Ari Goldwag - Ki Savo - Rain Revival

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast recorded with hm's never ending assistance in Israel 5776 2016 this week's para is par and in our par we have the blessings the BR that we receive when we fulfill the Commandments when we do that which it says in the Torah and among those Bros the Torah tells us I'm going to read to you from chapter 28 verse 11 and 12 verse says God will give you goodness there will be a tremendous amount for you when it comes both to the fruit of the womb and the fruit of your animals and also to the fruit of your land on the land that God promised to your great grandparents that he would give to you verse 12 God will open up his good Storehouse the heavens say to give the rain that you need for your land in its correct time to bless all of that which you do all of the works of your hand you will lend to many nations you will give to all the other nations who need your support but you will not need to come to them to borrow from them so we see in the Pas the simple understanding of these verses we see that there are many blessings that come on simple level on the most basic level there are blessings on in the natural order which is that the person himself his animals his land they produce what they're meant to produce everything is proper in that respect in the second level so we have that the rain which is something which is beyond a little bit you know the natural order of things the rain comes in its right time it's something which is really far out of our control as we'll see in the Mish it's something which is May it's above nature the rain coming in its right time and then the third aspect is that we will be the channel through which good things come into the world the nations of the world will borrow money from us they'll see that we are the source of Their Blessings the blessings that come into the world material wealth material abundance will come into the world through us and all of this is true when we fulfill the Commandments when we follow in the path that God has set out before us the M tells us like this quotes our verse that says that God will open up for you his amazing his good Storehouse mes wants to understand what does it mean what does the Torah say that God will open up for you what is the idea of opening up says there are three keys that god holds exclusively and no other creation God hasn't given over those keys to any Messenger to any Angel these are the three keys the key of resuscitation of the dead and the key to allowing someone to give birth who's unable to give birth who's unable to conceive and the key of rain and now the Mish is going to bring proofs for the fact that you see that each of these three things require a key and notice the word which means a key is that which opens the root of the word is which means to open and we're going to see that in each of these three cases there's some aspect of opening that has to occur how do we know that this is true in regards to the Revival of the Dead the verse says in Ezekiel 37: 13 which speaks about bringing those those dry bones to life you shall know that I am Hashem that I am God when I open up your grave so you see that there's an opening that God himself does he has the he has the key that opens up the door of these Graves brings the dead back to life we find there's also a key in regards to those who have difficulty conceiving sh as we found in the verse in Genesis 29:31 it speaks about ra Rachel one of the matriarchs of the Jewish people she was not able to conceive hasem had closed off her re and her ability to conceive and then the verse tells us God opened up her ability to conceive opened up her womb so we see again that there's this aspect of a that belongs to God Hashem himself God himself only is able to open up that which is closed in these cases and the third of these Keys is the opening the key that opens the rain that's our verse God shall open up his good Treasure House which is a reference to the rains that pour out from the heavens so as we read this m we need to think to try to understand what is the connection between these three things what does it mean that they belong to God that only God can open them up only god holds the keys to these three things what is the connection between them what is the underlying theme that runs through all three of these things again the three things are rain the rainfall the ability to conceive when someone is unable to conceive and the resusc of the Dead those who are Dead coming back to life the continues and tells us that the sage has said great is the concept of the rainfall it's made equal it is compared to the concept of the resuscitation of the Dead how do we know this Shar the verse in in Hosea 6:3 it says it will come to us like like the rain it comes down and it gives sustenance to the land what does the verse say in the verse right before the verse refers to the fact that God is going to bring back those who are dead he's going to bring them back to life therefore since we see that this verse places these two concepts next to each other the concept of rain next to the concept of the resusitation of the Dead in the second blessing of the that prayer that we say every single day three times a day that Second Blessing speaks about it speaks about God's Amazing Power the gura of God the power of God that he's able to bring the dead back to life and it's in that very blessing itself that we speak about the fact we ask God we say when it's the appropriate time when it's the rainy season in Israel we ask God to bring down the rain because the rain is connected to the concept of of of the resuscitation of the dead and so this question is a really important question what is the connection between the resuscitation of the dead and the concept of rain of getting the rain that we need how are they connected we need to understand this because it's something that we say every day three times a day we need to understand the concept of this blessing so in order to begin to understand it we need to look at what is the essence of the concept of rainfall what is what is it represent in Jewish thought what does it represent here in this medish and in the H in the continuation of the and also if you look at the Inus which also speaks about this idea z it's worth checking out over there but you see that there's a very specific idea specific underlying theme which is represented by the Reign let's see the M says another concept which of course as we've seen so many times when the M say another concept which is which follows on the heels of a different concept that they're always connected so the verse says God is going to open up his storehouses he's gonna bring down the rain says an amazing thing says that if let's say you're in the middle of a business deal and you notice that outside it's raining right now you should know that the business deal that you're involved in is going to see blessings when you hear rain when you hear that pit patter of rain it's a sign that indicates the fact that God is going to bring blessings or God is bringing blessings into the world as our verse says the verse refers to the fact that God is going to open up the Heavens in order to bring the rain of the Earth in its right time and to bless all of the works of your hands so you see it's not just that which you're doing out in the field that God is going to give blessings on when it rains but it's Al it's going to be on all of the works of your hands all of the things that you're involved in all the all of the the business so we see very clearly here that the concept of rain represents and corresponds and is a dgma to the idea of parasa of a person's livelihood and in fact if you look at the Second Blessing which we say every day three times a day there's an indication to that as well in that blessing itself it says says God you are so mighty or so powerful you bring the dead to life you abundantly save next thing we said in its appropriate time in the winter months we say we ask God to bring down the rain the next words are God gives sustenance with kindness God gives parosa it's referring to the livelihood of the person God gives his kindness and God also brings the dead to life so you see that when we speak about the concept of rain we're really speaking about the concept of parnasa we're speaking about the idea of livelihood of God providing sustenance not just bringing down rain but actually causing all those things that are in the ground to grow and thereby provide man with his needs with his physical needs with his sustenance but still we need to understand what is the connection between God providing man with sustenance and God bringing the dead to life okay I mean we could on on a simple level we could say look when someone's dead God brings them back to life so God is giving them sustenance but they just seem to be very distant from each other they don't seem to be the same thing someone who's alive and has given sustenance so he hasn't died he hasn't been brought back to life he's living and he's getting continued sustenance he's being sustained it's not the same thing as when someone is dead and brought back to life doesn't seem to be the same thing doesn't seem to be the same concept what is the idea why is the m placing them and why why do we place them together in that same blessing in the Second Blessing of the now I want to read to you the rest of the maish there are a few more small pieces in the magish each little thing gives a little hint to the idea here that's under under Ling the entire theme of this Mish the entire theme of the concept of rain and the concept of of the Revival of the Dead M continues like this the sages say that not only is it true that a person's things in the things in a person's field they get sustenance not only is it true that it spills over into all of a person's actions all of his M and all of his business dealings but even the fish themselves the fish in the sea they receive blessings the sages said in a story to illustrate this idea one time they caught a fish in the port of AKO the time that they they caught this fish was before the main rains had fallen when he looked at the size of the fish they thought for sure it weighed 300 Lin certain measurement it turned out even though that looked much bigger the actual weight was only 200 a certain elderly person said to them a certain wise person said to them if you would have waited until the rain had already fallen much more so you would have found that this fish was indeed it would have weighed more and indeed this is what happened as the story progressed after the rain had fallen they caught another fish Lin and when they looked at it they thought that it was only going to weigh about 200 littin and it turned out that it weighed 300 you see from the story that even the fish themselves which we wouldn't think that they would be affected by the rainfall they also are affected by the rainfall they also receive blessings as a result of the rain falling so the rain itself is really a an indication an indicator of the fact that there are blessings coming into the world those blessings manifest in a person's business and they also manifest in the Physical Realm when it comes to the fish themselves even though the fish that people are going to catch they become larger in line with the blessings that are coming to the world that we see from the rain so when we look at this part I want to understand why are we pointing out the concept that that there's blessing that's manifest everywhere specifically in regards to the fish what is the mish's message with the fish what what's the depth of that idea last piece in the mag says like this one more concept like we said the concept of rain is is very important very significant we see that it's equal it's made equal it's placed on the same scales as the concept of Revival of the Dead how is this we see that in referring to both of these concept both rain and the Revival of the Dead the Torah uses the word which means to open in both of these he uses the word Y which means a hand there's a concept of song which is used in reference to both the concept of rain and the concept of the Revival of the Dead we find in regards to as we quoted earlier the verse in Ezekiel CH 37 it speaks about the opening God opens the graves of the Dead our verse it uses the word that hasm is going to open so we see that they're they're compared they're similar they're placed on the same level in regards to the Revival of the Dead it says it speaks of the's hand we read in regards to the falling of the rain it says God opens his hand it's referring again to parosa to livelihood and it speaks of God opening his hand and providing for every Liv living creature so we see that there's a hand in both places it speaks of those who are dead dead getting up and singing and regards to the falling of the rain the verse says it's a verse in Psalms 65:4 speaking of the growing wheat that the wheat as they grow and they come out and and their stocks waving in the wind there's a certain song if you listen to them wave as they wave in the wind there's a sound and there's a song so we see that there's a song in regards to both rain and also in regards to the Revival of the Dead so here I want to understand what is the symbolism of the hand what is the symbolism of the opening that we're speaking about here and what is the symbolism of the song and all three of these items are specifically in regards to rain and the Revival of the dead so to start to understand this I want to come back to the previous question that we asked what was the significance of the concept of the fish that we said that our sages say that when the rain falls so the fish also receive blessings the fish M themselves also become bigger what is the concept of fish and how does it fit in to what we're speaking about over here and I want to share with you a very deep idea and that is that the fish we see that there are a few different places where the fish the concept of the fish appears in in Jewish thought one place that we see it in the Torah itself is in the blessings that yakob that Jacob gives to the two sons of Y to Joseph's sons and Masha he says the angel that protects me from all evil he should bless the children and call upon them my name and the name of my fathers abah and ISAC of earths and they should be like fish they should multiply like fish in the midst of the land and why is the concept of fish what is the idea of fish why are they the seml the that which represents the concept of peria arivia of multiplying we know that the Torah at the beginning of ous God gives a special blessing to the fish that they should have P of arivia that they should multiply and become many but what is the significance why indeed is the fish that which represents this Pia this multiplication and the question becomes slightly more challenging and we try to understand in the light of the fact that there's a month of the year which is the month of ader which is the month of porm which is the month of that amazing Miracle everything is turned upside down that month of the year the masle each month has its own special zodiac sign the mle the zodiac sign of AD of the month of porm is the fish what's the significance of the fish why is it specifically connected to the month of ader and to the holiday of PM and I was thinking about this and what occurred to me is that besides for the classic answer which is that since the fish is underneath the water water no one can see them they're in a place where there's no IR in Hara that the the negative evil eye that could be brought about if somebody looks at something and he's jealous of it could cause damage to it it doesn't apply to fish because they're underneath the water that's the classic answer but I was thinking about a different possible answer and that is that fish are in a place when we look at it from our human perspective water is a place that there's not possible to be life a human being cannot live underneath the water so water represents a place of death at least from our perspective of course we know fish are able to to live there because they have special breathing apparatus so to speak they have gills which allow them to breathe on the water but from our perspective from the simple perspective from the pup shot so to speak water is a place of death and yet fish not only do they live there but they're able to succeed there and they multiply and they have blessings and so I see the fish as representing a place representing a creature which says I want you to have blessing even a place where it seems that blessing can't be it can't take effect cuz it's a place that seems to be death nevertheless I want you to see that there's going to be blessing in that place and it occurred to me that when it comes to a person's parnasa when it comes on a simple level when a person takes some seeds and plants them in the ground so it seems like they're just going to be thrown out person threw them out they're garbage they're going to decompose they're going to disappear yet what happens it starts to decompose on the surface it looks like it's gone but then it starts to grow the rain comes it starts to grow so rain represents that which causes something to grow which you would have thought had no chance to live even if you look at a person's parnasa a person's livelihood person invests his time or his money like they say you know you can't make money unless you spend money person gives away his money he spends all this money to buy all this merchandise then he comes to a place and he wants to sell it it seems like he's given away all of his money it seems like he's done the opposite of what he intends he wants to make money why is he giving away his money but like we said you have to give away you have to enter into a place of death so to speak you have to enter into a place where it seems like you can't survive you have to give up your money in order to be able to make money now the starkest example of this is death person goes person passes on from the world they go to the next World their body is placed into the ground it seems like that's the end it seems like there's nothing after that but hasem says God says I'm going to open up the graves this is not the end it's just the beginning and it's the beginning of something which lasts forever after after the Revival of the dead people will then live for all time so the amazing reality is that that which seems like the greatest death death itself that which seems like the greatest end is not really the end it's really the beginning and so that's the common denominator between the concept of rain which brings that which seems dead to life and the concept of that which is honestly completely dead hashm is going to bring that back to life and and the Very sustenance of the human being It seems impossible it seems like you know a person will never ever be able to have all of his needs met and yet Hashem provides him with all of his needs and I think that that's the idea here of these three concepts the three are opening Yad hand the concept of song what's the connection or what is the idea here in this context and I think the idea is that if you look at a hand so a hand has the ability to be open or closed and when a hand is closed so you can't tell if there's anything inside of it for a person if a child will hold out their hand and say daddy look what's inside of my hand you guess what's inside of my hand you can't know maybe there's something inside maybe there's not well something's sticking out so you know that there's something in there but a hand is something which can be closed and you can't tell if something's in there it looks like there's nothing there it could be that there's nothing there there's a p when hasem opens the idea of opening is is a reveal there's a reveal hash reveals that that which looks like there's nothing there or that it's the end that that the the things are hidden looks like there's nothing going on there that's really the beginning it looks like the the fish like we said the fish on a place where it looks like you can't live there Hashem shows there's blessings there as well there's a hand it's closed it looks like there's nothing there hasem opens it and shows you that no that that which looked like there was nothing there there is something there there's a reveal and the song the concept of song for example like we see when the Jewish people come to the other side of the yamu after the Egyptians have been swallowed up by the waves they sing because the concept of song applies when something which seemed impossible a place of death a place of Destruction they walk through the water and it's not a coincidence that they walk through the water like the fish a place which seemed like certain death if it turns out at the other end not only is it a place of death but it's a place of birth that's where song is song is that which we do when we see it's it's almost like the punch line of the joke when you see that the opposite of what you thought it was going to be it looked like certain death but it ended up being the beginning of a new life that's where we sing right we speak about the fact that when mhia when the Messiah comes we're going to sing a new song and the song is something which represents this concept the concept of where it seemed that there would be death where it seemed the opposite of life where it seemed the farthest reaches the farthest depths the the farthest place from God that that's where Hashem was found and indeed Hashem opens his hand as it were and he shows he reveals that not only is it not death but it's the beginning of Life that's where we sing I want to bless you and please bless me back that hasem should help us to see that the places of Darkness the challenges in our life the places where it seems like we've lost it we've lost that life the places where it seems that we're disconnected sh should help us to see that those are actually places which are the beginnings of New Life the challenges that we Face Off with the places where it seems like we're not going to make it we're not going to have a relationship with hem those places are the places where we call out from the darkest depths and we ask Hashem to bring us into light hasem help us to see the opening of his hand May Hashem help us to be able to sing at that point in time when we experience that the darkness was really just the beginning of the light thank you so much for listening have a wonderful week and wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.old wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag