Nasso – Four Paces

It's been two weeks since we recorded a new episode of the Parshapad test. You see last week was the festival of Shavuos and because Shavuos and Shabis coincided on the same day, we postponed the next installment of the Wheatley Parshah to this week. So I'm a bit rusty. In the towards center, in Houston, Texas, I haven't done this in a while. But more notably, it's been an incredible couple of weeks. It's been a festive couple of weeks because a few hours after we recorded the last Parshapad test, my wife Hyavgiv gave birth to a beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, thank God healthy baby boy. And I was thinking the boy, my son, was waiting for the Parshapad test to be over to arrive. I was thinking just how thoughtful that was. And then I had a very exciting thought, very exciting. Maybe this will be the wall be child who's a fan of the podcasts. You see, I've told you this before, my kids agree on very little, but there's one thing that there's absolute unanimity amongst the wall be children. They have zero interest, zero interest in listening to daddy's podcasts. But maybe there's a new one. Maybe this is the exception. There is some hope. My parents joined us for the festivities. My in laws joined us. We had a rollockeend festive shalamzachar celebration on the Friday night after the baby was born. I gave was like a rockus speech during the festivities. And I actually recorded a podcast episode on one of my other channels this Jewish life. The speech that I gave on Friday night after the baby was born. And then on Thursday morning, so we could go. The day before Shavuas, air of Shavuas, we had the great privilege of entering our son into the covenant of Abraham of giving a brisk to our son. And by the brisk, we gave him a name, Dove, Sv. We named him after my great, great grandfather, Rabbi Dove, Sv. Heller. Rabbi Heller was the masjid, the spiritual dean of the feigned Yashiva in Slabatra in Lithuania. And for 50 years or so, he was one of the leaders of that incredible institution. And he passed away in 1935, but you could still read the descriptions of his students. He was a saintly person. One of his students said he was so holy, he was so kind, he was so sweet, he was so gentle, he was like the chavatchaiim. He was beloved, he was cherished by all. I found one description of him that described him as the mother of the Yashiva. He was sweet, he was gentle, he was caring, he was loving. And he made sure that all the students had their needs met. He would inspect the boys before they went home for the semester, say, look at their shoes, have them lift up their shoes, make sure there's no holes in the shoes, if they had holes in the shoes, you give them money to buy shoes. And he cared tremendously about his students. How much did he care for his students? He would fast. He would have fast days where he would just pray and fast and beg the Almighty to give his students success. The founder of the Yashiva, the altar of Sabbatka, he said about him, I will never open up a Yashiva without Rabdoat Sviheler, who was also known by his Yerish name, because the word dov means a bear, and the word Svih means a deer. So, bear a herch, which is the the Yiddish translation of dov Svih. I'll never open up a Yashiva without Rabarah herch. Now, he had three sons-of-law, who were Torah giants. So, one of his sons-of-law was Rabaya Vraham Griginski, that's my great-grandfather, who himself served as the spiritual dean of that aforementioned Sabbatra Yashiva. And Rabaya Griginski's daughter Rifka is my grandmother. Rifka married Rabesh Lama-Walbi. His second son-of-law was Rabaya Kruf Kaminetski, who was one of the greatest American rusheshivas, one of the most important rabbis in America in the 20th century. And his third son-of-law was Rabaya Shaptai Warnakufsthi. He was a rusheshiva in Poland, and he was murdered by the Nazis in the Kavno ghetto in 1941, together with his wife, his wife Saur-A-Keyla, and their ten children. The ten children, the entire family was wiped out. Four daughters, Toiba, Golda, Arachel, which is Rachel, and Chasia, and six sons, Mordechai, David, Yehuda, El-Hanon, Dovtsvi, and Israel. I think it's just unbelievable, an entire family, father, mother, and ten children completely destroyed with no remnant left. If you notice one of their children was Dovtsvi, so Rabaya Heller, he passed when 1935. Sometime after 1935, his daughter Sarah Warnakufsthi had a son, and she named her newborn son after her father. So the oldest that this young boy could have been when he was killed was five or six years old, and we know nothing about him. We just know that he was their cousin of ours, who was a young boy who was murdered, and we thought we're in a name after our great-great-grandfather, but we're also going to have in mind this boy who we know nothing about, that they were partially naming after this young child who was brutally killed in 1941. And actually we had the great privilege, we thought about these six boys that were killed. Mordechai, David, Yehuda, El-Hanon, Dovtsvi, and Israel. Three of our boys are Israel, David, and Dovtsvi now, and in each one we partially named them after these young children who were murdered in the Holocaust. But we primarily named our son after the great Rabbi Dovtsvi Heller, and partially after his grandson as well. And we hope and pray that our Dovtsvi lives up to his illustrious name and grows up and becomes a special person, a special Jew, someone who brings joy and pride to his family and of course to his creator. It's Parjas Naso, we have the longest Parjas in the Torah, a wavy 176 verses and it pits up right where I left off the previous Parjas. In Parjas, by midbar, we were initially counting the Levites from the Age of 30 days, and then a transition to focus on the adult Levites from the ages of 30 to 50, and the particular roles that each one of the Levite families had in the transportation of the Tabernacle and its vessels. So last week we saw, last parjas we saw, how the family of Krahus, they are responsible with the transportation of the Tabernacles vessels. And this wheat parjas begins with the other two Levite families, namely the families of Gershone and Mirari, and what the adult Levites from the ages of 30 to 50, what were they responsible in the transportation of the Tabernacle? So Gershone, he was responsible for all the curtains, the covers and the streams. That was what they were responsible to transport and the family of Mirari, they were responsible for the beams, the vertical beams, the bars, the winharrasant, the lea, the sockets, the posts, and various other parts of the Tabernacle. Following that, we have the counting of the adult Levites. Again, last week we had the counting of the Levites from the age of 30 days and older, and we had the exchange of the Levites for the first born, and now we have the responsibilities of the adult Levites from the ages of 30 to 50, and now we have a census of the Levites just the adult working age Levites from the ages of 30 to 50, and it tells us that the family of Gershone, 2750 adult working age Levites, Gershone 2630, Mirari 3200, a total of 85, 80. That's the first part of the Parishan. The adult leaveites their numbers and their responsibilities. Following this, we have some laws related to the purity of the camp. An impure person can enter the temple. An impure person must be sent out of the camp. And then we have the Sota and the Nazir. This is the suspected adulterist that's the Sota. And the Nazir is a person who accepts upon himself the vow to become a Nazir. And he gives us all the laws related to the Sota and the Nazir. If a man suspects his wife of infidelity and is worried about a particular person and he tells her, "Please don't hang out with this particular gentleman." And finally in that warning, she nevertheless secludes herself with that man. Now, of course we don't know what happened behind closed doors. But there are some rounds to suspect that something very, very problematic happened. They were in a locked room. Who, the person that our husband was worried about? This woman is a Sota, a suspected adulterist. We don't know what happened. We suspect. Maybe she did commit adultery. And she has come to the temple and bring a sacrifice. And the priest has to try to get a admission of guilt out of her. Because if she admits that she was guilty, there could be a separation. She could divorce her husband and they could move on. But if she insists on her innocence, then we have to find out what happened behind closed doors. But of course, there's no witnesses. There's no evidence. There's no videotapes. The way it is determined is via the bitter waters. The priest writes a scroll and writes the Torah section of the Sota. And when the ink is still wet, he dips the scroll in water and dissolves the ink into the water. And that water becomes a potion. And that potion will tell us what happened behind closed doors. If she got forbid committed adultery behind closed doors, that potion will enter her and explode inside of her. And if she did not commit that sin behind closed doors, that potion will serve as an elixir, will enter her and give her blessing. That is the love of the Sota. And I say to this point out, if you look at the Torah section, it has the name of God. So the priest will write the name of God, dissolve it in water. You can never dissolve the name of God. That's completely unathema. Forbidden sacrilege. God says, restoring marital harmony is so important. I'm willing to have my name dissolved. Disolved my name. So that way this family can know for sure everyone can know for sure what happened. And there's no suspicions that remain. That's the Sota. Following the Sota we have the Nazir, a seemingly unrelated law. It's a vow for a specific amount of time, typically for 30 days to follow the laws of a Nazir. What's that? 30 days with no haircuts, 30 days with no contact with the dead and 30 days, not drinking wine and not even eating or drinking anything that is a grape or a grape derivative. And we have all the laws of the Nazir. We have what happens if we become as impure before the end of his term. What is the process from to undo his Nazir status at the end of his term? What sacrifices do you have to bring? The Sota, the suspected altruists, and the Nazir, the person who accepts the vow to become a Nazir. Each one of these sections has a whole book of Talmud on it. And just as these two sections are judged opposed in the Torah, they are also judged opposed in the sequencing of the Talmud. Because there's a connection between the two. What's the connection? So the Talmud tells us, if you hear about a terrible event, there may be an instance of adultery, terrible. You hear about that? The first thing that you do the reaction that you have is say, behold, I am a Nazir. Why? Because how does adultery happen? It happens when people are not thinking clearly. It happens because people become too frivolous. And what leads to frivolity alcohol? It's a social lubricant. Yes, that's a problem sometimes. It drops inhibitions. Some of those inhibitions are good things. You hear about this phenomenon? Guard yourself, abstain yourself from wine. Reinforce yourself. Someone else made a mistake or potentially made a terrible mistake. You realize that you too are vulnerable to make a similar mistake and reinforce yourself by becoming a Nazir. Now the Nazir is holy, the verse tells us. He is holy for God. All the days that he's a Nazir, he is holy for God. And you read the accolades. The accolades of the Nazir, it's unbelievable. Holy to God, who gets that description? Says the midrush, "When a person does something wondrous and accepts upon themselves of Owl, I want to be holier. I want to be more elevated." "Harei, who kemalach, behold, they're like an angel. They're acting like an angel. They're acting supernatural. Everyone else, they want to enjoy the wine. They don't want to get bogged down with all the spirituality stuff." What does the Nazir do? He does something different. He does something wondrous. "I want to abstain from physical pleasures so that I can deepen my connection with my creator." Wow, that's holiness. Holiness, Kadoos Lashami is holy to God. He's like an angel. And the commentary is pointed out, he does not come into contact with the dead. Who else doesn't do that? The priest. Now, in ordinary priest, there are seven close relatives that they can become impure to. But the Nazir, he's like the high priest. He doesn't come into contact with any of the dead. Even close relatives, he becomes so elevated. For 30 days, he's like a high priest. And the commentary is pointed out that the etymology of the word Nazir is "Nezer," which means a crown. Most people are subjects. They have a puppeteer in their heart, telling them how to behave. Naviates Aara, that's guiding them along. They're a subject. This one, he's a Nazir, he's a crown. He's a king. He is dominating his petty desires. He's in charge. And he reaches such unprecedented holiness. There's a stunning comment in the Bala Turum. The Bala Turum explains, "Why can't he come into contact with the dead?" When someone becomes a Nazir, they will achieve prophecy. An ordinary person makes an extraordinary decision. And they are elevated in a meteoric fashion. And they're going to receive prophecy. And if they're in any way associated with the dead, if they're in any way in contact with the dead, some cynic will say, "Oh, I know where they got the prophecy from." They did some sayons. They did some necromancy. There's no way that this greatness was achieved in an ordinary, acceptable way. There's something artificial and perverse about what they accomplished. In order to dispel that, He must have no contact with the dead. The accolades for the Nazir are over the top. He's like a high priest, he's like a teen, he's like an angel. He will receive prophecy. He is holy to God. Following the laws of the Nazir, we have the priestly blessing. Tell Aaron, "So shall you bless the people of Israel." Aaron and Aaron's sons are tasked with blessing the people of Israel with a very specific blessing. "May God bless you and guard you. May God bestow you upon you light and give you grace." May God lift his face towards you. It's a very little translation. Just hope favor upon you. Viyasem Khasholom, "Indiview, peace, three verses. It's a formula that we still use today. This is the priestly blessing and the section ends. God promises. They will place my name upon the Israelites. Vani of our Heim and I will bless them. The priests are in doubt with special power to give a blessing. And when they use these words, God promises I will effectuate this blessing. I will bless them." The final section of the parasha relates to the inauguration of the tabernacle, which, of course, you know, we've had already before. Parasha's Picude, parasha's Shemini, parasha's Akhremos. Now parasha's N Also, it's the fourth parasha that talks about the same day, the first day of Nisan, the day of the inauguration of the tabernacle. But it focuses on a particular part of that day. On the day of the inauguration of the tabernacle, the princes, the princes of Israel, the princes of the 12 tribes, the same people who, you recall, donated the showhumstones and the Meluimstones way back in Exodus. They approached Moshe and they brought a gift. What was their gift? 12 Otsin and 6 covered wagons. Who needs Otsin? Who needs covered wagons? Well, the tabernacle will need to be transported and the Levites, they have to carry them. We were called to be near the parasha. We had the family of Krasn and the family of Garroshan. Krasn was last week, but in Garroshan and Marari, all the different parts of the tabernacle and the adult working age, Levites, the responsibilities they had, each family and the transportation of the various different parts of the tabernacle. To make it easier, the princes said we want to donate special covered wagon carts and special Otsin to help the transportation. And Moshe was not certain if he should accept this and God says yes, accept it. But it's not going to be evenly distributed. The family of Krasn, they get zero Otsin and zero covered wagons because they're carrying the actual vessels of the tabernacle, the ark, the menorah, the table, the altar. Those are not themes that you offload. You carry them upon your shoulders. They get zero Otsin and zero wagons. The family of Garroshan, they have heavy but not that heavy of a load. Therefore two of the six wagons and four of the twelve Otsin are given to the Garroshanites and the remaining four of the six wagons and the remaining eight of the twelve Otsin are given to the family of Marari, they have the heaviest load and they're carrying the various turtans and streams. They are given four wagons and eight Otsin. This is the initial gift of the princes on the day of the inauguration of the tabernacle. But then on that same day they gave a second gift and the rest of the parasha tells about the second gift that the princes brought the brought one gift and they said oh, a brought one gift. I want to bring another one. The first gift wedded their appetite to bring a second gift and it's a very unusual portion in the Torah. There's a lot of repetitiveness. It tells us that for twelve days starting with the first divinies on the first day of the inauguration of the tabernacle on each of twelve successive days, one of the twelve princes of the twelve tribes brought a tribute. And on the first day the prince of the tribe of Judah, Nachshon Ben-Aminadav incidentally Aaron's brother-in-law, famous for leaping into the waters when someone else was brave enough to do that. He brought the tribute on day one. And what did he bring? A silver bowl that weighed 130 Shackles and a silver basin that weighed 70 Shackles and both of them were brimming with flour and oil. And one gold ladle that weighed 10 Shackles and that was filled not with flour and oil but with incense. And then it says more various sacrifices. One bowl, one ram, one lamb, for an ola, for an elevation offering, one goat for a sin offering. It's your counting one bowl, one ram, one lamb, one goat that's four. And then seventeen shlumms, peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five melagotes, and five lambs. A total of 21 sacrifices plus the gold ladle brimming with incense plus the sun. Silver basin and the silver bowl filled with flour and oil. That's what Nachshon, Ben Aminadav, the prince of the tribe of Judah, brought on day one. The first day of Nissan. What about day two? Second day of Nissan. It wasn't the prince of the tribe of Judah, now it's the prince of the tribe of Yisachar Issaqar, and what did he bring? The exact same offering. Now this is contrary to convention. The Torah always is as brief as possible. And the Torah does not say, "Oh, just look at what Nachshon brought day one." That's what the head of the tribe of Yisachar brought on day two. No, it details. Without any summarization, without any shortening every part of the tribute, the silver bowl weighed 130 shakles. The silver basin weighed 70 shakles. Both of them filled with flour and oil and the gold ladle weighed 10 shakles, and that was filled with incense. And 21 sacrifices, one bowl, one ram, one lamb, one television offering, one dough, and 17 pieces, offerings, two oxen, five rams, five melagotes, and five lambs. And then day three, the prince of the tribe of Zulun, and goes on identical descriptions. They want day two all the way through day 12. It continues for 12 princes. It's an enormous section in the Torah, especially larger than many standalone partios. It goes through prince by prince day by day, a complete account of the tribute that each prince brought, even though it was identical, to all the previous tributes brought by all the previous princes. Once that's finished, the parasha ends with a full tally of 12 days of 12 tributes from 12 princes. If each one brought one silver bowl that weighed 130 shakles, brimming with flour and oil, at the end there were 12 silver bowls and 12 silver basins and 12 gold ladles ladles. Oh, and do the math, 130 shakles of silver, plus 70 shakles of silver, each prince brought a total of 200 shakles of silver, times 12, 20, 400 silver shakles. While if each ladle that was brimming with incense weighed 10 shakles, it's a total of 120. And then it does the math, 21 sacrifices. We don't like to do math in the podcast. Do the math, 21 times 12. of a lot of sacrifices. And the final verse of the parasha, it goes back to the heart of the tabernacle. This is where the presence of God rested. And this is where Moshe received his prophecy. Moshe entered the tabernacle. He would hear the voice addressing him from a very specific place. Above the cover, on top of the ark, between the cherubs and God spoke to him. There is an absolute tonne to speak about. Unparshas Nusso, but our mandate, on year 10 of the parasha protest, it's the go-batch stage. So let's do that. The parasha talks about many different things that don't seem to be at all related. It seems like it's a bunch of disparate, unconnected, discrete parts. We have the Levites, the adult Levites, the responsible tabernacle. This is a specter adulterous, the Nazir who adapts the vow to refrain from wine, to refrain from coming into contact with the dead and the air cuts for, typically 30 days, the priestly blessings and the two gifts of the princes. First, the gift of the six covered wagons and the twelve oxen and then the twelve days of tributes. Each day another prince brought an identical tribute to celebrate the inauguration of the tabernacle. What's the common theme? What's the overarching message? At first, Glantz, there's nothing, but we don't subsist with first glances here. After all, we're in the towards center. This is the parasha podcast. I want to suggest that there's a common theme threaded to our entire parasha. A theme with a powerful and counterintuitive lesson for us. In one sentence, the theme is, there is enormous, tectonic impact of apparently small deeds and small decisions. We start with the Levites. They're special. They're the legion of God. They're the ones who are in charge of the transportation of the tabernacle. If you were an eye were to go there, they might be a capital offense to try to say, "Oh, I'd like to help pitch in." These are the Levites. They have the great privilege of great honor, the great responsibility, the great distinction of doing certain work in tabernacle and of transporting the tabernacle and of course working subsequently in the temple. The Levites are special. They receive the first tithe goes to Levites. But why are they special? Why are they better than me? So if you think about it, you have thousands of Levites mentioned in their parasha. Each one of them is special because of decisions made by their ancestors. Why were the Levites selected to be the legion of God? So we're told, in Egypt, everyone else was scared of circumcising. They circumcised. They're young. But principally, after the sin of the golden calf, Moshe said, "Who is loyal to God?" And the Levites said, "We are." And that cemented their status as God's legion to the exclusion of everyone else. There was a surge of inspiration that happened where Moshe made this call, "Who's in?" And the Levites, all of them, said us. And that changed the trajectory of the entire tribe forever and ever. They are the legion of God. Forever and ever, they have special responsibilities, special status. That decision to answer Moshe's call, that was thousands of years ago. Today, a Levite is special, is distinct, is in a class of their own because of that decision. We have the Levites, we have the blessing of the priest. God endows the priest, Aaron and his sons and subsequent descendants with special power. There are three verses. You say these words, "God promises. I will bless these Levites." This is still done today. A few weeks ago, when we had the great privilege of hosting a shalam zahar in our home, every calling I saw that was there for the festivities, I said, "Give me a priestly blessing." So I think it was six of seven or five of six, I don't remember these account. Of the ones that I spoke to, they just put their hands on my head and they said, "These three verses," and one of them kind of went ad-libbed and said their own blessing. They are in doubt with this power and God promises the priest, they say these words and God says, "I'm going to bless them." They have this formula and only priests can do it. They're special. And it makes me mad. Yeah, it makes me mad. How can we be part of this? They have this special power. Their priests, of course, this doesn't detail all the special roles of the priest. There are many, many different areas in which the priest is different. But what made the priest, the cohen, the cohen? What is it all attributable to? How come air became the high priest? How come air became the family of the priests? The answer goes all the way back to the beginning of Exodus when Moshe was promoted. He was worried about Aaron's feelings and God said to him, "Aaron, you word about Aaron? Veracha, Vesama, Beliebo, he'll see you and will be happy in his heart. He'll be glad in his heart. That one decision to be happy for Moshe, when Moshe was promoted over him, it's apparently a small thing. Until today, his descendants thousands and thousands of years later, they're the ones who have this power to get the blessings and I don't. So we have the priests, we have the Levites. The Levites are in charge. They're God's people. They care the tabernacle. They're elevated. They're distinct. They're an ararified class. They have elevated status forever. Why do to apparently small decisions? The priests on the role of their play and the power of their blessing. Why? Aaron was glad in his heart and that's thousands and thousands of years ago. And today, only descendants of Aaron have that power. The power of Aaron reverberates still today in his descendants. A small decision, a tiny decision can have enormous impact. In the middle of the partial, we have two massive subjects. Each one of them has its own book of Talmud, the Nazir and the Sota. How does the Torah describe a Nazir? Well, they have a vow to not drink wine for 30 days and not to come to contact with the dead and to not get a haircut. They are designated close, holy for God. Says the midrush, they're like an angel. They do something extraordinary. The majority of the world simply lives following their desires. They're influenced by the puppeteer in their heart. Telling them to go for this or to go for that. This person wants to transcend the masses. This person is willing to say no to their desires. They're like an angel. They're holy to God. They have a crown upon their head. They're like a high priest. They're like a king. They're going to receive prophecy. And their holiness is so profound that other people would think if they were hanging around the dead, then maybe they acquired it in some perverse manner. What did the person do? They made a decision. It took one moment. I accept upon myself a vow to be closer to God and to distance myself from my pettiness, my smallness, instantly. So ta, it's almost the opposite. It's a small decision that could be destructive. cataclysmic. And unfortunately, we know this. People make these decisions every day. And it's tragic. Think about how many lives were ruined today because of Sota-like decisions. How many marriages were destroyed? How many families torn a sunder? How many children have to have their hearts ripped into two? By parental discord, by divorce. Because of Sota-like behavior. What happened over here? Why do people give away so much? For so little. This is the opposite. It's almost the opposite of the nausea. It's a small decision with absolutely catastrophic cataclysmic, disastrous consequences. And the parcia ends with the tributes of the princess. It's actually two different tributes. The first is the 12-Ottan and the six covered wagons. And then we have the 12 days of successive tributes. Their identical, but we're still told, "Beat by beat." Each day, each prince. The details are told in the Torah, the silver basin, the silver bowl, brimming with flour and oil, the gold ladle, filled with incense, 12 events sacrifices. They won, they too all the way through. They 12. The princes. They are recipients of unpresidently presented honor. The Torah dedicates so much to attribute honor to these princes and to their contributions. There's no shortings, no no esacra, etc. See above. Let's lump together, put them in groups of five. Each one has the spotlight. Each one has the attention. Each one is given the full description. Each one is treated as if there were the only ones. There's dozens and dozens of verses of honor given to these princes. And why? It was a small decision. There's a very instructive set of comments in Rashi. Chapter 7 verse 3, Rashi says, "Well, what inspired them to make the gift of the oxen and of the wagons?" Well, a few months before the inauguration of the tabanacle, there was the fundraising effort for the tabanacle. And these same princes, they said, "We're not going to give anything. We'll wait till all of the Israelites give." All of our constituents give. And whatever they don't give, we'll cover the rest. And the people, they gave what tremendous generosity, unexpected generosity. And there was nothing left for the princes to offer, so they brought the shalom stones and the milum stones. The main mistake, last time, they tarried in giving. They said, "Okay, we're not going to make that same mistake again. Now there's another opportunity to give." Okay, we want to jump ahead. We want to. we'll give the oxen and the wagons. That explains, says Rashi, "Why they gave the first gift?" But on that same day that these twelve princes contributed 12 oxen and six covered wagons, they came to Moshe with a second gift. And got those Moshe, "Okay, we'll accept the gift, but we'll do in twelve successive days." What inspired the second gift? So there's a second comet in Rashi, chapter 7 verse 10. Rashi says, "After they contributed the wagons, the covered wagons, after they contributed the oxen, their heart was inspired to give more." They wanted to give sacrifices and offerings and tributes to the tabernacle in order to inaugurate it. They had inspiration, and that inspired them to give the oxen and the covered wagons, and that itself prompted the second inspiration to give something more. They gave something, and they were aroused, inspired to have a second round of giving. Their hearts were elevated, and they made a choice. And the Torah records them tremendous honor. There's an enormous section of the Torah dedicated to their tributes. So there you have it, a theme, threaded throughout the whole parasha. In all of these instances, none of us would say that the input matches the output. The Levites think it's so much for apparently so little. The priest sits so much for apparently so little. The Nazir gets the most superlative accolades, like a high priest, like a teen, like an angel, prophecy. Why? All he did was say, "I'm a Nazir." The princes, they were inspired, and they made a choice, and they were inspired again, but a second choice. Dozens and dozens of verses to honor each one of them. In the flip side, the Sota, she made a choice. A choice where the destruction and devastation in no way matches the, what she'd got out of that. And I was thinking, there's many japples of this in the Torah. I'm an easy one, especially in that Swedish parasha. That's the parasha we have an example of this. Miriam, she waited for her brother for 15 minutes to see what's going to be his fate when he's floating in the water. That's the input. What's the output? When she has Saras, the entire nation waits not for 15 minutes, for seven days until she is healed. My favorite example of this principle is the four paces. The four paces of Nebuchadnezzar, De Vuchanetsar. The Talmud was about these four paces, the four steps of that wicked one. King of the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of the entire world effectively. The master of every, why did he have so much? He was a lowly scribe, the Talmud tells us. He was a scribe to an earlier king of Babylon. And at the times of Chistia, when Chistia had his miraculous recovery, and the whole world knew about it because there was a miracle that coincided with the healing of Chistia. So the king of Babylon wanted to send a message to the king of Judea, to Chistia, to Hezekiah, wishing him well. And it tells the story. It's a fascinating little anecdote. They're drafting. It's almost like you have a speechwriter, right? The speechwriter is sitting right and they're like, "No, she was there like this, she was there like that." When you hear a speech, it comes from the politician. They didn't write it. They have a team of speechwriters, right? And they debate every single word. You have the state of the union. There's a lot of edits and re-edits and so on. Some people have to go off-stripped. I've been told. So there's a team editing the message that, "Baladin, King of Babylon is in a send to Hezekiah, King of Judea." And what's the message? So the message that they wrote, "Greetings to King Chistia, greetings to the city of Jerusalem and greetings to the great God of Israel." So first Chistia, then Jerusalem, then the great God of Israel. That was the agreed upon text. They write it and they send it. Now, Nebuchadnezzar was a scribe. He was part of the team. He was part of the speechwriting team. And he had to go out for a cigarette or a bathroom break. It doesn't say what. He wasn't present when they were finalizing the text of this message. And he comes back to the writer's room. and he said, "What did you write?" He said, "Well, we said greetings to you, team Chistia, greetings to the city of Jerusalem, and greetings to the great God of Israel." So, Nebuchadnezzar says, "Wait, great God of Israel, you put at the end, you got the order wrong." What you should write is greetings to the great God, greetings to the city of Jerusalem, and only then, greetings to King Chistia. "You messed up? You got the order wrong." So, Satan, yeah, but it's been sent already. What are we going to do? So, Nebuchadnezzar said, "I'm going to go chase down the career," and he takes four paces, one, two, three, four, and the Dhamma tells us that he was stopped. He had to be stopped. "The angel Gabriel came and stopped him, because this terrible wicked person took four steps to honor God, and that's why he ruled the whole world. If he was successful in taking twenty steps, fifty steps, a hundred steps, chasing down the career, switching the text, he would have been so powerful that he would have actually destroyed the Jewish nation and not the little bit left." This is the best example of the power of this very little. We don't typically have a window into how God dispenses reward for righteousness. But this is a perfect example. It's over the top. Nebuchadnezzar took four paces to stand up for the honor of God, and that's why he became the rule of the whole world. And if he was successful in chasing down that career, if the angel Gabriel did not stop him, he would have been so powerful the nation of Israel would have been totally destroyed. This is a great example. I'll tell you one more example. I've said this before, but it's really practical. A few people here, I imagine, are speechwriters in ancient Babylon. But we have the great privilege of going to shul on occasion, hopefully every day, and you go to shul and there's blessings that are blessing God. And you have an opportunity to join. You could do some of which is even greater than Nebuchadnezzar's four paces. And I've seen people on their phone during the opening, playing games, searching eBay. I've seen it. I don't want to judge anyone. Let me tell you what I see just tell us. There are various different responses that you can make in shul. Of course, when there's a blessing, you say, "Amen, amen." Well, they say the name of God is a boruch, a boruch, shul, blessed is he, and blessed is his name. And during the cottage, we have the "Amen, Yehesh, mayraba," which is "Mvorachal, O Mamell, maya," which is the highest response that we can make. Actually, let's tell us that one response of "Amen, Yehesh, mayraba, Mvorachal, O Mamell, maya," is worth a thousand single "Amenes." That's how big the gulf of impact is between one "Amen, Yehesh, mayraba, and one "Amen." A thousand "Amenes" is less than one "Amen, Yehesh, mayraba." And a thousand "Barahu, Baruch, Shmos," again, these are different utterances that responses that we say in the shul, a thousand of them is not equal to one "Amen." So if you do the math, how many "Barahu, Baruch, Shmos" are equal to one "Amen, Yehesh, mayraba?" It's a million at least, right? Again, no math from the podcast, but a thousand times a thousand. And how powerful is one "Barahu, Baruch, Shmos," when you could say, "Blessed is he and blessed is his name?" I say this to tell us, it's so powerful that it's worth it to have one Jew once in his three, say, "Barahu, Baruch, Shmos," about God, "Blessed is he and blessed is his name?" It's worthwhile for that to have created the entire universe. Six days of Genesis plus one Shabbos, all of it, the entire universe with all the onions and all the space and all the trillions and trillions of galaxies, all that's worth it for one "Barahu, Baruch, Baruch, Shmos." To say my dear, the input doesn't always match the output. It's 500 trillion to one of what we would imagine. There's a very different barometer in heaven. The impact of an apparently tiny thing is enormous. Every mitzvah, that we have the great privilege of doing, every time we stand up for the honor of God, every time there's a call, who is Lord of the God and we say, "Yes, it's us." Every time we overcome something apparently small. Every time we unseat a little bit of the evil creation, the far end of the within. A mitzvah shapes universes. A mitzvah creates an angel. A mitzvah abends everything, all of heaven. It's all awakened. And everyone's discussing a single mitzvah, a single blessing. Every mitzvah is a crown. "Betrayette, it's our diamond, our crown jewel!" Fit for a tink. And God forbid, the opposite is true as well. Small, small, small, small, small things can lead to incredible, unimaginable, extraordinary outcomes. And that's how we become bid. You become bid through very, very small decisions. The flipside, the sotethwret, must be remembered as well. Make your choices wisely. I appreciate you joining us for this edition of the Parshaparkest. I'm sitting in the Torch Center in Houston, Texas. We did not have a new Parshaparkest last week. I said at the beginning, "I'm maybe a bit rusty." But that's okay. Let me know. Rabbi, [email protected]. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. A truly great day. Maybe you're listening when you're on your commute to work or you're traveling. And you're on the airplane, you download the podcast before the flight. Because you're not paying a bunch for a Wi-Fi, right? Maybe you are, I don't know. But wherever you are, I hope you have a successful, fantastic, smashing, smashingly successful day. And an amazing and healthy and happy and productive rest of your week. And of course, a sensational and powerful and productive and uplifting and inspiring and exciting. Shall we some coming? And of course, please God, you and I will gather together again with the help of Veel Mighty for another edition of the Parshaparkest. Next week, please God, I'm able to this is Rabbi, [email protected]. Please, please, please send me your questions, your comments and your feedback.