Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Preparing For Renewal Through the 4 Parshiot

[music] [singing] [music] [music and singing] [singing] >> Hey, hi everybody. Thank thank you for coming and we have a smaller than usual crowd, but I understand. I will accept excuse notes and and the like. And as always and especially now we are praying for the protection of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael, the lasting unity of of the nation, which will be as Hashem lead to victory. And we pray for all of those whose health has been affected by terror and war and uh and a leil nishmat for those who have given their lives already uh in the struggle. Baruch Hashem, there has not been many, but every single life is an olam maleh, so every single life uh we grieve over and we pray that Hashem should give them a great portion in olam haba and the families should be comforted with the sacrifices that were made. Uh in addition, uh tonight's shiur was dedicated by Jeremy Bernstein, uh >> [clears throat and snorts] >> good friend, in memory of Jillian Bernstein's mother and Lenny Morris's wife, Yehudit Bas Gershon, who just passed away last Shabbat. So, very recent and be'ezrat Hashem, the divrei Torah that should be le'ilui nishmata. >> [gasps] >> Uh again, you know, it just seems like uh we were just through this, uh this idea of of war and Hamas, which of course was financed by Iran, attacking us and uh just when we got over that, we now have a new challenge from the Avia Vota Tuma. It's a little bit connected to Para Duma, you know, uh a dead body is called Avia Vota Tuma, the father of the father of Tuma, as opposed to most other sources of Tuma that are called Av Tuma. So, uh Hamas is Av Tuma, Iran is Avia Vota Tuma. They are the father of all of the Avota Tuma in the world. So, it's difficult to go through a war yet again, but Be'ezrat Hashem, perhaps this will uproot the evil at its root, uh which is ultimately going to be for the benefit not only of Am Yisrael, but the benefit of the world. And although it's improper for anyone to engage in Messianic speculation, but the Maharal writes in several places in his safer on Geulah called Netzach Yisrael, the eternity of Yisrael, that in acharit hayamim, Paras is once again going to try to destroy us. And he actually considered uh the uprisings of of in Persia, Iran, to be a precursor to the uh Geulah Sheleimah. So, may his words be uh be prophetic and and be and be uh mekuyam. Uh so, what I want you to talk about today is um it's kind of continuing a theme. We've been speaking about not directly the parshat Hashavua, but we've been speaking about the four special parshios in the month of Adar. Uh parshat Shekalim, parshat Zachor. [clears throat] Last week was parshat Parah. We didn't have a shiur on that directly because of Purim, but that gives me an excuse to talk a little bit about it today. And this shabbos is the last of the four special weeks, parshat Sachor Desh, which is always read either the shabbos before Rosh Chodesh Nissan as this year or the Shabbos of Rosh Chodesh Nissan if Rosh Chodesh Nissan is on Shabbos. These are called the four parshios. And there is a machlokes in the Gemara. There actually is an opinion in the Gemara that they supersede the parshas hashavua, meaning meaning on parshas para you would only read parshas para and you divide it somehow into seven aliyos. Uh we don't pasken that way. We continue the regular parshas hashavua and the four parshios become a maftir. They become an extra Torah reading and the haftorah will not be based on the parsha. The haftorah will based on the maftir. Uh which in these four weeks are these four special Torah readings. Uh there is a thought I I want to share with you from the great Rav Zadok Hakohen of Lublin. Rav Zadok, one of the great great thinkers in Hasidus. And Rav Zadok talks about all four parshios as being connected to Pesach. And we normally don't look at that way because we look at Shekalim and Zachor connected to Purim, Para and Hodesh connected to Pesach. He says all of them are really a preparation for Pesach because Pesach is about clearing out the garbage, so to speak, getting rid of the chametz to be able to serve Hashem with purity. And to connect uh a ladder or a building that connects us to Hashem. Making ourselves a Mishkan, a dwelling place for the Almighty. But like every building site, before you can start building, you first have to clear away the debris and the garbage. I know this firsthand because uh I was theoretically teaching in Aish HaTorah when we were engaged in building a new Beis Medrash and for 2 and 1/2 years we we extremely inconvenienced in terms of where we could go and the like, but a lot of the time was spent in cleaning the site, clearing the site, getting rid of garbage, getting rid of debris, transporting things out. Because you can't build on the positives until you clean out the junk. So, if Sefek says the four parshios are about clearing the junk out of our lives, out of our spiritual lives. And what is that junk? Well, Pirkei Avot tells us exactly what that junk is. We know, in a positive way, Pirkei Avot says the world is built on three pillars. Al ha-Torah, the learning of Torah, al ha-Avodah, divine service of sacrifices and prayer, and gemilus chasadim, acts of loving kindness. And so, it's a well-known idea that each of our avos represents one of those pillars to its highest level. Avraham Avinu represents gemilus chesed. Yitzchak, who was a korban, represents avodah, divine service. And Yaakov, who spent 14 years without sleep in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever before he went to Lavan, Yaakov represents the intense learning of Torah. So, those are the positive features. But what are the negatives? Well, the same way we have three positives that build up the world, we have three negatives that destroy a person. And this is a statement of Rabbi Elazar ha-Kappar that says, "Ha-kinah, ve-ha-ta'avah, ve-ha-kavod motzi'in es ha-adam min ha-olam." Jealously, envy, ta'avah is lust for material comfort, hedonism, and kavod a desire for glory or ego gratification. They take a person out of the world. This expression itself is an interesting expression because what it means is not only does a person lose his olam haba because of these three destructive qualities, but a person even loses his joy in this world. When you're consumed with jealousy and envy, you never enjoy the blessings that Hashem gave you because you're so busy looking at what other people have and what you think you didn't get. So, envy is not only a bad mida in the abstract, but envy can take away the joy that a person could have in the life that Hashem gave him. Taiva, if you're so connected to always wanting more and more and more and more, as Chazal say, if you have 100, you want 200, etc., uh you're never going to be happy. As Pirkei Avot says, "Eze hu ashir? Wealthy person is sameach b'chelko." One who rejoices in his lot. Taiva is the opposite. You always want more and more. And Kavod is perhaps the worst of all. Kavod, the need for ego gratification, is a never-ending source of frustration because, frankly, a person with an outsized ego will never get the accolades >> [laughter] >> that he wants to have because, no matter what [clears throat] it is, right? Somebody says, "Oh, you gave you gave a great uh drasha this week." So, the ba'al ga'avah will think, I don't mean to be autobiographical, no, or maybe I'm maybe I have some of the problem, too. The ba'al ga'avah will think, "Hmm, what about last week? You know, what >> [laughter] >> right? That's not enough. You always want more, more and more and more and more. So, the Alter of Slabodka used to say that the idea of kina, taiva, and kavod take a person out of the world, doesn't only mean the world to come. It means their life is miserable in this world, as well. So, here's what Rav Tzadok says, that in effect is the junk we should try to whatever degree we can. We're never going to be 100% successful, but we try to This is part of Pesach cleaning. Part of Pesach cleaning is not only getting rid of the bread, but getting rid of the kinah, the ta'avah, and the kavod. So, you can experience the freedom of Pesach and the relationship to God. So, Rav Tzadok says the following. I'll give you the structure first, which will not automatically be self-explanatory, but if you have the structure, we'll then be able to plug in the pieces. Rav Tzadok says, Parshas Shekalim helps us deal with jealousy. Parshas Zachor helps us deal with ta'avah, lust. Parshas Parah helps us deal with kavod, ego gratification. And when we've eradicated kinah, ta'avah, and kavod, we're ready for chodesh. Chodesh is spiritual renewal. Get rid of the kinah, get rid of the ta'avah, get rid of the kavod, and then there's chodesh. Chodesh is a renewed person who's able to have a relationship with Hashem. Okay? So, basically what I just want to show tonight is really Rav Tzadok's thoughts of how Shekalim helps us with jealousy, how Zachor helps Amalek helps us with ta'avah, and how Parah helps us with ego. Mainly, I'll be focusing on Parah because the basic idea of the first two I've already talked about, but in order to understand the whole structure, I'll I'll repeat a little bit. Shekalim helps us deal with jealousy. So, the truth is we actually spoke about this uh be arichus, but just to encapsulate the essential message, uh the central lesson of machatzis hashekel is that everybody is equal in the eyes of God because the Torah makes the point, the rich person gives no more. This is the half shekel for the upkeep of the base hamikdash, and the poor person gives no less. Everybody is equal. And you'll remember the Sfas Emes's thought, again, this is by way of quick review, that rich and poor does not only refer to money, but rich and poor can refer to the entire diversity of attainments that human beings have. There could be a person who's rich in wisdom, rich in leadership ability, rich in charisma. And then you can have a person who might be lacking in these particular attributes. The idea of machatzis hashekel says, when it comes to the serving of God, when it comes to a connection with God, rich and poor stand before the Almighty in equality, because God is not judging you on some objective standard. God is judging you by how much of yourself have you given to him. And in that way, rich and poor can be exactly equal. Or the hepech, sometimes a person of lower attainment might actually be higher in God's eyes, because he's given more of himself. The same way that in money, a $5 contribution from a very poor person might in fact be a bigger sacrifice than a $1,000 contribution from a very wealthy person. Even though $1,000 is obviously a lot more money than $5, but God is looking at how much of yourself have you given. So, the person who can learn 100 blood of Gemara a day, which is phenomenal, that's the Vilna Gaon's pace, and only does 50, which is still phenomenal, will actually be inferior to the person who's working his hardest and only does one page a week. Because that person is giving Hashem 100%. And the other person is only giving Hashem 50%. So, even though his 50% is so much larger, it is only 50%. Right? So, Machtzis Hashekel highlights the idea number one that no matter what your talents are, no matter what your abilities, no matter what your income, you have the equal opportunity to connect to Hashem to Hashem by giving Hashem whatever you have. That is obviously an antidote to jealousy. Because jealousy is I look at somebody, he's richer than me, he's more talented than me, he's smarter than me, he accomplishes more than me in whatever area I'm looking at. So, I'm jealous. I feel I'm deprived. I feel that God gave me a bad deal. That somehow I don't have the same opportunity for an intimate relationship with Hashem. Machtzis Hashekel negates that thinking. Machtzis Hashekel corrects that thinking. And as a result, a lot of the things that cause us to be jealous simply evaporate as it creates a circumstance where I treasure and I cherish the life that Hashem gave me. Not the life I wish I would have had, and not the life that I would prefer, but the life that God gave me. It's hard to understand this, and I'm not sure I can fully understand it either. But in many, many ways, it has to be the case that the life that Hashem gave you is the best possible life for you. Now, I can't I I I I have to be honest. I cannot tell you that I understand that. Because you can have people who go through great suffering and and and the like, and you know, but if If wouldn't be the best life for you, wouldn't be the life Hashem would have given you. I'm not talking to myself as well, right? So, it's hard to understand. But, Machtas Hashekel, part of what Machtas Hashekel teaches us is that we're all equal in the eyes of God. And therefore, there's no reason to be jealous of somebody else. They have their mission. They have their task. And perhaps based on my resources and my abilities, that's not going to be my task. But, that doesn't mean I don't have my own task. In the same way, his job is to do his thing and not my thing. My job is to do my thing and not his thing. Right? So, I think it's fair to say again, we we we you know, if you go back to two or three weeks ago, you'll hear a much longer shear on this. So, I don't want to spend too much time repeating, but that is how Machtas Hashekel helps us overcome the idea of jealousy. Okay. We then come to Parshas Zachor, which we read the Shabbat before Purim. And that of course deals with the downfall and destruction and eradication of Amalek. Now here, Amalek and Taiva, uh the the connection is a little more tenuous. It's a little more abstract, a little more symbolic. But, here as Rav Rav Tzaddok says, the word that the Torah uses when it describes Amalek attacking us is the lashon asher korcha baderech, >> [snorts] >> which is translated, they encountered you on the way. They encountered you. But, Chazal darshan korcha can also be connected to the word kar, which in Hebrew, not English, means cold. They made you cold. Asher korcha baderech means they made you cold. What does it mean they made you cold? So, the midrash that Rashi brings, Rashi brings a midrash, is that when the Jewish people left Mitrayim, the whole world was afraid of them because of the macos, because of the splitting of the Red Sea, nobody dared wage war against the Jewish people. The Jewish people were like a boiling hot scalding bath that nobody would even put their toe in because they would get burnt. Amalek was the very first nation that attacked us. They jumped into the scalding bath. As would be expected, they got burnt, but they cooled off the bath for the next person. So, people would think, "Well, Amalek shows that you can attack the Jewish people." Yeah, they lost. Maybe next time we'll win. So, that's how Rashi understands Amalek made you cold, meaning Amalek took away to some degree the fear that people had that the Jewish people were were unattackable. Even though Amalek lost, but they just made it a possibility. Rav Sadok takes the same etymology, Korcha meaning made you cold, but he moves so it's the same interpretation of the word, but he takes it in a totally unexpected different path, not following Rashi and the midrash. And he says that And again, we talked about this. That our vulnerability to the evil that is outside of us is based on something within us that makes us vulnerable. There has to be some aspect, some aspect of Amalek within in order to be vulnerable to Amalek b'chutz. Again, I am not at all, God forbid, suggesting a moral equivalence thing, God forbid, but nevertheless, there has to be some aspect of Amalek in us that makes us vulnerable to the Amalek outside of us. And Reb Tzadok suggests that one of the things that makes us vulnerable to Amalek is the coldness of the heart. A sheer karka, Amalek revealed that in your heart there was coldness. This is an important theme in Reb Tzadok. In fact, it even has autobiographical repercussions. I'll tell you a story in a minute about Reb Tzadok. But, Reb Tzadok makes the point over and over again that as important as it is to learn Torah and do mitzvahs, obviously, but you have to do them with passion and with feeling. And when you do them in a cold, mechanical, unfeeling way, that's a certain aspect of Amalek that makes you vulnerable to Amalek. It's interesting, the story about Reb Tzadok was an interesting story. Reb Tzadok was not born into a Hasidic family. Reb Tzadok was born into a non-Hasidic family. And from a very young age, he was an extremely brilliant Torah scholar. Uh in fact, it is said that Reb Tzadok never ate a meal, he would not eat food unless it was a seudas mitzvah. He would eat at a bris, a chasunah, a sheva brachos. If it wasn't a seudas mitzvah, he didn't eat. So, what happens if he gets up Monday and there's no bris, and there's no sheva brachos, and there's no pidyon haben? He'd have to make a siyum. He would make a siyum. So, if he got up and there was nothing going on, he would just learn a mesechta. Like, he could learn a whole mesechta of Gemara like uh before breakfast. Like, I got to got to eat breakfast today, so uh I'll make a siyum on on a mesechta. And I I assure you, it wasn't necessarily one of the short ones, even a even a big one Uh he would be able to uh to finish. So, he was extremely brilliant. And there's a whole strange maaseh, it's a little bit of a bizarre maaseh, where as a young man, he found himself traveling through Europe and meeting all the different gedolim of the time and engaging in them in Torah discussions, very high-level Torah discussions. The story, which again I'm always a little hesitant about saying, is that Reb Zadok uh demanded that his first wife receive a get. And the reason was because she was managing a store and one day Reb Zadok came into the store and she's he saw that she shook the hand of a Russian soldier who was buying something. Reb Zadok was so outraged at this that he demanded to divorce her. She refused to receive a get. So, there is a halachic procedure which can be abused, but it is a it is a halachic procedure, that since the issur of marrying another wife is only because of Rabbeinu Gershom's ban, the Torah doesn't prohibit it, if 100 rabbis in three countries authorize your marrying another wife, that's called a heter of meah rabbanim, so the ban of Rabbeinu Gershom is lifted and he can deposit a get in beis din that she could pick up and uh he would then be permitted to marry. So, he was traveling through Europe as a young man to get a heter meah rabbanim. And in the course of his travels, he met many, many great rabbis, people who were much, much older than him, and he dazzled them with his brilliance. And at one point, he was not a chasid, he was even against chasidus, he encountered Reb Mordechai uh Liner, the Meshiloch the Ishbitzer. And the Ishbitzer was speaking Sura Shalishius. And Reb Zadok had never really gotten into Hasidus. But all of a sudden, he was seized with crying and sobbing. And he was holding his head. And he said, "All I was until now is a brain. My heart now [clears throat] is on fire. Don't you feel the fire in my heart?" And he became a very, very passionate Hasid. But he was also very intellectual at the same time. It was a bit of an unusual combination. Extremely cerebral. But he also understood that he had passion. Now, I want to say Reb Zadok married two more times. That second time, uh his wife died. Then he had a third wife who survived him. He never had any children. Reb Zadok himself said, Reb Zadok himself was deeply saddened about what he did to his first wife. And he said, "It's a dover pashut to him that God did not give him children because he was not understanding and compassionate enough of perhaps a mistake that his wife made." She, on the other hand, uh married and had children. So, she, baruch Hashem, had family. He was never blessed with a family. Again, I I I'm always a little reluctant to tell this story cuz Reb Zadok was a truly, truly great man. And he himself says, as a 20-year-old, he was still a young man. As a 20-year-old, he was too fiery. He was too intolerant. He was not compassionate enough. He was not understanding enough. And in the course of time, he did become all of those qualities that he felt that he lacked. And he openly acknowledged that showed him that he was wrong in what he did. But the reason I bring up the story is not for that, although that's a very fascinating little known. I mean, you know, you know, know it. It's a little known outside of the world. But I'm telling the story not so much for that aspect. I just brought it in but to the notion that understood and this is perhaps is part of his maturation process. That it's not enough to be brilliant, which he surely was. One has to serve with your heart and with your feeling. And this is why he eventually became such a devoted person of the and therefore it is it is very autobiographical that he reads this into a gets you when you're cold in your heart. I should call by Derek >> [snorts] >> when you're cold a attacks. So, then goes on and says what makes a person cold? Well, obviously there are many factors, but at least one of the factors that gives a person coldness in a vote of a sham. Why shouldn't every be wonderful? Why shouldn't every be be fantastic? Why do we sometimes get bored or uninterested? Now, obviously there are many reasons. One cannot give a single reason but says that he thinks a major reason is over involvement in the pleasures of this world. When you live a life that is focused on material comfort what happens is your sensitivity to the spiritual gets dulled. It gets compromised. Now, this is a complicated idea because on one hand, Judaism is not an religion. We don't preach renunciation of the world. We don't preach poverty. In fact, it goes to say that uh one will be held to account for every pleasure in the world that you could have enjoyed and didn't use as a means to give thanks to Hashem. Uh and it mentions a beautiful home or a nice home is something that gives you the expansiveness of mind to be able to serve Hashem. So, we're not about renunciation. But, it is true as the saying goes, you have to own your possessions. Don't have your possessions own you. And that is the more shakoa I am in material comfort, the less joy I will have in the purely spiritual. And part of it is very simple because physical pleasures tend to give you instant gratification. Spiritual pleasures take work and effort and time. So, in fact, this is a problem in all parts of life. The instant gratification often takes people away from things that take more sustained effort. The person who you know, lives on uh chocolate bars and potato chips is not going to spend 3 hours cooking a French meal. The person who is raised on web surfing where you jump from link to link to link, hyperlink, whatever it will be, is not going to read Shakespeare or even William Faulkner because those things take concentration. So, when you get habituated to instant gratification, Gemorrah is not going to be your thing because frankly, Gemorrah does not give you instant gratification. One has to think, one has to cogitate. Ultimately, those pleasures are much more deeper, but they don't come without effort. And therefore, I have said to you it says, when we talk about eradicating Amalek, we are talking about eradicating the coldness in your soul. And part of how you eradicate that coldness is to be less connected to the physicality of the world. To kind of move away from it. And therefore, if shalom helps us deal with jealousy in a bit of a more indirect way, zachar helps us deal with taiva. To distance ourselves from taiva. Uh now again, in many ways this is a difficult balance. In some ways, the struggle with taiva is a little more difficult than the struggle with jealousy. Not not because jealousy is an extremely hard mida to approach, very very difficult. But at least on paper we can acknowledge it's bad. Taiva is a little different because on the one on the other hand, you know, excessive taiva is bad, but a certain amount of enjoyment of the world is good. They say like a food addiction is the hardest addiction to break because you cannot go cold turkey, no pun intended on that. Uh meaning precisely when it's a type of addiction in which you need to engage in, it becomes much harder to break the addictive pattern. Meaning, if you can break an addiction by going cold turkey, so for a few weeks it's going to be very very excruciatingly difficult, but at some point, you know, you might be over it. But an addiction to something that you literally need to live is going to be very hard to break because you're constantly going to be confronted. So, taiva may be a more difficult avoda in some ways simply because we we need it at the same time. But nevertheless, nevertheless, uh this explained Do you want to say anything? Have you Oh, I'm sorry. >> [laughter] [gasps] >> Yeah. So, therefore, the concept is shalom helps us with jealousy. Zachar helps us with ta'avah. Or at least it reminds us about getting rid of ta'avah. We now come to Parah Adumah that deals with covet. And this was parshas Parah that we read about. And this is a mysterious ritual in the Torah where if a person comes in contact with a dead body and that's either by touching it by moving it or even if you're in the same roof under the same roof. And that roof could be a roof or could be a tree, whatever it would be, right? If you walk by many cemeteries, you'll often see a sign if you have trees that are overhanging both the graves and the street there'll be a sign that says Kohanim are not allowed to walk under the tree because they will be under the same ohel. This, by the way, is an issue of a Kohen flying on a plane that's carrying a dead body. Or or, depending on the airplane routes, sometimes even if the even if the plane is 30,000 ft in the sky if it flies over a cemetery the Kohen might become tamei. Now, in truth the problem of becoming tamei is only a problem for a Kohen. But but but when you have a Beit Hamikdash, it's a problem for everybody. And that's really part of the Har Habayit issue, which I'm not going to fully address. And that is any person that's a tamei met, that's come in contact with a dead body, is not allowed to enter the Beit Hamikdash or the courtyard of the Beit Hamikdash, is not allowed to eat korbanos. If they're a Kohen, they're not allowed to eat trumah. Now, most of these halachas don't apply to us today other than the controversy of the Har HaBayit, so we're not so concerned with the fact that we're tamei. But in reality, every single person is tamei because if you have ever ever ever been in a cemetery, you have become tamei by contact with the dead. And the only way you can become purified is by being sprinkled with the ashes mixed with spring water of the parah adumah twice, 4 days in between the sprinkling, and then go to the mikvah, and then when nightfall comes, you're tahor. But without parah adumah, even if the even if the last time you were in a cemetery was 50 years ago, you are tamei. So, without getting into the Har HaBayit controversy, uh those who do not allow entry to the Har HaBayit essentially say I'm going to get mail on this because I don't I mean I don't want to address the complications, but they basically said that because we're not exactly sure where is the courtyard of the Temple, so you can't go if you're tamei. And those who go agree with the principles. They also say a tamei person cannot go in the area of the courtyard of the Temple or the Temple, but they say we are sufficiently secure in our identification that we can identify outer areas. There really is no machlokes in halachic principle between those who go and those who do not go. They are following the same halachic principles. Meaning, everybody would say in the abstract there's part of the Temple Mount that you could go even if you're tamei, and there's part of the Temple Mount you can't go because you're tamei. Everybody admits to that. And they'll admit to the same names. Whatever it's called the Azara and the Hejo can't go. The Machlokes is how confident are you in the identification? So, there are different views that take different positions. Or even if they're confident, but they're afraid that a person might cross the line. It's like a minefield. Let's imagine there's a minefield here. And I would tell you, "Don't worry. If you just stay 3 in from this line, everything will be okay. I guarantee it." Well, I don't know about you. I don't know. I would be a little afraid to walk through a minefield even if they tell me, "Listen, as long as you stay within, you know, three three inches away from this line, you are perfectly safe." You know. So, some feel feel that the Harabite is a similar similar type of issue that if God forbid you cross the line, you're high of Koresh. Okay. Now, so because we don't have Parah Adumah yet, so we have no way of becoming pure from Tumeh Mes. Okay. Now, here's the thing. Parah Adumah, as you know from last week, is called the Chok, Chukas. The law without a reason that we know. It is considered to be the most mysterious part of the Torah. HaMelech, >> [snorts] >> the wisest of all people, was able to understand the reasons for all of the Mitzvahs of the Torah. Once he got to Parah Adumah, he said, "I'm stuck. I can't figure it out." There is a Medrash that Korach understood Parah Adumah, interestingly enough. And there is a Medrash that Moshe, which that I can understand. Moshe understood Parah Adumah, but by and large, we don't understand it. Now, what is so mysterious about Parah Adumah? Yeah, it's a red cow, etc. I understand, but plenty of things, you know, shatnez. I mean, there are plenty of things we don't really have solid reasons for. What what is so problematical about Parah Adumah? So, the Meforshim explain that the problem that makes Parah Adumah such an enigma is not so much that we don't understand it. There are many mitzvot we don't understand, but it contains an internal contradiction. It is a paradox. It contains opposites. Because the halakha is that if I'm tamei and the ashes are sprinkled on me, I become pure. So, it purifies those who are tamei, but at the same time, all the people that handle the ashes become tamei only for 1 day, not for 7 days, but for 1 day. So, the problem is how can the same thing that creates purity, how can that create impurity? So, it's not simply the enigma of why a red white cow, you know, obviously there there are enigmas in many many commandments. But, the problem is the contradiction, the inconsistency. Metahar et hatme'im umetamei et hatahorim. It makes uh people who are tahor, it makes them impure. >> [sighs and gasps] >> By the way, just as a little aside, you know, uh many of you might have heard and I think I've mentioned before, but I'm I'm sure you've heard of it yourself, the wonderful wonderful youth organization of the OU, NCSY, National Conference of Synagogue Youth, that uh has made generations of public school kids to be shomer mitzvot. They do phenomenal, fantastic work, uh and they do so with love and with acceptance and uh really with kindness. I myself was involved with NCSY well very long time ago in the early 1980s and I saw firsthand the tremendous work that they did and it comes from love, not from condemnation, not from negative speeches, but by accepting people where they are and then helping them to grow and expand themselves. And the advisors and teachers in NCSY are are from are Yeshiva students, etc. So, I have to say that within the Yeshiva world, um NCSY is a bit controversial because it is a number one, a co-ed organization and number two, because it's largely a public school population, uh the girls who come, at least initially, are often, you know, not dressed according to Torah standards. So, some Yeshivas don't allow their unmarried students to participate in NCSY. They only allow the married students who come with their wives, uh etc. All right, that's an issue. Uh so, my Rosh Yeshiva once gave, I think, maybe the classic line about NCSY. He said, "NCSY is like the parah adumah. Uh it purifies those who are impure, but it may contaminate those who are pure." So, he says, "NCSY is a wonderful vehicle of purity, but sometimes for a Yeshiva boy, it may uh take him in the wrong in the wrong direction." Again, I'm not opining on on on that particular decision, but I just wanted to bring it in because uh it's a very witty description of what the problem would be. Okay. So, if the problem of parah adumah is paradox, >> [snorts] >> and even HaMelech couldn't explain the paradox, so I might as well stop here. Why why you know, would I think that I could explain the paradox? But, in fact, the Sifrei Chassidim tried to offer an explanation. Obviously, it's not a complete explanation, otherwise HaMelech would have figured it out. But, it's at least a partial explanation. And that is let's go back to the concept of tumah. Impurity. Right? There there's something called impurity, tumah. And there's something called purity, which is taharah. What are those fundamental ideas of tumah and taharah? They are not a reference to hygiene or dirty or clean. They are spiritual concepts. And Rebbe Hersh explains that all tumah originates from death. Now, obviously, in the case of a dead body, that's obvious. But, even even the tumah like a niddah is the shedding of a uterine lining or a seminal emission, these are at least in the attenuated forms. They are connected to the loss of potential life. But, let's focus on a dead body, which is obviously tumah arises from death. Why does death generate something called tumah? Because of the following. Adam and Chava in Gan Eden were originally supposed to live forever. Immortality was the original state of mankind. Death came into the world because of the eating of the fruit of the Eitz HaDa'as in violation of Hashem's commandments. The Nachash enticed Chava. And then Chava enticed Adam to eat from the Eitz HaDa'as. And that brought mortality into the world. That brought death into the world. But, what was the Nachash's selling point? Was the fruit marketed as tasting good, smelling good, nutritious? Rav Soloveitchik the primary enticement to eat from the Eitz HaDa'at was the Nachash's statement that the day that you eat from this fruit, "You shall be like God, knowing the true nature of good and evil." Whatever that means, the Eitz HaDa'at was marketed as a God pill. And that is the greatest appeal to egotism that one could imagine. "Take this pill >> [snorts] >> and you will be God." Whatever that means. Now, in many, many ways, human beings are God-like. Adam and Hava were created b'tselem Elohim. They were created in the image of God. We have intellect. We have autonomy. We have free will. We are not creatures of instinct, but we can override our instinct with rationality and morality. We can create worlds in many ways, and we can destroy worlds. In many ways, we are Godly. In fact, Rav Soloveitchik says, part of our mission, why we try to conquer disease or create a better world, is we are supposed to exercise a divine function in tikkun olam, in making the world a better place. But at the same time, that sense of being Godly can lead to hubris hubris and arrogance and ga'avah, in which we think we don't need God anymore. And therefore, the Eitz HaDa'at was an appeal to the ego. "Become God." And that is why death came into the world. Because the ultimate reminder that man is not God is mortality. Mortality reminds us that there's an unbridgeable chasm between creator and created. So, death came into the world not so much as a punishment but as a consequence. And that is why we're expelled from Gan Eden, which is the ideal existence. So, the point is this. The primary consequence of tumah even today is expulsion from the Beis Hamikdash. Meaning, a tamei person can go to shul. A tamei person counts for a minyan. A tamei person puts on tefillin. A tamei person keeps Shabbos. A tamei person davens. So, what's the difference if I'm tamei or tahor? Whether I can go to the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash is Gan Eden on Earth. So, the same way that the arrogance of man resulted in the expulsion of Gan Eden, so every time we encounter death, we are reenacting the primeval sin that brought death into the world. So, once again, we are re-expelled from the Garden of Eden. And what is the Garden of Eden in a post-Eden world? It's the Beis Hamikdash. So, the reason why tumah results in expulsion from the Beis Hamikdash is tumah links us to death. Death links us to the cheit of the Eitz HaDaas. The hate of the eight of us links us to ego and therefore we are expelled. That is why the purification ritual involves two steps. >> [snorts] >> Being sprinkled with the para aduma ashes followed by immersion in mikvah. Now, without explaining all the details why red etc. which we're not going to explain. But let's just focus on the notion of ashes. Ashes is a symbol of humility. Self-abnegation. >> [cough and clears throat] >> If death came into the world because of arrogance and ego I become liberated from death by connecting to the ashes of humility and submission. You see? I become reborn. Just as the Medris it's a it's what for some reason it's better known as a Greek myth, but in fact it's a Medris by a bird. In Greek mythology it's known as the Phoenix. Uh in Hazal it's known as the net. But it's burnt and then it arises out of the ashes. That's a tremendous masho. It's a masho for the Jewish people. But it's also a masho to the notion that I find the greatest fulfillment of my life when I factor out my ego and I totally submit to the will of Hashem. That gives me life. You see? So, that is why the purification ritual are the ashes and mikvah also is connected to that because there's a well-known thought that mikvah is a return to the womb. Just as in the womb the baby is surrounded by amniotic fluid, the mikvah is a womb. I return to the womb to my state of helplessness and dependence as a baby. And that liberates me from the egotism that brought death into the world. And therefore I get purified. So this is a general partial explanation of why there is tumah, why tumah results in expulsion from the Beit Hamikdash, and why the purification rituals move in the direction of humility, submission, self-abnegation, and kind of removing the egotism from your life. And based on that, therefore, Parah Adumah helps us deal with kavod. I'll explain the paradox in a moment. I didn't deal with that in the idea of kavod, and that is kavod is my need for ego, my need for my for acolytes. Parah Adumah reminds me that true purification and liberation from death take place precisely when you abnegate the ego. So again, you see the thought now. Shkalim helps us with jealousy, Zachor helps us with ta'avah, Parah helps us with ego, kavod. And when you get rid of kinah, ta'avah, and kavod, to whatever degree we're successful, we're ready for hischadshus, chodesh, spiritual renewal. We've gotten rid of the junk. We're now ready for connection to God. Now, there's an interesting calendrical point that emerges from this. Although this year you don't see it. And that is in the four parshios, depending on when Rosh Chodesh Adar was, so you have these four parshios. There can be this year there was a vacant Shabbos between Zachor uh between Shkalim and Zachor. In other words, Zachor will the Shabbos before Purim may sometimes have a Shabbos before that. So, sometimes there may be a break between Shkalim and Zachor. And sometimes that was this year as a matter of fact. Sometimes there can be a break between Zachor and Parah. Although this year there was not. It just all depends on figuring it out. Uh but there sometimes there are two breaks. These are called Hafsakos. There are two breaks, one between Shkalim and Zachor and the other between Zachor and Parah. But there is never a break between Parah and Chodesh. Meaning this coming Shabbos will be Parshas Chodesh because it always follows Parshas Parah. There is never a Hefsek between Parah and uh and Chodesh. In fact, uh the Rif brings this a very good way to remember this. Think about the four cups of wine of Pesach. You're allowed to drink between the first and second cup and you're allowed to drink between the second and third cup. But you can never drink anything more between the third and the fourth cup. Meaning there's never a break. So, but there's nothing I mean there's nothing to do with the Halachos, but that's kind of a mnemonic memory device to remember this Halacha. What is the significance of not having a break between Parah and Chodesh? So, the Sfas Emes says a very important klal in Avodas Hashem. Parah is the conclusion of getting rid of the negatives. When you have finished the process of getting rid of the negatives, you must immediately try to grow in your divine service. Don't allow inertia to simply say, "I've accomplished my mission." That when you reach a certain state of inspiration, you have to seize the moment. Because all of us have moments of inspiration. It could be Yom Kippur after Yom Kippur. It could be at a a chasunah of a child. It could be at the birth of a grandchild, whatever it is. But if you don't concretize those moments of inspiration with tangible spiritual activity, the inspiration leaves you. It vanishes. Sometimes you can be inspired by a sunset or a sunrise. Or walking the streets of Yerushalayim itself. What did Rav Shalom Gold, the corner of Brachot, say? Some of you might know Rav Shalom Gold. Very uh inspiring fellow. Uh he was nifter uh Was it last year or maybe a little before that? But he was a real ardent Zionist. He was the type of religious Zionist that if he saw yeshiva guys in the pizza place, he would just waylay them and say, "So, are you planning on living here?" Uh and if they would say, "Well, no, we're here for a year and then we're going back." He said, "Well, why not?" You know, whatever. He was really pushing it. So So he used to say, I may be paraphrasing, I may be wrong here, but he used to say, "If you want to talk to God, you go to the Kotel. If you want to see God, you go to Machaneh Yehuda." Because you see the produce, the abundance that Hashem has given on Israel and that itself, right? So he might be I'm not sure how many people get religiously inspired by going to Machaneh Yehudah. But he actually said going to Machaneh Yehudah for him was a religious experience. He saw the chesed of Hashem in the abundance that he brought to his people in Eretz Israel. And of course it is a miracle that the Gemara itself already remarks on that Eretz Israel yields her productivity only to the Jews. When any other nation controls Eretz Israel nothing grew here. So if you don't believe in Hashem you can just attribute it to Jewish ingenuity. But the Gemara itself says there's a spiritual reason. Eretz Israel opens up to her children and it closes down. Mark Twain uh Samuel Clemens visited Palestine as it was called in the 19th century. And he visited the churches and whatever and it was such a dusty, dirty, filthy place. He just He writes He writes in Innocents Abroad. He says he can't believe why God would have chosen such a God forsaken place to be his home. And yeah, that's that's the way it was. That's the way it was. You look at look at old pictures. We actually have photographs in the 19th century already. Uh but that's Machaneh Yehudah. So so the idea is you can be inspired not only by big things, you can be inspired by Machaneh Yehudah. But Rav Soloveitchik's point is the reason why there's never an interruption between Purim and Chanukah is when you're inspired you have to act on it. If you don't act on it right away, you let the time pass the inspiration leaves you. Okay. Now, so that's what Seder thought that I wanted That was the main thing I wanted to share with you and that is the connection of the four parshios to Kina, Tiva, Kavod, and then Hischadshus. But the last point I want to talk about, which I already alluded to but I didn't give you an answer, is how does this explain the paradox? We still have the problem of paradox. How can the How can the same thing, which makes you pure, how can it make you impure? So here the answer once again is is a very interesting answer. >> [snorts] >> And that is right, the ashes represent humility, self-abnegation. There is good humility that purifies you. And there is bad and destructive humility that can contaminate you. The humility that says everything I have is a gift from Hashem and I have to use it in his service. That's a That's a humility that uplifts you. And it gives you the courage and the strength to persevere notwithstanding disappointment and failure. Because your job our job is to do and it's God's job to accomplish. Whether we're successful is up to Hashem. But I do what I can. And that's great humility. But there's another humility which can sink into self-loathing and depression and despair and worthlessness. Who am I to be a person who does this mitzvah or that mitzvah? Now that may sound like a from thing. That may sound like oh, he's so humble. But that's actually very destructive. It's very poisonous. Because a person will never become the person that they're destined to be if they don't recognize their strengths and their abilities. So, perhaps this may be part of the explanation of the paradox of para aduma. And that is the ashes of humility can purify you. If taken in the right direction and if taken in the wrong direction they'll drag you down. The great Rabbi Rucham, the great Mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva uh in the Shanghai and before Shanghai actually in Europe itself Rabbi Wolbe's rebbe once remarked that a person who is not aware of their faults is a foolish person. You're a foolish person. You think you're perfect. We think we're perfect. We're just foolish. But a person who is not aware of their greatness is a tragic person. Because they will never become the person they could have become, the person they actually are. In fact, some even describe Gehenna that way. They describe Gehenna as Hashem simply shows us what we could have been. And that's Gehenna. That's hell. Because there'll be such a mercha between what we could have been and what what we are. We now still have the chance to try to curb make it a greater correspondence between the two pictures. And they say Rabbi Dessler, Rabbi Dessler the great Michter Meilio who at towards the end of his life was the Mashgiach in Ponevezh. He came from England to Eretz Yisrael. So, at the Chazon Ish's levaya which I think was 1953 I I I think in Bnei Brak so uh there was a boy who was crying at the Chazon Ish's levaya so Rabbi Dessler went over to the boy and said, "Why are you crying over the Rav, the Gaon, and the Tzaddik who's buried in the ground? You should cry over the Rav, the Gaon, and the Tzaddik that's buried in you." Because the Chazon Ish became the Rav, the Gaon, and the Tzaddik that he was destined to become. But how many Rav, Gaon, Tzaddik are within men and women, maybe you don't want to use those words, but whatever but a comparable idea of of a righteous and holy person. And that's the tragedy, right? The tragedies of life. You know, go back to the Greek definition of tragedy, which you know, I I feel I'm I'm permitted to appropriate, right? The Greek tragedy is not when something happens to an insignificant person. I mean, that's a sad thing. It gives compassion, but the idea of tragedy >> [snorts] >> is when there was something within the person that was great, but because of a flaw, it never got realized. That's what we mean by a Greek tragedy, and that's a true tragedy. And how many lives are tragic in that sense? And that is why, at least in part, the paradox of Para Adumah is that the same humility that can liberate a person, if taken in the wrong way, can be a humility that destroys a person. Therefore, one has to be very, very careful in how to deal with those with those things. Right? So, this is kind of my message for the four parshios. I'm not sure next if um Yes, so this Shabbos is parshas Hachodesh, so by the next time we meet, we have been we have finished the four parshios. So, I'm glad I got in uh this particular thought. So we wish you all to have a Shabbat Shalom. And people always wish each other stay safe. I'm not sure what that means exactly. I certainly would like to stay safe, but we are in the hands of our Kadosh Baruch Hu. So really instead of just wishing you stay safe, I'll say it as it's written. May Baruch Hu keep all of you, all of us, all of Israel, all of the world in a safe and peaceful condition except for the evildoers who need to get out of the way. And even them I'll say if by some miracle they want to do chuva, you know, Hashem will accept that chuva as well. But if not, may Baruch Hu give shalom to all of us, all of us who need it. Thank you. >> [music] [music] [music and singing] [music]