Ekev - Crowns for Moshiach Times

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's neverending assistance in Shamish Israel 5785 2025. This week's part continues his exhortations to the Jewish people. Keep the Tory. Don't forget about Hashem. You want to have a good life. You want everything to be good. And how do you get to that good life? In the beginning of our par starts off and says it will be in the end you will listen. If you listen to these statutes and you keep them and you do them and here's the part of the we're going to focus on today. Hashem is going to keep for you. You keep Hashem's Hashem is gonna keep for you the bris the covenant that he has with you the promise that he made to your forefathers and the kindness that he promised to your forefathers. What does that look like? God will love you. He will bless you. He will make you many. He will cause you to become multitudes. Hashem will give you blessings. You can't ask for anything more than this. You're going to have kids. You're going to have produce. The grains, the olive presses and the the wine presses, everything is going to produce all of your livestock. on the land that Hashem promised to you, to your forefathers to give to you. You're going to be blessed from all of the nations. There won't be any people who are childless, any any animals who are who are unable to conceive and have children, have whatever the word is for animal children. Every promise, you're not going to have any sicknesses. All of the bad things that occurred to Egypt, all of the sicknesses that they had, you won't have them at all. These are all the manifestations in the physical world of negativity are all a result of spiritual failings. Keep the Tyra, Hashem says, keep my laws, keep my statutes, have a relationship with me, and everything else will fall into place. will place all of the negative forces upon your enemies. You will consume all the nations that are there in the land that Hashem has given to you. Do not have any compassion on them. Do not serve their idols. Do not get involved in any of their ways. It will be a stumbling block for you. The only road, the only path to success, the only way to get there is by serving Hashem properly, to our relationship with Hashem. Now, I want to share with you one small piece of the maj and one larger piece of the mush. both of which have a central theme that has to do with our it says if you keep theem is going to keep his covenant with you and the kindness and it's something that we have from is going to tell us it's something that we earned or maybe we didn't earn but we we got it from our forefathers there was a kindness that was done and we need to emulate that kindness of a maven U of Abraham says it says what is the concept of the kindness and the covenant. You want to know how you get the promise of Hashem that everything good is going to happen to you going to have every blessing all the good things are going to happen to you. You want to know how you get there? It's by keeping these the following are the three aspects that are unique to the Jewish people are are inborn are in it's ingrained into us these three mid these three character traits and if you know the song you could sing along it's a famous song by a freed composed by green There are three signs of what a Jew looks like. We're going to see what it means of we're embarrassed. We have the character trait, the beautiful character trait of when we do something wrong, we know it and we are embarrassed about it and we want to be different. We don't we don't come in with a brazeness. I'll do whatever I please. but rather we come in with busha when we do something wrong we we acknowledge and admit to our mistakes we are compassionate with others and we'll see what the difference between raim and and is ra means compassion and mercy is kindness what's the difference but am is both of these things it's our it's our national treasure we We have busha, we have we have compassion on others. We have we do kindness to others. And there's a difference between is an inner feeling of of wanting to do kindness. And there's a we actually do kindness to others says the how do we know and by the way this is also how do we know that has of embarrassment? says in Exodus 20:17 that Hashem interacted with us in a way that there would be embarrassment there would be what's the language you can see the fear of heaven on our face you look at aid a shenid a beautiful Jew you look at them and you see there's a hashem on their face you can see the reverence for Hashem. There's a reverence for Hashem on their face. That's the That's the bush. There's There's an embarrassment. I I don't want to do something wrong because I have a relationship with the Keshw. I wouldn't do that to my father. I wouldn't want my father doesn't want this for me. I wouldn't want to hurt him. That's the busha. And it's something that you see on the face. It's called bushes punim. You see a person's embarrassment on their face. And there's also aus punim which is the opposite of that where there's brazenness. You see it on their face. They don't care what anyone thinks about them. They don't care what God thinks. I'll do what I please. Right? That's the opposite mida of a Jew. A Jew doesn't do whatever he pleases. If he did what he felt like doing in the moment, he was I a vera feels terrible. You can see it on his face. How do we know that has a compassion? And this is interesting. It's something that Hashem gives to us. You want to know how you get compassion? We're going to talk about how you get it. What if you're not naturally? You don't feel compassionate towards others. Is he a seducka collector? You don't feel like giving to him. Let him get a job. Maybe that's a person can have that kind of attitude. I just want to develop compassion. I got to care about other people. Maj is saying if if I want to have if I want to have Hashem in my life and every blessing in my life, this is how I get it. I have to have I have to have ra I think to have the compassion on others. I have to feel bad for that sedaka collector. He doesn't have the wherewithal. He doesn't have the ability to support himself for whatever reason. I can't understand I can't understand Hashem's ways. I can't understand any person's choices. I'm not in his shoes. I have to have compassion on him. That's the mid. But Hashem gives us this mid. So, we're going to have to understand how do we get this mida? How do we get compassion? Cuz it's something I got to have. I must have it. And has a inborn character trait of wanting to do kindness. I have a kindness gene. I want to do good for others. It it just spills out. Where does that come from? Or how do I get it? It's in our Hashem will keep for you the bris, the covenant. We'll see what the covenant means. And the kindness, which means to say again, it's a gift. Hashem, I would say, moves us to want to be kind. It's a genetic thing, but it's it has to be we have to be moved to do it. We have to be moved. What does it say? Will give you compassion and he will have compassion on you. How do you get that? So let's see together another medish. So like this also on the same page will keep for you the kindness and the covenant. The covenant and the kindness says like this. princess and the queen. She's now a queen. When she came into the marriage, she brought with her two precious gems, two precious, very high quality uh precious stones. It says it says that these were stones that had all the colors of the rainbow on them. Maybe it was a prism of some sort. Maybe it just sparkled. I don't know exactly. A beautiful gem. She brought in two of them and now when the king saw these two beautiful gems. So obviously when you marry somebody the the woman brings in gifts and the husband reciprocates with gifts to his new wife. So she brings in to the marriage these two beautiful gems and we'll see what they are and what they represent. It's an analogy. She brings in two beautiful gems and the king reciprocates by giving her two beautiful gems as well. Now as time passed the mach the queen she lost her own two gems that she had brought into the marriage. It disappeared. They disappeared. She couldn't find them. Now the king saw this. He responded by saying hey your gems are gone. What you brought into the marriage is gone. I'm taking back my gems that I gave you. So, a while passed, some time passed and she got herself together mean she made herself worthy and maybe she searched for them. Maybe she she knew that they fell into the bottom of the sea and she she learned how to swim and she jumped into the bottom and brought back those precious gems. Somehow she was able to make herself worthy of getting those gems back. When the king saw that she was determined to get back those gems and she got them back, he brought back the two gems that he had given to her and he gave them back to her again. And then listen to the ending. He says, "You earned them. You earned these beautiful gems. You lost it. You got it back. And the two gems that I'm giving you obviously corresponded to what you did, to what you brought in. I want to take all four of those gems and I want to create a beautiful crown studded with these gems. And that's the crown that you're going to wear. you my dear queen and it get play that that crown will be placed on her head. Now listen carefully because this is going to be the answer to the question. How do we get how do we get compassion? How do we get to feel for others? How do we get to be interested in kindness? So the the Medish and the Sukma are clearly saying you got to do something in order to get this. You got to do what's right. You got to bring in your gems and Hashem gives you these gems. These are gifts to be compassionate. That's something that Hashem has. It's not something that I can naturally be. It's a gift. Maybe I have it genetically, but it's not mine. It's not something that I automatically get or I can earn or I can grab. This is how you do it. We find this to be true by Abraham. He gave his son two gems says chapter 18 verse 19. Hashem says, excuse me, I know that Ara is somebody who does it and he gives it over to his kids. What does he do? They keep the path of hem and they do and this is this is important because this is the center of what we're going to talk about what what what we got to do. There's sodaka and there's mishbut. You need to understand what these are. The word sodaka literally often is translated as charity. Mishbot is justice. Sedic word sodaka is also could be justice. We do what's right. We do what's right. One aspect of it is there's I do what's right in my relation. I care about what's right in my relationship with Hashem and I care about what's right in my relationship with others. I'm making sure I'm not taking something that's not mine. I'm making sure that I'm being kind and caring to others. I'm doing what's right. in my relationships with others and I'm doing right with relationship to Hashem. That's sodaka and mishb going according to one understanding of it. Maybe together we'll see another aspect of it as we move along. There's sodaka and there's mishb if I want to get it's I I bring into the relationship with hashem these two different yahim diamonds. I bring these diamonds, these shining, glorious, majestic rainbow diamonds. I bring them into my relationship with Hashem. What do they look like? They look like I'm doing what's right. And think about it. That's the busha. That's the bonim. Uh I What when does a person feel ba? When do you feel embarrassed? When you realize you made a mistake, you hurt somebody else. You hurt someone's feelings. You feel bad. You perhaps unintentionally caused damage to somebody or maybe intentionally but but you feel bad afterwards. That's the busha that's on our face. I feel bad. I hurt someone's feelings. I wronged somebody. I feel terrible. You see it on my face. That's related to sudaka and mishput. I think that's what it seems to me. These are two different madras that I'm putting together. It seems to me I mean and it's on the same pik. We could certainly say this. It certainly sounds like it could very well be the ripe shot. There's the bush and and it's reflected in when I'm doing what's right or not in my relationship with Hashem. I can feel embarrassment being being all by myself. I've done something I feel is wrong in God's eyes. I have bua I feel embarrassed. How do I get better? What happens? I make a mistake. I fix the mistake. We've talked about this many times. I'm here to make mistakes. I make the mistake and I fix the mistake. That's and in my relationship with Hashem and in my relationship with other people. And what do I get back from that? What is the gift? What are the two gems? The diamonds that Hashem gives to me. Hashem responds and gives two diamonds to us which are kindness and compassion. And according to one explanation, these are internal feelings. When I care about doing what's right in my relationship with Hashem, doing what's right in my relationship with other people, I start to feel compassion to others. I start to feel a sense of wanting to do kindness to others. And these are all my myouche. These are my inheritance. This is my genetic makeup. I might not be aligned with it. I got to work on it. That's what the what's what the magic is saying. But I get them as a gift. When I care about doing what's right, I get as a gift compassion and a gift I get. says, "Hashem will give you the kindness. Hashem will give you the raim, the compassion. It's a gift. It's a gift I receive when I'm doing what's right." Right? Notice there's a difference between saddaka and mishbot. There's a difference between mishbot is there. There's there's two things, right? Cuz what's really the difference between and either way I'm doing something that you don't deserve, right? I'm doing it with kindness. You didn't you didn't earn it. So inim this is what the I believe the mamm says in the puk, which we're going to get to at the end of the med in the the concept of raim. I have compassion on somebody who's pathetic. A guy's a miscar he's he's he he he he's poor. He's unable to do it himself. I have raim on him. It's like a sense of I feel like I really should do this. I really should do kindness to him because he really needs it. That's an aspect of of mishbot of he deserves it. I don't exactly deserve it, but I feel I feel inclined to do it because he really needs it. That's is a different thing and it's related to I believe if I'm not mistaken is I'm doing it not cuz you deserve it not cuz there's nothing impelling me to do it. I'm a I want to do kindness. It comes from myself. It comes from my nature of wanting to do good. So it means that whether the guy is poor, whether the guy is rich, I want to do kindness. I want to help out people. I I I care about you. Now this is how it originally was right in the the musher with the king. So the the queen brings it in to the marriage and she loses them and then the queen takes it back takes back his two diamonds. She loses the diamonds but she she searches them out. She finds them. She she goes to any length. She she she she's trying her best and she gets them back. loses it. We have a mdash that's destroyed. Why? Because we didn't do and we didn't do mish. We were not concerned with justice. We didn't care about what's right. I'll get mine. I'll take mine. We we we turned away from mishbah. We turned away from saddaka. Instead of doing kindness to others, we stole from others. Instead of giving life to others, we killed others. First Bish was destroyed because of of of terrible. Second B because of lack of lack of love, hatred, baseless hatred. We didn't care about our relationship with Hashem. We didn't care about our relationship with human beings. We just looked out for numero uno. So Hashem takes back his his says Hashem says, "I took back my peace." By the way, that this is called peace. When you have a sense of compassion for others and you have a sense of wanting to do kindness for others, that's called peace. Right? When I'm busy trying to grab from everyone around me, trying to get my mind, get mine, I don't have any peace. When all I care about is doing what's right, then I have inside of myself a sense of raim, a sense of compassion for others, a sense of love, a sense of kindness. I've I have peace. It's beautiful. But I lose that peace when I lose my sense of what's right. is what happens is sent off into gulus into exile one time for 70 years, another time for 2,000 years. And we're out here in exile and we're coming back because we're getting the message slowly but surely. But what's the message? I got to I got to get myself together. I got to care about what's right. I got to care about I have to care about doing what's right with my fellows. can't cause harm to others. I have to have abush. I have to be embarrassed when I've done wrong. None of that, you know, that you see in the do wrong and they'll make a they'll be prideful about it. They'll make a pride parade about what they know is wrong to prove why it's okay, says the brought back those two aspects. They brought back the and the how do we get back to get back says version Jerusalem Zion will be redeemed with justice and there will be a return to Israel through Sudaka when we are aligned in our relationships with Hashem and our relationship with human beings. When there's an alignment, we're doing what's right. We care about somebody else. We care about it. When we hurt somebody else, we're trying to apologize. We're looking for the mistakes that we've made and we're correcting them. What you start to see is that Hashem brings into our hearts says in the mountains will tremble the the hills will will shake and what's the end of the my kindness will not will not move from you the covenant of my peace will not shake that. There might be earthquakes, there might be trembling, there might be craziness in the world, but my kindness and my my compassion, I will infuse you with it so you can give others. You'll have a sense inside of yourself you care about others. How do you do it? No. Care, just care about doing what's right. Have busha. Have that have that Jewish trait of reverence for what's right. It should shine out of your face. What happens in the end of the mush? Remember the king says to his queen, take those take those four diamonds and put them into a crown and put that crown on your head. Hashem says to Am Israel, "Take these gems. Take the gem that you have of doing what's right with me, doing what's right with other people. Caring about others, whether they deserve it or not. Having an overflowing heart of kindness. That's what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you rah. I'm going to these are all going to be a crown on your head." What is a crown, right? What is the idea of a crown? A crown is something that shows that this person is higher. This person is exalted. This person is a different kind of person. That's the crown of what's the crown that we get to wear. It says it's brought down here in the before the sadikim in the future behind and they're going to have a crown on their heads. It's this crown. The crown is you're doing what's right. You care about your friends. You care about Hashem and you have compassion and kindness in your heart. Hashem says, you know, we've had we've had a relationship before. You ran out on the relationship bas was destroyed 70 years you're in exile. You come back into relation. We have a second basic but you ran out again. You lost it. You you stopped caring about it. Stop caring about what's right. You stopped having the busha. But I'm going to we're going to come back after 2,000 long years. You're going to come back and we're going to have a relationship again. And it's gonna be we're gonna be wed forever. It's gonna be fresh and new like a newly wed. And how does it come? It comes through your caring about doing what's right. Fixing your relationships with others. Fixing your relationship with and you're going to receive in return the the amazing gem the amazing gems of kindness and compassion. I'm going to put that back into your heart. You're going to care about somebody else. You're not going to care if he needs it, if he doesn't need it. You're not going to care if he deserves it, if he doesn't deserve it. You're just going to have an overflowing of love in your heart, of compassion, of wanting to do good. I'm going to give it to you. You're going to be wedded to me with amuna, with faith, with belief. everything that happens, every person that comes into your life, every everything that's going on, it's all him. You're going to know Hashem. You're going to recognize Hashem. You're going to feel it inside of your guts. You're going to know that is the one cuz you're going to keep that. You're going to get that covenant. You're going to get that. Why? Because you keep the because you care. because you have these areas. They're ours to inherit. We just got to recognize it. We need to have that busha. We need to have that sense of reverence and embarrassment when we do something wrong and willingness to to fix those things to apologize to people to apologize to to write our wrongs and get the and kindness inside of our hearts. So I want to bless you. Please bless me. We should be able to be to this amazing exalted level should help us to care to have the busha to resonate with that who that which we really are so that we can have we can receive the kindness the compassion the the caring for others that comes when we truly know Hashem when we truly have a relationship with him. 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.ariegoldwag.com or search on iTunes Arig Goldwag.