Parshas Mattos-Masei: Greetings from Koh!

The fog of uncertainty isn't a weakness in our religious experience—it's the proving ground of our most profound faith. 

Moses spoke to the tribal leaders with a unique clarity of prophecy, using the phrase "Zeh hadavar" (this is precisely what God said). But as Rashi teaches us, this perfect clarity was reserved only for Moshe. All other prophets received divine messages with some ambiguity, expressed as "Koh amar Hashem" (thus says the Lord). This distinction reveals a profound spiritual truth that transforms our understanding of faith itself.

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevich Rav, found strength in this teaching after losing his family in the Holocaust. He pointed to Abraham's binding of Isaac as the ultimate example of faith, not because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, but because he proceeded despite overwhelming confusion. Nothing made sense. How could God promise Abraham descendants through Isaac, then command him to sacrifice that very son? Yet Abraham's response was, "Neilcha ad koh" (let us go to koh). This "koh" represents not just a physical place but a spiritual state of uncertainty where faith thrives without understanding.

While we often celebrate stories where everything "works out" and makes sense in retrospect, the highest level of faith is found in continuing to trust God when Nothing seems to add up. When faced with inexplicable suffering—children dying young, righteous people suffering, evil seemingly triumphant—we don't need to torture ourselves seeking explanations. True spiritual maturity means acknowledging the limits of our understanding while maintaining unshakable trust. Perhaps this is what God meant when promising Abraham "Koh yihyeh zarecha" (so shall your offspring be)—that his descendants would inherit not just numbers matching the stars, but this profound capacity for faith amid uncertainty. Embrace the holy haze, walk toward "koh," and discover the most profound connection with the divine precisely where understanding ends.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Value of Uncertainty in Faith
• 4:28 Two Levels of Prophecy Explained
• 7:50 The Ponevich Rav's Powerful Question
• 12:14 The Akedah: Journey to "Ko"
• 16:09 The Highest Level of Faith
• 21:18 Finding Peace Without Understanding

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When it comes to faith and trust in the Almighty, it is not better to have clarity and assurance, but rather it is far more satisfactory to continue to live in a foggy, hazy mishmash of uncertainty. And I would like to argue why. V'yedaber moyshe, elroshe, ha'matos, l'b'nei, Yisrael, le'imor, zeh, ha'dovar, asher, tzivo hashem, the first possek of a double parsha, quite the marathon of a parsha. Many psukim that the beginning of the first of the double parshaos begins with a discussion about laws, oaths and said promises, who is in charge of them, how to annul them and the way that the mitzvah is commanded is via Daber Moshe, that Moshe told over the law to the heads of the Israelite tribes, heads of the Israelite tribes Saying, seems like these Israelite heads of their tribes were to be in charge of this instruction, to help the Jews properly conduct their vows and oaths. And, as it was said, zehadovar, zehadovar, asher, tziva Hashem. This is the matter, this is what Hashem has commanded. So, for clarity's sake, let's reread that passage all together. Now, moses spoke to the heads of the Israelite tribes, saying that this is what Hashem has commanded. Pazuk Bez. All about oaths, all about the said laws, all about the promises and pledging pledges. But Rashi picks up on the fact. But Rashi picks up on the fact, firstly about why the mitzvah was conducted in such a way that it was said to Moshe to tell the heads of the tribes, and not just the regular way, that laws were assimilated throughout the Jewish rankings. But then next, rashi picks up on the fact that the Torah says Zehadovar, this is the thing that Hashem commanded. Moshe is telling the heads of the tribes. This is the thing. Very interesting, lashon, normally you just tell somebody what the thing is before you say that this is the thing, unless it is that you are pointing to something. But Rashi tells us, clarifies for us what it is that Moshe meant when he said this is the thing.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Moshe prophesizes in a matter of certain clarity. That he says so, said God. He has a certain level of clarity. When he says so, said God. He has a certain level of clarity when he prophesies. This is talking about when Moshe pledged that the Almighty would take the Jewish people out. So he said this same level of prophesying with the clarity level of Ko Amar Hashem. Also other prophets have that same Dargah, that same Madregah, that same level of prophecy as Moses. Rashi continues, but then Moshe takes the cake, then Moshe is far more superior in his prophecy Because, we see here, he also has a level, a darga, of being able to prophesize in such a manner of clarity that he can actually say the words.

Speaker 1: 3:59

This is the matter. Thus saith the Lord, this is the matter. Zehadovar, thus saith the Lord, this is the actual word that God hath spoken. That letter, that level of clarity in giving over the Dvar Hashem is something that is reserved only for Moshe Rabbeinu. We see here clearly two levels of prophecy, Two levels of clarity. There is the ko amar Hashem. Ko, so said God, a very indirect, but yet Well, we shouldn't say indirect, just a matter of clarity that is rather average. But then there's a higher level of clarity. When Moshe instructs the people of how he heard the message from God, then it's's a higher level of clarity. When Moshe instructs the people of how he heard the message from God, then it's Zehadovar. This is the actual word that God hath spoken. Zehadovar is a higher level of clarity than a koyamar Hashem, and this is not insignificant, the idea that ko is a darga, a level beneath Zehadovar, because the Ponevich of the great Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the great Rosh Yeshiva and Dean of the Ponevich Yeshiva, a man who is fiery, hot and passionate, with a heart on fire about serving Hashem and building Torah. He pointed to this yesoid the attribute and the clarity level of that of ko amar Hashem as an answer to his life's problems when he was asked how is it that he can continue to persevere when all of his family was wiped out in the Holocaust. He went through horrible suffering. He pointed to this idea of koyomar Hashem and he began by fregging the oylem akasha by asking a direct question, an inquiry if you will.

Speaker 1: 6:03

What makes the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, so special in Jewish literature? In Jewish wisdom, we find that the Akedah is there for us on the high holidays, to go to bat for us on our dark days when we're looking for Zichusim. The Akedah is referenced many, many times to be the very embodiment of faith in Hashem and the embodiment of overcoming challenges. But the Panovich Arav said it is not the only instance in which somebody gives up his life for Hashem. Avram's level of emunah, willing to maybe go past his own life and even sacrifice his child, that isn't something that stands as an individual occurrence in Judaism, but all of us know the amount of persecution that the Jews have endured? Hannah, don't you know the story of Hannah and the seven sons? How she was willing, really unwilling, to bow down to any idol. So her and her sons all died, al-kiddush Hashem, each one not willing to bend the knee in front of an idol. So she watched them all perish, literally going mad, insane from the amount of pain and torture that she had to endure to witness the death of her seven children. Yet that is not what we reference to be the embodiment of Kiddush Hashem or the embodiment of overcoming life's absolute horrible, torturous situations. We point to the Akedah as the trophy of all of these topics. And why, said the Panovich Aurov let's read the story. A very funny, rather unassuming, plain word that actually should stick out to you after his message and become something that you look for in all of your life. And it will really become, hopefully, the way that you see everything that comes your way in life.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Listen to what happened during the Akedah V'ayhi achar hadvaram. Ha'elav olehim niso'as, avroham v'ayomer e'lov, avroham v'ayomer hineni. Hashem says to Avram Go, take please, your son, your individual son, the one that you love His name is Yitzchak and go up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice, an offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you. So Avram woke up in the morning and he saddled his donkey and he took his two lads with him and Yitzchak, his son, and he split the wood for the offering and he set out for the place of which God had told him. And it was on the third day. On the third day, abraham looked up and he saw the place from afar. Pay attention here. Abraham looked up and he saw the place from afar. Vayoymer, avraham el Na'arav, pay attention here. And then Avraham said to his servants Shevu lochem po im hachamar, stay here with the donkey, va'ani, va'hanar and the boy and I, nelcha, we will go, we're going to go until and we will worship and we will return to you. We will go until.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Generally, we assume that it means we'll go up to there, just kind of referring to the said destination. But in Kina, number 13, we're going to say on Tisha B'Av, the entire Kina goes back and forth with a koi. A koi referencing the word koi, a beautiful, poetic sprach, where it cites so many different great individuals through the word of ko did great things, and it brings out how much the Jewish people are singular and how much we also have suffered. And in one of the stanzas the Baal Paiton, the author of the Kina, writes. He references this location called Koi and why Avram was driven to go there, with desire, as the very merit, the very essence of the Akedah, that Avram was willing to go until Koi it sounds like it's a place and that Avram went there and that's what makes the Akedah special that he said what is Ko? Where is this magical place? Or what is this magical place?

Speaker 1: 11:25

The Ponevicharov explained the aside. He said that Ko is a place unlike anything else. He said that ko is a place unlike anything else. Ko is a makim in the world, a makim of emunah, in which a person does not have total clarity. It's a mindset that I do not understand. How could it possibly be that God would want me to take the child that he told me, that he told me your future is all in Yitzchak and then the next day he wants me to send him to go hang out the angel of death? How is it that he wants me to send him to hang out the angel of death?

Speaker 1: 12:11

The entire Akedah narrative has so much uncertainty, so many ifs, from the fact that the Torah says go up to the. The way the Midrashim describe it, it was a very foggy mountain, a distant destination. Nothing was clear. It says that Hashem was talking and then there's an angel talking. There's this gnawing feeling of something isn't right about what Hashem wants me to do. Avram, he couldn't make sense of the whole situation. How could this be? What is the shot? Nothing is adding up. The entire binding of Isaac narrative is shrouded in a haze of fogginess. Of that nothing adds up. But that is it. Avram still decides to go. Avram still decides that the only calculation that I make is the Ratzon Hashem that he decides. I will still continue to persevere in all the uncertainty, without any calculation other than so said the word of God, and the word of God is his declaration of independence and his bill of rights, and everything that doesn't make sense is shelved or couched.

Speaker 1: 13:26

The Akedah is, unlike any other episode, or at least one of the Shpitz, one of the most prominent examples of when it is not merely a kiddush Hashem where you know you're right, although it is a terrible situation. So many times the Jewish people have to give up their life on kiddush Hashem. They know they're right and some of them dance to their deaths and that is a remarkable sacrifice. But they know that they're right and they know that Hashem is ready to welcome them in with a big hug and a smooch and give them the ultimate reward in the world to come. They have peace, but the Akedah is a level of it doesn't make sense in the sacrifice.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Does Hashem even want this? How could Hashem want this? Is the prophecy clear? Is it the angel talking? Kill Isaac, bind my future as a carbon ola and set it aflame. The Mesirah's nefesh, when one doesn't understand, but he still continues to only care that it's the ratan of Hashem, so therefore he goes through with it in all of its uncertainty. That's what it means. Let's go up there, let's go to ko. Remember our rashi from our parasha. Here it should all click into place.

Speaker 1: 14:53

There's two types of words in prophecy, in all clarity. There is the how Moshe and all prophets prophesized with the Koh Amar Hashem so said God around midnight, we're going to go out tomorrow. But then there's the Zehadover, that higher level. Only Moshe gets that superior type of clarity. But the godless and Amunah the Asoyt, for this week's podcast, the Ponevich Yeruv is telling us, and I heard it Beshame the Great, not Beshame, but actually from the Pekadosh of the Great Aaron Lopiansky.

Speaker 1: 15:28

The takeaway why is the Akedah uniquely singled out as the savior to Klal Yisrael in their darkest times? Why is it that we source our Zichusim and that's the great flowing well that saves the Jewish people over and over? Because, when it comes to Emunah and Hashem, because when it comes to Emunah and Hashem, the level that I can take my son to a place of no return, with no certainty, in a thick fog, and I don't understand it and I don't need to understand it, that is the highest level of faith that one can display and that's chus. On that day, in that moment, it lives forever. Faith, trust, belief, this entire concept, belief in God, it's really all that we have left the Gemara Mako. See it. I believe it's page 23 or 27.

Speaker 1: 16:33

You could say the whole Torah, summarize it, all of the great prophets, all of the Amorim. Summarizing Torah. You can get it down to 10 mitzvahs is what it's all about. It's down to one mitzvah. It's about that. A tzaddik lives in his faith and here we're learning a new faith. We're learning a new faith. We're learning a new dargah of faith.

Speaker 1: 16:58

There is a level where people try to make sense of things. They say I was late for the train, but you see, it all worked out. Great faith, fantastic. They live with a smile and their life is full of bliss and happiness. They're doing a great thing. You hear all the great stories about the man who was held up getting his pants tailored and he missed the train and he never made it to the World Trade Center that day and he was saved. It all worked out Unbelievable, unbelievable. But there's a higher level than all of that. It's to live and go to Koi. I don't have a shot. I don't understand. Why is God doing this? Nothing adds up. Why would the innocent perish? Why would evil reign? I don't have a shot. That's the highest level of faith.

Speaker 1: 18:03

In all of our modern contemporary issues we constantly hear oh, it all makes sense, it all ended up working out for the better. That's not the highest level of faith. You see, trump got elected and he's friends with Netanyahu and it's going to be Mashiach and that's all good and well and hopefully it'll happen. But up-taiching, clarifying, trying to farshteh, trying to understand the rationale of Hashem's decisions, it's not always possible. In fact, I'd argue it's way better to hang out on the highest level of faith, which is I don't understand and I can't understand.

Speaker 1: 18:49

How am I supposed to understand the infinite one? I'm passionate about this yisod because it's helped me a lot. It's given me a lot of peace. Peace because I have lots of questions. A lot of my friends suffer, people far better than I, folks sweeter, kinder, more learned than I suffer. I have best friends, best friends that are perfect Jews that I can't understand. Why Hashem would make their three-month-old child stop breathing or make another one's heart simply not work. Why would Hashem not grant some of the holiest Jews children? These are gnawing, agonizing questions that I don't have a shot for. And if we seek to find a pshat, we'll go down a dark hole that will never end.

Speaker 1: 20:06

But the highest level of faith in what gives me peace, in a way that is far from peace, is that I don't need to know pshat. Ko yeh zarecha Neolcha adko. I don't know God's ways. I don't pretend to know God's ways, I don't even attempt to calculate the rationale. In God's ways I live. We should all strive to live in ko Neolcha adko, because da shtet, this is what God said I live. We should all strive to live in ko Neochad ko, because da shtet. This is what God said and that is our clarion call In times of war, how can we possibly give a pshat, give an understanding, a very basic pshat, in so many of the things that continue to go on, innocent death and cruel victories? But on our gloomiest day, of course, the Python talks about ko Ko, melchad ko, because this is the top level, the top rung, top shelf faith.

Speaker 1: 21:31

And moving into more of the end of the podcast, a rant version, you have to be careful when we read advertisements or different promises of what Hashem will do for us if you do this, chus, that's trash. One cannot know God's will and cannot force God's hand. We believe that we do the divine will, the best that we can, to fulfill what is asked of us, and we live with the results. And we don't just live with them. We travel to go and accept that uncertainty, because it's all that we have, because it's what Hashem wants us to live with, and he wants us to have that unbreakable faith that you can now stand strong in all of the darkness, in all of the fogginess, in all of the haziness, and you can still triumphantly march up the mountain of Moriah and go to Koh. Maybe this was even a hidden agenda, a hidden part of when Hashem promised Avram, go outside, see the stars, and Koh Yiez, arecha ko, will be your children. Maybe that's hinted to in a deeper message in that Pasek. But this is our Yesod.

Speaker 1: 22:47

You don't need to explain things. To have Emunah, you don't need to say that, look how it all worked out. To have Emunah, the highest level of Emunah is akedah-like faith. It's the way, not that Moshe prophesied, which is in the ultimate clarity, the top level of faith, when you can say Zehadover, this is the matter of the vow but rather a little bit of uncertainty, a little bit of ambiguity, a little bit of clarity, a little bit of haziness. Ako yezarecha, ako yomar Hashem. So said God. That is the ultimate faith.

Speaker 1: 23:27

That is what the Rav Ponovich said is how he continues to march on through treacherous, miserable, treacherous, miserable, tremendously agonizing and painful experiences in life. Because you don't need to give up shot. You simply go to co and you learn that, even though I don't understand, I can be like Avraham Avinu, and I will be like Avraham Avinu that I will welcome the uncertainty. I will be proud, avram Avinu, and I will be like Avram Avinu that I will welcome the uncertainty. I will be proud to be a Jew in all of the situations and I will choose to make the ultimate kid, this Hashem that I love, living in the fog, because Hashem's word is my life, it is my calling, word is my life, it is my calling, in total, total conclusion, a total final call to action. Go to co Live, not needing to explain everything Hashem does, but welcome it all with peace and happiness, like Avram did, knowing that you're making the ultimate kiddush Hashem. Even though you don't understand, you have the utmost faith and trust in the Almighty.