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Torah Portion of the Week – Ki Teitzei – Fight for Your Life – The War Against Passion – A Powerful Parable about the Captives – A Great Story about Rav Shach – Peace in Your Home – Your Spouse Comes from Heaven

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015 Baba Metzia 34a – 2st Tosafoes – Class 2 – The Talmud Podcast

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The Torah Podcast Transcript

The Torah Podcast 109 – The Power of Pleasure – Repenting in Happiness 

Special HolidayEdtion — Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkos –  Based on a class by Rabbi Avigdor Miller

Rav Avigdor Miller wants to explain that when the spies came to Eretz Yisroel, it was already 400 years after God promised the land to the Jewish people. What was going on during that period? The land was being cultivated by the Canaanim. By the time the Jewish people came to the land, the possuk says, “Tov ha’aretz meod meod.” The land is very, very good. The land flowed with milk and honey, and it was the most cultivated place on the planet. The fruits were enormous, it took eight men to carry a cluster of grapes. And the Gemara in Berachos 44a says that Rav Yochanan used to take his talmidim to Ginosar to taste the fruits there. It’s next to the Kineret. And even though it was after the destruction of the Beis Hamigdash, the fruits there were still close the original level, so Rav Yochanan used to take his talmidim there to taste the fruits.

Rav Miller wants to explain that they went there in order to taste the gashmius, the physical, the blessing that was bestowed on our forefathers, the physical blessing. They didn’t want to just have an intellectual understanding of the happiness that our forefathers had, while they were Eretz Yisroel in its glory, they wanted to taste it, they wanted to feel it. He wants to explain he said, “Yedia Chushis,” they wanted to have the same feeling that our forefathers had. And even though these were the greatest thinkers of all time, the greatest intellectuals, but they ate and they ate in order to experience the pleasure of what our forefathers had in Eretz Yisroel, because they wanted to understand what does it mean that the land was tov meod meod, very, very good. This is the land that God gave to the Jewish people. What does that mean? And how does it feel to be truly blessed by Hashem in the physical world?  They wanted to understand that.

With this, we could understand the connection between Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkos. Rosh Hashana is a time when we have to make Hashem the King. It’s a time to get the concept that God is running the world. Then comes Yom Kippur, and we need to repent. We need to check out our actions, and we need to feel the heaviness of our sins. And we have to make sure we take responsibility, and we’re filled with fear, and the heaviness, and the responsibility for our deeds. Rav Miller wants to explain, all of this is bedi eved, this is all after the sin of Adam HaRishon. He says, “Really, the Mesillas Yesharim brings down that man was created in this world for pleasure. And that’s because happiness is the true way to come close to God, and it’s the most effective and the most important thing that a person could have in order to come close to God.” Happiness, pleasure. And therefore, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur come before Sukkos. It’s all a preparation for the real serving of God, which happens on Sukkos, a time of our simcha, zman simchaseinu. Sukkos is a time of true happiness. He explains that when man was created, he was put into Gan Eden, and Eden means “pleasure, delight.” And he was put into an orchard with trees, and beautiful fruits, and everything that he could possibly want on the physical level. So, he asks, “Adam HaRishon, the first man, was the most intellectual being that existed in the universe. He could see from one end of the world to the other. He gave all the names to all the animals. He was a conceptual person.

Why was the gift that God gave him physical? Give him something intellectual.  Fruit trees, an orchard, is that what you would give Rabbi Akiva Eiger? No, you’d buy him seforim, you’d buy him books. You would give him something to advance his intellectual curiosity, not a nice hotel filled with the physical pleasures. So, what’s going on here? He wants to explain that Hashem wanted to give Adam HaRishon physical pleasure in order that Adam should say, “Hashem, I love you.” He gave him the gashmius, he gave him the physical in order to bring him closer to Hashem. And in this way, Adam would understand the chessed, the kindness of Hashem. He would sing to Hashem, he would come closer to Hashem by receiving the physical. And with each different fruit that Adam saw, he would go higher and higher. He saw a pear, he saw an apple. He saw the red in the apple, where did the red come from? The ground is not red, the tree is not red. Why is the apple red? And with each different pleasure he would come closer and closer to God. He would see the greatness of God. And when you see all the wonderful things that God gives you for your pleasure, there is no limit to your happiness. There’s no limit to the desire to come closer and closer to God.

And why did Yitzhak ask Esav to bring him venison in order to bless him? Because there’s no comparison, giving a blessing to a son who didn’t give you pleasure, as compared to a son who just brought you pleasure. He wanted to give him a greater blessing. This is the nature of man, our physical pleasure draws us to the source of that pleasure. And the happiness that you have on Sukkos and the dancing that you do on Simchas Torah is all a sign of how close you are, and how close you feel to God. It’s an expression of that. So, if Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur worked and you came close, so surely you will experience tremendous happiness during Sukkos and Simchas Torah. But if you’re wasting your time during Sukkos and Simchas Torah you’re outside the shul talking, that’s surely a sign that you’re not really close.

He brings the Chayei Adam who brings a moshul that a man wanted to fatten a goose, so he would force-feed the goose. At a certain point, the goose stopped eating. So, what did he do? He waited a couple of days, and then afterwards the goose ate even more. He says, “It’s like a person who repents during Rosh Hashana, during Yom Kippur. And this relieves him of his guilt, but afterwards as soon as his Yom Kippur is over, he’s back to his old ways. He’s back to his sins, and he’s sinning even more”. But surely, a person who really repented, a person who really came close to God is going to feel tremendous happiness during Sukkos and Simchas Torah. And he says that that happiness is surely a sign that you are truly a servant of God.

Why did Rabbi Yochanan and his talmidim go to eat those fruits? Because the pleasure that they had, they used it to come close to God, just like Adam HaRishon used the pleasure that he had to come close to God. He wants to explain that a great person uses the pleasure to go higher and higher in levels of spirituality. But a person who’s not like that, he’s just choosing the pleasure for himself. He takes the pleasure for himself, and he goes on his merry way. He forgets about a God. But a person who really appreciates all the kindness that God is doing for him, he has kakores hatov, Hashem made a whole world for him with trees, and fruits, and air, and mountains, and snow – everything that Hashem made for us. If we’re aware of that pleasure, it’s going to bring us closer and closer to God, if that’s our goal.

But it’s only a person who really searches for that, who opens his mind to see the pleasures that God is giving him on a daily basis, minute to minute. And this is why Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, and Eretz Yisroel, and Yerushalayim were filled with physical pleasures, in order to elevate the Jews to bring them back to higher levels. And this is what the verse in Shmuel says about the days of Shlomo HaMelech. “They ate, and they drank, and they rejoiced.” This is a brief description of Shlomo HaMelech’s time, the glory of the Jewish people during the Temple period. It’s not l’havdil like the nations say, “Eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die.” No, it’s “Eat, drink and be merry because we want to be close to God, to come back to avodas Hashem, to learn Torah, to daven, pray, to do mitzvos, commandments.” This was the purpose of the world. This is why Hashem made Gan Eden with so much pleasure. And this is in the blessing when we eat the fruits of Eretz Yisroel, the blessing says, “Bring us into the land in order to eat the fruits and be satiated with the happiness of the land, and we will bless You because of that.”

So, even though the base of Judaism is intellectual, seicheli, understanding, sitting in yeshivas, coming close to God by using our intelligence, but the physical pleasure is the engine that makes the whole system run. And when they ate in the Beis Hamigdash, when the Cohanim ate the korbanos, sacrifices, it made them holy. It says that Rav Yochanan ben Abba was famous for eating until he became very heavy, physically heavy – why? Because he was going up and up in kedusha, in holiness. This is the chiddush of Judaism, this is the novel ideal of Judaism. We take the physical and we uplift it, we come back to God through the physical pleasure. And what does the verse mean, “The tree was good to eat from?” the tree in Gan Eden was good for Adam to eat? It means it was good for Adam, it was really good because it was his purpose. His purpose in life was to eat from the tree and to elevate himself.

I remember there’s a Gemara somewhere that says that the fruit of Eretz Yisroel bring holiness, they bring holiness to the person. And this was the meaning also of the korban Pesach. The korban Pesach was the first korban, the first sacrifice that was eaten by the Jewish people because the verse says, “My children, my firstborn son.” When the Jews came out of Egypt at that point they became the chosen people, and they were actually able to eat the sacrifices, because they were on a level, they were able to uplift it and come closer to God, and eat leshem shemayim, eat for the sake of God.

And this is what the verses mean when it says, “Eat in the presence of Hashem.” Eating itself is a service to God. And he claims that we could do it also, if we sit down and we eat and we say, we’re eating le shem shemayim, in order to be borei behazak l’avodas Hashem, in order to be healthy and strong, in order to serve God, so our eating itself brings us holiness. And he says, “Even if you don’t mean it, at least try it. Say it to yourself. ‘I am eating in order to serve God. I’m eating in order to do the will of my Creator.’” But it’s not only eating. It’s seeing all the wonders that God creates. If you look under a microscope it’s a miracle. If you look through a telescope it’s a miracle. All of these pleasures and details, and the kindness of God, should bring us back to Him. And this is what the Rambam says, “In every small thing there’s a wisdom without end.” Adam HaRishon saw into every detail of creation. He was ecstatic with happiness. He says, “He was wild with happiness.” Adam HaRishon was flying with the happiness that he had. 

So we now have to understand what’s the goal of the Chagim. What’s the goal of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos? The goal is Sukkos, Rosh Hashana is to recognize the King, to see the greatness, the wonders of God. Yom Kippur is to repent for our sins. But the real goal is the happiness, it’s the thing that’s going to really bring us back. It’s called teshuva meahava, to return to God in happiness, because of happiness, because of the kindness that He does for us. So, if we want to return to God in happiness, we need to open our minds and see the wonders of creation, all the details, all the expansiveness of all the heavens, the solar system, the universe. Down to the eating at the Shabbos table, the pleasures from the food that we have, should all bring us back. This is the true teshuva. This is the teshuva from ahava, returning to God because of love of God.

So, the real thing we need to work on before Rosh Hashana, before Yom Kippur and before Sukkos is love. And if we can feel that love we will surely be blessed by God. And when we eat the apple with honey on Rosh Hashana, we should think of the kindness of God and return to Him with a full heart.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

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103 – Ethics of the Fathers – Perkei Avos 1:4 – How to Get What You Are Missing – Quenching Your Thirst – A Powerful Parable about the Sick Beggar – A Great Story about the Chida – Peace in Your Home – Women’s’ Emotions and Silence


Ethics of the Fathers – Perkei Avos 1:4 Yossei the son of Yoezer of Tzreidah, and Yossei the son of Yochanan of Jerusalem, received the tradition from them. Yossei the son of Yoezer of Tzreidah would say: Let your home be a meeting place for the wise; dust yourself in the soil of their feet, and drink thirstily of their words.

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102 – Ethics of the Fathers – Perkei Avos 1:3 – Do You Love God? Understanding Your Purpose – A Powerful Parable about a Blind Thief – A Great Story about a Jewish Business Man- Peace in Your Home – Honor Your Husband, Honor Your Wife

Perkei Avos 1:3 Antignos of Socho received the tradition from Shimon the Righteous. He would say: Do not be as slaves, who serve their master for the sake of reward. Rather, be as slaves who serve their master not for the sake of reward. And the fear of Heaven should be upon you.

The Torah Podcast Transcript

102 The Torah Podcast – Do You Love God?  – Understanding Your Purpose – https://globalyeshiva.com

Pirkei Avos 1:3 – Do You Love God?  – Understanding Your Purpose 

The third Pirkei Avos in chapter 1 reads like this, “Antignos of Socho received the tradition from Shimon HaTzaddik. He used to say, ‘Do not be like the servants who serve their master in order to receive reward. But rather, be like the servants who serve their master in order to not receive reward. And let the fear of heaven be upon you.’” So, Rashi explains, what does it mean that we shouldn’t serve God in order to receive reward? He says like this, that we shouldn’t say that we’ll do a mitzvah in order to fulfill our own personal needs. Rather, we should serve God from love, and we should accept everything that God does with love. And Rashi further explains, “What does it mean that the fear of heaven should be upon you? You have to believe, you have to have fear of heaven, because in this world there is no schar mitzvah. We don’t receive a reward in this world for the mitzvos. Like it says, today to do them, but not today to receive reward. We don’t get reward in this world, and therefore a person should do the mitzvos just because of love, not because of reward.

Now, what Rashi means is the real reward is really reserved for the next world. Obviously, we do get blessings in this world. And the Rambam brings down the halacha in Hilchos Teshuva chapter 10, halacha 4 that says like this. “The sages of the previous generation declared, should one say, “I will study Torah in order to become wealthy, and I will be called the Rabbi. Or, that I will receive my reward in the world to come. The Torah teaches, if you are careful to observe My commandments to love God, implying that all that one should do should be only out of love of God.” The sages also said, “Desire His commandments greatly. Desire His commandments, and not the reward for His commandments.” Now he brings down our Mishna. “In a similar manner, the great sages will commanded to the brilliant students in private. Do not be like the servants who serve their master for the sake of receiving a reward. Rather, since He is the master, it is fitting to serve Him out of love.” And that’s our Mishna that we just read before.

So, the Rambam brings it down to the halacha. The law is that you should not serve God and will receive reward. You have to do it out of love. And the Rambam explains, “Why did they only used to teach this Mishna in private? Because people will make a mistake, that’s where the tzaddukim started. They went off the derech, they went off the way because they read this Mishna and they understood that there’s no reward at all. In other words, why should I serve God at all if there’s no reward, so there’s no purpose to being religious? But that was a misreading of the Mishna, and there really is a reward in the next world. The reward just happens to be not in this world. 

And the Rabbeinu Yona explains that we shouldn’t serve God in order to receive a reward. Why not? This is not called perfect service, because you’re not doing it for your master. Rather, you’re doing it in order to receive reward. So, why should you do it? Rather, because of the chessed that Hashem has done for us. All the good that Hashem has done for us up to now, and because of the greatness of God. And he explains that that’s called serving God out of love. If you serve Him for everything that He’s done for you before, and because of His greatness, because of God’s greatness, that’s called serving out of love. And at the end of the Mishna that says, “You should have the fear of God,” What is the fear of God? Because of God’s greatness we’re afraid God is so great and so big, and also because He has the ability to punish. So, love comes out to be everything that God’s given us up to now because of His greatness, and fear comes out to be that He has the ability to punish, and also because of His greatness. And those are the pure reasons for serving God. 

And the Rabbeinu Bachye explains also that serving God in order to receive reward, that’s not called pure service. “Not only that,” he says, “It’s not fitting to do such a thing, to have the intention to receive reward for the mitzvos at all. It’s not a reason to do the mitzvos. But rather, we should be doing them out of love. But even so, that’s why it says at the end of the Mishna that the fear of heaven should be upon you, “Because if you have tremendous love for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, God-forbid you could become light headed,” he says – kalos rosh. “And you might come into averos because of that.” You might come to sin. So, you have to have both qualities. You have to have the love of God, and the fear of God. And he also says another very beautiful thing. He says, When you do a mitzah, what’s the reward? A mitzvah. The mitzvah itself, the next mitzvah itself is the reward. And you shouldn’t be looking at any other type of reward at all. He says, “Why? If he’s somebody who does that, it’s like he drank from poisonous waters.” And he doesn’t have the merit to taste from the river of honey, of the Torah itself. In other words, once you taste the sweetness of Torah, the spirituality of Torah, how could you possibly think of getting physical rewards? It’s ridiculous, because he says, “Don’t think that the mitzvah and its reward are two separate things. They’re one thing, because when you do a mitzvah, your soul feels it. And the light of the mitzvah goes into your neshama. Therefore, the real merit that we get when we do a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself, the pleasure that we get from doing the mitzvas – schar ha mitzah mitzvah. Also,” he says, “By averas. When a person sins, he gets a ruach stus, a bad spirit goes into him, and he feels horrible. That itself is the onesh. When you do a sin, the sin itself is the onesh.” This is what he says. 

And the Rashbatz explains that these two qualities of love and fear are really zerisus, which means the energy that you need to do the mitzvas, and the fear has to do with being careful not to do averas, which means the positive mitzvos and the negative commandments. And he says that somebody who really has love of God, even if it’s difficult and even if his life has all kinds of problems, it won’t stop him at all from serving God. He won’t even think about it. That’s on the positive side. And if he has a fear of God, he won’t think to do averas. And he explains that fear of God doesn’t mean the fear of punishment. What’s his proof? He has a beautiful proof, because the possuk said by Avraham Avinu, just as he is about to shecht Yitzhak, the angel came and said, “Stop,” and told him, “Now I see that you’re a yiras shemayim. Now I see you have the fear of God.” He says, “It couldn’t be fear of punishment. What could be a greater punishment than his son passing away? He wasn’t afraid of punishment.” So, you see the fear of God just means the fear of the greatness of God.

And the Bartenura explains, “What’s the loshen pras? The language is reward, but pras actually means not the direct consequence of what you’re doing. It’s not like when you work and you get paid. No, a pras means something extra. So he says, “Even something like that, even a perk – for example, when you do mitzvos you want Hashem to look kindly upon you. You want to feel that extra level of spirituality.” He says, “That, a person shouldn’t serve God for even a small perk like this.  Rather, you should just serve Him from love alone.

But the Tosefos Yom Tov explains – and we know it’s a famous Gemara in Bava Basra that says that if you give tzedaka on the condition that your son will be healed, you’re considered a tzaddik gamur. You’re considered a totally righteous person. So, here we see an example of a person who gives tzedaka, he does the mitzvah of tzedakah, and he wants to receive a reward. He wants that his son will be healed, and that’s called a tzaddik gamur. So, what is this Mishna talking about? So, he explains that he is still considered a righteous person. But we must know there are much higher levels. That’s the lowest level. We have to do things on a higher level, and we shouldn’t do it for the reward.

And the Tiferes Yisroel explains, “What does it mean that we should be like a servant? There are two types of servants. One where you own the work of the servant, one when you actually own the body of the servant.” He says, “We should be like servants that God owns our bodies.” We shouldn’t have the chutzpah to ask for reward.  How could we possibly ask for reward? Hashem owns us.

And the Maharal asks, “How can it be that we should serve God not to receive a reward if it’s written many places in the Torah that we receive a reward? Like it says, “in order that I should do good to you , that I should also give you long life”, and in many other places. So, we see from the mitzvas we get reward in this world. So, he wants to explain that you shouldn’t do it in order to receive the reward. Of course, you’re going to receive rewards. Of course you’re going to receive blessings. But you shouldn’t be doing it for that reason. For sure, the essential way to serve God is out of love. And if you do it for the schar, that’s not called the essential service. That’s not what we’re here for. What are we here for? He explains, man’s whole purpose in life is to serve God. It’s not just we take God on the side, “Yeah, I’m also religious. That’s not called being religious. Being religious means that you look at your life in the service of God. Everything you do should be to serve God, and not to receive the reward, and not as a side thing. He explains, “The essential service that man should do is because he loves God, and he desires to do the mitzvos. And by this he will come to cling to God.” But he explains, “This is not a simple thing, as we know, because the love has to be love just for the love of God itself. Because we recognize his greatness, and because God Himself is true, and His mitzvos are true. And therefore, we love to do the mitzvos because that’s who we are. We’re doing the mitzvos because the mitzvos are true, and we’re created to do them. And that’s on the side of loving God, and we should cling to God.”

But the Mishna also ends by saying we should have fear of heaven. Why does it never say “love of heaven,” and it says, “fear of heaven?” Because fear means that we need to be distant, and that’s why we say, yirat shemayim, the fear of heaven. On the other hand, love means deveikus, clinging to God. And we don’t say the love of heaven, we say the love of God. And the Ruach HaChayim explains that man is really a very lowly thing. We’re made out of the physical world. We’re physical, and we’ve been brought to the level in order that we should serve God for the mitzvos. What a tremendous level. So, how can we possibly have the chutzpah to ask for reward on top of that? Like we said before, the reward is that we get to serve God, that we get to come close to God. What else could we possibly want? And that we were chosen to do mitzvos, that should be the greatest reward.

And the Sefas Emes explains “do not act like servants who want to receive a reward” means we are servants. Our sole purpose in life is to serve God. And he says another beautiful thing. He says, “Why would a person want to receive things for himself when he has the possibility to cling to the source of life? He can instead cling to God by doing everything totally for Hashem. And instead he chooses to cling to himself. What does he have to offer himself? God is the source of life. Do it leshem shemayim, 100 percent.” And he says, “We can learn this from the angels. The angels don’t receive any reward. And God wants us to be like angels. Where else can we learn this? From all natural phenomenon. All of the natural world does God’s will, without reward. A flower doesn’t grow to be a flower in order to receive a reward. A flower is a flower. From there we can learn, we can learn from the world itself, that we should be serving God just like all of nature serves God. Of course we have free will. Yes, but we should use our free will to be like the angels, to serve God because that’s what we were created to do, and not for some other side factor that we want something else out of life.

So, the Chovas Levavos explains that there’s three reasons why man acts the way he does, and he doesn’t do things 100 percent for the sake of heaven. He says, “The first trait is the great love you have for yourself, and your desire for self-gratification.” And he explains, “If you can distance yourself from this quality, it’s going to help a lot. The second trait is,” he explains, “Is you imagine that blessing is obtained by you asking for it, by you doing the mitzvah and you’re thinking, “Wow, I’m going to do this mitzvah in order to receive a reward,” that’s actually causing the reward to come. He says, “That’s ridiculous. God is giving you exactly what you need right now. He’s rewarding you and He’s giving you everything you need. So, how can you possibly think it’s in your hands whether you’re going to receive a reward or not. Do it leshem shemayim, do it for the right reasons. You don’t have any control over what’s going to come in anyway. And the third trait is,” he says, “You consider yourself worthy of the greatest of all blessings. And when you serve God, you look at it like you’re doing God a favor.” He says, “Listen, God doesn’t need you. God doesn’t need you, you need God.” We think we’re doing God a favor, and therefore we do it in order to receive a reward. “God, look what I’m doing. I’m really doing a big favor. I’m really mesirus nefesh.” God doesn’t need us at all. He’ll get somebody else. God has no needs. He doesn’t need us. Everything that happens, we’re doing for ourselves. We’re doing the mitzvos for our good, not to receive a reward in this world. We’re doing it for our good, because Hashem told us to do it, the mitzvah itself is the reward. The closeness to God is the reward, and God doesn’t need us. Everything is pure kindness.

So, with these three qualities we could overcome this problem. The first one again, is self-gratification. The second is thinking that we can control whether we’re going to be blessed or not. And the third one is thinking that God actually needs us. If we get rid of those things, we could actually uplift ourselves to a level where we really serve God le shem shemayim, 100 percent for the sake of God. He continues and says, “Your creator thinks of you and knows better than you what is good for you, or what’s not good for you. So, if you would be happy with what God gives you, you would be able to serve Him with a pure heart.” He says, “Everything that’s happening is exactly what you need. What are you going after reward for? What are you running? Hashem’s giving you exactly what you need, and therefore you are able to serve Him with a pure heart, once you understand that.”

And the Orchos Tzaddikim explains, “What does it mean to love God? Let a man abandon all he loves and cleave to the love of the creator. It is the sole gift of the saintly, the prophets and the consecrated ones. In the end, there is nothing higher than the love of God. And what is this love? The pining of the soul to cleave to his divine light.” So, how does this happen? When the soul becomes sensitive to its own good, apart from the body, and desires to be spiritual, just like a sick man desires to be healed, then the soul will find in itself its own light, and its own power. And what happens? The soul becomes filled with love. And this love is bound up with joy. And the joy overtakes him, and it overcomes his pleasures and the worldly desires. And because of the love of God, his whole direction changes. He’s not running after this world any more. “And all of life,” he says, “Is like children’s play compared to the love of God. And all he can think about is how can I serve God, and how could I bring merit to my fellow man, and sanctify God’s name, and sacrifice himself for the love of God.”

He says, “What will we do at that point? He who serves out of love occupies himself with Torah and mitzvos, and walks in the paths of wisdom for no worldly reward whatsoever, and no fear of evil, or expectation for good. But he pursues the truth because it’s true. And the good automatically comes. But one can only come to love God by knowing Him. The love will correspond to the knowledge. The less knowledge, the less love, and the more knowledge, the more love. And when a man reflects upon the great things and recognizes all the creations, from angels to planets, to man, and he sees the wisdom of the Holy One and everything that’s been formed, He created, he grows in love for his creator. And his soul thirsts, and his flesh longs to love Him. And he is feared and awed by his own humbleness, and the fact that he’s so small and insignificant in comparison to all the creation. He sees he is nothing. A person who understands his place, he knows that he’s a nothing. He knows that everything is chessed of Hashem, everything is kindness. And God doesn’t need us at all. Of course, he’ll come to serve God with a pure heart, not to receive reward, just because he was created to do such a thing. He was created to serve God. 

0:19:20.1

A Powerful Parable

There’s a verse in Bamidbar that says, “And the stranger who approaches shall die.” You cannot go into the Holy of Holies, a regular person cannot get close to this holy place. If he does, he’ll die.

So, the Maggid Mi Dubno asks, “How can it be that Titus and all of his soldiers weren’t afraid to go into the Beis HaMigdash and take the keilim?” So, he wants to explain with a moshul. One time there was a blind thief. He used to figure out how to steal, he was blind. So, they asked him, “Aren’t you afraid? How do you go into people’s houses? Aren’t you afraid?” He says, “Listen, people know me. They know that I’m the blind thief. As soon as I walk into a house, they start screaming, ‘Here’s the blind thief.’ But if I walk into a house and nobody says a word, I know there’s nobody there. And that’s a sign that I could take whatever I want.’” So too, it says in Megillas Eichah, “The adversary stretched forth his hand upon all the precious things.” How can it be they weren’t afraid? Because the second half of the possuk says, “For she saw the nations enter her sanctuary.” In other words, once the nations saw that there was nobody home at the Beis HaMigdash, they were able to destroy it.

0:20:38.6

Great Stories – Rav Yitzhak Zilberstein

Reb Yitzhak Zilberstein brings down a story about a Jewish businessman. This Jewish businessman said, “You know, I made Hashem my partner. Before I make a business deal, I pray that Hashem should help me, that I should be able to make money in order to support yeshivas, in order to give tzedakah.”

So, one time had to go to this small town in Africa somewhere. And he’s walking down this road, this dirt road, and he sees this huge black man looking at him. And he gets very afraid, and starts to say vidui. This guy’s going to kill me. What happened? The guy looked at him, and the guy left. After that, a policeman came by. He said, “We’re looking for this guy, did you see this guy?” He said, “Yeah, I saw that guy. He went this way.” So, the police explained to him, this was a very dangerous man. He’s killed many people before. He was in jail, he just escaped from jail, and already since he’s got out of jail he’s already killed a couple of people. “I’m very surprised he didn’t touch you.” So, what happened? Later on they caught this guy. So, during the questioning they asked, “Why didn’t you kill that Jewish guy on the road, you saw that Jewish guy?” He said, “Yeah, of course I saw him. But he had two bodyguards with him, so I left.” This is a true story, and the Tehillim says, “He would charge His angels for you to protect you in all of your ways. If you bring Hashem into your life, you’ll have all the blessings.”

0:22:11.9

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern talks about honoring one’s husband and honoring one’s wife. Chazal says, “Who is a kosher wife? The one who does the will of her husband.” But Chazal tells us also, that a man shouldn’t demand more from his wife than he demands from himself. Rav Chaim Volozhin explains on the Chazal that says, “Your kavod, honor of your friend should be like your own kavod. He learnt it with a chiddush. He says that just like if you would give honor to yourself it has no value, so too the honor that your friend gives you should have no value. He explains that when people first get married he gives them the advice, “Just forget about your own kavod. It’s not worth it, because if you expect kavod, your life is not going to be a life. You’re not going to get kavod, just forget about it. Your life and your happiness is more important than your own kavod. But he explains that many times, religious people especially have a problem with kavod, because kavod is a spiritual disease, actually. Kavod is a spiritual thing, and therefore people who are spiritual have to be more careful about it. But on the other hand, you have to give kavod to the other person. The wife should give kavod to her husband if that’s what her husband needs, and her husband should give kavod to his wife.

And especially since Chazal explains that blessing comes into a man’s house only because of the way that he treats his wife. Moshe didn’t want to divorce Tzipporah, even though he could no longer be with women, because he said, “When I married her, I was poor, and now I’m a king. It’s because of her.” One time, Rav Aryeh Levin was traveling in a cab and the cab asked, “Where’s your house?” He didn’t answer. Then the cabbie said, “Which street do you live on?” so he gave an answer. And he explained to the cabbie. He said, “Listen, since my wife died, I no longer have a house. I only have a street number, but I can’t really call it a house.” 

The Abarbanel says, “A man should treat his wife as an equal.” And where do we learn that from? There’s a Midrash that says, “Hashem when he created the woman, He didn’t take from the man’s eyes, because then it would be like the woman was the highest part of man. And He didn’t take from his feet, because then she would be lowly. He took from his rib, to make them equal. And a man should give kavod to his wife just because she has children. She’s mesirus nefesh. It’s life-threatening to have children.” Adam HaRishon was thrown out of Gan Eden, why? Because he didn’t have gratitude. If you want to have peace in your house, you have to have gratitude towards the other person, and automatically because of the gratitude, you will give them kavod.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends.

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101 – The Torah Podcast – Pirkei Avos – Ethics of the Fathers Chapter 1:2 Why are We Here – The Foundations of Life – A Powerful Parable about a Longtime Customer – A Great Story about Rav Yitzchak Taieb and Peace in Your Home – Stop Arguing

The Torah Podcast Transcript

101 The Torah Podcast – Why are we here? – The Foundations of Life – https://globalyeshiva.com

Pirkei Avos 1:2 

1:2 – Shimon the Righteous was among the last surviving members of the Great assembly. He would say: The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of G‑d, and deeds of kindness.

The second Mishna says like this. Shimon HaTzaddik was one of the remnants of the Men of the Great Assembly. He used to say, “The world stands on three things – on Torah, and sacrificial service, and on acts of lovingkindness.” So, Rashi says “What does it mean that the world stands on Torah?” He brings the verse from Yirmyahu,  33:25 that says, “Were it not for my covenant day and night, I would not have created the laws of heaven and earth.” And the word covenant means the Torah. In other words, the heaven and earth were only created for Torah, for man to learn Torah, for people to learn Torah. And what does it mean, Rashi says that the world stands on sacrifices? He brings the Gemara in Taanis that says like this. “Were it not for the sacrifices, heaven and earth could not endure. As it says, ‘Oh, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit the land?’” And Rashi explains there, without the zechus, merit of the sacrifices, the world would stop to exist. Also, the Mishna says, “If it wasn’t for acts of kindness, the world can’t exist.” Rashi explains, “What types of acts of kindness? Lending to the poor.  It’s even greater than giving away money, because this way the people are not embarrassed. And the verse says, “ The world is built on chessed. In other words, the world is entirely chessed. So, these are the three things that the world stands on – Torah, sacrifices, and chessed.

And the Rambam explains, it goes according to the different aspects of man. For example, a man needs chochma, wisdom.  Chochma is related to Torah. And middos, a man has to have good character traits. That has to do with doing kindness. And a man also has to have shemiros ha mitzvos, he has to keep the mitzvos. That has to do with the avoda, with serving Hashem. And Rabbeinu Bachye explains, it has to do with man’s mouth, with his heart, and with his actions. His mouth relates to Torah. His heart relates to the service of God. And his acts relates to acts of kindness. And interestingly enough, Rabbeinu Yonah says, “When you do acts of kindness, you have to make sure who you’re doing it for.” He says “When you undertake to do lovingkindness, choose your recipient carefully, selecting good candidates over bad. Give precedence to modest, God-fearing people.” And if a person gives indiscriminately, the verse in Yirmyahu says, “May there be cause to stumble before you. At the time of your anger, against him” That even when you do give charity, for the good reason, you’re going to stumble and you’re give it to the wrong people. So, it’s not just charity to anybody. You have to make sure you’re giving charity to people who have good character. If you give to them, then you’ll always be zocheh, you’ll always have the merit to give to the right person. So we see, there’s even a right and wrong way to give charity.

And the Tiferes Yisroel explains that the purpose of man is to perfect his neshama, his soul, by the way of his body with these three things, because if he uses his seichel and learns Torah, he perfects himself in the sense that he gets chochma. And by doing the avoda, by doing mitzvos, and by doing chessed, by working on his character, he perfects his soul. So, these three things bring perfection to a man’s soul, which is really his purpose in this world.

And the Ruach Chaim explains that these three things relate to man’s speech, thoughts, and actions. His speech is Torah, his thoughts have to do with the avoda, because the Cohen had to have the proper thoughts at the time of the sacrifice, and his actions have to do with gemilus chassadim, with doing acts of kindness. And he explains the avos each perfected one of these qualities. For example, Yaakov was perfect in Torah, and Yitzhak has to do with prayer, which is the avoda, the service to God. And Avraham we know, perfected acts of kindness. And he goes on to explain like this. The Bereishis Rabba explains that there’s not a blade of grass that doesn’t grow without having an angel telling it to grow. Because he says, “Everything physical has no reality on its own.” It has no strength on its own, if it wasn’t for the strength that it’s been given from heaven in order to keep it going. This is spiritual strength. And from this spiritual strength which comes down from heaven, that’s the thing that keeps the world going. Because without it, nothing would exist, because it’s this spiritual force which existed before all of the creation. And by the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu brought down the Torah and gave it to the Jewish people, and because of it, the Jewish people are able to cling to God, so now the Jewish people became the source of life in this world and the source of blessing, because they’re connected with the upper worlds. Once the Jewish people received the Torah, we became the source of blessing for the world, because we’re connected through the Torah to the upper worlds. So, the Torah is the connection from the upper world coming down into this world. But we also need to work things in the other direction, which is the avoda, prayer – our connection by bringing korbanos. That brings the energy from this world up to the upper worlds. So, the first thing is the Torah. The Torah brings the energy down from the upper worlds. The next thing is the avoda, which brings from the lower worlds to the upper worlds. That’s prayer, because we know the korbanos it says, nachas ruach, it gives pleasure to God. God gets pleasure from what happens down in this world, so it’s going from down to up. And the higher up that we go, the more hashbaah that comes down. The higher our connection, the more influence that comes into this world.

And now, what do we have left? Since we don’t have korbanos any more, we don’t have sacrifices, all we have is prayer. And our prayers are in place of the sacrifices. And he explains that they are the foundation of the world, that’s why every letter and letter goes up higher and higher, like korbanos mamash, like sacrifices. And it wasn’t by accident  that it took 120 elders for them to produce the prayers that we say today, and everything’s dependent upon these prayers. The whole world’s dependent upon these prayers, and that’s why it was needed to produce the prayers that we have today, they had to have nevuah, prophecy. And everything that even the greatest kabbalist understands today is nothing but a drop in the ocean, compared to the chochma, the wisdom by which our prayers were written. And this is what’s at the foundation of this Pirkei Avos. This is unbelievable, look what he says. “By these three things, the world stands.” In other words, the connection of the upper worlds to the lower worlds by the way of Torah, by the way of Torah it comes down, the influence from above. And by the way of avoda, our prayers, by giving pleasure to Hashem, the energy flows up. And this is what keeps the world going. So, what looks like a simple Pirkei Avos is really at the foundations of the world. This Pirkei Avos is one of the secrets of the universe. And we know the third thing, which is doing chessed, kindness one to the other, spreads the energy throughout the world. This is Pirkei Avos explaining to us how the world works.

And the Maharal wants to explain that these three things are in correspondence with the three foundations of what the world is created with, which is air, fire, and water. He says like this. “These three things are at the foundations of creation. And therefore, our connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is through them, because at the yesod of ruach, air, that has to do with Torah. Torah affects the ruach, the spirit, the air, the spirituality of man. B’yesod hamayim, in the foundation of water, that has to do with gemillus chassadim, water has to do with kindness that kindness should be spread like water. And in the foundation of fire, it’s connected with the avoda, avodas halev, prayer. Your prayers should be like fire.” And he continues and says that Torah v’avoda, prayer and kindness,  because this our connection to our Creator. And if we do these things properly, everything in the world will be connected with God. And that’s why the Pirkei Avos says, “On these three things the world stands.” If we learn Torah, and if we pray, and if we do kindness, it’s like we connect to the creation itself which is made out of air, and water, and fire. We connect it with our Creator.” It’s an unbelievable idea.

And the Maharal explains there’s another aspect that we can learn from this Pirkei Avos. This is really unbelievable. He says, “ Why did the tanna teach specifically these three things? He wants to explain that creation itself is only created because of good. And it’s only because it’s the good that it is in things that things exist. And if things are not good, they have no reason to exist. And that’s what it means, that the world stands on these three things. And what do these three things have to do with good? He explains, the first thing is Torah, that a person should be good to himself. How is a person good to himself? He learns Torah. Torah gives seichel, intelligence. It opens your mind, connects you with creativity. It connects you with the good. The next thing is, avoda, prayer, service to God. That’s good for God. It’s goodness that you give back to God. And the third thing is the kindness that you do to other people, the good that you give to other people.

That’s why the world stands on these three things, because the whole world was only created for good. And these are the three things that are good, to be good to yourself, to be good to God, and to be good to other people. And this is why we were created. We were created to do good. And that’s why the world stands on these things, because without these things, we don’t deserve to exist. For example, we know that a person has to actually give up his life for three things. What are those three things? If a person is forced to do idol worship, he has to give up his life. If a person is forced to do something immoral sexually, he has to give up his life. And if a person is told to kill somebody, he also has to give up his own life. What are these three things? They relate to these three things the Maharal brings down. For example, idol worship. That has to do with the service to God. If you’re not going to do the service to God, if you’re going to worship idols, a person has to give up his life. Sexuality has to do with kenegged Torah. Torah is the epitome of intelligence, and improper sexuality is the opposite of that, acting like an animal. So, if a person’s going to act like an animal, he has to give up his life for God. He shouldn’t exist. And the third thing is to kill somebody else, which is the opposite of chessed, of doing kindness to another person, to kill another person. If he’s going to do something like that, he shouldn’t exist, because the Maharal explains that the world only exists for the goodness that’s in the world. But we’re not going do good, if we’re not going to do good to ourselves, and good to God, and good to others, so the world shouldn’t exist. And therefore, the world stands on these three things.

0:13:37.7

A Powerful Parable 

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings the Rashi that explains “if you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments” means amelius beTorah, diligence in Torah study. If a person is oskek in Torah, that’s what brings all the blessings into the world. So, he has a moshul like this. One time, a grocery store owner sees one of his best customers coming out of another grocery store with a bunch of stuff. So, what is he going to say to him? If the things that the guy’s coming out of the grocery store with are things that are not available in the original grocery store, so he can say to him, “Listen, you don’t carry this stuff.” But if he comes out with a ton of stuff and it’s the same things that the first grocery store holds, it’s very embarrassing. So, that was the moshul, what’s the nimshal?

A person learning Torah. If a person goes and learns all kinds of other wisdoms, and he’s learning this wisdom and that wisdom, so if you can’t learn from the Torah those things, so we understand. But since we know it says, “Turn it and turn it over again, because everything is in it.” All the wisdom of the world is in the Torah. If a person spends his time learning other types of chochma, it’s going to be very embarrassing, because really everything is included in the Torah.

0:15:00.4

Great Stories – Rav Yitzhak Taieb

This is a story about Rav Yitzhak Taieb. It says, one time in Morocco there were two Arab neighbors that had fields next to each other. And they were very good friends. It happens to be, one of the Arabs had to leave the country for a very long time, so he figured he could trust his friend. He says, “Please watch my field for me.” But as soon as the friend left, what did he do? There were trees separating the fields. He knocked down all the trees, and he changed the boundaries. He made his field much bigger. Years later, he came back. There’s no trees in the field, there’s nothing. So, he goes to the king and he says, “Listen, this guy stole my field.” The king didn’t know what to do. But the king happened to be friends with Rav Yitzhak Taieb. “So maybe,” he says, “I’ll go ask the Rabbi what to do.”

So, what did the Rabbi say? He said, “Listen, please bring me the donkey that was used to plough this field.” He brought him the donkey, and he set the donkey loose. The donkey ran around, he kept running around, but he wouldn’t go past a certain point. He said, “Listen, at that point where the donkey refuses to go further, dig over there.” So, surely that’s what they did. They dug and they found the foundations of all the trees were at that point. So, from this story you could see the tremendous wisdom of the Torah and the Rabbis.

0:16:28.3

Peace in Your Home 

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that it is not good to argue. It’s not good to argue. If you could stop arguing, well, that would be a tremendous thing. So, Chazal tells us, Hashem has been busy ever since the creation of the world, doing what? Matchmaking people. But how long can it possibly take for Hashem to make matches? Hashem is the creator of the universe. The answer is, no. He has to constantly keep the marriages together. Of all the marriages that He created, He has to keep them going.

He brings Rav Eliyhu Lopian who says that if a person gives in to his wife’s opinion, even if his wife is wrong and he says yes, and he doesn’t make a fight, it’s like you’re Hashem’s partner, because that’s what Hashem is doing. Hashem’s keeping peace in everybody’s house. So, sometimes people think, “What’s the big deal?” Let’s say there’s about to be a fight, and you see the fight is getting out of control. So, you just make into a small argument. But really, he explains that was the purpose of the yetzer hara anyway, to start the whole thing, just to make it into a small argument. Sometimes the yetzer hara comes and tricks people. Like it says in the Gemara by the dogs of Rome, so they used to pretend they were sleeping. Then they would knock down the entire stand, and all the bread would fall on the floor. The dogs would come and they would grab one loaf of bread. So, the whole thing of knocking down the entire stand was just to get that one loaf of bread. The yetzer hara wants to make an argument in the house. He makes it look like he wants to make a big fight and you think, “Well, I only brought it to a small argument.” But the whole purpose of the yetzer hara was just to make a small argument, because those small arguments affects the peace in your house. The relationship with your wife is all based on those small arguments. If you get rid of them, you’ll have a much better relationship.

So they say, when the Brisker Rav got old, there was a younger man that was about to take his place, so he wanted to test him. The Brisker Rav asked him. He said, “What if you were a wagon driver, and your wagon became stuck? What would you do?” He says, “First, I would unload the packages.” The Rav said, “Yeah, and if that didn’t help, what would you do?” “Then I would ask all the people to get out.” “And if that didn’t help, what would you do?” “I’d ask them to push.” “And what if that didn’t help, what would you do?” He says, “I don’t know.” The Rav said to him, “You have to make sure the wagon doesn’t get stuck in the first place. That’s what you should do.”

The same thing here. You have to be preemptive. You have to make sure that arguments don’t start, because once arguments start, you never know where they’re going to go. He brings down three things that a person can do to stop an argument. First of all obviously, you have to be patient. If you have patience, you’re not going to have an argument. Secondly, you have to learn how to listen, because maybe your arguing against something that the other person’s not even saying. If you would listen to the other person, so you don’t have to argue at all, because maybe what they’re saying is correct.  And the third thing is to ask yourself, “Is this worth arguing about?” Whether the lady on the bus had a blue sweater or a red sweater, it’s not worth arguing about. That’s what you’re fighting about? If it’s not worth arguing about, just don’t argue. Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it, and please share it with your friends.

The post 101 Why are We Here – The Foundations of Life appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

100 – The Torah Podcast – Think Before You Judge – Humility & Reality – Pirkei Avos – Ethics of the Fathers Chapter 1:1

The Torah Podcast Transcript

100 The Torah Podcast – Think Before You Judge

Pirkei Avos Chapter 1:1

Moses received the Torah from Sinai and gave it over to Joshua. Joshua gave it over to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets gave it over to the Men of the Great Assembly. They [the Men of the Great Assembly] would always say these three things: Be cautious in judgement. Establish many pupils. And make a safety fence around the Torah.

Since we already came to episode 100, I’ve decided to change gears a little bit. I’m going to try something a little bit different. Instead of speaking on the weekly Parsha, I’ve decided to speak on Pirkei Avos.

When I asked Rav Aaron Chadosh of the Mir which mussar sefer I should teach, he told me the most important mussar sefer, book on character development, is Pirkei Avos. It’s learned in all the schools. Everybody knows it, and it’s very popular. So, we’re going to start with Pirkei Avos. But before you learn Pirkei Avos there’s a Mishna that you say. It’s the first Mishna in Chapter 10 of Sanhedrin that goes like this, “All of the Jewish people have a portion in the world to come.  like it says, Your people are all righteous. They will inherit the land forever, a sapling in my planting, my handiwork in which to glory.” This is the Mishna that we say before we start to learn Pirkei Avos. Why do we learn this Mishna?

So, the Bartenura explains, “ All the Jews have a portion in the next world.  Even those Jews who are supposed to get the death penalty, they still have a portion in the next world. ” And which world to come are we referring to? He says, “The world to come after techiyas hameisim, after the resurrection of the dead, there’s going to be a world to come that’s going to last forever. “In the future,  we’re going to rise with our bodies and our souls. We’re going to live forever, like the moon and the stars. “ But in the next world there’s not going to be any eating or drinking.  Even though we have a body, there’s not going to be eating and drinking. How are we going to live?  The righteous people are going to sit with crowns on their heads.  And we’re going to derive sustenance from the presence of God,  the light that comes off of God, that’s going to nourish us.” This is unbelievable. But since not every Jew is equal, rather there are great people and there are small people,  we have a portion in the next world. How big our portion is going to be, that depends on how we behave ourselves here.

A lot of people don’t know, a lot of secular Jews don’t even know that the Jews believe in the next world. I get that question all the time. Do the Jews believe in the next world? Of course we believe in the next world. The whole Torah is based on the next world. And the other  commentators explain the reason why we read this Mishna before we read Pirkei Avos, which is talking about our character traits, is that we shouldn’t be despondent. Even an evil person, he still has a portion in the next world. So of course, if we fix ourselves up, we’re going to have even a greater portion.

So now, the first Mishna in Pirkei Avos reads like this.  Moses received the Torah from Sinai, and he handed it over to Yehoshua and Yehoshua handed it over the Torah to the elders and the elders handed it over to the prophets, and the prophets handed it over to the Men of the Great Assembly.  And the Men of the Great Assembly said three things. “ Weigh your judgements carefully, establish many students and make a fence for the Torah.”

The Tiferet Yisroel says on these words, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai” what does that mean? “It appears to me that in the beginning when the Jews received the Torah, they might have thought it would have been enough to just keep the Torah. And if they keep the Torah, then they’re going to get the next world. This not true. Why?  Because it’s not enough just to do the mitzvos, commandments, but we also have to have good character. Like Chazal says,  someone who is involved and lives Torah and he doesn’t behave properly in business, and he’s not nice to people, “Oy lo.” Oy vavoy, he’s going to get punished. So, he says,  derech eretz, acting properly, that’s also called Torah. And the way to act was also received from Sinai. We also received how to behave ourselves in this world, that was also given at Har Sinai.  Because Chazal tells us that if you don’ t have Torah, you don’t have derech eretz. So, how to behave was also handed to us at Har Sinai.

And the Bartenura continues in the same way and he says, “Also among the nations, they had great people who wrote about character traits, and how a man should behave with his friend.  Therefore, the first Tanna in Pirkei Avos  says, “Moses received the Torah from Sinai” to teach us that the middos, the character traits and the mussar, the rebuke in this sefer, did not come from the levs, hearts of our Sages. Rather, where did it come from?  It came directly from God. This sefer that we’re about to learn is not filled with advice on how to behave based on human reasoning. It came from God. It’s not just the ideas of people of what they think is right and wrong, and how to behave based on customs, or who knows what. No, this was received also from Sinai. The way that a Jew behaves also has to be based on Torah.

And the Tiferet Yisroel explains, “Why does the Mishna start that Moses received the Torah from Sinai? Because Sinai was the lowest of mountains. That’s where we received the Torah. And just like Moshe Rabbeinu had tremendous humility, so he also received the Torah on the smallest of mountains, to teach us what?  To teach us the ways of being humble. Why? Because humility is the source of all good character traits.” This is what he says. The most important character trait, according to the Tiferet Yisroel, is anava. If you’re humble, that will lead to good character.

So now, the question is, which Torah was given at Sinai? All the meforshim, commentators explain, “Not only was the Torah, the written Torah was given at Sinai, but also the Oral Torah was given at Sinai.” This is what Rabbeinu Yona says.  Both of them. Why? Because it’s impossible to understand the Torah Bichtav, the written Torah, without the Oral tradition. Like he says, “It says the word lo tigzav, don’t steal. All the laws of damages are inside don’t steal. There’s tons of particulars. How are we going to know all the particulars, just from the words, “don’t steal?” Like it’s written between blood and blood, between din and din, me nega le nega. If we didn’t have an explanation for what these things mean, how would we know which way to go? And al pi kabbalah we received everything at Sinai, not just the Torah Shebichtav.

And the Rabbeinu Bachye takes it even one step further. He says, “All the books, all the Neviim, all the kesuvim, everything that was written in the Torah was given at Sinai.” The only difference was, it was in an oral form, and there wasn’t given permission to write until the Neviim came into the world, and they were able to write it. And in their generation, they wrote it with ruach hakodesh, heavenly inspiration. It was received at Sinai and later the Neviim wrote it with ruach hakodesh. And the Vayikra Rabba says like this. “Whatever novel Torah insights a diligent student may derive was already transmitted at Sinai.”

So, the Mishna continues and it says that Moshe Rabbeinu handed over the Torah to Yehoshua. So, the Meiri explains, “Which Torah did he give over to Yehoshua? The Torah She Bal Peh.” Why?  Moshe wrote 12 sefer Torah, and he handed over to the shevatim, the tribes. What did he give over to Yehoshua? He gave over the Torah She Bal Peh.  And the Rabbeinu Bachye says on that, “ And he also influenced him, Just like the light that shines on the moon comes from the sun, so too, Moshe gave the light of the Torah over to Yehoshua.” Like it says, “the light of Moshe’s face was like the sun, and the light of Yehoshua’s face was like the moon. And Rashi asks, Why was the Torah given specifically from Moshe to Yehoshua? It could have been given to Eliezer and Pinchas. And it could have been given to the 70 elders. Why was it given to Yehoshua? The answer Rashi says is,  he only wanted to give it to someone who killed himself, from the youth in the tent of wisdom. And he acquired for him a shem tov, good name. And Moshe only wanted to give over the Torah as someone who sat from his youth in the halls of wisdom, and that’s why it was specifically Yehoshua.

And then the Mishna continues and it says, “Yehoshua handed it over the Torah to the elders” So, Rashi says that those same Zekanim, they handed it over  In other words, once it was given to the Zekanim, it continued for many, many generations until it reached the level of the Neviim. And then the Neviim gave it over to the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah, to the Great Assembly. Rabbeinu Yona says on this, “It was received from wise person to wise person.” And then what happened? They gathered together, all the Chochmei Yisroel, all the wise people, and they got together to produce advice to write down the Torah She Bal Peh. At this point they had to write it down, because it was going to be lost. And they wrote and they sealed the Talmud. At that point after the Torah She Bal Peh was written down, it couldn’t be added to or taken away from. And then after that, it was handed over to the geonim, which is not written in the Mishna. Once the Torah She Bal Peh was written down, it was handed over to the geonim, and it was handed from gaon to gaon,  from one Rabbi to the next Rabbi until today. So, the Torah that we have today is the same Torah that was given at Sinai. And it’s been passed down from generation to generation. And the same Torah that our children learn is the Torah that we learn. If you go to a beis medrash you’ll see everybody has a Gemara open. The same Gemara that a 13 year old kid is learning, an 80 year old man is also learning. It’s absolutely amazing.

Now, the Mishna continues and says that they said three things. The Bartenura asks,  They said a lot of things. Why these three? Rather, these three things that they said are the things that are needed to establish the Torah. To keep the Torah going through all the generations, these are the three things that we need – to weigh our judgments carefully, to establish many students, and to make a fence for the Torah. So, now we’re going to explain these, one by one.

The Tiferes Yisroel explains that these three things don’t only apply to Torah scholars, they apply to everybody. When a person has to make a decision, he has to judge carefully before he makes a decision. He has to look at the person he’s dealing with and decide whether that person is a righteous person or not a righteous person. Do I want to do business or not with him? And he shouldn’t always think that he’s right, and that his kids are always right. And just like he’s going to educate his own kids and care about his own kids, he has to care about other people’s kids. That’s what it means, to have many talmidim, to help society. What does it mean, to make a fence for the Torah? He has to make sure he protects himself from sin, to not go to places where there’s going to be trouble. So, these rules don’t only apply to establishing the Torah for dayanim, for judges and rabbis, but every human being has to establish the Torah in his own way, in the way that he can.

Rashi explains, what does it mean to weigh your judgments carefully? He says, Loshen mamtinim, to wait.  You shouldn’t be quick to judge people.  You have to go deep in your mind to see if you’re really looking at the situation in the right way. And the Rambam says a similar thing. He says, “You shouldn’t be quick to judge.” Why? Because it’s possible if you wait, you will reveal things that you didn’t see before. In other words, don’t be quick. Slow down. You want to make a decision, you have to slow down because the more you slow down, the more you’re going to see things that you didn’t see before. This is what the Rambam says. And the Bartenura says the same thing, and so does Rabbeinu Yonah. Listen to what Rabbeinu Yonah says. “One who is hasty in his rulings is called negligent. If you judge too fast, you’re negligent. Even if you’re sincere and you’re going to judge correctly, it’s considered karov lemaizid, close to intentional. He should have reminded himself that a hasty decision is likely to be inaccurate, that all human error is too common. As it’s said, “We allow judgement deferment because through deliberation and waiting, reasoning is added to reasoning, and analysis to analysis, until finally you can arrive at an accurate ruling. Thinking things through a second time,” he says, “Uncovers new ideas and insights. So, this is the first thing that the Sages said in order to mekayim, in order to establish the Torah. Don’t be hasty to make decisions. Wait. The longer you wait, the more you think, the clearer the decision is going to be.

Now the second thing is, to establish many students. Rashi says, “Even when you are old, because you don’t know which of your students are going to come out good. That’s why learning and teaching Torah is a great job, because you could do it even till you’re old. Even when you’re old, you should continue to teach.” That’s what Rashi says. And Rabbeinu Bachye says that by increasing students, you also increase Torah. You widen the Torah. And not only that, but the teacher becomes wiser like it says, “Much did I learn from my Rabbonim, but I learned the most from my talmidim.” So, the more students you have, the wiser you’re going to be. And the Tosefos Yom Tov explains, “Why does it say, “Stand up a lot of talmidim.” He wants to explain in other words,  stand them up on their feet, that they should understand and have a grasp of the Torah. That’s what it means, to stand. Why, they have truth.  Sheker doesn’t have legs. Lies have no legs to stand on. Stand them up in truth. Make a lot of talmidim. Spread the Torah. Make them know the truth. And the Bartenura wants to explain, this is coming against Rav Gamliel who said,  Any student who his inside and his outside are not equal, don’t let him into the beis medrash. The Bartenura wants to say against that. He’s saying, “Even if the guy is not 100 percent, let him into the beis medrash, like shitas Beis Hillel, not like shitas Beis Shammai. Let him into the beis medrash. Get talmidim. Teach Torah to everyone, because that’s the thing that’s going to heal them. That’s the thing that’s going to make them straight.

The last thing that the Mishna said was to make a fence for the Torah. What does that mean? So, Rashi explains it means . You have to make a fence not to come close to a real issur Torah. You have to protect yourself, to keep away so you shouldn’t do a real sin. The Rabbeinu Bachye gives an example ,like we know on Erev Pesach it’s forbidden from the Torah to eat Erev Pesach, bread after the sixth hour. What do the Chachamim come along and do? They said, “No, you have to stop eating by the fourth hour.” That’s an example of making a fence for the Torah. Since the Torah forbids it from the sixth hour, came along the Rabbis and said, “No, you can’t eat from the fourth hour, because maybe somebody’s going to make a mistake in the time, and they’re going to wind up eating, and they’re going to be over a sin from the Torah.” That’s what it means, to make a fence. And by making fences, that’s also an aspect of establishing the Torah. But Rabbeinu Yonah says even one step further. He says, this is unbelievable. “One who acts in accordance with these enactments shows a greater love of God.” The person who keeps the fences of the Torah shows even a greater love for God.” The Rabbinic fences are designed to keep us at a safe distance from any possibility of sin. Taking special care to observe them indicates a greater degree of reverence and fear of God.  And observing the mitzvah itself, the deRabanans, the things that the Rabbis established is even greater than the mitzvos themselves, because it shows your fear of God, and it shows the love that you have for God, that you really don’t want to even come close to a sin. “The words of the Sages are the root and tree of the fear of heaven, which is the main purpose in the universe,” he says, “And the foundation of all good attributes. Fear of God is man’s purpose in the world. And it’s the foundation of good attributes is connected with anava, with humility.” If you fear God, you’re a humble person. This is the thing that’s going to give you good character. Like the Midrash says, “Your beloved are better than wine, and the words of the Sages are more precious than the wine of the Torah.”

Now, these three things the Mishna brought are not just ethics, they’re also halachas. Listen to this halacha. The Rambam says, “A judge has to be diligent in din, and he has to work back and forth until it’s clear like the sun. And a person who jumps and gives a law before it’s clear to him, this person is called a fool, a rasha, an evil person, and a gas ruach, an arrogant person. That’s one halacha.  Now, there’s another halacha. You have to have talmidim. What does that mean?  Every man is obligated to teach his son Torah. That’s also a talmid. And just like a man is obligated to teach his son Torah, he is also obligated to teach his grandchildren Torah. You are also responsible to make sure that your grandchildren know Torah. And not only your children and your grandchildren, but it’s a mitzvah on every wise person from Yisroel to teach many talmidim, even young people who are not his sons. So you see, it’s a halacha. And the last thing is, make a fence for the Torah. A beis din who sees that people are going off, are obliged to make a fence for the Torah to stop the people from going off. Like the sages made, eating chometz from the fourth hour, even though it’s only forbidden dearaisa from the sixth hour. So, these things are actual halachas, they are laws.

Now, Rav Chaim of Volozhin wants to say that these three things apply to three different aspects in man. What does it mean, to be deliberate in judgement? That’s talking about your thoughts. And what does it mean, to spread Torah to many talmidim? That’s going according to your words. And what does it mean, to make a fence for the Torah? That’s according to your actions. These three things correct a man in his thoughts, his words, and his actions. And the Maharal wants to explain that these three things are going according to three different parts of his of his intelligence. He says, “They’re kenegged chochma, bina v’daas.” I’ll explain. The first thing, judgement, has to do with chochma, wisdom, . That has to do with sevara. Are you in reality or not in reality? When you make a decision, is your decision in reality? The second, many students, has to do with bina, and going back and forth, and seeing many different aspects of what you’re about to decide – to see the thing within the thing. And the last one, making a fence around the Torah, is if you’re missing information. If you’re missing information you have to protect yourself. You have to stay away from an avera, because you don’t even know what the law is.

So, at the end of the day, this is what it takes to establish the Torah. But also, the Torah in ourselves. What’s the Torah? The Torah is the will of God. How are we going to do God’s will? So, first we have to weigh our judgments, the way we look at the world. How are we going to live like a righteous person? The only way to do it is to have patience. That’s what all the meforshim said, “When you judge, when you look at the world, when you decide what things mean, be patient.” Be relaxed. If a person’s not relaxed, he’s not in reality. That’s what it has to do with the sevara, it has to do with sevara – being in reality. In order to do God’s will, you have to be in reality, which means forget about your stories and what you think things mean at a first glance.  The Avos de Rebbe Nosson says, “.” What does it meant to be deliberate in judgement? Don’t be strict, because anyone who’s strict, he’s not going to see reality. You’re making up a story. If you want to live a good life, then you have to be relaxed. And if you’re relaxed, you’ll see reality. That’s stage number one.

Stage number two, once you see reality, you have to spread reality. You have to spread consciousness. You have to see good in people. How are you going to see good in people? If you see good in people, then you can spread good, which means make a lot of talmidim, be connected with society, and spread the Torah.

And the last thing is to protect yourself from sin. Just because you’re going to spread Torah, but you have to be careful also. There are people out there in the world who are not good. There are people out there in the world who you can’t be connected to, because they don’t want to listen to you. They want nothing to do with the Torah. You try your best, like the psak said, “Many students” against Rav Gamliel who said, “His inside is not like his outside.” But if the people are not interested and they don’t want, you can’t be connected with them. You have to protect yourself from sin. So, through these three things we can come to establish the Torah not only in ourselves, but in the world. And we could spread Torah, which is the will of God.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s podcast. Bezrat Hashem, next week we’ll do the second Mishnah

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The Torah Podcast 099 Torah Portion of the Week – Emor – Why You Need to Be Strong – Hard Work and Laziness – A Powerful Parable about a New Clock – A Great Story about Rav Binyamin Finkel and Peace in Your Home – The Benefits of Peace

The Torah Podcast Transcript Coming Soon

The post 099 Why You Need to Be Strong – Hard Work and Laziness appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

098 Torah Portion of the Week – Kedoshim – The Physical Side of Spirituality – Heaven on Earth – A Powerful Parable the Wrong Guy  – A Great Story about Rav Moshe Feinstein and Peace in Your Home Stop Being Jealous

The Torah Podcast Transcript

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097 Pesach and Matzah – How Humility can Set You Free

The Torah Podcast Transcript

097 – The Torah Podcast Pesach and Matzah – How Humility can Set You Free

One of the first things we have in the Haggada which we read on Pesach is the four sons. It says like this. “Blessed be He. Blessed is the all-present One. Blessed is He. Blessed is He who gave the Torah to His people Yisroel, blessed is He. The Torah speaks of four sons, one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who is clueless. The wise son, what does he say? ‘What are these testimonies, decrees, and ordinances which You Hashem our God, has commanded you?’ Therefore, we explain to him the laws of the Pesach offering, that one may not eat dessert after the final taste of the Pesach offering. The wicked son, what does he say? ‘Of what purpose is this work to you?’ he says. ‘To you,’ thereby excluding himself. By excluding himself from the community of believers, he denies the basic principle of Judaism. Therefore, blunt his teeth and tell him, ‘It is because of this that Hashem did so for me when I went out of Egypt.’ For me, but not for him. Had he been there, he would not have been redeemed.”

Rav Leib Chasman explains that the four sons are really inside of us. We have four different aspects to ourselves. Sometimes we’re wise, and sometimes we’re wicked. Sometimes we’re simple, and sometimes we’re clueless. These are different aspects inside of ourselves. And Rashi explains that the four sons that we’re speaking about in the Haggada which says “the Torah speaks of four sons” is talking about the four different times that the Torah commanded us to tell over the story of the Exodus to our children.

Now, the question arises as to why did we change the order of the four sons here in the Haggadah from they way they were written in the Torah? In the Haggadah, first you have the wise son and then you have the wicked son but that’s not the order in the Torah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe wants to explain, which I believe is based on the Maharal, like this. He wants to say that the reason why we put the wicked son after the wise son is that the wise son has to be careful not to become the wicked son, because both the wise son and the wicked son are extremely intelligent. The problem is that the wicked son makes a mistake. He says like this, “While Judaism does not encourage intellectual conformity,” in other words we want to be free thinking, but on the other hand we don’t endorse critical rationality either.” Why? Because we have to temper ourselves with humility, intellectual humility. It’s true, we have to be totally intellectual and really dig in and ask the questions we need to ask, in order to understand what the Torah is saying. And we learn to do that in a rational way, but at the same time we have to be humble. We have to know that the Torah is way, way beyond us.

So, even though we should challenge everything that we learn at the end of the day, we have to know that the Torah is correct and it means that we don’t understand. Even if we have a question, it doesn’t mean therefore the Torah is wrong. It means we don’t understand. And it’s only through diligent and patient study that we will come to understand, so we have to have a humble approach. What do we see in the wise son’s question? He makes a chilek, he makes a split between chukim u’mishpatim. In general, chukim means laws that have no reasoning, we can’t understand them. For example, you can’t eat milk and meat, and you can’t wear shaatnez, you can’t wear together linen and wool, and all the other things that we don’t understand what the Torah is saying, we don’t understand the reasoning behind them. And mishpatim are things that we can understand — not to kill, not to murder, not to steal. So, he made this chilek. The problem is that if you take this differentiation to an extreme, you can go off the way. Why? Because he would assume that you understand all the rational laws of the Torah. In other words, it’s in your understanding and therefore you don’t have to be obedient to a higher source. If it’s chukkim, so what are you going to say? You can’t eat milk and meat, there’s no reasoning behind it. So of course, I have to listen to what Hashem says. But if on the other hand I say, “Listen, I understand these mishpatim. I understand how legal things should be. I have good sevaros, good ideas. So, then who says I have to listen to Hashem? I can make up my own laws. And maybe this chilek, this differentiation is going to take me off the way.” And that’s why he puts the wise son next to the evil son. He says, “All commandments, even intellectual, powerful ones, must be primarily observed out a sense of the fallibility of human knowledge, which is obedience to a higher authority. The fact that a certain law makes more sense should not color the religious perception of it.”

In other words, just because you understand it doesn’t mean it’s out of the box of religion. There’s another aspect to it. The aspect is that God commanded you to do it. It’s a religion. It’s not just a law. The Torah is a religion, it’s not just laws. Okay, if we have laws, then let’s forget about God. No, God has to be in the picture at every step along the way. And this is what we answered him. We said, “You should instruct him in the laws of the Pascal lamb.” We do not deserve any dessert after the Pascal lamb. You can’t eat anything after the afikomen, the last piece of matza that we eat at the Pesach seder, you’re not allowed to eat things. You’re not allowed to have sweet drinks. All you could have is water or tea. Why is that? So we should remember like it says in the verse, “It is a Pesach offering to God because he saved our houses.” God saved us. God redeemed us. We have to keep God in the picture. Do not eat anything after the afikomen. You should have the afikomen, that taste in your mouth which is the remembrance of God, that God is the one who commanded us the commandments. It’s not just our rationale. And even the most intellectual conviction could be leaning off. We know intellectually that God took us out of Mitzrayim. But if we eat after the afikomen and we have cakes and sweets, and all kinds of sweet drinks which represent this world, so even our intellectual convictions could be eroded. We can go off the derech and we can wind up like the rasha. And therefore, he wants to explain, that’s why we put the rasha right after the wise son.

And Rav Avraham Grodzinsky of Slobodka wants to explain, why is it that we don’t realize that the mishpatim, the intellectual mitzvos also are beyond our comprehension? It’s because we don’t work hard enough. When you work hard in learning and you read Rishonim and Acharonim, you start to understand that even the most simple concepts we don’t grasp. We get to a point in the sugya in the intellectual investigation, we get to the point where we realize we don’t understand. It’s the talmidei chachamim, when they go forward and forward in their learning, they understand. They get a fear of God because even the most simple things, we don’t understand.

And the Maharal also explains this. The Maharal was fighting against the shita in learning that was totally according to Aristotle, which means pure logic, and muchrak, something is forced, logically it’s true. So, that goes to a certain point. It’s true that all the basis of all of our learning is based on that. But there are certain things that we can’t understand and the way the Rabbis spoke, the Maharal explains, that they took us to a higher place, than just the rational. They took us to a place where we realized that we need God to understand. It’s not just an intellectual pursuit, it’s a Godly pursuit. So, I now want to apply this idea that our intellect is limited to the beginning of the Haggada.

The Haggada starts like this. “Ha’lachma’anya,” this is the bread of affliction, the bread of poverty. The Maharal has a question. We know that chazal tells us, not only is it the bread of poverty, but it’s also the bread of redemption. So, he has a question, how can it be that the same matza which represents poverty and affliction be the matzah that represents redemption? Aren’t those two things opposites? So, the Maharal wants to explain, “No, hino hach, they are the same.” Why? Because someone who does not run after this world but his whole focus is spirituality, that’s the person who’s free. Like it says in the Pirkei Avos, “Marbei nechasim, marbei daarga,” the more possessions you have, the more you worry. So, it’s the person who focuses on spirituality and doesn’t care about this world, and he leaves this world hefker, and he’s not interested in it. He’s interested only in serving God, that’s the person who’s free. Also, it says in Pirkei Avos, “Who is free? A person who learns Torah, a person who’s dedicated to Torah. That’s the person who’s free. His mind is free, because he doesn’t have the worries of this world. He’s focused on spirituality.” And this is what the matza represents. It’s the essential part of the seder. Matza zu, this matza is teaching us to focus on spirituality.

I like to add onto this another aspect which we can learn from the matza. It says, “Halach m’anya,” which means the bread of affliction, or the bread of poverty. The Gemara in Pesachim says it could also mean the bread halach m’onya, the bread that we tell stories over. Which stories do we tell over it? In this case, we tell the story of the Haggada. But it’s also our personal story. We know for example, that the bread is made of four elements. It has flour, which is earth. It has fire, it has water, and it has air which means that it’s machmis. It has air, and matza is missing that aspect of the air. The air represents the ruach, what comes out of your mouth. The breath, the breath of life. What comes out of your mouth? What story do you tell over the matza? Do you tell the story, the way the Maharal explains, that it’s nivdal and it’s simple, pshut, the story of life which the Torah wants us to live. Or do we tell our own stories over the matza about what life is about? And this relates back to the idea of intellectual humility. We should understand that we don’t understand all of reality. We see what we see. But the story that we say about reality, that’s where we’re trapped. That’s where we’re enslaved. It’s our stories that enslave us. For example, a person gets a flat tire. Now, life is full of flat tires. Things are happening every day. What story do we tell over that flat tyre? Do we say, “Oy, we have a whole history. What does it mean that I’ve got a flat tire? You see I’m no good, and bad things are happening, and all these things always happen to me. That’s our history.” Then we tell a story about the future. “Oy, I’m going to lose my job. I’m going to get divorced. Who knows what’s going to happen because of this flat tire?” We have a whole story, and that’s the thing that enslaves us. It’s the story that enslaves us.

So now, this relates back to the concept of intellectual humility. Why don’t we have humility? Why do we have this whole story that we think we know exactly what it means. I’ve got a flat tire, and I’m sure that my whole history is true. And I’m sure I’m no good, and these bad things are happening to me. And I’m very sure what’s going to be in the future. I know my life is ruined. I’m going to be late now, and I’m going to be all aggravated. And you’re not free, you’re enslaved. You’re enslaved to your emotions. But if you have intellectual humility, you know what happened? You had a flat tire. What does that mean? It means that you had a flat tire. Are you going to make up a whole story about what it means? No. Be here now. A person who is in reality, he sees that the reality is exactly what it is. And this is the concept of matza. Just look at things the way they are. Without the whole expanded story, like bread, which  expands.  Without all the meaning that you put onto the story. That’s where our freedom exists. Our freedom exists if we can take away the meanings that we put on things, and have a little bit of intellectual humility, and look at things the way the way they are in reality, at that point we become free.

There was a famous book written by a mathematician called Flatlands. It was about people who live in three dimensional space, trying to explain to people who live in two dimensional space about the third dimension. What’s one dimension? A point. Two dimensions is a line. A third dimension means mass. So, here you are, the people who are living in the world of mass, and they’re trying to explain to the people who have no mass and only have two dimensions. The matza also only has two dimensions. It’s flat, which means it has a point and it has a line, but it doesn’t have any mass to it. That’s where the story comes in. That’s where the mashmaout comes in, the meaning of things. Why add meaning that isn’t there? Most of the learning that a person does when he learns Gemara for example, is taking away things that he’s pushing on to reality. Why are we pushing our trip on reality? Why can’t we just accept the reality the way it is, the way that God gave it to us? And that’s the direction of freedom. So, it’s not only a question of being attached materialistically, like the Pirkei Avos says, that someone who has a lot of possessions has a lot of worry, but it’s an emotional aspect also. Why are we so connected to everything? Why can’t we accept the way things are, the way that God made them, which has to do with intellectual humility. Intellectual humility means seeing exactly what happened? I got a flat tire. Who gave me a flat tire? God gave me a flat tire. What’s the story? It’s not my story, it’s God’s story. I don’t know why. I know that God gave me a flat tire, that’s it. And if I could stop pushing my trip into things, I could become free.

And this is what the Gevorus Avraham explains by the four sons. How do the four sons start out? Blessed is the Omniprescent, Blessed is He. Blessed is the Omnipresent represents the wise son, and Blessed is He represents the wicked son. What’s the difference? He says, both of them recognize that there’s a God. Blessed is the Omnipresent. Blessed is He. But still, only the wise son realized that everything is hashgacha pratis. He understands that every little detail that occurs in his life, God is sending it to him. If God is sending it to him, he has to accept it. He has to be in reality. He has to let go, and let God run the world. And that’s what’s going to give us our freedom.

We know in the famous perush of the Vilna Gaon on Chad Gadya he explains like this. It starts out with a kid, chad gadya, a baby lamb. Who is that talking about? That’s talking about the birthright of the firstborn, Yaakov. And who came along and knocked out Yaakov? Well, it was the cat. The cat came and ate the kid. Who is that? That was jealousy, the cat’s jealous. That was the brothers, the other brothers wanted to knock out Yosef because he received the tradition of being the firstborn. And after the cat came, who came? The dog. Who is the dog? The Mitzrim, Egyptians. We know in Mitzrayim if you look in the history books, you’ll see all their idols, a lot of them were dogs. What’s the quality of a dog? A dog runs around all day, he has no rest. He has no peace, he has no menuchas hanefesh. He’s all day running after his taivas, his desires, running here, and running there. So, if a person is like a dog, he’s not focused. He’s not relaxed. He doesn’t accept what God gives him. He doesn’t live in the present, to be completely focused on the now, reality is what it is. There’s no future, there’s no past. There’s only now. Let God control your life. Don’t be like the dog, who’s running all over the place.

What happens with the dog came along? Came along the stick and killed the dog. Who’s the stick? It’s the staff of Moshe Rabbeinu. Came along Moses and he killed the dog. In other words, he said, “Listen here, there’s a Torah. There’s a God. What are you worried about? Why are you running after all of these taivas? You think you can fulfill yourself with Olam Hazeh? You think you’re going to fulfill yourself with all of your desires?” It’s not going to work. You have to get the stick. You have to go according to the Torah. And really it’s a vicious cycle. Why? Because since we don’t accept reality, we become all frustrated. Because of our story, we’re all frustrated. And since we’re frustrated, we have to act out. We have to do averas. We have to drink, we have to smoke, we have to do something to release that pressure. This is the nature of man, he has to release that pressure. But the pressure only came because of the story that he told over the reality. If the story would change, the pressure would go away. If we would accept God’s decrees, if we know that God loves us, and everything that happens is min HaShemayim, and that we can create a relationship with God, that’s the difference between the wise son and the wicked son. The wise son has a relationship with God. He understands that everything that’s happening is min HaShemayim. And the wicked son, he doesn’t know what’s happening, so he has a whole story. This happened to me, and that happened to me. He has his own personal story. But your own personal story leads to nothing but frustration, and then you’re all frustrated. Then you have to act out, and you have to go do averas.

And also, this is what it means by Pharaoh. What’s Pharaoh? It comes from the word peruah, open. Pharaoh opened everything up, spread, dissipated. He wanted everybody to spread their energy all over the place, and they were running around like dogs, who knows what, after our taivas, all of our things. That’s not the way to peace of mind. The Torah is the way to peace of mind. The stick has to come and kill the dog. But this could only happen when we have intellectual humility. We have to know that we totally don’t understand what things mean, and what things are.

I just want to end off with the Shem Mi Shmuel who brings down that the 10 maamaros, the world was created in 10 sayings. What happened? Came along the 10 plagues and it broke the 10 maamaros. In other words, we know reality is solid, in the sense that God created it. Came along the 10 plagues and showed us that reality is not solid. Everything we thought was real could be broken. Water turns to blood, frogs all over the place, dever, if you go through the 10 plagues you’ll see every aspect of reality is broken. It was revealed to us that God is behind this reality. God is the underpinning of reality. And after the 10 plagues came, the 10 commandments. The Torah, the Torah is along with the understanding that God runs the world, and that is the way to peace of mind. And that is the way to freedom. If we follow the Torah, if we’re bnai Torah, if we go after ruchnius, so then we’ll be free.

The post 097 Pesach and Matzah – How Humility can Set You Free appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

The Torah Podcast Transcript

096 Torah Portion of the Week – Shemini – The Key to Your Inner World – Silence and Modesty – A Powerful Parable about the Expert Doctor – A Great Story about Rav Moshe Feinstein and Peace in Your Home – Proper Speech in the House

Torah Portion of the Week – Shemini

The Torah Podcast Transcript

096 – The Key to your Inner World – Silence and Modesty

The Torah Podcast 096 –  The Key to your Inner World – Silence and Modesty – Torah Portion of the Week – Shemini – A Powerful Parable  – Great Stories – Rav Moshe Feinstein and Peace in Your Home

Torah Portion of the Week – Shemini

So, chapter 10 of Vayikra starts out with the death of the two sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu. The verses say like this. “The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, each took their fire pans. They put fire in them and they placed incense upon them. And they brought before Hashem an alien fire that He had not commanded them to bring. A fire came forth from Hashem and consumed them, and they died before Hashem. Moses said to Aaron, ‘Of this did Hashem speak saying, ‘I will be sanctified for those who are close to me, and I will be honored before the entire people.’ And Aaron fell silent.” So we see here that Hashem killed the two sons of Aaron haCohen, and Moshe explained to Aaron what happened there, that it was a sanctification of God’s name, and Aaron was silent. So, Rashi explains that according to Rav Yishmael, they were intoxicated with wine before they came to the Beis HaMigdash, and this was a sanctification of Hashem’s name that Hashem wiped them out. And Moshe Rabbeinu said, “Ah, this is what Hashem was speaking about.” Where did Hashem say such a thing? He said, “I shall meet there the Children of Israel and they should be sanctified to my honor. Do not read ‘through my honor’ but ‘through the honored ones.’ So, Moshe said to Aaron, ‘Aaron my brother, I knew that the House would become sanctified through the intimate with the Omnipresent. But I was in the impression it was either you or me. Now I see that they are greater than us,’ and Aaron fell silent.” He received reward for his silence. What reward did he receive? That the speech was directed to him alone, that God said to them the section of the Torah that deals with the intoxication of wine. So, Aaron was rewarded for his silence.

So, Rav Miller from Gateshead brings the Amek Davar who wants to explain that these possukim are connected with the Gemara in Bechoro 63B that says like this. “If a pupil receives the anger of his teacher in silence, then he will be rewarded by the power to distinguish between the impure and the pure, by becoming a teacher of halacha of Yisroel.” It says that if a  person who’s rebuked by his teacher and he keeps silent, he will be rewarded to be a big lamdan, to be a big thinker. So the question is, what’s the connection between being rebuked by his teacher and just sitting there being silent, and becoming a teacher of the Jewish people? So, Rav Miller from Gateshead brings the Ohr Nefesh who explains. He says, “The pupil who has the ability to keep silent and to cultivate a deep, inner intellectual activity, unrelieved by their frequent questioning and objections that are often a psychological escape from the necessary thought, this pupil who has the power of absorption and inner concentration, who can analyze and discriminate even between the mistakes of his teacher and his justified criticisms, he will be granted the opportunity to develop this faculty on his own for intense reflection and discrimination, for close, uninterrupted study, to a point where he will grasp the fine distinctions of halacha which will make him a Jewish teacher in Yisroel. In other words, the person who has the ability to be silent even when he’s being rebuked, he means he has deep inner world. He’s connected with his seichel, with his intellect, and he’s able to look at things in a relaxed way in an open way, that he could understand what the law is. He has a deep mind. Rav Miller says, “It shows he has a deep, reflective inner life and he does not seek the extrovert, self-expression, and the shallow and the volatile. Receiving the words of others without external self-expression, this is the quality needed that ultimately sanctions the halachic leaders of the Jewish people.” In other words, the ability to be rebuked, to be put down, to be able to knock down and not respond means you’re holding in a very deep, high level.

And he brings the Maharal who explains the Pirkei Avos that says, “Be deliberate in judgment and raise many disciples.” The Maharal explains, “What does it mean deliberate in judgment and raise many disciples? It means you can’t just look at things from your own perspective. You have to be able to see out of yourself. You’re happy to see more perspectives. You have to be open-minded. The man who keeps silent and can assimilate the opinions of others turns his energy inward on the problem itself. And in essence, all men are united. In all men is the image of God close from his innermost heart of being, and requires however the stilling of disruptive outside noises. If you are to reach the pure, harmonious truth, you have to get rid of the outside voices. You have to be able to hear your inner voice.”

And Rav Miller brings another proof of how important it is to develop your inner world. The verse says like this. “And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.” He says, “Wait a second. Every person who saw Esther, she found favor in their eyes? It doesn’t make any sense. How could she find favor in the eyes of every person?” He brings the Maharal that explains like this. He says, “U’bevadai zeh la’amod hamadregas Esther shel al tzircha penimi.” “For sure,” he says, to stand on the level that Esther had when it came to modesty, her inner modesty, ‘ve hanistar shaveh es hakol.’” And he wants to say, this hidden quality of tzenius, of modesty – it translates as modesty, it’s really much more than modesty – the quality of having a deep, inner world he says, “shaveh es hakol,” that’s worth everything. So, he wants to explain, that’s why she found chein, she found favor in every other human being, because she had such a deep, inner world, her tzenius, her modesty went so deep that everybody saw that. Everybody can relate to that. She found chein in the eyes of all the people. She found favor in everybody’s eyes, because they saw her depth. Her depth was so great that everybody could see it.

And Rav Wolbe wants to explain that when Aaron was silent it meant that he totally accepted Hashem’s decree. That’s in terms of a negative thing happening, but he wants to explain that even in terms of the positive, if a person is not silent, he won’t appreciate anything. Look what he says. “In contrast, a person who has difficulty remaining silent will never fully appreciate anything that he experiences. When is awed or shaken by something he’s heard or seen, he feels compelled to categorize the occurrence with a verbal description.” He says, “Amazing, very nice. But if he would remain silent and allow what he has seen or heard to be internalized, it would have a much deeper and greater impression on him.” This is unbelievable. We have to develop our inner world and our silence is the key. How do we get into the inner world through silence? And he explains that silence also goes hand in hand with solitude. A person who enjoys a quiet moment gets to know himself and his internal world, and will make an effort to find some time for solitude. A person who does not know how to remain silent, he constantly flees from solitude. He has no interest in getting to know himself. The problem with our dor, generation, all day on the phone, all day checking the internet, checking the emails, there’s never any time to self-reflect, time to build an inner world. And the world’s pushing on us, everything’s external – go to the mall, go buy something, go do something, move around. No, a person who has the ability to connect with his inner world, he doesn’t need all these things. He’s satisfied internally, and this is how we build our spirituality because spirituality is built on our inner world, on our ability to reflect, to think, to understand really what life is about. If we’re constantly distracted, how are we supposed to know God?

And not only that, but how are we supposed to get across to our children that there’s a God in the world? The Chassam Sofer says like this. “If Aaron continued to weep, the intended kiddush Hashem that his children died would never have got to klal Yisroel. They would have got the wrong message, because if Aaron continued to weep, what would have happened? They would have thought, ‘Oh, you see God punished for his sins. That has nothing to do with us.’ The answer is no, it wasn’t because of Aaron’s sins that his children passed away. It was a kiddush Hashem, it was to show don’t mess with God. Whatever the halacha is, you have to keep the halacha. You’re in the Beis HaMigdash, you are close to God. And if you’re close to God, you have to be on your best behavior. If you’re not on your best behavior God-forbid, that’s what can happen.” And that was the message. So, if Aaron would have continued to cry, that message would not have got across. His silence which means the acceptance of God’s will, that brings God into the world. But acceptance of God’s will is not an easy story. How can a person go through suffering? How can a person have hardships and be silent, and to accept it with happiness? It’s not a simple story. It says, Chazal says that if a person is silent when somebody tells him off, it’s like the sun going forward in its strength. That’s what the verse says.

How can we be like the sun? How can we be strong like that? How can we accept all the decrees that God gives us, and just to be silent with people telling us off, and people acting weird, and kids doing who knows what, and your spouse is doing who knows what, and you remain silent? Where do you get the inner strength? So, the Malbim explains there are three things that can help us to accept God’s judgment. He explains by Avraham Avinu, the first thing is by the lowliness of man. Avraham Avinu said, “I’m but dust and ashes.” Where did he say that? When he was trying to save Sodom, he had to accept what God’s judgment was, it was to wipe out Sodom. And Abraham said, “I’m but dust and ashes.” So, by seeing his own lowliness he understood that Hashem is bigger than him. He doesn’t decide, Hashem decides.

Number two, we see by Yaakov Avinu by seeing all the good, all the good that Hashem’s giving to us, so of course we’re going to accept His judgment. Hashem knows best. Like the verse says by Yaakov when Esav was running after him. “I have become small from all your kindness.” So, by looking at the good, he was able to accept that judgment was happening with Esav. And the third way was by Dovid HaMelech. By looking at your sins, the verses say, “My bruises have melted because of my foolishness.” Dovid HaMelech had to accept his suffering, because of his sins. If you look at your sins, of course what do you mean, “Why is this happening?” Why is this happening? Of course, it’s happening. What you do, you realize, what are you doing with yourself? Of course it’s happening. These are the same things that help us to accept in silence, what God gives to us. It’s not a simple story.

Rav Schwab brings a story of a Rav who had his wife die, and not long after that his son died in a car accident, and he was very depressed. But what happened? After the son died in a car accident during the shiva the brother, his other boy, had a dream. And his mother came to him in his dream, and the mother said, “Let you father know he’s mourning too much.” Why? “Because you should know, when I was pregnant with the brother who died, Eliyahu HaNavi came to me in a dream and he said, ‘You’re going to live for 100 years. But the child you’re about to have is going to be a stillborn. So, I prayed, I prayed to Hashem, please take some of the years of my life and give it to my son.’” And at the shiva, they added up the years of the son’s life and the years of her life and it came out to be exactly 100. We don’t know the cheshbonos of God. We don’t know the accounting of how God is running the world. But we know that everything is good.

But essentially, the most important midda, the most important character that we need which includes everything that the Maharal said, is the midda of tzenius, of modesty, and having a deep, inner world. By building our inner world it gives us the ability to handle life. It gives us the ability to be happy. Why should you give over your menuchas hanefesh, your peace of mind, to somebody else, to something else? Your peace of mind is the most important thing that you have. It’s who you are. Don’t give it over to somebody else, to something else. Be silent, be quiet. Somebody speaks bad, be quiet. Something bad happens, be quiet. Why? Because your peace of mind is who you are. You can’t give that over to anybody. But the more you build it, the more you build your tzenius, the more you build your modesty and your inner world, then the more peace of mind you’re going to have. And life will become beautiful. You’ll be able to handle everything in any situation, by building your internal world and adding holiness to it, which also builds the entire world. The holiness gives you the ability to handle all of life’s problems.

The verse in Devarim 18:13 says like this. “You shall be whole-hearted with Hashem your God.” What does Rashi say? Be whole-hearted with Him. Walk with Him in your whole-heartedness. Look ahead to Him. Trust what He has in store for you, and do not delve into the future, but rather whatever comes upon you, accept with whole-heartedness. And then you will be with Him, and you will be with His portion.” By accepting God, you’re close to God. And not only are you close to God, but that’s the source of all blessings.

You’ve got to hear this. Rav Aharon Kotler says like this, this is unbelievable. “Bitachon, trust, is the source and foundation of the Divine influence in the world. Your trust brings blessing into the world and blesses you. Like it says in in Yirmyahu, ‘Blessed is the man who trusts in God. And in contrast,’ says Yirmyahu, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man. We see that the Divine blessing as well as the absence of the Divine influence are conditional upon trust, bitachon. That is because the purpose of creation is the awareness that everything that happens at every single moment, and all these successes are determined by God.” That’s the whole purpose of why we’re created. We’re created to accept God’s will, and the more we accept God’s will, the more blessings we will have. And if we don’t accept God’s will and we complain and we kvetch, so it brings klallah, it brings curses into the world. He says that even if a person is wicked, if he trusts in God he’ll be surrounded by kindness. It’s unbelievable.

If you trust in God, that’s going to bring the blessing, that’s where the blessing comes from because our whole point is to make kiddush Hashem. Our whole point, our existence is to say, “Yes, there is a God in the world.” And how can we do that more than being silent at the time of our suffering, at the time where things are going wrong, to accept it completely. And Rabbeinu Bachye says like this. “Included in the concept of martyrdom is the acceptance that everything God does is good. And therefore your suffering should be accepted with love.” He considered it martyrdom. A person’s dying for Hashem. Yes, when your wife tells you off and you don’t say anything, and your kids misbehave, or this guy does the wrong thing to you, or a person loses money, or God-forbid death, or who knows – all the things, all the things that happen to a man in his lifetime. If a person accepts that, it’s like he gave his life al kiddush Hashem. Like Yitzhak on the mizbeach, altar, he’s giving over his life for the sake of God, by being silent and accepting that. This is the kiddush Hashem. And that’s the thing that’s going to bring blessings into lives. It’s an unbelievable idea.

The verse in Tehillin 37:7 says, “Be mute before Hashem, and wait with longing for Him.” On this Rav Hirsch says, “The realization that your fate comes only from God should end all doubts and silence all protests. Once you understand that God’s running the world, of course you’ll be silent. But where does that come from, and where does it lead to? It’s a cause and effect. The more silent we are, the more we build our inner world. And the more we build our inner world, the more silent we will be. We’ll become different people. We could be transformed, our middos, our character could be totally transformed to become a different person that does not react, a person who’s relaxed, a person who’s happy, a person who has menuchas hanefesh, peace of mind. And all this, the mafteach, the key to all this, is silence – that if we can learn to be silent and build our inner world, it will lead to our true happiness.

0:18:23.6

A Powerful Parable

The same verse said, “A fire came forth from Hashem and consumed them and they died in the presence of Hashem. Moshe said to Aaron, ‘It is Hashem who spoke saying through those who are near Me, I will be sanctified. In the presence of the entire people I will be glorified.’” The Maggid Mi Dubno brings a moshul. He wants to explain, how can it be that the two children of Aaron died?

So, one time there was a minister who wanted to build a city. He hired all the best architects, and he’s going to build this beautiful city with streets and bridges, and gardens. He’s going to build everything. So he asked his adviser, “Are we missing anything?” He says, “Yeah, we’re missing a doctor. We have to bring the top doctor to the city. That’s also going to add to the city.” So, what did he do? He sent out messengers all over the place to find the best doctor. He says he’s going to pay him the best salary. So, what happens? The doctor comes to the town, everybody’s waiting for the doctor, and they’re all happy. So, the minister says, “Listen, let’s test out the doctor. Let’s bring him a sick man.” Someone in the audience says, “Really, I’m not feeling very good. I haven’t been feeling good the past couple of days.” So the doctor says, “Okay, fine. Come to my house you’ll get a rest there, I’m going to take care of you.” So, what happened? After a couple of days the guy died. So, the minister said and all the people shouted out loudly, “What’s with this doctor? He’s supposed to be the best doctor. The first guy they bring him a couple of days later, the guy died.” The minister asked him, “What happened? How could it be that he died?” He said, “It’s true, he did die. That’s because I let him die.” “What do you mean, you let him die?” He said, “I want to do a chessed for the entire community.” Why? “Because if I would have saved him, what would the community think? ‘Listen, we have this miracle doctor. We can do whatever we want. We don’t have to sleep at night. We can drink and eat all day, no problem. We’ll be healthy.’ But since they saw that this guy died, they understand that surely he’s a great doctor. But we have to understand, it’s dependent on us. We have to take responsibility for our own lives.’ So, that’s why I wanted to let the guy die.” That was the moshul, what was the nimshal?

He wanted to say the nimshal is when the Cohanim came. When the Jewish people saw that they had Aaron haCohen so they thought, “That’s it. We could do whatever we want, and then Aaron haCohen is going to take care of all of our sins.” But once they saw that Aaron’s two children died because of their sins, so then we understood, it’s not really so simple. We’d better take responsibility for ourselves.

0:20:53.1

Great Stories – Rav Moshe Feinstein

Rav Yitzhak Zilberstein brings a story about Rav Moshe Feinstein. One time there was a wedding of one of Rav Moshe Feinstein’s students, and it was in a hotel. And who owned the hotel? The father-in-law of the boy getting married. So, everybody’s going to come to the hotel for Shabbos, the Shabbos before the marriage. So, they invited a lot important people. There was about 250 people in the hotel. And what happened? Unfortunately, the boy’s father passed away. They didn’t know what to do. Everybody’s in the hotel for Shabbos, it’s the Shabbos before the wedding. The next day is the wedding, the wedding’s on Sunday. It was going to be a two day thing, and what’s going to be? They asked Rav Moshe Feinstein, he was the Posek HaDor. He’s the one who decides the halacha. He was the Gadol HaDor, he’s the one that decides. So, they asked him, “What do we do? Do we first bury the father or do we have to wait?” \

So he said, “Usually the halacha is, if there’s monetary laws, so you could have the wedding.” In other words, you’re going to lose all the money for the wedding so then you can have the wedding. But in this case, for example, the father-in-law owned the hotel. The father-in-law had all the food. He could freeze the food, it’s his hotel. You’re not going to lose anything.” But Rav Moshe said, he continued. He said, “But there’s other points too. There’s other aspects. It doesn’t only include the financial loss of the actual money for the wedding, but it includes other financial losses also. For example, if all the guests would leave and not have the wedding and the wedding would be two weeks later, so not all the guests would come. So, they’re going to lose a lot of gifts. The couple’s going to lose all the gifts that they would have got from these extra guests, the couple’s going to lose.” So therefore, he paskened that the wedding should be the next day, and after that they’re going to bury the father. But what did he say? He told everyone in the hotel, 250 people, “You cannot tell anybody that the father passed away. You’re not allowed to tell them, because then no one’s going to come to the wedding. Who’s going to come to a wedding when they know the dead father’s body is inside the hotel, they’re not going to want to come to the wedding.” So, 250 people were silent. They kept their silence, and they didn’t reveal to any of the other guests that the father died. We see from this the silence that the Jewish people had and the broadness of mind that Rav Moshe Feinstein had, to give the right halachic decision.

0:23:24.8

Peace in Your Home

Rav Aaron Stern speaks about proper speech in the house. He says, “Speech is this thing that separates man above animal,” we know that, b’al chayim medaber. A man is defined as an animal that speaks. And not only that, but speech also reflects the state of mind. In other words, a person speaks loud, they see him as angry. If he speaks softly, they see that he’s calm. And not only that, if a person even if he doesn’t understand what the person’s saying, they could understand from his tone of voice what he’s saying. It is said that Yehuda spoke to Yosef in Hebrew, even though he didn’t know that Yosef understood Hebrew, just to get the message across based on his emotional state. Speech has the ability to do that.

There is a famous story of the Chofetz Chaim who went to court one time by a Polish, a non-Jewish Pole, and he started to speak in Yiddish. The Judge judged him favorably because he was able to understand from his emotional state what was going on. The Judge said, “There’s no need to translate. His words could be understood in every language.” But there’s also a downside to that, because speech can be misinterpreted. For example, when Yehuda told Yosef he was like Pharaoh, so you have two explanations. What do you mean, like Pharaoh? If you’re important like Pharaoh, then you’re going to be punished like Pharaoh. So, speech is very loose. We don’t know what the other person’s saying.

And it happens all the time in a marriage. “For example,” he say, “A husband says to his wife, ‘Don’t forget to take the money before you leave the house.’” So, what is he trying to express? That he cares about her. And the wife interprets it, “What do you think, I’m a little kid, I don’t know what I’m doing?” No, the husband was trying to express that he cares about the wife, and the wife interpreted it in the wrong way. And the Chiddushei HaRim explains why did the Jews not only hear the words at Har Sinai but they also saw them? Because he wants to say – this is unreal – he says, “Because when it says do not steal, we can either read lo signav, it says do not steal. In Hebrew lo can be with an aleph or it can be with a vov. And if it’s with an aleph, it means do not. But if it’s with a vov, it means “’He shall steal.’” They would interpret it that it’s okay to steal. Maybe that was one of the Commandments, because everybody sees things the way that they want to see things.

He goes on to explain that your words could be the most damaging thing in your marriage, like arrows. Words could be like an arrow, it penetrates the heart. And not only that, once you let go of the arrow, there’s no way to get it back. You can’t retract it, so you have to be very careful before you speak. You can’t just say, “Oh, I was joking.” That doesn’t work. You’re going to pay a big price for such a thing. He says, “You should look at it like a telegram.” Every word you have pay for in a telegram, every word you have to pay. So too when you speak, you have to be careful with your words. He says, “If a man says the wrong thing he’s worse than an animal. Why? Because at least the animal can’t speak. He can speak, and he says the wrong thing.”

So also, when it comes to asking for example in your marriage, when do you ask for something? You have to know when to ask at the right time. Don’t speak every moment. You have to wait for an eis ratzon. We learn this in the Torah from a couple of different places. It’s said that Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem, “Please show me Your glory” after his previous request had been granted already. And Chana also asked for children at an eis ratzon. She was childless for nine years, but at that point when she asked, she understood that if I ask now, maybe I’ll be able to have a child, and she had Shmuel HaNavi. So, speech is a very, very important thing in our marriage. And if in general we can learn to express our feelings, but at the same time not talk too much, we’ll wind up with a much happier marriage.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 096 The Key to Your Inner World – Silence and Modesty appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

095 Torah Portion of the Week – Tzav – Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life – Thoughts Lead to Actions – A Powerful Parable about a Favor – A Great Story about Rav Yechezkel Abramsky and Peace in Your Home – Caring and Praise

The post 095 – Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life – Thoughts Lead to Actions appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

094 Torah Portion of the Week – Vayikra – When God Speaks, Jews Listen – Translating Reality – A Powerful Parable about an Expert Thief – A Great Story about Rebbi Akiva Eiger and Peace in Your Home – Giving Attention

The Torah Podcast Transcript Coming Soon

The post 094 – When God Speaks – Jews Listen – Translating Reality appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Special Holiday Edition Purim – The Secret to Happiness – Learning to Say I Don’t Know – A Powerful Parable about a Pen that Writes Itself – A Great Story Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein and Peace in Your Home – Having a Happy Purim

The Torah Podcast Transcript

093 The Torah Podcast – The Secret of Happiness – Learning to Say I don’t Know   

Special Holiday Edition – Purim

Rav Yitzhak Hutner has an unbelievable piece on Purim. He brings a verse from Tehillim, the verse says, “And all the nations of the earth will witness the salvation brought by our God.” That’s Tehillim 98:3. And the Gemara Megilla explains, when was that? When did this take place? This was during the days of Mordechai and Esther. So, he brings down that Hashem Himself does mitzvos. Which mitzvah does Hashem do? He does the mitzvah of tefillin. It says in example in Gemara Brochas that Hashem wears tefillin. What’s written inside the tefillin of Hashem? What’s written is, “Who could compare to my people, Yisroel? Who are one unique united nation on earth?” In other words, the mitzvah that He does gives praise to the Jewish people. Just like we do mitzvos to give praise to Hashem, Hashem does mitzvos in order to bring praise to God. But he extends this even further. He says an unbelievable idea. He says, “Just like we also have mitzvos which are not defined,” those mitzvos are called a reshus. And the possuk in Mishlei says, “Be chal darkei dachu, in all your ways you should know Hashem.” In other words, everything we do has to be a mitzvah. It’s not just a lulav and a sukkah, and Rosh Hashana, blowing the shofar. Those mitzvas are defined by the Torah, they’re very clear. But everything else that we’re doing is also supposed to be a mitzvah. So, he wants to extend it. “Just like Hashem does mitzvas which are defined, He also does mitzvas which are non-defined.”

Now, what’s the difference between a defined mitzvah and a non-defined mitzvah, which we’re calling the reshus, which means optional? In other words, you can choose. You can choose who you marry. You can choose what kind of job you want to do. You have a lot of details in your life, and you can choose. But they’re not defined. You choose it, it’s called a reshus. So, what’s the difference between that type of mitzvah and the defined mitzvah? The difference is, when you see a person doing a mitzvah, shaking a lulav, or blowing a shofar on Rosh Hashana, it’s quite clear what that person is doing. He’s doing a mitzvah. Everybody sees that he’s giving praise to God. Everybody sees that that person is doing that thing for the sake of God. But on the other hand, if you do mitzvos that are reshus, who you marry, and where you work, it’s not so clear whether the guy’s really doing it for Hashem or not. It only comes out in the long run. If you see a guy doing certain acts, over time you can little by little understand what the guy is doing, and you can see that he’s also doing it to praise God. He’s also doing it for God’s sake. So, the same thing with Hashem. Hashem also has these two types of mitzvos. Which types of mitzvos for example, are defined? For example, kriyas Yam Suf, when God took us out of Mitzrayim, Egypt, and He split the Red Sea, you see clearly there everybody sees right away, “Wow, what did Hashem do for the Jewish people?” He’s giving praise to the Jewish people, He’s giving value to the Jewish people.

On the other hand, when Hashem does other things for the Jewish people which are not so clearly defined, so those things are called a reshus in the world of mitzvos you can’t see clearly what’s going on. So, he wants to explain, that’s the story of Purim. That’s the story of the Megillas Esther. It takes a long time, and only at the end do you figure out that God was there in every move. You can’t see it from moment to moment. You only see it over time, all the different things that happened. The fact that Esther got taken in to the King’s palace, and the fact that the King woke up in the middle of the night, and he wanted somebody to read to him, and he happened to read to him that Mordechai saved his life, and all the other small events which appeared to be according to nature nature, so those things you can’t see clearly where’s God in these things. All the things that God does over time, we can’t see them. The miracles, those are like the defined mitzvos, where the non-miracles, teva, that’s considered like the reshus, optional. And each thing that Hashem is doing is for the sake of the Jewish people. He’s helping the Jewish people. And in the end of the story, we saw the tremendous kiddush Hashem.

We saw how Hashem saved the people, and that’s what the verse said. The verse in Tehillim said, “And all the nations of the earth will witness the salvation brought by God.” All the nations of the world where Achashverosh was King over 127 provinces over the entire world, they saw the salvation of the Jews. When did they hear of the salvation of the Jews? Only at the very end. So, what does this teach us? This teaches us that we cannot see the ways of Hashem. It’s only in the end that we’ll be able to see the ways of Hashem. But everything along the way, Hashem was there. And that’s exactly what the story of Purim is about, that all the mundane things, all the things which seem to be happening naturally – you meet this person, you speak to that person, this happens, that happens – really Hashem is doing all of it, but you don’t see it. It’s only at the end that you understand, and if you look back in your life, of course you see wow, thank God I didn’t marry that girl. Or, thank God this happened. Bad things that appear to be happening are not bad at all. 

That’s what he says. He says, “During the remainder of the year we anticipate and yearn for salvation that will end our suffering and reveal the concealed presence of God. But on Purim the anticipation for redemption involves hoping and anticipating that the final salvation will appear to make apparent that there was never any hiddenness and concealment.” In the end, it is revealed that God Himself did everything. That’s the story of Purim. God was there each step of the way. And this is an unbelievable lesson in happiness. How can we be happy? The only way we could be happy is we understand that every detail of our lives is occurring because Hashem is the one that’s doing it. We can’t see it now, but in the long run we can. But the Chachamim, the great Sages, the great Rabbis understood along the way. And you can see a proof from Rashi. What does Rashi say in the Megilla? He says on the verse, it says, “And every day Mordechai would walk about in the front of the quarters of the house of the women to learn of Esther’s welfare, and what would be done to her.” What happened to Mordechai? According to most opinions, Esther was his wife. They took his wife away, and they gave her to a non-Jewish King. Could you imagine? You’d be devastated. And that’s why the verse said he was outside, wondering what’s going to be with her. But Rashi explains – listen to this. Mordechai said to himself, “The only reason that this righteous woman was taken to the bed of a non-Jewish King must be that she’s destined to arise and save the Jewish people.” He therefore went around to find out what would be her fate. In other words, Mordechai understood, this crazy thing happened, they took my wife and they gave her to a non-Jewish King. Oh, what does he say to himself? It must be that she’s in there to become the Princess in order to save the Jewish people, and we’re going to need her. Listen to this perspective, it’s unbelievable. Instead of being depressed, instead of being down and finished, no. He looks at it with a positive understanding, because he understands there’s got to be a bigger picture. I don’t see the bigger picture. I only see a small sliver of time. But if I look over the long run, there must be a reason for what happened. And that was his attitude. It was unbelievable. He understood that this horrible thing that was happening must be there to save the Jewish people. And it’s such a high level, to be able to look at life that way, to see in all the details of your life when something bad happens, that God is doing it.

And Rav Dessler explains on the Rashi which is the same thing as the Yalkut Shemoni, he explains there like this. He says, “God finds it necessary to punish Yisroel. He generally provides the cure beforehand, in order to teach us that the sole purpose of the punishment is to induce us to do teshuva, that we should return to Him, so, to make the punishment unnecessary.” And Mordechai sensed this exactly when he saw that his wife went to Achashverosh. The concept is that the cure comes before the disease. A refuah lifnai ha makka, everything that Hashem’s doing is a cure. It’s to help us. What’s going on, why are we suffering? We’re only suffering because Hashem wants to help us. And if we look at it that way, we’ll see that the cure comes before the punishment. We don’t understand the bigger picture. We don’t know why Hashem’s doing what He does. He does things for reasons. Like it says in Tehillim, it says like this. There’s a famous Tehillim that we read every Shabbos, “How great are your deeds Hashem, exceedingly profound are your thoughts. A boor cannot know, and a fool cannot understand this. When the wicked bloom like grass, and all the iniquitous blossom, it is to destroy them for eternity. But you, Hashem, remain forever.” A boor cannot know and a fool cannot understand. So, the commentators explain that it says a fool cannot understand this. Do you know what they do? They say, “Listen, there’s one thing I don’t understand in this story. Since there’s one thing I don’t understand, it must be that there’s no God. There’s no good, and things are not just. Things are not fair. Where is God in the story? Because of one thing I don’t understand. No, we can’t have that attitude. The verse is explaining that evil occurs, why do bad things occur? So they should be wiped out forever. They should be gone. Really, what happened al pi kabbalah is that if Adam Ha Rishon did not sin everything would have been fine. But since he sinned, it’s like the light spilled all over the place. And since the light spilled all over the place, it’s in dark places and it now has to come back. So, all the energy that evil has only comes from good. What happens is, the evil is done and perpetrated, and then it uses up its energy and it’s gone forever. That’s exactly what the verse says. “When the wicked bloom like grass, and the iniquitous blossom, it is to destroy them for eternity.” And the Midrash in Esther Rabba says like this. “It says that the enemies of God are raised to meet their downfall.” God lifts up the enemies of the Jewish people in order that they should fall down.

It may be likened to a slave who cursed the King’s son. So, then the King says, “Listen, if I kill this slave, nobody is going to notice it. Nobody’s going to learn anything from it. I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to take this slave. I’m going to promote him to be somebody famous in the government. And then I’m going to kill him, and then everybody’s going to see you can’t go against the King’s son.” You can’t go against the Jewish people. So too, the same thing with Haman. It says, “I caused Haman to prosper and succeed so he should hang, to teach the world retribution against evil.” Hashem rose up Haman to show the world that this is wrong. Don’t go against the Jewish people. What are you doing, it’s evil what you’re doing. But Hashem did the evil in order that it should be a kiddush Hashem, that people should understand the right way. And that’s why he brought evil. And meanwhile we were crying, and we didn’t know what was happening, what’s happening to me. There’s a decree against the Jewish people, we’re all going to die, oy vavoy. But Hashem was behind the scenes at every moment along the way. And He was doing it to show the world, “Watch this. Watch the salvation of the Jewish people.” He was doing it for a reason. But the chachamim understood that along the way, and that’s what Mordechai understood, he understood that Esther went with Achashverosh in order that the Jewish people should be saved.

And not only that, but the Shem Mi Shmuel explains there was another reason for it. Why? Hashem wanted that the Jewish people should unite. Because of a decree that we were about to be destroyed, and the Jews were all over the place, He wanted them to unite. Why did He want them to unite? Kiblu ve kiblu, in order that they should accept the Torah again with love. So, Hashem made a horrible situation. Hashem made a crisis in order that we should come together in order to receive the Torah. And it says, that it says by kiblu ve’kiblu, it’s kibel. It’s actually written in the Megilla singular, that the Jewish people united just like in order to receive the Torah the first time, we had to unite as one people with one lev, a lev echad, also to receive the oral tradition with ahava, with love, and with fear, we had to unite. And that was the reason why Hashem made this horrible situation where we were about to all be destroyed. Without this, we never would have received the Torah with true love. That’s what it says, on Purim we received the Torah with true love.” It would never have happened if it wasn’t for the bad decrees of Haman.

And Rav Wolbe brings Rav Yerucham who explains, there’s many reasons why Hashem brings these tremendous crises upon the Jewish people. For example, he says the kriyas Yam Suf – the main purpose of kriyas Yam Suf was not to have the miracle that the sea split. He says, no. “He wanted to show the Jewish people that there was no natural way out of the predicament. And they were compelled to come unto Hashem.” Listen to this, this is unbelievable. The purpose of the Jews having to cross the Red Sea and the Sea splitting was not to show the miracle that Hashem split the Sea. It was there to show the Jews, listen. There is no natural way out. And since there’s no natural way out, you’re going to have to change your focus. You’re going to have to come unto God, you’re going to have to pray. You have to realize that I’m here, I’m behind the scenes here. Hashem is saying, “I’m behind teva, I’m behind nature. There is no natural way out.” And that’s why Hashem made that the Jews are standing there at kriyas Yam Suf, and behind them are the Mitzrim, Egyptians, and they’re about to be killed, and there’s no way out. So, they were compelled to change their focus towards God. And that’s why Hashem made the tzar, can you imagine the emotional turmoil that the Jews had? They’re about to be wiped out, they’re like in the Holocaust. They’re about to be wiped out. So, what’s the emotional reaction? The real level that we should be on is, we have to understand that Hashem is doing it in order that we should come unto Him, that we should change our focus. And many things in our lives, all the suffering and all the hardships and all the horrible things we have to go through, are just there for us to realize that we have to come unto Hashem, and that’s why Hashem is doing it to us. There is a much higher reason.

Rav Wolbe says, “Divine providence also removes all viable options, in order for us to redirect our focus so that instead of turning to outsiders for help, we are forced to turn our gaze inward, and come to the realization that only Hashem can help us.” And he says that’s exactly what happened in Purim, because the Gemara Megilla says, “Change yourselves, purify yourselves, you have to grow. You have to move.” It didn’t help. What helped? When the ring went from Achashverosh to Haman and they saw the decree that’s it, you’re about to be wiped out…there was a decree, you’re about to be wiped out. What was it there for? It was there for the Jews to do teshuva, for them to return to Hashem. That’s why it was there. It’s not evil in the sense of pure evil. No, it was there for a reason. If we have the bigger picture, we understand that Hashem is behind the scenes, and we understand that Hashem is kulo tov, He is good, and everything that’s happening to us is hashgacha pratis. It’s details that are coming exactly from Hashem – who you meet, who you speak to, what happened, this thing and that thing, all these things that are happening to us. We have to understand that Hashem is behind the scenes. That’s what we learn from the Megilla.

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says we learn from Purim to have emunah peshutah, a simple faith. He says, “The verse says, know your God and your Father and serve Him.” It’s very simple. You just serve God. Whatever is happening is not your business, in a certain sense. Hashem’s running the world. You think you’re running the world? No, Hashem’s running the world. So, in the end of the day, Purim itself teaches us the secret to being happy. It says you have to drink until you don’t know. You don’t know what? You don’t know the difference between blessed is Mordechai and cursed is Haman. What do you mean, you don’t know? That’s right, you don’t know. That is the secret to happiness. The secret to happiness is understanding that you don’t know. When you see something happen, you have to assume it’s for your good. You have to assume that Hashem did it. When Mordechai’s wife was taken away and given to a non-Jewish King, he said, “Oh, it must be Hashem has a plan.” When things happen to you, you have to be at that level. That’s what we learn from Purim. We learn that on Purim the secret to happiness is to say, “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening. All I know with emunah peshutah, my simple faith, I know that Hashem is doing it. And I know Hashem is behind the scenes. I know that everything is min hashemayim, everything comes from God – every single detail. And when I understand that and I really believe it, that creates happiness. I don’t have to judge, this is happening, all these bad things are happening…all these bad things are happening. I have to be above my own emotions.

I saw a video of Rav Twerski, actually it’s on my website. You go to globalyeshiva.com . If you look there it says, “Being a Mentsch.” He speaks about if your emotions are normal, like a normal human being, that’s called being a beheima. That’s an animal. The emotions that you were given as a child are animalistic. Somebody gives you a patsch, you want to give them a patsch back. Somebody does this to you, and you get all upset about this, those are animalistic emotions. Being a mentsch, being above those emotions, that’s what a true Jew has to be – above your emotions. You have to see the world through a different set of glasses. You have to see that everything that’s happening is min hashemayim, everything, God’s doing it. I don’t understand. And you have to say, “I don’t know.” But it’s not going to upset me, why is it not going to upset me? Because I don’t know. I don’t know the big picture. And you see the same thing in your life. The longer you live, you say, “Oh, thank God. I said thank God I didn’t marry that girl, and thank God that this didn’t happen. And all the bad things that I thought were happening were really good things.” Bad things that look like bad things, a person only grows when bad things happen. In other words, the bad things are happening in order to get you to this level, in order to realize how am I going to be happy with my life? How can I possibly be happy? It’s impossible, Rabbi. It’s impossible. This is happening, my wife is not nice to me, my kids are off the derech, and that’s happening, and this is happening. Come on, what are you talking about? Avraham’s kid was off the derech, Yitzhak’s kid was off the derech, a thousand things were going wrong. Every Jewish sage. Dovid HaMelech’s son tried to kill him, and then he had the story with Tamar. It’s endless. All the sufferings that the Jews were going through, it’s endless sufferings. So, how are you supposed to be happy if all these crazy things are happening to me, all these bad things are happening to me? The answer is, “I don’t know.” And that’s why on Purim you have to drink to the point where you say, “I don’t know. I don’t know the difference between a blessing and a curse. I don’t know.” And when you say, “I don’t know,” that’s when you’re going to be happy. 

00:20:56

A Powerful Parable 

Rav Dessler brings down that a person who has real faith doesn’t question Hashem. He’s not plagued by the many questions that trouble most of the world’s population. What does he say? There’s a parable, to understand this. What’s the parable? He says, “It’s compared to a person who’s looking through a keyhole of a door, and he sees inside a pen. And the pen is writing. It’s amazing. His limited vision only allows him to see the piece of paper, and the pen writing. And then he watches the pen write word after word, and line after line, never realizing that the pen is being held by a person who’s really doing the writing. If he would just open the door, he would see that there’s a person inside doing the writing. And there’s much more to the scene than meets the eye. That was the moshul, what’s the conclusion? 

What do we learn from that? It’s the same thing. We don’t see God behind the scenes. We’re just looking through a little peephole. We have a small section of reality that we see. We don’t see the entire reality that God’s behind everything. But if we would just open up a door, we would see that God is really there.

Great Stories – Rav Yitzhak Silberstein

00:22:03

This is a story about Rav Yitzhak Silberstein. One time he was invited to a wedding, and the bride was there, sitting on the bridal chair in the hall, waiting for the groom to arrive. And the clock keeps ticking and ticking, they’re waiting for the groom. What’s going on? Finally, he gets a telephone call, the groom has decided to call off the wedding. Everybody’s there…I don’t know, a couple of hundred people are there at the wedding. Could you imagine the feelings of the girl? She’s devastated, humiliated. It’s indescribable. And all the relatives, and everybody, what a scene. Could you imagine such a scene? So, the father came and asked him to speak to the bride. What is he going to say to the bride? So he says, “I told her the following story. There’s a Gemara in Kesubos that says that Rebbe wanted to marry off his son to a daughter of Rav Chiel.’ The daughters of Rav Chiel were very praised inside the Talmud for being on a very high level. So, what happened? The wedding came, and at the chuppah, canopy, the bride passed away. So then Rebbe said, ‘Is there Heaven-forbid a disqualification in one of our families?’ He also saw, he saw, why did this happen? There must be a reason for this. If we see Hashem caused this tragedy to happen, there must be a reason for it. Perhaps the families weren’t suited to join in marriage. So, they checked out the lineage and it was true. Rebbe came from royal blood, and Rav Chiel was not from royal blood.” 

So, Rav Silberstein talked to the bride. He said like this. “There are times that people think that a shidduch, match is a wonderful thing, and the groom and the bride are perfectly suited for each other. But heaven knows otherwise. Their shidduchim weren’t appropriate, and they should be dropped even at the last moment, and even if its embarrassment is overwhelming, Hashem knows what’s the best for a person. And if you would have got married, it probably would have turned out much worse than what you’re going through right now.”

Peace in Your Home

00:24:17

Rav Avigdor Miller speaks about peace in the home, and he speaks about Purim. He says, “A lot of people who are not that religious, they skip Purim. In America, they have Purim. By the non-religious, they don’t have Purim.” He says, “This is a major mistake, because what do they have instead? They have Thanksgiving.” So he says, “Listen, if your friends want to come over on Thanksgiving, you tell them you’re busy. And you’ll tell them instead, ‘Come over on Purim.’” Why? Because these holidays that we have creates unity in the family because he says, “A joyous Purim gives the merry heart which is a continual feast.” It’s a possuk in Mishlei – all year. That’s what it says, he quotes the Orach Chayim. So, if you’re happy on Purim, you can get happiness for the entire year. He says, “Adorning the home with many holy festivals and Torah celebrations as possible – Pesach, Shavuos, Sukkos, Purim, Chanukah, Lag B’Omer, even issru chag and rosh chodesh, all these things if you serve Hashem with simcha, if you have these holidays in your house, it brings beauty into the house. It brings happiness into the house. It brings peace into your house. The home is regarded as a place of happiness and Torah idealism.” 

He says, “Even people who are not religious, famous poets and painters, Jews who are the most distant from Judaism, they still have as their themes the Pesach seder, you have painters, non-religious Jews, painting the Pesach seder. And poets and singers, singing about the Pesach seder. Why was that? Because when they were kids, and they were at their grandparents’ Pesach seder, it gave them a feeling of belonging, a feeling of happiness, a feeling of unity, a feeling that you’re taken care of, a feeling of love. The holidays bring love into the house. I remember as a little kid, five years old, singing Ma Nishtana under the table of my grandparents during the seder. There was a feeling there, there was a feeling of happiness, a feeling of love, that people cared about you. “It’s so important,” he says, “The true Jewish home possesses a powerful attraction. It’s our duty to enhance with the best of our ability, the Jewish home, to make the mitzvos beautiful, that everyone in the house should feel the beauty of the Torah.” He says, “Especially in view of the unending campaign that the nations try to knock Jews and Judaism, and even the disloyal Jews are trying to knock out Judaism, we have to hold our banner high of true Judaism, and demonstrate its genuine beauty and the joy of living a Torah life. The holidays themselves bring peace into our homes.”

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 093 Purim – The Secret to Happiness – Learning to Say I Dont Know appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

091 So Far Away – How to Get Close Again -Torah Portion of the Week – Kisisa – A Powerful Parable about the Many Beautiful Garments – A Great Story about Rav Gifter and Peace in Your Home – Having Good Character

Torah Podcast Transcript

091 The Torah Podcast –  So Far Away – How to get Close Again  

Torah Portion of the Week – Ki Sisa

In Shemos verse 32:19 it says like this. “It happened as he drew near the camp, and he saw the calf and the dancers, that Moses anger burned. And he threw down the tablets from his hand, and shattered them at the bottom of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, and he burned it in fire. He ground it into a fine powder, and strewed it in the water. And he made the Children of Israel drink from it.” Then Chapter 34 says like this. “Hashem said to Moses, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I shall inscribe on the tablets the words which are written on the first tablet that you shattered. Be prepared for Me in the morning to ascend Har Sinai, in the morning ascend for Me on the mountain top. No man shall ascend with you, and no man shall be seen on the entire mountain. And the flock and the cattle too should not be grazing on that mountain.’”

One of the questions that the commentators ask is, “Why did Moses wait to shatter the tablets until he saw the Jewish people?” We know that Hashem told him before. And the Maharsha brings the Gemara in Yevamos that says that Moshe’s reaction was not an emotional outburst. It was an intellectual decision. The Maharsha asks that if it was an intellectual decision, why would he wait? Hashem already told him before that they sinned. He should have broken them on the spot. There are different answers to this question, but the Maharsha wants to answer, “He waited because even though he knew intellectually that what they did was wrong, until he actually saw, it didn’t penetrate his being to the point where he felt that he could break the luchos. So we see there, the effect of actually seeing something. There are different levels of what something means. Just because you hear something, it doesn’t mean you have the full picture of what it is. Once you see with your own eyes and experience it, the experience of it has a much greater effect on a person. That’s the answer to the Maharsha.

But Tzur Maor wants to answer, that Moshe wanted to wait for just the opposite. He wanted to have the effect on the people. He wanted the people, the Jewish people to see that he was breaking the tablets that Hashem gave him. There was no way that Moshe Rabbeinu was able to give the tablets to the Jewish people at that point, because here they are. He comes down after 40 days of being at Har Sinai. After the Jewish people heard the Ten Commandments directly from God, now he’s bringing down the rest of the Torah. And here the people were sinning. How could they possibly be given the Torah? Therefore, he wanted to wait to show them, “Look what you’ve lost. It’s unbelievable what you lost.” So, he broke the tablets in front of them.

Another question the meforshim, commentators, ask is, Why did Moshe break the luchos? He should have brought them back to Hashem. So, Rabbeinu Bachye wants to explain, “The letters flew out of the Torah.” In other words, the tablets themselves just became like stones. They had no value. The Torah flew off of them. They saw the letters flying off the Torah, so he was able to break them. They had no value. And the Midrash says, “At that point, they were just like stones, like a dead body.” Just when the soul leaves the body, all you have there is a body. It had no purpose, no meaning, because the holiness of the Torah cannot enter the camp of Yisroel. Once they sinned, the Torah couldn’t be amongst them. The Torah had to be separated. But the problem now is, the only way to get close to God is through the Torah. And now the Torah’s gone. Moshe Rabbeinu breaks the luchos, and therefore God has to command him to re-write them again. Look what Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch says. He says, “The condition for the restoration of the original intimate relationship between God and Yisroel is our re-acceptance of the Torah in our midst.” Only Torah can create a relationship with God. The people were now handed the blank tablets, he had to take blank tablets, bring them to God. And then God again had to write them with his own finger. “The Torah was written by the finger of God,” like it says. Our transgressions do not in any way alter the concept of God’s law. It was going to be the same law. God does not reform the law to accommodate our weakness. But now it has to come from us. The physical luchos had to come from Jewish people. It had to come from our side. We had to be more proactive at this point, in order to receive the Torah. Before when we were receiving the Torah, it was coming completely from Hashem, down from Moshe Rabbeinu. Now that the tablets were broken, we were going to have to be more proactive.

So okay, now that makes sense. Many of the meforshim ask, “Why did Moses have to go back another 40 days on Har Sinai to receive the Torah again? He already received the Torah. He could have gone up there for one day, had God write it down again, and come back. Why another 40 days?” So, the Sefas Emes has a unique approach. Most of the meforshim do not say like him. He wants to say that really now, Moshe was on a higher level. Why was Moshe on a higher level? Because after the Jewish people sinned, and Moshe Rabbeinu himself did teshuva, he had so much empathy towards the Jewish people, he felt like he sinned and he had to do teshuva. Because he did teshuva, he went up to a higher level. So, if he went up to a higher level, he had to get more depth from the Torah. He had to ascend new, higher levels in another 40 days to go up. But that’s a unique approach.

Most of the other meforshim want to explain the opposite. Since we went down a level, Moses had to go back to relearn the Torah in order to teach it in a way that would be able to relate to us. And the Shem Mi Shmuel explains that we know it’s true. The Zohar says that when the Jewish people received the Torah, at that point they went back to the level of before the chet, sin of Adam HaRishon where the yetzer hara, the evil inclination was outside, the nachash was outside of the Jewish people. Once we ate from the tree, so then the Satan came inside of us. At Har Sinai again, Hashem took away our yetzer hara, our evil inclination. So, our evil inclination was outside of us. So, the Torah that we were receiving directly from Hashem was the Torah to be able to live in a world where the yetzer hara exists outside, much less influential. Once we sinned again, the yetzer hara came back inside of us, so we needed the Torah. And Moshe Rabbeinu had to go back up to receive the Torah in a way with more dinim, more laws, and nuances that would affect the Jewish people, that he’d be able to lead us in the right way.

Like the Torah says, that our status changed. It’s a fact, and we see that from the fact that it said, “No man should come to the mountain on the second time. No sheep, no cattle should be around.” We dropped levels. So, we needed a new Torah to be able to relate to the level we were on. And this exactly what Rav Moshe Feinstein says. “It takes much more effort to be a leader and an influence in a generation of sinners. And therefore, Moshe Rabbeinu had to go back up to Sinai for 40 days to mechazek, to strengthen himself, that he should have more strength. He should learn the Torah with more intensity, and more force, in order to have the power to be the leader of a generation that sinned.”

And Rav Wolbe brings the Gemara Avoda Zara 5:A that says like this. “The second set of luchos was different than the first set. Why? If we would have had the first set till today, we would be able to conquer our yetzer hara.” Like I said, our evil inclination would be outside of us. We’d have the ability to not sin. And not only that, we never would have been oppressed by the foreign nations. We would never have gone into exile, all the exile we’ve been in for thousands of years. That’s if we had the first luchos. So, that set of luchos was not actually applicable for us any more. We dropped levels. He said, “The actual Torah had remained unchanged. The manner in which it was conveyed to Bnai Yisroel would be different.” And he brings a proof for this.

Chazal said in Gemara Rosh Hashana 25b, “Yiftach and his generation was parallel to Shmuel and his generation. “ So, how can that be? It doesn’t make any sense. Shmuel was a navi, a prophet comparable to Moshe and Aaron. And Yiftach was not even a prophet. So, Rav Tzaddok HaCohein answers, “Yeah, they were the same. Just like Shmuel gave over the Torah to his generation on their level, so too Yiftach gave over to the generation on his level. They were the same. 

And he brings down Rav Chatzkel who said, “In our generation, the past 100 years, it is not applicable to talk about punishment and fire, and gehinnom, all these different horrible things that can happen to a person if he sins. People can’t relate to that any more.” And that’s why the Sabbah of Slabodka always talked about the opposite, the gadlus ha’adam, the greatness of man. Understand who you are. You’re a tzellem Elokim, you’re in the image of God. How can you possibly sin? And for us, that speaks to our hearts much more than hearing about all these horrible punishments we’re going to get. That doesn’t speak to us any more. We need to hear how great we are, and how great we can be, and give us hope with this inspiration.” So, in the sense, the focus of both of these things are true, that man is both a tzellem Elokim and God-forbid there is punishment. But in order to move us, to motivate us, we have to focus more on the greatness of man. How can we possibly sin if we’re in the image of God? How can we do such a thing? How can we degrade ourselves? We have to understand our greatness, which will help us in a situation where we’re about to fall. 

So, he ends off by saying that the beauty of the Torah always stays the same. It’s a question of what the focus is in the Torah. The focus has to change, based on the generation. Now, the question is, what did it have to do with our side? This is a fact. We are now in what’s called a bedi eved position. After the fact, the first luchos were broken, now we’re in a world where we live, the sin happened, and we have to try to come close to God. So, Rav Moshe Shapiro explains exactly this point. This is exactly why Moshe broke the luchos. Why? Because the first luchos totally came from God. But the new luchos had to be written coming from us. They were written on something that came from man. He says that after the sin, our natural connection with the Torah was broken. If we would have had the first luchos, we would have had a natural connection to the Torah. Now they were broken, then only way we can get the Torah is we have to really, really want to receive the Torah. We have to be receivers of Torah. 

It says the second luchos were “kerishonim”, the second luchos were “like the first set” of luchos. What does that mean? In the sense that both of them had connected us to the Torah, but the rules were different, he explained. So, what’s the difference? He brings the Vilna Gaon and the possuk says, “Asher bara Elokim la’asos” Hashem created to do. Man was put into the world to do. He made it possible for our lives to fuse with His. Passul lecha, when Hashem said to Moses, “Possul lecha,” invalidate these first luchos. So, he wants to explain that this gives us the ability now, since the first luchos were possul and we have the next set of luchos, so now we enter into the world where we have to act. No longer is it going to come directly to us. We have to act. It has to come from us. 

The Vilna Gaon says, “The luchos are an action – our human medium, something that would otherwise have been exclusively empowered and negated to Hashem.” In other words, everything would have been in Hashem’s hands before, but now the ball’s in our hands. He continues and explains that Hashem consulted Moses. Why? The concept of Torah she b’al peh, the Oral tradition, did not exist in the first luchos. This is unbelievable. The first luchos, everything would have been clear. Everything would have been barur. We didn’t need the Torah she b’al peh. It was only after the second luchos that we received the Torah she b’al peh, which means the ball was in our hands. Torah she b’al peh means you have to work hard to understand, to go back and forth and spend hours figuring out what it says. What’s the real perspective, what’s the right thing, what’s the truth? Is it clear? Working and working constantly, but it’s all coming from our maasim, from our acts. Before, the Torah would have been much more directly from God Himself. So this is the answer to what we have to do. We have to work hard to come close to God. Since we were pushed away, we have to come back. That’s what we’re supposed to do now that we’re in this position. We have to try, to strive to understand what we’re supposed to do in our lives. What are we doing in this world?

And he says, “A parallel to this idea of possul lecha is the Mishkan.” This is unbelievable. He says, “Most of the Rishonim except for the Ramban, said we received the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, when? Only after the first luchos.” In other words, the Beis HaMigdash and the Tabernacles, the presence of God in a very specific place, that idea only came after the breaking of the luchos. Why? Because before that, if we would have the first luchos, God would have been everywhere. We didn’t have to go to a specific place, and a specific time to daven, pray. God would have been close to us. The schechina would have been here. But after the luchos were broken we needed the Mishkan. We needed a Temple. We needed to do maasim. We needed to get out of our bed to go to a specific place. We have to do things in order to come close to God, because God’s presence became very limited in this world – put into the Mishkan, put in the Temple. So, therefore it’s more on our side and we have to produce the results. So, we have to know it’s up to our actions. Religion is not saying, I just hang around, I’m religious. What do you mean, religious? “Oh, I keep Shabbos and I eat kashrus, and I do this…and I’m basically good” Where’s God in your life?  It has to be active. We have to be proactive in coming close to God. That is our position, and that’s what we have to do if we want to be happy, and we want to have success, and we want blessings in our life. It’s not just going to come by itself. We have to do actions now – maasim.

One time a guy in the Mir said to me  “Maasim”, “Maasim”, you have to act.” It’s not just a religion where you hang out, and you read books. No. We must act. And the more we act, the more blessing we will have.

00:15:01

A Powerful Parable 

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings the same verse. I actually brought this parable once before, but I’m going to bring it again since it’s so applicable here. The verse says, “I will write upon these tablets the words which were on the first tablets which you broke.” He brings the Masechet Yevamos which says, Reish Lakish says, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe, ‘Thank you for breaking the luchos. What’s the moshul, parable? The moshul is, one time there was a guest who had a lot beautiful clothes, and he came to visit this town. He wanted to spend several weeks to show off his clothes to other people in the town. So, what happened? Every day it was a sunny day, he looks outside. He wants the weather to change. Why? Because he thinks, “Listen, if the weather changes, I can change my clothes. On a sunny day I wear these beautiful clothes. On a rainy day, I wear these beautiful clothes.”

So, he’s looking out the window and he’s waiting for some rain. And when it rains, he’s all happy. So too, when Moses broke the luchos, if we would have stayed on the original level which we were before the sin of the Golden Calf, we would have no need for anything but the written Torah. And no one would transgress, that’s all we needed. But once Bnai Yisroel sinned, well now we need the Midrash, the halachos, the aggados, the Torah she b’al peh. We need all these other beautiful things. They’re all beautiful and we need them. So, Hashem said, “Thank you Moses, for breaking the luchos. Why? Because now I can give to the Jewish people all the other aspects of the beautiful Torah.”

00:16:32

Great Stories – Rav Gifter

The verse in this week’s Parsha says, “I shall broaden your boundaries.” One time, Rav Eliyahu Bloch asked Rav Gifter to rebuild the glorious Telz Yeshiva on American soil, and Rav Gifter agreed. So, one time they were going to a sefarim store, book store, and Rav Eliyahu Bloch asked the store owner if he had the Ketzos HaChoshen. The Ketzos HaChoshen is a very lomdishe sefer, a very difficult sefer, a very deep sefer. It’s only for a few people who are really dedicated to learning Talmud. So, he asked him if he had this sefer. He really thought that it was a very slim chance that the bookstore is going to have this sefer here in America.

The store owner starts looking through the back, he’s looking through all the books. All of a sudden, he finds a Ketzos. It’s unbelievable. Everybody was happy. The store owner was happy, because he understands the value of the sefer. The store owner said to him, “Listen, you managed to survive the Holocaust. Your whole family passed away, and you rebuilt your family here. Now you want to open a yeshiva, you think a yeshiva’s going to work in America? It’s not going to work here. Give up the idea of opening a yeshiva. It’s going to be too much stress for you. You’re going to collapse under the strain. And not only that, I believe that this Ketzos that I’m selling you right now is the last Ketzos that’s going to be sold in America. I don’t think any other Jew on this continent is interested in this Ketzos.

So, this is a historic moment the store owner said. “This is the last Ketzos being sold in America.” But Rav Gifter didn’t listen to him. He wasn’t the kind of person to listen to this type of talk. Even though it’s true, in post-War in America it almost seemed impossible to open up a yeshiva, who was going to come to the yeshiva? But he said, “Torah is not subject to the laws of nature, nor do the Torah scholars limit their natural ability. Hashem has promised that the Torah shall not be forgotten from the mouth of the Jewish people’s offspring.” It’s a possuk in Devarim. And what happened from that point? Torah flourished in America. He says, “There are more copies of the Ketzos printed in America than there were printed in the entire time in the entire world up till then.” So, the store owner was wrong, and Rav Gifter was right.

00:18:44

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that if you want to have peace in your house, you’re going to have to have good character traits. It says, “A man must always fear God” What does it mean, a man? A mentsch. A mentsch – being a man, a mentsch comes before fearing God. You have to have good character before you get involved with religion. 

Rabbeinu Yonah says the Torah never resides in the body of someone who has bad middos. If you have bad character, you’re not going to have any Torah. He brings the Gra on Mishlei that says, “Seize mussar and do not let it go.” You have to go against your nature. What’s the purpose of life if you’re not to go against your nature? And if not, if you keep the exact same character and you learn Torah, the Torah itself will become a poison. In other words, you’re going to grow, and that’s exactly what he says. He brings the Vilna Gaon, the famous Vilna Gaon that says, “The Torah is like dew and rain, so whatever is there, whatever character you have, the more Torah you learn, it’s a spiritual force that’s going to help you to grow. But what grows? Whatever is there.” What’s supposed to happen? As you grow, and you see that your bad character gets worse and worse, so then you uproot it and you keep the good and you push away the bad. But if you learn and you become spiritual, and you have bad character, you’re going to turn yourself into a monster and become the spice of death.

So, learning Torah is not going to help you in your house if you don’t also work on your character. And why is it, we see that Eliezer tested Rivka. And Avraham Avinu made Eliezer swear. Why did he make Eliezer swear? He wasn’t afraid that before that, he was going to steal money. He transferred his possessions to Yitzhak, he wasn’t afraid that Eliezer was going to steal any money. No, but when it came to finding a wife for his son, no compromises in middos tovos and yiras shemayim, because these are the foundations of life. He wanted to make sure that Eliezer tested Rivka to make sure she really did have good character.

And the Brisker Rav notes that Yitzhak was only consoled after he brought Rivka into his home and he saw that she had the good middos and the blessings came back. There was the cloud, the candle, the dough, all the blessings came back. That was a sign of her good middos. It wasn’t enough that there were miracles by Eliezer. That’s what the Brisker Rav asks, “Why weren’t the miracles enough?” So, the Brisker Rav says, “It wasn’t enough. The main thing was really good middos”. We don’t care if there were miracles, that Eliezer found her through miracles. The main thing was good middos. 

And one time he said, a man complained that his wife had such exceptional character that the neighbors were taking advantage of her. “Everybody takes advantage of my wife, she’s such a good person.” So, he told him the famous Chofetz Chaim that says, “The good natured person suffers from others. And a bad natured person makes other people suffer.” So, who would you rather be when you get to the next world? The good natured person who has suffering or the bad natured person who made other people suffer? But the main thing is, that if you want to have peace in your house, you have to have good middos, good character. And you have to make sure you do not make your spouse suffer. God-forbid your spouse should suffer because of you.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s podcast, I hope you enjoy it and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 091 So Far Away – How to Get Close Again appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayakhel -Pekudei – The Power of Being Happy – Starting with Love – A Powerful Parable about a Morged House – A Great Story about the Marasha and Peace in Your Home – A Pleasant Countenance

The Torah Podcast Transcript

092 The Torah Podcast – The Power of Being Happy – Starting with Love

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayakhel-Pekudei

The Shem Mi Shmuel starts with this verse from the Mishkan, the building of the Tabernacle. It says, “And the sockets for the pillars were bronze, the hooks of pillars, and their joints were silver. And the covers on the tops were silver.” So, he has a question, why now all of a sudden do we mention silver? Already when we spoke about the building of the Mishkan before the chet ha egel, it didn’t mention anything about silver. So, he brings two possukim, one is from Tehillim which says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.” And the other one is from Mishlei that says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” What does the Zohar say on this? “How does somebody accept God into his life? The only way is to first accept the ol, yoke” which means like an ox. It means it’s difficult. If you don’t first accept the ol, if you don’t first accept that you have to do what God says, so how are you going to serve God? And he brings the verse from Tehillim, “Serve God with fear, and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.”

So, we see that really lehatchila, in the first position, a person should serve God. How does he begin? He has fear of God. He sees there’s a Creator to the universe, and he says, “Well, I’d better get my act together. I’d better do what my Creator told me to do.” But he says, “This is very difficult, and especially after the chet of the egel it’s very difficult, because we went down a level.” So instead he says, “Ever since the destruction of the Beis HaMigdash, the only way we can come to serve God is through love. Love in God will enable us to fear God. Since we don’t have the Beis HaMigdash any more, the only way we can come to serve God is through love. And love will lead to fear.”

He brings the possuk from Devarim that says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and strength. And these words…” Which words? The Torah. The Torah which I shall command you today shall be on your heart.” How do we come to love God? By learning God’s Torah. When we see the Torah, we see the unbelievable levels and the unbelievable thinking, and the unbelievable ideas of the Torah, we come to love God. And from loving God, we’ll come to fear God.” So, he wants to answer, “Why all of a sudden when we did the chet ha egel, and then we had to build the Mishkan, then all of a sudden we started talking about silver there, because in the entrance to the Mishkan there had to be silver. Silver represents chessed, which means the midda of rachamim, the midda of love. And that’s the starting point, at the entrance to the Mishkan, to the Beis HaMigdash, we had silver there. The silver there was to remind us that our avoda, service, has to start with love. And we know there are many Chazals, there are many places that speak about the Beis HaMigdash being a place of love, love and inspiration. When you’d go to the Beis HaMigdash, you’d be inspired. Rav Dessler brings the Midrash Tanchuma that says, “Our Rabbis say that all the offerings come because of our sins, and our obligations. But the ketores only comes from joy.” The incense would bring tremendous happiness to a person. The idea expressed by bringing the incense is, it is our will to do Your will, to give to You, so to speak, pleasure and satisfaction from our actions.” That’s the idea of the ketores. We act here, and our actions go up to God. We give pleasure to God. And the Zohar on this week’s Parsha brings down, “Whoever smelled the smoke of the ketores ascending straight upwards felt his heart being clarified in light and in joy in the service of God. The ketores has the power of breaking the yetzer hara. It has the power to break our evil inclination. There is nothing more loved before the ketores.” This is what the Zohar says.

Rav Dessler continues and he says, “This is one of the wonders of the Holy Temple. The heavenly angels manifested in it. It enabled every heart to experience what pure and loving service of the Almighty could mean.” When you would just go into the Temple, you’d be so influenced with a feeling and emotions of love, you’d get overwhelmed. You would want to serve God. You would want to be an eved Hashem. You’d want to do the right thing. You would get a new spirit when you went into the Beis HaMigdash. So, we see that the Temple was a place of inspiration.

Now, the Minchas HaChinuch brings down, “There is a mitzah,149 that says, ‘The Cohanim may not enter the Holy Temple with long growing hair. They can’t have their hair grown for more than 30 days.’” Why is that true? He brings the shoresh, basis for the mitzvah. It’s because when growing your hair for more than 30 days, this is what mourners do. A person who mourns can’t cut his hair. Like it says in the Scroll of Esther, “For no one might enter the King’s gate clothed with sackcloth.” You can’t come into the Beis HaMigdash like a mourner. The house of the Eternal Lord only enter in a state of happiness, joy and delight, and not in a state of mourning and grief.  Everything that happened in the Temple was to impress on our hearts our state of worth, and our state of nobility, to move far from the heart any thoughts of ugliness or sinfulness. Therefore, since that was the purpose of the Temple, our mood respects the reverent fear, the thinking of joy, while fastening our thoughts to the importance of the place, that its grandeur, splendor and majesty will soften our hearts and make them receptive, that we’ll be worthy to receive the true good. The Mishkan and the Temple had the ability to inspire us. And therefore, we cannot go into it in a state of mourning. It’s not suitable. We have to be happy. If we’re not happy, how are we going to be inspired?

And Rav Pam says like this. “A Jew coming to the Beis HaMigdash should be overwhelmed with feelings of joy and good fortune that he has, just to be there. There should be no place in his heart for sadness, or depression.” And he brings a proof. The entire city of Yerushalayim had a special status of simcha. It says in Tehillim that Yerushalayim was considered one of the most beautiful of sights and of joy of the earth. And the Midrash in this week’s Parsha says that there was a special bookkeeping chamber outside of Yerushalayim. Why did people go? They would go there in order to do an accounting. If you came to the Beis HaMigdash for the holidays and if you needed to do some of your business, you had to go outside of the city in order to do your business. Why is that true? Since the city was so filled with simcha and the people were always happy and joyful from the holiness that was there, they didn’t want to have any kind of business problems to affect the spirit of the people and make them sad. Therefore, they had to go outside of the city of Yerushalayim in order to do their business.

We see the importance of having happiness when you serve God. You have to be happy when you serve God. And this is what Rav Pam says. It’s not only the Cohanim in the Beis HaMigdash that have to be happy. Every ben Torah has to be happy. If a ben Torah, a person who dedicates himself to God is depressed, it’s a chillul Hashem. People think that being religious is depressing. “Why do I want to be religious if it’s depressing?” Those who are not willing to endure hardships in this world for a promise of the pleasures of the world to come, they’ll throw off the Torah. “What do we need the Torah for?” But if a ben Torah is always happy, and he’s always in simcha, and he always projects an image of a person who is living with purpose and a sense of a mission, that’s a tremendous kiddush Hashem. And it brings people closer to the Torah. Not only that, it also brings your children closer to the Torah, because if you’re a yeshiva guy, and all day you complain about money, and all day you complain about what happened in the yeshiva, and you complain about the tzibor, community, and you talk badly about religious people, so your kids are not going to want to be religious. No, you have to be happy. If you are happy being religious, religion is going to spread.  And he brings Rav Moshe Feinstein who explained that many Jews of the last generation had a saying, “Oy, it’s difficult to be a Jew.” And it’s because of that, their kids went off the derech. Their kids didn’t want to be religious. He says you should always say, “It’s great to be a Jew. It’s wonderful to be a Jew. It’s the best thing in the world to be a Jew.” So of course, your children are going to want to follow.

Rav Yitzhak Zilberstein brings a story. There was one time in Haifa a building with one religious Jew in the building. Everybody else was not religious. But this religious Jew always had a smile on his face. And every day he would say Shalom to his other neighbors. And the neighbor thought to himself, “You know what? Nobody else says hello to me, and nobody else smiles at me. What’s going on with this person?” So he says, “Eventually, I began to think. There must be a reason why this neighbor has to be cheerful all the time. He must have a very rich inner life. Maybe I should become observant as well.” And that’s exactly what happened. He became religious. And because of the zechus of this Jew always smiling and always saying hello to him, because of that, he was chozer b’teshuva. He became religious, and his children were religious future generations. Can you imagine the merit the person has from just smiling at another person, what an effect it can have? By being happy and serving God, it doesn’t mean you have to give up everything in this world. You can also use everything in this world to serve God.

Rav Moshe Feinstein brings down the verse that says, “And Moses commanded the men and women that they should do no more work, because of the gift of the Sanctuary.” We see there, Moshe Rabbeinu told the people to stop bringing materials to build the Mishkan. So he says, “Why should that be true? Let them bring as much as they bring, we’ll save the money on the side, and we’ll use it for the upkeep of the Beis HaMigdash.” So, Rav Moshe Feinstein wants to answer, “Moses knew that even the property people kept all for themselves could be used in Hashem’s service. You don’t have to be poor to serve God, you can be rich. Indeed, even materials we own could be a means to serve Hashem.” And as long as we keep in mind all the pleasures He gives us are meant not just for our own enjoyment, but to help adorn ourselves to perform His mitzvos in a way that brings honor to God. Like King Solomon said in Mishlei, “Hashem has done everything for His sake, everything in the world is for Hashem’s sake.” So, it doesn’t mean you have to be poor, and you have to be a shlepper, and you can’t have any physical possessions. No, ad araba, Moshe Rabbeinu told the people to stop bringing gifts. You know why? Because there’s enough here in the Beis HaMigdash. And the things that you have, you can also use to serve God. It doesn’t mean you have to be poor, to give everything away. No, you can have a nice car and serve God, you can have a nice apartment and serve God. You could have beautiful things. And if all you possess pushes you forward and do avodas Hashem, and that pleasure that you get from the physical world brings you to do more mitzvos, and more avoda, and more learning, so of course you can enjoy those things. That’s part of being religious.

I remember 23 years ago when my daughter had a horrible accident and was left a CP. We lost the lawsuit because the hospital did not have any insurance, but we got some money as a settlement. So, I had a chance to buy a car without taxes for my daughter. And the question was, which kind of car was I going to buy? Since we got the money I said, “Let’s by a Volvo.” But then I said to myself, “How can I buy a Volvo. Maybe it’s too much?” So, I went to ask my Rosh Yeshiva what he thought. He said, “No. You should buy the nicest car you can buy.” Why? Because at least you’ll feel you got pleasure, you got something after this horrible accident. “After what happened to her, at least you got something. You’ll get some pleasure. It will help you to serve God.” So of course, the pleasures of life are there to help you to serve God. You don’t have to feel guilty about it. You don’t have to feel bad about it. But you have to be doing it, you can’t be faking yourself out. You have to using these things for the right reasons, to push you forward in your service of God.

On the other hand, we see that Rav Moshe Feinstein brings the verse, he says like this. “And these are the reckonings of the Tabernacle.” This verse also tells us it’s the opposite. Just as the artisans had to account for the use of every object of material which was donated to the Mishkan, so we too must also give an accounting for the bounty which Hashem gave us and blessed us. In other words, all the things that we have, of course it’s a blessing. Of course we should thank God for it, and we should be happy. We should have tremendous love for God. But it’s not there to take for ourselves. Why God created us, and why God gave us everything – to be happy, to be happy with what? To be happy, just to be happy and sit in your living room and do nothing? No. To be happy to serve God, to do something with your happiness. To take that happiness and to push it forward, to bring to higher levels of spirituality, higher levels of ruchnius, that you should grow, use the things, the physical things that you have to grow. Because if not, on the other hand you’re taking for yourself, you’re selfish. What are you doing with your physical things? You’re keeping it for yourself? No, you use it to serve God.

And the Chassam Sofer brings a proof for this. He brings also a possuk in this week’s Parsha that says, “Take for yourselves the portion for Hashem, that everyone whose heart motivates him shall bring it as a gift for Hashem.” So, he asks the question, “It’s kaful loshen,” it’s double language. It’s a portion for Hashem, a gift to Hashem, why does it say both? The answer is, because the only thing that you can actually give to Hashem is already Hashem’s. The only thing which you could give Hashem is your own enthusiasm, your motivation and generosity. That’s why it’s a gift for Hashem, not His gift to us. Since Hashem does not influence man’s free will, He gives us the ability to give. But really, everything belongs to God. What are we giving? We give tzedakah, we’re giving the money that Hashem gave to us we’re giving to somebody else. When we use our things to bring to the Tabernacle, we want to bring and we want to give donations, what donations? Hashem gave them to us, and we’re giving back to Hashem. Everything belongs to Hashem. So of course, we can’t have the attitude that things are ours. Obviously, they’re legally ours. But we can’t have the attitude that it was given to us for our own personal pleasure. No, everything was given to us to give us more enthusiasm, to give us more excitement, to give us more love, to serve God even more.

And the Sefas Emes brings another aspect of the Beis HaMigdash which brings happiness. This week is Parshas Shekalim, the possuk says, “On the first day of Adar we informed the people of their obligation to donate a half shekel to the Beis HaMigdash.” So he asks, “Why were these donations asked specifically on the first day of Adar?” He says…listen to this, this is unbelievable. He says, “Adar is like Ellul. Ellul is the month before Rosh Hashana which is the beginning of the year. But there’s another beginning of the year, which is Pesach, which is the month of Nissan. It should be the first of the months for us, the Gemara says. So, we see that the month before Nissan is the month of Adar. So, just like Ellul is to Tishrei, Adar is to Nissan, which means that a month before you have to do teshuva. Which teshuva? The teshuva of ahava, the teshuva of love, returning to God with love. Just like in Ellul we return to God with fear because the beginning of the year is yom ha din, so too the beginning of the year in Nissan, that’s the beginning of the year with love. In other words, we should do teshuva out of ahava.” This is an unbelievable thing. And that’s why we’re commanded in the Beis HaMigdash to bring the shekel specifically in the month of Adar. It’s to awaken our good feelings and our dedication to Him, that we should begin the year with good feelings and love. We have an opportunity to express our love for God and give us even more joy. So now, in the month of Adar, is our chance to return to God with love and happiness. And that’s the way, like I started the piece, that’s the way that we could start our avodas Hashem, and eventually come to fear of God. But the love and happiness is the thing that’s going to bring us close.

00:17:00

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings a verse from this week’s Parsha. “These are the camps of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of testimony.” Rashi explains, “Why does it say in that verse, Mishkan, Mishkan twice? Because the Mishkan was taken as collateral and destroyed twice as the result of the sins of the Jewish people. In other words, instead of the Jewish people being destroyed, Hashem destroyed and took away the Beis HaMigdash. So, he wants to bring a moshul like this.

One time, there was a man who was sentenced to life imprisonment. And there was another old man who heard about it. He couldn’t take it, he says, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to mortgage my house, I’m going to get the money, I’m going to get this guy out of prison.” And that’s exactly what he did. So, when the guy came out of prison he thanked him very much. But basically, he went on his way. So, when somebody else heard this story, a friend of the man who went on his way, he says, “What are you doing? How could you do such a thing? Are you a rasha, wicked person? Don’t you know, this man, he mortgaged his entire house, he took the money to get you out of jail? Don’t you feel you have to pay him back, that he could get his house back?” So, that was the moshul, what’s the nimshal?

Hashem also gave us a Beis HaMigdash. We had a Beis HaMigdash but because of our sins, the Beis HaMigdash was given over to the nations, and we no longer have it. It’s there, but it’s not functioning. But now that we’ve returned to Eretz Yisroel, we should pray that the Beis HaMigdash comes. What kind of middos, what kind of character, is it that we don’t pray that Hashem’s house should be given back to Him?

00:18:37

Great Stories – The Maharsha

The verse in this week’s Parsha says, “Every man and every woman whose heart has motivated them to bring any worth that Hashem has commanded to make through Moshe, the Children of Israel brought a donation to Hashem.” So, one time the Yeshiva of the Maharsha needed to build a new building. It was a tremendous zechus, a tremendous merit to build this building. So, they decided they were going to make an auction and they were going to see how much money they can get.

So, one of the men came to the gabbai and said, “Listen, I will donate 500 rubles,” which was a tremendous amount of money. “Please, just don’t tell anybody who it is.” So, they had the auction, then it went up, then he made the announcement that a person gave 500 rubles, and he won. So, now they’re all waiting to see who is going to lay the cornerstone of the Yeshiva. So, the man also had anticipated that, and he told them, “Listen, I don’t want to do anything. I want to keep it a secret. The Maharsha himself will lay down the first stone in the Yeshiva.” And that’s exactly what happened. So, afterwards the Maharsha decided to invite this person to his house. So, he found out that this person really was not a rich person at all. So he didn’t understand, how can you donate so much money? You’re not a rich person. He says, “Listen, I don’t have any children. But at least I want to make sure that I give my money to a yeshiva. I want to make sure that that will be the purpose of my life, to help children, to help other people to sit and learn Torah.” So, the Maharsha said to him, he blessed him that he would have a son. And he said, “The son you have will eventually learn in the Yeshiva.” That’s exactly what happened. A year later he gave birth to a son, and then 13 years later he brought the boy to the Yeshiva. In the end, the boy was in the Yeshiva.

So, the Alshich wants to explain, what does it mean, what is the main resting place of the shechina? Aino Hinami, it’s a building that’s a yeshiva, but it’s really the people inside the yeshiva. So therefore, when Hashem sees that a person gives money to help a yeshiva, he rewards him with righteous children, that the shechina should be on the people, not just on the building – on the righteous children of Yisroel. And that’s why the verse says, as Rav Pam explains, that’s what the verse says, “The Children of Israel that brought a donation.” Why specifically the Children of Israel? Because through their donations we were going to have children that were going to have the shechina on them, and the Divine Presence will be with these children.

00:21:13

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that part of having peace in your house is also being happy. It’s also having a pleasant nature. He says, “Like it says of Beis Shammai it says of Pirkei Avos. Beis Shammai says, ‘A man must always receive another person with a pleasant countenance.’ Rabbeinu Yona says, ‘that means to have a happy expression.’ So, you would think, why is Beis Shammai saying this? Hillel should say it. Beis Shammai is middos ha din, is strict. And Hillel is the one who is always happy. He was one of the talmidim, students of Aaron who said, ‘Love peace and pursue peace.’”

So, Rav Dessler wants to say that even according to strict justice, even if you want to be machpid, even if you hold by frumkeit, you still have to be happy to people. You still have to be happy. Orach Chaim of the Rosh says, “Your face should never be angry as you pass somebody by. And all the more so, people in your household, you have to be happy, and you have to smile at your wife and smile at your kids. It’s the same for your own sake, just as a person could have onas devarim, verbal abuse, so also there’s ayin hara. Which means to say, that this is a hara. You’re hurting people in your house if you’re sad. If you go around mopey all day, you’re hurting your children. You’re hurting your wife, you’re not allowed to do such a thing. A pleasant face is more important than all the material gifts in the world. If you give somebody a gift, if you give your wife or your kid a gift and you look down and aren’t happy, it doesn’t mean anything. But if you smile at them, it’s like you give them every gift in the world. By giving your heart to your wife and your children, you’re giving them everything.

The Meiri brings a bit of a drosha on, “Seveh panim yafim,” which means you should hold, even if you don’t like somebody else, you should make them feel like you do like them. And all the more so your own family, when there’s tough situations going on in the house, you have to be disciplined not to have a bad mood.

So, one time he says that he escorted Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach through very stormy weather, and just before he got in the house, he made sure he was all tidy. He fixed up his beard, and his peyos. He said, “A wife shouldn’t have to see her husband disheveled. He should look neat and pleasant when he walks in the house.” And this a person who’s been married for 50 years! So, surely when you come home, you should be pleasant, be pleasant to your wife and your family. They say that the Chazon Ish suffered from health problems his entire life, and still he always received people pleasantly. Like the Gemara says, “Greater the one who whitens his teeth and smiles before his friend than one who gives him milk to drink.” A good word can change a person’s entire day.

Rav Yochanan greeted everybody, Jews and non-Jews alike. He was always the first person to say, “Shalom.” And Rava said in Gemara Taanis that if you see a talmid, a student, whose learning is difficult for him as iron, it’s because his Rebbe did not show him a pleasant face. So, even being nice to people can help people to understand. We can give daas to another person by being nice to another person. Showing a pleasant countenance in the home can cast a new light on all of the difficulties that you have in your house, and bring peace and tranquility to your home. The Zohar writes, “A man must behave properly in his house, and from there his children and his wife will learn how to behave.”

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

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090 – Torah Portion of the Week – Tetzaveh – How the Jews Handle Misfortune – The Art of Suffering – A Powerful Parable about Saving Pennies – A Great Story about the Klausenberger Rebbi and Peace in Your Home – Having Faith

The Torah Podcast Transcript

090 – The Torah Podcast – How Jews Handle Misfortune  – The Art of Suffering

Torah Portion of the Week – Tetzaveh

If a man wants to become a convert, he has to be addressed as follows. “What reason have you for desiring to become a convert? Do you not know that Yisroel at the present time are persecuted and oppressed, and despised, and harrassed, and overcome by afflictions?” If he replies, “I know, yet I am not worthy,” he is accepted right away. So, here we see, it doesn’t matter what time period we are talking about, the Jews through all their history are persecuted, oppressed, despised, harassed and we have afflictions, so we ask him, “Are you sure you want to convert? Do you know what the story is with the Jewish people, do you know what the story is?” If he says, “Yes,” take for you clear olive oil crushed by illumination, to light a lamp continually. This is the ner tamid, this is the light that was always lit in the Mishkan, Tabernacle, and it was lit in the Beis Hamigdash continuously.

So, the Shemos Rabba says on this verse, “As the prophet says, ‘An olive tree, beautiful with good fruit, God called your name.” It’s the possuk from Yirmyahu. Rather, with regard to the olive tree, while the olives are on the tree, first they’re picked, then they’re brought down from the tree. Then they are beaten once, and they’re beaten again. And then they’re surrounded by ropes, and pressed by huge stones, and they’re crushed. After all of this, they give forth their oil. So too, the Jewish people. Idolators come and beat them from place to place, and oppress them. They bind them with chains and surround them and beseige them. After that, the Jewish people do teshuva, they return to God, and God answers them. So, we see from the Midrash which explains the inyan, idea that olive oil, why are we like olive oil? We have to have this pure olive oil to light the ner tamid, that stays lit constantly in the Beis Hamigdash, and we’re compared to the olives because if you crush us and beat us, pure olive oil comes out, in the sense that we return to God and this is our history, this is the story of the Jewish people. Like it says, we were oppressed from place to place, we’re bound with chains, we were beseiged. In the end, we do teshuva, and that’s our nature. So, somehow we see that we’re destined to suffer, the Jewish people have suffered through history, and that’s part of our being. That’s part of our story. We are destined to suffer. The question is, why? What’s going on?

The Ohr HaChaim also explains what does it mean that the olives are pounded? It has to do with Torah study. Torah study involves as pounding himself. He has to spiritually pound himself like the possuk says, “The one who died in the tent.” In order to get Torah, you have to work very, very hard. There’s another Chazal says a person has to spit up his mother’s milk in order to learn Torah. That’s how hard he has to work. So, it’s also part of our suffering. We’re commanded to learn Torah, and we have to work extremely hard, because the Torah is like olive oil. That’s the the comparison. So again, we see we have to suffer.

And the Chassam Sofer also explains on this verse, “We know that the olive oil that had to be used in the ner tamid was the very first olive oil, was the purest olive oil. It had to be at the highest standards of purity. So too, Torah learning involves extracting efforts, requires infinite hours of toil. We have to work very, very hard to get a few, pure drops of pure Torah, to make sure the Torah is clear, to make sure we understand it completely, to make sure it’s true. But it’s a tremendous amount of effort. Torah learning requires a lot of suffering, a lot of mesirus nefesh. But not only in terms of Torah learning, in terms of mitzvos themselves also.

Rav Moshe Steinberg says, “The Menorah itself, Moshe Rabbeinu had difficulty constructing the Menorah. And Hashem had to show him how to do it.” So he asks, “Why was it so difficult to control? Why did Hashem make a Menorah that was so difficult to make?” So, he explains, “Proper fulfillment of the Torah is extremely difficult, so much so that even Moshe Rabbeinu found it challenging. And Hashem had to tell him what to do.” So, not only in terms of Torah that we have to work so hard to get pure Torah, we also have to work hard in terms of the mitzvos – more suffering, more hard work. What’s going on here? And not only that, there’s a third aspect. Also, we have to work hard in terms of tikkun ha middos, in terms of changing our character traits. Rav Noam Elimelech says on the possuk, on this verse, “Beat for illumination, you must strike and beat yourself into submission before Hashem, and then you will burn with a great light, and illuminate the lamps forever, causing the flame to go forth with love and unceasing passion for Hashem. In order to have passion for God, you have to “beat yourself.” What’s going on here? We have to work very, very hard to overcome our bad character traits.

And the Malbim explains that the begedim which is also in this week’s Parsha, of the Cohen Gadol, all have to do with the different character traits. “For example,” he says, “The external garments of the Cohanim was to guide them how to dress their souls with the best character to achieve purity and sanctity”. For example, the tunic had to do with murder. And the undergarments, had to do with sexual immorality. The mitznefes which was the turban, had to do with haughtiness, had to work on haughtiness, and the avnei has to do with improper thoughts. The choshen which was worn on the chest, had to do with miscarriage of justice, to make sure they were just. And the ephod atones for idol worship. The meil, the robe, atones for gossip, and the tzitz had to do with arrogance, also.” He says, “As far as we put on begedim to remove our animalistic drive,” this is the undergarment, “and afterwards we have the other garments, which have to do with higher levels of purity, a higher level of being a mentsch, of being a human being. But we see from here that where there is Torah or mitzvos or tikkun ha middos, fixing our character, that requires a tremendous amount of hard work and suffering.”

So, the question is, if this is what Judaism is about, this tremendous amount of hard work and mesirus nefesh, constantly guarding yourself, constantly working on yourself, how does a person, where does a person get the strength to go through all this suffering? Where do the Jews get their strength to suffer for generations, in every generation the idol worshippers beat us around and take us here, and they put us into exile over here and over there, the suffering, the Holocaust, the Inquisition in Spain, how come the Jews are still around, bichlal? How do we go through all this suffering? What was our secret that allowed us to handle this religion? What is religion, is it a religion of suffering? The answer is, no. It’s not a religion of suffering. It’s in Tehillim 119, verse number 92. Again, “Had your Torah not been my preoccupation, I would have perished in my suffering.”

And the Tanna de Bey Eliyahu explains that when a person is threatened by afflictions, and he has all kinds of problems, if he goes to the beis medrash and he learns Torah, he will become calm and tranquil. It will calm him down, the Torah itself. Hashem gave us the refuah before the makkah, the healing before the putsch. We got the healing first, Since we were able to sit and learn Torah, and focus on Torah, it calmed us down. We don’t need any drugs, no tranquilizers, we don’t need to drink. We just need to go the beis medrash and sit and learn. Lav davka the beis medrash – even your house. If you open up a Torah book, mimeleh, automatically it helps you to handle your problems. That’s the Torah itself.

And Rav Henoch Leibowitz brings a beautiful proof for this. There’s a Gemara in Shabbos 31a that says like this. “One time, there was a non-Jew walking by a beis medrash and he was listening to the Rebbe teaching the students. And he was telling him this week’s Parsha. What was going on there? And it says, ‘The garments that are made for the Cohen Gadol, all these beautiful garments…’ and he was explaining with such detail how beautiful they were, what kavod it was, that the Cohen Gadol should look like a king. And so, he said to himself, ‘You know what? I’m going to convert. If I convert, maybe I could become a Cohen Gadol and I can also dress that way.’ So, first he went to Beis Shammai. Beis Shammai wouldn’t accept him. Then he went to Beis Hillel, and he asked Hillel, ‘I want to convert. Please help me.’ So, Hillel said to him, ‘Listen, it’s not easy to be a Cohen Gadol. It’s very complicated. The Temple service is also very complicated. You’re going to have to learn all these different laws.’ So he said, ‘No problem. I’m going to learn, I want to learn.’ What happened? He started to learn, and eventually he came across the verse in Bamidbar that says, ‘And the stranger that approaches the Sanctuary shall surely die.’ So, he asked his Rebbe, he said, ‘Who is the stranger? Who is the Torah talking about?’ ‘It’s talking about anybody who wasn’t born a Cohen. Even Dovid HaMelech can’t go into the kadosh hakedoshim.’ So, then he concluded, ‘Wait a second. If a Jew who is not a Cohen can’t go in and be the Cohen Gadol, so surely me, I’m just a ger, I’m converting, surely I can’t be a Cohen Gadol?’ So, what happened? Nevertheless, he continued to study and he eventually converted.”

Rav Henoch Leibowitz has a gevaldik kashe on this. He says, “Wait a second. What happened here? First, the guy started out that he wanted to convert for the wrong reasons, because he was going to dress, he was going to be the Cohen Gadol and get all the kavod, honor, and dress a certain way, dress with tremendous kavod. Then all of a sudden he finds out that there’s no way, but anyway in the end he converts. So, if we look in the story, there’s only one thing that changed. What changed was, this convert learned Torah himself. It was the learning of Torah that allowed him, that gave him the strength to convert even so. Like we said, we know we tell the convert it’s going to be difficult, it’s going to be hard. He wanted to convert for the wrong reason. And still, after he learned Torah, the Torah itself gave him the strength to convert for the right reasons. It gave him the energy. He saw in the Torah itself that this is the right way to go. Even though originally he started for the wrong reasons, but he learned it for the right reasons. So, we see that Torah itself has the koach, it has the strength to help a person to grow spiritually. Also like we said before, it helps the person to be able to suffer all of his sufferings. So, that was all in terms of learning Torah itself. One way we are able to handle suffering is through the learning of Torah itself.

But the Radak has another perush, explanation on that same possuk of Tehillim, I’ll tell you that possuk again, it’s so important. “Had your Torah not been my preoccupation, I would have perished in my suffering.” The Radak says on this, “Had I not been preoccupied with my belief in your Torah, your teachings and promises, I surely would have perished in my suffering.” In other words, it’s the philosophy of the Torah, the understanding of the Torah, what the Torah means, that’s what gives the Jew the strength to handle all these difficult loads. For example, the Shach says in Pesachim on the possuk, “Shema Yisroel,” the possuk we say every day, night and day. “Hear O’Israel, Hashem is your God, Hashem is One.” So, the Shach explains, “Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad,” Hashem is the name of mercy. Hashem Elokeinu, the God of mercy is the God of din, of judgement. “The same God,” he explains, “The same attribute of justice which is represented by Elokim that we say in Shema Yisroel, is the same Hashem who is the Hashem of mercy that we understand from the Torah, and that all our difficulties are coming from mercy. They look like they’re difficult. They appear to be difficult. If we look deeper into it, we will see that it’s really Hashem’s mercy. He is helping us. And not only is Hashem helping us, but He cares about us.”

Rabbeinu Bachye says on this week’s Parsha, Surely Hashem didn’t need us to light the Menorah in the Beis Hamigdash. Hashem has the sun and the stars and the moon. He’s got plenty of lights. He doesn’t need those lights inside the Beis Hamigdash. But He says, “The lights which Aaron was kindling are very beloved to Me, even more so than the ones that I have set in the heavens. Hashem Himself testifies that when the Jews, whenever the Cohen Gadol lights the Menorah, in the Beis Hamigdash, it’s more precious to Him even than all the stars and the planets that He created. In other words, we are special in front of God. God loves us. God gave us our place. God gives us space, God is our father, we’re His children. So, knowing that, it helps us to handle whatever’s thrown at us. Not only that, but we understand that the Torah itself is something beyond this world.

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains, “The Menorah, which represented Torah, was put outside the parochet,” that’s what the verse says. It was put outside of the curtains. Why is that? Because the Torah is outside of us. The Torah was given to man, but it’s not a product of human intellect. Man is drawn to increase in enlightenments from the Torah. But he must never introduce his own light into the Torah.” In other words, he shouldn’t be like those arrogant people that they want to explain the Torah the way they want to explain it. “No. We understand the Torah itself is something from Hashem Himself. There’s no way that we could understand anything without the Torah. All we would know is what we see with our senses. We have to use our intellect a little bit, but there’s no way we’d be able to know all the secrets of the Universe. The Torah is the secrets of the Universe. Once we understand that the Torah is the secrets of the Universe, and God loves us, and He cares about us, so of course we are able to go through whatever it takes to get there, to get the understanding. And since God wants us to work on our middos, He wants us to work on our character, of course we’re going to do whatever it takes to work on our character because we know it’s the Master of the Universe, it’s God Himself helping us, telling us what to do. And of course we’ll be able to solve it, to handle it.

Like the Orchas Tzadikim says, “A person who believes with his whole heart and trusts in God’s help will always be happy and able to endure anything.” It’s unbelievable. This is just like a sick person that’s taking bitter medicine to be cured. A person willingly endures his problem free of worry. Such a person is also satisfied with the little bit he has. It’s sufficient whatever God gives him.” Thus, we see that happiness includes everything. In other words, we understand there’s a God in the world who cares about us, all the things we are going through are to purify us. Everything that we’re here for is to grow.

Like the Vilna Gaon said, “If a person’s not here to metaken his middos, lama li chayim?” What is he here for? Why are we here? We’re here to grow. We’re here to grow through this problem. And if we understand that God loves us and everything He’s doing is to help us, so we’re going to be happy. If we’re happy, we’ll be able to handle anything. “On the other hand,” he says, “someone who worries and doesn’t have peace of mind and is constantly figuring out more ways to make money, and is not satisfied with what God gives him, that person no matter how much money he has, no matter how much he has, he’s always going to want more and more.” And he continues, “What brings a person to proper faith in God? He is unaffected by any bad happening, and accepts everything with joy and serenity.” A person needs to believe with perfect faith that his Creator, that He does good and He’s the most merciful being, and that He is the true judge. And all that He does is for a person’s own good. Once a person knows that, of course he’s going to be happy. And when you’re happy, and when you’re happy, you’re going to be able to solve all kinds of situations.”

So, one of the points I want to make is, it’s not a question of self-control. Really, there’s no such thing as self-control, how do you control yourself? The answer is, if you have goals, if you understand your purpose in life, it’s not a question of self-control. It’s much easier, you’re able to handle it. This week, I went to speak to Rav Chaim Kaminetsky in Bnai Brak, and I overheard a Jewish guy who came in and said, “Listen, my daughter wants to marry a non-Jew.” So, the Rav said to him, “Did she go crazy? Maybe she went crazy.” In other words, “Are you kidding me? It must be she went crazy.” What do you mean, she went crazy? You’ve lost your context, you’ve lost touch with reality. It’s the same kind of thing, the progressives say, “Oh, if it feels good, do it.” Are you nuts? You’ve lost the context of reality.

The Ramchal explained in his logic, you have an idea of a connotation and denotation. Denotation means the word refers to the thing itself, and the connotation means you bring the context with it. For example, if I say someone is a government worker, it means this guy works for the government. But if I say he’s a politician, not only does he work for the government, but it brings the whole context along with that. We’re not isolated, but the problem is, we lost track of where we are. If you don’t have the bigger picture, so then you’re lost. It’s like you’re crazy, you don’t know what you’re doing. If it feels good, do it. You have no control over yourself. But if you have the bigger picture, you understand you’re here for a purpose, and you have meaning. Meaning is what gives happiness to life, if things have meaning. But meaning only is there if it’s broader. It can’t be just looking locally. You have to be looking at the bigger picture, the bigger goal.

That’s how athletes can endure all kinds of things. You can endure anything. People who have goals with life, they can endure almost anything. There’s all these crazy stories of people that endured incredible things. Victor Frenkl in his theory of psychology asks, “Why don’t you commit suicide? Why don’t you kill yourself?” So, the person thinks, and some people would say, “Well, I have a daughter.” Or, “I want to get married.” Or, “I love my parents.” So those are the things that give you meaning. Ask yourself, “Are you just suffering? Life is hard. Why don’t you kill yourself?” The answer to those questions are the things that give meaning in your life. And if you can build up on those things that give meaning in your life, then you can build a framework, and reframe everything in terms of those things. That’s what the Torah does, it gives you a framework to reframe everything, to not just look locally. In what context am I? Where am I, what am I doing here? Why am I here? All these reasons give meaning to life. And it’s the meaning that you get in your life, that enables you to endure all kinds of different sufferings.

So, in the end of the day, the answer as to how the Jews can handle the sufferings is the Torah itself. Why? Because the Torah puts everything into the proper framework. When you learn Torah, and you learn the philosophies of the Torah, and you see the greatness of the Torah, it creates a context in the way you can live. You don’t just live isolated. You’re living in the context of a greater good, of a God who is kind, of meaning in your life. And that’s the meaning that gives you happiness that allows us to handle any type of suffering. 

00:21:27

A Powerful Parable 

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings the same verse, “To keep the lamp burning constantly.” He says that the lamp was the symbol of Torah. Like it says, “Ner mitzvah ve’Torah ohr.” For a commandment of kindle, and the Torah’s the light. That’s a possuk in Mishlei. So he explains, “The Torah needs to be learned with diligence and persistence, that no time should be lost.” We know all the Gedolim, all the great Rabbis, they didn’t waste a minute. Every minute they were learning and growing. So, he wants to bring a moshul, a parable.

There were two poor men. They used to shlep from village to village and collect money. And they always got enough to get by, they both collected money. But they were very different from each other. One man, as soon as he got his money he would spend it right away and there would be nothing left the next day, he’d be back to zero. The other one, he would collect and he would always save a little bit on the side. So, little by little, the other one starts to save some money. And he bought some merchandise, and he sold it. Then he made a little bit more money, and little by little he actually became a wealthy person. He improved his lot, just by collecting the money and saving a little bit. But his friend, he continued in his way. He always stayed a beggar his entire life. He’d always spend the money, and there would be nothing left. So, that was the moshul, what’s the nimshal? 

The nimshal is that a person is given a certain amount of years to live, comprised of days and hours. And if a person knows how to utilize his time, and during that time he learns Torah and he does mitzvos, in the end, one will join to the next and he’ll have a tremendous reward, a tremendous reward in the next world. But if a person wastes his time day after day, in the end he’ll have nothing. 

00:23:34

Great Stories – The Klausenberger Rebbe

The Klausenberger Rebbe relates that one time during the height of the horror of the Holocaust, a Jewish professor who was not religious, asked him this question – cynically, he says. He says, “What do you say about the Jewish people now, Rebbe?” The Rebbe answered, “Don’t worry. It will be good.” So, the professor was shocked. How can he say such a thing? He says, “Listen, I’m not a prophet. And in terms of myself, I don’t know what’s going to be. But I know one thing. The future of the Jewish people is going to be good. I know with certainty our people will survive, and all the cursed evildoers will be destroyed and disappear. This phenomenon has happened over and over through the history of the Jewish people. In the end, every enemy that came against us was wiped out, and today they don’t even exist in civilization. But on the other hand, you can find complete families from one Jew who was killed with mesirus nefesh, was killed by the Nazis, he was killed but his family survived, and there’s hundreds of grandchildren and children that are all serving God and have a great life. And the people who killed him, they had no descendants at all. Nothing left of them.” So, the professor had to agree with the words of the Rebbe.

00:25:02

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that one of the things needed for shalom bayis, to have peace in your house, is faith. If you have faith, you’re going to bring peace into your house. You and your wife, you both have to have faith. “If a person has faith,” he explains, “you could handle all the ups and downs in life. It’s like putting a rock behind the wagon wheel. If the wagon starts to go backwards a little bit, his faith will keep the wagon in place. He brings the Maharal who explains that every Jewish mother tells every child to put his hands over his eyes when he says Shema, that a person, what do we learn from there? That we have to have blind faith. We have to believe that everything Hashem does is for the good. And really, every Jew has faith. The question is, how do Jews sin? “If the yetzer hara, evil inclination comes in,” he explains. Sometimes the yetzer hara comes in and causes a person to sin.

He says even, there’s a famous story about Rav Eliyahu Lopian. There was a famous apikorsus that every day, he used to stand up and speak. “There is no God, there’s no din, there’s no dayan,” there’s no judgement and there’s no Judge, nearly every day. So, what happened? They heard one time, he had to go to the hospital. And he was about to go into the operating room for a very serious operation. They heard him crying. He said, “In Your hands I place my soul. You have redeemed me, God of truth.” This is a Jewish apikorsus who when it came down to it, he starts to pray, because every Jew believes in God. Chazal tells us that even a thief calls on the name of God to help him. A guy’s about to rob the house and he prays, “Please help me, Hashem.”

There’s a true story in Har Nof, these robbers came into the house and there was somebody in the house, he saw them running out. On the way out, they kissed the mezuzah. So, you see that really inside of every Jew, he has faith. It’s just that he gets lost a little bit sometimes. What does it have to do with? It has to do with we have to have faith in order to have shalom in our house. If we don’t have faith, we’re going to have very difficult lives. We’re always going to be fighting and worrying, and complaining. If you have faith, it helps to bring peace into your house.

So, he explains that we pray for chassadim tovim, which means Hashem’s good chessed, His good kindness. But isn’t all of Hashem’s kindness good? The answer is, yes, it is. But we pray that we see it. We don’t always see the good. We have to see the good, we have to see it in our house. We have to be relaxed. So he says, “One time a Rav asked, ‘If suffering is really good, so why don’t we say a blessing on it, she hakol li kol zarchi, that Hashem, You take care of all of our needs.” But when we say the blessing in the morning, Hashem, You take care of all of our needs, that’s including…in other words, how did He take care of all of our needs? Through our suffering, because our needs are to grow. So it’s true, we do say a blessing on it.

So, he brings the famous story of Rav Chaim of Brisk, this is a famous story. Somebody came to Rav Chaim and says, “I have a lot, a lot of questions on emunah. I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t believe in God. I have a lot of questions.” So he asked him, “When did these questions start, the questions that you have now? Did they start after you started to be mechallel Shabbos, after you became not religious, or before?” So he says, “Most of the questions I have now, it happened after I became not religious.” So he says, “Listen, your questions aren’t questions. Your questions are answers, the answers to why you don’t want to be religious. You want to be free so you have a lot of answers of why you can be free. I can’t answer your answers, because that’s what they are. They’re not questions, they’re answers. So really, if you had faith, then you wouldn’t have any questions.” That’s what it says, “A believing Jew has no questions.”

And the point is in terms of shalom bayis, that if you believe that everything is min hashemayim, so you’re not going to be up tight all the time. You’re not going to be striving constantly, why he has a nicer car, and why I don’t have any money, and why this, and why this? And that’s what creates all the fighting in the house. If you have emunah and bitachon, you’re both two happy people, and you’re able to live together in peace, because you have inner peace. So, if you really want to work on peace in your house, then you should also work on your faith, because your faith is going to bring you to peace. 

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 090 How the Jews Handle Misfortune -The Art of Suffering appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Mishpatim – Free Your Mind – Stop Being a Slave – A Powerful Parable about the Rich Brother – A Great Story about the Alter of Slobodka and Peace in Your Home – Don’t be a Zealot in Your Home

The Torah Podcast Transcript

089 – The Torah Podcast – Free Your Mind – Stop Being a Slave   

Torah Portion of the Week – Mishpatim

This week’s Parsha starts out like this. The verses say, “And these are the judgements that you shall place before them. When you buy a Hebrew servant, and he shall work for six years, in the seventh year he should go to freedom without charge. If he shall come in alone, he should go out alone. If he is the husband of a woman, his wife should go out with him. If his master will give him a woman and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children will belong to her master, and he shall go up by himself. But if the servant should say, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children. I shall not go free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. And they shall bring him to the door, or to the doorpost. And his master shall bore through his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.” Now, Rashi explains like this. What is it about the ear that it should be bored, out of all the other organs of the body? Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai explains, “The ear that heard at Mount Sinai, you shall not steal, and nevertheless went and stole, let it be bored. And if on the other hand he sold himself because of his own poverty, so the ear that heard at Mount Sinai, for the Children of Israel are slaves unto Me, he went and he acquired a master for himself. Let that ear be bored.” And Rashi continues, “Rav Shimon expounded this verse as a packet of pearls. What makes a door and a doorpost unique among the furnishings of the house? The Holy One, Blessed-be-He said, ‘The door and the doorpost were a witness of what happened in Egypt, when I skipped over two doorposts. And I said for the Children of Israel are slaves to Me. They are my slaves, and not slaves of slaves, to which the person went and acquired himself a master for himself. That ear should be bored in their presence.’”

Rabbeinu Bachye asks, “Why do we begin with this law of how to treat a Hebrew slave?” The answer is that since we were slaves in Egypt and Hashem freed us for us to become slaves to Hashem, to serve God, all of a sudden this person turns around and makes himself a slave to another human being. Why is he doing this? He shouldn’t be doing this. We’re supposed to be free individuals. We’re supposed to be free to serve God, and that’s why He put this mitzvah first”. He also brings down that this mitzvah is a reminder that Hashem created the world. Why? Because it says after six years, on the seventh year you go free. That’s a remez, that’s a hint to Shabbos, that we’re supposed to be free on Shabbos in order to serve God, because free men are able to rest on Shabbos. He also explains, “One of the reasons why he put the awl through his ear on the door is because the blood’s going to come out and it’s also going to be a remembrance of the blood that we put on our doors when we were in Egypt, before we went out, which was a symbol of our freedom. And here, this person doesn’t want to be free. Therefore, it’s a reminder of such a thing, that really we should be free, we want to be free. We want to serve God. What’s going on with this person?” He brings the Midrash that says, “I opened the door to the house for him to enable him to walk to freedom, and he slammed the door upon himself in order to remain a slave. Therefore as a penalty, his ear should be nailed to the door.” And he says, “The door which is delet starts with a dalet. Which dalet are we referring to? The dalet at the end of Shema Yisroel. We say, “Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad,” and that dalet we think in all six directions when we focus on that dalet. Why? Because that’s the door, that’s the doorway to heaven, the gateway to heaven which the righteous enter. And this foolish person instead of being free to serve God, what did he do? He becomes a slave. Either he steals or he sells himself to slavery. But either way he says, “He foolishly traded his master for whom he could not see with his senses, with someone who can see, hear and feel. And he has to understand the mistake that he made.”

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains that if he degraded himself to the level of  six. Six years he was going to be a slave, in the seventh year he’s supposed to go free. What does six relate to? Six relates to the sixth dimensions that are physical reality, that’s all there are. It means totally physical. Through his crime the offender sank to the level of six, the purely material, physical world. And the thought of the seven was hidden from him, for the seventh means spirituality. He continues and says, “A servant who prefers the security and the carefree comfort of a state of bondage and rejects his own independent family life with all of its worries and cares, is brought by his master to the door. And his master pierces his ear on the door. What does the door represent? It represents redemption, freedom, the establishment of your own home, your own personal life. The doorpost of the home gives each Jewish soul the exalted mission of participating in the establishment of free homes, dedicated to God. We should be independent people. We should be free people. We should be doing what we need to do, and not be subservient to some other human being.” 

He says, “If a Jew rejects the status represented by the doorpost, the responsibility of independently bearing the burden of a home, he sells his freedom for the ease of belonging to someone who has no ear for heeding God’s code of freedom and independence. And his ear is bored upon the door as he faces the doorpost.”

So, I want to explain a little bit more about the details of what exactly did this person do wrong? The Rambam explains, “If this person who stole was single, when he goes to be a slave under this master, he is not given a wife. But if he already had a Jewish wife and he went to be a slave under this person, so then he’s given a gentile slave, a woman who’s already a slave, he’s given as a wife. What happens is, he has children with that woman, and they all continue to be slaves. So, the master is going to gain having more slaves. But this is only true in the case where he stole, not when he sold himself because of poverty. If he sold himself because of poverty, he’s not given an extra wife. But if he stole, he is given an extra wife. So, why is that true? It seems strange.” The Rabbi wants to explain, the reason is because after six years when he decides to go free, he leaves that wife and those children by his master. He himself, if he would experience the pain of having something taken away from him, that’s because he stole. That’s going to be his lesson. The lesson is, don’t steal. Don’t take things away from other people. Have respect for other people’s property, and now you’re going to learn your lesson. Why? Because you’re going to be given a wife, and you’re going to have children. And you’re going to have to leave them with the master. It’s going to be taken away from you, midda kenegged midda, tit for tat. And that’s the way you’re going to learn your lesson, and it’s the most basic lesson of being a human being. Have respect for other people’s property. What are you going to do? You stole, how could you steal?

And the Chassam Sofer explains another point. It’s specifically by a thief who stole and nobody saw him, this thief who got caught, that’s the one who sold him to slavery. But if he was a gazlan, he robbed at gunpoint, so we don’t sell him into slavery. What’s that about? This person thinks he can trick God. If he’s the person who stole with a gun, he did it out in the open, he doesn’t know any difference between God and man. He’s not afraid of anybody. But the person who stole at nighttime and nobody saw him, he thinks he’s getting away with something which is intrinsically a bad character trait, to actually believe that you can get away with things that God doesn’t see.

Now, Rav Schwab has an unbelievable question. We saw that the Rashi that brought the Gemara that said, “Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai explained that on Har Sinai, the Jews heard with their own ears, ‘You shall not steal.’ Yet this person stole.” But he says, “Wait a second. That was one of the Ten Commandments. The stealing that it says in the Ten Commandments, ‘Do not steal’ is talking about kidnapping. What do you mean kidnapping, he didn’t kidnap anybody. He stole. Secondly, why do we see that he only gets punished, is that his ear only gets bored after he decides to stay? It should be right at the very beginning. That should be the punishment at the very beginning. He didn’t listen, and he stole. So why do we wait until he decides to stay a slave?” So, the answer is no, he did kidnap. When did he kidnap? At the end, and that’s when he gets his ear bored at that point. Why? Because he kidnapped himself. He wants to explain that Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai was talking about the ear that heard at Sinai, he’s talking about the end of the whole process. When he decides to continue to be a slave, he kidnapped himself. He gave himself over. He says like this, “He sold himself into slavery, violating the prohibition against kidnapping. He’s kidnapping himself from Hakadosh Baruch-Hu. He’s going to be subordinate to another human being. He can no longer be an absolute servant to Hashem. Why? Because he has to serve other people. If you have to serve other people, you can’t be a servant to Hashem, you have to be free. It’s like the Jews after the Holocaust, they came to New York. They had to keep quitting their jobs because every time they tried to keep Shabbos, so they’d have to get a new job every week. Why? Because if you’re subordinate to other people you’re not free. You’re not free to serve God.

And the Kli Yakar brings the possuk from Mishlei which says, “And the door, the door turns on its hinges, and the lazy one does not wish to go out.” That’s this person. This is like someone who sits in prison and they give him the opportunity to leave. Run for your life, and instead he chooses the benefit of being in prison. At least he gets food, he gets drink, he has a place to sleep. He says, “Thus he’s exchanged the level of God for the level of his maidservant wife, and therefore his ear should be pierced at the doorpost.” This person is giving up on spirituality for the sake of the physical. And you have to hear this – this is unbelievable what he says. He says, “Besides all these reasons, this is a good example of those who are blind in the camp of the Hebrews. They go all their days through all types of slavery and suffering and pain, in order to gain wealth. And to obtain this wealth he sells himself as a slave for life. This is what most people do. And he claims that he’s compelled to earn a living and go for the sake of his wife and his children.” That’s what the Gemara says. “He’s accumulating it all for their benefit, and he doesn’t have time to go free all of his day. He rationalizes, and he accepts upon himself saying…which is like the verse said, ‘I love my wife and my children.’” It sounds very noble, it’s a very noble cause. Then he’s therefore not going to go into freedom. Which freedom? The freedom to learn Torah, the freedom to do mitzvos, the freedom to do the will of God. He says, “No, I’m bound by human suffering,” and the bonds of the love of a wife and children. Therefore, he’s called a submissive servant. All the days this man will not rest. And all his days end as a breath and all of his years in turn, with all the troubles one after another.

He brings the example of Pirkei de Reb Eliezer who says that a man has three friends. Which three friends? A man has three friends in this world, his children, his grandchildren, and his wealth. What’s going to happen? He says, “I love my wife and I love my children.” But he explains, “These things do not go out when a man leaves the world. The one who said, ‘I love my wife and I love my children,’ this wife and this children are not going to be able to help him at all when he comes to the grave, for they don’t love him so much they’ll go beyond and with him,” he says. On the contrary, they are going to abandon him at the gate – the entrance to the grave – and beyond, where his sins crouch at the entrance. From the gates and beyond, his family will not enter him to advocate for him. This is the correct example, and one of the secrets of the Torah. It’s unbelievable, this is what most people do. They say, “For the sake of my wife and for the sake of my children, for the sake of my grandchildren, I have to work 24/7 to produce millions and millions of dollars to support them for generations.” What happened to Torah? The Torah is pushed to the side. What happened to doing God’s will? What’s happening to learning, what’s happening to growing in spirituality? We don’t have time for that. We have to take care of our wives and our kids.  This is exactly what most people say. But the Torah is coming to teach us, “No, that’s called slavery. Don’t give up your freedom. Don’t give up your spirituality for the sake of the physical.” I’m not saying a person doesn’t have to go to work. I’m not saying a person doesn’t have to take care of his wife and his kids. Of course he does. But that’s not the essential, it’s not the main focus. It’s not the purpose of your life. The purpose of your life is to grow in spirituality, to grow in ruchnius and do mitzvos, because that’s what we have when we leave this world. 

Rav Wolbe adds another point. He says like this. “The essence of Torah observance is freedom from bondage to outside forces. Servitude to Hashem does not tolerate servitude to any other master.” It’s says that when Rav Wolbe would say the beracha that we say every day, “Thank you God that you didn’t make me a slave,” he would have in mind, “Am I truly not a slave?” A person who is obsessed with what other people think of him and tailor’s his actions to fit them, they are ideals that the very essence of what of slavery represents. He neglects what he knows is right, in order to conform to social pressures – another form of slavery, another form of not really serving God. Why? Because you just do what everybody else is doing. The whole world’s doing like that, the whole world’s doing like this. But that’s also called a type of a slavery, not a real free person, with real free will, really deciding what you should do with your life, and really doing the right thing regardless of what other people think and what other people say. It’s another form of slavery. We have to be completely free. Our minds have to be free in order to serve God, because we have to be creative. We have to be thinking people, not just following a dogma. Some people turn to religion because they’re weak. They want somebody else to tell them what to do, how to act, how to dress. That’s not real religion. Real religion is the relationship with the Creator, with creativity, with thinking, making the right decisions, deciding really what you should do, really thinking out things to the end.

Rav Yisroel Salanter explains, what does it mean nishbar lev that Dovid HaMelech said, “He had a broken heart.” Every day, he would think, “Am I doing the right thing? Is it the right avoda? What am I doing with my life? I have a broken heart in the sense that I’m not sure, I’m not exactly sure what’s my avodas Hashem, what my service of God really should be. Why was I created? What’s my specific task that I was created to do in this world? That’s a real eved Hashem. He’s not bound by religion in the sense of protocol, in the sense of how you dress and how you look and what you’re doing. We do that for other reasons, in order to protect ourselves. But that’s not the essence of who I am. I have to decide on my own being what’s the right thing to do.

And the Shem Mi Shmuel brings in another point in the same direction. He says like this. “We know that Moshe Rabbeinu after he killed the Egyptian he had to run away. And the verse said, ‘I know that the matter is known,’ Moshe said.” The Maharal explains there, he says, “Once he saw that the Jewish people were speaking to each other against other Jews, and he saw that they lost the quality of modesty, of being humble, and they had inside them evil, so then he said the matter is known. It was apparent to him why the Jews were still enslaved in Egypt, because they didn’t have the proper character traits. They lost the Jewish quality of being tzniyus, of being internal as compared to external, of being in touch with their inner being. That’s what they lost. So, he understood that maybe the Jews didn’t have the merit to go out of Mitzrayim.” 

He wants to explain the same thing by this thief, like we said before. We’re not talking about a gazlan, we’re talking about a ganef. We’re talking about somebody who does something hidden. And if somebody does something hidden, he effects his inner being more than if he does it when it’s out in the open. He’s using the quality, his hidden qualities, to do wrong, to do the wrong thing with his internal being. And therefore, he’s completely off the way and has to be sold to be a slave. He says, “He cannot handle his own free quality of being a true Jew, and therefore he must be rehabilitated.” In other words, what you do, who are you when you are alone? Who are you when nobody sees you? Your real inner, deepest being, are you being an eved Hashem? Are you running away from God? Are you making yourself a slave to society, a slave to somebody else, a slave to your work, a slave to your friends? Is all you care about what other people think about you? Are you only doing what other people tell you to do? Or are you really independent, freedom to be an eved Hashem a person has to be free. But that means free in so many bechinas, so many aspects. Free in his mind, free from society, free from gashmius. He’s not addicted to all the physical world. He has to be totally free.

I just want to end off with a Midrash that takes this whole Chazal and turns it round in another direction. We see from here that there’s really 70 facets to the Torah. You can learn these possukim in a totally different way, listen to this Midrash. The Midrash says of the verse, “Six years he shall serve.” What are they talking about? Man’s active life in the world is 60 years. And in the 70^th he should go free. After 70 years he departs from the world. Then he becomes free from the obligation to do mitzvos. If he came in by himself because of his poverty, in other words he came in by himself, he spent his life without Torah and mitzvos, then he should go out by himself. He will leave the world without any merits, oy vavoy. If he’s married, he’s married to the Torah. We know that the Torah is considered a man’s wife. Then the wife should go out with him. The Torah will accompany him, even after death. Like it says, “If a man dies neither gold or silver will go along with him, but only Torah and mitzvos.” If his master has given him a wife and she bears children, what does that mean? He raised students who are considered like his children. But his motives in learning Torah were impure, then his wife and his children should stay by his master. What does that mean? He’s going to go up by himself. He’ll leave the world without any merits. But if the slave said, “No, I love my master, and I love my wife and my children.” I occupy myself for Torah. I love God. I raised students for the sake of Heaven, and I will not go out free. What does that mean? I will never lose the Torah which I acquired. Even after death, he will go from strength to strength in the next world.

Then it says, “His master shall bring him close to the judges, Elokim, he will merit to see the shechina, God’s presence. And He will bring him to the door. Which door? The door to heaven where the tzaddikim go in, or the doorpost which means he’ll go from heaven to heaven, in the seven heavens. Then he shall serve Him forever, what does that mean? At the time of techiyas hameisim, he’ll be resurrected at the time of the dead, and he’ll serve God forever.”

0:20:56.9

A Powerful Parable 

So, the verse says, “You must serve Hashem your God.” What is it talking about? The Mechilta explains, “You shall serve Hashem your God, that’s talking about tefillah, prayer. It’s a service of the heart. You shall serve Him with all your heart, that means tefillah.” The Maggid Mi Dubno brings a parable. What is a desirable prayer?

He says a story like this. A poor man with a large family had no food, and all of a sudden his oldest daughter became of age. So, his wife advised him to go travel to his wealthy brother to try to get some money to cover the wedding expenses. So, he decided to walk because he had no choice. He took his little piece of bread with him, and he started walking. And he walked for many days, and on the way all of a sudden he starts to feel very sharp pains in his legs and he can’t move. Thank God, there was a caravan that came by and picked him up. So, when he got there, his brother immediately called out the best doctor, and he had these treatments that lasted for weeks, and he had complete recovery, Baruch Hashem, thank God. But the problem is that the doctor’s fees were very high, and the rich brother gladly paid to the last penny.

Someone there said to him, “Wow, you’re really lucky it happened here, because your brother paid for everything. If it would have happened back in your home town, you would have never had such care.” So, the man says, “Listen, I’m not lucky at all. If I wouldn’t have had become afflicted with the pain, my brother would have given me money to marry off my daughter. But now after spending so much money on the medical expenses, I don’t have the heart to ask him for the money.”

That was the moshul, what’s the nimshal, conclusion? He said, “We are mistaken when we pray. We should ask Hashem to rebuild the Beis Hamigdash. But instead, with our small minds, we stand and we ask for money, for parnassah, to make it through the week. If we would ask for the big thing which is the Beis Hamigdash, all the brochas, blessings would come, and we wouldn’t have to worry about the small problems.

0:22:58.5

Great Stories – The Alter Mi Slabodka

The verse of this week’s Parsha says, “If a man will open a pit or if a man will dig a pit, he has to pay compensation.” One time, the Alter Mi Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, was walking and he saw a young man taking a paper from the street. Then he threw the paper back down. So, the Alter asked him, “What was that about?” He says, “Well, I saw there was Hebrew letters on it. I thought it might be Torah, and then I saw that it was really something mundane, so I threw it back down.” He asked him, “What is the law concerning a person who causes another to fall?” He says, “He has to pay. It’s a financial obligation.” “So, what’s the difference?” he said. “How can you not realize that another person’s going to come along just like you? He’s going to see Hebrew letters on that piece of paper. He’s going to bend over, and he’s going to pick it up. That’s not called an obstacle? What’s the difference in causing another person to fall, and causing them to bend down and pick up the piece of paper? You should throw the piece of paper away if you really want to be a mentsch.”

0:24:09.2

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern speaks, when there’s a newly married couple, the husband shouldn’t be such a zealot. He says, “It’s a common problem.” What happens is, the husband comes from a house that’s very frum, and all of a sudden he sees a little mix up with his new wife, a little mix up between a spoon in the wrong sink, this or that, and he starts to flip out. “The whole kitchen’s treif,” this and that. The Rav says, “Listen, he has to calm down. That’s not the way to handle it.” He says, “Rav Avraham Blau was one of the biggest kanaim of Eretz Yisroel. That’s not the way we act. Lo aleinu,” he explained, he had a story like this. One time he saw a boy in Meah Shearim throw some garbage out on a girl who was not dressed properly. So, he ran over to him. He says, “Listen, that girl’s a Jewish girl. How can you do such a thing?” He explains, “Being a zealot is only after you’ve worked on all the other good middos. If a person has good middos, so then he could be a zealot, but not before.

Rav Eliyahu Lopian explained, “Why in Ashrei it says, ‘He destroys the wicked,’ but that’s only at the end of Ashrei. Before then, we have all the other verses – Hashem is good to all, His mercy extends towards creatures, He rises up the fallen, He fulfills the desires of those who fear him’ Only after that does he say, ‘He destroys the wicked.’ But first you have to have all the different qualities. If you don’t have good qualities, you don’t have good middos, that’s not called being a zealot. That’s not being a religious fanatic, or a proper religious person. That’s just bad middos, bad character.”

He explains that his uncle, Rav Aaron Katzenellenbogen, was a tremendous kanai. He was very, very strict, and very strong, but he didn’t stop learning for a moment. And his concern for a fellow Jew was unbelievable. What ahavas Yisroel he had. He had love for every Jew. He says, “One time he walked all the way from Meah Shearim to Shaarei Chessed just to speak to a couple that was having a problem with shalom bayis. He asked him, ‘Why did you walk so far?’ He said, ‘Maybe because if the people understand that I was mesirus nefesh to walk, then the husband’s going to listen to what I have to say.’” He cared about Jewish people, he cared about shalom bayis in people’s houses.

The Beis HaLevy also brings a proof for this. He brings in Parshas Pinchas, Pinchas was the classic kanai. He killed Zimri because he was doing the wrong thing. He killed a man and a woman. But we see that his reward is only mentioned a week later, not in the same Parsha. The reward that he received from doing such a thing was only a week later. He wants to explain, “In order to make sure that the act of being a kanai, the act of being strict, of being extremely religious, it’s only after a person spends time to examine his motives. A person has to be really, really sure of himself if he’s going to act in such an extreme way. He has to make sure he’s doing the right thing, and not before that. If he sees a little mix up in the kitchen, he shouldn’t be screaming and yelling. He has to have good character. He has to be relaxed.

He brings a raya, proof from Adam HaRishon. It says, “The woman you gave me, she gave me the tree and I shall eat.” Chazal point out that it doesn’t say, “achalti,” I ate, but rather I will eat. Adam said, “I ate and I will eat.” How can he say such a thing? Adam meant that he never asked Chava if what she served him was kosher or not. He relied on his wife. He trusted her for the sake of peace in his home. 

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 089 Free Your Mind – Stop Being a Slave appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

The Torah Podcast Transcript

088 – The Torah Podcast – Transformed by the Torah – The Power of Experience 

Torah Portion of the Week – Yisro

Verse 16 says like this, “On the third day when it was becoming morning, there was thunder and lightning with a heavy cloud in the mountain. And the sound of the shofar was very powerful. And the entire people that was in the camp shuddered. Moshe brought the people forth from the camp towards God, and they stood under the mountain. Mount Sinai was smoking in its entirety, because Hashem had descended upon it with fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a lime pit and the entire mountain shuddered exceedingly. The sound of the shofar grew continually much stronger. Moses would speak, and God responded to him in a voice.” And then after the giving of the  Ten Commandments it says, “And all the people could see the sound and the flames. The sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain. And the people saw, and they moved and they stood away afar. They said to Moses, “Speak to us, and we will hear. Let not God speak to us, least we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for in order to exalt you, God has come so that His fear should be before you, that you should not sin.” The people stood from afar, and Moses approached the fog where God was.”

We see that when the Torah was given, the world shook. The people could see the sounds, there was thunder, there was lightening. The Rambam explains, “What was all this tumult about?” He says, “It was in order for God to come to habituate you to have faith. For since He showed you the revelation of the Divine presence, His faith entered your hearts and you are able to cleave to Him. And your soul will not separate from that faith forever.” So, according to the Rambam, all of this experience was to penetrate our being, to change us forever.

And Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains like this. “The basis for our belief is the firm evidence that we had with our own senses, the true fundamental truths which Judaism rests is on the receiving of Torah and the going out of Egypt which we experienced. We heard it, we felt it. We had this experience, and therefore it transcends this ideal belief. It was a fact for us. Our forefathers experienced it. And Chazal tells us that every soul, every Jewish soul was there at Sinai. Our souls experienced God’s presence.” He continues and says, “All other man-made religions and codes like all their aspects of human civilization, signs, art, morals and manners, are subject to change with the passing of time. And they are nothing but the expressions of the levels reached by the civilizations depending on that time period. But not so the Jewish religion. It doesn’t stem from beliefs held by human beings from one period to another. They did not contain time-bound human concepts of God. Why? Because they’re God-given. Through them, men are told God’s will, that their conceptions should be for all time about God, and things Divine and above all, about man’s human affairs. It’s eternal, it’s forever. It doesn’t change. The Torah we received from God, it can’t be influenced by man’s thinking. By the way man looks at the world, God told us the way things are.”

And he says, “When man enters the service of God with full knowledge and awareness, he has ascended to the exalted level that is without parallel in the world. His status before God is one of direct intimacy. Heaven and earth, the world and everything in it lie trembling behind his back, and he stands upright before God. All the forces of nature resound, thunder crashes, lightning flashes. The mountain quakes and the air is filled with the sounds of the shofar. This is when a person decides to serve God, the world changes to accept upon ourselves the yoke of the Torah, to go in the way of God. If we go in the way of God, the whole world will change for us.”

And Rav Moshe Feinstein explains, “Why was it necessary for us to see the sounds, what did we need that for? Why the extra miracle?” He explains, “That should be our approach towards Torah. It’s not enough just to get the simple pshat, the simple understanding of what it says. It has to penetrate our beings. Rather, a person must strive and use all his energies and intellectual abilities that it should be spelled out in front of him so clearly that he sees the reality of the Torah.” He says, “Hearing the thunder, that’s the simple understanding. But seeing thunder, that means its penetrated your being.” And Chazal tells us that the experience of receiving the Torah was so great that our souls left our bodies, and it happened more than once during this experience.

And the Sefas Emes brings the verse that says, “Toras Hashem temimah, meshivas nefesh.” Our souls returned. What does that mean? That the Torah is the levush, the begged, garment of the chiyus, of the life force of Hakadosh Baruch-Hu. And through our maasim, gashmim,  through our physical actions, shey yechu adam she devek po, that a man is able to cling to the Torah, Yisboro af b’olam hazeh, also in this world. But by keeping the Torah we’re bringing God into the world and that’s what returned our souls. The Torah itself returned our souls. That’s what he says, “Zeh mashivus nefesh, veshuv hanefesh lehios mekushar be shores hiyyus shelo”, that our nefesh which is the lowest level, should get chiyus from the Torah. It was the Torah itself that brought back our souls, because this is the way God expresses Himself in the world is through Jews keeping the Torah, and Jews doing the mitzvos. This is God’s life force brought into the world through the Jewish people. And that’s what brought our souls back. It was the Torah itself. 

And the Kli Yakar wants to explain, what exactly did we see when it says that we saw the sounds? He said, “We saw the letters. We saw the letters of the Torah. Just like we know that when the first Tablets were broken, so the letters floated off the Torah, and then the letters came back by the second Tablets. We saw those letters with our own eyes, which Hashem spoke. We saw the written words in front of us. And why is that? Because sight has more influence than hearing. Hashem wanted to make sure it penetrated us, that we have daas, the concept of daas which means that the knowledge penetrates your physical being all the way down to your core, to your nefesh. That’s what the verse said, “Hashem did it in order to raise you up.” God came in order that fear should be on your faces, that you shouldn’t sin. Moses was saying, it’s better for them to receive the Commandments by both seeing and hearing at the same time. At the same time, each one has a unique purpose. And by receiving it through two senses, it had more hashpa’ah, more influence on us.

Rav Moshe Dovid Vali and the Ohr HaChayim both explain, it’s the thunder that we heard. The sound that we heard was so powerful that it took away any impurities that we had. The sound removed our impurities, because we know that at Har Sinai the Jewish people reached a level of Adam haRishon before the chet, before the sin of Adam haRishon. We became pure, how? Through the thunder. And it explains that even now when we have rain we have thunder. Why do we put rain and thunder together? Because the time of rain is a tremendous chessed. It’s an eis ratzon, it’s a time where Hashem is close to us when it’s raining. And because of that, Hashem puts thunder there to take away the forces of impurity which try to cling to the goodness of Hashem. So therefore, we also had thunder at Har Sinai.

Rabbeinu Bachye wants to explain on the verse. It said, “The people stood from afar, and Moses approached the fog where God was.” What was the fog? He says it wasn’t exactly fog. What it was is it appeared that it was dark, but it was just the opposite. The light was so brilliant where God was, that it was out of the range of our ability to see it. It was so bright, we couldn’t see it. It appeared like darkness, like fog to us. Look what he says. He says, “This describes a light so brilliant that it blinds, so that the viewer cannot see it any better than darkness. This brilliant light hides matters just as effectively as does ordinary darkness.” It’s unbelievable. It’s so brilliant that it remains hidden from the human eye. In other words, the reason why we can’t see the presence of God is because it’s so bright that it’s outside the range of our ability to see it. We know that our senses are limited, but just outside of our senses is a brilliant light. God’s presence is here in the world. We don’t see it, because it’s outside of our range.

The Seforno brings a Gemara, Gemara Chullin it says a similar idea. One time the Emperor said to Rav Yeshua ben Chanana, “I wish to see your God.” He replied, “You cannot see Him.” “Indeed,” said the Emperor, “I will see Him.” So, what did he do? He went and he placed the Emperor facing the sun during the summer solstice and he said to him, “Look up at the sun.” And he replied, “I cannot.” Said Rav Yeshua, “If the sun which is just one of the ministers that attend the Holy One, Blessed-be-He, you can’t look at, so surely you’re not going to be able to see the Divine presence.” And that’s the Divine presence that Moshe Rabbeinu was able to see, but the Jews couldn’t see it. They weren’t on that level, but still it’s part of the experience of Har Sinai. And this experience at Har Sinai was all there to change our being.

Rav Schwab explains there was a contradiction. On one side you have the Mechilta and the Midrash Rabba explaining this tremendous crescendo that happened in the giving of the Torah, like the possukim said. However, the Sifri explains, there was another aspect which was the silence. It said in Yeshayahu, “Fall silent, you idle dwellers.” That’s when Hashem speaks. And we know by Eliyahu HaNavi, in the end he heard Hashem from a very small voice. And the Shemos Rabba said, “The birds did not chirp. The fowl did not fly. The ox didn’t make any sounds. The angels didn’t flutter. The seraphim didn’t say, Kadosh, Kadosh.. The ocean didn’t move, and the creatures did not speak.” So, what was it? Was it a tremendous tumult or no, was it silence? He wants to explain, the giving of the Torah was not just the giving of the Torah. The Avos also had the mitzvos. They had bris milah, they had gid hanasheh. We know we had other mitzvos given before, the para aduma, Shabbos, kibbud av v’em, korban Pesach, matza, maror. They were all given before Har Sinai, so what was going on there? He wants to say, “We call matan Torah the giving of the Torah. Matan also comes from matana. It was a gift. It was the infusion of the Torah deep into the soul of every Jew, that therefore you should have the desire to fulfill Hashem’s commandments, which creates our intimate relationship with Him.” And that’s the law in the Rambam. We say that if there’s a Jew who refuses to do a mitzvah, refuses to give a get to his wife, or refuses to do a different mitzvos, we beat him until he says, “Rotzeh ani.” How could it be, we beat the guy up until he says, “I want?” Why do you beat the guy up until he says he wants? He doesn’t want. The answer is, deep in his soul he really wants. Every Jew wants to do mitzvos, he wants to do the right thing. And therefore, you can force this person to do the right thing, because inside his soul at Har Sinai he received this tremendous energy to do the will of God. So, the earth-shattering noises were there to get the absolute commitment to Hashem’s will. And the silence was that Hashem chose us. He gave us the kochos, He gave us the strength to fulfil His will. He put it inside of ourselves, inside the silence of our soul, in the deepest part of our soul. 

But not only that, the Ohr HaChayim says we were brought to the level…this is simply unbelievable. We were brought to the level of the angels. From that moment on, Yisroel would be included in God’s celestial hosts. The Jewish people are considered like the hosts in the in the heavens. We’re also known as Cohanim, priests. God is telling the Israelites that as of now, He is substituting the Jewish people for the celestial servants known as melachei Cohanim v’goy kadosh. There was a set of angels in the shemayim that did their job. At Har Sinai, we took over their job. Can you believe such a thing? We took over the job of the angels. We now have to be like angels in this world, to affect the world for good, to do the right thing, to bring the positive energy and the godliness into the world, that’s our job. And we know that the righteous people among us reached these levels. The Gemara in Sanhedrin says like this. It teaches us, we have found that the righteous among Yisroel actually achieved this level. They were both called “angels of holy.” Man has the ability to reach such spiritual levels by the means of the Torah, he can even be superior to the angels in heaven. And for this job we were chosen. The Seforno says also on that day, what does it mean, we become a goy kadosh, a holy nation? A nation that shall never perish, but shall exist forever among men. The Jewish people have survived every holocaust, everything that’s happened to us for all these thousands of years. The Jewish people are still here, why is that? Because on Har Sinai, Hashem chose us and He said, “You people will be forever. You are my messengers. You have to bring Me into the world, that’s your job.”

And the Chassam Sofer explains that the Jewish people even had the ability to change a gezera, the decrees of God Himself. He put it into our hands, into the beis din, the beis din lemata, our beis din here. Our courts decide when the new month is. “Our courts can change things, even if there was a heavenly voice,” he said. In the Gemara it says if there was a heavenly voice, we would have to listen to the heavenly voice. He says, “Hashem says that He will yield over much of man’s destiny to the Jewish people if you live up to my call of being a sacred nation. Therefore, you will rule over Me, causing me to reverse my rulings.” That’s what the Chassam Sofer said. So, we see how power and how much responsibility the Jewish people were given over at Har Sinai, the experience changed our being, and then we became responsible. We have to do our job, because we went up to a completely different level.

And the Rabbeinu Bachye explains that the Jewish people showed all the nations of the world what they have to offer. Why don’t the Jews turn to other religions? How can we stay inside of our religion? Because none of the world can offer anything. They can’t match what we experienced at Har Sinai. When we were chosen by God there’s nothing that can change us. There’s nothing that the world has to offer that we’re interested in. The Jews are not interested in such things.

Rav Wolbe explains that at matan Torah, the giving of the Torah, the Jews received an entirely new perception of themselves. Their self-image changed. The image of who we are changed. We became a different people. Each Jew is a dignitary, each Jew has responsibility. We have to follow the Torah, and if we follow the Torah then brochas come into the world. We’re the Cohanim, the priests unto the nations. That’s our job, and if not things go haywire. We must follow the Torah. We have to follow the Torah, we were chosen to follow the Torah. But we shouldn’t think it’s impossible, who am I, what am I? Am I an angel? I’m just a man. The Malbim explains. He says, “The verse said that Hashem spoke with Moses. He didn’t speak to Moses. What does that mean? There was a conversation going on, can you imagine such a thing? Moses was conversing with God, which means Moses could have his own opinion” He says, “The Torah was entrusted into the logical mind of a human being, that after the Torah sages learn logically, Hashem concurs with whatever they conclude. The Torah was given over to the Rabbis. Hashem communicated with us. It’s not beyond us, aino chinami, Hashem is beyond us.” Ano chinami, the next world is beyond us where we can’t see. But the Torah was entrusted to us. When we delve into the Torah, when we work hard in the Torah, we can change the rules. We can change the laws, obviously, all based on the Torah. But the expression of the Torah in this world, that’s our job. The droshas of the Ran says, that when it says, “My children have defeated Me,” what does that mean? Like I said before, they ignored the heavenly voice. They don’t have to listen. But obviously, we’re talking about righteous people who want to do the right thing, who want to bring God’s presence into the world, with all the contradictions that are occurring, with all the contradictions of society, and all of the problems that our world faces.

The chachamim, the holy Rabbis, have the ability to see and perceive the reality, the way that it really is, and give the solutions to the problems that we’re facing on a daily basis. But you have to know that someone who’s living a life of Torah, he’s living in a completely different world. And this what Rav Moshe Sternbuch says, “Why do we have the additional effect of smoke? Why was there also smoke at Har Sinai?” He wants to explain that smoke was there to separate. It was there to show that someone who is involved with Torah is living in a completely different world from the rest of mankind. That’s what a ben Torah is. A ben Torah is a person, every minute he has, he sits down to learn. Whether you have to work or learn or whatever you have to do, but every spare moment you have, you have to try to sit and learn, to experience the Torah, to taste the Torah, to see the beauty of the Torah, to see the wisdom and the chiddushim, the new ideas that come of the Torah.  And every day, we know Chazal tells us that every day is matan Torah. We should see the mitzvos that they’re new each day, and we should accept upon ourselves the Torah. In this way, we’ll grow to new and higher levels.

0:19:20.7

A Powerful Parable 

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings the verse like this, “And now if you listen diligently to my voice and preserve all my covenants, you shall be my special treasure among all the peoples. For all the earth is mine. You will be to me a kingdom of Cohanim, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” So, one time there was a wealthy man whose wife passed away. And the man decided instead of marrying another wealthy woman, he’s going to marry a poor woman, and he decided to marry one of his servants. So, before he got married he spoke to her and he said to her, “You know, you’re about to become the lady of the house. But you should know, it’s true there are many advantages to becoming the lady of the house. But there are also disadvantages. When you were a servant, you were just in charge of your one job. But now you’re going to be charge of the entire house, and you’re going to have a lot of responsibility.” So, the woman said, “Why should I have so many responsibilities? What do I want this for?” He explained to her that you’re going to receive tremendous honor, being the lady of the house. But he said, “That’s only if you do your job well. If you do your job well, everyone’s going to honor you and respect you. But if you don’t do your job well, you’re going to be a disgrace to the house.” 

So too, the Jewish people were chosen to be the Cohanim, the priests among the nations. If we do our job diligently, and we listen, so then we’re going to be the special treasure among all the peoples. But if we don’t listen and we don’t follow the Torah, oy vavoy, we’re going to be disgraced.

0:20:56.0

Great Stories – Rav Moshe Solovechik 

When Rav Moshe Solovechik was in Switzerland after the Holocaust, many of the Jews from all over Germany were sent to Switzerland there to go into camps to recover. But most of them lost their entire families. They were physically in very bad shape, mentally in very bad shape. The life energy was drained from them. So, he wanted to try to mechazek them, to strengthen them in Torah and mitzvas, but he didn’t know what to do. Just to speak to them simply, they’re not going to listen. He had to do something. So, he decided that he’s going to try to get into the camp and he’s going to bring a sefer Torah with him. Then I’ll read the sefer Torah. When he got there, he saw absolutely, there was no way to speak to any of these people. They were completely mentally and physically in such bad shape, nothing would help. But when they saw the sefer Torah, all of a sudden they started to get life back a little bit. It ignited a spark inside of them. So, what did he do? He said, “Listen, why should I read the sefer Torah? Let me get one of the people here to read the sefer Torah. Maybe it’s going to mechazek, it’s going to strengthen them.” He asked if anybody knew how to read the Torah, and nobody answers. But there was another guy there from the same town as this other guy. This other guy knew how to read the Torah. So he says, “Listen, I know this guy knows how to read the Torah” He started to press him, “Go, go and read the Torah.” Now, this man who knew how to read the Torah. He left Torah and mitzvos, he was a total chiloni, not religious at all, because he was so burnt out from the Holocaust he left religion completely. But what happened? And this is a true story. When he got up to read the sefer Torah, he hadn’t seen a sefer Torah since the beginning of the Holocaust. All of a sudden his eyes lit up. He started to remember all of his memories of all his education, of cheder, school, of his parents, of Shabbos, of all the holiness in his house, of all the kedushah of his yeshiva. It started flowing back into him, and he read from the Torah. When he finished reading the Torah he was like a totally different person. He said himself, “As soon as I looked at the Torah’s holy letters and started reading, I was infused with the feeling of joy and holiness, memories of my childhood flooded my mind. And the chinuch, the education I received from my parents, surged inside of me once again.” After that incident, this young man returned to Torah. He merited to marry and build a beautiful Jewish home, and raise generations of Torah observant Jews.

0:23:33.8

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern talks about sanctifying ourselves. If we want to have peace in our house, if we want to have spirituality in our house, we have to be holy. He says, “There are two aspects to being Jewish. One is to fulfill the mitzvos, and another level is being holy. But a person, God-forbid, could be what’s called an menuva berishus HaTorah, an evil person within the halacha.” In other words, he keeps all the mitzvos but he’s not into it. His heart’s not there. He’s just doing it in the minimum. Like Bilham. Bilham said, “I can’t do what Hashem tells me not to do. I just can’t do it.” But he was a total rasha. Everything he did was try to trick, to try to go around Hashem’s word. Okay, he kept whatever he was supposed to keep, but he was still an evil person. We want to bring holiness into our house, we cannot be like that. We have to want to fulfill the mitzvos. We have to strive to fulfill the mitzvos, and add on to more – add mitzvos deRabbanan. It says in the Gemara in Berachos 53A, “Mayim acharonim, mayim rishonim, adds kedushah, holiness.” The water before eating bread, the water after eating the bread. All these little mitzvos add holiness to us. Like it says in Yoma, “A man sanctifies himself a little, and is sanctified a lot from above.”

And there’s no middle path. As long as you’re going up, you’re going up. As soon as you start going up, you go down. That’s the rule. The Chofetz Chaim explains, it’s like standing on a ladder. How long can you stand on a ladder? Either you go up the ladder or you go down the ladder, but you don’t stay in the same rung very long. And that’s why on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, we read the Parsha about the ariyos, all the forbidden relationships. What’s the connection between the holiest day of the year and the worst sins that a person can do? The answer, he says, “You should know, if you don’t go up, you’re going to go down. If you don’t constantly go up, you can wind up who knows where.” He explains, “On the other side, you can’t be a fanatic. Why? Because if you become a fanatic, it leads to sin.” There’s a Gemara in Yoma that says that Eliyahu HaNavi did not come to Rebbe Yehuda. Why? Because on Yom Kippur night, many virgins were violated. How could it be on Yom Kippur night that virgins were taken advantage of? The answer is, they decided to sleep outside, zecher lemigdash. Since the Beis HaMigdash was destroyed, they decided on Yom Kippur everybody’s going to sleep outside, which led to all kinds of nonsense.

The Kotzker Rebbe used to say, “When you’re holy, don’t forget to still be a mentsch.” In other words, don’t be so holy that you’re a nasty guy, you have to be a mentsch. You have to be holy, but you also to have to be a human being. One time a woman came to Rav Yehuda Leib Diskin, complaining. She says, “My husband is trying to be so holy, he refuses to speak to me. He doesn’t want to speak.” So, what did Rav Diskin do? He invited him over for a meal. When he came in, he didn’t say hello to him. He sat down, he washed his hands, he doesn’t say anything. The guy’s getting more nervous and more nervous. He eats the whole meal, he bentsches, and he doesn’t say anything. Then he sent the guy home. The guy got the message. Not to speak to your wife is the wrong thing to do. How can you hurt other people for your holiness. For your own holiness, you’re going to hurt your wife? It’s just the opposite.

He brings a story, that one time there was a guy who was close to the Brisker Rav, who made matzos with him. What happened? He put the matzos in his closet before Pesach. When the wife was cleaning for Pesach, she took the box down. All of a sudden she turns around and she sees that her little boy put his hands inside the box, and she didn’t know – maybe he had bread, maybe he didn’t have bread. She didn’t know what to do. So, what did she do? She got her brother to go and buy matzos, and exchange the matzos, and took those matzos out, threw them away and put different matzos in the box. Erev Pesach, here comes the husband to take out the matzos. Her husband sees right away, these are not the same matzos I baked with the Brisker Rav. But he didn’t say anything. Why didn’t he say anything? He didn’t want to get his wife upset. He pretended not to notice. So, as the Seder’s going on, here the wife is at the Seder. She’s getting nervous, “Oy, what did I do? I have to tell my husband.” So, she tells her husband in the middle of the Seder, “Listen, these are not the same matzos that you made with the Brisker Rav.” The husband said, “I noticed. It’s better to be machmir, better to be strict about anger and shalom bayis on Erev Pesach than to be strict about matzos.” So, it’s not about being a fanatic. It’s about being a true Torah Jew, which means the ratzon of Hashem, the will of God. Not your idea, it’s God’s idea. It’s not what you think is strict, and this is strict. A person has to be a mentsch, and go in the right way.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 088 Transformed by the Torah – The Power of Experience appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Beshalach – How Faith Leads to Belief – Total Trust in God – A Powerful Parable about the Fancy Dishes – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Maintaining ties to Beni Torah

The Torah Podcast Transcript

087 The Torah Podcast – How Faith Leads To Belief – Total Trust In God

Torah Portion of the Week – Beshalach

The verses start out like this. What’s happened here, you have a verse, chapter 14, verse number 13. This is when Bnei Yisroel are running away from Mitzrayim, and they reach the ocean. And Moses says to the people, “Do not fear. Stand fast, and see the salvation of Hashem, that He will perform wonders for you today. For that which you have seen in Egypt today, you shall never see them again. Hashem will do battle for you, and you shall remain silent.” Hashem said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Speak to the Children of Israel and let them journey. And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your arm over the Sea, and split it.” And the Children of Israel came to the midst of the Sea on dry land. And behold, I shall strengthen the heart of Egypt and they will come after them. And it will be glorified through Pharaoh, and through his entire army, through his chariots and through his horsemen. Egypt will know that I am Hashem, when I am glorified through Pharaoh and his chariots, and his horses.

So what happened is, the Jewish people came to the Yam, they came to kriyas Yam Suf and they were scared. And Hashem said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me?” Moses also started to pray. Rashi explains that Moses was praying for too long. It says, Hashem said to him, “Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them journey.” If you look in the Midrash there, they were really stuck. The Midrash says, “The army was behind them.” The army was coming after them, the entire Egyptian army, with their chariots, they’re coming from behind. “To the side, there were wild animals.” That’s what the Midrash says. “They looked up to heaven and they saw the angel of the Egyptians coming to protect the Egyptians. And in front of them was the Yam, so where were they supposed to go? And that’s exactly what the Ohr haChayim says. He asks, “What is God’s answer? Speak to the Children of Israel, so that they should move on.” What is that supposed to mean? Where were they supposed to go? They couldn’t go behind, or go into the ocean. They’re just supposed to walk into the ocean? So he answers, “We have an tradition based on Deuteronomy that says, You have weakened the rock which has begot you. That God’s respective attributes are strengthened or weakened in accordance with the deeds that we do, or that we don’t do, here on earth.’ Hashem was saying to Moshe, tell them to go forward, so that I could activate my attribute of mercy and perform the miracle that I have in mind. And He said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying to me, because the matter is not in my hands. The Jewish people themselves have to go forward. If they don’t go forward, I’m not going to be able to use my attribute of mercy.’” It’s “as if”, obviously Hashem could do whatever He wants. But that’s the way He built the world. He built the world that if the Jewish people do the right thing, so then His energies could come down and save them. So, He was telling Moses to tell the Jewish people to go forward. 

And the Rabbeinu Bachye explains like this. “They only needed to demonstrate a little faith by moving forward. They are to journey from below to above, and the sea will part as a result. They were to call on the reserves of faith and elevate themselves to the level of Hashem.” In other words, if they would have had more faith, then the sea would have split by itself, and that’s exactly what happened. Because they had the faith and they went forward, and Moses told them to go forward, so they went forward and the Sea split. But it’s because of their faith.

And what does Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch say? The first step must be taken by them. They must first show themselves deserving of salvation, demonstrating their trust in God, a trust that leads to courage and fearless action. First, let them go forward and march into the Sea without reservation or concern. Only then will God pave the way to salvation. It’s only once they go forward that God’s going to step in.” Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch says the same thing. So really, if we have faith when we’re stuck, when we’re in a situation that’s very difficult, if we have faith, then Hashem will help us.

And you’ve got to hear this. This is Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, “Each one was saying, ‘I’m not going first.’ Each tribe was saying, ‘I don’t want to go first, I don’t want to go first. What happened? Kofetz Nachshon ben Amidav, Nachshon jumped forward and he went into the Yam. V’zoche meshum lehakrivas korban rishon, and because of that, he was zoche, he had the merit to bring the first korban, sacrifice. Why? It says, mi she kiddush shemi be’Yam, hu yakriv tehilla. The one who was mekadash the name of God at the Yam, he’s going to be the first one to bring the korban, to bring the sacrifice at the Mishkan, Temple.” So, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz answers. He says, “Listen it’s strange.” He says, “We know that the Jewish people have built into them the ability to be mesirus nefesh, to give themselves over to death for the sake of God. Where do we see that? We know that Avraham Avinu, our father, went into the kivshon haaish, fiery furnace. We know that Yitzhak, his son, was willing to die on the altar for the sake of God, because God said so. So, why all of a sudden  do we see that none of the Jewish people want to go forward into the Yam? That’s the situation. They’re coming from behind. God’s telling them to go forward, so go forward. What’s the problem?”

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says a beautiful chiddush. He says like this – a beautiful, new idea. He says, “Aino chinami, it’s true, l’hachnis l’Yam kedai lemesiras nafsho lemiso,” if the whole point was they were supposed to go into the Yam, they were supposed to go in and they were supposed to give over their souls, then it’s true, that they could have done. But He was really asking something else. God was asking something else. “Ela shehem misdava lehikanes leYam al menas l’hatzil.” Hashem was asking them, “Go into the Yam and you’re going to be saved.” They had a hard time with that. Likvos letoch kedai lechayos, jump in in order to live. It’s different. To jump in and know they’re going to die, okay they’re going to die. But what’s going on here? Very strange – we’re supposed to go into the Yam and we’re going to live? All of a sudden nature is going to change? And we’re supposed to think the sea is like dry land? To get to this madrega, this was a higher level. Only Nachshon ben Amidav, he is the only one that had that level. He’s the one who went foward, and he brought out God’s name by doing this, by having that faith.

The question is, what is the character that he had? What emotions did he have in order to be able to do this act? So, he wants to explain, there’s a possuk that says – here, I have the possuk quoted here, “Go out and call to the ears of Jerusalem, saying so, that I the Lord shall remember the lovingkindness of your youth, the love of your nuptials. You followed me into the desert, a land not sown.” So, the Jewish people when they went into the desert, they went in without even realizing it was a desert. This is what Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says, I mean that’s Chazal. So he explains, “Le lo hargish klal,” because remember, I didn’t feel at all that it was a desert. We’re talking about people, women, children. All of them, all the Jewish people went into the desert and they didn’t think twice about it. Ain lifnaihem eleh Hakadosh Baruch Hu, they only thought about God. They didn’t think about food, water, shelter. They didn’t think of anything. Velo lesim lev lematzev havelatzam, they didn’t pay any attention to what was going on around them. The moshul is the famous moshul, parable, anesei vezorosei ima, like a baby in its mother’s arms, a baby in its mother’s arms doesn’t realize where he is. Wherever he goes, he’s in his mother’s arms. This is what the Jewish people felt when they went into the desert. They followed God into the desert to leave Mitzrayim. He’s saying, this is the type of emunah, this is the type of faith that a person has to have. Even though there are wild animal and thieves on the way, he has to feel like he’s a baby in his mother’s arms.

Listen to this proof. There’s a Gemara in Shabbos that says like this. We know on Shabbos there’s the 39 types of work that on Shabbos you’re not allowed to do. But it’s not just regular work. It’s the work that they did in the time of the Mishkan, when they built the Tabernacle. All the work, the types of work that they used to build the Tabernacle, that work you’re not allowed to do on Shabbos. So, one of them is to destroy things, to dissemble. They dissembled the tents and they moved it. So it says, “When you dissemble something, the only way that you were over a negative prohibition of Shabbos, is if you have a mind to rebuilt it in the same spot. So, the Gemara asks, “Wait a second. They took it apart to move it, to go to a different place. It’s a different spot. So, how can it be that they’re desecrating the Shabbos?” The answer is no. They only went to a different place because Hashem said, “Okay, now everybody has to move.” And since they went to a different place that Hashem said it’s like they didn’t move. A tremendous chiddush, but thats what the Gemara says. Keso solmanas levos makom domeh, it’s like they built it in the same place. It’s same thing as a baby in its mother’s arms. A baby doesn’t know where he is. It doesn’t matter where he is. No matter where he is, he is always in his mother’s arms. And this is the quality of faith that the Jewish people had when they went into the Yam, when they went into the ocean. They didn’t know what’s going to be. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says, they weren’t commanded to kill themselves. They were commanded to live, to walk into the ocean and live. And they went in with such tremendous faith that the ocean split for them.

Now, the famous Beis HaLevy from Parshas Bereishis explains the splitting of the Red Sea. He says, “The Jews attained the first level of fear when they were in Egypt. But at the Red Sea, they were propelled by tangible evidence, and they reached the second level which in the future, the Jewish people will reach again when the Mashiach comes. The water hardened beneath their feet and it formed an arch over their heads, and there were walls and sides, like the Avos de Rebbe Nosson says. They glimpsed Hashem’s relationship with the creation itself, first hand because it says, “Until God split the Red Sea, there really was no fear of Hashem.” They didn’t have fear of Hashem. It was only with the splitting of the Red Sea that they received the real fear of God. It says like this. “Once a person realizes that any other potential threat has no ability to exist because why? Because God’s creating everything. So, He’s not afraid of anything else. Hashem is constantly bringing into being. Walking through the Sea is no more frightening than walking on land. Once you realize that God is the one controlling everything, so what’s the difference where you go? You’re like the baby in your mother’s arms. Even if he’s threatened by a harmful beast, he doesn’t have any fear, for they have no intrinsic power. For they are also created anew at every moment.” And this is why it says, a beautiful thing. “In the days of the Mashiach fear is going to disappear. All fears except for the fear of God aren’t going to exist in the time of the Mashiach. Like the verse verse in Yeshayahu says, ‘The wolf will live with the sheep.’ What does it mean? It means the sheep will not be afraid of the wolf. Why will the sheep not be afraid? Because everybody is going to be afraid of Hashem since God is going to be revealed. So, everybody’s going to understand that they were being created by their Creator. “Hashem said, ‘Tell the Jewish people they should go forward with no fear in their hearts.’ And because they did so, they were worthy of seeing the Sea split, which enabled them to perceive clearly this dimension of Hashem’s relationship with the world, and fix firmly this mode of fear in their hearts. Like the verse says, ‘Do not fear.’ Do not fear anything else. ‘Stand and see the salvation of God.’” It’s unbelievable.

What did the Jews see at kriyas Yam Suf? They saw that the world is totally digital. Hashem is creating the entire creation at every moment. Hashem is the one controlling everything. He’s the one making the creation. There’s no difference between the dry land and the wet sea – no difference. And this is like what I spoke about last week, in last week’s Parsha. It said, “Hashem told Moses to offer the korban Pesach.” So, Moses couldn’t understand. How are we going to shecht the lamb in front of the Mitzrim, Egyptians? This is their God. We’re going to sacrifice this lamb in front of them? How’s it going to be? So, Hashem said to him, “By your life, Yisroel will not depart from Egypt until they sacrifice this pagan deity before their very eyes.” Also, they had to realize that only Hashem was the one controlling everything. But you see, the point really is, that faith leads to belief. If a person has faith and he goes forward, then he’ll have actual belief, because he’ll perceive it with his own eyes. The Jewish people perceived it with their own eyes.

Now, you’ve got to hear this – this is great. We know on the first night of Pesach that they faith. And on the seventh day which was the Yam, they perceived Hashem. They saw with their own eyes that God ruled over the ocean, that God can take the ocean and make it into dry land. But on the first night of Pesach when they left, then they also had faith, but they didn’t have the true fear of God. And it also corresponds, to the seven days from the first night of Pesach until the splitting of the Sea. What does that correspond to? The seven days of creation. “Just as I created the world and told Yisroel to remember the Shabbos, remember the creation. The creation was created on the first day, and on the seventh day God rested. So too, they should remember the miracles that I performed for them in Egypt.” And he said, “Corresponding to the seven days between the redemption and splitting of the Sea were the seven days of creation of the Shabbos.” It’s unbelievable, because Shabbos is also a time of realizing that God is the Master of the Universe. We stop working, we stop doing everything and we just let God do His thing, and we sing before God. That’s exactly what happened at kriyas Yam Suf, we sang before God. Oz yashir Moshe. And this is what the Sefas Emes is saying. The Sefas Emes says, “Hashem’s presence in the world was revealed to all observers. The Benei Yisroel saw the intervention of human affairs, and they would sing shira. For the moment at least, the fact that Hashem was hidden was gone. The hester was completely gone.” The Jews at kriyas Yam Suf saw God with their own eyes. Ze keli veanavehu, keilu – they pointed, but God doesn’t have a body, obviously. But it’s like they pointed to God and they saw him. This is what happened at kriyas Yam Suf.

Now, look at this. When Moses and the Jewish people sang expressing the recognition that all existence comes from Hashem, they evoked a similar reaction throughout the creation. The whole cosmos recognized it.  That they also exist only because of Hashem, and that Hashem, God gives life to the entire universe every single day and the entire universe started to sing. When the Jewish people started to sing at the Yam, he says the entire Universe also started to sing. And if that’s true, from then on they continued to sing, so why don’t we hear it? Because we’re not tuned into it.  You’ve got to hear this, this is unbelievable. So too on Shabbos that’s why we sing Shabbos songs, because Shabbos is a time where we realize there’s a Master of the Universe, because we don’t do any work. We don’t do anything, we’re not allowed to drive. We’re not allowed to turn on electricity. We can go for walks, we can enjoy ourselves, because we recognize that Hashem rested on that day. What’s rested? A thing and it’s opposite. Hashem created the creation during the seven days, and on the seventh day he rested. But if we sing songs – you’ve got to hear this – he says, If we sing songs on Shabbos, we can extend the Shabbos into the week. Which means the same kind of idea that we said before. Just like you had the level of faith that didn’t lead to belief, it was only after the seventh day when the Jews actually were at the splitting of the Red Sea, that they got to the level of faith, to the level of belief. So too, on Shabbos you can take that Shabbos and extend it into the week. It’s really working the opposite way. The Shabbos is a time of belief, and you can extend it by singing on Shabbos. You can extend it into the rest of the week, where you may not only have faith and you don’t really have belief, but you can strengthen yourself. That’s what it means. He wants to say this about kedushah,  holiness.  If all the Jews would just keep one Shabbos, the Meshiach would come. That’s what Chazal tells us. In other words, you have the Shabbos, the kedushah, the holiness of Shabbos would extend beyond Shabbos, so then the Mesiah would come.

This is the question of faith. Now practically, how does this whole thing work out? You’ve got to hear this, this is Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Moshe Feinstein says, “Just like the verse we said earlier, ‘Hashem said to Moses, why do you cry out to Me? Go speak to the Children of Israel, let them go forward.’ And we explained that this meant that they should have had faith. They came to the Yam, they came to the Sea and there was nowhere to go. If they faith, the Sea would have split. Eventually, they did have faith and they went forward and the Sea split.” And the Beis HaLevi explained that when the Sea split, they saw God creating the creation. They saw the world being digital – not analog, digital. Every second, the world’s being created – every second. You are being created, the planets are being created. Hashem is creating the creation at every moment. And they saw it, they saw that. The way they got to that level, the whole chiddush of the first path where we saw all the different meforshim explain, the way that they got to that level was the faith that they had to go forward. The way it works is, we saw the Chazal that said, “God put in man’s hands, that if man goes forward, then God will help him. If man doesn’t go forward, man doesn’t have faith, so God’s not going to help him. But if man himself goes forward, then God will do miracles for him in situations where he couldn’t believe that he’d be able to do such a thing.” This is what Rav Moshe Feinstein says. He says, “Therefore, anyone who is capable of teaching Torah is required to do so, because why? Because just as Moses knew Hashem would rescue the Jews from the Egyptian army, pressing them against the Sea, also a Torah educator must know that since Hashem promised that the Torah will not be forgotten by the Jewish people, so for sure his efforts will not fail. This also applies to any mitzvah. Any good deed that a person feels and understand that this is the right thing for him to do, he should not give up. He should not feel that he doesn’t have enough money, that he has all kinds of excuses, “I can’t do this, and I can’t do that.” It’s just there as a test. That was the test of kriyas Yam Suf. If a person goes forward, Hashem will open up the Yam, the ocean, in front of him. If you go forward, Hashem will help you. This is the faith. This is what we learned by kriyas Yam Suf. This is the lesson that we learned from kriyas Yam Suf, that when things are difficult, if we go forward, Hashem will help us. And if we don’t go forward, fine, we don’t go forward. Hashem gives you a situation, God gives you a situation. If you go forward, God helps you. But if you give up, you don’t do anything, so, you don’t go forward. But if you would go forward, so then God would help you.

It’s a very scary situation. Why is it so scary? It’s scary because you think that why you failed was really just because you gave up, but not because you were lacking the capability. And really, maybe you were lacking the capability. But if you would have gone forward, God would have given you extra strength to go forward. God would have helped you, and given you extra super capabilities, because there’s tremendous potential inside of every human being. We don’t know how much potential we have.  We have tremendous potential. We just get stuck by our own belief systems. But if we have the faith to go forward, God will help us more and He’ll give us more faith. If you have experience, success breeds success. If you go forward you’re successful in the small thing which you thought you couldn’t do and then you say, “Well, I could do that,” so then the next level is when you go further and further. You’ll be able to get more and more success.

0:24:55.1

A Powerful Parable

The verse said, “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of Hashem, and He will perform for you this day.” The same verse as before. He says, “One time a wealthy man had an only daughter. He was looking for this perfect guy for his daughter. He found a guy, but he was really a very poor guy, but also a very good guy. He was what they were looking for. So, everyone praised this father-in-law. They told him, “Listen, this guy’s very rich. He has all kinds of things. He’s got this wonderful collection of dishes. They have precious gems in them, he has all these things.” So, the boy decided fine, they were happy with him and he was happy with them, and he was going to marry now his daughter.

At the engagement party, the father-in-law took out all these fancy dishes. So, the chassan, he wasn’t so used to such good food. The food was unbelievable. He was eating all the good food. He didn’t even notice at all the elegant dishes, he was so busy eating. Sometime later, a couple of months go by. The chassan says, ‘You know, I heard that you have these beautiful collection of dishes. I would like to see them.’ So, the rich man was stunned. He said, ‘What do you mean? Didn’t you see it at your engagement party? We brought out all the dishes, the beautiful dishes with gems in them.’ He didn’t even notice the dishes, and he was embarrassed that he didn’t notice the dishes at all. They were so busy eating.” That was the moshul, that was the parable. What’s the nimshal, what it is comparable to?

It says that the Jewish people were so subdued by the suffering that they had from the Egyptians for so many years, they were so terrified at the Yam when the Egyptians were running after them. They were so terrified, they didn’t pay any attention that Hashem was saving them. Like the verse says, “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance of Hashem, which He will perform for you this day.” In other words, don’t be distracted. Look and observe the great miracle that God is going to do for you. But the Jewish people, they were so scared of the Egyptians, they didn’t realize that God was doing a miracle for them.

0:27:14.6

Great Stories – Rav Shach

Rav Shach was the greatest Rabbi of the last generation. During the Gulf War, there were many missiles that fell around Bnai Brak where Rav Shach lived. So, one time Rav Shach was giving a lecture to the entire yeshiva, and he was teaching Talmud. When he was teaching, he had a tremendous idea. He was so excited he said to them, “The idea I just told you is a foundation and even has the power to push a missile into the sea.” This is a true story – at the end of the lecture, all of a sudden the air raid sirens go off. All the students run into the bomb shelters. Rav Shach was too tired, he stayed upstairs. He didn’t go downstairs. And then they all came back when the air raid cleared and they all prayed the evening prayers, maariv, and then everybody went home. When Rav Shach got home, he asked his family, “By the way, do you know where the missile fell?” They said, “Yeah, it fell into the sea.”

0:28:28.2

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern speaks about peace in your home, and he speaks about maintaining ties to bnai Torah. It’s very important, even if a person is not so religious, to be connected to religious people. And he says, “That’s a thing that can change a Jew’s house around. The Chazon Ish said…” He brings the Chazon Ish. “Today’s Yeshivas are the wilderness to which we flee. The Ramban said, ‘If the whole world is evil, the Jews should flee to the wilderness and live over there, and just not be involved in the world.’ Today, the yeshivas are the wilderness to which the Jews flee.’” We have to run to the yeshivas. So, Rav Hutner said, “The Torah mentions in the Torah itself, there’s two structures. There’s the Mishkan, this was the Tabernacle that the Jews built in the desert, and there’s a teiva. That was the ark that Noah built. When do we have the Mishkan? When everything was good, when the Jews were not being persecuted. There wasn’t all kinds of craziness in the world. So then, we had the Mishkan. We could serve God with the Mishkan. But the teva was when the flood raged outside, there was a tremendous flood. And therefore, everybody had to run inside of the teva. So he says, “The yeshivas are like the teva of Noah. When there’s a flood outside, when the influence is too great to stay holy, to stay kadosh, and it’s too difficult for us, we have to run to the yeshiva.” So therefore, if you have person who needs to go to work because he can’t make it in the yeshiva, so he has to go to work, he has a big family, he doesn’t have any other form of support, so therefore what does he have to do? He has to make sure he keeps connection to yeshivas. It’s been proven many times that the connection with Torah and shiurim and chevrusas turn the house into a entirely different place. Women, make sure your husbands sit and learn. Make sure you have a connection to the Torah. If you don’t have a connection to the Torah, you’re going to go down. The level is going to go down.

Even a person who’s sat in yeshiva for years, even a scholar, if he goes to work and doesn’t keep connection with Torah, his spiritual level is going to go down. He brings a beautiful proof, you’ve got to hear this. There’s a famous story of Yossie Meshayseh. What happened with him? The Romans were scared to go inside the Beis Hamigdash, when they destroyed the Beis Hamigdash, the Temple, the Romans were too scared to go inside. So, what happened? They convinced him, you go inside. You’re a Jew – he was Jewish. He wasn’t scared. He went inside, and he brought out the Menorah. And they said to him, “Listen, this is not fair. You have to go back inside a second time, and bring out something else.” So, he refused to go back inside the Temple, and he died al kiddush Hashem. They killed him, just because he refused to go in.

So, the Ponevitcher Rav they asked, “Wait a second. This guy was such a bad guy that he was willing to go in and help the Romans steal the kelim, from the Beis Hamigdash, all the vessels, the gold and the silver out of the Beis Hamigdash, because the Romans were scared.” He was a Jewish guy, who was willing to go inside and take all the stuff, and bring it out of the Temple and give it to them. He also got a piece of the action, but he was willing to do it. What happened all of a sudden with this guy? They say he died al kiddush Hashem. He sacrificed his life for the sake of God. The answer is, because he went in the first time. Since he went in the first time, the influence was so great inside of the Temple, he realized when he came out, “What am I doing?” He got a spark of holiness. He realized that, “I’m doing the wrong thing,” and he was willing to die al kiddush Hashem. He was willing to sacrifice his life to not go back in. So, even a few minutes in the Beis Hamigdash altered his personality. This is what the Ponevitcher Rav said.

So too, the same thing. You have to keep a connection with religious people. If you’re not religious, you must be connected with religious people because they’ll influence you. He also brings a proof from Shmuel HaNavi about Shaul. It said, “Shaul one time, he removed his royal clothing and went among the prophets.” What happened? He himself started to become a prophet. He started to prophesize. It’s like the Chazal says, that if you go into a perfume shop even for a couple of minutes, you come out smelling good. If you go into a tannery, you come out smelling bad. There is a thing called influence. A person has to be very careful how he’s influenced. Therefore, a person has to fix a fixed time. Every Jew has to fix a time to sit and learn Torah. If you don’t sit and learn, you’re not going to be influenced.

He told a story, one time there was a milkman, a Jewish milkman. He said, “He took this job just because he knew in this neighborhood he was going to deliver milk to the yeshivas. Since he’s going to deliver milk to the yeshivas, he’s going to be influenced by the yeshiva. That’s why he took that job.” And the Torah itself, the Ashich wrote the Torah itself could protect a person from all the impurities of this world. Because, what happens? Once a person does bittul Torah, we know that if a person is suffering and doesn’t know why, so it’s said that he has to think that it’s bittul Torah, and he wasted time. He had time where he could have sat and learned, and he didn’t learn. But it’s not exactly like that. It’s like the Torah protected him, and since the Torah protected him, if you took away the Torah, he starts to get punished for all of his other sins. In other words, what does it mean that if a person sees that bad things are happening to him, that he has to think that it’s bittul Torah? It’s not the bittul Torah itself, aino chinami. It’s also true that bittul Torah itself is a very big avera, wasting time when you could have grown spiritually, you could have influenced yourself. You could have uplifted yourself, and you wasted your time. That is a very big sin. But it’s more than that. The fact that you didn’t uplift yourself during that time it is going to bring all your other sins to the foreground.

He brings a moshul like this. He says, “One time the king had a court musician, who gave tremendous pleasure to him. People informed this king, ‘Hey, wait a second. This musician, he did adultery. He robbed, he murdered, he spoke against the king.’ But the king said, ‘Listen, anybody who touches the musician, he’s going to get killed. Don’t touch him.’ What happened? One time, the musician got in a fight with somebody and the guy drew a sword and cut the musician’s right hand off. After that, the musician couldn’t play music. What happened? When the musician showed up, the king killed the musician.” Because really, the guy deserved to die but as long as he was able to play music and give pleasure to the king, so the king left him alone.

Also, if a person sits and learns Torah so Hashem says, “Listen, leave him alone. It’s true he has all kinds of sins, all kinds of bad things. But I get so much pleasure from him learning Torah. The fact that he’s trying. He wants to grow, he wants to uplift himself. I get pleasure from that.” So, he lets him live and all of his sins, he pushes off to the side.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 087 How Faith Leads To Belief – Total Trust In God appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Bo – Reaching Above the Stars – Astrology and Passover – A Powerful Parable about the Thieves – A Great Story about Rav Bloch and Peace in Your Home – Torah and Blessings

The Torah Podcast Transcript

086 The Torah Podcast – Reaching above the Stars – Astrology and Passover  

Torah Portion of the Week – Bo

In Shemos Bo chapter 12 says like this. “And Hashem said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, ‘This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It should be for you the first month of the year. Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say on the 10^th of this month they shall take for themselves each man a lamb, for his father’s house. A lamb for each household. But if the house will be too small, then he and his neighbor whose house is next to him, according to the number of people who can eat the lamb, so they’ll take a lamb for them. A perfect lamb, a male that is one year old shall be with you, and you should take it. And you should keep it until the 14^th. And the entire congregation of Yisroel shall slaughter it in the afternoon.’” So, here you see, first of all you have the commandment of the first month, then Moses tells the Jewish people that they have to take the lamb on the 10^th day of the month. We know they tied it to their beds and they kept the lamb there. And the lamb was the God of the Egyptians and here, the Jewish people were taking the lamb and tying it to their beds, and keeping it until the 14^th when they were going to shecht it, they were going to ritually slaughter it.

The Kli Yakar says like this – this is unbelievable. Why was the commandment of chiddush hakodesh, the new month, the first commandment that God gave the Jewish people? And why is it right before the sacrificing of the pascal lamb? He explains, “The Egyptians believed that the constellation of Aries, which is symbolized by the sheep or ram  (a ram is a male sheep) was their God. And the planetary influence bestows wisdom and wealth, therefore every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians. Why? Because it’s not appropriate to tell sheep what to do, because they’re like a God. So, what did Hashem tell them to do? Just the opposite. On the 10^th of the month, they should slaughter the lamb because the constellation is then at the height of its influence and the Egyptians would recognize that the God of the Jews has a power greater than their God.  And that’s why we have the Pesach lamb, to show that even though astrology really has power and does work according to the Torah. Like it says in Gemara Shabbos 156 that explains the day of the week you’re born, what month you’re born in, but that doesn’t mean we’re limited by astrology. That’s why God told us to shecht the pascal lamb, the pascal lamb is against the avoda zara, the idol worship of the Mitzrim, of the Egyptians who believed in the power of astrology but only in the power of astrology. 

The Ramban says like this. Why is it that we have so many different commandments to remember going out of Egypt, zecher yetzias Mitzrayi? He wants to explain that since from the very beginning the world became corrupt with idolatry, why? Because they started to believe in the planets. It’s true that God runs the world through astrology. God brings kochos, certain energies of wealth, of health, of all kinds of hatzlacha, of sickness or darkness or death, everything that happens in our world, Hashem is doing it through the planets. Obviously in this case, we know by the pascal lamb, we know that by Mitzrayim Hashem Himself intervened. He was the one who took us out of Mitzrayim. But in general, the planets have influence. Therefore, the Ramban says that we have many, many mitzvos to help us remember zecher yetzias Mitzrayim, to help us remember the going out of Egypt. Why? Because people were denying God. So, what did they say? They said there is a God. Okay, maybe there’s a God, but He doesn’t oversee them. “And that,” said the Ramban, “Is making man like the fish of the sea. That God does not oversee them, and there’s no punishment and reward for them.”  Therefore, since what happened in Mitzrayim, we saw clearly that the Jewish people were chosen and taken out of Mitzrayim. And it was a wonder that every one of the 10 plagues happened. So, everybody saw that. They saw that there was a God greater than all of the planets and all of the forces in the universe. There was a God who was involved intrinsically, intimately with human beings. Therefore, we have to remember that all the days of our lives. In Shema we say it twice, “Zecher letzias Mitzrayim.” Shabbos is zecher letzias Mitzrayim, the remembering of going out of Egypt. Therefore, what did God say? We have chometz, we can’t eat leavened bread for Pesach. We have to eat matzos. It says also in mezzuza also zecher letzias Mitzrayim. And we talk about tefillin, phylacteries. All these mitzvos are zecher letzias Mitzrayim. Sukkos, zecher letzias Mitzrayim. And they made a testimony for those for the generations regarding the wonders, that they shouldn’t be forgotten, and there were no plausible argument for the unbeliever to deny his faith in God. So, we see that many of the mitzvos are kenegged, against zecher letzias Mitzrayim, to help us to remember that there’s something beyond astrology, that God is real and involved with us. 

The Sefas Emes says like this. Why do we have to have 10 makkos? It’s this week’s Parsha, why do we have to have the 10 plagues in Mitzrayim? This is simply unbelievable. It’s a similar idea. It’s an offshoot of this idea. The 10 plagues were against, kenegged,  to remove the 10 maamaros, the 10 statements Hashem created the world with. These 10 statements are what made nature. The 10 makkos, came here to remove nature.  Because what happened? Like the Ramban said, since it is nature and since there are the planets and stars and everything that’s happening, we forget about God. We forget that there’s a higher power. Therefore, God brought the 10 plagues in order to remove the 10 maamaros. And why did He do that? That we should get to the level of the 10 commandments. So, you have the 10 plagues against the 10 statements of nature, to lead us to the higher level of the 10 commandments which is above nature, which is the Jewish people following the will of God. It’s a similar idea. The plagues were there to remind us that there’s something above nature. 

This is also unbelievable what the Shem mi Shmuel said. Chapter 13 in Shemos said like this. “Hashem said to Moses saying, ‘Sanctify me the firstborn. God is saying that the firstborn of the Jewish people has to be sanctified. Then it says, “Moses said to the people, “Remember this day whence you departed from Egypt. With a strong hand God removed you from here, and therefore you can’t eat chometz.” All of a sudden we switch gears here. We start talking about that you can’t eat chometz, you can’t eat leavened bread during Pesach. So now you were leaving and it’s the month of spring, and then when Hashem should come to you and bring you to the land of Canaan, he’s talking about going into the land of Israel. It’s a mitzvah to go to live in Israel. Then it says, “Seven days you should eat matzos,” it’s talking about Pesach. And then you have to put a sign upon your hand, and a remembrance between your eyes. This is talking about tefillin. Then it goes back and it starts to say, “And you shall set apart any first that emerges from the womb, for Hashem, and each of the first calves of the livestock that belongs to you. The males are for Hashem.” That’s talking about kosher animals, and also not kosher animals. “And each first donkey you shall redeem.” Not only that, the firstborn person who should be among you should be redeemed. Here we see there’s a change in the order, something wrong; this what the Shem mi Shmuel is saying.

He says, “First it says, ‘Sanctify for me your firstborn for me.’” So then it should continue and talk about the firstborn, the firstborn of kosher animals and the firstborn of non-kosher animals. That’s not what happens. We saw in the possukim, we started to talk about the firstborn person, then we started to talk about chometz, then we were talking about matzos, then we started to talk about tefillin. So, what are the matzos and tefillin doing in the middle here? So, he wants to answer, “His holy grandfather, the Rebbe of Klutz he said, ‘Each of the plagues lowered the Egyptians and rasied the Jewish people. When the firstborn of the Egyptian was killed, so then it injected kedushah, holiness into the firstborn of the Jews.’” In other words, the firstborn of the Egyptians were involved in idol worship and immorality. The firstborn child in the household, the strength of the household, was involved in the wrong thing. When they were killed, so that energy that they had moved to the firstborn of the Jewish people. But he says, “Not only that. It wasn’t just the firstborn, it was anything that was first. All aspects of “first-ness,” he says. That’s how you translate it. “Not only did the firstborn children became sanctified, but every other manifestation of “first-ness.” Why? Pesach, that’s why he started to talk about the Pesach. Pesach is the first month, and the first holiday that the Jewish people had. Eretz Yisroel, which is the Beis haMigdash, is primary, the primary spot on earth, the first place on the earth. Not only that, tefillin, what does tefillin have to do with it? The primary elements of man, his intellect and his emotion, the highest parts of man. The tefillin shel rosh relates to the seichel, the intellect of man, and the tefillin shel yad of the arm relates to the motions of man. So, all the “firsts” became powerful – this is unbelievable. When the first were killed, when the firstborn in Mitzrayim were killed, all their energy was transferred to the first of the Jewish people, and they went up a level. My father-in-law used to say, “Setting the clock back to the right time.” Sometimes with a kid, you have to put the clock back on the right time. So, that’s exactly what happened.

There was a total revolution. All of a sudden the values became straight. That’s why it said, “Also the tomei animals of the Jewish people had to be sanctified.” He wants to say, that relates to the body of the Jewish people. That’s kenegged the body, in the juxtaposition with the body, which is the donkey which represents material possessions. It also has to be sanctified, and used for the right reasons, to serve God. Not only that, the kosher animals, the kosher animals also, the firstborn were sanctified which means they had to be sacrificed in the Beis HaMigdash. Really, it’s the emotional aspect of a human being, of a Jew. The emotion has to be sanctified and be used for the right thing. Not only that, the firstborn human child, the Jew himself which is his intellect, he had to be sanctified. So therefore, he wants to explain, “That’s why there was a change in the order. We first spoke about the Jewish person himself, the firstborn baby has to be sanctified. He became the Cohen. He became the head of the family. And then we switched, we talked about the Pesach and the tefillin, to show that it’s not just the human being. It’s every aspect of a human being’s life has to be sanctified. And that was the transfer, that occurred. When the firstborn was killed in Egypt, everything was first, everything that had value, everything that God gave value, true value, came to the foreground. This was the going out of Mitzrayim. 

You have the Ohr haChaim that says like this. “God declared to Him first, the firstborn of the Jews would be sacred to Him. There would no longer be a firstborn associated with the powers of the clipot, of negativity.” In other words, the value system of the Egyptians was the wrong value system. Everything was not in its place. We know that evil basically, evil only runs off the good. The energy that evil has comes from good. God gives to the sinner, He gives him life, he gives him everything. A person can’t do anything, there would be no life if there was no energy. But it means the energy’s been captured.

This is what the Ramchal explains. Negativity feeds off positivity and whatever is closest to the positivity has the highest level of negativity, because it has the most energy. So, what happened was, Hashem switched it. He took that negativity, that negative energy, and now with the sacrificing of the Pesach and the killing of the firstborn, everything switched. All the negativity has lost its energy, and everything switched in the level of kedushah and holiness. And he says, “This was represented by the by the sacrifices of the sheep for the Pesach, and by tying it on the legs of the bed.” They kept it there for four days, that means they brought it closer to God’s presence.  Basically, all the wrong things lost all of their power.

This is also the meaning of why the Pesach had to be kept whole. The Pesach had to be kept whole, and the bones couldn’t be broken. What happened? The dogs would drag away the Pesach. What does that mean? The dog which represents impurities would drag away the remains of the Peasah.  It also says the dogs didn’t bark. The possuk says, the verse says they didn’t wag their tongue against the Jewish people. The dogs which represent evil, they had no strength. The fact that the Pesach which was the lamb which represented the God of Mitzrayim was taken away by the dogs and eaten, it was like evil collapsed on itself. Evil collapsed on itself, it’s exactly what happened. When the holiness was taken out of Mitzrayim and the Jews were leaving, they took all that light and all that energy and the whole place collapsed in on itself. Evil was destroyed.  Because when evil gets to it’s highest level it destroys itself. There’s 49 levels of impurity, and there’s 50 levels of holiness. Really, evil disappears. When evil becomes so apparent, so expressed, at a certain point it collapsed in on itself. That’s exactly what happened in Mitzrayim. 

Now, what happened with this firstborn? Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch wants to explain, “The firstborn needs to be the role model. And now we had a new role model. Before, the role model of the world was the Egyptians, who were on the top of the world, they were the greatest society, the most powerful society. You couldn’t escape Mitzrayim, there was no way to get away from them. So, they were the firstborns and they were the role model. The role model for what? For for immorality, for all kinds of bad things, for the wrong things. And now what happened is the Jewish firstborn became the role model. So, the Midrash says like this. “It was not the blood which saved them, the fact that they shechted the Pesach but rather the fact that the Jews smeared the blood on their homes.” We know that one of the commandments was to take the blood and put it on the doorway to stop the evil forces from coming into the house. But that blood was the blood of the lamb which was the God of Mitzrayim, which had to do with astrology. So, they showed that they didn’t have any fear, they weren’t afraid. They were no longer afraid of the Egyptians. It says, The Jews smeared the blood over their house without showing fear of Pharaoh, for having slaughtered his God. They relied on God and from that, they became worthy to be saved.” That’s what the Midrash says. 

And also Rav Dessler brings a similar story. He says like this, “The power which killed the firstborn and triggered the redemption from Egypt was the courage of the Jewish people which they had from slaughtering the lamb of Pesach sacrifice before the very eyes of the Egyptians.  It says, ‘God commanded the Jewish people to shecht the korban pesach in front of the Egyptians’ eyes. And it says, ‘Moses heard this and he was amazed. He said, ‘How can we do such a thing? The Egyptians worship the lamb, they’re going to kill us,’ which Hashem answered him, ‘By your life, Israel will not leave this place before slaughtering the God of Egypt in front of their eyes, and showing to all that their Gods are worthless.’ Like it said, “God said, ‘You slaughter the korban pesach, and I’ll slaughter the firstborn. Your God was worthless.’”

I just wanted to talk about this idea of astrology. Basically, if you believe only in astrology, so that means you believe in predetermination. Your wealth is determined by the stars, your health, who you are going to marry, everything that’s happening in the world, whether there’s wars or whether there’s peace is determined by astrology. And now you’re stuck. So, what kind of society is that? What kind of life is that? What if a person does not believe in free will? What kind of life does he have? Basically, he just believes he’s a cog in the wheel. His life has no purpose. He comes into the world, God’s going to do this to him, God’s going to do that to him. He’s going to make him rich, he’s going to make him poor. He’s going to make him healthy, He’s going to make him sick. All these different things are going to happen to him, and really he’s just at the mercy of the stars. This person has no relationship. What kind of life does he have, he doesn’t have a relationship to the Creator? He believes that the Creator created the universe, beseder, okay. And he sent it into motion and the wheels just run like a Chinese prayer wheel. You spin the wheel and the wheel prays for you. There’s no pressure, no growth. Why does he have to strive to do anything? How much wealth he’s going to have is determined by the stars. What kind of life is this? This is no mesirus nefesh, there’s no growth. This, in a sense, was the God of Mitzrayim, because Mitzrayim’s whole culture was based on taava, which means hedonism. The hedonistic person doesn’t want to work too hard. So it’s a great philosophy, you know, everything’s taken care of, what can I do? Like the Indians say, shanty, shanty, let’s take a rest. And they’re relaxed, everybody’s happy, good things happen, bad things happen, what can we do? There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a life of total irresponsibility, and together with that, it’s a life of taavas, of sexuality, or overeating, of doing whatever you want to, because any you’re just an animal. And anyway, the stars are running everything and you don’t any responsibility. 

That was Mitzrayim. They believed in astrology. The first astrological sign is Aries. Aries was the ram, the lamb. That’s why God had us kill them. It says in Chazal, the Jews were also influenced by this. That’s why He wanted the Jews to shecht the ram in the month on the 10^th, they took the ram when the astrological sign was the strongest. That’s the strongest on the 10^th of the month. And they shechted it on the 14^th of the month. And when they did that, they wanted the Jews themselves to say, “Listen, it’s true there is astrology. But we’re not limited by it. There’s a God in the world.”

Now, what’s the opposite of a philosophy that believes in astrology? A philosophy that believes that there’s a God. That’s a whole different story. It says like this, I want you to hear this – this is Rav Moshe Sternbuch. He says,  They had to make sure everybody had a bris milah.  You couldn’t eat from the pesach sacrifice unless you had a bris milah. So, you had the blood of the milah and the blood of the korban Pesach on the doorposts. The Blood represents mesirus nefesh, completely giving yourself over to God’s will, even if it’s difficult. We start the life of an eight year old boy with the blood of a bris milah, it means a life of responsibility. It means you have to have mesirus nefesh. It’s not a life of astrology. It’s not a life where everything is just running by itself, and we don’t have any responsibility. It’s a life of total responsibility.

This is exactly what the Ramban says at the end. Don’t forget, this was all the same Ramban that said that the reason why we have to have “remember the going of out of Egypt” for everything is to acknowledge that really there’s a God – a God beyond astrology. It says, “Be as scrupulous in performing a minor commandment,” a person should be strict in a minor commandment that Hashem gave us just like a major commandment. “For all of them are major, and exceedingly beloved.” Why? “Since through them a person is constantly acknowledging his God, for the ultimate objective of all commandments is that we should believe in our God and acknowledge that he creates us.”

You’ve got to hear this, this is crazy stuff. This is the Rambam. “The Most High has no desire for earthbound creature except this – that man should know and acknowledge through his God that God created him. For a person has no share in Toras Moshe unless he believes that our affairs and experience are miracles, and that God is the one doing them.” You’ve got to hear this. “Rather, if one observes his commandments his reward will bring him success, and if he transgresses them, his punishment will destroy him. This is the decree of the Most High. And in the end, everybody will see it. All the people on the earth will see that the name of Hashem is proclaimed over you, and they’ll revere You.” In other words, once you take astrology out of the picture, what do you have? You have God. And if you have God, that means if you do God’s will you get rewards. And if you don’t do God’s will, you get punished. And that’s the whole purpose to creation, which is against the Egyptians, against the idea of astrology that there is a God but He forgot about us. You could do whatever you want, any way the wheels are turning. The universe is turning, the stars are turning, the energies are moving. It’s just a thing that goes by itself. No. At every single moment, God is intimately involved with us. If we do good, if we grow and we have to have mesirus nefesh. Mesirus nefesh literally means “giving over your soul” like by the Nazis or whatever, a person gives himself over to God. He says Shema Yisroel, and they said if you don’t become a Christian or you don’t become this or that, so the person has to die. That’s literally the meaning of mesirus nefesh. But mesirus nefesh also means getting up for the minyan, prayers. Mesirus nefesh means davening. Mesirus nefesh means learning. Mesirus nefesh means doing mitzvos. This is our relationship with God, and this is what we learned in Mitzrayim. We shechted the lamb, we got rid of astrology. We came into the reality that God is running our lives. And if we have mesirus nefesh.

There’s another point, a very important point that I just remembered, thank God, in the zechus of doing this – a very important point. If everything in astrology means that your nature, how much brains you have, how much strength you have, how much memory you have, all the different parts of your personality were given at birth. When you have a lot of kids you see this kid is completely different than that kid. Where did that come from? It came from the time they were born. It just came with them. It says Chazal says, “If you’re born on the 5^th day, the 6^th day, each different day of the week has a different strength, different energies. Each different month according to astrology, has its energy. Now, if you just believe in astrology and you don’t believe there’s a Creator, that’s who you are. That’s it. This week I have that strength, and that’s who I am. No, the answer is no. The Zohar explains in this week’s Parsha that if you push forward you can take all your negative qualities and make them positive. You can use your negative thinking, and turn them around. And that’s the purpose of why we’re here. If not, we’re just spinning our wheels – well, we’re spinning in a wheel. The world’s spinning and here we are, and that’s it. So good, you wake up in the morning, you eat, you go, you do whatever you do, and that’s life. And you do that for 120 years and then that’s it, you die. No, that’s the Egyptian point of view. That’s the Egyptian’s way of looking at things. And you’re here to have fun. Eat, drink and be merry, that’s what you’re here for – to have fun, and to have pleasures, and that’s what it is.

Is that the Jewish way?  No! It’s true that God created you this way, but you’re here to fix it. The Vilna Gaon said, “Lama li chaim?” If you’re not here to change yourself, if you’re not here to grow, why are you alive? The Jewish perspective is that you’re alive in order to grow, in order to do mitzvos, in order to God’s will. God’s will is not simple, it’s not easy. You have to get up early in the morning, you have to stay up late at night. All these things that you have to be religious, and you can’t go swimming whether you want. And so many different halachas, and so many things that you have to guard yourself. And you have to dress modest and you can’t wear any kind of clothes you want. You can’t just go out the way you want. On Shabbos you can’t drive your car. There’s a thousand things, you have all these things going on, and all of them are to perfect us. All of them are to fix us to become more pure, to perfect the physicality with which we were born with. The whole point of astrology is that the whole system is just one big physical system. There’s four elements, earth, wind and fire, and everything’s spinning around. The planets have these elements, and all this different energy. They’re just balls of energy that just keep spinning around and moving around. And we have no relationship, we’re just part of it. 

But the reality is we have a relationship with God. We can take who we are, and change ourselves and grow by pushing forward. And this is what the Jewish people did when they shechted the Pesach. They were mesirus nefesh, they said, “Yes, there is a God. Yes, there is a Creator, one who judges us, one who says good is good, and bad is bad, and not just everything is ownerless and you can do whatever you want. And anything goes, with this liberal attitude that everything doesn’t matter. No meaning in life.  Life has meaning. If you do good, good things happen. If you do bad, bad things happen. Ah, bad things happen to good people. We don’t have the cheshbon, we don’t know. The Chofetz Chaim said, there’s like a guy who walked into shul that he doesn’t know, and he sees this guy getting an aliya, and that guy getting an aliya. The poor guy in the back. So he says, “Why don’t you give the rich guy the aliya? He says, “Listen, you weren’t here last week. Last week there was a bar mitzvah of this boy…” You don’t know the accounting. We don’t know what was going on back 1,000 years, 100 years, what happened with our ancestors. We don’t understand why these different things are happening to us. They’re happening to us because who knows why, because our ancestors did something both in the positive and the negative. Maybe we’re rich because our great-grandfather did a big mitzvah, or our grandfather did a mitzvah. Or maybe we’re poor because who knows what he did. Maybe somebody stole back then, who knows what. We don’t have the accounting but we for ourselves, we have to do good. We have to do right.

And this is our freedom. That’s is why Pesach is the zman, time of our freedom. That’s what it says in Chazal, it’s the zman of our freedom. What do you mean, freedom? Free will. Free – we can do what we want to do but we have to use it to serve God.

0:34:23.6

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings a moshul, parable. He brings a possuk like this that says, “Hashem graced the people with favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and he granted their request. The Bnai Yisroel thus drained Egypt of its wealth.” In other words, Rashi says there, “What does it mean, he granted the request? The Egyptians would say to a Jew, ‘You asked for one, now take two and go.’ Hashem told the Jewish people to go borrow, to go take the gold and all the silver out of Mitzrayim. So he asked them and they said, ‘Listen, take, take, even more.’ Like it says in Tehillim, “And he took the note with silver and gold. Egypt was glad with his departure.’” So, the question is, what were they happy about? They were not happy. They shouldn’t be happy, they’re losing all their money and all their gold. So, why were they happy? He wants to bring a moshul. 

He says, “Sometimes there is a decree against a person that he has to lose $100, or 100 gold coins,” he says. “So, what happens? He knows the person’s going to be very, very upset if he loses it. So, what does he do? Instead, he has these thieves come. Instead of stealing 100 gold coins, they steal 1,000 gold coins. What happens? He hires a group of people, he’s all nervous he lost 1,000 gold coins, so he hires a group of people. The group of people find the thieves, and they bring back all the gold to the guy. But the thing is, he has to pay this group of people 100 gold coins. But he’s happy. He’s happy, because listen, I got back my 1,000 gold coins. But really he lost 100 gold coins. Hashem made a decree against him that he has to lose 100 gold coins. But he’s now happy because instead of losing 1,000 gold coins, he only lost 100.

The same thing by the Egyptians. They thought they were going to all die. Here, the  first born were dying in every house, you had a couple of people dying. As we know, there were many more than one firstborn in each house. So, they were dying and they thought they were all going to die. So, they were happy. They were just happy to be alive. And that’s why it says, “He took them out with silver and gold and Egypt was glad of their departure.

0:36:57.0

Great Stories – Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch

This is a story about the Rosh Yeshiva from Telz, Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch. It says like this. One day, we came to the room of the Rosh Yeshiva’s room in the hospital. He wasn’t there. After a while, he entered, dragging his feet. He was very heavy, it was hard for him to walk. He was sweating. He had trouble breathing. I couldn’t even look at him. He could hardly say, ‘Shalom Aleichem,’ he couldn’t  answer because he did not have strength to say hello. He nodded. He acknowledged us with his eyes. With great difficulty, he was helped to an armchair and sat there breathing heavily. After a moment he said two words. ‘It’s a hard judgement, a painful punishment.’ That was the first time I ever heard the Rosh Yeshiva say a complaint.”

Then he explained, “What was his hard judgement?” He says, “It’s not the pain that I’m having now. That’s not the hard judgment. But from the time that I grew up, I never known what it meant to sit idle. I would be learning, myself. I would be teaching others. I would be writing or speaking, or reading, or even fixing something around the house. But just to lie in bed and do nothing, that is a terrible punishment. This fits in with the idea that Jews are here to do something. We are here to grow, not just sit around and do nothing.

0:38:36.8

Peace in Your Home

Rav Aharon Stern speaks about Torah and blessings in the house. He says, “Sometimes couples come to me and I insist that the husband must fix times each day to learn Torah.” The couple asked, “What’s so important, why does the husband have to sit and learn? Every single husband has to learn Torah every single day?” So, he said, Yes, because without Torah study, there’s no protection. There’s no blessing in the house. The blessing in the house comes through Torah study. He brings the famous proof. It says that techias hameisim, after people die lo aleynu, there will be techias hameisim. Hashem will revive the dead. But that only comes from Torah that is learned for its own sake. The reviving dew there invigorates the soul and bring back the dead to life. It only comes about through Torah that’s learned for its own sake.

Listen to this, the Gemara in Brachos. Rav Pinchus brought the same idea. He says, “How do women receive their revival of the dead? How do women receive it if just men learn Torah? The only way that women will get techias hameisim is if they wait for their husbands to come home from the beis medrash. Ah, they have many mitzvos they could do. Yes, but the only mitzvos that produces techias hameisim, the revival of the dead, is the mitzvah of learning Torah. So therefore, they have to be involved in the Torah of their husband. The woman is involved in the Torah of their husband. She also gets revival of the dead.

Chazal says that a ben sorrer v’marer, a child, God-forbid, who goes off the derech and eats meat, drinks wine – what happened? They kill him. It never actually happened, but the parents bring him to the Beis Din. They say that he gets killed. It never happened. But it says what will happen. The possuk says, “He will steal from people and kill them. And eventually he’ll forget his learning.” The kasher is, what do you mean? This guy’s going to kill, he’s going to murder. What do you mean, he’s going to forget his learning? Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz wants to explain that as long as he’s connected to Torah even if he’s a ben sorer v’marer, there’s a chance of him coming back. And as long as he learns, if he learns there’s a chance he’ll do teshuva. If not, all hope is lost.

One time he says, “The Chazon Ish wanted to go see somebody who was learning lishma, for it’s own sake. He went to a big Rav and he saw him. The Rav was sitting and learning Bava Kama. ‘God says that the ox that gores the cow…’” In other words, he was learning, he was clinging to Hashem. The Jewish people hold that the words of the Torah are the words of God. And really, if a person would think about it, if he would open a Torah book, he would faint, he would pass out. Really, this is the masterpiece, the words of the Master of the Universe. Can you have such a thing? It’s an unbelievable idea. So, this Torah learning brings blessing into the house. It brings shalom bayis. You want to have peace in your home, you have to have Torah learning in your house.

Not only that, a person has to explain to his wife and to his children, and to his daughters, the value of Torah because otherwise it’s going to be difficult.  Because what’s going to happen? As time goes by, the man is going to want to learn at night. So, then his wife’s going to complain, “Why, you’re away the whole day, you want to learn at night also?” And then they’ll start to fight, and then he won’t have peace of mind the whole day either. He has to explain the benefit that they’re both going to get by him going out for an hour, an hour and a half, to learn at night.  He said, “You shouldn’t forge ahead without her approval, though. You have to get your wife’s approval if you want to leave the house at nights to learn Torah.” 

He brings a proof that you should push a little bit. Be like the talmidim of Aharon who have peace, pursue peace, love people, and bring them close to Torah. Rav Chaim of Volozhin said on this, “It’s said that even though we love peace like Aharon says, you have to have peace. But still, you have to bring people close to Torah.  Which means that even though you want peace in your house, you have to push a little bit to bring Torah into the house, even though it’s going to make a little bit of a problem. For example, a couple may worry that devoting the time to learn Torah may damage their livelihood. That’s talking about during the day. So he says, Rav Chaim said, “It’s true that even though you have to have peace, but you also have to the Torah. What about the Torah?” He brings a proof that it’s not going to happen, everything will be fine. Why? When Hashem is satisfied with man’s ways, even his enemies make peace with him. Who is his enemy? He says here, “His wife.” He’ll have peace in his home if he brings Torah into his house, it’s going to bring peace into his house.

Okay, I hope you really enjoyed this podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 086 Reaching Above the Stars – Astrology and Passover appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Julius Ciss, who was involved in the “JEWS FOR JESUS” or “MESSIANIC JEWISH” movement for five years, from 1975 to 1980, responds to the Evangelical Christian claim that “Jesus is the Jewish messiah”. Why has Judaism rejected this assertion for 2,000 years? This short video explains how Jesus did not fulfill ANY of the messianic criteria cited in the Jewish Bible and therefore cannot be the Jewish Messiah!

The post Why Jews Say No to Jesus appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Va’eira – God Want’s Your Heart – Free Will and Punishment – A Powerful Parable about the Doctor – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – A Spiritual Happiness in the Home
The Torah Podcast Transcript

085 The Torah Podcast – God Wants Your Heart – Free Will and Punishment

Torah Portion of the Week – Va’era

Chapter seven in Shemos starts out like this. “Hashem said to Moses, ‘See how I’ve made you a master over Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your speaker. You shall speak everything that I should command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he should send the Children of Israel from his land. And I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart, and I shall multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh will not heed you. And I shall put my hand upon Egypt, and I shall take out my legions, my people the Children of Israel from the land of Egypt, with great judgements. And Egypt shall know that I am Hashem, when I stretch out my hand over Egypt. And I shall take out the Children of Israel from among them.’” So, we see from here that Hashem is going to harden Pharaoh’s heart. All the early commentators are involved with how can it be that God took away free will from Pharaoh? And if God took away free will from Pharaoh, how can it be that Pharaoh gets punished? It was Hashem that’s making him do what he does. It’s Hashem that’s making him decide not to let the Jewish people go. So, what does it have to do with him? So, the Torah wants to answer that Pharaoh was not punished for disobeying God’s command by not letting the Jewish people out of Mitzrayim, Egypt. But rather he was punished for the excess cruelty he displayed. It’s true that God controlled whether He’s going to decide that they go out or not. But he didn’t have to do it with such enthusiasm. He was punished for his character flaw, because he was so inhumane. 

But the Rambam and Ramban both want to give different answers. The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva chapter six, halacha, law three says like this. “A person may commit a great sin or many sins causing the judgment rendered before the True Judge to be that the retribution administered for this transgression, for these sins, which he willfully and casually committed, is that his teshuva be held back. He will not be allowed the chance to repent from his wickedness, so that he will die and be wiped out because of the sin he committed.” And the halacha continues and says, “For this reason is written in the Torah in Exodus 14:4, ‘I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.’ Since he began to sin on his own initiative and cause hardship for the Jewish people who dwelled in his land like it says, ‘Come let us deal wisely with them.’ Therefore he was judged and prevented from repenting, and God hardened his heart. And what that means is, that the punishment he received for the sin he did before was that his free will was taken away. It wasn’t the first thing he did and everything is equal, and therefore his free will is taken away. No, he sinned before. He caused tremendous hardships to the Jewish people before, and the sin was that his free will was taken away. And this is like the Ramban also said. He brings the Midrash Rabba that says, “I have made his heart stubborn. Rav Yochanan said, ‘Here the heretics have an opening, but there’s no possibility for Pharaoh to repent.’” Rav Shimon Reish Lakish said, “Let their mouths be sealed. If it is towards the scoffers, he will scoff.” Why? Because first he warned him, a first time, a second time, and a third time. And if he doesn’t repent, so then the doors become locked for him to return, because that’s the collective due of what he deserves. Just like it says, “And the Holy One, Blessed Be He, sent messages to him five times and he paid no attention to his words. It was only after the fifth plague, then he got the punishment where he couldn’t return. Like it says, “You have stiffened your neck and hardened your heart. Now I will add further defilement onto your defilement.” So, the Ramban explains, “If God hardened his heart, so what was his sin?” The answer is, the sin was the wickedness, the way he treated the Jewish people before that. And his punishment was, that he can’t repent. So, that’s the first explanation that the Ramban gives as to why Pharaoh can still get punished even after God took away his free will. That lines up with what the Rambam said.

But there are other answers. He gives a second explanation which lines up with what the Seforno said. He says, “It’s just the opposite. Really he had free will.” So, what did it mean that God hardened his heart? When the plagues overwhelmed him and he was too exhausted to bear them, his heart weakened. So he started to consider sending them out, because of the harshness of the plagues, but not because he wanted to do the will of his Creator. So, what did Hashem do? At that point, God hardened his spirit and emboldened his heart, in order that God’s name should be declared among the world. Like it says, “I will be exalted and sanctified, and will make myself known before the eyes of many nations.” So, Hashem hardened his heart that he’s ordered to do what he really wants to do. Pharaoh does not want to send out the Jewish people. The average person would have given up. He would have said, “That’s it. I can’t take this suffering anymore.” And therefore he would have given in. Hashem strengthened his heart that he could do what he really wanted to do, which was not to let the Jewish people go out. And this is what the Seforno said. Without a doubt, were it not for the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, he would have sent the Jewish people out, but not because of repentance or submission to God, but because he couldn’t take the plagues anymore. So he says, “That’s not called repentance. But if Pharaoh truly would have submitted to God with full repentance, there wouldn’t have been any Divine deterrent at all.” There’s a note on the Seforno that says like this. By giving them the strength, their freedom of will was unimpaired. Hence, if they would have repented of their evil ways, it would have been a voluntary act.” So, of course Pharaoh’s going to get punished his deeds, because that’s really what he really wanted. The average person would have given up because of the suffering. Hashem strengthened Pharaoh that he could do what he wanted. And what he wanted to do was bad.

Rav Dessler wants to explain this opinion of the Seforno and the Ramban with this Gemara. It says, “Rav Eliezer said, ‘If Israel does teshuva, repentance, they will be redeemed. If not, they will not be redeemed.’ Rav Yehoshua replied, ‘If they do teshuva they will not be redeemed? Surely, God has promised that the Mashiach will come sooner or later. But God will raise up against them a king whose decrees are worse than Haman’s, and the Jewish people will do teshuva.’” So, the Maharal asked on this. He says, “Wait a second. Both Rav Eliezer and Rebbe Yehoshua agreed that the Jewish people will do teshuva.” He answers, “There’s two types of teshuva. There’s one teshuva for the person who does it because it really comes from inside of his heart. He really wants to come back to God. But there’s another type of teshuva that a person does, just because he’s suffering, so he stops sinning. That’s just to relieve the suffering. But as soon as things get back to normal, he’s going to go back to his sinning. But both of them are teshuva in the sense that they both stopped sinning.” 

Rav Dessler explains, “Suffering can have two effects. They could bring a person to true teshuva, the spark of truth in his own heart. Or it’s just going to break his will, and break his desires. Therefore, if the suffering is removed, his desires come back. But the true purpose of all punishment is a complete repentance. But if a person stops sinning just because of the suffering, then the point of the suffering has been frustrated. What’s the point? Why is God bringing difficult times on a person, in order that people should come back to Him? Not that they should just stop sinning in the sense of temporarily. What does God do? God acts to strengthen the heart of the sinner so he is not subdued by the suffering, in order that he’ll be able to learn from his suffering to come back in true repentance.” This is unbelievable. And this is true by every individual. We have to learn from the Torah how to act, how to behave. What are we learning from Pharoah? Every human being is like Pharaoh, look what he says. “The greater the person, the greater his yetzer hara, the greater the forces against him.” In other words, a person always has to have free will.

So, if a person grows and he sees that really he should change himself, and he comes to a new level – that means that his yetzer hara, the forces against him, also have to become stronger. Otherwise, he’d become like an angel. He goes to the new level and that’s it. He’s always doing good. He’s a great guy, 100 percent good. You have no yetzer hara. So, what does God have to do? He has to make his yetzer hara stronger. His evil inclination becomes greater. He says, “This is what happened to Pharaoh also.” This is beautiful. When Pharaoh started to see all the miracles and all of a sudden he starts to say, “Wait. Maybe there really is a God in the world. The water turned to blood. There’s frogs all over the place. All the animals died, what’s going on here?” Anybody in their right mind would see there’s a God in the world, and God controls everything. So, that means that he grew. He understood on a different level, really there is a God in the world. What did Hashem have to do? He had to harden his heart, in order to keep his bechira, free will, equal. That’s what he does with every individual. He makes the yetzer hara stronger. This is what he says, “The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was not an extraordinary event. It’s repeated in the heart of every person during his struggles with the yetzer hara.” The verse where it says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” is translated by the Targum, “I will harden the yetzer of Pharaoh’s heart.” This whole episode teaches us a great deal about the workings of the yetzer hara in every human being.

So, even if an individual is suffering in his own life and he wants to come back to God, the question is why does he want to come back to God? Is it 100 percent pure or not? Because if it’s not pure, and he wants to come back just to relieve the suffering and he sees hey, things are not going well in my life. It must be I’ve got to change my ways. Then he gets a thought of repentance that he’s going his change his ways. But at the same time since he has the thought of teshuva of turning back to God, the yetzer hara has to come in and say, “Listen, maybe yes, maybe no.” At that point, the person has to really decide, he has to really decide do I want to come back to God or not? It’s not just a question of removing the suffering or not.

The Shem Mi Shmuel brings a beautiful example of this from this possuk, it says like this. “Pharaoh said, ‘I will send you that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness. But do not go far away. Pray for me’ First Pharaoh says, “I’m going to send you,” and then afterwards Pharaoh says, “Pray for me.” The order is backwards. Why did he say okay, I’ll send you and by the way, you should pray for me. It should be on the condition that you pray for me that I’ll send you. He wants to answer, “Pharaoh didn’t want to make it conditional. He didn’t want to say, ‘You know what? If you pray for me, I’ll let you go.’ He wanted to make the impression that his teshuva was sincere. I’m letting you go from the goodness of my heart. By the way, please pray for me. That’s how he wanted it to appear. And that’s how proper teshuva should be. When a person is suffering and he’s having a hard time in his life, and he has the ten plagues coming on him, so he has to return unconditionally, realizing that God is the Master of the Universe. God is the one who’s bringing the suffering on. God is the one who controls everything, and everything is min hashemayim. Every little thing that happens to a person comes directly from God. So, he has to return unconditionally, not just to remove his suffering – without conditions, and without external factors. It shouldn’t be he’s dependent on him, if you pray for me, if you don’t pray for me, if I become rich, if I become great. That has nothing to do with it. A person has to return to God because He’s the Master of the Universe. 

And not only that, even if things get worse,” he says, “He still has to return to God. He has to remain steadfast with his commitment, and not deviate from his new level of commitment. And then he’ll have a perfect teshuva.” And we know it happens to be true. When people decide to become more religious and all of a sudden they decide to take a commitment on themselves to daven, pray, to learn, to do who knows what, to keep more mitzvos, all of a sudden the yetzer comes in and all these things start to happen. Everything starts to go haywire. I have a proof for this from Tomer Devorah. Look what it says in Tomer Devorah. “When a person confesses his wrongdoings in vidui which is part of the teshuva process, to confess your sins out loud, what happens? The Holy One, Blessed Be He immediately decrees severe suffering on him for his sins.” This is unbelievable. The person wants to come back to God and what happens when he decides, he makes a real decision to come back? All of a sudden the suffering starts to come on his head. But that’s just because it’s a test. He went to a new level. Not only is it a test, but it is like the vidui and kaparah. First you do vidui, when a person brings a sacrifice first their hands on the head of the animal. They say their vidui, they confess their sins on the head of the animal. And it’s like the animal is them going to slaughter. Then they slaughter the animal. So, first you have vidui and then you have kaparah. Kaparah means atonement. As long as a person keeps sinning, why should he suffer? Hashem lets him go. Listen, do whatever you want. But once the person decides to clean himself up, so Hashem also cleans him up, and he brings suffering on the person. But the person’s on a different level, he can handle the suffering. And everything that Hashem does is good. And every bit of suffering takes him to another level. When he suffers, he’s going to up even higher, because he’ll repent even more.

Now, the Chofetz Chaim has a different answer to the question. He asks, how could the gates of repentance be locked before Pharaoh? These gates are normally open to everyone, even the worst sinners. The answer that he wants to give is, sinners are usually given help from heaven to repent. And that’s why we ask for help. We pray, bring us back in complete repentance before You. On the other hand, some sinners have piled up so many sins, that help from heaven is withheld from them. And they must  arouse themselves to repent. So, it wasn’t that the free will was taken away from Pharaoh. It was the help from heaven to come back to God that he normally has, if the sins become so piled up, so great the help stops. But that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t repent. And this is what the Chofetz Chaim says. It was the same mistake like Acher, who heard a heavenly voice, “Return wayward sons, all except Acher.” So he thought, “Acher, that’s it. I’m finished. I can never come back to God. I’m finished,” and he didn’t repent. But he didn’t realize that his free will was not taken away from him. The heavenly voice only meant that Hashem’s not going to help him to repent. But if he really, really, really wants, he can come back.

And Rav Schwab wants to bring a proof for this thing. He brings the possuk that says, “Until when will refuse to be humbled before me?” This was what Moshe Rabbeinu said to Pharaoh. So, the kasher is, what do you mean? How could he ask him to be humble before him, when Moshe Rabbeinu knew that his heart was going to be hardened. What’s he asking from him? So he wants to answer, that even though it’s true it was decreed already that Pharaoh was not going to let the Jewish people go, but at least he could have humbled himself before Moshe. That was still within his free will. So, the problem was that he didn’t humble himself, but if he would have humbled himself he could have done teshuva also. And he brings down that aino chinami, we know that the Rambam said there are errors that a person can do that he can’t do teshuva for, and he can’t return to God. But still, ain devar omed lifnai hateshuva, nothing stands in the way of teshuva. If he would have humbled himself, he could have eventually come back to God.

So, Rav Wolbe says, “What can we learn from this whole story, and how can we understand this whole madness of Pharaoh? What was he, insane?” The answer is, no. It has to do with the heart. It’s our heart, rachmana liba bo, Hashem wants our hearts. And if we don’t work at our hearts, we can’t come back to God. He brings like this – he says, “The Shema which we say twice a day, in the first paragraph it says, ‘You shall love Hashem with all your heart.’ And it also says, ‘Place these words on your heart.’ In the second paragraph is says, ‘Serve Him with all your heart.’ Later in the second paragraph it says, ‘Be careful least your heart be swayed.’ Then it says, ‘And you should place these words upon your heart.’ In the last paragraph it says, ‘Do not stray after your heart.’ The key to success in avodas Hashem is the ability to have our Torah and avoda, our Torah and our worship of Hashem, to penetrate our hearts. It’s not enough to learn to perform the mitzvos.” He says, “Pharaoh understood in his mind and his seichel, he saw the ten plagues were happening, but it didn’t penetrate his heart.” And he says, “We do the same thing.” That’s exactly the point. The Torah’s teaching us something, it’s not just a story. He says, “It’s unbelievable how the human being can block out the most earth-shattering events and remain unaffected.” And we do it to ourselves all the time. Hashem is sending us messages, and we pay no attention. A person has major things happen in his life and he’s not even moved.

I had a friend once who had a growth inside of his lungs the size of a grapefruit, and they had to break open his ribs to take it out. I spoke to him a month after the operation, “How are you doing?” “Oh, everything’s fine. Everything’s great.” No spiritual change. No thought of teshuva. No coming back to God. And we do it all the time to ourselves. So, Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch learns from the three loshonos, the three things that’s said about Pharaoh’s heart. The first one was kasheh, he had a hard heart – it means hardened. What does that mean? Not to absorb impressions, not to be affected by anything. The second language was kaved, heavy – difficult to move. Maybe a person can get an impression, but there’s a big gap between the impression and the influence of the impression he received from what happened to him. That’s heavy. And the third thing it says about Pharaoh’s heart, it was chazak. Hashem mechazeked, Hashem strengthened his heart. Firm, what does that mean? Deliberately resisting. Hashem’s sending you a message, and you don’t care. It happens to all of us. You are stubborn in your ways, you’re strong in your ways. So, these are the things we need to work on. We need to hear the message that Hashem is sending to us. We need to respond, we need to react. We need to feel. We have to give God our hearts, rachmana liba bo, Hashem wants your heart. It’s the only way, that’s what religion is about. And if a person does this, he becomes a new person. He could do teshuva sheleima, full repentance. He could become a new human being. 

And you’ve got to hear what Rav Moshe Feinstein says about this. “Just like in the negative, if a person does too many sins and he continues that way, Hashem doesn’t help him. And he continues down that line and he gets punished for the direction that he went into. Even though it started out, which means it started out with free will, and then it became habit, and that was the end of the guy, he finished and he gets punished. But you could have the opposite also. You’ve got to hear this. He says, there are those who are rewarded by Hashem for their good deeds by taking away the evil inclination. It means they do so much good that it becomes natural to them, and not only that but they’re going to get rewarded for it. Not that it becomes natural to them and therefore it’s just natural. You know, why should they get rewarded, that’s who they are. No, if they worked on themselves and they did good deeds, and they get to the level it becomes natural for them. At that point, they’re still rewarded for the level.

Look what it says. The Gemara in Bava Basra 17:A says like this. “This is the meaning of Dovid haMelech’s statement in Tehillim, ‘My heart has died within me.’ Dovid haMelech said, ‘It is through his good deeds he earned the removal of his evil inclination. Therefore his heart,’ a reference to the evil inclination, ‘Is said to have been dead. When Hashem removes the inclination from the righteous, it allows them to serve Hashem without any struggle at all. Will this lessen the amount of reward they’ll receive? No. If Pharaoh who no longer had the ability to fight his inclination is punished as if he chooses not to fight, surely the righteous who must no longer fight their evil inclination, they’ll still be rewarded as if they chose and they won a mighty battle.” So we see, if we continue in the wrong way, eventually God-forbid it will   become such a mess there’s no way out of it. And we get punished even though we were in a certain sense, not responsible. Buy we started out responsible. Why responsible? Because we chose to do the wrong thing. But as it continues down the line we could get punished, and that’s the end of us, God-forbid.

On the other hand, if we choose to do good and we use our hearts to hear the words of Hashem, to hear the message that Hashem is sending us, to listen, to let it penetrate us, to let the impressions of the outside world and what’s happening to us affect our hearts. If we do that, then we can go in the up direction. And then we can get used to doing good things, and doing the right thing. And then we’ll get rewarded even for levels that are easy for us.

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A Powerful Parable

The verse says, “Therefore say to Bnai Yisroel, ‘I am Hashem. I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt, and I will save you from the slavery I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with acts of great judgment I will take you to myself as a people.’” On this, the Maggid mi Dubno brings a moshul, parable.

He says, “One time a man fell ill and included in his illness was a lot of different symptoms. He had a headache, he lost his appetite. He had insomnia. So, if a doctor comes in and says, ‘Okay, I see your situation. Listen, I have this medication for your headache, and I have that medicine to help your appetite. And I have a different medicine to help you sleep.’ So then, the patient understands right, this is what’s going on here. He’s just treating my symptoms, and he understands that the actual illness, the cause of all these things, is beyond the doctor’s ability to cure them. But if when the doctor comes in and says, ‘Don’t worry. I promise you when the time comes, you will be completely healed. But right now I can only help you with these side problems,’ so then he’ll have confidence in the doctor.” That was the moshul, what’s the nimshal, conclusion?

So too it says, when Hashem said, “I will take you out, I will save you. I will redeem you. I will take you.” So, if it was just for that, maybe the Jewish people would think they’re never going to be redeemed. But since he started out by saying, “I am Hashem,” as the Midrash says, “He would redeem them when the end would come, and there would be a time of redemption. At that point, the Jewish people were confident that they were going to be redeemed.

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Great Stories – Rav Shach 

The verse says, “And on that day I should distinguish the land of Goshen upon which my people stand. And there should be no mixture of wild beasts there.” In other words, the verse is telling us that the plague of the wild beasts is not going to be in the land of Goshen where the Jewish people were.

So, one Friday night in the middle of the first Gulf War, there were missiles flying over Bnai Brak. And they could hear the explosions in the next city, Ramat Gan. So, the next morning a person who was close to Rav Shach came with excitement and said, “We just witnessed a modern day equivalent to this verse, ‘And on that day I should distinguish the land of Goshen upon which my people stand.’” In other words, they weren’t hit, just the neighbors were hit but Bnai Brak wasn’t hit. But Rav Shach said, “Just the opposite. What you are saying is foolish. First of all, don’t be arrogant and think the miracles that are occurring for the Jewish people nowadays are equal to the miracles that occurred then. It’s just the opposite. Instead of thinking that Bnai Brak doesn’t deserve any punishment, we should realize that the whole storm was only because of us. We have to do teshuva. We have to come back to God. And we have to ask ourselves, why did the missiles come on Friday night? Maybe it’s the way we’re behaving on Friday night. In the winter, the meal ends around 7:00 or 8:00 o’clock. What do the young Torah scholars do from then until midnight? Do they go and learn? Perhaps it’s what’s demanded of us to strengthen our Torah learning on Friday night, that’s what’s causing the missiles to come in.

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Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern speaks on spiritual happiness in the home. The verse says, “Hashem placed the tree of life in the middle of the garden.” So, why was the tree of life placed in the middle of the garden? The Chofetz Chaim explains, the tree of life means eternal spiritual life and everybody can get it. Why is it placed in the middle? Because some people get it through good deeds, some people get it through learning, some people get it through prayer. But every person has a right to it. Every person can get eternal life. That’s why Hashem placed it in the middle of the garden. So too,” he says, “our world too has an eitz chaim in its center, with many avenues leading into it. And that’s happiness in your home, spiritual happiness. Everybody must study the paths to get to it.”

So he says, “A cheerful mood is necessary for a happy existence.” He explains, “If you meet an avreich, a guy who’s sitting and learning, and his world has gone black, “He’s going to give you a dozen reasons why. But he’s probably too embarrassed to tell you the real reason, and that’s because he’s lost his happiness in his learning. If a person doesn’t get satisfaction from his learning, he’s going to blame his life on all kinds of things. The verse says, ‘Because you did not serve Hashem with joy and the goodness of your heart’.  When joy in Torah and mitzvos is lacking, the person feels as if all the rebukes are on his back. The Chazon Ish writes, “None of the pleasures of this world can compare to learning Torah. Like Dovid haMelech said, ‘Were your Torah not my loving occupation, I would be lost in my poverty.’ The heart who seeks Hashem shall rejoice.” And what happens if a man loses his joy, then he starts to complain, and his house falls apart. But if he has spiritual joy and he feels satisfied, so everything in life is good, and his house is also good.  He says, “Every individual can find his own spirituality, his own way. Somebody could write this book, he could write that book. You can open an organization that can help people – different ways to find spirituality to bring them into your house, which is going to make you happy, and make your house happy.”

He brings a story. There was once two yeshiva bochurim, both of them got married at the same time. They were both chevrusas, and they were both very good students. But one went up, and one went down. As time went by, he spoke to the second avreich, and the avreich came and said, “Oy. My mazel was horrible.” He says, he’s unhappy all the time, full of complaints. He was complaining, the kollel, it’s giving me such little money, how am I supposed to live like this? He comes home tense and anxious. He doesn’t feel honored in his house, his wife doesn’t give him any honor. His whole world has gone black. So, after he spoke to him for a while, he checked out what was missing and he understood that the boy lost his enthusiasm for learning. What was he doing? He’d show up late to kollel, he would take trips here and there. He was trying to do things to avoid learning.

Now, what happened? The Rosh Kollel began complaining. And instead of the boy admitting, you’re right, I have to do something, he claimed he was being persecuted, and now he feels broken. So, the Rav said to him, “Look at the difference between you and your chevrusah, who’s still learning. Isn’t your situation due to the fact that once you got pleasure from learning Torah, but now you don’t get the pleasure. Where do you expect to find fulfillment? How do you expect to be happy? Real happiness only comes from spirituality.”

One time, somebody came to the Beis Halevy and says, “Hey, don’t you remember me? We learned for several years. We used to slide in the snow together in the winter.” He says, “I don’t understand. You became a great Rav, and I became nothing.” He says, “It’s true. That’s because you slid downwards, and I slid upwards.” Without deep Torah study and mitzvos, a ben Torah feels no fulfillment and this leads to steep deterioration. He brings the Midrash Tanhuma that says like this. “One time it said that two birds were fighting, and one bird killed the other bird. And the one that killed the other one picked up some grass, put it in the bird’s mouth, and the bird came back to life. So, a man who was watching this took some of that grass with him, and he went off. As he was going, he saw a dead lion lying on the side of the road. So, he took some of the grass and put it in the lion’s mouth. What happened? The lion became alive, and ate him. That was the moshul, what’s the nimshal, conclusion? If you try to find too much joy and happiness in the material world, it’s like feeding a dangerous lion. 

He says, “If you want to see true happiness, you should have come to the Chazon Ish’s house. He was sitting there with a small Gemara and a couple of Rishonim, early commentaries, and he was immersed in learning. At the same time his door was open to everyone. People came in for eitzos, advice. Any cheder boy, school boy could recognize this was true happiness.” He said, “One time I just traveled to Bnai Brak to watch the Chazon Ish daven, pray for an hour. I felt that I was in front of a man who was really singing to God.” He says, “A wise person should use his marriage and his house to grow spiritually. And if you grow spiritually, you’ll really be happy. And then you’ll have a happy home.”

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 085 God Wants Your Heart – Free Will and Punishment appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

The Torah Podcast Transcript

084 – The Torah Podcast –  How to Uplift Yourself – The Desire to Understand   

Torah Portion of the Week – Shemos

So, chapter three in Shemos starts out like this. “Moses was grazing the sheep of Yisro, his father-in-law, the Minister of Midyan. He guided the sheep far into the wilderness, and he arrived at the mountain of Elokim, God, towards Horev, Horeva. An angel of Hashem appeared to him in a flame of fire from within the thorn bush. He saw and behold, the bush was burning in the fire but the bush was not consumed. Moses thought, ‘Let me turn aside now, and see this great sight. Why would the bush not be burned?’ Hashem saw that he turned aside to see and God called out to him from amidst the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses.’ And he replied, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not come any closer to here. Take off your shoes from your feet. The place upon which you stand is holy ground.’ And He said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak, the God of Jacob.’ Moses hid his face for he was afraid to gaze towards God.”

So, this is the famous story of the burning bush. And the Chofetz Chaim brings the Pirkei Avos to explain the verse, ‘The place upon which you are standing is holy ground.’ The Pirkei Avos said, “Do not say, when I get free time I will learn Torah, because a person says to himself, when Hashem improves my situation and I have some more free time, so then I’ll learn. Then I’ll grow. But in the meantime, he’s too burdened. So, the verse tells us, “The place in which you are standing is holy ground.” That is the present situation, the present time, right now is considered holy ground. Hashem wants us to serve Him in a situation the way things are now. Like it says, “If Torah is difficult to learn, then his reward is 1,000. If things are going smoothly, his reward is only 200.” It’s a Midrash Rabba.

We also know lefum tzara agra, according to the suffering is the reward. And the Chofetz Chaim says further on this verse. It says, “Take off your shoes from your feet.” At any time and any place, a person could be close to his Maker and serve Him, and fulfill all the commandments. He just has to make sure that nothing is standing between him and Hakadosh Baruch Hu for it says, “Your sins create a separation between you and God.” And that’s what it means, “Take off your shoes. Remove any obstruction between you and the holy ground on which you stand. In every place where I shall of course mention my name, there should be holiness.” No one should say, “The old days were better.” Rather, everyone will say, “When will my deeds compare to those of our forefathers?

The only difference between us and them is the thickness of the mechitza, the separation. But if we were to remove the separation, a great spiritual light will shine forth in all of its brilliance. The place on which you are standing is already holy ground. And all places, all times and all situations, there’s holiness. All we need to do is to remove the shoes from our feet. We have to remove our sins. We’ve got to feel the spirituality.”

And Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch says on this verse, “’Do not step here, but remove your shoes from your feet, for the place in which you are standing is holy ground.’ Instead of attempting to understand the phenomena which is beyond your comprehension, contemplate the lawful destiny of the ground in which you are already standing, and devote yourself to it with all your heart. Removal of one’s shoes expresses total commitment to the significance of a given place. The act implies that one intends to base one’s personality on it and derive one’s standing from that place alone which means we have to grow from the place that we are. And we shouldn’t think there’s a different time, or a different place, or a different situation. The situation that we are right now, that’s where we can do our greatest growth.”

And he continues, “We are obligated to serve barefoot. Nothing should intervene between our feet and the ground, between our hands and the vessel like the Cohanim and their bodies in the priestly garments.” In other words, there should be no set relation between us and our avodas Hashem. And wherever we are, we can grow. And Hashem will help us. And that’s exactly what the Seforno said. The verse said, “And Hashem saw that he turned aside to see.” And then it says, “And God called out to him.” The Seforno said, “This is to inform us, just as our Sages tells us, he who comes to be purified will be assisted from On High.” Like the Gemara in Shabbos says, “Moses went up to God, and Hashem called him from the mountain.” So, if we want, we can grow and Hashem will help us. But we have to want to grow. We have to focus our minds.

This is exactly what the Ramban explains. The Ramban points out that there is a problem in the verse. First it said, “Angel of Hashem appeared to him in a blaze of fire.” And then it says, “Hashem saw that he turned aside, and God called out to him.” So, what’s going on there with this burning bush, is it an angel or is it Hashem?” The Ibn Ezra wants to answer that both times it’s talking about an angel. Obviously when it says an angel of Hashem appeared to him in a blaze of fire, it was an angel. And even when it says, “I am the God of your father,” so the angel’s speaking in the name of God. But the Ramban doesn’t like this because he says, “Why did Moshe turn away? Moshe was a tremendous prophet. Why would he be scared of an angel?” So, he wants to explain that it’s true. At first, Moses saw the angel but Hashem was there also but he didn’t see Hashem. It was only after that he saw Hashem. The Ranbam says like this. “At first, the angel Michoel appeared to him and the glory of the shechina was there as well. But Moses did not see the glory of the shechina, for he had not prepared his mind to receive prophesy. But when he did focus his mind and he turned aside to see the burning bush, then the shechina came into view. And that’s what it means, ‘Hashem called out to him from amidst the bush.’So, we learn from this that it’s only when a person focuses his mind is he going to go up in the level of spirituality. If he doesn’t focus his mind, he’ll see what he sees. But when he starts to focus and think and contemplate, then he’s going to go up a level. 

The Rabbeinu Bachye holds like the Ramban. He says, only once that he saw the fire, and from there he saw that there was an angel inside of the fire. At that point, when he became focused, he was ready to receive the schechina, God’s presence. He says, “God wanted to educate him little by little. He wanted to raise his perception powers stage by stage, so that his intellectual faculties would keep up with the pace of his emotional faculties. The matter could be best illustrated by comparing it to someone who has sat for a long time in a dark room. If we open the door immediately, the sunshine comes in, and he becomes blinded by that experience. Therefore, you have to open it little by little. Just as the sunlight cannot be absorbed in its full impact all at once, so too spiritual insights can only be absorbed gradually in increasing quantities. The intellect, though in some respects is unlike the other senses, is similar to the senses in the sense that it cannot successfully absorb too much, too suddenly.” This is unbelievable. If a person wants to grow, of course we can grow from wherever we are but we’re going to have to focus, we’re going to have to think, and we’re going to have to go level by level. Because if we jump levels, it’s going to be too much for us. It’s like being blinded by the light. Hashem wants us to grow in a healthy way, in the correct way.

Rav Moshe David Valli who was talmid, student of the Ramchal, says on this verse, “And Moses said he will not turn to see this great vision while the bush wasn’t being consumed.” Moses was saying, “Now I will turn away from the lowly, mundane existence I have been living, and draw myself close to spiritual loftiness, to my spiritual root. For this is man’s entire purpose in this lowly world. One who distances himself from lowly physicality merits seeing spiritual loftiness.” That’s what it says, ‘I will turn away and I will see.’ One who wishes to open his eyes and see intellectual and spiritual sights must close his physical eyes, which are drawn towards the physical sights.” That’s what it means, “He turned to see.” Like the verse says, “Who is blind other than my servants? Only one who makes himself blind to physicality can see clearly on the intellectual level, and become a servant of Hashem.”

And the Malbim says the same thing, he says like this. “Because the prophesy came in the form a physical image, therefore Moses needed to turn aside in order to really grasp it.” And this is what the Midrash says. Rav Yochanan said, “Moses took three steps at that time.” That’s what it meant, “Let me turn aside.” His true inner intellectual essence desired to disengage itself from the body, and shed off physical garments. He thus said, “I shall turn aside from the prison of the body, and therefore achieve a purely intellectual grasp of this vision.” What were those three steps? He separated himself from the nefesh, the ruach and neshama, the different levels of the soul – the animal soul, the spirit and the Godly soul – from any bodily connection. He totally disconnected himself physically in order that he can grow spiritually. This is what it means to remove his shoes. Why did he have to remove his shoes? Remove your shoe, which is any physicality. The concept is that the body is called the physical shoe worn by the spiritual soul. Without the body, the soul would be unable to trudge through this physical world’s thorny, mucky existence. These are the thorns of the physical world.  So, in order to grow spiritually, it means you’re going to have to use your intelligence. You’re going to have to focus and think really, what is life about? What am I doing here? Why am I here? And you have to have a desire to grow.

And this is what the Chassam Sofer said. The Chassam Sofer says that when God called out to Moses, Moses answered, “Hineni,” here I am. The next verse says, “Do not come any closer.” So, the Midrash explains that Hashem rebuked Moses for using the same word that Avraham Avinu used when Hashem called him, which was hineni. So he asks, “Where did Moses fall short of Avraham? Surely it couldn’t be his humility. It said Moses was the most humble man. So, he answers that it’s the opposite. It was his assertiveness, because we know that when Avraham Avinu said hineni, he was willing to do anything for Hashem. He would sacrifice his own son. But Moses was reluctant to take the Jewish people out from Egypt. And that’s why Hashem rebuked him. 

And Rav Moshe Feinstein said a similar thing. He says on the verse, “Moses hid his face for he was afraid to gaze at God.” So, we know the Gemara in Brachos says that he was rewarded for this, and Hashem made that his face should shine. But there’s another Gemara that says he was punished for it, that he only got to the see the back of Hashem, he didn’t get to see Hashem face to face. So, he wants to explain, the reward that he got was for his humility. He was embarrassed to look towards Hashem. But you’ve got to hear this. The punishment that he got was because he didn’t have enough desire to see Hashem. His desire to see Hashem should have been greater than his humility to not look at Hashem. In other words, his desire for spiritual growth should have been so great that it even overcame his humility. So, Chazal is telling us we have to be aggressive. We have to be aggressive in our spiritual growth. Sometimes you have to ask a question to a big Rav. Sometimes you hear a shiur, you hear a class somewhere and you don’t understand. You can’t be embarrassed. A person who’s embarrassed can’t learn. We have to have a drive for spirituality, a real desire. And we have to be inquisitive. We have to be a mevakesh, we have to desire and want to know and to understand.

So, the Seforno explains, “What was Moshe looking for when he saw the burning bush? The verse says, he wanted to understand why the bush doesn’t burn.” So, the Seforno says his question was, why aren’t the Egyptians destroyed by the plagues? Why doesn’t good overcome evil? That was his question. He was searching for truth. Why doesn’t good overcome evil? Isn’t that the way the world should be designed, that good should overcome evil? The thorn bush represents evil, and the fire represented good. Why doesn’t good consume evil?

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch and other meforshim explain, just the opposite. Moshe was wondering, how can the Jewish people survive? How can the lowly Jewish people which are represented by the bush, how come they’re not consumed by the fire of golus, of exile? One of the greatest miracles of all of history is the fact that the Jewish people are still here and healthy and alive. It’s one of the greatest miracles. How could we survive all these years being pushed around from place to place? So, the question is, it’s a question of good and evil. All of our life is about good and evil. How come good doesn’t overcome evil? How come evil doesn’t overcome good? And internally also, why sometimes we overcome our evil inclination, and sometime our evil inclination is able to overcome us?

But we can learn from the Chassam Sofer, this is the way that Hashem runs the world. It’s a mixture of good and evil. He says, “There are two lessons to be learned from the burning bush. Firstly, it is often through suffering that Bnai Yisrael, we turn to Hashem. The fierce flame, that’s the inner soul of a Jew. Eventually, he turns to Hashem. He is propelled by the thorn, the thorn bush of the misery of the Egyptian slavery.” Since the evil that’s pushing us to do good, sometimes bad – actually most times, the reason why a person does teshuva, comes back to Hashem, is because he is having a hard time. Things are hard, things are difficult. Or he sees evil inside of himself. As you grow and become more sensitive, then you realize you have bad qualities, bad character traits. And the growth usually comes through a crisis, where the character gets so bad, you do something so ridiculous that you realize, hey something’s wrong here. I’ve got to change. I have to do something. I have to grow. So, it’s the bad is the evil that’s bringing us to good.  And secondly, the opposite. When Hashem desires, the wicked become unusually and frighteningly resistant. And Moses wondered upon seeing this flame, why does the evil power survive despite the fiery heritage of Bnai Yisroel, the descendants of the avos, of our forefathers. How can evil stand in front of good, and also in ourselves?

Sometimes when we’re working ourselves we can’t change. We can’t overcome our evil inclination. The next day it comes back. The next week it comes back. So, Rav Noam Elimelech answers. He says, “Man’s essential function is to uproot his negative character traits. Through overcoming the bad character traits, which are like thorns, man can achieve greatness. He burns with the fire of enthusiasm, but it says that fire couldn’t consume the bush. Even with all his enthusiasm, he can’t completely get rid of all his bad traits.” And that’s what Moses wanted to do. He says, “I’ll turn aside, I won’t look at this great sight.” Moses was saying, “I want to leave behind my bad character traits completely, absolutely, and I will achieve spiritual heights.” So, then he didn’t know, why isn’t the bush consumed? Why aren’t the bad character traits consumed? So, Hashem said to him, “It’s not possible for you to reach this lofty level.” And he wants to say that the word to remove, to remove your shoes, is like the same word as to “borrow”. You can only borrow this level. It’s true, at Sinai we at a higher level, and true at Har Sinai all the Jews had the level where the zehuma, the impurity which was caused by the sin of Adam haRishon, was completely removed from all the Jews. They had no yetzer hara, no evil inclination. But that’s not what’s going to be for the rest of their history. That’s only going to be at the end of history, when the Mashiach comes, also we will reach that level. But in the meantime, we have to accept who we are. That’s what it means, to be on the ground where we are. And from there, we have to grow. We have to desire to grow. We have to want spirituality. And therefore, we have to remove our sins. That’s what it means, to take off your shoes. It can’t be you’re going to get spirituality if you continue to sin.

A lot of people they say, “Oh, I’m spiritual.” They don’t keep Shabbos. No, we have to do what Hashem wants us to do. And then we will grow, like the Seforno says, “We’ll have siata deshemaya, Hashem will call out to us.” But that doesn’t mean we’re going to reach the end of our growth, because we need evil to reach higher and higher levels of spirituality. Like the Chasam Sofer said, “It’s only through hard times that we grow to new levels.” And that’s our task, until the Mashiach comes.

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A Powerful Parable 

The verse in this week’s Parsha said, “A man of the house of Levi went and married the daughter of Levi.” So, Rashi explains, “Who was the daughter of Levi? It was Yocheved. How old was she? She was 130 years old, but she became youthful again and she gave birth to Moses and Aaron.” The Ibn Ezra asks, “Why didn’t we mention like we did by Sarah Imenu what a great miracle it was? Sarah was 90 and she gave birth to Yitzhak, and the Torah made a big deal of it. And here, Yocheved is 130 and the Torah doesn’t say anything.” So, the Maggid Mi Dubno wants to explain with a moshul, parable.

One time, there was a group of poor people and they were all sitting around discussing how bad things are, how people have stopped giving charity. “People are giving much less,” they said. So, one of them says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Recently, I went to people’s houses and every single person gave me a full ruble.” So, they started to ask, “Well, when did that happen?” He said, “It was on Purim.” They said, “That’s not proof. On Purim everybody gives to the poor. If it was a regular day, so it would be amazing. But on Purim it’s normal.” So too by Sarah. At the time of Sarah, the fact that she gave birth at 90 years old, that was a big deal, that was a miracle. But in Egypt, women were giving birth to six kids at a time, every day. So, it was no big deal that Yocheved gave birth at 130.

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Great Stories – Rav Chatzkel 

The verse said, “Moses was shepherding his sheep.” So, the Midrash explains it was a lamb that ran away, and Moses ran after it. And the lamb came unto to some water, and stopped to drink. So then Moses said to the lamb, “I didn’t realize you were running away because you were so thirsty. You must be tired.” So, he carried the lamb on his shoulders. Hashem said, “You have the mercy to treat the sheep as a human being in this manner. By your life, you will be the shepherd for my sheep, Yisroel.” And that was the meaning that Moses was shepherding.

So, one of the Rabbanim explains, “What was this outstanding quality of Moses? What was the test, that the lamb ran away?” So, he wanted to say that since a herd is composed of individual lambs, one must look out for each lamb who has the tendency to run away from the herd. That’s what it means to be a leader. 

So, there’s a known story about Rav Chatzkel when he was the mashgiach, supervisor in Klutzk. He made a point of learning in the beis medrash, even late at night. It’s true that he had a private room and it would have been more comfortable for him to learn in his house, but he said, one time he knew that there one young man in yeshiva who if he’s there, the mashgiach was there, that bochur continues to learn. However, if the mashgiach goes home, the boy also stops learning. He said, “If even one young man will study better because of me remaining, I am obligated to remain in the beis medrash.” 

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Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern says like this. “Marriage is like a Mishkan,” like the Beis HaMigdash.   “It was only built that Hashem should dwell among the Jews. The whole purpose of a Mishkan is a place for Hashem’s presence to dwell. Many homes, however, are Mishkans with nothing in them. The whole purpose of marriage is to do Hashem’s will. Chazal compares our world to a wedding hall. Imagine if we had a wedding hall filled with guests and a band, delicious food, photographer, everything there. But if there’s no couple at the chupa getting married, so what’s the whole point of the wedding?

So too, a couple. They get an apartment, they buy the furniture, they get everything, but if there’s no spiritual content they have nothing at all. The entire edifice in their life is empty, and how difficult things are. It would be easier to stay by yourself. You have no financial burdens, it’s cheaper. You don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night to take care of your kid. Less cooking, less cleaning. So, what simcha, happiness can we put into our married lives that are difficult?”

The answer is, that if we know we have purpose in our marriage to fulfill Hashem’s will and to bring neshamos, holy souls into the world to serve God, then everything makes sense. With this attitude, everything becomes easier and you have simcha in your house because you know you’re doing something that has meaning. So he says, Sometimes small things could bring a lot of spirituality into the house. For example, if a parent bentches, says grace after meals out of a bentcher and the kids see it, it will have an effect. They say that Rav Chaim Ozer one time he lost the book of tzedakah, charity that he used to keep track of all the money of the tzedakas that people used to give him to give out to the poor. So he said, ‘No problem. I’ll re-write it.’ Pages and pages. He rewrote the entire thing, then they found the book and they compared the two books. It was exact. He had a perfect memory, a photographic memory. And he still used to bentch out of a bentcher. And he never davened without a siddur, prayer book. It has an effect.

Also, don’t daven in your house. Go to the minyan, go to shul.” He says, “A father who davens at home without a minyan will lower his self-esteem in front of his entire family.” Like it says, “And Moses went,” and the Chassam Sofer says on that, “Just by Moses going did the Jews learn a great lesson. Just watching him walk.” And another thing he says, “You have to be consistent. You can’t be one day you’re very makpid, you’re very strict, and the next day you’re loose. Rivka, when she thought she had one child in her stomach and she used to walk by the beis medrash and he would jump. And then she would walk by the avoda zara he would jump again, thought he was a mixed up kid. She couldn’t take it. How could she give birth to such a personality? Chazal says, “If she is a wall we will build on her a tower of silver. But if she’s a door, we will enclose it with boards of cedar. In order to build klal Yisroel you have to be like a wall, solid.

One of the great qualities they say about the Brisker Rav was, he was always the Brisker Rav. It didn’t matter where he was, in exile or in Eretz Yisroel. Like the verse says in Melachim, “Ani Hashem, lo shaniti.” I am Hashem, I do not change. But he explains, “In material matters you can change. You can give in. But in spiritual matters, you have to be solid. Compromising could be destructive. Like it says, ‘For the Menorah we have to use shemen zayit zach, pure oil. But for the mincha which is more physical, you don’t need this level of purity.” He says, “The avreich who won’t eat before he davens, but one day he davens neitz, at five in the morning, and the next day he davens at ten o’clock. This is a big mistake. Your wife and your kids have to see consistency in your house. Like the verse said, ‘Also the man of Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh, in the eyes of the nation.’

He asks, “How can it be that they admired Moshe, after all the plagues he brought on them? The Rambam answers, ‘Because Moses was a man of truth. Everybody admires the truth.’” But he says, “It doesn’t mean you have to be a fanatic. There’s always room for tact. You should speak wisely and softly, so that your words are listened to. The Torah says, ‘When Avraham was commanded to go to Eretz Canaan, he took his wife, Sarah which the Zohar explains, he draw her close with gentle words.’” It doesn’t mean you have to be rough, just because you’re makpid, because you’re strict. You could be strict, and be kind and nice. 

He says, “Even le shem shemayim must be le shem shemayim.” Even doing something for Hashem, it has to be done in a way that is done for Hashem. Consistency is not an excuse to be rough and inconsiderate. Chazal tells us, there were two people who were le shem shemayim, Tamar and the wife of Potiphar. Tamar lived with Yehuda to have children which the Mashiach came from, is le shem shemayim. And the wife of Potiphar wanted to live with Yosef. But the difference is, Tamar was willing to be burned to death to avoid embarrassing Yehuda, and Potiphar’s wife threw Yosef into prison. She was rough. “However,” he says, “Sometimes you do need to be strict, because if you’re too kind hearted, nobody’s going to listen to you at all.” And he brings a beautiful proof for that. It says, the Torah writes, “At this time Avimelech came to make a covenant with Avraham.” What specific time was that? It was just after Avraham sent Yishmael away. Before that, Avimelech was not afraid of Avraham. He thought he was so kind hearted, he could walk all over him. But once he saw that Avraham was capable of being harsh and sending away Yishmael, then he decided it was time to make a covenant with him.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it, and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 084 How to Uplift Yourself – The Desire to Understand appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

080 Torah Portion of the Week – Vayishlach – Should We be Afraid? – Healthy Fear and Personal Growth – A Powerful Parable about Playing Dice – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Laziness After Marriage

Transcript Coming Soon

080 The Torah Podcast – Should We Be Afraid? – Healthy Fear and Personal Growth 

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayishlach

This week, we’re going to talk about fear, why we get afraid, when we should be afraid, and what to do when we’re afraid. Towards the beginning of the Parsha it says like this, “The angels returned to Yaakov saying, ‘We came to your brother, to Esav, moreover he is heading towards you. And 400 men are with him,’ and Yaakov became very frightened and it distressed him. So, he divided the people with him and the flocks, and the cattle, and the camels, into two camps. He said, ‘If Esav comes to one camp and strikes it, then the remaining camp will be a refuge.’ The Yaakov said, ‘God of my father Avraham, and God of my father Yitzhak, Hashem who said to me, return to your land and to your birthplace, and I will do good to you. I have to diminish by all the kindness, and by all the truth that you have done for your servant. For with my staff I have crossed the Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Rescue me please, from the hands of my brother, from the hands of Esav. For I fear him least he come and strike me, mother and child. And You had said, ‘I will surely do good with you, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which is too numerous to be counted.’”

We see that Yaakov is afraid. He’s afraid that Esav’s going to come with his 400 men, so he starts to pray. He mentions all the blessings that Hashem promised him. If you go back to possuk, “Behold I am with you and I will guard you whether you go, and return you to the soil. I will not forsake you until I have done what I have spoken for you.” We see that Yaakov became afraid, but on the other hand we see all the blessings that Hashem promised him. And Yaakov starts to pray, “Please remember, please remember all the promises You did for me.” The Rambam says, “Yaakov did not rely on his righteousness to protect him from harm. Rather, he exerted himself with his every capability in order to secure his salvation. This is to teach future generations, because everything that occurred to our forefather Yaakov and with Esav will continue to occur with Esav’s descendants. Therefore it’s fitting for us to hold on to the path of the righteous, which is Yaakov, and to prepare ourselves with three items.” What did he prepare himself with? With prayer, and gifts, and preparing for war. So, we see from here that Yaakov didn’t just rely on his righteousness. He actually prepared himself, and did something. Here comes Esav, what am I going to do? 

Rav Wolbe wants to add onto this that the Avos, Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, understood that since the world ran al pi teva, there’s a nature to the world. Therefore, we also have to act according to the laws of nature. Yaakov didn’t just say, “Hashem, you’re in charge. You take care of everything.” That’s not what happened. And he didn’t just pray. He did everything in his power to protect him and his family. And this is the Jewish way, not just to say, “Oh, God You take care of everything.” No, we have do to hishtadlus. We have to do what’s in our power to do, and Hashem will give us the blessing.

He tells a story about Rav Leib Malin who urged all the bochurim, all the Mir Yeshiva to flee to Japan. There were many people who fought against him. But no, he pushed because Rav Yerucham Leibowitz impressed on him that a person can’t rely on miracles. We can’t rely on miracles. And thank God, in the end they listened to the Rav and everybody went to Japan, and they were saved. He brings a raya from the Shulchan Orech that says, “Even when a person takes medication he’s supposed to pray, “May it be Your will that this endeavor provide a cure for me.” So, it’s a combination of acting and praying. But Rav Avigdor Miller asks a kasha, “Wait a second. It says in Chovas Levavos, The Duties of the Heart, like this. ‘Among the benefits of bitachon, of faith, the mind is free from worldly matters. And his joy is whatever he encounters, because he trusts in Hashem only to do good for him. And whatever Hashem does is the best.’” So, if that’s true, why was Yaakov afraid, and he starts getting ready for war, and then separating the camps. He wants to answer, “No. Chovas Levavos, the Duties of the Heart, is only referring to circumstances that have no immediate danger. But if there’s something really in front of you that’s dangerous, you don’t have to say, ‘Oh, no problem. Hashem will take care of it.’ No.” He says, “Hashem desires that men become greatly afraid of him. And when they see immediate danger confronting them, they should act.” 

And there’s two parts. The first part is to gain the fear of God and recognize that we need Him and to call out to Him, and the second thing is to act. So, the first thing is prayer. Something’s really happening, you have to pray, and you have to act, which is actually a beautiful chiddush because it makes the difference. The difference is, if something is not immediate, so of course you shouldn’t worry. You should sleep at night. You should do whatever you can, but you have to have faith and you have to trust that Hashem’s going to take care of you. But if something is there right in front of you and immediate, you have to go according to the laws of nature, and you have to protect yourself. People get confused with this and think, “Ah, have faith in Hashem. No problem.” No, we have to go according to nature, and that’s what the Rambam is saying, and that’s what the rabbonim are saying here.

But the question comes back, because in this case Yaakov was promised that he’s going to be okay. All those possukim, all those verses that say, Hashem’s going to take care of them. So, why was he scared? Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch brings a midrash that says, “A righteous person has no absolute assurance in this world. Every promise is conditional. Why? It depends on the continued righteous conduct of that person. And it could be forfeited at any time, with one wrong step. And that’s why it says, ‘Yigrom cheit,’ Yaakov was afraid that maybe he’d sinned. And he knew that if he sinned, he could lose all of his promises, the promise was not forever. The promise is depending on his behavior.” 

He adds another beautiful idea. It says, “He was afraid and he was distressed.” The loshen there, the language of distress is yetzar, he was in a narrow place. He says, “This is true about all the Jewish people in relationship to Esav. For all the generations, because ma’aseh l’avos siman lebanim, for all the centuries we found ourselves limited.” He says, “Our lives and our happiness are not the guiding and determining factor, rather dependent on the graces and the aims of others. We must suffice ourselves with the crumbs that happen to fall from the table of the happiness of the other nations.” Yaakov felt he was entirely at the mercy of Esav. That’s why he divided the camps, hoping that one camp will survive. And that’s been true by all the Jewish people throughout history, because we’re all over the place and the nations never destroyed us. And that was the extra stress that Yaakov was feeling. He understood that it was happening, and now it was also going to happen to his children for generations, and cause them distress.

But why was Yaakov afraid that Esav was going to defeat him? And that’s because Esav also had zechus, he also had merit. The Ramchal explains, when he said, “Esav my brother,” my brother who has the same father. And we know that Esav did tremendous kibbud av v’em. He honored his father tremendously, more than Yaakov. So, Yaakov was afraid maybe on the zechus that Esav gave tremendous kavod, honor to Yitzhak. On that zechus, maybe he’s going to kill me. He’s going to wipe out my family. 

And he had another zechus. Which zechus? Bris milah, circumcision. It says in the possuk, “For I fear him, ki yirei anochi oto.” He asks, “If Yaakov was asking Hashem to help him, of course he’s afraid. Why does he have to say he’s afraid? He wants to say of the word, oto, if you take off the vov you have the word os, a siman, sign. What’s the siman? Bris milah. “I’m afraid of my brother, I’m afraid of the merit that my brother has. Maybe he’s going to be able to overpower me, because of these two mitzvos – kibbud av v’em, and bris milah.” And Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that he was afraid that it’s true, okay, maybe I’ll survive or part of us will survive. Maybe part of the people will be lost. There’s no guarantee that the fulfillment of all the promises is going to come painlessly. Who says it’s going to go smoothly? Maybe some people are going to be killed? 

And along the same lines he brings a Rashi that says, “Yaakov was frightened. Why? Maybe he’ll be killed. And he was distressed because maybe he’s going to have to kill others. So, why was he distressed if he’s going to have to kill others? He was in self-defense, he’s allowed to kill him.” The answer was, if that was true, that means that he was off. If that’s the way the he’s going to be saved because he has to kill somebody else, surely something’s wrong. Maybe he sinned. Why did it come to the situation, why did he have to come and kill somebody? Is that the way the promise is going to be fulfilled? Why can’t it just be fulfilled in an easier way?

He brings a beautiful raya that when the Jewish people came to Eretz Yisroel, so some of the houses became afflicted with tzoras, leprosy. When a house has leprosy, they have to take the house apart brick by brick. What happened when they took the houses apart? They found treasures that were hid there from the nations from before them. So, you would think, “Wow, what a great gift. Look, they took apart their houses and they found all this money.” He says, “It’s true they found money, but why did it have to come this way? Because they spoke loshen hara and they had to take apart their houses, and they found these gifts but if that’s the way to get rich, Hashem could have made a different way for them to get rich.” So, Yaakov was saying the same thing. Why is this happening to me? Maybe I’m going to have to kill somebody? That means I’m off. That means there’s something wrong.” That’s what he was afraid of.

And the Beis haLevi continues in these lines, and he says like this. “His main concern was for the glory of Hashem, because maybe his sins would stop the Creator being good to him in his attendance.” He brings a proof from Avraham Avinu where the verse says, “For I know Him, and I know that He will charge his children and his household after Him. And they will keep the ways of Hashem, upholding charity and justice. In this way, Hashem is going to be able to give the blessing to the children, which means Avraham will charge his children to be righteous, thereby enabling Hashem to act out His goodwill towards them. So, in this case,” the Beis haLevi says, “The reward of a sin is a sin. And it’s going to be a chillul Hashem.” Why? Because Hashem wants to do good for us. What happens, Yaakov was afraid, maybe he sinned. Because he could see what’s out there, he was being punished. And why was this happening? Because a sinner forces a punishment to come. And that punishment itself is a chillul Hashem. People say, “Hey, what’s with this guy? He looks like a righteous guy. Why is he getting all this suffering?” So, the Beis haLevi held that he was afraid that he was not going to be able to bring Hashem into the world, because if he’s going to get punished, and we know the future generations are also going to get punished, so people won’t believe in God. They’ll say, “Where is this God who told us to do these mitzvos?” And we’re supposed to do these mitzvos, and everybody’s doing the mitzvos, and they’re getting punished. What’s happening? They’ll see the Jews being punished and they’ll say, “Where is God?”

And the Gur Aryeh also said it was a spiritual fear. Why? He has the difficulty again. The halacha is, if someone comes to kill you, you kill him first. So, why was Yaakov afraid to kill? He says, “Since 400 men were coming, he didn’t know exactly which ones were coming to kill him. Maybe some of them don’t really want to kill him, and he’ll wind up killing them,” which means he’ll do a sin. And if that happens, he’ll lose everything. He’ll lose all of his blessings, because the blessings are dependent on his righteousness.

The Beis haLevi also brings a totally different approach, you have to hear this. The verse says, “Save me please from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” Why does it have to say both, the hand of my brother and the hand of Esav? Just say, “From the hand of my brother, Esav.” Why the hand of my brother, the hand of Esav? What did Yaakov fear? He said , either way he’s afraid. Either he’s afraid he’s going to be acting like Esav, he’s going to want to kill me. Or he was afraid that maybe he’s going to act like my brother,” and that he was really afraid of. He was afraid he was going to make peace with him, and want to stay with him. And that would be a spiritual disaster so he prayed, “Please protect me from the hand of my brother, if he acts like my brother, and protect me if he acts like Esav, from the hand of Esav. “And he put brother first,” he says. “It’s more scary.” And we see today, assimilation. When Esav acts towards us like a brother, it’s the most dangerous thing for the Jewish people, because even though we live among the nations and we were happy with them, we had nothing against them. But if they wanted us to give up our mitzvos like Esav did, that’s a big problem. The Tanna Debei Eliyahu Zutra says, “Esav said, ‘Give up some of the mitzvos that divide us. You will thereby enjoy this world, and still have half of the world to come. Isn’t half enough?” What was their problem? Because if Yaakov would give up even one mitzvah, he would drown materialism.

He brings a beautiful proof, look at this. We know the word for exile is perach, hard labor. But it also could mean peh rach, a soft mouth. Smooth talking. And Yaakov was more worried about that exile than another one. That’s the exile we’re in now. All the nations want to be friends with us. And slowly, slowly, we start to assimilate. We don’t keep all the mitzvos exactly. We want to be part of the group, we don’t want to dress different. We don’t want to have different names and different clothes, so we give that all up. That’s what Yaakov was afraid of. Maaser avos siman lebanim, the acts of the fathers are a siman, a sign for the sons. He says, “Esav will even adopt certain tenants of Judaism such as monotheism, the dignity of the Torah, reward and punishment, only if Yisroel give up some of their heritage.” This is where we’re standing now. Assimilation and intermarriage, what’s the problem?

So, Rav Yitzhak Zilberstein in his sefer Aleinu Leshebeach brings a beautiful story about this, about this, about protecting ourselves from assimilating. He tells a story of the Brisker Rav in the last generation in Eretz Yisroel, when there was excavations in Tiveria. So, there was a whole uproar. Why? They were digging in areas where there were graves which is forbidden, to build in Tiveria. So, all the religious came to honor the dead, to stop this building. And the Brisker Rav was at the head of the whole fight. So, one time the Brisker Rav invited Government ministers to his home to try to persuade them to stop digging in these areas. Now, these were two Jews who weren’t shomer Shabbos, they didn’t keep anything. And of course, they rejected everything that the Rav said, based on the law. And they sat a long time in the meeting, and nothing came out of the meeting. And then they left. So, the Brisker Rav asked one of his sons, “What did they say?” The son said, “What do you mean? You were at the meeting also. Why are you asking us what they said? Didn’t you hear what they said?” He said, “No, I didn’t even hear a word. I was afraid they would influence me with their incorrect perspectives.” This is the Brisker Rav, the greatest Rav in the generation. He devoted his entire life to Torah and mitzvos. His father and his grandfather were the gedolei olam, the biggest Rabbis that ever lived in the generation. And he was afraid that these people were going to influence him? The answer is, yes. That’s how much we have to worry about the outside influences. And that’s why we think everything’s okay, actually. We’re so influenced, we don’t even know. After 2,000 years of exile, imagine how far away we are really, from the Torah and the Torah perspective – how much we have to protect ourselves.

And this was the fear that Yaakov had of Esav, his brother. So, after that long list of fears, different reasons to be afraid, and how it’s helpful to be afraid, I want to bring Rav Henoch Leibowitz. He brings the Midrash Rabba that says that the story which was written in the Torah when Yaakov was afraid of Esav was there to teach us. But the Jews of Persia learned it the wrong way. They became afraid and they were sad, and had despair. The Midrash tells us that they did not interpret the situation properly. This emotional process rendered them incapable of helping themselves. But that’s not the right way to learn about them. What’s the right way to learn about them? He says like this. “Yaakov was not frozen by his fears. He transformed that  fear into an impetus for action, strengthening himself spiritually with teshuva and prayer, and physical preparations for battle. Yaakov uses fear to reinforce his faith in Hashem’s protection, and to spur himself on to action. Therefore, by changing his hopeless situation into a hopeful one, his renewed trust in Hashem gave him peace of mind, comfort and security. This kind of fear is a mitzvah. And it’s mentioned in the Torah to be an example for us.” He says, “In our own lives, if we find ourselves afraid of what’s going to be, what’s going to be with our financial situation, what’s going to be with our children, our wives, our kids, our parents, with the situation now? What’s going to be with terrorism?” I mean, there’s no shortage of fears, I could go on for the next four hours of things to be afraid of. That’s not the point. He said, “When we find ourselves afraid, we must examine the direction of our fear and where it’s leading us. Is our fear dragging us down, or is it lifting us up? We must direct it properly and use it as a tool to better ourselves. The only fear that is justified is the fear of Hashem. All the other fears are the result of a lack of faith. The more we trust in Hashem and only Hashem, the less fear we’ll have from others. The more we internalize this and engrave it in our minds, the more productive and happy our lives will become.

So yes, it’s true. God put fear into the world. Every human being is afraid of something, of certain situations, we’re afraid. We have to use it for good, for positive, for growth, for personal growth. That’s why Hashem put it in the world. That’s what it’s there for, to get us to move, to act, to pray, to prepare, to grow. And that’s the lesson the Torah’s teaching us. We learned it from Yaakov Avinu. After he prayed, he had faith. He went up a level. And also in the positive, maaseh l’avos, siman lebanim, what our forefathers did is a siman for us. And if we have faith, and if we grow through fear, our children will also learn to grow through fear. They’ll also learn how to cope with life. So, all the negative and difficult situations that we have in life, we could turn them around to be positive, to give us more faith, to pray more, to do the right thing and get back on the right path.

0:23:23.0

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings a moshul, parable. The verse said, “Yaakov was very frightened and distressed.” He says it’s like this. A person wanted to know if he had good luck or bad luck. He spoke to different wise people, and they told him, “You know what you do? Play dice on your birthday, and see if you win or lose. If you make money on your birthday, that means you have good luck. But if you lose, surely you have bad luck.” Obviously, it’s not a Torah idea, it’s just a moshul. But that’s what they said to him. What happened? He lost time after time. So he explained, “The fact that he lost the game, the actual game, that wasn’t the loss. The loss was that this man felt that he had bad luck. And from that point on, he was always afraid of everything. So too, Yaakov wasn’t actually afraid for himself. He was afraid of the future. Maaseh l’avos, siman lebanim. He was afraid of what’s going to happen to all the future generations, that’s what he was afraid of.

0:24:41.0

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The verse says, “He put the handmaids and the children first, and Leah and her children later, and Rochel and Yosef last.” So, one time Rav Shach said, “I have a tremendous chiddush,” thought. I’ve had it for two weeks, and I didn’t tell anybody. So the people said, “Please, please, tell us.” He says, “I have a difficulty on this verse. How could it be that Yaakov differentiated between his children so much? Apparently, it appears that the children and the wives that were less important to him, he put them in front. And the ones that were more important, Yosef and Rochel, he put them at the back. How could it be? Is that the way for a father to act? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Rav Shach says, “I have a chiddush it’s the opposite. We know that Yosef told his father that the other brothers used to make fun of the children of the handmaiden. So, lechora, it appears that those children must have suffered a lot. And we know that suffering atones for sin. So, it must be they had a greater merit which would protect them. Therefore, he put the children and the handmaiden in front. And we know that Leah and Leah’s children felt less loved than Rochel and Yosef. So, they must have been more humble. And someone who is humble has more merits for salvation. Therefore, he put Leah and her children next. But Rochel and Yosef who he loved the most, so they suffered the least, so they had the least amount of merits. So, he put them last, because they needed more protection.” Rav Shach says, “This is the true understanding of the verse.”

0:26:37.8

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern talks about laziness after marriage. We know that after people get married, they start to get comfortable, and that’s a problem. So, he brings the verse that says, “When Hashem widened your borders and you keep all the mitzvos to love Hashem, and you walk in His ways, specifically then you have to build more irei miklat,” which means cities of refuge, where people have to go that if somebody gets killed he has to hide there.

So, why do we need more cities like this for bad things that are happening at a time when everybody’s following the mitzvos? It should be the opposite. When they don’t follow the mitzvos, they have to irei miklat because there’s more aveiros flying around, and there’s more incidents like this, where people get killed by accident.

He says, “No, just the opposite. When everybody’s doing mitzvos, that’s where the yetzer hara comes in. That’s where a lot of people fall. If there’s a lot of people doing mitzvos, a lot of people fall. More people fall. It’s because they become complacent. Oh yeah, everything’s fine. Everybody’s doing mitzvos, right?

He brings a proof from the Gemara in Sanhedrin 97A that says, “One time there was a town named Kushta. Kushta means truth, in Aramaic. And there, people only spoke truth. And the angel of death had no power over that city. No one there ever died. So, Rav Tavos went to go and live there, and he married a local woman and he had two children. One day, the neighbor came by, and wanted to speak to Rav Tavor’s wife. She was washing her hair, so he told her, ‘She’s not home.’ Why? Because his wife was not tzneius, modest. She’s washing her hair, and he just told the lady, ‘Listen, she’s not home. What happened? Because of this, his two sons died. When the people heard that the two sons died they said, ‘Listen, you have to leave here immediately. Why didn’t you tell the truth?’”

So, he asked a question. Wait a second. If this Rav, Rav Tavos, didn’t they check out before that he is a guy who always speaks the truth? They wouldn’t have let him come and live there if he didn’t speak the truth. So, why did he end up lying? The answer is, as long as Rav Tavos was not in that city, he had to stand up for the right values, so of course he never lied. But in this town there was no struggle to tell the truth, it was easy. That’s why he wound up telling a lie. Ah, he told a lie because of tzneius, because his wife had her hair uncovered? Okay, but it still came out, it was a lie. That’s because he had his guard down. It says the same thing can happen to a yeshiva guy who gets married, and he’s the biggest masmid, diligent person. And now he marries the daughter of a talmid chacham, Torah scholar, and he’s on top of the world. From there, he starts to fall. Like it says in Midrash Shir haShirim, “When you were in Egypt you were like a rose among the thorns. Be careful not to do as the other gentiles do.”

When they came to Eretz Yisroel, when they were in Egypt they didn’t change their names. They kept their language, and their way of dress, and they were protecting themselves and they were on guard. All of a sudden, they come to Eretz Yisroel to the Holy Land, then everybody’s holy and it’s all holy there. So, they start to slack off. That’s why they had to make new laws and regulations to protect themselves. So too in your marriage, you start to slack off. Before, when you’re going out together and you’re dating, everybody’s nice, and everybody’s kind. Then after you get married, now you can relax, right? No. Now is not the time to relax. You have to continue with middos tovos, with good character, doing the right thing. If you want to have peace in your house, that’s what you’re going to have to do.

He brings a raya from Lot, also. Lot wanted to be in Sodom, why? Because he was a tzaddik over there. As long as Lot was in Sodom everything’s fine, he’s a tzaddik. I don’t want to go with Avraham. If I go with Avraham, I’m going to be nothing. Ah, you’ll say, “Listen, if a guy is righteous among the wicked, surely he’s going to be righteous among the righteous.” It’s not so simple. Sometimes the opposite happens. But he says, “Sometimes baalei teshuvas, returnees to Judaism they say listen, at the beginning they’re on very high levels. And slowly they say, “I’m no longer a baal teshuva, I’m like everybody else.” Why does that happen? Because at the beginning when they came to Yiddishkeit, they were very makpid, very strict and they guarded everything. And as time went by, they’re not a baal teshuva any more, “I’m a regular guy.” So, they drop levels. The same thing in your house. It shouldn’t be the longer you’re married – I mean, it’s al pi teva, that’s the nature. The longer you’re married, the more you relax, the more you let loose, the more you don’t need to guard yourself. But that’s not going to lead to a happy home.

If you want to have a happy home, you have to continue to uplift yourself, to grow, to become even better and better, kinder and nicer, and more spiritual, and bring more spirituality into the home. That’s what’s going to give you peace in your home. 

Okay, that’s it for this week’s podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 080 Should We Be Afraid? – Healthy Fear and Personal Growth appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayechi – Being Jewish – A Race or Religion – A Powerful Parable about Shooting Arrows – A Great Story about Rav Nissim Avraham Ashkenazi and Peace in Your Home – A Woman’s Wisdom

The Torah Podcast Transcript

083 The Torah Podcast – Being Jewish – A Race or Religion 

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayechi 

Verse 48:3 says like this. “Jacob said to Yosef, ‘Keil Shachai, and appeared to me in Luz in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me. He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a congregation of peoples.’” What’s a congregation of peoples? Lekahal amim. “And I will give you this land to your offspring after you as an eternal holding.” And verse 13 starts out like this. Yosef took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand to Yisroel’s left, and Menashe with his left hand to Yisroel’s right. And he drew close to him. But Yisroel extended his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger one, and his left hand on Menashe’s head. He moved his hands with intelligence for Menashe was the firstborn. He blessed Yosef and he said, “Oh God before whom my forefathers Avraham and Yitzhak walked, God who shepherds me from the day of my conception until this day, may the angel who redeems before evil bless the lads. And may my name be declared upon them, and the names of our forefathers, Avraham and Yitzhak. And may they reproduce abundantly as fish within the land.”

Yosef saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, and it displeased him. So, he supported his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Menashe’s head. And Yosef said to his father, “Not so father, for this is the firstborn. Place your right hand on his head.” But his father refused saying, “I know my son, I know. He too will be a great people, and he too will be great. However, his younger brother should be greater than he, and his offspring’s fame will fill the nations.” So, he blessed them that day saying, “By you shall Yisroel bless saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and like Menashe,’ and he put Ephraim before Menashe.” So we see here that Yaakov switched the natural order of things, and he put Ephraim first. Really, Menashe should be first because he’s the firstborn. But before that, we have a question. What does it mean, “a congregation of peoples?” The concept sounds a little bit strange. It should be one people. What do you mean, a congregation, many different congregations of peoples?

Rav Moshe Sternbuch tells a story that one time, a bunch of German intellectuals got together in Berlin to discuss the true nature and identify of the Jewish people. The question was, is Judaism simply a religion like any other? This didn’t seem to be true, because there were many Jews who didn’t practice the religion, and they’re still considered Jewish. Maybe it’s really a nation with a common ethnic heritage and a history. But we see that converts can convert to Judaism and become Jews like any other Jew. So, it’s very confusing what is a Jew exactly?

So, during this whole meeting there was one elderly Jew from Poland. He was getting frustrated. He said the meeting was going nowhere, because they couldn’t figure out what a Jew was. Finally, he couldn’t restrain himself any more and he screamed out, “A Yid is a Yid,” and he walked out of the room. A Jew is a Jew, he doesn’t really have a definition. So, the Rav there explained that what he said was correct. And we see this in this verse. It says, “A congregation of nations.” The Jewish people cannot be limited to a single definition. Rather, we are a multifaceted entity made of the descendants of shevatim, tribes and converts. All of them belong to the Jewish people. And we know in truth, is that it’s very confusing. There’s Ashkenazi Jews, there’s Polish Jews, Russian Jews, Hungarian Jews, Sephardic Jews, Spanish Jews, Jews from Portugal, Turkish Jews, Yemenites, Syrian Jews, Bucharim, Italian Jews. So, what puts them all together?

Rav Sternbuch wants to explain that we can learn from the blessing of Yaakov that he blessed both Menashe and Ephraim. Menashe we know was the firstborn, and he was involved with politics. He was out there in the world. And Ephraim on the other hand, was involved in learning Torah. And it was these two different types of Jews that make up the Jewish people, one who is out in the world involved in parnassah, making money and politics, leadership. And Ephraim on the other hand, is involved in spirituality and spiritual leadership. But at the end of the day, Yaakov blessed Ephraim that he should be the first priority because spirituality should come first. And after that worldly, but they have to work together. If they don’t work together it’s not going to work. 

And Rav Miller from Gateshead quotes the Sefas Emes on this verse. The verse says, “All these were the 12 tribes of Israel, and this was what their father said to them and blessed them. Each according to his blessings, he blessed them.” Because right after this, we know that all the 12 tribes received the blessings. So, he wants to say “This, this means the unity of the Jewish people. And there shouldn’t be any discord among us. For tribes who believe in different Gods, discord is the order of the day.” In other words, if each tribe believes in its own thing, you’re not going to have any kind of unity, and each struggles to assert its own supremacy. But this is not true with the tribes of Israel. Each tribe and each community in Israel may have special virtues and individual customs, and indeed, Jacob gave different blessings to each of his sons. Yet, as long as they recall there is one father of all of us, and one God who created us, they will feel a sense of harmony between man and his Creator, and man and his fellow creature. Like the verse says, “You are One and your name is One, and who like your people Yisroel is one nation on earth.” In other words, each tribe has individuality. Sephardic Jews have their own customs, and Ashkenazi Jews have their customs. But each group has to work together to serve the Creator. And if we work together then we’re going to have the unity to be successful. Those Jews who are out there making money should support spirituality. And those Jews who are focused on spirituality should give kavod and honor to the people who support them. And that is the way the system is supposed to work.

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explained, he quotes the verse that says, “I will make you fruitful and numerous and I will make you a congregation of people.” He asks the question, “Why is it that the adding of these two tribes, Ephraim and Menashe, means that they’re going to be fruitful and numerous? There already were 11 tribes. What’s the difference, two more tribes? 11 tribes, 12, 13? There’s so many already.” The answer is, that each tribe had its own distinct quality. And that has to stay. He says like this. “This people was to consist of diverse tribes of different traits, while maintaining the complete unity to one common task. They should represent an agricultural nation, a merchant nation, a warrior nation, and a nation of scholars. And as a moral nation it should demonstrate for all to see, that one great mission common to all men and all nations as revealed in God’s Torah, does not depend on one particular vocation or trade; rather, all mankind with its rich diversity can equally find its calling in the common mission, which is the service of God – the division of the nation into diverse tribes and the resulting division of the land into different provinces for each different tribe, whose distinctiveness is thus retained. Without a division of diverse tribes of distinctiveness, all would be absorbed into one mass. And we would lose this concept that each individual with his strengths has to contribute to the Jewish people to help them to serve God that the Jewish people as a whole should serve God, each with their individual strengths. So, the overall goal in the unity is the spirituality, and every Jew whatever he does, should give himself over to that spirituality to help collectively to create the nation that serves God.”

But the problem is, that each group thinks that they’re the best and wants to get rid of the other group. And therefore, God always has to change things around. It says like this. You have many cases where the firstborn loses out and it’s given to the second born. The firstborn always represents physical power, and after that you have the spiritual. But Hashem keeps switching it around. It says, you have Kayin v’Hevel. What happened? Kayin was rejected. Okay, Kayin killed Hevel, his sacrifice was rejected. And you have Yishmael and Yitzhak. Yishmael was the older one, but in the end the tradition went to Yitzhak. Then you have Esav and Yaakov. Again, Esav was first and Yaakov would up being the bechor, firstborn. You also have Reuven and Yosef. Reuven was the bechor and he lost his position to Yosef. Also you have Moshe and Aaron. Aaron was the older one, but Moshe was the higher level of spirituality. And you had Dovid and all of his brothers. Dovid was the youngest of all the brothers, and he became king. He says, “All of history however is nothing but the struggle of the material power against the divine spirit. Material power always imagines itself to be superior. But the truth is, that it always becomes the mastered. These, the power and the spirit are the two crowns according to Zecharia that it says, will ultimately be united in the Mashiach. He will be a “Priest on his throne”, he will have both spirituality and political leadership. Throughout Jewish history it should be taught that material power should be joined to the spiritual. But the reality does not yet correspond to the ideal.

And Rav Schwab explains a similar idea. He said, “In Yosef himself there was both characteristics. There was both the tzaddik, the righteous person, and he was also the political leader. But in his children it came out separate. Ephraim was the spiritual leader, and Menashe was a political leader – two separate entities.” He brings the Targum Yonasan who explains that at a bris milah, circumcision, the father should give this blessing to his child. Why? He wants to explain that the word mahul which really means the bris, also means blended. The sanctity of the neshama, soul, permeates his physical existence. Thus at the time when the child’s spiritual powers are synthesized, where this physical being is being given this blessing, to be both a person who is spiritually endowed and a practical leader, even though the goal is spirituality.

So, the Chofetz Chaim explains that we see this relationship exemplified between Yissaschar and Zevulun. It’s called a Yissaschar and Zevulun relationship. He says, “The Creator, the source of all goodness and kindness, knew from the start. It’s impossible for an entire nation to be occupied with only Torah study. Therefore, the tribe of Yissaschar and the tribe of Zevulun would be assigned complimentary missions. Full time learning was the desire of the tribe of Yissaschar. We saw that 200 heads of Sanhedrin came out of that tribe. And the tribe of Zevulun will be dwelling by the sea, engaged in trade and commerce, making it possible for Yissaschar to be focused on learning. Like it says, ‘The world was created only for Torah.’” He quotes the verse from Yirmyahu, ‘Were it not for my covenant day and night, I would not have set up the laws of heaven and earth.’ And therefore, Yissaschar and Zevulun are considered pillars of the world.” The Shulchan Aruch says that even if a man doesn’t know how to learn Torah, or he’s too preoccupied making a living and it’s very difficult for him to concentrate, he is obligated to provide material support to Torah learners. And when he does, so it’s considered that he himself is learning Torah. So, we see that each individual can keep his unique qualities and do the best that he can with them. And as a group as a whole, we can all come together as the Jewish people and be a nation that serves God – all of us, with our individual strengths.

And the Malbim explains that when Yaakov crossed hands, he put the higher hand on Menashe’s head. Why? Because if he would have done the opposite and put the higher hand on Ephraim’s head, the future generations would have thought that Ephraim is taking away from Menashe. He’s syphoning all of the spirituality away from Menashe. It’s not true. Menashe has his own spirituality. By giving physically to the Jewish people, and supporting Torah scholars that creates its own spirituality. They’re two separate things. One doesn’t take away from the other. So, each one has to play their part. 

And Rav Moshe Sternbuch brings a beautiful proof how each side should act. He explains, “Zevulun is happy when they go out.” When they go out where? To the next world. They see that all the physicality, all the parnassah, all the money they gave to yeshivas, gave them a portion in Torah also. “And Yissaschar is happy in his tents.” What does that mean? It means somebody who’s going to dedicate his life to Torah has to live a simple life. He has to be happy in his tent. Even though he’s going to give away his physical pleasures, he has to be happy with what he has physically, and not try to catch more. The question is, how do you figure out what side of the fence are you? Should you focus on spirituality, or should you focus on giving tzedakah and helping the Jewish people that way?

The education in yeshivas is that everybody should become a talmid chacham, a Torah scholar. Which might be true. A person has to push to see what’s stopping him from learning, what’s stopping him from concentrating. Can he overcome his intellectual limitations? Can he sit and learn? Maybe it’s an emotional problem. When I use to teach in Dvar Yerushalayim, I used to sit and have lunch with Rav Yoel Schwartz. Rav Yoel Schwartz was a student of Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz, and he’s the one who started the Nachal Charedi, the army for religious kids. He used to say, “What happen to the balebos? In history, we had people who were balebatim.” What does it mean a balebos? It means a guy who sits, the Rambam says, he learns nine hours a day but basically, he works. He’s a good Jew. Nowadays, all of a sudden you walk out of the yeshiva, that’s it. The guy’s finished. It doesn’t exist, he’s a bummer. That’s how he feels about himself. He explained to me, that’s why he started the Nachal Charedi. Let these boys go to the army, they’re not sitting in the yeshiva. If they’re not sitting in the yeshiva, what are they doing with their lives? Let them go help the Jewish people by being in the army. He told me that even though the Gedolim knock down the Nachal Charedi because they don’t want people to think that yeshiva guys should go to the army, but he told me that they said to him, “Listen, privately you should go forward because what do you do with all these kids that are on the street?” I asked him, I said, “Listen, maybe if these kids would spend more time in yeshiva eventually they would come around and work themselves out, and they would sit and learn. They’d become great Torah scholars.” So, he answered me. He said like this, “If the boy can play chess and we see that he’s a conceptual thinker, so in the end he could become a Torah scholar. But if he can’t even play chess, how is it possible for him to become a Torah scholar?” You see, there’s a thin line when a boy should stay in yeshiva and plug away, and when he should go out into the world. But either way, the point of this whole world is that each person has to contribute to the Jewish people and the spirituality of the Jewish people, which is the learning of the Torah. Each person has to contribute to that in their own way. 

And we see that Ephraim received the blessing on top of Menashe, which means that the whole goal of the whole world is the learning of Torah and mitzvos, and keeping the Torah, and perpetuating the Torah. But each individual has to find his place in that system, and how to help. And if he helps in the right way, he also will receive his portion in the Torah.

0:18:22.7

A Powerful Parable

The Chofetz Chaim brings down a moshul, parable in this week’s Parsha. One time there was a servant who was a faithful fighter against his enemies. Due to his love of the prince, the servant used to make his own arrows for battle. He used to fight with these arrows. One time, the battle was raging and he used up all of his arrows. So, he found his way to the prince and he asked him, “Should I go search for other arrows of other people that they shot, and use them against the enemy?” So, the prince yelled at him. “What difference does it make whose arrows you shoot? Find arrows as fast as you can, and use them to strike the enemy, so we will win the war.” So, that was the moshul. What was the nimshal, conclusion? A man is constantly at war with his yetzer hara. And the children that he fathers and teaches to serve Hashem are like arrows. The verse says, “Like arrows in the hand of the mighty warrior, so are the children of youth.”

So, even if a man doesn’t have his own children, he should support them to serve Hashem because when the war is won, the victory will still be attributed to him. So, it doesn’t matter. If your children are learning Torah, good – support them. But if your children are not learning Torah, support other people that are learning Torah. In this way, you could support the best Torah scholars. But either way, supporting Torah scholars is the way to help the Jewish people win the war against the yetzer hara, the evil inclination.

0:20:07.0

Great Stories – Rav Nissim Avraham Ashkenazi

The verse said, “Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt 17 years.” Rav Yitzhak Zilberstein brings down this story. There’s a tombstone in Turkey that had these words engraved on it. “The crown of our head, Moreinu Rabbeinu, our Rebbe, our teacher, the embittered man, the scholar, Rav Nissim Avraham Ashkenazi ben Rochel.” This Rav is the author of many famous sefarim, Torah books. What does it mean that he was embittered? In another sefer from the same time in the introduction it explained what happened with this Rav. It said, he was a tremendous Rav, holy and diligent, he had tremendous achievements in Torah. What did it mean that he was embittered? He says, his righteous wife gave birth to 18 children, and all of them down to the last one died during his lifetime. And despite his enormous grief, he did not turn into a sad person.

It’s an unbelievable story. How could it be, funeral after funeral, this Rav stayed happy? And he stayed happy enough to have the peace of mind to continue his Torah learning and become a great scholar? It’s only a person who has emunah, real faith in God, who could withstand such a test. And he wants to say, “This is what it means to be alive, to be a living person, a person who is living emunah, living faith.” And what’s the proof? He says, “The proof is from this verse. Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt 17 years.” 17 years is a long time but the Torah does not speak about anything that happened with Yaakov during that period. It didn’t speak about any tremendous spiritual growth that he had, which surely he had. And surely his service of Hashem was greater, but it didn’t speak about it. Why? Because it passed in tranquility. That was in Egypt. It was only in Eretz Yisroel where he had to go through all this pain and suffering. He had the problem with Dina, his daughter was raped, the confrontation with Esav, all the tests that Yaakov had in Eretz Yisroel. So, we learn from there that that’s the real life. The real life that the Torah speaks about is the tests that a person has to go through, and the faith that he has to have, to pass these tests. When everything’s going smoothly, that’s not called real life. 

0:22:57.0

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that a woman understands her husband’s character. What does he mean? He says, “Woman with a sharp, discerning eye, they can detect whether people really have yirat shemayim, really have fear of God.” He brings a raya from a Gemara in nidda where Rav Pappa came across this woman and asked her if there’s a talmid chacham in the town. She said to him, “Yeah, his name is Shmuel. And may it be your will that you should be like him.” Rav Pappa said, “If she blessed me in this way, Shmuel must have true yiras shemayim,” and he went to go visit him. So, we see from this story that the woman recognized how much yirat shemayim, how much fear of God Rav Pappa had.

Another example was when Elisha came to visit Shunamis she told her husband, “This man is an ish kadosh.” And Chazal explains that a woman could see thru her guests better than her husband. It’s Gemara in Berachos, 10B. So, what happens? Sometimes an avreich goes to the Yeshiva but he’s goofing off. He’s talking with his friends, he’s not really learning. And then he comes home and his wife senses, listen what’s with this guy? And he thinks he can fool her but he can’t, because the woman sees straight through him. A person who truly delves in Torah has a certain chein, a certain light on his face. His moving facial expressions reveal his inner reality. Like Rav Pappa said, “Whoever has chein so he has yirat shemayim.” Chein is translated like grace, you see grace on the person’s face. And the Maharsha also says that a person who has fear of God, you can see the chein, you can see the grace on his face. Like the verse said, “All the peoples of the earth shall see the name of Hashem is called upon you, and they shall fear you.” The Gemara in Moed Katan says, “Whoever studies Torah privately, his Torah advertises itself outside of him.” They could see it on him.

So, one time when Raphael Dovid Orbach had a student in the Yeshiva who after he got married became very depressed. So, he went to go and speak to the student. The student said, “Listen, I got married in order to be able to learn more. But every time I come home my wife asks me something else. Come here, buy this, hang up the laundry, do this, do that.” So, he didn’t know what to do. Rav Raphael took this student to the Chazon Ish, and the Chazon Ish heard the story and he started to smile. And the Chazon Ish said, “There are two who know whether you’re sincere or not, the first is Hashem and the second is your wife. If your wife knows that you truly want to learn with no distractions, she’ll be the first to help you. But I’m sure she sees you’re not really sincere. Obviously, you sometimes waste time doing nothing. So she decides, why shouldn’t you help me a little bit also?” The Chazon Ish told him, “Accept upon yourself not to waste a moment.” What happened? The avreich did this and the wife noticed. All of a sudden she stopped asking him for all kinds of help. And the opposite, just the opposite. She helped him to learn even more. In the end, this avreich became a big talmid chacham. We see the wife has the wisdom to see exactly who the husband is. If you want to have peace in your house, you have to shape yourself up.

He says, “Sometimes a guy comes home and he opens a Gemara and what does he do? He puts a different book inside the Gemara, some kind of light reading. And he thinks he’s tricking his family by learning Gemara. But they can see straight through him. He says, “by real tzaddikim, it’s the opposite.” He brings a beautiful story. One time the Klausenberger Rebbe wanted to visit the Gerer Rebbe who was staying in the Galei Sanz Hotel. So, he sent a bochur up first, and the bochur put his ear on the door. And he heard the Gerer Rebbe learning Gemara. But when the Klausenberger Rebbe knocked on the door and came in, he saw on the table a copy of the Hamodia newspaper. Real tzaddikim want to hide the fact that they are learning, they don’t want to show off that they’re learning even when they are learning. The Klausenberger Rebbe said, “Today I learned the true humility of the great talmid chacham. He tries to conceal his learning. What do the bochurim do? They take a sefer and they put it inside a Gemara to trick people. But the bottom line is, if you want to have peace in your house you have to be a real eved Hashem, to serve Hashem with all of your heart, that will bring the blessing. Your wife will want to help you, and won’t be against you.”

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

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Torah Portion of the Week – Vayeitzei – Ascending the Spiritual Ladder – Our Connection to the Creation – A Powerful Parable about Letting it Burn – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Renewing Your Marriage

The Torah Podcast Transcript

079 The Torah Podcast – Ascending the Spiritual Ladder – Our Connection to the Creation  

Torah Portion of the Week – Vayeitzei 

The Parsha starts out like this, “And Yaakov departed from Beer Sheva and went to Charan. He encountered the place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. He took from the stones of the place, and he put them around his head. And he lay down in that place, and he dreamt and behold. A ladder was set earthward, and its top reached the heaven. Angels of God ascended and descended on it. Hashem was standing over him and He said, ‘I am Hashem, God of Avraham, your father, and God of Yitzhak. The ground upon which you are lying, to you I will give it, and to your descendants. Your offspring shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall burst forth westward, eastward, northward, and southward. And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you, and by your offspring. Behold, I am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go. And I will return you to the soil, for I will not forsake you until I will have done all that I have spoken for you.’”

So, there are many different explanations as to what was going on with this dream that Yaakov had. What was the message that Yaakov and all the Jewish people for all the generations were supposed to get from the symbolism of this ladder? The Malbim asks, “Why did Yaakov envision the angels first going up, and only after coming down? You would think the angels came down first, and then would go up.” He brings down the Pirkei Avos that says that every time a person does a mitzvah he creates and angel. In other words, if you do a mitzvah, you’ll create a spiritual force that’s going to help you. And what happens with that spiritual force? It goes upwards towards heaven. The ascending angels by their very essence, trigger a cascade of blessing. In other words, by us doing the mitzvos, we’re sending angels up, which causes angels to come down. And that’s the message that Hashem gave to Yaakov. The angels that are going up are the ones that he created. And the angels that are coming down are the providence from above. 

And the Malbim brings the Midrash that says that the ladder had four rungs on it. What are these four rungs? The four levels of reality – domim, which means inert matter, plant life, animals, and human beings. And through Yaakov’s action, he brought down the energies through all the four worlds. And the Midrash says that the angels were not going up and down on it, which is the ladder itself, it says, “Upon him,” which the Malbim understands that Yaakov himself was the ladder. Through Yaakov’s deeds, divine energy flows up and down on him. And Hashem is promising him that He is going to protect him on every level.

Now, the Rabbeinu Bachye brings another Midrash that says that this was like Sinai, that Yaakov Avinu had a vision of what it was going to be like on Har Sinai when the Jewish people received the Torah. And he brings a proof that the same numerical value of ladder, samech, lamed, mem is the same as Sinai. In other words, it was like at the top of the ladder was the giving of the Torah, and at the bottom of the ladder was the Jewish people, which was represented by Yaakov. But he also brings an explanation similar to what we just said, that it has to do with the levels of the universe. Man is at the bottom of the universe, and above man is all the planets, and the solar system. And above the solar system are all the angels, and the heavenly hosts. So, Yaakov had a vision of how God runs the world. He gives over to the heavenly hosts, and the heavenly hosts give over to the planetary system like astrology. And from there, it goes down into the physical world.

And he brings the Rambam who also explains the entire system is called the merkavah, the entourage of God. On this ladder, anyone who wants to is free to ascend or descend, in other words, we can reach the heaven. So, the Rambam explains that the planetary system is composed of four basic raw elements which actually make up the earth. And then you have the moon affecting the waters and the tides/ The sun affects the fire and the heat on this earth. The five other stars affect the earth itself. Those are the fixed stars. And the moving stars affect the wind. And this is the way that God runs our world. He also brings a kabbalistic approach which says that Yaakov viewed himself in the dream as the carrier of the shechina. In other words, God’s presence from the highest place was on Yaakov. God extended His presence into this world through Yaakov. The patriarchs were the true merkavah, chariots of the shechina, of God’s presence in this world. They performed a task on earth which the angels perform in the celestial spheres. Man does on earth what the angels do in heaven. So, man which is represented by Yaakov, has the ability to bring Godliness into this world. 

But we see from this that all the heavenly hosts are all created for man. Yaakov saw the entire universe from the very top to the bottom is all from man. That was the ladder that led to him. So, the Ramchal explains that every human being is subjugated to this system of astrology, except – he brings a Chazal that says, “Ain mazal l’Yisroel,” there is no constellation for Yisroel. The power of God’s decrees and influence is stronger than that of the stars. So, even though there’s a true system and that’s the way it works, Yisroel is above the entire system. We know ain mazal l’ Yisroel, we are not limited by astrology. That’s why he says that astrologers can see certain things but they can’t see everything because at the end of the day, God’s in control.

And the Ohr haChayim explains like this. He says – you’ve got to hear this, “The ladder is the mystical aspect of the human soul, something that is not entirely uprooted from the body at the time of his sleep.” In other words, part of the soul remains in the body, and the other part of the soul goes up to the heaven. That’s what was happening with Yaakov, because a sleeping person is not detached from either heaven or earth, but remains in contact with both. During his sleep, the evil urge is not able to act as a barrier between man and God. In other words, when you’re sleeping, you’re able to see divine things which you normally can’t see because of the yetzer hara, the evil inclination that you have while you’re awake. The good deeds which man intends to perform in this world enable his soul to receive the light, divine light. Al pi kabbalah this is called feminine waters, in other words the water from below stimulate the waters from above. When these advocates rise heavenwards, they tend to activate the masculine waters to descend. Just like there’s an interaction in the heavens with the water above, physical water, and those below on earth, without it nature can’t function and produce vegetation. There’s also a parallel process in the spiritual nature – the give and take between heaven and earth. He says that if a person works on himself – I mean we’re not on that level – but he could get prophesy. “Yaakov’s experience during that night made every Jew in the future a potential vehicle for prophesy, and divine revelation,” he says. And he says, “The Rambam also says this in Hilchos Teshuva. He says that in principle, not a single Yisroel is unable to become a vessel for prophesy.” So, we see that this dream was a representation of the relationship between man and God, and how the system works.

Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch says a beautiful chiddush, thought on this. You’ve got to hear this. He said, “Yaakov goes forth in order to establish a Jewish home. And he was the first one to give expression to the idea that God could be seen within the home. The sphere which man blossoms and thrives, the place to which he brings all that he acquires, and in which he acts and builds his life, that sphere is the greatest and nearest place for the revelation of God.” He was Yaakov, he’s sleeping on the ground and there he has the revelation of God. And he brings the Bereishis Rabbah that says, “The ikar shechina betachtonim.” Unbelievable. “The principle place of God’s shechina, of His presence, is on the earth. The angels laugh at those who raise their eyes towards heaven. Imagine they have seek God above.” In other words, God is more on the earth than He is in heaven. And this is what Yaakov saw when he was going out to establish the Jewish people, to create a house, a bayit neeman, a faithful house of 12 tribes. They were going to come from Yaakov. And the message was, the shechina is here. God’s presence is here on earth.

Rav Moshe Feinstein takes it one step further. He brings one of the verses that we read. It said, “Yaakov awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely Hashem is in this place, and I did not know.’ And Rashi explains there, ‘Had I known, I wouldn’t have slept in such a holy place as this.’ He asks a kasha, question, “What do you mean, how didn’t he know? Hashem is obviously pushing him to sleep there. Hashem made the sun go down early. He made kefitzos haderech that Yaakov got to the spot in a minute. So obviously, he put him in that place to sleep. So, what does it mean, Yaakov said, “I didn’t know?” He wants to explain, “Yaakov didn’t know that even sleeping could be spiritual.” We know for 14 years, Yaakov didn’t sleep in a bed. This was the first time that he lay down to sleep. He was learning in the yeshiva for 14 years, and only slept when he put his head down while he was sitting. And here he lay down to sleep, he didn’t know that even the physical can be spiritual. Even the mundane could be spiritual, not only it is that God’s presence is more in this world than it is anywhere else in the universe. But even mundane things can be spiritual, like eating and drinking, and sleeping. As long as Yaakov was connected with Hashem, even sleeping is spiritual. Rav Moshe Feinstein says, “Yaakov said that the stones should be called beis Elokim.” That’s what the possuk says. It was Yaakov’s wish that they serve as a reminder that not only in a place where a person does Torah and mitzvos is the shechina God’s presence, but even sleeping or eating and doing things with the right intention, that also brings the shechina into the world. So, these are unbelievable ideas. God is here in the physical world. And even our mundane things that we do, sleeping and eating, can be holy. This is the novel idea of the Jewish people, of Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov saw that the shechina, God’s presence is here in this world. And that was the vision that he received.

Rav Hirsch wants to add that Yaakov learned  three truths from this vision. The first one was, that everything on earth is summoned and destined to rise and to ascend to a lofty, heavenly set goal. Our whole purpose is that we should do mitzvos to bring things up. “The second truth,” he says, “Is that man’s fate is not decided on earth in the physical world. He sees that God’s messengers ascend the ladder, and look at the ideal image of man, and what he should be. And when they descend, they compare the ideal man to the image of who he actually is. By this standard, they deal with him for good or for bad.” This is an unbelievable chiddush.

We know there’s a Midrash that says that Yaakov had to be protected because the angels got jealous of Yaakov. What happened? We know on the kisei hakavod, the throne of God, in one direction is Yaakov’s image written there. So, what happened? The angels saw the connection. Here is a ladder that goes from God’s throne where Yaakov’s image is in perfection. It goes down to Yaakov, to who Yaakov is now. And from there, a person gets judged. And that’s why Yaakov was in danger and Hashem had to protect him. In other words, every human being has the potential of who he could be. And that’s in the shemayim, in the heavens. On earth, you are who you are now. That’s what creates middos ha din, that’s how a person is judged. So, even when you do your mitzvos and the mitzvos go up to heaven, the effect that they could have on the way down is based on who you could be. Of course, it’s going to help you if you’ve just done a mitzvah. But there’s judgement.

This is what the Midrash says. They ascended and looked at the image above, and then descended and looked at the image below. On above, they see Yaakov’s image engraved on the kisei hakavod. And below they see him sleeping. What’s he doing? Okay, it’s a little bit in contradiction to what Rav Moshe Feinstein learned, which is even sleeping could be a holy thing. But still, there’s another aspect. It’s who he could be potentially, and who you are now. And the third thing we learn is from the end of the possuk it says, “And God stood beside him.” That even though man has not reached his potential, Hashem is going to stick with us. He’s going to protect us. Even though there should be strict justice because we’re not reaching our potential, still God’s with us. 

And Rav Wolbe learns another chiddush from this whole story. We know that Yaakov passed Har Moriah and then he came back. When he came back, Hashem shortened the earth. He shortened the trip. He did a miracle. He brings the Rashi who asks, “Wait a second. If Hashem wanted him to sleep there, why didn’t He stop him on the way? Why did he let him pass by?” Rashi answers, “If Yaakov doesn’t feel to pray, are the heavens going to stop him?” In other words, if you don’t want to, forget about it. You’re not going to have siata de shemaya, you’re not going to have help from heaven. On the other hand, we learn just the opposite. If you do, what happened in the end? Yaakov realized his mistake, and then Hashem helped him with kefitzas haderech. He shortened the entire earth, that he should get there before nightfall. So therefore, we learn that if a person really does want to improve, Hashem will help him. If a person doesn’t care, so Hashem will let you go your way. That’s what Rashi says. But if a person really wants, Hashem will do a miracle for him. 

Rav Wolbe says like this. “By observing where a person stands spiritually at the end of his life, we can determine what his true desires were.” That’s scary. If someone has the will to grow and accomplish, he will be helped to bring his desires to fruition. And the opposite is also true. Like it says, “The door is open for anyone who wants to defile himself. A person should not think that if everything’s going smoothly for him, it means that Hashem obviously approves the path he chooses. Hashem loves every person to travel the road of his desires. Be derech adam leilech be lich roto, and the way that a man wants to go, Hashem helps him to go.” Hashem even helps thieves. That’s right. Angels help thieves to steal. Why? Because they want to steal, so if they want to steal, they create angels. And when you create angels, the Maharsha says, “You create angels by your desires. So, those angels help you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a mitzvah or it’s an avera.” The same principle also works in the negative. You can create negative angels, God-forbid, and they’re going to have their hashba’ah, their influence on you and the way your life is going to go. Or also, you can have somebody who plays in the middle. He doesn’t want to go up too high, and he doesn’t want to go down too low. So, what does Rav Avigdor Miller say about that? He says, “But like ascending a ladder, a Jew must be always dissatisfied to remain in the middle. And he should constantly aspire to reach the top. Who stays in the middle of the ladder?”

There are a lot of deep concepts here. We have to think here about the bigger picture. Here you have all the heavens, the planets, the stars. Hundreds of thousands of light years of universe, what is it there for? It’s there for us. And you’ve got to hear what the Ohr ha Tzaddikim says about this. He says, “And everyone can understand for himself, since the higher world, the sun, the moon and the stars serves the lower, certainly it can’t be for the enjoyment of the body. For what is the body? The body turns to dust. The worms eat it. The sun and the moon and the stars are pure, and clear. How could it be then, that such great things serve such low things? It doesn’t make any sense. Yeah,” but he says, “But the neshama, aha. The soul of a person which is clear and pure, and exalted to the heights of the heavens even above them, because the soul of a person goes above the heavens all the way to the kisai hakavod, all the way close to Hashem, to the highest level.” The neshama of a person. So, it must be that all these planets are coming to serve his neshama, because something higher doesn’t serve something lower. The planets are lower than the neshama. The planets are serving our neshama, our soul. 

So, he says like this. “A person should reflect and say, ‘Who am I, that heaven and earth were created for me? It must be that I was created to serve God. It could only be so that I subject myself to the Holy One, Blessed be He, to discern His wonders and exalt and praise him. And if not for the Torah, which man obeys in order to purify and refine his soul, what need would there be for the world? Does it stand to reason that the world was created for the pleasure of the dark, lowly body? The body is insubstantial.” So, we learn from this week’s Parsha to open our minds. We’re small people, on a small planet, on a dot in the universe. That’s on one side. That’s the bottom of the ladder.

And the top of the ladder reaches all the way up to the heavens, and all the heavens and all of its hosts are serving man, here, on this small planet. But not only that, we have the power to influence. Our mitzvos, our striving to purify ourselves, creates spiritual forces which go up to the heavens and affect the heavens. And then the heavens bring down all the blessings, all the light, all the goodness into this world. And we’re judged by our potential. The closer we come to our potential, the more light and energy we’re going to bring into the world. Aval, lo bashamayim hi, this whole process is not in the heavens. It’s on the earth, sleeping and eating with the right intention can bring tremendous spiritual bracha, blessings into the world. And the essence is, like Rav Hirsch says, the Jewish home, in your own home. There was a Beis haMigdash, it’s the place of the Beis haMigdash, the bayit, the bayit neeman. The holy home, Avraham Avinu and Sarah. And Yaakov and the 12 tribes, the Jewish house in this mundane, what appears to be physical, mundane, lowly, simple house. The shechina, God’s presence can be here. So, the point that the angels laughed at people who looked towards the heavens from God when God is right in the house, and a person shouldn’t say, “Who am I?” What do you mean, who are you? You are one of the sons of Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu is really on the kisei hakavod. Man. The whole purpose of creation was for man. All the heavens. And this is what Yaakov saw in his dream. And it was taught for all the future generations to learn, to take responsibility for our lives, to reach our potential. 

0:22:19.5

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings the verse that says, “Yaakov left Beer Sheva and went towards Charan.” So, we know that when Yaakov left, Eliphaz caught up with him – the son of Esav. And Esav commanded that he should kill Yaakov but he couldn’t do it, because he grew up in the lap of Yitzhak. Yitzhak was his grandfather. So, Yaakov says to him, “Listen, take all my money. And we know, ani ke meis. A person who has nothing is like a dead person,” like he killed me. The Midrash says at that point, Yaakov began to recite Shir Hamalos, I lift up my eyes to the hills. Why? Because, “When Eliezer went to bring Rivka to my father. He came with 10 camels. I don’t even have a nose ring or a bracelet, I have nothing.” The Maggid mi Dubno wants to explain this with a parable.

One time there was a wealthy man that had an only son. The boy wanted to go into business, so the father gave him a lot of money and he told him to go open a store. So, he went to go open a store, but since he was a spoiled kid and he was a gentle soul, people took advantage of him and the store began to fail. So, when the son saw that things were falling apart he ran to his father for help. So, his father says, “Why are you coming to me? The store’s still open. Just work harder. Come to me when there’s nothing left.” What happened? Sometime later, a fire broke out in the town. Everybody was trying to put out the fire, and somebody comes up to him and says, “Listen, you’d better get over there. Your store is going to get burnt down. Come, try to save it.” The son said, “No, let it burn. This way I’ll be left with nothing and I’ll be able to ask my father for help.” So too, Yaakov. Hashem made sure that everything was taken away from him so that Yaakov would pray to him. 

0:24:17.3

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The verse said, “He is well, and here comes his daughter Rochel, with the sheep.” We know there’s a principle that a wise person if he’s asked something that he doesn’t have the answer to, he says, “I don’t know.” He admits he doesn’t know. So, the Bartenura learnt it from this verse. He says, “The people of Charan when questioned about Lavan in this situation answered, ‘He is well. That’s all we know. If you want any more information, here comes his daughter with the sheep.’ Rav Shach exemplified this quality. Many times, people would ask him and he said, “I don’t know. Come back tomorrow and ask me.” What would he do? That evening or that afternoon, he would go to experts and he would ask. He admitted he didn’t know, and he would try to find out the information. It was known that many people later at night, they’d receive a telephone call and he’s day, “Listen, I have an answer for you now. Come by, I’ll tell you the answer.”

And he didn’t allow the night to go by without finding the answer. So, one time an avreich, a married yeshiva guy, was talking about a shidduch, match for his son. But he came to Rav Shach and he says, “Listen, I heard about this shidduch but there’s no way for me to find out about this girl. I don’t know anybody in that town. I don’t know who to ask, who to trust.” Rav Shach says, “Come by tomorrow, we’ll talk more about it.” So, the next day he came by and Rav Shach said, “No, I checked it out. Everything’s fine.” So, the avreich didn’t understand. Rav Shach says, “Listen, it’s true. You don’t know anybody there, but I know a certain Rav there. I traveled last night to the town, and I found out about the girl.” 

0:26:09.3

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains that a problem in marriage could potentially be routine. Routine could kill a marriage. People have to feel the marriage is choshuv, things are new, things are fresh, excitement and energy. He brings a proof that when Aaron ha Cohen was disappointed, because he didn’t have a chance to bring sacrifices at the inauguration of the Mishkan, so Hashem told him, “By your life, yours is greater than theirs, because you will light a light of a pair of candles.” What does the Ohr haChayim say on that? “Why was Aaron’s mitzvah greater? Because he got to do it every day.” He got to light the Menorah every day. They just did it once, during the inauguration. He got a chance to mechadesh, to make things new. If a man feels he’s starting his home anew each day, his behavior will be totally different. 

He brings this story, one time there was a wealthy girl who wanted to marry a crippled man. Everybody’s trying to convince her not to marry this guy. They brought this girl to a Rav and the Rav asked her, “Do you want to marry this man because of love, pity or appreciation?” She said, “Pity and appreciation.” The Rav said, “Fine.” Why? Because if it was motivated by love, it’s going to wear off. But pity and appreciation are qualities that renew themselves each day, and they don’t fizzle out. So too, you have to figure out ways to emotionally mechadesh your relationship with your spouse. If the couple accepts upon themselves to do Hashem’s commandments, and accept each day anew, it will protect the sanctity of his home. Like the verse says, “The simcha will still be heard in the hills of Yehudah.” He asks, “What, these voices are going to be there forever?” No, the couple has to be renew them. You have to renew your simcha, renew your happiness. “But it’s a hard task,” he says. “And it’s a spiritual thing. The greater the person, the greater his ability to mechadesh, to make new things, to make life new, revitalize.”

He ends up with a Chazal that says, “Whoever lives without a wife lives without Torah.” What do we learn from that? Every day that one is married, he can merit to receive the Torah anew. Because every day, if you’re not married, it’s like you don’t have Torah. So, every day that you are married is like you have Torah. But this is only if he climbs higher each day, and learns to appreciate anew the spiritual value of married life. But it’s also connected with the world like you said before, that the house is a holy place full of energy and light. And therefore, if we mechadesh, if we renew the vitality of our house, we’ll have peace.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends. And you know by sharing this, you’re really spreading Torah. So, do the mitzvah and share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

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Torah Portion of the Week – Toldos – Walking Life’s Tightrope – Physical and Spiritual Balance – A Powerful Parable about not Being Hungry – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Having a Good Eye

The Torah Podcast Transcript

078 – The Torah Podcast – Walking Life’s Tightrope – Physical and Spiritual Balance  

Torah Portion of the Week – Toldos

In this week’s Parsha we have the famous story of Yitzhak giving the blessings to Yaakov instead of Esav. He really wanted to give the blessing to Esav, because Esav was his older son. But in the end, Yaakov stole them away on the advice of his mother, Rivka, who told him to steal it. The question is, why did Yitzhak think to give the blessing to Esav? Didn’t he know that Esav was a rasha, he was an evil person? What was he thinking? 

Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch explains. He says, “Yitzhak had two sons, represented by two different elements in his home. Esav represented material power. Yaakov on the other hand represented spiritual power. Yitzhak knew very well that both these tendencies will be needed. He apparently also knew of the prophesy that the physical son would serve the spiritual one. But Yitzhak thought that Esav and Yaakov would fulfill the mission of Avraham in a partnership of brotherly harmony, complementing one on each other. He therefore intended to give Esav a blessing of material content, and reserve the spiritual blessing for Yaakov.” The idea was to bless Esav with the physical, and then Esav would take care of Yaakov, and it would be a partnership. So, what was Rivka thinking? He says, “Rivka however, remembered from the home of Lavan the misfortune entailed by such a division. She knew from personal experience that only in a home pervaded by the spirit of Avraham would material things bring blessing and true happiness. She realized that materialism devoid of spirit is actually a curse, and that Yitzhak’s blessings could not be divided. It could only be placed on the head of one of the sons. She held, you couldn’t divide the two, because she saw from her own home that Lavan her father was very rich, but he was very evil also. So, Rivka felt that this would not work out. That’s why she wanted to steal the blessing away from Esav, and give it to Yaakov.”

So now, the Malbim explains this a little bit further. He says, “The purpose of the entire creation is that there exists a good and righteous person on whom God’s hashgacha can rest.” He brings the verse from Koheles that says, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is all of man.” In other words, the entire world is created only for the righteous person’s sake. And he explains that the rest of the world is really just created for that righteous person. Just like a tree which produces fruit, so the fruit is very small compared to the tree. But the whole tree was just created for the fruit. So too, Hashem wanted to create an entire nation who would cleave to the divine idea. This whole nation would fulfill the purpose of creation. They’d be like the holy fruit. And we know this to be true, even within the Jewish nation itself. The tribe of Levi was going to serve in the Temple. They were going to be the holy priests. And the rest of the Jewish people, am Yisroel, would give their ma’aser, they would give their tithes, to Levi to take care of Levi that he could serve God. The Jewish people would take care of the physical, and Levi would serve God. In this way, they would receive the reward and the benefit which Levi produced for them because they were giving to Levi. They were supporting Levi, and Levi was supporting them. It’s also the idea of Yisasschar and Zevulun. Yisasschar sits and learns, and Zevulun takes care of him. So too, it would be that the Jewish people serve God, and the nations take care of the Jewish people, and both benefit. The Jews in the Temple bring their services, bring blessing to the world. And the blessing’s of the world they give back to the Temple in order to support the service. 

And this is why Yitzhak wanted to bless Esav. He says, “He didn’t need to bless Yaakov, because Yaakov was spiritual. And spirituality doesn’t need a blessing. Spirituality is a zechus, a person who does the right thing, he gets the blessing. But physicality needs a blessing, so he wanted to bless his son, Esav, that he would have everything physical. And together, they would work to serve God. So, it’s like you have Yisroel and Levi, and the two brothers would serve together.

But Rivka understood differently. Rivka saw that Esav was not going to help Yaakov. And even though it was true that on a certain side it would be better that Yaakov did not get the blessings of the physical because they interfere with his spirituality, but still she saw if you give the blessings to Esav, Yaakov’s going to be left high and dry. So, she came to conclusion that it would be better to bless Yaakov with the physicality, because a person who is truly spiritual can really have both, and handle both.  And that’s why in the future, the Levites are going to get a portion of land. In other words, up till now and throughout all of history, Levi never had a portion of the land, because they were just the spiritual ones. They were not involved with physicality. But in the future, God will also give the Leviim a piece of Eretz Yisroel. So, that’s how Rav Hirsch and the Malbim understand it.

Now, Rav Dessler adds another aspect. Rav Dessler explained that he wanted to give the blessing to Esav because Esav needed the blessing. He felt that Yaakov was such a tzaddik, why should he help him? He’s able to do it on his own. Isn’t that the greatest thing in life, to be able to serve God and beat your evil inclination on your own, by yourself? What could be greater? So, if he gave him the blessing, it’s like he’d be helping him. But Esav needed the blessing. Esav was out of control, so he needed the blessing to be able to serve God. But Rivka understood that no, Yaakov needed the blessing. Even if Yaakov was a tzaddik, he still needs help, he still needs siyata deshemaya. And in the end, Yitzhak agreed to that, because the verse said, “He too shall be blessed.” Even after he realized that he made a mistake, he understood that it was min hashemayim, that no one, not even one of the Avos can stand in front of Hashem righteously, without help, without siyata deshemaya, without help from God, because we’re physical. So, even Yaakov needed the blessing to make it through life as a righteous person. He needed the blessing because if the test became too great, every person, every human being could fall. Every human being is both physical and spiritual. 

The Shem mi Shmuel explains like this. He brings the Rashi that says, “The hunt was in his mouth,” he was talking about Esav. This means that Esav was a man who knew how to deceive. He asked his father how to tithe salt and straw, which don’t require tithing. His father assumed that he was very pious. So he asked, “Why did Esav ask about salt and straw? Why? Because they’re both non-essentials, they’re not the meal, they’re just the salt. And the straw is just part of the wheat, but it’s on the side.” So, Esav’s focus was to take the thing that was not essential, and make it essential. But the Shem mi Shmuel says, “Absolute reality exists only in the next world, for this world is temporary, and a preparation for the spiritual future. Tofel in every sense – secondary.” just like the six days of the week are tofel to Shabbos, and Shabbos is the essential.” He says, “This concept pervades the whole Jewish life, spiritual pursuits are the goal of man’s existence. They’re the ikar, main thing. Everything else is tofel. And this exactly was the difference between Yaakov and Esav. For Esav, the ikar was physical. For Yaakov, that was tofel, that was secondary. And for Yaakov, the spirituality came first, and Esav didn’t care about it. But the novel idea is, as long as Yaakov stays essential, Esav can also get spirituality. Why? Because he helped Yaakov, like we said, the Levi-Yisroel relationship by Yisroel helping Levi they also get the next world. 

Same thing, a man and wife. The man is learning Torah, and the wife’s helping him. Same thing with the nations and the Jewish people. The Jewish people do God’s will, and the nations help. Everybody gets the next world. So, why did Yitzhak want to give the blessing to Esav? To say to him, “Listen, you get the blessing. You get the physical. But as long as you help your brother Yaakov, then you’re going to get to the top, as you’ll get to the purpose of life.” But Esav couldn’t take it. That was the problem. That’s what Rivka saw. Esav couldn’t take that. Why? Because he’s asking how to tithe straw and salt. He wanted the physical to be the essential. He wanted to take the thing that’s non-essential and make it essential. That was his whole personality. So, Rivka saw that it wasn’t going to work out. Here is the chiddush, the novel idea, the new idea, that we could learn from this whole story. He says, “It was because of his arrogance that he couldn’t be subordinate to Yaakov, and arrogance of this variety has no cure. Esav was a lost cause.

The Zohar HaKodesh says like this. “There are clouds of darkness into which light enters, but it is totally consumed. This is the idea behind the seven bad cows which entered into the seven fat cows, leaving no trace.” The Shem mi Shmuel says in his father’s name, “These clouds of darkness are a manifestation of arrogance. Someone like Esav who was overpowered with his evil characteristic, cannot fix himself. Because even the little bit of spirituality that he has gets swallowed up by these clouds of arrogance. But from here we can learn the yesod, the foundation of spirituality. Spirituality means giving yourself over to something higher, making yourself smaller, and making the real important things higher. Just like the Jewish people as a whole gave themselves over to the Leviim were doing avodas Hashem. And just like someone who works all day has to help yeshivas. He has to give his money to help the Jewish people, he has to be supportive, to realize the essential purpose of the Jewish people is their spirituality. In this way, he will gain. But you have to have middos for that, you have to have good character. This is the Yisasschar -Zevulun relationship. Zevulun works, and he helps Yisasschar. But he can’t say, “I’m Zevulun and I’m on top.” No. And even though it’s true that one has to give tremendous kavod to anyone who gives tzedakah to yeshivas, but that doesn’t mean that the guys sitting in the Yeshiva themselves are anything less.

Every person has something above them. The students in the yeshiva have the Rosh Yeshiva. The Rosh Yeshiva has the Gadol haDor, the head of the generation, that he has to look up to, who he has to be subordinate to. If you have humility then the whole system works. The beauty of this word is that the whole connection between the spiritual and the physical is humility. Taking the physical and giving it over to spirituality creates true success. It’s true by individuals, it’s true by nations. There’s always something above us. And the Gur Aryeh brings down, “It’s even true in the physicality of a person.” He says, “When a person is first born, he’s totally physical. As he develops and his intelligence develops, he becomes both physical and spiritual. And later in life, he becomes totally spiritual. But it’s always the giving over of the physical to the spiritual, that’s what creates the blessing. That’s what makes the whole system work.”

I just want to end off with the Sfas Emes who says a tremendous chiddush. He says, “It’s the Torah she bal peh that enables us to experience Hashem’s presence more thoroughly in our daily lives.” He wants to say, the tool for us to take the physical and make it spiritual is Torah she bal peh, learning the Talmud. It’s the work in the Talmud. By going through every aspect, every understanding of the physical world in all of its details, that can bring us spirituality.  In other words, the written Torah is pure light and we are totally physical, so where’s the go-between? How do we give over our physicality over to the light? The answer is the Torah she bal peh, the oral tradition. And that’s exactly what we do in the yeshiva, we spend most of our day learning Torah she bal peh. That is the thing that brings the blessing, being subordinate to the Gemara itself, giving ourselves over to spend hours and hours and thinking, and in-depth learning and understanding, and giving ourselves over to the avodas Hashem, serving God by learning Torah she bal peh, which is our whole tradition as Jews. And that’s what the Rambam says at the end of Hilchos Shmitta, that any Jew could become a Levi nowadays. If he wants to sit in yeshiva he’s like a Levi. And that spirituality can spread into the world, if the world subordinates itself to it. If the Jewish people help yeshivas they get a blessing. And if the nations help Yisroel, they also get a blessing. And it’s from this week’s parsha that we learn how all the blessings can come into the world.

0:16:27.7

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings the verse that said, “Make it into a dish for me, the way I like it, and bring it to me that I may eat it.” This was Yitzhak speaking to Esav. He brings a moshul. He said, “Every day, two people used to eat together. One day after the meal, one of them says, ‘I don’t feel very well today.’ His friend asked, ‘Why? I didn’t notice anything. You ate today the same way as you eat every other day, no more and no less.’ He says, ‘That’s true. But all the other days I really felt hungry. But today, I wasn’t hungry. What did I do? I drank a little whisky before to whet my appetite, and therefore I ate. But if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t eat anything.’” That was the moshul, what was the nimshal, conclusion?

Yitzhak wanted to bless Esav because he was his oldest son. But really in his heart, he felt he didn’t deserve it. So, what did he do? He sent out his son to go make him a nice meal to give him cheshek, to give him the desire to give the blessing. So, when Rivka saw that she said to Yaakov, “Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esav saying, ‘bring it back here for me, and make it into a tasty dish.’” She said, “Now I understand that really your father doesn’t want to give the blessing to Esav. Now is a chance for you to get the blessing.”

0:17:53.9

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The verse says, “Ha kol kol Yaakov,” the voice is the voice of Yaakov. We know this is a metaphor for Torah and prayer, that out of the beit medrash, out of the yeshivas, and out of the beit kenessiot comes out Torah and prayer, and people hear it.

One time, Rav Yitzhak Silberstein asked Rav Shach’s advice. They were building a yeshiva, and they didn’t know where to build it. Should they build it in the center of town, or should they build it off to the side? We know that Rabbi Akiva said, “Do not sit in the high spot of the city and teach Torah.” And Rebbe also said, he also forbade Torah to be taught in public places.

So, Rav Shach said, “No. Nowadays, you must raise the banner of Torah high in public for all to see. You make the yeshiva in the middle of town. This way, people will see the lights are still on late at night, and the sweet sound of Torah will emanate from its walls. Eventually, people will come and wander in, and it will help the whole city.” Not long after that, they made the kollel in the center of town, a man came in. This man was a total chiloni¸ not religious. Actually, he was part of the Shammai Tzair movement which is anti-religious, but he came to the beis medrash. And he started to ask, “What are you learning here?” Little by little, they started to learn with him. The guy became fully observant, and every day he used to go to yeshiva.

So, Rav Silberstein didn’t understand. He asked him, “What happened to you? You were totally not religious. What made you do teshuva, what made you come back?” He said, “When you hear this answer, you’ll understand how Rav Shach’s advice was perfect.” The man said like this. “Back in 1948 I was one of the troops who was trying to attack the police station in Beit Dagan, which was an Arab stronghold. And the first two times we attacked, we were pushed back. There was a lot of casualties, people died.

But before the third assault there was one religious soldier with us. And he said, ‘Let’s study some Mishnayos before we go, and this will have some merit before we go into battle.’ He took out a book and began reading. Well, we didn’t understand anything. But the way he sang it, in his haunting and chanting melody, it captivated us. It moved us tremendously, and gave us courage. Later that night, we overtook Beit Dagan.’ He said, ‘Ever since that day for 50 years, that melody stuck in my mind. So, one night I was walking by the beis medrash here. I saw the lights on, and I started to hear the sound coming out of the beis medrash. It was that same enchanting sing-song that I remembered from so long ago. I found myself being pulled into the building, as if drawn by a mysterious spell. One good thing led to another and in the end, I was going to do teshuva.’” So you see, Rav Shach was right. Ha kol kol Yaakov, the sound of the beis medrash goes into the street, and brings Jews back.

0:21:26.8

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains, “If you want to have a good marriage, you have to have a good eye.” He brings a raya from the Midrash in Shir haShirim. We know that four people went into the pardes, they went up to heaven, to the highest heavens, and only one came out in peace – that was Rabbi Akiva. But it didn’t just say he came out in peace. It says, “He entered in peace, and he exited in peace.” He says, “Why did the other three Tanaim also enter in peace? The problem was with the way out, not the way in.” He says, “Yeah, but Rebbe Akiva prepared himself. He knew that as he would see this vision he could get damaged. Who knows what would happen to him, so he prepared himself.” He said, “I’m going to have faith, no matter what I see, “ and that’s why he came out okay.

“So too in a marriage, if you have faith that everything that’s happening in the marriage is min hashemayim and it comes from heaven, so too you will have a good marriage,” Chazal say that if somebody’s already bought an object in the market place, you should praise it. He says, “What, are you supposed to lie? No, you’re not supposed to lie. You’re supposed to say something good about it. If you have an ayin tova, a good eye, even if it’s a lousy thing there’s got to be something good about it. So, Rav Yosse says in Pirkei Avos, “What’s the best thing to have? A good neighbor.” But you can’t always have a good neighbor, it’s not dependent on you. So, what does it mean? It means you should be a good neighbor. You should be a good neighbor, and see that neighbor as a good neighbor. The same thing with one’s wife. You have to have an ayin tova, a good eye. You have to see the good in your wife. Also, the wife has to see the good in the man. It’s very important that each of the couples sees good in the other one.

So, why don’t we see good? The answer is, he says, “Because we’re nogea bedavar, we have certain self-interests. We have certain personal biases which make us see things in the wrong way. For example, the meraglim. Before the spies went to Eretz Yisroel, these were great, great people of high stature. Why they came back with a bad report? Because they knew they might lose their job if they’d say, “Listen, we could go into Eretz Yisroel. We’re not going to be anybody. We’re not going to be special any more. Who says we’re going to be princes? So, they had a bad eye because of that. That’s what the Zohar says. In order to have a good eye, you have to drop your personal interests.  And he says, “Not having a good eye also brings jealousy. You’re jealous of your wife, you’re jealous of your husband?” He says, “Jealousy has no place in the marriage. Your whole purpose is to do chessed to one another.” And he ends off by saying, “Giving leads to receiving, and the building of the home. Selfishness and the lack of an ayin tova, a good eye, are a perfect recipe for destruction.” They asked one time a Gadol, great man, “Why was a man created with two eyes?” He said, “One eye to look at the good of people, and the other eye to look at your own bad points, to examine yourself. If you don’t want to have an ayin tova, a good eye, look at yourself.”

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 078 Walking Lifes Tightrope – Physical and Spiritual Balance appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

077 – Torah Portion of the Week – Lech Lecha – Keep the Faith – the Most Important Quality – A Powerful Parable about the King – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Preparation for Marriage

The Torah Podcast Transcript

077 – Keep the Faith – The Most Important Quality  

Torah Portion of the Week – Lech Lecha

The verses start out in Lech Lecha like this. It says, “Hashem said to Avraham, go for yourself, from your land, from your birthplace and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And all the dwellers of the earth will be blessed through you.” So, these verses start out with one of the famous tests that God gave Avraham Avinu – lech lecha, to go out from his land. Rashi explains there that Hashem blessed him because going out of your land, going out on a journey like this, diminishes three things – first of all, it diminishes children. You’re going to have less children if you’re on the road. It diminishes your money. You’re going to make less money if you’re traveling, you’re going to a new place. And it takes away your name, because you have no reputation. You’re going to wind up in a new place.

So, Hashem blessed him and promised him with all of these blessings. The Chofetz Chaim brings down in a verse that comes a little bit later, the verse that said, “He believed in Hashem and he reckoned to him as righteousness.” The Chofetz Chaim said, “This teaches us that of all the principles of yiddishkeit, of all the principles of Judaism, the most important principle is emunah, faith in Hashem. And he brings the verse, “A Tzaddik shall live by his faith. Tzaddik be’emunah yichye. A man will live by his faith. Faith is the most important quality a person could have.” He brings a moshul that if a man is drowning in a river and he sees a tree, he doesn’t just grab onto a little branch. He grabs onto the trunk of the tree, which is like the Torah. It’s a tree of life for those who hold it. Faith in Hashem and in His Torah is a tree of life.

I want to discuss today the important principle of faith, how important it is and why we need it so much. Rav Moshe Feinstein explains, “What was this test of Avraham, that you should go out from your land?” He says, “Simple. God is everywhere. God can bless you wherever you are. So, why is Hashem telling Avraham to leave if He can bless him right where he is?” This went against Avraham’s intelligence. It doesn’t make any sense. If Hashem wants to bless me, so bless me here. Now, there’s also a Midrash Rabba that says, “We don’t know which of these tests are more precious in Hashem’s eyes – the test of the akeida, or leaving his home land.” This test was equal. It’s not clear which test was greater, the sacrificing of his only son, Yitzhak, or leaving his land.

And Rav Moshe Sternbuch explains that he had to leave his entire empire. He had a tremendous following in Charan. He brought many people back to Hashem, thousands of people. And now all of a sudden, he has to leave. He has to leave that all behind. All of his life’s work he has to leave. And he doesn’t understand why. But that’s exactly what faith is. Faith means, going after God even though your small seichel, intelligence does not understand, because God is much bigger and greater than I am. 

There’s a Midrash and there’s a Rashi that says on the verse, “Of the land I will show you.” Hashem says to him, “The land I will show you.” He didn’t reveal to him where he was going. He was just telling him to go. He doesn’t even know where he’s going. Hashem says, “Go,” and doesn’t tell him where. The Sfas Emes says like this, “nevatal bechol chushim,” that he should nullify all of his senses and all of his desires, “rach le’ratzon Hashem,” only for the will of God. But I don’t know, I don’t know what it is. Kol hadeveikus hachitzonius, all of his connections to the outside world he has to turn it inside. And he has to bring it to ratzon Hashem, to the will of God. B’az yisgaleh leratzon l’adam, and then Hashem reveals to the man what God’s will is. If you’re willing to give up everything to understand what God wants from you, at that point God will reveal to you which way you’re supposed to go, and what you’re supposed to do with your life. 

He says, “The general rule is, rach lishmoa lekabel, our job is to listen and to accept,” because Hashem’s wisdom is so great it has no end. No limitation. Our job is to accept what God wants from us, and to give up our intelligence for the greater purpose of what God wants from us. We don’t understand the bigger plan. Our preconceived ideas of what life is about is not really what life is about. We have to be open to new possibilities, and that’s faith. That’s having faith in God to believe in Him, that He understands what’s best for us, and He will direct us in the right way. The Malbim says that Hashem said to Avraham, “Just go. Go. It doesn’t matter, get away.” He explains there, “Get away from these people, from this society, from the bad influences that you have in Charan and go where? To Eretz Yisroel, to the Holy Land.

The Cli Yakar explains, “As long as Avraham was outside the Land of Israel, he didn’t have the spirit of prophesy, and he could not know or understand the intrinsic nature of his soul, whose source was Mount Moriah.” Chazal tells us that man was created from the dirt. Adam comes from adama, from the dirt from the Temple Mount, where the Beis haMigdash was. That’s our source. That’s the source of a human being.” He continues and says, “It was worthwhile for him to leave everything that he had there, his land, his birthplace and the house of his father, to go and cleave to this holy place. Because there he would achieve the ultimate connection with the Divine presence.” Thus, Avraham understood from the words “lech lecha, go to you, that’s literally what it means, go to you. Go to your own origins. Go to your neshama, to your soul. Connect with your soul. And he was only able to do that, to go to the Beis HaMigdash, to the Temple. That was the only place he would be able to get the level of ruchnius, of spirituality, to be able to connect with his soul. And the Ramchal explains that the verse says, “A land which I will show you.” What do you mean, “I’ll show you?” Only in Eretz Yisroel can you see. Only when you come to Israel, you get a clear and deeper understanding of Me, and the way I run the world. This is what Hashem said. “For your benefit,” it says. “And for your good.” What does it mean, your benefit and your good?

The Rambam also said, a person should put himself in a desert. If the whole world is off the derech, the whole world is going the wrong way, separate yourself from the world. And how can you do that? Only with faith. And how did the Jews survive the Holocaust? How can we put up with all of this suffering that the Arabs are causing us, and the Germans were causing us, and the Spanish were causing us? How do we put up with it? With our faith. Rav Noam Elimelech explains, “It says, lech lecha me’artzecha, go out from your land. What do you mean, the land? The adama. From your middos, from your body, from your bad character traits.” Bad character traits have to do with being connected with the physical. You have to go out from your land, from the physical. A Jew has to be le malah min hateva, above nature.

And the famous word is why things are put opposite here – what does it say? Go out from your country, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house. Just the opposite. When you leave somewhere, first you leave your house. Then you leave your town. Then you leave your country. Why say the opposite? First you leave your country, then your town, then your house. The meforshim, commentators explained it means yes, first leave your country. Leave your culture. Then even leave your town, your more local culture which is more connected to you. Avraham had to leave the house of his father, because his father was doing idol worship. He had to create himself a new world, a new philosophy which connected with the Creator, a world view that nobody in the world accepted. We can’t imagine. But we too have to do that. 

And Rav Henoch Leibowitz explained, “Yes, of course you can. If Avraham Avinu was going to be affected by his environment, so all the more so us. We have to separate ourselves from our environment.” But the only way we can go to the beis medrash whether it be all day or half a day, or even a couple of hours, we have to believe that our parnassah, our money comes from God. In order to leave America and France and Europe wherever you are, to come to Eretz Yisroel, you have to believe in God, to believe that God can take care of you. And in order to give up the pleasures of this world which the world is telling us that life is about – a nice car, and a nice house, nice things – in order to give those things up you have to have real faith. But the more one thinks about it, and if you sit yourself down candidly and ask yourself, “What is life about?” so you’ll understand life is about getting daas Elokim, understanding of God, doing God’s will. And when that becomes clear, everything else fits in place.

0:14:36.1

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings the verse, “I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great.” He says, “Normally, you have to ask a normal person how much money he has, so he’ll tell you how he has this amount of coins, and he even has a worker. But if you ask a Duke how much money he has, he’s not just going to say he has thousands of coins. He’s going to say he owns entire towns. And if you ask a King how much he has, he’s not just going to say towns, he’s going to say he has several countries. But if you ask the Master of the Universe how much He has, He’s going to reply that He has tens of thousands of universes.” The Midrash says on this verse, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great,” He’s talking about Avraham Avinu by saying what? By saying Elokei Avraham. We pray “the God of Avraham”. So, now we can understand how important was Avraham Avinu.” 

0:15:37.4

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The verse says, “See to me, you have given me no offspring. The Ohr HaChaim asks, “Wait a second. Hashem promised Avraham Avinu that he was going to have children. He said, ‘I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth.’ So, how can he say now this verse says later, how can he say, ‘You haven’t given me any offspring?’” The Ohr HaChaim wants to explain, “No, because he used the loshen, language, the dust of the earth. Avraham Avinu was scared that his children would be on am ha’aretzim. They would be lowly based people, who didn’t know Torah, didn’t have wisdom, like the dust of the earth, they’d be am ha’aretzim, people of the earth. Therefore, God reaffirmed and He said, “Don’t worry. Your children will be like the stars.”

Rav Shach wants to explain, “When a person feels pressured from the yetzer hara, a guy’s going to the beis medrash, he’s supposed to be learning and now he has pressure. He feels like wasting time, and he wants to talk about with his friends, he wants to have idle conversations. He wants to take some unnecessary trips, maybe we’ll travel over here, maybe we’ll do this. I’ll go out and do some errands now. All these different things that a guy has when he goes to the beis medrash, he’s in the yeshiva, are the things that pull him out of the beis medrash.” Rav Shach said that a person has to contemplate, if I don’t sit here in the beis medrash, oy vavoy, I’m going to be an am ha’aretz, an ignoramus. And that’s the worst thing of all. He brings down the famous Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, that’s who used to give mussar. He told him, “If you don’t sit and learn, you’re going to be an am ha’aretz.” That was the worst thing that could happen to a person, that he doesn’t have daas Elokim, that he’s missing an understanding of what life is about. The worst thing that can happen. He said, “After you heard Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka say, “If you don’t learn you’re going to be an am ha’aretz, he didn’t need to hear any more mussar shmoozim after that. That was enough tochacha, enough rebuke to last you a lifetime.”

0:17:32.1

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains, you have to prepare for marriage. Just like when you fast if you don’t accept the fast the day before, the fast the day after doesn’t count, so too marriage. You’ve got to prepare yourself for the marriage. He says, “Preparation for marriage is not just a foundation but it’s also a root. A root has two purposes – first of all, the root holds the tree from strong winds blowing it down. And it will also give sustenance. It brings water from the ground. So too, the home needs – you have to have sustenance, and you have to have koach, strength against the outside forces. But the longer a thing lasts, the more preparation it takes to make it. For example,” he says, “Food which doesn’t last too long, it takes a little while to prepare it. Clothing on the other hand, takes more time to prepare. But a marriage is for eternity. So, surely it takes time to prepare. Not only that, when you acquire a physical thing, you acquire it once. I buy it, and that’s it. But not so by spiritual things. There are 48 ways to acquire the Torah. Each one adds something special. So too, when you make a new home. You have to have Torah, you have to have good character, you have to have derech eretz, proper relationships with people. It’s all a big investment for the future, and it’s worth it. 

Therefore, a person has to prepare himself to understand the psychology of what it means to live with another person. And he has to think about and learn about derech eretz, having proper conduct. And he also has to have faith, he has to believe in hashgacha pratis, that everything that happens is min hashemayim, it comes from heaven. Then he’s going to be happy in his house also, because a person with those character traits is obviously going to have a good marriage. And just like Hashem created the world for the Torah itself, so too a man has to build his home from the Torah. So, it’s not just enough, it’s not just enough to have derech eretz, but you also have to have Torah.” He brings a raya, proof from Noach. He says, “Noach didn’t get one person to repent. The only person who decided to repent was Noach, but his children no. Why? Because his main thing was derech eretz, good character. But he didn’t have Torah. Torah is the thing that brings a person back to Hashem. Therefore, before a marriage, a person has to realize the tachlis of life is Torah. Therefore, the tachlis of his home is also Torah.” This is what he says. “Our whole purpose of marriage is to fulfill Hashem’s commandments. After careful research, I have found that a person invests in Torah more and more, marital problems become almost non-existent.” So, if you have Torah you’ll have shalom bayis, peace in the home.

That’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. Please share it with your friends, and please leave me comments. I really appreciate when you give comments, because it really helps the podcast.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 077 – Keep the Faith – the Most Important Quality appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

076 -Torah Portion of the Week – Bereishis – Justifying Our Desires – Matter Over Mind – A Powerful Parable about an Inn keeper and the Soup – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Shiduchim

The Torah Podcast Transcript

076The Torah Podcast – Justifying Our Desires – Matter Over Mind

Torah Portion of the Week – Bereishis

So, the verses in Bereishis say like this. The last possuk in Chapter two says, “They were both naked, the man and his wife. And they were not ashamed.” And verse four in Chapter three continues and says, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will surely not die, for God knows that on the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like a God, knowing good and bad.’” And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was a passion for the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for awareness. And she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed together a fig leaf and made themselves clothes.” So, this is the story of the first sin. And from here we can learn the foundations of all sins. We can learn how sin works. So, the Seforno says like this. “What does it mean that they were naked and they weren’t embarrassed?” He explains, “At that time, all their organs, limbs and actions were used for the purpose of fulfilling God’s will exclusively – not to attain physical pleasure at all. Consequently, the act of sexuality was to them as normal as that of eating and drinking. Therefore, the reproductive organs were regarded to them as regards to a mouth, face or hands.” In other words, there was no difference between their hands, and that part of the body. Why? Because everything was done for the will of God. So, why did they have to be ashamed that they were naked, and it was only after they sinned and they didn’t listen to God, at that point they became ashamed.

So, the Ohr HaChaim explains, “The fact that they were aware that they were naked does not refer to the fact that they were just missing clothing, but the removal of an aura of holiness which has served them this far in the lieu of clothing.” In other words, it was their holiness that prevented them from being embarrassed. He says the opposite. “It is the characteristic of a wicked person that after he commits a sin, he becomes aware of how bad it was.” So, it was only after their sin, after they went down a level, after they did the wrong thing, at that point they became embarrassed.

So, the question is, what is this sense of embarrassment of shame, that’s built in to man, that if he does the wrong thing he starts to feel embarrassed? Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains, “Their eyes were opened and they became enlightened. But their first realization was that they were naked. If a person perceives he is naked, it means he has realized that something is showing that should not be seen. This is the sense of shame which we already indicated is the root of man’s awareness of his true calling. As long as a man stands completely in his service of God, he has no reason to be ashamed of the physical aspect of his being. Why? Because bodily aspirations too are holy and pure, as long as they are subordinated to the means to fulfill the will of God, for a holy purpose. But once this relationship is reversed, a person has to feel shame. A sense of shame precipitated by a voice of his conscious stirs within him reminding him that he must not be like an animal. As soon as a man submits to the rule of his baser instincts and does not endeavor to elevate sensuality into the realm of the holy, but on the contrary, sensuality lowers man’s holiness into the realm of the sensual. Instead of uplifting sexuality, he goes down to the level of sexuality. Then he becomes ashamed of his body’s nakedness.”

Now, listen to this. “This feeling of shame is the faithful garden of morality. It’s God’s call to man who has forsaken his moral stature. The feeling of shame warns man to be and remain a master of his body, so that he should ascend in freedom to the heights of his calling.” So, according to Rav  Hirsch we see that this embarrassment is the spiritual compass to what we’re here for, what’s the purpose of our lives. This embarrassment is telling us that we are going in the wrong direction. Being embarrassed, being in shame is one of the most important feelings we could possibly have. It shows us that we’re off. How else are we going to know we’re off? And society tells us, you don’t have to be ashamed of anything. The most disgusting things are out in the open. And they’re telling us we should lose our shame, and the Nazis didn’t want us to have any consciousness at all. Let’s get rid of consciousness. Let’s be free. Let’s be democratic. Everything goes. You can run around naked in Times Square, what’s the problem? What’s the big deal? Pornography everywhere. Don’t be embarrassed. But no, the Jews we say no. This embarrassment is the most important thing we have. This is the only way we know if we’re on the right track or not. Just the opposite, we have to develop our embarrassment. We have to be more sensitive to our own shame. There’s nothing wrong with shame, it’s there to help us.

And the Malbim says like this. “Before the sin, the procreative organs were perceived just like any other part of the body,” like we said. “But afterwards with the new found tendency to seek pleasure for its own sake, they became aware of the potential that this desire had to pull them away from the elevated goal, and what they aspired to.” And this made them embarrassed enough to feel the need for clothing. When they started to seek pleasure for the sake of pleasure, they became embarrassed, because that’s not what the purpose of pleasure is for. Pleasure is a means to get to a goal. It’s not the purpose of life. We need pleasure because we’re human beings. In order to go forward, in order to have energy, in order to do the right thing, we need to have a good, comfortable life. It says if you have a beautiful house, and a beautiful wife, it gives revat daas, it gives you an open mind. It gives you yishuv hadaas, it makes you relax. But all this for what? Not for the thing itself. For the sake of serving God, for using all the pleasures that we have, that God gives us. We use them to serve Him. But if we take pleasure for itself we become embarrassed. We should become embarrassed, if we’re healthy, if we’re spiritually healthy we should become embarrassed.

So, the question now is, if we are healthy human beings and we become embarrassed when we sin, so why do we sin? We know we’re going to be embarrassed. Why do we do the wrong thing when we know the consequences are not worth it? What’s pushing us, how can we possibly do the wrong thing? There’s no worse feeling than embarrassment. Chazal tells us that if you embarrass a person in public you lose your next world. A person can lose his next world by embarrassing somebody. That’s how bad it is. Why? Because it’s like he killed somebody. He killed the person. A person doesn’t want to be embarrassed. If you embarrass somebody in public it’s like you killed him. So, if we know that we’re going to be embarrassed, we’re going to have those feelings, why would we possibly sin? How could we possibly sin? Why isn’t the embarrassment itself enough to stop us?

So, Rav Henoch Liebowitz brings the Seforno who explains like this. The Seforno says on the verse, “You will not die, for God knows on that day when your eyes shall be open.” So, how did he try to convince Chava to eat from the tree? He told her that, “Your eyes will be open.” What does that mean according the Seforno? You will gain added knowledge as a result. You’ll be like a divine being with perfect knowledge. You’ll have intellectual perfection. And that’s the approach that he took to convince Chava to eat from the eitz hadaas that you will have intellectual perfection. But on the next verse the Seforno explains it says, “The woman perceived that the tree was good for eating.” He says, “She perceived it was pleasant, sweet to eat,” because of its nature, it’s place, the atmosphere, the aroma of the fruit. So, the woman herself was attracted to the tree because of the pleasure that it would give her. Rav Leibowitz asks, “Wait a second. Why did the snake, try to convince Chava with this spiritual thing you’re going to have unbelievable wisdom? He should have just used that she herself was attracted to the tree. Why didn’t he just say to her, “Listen, this is delicious, it’s unbelievable. You have to taste it.” He could have won her over just by talking about the physical enjoyment that she would have gotten. Why does he have to talk philosophically, you could have this wisdom and this knowledge. She herself is attracted to the tree. The answer is, that that would have not been enough to convince her because you know why? Because the truth is that a person really is embarrassed. Because of embarrassment, a person will not sin. If he realizes he’s going to be embarrassed, he won’t sin. So, what does the evil inclination do? He convinces the person with some kind of philosophical idea. He convinces her it’s a mitzvah to do this thing. It’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t come with a frontal attack, “Wow, this is unbelievable. You have to taste it. What pleasure it gives you.” A person is embarrassed. “How can I go against God to get pleasure? That’s embarrassing.” But to do a mitzvah? Oh, that I’ll do. Wow, I’ll have spirituality. I’ll have daas, I’ll have wisdom. I’ll have a Divine knowledge. Oh yeah, that I’m going to do. I’m going to eat from that tree.” But really it’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Why? Because the person tricks themselves. They justify it to themselves that I’m going to do this thing for a mitzvah. But really, the interest is the pleasure itself. But for a good cause of course, because subconsciously you’re really doing these things for your own passions, for your own desires, because really that’s what you want. But you can’t admit to yourself that you’re doing this for your own personal desires, because that’s embarrassing. Therefore you have to make up a whole philosophy on why it’s right.

A Jewish person could decide he wants to save the whales. Why does he want to save the whales? I’ll tell you why, because he doesn’t want to stay in the beis medrash where he’s supposed to be, learning Torah, working hard. No, he wants to be at the beach and go on expeditions, and travel the world and do all these things. Why? For the good cause of saving the whales, of course. But that’s not what he’s supposed to be doing with his life. He has a higher calling than that. Every Jew has a higher calling than that. But he’s convinced himself for this great cause of saving the whale, he’s doing the biggest mitzvah he could possibly do. And he’s built a whole philosophy around it. But really at the end of the day he just wants to be a beach bum. He wants to go on boats and travel, who knows what he wants to do.

Rav Yisroel Salanter said that the yetzer hara, the evil inclination will let you say Tehillim all day, just as long as you don’t go to the beis medrash and learn Torah b’iyun, in depth learning with hard work. Ah, it’s a mitzvah to say Tehillim. Surely it’s a mitzvah to say Tehillim. But it’s less of a mitzvah. So, if the yetzer hara will trick you to do all these smaller mitzvas, maybe it’s even a mitzvah to save the whales. But that’s the trick of the yetzer hara, in getting you to do the wrong thing instead of doing the right thing, to get you to do the smaller thing instead of doing the bigger thing. And this is an unbelievable yesod, a foundation of all sins. This is why we sin. We justify for ourselves that it’s the right thing to do. We convince ourselves with a whole philosophy, with a whole liberal outlook, that we have to save all these poor refugees, you know? That’s what we have to do. That’s what you’re supposed to do with your life, save Arab refugees. That sounds like a very good cause, doesn’t it? And it may be a good cause, but not for you because if you look deeper inside yourself you’ll see you have a higher calling. The whole goal is to get to your highest calling, to do a cheshbon hanefesh, to figure out in your own soul what are you really supposed to be doing with your life?

And everybody has a yetzer hara. Everybody has all these things pulling in all these different directions, doing the smallest thing and missing the bigger thing. Like they say, “The enemy of great is good.” The Malbim brings a possuk in Mishlei that says, “According to his mind a person is praised. But if his heart goes astray he will be put to shame.” So, the Malbim says, “The heart here symbolizes the raw desire, unfiltered through the criticism of the mind. If he puts the mind in charge, he deserves praise for his intellectual powers. But if he puts the heart in charge, then the mind itself is put to shame. A person will look back on his life after 120 years, “What did I do? How embarrassing, I did the wrong thing. It was only because of my own desires. I put my own desires before my intellect. And I justified to myself that this is the direction I should go in.” If you do that, then you’ll be embarrassed in the end, and that’s it exactly. Embarrassment itself is enough to stop a person. Embarrassment itself is understanding that you really did the wrong thing, that you really did sin, that you put your personal desires before serving God. That’s embarrassing.

The Ramchal says in Sefer Melitzer like this, listen. “Once the will submits to its desires and is no longer drawn to things that it should be, then the tables are turned. And instead of following after the intellect, the intellect is drawn after the will. The intellect thereby loses its power of understanding and the thinking process itself becomes corrupted. The person no longer forms a picture of things the way they are, but rather as his will would like things to be, on the account that it’s subjugated to its desires. Things of great importance begin to be taken lightly, and become unimportant in his eyes. And strong things appear to be weak, and powerful forces seem insignificant. He remains unmoved by things he should rightly be moved by, and unimpressed by what would ordinarily make a strong and lasting impression.” This is unbelievable. In other words, if the desires are in control, the intellect stops working. And that’s how a person comes to sin, because the intellect becomes a slave to the desires, not the opposite. When man was first created and before he sinned, his intellect was in charge and he wasn’t embarrassed. Why was he not embarrassed? Because his desires were a slave to his intellect. In other words, he used all the desires for eating and for drinking, and for being together with his wife. But he did everything le shem shemayim, for the right reason, so he wasn’t embarrassed. But when things switched, so then the intellect started to become a slave to the desires to the will. And that’s why, and that’s what the Satan did. He convinced Chava with philosophical things, with liberalism and progressivism, all of the great philosophies of helping people and doing chessed and kindness, and doing everything for the right cause when in the end, all those things are just a way to free a person up, to go after his own desires. What’s the philosophy of live and let live? I want to do what I want to do. But if you say live and let live is a philosophical thing in the sense that I really care about other people, of course, and it’s very important that everybody has freedom and liberty – but really at the end of the day, what does it come down to? His own desires. He wants to be free. He wants to be liberal. He wants to do what he wants to do. So therefore, he makes a whole philosophy about helping people and caring about people, and liberalism, and freedom. And of course these things are true, but for what reason? For his own personal desires? Of course it has to be freedom and equal rights, and do the right thing, and help people with chessed. But it all has to be leshem shemayim, for the sake of God, not for his own personal desires.

So, the question now is, if this is how sin works and this is what we’re into and we we’re completely absorbed by it, and every human being has it, he’s being driven by a desire so subconscious he thinks he’s doing the right thing, for the good cause. But it’s really his own desires, his own taivas, his own thing. What does it have to do with God? The question is, how do we get out of it? How do we escape this story? Rav Dessler has a solution. He says, “After Adam descended from the world of truth to the world of good and evil,” in other words, really had truth and he knew it was the right thing to do it. But what happens is, he descended. He went into good and evil. Why good and evil? Yeah, we have all kinds of stories why this is good, and why this is wrong, and why this is right. But really, this has nothing to do with truth. Now his task is to pull himself to a higher vantage point. By doing mitzvos and learning Torah with great intensity, he can reach a higher level, the level of truth where evil has lost its attraction, and truth prevails. The answer to this problem is truth, and that’s probably why Rav Dessler calls his book, “Strive for Truth.,” because that’s the goal. In other words, if we do a cheshbon hanefesh, when we check out why we are doing things, what’s pushing us, what’s the truth, why do we want that job, why do we want to live in America, why we want to go over there – why, why, what’s the truth? What’s the real motivating factors inside of our inner being, in our kishkas. And that’s the thing that’s going to save a person from sin. And that’s why Torah, Torah tavlin, the Torah itself is the antidote to sin, because the Torah is truth. And by learning Torah we learn to live truth. And we’re involved in learning Gemara back and forth to see what is the truth, to understand the truth, to build up our intellect, to be able to see through, to penetrate deeper, to see our true motivation and our true desires and where we’re coming from.

And that’s what it says, “Torah leads to zehirus.” If you learn Torah, you’ll come to watchfulness. You’ll come to watch yourself. And that’s what it says in the Path of the Just of the Ramchal it says, in summation, “A person must always in a designated time,” so he’s by himself, “Reflect upon the true path that a person must follow in accordance with the laws of the Torah.” And afterwards, he reflects upon his deeds, do they conform to this path or not? For in this manner it will certainly be easier for him to purify himself from all wrongdoing, and to rectify his ways as it says, ‘Align the course of your feet and thereby all your ways will be corrected.’ And also it says in Eichah, ‘Let us seek out our ways and examine them, and return to the Eternal.’ The solution to sin is truth. Truth is the only thing that’s going to pull you out of sin. Of course we’re too embarrassed to go directly for our own desires. We can’t handle intellectually, we get embarrassed. It’s embarrassing to be self-centered and egotistical. It’s embarrassing. And therefore, we have to make up a whole philosophy on why it’s the right thing to do, and that’s why we sin. So the only way out of that is truth. We have to be intellectually honest with ourselves. We have to look really to see why are we doing, what are we doing, what’s our deeper motivation? And we don’t want to wait for another 100 years for it to happen. We have to do it now. We don’t want to wait to oy, hayom ha din, oy, to the day of judgment, oy leyom hatochacha, oy to the day of rebuke, because we’re going to be rebuked because we were rationalizing why we’re doing everything. But in the end, we’re going to see we were wrong. We didn’t do it for the right reasons. We’re not living the right way. So, with this new foundation we can go forward and really do a spiritual accounting to find the right way back to a true path that we should be living to reach our greatest potential.

0:20:46.3

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings a moshul, parable like this. The verse said, “The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field.” So, one time there was an inn keeper who cooked meals for all the visitors that came to her inn. And her food was so good, that the local village people used to come to eat by her also. Her food was simple and filling, and the price was very reasonable. But what happened, one day she made a large pot of stew and it was coming towards dinnertime. She opens up the top of the pot and she smells it, and it smells bad. She realized that the vegetables went bad inside the stew, but dinner was coming. What was she going to do? You know what she did? She took some very strong spices with a strong smell, and sprinkled them in, so it changed the smell of the soup. When the laborers came down to sit and to eat they said, “Wow. This stew is excellent today. It smells like Gan Eden.” But another person sitting there said, “No, you’re wrong. This dish is completely spoiled. What you smell are the spices covering up the spoiled odor.” That was the moshul, what’s the nimshal? So too, the yetzer hara tries to persuade a person to sin. But the soul itself can smell, this is bad news. But the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, tries to wrap this sin in all kinds of persuasions and temptations to cover up the bad smell. And the worse the smell is, the more the yetzer hara tries to cover it up.

0:22:14.5

Great Rabbis – Rav Shach

The verse in Bereishis says like this. “Cain spoke with his brother, Hevel and it happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against his brother, Hevel, and killed him.” The question really is, what was Cain speaking about with his brother, Hevel? One time in the Ponevitz Yeshiva, Rav Shach’s Yeshiva, all of a sudden there’s a lot of new students and there was no room for them. And they were sitting in the hallways, and they were taking up all the benches. It was very, very crowded. So, one of the boys says, “Why don’t we bring benches, more benches into the beis medrash? But the old students said, “No way. There’s already no room here,” and there started to be a conflict in the Yeshiva. So, when Rav Shach spoke to the Yeshiva he said like this. “What does the Midrash say that Cain was speaking with Hevel before he killed him? One opinion said they were decided to divide the goods of the world. Hevel would get all the movable property, while Cain would get all the real property, all the land. They would start to fight. He says, “Listen, all your clothes belong to me. Give me your clothes.” He says, “Yeah, but the land you’re standing on belongs to me, start flying.” What happened? He rose up and killed him. That’s one Midrash.

But the other Midrash says, “No, they agreed to split all the movable stuff and all the land, and they were fighting on whose land is the Temple going to be?” Rav explained, “When it comes to Midrashic explanations, they’re not mutually exclusive. Both arguments could have been happening at the same time. So here you new boys came to the Yeshiva, and they want to come to the beis medrash. And they’re coming for a good reason. But that same dispute comes to the fact of, ‘Hey, you get out of here. Give me your clothes, or you have to jump, you have to fly in the air.’ And you’ll come to reject them completely.” He said, “Who here is willing to play the role of Cain and fight these boys? They’re coming to learn.” And after that, the fight stopped.

0:24:15.6

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern speaks on shidduchim. Now, some of these ideas are a little bit foreign, and if you’re not a ben Torah it’s hard to understand a little bit – even if you are a ben Torah. He’s talking about the first meeting. He says, “The first meeting between a boy and girl when they’re about to get married is very important, the first shidduch. The Netziv says on the verse where Rivka saw Yitzhak and she fell off the camel, that was because she saw him as a malach. She saw him as an angel, even to the point where years later she had her opinion about Esav and Yaakov, but she held it to herself because she was scared of Yitzhak. Everything follows from the beginning. We know the Torah commands to give the first fruits, because a good start makes all the difference. Every day and night starts with kriyas Shema. Why? Because it’s a beginning. Everything goes according to the beginning.

In your first meeting, when a boy meets a girl, he has to tell her what his goals are. There can’t be any deception, can’t be any tricks, because even though a girl in Beis Yaakov knows she should marry a ben Torah, a guy who sits and learns all day, maybe her heart is not really there. She’s going along with it. This has to be discussed. He has to tell her what it means to be a ben Torah, a person who sits and learns Torah all his life, and the difficulty that entails. Things have to be clear up front”. He says, “Even after the wedding, an avreich has to show his wife what the purpose of life is.” He says, “I see boys after sheva brochas, schlepping around with all their gifts, returning them to stores, to try to exchange them. The boys should have gone to the beis medrash. Okay, maybe not full time, obviously. It’s shana rishona. But he should get up in the morning and go to the beis medrash. He has to show his wife that studying is the most important thing in his life. And even his wife wants him to go out. He says, it’s like a fifth wheel. He’s all the time at home trying to help her, what a big baal chessed he is, helping her. But his wife actually wants him to go to the beis medrash.

Or they spend the first month going to relatives. Every night they’re going to different relatives. It goes on for a month. He says, “It’s a shana rishona, it says the first year not the first month. Every day in the first month you go another relative? It’s ridiculous. If the man brings spirituality into the house from the very beginning, it will continue the entire marriage. The Torah has to be set right. Also, you have to understand that a Jewish marriage is not like marriage in the world. The love comes afterwards. Love doesn’t have to come before. Obviously, there has to be some attraction. But you can’t fool yourself and be in a fantasy, you’re in love, you’re in love. The love comes after time. The verse says, ‘Yitzhak brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rivka to him as a wife.’ And only afterwards does it say, ‘And he loved her.’ First, they got together and afterwards he loved her. The main thing is good character, that she comes from a good family. But all this love that the world pushes is purely based on imagination.” He brings a proof from derech eretz that says, “If you want to cleave to your friend with love, constantly seek what is good for him.” In other words, it’s the giving that creates a love. It’s not because you love, you give. It’s because you give, you love. That’s why Rav Dessler explains, “Ahava, ahav which in Aramaic means to give. Love comes from giving.” That’s the proper Jewish approach to shidduchim. She has good middos, good character. She looks nice, and attractive. That’s all it takes. He also says, “Even after the engagement you have to be very careful. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach used to say, he would stop all meetings after the engagement if he could. Because after the engagement,” he says, “Nothing but trouble – going out to dinner, you wind up in all the situations that are not tznenius, that are not modest, because you really can’t touch each other. You’re not married yet, and you’re going out with this girl. What are you doing there with her?” He says, “It’s not only unnecessary, but it’s downright dangerous.” He says, “No kedusha with the yetzer hara. Holiness and purity were not results of these meetings.” Even though these concepts are fine too in the modern world, but this is the Torah way. This is the right way that shidduchim should go.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post Justifying Our Desires – Matter Over Mind appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

075 Special Holiday Edition – Accepting Your Parameters – Sukkos and Humility

The Torah Podcast Transcript

075 The Torah Podcast – Accepting Your Parameters – Sukkos and Humility

I want to start off with the Shem mi Shmuel who brings down here the war of Gog and Magog. We know that the final war before the Mashiach comes is explained in Yehezkel, and it’s called the war of Gog and Magog. The nations are going to come against Jerusalem. Rav Chai Gaon explains that this is going to happen during Sukkot. The Shem Mi Shmuel brings the Gemara in Berachos 10a that compares Avshalom, the rebellious son of Dovid HaMelech to Gog and Magog. Why? Because they’re also rebellious. They’re rebelling against God. But they’re not rebelling like the other nations rebelled because they were jealous, because they felt that they should become the chosen people. No, they’re just rebelling for the sake of rebelling. It’s completely baseless and it’s an irrational refusal to submit to the will of God. That’s the rebellion of Amalek. Just like we know Amalek came to attack us also after we went out of Mitzrayim, and they knew they weren’t going to win. It didn’t matter. They were just going to show the world that they were going to rebel. And it’s a rebellion just for the sake of rebelling. We see a lot of people have that character. That’s a tremendous character in the world today that people are rebelling just for the sake of rebelling. There are no rules. The only thing that’s forbidden is to say that something’s forbidden. It’s a philosophy in and of itself, the philosophy of rebellion. And it’s a philosophy that states that I don’t want to be bridled by any rules. I am the baal davar. I’m the boss, and I could do whatever I want. Who’s going to tell me what to do? This is my life, and I could do whatever I want with it.

The problem with that is that it’s simply not true. For example, a man cannot become a woman. He can try. He could take drugs and do operations, but at the end of the day he’s still a man. And if people want to do whatever they want, at the end of the day they destroy society, their own society. They’ll destroy themselves and their children’s lives, and their wives’ lives. If people want to kill, so they can wind up that they could get killed also. Or if people want to be sexually immoral, it could wind up they could ruin their family also, just like they were going to affect somebody else’s family, someone else will come along and affect their family. So, it’s not just hefker, it’s not a free for all. If we want society to continue in a proper and a healthy way and to have the best possible life, the answer is not to rebel. It’s to go along with who you are, and the rules of creation, and the rules of society.

The Shem mi Shmuel brings down that the arba minim, four species are against these qualities. For example he says, the three main things that we’re not supposed to do that a Jew is supposed to die for rather than do, is idol worship, murder and sexual immorality. He wants to explain that the esrog, citron, is against idolatry because we know Chazal, our Rabbis says it’s a fruit that the bark and the fruit tastes alike. It’s one. Oneness is against idolatry. And the lulav, palm branch, is supposed to contradict immorality. The lulav’s like the spine of man. And the hadass, willow, is against murder. We know that the hadass is shaped like the eye. Most murder comes about because of jealousy, and people lusting after other things that people have. He adds that the arava, myrtle which is shaped like the lips, that’s against gossip which destroys society. So, we take the arba minim in order to say no, we don’t want to rebel. We want to go in the right way. We want to control our passions for the greater good. He says that the simcha that we have during Sukkos, the happiness that we have when we take the arba minim and we take them to shul and we stand before God with them and we say, “Yes, we want to go in Your way, God. The right way, the healthy way, which we know is a healthy society, a proper society, which is for the benefit and the good of the entire world, for all of us.” And after all the work that we did on Yom Kippur to purify ourselves, to push away the temporary pleasures for the greater good which is maturity, which is understanding that’s the only way that life is going to work, so therefore we have the sukkah, because the sukkah is protection. It’s protecting us from our sins. It’s protecting us from the influence of the world. And it’s giving us a new level of consciousness that we should continue in the way we are going on Yom Kippur, and continue that way in the right direction.

Rav Wolbe explains like this. We know the halacha is that if a sukkah is greater than 20 amos, about 30 feet high, we know that it’s invalid. Why is it invalid if it’s greater, if the schach is above 20 amos? Because it’s not in the person’s consciousness, they can’t see it. When you walk around you don’t look up. You don’t see what’s above. It’s outside your field of vision. He wants to explain that Chazal is telling us a very big secret which is that the knowledge of God has a parallel to the knowledge needed to fulfill one’s obligation of sukkah. A person has to acquire a knowledge of God which is tangible, which is real. The baalei mussar called this emunas chushis, in other words your emunah, your faith is real. Just like you see the sun come up so you believe in God, it’s real. It’s not something in your imagination. It’s not something above 20 amos.

He brings the Vilna Gaon who says that the sukkah has the ability to give us this strength, these ideas that are coming in through the sukkah. The sukkah is a spiritual thing. Why? Because it’s totally unique in the sense it envelops the person. When you are in a sukkah you’re inside the mitzvah – unbelievable. You are totally inside of a mitzvah which symbolizes God’s glory, the clouds of glory and the presence of God which we are totally inside the presence of God as we live this life. And everything hashgacha pratis, everything that’s happening to us is sent by God. God’s involved with us. We’re living as if we’re living inside God. We’re living in the presence of God.

And Rav Dessler brings another aspect of the sukkah. Since the sukkah is a temporary abode, what do we do? We go outside of our houses. In Eretz Yisroel everybody sleeps in a sukkah. We’re outside sleeping in a hut. What does this tell us? He says like this. “It’s to remind us that the whole world is nothing but a temporary abode. All material pleasure and success are transitive, and our dreams of establishing ourselves in a real position in this world are nothing but fantasy.” We’re living in a dream. We think we’re going to live forever in this world. We’re going to have these big houses and castles. We’re going to build up an entire life, but after 120 you leave. Anybody with any seichel, anybody who’s really examining what is life about knows that this world is temporary. And he’s dreaming if he thinks he’s going to live forever. Nobody lives forever.

And another aspect that the Shem mi Shmuel brings by sukkos is that it is during the time of the harvest. He wants to say, “Just like physically we have a time of the harvest, we also spiritually have a time of the harvest.” He says, “It’s like a spiritual reaping. The sum total of this ingathering is the real person which represents what he made of himself after the layers of dross have been removed. And it’s the true person he’s going to be for the rest of the year.” In other words, right after Yom Kippur we go into a sukkah at that time of gathering, which means we get in contact with who we really are and where we’re really holding. After we worked on ourselves, everything has calmed down now. We’re in a state of happiness because our sins have been forgiven but at the end of the day, who are we now? Who’s the real person?

This is the difference between the Jews and Amalek. Here we are, the Jews. We’re in this sukkah. We’re humble before God. We’re willing to do His ratzon, His will. How can we possibly rebel with the awareness that we’re living in a temporary world, standing in front of God in a small sukkah. How can we possibly rebel? And where did we get this quality from? From Aaron haCohen. We know that the zechus, the clouds of glory which we have during sukkos which a sukkah represents which is the clouds of glory, come from Aaron haCohen. What was the middah of Aaron? Humility. The Shem mi Shmuel says, “Aaron personified bashfulness.” This is of course, the absolute opposite of the arrogant, self-seeking nature of Amalek and his spiritual inheritors, Gog and Magog. That’s why we have the clouds of glory at the time of sukkos, because it’s the antithesis of Amalek. We’re not rebelling.

We’re humble. Anybody with any seichel, any intelligence, sees that this world is temporary and understands that for society to work, he has to go in the way of God, in the way of mitzvos, not to murder and not to steal, and not to run after immorality. How is life going to work? He’s humble, he understands that the world was made of rules – a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl, and can’t change that. There are rules in life. That’s exactly why these people want to change all these things. What’s the real philosophy behind all the stuff that’s going on in the world today? There are no rules. We can change everything. We have science, you know? We could change everything and anything, but it’s nonsense. Man is nothing. What is man? When we move into our little sukkah we understand that we are in a temporary dwelling in a temporary life, with a small amount of influence. We are all subdued by this world and God’s standing before us, with us as His creations, and understanding that we cannot rebel. It’s not worth it to rebel. We have to live as we were created, to do the right thing, to push away our temporary pleasures for the bigger good, for the greater good. And in the end, any success that any person ever had, and any pleasure, real pleasure that a person has was by pushing away the temporary desire to rebel, to succeed in anything.

If you want to become a great athlete, you can’t rebel. You have to get up every morning. You have to go exercise. You want to become a great writer, you’re going to have to write every day. You want to become a great businessman, you’re going to have to work every day. That is the nature of life. And that’s where the real happiness comes from, and that’s what sukkah is coming to teach us – not to rebel, and to be humble like Aaron haCohen and to accept that God is the Master of the Universe.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 075 Accepting Your Parameters – Sukkos and Humility appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

The Torah Podcast Transcript

074 The Torah Podcast – Connect with the Essence of Life – Yom Kippur

Rav Dessler starts out by saying, even though we know there’s a principle in the Torah called lo lishma, bo lishma, that if you do something for the wrong reason, eventually you’ll come to do it for the right reason. For example, even if you learn Torah lo lishma, you’re learning it for kavod, honor, or who knows what, eventually you’ll come to learn it for pure motives. Or you might be doing mitzvos to show off, and eventually you’ll do the mitzvos and you’ll come to pure motives.

The way it works is that the outer movements affect the inner. But when it comes to repentance he says it doesn’t apply. It’s not going to help you from the outside in. You have to start from the inside. You have to awaken your heart, your inner spark, with a direct decision to come back to Hashem. He says like this. “True teshuva can only come from concentrating on the point of truth in one’s heart – the spark of truth that has the power to penetrate the wall that we erect around our hearts. Emotions are valuable.” He says, “They can open up the heart for the truth to penetrate, but only a deliberate and determined attempt to penetrate that opacity and reveal the point of truth beneath it, only that will lead to teshuva. Like the possuk says, ‘After the storm and the earthquake and the fire must come the still, small voice of clear, inner perception.’ We see from here that the avoda on Yom Kippur is to cut to the essence of our beings, to get to the very, very foundation. If we do that, there’s a chance that we can really return to Hashem.”

And we can see this clearly in the siddur, prayer book. What changes do we make during the ten days of repentance? The first change we make in the first beracha, blessing of the shemona esrei, we add the words, “Zachreinu lechaim,” remember us for life, “Melech chofetz bechaim,” that You desire life. “Katveinu be sefer hachaim,” write us in the book of life. “Le ma’ancha Elokim chaim,” the God of life. Everything there’s to remind us about life. Then on the next beracha it says, “Zocher yetzerav lechaim”, remember us for life. Later on it says, “Vekatevu chaim tovim,” write us for a good life. At the end we say, “Besefer chaim, beracha veshalom.” All the extras in the siddur are prayers for life, the most basic, fundamental thing that we have is our lives. And this is the only way that we can return to Hashem by realizing that our lives are dependent on Hashem, when we contemplate our own mortality, when we realize that the basis for everything we have is life itself.

Chazal tells us that everything that’s physical has six dimensions. You have the four directions and you have up and down. But there’s another dimension, the seventh dimension. And that dimension, that’s where the thing stands. That gives the place for the thing to exist. That gives the place for existence. That’s why it’s the most important dimension. That’s why the seventh day is represented by Shabbos. Shabbos is the most important day of the week, and Tishrei is the seventh month, the most important month of the year. During this month where we get back to the foundation, to our very existence, to the fact that we’re here, we have a place, and we exist. This theme is constantly repeated on Yom Kippur. Rav Wolbe says, “There are two days, two holidays in the year when we say the term, ‘be’etzem hayom hazeh,’ in the midst of this very day.’ It only says that by Yom Kippur and Shavuos. And the Ramban explained that that terminology reflects that those days where it says, “in the midst of this very day.” can bring atonement. Those are days of atonement. What’s interesting and unique about them is both Shavuos and Yom Kippur do not have any physical mitzvos. There’s no shofar, ram’s horn. There’s no sukka, booth. There’s no arba minim, four species. There’s no matza, unleavened bread. What do you do on Shavuos and Yom Kippur? The answer is, that this atonement that we can receive on these two days is through the feeling that we have in our hearts. It’s a day where the avoda is the avodas halev, the work of the heart. Our commitment to live by the Torah and to do the right thing, that is the avoda of the day. There are no other mitzvos. He says, “These days cannot be accessed with our hands, but only with our hearts.” That’s why we spend the whole day in shul, synagogue, because it’s avodas halev. The whole service, the whole thing we’re supposed to be doing on Yom Kippur is connecting with our hearts to our Creator.

The Sefas Emes says, “Yom Kippur hu yom echad miyhud beshana.” Yom Kippur is a day that’s unique in the entire year. “Me ain olam haba,” It’s like the world to come. Why is it like the world to come? Because when we do not eat and we do not drink, we take on the behavior of melachim, of angels. We become like angels. Yom Kippur is a day le mala min hateva, above nature. It defies the normal rules of our everyday life during the rest of the year. It’s like a supernatural day. We have the ability to uplift ourselves, to become new people, to change ourselves. It’s much, much easier.  Chazal tells us that Yom Kippur is a day lechaper al benei Yisroel, it’s a day to atone for the sins of the Jewish people, achas beshana, one time during the year. It’s one special day. The gematria, the value of the numbers, of Ha Satan, of the yetzer hara, of the evil inclination, equals to 364. We’re missing one day, which day? In other words, the Satan, the evil inclination of a person, his drive to do physical things, is completely removed on that one day. Which day is that? Yom Kippur we’re like angels. We have the ability to get in touch with our true essential selves.

But what does that mean, to connect to our true, essential selves? It means that we have consciousness. We are aware that life is a gift. The Ramban says the three basic fundamentals of emunah, of faith in God – first, that God exists. Second, that there’s hashgacha pratis, that God runs the world. And third, the Torah is min hashemayim, from the heavens. Those three things, Rav Chatzkel explains, have to do with the three parts of the davening of Rosh Hashana. The first part is malchius, that Hashem is the King. Hashem exists. The second part is zichronos, the hashgacha pratis to remember all the maasim, all the things that happened to man throughout history. And the shofar has to do with Torah is min hashemayim. He says, “These three things will bring a person to teshuva, when he realizes that there’s Hashem and his whole life is dependent upon hashgacha pratis. Everything that happens to him is min hashemayim. Every person he meets, everything he hears. All his blessings and all of his curses and all the things that are happening in his life are dependent on God. And third, the Torah is min hashemayim.

What’s the compass by which we have to live our lives? How do we know the right way to go? It’s the Torah. This is the teshuva that we need to do on Yom Kippur, to realize that we’re here as a gift. God’s giving us life, zachreinu lechaim, remember us for life. This is truly an opportunity for us. It’s a blessing. It’s a tremendous blessing, Yom Kippur.

It’s not a fast like Tisha B’Av. It’s a fast where we become like angels. It’s a fast where we’re lemala min hateva, we’re above nature. It’s a chance to really connect, because during the rest of the year we’re not so connected. Chazal tells us that in the end of days when God is going to shecht the yetzer hara, He’s going to kill the evil inclination, he says a tremendous stench, a tremendous, horrible smell is going to come into the world. Why is that? Now, what smells the worst? I’ll tell you what smells the worst. A dead person, that’s what smells the worst. Why is that? Because the higher something is, the more life something has, when you take away that life force and it rots it has the worst smell. So, why is it true that when Hashem is going to schecht the yetzer hara there’s going to be a tremendously bad smell? Because most people in the world put tons of life energy into their yetzer haras. Their essential life direction, their essential purpose for living is in the yetzer hara. It’s going shopping, and doing this and doing that. They’re missing the point of what life is about. They’re not doing avodas Hashem at all, so of course when they schecht that yetzer hara it’s going to stink, because the whole world’s putting their life force into the yetzer hara. But now we have a chance on Yom Kippur, one time a year, where the Satan, the yetzer hara’s not in the picture any more. We go to shul, we stay there all day. We don’t eat, we don’t drink. We’re like angels. We can contact our inner selves. It’s le mala min hateva, above nature. That’s when we can hear like the possuk said, “The still, small voice,” the consciousness, the awareness that wow, I’m alive. It’s the greatest miracle in the world that I can move my finger. What could be a greater miracle than I can see, a person can see, a person can hear, a person has consciousness, a person’s awake, a person’s aware, a person’s alive. What could be a greater miracle than that? A person has to ask himself, “What am I doing here? Why am I here? Why am I alive? How did I become alive? How did I get here?” If a person would go to sleep at night and he would wake up the next morning in a tent in the Sahara Desert, wouldn’t he get out of bed and say, “How did I get here?” The same thing in your own room. You wake up in the morning, modeh ani, thank you God, I’m alive, I’m here. What am I doing here? How did I get here? Who am I? These are the questions of Yom Kippur. Life! why am I alive?

Rav Moshe Shapiro explains that it’s these feelings that brings us to purity. You’ve got to hear this. He says in Masechta Yoma it says – there we’re dealing with all the laws of Yom Kippur. He explains the possuk, the possuk says, “Mikveh Yisroel Hashem,” Hashem is the mikveh of the Jewish people. Hashem purifies the Jewish people. What does the Sefer haChinuch say? The Sefer haChinuch says, “The reason why a mikveh purifies us is because it brings us back into the state of water.” We go into water, which is the original state of creation. We go back to our very beginnings, our creation. And by immersing ourselves in the mikveh, we go back to tohu ve vohu, we go back to before we were created. It’s those things that purify us. When we contact the reality, that we came out of nothing, yeish meayim, we’re not supposed to exist and we’re here and we exist, and we have chaim, that’s the thing that purifies us. Mikveh Yisroel Hashem. By connecting with Hashem and the fact that He created us, that’s what makes us pure.

I just want to end off with the Shem Mi Shmuel, he says like this. “Every person consists of three parts – the body, the soul and the intellect.” He wants to explain that the intellect is taken care of on Rosh Hashana. Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the year is also rosh, it means the head, the head of the year. On Rosh Hashana we think about two days we’re spending contemplating that Hashem is the Melech, Hashem is the King. We’re directing our intellect to serve God. When do we take care of the soul? Yom Kippur. We bring kapparos. We shecht a chicken and we say, “bimkom,” instead of God-forbid, the person themselves, the chicken is going to slaughter, that it should be a soul for a soul. When do we refine our bodies? On the meal before Yom Kippur. That meal is a mitzvah, where we can demonstrate that eating can be for a holy purpose. Once we submitted our intellect, our body and our soul to Hashem, at that point we can enter into Yom Kippur with holiness, with a clear mind and the heavenly help to really contact the essence of life. And therefore, to come back to Hashem with a full heart, full of appreciation for life. And have charota that we should feel bad for our sins. How could we go against the Master of the Universe who gives us life? How is it possible? And with those two perceptions we will come back to be a true eved Hashem, a servant of the Creator.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 074 Connect with the Essence of Life – Yom Kippur appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Shoftim – How to Be Here Now- Whole Hearted and Present – A Powerful Parable about Two Students – A Great Story about Rav Shlomo Eiger and Peace in Your Home – Rav Moshe Aaron Stern – Mashgeach of Kamenitz – Praying for a Spouse

The Torah Podcast Transcript

070 The Torah Podcast – How to be Here Now – Whole Hearted and Present

Torah Portion of the Week – Shoftim

In Devarim 18:13 the verse says like this, “You should be whole hearted with Hashem your God, for these nations that we are possessing, they listen to astrologers and diviners. But as for you, not so has Hashem your God given for you. It’s only for them, but it’s not for you.” Rashi says on the verse, “Walk with Him with whole heartedness. Look ahead to Him, and do not delve into the future. But rather, whatever comes upon you accept with whole heartedness. And then you will be with Hashem, and of His portion.” In other words, if you accept whatever happens with a whole heart, then you’re going to be with Hashem. That’s exactly what the Malbim says, “Since it says your God, you cling to Hashem with a pure heart. And you’re not trying to know the future. And if you shall be whole hearted, then Hashem will be your God.” What do you mean, “your God?” You will be close to Hashem, and He will be your God. And His providence will be evidence upon you.” This is exactly how to get close to God, to rely on God. When we rely on God by definition we’re close to God.

The Malbim adds on this that God gave it to the Jewish people, and this is how we’re going to succeed, by doing the mitzvos. He says, “How can a person go around wasting time to fortune tellers and astrologers to try to figure out the future? They should be learning Torah and doing mitzvos. It’s not the Jewish way.” Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that there’s two aspects to this. One aspect is, we have to overcome our natural curiosity to what’s going to be in the future. He says, “We’ve been commanded to not be involved with it, but just be here now and do what we have to do, and not be trying to figure out what’s going to be in the future.” The second aspect is that we should not worry about the future. And if we’re supposed to do something now, so we have to be somech, we have to rely that Hashem is going to help us. If it’s clear that we’re supposed to do it now, we don’t have to worry about the outcome. Hashem is going to take care of it.

Rav Wolbe says on this, that it’s human nature to think more about the future. We are more worried about the future and all of its possibilities than we are focused on the now. One of the reasons that it’s hard to focus on the now, is because we can’t see the totzaot, we don’t see the ramifications of what we’re doing now. So, even when we try to be in the now, it’s hard to stay there because we’re not sure of the outcome of our actions. We’re always looking to the future, what’s going to be from what we’re doing now.

Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains, “This is exactly the purpose of what it means to be tamim, pure, whole hearted.” He says, “Someone who’s whole hearted is so completely engrossed in God that he thinks only of his duties that he must perform at the present moment. And for success in the whole future, he puts his trust in God. By fulfilling his duty, he has already attained the supreme call of his doing and not doing.” In other words, he only has to do what’s now. That’s the way he looks a life. It doesn’t matter what’s going to come out in the future, that’s not his business. Someone who is whole heartedly serving God just looks in the moment. He has to look now, what do I need to do now? And if he does that, that means he’s fulfilled his duty which brings peace of mind. He’s not worried. On the other hand the verse says, “And as for those nations who you are to succeed,” the nations that are in Eretz Yisroel that we were going to push out, “They’re going after astrology.” Rav Hirsch explains, “They have lost their inner stability, and to them success is everything.” You hear this? A person who has inner stability is not worried about success. But a person who’s not stable doesn’t know what’s going to be and they’re not sure of himself, he always has to prove himself on the outside. They need to succeed to satisfy their passions or attain honor. And in chasing after success, they feel helpless. Why? They feel subject to the randomness of the external world, over which a person has no control. And this world doesn’t share in man’s sorrow or happiness. It has no understanding of what a person feels. The world is shrouded in mystery. It poses man a thousand unsolved riddles. It appears before man like a sealed book.” So, a person who’s not whole hearted, he’s lost himself. He’s lost his stability. He has to always prove himself on the outside. He’s always worried about all these things. He has to “succeed.” What do you mean, succeed? Just do what you need to do now, and this is the Jewish success. That’s what it means to be whole hearted.

Rav Hirsch continues, “He has already all that you require for the accomplishment of your life’s mission. Right now, you have everything you need to do. What a beautiful word, to study, to teach and to observe the Torah. That is your sum of your total task in life. We can do mitzvos right now. Each moment you can do the mitzvah. That’s what it means, to walk whole heartedly. You don’t have to worry what’s going to come out. You don’t have to get astrologers to figure out what’s going to happen in the future. You’re not worried about the future. Why are they getting astrologers? Because the world’s unstable. What’s going to be? We have to figure out what’s going to be. But a person who walks whole heartedly with God he has emuna, he has faith. He knows that everything that God is doing is for the good.”

Rav Hirsch also says in Shemos like this. “Real faith doesn’t just mean that there’s a God. And not only the fact that there’s only one God, but it’s more than that. It’s the fact that this one, unique true God is my God. He created and formed me, placed me where am, and goes on creating and forming me. He keeps me, watches over me, leads me and guides me. Every present breath that I draw and every coming moment of my existence is a direct gift of God. Therefore every moment I need to serve God, because He’s in charge of my fate. Emuna in God actually means fully trusting and therefore being submissive to God Himself, and to place one’s life fully in God’s hand. Therefore emuna in God means to submit one’s entire life, its development, education, actions and values to God.”

And the Maharal in Gemara Makkos says like this, on the verse tzaddik b’emunah yichyeh, a tzaddik, a righteous person, lives by his faith. He says, “Attachment to God is the essence of faith. This is not something that can be done partially or half-heartedly. Emuna itself is the attachment one has to God.” Our connection to God is to be here now, that’s our connection, and not being worried about the future, and knowing that we are totally dependent upon Him. One of the chiddushim, novel thoughts that I got out of all of this was that sometimes hope, hoping for this and hoping for that, can have the opposite effect. Everybody says you need hope for the future, of course. But if you think your dreams are going to come out exactly the way you want them to come out, that’s going to have the opposite effect. Why? Because you’re always worrying, “What’s happening with my dream?”

A person doesn’t really know how he’s supposed to make a kiddush Hashem, how Hashem wants to reveal Himself through him in the world. For example, a person’s worried about his kids. What’s going to be with my kids? This kids’ going that way, and that kid’s going this way. But who says? Who says all your kids have to go in the way you want them to go? Who says  that’s the way you’re going to make a kiddush Hashem? That’s the way you’re going to bring God into the world? Maybe your kids have to do what they have to do, but the way you relate to them, that’s what’s bringing God into the world. You don’t have to be worrying about what’s in the future, that things are not going your way. You have to submit to his way. And this removes all the worry.

It’s an unbelievable chiddush really, because everybody’s dreaming about the perfect future. And everybody’s hoping everything is going to work out. What do you mean, work out? Work out their way, what they think is the way it should work out. That’s what it means, to work out, that you’re going to be rich and healthy, and your kids are all going to be on the derecho, path, and everything is going to be great. That has nothing to do with you, and that may not be Hashem’s plan. Lo aleynu, people’s relatives do get sick. Things happen, things happen to our kids and relatives, and wives, and families, many things are happening. It doesn’t mean it’s going to come out in the perfect world that you think is perfect. But it’s a perfect world according to Hashem. And by you living in the moment with emuna and not looking to the future, that’s what’s going to bring your peace of mind. And that’s what Hashem wants. That’s what the possuk is saying, “You shall be whole hearted with Hashem your God.” And you should not be doing what the astrologers are doing, and looking to the future. You should be doing what you have to do now.

But like I said, the chiddush that I heard is normally you think you need to dream. But sometimes your dreams are taking away from the now. The Torah wants you to be in reality. The reality of what’s happening now. When you finally accept what’s happening now, then you get peace of mind, and then you move forward. And then you’re an eved Hashem, you’re a servant of God. And this is exactly what the Ohr haChayim says on the verse. He says, “Other religions are terrified of the phenomena of nature, and they have to take precautions against any disasters that the stars foretell. But we who are convinced that Hashem always has our best interests at heart, we do not need to be terrified. We need to be tamim whole hearted with Hashem, and at ease with Hashem, relaxed.” He continues and he says, “All these signs in the heavens they don’t apply to us. The Jews are above, we’re lemala min hateva. Like Avraham Avinu wasn’t supposed to have children, but he had children, and we’re here.”

The Rambam brings down, “There’s only one thing you need to fear, and that’s Hashem Himself. We have to believe whole heartedly that Hashem does everything.” And he says, “Everything that happens to a man is dependent on how close he is to God.” That’s what we need to be worried about. And he’s medakdek, exacting, from the Onkelos because the Onkelos says in his second part of the possuk, “You shouldn’t fear the bad tidings of the fortune teller. But you should fear if you’re deficient in your avodas Hashem.” It’s just the opposite. If you want things to come out good, you have to focus on the now, and not worry about the future. Worrying about the future and trying to do cheshbonos according to the future, that’s going to come out to be bad. Ada raba, forget about the future. Don’t worry about the future. What do you need to worry about right now? Your connection to Hashem right now and every person has that in their control. They can grab that right now that moment, and come close to Hashem. Like the Malbim said, “If you shall be whole hearted then you will be with Hashem your God.” You will be close to Hashem, and He will be your God. It’s the moment, it’s the present. That’s the thing that brings us close to God, not something that’s going to happen in the future.

This is the beautiful mussar, the direction that we receive from God from this verse, “You shall be whole hearted with Hashem your God.” Such a powerful verse, such an important concept. It always falls in the first week of Elul, to prepare ourselves for Rosh Hashana, to accept upon ourselves ol malchut shemayim, to do the will of God, because that’s our only hatzlacha, that’s our only success. That’s the Jewish way, is to be in the moment and to do the will of God, and accept upon ourselves everything that He asks from us, and to accept upon ourselves everything that’s going to happen in the future, because he’s the one in control, and He knows what’s good for us. And we have faith in Him. We’re not worried. We’re not worried about the end of the world. We’re not worried about global warming. We’re not worried about all the craziness that’s happening. We’re only worried about one thing, like the Rambam said, “Are we close to God or not close to Him?”

0:13:07.6

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings the verse from this week’s Parsha, “Do not learn to perpetuate the abominations of those nations.” He brings the moshul. He says, “One time a person came into a classroom where a Rebbe was teaching two students. The two students weren’t paying attention. The two students were distracted and they didn’t understand what the Rebbe was saying. After the class, the Rebbe started to scream at one of them, he’s going to give him a punishment, why is he not listening, what’s going on with him? The person asked him, ‘Why are you screaming at one of them. What about the other boy? Didn’t they both not learn? Didn’t they both not pay attention?’ He says, ‘It’s true. But one boy is much more talented, he has a much deeper grasp. The other boy barely understands. So, the one I expected more from, that’s the one that I punished.” What’s the nimshal, conclusion? So too, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Hashem is more strict with the Jewish people. He expects more from us. He expects us to rise above.

0:14:09.8

Great Stories – Rav Shlomo Eiger

The verse in Shoftim says, “For the bribe will blind the eyes of the wise.” This is a famous story about Rav Shlomo Eiger. He was the son of Rabbi Akiva Eiger. What happened, Rav Shlomo Eiger had a rich father-in-law, and his first name was Hersh. He promised the first grandchild that’s named after him after he passed away is going to receive the inheritance from his grandfather. What happened? After the grandfather passed away, after Hersh passed away, he had a child, Rav Shlomo Eiger, and he named him Hersh, so he’s supposed to get the inheritance. But what happened is, the baby died. After that, his sister-in-law also had a baby and they named him Hersh. So, now the inheritance is supposed to go to her son. So, who does it go to?

They went to the Chemdas Shlomo and he’s going to decide who it goes to. Rav Chemdas Shlomo said, “Listen, I need to think about this for a couple of weeks. Come back in two or three weeks.” Fine, they waited. In the meantime what happened? Rav Shlomo Eiger researched the whole thing and he’s sure that the din, judgement is going to go towards him. He was the first one to have the baby. He named the baby after his father-in-law, he’s supposed to get it. What’s the difference if the baby passed away? He’s sure he’s right. So, then they come to the Chemdas Shlomo and he decides that the sister-in-law is supposed to get the money. He doesn’t understand. He says, “Listen, I have this whole paper. I wrote this whole thing up. I researched everything. I’m 100 percent sure that I’m supposed to get the money.” He said, “You know what? If my father knew about this story, surely he would pasken like me. He would go according to me.” The Chemdas Shlomo said, “That’s exactly why I told you to wait. I wrote a letter to your father and your father paskened that the money should go to your sister-in-law, not to you.” What do we learn from this story? Like the possuk says, “For the bribe will blind the eyes of the wise.”

I saw in one of the meforshim that’s it’s built into the nature of man. If a person has nogea bedavriv, he’s going to gain something, even if he’s the greatest of sages he’s still going to lean his mind in the direction where he gains.

0:16:20.9

Peace in Your Home

I wanted to start teaching from the sefer of Rav Moshe Aaron Stern who was the mashgiach of Kamenitz. His first piece is on praying for a spouse. The verse says, “Al zos yispallel kol chassid.” The Gemara in Brochos explains that a chossid has to daven for his wife. He has a difficulty, wait a second. We know that the zivug, a soulmate is determined 40 days before a baby is born, so what’s this prayer about? He explains that nothing happens, even though it’s true, but nothing happens without prayer. Just like by Adam haRishon, the earth didn’t give forth any kind of vegetation until he prayed and it caused the rain. So, even if the potential is there. You still have to pray in order to bring out the potential. He explains that a person should never pray for a particular woman. “I want this woman to be my wife,” he shouldn’t be praying like that. He should be praying for his wife, whoever she is. But not a particular woman, because the Yerushalmi Kesubos says, “It is possible through prayer to preempt and get somebody else’s zivug. If you do pray for another woman you might wind up with that woman. But what’s going to happen? It’s not going to last.” That’s what the Gemara says.

What does the Pnai Moshe say on that? He says, “The husband will pass away. He’ll pass away and she’ll wind up with the other zivug. So, you shouldn’t pray for a particular woman.” He brings down the Moed Katan that why you shouldn’t daven in such a manner, because in the end you’re going to deny Hashem. Why are you going to deny Hashem? The Tashbatz answers, “Because you’re not going to be answered.” In other words, you’re praying for the wrong woman and it’s going to wind up that the woman is going to go to somebody else. You’re going to lose your faith. Why is it so difficult? We know the Chazal says that bringing zivugim together, bringing soul mates together, is more difficult than the splitting of the Red Sea. What does that mean? Because the person’s needs have to be nullified. People think, “I want this one, I want this woman, that lady, this guy.” Everybody’s thinking about these particular people, so Hashem has to nullify their desires in order for them to get the right zivug. Not only that, if you do pray for a particular man or a woman you could get punished. Why? Because it’s like a demand, and the Jews were punished when they demanded, when they said to Hashem, “Please give us water,” they were demanding the water. It’s forbidden to pray in a way that you’re demanding something.

He ends off by saying that even though it’s true that we do have to pray for our zivug but you should know, it could happen in a minute. Many times you have a guy or a woman who didn’t get married for years and years and in two or three days all of a sudden they’re engaged already. It happens chic-chock, just like the Chofetz Chaim explained. When Yosef was taken out of the pit, the verse says, “They rushed him out of the pit.” Why? His time was up. Also when we went out of Mitzrayim, Egypt, it was on the exact day after 430 years on that exact day we went out, because when the time comes, it comes and Hashem makes it happen.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends and please leave comments. I just wanted to mention that I have a free course on Torah logic, it’s called Torah Logic Essentials, and you can find it at the Global Yeshiva. So, please go there and check it out. I think you would enjoy it.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 070 How to Be Here Now- Whole Hearted and Present appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

073 Torah Portion of the Week – Nitzavim – No Excuses on Rosh Hashanah – The Torah is Not in Heaven – A Powerful Parable about the Special Cake – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Marrying the Daughter of a Torah Scholar

The Torah Podcast Transcript

073 -The Torah Podcast – No Excuses on Rosh Hashanah – The Torah is not in Heaven

Torah Portion of the Week – Nitzavim

Chapter 30 in Devarim starts out like this. It will be that when all these blessings come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I’ve presented before you, then you will take it to your heart among all the nations where Hashem your God had disbursed you. And you will return to Hashem your God and listen to his voice, according to everything that I commanded you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul.” The Ramban explains that this is the future. This is the final ingathering of all the exiles. This is a prophesy that hasn’t happened yet. And it continues exactly that “Hashem your God will return your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will gather you from the peoples where Hashem your God has scattered you.” This is exactly what’s happening today. All the Jews are coming back to Eretz Yisroel. The Arabs are moving all over the world. This is going to cause the Jews, all the Jews to come back to Eretz Yisroel. In verse eleven we turn to the time frame where this Torah is actually being said. What does it say there? “For this commandment that I have commanded you today, it is not hidden from you and is not distant. It is not in the heavens for you to say, “Who could ascend to the heavens for us and take it for us? Let us hear it, so that we could perform it. Nor is it across the sea for you to say, ‘Who can cross the other side of the sea for us to take it, and let us hear it so that we could perform it? Rather the matter is very near to you, and is in your mouth and in your heart to perform it.’  Rashi explains, it’s talking about learning Torah. He says that it is not in the heavens because if it was in the heavens, you’d have to go up after it in order to learn it. That’s how important learning is. And the point here is there is no excuse not to learn Torah. It’s close, you could understand it. It’s available, and we’re commanded to learn.

Rabbeinu Bachye explained it says four times the word “it”. Where is that? It says, “It is not hidden from you,” velolo rechok hi, and it is not distant from you, “ve lo bashamayim hi,” and it’s not in the heaven, “velo me’ever hayam hi,” and it is not over the sea. So, why does it say “it” four times? Rabbeinu Bachye explains, it refers to the four fundamental elements of creation. And it also refers to the four patriarchs who were on the kisei hakavod in the shemayim, Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov and Dovid. In other words, the Torah is the most fundamental thing of this creation in this world and in the heavens, and it’s the purpose of creation, and it’s the purpose of what we need to do with our lives. Every Jewish man is commanded to learn Torah, and every Jewish woman is commanded to help their husbands and sons learn Torah. That’s how a woman gets her next world, by sending her sons and husbands to the beis medrash.

Rav Dessler has a question. The verse said, “And it is very close to you, it is in your mouth and your heart to do.” He says, “I understand that in your heart that brings you close to God. But how could something in your mouth, because it’s in your mouth that brings you close to God?” He brings a possuk in Iyov that says, “Man is born to toil.” The Gemara in Sanhedrin explains, “What is the toiling referring to? The toil with his mouth. Man was created to work with his mouth.” He says, “If a person gets used to speaking about Torah and holiness, this will have a tremendous influence on his thought patterns and also on his emotions.” He gives an example. He says, “If a heavy truck starts to roll backwards down a hill and the brakes have failed, and the engine’s off, so the only way he’s going to get that truck to stop rolling down that hill is if he turns the engine on.” It’s the same thing with speech. Speech is the engine of the soul. Speech has the power to bring our knowledge and bear upon our heart. If we’d only fill our speech with Torah and wisdom and mussar, this is the toiling that the Rabbis were talking about. That’s what the verse says, “It is in the power of our mouth and our heart to do. This is the essential way that we’re going to change ourselves before Rosh Hashana, and before Yom Kippur, it’s the Torah itself by learning Torah, talking Torah, discussing it with your friends and your family. The Torah itself is the koach to bring us back to Hashem.

But the Sefas Emes explains, “It’s not just talking in coffee shops about the Torah. For a man it’s much more than that. You need yegiah, where do we know that? Because Rashi says, ‘If it was in shemayim, so you would have to go up to the shemayim and get it.’ That’s the kind of effort it takes. He says, “This easy access to the Torah applies only to a person who yearns for Torah with his whole heart. That is, we are talking about here a person who is attached emotionally and spiritually to Torah. So much so, that he would go up to heaven to get it if he had to. But then the Torah would not be distant, for this personality, for this person who is willing to do everything for Torah, that person has the Torah available.

Rav Wolbe says, “Despite the great distance that separates Hashem from his creations, we have the ability to bridge this gap with the Torah that is near to us.” He brings the Kuzari that explains it’s not just talking about the next world. We’re not just doing Torah and mitzvos in the next world. We’re doing it for this world, in this world, through learning Torah and talking in Torah, we’re bringing Hashem close to us. The Kuzari explains, “It doesn’t say if you do this, after you die I will bring you to a place of pleasure.” Rather, the Torah says, ‘It will be for Me a nation, and I will be for you a God and I will guide you.’ The purpose of the Torah is to bring us close to Hashem in this world, now. And this is the learning of Torah, and speaking in Torah and thinking about Torah. This is the vehicle that brings us close to God and brings God close to us.”

Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains, “The preceding verses had to do with the future destiny of the Jewish people. The entire history of the world, where in the end God will gather up all the Jewish people and bring them back to Yerushalayim, to Eretz Yisroel.” He says, “This verse which  comes right after, which is the fulfillment of God’s Torah transmitted to us through Moshe, this is the sole basis of our destiny in all times, and the foundation and our hopes in our future.” In other words, the Jewish people’s destiny is dependent on learning Torah, being involved in Torah. And what does it mean, that it’s not beyond your understanding? Don’t say, “How can I possibly understand the Torah? Don’t say it’s not accessible because it’s not in heaven. And don’t say the Torah is in the realm of the supernatural. Nothing of it remains in heaven. It’s all on the earth. And don’t say it’s over the sea. Don’t say it depends on all these different circumstances, I coulda, shoulda, woulda. You have to have everything set up. It’s not true,  it’s very close to you.

Look what he says. “The subject and the content of this Torah are very close to you, closer than anything else. Why? For you yourself are its subject, and your life on earth is its content. In order that you understand both the subject and the content of the Torah, you need only to delve into your own inner self and examine your earthly human relationship with open eyes. To study the Torah with mind and heart, guided by the oral tradition, in order to know and fulfill it’s commandments. That is the only way in which the Torah could be acquired. This way is accessible to everyone, everywhere, always, and is the only way in which we will be able to understand God’s Torah and learn from it our eternal mission on earth.” In other words, the learning of Torah is the purpose of a Jew, and it’s the purpose of a Jewish family, that the father and the son should be learning Torah, and the women and the sisters should be supporting Torah. It’s the highest thing that a Jew can do.

But listen to what Rav Schwab has to say about this. There’s an earlier possuk in this week’s Parsha that says like this, 29:18. “When he hears the statements of his oath curse, he will imagine himself blessing and saying, ‘Peace will be my lot, and I shall follow my thoughts and visions so that the quenched may be added to the thirsty.’” In other words, a person can’t say, “Don’t worry, I have my own idea of what Judaism is about, and I’ll have peace.” So, he brings down in Tanach, thirst is always a metaphor for the desire of Torah learning.  A person is thirsty. Why? It says in Bava Kama 17:A on the verse of Yeshayahu that says, “Everyone who is thirsty go to the water.” What’s water? Water is always a symbol for Torah. Ain mayim elah Torah, lwater always means Torah. So, what is this person saying? He’s saying, “I’ll be satisfied. I’ll have peace. I shall have peace and walk without Torah study.” But what does the next verse say, “Hashem will be unwilling to forgive him.” So, he wants to say, “Those who believe that the constant study of Torah is not an absolute requirement of Judaism, those who are satisfied with the performance of other mitzvos alone are committing a grave and perhaps an unforgivable sin. Judaism without Torah is just another religion. It’s not the will of God. Rituals come into all religions. It’s this unique quality of Yiddishkeit, of Judaism, the special relationship with Hashem that a Jew achieves only through Torah study. This is what makes us different than all the nations. This is what really makes us Jewish.

And this has always been the focus through all of history of the yeshivos. The yeshivos have always focused on the learning of Torah, the teaching of Torah, the speaking in Torah, the thinking in Torah. And Chazal tells us that if something happens to a person and he does a cheshbon hanefesh, he checks himself out, and he can’t find out where it’s coming from, so then he should say it’s because of bitul Torah, it’s because he wasted time. He did other things, when he could have been learning. We’re nowhere near the madreiga of the generations before, that they were able to focus their minds 20 hours a day on learning. But at least the time we have we should spend in learning. This is Yiddishkeit, this is Judaism. That’s the real thing. Everything else, focus on everything else is a watered down version.

I just want to end off with what the Chofetz Chaim says on this verse. What does it mean, it’s not in heaven? He says, “The good fortune of this world is Torah. In the World to Come one receives reward, but the Torah’s station is not there. The Torah was given to us physical beings in this world, in order to purify us. Like the Pirkei Avos says, “If you have learned much Torah, do not pride yourself in it, because you were created for this purpose. The Torah is the purpose of the entire creation, and if man does not possess Torah, he will be a pauper for eternity. Not only here but also there, in the next world.” He brings Rashi. When Rashi said that it’s not in heaven, but if it was in heaven we’d be obligated to get it. That’s how important it is. We’d be obligated to go up to heaven to figure out a way to get it. So, this you’ve got to hear. This is scary, listen to this. “This would be our duty because man’s time on earth passes in anger and pain and suffering and hurt. And after all of his trials and labors, during his limited time on earth he remains with absolutely nothing except for the light of the Torah he has learned. Only someone who possesses the light of Torah merits resurrection and eternal life. As it says in Yeshayahu, ‘Awake and sing, dwellers in the dust, for your dew of Torah is a dew of light.” The Chofetz Chaim says, and he’s bringing Gemara Kesubos, that there is no resurrection, there’s no eternal life without Torah.

It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever heard. You could do all the mitzvos you want. You could do pidyon haben, redemption of the firstborn, you could light Shabbos candles, all these other mitzvos you could do them. But if you don’t have the light of Torah there will be no resurrection, and no eternal life. This is what it says. I’m not making it up. And this is the Chofetz Chaim, the leader of the last generation, the posek hador, the greatest scholar of the last generation. He’s not saying nonsense, it’s real. It’s such that we have to understand that in order to make Hashem the King on Rosh Hashanah, in order to relate to God, we only can relate to God through Torah. That’s the medium. How do we come close to God? Torah. That should be our focus on Rosh Hashanah. We should spend time learning. Don’t sleep during the day. Go to the beis medrash, go to shul, go to a class. Listen to Torah, think about Torah. Talk Torah on your table. That’s how we make Hashem the Melech, that’s how we make Hashem the King. I guarantee you if we do that, we’ll have the best year ever, and we’ll be blessed with all the blessings that Hashem wants to give us.

0:14:09.1

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid Mi Dubno brings the verse that we said before, “You will return to Hashem your God and obey Him exactly.” The Rambam brings down in Hilchos Teshuva that even though teshuva, returning to Hashem is good for the world, but on the 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur it’s even better and accepted immediately. He wants to bring a moshul, parable. It says like this. There was once a very wise man that used to come with all these inventions. He’d come with new machines, new types of foods, all kinds of things. But there was a man in the town, he was a rich man, but he was very cheap. He would never buy the inventions that this guy would make.

One time, the wise man made a cake which would satisfy a person who ate it for 10 days. You’d eat this cake, you’re not hungry for 10 days. So, he’s trying to sell it in the shuk, market there. This cheap guy came by. He says, “Maybe you want to buy this case? It will last for 10 days.” He says, “Listen, I don’t waste my money on these kinds of inventions.” He says, “Listen, this is perfect for you. A person who’s trying to save money, all you have to do is get this cake and then you’ve saved yourself money for the entire 10 days. You don’t have to buy food after that.” That was the moshul, what’s the nimshal, parable?

He says, “Those people who the rest of the year they have a hard time getting to shul, they have a hard time learning, they’re a little bit laid back, okay. But when it comes to the 10 days of teshuva, at least they should take advantage of it, because these 10 days are perfect for a person like this, who relaxes the rest of the year, because Hashem will bless them if they work hard and do teshuva during the 10 days of teshuva.”

0:15:46.7

Great Stories – Rav Shach

In verse 27 and 26 it says, “Accursed is the one who will not uphold the words of His Torah.” The Ramban brings the Yerushalmi that says like this. “A person who learns and teaches, keeps the Torah and does its mitzvos but has the opportunity to support it and does not, is included in this curse.” That’s what it says. “Accursed is the one who does not uphold the words of Torah.” He could have supported Torah and he didn’t. Rav Shach told a story about the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim was very old, but they invited him to a meeting of the Vaad haYeshivot. He said when he got there, “Believe me, my dear brothers, I am so weak. I wouldn’t have come here even for 100 pieces of gold. Not only that, I wouldn’t even come here for 100 mitzvos. But in the name of strengthening Torah, I just had to come.” Rav Shach said, “What was one mitzvah worth to the Chofetz Chaim? And still, the Chofetz Chaim said, ‘I wouldn’t come here for 100 mitzvos. How weak he must have been. But when it came to the Torah, all of a sudden he had the strength. “Torah is a different matter entirely,” he says.

There’s also a story like this about Rav Shach himself. When he was a very old man he was totally exhausted. But he went to this wedding so he said to his grandson, “Believe me, I wouldn’t have gone to this wedding for 10,000 gold pieces. But what could I do? This family supports Torah. I just couldn’t refuse.”

0:17:18.3

Peace in Your Home

Rav Moshe Aaron Stern explains the value of marrying the daughter of a Torah scholar. He starts off like this. He says, “Every guy in Yeshiva saw that there were a lot of bochurim, a lot of his friends were destined to be great people. And if you said, ‘Who’s going to be great here?’ they would have pointed out lots of kids. But where are those kids today?” He says, “I did a lot of research and I tried to figure out, which kids came out really to be great rabbis? Those were the ones that married into good families. If a man marries the daughter of a talmid chacham who has the right values, so his learning will continue and he’ll continue to grow in Torah. But if not, it’s not guaranteed.”

He brings down the Chazon Ish who says, “lav dafka bas talmid chacham. If the girl herself has those values, that’s good enough. If she herself has the values of her husband becoming a talmid chacham, even if her father is not a talmid chacham, still the boy will continue to grow in learning. To succeed, one needs a wife who will encourage him to learn with no interruptions. There are avreichim who learn without pause, because they’ve shouldered the yoke of Torah. And even if they’re forced to pause, the yoke will always remain. This attitude is priceless.”

He brings the famous Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz who was asked a question. We know that Rabbi Akiva went away from his wife for 24 years. But really, after 12 years he went back. He was about to walk in the door and he heard the neighbor saying to his wife, “Where’s your husband?” She said, “You know what? Even if my husband came back today, I’d send him back again for another 12 years.” And that’s exactly what happened. He heard and he went back. So, what’s the difference between 12 and 12? The answer is, 12 and 12 is not the same as 24. 24 straight years of learning does not equal 12 and 12. It’s the continuity in the learning.

And there’s a Yerushalmi in Pesachim that says, “Rav Abba sent his son Rav Chanan to learn in Tiveria. But he heard that his son was involved in burials and chessed. So he sent this message to his son, “Are there no graves in Cesaria that I sent you to Tiveria?” So, of course he was doing mitzvos. He was involved in burying people and doing chessed. But his father objected. He said, “This is going to prevent your growth in learning, the most important mitzvah.” Ah, it’s a mitzvah of chessed, which is a tremendous mitzvah also, kindness. So, the Chazon Ish said, “There’s no greater chessed than producing another talmid chacham. Mitzvos can be left for others,” this is what the Chazon Ish said. In other words, there’s no greater chessed than turning yourself into a talmid chacham. That’s the greatest chessed.

And what does the Gemara in Bava Basra say, on 121a? The Jews never had happier days than the 15^th of Av and Yom Kippur.” Rabbeinu Gershom explains, “What happened on the 15^th of Av? On the 15^th of Av the Jews finished chopping trees for the altar. And at that point they were able to devote themselves to more learning. They didn’t have to work anymore. Ah, before they learned but now they can learn continuously, without worry on their head.” He quotes his uncle. He says, “Rav Yisrael Yitzhak Zilberman used to say to his wife, ‘If you want anything now you’d better tell me because once I start learning, I’m not going to stop. Tell me now what you need.’”

And this is how all the gedolei Torah, great men of Torah of generations grew in Torah and fear of God. And any person can become great using this procedure. How do we know that anyone can become great by sitting and learning? We know that Rabbi Akiva’s father-in-law vowed a vow against him that he wouldn’t help him at all. But he claims he wanted to annul the vow, because now Rabbi Akiva became this huge talmid chacham. So, how can he nullify the vow? You can’t nullify a vow based on something that’s going to happen later, that’s called nolad. So, the Tosefos answers, “It’s not called nolad.” Why not? Because it’s the normal way that someone who goes to learn becomes an adam gadol, becomes a great person. We see that it’s not necessarily brightness or a quick grasp that creates a talmid chacham, but rather the mere fact that he sets out to learn. And our problem is, that every other minute we’re wasting our time. But the point is here lechatchila, in the first place a person should try to marry someone who is going to support him in learning. And the wives have to know it’s the greatest mitzvah. It’s the greatest thing you can do. And that’s what’s going to bring peace into your house, and blessing into your house.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends. And everyone should have a Rosh Hashanah metukah, a sweet year, a sweet, good year.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 073 – No Excuses on Rosh Hashanah – The Torah is not in Heaven appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

The post 069 Are the Jews Blessed or Cursed – Pressure and Free Will appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Special Holiday Edition – The 9th of Av – Torah Portion – Devarim – How to Protect Yourself from Sin – Human Complexity & Weakness – A Powerful Parable about the Inn Owners Son – A Great Story about the Satmar Rebbi and Peace in Your Home – Time to Talk and Sensitivity

The Torah Podcast Transcript

066 The Torah Podcast – How to Protect Yourself from Sin – Human Complexity and Weakness

Special Holiday Edition – 9^th Av – Torah Portion of the Week – Devarim

We know that really man live in two different worlds. He lives in the world of potential, and he lives in the world of reality. He lives in a world of who he is right now in the moment, but a second later things can change, and he can react in unexpected ways, either for the good or for the bad. There are many layers to a person’s personality, some of them dormant and some of them active. Now, this week’s Parsha starts out with rebuke. It says, “Eilu devarim, these are the words that Moses spoke to all of Yisroel.” Rashi explains, “Why does it say eilu devarim, and is not specific? Because they were words of rebuke, Hashem wanted to keep them hidden. And he only referred to the rebuke by the way of remazim,hints, by the places. He didn’t actually say the sins that the Jewish people did. He spoke about the places and this way, their sins were hidden. And on their own they understood what was going wrong there. That’s one point. The second point that Rashi brings out is that it says to call Yisroel, to all the Jewish people. Rashi explains, they all had to be there so that no one could say later, “Listen, if I was there I would have told Moshe this and that. I would have refuted him.” So, no one could say that, because they were all there and that’s not what happened.

Rav Moshe Feinstein asks a difficulty. He says, “Why did everybody have to be there? Let the ones who were there, they’ll tell the other people and if later they have a argument they’ll come to Moshe and they’ll say, “This is true,” or, “It’s not true.” So, he wants to explain, who was Moshe giving rebuke to? All these people were the children of the dor, generation, before. Anyone who sinned for example with Bal Peor was gone, because Hashem wiped them out. And all those things that Moshe spoke about, they didn’t actually do. These were the sins of their fathers. So, Moshe was saying to them, “Listen. Realize that your fathers sinned in these matters, despite their very, very high level. Your fathers saw the shechina, they were there at Sinai. And they still sinned, so don’t think to yourselves that you’re not susceptible to temptation. It’s not true, because sin comes from the yetzer hara. It comes from the evil inclination inside of every man. No matter how great the person is, he’s still susceptible to sin.” So, Moshe wanted to make sure that everybody was there in order to hear the tochacha, that they should realize that they also have the potential to sin. And therefore they should develop safeguards in order to protect themselves, to stop themselves from sinning in the future, because they would have thought, “Well Moshe didn’t have us in mind when he spoke.” And therefore Moshe gathered everybody and said, “No, I’m speaking to you. You in potential.” Every human being has the potential to sin, and a person has to protect himself and know about that weakness, it’s human weakness. It’s human nature.

There’s the famous story of Rav Yisroel Salanter who was on a train and somehow a woman was put into his compartment, and the door locked and he couldn’t get out. He was about to jump out the window. Rav Yisroel Salanter was about to jump out of the window of the train, because he was locked in the room with this woman! We’re talking about one of the greatest Rabbonim of our times, and he was scared. Baruch Hashem, they opened a door and the woman got out. He didn’t have to jump out of the train. But he understood his own nature. A person shouldn’t feel, “I’m beyond sin. Don’t worry, I’m okay.” But every individual has to know and protect himself in order to go on the right path.

Now, Rav Moshe Feinstein also explains why the sins were only hinted to. They weren’t spoken out meforash, explicitly. He wants to explain that really since it wasn’t their sins, it was the sins of their fathers. So, he wanted to speak to them bekavod, in honor. But really they also needed to hear the tochacha, because as long as they didn’t uproot the traits of their fathers, they still had it within them. And this is truly an amazing thing because when we think about it, you have civilized people who commit war crimes. You put the person in a different situation and all of a sudden everything changes. My Rebbe used to ask, “What’s the quality of steel? It depends. If you heat it up, it melts. If it’s room temperature, it’s very hard. But if you freeze it, you can crack it.” So, what’s the quality? It depends. The same thing with a human being – a normal person is civilized, acts properly, but under certain pressures he can change. He can do sins, lo aleynu, during a war, during pressured times people do things that they regret their entire lives. Rav Moshe wants to explain, “This is part of the mitzvos zecher Amalek, remember what Amalek did to us. Remember what another person could do, the terrible crimes of the Nazis, the Spanish Inquisition.” Where they were not civilized at all? The Nazis were very polite people. Germans were known to be polite people, civilized people. They got riled up by Hitler and look what came out. But it’s inside of all of us. We’re always walking around with this potential for who knows what. That’s on the negative side. A person who also has tremendous potential, there are very positive things. He could become a hero, to do the right thing under tremendous pressure. Look at Schindler, he saved thousands of Jews. There are so many stories of great people who did things that were beyond comprehension.

We see that the human being is very complex. He’s a big mixture of a lot of different things. We know that Chazal tells us that the children get punished for the sins of the fathers. But Chazal explain, what does that mean? It means that if they continue in the same sins that their fathers did. It will be multiplied upon them, because they didn’t uproot the tendencies that they received from their parents. So, the thing continues. Rav Chenoch Leibowitz asks a difficulty. He says, “We see at the time of the destruction of the Temple, Chazal tells us the Yerushalmi in Yoma says, ‘Any generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt, it is considered as if it was destroyed in that generation,’ which means now. We are destroying the Temple.” How? Why? The Gemara explains, the Gemara in Yoma says, “The Jewish people at the time…” the time of the destruction of the Temple, “Were involved in Torah and mitzvos and acts of lovingkindness.” These were good people. They’re learning Torah, they’re doing mitzvos, they’re doing chessed. Now, we have to assume that the chessed they did was real chessed, it wasn’t fake chessed. They were doing real chessed. They were helping and they cared about other people. But the Gemara continues and it says that the Temple was destroyed because of sinas chinam, baseless hatred. So, what’s going on here? Look at this contradiction. On one side they’re learning Torah, doing mitzvos and doing chessed, and on the same side they had baseless hatred. They hate people? And Chazal tells us that baseless hatred is worse than murder, idolatry, immorality. How can you have the same thing inside one person? The answer is, yes that’s right. Inside one person at the exact same time, he has very, very good qualities and he has very, very bad qualities. That’s every person all the time, but they are in potential though. You never know when they’re going to come out, the good or the bad. But it’s our job to bring out the good and get rid of the bad. We have to uproot the bad.

How are we destroying the Temple right now? The answer is, because right now we also have sinas chinam, we also hate this group of people, we hate that group of people. We hate them. What’s the Gemara’s definition of hate? If you don’t speak to somebody for 30 days. You see the guy every day, you walk by him and you don’t say a word. That’s hate? Yeah, that’s hate. But the person says, “What did I do wrong? Did I curse the guy? Did I speak loshen hara about him?” No. You just hate the guy. Why, you don’t want to talk to him, you don’t want to be around him. You don’t like this person, but he’s a fellow Jew and it’s probably coming from you, your own baseless hatred. And that’s what’s destroying the Temple. We’re destroying the Temple right now, because we haven’t uprooted the deeper parts of ourselves. But it’s an amazing thing, because we exist on many, many different levels. We’re very complex. We have many different parts of our personality.

We have our conscious part, and we have our self-conscious part. We have the part of us that’s polite and has derech eretz, and then we have parts of us which act who knows how. I want to bring Rav Wolbe who brings us a little bit of a solution on how to handle this problem. He brings the Ramchal. The Ramchal explains that the world was created in a way that we have absolute free will. If everything was good and clear to us, so we would never do anything bad. It has to be that we choose. The Ramchal in Derech Eitz Chaim explains, “The Torah is likened to a fire, and its every word like a coal. If one fans the coals by toiling to understand the Torah, each coal will burst into a fiery flame. But if the coal is left unattended, so it will glimmer slightly at its best.” So, what’s right and what’s wrong is basically clear to us. If you learn the Torah, you basically know what’s right. But until you fan that coal it’s not going to turn into a flame. It’s not going to overtake you. It’s not the idea is going to become real to you.

Rav Wolbe explains that this is the concept of hisbonenus, that a person has to look deeper into the Torah. He has to fan the coals. He has to make the concepts real. If you make the concepts real, so then a person will not come to sin. And he’ll be able to uproot the deeper imperfections inside of his being. Rav Wolbe says, “Hisbonenus is the ability to focus on an idea objectively, contemplate a topic with the intention of integrating the knowledge into one’s own life. It means taking Torah and mussar ideas that we might already know, but only as a smouldering coal, and turning them into a roaring fire, that will burst its way into our minds and into our hearts.” So, it’s the same kind of idea. We see the Torah the way that we see it. But it has much more potential. The ideas could be taken at surface value, but the more that you learn, the more you understand it, the more you think and contemplate and focus, the ideas become real. Rav Yisroel Salanter said, “The whole purpose of mussar was to get the heart to feel what the mind knows.” We know right and we know wrong, but we don’t act on it. It’s not part of us. It’s only in potential, but we don’t actualize it. And every person has a different part of the Torah that’s real to him, and other parts are less important. He doesn’t have the full idea, the concept. He doesn’t have the reality.

For example, the Torah always tells us to go to the best doctor. That’s the rule, that’s the halacha. You’re supposed to go to the expert doctor. Why? The other doctor is also a good doctor. They both read the exact same books, what’s the difference? The answer is, the other doctor has taken the concepts that are in the book and they’re real to him. He has more experience. He sees it in reality. He’s taken the potential and making it real. He knows how to deal with the reality. For him, the concepts are real. It’s a different world. That’s why you go to the expert. And in every field, the person goes to the expert. You want to know how to fix up your business, go to the expert. You want to fix up your marriage, go to the expert. Why? Because the expert is a guy who did hisbonenus. He spent time, he thought about the ideas. He worked them out. They became real to him, the concepts are real to him. He’s not just saying words.

My Rebbe used to say to me, “You’re saying words.” Of course I’m saying words. What do you think? You’re saying words, you could be in the middle of a shiur, in the middle of learning and you’re saying the right words but you don’t understand what you’re saying because you’re involved with the klipot, the shell – the shell of the concept, not the reality of it.

So, since we’re just before Tisha B’Av I’m going to end off with one of the Kinnos. The 10^th Kinno explains that there were many Cohanim and they gave them different names to make ramazim, hints to the sins that they did just before the destruction of the Temple. But one set of Cohanim, they kept the name the same. I believe the name was Yisheivav. There, the name stayed the same. Why was that? Because they didn’t sin. Even though everything was falling apart around them, the Temple was being destroyed, who knows what was happening. There was sinning going on left and right. But they remained steadfast. The Gemara in Bava Metzia 30B says that Rav Yochanan says that the Temple was destroyed because the people did not go lifnei mishurus hadin, which means beyond the letter of the law. They did what they did, but they didn’t go beyond the letter of the law. So, Tosefos asks the question, “Wait a second. We know there’s a Gemara in Yoma which I brought before that the Temple was destroyed because of sinas chinam. It was destroyed because of baseless hatred. How can it be the Gemara in Bava Metzia says the Temple was destroyed because people didn’t go beyond the letter of the law. Which one is it?” So, the Ben Yohoda wants to explain, “No, it’s midda kenegged midda. It’s tit for tat.” In other words, really the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. But if the people would have gone lifnai mishurus hadin, they would have gone beyond the letter of the law, the Temple would not have been destroyed. And that’s what these Cohanim understood, who didn’t sin. Obviously it wasn’t enough, because the Temple was destroyed. But they understood that even though if everything is falling apart, if they strengthen themselves they could fix things. If more people would have been like them, the Temple would have not been destroyed, even if they were sinning. And even if there was sinas chinam, baseless hatred.

So, it’s the same kind of idea. What does it mean, “to go lifnei mishurus hadin?” to go beyond the letter of the law? It means to go on with the spirit of the Torah; the spirit of the law, to flame that coal and make it real; understand the ramifications of what the Torah is saying. It becomes a reality, koach hatzir, the ability to visualize, the ability to see the reality of what the Torah is saying; understanding the concepts deeper until they become real to you. And when we go beyond the letter of the law in certain areas, we could bring the Temple back. Why? Because of midda kenegged midda. When you go beyond the letter of the law and there’s middas hadin, there’s judgement on the Jewish people, Hashem doesn’t judge them the same way because since the people were going beyond the letter of law, so Hashem judges them beyond the letter of the law and he lets it slide.

Rav Wolbe says there are certain things that we shouldn’t even touch, we should not get involved with. We shouldn’t be spending time trying to fix them. Sexual things, things like that. Too difficult. But if we go beyond the letter of the law in things that we do have the ability to change, we could bring back the Temple. But this can only be done by fanning the coals of the Torah, that turn the Torah into a flame. And understanding that Torah is the emes, it’s truth and it’s real. We don’t understand. We’re lacking. We look at everything face value. But we’re much more than face value, because inside of ourselves we have tremendous potential for good, and we have tremendous potential for bad. So, we have to fan the fire of good inside of ourselves. And if we do that, we could bring back the Temple.

0:16:33.7

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings the Midrash Rabba on the first possuk of Eichah. Eichah, how could it be that she has become desolate. How? The word “eichah” means how. How could it be that the city of Yerushalayim became desolate. We know that the same word ayicha, the same letters which were in Bereishis, can mean “where.” After Adam haRishon sinned, Hashem said, “Where are you?” If it’s eichah it means “how can it be,” and if it’s ayeicha it’s “where are you?” The Midrash Rabba explains, “And there like a man who transgressed a covenant,” this refers to Adam haRishon. “I put Adam haRishon in Gan Eden and then he transgressed, and then I had to send him out. And I lamented over him. I said, ‘How has this come to pass?’ Like it says in Bereishis, ‘Where are you?’ So too, the Jewish people. I brought them to the Land of Israel, and they sinned and they were sentenced to exile. And I lamented over them, and then I asked, ‘How could it be that she became desolate?’”

He wants to give a moshul to explain this. One time there was a man who had a lot of different inns, and he wanted his son to take over. So he told his son, “Listen, take over all my inns but just be careful. Do not let a stranger in. Don’t let somebody come over and take over one of the inns.” So, the son didn’t actually get the point, and it wound up that somebody came by and took over one of the inns. And as time went by the guy wound up taking over everything. And the son wound up in poverty. The father asked him, “How, how did you end up falling to such a lowly state?” The nimshal, conclusion is, he says, “If the son would have paid attention to where he was, where am I and where’s this other guy, if he would have had awareness of this he never would have let the other guy come in, because he knew where he was. He knew where the other guy was. But what happened was, he broke the boundaries and the guy wound up in. And as he broke the boundaries of where, he wound up with the question of how. How did you get to such a matzav, situation? So, where let him down. The same thing happened to Adam haRishon. Adam haRishon had the whole world, but then he let the yetzer hara in. He let the snake in. He didn’t ask himself the question, “Where am I? Where is the snake?” He let the snake in. Eventually, the snake took over everything and now the question is, “How? How did you get yourself into such a position? How did man wind up in such a state, that evil has taken over the entire world?”

0:19:11.7

Great Stories – Satmar Rebbe

The Satmar Rebbe, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, was a very strong anti-Zionist. He was constantly bombarded by the Israeli media. They used to speak horrible about him. What happened? One of those journalists who used to speak horrible about the Rebbe had a problem. His wife got extremely sick, so he had to take his wife to America to get medical help there. What happened? He stayed with one of his religious relatives. As they were there, they were starting to realize they don’t have enough money to pay for all of these treatments. There’s no way. They asked the relative, “What can we do? Who can help us?” The relative said, “No problem. I know who’s going to help. The Satmar Rebbe.” The journalist said, “What, are you kidding me? I can’t go to the Satmar Rebbe. You know how many bad things I wrote about him? The embarrassing things that I said about him? How can I possibly go, he’ll throw me out.” The relative said, “Fine.” Weeks passed, the guy sees listen, he’s in horrible shape. What’s going to be? He has no money for his wife’s treatments. His wife is deathly sick. What’s he going to do? So, he was left with no choice. He says, “Okay, I’ll go with you to the Satmar Rebbe.” He was all nervous, what’s going to be. He comes to the room, he sees the Rav. He’s overwhelmed by the holy look on the Rav’s face. And he’s just waiting for the dreaded moment that he’s going to ask him what’s your name? The Rav asked his name. He told him the name, and the Rav smiled at him. He’s just waiting for the Rav to start screaming at him.

Instead, the Rav looks up and says, “Okay, how much do you need for your wife’s treatments?” He gave a huge amount. He never thought he would get the whole amount. The Rav didn’t flinch. And he asked him, “How much will it cost you to be in a hotel next to the hospital, because it’s very hard to travel in these situations?” He told him. He said he was never so ashamed in his life. What happened is, the Rav calls the gabbai, whispers into ear. Two minutes later, the guy comes out with all the money. He hands it to the Rav. The Rav hands it to this journalist, and he holds onto his hand, and he gives him the warmest blessings. He tells him, “Never let money determine what kind of treatment you’re going to give your wife. Give her the best treatment. I just want you to do one favor. Before you go back to Eretz Yisroel, come back.” So, the man left with the money but he’s so embarrassed. “I spoke horribly. How many articles I wrote against this Rav? He was so nice to me. I know what’s going to happen. He wants to me to come back, because after the whole story’s finished and my wife is healed, he’s going to give it to me then.” Three months, four months went by. Baruch Hashem, the guy’s wife was healed and he wants to leave but he feels guilty. “I have to go back to the Rav. The Rav told me to come back, what am I going to do?” He goes back and he braces himself for the worst. He’s waiting for the Rav to scream at him. So, he came into the room. The Rav said, “How’s your wife?” “Baruch Hashem, she’s better.” He says, “Well, you know I know you’ve been out of work for all these months. It’s going to be very difficult when you get back.” The Rav gave him another envelope with $10,000 in it. He says, “This should help you get back on your feet.” Trembling, the man took the envelope, thanked the Rav profusely, as tears of relief and remorse filled his eyes. This is called going lifnei mishurus hadin, beyond the letter of the law. It’s time to look beyond anyone who slighted us.

0:22:24.7

Peace in Your Home

Rav Simcha Cohen explains, “Anyone who wants a healthy relationship with their spouse has to set aside time to be able to sit and talk. It’s tremendously valuable. And when you have a fixed time, you don’t always feel you need to express yourself every moment, because you know that later in the day you’ll be able to express yourself. He says, “At the beginning if you set aside 20 minutes to do this, it’s going to seem artificial. But with time you’ll get used to it, and you’ll look forward to it.” But he explains there are some rules. First of all, do not attack each other at this time. This is a time to talk, not to attack. Second of all, you should come spruced up a little bit. You shouldn’t come like a shlump, you should come that your spouse wants to be around you. And don’t come with frozen facial expressions, with an apathetic attitude. And make sure you have direct eye contact. This way, you can fulfill the mitzvah love your neighbor as yourself, just by talking with your wife.

Now, part of talking with your spouse is sensitivity. A very touchy subject is talking about work, what happened today. Sometimes it’s easy for the person to talk about their work, and sometimes it’s not so easy. What could happen is, since the person feels that their spouse is not going to be interested in their work, so they can actually wind up never talking about work. Why? Because when something special happens, they have to give over so many details in order to explain the situation that they just give up completely.

On the other hand, if you never talk about your work your spouse is going to feel alienated from you. “What did you do all day? I don’t know anything about what you do all day.” So, even though you feel it’s mundane, it’s kedai, it’s worth it, to speak about what you did each day. This way when exciting things happen you don’t have to give over a whole spiel, to explain all the details. But the person listening should not give over advice on how to work, and what to do. And don’t interrupt.

One time there was a couple, they were both teachers. The husband starts to tell the wife about what happened that day. She starts to give advice and he gets offended. So she says to the therapist, “I think I can make intelligent comments, even useful ones.” The therapist said, “Listen. Certainly, you’re right. But the goal here is to have a conversation, not to give advice. If you want to give advice you could do that later, in a couple of days from now.” Also, people don’t like to speak about sensitive matters. You shouldn’t expect your spouse to talk about things that make him uncomfortable, or her uncomfortable. For example, if the husband has his two brothers or family members that are always fighting, he doesn’t want to talk about it. He feels uncomfortable about it. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to share it with his wife. It’s just an emotional issue for him. And he thinks, “Why should I shelp my wife into this whole mess?” She feels bad because he doesn’t want to talk about it, but she shouldn’t feel bad. He’s protecting her, and it’s upsetting to him. And this applies to other areas. Sometimes, one of the couple is reluctant to speak about something because they’re afraid of the reaction of the other person. They’re going to get afraid, they’re going to be concerned. So, they don’t talk about it but it’s not a personal attack because they’re not speaking. They just don’t want to raise the emotional level of the other person.

On the other hand, a lot of talk is just to let off steam. A couple needs to let off steam. Everybody needs to let off steam. He explains that shell-shock…what is shell-shock in the army? Where a soldier feels abandoned, and he’s traumatized. In the middle of a war, all of a sudden the general’s gone. Everybody’s gone. He’s stuck there for days. And it can cause panic attacks and insomnia, and person can’t live a normal life after that. That all comes from a feeling of abandonment. If you can’t let off steam, if you can’t relate to the other person, if they’re not willing to listen to you, you feel alone. So, he wants to explain this is part of hilchos aveilus, the laws of a mourner. What happens according to Jewish law? You come into the mourner’s house, lo aleynu. You’re not allowed to speak. You have to wait for them to first speak. Not only that, once they do start to speak, you can’t divert the conversation to politics and other things. You have to only speak about the person who passed away. Ah, you thought in your mind it’s better to divert the person’s mind? No, the opposite. The person has to get this burden off of his chest. He has to let off the pressure of what’s happened. He has to be able to express his emotions in order to relieve his suffering. But what do most people do? They want to change the conversation and just the opposite – they want that person out of the house. They’re not interested in this person, because they’re trying to change the conversation. Here the mourner’s trying to express himself about his feelings that he had about his relative who passed away, and this guy’s talking about the news? It’s against the halacha. So, that’s an extreme case, in a case of mourning. But it’s true on a day to day basis also. People need to express their pain to their spouse. It could be a minor trouble, it could be emotional relief. It could how the soup spilled, how her dress tore, how a person missed the bus, the car broke down. My pen disappeared, I don’t know why. Or he feels sick, or feels tired. But the person has to feel the other person’s willing to listen to them, and it’s a mitzvah for the person to listen. And what happens if the spouse refuses to listen? So then the other person starts to speak to other people. All of a sudden the wife hears the husband speaking to his mother, to who knows who about his problems about what happened. She says, “Why do you never speak to me like that?” “That’s because you never listen. You’re not interested. You give me advice back. I don’t want advice back. I just want to let off some steam.”

The husband comes home from work he says, “My boss yelled at me today because I was late.” What does the wife say? “Well, you’d better get up earlier.” That’s not what he wants. He doesn’t want advice. He feels bad that the boss yelled at him. She said, “Oh, really? What happened? How did you feel, did anybody hear? Were you embarrassed?” A person is looking for a shoulder to cry on. Also kids – kids come in the house, kids are crying. What happened? A kid says, “A teacher yelled at me.” The parent says, “I told you to behave yourself in class.” That’s not what the kid wants. The kid feels bad that the teacher yelled at him. Or a woman who’s complaining about her housework, how difficult it is. So, the husband says, “Listen, all women are in the same boat. And Hashem looks very well on a woman doing housework, it’s very important.” But that’s not what she wants to hear. She wants to be appreciated, supported, understood. She doesn’t want to hear that it’s just part of her job description, and she’s making a fuss over nothing.

Or this is a classic. One of the couple says, “Oh, I have such a headache,” and the other one says, “Yeah, my hand hurts me.” It happens all the time. It’s really horrible, the truth is. Don’t respond when your spouse tells you that something hurts them, don’t tell them back that something hurts you. That’s ridiculous. That’s not what they want to hear. They want sympathy. He tells a story of one time the husband…they were building a new house, so the husband drove by the house to check out what was going on there. He saw that the kitchen was installed wrong, the walls were the wrong color, and the flooring was also botched up. He comes home to his wife he says, “Oy vavoy, you don’t know what’s going on in that house.” So, she says to him, “Did they put up a special shelf for me to put up my Shabbos candles?” That’s not what he wants to hear. He wants to say, “Don’t worry, it will be okay. Everything’s going to be fine. We’ll work it out.” He’s trying to express his pain. The point is, we should all be sensitive to one another.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast. I hope you enjoyed it, and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 066 – How to Protect Yourself from Sin – Human Complexity and Weakness appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Va’eschanan– Understand Your Limitations – The Infinite Torah – A Powerful Parable about the Spoon that Gave Birth – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – Giving and Receiving

The Torah Podcast Transcript

067 –The Torah Podcast – Understand Your Limitations – The Infinite Torah

Torah Portion of the Week – Va’eschanan

Chapter four in Devarim starts like this. “Now oh Yisroel, listen to the decrees and the ordinances that I teach you to perform, so that you may live. And you will come to possess the land that Hashem your God of your forefathers gives you. You shall not add the word that I command you, nor shall you subtract from it.” This is a negative commandment of bal tosif or bal tikra, you shall not add and you shall not subtract, “To observe the commandments of Hashem your God that I command you. Your eyes have seen what Hashem did with Bal Peor, for every man that followed Bal Peor Hashem your God destroyed him from your midst. But you who cling to Hashem your God, you are still alive today.” All the meforshim, commentators are asking, “What’s the connection between the negative commandment of not adding or subtracting from the Torah to the idol worship of Bal Peor, which was defecating in front of the idol. So, what’s the connection between these two things?

Rav Moshe Feinstein wants to give an answer and he says that adding onto the Torah is the basis of idol worship. Why? We know that the Rambam brings down that idol worship started in the dor, generation of Enosh. And they had an idea like this, since God placed all the heavenly bodies above the world it must be that he wanted us to worship them also, even though he didn’t explicitly command us to worship them. And they thought these heavenly bodies are doing the work of God, so we should also give kavod, honor to them. That was the beginning of idol worship but it was a mistake, because it was their own idea. Hashem never told them to worship the stars and the moon. They got the idea themselves. So, doing more or doing different than what Hashem told you is the basis for idol worship, which is the connection here also. Do not add to the Torah, because then you’ll even come to this degrading position of Bal Peor which is an extension of the original idol worship. That’s Rav Moshe Feinstein’s answer.

Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz wants to answer by saying that if you break a fence, so the fence is useless. If there’s a hole in the fence, what kind of fence is it? So, once a person takes away even one mitzvah it’s like he broke the entire fence. In the end he’s going to come to do Bal Peor, the most disgusting things, because it’s a breakdown in the entire system. He winds up ridding himself of all restraint. And not only that, it could also be in the opposite direction. If you add a mitzvah so then you again made it hefkerus. You’ve created that it’s an open field. You could do whatever you want. In the end, you broke down all restraints and it’s going to come to avoda zara, which is especially Bal Peor which is the whole avoda zara. It’s to defecate in front of the idol which shows there is no restraint, there is no meaning. There are no rules. That’s the connection according to Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz.

The Malbim wants to give an answer by saying, “One cannot add or subtract from something that’s perfect, because the commandments are from Hashem who is the ultimate perfection. Therefore the commandments themselves are perfect. How can you possibly add to them?” He wants to explain that the Jews, what were they doing there at Bal Peor when they were worshipping Bal Peor? They were trying to disgrace the idol. They thought that defecating in front of the idol was a disgrace to the idol. So, they thought they were doing a positive thing but they were going against the Torah because in the end, that really is the idol worship. That’s the worship to the idol. Even though they thought they were doing a positive thing in the end they destroyed themselves. They were all wiped out, and that was their own sevara. Hashem never said to do such a thing. They were ibra chacham, they outsmarted themselves. That’s the answer to the Malbim.

But Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch gives a different answer which I want to expand upon. He says, “If you add or take away any mitzvah you’re really saying that the Torah is arbitrary. And therefore, you’re denying the divinity of the Torah, and you’re equating human discretion with God’s commandments which in the end is going to lead to idol worship. That’s why it’s connected with Bal Peor. He brings down the case of Shaul where he was over both these lavim. He added more and he took away some. What did he do? Shmuel haNavi came to him and told him, “You have to kill everybody,” and kept the king alive. Therefore he did less and he didn’t listen, and he did more. He took the spoils which he was supposed to destroy and he offered them as an offering. He thought that would be a great thing. What does the possuk say there? “Does God delight in ascent offerings and in meal offerings as obedience to the voice of God?” Obedience is the main thing. God wants us to listen to Him, not to do what we think. So, why is this going to lead to avoda zara, idol worship?

Rav Hirsch explains, “He does not subordinate everything to the One God. He does not set God over himself as a master of his whole fate and his whole life. Rather he places beside God a separate, independent power. He entrusts his face to all kinds of oracles, simanim, his seichel. He thinks he can get around God, and that’s exactly what avoda zara is – idol worship. He doesn’t believe there’s One God who controls everything. He has his own tricks up his sleeve. Don’t worry, he’s going to do it his way.” He says, “That is exactly idol worship.” This is a tremendously important idea. If we are somech, if we rely on our own seichel, our own intelligence and our own ideas and we think we’re going to live our lives that way, that’s a type of avoda zara. That’s a type of idol worship, because what we’re saying is, “Don’t worry about God. I’ve got God in my pocket, no problem. I’m going to do it my way and it’s going to work out.” He continues that it says at the end of the possuk, “Those of you who cling to Me today are still alive.” He said that was the greatest gului shechina that could exist. It was a revelation of God. Why? Because the people saw through their obedience by not clinging to Bal Peor, by not worshipping Bal Peor, that all those people who didn’t worship they lived. And all the people who did worship, they died. There was a clear example of middas hadin, of judgement, which doesn’t happen too often in life. Everything’s mixed up, we’re confused. We don’t see the justice. But that was a clear example of justice which is the same idea if you go in the way of God, that’s how you’re going to be matzliach. That’s how you’re going to be successful.

He explains further that this was said just before they were about to go into the land. This is unbelievable, you’ve got to hear this. He says, “You were the only nation in the world that possessed the laws before it possessed its own land.” In other words, we got our laws before we got our land. Most nations that go into a land, when they have a land they have to make laws. He says, “By us it’s just the opposite. It’s not that the laws are intended as a means to build up the land and have a national existence. It’s just the opposite. We’re given the land in order that we should fulfill the laws – unbelievable. Every other nation becomes a nation through its land, and afterwards creates the laws for your land. You by contrast become a nation through the Torah, and you received the land in order to observe the Torah. And that’s why your laws never changed, the Torah doesn’t change. The whole purpose of life is to fulfill the Torah. But those nations who have laws in order to keep things going, in order to keep the land going, so the laws are constantly changing,” he says, “Because there’s changing needs of the nation’s development. But you were given laws by Moshe Rabbeinu, who never set foot in the land. Nothing to do with the land. The land is the means to fulfil the Torah, not that the Torah is the means to be able to live in the land, because you can’t live in the land without laws. No, it’s the opposite. The laws of the Torah are absolute, whereas you and your land are conditional,” he says. This is why God put together in the possuk not to add or subtract from the Torah, together with the idol worship, because if you rely on yourself and your own seichel and your own intelligence that is a kind of an avoda zara, because you don’t trust in God and you don’t trust in His Torah.

I just want to tell you, Rav Schwab said on the second possuk in this week’s Parsha, it says, “My Lord Hashem Elokim, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand. You have just begun.” So, what does Rav Shwab say? He says, “Moshe three times spent 40 days in the heavens with Hashem, as close as a man could possibly be to Hashem. And after all that it was only after 121 years when he was about to pass away that Moshe says, ‘You have just begun to show your servant your greatness.” The Torah is infinite. Why would we think with our small pea minds that we know what life is about, that we know what’s going on here? It is like landed here from another planet. We were born here, and we still don’t know what’s going on. Do we understand what life is about?  We don’t even understand how the planets work. We don’t understand hardly anything. Moshe Rabbeinu, he himself said, “I don’t understand everything, “ after all he’s been through, with all of his nevua, his prophesy and everything.

He brings the possuk,”Gal ayenai,” and cover my eyes, “and it shall gaze upon the wonders of your Torah,” a possuk in Tehillim, 119.18. There’s endless chiddushim, new ideas, novel ways, another way of looking. Every time you learn the Gemara, it’s a new Gemara. Every time you go over it again you see another chiddush. So, how could we possibly have the chutzpah to think that we can add or subtract from the Torah? It’s a ridiculous idea. Are we going to bring it down to our level to a human level, to human intelligence? Once you bring it down to human intelligence that’s the end of the whole Torah. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz says, “You break the fence.” You don’t have a fence any more. It’s finished.

So, what’s the solution to this problem? How do we save ourselves? The Torah itself tells us, two more possukim forward we see the possuk says, “And you shall safeguard and perform them, for it is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the people who shall hear. All these statutes you will say. Surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation.” So, Rashi says there, “What does it mean, ‘You shall safeguard them?’” He says, “This is study. You have to learn.” The Sifrei says there, “Study of the commandments of the Torah constitutes safeguarding, for knowledge of them is the best guarantee of the continuance and fulfilment.” Rav Moshe Feinstein explains, “You have to learn from a Rebbe. You have to go to Yeshiva. You have to learn from teachers.” And if not, you’re going to wind up like Enosh, who had his own ideas on what to do – worship the stars. It sounds like a good idea. It’s the worst thing in the world!  It’s only through learning the Torah that we mechazek ourselves, we understand what the Torah is saying, how it’s being said, why it’s being said, what are the inferences we can make, what are the ones that are muchrach, forced inferences and not forced inferences? What’s the logic behind it? Does it make sense, doesn’t it make sense? Back and forth, reading all the meforshim, understanding the truth of the Torah, seeing how it fits, how the whole Torah fits together. Does it make sense? If it doesn’t make sense we are the one’s who have to validate the Torah. That’s what it says in the Gemara, “We’re the ones that have to understand the Torah. If we don’t understand it, it means that we’re empty.” Chazal says that if the Torah is empty, it’s your emptiness. And if not, God-forbid, someone can wind up doing avoda zara, idol worship. He relies on all kinds of forces and all kinds of things to get him through life, to be successful. But the real success is to go in the way of the Torah, that’s the success. And that’s what Hashem says, and that’s what we’re here for – to fulfill the Torah.

I just want to end off here with this beautiful thing that Rav Schwab says. He says, “One time, the President of the Conservative Synagogue came to him to speak to him. He says, ‘I don’t really understand. We’re very traditional.’” He added, “I even put on tefillin today. I’m very traditional, what’s the problem with our approach?” Rav Schwab says to him, “I’m not really interested in traditional Judaism. As a matter of fact, I could even do without it altogether.” The Conservative Rabbi said, “What are you talking about? What are you saying?” Rav Schwab continued, “Tradition leaves me cold. Just because my father did something doesn’t mean I have to do the same thing. If my father wore long wool stockings, does that mean I can’t wear cotton ones?” The Conservative Rabbi doesn’t know what’s going on. He says, “What’s going on here? You’re not interested in tradition? Why would you put on tefillin every day if you’re not interested in tradition?” Rav Schwab answers him. He says, “It says in this week’s Parsha, ‘And these words I shall command you today,’ and Rashi says there that this verse teaches us not to look at the mitvos as some kind of ancient custom, but rather to look at them as if they were given today, for the first time.” He said, “I put on tefillin because Hashem is telling me to put on tefillin, not my grandfather and not my great-grandfather. Hashem’s commanding me today to put on tefillin.” He says, “Even though I’m very proud and happy that all my ancestors kept the Torah, but this is not the reason why I keep them. I keep them because Hashem is telling me today to keep the Torah. And it’s the same exact Torah that we received from Sinai. We can’t add to it, we can’t subtract to it. It’s perfect, like the Malbim says. It’s infinite. It’s beyond our understanding, beyond our comprehension. We’ll do our best, but we have to go according to what’s written. It’s scholarship, it’s not a joke – you can’t just make up whatever you want.”

I have a copy of this letter that Rav Schwab wrote to a different Conservative Rabbi who decided that it’s better to drive on Shabbos because we’re going to have much more people inside the beit Knesset that way. Otherwise, if we don’t drive on Shabbos, not too many people come. Rav Schwab gave six reasons why his logic is wrong. First of all, the Torah is from Sinai. It says to keep Shabbos. You can’t change it. Second of all, specifically driving on Shabbos there’s sparks in the ignition, there’s lighting the fire, the burning of the fuel. No matter how much you twist it and turn it, you can’t tell me that it’s permitted. It’s aish, it’s binyan. There’s no way around it. Third of all, it’s just the opposite. The shul is there so people should keep Shabbos, not that people should break Shabbos in order to come to shul. We have shuls in order that people should stay religious. The fourth thing he says, “Judaism without Shabbos is unthinkable. But Judaism without a beit knesset is thinkable.” He said, “For generations we didn’t have public places. We couldn’t meet together in public, and Judaism continued. So, why are you putting people coming to shul above Shabbos?” The fifth reason he gives, that if a person does not come to shul because he lives far away, he has done more for Judaism than any Jew who drives on Shabbos and comes to shul. What’s this guy doing? By staying home you’re fulfilling the mitzvah. And the sixth thing for those people who live a little bit further away and they walk to shul, every step they take is kadosh kadoshim. It’s a holy avoda, it’s worshipping Hashem. Every step he takes is the mesirus nefesh, self-sacrifice that he has to get to shul on Shabbos. He concluded, “Indeed, numbers don’t count.” What was he telling him? If you go according to your own sevara and your own ideas about what Judaism is about, so you have this great idea of numbers. You’ll only get more people in shul. More people in shul means better Judaism, right? Wrong. Judaism is what the Torah tells us. We have to fulfil the Torah. And the Torah is perfect just the way it is. Like the Malbim said, “The Torah is perfect. What are you trying to change it for?” And if a person doesn’t subordinate himself to God, that’s avoda zara. We have to do exactly, exactly what the Torah says, not to add and not to take away.

0:17:09.9

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings a moshul like this. He says, “One time a neighbor came to borrow a spoon. Fine. The next day the guy came to bring it back, and he brought back with it a little teaspoon. So the guy who lent it out said, “Listen, I only lent you one spoon.” He said, “It’s true. But this spoon gave birth to this little spoon, so I’m giving you back the two.” He didn’t say anything, he thought the guy’s crazy and he took the two spoons. The next day he comes by, he wants to borrow a cup. Fine, he lends him a cup. The next day the guy comes back and brings back the cup, and he brings a smaller cup with it. The guy thought, “Obviously this guy’s crazy.” He just took the two cups, he didn’t say anything to him. A week later the guy comes by to borrow two silver candlesticks. He says, “Wow, this is great. He’s probably going to give me back four. I’m surely going to lend these two silver candlesticks.” So, after a while he saw the guy didn’t bring them back. He starts to ask him, “Where are they?” He said, “Listen, I’m sorry the candlesticks died.” The guy says to him, “Are you crazy? What are you talking about? Did you ever hear of candlesticks that died?” He said back to him, “And did you ever hear of spoons or cups that give birth to another one? And you took them without a word. If a spoon could give birth, so the candlesticks can die.” What’s the nimshal, conclusion? He says, “So too, mitzvos. Mitzvos have to be done exactly. If you think you can add to the mitzvos, you’re also going to think that maybe you could subtract from them. It just shows you that your logic is wrong.”

0:18:36.4

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The possuk says, “But all who cling to Hashem your God you are alive today.” So, the Nefesh haChayim explains, “What is clinging to God? It means learning Torah. And when you learn Torah you should have intention that you are clinging to God Himself.” So, one time there was a young man who came to Rav Shach with serious financial pressures. He didn’t know what to do. He was thinking, “I’m going to have to go out to work. Let me go ask Rav Shach.” He spoke with Rav Shach and Rav Shach agreed. “Things are quite difficult. I think you’re going to have to go into business.” So, the young man turned to leave, feeling relief. At least he’s solved his sofek, his doubt. But on the way out he heard Rav Shach gave a sigh, and he was speaking to himself. “It is true, he must leave learning. But how can he leave learning? How can he leave the beis medrash, study hall, the source of pure water, the wellsprings of the Torah?” So, when this young man heard this he went back in to Rav Shach and he said, “Listen, the Rosh Yeshiva sigh tipped the scale. I’m staying in learning.”

0:19:42.7

Peace in Your Home

Rav Simcha Cohen speaks about giving and receiving – tremendous chiddushim here. These are novel ideas – you’ve got to hear them. He says that everybody knows that a shopkeeper will stand for hours waiting for customers, trying to make money. But it’s not because he cares about his customers. He’s not being altruistic. He just wants to make profit. And also the customers, they’re not coming. They’re not giving tzedakah, charity, and they want to buy what they need. So both the shopkeeper and the customer are really looking out for their own self-interest, and that’s how the system works. But it works, because both sides get what they need. Not only that, but a good sales person will give emotional gratification to their people. He’ll smile at them, he’ll ask after their health. He’s polite to them. He remembers their names. He knows that the customers are basically self-centered, so he tries to be polite to them. It’s like if you would go to an influential person, so you’re thinking on the way, “What can I say to this guy to influence him? How is he going to help me? How am I going to treat him in a special way, make a good impression upon him?” Everybody knows that’s the way the world works. But why did Hashem make it that way? He says that since every human being is created in the image of God, he has a certain self-worth. He’s created with an ego, a sense of self-importance. He knows he has a unique position in the world. And therefore on the negative side, we have an egocentric attitude. Like it says, “Bishvil li nivra haOlam,” the whole world was created for me. The Pirkei Avos says it. But it’s a healthy feeling, that’s the way Hashem made us. And why did Hashem make us like that? So that we would be ethical. We want to do the right thing. We have a certain self-worth that we feel we have to do the right thing, and we want to grow. So, he says unfortunately – and nobody likes to hear this – he says, “Nobody wants to admit but really people just love themselves.” And not only that, everybody is after personal benefit. And before a person gets married he asks himself, “What am I going to get out of this?” Usually he’s not asking, “What is my spouse going to get out of this?” And even if he asks, “What are we both going to get out of this?” so he is really just wondering what he’s going to get out of it. He’s like, “I hope the bank is okay.” He’s not worried about the bank, he’s worried about his money. But he hopes that the bank does well.

One time the Kotsker Rebbe wanted to show this concept to his students. He saw one of his students eating a fish with a lot of gusto, so he asked him, “Why are you eating that fish?” He says, “I love fish, so I eat it.” He says, “You don’t love fish.” He says, “You love yourself. If you loved the fish you would put him in a pool and get clean water for him, and feed him.”

There’s another story I heard one time one of the balei mussar asked one of the talmidim, students to bring him a tea. The talmid said, “Of course I can.” He said, “Can you bring me a tea?” “Yes, of course.” So, he brings him a tea. He says, “Thank you very much.” He says, “Did you bring the tea to me? You didn’t bring it for me, you brought it for yourself, because you want to do a mitzvah. You feel like you’re doing the right thing. You have your reasons why you brought it. Did you really bring it for me? You really care about me, that I should have a tea? Or you just brought it for yourself?” This is what he says. He says, “When a person says, ‘I love you,’ what he really means is, ‘I’m attracted to you. I find it pleasant to be around you. I enjoy your interest in me. I like being charmed by you.’ So, even though these things are very difficult to hear but in the end we’re going to understand them a little bit better. So the question is now, why does a person help? Why does a person give if he just cares about himself? He gives an example.

Let’s say you see an old man carrying a heavy box. What are you going to do? You see the guy, so what motivates you to help the guy? There’s different reasons. Maybe you have a desire to do a mitzvah, to do a mitzvah, or you have pity on the person. Or you were just brought up as a kid that you should help. Or you’re worried that your conscience is going to bother you later, so you help now. Or you actually get pleasure from helping. Still, it’s your pleasure. Or you would like to see a world where everybody helps. So, he wants to go through all these different reasons and show how each one is really actually self-serving.

So, even though a guy says he wants to see a world where everybody helps, what he’s really saying is in the end, I’m going to get some help also. That’s like communism. I’m willing to share, because I want to get. Or for example, he has pity so he wants to get rid of his feelings, so he helps the guy. Or it be because of the influence of his upbringing, so he has to do it because that’s who he is. He was trained that way. He has the mindset to help, or else he feels uncomfortable if he doesn’t act according to who he is. Or he wants to avoid the pangs of his conscience. Or even if he does it for a mitzvah, what’s the mitzvah? He’s doing it because he wants eternal reward. Or surely if he gets pleasure he personally gets pleasure from somebody else. So he says, “These ideas are a little bit difficult to digest. You hear them and say, ‘Whoa. What, am I that self-centered?’ Nobody wants to feel they’re self-centered. But most of it is subconscious. We don’t realize how self-centered we are.” So the question is, why did Hashem create us this way? Hashem doesn’t make us bad or evil, Hashem created us to be good. The answer is that this self-centeredness could be a positive force or a negative force.

For example, parents raise their children because they look at their children as an extension of themselves. But that’s how they wind up raising healthy children. Or a person will never grow if he wasn’t self-centered. He wouldn’t grow spiritually. He wouldn’t do anything. And the advancement of the world is based on the fact that man is self-centered. Spiritually and physically, the world wouldn’t advance. So, the same thing with your family, with your spouse. And you have to remember your spouse is an ordinary person, a regular person who is also self-centered, with personal interests. Nobody gets married because they say, “Wow, I wish I could find this wretched, poor, ill person that I could help.” Who gets married for that reason? You ask yourself, “Can this person support my material needs? Can this person support my emotional needs? What about my spiritual advancement?” These are the normal questions that a healthy person asks themselves. He doesn’t ask, “What’s my spouse going to get from me?” He asks himself, “What am I going to get out of this marriage?” But if it wasn’t for that, if the other person didn’t need you, so there’s going to be no relationship. These needs are what cause the relationship to exist. And you don’t want to be in a situation where your spouse doesn’t need you at all.

He gives an example like this. He has this shidduch, he’s going out with this girl and he’s about to get married. And then he meets a friend and he realizes, “Hey. You know, this guy would be a better match for my shidduch.” Does he stop the marriage and say, “You know, it’s better for you to marry this girl.” No, and so it happens. He continues on and he marries the girl, because he likes her. So, if this is all true we have to go back to the shopkeeper. Part of marriage is giving your spouse what they desire to fulfill their need, just like you would any other person out in the street, but it’s much easier to people on the street. Of course you have to be polite on the guy in the outside. And when it comes to your wife, you think you don’t have to be polite. You think you’re entitled. And you don’t ask in a gracious manner, what manners. And where does that come from? That comes from childhood. Why? Because parents give to their kids unconditionally, without manners, with manners, they give to their kids. The kid doesn’t ask twice. The parent anticipates what the need of the kid is, and gives it to the kid even before the kid knows he needs it. And we expect when it comes to a marriage, it should be the same way. Somehow, when it comes to a spouse, that somehow they should be like a parent. But really, they’re more like the guy outside. They’re more like the neighbor who doesn’t owe you anything. They’re more like your peers, people you have to be polite to, you have to give kavod to, you have to be nice to, and then they’ll give you. That’s more what the spouse is like. That’s what a shalom bayis is. It’s not like your mother and your father. But most people don’t know this. Most people think that I should be getting unconditionally, without having to ask. My spouse should be anticipating what I need.

And what happens when they don’t do that? We are disappointed. We have unrealistic expectations. We say, “What’s going on here?” and we feel like we’re in an unsuccessful relationship. But that’s coming from us, because we have too high expectations. We should be saying, “Please could you help me do this. Please can you help me do that?. Would it be a big deal if you could do this for me?” just like you do your peers. And you say, “Thank you,” afterwards. But the problem is, if your friend doesn’t do what you want, so eventually you’ll walk away from that person. When it comes to a marriage, you’re stuck there. You don’t just walk away. So, the other person starts to feel they’re being used, and a lot of resentment builds up in the marriage.

So, in order to solve these problems we need two things. First, we need to understand the emotions involved in giving and receiving. And second of all, we need techniques to help us be successful in it. I know this is a bit of a cliffhanger, but next week we will speak about it.

That’s it for this week’s podcast, I hope you enjoyed it and please share it with your friends.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 067 – Understand Your Limitations – The Infinite Torah appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

065 Torah Portion of the Week – Masei – How to Create the Ideal Society – The Human/Divine Paradigm – A Powerful Parable about the Drunk Son – A Great Story about Rav Shach and Peace in Your Home – More on Dialogue

The Torah Podcast Transcript

065  -The Torah Podcast – How to Create the Ideal Society – The Human/Divine Paradigm    

Torah Portion of the Week – Masei

Towards the beginning of Parshas Masei the Torah says, “Hashem spoke to Moses in the plains of Moav by the Jordan at Jericho saying, ‘Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, when you cross the Yarden to go into the land of Canaan”, the Jews are about to cross the Yarden river and go into Eretz Yisroel, “You shall drive out the inhabitants of the land before you. And you shall destroy all their temples, all their molten images shall you destroy. And their high places you shall demolish. You shall rid the land, and you shall settle in it. For to you have I given the land to possess it…” then it continues a little bit later, “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those whom you leave shall be as pins in your eyes and as thorn hedges in your sides. And they will harass you upon the land that you dwell. And it shall be that what I had meant to do to them I will do to you.” Rashi explains that the Jews actually passed over the Yarden river on dry land. Hashem made it dry. But it’s on the condition that you do what I say, which is to get rid of all these idol worshippers. And if not, the water will come back and wash you away. The Rambam explains that this is a mitzvah, it’s a positive commandment to come to the Land of Israel and settle it. If it should enter their minds to go to Syria, they would be over the violation of the commandment of God. They have to go specifically to Eretz Yisroel. And it’s forbidden to leave it. He brings the Gemara in Bava Basra that says that if a husband wants to go to Eretz Yisroel and the wife doesn’t want to come with him, she’s considered a rebellious wife. And likewise the husband, if the woman wants to go to Eretz Yisroel and the husband doesn’t want to come, he’s considered rebellious also, because this verse is a positive commandment and it reiterates this mitzvah in many places. It says in Devarim, “Come and possess the Land.” It’s a mitzvah to come to Eretz Yisroel to live in Eretz Yisroel, to conquer Eretz Yisroel, and to settle in Eretz Yisroel.

The verse a little bit later on says, “Do not defile the Land in which you dwell, in whose midst I reside, for I am Hashem who resides in Bnai Yisroel.” Rav Wolbe brings the Seforno who explains on the possuk in Vayikra that says, “The Land shall not be sold forever because the Land belongs to Me.” The Seforno explains, even though it says in Tehillim, “The heavens are the heavens for Hashem, the Land He gave to mankind,” Eretz Yisroel still belongs to God. He didn’t give it to man. What does the practical difference? He brings the Bach who explains that someone who lives in Israel, it’s like he’s living with the shechina, God is here. When he eats the fruits of Eretz Yisroel, he’s eating holy fruits. And we transform our physical bodies to an abode for the shechina. We see that Eretz Yisroel is a very special place and it’s a commandment for us to come and settle the land and live here. But the first commandment we get when we got here was to drive out before you the inhabitants of the Land, and destroy their symbols and their images. And if not, what happens? “These people will be as hedges in your eyes and thorns in your sides. And they will press you.” What does the Ramban explain? They will gouge your eyes, they will lead you astray so you will not see or understand spiritual truths. In other words, spiritually – you’ll be spiritually blind, and you’ll start to worship their gods. What does it mean, “Thorns in your sides?” “They will afflict you with pain. They will steal from you, and plunder against you. They will actually wage war against you, and bring you under siege in your own country.” That’s exactly what’s happening today. 

The Ohr haChayim explains that you have to get rid of everybody. It says, to drive them all out, even those that are not part of the seven nations. And if you don’t have the power to kill them you should at least send them out of the land to make sure they’re not around. But if you decide to let some of them stay, in order that you should have workers and people to help you, so they’re going to be like thorns in your eyes and pricks in your side. They’re going to harass you. That’s exactly what happened after the Six Day War. We decided to keep all the Arabs in the country to help us build the country. And look what’s happening now. What does it mean, “They’ll harass you in the Land?” They’ll harass you even in the parts that you conquered. If they’re in a different part, even in those parts you’ll still be harassed. You won’t have peace. So, the first mitzvah that we had when we came to Eretz Yisroel is to get rid of the negative influences. Which negative influence? Between man and God. And Rav Hirsch explains it, he says like this. “If you will allow the pagan inhabitants to remain in the Land, they will become like a hedge around their pagan practices.” What do you mean, a hedge? “The nature of these practices will be concealed from you, from your perception and insight. And you won’t find any fault in them.” What happens? “Tolerance towards the pagan inhabitants will beget tolerance towards paganism. You’ll start to become friends with them, you’ll get used to these people. You’ll say, ‘These people are okay. What’s the problem?’ And really inside their houses they’re doing idol worship, worshipping multiple gods, different forces. What will happen? You will cease to belong to God alone. Therefore, you will be deprived of your right to exist in the Land, and you won’t be worthy of God’s protection. And what will happen? When God removes His protection, those who you’ve been so tolerant towards, they will become your enemies. The same people that you accepted, they’ll come against you.” He says, “The whole book of Shoftim is nothing but a history of what befell the Jewish people by disregarding this warning.” By allowing the nations and their philosophies to exist in Eretz Yisroel, it brings our destruction. “Ah, we should be liberal. We should be politically correct. Let’s let everybody in. Let’s let everybody convert, bring them in easily.” No, we need purity, we need holiness. We need to make sure that the prevalent philosophy is that Hashem is one. There’s only one way, the Torah.

And all these other outside forces have to be gotten rid of. These outside ideas, you have to destroy them. If not, they’re going to destroy us. So, that was the first mitzvah between us and God. It took us 40 years of traveling in the desert to purify ourselves just to get to this point, so we have to make sure we don’t fall at this point. The Malbim explains when it says in Devarim, “You saw what Hashem did before your eyes in the Land of Mitzrayim, Egypt. Yet Hashem did not give you a heart to know until this very day, until you traveled for 40 years.” He brings a parable like this. If you want to bring a person from a warm country and bring them to a cold country, you can’t do it overnight. You have to do it little by little, or else he’s going to die. And this is why the Jewish people had to go through the desert for 40 years to purify them from the paganism of Mitzrayim. When we come into the Land we have to make sure everything’s pure. You see how important it is for us to guard ourselves against these false ideas. This is the fight of a Jew as he’s placed among the nations, to stay devoted to the Torah and the right way of looking at things.

Interestingly enough, what’s the next mitzvah right after we divide the Land? The mitzvah is to make irei miklat. These are the cities of the Leviim where if a person was to kill another person inadvertently by mistake, by accident, he could run there to save his life so that the family of the one that he killed do not kill him. This is a way to protect him, to protect life. The verse says, “Among the cities that you shall give to the Leviim there shall be first six cities of reception,” irei miklat, “which designates that a manslaughterer shall flee there.” Then afterwards there’s going to be another 42 cities. In total there’s 48 irei miklat, cities all throughout the country which someone can run if he’s in a situation like that. Rabbeinu Bachye explains, “What is this mitzvah? Such a person is not guilty of the death penalty. He didn’t intend to kill his victim. This law demonstrates that the heart of the person and the prime driving force of man’s activity, where there’s no coordination between the body and the mind, the guilty party only has to be exiled.” He brings a possuk from Tehillim that says, “Oh Lord, be mindful of your compassion and your faithfulness as of time of old.” What was the time of old? Even though Adam haRishon brought death into the world, he didn’t kill him. So, if God is compassionate towards involuntary murders, showing them a path to escape their predicament, how much more so compassion He must have on genuinely righteous people. This is a mitzvah bein adam l’adam. It’s our mitzvah, when we settle the land, when we create a country, we have to have mercy upon people in order to save them from being killed.

Rav Wolbe explains the possuk says that Moses set aside three cities on the bank of the Jordan towards the rising sun. What does the Gemara Makkos say there? He caused the sun to shine for the murderers. This is the last mitzvah that Moshe Rabbeinu did, causing the sun to shine for dejected people, caring for the downtrodden. And Rav Wolbe wants to add, “Chazal teaches us, one that shows the white of his teeth, his smile to a friend, does more for him than giving him milk to drink.” When you smile on somebody and you’re there to help the person, and you have rachmanus on them, you truly light up their life. This is the second mitzvah we need in order to be able to settle the Land of Israel, to help people, to care about people, to care about murderers that they shouldn’t die. Rav Hirsch says, “The Land is given over to all God’s people only on the condition that we respect the sanctity of every human life which is sacred to the Torah. Innocent blood that is spilled and disregarded loses a thread and the tie that connects the Land with the nation, and both the land and the nation with God.” Immediately upon the conquest of the Land when the Land was divided, there shall be created that legal institution, the irei miklat, that’s the first thing we should do, after we got rid of all the idol worship.

So, Rav Hirsch continues and he says on this verse, “Do not turn the Land into a hypocrite, for the blood turns the Land to a hypocrite. There could be no atonement for the Land for the blood that is spilled in it, except for the blood of the one who spilled it.” This is the continuation of the mitzvah of guarding life. You should not take ransom for the life of a murderer who has incurred the death penalty. You can’t let him get away with it. That’s someone who deliberately killed. What does it mean, “The Land is a hypocrite?” The Land will disappoint the expectations that you would otherwise justify placing on it. In other words, it’s not going to give forth its blessing. It’s going to look hypocritical. Such a society breaks the terms in which it may possess the Land. And when someone kills somebody God-forbid, since he has spilled the blood of his fellow man, he has forfeited his own right to exist. Man is not an animal. We have to care about other human beings. This is the next mitzvah of coming into Eretz Yisroel, of being here, of creating society, of creating a country, caring about people.

Rav Hirsch continues he says, “When Noach was allowed to walk on the Land again, Hashem gave him domain over the world of plants and animals, thereby proclaiming, ‘Man who was created in the image of God is endowed with a higher dignity. And the recognition of this higher dignity is on the basic condition for the gift of the earth for man’s domain over the world.” God only gave us the world if we continue as a tzelem Elokim, if we continue in the image of God, a Godly man. But if there’s indifference of part of the community towards the shedding of innocent blood, it is a patent denial of man’s divine nature. The human society in which God is present must reflect the dignity of human men, and must give expression to the fact that man was created in the image of God. The proper society should be like this,” he says. “The state shall regard the lives of its citizens as its most precious and sacred asset.” This is the second half of creating a society – caring about people. If we let bloodshed happen it means we don’t care about anybody. What’s the difference, this guy died, that guy died. Like you have in America this young girl, Kate Steinle. She was killed, and nobody cares or half the country doesn’t care. That’s the end of society. If we have people killing each other rampantly like in Syria, so God will take the Land away from us.

But you see from this you need two things for society to exist. First you have to have bein adam leMakom, you have to get rid of all the idol worship and have your philosophy straight. Then you have bein adam l’adam, between man and man. The regard for human life, human dignity that man is created in the image of God. And if you don’t have both those things you can’t have a society, a normal society, a healthy society, a society that’s blessed. And there’s a beautiful proof for this al pi kabbalah that says like this. The six irei miklat are like the six first words of the Shema. Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad. Six words – those are the first six irei miklat. And the next 42 irei miklat is like the first paragraph of Shema. Shema is something we say twice a day, that we accept upon ourselves ol malchus shemayim, to dedicate ourselves to God. And the whole first paragraph is about between man and God. Hear O Israel, Hashem is your God, Hashem is the only One. You shall love Hashem your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and all of your resources. And these commandments that I command you today shall be on your heart, and you should teach them to your children and speak of them when you sit in your home, and while you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you arise. You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm – tefillin, and between your eyes. And you should write them upon your doorposts – mezzuzot, and in the houses upon your gates. Shema is the mitzvah to accept upon ourselves our relationship to God. But according to this Chazal we see that within that is bein adam l’chavero, the 48 irei miklat. This is another beautiful example of the greatness of the Torah, of the balance of the Torah, of how to create a society and how to create a world which cares both about God and about man.

0:16:35.9

A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno brings a possuk like this. Hashem spoke to Moses, “Take revenge for the bnai Yisroel against the Midyanites. Afterwards, you shall be gathered unto your people.” The Midrash Rabba says that Moshe wanted to see the revenge against Midyan, like it says in Tehillim, “The righteous man will rejoice because he saw revenge.

He brings a parable. A wealthy man had an only son. He was a very sweet boy but he had a problem. He couldn’t stop drinking. One time a doctor came to town, and the boy’s father said, “Please heal my son.” He said, “I can do it. I can make your son hate the drink. It will be repulsive to him.” He treated the boy, and he says the son now despises alcohol. The father saw really the truth was he’s stopped drinking. But the father wanted to be sure, so what did he do? He sent his son to go buy some wine for him. He went to the wine store and asked for a keg of wine. The salesman said, “Fine, I’m going to go downstairs and get you a keg.” In the meantime there were these empty jugs on the counter. The boy smelled the wine and was it was so repulsive to him that he took a stick and broke all the jugs. When the wine seller came upstairs he said, “What did you do?” He went up to the father and said, “Your son broke all these wine caskets.” He says, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay you for them.” The father was thrilled. Why? “Because now I know that my son’s hate for wine is deeply ingrained in him.” The same thing with Moshe Rabbeinu. He wanted to see that really Yisroel was going to fight against the Midyanites. He wanted to know if they still harbored inside of their hearts a desire for them, to be like them. If they hardly fight, so that means they weren’t really healed. But since he saw that they fought with a fury, and they hate them, so then Moshe was happy like the verse says, “The righteous man will rejoice because he saw revenge.”

0:18:39.8

Great Stories – Rav Shach

The Kli Yakar says on the verse, “You shall arrange cities for yourself, cities of refuge they shall be for you.” He compares it with the Pirkei Avos that says, “Exile yourself to a place of Torah.” Just like an inadvertent murderer runs to one of these cities he’ll be able to live, so too if you exile yourself to a place of Torah, you’ll also come to life. Like it says, “He shall live by them. And similarly, just like you shouldn’t leave a city of refuge because if the person leaves a city of refuge then the brother or the father could kill him, so too you shouldn’t leave the study hall, the house of Torah. So, we know that Rav Shach was separated from his family at a very young age to go to Yeshiva, just before World War I. But what happened? World War I broke out, and he was separated by a country border. They made new borders, he couldn’t actually go back to see his mother and his sister. His father passed away, and he never saw him again. So, what happened? There was the mother and the sister living in this town, and a neighbor also had a boy in the Yeshiva where Rav Shach was.

So, they made a plan. They were going to send a letter to Rav Shach and this other boy, his friend, and they were going to meet at the border fence. So, they sent the letter and they were supposed to meet on this one day. They were waiting there and they see that only the son of the friend comes, and Rav Shach didn’t show up. Rav Shach’s sister was a baby when Rav Shach left and she’d never even met him. So, they were waiting there, Rav Shach doesn’t show up to see his mother who’s a widow, and his sister who he never saw before, never met before. The boy brought with him a letter from Rav Shach and it said like this. He apologized to his mother, and he said he was sure that his mother would understand because she told him before the war broke out, “The safest place to be is in the beis medrash, in the house of Torah.” He wrote, “I was afraid to come, because after seeing you just after abba died, and seeing my sister, I was afraid my emotions would get the better of me and I wouldn’t be able to learn after that. So, I decided not to come.” He was sure his mother would agree with his decision. This is an unbelievable story and it’s even hard for us to understand, but in the end let’s not forget, Rav Shach became the greatest one in the generation.

0:21:06.3

Peace in Your Home

Rav Simcha Cohen explains, a woman who feels that her husband doesn’t speak to her enough, has to examine herself. Maybe she’s doing something that’s preventing him from talking to her. Does she encourage him for him to share his feelings? Does she unconsciously throw up obstacles stopping him from talking? Maybe she comments in the middle or asks questions, and it stops the flow of the conversation and it’s hard for him to complete a thought. Or she says to him, ‘Oh, that’s stupid,’ or, ‘I would have done it differently.’ So, in the end the husband just shuts up. He doesn’t want to talk. Or maybe she corrects his mistakes, little details. He says, “150, there were 150 people there.” She says, “No, there were 160.” These things don’t matter. Also in general, just speaking in the wrong way can stop the conversation. If one person speaks too loud, or one person has the wrong tone of voice, or somebody speaks too fast. So, you don’t want to speak to people like that. Or someone claims, “Once she gets going, she never wants to stop.” He doesn’t want to open a conversation with her, it’s like a can of worms. It just keeps coming out more and more. There are some women who work in kindergartens, and they’re used to repeating themselves and talking and talking and talking to the kids. That’s good for kids, but it’s not good for a husband.

So, what should we do about that? We have to ask our spouse, “Am I speaking correctly? Is there a problem with the way we’re communicating logistically? Maybe we’re doing something wrong that’s stopping the conversation.” Or sometimes what happens is the other person has an angry face on them, and they don’t realize it, and there’s just tension. There’s tension coming from them and the other person doesn’t want to relate to them. But since the person themselves is not conscious of their attitude or their anger, so they think it’s the other person who doesn’t want to speak to them. But they don’t see themselves. Or sometimes somebody speaks with too much emotion. They speak extreme, for example. Or they always say, “Yeah, that kid’s hopeless.” “I’ve had it, I can’t take it anymore.” Some people speak that way, exaggerated, in order to get the point across. But the person listening may not understand that. They think this person’s crazy. Not only that, sometimes the husband comes home and he’s relaxed. The wife is all nervous about what happened in the house, so the person who is not involved with the situation they have a different perspective on what’s going on. They don’t want to talk to somebody who’s so involved and so upset about something. When that person says to them, “Please don’t shout, don’t be too upset,” so the person talking feels there’s nobody listening to me.

Actually, we had a case of this in the Torah itself. Rochel said to Yaakov, “Give me children and if not I’m dead.” So, the Rambam explains that Yaakov got mad at her. She was frightening him with the threat of death. Sometimes the person says, “Wait a second. I like to express myself with emotion. What’s the point of telling a story if it’s not emotional?” So, this has to be made conscious. You have to understand the communication method of your spouse. How are they expressing themselves?

And a real show-stopper is when one of the couple brings up things that the other one said to them in a very intimate, private level. And all of a sudden, there’s a new thing happening or a fight and they said, “Yeah, you’re this, you’re like this, you’re like that.” So then surely the person’s not going to want to speak to them ever again. So, those are a lot of the problems. But what do we do? We have to create the right conditions for dialogue. For example, look at the other person’s eyes when they’re speaking. If one person speaks and the other one’s looking down at their iPhone, or talking to their shoes or sorting the laundry, who knows what, that’s not a conversation. That’s not a dialogue.

One time there was a wife who was complaining that the husband never paid attention to her. It turns out that the husband was a cab driver, so he’s used to speaking to people without looking at them. And don’t sit on the opposite side of the table, sit next to each other. Use the tools of public speaking. Just like a public speaker has certain methods that he uses in order to connect with his audience, to smile, to nod, to make it easy to talk and joke around a little bit, eye contact, pay attention to the audience, don’t drag on, get a feel for the other person. Pay attention to their unconscious actions. Look at their body language.

One time a wife complained that, “My husband thinks I’m an idiot. He always says, ‘Do you understand, do you get it?’” They checked out that she would listen without any expression on her face. He would talk and she would listen with no reaction. So, he would say to her, “Do you understand?” And she’s complaining that, “He thinks I’m an idiot,” but she’s not showing any kind of reaction, no connection. Show the person that you agree or disagree, smile, nod. Try to make reactions clear and evident. Also, try to find the right environment. This is a classic. The woman wants to speak to the husband right as he walks in the door. That may not be the best time, you know? Wait till he sits down, wait till he has a drink. Wait till he’s relaxed, and then talk.

Or the opposite – someone who wants to talk as the person’s about to leave the house. Surely that’s not going to make for a good conversation? The other person’s in a rush, they have their mind already out the door and you’re trying to speak to them. It’s not going to work. Or people try to speak on public transportation. The husband’s embarrassed, and the wife doesn’t care. But that’s not an environment to speak. You have to both be in a situation where you both feel comfortable speaking.

Or another classic is late at night, one of the couple loves to stay up late and the other one wants to go to sleep early. So, the one who wants to stay up late he starts talking all of a sudden, and he can talk for hours. And the wife is exhausted. She wants to go to sleep so he feels bad. It’s not the right time to talk. It’s just not the right environment. One way to get around all these problems is to make a fixed time to speak to each other, where everybody feels comfortable and it’s right for both sides.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends and leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

The post 065 – How to Create the Ideal Society – The Human Divine Paradigm appeared first on The Global Yeshiva.

Torah Portion of the Week – Pinchas – Love and Hate in Orthodox Judaism – The Reforms are Wrong – A Powerful Parable about Debt Collectors – A Great Story about Brisker Rav and Peace in Your Home – Creating Dialogue
Show Notes

The Torah Podcast Transcript

064 The Torah Podcast – Love and Hate in Orthodox Judaism – Why Reform Judaism is Wrong    

Torah Portion of the Week – Pinchas

After last week’s podcast where I denounced homosexuality, I got some negative feedback. Some of the comments called me an ignoramus, a bigot, anti-Semite, anti-Jewish, a rant against humanity. Therefore, I decided to start this week’s podcast explaining a little bit about where I’m coming from, and what are some of the basic foundations of Orthodox Judaism.

First and foremost we hold that the written Torah and the Oral Torah were both given at Sinai. And the words are perfect, and there are no extra words and no extra ideas. I want to quote to you here from the Darkei Gemara, Rav Yitzhak Confetone says like this. “The basic principle of all intensive study is to be extremely exacting with the language and the text. One must try to see if there’s any extra words, repetitive subjects, if there’s a new idea, there has to always be a new idea. And you have to examine every change in language, law or subject matter between the current text and another text.” In other words, everything has to fit perfectly. He continues and says, “In the beginning of your study accept as a premise and make part of your thinking that each and every speaker whether he asks or answers a question, is extremely intelligent. All their words are words of wisdom, understanding and knowledge. They do not contain something crooked or twisted.” And this is what our Rabbis meant when they said, ‘Are we dealing with fools?’ Therefore you must look deeply into the words and see if they have meaning and if they’re strong or if they’re weak. And it’s up to us to validate the logic behind their words, and to correct their statements in a way that it becomes pleasing and acceptable and reasonable to the mind. We should never commit the great sin and crime of ascribing bad or weak reasoning to their words, because none of their words are erroneous, for all of them are the words of the living God. Because it says, ‘If the words of Torah are empty, the emptiness comes from you.’” This is the basis and the foundation of Orthodox Judaism. It’s our job to figure out what the Torah is saying. If we don’t understand, that means that we don’t understand. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the text. That doesn’t mean there’s something with the Torah. It means we’re lacking. The greatest minds in history for thousands of years spent hours and hours toiling over the texts of the Gemara and the Torah. And they did it day and night, and all the explanations and ways of viewing things are all based on the greatest minds who put their lives on the line for what the text was saying.

It says, the Rama had 256 possibilities in a text before the halacha, before he gave the law. 256 ways of looking at it. So, when the world says, “Oh, there’s many opinions,” what do you mean many opinions? It’s opinions of experts, of professionals. And that’s why it’s our obligation to justify the text, because if we don’t understand it, it means we’re missing in understanding. And our whole tradition is based on the kavod, the honor that we give to our forefathers and the tradition that we received from them. And if we equate ourselves to be on their level to make up new laws and to change things, we’re making a big mistake.

The verse in Parshas Pinchas says like this. “And Moses did as Hashem commanded him, and he took Yehoshua.” What does Rashi explain it means, “He took Yehoshua?” He’s about to give Yehoshua the position of taking over the Jewish people. Rashi says, “He took him and influenced him with words, and he informed him of the reward of the Jewish people’s leaders in the world to come.” The Chofetz Chaim explains, “In each generation our nation’s leaders must faithfully stand guard making sure that Klal Yisroel follows the path of Torah and observes all the mitzvos of Hashem exactly as it was in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, and not one iota less. And the reward for doing so is prepared for them.” In other words, Moshe Rabbeinu told Yehoshua, “It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be hard, but in the end you’re going to have tremendous reward.” Reward for what? For faithfully guarding exactly every single word of the Torah, the Torah Shebichtav, the Written Torah, and the Torah She Bal Peh, the Oral Torah. This is the foundation of Orthodoxy which differentiates us between the Conservatives and the Reform. Now, the truth is, it’s not really blaming them. I feel that the Conservative and Reform were mis-educated. They were not taught by their teachers to give the proper value to the text. And when that happened, you never really see the beauty of the Torah. The beauty only comes when you understand that it’s all perfect and it all has to fit, and then you understand the new ideas that are coming out, and the foundations that the Rabbis were trying to give over.

I once asked Rav Chaim Zimmerman who was one of the Gedolei haDor, one of the great Torah scholars of our time, “Is it better to remember the Gemara word by word, or is it better to remember it conceptually?” There’s a statement and there’s a difficulty, there’s an answer to a difficulty. He answered me, “There’s no difference. These are the words that express the concepts. There is no better way to express the concepts, so you’re going to wind up remembering it word for word anyway, because if you want to understand the concepts you have to be fixated on the words. And this is the job of every Jewish leader in every generation, to make sure the tradition continues. And this is what kept the Jewish people alive to date, that we’re still around as a people. It’s only because of our pure adherence to the Torah, the way it was handed down from Mount Sinai.

At the end of last week’s Parsha the verses say like this. “Behold, a man from the Children of Israel came and brought the Midyanite woman near to his brothers before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel.” What happened? Zimri, the prince of Shimon, brought this woman, Cosbi, the daughter of Tzur – the king’s daughter, the Midyanite king’s daughter. He brought her into the tent in front of everybody. And he was going in to sin with her so the verse says, “Pinchas the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron haCohen, stood up and took his spear in his hand, and he followed them into the tent and he pierced them both while they were being together.” He stuck the spear through both of them and they stuck together. The plague was halted from upon the Jewish people. But those who died were 24,000. He stopped the plague. The continuation of this with the first possuk of this week’s Parsha says, “Hashem spoke to Moses saying, ‘Pinchas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron haCohen, turned back My wrath from upon the Children of Israel when he zealously avenged My vengeance among them. So I did not consume the Children of Israel with My vengeance. Therefore behold, I give him my covenant of peace, and it shall be for him and his offspring a covenant of eternal priesthood, because he took the vengeance for his God, and he atoned for the Children of Israel.” This is the law of the zealot, kanim pogim bo. In such a case in front of 10 men, they see another man do such a thing one could come in and take the law in his own hands and kill them. This is the law in the written Torah itself.

The Malbim explains that Pinchas risked his life, why? Because of three things. First of all, he risked the retaliation of all of Zimri’s tribe or of Shimon. Second of all, he had to make sure he caught them together during the act, because if not he would be considered a murderer. And third of all, he killed the daughter of the King of Midyan. But he didn’t care, because he was working for God. The verse says, “God is a God of vengeance,” and Pinchas took into his own hands and brought down the vengeance of God. The question is, what is this vengeance? It’s not what we think it is. Rav Wolbe explains, “It’s not sweet revenge. It’s nothing personal. He was doing what the Torah said to do, nothing personal.” The Gemara in Yoma 22B says, “A talmid chacham who does not take vengeance like a snake is not a true talmid chacham, because it says in the verse of Tehillim, ‘Ohavei Hashem sinu ra,’ those who love Hashem despise evil. They will do everything in their power to eradicate evil from society. And if not, they’re not considered a true talmid chacham, a true Torah scholar.” But Rav Chaim of Brisk asks a difficulty. He says, “What’s going on here? We know usually that God always grants reward and punishment midda keneged midda, measure for measure. But here by Pinchas, he killed somebody, and what’s his reward? The covenant of peace. So, how could he connect these two things?” The answer is that Pinchas’ kavana, his intention was to save the Jewish people. Like the verse says, “He’s turned back My wrath from upon the Children of Israel, and because of him I did not annihilate the Children of Israel.” Who knows how many would have died if he didn’t do this act? And he goes on to explain, “It’s not that he was a fanatic, and it’s not that he was self-righteous and arrogant. He had a sincere desire to improve the society. He had a sincere desire to save the Jewish people, and to improve society, the continuation of the Jewish people.

He gives an example. If you have a housewife and a cat in the house, both of them don’t want any mice around. But the housewife sincerely wishes that there’s no mice. But the cat on the other hand, he wants the mice and he wants to kill the mice. So, he’s happy to see the mice. He says, “The cat is like a self-righteous person, a person who’s religious just because he wants to show how great he is, how right he is, how correct he is. That has nothing to do with real religion.” This is a major point. There are two parts to religion, there’s bein adam lechavero u’bein adam leMakom, between man and man and between man and God. And all of them are written in the Torah. And it’s known in Chazal that Pinchas ben Eliezer ben Aharon haCohen, he had the qualities of Aharon which was a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace. He loved God’s creatures and would draw a man to Torah. He spent all his days making shalom bayis, Aharon haCohen spent all his days making shalom bayis, peace between husband and wife. He had no personal hate against Zimri. His whole goal was just for the honor of God.

Rav Henoch Leibowitz points out, “Where do we see that? Because when Pinchas saw what happened, he didn’t just run right away with the spear. He first went to Moses to make sure what the halacha was. It’s true, he had emotions and he was jealous for God. But still, he used his intelligence – what does it say in the Torah? He was rational.” He explains, “A true kanai, zealot, is one who possesses both an all-encompassing devotion to Hashem and an equally overwhelming love for fellow Jews.” Zeal and devotion can’t apply to just half the Torah, to Shabbos and kashrus and modesty and other mitzvos that are just between man and God, but they also must be matched equally with love, kindness, compassion and consideration to other people. Otherwise, it’s your own agenda. But it’s not a contradiction. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz explains, “He was able to kill Zimri but still he was considered the son of Aharon. He had love for the Jewish people.” Also by Avraham and Yishmael, one place it says, “He loathed him, he hated Yishmael because of his sins.” Another place it says, “The one who you love.” And Avraham didn’t know if he was speaking about Yitzhak or speaking about Yishmael. Justice can only come from a place of love. And all the mitzvos bein adam leMakom, between man and God, have to come from a place of love between man and man. And if that’s not happening it’s wrong. That’s why they say, “Orthodox are extremists.” Which Orthodox are extremists? The ones that love their fellow man? No, it’s a couple of guys, they don’t care about other people and they’re using religion in a self-righteous way. It gives religion a bad name.

Just because we follow the laws of the Torah and we’re exacting in them, and we’re against homosexuality because it’s written clearly in the Torah that it is forbidden. It doesn’t mean we hate people, it doesn’t mean we’re against people. We’re trying to do what the Torah says. And not only that but you have to even be more careful when a person is putting out judgement, or judging people. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz brings down the Gemara in Yoma 54B that explains that when the Jews came into the Beis haMigdash they saw the cheruvim hugging each other – these angel-like forms above the Tabernacle. When they’re hugging each other it’s a sign that God is close to us, so what’s going on? At the time of the destruction of the Temple, God is close to us? The answer is yes, that’s when He’s the closest because when God gives out punishment He comes close to us. He loves us. He doesn’t hate us. He hates our sins. Also when the wife of Lot looked back on Sodom and she turned into a pillar of salt, what did she see? She saw the shechina. God’s presence was there while Sodom was being destroyed. When God punishes us, this vengeance of God is coming out of love. It’s to eradicate evil from the world. And all the more so if we come to punish or to speak bad, we have to love the people. But the halacha is the halacha. The law is the law. We all have to follow the Torah. And if the people are not following the Torah, something has to be done about it.

There was a whole scandal in the news this week that one of the Chaverei Knesset claims the Conservative and Reform Jews are like gentiles. Everybody was screaming, “How can you say such a thing?” But you should know, it’s a meforesh Mishna Berura of, the Chofetz Chaim, the leader of the Jewish people, the one who loved the Jewish people. And the Jewish people loved him. What does it say? That someone for example, who was mechalel Shabbos perparhesia, a person who drives to Shul on Shabbos, dino keakum, he has a din like a gentile. He’s considered a gentile, not Jewish. Ve’aino mestareif to the minyan, and the aspect that he can no longer be part of a minyan. A guy drives to Shul on Shabbos he cannot be part of the minyan. What, he’s not Jewish? Of course he’s Jewish. He’s considered according to the law, not Jewish. Do we hate the guy? No, we don’t hate the guy. We hate the way he’s acting. Do we want to educate him? Of course we want to educate him. But he doesn’t want to be educated. He wants to drive to Shul on Shabbos.

The next Mishna Berura says, “Kol mi she kofer b’Torah”, someone who does not accept Torah she b’al peh, “Aino mestaref lekol devar she bekedushah,” he cannot be added to anything that requires holiness. He can’t participate. Why? Because he doesn’t believe in the Torah she bal peh. He’s a Tzaduki, and this is not a new problem this is an old problem. It’s been going on for thousands of years. But this is the way that we shomer the Torah, this is the way that we protected ourselves. This is why the Jewish people are still here, and the religious people are still here, and Torah is still being learned because there are rules. Do the rules come from hate? No. The rules are coming from love. Look at it the opposite way. Why is this guy driving to Shul? He wants to do it his way? So do it your way, but leave us alone. The women at the Wall, they want to read from a sefer Torah. But they can’t, it’s not the halacha, it’s not what the Torah says. It’s not what God wants. I don’t understand why they want to read it at the Wall. If they have a new religion, let them get a new wall. Why do they need the old Wall? They want to twist everything to fit them. Are they experts in learning? Do they give kavod to what the Torah says, do they give honor? Are they greater than the sages that spent their days and nights toiling in the learning, trying to understand the words of God instead of pushing their own trip?

Somebody leaves a comment from one of the Torah sages of today. Who’s that? A Rabbi who’s a homosexual. Are you kidding me? You can’t do that act and still be called a Rabbi. They want to twist the whole Torah around. It’s arrogant and it’s self-serving. The Torah says meforash, you cannot do acts like that. It’s written clear as a bell. You want to twist the whole Torah? Leave the Torah alone. Go do what you want to do, what’s it have to do with Torah? You feel good being Jewish, you want to shlep it in? Just because I’m saying these things or other Rabbis say these things, it doesn’t mean we hate. We hate evil, we don’t hate the people. Of course you would mekarev the guy, of course you’d re-educate them and bring them into the fold, and explain to them because the real talmid chacham has both qualities – sino ra, he hates evil but he loves people. You have to be one of the talmidim that’s Aharon haCohen, ohev shalom, loving people, between man and God or between man and man. And because of this quality, that’s why Pinchas received what? A bris shalom. Now, what does bris shalom mean? Chazal explains it to mean life, long life – the power of life. Different shtitas, but some Pinchas lived for over 300 years. Some say even further than that. And according to the shitta that says that Pinchas was Eliyahu, he never died. So, the Seforno explains, “He who makes peace in the heights, because indeed all diminishing of life is caused as a result of opposing conflicting forces.” Now, this blessing of peace was fulfilled by Pinchas who lived much longer than his contemporaries, because he didn’t have conflicting forces. He was shalem, he was complete. He had both the love of man and the love of God. That’s a balanced person, not just a love of God and he’s a nasty guy and not just a love of man, and everything goes.

I just want to end up with the Shem Mi Shmuel. He explains, what was going on with Zimri? What was he thinking? The Gemara in Nazir 23B says, “Both Tamar and Zimri committed adultery.” Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Yehuda, and wound up living with Yehuda, it was adultery. And Zimri went with Cosbi – adultery. Tamar committed adultery and gave birth to kings and prophets, and Zimri committed adultery and on his account many tens of thousands of Yisroel perished. That’s what the Gemara says. So, what’s the difference between them? Chazal tells us that Zimri was trying to do an avera lishma, he wanted to live with this woman to bring out holy children from her. He saw light inside of her. Al pi kabala when Adam haRishon sinned, all the light went all over the world. This light can be redeemed, and that’s what he was trying to do. The tribe of Shimon understood that, and that’s why Pinchas was scared that they’re going to kill him. And what did they say about Pinchas? They were making fun of him. We know that Pinchas also came from Yisro. We know that one of Yisro’s names told us that he fattened calves for idol worship. By idol worship it’s very important that the calf is big and fat. By us by the mizbeach, altar, it doesn’t have to be fat. So, what were they saying? They said, “Pinchas, you’re looking at Zimri externally. Your grandfather fattened calves for avoda zara, idol worship. Everything was external. You don’t see the real intention.” But what does the possuk say? No, he was from Aharon haCohen, the epitome of between man and man, a middle man between people, involved with the relationships of one person to another.

And Pinchas saw deeper. He saw that Zimri wasn’t 100 percent leshem shemayim, he was acting out of own selfish desires. And that’s why he killed him. And what’s interesting Chazal tells us that Eliyahu who is the reincarnation of Pinchas, is malach habris, the angel of Eliyahu comes to every single bris milah, circumcision. Why? Because Pinchas atoned for sexual sin for killing Zimri and stopping the plague, and getting the Jewish people to go on the right path, because the bris is the part of the body that has to do with sexuality. And on the eighth day we take the child and we do the bris. This is shiach to Eliyahu, and it’s shiach with Pinchas. We take our little boy that we love and we do an act that can only be explained by our connection to the Creator, bein adam leMakom, because who in their right mind would do such an act? If it wasn’t written in the Torah, if we weren’t Jews who believed in the Torah, if we weren’t a people who had a tradition, we would never do a bris milah. But not everything is between man and man. As Jews we live in two worlds, our relationship to God and our relationship to man, and they both have to be fulfilled completely, b’shelemus. And that’s what gives us life. The bris is the beginning of the child’s life. And the Seforno explains, “Death is caused by two forces going in an opposite direction. But the bris shalom, the covenant of life, is when those two forces go in the same direction with the same intensity, and the same balance of what it means to be a Torah-true Jew.

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A Powerful Parable

The Maggid mi Dubno asks, “Why is it that Pinchas got the bris of shalom, and Moshe Rabbeinu didn’t get the bris of shalom? Many times Moshe stood up against the Jewish people and told them the right way to go, and fought for the truth.” He wants to explain with a moshul, parable. One time one person had many creditors. Each time the creditors would come, his friends would come and try to defend him and they would offer them excuses and delay the payment to a different date. One time the creditors came back and somehow they got through everybody and they got in to the guy. They said, ‘Pay up now.’ One of the friends came in and said, ‘Okay, he’ll pay now. But you have to erase some of these debts. Bring it down. He’s in such bad shape, it’s so long ago,’ and he speaks to the creditors and he gets them to bring the price way down. That friend did more than all the other friends. Even though the other friends stopped the debtors from coming and he gave him more time, but in the end this one friend brought the debt down.

So too, the Jewish people. The Jewish people did the sin of the egel, the Golden Calf, idol worship. And there were dues to pay, so Moshe Rabbeinu kept defending them and pushing it off till Pinchas came along and he erased the debt completely. So, the verse says, “The daughters of Tzelophchad drew near.” The Midrash Rabba explains that in that generation the woman would always come and fix up the breaches that the men did not keep. We know when Aharon haCohen told them to get these rings from their wives ears, the women refused to give the gold, to build the Golden Calf. And here in this case, the men didn’t want to go into Eretz Yisroel, but the possuk says, “The daughters of Tzelophchad drew near.” They wanted to go into Eretz Yisroel.

One time the Brisker Rav in Europe during the time of the enlightenment was in shul, synagogue on Yom Kippur. So, the people from the enlightenment they wanted to make a choir. They made a choir. They were going to sing on Yom Kippur, and this was to entice the congregation to follow in their ways. What happened? The choir stood up to start to sing, and the Brisker Rav yelled, “Sit down.” So, they sat down. The community leaders in the front of the room, they told them to sing, so they got up to sing. The Brisker Rav again said, “Sit down,” so they sat down. And this continued for a while. At a certain point the Brisker Rav turned to the ladies section and cried out, “Jewish women, they’re trying to destroy the Torah and you’re keeping silent?” Immediately the women bent over and reprimanded their husbands. As a result, the town leaders gave up and the breach was closed.

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Peace in Your Home

Rav Simcha Cohen speaks about dialogue in the home. Man is a creature of speech, a baal chaim medaber, a living thing that speaks. And he brings Rav Wolbe who explains, “Speech was specifically created for the forming of ties and closeness. And this is why if somebody uses speech to distance people, Chazal says it’s not received before the Divine presence. Mockers, liars, flatterers and slanderers, four groups that are not received by the Divine presence.” And all the more so a married couple. Through speech, each partner gets to express his feelings. They can ask for things, they can unburden themselves from their troubles and their worries. It creates an emotional bond. But if there’s a lack of dialogue between the couple, so alienation develops. They live in the same house, they take care of the same kids, but they have no connection and it breeds bad feelings. It’s like people say, “We’re not on speaking terms.” And if one of the couple is speaking to the other one, the other one’s not paying attention or it takes them five minutes to answer, it’s going to do damage. But people are oblivious to how much their words are affecting. If you have to go speak on national television, you’d be very careful with your words. But in the house, you use whatever words you want. We know that professional speakers spend tons of time trying to develop their ability to speak, to communicate – how loud they speak, with the right intonation, how they dress. It’s all part of communication. So, if you want to communicate in your house, the same thing. You have to have a good feeling towards the person you’re speaking to, you have to be pleasant and smiling, and look good. And you have to believe in what you’re saying. And if not, you have a breakdown in communication.

Rav Yerucham even goes as far as to say that if you speak in a manner that the person wants to listen to you, you’re fulfilling the mitzvah of veahavta lereicha kemocha, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He says, “If you write a letter to someone you should write it on beautiful paper, good ink, clear penmanship. Write slowly. It’s a mitzvah. So too, married couples. When they want to communicate they should do it in the proper way. But the problem is that a man’s idea of conversation and a woman’s idea of conversation are two different things. Man has a conversation because he wants to communicate something. He’s trying to express himself. He’s trying to tell his wife something. A woman’s conversation is the goal itself. They’re just talking in order to talk, but that’s the way they’re built. The Gemara says, “10 kafim of sicha, of conversation, were given into the word and 9 kafim were given to the women. You could have a classic example like this. The woman says, “Why don’t you ever talk to me?” The man says, “I do.” She says, “When was the last time we spoke?” He says, “A half hour ago. I asked you where David’s shoes were. I asked you what happened at the dentist with Libby’s teeth.” She starts to cry, “You see? You never talk to me. You only speak when there’s something to take care of. We never have a real conversation.”

But the answer is that Hashem built women like this in order that they can raise their children properly. Studies even show that women who speak to their kids when they’re little even though they don’t understand, they have a higher level of intelligence. We even know one of the midwives who was Miriam was called Puah, she spoke to the babies. So, there’s a reason why a woman needs to speak more. Chazal says, “Whoever sleeps in the same chamber in which a man and a wife reside of him scripture says, ‘You expel the wives of my people from their pleasurable house.’ The Maharsha explains there the problem is they’ll be embarrassed to speak together. You should never make a situation where you’re stopping a couple from speaking with each other. You’re doing nezek, you’re doing damage. The Chazon Ish says, “It’s a Torah obligation for a man to speak to his wife.” That’s why it says, “He will be exempt from his house for one year and he should rejoice with his wife he has taken,” because when you have a conversation what are you saying? I’m interested in you. I can learn from you. It’s pleasant to be around you. It’s not that the wife wants to self-indulge. She really needs you to listen to her. Sometimes a wife even gets jealous, if the husband’s all of a sudden talking on the phone, he comes in the house and calls somebody and speaks to them for half an hour, she gets upset. She didn’t even want to speak to him, but when she saw him speaking to somebody else, she got upset because that dormant need inside of her gets awakened.

So, what should a man do? During the day before he comes home, he should think of things that he’s going to tell his wife. He sees this thing, “Oh, that will be interesting to tell my wife. Or he reads this article, “We could talk about that.” He should find things that she wants to speak about. This way it will be bring peace into his home.

Okay, that’s it for this week’s Torah podcast, I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it with your friends, and please leave comments.

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff

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