Ki Seitze - Understanding the Mitzvos

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's never-ending assistance in ramaphe israel 57 82 2022. this week's sparsha espacious ki said say in our parsha the measures the first piece in the madrid speaks about the mitzvot what happens when you trip over so to speak a a nest bird's nest you want to take the eggs where you want to take the chicks there's an obligation the torah commands us to send away the mother bird before taking the eggs or the chicks now what is the idea what is the concept behind this mitzvah so we're going to talk about this and it's a very important idea very deep idea applies to every single one of us and our general understanding of the torah how we approach the torah especially in light of the fact that together we are learning madrish for all intents and purposes quite often and often in the magish we understand the concepts behind the mitzvos the torah gives us the right gives us the permission to try to plumb the depths or plume the depths of what is the concept behind the mitzvahs behind the commandments and yet at the same time as we'll soon see we need to have caution we need to exercise caution as we try to understand the terrorist mitzvas and we need to know that although we do try to understand the missus we can never fully understand the mistress nor do we want to fully understand it because of course god's wisdom is much greater than our human wisdom but let's for a moment take a look inside and see how the magician explains the concept of the mitzvot of sending away the mother bird which is really if you have the opportunity i don't know if you've ever had the opportunity to do it i actually did not long ago my neighbor had a nest about a year ago my sister had a nest on their whichever you know some location obviously in their on their porch on their in the vicinity of their home and uh it's possible to do it's an exciting method to to to do it's not something that happens very often but let's see something important and deep about this mitzvah so the major starts off talking not about the mitzvah of kansipur not the mitzvah of sending away the mother bird but rather allah starts off talking about a child you have an obligation a person has a child a baby boy there's an obligation to give him a circumcision now what if the child is born circumcised and it does happen i'm aware of certain cases indeed where it happened what happens when a child is the foreskin is not there so what do you do does one have to do anything else in order to perfect let's say the mila the circumcision of the mouth the measure says that there's a concept that even if the child is born already circumcised so we give the circumcision we we are massive dumb braces called which means we take a a drop of blood avraham avino abraham as i'm a fortune explain when he had his wrist he was 100 years old that skin that layer of skin was no longer there doesn't remain for the person's whole life clearly in order to fulfill the obligation he just took out a drop of blood as the aco safe says so we see generally there's a concept that one is obligated to take a little bit of blood drop a prick in order to fulfill a mitzvah the torah says double language whenever the torah says a double language it teaches us that it needs to be done no matter what rather we find hashem obligation to return a lost object even if the object gets lost a number of times still one does need to return it again and again other places you see the double language that it needs to be done no matter what even in a circumstance where you wouldn't have thought it should be done again person is being perhaps not watching his object still has to be returned so too when it comes to the obligation of mila when it comes to obligation of circumcision even if it seems like perhaps one should not do the mitzvah because it's not possible there is a way to do it indeed okay how does this connect to the concept of the concept of sending away the motherbird let's see why is it says that a child we wait for the eighth day and again whenever khazal are explaining the mitzvous it's so that we can have a little bit of a depth because of course the kurdish whose wisdom is so deep that we can't possibly know all of the reasons behind the mitzvos but one idea one concept behind it or one i would say lesson we can learn from this mitzvah why is it that we wait until the eighth day it represents the fact that god has mercy upon the child and says look a child is born comes out into the world let's give it a chance to strengthen itself give it eight days by the day it has enough strength within itself to be able to withstand the mitzvah of mila the circumcision the removal of that skin then layer of skin okay here's where we come back to the mitzvah of kantipur sending away the mother bird says the mattress just like hashem's compassion is on a human being meaning hashem he thinks about the human being what's going to be the best way for the child to be memorial to be circumcised how can the child get back his car so to hashem also has mercy so to speak upon an animal meaning we find that when it comes to bringing a sacrifice the animal has an opportunity to live a little so to speak until its eighth day only after its eighth day do we bring the animal as a sacrifice [Music] we find that god has mercy or perhaps we could say god wants to teach us mercy don't kill an animal and the baby of the animal in the same day we don't want to destroy generations of animals if they have mercy upon the animals hashem has mercy upon the animals just like hashem has mercy and compassion upon animals also has compassion upon the birds hashem says look if you're going to take the you have not you have the the right right everything all of that which is in the world is there to serve man the human being is the pinnacle of creation you're allowed to take the eggs of a bird you're about to eat the eggs you're not to take the chicks in order to do with them as you wish however have compassion upon the mother bird a mother bird has an instinct to love its children to love its babies to to want to sit on its eggs before you take those eggs and you cause pain to the mother bird send away the mother bird have compassion hashem has compassion upon the birds and we should learn that compassion as well as opposing tells us now the maforshima muskashim before shim have the problem of how can we understand this major this message is telling us that the reason behind the mitzvah is that hashem has compassion upon the animals and we are to have compassion upon the animals the problem is that we have a gemaran bronchus famous brachus whoever says that the reason that hashem has done has has commanded us to send away the motherbird is because of his compassion we we tell him to be quiet a person who prays in this way he says god you have mercy upon the birds have mercy upon us whoever prays in that way if we tell them that's not a good prayer that's not the correct prayer and rashi there explains as i'm a force from here bring rashi explains what's the reason why do we not want to pray this way two two possibilities one possibility is because it's just we we don't think that way about the mises the myth is like zerus we don't do myths because we understand them we understand that hashem is compassionate you know on the animals we do the misses because that is the decree of god hashem said to do this mitzvah we don't understand the mistress we're not we're not to pretend that we understand the mitzvos so if a person starts saying a shot like that starts saying a prayer like that we quiet him that's one explanation rasheed the other explanation is because it's matilda but my sabrasus which means that it creates jealousy amongst the creations right if you say that god has compassion look god didn't say if you you know if you want to let's say you come to a tiger and you want to take the tigers cubs in order to bring them to the zoo tiger doesn't save to send away the tiger in order to take take the cubs so so maybe the tigers will be will be upset because they'll look at the fact that you're taking the birds first sending away the mother and then taking the chicks and they'll be jealous that's not exactly what it means but that's what it sounds like the maharizu explains that what it means is that a person can say look just like hashem singles out the the baby birds so to speak for rakhim to have compassion upon the baby bird and he doesn't have that compassion upon the tigers maybe hashem does not have compassion upon me maybe he has compassion upon others we don't want people to think that hashem singles out some creatures for compassion so we we say to him silence be quiet okay so but to give to kumar clearly says that you're not to you're not to say that hashem has compassion upon the birds and you're not to single them out and say that hashem has this compassion and this is exciting what is that how do we reconcile our magisk which seems to say that hashem does indeed have compassion when the gomorrah in bruce clearly says that that's not how we're to approach it like what's the proper approach so there's a very interesting explanation here the way that we reconcile this is very interesting and we'll see in the hamster in the continuation of the of the matrix that there is a great depth here that really does apply to us very much we need to think about this in our approach to missus and how we understand and how we look at and how we fulfill them it's the commandments of hashem and the explanation here is look [Music] it is true it is absolutely true hashem has absolute compassion but we need to be careful about how we express the fact that he has compassion we need to know intellectually that it we shouldn't fall into a trap it's absolutely true that hashem's compassion on the birds it is absolutely true that hashem has compassion upon the animals and is for certain true that hashem has compassion upon all human beings that's represented by the fact that he tells us these mitzvahs and it's also represented by the fact that he wants us to learn compassion through the mitzvous but we still have to be careful about our approach to missus and no we need to know it's so important to know that no matter what explanation no matter how much depth we think that we understand when it comes to the misfits we're just scratching the surface we're just looking at the beginning of it and why is that so important it's so important because we need to know that we don't feign to truly understand the depth of the misfits because we do these messages because of the they're these are decrees from hashem these are decrees from hashem and it applies whether or not we understand we think we understand or we know the depth or we don't know the depth and there are no exceptions either right it's important to know there are no exceptions if the terrorist says to do something and we think we know the reason and it doesn't apply to us sorry sorry charlie it applies to us that's a very important point it's it's it's like our approach to terror is absolute commitment absolute subservience the way the the madrigas adam talks about it the altar of the verdict he says that i choose not to choose i choose that whatever the tire chooses for me is my choice the terrorist choice for me is that which is the best for me the tara hakadosh broke the creator of the world writes within his torah what is best for me and even if i think that i know better i don't know all of the outcomes i don't know all of the i don't know all of the ramifications of my actions the tire does because god is the one who knows all the ramifications of our actions and placed the most important and and far-reaching actions the the implications of our of our actions if we do them in consonance with the torah we know that we're going to be ultimately we're going to have the most powerful impact spiritually and in every way because it's important to know the tires exercise it is the decree of the king when we do the torah we fulfill the mitzvos based on whatever the terrorist says we're allowed to try to understand it we're allowed to have a back and forth a massa omatan but ultimately we need to have this understanding that the torah is fact the terror is the best for us hashem wants the best for us he's our father he loves us and if we don't understand it or if we think we do understand it we need to know that we are only scratching the surface but let's see another point which is very important in regards to the mitzvah of kansipur regards to the mitzvah of setting away the mother bird the terror tells us that the skyr there's only a few minutes of the terror tells us the the reward for the mitzvah the sky for this mitzvah is that you're going to have a long life [Music] that for doing this little mitzvah i'm going to have long life what is the idea continues and says this is what deposit says the ways of life lest you wake lest you give them a certain value they move around you can't know you can't know the ways of life supposedly in proverbs chapter 5 verse 6 what is this concept the ways of life lest you try to measure them um says that is telling us be careful don't measure don't as we said first don't think that you know the real reason behind the mitzvah but another thing don't think that you know which mitzvah has more value right you have the word measuring with a palace measuring with a with a mozzarella a scale the the the scale of the mountains like a person can say look i wanna i wanna hit the hit the big ones right i wanna do the mitzvas i want to fulfill the commandments i'm going to focus on and spend my time on the misses that are of greater value well you'll visit misfocala and i say so look sending me the mother bird it's a little mitzvah let me let me steer away from the little ones i want to hit the big ones i want to you know or tyra i want to focus all my energies on tara i want to do kindness i want to do the big ones the little ones it's not i don't want to be so concerned with the little so to speak who what does hashem do he says don't think that way don't think that way like it is [Music] did not tell us the reward did tell us the reward for this mid so we're going to see the reason behind that shortly she did tell us the reward for let's say the minutes of honoring our parents the torah did not there are 613 commandments did not give us the reward for each of those commandments why because he wants us he wants us to wholeheartedly do all of the mitzvos he wants there's a there's a [Music] the word in in kabbalistic literature is there's a part there's a full face there's a full picture that's what i'm looking for there's a full picture hashem wants the whole picture he doesn't want me to just left out my nails the the um the cups of the scale move you can't know you can't know which one has greater value says the measure what is this like lamela there was a king this is analogous to a king who he had he had hired a number of workers and he put them into his parties he had an orchard all kinds of different trees so some of the gilda land most crucial parties he didn't tell them how much each one is going to be paid for the work that they're doing with the particular tree that they're working with he didn't he didn't want each of these workers to only work on the trees that had more value that were that paid better but in the evening so he calls each one he says which tree did you work with so the first person said i worked with this one so he said okay you worked with this one so this was peppers and uh you get paid one golden coin carla says he's he called another one he said which tree did you work with i'm really taking i said this one well he said this one you only get paid a half a golden coin it's a it's just it doesn't even have any fruits or vegetables it's just a uh a white it just has white flowers it's pretty but that's all carla ah so he asked another person he said which one did you use which one were you involved with he said this was the tree that i was working with he said that's an olive tree you get 200 zeus which it seems is more the workers started to complain he said it's not fair why don't you tell me which one's the best one so that i could work with the better one so um the king says look if i would have informed you so i i need all the trees i need all the trees in my orchard to be worked with so who would have done it you would have you would have gone over to the tree that's more expensive that you get a better paycheck for or you would have complained okay the same way hashem did not reveal the scar the reward for each of them who says look i want you to see one of the most powerful and important mitzvahs and one of the lightest seemingly unimportant mitzvahs i will tell you what the the reward will be for each of them honoring our parents is one of the most important in the torah and what do we see we see that the reward for it is having a long life it says explicitly in exodus chapter 20 verse 12 on your mother and your father so that you have a long life right the prosec reveals the terror reveals the reward for that for that obligation and the lightest of them is the mitzvah that we're talking about which is sending away the mother bird what is the reward it's a long life shining so what do we see what do we learn from this the third place is the two you know presents them to us in a similar way to teach us that you don't know you don't know which one is khashog you don't know which of the menses of the commandments is more important and which of them is less important and in a certain sense they're both important and in a certain sense some yes some are going to have a greater reward so we're going to have a lesser reward but the terror by revealing to us and concealing from us the reward for amidst us this teaches us that we're not to try to figure out which one is more important we're not to try to figure that out so that we can focus completely on that the torah wants us to perform all of the commandments the terror wants us to to do things not because we think we figured them out right so in one respect we talked about the fact that we're not supposed to try to figure it out because hey we just do it because that's what god wants and and he knows better than us and in another sense we're not to try to figure it out because we shouldn't use it as as a as a reason for focusing on one mitzvah over another mitzvah [Music] the terror wants us to perform all of the missus the torah wants us to have a well-balanced diet you know which is a more important nutrient vitamin c vitamin d uh you know calcium iron all the different nutrients have different amounts that we need right that's you look on the back of a cereal box you can see this one has a smaller amount in order to be a certain percentage of your your daily intake right the mitts is also we need to have a certain amount for our daily intake we need to have that balanced mitzvah diet our spiritual diet but we don't know which is the most important we don't know which is the vitamin c which is the vitamin d soter says i want you to take care of everything make sure you have everything don't don't think about don't be involved and which is the most important one and the terror wants us to have everything it's very interesting very deep and very important in our approach to the torah we do them it's just yes we want to understand them of course it's important it's important to have this kind of depth it's important to have this kind of conversation about them and says why what's the understanding of it how does it affect us psychologically it you know it has the impact of impressing us with the concept of having compassion upon animals having compassion upon people certainly however we need to understand that besides that understanding the simple understanding besides the there's also a greater depth and we don't know what it is and we also need to understand that no matter what we have to do the misfits because these are the ministers of hashem and we need that fully balanced diet we need that full we need to have a robust spiritual diet so i want to bless you and ask you to bless me hashem should help us that we should be able indeed to to fulfill the misses to try to have a depth but also have the humility to know that we don't know everything should help us that we should indeed have that well-balanced spiritual diet thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabbos 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 ahri goldwag [Music]