Bo: 5782 - Insights and tidbits: Rabbi Abush Bruk and Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a brief insight on Parshas Bo, at the conclusion of the Daf Yomi shiur of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi at Nachlah. Watch

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Brook, please.

00:01 Speaker 2 There was a Jewish merchant whose business wasn’t going well. He tried all sorts of things, all kinds of businesses, but nothing worked. He came to the Rebbe of Pilov and asked him what to do. The Rebbe told him, “It says in the weekly parsha: ‘But against all the Children of Israel, no dog shall sharpen its tongue.’”

00:27 Speaker 1 What, sorry?

00:28 Speaker 2 “But against all the Children of Israel, no dog shall sharpen its tongue.” The dogs in Egypt barked and made noise, but they did nothing to the Jews. So I interpret the verse this way: “Against all the Children of Israel, no dog shall sharpen”—it isn’t sharp business instincts that matter. Rather, “like the heart, so the tongue”: what you say should match what’s in your heart. Don’t say one thing while feeling another. If you do that, if you keep to these things, you’ll succeed in business.

01:15 Speaker 1 Rabbi Sonnenfeld.

01:17 Speaker 3 Rabbi Brook’s grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Shalom Brook, had a yeshiva—or founded a yeshiva—in Rishon LeZion. He was one of the chassidic figures in Tel Aviv and Rishon LeZion. There was a man who lived near the yeshiva. He owned a house and had no family, and Rabbi Chaim Shalom Brook wanted to persuade him to donate the house to the yeshiva. They spoke, but the man didn’t want to, and Rabbi Brook asked him several more times. Until one time the man said to him, “Tell me, I’m still alive. Why would I give you the house now?” Rabbi Shalom Brook said, “I’ll tell you a story. There was once a town that needed a rabbi. They looked for a rabbi. A man came and said, ‘I, I’m willing to be the rabbi.’ He was learned; he could be a rabbi. They said, ‘What about a shochet?’ He said, ‘I’m a shochet too. I’ll do the shechita for you as well.’ They asked him, ‘A shochet too? Very good. What about a chevra kadisha? We need a chevra kadisha too.’ He said, ‘I’m also a chevra kadisha. I’m a…’”

02:31 Speaker 1 An undertaker.

02:32 Speaker 3 “Yes, I’m an undertaker too. But the town also needs a kohen to give the blessing. He said, ‘I’m a kohen too.’ They asked, ‘How can you be a kohen and an undertaker?’ So he told them, ‘I’ll bury you alive.’”

02:47 Speaker 1 Whistling, whistling.