Rav Aaron Dovid Poston: ...And With All Your Possession Acquire Understanding

[music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> Shalom aleichem everybody. Welcome back to the Yibaneh Beit Midrash. A warm welcome home to Torah. We're Parshas Tzav, it's mamish like erev Pesach. I know many many shiurim are right, many of the rabbis are giving classes on Pesach. But you have to prepare for Pesach. We will discuss a little bit of Pesach, but I figure since everyone else is talking about Pesach, might as well cover the parsha of the the parsha of the shavua. Number one. Number two, down below in the uh description box are is a playlist for my shiurim on Pesach. So, you're not missing anything. Okay? So, you can go ahead and listen to those shiurim. I want to mention the sefer that we're using is called the Ir Giborim. It's the classic Kli Yakar. Actually, it's not the classic. It's a part It's probably well unknown. It's one of the unknown sefarim that the famous Kli Yakar wrote. So, it's a really it's like an edition. Like in other words, you don't really get this anywhere. Okay? This book, I'm not even sure it's still in print. It was written 450 years ago. This is uh probably 30 or 40 years old this book. Um hopefully one day. Right now, ArtScroll and I think on Sefaria, there's some really great translations of the Kli Yakar, but not yet of the Ir Giborim. So, we're ahead of the We're ahead of the game. So, you're learning stuff that really is hardly spoken about. He has a lot of great chiddushim. He was the student of the star student, the talmid muvhak of the Maharal. What we're going to discuss tonight in interestingly enough, Rabbi Goldshaid mentioned about hey, right? Ha- hamon uh that Avraham was the um father of many nations. And he discussed at length. We're going to talk about fives as well. And there are um we're going to I'll just tell you what they are. There's going to be five acquisitions, it's in the Pirkei Avot, that Hashem acquired. There are five lights in the first few pesukim of of Bereishit. There's five books of the Torah, and the parsha discusses five korbanot, five types of offerings. And he's going to put them all together. He's going to somehow synthesize all these ideas. Okay? Now, he always begins with the midrash, and we don't always understand how the midrash fits into the theme or the thesis of what he's speaking about. So, we'll we'll discuss the midrash anyway, and then we're going to move on to a very important topic. The midrash itself is very very important. Tzav es Aharon ve'es banav lemor, "Zos Toras ha'olah." So, if you look on source number one, right? "Command Aaron and his sons." So, the word command, tzav, according to Rashi, right? Rashi's getting it from the midrash, the word tzav, if you look in source number two, the one he's quoting, it connotes a prompt to zeal. Right? Rashi actually says, go back up top in source number one, "Tzav always denotes urging promptly and meticulously to fulfill a particular commandment." Not just for now, but for future generations as well. Before we get into Rabbi Simai, let's understand what the word zaruz Zaruz, that's the Hebrew word that is used by Rashi, that's used by the uh midrash in Toras Kohanim. Zaruz means like to encourage, encourage to urge, to spurring up. So, but it also can mean zealousness, and zealousness is is like speeding up and alacrity, quickness, accelerating. So, why do you have the word tzav specifically by the olah? The olah is that offering that it's entirely uh put up on the altar, burned on the altar. That's why it's called an olah. The entire thing goes up on the altar. And uh Rashi mentions where Reb Shimon taught, scripture especially needs to urge people to fulfill commandments where there is a monetary loss. In Hebrew, the midrash says, um "Amar Rebbi Shimon, biyoter tzaricha katuv lezareiz bemakom chisaron kis." And now, chisaron kis could mean a lack a loss of money or where there's no profit. Right? So, the kohanim in general, what do they get? They get the meat. They get a lot of meat. In the olah offering, there's no seeming benefit. They do get the hides. So, and the hides were valuable. You know, you can write Torah scrolls, mezuzahs. You can make shirts. You can make uh shoes. I assume that's what they used. Um You can make a purse, right? A pocketbook, a wallet. A lot of things you can use the hides for. So, the hides are still used. But the meat, it's a lack. Although, Rashi does mention that it seems to be I shouldn't say Rashi. I think it is in Toras Kohanim. In source number two, it's firewood. In other words, you're going to burn it all night. There's a lot of firewood. There's a lot of Firewood's money, but the kohanim are not paying for the firewood. So, I'm not really sure I I fully understand how the midrash is saying that because you're using a lot of wood. But okay, maybe because um it's from the Temple treasury, it's still a chisaron kis. There's a lot of what you call expenditures and little uh income, you know, a little bit very little bit of uh of benefit. Okay, so that is the midrash. The Kli Yakar begins with this incredible I'm going to I'm going to say it's it's in Pirkei Avot chapter six, mishnah 10. You'll find this on source number four. So, let me just read the words of the Kli Yakar first. You do it. It's well known. "Shemi kol hakinyanim shekana Kodesh Baruch Hu ba'olamo." That from all of the acquisitions that Hashem acquired in His world. Now, the word kinyan literally means a purchase, an acquisition. But we also going to understand it the make. God is our koneh. God is our creator. He is our He acquired us, and he acquired the whole world. Yet even even though he acquired the whole world, we're going to see the mishnah in Pirkei Avot that says there were five very specific acquisitions. And the question would be asked, "What are you talking about? The whole world is His kinyan." So, what is the What is unique about these five things? He says, "Tachlis hakavana bekulam." There is some type of um "Machaneh meshutaf." There's some kind of common denominator that all of them are pointed towards or all of them are the goal. All of them all of these different acquisitions, possessions are for the sake of chochmah, to acquire wisdom. That is what he says in the words. "Tachlis hakavana bekulam kinyan hachochmah." And he brings a proof, Proverbs. This is King Solomon, chapter four, verse seven. You'll find this number three on the source sheet. So, we all are familiar, right? Um "Reishis chochmah yiras Hashem." You might have thought that's the verse. No. It says, "Reishis chochmah koneh chochmah." Little bit strange. The first, the beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom. I think it means like if you have a little God grants us a little bit of wisdom, right? In the fourth brachah, "Chonen da'as." He grants us certain amount of da'as in order to what? To Every human being should understand the purpose of creation of the world is according to the Rambam is to reach this level of the highest level of into intellectual what he calls it nevu'ah, prophecy, is how does he I I I forget the Hebrew, but it's basically the concept the highest level that a person can reach is this level of of the highest intellect you could possibly reach. And interestingly enough, that's the Rambam. Uh the Maharal, which the Kli Yakar is a student of, uses the concept at least for let's say seichel, he translated not as intelligence, but as spirituality. And I like to combine the two definitions. So, really what it means is spiritual intellect. The ultimate goal is to try to reach a level of spiritual intellect, which brings you to nevu'ah according to the Rambam. And if you're talking about spirituality, maybe it's a lesser It's maybe it's ruach hakodesh. Maybe it's a certain level of nevu'ah, uh holy spirit and clarity. Perhaps. But the pasuk says, "The beginning of wisdom is to acquire wisdom." And then the most important part that I I emphasize, cuz that's the part the Kli Yakar is quoting, "And with all your possessions, acquire understanding." "Vechol kinyanecha koneh vinah." In other words, why do I have a job? Just so I could eat? Yeah, okay, so I can eat so that I can sit and study. So, I can buy a house so I can sit with yishuv hada'as and study. Right? So, I can gain wisdom. Whatever I purchase, a car, so that I can get to shiurim or I can do chesed, I can do Torah and mitzvos. Right? With all of my possessions, I should use to acquire binah, acquire understanding. Interesting, Rashi says, "What does this mean? The beginning of your wisdom is to acquire wisdom." At the beginning of your wisdom, learn from others. I mean, you have to have a certain level of, you know, honesty of what you know. You know little cuz you're just beginning. So, you go to others that have more wisdom than yourself. Right? Learn from others and acquire your for yourself the tradition from the mouth the mouth of the teacher. I suggest anybody goes to class, they sit as close to the teachers possible and watch their lips move. I mean, just think about the last year about the Pesach, right? Rabbi Goldchatter spoke about the fact Torah is dialogue. Besides, our weapon of war, the Torah says it's a what? It's a chere pipiyos. It means a double-edged sword. According to the Kli Yakar, it's pipiyos even though it's sounds like double-faced. It's a double-faced sword. It's a double-edged sword. It really is peh peh. It's two pehs. It's the two mouths. One for tefillah and one for learning Torah. This is our weapon of war. Side point. Kli Yakar continues. And afterwards, with all your possessions, acquire understanding. So, again, the same idea. Concentrate on it by yourself to understand the reasons, thereby deriving one thing from another. And that's bina. Bina is the building blocks. And women have it especially with a great amount of intuition. But the idea is to do induction and deduction and just you have seichel, right? Back to the spiritual intelligence. So, after you learn how to learn, which what yeshivas are basically supposed to teach you, they're not going to teach you everything, but they're going to teach you the derech of learning. And now, when you're an adult, hopefully, you you read something and you meditate on it and you think about it, right? You don't always have to have the book in front of you. But it's supposed that the Torah is supposed to enter you and into your into your noggin, into your brain, into your spirit, into your soul, into your heart, into your whole body. And then you could build build blocks, even chiddushim, even novel ideas, let's say. I just want to stop here for a second to mention about the 48 ways to wisdom. So, in Pirkei Avot, in chapter six, Mishnah six, it says there are 48 ways to acquire wisdom. Now, we're approaching Pesach, so you have the Omer. We're going to be starting to count the Omer. And what we understand from the 48 ways, they match up with the 49 different nights of the Omer where we're we're going towards Mount Sinai. We're going towards accepting and acquiring the Torah, right? Acquiring wisdom. 48 ways to acquire wisdom. So, basically, so you you might ask, "Well, there's only 48. What happens to the 49th?" So, the idea is review. It's to assimilate, to actually bring them into your being and connect them all together, synthesize them all. Just as another side point, the Vilna Gaon explains the ark, which is the the vessel that holds the Torah, it's in the it's in the heart of the temple, right? It's in the cent- it's it's in the it's where all our prayers are directed in that direction where God spoke from above above the uh the the cover, the kapporet, between the wings of these cherubs. So, the dimensions of the ark is actually 48 tefach, handbreadths. Just imagine the specific handbreadth. You see, these are like the hands that you have to receive. So, how does it work? So, you have two and a half amos long, one and a half amos wide. Each amah is six handbreadths. So, if you have two and a half, so that's six times two is 12 plus another three is 15. So, it's 15 on each side. 15 and 15 is 30. So, it's 30 handbreadths in length. And the width is one and a half amos. I mean, this is written in the Torah. I'm not making this stuff up. It's one and a half amos in in width. So, an amah is six. So, another half is nine three, so that equals nine. So, nine and nine is 18. 30 and 18, you don't have to be you don't need a calculator. You don't have to be a mathematician. It's real simple. It's totals 48 tefach. The Vilna Gaon says, "If you want to acquire Torah, you have to master all four all 48 ways." All 48 ways so that you can hold onto the Torah. Otherwise, it's like a sieve. It's like I don't know what a sieve like a a screen that has holes in it. Right? You don't you want to be able to contain it and hold it. So, the ultimate idea is we're saying that the to possess wisdom. This is the idea that all the our possessions are used to possess wisdom. Use the time you have to master the 48 ways. And I'll put in the link below also. I gave a 50 50 series 50 sessions on the 48 ways and I suggest you check that out as well. Let's continue in the Kli Yakar. He's using that pasuk in Proverbs 4:7. Right? Chokhmah u'vinecha koneh vinah. What does he mean by that? Ratzah b'zeh the fisha amru Chazal. This is where that Pirkei Avot chapter six Mishnah 10 comes in. God acquired five acquisitions in this world. This is not us. This is Chazal. Their one acquisition is the Torah. Another acquisition is the heavens and the earth. That's two. Another acquisition is Avraham, which Rabbi Goldchatter spoke about. Another acquisition is the Jewish people, the people of Israel. And the fifth acquisition is the holy temple. By the way, so the the Mishnah Pirkei Avot goes through all these different verses. I'm just going to go through real quick. Um where the Torah is considered a kinyan. So, in Proverbs 8:22, it says "Hashem kanani reishis reishis darko." Right? So, in the in the English, we translate it as "God acquired me." This is the Torah speaking. As the beginning of his way before his works of your before creation. The heavens and the earth, Isaiah 66:1. So says God, "The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What house then can you build for me? Where is my place of rest?" But then he brings and there's a typo. It's one it's in Psalms 104:24. "How many are your works, O God? You made them all with wisdom. The earth is filled with your acquisitions." That was to bring it home as the Hebrew says. Okay, I don't have it in front of me. Um I do. And maleh ha'aretz kinyanecha. Right? The whole earth is filled with the acquisitions. In uh Avraham, in Genesis 14:19, Hashem he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Avram to God most high, acquirer of heavens and earth." The most important thing is God most high acquirer. Again, the word to acquire is to make. Right? As um the pasuk says, this is Genesis 14:19. Vayvarechehu vayomar baruch Avram l'El Elyon koneh shamayim va'aretz. You've heard that many times. What does koneh mean? I would translate as the maker. But nevertheless, the root is still to acquire. Anyway, I'm not going to maybe I I'll go on to Israel as well and the holy temple, might as well. In Exodus 15:16 about Israel, "Till your nation, O God, shall pass. Till this nation you have acquired shall pass." Um asher avu am zu kanita. Right? We say that every morning. And regarding the holy temple, it's written in Exodus 15:17. Uh the base of your dwelling that you God have achieved or sanctuary, Lord, that your hands have established. That's in Psalms 78:54. Um Right? Har zeh kan kanita yamina. Right? That your hands have established. Um Oh, I'm sorry. It says sorry. The mount his right hand has acquired. Har zeh kanita yamina. Okay, so the word koneh is used by these five. At least this is where Pirkei Avot, right? We hold by Pirkei Avot, right? So, this is interesting that if God acquired the whole world, he made the whole world, what is so unique or special that the Pirkei Avot has to tell us that there are these kinyanim that God created and and it seems like it's all pointing towards chokhmah or the acquisition of the Torah and the wisdom that is in the Torah. So, the Kli Yakar continues back in the Hebrew sheets. I'll just read the Pirkei Avot in Hebrew. Chamishah kinyana kinyanim kanah Kodesh Baruch Hu b'olamo. It was Avraham, the Israel, the Torah, the Beit Hamikdash, and shamayim va'aretz. Okay. U'mah hayah tachlis? What was the purpose? What was the reason? What was the goal? What was the end game? L'chol hakinayanim elu. For all these acquisitions, elah shemi kol hakinayanim elu. Rather, the answer is that all of these acquisitions were nicknamed kinyan chokhmah. It's all for the sake of acquiring wisdom. And the verse we keep reading is cona bina, as it said in Mishlei Proverb Proverbs 4:7. Right? With all your acquisitions, acquire wisdom. Throughout direction of Sinai Midrash, there's a Midrash in Breishit Rabbah 3:5. So, I do that have that on the sheet somewhere. It's number five on the source sheet, but I'll read the Hebrew first. Rebbi Shimon says there were five times, and you'll see it in Genesis verse chapter 1 verses 3, 4, and 5. Let's just take a look at that real quick number six on the source sheet. God said, "Let there be light." And there was light, and God saw the light that it was good. So, that's already the third time. God separated between the light and the darkness, that's the fourth time. And God called the light day, that's the fifth time. And the darkness he called night, and it was evening and it was morning one day. One. Two. Three. That's four time. So, that's already the fifth time. Notice it says Oh, we'll see it why it says the daylight as opposed to the other one which just said or or or. Here it says or yom. We'll see why there's double language there. Um so, the Kli Yakar go back into the Kli Yakar, and he says that these five times that it says light in those three verses is connected Hamishah Chumashay Torah. That each one of the the word light is going to parallel one of the five books of Moses. So, we have five kinyanim, which is ultimately to acquire wisdom. We have the light, which is going to refer to the Torah itself to the five books, which is how we acquire wisdom. And he goes through which which which are the books. So, Kli Yakar sayfer Breishit parallel to the book of Genesis that God was involved in and he created the world. That's the book of Breishit, Genesis. That's there shall be light. What about there was light? That's sayfer Shmot. Sayfer Shmot shibo nigalu Yisrael mimitzrayim v'ye- v'ye- tzu me'afeilah. That what happens in the book of Shmot? That we were redeemed, the Jewish people redeemed from Egypt, and we came out from the darkness. That's what the light represents. The third, that God saw the light. V'yar Elohim et ha'or. That's connected sayfer Vayikra. That's the book we're in, right? That's the book we're in. And hu maleh halachot rabot. Yes, God, I'm calling you out by name. Has a lot of halachot, right? People can get bored and say it's repetitive, there's so many details. It's harbeh, it's maleh, it's full of a lot of halachot. That's a good thing. We'll see the difference because Deuteronomy uses the language it was maleh mitzvot harbeh. It's full of a lot of mitzvot, but maybe the details aren't there. You'll find more details in Vayikra and more general rules and principles in Deuteronomy. But anyway, so the third light, God saw the light. That refers to Vayikra. The fourth is the yavdel Elohim bein ha'or, that God separated bet- between the light and the darkness. That's going to be connected sayfer Bamidbar. That's going to be parallel to the the book of Numbers. What happens in the book of Numbers? You have a transition from the people who left Egypt. Right? It's going to be a hefdel, it's going to be a difference between the generation left Egypt and the new generation that's going to to go into Eretz Yisrael. So, that's how he says it's met- it's parallel Bamidbar shibo nivdalu yotzei'ei Mitzrayim l'vo'ei Eretz. It separates between those who left Egypt and those who came into the land of Israel. And now the fifth one, v'yikra Elohim la'or yom. He called to the day so, he called to the light day. Right? That's connected Devarim. That's going to be parallel to the book of Deuteronomy shoo maleh mitzvot harbeh because it is full of many mitzvot. Now, Pirkei Rabbenu Bachya bi'ur these five urim ha'elu. Rabbenu Bachya explains these five lights, and he goes through them really quick on the top left. Aleph, the first one is or, the so one or is the creation of the world, bri'at ha'olam. The second one he says is related to geulah. So far, that all matches up, right? Breishit is bri'at ha'olam. Exodus, even the word Exodus, I mean, that's how they translate in English, it's Shmot. But that's related to the concept of leaving Egypt, geulah. The third, which we say is Vayikra. Right? So, it's Vayikra, that's or ha'tshuvah. That's the light of repentance. Shomei'a divrei korban shav b'tshuvah umitvadeh alav. It's the tshuvah the repentance of the one that's bringing the korban. He has to repent. Like, we don't just believe you just bring a korban. God is furious with people. He's very upset if you bring a korban without tshuvah. And we're going to see very important verse regarding that. So, it's supposed to inspire tshuvah or you're the inspired one is trying to accomplish a kaparah through the korban. And he confesses on it. That's part of the process of bringing the korban. Okay? The fourth or would be the Beit Hamikdash. Perhaps how we relate that to Bamidbar? I don't know. But the or ha'Torah v'mitzvot, the last or, relates to the concept of Torah mitzvot, which fits in well with Mishneh Torah, the repetition of the Torah that include many mitzvot. Ad kan leshanah. Now, according to the Kli Yakar, that's enough of the Rabbenu Bachya to bring for now. [snorts] Now, the Kli Yakar continues, and he says v'yomer ani. Whenever he uses that word those words, it means this is something that to him may be a chiddush. It's something that he's expressing his insight. Okay? That's why he says, "I'm going to tell you something." I say she'eilu heit orot heim that those five lights heim b'etzem Hamishah kinyanim shekanah Kadosh Baruch Hu b'olamo. They actually match up in essence to those five acquisitions that Hashem listed or that we have listed in that Pirkei Avot chapter 6 verse 10. So, now we have to see where his mind is going, why he thinks these match up. Aleph. Or bri'at ha'olam, we said the first or was connected to the creation of the world. And that relates in Pirkei Avot where he made a kinyan on heaven and earth. That's considered kinyan echad, one of the acquisitions. The or ha'geulah. Okay? Which it says a verse. And actually, I'm sorry, it says in in Pirkei Avot that Yisrael was kinyan echad, that was also an acquisition. Sheniknin Allah bizman ha'geulah. The Jewish people were acquired by God at the geulah. It says, "You're going to be a kingdom of priests, right? A mamlechet kohanim and an oi- or a gadol, a kadosh, a holy nation." So, we were acquired, this is going to be to me a people, and I'm going to be to you a God. There was an acquisition at the time of the geulah. Okay? So, that also matches up so far, right? Genesis, Exodus. Now, what about Vayikra, or ha'tshuvah? Okay? So, the other or is related to tshuvah, which he says relates to Avraham. So, how does Avraham relate to tshuvah? And we were discussing this idea of moving to Eretz Yisrael. Avraham packed everything up or left everything behind, whatever it was, he took great risk, and he came to Eretz Yisrael, lech lecha. Okay? So, this is about tshuvah. And you really think about it. I I when I first started becoming religious, there was an Israeli told me, and I didn't believe him. I kind of understood and possibly believed him, but I thought I was going to go against all odds. I said to myself, "You know, this Hebrew thing is really hard. I think I can be a talmid chacham if all I learn is ArtScroll." Right? Why not? It's all the whole Torah is translated into English. I'm going to tell you that I had a lot of resistance. He said part of the tshuvah process is thinking in Hebrew, is speaking Hebrew. I don't mean Hebrew Hebrew, I mean Lashon Hakodesh. Okay? And um I'll tell you, I can open up just about any book. I mean, there's a few of the more modern sefarim that are a little bit difficult, but I can open up pretty much any ancient text, and with a little help of the dictionary, I can get through it. Right? And if I have any questions, I have rabbonim I can ask. And if not, I have a chaveruta that I can ask, right? It's not good to just learn on your own. But anyway, part of the tshuvah process really is connecting with the land of Israel, the God of Israel, the people of Israel, and I have to admit the language of Israel. Okay, so it's an encouragement. Don't be discouraged. Don't be this The younger you are, the easier it is, I have to admit. They do have these statistics. They say that American oleh coming to Eretz Israel after the age of 40, the chance of really mastering Hebrew is next to nothing. But I have to tell you, that may be true if it's modern speaking Hebrew. But if you talk about Lashon Hakodesh, I think there are many obstacles that we build in our head that are fake. A lot of like that statistic I told you. You'll believe it and you'll make it real. It's not real. It's only real when it comes to uh perhaps uh spoken Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew is actually quite quite easier. Okay. So, why is Avram represent teshuvah? Ki hu patach petach shel teshuvah la'ovrim v'shavim b'teshuvah. That he opened up the doorway for those who are passing through and returning, who are not ovrim, perhaps uh >> [snorts] >> transgressing and returning through teshuvah, as we explained. He explains in parshas Lech Lecha. Um the idea that he made souls in Charan, that he took people who were idol worshipers, and he helped uh transform them into the monotheistic religion of the of the time, which was Ben Noach. Okay, so that was all there was. You know, many people do teshuvah, and he himself through the great transformation of what an Ivri is. We are Hebrews. Ivri. We trans- We're transformed. He The words for Jordan is Transjordan. It means the other side. Right? You move dirah. If you move apartments, you're over dirah. You you move If you want someone to pass you something, ta'avir li. To Right? It's the idea of transporting or moving something. So, he was That's what a he That's what a Hebrew is. A Hebrew is someone who goes from the darkness to the light, who goes from the tumah to the to the purity, right? From the impure to the pure. This is what we are. Okay, that's why we're called Ivrim. Okay. V'chein matzinu she'harah Hakadosh Baruch Hu l'Avraham klal hakorbanos. We're still stuck in this idea. How is Avraham related to Vayikra? How is the light of Avraham related to teshuvah? And what's it relate to in book of Vayikra? To the korbanos. God showed Avraham the great principle behind these offerings in the Brit bein habetarim, which Rabbi Goldshmiedt mentioned. Right? Cheli agalah meshuleshet. Right? The whole pasuk is in Genesis 15:9. He said to him, "Take to me these three uh bulls. Take to me three goats. Take me three rams, a turtledove, and a young bird. Take all these." And believe it or not, there was the secret of korbanos was revealed to him, and he passed through them. Another reason to be an Ivri. So, the the secret of korbanos was handed over to Avraham. U'chivan miskalel mal shekorbanos meramzim al teshuvah. So clear that the whole concept of the korbanos is only to bring us to teshuvah. It's all about teshuvah. So, it relates very much to that light of teshuvah. And it also mentions in Midrash Rabbah 2 number 3, you'll see this in number nine on the source sheet. Um basically, this hints There's a There's a verse in Isaiah 41:2. You'll see this on in number 10. Uh this is referring to Avram. Avram Let's just read the latter part of number nine, Genesis Rabbah 2 3. Uh look on page three at the top. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Until when will the world conduct itself in darkness?" In other words, it's dark. It's I know it's a dark world. Let some light come. So, God said, "Let there be light." Already in Genesis. Who's that referring to? Avraham. Avraham is that light. He's the father of us who are the lights to the nations. And regarding that, there's a pasuk in Isaiah 41:2. It says, and it's talking about Avraham. You can see in in the in the Rashi, but in the meantime, it says, "He who roused who roused" The word roused, "righteousness from the east." "Who aroused righteousness from the east?" Look at Rashi in number 10. "One whom righteousness accompanied. Who aroused Avraham to bring him from Aram, which is in the east, and the righteousness that he would perform that was opposite his feet wherever he went." He was a a tremendous baal chesed, but he taught Torah, he shared Torah, he shared the light of Torah, he shared about the relationship that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has with the Jewish people. So, Avraham was hit'chil laha'ir shenemar, as we saw in Isaiah 41:2, "Mi he'ir mimizarach tzedek." And this all hints to the idea that it was Avraham who aroused people to do teshuvah, the light of doing teshuvah. What about the fourth idea, the or of the Beit Hamikdash? The light of the Temple, it says in in Pirkei Avot. Professor Pirkei Avot that the Beit Hamikdash was one of the kinyanim. And we're going to see why that's going to be related to Torah and wisdom shortly. And then the or haTorah, the the fifth idea that it's the light of Torah as um as one of the kinyanim. And he's going to discuss that, too. But in the meantime, he says, "Chamisha kinyanim he'lu." He's going to repeat this theme that these five acquisitions tachlis hakavanah bakulam kinyan chochmah. I don't why he repeats it, but he wants to drill this idea in that these five acquisitions by Hashem, they all point towards They all relate to the idea of acquiring wisdom as the goal. In fact, I just want to say one more thing. The Kli Yakar quotes from I think could be the Zohar, but it's something in Aramaic. He quotes it, and he says that the the tachlis, the goal of acquiring wisdom, is to know that you don't know. Now, just from a simple psychological point of view, that the one who's really wise, he can already see how much he doesn't know. Right? The wiser you are, you know how much more there is to gain in wisdom. So, there's a certain aspect of humility. Um but that's only someone who's truly honest with themselves can understand how little they know. So, the goal of acquiring wisdom is also character traits, right? Humility is one of the 48 ways to acquire wisdom. Okay. K'mo kein chamishah minei oros. So, just like these five ideas of the of Pirkei Avot, of God's acquiring wisdom or for our all of our acquisitions should be used to acquire wisdom, so too the five lights that are used in the book of Genesis, eilu tachlis bakulam or haTorah v'hachochmah. All of them also point, as we said, they all relate to the five books of Moses, to the Torah itself. The v'chein kol chamishah minei oros kulam meramzim al or haTorah v'hachochmah. And now, those five lights, they all hint, and I want to get into the how they hint to the idea of the light of wisdom and Torah. Keitzad? How does it work? So, you have the or hag'ulah. It's not necessarily in the same order, but or hag'ulah is the light of redemption that shib'go shib'go g'ulat Mitzrayim kiblu Yisrael haTorah. That when we were we redeemed from Egypt, right? The whole point of being redeemed, freedom, was not freedom as in chofshi, but in freedom [snorts] as in being dror, as in um uh as bnei chorin, as in true true freedom. That is acquired. That is when we receive the Torah. That's real redemption. And it says in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 23, that you see number 11 on the source sheet, right? The famous verse, "Ki ner mitzvah v'Torah or." The Torah is called light. So, we're going to match up all these ideas that the reason for being redeemed, when we were we were redeemed, we received the Torah. Har Sinai, and the Torah is called light. Now, g'ulas Bavel, by Esther's time, when we were redeemed from Persia, from Media, so it says in in in in Esther chapter 9 verse 27, kimu v'kiblu hayehudim male em, right? That the Jewish people stood up. They ordained They were ordained. They accepted the Torah. The Jews received the Torah. Meaning, not going to get into it. We talked about the Purim time. Basically, at Har Sinai, there was a certain hesitation or fear that we perhaps only received either the written Torah, but not fully embrace the oral Torah, or we only received the Torah out of fear, and maybe not out of full extent of love. But all that changed when we were redeemed. And this Look what's happening now. I have just this feeling that so many of our brethren, our Jewish brethren, are going to choser b'tshuva. They're going to see the miracles. They're going to see only afterwards. Perhaps they're seeing it now. Every day that we're we're witnessing the miracles of what's happening during this war. Uh just a side point, you know, I was actually told somebody this morning who's a big feminist and leftist. Um I said, "Did you hear about the miracle?" I didn't realize and uh that in Arad, there was like a kind of like a cultural war going on that a group of chareidi businessmen bought the mall in Arad. Now, it is true there was some arguments about advertising women's picture pictures with women. So, I think they were being a little bit whatever, I'm not judging them, a little bit strict and then maybe they came down a little bit, but the point is the clothes don't Shabbos. That's the big deal. Okay? And over this past Shabbos, a a missile and fragments hit the mall and destroyed a lot. And if that mall had been open on Shabbos, so you might get in the nitty-gritty should women's pictures be on advertising or not becomes, I think, mute and irrelevant. Okay, for some people it's very important, but the point I'm trying to speak about is that there's miracles that are happening all around us, whether they're hitting between buildings or the one The one was a direct hit on a building. The The city had just evacuated everybody cuz they're rebuilding it. It's a Tama. Uh a a a pinoy bin bin bonet. It's one of those buildings where the It's like under construction to redo the entire building. And they had just uh taken the people out and it was hit a direct hit. There was nobody there. I mean, look, there are We have to pray for the Every time the alarm goes off, that's the time to pray. God's sending you a signal. Time to pray for the protection of Am Yisrael, not for yourself. Believe me, you're included in Am Yisrael, but it says that if you ask for others before yourself, you'll get answered anyway. So, there's no problem asking for yourself, but make sure that Am Yisrael is like saying, "Am Yisrael Hashem, protect." The one who neither slumbers nor sleeps, protect the Jewish people, the apple of your eye. Okay? It's a time That's what the alarm is for. Okay? That's the first alarm. Second alarm, okay, that might be to uh to go to a protection. But the first alarm is to automatically get into the mode of praying for Am Yisrael. Okay, then, so we just said in Esther 9:27, the Jews accepted upon themselves. What did they accept? As in Gemara Shabbos 88A says, "Kimu ma she kivar kiblu." That they they took upon themselves what they had previously accepted, meaning the Torah, but in a whole 'nother sphere. What about the Geulah Kedosha, the final redemption which we're looking for? And Isaiah chapter 11 verse 9 speaks about "Umalei ha'aretz de'ah kamayim l'yam m'chasim." That the whole earth will be filled of the filled with the knowledge of God just like water covers the seabed. Okay. So, that is what we're looking forward to in terms of or or a Geulah. What about the Or HaTshuva, this idea of the light of redemption, the light that represents repentance, sorry? So, it says in Malachi 3:7, This is already now we're on page four already. That it says, "Return to me and I will return to you." "Shuvu Elai v'ashuva l'chem." God says, "Return to me and I will return to you." Okay, very nice. What does that imply? That there's a closeness. What is the word for korbanos? Korban. The literal turn is not sacrifice. The literal translation is not right? Animals. It literally means to come close. The That the concept of tshuva and the karevit to Geulah, it also brings the redemption closer and "V'az timalei ha'aretz de'ah kaniskar." At that point of the final redemption, when we all do tshuva, that the um the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God. What about the Or HaMikdash? So, how does that relate to Torah, the light of Torah? We already said Torah is or, Torah is light. "Haynu shemisham tetzei Torah or." That's where the Torah comes out from. That's where the light comes out from. Look in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 3. Right? What I underlined, "For out of Zion shall the Torah come forth." "Ki Mitzion tetzei Torah u'dvar Hashem Yerushalayim." Okay. There you have it right there. "Ki Mitzion tetzei Torah." For out of Zion Zion is a name for Yerushalayim, for the Beis HaMikdash. And what about the Or of the creation of the world, Or Brias Olam? "Kamah da'amar ta'ama Kamah da'amar." Like it says in Proverbs chapter 3 verse 19, that you can see in source 15 and 18. It's a typo that I put it twice. But anyway, "The Lord founded the earth with wisdom, established the heavens with discernment." We're talking about the Brias Olam, the creation of the world. That God created the world with wisdom. He founded the earth with wisdom and established the heavens with discernment. "Hashem b'chochmah yosad aretz konen shamayim bitvunah." Uh what does Rashi say there? According to the Torah, this is the Torah. That that the Lord founded the earth with wisdom. It's the Torah itself, which is discernment and which is knowledge. The Kli Yakar continues and brings another verse that there's covenant that God made in Jeremiah 33:25. Number 19. "So said the Lord, if not my covenant with the day and night." Which we're talking about creation of the world. That if God forbid Jews stop learning Torah, if there's ever a moment in time where Torah is not studied, heaven and earth would go back to tohu va'vohu. Um that's what it says over here. "If not my covenant with the day and the night that the statutes of heaven and earth I did not place." It's more of a question mark. Look at Rashi. "If it is possible that the covenant that I formed with day and night to be in their time should be abolished, and if it is possible for the statutes of the heaven and earth to be abolished as though I had not placed them." Meaning that the world would cease to exist. "Also the seed of Jacob." In other words, the seed of Jacob has to be learning Torah all the time or the the world would cease to exist. >> [cough] >> Okay, back in the Kli Yakar. So now, Or HaTorah P'shutah. He feels at this point he doesn't even need to speak about the light of Torah relating to the light of Torah, because that's what it is. Now, I would say this is a little bit of a summary before he goes to the next paragraph. "U'lfi she chamishah oros elu." Since accordingly, since these five lights, they are b'etzem chamishah kinyanim. According to him, they relate directly to those five acquisitions that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created or acquired in his world. "K'shem she tachlis b'chulam Or HaTorah." So too, their direction, their goal, their point, they all point towards the light of Torah. "K'mo kein." So too, those five kinyanim that we spoke about in the Bri in Pirkei Avos, they are the tachlis "Hu kinyan HaTorah v'chochmah." I can't stress this enough. If the words are exactly what it says in Pirkei Avos about the 48 ways. You want to make a kinyan on the Torah, you need the 48 ways. Okay? These five acquisitions ultimately are helping you acquire Torah and wisdom. And that's what it means in the original verse we brought down in in Proverbs chapter 4 verse 7. "B'chol kinyanecha koneh vinah." Right? In With all your possessions, acquire wisdom. With all of your physical possessions, your wealth. But what about your body? Right? Why do you think that the that the Chazal speak about the 613 mitzvos relating to different organs and limbs and sinews and muscles? Right? Because that is your That is what you have to use to acquire Torah. "V'atah habet y'mino re'eh." He says, "Now look to the right and see." "She kor'ah b'Midrash korbanos or." So, we didn't really see this, but we saw the relationship that even the korbanos are called light. Notice what the Midrash calls korbanos, calls them light. And that's "V'yacheis osam l'or ha'tshuva." Yes, we saw that that they relate to the light of tshuva. No question about that. "Harei she korbanos korim or." That the korbanos are called light. "U'mikara malehu." Now, I think this is a little bit of a question. Is it not written in the in in the text? Chapter 1 of Malachi verse 10. And this is where I said there's this I'm going to call it rebuke. Imagine someone bringing a korban without tshuva. So, remember I said, "Intentional sins, you don't bring korbanos for." It's unintentional sins. So, obviously you're bringing it on your own. Right? You're bringing it on your own. You know that you did a sin. And yet, you're going to not going to do chuva? Look what it says in Malachi. And if there were even one among you that would close the doors of the temple, and that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain. God does not want you to bring a korban without the chuva process. And he says, "I have no desire in you," says the Lord of hosts. "Neither will I accept an offering from your hand." Lo to iru mizbechi chinam. So, the word kindle, I have to admit, is not in Hebrew. Yeah, I don't know where they got the the translation, but I guess I understand. Don't ignite. Don't light a fire. But, it's the word or, right? Or means light. So, don't light a fire on the altar for nothing. Don't bring a korban without your heart, without the chuva. Um look at Rashi even on number 20, says that you would not kindle a fire on my altar in vain with fire offerings with which I'm not placated. For I have no desire in you. And the soldiers and the sages expounded uh in Toras Kohanim, like as if a person says to his friend, "Close this door for me." Can you imagine asking your friend, "Could you close the door for me?" And he doesn't demand compensation. Like, "I just did you a chesed. Pay me for closing the door." I mean, it doesn't make any sense, right? You do a chesed, you do something that didn't cost any money. It was almost no effort. You're not going to charge him. The same thing. If I say, "Light a candle for me," right? So, you take the candle, you put it, right? It's my candle, it's not lit. Could you light my candle for me? So, he takes it and he puts it next to his own candle, and then now it's lit. So, what did he lose? There's no loss to the candle flame, right? It's a free It's a free gift. He doesn't request compensation. But, you, right? Who is there among you closed my door gratis? Neither did you kindle my fire my kindle fire on my altar gratis. Surely, things that are customarily done for compensation you did not do for gratis. Therefore, I have no no desire in you. Okay, I'm not exactly sure how to synthesize that entire Rashi, but basically, the idea is don't bring the korban without doing chuva. Not interested. Okay. So, we were starting that second paragraph. We're on the top left. Right? We just read that verse. The lo to iru mizbechi chinam in Proverbs 1:10. Me'ata tzei amar shema she nishkar chamisha pe'amim zos parshas zo. So, we're in parshas Tzav. Go out and say that maybe from from what was mentioned that there are five times it actually says in the parsha, "Zois haTorah." This is the Torah. Where does it say it? For example, I wrote them all in source number 21. So, if you look in chapter 6 verse 2 of Vayikra, it says, "Zois olah." This is the the law of the burnt offering. By the mincha, chapter 6 verse 7, "This is the Torah of the mincha." Chatas, "Zois haTorah chatas." Chapter 6 verse 18. The asham, the guilt offering. So, that the previous one was the uh sin offering. The the guilt offering, chapter 7 verse 1, "Zois Toras asham." And the shlamim, chapter 7 verse 11. This is the Torah So, why does it say five times in our parsha? You don't see it almost anywhere else. There's two other places. One has to do with the uh the uh the parah adumah. But, otherwise, it says, and we'll we'll read it, right? What do we do? What do we say when we do gelilah? I'm sorry, hagbah. And they raise the Torah. Right? Zois haTorah. Shemosh sam lifnei Yisrael. This is the Torah. Zois haTorah asher sam Moshe lifnei Yisrael. That's in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 44. The Torah itself is zois haTorah. And here we're saying it's all relating All five korbanos are going to relate somehow to the Torah itself. By the way, just in in a side point, I think we're going to get to it. It's brought down that if you just learn the korbanos, you're reading them, you're you're investigating them, it's as if you brought them. Okay? It's going to be very important. So, the last thing he said was aleph, "Zois Torah olah." We said that's chapter 6 verse 2. "Zois Toras shlamim." That's 7:11. "Zois Toras chatas." 6:18. "Zois Toras asham." 7:11 7:1. And the last one, "Zois Toras haMincha." That's chapter 6 verse 7. "Hein mamar um ramzim al chamisha minei oros." Again, he's bringing it back that they relate to they hint to the five types of lights that we mentioned already by especially don't bring the korban on the altar without the chuva. "Lo to iru mizbechei chinam. Mizbechei chinam." Don't ignite or light your or korbanos on my altar without doing chuva. His k'vakulam zois Torah. All five korbanos, it says, "Zois Torah." Like we find by the Torah itself, as I we mentioned already in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 44, "Zois haTorah asher sam Moshe lifnei benei Yisrael." This is the Torah. This is the teaching that um Hashem Moses placed before the children of Israel. Huraya, this proves l'divareinu according to what we said shekol hatachlis b'chamisha oros chamisha kinyanim. According to him, he synthesized all these fives. Right? That this is the purpose of those five lights, the five acquisitions, which is ultimately light, which is the kinyan of the Torah. Therefore, his kelalshan um hamor b'Torah etzel chamisha minei korbanos. That's why the Torah goes out of its way to say by each one of the korbanos, "Zois haTorah." This is the Torah. Like we mentioned this parallels the five the chamisha Chumshei Torah. This parallels the five books of Moses. Now, the the home stretch, because I mentioned we're going to talk about Pesach. Okay, so the korban Pesach is not technically a shlamim, but it's related to the shlamim family because it's considered kodshim kalim. And it has many It shares many of the characteristics of shlamim. But, it doesn't exactly fall in as It's not a complete shlamim. So, like the shlamim, the Pesach offering is eaten by the people who bring it. So, that is already um a big deal, right? It's not completely burnt on the altar. The shlamim isn't, and certainly the Pesach isn't either. It's eaten roasted with matzah and bitter herbs. True. So, too, the shlamim is eaten with 40 loaves of bread. And uh by the way, why 40? And 40 bottles of wine? Right? Cuz you have to invite people. Right? Something great happened. You want to come close to Hashem and inspire others. You're It's a like a Thanksgiving. It's a type of uh shlamim, a Thanksgiving offering. And you have to finish it by the next day. So, you don't have much time. So, you better invite all your friends. You got to have friends. Make friends. And maybe if you don't, you'll make friends. Okay? Uh it's subject to the same prohibition against leaving meat over until the next morning. Yeah, the Pesach, we have to finish it before morning. You can't leave over what they call nosar. So, too, the shlamim has the concept of nosar. Um and if the korban Pesach gets lost, right? You're on your way up. You designated it, you're on your way up to Har Bayit. And I don't know. Can you try Use your imagination. Got mixed in. You don't know where it is. What are you going to do? So, when you finally find that korban, it's offered up as a shlamim. What about the differences? So, the Kohanim share So, the a regular shlamim, there are certain portions that are given to the Kohanim. Now, the korban Pesach is entirely eaten by the family. So, it you don't designate pieces to the Kohanim. Um the shlamim are usually voluntarily, but the Pesach obviously is obligatory. And the timing. Shlamim can be brought almost anytime. The korban Pesach is restricted just to the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. Um so, what does he say about shlamim? So, the author yitbo'er l'cha mashu m'chazal. We're now going to explain what Chazal teach us in korban menach in um in um tractate Menachos 101 110A. Kol osek b'Torah olah, anyone who learns the laws the Torah of the olah, k'ilu hikriv olah. It's as if he offered up the olah offering. Same thing with the chatas, same thing with the asham, same thing with the mincha, and the shlamim. Ki zevach ha'shlamim, that thing called the shlamim, heim k'neged bri'as olam. That's going to parallel the creation of the world. By the way, the 10 plagues, the makos, they were It was like a reenactment of the 10 ma'amaros that God used to create the world. See, there were no witnesses to the creation of the world. Adam was born on Friday. It was complete. It was like a set table. Right? Okay, so female was created seder, but the whole my locus anyway, they were created together and then separated. But the point is that there were no witnesses to the creation of the world. When God wants to show his mastery, he shows he's the creator of the world. He creates all these miracles or let's say things that go against nature. He can he actually through the 10 plagues showed the mastery of how he and they match up with the 10 statements he created the world. He is the creator. He is the master. Okay? And I think the same thing is happening now. We may not be aware of it. Maybe we'll open our eyes. Maybe only after the fact we're going to see what's going to happen in this war, what's happened already is God showing his mastery. I mean I don't have to go into it now, but when you have all the missiles flying over your head, it's like Passover. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Kol Olam niv I'm sorry, I skipped something. Ki zevach hashlamim hem keneged bri'at olam. So the shlamim is going to parallel the creation of the world. That the world was created, right? Even God said, "Okay, I can create it with truth or shalom. Which is going to last? If it was just truth, then probably we'd all be beating each other up or something. Right? Oh, interesting. There's a thing called Truth Social. I'm not sure I never tapped into it. But everyone's claiming they have the truth. Everyone's claiming they have the truth. Right? It could be Qatar Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens versus, you know, Mark Levin and Benjamin and and Benjamin what's his what's his name? Shapiro. Uh Listen, when you have the Torah, you know the truth. Right? And it becomes clear who's right and who's wrong. I think I gave my statement. Okay. So the world was created with shalom, not necessarily with truth. Truth would be too hard to handle. But anyway, we have these two verses that he he ends off with how to prove the world was really created with shalom and Isaiah chapter 45 verse 7. Oseh shalom bim I'm not sorry. Oseh shalom u'vore es hakol u'vore es hara. Right? If you look in the verse, it says God created right he made peace and he created evil. That's what it says in Isaiah and that's true. That's why many of the other religions they have this duality. They they think there's a you know, like the yin yang or something that there's dual powers. There's a good power and there's an evil power and there's a constant struggle. And you actually you have to help the good side overcome the bad side because the good [clears throat] side doesn't have the power to overcome the bad side without your help. Judaism says no, everything emanates from Hashem. What actually looks evil, it's not really evil, but it emanates, right? There's no evil that emanates from Hashem, but it's perceived as evil. Anyway, that's what the pasuk says. You can't argue with Isaiah. That he oseh shalom, he was he created peace, but he was but he made peace, but he was borei kol borei ra. It happens to be that we changed the words in our prayers because as the mager says, it would be too devastating if we think constantly that the God created evil. But anyway, and it also says in Job chapter 25 verse two that oseh shalom bimromav, God created peace up in the heavens. By the way, this war that's going on now was already fought. And the winners had already been been determined. It's the the wars are fought in heaven. And it's already been determined who won. We have to show up. We just have to show up. Do our thing. Do our hishtadlus. Okay? Don't be afraid. We won. Okay? Um anyway, that was my message. Unfortunately, I didn't prepare anything for Pesach yet. We're going to spend the entire week on Pesach. Um and so most of it will not be recorded. So again, I I urge you [snorts] to use the the playlist below and to see all the different shiurim on Pesach. And with that, I just wish everybody I just want to see if I missed anything. No, I think I covered everything. I want to wish everybody mamash uh a freilicha Pesach. Right? I mean we all have a good week of work ahead of us. I get it. But ivdu es Hashem b'simcha, serve God with joy. Okay? So I know Rabbi Goldshmid spoke about how the servant we are royal servants, right? When when we went to Egypt, we were not servants of individual homes. It's true we worked in individual homes, but we were royal slaves. We were owned by Pharaoh. When Yosef had this great dream and wisdom to put away seven years of plenty and then the two it only was two years, but let's just say seven years expected of of famine, so already a few the first two years in, the Egyptians were running out of food. So they he basically had them sell their property rights. They themselves became slaves. We were slaves of slaves. We were owned that cuz Pharaoh owned everything. Yosef made sure of that. It was like also leading up. So we went from slaves royal slaves of Pharaoh to royal servants of Hashem. Okay? We are mamlechet kohanim v'goy kadosh. Bizrat Hashem we can actually serve Hashem b'simcha cuz that's really what he wants. He wants your heart. He wants us to serve him with joy and with meaning. And I wish everyone a kosher uh hot kosher v'sameach. >> [music] [music] [singing] [music and singing] [singing]