Ari Goldwag - Devarim-Tisha B'av - Unifying Duality

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hhm's NeverEnding assistance in ra Israel 5776 2016 this week's para is par and we're getting ready for Tish the day that we commemorate the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago and the question which I like to ask I'm pretty sure I've asked it almost every year since I've started this we're in year number 10 the question is why is pares placed right before Tish what is the teaching what can I learn from this week's paraa that connects to the concept of Tish to the destruction of the temple and each year I have a new insight a new idea to share with you and of course barem thank God I have an idea that I'd like to share with you this time as well and it has to do with a beautiful Med which is right at the beginning of this week's par the verse tells usel these are the words that Moses spoke to all the people of Israel on the other side of the Jordan River by midbar in the wilderness ARA Etc the verse goes on and speaks about all of the things that he spoke a long speech which is basically the safer of D the book of Deuteronomy and what's remarkable on the med points out is that if we look back to the beginning of Theus the beginning of God sending Moses to be his Messenger to take the Jewish people out to redeem the Jewish people and to bring them to the land of Israel moshu refused he couldn't he felt he couldn't be the one to go and speak to pharaoh and to take the Jewish people out of Egypt on what grounds did he refuse the verse tells us that Moshe said I can't speak I'm somebody who my my mouth is heavy could he was a stutter or could be had had a different issue with his tongue we'll soon see him perhaps but he wasn't able to speak remarkable thing is that at the end of 40 years 40 years later we have a speech a speech which is perhaps of the greatest speeches in history these are the words that Moses spoke and he spoke these many many words to the Jewish people flowing beautiful speech the question is how did that happen mosu starts off unable to speak unable to even speak to Moses and say Let My People Go Aaron has to be sent instead of him or by his side but it has to be sent instead of him as far as the speaking goes mosenu by the time it gets to the end of this time he's led the Jewish people for all of these years he's able to speak what changed how did that change how was he able to speak so I'd like to share with you a remarkable medish and there's a beautiful depth an amazing depth here and it very much connects and there's a beautiful lesson that's connected to Tish above to the destruction of the temple what we're missing what we had that we've lost and we need to look forward to and pray that gets returned the measure says like this these are the words now the M as is its way starts off with something which seems to be not connected so much the law is that if a person is it permitted for a Jew to write a Torah a Torah scroll in any language does it have to specifically be written in Hebrew the difference between the seph Torah and is that a SE Torah can be written in any langage which is not true in regards to says while it's true that a Sav Torah can be written in a different language there's only one other language and that is specifically Greek the explains why is it that says that a Torah can be written in Greek this is what our SES taught us says the verse says this is in Genesis 9:27 the blessing of Noah to his sons was that in regards to his son yees so God should do good should give Beauty to yees and God should place his dwelling in the tents of Shame shem's great- grandchildren were going to be the Jewish people and the Jewish people would have the mishon would have the Tabernacle would have the Bas of mish the temple God's presence would reside in their midst so what is the blessing that Noah gave to his son the beauty that there is something of Yas is that's going to be in the tents of Shame the tents of Shame are a reference to the Jewish people's tents where people learn Torah or they study the word of God that Torah can be written even in the language the beautiful language of yees the Greeks were descendants ofes they beautiful language was allowed to be used to write a CER Torah when we read this mes we need to ask ourselves try to understand what is the significance of this what does it matter if the Torah is written in a different language why would the Torah only need to be written in Hebrew what is the depth of the fact that the Torah can be written in other languages according to the according to the sages and according to it can at least be written in Greek what is the idea here what is the depth of what the mes is trying to teach us as we continue on the mes we're going to see that there's a beautiful a great dep to it continues God says see how beautiful the tongue of Torah or the language of Torah is the power of the Torah is to cure the tongue now listen closely to this part because this is the core of the idea I'd like to bring across what is the idea of the fact that the Torah cures the tongue takes away the illness of the tongue how do I know indeed that it does this we find that the verse says it's a verse in Proverbs 15:4 the tree of life has the ability to cure the tongue we know that what is the tree of life it's a reference to the Torah a verse says also in Proverbs 3:18 the Torah is a tree of life to those who hold on to it now the medish is going to give us two different proofs two different places that we see that the power of the T is to cure the tongue the Torah purifies and cures the tongue and we'll see very soon what is that idea what does it mean but first see the two riots the two proofs of the M because they're very powerful and they're very foundational here's what the M says the tongue of Torah unties The Binding of the tongue how do you know this is in the future time God is going to cause these beautiful trees to grow in the Garden of Eden or from the Garden of Eden what is the praise what is so great about these beautiful trees why are they called beautiful and great they have this power to cure the tongue how do we know this is true the verse speaks this in Ezekiel 47:12 the verse there is speaking about a water a fountain a river that's coming out of Jerusalem coming out of of the place of the Temple of the B mikdash and On The Edge on the side on each side of this River of this flowing river which is coming from the temple and there are going to be trees growing there now what is the power of these trees the fruits of these trees how do we know it's something that cures the tongue the verse says for the verse there speaks of the fact that the trees will produce fruit that will be eaten and the leaves will be something which is a cure what is the cure so we have an argument between and really they're saying two different possibilities or aspects of the same thing one says it's going to be used for medicinal purposes the other one says no any person who is mute unable to speak and he takes some of those fruits he eats those fruits his tongue becomes cured while he was unable to speak before once SE those fruits he'll be able to speak it will sharpen his ability to speak and give him great eloquence now all we see in the verse is that it speaks about the water flowing out of the B out of the temple how do we know that it's talking about Torah that words of Torah have the ability to cause someone to be able to speak again so the meas says how do we know that this is speaking about words of Torah this verse in the verse it speaks about the fact that these trees will grow on either side and the language that it says is we find that there's another place where the Torah uses the phrase M from this side and that side and that's specifically in reference to the Ten Commandments which represent the Torah as a verse says in Exodus 32:15 the Torah was written The Ten Commandments were written on both sides which meant Asim explained as the commentar explain that if you would look at one side of the of the tablet to the Ten Commandments you would see the same thing as if you looked on the other side meaning even though they were engraved and they were engraved through and through from one side to the other so ordinarily if you engrave from one side to the other one side will be a mirror image of the other the P tells verse tells us that that was not the case that even though it was engraved through and through on both sides miraculously you would see the same exact words written in the same exact Direction so we see from this verse that references the M from this side and that side using the same language as we find in the verse in Ezekiel speaking of the trees that are from this side and that side of the river so we see that it's referring to Torah the power of Torah is that it sweetens the tongue it gives the tongue inability to speak whereas before it was unable to speak now as we read this we need to understand a few different things what is the idea again of the fact that the the Torah purifies a person's speech makes a person able to speak what does that mean exactly second of all what does it mean that the Torah is written from this side and that side it's the same what is the depth of that idea what is the depth of our sages are trying to teach us that the tablets whether you looked at them from this side or that side it looked the same it was read equally well on both sides what is the depth of that last point of the final Point says I don't need to to teach you this idea that the Torah has the ability to give a person speech from anywhere else I'm going to let's learn it from right here we see that Moses before he had merited to receive the Torah the verse says about him also in in Exodus 4:10 I'm not someone who has the ability to speak I can't talk once he merited to learn the Torah to bring the Torah into the world to bring this amazing spiritual Revelation into the world through him his tongue was cured he began speaking many words previously he had been it had been difficult for him to speak Aon had had to speak in in his place now that he had learned the Torah now that he had given over the Torah to the Jewish people he was able to speak the most eloquently he said the greatest speech of all time how do we know it's true we see it from our concept from our verse which speaks of the words that Moses spoke to the Jewish people and what did he say what did he speak about he spoke words of Torah the words of Torah themselves purified his speech gave him eloquence took away his speech impediment made it possible for him to have the most amazing oratory skills perhaps of anyone of all time so we read this med and we want to understand what does it mean how does the Torah have this ability to purify one's speech to give a person the ability to speak eloquently what is the depth of what this Mish is coming to teach us now I'd like to share with you another Mish and this Mish is way back at the very beginning it's at the story of mosha R Moses when he said to God I can't speak I'm not able to speak my I have a speech impediment my mouth is heavy that's the language that he used how did this happen where did it come from how did he lose his ability to speech was he born that way the M tells us no he was not born that way this is what the M says MO is God palter and Moses grew up in the Palace of pharaoh Moses as a child did something very strange he would grab Pharaoh's crown and he would throw it down to the Earth the king wanted to say that he should be liable for death for and his stargazers the ones who had originally told him watch out there's going to be a child born to the Jewish people who's going to save them they said to him they said this is the one we told you about he's going to save the Jewish people he's going to destroy your kingship this that he's pulling off the crown from your head is not a coincidence it signifies what he what he's going to do in the future he's going to take away your kingship your Reign Over the Jewish people par didn't know what to do with this parro asked for advice from his wise men three of his main advisers were Jethro job and Bam one said look he's he's obligated for death you have to you have to kill him other ones said look he's just a child he doesn't know what he's doing how can you how can you kill him so they devised a plan we're going to figure out what is going on here so what did they do they brought a plate on that plate they placed one Golden Coin and they placed a burning coal both of which were shiny but the burning coal was much more shiny said if he takes the golden coin we know that he's smart he's doing things intentionally and he's liable for death because clearly he's trying the child Moses is trying to say I'm going to take away your crown pharaoh and he means it but if you takes the shinier thing which is the which is the coal we know that he's not he's not doing things cuz he's smart cuz he has any intention he's just a child and then he will be free he won't be liable for death now what happened was amazing Moses he really was a smart kid he wanted to take the golden coin a Mal came an angel came pushed his hand over he took the the burning hot coal and he placed it into his mouth as children often will take things that they find and place them in their mouth as a result of placing the burning call in his mouth perhaps for for a fraction of a second it caused him to become unable to speak properly now once again as we read this mes we need to understand what is the mes teaching us the stories of the MIM that that we find is it's not happen stance it's not just like oh this is how it happened to be that he lost his ability to speak it was very much connected to the fact that he was trying to steal or or pull down this the crown of pharaoh what is the depth of what this mes is teaching us so to begin to answer these questions I want to come back to a question that we asked before which had to do with the luos it had to do with the fact that the tablets of the law that had the Ten Commandments on them were written the verse tells us the verse says that they were written on both sides you could read them equally from both sides even though the engraving went through from one side to the other miraculously what is the depth of the fact that that was true what is the Torah teaching Us by telling us that the tablets were read the same on both sides so in looking at this first I found which speaks about another aspect of M that there are two sides of the Torah both are equally important what are the two sides of the Torah that are represented by the two sides of the Ten Commandments of the tablets the two sides are we have a certain aspect of the Torah which is revealed which is the pup shot which is the simple understanding which is the verses as we see them and then we have an inner aspect the other side of the Torah so to speak the inner side of the Torah the depth of the Torah the the secrets of the tah those wisdoms which are hidden inside of the simple understanding inside of the way our kazal teach us these ideas in sometimes fantastic stories there's a depth here there's something that needs to be Unearthed that needs to be found inside of the depth so that's indicated by the fact that it says M there are two sides there two aspects of the Torah now what's interesting though that does not explain is what does it mean that they're the same that they're written the same you can see the same thing on both sides and I believe that the depth of what ra is teaching and really the whole idea here is that both sides the outer aspect of the Torah and the inner aspect of the Torah really are saying the same thing the the simple the so to speak the body of the Torah the outer aspect of the Torah what we see of the Torah seems to say one thing there's an Angry God there's a God you know we've spoken about this idea you know there's a there's this is what happens if you don't keep the Torah and etc etc but then there's an inner aspect which is the love of Hashem the love of God we we see more as we learn we learn ideas of the Torah of the Torah the Outlook of the Torah the cabala as we see those inner aspects we realize that there's an outer and an inner aspect which seem to contradict but the statement of the Torah is written really on two sides saying the same thing read the same way when you receive the Torah properly when a person understands what the Torah is really saying the depth of it there's not really a contradiction to what's happening on the outside as opposed to what's happening on the inside when a person has an inability to speak eloquently when a person is an elim he's a mute does that mean that he's not thinking forbid that person is able to think that person is able to perhaps even express himself beautifully inside of his mind but when it comes to communicating to others to externalizing that which is inside of himself he's not able to do that there's a contradiction between what's going on on the outside the way people perceive him as opposed to what's going on on the inside the way he perceives himself and the thoughts that he has the world we live in especially when we don't have a base of English when we don't have a temple the world that we live in is a world of duality of contradiction a person has a physical body has physical needs and they seem to contradict his spiritual needs if a person wants to be spiritual the natural way that a person might think to go is I need to deny myself of the physical needs that I have of my physical desires that's the natural way of thinking is it possible to reconcile them is it possible to find that within the physical it's possible to be spiritual is it possible that these are just two sides of the the same coin the Torah says yes the depth of the Torah the water that comes out from the temple resolves The Duality resolves the Paradox of the physical and the spiritual Realms and says that there are really two aspects of one thing even though they seem to be Polar Opposites can I say the Torah in a language which is not the torah's language which is not Hebrew Hebrew is called lashes the holy language can I write a sapher Torah in a different language perhaps it's Greek perhaps it's any language but the answer is yes why because the Torah is mar the Torah itself is something which expresses purification of the tongue the tongue what is the idea of the tongue what is the idea of purification of the tongue like we said the tongue is something which expresses that which is inside of me my subconscious that which I need to externalize when I can't manifest what's really inside of me that means I can't that's that's expressed by kazal as I can't speak MH his purpose is to be able to take the Jewish people out of Egypt Egypt he knows that he can't do that he can't manifest his purpose because he can't speak how did that come about because he was already trying to manifest it a little bit early perhaps when he was a child he was trying to take that Crown off of pharaoh and he lost his ability to speak as a result of that he lost his ability to manifest the potential that was inside of him because instead of taking that Crown instead of taking that gold which represented his true purpose which was indeed to bring down pharaoh instead he lost his ability to speak he took that burning hot coal but God himself restores that ability for him to be able to manifest what's inside of him the potential inside of him God says go to Pharaoh I want you to speak who is the one that gave a person the ability to speak and manifest that which is inside of him the potential inside how is it manifest how does it become brought out how does a person gain that ability to manifest who they really are the me is telling us it's through the Torah the Torah resolves the seeming Paradox between what's going on on the outside what's manifesting in the world and what's going on on the inside anti when it comes to this day which commemorates the destruction of the temple we are mourning what are we mourning what are we crying about why are we sitting on the floor we're not just crying about the fact that there's been so many pgrs and Holocaust and destruction of the Jewish people we're not just crying about a temple that was destroyed a physical Temple where we come and we pray we're crying because there was something that happened in that Temple that Temple was a place water would come out and will come out of that Temple and resolve The Duality a person would walk into the temple he would eat of the corbon he would eat of the sacrifices something amazing would happen sages teach us that when a person ate of the caronus of the sacrifices of that meat that the meat would be it was just like the M the the miraculous bread that they ate in the wilderness the Jewish people never had to use the bathroom as long as they ate that because there was no Duality there was no refuge when a person eats in the temple a person eats the special meat that's brought there there's no difference between the physical and the spiritual the physical body completely consumes the the the food that's eaten there's no there's nothing left over it's a place where everything is included in the service of God gold silver the animal kingdom the the Mel the the mineral Kingdom the salt all the different aspects of reality come and are joined together and aren't a contradiction to the spiritual Realms without the Bas without that Temple we're in a place of Duality where if I'm physical I can't be spiritual if I'm spiritual I can't be physical I can't truly manifest who I am I can't speak my mind I am a spiritual mute the power of the Torah is that it's Maron it cures my tongue it cures my ability to manifest the potential which is inside of me and be able to bring it to the for for to bring it out it brings me to a place of of the future time of the days of the Messiah of those times when the B is rebuilt it's that time when when the water comes out and it it makes it possible the water coming out from the temple makes it possible for the fruits to grow for me to eat those fruits internalizing it and then all of a sudden my tongue is cured I can manifest I can express who I truly am on a spiritual level and there's no contradiction between the subconscious and the conscious Minds between the physical and the spiritual ual Realms this is something that we actually see when a person makes a it completes a track the talud one of the special features of that of that completion ceremony is that there's a there's a Kadesh an unusual Kadesh which is said which speaks about the resurrection of the Dead in the future time when the B the temple is going to be rebuilt and why is that there it's there because the Torah actually brings us to a place where I can go and be in the Bish I can be in that place place where there's no contradiction between the physical and the spiritual and in fact even during the N9 days even during this time of M for the Temple's destruction if I make a SE If I complete a traed of the toid and I invite people to come even though ordinarily I have to be in morning and I'm not even allowed to eat meat just like a mourner because of the destruction of the temple if I make a if I completely tracked to The Tam it releases me from the morning I am no longer in a place where the Bas Amish is destroyed where the temple is destroyed I've reentered entered into the temple I'm back in a place where there is no more Duality where the same thing is read from either side both the front and the back the inner aspect and the outer aspect of the Torah are the same I can see that they say the same thing the spiritual and the physical there's no contradiction between them and is isn't it beautiful that I can eat meat I can now incorporate even the physical aspects of the of the world my desire for me my desire to to enjoy the things of this world they become incorporated in to my spirituality because of the Torah through the Torah through the amazing spiritual teachings of the Torah so I want to bless you and please bless me back Hashem should help us that we should be able to experience even now even in the time of seeming destruction of the temple we should be able to experience through the Torah a reinstatement of the temple a falling away of The Duality a recognition that m m both aspects of ourselves all aspects of the world truly are a unity and all can serve as part of our service of God 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]