Korach: Recognizing Machlokes, Pursuing Shalom, and Overcoming the Desire for Kavod

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. It is a tragic yet complex sugya. Korach obviously should not be understood as someone who was just a simple baal machlokes, a rabble-rouser. You know, in every group of people, you always have the lower element that causes trouble. We call them the troublemakers in the shul. Every rav, or every head of any organization, he knows quite well who these people are: the troublemakers, the rabble-rousers, the complainers, the ones that cause problems. Korach was not that. Korach was much bigger than that. Korach was much greater than the hamein am, as we soon will learn. His intent was a lot more complex than just outright machlokes. For people who love to make machlokes for the sake of machlokes, this is not Korach. And the biggest proof is the fact that the Mishnah has to identify the difference between Korach v'adaso and Shemai and Hillel. What's a machlokes l'shem Shamayim, what's a machlokes that's not l'shem Shamayim, the Mishnah in Avos. If it's quite clear that this was just troublemaking and bickering and machlokes for the sake of machlokes, I wouldn't need a Mishnah. To teach us to identify what is a machlokes of Korach, the difference between him and Shamayim v'Hillel. Kan nireh, it was much more deeper, and the way I would like to say, there was a fine line, a fine line that separates Korach to Shamayim v'Hillel to the point that the Mishnah has to teach us to identify the difference. If not, maybe we would make the mistake and think, you know, maybe that Korach had a point. If Korach was stam, mizug, stam act a shaynik, the Mishnah wouldn't have to come and teach us the chiluk between Korach and Shamayim v'Hillel. It's yadua, Satmar Rebbe used to say over that his zeide, his Yismach Moshe, would say that he's a gilgul for the third time, but originally from someone who was there during the time of Korach. He was one of the bystanders that saw the machlokes of Korach in an original gilgul. When asked on what side was he on, Moshe or Korach, so there's different versions of it. All of them are saying the same point, that it wasn't that simple. Some versions are saying, had you heard Korach, you wouldn't have a question whose side I'd be on. I'd definitely be on Korach's side. Had you heard Korach, you would have been on Korach's side, so don't ask me whose side I'm on. Others say that he answered he wouldn't take any part of it, but he was on the fence. If you learned that Korach was stam hacking v'yizakt, you misunderstood Parshas Korach. Korach is a deep, a deep, a deep, I guess it had many facets to it, a machlokes in Klal Yisroel. It had many angles, many facets, many points to the machlokes. Now, Chazal tell us, the Tanchuma, Rashi quotes it, that Parshah zu yafeh nidreshes. That's the first Rashi in Parshas Korach. Parshah zu yafeh nidreshes, b'midrash Tanchuma, b'midrash Tanchuma. No, no, no, not like that, not like that, not like that. We'll go over nicely, he'll tell. The Parshah zu is yafeh nidreshes b'midrash Tanchuma. What does Rashi mean, yafeh nidreshes? L'choira—I'm sorry, Rabbi, I'm sorry—what does it mean, yafeh nidreshes?

So, bemes, there's a Taz that asks a kasha. The Gemara in Eruvin says that it's not right to say that this limud of Torah is well, it's nice, it's good, and this one is not so good. If someone does that, says the Gemara in Eruvin, he's me'abed heinoi shel Torah. He loses the wealth that Torah has to offer, because everything in Torah is good. So if you single out something to say this is good, you're me'abed heinoi shel Torah. Fragt the Taz, so how could Rashi say, Parshasu yafah nidreshes, that it's well gedarshened, while everything else is not as well and not as nice? So the truth is, you can answer that maybe the problem is saying this is good and this is no good. But if you only say one side, that this is good, and you don't say that the others is not good, then it's not a problem. But the Taz says no. The Taz says either way you're not allowed to say. You're not allowed to say this is good, nor are you allowed to say this is good and this is no good. But even to say this is good and this is nice and this is good learning and this is good Torah, you can't say that. So how did Rashi say, Parshasu yafah nidreshes? I believe the pashut pshat, and this is what Rashi means, it doesn't mean yafah nice. Yafah means well, well extendedly gedarshened. And what does Rashi mean to say? You know, normally when it comes to machlokes, the best thing is to, so to speak, push it under the rug. You have to go back into a history and bring out history, and yet if you look— At Parshas Korach, the Medrash, it's every nekudah, every prat, every part. Chazal went into, go into every detail of the machloikes. What do we need it for? It's an ugly event. Forget it. Cover it over, jump over it. We have to get into every detail. Smart people, when they talk about things which are not so pretty, b'remiza, like even see Moshe Rabbeinu when he gives tochachah to Klal Yisrael. How does he do it? B'remiza. So here too, why would the chachamim go and elaborate, all right, Korach, forget it, it happened, vaiter gegangen. And the teretz is, rabosai. And the truth is interesting. People don't know that Chassidim have a minhag, many Rebbes didn't say Torah on Parshas Korach. What? They didn't say Torah, chiddushei Torah on Parshas Korach. Why? To say good about Korach, which we're soon going to learn Korach was a great person, that they didn't want to do because he was fighting with Moshe Rabbeinu. So they don't want to say good. To say bad, they also don't want to say bad. Korach. Some have the nusach, he was the grandfather of the Chozeh m'Lublin. The Chozeh m'Lublin's grandfather was Korach. As a matter of fact, the Chozeh m'Lublin used to call him the heilige zeide Korach, my holy grandfather Korach. So it's a very complex situation here. You can't say good, but you can't say bad. Korach. Are we going to get some air here, some air conditioning? It's very hot. It's very hot. It's the summer. So, so this problem of how do we deal with talking about the uncomfortable details of Korach, Rashi says it's yafeh nidreshes. In Chazal, we went through the details. Yafeh doesn't mean nice. Rashi's not trying to say these are nice drashas while others are not nice. Yafeh means, well, it's well addressed in the Chazal. And I think the reason for this would be because Korach becomes a textbook of machlokes. What is a machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim? How does one get sucked into a machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim? What the punishment for a machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim? So therefore it had to be yafeh nidreshes. You know, there's a pasuk, an issur, Lo siyeh k'Korach v'chaadaso. So Korach is the textbook of what's called machlokes not with machlokes. And therefore, yafeh nidreshes. Chazal had to detail clearly, clearly.

On every word, to understand every angle and aspect and facet of this machlokes, because this is an example of machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim. We have to know, we don't want to be like Korach v'adasoi. What makes a person a Korach v'adasoi? And we're going to learn, rabosai, that people don't know. They think, Ah, I'm not doing anything wrong. This is not machlokes. I'm not making machlokes. And the truth is, yes it is called machlokes. And yes it is, you're being just like Korach v'adasoi. And if you learn the parashah properly with the Rashi's and the Chazal, you'll see that you misunderstood what it means to not make machlokes. You think you're not about machlokes? Maybe you are. And that's why it's yafeh nidrashes. That's what I think, rabosai, is the hakdamah, the introduction to this week's parashah. Korach should be learned as a textbook, an example to be taken, to be learned, to be studied, what's called machlokes, what's called a machlokes shelo l'shem Shamayim, like the Mishnah Avos clearly says is the example, Korach. And what does one do to become a Korach? What does one do when a Korach comes and attacks him? And what happens at the end of the day to a Korach v'adasoi? This is the lesson, the sugya of machlokes. What is it? And that's why it's parashah zu yafeh, yafeh meaning extensively, well, well nidrash, not yafeh nice, lafukei other Chazal. There's an extended emphasis of darshening a lot the parashah of Korach. And I'd like to begin, so to speak, to call the anatomy of a machlokes, the anatomy. What is a machlokes? And I think the pasuk begins with the first words, Vayikach Korach. And Chazal already say, what is Vayikach Korach? The Gemara in Sanhedrin, daf kuf tes amud beis, says, Vayikach Korach, lakach, mekach ra la'atzmo. He took a bad deal for himself, la'atzmo. You know, it's pretty obvious that it's a bad deal. I mean, it says clearly he ended up dying from it. So why is it important for Chazal to tell us Vayikach, that he was lakach, mekach ra, la'atzmo? Second of all, Vayikach, where do you see in the words Vayikach that it's a mekach ra? Vayikach Korach, he took the people with him. Rashi even says, lakach bidvarim, he convinced them, or lakach atzmo l'tzad acher, lihisnechal mitoch ha'eidah. What do Chazal mean that he was lakach, a bad deal? And I would like to say pshat, and like I said, this is an introduction to understanding the shoresh. How does Korach begin? And the answer is Vayikach Korach, and that is, you know, Korach, as we soon will show from the Steipler's Torah on this parashah and the son Reb Chaim, walked around all day saying, you know, I don't mean me, I mean you. You think I'm doing this for me? I'm doing it for you. Rashi says this. Rashi says on the pasuk, Madua tisnasu al kahal Hashem, here, says Rashi, Vayakel aleihem Korach. Rashi says, he said, Eini makpid for myself. I'm not doing it for me. Who am I doing it for? I'm doing it for you, for you. Yeah. Steipler brings down, that's interesting, that the only one that caught this lie was Ohn ben Peles. She told her husband, yeah, she told Ohn ben Peles, ishto tzilaso, the wife told her—I'm sorry, not Ohn, but the wife says, at the end of the day, the only one that's gaining from all this is Korach. So she understood, Korach says it's you, but the truth is it's really him. Reb Chaim Kanievsky, the son, shlita, Maran Reb Chaim, adds to his father's Torah a very nice diyuk. Rashi brings down that what was Korach's mistake? He was told that they're all going to die, but one. And he said that he's the one that's going to live. Says Reb Chaim Kanievsky, it's an unbelievable thing. He walks around telling everybody, I mean you, knowing that they're going to die and he's the only one that's going to live. He knows this. He knows that he's the—he knows that the truth is...

Because everyone's going to die. One is going to live, so it's going to be him. But he really needs you. He really means you. Says the Steipler, this is the derech of all baalei machlokes. The key is to listen. The minute they start saying, I only mean you, and I really mean you, and it's—I don't mean me, you know he means me and not the other person. There are certain key words that the baal machlokes use, and I like the way the Steipler in Birchas Peretz ends off, and he says, This is keldvarim ba'alma, he's lying, yeah. V'zehu kocho shel talmud shel machlokes. This is what the confusion of machlokes is. It's a confusion, because it makes it sound like he means everybody besides him, and the truth is he means nobody but himself. And the way the Steipler ends off, Rachamana yatzileinu meihem u'mehamonam u'mikiayotzei בהם. The Ribono Shel Olam should protect us from these type of people. Meihem. Why? They're deceiving, extremely deceiving. They walk around saying, I mean Torah, I mean l'shem Shamayim, I mean the Eibishter, and the only thing he doesn't mean is the Eibishter. He only means himself. I believe that's what Chazal mean by, Ikach, koirach, lakach mekach ra l'atzmo. It means that he meant atzmo. That's what it means. Vayikach, he was a taker and not a giver. That's what Chazal mean. Vayikach. It's all about taking. He walked around saying— I'm giving. I'm completely selfless for the sake of the public. And the truth is, it was all about vayikach, to take and not to give. He had no intentions of giving anything to anybody. And the biggest raya is because he knew they were all going to die. What was karas das? He probably promised them all, I'll give you a, you know, shteles. I'll give you already, what do you call that? You'll be an executive director in my organization. He gave them all tafkidim, but he all, knowing that they're all going to die. That's vayikach l'atzmo. It was all about taking, and he had no intentions of giving anything to anybody. And to me, the chiddush is even his own children. That means he knew his children were going to die, and that we see from the Chazal vayter, because Chazal say, Rasha shel sheles Yochsin yotza. Hakso, he thought it was going to be him, right? That was his mistake. He saw Shmuel. He saw Shmuel, and he thought it was going to be him. And little did he know it meant his kids. So what was he thinking then? What, that his kids are going to die also then? It was really his kids lived and he died. So what was he thinking, that he'll live and they'll going to die? And he went with it anyway. And this is called, rabosai, vayikach. Yeah, there's no giving whatsoever in this scenario, in Korach's mind. It's all about vayikach. I take, I take, I take, I take, and I take, and I take. So Chazal mekach ra. It was evil because it was l'atzmo. It was all about— Taking for himself. Abeisei, this is how the parsha should be learned and studied, to understand the anatomy of a machlokes and a baal machlokes, to hear the key words, to be able to detect what's emes and what's sheker, and that's the kavana of the Mishnah. The kavana of the Mishnah is to tell me what's a machlokes l'shem Shamayim, what's a machlokes which is not l'shem Shamayim. This is koireach va'adasoi shelo l'shem Shamayim, and maybe that's even what the Mishnah means: Koirach va'adasoi, knowing that adasoi has nothing from it. Maybe the machlokes of Koirach va'adasoi means that Koirach and his eidah—what, he had anything for his eidah? He had any plans of good for his eidah? Nothing. It's all about him. Yet he dragged thousands of people into this, hundreds of people he dragged into it. This is Koirach va'adasoi. We, of course, cannot go through every detail of the parsha. We'd be here for weeks. Yafeh nidreshes. This could go on and on, but we could take out some lessons. And like I said—

He said one of them is, the first thing is to identify the language of the Baal Machloikes, that we should be able to pick up on it. Another nekudah I think is important to bring out is the chomer of the damage, the damage that the Baal Machloikes does. You know, we find that the onesh that was given to Korach was that everybody got swallowed up, children included, yonkei shadayim, even babies. The Maharal in Gur Aryeh asks, since when are babies chayiv? They don't have daas, they don't have chataim, so why was there an onesh over here to yonkei shadayim, even the babies feeding from the mother, that young? So the Maharal says a teretz. You know, machloikes, machloikes is fire, it's Gehenom. So when you play with fire, you're going to get burnt. It doesn't matter what age you are. Machloikes burns. Machloikes, it's fire. Imagine a kid says, you know, I'm young, so I'm not a bar oneshim, so I can put my hand in the fire. It's not going to work, right? If the kid puts his hand in the fire, no matter how innocent he is, he's going to get burnt. Says the Maharal, that's why the babies had—because it's machloikes, eish ha-machloikes. I'll tell you an interesting story. I once heard from a person in Lakewood minyan, his name was Greenberger, he's a talmid of Chofetz Chaim, that after Rav Avrohom Trop was niftar in Radin, there was machloikes who should be the next Rosh Yeshiva. And the family members of the Chofetz Chaim and the different rabbeim there, they were fighting over this issue, and it got a little bit heated. Reb Yisrael Zalman Meltzer was passing by Radin at the time, so they would mechabed him to say a shiur. He said a beautiful shiur. The oilam loved it so much that they said, You know what? We want him to take over after Rav Tzvi Trop, that the Chofetz Chaim should hire him as the memaleh makom of Rav Tzvi Trop. So they all signed petitions, let's say 150 bachurim signed their name, We want Reb Yisrael Zalman to be the next Rosh Yeshiva after Rav Tzvi Trop. And they sent into the Chofetz Chaim, aydei zichrono livrachah. That's who they sent in to bring this petition. Chofetz Chaim looks at the paper. He didn't say one word. He didn't say anything. Ruf, tmir, Reb Yisrael Zalman, call me Reb Yisrael Zalman. I want him to come. They told Reb Yisrael Zalman, the Chofetz Chaim wants him. He comes to the room of the Chofetz Chaim. Under a minute, he was already out. He was out of the room, and he was looking for the next train out of Radin, when he can leave, the next train. Less than a moment he was there, less than a full minute. So they asked him, What did the Chofetz Chaim say? Chofetz Chaim told Reb Yisrael Zalman, It's machlokes. Machlokes is fire. Ankleft. Who runs into a fire? You run away from a fire. That's it. That's all he told him. Less than a minute. Machlokes, fire. Ankleft. Run away. He left. Fire, machloikes, and therefore it burns even a child. I would like to say another pshat, b'ezras Hashem. Why did the children die in the machloikes of Korach? And I think the pshat may be another pshat, different than the Maharal. When there's machloikes, the offspring cannot be any better. The shoresh of a grandfather or a father who makes machloikes, the kids are going to be baalei machloikes too, like a ben sorer u'moreh. There's no hope for the child. Just like there's a sugya called ben sorer u'moreh, or I would say even a ir hanidachas, that we kill out the whole city, ben sorer u'moreh, we kill a child, because sometimes when the shoresh is so corrupt, the only way to get rid of it is to wipe away the whole thing, including the children. When there's machloikes, that means all the children and grandchildren are going to have with themselves machloikes as well.

Machlokes is in the genes, habeisai. Baalei machlokes are examples for the children to be baalei machlokes. I'll bring you a nice pshat in the pasuk based on this, as well as a story. If you look in perek tezayin, pasuk lamed beis, it says, Vatiftach haaretz es piha, vativla osam v'es bateihem. Does it say ohaleihem or bateihem? Bateihem. Bayis. They had houses; they had tents. They didn't have houses. They had ohel; they had a tent. As a matter of fact, even about them it says in the pasuk, in pasuk chav-zayin, Vayotzu nitzavim pesach ohaleihem. So it refers to the tent as a tent. Why all of a sudden does it refer to it as bayis? Reb Shlomo Kluger asks this for a kasha in Imrei Shefer. Reb Shlomo Kluger says, L'choira the word batim is out of place over here. It should have said ohaleihem. Vatiftach haaretz es piha, vativla osam es ohaleihem. Mir daktzach, the way that I explained to you why the children have to die, because it ruined the whole home. We don't mean bayis, the building. We mean bayis, the shtub, the home. There's their hoyz, but there's shtub. There's a chiluk in Yiddish between a hoyz and a shtub. Shtub refers more to the children, the structure of the family. Vatiftach haaretz es piha, vativla osam es bateihem and their mishpacha. Because the mishpacha can't be any better. It's corrupt. It's root. I'll tell you a nice maiseh. One of the talmidim that learned by us here in yeshiva was doing a shidduch in Eretz Yisroel. He went to Eretz Yisroel to learn, and he called me up that they're reading him a certain shidduch. I said, Listen, I don't know. I'm not from there. You have to get information about the family. Who should I ask? So I told him, Ask. You have this Yiddishak, this felt vetz a freg in Eretz Yisroel. Yeah, but I don't know, and who's going to help me? Who's going to be madrich me? I said, Listen, walk over to any talmid chacham in Bnei Brak. He was in Bnei Brak at the time, and ask. I don't know, get hadrachah, find out about the family, and speak to a rav there, speak to a talmid chacham. So he tells me who. You know the way, I don't know if you know, the Bucharian Talmud is a certain type of a talmid. He needs clear instructions. Who? Who should I go to? So I said, Joke. I said, Go to Rav Shach. I meant just to say was, you know what? You go to Rav Shach. He went. He went to Rav Shach to ask Rav Shach. He did it. He calls me back, and he tells me that he got in to Rav Shach, and he asked Rav Shach about the family because they lived around that area. Rav Shach says he knew the grandfather, and he said a very nice thing about the grandfather, that the grandfather, you know, it's Bnei Brak, there was a lot of building shuls, a certain machloikes, and the grandfather stayed away from the machloikes, and he was an unbelievable grandfather. The boy kept on asking about the family and the girl, like, you know, and Rav Shach kept on saying, I know the grandfather, the grandfather, you know, he stood away from the machloikes. I liked him. So he calls me up. He says, I don't know, it's funny. I keep on asking about the family, he keeps on talking about the grandfather. So I said, you know, it doesn't sound too good. Usually, if you call up about a girl and they tell you about the grandfather, you know there's something wrong, right? You want information about a boy and they start telling you about a cousin, you know there's something wrong, right? Oh, I love his cousin. His cousin is unbelievable. I didn't ask about his cousin, I asked about him. Then I thought to myself, you know what he's saying? He's saying a moiridige zach. He's saying machloikes. It's how the house, it's in the home. If the grandfather's an ish shalom, then the family are going to be baalei middos tovos. They'll get along with people, they get along with themselves, and in the home, the ikur shalom bayis. You want shalom. How could there be shalom bayis if there's a baal machloikes? Va'keit, Rav Shach was telling him that the home is good because you see that the grandfather was not a baal machloikes. I heard over Shabbos a very nice story from my Rebbe, Rav Pam, that there was once a bachur went out on a date, and the girl was asking him, What yeshiva do you learn at? You know? So he said, What's the difference? Do you want to

Go to, in the future, do you want to go to this, to learn here? What's an afkamina to you? What's the difference to you? Everything that was asked, he answered in like a, What's the difference? An afkamina. Oh, we'll talk about... The girl came back and said, No, of course I don't want to have anything to do with this guy. This guy's crazy. Every question I asked him, he answers me, What's it to you? Kitza, the boy came to Rav Pam, and he tells Rav Pam, Rebbe, I don't know what I said so wrong. The girl said she doesn't want to go out with me. She hated the date. She says I was horrible. What was I so bad? So Rav Pam was thinking, was thinking. He's a learned boy. He seems to be okay in yeshiva. He didn't seem to be such a mean guy. Rav Pam cracked the story. What was the story? He came to Rav Pam a few weeks before and said he never went out with a girl before. This is his first time. He doesn't know how to talk to a girl. So Rav Pam told him, Talk to her like your father talks to your mother. So the guy said, Okay. So on the date, he spoke to her like his father. Everything his mother says to his father, Father says, Talk to me later. What's it your business? What do you... So then the kid walks around, Ba ba ba ba ba ba. That's what happened. Rav Pam told him, Talk to her like your father talks to your mother. Rav Pam, the way he speaks to the mother is what to work on on a date. That's how you should talk, taka. There's an expression in Yiddish. I'd like to teach it to you, and that is, Vas greise kayin, kleine shpayin. What does that mean? For those of you, most of you don't speak Yiddish here. Greise means elders. Kayin means chew. What's being chewed at home by the greise, the kleine, the little ones chew, they spit it out in the street. Which means what the kid sees at home is the way he talks in the street to people. That's the way it is. If he sees in his home sholom, if he sees in his home derech eretz, kavod habriyos, that's what he's going to talk to other people. This, rabosai, is eish machlokes. You can't come and say he doesn't deserve an onesh. It's not about an onesh. He grew up in a home of machlokes. So, Vativla osam, vatiftach haaretz es piha, vativla osam, ve'es bateihem. You know, rabosai, when was the pi haaretz created? So there's a first Mishnah. It was created erev Shabbos bein hashmashos. This was a briyah that the Ribbono Shel Olam created bein hashmashos. Why? Why is the pi haaretz erev Shabbos? So I always understood it's not the only thing. There's like the pi haason also, which means all strange teva. There's teva and there's strange teva. The strange teva, like the pi haason and the pi haaretz, that's erev Shabbos. Before Ben Hashmashos, which means it was the last thing right before the world was created perfect, then Erev Shabbos there was a few things that needed to be stored away for interesting times in history, and one of them is this: pi ha'aretz, and so too pi ha'aton. Well, maybe it has to do with Shabbos. Certain things have to do with Shabbos. We know that Shabbos and shalom is very much connected. It's brought down in sefarim that especially on Shabbos the yetzer hara works to make machlokes, and that's what the pasuk means, Lo seva'aru eish. Notice the word eish again. Bechol moshvoseichem, b'yom haShabbos. Shabbos and eish don't go together. Eish meaning machlokes. Shabbos is about shalom. I don't know if you notice that the piyutim and the zemiros that we say Friday night, it's all about shalom. Adon Hashalom, Melech shalom shelo, Barcheinu b'shalom, Shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom aleichem, Baruchuni l'shalom. It says all shalom. It's all shalom, shalom, shalom, shalom. Every third word is shalom. Even when you give a person a bracha, what do you say? Shabbat shalom.

Ashkenazim say good Shabbos. I don't know if it's such a good idea. They shouldn't say good Shabbos. They should say Shabbat Shalom. It's about Shabbos is shalom. It's about peace. Shabbos is about peace. Shabbos is all about shalom. I think it's possible that we can understand even the bracha that we give the children. We give a bracha to children Friday night. Why? Also, V'yasem lecha shalom. The bracha that we give the children, shalom. And I think it's interesting, at the Shabbos table, we want there should be peace between brothers. So we give V'yasem lecha shalom, and maybe that's why we pick Ephraim and Menashe. Mefarshim ask, why don't we say, Yisimcha Elokim k'Ephraim v'chiMenashe, why Ephraim and Menashe? So the famous teretz is that they were who they were even in Mitzrayim. So we give a bracha that even in galus, the child shouldn't be influenced by the outside galus. And okay, so Yisimcha Elokim k'Ephraim v'chiMenashe, that even though they were in galus, they remained heilige menshen, heilige Yidden, right? So could be that's why we pick Ephraim and Menashe to be the example of the bracha. I'm thinking maybe, you know, Ephraim and Menashe, there was no kinah. And even though Ephraim was the younger one, was put before Menashe, Yisimcha Elokim k'Ephraim hu'chiMenashe, and yet there was shalom. There was peace between them. Ephraim. Look how we say it. We even speak out the younger one before the older one, Yisimcha Elokim k'Ephraim hu'chiMenashe, and he didn't get jealous. And he didn't fight with his brother, because this is shalom, this is bracha. Bracha is, ein HaKadosh Baruch Hu — the Gemara says the Ribono Shel Olam searched and He couldn't find a kli machzik bracha yoser meha-shalom. Shalom is a kli for bracha. Shalom bracha. So mimeila, we come and we give the bracha to the children about v'yasem lecha shalom and the examples of Efraim and Menashe, and that's why it's Friday night, which is Shabbos shalom, and maybe that's where the lashon is Shabbos shalom u'mevorach. We don't just say Shabbat shalom; we say Shabbat shalom u'mevorach, because the Shabbos, the shalom is the bracha of Shabbos. There's a famous she'eilah. It says in the tefillah we say that the Ribono Shel Olam — give me a siddur — the lashon of the musaf, the lashon of the musaf, we talk about the bracha, right? The bracha of Shabbos. What is the bracha of Shabbos, right? Ki hi mekor ha-bracha. Shabbos is always the bracha. So there's a lot of talk what bracha we're referring to. I would say zeh pashut: we mean the bracha of shalom. Shabbos creates shalom. Oh, it's brought down in the Zohar that the tikkun for the chet of Korach is Shabbos. We all know that who is Korach? Tzadik katamar yifrach, k'erez baLevanon yisgeh. Tzadik katamar yifrach is going on Rashi teivos, right? Korach: tzadik, katamar, yifrach — Korach. Where is it brought in Mizmor Shir Lyom HaShabbos? In the mizmor of Shir Lyom HaShabbos, says the Zohar, because the tikkun for the chet of Korach is Shabbos. How is it a tikkun for the chet of—because they're poshut, since Korach was machlokes. So Shabbos is shalom; mimeila the tikkun of Korach is shalom. Now I want to show you something very interesting. It's brought down in the Zohar that a talmid chacham is Shabbos. A talmid chacham is bechinas Shabbos. As a matter of fact, it's famous that the Baal Shem, zech tzaddik livracha, once saw a chilul Shabbos, and he was wondering why. Why did he see chilul Shabbos? His holy eyes, einei halegayens, how is there a chilul Shabbos? And he said that whenever you see an aveirah, it's that they're teaching you a lesson, that you did something wrong. Even though the other person's doing the aveirah, but you're supposed to learn from that that maybe you have a pegam in that area, and you should be misaken it. Says the Baal Shem, and he thinks to himself, Where did I chilul Shabbos? I was never chilul Shabbos. Oh, he came up with this idea: a talmid chacham is like Shabbos. Yes.

There would maybe times where he heard a bizayon against a Talmud Chacham, and he didn't stand up. Shh. And he didn't stand up for the kavod of the Talmud Chacham. That's called chilul Shabbos. He was mechalel the Shabbos. He was mechalel the Shabbos. Put it on. He was mechalel. Yeah, but they closed it. No, they closed it. That they were mechalel the Shabbos. Okay, so chilul Shabbos is like being mechalel Talmud Chacham. Now I want to show you something very interesting, yeah? Talmidei chachamim marbim shalom ba'olam. Being mevazeh a Talmud Chacham is going against shalom. Korach by taking, and the tikun is shalom. You see? It goes together. Talmud Chacham is shalom. Shabbos is shalom. Talmud Chacham is bechinas Shabbos. And together, and together, they have the inyan of shalom. So we have a very important lesson to be learned. Shabbos, the important thing is kavod talmidei chachamim. Imagine you sit at a Shabbos table. The Shabbos is meant to be marbeh shalom. If a person is mevazeh Talmud Chacham, it's going against the whole inyan of shalom, right? Korech. So I'm just showing you that you see clearly that since the Baal Shem explains that by hearing or being part of a bizayon Talmud Chacham, that's called like chilul Shabbos. So imagine a person sits at a Shabbos table and is mevazeh talmidei chachamim. That's a type of chilul Shabbos, chaversa. You're keeping Shabbos, yeah, physically, but the truth is you're sitting there and you're desecrating what Shabbos stands for. Then you know machlokes. How many times people get involved with machlokes on Shabbos about nothing, and they talk about machlokes. The trick is shalom. Shabbos was designated for shalom. Now I want to show you another interesting nekudah. You didn't put it on, right? I don't know, it's not working. You want to take care of it. Okay. There's another lesson to be taken from, so to speak, the textbook of Korach, of machlokes, and that is, like we learned till now, what is the language of machlokes, to identify it, to be careful from it. Also, what is the תוצאה, what does machlokes do? How Shabbos is meant to undo all that Shabbos is a time of shalom. What should a person do when he is being confronted by the machloikes? The machloikes is against him. What becomes his responsibility? Someone's fighting with me; I'm not fighting with him. The famous Chazal that everybody, the Mid, the office, the Mishnah, right? Korech vaDasoi. How come it doesn't say Korech against Moshe? And the mefarshim say it's yadua that Moshe wasn't part of the machloikes. That's what everybody said. Moshe wasn't part of the machloikes. So therefore, Shammai and Hillel was Shammai and Hillel against each other. Korech vaDasoi wasn't Korech against Moshe, because Moshe was not a participant in the machloikes. People have a misunderstanding because they say this vort and they think as long as I don't participate, as long as I ignore it, as long as I turn the other way, that's good. That's called not being part of the machloikes. And the truth is, it's more. Your responsibility is a lot more than just ignoring the machloikes. If you look at the pasuk, the pasuk tells us Moshe's reaction wasn't just to ignore. Like you think the pshat in that Mishnah is Moshe wasn't part of it. He was much more active than just by being passive and not being part of it.

The pasuk says clearly that Moshe Rabbeinu says, Vayomer Moshe el Korach, Shimu na, bnei Levi. Please. Please what? Rashi says it was dvarim rakim. He spoke very softly to them. He was trying to, iberbetn, mefais zayn, trying to mefais them. Now don't forget, they said the worst things about him. They said horrible things about him. As a matter of fact, Chazal say that because of what Korach said, the next step was that everyone said about Moshe Rabbeinu, he was mezaneh with their wife. So there was, in Yiddish, a klang, there was a rumor going around because of Korach that Moshe Rabbeinu was mezaneh with all the women, all of them. Melamed shekole echad v'echad, Chazal say, everyone, every single one said that, Yes, look, you, my wife, you went with Moshe Rabbeinu. Don't you go near him. Unbelievable debasement, right? What's Moshe Rabbeinu's response? His response is, Shimu na. Please. Dvarim rakim, soft talk, trying to get them to be chozer b'teshuvah, trying to stop the fight. It's not enough. And we're soon going to see how this becomes a lesson. Chazal use this as a textbook lesson for us. The Gemara says that what do we learn from Moshe Rabbeinu? Mikan she'ein machzikin b'machlokes. Later on, the pasuk says he calls them, Vayishlach Moshe likro l'Dasan v'Aviram, mikan she'ein machzikin b'machlokes. So, he mechazer achreihem lashlimam b'divrei shalom. Mistake. People think as long as I don't get involved and I look the other way, and you see clearly that it's more than—you need to do more than just not get involved and to ignore it. You got to actively try to get the other person to make shalom with you. And if not, you call the machzik b'machlokes. What did Korach already say? The worst things about him. Moshe Rabbeinu's response is nice things. He says sweet things to him, dvarim rakim. He's trying to elevate him, ham'at. Look how special, look what you have, look who you are. And I want to tell you something interesting. The Brisker Rav learns that Korach was a koifer. He had a din of a real koifer. He was mevazeh the mitzvah tzitzis. He said, Ein Torah min haShamayim. Moshe Rabbeinu is not the navi. So if any response from Moshe to scream at Korach, you know, he would be the right one to be making machlokes l'shem Shamayim. If anything, Moshe Rabbeinu should have responded viciously towards Korach, because that would be l'shem Shamayim. Korach was a koifer. If Moshe Rabbeinu would have responded by wiping Korach off, he'd be right. And yet, farkert, not only he doesn't wipe him to the ground, knock him to the ground, what does he do? He, Na, sweet, dvarim rakim, divrei shalom, you hear? And this is called, Mikan, that you not be machzik machlokes. Is it a maila not to be machzik machloikes, or is it an aveira if you are a machzik machloikes? It's not just a maila that you're not a machzik machloikes, rabosai. It's not something just Moshe Rabbeinu did. You read this, you say, Yeah, Moshe Rabbeinu was a tzaddik. What does that have to do with me? We learn from Moshe Rabbeinu everybody who's machzik b'machloikes. Now, is it only that I should not not be a machzik? Is it a good thing, or maybe it's an aveira if I am a machzik b'machloikes? Chazal say, Kol hamachzik b'machloikes raui l'tzaraa. He's fit to get—it's a Gemara in Sanhedrin, daf kuf yud—raui l'tzaraa, he's fit to get tzaraas. And the mefarshim ask, what do you mean, raui l'tzaraa? Either you should get tzaraas or you shouldn't get tzaraas, and then why would he be getting tzaraas? And I always understood the pshat in the Gemara is as follows: A person who speaks lashon hara gets tzaraas. How about the person who, in the fight, doesn't stop the fight? He didn't speak lashon hara, so he'll walk around saying, I didn't say lashon hara. I just don't say anything. Raui l'tzaraa. You see, all the lashon hara that's going to come from this machloikes might not come from your mouth, but it's going to come because the machloikes continues. You have some part of that. You have some guilt.

And the fact that there's machloikes because you didn't stop it, and therefore you're raui litztareya, no? Pilug ploy. Chazal are telling us it's not enough just to come and say, I looked the other way. I forgive him. It's more than that. You have to go out of your way to make him, that he should be friends with you. I once called Rav Gavriel Ginsburg, zichrono livracha. He lives, living in Queens, and then later on he became a rosh yeshiva in Toronto, in Eretz Yisrael. He was my zeide's neighbor, and I asked him, Could you tell me about my zeide? He said, I want to tell you a tremendous ma'alah. It was impossible to fight with your zeide. Impossible. He said, Because even if you did something wrong, he made you feel like—not that you did something wrong, that he did something wrong to you—and he used to make you like, Please be mochel me, that, like... and you couldn't fight with him. It was impossible. What are you going to get angry at? A person who, instead of blaming you for what you did wrong, blames himself for what. This is the pshat. Imagine, machzir b'machloikes doesn't mean just, I'll look the other way. But you have to go out of your way and make that he should be your friend, כאילו you did something wrong and you have to mefayes him. Who did something wrong here? Korach. Moshe was 100%, yet Moshe is being mefayes him as if Korach is right and he's wrong. Instead of telling him, Listen, you're wrong. You did a terrible thing here. And if not, you called the ma'aseh machloikes. I like always to say over, maybe a ma'aseh, a lesson that I learned in my life. The baal tefillah in my father's shul, he was a very devoted member of the shul. He was devoted to my zeide, zichrono livracha. He used to daven Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and he was devoted, and even after my zeide was niftar, he was devoted to the shul. The devotion came after an incident. Originally, my zeide used to give hashgacha by this person's restaurant, and there was rumors that the hashgacha was somewhat—there was an issue in the kashrus. And the truth is, there was no real issue, but it was something that had—there was a mesorah, like every other kashrus, there's always something. And the person happened to be losing business at the time, so he blamed that on my zeide. He blamed it that because he said that if there wouldn't have been this question about the kashrus, this wouldn't have been. And the truth had nothing to do, because the story—the kashrus was not true—and the person was looking for a scapegoat, so he blamed it on my zeide. So one day when my zeide walked into the hashgacha, this person unloaded on him with such horrible talk, and he was mevazeh him, and he told him, Get out of my store, with horrible, horrible talk. Later on it was discovered, like I explained to you, that my zeide was rather right. There was a misunderstanding. The person who came to check thought it was a misunderstanding, the whole story, okay? Yet with this person there was no peace. It was a horrible story. My zeide was sick from it, because never—I mean, he was a very lovable person—no one ever spoke to him like that. This was maybe from the first few times that anyone ever spoke to him like that. It was hard for him to swallow it. It was hard. My father told me one day, he comes to my zeide, my zeide says, You know, we have to go nichum aveilim today. So my father asks, Who? So he says, This person from the restaurant, he's sitting shiva. My father said, Him? You're gonna go nichum aveilim to him? What are you talking about? Nobody in your life ever hurt you as much as this person, and for no reason. And my zeide's response was, Ich geh. You don't want to come? You don't have to. I'm going. I'm gonna go. So he asked, But why? He said, You know, there's a time and a place when to hold a grudge. When another Yid is baveilus and he's suffering, it's not the time to show that there's pirud. It's not the time for it. I go, menachem avel him. I'll bend my head and I'll be menachem avel. The story has it, as you'll soon see, my zeide walked in. This person was shocked. Couldn't believe it. He was so moved by it. My zeide sat there and he was menachem avel. He sat extra time, and he was so moved by it that he turned around to...

Become my grandfather's closest, from his closest people. He moved near the shul, and he started davening for the amud, and he ran the shul. He didn't leave my grandfather for a second. Here, for that moment of bending his head, that the zeide bent his head and said, You know, shalom, I'll be the one to bend. As a matter of fact, when he was niftar, this person, his son got up and said that my father used to say, the last ten years of his life, that he had a hard time every time he thought Moshiach was coming, because if Reb Shmuel Walkin didn't bring Moshiach in his time, I'm having a hard time with it. I thought for sure Moshiach would come in his day. That's the love that this person, and the respect, the reverence this person gained from a maaseh of his batlus, from a maaseh of hachnaah. And this, rabosai, is how to do it. You have a fight with your neighbor. Some people think they're big tzaddikim. What do they do? They look the other way, they ignore. That's not. You're supposed to say nice things and say, Come over, like we learn by Yishlach, to call them, call them, tell them to come down, we'll talk about it, even though you know you're 100% right. Moshe Rabbeinu knew he was 100% right, and af al pi kein. This, rabosai, is the lesson, the lesson, that koirach—and if not, you could fall into the problem of lo siyeh k'Koirach u'kaadaso. You know, there's a part of Koirach which needs to be understood. Chazal say Koirach was a pikeach. He was very, very smart. Now the question is, if he's so smart, so what's the teretz? He did a stupid thing. So, you know, mezakeh Reb Chaim Brisker, that what's called a smart person? That he says smart things? No. That a kenish zogt a narishkeit, that's called a smart person. Smart people not just, you know, they say smart things. A chachamen zol zogt a narishkeit, is always chacham. So how could Chazal call him? So the truth is, in the words of the Chazal, the way Rashi brings it, it answers the question: Einoi. He saw things wrong. Now, really, where is the mistake? He saw shalshales, yuchsin yotzim imenu, yeah? Tell me, he couldn't think for one minute it might be his son? Azoi long disha teretz? Bishleima is a teretz that no one could think of, so he could come and say he didn't know, yeah? But this, it's a pashut teretz. He'll die and his kids will live. So either we could come and say, like I said before, that it's imeglach. If he was wrong and the machlokes, that his kids should be healthy. He didn't think it's possible that his kids could break away, like we said before, that machlokes means it runs in the family. We said a yesod: machlokes runs in the family. Koach nudis, a manavshech, if he's right, yeah, so it can't be that his kids, right? Right? The kid, those kids will survive if... So then he has to survive. The only problem is, I asked you from the other Chazal, which says that they're all going to die besides one, and he said he's the one. So what happened to his kids? Okay, well that's a shaila for a different time. But l'panim, this is the shaila in the Chazal: nara, and the answer is, it is a pashut teretz, that maybe his kids are going to live. But even a pashut teretz, someone doesn't see. You know why? Ayin. A person sees what he wants to see. Eino hitasai. What's eino hitasai? You see, a person with his eye could be satisfied and happy. He could be tzufriden vaserhat. And if not, then the ayin, much like by Bilam, we have ayin is a chomed, it's a tremendous chomed. And that's really what Moshe Rabbeinu is telling them: you have so much, rav lachem bnei Levi. I mean, you have so much. Be happy with what you have. And the teretz is eino hitasai, the ayin of chemdah. And here was the chemdah of kavod. The chemdah of kavod, you hear? The ayin hitasai. It's a big lesson in life. A person could have who knows how much money, or who knows how much...

He could throw it all away for the pursuit of a little bit more. Could you imagine a person throws away ten million dollars to get five more dollars? So you're laughing, right? Look in the mirror, baisai. You should be laughing at yourself, because we all do this all the time. In the pursuit of one more yetzer hara, and one more taiva, and one more, a few extra dollars, a person could put himself in a situation where he loses everything, and that's Korach. Korach gambled everything. Rab lachem, he had it all. Compared to everything else, he had it all, in the pursuit of a little bit more. The Mishnah tells us, Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. It's a Mishnah in this week's Pirkei Avos. What's the pshat, sameach b'chelko? What does it mean, sameach b'chelko? What chelek are we referring to? It's interesting, there's a pasuk that the Mishnah brings: Yagia kapecha ki sochal, ashrecha v'tov lach. So we see ashrecha, that's pshat, eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko, because yagia kapecha ki sochal, ashrecha. So you're happy. What are you happy with? Ah, so it's a machlokes. Some say chelko means chelko hagashmi. We're referring—Chaim Belazon learns like this: you should be sameach in your chelek hagashmi. Whatever you have, yavarech. A smaller house, be happy with it. You have not the fanciest car, be happy with it. Chelko hagashmi. Told us, Yankev, v'chsam sofer, and b'emes, he should know it's a chinuch, I think in Mitzvah Shin Aleph, by korbanos, he says that its chelki means you're a chelek, that you're a Yid. Eizel vosh, you're right, maybe you might not have that much money. But chelkoi, Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu, mah na'im goralenu, u'mah yafah yerushaseinu, bist a Chayid. Baal HaMussar always said, how could a person say that he's unhappy? If he says, Shelo asani goy, the minute you say shelo asani goy, that should make you happy for the day already. That itself should tell a person, Ashreinu mah tov chelkeinu, I'm happy. I like to tell over a story all the time that I heard from my brother, Reb Avrom. My brother Reb Avrom had a friend that was depressed. So he tells my brother he's going to Eretz Yisroel. Should he go get brachos for depression from Gedolim? So my brother said, Why not? Can't hurt. So he laughed. So he went to Reb Chaim Kanievsky, and he tells Reb Chaim Kanievsky, Ani atzuv. Can you imagine an American boy telling Reb Chaim, Ani atzuv. Reb Chaim picks up his head, opens up his eyes. Atzuv? Atzvus? Halo chanukah hayom, it's Chanukah. Halo chanukah hayom. Atzvus? He looks at the guy like a meshugeneh. He fell off a boat. Imagine a guy saying, he's a little dancing by his chasunah, Ani atzuv. He doesn't make—he don't go hand in hand. This guy had such mussar from the way Reb Chaim reacted, for the rest, never, ever, ever since then did he have one minute of depression. Reb Chaim was telling him, You have such a mitzvah, Chanukah, to be atzuf? What are you talking about? That's what it means, eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko, that you're yid, you have mitzvahs. So what could you be unhappy about? There's an interesting Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu, rabboisai. Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu says that the mailos of HaKadosh Baruch Hu are, one of them is rachum, chanun, and therefore we have Mah Hu rachum, af atah. Another one is sameach b'chelko. What's pshat, rabboisai, sameach b'chelko? What does it mean? So I learned from this yesod that sameach b'chelko doesn't mean practically a person's happy, because it doesn't mean the Eibishter's happy. What's the... Sameach b'chelko is a midah. It's not the pshat you're happy. There's a midah of being content. An atzuf, and a person who's mevakeish chemdah more and more and more, that's a chisaron and a mechshol. The Ribono Shel Olam doesn't have chesronos. It's not so much eizehu ashir, hasameach, it means to be happy, and that's what the Mishnah is trying to tell you, you know, you should be happy. Then it's not shayach to the Eibishter. Sameach b'chelko must be a midah, a shleimus. There's a shleimus of a person who's not unhappy, he's not broken, he's not looking for anything, he's content. Ba Shabbos ba menuchah.

The Ribono Shel Olam was pshat menucha. He was shleimus, content Shabbos, shalem. Pay attention, shalem, right? What is shalem? The root word of shalem is shleimus. Shalem. Content. You know where machlokes comes from? When people are not content. And that's why I'm talking about this inyan of—and the maaseh, where is shalom? One of the names of the Eibishter is, no? Shalom. Ah? Ah? ... Machlokes, ah? That all fits, ah? They missed the first hour and a half of this shiur, which I explained to them what Shabbos is and shalom and vechulei. But the point of it is, you hear? You hear? The Ribono Shel Olam is shalom. Ribono Shel Olam is a sameach b'chelko. When someone is not a sameach b'chelko, what happens? He makes machlokes. He's discontent, and therefore he fights with everybody. There's an interesting Gaon that says pshat in the ... I think even though it's not exactly relevant to the shiur, but I think it's an interesting Gaon. But you see, obviously from the Gaon that bothered him the kasha: vashe shayach by the Ribono Shel Olam sameach b'chelko? Says the Gaon, it's going on Klal Yisroel. Ribono Shel Olam looks at Klal Yisroel as chelek, as minas chelko. Klal Yisroel is his chelek. So no matter what Klal Yisroel is, he's sameach b'chelko. Better, worse, it's a Gaon. Ah, it's a sheine Gaon. The Ribono Shel Olam's an Ashi; he's a sameach b'chelko. The pshat is, he's a sameach with Klal Yisroel. ... Klal Yisroel. Eh? Hashem, Klal Yisroel is called chelek Hashem ami. Where's chelek, right? Okay, so now we have a big yesod that when a person is a sameach b'chelko, he has shalom, he has shleimus. Okay, why is it that a person is an ashir only if he's a sameach b'chelko? So there's an interesting Medrash Shmuel. Medrash Shmuel says most taivos, you get sick of after a while. You can't. How much food could you eat, right? You get sick of it after a while. Money is the exact opposite. The more you have, the more you want. There's never a time where it's, I'm full. Ashir means you're full, you're happy. So the only way to do that is if you make the bar sameach b'chelko. Since it continuously goes and goes and goes, you'll never feel rich. You want to feel rich? Make a bar for yourself, you hear? And that becomes—there's a cap. Okay, I have enough money. Oh, now you'll feel very good about yourself. Gevaldig, I am an ashir. Otherwise, you never feel you're an ashir. Says the Medrash Shmuel. Beautiful pshat, you hear? Rav Ruven Gozovsky says, sheltazu, the inyan of the zer, the crown on the shulchan. Shulchan, we all know, is parnassah; it's ashirus. Where was the zer, the crown? Was it on the shulchan or was it on the misgeres? It was on the misgeres. Why? The boundary. You know where the zer, the keser of ashirus, it's on the boundary that you put. It's not on the shulchan itself. Rav Ruven Gozovsky is meiredik. Va'geisa lamdana shishim. So maybe the drusha, veisak. You see? It's not on the shulchan. All other things, the zer was on the mizbeach itself. Here the zer is where? On the misgeres of the shulchan. Because the misgeres, the misgeres that you put—misgeres is that you have to have a, you know, today mesilah teaches you misgeres. That's the whole thing of mesilah. They teach you budget. Misgeres is budget, rabosai. When you make a budget, you don't need too much. You need this, you need that. Then it becomes what? The zer, the sheinkeit, the crown. Okay. There's an interesting Reb Chaim Volozhin. Reb Chaim Volozhin says, what's the word hasameach? You're happy. Now you see, if a person's not content, he walks around fighting with people. And most of not content today, rabosai, is in parnassah. That's really where it is. People, because they're not content—if they had money, they'd be happier. That's usually what it is. Then there's another—okay, you're right. Then there's the COVID problem. Gemara says, Rebbe mechabed ashirim. Why was Rebbe mechabed ashirim? Because Rebbe was a nosi, says the Zohar, and he knew their nisyonos. Rebbe knew what the poor ashir, what he has to go through when he comes to shul.

Look at me. Give me the right. It's not easy to be an ashir. The ani thinks, I wish I was the ashir. The ashir thinks, so you know what? It's a big headache, the whole thing. But what's the pshat? Rebbi, who was an ashir, mechabed ashirim because he knew their weak points, and therefore he said they go through a lot of nisyonos we have to respect. Okay. So what becomes most of the bickering and the dissatisfaction? A person doesn't have the right amount of money. That's really where. You notice that people who are unfortunately difficult during the parnassah of the week, they come to the shul and they let it all out in shul, fighting with everybody and everything they see. Okay. So there's a vort from Reb Chaim Volozhin which is relevant to us, and that is, Hasameach b'chelko. First of all, why does it say chelko? It should say, Hasameach b'mah sheyesh lo. So the Chofetz Chaim says pshat: you should be happy because this is your chelek in life. Everybody has his lot. This is your lot in life. You know, this is what the Eibishter gave you. Be happy with it. You can't want what the other guy wants because it's not for you. Like the Even Ezra, you're not going to be mekaneh what's not meant for you, right? So too here, it's chelkecha. Reb Chaim Volozhin says, you know why it's called chelek and not b'mah sheyesh lo? Because no one ever gets the full. You only get chelek anyway. In your mind, by the way, it's always only a chelek anyway. It's just somewhat of and a portion of. So sameach, you're happy that it's that. Okay, good enough. Hasameach doesn't say b'mah sheyesh lo; b'chelko, because no one ever gets more. You don't get the full gamut of it. Okay. So what's that sameach? You know what the problem is? That we look every day that it's kumtuns. Mameila, we get tired of it. You know, I gave always the same example: kids with toys. I don't know if you know, they can look for it for a toy. You give it to them, three, four hours later they're bored, and they're looking on to something else already. But if they feel every time that it's a matanah, at that moment they feel good. If you look at parnassah the same way, that every moment and every dollar that comes in is a matanah from the Eibishter, you'll be sameach b'chelko. You'll be very happy with it. The problem is, yeah, okay, parnassah. Yeah, yeah, but it's a matanah. What do you mean, yeah, parnassah? It's no different than the child, and it's a good lesson for children, by the way. If I, chas v'shalom, I may tell you an incident I have in my own home. I have my little daughter, she wanted a certain doll. I had no idea what she wanted, nor was I going to get it for her, but she went to my mother. She knew the right route, so she went to my mother, and my mother, yeah, of course, bought her this doll. I'm a shigas, hundred-dollar doll, a doll, meshugeneh cup, okay? Needless to say, it was in the cup. For weeks, the doll, the doll, until it came, it came in the mail. Okay, the first two, three hours, unbelievable. She got it on Erev Shabbos. Friday night, it had to sit next to us on the table. There was a chair for the doll. She sat there, the doll, okay. After the meal, I saw already she stopped paying attention to the doll, but she went on to the next thing. By the next morning, I found the doll on the floor. So I walked over to her, because it bothered me, mussar. Mussar bothered me very much. So I walked over to her, I said to her, Excuse me, this doll over here, why is it on the floor over there in the corner? A pluga meidale. I put her to sleep. I put her to sleep. But it's funny, she slept already for three weeks. I hadn't seen that. ... she's hibernating there for three weeks already. So I say, ... I know what happened to it. ... We look at it the same way. We want and we beg the Eibishter, we say, ... Eibishter give it to us. The minute later, we're next to the next thing. This is hasameach b'chelko. The lesson is pashut, yeah, that a person has to be content. Otherwise, he starts einai tasa, his eyes direct the cup, that he needs more and better and bigger. So what's the solution? What's the answer? How does one make himself content? And the answer is, I think the actual Mishnah teaches us this yesod. First of all, to be sameach b'chelko, to learn to be happy. But how does one learn to be happy? Let's take the pasuk that the Mishnah brings: Yegia kapecha ki sochal. What's yegia kapecha? You know what the word yegia kapecha means? Hard work. You know when people don't work hard for what they have, they don't appreciate it.

What they have. And easy come, easy go, they'll dispense it. Yegia kapecha. The first thing is, it's got to come from yegia. You know, madua tisnasa al kal Hashem? Koirach, it was given to him. When something is given, then automatically, what do you want? You want more, you want more and more and more. Yegia kapecha. Why does it say kapecha? So there's a vort from the Sfas Emes b'shem the Kotzker, moiradik, moiradik, moiradik, moiradik. Kapecha. When you go to work, rabosai, only the hands should be involved in the work. The cup, zol zayn nisht oibers, zol zayn bismeirish. How many people go to work and they put their whole self and their whole mind, everything into the work? You'll never be happy. You know when the right way, the right healthy attitude to everything is? Yegia kapecha. Your hands work hard. The way is with the cup is, the cup zol zayn nisht oiber. Your head should be in the beis medrash. You should be an anderer zachen. You got to work, so you work. So you got to work hard, and you also have to know there's work and there's life. If work becomes life, rabosai, you're lost. So yegia kapecha. Ki soichal, the third lesson, and that is, that's all you need. It's all about working to make eating. Doesn't say more than that. Then you'll be an oisher sameach b'chelko. If working is to make olam hazeh and fun, and you're right, you'll never be happy. But if it's about ki soichal, lo yir'ehi tzaddik nezev, vezarm vakash lachem, d'eibishter shik parnassah. Sotigia, A. Lesson two, kapecha. Lesson three, kisaycha. Ashrecha b'toilah ba'olam hazeh. And I'd like to end with the final vort from the Gerer Tehil, which is the brother of the Maharal. The brother of the Maharal says, Moiredik, a nitrikah, oisher. What is ashirus? Ashirus, eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko. Which chelek are we talking about? So he said either gashmi or ruchni, or maybe chelko, that he has all his extremities. What is ashirus? It's einayim, ayin, shinayim, yadayim, and raglayim. Eizehu ashir? He's sameach b'chelko, that you have health and you have... A tzadas a man shouldn't think, Oh, I have money in the bank, so what? Many sick people in the hospitals have much money in the bank. Must hospital them. Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko, him, that he is content. This is the lesson, my baisai. The lesson is, on Shabbos a person should go and thank the Ribono Shel Olam that he has health. He should thank the Ribono Shel Olam that he's able to learn and daven. He should thank the Eibishter that he has food on the table. If you start thinking that you're chaser, sholom, the opposite of sholom, that you're chaser, you'll be unhappy, and you'll come to the shul and you'll fight with everybody, and you'll fight with your wife, and you'll let it out on everybody that moves. He is your target. Because you're not happy. These are the lessons that should be taken in order not to fall into the trap of lesia kikoirach ukadasa. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.