Moshe Rabbeinu is talking, and he’s says, “See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse…” Rashi translates “asher” to mean al manas, on condition. Rashi says it’s a brachah al manas asher tishmau. Now, you have to understand that Moshe Rabbeinu is talking about a specific event.
In this week’s parshah, we have the Parshas HaMann. Most people have heard about the mann, but they think that the mann only fell when the Yidden were in the desert and that really doesn’t have any shaychus to us today. Because of that, they miss tremendous lessons. They miss a tremendous wellspring, a ma’ayan, that could serve a person’s parnasah. You have to know that the mann is an eternal lesson. How do you know that? Because Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu…
We learned about the koach habitachon that Yitzchak Avinu needed to have in order to daven to Hashem. We also mentioned a yesod from Rav Tzadok that a person could have bitachon for anything that’s al pi teva. That’s why even though Chana did not have children, she was able to daven to Hashem because beteva she could have had children.
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.
