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Parshas Pekudei - Hachodesh: How to Humbly Lift a Blue Whale · The Weekly Parsha - With Michoel Brooke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: As Jews, we must find the perfect balance between effort and accomplishment and humility.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We have to create, to do to bring about the greatness of God and his Torah in the world, to be the nation that proclaims God's name in this world while also remaining very subdued, very modest, bale anova at the same time.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And the secret to finding this perfect balance where we can meet in our midos, balance where we can meet in our midos at the corner of really accomplishment, of godless and anivos, the secret is taught in this week's Parsha.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Parsha Spekudei, the Chazak, chazak V'Neschazik Parsha.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: As we end the second book of the Torah, we strengthen ourselves to move towards Vayikra.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: For many of us it's the end of the winter's man as we move into the Pesach season, the Nisan season, before the summer's man, as the springtime approaches.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: We have a posik here that says says very unassumingly, it's the finishing of the construction of Hashem's house.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And the posse says and then they brought the mishkan to Moshe.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: They brought him the tent, they brought him the instruments, the vessels, the kelim.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: They brought him the clasps, the planks, the bars, the posts, the sockets.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And Rashi picks up on the fact that it's interesting that they brought a totally finished Mishkan to Moshe.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Why not just take all the pieces that are sitting rather nicely on the floor, unbox them and put the Mishkan up?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: What are you waiting for, says Rashi?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: There was a slight problem.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: The Mishkan was sitting on the floor because nobody could put it up.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Nobody could hoist it to make the Mishkan a standing finished product.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Rashi continues.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Since Moshe had not done any work on the Mishkan up until this point, god left him this job of erecting the Mishkan, hoisting up the walls, making it to stand upright, because nobody could pick up the Mishkan and put it in its proper place.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Due to the heaviness, the weight of these crushem, of these boards, of its walls, nobody could hoist them up and put them in their proper place.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So they came to Moshe Rabbeinu Umoshe ha'amido.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: However, it kind of led to an awkward moment Because once the Jewish people brought these impossibly heavy boards to Moshe Rabbeinu, moshe then, as Rashi continues and explains, brought the same problem of the crushem's weight to Hashem.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Amar Moshe lefnei ha-kaddish baruch ha.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Rashi continues quoting the same medrash medrash tan chuma.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Moshe turned to Hashem.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you for leaving me this final job.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: It's impossible.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Nobody can possibly pick up such impossibly heavy wooden bars posts to crush him Pretty serious problem.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: This Rashi already has taught us a great deal.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Who knew that Moshe had no job in the building of the Mishkan?
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I guess he was kind of the manager, the site manager, the project manager.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Rashi tells us here that he hadn't done any work in the Mishkan.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I guess he was kind of the manager, the site manager, the project manager.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Now she tells us here that he hadn't done any work in the Mishkan.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I guess he just kind of got the rules and the regulations at Harsinai before giving it over to Bitzalah and Ahaliya, to the rest of the Jewish people.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But finally, while Moshe is sitting on the sidelines waiting to get involved and Hashem is really saving the best for last, it's kind of some seems like a joke, because the final job, the greatest job left for Moshe for actually putting it up, is one that is totally, totally impossible to fulfill.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: And before we get to what it is that Hashem answered Moshe Rabbeinu, I'd like to direct your attention to the exact same give and take back and forth masa umaton that happens with Moshe Rabbeinu at the beginning of Parshas Bamitbar.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The same thing happens where Moshe Rabbeinu is tasked with an impossible opportunity, with a job that is not fit for mankind?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And Moshe Rabbeinu has a similar question.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: But we will soon see that Hashem gives a similar answer and that's where the Vart will take us and the Yisroel will come.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: But listen to hear how, in Parshat, bamidbar and Perakimol Pasek Tazayin, moshe is tasked with Vay all of the Jewish people, men, women and children, getting the exact number, a census Rashi picking up on.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Well, a little bit of a blatant problem that Moshe will encounter as he tries to fulfill the commandment to count all of the Jewish people.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Hashem, how can I possibly count the Jewish people?
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Would you like me to enter into their innermost quarters, to go into the nurseries, to go into the private bedrooms, into the living rooms and studies of the Jewish people?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Barge right into their living rooms?
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: How can I possibly do that?
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: To know the count of all of the men, women and children?
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I can't get to the toddlers.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: How will I know if they are twins, triplets, quintuplets?
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: It's impossible.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: How can you task me, hashem, to fulfill a job that I seemingly cannot fulfill, that I seemingly cannot fulfill?
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Same question as to what Moshe was trying to figure out, as he was totally perplexed as to how it is to put the Mishkan's walls up.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: And here we see Moshe Rabbeinu again, totally unsure how to count the Jewish people stuck in unforeseen, unpredictable and rather impossible circumstances.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Listen to what Rashi says, quoting the Medrash was Hashem's response to Moshe's first problem.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: And then hear again how it's echoed the same answer, the same yesod, to how to accomplish the impossible, as told by HaKadosh Baruch Hu to Moshe.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: We'll start with Rashi here.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Rashi continues Omar lo Hashem said you want to pick up the walls, but you seem to have some trouble with them.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Asok ata biyodecha Do toil.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Try to put them up with your hands.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: It will seem like they will be hoisted, raised up into their place and they will be erected and they will magically be put into place.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: That's what it means.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: The Mishkan was erected, hukam that Moshe was to involve himself in it, to toil, to toil, to strive, to stridently endeavor to put the Mishkan up, and Hashem would do the rest.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Rashi says toil with your hands.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Asoka tabi'adecha the nira kimikomo v'hu nizkaf the ka'am me'elav, they'll rise by themselves.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Now the aside is God just wants us it is as clear as day here to do our jobs in life, to be osik b'yadecha, to try with our hands to get our paws, mittens and palms dirty to get splinters in trying to erect the, crush him.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And after that, god takes over.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Hashem's response to when Moshe Rabbeinu was perplexed, bamboozled, unsure how to count the small children inside of the tent, unsure how to get the exact number for the Jewish census.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Hashem tells him, says Rashi Omer lo ha-Kadosh Baruch Hu Echowing.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: A similar point you do you and I will do me.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Let's reiterate that you do you and I will do me.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Therefore, rashi continues Moshe was to go and stand outside of the homes of the Jewish people and the heavenly presence will be traveling before him.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And then the baskol, a heavenly proclamation, would come forth from the living room, from the tents, from the bedrooms and from the nurseries.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Inside of these different tents, from these homes, there are such and such, there are so many, there are eight, there are ten different children in this home.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: That's what the Pasuk means when it says it was actually counted.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: According to the mouth of God, it was quite literal.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Moshe's job was to just walk in front of the home and as soon as he got close enough into that proximity to do what he can do, to do, to do just standing on the front porch of the house, and God takes over and does the impossible.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: God proclaims how many children are inside?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: If you're listening, right here and right now, allow this to be a very blatant and direct reminder that in our lives we are not commanded to do anything more to accomplish, to strive for anything more other than a standing outside of the tent or trying to pick up the crushing.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: That is it.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: We are to try, we are to try, we are to effort, we are to attempt to give it our all, and then Hashem takes over and makes mamas.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous things happen, incredible things.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: The first part of this talk is, even if a person should be required, or even have a goal, an outlandish goal, to do something as crazy as putting up the crush him, which is rather crazy, is rather crazy because the average human, according to many different studies, can only lift 5,500 pounds if he was in perfect shape, at the perfect size, maximizing every single ounce of strength, about one and a half cars.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: This is actually done by one of the Canadian sumo wrestler bodybuilder folks, and even though Moshe Rabbeinu can totally outlift that fellow, because we know that the Rambam says in order to be a prophet, you must be considered a gibor, moshe Rabbein, top of the Mishkan, to which that height, needing to be the height needed to reach the top of the Mishkan, requires us to conclude that Moshe Rabbeinu must have been at least 20 feet tall, at least 10 amos tall.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: So we are really talking about somebody that can lift remarkably extraordinary and unbelievably heavyweights, but still the Puzzic testifies that the crush them were unliftable by human kind.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: It was not in our DNA.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: It would be like trying to pick up a blue whale Tons and tons.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: It would literally be incredible, it would be impossible.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: But you know what, if it's what Hashem commands and even as wacky as it may look to a bystander, a Jewish person who has a goal like picking up a blue whale, is to walk over to the blue whale and start lifting.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: To walk over to the impossibly heavy, crush him and to start lifting.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Rashi's words are very precise.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The Medrash Tan Chuma is very weighty, very complex, very deep and very frank.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: That asok atah biyadecha, get your feet, get your hands, get your grimy mitts Splintery, get involved, try and do everything that you can to lift these boards, try to count the Jewish people, even though it's literally impossible, just walk down the block and stand on their front porch.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Moshe Omeid al-Pesach ha'oel.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: It's not actually the first time, as we can clue the first takeaway from this week's weekly Parsha podcast.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: It's not the first time that we've bumped into this idea that God wants us to attempt the impossible before he steps in and does the rest and say for Brazians, we hear of how Avram Avinu was told to go outside Achutza habetna ha-shomayimah.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Look up into the stars.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Abraham Usufar ha-kochavim and begin to count.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Count the stars.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Emtuchal lisporosam, can you possibly count the stars?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Hashem Continues to talk to Avram Ko yiezarecha.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: So will be your descendants.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Rav Meir Shapiro, the great Lublina Rav, the Torah entrepreneur that launched one of the largest and most incredible yeshivas, the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva, and in his spare time, decided to be elected to a political parliament, jewish advocating for the Jews in the government.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Look up his incredible, incredible history, his biography, doing all of this and, while not to be remissed, the launching of the Dafyomi Initiative that is all his that he announced at the Agudas Yisrael convention.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: In his free time he also had a bit of time to author incredible chidushe al-hatayra, and one of them is on this posseg.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: When Rav Meir Shapiro, he tells us how do you make sense of this posseg of God, speaking to Avraham Avinu that sefor ha-kochavim count the stars.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, im tucha lisborosam, can you count them?
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Seems like God is speaking from two sides of his mouth, as if to say, as if Hashem is saying im tucha lisborosam, can this be done?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Can this be done?
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Almost a rhetorical question.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Rav Meir Shapiro.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: He explains beautifully that HaKadosh Baruch Hu asked Avram Avinu to count the stars.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Go outside, count the stars.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Now, this is an impossible challenge.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: To count the stars.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Astrology and Astronomy Magazinecom says that there's more than 6,000 visible stars, but over all of the galaxies there's more than 2 trillion stars.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: To count the stars Quite an impossible challenge.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Mayor Shapiro says If Hashem asked Avram Avinu to count the stars, then so did Avram Avinu and he began to count the stars One star, habayt.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: No, hashemayim musafara kohavim.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Two stars, one trillion stars, 1.1,.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And eventually, while he was counting, hashem then interjected into Avram's counting and said this is impossible, it can't be done.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: A rhetorical question.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: The apostle continues.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: The pastor continues.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So too, says Ramer Shapiro.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Your students and descendants will try, endeavor and attempt to accomplish the impossible by fulfill this incredible, astonishing and absolutely impossible challenge.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Because a Jew is tasked with trying.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: In your business, in your Torah study, in your Shidduch, you are tasked, you are obliged to try.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: You are obliged to get down and dirty and work your tail off.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Do what you can.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Work 9 to 5.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Work 6 am to midnight Because you're obligated to, to be and to start to count the stars.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: A Jew is obligated to try to accomplish all that he can, and only afterwards does it seem that Hashem then takes over for everything to come perfectly into place.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Can conclude from this Rashi is how it is that a Jewish person can then attempt to accomplish the most insane thing, maybe like finishing all of Shulchan Aruch, bais Yosef, all of Shas, all of Halacha, to be done to perfection, to build a Jewish family in 2025, something so seemingly impossible.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: But we are required to attempt to try to open up to page one of the Beis Yosef, to open up to page one Masech Debrach, bezal Manalaf.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: We're tasked with trying to pick up a blue whale like the size of the crush and we're tasked with trying to count the Jewish people and trying to count the stars, and then Hashem takes over.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: But after that it can really lead us to the second problem, which is how do you remain humble, unassuming and modest in all of your dealings if you do see, heavenly blessing, that God takes over and you now become a superstar that you have accomplished learning all of Shas, learning all of Archa Shulchan, building a Jewish family.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: How do you remain so humble?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Is it possible?
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: You have indeed, in fact, accomplished something extraordinary.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: So how do we remain unassuming?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And hatznei, alecha, sem, hashem alokecha and lo'o zokaf, totally straight up, totally haughty, walking through the streets.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: How can we refrain from that mindset and that posture?
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And that's what?
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: If we're Madaik Rashi properly, we'll see the same answer as Rashi continues.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: When Moshe was stuck with how to pick up the crush him, rashi said if you listen to his words, it's.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Listen to his words, it's, it will.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: After you're busy with your hand, it will appear as if to be erecting itself.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: It will appear as if to be set up by your hands, but indeed it will rise.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: It rose by its own accord, by its lonesome.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: It was totally done by God.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: After a mensch does reach Hatzlacha in something, whether it be something tiny or something large, he should remember that the strength doesn't come from him, but the adeptness, his toiling, his upraising, hoisting, elevating, his industriousness and his avodah Hashem that actually is brought to atzlacha.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Who gave you that strength?
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Who gave you the DNA to get that done?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Who gave you the breath in your lungs and who actually made it?
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Nizkaf me'elav, it is none other than the Bo-Rei Olam To drive this point.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I really clarify it.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Every single morning I am introduced to this topic when my daughter wants to have a bowl of Cheerios.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: We like the multi-grain Cheerios.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: We like it with a 2% milk, because if you eat the totally bitter, non-multi-grain Cheerios they're well bitter and the milk, if it's only 1% milk, it's just more like white water.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: 2% stark of milk and Cheerios.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: That's the Messiah from some of my great Rebbeim and that's what we have in my house.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: It Great Rabeam and that's what we have in my house.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: It's also $8.99.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: In a market like this that's a pretty good deal.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: And as we pour the Cheerios into my daughter's bowl and then she runs to the fridge to pick out the Pride of the Farm product placement there red label, 2% milk she is adamant that she should pour the milk.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Tati, I want to pour the milk.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm old enough and I can do it.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: After learning my lesson once and allowing her to do it and she continued to turn the milk upside down and pour it all over the floor.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: It's actually more milk with a little bit of Cheerios than Cheerios with a little bit of milk, more like a soup of milk with a dot of some croutons of Cheerios.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: After that debacle and debauchery, we now have a new Mahalach.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I hold the milk carton from the bottom of the container and she guides it, pretending to hold onto the handle of the milk.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: She gets to direct the milk to pour into the bowl.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: But really Tati is holding it from the bottom, grasping it with two hands and keeping it at right balance, so not too much milk comes out and we still can save a little bit for the coffee.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: But she's at least holding it and she feels very proud of herself that she did it.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I think it's a perfect muscle for our emir t'shashem hatzlacha.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: After we get our hands dirty in our avayt t'shashem, we're kind of just holding on to a milk carton, a milk container.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: We believe ourselves very much to be pouring it, to be guiding it, to be emptying it out, to be providing our own hatzlacha.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: But the same way that every time we pick up a pencil we don't have energy, we don't have strength, we don't have fingers, we don't have any heartbeat or energy, without the Borei Olam.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: It can't be said in any hatzlacha that we have.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: How can we dare be haughty?
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Because it is God who is turning the milk bottle over and we are merely holding on and trying to direct it into the bowl and not doing very much more than that.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The second takeaway is that at the corner of effort, ambition, hard work and humility and accomplishment is this Rashi and this mentality that it all comes together to tell you you work your tail off to make a Pesach for the Bracha, for the Hatzlacha to come, you put a spout, a spigot, a knob onto the vessel so that all of the delicious sustenance inside an Hatzlacha can come pouring out.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: You just need to try to pick up the crush him first.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: You just need to meet the Shadchan or two first.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: You just need to meet the shadchan or two and do what you can to find the shidduch.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: You just need to try to open a couple businesses, or one business, or ten businesses, something, until there can be a Pesach open, until you can try and walk around to every single home and count the Jewish people and you can really get knocked down, broken, beaten and get splinters everywhere.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: But you do that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Then the Hatzlacha comes and the rest is in God's hands and we have total peace with that.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: And when the Hatzlacha does come, after we've applied ourselves, Hatzlacha kind of comes independently, unaided by its lonesome, because it's God who's willing, the Hatzlacha who's making it come, making these impossibly heavy crush them stand up.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: This reminder should go with us everywhere that we go and anything that we do.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: We should work hard at it and try to do the best that we can.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Do all that we can to sweat and to struggle to pick up 5,500 pounds.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Take the initiative to accomplish what was previously deemed unattainable, to struggle with these impossibly heavy crushes and with Hashem's help, we build a beautiful, perfect Mishkan.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: We accomplish the impossible and we stay humble.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: No-transcript into the bottom of the bowl for the Cheerios to be enjoyed.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: A real Hatzlacha.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: It all comes from above.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Keep this in mind in all of your doings and, amir Tashem, it should bring to Amelos and ultimately to Hatzlacha.