Ari Goldwag - Beshalach - Remembering the Future

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in Rael 2016 this week's para is par Bak at the very beginning of the paraa we have the Jewish people making their way out of Egypt I'd like to read you these verses at the very beginning it says in chapter 13:1 17 Pharaoh was sending out the nation God did not want to bring them directly into or through the land of the Philistines which was close God said that I don't want them to see any kind of Wars they want to return to Egypt we're going to return to this verse in a moment because it's a very deep and interesting understanding of what this verse is referring to but hold on to that for a moment dbar instead God took the Jewish people around dbar through the Wilderness yam toward the Sea of and the Jewish people left the land of Egypt mizin translates they were quick they were going out quickly or Rashi alternatively says that they left fully armed now here's the verse which is difficult challenging the verse says like this Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had caused the sons of Israel referring to his brothers he had caused them to make an oath saying God will remember you and he will redeem you and when God does I want you to take my bones out of here with you so as a result of the promise that Joseph asked his brothers to make to him so mosha Ru upheld that promise and made sure to find the bones of Joseph take them out so that they would go with the Jewish people in fact they were carried alongside the Jewish people throughout their 40 years in the wilderness and eventually they were buried as it says in in yosua in Joshua they were buried in Shem in what's today called Shem you can actually go there today to the it's actually kind of challenging to get there but you can go there today and visit the grave of Joseph because his bones were carried all those years and again it was a result of this promise oath now as we read this so the thing that bothered me right away that stuck out right away is that the verses are out of order the suim are out of order because we see that it's already speaking about the fact that Jewish people have left they've already walked out hasem is not taking them directly into the Philistine lands but he's taking them around and they're about to get to pakos they're about to have this whole interaction at yamu Etc but the the and then after hasm is taking them out it refers to the fact that moshu previously had already taken the bones of Joseph and he had taken them out as per the request and the promise the brothers had made so many years before why are these verses out of order what's the significance of the fact that the Torah at this moment as they're leaving after they've already left the Torah tells us about something that happened previous to their leaving which is Moshe taking the bones of Joseph to bring along so that's the first question I like to ask another very interesting thing which I mentioned we're going to come back to which is the verse previous two two verses before this so it says that Hashem did not want them to see mil Hashem did not want them to see a battle so Hashem took them a round took them roundabout way what's the battle what was the battle that Hashem was concerned about so the mes tells us that there was a specific issue hasem was concerned about there was a mistake that the progeny of of YF himself of Joseph had made the sh of epim the tribe of Ephraim a number of years before 30 years before to be precise had made a mistake they had made a of when the 400 years would be up and instead of counting 400 years from the birth of Isaac they counted 400 years from the brisan abar from the Covenant between the parts that God made with AB so they calculated that 30 years before was the time to leave Egypt they walked out of Egypt 300,000 members of the tribe of Ephraim were killed because they tried to leave early why did they get killed they made a calculation based on when Abraham spoke to God and had this Covenant between the parts like we said there was a 30-year mistake and they all since they left too early they were all killed these 300,000 members of the tribe of in in reference to this event it says in in Chronicles in 1 Chronicles 7: 211 that they were killed they were killed by the and their bones were spread out on the path in in droves it was 30 years before their brothers indeed would leave Egypt so said if the Jewish people will see the bones of these these children of Ephraim spread out on the path they'll be afraid they'll see the the the the the war that occurred 30 years before and they'll go back to Egypt and that's why hasem took them around the me is remarkable there are a few points one is what obviously sticks out is the ATM the bones hasm was afraid that they would see the bones of the children of Ephraim very interesting because we have here the atus the bones of Joseph as well that are being carried with the Jewish people what's the significance of the concept of the bones the ATM what is it why is it specifically also in reference to Joseph and aim that we find the idea of the bones what's the idea of that secondly why is it specifically the children of Ephraim the children of Yosef who are the ones that make this mistake of trying to leave 30 years earlier why couldn't it have been a different tribe why wasn't it the tribe of Judah the tribe of Dan there's so many different tribes why was it specifically this tribe the tribe of Ephraim so I'd like to share with you another Mish that speaks about this idea that speaks about this whole story with MOS Moses taking the bones of Joseph and I'd like to ask a few more questions there and we'll start to see that there's a theme running through all of these different ideas it says like this Moses took the bones of Joseph about mosha the verse says in proverbs 10 ver7 the one who is wise of heart will grab onto mitzvah grab Commandments what does that mean the entire Jewish people at this point were involved in gathering the the gold and the silver of the Egyptians right the Torah tells us that as they were about to leave they were asking for money from the Egyptians Egyptians were giving them all of their gold and silver what was MOS doing at that exact moment he was involved in finding the bones of Joseph that's based on this verse so says to someone who's W wise of heart he's not grabbing money he's grabbing mitus he's able to see something deeper he's able to see that what do I really want what do I really want to leave Egypt with I want to leave Egypt with the Merit of fulfilling the promise that the brothers had made to take the bones of Joseph very interesting the M tells us just the the to to appreciate the greatness of was doing at this moment is that Ys so he had an obligation to his father to cover him to bury him because ysep was the son of yov and you are not the son or the Grands it wasn't your obligation to be involved with him and to bury him soem says an amazing thing promises mosha since you did this I'm going to be involved with you and I'm going to personally bury you guys the verse says that God himself as it were buries MOS so the first thing that I want to point out here it's not so much a question it's just an interesting point which we're going to see ties in to the concept that we're going to talk about is that mosu is someone who has ability to sees deeper he has the ability to choose instead of getting involved in money he has the ability to choose to do a Mitzvah to do a commandment to do something which has a deep spiritual value and not to get stuck on the money not to get stuck on on the the The Superficial things that's a very important point we'll see it connects into the other ideas that we're going to talk about now I'm going to skip a little bit in this me and share with you another piece the Mish is addressing an important point which is that yose was taken his bones were taken out and travel with the Jewish people for 40 years in the desert and the question is what was the Merit how did he have such a great Merit of that he would be able to indeed travel with the Jewish people and find his final resting place in the land of Israel so said to as it were you said to your brothers that I'm going to provide you with sustenance I swear to you that when you die I promise you that your bones will go around with the Jewish people by midbar AB sh in the wilderness for 40 years so there's a promise since he promised since yoseph gave that guarantee that he's going to to provide for his family for the Jewish people people in reward he would be there as it were his bones would travel with the Jewish people in all of their glory in all of the multitudes of the Jewish people that would exist so many years later and here again we want to understand what is the idea where where's the mid mid whenever hasm gives a reward so it's always in a corresponding measure what did Yosef do specifically what's so special about what he did that he said that he's going to provide for them that then allows him to be brought along alongside the Jewish people for all those years in the midbar the Wilderness what is the concept what is the depth of what the Mish is trying to teach us in this point the M continues he had caused the children of Israel to make an oath is a double language of an oath says why is there this double language why does it say it twice amazing thing he swore to them that he had nothing in his heart he had no anger at them for what they had done and they swore to him that they weren't upset for what he had done for that whole entire travail all the all of the difficulties that they had been brought through by Yosef with the brothers going back and forth not knowing it was him that they weren't upset at him for that either so that's the double language of an oath he's making an oath that he's not upset at them and they're making an oath that they're not upset at him and so there's two questions here that I want to ask number one is indeed how are they able to let go of that they he did something to them that was really upsetting that was really hard that was beyond challenging that really drove them crazy in a certain sense how are they able to forgive him for that and on the flip side how is Yosef able to forgive them for selling him into slavery being being ready to kill him that whole interaction how is he able to forgive them that's question number one question number two is why at this moment is he bringing that up why is he asking for forgiveness or mentioning his forgiveness at this exact moment when he's speaking about asking them to to take his bones out and what is the concept of an oath what is the depth of a concept of an oath why is he making them swear what's the idea behind it why is it integral and what is the depth of the idea there's one last piece in this Mish I want to share with one more question and then we'll have one final question on the PK on the verse itself where we'll start to understand the theme that's going on here me says like this what is the concept of this said y requested of his brothers that they bring up his bones from here says what's this analogous to to a man who had barrels of wine in his wine seller thieves came and they took the barrel they went on their way and then they drank up the wine and they got rid of the wine now the owner of the wine finds the gun of finds the thieves and he says he says okay you drank up the wine at least put back the the empty barrels so I can have the barrels back you're not using the barrels the me says in the same way the brothers had stolen Ys as a were they had sold him into slavery in now when ysep is coming his life is over he so he says to them I want you my brothers I want you to to swear to me you stole me from swear to me that you will return my bones to to that very place where you originally sold me the that's why the verse says in yua in Joshua 24:32 that the bones of Joseph which they took the sons of Israel took out of Egypt were buried in sh so in the same way ysf was saying I want you to return me to that place that I was taken from I was taken from Shem I want you to bring me back to now if we take this at service value if we take it for for what it says it seems very strange I mean how long was Ys in he was in for a few hours he walked through sh that's where he found his brothers he found his brothers actually nearby and Doan but how long was he there for what does it mean that he wants to be returned to sh he wants to be buried in sh because that's where he was sold what is the idea what is the it's very perplexing what is the concept that this me is coming to teach us so the answer to all these questions is hidden in two words the next the next Double language there's two double languages in this verse one is which we just spoke about the double oath but y also mentions that in the future God is going to redeem you God is going to remember you and when he says that God is going to remember you to redeem you he says a double language he will remember he will remember what is the idea of Pak of remembering in the context of gula in the context of redemption what is this aspect that ysf is referring to of Hashem remembering so we have this language elsewhere in reference to the concept of conception the gamar tells us in rash that there were three women there were three women it's rash page 11b there were three women Sarah ra and KH Sarah Rachel and Hannah they were originally Barren they were unable to conceive they couldn't have children but hasem remembered them on rashash and they were able to conceive so the idea of remembering it says it was on rash that they were remembered that they were able to conceive so the Lan the language of Paka always refers to a remembering a conception it's an initial stage of redemption the gamar Milla speaks about the concept of this very concept the concept of pita speaking about there are 70 years between the first temple and the second temple how do you make the how do you figure out exactly when the 70 years started there's a whole discussion because Bater the king thought it was a certain time that the 70 years were up a thought it was a different time but actually they were all wrong it was a different it was a much later time they calculated from a certain point the 70 years began at a certain year but really it started from a different point that the seven years began from a different year a later year but interestingly the gamar speaks about the fact that the BAM mikdash the temple the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel bdes the the rebuilding of the temple started to occur already 18 years before the 70 years were actually up completely so the gamar says how do you understand that GAR says there was a p there was a remembering that occurred 18 years before the completion before the actual completion of the Redemption that that the second basa Mish was actually to be rebuilt there was a building that started it stopped the Jewish people returned but they stopped returning that occurred already 18 years before the 70 years were up so there's a Paka there's a beginning there's a remembering of hem there's a conception which is not complete you only see it later you only see it in retrospect and that's going to be the key to what's going on here you only see in retrospect that there was something that had happened much earlier a conception it's precisely parallel to the idea of con conception conception of a child is something that occurs in private it's something that nobody sees something that even the parents can't so you can't know that the mother has conceived until one does a pregnancy test and when does everybody know that this woman has conceived really only nine months later do we know that this child everything is okay that as soon as the child is born you know that 9 months earlier there was a conception but conception is something that occurs in a hidden way and only really becomes revealed later ysep Joseph is the master of Paka he is actually the very one who when it says that Raul was remembered he was the one who was conceived so really in his conception is this idea of Paka but ysep is the one who is the first stage of gula he's the first stage he's the one who brings the Jewish people down to Egypt in a certain sense he's the one who sets the stage he's there before anyone else he's the conception of the Jewish people coming down to Egypt so he's the first stage he's always the first stage and in the in the G process in the process of G we have two M we have two Messiah one is MH y the Messiah who comes from Joseph who's the first stage he's the one who brings it in in a more natural way where we don't see things openly miraculously and then later we have mhia B David who's from Judah who all the things that occur around him are more miraculous and and more open but only really later does it become this G afraid that we see retroactively that there was a conception that there was yoseph that there was something that happened before and sometimes even what happens at the beginning looks like the opposite it looks like something gets worse when mosh Rao first comes so par says oh they're they're lazy make it make the work harder for them the very beginning of G the process of redemption things look worse things look harder things look like that's the end it looks like there's no chance of redemption y now let's look back at the questions that we ask we're going to do them in reverse order yadik he says to his brothers I want you to return return me to sh what does that mean he wants to return to Shem what happened in sh was the place where ysep was born it was the place of his seemingly the place of his destruction it seems like it was the place where he was getting sold into slavery but ysf realizes at the end of his life really earlier but but certainly at the end of his life with with that retrospect he's able to look back and see that where was the beginning of my fulfilling my purpose in life where was the beginning of my kingship of my greatness it was because I was sold in that darkness that place of conception where you can't even see it didn't even look like Redemption I was sold in Shem eventually I'll come down to Egypt eventually many years later I become the ruler over Egypt and eventually I would provide for my family and all the Jewish people he was able to see within that moment of darkness the conception he was able to see afterwards after the birth he was able to see the moment of conception he said I want you to bring me back to that place of conception I want to recognize Where it All Began I want to be buried in that place cuz the burial of the person represents the completion of his mission I want to recognize that I was able to complete my mission because the mission started there in sh yoseph asks his brothers he says I want you to swear to me make an oath that you're going to bring me out why does he ask them to do that because that's what an oath is oath is I'm not yet able to fulfill it I can't do it now but at some point I guarantee to you that I will do it later so the oath is the conception it's the point the moment in time where I say I'm committed to fulfill filling that thing now it's where it's planted you don't see it yet because I haven't fulfilled the promise yet but one day it will be fulfilled in that oath ysep assures his brothers that I don't have anything against you and the brothers assure ysep that they don't have anything against him what's that idea it also has to do with this looking at the conception of it looking at the root of it looking and recognizing that at that moment it was a moment of conception when ysf was sold it was a moment of conception I don't have anything against you how could yose say that because he's able to see that that was really Hashem doing it that it was a moment of conception for what would in the future be his rulership the brothers were able to look at Yos and say that they understood that what he had done to them the the challenge that he put them through was really for their good it was really Hashem working through ysf they were able to see that the challenge the difficulty was a hidden thing so that they would grow and become greater people that's what they were recognizing in their in that oath when yose promises that he's going to provide for the Jewish people he is able to Merit that's that's a again a point of conception it's it's a it's a planting of a seed and later he's able to see the the amazing flowering he he travels with the Jewish people in their Redemption as they leave Egypt he travels with them as they become a nation he's able to see he planted a seed of providing for them that is the concept of AAL I can't really get into it really at length right now but the concept of AAL is at it's root K which which is this root concept of providing the seed but he's the one who provides the seed of their ability to exist and then he's able to see the flowering of that seed as they become a nation and he travels with them throughout the 40 years mosenu is someone who is able to fulfill the promise fulfill a promise that his that the brothers had made to ysf he's able to see the the that he's planting a seed what does it mean to grab on the Mitzvah if a person has a choice between money or fulfilling a commandment so the Natural Choice is you see what's in front of you to recognize that I'm planting a seed here that I'm going to reap the benefits of in the world to come or on a deeper spiritual level even within this world itself that's something that Moshe has the ability to understand in in the depth of it the one who is wise grabs onto the Mitzvah he sees that he's planting a seed we ask why is this verse out of order why is the Torah telling us already after the Jewish people have left that Moshe previously took the bones of yos safe and the answer is because again it's teaching us this concept that we see later on in the Redemption itself that there was a pida that there was a conception that occurred before we're looking at the the aspect of ysep the Paka the remembering of Hashem which we don't see manifest until the actual Exodus the the Redemption itself you only see it in hindsight and that's the concept of the bones the bones are that which holds up the human being the atmos the the bones are the atmus are the essence of the person but they're invisible you don't see them when we speak about Yos we speak about his bones because that's the essence of who he is it's something which is hidden inside which hold up the thing but you don't see it on the outside it's only something you know about because there there's the structure you can see hints of it but you don't see it from the outside you only have you have to figure it out and it's not a coincidence that's the ban FR they had that Gene they had the spiritual genes of a ysep ysep was able to see down to conception he was able to see all the way back in time and recognize that there are stages even though it doesn't seem like Redemption yet that there are stages of redemption there's a conception which looks like the opposite and the children of Ephraim they use that spiritual Gene incorrectly unfortunately 30 years prior to when the the actual Redemption was going to occur they thought that it was already the time they thought that even though it wasn't yet it didn't look like the time that they made a calculation that they went back to conception they said 400 years ago was when the Bri of happened when when God made that Covenant with Abraham so it must be that this is the time they made that mistake why did they make that mistake because they had that intuitive ability which Yosef had they made a mistake they misused that intuitive ability but it was specifically the tribe of Ephraim who came from ysf and who ultimately mhia ysf comes from the tribe of Ephraim and they also had that aspect of the atmo their bones were laid out sadly it was because they had made a mistake but the idea the teaching of kazal is that they had that spiritual makeup their bones were the ability to see that there's already Redemption taking place even though on the surface it doesn't seem that way but there's already been a conception there's already been the beginnings have already started to happen even before the full Redemption takes place they were able to see that I want to bless you and please bless me back hasem should help us to be Z to Merit to be able to see throughout the challenges of our lives and also in the redemptions of Our Lives how all of the things that have occurred to us or all Hashem bringing us on this path the challenges themselves were indeed the conception should help us to have that view of now of course not to make the mistake of the children of Ephraim to think that it's come before it's the time but to always recognize that Hashem was there throughout it all and that everything is leading up to our ultimate Redemption thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]