Shelach: The Meraglim’s Ayin Ra—How Anavah Helps Us See the Good in Others

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom Aleichem, Bruchim Habaim. Parshas Meraglim. In the parashah of Meraglim, we need to ask ourselves: do we have within ourselves a little meraglim? The meraglim, they were called reshaim. They did tremendous destruction to Klal Yisrael, l'doiros, for generations. Tisha B'Av is on the day that they came back and made a bechiyah l'doiros. Are we guilty of also having a touch of meraglim within us? And if we do, how do we identify it, and how do we correct it? Rashi tells us Meraglim is a continuation, Parshas Shlach, from the previous parashah, Beha'aloscha, where Miriam spoke lashon hara against her brother Moshe Rabbeinu, and she was punished with tzaraas. In connection to that parashah, we have the parashah of Shlach the Meraglim, because reshaim hara'u v'lo lakchu musar. They saw what happened to Miriam. They saw the transgression of Miriam, the lashon hara she spoke, and they repeated it. Instead of learning musar, taking a lesson from Miriam. The famous question is, Miriam spoke against a person. Miriam spoke against her brother. Miriam spoke against Rabban shel kol Yisrael, Moshe Rabbeinu. How is that compared to what the Meraglim did when they spoke about a land, Eretz zavas chalav u'dvash? And if so, and it's not comparative, how were they supposed to take a mussar and learn from that? It's a famous question. Many mefarshim give different ideas on how to be metaretz this kasha. Some speak about the inyan of lashon hara about Eretz Yisrael, that there might be an issur lashon hara about Eretz Yisrael. Others talk about when you speak lashon hara on Eretz Yisrael, you're actually speaking lashon hara against the Ribono Shel Olam. You're speaking lashon hara against HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who gave you Eretz Yisrael and promised that it's a good land. But there's another mahalach that could be taken, that we could explain the connection between Miriam, the lashon hara she spoke, and what the Meraglim did. The Rambam, at the end of Tumas Tzaraas, in his Yad HaChazakah, says an interesting arichus. He's marich, he elaborates to explain that the lashon hara of Miriam was actually quite small. It wasn't such a gross lashon hara. It was minute. It wasn't this big lashon hara that she spoke. She meant well, and she didn't say much, v'chulei v'chulei. What does the Rambam say was her actual chet, her actual mistake? That she was ta'ah. She made a mistake. She hishvasah l'shar neviim. She compared Moshe Rabbeinu to every other navi. She didn't realize Moshe Rabbeinu's greatness and how he was different than all other neviim. He was aman neviim. He was peh el peh adaber boi. And by undermining his ma'alah, she said, We have a complaint. Why is he being poresh me'ishto? Why is he not acting like all other neviim? So it comes out that the lashon hara was the result of the actual chet and mistake, and that is undermining, not seeing the ma'alah, not seeing the tremendous attributes of Moshe Rabbeinu. With this we can say, now we understand the connection between Miriam and the meraglim. The meraglim, maybe it's not so much the lashon hara, but it's what brought about the lashon hara, and that is that they undermined the ma'alos. They didn't see—

The greatness of Eretz Yisroel, all the ruchniyusdike and gashmiyusdike mailos that Eretz Yisroel had, and with this, what Miriam did and what the meraglim did have a tremendous connection. It's interesting, the meraglim, as the pasuk clearly states, were moired in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Chazal tell us that when they said, when they brought back that Eretz Yisroel, the land, chazak hu mimenu, the people, they're much stronger mimenu, pashut means from us, Klal Yisroel. Chazal say when they said mimenu, they meant from the Ribono Shel Olam. Chazak hu, that the people were much stronger than the Ribono Shel Olam. In essence, they were koifer. In essence, they became heretics. They were koifer in the Ribono Shel Olam. Yet when they get punished, the pasuk clearly addresses the reason for their punishment. What was their chet? Vayamusu ha'anashim motzi'ei dibas ha'aretz ra. It was much worse than just dibas ha'aretz ra, that they spoke lashon hara. They were koifrim. They came and they said emes, outright blatant kefirah, ki chazak hu mimenu. Yet the pasuk— Clearly identifies. And the pasuk clearly explains their punishment was based on the chet of motziei dibas ha'aretz ra. Seems that this was the shoresh. This was the root of all the problem, and everything actually came as a result of the motzia. So we're addressing the root of the problem and not the outcome of everything. So the lashon hara, and even the kefirah, resulted from a behavior of motziei dibas ha'aretz ra. I've always fatached, what does it mean, motziei dibas ha'aretz ra? Motziei. Pashut, it means motzi shem ra, when you spread motzi with b to spread, to be mefitz a lashon hara. But could be motzia also means when you take out. Sometimes in a situation or a person, there's a lot of ma'alos, a lot of good things, but what do you take out? Oh, you found one thing to take out bad. That's called motziei dibas ha'aretz ra, to find the one bad thing, to find the negative and to bring it out and elaborate and focus on it. That's called motzia. Dibas ha'aretz ra, and every bad that we find by the meraglim resulted from this motzi dibas ha'aretz ra, which I would call an ayin ra. It's a bad eye, to see an evil thing and to not see the positive and to not see the good. And once you have this bad middah, all the other bad things and all the other aveiros, all the way till kefirah, that you'll start seeing bad in the Ribono Shel Olam, and you'll say, Ki chazak hu mimenu. There's a pasuk, Yevarechcha Hashem miTzion, u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim. It's a pasuk in Tehillim. What does it mean, u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim? It's giving you advice: see, look, see the good in Yerushalayim. There's so much good there. Reb Chaim Zonnenfeld, a tzaddik livrachah, used to, fatai, she used to explain the pasuk u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim, that it's an avodah, it's a chiyuv, u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim. It's not just giving you advice, but it's telling you you need to work on u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim. And I think what he means to say is, omeret dike zach: Yerushalayim carries with it responsibilities of avodah. For example, maaser sheini, Yerushalayim.

One of the avodos in Yerushalayim was to work on, u're'eh b'tuv, to see the positive, to see the good. Living in Yerushalayim was a mechayev, and every Yid needs to work on, u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim. Just as there was a mitzvah to eat maaser sheini in Yerushalayim, there was a mitzvah, u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim. It was an avodah. The meraglim, they came to a land which is kula kedushah, kula Shechinah, and instead of having the u're'eh b'tuv, this midah, they had the opposite. They were motzi. They took out just dibas ha'aretz ra. That's the bad that they found, and they focused on it, and that's all they took out from it. That's the avodah of u're'eh b'tuv Yerushalayim, ayin tovah and not having an ayin ra. Where does this come from? In order to work on a bad midah, we need to understand the shoresh of that midah. What is it based on? Where does it come from? The Zohar tells us that what went wrong with the meraglim? What happened? They were kulam anashim, they were big people. They were nesiim, roshei, they were the heads of Klal Yisrael. Says the Zohar that was the problem. They were afraid. They feared that if they come to Eretz Yisrael, they're going to lose their position as the roshim, as the nesiim. There'll be a change of guard and they won't be the nesiim. What you should learn, that was atzas meraglim. That was premeditated, that they had a plan to derail coming into Eretz Yisroel by lying and saying the land and that the people should want to go. I've always understood that that's not the pshat. Midachtzach, that's not that they lied and the eitzah was a premeditated evil plan, but actually they lied because that's what they saw. They misunderstood what they were seeing, and the Zohar that says it was because of their fear, because they were afraid to lose their position, that was their negiah that made them see blindly wrong, to blindly see something which was not true. Pashut, the Velt always says that they misinterpreted, and the Zohar seems to be a different pshat, a different mahalach, that they had a plan bedavka to lie and derail coming into Eretz Yisroel. Midachtzach, as we're explaining, that actually it's the same pshat. It's two parts to the same pshat. The negiah was the Zohar, that they were afraid they were going to lose their position. The lemaaseh of it is, and therefore they didn't see, and they saw sheker. Negiah makes a person see something completely off, completely false. To not see mailos, to not see attributes. How do we work on it? What do we do to correct that? There's an interesting pshat, and the pshat I'd love to say is not the pshat that it's stam in the sefarim, but it's a pshat vos mezogt in Himmel. It's a pshat from Shamayim. What do I mean? You'll soon see. Soon explain myself what I mean. But the pshat is as follows. Kalev responds to the meraglim who say the most terrible things about Eretz Yisrael, says, Kalev, ha'aretz asher avarnu lasur osah, tovah ha'aretz me'od me'od. The land is very good, me'od me'od, a double lashon. Why the double lashon? Why the repetition? So pashut, it's to emphasize. It's nit nor, it's nit gut, aber it's gut, it's zehr gut, it's very, very good. But I saw a pshat which was in two different dreams, interestingly. It's brought in the sefarim that was given in two different dreams to two different people, a pshat about why it says—

Tov Eretz Meod Meod. The first is a pshat that was given by the Lubliner Rebbe in a dream to a chassid of his. Chassidishe sefarim, it's brought that one of the chassidim of the Lubliner Rebbe came to Eretz Yisrael to live, and after a while he was wondering, how come he doesn't feel this cheshek, this hergesh, that he's in Eretz Yisrael and the great privilege that he has to live in Eretz Yisrael. The Lubliner Rebbe came to him in a dream and told him, the pasuk says, Tov Eretz Meod Meod. Why the repetition? Why the double lashon, meod meod? And the answer: the words meod meod ring a bell. There's a Mishnah: Hevei shfal ruach meod meod. You need to be humble, but not just plain humble, but very, meod meod, to the other extreme. The Rambam holds in all middos it's kedai to be in the middle, not too extreme on either side of the middah, but by anavah, by humility, you need to go to the other direction. Meod meod hevei shfal ruach, said the Lubliner Rebbe. If you work on the meod meod hevei shfal ruach, you'll reach, and you will see and you will feel the tov Eretz meod meod. Humility, you'll see the ma'alos of Eretz Yisrael, and you'll appreciate what Eretz Yisrael has to offer to you living in Eretz Yisrael. That's one story. One dream. There's another story. Another dream. The Lelover Rebbe's children, Reb Moshe Meilelev, his children lived in Eretz Yisroel. One of the big tzaddikim, the Rebbe's, Reb Shmuel Abba, zichrono livracha, used to send money to the children of the Lelover Rebbe. It's a chassidishe custom that the Rebbe's children, chassidim like to send money to help them, to support them, b'nan shel kedoshim. It's a special group, b'nan shel kedoshim, and money is collected and sent to help them, to support them in their needs. Reb Meir Orbach, famous from the gedolim of Yerushalayim, he wrote the sefer Imrei Binah, one of the classics that are used in the yeshiva world on Choshen Mishpat. He wrote to Reb Shmuel Abba Meizichlin, I don't think you should be sending the money to the children of Reb Moshe Meilelev because you don't know them. You think you're sending to support b'nan shel kedoshim; they're not such kedoshim. They don't behave in such an illustrious way. They don't have all these ma'alos that b'nan shel kedoshim should have, and you're being fooled, so to speak. And I feel bad, so therefore I have to inform you what the reality is, and that you're spending your money. Maybe if you would know, you wouldn't be sending the money. A few letters came like this. As time went on, the letters changed. And Meir Orbach started sending letters to Reb Shmuel Abba Mizichlin, Send them the money. They deserve it. When Reb Meir Orbach was asked, What happened? Mi kara mai kasavar? L'psoi mai? What changed your mind? What happened all of a sudden? You started sending the reverse letters that they should send money to them. So he said, I'll tell you the emes. I used to know them, and I used to see only their chesronos. I saw that there was— I couldn't see anything special about them. An old man came to me in a dream. It’s brought down in a few sefarim, this maaseh. An old man came to me in a dream and said to me, You know why you don't see the ma'alos of Rameshalel's children, the Menanshel kedoshim? It's because 'ishtei tov eretz me'od me'od.' The meraglim didn't see the ma'alos of Eretz Yisrael, and the only way they could is 'me'od me'od, haveshfal ruach me'od me'od.' If you're humble, you'll see the ma'alos. And you need to work on this, to see ma'alos by being humble. Says Reb Meir Orbach, I started working on gaivah, working on being more humble.

And then I started to see the mailos of the people that you're sending the money to, and therefore I sent letters now in the reverse that you should send them the money. We see how, first of all, the pshat came from two different sources, two different dreams. It must be, what's zayin a pshat from Himmel. But you see deeper that not only mailos in Eretz Yisroel needs humility, but mailos in people and mailos in situations, you need to have shfal ruach me'od me'od, humility. When there's humility, then you'll see mailos. By Matan Torah it says, Vayichan sham Yisroel k'neged har k'ish echad b'lev echad. There was achdus. What does it mean, Vayichan? They camped. And the k'ish echad b'lev echad is the achdus, that they were together, united. Reb Yitzchok MiVorka says a very nice pshat: Vayichan also means achdus. How does Vayichan mean? It just means camping. They were encamped, k'ish echad b'lev echad. No. He says the word Vayichan is a lashon chein. Vayichan sham Yisroel, they saw chein, and therefore they were k'ish echad b'lev echad. They started seeing favor. They started seeing mailos one in the other, and that brought about the achdus that happened by Matan Torah. We know the Chida, Nachal Kedumim, says that Vayichan sham Yisroel, this achdus, what brought them to this achdus? Because it says, Vayachnu bamidbar. Midbar, we know, is anavah. It's one of the tנoyim that you need, one of the conditions that are needed for Matan Torah. So the midbar, the anavah, brought about the Vayichan. And this is the pshat that we're learning, Tov eretz moid meod, to see the ma'alos in others. It requires midbar, it requires humility. Humility, and then you'll see good in others. When a person is boastful, he's haughty, he has a problem, will always see the bad. In the parashah of Metzora, the pasuk tells us that the metzora has to be badad yeishev. He sits alone, he's tamei, and he needs to announce to everyone that when they come close to him, they should be careful because tamei, tamei yikra. Defiled, defiled, he should call himself, which means he announces to everyone that he's tamei. Why the double lashon? Tamei, tamei yikra. It should say, Tamei yikra, announce that you're tamei. So pashut, again, it's not saying it once; he'll say, Tamei, tamei, I'm tamei, I'm tamei. It's a repetitive announcement. The Shlah learns that the pshat in the pasuk is something deeper. Tamei, when someone is tamei, when someone is flawed, there's something wrong with him. He is tamei, his essence from within. Tamei yikra, he'll always call everyone else tamei. The metzora is a baal lashon hara. Why is he speaking lashon hara, this person? How did he become a baal lashon hara? And the answer is tamei. Something wrong from within. People who see chisronos, people who are negative, people who speak lashon hara. You need to get to the root of it, and the root of it is that from within, something wrong from within, inside the person. He's either a baal aveirah, a baal gaivah. There's something wrong, that he's a tamei, and it's meila, tamei yikra; therefore he calls others tamei. So we start to see a picture of what a meragel is. A meragel, he believes what he sees. Doesn't mean that he's making it up. He's a motzi shem ra, which means he finds the one negative, and he focuses only on the bad. He could take something which has full of ma'alos, something which is beautiful, something which is exalted in its perfection, both in ruchniyus and in gashmiyus, and find the one little detail, and that's what he takes out of the whole beautiful picture. It begins by speaking against people. Again, Miriam, there was tremendous tzidekus. There's nobody here.

That could even compare to the minute greatness. We have no shaychus to Miriam, but Chazal are teaching us l'sirke Miriam. You're not allowed to be. You have to be careful. Lishmor b'neged tzaraas. We have to remember the story of Miriam. What is the story of Miriam? It's a lot less about the lashon hara she spoke, and according to the Rambam, it's a lot more about the perception of not seeing the greatness of a Moshe Rabbeinu by taking out a negative. And that's what Miriam did. And the meraglim went further, and they spoke not only on a person. They went and they spoke about a situation. They spoke about a place. And that's the way it works, rabosai. It starts by seeing negative in people. Then you'll start seeing negative in where you live, the land you live on, the place you live. And then you'll start seeing the negative on the situation you're in. And when the people you're around, and the place you live, and the situation you're in, you see negative, the next thing is you'll have tainus on HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and you'll see negative in the Ribono Shel Olam. The end result is, ki chazak hu mimenu, that you'll be a misrayem, a complainer against the Ribono Shel Olam. It goes in an around circle. This is the lesson, according to Chazal, in the smichas haparshiyos. Yes, Lashon Hara. That's a sugya that has to be learned. Is there a din Lashon Hara about Eretz Yisrael? It's a good topic, but possibly the connection is where the Lashon Hara comes from. The connection to Miriam is, how does such a thing happen? And the answer is, when we don't appreciate the Gedolim. He was a gadol. He was Rabban shel kol Yisrael, Moshe Rabbeinu, and there's not a proper haracha, a proper respect and dignity, and we take out eichi sarin and we minimize the person. The next is there's a meraglim, which could talk about Eretz Yisrael and could talk about a situation to the point that the next thing is that they talk about the Ribono Shel Olam. Who wants to hear the pshat? Unbelievable, beautiful. Every time I think about it, it's such a beautiful pshat. You know, in the pasuk that Kalev responds to the meraglim, Haaretz asher avarnu bah latur osah, tovah haaretz me'od me'od. The word haaretz is redundant. It already says, Haaretz asher avarnu bah latur osah. So it says haaretz, the land that we went there and we went to search out. Tovah haaretz me'od. It just said, Haaretz asher avarnu bah latur osah, tovah me'od me'od. Already says we're talking about the land that they went to. It should have just completed the sentence, tovah haaretz. I'm sorry, tovah me'od me'od, that it's very good. So I once saw a beautiful pshat. I can't remember from who, but a beautiful pshat. But Kaliv was telling. He was answering the meraglim. You went and you saw bad. It's not the land, it's you. Why didn't you think that maybe you're the problem? Ha'aretz asher avarnu lasser osa. What you're complaining about is the land that we went to. But ha'aretz, the rest of the land, is tovah me'od me'od. You told me that here we went was no good, and here and here. Why think it's the land? Maybe it's you. B'toch lechisaron. Maybe because you went there, or you were gorem it, or it's the way you saw it. Ha'aretz. But the rest of the land is tovah me'od me'od. It's all in the perception, rabosai. And if you're negative, you'll see negative. And where you are, it becomes negative because you're there, not because the place is no good. I've always shared with you how my bubba, zichrona livracha, Leah Shalom, Rebbetzin Wolk, can always used to tell me, Ah, sheine velt. It's a beautiful world. When I was younger, I can't appreciate what she said, but as I got older, I started to think to myself, You're telling me it's a sheine velt. I think Bubby used to tell me what you went through, World War II.

She once told me how, one Shavuos night, her father woke her up and said, My tachta, I arranged that you should ganve the grenitz. You gotta go to Poyland. You gotta go right away. He was in Trab. He was the rav in Trab. They came to tell Reb Avrom Sacher, her father, that they're taking my grandmother, Bubby Wolkin, together with her children. I had my aunt Chaya then, my aunt Esther, my father Moishe. Reb Moishe, he was a baby. So three children, and my grandmother was going to Siberia, and they were gonna come to take her with a few other families in the shtetl. So they arranged that a Polish horseman with a carriage would take the families before the soldiers would come, and it was Shavuos morning, early, before they showed up at the door, and he sent them away, and he wakes them up and he tells my—and my Bubby told me, my father was on her shoulder, the two girls, one in each hand, and the leichter. She carried her leichters. And the father, Reb Avrom, takes her to the outskirts of the city. It was muddy, snowy. It was Shavuos time, but it was still muddy and snowy. My Bubby told me she begged her father, Come with me, tata. He says, I can't, because if I leave, they come to the door, they see I left, they'll take it out on the people of the shtetl, and as the rav, it's my responsibility. So he stayed. It was the last time she ever saw him. But interesting, he gave her the boots. He had shtibel, he had boots, and he said, Take it. It was an act of ruach hakodesh. I don't know exactly, siyata d'shmaya, because an hour into the travel— They started hearing the horses and the shouting of the guns. The soldiers came earlier because they probably figured that they'll run before they come, so they came even earlier than they were supposed to come to catch them. But they already left, so they started searching them in the forest with dogs, with search dogs. And the dogs, of course, they run quickly, and the soldiers, and there was no match for this horse with the carriage with all the families. The Polish driver, I guess he had zechus, he was an ehrliche guy. He says, I have an idea. Get off. I'm going to send the horses one way. The dogs will run after the horses to the direction I send the horses, and you, with all the family and children, run the other way. And my Bubby told me that she was going, running, two children hand in hand, a baby on her shoulder with the light, all the families with children, and she kept on telling them, Don't look back. Don't stop. Don't think. Just keep on going. Run. Keep on going. Run. My Bubby told me that none of them made it. None of them were able to go. They ran a little bit, but they were with children, and she never saw any of the people that were together with her on this carriage. But she didn't give up. Maybe the shtibel, maybe she had the boots. It was doable. It was muddy. Maybe it was a siyata dishmaya. The Ribono Shel Olam gave an idea to the zeide Reb Avrom to give her the boots. Whatever it is, this is just one detail of the many difficulties and horrors that they went through during World War II, and yet this woman tells us. Every day, Bobby tells us, Tazah sheina velt. And I thought to myself, we have everything we need and everything we could want. There's 20 different flavored cereals. Every cereal comes in different styles and varieties. That's the gashmiyus that we have, houses and cars, and yet we walk around and we're unhappy and we see only bad and we complain and we take out all the negatives. What happened? What is it? And the answer is ayin toiva. When a person trains himself, and from within he's good, from within he sees positive, from within he sees only toiv, so everything around him is toiv. It's all good. Everything is good. In the Mir, they had a vort, Reb Leizer Yudel, zecher tzaddik livrachah, Mir Yeshiva. The heilige Reb Leizer Yudel, Mir Yeshiva, used to say, What's the taich in the pasuk, V'ish Moshe anav me'od mikol adam al פני האדמה? So pashut means he was the most humble of all people.

Loshon of pnei, right? Anav me'od mikol ha'adam. What is mikol ha'adam? Al pnei adamah. Reb Leizer Yudel used to fatach. How was he an anav? What made him an anav, Moshe Rabbeinu? And the answer is, mikol ha'adam al pnei adamah. He looked at all the people and he saw their mailos. He saw all the attributes of people, and it humbled him. Ayin tovah brings humility. Humility brings ayin tovah. It's two sides of the same coin. It's a tremendous lesson, rabosai. This might be one of the greatest lessons that we could learn from the meraglim and better our lives. I don't know if it's the pashut pshat in the pasuk, Vayishma Moshe anav me'od mikol ha'adam. It's a vertel, but it's a ... you see how Reb Leizer Yudel saw things. A person is humbled when he sees the mailos of the people around him. The Rambam says that a person, when he starts seeing the tremendous briyah that the Ribono Shel Olam created, miyad hu nirsas. Right away it humbles him, and he starts to love the Ribono Shel Olam. When you see positive in everything and in everyone, you're humbled. Tremendous lesson in maturity. Humility brings out that you see, brings, it leads to that you should see the good in everyone, and the reverse is also true. That if you see the good in everyone, you'll have humility. If you look at Rabbeinu Yonah, Shaar Gimel, Kof Ayin Daled, Kof Ayin Hei, he says, what does it let someone who mocks everybody and everything? He comes from two shoreshim, comes from two roots. The first one is gaivah, it's gaivah. And the second one, he says, is the not understanding and appreciating ma'alos of others. So if you have a baal gaivah, together with the not appreciation and understanding of others and their ma'alos, together, it's a lethal dosage. It's a lethal thing to bring out letzanus. Shlomo HaMelech in Mishlei says an unbelievable thing. You have to remember that Shlomo HaMelech was chacham mikol adam. He was the wisest. He understood life the best. In Mishlei chaf-beis, tes, he says, Tov ayin hu yevorach. Chazal darshen yevorach, that he blesses, he should give the bracha. But the pashut translation of the pasuk is, tov ayin, someone that has a good eye, hu yevorach, he is blessed, he is gebentsht. Pshat mefarshim explain that if a person has a tov ayin, he's a blessed person. His life is a life. It's a life of bracha. It's a life of being gebentsht. It's a blessing to be able to see good and positive, then life is good, and if not, it's a bitter life. I always understood. Eyes don't lie. Eyes see what they see. This, that you find that people lie and they distort things, that's a decision that they make with their mouth, to say false, to speak false. But the eyes see what they see. And I always thought this is really a pasuk: Ki hashochad ye'aver einei chachamim, veyesalef divrei tzaddikim. So the shochad, the negiah, ya'aver, it blinds the eye, but the siluf, the lying, the distorting, that comes in the mouth. That's the pshat in the pasuk: Ki hashochad ye'aver einei pikchim. So you're blind that you don't see, but you don't see false. The falsity, the distortion, is the dibur. It's in the words. The meraglim, I see, we learned something interesting, that they saw false. And the bracha that you give children Erev Yom Kippur, it's from the Chayei Adam, the nusach of the bracha. We tell our children in a bracha, one of the things we say is, Einecha...

Einecha yabitu, your eyes should see straight. A blessing, a bracha that we give our children, a beautiful bracha. Einecha, your eyes should see straight. Eyes sometimes see crooked too. You know, we think cross-eyed means that the person's eyes are looking in two different directions. And the truth is, there's also an emotional cross-eyed, that a person sees everything crooked. He sees sheker. What's good he sees as bad, and what bad he sees. And we ask, and we mevarech that a child should be zocheh to ruchniyus, and for that is needed, einecha lenochach should see straight. It's interesting, Miriam, she didn't see the ma'alos of Moshe. That, I would say, is a blindness. It wasn't a sheker. She just didn't understand. Miriam had no negius. But once you put negius into it, like the meraglim, that's when the einayim also see sheker. Hishvaso means that a person undermines greatness. He undermines attributes. But if it's not with a negiah, then it's daas ya'aver. By a pikeach, by a tzaddik, that's ya'aver einei pikchim. But once you put a very bad negiah of kavod into the mix, then even the eyes are misalef. They see wrong. At the end of the parsha, we have tzitzis. All the darshanim try to put together the beginning of the parsha, meraglim, tzitzis at the end. What is the connection? Why is tzitzis at the end of this week's parsha? Pashut, we could say, lo sasuru acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem. The meraglim, they were yasur. They went lasur es haaretz, and they didn't see properly. They went acharei levavchem, which means their heart, they had a negiah, and acharei eineichem, they saw, they went and they saw wrong. So the parsha of tzitzis protects one from lo sasuru, acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem, which is really what happened by the meraglim. I want to point out something interesting and deeper in the parsha of tzitzis to the connection to the meraglim. Tzitzis is supposed to remind us — it's domeh lyam, and lyam is lashamayim — it's supposed to remind us the Ribono Shel Olam, Shamayim, and the taryag mitzvos. The meraglim went to Eretz Yisrael. They brought back a grape, and the one thing that they did not see in Eretz Yisrael is the one thing that's everywhere and in abundance in Eretz Yisrael, and that they didn't see. What is it that's in Eretz Yisrael everywhere in an abundance? And the teretz is the Ribono Shel Olam. Eini Hashem Elokecha meireishis hashanah... the Ribono Shel Olam is there. Everywhere you go, wherever you turn, the Shechinah HaKedoshah is there, and that's the one thing they didn't see. Everything that they — they came back and they spoke and they said, they brought — imagine a guy comes to Eretz Yisrael, and the only thing he brings back is a Jaffa orange, a Bisli, and a Crembo. You talk, where are you? That the Jaffa oranges you get in the shuk, the krembo you get in the store, but were you anywhere else? Did you go to any kfarim? That's all you came back with? The miraglim. Why did you come back with the Ribbono Shel Olam? That's everywhere. That's full in Eretz Yisroel. And the answer is that a person could be in this world, not see the Shamayim. Tzitzis is the idea of living here, but focusing on Shamayim. Eretz, but Shamayim. Shamayim was plentiful in Eretz Yisroel. Tzitzis, as brought in the sefarim, is a segulah for anavah, humility, and kaas. Because if one has anavah, he is humble, he won't get angry. So they tell you, it's one of the segulos from the Zohar and other sefarim, is to look at the tzitzis, and this will bring you to humility, and therefore you won't get angry. Humility, you see Shamayim, you see the Eibishter. When you're not humble, when it's not tov haaretz me'od me'od, which is vayiruach me'od me'od, you won't see what's right in front of you in Eretz Yisroel, and that is the Ribbono Shel Olam.

You know, the tzitzis is techeles. Techeles is made from a worm. The chilazon is a worm. It's not a fish. People think it's a fish. It's not. It's a worm. Reb Shamshon Fol Hirsch explains, because the worm is humility. It's the animal which represents the lowest, a worm. Dovid HaMelech says, V'anochi tolaas v'lo ish. I've always said, what's the pshat, V'anochi tolaas v'lo ish? Esav was red. Red is a sign of fighting and death, dam. Esav was ish sadeh, ish, right? Dovid HaMelech was also red. Dovid HaMelech was an Admoni; he was red. Zogt Dovid HaMelech, V'anochi tolaas v'lo ish. My red is tolaas, shni tolaas. We had red in the Beis HaMikdash. What was the red? It was from a worm. The worm is a siman of humility, and this is all based on the Torah of Reb Shamshon Fol Hirsch, that the chilazon worm, the dye, the color red, is the anavah. It's the humility. So the tzitzis is humility. Humility, then you'll have Shamayim. You'll see Shamayim even on aretz. That's the connection from the beginning of the parsha to the tzitzis. It's interesting, Sheishanis Yaakov tzahalah v'sameichah b'rotam yachad techeles Mordechai. And even though we're not close to Purim, but I think it's a me'oreidike taich based on everything we said: Sheishanis Yaakov tzahalah v'sameichah, birotam yachad techeles Mordechai. What is techeles? It means the blue clothing, which is the malchus, the royal clothing, and they saw that it changed. Haman, instead of wearing the royal clothing, Mordechai is wearing the royal clothing, and that made them happy. The Belzer Rebbes used to fataych, techeles, Mordechai means the tzitzis of Mordechai. The word techeles doesn't mean the clothing of Achashverosh; it means the tzitzis. So what does it mean that they were happy when they saw the tzitzis? So they always say the pshat, because they didn't know who was on the horse and who was leading. They thought Haman was on the horse, and Mordechai again was leading the horse, degrading the Jew, degrading Mordechai. But when they saw the techeles, the tzitzis from the one on top on the horse, ah, it's Mordechai. This is the Belzer Rebbes, and that's what made them happy, sheshanas Yaakov. I want to say maybe another taich. Bir'osam yachad, they saw together, there was an achdus. Everybody knows Purim is a time, is a Yom Tov, where it's in the Yom Tov itself is the segulah that it's able to bring achdus. What brings the achdus? We said, Vayichan sham Yisrael. The achdus by Matan Torah came because it was bamidbar, that they were humbled, humility. It's interesting, Purim is also a time of Kabbalas HaTorah, so we needed a bir'osam yachad. We needed that there should be an achdus. Sheshanas Yaakov tzahalah v'sameichah. What were they happy bir'osam? Not bir'osam, bir'osam yachad. There was an achdus. What brings about the achdus? Techeles, Mordechai, the tzitzis. Tzitzis is anavah; it's humility. Humility brings about that a person... Doesn't have kaas. He's not angry. He sees the mailos. He's able to unite and able to fix relationships that are strained, relationships that are strained. I would just end with the following yesod. Why is it that we don't see the mailos in others? The Alter of Slabodka gave many shmuzen how seeing mailos in others is rooted in seeing the tzelem Elokim, seeing that the person is a briah of the Ribono Shel Olam. It's actually seeing HaKadosh Baruch Hu in the other person. It's seeing the Shechinah in the other person. When you see the Shechinah, you'll appreciate the other person. So now we understand everything. To see the mailah, to see the mailah, you always need anavah. Anavah means you see the shamayim, you see the Ribono Shel Olam in the other person. So anavah, humility, will help to vayichan, to see the chein. What is the chein of another Yid? Where does it come from? If you look at sefarim, sefarim explain chein is a ruchni. It's the Ribono Shel Olam. Va'tihi Esther noseis chein b'einei ro'eha, right? The eishes chayil, right? What is that? It's chein. Chein is a ruchni, that the Ribono Shel Olam, the Shechinah. When you see the Shechinah, when you see the—

In another person, what you see on his face, it brings about chen. Vayichan shem Yisrael, but you need to be humble. You need to have humility. This is the lesson that we need to take from the parashah of Meraglim. We have to search within ourselves: do we have the chisaron of the Meraglim? Do we look around our lives, the people in our lives, the situations, the place we live, and even worse, the Gedolim that we need to look up to, and do we find a fault in them? And do we take out just the one negative thing that they have? And you know where that comes from? It comes from the fact that we are lacking in humility. Tov eretz me'od me'od is havishfal ruach me'od me'od, and if we do that, tov ayin hu yevarech, we'll be happy. Sheshan Yakov tzahalah v'sameicha brings tremendous happiness. Negativity, you'll be unhappy. Being positive, seeing the good in the other person will make you happy. I don't think you're doing the other guy a favor. You're doing yourself the biggest favor. Tov ayin hu yevarech. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.