Naso: Every Yid’s Unique Worth—Merari’s Personal Mission and Birchas Kohanim

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. I'd like to cover a few topics. I'd like to cover the parshiyos within the parsha, not just one topic like we usually give shiur on one inyan. I'd like to try to touch on all the inyanim in the parsha, take out a few lessons, divrei mussar. In the beginning, we have the count of Nosei es rosh bnei Gershon, the count, the mishpachah of Gershon. Now, it's interesting, in last week's parsha, it ended off with Kohas, on the count of Kohas. Now, why does it separate Kohas from Gershon? I'm not sure. I mean, it should could have all been in the same parsha: count Kohas, count Gershon, count Merari. But there's something interesting that we find by Merari which we don't find by the other counts of Gershon and Kohas. Instructions to count them somewhat different. There's a pasuk to count them a little differently than Kohas and Gershon, and that is, Uv'shemos tifkedu es klei mishmeres masam, pasuk lamed beis. Uv'shemos tifkedu. With their names you should appoint and count them, the klei mishmeres masam, the keilim that they had to, the utensils that they had to carry. It's not written by Gershon, it's not written by Kohas. So first, what is it? What does it mean? What is the b'sheimos tifkidu? And then maybe we can understand why it's only by Merari, it's only written by Merari. So the Ramban is me'orer this she'eilah: what does it mean, b'sheimos tifkidu, and why is it only by Merari? Reads the Ramban as follows: Sheyafkid b'yad kol ish b'mispar shemos l'gilgulosam, klei masaam, which means instruct them, each one, the keli that he has to do by name of the person. Which means, the Ramban clearly explains what it means: Yomer ish ploni, yisamen hakroshim kach b'mispar. Chayim David, you, this is your name. Your job is exactly this amount of kroshim. That's your job. Ploni, so-and-so, the barrel, your job is min habrichim. Oi haamudim, which means they had specific, detailed name and job. It doesn't say it anywhere else. Everywhere it just says, give them the job that they have to do. Kohas had to carry the aron and the badim and whatnot, Gershon the keilim. Here they needed specific instructions: the name and exactly what he had to carry by Merari. Says the Ramban, why is it different than before? Lo sheyitzaveh b'nei Merari bichlalam. You can't just make a general rule. Yisu kol hakroshim, haadanim, v'amudim. Carry the pillars, the kroshim, the adanim. Just say, you know what, carry the whole structure. Merari, and then between yourselves, you'll make up what each guy will carry. Says the Ramban, V'hizkir zeh techilah bifnei Merari. Why is this mentioned only by Merari? Says the Ramban, ba'avur koved masaam, because we're afraid, since it's a heavy duty, it's heavy work, to carry the kroshim, it's very difficult. Yaka kol echad mimasao v'yatol al chaveiro. I like to give a mashal of this Ramban in the shul. If you don't give specific instructions what each person has to do, then everybody says, We're all going to do it, nobody does it, because every guy throws it on the other guy. So if you tell them, listen, you take care of arranging the chairs, you take care of cleaning the tables, you take care of taking out the garbage. Otherwise, the rav ends up doing it, okay? The point is, each one needs it, otherwise they'll dump it on the other guy. Yakel. V'hu hadin gam...

And they kas for Gershon, but the truth is they did it also by Gershon and by Kehos. Many learn in the Ramban that this is just managerial skills, that the Torah is giving good advice to get the job done, and this is a lesson to be taken if any guy wants to open up a business, he wants to open a company. That's how many learn the Ramban. Baalei Mussar see in this Ramban actually deeper than just good advice, but they see in here a lesson in bein adam l'chaveiro. Baalei Mussar learn that what is the reason for this commandment to give them each one according to his name, his job? It's to give chashivus. It's to give the person identity. Your job is this. If you bunch everybody together, everybody's just a number. Everybody's part of the bigger. But if you machshiv each one, let him know that his job is this beriach. Let him know his job, this keresh. Give him a memeila. He won't throw it on the other person. He'll feel good about what he does for himself. I want to bring this out to show you how in our daily lives this is a yesod in hashkafah and mussar in bein adam l'chaveiro. Famous book, HaTzadik in Our Time. People have read it. It's written by Reb Simcha Raz, a book about the tzaddik, Reb Aryeh Levine. Not many know that actually that's written only based on volume one, Reb Aryeh Levine, HaTzadik in Our Time. There's actually a volume two. Well, if you never read it, it's a good idea to read it. You'll be a different person. I've always told my talmidim in the past that the few sefarim I want you to learn, one of them is Mesilas Yesharim, Chovos HaLevavos, and Kol HaTorah Kulah. And also, I want you to look at Reb Simcha Raz's book on Reb Aryeh Levine. It'll change your life, what it means to be a Yid, a Jew, to love Yidden, to care about Yidden. Reb Aryeh Levine, he's the father-in-law of Reb Elyashiv. He's a tzaddik of Rome. There's a volume two in Hebrew that was never translated into English because it came out after the English translation. The first story, I think it's the first or the second, I think it's mamash the first if I'm not mistaken. It's a beautiful story. It's a story about, today we don't see it so much yet. You know, my wife's family comes from France. I've seen it. Every morning, they wash the floors. Somebody comes with a broom and a mop, the floors of the streets. They put chemicals and perfume and a good scent. You walk out in France, even though it's the most shmutzike country and the most shmutzike people, it's the most schmeckendik also. It's all klapi chutz. It has to look good, even though, trust me, past the surface, it's all blatt. It's all dirt. Al kol panim, in Israel, in many places where these, you know, they had the cobbled streets, they would come in the morning, and this was a government, like a garbage cleaner. Reb Aryeh Levine woke up early in the morning with Bran Teshul, and he would meet every morning this sweeper, this cleaner from the streets. And Reb Aryeh Levine once saw him down, looked like he was in a very bad mood. So Reb Aryeh asks him, What's? He says, You know, I'll tell you the truth. I do this job every day. At the end of the day, I'm a garbage man. That's what he had. At the end of the day, I sweep dirt from floors. My family looks at me. They laugh at me, the few pennies I make. It's such a low job. Reb Aryeh Levine said to him, What? That? Do you know that every morning I come out and I wonder, what a wonderful job you do. I come out, it's so clean, and I think to myself, Wow, that's great. And every time you notice I say good morning to you with such a... what I'm thinking is thank you. Beautiful. And...

Why do you have to think that you're cleaning the floor? You're cleaning the Ribono Shel Olam's beautiful world. It's the Ribono Shel Olam's world. The person told Rabbi Raz, who interviewed him, he was never ever depressed ever again. He looked in the mirror, and every morning, you know what he saw? Wow, I clean the Ribono Shel Olam's beautiful world. Charam der Ribono Shel Olam shein a velt. You see? He gave him importance, chashivus. This is you. This is your job. And every job that a person has, as menial as it might be, it's your job. It's your chelek. It's what the Ribono Shel Olam asks you to do. My zeide used to tell me over a story from the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, zicher tzaddik livracha, in Vienna. The Rishoyim arurim, the Germans, when he came to Vienna, they took the Rav, the Kapishnitzer Rebbe, and he made him mop the floors, like this guy. You see, it was a thing to mop the floor, and it was a bizayondike thing. You see, it was a way of... So the Rebbe's mopping the floor, and he's singing niggunim, happy. So the chassidim who are standing there also mopping with the Rebbe, what are you so... He says, I'm in a very good mood. I'm extremely ecstatic. I'm laughing at them. They're sitting and laughing at me, thinking that I'm mopping Vienna's patloges. Patloges means floors. They don't realize, ich putz the Ribono Shel Olam's sheine velt, making beautiful the Ribono Shel Olam's world. A person with the focus, with the right focus, is able to see in the actions of what he does that there's nothing menial in this world. It's all about the Ribono Shel Olam's velt. How many people feel low by themselves? And you know where it comes from? Because people make them feel that they're not important. Ah, he's only—ah, if he was a doctor, if he was a lawyer. But what is he already? It's the attitude of the people around that caused this. And I want to tell you another maiseh for a baron. They say over that Rabbarin—it's Rabbi Tzvi Yak, the gabai, the money collector for the Lakewood yeshiva—he went with Rabbi Barin, and now it's easy peshat, there's nothing what to talk about. But then there was two tolls. There was a person and a toll booth. So Tzvi Yak was going, he was driving Rabbi Barin, and he wanted to go to the toll booth. Rabbi Barin said, No, I want you to go to the person. Why? You know what this person feels like when you take the toll booth over him? You know what you're saying? That the toll booth could do the same job as you. You're a worthless person. Now, I come and I get a chance to say thank you to the person. I give him a chance to show him, You're somebody. You're somebody. It's a very deep maiseh. Yeshivas Atzal, you know, he was a gaon in learning, but the sensitivity, the understanding. Now, who already gets these jobs to be at the Tolbooth? Well, today you could become a president afterwards. Today you could jump from anything to become the president of the United States. But at that time, it was nobodies, right? Only nobodies. And yet Rabbeinu understood that it's important to be machshiv the tzelem Elokim, to the point that if you take a Tolbooth over a person, you're telling him you're not as worth the Tolbooth. The Tolbooth is just as good as you, just as good to do the same thing you could do. I think this is a very big lesson here to be taken. Nosei means to uplift. You know the word nosei? It's to uplift. It also means to count. Why is nosei uplifting and counting the same? Count means to give chashivus a number. You are this. You are. If I come and I say, Be'erich, you're fifty people, nobody realizes that each one individually is worth something. Counting is about nosei. It's about uplifting. Uplifting. How do you uplift the individual? You know what you tell him? That each person has his tafkid.

And each person, it's yours and not the other person. You're in charge of a briah, and you're in charge of an amud. If you give it as a group task, Klal Yisrael is not a group. Klal Yisrael are individuals. And now I'm going to tell you a vort from the Ksav Sofer. You know, in the previous parsha, we talked about counting Bnei Yisrael, in parshas Bamidbar. What is the count? Kol yotzei tzava b'Yisrael. How many times does the Torah have to repeat kol yotzei tzava b'Yisrael? We got it. Twenty years old, you went to the army. Again, again, kol yotzei tzava, kol yotzei tzava, kol yotzei tzava, says the Ksav Sofer, because we're putting out a disclaimer. You know what a disclaimer is? Here we're counting Yidden. Is it true that a Yid is worth one? It's not true. A Yid is worth a lot more than one. There's no way to put a number on a Yid. Even one is much more than one. Every person's an olam malei. Yeah? So what are we saying? Every time we count, it's kol yotzei tzava. That's only what's to get to the army. In the army, we have to count one, two, three. But klapi Shamayah, what's really true, says Ksav Sofer, there's no such a thing as one, two, three. My little son, Yisroel Meir, when I told this pshat over to him, he said, A meirdige vort. For a little boy, a second grader, that's good. He said, if you notice, there's a custom that when we count Jews for a minyan, we say not one, not two. And the answer is, you know why? Because they're not one, they're much more than one, like the Ksav Sofer. Not one, but actually much more than one. What do we learn from over here? That there's an important lesson in individuality. There's an important lesson to give each person that he's olam malei. The Ribono Shel Olam wants that a Yid should understand his importance, his chashivus, and then, and then, we can talk about avodas Beis Hamikdash. You know, bamidbar is Midbar Sinai, then we can talk about Torah. When a person understands bamidbar, he understands, tafkid, individual, the koiches, the importance, the yachid. Avodas Beis Hamikdash, each kohen, each Levi, had to understand importance, chashivus. One of the greatest mistakes we could make is when we treat others and we undermine their importance, their chashivus. Now I want to show you something interesting, and throughout the parasha we're going to learn this lesson. You know, at the end of the parasha, like I said, we'll touch on all different parts of the parasha, we have the Nesiim. Do you realize how much extra literature is in the parasha of the Nesiim? It's irrelevant. Again and again and again, the same thing over again and over again and over again. We all know the rule that the Torah is makpid on a kutz shel yud. There's not an extra tag, crown in the Torah, an extra point. And here it's over again and over again, the same thing. Many learn that the pshat is, you think externally they all look the same, but internally, each one's karbon was different than the other one. Two people on the outside could be bringing the same karbon, but because of the inside, of the feelings, the emotions, and the hargashah, it's a whole different thing. I told you over from the Chasam Sofer that karbon was always tzefunah, especially the chatas. Tzefunah lifnei Hashem. Says the Chasam Sofer, what's tzefunah lifnei Hashem? What's tzafun? What's deep inside the heart, lifnei Hashem, what's before Hashem, that's the karbon. Externally, the karbon is the chatas, but you want to know what the real karbon is? The tzefunah, what's deep inside the heart of the person. So the Torah repeats to show me that don't think they're all the same. The Ramban says a different pshat. I want to read you the Ramban. Says the heilige Ramban, why did it repeat itself over again and over again and over again?

Zogt der Ramban. Ah. Oy yoy. Zogt der Ramban. Nu. Ah. Ah. Vanochi, says the Ramban, ki HaKadosh Baruch Hu chelek kavod lire'av. The Ribono Shel Olam wanted to show respect, kavod. U'kemo she'amar, ki mechabday achabed. I show you respect. You need—the Ribono Shel Olam says, I want you to be respected. I give you kavod, you hear? Hanesi'im kulam, b'yom echad heviu hakorban hazeh, sheshkulam olu yachad, v'i efshar shelo ye'echad kodem l'chaveiro. B'maaseh, it has to be one has to come day one, and then the next guy is day two. Does that mean day one is—the person who brought day one is better than the person who brought day two? No. Yeah? So he says that's the pshat. It couldn't have said, Zeh korban Nachshon ben Aminadav, and then say, and all they did the same, because then what you're doing is you're undermining. Ki yesh kitzur b'kavod haacheirim, says the Ramban. You know, I always think to myself, you get an aliyah. It bothers me very much. People get an aliyah and they make a mishaberach. So they point out three, four of their close friends, and then they say, It's kol hakol hakadosh hazeh. You're not allowed to do that, yeshiva rabosai. I feel very—either you get everybody, or just say kol hakol hakadosh hazeh. You see, this is what the Ramban is saying the Eibishter is saying you shouldn't do. You shouldn't do it. I saw my zeide, zichrono livracha, far. Whenever he had an aliyah, either it was kol hakol hakadosh, or if it was time, everybody, till the last kid in the shul, everybody got it. The Ramban is saying this: V'im chazar l'hagid shehaYiskulum lefanav yisbarach. This, rabosai, is kavod, kavod of Klal Yisrael. Now I want to show you how it's in the middle of the parsha as well. If you take a look at the birchas Kohanim, Ko sevarechu bnei Yisrael, we have over here, right? Amar lahem. Right, we have over here birchas Kohanim. What does the word amar lahem mean? It's redundant. It's extra. It says, Ko sevarechu bnei Yisrael. Amar—yeah, that's what you're supposed to say. So if you look at Rashi, Rashi says amar like zachar, like shamar. Says the Chumash says dikduk, lashon hoveh. It's all dikduk, Rashi. Zachar, shamar. Notice that Rashi only picked the two cases of Shabbos. Interesting, no? He couldn't find any other hoveh except for Shabbos? Zachar, shamar. This is all Shabbos. So Rashi, the Chacham explains, hoiv it's nigleh that it's amoir present. Not amoir in the future, but amoir in the present. Okay, so what, only Zachar v'Shamor is the only two examples of that? I saw for the Kedushas Siyan, I meant to bring this Kedushas Siyan. He knew already what I would like. I said it over Shabbos, beautiful Kedushas Siyan. Klal Yisrael is kadosh. You think the Ribono Shel Olam is going to rely only on the kohen? What happens if the kohen doesn't want? The kohen's tired, he doesn't go up to duchan. So the Ribono Shel Olam, don't worry about it. You're anyway benched. So you know what amoir means? Like Zachar v'Shamor. Shabbos, we make the whole thing, Mekadesh haShabbos. Big deal, Shabbos is kadosh anyway. We don't make the Shabbos kadosh; it's anyway kadosh. But the Ribono Shel Olam wants us to say it anyway. Say it, announce it, proclaim it. Same thing here to amoir. You just tell them, it's anyway that way. It's anyway that every Yid is gebentsht from Ribono Shel Olam, from beautiful bracha, beautiful, beautiful bracha. Tzitz mir, you hear? Amoir just means say it even though the truth is it's anyway that way. Just like Zachar v'Shamor, it's anyway Shabbos. Yontif we make. Yontif is Klal Yisrael.

This is miShamayim, from heaven it's already kadosh. Same thing, zachar, same thing, amar lahem. In Maariv Shemesh, there's a different pshat. What's amar lahem? Unbelievable pshat, unbelievable. He says the word amar is not about speaking. You know, we have a pasuk in the Torah, V'es Hashem he'emarta hayom, v'Hashem he'emircha hayom lihyos lo l'am. The word he'emira, what is that? Uplift. The Eibishter he'emarta you, uplifted him through words. But the root of it is not to speak; it's about elevating, elevation. That's the root word. Es Hashem he'emarta hayom — you spoke highly today. That's the words, that's the translation. So he says, the Maariv Shemesh, that the main job of the kohen is to bring up Klal Yisroel, the honor, to speak that Klal Yisroel is — to bring up the kavod. Amar, tell them, Yevarechecha Hashem, it's the Ribono Shel Olam loves you, He benches you. The job of the kohen is to bring out, look at Klal Yisroel. Koh sevorchu, you want to know how to do it? Amar lahem. And he says any Yid that elevates, that elevates another Yid, he's roy to give him bracha. Tzadikim, if they want their bracha to be miskayem. To walk around saying good things about Klal Yisroel, you have to dahoy ben Yid, and you have to give them aliyah, and then you're able to give bracha. I think with this we can understand another part of Birchas Kohanim. You know, it says, Yevarechecha Hashem. Rashi says it's going on mamon, shebenchu with mamon. Yishmerecha, that the shodedim, that the robbers shouldn't steal your money. And then it says, Ya'er Hashem. What is Ya'er Hashem? Torah. That's what the Medrash says. Ah, that's the Maharsha's kashya. Fragt the Maharsha, why does he start with mamon, and then he goes to what? To Torah. It should be the other way. Torah is more important. So he says an unbelievable pshat. The Maharsha is beautiful. He says, Avada Torah is gevaldik, but you know when you need a bracha, Ya'er Hashem, that Hashem should enlighten you? Once you make the money, you know what's going to happen? That's when the nisayon of not appreciating Torah begins. The bracha is not Torah. The bracha is the Torah after Yevarechecha Hashem b'mamon. When you get rich, you need a special bracha that Hashem should enlighten you what's real and what's not real, what's good and what's not good. Otherwise, you become lost in your money. So the bracha is Yevarechecha Hashem b'mamon. Now I have to give you a bracha, Ya'er Hashem, that the Ribbono Shel Olam should light. That's why it's light. He should light you that you should see the truth. What the ikker and what the tafel is. Moiridike vort. This Chassidishe maamar, shamash, gerad is a litvishe vort from the Chovos HaLevavos. My zeide used to say over, if you look in Birchas HaChodesh, how many times do we ask for yiras Shamayim? Twice. Chaim shetehei banu ahavas Torah v’yiras Shamayim. Chaim... sholosh... Chaim starts off, Chaim sheyehei bohem yiras Shamayim, yiras chet. Chaim sheyehei bohem ahavas Torah v’yiras Shamayim. So we ask, how many times do you have to ask for yiras Shamayim? So I always say it’s two different types of yiras Shamayim. There’s yiras Shamayim, yiras chet, and then there’s a yiras Shamayim which is ahavas Torah. We’re talking about two different types of yiras Shamayim, okay? One is a yiras Shamayim in life, and one is a yiras Shamayim of chet, not to sin. It’s two different types of yiras Shamayim. Okay, we’ve spoken about this in the past. The Chovos HaLevavos used to say over, my zeide used to tell me from the Chovos HaLevavos, don’t forget, you ask for oisher v’chavod in the middle. We ask Chaim shetehei banu osher v’chavod. Okay, now we have to ask again for yiras Shamayim. After the money, there’s a yiras Shamayim that we...

We need a special bracha. Once you make the money, that we should have yiras Shamayim, regardless that we made the money. Oishev v'chaver. Oishev v'chaver, rabosai, is dangerous, because what happens is that a person is boged. You know, it could lead a person completely off the derech. Zei deflikt iber zogin, why do we make a l'chaim? You never know, you pick up a cup, but why do we say l'chaim? So, straight in sefarim, because wine, if it's not used properly, it could cause the most terrible tragedies. Death came from wine, Adam. Why do we have death in this world? Eitz hadaas, grape, according to one man d'amar, was grape. Look at the lot, ilala. It brings death to the world, right? So when we drink, we say l'chaim. L'chaim tzu gezunt. What we do with... What we do is we say l'chaim, that this, when we drink it, it should be for life. So the Zohar said he believes when you give somebody kavod, you should also say l'chaim, because kavod, kavod can be a very, very dangerous thing. With kavod, you could do the worst things if it gets to your head. So we should give you a bracha, l'chaim. The point is, once you have oisher, and once you have kavod, we need a special bracha for this. So I want to tell you, rabosai, I would answer the kasha a little differently. You think it's a big thing to give a bracha, yevarechecha Hashem, to a talmud chacham, to a tzaddik. The kohen doesn't need to do that. You know why? The talmud chacham, of course, is gebentsht. Why did we need a kohen to give a bracha? Why was it given to the kohen? So we always spoke in the past, b'ahavah. That was our old yesod. But the kohen, ahavah. This week it dawned on me a new pshat, rabosai. You ready? Once read an article in one of these magazines that come out that a kohen who davened in the beis medrash of Reb Elyashiv, and he writes over there the way he's a regular person and he's sitting there giving the gadol hador a bracha. And the way he couldn't understand, you know, could you imagine? Normally it's the tzaddik giving the person, and here this guy, the regular balabos, the regular guy, he's giving the gadol hador a bracha. Okay, good. You know what I think the pshat is? It's not a big deal for the simple kohen to give the gadol hador a bracha. Then we wouldn't need a kohen for that. You know what you need the kohen? To give the poshei Yisrael. It's to give the people that know nothing and understand nothing. Only our kohen can find the love and the kaf zechus. In order to give a bracha to the most simple Yid, and really, Mar Shemesh talks about this nekudah, to be able to pick up the most simple, the most far, the most rachokdike Yid. You know, there's a Gemara. The Gemara says that what's the ענין of pichas kohanim? לעם שבשדה. That's the lashon of the Gemara. It's for the people in the... What does that mean? He means the people that are in the field. The people in the beis medrash don't need the kohanim. It's the people, the... they're not even here. The עם שבשדה, as if the am haaretz, as if the Gemara would say the am haaretz. Mimeila, watch the bracha. The first bracha is... because that's how you got to talk to them. Huh? For these people. Yeah, you got to talk. And then at the end, you give them a bracha, Yeir Hashem, that they should be zocheh to see that Torah is Torah. You see, who's the kohen? The kohen understands the עם שבשדה. The kohen is able to appreciate the עם שבשדה. He loves the עם שבשדה. So he gives them a bracha in their work. You know, I always think to myself, I try to read...

In Chassidus literature, what's the yesod of a Rebbe and the bracha? Because it's the world that I grew up with. I grew up in the Litvish world. I try to understand the yesodos, what it comes from. And I saw a peledike vort. I'm trying to remember if it's from Belz, from one of the groise, from the groise rebbes. What's the reason that we give a pitka? You know, when you give a Rebbe, you give him a pitka, you give him a kvitel. And what's most of the discussion in those kvitlach? Parnassah. That's usually what it is. It's about parnassah. So he writes a mevadike zach, unbelievable thing. When you give it to— you know what you're telling the Rebbe? Rebbe, we had a deal. What's the deal? You're going to sit and learn and do avodas hakodesh, and I'm going to support you, right? That was the— So I keep on reminding him, you know, my parnassah isn't working out. You better start praying more and learning more. So from Belz, it's a mevadike vort. What's the point? The point that I'm trying to bring out is the amsha b'sadeh, the inyan of parnassah, is really what the kohen is meant to take care of. Avodah, the kohen, he does avodah in the Beis Hamikdash. His service, like a Rebbe's service to the people, is their parnassah. It's exactly what I try to bring out. It's exactly where I'm going with this. Could you imagine Yom Kippur? What is the Kohen's tefillah? And the answer is parnassah for Klal Yisrael. He does something special for just for that. Just for that. That's what he does. The Kohen goes in, and it hit me. The tzaddik, the Kohen, his mind has to be preoccupied to love the am sheb'sadeh and their concerns and needs. Parnassah. The communication and the meileh of the bracha is Yevarechecha Hashem, taka with mammon. Now, I also wish you'd learn Torah. You know, there's a vort from the Litvisher. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter would say, Yenem's gashmiyus is my ruchniyus. What does that mean? For me, I have to worry about my ruchniyus. That's my department. My concern for him has to be his gashmiyus, his needs. Caring for his gashmiyus is my ruchniyus. That's my... You see? To get up and say, I wish you Torah. It's good. I'm telling you it's good. But you know what I really wish you? That every Yid should have parnassah. I also wish, Yorei Hashem, that you should come to understand the importance of Torah. But the relationship between the Kohen, like a father, has to be concerned for the needs of the Yid first, and then for the ruchniyus of the Yid. And that's the pshat in the birchas Kohanim. Yevarecha Hashem v'yishmerecha. They shouldn't take your money. And then, Ya'er Hashem panav eilecha vichuneka. Now I'm going to say another. Another part of the achrayus responsibility of the Kohen. One is the gashmiyus, like I said, Yadim's gashmiyus is my ruchniyus. The Kohen also is in charge of making sure that there's an achdus in Klal Yisrael. The reason why we give it to the Kohen, because notice what was one of the koiches of Aharon HaKohen. He was ohev shalom. The achdus, that's another part of it. You see, in the past I've spoken to you about Kohen ahavah. Now I'm going to speak to you, Kohen, his care for the am sheb'sadeh parnassah, and another nekudah, and that is his ability to create an atmosphere of shalom and achdus in Klal Yisrael. Shalom and achdus in Klal Yisrael. Aharon HaKohen, right? He was ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. He made achdus. So there's a gevaldige vort from the Noam Elimelech.

If you notice, he begins actually with a plural: Daber el Aharon v'el banav leimor, koh sevarchu es Bnei Yisrael. Amoir lahem. That's a lashon rabim. Yevarechecha Hashem v'yishmerecha is lashon yachid. Ya'er Hashem panav eilecha is lashon yachid. So I always would say, pashut, understand that you're giving each one individually a bracha. You know, you go to a Rebbe's tish. There's some Rebbes that give you like this; it's the whole crowd. And then there's some Rebbes that give each guy individually, you see. The kohen is giving—he goes like this with his hand—Yevarechecha Hashem, each guy individually, and that's why it's a lashon yachid. No, miGadim says, you know what, amor lahem, tell them the plural. You have to connect together to get the bracha, Yevarechecha Hashem, when there's achdus in Klal Yisrael. That's when—connect first and second. Amoir lahem, plural. Tell them, the rabim, that in order to get the bracha, it has to be yevarechecha, if you join together as one. No, miGadim. Beautiful, beautiful pshat. Zis v'tzuker. What am I trying to bring out? That there's a klal and a prat. In Klal Yisroel, Bnei Yisroel, klal. How do you have the klal? It's made up with each prat. And when the prats come together, you have a klal. But klal does not mean just numbers, nobodies. Here, a thousand people, it's nothing. That's not called a klal. A klal means each number, when it comes together, then it becomes a rabim, nosoi, the counting. This is what this parsha, this parsha is trying to show: individual, klal. And if you notice, there's something very interesting. The Rishonim ask a kasha. We also have the parsha of Metzora here. People don't realize that. Very interesting. Here. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, Tzav es Bnei Yisrael, veyishalchu min hamachaneh kol tzarua v'chol zav. Very interesting. Here. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe leimor, tzav es Bnei Yisrael, veyishalchu min hamachaneh. How did this come in? The Rishonim ask this for a kasha. In Parshas Metzora it should have been. Well, why is this here? I want to tell you over a me'oir dike yesod. I want to tell you a me'oir dike yesod. If you notice, the pasuk says, Vaya'asu kein Bnei Yisrael, vayeshalchu osam, ka'asher diber Hashem el Moshe, kein asu Bnei Yisrael. How many times does it have to say it? It says, Vaya'asu kein Bnei Yisrael. Okay, we got it. No. Ka'asher diber Hashem el Moshe, kein asu Bnei Yisrael. You're repeating the same thing over and over again. What is the Torah emphasizing, that they did it, they did it the way Moshe told them? So actually, there's a Chizkuni that says that the pasuk is teaching us they did ka'asher diber Hashem el Moshe right away. They took care of it right away. Kein asu Bnei Yisrael, even the Mitzrayim let them do it. Sometimes the Mitzrayim say, Ah, you put up a fight. They didn't put up a fight. They let them take them out. So says the Chizkuni, that the pasuk is saying they did it, and kein asu Bnei Yisrael, that the Mitzrayim agreed. They didn't put up a fight. They said, Okay, you were sending us out, we'll go. Baal HaImusar say, a meyridike, meyridike thing. Tell me, you know what it is to have a Mitzri within your midst? So first of all, if you're an ehrliche, fruma Yid, you say, I don't need this bal aveirah next to me. A Mitzri means he did tremendous aveiros, okay? If you're not such an ehrliche Yid, you don't want him next to you. You know why? He's contagious. According to many shitos, he's contagious. You know what it looks like, a Mitzri? In America, they quarantine. They lock up people who are Mitzri. I mean, that's what they do. As a matter of fact, Rav Aryeh Levine, in his book, they bring about how he used to go visit the Mitzrayim in the jails, in the hospitals, those that had leprosy, and he wasn't afraid that he would get sick from it. Most people stay away from a Mitzri. So why would a person send out a Mitzri? Because he wants to send...

Says the Torah, no. They didn't do it for that reason. You know, they only did it because, Kasher tzivah Hashem es Moshe, kein asu Bnei Yisroel. They did it only because Hashem said. There was no yid throughout the other yid, out of the machaneh, because He wanted. They had to do it because they were forced, because Hashem said to do it. It's trying to bring out the chashivus that the Jew had for the other yid. You hear? How many times do we throw, throw people physically and verbally away? Eh, he's a nothing. We write him off. Eh, get rid of him. The metzora, metzora is someone you should have to get rid of. You have to get him out of the vicinity. The yid only did it forcefully because Hashem said. That was the only reason they would do it. As far as they, they weren't ready, nobody would say, I want to get rid of him. They did it completely lishmah, l'shem mitzvah. Today, we write off people like nothing. Eh, who is he? What is he? Where... When it comes to schools, we throw kids out left and right. I'll tell you a beautiful story. The grandchild of Reb Chaim Stein. Reb Chaim Stein, as the Rosh Yeshiva tells, just passed away like two, three years, he was a hundred years old. So the grandchild was in my shul two, three weeks ago. I said to him, Tell me a story that nobody heard of, that nobody, only you. Give me something that it's not in the books, as they say, all right? Something that you know. He says, Yeah, I have a story, tells me. I was cleaning up my grandfather's office for Pesach. Little papers on the desk. One of the papers was a brochure for Lakewood Cheder. Lakewood Cheder. What's on Lakewood Cheder brochure? Pictures of kids running, coming, classes, class pictures, a brochure for the yeshiva. So I went, I took it, and I threw it in the garbage. Chaim Stein says, No, no, no. Called back his grandson. He says, Pictures of Yiddishe kinderlach, we don't throw in the garbage. It belongs in sheimos. It belongs in sheimos. But very quick, rabosai, to write off our children. Eh, he's nothing. He's a nobody. He's a this, he's a that. Told you many times a story that I was on a flight to Eretz Yisroel, and next to me was sitting a Gerer chassid. Now Gerer chassidim don't like to talk. They copy their Rebbe, and the Rebbes don't talk. They have a mahalach, kotzk: the less you talk, a few words. You see the Sfas Emes, his writings, it's short and to the point. So, as a good Gerer chassid, the guy didn't say one word to me the whole trip. Okay, fine, no problem. Middle of the trip, he turns around to me, You want to hear something, a good vort from the Gerer Rebbe? I go, Yeah. I didn't know you know how to talk. I thought you just—someone cut your tongue out. I didn't think you knew how to talk at all. Don't worry. After this vort, say one word to me the rest of the trip till you say goodbye to me, and that was it. I'll tell you the vort that he said. And years I was thinking, why did he tell me this? I got to know it. He says to me that in Ger yeshiva, there was a boy that had to be thrown out. He didn't behave. So they went to the Bais Yisroel, and they asked the Bais Yisroel, or maybe the Lev Simcha, one of the—I'm not sure which one of the Ger Rebbes—we have to throw this boy out because A, B, C, D, whatever he was doing. So like in Ger, like I told you in Kotzk, one word. The Rebbes usually didn't say more than two words. Avi. It's one word. Avi means where? I'm looking at the guy. What are you talking about? I had no idea what he was talking about. He says to me, you know what the Ger Rebbe meant? Where do you want to throw him out to? And I'm still not catching on what he's saying. He says to me, you don't get it. But it's your child. Wherever you throw him, he's still your child. You got to take care of him. Where do you want to throw—what, you can throw him, dispose him in the garbage? What do you want to do with him? Avi means the word throw, aroisvarfen, where? Oh, I got what he wanted. He was trying to say is he's one of us, and we got to take care of him.

And there's no throwing, because you gotta, wherever you send them, he's still your responsibility. The guy stopped talking. And that was it till the rest of the trip. He said goodbye, I said goodbye to him. And I thought, what an interesting conversation. And I realized that this was a message from the Rabbeinu Shleilam, heaven-sent. One day I was going to become a Rosh Yeshiva by the Bucharian community. And trust me, there were plenty of kids. And every day we had to throw out, and there was issues, should we throw them out? And the Rabbeim in the yeshiva were quick to get rid of them, quick to pull the trigger on them. Why? And I remembered the lesson of Avi. We didn't want to throw him too. You send out from the tzeruah, don't be quick to trigger, to shoot him in the head and get rid of him. Do it, maybe you have to. There are times when the Rabbeinu Shleilam says you got to do it. But it's got to be that I don't really want to do it, and that's a whole different sending out. It's a sending out which is, you know, when the tzeruah sees that you don't really want to send them out, he doesn't get angry. He doesn't become angry at Torah and mitz. But if he sees that you're personal, that you want to get rid of him, he's able to go off completely and curse. And you send out a metzora min hamachaneh, it has to be with chashivus of the Yid. You can't forget the chashivus of the Yid when you send them out of the machaneh. This is why this pasuk is here in this parsha. The nazir. Now let's get to the nazir, b'ezras Hashem. The nazir in this parsha, it's interesting. The nazir is called, Ki nezer Elokim al rosho. Nezer. We crown him. Tell me, what does the nazir do that's so unbelievable? What? He's peirish from yayin, and he doesn't take a haircut. Do you know that I know many people who don't drink wine and don't take haircuts. They could be bums. No, not even bums. I'm just saying, for 30 days. Most people don't take—I mean, unless you're Chassidish Yid, you don't take a haircut within 30 days. Wine, if it's not for Kiddush, I wouldn't drink wine. I know that with the years I didn't drink wine for Kiddush either. We drank grape juice in the house. The Rebbeim wanted the kids, and so we drank grape juice. It's not the issue now. The point is, the point is, what are we talking about? What are we saying? So the Chibalei Mussar ask this for a kasha: what's the big nazir, ki nezer Elokim al rosho? And the answer is, that guy who didn't drink wine and not take a haircut because he grod doesn't drink wine and he grod doesn't take a haircut, it's not a big deal what he did. But if you do it with the intentions and with the understanding, with the understanding, that what's this world of ikar? What's important in this world? Ki nezer Elokim al rosho. He's the crown, the crown of humanity. Ki nezer Elokim al rosho. What do we see from here? We see from here a tremendous zach. We see from here that a person could be considered exalted, a nazir, a crown. The lashon of Reb Leib Chasman is that everybody almost bows to this person. Nazir, he's the king. And whose crown is he wearing? He's wearing the Ribono Shel Olam's crown. Why? Because he's an ehrliche Yid, and he gets it. You know, rabosai, how many times do we see ehrliche Yidden who get it, and we don't respect them? The Torah wants that we should realize, Ki nezer Elokim al rosho. Otherwise, who is it negea to? Who does the Torah want? Either we could say that the person—now let's look at the lashon of the pasuk. The pasuk is here.

No, ... שיאזיר, ... כל ימי נזירו, עד אשר יזיר, קודש יהיה פרע. Oh. כי נזר אלקיו על ראשו, yeah? Oh. כל ימי נזרו. Where's the lashon of the pasuk? כי נזר אלקיו על ראשו, קודש הוא לה'. What's הכהן? How come I can't find the lashon? שער ראש נזרו. כי נזר אלקיו על ראשו. So what's the pshat, נזר אלקיו על ראשו? כי נזר אלקיו... Here it is. לאביו ולאמו לאחיו לאחותו לא יטמא להם במותם, כי נזר אלקיו על ראשו. So who's the point? The people. When they look at him, they have to see נזר אלקיו על ראשו. The kavod, the respect that we give a person who understands, that's called נזר אלקיו על ראשו. I would like to just end with an interesting insight, and that is, it's interesting that the nazir brings two korbanos. He brings a shelamim, and he brings a chatos. Why does he bring a shlamim? So the mefarshim say he has to thank Hashem for the experience that he had. Why does he bring a chatos? And the answer is two pshatim. One pshat is because he stopped. According to the Ramban, he should have continued. Other Rishonim say he brings a chatos because the experience he had was not right; it was an aveirah. So something is not matching here. He brings a shlamim to praise Hashem for the tremendous— and we tell him he's unbelievable, right? Meizel kim al rosho. And at the same time, he brings a chatos because he did something wrong. So which one is it? Which one is it? You know what the answer is, rabosai? I'll tell you the pshat, be'emes, the real pshat. Once he stopped, it's a siman that he didn't get what he was doing till now. Because had he understood what he was doing, he would have continued it. So on one hand— Yes. A nazir who doesn't understand and appreciate what he's doing is a chayte for doing it. At the same time, is there a ma'alah? Avad, he got an experience which leads him to maybe in the future one day. But you see one big yesod: a nazir, a nazir, in order to be a kadosh— He had to show that he understands. He got it. He appreciates the fact that he was a nazir. If the nezirus was, v'nizaktani b'lebenish—you know what the word ibelebenish is? Ibelebenish means I had to go through it. I had no choice. Here, he saw the woman, the sotah, now he has to be a nazir. But I don't really want to be a nazir. You know when you see if he wanted or not wanted? At the end of thirty days. You know, a lot of people sit in yeshiva. You want to know to see if they really want it? Let's see the minute they don't have to. Then all of a sudden, boom, they're gone. And the answer is only because you had to, so you sat. That's called a chait. To sit and wish you were on the outside—I always say this vort—it might be better off to be on the outside looking in than to sit on the inside and look out, waiting for the moment to leave. The nazir is thirty days, and at the end of thirty, he already had to stop. So that means that while he was doing it, he didn't appreciate. How do you appreciate what he was doing? How do you realize the importance of what he was doing? How do you realize the chashivus of nezir l'kavod... And he would have continued. There's a vort from the Ostrov.

I don't know if you know this, the history of Europe. There was an Ostrovtze Rebbe who wrote a sefer called Meir Einei Chachamim. But that, besides it is genius, that's a sefer of genius of poilisha pilpul, he was actually known for something completely different. Even though he was famous for that, but the main thing that he was known for was that he fasted 40 years, from before World War I to World War II. Hashem should ward off World War II. Like Tzadik, Reb Tzadok HaKohen, Reb Tzadok, remember in the Gemara, that he used to fast 40 years. They had to feed him intravenously. This Meir Einei Chachamim, this Ostrov did the same thing. So they once asked him, the Gemara says that a nazir is a chayta. The Gemara says, Kol hayoshev b'taanis is nikra chayta. So how could you fast so much? You know what he answered? Very, very. It doesn't say hasharui b'taanis. It doesn't say haoseh taanis, hayoshev. You know what yoshev means? He sits there. He sits there. Does he grow? Does he... It didn't affect him anyway. If it doesn't affect you, you're sitting, you just happen to be fasting, then you're nikra chayta. He says, but if you're oleh when you fast, if you're growing, then the fasting is good. The nazir has to appreciate, and this I tell you again is the yesod. If we don't appreciate who we are as a Yid, the nazir who he is as a kadosh, the ben Torah who he is as a ben Torah, the kohen. Remember the beginning of the parsha, the kohen in his avodah, the boths. Appreciate your job. You can't function. It doesn't work. A person has to be vayigbah libo b'darkei Hashem, to be proud, to be proud who you are. Once you get it, then you continue with it. If you don't get it, if you don't chap what it's about, you don't appreciate what it's about, you stop. And I'll end with a maiseh. Did you understand what I said? I'll have to repeat it because I don't see if the oilam appreciates the pshat by the nazir. The nazir stopped, and because that he brings a korban. So what? And the answer is because the fact that he stopped is a sign that he never got it in the first place. The fact that you never got it, that's already a kol ha-sharui b'taanis nikra choteh. So actually all the pshatim are the same. You're a choteh for fasting, for being a nazir. And the raya of the choteh of the nazir is the fact that you stopped. Had you not stopped, is a raya that you understood. Once you understand, then it's a good thing that you... If you're a yoshev b'taanis, that's no good. I'll tell you a meyridike maiseh. Years ago, a money collector knocked on my door. He heard that I'm who I am, my zeide, the Beis Aaron. So his pitch for getting me to give him tzedakah was a story. And what was his story? He has smicha from my great-grandfather, the Beis Aharon, and underneath my grandfather, the Beis Aharon's signature of the smicha is the brisker rav's smicha. He signed on the smicha. What's the story, he tells me? And he tells me a detailed story. Unbelievable. Now, had I been today then, meaning as old as I am now, then I would have said before we talk business, show it to me. I want to see this because this is a big thing for me. But at the time I was learning, I didn't really care that much, you know. But the story was a good story. I listened to his story. I don't know if I gave him enough money to make him happy, but whatever. The story, I might have gotten the better half of the deal on that one. But al kol ponim, what was the story? And if you looked at Brisk book on the Brisker Rav, the fourth chelek, they print this story. They have the story. And that is that he was a chassidisher bochur from Warsaw. He learned Shulchan Aruch. The chassidisher bochurim in Europe used to learn Shulchan Aruch. They had no connection to Litta, and today the whole world is connected. Mamish, chassidim and Litvish, and it's all mixed up.

But those days, it was the one time a year that you were able to see in the summer. They used to go to Krenitz. Krenitz was like the Catskills, you hear? So this Chassidishe bucher was in Krenitz. He sees the Brisker Rav — he heard the Brisker Rav, he heard. He walks over to the Brisker Rav and he asks him for a haskamah, semichah, on Shulchan Aruch. Wrong guy to ask. You don't ask the Brisker Rav for semichah, you know. So the Brisker Rav told him, I'm not a sar hamaskim. Now what's sar hamaskim? Lita, they don't say shin, they say sin. The sins are sins. So mashkim is what we have in the Torah by Yosef, sar hamashkim. So he changed it, I'm not a sar hamaskim, which means I don't give semichas. I don't give haskamos and semichas. I'm not — ich bin nisht kein sar hamaskim. I can't give you semichah. I don't give semichas to people. I don't do that. The person told me, he was a young boy at the time, he got insulted. He wasn't used to such litvisha drastic responses, you know. You see them, I'm a ... Litvish, you don't get such answers. The Brisker Rav saw that he couldn't handle it because he wasn't used to it. So he said, you know what — Brisker Rav was a tzaddik — you know what? Reb Aharon Volk in Beis Aaron, he's here also. My zeide was here. Go to him. He's a rav and give you semichah. Matter of fact, the Zeide gave smicha to Dayan Weiss, Minchas Yitzchak, at the beginning of his sefer. Who does he have smicha from? From the Alter Zeide. The Zeide gave him smicha. Kitzer, go to him. He'll give you smicha. I'll sign underneath to show you that only the Beis Aharon gives. I'll do it also. I'm meaning it, I'll. But first go to him, get the smicha. He'll give you the test. If you get it, I'll sign underneath. So he tells me, I went to the Beis Aharon. Excitedly, I thought I'll get the smicha. I couldn't get it. Why? They were there for two, three weeks, bein hazmanim, right, in the summer. The entire time, my grandfather was so involved in learning that he couldn't stop. He couldn't interrupt him. And he tried to reach him here, there. He was just learning all the time. Finally, after two weeks, he found an opportunity. My Zeide was walking back from Mincha, so he caught him. Could you give me a bechinah on Yoreh Deah? And my Zeide said, Well, okay, no problem. He asked him two, three questions, and okay, and he gave him smicha. That's the way the Amoleker Rabbanim used to, you know, gave him a smicha, no problem. The guy was excited. He finally got his smicha, so he ran to the Brisker Rav with the paper. But he tells me he was scared that the Brisker Rav would think, What took so long? Did you fail a few times, like a guy gets a road test, you know, what do we call that? Driving test six times and didn't pass. What took so long? He told me, he was what? So he was telling the Brisker Rav that it's not his fault, that every time he came to the Beis Aharon, he was learning. She couldn't bother him. And then he says, and then I said, you know, look how someone like the Beis Aharon, that if this is how he learns bein hazmanim, that he doesn't stop. Could you imagine what it's like when it's not bein hazmanim, not summer vacation? The Brisker Rav turned white. That's all he had to hear. He looks at him and he goes, What? A difference between bein hazmanim, summer, and not relaxation vacation? What are you talking? There's no difference. He says, You sound like a person that never learned a Tosafos in your life, like a baby, he said. Do I call him? Smicha you're looking for? First you have to grow up. You're like a baby. Don't you get it? He says, If you ever learned a Tosafos in your life, you would say there's a difference between summer vacation and not summer vacation. The Brisker Rav was furious. He got so angry at him. He told me, he thought that was it. He thought the Brisker Rav was not going to give him the smicha. Brisker Rav says, Give me a pen, because he promised him. And as he's writing the name, he's talking, mumbling to himself, Ah, what does he know? What do they know what Volozhin is? What do they know about Torah? What does he know? He was ranking the kid out.

A keimusch fazucht a taamis. You never tasted a taamis. What's the lesson? If someone actually tastes a taamis, and you get it, you can't stop. It doesn't make sense. There's no—then it's vegisem em yoymam valaylah. Once you get what it is, once you understand the chashivus, the importance of what it is, once you taste the beauty of it. The Chaim writes clearly, Uverachta al kol hatov—you bench the Eibishter on all the good—ein tov ela Torah. That if a person would taste the sweetness of Torah, he would run in the streets, more Torah, more Torah, like a drunk runs after his next—addicted, addicted to the schnapps. You'd be addicted to Torah. This, rabosai, is the taina of the nazir. If the nazir got it, and you tasted Nezir Elokim, you tasted nezir Elokim al rosho, you'd be addicted. You wouldn't be able to stop. You wouldn't be able to stop. Where is the problem, rabosai? We don't get it, and we don't taste it, and we don't realize the chashivus of what we do, every mitzvah that we do, who we are. We would realize how the Ribono Shel Olam cares and appreciates. I told you over recently, what's the pshat Torah lishmah, according to Rav Chaim Vital? Ashrei mi she'amal baTorah, ve'oseh nachas ruach. That's one of the reasons, according to Rav Chaim Vital, lishmah—lishmah for the Eibishter, that the Eibishter loves it so much. We would realize the nachas ruach. We would understand our role, our responsibility, the chashivus that we have. Then you don't stop. Then there's no difference between summer and winter. There's no difference between this and that. There's no stop after. You keep on going. This, rabosai, is to understand and appreciate. And getting back to what we started with, it is our responsibility to help others appreciate themselves. Just like we said by Merari, he was told, Merari was told, understand. And I was rather thinking to myself, in the Rishonim it's clear that Merari was third: Gershon, Kohath, and then Merari. Maybe Merari needed more to be shown, each one, that the chashivus of—here, Kohath carries the aron. Gershon carries the—these are carrying the fundraising of the, you know, the bill, the wood, the outside. Dafka them, give them chashivus. Each guy to his bolt. Uplift even the most menial part of carrying. You should know each one has his tafkid and his chelek, and when you appreciate and understand your tafkid, chelek, then each person does what he has to do. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.