The Dangers of Partisan Thinking — Parshas Pinchas

What’s said in this shiur

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

I don't like political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected. We're going to talk about politics today. Especially partisan politics. You know, it seems like today everything's so polarized. Everyone's so extreme. Everyone's opinions are the most extreme version of the possible position on the issue to the extent where it's it becomes impossible for there to be any compromise or even any real intelligent discourse about issues because it's all about us and them. It's about teams. And it becomes almost as if it's not the issues that we're discussing, but you know, the letter R or the letter D as it were. So, we can always find guidance for everything in every time and every place in the holy Torah. So, let's look in this week's parsha. Parsha's Pinchas. And there's a an episode that occurs with the daughters of Tzelafchad. B'not Tzelafchad. By the way, do you know the name of the father of the B'not Tzelafchad? It's not a trick question. Tzelafchad. And if you remember Tzelafchad, this is germane to the discussion here, but from a few weeks ago, he was the Some say, Rabbi Akiva says, he was the Mekoshesh Eitzim. Remember the wood gatherer that they found gathering wood on Shabbos after the the Meraglim, after the spies, someone went out and they gathered wood on Shabbos and they were executed for it. That was that was Tzelafchad. At any rate, so um this week's parsha, the B'not Tzelafchad, there were uh five of them. They come to Moshe with an issue. We have just been introduced to the laws of Nachalot, of inheritance. That means divvying up the territories of the land of Israel according to tribes. And it was done uh based on population.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:03I don't like political jokes. I've seen too many of them get elected. We're going to…
2. 1:36it. That was that was Tzelafchad. At any rate, so um this week's parsha, the B'not…
3. 3:37we're having right now. The The daughters of Tzelafchad are saying, "And that's why we're coming…
4. 5:08The animal is sham and May sure lay mirror and then a sham said to May…
5. 7:09the money." At any rate, shochad makes a person go blind, meaning blind from judgment. Obviously,…
6. 9:13both for those who are learning three perakim a day and those who are learning one…
7. 10:48I cannot be one of the judges on your case. Whatever your case is, you're going…
8. 12:53based on issues, it's not possible that one party platform is 100% right and the other…
9. 14:26It was 39 years later. This is 39 years since Korach's breakaway. And and and there…
10. 16:27you can't get objectivity. It's good we call it confirmation bias. We just keep seeing more…

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