Now, when Hashem told him that “I will be with you, like I was with Moshe,” it meant, I will be with you for as long as I was with Moshe. But we know it’s not like that. Yehoshua lived 110 years. Moshe Rabbeinu lived 120 years. So the medrash says that Yehoshua should have also lived 120 years. Why was his life shortened by ten years?
We are in the Three Weeks now, together with the whole world, and we are trying to think about this period. Today’s shiur is going to focus a bit on understanding the three weeks from a psychological standpoint. The Chafetz Chaim, in his sefer Ahavas Yisrael, discusses the reasons why people don’t like each other. Now, the first thing you have to understand is that human psychology is at work overtime whenever we have social interaction. When we encounter people, whether face to face or from a distance, or even through somebody else introducing me to that person, the human being always establishes a platform: do I like that person, or do I not like that person…
Pinchas rose to the occasion and performed an act of zealotry to stand up for the honor of Hashem. Because of this great action of his, he was zocheh to be gebentched with the greatest of brachos. The passuk says: “behold, I have given him a covenant of peace”. The Seforno explains that since Pinchas struggled My struggle in that zechus, he received bris shalom. What is bris shalom? I will save him from all antagonism to his way of life. Pinchas will be saved from all antagonism toward him and he will be a man who will live in peace.
I once met an outstanding, interesting person. He was my driver. He told me an amazing ma’aseh. He got very angry one time. His anger built up over a couple of days, until his blood pressure boiled over and he had a massive heart attack that sent him into a total coma. He was in a coma for three or four months. People were davening for him, but his condition was not improving. Gornisht. Finally, a very special rav came to this fellow’s room and davened in his room shacharis, minchah,and Ma’ariv out loud. After a week of davening and saying Tehillim, finally he said to the guy, “Steven! It’s time to wake up! Do you want to wake up?”
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.
The story of Korach is an amazing story of how an individual who was of the greatest of the great fell. To say someone is great is nice, but to be great among greats is a much more difficult challenge. The Torah says: “And Korach…took for himself, along with Dasan and Aviram…descendants of Reuven.” Rashi says that because shevet Reuven were neighbors to Kehas and his children they joined Korach in the machlokes: “woe on to the rasha and woe on his neighbor.”
Today, we’re going to discuss one of the most powerful tools for reaching out and inspiring others. In the world of sales, it’s all about marketing. If you want to sell a product, you have to know what the customer is looking for and how to present it to the potential customer. If you have those two ingredients, they say the sale will go down by itself.
The Ramchal writes, in Derech Hashem, about the concept of gilgulei neshamos, how a person could come back in different forms. As a matter of fact, one person can even have a number of neshamos. There are many people who don’t understand what motivates them and where they get their koach from. The gemara tells us, for example, that Rabbi Yochanan said: “I come from the offspring of Yosef.”
Since the Torah on Har Sinai required a kabalas haTorah, it’s important for us to think about whether we are ready for a kabalas haTorah. Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes that kabalas haTorah is not something you do once a year. You should do it every time you learn. A person should be mekabel Torah before he learns. He should think to himself, Na’aseh v’nishma.
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?
