Acharei & Kedoshim - Shechina and Holiness

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag, recorded with Hashem's never-ending assistance in Rambam Mishneh Torah 57 82. This week's parsha is parshas Acharei Mos if you're in Chutz L'Aretz and Kedoshim if you're in Eretz Yisrael. And what I'd like to do over the next few weeks and months where we're not reading the same parshas together, I'd like to pick a pick a topic that connects the two parshas together so we can have an idea that we can share, we can think about no matter where we are in the world. And for this it's not very hard between Acharei Mos and Kedoshim because the end of parshas Acharei Mos we have the issurim issurei ervah, the prohibited relationships relationships between people that aren't that are not allowed, brother and sister, child and parent. We're talking about marital relations. And we have at the beginning of parshas Kedoshim we have the concept of Kedoshim tiyu, that we're supposed to be holy. The concept of holiness has to do with this idea of having the proper boundaries around this concept which the Western world has completely completely lost sense of boundaries around. That's an important idea, that's a very important topic, and it is something that perhaps you could say is the greatest nisayon of our generation, and perhaps this nisayon was never at this level as it was in previous times. I'm not going to speak directly to this issue so much. We will see in the Medrash that it does speak about it. But I'd like to read what the Medrash has to say at the end of parshas Acharei Mos and at the beginning of parshas Kedoshim, and very powerful message, very powerful for our times. I think it's important to talk about it, to think about it, to contemplate, and to try to strive for something greater because as we'll see in the Medrash when we work on this area, so we are inviting the Shechinah, we're inviting the divine presence into ourselves, into our homes, into our lives. And if heaven forbid we don't work on this area, so then the opposite is true. It's it's the beginning of destruction. And you might know stories of people who failed, destroyed themselves, destroyed their families as a result of this area. It's worth thinking about, contemplating. And like I said, don't get scared away, but we're going to talk about it not like head-on so much, but we're going to talk about it. Rebbe Menashe bar Breida Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi Omer Rebbe Menashe the son of the son of Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi said as follows, "Shekol nishra divar ervah ve'eini zonah einam mimena." A person who sees something forbidden, something like licentious, person who's not tznius, let's say, person who sees something which is inappropriate, and he looks away. Right, we're not in complete control, you know, you walk out on the street, sometimes there are things that a person sees. You're checking your email, you could be checking I mean, there's lots of places where a person can end up seeing something that they don't want to see. I once did a I once did a a poll on YouTube. Uh most people felt that it happens on occasion that they see an ad on YouTube um which is inappropriate. It's not up to their standards, and that's why I took off the ads of my on my YouTube videos. And you know, it happens a person sees something that they don't want to see. May not even be something that's terrible, it may be just someone who's not dressed tznius, they're not modest to the full level that we're used to looking at. Somebody who sees something that they don't want to see, and they don't focus on it, they turn away. They don't Right, it's hard to battle it head-on, right? But you know, gently turn myself away from it. "Ve'eini zonah einam mimena." The language of the Medrash is he doesn't he doesn't allow his eyes to be sustained, have sustenance from it. "Zocheh l'hakbil pnei ha'Shechinah." That person when we work on this area, so we merit to receive the divine presence. Amazing statement of the Medrash. We merit the divine presence. Mai ta'ama? Where do we see this from? "Ve'eitim einav me'eir'os b'ra'ah." The pasuk says in Yeshayahu, in Isaiah chapter 33 verse 15, "One who closes his eyes from seeing evil." "Maksi basra." What does it say afterwards? When a person closes his eyes from seeing evil, turns away from something that he saw which is not good, "Melech b'yofyo techazena einecha." "Tirena eretz merchakim." "The king in his beauty will your eyes see, you will see far away lands." So the the Medrash is understanding the pasuk to say that when a person turns away from something which is not good, which is inappropriate for him or her, it applies to women as well. What we see affects us. It What we see causes us to think that that's possibly okay, heaven forbid, right? What we see affects us, no question. So when we turn away from the thing that's negative, what do we get? We get the the king in his beauty. That's what we see, we see Hashem. We get to see Hashem, your eyes will see the far away lands, it means spiritual lands, of course. Okay, so a powerful a powerful tool in our daily challenge in this area is to think about the fact that we get to see the divine presence. And what that means, I don't you know, I'm just saying the idea that comes to me. But what it means is that there's a spiritual compliment accomplishment in a certain sense. When I turn away from the thing, and again it needs to if I have too much energy around it, becomes problematic, it becomes it's hard to get stronger when I when I fight it head-on. But if I can distract myself, make myself busy with something else, that's a very powerful eitzah. Chazal tell us this. They say that the sin doesn't come into a person's heart unless it's empty of wisdom. Right, if a person is involved in Torah and derech eretz, it takes a person away from being involved in licentious behavior. So turning away from it is the way, the path to receiving the divine presence. Now, the next piece in the Medrash which is the beginning of parshas Kedoshim, so there's another idea. It goes off on a tangent, but it brings us back cuz Kedoshim has to do Being holy means that we separate ourselves from inappropriate behavior in this area. Okay, so the Torah is giving us an opportunity to be somebody special. To be somebody special. But we go off on a bit of a tangent, we we seem to to veer out of this this topic for a while, so we're going to veer away, and we're going to come back to it, and we'll speak about perhaps how there's a connection between the new topic and this topic that we spoke about until now. "Kedoshim tiyu" od d'chativ. "Vayigbah Hashem Tzeva'os bamishpat." The pasuk says "Be holy because I am holy." That's what Hashem says. Hashem says, "Be holy because I am holy." Says the Medrash, there's a pasuk that Hashem is made great, Hashem is made lofty through his judgment, through divine judgment. What does that mean? We're going to see how it applies to to us and to our pasuk and to our concept. But first we're going to talk about this. "Tanya Omer Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai." Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai, the head of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai says, "Im asah Shem Shamayim migdal b'olamo." When is God's name made great in the world? "B'shashosam midas hadin al resha'im." When we see that God does judgment with those who are wicked, right? When we see that tzaddikim, righteous people, the Jewish people are being persecuted, negative things are happening to to righteous people, when we see that, so it's a kasha, it's a problem. Why is God doing this? How could this thing happen? How could it be that the Jewish people who are righteous something negative is occurring to them, so it's a kasha, it's a problem. And it causes us to question our faith. When Hashem, however, brings justice to the wicked, and then the those who are righteous, we see that they come out on top in the end, when truth prevails in the end, it's a tremendous kiddush Hashem. It's a positive thing, it brings about a sanctification of God's name. So that's the the verse, "Vayigbah Hashem Tzeva'os bamishpat." God has raised up his honor is raised up when there is judgment upon the wicked. "Mishelo k'ralyan sagin." We have many verses like this. This verse is in Yechezkel, Ezekiel chapter 38 verse 23. It's talking about when the Mashiach comes, when the Messiah arrives, "Yisgadal v'yiskadish Shemei Rabba." I will be made great. Right, this is based on this we have the Kaddish, "Yisgadal v'yiskadash Shemei Rabba." We're asking for that future time when Hashem's name will be great, he will become sanctified. Notice the word sanctification, "V'yiskadish tiyu." Right, we're talking about Kedoshim tiyu. There's a sanctification of God's name. And we need to understand what does it mean to be holy? We talked about it in terms of not looking at the things we shouldn't look at. But what else it means in this context is being holy means that Hashem's name it comes out kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God's name. Where is the sanctification? "V'eida'ti l'einai rabbim v'yeidu ki ani Hashem." When I make myself known, notice the language of "V'eida'ti." Yedi'ah, knowing or making itself known is connected to the concept we spoke about at the beginning. Right, it refers to Adam and Chava, when Adam and Eve are together with marital relations, so it refers to them as "Vayeida." He knew his wife, Chava. Okay, so there's a concept here that's clearly connected. But when Hashem makes himself known, when he reveals himself, that's also connected. When he reveals himself, that's when everyone knows that it's Hashem, right? There's a kedushah, there's a sanctification of God's name. The kedushah is the holiness is when things are made known, when the truth is made known. "V'seiv noda Hashem mishpat asah." Pasuk says in Tehillim, in Psalms, God makes himself known through his judgments. When we see that the wicked that they are paid back for their wickedness, we see that righteous they come out on top in the end, that's a great revelation of God's name. At this time I will make them know. Again, this language of knowing. My hand, my power. Jeremiah 16:21. This is in chapter 6 verse 5. In order that you know the righteousness of God. That's what it means in the verse when it says that God is made righteous through judgments. When God reveals himself, we see that he's righteous. When God reveals himself, we see indeed there's a there's a holiness that's revealed. So, when we think about what does it mean that we're supposed to be holy? It means we're as we'll soon see and the measure's going to say this, we attach ourselves to holiness. We attach ourselves to truth. We attach ourselves to truth, to justice. And we're going to see that sometimes it seems like things are not good for the righteous. Sometimes it seems like negative things are happening in the world. There are pogroms, there are massacres, there are you name it. What the Jewish people has gone through for the last 2,000 years. Being being uh demonized in the UN, etc. All these things that seem unfair. Why are we being singled out? But we're going to see that by recognizing the truth underlying all of these things by recognizing that really is in charge and all the things that are negative are really good. Even the things that seem to be the opposite of good, those are also those are also good. So, that's attaching ourselves to truth and that is that is holiness, that is sanctifying name. Let's see that inside. We're going to be This is what it means. I'm going to tell my people that You are always raised up. You are always up. You are Your hand is always you always have the upper hand. And what does it mean that God always has the upper hand? Let's see. In the way of the world, if a flesh and blood king, a regular human king so, he says certain things. He's involved in a and he says he brings down his judgment, he says what the judgment is. I mentioned this earlier. I said I said So, when he gives a positive thing, he brings it down a positive judgment, he says let this person be awarded a certain amount of money, whatever. So, everyone praises him. But when the king of flesh and blood king he he's he's bringing down a judgment which is negative I say everyone is shaking, everyone's quiet, they don't know what to say, they don't they don't want to praise him. They're afraid what's going to happen if he judges me. They know that there could be a mistake in his judgment. So, they're afraid. They're afraid even though they might think that they're righteous, they may be they're afraid to be judged. But God is not that way. When it comes to God, when it comes to his judgments, when it comes to the way that reality plays out in the world, we don't always understand it, of course. And there are questions and there are difficulties in understanding how is it how is this justice? How do we understand that the Jewish people who have remained faithful for 2,000 years to God's Torah and to his and having faith in him, etc. How is it that difficult situations arise for the Jewish people? Right? But if we put that question on hold and we have faith in God, we put that question on hold and we recognize that it's always God and God is always just and God always cares and loves us and everything is for our good. So, when it comes to God, even when something bad happens so to speak, there's room for kilos, there's room to praise him. Let's see. Let's see onward. The measure should explain this more. I am explains as follows. See the verse says that David is more. The says that King David sang a song. Kindness and judgment. I will sing I will sing to you. I will sing. What's he saying? It's very strange. He's singing because of kindness and judgment? What's what's going on? So, it's our our concept. King David says in front of the boy in the room. If I see you I will sing. If you do kindness with me, I will sing. Whether it's kindness or whether it's not kindness I will sing to interesting change in I will sing I will sing I will sing. You have to know the differences between them. I'm not going to get into that now. I'm out of time. So, we see this idea. King David was somebody who was able to sing good situations, negative situations, he kept singing. He kept praising God. I don't have time. I am done. See how the And I would say it's important to even point out already at this point. I would say when we attach ourselves to the truth of the fact that God is good and that even if we don't see the good at this moment, we still believe it's good. Like we spoke about last week with the story of the freezers that didn't that didn't work out. The freezers that didn't work. Remaining remaining true to what we know that God is good and this must be good as well. So, it's a powerful affirmation of truth. That's a sanctification of name. That's truth. We will see the truth in the end. When the Messiah arrives, he says I'm going to be made great. I'm going to be made holy. You're going to see the truth in the end that all along all the things that I did that seemed to be negative are really good. That the Jewish people all along are my chosen special people. That will be made clear in the end. The truth will be revealed. Those who are wicked will be destroyed. They will receive the final judgment. The that which is true, the truth will be revealed. So, when we attach ourselves to that from the beginning, so we're we're making a we're making a we're making a we're making a we're making a we're making They will receive the final judgment. The that which is true, the truth will be revealed. So, when we attach ourselves to that from the beginning, so we're we're making a we're making a we're making a I don't know if you saw the video on here in Israel of the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who is a at his great-grandson, one out of 49 children grandchildren. As the siren was going off to remind us to think about the the Holocaust, the people who died, lost their lives in the Holocaust, who were murdered in the Holocaust. At that very moment, he was sitting there with with a great-grandchild on his lap and then the was happening. What a moving video, what a moving thing when you see Look, look, look, despite that, despite what happened we're still here. We're in We're in the land of Israel. The siren is blowing and this man survived and generations have come out. What an incredible incredible such a moving thing. And this is a this is a revelation. This is a revelation. It's an incredible revelation of God in the world. You see that despite this darkness there is truth in the end. There's good in the end. I'm going to talk to you He says twice in God, which is the name of God's judgment, I will praise him. By him, which is the name of God's mercy, I will praise him. Either way, whether it looks like judgment or whether it looks like mercy, I'm still going to praise him. It's possible to tell him chapter 56 verse 5. We find we find also in King David was a master being able to praise despite all the challenges and difficulties. Such beautiful words of King David. When I find difficulty and oppression I will call out to God. I will recognize that it's from him. And when I'm successful, when I when I win over my enemies, I will call out in the name of him. That's him. Seeing him everywhere. Who should I also say? Job said This is in the one verse 21. God gave and God took. May God's name be blessed. God is is a is merciful. So, so he could bless despite the difficulties. He knows what he's doing. Everything that God does is really good in the end. We will see it in the end, but it's good even now. We will When God gives, he doesn't ask anybody, doesn't ask permission. Interesting point that the measure is pointing out. But when God brings judgment upon a person or on on the world, so he discusses it, so to speak, with the his court, with his angels, with the ministering angels, as it were. Which means there's there's mercy always there. There's always mercy. The verse talks about this concept. We're not going to get into that. Here we come to the end of the madrash, bringing it back. I'd like to point out before we get back to the original topic which had to do with the inappropriate relationships. I'd like to point out here that there's, you know, there's we can't look at certain things, right? When we I don't know about you, but when I hear stories of of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish people, it's very hard for me to read stories about the Holocaust. I read it on Tisha B'Av. It's very hard for me to hear those stories. It's hard for me to think about situations like what happened last year and we spoke about it after Lag B'Omer last year when 45 people lost their lives. And it's very difficult to think about it. I think about it I I could get I could get so sad, right? But we don't look. Part of what this madrash is saying is I need to hold on to my faith which is I can't look at that thing. There's times that we can look and we can see the beauty of something, right? We can see that this is Hashem. We can see wow, look the Jewish people are flourishing in the land of Israel. This is incredible. We see the the the rebirth of the Jewish nation back in the land of Israel, 7 million people strong, right? So we look at that and it's beautiful. It's something in that we can look at. But then we can look back and say what happened 75 years ago, 6 million Jews were slaughtered. We can't We can't horrible terrible terrible There's not even There are not even words. You can't even say terrible because it doesn't probably describe it. Right? So so you can't look at that. There's like a you know, you can't look. There are places that we can look and there are places we can't look. So I'd like to point out here as a connection. And when we look at a place that's wrong and we don't have the proper outlook on it, so we're looking at something and revealing something that shouldn't be revealed. We're looking at something that can't be looked at. And when we don't look there, we just say "Kadosh, Hashem is holy. He has rachmanus. We don't understand the mercy. Where's the mercy in that?" But we understand that that's true and we attach ourselves to the truth and we don't look. That's where we reveal that's a kiddush Hashem. We reveal Hashem's name there. We reveal that God is there even though we don't know how and we don't want to look at it, but we reveal that it's there. We'll see. We will see in the end that he was there all along. There's a revelation in Sometimes there's a revelation in looking and then sometimes there's a revelation in not looking. Okay, that's the That's what I'd like to say is the connection to the issue of what we saw at the very beginning of not looking at things that are that are licentious, that are inappropriate. Turning away and that's where we bring in the Shechinah. We bring in the divine presence there. Right? A person is married, they're they're allowed to look right? At certain times of the month. There are certain times that where where it's appropriate and that's Shechinah as well. It's a different kind of Shechinah than the looking away when it's not the right time to look. Where it's not the right person to look at. The Torah gives us these boundaries and these and this clarity in order to understand that it's good. It's all good, but it's good in the right way of looking at it. We can't look at it whenever we want. We can't see things that we're not meant to see. It's the same idea of yediah, of knowing. It's the same idea of connecting, connecting to truth in the context of of of understanding God's judgment and and how everything is rachmanus. We have to be careful how we look at it. Looking at it wrong can have a negative consequence. Same thing in this area. I'm going to read you in Sifrei Devarim. Rami masata nevu'ah l'Amcha. Says Rebbe Yehudah, "You are exalted." We said this pasuk before. "You are exalted." What does it mean? You act in exalted way in this world. Nasata kehunah l'Aharon l'olam brit melach. Aaron is a kohen. He's a priest. Concept of the brit melach, the covenant of the salt. I'm not going to get into that. Nasata malchut l'David l'olam. You gave kingdom to King David, right? King David recording all of these verses about him. He's this master of being able to see the good, able to sing to God whether it seems good or whether it seems the other the other way around. She nemar l'olam l'da'at ki Hashem Elokei Yisrael nosei mamlacha. Pasuk says in Devarim, "It is upon you to know that Hashem gave the kingship." Sod hakadosh l'Yisrael ends off the madrash with our original point which is the holiness of the people of Israel. L'olam she nemar kedoshim tihiyu. We are to be holy. When we look at things in the right way and we don't look at things when they shouldn't be looked at, so we are attaching ourselves to God's holiness. King David is the one who reveals the holiness and the the truth of godliness everywhere. In the good, in the negative. He sings to God everywhere. He's able to reveal that in the places that we can look and the places we can't look because it's too too overwhelming to look in that place that looks negative. But we look away and we say this is God. This is also God. That's the aspect of King David. He's the one who reveals that the that God is there even when you can't see him there. And so too when it comes to the kedusha of the Jewish people, when it comes to our holiness, we obtain holiness by not looking in the places where we're not supposed to look. That's where the Shechinah comes in. That's what we said at the beginning. That's where the divine presence comes in. It comes in in the place where we don't look because we recognize that looking in the right places, looking at the things that are shiyach to us, that that have to do with us only, that the the things that are, you know, are ours and appropriate in the right time, right? Looking at those things, we recognize that that's where God is. God we can't look elsewhere. We can't see the things where it's it's not appropriate to. That's what kedusha is about. Kedusha is about seeing and not and knowing when to see and when not to see and recognizing that those places where we're not supposed to look, that's because Hashem wants us to. That's also from Hashem. Places where we're allowed, that's from Hashem as well. Everything is from Hashem. And these are great challenges. These are awesome things, but this is kedusha. This is what holiness is about. This is how we reveal holiness in our incredibly unholy civilization. Western society is falling and crumbling because of these areas, because of their lack of boundaries, because of their lack of ability to close their eyes. And so the Shechinah pulls away from those places as we see going on. You see what's going on and you can all you can say You look at the Western world, look at what's going on in the United States. Look at what's going on in in Europe. You can see the crumbling because of this terrible terrible inability to control themselves. And so we as the children of Klal Yisrael, we as the Bnei Yisrael, we have this obligation, kedoshim tihiyu, to look only where we're allowed to look and not look where we're not supposed to look. To look at the time when we're supposed to look and not look at the time we're not supposed to look. To recognize this is God's judgment. This is We don't understand. This is God's rachmanus, but it's really all Hashem's rachmanus. It's all of His mercy. May I bless you and ask you to bless me. Hashem should help us that we should be able to indeed strengthen ourselves in the areas that need strengthening. Hashem should help us to be able to sing to God no matter what the situation is. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabbos. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.arigoldweg.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.