Balak - 14th Anniversary! The Little Things

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's networking assistants inaudible 5781 2021 this week's parties parties bullock and partial bulk is always a wonderful time for me it's the completion of a round of the torah now it's 14 years hashem every single week we've been zoka to put out a partial podcast devator on the parsha and i thank you all for continuing to watch and listen and i hope that you continue to remain inspired and invite you as i always do when it comes to parties bulldog too go to my website our goldweight.com click the donate button and help these podcasts to continue to come into existence in our departure this week we have the story of perhaps one of the most nefarious foes that the jewish people ever faced he didn't just come to destroy us physically came to destroy us spiritually and he came with a power a power of prophecy a power of divine inspiration and he tried to direct that power towards the destruction of the jewish people but hashem would not allow him instead all he could do was say blessings we're talking here about bilaam who was hired by balak and bilum is a very interesting character not going to get so into his character as the particular thing that bilum saw as we're going to see the message is going to explain the unusual power that the jewish people have to protect ourselves from our foes to overcome our enemies whether they are spiritual whether they are physical we have a unique capacity and a unique ability says the madrish to face off with our enemies because of our attire because of the instructions that our torah gives us the unique relationship that we have with the kalash bhakta with god i'd like to read to you this madrish the beginning of the majority talks about something which seems perhaps unrelated but it's not it's not so it is quite related and it's important and essential because there are many who would say that our protection we protect ourselves because of our power because of our mighty army because our nuclear arsenal because of our protection our iron dome systems etc but the message tells us something quite different and we're going to see what is that unique protection that we have that no one else can have because of our relationship with hashem with god says that bilum he raised up his analogy and he started to speak and he said blessings of the jewish people says we find says there's an obligation to wash our hands before we eat there's an obligation to wash the tulsa diet it's an obligation to wash our hands after we eat as well before we bench before we see the grace after meals we wash our hands again shout out there's a certain level of obligation to washington's hands before the meal which is referred to here as a resource or a mitzvah it's an obligation on a deeper obligation like our safari friends say the washing before grace after meals before the muslin is an obligation deep obligation we're going to see the importance of these things because they seem like yeah what's the big deal wash your hands don't wash your hands veggies is going to tell us two stories that occurred from which we learned the importance of washing one's hands and we're going to see that it's not just washing one's hands that's important but other things as well let's see there was a story that happened during a time of decree the jewish people have been through many decrees trying to destroy us take away our religion take away our jewish identity trying to get us to assimilate and there was a particular store owner he had a restaurant and he would serve meat and in order get the people off of his trail so he sold two kinds of meat he sold pig's meat which obviously is not not kosher can't be eaten by jews and he sold kosher meat the reason he did this was so that they wouldn't know that he was jewish the jewish people before we eat before we eat bread and in those days that was the staple you always ate bread with your meal when a jewish person would come in he would wash his hands in order to eat bread when a nanji would come in he wouldn't wash his hands so the rest of the tour would see the person didn't wash his hands he would know i could serve this person pigs meat whenever he would see someone coming washing his hands saying perhaps quietly a blessing so he would know that he should give this person kosher meat listen to what happened to a person who was recalcitrant wasn't careful about the mitzvah and it seems pretty clear from the major that he wasn't just trying to avoid detection the jew who came in he came in he didn't wash his hands so the owner of the restaurant thought that this person was not jewish he gave him the meat of a pig he saw that he ate and he didn't make a blessing on the bread so it seemed pretty clear this person is not jewish so now the owner of the restaurant came to tell him how much he owed for the meat and for the for the bread he said you owe me a certain amount of money including ten dollars for the piece of meat that you eat that you ate um sorry says wait the price was different yesterday last time i came to your restaurant i only paid eight dollars how come today i'm paying ten dollars this was pig's meat it's more expensive when the person hurt when the jew heard when the the jew the customer heard what had happened he was shaken up he was terrified i don't know i'm a hidden jew i'm a quiet jew you gave me pig's meat the owner of the restaurant said to him this is your fault it's your own fault when i saw that you didn't wash your hands and you didn't make a blessing i thought you were a guy i thought you were not jewish and therefore i served you the pig's meat from this i say to say that if a person is not careful to wash his hands he's going to end up eating pig's meat it's a very extreme statement but it happened in this story and we need to understand what it means because it doesn't happen every time a person doesn't wash his hands right but we need to understand what does it mean exactly that's story number one the importance of washing our hands so you should be well he's very careful to tell people we should be washing be careful about nutillusiodime it's an important mitzvah we'll see it's called a mitzvah it's something that people take lightly but it's very important it says the majorish that was all about nutella sudaim the washing before what about washing afterwards we said a person is obligated to wash before he says the grace after meals we're going to see a story that because a person did not wash my machine he there's a particular person there's more to the story actually it's it's in the gemara i believe it's in uh maybe it's in yuma i don't remember exactly where it is it's brought over here exactly where it's from uh it's yuma duff pig gimmel i think okay particular guy actually his name was kidor that's what the gamora says over there kidor so he didn't wash his hands and he had eaten beans we are the shook of the ottoman to enough as many as his hands were still dirty from the beans when he went to a public area person saw his hands were full of beans so the person went to his wife he said to this guy's we'll call him bob bob saw key door he had beans on his hands not washing his hands after the meal he goes to the wife of kedor and he says to her bob asked me to get his ring for him his expensive ring and he told me to give you a sign that he ate earlier today he ate beans she realized the tabas so he said get send him the the the expensive ring with me i'll bring it to him she gave it to him her husband came back after a bit of time this guy was obviously you know the way it sounds like from this story it sounds like he was a thief but actually he was just getting back what was his okay that's the gemara over there so keeler came back and said to his wife where's the where's the ring you said someone came with your with your signs that you had had a a bean meal and i gave it to him he ended up getting angry and killing her okay this is an extreme story clearly we need to understand what the message is trying to teach us but the measure finishes off by saying the fifa calls therefore a person is not careful to wash his hands after the meal before he says the grace after meals it's as if he has killed someone okay if you don't watch before the meal it's like you ate pig if you don't watch after the meal it's like you've killed someone this is sarah beer we need to understand this right this is an extreme story both are extreme stories we need to understand what is coming to teach us how does this apply to me i'm not living in a time of danger not going to kill my wife if i don't wash my hands right so what does this mean what does this mean [Music] the opposite side of it and this is the take home this is the takeaway and it's an important lesson and we'll see how to understand in a deeper way these two stories hashem says to the jewish people he exhorts us be careful about the little mitsubish be careful about the the commandments that don't seem to be so important they don't seem to be so significant does hashem really care if i rip the toilet paper on shamans does hashem really care about all the details of the laws of bhairav does hashem really care says who says hashem to us i care listen be careful about the little mitzvahs in deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 47 it's not an empty thing from you it is your life i feel very this is the flip side of it we talked about an extreme case which seems to be very hard to understand not not being careful about a small mitzvah causes death causes a person to end up doing a terrible sin of eating pig says the madrush based on this pussac something that seems to you to be insignificant to be empty to be not so important that mitzvah is where you'll find long life life and long life that's the puzzle the importance of a little mitzvah the importance of a small connection to god now listen now we're going to come back to billum says something even deeper if you are careful about my commandments we're talking about the fine ones the little ones the the darkest thicker ones if you are careful about my commandments says i will throw down your enemies before you you want to know how to win against the bilum you want to know how to win against any enemy of the jewish people be careful about the little mitzvahs says the possibility in psalms chapter 81 verse 14. if only my people would listen to me kimat darshan and courtney marzu came out a little bit on the little things their enemies would be humbled before them when we humble ourselves it seems to be me the connected media when we humble ourselves in front of god completely down to the last detail hashem humbles our enemies in front this is what he saw this is what bilum saw i don't have any power against the jewish people says bill he says i see that they're so careful about all the little mitzvahs army ukuleles elu he said how can i curse them what happens right what's the idea what a big deal a little mitzvah i watch man that didn't wash my hands i got rid of the dirt on my hands the beans whatever that causes people to kill people i'm saying don't man not nuts don't have nutty people says to measure something amazing something awesome something so deep and so important when i care about the little mitzvah that little mitzvah the little commandment of god god's name is my partner god is with me hashem aleikov says the verse hashem their god is with them how do we get god in our lives what does that mean how do we get god on our side it means i draw god into my life i draw god into my life i draw god into my life how do i do that by fulfilling his will the more i fulfill god's will the more i manifest god in the world the more god is with me more god is my partner why because i'm his partner i'm just here to be a vessel for god's light to come into the world that's it there's so many spots god is everywhere god is in the details god is in every little dna strand god is in the grass god is in the in every aspect of my life yeah hashem cares if i rip the toilet paper on shamas yeah hashem cares hashem wants me to bring him everywhere he wants me to bring him everywhere the way that i cut my chicken on shabbos the way that i that i opened the fruit on shabbat it's the bird the all the different details the way that i walk around the way that i talk the way that i eat say a blessing wash my hands it's every single thing is an opportunity to bring god into my life [Music] says the magician amazing thing and bill understood this if if god is with them if god is completely in their lives if they care so much about every detail making sure to bring god into every single little aspect of their lives i ca i can't curse them if i curse them i'm cursing god i'm a congregation who curses the jewish people who threatens the jewish people he's threatening god he's facing off with god why because god's name is in our our name there's a double aspect here one thing is that every single thing that we do we're bringing god we have an opportunity to bring god into the world god is our partner so to speak there's another thing says the majority hashem's name is mixed up in our name we are called israel we are called israel called the israelites israel has in it the name al-iflamid which we don't pronounce unless it's part of the prayers it's kale israel the end of the name is hashem's name within the name of the jewish people is god's name if god's name is in our name the essence of the person the essence of the nation is its name that describes who they are so if god's name is in our name means that god is in us god is with us and the name israel doesn't say this in this matrix but the name israel when the jewish people are isis returning shall make them when we do the will of god that's what we're referred to as as israel we're not doing the will of god we're referred to as yaakov as jacob the people of jacob the nay israel when we when we are the babiness they're all the sons of israel it means that god is in us god is with us there's no power for our enemies our enemies have no power when we are doing god's will so now what happens okay i'm not sure if we need to read the hampshire it's interesting hampshire the continuation is interesting but i'd like to just come back and try to understand what's going on here in this magician i just telling us an extremely powerful thing it's not just telling us that oh once it happened that somebody ended up killing his wife once it happened that somebody ended up eating pig pigs meat because it was they did something they didn't do the small mitzvah the magisk is telling us that the small mitzvah the small connection that we have to god is a simmon it's indicative of the fact that we have a much deeper connection to god if i bring god into my life at every interval at every moment and every opportunity then god is always with me he's my partner i'm his partner we are partners in in reality bringing light into the world kedor didn't care too much about the little mitzvahs i mean we see who he is the fact that he didn't do that mitzvah was just indicative of the fact that the little misses weren't important to him if the small commandments are not important to the person it shows that god is not in their life the fact that he killed someone it's not a surprise anymore this person is not a serious person he doesn't have god in his life he could take away the life of somebody else sorry you could take away the life of somebody else why he doesn't have a kashiva for his own life he doesn't have a shiva for the image of god which is in that other person a person who's not knight till you die he didn't wash his hands he shows that he doesn't have the hashibus that he doesn't give the significance to bringing god into every moment so even the things that we think of as bigger than don't eat pig it's going to happen to him too because it's just not important to him so the message is teaching us a foundational idea such a deep idea such an important idea that god is in the little things that throughout our day throughout our week throughout our month throughout our lives every moment every moment is an opportunity to fill our lives with godliness and we all want to know how can we protect ourselves how can we protect ourselves from corona how can we protect ourselves from our enemies who want to destroy us here in israel how can we just to protect ourselves in america perhaps even in europe from those who seek things for the jewish people how do we protect ourselves and how do we protect ourselves not just that but even from disasters that might occur what's the protection well all these negative things all the power of our enemies comes only as the message tells us their only power another measure says and that's indeed how the jewish people end up losing through the avarice the sins that they do with the nice midian with the daughters of midian when the jewish people when we lose our connection to god that is when we lose our protection when we are with god god is the source of all life god is the source of all good god is the source of all protection when we are doing every little mitzvah every small opportunity we are taking to connect to god that is when we have protection because life is important to us life is important godliness is important god's will is important to us to the extent that that is true our lives are important we are connected to the everlasting life which is god i want to bless you and i ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able to seek those opportunities to take advantage of all the opportunities that hashem has given us to connect to him to bring him into our lives we should be zakha to the words hashem kavimoy that god is with us in the little mitsubish washing our hands the blessings that we make so many so many opportunities so many misses and commandments hashem should help us to take advantage of them and indeed bring him into our life and have the protection that we need from all the challenges that we face thank you so much for listening have a wonderful show miss this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ari goldwag