Thought for the Week Parshas Beshalach The Fight Against Irrationality, Rabbi Yaakov Winner 5784

hello how are you I hope everyone is I hope everyone is healthy strong and happy physically and spiritually as we've done in the last couple of weeks and months our hearts and minds are with our brothers and sisters so we're adding ster these days to the usual here we're giving ster Hashem should make Miracles the war should end now and all the hostage should return healthy we're going to add today we're going to start as usual with the this week's is it has an unbelievable story of Miracles one of the greatest miracles of all time the miracle of Sams and we celebrated commemorated every single day as we say before we say and it says that the evened saw the great hand that Hashem performed with Egypt and they feared the nation feared Hashem and they believed in Hashem and in Moshe his servant so there's much to talk about this P there's a level of Faith which goes even deeper than seeing it's not only seeing is believing that's a lower level there's a level of believing which is even higher than seeing but we're not going to explain it now and also through our strength our become stronger and you have to realize also that hasem set up in order to bring us closer to hasem and we'll speak today also M about a major aspect of mha there's two major aspects really in this parha as we'll soon see in this week's paraa we have something very very interesting I'm not going to speak about a specific PK this week we're going to speak about what happens in this week's para in general and we're going to cover some fundamental themes and Concepts which are really connected to man in general and to yish kite what's this week's pass about we finally leave Egypt as we said last week in Pas Bo and now we are going towards sin to Mountain toyra but par takes to the chase he's chasing after us that's the beginning of the para then Hashem makes the miracle of and then we have a war with aik so what we have in this week's para is two Psychopaths one called par and one called am the nation of am and in between them sandwiched we have so this brings straight away our attention to different sort of characters what were not meant to learn in other words how not to be like how not to be like a but to be like the re asked a question which I don't really understand the answer so much he asked a question how can we see by said Hashem will wage the war you have to just be silent and by by we say say we have to wage a war the Reb just doesn't so much elaborate the Reb says that by really was already behind us it was one sort of threat he was chasing after us but he was behind us but amik am stands in the way of har in other words he's really preventing us from moving forward so therefore we always have to remember that which is preventing you and we have to always battle and struggle against that to remember constantly to be able to overcome that challenge now let's first talk about what says is and what par is then we'll talk about what says how and what does it mean that it's not a state of Egypt that we are free and then we'll get to aik I hope this all is going to make sense so first of all what does say what is par par is o means the back of the neck the nape of the neck which means the space which is between The Head and the Heart the mind and the Heart the intellect And the emotions which means that what does represents first of all he getting from from the back and it's the back of the neck which means in which means means that even though he knows better and he understands better but still he doesn't let it come down into his heart and is connected to says is connected to doesn't only mean Egypt as we spoke many times but M represents a concept of limitations constrictions and means the throat which is connected to the neck in other words this explains s that in general we have the intellect the world of intellect then we have the heart and emotions now in general the're two different worlds because the mind is cold the main point is the mind is objective the mind is calm cool calm and Collective as they say and the Heart Is passionate exciting to musculus or whatever the how you pronounce that word so but we have to work together which means you meditate you you have to think what's right what's wrong is this Justified is this what I meant to be doing is it good is it bad and from the [Music] meditation you give birth to the emotions we'll soon elaborate more on this but first I just want to get to what the word means soem made the human body in such a way that the head is huger than the neck wider then we have a neck throat and then we come to the Torso why because that represents how the psychological Chron the order of how we go from the mind to the heart when you're lost in thought you're lost in the light and it's it's Illuminating it's brilliant it's huge the light that you're surrounded with when you lost in thought now you have to turn that down you have to make a Tsum you have to go away from the Euphoria of how you lost in your mind in the idea and now you have to tone it down and it has to go through a passage a tunnel so to speak it has to go through the neck it has to go through the throat go away from the high that mental high that you had from being lost in this beautiful idea you have to tone it down because you have to stop making instead of abstract you have to make it concrete to make it concrete you have to go away from that level of light and say okay so what does it mean practically speaking enough Theory enough abstract let's get the concrete practical what does it mean practical how do you apply it as they say so you have to tone it down you have to bring it down you have to dilute the high the Euphoria and I'll get down to details what it means practically which it's not so high it doesn't feel such an euphoric feeling because now we got to get to details now you want to start talking about practical you know you have a lot of people they love the idea they love the theory but once we start getting into the nitty-gritty the nuts and bolts they just lose their whole you know um inspiration so now we have the neck the problem is you're meant to go through a neck you're meant to go through a m you meant to go through this constriction this Smalling down diminishing of the high that you had when you're lost in that intellectual Aura but the problem is sometimes you can get stuck in that tunnel you can get trapped in that neck and it becomes a point where you severed the head from the body like this say cognitive dissonance which means even though in your head it comes out one way but nevertheless didn't come down into the heart you don't live up to your expectations you don't live up to the way you meant to be and there are many many hundreds and thousands of levels of this connecting between The Head and the Heart okay so now this I'm sure you've heard about what's called like one of the main Innovations and accomplishments of the AL was stands for which means the order of how an intellectual process goes from where the illumination The Innovation creativity the idea the the light bulb ignites that's the beginning like like like an egg like a like a seed then it then it then it then it um spreads expands that's the BINA concept comprehension and concentration that's and then that's the is the brain the brain has three steps in the process and then from that we come to emotions what does it mean practically speaking so let's start from the lowest level in the lowest level what this means is simple self-control self-restraint selfelf discipline and the words of T ISF which means a person might have an Impulse he might have negative Tendencies and of every single person's born that way he's born with an animal Soul so therefore Hashem also gave us shall kiss shall kiss a Godly Soul which primarily intellectual and your your animal soul is primarily emotional like the difference between a human and an animal that a human has a mind and therefore just because he has a certain nature and he has negative Tendencies and he's he has a lazy side a lesser self so to speak he doesn't have to follow the desire that he feels for example imagine you have a dog and the dog is barking on the lowest level the brain dominating the heart means we can put a cage over the dog the dog could still keep on barking you are a person you have a it's still drawn towards sweets even though somebody knows it's not healthy for him and he knows it it's junk food nevertheless he's drawn towards it what could he do and it's not his fault they made him that way so he has that animal which is inside himself which is drawn TOS negative things but you know what just CU you're drawn to it doesn't mean you have to follow it and that means the brain dominates heart you could control it now this is the basis and the lowest level of freedom and you can say the independence of man that even though you're in an environment which is negative even though you're in a society which is negative and those are challenges from without and even more so challenges from within you have negative impulses you have destructive desires etc etc etc guess what you also have a and that control that that that idea that you know that this is the wrong thing to do will control over the heart and not allow it to expand so that's the first level of which means that the knowledge in your head that says this is wrong could stop and prevent the heart from taking control you are in control of your heart instead of being a Slave to your emotions okay that's the lowest level now this goes on and on higher and deeper in tan and this is really also about Judaism there's another whole level of not only that the heart control not only the Mind controls the heart in a way of esaf as we explained which means self-control self-restraint self discipline which isfi means to suppress the negative but more so a more more deeper idea of means you could actually create positive emotions in other words when we think about Judaism Judaism means you are in control of your emotions and this gives an answer to many many challenges where someone says but what do you mean I don't feel happy I'm not happy I have a negative nature and then we have and this is on the title page of the T speaks about loving Hashem and this a general question most people have sooner or later like you know what okay I can understand God asked me to do something Hashem commanding me to do something but do I have to be passionate about it I'm not excited about it what should I do I don't feel like it's me and the same thing is true about a is Hashem says love another Jew how can I love another Jew the famous question and the same is the question about loving hasem and the mag M asked the question how is it possible commandment to to love and M had two aspects to the question two parts of the question number one every commandment has to have parameters it's an instruction what am I meant to do I could just slap my finger and create this emotion if the godm has asked me to do something put on T it's clear even if I'm not in the mood I can wrap the the T around my arms or or says eat the Su even if I'm not interested I could just put my body go into the SU but if hasm says love me for what do I meant to do what's the commandment and also how do I come to a feeling we understand when we say an action but a feeling a feeling means something that I'm attracted to I don't feel attracted to it and the first answer gives for the first 17 chapters of T is live which means put your mind in the right place and your heart will follow talking about what it means if you meditate over means you meditate that that hasem is the only true reality and that he is giving you life and he is the master of true Infinity which has no limitations so then there as the mag explained elaborates doesn't only mean you should love me which means it's a command but V means you will love me it's a guaranteed result if you will meditate you put your mind in thinking and meditating to know God after you will automatically come to love him so that answers the question what am I meant to do meditate that's the action of the commandment and therefore we see how the emotions are in your control and the same thing is true about another Jew if you'd know what a Jew is like explains B then you'll come to love him and it goes on and on in Chapter 30 the AL talks about how a person can be humble and the approach is to reframe it if you deeply understand step bystep process of meditation then you will actually be humble towards another person it's not something external it's not something superficial it's inside you go through the brain surgery and you understand then you actually feel feel that way Etc and now the same thing goes for y shabas you can ask the same question tonight is chabas question is five minutes ago was now is in five minutes according to what does it mean that shabas is here shabas is here means I have to act shabas dick but it doesn't only mean act shabas dick it means feel shabas dick what do you mean 5 minutes ago I felt mundane I was emotionally mundane so to speak how can I be shabis on top of the world five minutes later and the same thing is y it's a time frame thing question but what do you mean five minutes ago I had a life full of problems this that and the other thing how could command me five minutes later the answer is or you could say connected to the the the Jew is so disciplined that with the power of his mind since he knows this is what Hashem wants and he believes in spirituality there many different meditations you can have therefore it's a time to be joyous it's a time to be happy the fact that I'm going to act Happy who knows what that will generate that will bring blessings whatever the story is the bottom line is the Commandment is an emotional commandment and we're saying that you could do it and it's all connected to it's built into so we had let's get back to par P's problem was the opposite the was not we were he was and therefore even though he knew so to speak the powers of Hashem and it was demonstrated he nevertheless went on the chase Etc now let's go to amalik amik is unique it says only about he has to be destroyed what makes am different than all the other nations that concerning all the other nations it says that will come this they will they will be transformed and they will serve hem but by we say they have to be obliterated why so explains that every Other Nation we're talking about inside in ourselves obviously we mentioned this before that when we talk about par we talking about our inner par which means means our inner cognitive dissonance that's always telling us ourselves go back to sleep go go don't strive for higher don't Aspire for higher but do what comes easy what comes lazy and don't work on yourself don't sweat the same thing as aik but but deeper more obstinate more stubborn why because even though I never saw a m that discusses exactly the difference between and amik because in our para is destroyed and is destroyed was in a way of in our but this talks about the difference between that was the G and the g what's going to happen comes that it's going to be more bitter not not through destruction and annihilating the enemy but through elevating but anyways now am represents um a crown ego Without a Crown that's what it says what does it mean ego Without a Crown the essence of ego without any rationale in other words like this you can have two ways how a person you know you tell somebody and you go over to some person you say you know what you see that guy you should respect him why should you respect that person why should you rever that person why should you honor that person person because he's greater than you he's bigger than you he's smarter than you and and and but first the guy could be let's say this other person but you know what when you sit him down and he's made a mistake so then we have Enlightenment we have to show him the mistake that he made if he'll show this rich person that this other person is 10 times richer than you 10 times smarter than you 10 times more talented than you 10 times a better person than you so in the end most people will come to respect the other person so that's that's the usual approach so even with par let's start at the beginning he said who is your who are you coming who's coming to redeem the Jews who's the theem of the Jews so he doesn't have Das represents Das and mo is trying to show him this was the marus more and more demonstrations of G to show who we're dealing with which is one of the explanations what it says in general that that that the story of in other words monotheism that there's a God in general there's a could and the story to show that it's a whole higher level and for some reason this still didn't affect even after 10 times being nuked he's still running after to them maybe he thought maybe this time he'll win but Pari wasn't going on a suicide mission because that's why he brought his chariots that's why he was chasing with all of his Empire he still thought maybe this time Hashem maybe won't make another miracle who knows what he thought we have to understand it really but amik is a different story amik to start with is a suicide mission in a way he knows he's going to be crushed as the mus which is brought about the Amba the hot steam of bath he knows it's suicidal to jump into it he's going to become scorched I don't care so it represents an aoness a stubbornness which is a whole level by itself which means getting back to the analogy that I said about you go over to the person who's who who has um audacity and no respect but if you show them that the other person is much greater usually have respect that's 99% of the population but but then you have 1% of the population guess what the more you tell him how that person's better and he understands in his head that is true that that person is a better person every single way then he says you know what so it chose an even greater I become even a greater that even though that person is truly greater and I understand it I still don't respect him there's a go line somewhere I don't know how it goes where somebody says he's a rebel and somebody else ask him so what are you what are you rebelling against and he says what do you got which means that means just anti-establishment anti Authority that's it whatever it is he has to show I don't care I don't care no matter what I don't care and that's why see this explains concerning am that am comes also from the word m a nation of M similar to where it says that it's the back of the by it says it's a sing what was Malik Malika was that act where they broke the neck of the bird in the B mikdash it shows an idea of severing the head from the body that's exactly what is even more than and that's why it comes after even after the greatest Miracles and every single demonstration you can imagine and it doesn't it's not like by par where we have to show him but wait there's more but wait there's more no it's final we've seen the greatest Miracles that could happen and am is still there and saying what are you what are you getting so excited about that's why and that's why it says it says he didn't reach the level of we say he knows go he's still rebelling what is he rebelling against whatever you got he's a rebel shame being a rebel it makes no sense you can't talk to him so therefore Enlightenment and illumination is not possible there's no Redemptive angle he's out there he's he's some sort of being which is brains out the window completely full of a hatred just because he hates you and he wants to go against you no matter what I don't care whatever there's no dealing with there's no negotiating with him that is aik so what is the comom between the two whether it's par whether it's amik it's about stopping the person and the connection between the mind and the heart now let's go to which is the contrast what is Hashem says do we do now m is also connected to the mind but not the idea of intellect so much as we spoke till now but as the brings in Chapter 13 there is in the a special illumination of the neiss a residing of the neiss of The Godly soul and that means a dedication and a loyalty of Hashem which goes beyond intellect it's just that in the body that the portal of where that resides in the body is in in the head but it's so now let's talk about what does this all mean you know we have our inner par we have our inner amik which you know just says I don't care or just is stubborn or just as or just which means coldness relax take it easy don't get so excited that many people you know that Judaism is relaxed that's connected to a mik because it says don't get excited so it comes out oh by the way mentioned previously about there's a long talking how says to yes choose mention it means people that are connected to thead thead is the fullon level of kadushi with the full intensity when you are connected to thead his level of devotion dedication and fiery passion will help you and you will also come infused with a bit of that just like in the story of of amik as the mishna says that when he picked up his hands and he didn't saw what does it mean that they looked at M his hands were raised that means he turned them to Hashem he is the conduit he connects us to Hashem it's getting late so let's just get to the what does it mean in a in it means that how do we battle the par and the amik that's in us which represents laziness which represents stubbornness which represents anything which is preventing us from doing what we're meant to do so there's two ways one is Das mha represents Das what does it mean to get real Das Das means we have to always work on itself and this a lifelong which means that you have to really immerse yourself that it should resonate you know we we we we serve the when we're under mitz so we're not so serious yet we become mitzah we become more serious and you know we start thinking about value systems how much does it really mean to me and this is now a journey in life of spirituality and advancement in in getting getting stronger and stronger in our in in our values but but how strong are they how much are they really part of you and this is what it means Das Das means that you work on yourself always more and more that all whatever you're doing whether it's putting on fil whether it's your aoll whether it's whatever it is that that it becomes like part of you and therefore you're like vibrating like it says in today when the person who is really going through Das that means it becomes animated from the level of Das in his in his brain through concentration he reaches a level of connection that then once he hits that it hits the spot on that level of connection that he becomes United with it then he starts really living it and experiencing it and then it's not possible if anything get in the way that's who he is so one way is through Das and the other way is through which means sometimes you you can't get into a debate sometimes you can't get into an argument back and forth because like we said before when we talking about theik especially it's not about that he's there for one purpose and one purpose only if you're going to him that's that's part of his success he stopped you doing what you meant to be doing he wants to distract you it's one big distraction that's all he has in mind is to distract you and to stop you at all costs and when you're talking with him it's Al it's a waste of time and meanwhile he's distracted you and stopped you from what you meant to be doing so when it comes to such a thing we have to always try to work on both of these areas working on ourselves not only in a level of I know I'm not explaining it 100% but like the AL explains whatever you're doing whatever you're doing y whatever you're doing in learning or in daving or mitzah try to immerse yourself which should be an immersive experience and the more it's an immersive experience the more it'll become part of you in a way which becomes Inseparable to a certain degree and the other thing is practicing C having in mind like [Music] told him go go go jump he does it a person who lives with lives with this in mind there is I have to know just what R is and then I have to be a soldier carry out what the will of hem is and if he lives with such an attitude with such an approach then he will succeed in doing what the wants just to finish off with one story which is a very famous story and has to be thought about and which proves to to how far this idea of brain and heart is from the essentials of so we have to understand I mean there's a simple level like we said before on the most basic level self-control it's not only that's basic without the idea of self-control self-restraint and self discipline there's no justice there's no Law and Order there's no yish kind obviously but then this that takes this further and further so everyone knows the famous story that theab went to see a famous doctor a professor in um 1903 and when this professor he asked him what is what kind of what kind of discipline is this I'm just going to read you from the said the letter from that the C Wass answered the mind has to give to explain to the heart what you should want what your desire should be and the heart has to bring into actuality into life to live in accordance to what the Mind understands so then the professor asked how do we accomplish that the two separate worlds and there's a big ocean which separates them the work is to make a bridge between these two different worlds different part of the [Music] world you should make a bridge and at the very least make um telephone wires electrical wires in a way that the light the illumination of the head should arrive into the heart so obviously this is theab explaining to this professor what is and this is what he says over here this is he doesn't say is B doesn't say he doesn't say even though it could be included in what he's saying over here so this is something we have he's answering a professor what is and he's saying in the end of the day his definition over here is to bring the illumination of the Mind into the heart and that this is an awesome a Hashem should help that we should deal with the par which is in us and the the amolik which is in us and eradicate them and we should all be successful in having Noble aspirations and that these Noble aspirations should come into actuality we should all be successful in accomplishing everything we want to accomplish in our service of and through our success in it'll bring about now posting from my home your man in Melbourne