Parshas Balak

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem..... In perek chaf beis posuk lamud gimmel the Malach Hashem said to Bilam "Va'tirani ha'ason vateit lifanay zeh shalosh rigalim oolay natsa mipanay ki atah gam oscha haragti v'osah hecheyeisi" "And when the donkey saw me it turned aside these three times , had she not turned aside before me as she did, I would have surely killed you and she, I would let live" Rashi explains that the malach was saying, because the donkey admonished you, and you were unable to withstand her admonishment, I killed her. For had I not killed her people would see her  and say, "this was the donkey that drove away Bilam with her admonishment, and he was unable to reply". Rashi continues that Hashem is makpid on human dignity, and that is why when a woman lives with an animal we are required to kill the animal, as well as the woman. The Rosh Yeshivah ztl brought out a tremendous yesod from this incident. Bilam was a tremendous rasha, he was a bum, and most probably a woman who lives with an animal is too. Why would the Torah care about their feelings, about their dignity? Furthermore, they brought this upon themselves, Hashem didn't want him to go with Balak's officers, and no one told her to live with an animal. Yet the Torah is telling us, how much Hashem cares about every human, how he goes above and beyond to minimize the embarrasment of even Rishaim gemurim. We must respect this innate dignity in our interactions with others, and be extremely careful about slighting another, no matter how much he "deserves it." Good Shabbos.

Parshas Chukas

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem..... In perek chaf alef posuk lamud beis it says, "Vayishlach Moshe lirageil es Yazeir vayilcidu binoseha vayoresh es ha'Emori asher sham."  "Moshe sent people to spy out Yazeir and they conquered its suburbs, and he drove away the Amorite that was there."  The Medrash Rabah explains that Moshe sent out the Meraglim to spy out Yazeir and they were mizareiz and took it upon themselves to capture it.  They said, "We are confident in the Tefila of Moshe, and the last time miraglim were sent they caused tremendous destruction.  We will not do like them, rather we believe in Hashem and will wage war now."  They waged war and they conquered the land.  Its mashma from Chazal that the reason why the Miraglim waged war in this case, was because they were afraid that they may end up following in the footsteps of the previous miraglim and wreak havoc on Klal Yisroel.  The Rosh Yeshivah ztl asks, what were the Miraglim afraid of?  They knew where they were holding and that they were ma'aminim Ba'Hashem, so why were they afraid of following in the previous Miraglim's footsteps?  He explains, that the Miraglim were full believers in Hashem, however they were afraid that they would lose their level of emunah and in their weakened state follow in the footsteps of the Miraglim before them.  A persons battle with their yetzer harah is constant, and the yetzer harah is constantly strengthening itself to try to win.  Therefore, the Miraglim didn't trust themselves in the fight against the Yetzer Harah, rather they immediately waged war against the inhabitants.  This zrizus is what Chazal is praising them for.  They understood how tough the battle with the yetzer harah is, and therefore acted accordingly.  We see how important it is not to convince ourselves that we have reached a madreiga where certain nisyonos can not reach us anymore.  There is no such thing as being above and beyond, no such thing as being untouchable.  As long as we are alive the yetzer harah will be in top gear trying to bring us down, but as long as we keep that in mind and know that we have not overcome him completely, we can hopefully have the strength to continue winning and growing... Good Shabbos        

Parshas Korach

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem...... In perek tes zayin posuk lamud beis it says, "Va'tiftach ha'aretz es piha vativla osam v'es bateihem v'eis kal ha'adam asher l'Korach v'eis kal harichush."  "The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their houses, and all the people who were with Korach, and all the posessions,"  The Gemorah in Sanhedrin perek kuf yud amud alef says, "osher shamur l'ba'alav l'raaso."  "Wealth caused its owner to go bad."  Reish Lakish says that this is referring to the wealth of Korach.  The Gemorah goes on to say that Yosef had hidden three treasures in Mitzrayim.  One Korach got; one went to Antoninus; and one will be for the Tzadikim L'asid lavo.  The Maharshas says that the way that korachs money caused his downfall was that since he was so rich he believed he deserved to be of a greater stature that Moshe and Aharon.  The Rosh Yeshivah ztl asks a seemingly obvious question.  Korach was quite a smart person.  He obviously knew that Moshe and Aharons positions were not attained through greatness in worldly matters, rather they were chosen because of their loftiness in ruchniyus  So what exactly happened here?  How did his great financial backing cause him to make such a grave mistake, and cause so much destruction?  The Rosh Yeshivah explains that Korach responded in the way that is normal for most people to respond.  He was extremely rich and therefore was a highly respected individual, everyone treated him with tremedous dignity, as if he was royalty.  This tremendous kavod got to him and made him begin believing that he was great in ruchniyus too.  After all, look at how much respect he received.  Based on this mistake he believed that Moshe and Aharon were not as great as him and therefore he should have been chosen as the leader of Klal Yisroel.  It's unbelieveable how losing our perception of where we are holding can cause so much destruction.  We can't lose sight of where we are holding, and of course that being great in our world is not based on how much we are worth in dollar value, but how much we have achieved in ruchniyus and growth in avodas Hashem... Good Shabbos

Parshas Shelach

Liyluy Nishmas Elchonon Tzvi ben R' Yisroel Menachem.... In perek yud dalid posuk tes, Kaleiv and Yehoshuah tell Klal Yisroel, "Ach ba'Hashem al timrodu v'atem al tirau es am ha'aretz ki lachmeinu heim..." -  "But do not rebel against Hashem, and do not fear the people of the land for they are our bread..."  The Ramban says that Yehoshuah and Kaleiv gave two reasons why Klal Yisroel should not fear the inhabitants of Eretz Yisroel.  Reason number one was that they had to believe in the capabilities of Hashem.  Just as Hashem did all the miracles in Mitzrayim, so too would he conquer the natives to fulfill his promise.  The second reason was that even biteva Klal Yisroel had the means to conquer them, they had the capabilities to "eat them like bread".  The Rosh Yeshivah ztl asks that the second reason should not have been given; it was superfluous.  Regardless of what should happen under
 normal circumstances, the entire fate of Klal Yisroel was based on whether or not Hashem wanted them to be victorious.  Kaleiv and Yehoshuah knew this fact.  Their actual strength meant zero.  It would not determine what the outcome would be.  So why would they mention it?  The Rosh yeshivah explains that what Yehoshuah and Kaleiv were doing was being "maktin the nisayon." - "making the challenge smaller."  To convince Klal Yisroel that Hashem will help them win when the enemy is weaker than them would be much simpler than convincing them that Hashem would be able to make them beat a tremendous super power.  By cutting down the nisayon in the eyes of Klal Yisroel, they made it that much easier for Klal Yisroel to have bitachon that Hashem is the only one who fights our wars, not us.  This yesod is true in all types of nisyonos.  People are faced with tremendous nisyonos that seem unbeatable.  Sometimes they could even be very close to that, but there's a trick on how to beat it.  We can play mind games with ourselves and talk into ourselves that its not so big, its not so hard, and guess what, it'll be easier to beat.  As long as we believe that something is impossible, it is.  It's only once we believe that we have the power to achieve, that we will be able to do to just that.  We will achieve!.... Good Shabbos