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
Visit YTATorah.org
Shiur presented in 5779
Rabosai, what we’re about to share with you today is a subject which is a subject that sits in darkness. It’s shrouded in a lot of obscurity. Everybody feels he’s entitled to weigh in on this subject based on his emotions or based on what he heard from his mother’s emotions or his grandmother’s emotions.
In their great challenge against Moshe, Korach and his company made a showdown. Moshe Rabeinu told them, “We’ll meet you here, at the Mishkan tomorrow at noon. Bring your fire pans and we’ll bring our fire pans and we’ll have the showdown. May the best man win.”
Parshas Vayeshev is a unique parshah. It’s a parshah where you encounter strife. You encounter tzaros tzeruros in the life of Yaakov Avinu. You encounter tzaros tzeruros in the life of Yosef Hatzaddik. Each of them, Yaakov and Yosef, endured their own difficulties, and were not able to share it with each other as they were separated by distance and weren’t aware of each other’s experiences. This parshah, which deals with yesurim, teaches us something tremendous, because yesurim are part and parcel of our lives. It is something that is totally unavoidable.
Our parshah depicts a well-known historical figure who represented ideals that weren’t nice. Bilam is considered the father of all bad middos and he’s the counterweight to the father of all good middos, Avraham Avinu. There’s a mishnah in Avos where our Tana’im make this contrast.
Chazal say in masechta Eiruchin (8b), “Rav Papa says, it says, ‘Your benevolence is like the mighty mountains’ (Tehillim 36:7). Hashem’s tzedakos are like tall mountains. What does that refer to? The gemara says these are nega’im discussed in this parshah, that come upon people.” That’s amazing tzedakah. The end of the pasuk ends off with, “Your judgment is like the great deep.” The gemara says this refers to negei batim.
In the parshah it says, “if you walk in my statutes” (Vayikra 26:3). Rashi says when it says “and you should be shomer all My mitzvos,” so fulfillment of all the other mitzvos is covered with these words. That covers all the mitzvos. So how do I explain the words “if you walk in my statues”? What does that refer to?