Overcoming Sinas Chinam: Bilam’s Ayin Ra and Seeing the Whole Beauty of Klal Yisrael

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. As we begin the three weeks leading to Tisha B'Av, I'd like to pick a topic, an old topic, much spoken about, yet every time and every year, this תקופה is כדאי to mechazek. And of course, that's the inyan of sinas chinam, Churban Habayis. It's because of sinas chinam, the Gemara tells us. Let's discuss sinas chinam, and maybe better yet, the eitzes, how to combat sinas chinam. A lot is spoken about the chisaron, the problem. Let's focus on the tikkun, binyan Beis Hamikdash. כל אשר ביָמָיו לא נבנה בית המקדש כאילו נחרב. Let's talk about binyan, and אז בעזרת ה', binyan ממילא יזכה. I'd like to discuss it through the parsha that we just had, Parshas Balak. It's interesting, the parsha is called Balak, yet the Gemara calls it Parshas Bilam. The Gemara in Bava Basra, yud-daled amud beis: Moshe kasav sifro, u'parshas... Bilam v'Iyov. Merkols this parshah of Balak, it's the parshah, the parshah of Bilam. What is the parshah of Bilam? Obviously, it's, the Brisker Rav explains it, it's a chumash bifnei atzmei. Had its own parshah, Parshas Bilam. So what is Parshas Bilam? So I think, to understand good vos is Bilam, what did Bilam want, and how do we combat Bilam, we have to use a Mishnah, a mafteach, a key to understanding the parshah of Bilam. K'shteitzach, you must have heard a lot of raid in the past. All the darshanim are busy with this parshah. L'choirah, let me not play on a Mishnah. The Mishnah in Avos, perek hei, tells us, Kol sheyesh bo shlosha dvarim ha'halalu is mitalmidav shel Avraham Avinu. And that is ayin tovah, ruach nemuchah, nefesh shefeilah. These good middos is talmidav shel Avraham Avinu. In the opposite, if you have an ayin ra, a ruach gevohah, is mitalmidav shel Bilam harasha. And the Mishnah explains, mah bein—this is the difference between these talmidim and those talmidim, the talmidim of Avraham and the talmidim of Bilam. The mefarshim ask, why are we discussing the talmidim? Discuss the people themselves, the chiluk tzevishen Avraham and Bilam. First daf min ankumen. Why do we have to come on to understanding the talmidim? Ma bein Avraham l'Bilam? Famous question. The Belzer, the Malgazakt, the meirdike vort. Sometimes you can't see the difference between the rebbes. Sometimes they both walk around with, you'll fill in the blanks yourselves, looking as if they're both ... and it's hard to differentiate. Where do you see the difference? The difference is in the talmidim. Talmidim of Avraham are kentig one way. The talmidim of Bilam, you see what the rebbe was. But sometimes the individual rebbe is alein not clear. It's not black and white. There's room for confusion, v'al korchach, that's why the Mishnah has to come and tell you, Ma bein. Otherwise, what do you have a she'eilah, Ma bein? Ha todaskim an a tzaddik and daskim an a rasha, huh? Daf habin a Ma bein? Tzvishn der tzaddik un der shtik neveilah? What's the she'eilah? The teretz is, the Mishnah is trying to give us an advice.

Try to open our eyes that we can be able to tell the difference. Good, famous teretz, but Rabbei Sai, ... Nacha teretz. I want to be magdim. There's a gevaldige, gevaldige ha'arah from Reb Tzadok HaKohen. I'm sure ... on the Mishnah. Beautiful, beautiful ha'arah. We know that Bilam was the counterpart of Moshe. The goyim ta'ined that they also want a navi. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us Moshe, and the goyim, let Him give them Bilam. They lived in the same generation. He was the navi l'Yisrael, and ... the navi l'umos ha'olam. So the question is, why don't we say the chiluk between Moshe and Bilam? Why are we talking about the chiluk between Avraham and Bilam? The talmidim of Avraham, the talmidim of Bilam, talk about in the same tekufah. When you want to say the chiluk between these talmidim and those talmidim, you bring two yeshivos in the same generation, or in the same tekufah, or in the same place, and look at the difference. You wouldn't talk about a yeshiva from today and say, ... We have no shaychus to it. It's not even to be compared. Azoi fregt Reb Tzadok HaKohen in Parashas Shemini. Now the truth is, Bilam has been around way before. Bilam's been around quite a while, huh? ... according to one shita, we're going to get to that. Yeah, so I don't know if it's so much it predates maybe Moshe Rabbeinu all the way to Avraham Avinu, efshar. About Kolpanim, al kol panim, habei saidos is the kasha. So let's, b'mezak, iberchazen vos vil men do? Vil farshtein Bilam. We want to understand the parsha Bilam. We want to see the pshat in the Mishnah, and through the Mishnah to understand what was Bilam all about. We talk about the talmidim and not Bilam alone. And we also talk about Bilam as opposed to Avraham and not as opposed to Moshe Rabbeinu. There's a lot in the sefarim, in the mefarshim, in the darshanim, what exactly was the goal of Balak and Bilam. Shteit, the pasuk says, Kavod li, shilton. That we know, that's pretty obvious. Az der goy vil shilton di Yid, un az Bilam vil shilton Klal Yisrael. That's pretty much given. What was the underlying, the whole plan of Balak and Bilam to bring Bilam to Klal Yisrael? L'maaseh, if he wants to curse, he could have cursed them from where he was also. A klalah of Bilam, stam has long-term, long—it could come from very far away. It doesn't have to be, he stands over Klal Yisrael to shilton. You see that he wanted that he should go and see and view Klal Yisrael. The Mishnah says, ayin ra'ah, it has something to do with his eye, shesuma ayin, Bilam's eye. He wanted that Bilam should have a look. So what did he want? Shteit in the sefarim, mefarshim, sanigor al Yisrael. He wanted Bilam to go and see the chisronos. He wanted to see the weak points of Klal Yisroel. He was pleasantly surprised. Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov. Wherever he went, he didn't see it. But originally, the plan of Balak was that Bilam should come and then shlechtz of Klal Yisroel. That's what he wanted. And the meileh, that the kenen Shilton, he'd be able to curse. There's an interesting loshon in the pasuk that the mefarshim speak about. When you look at the chisronos of Klal Yisroel, what are you trying to do? You're trying to bring down Klal Yisroel as a unit of achdus, a unit of greatness. Makes a pirud, cut, delmensh, mit delmensh, mit der chisaron. When you start looking at the chisronos, what it does is it makes pirud in Klal Yisroel. Klal Yisroel left, hamam levadad. It was a tremendous nation. When you want to take apart Klal Yisroel.

That leads to all the chesronos and all the problems. The pasuk says, Vayomer Moav el ziknei Midyan, Atah yilachechu hakahal es kol svivoseinu kilchoch hashor es yerek hasadeh. Hakahal. It's an interesting lashon. Normally, am is a nation. Why all of a sudden it uses the lashon hakahal? Atah, what was he afraid of? He was afraid of yilachechu hakahal. When Klal Yisrael is united, when Klal Yisrael is a kahal, it's together, a mechuber, it's a kehilah, it's a gathering which unites. There is no way of stopping it. And that's what Midyan, Moav and Midyan are afraid of: hakahal, the achdus in Klal Yisrael. And we're going to show you throughout the parsha that Bilam is trying to see the chisaron in Klal Yisrael, that they don't have achdus. He's trying to find that Klal Yisrael is not an am echad, it's not a meyuchad, it's not a hakahal, and thus gives him the koach to puncture Klal Yisrael, that there should be shayach to be chalan in a klalah. There's a very famous vort, I beseech. Saveltum. It's a famous vort. The Apter Rav once said that Balak is oisiyos v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. The talmidim, am gekukt — yeah, he's already looked. Don't worry, it doesn't work out. It's not true. V'ahavta is with a vav; it's not with a beis. And kamocha is with a chaf; it's not with a kuf. But Balak is v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. So I asked him, but it's not. He said, You see, you don't understand. Az mehot Ahavas Yisrael, it works. It's there. You can find already in Balak v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. It doesn't work. It doesn't fit. It's not v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. Why did he want that in the parsha of Balak, zol lign v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha? What did he want? Balak is v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. Habeisei, as we will explain on the velt — the velt was just to wake you up a little bit, habeisei — to show you how Bilam is looking to undermine the koach of Klal Yisrael, that they have v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha, knowing that all destruction and all bad in Klal Yisrael is rooted, and all the galusin are rooted, in the chisaron of v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha, sinas chinam. Balak — the idea of Balak is anti v'hafta l'reiacha kamocha. And why is Balak taka not matzliach? We'll soon see. Let us learn the pesukim. Pasuk tells us that he takes Bilam. This is by Chamishi. He takes Bilam. Come with me, Bilam. Again, you'll be able to see Klal Yisrael. Again, you'll see a part of it, but you won't see all of it. What does he want, Balak? What's Bilam? And the Torah says that's exactly what he wants. It's not by default. That was his cheshbon. Efes katzeihu tireh, uvechulah lo sireh, v'kovno li misham. You'll see a part of it, but you won't see all of it. Focus in on one part. You'll find chisronos. You'll find holes. You'll find where you should be able to see evil and bad and mistakes. But if you look at kulo, you look at the entire Klal Yisrael, then it's all much more beautiful. You see a beautiful klal hakel when it's together. So Balak's kavanah, his plan is that he should focus ayin ra on one particular part.

In one particular chisaron, and not to see the entire scope of what Klal Yisroel is and the greatness that Klal Yisroel achieves. I want to tell you over a meirdige vort from my zeide zicherono livracha. V'ata yavo eilecha Yaakov mishkanosecha Yisrael. Rashi brings two drashes Chazal on this. One is, ra'ah she'ein pischeihem mechuvanim. He saw that the doors were not facing each other, the windows were not facing each other, she'ein mis'arvin, that they don't mix together. One pshat: that's ma toivu ohalecha Yaakov, the tents are so beautiful. He brings another pshat: ma toivu is the batei knessiyos and the batei midrashos, ma toivu ohalecha Yaakov. The truth is, Chazal actually darshen on the pasuk, Shochen lishvatav, וירא בלעם, he sees that they're shochen lishvatav, ra'ah she'ein pischeihem mechuvanim v'ein mis'arvin. And interestingly enough, Rashi doesn't bring it on the shochen lishvatav, where Chazal darshened it. He puts it on the pasuk of ma toivu ohalecha Yaakov. Farshim have already dealt with this kasha. It's a famous question. Zeide zicherono livracha said a meirdige vort. The zeide said, you know, ein mis'arvin, the fact that they don't mix and the pischeihem einam mechuvanim could be a chisaron. Why do we look at it as a maila? Everybody lives for himself. The goyim, every guy, he knows what's going on the guy down the block, what's his business? This is his line of business. Not his business. So why are we looking as a maile shein mesarvim? Fakert, maybe it's a chisaron gar. My grandfather used to say, I remember him telling this, that when he came to America, it was a culture difference from Europe to America. And one of the hardest things to get used to was the expression, Mind your own business. You would go to a fellow and you tell him, I hear you have a problem with parnassah. Mind your own business. Mind your own business. It is my business. Pechidim, we live one for the other as brothers. It took him a very long time to swallow — lashon Yiddish is fadayen — to chew up and swallow the concept of mind your own business. So maybe it's a chisaron she'ein mesarvim zeh bazeh, roshei pesachim mechuvanim. But then what happened was, he looked at the batei knessios, the batei midrashes. There he saw that they don't live separate. The mishpachah einam mitzeiten; they live together. So then he looked back and he realized this, that in the homes their ein mesarvim comes from tznius. If you would just focus on the homes, maybe it's a chisaron, maybe they don't care about one the other. But now that in the batei knessiyos, batei midrashes, they live with biyunity — they should live in unity, al kol panim — meileh that fataitches, that shows that when they are in the homes and their ein mesarvim, it comes from a good place. Not from not caring. That's matoivu alecha Yaakov. The two Chazal together bring out matoivu alecha Yaakov, the home, and then you look at the Beis Medrash and the Beis Knesses. If you think deeper into the pshat of the zeh zecher livracha, it's a meridike arach. What comes out is that you have to see the whole picture. That's really what the vort is really trying to say. When you zoom in on one part, you might see it doesn't make sense. It looks like there's a chisaron of caring. But then if you look at the entire picture of it, the full scope, the kuloi. If it's efes k'tzeiu sira, you'll come up with a little bit of questions. But the kuloi, when you look at all of it as a whole, you'll see Klal Yisrael is an am like no other nation. You know, rabosai, there's no way to sugarcoat this. We'll be seeing and hearing things throughout our lives that bring to question our ahavas Yisrael. It's just the way it is. There's things that we have questions and we see behaviors and—

And it goes to the core, the question. All the talk that we have of how great Klal Yisrael is and how beautiful Klal Yisrael is, what's the answer to that? How do we respond to that? It's a tremendous question, rabosai. What's the answer? You see sometimes things and there's no answer to it. And we question, ריבונו של עולם, how could He do a thing like this? How could Klal Yisrael...? And I believe that that's part of the answer. You look at the individual person or the individual circumstance, you have to look at the whole picture. Klal Yisrael as a whole has greatness that no other nation and no other peoples have. Recently an organization of chesed came to speak to me, and the person was going on and on about all the politics that he has to deal with on a constant basis. This issue and that issue, and you saw that he was so troubled by it. I told him one sentence. I don't even know if I knew at the moment, at the time, that I was saying was so profound, but it seemed like he walked away so moved by it. I said, It's true that we falter, but nobody rallies like Klal Yisrael around the mitzvah, around the chesed. Yes. We fight. I'm not gonna say we don't. In-family fighting, so to speak. We fight, but we rally much better than we fight as well. Push comes to shove, we're there. And I said, Kubi, that's the pshat in Chazal. Chazal say that when Bilam went, he was makeh the osen three times. It was a remez. Why three? Atah ba laakor, you're coming to uproot an umah chogeges gimel regalim, that they're oleh regel three times a year. Why that mitzvah more than any other mitzvah? Why was the mitzvah of aliyah laregel, the symbol, Klal Yisroel's greatness? You're coming to be oker the greatness. Klal Yisroel, look, they're oleh regel three times a year. I saw a gevaldige vort from Shlomo Kluger. I think it's kedai to say it over. It's gemeirtege vort. There's a medrash that says that the Ribono Shel Olam told Bilam, I'm not going to destroy Klal Yisroel. Who's going to keep the Torah if I do? So Bilam said, quite foolishly, but he said, I'll keep the Torah. Stama, he overlooked the fact that he lived with an asin. Stama, I guess he didn't know that that's asur min haTorah. Al kol panim, he claimed he'll keep the Torah. So the Ribono Shel Olam tells him, wait a minute, wait a minute. What do you do with oleh regel? The Gemara says in Chagigah, if someone is סומא עין, he's blind in one eye, he can't be oleh regel. So, אתם הונגישנין, rasha. What are you gonna do with? So, shein a druch, huh? Good. But what is the pshat in the Chazal? B'voi kol Yisrael liros פני ה', Klal Yisrael unites. At home, all year, there's squabbling, machlokes, it's normal, it's life. But they rally. B'voi kol Yisrael liros פני ה', when it comes to the Beis Hamikdash, when it comes to inyanei kedusha, when it comes to kvod Shamayim and kvod Beis Hashem, they rally. Kol Yisrael. Hakhel. The mitzvah of Hakhel also was weird in the Beis Hamikdash. Hakhel. The koach to unite as one, atah ba l'hakhel. You're coming to be oiker a klal that's able to be oleh regel. And this is what I told this person: focus on all the beautiful stories where you saw a Yidden came to rally behind your tzedakah chesed organization, and don't focus on all the squabbles, the daily bickering.

And he walked away very, very moved. And then I told him a story, which I'm going to share with you. I want you to take it with you for Tisha B'Av. Think about this story. I've said it in the past, but I don't know if everyone has heard it, and it's kedai for everyone to hear. My second son was born Erev Rosh Hashanah. It was at night. It was a whole night delivery. It was a long night. My shviger was there by the delivery. The doctor, she came in, she was there. In the morning, she needed a coffee. After the baby was born, she needed a coffee. Al kol panim, I was very happy to get it for her because I felt she needed it as well. So I went down—in NYU, they have a cafeteria in the basement. I went down, 6:30 in the morning. A lady walks over to me. It was pretty obvious that she was not from the more right-wing communities, more from different communities. And she started telling me with such bolster happiness, excitement, You heard what happened by so-and-so Chassidim? I said, I tell you, Bobov. You heard what happened in Bobov? I was out of the loop, so to speak, for 24 hours. I was in the hospital. I had no idea what was going on outside. I said, No, and I thought maybe the Bobover Rebbe was avek. I didn't know what, you know. But she said it with such glee and excitement. She said that they nebach, they chapped. She didn't say the word nebach, but I'm adding because I feel very difficult repeating it. Found two Yidden smuggling things that they shouldn't have been smuggling, and they arrested them. And to her, this was a metziah. Ha, take a look, you see? Look at the chassidishe kreitz. To me, I don't remember feeling pain so much by what I heard. It was like a dagger in my heart to hear this. I just, I just, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The whole thing was bothering me, and the way she repeated it. And I knew I had to respond. I knew I had to respond. But I'm not good at it. I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. I'm good at saying nice things to people, not that good at saying sharp things and tochacha. And I remember saying, Ribono Shel Olam, help me. Lichvodcha, lichvod Yisrael, help me. Help me respond the right words. What came out of my mouth, again, b'siyata dishmaya, what came out of my mouth was, you know, if you ever fell in the street and you needed help, the first people to jump to your aid would be these Bobover chassidim with the hatzalah. Nobody else would run and go and put themselves out there for you. Don't talk about them. You might need them one day. And I was shocked. I was able to come up with this. But as I thought about it, I realized, I was saying a miracle. Yes, efes kotzeihu. I want to focus on this chisaron and that chisaron, all of the kuloi. Look at the whole sum total when we rally. Fast forward ten years later, my same son that was born Erev Rosh Hashanah, he was a ten-year-old boy, like some of the ten-year-old boys, I can't say all, but, chalamayd, didn't exactly wake up for a 6:30 minyan that I went, okay? Chol Hamoed Sukkos, woke up a little later. He wakes up, he wants to go daven, Baruch Hashem. I told him, if you want to go daven, you should have woken up 6:30, 7:30, 8:30. I'm not going to tell you what time it really was. It was a lot later than that. Then I'll take you to daven, especially the day was planned for trips, Chol Hamoed, right? My wife had it all planned out. I kindled davening him, his brothers. I said, you know what? I'll take you all to Babov. There you can get a late minyan, but you got only an hour. Make it work, okay? Don't start פראווען me, you know, gantze halos over here. You got an hour, I'm picking you up in an hour.

I come back an hour later to pick them up. I'm in front of Bobev on the avenue, I think it's 15, on the avenue. They come into the car, and my son tells me, you know, I left my Hadassim, or his Chai Reuven, he left something. He has to go back. Okay. Starts going back. All of a sudden, I hear screaming, screaming, chai, vitchit. Yankel zei farzukt, hot a bix. He has a gun. Commotion. Anyway, I start to look around, and I see what's going on. Spanish person, a hoodlum, is trying to chop a Yiddish kid. He's trying to grab a kid. And these Bobov chassidim, as they walked out from shul with their lulav and esrog, they see this, so they ran to save the kid. I hear the hoodlum has a gun. I'm ready to put my foot on the gas and get out of there as quickly as possible. But I know I have my son is... And these two people are running to the kid to save him, knowing this. Running. Hot a bix. He has a gun. They held the guy down. The police came, and we saw the entire story right by our car. It happened right in front of us. I thought to myself, bzechus — that was Melamed zechus ten years earlier — and I understood the maila of hatzalah that they had one for the other. Ribbono Shel Olam showed it to me. The kuloi tira. I saw it. Maybe Hashem gave me to see, just like by Bilam. Chazal. Bilam got to see the whole picture. Ma tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishkenosecha Yisrael. When you’re focusing on one part, you have to know that there’s a kuloi tira and you will see it. Chazal tell us that Bilam is Lavan. The Medrash, Bilam, his foot, as he goes with Osin, atilochesh al hakir, it got hit against the wall, and there was avanim there, there were stones, says Chazal that it was a remez to him. What was the remez? The remez was that you’re trying to destroy Klal Yisroel, but you made a treaty, eid hagal hazeh, because Bilam is Lavan, and Lavan made a treaty with Yaakov. He put up a stone as a monument that he won’t hurt the children of Yaakov. How could you forget that? Leishteit in Medrash. Bilam and Lavan, what’s the connection between Bilam and Lavan? You know, it says in Chazal, Lavan, and we say it in Haggadah, Lavan, bikesh la’akor es hakol. How did Lavan want to destroy everything? I’m מסתמא every year in Haggadah, you probably hear all different teiras about it. How did Lavan want to destroy everything? Abeizai, let me tell you a gevaldige vort. I was thinking about it. Lavan wanted to make the pirud in Klal Yisroel. When Yankif went, the stone twelve turned into one. A void of Yaakov was mitoso sheleimah, that Klal Yisroel should unite, and that's how Klal Yisroel could survive. Lavan wanted there should be many wives. Why did Lavan want there should be many wives? What was that all about? And the teretz is, he wanted there should be pirud and machloikes. And he was almost successful. Reuven was Bilhah, Yissachar, and Yosef with the brothers, with Reuven, and it was a whole to-do in the different families. That's Lavan bikeish, lakor es hakol. How? By making a pirud in Klal Yisroel. And that was understood, that when Klal Yisroel is united, Klal Yisroel could survive all the tzaros and all the golus. I see the time, but let me quickly tell you something beautiful. Shteit in Chazal, it's a targum, that when the story of Shittim and the bnos Moav, and they were mizaneh, it says that they were standing, v'heim bochim Pesach Ohel Moed. What were they bochim? Chazal say it's a targum, koirin Kriyas Shema. They were reading Kriyas Shema.

Why were they reading Kriyas Shema? Pashut, I would have said, because the Gemara says that when you see the yetzer hara is getting to you, taflin lein Kriyas Shema. So you should take the maamar brachos. So they were sitting, they were reading Kriyas Shema. V'heima boichin, kayin Kriyas Shema. They were reading Kriyas Shema because that's a protection against the aveiros. Where did Kriyas Shema, Shema Yisrael, come from? The Rambam tells us, brought down in Hilchos Brachos, the Rambam tells us of Kriyas Shema. Where does it come from? Klal Yisrael told this to Yaakov Avinu when he gathered them around his bed. Hei asfu v'agidah lachem, eis asher yikra eschem b'acharis hayamim. And the Medrash, the Rambam brings it, that Yaakov was very concerned about what's going to be b'acharis hayamim. What was his concern? Shema yeish lachem machlokes. The lashon of the Chazal is machlokes al HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Machlokes, the word machlokes, very funny word, machlokes on HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Chaluk, to be cholek, I don't know, machlokes, it's a funny lashon, machlokes. Pshat is, pashut, I don't have time to bring all the mareh mekomos, but it's emes, that if there's no achdus in Klal Yisrael, then it's not Hashem echad. It's just the way it is. Klal Yisrael, when they united, that's Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad. And this is what they answered. They answered this to Yaakov Avinu. Shmau vinu Yisroel. What's avinu Yisroel? Yisroel is a bechinah when Klal Yisroel is united. Vayichan sham Yisroel neged hahar, k'ish echad, b'lev echad. What's Yisroel? says the Zohar, dor Yisroel saba. That when Klal Yisroel is vayichan, that's Yisroel saba, of Avinu Yaakov. It's not Yaakov, it's Avinu Yisroel. Dor Yisroel saba, vayichan sham Yisroel. That's when Klal Yisroel is united. Shmau vinu Yisroel. Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Now if you notice, we say in the Haggadah, Ki ochal es Yaakov, es naveihu heishamu. I think it's emes pshat, rabosai. Ochal is a lashon yachid. It should say ki achlu. It's throughout the doros, ki achlu, shvorei chamozcha, hagoyim asher lo yeducha, many goyim. Why ochal? And why Yaakov? And the teretz, rabosai, is that when we're Yaakov, we're not Yisroel, we're not united, then the goyim are united. Ochal to destroy us. Ki ochal es Yaakov, lashon yachid. Once heard a vort from Reb Bick, zecher tzaddik livrachah. We have to hate Moav. Why? Al dvar asher lo kidmu eschem balechem uvamayim, va'asher sachar alecha Bilam ben Beor. The pasuk is very complicated in lashon. It starts off what? Al dvar asher lo kidmu lachem בלחם ובמים. Al dvar asher sachar, and olecha is also lashon yachid. It should say, asher sachru aleichem. So I heard from Rav Bick, a meirdige vort, a meirdige vort. Al dvar asher lo kidmu eschem. It was a big problem when they didn't bring us the water. Many of Klal Yisrael died because of it. That's eschem. Al dvar asher lo kidmu eschem בלחם ובמים. But when it comes to asher sachar olecha, when Klal Yisrael is united, that didn't work, because we were olecha, it wasn't aleichem. Asher sachar, they tried to unite, but it didn't work. Asher sachar olecha. Now, rabosai, let's go back to the teretz of Reb Tzadok HaKohen in the Mishnah. As we've spoken, that Bilam is trying to make Klal Yisrael, that it lacks achdus, that it has sinas chinam. And the truth is, Klal Yisrael may...

In certain areas are questions, but the whole sum total is unbelievable. But there was another lesson that Bilam had to learn, and this Reb Tzadok HaKohen says so beautifully. The talmidim of Moshe, who were the counterpart of Bilam, and at the same time as Bilam, were Yidden. They were Jews. Talmidav shel Moshe, the Chidim. Talmidav shel Avram are who? Goyim. There were no Yidden at the time. Zogt Reb Tzadok HaKohen, tzu kumen un fregn, mah bein the talmidim of Bilam to the talmidim of Moshe? The ergste goy, sorry, the best of goy doesn't come close to the ergste Yid. They wouldn't even have such a Mishnah. There can never be a discussion, zogt Reb Tzadok, the talmidav shel Moshe, Yidden, with goyim. They're not even in the same comparative; you can't even compare them. Talmidav shel Bilam with the talmidav shel Avram, okay, kemeredn un zogn that the talmidav shel Avram had better ma'alos and midos than the talmidim of Bilam. What's the limud, rabosai? Let's talk l'maaseh. One, whenever we fall into this, it's a horror, so to speak, of complaining against Klal Yisroel, and there are things that happen, look at Klal Yisroel as a whole and how much chesed they do, how great they are when it comes to helping. And the second thing is, remember, the biggest ga'iv doesn't come to the toenails of what a Yid is, what a Yid has inside himself. And these are two lessons, what they say. We need to be mechazek ourselves. Chazek, chazek ourselves. It's important, as we reach the time where we mourn the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash based on sinas chinam, try to train ourselves and train our children. Very important in the home not to be negative, not to be negative. It's a big nisayon. I can't tell you, I get it, I get it. I'm not blind, I'm not fooling myself. It's a tremendous nisayon. Shabbos tables, you come home from shul, don't put down people and don't speak about this. And even if the person's wrong and it hurts you and it bothers you, look at the whole picture of Klal Yisrael. We're beautiful. Hein am levadad yishkon, u'vagoyim lo yischashav. Definitely can't be even comparative to the goyim. That's the pshat. Hein am levadad yishkon. We're unique, we stand alone. U'vagoyim lo yischashav. We can never even be counted in and compared to. Avstake bizech, Rabosai. Work on it. I beg you, I ask you. And this is two advice how to work on ahavas Yisrael, from the destruction of the Binyan Beis Hamikdash. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.