Behalotcha 1

Travelling with Hashem:
The pasuk (9:18) says "According to the word of Hashem would the Children of Israel journey, and according to the word of Hashem would they encamp..." From this pasuk we can understand very important mussar. People believe that when they are all alone it is okay to do things that are bad, who will know anyway? But no matter where we are we must know that Hahsem is with us. Not only is Hashem with us but He is the one that brought us to this place. So at any moment we might think we are alone and what we do will hidden but it is not true. Also, there is another lesson that we can learn from this. As Jews when we travel everyone can see us and know we are Jews. When people see us act positively they will connect that to Judaism but is God forbid we do something bad they will connect that negative thing to Judaism. We must all know that wherever we go Hashem is right there with us and if we do something good He will be honored.

Eldad and Maidad:
I started these divrei torah last year in parshat shlach but the dvar torah really started with the story of Eldad and Maidad. Those who where not part of the list, or just need some chazarah will understand something that makes them different than all other neviim. We know that Moshe's nevuah was the source of every other navi. That was true for every navi except two, Eldad and Maidad. Normally whenever someone had a nevuah all other neviim would also get the nevuah but only the one that Hashem wanted to give over the message would fully understand it. This is not true of Moshe's nevuah. Only he saw the nevuah whenever the pasuk says "Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe Laimor." If the pasuk said that then he was the only one to receive that message. Also when someone in that time had nevuah he would get it, and understand it as well. But when Eldad and Maidad got their nevuah Moshe did not hear it. This is why Yehoshua was so concerned by their nevuah, but Moshe answered that he wished that everyone could be on the level of Eldad and Maidad.
Their prophecy was that Moshe would die in the midbar and that Yehoshua would bring the Jews up to the land. But the decree had not yet happened that Moshe would die in the midbar, he had not yet sinned by hitting the rock so why was he already destined to die in the midbar? When the Jews complained by asking for meat they were saying that even though they had food from heaven that kept them full all day, never required them to use the bathrooms and they never had to work for anything they were unsatisfied. They wanted more pleasure from this world. Once someone starts to take extra pleasure from this world he begins to remove himself from the next world. As a person gets more involved in the pleasures he cannot stop himself from wanting more. The Megale Amukot says something amazing. He says that really man can live by just eating bread and drinking water, but once he starts eating other food then his body begins to require it. Once the Jews complained for meat is what only a matter of time until they would complain about the water. Just like Moshe spoke out by the rock against the Jews he also said to Hashem against them during the time of the complaining for meat. Since he said something here it is possible to say that even though he had not sinned he had placed himself in the position that when he would be standing in front of the rock he would hit it.
As well there is another point to add to this. Since the Jews had been in the midbar no one had died of natural causes. Every person who died in the midbar died because of a sin they committed. Now the Jews were hearing that Moshe would die. The leader of the nation was going to die, but that would mean he would sin because no one died of natural deaths. In the end Moshe died because he did sin. What mussar can we learn from this? People think that they can gain from sinning. "If I work on Shabbat just think of all of the extra money I can make!" "If I eat a cheeseburger just think how much better it will taste then a kosher hamburger. But it is just the opposite! It is the sins themselves that kill you! If we stay away from sin we gain life.
May we all try to stay away from sin and in that live a long healthy Jewish life.

Nasso 1

This dvar torah is for the refuah shelaima for Rav Bredva, Shlomo Leib Ben Miriam who is having a procedure done today. May he have a refuah shelaima.

The Nesiim:

As we all know basically after the fifth aliyah of this week's parsha the same few pasukim are repeated with a slight change. These pasukim are speaking about the korbonot brought by the Nesiim (princes) of Bnei Yisrael in the desert. What happened was during the building of the mishkan the people collecting came first to the nesiim and asked them if they wanted to give anything. The nesiim said that whatever was not given by bnei yisrael they would give after. The Jews in their immense generosity gave all that was needed plus much more leaving the nesiim to give the one thing no one else could give, the twelve stones for the eifod. Now after the mishkan was completed Hashem was giving the Nesiim the chance to make up for last time by being among the first to first korbonot. If any of us were in their place it would make sense for us to give as much as we could. Since last time we messed up by not giving so much we would give as much as we can. If this would happen nowadays the Nesiim would each try to bring the biggest korbon. After one gave millions of dollars, the next would give tens of millions, the next hundreds of millions, etc. But what happened then they each gave the exact same thing. Why? This is to show many things, two of those ideas are that:
1) In Judaism it is not about outdoing you friend, everyone has the same goal in life, to serve Hashem, not making yourself look like hte greatest person for giving charity.

2) If each of the nesiim would have given something different then this would have caused jealousy amongst them, to avoid this each gave the same thing.

If instead of working to outdo our friends we work together to serve Hashem it will greatly increase our love for each other and our love for Hashem.

There is a mashal about a very poor village. The village heard that the king of the country was coming to visit. A committee was put together to raise funds to buy the king a beautiful gift. The price to be part of the gift was .05 cents. Each person gave their five cents and they were able to buy the king a new chariot. The day had arrived when the king was supposed to come and the village was about to present the king with his new chariot. All of a sudden out of the crowd ran a man. He jumped up on stage and said that before the community gives their gift he wants to give his. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a dime. The kings says "a dime, you give me a little dime!?" The man answers "but everyone else in the community only gave in a nickel for your present I am giving double everyone else!" The king answered "while it may be true that each of the people here are giving less than you when their money is put together it is no longer just a nickel." I believe that this is why after all of the nesiim give their korbon the torah repeats what was given to show that it is not about how much or how little one gives but rather that we do it without trying to be better then someone else.

Bamidbar 1

I have recently heard that Rav Brevda is currently undergoing treatments every Wednesday for the next six weeks (except on Shavuot where it will be on the Friday of that week). It is very important that everyone daven for him Shlomo Leib ben Miriam, especially on Wednesdays. May this dvar torah be for a refuah shelaima for him! For anyone who does not know who Rav Brevda is it should be enough to say that he is one of the biggest gedolim around today (not that he needs my haskama). He learned by the Chazon Ish, the Brisker Rav, Rav Yichezkel, etc. and for this reason alone it should be enough but he is also one of the most knowledgeable, if not the most, in the torah of the Vilna Goan.

Zuhama:
In 1:49 the pasuk says "But you shall not count the tribe of Levi, and you shall not take a census of them among the Children of Israel." Rashi explains that Hashem say that He would in the future make a gezaira against all of the men above twenty that they should die in the midbar, so He said that they Leviim should not be counted among them, because they are His since they did not sin in the (sin of the) eigel. Then later 3:12 the pasuk says "And I have taken the Leviim out from among the children of Israel..." Rashi explains on this pasuk that when the firstborn males sinned with the eigel they lost their right to be taken but the Leviim since they did not worship avoda zara they will replace the firstborn. Rashi compare the eigel to avoda zara. But we all knew this already what is the chidush?!
Well, gemara Shabbat daf 146 amud alef on the very top says that when Chava ate from the Pri Eitz Hadas the nachas had relations with her and left inside her zuhama. The gemara then asks when this zuhama was removed. Two opinions are presented in the gemara: 1) At Har Sinia the zuhama was removed from all of the Jews, 2) After three generations of purity the zuhama is removed so after Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov the zuhama was removed. So how is the machloket resolved? The answer is that really the zuhama was removed both times but returned after certain actions happened. Know lets take a moment to explain zuhama. Before the sin with the Pri Eitz Hadas man had two forces, a force to do good and a force to do bad, much like nowadays. The difference was that the force to do bad was an external force, represented by the nachash. After the sin the force became an internal force now known as the Yetzer Hara, this is the zuhama. It is known that in the times of Mashiach, there will be a great war and at the end there will be two big deaths, the Mashiach of the line of Yosef and the Yetzer Hara, who will be in an external force at that time. This means that our mission now is to get the yetzer hara from an internal force into an external one that it can be destroyed once and for all. How is this done? The answer is obvious the complete acceptance of Hashem as our God and the doing of mitzvot, that is how the gemara explains it was removed the other times. But what causes the zuhama to stay in our bodies? The doing of sins! But there are certain sins that are in a separate category than the others: 1) Avodah Zara 2) Immorality 3) Murder. These three do not just keep the zuhama in the body but they cause the zuhama to return to a body that it has left and it causes the zuhama to root itself deeper into a body that does those sins. Therefore, throughout history there were many times that the zuhama could have been removed but someone messed up. There were other times where the zuhama was removed but it was replaced do to the fact that one of these sins were performed and this is a sod gadol (a big secret). This not only explains many very confusing pieces of history but also many many gemaras. Let me list a few of the times that this changed history (I am well aware that the mefarshim explain many of these cases a different way but since they are described as they are whatever sin was done is comparable to the sin that was said):
1) The zuhama first entered Chava by her having relations with the nachash, immorality.
2) It continued to the next generation but was not removed because Kian killed Hevel, murder.
3) After the world was destroyed by the mabul Noach had the chance to bring it all back to gan eiden but he slept with his son, immorality.
4) Avraham destroyed a warehouse of his fathers idols and then was thrown into a pit because he was unwilling to serve Nimrod's idols and saved, since he refrained from avodah zara.
5) After Yaakov had successfully removed the zuhama as it is explains in the gemara he fought the angel of Eisav, the Yetzer Hara, after removing his zuhama the exact thing that we plan to do in the times of Mashiach was attempted by Yaakov.
6) Reuven lost his right as the firstborn because he had relations with his mother, immorality.
7) Yosef could have been removed from the shefatim but he did not have relations with Potiphar's wife.
8) One of the things that the Jews were saved from destruction from in the Yam Suf was because they had gone the entire had not had relations with the Mitzrim.
9) After Har Sinai the Jews removed their zuhama but it came back after the sin with the eigel, avodah zara. (This is the reason why the tribe of Levi was different because they did not get the zuhama back.)
The list goes on and on...
The gemara explains that there is a part of the male's body that when it is left hungry it is full but when it is fed it will always be hungry. This makes a lot of sense now, the reason is because as someone does more of these three sins the zuhama gets stronger inside him.

Have a great Shabbat!

Introduction

I have been sending out divrei torah emails for some time now, almost a year. At this point I have decided that it is time to go public! Therefore I have made this blog for any wandering souls on the internet that want to be enlightened by the weekly parsha. Due to my incredibly busy schedule I will most probably only put up one dvar torah a week on Thursday nights. That being said I hope you enjoy these Divrei Torah as much as I do and if you have any questions I would love to answer them!