Épisodes

  • Korach the Politician - Moshe the Anti Politician

    Korach the Politician - Moshe the Anti Politician
    Jul 4 2024
    11 min
  • What motivated Mrs Korach’s jealousy?

    What motivated Mrs Korach’s jealousy?
    Jul 2 2024
    12 min
  • The Voice of Korah Echoes Today

    The Voice of Korah Echoes Today
    Jun 30 2024
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    15 min
  • Heaven on Earth or Turning Earth into Heaven - Shelach

    Heaven on Earth or Turning Earth into Heaven - Shelach
    Jun 28 2024
    Seeking Heaven on Earth or Turning Earth into Heaven Having spent a week studying the portionof the Meraglim, end delving into the additional support given to Joshua and Caleb, and learning that the neshamot of the original Shevatim joined each of the ten other meraglim to boost (although unsuccessfully) their spiritual awareness, I am trying to understand the mindset of the ten. I endeavor to put myself in their shoes and figure out why they did what they did. We read the various explanations discussing their intent, but something was still missing for me. If we look at Rashi, we see that at first, he praises the Meraglim quoting the Torah’s description of them as anashim - men and telling how important each and everyone of them in fact was. The rabbis tell us that the Torah lists their names inorder of importance, and we don’t find Joshua or Caleb until the middle of thelist. We have to ask, if these guys were so special, how did they mess up? But then Rashi tells us that they wentin as they came out and with that, he explains that just as they came out withan evil intention, they went in with an evil intention. So, when did they go from important,honorable, righteous people to people who went in with this evil intent? I think we can also get a feel for wherethey went wrong or what the thought process which led to their miscalculationwas by looking at the responses to them by Joshua and Caleb. I don’t think that anyone goes in withthe intent to derail a mission unless they think that they are totallyjustified and righteous in what they are doing. These ten must have thoughtthat they were doing the most beneficial thing for Benai Yisrael. Many of our rabbi suggest that themeraglim thought it best to stay in the desert under the leadership of Moseswhere they could eat the maan, drink from the well of Miriam, dwell in theprotection of the divine clouds and study the Torah firsthand within a life ofperfection rather than leaving that Heaven on Earth and connecting themselvesto a land, to a battle and to farming to work, where the torah might beforgotten. Caleb tells them that we can surely goup and inherit the land because Hashem gives us the ability. We explained inthe class based on the Talmud in Sotah that he saying that even if you gave usladders, we could climb into heaven provided we have Hashem‘s assistance. Whenthey are afraid and the strength of those in the land. Joshua tells them:'Have no fear of the people of the country, for they are our prey: theirprotection has departed from them, but the Lord is with us' (14:9). Ibelieve we have a reasonable clue as to what was on the minds of the 10 spies. If we say that they were righteous andsuddenly everything changed when they were ready to go into the land, thensomething happens at the time of their appointment. Perhaps until then theydidn’t feel a responsibility for the nation as a whole, but at this point, asleaders, they became responsible and with that responsibility, tremendous feartakes hold. At this point in the story, we are abouta year and a few months after the exodus. In that time, we left Egypt, we cameto Mount Sinai, we heard and were present at the revelation. 40 days later,Moses returns with the first tablets to find us worshiping a golden calf. 80days after that, Moses returns with the second set of tablets on Yom Kippur. Afew days later, we begin the construction of the mishkan - tabernacle which iscompleted in the winter, but is not dedicated until the first of Nissan. We gothrough a second Pesach and the Pesach Sheni. The next step is to go andconquer the land. In our class on Shabbat, we quoted abeautiful thought of the Shvilei Pinchas who suggests that the first luchot -tablets were associated with the Etz HaChaim – The tree of life in the gardenof Eden. Those tablets were pure and the Torah within them was pure. Thosetables relate to Adam HaRishon before the sin. The Torah relating to the Etz HaChaim is described as the Shivim Panim –the 70 faces of the Torah. Just as Adam fell, we fell through theegel hazah, the golden calf, and the second tablets relate to the tree ofknowledge of good and evil which Adam ate from. Within the second set of luchotare good and evil. There is a mixture and with that the confusion it brings. About these tablets, we describe a Torahwhere each law is taught by Hashem to Moses in 49 ways to prove something ispure and 49 ways to prove something is impure. And when Moses asks what thedecision is, Hashem tells him that the decision is up to man below. After man’s fall through the calf, thismixture of good and evil requires man to delve through and struggle in theTorah to bring out the truth relative to us. These spies now have this job of delvingin and being commissioned in some way at least in their own minds to make adecision between right and left, good and bad, right and wrong, all relative...
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    14 min
  • The names Kel and Kah - Oartnering with Hashem - Shelach

    The names Kel and Kah - Oartnering with Hashem - Shelach
    Jun 26 2024

    Moshe and Joshua

    Caleb and the Avot

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    34 min
  • A Little Help From The Dead -Shelach

    A Little Help From The Dead -Shelach
    Jun 23 2024

    Shlach Lecha,

    Rashi : שלח לך אנשים. לָמָּה נִסְמְכָה פָרָשַׁת מְרַגְּלִים לְפָרָשַׁת מִרְיָם? לְפִי שֶׁלָּקְתָה עַל עִסְקֵי דִבָּה, שֶׁדִּבְּרָה בְאָחִיהָ, וּרְשָׁעִים הַלָּלוּ רָאוּ וְלֹא לָקְחוּ מוּסָר (תנחומא):

    שלח לך אנשים SEND THOU MEN — Why is the section dealing with the spies put in juxtaposition with the section dealing with Miriam’s punishment? To show the grievousness of the spies’ sin: because she (Miriam) was punished on account of the slander which she uttered against her brother, and these sinners witnessed it and yet they did not take a lesson from her (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 5).

    Of these 12 princes, one was Moshe's greatest student, Hoshea. Anticipating the possibility of trouble, Moshe added the letter 'yud' to Hoshea's name giving the now, Yehoshua, an 'injection' of holiness to help protect him from that trouble.

    Ohr HaChaim: We already mentioned that our sages said that Moses prayed concerning Joshua. Why did he have to change his name in addition? Perhaps Moses wanted to give Joshua additional power to resist wicked advice seeing that the first three letters of his name now represented the three letters making up the tetragram. The letter י which Moses added to Hoshea's name has a numerical value of 10 and symbolised that he could resist the advice of ten of his colleagues. It would also eventually enable him to inherit the share of ארץ ישראל that the ten wicked spies would forfeit due to their conduct. This is based on a comment in Chagigah 15

    R’ Bachya: Our sages in Sotah 34 comment that Moses added the latter י to Hoshea’s name so that the letters י-ה at the beginning of his name represented a prayer that he should be saved from making common cause with the majority of the spies.

    Daat Zakenim . When Sarah’s name שרי had been changed to שרה, she had lost a letter, i.e. the letter י. Joshua now received this letter.

    Discuss humility. Last week

    Sarah

    Stand up

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    19 min
  • Moses Half Brothers - BeHaalotecha

    Moses Half Brothers - BeHaalotecha
    Jun 21 2024
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    42 min
  • Crave Cravings - Onions and Adam's Tree - BeHaalotecha

    Crave Cravings - Onions and Adam's Tree - BeHaalotecha
    Jun 20 2024
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    15 min