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KORACH'S BAD HAIR DAY

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Rabbi Daniel Glatstein Official avatar
Rabbi Daniel Glatstein Official

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Recording in progress. >> Okay. Good afternoon everyone. It's your favorite time of the week. And don't think I'm just imposing that on you. Even he he agreed. Even though even though I paid him to agree, but still he agreed. No. Welcome everyone. Monday afternoon national. We have amazing material today on paras. Firstly, make sure you have the safer uh the third edition is already in America. It's uh beautiful safer and you could take advantage of the maida of hubman who said he decided to davin for all those who learn his safer and say over his tyra to others. It's now being worked on in English for arts school if anybody wants to participate. Now last year Cisu Yeshua was uh published and the organization Marvit Tory distributed over 600 copies to those who committed to learn the safer. If anybody wants to get a free copy of the safer, contact Marvitra. That's m a r b i t z e i t o r a h1 atgmail.com. Tell them you want to learn the safer. If you commit to learn the safer, they will send it to you for free. Or if you would like to sponsor other people to learn the safer, we're now approaching the three weeks. And if you want to be yidden to make Yeshua part of their everyday aid, please contact us. If you want to help actually today, this safer is going to print in Spanish and we're still looking for someone to dedicate the volume hopefully by by in an hour or so we'll have an answer to that question. Or if anybody wants to participate in the publication of upcoming volumes including of please let us know. Today we're going to talk about a difficult time for Kak. Please take a look at the screen. We know the opening p of this week's para and there is a name which is conspicuously absent. We're giving the whole brievil of Karak. He's a son of Yeetsar. He's a grandson of Kahas. He's the great grandson of Ley. What happened? Well, just take it back just a bit further. What happened to Yakov? Why don't we say Ben Levy? Rashi says we don't mention Jacob's name because Jacob was raim that his name should not be mentioned in association of the of like it says so Jacob Hashem leave me out of this I don't want to have anything to do with when the story is recorded and his is given and he's saying he's the son of Year the grandson of Kah the great grandson of ley knew don't say so freedman asks this is not the only time the Jewish people sin and why is Jacovu davening specifically for this sin leave my name out why didn't he davin leave my name out of the moragum why didn't he davin leave his name out of other the messiah in him. Why specifically was Jacob did Yakov pray that his name should be left out of the episode of Kak? Now when we see the name Kak, it should trigger something in our memory. We should say to ourselves, you know, I think I've seen that name before. Where have we seen that name? of all of what's kak doing in parish but kak was one of the aluf as comes the holyam and he says I can't believe it I can't understand how the benet levy could call their child a name after the alu doesn't the tell us says we're supposed to let the names of the wicked rot you're supposed to leave the name if someone has a wicked ancestor so you let their name rot on the shelf together with all their old newspapers why would the ben ley utilize the name of The aluf what's going on? What was wrong with them that day? asks when Yeetszar had a baby and it was the eighth day and the the guy who got creame says and he leans in and he he like motions to what's the name What? What? What? What? What were the thinking after the says? Maybe this is why the P says it gives us three generations. And usually we say there's a rule. And yet in this instance it was why it was why was it? It was bahira because all the goodness that could have come out of this family was taken away because of the name. The name kak affected it lar it it was because of this evil name that he was given. It took everything from the fact that he was benitari. The name took away everything. And by the way writes this not only in his commentary to the but in the chasam he brings that in aic sense that the base lei also had a son called Zema. Now that's not a very good sounding name. Zemo sounds like says maybe they didn't know yet what said a sham and they were not nizar not to call their their son their child a name called Zema and the proof is they even called their descendant a name and look what happened to Kai in other words in his chubus also attributes the downfall fall of Kak to the fact that his name was the name of Arasha, one of the Aluf. And theam says, "What happened to the Garivos? Let rust gather on their name." However, says the Although the criticizes the Ben Levy, we are obligated to justify and try to understand what were the Ben Levy thinking. Why would they give them this name? Certainly, this could not have been, you know, their go-to option, this even if they didn't know Vashim Rashkov, but isn't there a certain uh uh common sense you want to avoid such a name? Why did they give the name Kyra? Now there's another interesting idea because there was there was someone else who fell into this dispute and he was saved. This person's name is Ben Pelis. What was the uh story with the wife of Ben Pelis? The Gumar says in Sanhedin Benis his wife saved him. She says to him, "You have nothing to gain because whoever the leader is going to be, you're going to be second into command." Meaning Pelis said, "Look, you want to say there's nepotism? I don't know. Maybe yeah, maybe not. But what do you have to gain? If Kyra's going to be the leader, you'll also be second in command. You have nothing to gain here." Um, so he said to her, "What should I do?" I swore to them. He says, "Nah, one thing I know is that they might be bal, but that doesn't mean they're not far from, you know, that's never a steer from kite and unfortunately are not always contradictory to each other." So she said, "I have a great idea." They're very, very holy people. By the way, the biggest fights are from the holiest for the holiest causes. So, what she said is, "I'm going to save you." She gave him to drink some wine. He got drunk. She put him to sleep. She sat outside. She undid her braids. And anyone who passed by anyone who passed by, you know, did an about turn. They didn't want to look at the uncovered here of the wife of Ben Pelis. Now what did Kak's wife say? Ah, she says to him, "Yay, look at you in the mirror. You look you look like you know you look like you're from a third world country. Look what he did. Mosha is the king. He made Arin the kayen and his brother's children. He made the assistant kayada. If someone has to give chuma they says give it to Ain. If sole says, "Yeah, but um car said at least they give me miser." No, you have to then go give uh a chumaser back to Aaron. And then she says to him, "You ever have you looked at yourself recently? You know, when I married you, Kak, you were a dashingly handsome yet ley. You had, you know, you're a really handsome guy. You're a tall, handsome guy with a full head of hair. But look at you now. He shaved you like the American bald eagle. He shaved the hair of your head. He shaved all the hair on your body. He shaved your eyebrows. He shaved your eyelashes. He took every blade of hair off your body. You look like a bowling ball, Kyra. You look like a disaster. You know what? Mosha was probably jealous of your dashingly handsome hair. That's why he shaved you. So, it's interesting story of contrast. Ben Pelis's wife uncovered her hair, saved her husband through her hair. Kyra's wife, aside from her claims that there was nepotism involved over here, she also said, "Look at you. Mainu shaved you. You look ridiculous. You look like you're from the central Africa or something. You look like you're from the jungle. What happened to you? Mosha shaved you like uh like the bald eagle. Anyway, what is this referring to? What was Kyak's wife saying to Kyak that Mosha shaved bald? Well, if you remember back in Par says, "Take the Levites from among the Jewish people, purify them. They were shaved bald with a razor." The matter says in berious rabb that when they shaved kyak it says that kakim so they did that to kak. So karak went back home nobody recognized him. They had no idea who he was. They know what happened to him. They thought maybe you know he was in some kind of nuclear reactor. He fell into a nuclear reactor. And they asked who did this to you? He said mosha. They said not only that said he took me by my hand and my foot and he started waving me like a caparos chicken and he said to they were waving kak zifasi zetasi zaparasi and a on the other hand he dressed him like a kala in beautiful beadim and a looked like a million bucks. Aaron was handsome. Aaron was becked. Aaron was bejeweled. And Karak looked like the American bald eagle. He looked like a bowling ball. So they started to hate Moabu and to fight with Moabu. And they said Mosha is the Melik. Ain's the God. His children are the assistant Khanim. The Truma goes to the Cayenne. The Miser Trumaser goes to the Cayen. The manuscu. If when you think about these teachings of Kazal, you'll discover that the central theme of the story of Kyak was hair was hair. hair was a big theme in the story with Kyra rem beginning with the removal of Kyak's hair and the other levim the mitz of ending with the rescue of Benelis by his wife uncovering her hair. Why was hair a central detail of the story of Kyak? This year we're going to call Kyra's bad hair day. Okay, that's the name of today's share. Kyak's bad hair day. Now, there's another important personality in the Kish that where we find another important uh rivalry where we find hair is a central factor. We know that one of the defining and central characteristics to differentiate between Jacob and Asov, the contrast between Jacob and Asov, Asov is called a hairy guy. As was a hairy guy and Jacobu was is Jacob was smooth, wasn't so hairy. You know, some people they they they're shaving already. A right after they're upshar, they need to start shaving their mustache. And then, you know, when they're 10 years old, they would have a beard down to the floor. And you have other people, they're 50 years old and they're still waiting for their a few sprouts to grow on their face. They they when nobody's looking, they water it. They sit out in the sun. Now, eventually, it's going to come. They still is. You still have time. You know some people are hairy and some people are smooth. What does hair represent in Jewish thought? What is the symbolism the meaning of hair? The safer aral of Daviditz the author of levush on the mugram he says hair reflects luxury wealth because hair is something you could live without. You could trim your hair. You could cut your hair. It would not affect someone's quality of life. You can't cut off your nose. You can't cut off an ear. You can't cut off your head. But you could cut off hair because your nose is not a is a necessity. Your ears are necessity. Your hair is luxury. Likewise, I in the arash says hair reflects luxury. A person needs to distance themselves very much from luxury. The naturalists say hair reflects luxury. That's why hair is always found in places of the body where there's a lot of moisture. That's why there's a lot of hair in the base she in the armpit because there's a lot of moisture and sweat there. Therefore, it so to speak it grows the hair. Therefore, there's a concept the hair of the head grows with foolishness because we know that luxury is a reflection of foolishness because why get involved in it? Why? Why? It's not necessary. It's empty pursuit. It's foolish. [snorts] It's the opposite of so here represents excessiveness. excessive nonsense, luxury. Therefore, a nazer who sanctified himself not to part partake of wine to minimize his luxury. We tell them, okay, um um we tell the nazer after the end of his nazirus that he needs to shave all of his hair. That's also reflects minimizing his luxury and to to become more of a minimalist and therefore says the levim who are separated to to be dedicated to Hashem and to serve Hashem and to sing to Hashem and to so to speak despise the desires of the time. That's why a ley doesn't own real estate and he the the ley um relies on public support. So for the ley the proper course of action is gil to completely stay away from luxury. They don't own land. They don't have regular careers. They don't serve in the army. They're totally dedicated to the service the spiritual service of Hashem. They need to minimize their luxury as most as possible and to be dedicated for kadusha. That's the reason why the mel takes a daily haircut because he has he has to be extra careful not to be become immersed in luxury. Likewise the every week he has to minimize his luxury says the upshot is the purpose of man the objective of man is to abandon luxury and especially a bal tshoua by the way comes [snorts] barbanel and he says something amazing he says also here represent presents tya. Therefore, the the um service of shaving the hair of the levim was since sey represents moistro this was the message of keeping away from luxury. Now here's the thing. What do we know about [snorts] the tells us on the three wealthiest people, three of the wealthiest people who ever lived Hatadic Hatadik found great treasures actually not that he yatic because he was supporting the world in years of famine First they brought Ysef all the money. Then they brought him all the livestock. Then they brought him all the cattle. So Yo had fabulous, stunning wealth. And he buried it. He hid it in Mitraim. And it became revealed to Kyak. It also was revealed to Antonas. and one and um the rest is revealed to the but says the garra sometimes wealth could be a disaster for a person you know most people think okay I'll take it I'll try it let me see how disastrous it could be but the garra says there's a concept sometimes wealth could be a great disaster for a person and in a prime example of That says garam is the wealth of the garra says on the all of the possessions that are at your foot this is the money of a person that the person's money keeps him on his feet. You know when a person has money in their account it gives a person confidence. It gives a person stature. It gives a person boldness. The Gmorra says there the weight of 300 white mules were just the keys to the storehouses of Kyak's treasury. So says freedman. He wants to say something new. Why the ble referred to their son as they understood that they would have a child who would become fabulously wealthy. He would find a third of the great treasures of yatsadic. And this would present him with a tremendous challenge. You know friends, even though if you ask most people what's a bigger challenge, the challenge of wealth or the challenge of poverty, most people would say the challenge of poverty is a bigger challenge. But if you look in all of the it is well known that the challenge of wealth is a greater challenge than the challenge of poverty. actually in uh the safe pishua which we were plugging before and in a footnote uh it's brought many many marakim of many of how the challenge of wealth is a much greater challenge than the challenge of poverty. Let's see if we could find it. You ready? Um, for example, the inraim, the beginning of the first in the beginning of also the paleo on a the le and you know the talks about that in his times because of the extreme poverty and how difficult it was to serve Hashem said therefore it's so much more likely for Msiah to come because the of the for remaining loyal to Hashem was so great but we could say in our times where we have the challenge of wealth that's a much greater challenge than the challenge of poverty so suggests that the Ben Levy saw that they would have a son who would find the third uh section of the treasures of Yatadic and it would be a great challenge to them. It would be a great challenge to Kyak. He would get involved in moistro and luxury and pursuit. He would always have to get the latest model vehicle. He would always have to be upgrading his home, upgrading his pleasure intake. Therefore, they Dafka gave the name Kyra. What does kyak mean? Kyak means bald. Kyak means bald without hair. They were trying to inculcate in this in this u in their progeny not to become immersed in maestro rice in luxury. They foraw that this this individual would have a great challenge. He would one day discover the treasures of antiquity of yatik. In fact, the zakadesh also says the reason why he was called kak is for this very reason because it was because he was bald. When why was he called bold? When moshenu shaved him. By the way, it's very interesting. There's a garnum says that the great Benazi Benazi said hash all the rabbis, they're nothing to me. They're like the shell of an onion. They're like the outer shell, the outer kipa of an onion. How much does an onion cost? you know, a couple bucks and the kip of an onion, it's basically worthless. You rip it off. All the rabbis to me are like the shell of an onion except for except for this guy. What? What does Benaz mean? All the were like the shell of an onion except for this says Rashi. Who's called? Why? this gear that we have in Yeshua ben that's Yeshua the son of Rabbi that's the benaka like we say in Yeshua Rabbi the rabbi and Benaz was a great and he knew how to distinguish very well and nobody was of value to him except for [snorts] comes and says that Rashi says says the why is Benaz giving this disparaging name Baldi say he should say why is he giving him this um disparaging name you're not supposed to use a disparaging name but if you look in the The says that he had sparks of holy souls. He was from the drops of yadik. That's why he's called aka beno. And he also had some of the light of Jacobino. But the Arizal explains further quoted by the hagam that he says that in the safer you know there are various there are various uh opinions how to spell the word aka the zarua in his introduction says the reason why he named the safaru is he wasn't sure how to spell the name aka Is it or and he saw in a dream the and which are raka with a hey from there he he learned he gleaned that name is spelled with a hey he at the end however writes that there's a sole connection between rabbi yaka and yak That's why it says midday. The words spell out but with an alfa with an alf. Also there's a safer karan or that rabaka was called kak because he was he was a nits of yakov au and yakovu was called smooth bold. Jacob au was called bold. Therefore, Rashi says Kak is a a reference to Rabaka because Rabbi's soul connection to Yakobu. Yakov is called and Rabaka was called bald Kak after Yakov [snorts] and Yakov being called bald was reflective of Yakovu's attitude in general toward luxury. Jacobu says, He says, "Please give me bread to eat and clothing to wear." Question. Why does Jacob have to say, "Give me bread to eat and clothing to wear as opposed to what? Bread to wear and clothing to eat." If if Jacob came into sh wearing kala, it might have been a little strange. If Jacobu ate his clothing, it probably would not taste so good. Says, "It is the of sadikim from Hashem." They don't ask for luxury. They only ask for necessity only what they can't be without says the the it is man's pursuit of luxury that causes him great trouble. Therefore, a person should be joyous with his lot and suffice with what he has and should not desire luxury. There's a great principle in life. Don't increase your pleasure intake. Whatever your pleasure intake is, whatever car, house, don't look to upgrade. If you if when you're when you go to sleep at night, your head hits the pillow and you fall asleep, then your pillow is working and your house is working. And then enjoy it. In anyway, this is what says soak au is reflected by the name. He's smooth. And therefore, who has this soul bond to Yakov Au, he's called the bold one like Yakov Au. It has great a great connotation. It has a beautiful meaning. It means someone who who is separated from uh earthly pursuit becoming immersed in luxury. Hair represents the pursuit of luxury. It's interesting in the parades from paras he brings from the oflen that reba darianed every crown of every letter in the tyra the crowns on the letters in the safer tyra you know what they're similar to they're like the hairs of the head rabaka was called bald You know why? He left the safer tora without any crowns. He was able to explain every single hair. In other words, Rebea in terms of his pursuit of he was completely bold. He was not immersed. He did not seek it. He did not search for it. Instead, the concept of here of Rabbi Aka was completely given over to the Tory. Rabbi Aka devoted the desire for luxury to learning Tory. In Rabbi Akiva's mind, [clears throat] any excessive anything excessive in Gashio, he did without. And he channeled the concept of sear. He raika channeled the concept of hair and he applied it to aa where not only did he try to understand every s he tried to understand every little hair raika harnessed the concept of mo and he channeled it completely to the the world of so the pin suggests that's the reason why the ben levy called this individual kyak kyak is a holy name Kai is the name of Yaka and the reason he's called Ky is because he's he's named for Yakov Jacob is so the B were trying to save Kak says Pinas perhaps this is the reason why that of all occasions Yaku Aino said no no no leave me out of this I know that Kyak guy they're naming him after me Kyra Baldi is the name of Yaka and Kak comes from the name Yakov who's anal. So Yakovino says, "No, no, no, no, no. The B Levy tried to save this guy." But ultimately when he has his debacle and he has his downfall, I don't have nothing to do with this. Kyra with even with whatever boost he had by being given thi this name that was the same nickname so to speak of Rabi Akiva. He could not overcome the his the allure of wealth and the temptation for wealth. And he became so enamored with money and so desirous of power and so desirous of covet and every appointment of Mishabenu he questioned and he wanted and he was jealous with great soros. Yakov says I I know they're going to blame me on this. I don't want to have anything to do with it. When they trace back the lineage of Beni, I'm out of it. I know his name. You know, you're going to say I'm connected with leave me out of it. This is the reason why specifically in this instance said that was Kyak's bad hair day. Kyak's bad hair day. Mosha tried to help him. He shaved off all his hair. He tried to to curb his pursuit of Moyce, but Kyra did not uh did not choose the path of moderation and therefore he became too immersed in the pursuit of luxury and the end was disastrous for him. And although he had this connection to Jacob, Jacob was so uh ambition only to ask Hashem, please give us what we need, what we need. Now everybody has there's no objective level of what is needed but a a good general rule is don't try to increase your pleasure intake. Everybody is entitled to enjoy this world but not to become immersed in it. Whatever Hashem gives you should enjoy it. You should be grateful for it. You should thank Hashem for it. but not to seek um above and beyond. Friends, have a great day. Thanks for joining. Cult of >> recording stopped.