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Shiurim by Rabbi Shlomo Friedman in KBY.
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Good evening. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to look at the רמב\"ן Ramban as much as I would have liked to but nevertheless we see some of the significant רמב\"ן Ramban here in the פרשה Parshah. The פרשה Parshah begins that when you count the Jewish people you're meant to give כופר נפשו Kofer Nafsho, one is meant to give כופר Kofer, but the רמב\"ן Ramban indicates that the תורה Torah doesn't explicitly tell us that now משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu is meant to count the people, just says when you count the people then you give money. So how did משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu know that he's meant to count the people now? Because the פסוק Pasuk says ונתת אותו על עבודת אהל מועד v'natata oso al avodas ohel moed and there was a ציווי Tzivui to build the אהל מועד Ohel Moed now. ממילא Mimeila he understood he's meant to count the people. So just the first couple of lines רמב\"ן Ramban, וצוה הקדוש ברוך הוא את משה כאשר תשא ראש בני ישראל במנין יתנו כופר נפש מחצית השקל ואמר לו ולקחת את כסף הכפורים הנזכר ונתת אותו על עבודת אהל מועד ומזה ילמוד משה שימנה אותם עתה v'tziva HaKadosh Baruch Hu es Moshe ka'asher tisa rosh B'nei Yisrael bimnyan yitnu kofer nefesh machatzis hashekel v'amar lo v'lakachta es kesef hakippurim hanizkar v'natata oso al avodas ohel moed umizeh yilmod Moshe sheyimneh osam ata, he's meant to count them now וכן עשה v'chen asa. Okay, in any case the רמב\"ן Ramban points out that it's not explicit that this is a מצוה לדורות Mitzvah l'doros here in the פסוקים Psukim. Says at the end of page תפ\"ח Taf Peh Ches about a tenth the way, an eighth the way through the whole piece, skipping about eight lines רמב\"ן Ramban says ומפני שלא נתפרש כאן אם היא מצוה לדורות או לשעה ולמשה במדבר טעה דוד ומנה אותם בלא שקלים umipnei shelo nitparesh kan im hi mitzvah l'doros o l'sha u'l'Moshe bamidbar ta'ah David u'manah osam belo shekalim. We know that דוד המלך David HaMelech counts the Jewish people without שקלים Shekalim and there's some מגפה Mageifah. So how could דוד David have made such a mistake? So says רמב\"ן Ramban while the תורה Torah over here doesn't say that it's a מצוה לדורות Mitzvah l'doros and therefore there was room to think it was just a מצוה לשעה Mitzvah l'sha. So again ומפני שלא נתפרש כאן אם היא מצוה לדורות או לשעה ולמשה במדבר טעה דוד ומנה אותם בלא שקלים ויהי נגף בהם umipnei shelo nitparesh kan im hi mitzvah l'doros o l'sha u'l'Moshe bamidbar ta'ah David u'manah osam belo shekalim vayehi negef bahem בשגגה עשה bishgaga asa ויאמר דוד אל השם חטאתי מאד אשר עשיתי vayomer David el Hashem chatasi me'od asher asisi. Okay. חז\"ל Chazal understand that there is a מצוה לדורות Mitzvah l'doros to give מחצית השקל Machatzis HaShekel. There is some פסוק Pasuk in נחמיה Nechemiah that speaks of giving שלישית השקל shlishis hashekel but the רמב\"ן Ramban explains that the same עשרה גרה asarah gerah, the same after all עשרים גרה השקל esrim gerah hashekel and מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel is ten גרה gerah so the מחצית השקל machatzis hashekel here and the שלישית השקל shlishis hashekel in עזרא נחמיה Ezra Nechemiah is the same thing because the שקל shekel was made larger. So it was ten גרה gerah here in פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa and also the שלישית השקל shlishis hashekel was ten גרה gerah, just that שקל shekel was a larger שקל shekel. He says בנחמיה עזרא הוסיפו עליהם על השקלים והיה שלישית השקל עשרה גרה bi'Nechemiah Ezra hosifu aleihem al hashekalim vehaya shlishis hashekel asarah gerah. By the way גרה gerah I think some understand is associated with a גרגיר gargir meaning the piece of silver, the weight of a גרגיר gargir, a grain of wheat. In any case, רש\"י Rashi over here addresses the following. When the Jewish people are counted here, but they're also counted later at the beginning of ספר במדבר Sefer Bamidbar when the משכן Mishkan after the משכן Mishkan was put up באחד לחדש השני b'echad l'chodesh hasheni. The count over here is around יום כיפור Yom Kippur time and so they counted about half a year later באחד לחדש השני b'echad l'chodesh hasheni and amazingly enough it's the same number of six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. How's that figure? After all, aren't there people that got older and people that so רש\"י Rashi seems to say well hey, nobody really got older between the two counts cause after all the first count was after. Oh, so no ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, so people didn't really get older because after all, everybody's birthday is on ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah. That's what רש״י Rashi seems to assume. So the רמב״ן Ramban what? I never heard of that. They didn't make me a birthday party on ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah. Whatever. It doesn't seem... he says that we've never heard of that a birthday is the date of a birth. So he doesn't like that explanation of רש״י Rashi for the count being the same. Let's see a little bit of this inside. He says, ואם תאמר וכי אפשר Ve'im tomar vachi efshar beginning of page תפ״ט Tav Pei Tes. ואם תאמר וכי אפשר שבשני המניינים היו ישראל שווים Ve'im tomar vachi efshar shebeshnei hamanyanym hayu Yisrael shavim in the new print תרל״א Tav Reish Lamed Aleph? תרל״א Tav Reish Lamed Aleph top. So again after having pointed out that there's a count over here before the building of the משכן Mishkan after יום כיפור Yom Kippur and the count in במדבר Bamidbar which is about a half a year later after הקמת המשכן Hakamas Hamishkan, it's the same number. ואם תאמר וכי אפשר שבשני המניינים היו ישראל שווים שש מאות אלף שלשת אלפים חמש מאות וחמשים והלא בשתי שנים היו אי אפשר שלא היו בשעת מניין הראשון בני תשע עשרה ונעשו בני עשרים Ve'im tomar vachi efshar shebeshnei hamanyanym hayu Yisrael shavim sheish me'os elef sheloshes alafim chamesh me'os vechamishim vehalo beshtei shanim hayu ee efshar shelo hayu besha'as minyan harishon bnei tesha esre vena'asu bnei esrim. For some reason what bothers רש״י Rashi is that there are people that got older and became בני עשרים bnei esrim. שבו למדנו דברי רש״י בשנה אחת נמנו אבל המנין ליציאת מצרים היו שתי שנים Shebo lamadnu divrei Rashi beshana achas nimnu aval haminyan liyetziyas Mitzrayim hayu shtei shanim. So true that this is in the first year from leaving מצרים Mitzrayim and that's in the second year. אבל לשנות האנשים מונין המניין לשנות עולם המתחילים מתשרי נמצאו שני המניינים בשנה אחת המניין האחד בתשרי לאחר יום הכיפורים שנתרצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל וציווה על המשכן והשני באחד באייר Aval lishnos ha'anashim monin haminyan lishnos olam hamaschilim miTishrei nimtze'u shenei hamanyanym beshana achas haminyan ha'echad beTishrei le'achar Yom Hakippurim shenisratza Hakadosh Baruch Hu leYisrael vetziva al haMishkan vehasheni be'echad be'Iyar. So כל אלו דברי רב kol elu divrei rav. That's רש״י Rashi. ואני תמה Va'ani tamaya says רמב״ן Ramban. איך יתכן שיהיה קהל גדול כמוהו ולא ימותו בו Eich yitachen sheyihiyeh kahal gadol kamohu velo yamutu bo. Granted that you had nobody getting older, nobody that turned 20 in between the two counts assuming you're correct that the count of the years is from תשרי Tishrei, but you certainly had people that died. So says רמב״ן Ramban, ואני תמה איך יתכן שיהיה קהל גדול כמוהו ולא ימותו בו בחצי שנה למאות ולאלפים va'ani tamaya eich yitachen sheyihiyeh kahal gadol kamohu velo yamutu bo bechatzi shana leme'os velalafim. ולפי דברי הרב עמדו כשבעה חודשים לא מת אחד Ulefi divrei harav amdu kesheva chodashim lo meis echad. And the פסוק pasuk says that some people that asked about פסח שני Pesach Sheni because they were טמא לנפש אדם tameh lenefesh adam, so obviously people died. חז״ל Chazal say that might have been people that carried the bones of יוסף Yosef, so that's not... ועוד קשה לי וכי מניין שנות האנשים אינו למניין שנות עולם מתשרי והוא מעת לעת מיום היוולדו Ve'od kasha li vachi minyan shenos ha'anashim eino leminyan shenos olam miTishrei vehu me'eis le'eis miyom hivaldo. That a person's birthday is from when they were born. So what's this all about? So he says, well, we could suggest that there were people that got older, but כנגד keneged the people that got older, there was also people that died. So that's how the... okay, it's still an amazing coincidence that it's the same number, but the רמב״ן Ramban also points out that another explanation, you would have expected the number to get larger. So he says the fact that the number didn't get larger, that it's an optical illusion. דהיינו Dehainu in the first count, שבט לוי Shevet Levi was included in that 603,550. In the second count, שבט לוי Shevet Levi was not included. So in reality, the number did get larger, just didn't express itself in the fact that in the second count, שבט לוי Shevet Levi wasn't wasn't included. Okay, it'd be interesting if someone had some other approach to this odd phenomenon of the numbers being the same. I didn't come across, maybe someone will come across such a thing. Okay. Skipping to מחצית השקל בשקל הקודש Machatzis Hashekel beshekel hakodesh next פסוק י״ג pasuk yud gimmel. מחצית השקל בשקל הקודש Machatzis Hashekel beshekel hakodesh. So why is... so where does this coin come from? So says says רמב״ן Ramban, well, משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu now was קובע koveia the coin. משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu is a מלך melech and the מלכות malchus has the ability to be קובע koveia a currency. Rav Schachter likes to point out that if you don't hold of the מדינה Medina, then you have a problem redeeming מעשר שני Ma'aser Sheni because מעשר שני Ma'aser Sheni needs to be redeemed on a proper currency, and thus if you don't accept the Israeli government, then you don't have any proper currency in which to redeem your מעשר שני Ma'aser Sheni. So קבע לו משה רבינו מטבע כסף בישראל כי מלך גדול היה וקרא למטבע הוא שקל Kava lo Moshe Rabbeinu matbeia kesef beYisrael ki melech gadol haya vekara lamatbeia hu shekel. Called it a שקל shekel. Why did he call it a שקל shekel? בעבור שכל מטבע משקל שלם אין בו פחת ולא כסף סיגים Ba'avur shekol matbeia mishkal shalem ein bo pachas velo kesef sigim. Meaning generally speaking, coins nowadays, certainly their silver content is minimal if at all, but those coins that משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu was קובע koveia, it was if it weighed a certain amount, that amount was pure, pure silver. In other words, the value... And being that this coin is referred to as the coin that's used also for holy things, for ערכין erchin, פדיון הבן pidyon haben, it's therefore referred to as שקל הקודש shekel hakodesh. Okay, in any case, then the רמב\"ן Ramban goes on to a discussion as to why Hebrew is referred to as לשון הקודש lashon hakodesh. Why do we refer to Hebrew as לשון הקודש lashon hakodesh? So he says a few lines in, וכן הטעם אצלי במה שרבותינו קוראים לשון התורה לשון הקודש, שמפני שדברי תורה והנבואות וכל דברי קדושה כולם בלשון ההוא נאמרו v'chein hatam etzli b'mah she'raboteinu korim lashon hatorah lashon hakodesh she'mipnei she'divrei torah v'hanevuot v'chol divrei kedushah kulam balashon hahu neemru. When הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicates with the נביאים nevi'im, it was in this language. והנה הוא הלשון שהקדוש ברוך הוא יתעלה שמו מדבר בו עם נביאיו ועם עדתו, אנוכי ולא יהיה לך ושאר דברי התורה והנבואה v'hinei hu halashon she'Hakadosh Baruch Hu yit'aleh shemo medaber bo im neviav v'im adato, Anochi v'Lo yihiyeh lecha v'shear divrei hatorah v'hanevuah. ובו נברא בשמותיו הקדושים u'vo nivra bishmotav hakadoshim, the names of God are also in Hebrew: א-ל E-l, א-לוהים E-lohim, צבאות Tzevaot, שדי Shakai, י-ה Y-h, והשם הגדול המיוחד, ובו ברא עולמו v'hashem hagadol hamiyuchad, u'vo bara olamo, הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in this language. וכשמות שמים וארץ וכל אשר בם, מלאכיו וכל צבאיו v'chishmot shamayim v'aretz v'chol asher bam, malachav v'chol tzeva'av and so forth. And okay, the רמב\"ם Rambam in מורה נבוכים Moreh Nevuchim has an alternative explanation why it's known as לשון הקודש lashon hakodesh. Says, says the רמב\"ם Rambam, it's called לשון הקודש lashon hakodesh because there's no explicit words for things which are unclean, for excrement, no explicit words for those parts of the body associated with reproduction. And therefore it's referred to as לשון הקודש lashon hakodesh. The רמב\"ן Ramban says that's incorrect. Okay, towards the end of the piece, רמב\"ן Ramban addresses the following issue. A סלע sela in חז\"ל Chazal, how many דינרים dinarim is that? A דינר dinar is the same as a זוז zuz. How many דינרים dinarim or זוז zuz in a סלע sela? Four. There's four דינרים dinarim in a סלע sela. Okay, now is there any name for a coin that has okay, now in the לשון התורה lashon hatorah there's another word for what word is synonymous with the סלע sela in לשון התורה lashon hatorah? שקל shekel. שקל shekel and סלע sela, שקל shekel and סלע sela are the same in לשון התורה lashon hatorah. Okay, now in לשון חז\"ל lashon Chazal how much is a שקל shekel? Two זוז zuz. So לשון תורה lashon torah a סלע sela is four זוז zuz, לשון חז\"ל lashon Chazal a שקל shekel is two זוז zuz. And also לשון תורה lashon torah also לשון חז\"ל lashon Chazal a סלע sela is four זוז zuz. But in לשון תורה lashon torah a שקל shekel, a שקל shekel is four, לשון חז\"ל lashon Chazal a שקל shekel is two. So how'd that come about? What's that all about? So says רמב\"ן Ramban the following: initially in לשון תורה lashon torah and in fact the שקל shekel is four, just sometimes when people speak of giving a מחצית השקל machatzit hashekel they'd be lazy. Instead of saying, \"Hey, did you give your מחצית השקל machatzit hashekel?\" they would sometimes say, \"Did you give your שקל shekel?\" And so therefore the word שקל shekel which initially meant four, since being that people would sometimes speak of just, \"Hey, I gave my שקל shekel\" and they really meant gave two, that's how the שקל לשון חז\"ל shekel lashon Chazal took on the meaning of a two. Okay, skipping to מור דרור חמש מאות mor dror chamesh meot. So you have over here two sections of the תורה Torah. A first section of the תורה Torah speaks of the ingredients in the שמן המשחה shemen hamishchah. Then the תורה Torah speaks of the ingredients in the קטורת ketoret. Let me point out that although in the תורה Torah it's not so explicit that these overlap, but nevertheless in חז\"ל Chazal they do, because after all when the תורה Torah speaks in that second פרשה parashah, after all the first פרשה parashah is about the שמן המשחה shemen hamishchah. When the תורה Torah speaks in the second פרשה parashah of taking סמים samim, so חז\"ל Chazal understand that some of those סמים samim were the סמים samim that were mentioned earlier, some of those spices that were taken earlier in the שמן המשחה shemen hamishchah. In any case, the רמב\"ן Ramban over here reveals a great amount of בקיאות bekiut in all sorts of different languages, in Arabic, in Greek, in Latin. When the רמב\"ן Ramban had time for that, I don't know. Those that are interested in looking into what these various spices are, so עיין ayin The Living Torah of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. There are a number of copies in the K.D. that has extensive footnotes on this. Okay, so רמב\"ן Ramban discusses somewhat these things are. מור דרור חמש מאות mor dror chamesh meot, we're in פסוק כג pasuk chaf gimmel, פרק ל perek lamed, פסוק כג pasuk chaf gimmel. הסכימו המפרשים ורב רבי משה מכללם hiskimu hamifarshim v'rav rabi moshe michlalam, the רמב\"ם Rambam of course. Take a look at footnote 71, those are footnote whatever footnote it is. Let's look. מור הוא הדם הצרור בחיה שבהודו הידוע לכל שמתבשמים בו בני אדם המלכים Mor hu hadam hatzrur bechaya shebehodu hayadua lakol shemitbasmim bo bnei adam hamelachim. There's this spice known as musk. So the רמב\"ם Rambam understands that מור Mor is a musk, something which comes from some sort of a deer. I think this is not a regular deer and I think it's not a כשר Kosher deer. It's some sort of animal that's not... so that's Rav Moshe Michlelam כי המור ki hamor back to the רמב\"ן Ramban הנקרא מוסק hanikra musk. But the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says that can't be. After all, he asks from various פסוקים Pesukim in שיר השירים Shir HaShirim. And let's skip. The רמב\"ן Ramban quotes all that ask, how could you use this in the קטורת Ketoret? After all, it's from a חיה טמאה chaya tmeiah. Apparently that type of animal is not כשר Kosher. So רמב\"ן Ramban says, well, it's not actually from that חיה chaya, it's some sort of... it's not actual דם dam, something which is coagulated there and for whatever reason doesn't have the דין din of יוצא מן הטמא yotzei min hatamei. In any case, the רמב\"ן Ramban himself is not convinced that מור Mor is musk. Why not? Because after all, חז\"ל Chazal connect מור Mor with אנימרון Animron, with something called אנימרון Animron, and musk חז\"ל Chazal refer to as מוסק Musk. מ-ו-ס-ק Mem-Vav-Samekh-Kuf. That's the word that חז\"ל Chazal refer to when they're speaking of musk. So if the חז\"ל Chazal say that מור Mor is אנימרון Animron and they don't say that מור Mor is musk, that would seem to indicate that מור Mor is not musk. And he has some interesting ראיות raiyot. Let's take a look. ואם כל זה הנראה אלי מדברי רבותינו Veim kol ze hanireh elai midivrei raboteinu. This is in the end of page תצ\"ה Taf-Tzadi-Heh. And about a quarter of the way through this piece and in the new printing ואם כל זה הנראה אלי מדברי רבותינו Veim kol ze hanireh elai midivrei raboteinu. About 15 lines in. It's not the beginning of the paragraph but ואם כל זה נראה אלי מדברי רבותינו שאין המור מוסק Veim kol ze nireh elai midivrei raboteinu she'ein hamor musk. Where is this? תר\"מ Taf-Resh-Mem. About how many lines? 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, something like that. It's 4 lines into a... it's before the end of the paragraph. Okay. ואם כל זה נראה אלי מדברי רבותינו שאין המור מוסק שהם אמרו במדרש חזית מור אנימרון Veim kol ze nireh elai midivrei raboteinu she'ein hamor musk shehem amru beMidrash Chazit mor Animron. מוסק Musk, I think myrrh in English, if I'm not mistaken. והמוסק אף בלשון חכמים כך שמו מוסק כמו שאמרו בברכות חוץ ממוסק Vehamusk af bilshon chachamim kach shemo musk kemo she'amru bivrachot chutz mimusk in מ\"ג Mem-Gimel. That's I think not the פרק perek we're meant to be learning next zman, whatever it is... anyway, כמו שאמרו בברכות חוץ ממוסק מפני שהוא מין חיה kemo she'amru bivrachot chutz mimusk mipnei shehu min chaya. וכן שם בירושלמי בר ממוסקין Vechein sham biYerushalmi bar mimuskin. כתב בעל הערוך Katav Baal HeAruch כי גם כן שמו בלשון יון ki gam kein shemo bilshon Yavan. Also in יון Yavan it's referred to as that. ועוד אמרו במדרש חזית: צרור המור דודי לי Ve'od amru beMidrash Chazit: Tzror hamor dodi li. This is an interesting ראיה raiyah, a beautiful מדרש Midrash. זה אברהם Ze Avraham. As compared to צרור המור Tzror hamor. פסוק Pasuk in שיר השירים Shir HaShirim says צרור המור דודי לי Tzror hamor dodi li. זה אברהם. מה המור הזה ראש לכל מיני בשמים כך אברהם ראש לכל הצדיקים Ze Avraham. Mah hamor hazeh rosh lechol minei besamim kach Avraham rosh lechol hatzadikim. מה המור הזה אין מפיח אלא באור Mah hamor hazeh ein mafiach ela ba'or when you heat it in the fire... כך אברהם לא נודעו מעשיו עד שהושלך לכבשן האש kach Avraham lo noda'u ma'asav ad shehushlach lechivshan ha'esh. So we'll come back to that in a bit. ומה המור הזה כל מי שקלטו ידיו מתמרמרות Umah hamor hazeh kol mi shekelato yadav mitmamerot, meaning they get a bitter taste... כך אברהם אבינו ממרר עצמו ומסגף עצמו ביסורים kach Avraham Avinu memarer atzmo umisagef atzmo beyisurim. So says רמב\"ן Ramban, המוסק ריחו מפיח בלא אור hamusk reicho mafiach belo or. That פסוק pasuk compares אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu to מור Mor and says that just like מור Mor only gives a pleasant smell when it's heated, so also אברהם אבינו Avraham Avinu only when he was put in the כבשן האש kivshan ha'esh were his actions well known. So says רמב\"ן Ramban, so you see from here that מור Mor is not musk, because musk has a pleasant smell even when it's... even before it's heated. In any case, coming back to that מדרש Midrash for a second, so it says that אברהם אבינו לא נודעו מעשיו עד שהושלך לכבשן האש Avraham Avinu lo noda'u ma'asav ad shehushlach lechivshan ha'esh, which could be understood in one of two ways. Could mean that his actions only became well known when he's thrown into the כבשן האש kivshan ha'esh. Might also be that his positive traits only fully express themselves when he had that נסיון nisayon. Sometimes by a person when you put in נסיון nisayon, then his positive traits come and express themselves. In any case, so the רמב\"ן Ramban says that the מור Mor is what's called in Latin myrrh, I think some sort of a... The רמב\"ן Ramban goes on to discuss the other סמני הקטורת samanei haktoret. The תורה Torah says in ל\"ג lamed gimmel respecting the שמן המשחה shemen hamishcha על זר al zar, one's not allowed to put it on a זר zar. So who's a זר zar? So רש\"י Rashi says, in fact says, אין צורך לקדם מלכות ein tzorech lekodem malchut. The אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says that זר zar means a non-כהן kohen. And based on that, the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra says that which שלמה המלך Shlomo Hamelech was anointed, that was a הוראת שעה hora'at sha'ah. The רמב\"ן Ramban says no, that's not correct. זר zar doesn't mean דווקא davka a זר zar, a זר zar doesn't refer to a non-כהן kohen, it means anybody that's not particularly chosen by God. But anybody that's chosen by God, be it a כהן kohen or non-כהן kohen, is meant to be anointed by שמן המשחה shemen hamishcha. שלמה המלך Shlomo Hamelech was chosen by God, was anointed by that שמן shemen. Okay. The תורה Torah says that a person that anoints, even if he was chosen, let's say אהרן הכהן Aharon Hakohen, would decide that he wants to anoint himself after initially being anointed, wants to use that שמן המשחה shemen hamishcha, that is something that would be אסור assur. Okay. פסוק ל\"ד Pasuk lamed daled קח לך סמים Kach lecha samim, so רמב\"ן Ramban discusses this פסוק pasuk after all the פסוק pasuk itself, and now we're moving on to the סמני הקטורת samanei haktoret lists explicitly only נטף nataf, שחלת shchelet, חלבנה chelbenah, and לבונה זכה levonah zachah, only four. And how many do חז\"ל Chazal say, how many סמנים sammanim are there in the קטורת ktoret? Eleven. So how did that four develop into eleven? So רש\"י Rashi has an approach. The רמב\"ן Ramban addresses the issue, aside from addressing the פשט pshat in the פסוק pasuk, רמב\"ן Ramban also addresses why the תורה Torah only lists these four if there's meant to be eleven. So he suggests that perhaps הלכה halacha says you're meant to have eleven, but the only thing which are מעכב me'akev are these four. Okay. And he has somewhat of a discussion how חז\"ל Chazal knew which other ones to include. He points out that some of them are mentioned in שיר השירים Shir Hashirim. Okay. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to look into that more. There's one of the ingredients is נטף nataf, mentioned in the תורה Torah as נטף nataf. נטף nataf חז\"ל Chazal associate with צרי tzari. Well what is צרי tzari? So רש\"י Rashi says צרי tzari, there's a דיבור המתחיל dibur hamatchil at least in this רמב\"ן Ramban on נטף nataf there in this פסוק pasuk. So רש\"י Rashi says חז\"ל Chazal associate נטף nataf with צרי tzari which רש\"י Rashi says is something called triaga. And says רמב\"ן Ramban, I don't know where he got this from but perhaps it must be a typo in רש\"י Rashi or somebody told רש\"י Rashi something which is not true because this triaga triaka is not a סם sam, it's something which is comes from some pulverized scorpion and something which comes from the flesh of a snake and that's not something which we would normally associate with being put in the קטורת ktoret. I don't know if I've never tasted pulverized snake or okay. So says but the רמב\"ן Ramban says what is צרי tzari? So חז\"ל Chazal say we know in the פיטום הקטורת pitum haktoret, it's שרף שנוטף מעצי הקטף saraf shenotef mei-atzei hakataf. Something, the word נטף nataf which is associated with צרי tzari is something which drips from a certain type of tree from עץ הבלסמון etz habalsamon, a balsam tree if I'm not mistaken and so apparently that's one of the spices. Okay. פסוק ל\"ה Pasuk lamed hei ממולח memulach טהור קדש tahor kodesh and what does ממולח memulach mean? So the רמב\"ן Ramban himself understands it has salt, it's to be salted. However אונקלוס Onkelos and רש\"י Rashi along similar lines seem to understand that ממולח memulach is mixed together or grounded, meaning that meant to be grind it up so that it would be fully mixed together. Now what word do we find in the נביא Navi for sailors? מלחים melachim, מ-ל-ח-י-ם mem-lamed-chet-yud-mem. So why are sailors given that or people that travel in boats why are they given that name? So רש\"י Rashi says well the sailors at least the people with oars So after all רש״י Rashi says that ממולח memulach means something which is ground. So the sailors, or at least the people with the oars, they're sort of grinding the water by going around with their oars, but the רמב״ן Ramban says no, that's not why they're called מלחים Melachim, rather they're called מלחים Melachim because they are able to tell by the salt of the water something about the quality, how easy it is to travel in those places. So מלחים Melachim are called מלחים Melachim because of the salt in the water. Okay. Skipping to ל״א Lamed Aleph, פרק Perek ל״א Lamed Aleph, פסוק Pasuk ב׳ Bet. ראה קראתי בשם Re'eh Karati BeShem. What's the לשון lashon ראה Re'eh? ראה Re'eh is behold, something remarkable over here. So what exactly was so remarkable? So says the רמב״ן Ramban, well, a number of things about remarkable about this בצלאל Betzalel. אמר ה׳ למשה ראה קראתי בשם Amar Hashem LeMoshe Re'eh Karati BeShem. You guys that learned סנהדרין Sanhedrin know one of the things remarkable is this fellow was about how old? Eight years old. Pretty precocious young man. So אמר ה׳ למשה ראה קראתי בשם Amar Hashem LeMoshe Re'eh Karati BeShem. משה אמר לישראל ראו קרא ה׳ בשם Moshe Amar LeYisrael Re'u Kara Hashem BeShem. ואתם כי ישראל במצרים דחופים בעבודת חומר ולבנים VeAtem Ki Yisrael BeMitzrayim Dechufim BeAvodat Chomer VeLevenim לא למדו מלאכת כסף זהב וחרשת אבנים טובות ולא ראו אותם כלל Lo Lamdu Melechet Kesef Zahav VeCharoshet Avanim Tovot VeLo Ra'u Otam Kelal. The Jewish people there were involved in manual labor. Very hard physical labor. So it's a פלא pele that you'd have a fellow that is talented in these and the craftsmanship, and he knows how to do מלאכה melacha with כסף זהב ונחשת kesef zahav ve-nechoshet, and embroidery, weaving. He says that even a person that did have these talents, if he's involved in a coarse manual labor will lose his ability. So to have somebody that was in מצרים Mitzrayim, nevertheless has these talents is pretty amazing. Furthermore, says רמב״ן Ramban that בצלאל Betzalel not only was able to manufacture the משכן Mishkan with this, with having all these talents of craftsmanship, he also knew the סוד המשכן Sod HaMishkan, the meaning of the משכן Mishkan. So that's behold, something so amazing. And take a look at the end of the piece, ועוד אמרו יודע היה בצלאל לצרף אותיות שנבראו בהם שמים וארץ VeOd Amru Yode'a Hayah Betzalel LeTsaref Otiyot SheNivru Vahem Shamayim VaAretz. He knew the inner meaning, the mystical meaning of the משכן Mishkan. He knew to לצרף letzaref the אותיות otiyot with which the heavens and the earth were created. והענין VehaInyan, why is that, what's that got to do with the משכן Mishkan? והענין כי המשכן ירמוז באלו VehaInyan Ki HaMishkan Yirmoz BeElu. The משכן Mishkan is somehow כנגד kineged the entire creation, which of course adds some insight to the fact that the connection between שבת Shabbat and the משכן Mishkan, right? מלאכת שבת Melechet Shabbat are those things that were done in the משכן Mishkan. Why is it that what's אסור assur to do on שבת Shabbat are those things that were done in the manufacture of the משכן Mishkan? Because the manufacture of the משכן Mishkan is parallel to creating the world. Okay. בגדי השרד Bigdei Hasrad in פסוק pasuk י׳ Yud. רש״י Rashi understands בגדי השרד Bigdei Hasrad as some sort of בגדים begadim to cover the כלים keilim of the משכן Mishkan. רמב״ן Ramban says no, בגדי השרד Bigdei Hasrad refers to בגדי כהונה Bigdei Kehunah themselves. In modern Hebrew רכב שרד Rechev Srad is a fancy car, you know, the ראש הממשלה Rosh HaMemshalah's car, something like that, which is more similar to the רמב״ן Ramban's approach, it means some very special, very special בגד beged. Okay. אך את שבתתי תשמרו Ach Et Shabtotai Tishmoru. You know what, maybe we'll skip that because there's somewhat of a similar רמב״ן Ramban next week's פרשה parashah. אשר הלכו לפנינו Asher Halechu Lefaneinu. ל״ב א׳ Lamed Bet Aleph. The רמב״ן Ramban discusses what exactly the חטא העגל Chet HaEgel was all about. So he says, famous approach of the רמב״ן Ramban, that it's not that the Jewish people were looking for חס ושלום Chas VeShalom for another god, they were looking for another משה Moshe, looking for another משה Moshe, and he has a number of proofs to that, after all the Jewish people say that let's, משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu is dead, so let's create אלהים Elohim, so and משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu took us out of מצרים Mitzrayim, but they knew that God took them out of מצרים Mitzrayim, so obviously they're looking for another replacement for משה Moshe, not a replacement for a god, and he has a number of proofs to this, in fact amongst them the fact that what does אהרן Aharon say? חג לה׳ מחר Chag Lashem Machar. Now, it's י-ה-ו-ה Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. You never find י-ה-ו-ה Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei when it's referring to עבודה זרה avodah zarah. Sometimes you'll use the word אלהים Elohim, but י-ה-ו-ה Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei... so obviously they still accepted God, they were looking for a replacement for משה Moshe and therefore the second משה רבנו Moshe Rabbeinu shows up, then they say okay, you know, easily relinquish this עבודה זרה avodah zarah, this עגל egel. Okay. רב טברסקי Rabbi Twerski in his ספר sefer אמיתה של תורה Amitah Shel Torah, which can be found in the bookshelf in the KD, says it's got... Well if what they were looking for is a replacement for משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu then why is this viewed as such a serious עבירה aveirah? Why was it viewed as such a serious עבירה aveirah? So the basic point I would which if you want to which you might want to look in inside to do it proper justice he says that it's the problem was that they viewed משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu improperly. They viewed as if משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu was calling the shots over here they didn't realize that הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu was calling the shots. So they wanted some being they created some being that they wanted that being that would call the shots and would make the decisions which in reality are meant to be made by God. Okay and says this is also אהרן Aharon says when משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu asked him why'd you do this? So what does אהרן Aharon say? Well his response is don't get angry because don't get angry because the Jewish people they said עשה לנו אלוהים asei lanu elohim and therefore I did this for them. So that's an excuse? That's an explanation? He's לכאורה lichora acknowledging that he did something terrible. Says no what אהרן Aharon was saying is that they asked for a replacement for משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu so that's what I did. I didn't mean to create for them an עבודה זרה avodah zarah. Okay עיין שם באריכות רבה ayein sham b'arichus rabbah and our time is getting short so let's take a look at פסוק ה Pasuk Hei פסוק ה actually פסוק ד Pasuk Dalet ויאמרו אלה אלהיך ישראל אשר העלוך Vayomru eileh elohecha Yisrael asher he'elucha גם זה הכתוב יורה אותך Gam zeh hakatuv yoreh otcha I'll teach you כי אין טיפש בעולם שיחשוב כי הזהב הזה שהיה באזניהם הוא אשר הוציאם ממצרים ki ein tipeish ba'olam sheyachshov ki hazahav hazeh shehayah b'ozneihem hu asher hotziam miMitzrayim אבל אמרו כי כח הצורה הזאת העלה אותם משם Aval amru ki koach hatzurah hazos he'elah osam misham. Okay what that means I am the פשוט pashut what's כח הצורה koach hatzurah? In any case take a look at פסוק ז Pasuk Zayin פסוק ז Pasuk Zayin says the רמב\"ן Ramban in the middle of the piece והנה רוב העם חטאו במעשה העגל V'hinei rov ha'am chat'u b'ma'aseh haeigel כן כתוב ויתפרקו כל העם את נזמי הזהב kein kasuv vayisparqu kol ha'am es nizmei hazahav ולולי זה לא היה כעס בכולם לכלותם v'lulei zeh lo hayah ka'as b'chulam l'chalosam והנה הנהרגים והנגפים מועטים v'hinei haneheragim v'hanigafim mu'atim. So on one hand רמב\"ן Ramban just said that most people sinned the עגל eigel but the number of people killed was somewhat small. Says רמב\"ן Ramban כי ברובם היה חטא במחשבה רעה כמו שפירשתי ki b'rubam hayah cheit b'machshavah ra'ah kmo shepeirashti and only fewer people were involved in the actual worship. Okay פסוק י\"א Pasuk Yud Aleph is a פסוק pasuk which is very difficult על פי פשט al pi pshat. הפסוק HaPasuk says למה ה' יחרה אפך Lamah Hashem yecherah apecha so משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu says why you getting so angry? So that sounds like משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu coming to God after חטא העגל cheit haeigel when הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu says the Jewish people did something terrible and משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu says הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu what are you making such a big fuss about? Why you getting so upset? Which is not the normal way that you would expect that משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu would try to appease הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu by saying eh not so serious. That's not the way you know one is meant to do תשובה teshuva. I find יום כיפור Yom Kippur you say hey God סך הכל sach hakol what did I do? Okay so I wasn't שומר שבת shomer Shabbos what are you making such a big fuss about? That will probably not go over well. So רמב\"ן Ramban has some explanation על פי קבלה al pi kabbalah of what exactly is going on. Okay the רמב\"ן Ramban deals with a somewhat of a סתירה stira between whether משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu's תפילה tefillah was said there on the mountain or he said it afterwards. Here in the פסוקים psukim it sounds like it was here on the mountain and in ספר דברים Sefer Devarim it sounds like it was afterwards. רמב\"ן Ramban says well he quotes the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra said אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה ein mukdam u'meuchar baTorah. The רמב\"ן Ramban says no no no there was some brief תפילה tefillah a holding order that משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu asked for when he was still there on הר סיני Har Sinai but the עיקר תפילה ikar tefillah was later. Okay discussion of skipping to משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu says מחני נא מספרך mcheini na misifrecha. If you don't forgive them מחני נא מספרך mcheini na misifrecha. So the רמב\"ן Ramban says what does it mean מחני נא מספרך mcheini na misifrecha? פסוק ל\"ב Pasuk Lamed Beis. We're פרק ל\"ב פסוק ל\"ב perek lamed beis pasuk lamed beis. So he says לפי דעתי כי משה אמר ועתה L'fi da'ati ki Moshe amar v'atah towards the end of that piece אם תשא חטאתם מרחמיך ואם אין מחני נא תחתם מספר החיים im tisa chatasam merachamecha v'im ayin mcheini na tachtam misefer hachayim means kill me. מחני נא מספרך Mcheini na misifrecha is erase me from the book of life meaning kill me. And what's הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu's response? הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu says no I'm not going to whoever sinned they're going to be punished. If you take a look the לשון הרמב\"ן lashon haRamban the רמב\"ן Ramban does indicate that in principle there is such a thing of having one person accept suffering for the sin of somebody else. The רמב\"ן Ramban seems to indicate there's no such thing. There's some הערה he'ara in some שוטנשטיין Schottenstein in ברכות Brachos on the subject of ייסורין של אהבה yisurin shel ahavah seems to indicate it's מחלוקת מפרשים machlokes mefarshim whether Judaism we do accept such a thing that one person could accept suffering Okay, obviously many details to that, but not our- Okay. The Jewish people, it says that they took off some jewel that were given. לג ו Lamed Gimmel Vav. לג ו Lamed Gimmel Vav. The Jewish people, they had some jewel that they were given. So what's this all about? So the רמב\"ן Ramban explains this is some שמות Shemos of God that were given as protection. Now, he also addressed the fact that it says the Jewish people they took off some jewel, then משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu says, \"Take off the jewel,\" and they took off the jewel. But they took off the jewel right beforehand. So רמב\"ן Ramban says that there were different jewels that they had. They took off some even before they were told to do so, and then there were even more that were removed. In any case, he says that the Jewish people, when they took up this jewel, they in effect were accepting upon themselves death. After all, those שמות Shemos of הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu would provide protection from death, but they accepted upon themselves this תשובה teshuva, this death. Okay. פסוק י\"א Pasuk Yud Alef refers to יהושע בן נון Yehoshua Bin Nun as a נער na'ar. Why נער na'ar? He was 56 years old, the calculation is. So he says, well, רמב\"ן Ramban says that a משרת meshareis, one that provides a service for others, is referred to as a נער na'ar. As it says, נערי המלך משרתיו na'arei hamelech meshartav in מגילת אסתר Megillas Esther, that Daniel would have read very beautifully if not for the fact that we weren't able to go to the hospital. But okay. In any case, fine. The רמב\"ן Ramban discusses why יהושע בן נון Yehoshua Bin Nun - what's strange about his name? Why is he referred to as יהושע בן נון Yehoshua Bin Nun? What's strange about that? So I guess we know דוד Dovid, so we don't - בקיצור bekitzur, יהושע בן נון Yehoshua Bin Nun, why not בן נון Ben Nun? Why's he referred to as בן נון Bin Nun? So רמב\"ן Ramban suggests, right, you'd say בן ben, why would say בן ben, why'd it say בן bin instead of בן ben? Right? So he suggests that the word בן נון Bin Nun sounds like בינה binah. So it sounds Joshua the wise. That's a רמז remez to his being very wise. Okay, so he has another פשט pshat as well. Skipping to ל\"ד ג Lamed Dalet Gimmel. ל\"ד ג Lamed Dalet Gimmel. The פסוק pasuk indicates that nobody else - ל\"ד ג Lamed Dalet Gimmel. So nobody else was meant to go up with משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu. There was even greater restriction about approaching the mountain than beforehand. Why? He says that this second לוחות שניות Luchos Shnios was a מתן תורה Mattan Torah, but it was a מתן תורה בזכות משה רבינו Mattan Torah bizchus Moshe Rabbeinu. And therefore the rest of the Jewish people were not allowed to go even as far as they were allowed to go earlier, not the זקנים zekeinim and not anybody - not anybody else. Okay. And along similar lines, the רמב\"ן Ramban writes the פסוק pasuk says something about כרתי אתך ברית ואת ישראל karatti itcha bris v'es Yisrael. So what's the לשון lashon כרתי אתך ברית karatti itcha bris? In כ\"ז Kaf Zayin, the end of פסוק כ\"ז Pasuk Kaf Zayin says כרתי אתך ברית karatti itcha bris, so it's to emphasize that this ברית bris was בזכות משה רבינו bizchus Moshe Rabbeinu. Okay. The תורה Torah says the לוחות שניות Luchos Shnios were 40 days, which is a חידוש chiddush because we thought that משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu already learned the תורה Torah. So the - but nevertheless, the תורה Torah was given over - was given once again because the original ברית bris by the Jewish people was broken. Okay. To review some things which we've seen, רמב\"ן Ramban points out that there was no explicit ציווי tzivui to count the Jewish people now, but משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu understood that was the case. It's not explicit in the פסוקים pesukim that whenever the Jewish people are counted it's meant to be done with coins, and that's the basis of why דוד המלך Dovid Hamelech made a mistake. Okay. The רמב\"ן Ramban quoted רש\"י Rashi that addresses the fact that the numbers are the same over here after יום כיפור Yom Kippur as they are in ראש חודש אייר Rosh Chodesh Iyar half a year later. You had רש\"י's Rashi's approach which is difficult, and the רמב\"ן Ramban had a number of variations how to solve that problem. Okay. Why is Hebrew known as לשון הקודש Lashon Hakodesh? רמב\"ן Ramban says 'cause that's the language which הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicated with the נביאים nevi'im, the לשון lashon in which הקדוש ברוך הוא Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world. Okay. What is מור mor? מור mor is according to רמב\"ם Rambam is musk. The רמב\"ן Ramban himself says that it refers to myrrh, not something which comes from an animal but some sort of a spice. Okay. The תורה Torah only states explicitly four of the ingredients in the קטורת ketores, but there were more ingredients than that. ממולח memullach according to רש\"י Rashi and the תרגום Targum is mixed very well; according to the רמב\"ן Ramban, it means salted. ראה קראתי בשם Re'eh karasi v'shem - it was an amazing wonder that the בצלאל Betzalel was so talented, also to have the talent of being able to work with these precious metals and materials and also he understood the סוד Sod of the משכן Mishkan. Okay, the עבודות Avodos, the עגל Eigel was some sort of replacement for משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu rather than straight out עבודה זרה Avoda Zara. Most Jewish people were involved in the עגל Eigel in some limited form. Okay, the פסוקים pesukim points out that the לוחות מעשה אלוקים Luchos Ma'aseh Elokim so as to indicate that despite the fact מעשה אלוקים Ma'aseh Elokim, nevertheless משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu did break them. Okay, יהושע בן נון Yehoshua bin Nun referred to בנון Bin Nun, לשון בינה Lashon Binah to indicate that his great level of wisdom. The second לוחות Luchos were בזכות משה רבינו bizchus Moshe Rabbeinu, the רמב״ן Ramban says. Okay, have a wonderful שבת Shabbos.