Devarim-Tisha B'av - Rectifying a Splintered World

You're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in Ramsh Israel 5775 2015. This week's para is paras devorim and shabas itself this coming Friday night tonight this evening is going to be tishabove. However, although it's tishabove we push off the fast on shabas. We're not allowed to show any avail. We're not allowed to show any mourning even a great mourning over the destruction of the temple. We don't do that on shabas. If we push it off instead to Matzi Shabas and Sunday is when we're going to commemorate and relive the destruction of the temple and all of those things that occurred to the Jewish people throughout history. And one of the things that we discuss almost every year is the fact that paras devor this para this week's para falls out right before tishov. We read it on the shabas before tishbuff and this year we actually read it on tishab itself which is interesting. And the question is why? Why is always the introduction to tishab? What is there to learn? And this is something we've spoken about numerous times and each year we have a different answer. And I'd like to share with you my thought for this year which is based on the medish at the very beginning med at the very beginning of paras devor. It says like this there are two different ideas that are taught in the medish. Two different concepts that don't really seem to be directly interrelated. However, I believe that they are and I believe that there's a beautiful lesson and a depth and and a teaching for us for tishov that we can take with us from the medish. So, chapter 1 verse one it says these are the words that Moses said to the entire people of Israel on the side of the Jordan River etc. The verse goes on but it speaks about these matters. these matters and the maj says something very interesting. It could be and this is my understanding of the maj but means these are the words these words. The question is like this says the maj is it permitted to write the Torah in a different language. Can we translate the Torah into other languages or does it have to be taught in the original language in the Hebrew that it was originally written? It was originally spoken in. So the measure says There's a question in the Jewish law, a person of the Jewish people who would like to write a Torah in a different language, is it permitted? And this is what our sages taught. The difference between a safer Torah, a Torah scroll, as opposed to a muz that a safer can be written, a safer Torah can be written in any language. says his own opinion which is that a Torah can only be written it's only a kosher Torah if it's written in Greek because the language of of yanis of Greek is a beautiful language and therefore it's appropriate that the Torah be translated into that language. So the question that immediately strikes me here is how do how does the magish know that it's permitted to write the Torah in a different language? These are the words. It sounds like it's only these words, specifically these words. So these here brings that later on in the Torah, the verse says Moses went and he explained the Torah says our kazal, our sages say that this means that he translated the Torah into 70 different languages. So from the fact that Moshe took pains, he painstakingly went to explain the Torah so that no matter who they were, no matter what their languages were, they would still be able to understand it. We see that is permitted to write the Torah in whatever language is necessary so that the Jewish person, it's very medu here. It's very uh you see from the medish itself, it says a Jew who would like to translate the Torah clearly. It's so that he'd be able to understand, he'd be able to do God's will, be able to have that relationship with Hashem that Hashem expects of him. It's also very interesting because at this point in time, the entire Jewish people were Egyptian. They had just come out of Egypt. Even if it was 40 years later, the only other language that they might know besides for Hebrew would be Egyptian. They didn't know all the other 70 languages. So if Moshe is translating these the the Torah into these 70 languages clearly it's not just for that generation alone but it's for all future generations that we should always be able to have access to the Torah no matter what language we speak. Now that's the first part of the medish. Medish goes on and says something which doesn't seem to be so related to the previous statement of the medish. The holy one blessed be he said. See how how endeared how beloved is the language of the Torah that the Torah the language of the Torah the way the Torah speaks has the ability to cure the tongue to cure one's tongue and the Yoseph immediately points out that this is something that we see from Mosher Rabenu and this is something actually is going to be stated at the end of the medish but Mosherenu Moses himself when God first tells him that I want you to be the one who's going to be you're going to be the redeemer of the Jewish people. Says, "I'm not somebody who's able to speak. I don't have words. I have trouble speaking." He said he was hard of speech. And yet at the end of the mages, we're going to skip and come back here, but at the end of the mish, it says since Moses merited to inherit the Torah, to have the Torah, to live a life of Torah, Mosha's tongue was cured. He was able to begin to speak. How do we know this? The very same, he said, I'm not a man of words. that very same man and those very same words now these are the words that he's speaking and interestingly and this could be the beginning of the connection but interestingly he not only did he speak in Hebrew not only did he have the words to speak in Hebrew but he had the words to speak in 70 languages he was able to speak such that it would be heard for all times for all generations for all peoples in all languages but that says the majish is the power of the Torah the language of the Torah the Torah has the ability to cure the tongue to cure a person. Now, we're going back to the beginning of this piece in the How do we know this? The tree of life, which is a reference to the Torah, cures the tongue. How do we know indeed that the Torah is referred to as a tree of life? We know this from the verse. The Torah is referred to as a tree of life to those who hold on to it. Now, I'm going to continue reading the message, but as we're reading it, just try to understand, think about why is it, what is the idea that the Torah rectifies the tongue. It cures the tongue. It has the ability to take someone like Mosher Rabenu who's who has great difficulty speaking and it has the ability to transform him to be the ortor of all times, the greatest the greatest speaker of all times. What is the idea behind that? What is the depth of that? What is it coming to teach us? Now, the Medish continues and says, You should know. Very interesting. In the future time when Msiah comes, when the Messiah arrives or perhaps in the world to come, Hashem, God is going to cause very special trees to grow. What's so special about these trees? They have the ability to cure the tongue, to cure speech. as a verse says a verse in Ezekiel 47:12 on the river and I assume it's speaking about the river of of the garden of Eden. So on the edges of this river from either side there will be coming up all these different trees that provide sustenance that are for food. So it's speaking about the future and it's saying that there's going to be these special trees. Now How do you know that the characteristic of the food of these trees is such that it cures the tongue, cures the ability to speak? The end of the verse there says that the fruits will be for eating and its leaves will be for cures. The leaves will use for the curative powers. Now in explaining this so we have an argument between one says that it's going to be used for its curative powers. The other one says that it's not just going to be like a general cure all but rather anyone who is mute who is unable to speak and then eats from these fruits so his tongue will be cured. And this sharpening or this ability that he gains to speak comes through the learning of the Torah. How do we know that it comes through the learning of the Torah and not just from eating the fruit? As the verse says, it speaks about the fact that the trees are growing from this side and that. And whenever we have the words from this side and that it's a reference to the Torah as the verse says in regards to the ten commandments. So it says that they were written from this side and that. So it's a reference in the verse the fact that the trees are growing from this side and that. It's a reference to the fact that the curative powers of these trees comes through the Torah through the learning of Torah. And the magic finishes off of what we quoted earlier, what we read already, which is that it's possible also to learn it from Mosher Rabenu himself that Moses originally he said, "I don't have the ability to speak." And then over here we see that he has the ability to speak. He's been cured through his learning of the Torah, through his bringing the Torah into the world, through being this conduit of Torah. Now in trying to understand what does it mean? What is the concept of the fact that the Torah cures a person's tongue? What is the idea? You know, we can we can really look at the question from a different angle. We can look at it. You know, Mosha Rabenu, he's unable to speak. Hashem says to him, I want you to redeem the Jewish people. Go and ask Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go. And and Moshe says, I'm not somebody who is able to speak. This is a job that involves speech. I don't have that capability. I don't have that talent. And Hashem says, "Who's the one who places the tongue in a person? It's me. You go and I will speak through you. Don't worry about it." That's the conversation that Hashem has with Moshe. Now, the question that we can ask on that is indeed why if Hashem knew Mosher Rabenu is the destined Goyel. He's the redeemer. He's Messiah. He's the Messiah of that generation. He's going to take the Jewish people out of Egypt. And he needs to be able to speak. The Messiah is someone who needs to be able to speak. That's his power. His power is in his prayer. His power is in his ability to convince the Jewish people that now it's time to go. His power is in his ability to convince Pharaoh to let the Jewish people leave. Why is it if Hashem knows that this is the person, this is the one, he's the go, he's the redeemer, why did Hashem make him with an inability to speak? Fundamentally, this is his job is to speak, to convince people, to move people, to change people. Why is it that Mosher Raenu the G the redeemer can't speak? Why did Hashem make him that way? Mosher Rabeno is a good Tina. He has a good statement. He has a good excuse. God, I can't do it. I can't redeem them. I can't speak. What's the answer that Hashem says? The answer is, it's beautiful and it's deep. The answer is, as I understand it, that Hashem specifically made him unable to speak. Specifically unable to speak. You know, we don't mention Moshe one time, not once in the on Pes on Passover. We don't speak about Moshe. Moses's name is not there. What? Why? Why do we skip him? The Torah is full of Moshe. Moshe is, you know, he's the one Tyra is Moshe. Mosha wrote the Torah. He was the cle. He was the conduit. We always recognize the one who was the conduit for good to come into the world. The answer is because it's not about Moshe. And and the idea the very idea that Moshe can't speak when Moshe comes and is g when Moshe comes and speaks it's so clear that he's not speaking. It's so clear that the only reason that he's speaking now is because it's he's completely been math himself nullified his own ego to God. There is only God and the words that he's speaking are only God's words because Moshe can't talk. Moses can't speak. He doesn't have his own words. I can't talk. And and what's the tikun of that? The tik of of that is through the Torah. What is the Torah? What we talk about the Torah? What is the Torah? What is this idea of the Tyra? The idea of the Tyra is this is the will of Hashem. This is the will of Hashem. When I am a vatal myself, when I give myself over to the care of Hashem, when I give myself over to God completely, I have nothing of my own. I'm completely giving myself to Hashem's will. Our will is to do your will, Hashem. Your will is what I want, not mine. I don't want my will. I just want your will. And that's he's the I don't want anything of my own, Hashem. Whatever you say, I will do. Whatever you say, I will say. When that's who we are, when that's our mahus, when that's what we become through the Tyra. So then there's a lash, our tongue is cured. What does that mean? Our tongue is cured. So for Mosher Raen is very clear. He couldn't speak before, now he can speak. He he couldn't be a leader before, now he can lead. He couldn't convince anybody of anything, now he can convince them. He couldn't teach anything. He couldn't bring people close to Hashem, now he can. It's very clear what what it means for Mosha. What does it mean for me? What does it mean for you? I can speak very well. You know, I think if we think about it carefully, we know tell us that the the it's anal the says that when Hashem created man, Hashem blows into him a ru a spirit of life and the translate there translates it there a spirit of speaking. The mahus the essence of who who the human being is is the speaking spirit. the ability to speak and with my speech I interact with the world. With my speech I can hurt someone with my speech or I can bring lift someone up with my speech. I can convince somebody of something. I can affect the world. I can bring goodness into the world or heaven forbid the opposite. When we say that the Torah cures speech, what we're really saying is that the Tyra cures the human being, the essence of the human being, the creative power of the human being, all that the human being represents in the world which is encomp encompassed encapsulated in the word lash in in the tongue in the speech of a human being. Now there's something really amazing and interesting here. What is the connection here between the fact that the Tyra is marsh the Tyra cures the tongue the Tyra cures the human being from his his inabilities the Torah cures him of his selfishness what is the connection between that and the fact that the Torah can be written in any language and I think that there's a very beautiful idea that this maj is coming to teach us the the medish says that it can be written according to one sheet according to one opinion in all of the languages the 70 languages is as we mentioned from the Yosef that Mosher Raben when he explained it he explained it in all 70 languages. Now we've shared in the past that the number 70 we have we have 70 different facets or aspects or dimensions or or ways of looking at the Torah we have 70 different angles. What does that mean? The Torah is one. There's one Torah. But when it comes down into this world so the Torah becomes fractured in a certain sense. There are 70 different aspects of the Torah that depending on a person, depending on their their portion of the Torah, their understanding of God, that's how they will approach their relationship with Hashem. That's the number 70. There are 70 nations of the world. The Jewish people are a single nation. We include, we are the root, the soul of all of the 70 nations, but the 70 different nations represent the 70 different 70 different powers, 70 different aspects of reality. Yakov Ainu, Jacob is one person with 70 progeny as the Torah tells us. He has 70 offspring. All of these represent different spiritual spiritual powers that are that are reflected in the world in a lower dimension. We could say from a Yakov. Yakov is the one who's the he he's the one who includes all of them. Now when we say that the Tyra can be translated into 70 languages, it's an amazing thing because what it means is no matter where a person finds himself, no matter how far a person finds himself from the source, from the Tory, from a relationship with Hashem, no matter how impossible it seems, no matter how many impediments stand in his way, whether it's something wrong with his ability to speak, something wrong in his emotional ability, in his interactive ability, in his social ability, even in his spiritual ability. It seems like he's an immoral person. He's completely drawn to sin. It's impossible for him to learn the Torah. It's impossible for him to have a relationship with Hashem. He's no good. He's born that way. The Tyra is written, the Tyra is explained in 70 languages. No matter how far fallen, no matter how broken the oneness seems, it's still possible for that Torah to speak to me. No matter how far I seem to be, the Tyra reaches down to me and talks to me in my language. The is the Tyra has the ability to cure my speech, cure my specific language, my aspect. Perhaps it's the 70th of the 70 languages. My my shard of a shard of the oneness of reality. The Tyra is the unity that reaches down into the darkness into the brokenness of reality and says you can't speak. You can speak. I I had this idea as you know this really beautifully. You know we mentioned I think it was last week we mentioned that the difference between sight and speech sight and hearing. sight. When you're looking at something, you can see all of the picture at once. When it comes to speaking, when it comes to words, when it comes to hearing, you hear one word and another word and another word and another word. When you get to the end of the sentence, the words come together and there's a concept and you have that concept. Misha says, "I can't speak. I can't bring these ideas together. I'm so broken. I'm in this world of brokenness. this world of 70 which is represents which represents or parallels the idea of speech broken down broken broken broken and mash says I can't even talk I can't even bring the 70 together bring those pieces those words together in a flowing manner so that there can be a communication and then we can reaccess the oneness which happens at the end of that sentence and Hashem says Hashem says who's the one who gives you that mouth who is The one who has the ability to bring back the broken pieces back to reality, back to oneness, put those pieces together, make someone able to speak. Misha is able to speak in the end. He's the greatest speaker of all time. And he speaks to each one of us in our language through the 70 languages that the Torah is translated into. Now, on tishabove, something very interesting happens. The is the law is that one is not permitted to learn Torah on tishabove. And you know if we look at this in light of what we've been speaking about and perhaps this could be part of the message of why we read before tishov if we look at it in light of that. So you know you could think like this on we're so broken we're so far we're so shattered we not only don't we have the 70 pieces of that oneness. Not only don't we have a piece a 70th perhaps of that se those 70 pieces we're so broken. We're so far that it seems like there's no hope and we will never hear that voice. We say on on tisha we say where are you? Where how did this happen? We ask this question without an answer. We don't answer the question. We say how could it be? How could it be that this happened? We have a question and we have no answer. We don't have the words to answer the question. But what's interesting is that although we don't have the words and we don't have the word the the and it seems like we're so far from God and we're so destroyed that we can never access it. What's interesting is and and I want to bring it back to this medish because in the medish it references and trying to explain that the Tyra is that which cures a person and in the future time we talk about this future this this world of rectification when things are all rectified when we get to that place. So these trees grow and the fruit has the ability to cure a person's tongue, to cure a person's language. And it's beautiful and it's apppropo that the parallel to the Torah. The the Torah itself is like a portal. It's a it's a window. It's a way to get into that hab to the future place, the future time. And the Torah itself fixes a person and transports a person to that rectification which we call the rectification of the tongue where the human being is rectified at his root. But although on on tishabove we don't learn Torah. We don't seem to have access to that place. For me, one of the most powerful times, the most powerful sukim that we read on tishuv in the kin. You know, we read the saddest stuff. We read about the destructions that happened in the times of the temple. We read about the inquisition. We we read about the crusades. We read from Shiman Schwab wrote about the Holocaust. We remember all of the destructions, all the questions, all of the shards, all the brokenness. But we also read that remind us what's going to be in the future. What's going to be shalim? It's only a hint. We can't really talk about it because a day of asking without the answer. But we do mention it. We do refer to it. To me, that's the most beautiful the most the most moving part of is a like when Hashem is going to console Zion, console all of the dro destroyed places of Zion. Hashem is going to reverse the wilderness and make it into an an Eden. Make it into a garden. There will be joy and happiness there. Thanks and sounds of song. That to me is so powerfully moving. Here we are. We're so far away from Hashem. We can't even say words of Torah. We can't even we can't even access that rectification. We're so broken. The shards are so split apart. It's like a glass jar. We can't put those pieces together, it seems. But we do mention that there is a time, there will be a time where all of the shards will be rectified. And it is through Torah. It's true. On tishabove, we can't touch it. We can't actually access it on tishov. We're just too broken. And it's so important to remember that. But at the same time and even within it, the the the saddest or the greatest irony or the greatest hope that we have is the fact that although we're so broken today, there is a future. There's an hab there's a Msiah. There's a times of the Messiah when all the shards will be brought back together. And yes, it will be as we learn from Dvarim. It will be through the Torah. It will be through trying to access Hashem's will. Through trying to understand what is our purpose, how can we use our speech, the essence of a human being. How can we access that essence, which is communication, which is relationship, which is coming close to God, which is learning his Torah. And although on tishov we can't, we don't have the ability to speak, we just ask the question, we don't have the answers, but we do know the answer. And that's why it's always read right before tishab because on tish we we can't say the answers. We can't access the answers. But we need to go in there knowing that there is an answer and the answer is through relationship with Hashem. I want to bless you and please bless me back that Hashem should help us to be able to put those words together to be able to speak to take all the brokenness in our lives, all the parts of ourselves that aren't aligned with Hashem's will. Hashem should help us, you and me, and all of us. Hashem should help us to be able to speak. He should cure our language, cure our tongues, and we should merit to see the rebuilding of the temple, to see these trees growing, and we should merit to eat of their fruits, and that the Torah should cure us and bring us into relationship with Hashem. 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.rigoldwag.com. at argoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag. [Music]