Chukas - The Gift of Love

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with hashem's NeverEnding assistance in 5775 2015 this week's paraa is Paras at the end of our paraa we we find the Jewish people faced with a situation Miriam hania Miriam the prophetes had passed away and it was in her Merit that the Jewish people had had water throughout the time that they were in the midbar we're now the the end of the 40 years in the wilderness and so she passes away and the water dries up The Well of Miram dries up and so mosenu he has to find a source of water he has to find the source of water and hasem instructs him to come to the Rock and to speak to the Rock to ask the The Rock to bring forth the water MOS however as a result of the complaints of the Jewish people Moshe is kind of stuck in a corner it's a whole medress that explains exactly what happened exactly why it happened but in any event it happened and Moshe instead of speaking to the rock mosha hits the rock he strikes The Rock and at first a few drops come out as the verse tells us and in the end after striking it again a second time the the water flows out and the Jewish people are able to drink from that water the Torah tells us that as a result of the fact that instead of speaking to the Rock Moshe struck the rock as a result of that there was an there was a lack of Kes hasem there was a lack of a sanctification of God's name that the The Rock could produce water without being struck but just being spoken to we'll see soon what that means or exactly what that idea represents why we so bad but as a result of that Moshe and Aon are not permitted to be able to enter into the land of Israel to lead the Jewish people into Israel now this fact that they wouldn't be able to lead them in was something that had far-reaching ramifications if they would have indeed brought the Jewish people into Israel if Moshe would have been the one to build the B MDES the temple so it would never have been destroyed so the face of Jewish history as we know it would have been completely altered the Jewish people would have entered into Israel the they would have set up this Kingdom this this Jewish Kingdom within Israel and that Kingdom would have lasted forever there would never be Exiles there would never be destruction of the temple the first second temple Etc all of history would have been changed but as a result of the sin of striking the rock so we lost it we lost that opportunity until the future time until Messiah till the times of the Messiah when the Third Temple will be built and it will stand for all time now I'd like to share with you some thoughts all of which are cold from the saer by freedlander and very beautiful ideas that I would like to share with you he brings down just to try to get a little bit of an understanding of this a of this sin or the the ramifications of this sin something very interesting not what you would have thought in regards to the AA of Mosin of Moses this is brought down from the Z and the zor it says like this zor speaks about the fact that at first when the when the rock was struck by mosha by Moses so only droplets of water came out now what does that represent the fact that at first only droplets of water came out says the zor that this represents something that has to do with the Torah the Torah which represents our relationship with hasem right just like the water is that which sustains the physical body of the Jew so the Torah is that which sustains the spirituality of the Jew so just like when when the water came out of the rock it came out in droplets there's some aspect of Torah which also comes out with just droplets says since Moses struck the rock with his staff twice the result was that when the Jewish person wants to approach the Torah and wants to derive benefit and spiritual sustenance from Torah so the result the way that we experience Torah today is such that it comes out in drops in pieces it doesn't come out with flow it doesn't flow out and how many arguments are there we see we read the gar you read the tud so everything anything that one Rabbi says another Rabbi has to argue there's very few places that we find that there's broad agreement about everything so there are so many arguments on each of these drops what was the cause of this the fact that the Jewish people were rebelling they were in a state of constriction we find that that if someone says if someone tries to say what the law is and his teacher his Torah teacher is there in that place so our sages tell such a such a person is liable for death now the word for for saying the law in front of one's teacher is which means to defy and it's the same words it's the same word that Moses uses in regards to the Jewish people when they were defying God as it were in their disbelief that God would provide them with water as a result of this statement of Moses he said listen you guys who are defying God as a result of which he struck that rock twice if not for the fact this is an amazing thing beautiful thing if not for the fact that mosha that Moses struck that rock the Jewish people when they would study the Torah when they would try to access the will of God it wouldn't have been necessary for there to be so much disagreement so many different ways of looking at it so many different opinions it would have been very straightforward very simple it would have flowed the ehis as a result of Moses striking that rock the zor continues and says that most Moes had been commanded by God to speak to the Rock It was supposed to have been that The Rock would provide the water the water would have come out of the rock without any effort and then what would have been the result of that on a spiritual level at the level of Torah brings a verse that it wouldn't have been necessary for there to be this this dissonance within the Torah this dichotomy all the different opinions the different and the arguments and the water of Torah would have come out without any arguments without any difficulties and it would have been just straightforward and simple and in fact as the grub points out in the future time when mhia comes when the Messiah arrives so when we study the Torah we want to look for the will of God it will indeed come in this fashion where it's more straightforward it's easier to try to access it's easier to understand what God expects of each and every person in fact he brings down from the gr the gr says in his Parish on millus Esther on the Book of Esther the grow says that in the future time when Messiah comes and Messiah comes so that we have this famous statement this statement of of our sages that in the future God is going to create a circle and the righteous are going to be in this circle and everyone's going to point with their finger and say this is God and this is the god that I hoped for and the idea is is that each and every person will be able to access God directly Everyone's an equidistant when we're in a circle there's an equidistance from the center God is in the center everyone has that easy access to God that equal view of God as it were and therefore each and every one of us is going to have our and a portion in Torah and in the direction for each and every one of us God will show each and every one of us individually it will flow the Torah will flow the relationship with God will flow and it will be something that just happens naturally and each one will have his Torah his portion in that relationship with God now in looking at the story in looking at mosu as a leader of the Jewish people and trying to understand what exactly was the error why did he strike the rock why did he feel that was necessary what exactly does the idea of striking the rock represent and what is the idea of speaking to the Rock represent so we said that at some level it represents the concept of of the Torah happening in a way which is more difficult if if it's struck if it's if it's in the way so it comes out in pieces and with M and Etc as we said with all kinds of different differences of opinion Etc and the idea of speaking to the rock is is that there's a flow but on a on a simpler level perhaps just looking at it from the outside frander explains that there's two different approaches to one's relationship with Hashem one approach is approaching Hashem from y approaching God from fear or from awe that when I do this action when I'm serving God it's because I'm afraid I'm afraid to not do the will of hhm I'm afraid to to that God shouldn't be displeased with me I'm afraid that if I don't do what's right there going to be negative rep repercussions and that's true that's one approach to serving Hashem however there's another approach which is much deeper and we really need to understand how to get to that space how to get to that approach but the deeper approach is serving Hashem from a from love of of God and there's a vast difference between serving Hashem because I'm afraid of God there's a vast difference between my child doing what I ask because my child's afraid I'm going to punish them as opposed to my child doing what I ask out of love because my child loves me or me doing what God's will is because I love God now when Hashem says to Moses to mosenu and he instructs him to speak to the Rock and not to to strike the rock years back he had he had told him to strike The Rock but now Hashem says speak to the rock it represents the fact that Hashem wants the Jewish people to be able to have an access or to have an approach in their service of hasm and their connection to God through love speaking is what we do when we want someone to when we expect when we understand that our relationship with someone is one of love if my child and I have a relationship which is which is loving so I don't need to threaten I don't need to strike all I need to do is ask me to ask in a loving way and I receive my child will do what I say if the relationship however is one where it's not such a good relationship so then that's where I might need to threaten or in this case as mosu thought it was to strike so the idea of striking the rock is an Hana it's behaving in a way of gur in a way of din in a way of judgment speaking to the Rock however is a concept of love of serving Hashem having a relationship with Hashem Out of Love Now what was the reason why Moshe indeed struck the rock the reason was because the Jewish people came to him with ESS they came to him with complaints and they said where's the water we're so thirsty because they were upset they were rebelling against God they were questioning if God had a relationship with them they were questioning if they could believe that God would still give them their needs as a result of that Moshe didn't know what to do because when he spoke to the rock it didn't work so he thought to himself he made a mistake and thought that if I speak to the Rock and they're in this state so clearly love is just not going to cut it here clearly the relationship needs to return to a space of den to a space of judgment serving Hashem out of fear and as a result of that he struck the Rock and that was a great mistake the mistake was that Hashem was saying no matter what speak to the rock that no matter what state the Jewish people are in there is a love that transcends that I am willing to give them a free gift no matter what I'm willing to give them the the sustenance that they need even if in they're in a state of constriction my love my expansion is so great that it expands beyond the constriction that they might find themselves in so this was the mistake of Moshe that he didn't have that as says you didn't have faith in me you didn't believe that my love is so deep for the Jewish people that I would give them their needs despite their constriction and as a result mosha instead of speaking to the Rock showing that love showing that patience instead he moved into a state of era of fear of judgment which was represented by him striking the rock now it's very important to understand that both of these hanas both both of these ways of serving Hashem are important and necessary we need to serve Hashem out of there needs to be the you know that first approach the beginning of our relationship with hm really the relationship with anybody before we develop the love before we develop the depth in a relationship the relationship begins with judgment it begins with this year with this fear and serving you know there's conditional love at the beginning of a relationship however as the relationship deepens as our relationship with Hashem deepens and and also of course in our relationships with others but as our relationship with hem deepens so we need to move to a place of love and there something a really important point that says that serving out of Y serving out of fear is something that we can do it's something that is possible for us to do it's in the realm of hisas it's in the realm of what we can put efforts into and Achieve however when it comes to serving when it comes to serving hem out of love it's something says Freelander which we need to receive as a gift love is a gift he brings this idea from R desler who brings from the Z it says like this began the verse says in that one is obligated to serve Hashem in fear and rejoice in trembling so on one hand we see that there's an idea of serving hasem out of Y out of fear out of awe and yet there's a rejoicing that happens within that awe but we have another there's another aspect of sering hem where a person comes before God god with joy with absolute Joy with absolute glad song says the that these two verses are contradiction one verse seems to imply that the way to serve God is out of fear one seems to imply that the way to serve God is out of joy out of love this is how to explain it serve out of fear what does that mean the every service that a person wants to perform in front of his master in front of God the first level the first stage is one of fear to fear God to be afraid to to be in awe and then through beginning that way through starting off with fear through starting off with awe in honor of God he will find he will find afterwards that he's done once he's done this action in this way he'll find the joy in in the Commandment of hasem in the Commandment of the Torah he'll find the love which is inherent in the Torah about this verse says that's why the verse talks about the fact Moses commands the Jewish people what does Hashem expect of you just to fear Him meaning the Gateway into a relationship of any sort but specifically here relationship with Hashem it starts by respecting the boundaries it starts with the it starts with the awe it starts with the fear now I just like to read you a few words from Freelander himself because this really sums up the idea beautifully really beautifully Freelander that we see from the that all of a person's work all of his service of God is in the area of of fear the area of awe freedlander you want to get to serving God out of love it's not something that you can aim for directly per se it's something which is a gift from God serving hasem out of love it's like trying to reach for that for the goals trying to reach the relationship itself is the goal right the love you but the love itself is the goal but you can't you can't touch the love you can't go for the love when you have a relationship with somebody else you can't you can't go for let's say the joy you can't it's like telling somebody to laugh you can't tell somebody to laugh you have to tell them a joke you have to go through the process and the beginning of that process says Lander says the Z is serving out of awe serving out of fear there's no direct and natural way that one can even come from Fear to love doesn't really sound possible in fact if you think about it if I'm in a mode of fear I'm in constriction I'm not really serving God out of love how do I get there serving God out of love is something which is a gift as writes in regards to the great aspect of Holiness it starts with service of hem and it ends off as something which is given as a gift person starts by putting in his efforts but the end the result is something which he receives as a gift and I think that it's important to hear this idea it's also important to to be Mish to point out and I've said this before but this is very similar in concept to the approach of mhia and MH m is that first stage it's a stage where we're involved in trying to do it ourselves and we need that first stage we need the efforts of am Isel of CLA Israel to bring mhia to bring the Messiah to come back to the land of Israel to rebuild the land of Israel that's the first stage the the gr speaks about this as well in EV shma the first stage is the stage of MH is these efforts and M is somebody who's very much involved in din very much involved in serving God out of Y he's per you know almost a perfectionistic person yic himself he doesn't fall down in sin but then the deeper level is where we get to AA where we get to love where we get to serve hasem out of love and that's mhav we get to that stage where indeed just like doesn't he falls into the sin but and yet he's able to do Chua he's able to repent Yehuda his forebear Judah also does a great sin but he's able to repent he's able to recognize that Hashem is in charge Hashem is in charge of everything and the deeper way of relating to God is through love yes we make mistakes yes it's not an excuse to to We Can't of course intentionally make those mistakes but after we've made those mistakes we recognize that no matter where we are just like the Jewish people were in a state of complaining mha thought hashem's love isn't that great or Hashem can it be that I still interact with God out of love so the answer is yes we can and that's what mhia comes to teach us but that's something that we can only receive as a gift it's something that no we don't deserve we are in a space where we are in constriction we have defied God we don't deserve it but we can still access it that's the Power of hashem's Love That unconditional love which we can access we can get to but it doesn't come through our efforts we do have to start in that relationship through you know being involved in with our efforts but the ultimate result the love itself the relationship itself is something which is pure love I want to bless you and please bless me back hashm should help us that we should be able to indeed work in our relationship with Hashem start off with that year start off with that challenge to to do what's right and in a certain sense try to earn it but recognize that the end that the true way of interacting with hem the deeper relationship with hem is one of AA one of Love of unconditional Matana of a gift the gift that has wants to give us of a true relationship with him thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabus 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