Parshas Korach: It's All in the Name

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay good morning the this morning we're going to talk about names the tells us many names the talks about the name r and says the following how do I know that a name has an influence on a person what's the source of that how do I know a person's name has an influence on them why should a name have any influence whatsoever on a person it's you know everyone has free choice that is uh one of the fundamental principles of Judaism that everybody has the ability to choose right or wrong and yet the gar says a name has an effect on a person's character on a person's Behavior says the sources it's go out and see the actions of God that he has created Devastation in the world says the don't read it Devastation but rather read it names so say what do you mean don't read it it says sh it doesn't say it says God brings Devastation to the world what does it mean says we cannot attribute Devastation to God right nothing bad emanates from God so how could the PK says how could the say it's not how could it say a of hem is not Devastation Devastation Devastation is good no a Devastation is when God withdraws that's not hashem's act that's hashem's it's his it's his absence from that place so therefore thear feels the correct way to read this is which means that everything that happens in this world happens because of the name of the person who is doing it in other words if you want to trace everything that happened in this world back to the original Source the original source is the name wow that's the big saying right look how God acts how does he act now there's a very well-known idea but probably most people are not familiar with the of it is and that is when a parent gives a name there's a concept that gives a certain to the parent to give a correct name to give the proper name where is that from it's not in it's not it's from the who wrote the Ben Ben says that because of this gar that we see that everything Hashem performs in this world is through the person's name so when a parent is giving a name to a child at that moment that God is very instrumental in helping the parents select a name okay to give names to the animals okay didn't tellam to give names Adam gave names what's my name we said yeah well the says that the animals passed before Adam and Adam gave the name and then said what's my right we see a name is a very important thing it defines the character of that right it it tches up the essence of the that item but thear is saying that everything that happens in this world comes about through names maybe not of the persones okay possibly that may be a deeper meaning but that Kamar is going on after explaining many many names and this name and that name running the whole world byes okay perhaps the simple meaning of the gamarra the way we're understanding it is it's through the sh in any event the says because of this it's very important not to not to uh give the name of a Russia right if somebody had an Ela Zeda who for whatever reason his name was Barrel Hitler so don't name your you know don't name your kid Hitler because about the early great ones it says the memory of a is a blessing and his friends the names of the what does it mean the names of the wicked will rat rust should go up on their names we don't use their names right you take the name you put it on a high shelf you put it behind your encyclopedia branica right we're recycling our old jokes and um you let it collect us together with all the other old books that you don't use anymore okay so like rash says if everything that happens in this world comes bad as a result of a person's name don't use the name of a Ras it can cause a person's downfall question is is we'll discuss that okay in fact last week's the tells us that every name of the morim pended had a certain ominous effect and represented a certain r that each one of the mirac had person should always check into names give your kid a Fighting Chance right if you're going to give a kid a chance you name your kid you know uh delinquent you're not giving him really uh an opportunity to be successful in Yesa if you're going to give him in Theisen if that's what you're going to call him you know he's not going to really have a chance uh you give him a good name name him and so forth give him a name that is right to be aad why sometimes the name will cause good or will cause bad and the goes on to explain the names of all the miraculum Shu Zak what does that mean name mean he didn't listen to it's as if he made a request through Kish through his male organ wait a minute see us okay so I I believe that the whole concept that a name has an effect on a person it could be taken for the good also look at this name shamua because he didn't listen to Hashem this man shamua he could have listened to Hashem and the name would have had a positive effect on him but because he was inclined not to the name slept him in that direction in other words a name is a very powerful thing so you see this name shamua doesn't say shamua it's say Shamu so the name had an effect on him but ultimately he had to choose to do bad I don't believe that a child who has a certain name he's his has been removed from him what it means is the name has an effect the the name has an effect okay how he didn't put his in place he became you could say the other way right you could say because if he would have chosen to be he would have been from or some right he was right he was and he was gathered for his time he escaped good actions now listen to this we know the which one who who said it says said it he exclaimed words toward God and he gave rise to foolishness that's he's the one who said and so on and so so forth theim each one of their names was ominous to their downfall okay so we're learning a very interesting concept the concept is sh that that everything in this world comes about through names and that's why the says don't give your kid a name of a Russia I'll tell you something very interesting about the name if you look in he's one of the so I what's is the guy when when the waiter is going around he's the guy who always gets a soup spilled on him the hot soup is on his lap of all the nine people on the table he's the one who the waiter is spilling the grape juice on he's the guy when you're passing the chant it ends up on his on his new tie listen to this of all the there's only One n who you'll never read his on sh he's the one every other first n could it could be shab the second one the third one he's the one guy he never is and from there has AER on the anology of yish words so he says the word sh actually has a on the well he doesn't have good Mas you know he never has a shabas on in other words old see him you could end up reading their day on he's the one that you'll never read it on sh you'll take a look but that's the atmology of SCH anyway I'll tell you one more you know uh how do you say grandson in yish listen beautiful comes to the burning bush and he says is not destroyed has a grandson so that means there's continuity it's you know that's Theology of the word okay today is not a not yish um atmology learning but any event soar is saying that a person's name has a very strong impact on their future and therefore we take a look at the name kak and we discussed this briefly last night the word kak the name k we say you know who's kak of course the antagonist of mhu but in fact he was not the first kak in history who was the first kak in history asov had a little boy and this kid's name was kak Wow's son's name was so the very first K in history was probably a Russ in fact rash says that all of as's descendants right cuz they they lived with their mother their sister their daughter and you know you could just imagine right says if the very first in history was the son of as how in the world could the who name their descendant k k is the name of he's the son of as the says you can't use the name of says I wonder about these righteous descendants of Le who named their sonak is one of the chief of we hold that you're not allowed to use the name of say and look what happened to the poor guy look what happened to in other words he asked what caused down full was it his jealousy was it the fact that says he was too wealthy for his own good was it that he was uh he was angry at mosha was he jealous that he want covered says it was his name it was all his name his parents named him Stalin they named him KRA what worse name could you give than the son of Asa so if you want to know what caused his downfall it was his name why surprised oh so good we'll see we'll see we'll see so you say you mean maybe the B didn't know that learn that how know well we'll see we'll see we'll see simply put the gamar and Yuma says says listen to this that's why the has to tell me his lineage that he was benah Ben Ley so you would think if his father's aad and his grandfather's aad and his great-grandfather is a sadic we have a principle that if you have three generations right the will never be removed from your family so how is it a guy like K with a father grandfather right the great grandfather Ley how did he become such a bum you know what took away all of his right want to know what is what took K the name k took away all of his spiritual lineage you would expect you know his grandfa his father is a godar his grandfather's the other godar his great-grandfather was Ley so you would expect he would be who knows what he would be the next you know right he'd be the [Music] says the name took away everything that he was destined to get to the point where this is a very challenging statement there a very challenging statement the statement of is who could say such a thing even to be and the children of Ley I mean they're talking about the all time is we're not talking about here we're talking about before the we're talking about the how could they give their kid the name so last night we tried to defend the we mention that was also the name of you look in was called we find that was the name k was appropriate for Bal the smooth yeah well there was disparaging so you take a look in but today what we want to focus on is this concept that a person's name could have a very strong influence on their life okay and that's what is saying in his opinion what caused K's downfall was specifically his name but ultimately again a person Free Will is not is not removed he has to the person himself has free choice but a name has an impact on a person name influence is more powerful saying there's a concept that certain people could be in situations where their Free Will is mitigated right not everyone has the same level 50/50 Free Will right sometimes people could be in a favorable situation where it's easier for them to choose good other people nobody's Free Will is removed but a name exerts an influence on a person we're not saying you know a person who has a bad name all of a sudden he he's automatically a Russia all we're saying is that it exerts an influence on a person take a look at okay says a story they're going on the road was into names right he would you know before he would give you he say what's your name and he would you know digest the name see okay but HUD they did not believe in the name business when they came to a certain place they were looking for lodging so they gave him an in the guy said they said to him what's your name my name is yeah said to himself this guy is a wicked guy because it is a reverse a generation that is reversed in other words a backward generation referring to a time in history when people are and so forth so his name was Kar that was reminiscent of thear RA said said I ain't trusting him I'm not giving him my credit card as a deposit I'll give him you know cash I'm not giving him any not depositing my jewels and his you know safe deposit back forget it anyway entrusted their wallet to this guy did not give him his wallet he went and R mayor went ahead and put his wallet near the grave of the inke Keeper's father probably the inke Keeper's father he's buried in the backyard of the end so Mar went he dug a hole and before shabus he hid the wallet in next to the grave of this guy's father so the father he's lying there he's you know he's been sleeping for a while all of a sudden he feels you know a shovel you know sticking in the the wallet next to his nose what's this you know I'm trying to rest in peace over here and then says the he goes and he appears in a dream to his he says come come pick up the wallet that that's next to my head the fathers right he's trying he's looking after his kid he says come you wouldn't believe it right next to my nose is's a wallet why don't you come get it the next day he wakes up in the morning he said oh I have these big rabbis in my end let me ask them what they think about this dream so he goes to a he says you won't believe last night my father came to me in a dream and he told me there's a wallet near my head so was a smart guy he said ah don't pay attention to dreams he said a dream you have during Twilight has no meaning meanwhile R hears that the guy is getting you know information from the next world that that his wallet is next to his father so ra quickly runs over to the grave and he waits at the grave the entire chabas so this way you know he'd be able to get it after shabas ra went ahead and he guarded it the whole day and then he brought it the next day so see they deposited their wallet with this guy so they say after their stay in the Inn they say okay here's our key we want our wallet back us what are you talking about you never give me your wallet why didn't you look into this guy's name his name is Kar don't you know he's a Russia so they said to why didn't you warn us you should have told us that this is a name has significance I'm not saying it's a definite Sim I'm saying just because the guy's name is that he's definitely going to be a mass murderer but you have to be concerned you know what they did they brought him into their into the tavern and they gave him a drink they got him drunk and they saw he had some lentils on his mustache so then they went to his wife and they said you know we gave your uh your husband um our wallet to watch and and the Simon is that you know when we gave it to him he had lentils on his mustache so they gave the C to his wife the sh so she brought out their wallet meanwhile he wakes up from his drunken stuper and he says to his wife where's the wallet I gave you she says what do you mean I returned it what do you mean you returned it I was trying to steal it so what did he do say he killed his wife she has the to give back the wild that he stole he killed his wild says thear what do we learn from here we learned from here the importance of why cuz if the guy would have watched May he would have wiped his mustache with his wet hands he wouldn't have had the lentils on his on his mustache he would have been able to steal the wallet and he never would have killed his wife so basically the lesson from here is or bust right either wash your hands otherwise you end up killing your wife there a much better Liston when you give your wallet get a receipt yeah iion this and then Mar says you know what else you learn from here the G tells a story about um an inkeeper he would feed the Jewish uh people ker and the and the and how did he know who is Jewish or not if you watched he knew you were Jewish if you didn't watch he figured you're a guy so a guy came in he didn't watch he ended up eating soar says what we need to glean from from this gar is if you don't you're going to kill your wife and if you don't you're going to eat a in any event what do we see from here the concept is sh a name has an impact on a person says in the now take a look at this you mention this affect names also names no not names no for to have a bad name it I don't think it affects you could take a look in theki writes that by the name the the name is not really a name it's just like a a title it's just a an identifying Mark it's like you know size 15 and2 32 Sleeve by only by we have this concept that a name has an effect on their outcome but perhaps also maybe it means something by look he says like this in the second paragraph he's dealing with the name ziml ziml hopefully no one here his name ziml yeah ah so hope don't tell him over this year says what is the name everything we said Till now we need if we're going to agree with you that ziml is a nickname for zma in other words there's a guy at his bris his parents said Z and as a nickname the buba called it's farfetched in my eyes how could any Jew call their son Z the word Zea means the counsel of Sinners right the word Zea means a plan to commit Aras even the name does the word Kar mean anything bad Kar just means Kar that's the generation that's the generation what so you have to oh but it's connected to bad words in a so would not trust the guy even though his name wasn't his name was even though you could have said it the other way around because in it says there is for a good thing but if it's for good and it's for bad and in the it's for bad even though in it's for good you still have to stay away even though the word inherently doesn't mean something bad it's just connected to something bad so certainly the word Zea is something bad was in the name if a m is born what do you call the is that a m you're supposed to call him Kar I what do you mean what's wrong with Kar maybe it's no but it's also if which is only remotely associated with something bad is given as a name for certainly the name the name itself is that just means and the adds the word but the conclusion ofar is that the word Zea itself means AR how could it come up in the mind of every any Jew to name their kid Zea okay you ready for the punch line listen to this if you look there was a man by the name of gam who is gam the son of Misha and he had a son his son you have to say maybe the base lady did not know what D would reveal to us that teaches us that everything in this World occurs through a name in other words we are privy to that information but the Ben were not privy to that um information which is a very challenging concept because everything in the gar is so you would expect that would have told his kids that if you're giving your son a name don't name it Z say maybe maybe right he's not saying it for sure maybe they didn't know this yet and says how do we know that they didn't know about this because they named their son and was one of the names of and they weren't careful with giving their kids the names of but look what happened when they did it again now this is not this is feels that if you want to pin down what happened to kak it's because of his name who was born first the son of asov of course son of Asa ASA was son of Asa now listen to this this is going to be shocking the name sha is sha a good name f listen to this this is this is amazing listen to this I don't know if this name was given before the chosen one of God but one second there was a sh who was a Russia you look in bous sha was one of the kings of Ed so the very first in history was a Russia and what about look in the and that is why in the it writes that many people will not call their son sha they write it shamid to deviate from the name sh because the first name sha was a Russia again the first was right but he was not the first say I'll prove to you that the name show might not be as good as you think why listen to this because for a son and was given a son and she said I asked him from God and what name did she give him what does Shu have to do with Kim she should have called him you want to say borrow it's sh why would she stick in the M cuz you're not allowed to give the name sha the name sha is off limits she stuck in the me because you can't name your kid sha wow says you want to know said I have no doubt she was careful not to give the name what about's father the king of Israel who never sinned right only one time and look what happened to him he wasn't successful ultim sh was not successful I mean how could we can't even say such a thing to talk about you know that it's you look at Sha's career and ultimately the was taken away from him his name was not correct and that is why the mother of Shu specifically named shmu and you could say how know I mean what it's amazing I mean we're talking about used to say like this they used to ask him how is it possible to write such a quick response says I have that whatever I write whether doesn't matter how quickly I write it and he even said if you come and you slug up all my proofs the still stands true I but it's not based on anything he felt he was a that even if you would schug up all of his Ras his still stood he even said he was never on any of his except for one time caused him to retract and then later had that he retracted show did a lot of things that weren't so you know he killed he killed himself he committed suicide think we don't find by the way we don't find he was punished for for you know he did all these things but say for very power scary words look what happened to him look what happened to him you know how we can't even dare say such a thing but that's what he says so you could say I how nowadays could we name sha the answer is we're naming after sh sh no question he was aad but the question was the how could they name him after someone who we're not sh right if anyone's name is sha it's a beautiful name sh was a bigad right anyone should be like sh certainly one of the greatest individual ever lived so nowadays sha is a proper name but the question is Sha's mother sh's mother says perhaps was mistaken because she wanted to name him sh maybe because I don't know I'm not sure okay we want to now spend some time discussing some other names of tan that we find in sh that uh perhaps may be questionable you know I have over here a from so they asked you know there's that says the asked him why do you live so long so Zer says first of all I never got angry in my house right so we'll try to work on that one first right the second one is he says I didn't walk ahead of people who are greater than me and I didn't think of in the dirty Alleyways and I never went for Amos without T and so they asked ask which one is harder is it harder not to learn in the dirty Alleyways or not to go for without of course it's much harder not to force yourself not to think in learning in the dirty Alleyways than to make sure you learn every single moment so they asked you know do you ever wake up in the middle of the night yeah sure so you wake up the night what are you going to do you're lying in your bed you can't say but if you're not saying according to the V you're not even allowed to think in learning so okay whether you're Z in this or not we we may not but is careful not to even be so they ask him what do you think about what do you dream right so he said uh this is an old Sha so he said what's the answer he says he thinks about the names of the tan he thinks about the names of the tan in I'll tell you a story about that at the end okay so let's talk about some of the names of the tan we know that one of the tan his name was is wasn't the greatest guy thear brings down opinion that abrahamu was not able toap isal out of geham and there an opinion is didn't do Chua so if you want to say he did chuva fine so he was aad you know so was named after him but what if he what that's we're asking yeah the right how is he named is so says who gave his name God God said you'll call him is so if theam gives the name to someone even if the person wasn't such a big sadic you could use the name cuz this is not the name given by B this is the name given by the himself but the question is if you can't go wrong why not it's God's name how can you go wrong but again the gois feels that this idea that a person's name is has an impact on them is so powerful that even with God's name in it even with God's name if the person who had it was a Russia it's still it still exerts an influence on a person another interesting sh there was a Tana by the name of RAB elazar yeah is a very important Tana you open up the the very first Tana mentioned in ch is right the problem is who was the first elzar in history elzar Evan AB elzar was right said I have how about my daughter for your son so he's he's an so how could the be given the name El so gives what he's a says the gives three answers this question the first answer is that's elaz the first answer is what does the word elazar mean what does the word elzar mean the word means so says even if it's the name of a but if it has a positive meaning then you're allowed to use that name so even though elaz was Anor nevertheless since the name itself has a positive connotation it's permitted to use that name by the way this would be another answer to how the name could be given right the says that's how the name could be given because even though he was in Russia it's sh that God should listen to another answer even though elzar was an but the says in he Wasa he was an old Russa and what is he D Dam stands for so he was a big he was a big mag he was a big so therefore even though he was an aror he was a sadic so right that's good enough or says the an amazing answer we think now the points out that the question is not on the telar because the tar you could say was named after like you said earlier elzar the son ofu the question is how can give the name to his son so listen to this there's a medish the medish tells us in the that when went up to sh to get the so he saw was learning who is this kid he should be my descendant so that's what the means says the is not referring to son it's referring to the T that came out of so it comes out listen to this mha son elazar was not named after elazar the evid of Abraham he's named after the Tana who came later right what came first who came first M son or the Tana we say of course no son was named after the T yeah that's why that's the open reason but the med isala that there's another named his son after the of in fact if you look in the the says who's the first T mentioned in reel why in order to we gave him this that his descendant should be the first T mentioned in while we're on the topic ofar I once saw amazing another why rear is the first I was always the first person into the B Med in the morning so mid he was the first person in the B mad they gave him the he's the first person mentioned in okay anyway let's let's do a couple more about somebody by the name of says his name couldn't have been was a r so you have to change the to so so think about it maybe his parents made a mistake maybe his parents gave him the name shev no T says it's possible that any mentioned in their parents could have been mistakenly given them the name of and because of that changes the there's another where it says that in it's talking about various Gaz there was a man by the name of says it can't be was a Russ changes the to another interesting gari thei says TI now Titus he didn't do chuva God didn't give him the name I remember of Miller used to say that you look in the Roman history books they talk about the brutality of Titus but then they said at the end of his life he calmed down and he was able to control his anger so Mah said no kidding when you have mosquito in your brain pecking at your head you know it allows you to not to get uh to ignore everything else that's going on in his life but that's what the Romans report at the end of titus's life he wasn't so bothered by what was happening in his surroundings when he has a bird knocking on his cup you know fine anyway so what's so the angle he writes that you have to say How could somebody be called titos you look carefully it's not tough not test T it's without a not you know so he's saved by the missing V but you see R say throughout this is uh something that's reckoned with something that's thought about that a person's name has an effect on them and uh has contribut to the personality and character of person that is why why can't you say that the last letter it's not a a that's it looks like to me like a man it looks like a man not that's big one but I guess it's a so any event that's the idea that I saw something very interesting the Other Extreme and a positive note positive note in theak of the eth volume of Feinstein used to say you know he was born on Z right the you know the day that was born and his name of course was mha that Raa said about himself he felt that being given the name mha on the birthday of M he felt had an impact on his uh on his life that he felt being born on that day with the name m was Mas on him to be uh the manic sh is so I saw over here there's a very interesting um story about individual who his wife neb was very ill and she needed to 24-Hour care in the hospital but every day for one hour the man would leave his wife and he' go to a Shear okay got to learn every day but people had tius on him cuz the guy was in he didn't understand one word of the she it's one thing you know you understand you're something from the he didn't understand he didn't have any comprehension whatever was going on and they told him look your wife is ill she needs your help maybe you should help your wife so they uh asked different rabim to go over to him and to tell him you know you're probably better off spending your time helping your wife so he said like this he said when I was in Russia and I was in the Russian army every morning they would wake us up and they would say the following what's the name of thear what's thar's wife what's his son's name what's his daughter's name what's his grandson and we would have to recite the Gans of thear one after another Ben Ben Ben and if somebody would not say the name accurately he was a dead man and from then on I made a that if God ever gets me out of here even though I'll never be able to learn anything because I was never trained to learn gamar but I'm going to make it my business that when the rebi giv she I'm going to recite the names of the tan and in the the same way I used to recite the names of the Zar and his whole family so even though I don't understand what's going on in the sh but when the rebbi says ra Rina Rashi I say it over I memorize it and this is my and learning and this is the idea that we're learning and says ultimately this is what caused kak's downfall because kak was the name of one of the ALU asov say have a wonderful day you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com