so that the idolators don't have the excuse to say you know why you Jews are righteous you know why you Jews are meritorious that's because you had a leader like M if we would have had Prophets they would have brought us back to good so therefore God gave them prophets and not only did they not improve not only were they not elevated but they breached whatever morals whatever restrictions that they had before at first the Gentiles were careful had safeguards when it comes to matters of immorality this came along and he advised he advised excuse me the nations of the world to give themselves over for LD AXS so Rashi is telling us that the reason why God communicated with bam is to remove any excuse the nations of the world have would claim they would say you know the Jews are only better than us because you gave them a m if you g gave us a m so we also would have been righteous so God says look I'll give you someone on part to tell us that nobody rivaled among the Jewish people but among the nations of the world there was someone who rivaled Misha namely bam so this always bothered me I was always troubled by this imagine if uh laav Al um you know a baseball team says you know I you know why we're you know why the other team is better because the other team has five All Stars that's why they're better if we would have five All Stars we would also make the playoffs so what do the commissioner do he gives them five single a bad baseball players say oh you don't have an excuse anymore cuz you also have players yes have players but they have five all stars and we have five bad players so I don't understand if the if the whole purpose if the reason why if the reason why um Hashem gave the nations of the world bam so that the nations of the world don't have a Tina that hey they have a mha what do we have so how does giving them a bam answer the question how does that how does that remove any excuse that that they could claim can't they still say it's very nice you gave us a billum but if you would have given us a m we would have been on a high level just like the Jewish people how does giving the nations of the world a bam remove any excuse that they may they may have and I saw this question in uh one of the classic div for I think it was first called the to uh it was in was the classic Bar Mitzvah gift if you wanted to give a Barz boy a gift you give him the it was written by Alexander zusa fredman a GID who I believe was a Kusa of my great-grandfather in sov and he was one of the a great activists in pre-war Europe and by the way rabbi George Rushfield who after he retired and after his passing I had the privilege of teaching that class in the Young Israel for many years I believe he even translated into English I think uh or he he took out excerpts of the and he translated into English here he brings the question remains they would still have an excuse to say why didem establish for a prophet like and to us you gave a bum so I want to share with you really a very beautiful idea this idea is found in none other than 1 2 3 4 at least five places in the writings of the and it's sourced in the teachings of the's great rebz in his as well as in his and it's a very beautiful idea understanding where the power of a a leader comes from be it a Jewish leader be it a gentile leader you know sometimes people criticize they say well look the American president look at look at who's running look at well you may see this in different light after today's share there's tells us number three five things R commanded the rash whena was in jail R commanded five things he said to him re teach me said to teach me said I can't teach you T it's dangerous what you mean it's dangerous you're in danger anyway you're in jail anyway you're incarcerated you have nothing to lose if you don't me I'll tell my uh father and he'll give you over to the government meaning you're already given over to the government what are you afraid of so RAB says you don't understand you don't think I want to teach you listen to these beautiful words you know if you have a baby who is hungry and he wants to nurse from the mother although it may look like the baby is the one that's hungry and the baby is the one who needs to nurse actually more than the baby needs to suckle the mother needs to express more than the baby needs to eat the mother needs to give more than the calf wants the nurse the mother wants the nurse meaning I want to teach you more than you want to learn the only thing is I can't I'm in danger so the Raj said but in this case whose life is in danger your life's not in danger because you're already in jail I'm the one who's endangering my life the so began to teach one of the things he taught was if you want your teachings to be listened to don't say it's yours hinge it on someone greater than you okay says and also a very beautiful I learned a lot from my teachers from my friends more than my teachers and from my students I learned more than any more than from anyone let's Analyze That Let's study that what did he mean I learned the most from my R more than that my friends and more than anybody my students so the hak the brings really a astonishing presentation about the dedication of a rebi what it means to be a teacher and what is a leader in CLA Israel and from there we're going to learn what is a leader uh in general you know the last uh couple of weeks especially last couple of days it really put into sharp highlight you know who will be the the next leader of United States of America the elections and this will provide us a perspective on selecting a leader the say the says seek out to from his mouth because he's a Heavenly Angel if a rebi is like an angel of God you should seek out toy from his mouth you ever think about that what does that mean if if your rebi is like an angel you should seek out Tyra from him and what how could any Reby be like an angel no Reb's Like An Angel by the way for those of you in Q Garden Hills I don't know if you remember there was a man David cooperman who was a philanthropist and he would say as follows he would say you know how to choose a rebi he should be like an angel we know three things about an angel number one ver number one they have pem their face is the face of the human meaning they should be human they should be down to earth they shouldn't be in the heavens secondly they should be straight they should be a straight shooter not deceitful not devious and number three the angels have three uh six wings with two they cover their feet with two they cover their face and with two they flap their wings meaning out of their six wings they only make noise with two of them the other four they cover themselves up so too a rebi he doesn't he's not going to show you everything in his Arsenal he's not going to let you know about everything that he accomplishes so those are the three c c character istics of a rabbi but the has a different interpretation we know that the basic difference between man an angel is that man is a a man goes a human being has the capacity to go from madga to madrea from level to level to rise up to to go an angel an angel is an an angel is stationary Anam says is called oh so is called a and a is called a like it says in so is called by being by being involved in learning T he's elevated daily from madre to Madre like it says and called they stay on one mad that's why it says in we say this every morning what does that mean they stand forever like at the time of their creation angels are always and it says now the are very happy that God created them as an look at the therefore they're very grateful to that Hashem created them that way because we know there's an idea that for some people they're better off not being created because when a person is created they have their propensity to sin as as opposed to the who are stationary in their Mila so they could praise Hashem for their creation think about it why says the great only could praise for for creating them because for man man could say hey God maybe I'd be better of not being created but who are and they can never descend they could thank Hashem for being created when R says that your rebi should be like a Mal what that means that a rebi at the time that he's teaching his he should put all of his strength into elevating the students to showing them PF and he should not be thinking about his own Aliyah because by focusing on your own Aliyah it is a detraction of the Aliyah of one's students so therefore you need to be like a Mal at that moment a Malak is an oade the the r should not think the rebi should not think you know I shouldn't be teaching this I shouldn't be answering this question I shouldn't be explaining this because it's taking away from my own growth no when a rebi is teaching the him he has to be like a Mal what does it mean like a Mal he has to think this is not a time for my growth right now I'm stationary and I'm giving over entirely to the says this is what it means says on the words that if the the rebi thinks that I'm just going to focus on the students then Hashem will bestow upon the rebbi that he will not lose out but now the ha says something incredible not only does a rebbi who is wholeheartedly focused on his Tam not only will he not lose out he will actually gain the rebi who gives up of his own to teach his say from my students more than anyone and the reason is say it's very interesting that a person cannot learn from any Rabbi a person cannot learn from any Rabbi person has to learn from AI who is what does that mean everybody H everybody's soul is rooted in a certain Tree in a certain spiritual entity for a student to be successful in learning their soul should be rooted in the same as the rebi the rebi and the student for the student to be successful the student should be so to speak rooted in the same entity that the rebi soul is in and thereby when the ream is Mas Tyra to the rebi the ream is Hashem let's say the rebi his name is uh Rabbi so and so hasem gives to Rabbi so and so the T for him and all of his meaning the tah that a is the tah that this rebi needs to give to his so if the rebbi let's say has here's the mush a mother who has a little baby a tiny little baby is going to have very little milk a mother who has a uh 11b baby she's going to have more milk the milk given to the mother is not the milk that the mother needs the milk given to the mother is the mil is the milk the baby needs you hear this the Tyra given to a rebbi is not the toyra the rebi needs the Tyra given to to the rebi is the tah the students need that's why the connection of the tamim to the Reb is what elicits that the rebi should gain Tyra from Shay the same way if you have a hungry baby the mother is going to be given more milk if you have students who are more MIM the Reb is going to have more Tyra says the is m all the to each one like I wrote Elsewhere on the he was and he was to his students to bequ to each one their share in this is what it means Abraham was the channel the through which he was mael all the various of of his students to to each one their this is what it means listen carefully even though the wise man is is but since he's the of the to give to them it's if he's learning it from them so who's teaching who who's teaching who it looks like the rebi is teaching the Tam but the Tam are teaching the rebi because the rebi only gets what the Tam need so in fact the students are teaching the rebi because without the students the rebi wouldn't get it so the rebi has to know he's learning from the students just like the mother understands God is not giving the mother milk cuz the mother's thirsty God's giving the mother milk because for the baby the gives the rebi Tyra because of the so it's like they're teaching him it's similar to what kazal say more than the wealthy man does for the poor man the poor man does to the wealthy man the poor man makes him wealthy think about this why does God give this rich man money it's not for him he doesn't need it what does he need what's he going to do with a billion dollars God gave him a billion dollar to give to this Yesa and to this cause and to this an so the an is making him wealthy now so you say why do we call it more than the poor man the rich man does for the poor man the poor man does for the rich man because what the rich man does for the poor man is revealed but what the poor man does for the rich man is M think think about it this way when the when the rich man gives the poor man a million dollars everyone knows about it so big deal it's mitigated but when the poor man causes the rich man to have the money he's giving the rich man mat so you have two guys you have Roth child and you have you know the the UN Avion God gives Rothchild a million dollars because of the and Ro child gives some of the money so who's doing more for who when Roth child gives the poor man it's it's Balo everybody knows about it so it's mitigated it's not as valuable in the heavens but when the poor man causes Ro child to have the money he's giving him mat because nobody knows where Ro child got it from that's the highest level of Saka the same thing with the it looks like the the big deal the is teaching so what it's public it's mitigated but the fact that someone is a earthw student which therefore because of this mes Hashem gives the rebi in order to give over to the student that student is actually doing more for the rebi than the rebi does for the student and this is a a principle that the uh the p iterates in his commentary to on the and who blessed so the again says that in the lifetime of our forefathers the never stopped from them and again the reiterates that a person can't learn from anybody because the students their is you out from the which is the soul of the rav who teaches them and it's impossible for him to one can only be from which which is so when wants each one which is the of the so because of the students is to the rebi this is what it means he's made me because the more students you have the more people you're going to learn from not the other way around the moreal you could teach the more the rebi will learn because the rebi gets theim of from the this is what it means in daving even though before for a person whose intelligence is very minimal unless somebody's Mash on them we're hasem should illuminate the eyes of so that could get the necessary for the this is the reason why when the rebbi doesn't want to teach the students his punishment is his leaves because he closes up the channel the so the the channel is closed this is what it means in San even the embryos in their mother's womb curse them why why what do the why would the embryos curse the rebi who refrains from teaching to the student says the because once the root which is the which encompasses many closes up so the because we know the the embryos are taught the whole T but if the rebi doesn't want to teach and the shes is closed up so then the the embryos can't be mael because they're from the same of this is the meaning of even the curs the rebi okay this idea and this notion that what a rebby teaches is only given to the rabbi and only bequeathed to the rabbi and only the influence from sh only comes to the rebi through the medium of the student is an idea that the writes in at least five places in his page he says look at what my re the writes and I'm going to add to it he says any student that prepares himself to listen to hear to accept from the rebi immediately there's a added to the student I'm sorry added to the rebi and then from the rebi to the student in other words when a student comes before a rebi and is seeking the T that is the P that is the channel with which re on the says this is what it means he says the is on the Earth the is is it receives the from sh so too a by preparing himself to tilt his ear to absorb and to listen to this the Tyra of the RBI that is the shamayim that's Mas on the raav the student is actually influencing the rebi and then when the rebi is the now the student becomes the and the rebi becomes the sh this is what says to tilt your ears because then you will be like the heavens that are Mas to me and then you will revert back to being the by being from me likewise he says say I already wrote elsewhere that the influence the mus of one who Mas to is compared to like all the rivers go to the Sea and and the sea is Never full the inion is the more desire that the Tam have to be Mel from the rebbi the more the students want have a have a to from the rebi the rebi isia the rebi could influence more and the more he influences the more the May sh will open up in other words the more the more the students increase their to from their rebi the rebi could teach more and the more he teaches the more the sh will open up to influence the rabbi likewise in says on the bring the before the and gather all the community of is and bring the close before hasem and the B is will lean their hands on theim and AR will wave his hands before hasem from the is and he will do the service of the says this is a remes that when the appointed leader is at the helm he increases strength in hasem the people follow him the more they follow him the the more they want to gain from him in that Merit the rebi is to Greater strength and then he could influence them more and then they become stronger and they have more desire and then they influence the rebi and the rebi could teach more so basically the rebi and the students have this Mutual relationship where the more the students want to gain the more Hashem gives the rebi the more gives the rebi the more the rbbi can give the students the more the students gain the more they want so the more Hashem gives the rebi and again this is idea that reads into the furthermore the Sam says like this he wants to know why in the beginning it says shama why does it first say and then and the service say as follows when a person is Ming themselves Hashem prepares for them tell me who are worthy to receive and then through the he because the is the greatest because which so now that he knows more he becomes like a May so now the are elevated they could receive more and they want more so they be on the rebi so Hashem could give the rebi more so at first friends it says sh at first the P says I'll give you students who will receive from you but that will make it that you will turn sh well that will influence you to be able to give further that the the teacher will be able to have more influence of Kad to be able to give to the and then finally on the which is a to the and that it should be and from there emanates two who are two that not to learn by oneself but rather they learn together by and they face the K which is the rebi and they look at the rebi and when they look at the rebi in that Merit the rebi is strengthened and then then we put into the because after the rebi teaches he becomes more wise because through them he is elevated from all of this we learn a very great principle and that is what is a rbbi the answer is arbi is the receptacle in which Hashem places the T that the students need Hashem gives the leader the abilities and the talents and the and the information that the students need and the students want the rebi is a mere reflection of the if you wanted to know what's a leader a leader is just a reflection of the people and if people say well you know look at look at the leaders that we have today look at the candidates that we have today you know this is not like in the good old this is we don't have George Washington anymore we don't have Abraham Lincoln we don't even have uh Ronald Reagan no kidding because they're just a reflection of the generation you live in so enough said nothing more needs to be said this is not there this is not just um their own independent entity The Entity of the leader is a mere reflection of the people they lead coming back to the original question we asked if the whole reason why Hashem gave the nations of the world bam is because otherwise they would say well if we had a leader then we would also do Chua so hasem why didn't you give USU then we would also be great Hashem says there's no entity M raenu I gave the Jewish people a vessel of Prophecy and when that vessel prophecy LED CLA Israel as a reflection of the Jewish people that was mosa but you nations of the world I gave you the same level vessel Eli it became a bam why do you think it became a bam because it was merely reflection of your desire so your excuse is silenced you don't tell me you don't tell me if I would have given you AA then you would have been um inspired to Chua I did give you something of the equivalency of what I gave in Isel but when I gave CL Isel this type of vessel as a reflection of the students that this leader would teach it was the great entity called I gave you Nations the world the same exact thing it turned into a bilum because you guys are bams that's why and this is idea that I think we see from all of these sources in and I believe is also spelled out in the in this uh uh cute uh short V of the May where he writes the great leaders of Any Nation are not details unto themselves they are the conglomerate and the creation of the spiritual capacity of the nation they lead you want to know what your presidential who your president is what a presidential candidate is it is a conglomeration and a concretization and a gathering and a composite of the people they lead so you might think twice before you criticize the mental acuity the decency and the Dignity of your candidate because they are just a mirror of the people that they lead the spiritual strengths and talents of the Jewish people we created a but from the spiritual abilities and capacities of the Nations world that created a the claims of the nations of the world are silent they said if only we would have had a Hashem says I gave you the same entity look what you turned it into it was given to them a prophet look what happened when I gave you don't you come and say if only I would have given you I gave you look what you did to it and that's actually a very powerful compelling and frightening idea and uh when you look at various leaders of countries around the world look no further than your own what does that tell us about our own society and uh nevertheless our sages teach us it's very important to pray for the welfare of the government without a stable government then there's Anarchy and chaos but nevertheless when you look at the character and personality it's somewhat of a reality check and wakeup call rabai have yourselves a wonderful day uh again we have a couple hours left to our campaign charity.com mmh thank you so much yeah I'll tell you the truth honestly when I was think