Shalom everyone and welcome to our study of Parashat Tsav, the second parsha in Sefra Vaika. What I would like to do today to learn with you and to share with you some ideas about a very specific korban, a very specific sacrifice, which is Qurban Toda, Thanksgiving offering, which is part of the family of the peace offering. As we know, there are many different types of sacrifices: guilt sacrifice, a sin sacrifice, an elevation offering, and all different types of sacrifices, and today we would try to delve into the idea behind Kurban Todah, Thanksgiving offering. So the Torah in Vaikra in Leviticus chapter 7 says the following. And this is the Torah, or really, this is the instructions of Zevachashlamim, the peace offering that you bring to Hashem. If you bring it as a Thanksgiving offering, so you need to bring this thanksgiving offering, you need to bring, which means bread and matzah, deep in oil, which means you need to bring bread, like matzah together. And when you look at the amount of how much do you need to bring, which means the Torah instructs us with what to bring and how much time do I have to eat it? Basically, Thanksgiving offering, you need to bring an animal, and you need to bring 40 loaves of bread. Can you imagine that? And how much time do I have to finish it up? Meat, 40 loaves of bread, I have what? One night. From the minute I bring it, I have all day long the night, and in the next morning, if I didn't finish it, it's become notar. What is notar? Notar means that it's something that we shouldn't do. It's a leftover, and this leftover needs to be burnt, and it's not something that we would like to do. And the Torah says, You shouldn't leave any leftovers for the next morning. So when we look at Thanksgiving offering, we obviously need to ask ourselves a few questions. The first question is who should bring Thanksgiving offering? Who are the people who should bring it? B, what can we learn about this Thanksgiving offering from the content, which means from the meat that we need to bring and the extreme amount of bread that needs to escort, that needs to be brought with the meat? And the third question is if you have so much food, why does the Torah give you only short, limited time to finish it up? In a way, we would expect the Torah to give us two days, three days to finish it up, in order not to violate the prohibition of notar, the leftover. So basically we have three main questions. Who should bring Thanksgiving offering? What can we learn from whatever we need to bring? The bread, the meat, the bread, which means the kala and the matz together. And the third question is why such a short time? So let's see what our commentators have to say about it. The Gmarah, the Babylonian Talmud in Brachot, page 54b, says the following. So Rav Yuda says in the name of Rav, who was at the beginning of the third century. There are four types of people who need to say thank you, and not only to say thank you, they need to bring the Thanksgiving offering. Who are they? Someone who was sick, he got ill, and then he was able to recover. And someone who was imprisoned, who was captured, and who was thrown into prison, and he was able to what? To release himself from prison, how he was released by someone else. So let's take a look at these four types of groups that need to bring the Thanksgiving offering. By the way, as a side note, the idea of birkat hagomel, that you hear many people get an aliyah to the Torah, or even if they don't receive an aliyah and they say hagomel, which means they are thanking God for redeeming them, saving them from a trouble or injury. So what do we have here according to the Babylonian Talmud? We have four types of group of groups of people that experience some kind of danger, risk to their lives. And after they went through that experience, they need to bring a Thanksgiving offering to recognize and to proclaim their appreciation and the fact that they are so grateful to Hashem for what he did to them, which means that he saved them. Now, Yurdaya, the sailors, so obviously we are talking about a dangerous place, the ocean. There are storms, and those sailors they can tell you how difficult it is to go through that storm and to get out of it. And many times it's just a miracle. So they need, when they come back to land, they need to bring a thanksgiving offering. People who journeyed and they found themselves in a desert, not knowing where to go, what to do, and somehow they found the path to get out of the desert. So they need to what? To bring a thanksgiving offering. Someone who was sick, and I'm not talking just about a flu, I mean someone who was really sick and then he was able to recover, which was with the help of doctors and obviously God's help, he needs to say he needs to bring a Thanksgiving offering. And the last one is someone who was imprisoned and then he was released, that he also needs to bring a Thanksgiving offering. When you look at these four groups, you see that there are few things that are very similar to each other. However, there are certain things that basically are very unique for each group. For example, obviously the common denominator between all those groups that they went through a risky time, a dangerous time, and they were saved. So that's obviously the common denominator. And we all believe that they were saved because God's intervention. So that's another common denominator. However, there are some differences. For example, someone who got sick and recovered, it's quote unquote all by God. However, if someone is a sailor, that's his job. So you see that sometimes people got into a dangerous situation, some of it was a matter of choice, and some of it was a matter of reality, I will call it, which means we don't know why, but that person became sick. Someone who was imprisoned might be sometimes even for his own fault, and sometimes it's not. So we see that each group has its unique character, but at the same time, the common denominator, which is really the most important thing for us for this class, is you were saved from a dangerous situation, you need to bring a Thanksgiving offering. So we really addressed our first question: Who are the people who must bring a Thanksgiving offering? The group of Yordeyaam, the sailors, the people who go on a journey, the people who got sick and recovered, and the people who were in prison and they were released. Now, let's try to address our second question. What can we learn about Korban Toda? Rebashim Shun Rafael Hirsch offered the following suggestion or the following idea. If you bring a Thanksgiving offering which is under the category of peace offering, Din Kurban Shlamim Kvarnit Baerlael. Says we already explained the peace offering. Now we need to understand the thanksgiving offering. So again, there is the peace offering, which is like the family of the peace offering. This is that category, and subcategory is thanksgiving offering. This is a person who requests or seeks wants, desires, closeness to Hashem from a situation of shlemut, of completeness, wholesomeness. Here this verse opens with a thanksgiving offering. There are two types of reaching, I will call it Shlemut, wholesomeness. One is korban shlamim, the original one. A person looks at his family, he looks at his friends, at his job, and he says, Baruch Hashem. Thanks God. I want to do also something nice to express my thanksgiving to you. So I'm going to bring a peace offering. This person who brings this peace offering, he doesn't do it because he felt pain, sorrow. He just really appreciates what God bestows upon him. This person is bringing a Thanksgiving offering only after he experienced the lack of wholesomeness. He or she felt that they are about to die. If they were sailors in the ocean, or if they lost their way in the desert, or if they were sick and then they recovered, or they were in prison. They were captured and then they were released. Basically, they went through an affliction. They went through a time of sorrow and pain, which now, after they are out of it, they reach the level of Shlemut. But they had to go through this little journey of affliction. So the thanksgiving offering, says Rapshim Shonaphaliers, is part of this category of peace offering, of feeling this wholesomeness, but this wholesomeness came with some pain, with concerns, with fears, with uncertainty. If you look at the first line, it says, This is the general rule, this is the general commandment if you bring a peace offering, A. B, if you bring it. Now, hold on. There is an obvious question that we must ask. Because Rapsim Shonpha Leosh asked that question. He doesn't say it, but he does. What's the question? Rapshim Shon Nepha Leosh tried to tell us that Thanksgiving offering is part of peace offering. He's trying to basically drill it in our mind that it's not a separate sacrifice. It's part of the peace offering. Why would I think that the Thanksgiving offering is perhaps a separate Qurban or maybe it's under someone else's category, maybe sin offering, or maybe a guilt offering, or maybe elevation offering. Why would I think that it's not part of peace offering? And I would like to suggest to you that that what Rapshim Shal Ephail here is trying to convey to us. The question is not what's the end result, but rather the journey, the process together. And what do I mean by that? As I mentioned before, the regular peace offering comes out of recognition of God's blessings that will bestow upon me. Everything is great, everything is wonderful. And I just want to say, God, I'm in such peace, and I appreciate what you gave me. So I want to bring a peace offering. A thanksgiving offering comes only after I experienced pain. How do I view pain? How do I view afflictions, sorrow, tsarot, troubles? Do I view them as a result of a sin that I did? It's a punishment. And therefore I will think that the thanksgiving offering maybe should be under the category of what? Of a sin offering, a guilt offering. This is what Rapshim Shonaphal Yosh is trying to teach us. Don't think that the affliction that goes through your life is because of something bad that you did. It might, but it's not necessarily true. Don't play God. Don't say, oh, I was captured, or I was sick, or I was almost drowned in the ocean. It's because something bad that I did. Don't think about your life like that. It's depressing. And also, it's not true. Who can tell you why exactly something happened to you? Says Raphshim Shurayosh, look at the Thanksgiving offering as an opportunity for wholesomeness, for reaching God. Yes, it's true. You were afflicted. Yes, it's true you went through pain. Yes, it's true you had sorrows. Yes, it's true it was painful. But don't look only on the time of affliction. Look at the end result. God saved you. And now it's your turn to come close to Hashem. Therefore, bring the thanksgiving offering, which is part of the peace offering. It's part of saying to Hashem, thank you, God. Thank you, Hashem, for saving me. In a way, thank you, God, for even taking me through this shadow, this is valley of death, and bringing me out of this valley of death to life, to my family, to my friends, to my society, so I can serve you, God, now. I think that there is a tremendous psychological idea and insight that Rapshim Shan Rafael Hirsch is trying to tell us. We all go through rough patches in our lives. We all go through affliction, sorrow, pain, challenges. Don't be stuck there. Don't dwell on the sorrow and the pain. Focus on what? On your future. On what kind of relationship you can forge now and you can form and shape now between you and God. Bring a Thanksgiving offering. Yes, the Thanksgiving offering is something I had to go through some pain to bring it. But the end result? There is a peace offering. So according to Rapshim Shon Rafal Hirsch, I think it's so meaningful. We all go through painful times in our lives, individually, definitely on a national level. But the salvation, the fact that God saves us, should bring us to the level of bringing a thanksgiving offering, a peace offering. It's not a sin offering. We look towards the future. So that's Raph Shimson Rafael Hirsch. Ravovalia Svorno, a 16th-century Italian commentator, has a different focus on Corbanto Da. And he says the following. You don't need to bring it into the holy of the holiest. You can basically bring it into the uh into the grounds of the mikdash and eat it there. Mikolmakom Yesh Khiluk Benem. However, there is a difference between the different types of the peace offerings. That if you bring a peace offering, it's a thanksgiving offering. You must bring chemetz unleavened bread. Now, hold on for a second. There is something very interesting. The Torah commends us regarding the Kobanot. That you should not bring yeast, which means that you should not bring unleavened bread into the beta migdash. You should not bring Khametz. So how come that in the Thanksgiving offering we are commanded to bring Khametz? There is one more sacrifice as a side note that we do bring Khamets. That's when we bring the Qurban on Shavuot. And there is a reason for that. Maybe we'll keep it for a later time. So Rabbu Vadiya Sfono says, you know, the Thanksgiving offering is part of Qurban Shlamim, it's part of this category of peace offering, but it's different. There, there is a demand, there is a requirement. You need to bring Hametz. Why is it? Sfono suggests the following idea. So he says, unlike Rapshim Shal Rafael Hirsch, he says the reason for the sakana, the reason for the danger, the experience of danger that one of those four types of groups had to go through, it's because of that yeast in the dough. The yeast in the dough is basically symbolism. For what? For yet, for the evil inclination. So how does that fit into the Thanksgiving offering? Says this for Mako Mineham Matsotra Botalav. This forno is very short, but it's so insightful. This phono says the following. Hi, we are not allowed to bring it. No, here you are commanded to bring it. What's the reason? The reason is that this unleavened bread, this chametz, symbolizes the evil inclination, the yetzerara. So you bring the yetzerara into the Thanksgiving offering. However, in terms of the ratio, you have a little bit of yetzerara, a little bit of chametz, a little bit of this unleavened bread, but the majority are the matzot. But it's not chametz. To show what? I think it's incredible. Rabovadias Fono says, in life, we have from time to time Yetzerara. Yes, we have evil inclination. Yes, we do things that sometimes we have regrets on, sometimes we are sorry. Sometimes, you know what? We are even being punished for. But don't look at your life only through the prism of yetzerara, the evil inclination, and the bad things that you do. Look at your life as a thanksgiving offering. There is a little bit of yetzerara, but there is a lot of good. This experience that I went through as a sailor, as someone who got sick and recovered, as someone who was captured and released, as someone who lost his way in the desert. Yes, that was a part of a yetzerra, that was an unfortunate event. Don't view your life as an unfortunate event. Your life is full, is filled with good, with blessings. In a way, it's like almost the pessimistic versus the optimistic. Svono says, be a realistic. Yes, there are certain times in my life that I will have yetzalallah, that I will have seosheebissa. It will lead me to places that I don't want to be there. But sometimes I can't have control. I lost, I failed. But when you look at your life, you are not a failure. You failed does not mean you are a disaster. Does not mean that now you need to be depressed. Exactly the opposite. Bring the thanksgiving offering, which is part of the peace offering. Understand that wholesomeness, completeness, perfection, you need to have both. You have yetserara, you just need to make sure that you have more yetzertov than yetzerara. So this is the idea of the chametz in the thanksgiving offering, according to the Sphono. But then he adds another component. And he says, and because you have so much food, you need to bring a lot of guests. So you will basically tell them about what happened to you and how God saved you and how God helped you, the kulam ne chalim bizman koche ako dashim, and the time limit for the Thanksgiving offering, it's like the time that is given to the sacrifices that are the most holy ones, which is what? Day and night, and that's it. So take a look at what's going on here. On one hand, it's the most social sacrifice. You bring all your friends in order to help you out to finish the food and to proclaim the miracle, and at the same time, it elevates the sacrifice into what? Kodesh Kodashim, the holy of the holiest, which means you reach wholesomeness, completeness through an unfortunate event that is related to this Yetzera, but you can overcome it. How? By viewing yourself as not an evil person. Yes, something happened. Yes, not everything went exactly based on your plan. But it doesn't mean that your life is over, it doesn't mean that you are a failure. It means that you might need to work a little harder in order to reach Corban Shlamim, in order to reach a peace offering. Rabitzhak Donna Barbanel, the Spanish commentator, who lived in Spain before the expulsion, says the following. He says that there are basically 40 loaves of bread and 60. No, it will be really 75% of them is matzah and 25% of them is chamets. It's to teach you, and this is a beautiful barbanel. It all depends on your perspective. Some people go through some rough times and situations in their lives and then they become very pessimistic. They look at the world through their pain. What I'm saying is not, God forbid, passing judgment, but rather it's to encourage us to have perhaps a different perspective. Everyone goes through some pain in his life. For some it's unbearable. For some it's a little bit more bearable. But the main question that everyone needs to ask himself is what do I do with this unfortunate event that occurred to me? What do I do with the pain that basically took over me? What do I do with this affliction that I just went through? Do I look at the world now in a very pessimistic way? In a very painful way, and I don't see any future, any hope, any light at all? I look at that as a korban to da. Yes, there is a 25% bad, but there is a 75% good. The majority of people are good people. Sometimes they don't know that. The majority of the things that happen to me are blessings. And even this unfortunate event, I was saved. What do I need to learn from that? Many things. But I need to know that life is not a Hollywood movie. Life is not everything is perfect because that's not true. Life is a mixture of good and bad. Everyone here who lives life understands it. Some people have a little bit more of the blessings, and some people have a little bit less of the blessings. But overall, life is good. And life can be even better. And then the barbanel continues and says, So now when I need to bring this Thanksgiving offering and I see that I have a limited time, I need to finish it up in 24 hours. Sometimes it's even less, but not more. I need to invite everyone. I'm going to invite all my friends, even those who are not my friends. I'm going to invite to this mealuse. And they will ask him, Mr. So-and-so, Mrs. So-and-so, why are you inviting us for this wonderful meal with so much food? What do you want to share with us? He says, so he will share with them the miracle that took place, that the miracle that happened to him, and everyone will praise God. So what do you accomplish by that? You accomplish by that two different distinct goals. One is obviously to proclaim and to share with the public the miracle that happened to me. So obviously, it's the awesomeness of God, God's salvation, God's care about me. But also there is a second goal. The second goal is to educate as many people as you can that life is good. That yes, it's true. Bad things happened to me. To me. I'm sharing it with you. I was in danger. I almost drowned in the ocean, and you will never see me again. I was captured and I was so hopeless. But this is part of my life. And now I'm here to share with you my miracle and to share with you my insight to life. Life is complicated. Life is a mixture of good and bad, but don't view life only through bad, only through a very pessimistic perspective. It's not good, it's not healthy, it leads you nowhere. It leads you to depression, to dark places. Bring the people, bring as many people as you can, finish up this food in one day. So everyone recognize, internalize the idea of what is the better perspective on life. Because if this Thanksgiving offering, you could eat it for two days and a night, which means it's like almost 48 hours. Now, if you will not, you will need to burn it. And everyone will look at your neighborhood, looking at you, burning so much meat and bread, people would think that you are out of your mind. Why would you burn so much food? Therefore, in order not to be viewed by the people so foolish, so the Torah says you have less than 24 hours. Invite the entire neighborhood to the dinner and share with them what God did to you. The pain, the sorrow, but also the miracle, the joy, the happiness. So now let's try to understand the meaning of the Thanksgiving offering. The Thanksgiving offering is basically aimed for four groups of people. The sailors, the people who lost their way in the desert, the people who were ill and recovered, and for the people who were captured and were released. The common denominator, they went through a difficult time in their life. They thought that that's the end of it. They were hopeless. There was no hope of future for them, and then suddenly they came back to life. They rejoined society. They received a second opportunity to be productive, to create a future, to shape their destiny. So what kind of a Thanksgiving offering is that? Is that a sin offering? Do they need to bring a sin offering? Maybe they were punished. So the commentators basically go against it and says, no, don't play with this punishment. God forbid, who are we to determine that someone was sick because he did, he or she did something wrong? Don't view life like that. View it, yes, there was a time of challenge in your life. I don't know why. Yes, I need to try to find and learn lessons. I need to change my life, but I shouldn't blame myself. There is a world of difference between these two perspectives. We are talking about viewing a situation, knowing that I went through something difficult in my life, a challenging time in my life, but now I'm here. I was saved. So for me, it's a Thanksgiving offering. It's a second opportunity to come closer to Hashem. It's part of a peace offering. I view life not through misery and pain. I view life via opportunity. A crisis, a challenge, can be an opportunity for me. To not only internalize it by myself that I have a second chance, but also to spread that lesson to everyone else. And therefore, I bring chamets, I understand that there is chamets, I understand that there is evil inclination, I understand that there is pain in the world, but 75% of my life is good. It's optimistic. There is future, there is light at the end of the tunnel. And I don't want to keep this lesson only for myself. I'm going to share it with others. I hope that this idea of the Thanksgiving offering, especially after everything we went through, will be a tremendous lesson for us. The world will be transformed into a better place. And we are in the forefront of that journey. Thank you.