Rav berel wein: naso 5779

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Berel Wein’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

One of the more sophisticated aspects of the mitzvahs of the Torah is that the Torah often allows or even commands behavior but that in essence and in the background the Torah does not approve of it. We find that example for instance by Yefas Toar. Yefas Toar. That in battle a Jewish soldier sees a non-Jewish woman and he wants her and he lives with her and the Torah provides a whole ritual and a whole set of circumstances but in effect the Torah tells him it's not a good idea. And so therefore the Talmud says "Lo dibur Torah al ken neged yetzer hara." yetzer hara." The Torah so to speak makes allowances for human frailties. But the wise human being would be cognizant enough to avoid it. It's like we'll see in a minute you know you don't tell a someone who is prone to alcoholism that he should take a job in a bar. So even though there's no issue right? So even though there's no issue right? But it's not a smart thing to do. So in this week's parsha of Naso we have the parsha of Nazir. The Torah describes a Nazir. So a Nazir is someone who takes upon himself vows. Uh two types of Nazir. There's the regular Nazir who is only bound to those vows for 30 days. bound to those vows for 30 days. And then there's a Nazir Olam. That's someone who was a Nazir one's entire life. As we find in Tanakh, Shimshon and Shmuel and that they were Nazirite. And uh the Torah prohibits the Nazir from drinking wine, uh from becoming impure. Uh there are a whole set of restrictions on a Nazir.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:04One of the more sophisticated aspects of the mitzvahs of the Torah is that the Torah…
2. 1:39So even though there's no issue right? But it's not a smart thing to do. So…
3. 3:09Tovol Oseif Alayhem, and you want to you're you're frummer than that. Because uh we all…
4. 4:42And the other view is uh that you shouldn't ever have done it, and the the…
5. 6:15the human psychology is so uh perverse uh no one knows it. You say, "You don't…
6. 7:46he had to accept upon himself the vows of the Nazirites. So, Shimon HaTzaddik said that…
7. 9:20the mere fact that one doesn't take a haircut doesn't save one from other temptations and…
8. 10:52who all were Nazirites and who remained celibate. And they lived in caves in the Judean…
9. 12:26It's against human nature. So, in the Lithuania, the Jews used to say my rabbi always…
10. 14:00somewhere else. And, uh this, uh was a, uh social issue in the 19th century. It…

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