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Torah · 1:49:49

A Shocking Torah Story That Explains Human Pain - Parshat Emor - Rabbi YY Jacobson

6.2K views · Apr 30, 2026

Rabbi YY Jacobson

An analysis of a difficult Torah story involving anger, pain, and the deeper meaning behind human suffering.

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

What we're going to be addressing today is a very uh painful and actually startling story that we encounter in paras at the end of the para and it comes completely unexpected. It jumps out on you unexpectedly. It's not something that emerges it would seem from the previous stories from the context. It's not a collective rebellion or defiance as a result of despair or fear or dread. It's a story of one person, one individual whom we never heard of. And it doesn't seem to belong to the narrative, to the continuation of the narrative. At first glance, it's just one of these stories. You know, it's very dramatic, perplexing, painful, does not have a happy ending. When you dig a little deeper, you start unraveling layers of significance on many different levels and a story emerges that can be easily glossed over when you just read it swiftly. And then what also emerges is a very powerful and timeless uh lesson for life even millennia later. So let's let's go on this journey and I'll ask Hashem to allow me to be a channel to be able to channel some of the infinite wisdom and love and empowerment contained here. The Rambam writes very famously in his commentary on Mishnayas that there's no difference in holiness and in depth and in meaning between the words and the words which are probably three very unknown words. Most of you know where that is from, right? is the opening of what about [snorts] Timna? The sister of Lon's name was Timna. Who knows where that is? Huh? You remember? >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's in parish in the genealogy of Asov's family. So the

Jump to a moment

  1. 0:01What we're going to be addressing today is a very uh painful and actually startling story…
  2. 6:48quarrel, a conflict in the camp. Ben is the son of this Israelite woman Israeli and…
  3. 13:01He adds one word who of course we're talking about who we didn't change the subject…
  4. 19:13father's flock. They're being harassed by the shepherds. Mosher Rabenu stands up for these girls he…
  5. 25:24years old or give or take a few years. When he was 80 he liberated the…
  6. 31:40English. But I get it. He started to laugh and mock and say, "Every Shabas you…
  7. 37:19Uh, he stood up and he cursed God. So Yatsa, where did he come out from?…
  8. 43:30came out to see his brothers and he saw him beating a Jew. Why was he…
  9. 49:46in Italy. And he has a commentary on fascinating called and he says so something more…
  10. 55:56or at least a private jet or a yacht. If not at least a tablet if…

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