Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Importance of Living in The Land of Israel

[music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] >> Good morning everybody. Hope I hope you're well. Thank you for coming. Uh as always our sheer is dedicated for the praying for the protection of Am Yisrael, the lasting unity of the people of Israel, which will lead to victory. As Rashi says for all of those whose health has been affected by terror, a refuah shleimah for Leah Shoshana bas Yisrael Sura, and Harav Dov ben Shoshana, a besoch shaar cholei Yisrael, and aliyas neshama in memory of Irving Kaplan, Yitzchak ben Shimshon Meir Halevi, whose yahrtzeit is this Shabbos, the 21st of Sivan, uh dedicated by Barbara and David Kaplan. Uh thank you very much and may the divrei Torah be al iluy l'iluy nishmata. Um nishmata [snorts] rather, yeah. Uh Again, uh because of the dichotomy in the two parshiyos in chutz la'aretz, it's Beha'alotcha and in Eretz Yisrael it's Shelach, so I may try to give you two thoughts on each, but I'll start with Shelach because I will give priority to the parsha of Eretz Yisrael, especially in the parsha which is about the priority of Eretz Yisrael. There's a special a reason here. You know, I heard recently a friend of mine, uh maybe you know him, Michael has this podcast about homecoming to Israel, very very fervent, enthusiastic lover of Eretz Yisrael, uh kind of tough, he doesn't give any excuses for his lawyers at all. Uh, and uh he says that all the American rabbis, when it comes to Parshas Shlach, they'll always try to avoid those they'll never use it as the notion of coming to Eretz Yisrael. They'll talk about, "Oh, you see the aveira of lashon hara, or you see the the lack of emunah, the lack of bitachon." But they never want to zoom in on the ultimate message of the importance of living in Eretz Yisrael. Of course, I'm preach I would be preaching to the choir to talk about that because all of you are here, but certainly that is one of the great lessons of the parsha. Uh, that um if you want to be zocheh to the closeness of Hashem that one gets by living in Eretz Yisrael, one has to love the land. One has to yearn for the land. Uh, indeed there are so many reasons to complain. Everything the meraglim said was in fact not not false. It was not a lie. Uh, how tough it was and the great great enemies. But the answer is af al pi chein, Hakadosh Baruchu gave you this land, it's going to be good. It is good. It is right. And the notion that because there are hardships, therefore don't do it is really connected to the whole hashkafa of the Torah, which is all about encountering hardships and going forward with it, going kadima in it. So, this is a an important uh lesson to think about. Um obviously, um I I I am not going to sit in judgment on people who have made various decisions for various reasons. Uh, but once again, uh many have said that in the United States at least, and certainly in Europe, kal vachomer in Europe, the handwriting is on the wall that it might be time for Jews to kind of get out. Uh, baruch Hashem, New York had a beautiful parade in honor of Israel. Uh, but you know, well, one very important person in New York City happened not to show up. Uh, that was Mondami. Uh, and that's and even though not showing up to a parade may not be that important. I mean, I probably wouldn't have gone to a parade either. You know, it's not not a big deal, but it sends a signal. And that signal can easily translate into negative and even destructive behavior. If people see that the mayor doesn't really care about this, even though that not showing up may not be the biggest thing in the world, that could Hashem Hashalom lead to a lot of negative negative consequences. And maybe, just maybe, and I'm not a navi, so I can't say that, but maybe Hakadosh Baruchu is telling us it is time to come home. Because people can come to Eretz Yisrael either because of the pull theory or the push theory. The pull theory is I come here because it's holy, it's good, it's the land that God promised us, it's the land where there could be Kibbutz Elohim, it pulls me there. But there's another way to get here, and that is push, meaning to say things are so bad there that, you know, I got to push. So, pull is better than push, for sure. But the way Hakadosh Baruchu operates in the world, if the pull isn't strong enough, it sometimes gets augmented by the push. And perhaps that is perhaps, again, I'm not a navi, I'm not going to start telling you this is the way it is, but perhaps Hakadosh Baruchu is showing us, unfortunately, a number of pushes to kind of get our attention and to realize, uh, that this is where the Jewish people should be. Should be. So, be as it should be, Hashem, Parshas Shelach is a time to think about that in a lot of ways. Al pi daas Hashem, uh, the cheit hamaraglim did have a devastating short-term consequence and a devastating long-term consequence. The devastating short-term consequence was an entire generation wandered in the desert for 40 years. And and everybody who was 20, every male, every male who was 20 years old at the time of the hate of the miraglim died in the desert. Most of them on Tisha B'Av and the like. And the only people who entered, now not everybody was included in the g'zeira, women were not included, so there were elderly women who came to Eretz Yisrael. Shevet Levi was not included, at least that's what Rashi says, you don't see that in the Chumash, but Rashi says Shevet Levi was not included. Yehoshua and Calev were of course not included. And according to some Rishonim, it depends, the last group, cuz nobody died before 60. That that's how it worked, meaning the g'zeira was from 20 to 60, so over 40 years people died when they reached their 60th birthday. So according to the shita of of a Tosefta in Maseches Taanis and Rashi, the last generation, the people who should have died in year 40 there was an amnesty. Uh and uh so according to that if you simply divide it, uh although it wasn't always the same number, but if you divide 600,000 by 40 that gives you uh an approximate average death of 15,000 people per year. So according to uh Rashi, the last 15,000 did not die. It's very difficult cuz the Torah says only Yehoshua and Calev, but now it's Yehoshua and Calev and another 15,000. But other than that the whole generation did die. In addition to the other aveiros like Korach and the like, but because of the hate of miraglim. So that was the short-term consequence. The long-term consequence is much more serious even than that. And that is the miraglim came back on the 8th day of Av and they gave their reports. And it says the Bnei Yisrael cried that night. And that was the night of the Tisha B'Av, uh 9th of Av. So, what does What do Chazal say Kodesh Baruch Hu said about that crying? Atem b'chi chinam b'chiya shel chinam. You have cried for no reason. This date shall become b'chiya >> [snorts] >> l'dorot, the crying of all generations. So, on some level [snorts] it's not just the wandering in the desert for 40 years, the whole churban Bayit HaMikdash is connected to the cheit ha'meraglim. So, there are cosmic repercussions that reverberate throughout throughout time. So, this is a pretty serious aveira. So, the question though is, just as a matter of interpretation, what exactly is the aveira? Meaning, is there an aveira to send spies? I mean, Moshe Rabbeinu sent spies to check out the land. Is the shiluach ha'meraglim an aveira? Does it show a lack of emunah? Cuz [clears throat] God promised you the land, so what are you sending meraglim? Or is it a reasonable hishtadlus? So, Ramban makes a very important point cuz a lot of people misunderstand this. The Ramban said there was nothing intrinsically wrong in sending spies. Because even if Hashem promises you promises you the land, and you know, you do have you will be guaranteed a victory, you still have to create appropriate military strategy. You have to have an army. You have to fight milchama just like Yehoshua bin Nun. And spies can give you the information to know what is the weak point, what is the strong point. So, the etzem shiluach ha'meraglim, the Ramban says, does not at all demonstrate a chisaron emunah. This is part of the idea that even when you have emunah in Hashem, you have to devise a plan. And the Ramban brings two very excellent proofs. Proof number one is in the time of Yehoshua bin Nun at the very beginning of the conquest of the land. What does perek beis of sefer Yehoshua say? He sent miraglim to check out Yericho. Now, if anybody ought to know how bad the sin of the miraglim would be, it's none other than Yehoshua, who was one of the two good miraglim. And yet he sent miraglim. It's legitimate. Then the Ramban brings another raya, which is a little less familiar, but it's even a stronger raya. We have a raya from the Torah itself because when the Jewish people conquered east of the Yarden and they conquered the land of Sichon melech ha'Emori, so there was a town called Ya'azer, and it says Mosha sent miraglim to check out Ya'azer. Now, this is 40 years after the or 38 years after the shiluach ha'miraglim. So, the Ramban's point is that sending miraglim is perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with that. What was wrong with it, number one, is beside the miraglim, it was the editorial content of their message. They were given a job to point out strong points, weak points. They were not told, right? They were like So, they were supposed to be journalists. They were not supposed to be opinion editorial writers. But, "It's too much for us. We can't do it." That's not their job. Hashem decided that we can do this. So, it's not your job to say no. So, that was an aveira. And of course, the bigger aveira was not the miraglim alone. It was the response of the people who lost courage, who had fear, and the like. So, this is the shita of the Ramban, a very important shita that there is no aveira in shiluach ha'miraglim. [snorts] The aveira was simply in the miraglim, number one, reporting that we can't do it. It's too big for us, too much for us, too fearsome for us. And of course, the reaction of the people. So, in a way, when we say "Haitam Meraglim", it's a little bit of a misnomer. It's not so much The Jewish people were not punished because of the sin of the spies. They were punished because of their sin in a losing their emunah in Hashem. Now, Rashi seems to disagree with that. Rashi seems to say that it was really not proper to even want Meraglim because if one had emunah in Hashem, one would know that Hashem will give you the victory. So, according to Rashi, we have a third aveira. The actual sending of spies is an aveira. Then Netziv suggests a compromise position between Rashi and Ramban. And that is, if a person is on the highest level of emunah, they shouldn't have to They shouldn't need the reassurance of Meraglim. But once you've demonstrated you're not on that level, that which you shouldn't have needed actually becomes mandatory. So, had the Jewish people not asked for Meraglim, Moshe would not have suggested it. You see, that's why there's a little contradiction. Uh in in in Parshas Bamidbar, I'm sorry, Parshas Shelach in Sefer Bamidbar, Hashem says, "Send Meraglim." But if you look in the book of Devarim, when Moshe Rabbeinu is reviewing the story, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "You came to me and you asked "Nishlacha anashim lefanenu." So, then Netziv reconciles it exactly in this way. Ideally, they shouldn't have asked. But once they ask and they indicate that they're afraid, then they enter the realm of the world of hishtadlut. And then Netziv develops this whole idea that there are levels of bitachon that are beyond the need for hishtadlus. But when you don't have that bitachon, your obligation of hishtadlus becomes greater. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The less you trust in Hashem, the more you have to do in order to get the divine benefit. He brings an interesting proof to this from Shmuel Hanavi. If you remember, when Shaul forfeited the malchus because he failed to kill Amalek or he failed to kill all of Amalek, so Hashem said to Shmuel, "Go and anoint one of Yishai's." He didn't tell him which one, but "Go and anoint one of Yishai's sons in Beis Lechem to become a king." That wound up, of course, being Dovid. >> [sighs and gasps] >> So Shmuel asked the question, "Eich eilech?" How can I do How can I go and do this? V'Shama Shaul, Shaul will hear about it. V'hargeni, and Shaul will kill me." Shaul will will condemn me for treason. I'm going and I'm anointing another king. So Hashem said to Shmuel, "Okay, let's do a subterfuge. Go to Beis Lechem to bring a korban, cuz in those days you can bring korbanos anywhere, and you can anoint Dovid surreptitiously because the reason for your mission was you want to bring a korban." Shmuel used to travel around the country, so this would be on your on your schedule. So the Netziv points out, "Why didn't Hashem give Shmuel that advice in the beginning? Why Why did Hashem wait for Shmuel to raise the question and then give him a way out? Hashem should have said, 'Go and anoint Dovid and bring a korban to protect yourself.'" So says the Netziv, that Shmuel, as great as Shmuel was was, unbelievably great, that particular moment he was seized with a fear in which the Emunah was not 100% meaning had he simply said God commanded me to anoint and Shmuel would have went, he wouldn't have needed any protection. Hashem would have protected him. But once he is Magaleh, once he reveals that he's fearful, he's scared then he's Mechuyav to engage in Hishtadlus that he otherwise would not have been Chayav to engage in. And Memela the Netziv says that's exactly the story with the Meraglim in which Rashi is correct that at a higher level of Emunah they shouldn't have asked but Ramban is correct once they asked this is what they need. They are Mechuyav to engage in that particular strategy. In fact the Netziv says the same thing is true about appointing a Melech, right? Everyone has a famous question. There's a Mitzvah in the Torah to have a Melech and yet when the Jewish people ask for a Melech the Navi Shmuel gives them all sorts of Mussar and Tochachah. You're rejecting God, why do you need a king? So the Netziv says the same point. Ideally they shouldn't have asked. Once they ask it becomes a Mitzvah because they're showing that they don't have that total trust. So it's an interesting idea that the obligation and the extent of your Hishtadlus is going to be a function of how strong your Emunah is. The stronger the Emunah the less the Hishtadlus the lesser the Emunah the more you're going to have to do in order to elicit divine blessing. This is an approach the Netziv uses in a number of number of areas. Um okay. So that's Legabei the Shiluach Meraglim. But now let's talk about what is clearly an Aveirah the Meraglim's Lashon Hara and the Jewish people's response to that Lashon Hara. Now Rashi says um Kulam Anashim right? The Meraglim were all people, all men. What do you mean all men? Well, of course they're all men. Just look at their names. So, Rashi explains, Anashim means Chashuvim. They were important. They were distinguished. They were righteous. Moshe Rabbeinu chose only righteous people to be the Meraglim. To be sure that things would be good. Although Moshe suspected things might go bad, because what's the proof? Because [snorts] he named Hoshea bin Nun. That was Moshe's faithful student. He renamed him Yehoshua bin Nun. Cuz Yeah is Yud Hey, Kah Yoshia'cha. May Hashem save you from the evil counsel of the Meraglim. So, Moshe Rabbeinu had an intimation and had an intimation that something was going to go wrong. But still, he tried to choose people who were righteous and saintly. So, the question becomes, if they were righteous and saintly, how could they be Nichsha in this tremendous Aveira? How could it happen? Now, obviously, this is a almost a generic question that you're going to have throughout the Chumash. All of these different sins that were committed in the desert, supposed to be a righteous generation. But let's just focus on the Meraglim who are specifically identified as Tzaddikim, righteous people. So, there's a very interesting Machlokes. Uh the Netziv, the Malbim, Rav Hirsch, they they they say it in different ways, but it's ultimately the same idea. And that is, the Meraglim certainly made a tremendous mistake, but their mistake was Leshem Shamayim. They did have a spiritual calculation in their mistake. If you remember in last week's Parsha, when Moshe Rabbeinu appoints 70 elders to be a Sanhedrin, so it mentions there were two people who were outside of that group who were giving prophecies. And these are Eldad and Medad. And Yehoshua comes to Moshe and says, "Arrest them. Put them away." And Moshe Rabbeinu said, um I'd I'd be happy if everybody would be a navi. And Baruch [snorts] Hashem, they're nevi'im. Now, why was Yehoshua so upset over this? People are prophets. I mean, Baruch Hashem, it's good. So, Rashi says from the Medrash that the reason why Yehoshua bin Nun was upset is because of the prophecy that they were giving. And they were saying, "Moshe meit." Moshe is going to die in the desert. And Yehoshua is going to be the leader. Now, remember, Parshas Balak is right after the Mishkan. This is before the sin of the spies. And this is way before Moshe hitting the rock. Moshe does not hit the rock until year 40. So, 40 years or 39 years before Moshe Rabbeinu's sin, we already have a prophecy from Eldad and Medad that Moshe is going to die. Meaning, it was already known many, many years before Moshe committed the sin that Moshe would die. Now, of course, that does create enormous problems of free will because we do believe every person has free will not to do an aveira. Now, if it was decreed that Moshe cannot enter Eretz Yisrael because he committed the sin of hitting the rock instead of speaking to the rock or whatever the sin is, we'll talk about that in a few weeks, then how could it be said before that action, he's not coming in? Well, what if he would have decided not to do the aveira? All right, so that's a real good question, but that's that's actually also a very general philosophical question. How do you reconcile free will with Hashem knowing the future. But be that as it may, Hashem does know the future. So, Hashem knew that Moshe Rabbeinu would choose this aveira. The point I'm making is that that means throughout all the years in the desert, Bnei Yisrael had an awareness that Moshe is going to die. They didn't know why. They didn't know why he's going to die before they enter Eretz Yisrael. You see that from Eldad u'Meidad. Now, there was a very big difference between the way Hashem interacted with Am Yisrael in the midbar and the way Hashem is going to interact with them once we come to Eretz Yisrael. The midbar was a form of a spiritual cocoon. We were surrounded with clouds of glory. We had the manna that came down from heaven, lechem min hashamaim. Right? The bracha on manna that we all say is hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz. You don't say hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz. We had the ananei hakavod, we had the special well that traveled with us. That was the well of Miriam in the merit of Miriam. When Miriam dies, we lose the water and that's when Moshe hits the rock, but that's going to be the 40th year. A spiritual cocoon. Now, we still had many, many aveiros, but the point was the closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu was supernatural. It was intense. The divinity was palpable. And remember, this generation also experienced yetziat Mitzrayim, matan Torah, kriat Yam Suf. And that actually explains why when you're so close to God, the the the consequences are immediate. You do good, you get immediate reward. You do bad, you get immediate punishment. There's no concealment. There's no machitza. There's no blockage. There's no partition. The Shekinah is ever-present all the time. Once we come to Eretz Yisrael, life is going to be very very different. Once we come to Eretz Yisrael, as beautiful and miraculous as the land is, there's going to be a tremendous concealment of the divine. You're not going to get the manna. You're going to have to plow and plant and harvest and thresh. You're not going to have an automatic supply of water. You're going to have to dig wells and for a large part of the year, there is not even natural rainfall. There are no clouds of glory. You have to have armies. You have to have your lawyers, your doctors, your accountants, your storekeepers. It's a world that is much more connected to physicality. A world in which Hashem is still controlling your destiny, but you don't always have the direct sense of that. Now again, obviously, in Eretz Yisrael even today, you have a greater sense than in chutz la'aretz. So, I'm not comparing Eretz Yisrael to chutz la'aretz. I am comparing Eretz Yisrael to the midbar. The midbar was an extraordinarily open relationship with God. Eretz Yisrael will be a more concealed relationship. And the Now, given the fact that once we come to Eretz Yisrael, we face the challenges of physicality. How to remain a duke? How to remain attached to God in a world of physicality, a world of war, a world a world of work, a world of politics. So, you can understand that the same way, let's imagine I'll give you a a prosaic example. Let's say you have an avreich who's been learning Torah in kollel for many, many years. Totally immersed in Torah. But now the avreich has to go to work to support his family. Again, I'm not going to touch on military service. I just I'm just raising a simple question of the transition. So the avreich is very afraid of going into the working world. He says, "When I'm surrounded with ruchniyus, spirituality, I can be close to God. But how will I navigate the challenges of being so involved in the physical and the material?" So the person might say, "Hmm, maybe I need to spend a little more time in kollel so I can strengthen my spiritual reserves." So then it says the Malbim say that the cheshbon of the meraglim was, "Let's stay a little more in the desert. In the desert, we feel the presence of God. We see the presence of God. Once we come to Eretz Yisrael, there are so many things that can go wrong. We'll be involved. We'll be immersed in physicality, in materialism, in the needs to build up a country, in the need to get involved even in political alliances. Maybe we need to be in the midbar a little longer." So the meraglim's attempt was not to not go to Eretz Yisrael at all. The meraglim wanted to buy time. Now, here is the thing. And the fact that they also knew that as soon as they come to Eretz Yisrael, Moshe Rabbeinu is going to die, their cheshbon was that if we stay in the desert longer, not only do we have the ruchniyus, the spirituality of the desert, that much longer, but we have Moshe Rabbeinu. That's much longer. How can we live without a Moshiach Rabbeinu? Let's keep him alive. So, based on this the shift suggests that in some ways getting the extra years, the 40 years was exactly what they wanted. Now now that that what they didn't want is they didn't want to die in the desert. They also hoped to come to Eretz Israel. They didn't want to die in the desert. But the notion of let's stay in the desert a little longer was specifically what their intention was because we have Moshiach Rabbeinu that much longer. So, Moshiach Rabbeinu lived 40 more years or 38 more years because of this. And we have the coel existence of man and Ananei Hakavod and uh the well of Miriam that much longer. And then at some point we'll be strong enough, we'll be ready to meet the challenge. Right? So, this is a bit of a fancy cheshbon L'shem Shamayim that let us remain in the world of spirituality to give us the strength to confront the world of materialism and physicality. Right? That was the L'shem Shamayim of the Meraglim. Now, this can explain a number of things. First of all, it explains you know, Moshiach Rabbeinu prayed that Yehoshua should not be nekhshal, he should not stumble in the sin of the spies. Moshiach Rabbeinu changed his name. Now, why did he pray only for Yehoshua? Why didn't he do it for Caleb? Meaning, what did he see in Yehoshua that made him think Yehoshua might be vulnerable to the argument of the Meraglim? Now, there's apparently Moshiach is looking at Yehoshua and he's seeing a potential weakness a potential vulnerability which has to be countermanded by a prayer and a change of name. What is the insecurity vis-a-vis Yehoshua? The answer actually is very simple. Because if the meraglim's argument is we need a Moshiach to be around a little longer. We're not yet ready to leave Kolo. We're not yet ready to meet challenges. Who more than Yehoshua would feel that insecurity? Talk about filling big shoes. Yehoshua had to fill the biggest shoes that ever existed. And one can imagine that Yehoshua himself was daunted was frightened of that opportunity. Yehoshua himself could not imagine a life without the leadership of his beloved teacher Moshiach. And Moshiach intuited that Yehoshua would precisely be the one that's most vulnerable to the claim of the meraglim and therefore there had to be a special prayer in his behalf. This also explains another interesting idea that when the meraglim gave their their their negative reports and the people began to cry so the Torah initially mentions Yehoshua and Caleb both fell on their faces but only Caleb spoke up and said you have to have emunah. Yehoshua didn't speak up. Yehoshua did not Yehoshua is actually strangely silent. And he's not the one that makes the argument. Now why is that so? So there are actually two explanations. One explanation is that Yehoshua didn't want to be a speaker on this because he might be accused of a conflict of interest. This is a political idea meaning since Yehoshua is in line to be leader, if Yehoshua starts saying we ought to go people would say to him, "Oh, you're saying that because you're going to be the boss. So, Yeshua felt in order to avoid a conflict of some more political commentary, in order to avoid a conflict of interest. Tying against him, he kept quiet. But, the other way of looking at it is maybe a much more serious thing. Yeshua was on the fence just as Moshe Rabbeinu intuited. And therefore, momentarily, he could have gone either way. And it was Caleb that gave him the chizuk [snorts] to go ahead. You see, this is why Yeshua is silent at that moment. That's a critical moment. He could go either way. It reminds me a little bit uh we're going to read about Korach in a few weeks, which is a totally different or next week, totally different uh parsha. Uh but, there was a Chassidish Rebbe who once said that he was a reincarnation of the Dor Hamidbar, and he remembers the Korach rebellion. So, one of his Chassidim asked him, "So, what side were you on?" So, the Rebbe reputedly said, "You don't know. It was a pretty close debate." He says, "You think, you know, we we look at Korach as like totally wrong and totally frivolous, totally stupid." He says, "If you were there, you would see that there were some good arguments made on both on both sides." He said, "It wasn't as simple as you think." [snorts] So, the Chayenei Mar'aglim was also not as simple as we think. It was an attempt to hold on to the spirituality of the desert a little bit longer. Well, that sounds like a good That sounds like a good cheshbon ultimately. So, so what's the aveira? That's always the question. You know, we started off with the question, "How could righteous people commit a sin?" So, we answer, "They had a spiritual justification for it." So, now you're back to the other question. So, why is it a sin? They had a good spiritual justification for it. The answer once again is that God apparently did not agree with that spiritual justification. God gave you a mission to go and conquer the land. And if God gave you a mission, it is not our place to second-guess whether we have the ability to carry it out. The God that gave you the mission will give you the resources to carry out that mission. And you cannot use your personal assessment of your inadequacies as a way of saying, "I can't do this mission." That's a very important lesson. Don't second-guess the God that gave you the mission gives you the power to carry out that mission. But on a more general level, part of the lesson is that they are afraid of leaving the world of pure spirituality and confronting the literally dirty job of creating a country, creating a nation. They're looking at going into materialism as somehow a downfall. When in reality, it's the very purpose of the Torah. The midbar existence, which is pure spirituality, sit and learn and the manna falls from heaven, is a good training ground. But the ultimate purpose of human existence, and certainly the ultimate purpose of Jewish existence, is to take spirituality and bring it into the physical. To show that eating, drinking, farming, building cities, creating societies, become a vote of they they are not a detraction from serving Hashem. They [snorts] are the highest level of serving Hashem. Sanctify the material. Do not be afraid of the material. Do not create a religious worldview in which holy things are the spiritual activities. And then things like building up the land or whatever it is are not spiritual activities. Recognize that sanctifying the material, sanctifying the gashmius, is ultimately the very purpose of the Torah. You know, um when political Zionism I don't mean the desire to come to Eretz Yisrael, that was in our philos uh forever. [clears throat] But the political movements of Zionism, creating Jewish settlements and ultimately a vision of a Jewish state, uh is a product of the 19th century. And uh as you know, [clears throat] uh there were different streams of Zionism in the 19th century. The movement did not really solidify. Uh there was the stream that eventually became the mainstream, at least in secular Zionism, of Theodor Herzl, which was a very nationalistic idea, that ultimately there ought to be a Jewish state. And indeed that was his famous book, The Judenstaat, the Jewish uh the Jewish state. Uh that culminated eventually, way after many years after his death, in the state of Israel. But there actually was a rival view of Zionism uh by again, these are not religious people, by the guy who who calls himself Ahad Ahad Ha'am, Asher Ginsberg, who was a philosopher, a thinker, a journalist, a writer. And Ahad Ha'am was actually very much opposed. I wouldn't call him a true heart, he certainly would but he was very opposed to the idea of Jewish statehood. Because he saw politics as corrupting, as something that takes you away from morality. His vision of the Jewish people returning to Eretz Yisrael would be that we would be under some foreign government. Then it was the Ottomans, but could be British, Ottomans, whatever it would be. And we would emphasize, again, not religious because he was not religious, but we would emphasize cultural, philosophical, spiritual. He had this view that the Jewish people would leave the politics and leave the dirty business to other people. Leave it to the And we would occupy ourselves with higher intellectual pursuits. This is sometimes called cultural Zionism. So, Herzl represented what is called national Zionism. Ahad Ha'am represented what was called cultural Zionism. And there were people who followed Ahad Ha'am, Martin Buber. Yeah, I'm sorry for bringing up so many non-observant people, but Martin Buber was a cultural Zionist. Many, many of the academics in Hebrew University were not necessarily in favor of a state of Israel, even in 1948. They wanted Israel to be a cultural center. Uh and the like. So, there is this idea that politics, statehood can sometimes debase a person. And very much it can very much do so. There's no question that there is a cost. There is a cost. Living in this world does have a cost. It is not a cost-free proposition. But ultimately, the highest level of avodas Hashem is when you can take the ideals of the Torah and not leave them in the ivory tower, but to actually apply them in life and exemplify them in daily living. And therefore, the hate of the Mitnagdim was that they had a view of ruchniyus that was totally separated from the work of living in the world. When in fact, the whole model of Eretz Israel is to create a Jewish and even religious life within the confines of Olam Hazeh or in the famous phrase of the Baal HaTanya that uh it's also it's a Midrash but but the Tanya quotes it and every Chabad person has heard it many times that the purpose of creation is Hashem desired a dirah betachtonim, a dwelling place in this lowly world among the dirt, among the plants, among the plumbing all of those things. That's where Hashem wants to be. Hashem wants to be where we get our hands dirty in the physical, metaphorically as well, in the physical details of life. So that was the cheit, that was the cheit hamaraglim. Um it is interesting that uh Reb Tzaddok points out that we see this in Matan Torah, just a few days after Shavuot that in Matan Torah when Hashem gives the aseres hadibros so the Torah mentions before the aseres hadibros that everybody saw the kolos uh thunder bursts, they actually saw the thunder, and the lapidim. I'm sorry, barakim. Kolos u'brakim. Kolos are thunder brakim is lightning. And then we have the 10 commandments and after the aseres hadibros there's a slight a slight change in wording where instead of kolos u'brakim it says kolot u'lapidim. Tor- uh kolot are thunder and lapidim are torches. It's a very uh small difference. Before Matan Torah the light was described as barak. After Matan Torah it was described as lapid. Now this has nothing to do with the political problems we have with both the Baraks of the world and the Lapids of the world. That's That itself is an interesting and somehow I feel that the Torah is somehow alluding to that, although I'm not sure uh what the context would be. But Rav Tzadok offers a very beautiful idea. He says, even before Matan Torah, human beings have a desire for spirituality. But without the Torah, they can only achieve spirituality by disengagement with the material. Celibacy, poverty. They have no way of confronting the material world and remaining holy. Now, since inevitably all of us have physical needs, we have to eat, we have to sleep, we have to go to the bathroom, whatever it will be, then definitionally, the pre-Matan Torah holiness is described as Barak. Because what is Barak? A brilliant flash of light that is then followed by total darkness. You're going to be in a constant on-off position. Moments of ecstasy followed by despair. Because you have no way of bridging the gap between the physical and the spiritual. Once we have the Torah though, the Torah teaches us how we can spiritualize even the material. So at that point, our lives are not brilliant light followed by total darkness. Our lives are like a flickering torch. Now, a torch is flickering to be sure, and a torch may not be as intense as a flash of lightning. But the torch is a constant. You get light, you get warmth. The Torah showed me how I could take even the physical of life and make it holy and make it sacred. So therefore, the reason why the Torah switches from Barack to Lapid is before the Aseres Hadibros, Kedusha was a Barack. After the Aseres Hadibros, after the Torah, it now becomes a Lapid. And the Maharal says earlier than the Sota that this is why everything connected to Matan Torah is the number three. The Just like on Pesach, number four is very popular. Four sons, four cups of wine, four questions. Right? Number four is prominent. Well, when it comes to Matan Torah, the number three is very prominent. The Gemara in Shabbos remarks that a certain man from Galilee said, "Blessed is Hashem who gave us a threefold Torah, Torah, Nevi'im, Kesuvim, to a threefold nation, Kohen, Levi, Yisrael, in the third month counting from Nisan, Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, uh after three days of preparation." And the Gemara does not explain the significance of it, but he just correlates a number of threes. What is the significance of three? So, the Maharal, who generally has a well-developed theory of numerology, the Maharal actually is very into the meanings of different numbers, Maharal says, and again, this is based on Kabbalah, that three represents the synthesis of opposite forces. Now, let's imagine you have a line. The The line has opposite points. One end, the other end. But then you draw two lines at the apex of a triangle. So, at the apex, the two extreme points meet. So, it's thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Right? So, three represents the notion of integrating and synthesizing opposite forces to achieve a harmony. So, the Maharal says the reason the Torah is compared to the number three is because we are living our our very existence is in a state of contradiction and dichotomy. On one hand, we are a body [clears throat] and that body has needs, eating, drinking um and even things like intangibles, egotism pride right? The need to dominate. Whatever it is, these are coming from the body part of us. But then there's the spiritual essence of the neshama. And the neshama only wants one thing closeness to Hashem in humility and in love. So, we live in this perpetual struggle between body and soul. You can call it yetzer tov versus yetzer hara. You can call it as the Baal Tanya talks about it between the animal soul and the godly soul. There are different ways this can be described. You can even talk about it in Freudian terms uh between the id and the ego. Right? Uh and the like. We live in a world of struggle. Every single moment I had I don't want to sound uh pessimistic. Every single moment we're living in this world of struggle. And without a Torah we would go from one extreme to another extreme. There might be extreme moments of like barack, extreme moments of kedusha. And then we go in the other direction. Through the Torah, that's why the Torah is three we synthesize the body and the soul to create a harmonious existence. You see? And that is the story of why Matan Torah is three. That is the barack versus the lapid and that is the hate of the meraglim in which they had a a of kedusha that was based on separation from the material. When in point of fact, our job is to confront that material. Now, in many, many ways, the sin of the Meraglim we often describe as a lack of faith. A lack of bitachon. And commonly we say it's a lack of bitachon in God. God promised you the land. So, of course, God is going to deliver. But on a deeper level, it may actually be a lack of bitachon in yourself. And Reb Tzadok, in a different place, says very beautifully, K'shem shechayal adam l'ha'amin b'Kadosh Baruch Hu, just as a person must believe in Hashem, kachu m'chuyav l'ha'amin b'atzmo. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that God gave you the wherewithal. The cheit haMeraglim may not have been a lack of faith in Hashem. It may have been a lack of faith that we have the capacity to achieve. That which Hashem wants of us. Right? The The failure of emunah in yourself. And this is um >> [snorts] >> this really is brought up by the Kotzker Rebbe when the Meraglim said, when they were describing the gigantic stature of the Canaanite people, so they said, v'niya b'eineinu k'chagavim, we were in our eyes as if we were grasshoppers. V'chein hayinu b'eineihem, and so we were in their eyes. So, the Kotzker Rebbe says, it starts off with your self-perception. You look at yourself as a grasshopper, then that's how be perceived and that's how you become. But it starts with you. If you don't view yourself as a grasshopper, you will not be viewed as a grasshopper by others. We talked last week about the idea that side by side with the the the idea that "I know he offered me for I am dust and ashes." You also have to know feeling never all in because of me. Every human being Hashem created the world to be aware of our greatness, to be aware of our potential. Not to feel inadequate, as I said before, if Hashem gave you challenges, Hashem gave you the ability to meet those challenges. We can do a tremendous amount with the life that Hashem gave us. This is most directly relevant in this parsha to Eretz Yisrael, but the truth is it's relevant in every every part of life. Um in terms of meeting the different challenges. Um Eretz Yisrael is full of challenges, you know, there is there is no question. Hazal say, Eretz Yisrael is nicknamed "Spear Surin". Eretz Yisrael is acquired only with all sorts of difficulties. So, dealing with the misrad hapnim, you know, for all certainly within within the difficulties, but there's also the difficulties. Uh whether they're minor, you know, it's so hot here, uh or major, you know, there are going to be struggles. But one has to have emunah in Hashem and emunah in yourself that you will have the koach to navigate these struggles and be as Hashem to achieve much much bracha and hatslacha and to feel what Eretz Yisrael can represent. You know, they tell a mashal, there's actually a source for this mashal, but I don't remember the source, about sometimes, you know, people come here and they just don't like it. They they they they don't like anything about it. They don't like I heard I heard somebody complain about this it's like a good complaint. They were complaining about the way they make tuna sandwiches here. You know, it's more bread than tuna. You know, in America they put more tuna in the sandwich. They say I can't live here because the tuna sandwiches have don't have enough tuna. Okay, >> [clears throat] >> this is actually legitimate Tanya but that's not a reason not to live here. So what's going on? Why do why do things rub you the wrong way to such a degree? So they tell a martial. This is an interesting martial. It's brought down in the Rishonim. So it's an old martial about a princess a beautiful, intelligent, brilliant princess with the finest of middos. And obviously so many people wanted to marry her from different royal houses. And when she was read a shidduch with someone >> [snorts] >> who was not really worthy of her she never wanted to reject a person and make them feel bad. >> [clears throat] >> So what she would do is she would like turn herself ugly. You know, she would wear dirty clothing. She would have her hair unkempt. She would smudge herself. She would act a little crazy. So in effect she never rejected anybody but she made them reject her. And they'll I'm not going to marry this this crazy person. And this is the way that she spared the hurt feelings. So this may be a little harsh and I I I am not expressing this as my personal I know people have different reasons but the martial that's given is that to live in Eretz Yisrael is a special zechus. And not everybody will have that zechus. But Eretz Yisrael doesn't want to reject anybody. So, the way it works is when you're not zocheh to Eretz Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael makes itself ugly to you. And that way, you're Eretz Yisrael is not rejecting you, you're you're rejecting Eretz Yisrael. It's the same It's the same mashal that sometimes if a person doesn't see the beauty of living here, it's Eretz Yisrael is, you know, portraying itself as ugly, so you shouldn't be hurt. That you know, you have a good reason not to live here. And that's the mashal of the Reishonim. I always give this mashal about the princess who makes herself ugly not to hurt the feelings of the people who are not suitable for that. Okay, again they say I I'm not here to [clears throat] criticize anyone. Um, as they say, some of my best friends are are in America and uh, you know, whatever. Um, but these are things to to to think about. Uh, the importance of Eretz Yisrael, the importance of sanctifying even the physical, and the importance of confidence in yourself side by side with emunah with with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay, these are kind of the lessons in the in the parashah. And uh, the final lesson, which is really all connected, is that unfortunately negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that is when you feel you're going to fail, then you will fail. That that's just the way it is. You will fail based on your on your perception. You know, the um, I think I mentioned a few weeks before Shavuot, the Berditchever points out that one of the most inspiring things that we can learn from is looking at a child learning how to walk. >> [sighs] >> Or even crawl at an earlier stage. No matter how many times the child falls, the child picks himself up again. No matter how many times, it's amazing. You know, we, if we had to kind of learn those skills, we would give up after, you know, two tries. Okay, it's not worth it. Uh I remember when my son was learning how to crawl, crawl, and it was so hard. He was like pulling himself, he was grunting. And I'm thinking to myself, why are you working so hard? You have a nice crib and all sorts of stuff is in the crib. Just go back to the crib. What is propelling you to move? The answer is, Hashem put into the human nature an unquenchable desire to grow, to move, to never give up. An amazing thing. If we do give up on things, it's a learned behavior. It's not an innate behavior. Now, unfortunately, we can learn at a very young age. One can get that type of attitude at a very, very young age. But it's a learned attitude. It is not innate. The nature that Hashem gave us is to not give up. And the British for said, watching a child learning how to walk is very, very inspiring in that particular way. He will, he, she, I'm both whether it's a boy or a girl, they will never, ever, ever give up. In fact, without getting into into in too political, this is one of again, there's a lot of issues with Trump and I'm not, you know, here to totally praise him. Although he's been a good friend to Israel by and large. Uh but one of the things that people find most impressive about Trump is this idea of not giving up. I mean, during the last election cycle in the US, he spent half of the campaign sitting in a New York court being tried for whatever he was eventually cleared for. I mean, he spent the whole day like in court, you know. And the press was going crazy. A convicted you know, a felon will be convicted of 36 felony you know, whatever it would be. And the assassination attempts and he gets up and So, there's something very inspiring about a person with with all of the problems and middos and behaviors you know, which are not certainly not glatt kosher. It's not mahadrin kosher for sure. But with all of that, the notion of not giving up is a very very impressive quality. It is an impressive quality and it's a quality that we can incorporate and we should incorporate to some degree. Maybe in a more polite way, we should try to incorporate that in our own lives. And the Midrash says that's what we learn from a child learning how to walk. And the cheit of meraglim reminds us that when we feel inadequate to the job, we become inadequate for the job and then Hashem says, "I'm not I'm I'm not giving you the job. I'll give it to to the next generation that will be able to carry it forward." So, be well, have a wonderful Shabbos and take care. >> [music] [music] [singing] [music]