Parshas
Pinchas and The Three Weeks
“The Temple Sacrifices of Today”
Transcribed
and translated from previous recordings of
HaRav
Eliezer Berland Shlit”a
“’Master of the World, when the holy
Temple was around if a person sinned he brought a sacrifice and was forgiven,
but now that there is no Temple what will be the sinners?!’ The Holy One
answered ‘I have already established for them all of the Karbanos prayers,
whenever a person says them I consider it as if they brought a sacrifice before
me and I forgive them for their sins’” (megilla 31b)
When a person recites the “korbanos” they
must imagine the Beis Hamikdash right before their eyes, as though it were
there in reality. It is there! It was never burned down! It was not destroyed! The
Beis Hamikdash is right in front of our eyes! Nothing has been burnt, nothing!
The burning of the Beis Hamikdash was only an illusion. It was staged purely
for the sake of the nations! As it says in “Asarah Maamaros”, that in the time
of the Churban Beis Hamikdash, Ruchos and Sheidim (demons, spirits)
came and brought stones with them! “Burnt avnei Sid” (stones of sid, in
Hebrew can be read Sheid), they brought burnt stones and planted them in
the Beis Hamikdash, all for the sake of tricking the goyim so they would be
satisfied (to think they had succeeded). The Zohar Hakadosh says (Shmos, Pekudei, 240b) that the stones and foundation of the first and
second Beis Hamikdash are all still there and shining though they are hidden
away. They have all been hidden! They Beis Hamikdash was not harmed in the
slightest! Not even one stone was lost! Not one stone from the stones of
Yerushalayim has been lost; not of Yerushalayim of the first Beis Hamikdash nor
from Yerushalayim of the second Beis Hamikdash. Everything is in place! “For
they will see the return of Hashem eye to eye…” When the Geula takes
place, all will see that the goyim never destroyed even one wall! The only
thing the goyim destroyed were those stones brought by the Ruchos and Sheidim.
Everyone will see that it was all just an illusion. This is why the “Emek
Hamelch” says about the Gemara, “I heard that korbanos are being offered even
though there is no Beis Mikdash” (Megilla 10:1), He says, Know this! The
service of the korbanos continues! The Beis Hamikdash exists! The korbanos
exist! The service in the Beis Hamikdash continues! Eliyahu Hanavi sacrifices
korbanos in the Beis Hamikdash! The Malach Gavriel sacrifices korbanos in the
Beis Hamikdash! It is told about the Baal Shem Tov that he once saw Eliyahu
Hanavi buying sheep for Avodas Beis Hamikdash. When we say “Korbanos” in the
morning, we are giving power to Eliyahu Hanavi and the Malach Michael, who are
currently the Kohanim gedolim, to continue their service in the Beis
Hamikdash. By saying the “Korbanos” we are literally taking part in the service
of the Beis Hamikdash. As soon as we begin our tefilla in the morning the
Kohanim begin their service of offering korbanos. The Kohanim begin their avodah!
They light the Chatas and the Tamid… When we say “Korbanos”
Eliyahu Hanavi and the Malach Michael get their koach to continue their
service with the korbanos.
When a person sins he causes tuma’a
(impurity) to spread. That tuma’a reaches the even shtiya! It
goes right up to the Beis Hamikdash! Such impurity leads to the destruction of
the Beis Hamikdash! This is why we say in the Korbanos, “And their blood
required sprinkling between the staves, upon the veil and the Golden altar.”
The tuma’a reached all the way “between the staves”! Right up to the Paroches!
Finally, it burned the Beis Hamikdash.
“And their blood required sprinkling,
upon the veil and the Golden altar.” Why is there no Paroches? Why is
there no Golden Mizbeach? This is because we are continuing to defile the
Beis Hamikdash. No sooner does the person sin than he has already defiled
everything! There is no Golden Mizbeach! No Mizbach Ha’Olah! No Azaros!
Nothing! Therefore, when a man recites the “Korbanos”, he must have the
intention that he is saying Korbanos for his own misdeeds! “Cows that are
burning and goats that are burning…” I deserve to burn! I am
those burning cows! The whole inyan (point) of the korbanos is in order
to surrender the beastliness within ourselves. We burn the beast and shecht
it. When we mention, in the Korbanos, the part about the shechita and
the sreifa… it is I being burnt; I am being shechted. The Rebbe
writes in the Tora about “And he slaughtered him ‘al yerech hamizbeach’,
North, before Hashem…”, when we say “and he slaughtered him,” we must feel that
it is we who are being slaughtered! The person is being shechted for all
of his aveiros and he must accept upon himself the four mitos Beis
Din (high court penalties of death): Skila, sreifa, hereg and
chenek. When he intends this to be for himself, then all of his aveiros
are forgiven. Tana Dvei Eliyahu says, “whether it be a Jew or whether a goy
– even a goy who recites the possuk, “and he slaughtered it on
the Northern side of the Mizbeach,” (with the proper kavanah), all
of his sins will be forgiven. When you say, “Hapshat Nituach, klil
la’ishim, skinning and dissecting completely for the fire” you must have
in mind that everything is said about yourself! When the Chatas is set
alight and the Tamid is being skinned – this is all happening to me! I
am being skinned! I am being cut into pieces! I am being burned! The korbanos
of Asham, Todah, Shelamim, etc., it is all happening to
me. They are burning me, cutting me and spraying my blood. When we say
“Korbanos”, all of the klipos - shells crack. The shells surrounding the
olam ha’asiyah crack and fall; everything is atoned! You must be sure to
recite the korbanos slowly and with a lot of messirus nefesh (self-sacrifice).
When the person recites Korbanos, he is cracking apart the klipos he has
created! Just as in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, the Tamid offering
in the morning atoned for the aveiros of nighttime and the Tamid
of bein ha’arbayim atoned for the aveiros done throughout the
day, so it is when a person recites the Korbanos of Tamid in shacharis,
it atones for his sins that he has done at night and then when he recites the
part of the Tamid bein ha’arbaim, it atones for his sins that he
has done in the daytime.
People sin 24 hours a day; we have
countless sins! We should receive for these aveiros hereg, chenek,
sreifa and skila. If a person does not try to recite the tefilla
with kavanah, he has achieved nothing! Hashem says, ‘what are you coming
to me for?! You say, “give me this and give me that…” first, do teshuva! Ask
forgiveness for everything you did wrong over the past 24 hours! You brought tuma’a
into the world! You had forbidden thoughts, saw forbidden sights… say Korbanos
with kavanah! When you recite “ba’parim hanisrafim”, (and
the burnt cow offerings…) have the intentions of, “I am prepared to be burned,
I am prepared to be stoned!” Say the Korbanos aloud! The mere fact that
you are accepting upon yourself sreifa, hereg and chenek, the
fact that you admit that you have sinned makes everything become atoned and
forgiven and your prayers are accepted.
The morning tefilla begins with
korbanos. The Zohar says, ‘You must not skip Korbanos! Korbanos is the highest
thing! The Korbanos come from Atika kadisha, from risha dela esyada,
as it says, “siluka dekorbana ad ein sof.” The tfilla of Korbanos is “ein
sof” (endless)! You must not skip even one word of Korbanos, don’t give up
on even one word!
(Note from the editor: Though it is the
general practice that women do not say the Korbanos prayers other than the
Tamid offering, a women who wishes to say all the Korbanos is praiseworthy - see
Chida “Yosef ometz” 67 that just as the Korbanos prayer attones for men it also
attones for women)
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