B"H

Thursday, Tammuz 22, 5778 / July 5, 2018

This week's Parsha, Pinchas, takes place as the Jewish people were getting ready to enter into the Promised Land after spending 40 years in the desert.

In the Parsha, Moshe asks G-d to appoint a leader over the Jewish people; "A leader who will go out before them and who will come in before them; one who will lead them out and who shall bring them in; so that the congregation of the L-rd will not be as sheep which have no shepherd."

G-d then commands Moshe to place his hands on Joshua (Yehoshua), "And you shall put from your honor on him, and he shall lead the Jewish people and bring them into the land."

Our sages compare Moshe to the sun and Joshua to the moon. While they were both great luminary figures, Moshe was greater than Yehoshua.  Also, just as the brightness of the moon is a reflection of the sun, so too, Joshua's powers were bestowed upon him by his master, Moshe.

The story is told of ten Hungarian rabbis who had been summoned to the royal palace to discuss issues involving Jewish community matters. The ten rabbis came from different parts of the country and some of them had not seen each other before. Before the formal meeting with the ministers, they decided to appoint one rabbi as their formal spokesman.

All of the rabbis were prominent figures and great Torah scholars. At the same time, they were very humble so each one tried to appoint someone else for this task.

One of the rabbis was Rabbi Yehuda Assad, a noted Torah scholar. Pointing to a rabbi along the side of the room, he said, "I nominate this one, whom I'm seeing now for the first time. From his face I can see that he is very wise. I'm sure he will make a favorable impression on the ministers."

The rabbis turned to the figure to which he was pointing to and were amused. The walls were completely covered with mirrors, and Rabbi Yehuda had been pointing to the one figure he had never seen before... himself! Rabbi Yehuda Assad never looked in a mirror before and had no idea that he was looking at himself.

"Agreed!  We all agree," responded the other rabbis. Rabbi Yehuda Assad couldn't refuse and he successfully led the group.

Although Moshe himself didn’t lead the people into Israel, yet he found consolation in the fact that it was his most trusted student, Joshua, who brought the Jewish people into the Promised Land. For just as the brightness of the moon is a reflection of the sun, so too, Joshua's leadership was a reflection of Moshe. To quote our sages, “As long as Joshua was alive it was as if Moshe lived.”

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY