Daily Chidush: Why Did I Get A Death Threat During ParaShat Chukat Lecture?

0:01Elochim yikarim, how are you? Baruch Hashem, we had a great shiur earlier today talking about Parashat Chukat, but also several other issues. This week's Parashat Chukat is connected to last week's shiur of last week's parasha, Parashat Korach. where in last week's parasha, we heard the horrendous situation that happened with Korach, where despite being righteous all of his life, despite being very, very wealthy, despite being from a great family, he steered wrong and led himself, his family, with the exception of his son, who did teshuva at the last minute, his wife, as well as the other 250 leaders, of Am Yisrael straight into She'ol, straight into Gehinom. From what? From going against Moshe, going against Aharon, which of course, if you do that, you're going against God. And this parasha is connected to Parashat Chukat, which the beginning of the parasha starts with one particular mitzvah. King Shlomo, the wisest man of all time, says in Kohelet 7:23...

1:18i said I would be wise, but it is far from me. King Solomon said that this mitzvah of the red heifer, the red cow, is something that's beyond my wisdom. I don't understand it. So, Chazal asks, why is it that this parasha is connected to that one? I mean, usually the parshiyot, usually the weekly Torah portions, are relevant to each other. It's either a continuation of an existing story, or it's just each one is connecting with a mitzvah. There's always some type of connection. So, how is the story of Korach and his wickedness connected to a mitzvah that no one understands? Zohar Chazal is explaining to us something very, very important. Why did Korach fail? Korach failed because he started to use his own logic in replacement of Hashem's logic, in replacement of divine logic. When he saw that Moshe and Aharon became the leaders of Am Yisrael because Hashem chose them,

2:26He didn't like it too much. He said, "Listen, how could it be? Especially being influenced by his wife." saying, how could it be? We come from the same family. We're both from the Levi tribe. I'm richer than them. I'm also wise. I also know Torah. Why would they be leaders and not me? Especially Aharon. Aharon, okay, Moshe, let's say Hashem chose him. Okay, let's say we can give that an excuse in his mind. He says, let's say we can give them an excuse. But why Aharon? Is it possible that maybe Hashem really didn't choose him? And things didn't fit right in his brain because it didn't make sense to him. So then he started asking questions. He said, "Wait a minute, Moshe Rabbeinu, you said that we have a mitzvah, according to what you say, it's in the Torah, it's from Hashem. You say that we have a mitzvah of putting a mezuzah on. But what if I have a house full of Sifrei Torah, full of the scrolls of Torah?"

3:28from top to bottom, or bottom to top, have an Eiffel Tower, or better said, a Sears Tower, full of Sifrei Torah. Do I still have to have a mezuzah on the door? Moshe says, yes, there are two different mitzvot. He says, yeah, but it doesn't make sense, because the Sefer Torah is over 304,800 letters long, It's full of Torah, and I'm having thousands and thousands of Sifrei Torah. And a mezuzah, what does it have? It has a couple of paragraphs from the Torah. Why would I need these couple of paragraphs if I have thousands of them? It doesn't make any sense. And this human logic failed him and led him all the way to Gehinnom. Not understanding the mitzvah can sometimes... get us to a point where if we don't have the right foundation, we completely destroy our soul. And this is exactly why Chazal say that Parashat Chukat...

4:43which means this is the decree, or decree, is connected. Because this parasha says, this is the decree of the Torah. But chukat also comes from the word chakuk. Chakuk means... engraved. So Hashem is telling us about this wonderful mitzvah of the red cow, the red heifer, that we don't really understand how it works because the whole point of the red heifer, the red cow, is to purify the nation if somebody touched a dead body or became impure in one way or another. they used the red heifer in order to purify them. After slaughtering the cow, they would add a few other ingredients to it and then they would use this to purify the nation. Anyone that became impure could become pure with this red heifer. But the illogical part, the part that we don't understand with human logic, better said, is that the one that's actually going to, that's preparing this, whether it's the slaughterer, or it's the Kohen that sprinkles the blood, or it's the one that actually sprinkles the water after they mix it in, they all become contaminated. So how could the one that's helping people become pure, becoming contaminated himself? This doesn't make sense. This is exactly what King Solomon says.

5:45is that the one that's actually going to, that's preparing this, whether it's the shochet, or it's the Kohen that sprinkles the blood, or it's the one that actually sprinkles the water after they mix it in, they all become contaminated. So how could the one that's helping people become pure become contaminated himself? This doesn't make sense. This is exactly what King Shlomo says. But this is why Hashem said, "This Torah is engraved in you." Meaning that whether you understand it or not is irrelevant. You just have lowly human logic. I have divine logic. And My divine logic is not like writing on a wall that you could erase. My divine logic is engraved. When something is written on the wall, you could easily erase it. Whereas when something is engraved, it becomes part of what it's engraved in. And that's one of the things we have to understand when it comes to Torah. If we don't understand something, according to the Gemara and according to the sages, if something is beyond our logic, it has nothing to do with the mitzvah, meaning there's no flaw in the mitzvah, there's chas v'shalom, no flaw in Hashem's logic. The flaw is within us. And that's one of the things that people have a hard time understanding. The key here is that first we must do, and then we can start asking questions. The reason why I thought about this is because tonight, Baruch Hashem, we had a great shiur, but during the shiur, as you know, we have our...

7:03with the mitzvah, meaning there's no flaw in the mitzvah, there's chas v'shalom, no flaw in Hashem's logic. The flaw is within us. And that's one of the things that people have a hard time understanding. The key here is that first we must do, and then we can start asking questions. The reason why I thought about this is because tonight, Baruch Hashem, we had a great shiur, but during the shiur, as you know, we have our... Uh, posts are, um, shiurim posted on YouTube, and one of these wicked, wicked people who goes by the name of Jorge Rodriguez—I'm sure it's a fake name—decided that, you know, he watched the Wasting Seed, a very, very popular and very, very moving shiur that we made, Baruch Hashem, in New York, called Wasting Seed, Gamma Brit. And he decided that he didn't like what he heard, so he decided to write a bunch of comments threatening my life and threatening my family's life. And he wrote all these wonderful things about how he's going to do this and he's going to do that. and a very strong shiur that we made, Baruch Hashem, in New York, called Wasting Seed, Gamm Brit. And he decided that he didn't like what he heard, so he decided to write a bunch of comments threatening my life and threatening my family's life. And he wrote all these wonderful things about how he's going to do this and he's going to do that.

8:17And the reality of it is that, aside from it being disturbing, and aside from me knowing that obviously the one who decides who lives and the one who decides who succeeds or the opposite is only in the hands of Hashem, and definitely not in the hands of some moron that is sitting in front of his computer feeling strong because no one is next to him, the reality of it is that I know the truth. But I'm thinking to myself, why would somebody... take their time, watch the shiur, and if you like it, you like it, great, maybe it helps you do teshuva. If you don't like it, then okay, then you just press, you know, a different button and move to a different shiur, move to a different video, do something else with your life. Why go out of your way to make awful comments threatening my life, threatening my family? Why would you do something like this? And this is exactly where this parashah comes in. When we think like Korach, and that things are supposed to make sense to us, and if they don't make sense to us, then everyone else has to be wrong and it's not us, then of course you're going to make comments like this. Of course you're going to say stupidity and foolishness like this. But when we realize what Hashem actually wrote in the Torah,

9:40And you see that this Torah does not change. That's why we all need to understand there's no such thing as modernizing the Torah. There's no such thing as changing the Torah in any way, shape, or form. Whatever we got from Mount Sinai is what we follow today. Whatever is applicable. Obviously, we cannot do the mitzvot of the Beit HaMikdash because we don't have the Beit HaMikdash, unfortunately. This does not make those mitzvot invalid. What it means is that they're put on hold. When Hashem brings us the third Beit HaMikdash, those mitzvot become applicable immediately. The Kohanim have to become purified. We have to get a red heifer, which Baruch Hashem, there are two of them in the world now. Everything becomes applicable immediately. The same thing goes with Shabbat. If someone is in life danger, then Shabbat is put on hold. It's not canceled. It's put on hold. We, obviously, all Jews, must keep Shabbat. We are not allowed to drive, not allowed to play with our phones, not allowed to handle money, and not even allowed to talk about business. But, chas v'shalom, if there's a life-threatening danger, it is actually a mitzvah to take that person, drive them to the hospital, or do whatever is necessary to get them out of life-threatening danger. But this does not mean that Shabbat is canceled, chas v'shalom. What it means is that Shabbat is put on hold,

11:06Until there's no longer danger, which means that as soon as someone takes somebody else to the hospital, as soon as they arrive at the hospital and the danger is gone, the danger is stopped, you know, the doctors pick up the patient and are taking care of him, immediately Shabbat gets turned back on, which means that you can't even turn off the car. You can't go back home. You can't play with your phone and call the family and tell them, "Listen, everything's okay." You get there, you get them out of danger, and then Shabbat is no longer on hold. It goes right back in. So the sages ask, why do this? Why do you allow Shabbat to be put on hold? Isn't Shabbat the most important mitzvah? yes, it is. The sages explain we only do this not because life is more important than Shabbat but rather because the Shabbat is more important even than life. How do we know? The only reason we're putting Shabbat on hold so the life can be saved and the person and their soul can keep many more Shabbatot due to putting the Shabbat on hold. And this is one of the things that, to some people, is 100% logical, makes a lot of sense because they've made the Torah chakuk, they've made the Torah an engravement in their soul, an engravement in their heart.

12:30Whereas the people that say, "No, this doesn't make any sense. How could this be? Life is much more important." Well, then you have to ask yourself, am I Korach or am I Moshe? Of course, we know that the fool who made those foolish comments because he didn't like what the Sages in the Torah write about wasting seed—of course, we know which camp he's in. He's going to go, and unless he does teshuva, he's going to have a VIP session and an eternal session in the same place that Korach finds himself to this day. But hopefully, he does teshuva. Hopefully, he listens to this specific shiur. Why? Because you realize these laws that we talk about in the shiurim have nothing to do with me. They have nothing to do with me. This is not my opinion. I provide zero opinion, especially in this shiur. Anytime I provide my opinion, I let people know it's my opinion. The reality of it is that we must all realize...

13:32Hashem said that these are the laws, and these laws are engraved. What He's telling you is that whether you understand it or not, they're permanent, they're eternal, and whether you like it or not, you must follow them. Those who follow get rewarded. Those who don't, unfortunately for them, get punished. This is one of the 13 principles of faith that the Rambam told us that we must repeat every day at the end of Shacharit, or usually that's the... A custom to repeat at the end of the morning prayer is the 13 Principles of Faith, and one of them, one key one that everyone must believe and follow, is that the righteous get rewarded and the wicked get punished. There's no such thing as a get-out-of-jail-free card once this particular mission in this life, once this life is over. You can't show up to Shamayim and say, no, no, no, I wasn't ready. This is not child's play, this is not kids' games. So, we have to understand. We always have to tell people the truth based on what Hashem told us at Mount Sinai, based on what He told the sages, based on what's written, based on what's known, with zero sugar-coating. Why?

14:47Because the key is for us to know, and at least we can make the right decisions and start figuring out what we need to do to change ourselves in order to make the Torah engraved in our hearts. Chazakim u'Baruchim. May Hashem continue to bless you. And B'ezrat Hashem, we'll talk soon. Kol Tov.