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Rav Shlomo Katz explores the teachings of Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l on the Parsha with the sefer Even Shlomo
OK good morning everybody. We're back Baruch Hashem, new people after Pesach. Very normal world so we're back to very much normalcy. Everything makes sense.
Chazarnu l'ezeh shigra, everything's normal. We can just be back and stam and everything's fine. It's the month of Nissan still, so we're learning still. The sponsorship is anonymously in honor of all the open miracles we're seeing daily.
Emes l'amito. Sponsored by the Silver family in memory of בסי פיגא בת ישראל, by the Kramer Miller families in memory of רייזל בת רב דוד דב, רב יצחק אריה בן נחום, רב עזריאל בן רב יוסף טוביה, and נכה בת אפרים זלמן ורחל and also today the learning is לרפואת רפוא מרדכי בן לאה. OK so we're in, we're going to learn Parshas Shmini for a few minutes. Didn't want to give up on learning Parshas Shmini.
Parshas Shmini has a lot of very interesting and important things in the Parsha and I guess that it'd be safe to say that one of the most misunderstood stories that we have in Parshas Shmini is definitely the story of Nadav and Avihu. Every single year we speak about this, come back to Nadav and Avihu. Nadav and Avihu, the way we learned it as children, was that they were bad boys that rebelled and Hashem killed them and nothing could be further from, well, nothing could be further from the truth in the pnimiyus of it. On the pshat it's definitely how we've learned it, 100%, but nothing could be further from it in the emes l'amito and I want you to open your hearts and go back to Yoav Amichai's bris for a few seconds.
Yoav Amichai Weitzman's bris for one second. Right before his bris kodesh, how long ago was it? A month ago? Three weeks ago? Three and a half weeks ago. We said an important Torah, I don't remember from who, name of who, but at the bris and we were saying this throughout Hallel, אנא השם הושיע נא. I don't know if anyone remembers this.
Ana is the roshei tevos Eliyahu, Nadav, and Avihu. It's not stam because Nadav and Avihu, and we're going to see today, they are the gilgulim of the neshama of Eliyahu Hanavi who lives forever. Who else was the gilgul of the neshama of Eliyahu? Pinchas. What does Pinchas zocheh to? Bris shalom.
It's very wild. It's very, there's a lot going on over here. There's a lot going on over here. Nadav and Avihu are so much more than the way that we ever learned it and really ba'alei ha'Kabbalah and Chassidus push us to look deeper inside because where do we have this inyan that when people do something and they get punished with death but the explanation is bikrovai ekadesh, which means that Hashem said, listen, those that I'm closest to, I sanctify myself amongst them.
Bifrat, who are we speaking about? Those who lost their lives. So Nadav and Avihu are in a category that's very, very, very different than the way we understand all the other people in the Torah that perhaps did something bad that resulted in, in a kares, right? Zeh yachol l'hiyos. I mean who else is another good example of someone that what he did resulted in a kares and the way we understand the pshat is that he was very, very bad and then you learn the inside for a second and you're like wait a second, he was Tzelafchad, mekoshesh etzim. Way we learn it, he chopped wood on Shabbos and then Hashem says, take him, have everyone throw stones at him and finish him.
זה הרבה יותר עמוק מזה. It's much, much deeper than that and we've learned that. How do we know by the way from the Torah that people understood that Tzelafchad was much deeper than pshat? His daughters got an inheritance. The daughters realized that really he's much much holier than the pshat and they said we could draw from this Kodesh Kodashim of what he was trying to bring into the world and demand a new level of Torah to come down to the world and they're mechadesh halachos.
They're actually mechadesh two halachos. One halacha that they were mechadesh was they get a yerusha. What's the other Torah that they were mechadesh? That they get the bechor of the yerusha. It's where did they get the koach to do that? I thought Moshe Rabbeinu did not know that answer.
He knew they got the yerusha but he didn't know they got a pi shenayim. Nakhon, so he comes up to the Ribbono Shel Olam and he's like this is already beyond me. Ah, ki Tzelofchad brought down a new Torah. Chevre, Nadav and Avihu brought down a new Torah.
The problem is we don't pasken lema'aseh by Nadav and Avihu the way that they acted. So if we don't pasken by something lema'aseh the way they acted, is there anything to learn from them? Now 100% because what's Gemara if not that? I mean Gemara is a dispute between different opinions so you could say well if I know the maskana of what the Gemara is going to say then that means that everything that didn't shtim with the final answer of what the Gemara is, all those all those mande amars are not shayach. Understand what I'm saying? The Rav would would explain that when you look at Gemara from two two sides of the thing, you know, both sides of the machlokes, it sheds light on what the actual thing that they're arguing about is. Right, what the etzem of what they're arguing about is.
Yasher koach. You can't properly see the proper way to serve Hashem if you only have one this is how we serve Hashem so you can't understand what avodas Hashem is, you need to have multiple perspectives. Correct and this is what's happening over here in this story as well. If I start asking you what did Nadav and Avihu do that was wrong everyone starts so fast saying all different types of reasons.
What's the one that comes to mind fastest?
מורה הלכה בפני רבו. Shevuyei yayin. You see that there's a three different answers happened at the same time. How many answers do Chazal give for the reasons behind Nadav and Avihu's falling? A lot.
About 700. There's kimat and Torah she-be'al peh is more and more and more and more of this. Reb Shlomo drank from the fountain of the Mei Shiloach from the moment that he realized the Mei Shiloach was was his rebbe. And he drinks from that fountain understood it in a certain way and he gives this over to us the pnimiyus of it in a way that seems to be contradicting to everything that we ever learned about Nadav and Avihu.
One more hakdama then we'll go inside the text. Avi knows the answer to this. What's the most repeated verse in Parshas Shemini? What what do you say after what happens with Nadav and Avihu? What's the most repeated verse that happens over and over again in Parshas Shemini?
כאשר צוה השם את משה. Because what does it say about Nadav and Avihu?
אשר לא צוה אתם.
Now halt kup. You know what that means? Merchak kfula, Ishbitzer, Mei Shiloach, famous Mei Shiloach, Merchak kfula. Rakh merchak comes from the lashon of rakh, softness. Kfula, double level of softness that they were feeling towards this inyan that they felt in their heart even though it wasn't what the Ribbono Shel Olam commanded them to do.
We have the famous Gemara in Nazir that says גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Chevre, I know I'm running and it's post Pesach like not running but we're saying a lot, I just need to know you're holding kup with me, yeah? So far? Okay. So listen closely. The Gemara in Nazir says גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה.
That means greater is the person that does something that they're commanded to do from the person that does something that he's not commanded to do. That Gemara was always very hard for me to swallow because what does it take away from a person?
גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Personal initiative, drive, passion. If the Gemara in Nazir is saying to me that the greatest thing a person could do is only that he's commanded, where does it leave for self-expression, self-discovery, self-expression of ratzon, כאילו כמה זה משאיר בשבילי? And especially that we have this vort כאשר צוה השם את משה, כאשר צוה השם את משה and the Torah is saying אשר לא צוה אתם, it's almost like that Gemara in Nazir is describing the parsha of Nadav and Avihu in the Torah.
What's greater? Doing something that Hashem... wants you to do and therefore doing it or doing something that you want to do. So that's an open question that we're going to say right now. Now again, even though we don't pasken lema'aseh on Nadav and Avihu's Beis Medrash, we don't.
It's never worked for anyone in Am Yisrael, anyone that's tried to come in and say forget the way Halacha works or forget all these things. Don't you know it's just about aah! anyone that's ever tried that in Yiddishkeit has fallen. It's one of the reasons רבינו הקדוש רב נחמן בן פיגא zechuso yagein aleinu was so adamant on keeping every letter of the Halacha to the T and learning Shulchan Aruch every single day. And if you learn anything in Toras, תורת האדמו"ר הזקן of the Baal HaTanya, essentially he's explaining the only way there could be a hisgalus of your own neshama, only way you could know who you really are.
The only way you could know who you really are is based on revealing Ratzon Hashem through the Halacha. Nachon? So Hakadosh Baruch Hu, why'd you make it so complicated by explaining to me that Nadav and Avihu are considered your closest boys bikrovei ekadesh? How could it be? And when you look at the diyukim of how they were taken out by their two brothers, what happened to their actual bodies? What- the way they died, how they went up to Shamayim, and the way the Torah says אחיכם כל בית ישראל יבכו את השרפה. That all the brothers, all of their brothers in Am Yisrael have to cry over what just happened right now, it's forcing us to look at the man d'amar that we don't hold by about Nadav and Avihu's shita and understand that there's something much deeper going on than what we're learning it on the surface. Ad kan, akafah alef, we're okay? Okay, so now there's three different explanations here.
Alavai we could get through the first one. I'm being very presumptuous, like sometimes with Mei HaShiloach shiur when I would come, I stopped doing that when I would print two or three Toras. No. But this is, this is from Even Shlomo Parshas Shemini.
This took a, this was one of the hardest teachings to edit, to transcribe, edit, and publish because it's something so massive that we're trying to, trying to give over in a way that could be understood. So hopefully we could, we could make something strong from it. And again, this is mamash the counter of כאשר צוה ה' את משה. Okay? This is like, not the opposite, but it's the man d'amar, okay? It's the man d'amar that we don't necessarily hold by, but we need to know of its existence.
Why? Because the Torah let us know about its existence. Very important. There're a few extra pages, yeah? Not so much? Chevrei take, if you don't have, take. Okay.
פעם שאל אותי מישהו איפה כתוב בתורה שאסור להכות את הילדים שלך? Someone once asked Reb Shlomo, where is it, cause this, you know, this he flipped out at people. There was three times, only three times where he got angry in his life, mainly three times that are repeated, right? We've said this many times. One, Jews for J. When they would walk into his shiur, he'd lose it.
He'd lose it on them. Not just shalosh seudos talking during zemiros. Zemiros he, that was something he would have an inyan. And the third thing is if he saw or heard of a parent hitting a child, he, he couldn't stomach it.
Famous story in the stairs of the Laromme. Not Laromme, what'd they call it? Inbal. It was the Laromme when the story happened. It was called the Laromme Hotel before it became Inbal Hotel, that he saw a father hitting his son in the stairs.
These are things now we know. Tell me something, al pi Halacha, are you allowed to hit your child? You're supposed to. I'm asking a different question. Are you, you want to share some daddy issues right now? His father's not in the room right now, go for it.
Your father's not here, go for it. We just started the Gemara in Makkos has a whole discussion about it.
חושך שבטו שונא בנו. Which means by sparing your child.
Well, I'm seeing what's happening in the room right now with certain people. Whoa! This is- okay, let's move on. Where does it say in the Torah- I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Where does it say in the Torah that you can't hit your children?
אמרתי לו אני רוצה לשאול אותך.
I want to ask you a question.
אתה מסוגל להרים את ידך ולהכות ילד? Are you capable of lifting up your hand and hitting your child?
אם כן פירוש הדבר שאינך בן אנוש. So he would, I tell you, he was really stark on this. He said that means you're not human.
In today's day and age, if you're capable of lifting up your hand and smacking your child, he couldn't relate to a person like that. He once said, maybe before the Holocaust, there was some kind of wild hava amina to think that that's part of chinuch and avodas Hashem, maybe, maybe. But after the six million, he would say לא שייך לדור שלנו בכלל, it's one of these things that are completely not shayach for our generation at all to actually hit your children. I'm not talking about a little tiny patch, I'm talking about the way that it used to be.
Belts were a real thing, it's not stam this metaphor you see in movies sometimes, like this was a real thing. Huh? The belt or something? A belt, yeah, yeah, mamash, like we've seen these things. Great. Rulers on the head.
Now, daminu, now he says like this: דמיינו טיפוס שבעבר הסתובב עם סכין והרג אנשים ואז יום אחד קרא את עשרת הדיברות והחליט להפסיק להרוג ודאי תשאלו אותו איך בכלל היית מסוגל להרוג. You see a person, he was a killer, he was a murderer, he would walk around and murder people. Then one day someone brings over to him a Bible and he reads in the Bible: thou shalt not kill. That's the word of God at Har Sinai.
And then he stops. So of course you'd ask this person, how were you ever capable of doing such a thing? Now look how he builds this up.
בשעה שדיבר איתנו השם בהר סיני ואמר לנו לא תרצח משהו קרה בתוכנו. This is a Kotzker vort.
He says from the Kotzker Rebbe would say this. Something happened to us when we stood at Har Sinai and we heard from Hashem lo tirtzach. Thou shalt not kill. Something became engraved in our hearts.
זה לא רק המילים לא תרצח. It's not just don't kill. But what else did we hear through the words don't kill?
אלא כמה החיים יקרים, but how precious life is. So I want you to meditate on this for a second.
All the lavs that we have in the Torah. There's two ways of hearing it. One is what the Torah says don't do.
מכלל לאו אתה שומע הן.
But then when we also have this inyan of from when the Torah says don't do something, the Torah's also saying what is it all about? So you could walk around thinking, ah, lo tirtzach, I should not kill. And what does it say to you about the preciousness of life? Nothing. It just says that I shouldn't kill. That doesn't work.
That doesn't work. When we heard don't kill on Har Sinai, it also means that the preciousness of every living creature of life itself became engraved into us. How precious life is. Like he ends here and he says: לא רק שאין להרוג מפני שזה אסור, you shouldn't only kill because it's assur, אלא שאני פשוט לא מסוגל להרוג.
I'm simply I'm not capable of killing. Okay so far? Chazak. Weiter. He's going to develop it even more.
דמיינו שהבת שלי אומרת לי אתה יכול לתת לי קצת מיץ תפוחים. My daughter asks me can you please give me some apple juice.
האם אני נותן לה את המיץ מפני שאני מחויב? Do I give her the juice because I'm obligated to? Chas v'shalom.
זה מפני שאני רוצה.
No, he says because it's because I want to. But wait a second. Are you mechuyav to give your daughter juice? Yeah. No.
Al pi halacha? Al pi halacha, are you mechuyav to sustain your family? Yes. Yes. So I could say, you understand what he's doing here? I could come and say listen, al pi halacha of course I have to. And I could darsh'n it any way I...
forget about juice, okay? Whatever it is, right? But it should not be... this was like the erev yom tov jewelry syndrome that people have. Because they learn that Chazal say you should bring your wife jewelry before every yom tov, right? Every wife knows which person is bringing jewelry because they're mechuyav to versus the ones that want to. They have the sense, they know exactly what's up.
Imagine if some wacky way you actually bought her jewelry when it wasn't Shalosh Regalim or Rosh Hashanah, right? Mechuyav? Am I doing what I'm doing because I'm mechuyav? I'm also mechuyav, I'm also obligated, but the deepest level of Yiddishkeit is to do the things that I'm mechuyav because I want to. You understand? To actually listen, Shabbos. We're all going to keep Shabbos, right? B'ezras Hashem Yisborach, it should be kept in with his'chadshus of Pesach and everything that comes with it, right? Okay, I keep Shabbos, right? Am I keeping Shabbos because I'm mechuyav at this stage in life? Why not?
גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה. Why not? There's nothing wrong with it.
Because you love it. It's because I also want it. I want this to be what... this is my ratzon.
This is what I want to do. Isn't that like a smaller, smaller I'm specifically choosing that word form of keeping Shabbos than keeping Shabbos because it's Hashem's ratzon? Again, gadol metzaveh ve'oseh. Okay, bigger than having your ratzon be aligned with Hashem's ratzon. Yeah, well is it your ratzon or Hashem's ratzon? Yeah.
Okay, this is... this is where we're getting into the nekuda. No, no, this is very good. This is where we're getting into the nekuda.
Now listen Avrom Mordechai, this is exactly it. This is the nekuda. This is where we're getting into. Nadav and Avihu are going on a very thin line over here, okay? Because they had this inyan of feeling a hisgalus of Hashem, of what Hashem wants, deep, deep, deep in their ratzon, even though it wasn't brought down to the world yet.
What did Nadav and Avihu want to happen by their actions? What do you think they tried to establish through their actions? Be close to Hashem? Isarusa d'leta'ta, trying to get it to come down by... To get what to come down? That ratzon on everyone. Let's verbalize it. Let's say it.
Let's say it in a way that we could feel really kashur to it. What exactly did they try to bring down to the world, Nadav and Avihu? Huh? Geulah? Geulah. Let's say in other words, open access. Free, open access to who? Hashem, at all times.
No, no, to... meaning mitzad Hashem of course, but for who? Anyone. For anyone at all times, and they believed that must be the ratzon of Hashem. How could you say that it should be any other way? And how could you knock someone for wanting that...
for that thing to be? Yeah, Yehoshua. I don't... I always remember hearing the English, a friendly fire. Is that right? It's like...
is that...? Friendly fire is actually a... it's a very horrible thing that's happened many times the last few years where someone gets killed by friendly fire. Yeah, but I don't know if anybody else has ever heard that. But you're talking about Nadav and Avihu? Nadav and Avihu, they brought a friendly fire.
Eish zara. Was... am I wrong? I don't know... I'm not...
it's what you heard. I'm not saying you're wrong. Foreign fire, sorry. Oh, okay.
Yeah. Does that change what you're going to say? No, no, I don't know why I was thinking friendship. I don't know why. I don't know, maybe hearing this...
Okay. Because... because in the pnimiyus of things, they... they did sense this level of...
of yedidus and rei'us with the Ribono Shel Olam. Meaning they were hold... I'm not saying that's... I'm saying that's where they were coming from.
That they felt a closeness that they couldn't even explain. If you go through every one of the Rashi... everything that Rashi tells, everything the Gemara tells us about the reason behind what they... why they did what they did, you could see that behind that lies a very deep sense of closeness.
They felt this closeness. Listen, they're Aharon Kohen's sons. You know? At the end of the day, let's think about the Beis Medrash they grew up in. They're not...
they're not bums from the street. And they were in the family business. And they were in the family business. Nichon, nichon.
Okay. Now, chevra, I want you to focus really strongly now on the next... this is the last... the second to bottom paragraph.
Because now this is classic Reb Shlomo, but I believe there's a lot of nafka minas to our life in this next piece.
מה הבדל בין עבודת השם לעבודת אלילים? Chevra, just... just stick with me.
מה הבדל בין עבודת השם לעבודת אלילים? Pashut me'od.
What's the difference between serving Hashem and... for... let's call it pagan worship, okay? Without getting involved in... in all the different ways of explaining it.
Avodas elilim. It's very simple. What's the difference?
עבודה לאלוקים חיים היא לעשות מה שאני רוצה באמת. Okay, so serving God for real is doing what I really, really want.
Now, we could explain his last sentence to mean that I'm... I'm megaleh that what I really, really want is really the ratzon of Hashem. Or vice... I'd say vice versa, that Hashem...
what Hashem wants me to do is really, really what I want to do. That's the highest. Okay? That's the highest. Anashim but listen what he says here - עבור אנשים רבים אלוקים הפך לאליל מת.
This is a harsh statement. For many people, God has become a dead idol. Elil meis. For many people, God, the term God, has become elil meis.
Especially after the Shoah, this was... like... very... No, no, he's saying it in a very different way.
He's saying it in a way that like I need to do something as opposed to I want to. Like it's like I have to catch mincha as opposed to mincha catching me. But now those are like let's say like lower level examples, but there are many many examples of like that that I realize have permeated my Yiddishkeit. My whole way my choices in life, everything that I observe.
This was Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach for many people, the term God has become a dead idol, לעשות עבור אנשים רבים אלקים הפך לאליל מת. And what does he say over here? That's called ani chayav. Zot omeret that now we know, what's that? Not keeping Shabbos for Shabbos. Keeping Shabbos because gotta keep Shabbos.
Oh, you're talking about the story, I wanted Shabbos for Shabbos, is that what you're referring to, Reb Aaron Karliner? There's a whole, there's a maybe we'll say it over Shabbos. Is this connected to לא תקים לך מצבה אשר שנא השם אלקיך? So this is Matityahu with the Friday morning Persian antennas, yeah. It's exactly that. It's exactly that.
לא תקים לך מצבה אשר שנא השם אלקיך. There's bits of crazy Torahs on this. Don't make for yourself a monument, that is which what Hashem despises. Now in my life I have to have a certain level of obligation, because if not, I'll and that's why we don't pasken like Nadav and Avihu, right? We don't pasken like this.
But if all of my life, if all of my Yiddishkeit, if all of my level of the whole level of the relationship of between me and my wife is every morning I wake up and I read my ketubah because I want to be reminded as to what I signed on. And based on that I serve my wife that day. So on the one hand you could say what a stark Yid you are. This is unbelievable.
You're keeping up to your hitchayivut. Your wife's sitting there saying, that's what you need in order to keep this relationship going? To remember your obligations? What were Nadav and Avihu scared of? They were scared of a Yiddishkeit where it would be basically people waking up in the morning, reading the ketubah, and that would be that which pushes them to keep whatever they keep for the following day. That's what they were scared of. I signed the code of conduct.
And let me remember what the code of conduct was. Let's not talk about the others, I know you're on shpilkes. Shniya, shniya, shniya, it's also be-krovai ekadesh. I'm focusing, there's plenty of shiurim on esh zara.
No, not esh zara. And where I said fifty times it's a man de-amar. Avodah zarah. Avodah zarah doesn't appear in the Torah.
Torah never says the word. Avichai, Avichai, Avichai, shniya, deep breath, I said fifty times it's not a man de-amar that we pasken by. This is not the man de-amar we pasken by. But the Torah lets us know that it exists for a reason, even though we don't hold by it, it has to be part of the way that we look at our avodat Hashem.
Isn't the reason don't do it? I'm not following, but it's completely taking the whole shiur to another way and I'm, though as we've done in the past, we could speak for hours after shiur about this. Hours. Okay, no, no, five five five five. La-asot, look how he goes back inside, second to bottom paragraph.
לעשות רק מפני שחייבים זוהי עבודת אלילים. Nachon. I'm still serving God, but talk about עבודה שהיא זרה לך. That's like the flip side of it.
I could serve Hashem on the level of כאשר צוה השם את משה and it feels like an avodah she-hi zara. It feels foreign to me, but I'm doing it because I'm obligated to. Nachon, כשאני עובד השם אני באמת מחויב בזה. Reb Shlomo is saying, it's true, when I serve Hashem I'm definitely obligated in that which I'm doing.
כמו שאני מחויב לתת מיץ תפוחים לבנות שלי.
נכון אני חייב אבל אני רוצה. I want. It's true that I'm obligated to, but what's wrong with saying that I also want to do this?
ומזה חששו כל כך נדב ואביהוא.
This is what Nadav and Avihu were scared of. What would happen, what was happening on the day that Nadav and Avihu did what they did? What day was it? Rosh Chodesh Nissan. What happened on that day? Many things, but the most important thing that we know of is that Rabbi Nachman was born on that, I'm kidding, right. Same thing, the Shechinah came down to the world.
I said Rabbi Nachman. hakamas hamishkan, the Mishkan's coming down into the world, right? What would the Mishkan what does the... we never had anything like that before, you understand? We're living in a world of shuls and there's a makom keva. There was no such thing like that before.
The Mishkan comes down. What were they what were they petrified of the Mishkan? That the Mishkan would make people to think that what? It's not going to come to me anymore. Limited access. Things are not like...
Aryeh, what what was the lashon you said when I asked in the beginning of shiur what did they want? Open access. Open access, now they're thinking now there's a metzius of limited access. And they couldn't understand how that could how that could actually be what should be in the world. And it and it bothered them so much.
Listen, people learn Parshas Korach, easy to knock off Korach. Easy. Korach was from nosei ha'aron.
כורח בן יצהר בן קהת.
What was their job, Kohas? They were carrying the aron. You think stam he had this inyan of כי כל העדה כולם קדושים ובתוכם ה'? It's it's very connected. So this is what they were so nervous about.
כאן אנחנו בונים משכן, we're building a Mishkan.
עשינו את זה מפני שנצטוינו וגם מפני שרצינו. We did it because we were commanded to build a Mishkan, but we also did it because we wanted there to be a Mishkan. We needed it. I'm not getting into the machlokes Rambam and the Ramban and the other Rishonim about when exactly the Mishkan was erected and was it a result of cheit ha'egel? That's already for a much much bigger topic.
But that the hakamas hamishkan was because we were commanded to and we also wanted, אבל הם רצו לעשות דבר אחד אשר לא צוה אותם. They wanted to do something that they were not commanded to do.
אני רוצה לעשות את זה מפני שאני אוהב את ה' מאוד. I want to do it because I mamash love Hashem.
אני רוצה להיות כל כך קרוב אליו. I want to be so close to him.
אני רוצה לרוץ פנימה אל קודש הקדשים. I want to run into the Holy of Holies.
Stop here. What can we take, what can we take from Nadav and Avihu's heart based on what we just learned right now? What could we take back into our world of holy and healthy avodas Hashem? Not getting stuck into the repetitive. That's for sure. The ratzon.
The ratzon of what? The ratzon to be close. Passion. Zrizus. To make a korban out of your time almost.
Like I mean it seems like the pshara of Rabbeinu that like if you want open access all the time, just don't do it b'maaseh. Do it with your whole heart and your whole brain, but like not necessarily with the things that you're commanded to do. With that focus on Shulchan Aruch. There's a Torah from the I think it's the it's the Jikover.
I think okay. What you know you know the Jikover? No no no not at all not at all. You just never heard a name like that it freaked you out a little bit. Okay.
So the Jikover was from from Ropshitz. So I'll I'll choose calmer names. So the Heilige Jikover. I think it's him or or...
but but now I'm realizing just brace yourself, okay? Or the Ziditchover. Or the Ziditchover. I don't remember which one. And he says that Korach was such a fool.
Why? Because even though pikeach haya, he was a fool because of exactly what who just said? Yosef just spoke, who just said what they said? Gefen. Is that who stops who stops you from going there in your heart at any given moment? Why does it always have to be b'maaseh? So Korach, he's saying Korach, why why is it that in your mind and in your heart you can't be in the place that you're really talking about? Same thing about Nadav and Avihu, he would say maybe. That no one stops you from running into the kodesh kodashim in your mind and heart and soul all the time, but in olam ha'asiyah, in olam hamaaseh, we we live in a different world. But nothing should stop you, no one should come and tell you listen, you're not privy to these things, this is not for you.
You know, this is not for you, just like only the kohen gadol can go into the kodesh kodashim pa'am b'shana the way that he did. It's not like that. Who stops us from going there in our minds? Who was the biggest, biggest, biggest advocate of... of this way of thinking with imagining these things? The Piaseczner Rebbe.
The Kodesh Kodashim, the Bnei Machshava Tova, the Hachsharat Ha'avreichim. What are all of these visual exercises? It's to be Nadav and Avihu in mind and in thought and in heart. You can't say about that אשר לא צוה אותם. Asher lo tziva has to do with olam ha'asiya and only olam ha'asiya.
Only olam ha'asiya. You know, this... I want to tell you one more story. This happened many years ago.
I flew to Albany for a week. I had an amazing week in Albany. It was the week between Behaalotcha and Shlach. And I get...
I flew to Newark, this is a long time ago. I flew to Newark and then I was supposed to take, I think it's like a one-hour flight from Newark to Albany. Mashu kaze. The East Coast chevre knows this better than me.
Be'erech mashu kaze. I don't think anyone else has ever said they had a great week in Albany. I'll tell you why I had a week. I'm waiting to hear what happened.
Because I had a week of sitting with, there was a few, it was one or two concerts. But the ikar was I was sitting every morning in a sandbox in the backyard of a certain rabbi who had his best friends were ministers. These special, precious, mamash open-hearted ministers from other religions. And they had a sandbox and they sat in the sandbox and would really open their hearts without a herd, without a kahal.
Just what they're feeling as spiritual leaders from different organizations. And this was... it was wild, it was beautiful, it was very, very meaningful. It was very, very meaningful and it really opened my heart.
It was kimat a week because I said I'm not going to stay for Shabbos. It was like Sunday to Thursday. Kimat a week. And I did things definitely out of my comfort zone because not all concerts were in shuls, if you catch my drift.
So one of the things that happened there was my heart really opened to a lot of the stuff that we're speaking about right now, like how much do I want versus how much am I mechuyav to do something. Because I was always thinking like, you chevre, you barely have any mechuyav to do anything. Like what are your mechuyavim? What are your obligations? You know, I'm sitting with a Shulchan Aruch over my head and Mishna Berura, rishonim and achronim. I was trying to explain to them the levels of mechuyav and...
I don't really know, like do you have a Shulchan Aruch? You know, what do you have exactly? Anyway, I'm flying back home. This is the thing. I come back to Newark Airport, Thursday. And crazy, crazy, crazy storm, which is very bizarre because when is Parshas Behaalotcha and Shlach? It's June.
It's June. I'm thinking, it rains in Los Angeles three times a year between December and January. I'm not used to like rainstorms in the middle of June. My flight gets delayed and delayed.
I'm thinking, oy vavoy, I don't know how I'm going to do this. And also, I got there in the morning and the flight got delayed for like five times till I was there late at night. There was no kosher food. I found one emda, one like Hudson, you know, Hudson News place.
I was eating those pretzels and soda. There was nothing. It was in one of the terminals that didn't have anything. And like a lot of weird things were happening.
I just remembering there was one... there was one Rastaman that was behind the counter in one of these Hudson News places. And he looks at me and you could mamash see agvaniyot in his eyes. You know what I mean? And he says to me, "Me brother, where the horns? Where the horns?" I'm like, "What?" "Come on, me brother, show me the horns." And I remember mamash...
there was a bizarre... and outside, thunder, lightning... it's like mamash a movie, right? And I'm so far from... I'm so far...
we were living in Ein Daniel at the time. I wanted... I needed to get home for Shabbos so badly. I was so nervous I was going to...
this was just going to mess up everything. And I had a very spiritually enlightening week, I really did. Pshichas hamochin, pshichas hamochin. So I didn't see a Yid all day.
There was no kosher food and I felt so strange. Finally, I see a Yiddele. Stark Yiddele, you know, with the levush. Looks like a Yid.
I was so excited to see him. He wasn't as excited as I was. And he was boarding... and then they finally said, "Okay, we have clearance." All flights...
we were talking for two minutes. He told me where he was from without mentioning names. I said, "Are you also on the flight?" on my flight he's like, "Where you going?" I said, "I'm going back home to Eretz Yisrael." He said, "Oh, wow. I wish I felt like I was on the level to live there." That's what he said to me.
I said, "Excuse me?" He's like, I'm like, "What does that mean?" He's like, "Not everyone that's like that wants to do something so holy is on the level to. I'm just not holding there. Apparently you are." I said to him, "You know, I've been so I've been feeling so alone this whole day and I spent the week with goyim. And I finally see a yid that makes me feel like you and I are living on alternate planets.
Not because I live in Eretz Yisrael and you live here, but because" and I said to him, "You know it's Parshas Shlach. It's Parshas Shlach and you're saying what you're saying thinking you're mekadesh-ing Eretz Yisrael by saying listen, אשר לא צוה אותם. So is he right or wrong? Don't give me the answer you think I want to hear. Think about based on what we said right now.
Is he right or is he wrong?" "He was saying he wanted to?" "He was saying k'ilu oh, I wish I was on the level to feel like I could live in Eretz Yisrael. Is he right or is he wrong? Think about it in a deep way. I know I'm stretching you guys like crazy this morning. Think about it." "He's right and he's wrong." "He's right and he's wrong.
Why is he right?" "Because he thinks he's low which is he's humble, but you're wrong because Hashem wants you to go live in Eretz Yisrael so go live in Eretz Yisrael." "Because Eretz Yisrael is that." "What's that?" "Eretz Yisrael is that kadosh." "Because for him Eretz Yisrael is Kodesh Kodashim and going there just because you want to is אש זרה אשר לא צוה אותם. This guy, I'm sure this yid is shomer Torah u'mitzvot way better than I am. Nadav v'Avihu were scared that that would be the metzius of Am Yisrael's future. That's what I felt.
That Am that they looked at yidden like this and be like, so anything that I can't see mefurash אשר לא צוה אותם. It's machloket. Rambam, Ramban, mitzvot yishuv ha'aretz. You know you look at all the sefarim is it that clear? You would go to Tzion-ishe places in America and they have machloket on Yom Ha'atzmaut if yishuv ha'aretz is a mitzvah kiyumis without getting into that meshugas.
The bottom line is that Nadav v'Avihu opened up something massive in the world. If Nadav v'Avihu didn't do what they do, we would have never known about it. We'd never know that it's even possible to have a desire to want to run into the Kodesh Kodashim. And for many people, us coming back and building a medinah yehudit in Eretz Yisrael is equivalent to Nadav v'Avihu running into the Kodesh Kodashim.
You have to understand that. Many people that is like that. Ella mai, we know that we're not just here because we're commanded to be here. We're here because we want to be here.
Ella we just know that this is also Torah miSinai. So the point of what we're saying over here is Nadav v'Avihu, we don't pasken like this because then if I pasken like Nadav v'Avihu, every time I felt a burning passion to do something that I wasn't commanded to do, I could be sameach on my ratzon, chas v'shalom, even על פי תורת איזביצא, okay? Even al pi because you can't do a berur like the Izhbitza says and come to the conclusion that's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu would want. But it must be in my yiddishkeit that what I'm doing is because I want to do it as well. When I'm only stuck in the mode of I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm mechuyav and my ratzon is meaningless in the picture, that's what he calls avodat elilim.
That's what Nadav v'Avihu were scared of. That I would relieve myself, I would remove myself from the need to feel a ratzon and I would only do things כאשר צוה ה' את משה. That's what they were scared of. That's what they were petrified of.
And that's why them in their pnimiyut of their ratzon are megulgal in the neshamah of who did we say? Eliyahu HaNavi who lives forever. And also in Pinchas who brings down a beris shalom into the world. Because the greatest shalom I could have in my heart and soul with Hakadosh Baruch Hu is that I'm doing what I'm doing not only because I want to do it, mainly first of all because you commanded this. That's the emes la'amito, but it's also my ratzon as well.
That's the kinah of Pinchas and Eliyahu and of Nadav v'Avihu. Yafeh me'od, beautiful. Raziel for the win, nachon. So I give us a bracha that when we learn these pesukim this Shabbos...
And you can look at the - there's another two explanations there where he explains out the reason that they got killed is because they weren't married, and another - like there's a lot of different whole מורה הלכה לפני רבו. The bottom line of this, this is the man de-amar we may not hold by, but the Torah wants us to pay close attention to to make sure that we are mekushar to the pnimiyus ratzon of Nadav and Avihu. They never they were scared that Yiddishkeit would become something that may not be an esh zara, but the avoda will end up being totally zar to us because it never ends up being what I want - what I want it to be. Our ratzon should be mekushar with in one with the ratzon of the Ribbono Shel Olam b'ezras Hashem.
Yes, Sasha? So the the Torah praises that Aharon that that he didn't change anything, right? Right. So he did as he was told. Not as he wanted to, maybe. As he was told and they were scared of this - this is the rebellion.
Yachol lihyot. Yachol lihyot. Anyway, Parshas Shmini, l'chaim. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, all the sodos should become revealed to us this Shabbos b'ezras Hashem.