Beha’aloscha 5782 – Excuses: Their Meaning & True Source
לזכות רפו”ש צבי מרדכי בן
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Shiur presented in 5779
לזכות רפו”ש צבי מרדכי בן
הדסה ברכה בתשח”י
Consider sponsoring a shiur
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Shiur presented in 5779
Today, we’re going to discuss how to deal with certain fears. I’m going to introduce the topic with a story first.
There was a fellow named Rav Tuvia. Rav Tuvia used to come to a mosad once a week. The rebbe’im of this mosad held a weekly meeting, and he would be present to answer questions and suggest possible answers to issues they faced. He was an expert in dealing with issues, and he would tell them how to deal with various difficulties.
Our parshah begins with the following words “You stand this day, all of you, before Hashem – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel.” A few pesukim later, Rashi brings a Midrash Tanchuma which explains the connection between Parshas Nitzavim and KiSavo, which had the curses. What is the connection between the curses…and the statement of “You stand this day”?
The Torah tells us a story about a person in the midbar who cursed Hashem and they put him in prison. That was a very rare occurrence. The prison system wasn’t common. It wasn’t common at all in Klal Yisrael. They put him in prison until it would be clear what his din was. When they found out that he was supposed to get sekilah, everybody subjected him to sekeilah.
In this week’s parshah, we encounter the yetzias Mitzrayim. Pharaoh will tell you, Moshe and Aharon, to show him some miraculous proof that you are agents of Hashem and you are not just saying it on your own. Say to Aharon, take your staff, throw it down before Pharaoh, and this stick will turn into a serpent, a type of a snake. Interesting, the choice of words that Hashem uses, tanin, a word that is also used to refer to sea serpent. This was similar to the miracle that Moshe performed for the Jewish nation when he first came to see them but over there the staff became a nachash. In front of Pharaoh it didn’t become a snake. It became a tanin.
The subject we’d like to discuss today is an important one because many people pose the following question. The Torah says: I created an evil inclination, and I created Torah as its antidote (Kiddushin 30b). So that means to say that the antidote, the counterforce for the yetzer hara, is Torah.
Dedicated in honor of one of our most loyal supporters & wishing him hatzlocho on his move to Eretz Yisroel Consider sponsoring a shiurVisit YTATorah.org Shiur presented in 5780