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.

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!