Chukas: Torah as a Mikveh for the Neshama—Parah Adumah and the Power of Kiruv

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom aleichem, bruchim haba'im. Tonight, I'd like to talk about the effects that Torah, Talmud Torah, the learning of Torah, has on the Yid and his neshama. And in a broader sense, the role Torah, Talmud Torah, plays in the tool of kiruv rechokim. Zos chukas haTorah. Just read in the parshas hashavua, this is the chok, the decree of the Torah, and we read the din of parsha of parah adumah. The mefarshim ask, if it talks about parah adumah, and the parah adumah is a chok, it should have said, Zos chukas parah adumah. Why does it say, Zos chukas haTorah? This is the chok, the decree of Torah. It should have been more specific: Zos chukas parah adumah. Many mefarshim have dealt with this question, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, and many different answers are given. I'd like to say a simple pashut pshat, and that is: parah adumah is taharah; it's purity. Zos chukas haTorah. The Torah is telling us that purity is the chok. This is what Torah is. Whether or not we fully understand how and why it works, it works. It's a chok. Zos chukas haTorah, parah adumah tehorah tehorah is chukas haTorah. The Rambam, at the end of Hilchos Tumas Tzaraas, talks about a mikvah. How does mikvah work? Everyone knows when there's tumah, when a person is defiled, he goes into a mikvah and he comes out pure. Says the Rambam, tumah tehorah has no explanation, kipshutei. Very hard to fully explain it and understand it. It's a chok. Mikvah, it cleans the person. Tumah is not a dirt, says the Rambam. How does it clean? How does it cleanse the person? It's a chok. The Rambam goes on to say, and even so, chok doesn't have to mean that there is no explanation. Chok means that it's not the simple, on-surface explanation. But of course there's a reason. There's a reason for a chok. There's a reason for a din. And we see parah adumah itself, it's called a chok, yet Chazal tell us that the Ribono Shel Olam tells Moshe Rabbeinu, Lecha ani megaleh. To you, Moshe, I will tell the reason and explanation to parah adumah. So yet it's a chok, and still there's an explanation. So the Rambam uses this yesod to explain the inyan of tumah, taharah, mikvah. It's like someone who immerses himself in mei mei hadas. In the waters of knowledge, just like a person, when he wants to go to the mikveh and he's mechaven, his intention is to purify himself, it works. The same reasoning would be, the same would work if a person would immerse himself in mei mei hadaas, the waters of knowledge, which is Torah, this person too will get to taharah. So we see Torah is a metaher, like mikveh is a metaher. And this could be the pshat in zois chukas haTorah. Parah adumah, chok, it's taharah. And that chok of taharah is chukas haTorah as well, that the Torah purifies. It takes defilement, it takes tumah, and it's able to be metaher the tumah that the person has. Chazal tell us an interesting yesod, based on a pasuk in this week's parsha, in the parsha in the din of parah adumah. The person who needs the parah adumah, he became tamei. How does he become tamei? Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Unfortunately, a person passed on in the tent, yamus, he died in the tent, and the person who is now defiled has become...

Because he walked into that ohel. He's in the ohel. He's in the tent where the person was yamus. And that's how he became tamei, and he needs parah adumah. Says Chazal in Brachos, samech gimmel amud aleph, that there's a limud, there's a lesson. The Torah is telling us, Adam ki yamus b'ohel, ein haTorah niknis. The Torah cannot be acquired by one unless he's meimis atzmo b'ohalah shel Torah, that he literally sacrifices himself. He dies over the Torah. He has no life. The Torah becomes a full life sacrifice to him, and then he will be koneh Torah. Adam ki yamus b'ohel, and the pasuk begins, Zos haTorah. This is the rule, the law, and we darshen Torah now meaning to mean the learning itself, the Torah itself, is niknis b'mi shemeimis atzmo aleha. The mefarshim ask, why is it here? Yes, it's a tremendous yesod. It's a tremendous inyan in Talmud Torah that you have to be moser nefesh, and that's the only way to be koneh Torah. But why is it taught in the context of parah adumah? It should be next to the mitzvah of veshinantam levanecha, where it says you have to learn Torah, and there the Torah should tell us, by the way, you know what it means to learn Torah? Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Why Adam ki yamus b'ohel? Adam, ein haTorah niknis ela b'mi shemeimis atzmo aleha. In the parsha Parah Adumah, the way we're explaining zechus haTorah, I think there's a meydeke pshat here, and that is because that is part of the taharah. The Torah is teaching us, Adam ki yamus b'ohel is the taharah. Today we don't have a Parah Adumah, but Parah Adumah is eternal. Adam ki yamus b'ohel is the way we can be mekayem Parah Adumah. We have the taharah if you're yamus atzmoi b'ohalo shel Torah. A person, if he touches a meis, or he comes in contact with a meis, or he's b'ohel hameis, that's tumah. Yet, if a person's meimis atzmoi, he remains tahor. He's meimis atzmoi b'ohalo shel Torah. That's what the Torah is teaching us. It's almost not ein hameis metameh. The meis is metameh the person, but the person, if he's meimis atzmoi, he actually becomes tahor, and that's chukas haTorah. That's one of the chukas haTorah, that the more you meimis atzmcha, the more tahor you become. Even though misa is a goyrem of tumah, but meimis of Torah is a goyrem of taharah, and that's why it's taught in this week's parsha in the context of Parah Adumah. It's interesting, we find the taharah of the Parah Adumah is dependent on mayim chayim El Keli. The taking of water, mixing it with the efer haparah. And interesting, we find the inyan of mikvah that's metaher, and Torah is like mikvah, the Rambam. And in Chazal, Torah is nimshal l'mayim. Hoy kol tzamei lechu l'mayim. It's like water. Torah is nimshal to water. So it all comes together. Mikvah, the taharah of the efer haparah is with mayim. Chofetz Chaim explained the halachos of parah adumah as a symbol, as a lesson for the person. He's supposed to take a lesson from the actual halachos, the details of parah adumah. In the parashah of parah adumah and the din of tumah and taharah, it says, V'chol kli pasuach asher ein tzamid pasul alav. If you have a utensil that does not have a covering, a tzamid pasil, a strong covering, so it's susceptible to get tumah from outside. Says the Chofetz Chaim, the kli that we're referring to symbolically is the person. He's also a kli. He's also accepting from the outside influences.

And other things. That kli, if it's pasuach, if it's open, and you don't put a lid on it, peshut k'mashmai, you don't put a lid on it. You don't cover the eyelids, and you don't cover the earlobes. You don't cover all the other things that need to be covered, that you shouldn't take from outside the tumah. Tamei hu lachem. You will become tamei. In the halachos, in the parashah of Parah Adumah, Chofetz Chaim was learning it's a mashal v'nimshal to a person. We can say that this is also the inyan of the mayim chayim al Keli. It's also a mashal v'nimshal. You take the mayim, you take mayim chayim, live stream water, and you put it into a keli with the efer parah. So we could say that the mayim is a mayim Elokei, chayim, Torah is called Toras chayim. Al Keli is a mashal, like the Chofetz Chaim said, kli pasuach, the person, that the taharah might be in action in the efer parah. Symbolically, the lesson is the kli, the person. The person needs to internalize mayim chayim Elokei Torah, and that's the metaher. That's one of the afanei ha-taharah of tumah. You know, there's a world of kiruv rechokim, and it's not easy, kiruv rechokim. It's a big battle. It's a battle for the minds and hearts of Klal Yisroel. And unfortunately, there's plenty of klipah soach today. They're open to outside influences. One of the tools that we have is chukas haTorah. The Torah itself is a method of taharah, of cleansing, of purifying. And it's a chok. Sometimes it's hard to explain how a Gemara b'metzia, Baba Basra, a kid sits and learns and he becomes moved. He becomes touched that he wants to be shomer Torah u'mitzvos. It's a Gemara, it's a Mishnah about a parah. Interesting, a parah, right? Parshas Chukas, a parah. It's about a metzia. How does that move a person and be me'orer him to want to become religious? And the answer is chukas haTorah. It's metaher the person. The Alshich clearly explains the theme of parah adumah is kivur v'choikim. Beautiful Alshich. Such a yesoidisdike Alshich. The Alshich says, if you notice, all korbanos are nishchat in the Beis HaMikdash. Parah adumah is nishchat bachutz. Why on the outside? Why is it not in the Beis HaMikdash? says the Alshich, because the tafkid, the purpose of the parah adumah is to be mekarev, it's to be metaher, it's to bring the tamei michutz lamachaneh into the machaneh. So therefore we go to him bachutz and we bring him the korban. It's a beautiful pshat. We have to outreach to the person, so we take the karbon and we bring it outside. We bring the karbon to him. We go out to bring in. Parah Adumah is about tumah. When a person is a baal aveirah, when a person's lost, he's not being shomer Torah mitzvos. In essence, he's dead. In halacha, throughout Chazal, we accept baalei aveirah are keruyei meisim. They're called dead people. You know, in halacha, they all ask, what is the makor for the mitzvah of kiruv rechokim? It's not in the Torah. We find by Avraham Avinu, v'es hanefesh asher asu b'Charan, that he did kiruv rechokim, but it's only a limud in the pasuk. There's no outright pasuk where it says, go be mekarev rechokim, and different Rishonim and Acharonim and Poskim give different mekoros of where we learn kiruv rechokim from. The Chinuch in mitzvah reish lamed tes, se'if daled.

As well as the Shlah, Parshas Kedoshim, learn that kiruv chaykim is based on lo samod al dam re'echa. A person who is a baal aveirah, a person who is not connected to the Ribono Shel Olam, is dead. And by saving his life, you saved a life. Bringing him back to Yiddishkeit is called saving a life. And just as his physical life is pikuach nefesh, his spiritual life, his chayei ruchniyus, also pikuach nefesh. The Taz in Orach Chaim, siman shin vav, se'if katan hei, paskens that we are mechalel Shabbos to save someone from shmad. The case there was that they were capturing, they were kidnapping a girl to take her to shmad, to a monastery. And the question is, you're allowed to be mechalel Shabbos to save the life, physical, of a person. How about to save the spiritual life? And the Taz paskens, loy gara mipikuach nefesh. It is pikuach nefesh, because if the person is shmad, if the person is rachok miTorah u'mitzvos, it's like he's dead, which is what we're learning, that para aduma is tumas meis. Part of tumas meis is tumas not shomea Torah u'mitzvos. The tumah of aveirah, the tumah of being rachok mehaShechinah, menutak, mimkor haTorah, mimkor hataharah. There's an interesting Seforno. Seforno seems to say this yesod of kiruv. We need to go out, and we need to work to be metaher, to bring close those that are lost, those that are far. And he says a me'oirerdige chiddush, this sipurim. You know, when you ask anyone, what is the cheikah parah adumah? I'll say on the spot, it's metaher es hatemeiim u'metamei es hatahorim, which means the person who is tamei becomes tahor, but the kohanim who are involved in making the efer parah and sprinkling the efer parah, they become tamei. And everyone's going to tell you that that's the cheik, which means it doesn't make sense. This person becomes tahor and all those become tamei. It's not true, rabosai. It's a mistake. Not all the kohanim who are involved with the efer parah adumah are tamei. It's only those that prepare it. But the one who actually sprinkles the efer, who sprinkles the waters on the tamei to be metaher him, he is tahor. He remains tahor. It's a mistake that people run around saying all the kohanim, they all become tamei. It's all the kohanim till the last one who does the actual sprinkling of the mei chatos, says the sipurim, it has to be that way. Why? Because if someone is in the process of being metaher somebody, it's impossible that he should become tamei. When you're in the— So to speak, in the trenches to try to get someone to be mekarev, to be metaher. You think that you're also defiling yourself. You're connected with all the tumah, and therefore you could become tamei. I've had many rabbeim who are oisek in kiruv rechokim. This is one of their concerns, that they themselves will start becoming too acquainted, too comfortable with all the hashpa chitzoni, all the hashpa ra that they're listening to, that they're in contact with all the time. There's an interesting story from the Belzer Rebbe, zichrono tzaddik livracha. One of his chassidim wanted to do kiruv rechokim in a faraway place. He asked the Rebbe, the previous, maybe Reb Shlila, should he go do the kiruv rechokim, move away, away from the center metropolitan where all the Yidden are? And the Rebbe told him to do it. He writes back to the Rebbe after six months, It's very difficult. I don't have who to talk to. Shabbosim, throughout Shabbos, chamishah me'ot, I don't have who to talk to. There's nobody here. I can have a chumah, a gute teher, I don't have who to talk to.

Nobody on my level. Should I come back? Rebbe said, No, stay. A few months later, again, he writes back, Rebbe, it's really, really hard. There's nobody here for me to talk to. I'm alone. Should I come back? The Rebbe writes back, Stay. A year passes. He sends another letter, Rebbe, it's getting better. I have who to talk to. I'm starting to make friends here. The Rebbe says, Okay, now come back. Now it's time to come back. If you're having who to communicate with, which means you're falling, you're getting less, and it's becoming mim b'minoi, mim b'minoi. Yeah, you're starting to have hashpa'ah from them that you're starting to feel comfortable. Yet, but it seems the support is saying a yesod that theoretically, if you're metaher others, you will remain tahor. You will remain tahor. It's famous that Reb Aharon, zichrono tzaddik livracha, shlita, Reb Aharon would send the talmidim out, faraway towns throughout the States, to open up yeshivas. When they came to tell Reb Aharon their concerns that what do we do with the children? They're going to be in yeshivas. There's no yeshivas, day schools. Halavai they would have even, you know, good day schools. We're afraid. And Reb Aharon gave them a havtachah. He promised them that if you go to build Torah, you go to help Yidden, to mekarev them, you have a guarantee. You have a guarantee on the children that they will remain yirei Shamayim and kach hava. It was noticed by many that the influx of all the children from all these out-of-town yeshivas. Well, the children, more or less, almost close to 100%, were always yireiim u'shleimim, the best, the best in Lakewood yeshiva. Vayikchu eilecha. Let's talk a little bit more the process that Torah has in being metaher the Yid and being mekarev the Yid. Vayikchu eilecha parah adumah. Chazal tell us, why eilecha? Vayikchu parah adumah, why eilecha to you, Moshe? Chazal say because it's all about Moshe. Parah adumah is Moshe's. Al shimcha nikra, it'll be called on your name. Chazal say only Moshe Rabbeinu knew the taam, the reason of parah adumah. So it's all Moshe Rabbeinu. Why? Moshe's parah in the Midbar. Why? Why? And the answer is because Moshe is the semel. He's the symbol of Torah. Parah adumah is chukas haTorah. The underlying taharah is really about the chukas haTorah. It's Torah. And I would explain it as follows. People think it's the parah adumah. Maybe it's the chok of the parah adumah. Chok means the Torah told us, so it's the Torah that's the metaher. Pashut, you learn it's the parah adumah, and then you have the question, I don't understand, but the parah adumah, how does it work and what is it? And the answer is it's the chukas haTorah in the parah adumah that's metaher. I'm doing with the Torah. And that's eilecha Moshe. Moshe was the koach haTorah, and therefore the parah adumah is about Torah, and that could be the pshat, the chok. What's the chok? Chok means I don't have my own daas. I don't have my own—it's not my thinking. It's the Torah. The Rambam tells us that all the filth of the whole world could infiltrate the person. How does it stop? If you have Torah. When a person learns Torah, it stops all this from the mind. How does it work? So it could be the pshat's like this: the mind thinks. If you have chok, if you have Torah in the mind, and that's all you have in the mind, so then there's no room for the rest, for the outside, for the tumah. Meimei hadaas—the Rambam that we just quoted said that what is Torah? Torah is called the mayim of the daas, of the mind. So if the mind has Torah, meileh it's not panui, it's not open for anything else because they don't go together.

Tahorah tumah. There's not a shidduch. So if you push the tahorin, you're pushing out the tumah. I would say maybe a little bit of a vort. Al shimcha. Parah Adumah will be on your name. It's an interesting wording. It just should say that you'll get the credit for the Parah Adumah. Why does it say, Al shimcha, your name? Let's get down to what Moshe's name was. What was Moshe? Moshe ki min hamayim meshisihu, which means to draw. It's a moshech, the koach of Torah. You know, the oceans are storming, and a person could get drowned in the ocean of life. And what pulls the person back, what's able to draw him is shimcha Moshe. Moshe is the—when a person's drowning, we throw him a boat, a lifeline. What's the lifeline? Torah. Ki min hamayim meshisihu. The world is like galei hayam. The Gemara talks about how life is galei hayam. The Gemara says, the Tanna, every time he had difficulties, how did he survive? Galei hayam. He bent his head, and the wave went on top of him. Shturm tzuch avelt, rabosai. The world has oceans of storming. Waters. Minamayim, does she see what draws the person out of all that? And the answer is, Al shem Moshe. There's an interesting pshat that I need to share with you, very interesting. Pshavorsk, Or Pnei Moshe. It's a sefer from 200 years ago. He says, What's the pshat, eilecha? And he brings an interesting story which Grada d'Tveres Yisroel brings, that there was once a person, a king, who wanted to meet Moshe Rabbeinu, but he knew he couldn't meet Moshe Rabbeinu in the midbar, so he sent an artist. Yeah, it sounds like an interesting story, but the Tiferes Yisroel brings it in the Mishnayos at the end of Maseches Kiddushin. He sent an artist, that the artist should draw a picture of Moshe Rabbeinu and bring it back to him. The artist came back, showed the picture that he painted, and the king said, I'm going to put you to death. You're a liar. You never painted him. You painted somebody else. Why? The features are such that this can't be Moshe Rabbeinu's features. It's the features of an achzer, a person who has bad middos. Can't be Moshe Rabbeinu. Everybody talks about Moshe, the great Moshe Rabbeinu, the person who spoke to Hashem. This can't be it. The person who drew the picture begs the king, I tell you, I'm telling you the truth. I drew Moshe Rabbeinu. Please send somebody else and you'll see I wasn't making it up. I didn't draw a picture of somebody and just came back. The second artist went, and he came back with the same picture. And the king says, I don't understand. This can't be Moshe Rabbeinu. And he sends message to Moshe Rabbeinu for an explanation. And this is what Moshe Rabbeinu supposedly told the people as a response: How could this be a picture of him? And he said, You think a person's born with good middos? Adam yivaled. A person's born with bad middos. But the koach of Torah changes the person to be a completely different person. You know, a picture just gets the outside. It just captures the chitzoniyus ha'adam. Chein is really from the inside. Torah, Torah changes the person from within. Beauty of Torah, it changes the entire person, his neshama, his heart, his thoughts. So when you take a picture, you're just getting the outside. You're just getting the chitzoniyus ha'adam. And therefore, you see this picture of me, but that's not who I really am now. Torah changed me. Says our pnei Moshe, that's the pshat: V'yikchu eilecha par adumah. What's eilecha? Because you...

are the greatest mashal, the greatest symbol of what it means, a lecha tahaira para aduma. And he says an interesting pshat: the para is aduma, red. Red, we always know, is a sign of midas haroyis. Esav was admoni; it's red, red. Yet what becomes temimah asher ein bah mum through Torah, which is really what we're speaking about in the Chassidish literature. We've spoken that the taich of Torah is the metaher, takes a person and it changes him completely to be a pure person, to be a good person, to be a heilige mensh. In Chassidish Torah, this is the nekudah, a lecha, that it becomes parah shasah Moshe, because Moshe, you are the personification of Torah making the person, making the mensh. You know, kirvechaim, rabosai, is hard, not an easy thing. Sometimes you work on one person, and you spend years working on an individual, and they always tell you the famous rule, ... nefesh achas miYisrael, k'ilu kiyam olam malei. It's like you changed an entire world, and the pashut pshat is because he has children and grandchildren, so him and his grandchildren are the olam malei that you're saving, ... who knows how many people. They'll tell you also that each individual is an olam malei, so even if you only mekarev one, it's already something, because he himself is an olam malei that the whole world could stand on. I'd like to share with you an interesting Yerushalmi in Demai, Perek Gimmel, Halacha Daled. Amar רבי יהושע בן קבוסי, כל יומאי הוה קוראס הפסוק הזה: והזה הטמא על הטהור. So the tamei, the heiza hatamei al hatahor. What's the pshat? טהור אחד, מה זל טמא אחד. That one person who is tahor, the heiza, hatahor al hatamei, that one tahor will sprinkle on the tamei. למדתי מאוצרי של יבנה, שטהור אחד מזה על כמה טמאים. Now literally it means that just because a kohen sprinkles once, he could sprinkle on many. It could be there's an analogy over here, that when you sprinkle on one, you're actually sprinkling on many. When you metaher one, it's never one; the influence spreads. One sometimes starts the spreading of a taharah that many become tahor. Reb Chaim Shmulevitz, in the Mir, used to say, people think yissachar-zvulun means that you support Torah, and mimeila because of that, the person who's learning, you get his schar. You don't have to only support with your money. If a person influences other people through his behavior in yeshiva, he davens properly, he learns properly, he behaves with beautiful middos, and he influences others to follow, he also has yissachar-zvulun. Koyach of tahaira spreads. It's infectious, just like tumah is infectious. Tahaira is also infectious. Just like by tumah you have, adam ki yamus b'ohel, that the tumas ohel, that if you come into the ohel, so too there's another halacha, and that is kol haba l'ohel. What does that mean? The mefarshim say that l'choira the kasha is, adam ki yamus b'ohel means ein hatahor niknas atzmo ela b'mi shemeis atzmo elaha. So what does it mean, adam ki yamus b'ohel, v'chol asher... meaning that it works even in the taharos of tahor also. Just like if you're mei meis atzmo, it's a tahaira, kol asher yavo b'ohel, there's also tahaira through that, through the influence of those that are sitting and learning. It's a moiridike taych in the pasuk, it's beautiful. Adam ki yamus b'ohel means a tahaira, tahaira, mei meis atzmo elaha. So what is the tahaira? Kol asher yavo b'ohel is also...

Because the influence, the influence of those that are sitting and learning. The Gemara tells us in Mai Katan that the connection of the parsha beginning is Parah Adumah, and at the end we have Miriam. What's the connection to Miriam? And the answer is the misas Miriam is called misas tzaddikim. It's Gemara Moed Katan chavches, and misas tzaddikim is mechaper like Parah Adumah. Mefarshim ask, but then bring it by the korbanos. Parah Adumah is not only a mechaper; it is also metaher. Why is it brought over here by the parsha of Parah Adumah? Possibly we could say that actually the hemshech is not only to misas Miriam, but to actually what followed misas Miriam, and that's Mei Merivah. Mei Merivah, Moshe Rabbeinu has an opportunity to make a Kiddush Hashem. Chazal tell us, Rashi quotes it, what was the Kiddush Hashem? That the Yid would have taken a lesson that if a rock listens to the Ribbono Shel Olam, who has no heart, who has no bechirah, so kal shekein adam, Klal Yisrael, Yidden, would listen to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So this was a kiruv rechokim moment, so to speak. This was a moment where Moshe Rabbeinu was able to bring out a lesson of tochachah, of his'aalus, where a Yid was able to say, listen, if a rock could listen, we also could be shomer and be shomea to the dvar Hashem. It's interesting, the Rambam learns that the chet of Mei Merivah... Because he got angry at Klal Yisrael and he said, Mamrim heyisem, right? He said, he called them that they were mamrim, that they were people, right, who are mamrim. So the question is, so let's say he got angry, right? So we know that Moshe Rabbeinu got angry in Midyan, he forgot halachos. Why is it that because he gets angry over here, he doesn't go into Eretz Yisrael? It's such a strong punishment. Bishleima if you learn that it's a chilul Hashem by not making Kiddush Hashem, Rashi, so we can understand chilul Hashem has a strong punishment. But if Klal Yisrael, he calls them Shimu na hamorim, why is that enough of a reason that he shouldn't go into Eretz Yisrael? I saw the Kedushas Levi explains that Shimu na hamorim is actually the same pshat. The Rambam's pshat of Shimu na hamorim is actually the same pshat as Rashi, and that is that the right mahalach on how to elevate Klal Yisrael, on how to be mekarev Klal Yisrael, was through vedibartem. And it wasn't through harsh calling them Shimu na hamorim, by calling them with such harsh words, morim. So it's not the kaas, but it's the calling Klal Yisrael morim. The method of kiruv is kiruv, karov, is to bring close and not to push away. Shimu na hamorim. was harsh and was pushing them away. And he says, so Rashi and the Rambam is actually the same pshat. Maybe we can explain that this is why he didn't go into Eretz Yisroel. I was thinking of an interesting raya. Moshe Rabbeinu does not go into Eretz Yisroel; it's l'tovas Klal Yisroel. Chazal tell us, Mizmor l'Asaf, bo'u goyim nachalasecha, sheshafchu chamasa al eitzim v'al avanim. The Klal Yisroel sinned, and because they sinned, they were supposed to get destroyed. But instead, the Ribono Shel Olam destroyed bricks, eitzim, avanim, the Beis Hamikdash. The mefarshim tell us, had Moshe Rabbeinu gone into Eretz Yisroel, he would have built the Beis Hamikdash. They couldn't have destroyed the Beis Hamikdash, because anything that Moshe Rabbeinu created had kiyum l'olam, like the Mishkan, for example. The Mishkan never got destroyed; it sunk into the ground. So if Moshe Rabbeinu would have went and built, then the Ribono Shel Olam would have no choice, and instead of destroying the Beis Hamikdash, He would have destroyed Klal Yisroel. Shimru am morim really means hopeless, b'nseiru morim. Moshe Rabbeinu has the right to give mussar, but when you give the mussar, you have to understand the person is not hopeless. You can't pasken.

On him, hamoyrim. Hamoyrim. We know there's mamrim, zaken mamrei. The word mamrei means there's no more coming back. It's hopeless. That's where the taina is. The taina is kiruv. It's never hopeless. The approach has to be, and even sometimes it means that you have to say a harsh word, but not hamoyrim. So when Moshe Rabbeinu doesn't go into Eretz Yisrael, not a punishment, but actually it was a lesson. You think Klal Yisrael is hopeless? They could do all the aveiros. They're going to continue. I'll destroy the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash will end, but Klal Yisrael will continue. The lesson of Mei Merivah is the onesh of Moshe Rabbeinu, that it wasn't an onesh but a lesson. Mei Merivah, you could talk to Klal Yisrael, and an even which has no feelings, Klal Yisrael's heart is never even. There's no such a thing. Even though we talk about a lev even, there's always regesh. There's always something that you could move. So vedibartem el hasela. To say shimu na hamoyrim means it's not vedibartem el hasela. You didn't speak to the sela. You decided that there's no hope for the sela. He's a moirah. We're going to show that Klal Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael will continue no matter how much moyrim they do and how many aveiros. They're not hopeless. There's a beautiful Chasam Sofer that I always think about. I come across many people in my life who you say, How could you? There's just no hope. There's no way to bring them back. There's a Chasam Sofer: מה ידעני לפניך, אל חי וקיים, שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה, רבה אמונתך. What is בחמלה רבה? With great rachmanus, You give me back every morning my neshama. רבה אמונתך simply means great is our emunah in You, that You will return us the neshama in the morning. Chasam Sofer explains רבה אמונתך actually means the Ribbono Shel Olam's faith in us. The Ribbono Shel Olam never gives up on us. Every night the neshama goes back up, and sometimes dirtier than it was the day before and the day before and the day before that. At some point the Ribbono Shel Olam should say, I can't lend you the car anymore, because you're smashing the car every day that I give it to you. And what happens? There's an emunah, a faith where, you know, I can try one more day because I believe you could do teshuva. I believe you could come back. It's never hopeless. רבה אמונתך — אמונתך, your emunah, Ribbono Shel Olam, in us. So to say שמעונה אמורים means that Moshe, so to speak, gave up on us. That can't be. How does Torah metaher? And with this I'll end, rabosai. How does it work? So we said it's a chok, but we've said that a chok also has explanation, right? And it's like a mikvah. Let me tell you a meydike raya that I had, Baruch Hashem. I'll share with you a raya, I thought, which I think is emes la'amito. Mikveh, the Meiri explains the mechanics, the secret of mikveh. What is a mikveh? Mikveh, mayim is tahor, can't become tamei. So when the person who's tamei goes into the water, completely immerses himself, so the tumah has to stay out, because the water can't absorb the tumah. Remember we said this in the Rambam, that if the person has meimei hadaas, there's no way for the tumah to enter all the outside influence, because they can't asmos together, they can't come together. The Gemara tells us in Pagla b'Chama nuvul zeh, mashcheihu l'Beis HaMedrash. Bring him into the Beis Medrash. The pashut pshat is because once he's in the Beis Medrash, you have the Torah to combat. Or maybe we could say a different pshat. The menuval, the yetzer is not coming into the Beis Medrash. He comes to the door, he can't go in. Tehilik. So he has to stay on the outside while you come on the inside, which is like mikveh, and once the tumah is on the outside, it dissipates, it disappears. The way the Meiri explains—

I think it's in the end of Maseches Chagigah. How mikvah works is really the mechanics how Torah works, which is really the Gemara, that the way the person puts himself into the waters so the tumah has to stay away because it can't be absorbed in the water. Mashcheilu beis hamedrash, and therefore it can't go into the beis; it stays on the outside and it'll dissipate by itself. There's an interesting Zohar. You know, it says that the kohen, v'asaf ish tahor, a person who's pure, he will gather the efer haparah and he will be metaher the person. Say Chazal, v'asaf ish tahor. Who is the ish tahor? The kohen? Ze HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It's actually referring to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is oseif, aseif asifei, the Ribbono Shel Olam gathers all the tameiim and He's metaher them. Amar Reb Akiva, I believe that's the pshat in the famous Midrash, the famous saying of Reb Akiva. Amar Reb Akiva, Ashreichem Yisrael, lifnei mi atem mitaharim? U'mi, u'mi, u'mi metaher? Who's doing the taharah? The Ribbono Shel Olam. That's this Zohar, v'asaf ish tahor. It's the Eibishter that's being metaher. How does that work? Latzivata d'Reb Akiva: ma mikvah metaher es hatemeiim, af HaKadosh Baruch Hu metaher Yisrael. The same method, the same technique, just like ma, ma mikvah, it's not just a mashal, that the same way a mikvah works, Torah works, which is the Rambam. It's even deeper than that. Ma mikvah, the same way the mikvah works, that the tumah can be absorbed, so too, af HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is tahor, v'osav ish tahor. So if you have the Eibishter, you can't become tamei. Take the Eibishter with you, you can't become tamei. Chazal tell us, V'yikchu li trumah. What is v'yikchu li? You gotta take Me. How do you take Me? Say Chazal, take the Torah, and I'm in the Torah. K'ilu lokchuni osi, famous medrash. So when you learn Torah, who are you taking as a chavrusa, so to speak? You're taking the Torah itself. You know, the phones today, rabosai, the yetzer hara found the way how to outsmart. Notice it's called a smartphone. It's a smart—he outsmarted what Chazal told us, mashcheihu l'beis hamedrash, because when you were outside, you had the yetzer hara. When you came in, he didn't come in with you. So he found the way how to come in with you into the beis medrash. He found the way how to block the mashcheihu l'beis hamedrash by bringing it into the beis hamedrash, into the seat where you're sitting, on top of the Gemara. No. He outsmarted you like he always does. He's always in the chess game one step ahead of you. Mashcheihu l'beis hamedrash was your weapon for taharah, like a mikvah. You found the mikvah? You found the beis medrash; it was a mikvah. But now it became tovel v'sheretz b'yado. Literally, tovel v'sheretz b'yado. You know, they tell you when you have a phone, you should get something called a chavrusa. Chavrusa is with you, he monitors, he protects. It's one of the apps that a person can get on his phone called Chavrusa. Torah is the greatest chavrusa because you have the Eibishter. The Ribono Shel Olam is with you in the Torah. Vayikchu li, the Ribono Shel Olam becomes your guardian when you learn Torah. And that guardian is v'asaf ish tahor. That's zois chukas haTorah. There's one method which is the strongest of all for taharah, and this is the key to kiruv rechokim, is Torah, Torah, Torah, Torah, which creates taharah, taharah, taharah, taharah, which is parah adumah, adumah, adumah, which is zois chukas haTorah, chukas haTorah. Cleanliness. Mei mei hadaas, the only way to wash away tumah is the mei mei hadaas, the waters of Torah. And that's Moshechu, that's Moshe. It draws you, it brings you in. It's a life...

in an oceans of, oceans that sadly, sadly are there to drown the person. I'd like to share with you a story. Once, many years back, I was a bachur at the time. We went to a bar mitzvah in Tel Aviv. I traveled from Yerushalayim. I met up with somebody in Bnei Brak. We traveled with two other very chashuve Yidden. Actually, it was three. Two of them were roshei yeshiva, one was a very big talmid chacham, three chashuve Yidden. And we went by bus and connecting buses, and it was the middle of summer. It was a boiling hot day. It was Tel Aviv. It was a rough day. It was a rough day, connecting buses. The buses came late. We were by the bar mitzvah. There was no air conditioning. By the time we were heading back home, so one of the Rosh Yeshiva that was with us said, When I get home, the first thing I'm going to take is a kalta drink, a cold drink. The other Rosh Yeshiva said, Ah, a day like today, I come home, the first thing I want is a hot shower, a tush. A hot shower. The third chashuve Yid, a very chashuve person, we were in Tel Aviv. It was hot. The pritzus around was very bad. And he said, When I get home, I'm going to take for myself a warm blat gemara, a warm blat gemara. Gotta wash myself down with a warm blat gemara. The greatest cleanser, mei miadas, is to clean yourself off with Torah. Torah is a chok. No matter how dirty the person is and how dirty his neshama, there's no shimunu hameirim. There is no shimunu hameirim. The rock listens. Even though it's a rock, the neshama definitely listens. Even sachaku hamayim, Rabbi Akiva's big yesod, that the drips of water penetrate the rock. How did Rabbi Akiva see it? And the answer is because he understood the formula of Ashreichem Yisrael, lifnei mi atem mitahar umi metaher eschem? Avichem shebashamayim. That could penetrate the deepest lost neshama, the most complicated, hardened neshama. The drips of Torah, mayim, ein mayim ela Torah. Even sachaku hamayim, drip by drip, it could penetrate. Rabbi Akiva understood this because he understood that the taharah is happening, me, and nothing is beyond the Ribbono Shel Olam's koiches, the ability of the Eibishter. You mechaber yourself to taharah. You connect to the Ribbono Shel Olam, which is through Torah. It's the way to connect. You become tahor automatically because the tumah has to run away. The tumah has to slip away. It can't be together with the kedushah. And this is the formula. of reaching Yidden, of purifying Yidden, and kiruv rechokim. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.