Chukas - Whose Power is it Really

You're listening to the weekly para podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hasham's never ending assistance in Shamish Israel 5785 20125. This week's paras like to share with you some that goes through theim in it starts it was immediately after the whole story where Moshabenu had sinned with striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock. So immediately after that it became clear that he's not going to bring amel into Israel. And what he does is he sends Mosha sends messengers from where they were in Kadesh to the king of Edom from Asov. Right? Adom is. So these are the offspring of he says this is what your brother the people of Israel says. You are aware of you know about all of the difficulties that we met that we found or that found us. Our forefathers went down to Egypt and we lived in Egypt for many days. So Mosher Raen is giving a little history lesson to the Adommites to the offspring of Asov and he's saying we went down to Egypt and they mistreated us there. We called out to God and he heard our voice. He sent an angel and he took us out of Egypt. He says, "We're in Kadesh, which is a city on the edge of your boundary." Makes a request, "Please let us pass through your land. We're not going to go through your fields. We're not going to go through your vineyards. We're not going to take any of the water from your wells." We'll go on the main path on the main road is small. We won't go off of that road neither right nor left until we pass through your borders. Adam says, "Look, I'm sorry. You cannot pass through my boundaries. You can't come through my land. If you do, I'm going to come out with a sword to greet you. Am Israel responds and says that we're going to go on the main path and if we drink any water, either we or our cattle, we're going to pay for it. We're not looking for a free ride. Just let me walk through your land. The the Adamites say, "No, you can't pass." And they came out to defend their borders. Many soldiers, a mighty hand. Pusk finishes off this little section here and says that the refused to allow the Jewish people, the people of Israel to pass through their land and Israel cla backed off. Now the medish is going to give us some interesting concepts to understand in this context. So the first thing the message points out is is a on the part of a a certain righteousness that Moses expressed in this request says in Psalms that the saddic the righteous individual does not allow his tongue to say something negative about somebody else doesn't do anything negative to his friend, doesn't carry the embarrassment of his friend. Meaning, it's easy if someone does wrong to me, it's easy for me to make the mistake of holding on to that resentment, holding on to that grudge and not letting go of it. says the the regular way of the world is it's human nature that if let's say I'm doing a uh some kind of business deal with you and you mess me over in the business deal right so the person who did that to me I don't want to see that person ever again not interested I I separate myself from him socially and I'm angry I don't want to see that Even though he just got punished because of Kalisra Kalis complained, "We need water. He was told to speak to the rock. He ends up hitting the rock." And what is what's the result of that? Mosin was punished. He's not going to be able to go into Israel. And whose fault is it complaint? It's the Jewish people that they said it's oh what you're gonna make it come out of that rock let it come out of a different rock whole conversation but Mosher Raenu should have been upset at for causing him to be unable to enter into says also they got very angry they caused anger I'm sorry they caused anger In regards to Mayor, right, this request that they made for water was called Mayor, the waters of of fighting, the fighting waters. And they caused damage, they caused evil to Mosher Raenu. So Moshe got you know the the raw end of the deal with this like butu like the says in did not stop helping them did not take off the burden of his responsibility towards them. Okay. So, first lesson we might not have expected to hear here. We might not have expected to learn from here is that Mishraenu now is not going to hold anything against Amrael for having caused him to really be unable to complete his mission to get to Israel to get the land of Israel. He's not going to hold it against them. He's still going to provide for them. He's still going to direct them. He's still going to act on their behalf. He's going to send that message to Adam. Let's go. But we want to get straight to Israel. And I would add perhaps we could even say the sooner they get to Israel, the the sooner raven is going to pass off the scene. So, you know, he's asking for a death sentence by helping out Amra. But it doesn't doesn't matter to him. Now in the next part of the pik it says in his me message to the he says you know about all of the difficulties that that found us. was pointing something out to the Adamites that maybe they couldn't handle hearing but it was true nevertheless. Asov and Yakov were two brothers who descended from Arau. Aram Abraham right? So we have this connection and we have a promise that was given to Abraham that your kids are going to go down to to be in a land which is not theirs. They're going to be strangers in a strange land. They're going to be they're going to be denigrated and they're going to be oppressed. But after that they're going to come out with great wealth and they're going to come and they're going to get this beautiful land called Isel. It's going to be theirs. So now there's a process in order to receive Israel. You have to go through the process. You have to go into gullus. You have to go into exile. You have to endure those hardships. Mabenu is saying to Adam, look, let's look at the let's look at the calculations here. Let's take let's take this let's take the story and understand it clearly. That promise was given to Arau. There was a promise. His kids are going to have to undergo a difficult time. Now, we paid for that with our blood. We paid for that with our with our bodies. So, you guys got off scot-free. It's comparable to two brothers that a a uh which means a document which states that their father owed money to somebody. It came out Maybe it was after the father died. So what happens is one of the sons paid it off. There was a debt, huge debt, $10,000, let's say, and one brother pays it off. Not long after that, he wants to borrow a certain object from his brother. He says to his brother, "Look, you know that we both really owed that money on behalf of our father, but I paid it off. So now when I come to borrow something, don't turn me away. Let me borrow an object. Show appreciation for the fact that I saved you a lot of money. You should have paid $5,000 and I should have paid five. I paid it off. Now when I want a favor from you, please return the favor. So, so Mosher Rabenu in essence was saying in his message to Asov, look, I need a little favor. You need to pass through your land. Now, maybe you feel threatened by that or whatever the reason is why they didn't let them go. But Mosha is saying, look, let's be honest. We had a great-grandfather. His name was Avoino. And there was an obligation that he had. He had a a bill to pay. And that bill involved a challenging time for his kids. We paid the bill in full. We paid off the full $10,000.$10,000 shekels. Please show us some appreciation. You didn't have to go through that difficulty. Let us come through your land. Do us a little favor. So Mosher Rabenu said, "Our forefathers went down to Egypt and I'm just thinking, you know, before I continue, you know, a lot of times in life, we have people who do something on our be on our behalf. They do something to benefit us. They pay our bill for us. It might be a parent taking care of the kids. It might be a spouse who's the main bread winner in the family. It might be the parents who are are doing a favor for their kids, making a wedding for them, buying them a house, whatever it is, putting down a down payment. But the magic is telling us that that it's an amazing thing because like this is generations later. It's 400 years after Arin was told this, right? Still the appreciation needs to be there. Someone did you a favor. You didn't have to pay for that yourself. You have to have appreciation. And used to say if you do a favor for somebody else there's a place for doing favors without them knowing. But generally speaking, if you do somebody a favor, you got to let them know because they got to appreciate it. Because we live in a in a world where people need to appreciate each other. We have interactions with each other. Someone does me a favor, I need to know about it so that I can at least not be I need at least not be ungrateful. And more than that, I need to return the favor. I need to show my appreciation for it. Shabbain was telling us that that's something that can last 400 years. Something that did you might not even thought about. Hey, I got off scot-free. No, can't think like that. Says so what what's the mention here of the forefathers? Why does it say that our forefathers went down to Egypt, they didn't actually have they didn't actually have any difficulties, right? Yakovu came down. Yoseph and the brothers came down, they had it good. As long as they were alive, everything was great. But it says an important thing. There was a the Egyptians caused difficulty to us and to our forefathers because there's even though they're not alive anymore, the forefathers our predecessors, they're conscious of what happens to their kids. And when their children undergo difficulties and undergo challenges and and are oppressed, it it hurts the forefathers. It's an interesting idea. You know, everyone can see this in their own lives. When a person sees that their own kids, you know, are challenged or have difficulties, whatever it is, it hurts us. It hurts us. We want to try to help it out. We want to try to we want to try to do something for them. We find says she cries for her kids. Numerous kazal talking about how this one gets up to be tries to say something positive for Israel. Says something positive for Israel. We have in Shim in he in the heavens. We have people up there, our forefathers, our predecessors who are still trying to help us out. They're praying on our behalf. They're they're standing up in front of the kayak coming in front of God's throne of mercy and they're asking him to help out Amaz. It's good to know that we're not alone in our troubles. We're not alone. continues in talking about the request of first he says you know we'd like to come through and he also says we're not going to just take your stuff we're not going to come in through there without paying says Mayar may it should have said Mayus Okay, there's different explanations here what this exactly means, but uh they had their own bear, right? They had the bear Miriam. They had this the rock that was supposed to speak to, but he hid it, but it traveled with them. They had a source for water. What are they talking about? Taking water from the when they passed through there. So the the is teaching us interesting thing. You come on a vacation. You leave and you travel up to the north. You're hanging out in the mag tells us there's a a way to show again. You walk into a place. Don't bring your own stuff there. Support the people in that place. You're going to hang out with these people. You're going to enjoy their sites. You're going to walk through their land. Buy their food. Support the local grocery. The local makarits is appropriate. You're benefiting from them. You're asking them a favor. You're saying, "I'm going to come through your land. not just going to come through here and and be selfish and bring my own food and not give you any benefit. Don't worry, you're going to get a benefit for me coming through. I'm going to drink your water. I'm going to pay for your water. Put aside your own thing when you come through that place and buy from the storekeeper. Buy from the mak in order to give him a benefit. I came through here. The guy should feel like, "Hey, this person came through. I got something from it. This is what says we've got the we've got the we have food. We have drink. We have everything that we need. But don't think that we're going to bother you and say, "Oh, we're going to take your stuff." or don't think that we're gonna you're gonna let us through and we're not going to do anything to benefit you. You're gonna make money from us coming through. That's what was telling them. So, this is an important principle. You know, sometimes let's say we visit a family, we eat a eat lunch at somebody's house, we have in my house, we have seminary girls come visiting Israel, studying here, they'll come for shabas or they'll come for a meal. And the way is you they bring a platter of candy and it's a it's a a show of you're coming to somebody you're walking through their space. You want to enjoy the the atmosphere in that particular place. Reciprocity benefit give benefit to the person that you're passing through. Beautiful. says to you're going to buy their food. You're going to pay for it. Says to he says, "I want you to make a a show. I want you to make a make it clear to to the that you're not just slaves. You left slavery and you have nothing. You're poor. Untie your all of your money bags. This is also a very interesting point. Show them that you didn't miss out on anything by the fact that you were mish that you were slaves. You've got money. Part of what the message that Mosha is is telling to the is we have money. We're going to pay. We're going to come through there. We're going to make our own way. We're not we're not uh seeking any we're not victims seeking any kind of uh financial assistance and and uh and aid. That's not who we are. That's not what we are. We're coming through. We have our own money. Pik says that after a is going to be under the boot of the Egyptians, under the boot of those in a land, a strange land that's not theirs, they're going to leave with great wealth. And so the the will realize that you didn't miss out anything. The they didn't go through the pain of exile. They didn't go through that difficulty as we saw before. But didn't lose out because they went through it has wealth but says you should know that it's not yours that you're giving Israel has that wealth has the the wherewithal to pay for the things that they need. But where does it come from? Of course, Israel realizes that it's Hashem who blessed them. It's Hashem who gave it to them. They they weren't missing anything. So I I think it seems to me, it's not explicit in the maj, but it seems to me that the Mish is teaching Israel a lesson. It's not so much for the Look, look at the the the difficulties that you went through. Look at the the oppression, the intensity. But you came out with something new. You came out with an awareness that the don't have. All these 400 years they've been working and killing maybe to get their money or whatever it is, either being of service or being bandits. But by the sweat of their own brow, by the power of their own hands, they they were able to get the money that they need. But you am a different has a different way of getting to the place of wealth and the path is difficult. It's a hard path. But gets a great wealth, a great abundance. But along with the abundance comes a clear recognition. It's not you. It's not yours. I remember my my voice teacher used to say to me this is years ago as a kid I was 15 16 years old I would say hey that person can sing doesn't have any troubles they just have stamina everything why do I have to go through this you know the challenge of the voice lessons and my voice teacher would say somebody was born rich he has lots of money and another person was born poor and he had to work his way up and it's true Israel is born poor and we have to work our way up the least of the nations most oppressed of the nations and Israel has built with that's the thing is for 2,000 years was in gul and here we are we built ourselves back up it's only Hashem who's building it's not we built ourselves your god is the one who blessed you not missing anything. Why are you not missing anything? You don't know how to produce. You don't know how to do anything. You don't know how to make a land. You don't know how to be your own nation. Amish doesn't know how to do that. As we come into Israel, both then 3,300 years ago and now we come in and it's an unbelievable thing to to watch. We're here. We're We're thriving. Israel is growing. Israel is coming back. But it's all him. Let's be clear. 100 years ago, we had nothing. It's all him. It's a miracle. last point in the said we're going to go on the main passion. We're going to muzzle our animals. They're not going to go right or left. Very interesting says that everywhere else we have permission. We have license to kill. We can use force to get what we need. Now, we came through the lands of Sikhon and Og, we decimated them. Sometimes when a nation is established, that's part of what's involved. You have to go into Iran and destroy some stuff. You got to go into Gaza and destroy some That's part of what it takes to to make it clear we're here. We're not going anywhere. When they came through Adam, they didn't have permission to do that. which meant to say we could be defenseless in the face of your offense. So that was difficult. Adam says no, you can't come through says I am peace but when they but when I speak peace they respond with war is not interested in wars. We're we're interested in peaceful coexistence. But the interesting point is the last last point here says I want to tell you something. You know it looks like Adam is saying no you can't go through but wants to know just like when it comes to your parasa it's not you it's Hashem just like when it comes to your success it's not you it's Hashem it's to the degree that I have given myself over to myself to him I nullify myself to God that's where my success comes from and it can come through the difficulties of slavery it can come through the times of being in the midbar with nothing. Hashem provides for us. But here's another aspect of it. They're not letting you through. You think it's them though, but it's not them. It's me. says, "I decided that girl says, "Don't start up with them because I'm not going to let you have an inch of their land." Before she explain, what does it mean I'm not going to let you have an inch of their land? It means you're not even going to be able to walk on an inch of their land. Let's be clear is saying there are places that you'll be able to walk through there and destroy your enemies and take over that those spots and they'll be yours. But there'll be other places that are not going to be yours. You're not even going to be able to touch. You're not even able to walk through there. That's the land of Edon. That's an important lesson. The successes that we have are Hashem's. The failures that we have are Hashem's. Exactly where we succeed, it all belongs to him. Exactly where we fail, it all belongs to him. It's not us. It's nothing to do with us. It's a powerful lesson. There's a lot of different concepts here in this conversation between Hashem and between between I'm sorry, Mosher Rabenu and the message that he's giving over to the But the bottom line of it all is Bash is not Makpir. He doesn't get upset that Am is not letting him as a result of their actions. Hashem is not letting him into Israel. He realizes that it's Hashem. That's it. And the the the payment that Am has paid for the debt of we paid it. But am is asking for some and and it's really the the theme here throughout the whole thing is a recognition of something that someone else has done for us. Most of it is Hashem did it for us. But even is asking Adam to recognize that we did something for them that they didn't have to pay for. So do us a favor back. And that's you walk through somebody's place, you got to show them appreciation. You got to appreciate somebody else. Adam didn't have that capacity. He didn't have that capacity. But it's am's obligation. We need to show appreciation. We need to show that we recognize where it comes from. Our difficulties, the challenges, the yeses in life and the nos in life. It's all from and it's all for our best. Has boundaries for us, borders for us. exactly where we're supposed to be, exactly what we're supposed to accomplish. And he defines and he tells us and he gives us the when it's the right thing and he gives us a stone wall that we can't pass through when it's not the right thing. So it's an incredible lesson in appreciating the good that's done for us, the kindness that a kadeshu shows us and the boundaries that a kadeshu gives us. We need to know that everything that happens to us in life is exactly as it's meant to be. I want to bless you. I ask you to bless me should help us to realize that he's the one running our lives. should help us to have that appreciation for him and for those around us to do us good. Hashm should help us reciprocate and to the best of our ability. Hashem should help us that we should be connected with all those around us but especially to himself. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful shamus. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www. at argoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]