Tetzaveh: Bigdei Kehunah, Kavod and Tiferes, and the Beauty of Simplicity

Transcript

The parsha of making the bigdei Aharon, the bigdei haKodesh l'Aharon. We'll soon see, as the shiur continues, that it's relevant to us as well. That even though, you know, what's it nogea b'zman hazeh, bigdei kehunah, bigdei Aharon, what's the shaychus to us today? If we understand properly the bigdei kehunah, what they symbolize, what their tafkid was, then we can understand that it does apply and it is relevant for us today. So let's begin by learning what it says to make bigdei kodesh. It says in the pasuk, perek chof-ches, pasuk aleph and pasuk beis, V'ata hakrev eilecha Aharon achicha... v'asisa bigdei kodesh l'Aharon achicha. You should make bigdei kodesh for Aharon your brother, l'chavod ul'sifares, for honor and glory, for honor and glory, kavod and tiferes. What is the difference between kavod and tiferes? Machlokes. L'choira it's the same thing, kavod, tiferes. Why does the pasuk repeat? Double lashon. Lashon kaful, לענין אחד, לכבוד או ספרות. Now I want to point out that it doesn't even say, לכבוד או ספרות. It says, לכבוד ולספרות, which connotes, mashma, which is mamash two separate things, kavod and sefaros. If you mean to say double lashon, a double vernacular for the same thing, you would say, לכבוד וספרות, ותפארת. Shnei milim, אותו כוונה, אותו דבר, כופלים בשביל הדגשה. עשהו בשמחה, which again, even there the Gra says that each sosim means one thing and simcha means another thing. I didn't say ו. ו is the same thing. Whenever you want to say hadgasha, you want to say two leshonot, you would say, לכבוד וספרות. But if it says, and even that usually means two different things, but when it says, לכבוד ולספרות, ולספרות, you see it's two separate things. Truthfully, I saw Rabbeinu Bechaye in his second pshat, taka learns it's two different things: לכבוד השם ולתפארת ישראל. לכבוד השם ולתפארת ישראל. So it's taka two things. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns, לכבוד השם. Uletiferes Yisrael. It's two separate things. Why does he learn like that? Because the mashmaut, the implication, is lichvod ultiferes, lichvod ultiferes. Kepshutoi, and Rabbeinu Bechaye himself brings this, it's going only on Aharon. That's the pashut pshat, not lichvod Hashem ultiferes Yisrael. It's going back on Aharon for the kavod and tiferes of Aharon. So what is the chiluk? What is the difference between kavod and tiferes, lichvod ultiferes? Another question that has to be asked: if you notice, it speaks about the bigdei hakodesh lAharon achicha, lichvod ultiferes. What about the begadim of the shar kohanim? What about the bigdei kohen hedyot? Was that also lichvod ultiferes? It doesn't say it at all in the pasuk, lichvod ultiferes, it doesn't say it. It only speaks about Aharon. Veela habegadim, vaasu es bigdei Aharon, the next pasuk, gimel. Veela habegadim asher yaasu, this is all bigdei kohen gadol. Though, if you look, vaasu...

Bigdei kodesh l'Aharon achicha. In pasuk daled, it sticks in, ha'gevurah, Aharon achicha ulevanav. So does l'chavod ul'sifares go back on the bigdei kohen hedyot as well? Is it only bigdei kohen gadol, l'chavod ul'sifares? Or even the bigdei kohen hedyot of the banav is also l'chavod ul'sifares? It's not clear in the pasuk. So I found that the Netziv wants to be mechadesh that eino chanami, that kavod ul'sifares was not bigdei kohen hedyot. Only bigdei kohen gadol was l'chavod ul'sifares. Bigdei kohen hedyot, we find one time that it says l'chavod ul'sifares, and that's in pasuk mem. In pasuk mem it says, U'livnei Aharon ta'aseh kutanos, v'asisa lahem avneitim — you have to make shirts and belts — u'migba'ot, pasuk mem, u'migba'ot, which are hats, which are hats, ta'aseh lahem l'chavod ul'sifares. Says the Gra — I'm sorry, says the Netziv — sherak ha'kova'im, the hats, kova'im shel hakohen hedyot, the hats of the kohen hedyot, were l'chavod ul'sifares. But the rest of the begadim were not l'chavod ul'sifares. Kohen gadol, everything he wore was l'chavod ul'sifares. Kohen hedyot, only the hats. And he explains: hat is a sign of honor, respect, right? Everybody wears a kippah, a yarmulke, and you're wearing a hat, an interesting type of hat. That's a sign of kavod. מה שיש להם כובע מיוחד זה כבוד. אבל יתרה בגדים, יתרה בגדים, says the Netziv, of the Kohen Gadol, of the Kohen Hedyot, was not l'chavod ul'sifares. אני מתפלא על זה. I wonder. It's a tremendous chiddush to me, because the Rambam writes clearly that the bigdei Kohen Gadol and Kohen Hedyot, there was a mitzvah to make it l'chavod ul'sifares. So you see clearly, if you bring me the Sefer HaMitzvos, bring it quickly, I'm going to read you the lashon of the Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos, mitzvah lamed gimmel. You have it here? Yeah, but that's the small one. Let's do the big one. Oh, he has it. Okay, he has it. Okay, he has it right here. It says like this, it's mitzvah lamed gimmel, mitzvas aseh lamed gimmel, mitzvas aseh, לעשות בגדים. No, this is just a kitzur. I need the regular one. I need the regular one here. Mitzvas aseh lamed gimmel. Here it is. Hu shenitztavu haKohanim, not the Kohen Gadol, mitzvah lamed gimmel, not the Kohen Gadol, but the Kohanim, ללבוש בגדים מיוחדים לכבוד ולתפארת. ואז יעבדו במקדש, והוא אמרו יתעלה: ועשית בגדי קודש לאהרן אחיך לכבוד ולתפארת, והלבשנו כתנות. So the Rambam learns clearly that the ketones... The shirts that the children wore was part of the mitzvah of that they should make bigdei kodesh, l'Aharon achicha l'chavod ul'sifares. Ve'eilu hein bigdei kehunah: sh'moneh, begadim l'kohen gadol, v'arbaah l'kohen hedyot. I need to... see, Rabbeinu Hanetziv, the seforim, halacha, sefer Rambam. It's a very nice pshat in the pasuk, yafeh me'od ba'pasuk, diyuk yafeh me'od, very nice diyuk. It's mashma that the hat was l'chavod ul'sifares by the kohen hedyot. But the halacha, the Rambam, you can't ignore that the Rambam says clearly that all the begadim, and it was all nichlal in v'asu bigdei kodesh l'Aharon achicha. So it comes out that we have to learn the bigdei kohen hedyot, the clothing of the kohen hedyot, was also l'chavod ul'tif'aret. It's clear, okay. I'm going to prove this to you as well. If you take a look at Parshas Chukas, when Aharon HaKohen dies, okay, when Aharon HaKohen dies.

So it says that Aharon HaKohen was supposed to go l'har haHar. He had to go up to the mountain, and Moshe Rabbeinu had to take off his bigdei kohen gadol, and v'hilbashtam, and he had to put it on Eliezer. Okay, you have the pasuk, it's Bamidbar chof, pasuk chof ches. It says clearly, Vayafsheit Moshe es Aharon es begadav, vayalbisham es Elazar bno. He puts it on Elazar, and Aaron dies b'rosh hahar. So it comes out that Aaron was undressed. He took off his clothing and he put it on Eliezer, so Aaron was laying there undressed. So the Ramban asks this for a kasha. The Ramban says, so what was he dressed? He took off Aharon HaKohen's clothing and he puts it on Eliezer, right? He puts it on Eliezer, his son, Eliezer his son. So what happened? Nish'ar kacha arum. So the Ramban gives two terutzim. One teretz is he'll beisho tachrichim. He took off the clothing and he put him on tachrichim, the clothing of the dead person. The second pshat, the Ramban says, there was a special bigdei Shechinah, special clothing, and, b'Hashem, ... hamekubalim po yavinu ... ani lo mevin. What is that? But there's bigdei Shechinah. That was underneath the clothing of the Bigdei Kohen Gadol. As memeila, k'shehu hilbisho, k'shepashat oto, את הבגדים, when he took off the clothing, he was left with this clothing of Bigdei Shechinah. Ma shezeh, what it is, I don't know. We'll leave it for the mekubalim a different time. מגיע לענייננו, the Medrash already asks this kasha. This Chazal already asks this question. The Medrash says, What happened? He took off his clothing, he's left without clothing. Answers the Medrash, he didn't take off all eight clothing, because Elazar already had four of the Kohen Hedyot. The Kohen Gadol's eight is the four regular and four different special. So he didn't have to take off all eight, the michnasayim and the kutones, you don't have to do that. So he was left with the regular four, so he was dressed. He only took off the four which is added to Bigdei Kohen Gadol. That's what the Medrash says. Very interesting Medrash, okay? So it's true that he took off the Bigdei Kohen Gadol, but you don't have to take off all eight. As long as, as long as you took off four of the Kohen Gadol, you can add it to the four that Elazar already had, and now Elazar is the Kohen Gadol with eight begadim. מה ההסבר? What's the hesber? I hold the pshat is very poshut. There's an interesting Gemara, halacha: if a Kohen Hedyot does the avodah... During the year, regular avodah with the bigdei kohen gadol, is it kosher? Is the avodah k'sheirah? Harei asur lo lilbosh bigdei kohen gadol; הוא צריך ללבוש בגדי כהן הדיוט. אז מה ההלכה? What's the halacha if he does wear it? So the Gemara, the halacha paskens that avodaso pesulah. Not because he's wearing the wrong clothing, but because he's called a yitur. There's two things: there's mechusar begadim, that he's not wearing the clothing of the kohen, and then there's a Gemara halacha, yitur — you're not allowed to wear extra clothing. So the Gemara says the psul is not choser begadim, that he's missing his bigdei kohen hedyot, but rather the psul is yitur, that he's wearing four more than he's supposed to wear. It's not bal tosif; it's yitur begadim in the avodah. He has to wear four, and he's wearing the eight. He's not supposed to be wearing — it's pesulah, but it could have been for two reasons. For one reason it could have been because of mechusar; he's not wearing his clothing, he's wearing the bigdei kohen gadol. The other reason, the Gemara said, the other reason that could be...

It's because it's yitur. It's extra clothing. The Gemara says it's yitur, not choiser, but yitur, says the Mikdash David. Now, who is the Mikdash David? When you learn Katzim, there are certain classics sefarim, and one of them is the Mikdash David. Who was the Mikdash David? The Mikdash David, his name was Reb David Rappaport. He was a Rosh Yeshiva in the yeshiva of Reb Elchonon Wasserman. He said a shiur. I believe either it was, I think he was killed during the Nazis, could be. But Reb Elchonon said about him that his sefer was written bruach hakodesh. That's what he said about him. Because there's not one extra word in the whole sefer. The sefer was written exactly, perfect. There's not an extra word. There's no yitur and choiser, not missing anything, it's not added anything. Reb Elchonon said only bruach hakodesh you can write a sefer like that. So it's a very classic piece of work when you learn Katzim about parshas terumah. So there, in his sefer, he explains the Gemara, and he asks the following question: Is the bigdei kohen hedyot and bigdei kohen gadol basically the same, just this is four and then there's plus another four? The kohen hedyot's clothing is four, and the kohen gadol's is plus four, on top of that, four more. Or the bigdei kohen hedyot is one thing and the bigdei kohen gadol is another thing completely. So it's not on top of the four, the kohen hedyot, you add on four fancier, right? It's Kohen Hedyot's clothing and Kohen Gadol. So he says, according to this, he understands the Gemara. The Gemara doesn't say that you're missing the clothing by wearing the Kohen Gadol's clothing, but what is it? You're wearing extra clothing. So you see that it's four more. Four more. This is what the Mikdash David explains, okay, that the halacha from the fact that the Gemara says that you're chayiv, that you're responsible for any clothing, instead of saying that you're responsible for not wearing Kohen Hedyot's clothing, the implication is what? That it's chaser. I'm sorry, that it's four extra. It's extra on top of the Kohen Hedyot's clothing. According to this, I understand the Medrash. The Medrash is saying that he took off Bigdei Kohen Gadol, that he has to take off all eight, or he was able to take off four and to add it to Elazar's four. That's the pshat, because since the four of the Kohen Hedyot is the basic, and the Kohen Gadol's eight is actually just added to the four of the Kohen Hedyot, so there was no problem for Elazar to wear the four that he already had as a Kohen Hedyot. Good? I'm explaining a nice pshat in the Medrash. Beautiful, yeah, beautiful, beautiful. What do I have from this? So when it says that the eight clothing of the Kohen Gadol is l'chavod u'l'sifares, and included in that is the four of the Kohen Hedyot, because the eight of the Kohen Gadol is four of the Kohen Hedyot plus four of the Kohen Gadol, so l'chavod u'l'sifares must be what? On the clothing of the Kohen Hedyot as well, the four of the Kohen Hedyot, right? Chovel, Sifaris is going back on the Kohen Gadol's clothing, and the Kohen Gadol's, and that's the Rambam. And the Kohen Gadol's clothing is what? It's the four on top of the Kohen Hedyot's. So the four of the Kohen Hedyot must also be what? Lechavod, ol sifaris. I don't understand, rabosai. I don't understand. What is the lechavod, ol sifaris in the four clothes of the Kohen Hedyot? It's underwear and a shirt. That's all it is. What is it? Head, the belt. So the hat, maybe the hat, huh? Four. The Kohen Hedyot, the Kohen Hedyot is wearing four simple clothing: white underwear and a white undershirt. What kind of lechavod, sifaris? Bishlam the Kohen Gadol, the Rabbeinu Bechaye writes, he was wearing gold and beautiful, and that's how the Kohen Gadol looked. The Rabbeinu Bechaye says the Kohen Gadol looked like a melech in his time, the way the melech...

would look in the times of the Kohen Gadol, that's how the Kohen Gadol looked. You know, a beautiful gold crown and a tzitz, right, and a choshen and a breastplate. Mamash, he looked like a king. But the Kohen hedyot wore plain white clothing, a white shirt and a white undershirt and white underpants. What is the l'chavod u'l'sifares? So the truth is, maybe he looks different than everybody else. Maybe the l'chavod u'l'sifares is that he looks different, he's dressed different. When you dress differently than everybody else, it requires, it demands respect, maybe. You don't need a talmid chacham to have to wear special beautiful clothing. No. He wears clothing which is different than everybody else. For example, the same jacket, the same jacket that the person wears, but he wears it differently by wearing it long. So that itself is l'chavod, kavod haTorah. Or maybe you have to be like Rav Ovadia Yosef, that you have to wear gold and a fancy hat and a whole outfit. It's a different type of kavod haTorah, right? It's a whole different shita of kavod haTorah, right? Maybe l'chavod taka means it has to be beautiful and it has to be standing out as something, you know, glorious and special. Or the pshat is, as long as it's different than everybody else, then it's l'chavod u'l'sifares. So even though the Kohen hedyot is wearing plain clothing, Which is simple. It was simple white undergarments, so to speak, yet, but it's not what everybody else wore. So meila, that's the lechavod ul'sifares. Rabosai, you hear the first teretz that we're saying? I'm asking a simple question. We've established that lechavod ul'sifares refers to the bigdei kohen hedyot as well as the bigdei kohen gadol. So the bigdei kohen gadol, I understand, like Rabbeinu Bechaye says, his clothing was that of royalty. He looked like a king, the kohen gadol. But the kohen hedyot is wearing simple clothing. The only difference that might be a little bit, you know, special, a little royal, a little bit honorable, is the hat that he wore, maybe, like the Netziv says. But everything else was plain, plain white garments. Where is the lechavod ul'sifares? So we're explaining that maybe that it's different than everybody else. The fact that it's different and it stands out, that itself demands a special awe and respect. He's not like everybody else. You look at Rabbeinu Bechaye. Rabbeinu Bechaye explains that lechavod ul'sifares, like a king, right? Truthfully, the Chinuch doesn't explain lechavod ul'sifares like a king. The Chinuch says a different pshat in the kavod ul'sifares and in the pshat, the understanding, the reasoning behind bigdei kohen gadol. Says the Chinuch in mitzvah tzaddik tes, mishorשי המצוה היסוד הקבוע לנו, the famous rule, כי האדם נפעל לפי פעולותיו. A person follows his actions. He gets drawn by the actions that he does, and his machshava follows that as well. Ba'shliach ha'mechaper, the shliach that's mechaper, which means the kohen who's going to be mechaper, to forgive, to bring karbanos, tzarich l'haspis kol machshavto. He has to catch all his thoughts. He has to grab all his thoughts and put it into the avodah. You know, a person is thinking, it's very hard to be completely immersed in thought in something. Your mind wanders a little bit. So the kohen needed full concentration on the avodah, full. He had to catch his mind and have tremendous shlita, tremendous hold on his thoughts, that they shouldn't sway, they shouldn't go away from the avodah. Al kein, therefore, ra'uy l'slabesh begadim yechadim eileha. Therefore, you need special clothing when you do the avodah. So again, Rabbeinu Bechaye tells us they were clothing of splendor, of glory, of glamour.

It's not what it says in the Chinuch. The Chinuch says that they were special clothing, unique for the job at hand. Now, how were they unique? says the Chinuch, shek'shyistakel b'chol makom shebegufo, that when he would look at any place at his body, miyad yeinizkar, he'll right away remember, umis'orer, and he'll become awakened in his heart, lifnei mi hu omeid. Who is he doing the avodah for? Mizeh k'ein tefillin. And it's something like the idea of tefillin, shenitztavu hakohen laniach biktzas haguf, to put it on the corners of the body, which is of course the head, the corner of the head, sheyeh lizkor machshavos hechsher, that you should have kosher thoughts. Va'af al pi shegam hakohen hayah meniach tefillin, and even though the kohen wore tefillin also, l'godel inyano, because he was so big, he needed what? And he was doing such a big avodah, he needed more, more than just plain tefillin, concentration. So he doesn't say that they were clothing of splendor, of glory, but they were clothing which were me'orer, me'orer, awakened thought. In front of who I stand. Who do I represent? I represent HaKadosh Baruch Hu. And yet, it's called what? L'chavod ul'sifares. L'chavod ul'sifares, glory and glamorous things are reminding you that you're in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The opposite. You would come and say that it should be not so glorious and not so glamorous. You should be humble, right? Lichvod Hashem. It has to be in honor of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Then I could come and say, yes, like Rabbeinu Bechaye says, Lichvod Hashem, yes, let's go make beautiful like a beis medrash, right? Kavod Hashem mehoncha. A person's supposed to glorify the mitzvahs because you're glorifying the Ribono Shel Olam through it. Fine. Hiddur mitzvah, fine. But if the idea is that the kohen should take from the clothing lessons that he's עומד לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, so how does it fit in with the idea of lichvod ol sifares? Yet, the bigdei kohen hedyot, on the other hand, fit into that properly. It fits in very nicely because they were humble clothing, which is plain white clothing, right? When a person comes, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, to shul, he wears a plain white kittel. It's very much like what the kohen hedyot wore. Their clothing, which represents humble, it represents even when a person dies, he puts tachrichim, it's white, it's humble. Kohen hedyot's clothing, I understand in the chinuch. But how does the kohen gadol's clothing fit according to the chinuch? So we have a very interesting question. How does the kohen hedyot's clothing fit according to Rabbeinu Bechaye's understanding of the clothing, if it's supposed to be royalty? The kohen hedyot's clothing is not royalty. And how are we to understand the kohen gadol's clothing, the hesber, with the explanation of the chinuch, that it's supposed to make the person humble and realize in front of who he's talking to? So, fakert, the less jewelry and the less beautiful, and it shouldn't have been so much in style like the rest of the kings. He was the most stylish person around, the Kohein Gadol, you know that? The Kohein Gadol, you ever see, you want to look at a king. Why do you want to look at a king? You want to see the jewelry that he wears, right? The lavish. You ever see in Morocco, they still have a king. He walks around, it's like a whole show to look at him, right? It's a whole thing to look at the way he goes with his entourage, with his jewelry and his... The Kohein Gadol was the same thing, according to Rabbeinu Bechaye. He was a show of splendor, of glory, of rich. Why is it, the Lechaved u'lesifares, like the idea is, the idea is that he should do the avodah and he should be humbled and realize in front of HaKadosh Baruch Hu he's doing the avodah. To answer this question, I think we have to give an introduction. I want to introduce to you a Medrash. The Medrash Rabbah says a very interesting thing. This week's parsha. Everybody knows.

The Rashi, it's famous Rashi quotes the Chazal: why Aharon HaKohen was zoche to the choshen, to the breastplate. Rashi says, Halev she'somach b'gedulas achiv. The heart was happy for his brother, that his brother became the king, so to speak, that he was the leader of Klal Yisrael, chosen to take the people out of Mitzrayim. He was happy, Aharon, and he wasn't jealous. They gave him the kishutei halev, the ornaments of the heart. Everybody knows this, right? What's a little less known is why he was zoche to Bigdei Kehunah. There's a Medrash about that also. Chazal identified to us and revealed to us in what zechus, in what merit, did Aharon merit to wear Bigdei Kohen Gadol l'chavod ul'sifares. Now it's going to be a big chiddush to you, what I'm going to say. This Medrash is a tremendous chiddush, and that is that everybody thinks Aharon HaKohen was an ish chesed, was a man of chesed, ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom. Moshe Rabbeinu was Torah. We're going to learn that actually Aharon HaKohen was a tremendous, tremendous lomeid Torah. We're going to learn this as well. There's a very famous Sfas Emes. Sfas Emes says, Tumecha v'Urecha, the Urim v'Tumim, l'ish chasidecha, because Aharon HaKohen was a chesed. He was full of chesed. Chasidecha doesn't mean chassid. Righteous, but the Sfas Emes learns chasidecha is מלשון חסד. And he explains with this a gevaldige Chazal, a pasuk, excuse me. The pasuk says, כחסן יחיהין פאר, like a choson, יחיהין, כהן, פאר of glory. Why is Aharon HaKohen compared to a choson? כחוסן יחיהין פאר. So the truth is, a choson also is doymeh l'melech, and he walks around, and he's, right, and he's on his high horse, so to speak. So כחוסן יחיהין, the kohen also with pe'er, with glory. The choson is carried on a stool, on a pedestal, the choson. So too the kohen. Says the Sfas Emes, it's in this week's parsha, he says a moiridike yesod. He says when we talk about a kallah, Beis Shammai says, Kallah k'mo shehi. Give her the titles that she is. Whatever she is. She's nice, you say she's nice. If she's a little grumpy, say she's grumpy, but don't overdo it, okay? Don't exaggerate. Beis Hillel says, Kallah נאה וחסודה. Says the Sfas Emes, חסודה there too means chesed. It doesn't mean chassid. She doesn't have to learn Mesillas Yesharim, even though today in the Beis Yankevs, in the seminaries, they're convinced that the girls have to learn Mesillas Yesharim, and they have to be chassidim and anshei maaseh and lomdim and talmidei chachamim, I don't know what and whatnot. Says the Sfas Emes, there it means as well, חסודה. Chesed. What about the chosen? How come we don't discuss the chosen? How come it's always the kallah is this and the kallah is that? What about the chosen? How come there's no machlokes, Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel, what to say about the chosen? That's a good question, no? How come in the Chazal, the truth is when a guy gets up at a sheva brachos, he gets up and he talks about the great shvachim of the chosen. In Chazal we don't find that. We don't find that you get up, you talk about a chosen. We find that you get up and talk about the kallah. Why don't we talk about the chosen? Says the Sfas Emes, gevaldik. There there's no machlokes, Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. A chosen is definitely chesed. It's about chesed. It's about giving. The yesod of a chosen is to be a giver. In the marriage, it's about giving. So he says, les man d'palig, says the Sfas Emes. Nobody would argue. It's not a machlokes, Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. Chesed. You gotta be full of chesed when you go into your marriage. At the wife. I don't know, it's not a question of automatic. The wife, grade is doing chesed, but I don't know if she could be a mekabel also. She could accept. The husband has to be leading.

Giving, giving, giving. The wife could accept, accept from the love, accept from the chesed. The man has to constantly be a giver. That's what the Sfas Emes says. Now, I don't want to discuss it so much in the concept of marriage, because that's not the discussion for today. I don't want to go into the marriage part of this. I didn't want to do this. You see, this is not a marriage seminar. What it is is to try to bring out, kechosen, hechayin per, because the kohen is a giver. The kohen is about chesed, says the Sfas Emes. Vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael, he has to be mechaper. He has to service Klal Yisrael. That's what the kohen is there for. Aharon was ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. He was a giver to Klal Yisrael. He did for Klal Yisrael. Mimeila, u'mecha v'orecha l'ish chasidecha, chesed. Aharon was chesed, the midah of chesed. So everybody knows this. I don't know if they know this Sfas Emes. I don't know if you like this type of Torah from the Sfas Emes. Some people don't even like this whole style of learning. That's not relevant to me. What is relevant to me is, I don't think anybody, when we talk about Aharon HaKohen, doesn't right away come to think Aharon was a baal chesed. Aharon was love tov, chesed. Moshe Rabbeinu—everybody says Moshe Rabbeinu was stronger, midas hadin, but yet he was Torah. Now we're going to learn a little different. The Medrash says, why was Aharon HaKohen zoche to the bigdei kehunah? Where's he going? What happened? Huh? Oh, okay. Why was Aaron hakohen zoche to the bigdei kehunah, says the Medrash? Because he was myagea in Torah. Kavod chachamim yinchalu. You know who gets kavod? Talmidei chachamim get kavod. You're myagea in Torah, you toil in Torah, you get kavod. Aaron hakohen toiled in Torah. Like it says, Torahas emes hoysa befihu, v'avel lo nimtza bisfasav. Zu Aharon, Chazal say, refers to Aaron, and he had Torahas emes. The Torah of truth was in his mouth. So he was myagea. He toiled in Torah. And since he toiled in Torah, therefore what? He was zoche l'chavod, kavod haTorah, l'chavod l'sifares. Kavod chachamim yinchalu. As a matter of fact, on the bottom, the Yefeh Toar really asks, wait a minute, so why didn't Moshe get the bigdei kehunah? He was the Torah, Torah, myagea in Torah. He was the symbol of toiling in Torah. He asks, which means that he understood already the contrast, that everybody thinks that Aaron is the chesed and Moshe is the Torah. And here we're learning that the bigdei kavod. As a matter of fact, when Aaron—I'm sorry, when Moshe did the avodah as the kohen gadol for the seven days. Of the mea meluim, he didn't do the avodah with bigdei kehunah. There wasn't special clothing l'chavod u'l'sifares. Yet, Aaron got it because he was meyagea in Torah and not Moshe, which we'll have to explain maybe at a different time why Moshe דווקא did not get it. It's a nice question. If a Torah wants to say, well, l'maaseh he was chosen to be Kohen Gadol, so therefore it was given to him. So it's like zeh v'zeh gorem. He was the Kohen Gadol, and why did we get bigdei kehunah l'sifares? Because he was meyagea in Torah. How is that with the kushya? Huh? It's a discussion for a different time. Discussion for a different time was Horaas heter, the seven days he wasn't a kohen, wasn't a kohen. It's a long conversation. Point being that here we're learning a new avenue that most people don't know. It's a whole new thing. People think Moshe was Torah and Aaron was ohev shalom v'rodef shalom; he was the goodie. You see from the Chazal that Aaron HaKohen was meyagea. He toiled in Torah, and therefore he was zocheh to bigdei kehunah. And how do we know this? Torahas emes b'fיו. So two questions: why does it discuss, and why...

Why does it emphasize yegiah, learning of Torah, no? Kavod chacham yinchal, if you're a talmid chacham, it has to be your yegiah. It's true that only through yegiah you get there. But at the end of the day, the reason why you get the kavod is because you're a ben Torah, you're learning Torah, you know Torah. Why does the Medrash emphasize the fact that he was yagea, the fact that he toiled in Torah? What is the connection between toiling in Torah, yagea b'Torah, the kavod chacham yinchalu that he gets kavod? If you want to say he was a talmid chacham, you want to say he was learning Torah, just say, shaasak b'Torah, lamad Torah. You see that the yegiah, it's the toiling, that itself brings about that you deserve l'chavod ul'sifares. And my second question is, why is it based on Torahs emes? Where do you see in the word emes that it was yegiahs haTorah? Torahs emes... oh, you see that Aharon HaKohen toiled in Torah. It says, Torahs emes hayesah b'fihu. So maybe you could say, pashut, that the only way a person could come to know Torahs emes is through yegiah. You could be brilliant, you could have all the kishron, all the capability in the world, and you could even sit and learn. But if you don't toil in learning, your Torah might be interesting, might be nice, it's not emes. To reach the true pshat in what the Torah means, chayav yegias haTorah. You need yegias haTorah. So maybe the Torah's emes hoysa befihu, emes connotates that he was myagea, because only through yegiah could one reach Torahs emes. Maybe, maybe that's the pshat, right? But we still don't have a pshat. Why dafka yegias haTorah? Why dafka yegias haTorah brings about that you should get kavod haTorah? Chovod ulsifores comes because you're myagea in Torah. What's wrong if you learned? What's wrong if you know? Yegiah, yegiah, yegiah, toiled in Torah. So, rabosai, let me tell you what I think the pshat is. I found an unbelievable Maharal. The Maharal, in Nesivos Olam, amud mem-vav, he quotes this pasuk, Kavod chachamim yinchalu. V'tzoneh lomar, raui el hachachamim haoskim baTorah. Those that are osek in Torah. Also, he discusses the osek, the one that's oil, he's learning, he's involved in Torah. He deserves kavod. Why does he deserve kavod? V'chol zeh ki hakavod misyaches el asher hu rachok min hachomer. When a person is removed from chomer, from olam hazeh, from physical enjoyments, he deserves kavod. He deserves honor. Ki hachoimer hu bal gnus v'cherpa. Choimer, physical, brings about gnus. It's not respected. Ki mitzad hachoimer nimtza znus, because all low, lower activities come from that. If a person is a baal taiva, what's going to happen? He's going to do gneivah and znus, baal taiva. But if someone's removed from that, he's removed from the taiva, so which means is seichel, not taiva. The spiritual, the mind wins over his body, so to speak, so he's nivdal min hachomer. Hu hakavod. That is kavod. You know, people think kavod is something that you give somebody, right? Kavod is something that you mechabed him. You're giving him honor. You come to a dinner, they tell you, stand up, and everybody starts to clap for you.

Now you're kavod. Now you're an ish mechubad. Rabosai, kavod isn't something that somebody shows you. Kavod is a trait within a person. It's a madreigah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is called Melech HaKavod. ... V'yavo Melech HaKavod. It's a shem davar. It's an essence. It's not that people respect him. He is kavod. He is. Why? Because it's kulo ruchni. It's emanates from himself. Because ruchni, it's all spiritual. There's nothing gashmi, personal. There's no taiva. He's Melech HaKavod. Kavod is a shem davar. You hear it? It's very good. And he says, now the truth is, I see that in brackets, the Maharal, he says that aseh mena chomer hu hakavod. So in practice it says, asher lo hakavod. So I don't know who put in the asher lo, where it comes from, I'm not sure exactly. But you see that he's trying to say more than just asher lo, that he'll get it. That is kavod. Kavod is its essence of the person. Ulefichach, raui linei kavod bachacham. That's why we have kavod chacham. Ad she'amar Torah. Now listen to the Maharal's chap. Do you only get up for a talmid chacham, or do you get up for a zaken as well? They say, pakum, right? V'darta pnei zaken. As a matter of fact, the Gemara says even a goy, zaken aramai, you have to get up for a goy, a zaken. Rashi says even a goy, an older person, you get up for him. You have to stand up for respect. Rashi says the reason is, because kama har paktakoyis avar alav, a man of experience, of wisdom. He went through life, so he has experiences that you don't have. Therefore you respect him for his wisdom. And that's why he's called zaken, because zaken is zeh shekana chochmah; he also has a wisdom. Is that older than you, or is that like set over seventy years? We'll talk the halacha, we'll talk—okay, we'll talk the halacha a little bit afterwards. But the point is, it is over seventy. But when a person reaches the age of ziknah, says Rashi, he's wise. So chochmah and wisdom, life is also wisdom. I had a rebbe who used to say, I went to college. Life is the best college. Life itself teaches you more than any other college could teach you. All right? So this goy, who's a zaken, had many life, many degrees in college, so to speak, of learning. The Maharal doesn't learn like that. The Maharal says the reason why you have to mechabed a zaken, because as he gets older, his gashmiyus becomes less and less. He becomes separated from the gashmi, little by little. And as he gets older, his bodily taivos and functions start to go. And since kavod is when you're detached from taiva, so therefore you have to mechabed, says the Maharal, even a zaken, an older person, yeah, because of this yesod. He establishes a yesod that the reason why we're mechabed a person has to do with the chomer and the sichli and the ruchni. So the moment that he separates himself from the gashmiyus, that's already why he deserves kavod. So therefore even a goy — he doesn't speak about a goy — but even a zaken, a regular zaken. As he gets old, I'll read you the lashon: shaseiva, the older person, mipnei zeh knuso mesulek min hagashmi, hachumri leisek nasai. He starts to separate himself from more; he doesn't have the same taivas anymore. Lefichach rauy lakaved. That's why he needs kavod. I once told this over to you from the Gra, by the way. That's why he needs kavod, or that's why he is kavod? He deserves kavod, and then we're going to speak about why he needs kavod. We're going to get to that in a minute. The Gra learns, a very famous Gra, the Gra says, if you notice, that as people get older, the kavod taiva becomes stronger. A younger guy, give me a car, give me chaver money...

As he gets old, the only thing he gets upset about, Don't sit in my seat in the shul. You know, if a young kid comes and takes away his chair, you know, the grandchildren didn't give him sandekaus by the thing, and the whole world turns upside down, right? Why is it that as the taivas olam hazeh get less, the taivas hakavod gets more? Says the Gra, because don't forget, kavod is a taiva ruchnis; it's not a taiva gashmis. So as he gets closer to death, which means that the gashmiyus of the person gets less and less, he's starting to become more and more spiritual, then the taiva of kavod takes over. That's when the taiva of kavod sets in stronger and more. So you see, it's an interesting point, that the kavod is about—it has to do with, what's the right word I'm looking for? It's dependent on the balance of chomer and gashmi, the less gashmiyus, the more ruchniyus, and that's why we find talmidei chachamim who have no gashmiyus, they're sitting and learning. If I had kavod— Sure, unfortunate. Okay, unfortunate, unfortunate. Kavod is taivas chachamim, that's what it is. Why? Because the moment the gashmiyus is less, then the kavod is more. It's more kavod. Kavod has to do with less gashmiyus. You know, a guy that lives in his world of gashmiyus, couldn't care less what you think about him. Couldn't care less. You go over to a guy and tell him, You know, I don't think you're a nice guy. So? Thanks. Couldn't care less. It doesn't bother him. Why? Because he's so in his gashmius, he doesn't need kavod. Kavod has to do with sichli; it's a different type of ish. So now we learned that kavod has to do with havdalah, the separation from gashmi to ruchni. The Maharal in Chiddushei Agados, chelek aleph, amud gimmel, explains that's why there's a halacha of kavod Shabbos. You know, there's a din that you have to mechabed the Shabbos. What is kavod? Why is Shabbos a day of kavod, of honor? Says the Maharal, because since kavod is based on the fact that it's separated from the gashmi, Shabbos is that day. Shabbos is a day where we don't go to work. Shabbos is a day that we stay away from the whole world, and we're involved in עניינים רוחניים. So therefore, Shabbos is a day which demands kavod. That's the inyan of kavod Shabbos, says the Maharal, Chiddushei Agados. I was thinking to myself, it says in the pasuk, V'kibadto me'asot derachecha. You should respect it from doing your ways. So how do you learn the pasuk? You learn the pasuk pashut, that that's how you respect the day. V'kibadto — how do you give respect to Shabbos? Me'asot derachecha, from doing your weekly needs, showing that it's a separate day, right? That's the pashut pshat. V'kibadto — how do you respect it? Me'asot derachecha, not to do what you're supposed to do during the week, and therefore you show that Shabbos is special. Maybe it's not saying that that's how you respect it, but vechibadto, you should taka adhere to its kavod by not making it a chol. The kavod of Shabbos, it is in itself kavod, because it's a day that's ruchni and not gashmi. So vechibadto, how do you respect? Not that you do something externally to respect it. You protect the kavod of Shabbos, me'asot derachecha. Because the truth is, if you notice the lashon, it doesn't say vechibadto and don't do derachecha. Tell me, let's discuss. Does it say vechibadto by not doing, by doing something, by not? It should say, it should say vechibadto, lo ta'ase melachtecha. Vechibadto mei, from doing. You should respect it from doing. What does that mean? When you want to say respect, you say you do something by respecting. Don't do work on Shabbos. But it says vechibadto, from doing, respect it from doing. And the answer is because Shabbos is kavod b'etzem. Shabbos is kavod b'etzem.

So how do you respect the Shabbos? By protecting the respect that Shabbos demands, that Shabbos requires, that Shabbos entails, by not doing melacha. You understand what I'm saying? Beautiful. How come I'm looking out at a group of people who heard a pshat like this and they're just looking at me as if I, like a Barack Obama, just lying to you about nonsense. Do you understand? ... It's a nifla. Lo katuv v'kibadeto, v'lo ta'aseh. V'kibadto me'asot. What does that mean? And the answer is because the kavod is by keeping the kavod of Shabbos, by protecting it from doing melacha. By you not doing melacha, that is the kavod of Shabbos, not that that's a way on how to be mechabed the Shabbos. You understood? Okay. I'm going to show you that kavod is not an external, but rather the kavod is the internal essence, the internal essence of the thing itself. You don't need to get respect from others to be an ish nichbad, to be a respectable person. And I'll prove it to you from the Megillah. You ready? You know Achashverosh made a very big party. Veharoisoi es oisher kevod malchusoi. Ve'es yekar tiferes gedulaso. So firstly, you see right away a difference between kavod and tiferes. Mamash everything that we spoke in the beginning of the shiur, you see clearly it's two separate things. Okay. What does it say? Veharoisoi es oisher kevod malchusoi. Does it say, Veharoisoi es kevod oisher malchusoi? Is it the kavod of his oisher? It says the oisher of his kavod malchusoi. By Haman, what does it say by Haman? He went, Vayisaper Haman l'Zeresh ishto es kevod oishroi. Rabosai, ze chidush hayom chidashti. On my way here to yeshiva, this is special for you, in the car, it's something new, I never thought about. Nuha or in the pasuk. I was thinking about the pasuk. I was right away trying to think, kavod gedulah, kavod. Let me go, let me go to the Megillah. And it dawned on me. It's a chidush fresh out of the oven, rabosai, okay? Oisher kevod malchusoi. Mashenkein by Haman it says, Es kevod oishroi. What's the difference? Malchus is kavod. So there was an oisher, kevod malchusoi. Haman, his whole kavod was he was a rich guy. That's all it was. Be'etzem haya ish mevuzeh v'nivzeh. Achashverosh also was an ish mevuzeh v'nivzeh, but the malchus. Malchus was k'vod malchuso. There's a kavod to malchus. So there's an oisher to k'vod malchuso. Ma she'ein kein Haman, it's oisher k'vod oisher. That's all it is. It's kavod based on riches. By a melech, it's not kavod based on his oisher. It's kavod hamalchus. It's essence of malchus is kavod. Then there's oisher of k'vod malchuso. What do you say? Nice. Very nice, huh? Beautiful, huh? Now I understand. Now I understand. You hear, rabosai? You hear? Aharon HaKohen was zocheh, Aharon HaKohen was zocheh, to bigdei kehunah l'chavod ul'sifares. Why? Because he was meyagea in Torah. Do you know what the ma'alah of yegias haTorah is? What's the ma'alah of yegias haTorah? Yegias haTorah is not the Torah, but it's the way you learn the Torah. Pas b'melach tochal, mayim b'mesurah tishteh, v'ha'aretz tishan, v'chayei tzaar.

When you don't have gashmiyus, what does the Maharal tell me? That's kavod chachamim yinchalu. Chazal were madgish, they emphasized, they emphasized the hegiyas haTorah. It's not just the limud, it's not the idea, it's the hegiah. And that's why which pasuk is used? Torahs emes hoysah befihu. What's Torahs emes? Emes is without external pleasures, without external motivations. It's Torah l'shem haTorah. Hegiah and amal haTorah. Torahs emes hoysah befihu. It's just about Torah. That's all it is. Torahs emes hoysah befihu. And this is the reason why he was zoche to the bigdei kehunah. Now we can go back to explain what was l'chavod ul'sifares in the bigdei kohen hedyot. I ask you a simple question. What's kavod, sifares in the bigdei kohen hedyot? What is it? Tell me, what was the bigdei kohen hedyot? No? Simple. White. There was no gashmiyus. It was all about lifnei Hashem, just showing that you're in the Beis Hamikdash. Yeah. Muvdal from chomer, muvdal from chomer. There was no style. Was there a special style? Was it in style the bigdei kohen had yet? Probably not. Was it, what do you call that, Fruit of the Loom or BVD? Which? Did it have on it an alligator? What did it have on it? It was just plain, simple white clothing, koved l'sifares. There was nothing chumrius in it. See, we have a very bad concept of kavod u'sifares. We don't know what it is, bichlal. We think, you know, external lavish, ooh, eh? Kohen Gadol, special, fine. You have to be on top. But the ikar for clothing of the Kohen Gadol, the whites, the regulars, were also l'chavod u'sifares, because kavod u'sifares means muvdal, muvdal from the gashmi, muvdal from the gashmi, muvdal from the gashmi. Plain, simple, beautiful. Plain, simple, beautiful. You know, I have to tell you this. I have to tell you. Forgive me if it sounds vulgar, but this will bring out my point. I was once visiting—gas. I was once visiting a student of mine that has an office, an office. Talmid, he has an office. In the office they have a big screen, big screen, a TV screen, yeah? My high. I asked him, Why do you have a— They told me they have to know the stock's up and down, so supposedly it's for the stocks. Ah, when I came in, it wasn't the stocks that were on. There was a big football—not a football, a soccer game. There was between the Chaveis America, the Chaveis Nacha Por, Shchorim and Sheratzim, and watching that. Okay. So I asked him, how the stocks—what, you're betting on it? How do the stocks have something to do with the soccer game? It's like a big soccer game. It was an upset. It's a big soccer game. Okay. Check. Then there was advertisements. Who was the advertisement? A lady gets on, and I see the way everybody's head turns, you know. And I'm looking at this, and I'm saying to myself, it's new to me. I never watched TV or something, you know, it's interesting. I'm looking, and I saw the face of the person I was disgusted from. Why? It was obvious that it was 20 pounds of cake makeup. It was clear that she just went and pasted her face with every paint, like took a paintbrush and just painted her face, yeah? So I went over to one of the guys and I tell him, tell me something. Is she considered beautiful? I mean, she considered— I say, everybody turned around. So is that considered yofi? He tells me, yeah, she's gorgeous.

Yeah, but it's just not real. I mean, she looks like, she looks like, like, like, what do you call, like a— no, what I'm saying, it looks like a plastic, I don't know, like a Frankenstein, I don't know. It's like weird to me. You know, with the eyelash, I don't know, just weird. It was weird. I was looking at it, I'm like, it's scary. It almost scared— I'm serious, I looked at it, I got scared. Pashut got scared, right? And then I chap that the pshat is that if a person is drawn towards taiva, so therefore the pshat is that all the sheker and all the added becomes yofi. But when you start thinking sichli, and you start not thinking with the taiva, you think through the mind, and you say, but it's not, it's not— you start thinking the opposite. The plain is beautiful. I mean, the natural should be beautiful. It's, it's, it's— when a person is an ish sichli, natural, simple becomes beautiful. Loud and lavish and noisy is all because the yetzer hara makes a person want to be attracted away from the sichli. What do we call that in English? It's a— no, no, no, no. When it's a decoy. It's a decoy from truth. Sheker hachen, vehevel hayofi. It's a decoy for ishah yiras Hashem hi tisalal. When a person is movedel from chomer, he'll see beauty. Real and natural, in truth. When a person starts to think about taivos, and automatically, how many times I tell you this, all the taivos of all these magazines, it's all brushed up, it's all fake, it's all no shayches to being real. So a guy once told me, Yeah, but this is the taiva. I heard this recently from a yungerman, Navrich. Yes, but at the end of the day, good, it's fake, but that's what I have a taiva for. And there's no way to argue with that. You know the only way to argue with that is? That if you're not a baal taiva and you're a baal seichel, it doesn't make sense, right? Because it's not real. But the other guy is saying, Yeah, but for the taiva, who cares if it's real? It's an unbelievable havanah. I was thinking about it. It's a tremendous havanah. It's ignorance. There's an ignorance. It's an ignorance, and it's a taiva. So meileh, the chavivus sefaras changes based on that. What could be simple is beautiful. The bigdei kohen hedyot was simple. This is l'chavivus sefaras. I think we should take a lesson from it, that in our lives, a person thinks sichli, and he stays away from the taiva, he'll see that he has kavod and he has sefaras. It's because we think, Well, I have to have the loud, the external. Yeah, look at this guy's house, look how big and beautiful it is. Your house is nice, you can come home. What's wrong with that? Why do you need external lavish to catch the eye of the other guy? What do you need it for? You think that's beauty. It's not beauty. Beauty is toich toichen, what's inside, not what's outside. The rest is just a decoy to get your yetzer hara to... I need, and therefore I need a nicer, and therefore I need more, and therefore I have to go further, and then... What's wrong? You know, I'll tell you the truth. When I was in Brooklyn, I had a pretty big house. Grada, I had a big house. I don't know, so beautiful, it was a big house. Now I live in a tiny little apartment. Can I survive? It's the same thing. If you're happy, you'll be happy in both places. Hanging out happy, you won't be happy in either place. One has nothing to do with the other. They say over a very nice story. There was once a person that came to a Rebbe and told the Rebbe that he has a very big problem, that his house is too small, and there's no room, and the children, and this. It's too small. He needs a bigger house. So the Rebbe told him, Do me a favor. Do you have like a barn in your house? There's a cat taking the cat. Bring the cat into the house. Let the... brings the cat into the house. So he tells the Rebbe after a week, Didn't get better.

חשבתי שיש משהו סגולי פה, some segulah, if I bring the cow into the house, maybe the house will grow. Tells him, you have a chicken, bring the chicken in also. Comes back to him afterwards, says, No, it's not better. So he says, Tell me something. Do you have a sheep? Bring it in. A cow, bring it in. He comes to him at the end and he says, I can't live. Now take them all out. He took them out. Wow, so much room. It's unbelievable. This is all the yesod in life. The minute you start wanting more, then you need more. That's how it works. The moment you decide you need more, that's when you need more. If you don't decide you need more and you look for what's enough, then you have everything. You have enough. You have enough. The Rambam writes that what do we give the kohen and the Levi? He's nachlas Hashem. The Rambam, the end of Zeraim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu takes care of him. Says the Rambam, you think he gets extra loads of money? He says, No. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives him what is maspik lo, what he needs. But he has to learn what he needs and what he really doesn't need. Sometimes we want and we think we need, but it doesn't mean that we need it. The bigdei kohen hedyot was to teach a person that a person could wear white, simple clothing, honorable, l'chavod, you'll see first to work where? In the palterin shel melech, in the king's palace. Tell me, you ever see a soldier in the king's palace? They're wearing gold and silver, right? The special soldiers of the queen, they're wearing all different jewelry. Palterin shel melech, what do they be oved? What do they work with? Simple white undergarments. Bigdei pishtan, simple white undergarments, no? Melech's palterin. And the teretz is, that's called l'chavod u'l'sifares, when you're lifnei Hashem like the Chinuch says. Representing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is simple. It's pashut. And that is the l'chavod u'l'sifares. Rabosai, have a good week.