Balak 1

Adversaries of the Jews:

Before Hashem created man He created a group of angels. He asked the angels if he should create man. The angels said no, Hashem got angry and destroyed them. He created a second group with the same outcome. Then He created a third group. He asked this group the same question and they said that if they said no then He would destroy them, so they simple said "It is a bad idea because man cannot fight his yetzer (will), but You can do whatever you want." So Hashem created man. But then He told these angels that any time a man goes against yetzer these angels must gather together and give a bracha to that great man for whom the entire world was created. When your greatest enemy gives you a bracha that is the best bracha in the world.

When Paro was deciding what to do with the Jews he had three advisors, 1) Terach 2) Iyov 3) Bilam. Terach said not to kill the Jews and for this he was rewarded with his daughter marrying the savior of the Jews. Iyov was silent and for this he was punished with losing all of his possessions and his family. Bilam who truly hated the Jews gave Paro the advise to make all of the Jews slaves in Mitzriam. In fact, to make sure that the plan would work he used the mazalot and angels to bind the Jews in slavery forever in Mitzriam. Now, many years after this the Jews are about to enter Eretz Yisrael and Balak calls on Bilam, the Jews greatest enemy to curse them again to be locked out of eretz yisrael. Bilam was surprised to find out that they ever got out of Mitzriam because the only way that could happen was if Hashem had gotten rid of the mazalot that stopped the Jews from leaving. This is why he said that he could not do anything against the word of Hashem because all of the mazalot in the world could not stop Hashem. Now Bilam is standing on the top of the mountain prepared to give the Jews the greatest curse ever and out of his mouth comes great brachot. These brachot effected the Jews greatly, why? Because the brachot were from the Jews greatest enemy.

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Rav Brevda explains in his sefer on Tisha B'Av Yibane Hamikdash that the reason why avodah zara is such a big issue is because what should be is that you recognize that Hashem is your creator and that He created you. But by doing avodah zara you are saying that you created yourself, that you are your own god. Rav Brevda proves this from the nachash who said to Chava "if you eat from the tree you will be a god." Also from Paro who claimed that he created himself the Nile River. The reason why tanach is full of stories of avodah zara even though the desire for it was destroyed long ago is because any time someone acts like he is the creator and Hashem is not is doing avodah zara. (This next part is not Rav Brevda) This explains why the three sins 1) Avodah Zara 2) Murder 3) and Geloi Arayot are so bad is because each is acting like you are the creator and not Hashem. Avodah Zara was explained above, murder because just like a Hashem creates He also destroys and by you killing you are taking Hashem's job, and Geloi Arayot is creating a child that should not exist. He also explains what avodah zara is, it is using the creations that Hashem made (whether it be angels or mazalot or shaidim) to affect the physical world. This is what Bilam did, he used mazalot to fight the Jews. We know from a gemara in Brachot that Bilam knew what time of the day Hashem got angry. So the only way to stop him was for Hashem to not get angry during those days. So when Bilam tried to curse the Jews he could not. Bilam then realized that the only way to defeat the Jews was to make them no longer believe that Hashem was there master, but how could that be done? By getting them to do avodah zara and geloi arayot. So that is exactly what he did. But if they were truly servants of Hashem then why would they do that. Rav Pincus explains that it was the very fact that Hashem did not get angry that caused the Jews to sin. Bilam realized that the fear the Jews had for Hashem was not that of Yirat Romemut (Fear of Hashem's greatness) rather it was only Yirat Chait (Fear of Sin, due to fear of suffering for the sins). Now that Hashem had spent so many days not getting angry the Jews loosened in their Yirat Hashem because if there was no punishment then what was there to be afraid of? So Bilam used his weakness, that Hashem did not get angry, as his advantage and that is how he got the Jews to sin.

Chukat 1

Moshe Hitting the Rock:

If you are looking for a reason why Moshe got punished for hitting the rock you can look in the many many sources that have that. Two great places to look are the Meshech Chachama who gives three very unique reasons and Rav Shimon Schwab who says that Moshe knew before hitting the rock that it would cause him to not be able to get into the land and he did it to save the Jews. But that is not what we are discussing now. My question is what does hitting a rock have any connection to not getting into the land. Well if you remember what I have spoken about the past few weeks you already know the answer. I said before that the real sin that the Jews did was not the meraglim and it was not the rebellion of Korach, it was that the Jews complained for meat. I spoke a fews ago about the Megaleh Amukos who said that a person can survive on just bread and water but when he eats other foods his body will require them. It is only when you begin to allow your tievah to get the better of you it will only get stronger, until you cannot live without your desires. This is what happened when the Jews ate the meat. As apposed to the Man which was a spiritual food in that it gave you only exactly the amount of nutrition you needed and no more the meat was just for pleasure. The Meshech Chachma explains that when the pasuk says (20:8) "... You shall bring forth for them water from the rock and give drink to the assembly and to their animals." The word "V'et" (and to) is a separation between the assembly and their animals. That the people were supposed to have spiritual drink of water while the animals where supposed to have a physical drinking. When Moshe spoke to rock only a little trickle of water came out, but that little bit would have been enough for he Jews to survive. By telling Moshe to hit the rock, leading to a lot of water bursting forth it allowed to them to drink until they were full, as the pasuk says (20:11) "Then Moshe raised his arm and struck the rock with his staff twice; abundant water came forth and the assembly and their animals drank." Although the difference cannot be seen in the English, in the Hebrew the word "V'et" is not in this pasuk, meaning that the drinking of the animals and the assembly was the same. Instead of the people getting a spiritual drink they got a physical one. Now, we know that the sin of the people was the complaining for meat. When they sinned (with the Meraglim, which as we explained before was only because of this new mentality of theirs) it led to them wanted more physical pleasure. If Moshe would have taught them the lesson now with the rock that we do not need to be physically full then the Jews could have learned that lesson they lost 38 years earlier when they wanted meat and they could have returned to the level they were on back at Har Sinai. With this failure it was not impossible at that point to fix that generation and for that reason Moshe could not enter the land because he had failed to bring the people back to that level. This teaches us that the main sin of the Jews in the Midbar was their desire instant gratification. We all know that if something is even one minute late that we get angry. We need to work on ourselves and try to remove this desire and hopefully we will be able to bring the final Geulah.

This issue connects directly to the attack of the snakes. Why did snakes attack us? We know from Parshat Beshalach when the Jews were leaving that snakes, scorpions, and wild animals surrounded them but the cloud kept them out. So now, after Aharon's death, and the disappearance of the cloud, why did only snakes get in? The reason is clear. As we know the snake (from Berieshit) represents the yetzer hara. Now when the Jews had the ability to return back to the level of Har Sinai they were tempted by the water, much like Chava with the Pri Eitz Hada'at. The snake represents them falling for their tievah, and that is why snakes were the only animal to come attack them.

Korach 1

The rebellion(s?):

This is my interpretation of the Ramban and the Meshech Chachma and a few Rashis along the way.

We all know why Korach rebelled. Some of the reasons include: 1) The need for a tallit made of techelet to require an additional string of techelet on every corner. 2) The requirement for a room full of sifrei torah to have a mezuzah. 3) Moshe giving all of the high positions to people in his family, like Aharon as Kohen Gadol and Nachson Ben Aminadav (Aharon's brother in law) becoming the Nasi of Yehuda. Korach was jealous of the leaders because he truly believed that he should be the ruler, therefore, he rebelled.

We all know why Datan and Aviram rebelled. They just hated Moshe, ever since Moshe saved Datan's life from the Mitzri (famous story where Moshe kills the Mitzri, yes it was Datan who he saved...) Datan and Aviram had it out for Moshe.

We know basically nothing about On ben Pelet except that his righteous wife saved his life and that he was influenced by his neighbors to rebel.

The 250 men who rebelled did it because they believed that any Jew should be able to bring Korbonot.

The Ramban explains the difference between Korach, Datan, Aviram, and On and the 250 people. The rebellion of the 250 people had some amount of religious backing, Korach, Datan, Aviram and On just rebelled for their own purposes.

The Meshech Chachma explains that Korach's mission in his rebellion was to do the exact opposite of what Moshe says. He explains that when Moshe told Korach to bring up the ketoret with everyone else he did not do it which is why he did not die at that point. It may also be why even though Datan and Aviram were told to come to Moshe they did not listen. But the 250 people by bringing the ketoret and listening to Moshe they actually gave glory to Hashem by making all the Jews know that Moshe and Aharon are the true leaders and that Hashem chose them.

The Ramban, who holds that Korach's rebellion took place directly after the meraglim (as opposed to the Ibn Ezra who says it happened after the Mishkan was inaugurated) says that the reason why Korach rebelled now was because he had lost hope in Moshe. Now that everyone knew (from Eldad's and Maidad's prophechy) that Moshe would not be taking the Jews into the land, and that all of the people who were in the Midbar from the ages of 20-60 would die there he was upset that all the talk about getting land, the whole purpose of their travel, was for nothing. How could Moshe guarantee that the Jews would ever get to Eretz Yisrael? Maybe Hashem will have them travel the desert until they all just die out. For this reason Korach could not stand Moshe anymore and all he wanted to do was destroy Moshe's credibility.

Shlach 1

For Moshe's Benefit:
The pasuk says (13:2) "Send for you, men..." The mefarshim explain why Hashem says "for you" to mean that the it was for Moshe's benefit. The Moshav Zekainim explains what this means. From the prophecy from last week it was known that Moshe was destined to die before the Jews entered the land. If they were to enter now Moshe would die. Now that they were sending meraglim it would cause the Jews to spend an extra forty years in the desert. Now that the Jews would spend more time in the desert Moshe would live longer.This is why it was for Moshe's benefit.

Meraglim:

When the meraglim came back they told the people that the nations that live in the land are stronger than them and that they could not possibly beat them in war. How could the meraglim say this? They had Hashem on their side, how could they possibly lose? Ever since the people started complaining last week for meat the entire nation's level changed. They were no longer on the same level they had once been. The people had now become enticed by physical pleasures. Once this happened they lost their ability to be spiritual and truly believe in Hashem. It was for this reason why they sent meraglim in the first place, because they lost faith. Now after hearing that they would lose their leader Moshe they thought they would have no chance, that all of their power as a nation came from Moshe. I saw it explained that this was the reason why Caleiv had to speak up. He had to tell the people that it was not Moshe who made them what they were but rather it was them who made Moshe what he was. Since the people lost faith so too Moshe did not have as much faith, that is why he sent the spies. The reason why the meraglim said that the other nations where stronger and that the Jews could not win is because of their lose of faith. It was true, without Hashem victory was impossible, they had no chance of survival. What they said was 100% true, if you take Hashem out of the equation you have no chance. The survival of the Jews is completely based on Hashem, we do not exist without Him. This is the reason for all future events in that generation, and for this reason there was no way the the people of that generation could go into the land, because they could not win without Hashem.

Last Years Dvar Torah:
Last week we learned that Moshe was destined to die in the desert and Yehoshua was going to lead the Jews into the land. There was only one problem, until now there was no one named Yehoshua, he was named Yoshaia. The Zohar explains that the reason he is called Yehoshua before his name was changed was in anticipation. The zohar explains that the meraglim thought that going into the land would make them lose their power.So when the meraglim were chosen they saw no problems. They would go to the land and say how good it was but they knew that as long as they were not going to actually go to the land because there was no Yehoshua to take them in. Rashi says in pasuk 3 on the word "anashim" "...at this time they kesharim" then it says in pasuk 26 in Rashi "that just as their returning was for evil so too there coming was for evil." What happened between there being chosen and their becoming evil? The only event was Yoshaia's name being changed to Yehoshua, and this is the reason why they spoke badly about the land.